Dursley Dream

Chapter 4: A MEMORY TO LIVE FOREVER

    She took a seat on a bed next to him and rested her arm on Harry's shoulder.

    "He did tell me, however, that suddenly you're having strange visions and feeling very, very tense," said Madam Pomfrey.

She paused for a minute, opened her mouth as if to say something, then closed it. Harry shot an inquisitive eye and tried to say something as well but just closed his eyes again.

    "Sleep well, Harry."

    Sleep he did, but the visions returned.

    The door closed behind Madam Pomfrey. Harry's vision blackened. Swirls of light filled the blackness and suddenly he could see Madam Pomfrey. She had found Professor Dumbledore and they were in the middle of a conversation.

    "The boy is suffering. You can think about it, but don't speak about it. He's probably using the foresight on you right now." Fore-what? "If we keep him calm, the nightmares will stop. He's going through a change and if it is what I think it is, I fear there's not much we can do."

    "You should not have said that then if he can hear us!"

    She gave a huge sigh and Dumbledore walked away. Foresight? Harry decided to concentrate hard on Dumbledore. His vision returned to normal and he woke up.

    "Figures, I shouldn't expect to be able to use it on him," he thought to himself. "Nightmares? Visions? What does she think I am, insane?"

    On that note Harry put his thoughts into Sirius, and it worked.

    Sirius had been walking around Hogsmeade as the great black dog. Third years and up from Hogwarts are allowed to walk around the town of Hogsmeade during certain weekends. Sirius stopped and said to himself in a low voice, "Harry?" Like being shoved out of the way, the picture of Sirius blacked out and Harry was once again awake. Wow, he thought. He could enter almost anyone and it would be as if he was really there. The celebration didn't last long and once again his vision blackened but not of his own will.

    Voldemort stood in front of him in the forbidden forest. Without thought or effort, the vision was whisked away. Harry sprang awake and sat up on his bed. Enough of this, he thought to himself. Some more concentration and he was able to grab Madam Pomfrey. Maybe he could get her to bring him a goblet of Sleeping Potion?

    He tried to speak.

    "Madam Pomfrey?"

    She stopped dead in her tracks and walked back to her office. There were hundreds of potions, herbs and strange vials. She pointed at a huge foot-tall jar labeled "Sleeping Potion."

    "Yes," Harry said.

    She smiled, poured some into a goblet and walked back to Harry. She too, was able to force Harry from herself. His body jerked and sprang awake.

    "You must not abuse that, Harry. Not many are gifted with foresight. Those that have it have all ended up working for You-Know-Who. They have also all ended up dead." Harry shook his head trying to get her words out of his mind, grabbed the goblet, inhaled the potion and had as good a sleep as he did the last time he took Sleeping Potion.

    The next morning Harry awoke to find Ron and Hermione sitting next to him talking to Madam Pomfrey. He opened his eyes but he didn't move so he could listen in without their knowing.

    "So let me get this straight," Ron said, "he has this mysterious ability to be right with someone else."

    "The Dursleys-" Hermione started, but like usual, Harry's hearing became nothing more useful than a handful of dirt. Thoughts raced across his head. The vision, Dudley on the floor, the thought of them being dead. It all hit him like a ton of bricks.

    "Correct," said Pomfrey. "It's all very sad. But be that as it may..." She looked over at Harry.

    "Look, he's awake," said Hermione. Indeed, Harry accidently opened his eyes and turned to look at them at the thought of the Dursleys. He gave them all an innocent look.

    "Would someone please explain," he begged.

    "I guess there's no putting it off," said Hermione heavily. "Let's just hope D-Dumbledore!"

    Dumbledore had just walked in.

    "Do you want to tell him or should I?" Dumbledore grinned.

    "Go ahead," Madam Pomfrey said.

    "Here's what we do know. Oh, before I start Harry, take a sip of this." Harry took the goblet Dumbledore carried in with him and took a sip. It tasted like he had took a sip from a toilet. He spit it out in disgust.

    "That tastes like toilet water!" he griped.

    "Do you want to blank out again when I mention... well... do you want to black out again?" said Dumbledore, smiling grimly.

