Channeling Harry

Channelling Harry

1990

Somewhere deep underneath the train tracks that run between Manchester and London

"It's sealed with magic, we'll never get through," said Hermione, "not without our wands." She sat down on the dusty ground, looking mournful.

"Hey," said Ron, touching her gently on the shoulder, "We'll be alright."

Harry said nothing. He was still staring at the grey darkness that was the fallen rock.

"It's not fair!" he exploded suddenly.

Hermione and Ron said nothing. They knew it wasn't fair, but what could they do?

"He's supposed to give us the chance! He's supposed to fight us! I know we'd probably lose, but at least that way we'd be able to die trying."

"He may be a world famous villain, Harry, but he's just a coward. He knows you've beaten him before and he couldn't risk it happening again," said Hermione softly. Her eyes were starting to become accustomed to the darkness, and she could just make out the shadowy outlines of her two friends. But apart from them, there was nothing here, just dirt and rocks and more rocks, all around them. No way out.

"But it isn't meant to be this way! This isn't how the story goes!" Harry had furious tears in his voice.

"This isn't a story," said Ron.

"It might as well be!" Harry began to pace up and down the small space. "My whole life's been like something out of a bloody book! And this is just not the way the story ends. I'm supposed to be able to fight the evil, not just sit down in a cave and wait to die."

"Shh, Harry," said Hermione. "There's nothing we can do. Let's just hope somebody finds us before we die. We've been here a while, and we're alright so far, so there must at least be air coming in. We can survive for a few days and by that time someone will have come for us."

"I can't just wait!" he said.

"Nobody will know where to find us though - that was why he chased us for so long, nobody would expect us to be this far away from where we were last seen," said Ron dismally.

Hermione sighed.

"Well, I don't know then," she said, "maybe we should just sit down and die."

There was a crashing sound. Harry had begun to punch the wall of rock in front of him.

"You'll never get through," said Hermione, "I told you, he sealed it with magic as soon as we ran in, and he still has our wands. There's no way out of here, we'll just have to wait."

"I'm not trying to get out," said Harry through gritted teeth. "I'm just angry."

"Trelawny!" said Ron suddenly.

"What?" asked Hermione.

"Professor Trelawny!"

"Oh that old bat," said Hermione, "What about her?"

"Channelling!" said Ron excitedly. "Out there...people...channel...out there...Professor Trelawny...the people...hear us...know where we are!"

"What?" asked Hermione. Harry was still punching the rock face.

"We can channel someone out there, and then they'll know where we are!"

"That's just silly Ron, things like that aren't real."

"Well," said Ron, "it's pretty much all we've got."

"Ron's right," said Harry, turning round so abruptly that Hermione felt a cool breeze on her cheek. "It's not a great plan, because I agree with you, most of what Trelawny says is rubbish, but if one of us can make psychic contact with a real Seer out there, maybe we still have a chance of being rescued."

Hermione looked doubtful, and Harry and Ron both knew she would be looking doubtful, even though neither of them could see her properly in the dark.

"It's the only chance we have," said Harry. "Otherwise we can just sit here and wait to die."

*

1999,

A Barnes and Noble auditorium, somewhere in America

Joanne Rowling bent over the keyboard, typing frantically to answer the questions of small readers all over America. She was interested by their questions, some of them she heard all the time, but she diligently made her responses.

"Harry came fully formed out of my imagination..." she typed, remembering the mystification she had felt when he had turned up in her head, almost as though he wasn't from her imagination at all, but somewhere else entirely.

"Explaining where the story came from is always very difficult, because I don't really know. The idea came to me very suddenly on a train journey from Manchester to London in 1990..." she typed. It was hardly the most interesting aspect of Harry Potter's birth - most people were more interested in the image of her scribbling on napkins in coffee shops, too poor to pay for heating in her home - but to her, the sudden appearance of Harry on that train journey had been an epiphany.

*

2002,

Somewhere deep underneath the train tracks that run between Manchester and London

Age and wisdom descended slowly on the waiting three, in the cavern. As time had passed, they had found a small stream and a bitter yet edible moss, and somehow, from somewhere, oxygen continued to find itself into the cage of rock.

They were older, and getting older still every minute. The Dark Lord had found for his worst enemy, and the people unfortunate enough to love him, a destiny far more lingering than death or even torture. Hope.

Every few hours, one of them would get through to someone - there was that strange click in their minds when they engaged. But, since the mysterious "Jo," no one had heard them quite clearly enough to know the truth about their fate. And the newer, younger minds they found were even more convinced they were fictional, they even referred to these strange dreams they had as "fanfiction," a strange word which the trio found echoing around almost every mind they came into contact with these days.

They kept trying, of course. Hope still bloomed, in the darkness. But every day they became a little older, and sank a little deeper into the world of fiction.

*

2006,

Scotland

"...and there, imprisoned in the cavern, Harry simply sat, hoping to be found and gently rubbing his scar."

Joanne Rowling sighed. So it was all over. The books were written. There was nothing left to do.

And yet there remained with her a feeling of something unfinished...

~ The End ~

The quotes from JKR came from a Barnes and Noble Chat March 19, 1999, which you can read here:

http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.net/bnchat2.shtml