Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter…

Quote: 'I don't want to go!' – David Tennants last words on Doctor who =[ - Yes, I do understand that the majority of these Quotes have been Doctor Who related but… deal with it – I'm a Doctor Who geek xD

Doctor Who, The End of Time, Part 2. Those words made my friend cry xD She rang me after it in tears and told me she almost made it through but then he said those last words before he regenerated and she blubbered like a baby – right in front of her mum and dad =] I like to laugh at her emotional instability.

A/N: Exams? I has them. There done with now though so I'm allowed to write again! Whaaayyyy…. Or not. Whatever, I just got a selection box of Cadburys ((Kraft better hadn't make Cadburys chocolate taste like shit! Cadburys is a brilliant British institution, and British chocolate is the sweetest most sickliest chocolate on the bloody planet – if they ruin it there'll be hell to pay!)) chocolates and my sister ATE the Curly Wurly and the Buttons before I could get to them =[ I ate a different one though and it's too sweet, made me feel a bit ill, I'm also slightly hyper and that's not a good thing… ahhmm… I'm procrastinating. Fuck it, I have to write this, I wanna write chapter 11!

So here's to my beta Miss Birdie, who got this back to me today even though she's going on holiday tomorrow!

Blood and Chocolate

Part Two: UnReaL

Chapter 10: Caged

Previously: "I'd like to hope so."

I let go of his shirt, flattening my palm out across his chest, searching for some fragment of a heart beat. "How long do you think you've-" Of course, as fate would have it, I didn't even get the chance to finish asking the bleeding question before he was dropping down onto one knee, then two, and then I was on my knees in front of him, both hands in his hair, calling his name but not getting a response.

The scar on my hand was burning again, more ferociously than it had done earlier, but I barely noticed, everything was a blur as I watched him slip away like sand between my fingertips.

'Can you see the sky turn red? As morning's light breaks over me, Know tonight we'll make our bed at the bottom of the sea, of the sea, the sky turns red… like blood it covers over me. Soon the sea shall give up her dead. We'll raise an empire from the bottom of the sea…Can you see the sky turn red? Can you see the sky turn red? Can you see the sky turn red…?'

Something was wrong, very wrong. Only I couldn't pin-point exactly what that 'wrong' thing was, just that something was creeping up on me and it didn't feel right. Everything was black, quiet, desolate. It was like all life had been ripped out of the world and I was all that was left, on my own, with no way to fight it. But it was getting closer by the second like an approaching wave of just… nothingness, and I was frozen in time with no way of moving out of its path of destruction.

There were whispers, in the darkness, in languages I could never hope to distinguish. But the whispers escalated into spoken words, and then they were shouting, screaming at me and all I could do was listen, unable to decipher their pleas, but understanding their anguish, and the fear that came with it was slowly descending over me with all the force of a speeding train.

"He's gone, Sirius. It's three days from the full moon; I'd have been able to hear him breathing."

"He's stopped breathing before, Remus." The voice was frantic, and desperate. There was a pressure on my chest.

"Yes, but his heart isn't beating. He's strong, just like James – deep down you know that, and that he'll pull through."

"And what if he doesn't? I promised-!"

Suddenly it was like I could open my eyes again, and the creatures in the darkness were gone, the shouting diminished and the voices in the distance of my guardians faded from existence as I was propelled to the other side of the world.

It was a completely different climate, warm, around the manor house I was in, but there was snow mounting the surrounding area, large, towering mountains leaning in from all angles. It took me a second or two to realise that the manor itself was embedded half into the side of a cliff, in the middle of nowhere at a high altitude, far away from any civilization.

The manor itself was expensively decorated with Victorian styled furniture, old in style, but new in presentation. It was an out of body experience, like in one of my dreams where I was seeing everything from his eyes. I knew for a fact that I myself, as a person, was back at Grimmauld Place, in London, but my mind… well that was another matter altogether.

I felt a small tug toward the other room and was forced away from the balcony that I had arrived at into the darker depths of the house. The further I went, the fewer windows there were, until they were completely non-existent, not even an enchanted few to give the impression that you weren't underground, like at the Ministry.

