Dursley Dream

Chapter 3: SOMETHING TO PONDER

    "Mum?" Ron shouted. Both of them took another step in. "Mum!" Ron called again. No one answered. "Oh, they must've gone out with Snape somewhere. Looks like we'll be alone for a bit. I mean, we were out for a few hours. Look, there's some floo powder by the fireplace."

    Ron went to the kitchen and Harry took a seat on a couch by the fireplace.

    It struck again. This time it wasn't a repeated scene from the last vision. His vision turned black. Mrs. Weasley was staring him in the face looking horribly frightened. A green flash of light and she was dead before she hit the ground.

    Harry felt his body turn to jelly from shock and he nearly fell forward where he sat.

    "Harry?" called Ron from the kitchen. There was an immense trembling in his voice. Harry stood up and walked into the kitchen to see what Ron was talking about. Ron stood there utterly motionless, his back facing Harry. Harry looked around to see what it was. The Portkey they took earlier was on the floor with a note attached to it. "Harry" was written on it. They both knew something was odd about this beside from the fact that it was written in blood. Harry couldn't pinpoint it.

    "Do you think," Harry began, "we should... you know..."

    "Go in?" The two of them looked at each other and they were equally scared. "Maybe we should get Herm --" but before he finished, the two of them had appeared right in front of Hermione in her house. Yet again, Harry felt the strange glitter, not knowing where it was.

    Hermione gasped. "No time to explain," Harry said quickly, "you have to come with us."

    His voice was still trembling. Hermione tried to explain to them she was in the middle of summer homework but of course that didn't stop Ron and Harry from kidnapping her. The three of them Disapparated again back to Ron's kitchen. The glitter feeling stopped.

    "You better sit down, Hermione," said Ron.

    She hadn't seen the Portkey yet. Harry tried to hide his worry about the strange glitter and the feeling it gave him. As he had now felt it several times, he begun to feel more of it. It was a feeling of power. Immense power. Power so strong, he didn't know what he couldn't do with it. He definitely wanted to keep this a secret. What would anyone say? And for how long could he keep it up? Surely he couldn't control it forever. But there were more pressing matters right now...

    Harry and Ron quickly explained the entire situation to Hermione, about how Fred tricked them into going to Diagon Alley, about how they walked home, about the multi-person apparition (Harry didn't think twice about what he heard earlier and what he just did with Ron) and about the Portkey. They failed to mention Harry's strange behavior, though.

    "Oh, and as if I have nothing better to do than risk my life for you two for another time? Fine." She started toward the

portkey but Harry interrupted her.

    "The two of us couldn't go alone by ourselves. That would be suicide!" Ron exclaimed.

    "Oh, and with me, it's any less?" she retorted.

    "I should probably tell you something," Harry said, feeling he should explain the dreams, not knowing whether it was such a good idea.

    "About what?" Hermione asked.

    "You better sit down again. You too, Ron."

    Harry had no idea what he was going to say but suddenly a rush of thoughts entered his head like an overbearing tidal wave. Harry's headache turned into a slight pain from his scar. He took a seat as well trying to hide it.

    "I had... three strange visions, Ron," he began. "You didn't see the first one. When we Apparated" -- and with that word, Harry could no longer hear himself or his thoughts but his mouth kept moving -- "into Diagon Alley and the Portkey didn't work... I... heard your mum say 'They should be back by now?' Th-then the second one, I saw Dumbledore... screaming scared... very loudly at something." Harry's breathing became somewhat heavy, his eyes starting twitching but the pain from the scar stopped. "On the way home, it happened again." Harry put his head between his knees, feeling very sick. He didn't want to see the look on Ron's or Hermione's face. "Your mom stared me in the face... a green light flashed and she" -- Ron's eyes widened -- "died."

    Ron nearly fell over. He sat there, still, trembling. Harry stood up and ran into the kitchen. Ron and Hermione did not know about Dumbledore and the Dursleys and Harry's memory hadn't returned yet.

    "We have to go," said Harry with both confidence and fear, his voice shaking. And then he bcame even more fearful, the cofidence leaving him as... voices entered his head!?

    "No, no, no. I tried to kill you."

    "They died begging me for mercy."

    "You're dead, Harry Potter."

    Hermione and Ron could see Harry muttering under his breath.

    "NO!" Harry shouted, with a defiant look on his face. He stood up as straight as he could. "I don't think anyone's dead."

    "What is up with him?" Hermione asked Ron.

    "I don't know --" and before he finished, Harry touched the Portkey and all three of them were thrown into the forbidden forest. Harry stood, silent and brave. Trembling, but brave. Whatever words Hermione and Ron were going to say had left. Immediate thoughts turned to fear.

    "Do you have your wand, Hermione?" Ron quietly asked her so Harry couldn't hear.

    "No," she replied.

    Harry mumbled something and said, "Wait a minute."

    Sure enough, Hermione and Ron stood gaping as their wands could be seen rocketing towards them. Harry froze again. His eyes were forced shut and a picture of Dumbledore appeared in front of him. Something black came into view flying, fast, from left to right behind him. Dumbledore. He's not dead? The glitter was very light, but still visible, on his hands. He quickly put them in his cloak, trying to hide it.

