This story has a twin! If you like this story, please check out sareen momo's Harry Potter and the Magic of the Past.

Betas: sugar tear, SakuraSyaoranLiTRC and sareen momo

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The wisps of magic

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Harry opened his tightly closed eyes and let out a frustrated sigh.

The dribble of small student groups passing by just wouldn't stop. If this kept up, he would never manage to sneak past them.

A quick glance confirmed that yet another group of students was coming around the corner just as the last were out of sight.

Shifting his weight Harry cursed silently as he hit himself - yet again - against one of the many brooms surrounding him. Only this time around the impact caused a distinctive thump that sounded incredibly loud in the completely silent broom closet Harry was hiding in.

The fact that the students, who had just been about to round the corner, had abruptly stopped mid-step wasn't very calming either.

Holding his breath, he hoped beyond hope that they would go on, so he could finally get out of his uncomfortable hunched position. He had already spent too much time in here and if he didn't hurry up he would be in a tricky position.

Peeking through the little gap between door and wall Harry relaxed instantly as he saw that the students had finally disappeared. No other students in sight either.

Deciding to use the chance while he had it Harry took a deep breath and stepped out of his hiding place. Taking a quick moment to look around he reassured himself that he was still alone. With a breath of relief, he started to run. Within a few moments he had his hand on the doorknob of his destination and pushed it open.

Wasting no time, he quickly closed the door behind him and took in the familiar sight of the girl's (not absolutely sure about the apostrophe) bathroom he had spent so much time in in second year. Myrthe was nowhere to be seen though. Harry couldn't help but grin at that, because now he didn't need to worry about how to keep Mythe quiet about his presents in Hogwarts. Not that he had had any hope that the arguments Ron, Hermione and him had come up with would have kept her quiet for long anyway.

Shaking his head Harry quickly stepped to the sink, which he had stood before such a long time ago. Though opposite to last time he knew that there was no Basilisk down there ready to sink its deadly fangs into him without a moment's notice.

Hearing steps approach the bathroom Harry cursed mentally. The student group must have become suspicious and alerted a teacher. If a student had done that a few years' prior the teacher would have probably told them that they were imagining it. Or at the most they would have been told to be careful and to inform the staff immediately if they noticed anything else suspicious. With the current tense political situation and the involvement of the school in it, well that made things differently. Which was most likely why there were now even more rushing feet nearing his location.

Furrowing his brow Harry stared at the decorative snakes in front of him in determination. "Open," he hissed and watched with impatience as the entrance appeared way to slowly.

Hearing the steps nearly directly in front of the bathroom Harry swiftly jumped into the hole with a parting, "Close."

Half slithering half falling downwards Harry landed in a heap on the floor. Huffing beneath his breath about his damned luck he quickly got to his feet and cast a wandless and wordless Lumos.

He had quickly figured out that spells cast without using a wand were not traceable and therefore very convenient while on the run. With Hermione's help he also found out - to his and his friends great surprise - that he was a natural at wandless and wordless magic. It actually came easier to him then spells cast with a wand ever did.

But then again maybe that was a result of his magical core growing. After all his seventeenth birthday hadn't been all that long ago and his magical core was about to reach its maturity. The usual witch(?) or wizards core would have grown to its maturity before or exactly on their seventeenth birthday. Only those with great magical power and one or another form of a magical inheritance would need a few days longer for maturity to be reached. Stress could also cause magical maturity to be delayed.

Well, Harry had had enough stress to warrant it and the fluctuation of his magic was a clear proof that his magic was taking its time to reach maturity. This fluctuation was also what made using a wand incredibly difficult. Channeling magic through a wand requires the user to send a steady amount of magic through it during casting. So, with his magic being as unsettled as it was it was near impossible for Harry to use a wand at all until his core reaches maturity.

Wandless magic though does not require such tight control as you didn't need to channel magic through a wand, but only let it flow through your hand and shape it to fulfill whatever purposes the spell you want to cast should. The tricky part about wandless magic is convincing your magic to form the shapes you want it to and serve its purpose without a wand to tame it.

Closing his eyes Harry slowly focused more of his magic in his hand and watched with satisfaction as the small ball of light grew in his hand and brightened his surrounding so much that he could finally make his way to the main chamber without having to stumble about. (?)

Just before he entered the chamber he closed the hand without the ball of light around the mokeskin pouch hanging from his neck. Closing his eyes, he took a breath of reassurance and took the last few steps into the chamber.

… And quickly regretted it.

Before he knew what was going on the chamber was filled with a bright light and his body became uncomfortable cold. The light seemed to attack him from all sides. Choke him as he desperately tried to breathe.

His hand clutched the mokesking pouch tightly as he lost his control over his magic and the light in his hand fizzled out. He shut his eyes tightly and rushed to put his arm in front of his eyes to protect them from the brightness.

He could feel the blood in his veins slowing as the light continuously sucked all the warmth of his body. Leaving him shivering, breathless and desperately wanting to push the light away from him. To make it stop. Stop. STOP.

