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SIYE Time:22:33 on 28th March 2024
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Harry Potter and the Lord of Immortality
By Awakening5

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Category: Post-OotP, Alternate Universe
Characters:Albus Dumbledore, All, Remus Lupin, Ron Weasley, Severus Snape, Sirius Black
Genres: Action/Adventure, Humor, Romance
Warnings: Death, Disturbing Imagery, Mild Sexual Situations, Sexual Situations, Violence
Rating: PG-13
Reviews: 69
Summary: The war is beginning, and Voldemort seeks to cast fear into the hearts of the wizarding world as reality hits: he is immortal. Harry Potter struggles to accept his new role in the war and find a way to destroy the man who can't die. AU 6th year. Canon ships, especially HG.
Hitcount: Story Total: 49615; Chapter Total: 3252
Awards: View Trophy Room




Author's Notes:
Thanks to the great reviewers! You always make me much more inclined to a quick update, so let me know what you think! This chapter will simply tease you about some elements of this story that will be fleshed out much more in the coming chapters, namely Harry’s relationships with Sirius, Dumbledore, Ginny, etc, and what his training might entail. Enjoy!

Also, if there is a problem with the formatting like last time, don't read it and ruin the experience. I'll get it fixed quickly.




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“All I’m saying is that we don’t know what we’re going to get from him.”

‘“He’ll be fine, Ron.”

“You didn’t hang out with him this past year, Ginny. He could be in a deep depression. He could be ready to explode at any moment.”

“Ron, I was around him plenty and I’m telling you, he’ll be fine.”

“How do you know that?”

“Because he’s Harry.”

-0-0-0-

It took Harry several long moments to recover from his shock at seeing his godfather alive and well in his home. Later that night, Harry would berate himself about the experience. Had a Death Eater played this sick trick on him and took the form of Sirius through Polyjuice, Harry would have been incapacitated from shock for long enough to be defeated easily. But it wasn’t a Death Eater. This was Sirius Black, back from the dead. He had no silvery glimmer of a ghost, but was flesh and blood. On top of that, he looked healthier than Harry had ever seen him.

Harry slowly shifted his gaze to Dumbledore–afraid that if he let Sirius out of his sight, he might disappear. But he finally looked to Dumbledore to verify that this was Sirius. Dumbledore had out his wand and had just finished a series of charms, which Harry assumed were spells to confirm that this was indeed Sirius. His face, and the expression there, told Harry it was truly Sirius. Confusion.

There was no fear, as Harry had seen when Voldemort had disappeared at the Ministry and entered Harry’s mind. There was no anger as might be the case if the Weasley twins were playing a sick prank. There was no lack of emotion, as might be the case if Dumbledore already knew what was going on–like if the Most Noble House of Black had a magic within it that recreated the image of its last owner.

No, this was confusion–meaning Sirius was really back, and Dumbledore had absolutely no idea how it was possible.

“Sirius?” Harry finally managed to say, looking back at the man.

Sirius merely burst out laughing. “Oh why, why, didn’t I set up a camera to capture your expressions?”

Harry rushed forward and embraced his godfather, who hugged him back tightly. After a brief moment Harry pulled back and shook his head. “How?”

Sirius merely smiled again.

“Yes,” Harry heard Dumbledore concur. He turned to look at the old man again, and was somewhat impressed to find any trace of confusion or shock was gone. He was smiling widely, a spark in his eyes. “How did you make your way back?”

A light came to Sirius’ own eyes. “I’m not exactly sure.” He paused for a moment, as if trying to recall what had happened. “I fell through the veil and landed in a room. It was like a waiting room at St. Mungos. And I stood up and there were two doors. I understood immediately that the one door was the next life. I wanted to go there so badly–I can’t describe it. This deep longing pulled me towards that door. It was all I could do to look behind me to the second option, to the veil I had just fallen through.

“I felt sick to my stomach looking back. Sure, there were reasons to go back…” Sirius looked directly at Harry. “Protect you at that battle, help you get ready for Voldemort, revenge on Wormtail and Bellatrix…

“But I knew I could do nothing as a ghost, so those reasons felt like nothing compared to the pull of that first door. So I walked towards it. I turned the knob, opened the door…and your dad was standing there. He looked upset with me, and I knew why. I failed as your godfather. I failed to avenge his and Lily’s deaths…I just failed in general.”