    After forcing down a sip, he handed it back to Dumbledore with a look of pure disgust on his face.

    "Now then. I shall start from the beginning.

    "The minute you got home from Hogwarts, you felt terrible disgust at having to live with The Dursleys --" but whatever the potion was supposed to do, it didn't work and Harry's hearing blotched out Dumbledore's words.

    Dumbledore kept talking but Harry had to interrupt. "I can't hear you," he said loudly.

    Dumbledore paused long enough for his hearing to return.

    "Take another sip," he said.

    "Ah, good. Now. Having to live with the Dursleys for eleven long years is one thing. Having to live with them after previous events... it's starting to take a toll on you, Harry. You were hearing voices, having strange visions. Dormant abilities, ones that are only supposed to show with careful training, are showing up without it. I knew from the minute you could Apparate a group of people that something was wrong. Before many wizards learn to control magic, their abilities are only seen during a heightened sense of emotion. Such emotion... is usually anger." Voldemort, Harry thought, had much to hate after his downfall. "You Apparated yourself with Hedwig out of frustration. You were able to do it again because of fear and a third time due to sadness. The vision with Voldemort was anger. Very few wizards are born with an ability of foresight, to peer into another and travel as if being there. It is present in you... but very weak. You had attempted it on me..." Harry felt his stomach sink. "I understand, but using foresight on me can have dire consequences," he said with a smile. "In all truthfulness, one cannot attempt it on another with it as well." This sure explained how Dumbledore knew many things that could not be explained. "Your foresight was growing every time you went to sleep. You were so angry with Uncle Vernon in the hospital that it went out of your control. A past memory invaded your thoughts, emotional pain took over and you relived a terrible scene with Voldemort. I sent Snape to pick you up so you wouldn't decide to question what happened the night before even if the memory charm failed. It would appear it did fail. We do not yet know where or who is behind the disappearance of Ron's parents --"

    "No," Harry said in a soft voice. He began to tremble. A slight pain flashed in his scar.

    "Try to not-"

    "No!" he said in a louder voice. Dumbledore ran to get the Sleeping Potion but it was too late. "NO!" Harry screamed at the top of his lungs. The entire castle must have heard. Footsteps came running from every direction. The door flew open and Ron, Hermione, Sirius... and the Dursleys stood just outside.

    "Harry! Albus, what is WRONG with him?" Aunt Petunia cried.

    "Leave --" and Harry gripped his head in complete agony. There was no one to give the Dursleys a memory charm this time. Sirius would not punch Harry in front of Madam Pomfrey. In fact, no one could do anything. All attempts at slipping him potions resulted in spills and he didn't stay still long enough for charms. Everyone stared gaping with mouths open. Surely the pain was not just a scar, but a knife cutting his head wide open. He jerked and twisted in futile attempts to contain the feeling. He knocked over all sorts of things writhing in pain. All anyone could do was wait until it passed.

    Finally the pain subsided. Harry crumpled himself into a ball on the floor. Tears filled his eyes and everyone could see a small puddle on the floor. The room was in shambles. Harry continued to cry like a newborn baby from the episode. Dumbledore spoke as if to finish his sentence, "the room." Aunt Petunia bent over Harry and tried to pick him up. He swung his arms wildly to fend off her evil grasp.

    "Don't touch me!" he cried.

    Harry could barely contain himself. Suddenly everyone found themself flying ten feet down the hall from the entrance of room.

    "What have you done to the boy!" Uncle Vernon shrieked.

    "Absolutely nothing," replied Dumbledore calmly.

    "Then why does he act like this all the time?!"

    "All the time?" said Dumbledore, his brow furrowed. "Surely --"

    "Lately whenever I see him that stupid scar constantly bothers him!" Dumbledore became angry.

    "Only around you, Mr. Dursley." Vernon glared evilly at Dumbledore.

    "RUBBISH! That boy was perfectly fine before he came to your school. School of Withcraft... and-and-and-and Wizardy!"

