Harry Potter and the Dark Lord of the Sith

Chapter 45.

Am I dead? Harry thought.

He was suddenly aware again... as if he woke up. But there was nothing but bright light around him... and then everything resolved.

He was standing on the Hogwarts Quidditch field.

"Hello, Harry," a familiar voice said.

"Professor Dumbledore!" he gasped. "How?"

"One with the Force, we are," a new voice said.

"Master Yoda? You're dead?"

The old Jedi Master nodded, but there was no indication of sadness.

"And I... am I dead too?"

"Yes and no," Dumbledore said. "It all depends on your definition of dead."

"I don't understand."

"What's the last thing you remember?"

"I was hanging on that platform... I couldn't see or hear very clearly, but I did make out Voldemort's words. He cast the killing curse. Then... nothing, until now."

"What a Jedi trance is, remember, do you?" Yoda asked.

"You told us... but there was no time to teach us how to do it..."

"To go into trance voluntarily, need training you do. But in moments of peril, the body can act by itself."

"Is that what happened?"

"I think so," Dumbledore said. "Do you remember letting go of the platform?"

"No."

"You did. Right before Voldemort's spell hit."

"Why is that significant?"

"You weren't hit directly, Harry. Avada Kedavra is not a curse that is easily controlled... A direct hit will kill... but a glancing blow... very few cases are known... and they are all different."

"But if I let go... I should have fallen and my body should have smashed."

"Your friend Ron was there. He caught your body."

"Ron? He was just in time?"

"Yes."

"Some coincidence."

"Coincidence it is not," Yoda said. "Will of the Force, it is."

"I guess so. Where am I now?"

"With the Rebel fleet, your body is."

"My body. And..."

"Your spirit?" Dumbledore asked, smiling. "It is right here."

"It separated?"

"That's how trances work."

"So... can I get back?"

"Impossible, that is not."

"How? And what do I do from there?"

"You do what you were always meant to do," Dumbledore said. "Face Voldemort. And defeat him. And as for getting back... that is a more complicated part."

"When into a trance, a Jedi goes, a partner he takes. If no one is available, an external signal he sets up--when signal is given, the trance ends."

"Some sort of external connection is made, and that allows the spirit to return to the body," Dumbledore explained.

"But in my case... It's permanent. There is no connection."

"So one has to be made."

"How?"

"That's the problem. It has to be done by someone in the physical world. Someone has to attempt making contact with your mind."

"And?"

"And if the attempt is successful, you will return. But making that connection is not easy. You can't communicate with the physical world right now, so the person has to have a reason to try. Your body, after all, appears dead. And even if they try, the separation sets up a barrier, which is difficult to break. Your best chance is someone with whom you share a strong emotional bond."

"Love?"

"Love," a new voice said.

Two more figures appeared next to them. An old man in a brown robe: Obi-Wan Kenobi, except here, he appeared solid and not transparent. And next to him...

"Ginny! How did you get here?"

"Harry! You..."

"Ginny." He moved towards her. "You're not..."

"Dead? No. Obi-Wan here has been giving us advice and directions for some time... He told me to use Legilemency on you... There was a lot of passive resistance... But I got through, Harry." Ginny took his hand. "Harry, come back... I love you."

"Ginny..."

"It appears," Dumbledore said, "that you found what your were looking for. You can come back."

"Professor... Master... am I supposed to fight Voldemort alone?"

"Have you learned nothing?" Yoda demanded sternly.

"Of course," Harry remembered. Work together, you must.

"But... I didn't finish my training." He looked at Yoda apologetically.

Yoda sighed. "Told Skywalker, I did, no more training did he require. Nor do you."

"That after all that you were put through, you still didn't succumb to hatred--that is a strength Voldemort will never have."

"But... he can't be killed until the last Horcrux is destroyed." Harry thought over the seven parts of Voldemort's soul. The diary and the ring had been destroyed before Dumbledore died. Slytherin's locket was found hidden by Kreacher in the Black mansion, already destroyed. Hufflepuff's cup was in the Ministry vaults, and Harry and Mr. Weasley destroyed it before his seventh year began. The snake was killed at Hogwarts on Halloween. But in all his searches, Harry was unable to locate the last Horcrux. He was as clueless as he had been when he first found out about the Horcruxes.

"Harry," Dumbledore said, "do you believe Voldemort having a split soul makes him stronger?"

Harry blinked. "Doesn't it? You can't just kill him!"

"Believes that, Voldemort does," Yoda said. "Right he is, do you think?"

"What you're forgetting, Harry, is that Voldemort committed an unnatural act--that's what splitting the soul is. That can create problems. The chief of which," he gave Harry a careful look, "is the possibility of destroying both parts of the soul by turning them on each other."

Harry didn't quite understand, but he sensed that Dumbledore didn't know more than he said.

"What about the Emperor?"

"Ahh... met him, you did."

"Yes... I tried to fight him. I wasn't powerful enough."

