The Silent Specter of Hogwarts

Chapter Five: A Journey of the Mind

“How exactly are we supposed to stay awake like this?” Ron grumbled as he lay prone on his mat at Professor Wright’s class.

Hermione shushed him from the next mat over, but Harry had to agree that the lure of sleep was calling to him too. Professor Wright was quietly talking to the class, lulling them into the relaxed state they presumably needed to successfully accomplish an out-of-body experience.

“Ignore the world around you and focus,” Wright instructed. “Nothing exists except your will and the limitless possibilities of life beyond the physical world. Allow yourself to drift into weightlessness, resist the body’s urge to jerk you back into itself.”

Harry obligingly closed his eyes and tried to ignore Ron’s huff of impatience. Seamus was already breathing heavily enough to denote deep sleep and he heard Professor Wright shake his classmate.

“Finnegan, Weasley…no snoring if you please.”

Harry peeked at the people around him. Hermione had her eyes scrunched up in concentration. Lavender and Parvatiwere struggling against their incessant giggles. Neville was staring straight up to the ceiling, where they had been instructed to hover in their astral forms. Justin Finch-Fletchley was near to drooling as his head lolled to the right. Harry bit his lip and closed his eyes again, trying vainly not to laugh. He was certain that none of Dudley’s classes encourage him to nod off so comfortably.

“Longbottom, do try to close your eyes and relax,” Professor Wright encouraged gently.

Heaving a great sigh, Harry tried again to focus. The room eventually grew quiet, the silence unbroken by snores, giggles, or Professor Wright’s voice. Harry’s breathing regulated and he felt a strange languor invade his limbs, as if he was floating on water. He could feel himself swaying and lifting, although he knew he was flat on the ground, and felt a gentle pop as he lifted up and began to drift.

It was peaceful really, this drifting. Harry opened his eyes and could feel only a mild surprise as he looked down at his own body lying quietly on the mat below him. Hermione still had that determined look of concentration, evident in the way her hands flexed and bunched. Ron was surreptitiously scratching his ribs. Parvati and Dean seemed similarly relaxed as he was but he looked about him and could not see them against the ceiling where he drifted.

“Harry…”

He heard his name whispered and knew he should be scared, but there was a strange detachment to what he was watching, as if it weren’t his own body lying on the floor below. Professor Wright was bending over his body now, pressing two fingers against his neck for a minute before turning his head up to the ceiling with a small smile.  Watching Professor Wright scan the ceiling, Harry realized that he couldn’t be seen. And yet he was there…he existed. Both on the ceiling and on the floor.

“Harry…”

The whisper came again, unbidden, and Harry felt pulled toward the door of the classroom.

“Where are you?” He answered, though no sound emanated to disturb the silence below.

He felt a powerful tug, as if he were holding a Portkey, and began to zoom across the room. Instinctively, he threw his arms over his head as he passed through the door but felt nothing as the passed through it. Doorways, pillars, and staircases flew past him in a dizzying blur. Mrs. Norris hissed at him as he careened and twisted through Hogwarts. He was lost, the hallways speeding too fast for him to make sense of where he was going.

He only slowed when the hallways darkened around him. He suddenly realized he was on the forbidden third floor. Under his own power again, he drifted forward, startled when the torches around him blazed into life as he passed.

“Harry…”

The whisper was louder now, just ahead. He turned a corner and found himself in a well kept room. The drapes were heavy velvet and drawn against any invading sunlight. It was a bedroom, clean and obviously well tended. And on the bed, a figure lay under the covers, pale and waxen, raven hair spread over a soft pillow. Female…familiar somehow. Harry drew closer for another look.

“HARRY!”

This voice was different. Urgent. Insistent. The force of the call dragged him back when he would have moved forward.

“HARRY! HARRY! HARRY!” There were more voices now. A chorus of sound that yanked him backward.

Again there was that dizzying plunge through the castle corridors. This time unwilling, Harry was violently pulled until he felt himself thrust down, his arms shaken, heard the cacophony of voices around him, and took a deep, desperate gasp of air.

Dizzy and hyperventilating, Harry blearily opened his eyes, raising a hand to shield them from the shock of sunlight that filtered between the faces crowded above him.

“Did I fall asleep, then?” Harry asked weakly and unconvincingly. He caught Professor Wright’s eye and saw the man raise an eyebrow in question.

“Step back, give him some room,” Professor Wright said, as he placed a strong arm under Harry and lifted him to a sitting position. “The dizziness will pass, Potter. Catch your breath and take your time.”

Harry tucked his head between his knees and sighed several times. Eventually his head stopped spinning and he looked up, right into Hermione’s worried gaze and Ron’s frankly amazed expression. The other students stood a little further back, around Dean and Parvatiwho were calmly explaining their own experiences.  The bell rang and everyone filed out reluctantly, still casting curious looks at Harry over their shoulders. Only Ron and Hermione remained with him as he gathered the strength to pull himself off the floor.

“Where did you go Harry?” Professor Wright asked quietly. “You were supposed to stay in this room.”

Harry met the professor’s stare without flinching but could only shrug and shake his head. Wherever he had gone and for whatever reason, he couldn’t talk about it. He needed to think.

“Professor?” Hermione called just as quietly. “The lunch bell has rung. Perhaps Harry needs a bite to eat before afternoon classes.”

Professor Wright stared at Harry for a moment longer and nodded. He clapped a hand on Harry’s shoulders and let them go with a low warning. “Don’t experiment with this on your own, Potter. You have the potential, but not the control.”

Harry wearily hefted his bag to his shoulder and trudged out of the room, conscious of Ron and Hermione behind him and their expectations of a full explanation.

“So did you really do it?” Ron asked as Hermione filled their glasses with pumpkin juice.

“I guess.”

“What’s it like? Where’d you go?” Hermione pressed.

“Leave him be,” Parvati’s voice cut in from a few seats down. Harry was non-plussed by the sympathetic look she sent him. “He’ll tell you when he’s ready.”

Ron was glaring daggers at Parvati, but Harry was grateful for the reprieve.

“Later,” he whispered to his friends. “I need a little time to make sense of what happened.”  Thankfully, they accepted his quiet request.

As they tramped out the Great Hall for their afternoon classes, he felt Parvati slip close to his side and whisper, “Harry, you’re much braver than I am. But if it helps any, I’ve never been so frightened in my entire life.”