    "What? What is it?" asked Ron.

    "Nothing," Harry said flatly. He stood shocked for a second at the thought. "Come on."

    All three of them knew it was daylight outside, but inside the forbidden forest, it was always night. The trees seem to grow before their eyes. None of them could know where they were. Any paths leading out seemed to eerily grow longer and longer. Harry's legs turned to jelly. He could see a black figure charging at him... and he fell to the floor as if dead.

    He awoke once more. A graveyard? The Death Eaters... no, those were not Death Eaters. Pettigrew. No, not Pettigrew either. In fact, Pettigrew wasn't anywhere. There was no cauldron and Voldemort was no where to be found. Those are dementors. Harry stood up. He spinned around looking at what had to be hundreds of dementors closing in on him. Dementors were the guards at the prison Azkaban. They drain happy memories and leave you with only terrible ones. Prisoners at Azkaban often go insane and kill themselves within a year. For Harry, the terrible memories need a new word. Because of which, he used to faint while hearing his parents voices during the night of the murder every time a dementor got close enough to him. It was not until Lupin had taught him how to conjure a Patronus, an anti-dementor which wards them off, could he bare being in their presence.

    Harry whipped out his wand and stood steadfast in the middle of the ring of dementors still closing in.

    "EXPECTO PATRONUM!" Harry bellowed and little more than a cloudy puff came out of his wand.

    "What was that?" said a voice in his head.

    Harry's head jerked to his left to see who the speaker was but there was no one there.

    "Let the dementors get him. They can kill you even if you're dreaming about them. I know, I saw it happen," said another voice.

    Harry's pulse quickened, his heart started hammering in his chest. His eyes were darting all around him, partly because of fear, partly because he wanted to see where everyone was.

    Quickly flashing lights filled Harry's vision.

    "No... no..."

    Harry began to feel limp. There was no one around him! What's going on?

    "Me! No, please, take me instead!"

    Loud crying filled the air... but it was all in his head... all in his head and making just as little sense...

    "STAND ASIDE, GIRL!"

    A flash of green light blurred everything. A shadow squirmed, twitched and then fell to the floor. Pain left and entered his scar as if someone were banging a hammer on it.

    "And now..."

    The green light flashed again but it was only sudden. Blackness filled his eyes. The dementors were standing right next to Harry but he was face down on the floor at this point, cold, scared, shaking. A shot of Dudley appeared across his eyes. His arms were cut off and he was laying face down. Dumbledore bent over him. All the while, Mr. Weasley had been screaming a charm Harry could not make out. The green light flashed again and Harry saw a picture of Mrs. Weasley's face. She fell to the floor dead. More green light. The victim was Mr. Weasley.

    "Do nothing unless I command you!" a voice cried.

    "The dementors can kill if it's just a dream!"

    More voices did not hesitate to speak and Harry, more confused than he had ever been, couldn't think of anything reasonable to say.

    "WHERE ARE YOU!" he roared.

    He then saw himself from above. There were thousands of dementors swarming around him.

    "Don't let go now!" cried another voice. They were coming at him from all directions.

    "You fight him, boy."

    "She wants to see you... it will be all right... hold on..."

    "Your mother's coming."

    There are voices from many different people and voices out of order from faint memories. Harry didn't understand a thing except that he was rising higher and higher away from the scene on the ground.

    "Stand aside! I will kill him! He is mine!"

    Something in him didn't want to die. Suddenly he zoomed back down directly on top of himself. All action appeared in slow motion and his vision was spinning. A dementor slowly lifted up it's hood. The putrid breath and horrid look on it's face was apparent even if you weren't in your own body. Harry saw it grab his neck. It was going to give him the Dementor's Kiss, a kiss of death that put you in a state worse than death. You would wander aimlessly with no soul because it would be torn from you like a child from it's mother. A scream filled his ears so loud Harry had to close his eyes and squint just to keep from going deaf. The dementor picked up Harry's head and put it near it's own. His vision stopped spinning and time paused for hours with the dementor an inch from executing it's kiss.

    "NO!"

    And Harry's vision went black.

    It didn't stay black for long.

    "He has a right to know."

    "Look at him, is he in any condition?"

    "Lily would want us to explain it."

    "He will be told when he is back in health."

    "He will be back in health when he's told."

    "Sanity is more important at the moment."

    Harry could hear the conversation in full but did not recognize anyone talking.

    "I --"

    "Fine. Tell him when you want to. I expect you to let me know if his condition improves."

    Angry footsteps walked away and a door slammed shut.

    "I wish they wouldn't treat him like this."

    The remaining voice sighed and exited through the same door. Harry's eyes opened. It appeared to be the hospital wing at Hogwarts. He rubbed his eyes at the sight of Madam Pomfrey standing over him.

    "Here, you should eat this."

    "No, not more chocolate."

    "Eat up, Harry."

    He snatched the chocolate frog from her hand and grudgingly ate it.

    "Chocolate is nature's own cure and you be glad it's not brussel sprouts. You'll be staying here for a few days. Dumbledore wouldn't tell me why, but I trust his judgement."