I came to a stop at the very top of the building, under a large dome that surfaced at the top of the cliff, looking out and up into the night sky. Snow was falling down on it slowly, gracefully landing upon it and sliding down to the sides, stars just visible in the night sky through the falling white flakes of crystalline water and ice.

"How is the girl?"

My eyes locked onto the table sitting directly under it and the people around it. Voldemort was at the head of the table, having spoken. I was directly behind him, surveying the select few people sitting across from him as he did. Bellatrix was there, as was Snape, Lucius Malfoy, Fenrir Greyback and, of course, Saiph and Electra Capella. There were a couple more that I didn't recognise.

"In a state. Her little friend rejected her the moment he found out why the woman died." Snape. He looked quite smug for some reason. "And, from what I hear, Potter 'died' 15 hours ago. She's gotten herself into quite a bad state of mind."

15 hours? Already? It felt like 5 minutes…

"You say that like it's a bad thing." hissed Saiph from the other end of the table, face contorted with anger, looking ready to kill Snape.

His sister put her hand on his shoulder. "Calm, Saiph."

Snape smirked. "And yet you helped kill her best friend's aunt, with that intention, am I right? Why be angry about it now?"

"We agreed to that to get her isolated from her friends, not to upset her." he said lowly, glaring in the potions master's direction.

"And I'm assuming that it never so much as crossed your mind that not being around her friends would upset her in any shape or form?"

Saiph opened his mouth to argue, but Voldemort cut in. "Enough, children." He sneered at the two for a second, watching them go quiet under his gaze with unabashed satisfaction. "He's not showing any indication of waking up?"

Snape shook his head. "Not that I've heard of. Dumbledore is starting to worry."

'Border line, dead inside. I don't mind, falling to pieces. Count me in, violent. Let's begin, feeding the sickness. How do I simplify, dislocate - the enemy's on the way.'

My mind finally came to register some sort of music playing in the background, like from a few floors below, vibrating up through the manor, but the other occupants of the room couldn't hear it. I tried to move away from Voldemort, to look for the source of the sound but it wouldn't let me… whatever 'it' was. I was stuck.

Blocking out their conversation and concentrating on the sound, I strained my ears to hear it again. It had become so quiet I could barely hear it.

But right there, far off in the distance, I could see it, when I closed my eyes. The kitchen in Grimmauld Place, the people sitting in it barely distinguishable, but there. The music playing out of the wireless… then it was louder, drowning out all spoken word from Voldemort and his followers. It was like I was standing right beside the wireless.

'Full of fear, ever clear. I'll be here, fighting forever. Curious, venomous, you'll find me, climbing to heaven. Never mind, turn back time. You'll be fine - I will get left behind…'

I reopened my eyes and the manor with the snow falling down on the glass dome was gone, only to be replaced by the dark confides of the Kitchen in Grimmauld Place in the early hours of the morning. The low music was cutting through the silence in the room like the blade of a knife, the air in the room tense and dark. It was still dark outside, light from the lampposts outside shining down on the back of Ginny's head where she sat at the table. Her arms were crossed on the tabletop with her chin resting on her forearms, Ron and Hermione sitting near by with similar expressions of despair on their faces.

Sirius stood leaning against the wall behind Ron, arms crossed over his chest as he stared blankly out of the window opposite him. Mary was sat on the counter top to his right, one leg underneath her as she picked at her nails absently with worry. She looked up at Sirius briefly and sighed at the expression on his face before looking towards the kitchen door, waiting for the imminent arrival of the other Weasleys.

They all filed in, silent, one by one, taking seats at the table. Mrs Weasley went straight to her daughter's side, her fingers in her hair as she brushed it out of her face but Ginny only moved her head to bury further into her arms where her mother couldn't see her eyes glistening in the low light of the room.

Molly scowled. "Will someone turn that stupid thing off!"

Mary immediately jumped up, walking as slowly as physically possible to turn the wireless off.

'Show me what it's like, to dream in black and white, so I can leave this world tonight. Holding on too tight. Breathe the breath of life, so I can leave this world behind. It only hurts just once. They're only broken bones. Hide the hate insi-'

Everything was suddenly completely silent as the music came to a violent end and it quickly became clear to Molly Weasley why it had been playing in the first place. It was like everything had been set to mute, awkward and stifled. Sirius managed to stand there for a few seconds longer before he gave up and walked upstairs.

