Unofficial Portkey Archive

Angelia waited in the garden for him. It was only a matter of time before he would come round. There were other things for her to tend to, but for some reason they escaped her right now. She reached out her thoughts and invaded his subconsciousness. She felt a strange sense of overload. He was full of emotions. So many emotions all at once; devastating grief, horrible guilt, overwhelming love, driven compassion, and lost underneath all of these - the delicate fear of a child.

"What is it like to be human?" she said curiously. "Is it always so fiery and raw? What do you feel and think when you are not in this state of mind? What is love? Why do you crave it so? There is no love here. It would be a badge of weakness that would mark you as an endless target of suffering. You think you get your strength from your love, but it is also what makes you the weakest. It leaves you vulnerable to pain. Why would you allow such a thing inside of you, when it means you are to suffer so greatly?"

A feeling of darkness flooded her mind. These thoughts were terribly dangerous here. To even contemplate those things beyond the suffering of your victims, was seen as fruitless and at worse treasonous. Soon, I will have to answer to my masters, because I have not made you suffer more. They will want to know why you punish yourself. How can I answer them? I don't know why you do the things you do. Perhaps if I was quick to cause you suffering when you awake, it would pacify them. Still, if I do not continue to observe you, how will I learn what makes you different from the others. Are all the souls who do not come here like you?

"What does it mean?!" she cried out in exasperation.

She pursed her dark lips and began to work through it all again in her mind. Continually reaching out inside of him and sensing his strange dreams and thoughts. Touching both the dark and the light parts of his psyche. Always fighting the deep desire to crush the will from him. Fighting back the need to torture his body. If she were to give in to her most basic self, then she would never learn; she would never understand him. Perhaps her time with him was growing short. If her masters reassigned the boy to another, she would lose this precious chance.

She stepped towards him and knelt next to him. She leaned down and whispered in his ear.

"Make no mistake, little Harry. I will devour you. When I have what I want, I will break you down into an empty shell."

She hesitated and then spoke again more softly, "It is not that I want to… it is that I need to. I… I am… a servant of the darkness. I must obey… I must give in to who I am. For me to do otherwise would tear against my nature, my being."

She stood up and looked down at the pathetic creature that lay at her feet. She began to turn away and leave, but for some reason found herself still staring at him. Searching, wondering. She tore her gaze from Harry and began to walk out of the garden, leaving him to awaken on his own.

However, hidden in the shadows above hovered a sweet, little boy. His grey wings silently flapping in the dead air. Quietly watching what just took place.

"You are growing weak, dear Angelia. I must now go to the Dark Ones and tell them of your lacking obedience. You have not done as you were commanded. You may be very powerful, but in the end you belong to them, just as we all do. They will punish you sweet temptress. I will enjoy watching them tear the wings from your crushed body. I hope that you will suffer greatly. It would make me so very happy. They will come and they will take your precious victim away. Once they have him, he will disappear into the darkness forever."

He twirled a little dance of joy; his innocent face simply beaming with pleasure.

--- ---

"Here, take this Ron," Luna said, "You need the key to be able to reach into the next life."

Ron turned back towards her and took the strange knife. He held it tightly and looked down in the stone sepulcher.

"Um… hello in there… I am Ron. I would like to speak to Harry Potter… or, or Hermione Granger… Please."

Ron again faced Luna and said, "Like that?"

Luna was staring at him with her mouth wide open. Then she grabbed her stomach and began to laugh quite loudly. Ron whipped his head back toward the coffin with a furious glare.

"I don't see how this is funny. You don't know what you're doing anymore than I do," he accused.

After a few more giggles and a possible snort she put her hand on his shoulder.

"Oh, Ron, I'm sorry. It was just, you seemed so serious and well silly all at the same time. I promise not to laugh anymore… at least until later."

Ron rolled his eyes and tried his best to ignore her.

"Okay, one more try," he said quite formally, "Hello in the coffin there. Please let me talk to Harry Potter or Hermione Granger… err… whoever is closer would do just fine if that would make it easier."

Luna suppressed another laugh, but still let out a tiny snort. Ron sighed and gave into his frustration.

"This isn't working Luna. What am I doing wrong?"

"I don't know. My father didn't say anything, except that you just had to hold the knife and it would open the way."

Ron looked around carefully. He could not see anything resembling a keyhole or any kind of hole that the knife might go into. He tried waving it around over the coffin solemnly. That did not work either.

"Oh bloody hell," Ron snapped, "Hermione Granger if you are out there, then… well, say something."

When he said it he lowered the dagger and when the blade touched the surface of the stone the darkness in the coffin began to light up. For a moment it got quite bright and shortly after dimmed down to the soft brightness of a roomful of candles. A visage began to waver and Ron's eyes got quite wide.

"Can you really see me?"

Hermione was climbing out of the coffin and then stood right next to Luna and Ron.

"Well? I felt something. Did the spell work?" she asked them both.