"Captured by the dark side, you were at the time. Convert you, he tried?"

"Yes."

"But resisted you have. Resist you can again. Aware of his power you are now."

"But why? What does the Emperor want with me?"

"Do you remember how I told you that Lord Voldemort does not have friends?"

"Yes. But what does that have to--"

"How do you define a friend, Harry?"

Harry realized he never really considered a definition. His friends were... well, friends. How did one define a concept like friendship? It was easier to say what friendship wasn't...

"I guess... someone I can trust. Someone who will never turn on me. Someone whom I can let stand behind me with a weapon because I know that no matter what they are offered for going against me, they will not do it." He realized as he spoke that that definition included Ron, and Hermione, and Ginny, and Neville, and Luke, and everyone else he would consider a friend. "But I still don't--"

"Think carefully. Does the Emperor have anyone who fits that definition?"

"No."

"Does Vader?"

"No."

"Trust, you said," Yoda told him. "Trust each other, the Sith do not. Destroys trust, the dark side does."

Harry looked around him. Obi-Wan seemed very uncomfortable when Yoda said that. Harry wanted to ask him, but there was no time.

"You can be part of a team, Harry. Voldemort can't. Good luck."

"Harder task, before Skywalker is," Yoda noted.

"Why is that?"

"Tell you, he will... when he is ready. Remember, a Jedi's strength flows from the Force... but beware of the dark side. Anger, fear, aggression--the dark side of the Force are they."

"I know."

"Then," Dumbledore said, "neither of us can teach you anything more. It is up to you."

Harry lowered his head. "You're not alone Harry. You never were."

"May the Force be with you," Yoda said. Then both he and Dumbledore vanished.

"Well, Harry? Are you coming? Or is being dead so much fun?"

"Of course I'm coming, Ginny." With that took Ginny in his arms and kissed her.

And he awoke inside his body, lying on the bed and being kissed by the real Ginny.

XXX

"Not easy to believe," Ron said. "But then, the evidence is right in front of me." "So what's happening now?" Harry asked.

"The Empire has been building another Death Star," Hermione told him. "We're going to attack it."

"So it's back to flying X-wings for us?"

"I'll be flying," Hermione said. "Ron will be part of the commando team we're sending ahead."

"I'm coming with you," Harry said.

"So will I," said Ginny.

"No."

"What?"

"No," Ron repeated. "You're not going with us. It's too dangerous."

"No, she should come," Harry said.

"Harry! You just nearly died yourself and you want Ginny to risk her life like that? She should stay here, where it's--"

"Safe?" Harry's gaze bore into his friend. "Is it?" Ron thought for some time.

"I know it's dangerous," Ginny protested. "Why won't you let me make my own decisions?"

"Ron, this fleet is going into battle. All of it. There is no safe place. I'd rather have Ginny come with us, where we can protect each other."

Ron tried again. "The commanders won't let you." Luke, who'd left to talk to Han after Harry finished his story, stepped in.

"Actually, they--or rather, Han--will."

"No way!"

Harry laughed. "You've been outvoted, Ron. Deal with it. Who knows, you might end up grateful."

"I doubt it," Ron resigned himself.

"My overprotective brother." Ginny shook her head, forcing Harry, Jan, and Hermione to explode with laugher.

"Come on, we have to get you ready," Jan said. She, Ginny, and Hermione left. So did Wedge and Luke. Ron and Harry sat quietly for a moment.

Ron was the first to interrupt the silence. "Oh, I almost forgot. Right before I saw you falling, this hit our craft." He handed Harry the lightsaber he caught on Coruscant.

"My lightsaber!" Harry said. "It's the one I fought Voldemort with."

"Well, you know how to use it."

"Do I? I wonder..." He looked around, and picked up a piece of steel piping. "Ron, throw this at me."

"What?"

"Throw it. Aim to hit me. As hard as you can." Ron shook his head, but took a few steps away from Harry, swung the bar a few times, and then launched it at him.

The lightsaber came on, and the amethyst blur danced in front of Harry. Less than a second later, he shut it down.

The bar was lying on the floor in seven pieces.

"Whoa..." Ron said.

Harry sighed. "If only the real stuff was this easy," he said. "And Ron?"

"What?"

"Can I have my wand back?"

"Sure." Ron gave it to him. "I'll ask Hermione to borrow hers."

"Will she let you?"

"I'll beg, and grovel if necessary."

"Hey, don't. If she won't... I'll try to do without one. And if I meet Darth Vader,"--he smiled-- "I'll ask him to give yours back."

At that, Ron laughed. "I'll hold you to that," he said.

Harry clasped his friend's shoulder. "It's good to be back," he said.

"It's good to have you back, mate. I should have known you weren't dead."

"Let's put this behind us." He chuckled. "This'll be a great memory for a Patronus."

"True. We should get a dementor and test it out."

"Come on. We still need to pack our gear. How long before we leave?"

Ron glanced at his chrono. "Just under an hour."