She cleared her throat and ignored the thick tension in the room to rub Ginny's back. "He'll be fine." she stated, more to the room as a whole than her daughter.

"It's been 23 hours. There's…37 minutes left." whispered Hermione.

Fred winced. "Well don't count, Hermione, you'll make it worse."

Ginny sat back and knocked her mum's hand off of her shoulder, brushing her hair back out of her face and over her shoulders with both hands. "Ginny, there's still a chance that he-"

"Why are you comforting her?" demanded Ron suddenly, and Ginny looked up in surprise. She looked hurt, and I wanted to tell her that I was fine, standing right behind her but I didn't have the means to.

"She barely knows him! He's been my best friend for the past 5 years. Hermione and I, we've been there for him through everything, and she's just suddenly decided to get all pally with him because he told her what was going on while we were away. Just because you knew before us doesn't mean he cares any more about you than he did before, Ginny. You don't know the first thing about him."

Hermione kicked him under the table as his mother turned to shout at him. Ginny shook her head at him, shaking with suppressed anger, but didn't say anything, standing up to leave the room.

I found myself being dragged behind her into the drawing room, where she collapsed onto the sofa in there and burst into a fit of silent tears, her hands over her eyes as she leant forward and braced her elbows on her knees. Her hair fell down in front of her face and she let out a quiet noise of annoyance, at herself or her hair, I didn't know, but she slid her hands up her face to push her hair out of the way again and wiped her eyes furiously with the heel of her hands, sitting back slightly and scowling at the ceiling.

Just as I tried to walk over to her I found myself flying upwards, through the ceiling and on up into the floor above. But I didn't stop, speeding up and gaining momentum until I hit something solid and I was sitting up straight in bed, taking in a deep breath of air. I found myself panting for breath, though I had no need of it, it wasn't going anywhere, the coldness of it just ripping right through me, chilling my already cold form to the bone.

Looking down I could see my hands, solid and intact, so was the rest of me, it seemed. For now at the least. I almost laughed. What the hell was that all about? Where had I even gone?

"You're awake!" Sirius was standing at the end of the bed.

I couldn't even reply. Remus was already talking. "Harry how do you feel?"

I frowned. "Fine, I guess. Confused, but I'm…fine."

"Then maybe he'll stay that way, maybe he doesn't need to-"

"It still might, Sirius, we need to take him in even if he feels 'fine' now. It's just a precaution." Remus was staring Sirius down, who looked slightly lost, walking over to the other side of the room.

"But what if-"

Remus shook his head. "Harry, come on, get up, we have to go."

I looked from him to the door and saw three men dressed in khaki combat trousers and dragon-hide boots. I could tell just by the expression of complete indifference on their faces at the situation that they were Aurors, if the dog-tags weren't any indication. It wasn't until I stood and two of them grabbed me by the elbow, one on each side, that I realised that they were Vampires as well.

"Oi!" Sirius protested from behind me.

The third came to stand behind us and Remus walked ahead, toward the fireplace they'd set up for the Healers. "Sirius-" he started.

"No, that's not necessary, he can walk! He's just a kid!"

"A potentially lethal, kid." said the one on my right, looking back to Sirius, who began to walk around the one behind me, anger flaring in his eyes.

"It's okay, Sirius." I whispered, looking over at him as best I could from the way they had me pinned. "I'm alright."

Sirius went quiet, eyebrows knitting together. He didn't look at all happy with the situation. I couldn't blame him.

The Auror behind me went through the floo first, then the two either side of me walked me over to it, one of them mumbling the location and throwing the powder. Closing my eyes against the soot flying around me, I tried to ignore the flurry of colours flying around me as we went hurtling toward the Ministry of Magic.

The first Auror was standing waiting ahead of us, ready to lead on when we landed in the darkened hallway deep in the recesses of the Ministry building. It was much lower down than the Department of Mysteries, I knew that much. It was just a long rectangle of concrete and mud, no windows, no doors, no exit. Once Remus and Sirius came through the floo behind me the fireplace popped out of existence and the Auror led on.

There didn't seem to be any way in or out of this part of the building other than the fireplace and that was gone. All that was ahead of them was a bend in the concrete cave and that led to a single door. The Auror led the way through the door and into another, completely different hall. I was surrounded by metal. It was like something out of a weirdly futuristic muggle movie, flashing lights and voice controlled databases.