    "SHUT UP! JUST - SHUT - UP!" There was no mistake in the tone of Harry's voice, even Vernon jumped. "You don't care about me!" Dumbledore's words fell out of Harry and he forgot everything he said. Dumbledore was trying to coach him into controlling foresight and he didn't care about that, didn't care much for anything... just wanted to speak his mind... "Eleven years I sat in that cupboard away from the real world. Thrown away, ALL OF IT THROWN AWAY!" Ron pointed out that Harry is "Gonna burst!" and so he did. Everyone ran back to the room.

    Not what anyone expected, though. Harry crawled back into his bed and started to sob again. There was a moment of silence.

    "I think it's best if we leave him --" started Dumbledore.

    "No, it's alright," Harry interrupted, "you can stay." The crying spell didn't last long. He had time to pull himself together. "But they have to go." Harry mumbled something under his breath and the Dursleys disappeared. He felt the mysterious glitter under his clothing and checked on them to make sure they arrived at their house, and they did. "I don't think it's just them, Professor Dumbledore."

    "I understand your frustration, Harry. The day we dropped you off at their front door, there was no where else to put you. No one wanted you growing up in the wizard world where everyone knows your name. Of course, we had no idea your relatives were --"

    "No idea?!" Harry shouted. "Look at them! I'm sure you kept watch on them before I was left with them!"

    "Now, Harry --"

    "No!" he said. There was a minute's silence before either of them spoke. "Voldemort," said Harry coldly.

    "He is not involved, I assure --"

    "Don't assure me anything. It makes perfect sense. Uncle Vernon buys Dudley a deadly snake while I was here. I start having strange visions... I -- I didn't tell you about them, did I..."

    "No, you did not, but I know about them."

    "All of them? The one in the forest? The one with the dementors?"

    The expression Dumbledore's face was carrying dropped.

    "Harry, you MUST tell me about those," Dumbledore said, very surprised and calmly. Harry started to relive the dream with the dementors perfectly.

    "I was face down in the graveyard. Thousands of dementors were surrounding me." The first vision of the dementors flashed before his eyes and he blinked. "I tried to summon a Patronus but... it failed." The memory of the cloudy puff of his wand was visible. "They kept getting closer and closer. I started to hear voices but didn't know what they were talking about." The voices began in Harry's head again and he spoke them to Dumbledore. "'What was that?' one of them said. 'Let the dementors get him. They can kill you even if you're dreaming about them. I know, I saw it happen.' 'STAND ASIDE, GIRL!' They weren't stopping. 'The dementors can kill if it's just a dream!' I knew it was a dream, but I was so scared." Harry started visibly shaking. His eyes lost all expression and he started taking steady, slow, deep breaths through his mouth.

    "Very strange I did not know about that one. Furthmore, dementors cannot kill you if you're just dreaming about them. Harry," said Dumbledore as he started to walk around him, "you are right. Those are not just visions --"

    "Voldemort," Harry whispered so only he could hear.

    "-- they have outside influence. What was the other one?"

    "I just saw Voldemort staring at me. We stood in the Dark Forest, but it disappeared as quickly as it appeared." He started to look around the room aimlessly. "Him. Voldemort has Ron's parents." Harry whipped his head and stared Dumbledore straight in the eye. Dumbledore never saw such fear.

    "I knew it."

    "Knew what?"

    "Who would want me weak? Who would take Ron's parents! HE KNOWS I WOULD COME! The bloody letter, the dreams..."

    "You can't go alone, Harry."

    "I have to," he said with a trembling voice. "I saw you die, I saw him kill you and the Dursleys. You'll die if you go!"

    "You might, too."

    "I have to try." Harry wouldn't listen to Dumbledore any longer.

    "Fine. Fine, fine, fine. Go, Harry. But... be careful. I see only one problem, however."

    "THE FOREST!" Ron came in screaming bringing Hermione with him.

    "I guess that question is settled," said Dumbledore against his better judgement. "The three of you will go." Hermione and Ron shook their heads. Harry nodded at the two of them.

    "How do you know it's the forest?" asked Harry.

    "Where else around here does Voldemort have the best chance of scaring us half to death?" said Ron.

    "Ready, Ron?" asked Harry.

    "Yeah."

    "Hermione?"

    She took a few seconds to reply. "Yes."

