Chapter Two - Dreamland
Ron didn't sleep at all that night and the morning couldn't have come sooner. The light of day shone through the windows, and Ron stared at the empty bed where the body of Alison had lay until the early hours when the teacher's had moved her to a disclosed location. Ron had spent all night thinking about her, trying to put together the puzzle when it seemed he only had very little pieces. The Blade under his pillow also rested heavily upon him, the note said it was from Harry, and he knew Harry had written the note because he had been staring at his handwriting for the last six years, and he was certain that it was his handwriting.
"You have no idea how special you are" he heard those words in his head once more, they had stuck with him more than the others, she had said them with such certainty, but how?, he had never known her, met her before or even seen her before she had died in his arms and yet she had kissed him, told him he was special and suddenly he remember something else, something he had overlooked but now remembered; she had knew his name, she had walked in and had called his name, she couldn't possibly known who he was, but she had recognised him, she had known him.
8:15 he got his first visitor and to his disappointment and annoyance it was his girlfriend; Lavender Brown.
"oh Ronnie!" she squealed seeing him awake "you're awake, I've been so worried about you, my dear Won-Won, don't worry, I'm here to look after you now!" and she hugged him tightly, ironically causing him more pain.
"I can't believe you almost died, and nobody told me either, I had to find out like everyone else can you believe that, I mean you're my boyfriend and they didn't bother to tell me" and Ron was speechless, though this did answer one thing, if Lavender wasn't asking him for a first hand account of what happened last night then he didn't know, and if she didn't know then none of the students did, because she knew all the gossip. She suddenly reached over and grabbed his pillow "let me fluff that up for you" she smiled but Ron quickly and a little too hard placed his hand to stop her, her eyes opened wide and she seemed shocked.
"Listen Lavender" Ron spoke, he didn't have the patience for her at the moment, and his min was only on one thing "I need you to do something for me, I need you to go find Harry and tell him I need to talk to him" he spoke, trying to sound as polite and kind as possible but Lavender still seemed a little hurt.
"You want to see Harry?" she spoke, her voice small "anyone else you want to see?" and there was a edge in her question that Ron couldn't understand but he quickly shook his head "no just Harry, and I promise after we'll spend all day together" he smiled and a second later internally slapped himself for his words, what a stupid thing to say but it seemed to work as a bright smile appeared on her face.
"Sure" she smiled, her voice high "anything for you Won-Won, I'll go find him" and she leaned over, kissing him and he kissed her back before she turned and walked out the hospital wing with a spring in her step at the thought of spending the day with her boyfriend, unaware that he was dreading the prospect.
Harry Potter was sat at the Gryffindor table eating breakfast with Neville Longbottem, Hermione Granger and Ginny Weasley. Though his best friend was in the hospital wing it was hardly dampening his sprits as they were all laughing, mostly laughing about how Ron had behaved before his poisoning, his hilarious reaction to the love potions, Hermione however didn't seem to find this funny, apparently the whole situation was extremely serious and not something that should be laughed at. Harry took a different approach to the whole situation now that the danger had passed, it was all something which he couldn't wait to tease Ron about. It was Neville that noticed Lavender walking towards them, Harry noticed Hermione suddenly seemed tense, staring down at food which she was eating slowly
"Harry" Lavender said, a smile on her face, she seemed annoying happy as always "Ron wants to see you" she spoke, and Harry was surprised by this, was Ron actually requesting him to go and see him, that didn't strike him much as something that Ron would do.
"Sure, Hermione you want to come?" Harry asked stranding up but Lavender suddenly seemed to get annoyed "oh no, Ron asked for you alone, he told me to tell you not to let you bring anyone else" she spoke. Harry looked over to Hermione who seemed a little upset, Neville was watching the scene with curiosity. Harry climbed to his feet, grabbing his bag he began to walk out of the hall, wondering what Ron could possibly want. It was then he noticed Lavender had caught up to him.
"So why do you think he wants to talk to you?" she said, and Harry just shrugs his shoulders, he had absolutely no idea.
"Because he did seem quite serious, which is strange for him, and you know that you and him do have a lot of serious stuff going on, so do you think it could have something to do with that. You-Know-Who stuff" she said, not taking a serious breath as she spoke the sentence. Harry's good mood vanished, with the war in full swing he knew it wouldn't't be long before something came up that would cause him, Ron and Hermione another adventure like they seemed to have every year, apart from his lessons with Dumbledore, this year seemed to have been a normal one, which he found strangely ironic due to the fact this was the year that the war had become public..
