Favored by the Master of Death Chapter 9

Harry's pen scratched across the notepad that was perched in his lap as he documented anything strange about Light's behavior during the time he was imprisoned. He was hunched over and listening to every inhale an exhale through a pair of huge headphones while the rest of the room's occupants worked with similar vigor.

M and Matt were examining the strokes on the paper of the death note, distinguishing the different pens and pencils used throughout the notebook's reign of terror and determining which words were written first. L was separating the killers by determining when a change in handwriting occurred. Matsuda was in the process of running collected fingerprints through the system, and analyzing the results that came up so that they were properly matched. Lastly, Mr. Yagami and the rest of the team were going over the video of Light in the streets with Matsuda, and the few recordings they managed to obtain that captured the FBI agent's final moments.

All was silent until a loud crack sounded from outside the room, startling everyone from their rigid positions; with the exception of Harry. Then there was shouting.

"Luna, what did I say? You can't be here!" Draco's usually calm voice penetrated the roaring silence. As the sound of footsteps drew closer, everyone in the room stood, hands drifting closer to the weapons on their belts.

The doors to the room bust open, revealing a dreamy eyed blonde, who wore an odd assortment of clothing; a flustered Draco and grinning George following close behind.

"I am supposed to be here Draco, though I am not permitted to be here. I am sure Harry will allow me to stay though." the woman – presumably Luna – grinned as she ignored the tense police officers and made her way over to Harry, who was ignorant of the situation at hand. She swiftly moved into the man's personal space, settling herself into his lap, successfully snatching his attention away from the screen.

"Luna, my dear," Harry blinked as he lowered the headphones, "what are you doing here?"

"I wanted to be helpful." She replied airily, causing Harry to grin and run his fingers through her hair.

"I see." he laughed gently.

"We don't. Care to explain?" Mogi snapped, his usually gentle face twisted into a scowl. Harry ignored the man, his eyes flitting around tense persons to land on L, who had returned to his seat.

"My apologies. Everyone, this is Luna. She works closely with Fred's boss; however she is a very close friend of mine as well. She has a fantastic habit of… seeing things before I do." Harry explained as Draco gracefully lowered himself into the closest seat. It was not a slouch, for Malfoys do not slouch.

"I see," Matsuda exclaimed, "so it's great that she is here then, if she can catch things before even you can!"

"True, now if anyone cares, Malfoy and I have found something." George interjected, waving a scroll around in the air as he strode further into the room.

"What is it?" Aizawa inquired, a skeptical look on his face as he retook his seat, turning to face the ginger.

"A study of the Death Note." George grinned, leaning his weight against the table that held Harry's monitors.

"Which vault was it in?" Harry asked as he stood, gently removing Luna from his lap so that he could take a closer look.

"The Riddle vault." Draco replied in a strained voice, as if the name held some significance.

"Ah yes, well it makes sense that he would have managed to get his hands on something like this." Harry murmured, almost to himself.

"Perhaps we should take our party to the lounge and have George read the scroll aloud to us." L suggested. With nods of assent the group began to file out of the room, Luna in the lead.

As they walked along, Matsuda began whispering to Mogi about how odd Luna was and Mr. Yagami softly ordered Aizawa to start a scan for Harry Potter in the international database.

"Here I record my findings of the mysterious journal that I stumbled up quite by accident." George began, speaking softly, "I confess that I don't know if the creature who once owned this object intended for me to have it or not, for there are a set of instructions for its use written in plain English here on the inside pages. You see, it was found stashed away in a cloak of invisibility given to me by the entity Death. However, that is a story for another time; onto what I have discovered."

"The first this I have learned is that only materials that touch the book with the intention to write stay in their place. Allow me to explain. Should blood or water come into contact with the object few pages, and not spell out a name or anything of the like, they will simply slide off. It's as if the journal only accepts materials when there is the intent to write behind them. While conducting this part of my experiments, I learned something else."

"I wrote false rules within the book, along with false names. Should my blood come into contact with these falsities, they would disappear. I know not if this is true with all blood because this is not something I wish to drag my wife and friends into, should it come with maladies. I should note that when I did receive this note, there were names already present. When my blood touched them they remained. My conclusion is this; should anything false- be it name or statement- it will be removed when in contact blood of a human. When I tested this theory with animal blood, it did not produce the same results."

"This is all I have managed to uncover about this small, unknown, gift from death. The rules on the inside are extensive and cover most questions that most would ask. Perhaps with more research I will-"

George stopped.

"Will what?" Matsuda leaned forward, eager to hear more from the scroll.

"I don't know, that's it. It just cuts off there." George frowned.

"Well that was completely useless." Aizawa huffed from next to Mr. Yagami.