Harry wanted to argue with Sirius. He didn’t feel like Sirius had failed. He’d gotten a rotten deal in life, and things just didn’t go his way. But before he could make his case, Sirius continued. “He never said any of that, of course. In fact, he looked happy to see me right after that. But then he told me to just wait in the room. When I asked him why, he just asked me to do it for him. And for you, Harry.”

“For me?” Harry asked, confused.

“As it turns out, whoever is in charge on that side of the veil–or just the collective dead, maybe--is not at all happy with Voldemort. James said there are laws above good and evil–laws of mortality and existence. And Voldemort has broken those laws. They keep close tabs on this life, and said that to keep the balance, they would break a law themselves and send me back–but not as a ghost. It took them a few weeks to come to that conclusion, of course. And with that door pulling me like it was, that month felt like an eternity.”

“But why you?” Dumbledore asked.

“Thanks, Albus,” Sirius responded, feigning hurt. “I’m flattered by your joy at me being able to come back.”

When Dumbledore just narrowed his eyes, Sirius smiled and explained. “Well, when most blokes die, their soul leaves their body. So when they return, only their soul can come back. With me, my entire body and soul fell through the veil. Going through that door would have split them so that I could join James in the next stage of existence. And going through the veil again would have split anyone else’s body and soul as well, sending only the spirit back. But like I said, they broke a rule for me.”

“Remarkable,” Dumbledore said softly. “A glimpse into the next great adventure…”

“You have no idea,” Sirius said. “The feelings I had when I looked at that door….if it wasn’t for the great responsibility I have here, or the knowledge that they’d punish me for committing suicide, I would be tempted to die right now just to go back. It’s going to be wonderful.”

Suddenly, a flame lit in Sirius’ eyes. He looked at Harry with a hard expression. “But now is not the time for that. Now it is up to us to help this life be wonderful. That’s ultimately the goal, I think. What we do here for others will give us what’s ours in the next life. So let’s make this a world a place with a little less evil and a little more good.”

Harry’s heart swelled within him and he knew Sirius spoke the truth. The life Harry had seen so far had been tumultuous and trying. It had seen death and pain. But Harry would have to be the world’s greatest pessimist to not acknowledge the good in his life, too. He had received tremendous love from his parents, even if he didn’t know them. He had found friends, true friends who would die for him and he for them. He had experienced the freedom of flying on a broomstick and the exhilarating drama of a failed relationship. He had felt the joy of giving people their lives back such as Ginny before a basilisk and Sirius before Dementors.

Yes, Harry had had a good life when all was said and done. And he wanted to give that goodness to those he loved and cared for.

“I could not have said it better myself, Sirius,” Dumbledore said after a moment of silence. He appeared very pensive, as if reflecting on his own life’s worth. “And I think the best way for us to fend off evil and brighten the light is to help Harry here.”

Sirius nodded, taking whatever hint Dumbledore was giving him. “Ever wonder what I was up to all of last year cooped up in this awful home?”

“And where I spent my time once I was forced out of Hogwarts?” Dumbledore added.

“Did you finish it?” Sirius asked to Dumbledore.

Dumbledore nodded with a small smile hidden in his beard. “I’m sure there are things we can add as we go along, but it is very functional.”

Harry looked confusedly between the two of them. “What are you on about?”

Sirius smiled at Harry. “Early in your last school year Dumbledore told me to start construction on a training room here. It started out simple, protection wards for practicing dangerous spells, a few training simulations with spell-casting dummies, a dueling arena.

“But after he got run out of Hogwarts, he told me about the Room of Requirement you guys met in last year. We started to get some ideas, do a little more research. And…well, follow us.”

Intrigued and excited, Harry followed Sirius down the hallway. They stopped in the middle of the hallway where nothing special existed. There was just a painting of a vast expanse of Scottish mountains and valleys. Sirius took out his wand and waved it in the pattern of a star at the wall opposite the painting. A door that Harry had never seen before materialized in front of him. “Was this always here?” Harry asked.

“Yes. But we kept the entrance hidden from everyone. You’re only the fourth person to know about this. Moony also helped out some.” Sirius opened the door, leading to a set of stairs. “We used to have an ugly, dark basement with a potions lab and a lot of spiders. Over the years, the lab became useless, so we figured this was the perfect place to build the training room.”

They walked down the stairs and into a poorly lit basement. Harry could tell the floor and walls were a shade darker than when they had been built years earlier. There were no decorations on the walls, the wood-paneled floor was as bare as could be, and the only light came from some flickering torches on the walls.

