AN: Recognized that the formatting I had didn't carry over from when I uploaded these, I'll have all the chapters revised for that shortly after this chapter's posted.

Chapter 4: My Head Hurts

Harry jolted slightly as he saw he wasn't slowing down-and passed through a bird. He spluttered for a second, before realizing quickly the ground was right below him. A house seemed to grow in between two others-seemingly there but not. Magic.

He ended up diving straight through it, and landing in his body. He took a deep, surprised breath as his eyes flew open. He coughed, as he felt some weight on his abdomen lift and bushy hair come into his vision as he tried to sit up. As the vertigo settled and he moved to a sitting position on the table, he heard Hermione draw in a breath. Hurriedly, he scrambled over to clamp his hand over her mouth. He gave a light 'shh' before pulling his hand off.

"Harry! You're...alive," Hermione muttered, half in shock, half overjoyed. "We...we were sure we lost you."

"Yeah. I'm alive. And...I gotta go," Harry muttered. He looked toward the corner of the table, deliberately trying to avoid looking Hermione in the eyes. He'd gotten just a glimpse, and saw she had really red eyes. He knew why.

"Why? You just got back. And everyone will be happy to see you again," she replied softly, slightly reaching out for him. Harry grimaced slightly.

"I can't. There's...I gotta.." Harry muttered in response, not wanting to leave. An odd feeling enveloped him. I can stay. There's no problem with that.

Hermione stared at him for a moment, before both jumped as the door opened. Dumbledore appeared in the doorway, his face set. "Ms. Granger, I ask that you leave," Dumbledore ordered, his sleeve concealing his right hand. Harry gave a slight gulp as he recognized what that could mean. Hermione looked between the two, before shaking her head.

"No...turning my back on Harry's what made him go through everything. I can't," she replied, in a rather rebellious attitude for her. Dumbledore simply sighed.

"You will not like this," he stated simply, before lifting his right arm. He very lightly said a spell, one that flew and hit Harry dead-center in the chest. He yelled as his back arched in pain-a white essence pouring out of his chest. Moments later, a smaller black essence began swirling around it as Harry passed into unconsciousness. The white essence began pulsing, growing brighter-before it sent a magical bolt straight at Dumbledore. He snapped up his wand, a chair blocking it.

"Of course. But this one is protective," he said absently, beginning to cast another spell. Instead, he was interrupted by the black essence coalescing into a form of Bellatrix Lestrange. The form smirked at him, her hand raising and swiping at Dumbledore.

Dumbledore snapped another shield up-and found it passed through by whatever Bellatrix had done, knocking him unconscious. The form looked back at Harry, frowning. It moved back to its original black essence form, and sank back into his chest along with the white essence. Harry's deep breathing resumed as he woke back up.

"The hell," Harry muttered weakly, before shaking his head. He moved to get off the table, before realizing Hermione had grabbed his hand.

"What was that, Harry?" she asked. "That looked like Bellatrix Lestrange. I've read about her," she muttered softly, unsure of what else to add in. Harry grimace returned.

"I...she...we made a plan to get out because of my execution. I need to get her, and get to Hogwarts," Harry answered. Hermione let go of his hand.

"Harry...she's a murderer. Torturer. She was one of the most feared witches, probably the most-feared that Voldemort used. Why help her?" Hermione's voice lowered as she began to be annoyed. Harry closed his eyes and he finally got off the table, standing rather unsteadily.

"I...there's more to this. I think there might be more to her, now that she's...well. She had a nearly complete black soul before, from what I saw. And yet the fragment still trapped in me just defended me without a complaint," Harry said. Hermione finally glared at him through narrowed eyes, before giving a huff. "It looked happy to."

"Whatever. I don't want to do this, but I have to apparently," Hermione shot back. She moved, and all Harry could do was attempt to not fall over as she did so.

Bellatrix's eyes flicked open before shutting again. The light was extremely bright-too bright for her to care for. She lifted her arm slowly to cover the sunlight as she opened her eyes again. Her arm felt heavy and stiff, but she still managed it with no problems as she lifted her head up to look around.

She was surprised to see herself being transported on one of Azkaban's boats, even moreso to see that only a single man was commandeering the boat. Normally an Auror or two came along, but apparently either the standards had been relaxed or there simply wasn't enough Aurors in for that day.

Well, with what Harry's done...no surprises there. Probably stopping wizard riots. Wonder if I could get in one of those...Bellatrix's mind quickly fleshed out a plan-but was unhappy with the little pleasure it gave to imagine.

And I have to figure out what's going on with what just happened too. That was...exceptionally off. Ah. Who am I kidding? I need to get a wand first, before all else. And I've one right in front of me.

