Chapter Text
I, Emma Sana Takahashi, was presumably dead.
Or so it seemed. Was death this … well, boring?
The entire space around me seemed to be empty and uninhabited. Looking down, I realized I was standing on … well, I wasn’t sure what it was, but I wasn’t falling, so clearly I was standing on something.
Suddenly, I heard a loud flash behind me, and I winced. I turned around, expecting perhaps a grim-reaper-like figure. It was not a grim-reaper like figure. Sadly.
“Seriously?!” I yelled. “Is this some kind of prank? What the hell are you doing here, Alistair?”
“I am not Alistair,” the figure that looked like Alistair said, shaking his head exasperatedly. “I am Death, the entity. I merely deign to appear to you as your brother so as not to cause mortals like you the brain hemorrhage that would occur if you saw my true form. It’s my form of hospitality.”
“Still think it’s a prank,” I muttered. “An elaborate prank. I mean, he’s my brother, we share some genes, so he definitely has at least a few brain cells to think up this elaborate…”
“Ahem,” the person claiming to be death (who I still think is Alistair) said, clearing their throat. “If I could please have your attention? Or must I wait until you cycle through the stages of denial.”
“Fine, go ahead. The more information, the more I can figure out your plan, Alistair.” I shrugged, nonchalantly. The more he told me, the higher the chance I would find the door out of this room which was clearly painted brilliant white to look like emptiness.
“Again, I must insist that I am not your brother –,” he sighed again. “Arguing with you is not going to be a fruitful endeavor, I see. Well, anyway, it is my duty to inform you that you are deceased.”
“Uh-huh,” I said, still not believing this maybe-death-probably-Alistair person. “Sure.”
“Well,” he said, “I guess that I must congratulate you on your…achievement. You, by being …whatever you were in your past life, have gotten the attention of Fate. In my opinion, she’s gone a bit off her rocker, I really feel she should think these whims of hers through, I mean, just unceremoniously depositing people –” He shook his head as if to clear it of an annoyance. “Back to the point, she wants to dump you into the Harry Potter universe, as a new character with the same first name, don’t worry –”
“Alistair, give it a rest. I already know this is a prank.” I said, starting to get frustrated. Didn’t he realize the jig was up? “I know this is just a random room you’ve painted white, and really, the Harry Potter universe? How far is this prank going to go, Alistair? Or, I guess, if we’re going along with your illusion, Death?”
He pinched his nose, brows furrowed. “For the last time, and do not interrupt me this time, or there will be consequences –” He raised his finger threateningly, and I stayed silent. Even if this was Alistair, it would probably go faster if I just let him get it all out. And, hypothetically, if it was Death – which, I’m not saying it was, by the way, this is all purely speculation – I did not want to piss him off.
I gave him a thumbs up and made a gesture of zipping my mouth.
“Good, now we’re on the same page,” he continued, the frown on his face smoothing a bit. “I have been given the duty by Fate to inform you of a few key details before you enter the Harry Potter universe.”
I nodded silently, still a little scared. I mean, if this was death (hypothetically) and I’d pissed him off, what would be waiting for me in the afterlife? After this I probably wasn’t getting immortality, so I would die sometime. And even if it was Alistair, the most I would get would be him teasing me at dinner that I fell for the prank. If I pissed the actual entity of Death off – well, it probably wasn’t going to be all sunshine and roses.
“Number one,” maybe-Death said, looking me in the eye, “You are … encouraged by Fate to change the timeline as you wish.” He rolled his eyes and quietly muttered that Fate was probably going to regret this and then continued. “Number two; you can’t use time turners to get out of everything. In fact, if you can orchestrate something where they all break, that would be quite nice.”
A voice echoed, seemingly from everywhere. “Only the rules, Death,” it said.
Death, who had startled at the voice initially, and spun around, turned back to me. “That was Fate,” he said, clearing his throat. “Anyway, forget the thing about breaking the time turners. Number three; once a soul is taken by me, do not try to get it back through necromancy or other arts. Those are the rules, if you break them, you will be penalized.”
“Penalized how?” I asked. What kind of punishment would this be?
Another figure materialized with a flash. It looked strangely like my older sister Anne. “Don’t worry, he’s joking,” said the lady. “Oh, so sorry, forgot to introduce myself. I’m Fate.” She held out a hand for me to shake, and I shook it, rather confused.
“This is a fun little experiment,” she went on. “We’re not going to pull you out or anything. Death just wanted to tell you that your actions can change things, and not everything can be saved.”
“To be clear,” I asked hesitantly, “Do I have any other options?”
“You could choose the normal afterlife, I guess,” Fate wrinkled her nose like she had smelled something disgusting. “But you’ll get that even after this experiment, and this is a once-in-a-million chance, why would you want to refuse?”
“I guess I’ve always wanted to meet the golden trio,” I mused. “Wouldn’t it be fun to –”
“Yes, so fun,” Fate smiled widely. It looked uncanny on Anne’s face – she’d never seen her sister smile in such a strange way. “Remember, everything is shifted forward a decade or two, so if you happen to make references to music or historical events they won’t be… too out of place. Try to avoid that if you can, though.”
“That’s very thoughtful of you,” I said, starting to wonder if Fate had truly lost her marbles, like Death seemed to think. “I would be delighted.”
“Wonderful!” Fate clapped her hands together. “Just so you know, I’ll be a tad disappointed if things stay totally the same. Just a bit, you know.” Her voice had gone quiet – the kind of quiet tone that told you something was wrong, and that you really should run – but just then it suddenly reverted back to the bubbly tone. “So, congratulations! Let’s get started!”
With that, everything faded to black, and I lost consciousness.