Harry woke up with a start, tried to sit up and instantly fell out of the Hammock. He looked around the room. No windows and a single door. There was an overpowering smell of lavender in the air, but it was subsiding.
“Fuck,” he said, rubbing his head.
“They won’t like that,” said the rat, staring at him from near the door, “They never did like swearing.”
“Are you a talking rat or did I hit my head harder than I thought?” Harry checked for a bump but instead realised it had been flattened a little. ‘Hmmm, I suppose that makes sense,’ he thought. “And they?”
“They, well, Death. Death has no gender and is all genders all at once, but that’s a very long list, so ‘they’ or Death is fine.” The rat moved towards Harry, changing into a cat as it did. “And no, not a rat, but any creature of 3 letters or less. They have a strange sense of humour. And I’m a kind of familiar or guide for you while you are here”.
“3 letters? Would you mind being an Owl, a barn owl?” It changed almost instantly. “Brilliant! And what’s your name?”
“Fred.”
“Fred!” Fred nodded.
“Like I said, a strange and sometimes unfortunate sense of humour”. The door swung open. “Ready to go.” It wasn’t a question.
———————————————————————————
They stepped out into a long hall which disappeared into the distance in both directions. Door after door, on both sides of the hall formed the walls. Harry stepped back inside a moment to confirm the room only had one door and was much wider on the inside. “It’s like a TARDIS,” he exclaimed.
Fred shook his head, “No, the TARDIS is like this.”
The door slammed shut, and 3 of the others popped open. Out stepped Lucy, Cinderella, and Huck, each with a rat wearing a different coloured collar. “Where are we?” said Cinderella.
“The halls,” Fred replied. “It’s an infinite waiting room for the dead, as long and wide as we need it to be, you know, allowing for natural disasters and wars.”
With that, the doors began to collapse on each other until only one was left. It opened into a farmhouse kitchen, smelling of fresh bread. At the sink was a young woman washing a large Scythe. “It’s the sand,” she said, “It gets everywhere.” She turned to face them. “I’m Susan.”
“Not death then?” Harry was a little taken aback and suddenly very shy.
“He means he’s Harry. This is Lucy and Huck, and I’m Cinderella”, she prodded Harry.
“Yes, I’m Cinderella,” he repeated.
Susan looked at him, a wide grin on her face and said, “No, you’re not,” and in her best actor’s voice, “You’re Harry Potter, the boy who lived.”
This broke the trance Harry was in. “Yes, yes, I am,” he spluttered.
“Today, I am Death’s representative. He brought you here as we have a lot to discuss.” She turned away, picked up the Scythe and folded it up, somehow putting it in her back pocket. “Fred, take them into the study.” 3 rats and the owl turned and beckoned their wards to follow them.
“Are they all called Fred?” whispered Lucy.
“Yes, we are, we are all the same and different.” Answered the red-collared rat, Lucy’s companion.
“How does that work? Asked Harry.
“They are all connected to death.” Susan said, “Fred always knows who I’m talking to, don’t you, Fred?” This time, the Owl nodded in Susan’s direction.
“And they call him ‘they ’. You call him ‘he’?” said Harry.
“That’s because Death is my Grandfather, Harry, so I get to call him he. No One else gets to use the he word,” there was that smile again.
“Fascinating,” said Huck, “And I thought things were interesting before. I guess we all have a lot to learn.” He popped his pipe in his mouth.
———————————————————————————
The study was a modest-sized room with a large rectangular table at the centre, surrounded by a collection of odd, mismatched chairs. At one end was a gold, ornate throne, and next to it a scruffy wooden stool. Opposite them, as they walked in, was a large bay window with a window seat and door at each side, which led to. “Space!” said Harry.
“The Milky Way.” Said Fred. Huck dropped his pipe, only to have another Fred catch it and hand it back to him.
On the wall to the left were some bookcases filled with books and other devices, all shrouded in unnatural darkness. Only the ends of the bookshelves, which faced into the room, were clearly visible.
To the right was a large fireplace with a picture over it. ‘A portrait of Death,’ Harry Thought, ‘No, just a picture of a wood. Hang on, there’s Death. What! He’s gone again!’
Fred the owl said, “It’s not easy to keep Death in view if you’re still alive.”
“Oh,” said Harry, looking round and seeing the others with similar looks on their faces.
“It’s a shame you can’t see the Dragon and the Unicorn. They are quite something,” Susan said as she walked into the room. Harry stared at the painting harder.
“No teasing the guests, Susan.” The voice seemed to come from all around the room.
“Sorry, it was just too easy”.
“And it doesn’t matter if he’s single or made of paper, you can’t…”
“Grandfather!”
“Yes, very well then.” From the shadows of the bookshelves stepped a skeletal figure dressed in black robes, which seemed to be made from the shadows themselves. “Please sit down, all of you. Fred, leave us for now.”
The Freds began leaving the room.
“Why are you an Owl?” Death asked.
“Harry asked me to change,” Fred answered.
