CHAPTER TWO
THE PLAN
"Harry?" A faint voice said with concern. "Harry, are you ok?"
He smiled as recognition of the person the voice belonged to flooded his mind.
"Hermione?" He said with a smile. He opened his eyes tentatively and saw her looking down at him with a sad and concerned look on her face. "What's wrong?"
"Harry, you won the battle with Voldemort. What are you doing here?" She offered her hand and helped him to his feet.
Harry looked around for the first time. They were standing on a grassy hillock under a sky of the purest blue. There were small puffy clouds dancing on an unseen wind and all around them were fields of wildflowers. Beyond the fields was a crystal blue lake with a beautifully green forest lining one side. "Where are we?" He asked, fear starting to build within him. "This isn't Godric's Hollow."
Hermione looked at him sadly and shook her head. "No, this isn't Godric's Hollow, Harry."
He felt a hand land softly on his shoulder and he turned to see who it was. "Mum?!" He asked incredulously. "Dad?!" He said as another figure stepped up beside his mother.
"Hello, Sweetie." His mother said tenderly. "I didn't expect to see you so soon."
Harry stepped back in surprise and bumped into Hermione. "I-I'm dead?" He asked with wide eyes.
Hermione took his hand. "We all are, Harry." She said softy, the sadness evident in her eyes and voice.
Harry shook his head. "You can't be dead, Hermione, you can't!" Without thinking he pulled her into an embrace. "I can feel you in my arms! You're real!" Tears started tracing random tracks down his cheeks.
"Son ..." James Potter said tenderly. "I know it's a shock ..."
"A SHOCK!?" Harry shouted. "You're damn straight it's a shock! If ... If I'm dead, that means that Voldemort ..." Harry looked up in surprise.
Hermione smiled for the first time. "No, Harry." She said comfortingly. "Voldemort died before you did. You were on the operating table at St. Mungo's when you died ..."
Realization hit Harry. He had finally defeated Voldemort, but at what cost? He looked at Hermione, really looked, for the first time. "You're here with me?" Harry asked softly. Hermione nodded her head and smiled. "You ... You want to spend eternity ... W-with me?" He asked tentatively.
Hermione smiled and pulled him into a tender embrace. "Yes, Harry, I do." She said simply.
Harry looked into her eyes and before he knew it, he spilled out everything that he had pent up inside since Sirius died. "I think I had fallen in love with you, Hermione." He said quietly.
Hermione beamed at him. "I fell in love with you too, Harry." She admitted softly. "Now we have all the time anyone could ever wish for to be together."
"Harry! I can't say I'm glad to see you so soon, but I am!"
Harry turned and saw his godfather stride up the small hillock they were all standing on.
"Sirius!" Harry shouted as he was caught in a fatherly hug. "I've missed you!"
He looked at his mother and father and crossed to them as fast as he could. "I've missed you too, Mum, Dad." They quickly hugged.
"We'll have as long as we want to get to know one another again, Harry." His mother said with a smile and a tear of joy slipped down her cheek.
"There you guys are!" Harry heard Remus from the bottom of the hill. "Tonks is just over the next rise with her family! James, Lily! Good to see you again!" He waved happily at the small group of people.
Smiling broadly, Harry crossed back to Hermione. "I've been wanting to do this for the past two years, Hermione." He said shyly and without further hesitation he kissed her on the lips. She returned his kiss just as enthusiastically and they hugged each other tightly.
When they broke apart, Harry smiled happily for the first time he could recall. "I can't believe that I'll finally be with you from now on." He looked at the others and his smile grew bigger.
"Come on, Harry! Come on!"
"What?" Harry said as he looked to Sirius. "Where do you want me to go?"
Sirius's smile faded. "I didn't ask you to go anywhere, Harry."
Harry looked at his father. "Dad?"
James shook his head. "I didn't say anything, Son."
Harry looked at Hermione whose face had suddenly lost its glow.
"Harry ..." She said tentatively and tears started streaking down her cheeks.
"What's happening?" Harry said curiously. His family seemed to be slipping slowly away from him though they weren't actually moving.
"We'll see you again, Sweetie!" His mother called after him.
"We love you, Son!" James shouted.
"Take care, Harry! We'll see you later, we promise!" Sirius called with a wave.
"Hermione?" He looked at her again and she had stretched her hand out to him. "HERMIONE!" He grabbed for her hand but she was just out of reach.
"Harry, I love you! I'll see you again!" She shouted after him between sobs.
"I love you too, Hermione!" He found himself shouting as he snapped into a sitting position with his hand stretched out into empty air.
He looked around the room, his heart racing and he flinched at the pain in his sides. He was in St. Mungo's and in pretty bad shape from the soreness and pain that was wracking his body.