"Did I ever say thank you" Lavender smiled "for saving my Won-Won" and Harry couldn't help but smile at her for the genuine appreciation in her voice. "I mean, I don't know what I would do without him, I mean, we have our whole lives ahead of us, after school, marriage, starting a family and it still hurts to think that all that could have been taken away from us" she said, and she looked generally worried and Harry sure he did too, but for many different reasons; he also wished that Ron could have been here to hear Lavender talk about marriage and children.
The hospital wing door opened and Ron turned to look as Lavender walked in, closely followed Harry. Ron let a slight smile appear on his face to keep up appearances, but also he was thrilled to see Harry, finally he was going to get some answers to the questions from the previous night.
"Won-Won, I hope you didn't miss me" Lavender smiled, and Ron smiled back slightly until she skipped towards him and gave him yet another hug. Ron felt himself turn red as he heard Harry's chuckles in the background.
"Lav, could you leave me and Harry alone for awhile" he spoke, and Lavender kissed him on the cheek before giving a smile to Harry she made her way out the room, closing the door behind her
"Harry I need to talk to you" Ron said as soon as the door was closed and Harry seemed surprised by the urgency in his voice. Ron lifted his pillow pulling out the wrapping he had hid their the previous night, as Harry walked closer filled with curiosity.
"Okay" Ron spoke as Harry sat down and then Ron told Harry everything which had happened the night before, about how Alison had came into the room, how she had given him the package before dying, once again however he failed to mention the kiss, he didn't know why he wanted to keep it to himself, but he did, he didn't know why but the way she kissed him felt private,
"This is the note" Ron said, holding it out in shaking hands as Harry took it Ron waited impatiently as he saw Harry's eyes scan the paper, and Ron's hopes dashed when he saw the look of confusion settle on Harry's face "I didn't write this"
"Then how did someone steal your handwriting?" Ron laughed, though he was annoyed at Harry's lack of knowledge
"I didn't write this Ron" he shot back "I don't even know what it means, know what?" and with that Ron smiled, he reached back into the pillow and pulled out the bloodstained blade, Harry's eyes grew wide as Ron held it out to him "makes things a little clearer doesn't it" Ron said as Harry paid special attention to the dried blood, his eyes briefly meeting Ron's and it was clear that neither knew much about what was going on.
"You think this has anything to do with You-Know-Who?" Ron asked knowing that Harry was thinking the same thing, a small smile appeared on Harry's face "well, since everything strange that happens in this place has something to do with Voldemort these days, I'm gonna guess this does too" and Ron chuckled along, it was true that everything came back to Voldemort in the end. Ron suddenly felt cold when a thought crossed his mind, it was the same thought which had crossed his mind a lot in the night "imagine what it must be like, to be like her" he spoke and Harry looked up at him, seemingly surprised by his seriousness and Ron continued "to die, and no one to even know who you are, just a random person that died where you happened to be" he finished, and they both thought for a moment, just how many times this had happened in the previous years, how many similar deaths has Voldemort caused, Ron kept telling solace in the fact that she had seemed to know him, or was so delirious that she had thought she had, and this seemed to comfort her in her final moments.
Harry left Ron alone in the hospital to be annoyed and loved by Lavender as he thought about what Ron had told him, the note was first and foremost in his mind, it had been his writing he was sure of that, but he also knew that he had never wrote it nor did he have any understanding about what it was about.
Everything went black.
Harry's eyes sprang open. Looking around he realised he was lay on the corridor floor. His head was pounding from pain, climbing slowly to his feet he couldn't sense the feeling that something was wrong, something was extremely wrong. He picked up his bag and began to make his way down the corridor, his footsteps echoed eerily throughout the empty walls, and Harry couldn't help it but they made him feel cold and alone. As he walked through the corridors, he was heading towards Potions class, he always hated the walk, it was far too cold in the dungeons, but this was different it was colder than usual, he could see his breath in front of his face, his glasses were becoming foggy from the condensation. Arriving at the class he now knew that something was indeed very wrong - the class was empty. No students, no teacher, no sign of life what so ever. Harry's eyes travelled to the corner, which was the most disturbing of all, the corner was charred, as if a large explosion had occurred, all the cupboards were destroyed and now lay in ruins, the nearest tables destroyed and the walls scorched black.
