A STRANGER AND HER SYMPATHY

CHAPTER TWO

STRANGERS

Walking along the dark streets of London, Harry searched for a nearby open store for his Uncle's errands. It was kind of ridiculous come to think of it; Vernon wanted him to buy some late night snacks for him and his pig looking son Dudley. It looks like Petunia lost the battle of enforcing diet with her family, so she finally gave in and turned into the state of denial.

Finally, he saw an open store and bought three bags of munchies; Harry then went outside and went off to the nearest bus stop. As he got on the bus he waited for half an hour, he sat on the window side and watched the alleys as the bus passed.

"Huh?" Harry said as he saw something from the darkness.

It maybe his mind playing tricks on him again but he was sure that he saw two figures watching him from an alley that the bus passed by. He quickly turned to get another look but he was going way too fast.

He swore that he knew the two watching him. To him, it looked like the couple back from the restaurant earlier. Something was really wrong, he thought. Was it possible that he had stalkers? Or maybe some kind of mean prank that the Durleys were in. No, they wouldn't waste the time. Maybe they're one of those crazy kids who murders just for kicks.

"You alright there kid?"

Harry jumped in surprise; he turned around and saw the bus conductor right in front of him with a skeptic look on his face. The way Harry looked at it, the conductor didn't really seem to trust teenagers…especially at night.

"Where you off to?" asked the conductor.

"Magnolia Crescent, near Privet Drive." Harry answered, as he gave his fare.

"What would you be doing in downtown London in the middle of the night?" he asked Harry as he lingered down at Harry's groceries.

"I just went to get an errand on my way home from work." said Harry feeling uncomfortable.

The conductor narrowed his untrusting eyes at Harry. But instead interrogating him more, the conductor turned to the other passenger three seats behind him.

After ten minutes or so, Harry got down off the bus and started his long walk towards Privet Drive. Harry was used to walking this time of night. When things were getting too hot at the Dursleys, he would take a walk for hours just to wait until things to settle down. After years of making his way through the dark streets of Magnolia Crescent, he has never been mugged by any robber. The only thing that he would like to avoid was Dudley's gang prowling the streets. Everytime they'd spot Harry, they would beat him up until he was too unconscious to stand up. Harry was too tired that night to brawl.

Just a few blocks away from the bus stop, it suddenly happened…Harry looked up the sky but saw no stars, only pure darkness, but that's not all, the street lights were mysteriously dying one by one as the coldest breeze he had ever felt before ran all through his body. It was sickening and it was like his insides would flip out.

"What the?" he asked turning to every direction.

Now everything is black and it seemed like the life was being sucked out of him. Right then, Harry saw it. Where an alley was right supposed to be, a pair of eyes glimmered from the distance. He wanted to shout but it seemed that he was too weak to do so. Harry knew that he needed to run away from whatever it was.

"You can't run away from death Harry Potter, no one can." a cold, dark voice came from behind Harry.

Whatever it was, it was catching up to him. He didn't know why, it's either that thing was fast or he was just running too slow. Realizing that he wasn't paying that much attention on where he was running to, he looked in front of him, but to his fear, he found out that there was another pair of gleaming eyes slowly making its way towards him.

Harry's instinct quickly told him to avoid what certain to be total danger. He instantly jumped to his left and ran for his life. It was only then when vision started shooting through his brain. He saw things he has never seen before, a picture of a woman crying out his name, a face of a boy lying lifeless on the ground within a dark graveyard, the knowledge of a man losing his life as he was falling through a strange veil.

He opened his eyes; he must have passed out for a couple of seconds. Harry wanted to get up but he was too weak to do so. The strange thing is he wasn't feeling anything but grief, misery, regret and all of the worst feeling imaginable.

"I am death, Harry… and I am definite." called the frightening voice only footsteps away from Harry.

Harry looked up, sure that he was about to die. But what fear of death gave Harry only one thing in mind was anything beyond this world is sure to be a better one. The dark creature was now in right front of Harry. As he struggled to stand, the creature slowly leaned towards him, revealing its shapeless face. And the only thing that Harry could see was its eyes and its mouth which seemed to be sucking the air right out of him. But suddenly, he heard a familiar voice.

"Expecto Patronum!" he heard a female bellow.

All that Harry could see then was light erupting from somewhere behind him. He didn't know why but this seemed to be the reason why the creature attacking him had stopped and started to back away. Seconds later, Harry saw some sort of white silvery mist shooting through the hooded monster, causing it to screech in pain as it dispersed into nothingness. After that, he heard the same voice speak again.

"Ron, there's another one, keep a good look. It just might attack again."

"You don't think Harry's who their after, do you?" Ron replied.

"Don't just stand there, help him out." the female voice ordered.

When Harry felt someone trying to help him up, he quickly withdrew his hand.

"Don't touch me!" he said with all his strength.

"Harry, it's okay, it's me." Ron standing his ground.

"Get away from me you hear!" said Harry warningly.

"It's alright, we're here to help you." it was now clear to Harry that the couple from the restaurant earlier was the same people involved in this crazy predicament.

His head was throbbing and his legs refused to move. For a moment, he thought that he was immobile. And then later he stood up himself even though Ron insisted on trying to help Harry. When he was finally sure that everything was working well, he quickly made a run for it.

"Wait! Harry, don't go! It's dangerous!" called Hermione.

"The only thing dangerous is you!" Harry shouted.

He then picked up a couple of rocks and started to throw them at the two, who were chasing him.

"Ouch!" yelled Ron as he was hit by one on the eye.

"Get away from me!" Harry continued on, throwing anything that his hands could pick up on the ground.

"Harry, stop it! Please!" pleaded Hermione as she tried to block Harry's pebbles.

Finally running out of rocks, Harry saw an old worn-out boot close to him.

"No! Don't!" Ron yelled at him.

"Harry, don't touch that!" Hermione screamed.

But Harry was stubborn, thinking that they were trying to manipulate him. Harry quickly grabbed the boot. And that's when everything came spinning around him. He felt like he was being sucked into the tornado. The next thing he knew, he could not make out anything.

"I told him not to touch it." Ron told Hermione.

The next thing he knew, he was lying on the ground with his left cheek lying on the sand. He saw a huge lake through the darkness. Harry stood up and adjusted his glasses. He couldn't believe what he was now seeing; he wasn't at Pivet Drive anymore. Wherever he was, it wasn't a place he was familiar with. He was even asking himself if it were still on the same country. He looked behind and saw the most beautiful castle he had ever seen. It was a big castle and lights were on; there he saw towers after towers.

"Where the hell am I?" he asked himself incredulously.

But suddenly, bubbling sounds were heard behind him. Harry quickly turned around at the lake and saw some sort of motion coming from underneath the water. He didn't have anytime to think what it was, because without any warning, a giant tentacle burst out of the water… quickly followed by an even more-bigger body of a squid.

Harry stared at it frozen; the next thing he knew was falling backwards and losing consciousness.