Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

It hit him. It hit him and time ground to a halt. Surprise was etched on Harry Potter's face as the curse stuck his chest and lifted him off the ground. Across from him, Voldemort smirked in triumph and as their eyes connected, time resumed its normal course. As if shot from a cannon, Harry Potter flew through the Veil, defeated.

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A mysterious breeze drifted out of the curtain into the usually undisturbed chamber, and suddenly a body came rocketing out of the Veil, like a bludger after a Chaser. Harry's body skipped and tumbled across the cold stone until it finally came to a rest about ten meters away from the portal.

Scrambling to get to a defensive position, Harry rolled over and raised his wand to protect himself from his attackers.

Only there were no attackers.

Casting his head around wildly to look for Voldemort and his Death Eaters, Harry jumped to his feet readying himself for an attack. Slowly backing away until his back touched the wall, Harry had a bevy of curses ready on the tip of his tongue.

"Where the bloody hell are you? Come out and face me, you bastard! Why the tricks? Are you not certain that you can beat me now? Do you have to attack in hiding? Is that what you have to do now to beat me? Come out Voldemort!"

Silence reigned in the stone chamber. A few minutes passed and bewilderment swept away the frantic paranoia Harry was experiencing. Slowly moving forward, Harry began to take stock of what had happened over the past few minutes in his life. The battle replayed in his head up until Voldemort's banisher had thrown him backwards.

Realization dawned upon Harry, as he remembered what exactly was behind him.

Sheer terror gripped Harry as he charged towards the Veil. Shouting all along the way, "No, no, no, no, no! It can't end like this! No! I can't let it happen like that." All his efforts to force his way back
through the Veil were in vain, though.

Pounding his fists into the stone-wall like Veil, Harry continued to scream and cry out, trying with all his might to get back through to the other side. Sliding down the wall in exhaustion, Harry did the only thing he could do. He wept.

He hated it. He hated himself for doing it, but he continued until sleep claimed him.

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Harry awoke with a start. Something wasn't right. Jerking upright, Harry looked frantically around desperately trying to find what was out of place. That's when he remembered the previous night.

Harry could only stare in shock at the Veil.

He didn't know when he came out of it, but once he did he searched for his wand that he had cast away in his desperation. What he found made him fall to his knees. Reaching out with a shaky hand, Harry picked up his broken wand. As he raised it level to his eyes, the few strands holding the pieces together broke and with a small clatter the top half of his wand lay on the floor.

Throwing his head back, Harry shouted aloud in fury. "Fuuuuuuccccckkkkkkk!"

Heaving himself up, Harry released the other half of his wand and kicked the pieces away. Pulling himself together, he composed himself.

'Can't let yourself be beaten Harry. You can get back. There is a way. There has to be a way. It'll take some time, but you'll do it. You have to. People are counting on you.' Harry thought to himself. 'Just stay calm. You need to find someone, get some supplies, and then you can come back.'
With that in mind Harry set out to find the people of what he had silently deemed the "Otherside".

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Harry awoke with a start. Something wasn't right. Jerking upright, Harry looked frantically around desperately trying to find what was out of place.

The Veil had a breeze he noticed. The Veil never had a breeze. Harry's mind raced over all the experiments he had tried the previous day, as he stood ready with a wand in hand.

From the other side of the Veil tumbled out a person. A person he had dreamed of seeing again almost every night for over six years. Hermione Granger gave out a groan of pain and slowly stood up.

Disbelief was in Harry's green eyes as his long time friend raised her head, and in confusion called out,
"Harry?"

He crossed the short distance and engulfed Hermione in a hug. Harry gripped her to his body, and whispered, "Is it you? Is it really you, Hermione?"

"Harry? You're still alive. How? We had all figured you died when Voldemort, banished you through the Veil. How am I alive for that matter?" Hermione queried.

Still gripping her tight, Harry, let out a laugh. "That's my Hermione. Haven't changed one bit! Your guess is as good as mine. One minute I'm battling Voldemort the next I'm alone and in a desolate place. How did you get through to here?"

With a grave face, Hermione answered him, "After you died. Er, sorry. After we had thought you died, we had to retreat. Voldemort took control of the Ministry, and has ruled Britain for the past six years. We tried to continue our resistance, but we were picked off one by one. They eventually learned of Grimmauld Place, and attacked us when we had least expected us. No one got away. They tortured some, they killed most, and they sent me through the Veil."

Saddened by the tale, Harry pulled Hermione close once again in a hug. "I'm sorry I couldn't be there for you. I'm sorry I wasn't strong enough to stop Voldemort in the Department of Mysteries."

