Harry Potter and the Cyberpunk Nightmare

Chapter Four. The outcasted.

"We're the ones outcast, the ones hunted, the ones all kids and little old ladies out on the street can get a truckload of money for giving in, y'know," Krad said merrily.

"Yeah, but when the crisis comes, they beg us to help, as always," Moore replied, "And even worse - we do help," he added quietly.

- Ivan_K, "War of the Gods".

Harry felt the memories of his virtual self crawl into his brain. Ron's anger with Harry and Hermione being close, Draco's offer of Ron joining him, Ron accepting that offer, Hermione seeking consolation in Harry, and them having sex... That wasn't the past, that was now.

"How are you?" he asked of her, trying not to look at the trembling girl (or, as he thought to be more correct now, a young woman) that had her other self give her virginity to his other self. That wasn't a thing either of them experienced every day, both the virginity issue and the identity crisis.

"I was just wrested from a world of lies into a world of treachery. How would you feel?" she spat in reply as she shivered at the coldness of the night air. The month that passed here while they were outside was quite eventful.

Ron joined that Young Death Eater club Malfoy and his goons ran, and Lavender went as well by his side. His mother disappeared, while Ginny was dating Dean, and that, when added to the sight of Hermione with Harry, must've cooked the poor bloke's brains (as everyone thought). Meanwhile, Dumbledore disappeared and several students were showing signs of amnesia ("Jacked in and out, I presume," Harry concluded, "Or got their memory altered when they disagreed...").

Hermione-of-this-world was growing restless with all that happening, she sought comfort in Harry and one fine day she offered herself to him, no obvious reason or anything. Well, he agreed, though Harry-that-went-outside did not quite understand why. Probably neither did Harry-from-within.

"Er... will... it... be there when we get out?" she asked timidly. Harry racked his brain for a second or two, first trying to understand what she meant and then trying to think of a less rude way to break it to her.

"Armitage said that this'll be a full reinsertion, so when... if... you get out... Your virginity will be as gone as it is here."

"Alright... Will Ron be here if you... really... killed him out there?"

"I don't know. Most probably, yes," Harry replied earnestly. She stood up and went to the window. They were in the room that she had all to herself as the Head Girl, and therefore had no chance of being... caught in the act. Especially since the act was long over by now. His eyes turned to her naked body for a moment as she looked outside, the pale moonlight turning her skin an eerie blue colour, but he looked away, since Harry-that-was-outside never got a permission to, but Hermione, whatever of the two was here now, didn't seem to care much.

He got up, dressed himself and threw one final look at her.

"If you need me..." he started, but his breath cut off as she turned to look at him. Her face was one of sorrow, a face of a child that just faced the truth of death and still did not believe it.

"...I don't think I will need anybody very soon, Harry. There's a war outside, and we... we practically ran from it."

"And what do you suggest? Stay outside and kill more people we know for some obscure vendetta between two companies you never heard of? Is that a saner path?" he protested.

"I don't know, Harry... I think that I don't know anything now..." she replied weakly before dropping onto the bed, unconscious.

*****

The next few days went past him in a blur. Hermione caught a cold, despite the fact that it still was mid-April, Ron was alive here, but acted like he was surely becoming a person that detested anything that had to do with "that Harry-sodding-git-Potter" as he put it himself.

Meanwhile, he was still trying to prepare for the N.E.W.T.s and keep the Quidditch team on the fly. This was not, however, and easy job, for Ron, as the team Keeper, was not very eager to work together with Harry.

One way or the other, he managed to keep the fact that he shot Ron and Malfoy when he was outside, although checking if those were their copies or the originals he did not dare.

*****

Life seemed to resume its previous (relatively) sane flow as the memories of the events outside withered from his mind slowly, making him doubt if all that happened in reality, but the haunted looks Hermione gave him since that night always told him the right answer to that. They seemed to be drifting apart after that event, as if Hermione-that-went-outside was the missing link that let Hermione-from-within give herself to Harry-from-within. About a month (inside-time) later, Harry had a mysterious owl.

"Alright, Scar-face," it said, "Want to get back at those who run the Matrix? Meet me at the entrance to the Ravenclaw dorms at one AM, we have to talk."

Harry shrugged, told himself that if he won't come he might miss something that could make his currently boring and depressing life a bit more upbeat (though on the other hand it might just mean that he'd get into more trouble that he already was in). So, needless to say, he was at the specified place at the specified time, the Invisibility Cloak readied and his wand firmly grasped in his hand...

*****

"I thought you wouldn't come."

"Hello, Malfoy. I wondered who they would send."

"What are you talking about, Potter? The OSI fried your brain?"

"The OSI lied to me as much as the MNS probably lie to you, Malfoy. We could make it better if we wouldn't've trusted anyone outside."

"Says who? It was a very painful operation to remove all those bullets from me, and I hate your guts so much I'd gladly--"

"Then do it!" Harry growled, "Let's see who's got the better chances of survival. But remember that those were my bullets they took out of you, and that means something, right?"

"Only that you have an inhuman supply of luck. But even that tends to run out at some point."

