Authors Note: I love to think up really out there pairings, beyond the usual crack pairings, like Harry and Dobby (not looked for that, not seen any either) or Harry and Molly (Seen some, not read them)

No, my unusual pairings go off on a strange tangent. I may be posting more of these, with other pairings. Though my true pairing in Potterdom will still feature. I still say Harry and Ginny are made for each other, and that gets a happy mention.

Deaths Lover

Avada Kedavra was a remarkable piece of magic; it was a binding contract that summoned Death herself to take a soul. Since Death was an inevitable force, she could not be blocked. She took any soul presented to her. Well, almost all.

There was one soul, one solitary soul that Death would never claim: The soul of a young boy. She had taken his parents not moments earlier. Summoned by contract however, she needed to claim someone, and turned on the man who summoned her.

After all, she felt something very special in little Harry Potter, who smiled up at her from his cot.

Seventeen years old. It had been just under sixteen years since Tom Riddle summoned death on to him, and he did so again today. It was just a swift flash of green, and darkness.

If this was death, it wasn't what it was cracked up to be. Those were Harry's first thoughts as he looked around the clearing, devoid of all other life.

"No Harry, this is not where I take the departed, this is my realm. I am Death."

Harry turned around and gasped. There was a woman no older then he, stood smiling softly.

"Do, do you have a normal name?"

She smiled softly, the delicate rose coloured lips curving ever so slightly.

"I do, and it's Samantha, but you can call me Sam, strange name for a spirit to have, but I picked it myself."

Harry smiled and looked around.

"Why am I here? If I'm here I presume I'm not dead."

Sam smiled warmly as she walked closer, her strides long and graceful.

"You are correct: I have not taken you to the realm of the departed."

Harry looked at her, some unseen light source making her long red hair glisten like it were a living flame.

"Harry, the reason I did not take you to the departed is because I…I couldn't. It is not some form of power or anything around you. I just can't take away your life, I have consulted all of the other spirits. Ignatius says that I admire your fire. Zephyr says that I am enamoured with your prowess of the winds. None of them make any sense, so I decided that I would talk about it with you the next time I got the chance."

Harry looked around the area as Sam sat and thought, unconsciously leaning against him.

"Has talking about it to me helped?"

Sam shook her head.

"None at all, I can not think of anything that would stop me claiming you, though your presence does calm my mind, if only my emotions would follow."

"Which of the other spirits made the most sense to you?"

"None did; hell Adoris made the least sense of them all. All I got out of her is "You shall know when you See him." Bloody annoying bitch, she knows how I have no way of using my Sight."

Harry looked at Sam, confusion evident in his eyes.

"Sight, or Spirit Sight, is something paired spirits can use. It allows them to see the aura of anything. Since I am never going to be paired, then I will never be able to use my Sight, Spiritus had to be a selfish bastard."

"Who's Spiritus and why is he a selfish bastard?"

"Spiritus was supposed to be the spirit I pair with. We pair with opposites. Love and Hate. Light and Dark. Life and Death. Only Spiritus, the Spirit of Life, wanted to live as a human, so thousands of years ago, he hid in the human world. That meant our pairing didn't happen. Oh, he said I'd find his progeny, but he would live, and die, a mortal. I took his soul after he founded your very school, living under the name Godric Gryffindor, I had my revenge. He lived longer then his grandchildren, saw all that he created whither and die. Yet, when I took him to the Departed, he met me with a smile, telling me that the seeds of my bond were sown."

Zephyr, a willowy woman sat next to Ignatius, giggling slightly as she watched Mortis sat talking with the human she was enamoured with.

"Think we should offer her some help my friend?"

'No, let her figure it out, her position allows her to see his past. She'll put two and two together.'

"Knowing her she'll get thirty nine."

Ignatius chuckled softly.

"Then she will get four, and her answers."

Sam slammed her fist down on the floor.

"That fuck took away my Sight. He cost me my pairing, all so he could live as a human."

Harry placed a hand upon her shoulder.