The door vanished after Remus came through it and we were once again blocked off from any possible exits. At least this hall had doors.

Only they weren't wooden like the last. They were large hulking titanium bolted doors with series' of bolts, locks and coding covering them. I was led right down to the very end, and around a couple of bends before we stopped and the Auror in front began the lengthy process of opening one of the doors. It was at least 10 minutes before the door was forced open with a lot of effort involved on his part, and I was finally released from their grip.

"In you go."

I did as I was told, albeit awkwardly, walking around them and into a concrete room. Without bothering to look around, I turned back to the door. Remus was arguing with the one who had spoken to Sirius.

"I will be 2 minutes! You can count if you want! Just give me this."

The man grunted in response. "Hurry up."

Remus nearly fell through the doorway in an attempt to get to me quicker. Any anger etched into his face from fighting with the Auror melted from his face when he turned to look at me. He took a deep breath and walked forward, gently placing both hands on either side of the top of my head. I almost flinched back.

He caught the slight tremor as I resisted backing away and smiled grimly. "Yeah… I thought so."

"What?"

"The wolf in me… he doesn't like me being around you. He's been making me nervous to be around you ever since I came back from the Ministry with you. Deep down I knew what was wrong with you, it's the only reason why Moony'd want to stay away from you… I just hated to admit it." He frowned. "Werewolves and Vampires are natural enemies… your instincts should be telling you to stay the hell away."

I didn't like to agree with him, but apparently the expression on my face gave me away.

"Don't worry about it. I'm going to help you through this Harry, when you get out of here, and I'm promising you that you will. I know more about this than I'd like to admit." He laughed humourlessly. "I did a lot of research when I was younger about Werewolves and Vampires after I came to Hogwarts, and the moment I realised what you were I started up again. The fact that I was down in the Underground with people like us helped some as well. I can help. I can understand. I know exactly what you're going through Harry." He paused.

"Anything you need, just come to me alright? I was terrified when I first became a werewolf and I didn't have anyone to talk to about it – there are some things I didn't even tell James or Sirius, just… know that whatever it is, even if you've done something terrible and you don't want anyone to think badly of you, I won't judge you, because I know exactly how it feels. Do you understand?"

"Yeah." I mumbled. "I just wish I didn't have to do this at all."

"I know, I'm sorry." He replied. "But you'll be fine, okay? Sirius and I will be right with you all the way, just through there." He let go of me to point, with one hand, to a massive blemish in the smooth craftsmanship of the east wall. It was a large completely black glass pane embedded into the wall. "You may not be able to see us, but we'll be there the entire time, I promise."

I nodded, and he did the same, once. "I have to go, but it'll be over quicker than you think, I promise."

He walked back out into the hallway and past the Aurors, completely out of sight. The one nearest the door nodded to me calmly. "You'll be fine kid, if anyone can survive this, it's you." he said sincerely. The one who'd been arguing with Remus glared at the man heartily. Apparently they weren't supposed to talk to their charges.

"Thanks."

He made to close the door so I turned away, back toward the pane in the wall, only to be nearly knocked over as Sirius came barreling in and nearly knocked me over with the force of his bone crushing hug. "You didn't think I was going to let you go without saying goodbye, did you?" He grinned down at me and I laughed, but the words 'goodbye' rang through my head like a siren.

He kissed the top of my head. "I'll see you on the other side." Then he was gone, and the door was closed, locked and bolted.

'Goodbye' he couldn't let me go without saying goodbye. I couldn't help but think that the only reason why he'd say such a thing would be if he knew I wasn't coming out of this alive. I knew the statistics. Only 1 in 5 people actually survived this stage. Sirius had argued that most people that were unfortunate enough to have been bitten were on their own, and didn't know what was happening to them. They'd be at home or out and about and they'd suddenly drop dead for no reason whatsoever. Then they'd wake somewhere completely different, maybe in a morgue somewhere and they'd just go ballistic.

