Title: Thestral Gallop

Author: Abacus

Chapter One: Suburban Lawns

Far off there was a giant explosion.

A flash of fire whipped through the sky and unleashed a powerful wave of fury. It touched no one but appeared to be headed towards one lone target.

It had an agenda and that agenda was me, Harry Potter.

Like the Kamikaze Pilots of World War II, it was determined to carry out it's mission in the name of it's creator. True as an inanimate object it did not feel, but if you were to ask any one of the hundreds of spectators in the audience whether or not the ball of fire felt… they would adamantly insist that the fiery mass did indeed feel.

Now, imagine this.

I was within it's treacherous path of destruction. In a matter of seconds, I would be mashed, stumped and debilitated.

It was like a baseball.

Once the ball hit's the window, in this case, me, the glass would shatter, and along with it, the future of mankind. The world, as well as me, was as fragile as that.


For now I remained, as I usually did: blissfully ignorant. My sole attention was focused on the golden ball that whizzed vivaciously left and right and just out of my reach. My life did not flash before my eyes nor did I watch myself grow up in mere seconds from a cherub of a child to the sophisticate of a pre-adult I was now. I just saw the fluttering, golden snitch taunting me mockingly and my only thoughts were to catch it.

Heh. Catch it.

Had I any serious indication about what was to happen only seconds later, catching the snitch would probably have been the least of my worries.

The quidditch match had stretched into the night. Right now the formerly ink blot dark sky was alighted with a glow. I did not realize this until a split second before what happened next.

Bam.

I died instantly on impact. Later, I was told that my body, already half gone and blistered with flames, was flung completely across the quidditch field. I slammed head first into the goal post. My brains splashed onto nearby ashen faced Malfoy.

The blond who stared on mouth agape not even registering what he saw.

At this point, several things occurred:

One) I hit the ground. It was difficult for many people to associate the five foot eight boy with the mass of meat flung below- but it was, of course me.

Two) Hermione Granger had her arms in the air. Although it looked rather awkward in that position now, a couple of minutes earlier she had her arms up to cheer for me. Now however her arms were not up because she was cheering- rather, they were up because she couldn't seem to be able to bring them down.

Three) A man in black, likely a Death Eater, ran deeper into the woods. The tip of his wand was sort of burnt, and a thin trial of smoke slithered out from it. There was no doubt that the man was the perpetrator. He escaped away from the scene of the crime in a matter of minutes- on foot no less. One would think that a stupid action such as that was expected more from a mudblood rather than a pureblood. Anyone with even glimpse of wizarding background knew that no one ever ran into the forbidden forest, rather, they ran away from it.

But alas, the man with his adrenaline pumping through his veins and his death eater mask evidently cutting off the blood circulation to his brain, ran strait into the dark forest. Then evidently unaware of the suicidal jump he was taking- he proceeded to run into a cave.

Within minutes, the man was consumed by a hoard of baby spiders roughly the size of a Scottish Terrier.

As they say in Olde Elf circles, "Archo Loij Fea."

Which roughly translates to, "Bad deeds rarely go unpunished."

----

I felt as if a thousand tons of bricks was dropped on me. Then shortly after, a piano was added as well. It was not a pleasant feeling at all. It was almost has if I was being ripped apart painfully from one place and tossed to another like a broken rag doll.

Indeed, it was a very nauseous feeling.

Up, down, up, down. Bounce… Bounce…

"Stop!" I yelled loudly. Surprisingly, I did stopped.

In mid air.

I pried my eyes open and discovered a sight that took my breath away. I saw a vast stretch of pure ebony sky, with billions and billions of effervescent stars. It was so clear that I could see one galaxy moving towards another and collide in a giant burst of light. I winced. Vaguely, I wondered how many trillion or so creatures died in that explosive instant.

Something even blacker then blocked my line of vision. It was breathing on me. The thing moved back until it was a bit father from me and was no longer was just a black furry thing. It was a pony. A small black pony that was staring at me intently with his head cocked to the side.

It was odd being suspended with a horse by you like that. Almost as if it was something out of the Neverending story. The horse did vaguely resemble a dog, I thought- albeit a big and horse-like one.

"Hello," the pony said. Momentarily jarred by the unexpected words I fell from the sky.

I hit something solid. Something small and fuzzy. I looked down, and found that it was the pony

again. I jumped off the pony muttering an apology. Evidently it had tried to save me from the fall.

It looked up at me, appearing, amazingly enough, to be okay. Seeing it's small stubby wings spread out, I realized that the pony was no horse, it was a baby Thestral. I reached to pet it but then suddenly stopped.

I saw rolls and rolls of green lawns. Perfectly symmetrical houses, identical to every one blade of grass with the exception of the cars. Even the cars however, were similar. They were all decked out in an array of colors composed of dull, more dull and duller.

This was at number four, Privet Drive.