“Training simulation: single Death Eater,” Harry heard Sirius say beside him.

Harry felt a pull in his navel, very similar to when he was portkeyed somewhere. He lifted a foot in the air as the room around him began shifting. Suddenly, the dark, dank room expanded and lit up. The ceiling stretched out into a blue nothingness, the walls faded as well, leaving empty space as far as the eye could see. Blades of grass began growing out of the ground as the wood floor was replaced by a large field.

Harry looked around in amazement as he touched back down. He had to remind himself he was in Sirius’ basement and it was night-time. As he took in his surroundings, however, it was hard to believe he wasn’t in the very painting that he had seen at the top of the stairs in the hallway. Sweeping mountains stood on either side of Harry, while he resided in the valley between them. Green grass and occasional trees surrounded him. In the far distance, a Death Eater stood, unmoving.

Harry’s wand came out instinctively. But given who he was with, he wasn’t at all afraid of the Death Eater’s presence. “This is incredible,” Harry said softly. “So are there boundaries in here? Is it just an illusion and I’ll walk into the wall if I go a few feet that way?” Harry pointed to where a wall existed just moments earlier.

Dumbledore responded. “Not at all. With some serious study of Pensieve magic, we have created a way to remove your conscious and place you in a new world of sorts. If someone were to walk down the stairs right now, they would find the three of us simply standing in a dark basement. Except that they would also be pulled into this world…”

“So if it’s just my consciousness that is here, will I really be training? It doesn’t seem like it would help once I’m using my actual body.”

“Your magical power and potential resides completely in what you are currently using. It is true that your physical body will experience much less change during these simulations. If this Death Eater, for instance, were to come cast a cutting charm on you, you would begin bleeding here. But if you ended the simulation, your body would have received no physical harm, but you might be sweating and breathing heavily from the psychological effects of the simulation.”

Sirius piped in. “So if you want to get some physical exercise, this isn’t the place to come. It will build your magical endurance, you will learn new spells, and be able to practice rare or trying scenarios.”

“So what is this scenario?”

Sirius responded. “Well, this is a simple dueling scenario. We didn’t specify where we wanted it, so the Training Room chose a location from our memories or imaginations. And that Death Eater is a responsive opponent.”

“Responsive opponent?”

“He attacks only after you’ve instigated the attack. His level of difficulty is based completely on your ability. As you increase the power or frequency of the spells, he will do the same.”

Harry looked back at the Death Eater, who still just stood there. “That’s incredible! So I can never beat him?”

“There is a law of magic,” Dumbledore said in a very professorial manner. “That states that our magical creations can be no more powerful or intuitive than the creator himself.”

Sirius smiled. “And because Dumbledore created this aspect of the Training Room, that Death Eater there has a pretty high ceiling.”

Dumbledore nodded, but instructed once more. “It is true. That Death Eater will be able to draw on all of my knowledge and power. His choices will be similar to my own. This will make him a very difficult opponent, but not undefeatable. In fact, I would always defeat him unless I purposefully lost. He is still just a magical creation and as such does not have the human intuition that we carry with us.”

“What do you mean?” Harry asked curiously.

“If you do something that I have never seen before, you will catch him off guard. He will be able to draw on my knowledge, of course, and he might be able to figure it out, but there is a delay compared to human instinct.”

“Doesn’t seem like much of a hope to beat him,” Harry said shaking his head.

“Harry,” Dumbledore said, making him look up into his blue eyes. “You have defeated Voldemort, a basilisk, Tom Riddle, survived another Voldemort attack, and the Ministry raid due solely to your instinct.” Dumbledore looked up at the Death Eater. “I don’t think he could have done any of that.”

Harry looked down at his feet. It was true that he escaped all of those messes–and his magical knowledge and ability were certainly not the reason why.

“Go ahead and have at him,” Sirius said, motioning towards the Death Eater.

Harry nodded and marched forward. He had to admit he felt very self-conscious in front of Sirius and Dumbledore. When he held up his wand, he wondered at the age restriction he had for using magic. When he looked back to ask the question, however, Dumbledore merely nodded at him, confirming that he had somehow taken care of that particular problem.

So, taking a deep breath, Harry turned back to the Death Eater and launched his first spell. “Stupefy!” A beam of red light shot from his wand, hurtling towards the Death Eater. The masked enemy lifted his own wand and easily blocked the spell, his own incantation ringing in Harry’s ears.