"Wanna try?"

They were standing in front of each other, so different, yet so alike, the two thin Seekers of the respective Houses, hating each other with a passion and ready to kick each other's head in...

"Stop it! Get yourselves a better place to fight than the hallway!" a voice said, interrupting their exchange of insults.

"Says who?" Malfoy asked, turning his head.

"Says I," Ginny replied, her wand pointed at him, "Get away from Harry, you MNS bastard!"

"Oh, goody, another OSI fanatic!" Draco exclaimed cheerfully, "I thought he was shagging Granger, not you... Or you as well?"

"Shut up! It's enough that you got my brother onto the side of the MNS!" she spat in reply as she grabbed Harry by his forearm and tugged him away.

"Running won't help!" were the last words they heard of Draco Malfoy today as they turned round a corner.

*****

"What all that was supposed to mean, Ginny? Are you in the league with the OSI too?" Harry asked grimly when they finally stopped in the Gryffindor Common Room.

"No, you bloody git, I'm with the Freelancers," she replied as she showed him a tattoo that was an intricately shaped acronym - F.L.A. - on her shoulder. He tried not to stare at the shoulder too long, but focus on the tattoo.

"FLA?" he asked with a stupid expression on his face.

"Free Lancer's Alliance," she replied, "My brothers - well, most of my brothers - are in it, and that's where you have to be."

"Why?" he asked simply and stubbornly.

"Because... Harry, we aren't doing this for any of those unpronouncibly named companies... we're doing it for the people, Harry, for people like you and me..."

"I thought you were with Dean..." he protested weakly as she tried to kiss him.

"I am with Dean... But Harry, can't you see that... we need you!"

"You as in you personally, or you as in the FLA?"

"Bot-- er-- well, both..." she replied quietly as she blushed and lowered her eyes.

"I see... I will join you, as in the FLA, but only on one condition."

"What is it?" she asked eagerly, her eyes shining with enthusiasm.

"Hermione goes with me," Harry said sternly, making Ginny's spark of enthusiasm go out completely.

"Fine," she said as she shook her head, as if trying to get some thought out of her mind, "Find me and Dean in the morning, we'll talk it all over."

Having said this, she went up the stairs, and each her movement clearly said that she was very disappointed with Harry's single condition.

*****

"We are getting the next pack of people who support us tomorrow night," Dean said, "At that very point there will be a small rip opening for a short while in one of the classrooms. I will tell you which one it is when we are in a safer place," he added as he saw Malfoy, Ron and several of other confirmed MNS people coming their way.

"Having fun, OSI people?" Draco drawled while the rest of his 'team' made faces.

"Children that play with guns as toys, right?" Harry asked of them, "I knew your faces are familiar!"

"As if you're not the guy who put a bullet through my heart, Potter!" Ron snapped angrily.

"You're alive, aren't you? Then what are you complaining about? In this world, you can't prove anything!" Harry replied with a forced grin, but Ron didn't seem to notice that his former friend wasn't really laughing about this.

"You'll get yours, Golden Boy, you know!" he spat back before their procession finally left Harry's hearing range.

"Alright. What else besides your raging brother is a threat that can stop me?" Harry asked as he turned to Ginny. Hermione, who was silent until this point, hmpf-ed loudly at this, earning a reproachful look from Harry.

"Hey, we're going back out, to stop this all, so either kill me on the spot or stop acting as if I killed Ron and Malfoy back then in the alley," Harry told her in a calming voice, "This was not my fault, or anyone else's for that matter. At least no-one we care about," he added thoughtfully.

"Alright..." she replied weakly as she took the hand he offered her as he helped her up from the bench and they hurried off to their next lesson.

*****

They were sitting in the Gryffindor Common Room, using the best cover-up there was - Seamus' attempts of becoming a common semi-Muggle resulted in their having a pack of Philip K. Dick's books at hand, and their discussion of the cyber-punk stuff was not really out-of-common, since aside from them (who they had no reason to hide from) and Ron (who was off with Malfoy and his goons), no-one from Gryffindor was involved in the outside events. Yet.

So, Seamus (who also was just joining the FLA as it turned out), Hermione, Harry, Dean and Ginny were sitting here, talking commonly.

"I don't get one thing. Why use students?" Seamus asked.

"Simple - we aren't yet filled with the prejudices that most people call 'common sense', so we can easily be used," Hermione explained. That FLA offer seemed to have given her back her usual self, and she was back to being Harry's girlfriend, although they did not go farther then holding hands, not even kiss.

"Oh, right," Seamus replied, looking as if he had understood the entire message, despite the fact that the tone with which she said that left him feeling a bit unsure of Hermione's own feelings towards such a method.

"Alright Dean, since you act the spokesperson here..." Harry started, "... maybe you could tell us what exactly the FLA wants?"

"Well, in short, getting all the people out. While the OSI and MNS just want to get lots of cannon fodder that can be taught how to kill with magic, so the choice for those of us who are informed enough is obvious."

