Chapter 14

Stasisphere

"Harry, would you wait a moment, please?" asked Professor Dumbledore.

Harry turned and walked back. Dumbledore stood there looking thoughtful for half a minute. He stared at Harry. Harry waited. "The council of the Order are having a meeting tomorrow. It will be held in a private ministry meeting room for convenience."

"At the ministry? But I thought..." began Harry.

"Yes, Now that Rufus Scrimgeour has replaced Cornelius Fudge as Minister there is an acceptance of the Order - at the least for the time being - that we are working towards the same ends. However, it is an uneasy alliance which I personally suspect will not last." said Dumbledore.

"Why sir?" asked Harry.

"The Order of the Phoenix works best as an underground organization just as Voldemort and the death eaters do. The Ministry of Magic is bound by official protocols. I suspect that it will not be long before the Order has once again to operate covertly." said Dumbledore. "But, for now, we can operate openly and our meeting tomorrow is permissible. I'd like you to be there please." said Dumbledore.

"Me sir?" queried Harry.

"It's just a general review. So far we have been treading water, being defensive. The council of the Order have been asking members to propose ideas and discuss what more we can do to combat the gathering dark forces. Your direct experience with Voldemort might be useful knowledge for us to draw on. Have you had any more ... dreams recently?"

"Only vague, unpleasant sensations of fear; of a ... of a voice in the dark since I've been back at school. I wish I could relax; get some proper rest. Are you sure there is nothing we can do about them because..."

Dumbledore interrupted, "You said 'since you've been back at school.' Harry, did you ... were there any dreams during the holidays?" Mr. Weasley did send me an owl concerned about a bad night you had."

"I'd rather ... that is, yes. There was one dream. Voldemort - it must be him - recruiting more death eaters. Nothing special. Something about sacrificing."

"Sacrificing? Do you mean his death eaters will sacrifice someone? A ritual?" asked Dumbledore intently.

"No it was the new death eaters I think he was to sacrifice. He was going to sacrifice death eaters."

"Why ... Harry, can you remember any more? Try to remember, it's important." asked Dumbledore.

"I'm sorry that's all I can remember right now. It was cold and dark - yes, It was Yaxley he was speaking to I'm sure but it was Lucius Malfoy's idea."

"Ah yes, we know about Lucius. Harry, if you remember anything more before tomorrow then tell me, anything at all. We should speak of this at the meeting tomorrow anyway, even though we have little to go on. Come to my office tomorrow at 10:00am and we shall use the floo network to go to the ministry together."

"Was there anything else?" Dumbledore asked, noticing Harry's hesitation.

"Professor, what was that spell that Sephany Dell cast on me?" asked Harry.

"It was a little known spell called Stasis Temporalis that places the recipient in what has been called a stasisphere. It is outside of time and space yet it still looks into it; still has a window as it were into our time and space. You no longer relied on physical eyes or ears to see and hear. You no longer had a functioning human mind or physical body at all so it was not visible. Time is needed to see physical objects, Harry. You had no human feelings or thinking at all. You were just aware; an observer with only the highest feelings and abilities left. These are independent of time and space: love, compassion, integrity, wisdom, and many others. You even stopped ageing because you were in a timeless state. You are now many minutes younger than you would have been!" Dumbledore smiled and continued.

"The caster of the spell defines how long, relative to time, you would remain so suspended. The spell caster himself, and only the spellcaster, can undo it before that time. It is said that long ago, a great wizard often used to cast the spell upon himself for a few hours and gaze out from his tower. The story is that one day he forgot to declare the duration and is still trapped therein, centuries later. Nobody can ever free him and he cannot free himself because he cannot function to undo the spell. We do not know however if the story is true."

"I think Miss Dell probably gave you protection for thirty minutes or so knowing that she had called the order beforehand using her coin so we would arrive well before you came out of it naturally. Why did she not make the time much longer to make sure? The answer I think Harry, is that Miss Dell expected to die or possibly be driven mad in the hands of the death eaters. She wanted to be certain you would come out of in a reasonably short time and not be trapped for months or years, perhaps forever."

"But sir, my body was restored..."

"No, you never lost your body or human mind, Harry, only the functioning of them in time. They were still there but without time and space a physical body and mentality has no function, no meaning; not even any visibility. All of these rely on time and space. Once time and space were restored to you then we all could see you again."

"But how could I be conscious without a human mind?"

"Ah! That is indeed one of the great mysteries." answered Dumbledore, "known by wizards for centuries, but never explained. It just is so. Perhaps it is that our minds are normally timeless but time makes them function humanly." Dumbledore smiled, then quickly changed the subject to something less philosophically slippery.

"Bellatrix Lestrange is completely mad but she is a sly one." mused Dumbledore. "I think she suspected an instant before we arrived that Miss Dell had been delaying her and the other death eaters. Miss Dell was enduring the unendurable to give us time to get there. Bellatrix slipped the net yet again."

"Sir, I think of it every day. Every day since then I have thought through the experience. Not merely remembered it happening briefly but actually thinking it through. I can't relate to it. I've never known such devotion. Sephany... Miss Dell, is not 'family' - not my sister or wife. Yet she suffered that... Yes I know it was not just for me personally but even so... Why would... How does anyone withstand that and not surrender to protect someone not related to them? Of course, I've spoken to her since but it is hard. I am so indebted; so grateful. How can you talk to... I think she understands. I hope she does." Harry was almost tearful as he struggled with the enormity of the experience.

"I'm sure she does understand, Harry." Dumbledore said quietly. "At least, I am certain she knows the depth of your gratitude yet feels that you need not be in debt to her. Do not dwell on that."

"Time is one of the strangest forms of magic, Harry. I am sure that eventually you will change and come to terms with this ... or at least accept that you cannot if you see what I mean." Dumbledore smiled.

"Harry, you must not experiment with this spell, especially on others. It can affect people in different ways. Many find it stressful; others, the worst kind of people, find it terrifying. Only the higher feelings remain in stasis - the timeless ones - and those of a lowly nature have nothing but a terrible void."

"I understand sir. I think once was enough for me anyway."