The door burst open and Dumbledore entered the room at a run.
"Harry! You're alive!" His old headmaster crossed the room and stood next to him. "We thought you had died ..." He said softly.
"Why did they bring me back?!" Harry said angrily. "I was with them, I was with Hermione!"
Dumbledore's face dropped and he slowly sat in a bedside chair. "I'm sorry, Harry. The mediwizards tried everything they could to save her and Ron."
Harry looked at his old mentor incredulously. "I didn't see Ron at all, he's not dead." Harry said a little too coldly. He realized there was nothing he could do about it and he at last looked at the broken man before him. With a sigh Harry put a weak hand on his shoulder. "I'm sorry, professor." Harry said as tears started to flow from his eyes.
"You have nothing to be sorry for, Harry." Albus said as his shoulders started to shake. "I should be apologizing to you for all the years of torment you went through."
Harry's vision began to blur. "Professor." He said sleepily. "Where's Ron?"
Dumbledore looked at the savior of the wizarding world. "Ron's here, Harry."
Harry nodded and fell asleep to dreams of Hermione and his family upon the grassy hillock that he could only describe as paradise.
He woke with a start. "Ow!" He groaned in displeasure.
"Harry, Dear!" Mrs. Weasley snapped to and rushed to his side. "H-how are you feeling?" She put a comforting hand on his shoulder as softly as she could. Harry looked into the eyes of his surrogate mother and noticed the tear stains that enveloped her cheeks, the dark circles that told him she'd been awake far too long, and the disheveled hair that meant she'd rushed to the hospital without a second thought.
"I-I'll live." He said distantly.
Molly Weasley broke down into fits of tears as she cradled his head in her hands. "I'm so, sorry, Harry." She pleaded with him as her tears splashed into his hair.
"Why are you sorry?" Harry asked as he stroked her hair. "You've done nothing."
She pulled back and sniffed. "You've lost Hermione." She broke down again. "Ron isn't any better..."
Harry looked at his surrogate mother with concern. "What's wrong with Ron?" He asked quietly, afraid of the answer.
"B-Bellatrix ..." Was all she could get out before breaking down again.
"What about her?" Harry said with fear rising in his throat. He gulped subconsciously.
"Sh-Sh-She tortured Ron s-so bad ..." She sobbed harder, the words difficult to form. "H-He's in a c-coma and steadily getting w-worse."
Harry's tears had quickly matched the pace of his best friend's mother's and he pulled her down into a comforting hug.
"I'm so sorry about Hermione, Harry." She sobbed again. "You never got the chance to tell her ..."
Harry winced as the sudden realization hit him that they were literally worlds apart now and there was nothing he could do to get to her short of killing himself. He broke down fully. He felt Molly pull him into a tight maternal hug and he returned the embrace. They stayed that way for what seemed to be hours, each of them releasing their grief.
When they broke apart and Mrs. Weasley sat back in the bedside chair Harry looked at the grieving woman and said in a very quiet voice, "I saw them, Molly."
"Who, dear?" She asked between wiping her eyes and sniffing.
"I saw Mum and Dad. I saw Sirius, Remus, and H-Hermione." He said catching a sob in his throat at mentioning her name. "She said she l ... She said ..." He took a deep breath. "She said she loved me."
Mrs. Weasley broke down into tears again. "Oh, Harry, I'm so sorry." She sobbed as she took his hand.
Harry blinked away the tears. "I was with them all, I told her, Molly. I told her I loved her and she said she loved me back. We were going to be together with my family." He couldn't keep the tears at bay. "We were going to be together ..." He choked on a sob and he broke down in a new flood of grief. Mrs. Weasley pulled him into another hug and he buried his face in her shoulder. "They all said they'd see me again ..."
He didn't say anything else and grieved until the nurse entered the room with a healing draught.
"You'll need to drink this, Mr. Potter." She said tenderly. "It'll help your bones heal faster."
Harry took the potion without thinking about it. This isn't happening ... He thought desperately.
It is. This is reality. Reality isn't kind. The voice in his head said to him.
Harry angrily blinked away the tears. "I can save her." He said under his breath. "I can save them all!"
"What was that, dear?" Mrs. Weasley asked quietly through a sob.
Nobody can know! Harry thought angrily to himself. "I-I said I should have been able to save them all." He choked back a new wave of grief with determination.
Molly Weasley choked out another fit of sobs. "Harry, dear, Harry. You wouldn't have had enough time. As soon as you escaped on the lift, Bellatrix and Dolohov killed Moody and shortly afterwards k-k-killed Hermione and t-t-tortured Ron." She sobbed again and Harry didn't hear her speak again. The healing draught was doing its job and he was swiftly losing consciousness.
Time ... All I need ... is ... time ...