In a state of complete desperation Harry gathered his magic around his body and pushed the light back with all his might. It seemed to work for a moment, but then-

An electric pulse went through Harry's body with such intensity that it sent him sprawling to the floor. Barely being able to keep his head from hitting the ground he was only dimly aware of heat spreading through his body rapidly.

Through the dizziness induced by the lack of air it took him a moment to notice that the cold that had been forced into his body before now being replaced with waves of agonizing heat.

Harry breathed shallowly and gritted his teeth through the pain as he found the mokeskin pouch growing hotter and hotter in his grasp. Through his closed lids he saw the light slowly diminish before suddenly being brighter than ever before. Although this time he could see another light - a green one - joining the previously blinding white.

With his eyes as close to the floor as they were they were somewhat protected from the light and enabled him to painfully open his eyes to little slits.

What he saw made him close them again instantly. There was a brightly glowing green mist surrounding him pushing against what appeared to be a brightly glowing wall of white that surrounded him on all sides. Harry groaned as his eyes snapped shut. He could see dots in front of his eyes evidence of just how close he had gotten to being blinded.

Suddenly the pressure on him increased drastically as the wall of light pushed the mist so close to him that he coughed and chocked on the magic squeezing itself into his body. The pain instantly reached unprecedented highs and all the air left his lungs with a whoosh as body finally crumbled to unconsciousness.

Harry found himself surrounded by darkness floating in an endless stream of nothingness. It was comfortable. Like what he would imagine lying on a cloud would feel like. Warm, soft and surrounded by feelings of calm and serenity. All of this was accompanied with a feeling of freedom Harry had never felt before.

Before he could stop himself he laughed in joy and let his hair ruffle in a non-existent wind. He didn't know where he was or why he was here but it didn't matter. He felt like all his worries disappear with the waves of darkness flowing by.

He lost all sense of time and forgot all that was before. He drifted, he floated and embraced the darkness. For an eternally long and at the same time painfully short moment he simply was.

That moment ended quickly enough though as he found himself suddenly standing at Platform 9 3/4. It was empty except for him and not a sound could be heard.

Slowly blinking his eyes, he looked around and took in the familiar surrounding his memories slowly returning to him.

"I… I am Harry… just Harry…," he found himself saying to the empty space. "And I was… on an important… errand? Or am I still doing the errand? Is… is this an illusion?"

For a moment he was quiet and tried to collect himself. He had to remember what he did before. Somehow he had the feeling that it was important.

Furrowing his brow, he slowly went to a bench and sat down. All the while keeping an eye on his surrounding in case something happened.

Furrowing his brow, he tried to remember once again.

"My friends… Hermione and Ron… send me to gather… um… sent me to gather…" for a moment he stared confused around him. He couldn't remember. He tried to focus even more but no images came to mind.

"Sent me to gather… something. And to do that I was in… Hogwarts? Yes, I was in Hogwarts," he whispered into the silence. He didn't know why he was speaking aloud, but it helped him to keep his focus.

"I needed to be careful. I couldn't allow myself to be seen, because Hermione, Ron and I were in a tent! … Um… no, that's not right? Is it? … No, I needed to be careful, because of the war. Oh, the war! Voldemort! The hunt! The Dursleys! The Horcruxes! … Yes, I remember now! I was in the castle to take care of something… something important related to the war!"

Harry nearly shouted the last part as horror slowly dawned on him. There was no way he could stay here - wherever here was - he needed to go back and take care of whatever he needed to take care of in the castle. He could clearly remember the face Hermione and Ron made when they discussed his expedition to Hogwarts and their faces alone made painfully clear how important whatever he was in Hogwarts for was.

"I see you have regained your memories, Master," a dull voice suddenly said from directly beside him.

Startled Harry looked away from the train he had been intensely staring at and snapped his gaze to his left. Where before there had been simply an empty part of the bench there was now a hooded figure sitting in a relaxed pose. Harry couldn't make out the face beneath the hood, but he had the distinctive feeling that the other was frowning.

"I have never quite managed to understand human greed. It is a mystery to me, how not being able to own something can lead to the wish to destroy what you can't have and who owns it. It is truly astounding how many souls have been brought to me simply because of greed or jealousy."

Harry could feel his eyes widen as the realization of who - or what - exactly was sitting beside him hit him fast and hit him hard.

The being beside him sighed.

"The greed and jealousy of a man long past has forced me to bring you here. You are my Master, though I am not your servant."

Harry stared at Death unblinkingly and wondered silently to himself how he always managed to get into those situations. To make matters worse he was nearly sure Death was smirking at him under his hood.

"All the hallows accepted you and took some of your magic and gave you some of their ancient sentient one in exchange. It is a contract older than time itself. The hallows have been waiting for a long time for their perfect match."

Harry couldn't help but stare at the being beside him. "Sentient magic? Contract? The hallows? Perfect match?"

Death turned its body more towards him and spoke in the same dull tone as before. "Sentient magic develops in a region or in objects that are filled with great amounts of magic for a long period of time. For example, the Hogwarts Castle has been saturated with magic for years and has become sentient. That means the Castle has something akin to a conscious and is able to make certain decisions itself. That is how whole sections of Hogwarts can appear and disappear apparently out of nowhere."