I realized that I was standing smack dab in the heart of my old suburban neighborhood. Something was different. The giant tree that I remembered from my childhood was still there as well as the small red tricycle Dudley once had. I wondered if I had somehow traveled back through time.

The thestral gently nudge me on the side.

"Hello," it said again.

"Hi," I said. I shivered when he heard a child's cry pierce the night.

"Where am I?" I asked the baby thestral.

"Hello," it said again, although now in a different tone. I frowned and asked, "Is that the only word you know?"

My suspicions were confirmed when the small thestral answered "hello" again.

My gaze once again fell on the house, and I patted Hello on his soft mane. "Let's go in," I said. It didn't look like Aunt Petunia came out to do her daily cleaning today. All of Dudley's toys were still scattered all over the green grass. I saw one of my toys amidst the mess also. I bent down and picked up a small toy car. It had been Dudley's before, but later, I would trade a cupcake for it after Dudley broke off the side door.

I pushed the door open and was met with silence. The telly was on and the glow from the screen bathed light into the dark living room but the volume apparently was set on mute. There was no sound. There were no people.

There were no Durselys.

I walked towards the kitchen and Hello followed me from behind. If it was not for the thud, thud, thud, of Hello's footstep I would think the silence, only broken by his periodic inhale and exhales, would have driven me crazy. In the kitchen I saw the table set and food still left uneaten on the plates. It was a typical Dursely meal composed of corn, mashed potatoes, and meatloaf. The cup of water beside the dishes were still filled to the brim with water.

The stove top, was in fact, still on and the blue fire continued to boil a pot of soup. An apron was placed right next to the stove top and the fire would flicker every once a while and lash out dangerously close to the apron. It was a fire hazard.

I then ran to the upstairs and looked in room after room, kicking the door open and jumping back. I half expected to see the Dursleys to pop up and yell "surprise."- but it was empty.

I looked out the window. In the restroom, and even as far as the closet. Empty.

Once again, I asked himself, where was the Dursleys?

As I walked down the stairs I saw my cupboard opened partially. This perked my curiosity. If I was in the past, the Dursely's would never leave the cupboard open. There was always a chance that the neighbors might pop by and if they looked in the cupboard and saw the small bed and toys, they would get suspicious- and if they got suspicious, the child services would be after them in a second. Of course, the Dursleys had always said that the only reason they never wanted it left open was because they wouldn't want the neighbors seeing the mess in my room.

I trotted to the cupboard with Hello still on my heels. I peeked in and saw my toy soldiers lying on the floor, along side with a coat hanger, a paper air plane and a small teddy bear. My bed was as it was ten years ago, with Dudely's old Teenage Ninja Turtle covers draped over the mattress. I felt my throat constrict as I choked down a sob, staring at my old "room" brought back a wave of memories, a wave of feelings that I had not felt in years.

"Gods…" I whispered. I knelt down and picked up my teddy bear and breathed in the scent deeply, then I held it tight to my chest. This was the one thing that I had owned since I was a baby and the one thing that Aunt Petunia would later cut into pieces, punishing me for "stealing" one of Dudley's toys. I missed this bear. It was the thing that kept me company during the long nights that I was trapped in the cupboard.

There was a click.

I snapped my head around and looked to see if Hello had accidentally closed the door but saw that Hello was standing just beside me. I walked to the door and twisted the knob.

It was locked.

What? The door could only be locked from the outside. Then how… I stared at my hands. They were small, tiny hands. Skinny. Bony. I looked at Hello and saw that I actually had to look up. I was small. As Hello stared back at me, evidently surprised at my sudden change in size, I saw himself reflected in those large, green eyes.

I was six again.

Oh my god. I did not have time to think any further before my senses were suddenly assuaged with the smell of smoke. Smoke?

The smell had triggered something inside me. I was struck with a sudden sense of déjà vu, as if I had been in this situation before. Lock. Smoke…fire? I bent down to the ground and stared out through the crack at the bottom of the door and saw that there was indeed fire. Fire in the kitchen that was quickly, spreading towards the cupboard.

I then did something that had I been older, I probably would not have done. I probably would have thought it through and probably would have attempted, even through the panic, to devise a way to get out of the cupboard, to somehow break the thing open.

However, right now I only felt compelled by my younger instincts and only did next, what a child of six was expected to do. I started pounding the door, pounding and pawing hard, until my fingers began to bleed raw and I began to get hoarse, from screaming, "Get me out!" Over, over and over again.

Flashes of images flooded into my mind, the fire had not yet reached my cupboard but smoke began seeping through the cracks and filling my lungs. The heat, the realization, the…

"Harry." I turned around, and saw Dumbledore sitting on my bed, and staring at me with solemn eyes.

The adrenaline was still pumping through my veins and all I could think of was to get out. I did not bother to question nor even to consider why in Merlin's beard was Dumbledore there but all I could say before I could stop myself were the words, "We need to get out! Or else we both are going to die…"

Dumbledore remained quiet for a second, and then he said, gently, "You are already dead, Harry."