"Uh, yeah," Ron said with utter disbelief in his voice, "well, then… it's wonderful to see you again. You look a bit like a ghost… probably because you are."

Ron laughed weakly and then turned back around to Luna and promptly passed out on the floor.

Luna looked over at Hermione. "Good to have you back. You look very nice for being dead."

"Why thank you Luna. You look very nice yourself," Hermione beamed.

Luna knelt down and touched Ron's forehead. "I hope he's alright."

"Who Ron? He'll be fine. He's had much worse and made it through just fine."

Luna smiled at Hermione, "So, where's Harry? Is he there with you?"

Hermione's face turned dark, "No. He's not okay Luna. I'm actually here, because I am trying to get to him. He's in terrible trouble. I think… well… I think he might be… {cough}… in… to be honest… hell, or something quite a bit like I imagined it to be anyway."

"Hmmm… that's a bit of an issue," Luna said in all seriousness, "he must have gone there, because he killed you and nearly killed Ron."

"He WHAT?! No, no, no, Luna. Harry did not kill me. That's ridiculous!"

"Yes Hermione, he did," Luna said somberly, "Dumbledore said it was a terrible accident. He came to try and help and saw you and Ron in the death-eater robes and assumed you were in terrible trouble. So…"

"So, he attacked us," Hermione finished thoughtfully. "But, how did Harry die then?"

Luna turned her head away with embarrassment in her voice, "Well, he sort of walked through the veil of death at the ministry of magic. He blamed himself for yours and Ron's death, not that he's dead, but you know what I mean. Before Dumbledore could stop him, he… went in and never came back. It was awful. It was beyond awful."

Luna did something that was quite uncommon for her. She began to cry.

"We buried you and Harry. I've missed you both quite awfully. Ron has been lost without the two of you. I felt so badly for him. At first, I thought I was helping him because I felt sorry for him, but then I kind of realized that I'm a bit obsessed over him. A couple times I wanted to hit him with a large, heavy object, but I decided that might be sort of unreasonable, and then we kissed in a garden and then kind of made love and I also discovered that I really do care for him very much…. … So," with a nervous giggle in between wiping tears away, "how've you been?"

"You …? With Ron?"

Hermione did a quick internal inventory. She searched through her emotions and thoughts. There was nothing. No jealousy at all. She actually felt pretty happy about the whole thing. Not that she thought it would be otherwise, but sometimes her feelings would get a bit confused over Ron. Whatever doubt she may or may not have had in the past was definitely not there now.

"Wow," she said with a mischievious smile, "what was that like? I can't believe I'm actually saying this but… tell me all about it. Oh, but as soon as Ron wakes up, we'll go find Harry."

Luna sat down cross-legged and started talking in a hurried excitement, "Oooh, girl talk. I've never gotten to do this before. I hope I do it right. Well, you see, it all started like this…"

Ron was lying on the ground of an ancient tomb somewhere in the middle of Ireland; completely oblivious to the fact that a cherished fantasy was coming true. Two attractive young women were sitting around having a conversation, all about him.

--- ---

Harry's eyes snapped open. He moaned in pain. Every one of his muscles ached like he had been beaten with a large, heavy object for quite some time. He slowly pulled himself up to a vaguely standing position. His head was spinning a bit and it took him a second to focus. There was no one around.

"Ouch," he groaned and brought his hand up to his head, "this stings a bit."

His eyes darted in all directions until he felt confident that he was completely aware of his surroundings. He did not know where anything was relative to where he was, but he was pretty sure it really didn't matter. For the moment, he pushed away the weight of guilt. He was beginning to decide that he rather did not like being here. If he was going to remain trapped here, he fully intended to gain more control over whatever destiny he had left.

"Well, hello again," said a sweet, young voice.

Without even looking Harry recognized the voice. It was the boy who had shown him the vision in the mirror. He turned to look and sure enough he had been right.

"My name is Necris, some people call me the Lost One. You are of course nobody special at all. Oh, don't look so surprised. You think because you were somebody once that you hold any significance down here? Of course not, you're not stupid. You know why you are here, and you also know exactly what we think of you. Which is to say, not really at all. As a matter of fact, I'm already bored talking to you. So, I'll be on my merry way."

The demon boy held his hands up in mocking piety. Then fluttered only the very tips of his wings and skipped away, while whistling a lively tune.

"By the way… Angelia wants you stay right where you are. Now don't you move. She would be terribly upset with you. Ta taa."

With that he faded into the surrounding shadows. Harry was not stupid. He was well aware the demon was toying with him. The question is was the demon hoping he would leave this garden out of fear, because Angelia ordered him to stay. Or, was the demon second guessing him and hoping he would stay, because he knew Harry was not so easily fooled. So, it boiled down to, was the demon overestimating him or underestimating him. Harry thought the third option was that the demon could care less whether he stayed or not. He was just tormenting him for the fun of it. After a knowing shake of his head, he decided it was the third. Necris was starting to seriously irritate Harry.

