Author's Note: Yay! Another chapter! This chapter is special. You want to know why? Because it's posted on my birthday! Anywho, pieces of the plot start to fall into place with this chapter. I'm quite interested to see what your theories about how I'm going to bring this together will be. Let's see...this is Chapter Twenty. We still have to get through Twenty-One through Thiry-Two, and then it's the Epilogue! Can you believe it? We're getting closer and closer to the end!
A special shout-out goes to crlncyln for being the fiftieth reviewer! Congrats! And keep the reviews coming because you know they make my day!
Chapter Twenty:
Moments later, a loud pop resounded throughout the apartment, causing Hermione to jump. She spun around to see Ginny standing in the middle of her living room looking absolutely panic-stricken. Hermione let out a small gasp at the expression on her face. She heard the door behind her open and she turned just as Chris was leaving. He gave her a brief little nod, complemented with a solemn glance and walked out the door, closing it softly behind him. She sighed, wiped her face and turned to Ginny, who was now pacing…only slightly, with small steps, but enough to be considered pacing. This worried her greatly, as Ginny never paced.
"What is it? What's happened?"
Ginny's arms flew into the air, "It's Harry! His scar, it's hurting!"
"What?"
"His scar is hurting! One minute, we were eating breakfast and the next, he was on the floor writhing in pain!"
Hermione now understood Ginny's panic and empathized with her, "How could this have happened? You don't think…?"
"I don't know what to think anymore."
"We should go…It's not a good idea to leave him by himself for too long."
Agreeing, Ginny said that they should Apparate back. Quickly dashing into her bedroom and grabbing her wand, Hermione Apparated to Harry and Ginny's flat on the other side of town. When she appeared, the curtains were drawn, casting a dim glow to the room. Across the room, in the corner and in the fetal position, lay Harry on the floor. Hermione and Ginny broke into a run and dropped at his side.
"Sirius…," he whispered in a harsh voice, "so much water…so much death."
Ginny cradled him in her arms, rocking back and forth gently and she pushed his hair back from his forehead and lightly stroked his scar. As she attempted to comfort him, she hummed a little and Hermione wasn't sure if it was for her benefit or for Harry's.
"Harry," Hermione cooed, "It's alright, now. You can come back to us, now."
Ginny looked at her and smiled, encouraging her to continue. But it was then that Hermione realized that someone was missing. Where's Ron, she wondered to herself before deciding to ask Ginny later.
"Come on, Harry, you're just fine. You're with us, now."
"Sirius," he moaned in broken speech, "Sirius. I'm sorry."
"Harry," Hermione pleaded, trying to remain calm, "Come back to us, please. It's all alright, now."
"Please, Harry," Ginny begged.
"Sirius…so much water…Sirius…death…Sirius!"
He began to writhe terribly again and Hermione and Ginny had to struggle to hold him down. Finally, his moaning slowed and the writhing stopped. Slowly, his emerald eyes fluttered open and he looked up to Hermione as leaned farther back against Ginny.
Hoarsely, he spoke, "It was so real."
Hermione grabbed hold of his hand to give him support. Slowly, and with the help of Ginny and Hermione, he was able to bring himself to his feet. They managed to get him to the couch and sat him in-between the two of them, theirs arms wrapped protectively around him. They sat in silence for many moments, Harry staring off into space at the wall before them. After a while, it seemed that Harry couldn't take the silence anymore.
"Sirius is still alive."
Ginny sighed, "No, Harry, he's not."
"But he is, I know he is. I saw him…he was standing there, right there in front of me! Screaming! Wherever he is, wherever the Veil took him, it's slowly draining the sanity from him!"
"Harry, love," she responded sweetly, "He's not alive. You were just seeing things."
"Seeing things," he repeated, "Seeing things? Was I seeing things when we had to worry about Voldemort? Seeing things…"
"Harry! Think about it," she pleaded, "It's impossible."
Harry got up from the couch, frustrated, "I'm going to lay down for a bit…seeing as nobody believes me."
"I believe you, Harry," Hermione said quietly.
In mid-step, he stopped and turned to face her, "You do?"
"Of course, I do."
Ginny's eyes bared down into her, and Hermione knew that she believed Hermione to be only encouraging Harry in his delusions.
"I believe you, because I've seen it; I've dreamt about it."
Ginny scoffed, "You've dreamt about it?"
"Yes, I have. One night, I dreamt about him on an island and he was screaming."
Harry paid her his full attention, "What was he screaming?"
"Get me out of here."
Harry smiled and clapped his hands together, "That's exactly what he was screaming when I saw him!"
Hermione sighed, nearly afraid to go on, "There is this thing that I've been working on at work. It…uh…it's got me thinking that it might be possible to go into the Veil and save Sirius."
Harry looked at her in disbelief, "Are you sure?"
"Somewhat…"
Ginny scoffed again, "I don't believe it."
Harry inquired, "What don't you believe?"
"I don't believe that Sirius can be alive! It's not possible!"
"But it is possible…I know it is," Harry argued.
"But you can't bring someone back from the dead!"
"But he's not dead," Hermione stated as if it were the most obvious explanation, "Sirius Black never died and remains, to this day, a living human being."
"We have to save him," Harry spoke up, cutting off all arguments Ginny might try, "I've seen the horrors that he sees and I will not make my godfather go through that any longer than he has to."
Hermione nodded her head, "I agree, but…"
"But what?"
"I want to learn more about the Veil first, before we go rescue him…to make sure that we don't get hurt while we try to save him."