I stopped my pawing and brought my hands down, totally confused, "What?"

"You are already dead."

I realized that Dumbledore was being purposely ambiguous. Irritated, I asked, "What are you talking about?"

At the moment Dumbledore looked more tired than his years. Slowly he said, "This is not real. The fire is not real. You are already dead. This is only a memory." as he said this and he put his hand gently on my shoulder, as if to comfort me. I shrugged it off.

"What…" Although it was just three sentences, it took me a while to process all the information. How could this be a memory? I did not recall any of this happening.

"An Obliviate was cast on you. You might find a lot of this familiar but it's doubtful that you would remember it. You are dead right now, this is the afterlife. Don't worry about the fire. You can't die when you are already dead."

I was quiet. "I'm not dead," I said.

"Yes. You are."

"No. I'm not." It was a childish thing to say, but I could care less how I acted right now. How could Dumbledore tell me these lies at a time like this? Why was Dumbledore saying all these things?

Deep inside however, I realized that Dumbledore was not lying. Dumbledore did not lie. He with held information and sealed his mouth shut but I could not remember a single time he lied- at least to me.

"What is the last thing you remembered before you found yourself here, Harry?"

I thought for a second. Mentally, I pawed through my memory. I shifted through my most recently acquired thoughts. "Quidditch," I answered.

"What happened after Quidditch?" Dumbledore prodded.

I opened my mouth to reply. I then realized that I did not know.

Dumbledore, supplied the answer for me, "You died, Harry. You got hit by a dark spell cast by a death eater while you were flying. You would not be able to remember it even if you tried. It happened that fast."

I let myself absorb all this information. Yes, of course Dumbledore was telling the truth. I recalled the flying, the yells, I just did not remember the fire.

"So I am dead?"

"Yes."

"This is just a memory?"

"Yes."

"This is the afterlife?"

"Certainly."

Damn. I felt my stomach knot up in a wretched twist and all I wanted now was to push Dumbledore off the bed and crawl under the covers myself. I wanted to lie there, and if the fire got to me then thank god.

"What happened here?" I asked, "Why did you obliviate me?"

Dumbledore sighed deeply, "You died before, Harry. One day, after Dudley got into an accident, the Durselys quickly rushed him to the hospital. They left the stove on. They left you locked in the cupboard."

He let me supply the rest.

"Why am…was I still alive then?"

"I brought you back to life. I could not let you die, Harry. The prophecy… if you were gone, then the fate of the world would be lost."

We both were silent. The only noise came from the crackling of the fire, on the other side of the door. I was back to my normal self again and although smoke filled the room, I did not breath it. Suddenly, I started laughing, louder and louder.

It was so fuckin', funny! Funny. Vaguely, I wondered, how many times, Dumbledore screwed around with my brain. Maybe I died more than three times. For all I knew, I could have died a thousand times already. I would not be aware of it, if I did.

Slowly, I sobered. I thought about Hermione, Ron and the others. All those I would be leaving with my death. I wondered how they would fair without me in their lives.

But I did not think this long, because I knew that Dumbledore was not going to let me die.

"You are going to bring me back to life again, aren't you?"

Dumbledore nodded, "It's our only option."

"Are you going to Obliviate me then?"

"Not this time. I think you are rather old enough to take it now."

I dropped my teddy bear, I hadn't realized that I was still holding it. I did not want to stay here anymore. There was something unsettling about being dead.

I turned to Dumbledore and said, "Okay lets go."

A small hole appeared on a wall of my cupboard, it expanded until it was about the size of Dumbledore. Together, we stepped through the portal.

---

A/N: To be continued…

In the upcoming chapter:

-Harry is revived a year into a very different future (explained later)

-Draco enters the picture.

-A war ravages the wizarding world.

Extended Summary: A spell renders Harry Potter dead. Through Dumbledore's tinkering Harry comes back alive and discovers that he now possesses the power to go into the underworld and back and revive those who have died- but unbeknownst to the boy wonder, there are consequences. Enter Draco Malfoy. He is on the other side of the war. As the battle rages on, Harry is pulled into the fire. H/D slash

This was originally written in third person (Is it noticeable?) but I decide to change it all to first person. I don't normally like to write in first person but I decided that it will work well with this story because it would make it much more personal. It felt very distant when it was in third person form.

The idea of Dumbledore finding a way to make Harry alive because he "can't die" is similar to the premise of my other story "Light the Sky Above"… It might be similar in that sense but the plot and the idea of the rest of this story, I guarantee you, is entirely different.

Other notes:

1) It doesn't look like Veelas and Beast will be done this week. I have too much work. The only real reason I published "Thestral Gallop" was because I was finished with it long time ago already.

2) Thanks to Relle, I will be continuing on with "Light the sky above." I also plan to change the plot a bit. *beams*

3) Review please! It makes me write all the faster :D