"Alright. Who's in there? Of the people we know, that is," Hermione asked, trying to sound casual so that the uninformed ones around them would not suspect anything... Well, suspect much at least.

"Bill, Charlie, Fred and George, Ginny, me, then there are Padma Patil (Parvati refused to join anyone, so she got memory-wiped), Terry Boot and Justin," Dean said, "And Hannah seems to be leaning towards us as well."

"So that makes twelve people on the luckiest outcome, right?" Seamus asked.

"Thirteen, you did not count yourself," Hermione corrected, "And that's it? Only students?"

"Well, there are several adults from the wizarding world as well - if you remember how long ago the Weasley brothers graduated," Dean replied, nodding in Ginny's general direction.

"Oh, right. I seemed to have forgotten about that," Hermione replied with a slight blush on her face.

"One way or the other, there is no way we can outsmart or outscore the OSI and the MNS, right?" Harry asked, playing the one who ruins all hope once again, "Unless we want them dying from laughs."

"Well, there is one other way. We might try and get into the system that holds the matrix construct together, if we properly kill it off, it will simply eject all those jacked in," Dean said.

"Some nice way to make a huge lot of people lose their minds at once - ruin the world they lived in," Seamus said, "Wouldn't it be nicer if those people-" he nodded at the crowd behind him, "-had a choice about being jacked out or not?"

"Oh right, and how would we convince them that we're not some pack of insane maniacs, and that the outside really exists?" Ginny asked, flaring up suddenly. Some people shot her glances of the 'be silent or be hurt' type so she, shrugging and muttering "Political discussion" in an excusing voice, sat back down.

"Great, now they'll think we're discussing the Iron Curtain or something like that..." Hermione muttered.

"The what?" Ginny, Seamus and Dean all asked at once.

"Honestly people, don't you read Muggle history books? It's from the Soviet History, when the USSR sealed itself away from the rest of the world..." she started explaining, but they did not seem to be paying much attention as Ron and Lavender marched into the room, the looks of "The rulers of the world are in the house" on their faces.

"Bad company..." Harry muttered under his breath.

Despite his bad feeling about this, both marched past the little group of their enemies-from-the-outside-world as if not noticing anyone of them.

"I wonder what are they up to..." Harry muttered, "First they brainwash Ron so he thinks I stole Hermione and Ginny from him, then they convince him of the necessity of my death so hard he even words hand-in-hand with Malfoy... What is this world coming to? What is the outside world coming to, for that matter?" he added angrily.

"Harry, it seems that since the war out there is going hard, it's that who has the more capable wizards in their ranks wins, and that means that for all the others, your death would be a blessing, can't you understand?" Hermione said slowly and quietly.

"I can, I just can't understand why they had to make my best friend do it."

*****

"Tomorrow night" came as suddenly as the end of world happens in every bad Hollywood movie - when everyone least expected it. Harry comforted himself with the thought of leaving his virtual self here to do more stupid things to Hermione's virtual self. One way or the other, he had a very, very, very bad feeling about leaving this world again. Especially since he was doing it out of his own volition this time.

They gathered up in the classroom chosen for this extraction operation, as Dean dubbed it, the room prepared to fool their VR-selves into believing they came here just to play cards for money. After all, who could blame a pack of 17-year-olds for gambling?

"Alright, when the green light pops up, touch it one by one. Be quick about it so our other selves would only see our other selves!" Dean instructed them as he turned towards the green light that had grown to the size of a decent bathroom mirror now. One by one they came up to it, touching the green surface and seemingly freezing in place. So, when their turn came, did Harry and Hermione, once again being drawn into the vortex of colours and sounds as their minds were detached from the matrix once again...

*****

...waking up into the world of outside, as they referred to it in their heads now. Harry looked around himself, his eyes slowly accustoming to the darkness of the room he was in and noticed the twelve other beds besides his, each of them rigged up to a computer of sorts, monitoring their biostats. Several people dressed in white robes of some sort (although definitely not the wizard sort, Harry noticed) were running back and forth between the beds and computers, checking if everything is okay and online. Much to Harry's happiness, some of them had the all-too-familiar Weasley red hair.

"Hey Harry! Stay where you are, we'll get to you right in a moment or two!" Bill Weasley told him as he passed Harry's bed on his way over to his sister's. Harry could not help but look at Ginny's pale face as she, too, woke up from this cybernetic sleep. He saw her talk to her brother about something, but they were a bit too far from him to hear anything of it. Finally, Bill came over to his side.

"So, feeling bright and shiny?" Bill asked, "The effects of disconnection should wear off any moment and the weakness will kick in."

"Not likely. This is my second disconnection," Harry replied with a shake of his head.

"Oh yeah, the OSI business... Alright, if you feel up for it then you can get up and get dressed - the pack here--" here Bill tapped a pack lying on a small table next to Harry's bed, "--has all you might need for now. Now excuse me as I go and save Dean from his cardiac arrest," he added with a grin as he ran off towards the just-woken-up Dean.

"Here we go again..." Harry muttered to himself as he tore the pack open, revealing a set of all-black jeans and shirt...