Harry Potter and the Truth Beyond the Veil

CHAPTER ONE:

THE DREAM AT DAWN

A man was dueling relentlessly with another woman, both with dark hair and pale skin, souvenirs from their stay at Azkaban. Harry watched them, worried and guilty for it had been he who led the man to such a battle not only with this woman but also against other people in support of Lord Voldemort. The woman then cast the curse that Harry knew much of, the one that killed his parents, the one he escaped from when he was just a year old. A menacing green light emanated from the woman's wand and shed light into the room where they all were located.

The man luckily escaped this spell, which gave huge relief to Harry. The man smiled. "Is that the best you can...". The words didn't finish from coming out of the man's mouth as the woman yet again cast another spell with force that pushed the man towards a veiled area of the room. He fell, with a horror-struck expression on his face, unto the floor and slid across towards the billowing and rippling veil and vanished underneath. As if nothing occurred, the rippling of the veil ensued.

Harry ran towards it, screaming. "Sirius! Sirius!" He was searching for the nerve inside him to go inside and try looking for his godfather who just went sliding across the veil. He knew that one cannot return once he has crossed over the other side but he refused to think of this. Harry heard whispers from the other side of the veil, as if people where on the other side, talking with each other and walking to and fro. Harry wished he could hear his godfather whispering like the other voices that originated from the other side. "Sirius! SIRIUS! --- No!" A hand grabbed Harry, pulling him up from a sprawled position on the floor. Harry flailed and fought for release, thinking that if he did, there was a chance to save his beloved godfather. "Harry" said the man restraining him. "He is gone. There's nothing more we could do."

The next thing Harry saw was the ceiling of his apartment. He was lying on his bed, sweating, with the window permitting rays of the early sunlight to creep into his face. It looked to be the beginnings of a glorious morning. Harry then sat up with a start and stared at his cluttered apartment. For a fleeting moment, he half-wished that Hermione was there to sermon him on fixing his newly rented place just so he could push himself on cleaning it. Well, just as he was messy during his Hogwarts days, he was still as unorganized in his new apartment.

His apartment was small. Beside his bed was a clock on top of a side table which contained his wand. On the right side of his bed was another side table with a small picture of his parents, which was given to him on his first year at Hogwarts by Hagrid. On the walls of his bedroom were portraits of his friends, which weren't many. A picture of Ron, Hermione, and himself hanged on the wall, waving at him, and beside it was another picture of the members of the Order of the Phoenix back in Grimmauld Place which was where he stayed years ago, during the summer prior to his O.W.L. year at school. Grimmauld Place was of course, his godfather's, Sirius, home and speaking of Sirius, Harry has been having dreams of him every night. It always started with Sirius dueling with Bellatrix Lestrange, one of the Death Eaters who escaped from Azkaban Prison. They were shooting spells at each other when Sirius was pushed by Bellatrix's curse and was driven to the other side of the veil. Harry, at this thought, felt a pang of guilt for he knew if he had followed his advice years ago, then that would have never happened. This was of course, to take his Occlumency lessons seriously. Finally, Harry shooed away these thoughts, reasoning to himself that those were events from his school days and now, being 24, was more important that what happened years ago. He reflected that he didn't need to mope on what could have been. He was now a successful Auror and his friends were equally successful as well. Hermione was working in the Ministry of Magic alongside Percy while Ron was now with Fred and George who were still at it with their joke shop which was now spreading and expanding like wildfire. Harry was currently going steady with Cho Chang and was one of the celebrated Auror's in London. With all these, Harry didn't know why he was feeling low.

Harry then stood up and groggily stepped into his bathroom to get ready for work. He had to do a lot of paperwork today and dreaded thinking how much paper and folders his "In" file was getting. He then got in to his robes, took his wand, and said goodbye to Hedwig, who had just returned from her nighttime hunting. He only had the thought of dinner tonight with Hermione and Ron to comfort him and with that, he dissapparated unknowing of a dangerously familiar stranger he was about to meet tonight.

END OF CHAPTER ONE