He started off walking towards the great hall, but something made him break out into a run, his footsteps echoed through the halls which Harry was noticing more and more that they shown no signs of anyone apart from himself, it's like Hogwarts was completely void of staff and students. Running as fast as he could, he finally reached the Great Hall - It was empty.
Not a single student, not a single teacher and not even a single table, all of it was just a wide open space confined to four walls.
"Hello?" a female voice spoke behind him, Harry turned to see a girl roughly his age standing behind him. She had long dark blond hair which was straight but slightly frizzled and large round blue eyes which seemed slightly too big for her face. Harry couldn't help but think how pretty she could have been had she not looked in such a mess. She was staring at Harry as if she was quite shocked and confused to see him.
"Hi" Harry spoke "where is everyone" and with that the girl smiled slightly at him, as if he was missing out on a big joke "no ones been here for a very long time" she replied "except for me of course" and her voice seemed to be sad at the thought and Harry was now more confused
"what's your name?" she asked and Harry blinked in surprise, he hadn't been asked his name since he was eleven years old, everybody always knew who he was.
"I'm Harry, Harry Potter" he answered and she smiled
"Hello Harry, I'm Alison Little" she responded
Harry and Alison stared at each other in a awkward silence, she looked as if she didn't know what to say next and Harry was too confused to think off anything to say.
"I might ask if I stay with you tonight, you know, I really don't want you to be alone" Lavender smiled and Ron couldn't help but groan at the prospect of the idea. "Haven't you got work to do or something, I don't want you getting behind on work" Ron smiled, secretly hoping that she would take the hint and leave.
"Nah, your much more important than work, its not like I'm Granger" she laughed at her attempt at the joke which Ron didn't find funny but just to make sure she didn't get annoyed at him, he laughed anyway.
The doors burst open with Dumbledore and McGonagall rushed into the room, between them was a unconscious Harry who was hovering in thin air. Ron jumped out of bed in shock, his head flashing in pain once more, Lavender rushed over to him, as he stumbled back onto his bed
"Won-Won!" she cried trying to balance him, but Ron was staring at Harry who looked extremely pale and lifeless.
"What happened!" Ron shouted over to Dumbledore as Harry was placed on a bed. McGonagall looked like she was going to take thousands of points for Ron shouting at the headmaster when Dumbledore seemed to stop her before turning to Ron "we are unsure as too how this happened, however I do believe that Harry will be fine"
"He doesn't look fine to me!" Ron shot back as Lavender held him tightly, stopping him moving any closer, her face was alert at the juicy situation she had found herself in the middle off.
"Mr Weasley, please calm yourself, I do believe you are doing your head no favours, like I have previous stated, we do not yet know what is wrong with Harry" he spoke calmly, and Ron couldn't help but feel slightly calmer at his words. Madam Pomfrey rushed into the room, heading straight to Harry, she seemed to be a little worried by his state. Dumbledore looked to be thinking heavily as he looked at Harry, and Ron couldn't help but think that he looked slightly troubled behind his half moon spectacles.
"So where are we?" Harry asked as him and Alison walked through the empty corridors of Hogwarts. "I don't know exactly, its been a while since I stopped asking that question" she smiled and Harry couldn't help but get annoyed at her lack of helpfulness
"well how long have you been here?" he asked
"February 1913" she replied and Harry almost died of shock at her answer, he stopped and stared at her, she seemed slightly unnerved by it, but Harry couldn't help herself, was she being truthful
"The date is the fourth of March 1997" Harry replied and he saw her eyes grow wider with shock, Harry couldn't help but believe her, he didn't think it possible for someone to fake such emotion in their eyes.
"You've been here nearly eighty years" Harry told her, and she seemed to have stopped completely "eighty years" he heard her mutter "I've been in this castle for eighty years" she continued, sounding disbelieving.
"You've never left the castle?, why not?" he asked and she span around suddenly looking serious "because they're out there" she answered simply and Harry had been through enough to know that was never good. Suddenly a large thunder ripped through the air, Harry jumped in shock, it was so loud his ears began to hurt "what was that!" he cried in pain, Alison was simply staring out the window, Harry walked up to her, glancing outwards into the distance where he saw what she was looking at, a giant storm seemed to be brewing on the horizon
"Its getting closer" Alison stated simply "and once it get here, nothing will survive"
"What makes you think that?" Harry responded and Alison turned to him.
"What do you think happened to everyone that used to be here"
A/N - Hopy you all enjoyed it and i look forward to reading all your lovely reviews about what you think and you're theorys about the chapter. Next chapter will be up in a week :)