She carefully slid off the table, trying to avoid making a noise on the wooden floor of the boat. She nearly felt like falling over, but she managed to clumsily lunge at the man's back. He yelped in surprise and threw his wand backwards, into the back of the boat. She got her arms around his neck and pulled as hard as she could-her knee jamming into his back to put him more off-balance and add pain to remove some of his strength

She didn't smile as his floundering attempts to pry her arms off failed due to surprise and her locking her arms in place. He finally died, his eyes open and able to stare at her. She grimaced as she retrieved the man's wand, before pointing it at him. She wanted to simply obliterate him-but something was holding her back.

She growled as she simply conjured a clean, white sheet over him. She tapped the side of the boat to keep it moving towards shore-but altered the direction to emerge on a random coast. What's the bet that this act of kindness towards some random person will be the death of me?

Hermione moved quickly to Harry's side, helping him up as Harry kept muttering a small thanks. "Fine. You're my friend. But you're going to explain," Hermione said as she put his arm across her shoulders, helping him to be stable. Harry glanced at Dumbledore for a moment.

"They snapped my wand," Harry stated softly, a hint of sorrow in his voice to lose his wand. "I don't want to do this to him-but can we get Dumbledore's wand? Ollivander could make him another, so it won't be that big a deal...right?"

Hermione gave him an unhappy look, but led them both over to Dumbledore. Harry gently pulled the wand out of the headmaster's hand, noting with some modicum of surprise that Dumbledore was snoring lightly. "Stealing from the headmaster...you really did go insane in Azkaban."

Harry frowned as they began walking towards the door. "No...it was after the Dementor took one of the souls from me. That changed everything," Harry muttered softly as he looked at the wand. Hermione looked at him oddly from her position at his shoulder.

"What's wrong with the wand?" Hermione asked as she looked at him, worried. She didn't know much of wands-but she knew it could work like Ron's did after it had broken. Harry turned it over, mystified.

"Nothing...it just feels perfect. Amazing. I...don't know why," Harry's voice was very soft as he spoke, before shaking his head. "Doesn't matter. Need to get Bellatrix. She should be on the Azkaban shores by now," he finished saying as they finally neared the entrance hall, surprised at the lack of people around them.

Hermione's frown returned in full force at the mention of Bellatrix's name, but nodded. "I can get your Firebolt real quick, you just stay here in the entrance hall," Hermione commanded, running to the staircase and beginning to run up the stairs. He heard the muffled sound of a door slamming-as another opened. Sirius stepped out, just out of sight of Harry.

"Hermione," Sirius' voice barely reached Harry. "I cannot believe Dumbledore, he had to have known the Minister would be ready for all this. He just had to get our hopes up..." Sirius' voice caught in his throat as streams of tears began falling again. "I shouldn't stay holed up in my room-I need to say goodbye to him," Sirius' voice came back to Harry-and worried him as he began moving towards the room he was just in.

Harry was stuck-not knowing what to do. Before he had even decided, his godfather stepped into the room over and shut the door quietly. At the exact same time, five seconds later, both the door Hermione had gone through and the door Sirius had done likewise burst open. "HARRY!" Sirius called out, all-out sprinting past everything in the house for him.

Hermione shrieked the same thing after Sirius, moving down the stairs as quickly as possible. Of course, she was too late. Sirius had Harry snapped up in his arms, laughing and crying hysterically. "Harry, you're..." Sirius said, more muffled this time. Harry gave a weak chuckle.

"Yeah...but I gotta go," Harry muttered in response. Sirius pulled back, surprised.

"But...here's perfect. It's safe."

"There's things I need to do, I...heard things in Azkaban that could change what's going on here," Harry offered weakly in response. Sirius frowned.

"Wherever you're going, I'm going as well. There's no point in letting you roam alone," Sirius challenged as Hermione slowly moved closer.

"You're the biggest criminal to the Ministry that escaped, I was taken in by friends for a funeral! At least if I'm seen alive, they'll just declare someone's pulling a leg. You? They'll be up in arms!" Harry responded unhappily. "I'll tell you about it when I get back. Alright?" Harry said softly, offering a compromise. Sirius looked very annoyed at this prospect, but grunted.

"Fine. Just please come back as soon as you can, Harry. I don't want you to be caught again," Sirius finished, letting go of Harry's shoulders. "Just...come back."

Harry gave a simple, single nod as he turned to Hermione. Hermione walked with him, opening the door as Harry's back straightened a little bit and he walked towards his future. "It's bright outside..."

Yes, it's short. Yes, it's a little late. But I've been caught up in reading and life a little bit.

Anyone here love Star Wars fanfics? I've just read a two-part series that actually left me with some Manly Tears.

By the Grace of Lady Vader, and the Ascension which is its sequel. I'll also fix the YouTube link-probably by simply removing it.