Chapter Text
The world has three realms, and the average human population refers to two of the three as Heaven and Hell. These realms are where the souls of those who passed over stay in correspondence with their actions when they were living. As the world ages and more souls populate the three realms, an authority system forms to regulate the flow in the function of the realms, keeping the natural flow in course. Like the human world, the “Heaven” also has different authority figures in charge of their respective area, in this story’s case, their country. These figures are known as Grim Reapers in England, and in Japan, as Soul Reapers.
Grim Reapers are a dutiful bunch despite having a variety of exciting personas within the group. No matter which country they are responsible for, they rarely interfere with the affairs of the living. They must collect souls and direct them into their respective realms to pass on, nothing more. However, once in a blue moon, there will always be a bored individual that has grown tired of these tedious chores of reading through unoriginal sob stories and passing them on. A colorful Grim Reaper had once interfered in mortal affairs by encouraging their murderous act that spiraled into one of the country’s most famous serial murder cases. In Japan, it’s no better: one of their most influential figures began their plan to become the realm’s sole king.
However, that’s not to say that the mortals are free of trouble. While the Heaven realm was undoubtedly busy, the human domain was equally active. Just as Japan has gained an opposing force, the mortals also have opposing groups. Humans are fragile, with nothing special born to them; a Soul or Grim Reaper with a single swing of an arm can quickly kill them if not because they are responsible for guiding their souls to the afterlife. However, among humans, there are witches and wizards, who can do far more than an average human, and due to this, they isolate themselves from the humans. Their spells can range from convenient to deadly under specific chants and movements of arms or wands. Many powerful witches and wizards were born and made history, but among those powerful beings, there is one that stood out. His name was Tom Marvolo Riddle. Tom Riddle despised the humans, who the wizards refer to as muggles, and gathered wizards and witches together and declared war on those who protect the muggles and muggle-born wizards and witches. This event was called the First Wizarding War. In the end, Tom Riddle, who renamed himself, Lord Voldemort, was defeated by a mere infant. As hard to believe as it was, no one seemed to care as the victors celebrated in joy.
While the folks became overjoyed and brashly revealed themselves to the muggles, a man with neatly combed hair, wearing a black tuxedo suit with glasses, rushed to where the rumored infant defeated Voldemort. He is William T. Spears, a dutiful Grim Reaper who came to collect Voldemort’s soul. Not bothering with the utter chaos within the house with emotional wizards and a crying baby, William concealed his presence and searched for the soul. Much in oddity, he can only find a minor fracture of the soul, which had fused itself inside the crying baby. Souls are somewhat malleable; if one were to break their souls into pieces, they could recover as long as the parts are still present. With such a potent wizard in the wizarding world, being able to cut their souls into fragments is no surprise to these Grim Reapers; it’s not their business to interfere in what they do to their bodies and souls. But if they were to do this to escape death, it would disrupt the life and death cycle. It is a relatively tricky situation for William; he can’t use his Death Scythe to extract the soul fragment as it would kill the baby. So what can he do?
It was at this moment that two odd figures entered the room. The first figure is a tall elder, who is by far the oldest wizard William has seen in his life. Granted, he does not interact with wizards much, and this figure may not be the most senior wizard. Following behind him is a giant man twice the size of William and probably five times as wide. The elder held the baby for a while before he handed him to the big man and instructed him to take him away; then, he proceeded to stare at William, much to William’s surprise, “Hello there, Mr. Grim Reaper. How fortunate of you not to reap the soul of a newborn.”
“Good evening, mister. Might I ask, why is it that you can see me?”
“Hmm, frankly, I’m not sure either. But I am one of the few wizards that know of your group’s existence,”
“That is fine if you keep the amount at a few. And excuse me for another question. Do you wizards, by chance, have a spell that splits one’s soul into fragments?”
Hearing this, the elder frowned, “My goodness. We would have a massive problem if I understood your question correctly.”
“I believe we do, and I’m afraid we Grim Reapers are not well-equipped for such a situation. Right as I arrived, I only found a small fragment of the soul of Tom Riddle, but the soul had fused itself with the child. If I attempt to take that piece, I will kill the child.”
“If that’s the case, then it’s not the time to celebrate on our part.”
“Oh no, I think you all still have an adequate reason to celebrate. Since souls are surprisingly malleable, one can stitch the pieces back together. But since the last piece is within a child. The process of Tom Riddle’s resurrection may have extended, thanks to you wizards finding the child first. As long as you hide the boy and closely observe him, then there should be no harm to him that can reach him.”
“How can you be sure I am not one of Tom Riddle’s supporters?”
“You said so yourself that you know of us Grim Reapers. Then you should also know that we know the actions of every living being. Be it magical creatures like dragons, unicorns, wizards, or regular humans.”
Another moment of silence passed as the elder put on a thinking expression, “Since this is trouble for both of our groups, why don’t we cooperate to overcome it? My name is Albus Dumbledore, but I’m sure you knew already.”
“My name is William T. Spears. The suggestion is appreciated, but it doesn’t exactly solve my part of the problem. The most we can do is keep the boy safe and prevent the resurrection of Tom Riddle. But my job is to collect his soul to complete his cycle of life and death; preventing his resurrection is technically against what I need to do.”
“That truly is a pickle….”
Both men stood in silence as both tried to think of a way for William to be able to collect Voldemort’s soul. Even a powerful wizard like Dumbledore, who Voldemort also feared, can not be sure of a way for them to remove Voldemort’s soul safely from the boy without killing him. Not to mention, wizards had always been coming up with ways to avoid death, so naturally, there wouldn’t be spells that would contradict a resurrection or immortality spell. Just as Dumbledore was pondering a method to solve the problem, a specific group of people came into William’s mind, “I might have the right group of people to help us.”