Protego!” was soon, though not immediately, followed by the Death Eater’s own “Stupefy!”

It was clear that this Death Eater would do just as Harry’s mentors told him. He would match Harry’s own ability and speed. This gave Harry confidence, knowing that his enemy was going to reciprocate his own intensity, and knowing that it would be nearly impossible to defeat the Death Eater also gave Harry a strange comfort. He could just do his best, and then not be upset when the outcome was not favorable.

With this in mind, Harry began throwing curses rapidly at his target. Naturally, the target began blocking the curses and sending his own right back. The curses began to differentiate, and Harry found himself employing a mixture of blocking spells with magic and dodging unfamiliar curses by ducking and diving out of the way.

Soon, sweat poured down Harry’s face, which was an odd concept because he knew he wasn’t really using his physical body in this exercise. He wondered–as far as his strained mind could wonder at the moment–whether he would be sweating in Grimmauld Place’s basement when he returned. The mixture of Harry’s fatigue and distraction proved to be enough of a drop in performance to allow the Death Eater to gain superiority, and soon a cutting curse got around Harry’s shield and hit his left shoulder. Grimacing in pain, Harry tried to retaliate, but soon found the Death Eater’s attacks too quick for him to both defend and attack simultaneously.

Deciding to go out with a bang, Harry gave all that he had in several quick and powerful bludgeoning curses. The Death Eater deflected them in all directions, and Harry noticed with satisfaction that one appeared to hit the Death Eater’s leg, breaking it. But then to Harry’s horror, one of his own curses came back in his own direction. Before he could throw up a shield, the curse hit Harry square in the chest and he flew backwards.

The pain of broken ribs immediately disappeared and Harry pulled himself off the ground and opened his eyes. He was once again lying in a dim basement, on hard, wood floor. The trees were gone, replaced by two figures towering over him and grinning.

Harry got to his feet, and found that his face was, indeed, covered in sweat. His heart beat was accelerated and his breathing quickened. Harry smiled and said between deep breaths, “I think this will do just fine!”

Sirius nodded and responded. “And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.”

-0-0-0-

A short time later, Harry found himself walking towards the Burrow, with Albus Dumbledore by his side. Even though it was late at night, the air was warm. The moon provided a light enough to see comfortably. Harry wondered idly if Remus was doing okay as the full moon approached, but his thoughts were not too consumed by this somewhat sad topic.

In fact, Harry couldn’t stop grinning. He was still in shock at Sirius being alive and well. To top it all off, his goal of being able to train and prepare for Voldemort had just become achievable. For the first time since Voldemort had been resurrected, Harry felt like he was in control of his own life. That no external force would dictate his actions–even a prophecy.

He still had a long road ahead of him, but now it was his road to walk on, and he could take it at his own pace.

It was a comfort to know Dumbledore had been preparing for this time when Harry would need to train. He wished, of course, that he had been informed of the prophecy much earlier. However, that was in the past now, and Harry knew he needed to look forward. Even if he found it difficult to do.

He turned to Dumbledore as they neared the front door. “Thank you, sir, for doing this for me.”

Dumbledore smiled. “And thank you, Harry, for accepting it all.”

Harry thought about Dumbledore’s words as the man knocked on the Weasley’s front door. It was an important distinction, Harry realized, that he was accepting the prophecy and its implications as opposed to the prophecy forcing Harry to behave a certain way.

Harry determined that the prophecy should be treated no differently than any other known event of one’s future. Harry knew he would have to go to Hogwarts for his sixth year. He could either let this annoy him that he was forced to do schooling and take classes that he didn’t want to, or he could accept that it was a part of his life and make the best of what might have been an annoying situation.

Now, he just had one more event in his life that he knew was coming–a fight to the death with Voldemort. So, let it depress and control him or take advantage of this knowledge and make the best of it? He would gladly choose the latter.

The door before him opened, and the Weasley matriarch stood at the door. She smiled down at Harry and scooped him up in a tight, warm hug. “Oh, Harry dear! Come in, come in!”

Harry released himself from Mrs. Weasley and stepped inside. Behind him, he heard Mrs. Weasley invite Dumbledore in for tea. While Dumbledore declined, Harry found Ron and Ginny coming down the stairs, apparently alerted to his arrival by the knock on the door. Harry grinned at his best mate, who arrived first and they greeted with a handshake and one armed hug.