    The three of them checked to make sure they had their wands. Hermione and Ron closed their eyes and stood perfectly still. With one word, they all appeared somewhere in the forbidden forest. Harry felt the glitter feeling grow slightly.

    The challenges didn't wait. A giant spider was right in front of them.

    "RUN!" Harry screamed.

    The three dashed backwards, stumbling over branches and rocks as they started. The spider let out a huge scream and was thrusted up into the air several hundred feet. A howl of wind followed it. The three stopped their running and looked up dumbfounded.

    "Maybe if you can control that, Harry, we might stand more of a chance," Hermione said.

    It landed on the ground with a loud crunch. A leg broke off and flew over Ron's head. "Better get your wands out, you two. There's lots of creepy stuff in here, I'd imagine."

    There was no need to argue the point. A sharp but quick pain errupted from Harry's scar.

    "Ugh!" He fell but stopped himself with his hands and held his forehead. "He can't be that far away." Ron helped him up and they continued to walk.

    "How do we know where we're going?" asked Hermione.

    "I don't know," replied Harry. "Just keep walking, something will happen."

    "What if it's bad?" asked Ron.

    He stopped walking. Harry and Hermione turned to look at him.

    "What if it already happened, Ron," said Harry.

    Ron gulped at the thought. Did it? Were his parents already dead? No one said anything. Harry and Hermione kept walking and Ron caught up to them. They walked for a long time without drama, but it wasn't long before Hermione screamed.

    "HARRY WATCH OUT!"

    Something big and black dashed out at them from behind a big tree and knocked Hermione down. It dashed back into the darkness but not before taking Hermione's wand.

    "Great!" she exclaimed.

    "Here, take mine," said Harry.

    "But --"

    "Take it," he insisted.

    "You're the one with the strong magic. You need it more than I do!"

    "I don't need a wand. I pushed Voldemort through a wall at Hogwarts without it, I apparated without it, I did the levitation spell again without it." He was right. "Let's keep walking." There was still no sign of where they should be walking. The farther and farther into the forest they walked, the more hope they lost of ever getting out alive or finding Ron's parents. More dangers would present themselves.

    "Do you think you could use foresight on my mum or dad?" asked Ron. It was, after all, the obvious choice. How come no one thought of it before? A smile beamed across Harry's face.

    "I don't know. Let me try." They all stopped walking and stood still as Harry attempted it. He concentrated hard on Mrs. Weasley. His vision blackened but went normal again almost instantly. Harry looked surprised.

    "What? What is it?" asked Ron. Harry tried again. His vision darkened and he heard a voice. Harry felt a cold chill down his back and shook, his eyes widened and he gasped.

    "I heard something."

    "Tell me! Tell me what it is!" said Ron with a great sense of anxiety.

    "It said, 'Close by, yes-'" he started, but suddenly they all could hear the voice.

    "-yes. Come closer and they will be dead."

    The voice let out a high, cold, mirthless laugh and dissolved into the air. The echoes filled their ears. The black figure dashed out in front of them knocking both Ron and Hermione over snatching Ron and Harry's wand. The voice came back.

    "Oh, hello there." It spinned around them as they spoke. It could've come from any direction. "What good are two wizards and their young Dark Lord without their wands?" The voice let out another laugh.

    "It's just trying to scare us!" Ron said. "Harry is no Dark Lord, are you, Harry?" Harry recalled the Sorting Hat trying to put him into Slytherin. Would he be the first wizard to go bad that didn't come out of Slytherin? More and more dark magic seemed to show itself.

    "The Sorting Hat... tried to put me... in Slytherin." Harry's lips began to tremble as if starting to cry again. The other two glared at him. "Dumbledore told me that I was meant for Gryffindor... because I didn't want to be in Slytherin."

    "Yes," said the voice. "Oh, Harry... are those tears? Maybe a little battle will raise your spirits!"

    A cloudy puff formed in front of them and transformed into a mountain troll. A huge mountain troll, more than twice the size of the one they knocked out in their first year at Hogwarts, stood in front of them. "Maybe a magic-infused troll will help?" The troll seemed to be quickly growing in size. The club it carried consisted of a human body tightly secured in bloody chains. It was missing large chunks of skin. The head had been long gone and the skull looked brittle. Harry tried to focus on the troll to thrust it backwards... and it worked.