The being paused and waited for Harry to take the information in before continuing.

"The kind of characteristics an object or region develops depends on what the spelled used on it or in its surroundings are for and with what intent they were made. It is also strongly influenced by the reason it was originally made or if it's a region by the history the region has. This is also how horror houses came into existence. There was a too long history of negative intent and emotions in the buildings causing them to attract evil ghosts. Due to ghosts in general constantly giving off a small amount of magic those houses plagued by many evil ghosts develop an evil intent. Or to put it in another way they start eating people and let them disappear."

Harry couldn't suppress the shudder as he thought about all the horror stories he had once heard maybe having more truth in them than he was comfortable with.

"Now, the hallows - consisting of the elder wand, the resurrection stone and the invisibility cloak - have been surrounded by many witches, wizards and therefore their magic for a long period of time. Nearly from the beginning of time to be exact. This being so they have long since developed a will of their own. Originally their only ability was to decide which witch or wizard would be compatible enough with their magic to claim the position of Master of Death. However, over the years they developed a protective strike towards their temporary owners."

Taking merely a second to let Harry try to process the information he went on with his explanation.

"Those became even more apparent when they chose you. As this was their purpose of existence they slowly but steadily exchanged magic with you. Strengthening your bond with them and theirs with you. Additionally, this served to make me aware of their claim on you. This contract they offered to you via the magic exchange was accepted by you when you used each of the hallows individually in a potentially life-threatening situation. It is of no consequence whether you used them consciously or not. The cloak was the first to form its bond with you followed by the elder wand and finally when you clutched to the pouch containing the ring before you fell unconscious."

Harry opened his mouth to say something, but was quickly interrupted.

"It is of no consequence that you didn't use the ring's power to call ghosts to aid you. You held on to it with your magic flaring around you and into the ring freely with the intent to protect yourself. This caused the sentient magic in the ring to react with a counter attack against the force attacking you. All the while it used your magic to color it and boost its strength. Through that the bond with the last hallow was sealed and you were now known to me as my Master."

The entity paused for a moment before turning its body even further towards Harry.

"The hallows choose you Master, because your personality, ideals, magic and all that makes you resonate perfectly with their sentient magic. Seeing as their original magic - before it was altered by the magic surrounding it - came from me that means your magic also resonates good with mine. Therefore, you are the best suited to be my Master."

Seeing Harry open his mouth he spoke up before he could be interrupted.

"I won't explain to you what it means to be my Master. Not now at least. There are a few things you need to be aware of before our time is up."

There was a heavy silence for a moment and as Harry suddenly realized just how important the entities next words would be.

"When you entered that room with the resurrection stone in with you, you triggered a curse that has been placed on that room a long time ago. This is due to the stone having been in the possession of Salazar Slytherin once upon a time. While he could never resonate with it properly he was intrigued by it. The curse you triggered was originally intended as a last safety measure to keep people from stealing it.

The curse was not made with malice in mind, but with the greed of other people. Opposite to general believe Salazar Slytherin was a caring man. He wanted to keep the ring in his possession to keep other people who might use it for the wrong things or wanted to steal its big amount of sentient magic away from it. At that time someone with that kind of power and the wrong intention could have caused humans to kill many more innocents that they thought to be witches. So, Salazar placed the curse on the room to activate if anyone but him or his close relatives had the ring on their person without his explicit permission.

The curse was not originally a curse but rather a charm intended to bring the victim to Salazar Slytherin himself. Now, seeing as he was already long dead at the time the spell intended to transport turned destructive. The spell tried to take you back in time without being powerful enough to do so. Due to not only your fluctuating magic fighting it back, but also the sentient magic of the resurrection ring I was forced to step in. However, the only possibility to save you was to let your protecting fluctuating magic, the counter attacking sentient magic and the spell turned curse combine into something not harmful.

This means that when you wake up you will find yourself in a world, which is completely alike to the one you grew up with in some aspects and completely different in others. There might also be some unexpected changes to your body. After all you were saturated by a combination of your own unsettled magic and sentient magic while the magic of the spell pressed on you from the outside. Sentient magic always leaves without fulfilling a purpose. If it does leave that is. That will have to be seen.

Anyway, it is nearly time for you to awaken. Though you should be aware that due to keeping the balance of the worlds it was necessary to change your history a bit. As soon as you are awake you will know what I mean."

Before Harry could even attempt to ask any of his questions the world faded to black and he was floating again. He tried to fight it, tried to dig his way back to the station, but it was no use. Death had just told him that he was his Master and going to wake up in different world and he didn't even give him a minute to get over his shock. He could feel the panic settling in and tried to focus on the darkness instead, because he knew panic wouldn't get any answers from Death either.

With a frustrated sigh he resigned himself to wait and see and try to at least get one word in edgeways the next time he saw Death. Or maybe figure out whether or not it was possible to kill Death.

With that thought his conscious faded and he let the darkness embrace him tightly bathing him in soothing comfort and images of dead Deaths.