Hello everyone, it's first time writing one of these so please be gentle. Well, I'm open to criticism too but please be polite about it.

Looking down at the road, he watched the quickly arriving emergency vehicles move past the other cars on the road to arrive at the accident as quickly as possible. Unfortunately they were just a little bit too late. He hoped they were fast enough for the others in the car though. Huh. It was an odd feeling, being dead. Looking at his own body splayed out on the road. It wasn't too smart to read while you walked, he knew that logically, but it was a habit he'd picked up from his mother. Maybe now she'd stop doing it as well, it worried his father to no end when she did.

Moving a little closer, he noticed at the book he'd been reading. Man, it was covered in dirt and blood, too. It was his favorite book from the Harry Potter series, the Prisoner of Azkaban. He'd been re-reading it for the umpteenth time when this all went down.

As he watched the ambulance finally arrive, he noticed a strange feeling of disconnect with everything. All of the emotions he should be feeling, the loneliness, the anger, the despair, seemed far away as if they were fading into the distance. All he was left with was a sense of calm acceptance. It felt almost like a hand on his shoulder, and suddenly everything else seemed to fall away, the scene of the accident becoming blurry, indistinct, and finally fading away all together.

He found himself in a white expanse, a void of fog. A bright light out of the corner of his eye caught his attention and he turned to see a glowing figure. It was vaguely humanoid, a downwards triangle formed a torso, and there were lines extending out from the corners to form arms and legs. A circle hovered above, forming a sort of halo around two bright points of light that sat roughly where eyes would be.

He circled around the figure, looking at it while he looked off into the distance to get a feeling of his surroundings. It was sort of strange, it was really easy to split his focus for some reason, something he'd never been truly able to do while he was alive. A human body limitation, he guessed. The figure seemed almost amused, and as he rotated around it, he noticed that it always seemed to be facing him, without it actually moving.

Once he was satisfied with observing his surroundings, (Nothing to report. As far as he could tell, they were alone in a vast nothingness.) he faced the figure, regarding it curiously.

"You done?" The figure spoke, and how did it do that if it didn't have a mouth? He should probably stop trying to put things into a human perspective. The voice sounded familiar, SO familiar, but he couldn't tell if it was male or female, or both? Neither? Whatever.

"Yes, for now." He said, smiling at the figure. He rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.

"You'll get a bald spot if you keep doing that," The figure said, chuckling. That phrase tugged at something in his memory. That was familiar too, something his-

"Grandma?" He asked, looking curiously at it, her?

"Yep," it said happily, "Look at you, I've missed you honey." He was sure now, this WAS his Grandmother, somehow. She'd died not that long ago. He'd missed her. Why she'd look like this though, he had no idea.

"It's something that happens with time, the longer you're dead. For example, what's your name?" Grandma asked. He was surprised, a little hurt, and opened his mouth to reply.

"It's-" He stopped. Nothing came to him, he was drawing a complete blank. "Oh."

"Don't worry about it," Grandma laughed, and how he'd missed her laugh, "The longer you're dead, that more that kind of thing will happen. You'll forget your human shape as well, and look like me after a while, too."

He was shocked, and a little afraid, "I don't want to forget everything!"

"Oh," she breathed, "No, no, don't worry about that. You won't forget everything. For example, I'll always be your Grandma. I'll always love your Grandpa, and I'll always love you. You'll keep everything you consider important to you."

She smiled at him and opened her arms for a hug. He took the invitation, seemingly teleporting over to her. Quickly wrapping his arms around the figure, he sighed into her shoulder. It was a different sort of hug than the ones they'd shared when they were alive, but the general feeling was the same. Instead of feeling a physical body, it felt a bit like he was hugging a gust of warm air, or a thunderstorm, or a hot bath, or a star, or- well, nevermind. He was hugging his Grandma, and that's what mattered.

They reluctantly pulled away from each other, and his Grandmother tipped her head to the left, "Let's sit down. Okay?" She took his hand and walked him to a couch that was not there a minute ago. He followed her, and sat down next to her. Looking at the armrest, he recognised the pattern on it. It was her couch, the one from her house. Seeing it brought up all sorts of memories, like his Grandpa doing the crossword puzzle every morning- that thought brought him up short.

"Where's Grandpa?" He asked, confused. Grandma laughed.

"Not far, we didn't want to overwhelm you with everyone all at once. Traditionally, there's one person to meet you once you first pass over, and I won the rock-paper-scissors contest."

He opened his mouth and his Grandma cut in, "I can see what's going on in that head of yours, honey. No being sassy now." He shut his mouth. "I may not have fingers right now," She raised her glowing arms, "But I can have them if I feel like it." The end of her arm split into a reasonable approximation of a hand with four fingers and a thumb.

He considered for a moment, she'd done that earlier too."You can read my mind?" He asked a little hesitantly. There went privacy down the drain.

"Oh no, honey, no I can't," she laughed, "I just know you. Anyway, there's some things I need to tell you before you get fully settled in here. You're going to have to let go of your life on earth. Being here comes with a lot of power, but there are some rules to go with it. You can't interfere with the life you came from. That means you can't go back to the planet you left, got it?"

He nodded and looked around, slightly confused. "Where IS here, anyway?" Same old fog, with new addition of a couch. Actually, it almost seemed like the rest of her living room was trying to materialize as well, every once and awhile a blurry outline of a chair or TV would pop into view and vanish just as suddenly. Seeing what he was looking at, Grandma glared at the current outline of the window into the backyard and it sheepishly vanished.

