Harry's feet touched the floor once more and the huge wham sound of the air that had followed him made his ears ring a bit. his feet had sunk into the ground a little way. The air in the temple had been cold but the air here was bitterly freezing. Fine snow what swirling round him and he couldn't see far in front of him. He didn't really know where he was, but he was good and lost now, he knew what the place looked like and that was all that he needed to get there. Harry began to walk forwards though the bitter cold limping badly. His broken leg made large scrapes into the snow behind him, he didn't bother to heal them, because if he was found then that was what he wanted. He walked for what seemed like miles and miles, he couldn't see ahead of him, so he had no way of knowing if he was getting closer or not. Then he looked down at himself and stopped walking, he was sure that he could see a vague outline of himself, there was obviously going to be some snow settling on the cloak and an absence of snow where he was but it was more than that, it was as if he could almost see the cloak just slightly like a shadow of a shadow. He continued to look down at his own body and slowly began to move forward again, and as he did he was becoming more and more visible. The wind whistled in Harry's ears and he was now looking at himself stunned at what he was seeing. He could see the fabric now, he was still a bit translucent, but all the cloak did now was keep him warm. But then there was a noise. Harry held out his wand and began to turn on the spot looking around him for the source. The sound became clearer; it was a voice, shrill and strange as it carried on the wind.
"Harry"
It was saying as it trailed off
"Harry… Harry stop"
Harry continued to wheel around looking for where the sound could be coming from, the wind distorted it so much that he couldn't pin down a direction. But then there was a figure or what he thought was a figure scrambling towards him though his own foot prints, which seemed strange to him, if anyone were going to approach him surely it should be from ahead of him. The figure stopped about 10 feet way from him. He could see its outline slim and grey against the white that surrounded them.
"Come here Harry, came back this way."
Harry froze. It was a woman's voice
"Ginny?" he whispered to himself
He turned to face her fully
"Please Harry come to me, I can't come to you"
Harry began to take small steeps forward the figure becoming more and more clear as he approached, but then he got close enough to recognise them and it made him root to the spot.
"No"
He said in disbelief
"Please Harry come here, come to me"
"No no no this is a trick this is a mind game? You are not who you look like, YOU CAN'T BE!"
Screamed Harry, tears of anger not managing to get to far down his cheeks before they froze on his face.
"Harry please it is me come here I cant come any further"
Said the person. Harry took one more tentative step he was now less then 2 meters away from her; he pulled out his wand suddenly, pointing it at her throat.
"Prove it! prove it to me! DO IT NOW! OR I WILL KILL YOU NOW, I HAVE NOTHING TO LOOSE!!!"
There was a pause while this woman thought about what to say
"There was a time, there was a time Harry Potter when I stood with you alone in the darkest of places looking out at your self just a few hours earlier dying when dementors attacked you. I have flown with you on the back of a hippogriff and I have travelled here to the edge of the earth to help you."
Harry gave a short yelp, not of physical pain, more of the emotional pain. It was her it was Hermione, his Hermione. Harry used his power to slow down the snow around them, so that he could see her more clearly though the blurring snowflakes. He stepped closer. Hermione didn't look scared Harry looked at her face and she had a small smile and kind eyes, she was wet through though and was shivering in the cold.
"Please don't do this Harry don't take it to him, don't give him the one thing he wants"
Harry nodded slowly, mainly because he didn't know what else to do. Hermione turned away and Harry went to follow her, he reached out to her but he must have missed so he reached out again but he defiantly didn't miss this time, his hand went straight though her. He stopped, Hermione had seen this out of the corner of her eye and turned to face him again, Harry had scuttled backwards and was pointing his wand at her like a cornered animal.
"What the fuck is this!"
He yelled looking round for a person who might be controlling this mirage
"No Harry please, I can explain everything"
Hermione was pleading with him
"Explain everything can you? What hell do you think you can say to explain this!"
"Harry pleases! Just… just listen to me its ok. You have to come here come this way back the way you came. Towards me Harry please."
But Harry still looked apprehensive.
"Look at your cloak, I can see you! Magic isn't working is it?"