    The troll flew backwards at breakneck speed into the trees uprooting them right out of the ground. "That's not going to stop it," said the voice. "Better try harder!"

    The troll came running back. It closed in to Harry and raised it's club high into the air. Swing... and miss. Harry rolled out of the way inches from being hit. The troll stumbled and fell on the ground with a stupid look on it's face.

    "Help!" Harry yelled. Ron and Hermione just stood watching.

    "How?" Hermione snapped. The troll stood up again. "Our wands, remember!"

    The troll kept growing. By now it had to be four times the size of the first troll they saw. It towered over the trees, almost too tall to see the three little ants running along it's feet.

    "It's getting too big!" screehed Ron. Harry got a quick break while the troll tried to stand up (it stepped on a large tree and poked it's foot and fell again).

    "IMPEDIMENTA!" Harry screamed as loud as he could and pointed his finger at the troll. A ray of light shot out the top and rocketed towards the troll. The troll froze in place and fell on it's back.

    "It won't stay frozen for long!" The voice reminded them of this fact.

    "We better kill it this time," Harry said. "Reducio!" and the troll shrunk to the size of Hagrid.

    The effect was short-lived. Within seconds, the troll grew back to it's previous size. It got back control of itself and scrambled to it's feet.

    "RUN!" Harry screamed.

    The troll paused for a moment and as it ran, its heinously large feet shook the ground. The three weren't fast enough -- the troll was gaining ground.

    "Maybe we can use it's club against it?" said Hermione, thinking of their last encounter with trolls. They were all out of breath, this was their last hope. Harry turned around and began to run backwards. The other two followed suit.

    "Wingardium leviosa!" Harry yelled. The club flew up, but taking the troll with it. "Oh no, it's grabbing onto it too tight!"

    "Well just make it go higher and higher," exclaimed Ron. Higher and higher the club flew but the troll started to grow faster. It's feet began to get closer to the floor.

    "That's it, we're dead," gulped Ron.

    The voice let out an insane laugh.

    "No. We're not dead yet," said Harry in a cold, brooding voice.

The troll grew and grew, the club flew higher and higher. It grew so fast it's feet stuck planted on the ground. Harry's hand sparkled as if golden for a brief moment and only he noticed it.

    "Avada Kedavra," Harry said, staring crossly at the troll's eyes. Harry's previous spell stopped. All the color seeped out of the troll as it began to turn red. It's skin began to boil.

    "Cool," said the three of them.

    They started to turn away when they saw what was going to happen but it was too late... A squishy blast filled the air as a tidal wave of blood and guts sprayed everywhere. A red ocean flew into the air and all three of them looked up as it rose, seconds later splashing all over, nailing them in the face. From head to toe, roots to tree top, the entire forest was blood red. The three looked exactly like they would had they went swimming in the stuff, soaked to the skin. Harry stood there breathing very deep and slowly. Ron and Hermione looked at him gaping with nothing coming to mind. No one said anything for several minutes because they needed to catch their breath and prevent themselves from losing their breakfast.

    "Was that supposed to happen?" asked Ron, finally able to speak. Harry flapped his arms in a feeble attempt to shake off the troll's unusually thick blood, then licked his lips and spit.

    "Have to ask Dumbledore when we get out of here," he suggested.

    "You aren't going to make it out..." said the voice.

    "YES WE WILL!" shouted all three of them. The voice let out another laugh.

    "Such brave little souls. Would be a shame if they were to be taken from you. Hah, aha, ahahahahahaha!" The voice could hardly contain it's excitement. Dementors appeared out of nowhere and swarmed around them. Harry's vision blackened for a quick moment and he saw flashes of the vision with the dementors. It wasn't a prediction, was it? He felt the glitter vanish very abruptly.

    They all spinned around looking at what had to be hundreds of dementors closing in on them.

    "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.

    All of them heard it. Harry's head jerked to his left to see who the speaker was but there was no one there.

