Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter
A blast of cold air met Harry Potter as he stumbled through the Veil. He shielded himself with his arms and turned around. He saw the Veil rippling after his entrance to its hidden world.
Abruptly, it stopped. It seemed to be getting bigger. Harry squinted. The Veil was moving forward towards him. Slowly at first, then faster, and faster. Harry started running but it was gaining on him. He threw himself down with a scream, waiting to feel the Veil crush him. But it didn't. It just passed through him.
Harry raised his head and saw the Veil speeding away from him. He got up slowly, confused. Then he forgot about it, seeing he was back in the Great Hall. All the teachers and Ron were gathered there. Nobody seemed to notice him. He moved closer but still, nobody looked at him. He waved his hands right under Ron's face, but nothing. He gave up and listened to what they were saying. Dumbledore was telling McGonagall that there are ways in which something could have done something. Harry was puzzled but didn't do anything.
When Dumbledore left, he turned around and waved, right at Harry. Harry was startled and waved back uncertainly. Dumbledore chuckled silently and winked. None of the others noticed anything. Harry listened to Ron explaining the prophecy and, when he left, followed his best friend.
'Am I dead?' he wondered. 'Maybe it didn't work, and I'm an invisible ghost. But Dumbledore saw me….Or maybe he knew what would happen….Then why did he send me in?' Harry almost walked into Ron, being lost in his thoughts, but stopped in time. He wasn't really listening to Ron and Dumbledore's conversation, until his name came up. They were talking about the Veil disappearing. Harry was confused. The Veil disappeared?
"How do you know it isn't destroyed? How do you know that Harry isn't dead as well?" Ron asked, his voice rising.
"Ron! RON! I'm not dead! I'm right here!" Harry called, but Ron was still glaring at Dumbledore. The latter, however, looked past Ron at Harry. Ron, of course, didn't notice.
"Calm down," said Dumbledore. Before he could say anymore, Ron interrupted him.
"I'm not going to calm down! My two best friends are dead, and you're telling me to calm down!"
"No! I'm not dead!" Harry was screaming. "I'm….just invisible after going into the Veil," he added uncertainly.
"Listen," said Dumbledore putting a hand up. Was he trying to get Ron to hear Harry's screams? "The Veil can only be destroyed by its creator." Ron contemplated this for a moment. Then he started screaming again.
"And you never thought of calling the creator to destroy it!? Sirius and Hermione and many others might still be alive!"
"That's true. Hey! You could have told us!" Harry shouted.
"It's not that easy to call him," said Dumbledore.
"Oh yeah? Why not?" Ron said.
"Because-" But Harry never found out why not. Suddenly everything was dark. A freezing cold settled itself into the air. Harry shivered and looked around. He was back to where he had started from.
"What happened?" he wondered out loud. He looked ahead and saw the Veil still speeding away. His brows furrowed in confusion, but he didn't have long to think. Something hard hit him on the head. He swayed there for a moment, before he heard a thump next to him. He turned his head with difficulty (it hurt terribly) and saw a shattered block of ice. Another one fell in front of him and broke, then to his right, and behind him. Harry started running and when he looked back saw blocks of ice following him. He ran as fast as he could until he came across a fork.
On the wall above the left one it said: People who are dead, the right one said: People who are dead but don't want to be and the middle one said: It doesn't matter. You're still dead. All the tunnels take you to the same place. Harry raised his eyebrows and chose the middle one, ran in, and looked back. The ice blocks stopped falling but suddenly, a huge boulder of ice fell right to where he had just been standing.
Harry started to catch his breath. He looked around cautiously, making sure no ice boulders were falling anywhere else, and walked deeper into the tunnel.
An hour later Harry was still walking. It was all black; no plants, furniture, decorations. Lumos wouldn't work. He couldn't see how far he still had to go and when he looked back, it was just a black hole. Harry was devastated. Was this how it was supposed to be? He had imagined going into the Veil, getting everyone who died, and coming back out. He sighed and kept walking.
A couple more hours later, he saw a light. Shielding his eyes, he ran and ran for it, but it kept going farther away. There were people there. He could see them, standing in the light. Harry ran faster, but couldn't catch up. The people in the light would move back when he moved forward. When he stopped, they would stop too. Running again, Harry called to them.
"Wait!" he cried, his voice hoarse. "Don't go! Wait!" But they didn't listen. He stopped again, and this time they kept going. Farther and farther, until the light and the people disappeared. Harry sank down on his knees. Maybe the people weren't even there; maybe they were just a hallucination. He was going mad for sure. "How am I going to save Sirius and Hermione if I'm insane?" he asked himself. The question sounded so strange, he started laughing. Soon he was laughing so hard, he couldn't stop. But suddenly, as he was saying the question over again in his mind, his laughter ceased. "Sirius," he whispered. "You survived twelve years in Azkaban, and you were perfectly sane when you escaped. I can survive a day of this." With that, he got up and continued walking.