Harry heard a strange rumbling sound in the distance. He stopped all movement and listened hard. It felt like the ground was shaking slightly. A light appeared in a small window, set along the wall just outside of the garden. Harry stepped forward to investigate. The door next to the window quickly opened. An old man came out, he looked familiar.

"Loomis?"

"What?! What do you want? Who's there?"

"It's me. The one who got his demon traded with yours. Don't you recognize me?"

The old man started to laugh to himself. Harry looked closer and realized that the man's eyes had been torn out. Apparently, they did not put him completely back together after the beast attacked him. Harry felt bad for him.

"I… I'm sorry Loomis. I didn't realize."

"Ack! Don't think twice about it. If our positions were reversed, I assure you I could care less what would've happened to you."

The deep rumbling sound came again.

"Ya hear that boy?"

"Yes," Harry replied cautiously.

"They're coming."

"Who's coming?"

"The Dark Ones! Are you truly this ignorant? The demon masters boy. They only come out when one of us has broken one of the laws."

"There are laws down here?" Harry asked incredulously.

"Oh ho, yes. The laws are cruel and absolute. If one is broken, then they come for you. Wherever they take you; you don't ever come back."

"How do you know if you've broken a law?"

"Not sure. Never could get Angelia to tell me what any of them were. Guess that's part of the fun. You have to figure 'em out before it's too late."

The rumbling was even louder this time. The man's face soured up with a look of fright.

"They're coming this way. You did it didn't ya? You broke one of the laws?" the old man cackled in delight, "Wanna know something? I'm glad we changed demons. I got my eyes ripped out, but you… you're never comin' back."

Old Loomis was still laughing even after he shut the door tightly. Harry felt a sudden urge to run. Then he realized, this whole place belonged to them. There was nowhere to run and certainly nowhere to hide. So, he decided he would wait for whatever it was that was coming for him. He moved back to the iron bench and sat down. He pulled out his wand and laid it gently in his lap.

"Hermione? Ron? It's me Harry. Listen to me. I think my time has run out. I think that this maybe the last chance I get to tell you what's on my mind. So, here it goes. I can only hope someone is listening and will pass the message on to you. First off, I love you both very much. You are the dearest and best friends a person could ever have. Second, I'm so very sorry for killing you. All I can tell you is that I had no idea that you were there under those black robes. At first I thought that absolved me of it being true murder, that it could be just considered a horrible accident. But, we both know that isn't true. If I had done as I was told and waited at Sirius's home then none of this would ever have happened. We would all still be alive and having a good laugh at you two dressing as death-eaters. Instead, because of my arrogance, you're both dead and I've been sent to this place to suffer for my mistakes. I take back all the angry things I have ever said to either of you. I miss you so much it hurts me like no other pain I have ever known; and since I have been down here I have known new levels of pain and suffering."

Harry felt the familiar sting of tears.

"Ron, thank you for believing in me. Thank you for showing me a better way to live my life. To live it with hope, and a serious dash of fun and laughs."

The tears became streaks down his cheeks.

"Hermione…"

Harry felt a sob come from inside of him.

"I just wanted to… I just needed to let you know that… I love you. I'm not talking about as a friend or a sister. I'm telling you that I love you. I…"

He covered his face with his hands.

"I wish I was the one you were making love to in that mirror. I wanted to be the one who, at the end of at all, you would spend your life with. I wanted to be the one who got to have you near all of the time. I wanted to be the one who when the day was over and the night had come, that I would lie next to you and kiss you until all the emptiness inside of me was swallowed away."

The tears started to fall from his fingertips.

"I wanted to be the one that you loved… but now, that's all gone. It doesn't matter what I want anymore. I just needed you to know. I needed you to hear it from me… Please tell me that somehow you can hear me…

… are you there? … It's me… The-boy-who-loves-you."

Then Harry sat there and waited. He waited for the things that go bump in the night to grab him, torture him and then find a dark place to throw him into; so that all memories of him in the world would fade into nothingness. His hands held his wand tightly. The rumbling was getting so much louder now. They were coming.

--- ---

Ron was beginning to stir, but Luna was distracted by a flash of agony in Hermione's eyes.

"What's wrong Hermione?" Luna asked.

Ghostly tears were streaming from Hermione's eyes.

"I just heard Harry."

"You did! That's wonderful, what did he say?"

Hermione looked out into the distance. Her face contorted in pain.

"He told me… he said that… that he loved me. I think he was trying to say, goodbye. Luna, I think we're too late. My dearest friend, my sweet Harry… he's gone."

Ron had finally come to. After looking around he broke the teary silence, "Sorry about that, what's going on?"

No one answered. He looked at Hermione and Luna. Both of them looked like it was the end of the world. Then suddenly, he knew…

His voice sounded desperate, "What's happened to Harry?"