“It’s great to see you, mate,” Harry said, in as good a mood as he ever remembered being. Sirius was alive, he was at the Burrow. It was strange to think just days earlier he had been in a very dark place.

Ron seemed to be thinking the same thing, because he looked at Harry with a very surprised and almost confused look on his face. “You too, mate. Dursleys weren’t too bad then?”

Harry shook his head and kept smiling. “Nah, not too bad.” He was suddenly very glad that Sirius had asked him not to share his resurrection with the Weasleys just yet. He wanted to surprise them himself. But in the meantime, Harry was having fun confusing Ron with his good temperament. This also caused Harry to briefly berate himself for his horrible disposition much of the previous year.

But these thoughts disappeared as he turned to Ginny. It wasn’t often that Harry saw Ginny outside of her Hogwarts robes. And when he did, she was normally dressed for the winter. As such, he had never really noticed what a beautiful young woman she had become. Her clothes were very form-fitting at the moment, which was a very flattering look on her. Her shorts and sleeves were short, revealing shapely legs and a creamy skin that made Harry briefly scan her frame. He felt slightly embarrassed for doing this, but didn’t think anyone had noticed.

“Ginny, you look great!” Harry said, pulling her into a hug. He was somewhat surprised by his own behavior, but found everything so natural, perhaps due to his good mood. He pulled her back to arm’s length and smiled at her broadly. “Your summer is going well?”

Ginny also seemed taken aback, but perhaps more so by his compliment and hug than by his mood. She also looked very happy and pleased with this interaction, and Harry was grateful that his good mood had made all of this instinctual. He liked the feeling of making Ron and Ginny happy, and vowed to make this a part of his attitude adjustment in the future.

“Very well, thank you,” Ginny responded. “Excited to be here?”

Harry released her arms and turned back to his trunk. Pulling it forward he grinned back at Ginny. “You have no idea.” Harry turned to Ron as he pulled his trunk towards the stairs. Nodding at Ron, he asked, “Help me out, Ron?”

Ron shook himself out of whatever stupor he was in and nodded. “Sure thing, mate.”

Later that night, after everyone had settled down, Harry and Ron went to bed. It took Harry quite a while to slow his mind down and make his breathing slow and even. Just twenty four hours earlier, he had been throwing a tennis ball up and down in his room at Privet Drive. He had been mourning the death of his Godfather–albeit in a productive and positive manner. When he shared his goals with Sirius earlier, Sirius had said that was the way he would’ve wanted his death to affect Harry. Fortunately, though, his death had miraculously not lasted as long as the average death does. Now Harry sat in Ron’s room at the Burrow, with his goals in reach and his godfather alive and well. He would need no tennis ball to ease his mind to fall asleep again.

And Harry drifted into a very peaceful sleep.

Harry awoke abruptly to the sound of scuffling in his room. Bleary eyed, he looked up quickly, reaching for his wand at his bedside. Before his hand closed around his weapon, he saw a bright light and faded back into oblivion.

When Harry awoke next, still bleary-eyed and foggy, he found himself lying outside. He was in the middle of a long dirt road which seemed to go on forever. On either side of him was a brown, wooden fence that stretched out the length of the road. On the other side of the fences lay vast fields. Based on the dim lighting in the sky, Harry guessed it was five in the morning.

But there was one more thing that Harry noticed about his surroundings, even in his fuzzy state. It was unnaturally cold for a summer morning.

Instinctually, Harry knew he should be looking for his wand. However, fear crept into his being as he cast his eyes upward to find the source of the cold. And down they came, dozens of Dementors, swooping in to feast on the one soul within miles.

Finally, Harry’s instincts overcame his fear, and he searched his pajamas and the ground for his wand, frantically keeping an eye on the approaching Dementors. Finally, he spotted his wand several feet away and dove towards it. As he felt his hand wrap around the familiar stick, his head began swimming. He could hear faint screams of his mother in the distance.

No! Harry thought to himself, trying to reach his easily accessible happy memories of the night previous. However, his mother’s screaming grew louder, and Harry’s focus on his godfather’s revival faded before he shouted, “Expecto Patronum!”

Little more than a silver wisp emerged from Harry wand. One Dementor backed away slowly, but three more took its place. Falling to the ground, his vision filling with black dots, Harry feebly said, “Expecto…Patronum…”

And for the third time in a very short period of time, Harry’s subconscious emerged victorious over his conscious.
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