The Master of Death
by Ryuugi (Also available at FF.Net, albeit not fully up-to-date, under rgm0005) is a Harry Potter/The Dresden Files crossover fanfic.
After a long and fulfilling life, Harry Potter has died. However, "to the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure", as one Justin DuMorne is about to find out. While the other Harry finds his life irrevocably marked by this encounter, Potter soon finds himself trying to find out the truth of his own involvement with the Dresden universe, which involves the headaches of time travel.
The Master of Death provides examples of:
- Affably Evil: What everyone in the Dresdenverse thinks Potter is. He's genuinely good, though.
- Afterlife Express: What Potter rides around in. A pitch black steam locomotive that occasionally rides on rails made of lightning. It's also capable of flight, time travel, crossing universes, and a few other tricks.Dresden: Let's just say Death rides an Iron Horse.
- Anti-Villain: Potter is this in terms of the Dresdenverse. Rashid openly admits he has no problem with Potter, conceding that his intentions may even be benevolent, but still tells him to leave or else, on the grounds of what his entry to the Dresdenverse does to reality (specifically, cracks it).
- Black Cloak: Rashid's preferred outfit, which gets Potter concerned for good reason.
- Combat Pragmatist: Potter prefers to strike from surprise, remains invisible using the cloak constantly when in combat, Teleport Spams, uses Apparation to Tele-Frag people, steals foci, and generally just uses any and all methods to win fights as quickly as possible. He even admonishes himself when he gets overly dramatic and impractical when fighting Conand.
- Dark Is Not Evil: We know Ebenezar and Rashid aren't evil, but the amount of dark magic on them has Potter justifiably concerned. Ironically, they have a similar opinion of him (that he's not necessarily malicious, but still a threat).
- Did We Just Have Tea with Cthulhu?: Potter is being genuinely nice but pretty much everyone he encounters is scared shitless of him. To be fair, this is because he's an Outsider, who they all believe - with good reason - are evil Eldritch Abominations. Not to mention that he's Badass enough to warrant that fear, if only from the bad guys and is technically a Benevolent Abomination now even if he keeps his human mind and shape.
- Exact Words: When Harry is brought "outside existence", he's told nothing exists out there. After seeing all kinds of things there, it's clarified for him that "Lots of things don't exist."
- Expy: Potter, ironically enough, has become very like his old mentor, Dumbledore, in his old age, right down to speech patterns.
- Fallen Hero: Du Morne, specifically, though Potter notes he's encountered it before and it's one of the downsides of being a Legilimens - specifically, knowing that people used to be better before their fall.
- For Want Of A Nail: Without having to kill Justin himself, Ebenezar recognising and taking him in directly and having Elaine with him, Dresden is somewhat better adjusted and gets along better with SI, having opened up to Murphy about the White Council.
- Friendly Enemy: Rashid to Potter - or at least, Polite Enemy. He has nothing personal against Potter, conceding that his intentions may well be benevolent, but that the side-effects of his entry to the Dresdenverse make him a major threat. Potter, for his part, concedes the point, and remarks that he understands where Rashid is coming from.
- Gentleman Snarker: Potter.
- Hellfire: Fiendfyre, though not of hellish origin, fits this. It burns everything, even water, and is actually sentient to some extent, though Potter mentions its "mind" is extremely alien.
- Humanoid Abomination: Potter due to crossing the universes - he lost his body on the way, and the one he picks up has... not exactly a mind, but an awareness and resists being transfigured.
- Kill It with Fire: Fiendfyre. Potter is far more skilled than Vincent Crabbe ever was. He lights the sea on fire.
- Last-Second Chance: Potter offers one to Justin and the vampires and is obviously refused.
- Lethal Harmless Powers: Potter kills a few vampires by Vanishing their heads, and uses deliberate Splinching to kill Justin DuMorne and several other vampires.
- Lethal Joke Character: Potter has a preference for "schoolyard jinxes". Others in his own universe found it weird, but as he notes, they can still stop a dark wizard without needing to resort to Unforgivables.
- Necessarily Evil: Rashid's view on the White Council's enforcement of the Laws, and of the Black Staff.
- Oh, Crap!: The general reaction to Potter's presence, what with him being 'the Master of Death'.
- Old Master: Potter himself. Well over a hundred years as head of the Aurors, with an unspecified amount of time actually climbing the ranks, by the time he died and fighting dark wizards all the way makes you pretty sharp. Not foolproof, though.
- Outside-Context Problem: Outsiders are this by definition, but without even going into Potter's specific powers, spells that the Potterverse take for granted like transfiguration are unknown to the Dresdenverse.
- Portal Cut: Potter uses splinching offensively.
- Rank Scales with Asskicking: Potter was head of the Aurors.
- Self-Disposing Villain: Both Justin and Victor Sells make the mistake of summoning the Master of Death and getting Potter, who most disapproves of their actions. This is generally noted to be a result of summoning the Master of Death (i.e. Potter), who usually ends up killing his summoner/leaving them for the White Council to deal with when they turn up to deal with him.
- Shout-Out: "You see, over my long life, I have seen many strange and wondrous things. However... I must admit, I’ve never met anyone who wasn’t important."
- Shrouded in Myth: The Master of Death.
- Starfish Aliens: Potter's human form is a transfiguration, beneath it he's some kind of monstrous bug thing. We never really get a full description, but we know the other creature with him has an eye that doubles as a mouth for starters. Little wonder people believe him to be an Eldritch Abomination.
- The Shadow Knows: Despite transfiguring his body, Potter's shadow shows his real shape. Bob pulls a horrified Double Take when he sees it.
- Timey-Wimey Ball: Potter gets smacked with it and no one in-story will stop talking about it. For example, he has somehow met Mab.
- Tranquil Fury: Potter a whole lot.
