Into The Nexus

Chapter 1- Choices

It began in Herbology.A tingling at the back of the skull, a nagging question began the process of forming.What if...?What if...?
Harry shook his head.Truth be told, he was only just becoming consciously aware of the question.The question came to her over the summer.But she waited.That was the way of things.
The question tickled his brain again in Potions.What if...?What if what?Harry looked down at his paper.It wavered beneath his hand.The swirl of clouds, distant thunder, scent of lavender.
Harry turned to ask Ron what he thought was wrong with the paper.But Ron was looking pointedly over Harry’s shoulder.
“Well, I’m so glad you find time to draw, Mr. Potter,” Professor Snape growled, his fingers on the paper.Before Snape snatched it away, Harry noticed that he had drawn circles upon circles upon circles.Underneath, he had written “the nexus”.
“I... er, I...”Harry couldn’t think of a thing to say.He certainly didn’t remember drawing the picture.
Snape looked at the drawing.His lip twitched.Fear touched his eyes for a moment, then faded. “Get out a new parchment and try to pay attention,” he said.Snape walked back to his lesson, shoving the picture into his books.
What was that about? Harry mouthed to Ron.Ron just shrugged.
Later that night, lying in bed, Harry heard the voice.Harry.Harrrry.Come to me.
Harry sat straight up.“Who’s there?” he whispered.
A woman’s voice giggled.Come to me.Follow me.
Throwing back the covers, Harry placed his feet on the ground.He rummaged for his glasses, putting them on.“Hermione? Is that you?”
Noooo....Follow me.
Harry looked to the front of the room to see a tall woman standing regally in the doorway.She was an adult, but there was a childish look to her.She had brownish-red hair, dark eyes, full mouth.What was most striking was that she didn’t move so much as... flow.Like water.
The woman slid forward, her red garment twisting around her like a torrent storm.Suddenly she was directly in front of him.“Follow me,” she whispered in the voice of silence.Only he could hear her.She placed a pale hand on his shoulder, urging him toward the door with blood red nails digging lightly into his skin.
He couldn’t stop his feet from moving.They obeyed her command, but he could control his voice.“Who are you?” he dared to ask as they walked through the door and out of the Gryffindor dormitory.
That brought a chuckle from the woman.“I have no name,” she replied.“And yet I am all names.”
“You aren’t one for making sense, are you?” Harry muttered, now following the woman walking in front of him.
The woman stopped, turning a bit.“Call me ‘Nexus’,” she grinned.She led the way out of Hogwarts.The two didn’t talk for a while, entering the forest.Harry was dimly aware that her feet didn’t move.Bare feet... weren’t the stones and twigs hurting her feet.
“Where are we going?” Harry mumbled.Thinking was becoming more and more difficult.
“To the place you want to go,” she said enigmatically.“It’s where you’ve asked me to take you.”
Shaking his head, Harry tried to clear his thoughts.“But... I-“
“Hush,” the woman purred, stroking the sides of his face and ruffling his hair.“We’ll get to all of that soon enough.Just... follow me.”
The sooner this was over, the better.
Harry wondered if his godfather was near by.Maybe he had sent this woman.Then again, she could just as easily be an agent of Voldemort.
The two travelers came to a cave.It was little more than a giant mound of nature’s debris that led into the ground.Harry sensed that he was making a momentous decision to enter this cave.His feet stopped right before crossing over from forest to stone floor.
“Follow me,” Nexus enticed, all ready several feet in.She extended an inviting hand.“You can only come willingly beyond this point.”
“I... I don’t know,” Harry stalled.“Maybe I should talk to Professor Dumbledore first.”
Nexus laughed bitterly.It occurred to Harry it was the first real sound he had heard her make.“This is a one time only offer, my sweet.Either follow me, or forever be tormented but the burnings of What If.”
Harry licked his lips, stealing a quick glance back at the school.“Well, I...”
Nexus shrugged and walked into the cave.“Suit yourself,” she said, carelessly tossing ahand into the air.
“Wait!” Harry yelled after her, running to catch up.“I want to know.”
As if there had ever been any doubt.They all followed her in the end didn’t they?Thirst for knowledge was the downfall of some many of his kind.
“Good,” Nexus murmured.“Now, follow me.”
The cave was dimly lit, but there were no lights or fires.The walls had their own glow.Nexus shimmered before Harry, leading the way deeper and deeper, her own skin taking on its own luminescence.ÒMany have come before you, my child,Ó Nexus was explaining.It was like listening to the waking dream.Her voice and words were coherent, but only partially registered in his mind.“Many have come seeking answers to questions.”She swiveled to look at him, still rippling as she led the way.“I can give you answers.”
“But I don’t know what the question is,” Harry mumbled sleepily.
Nexus smiled grimly to herself, turning back to the front.“Yes you do.The real question is will you ask correctly?”
“Hmmm?” Harry muttered.His lids grew heavy.Maybe he should just go back to sleep...
“It’s like the story with the genie, my sweet,” Nexus replied, continuing down the path.“The results all come from the asking.So be careful how you speak in this place.”
They came to a halt in front of the swirly... thing Harry had hallucinated in Potions.And he was suddenly very awake.“What’s that?” he demanded.
Nexus was no longer beside him, but sitting on a ledge to the left.Her garment was a gentle breeze around her now.“That is the Nexus, which I guard and protect people from,” she said.
“Huh?”
Running her fingers boredly through her hair, Nexus sighed.“You see, Harry, the Nexus needs to be protected from people like Voldemort.But I also need to stop unready wanderers from stepping through.”
Harry thought carefully, remembering her earlier warning about questions.“What does the Nexus do?”
“Every moment, of every second, of every day, Harry, decisions are made.”Her eyes were intent, holding his with unwavering fascination.“A man decides to go left instead of right.A woman decides to remain faithful to a faithless husband.A killer decides to take a life rather than spare it.And the Nexus is at all of these points, created at these points.
“But what if that man went right instead of left?How would life be different?”She raised an eyebrow.“Would it be any different at all?”
The Nexus seemed to be swirling faster.Nexus glanced at it sharply, and it slowed down.Her attention returned to Harry.“And more importantly, what if that man was given a chance to see how his life would have been different?”
There were so many thoughts and possibilities swirling through Harry’s own mind now.So many things that could have been done differently.“I only get one chance, don’t I?” Harry asked nervously.
Nexus nodded, only her eyes visible over the steeple of her fingers.“So be very careful how you phrase your question.”
“I want to know.... I...”Harry licked his lips.If you could change one thing in your life, what would it be?“Voldemort,” he gasped between dry lips.
Nexus looked at her feet.“Yesss,” she hissed.“There were many choices made that day, my sweet.Be very careful how you ask.”
Why did she keep saying that?What was she trying to tell Harry?He thought of her little speech.Of course...
“I want to know what would have happened if Voldemort-“ No, Potter, no!Don’t ask! “-had decided not to kill me.”Potter, no!Was that Snape?
Nexus spun with a shriek of rage, her fingers extended.Professor Snape was being pinned against the inner sanctum wall by unseen forces.“Stay back, Severus!” Nexus snarled.“You had your chance. The boy has made his decision.”Her face fell, and she looked saddened.“And I pray that whatever gods there are have mercy on you boy.”
The Nexus expanded to fill the cave, enveloping all three.

