AN- Hello everyone and thanks for checking out my new story! Now, I'm going to keep this short and sweet so I don't inflate the word count too much.

This is a Gray Creature/MOD Harry Story

If everything goes well then this story could be a multi-crossover with several other fandoms

The main pairing has been decided (Harry/Hermione) However, all other pairings are up for debate.

With that out of the way.

Onto the story!

Chapter 1: Death's retirement

Harry James Potter awoke from a dreamless sleep to find himself lying on the floor in a seemingly endless gray room. After a few moments of glancing around in confusion, he climbed to his feet and began to explore.

The 'room' was completely barren in every direction and lacked any sources of light, natural or otherwise, but was still lit well enough for Harry to see without straining his eyes.

"Where in the world am I?" Harry wondered for what felt like the hundredth time since he'd woken up.

"You're not." A voice answered the unspoken question.

Harry spun in the direction of the voice and flicked his wrist to draw a wand... That was no longer there.

However, upon seeing the source of the voice, Harry wasn't sure his wand would have helped much.

The source of the voice was an insanely tall skeleton wearing a crimson tuxedo with a black tie. In one hand it held a pitch black bowler hat and in the other, it held a long, bone-white cane with an ebony colored human skull on top.

"Hello." The skeleton said as it placed the hat on top of its head and leaned on the cane.

"Um... Hello?" Harry replied.

The skeleton pulled a silver pocket watch out of his inner jacket pocket and flipped it open.

"You are... Forty-seven years, five months, twenty-two days, seventeen hours, forty-one minutes, and... twelves seconds early."

The watch was snapped shut and returned to its place within the jacket pocket before Harry could even blink.

"I'm sorry, but, What are you talking about?"

"Your death, boy. I'm saying you're early."

Harry's mouth dropped open in surprise.

"My death? Wait, I'm dead?"

"Yep." The skeleton agreed.

Harry lifted his hands up to his face and squeezed his nose a few times, then he pinched his arm, then he punched himself in the stomach for good measure.

"I didn't feel any of that!" Harry exclaimed.

"Of course not. The dead feel no pain."

"But-but, what about my friends!? My family!?"

"I mean, it seems kind of selfish for you to want them dead just because you died. But hey, whatever." The skeleton shrugged its shoulder and raised its free hand into the air.

"What're you doing?"

"I was going to kill your friends so you'd have some company." It said and brought its fingers into snapping position.

"What! No, don't do that!"

Harry charged at the skeleton and grabbed its hand before it could snap its fingers. Being this close to it, Harry realized that it was even taller than he'd previously thought and was easily over seven feet tall.

"You sure? It's honestly not a problem if you do."

"Yes, I'm sure I don't want them dead." Harry said while being careful with how he chose his words. He wasn't sure if the skeleton had the power to kill his friends and family from... wherever he was. But he'd seen and done enough crazy things in his short life to know better than to tempt such things.

The skeleton shrugged its shoulder again.

"Alright, but let me know if you change your mind."

"I won't."

"But if you do... Just let me know."

"I'll be sure to not do that."

The skeleton laughed at that and casually pulled its hand free from Harry's grasp.

"Come along, boy. I have something to discuss with you."

It lifted its cane and lightly, almost gently, tapped Harry's chest with it. But that light 'tap' was enough to send him flying away with enough speed to render Harry deaf. However, it was over before Harry could even comprehend what he was experiencing and he found himself sitting in a lush, high-backed gray chair, in an exact replica of the Slytherin common room.

The skeleton was sitting across from him with a large open book sitting on the arm of the chair.

"Good, you're awake." It said once it noticed he'd come to.

"What... Where... How?"

"Instant transmission. You know where. Because I can. Now that that's cleared up."

The skeleton snapped the book shut and sat it on a table Harry was sure wasn't there a second ago and crossed its legs.

"How would you like a job, Harry Potter?"

"Huh?" Harry eloquently replied.

The skeleton snapped its fingers in Harry's face to get his attention, then returned to its previous position.

"I'm offering you a job."

"Um... What kind of job?"

"Mine."

Harry stared at the skeleton in confusion for several seconds.

"I'm sorry, but... what is your job?"

The skeleton stared at Harry for a moment, then casually waived its hand over its body.

The transformation was instant. One second it was wearing its tux and hat and holding that bone-white cane. The next it was wearing a long, flowing, onyx robe and casually holding a massive bone-white scythe with an ebony blade at one end.

Harry almost swallowed his tongue as the pieces snapped together in his head and he realized just who he'd been talking to.

"You... You're death?" He almost squeaked out his response but was luckily able to fix his voice at the last second.

"Very astute of you. What gave it away? The long black robe? My charming complexion? Oh! It was the scythe, wasn't it?"

If Harry didn't know he was literally talking to death with a capital D, he'd have thought the skeleton was being sarcastic.

"Kind of." Harry admitted.

The skeleton sighed and once again waved his hand over his body to return his clothes to 'normal', then sat back in his chair.

"Look, kid. I'm tired. I've been doing this job since the before time began and truth be told... I'm honestly sick of it."

"But, You're death! How can you possibly be tired of it!?"

"Nevermind that." Death waved away Harry's question and sat forward in his chair.

"I'm ready to retire, Harry. I willingly allowed those three brothers to 'trick' me," He said while mimicking air quotes with his fingers. "So I could find someone worthy of being my successor."

"Can you do that?" Harry blurted out before he could stop himself.

Death laughed at the question.

"Who's going to stop me?"

Something in Harry's gut told him it was a rhetorical question, so he stopped himself from blurting out the first thing to pop into his head and chose to just let Death continue speaking.

"At the end of the day, Harry. When the sun sets on this universe and everything in it... I am the only thing that will remain."

Death grabbed the book off the table and held it out for Harry to take.

Harry accepted the book with a nod and flipped it open to the first page.

"Being Death for Dummies!?" He blurted out once he saw the title of the book.

Though Death didn't say anything and chose to just stare at Harry. He could have sworn it was laughing at him.

"Inside that book is everything you'll need to know. From what's expected of you, how to use our powers, and I've even thrown a few tips and tricks in there for you."

Death stood up and held his hand out for Harry to shake.

"So... Do we have a deal?"

Harry sat the book down on the arm of his chair and stood up.

"Why me?"

"Because you, my young friend, are Harry James Potter. And you deserve a break almost as much as I do." Death laughed.

Harry stared up at the skeleton for a few more seconds, then he grasped its hand and shook it.