"He said that your bond would be from his family. He didn't take it, just delayed it."

"Harry, I've been made to wait a thousand years for my bond. If I do ever find his kin, I'll cast them in to Mu; nothingness for the rest of existence."

"Aren't you punishing an innocent though? Why hurt someone that never even knew you, for what someone else did?"

Sam sighed.

"I don't know Harry. A thousand years isn't enough to settle my mind. I'm still angry, I'm still…"

"…hurt, betrayed, forgotten?"

"…yeah…"

Zephyr snorted as she looked at the pair. A comradeship was forming between them, even now. The pain of being forgotten bound them together.

Sam stood up, pulling Harry with her.

"We've gotten off of subject here Harry: Why can't I take your soul to the Departed. Twice I was summoned, and I could not harm you. I could do nothing because it felt like I would rip out my very being and tear it asunder."

Harry sighed

"Your guess would be better than mine. I'm still getting used to the fact I'm not dead."

Sam giggled softly as she stood up.

"Are you saying you want to die?"

Harry shrugged.

"I've never been afraid of my death; it was going to happen one day. I just wish I could finish my task."

"What's your task?"

Harry sighed as he looked in to the distance of the dead looking forest.

"I needed to defeat a Dark Wizard, a man called Tom Marvolo Riddle."

Death spun to look at Harry.

"HIM! That maggot found a way to stop me from taking his soul on."

Harry grinned softly.

"He's not got that anymore, my friends and I saw to that. He's free for you to take when you see fit."

Sam could only smirk.

Want to watch me at my work Harry?"

Tom looked around the empty forest, confusion rife in his mind. Last he remembered was killing the Potter boy and then waking up in this forest.

"Hello Tom."

Riddle spun round to face Potter, who was casually leaning against a tree.

"Potter, how? I killed you."

Harry chuckled.

"It seems I had a rather big ally. She's a very nice woman, though you might be afraid of her."

Death walked out of the trees, a hood over her head.

"You're well beyond your time Tom. It is my duty, and now my pleasure, to take your soul. No one can avoid death, and those that try, are to be punished. Tom Marvolo Riddle; your broken soul is to be banished in to Mu."

Death reached in to Tom's chest and pulled out a blackened orb. Harry walked over to Death and looked at the orb.

"Can he hear us?"

Sam nodded.

"He'll be able to hear us until I cast his soul in to Mu."

Harry nodded and looked at the soul.

"Tom, I should hate you for taking so many lives in a childish attempt to live beyond your times. I should hate you for killing my own parents. Yet I can only pity you. In your bid to live forever, you never even lived."

Sam looked at Harry as he spoke, taking in the stunning green eyes and messy black hair. She could only see pity, just like he said.

"We are all supposed to die Tom, that's what makes life so precious."

Zephyr smirked as the light of understanding entered Mortis' eyes.

"She's just realised. It's about time too. Her realm is so dull right now."

Ignatius laughed.

"Who would have thought that Death would fall in love with a mortal?"

Adoris walked over with a smile.

"I did. Young Mister Potter is to take on the Mantle of The Spirit of Life. Only when he dies though, and that presents a problem."

Sam opened up a small purple portal and dropped Tom's soul in it.

"Harry, I think I know why I can't take you."

Harry looked over at Sam.

"It's also presenting another problem: I want to keep you here, and live your life."

"Why's that? I'm not sad if I have to die."

"But you still want to live don't you?"

Harry nodded.

"That's a very rare disposition Harry; A readiness to accept your death, and a desire to live your life, none have actually got to the same point. They all feel fear in their last moments. You understand why people live. Many people know it, but still fear death at the end."

"So, I'm different again?"

Sam laughed.

"Harry, this difference makes you someone remarkable. The readiness to die and willingness to live marks you as the…"

Sam stopped as she saw movement in the trees. Slowly, a bird walked on to the branch. This was her realm, nothing lived in it. There was never supposed to be anything else here.

"It…It can't be."

Harry gazed upon the bird as it took flight and swooped in on a lone mouse.