    "Let the dementors get them. You won't have to worry about showing yourself."

    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 them except that bodiless voice. He looked around at Hermione and Ron. They, too, were losing control.

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

    Loud crying filled the air.

    "STAND ASIDE, GIRL!"

    For a fleeting moment the three of them saw a flash of green light and it blurred everything. A shadow squirmed, twitched and then fell to the floor.

    "And now..."

    The green light flashed again but it was only sudden. Blackness filled Harry's eyes. Whatever was happening to him though, he knew was happening to Ron and Hermione. The dementors were closing in fast to all three of them. Dumbledore bent over to a limping Dudley. All the while, they heard Mr. Weasley screaming a charm no one could make out. The green light flashed again and Harry saw a picture of Mrs. Weasley's face. She fell to the floor as if dead. More green light. It bounced off Mr. Weasley as it hit, ricocheting off into the distance. He, too, fell as if dead.

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

    "The dementors will do it. Trust me!"

    More voices did not hesitate to speak and Harry, more confused than he had ever been, couldn't think of anything reasonable to say. He felt himself drowning in a coldness he never thought possible, freezing his skin, stopping his heart...

    "I KNOW IT'S YOU, VOLDEMORT!" he screamed, costing him every ounce of his energy.

    The dementors stopped dead in their tracks leaving a circle of no more than ten feet. There were thousands of dementors around them.

    "Don't give up, now!" cried another voice. The voices were coming from all directions.

    "You three fight him."

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

    "Your parents are coming."

    There were voices from many different people and voices out of order from faint memories. No one bothered to comprehend the scene.

    "Stand aside! I will kill them! They are mine!"

    Something in them didn't want to die. It didn't want to give up.

    Harry moaned to himself, crying softly. The worst had come. He was going to die reliving the worst memories of his life.

    A dementor slowly lifted up it's hood and walked towards Harry. The putrid breath and horrid look on it's face was strong. It grabbed Harry's head. It was going to give him the Dementor's Kiss. The dementor put Harry's head near it's own. His vision began spinning and time paused for hours with the dementor an inch from executing it's kiss.

    "NO!" he screamed costing him the last of his will.

    Harry's vision went black and he fell to the floor. All he could hear for several minutes were muffled screams and cries of great pain. He could suddenly see himself from above. The dementor had done it. Harry was parted with his soul.

    His body fell to the ground, limp with a thud of lifeless flesh upon earth. Indescribable sadness filled the face of Ron and Hermione as the dementors began to depart leaving Harry as a mere memory. The dementors left them alone. Why, they thought furiously, why? Soon, they thought, Harry would get up and try to kill them.

    Harry did get up, but it was a mere shadow invisible to mortal eyes. Hermione ran over to Harry's body throwing her arms around him, crying heavily. The blood on her cheeks became watery from tears and fell like a waterfall down her face. Ron and Hermione sat for hours staring at the body but nothing happened. It was as if the curse would spare them the horror of seeing Harry as a soulless zombie.

    But he was floating mere feet above them, unable to communicate in any way. Tears had long stopped falling from Hermione's eyes, but she still did not stop crying. Ron and Hermione's hearts sank deeper and deeper, so deep they began to fall asleep not caring if anything was going to kill them, too. They prayed their killer be a zombified Harry.

    Harry floated above them the entire time they were asleep. Many beasts had tried to come after them but Harry need no more than float to the predator and it would run away immediately. Harry stared at the scene below him and could not believe it. Harry Potter... dead? Hours passed by, the day sky turned to night and he was still there staring down at himself. Dementors had taken the life of one so young. Never would he see Cho, the one girl he thought he ever liked. Never would he walk. He would just be forgotten, dead, lost, completely alone... Voldemort had won. Harry Potter was dead. He felt like he would cry but what were tears to a ghost?

    But at the very least, Harry knew what Ron and Hermione were dreaming. Ron had been reliving the first precious moments when they met on the train, when they knocked out the mountain troll, when they found out about Sirius, when they rode the flying car... Hermione had been dreaming about when she first saw Harry, after they won the House Cup all their years and all his winning Quidditch games... The ghost of Harry would soon fall asleep, too.