Harry looked down he had almost forgotten that the cloak wasn't working
"Please Harry come towards me, this way come on."
Harry took tentative steps staggering though the thick snow. Hermione was backing away beckoning him forward. Harry's cloak was starting to recover and he was disappearing with every step. He was getting closer and closer to Hermione and then he tripped and fell forward but Hermione reached out her and she caught him by the arm. Harry looked up at her face. But he couldn't do any more then just cry kneeling in the snow. There was such a toxic soup of emotions in him that he didn't know what to do with himself.
Hermione reached out her other hand to touch his face and her cold wet sleeve brushed his shoulder.
"Come on let's get out of here in freezing."
At this Hermione wrapped her arms round Harry's shoulders and appirated them neatly out of the cold and the snow. When Hermione stood up Harry could look at where they were. It was small and warm. The place smelt of fresh earth and there was a small fire burning in the corner. Hermione took off her cloak and hung it on a tree root that was coming through the low roof. She turned back to Harry who was still kneeling on the floor, Hermione smiled.
"My god don't you look a mess! I have never seen you look so much like moody."
Moody had been missing since Harry's turbulent voyage to the burrow, so this comment was bitter sweet. Harry didn't say anything; he didn't know what to ask first. But luckily Hermione spoke first.
"I'm sorry you couldn't touch me Harry I am living of gition magic, just while I am healing, I will be fine in couple of days but it means I am living off, the belief and the desire for me, from the people around me,… anyway Lets get you on the bed and we will fix you up"
She helped Harry stagger to the small put-you-up bed by the fire. Hermione propped him up with some pillows and set to work on his leg. Harry stared at her not sure what to do, so he said what came to his mind first.
"Why are you so wet?"
Hermione laughed
"Of all the things you could have asked, and you ask why are you wet?"
Harry smiled a bit
"Well I thought it was a legitimate question, it s a place to start anyway."
Hermione smiled and began to talk.
"Well you had flooded the temple hadn't you, so when I came up then there was just water everywhere! I had to swim to the top and breath the tiny bit of air that was left near the roof."
Harry looked confused.
"Look I think we are getting ahead of ourselves aren't we."
Said Hermione grinning at him
"Yer maybe we are a bit. Ok start from the beginning."
"Ok well I was in the library and looking at one of the book shelves but then there was one book that had something strange, like a block round it, I couldn't read it from a distance so I took it off the shelf and over to my desk and then something touched my hand, I must have passed out at that point."
Harry looked at her; he had assumed that all this was what had happened
" Then it was like I was watching my self, well not myself but a something in my body from high up above, I chased Ron round for ages ripping books up and making a mess. His appiration skills are really good in any kind of battle! He really stood his ground and pulled some good moves!"
Hermione was cutting Harry's jeans to get at his leg
"Had sexy moves did he?"
Said Harry drunk on the idea of everything not being so bad. Hermione laughed quite hysterically
"Yer they were a bit. But anyway the rest you know about how you caught me and all that stuff."
Then there was a pause. Suddenly Harry realised what was coming next in the story, what he had done to contribute to this little tale. Hermione looked up to see Harry expression.
"I forgive you Harry, really I do, It wasn't your fault"
"Was a pretty stupid mistake though, we were nothing with out you to help us."
Said Harry fiddling with his cloak button.
" It was a simple mistake Harry… you just read the wrong thing that's all. There was information in the book but you would have never found it. What happened was that samile and me were split in to two places. My sole was put in the stone and then samile was in the book. But sea water was the right thing you did get it right, just put the wrong object in it."
Hermione was smiling at Harry. She moved her chair up to his shoulder so that she could look at the cut on his head.
"To be quite honest I was quite happy when I was floating around watching samile in my body, but then when he was gone I went back in. I don't know how I lived. But Leviathan, Harry I met Leviathan. He's beautiful isn't he. He saved me."
Harry looked at Hermione in astonishment.
"How?"
He stammered
"I don't know, I couldn't tell you it was just like, hmmm how to describe it, it was like drinking light, pure light something happened and it was like drinking light."