"Your Grandpa was always better at getting things to stay stable. My mind is always trying to fill in the blanks." She chuckled. "Anyway, there isn't really a name for this place, but for now Heaven will do. Now, what was I saying? Oh yes, you can't go back to the planet you left, but you can watch if you feel like it."

The planet you left, huh? "So I can go to other planets then?" He asked curiously.

"Yes, all people who die end up here. So we can go to other planets as well. Most don't bother though." She said, giving him the side eye. "What are you thinking, you've got a sneaky look in your eyes."

"Is the multiverse theory true?" He asked, getting a little excited. He might have the beginnings of an idea.

"Yes…" His Grandmother said hesitantly, "But some of those worlds are dangerous. I'm not sure that's a good-"

"What about Harry Potter then, does a world exist where those books are real?" He smiled at the thought.

"That's one of the dangerous ones," His Grandma said, frowning, "Dementors are no joke to a soul. They could seriously harm you."

"What about possession then?" He returned, frowning slightly. "If I was in a body, then-"

"Hmm," His Grandmother considered for a moment, "It'd have to be a vacant one, regular souls can't possess bodies with a soul already inside. Is this something you'd like to do? It'd still be dangerous." She looked at him, considering.

"Yes." He nodded, "I've always wanted to experience magic." He looked at her seriously, and she nodded and stood up.

"Alright, there's someone I need to talk to before you'd be allowed to do that." She turned on the spot and vanished for a moment before reappearing.

"I've done it! I got permission!" She exclaimed, surprising him.

"What, just like that?" He said, shocked. "You were barely gone a second!"

"Time is relative here," She said, waving her hand dismissively, "I've actually been gone awhile, but I figured you wouldn't like to wait."

"Oh, thanks for that I guess," He said, frowning, "What did you mean, permission? From who?"

"One of your Grandpa's old war buddies got promoted to upper brass, so we go to him if we have any favors we need done. He asked his boss about it and apparently they've been wanting to get rid of dementors for a while, but nobody has stepped up to the plate to deal with the problem. Dementors are an old accident that weren't supposed to exist in the first place. Nothing is supposed to be able to destroy a soul completely. Let's not even get started on Horcruxes. Both of those things are blasphemies against the natural order and both of those existing in the same place is definitely up for some serious intervention."

"Now are you sure you want to do this? If you say yes we need to send you off as soon as possible." She looked at him, smiling slightly. "I'm proud of you, you know? Whether or not you do this. This would be something really good that you could do to really help, but you don't need to do it at all. They'll find somebody else to do it if you don't."

His head was swimming with all of the information he'd just been given. But he was still pretty sure he wanted to do this, so he straightened his shoulders and nodded. His Grandmother seemed to slump over for a moment, but quickly straightened up again.

"Oh honey, you've always been the type to plunge straight ahead when there was something you wanted, I just wish it didn't put you in so much danger." She nodded her head. "Okay. Now there's a few choices you need to make. We'll be putting you in the body of someone who had their soul sucked out by a dementor. Would you like to be a boy or a girl?"

"Um," He said, "Boy would be nice, I don't want to have to get used to being a different gender."

"I figured you'd say that, but I was told to ask," She chuckled. "Now you can be an adult or a child, but the recommendation is to be a child Harry Potter's age. That way you'll be in a prime spot to get rid of the Horcruxes, and people won't be quite as suspicious if you start acting a little strange. Hormones, you know how it is."

He nodded. "A child would be better, I think. Would I be going to Hogwarts as well?" The idea intrigued him. Which in itself was odd. It was something he'd always desperately wanted, but the most emotion he could pull up was mild interest? Being a soul without a body was weird.

"Alright, here's the profiles of a few boys that match your parameters." She waved her hands and a few images appeared before him. He read the accompanying text and singled out one kid who's background profile most matched his own. William Nelson. Family of five, mum and dad, younger brother and sister. Happy childhood until the Dementor attack. The parents were muggles and the kids were all muggleborn wizards and a witch. The boy was 9 years old currently and had been in a 'coma' for about three months. They lived in Surrey, which held some possibilities. Maybe he could get the family to move to Little Whinging. If not, they didn't live too far away. He nodded and pointed to Will's picture.

"This one?" His Grandma smiled, "Alright, I'll get everything sorted out." She waved her hand and the other images vanished. She took a hold of Will's file as if it was a solid object and not a floating image and disappeared again. She was back a half second later, holding a glowing ball of light.

"We love you, you know?" She said, smiling, "I think you'll do really well. You've always been determined once you set your mind on something." Handing him the ball, she closed his hands over it. "Hopefully this will keep you safe. Upper brass told me it would help you out." She gave him a quick hug. "Don't worry about us. We'll have all the time in the world once you get back."

And suddenly he was falling. Looking upwards, he saw his Grandma waving to him, and suddenly another figure was there with his arm around her shoulder. The other figure, it must have been his Grandpa, started waving as well. He waved back and shouted "Don't worry about me! I'll be fine!" back towards them. He wasn't sure if they even heard him or not because as soon as he finished they vanished into white fog. The fog was all around him now, streaming past him as he fell backwards into nothingness.

In a sudden jolt he sat up in bed, his eyes flying open. He was alive.

So as you read in the summary, I'm open to talking to readers about things happening in the story. I have some stuff planned out but I'm also free-form writing this as well. Ideas are welcome, but don't be upset if I shoot some of them down, they might clash with some of the stuff I have planned. I'm open to gay relationships, canon characters and my OC as well. They'd have to make sense though, so Snarry is out.