“Hmm. Well, don’t get used to it,” and with that, the Freds were gone. Death moved towards the gold throne and then sat on the stool next to it. He nodded towards the throne. “It’s a bit much, but it comes with the job.” They stood silent. He fixed them with his eyes, which looked like tiny emeralds. “Hmm, tough crowd.”
Cinderella was the first to speak. “Why and how have you brought us here… and where is here?”
“You’re in my office and the waiting room. I used a portal. To create a plan to defeat Mr Smedley’s machine, in reverse order.”
“You mean Axion Fudge?” said Cinderella.
“I don’t tend to play to human vanity. It’s very boring, you know.” No one knew if Death was joking or not; he never stopped smiling.
“But why isn’t Gandalf or Lilith here? They are the leaders of the council.”
“Yes, they are, but they aren’t ideal in this case; plus, I could only bring 4 here. It’s a bit of a strain as you aren’t strictly human.” He leaned his Scythe against the throne. “Gandalf has a ring of power, which makes it impossible to port him and Lilith, well… we have a history.”
“You never told me that, Grandfather!”
“You never asked. It was a very long time ago.”
“But this one’s out of a book.”
“Yes.”
“So, not the same Lilith.”
“It still hurts.”
Huck interrupted the conversation. “Mr Death, well, sir, you seem to have real power.”
“Yes, I do. All versions of death are connected, even fictional ones. We share a quantum link.”
“Then why don’t you stop Mr Smedley and his chaos machine?”
“Chaos Engine.” He corrected Huck. “I’m afraid it would be too dangerous. If he found a way to access the power of death through me, then all of the known, and some of the unknown universes, would be his to control, to remake, warping reality to his will, and besides, killing isn’t my thing.”
“No, that does not sound like a good outcome, sir,” Huck replied.
Death sighed, “He hasn’t got a great imagination. It would be frightfully boring if he succeeded. Oh, and everything would die.”
“Are we going to have to kill him?” Harry asked.
“I expect so, it’s a very human thing to do.” He fixed Harry with his stare. “He is no longer a simple human, you see; he has seen through the veil. Your curtains and pinpoints of light analogy was closer than you realised.”
“So even if we did smash his bloody chaos machine, it would only postpone things. He’d just start again?” Lucy had moved closer to the bookshelves and was studying what looked like a ball of string in a brass bobbin attached to the centre one.
“Chaos Engine! And yes, he could, and it would be easier for him next time. He has been touched by creation energy, by magic, as you call it.”
“So we just need to kill him then,” Lucy said in a dismissive tone. “Not a good thing, but straightforward enough, right?”
“Hmm. No,” said Death. Everyone waited a moment until Susan broke the silence.
“It’s like the quantum link Gra..Death mentioned, his life force is now connected via quantum strands to various totems of magic. So if you kill his body, he’ll just remake it.”
“So we have to destroy the Totems of magic and then kill him?”
“You can’t destroy the totems of magic; they are just physical representations of magic.”
“Well fuck puddles!” Lucy pulled out the end string from the bobbin. “Is the answer in there?” She pointed to the bookshelves. “They give off a similar energy to the wardrobe. I take it this isn’t just a collection of Playboys, Reader’s Digests and graphic novels?” She was looking fiercely at Death, who, unexpectedly, looked away.
“That is a gateway to the ‘All Knowledge,’ Susan answered, a little amused by Death’s response to the small girl. “Not a library in the physical sense, but an entrance to a pocket universe, very difficult to navigate and even harder to find what you are looking for unless you know the right questions.”
“And this”? Lucy asked, holding up the string.
“That was a gift from Theseus,” Death interjected. “He spent some time here after his death and thought it might be a useful addition. It’s very easy to get lost in there. You can go mad trying to find a way out.”
“Is there an answer in there?” Lucy asked.
“There might be. Something like this happened before, a long way back, but before paper, so not exactly the same.” Susan spoke softly. “2 of us can enter and try to find some answers”.
“Can’t you just tell us, Mr Death?” Huck asked.
“No, for some reason I can’t recall the details. Puzzling that. And I can’t enter the portal. I can only draw on the knowledge I need.”
“Harry and I should go,” Susan spoke up.
“Susan, you are not involved in this.” Death said, sounding a little protective.
“We are all involved in this, Grandfather.” She approached him. “I have been in there before, so I understand the place a little.”
“And why Harry? I’m used to this interdimensional pop stuff.” Lucy said.
“Because he is going to be your leader, eventually I expect that’s the plan, or something like it.” Death sighed. “Take the yarn and some water, and remember to hydrate.” Susan kissed him on the skull. She grabbed a bottle off the table and Harry’s hand.
“You’ll need this”, said Lucy. She quickly tied it to his wrist. “Do not untie this! Look for anything about a Chaos Machine and magic totems.”
“Chaos Engine! How many more times?” Death sighed.
“Does it matter?” Lucy said.
“Not really, it’s just his favourite video game,” said Susan, smiling. A moment later, they were gone, disappearing into the stacks.
“Fuck puddles.” Said Lucy
“Indeed.” Agreed Death