"Not quite Mr. Aizawa," L spoke, his fingers tented beneath his chin as he sat in his customary crouched position next to Harry on a small, double seater couch, "we do now have an advantage that Kira was unaware of. We can now reset the Death Note. Weed out any falsehoods that our friend may have placed there to throw us off his trail. We now have the upper hand."

"Indeed we do my dear." Harry hummed as he looked into Light's burning eyes.

Everyone retired for the night soon after the scroll had been read. L was curled up next to Harry, close to sleep, when the older man's voice jerked him back from the abyss.

"I'm related to him, Ignotus. That's why his blood could remove false information from the Death Note. Anyone I am directly related to, even if it is centuries apart, has the power over death. It's a small perk for them I suppose."

"So what you are saying is that we will have to use your blood to reset this Death Note as well." L observed more than asked. Harry gave a small grunt of confirmation before a small lull forced silence to ring in their ears.

"Do you remember the night when you told me who you really are?" L broke the short quit. Harry tensed, causing L to roll and rest on his chest, their eye clashing.

"Of course," Harry's eyes flitted away, "how could I forget?"

"I'm sorry Harry. For everything I said. I truly am." L whispered. Harry's wide eyes shot to meet L's once more. After a moment, a soft smile crossed his face.

"I've already told you that I forgive you my love," Harry smiled, relaxing, "though I do appreciate the apology." He placed a gentle kiss on L's lips before dropping his head onto the pillow below him.

"Now go to sleep darling."

2 Years Earlier

L's age: 23

Harry appeared in his and L's room with a crack, only to be greeted with the sight of cold, dark eyes that burned with distrust.

"What are you?" L demanded immediately.

"Excuse me?" Harry nearly stuttered, a hurt look crossing his usually calm face.

"It's obvious that you were once a wizard, I managed to discover that much in the time that you were gone. Harry James Potter: The Boy Who Lived, the Chosen One, Defeater of Voldemort, Orphan son of James and Lily Potter. The list goes on. However, you were last seen during the Battle of Hogwarts, where you disappeared without a trace with an entity who had claimed to be Death. Presumed dead after missing for 2 years. So I will ask you again; what are you?" L spoke, making sure to keep the bed between him and the man he thought he knew.

Harry took a deep breath, body tense, then explained everything to the best of him memory. Fear coursed through him as he did so. When he finished, L looked at him with angry eyes.

"The case with the blood on the collar; the one that you contacted me after. That was you, wasn't it?" L guessed, his mind easily keeping up with everything he was being told.

"Yes." Harry confessed, feeling no remorse, "Indirectly, but yes."

"You set someone up to die so you could test me." L concluded as he began to pace across the room, keeping an eye on Harry.

"Yes."

"You're psychotic." L stated, anger seeping into his voice as his movements became erratic.

"What?" Harry breathed; beginning to back away from L's disgusted look after the man stopped pacing.

"You're completely mad, and I am disgusting for allowing you to even come near me." L whispered as he looked down at his hands. Harry moved forward, hand outstretched.

"No L, my love-" Harry moved to step around the bed to comfort L's shaking form.

"Stay away from me!" L demanded; tears pooling in his eyes as he stumbled away from Harry, "You're manipulative and a liar!"

"L-"

"No! You had someone killed, just so you could test me. You are a murderer. How many more times have you done that just so you could make sure that I was still worthy of you? You are a monster, and I allowed you to…to touch me. To love me. This whole time I trusted you, but I can see now that that was a mistake." L spit out, gathering himself so that he was standing tall, willing away the water in his eyes, "I think you should leave."

"L, dearest love of my life. Please don't do this, please." Harry begged as he once again tried to move closer to L, his magic responding to his anguish. Small objects in the room began to shake as L continued to back away from Harry.

"You're a murder. A Liar. A psychopath. I never want to see you again. Leave my home and don't come back." L commanded, gathering himself to his full height.

All at once, everything stopped. Harry began to back away, his green eyes bright with pain.

"As you wish my love." he whispered before shadows gathered around him and he disappeared without a sound.

L backed up, only stopping when his head thudded against the wall behind him. He slowly slid down the wall, his knees folding into his chest. For the first time in years L sobbed, his head buried in his arms as his cries filled the silence of the empty room. He was alone again.

So officially I am alive. I don't even have an excuse for you guys. I really appreciate the continued support from everyone, despite my continued absence. I don't want to promise you that the next chapter is coming out soon, but I am going to have a lot of time on my hands since i am officially on vacation, I am hoping to potentially get it out sometime by the end of the week. It should be the last chapter. Please continue to send your support, you have no idea how much it genuinely does help me. Thank you.

The Band of Thieves.