A while later Harry sank down on his knees, exhausted. He sat there for a bit, and then resumed his walking.
After what seemed an eternity, he felt something soft under his feet. Harry looked down, but didn't see anything. He knelt down and put his hand on the ground. A soft, grainy substance filtered through his fingers. Sand! Harry stood up excitedly, and looked for some light. He finally decided to try Lumos.
After saying the spell, he closed his eyes tightly. Then he opened them slowly, gradually getting used to the light. He didn't even take time to wonder about why the spell had worked this time. Looking at the ground again, he saw the sand. It was black, though, like the rest of this strange world. Harry glanced ahead of him. There was something there. He squinted, not able to see what it was. Moving closer, he realized it was a boulder. He walked over to the side of the rock, and ran his hand along the stone. It was smooth…but suddenly bumpy. Harry went over to the other side of the boulder, and ran his hand down that side too. This time it was bumpy first…then smooth.
The back of the boulder was smooth, then bumpy. And the front was the opposite. Bumpy, then smooth.
"Strange," murmured Harry. He looked around, but didn't see any more boulders. There was a pond, though. Harry ran to it, and looked in the water. His reflection stared back at him. He poked his finger in the water, and it melted into another picture.
A black-haired man, and a red-haired woman, standing side by side, smiling. Then another black-haired man and a brown-haired woman. A red-haired man appeared, along with a mostly grey-haired man. Harry was in front of them, suddenly. Harry looked around. There was no one there. He turned back to the pond. His mother, father, godfather, Hermione, Ron, and Remus were still smiling back at him. Harry remembered his first year.
He conjured a mirror, broke it in half, and separated one half of the glass from its frame. He cupped some of the water into his hands, and poured it onto the frame. Then he put the mirror all back together, and looked at it. They were all there now. He looked at the pond. They were there as well. Harry smiled. He had made another Mirror of Erised.
"But how was the original made?" he wondered. He thought about it, and, realizing there was no possible way they used the water form this pond, shrugged. "In any case," he said to himself. "I've made a mini-Mirror of Erised."
He conjured up a bottle and put some of the water inside, just in case. Then he shrunk the mirror and put it in his pocket, along with the bottle.
It was cold. The wind was howling in Harry's ears. He crossed his arms and put his hood up, trying to get some extra warmth. Instead, it was even colder. Harry squinted against the snow that was falling. His ears and nose were red; his lips were blue. The only way he could still feel his fingers was the excruciating pain in them from the cold.
He was walking down a path surrounded with dead trees. It seemed like it would never end. The snow was piling up on either side of him with alarming speed. He kept his arms crossed and head down. The wind was biting at his ears and growing louder. Suddenly he felt cold on his neck. He looked up. The snow had reached his head.
In the distance he saw a man. He had a white beard and white hair. He was coming closer until he was standing right above Harry. Harry reached out his arm for help; he needed to get out of the hole.
"Please," he whispered. The man just continued watching him. He looked like he knew everything that was happening to Harry, everything that had happened, and everything that would happen. The man looked like he knew everything about Harry, and that scared him.
The old man watched until Harry was covered in snow. All he could see was blackness and all he could feel was cold, wet cold, all around him.
Then, suddenly, it was heat. The snow was gone and the sun was out. Harry basked in the warmth for a little before the heat became unbearable. Sand was starting to fly everywhere, flying up into his eyes and dirtying his hair. When it touched his scorching skin, Harry felt like screaming, long and loud.
He began walking. Soon, he was thirsty; he needed water. He searched for that little bottle with the water. When he found it, he uncorked it and lifted it up. He started to tilt it so the water would pour into his mouth, but it slipped and fell. Harry watched in horror as the glass shattered and the water was absorbed by the sand.
He fell onto his knees and started frantically trying to bring the water out of the sand again. He brought the sand up to his mouth and was trying to suck the water out.
But then, he felt someone watching him. He dropped the sand and stood up quickly. It was the same old man. For a second Harry thought it was Dumbledore with his hair cut, but the eyes were brown and lifeless.
"Who are you?" Harry croaked. But the man just stood there, looking at Harry while the sand built up around him, blinding him, filling his mouth, nose, and ears…
Harry sat bolt upright, gasping and sweating. He looked around. It was dark and he was lying on a blanket. He had transfigured a rock into it. The pond with the Erised water was next to him. He crawled over to it and leaned his head over to look. Everyone was there. It had just been a dream.
Suddenly, he noticed something. What's that? Harry wondered. He squinted at the water. There was something on his mouth. He reached up and touched his lips. He felt something grainy on them. Sand.