Chapter 10

Harry woke up for the third time that day, this time in a white room.

"What happened?" he asked, sitting up and rubbing his forehead.

Harry glanced around the room again, taking in the padded-looking walls and the big window looking into the room. He stood up and walked over to it. Its surface was flat black, impossible to see through. He placed his hand on the glass and immediately it became transparent. On the other side stood men in white hospital robes and at the back of the room, Ginny, Ron and Hermione. They were watching him watching them and suddenly it clicked in his mind; he was being studied, examined.

"No!" he cried, "What am I doing in here?"

His friends came forward slowly, carefully, watching him as if he was insane.

"Guys? Please…what's going on?"

He pounded his fists uselessly on the magical glass, staring at each of his friends in turn. Each of their faces remained fixed in a sort of pained/horrified look as they watched him. Eventually Harry stopped pounding the glass and stared at Ginny.

For a moment their eyes remained locked before he let his hand slid down the glass and his shoulders slump. He dropped to his knees just below the glass and rested his head on the wall. He closed his eyes and tried to remember everything that had happened that day. But all his memory showed him were distressing images of his sons being torn from him.

He needed to escape, to save them. They were in grave danger. He sat that way for hours, on his knees with his head leaning on the wall, thinking. Harry vaguely recalled Ollivander telling him once that a wizard could perform magic without his wand (his of course had been removed). The wand only helped the wizard to channel the flow of magic and control it. If he could just harness that magic to help him escape-

A nearly invisible part of the white walls opened up and a few of the white-robed wizards filed in. They smiled in a way that made him uncomfortable, but that could easily have been the large needle full of yellowish liquid too, as they approached him.

He jumped to his feet and backed away from them, hands raised as if to say he meant no harm. He felt inside himself for his magic and tried to channel it through his hands.

The wizards went flying and he ran. As he bolted through the door he tripped over one of their arms. The wizard somehow managed to grab his leg and jam the needle into his exposed ankle. Harry kicked him in the face and got back up, still running.

Whatever was in the needle was fast-acting; as he ran he felt his body growing numb and heavy and he kept blinking rapidly to clear a drug-induced sleep from them. He heard as if from far away, alarms cry about his escape. Harry came to a stop at an intersection of two hallways. He could hear guards coming from his left and right and he leaned against the wall as he waited for them to find him.

The image of his children in danger forced his eyes open again and he staggered back onto his wobbly legs. He summoned the rest of his energy and thought of three things through his exhaustion:

Destination.

Determination.

Deliberation.

Not very long is it...

-_-

Seems I do have a thing for cliffhangers! Ha!

:)