"Sam…are you okay?"

"…Spiritus."

"To truly understand life and death, is what marks young Mr Potter as the inheritor of Life, the only spirit to have lived and died a human, as is only appropriate. It was merely waiting for Mortis to awaken it."

Harry smiled as he stood up in the Forbidden Forest; curses flew at him, only to slam in to a figure.

"Sorry ladies and Gentlemen, my dear friend won't let you hurt me. Hagrid, you can follow me. Tom's dead."

Harry smiled softly as he held Ginny's withered and cooling hand in his own.

"I'm sorry I had to take her Harry."

Harry smiled as he stood up, his old withered bones groaning.

"You don't have to be sorry. She has lived a blessed life, and died a blessed death. As have I."

Sam knelt down by Ginny's body, running a hand over her face as her other hand held a small glowing golden orb.

"Does that mean you're ready now?"

Harry chuckled dryly as he made his way around the bed, and eased himself down.

"My Dear, I've always been ready. You should know that."

The door slowly opened and a pretty young girl walked in and looked at Sam.

"Are you here for Great Grandpa and Great Grandma?"

Sam nodded slowly.

"I am."

"Do you have to?"

Harry smiled over at his great granddaughter.

"Samantha, Ginny and I are very old. We've got to go. Ginny already has."

Sam walked over as Harry lay down.

"I'll miss you."

Harry smiled softly as he lay down.

"I won't be gone completely, Samantha."

Sam walked over to Samantha and lay a hand on her shoulder.

"You'd better leave now, it's his time."

Samantha nodded.

"Be gentle, he's very old."

Sam laughed softly as Samantha walked out and shut the door.

"Yes Sam, I'm an old man. I'm a great, great Grandfather."

"Harry, do you mind if I wait for you to fall asleep?"

Harry nodded slowly

"I'll be ready."

Sam smiled as she took Harry's withered hand in her smooth one.

"Did your great granddaughter get her name from me?"

Harry nodded.

"My Granddaughter-in-law loved the story I used to tell, of the beautiful woman of death, fair to all, kind to all, and gentle to all. Traits she desired in her own child; traits that she has in abundance."

Sam smiled as she lay beside Harry, brushing his white hair aside as she stroked his face.

"He's waiting for you."

Sam looked over at the figure by the door.

"He told me about you before we married. He always told me that Death is a beautiful woman, someone you could not hate, or fear. He's right too. Samantha, he's ready to take his place. I'll be there if he wants me, and you accept me."

Ginny walked in to the dull light and ran a hand over her withered face with her soft blemish free hand

Sam stood up and laid her hand on top of Harry's chest. Tenderly, she pushed in and slowly pulled out. The orb in her hand was pure white, shimmering warmly. It pulsed slowly and floated up. In a bright flash of light, Harry stood before the two women.

"Sam, can you take us back to your forest?"

Sam nodded.

The forest was vastly different. One hundred and ninety years had passed, rather than dull and dead, the forest was bright and full of life.

"I'm finally taking my place."

Sam nodded as she took Harry's hands in hers and smiled. She glanced at Ginny, who nodded with a smile. With that, Sam looked back at Harry and kissed him.

Many different spirits symbolise the many aspects of the world. There are elemental spirits, and the spirits of natures, the kind and just, or the cruel and evil. However, beneath The Spirit of Time are two spirits. Mortis, the Spirit of Death, destined to claim the life of her love, and Spiritus, the Spirit of Life, the only Spirit to be born, live and die as a mortal.

In the lofty realm of spirits, Mortis and Spiritus are unusual. They are considered thus, because of the once mortal soul that is forever with them. In Life, Spiritus had a wife, and a family. In Death, they were never separated. Mortis accepted the wife of her love, since she had embraced her soul moments earlier.

Mortis and Spiritus and his Wife; Samantha Harry and Ginny; Two eternal spirits, bound by a third Mortal. Separated for millennia, and together for eternity; never has there been such a tragic and romantic story, of Life and Death.