'Ballistic' that's the exact word he'd used, ballistic. They'd kill anything and everything around them, completely out of their minds and it hurt, so much. Most of them either died of their own accord, their bodies too weak to take the strain, others, the few that survived would wake up one morning a few days later and not remember a thing. Some of them were killed in the process, caught by Aurors and had to get put down, like a dog, simply because it was the only way that they could be stopped from killing anyone else.

I shook my head to clear it, squeezing my eyes shut and trying not to think about it. When I reopened them I took a chance at looking around the room. It was a dull grey, long, thin indents running the length of the room horizontally around it. There were 6, each 3 metres apart, thick titanium steel bars that ran deep into the wall itself, and no doubt Vertically through in the inside of the wall as well. The ceiling was high, 21 metres from what I could guess with the distance between the visible bars, and the extra space at the top, after the last one. Oddly though, there were beams at the top, that same metal running out from one side of the wall to the other. The room itself was big enough. I found myself walking to the west wall, then turning to face the thick pane of glass.

It was completely black, I couldn't see through it, but I knew they were there already, watching, waiting.

I slid down the wall and brought my knees up to my chest, dropping my head back onto the wall and closing my eyes against the dim lighting emanating from up above. It wasn't long before I could feel a dull ache in the very back of my head.

It only got worse, building and building until it had spread right across my skull to beat into my head, increasing in intensity. It was almost like a headache, but it generated from the base of my neck, and there was a constant drumming in my head.

It was getting louder and louder, repeating itself over and over, bouncing off of the inside of my head - forcing it out in the most painful way possible. It felt like my head was going to explode, so agonisingly painful that my eyes hurt, and stung in their sockets, my cheekbones throbbed, it hurt to so much as run my fingers through my hair. Clenching my teeth in pain as I made the mistake of doing just that I forced my eyes open and was immediately met with the sight of Sirius and Remus standing with those same three Aurors on the other side of the glass.

I could actually see them!

I looked right back at them for a few minutes before my head gave a particularly painful throb and the pain travelled from the base of my neck right down my spine. I couldn't stop the groan of pain as it left my mouth and I realised, for the first time since they told me that they'd be watching, that they'd see me, like this, in this state.

Their presence suddenly felt less comforting and I wished that they weren't there at all. Forcing myself to stand I walked right into the corner of the room, on the west side where the glass was, just catching a glimpse of Sirius walking towards the glass, trying to figure out what I was doing as I got down on my hands and knees and crawled underneath where the glass was before lying out on my back where they couldn't see me and closing my eyes, pretending that I was in the flowerbed under the living room window at the Dursleys'.

The pain slid around my chest, gripping it with a vice-like force. But they couldn't see me, and I was back at 4 Privet Drive. The News was playing inside and there was a soft breeze flowing over me with the heat of the sun above me and the soil underneath me. I concentrated on that one piece of sanity I had as I let my mind descend into chaos.

A/N: I JUST WROTE THE FINAL DRAFT FOR THE EPILOGUE FOR THIS STORY! =D It's called Sweet Dreams, and it's set with Voldemort in the Alps, which is where Harry was when he was dead. I should point out that he wasn't a ghost, he could hear Sirius and Remus talking while he was lying there in that room, and Sirius put his head on Harrys chest to hear his heart beating, which is why he felt a pressure on his chest. The Horcrux in him took him straight back to its owner once he died aaannndd the reason why he went to Ginny before he came back again will be explained later =]

And to all of those people who were expecting him to go to Heaven and see a lode of dead people telling him to wake up I'm sorry, but in this there is no Kingscross waiting to take him to his parents when he 'dies'. That darkness is all that's waiting for him and everyone else in this story and there's something in that darkness that wants him, the whispering, and the feeling of impending doom? Yeah, that's something that's going to crop up in a sequel that I AM in fact working on =]

Next Chapter's Harry's again. It's more on his transformation and dealing with it… I already have most of it done, and I will most definitely post it on Monday of this week… It'll be unbeta'd though until Miss Birdie gets back =]

Jessica

Hah, no, wait – the song was Unknown Soldier by Breaking Benjamin. I've loved that song for years! I was singing along to it while writing this chapter. I almost used Blow Me Away (Halo Soundtrack), 'Fire your guns, it's time to run, blow me away (I will stay, in the mess I made) after the fall - We'll shake it off, show me the way…' but it fit better in a much later chapter, kinda toward the end of the story.