They stayed standing together for awhile, and eventually pulled apart.

She looked into Harry's eyes and asked him, "So what do we do now? Who else is here? Are we in some sort of alternate dimension? I never thought I'd say those words, but after being flung through the Veil and coming out alive, I have to assume it's something different from our dimension."

Looking down, Harry let Hermione babble on about multi-versal theories and dimension travelling for a few minutes, before cutting her off with a quick pronouncement of, "There's no one else here."
Hermione stopped dead. "Pardon?"

"You and I are the only two. We're alone." Harry replied.

"Surely you're joking. There can't be a whole universe exactly the same as ours, but not have anyone here. It's ludicrous." Hermione argued.

"I looked high and low. I travelled the world searching for life. Not a soul, aside from you and I, is here on this Earth. The Veil was used for punishing criminals. Now we know to what extent to what they were punished." Harry stated frustrated with the issue.

Hermione was stunned into silence. Harry could see the cogs in her head spinning at the information grind to a halt. They stood looking at each other for what seemed like an eternity, until she asked the questions he knew would come up.

"What about the others that went through the Veil? There had to have been men and women go through. They could have populated with other male prisoners and hidden themselves in case of retribution from the people that sent them here." She asked.

"No. No one's here. They all died long ago. Alone and out of mind from the people that sent them here." Harry responded.

He could see the next question go through her brain. One he never wanted to admit, not even to himself.

"What about Sirius? He could've survived till you had gone through. Why isn't he here?"

"Sirius is here." Harry stated. Continuing before Hermione could ask more questions. "I found him in one of the back rooms in the Department of Mysteries. The top of his skull was blown off, and this wand was in his head." Harry said holding up the piece of wood in his hand.

Her hand flew over her mouth in horror. "Oh Harry, I'm so sorry!" And she grabbed a hold of Harry again. "What do we do? We're alone and stuck here till we die."

"We try to get back home." Harry said simply. "I've been working on this Veil for the past two years. I've learned some from it, but not nearly enough. With the two of us we can cover multiple subjects, and maybe get back home. We can do this, Hermione. We will do this!"

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Harry awoke with a start. Something wasn't right. Jerking upright, Harry looked frantically around desperately trying to find what was out of place.

"Hmmm. What's wrong Harry? Why did you wake up?" Hermione sleepily questioned.

Lying back down, Harry rolled over and pulled Hermione close to him and responded. "I had a bad dream. We were back in the Department of Mysteries fighting Voldemort. It was at the start. I saw you fighting and this brown curse was headed towards your back. I yelled out your name, but it hit you anyways. It cut you. It cut you deep. I saw you fall and I ran up to you. The healing spells I tried wouldn't work. You kept losing so much blood. I couldn't save you. I failed you. And then I heard Voldemort cackling. This rage took over me, and I got up to fight him. Now I'm here with you. It. It just felt real. I felt like it happened."

Rolling over to face Harry, Hermione looked him in the eyes. "It was just a bad dream, love. I'm here with you now. It was just a bad dream."

Climbing on top of him, Hermione looked down and spoke softly, "Let's see if we can make those bad dreams go away." And with that she leaned down and gave him a smouldering kiss.

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Harry forced his arm through the Veil. It had taken thirteen years of study and testing, and they had finally had a break through. The Veil wouldn't let matter through it, so they had found a way to work around that. A spell that covered the matter that needed to go through allowing the matter to bypass the Veil's restrictive access.

Looking back to Hermione, Harry grinned before pulling his arm back.

"We did it Hermione! We finally did it! We broke through!" Harry joyfully shouted.

"Harry?" Hermione questioned.

"Yes love? What is it?" Harry asked confused. Shouldn't she be as happy as he was? They had finally
broken through. They were finally going home!

"How did you survive all those years without going insane?" Hermione asked.

"What?" Harry said. A look of pure bewilderment etched into his features.

"How did you not go insane without anyone to talk to those first six years you were here?" Hermione asked again.

"Damn it, Hermione! Now isn't the time to ask asinine questions. All that matters is that I broke through!" Harry said heatedly. He slowly lost his anger and quickly replaced it with the joy from earlier.

"I broke through." Harry said with a smile.

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Harry sat alone in the empty stone chamber against the Veil, clutching a crushed and broken arm to his body, rocking back and forth as he softly whispered to himself, "I broke through. I broke through. I broke through."

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A little challenge Averis gave me a while ago. Finally posting it here.