Hello, all readers! This is my take on the extremely popular Don't Fear The Reaper challenge by Reptilia28.

The rules are as follows:

Storyline:

*Harry is killed at 17 during the fight with Voldemort. He's sent to his Death's office (explained later) and finds out that this isn't the first time that this has happened.

*Harry's Death (who can have a human name) is mad at his arrival. Apparently, people dying before their time is a black mark on the various Death's records, and Harry is perilously close too getting this particular one fired.

*When Harry asks what was supposed to have happened, Death goes off on a rant saying how he was supposed to have killed Voldemort, found his soulmate ("Some Granger girl...") and lived to be a centennial age. But since Harry keeps getting into life-threatening situations for one reason or another, he keeps dying before that happens. Harry is surprised about the soulmate part.

*Death gives Harry a paper to sign that allows him to retain his memories (the previous times, he wasn't given this option for some reason). Harry is deposited to a previous time of the author's choosing.

*Eventually, Harry gets it right. He kills Voldemort, gets the girl, and lives to a ripe old age of whatever. And Death doesn't get fired.

Requirements:

*Harry must have died at least three times before this one.

*The memory keeping contract must be included.

*Death must refer to Hermione as "some Granger girl" when Harry's soul mate turn up in his rant.

*Obviously, must be H/Hr

*Have fun

Optional:

*Dumbledore's manipulations can be a factor in Harry's premature demises.

As you'll see, I'll follow the rules, but not quite the spirit of the law, as I'm not really a fan of the whole future memories thing. In addition, while there will not be bashing for the sake of bashing, I'm really not a fan of the whole Ron and Ginny thing. They will likely end up sidelined, especially considering how I have to explain how they split up soulmates. If you readers enjoy this, or think that it can be improved upon, please feel free to leave a review!

Disclaimer: I do not, in any way, own Harry Potter, or profit off my use of its characters and settings.

Chapter 1: Whoops, I Did It Again

Harry stood on the edge of the Forbidden Forest, hesitant to proceed, but unwilling to let his friends die at the hands of the madman within. Finally, he mustered the courage to proceed, knowing that he either had to destroy Voldemort or risk letting his friends die. And there was no way that was going to happen; he had to win.

So into the forest he went, praying to whatever divinity ruled the heavens that he would walk out of this alive.

He didn't. After being struck by a killing curse, the soul fragment in his scar was evicted, and Harry stood to face the Dark Lord once again. Though horribly weakened, he managed to stave off the Voldemort's attacks for half an hour, and even send a few in return, with one cutting curse even connecting, until finally, his strength gave out, and he was struck by the killing curse, for the third time, and he knew that he would not survive this one. As death overtook him, Harry was satisfied that his cutting curse had severely wounded the Dark Lord, which should allow his friends to finally win the battle, and sunk gladly into the darkness.

Then suddenly, the darkness turned bright. Harry was sitting in what looked like a muggle hospital waiting room, with florescent lights overhead. Confused, Harry started looking around. Why am I here? He thought. I was just fighting Voldemort. This makes no sense.

A rather bored sounding woman's voice called out, "Harry Potter!"

He stood and walked toward the source of the voice, a window beside a wooden door. Once he got close enough to see the owner of the voice, he recoiled in shock. The woman had only half her face. How is she even alive? He asked himself. Apparently, she got this a lot, because she grinned and said, "Nope. I'm not alive. Neither are you, for that matter. Now go through that door."

Shocked, Harry obeyed the apparently dead woman's orders. Opening the door, he found himself in what looked like a rather lavish office. Sitting at a desk in the center of this office, was a man in a black cloak, with a scythe sitting in a case behind him. The man said, "Come in, come in. We haven't got all day." At this point he looked up, saw Harry and then started yelling, "Oh come on! Are you determined to get me fired? What kind of idiot manages to die 33 times in the course of one life?!"

"What are you talking about?!" Harry yelled back at the rather belligerent man.

This seemed to calm him down, because he gave Harry a predatory grin, and said, in a much calmer voice, "You are dead. This isn't the first time. Of course, I couldn't expect you to know that, because when you are resurrected, you lose your memories of being dead."

"What do you mean, this isn't the first time?"

"I guess you are an idiot," the man laughed, "It means that this isn't the first time."

"How did I die before?" Harry asked.

"Do you want detailed records?" the man asked with a grin, holding up an over-sized folder.

"No, I guess not," Harry mumbled. "Anyways, what should I call you, and why am I here?"

"Most people call me Death. No, I'm not the only one, just the oldest. You see, I was around back in the day, when we Deaths were allowed to make bargains and whatnot with the living. I set up a trap on a river, and when three wizards cheated me, I made a bargain to create three powerful magical items – I see you know the story. Anyways, long story short, that blew up in my face, and quadrupled my debt. Once any person who has possessed any of those items dies, they are now sent to me. Which puts me in charge of some of the most annoying people in History, ever. Including you."

"So, you created the Deathly Hallows?"

"Yes I did. And since your father left that cloak to you in his will, every damn time you've died, you've come to me. And every time, you put a black mark on my record. Soon I'll be fired. Literally. They send Deaths who've failed to Hell. At least once my debt gets worked off, I have a second chance at life, but that will never happen as long as those damned Hallows exist, or are owned by someone."

"If I died 32 times in the past, then why did I get second chances? Noone else I know died and returned."

"That's because everyone else you know fulfilled their destinies. Your particular destiny was to defeat Voldy, which you actually managed this time around -congrats on that by the way- then go on to live to a very old age, hailed as the second Merlin, living life with your soul mate, as first a Professor, then the Headmaster at Hogwarts, which by the way, was NEVER SUPPOSED TO BE UNDER SIEGE!" Death yelled at Harry. "You've screwed up so many destinies at this point, I will be fired if I don't take drastic measures to save me- us. You see, as it's your fault time has derailed, you'd be going with me when I go, so..."

"How can I fix it then- wait, you said I killed Voldemort?"

"Yes you did, he bled out only moments after I let you in here. He's out in the waiting room yelling his head off. Anyways, I have a way to fix things. We send you back in time, before you royally screwed up. And, if you sign this contract," he said, pulling a large pile of papers out of his desk, "you can even keep your memories, with a couple restrictions. You see, 'memories' work differently when they haven't happened yet. You can't remember exact details, or academics, but the general gist will be available to you, but once you start to change things, it won't be of much use. In addition, this current conversation will be kept, as since it happens outside of time, it works differently. Just remember, we couldn't do this before because you still had a chance of fixing things, but now you don't, so we will do what we must."

"Before I sign that, you mentioned that I had a soulmate?"

"Yes, some Granger girl, you rescued her from a troll or something like that, I dunno, she's not one of my charges."

"And when will I be sent back?"

"Good question. Time happened as it should for your first and second years. But you screwed up in third year. That was when time started going crazy."

"What did I do wrong, and how can I avoid it?"

"You took Divination instead of the classes you were supposed to take, was the first mistake, and secondly, you allowed yourself to start getting dosed with potions that year. Stay away from the red-haired bitch this time. I'll fix your schedule, and you will fix time. Deal?"

After thinking over it for a moment, Harry nodded, and said, "Deal."

Also, if anyone is willing to be a beta reader for this story, shoot me a PM, and we'll talk about it.