Harry looked at her anxiously
"Have you got a scar?"
He said tentatively
"OH yer!"
She said grinning she lifted her shirt to show her belly and the most enormous white scar about 2.5 inches wide and a couple of cm thick. Harry just looked at it stunned. But he broke away his stare and smiled.
"Well it beats mine doesn't it"
He said with a laugh holding away his fringe to show his.
"oi stop hogging the lime light you. But seriously it is a bit ugly isn't it. I think it will get smaller though, it was bigger when it was just fresh, I have healed it a lot. Anyway, I got healed and woke up here!"
Harry finally realised that here was a very unfamiliar place
"So… where is here?"
He said looking around him at the small room, it seemed to be no more then a room cut into the earth. There were a few rocks sticking out of the walls and roots from the ceiling, there was no door and just the bed and a chair and a fireplace.
"You know what Harry I couldn't tell you, I haven't got a clue, I don't know where we are? Or what this place is. The dig marks are fresh so I would assume it is not an old place, I don't even know what country we are in. but I will say one thing. This room has some kind of connection with the temple."
Harry was super confused now.
"Connection what do you mean connection? How do you know?"
Well when I put that grill over the fire I can see the temple. It is as if I am standing there but it just looks like it, I am still in this room really."
The grill was made of a kind of blue/purple glass, it wasn't smooth it undulated and rippled, as the fire was the only light source in the room it probably turned the room bright blue when it was coveing it.
" The first time I tried it I was still unable to move much and I knocked it, that's when I heard Ron appirate from his room, I am always at the bottom of the stairs in the main hall."
Harry's jaw dropped.
"That was you? That was you at the bottom of the stairs, you scared me half to death woman!"
Hermione smiled apologetically
"Yes sorry about that I was just checking up on you, hang on so you could see me to? I thought you might have known something, but I didn't think I could be that clear? You weren't that clear to me. Anyway I watched you as subtly as I could, and that is how I knew where to find you"
Harry frowned at Hermione.
"You made me fall down the stairs bang may head and break my leg"
Hermione lifted her shirt to show her belly again and have Harry a sarcastic look.
"Ok that's fair play I suppose"
Hermione smiled,
"Besides I have fixed that now!"
And sure enough Harry's leg as totally better and his head seemed to have blood on it but no cut.
"Ok so what do we do now then?"
Said Harry after a bit of a pause.
"Well I can tell you a little bit of information I found out bout a certain mortal enemy of yours?"
Harry perked up and went to sit up properly but fell back down holding his side.
"Oh yes your rib I haven't done that yet have I."
Said Hermione chirpily.
" Anyway where was I? Oh yes, right well, I have found out that Just as the order of the phoenix has a base, so does you know who, he has to live somewhere doesn't he I suppose. He has his base in the Dead Zone. A huge battle went on there when our parents were young; I think your dad and Sirius might have been involved, anyway big battle, big loss of life on both sides, bla bla bla. Anyway the Dead Zone is a place where no magic works. The Arours are starting to become able to detect magical activity pretty well of any kind. So he stays there to be undetected."
Harry was being flooded with information, Dead Zone, big battle, his dad, Sirius, no magic, what a jumble!
"But where is this Dead Zone?"
Asked Harry
"That's where you were going, in the snow. That's why you cloak was not working It's a lost place, you have to be lost to find it."
Harry was really really confused now
"What?… lost to find something? That doesn't make any sense at all!"
Said Harry frustrated
"I know but that's the way it is. And we still don't know where it is because you only went there coz you saw a bit of it, and I only wet there coz I saw that you saw a bit of it, so really we are none the wiser to its actual location."
Harry looked dazed, and they sat there looking at each other both a bit confused and a bit dizzy.
"My brain hurts"
Said Harry.
"Fix my brain like you did my leg and rib and head Hermione"
He lent over towards her playfully. But she grabbed his cheeks.
"Can't fix your brain Harry that's beyond repair!"
They both laughed.
Once that had finished talking and chatting they decided that sleep was the best option after all they had a war to win, and not many wars are won well when the troops have no sleep.