Harry woke up to see Nexus standing beside him.Her arms were folded over her chest.Were those tears on her cheeks?Why was she crying?When she realized he was awake, her mouth open and shut several times.Harry sensed that she wanted to tell him something.
Nexus sighed, bowing her head into her hand.“I hate this job sometimes,” she grumbled.“But we all make choices.”
“What?”
“Never mind.”Nexus pulled herself together.Her garment, which now looked like a Roman senator’s robe, had stopped moving.She was but a mere mortal woman now.“Come, it’s time to begin.”
“Where’s Snape?What did you do to him?”
Nexus shook her head, her lips in a thin line.“Maybeyou should have asked...Never mind.Forget him Harry, for I never will.”
Though he had never really seen it, Harry recognized this place as his parents’ home at once.Questions of Snape’s welfare fled from his consciousness.“What’s going to happen?” he whispered to Nexus, pressing into her oddly comforting side.
“Your fate is about to change,” she replied dully.The intoxicating lull from her voice was gone now.“Follow me.”
Nexus led the way into the house, sliding right through the door.“This could get ugly,” she told him.
Harry gasped to see his father lying lifeless on the floor.Nexus didn’t even glance down as she stepped over the body.“I thought you were going to show me what things would be like if Voldemort hadn’t decided to kill me!” he yelled at her, grabbing her tunic.
The dull black eyes regarded him.“I am.Your request never said anything about saving your parents.Besides, the nexus of difference lies around the moment Voldemort... scarred you.”Nexus walked up the stairs.She paused with a wince as Harry’s mother screamed and died.“The worst of it is almost over.”Nexus wanted to give him a last chance to change his mind, but that was forbidden.
The two stood in the doorway of his nursery.Voldemort was standing over his crib, looking down at him.Nexus held up a hand, freezing time.“And now, Voldemort will take the road less traveled.”
Voldemort started to raise his wand.Indecision flickered across his face.Nexus passed her hand through his mind and pushed.He put the wand away, and picked up baby Harry.“Yess,” Voldemort hissed.“You will be very valuable to me.”
“What?” Harry gasped.“Wait, no! I don’t want this!I changed my mind!”
“Too little, too late,” Nexus said.
Reality was tilting on its side for Harry.“What’s happening?” he screamed.
“Time is changing,” Nexus replied.There was a look of terror on her face.“Harry-“
It was time for Nexus to make a decision of her own.
She grabbed Harry, placing her lips next to his ear.“I want you to remember something-“

Harry woke up with start into the dark of his room, his heart pounding in his ears and bed clothes strangling his legs.He numbly ran a hand over his face.“Damn,” he muttered hoarsely into the room.He couldn’t remember exactly what he dreamt.But it had been disturbing, that much he knew.
The door to his room swung open, Wormtail sticking his head in.“Is everything all right, young master Voldemort?” he asked quizzically.“You were making some strange noises-“
“I’m fine!” Harry snapped.“Just... fine.”There was something he was supposed to remember...“I was just dreaming.”

End Chapter 1.To be continued....