DZ2's Den of Delights

Hi to all my loyal readers and those who enjoy my stories: The Den of Delights is open once more and I'm both grateful and amazed by everyone that has enjoyed my previous instalments and encouraged my ideas to flourish. I have to admit myself impressed; I never expected most of my ideas to be so well-respected by you, my readers, so thank you;

Again, with this one, I'm going with a Challenge in my forums called 'Death is Only the Beginning' and is slightly based on an idea from a new and award-winning BBC series: see what you think…

Awaken the Necro-Master

What does it mean to wake from a nightmare?

Is it the sweaty palms? The feeling of your heart stopping in your chest?

That breathless sensation that makes you feel like you've literally stopped breathing all together?

Whatever it was, Harry certainly felt like he was waking from a nightmare and yet, at the same time, there wasn't one feeling that he could describe the nightmare that he felt like he was waking up from at that moment. He didn't feel his breath clam up in his chest or his heart dig into his ribs to the point where he believed it had stopped.

He didn't feel sweaty or pale or even scared; in fact, though he knew that he was waking from a nightmare, he didn't feel like it was an actual nightmare. More like a dim and distant memory that, at that moment, felt as forgotten and hard to recall as a dream.

Doing his best to move his hands, Harry let his fingers drift over his head while, at the same time, he noticed that the space he was currently lying in was quite narrow and strangely comfortable. He also noticed that, while the feeling of breathlessness hadn't struck at him from the nightmare he'd experienced, he didn't actually feel a need for air or oxygen.

Yes, he was breathing, but it was more like the still, near-silent breaths of the sleeping.

'Okay,' Harry thought to himself, letting his hand reach his face where he felt no glasses and no signs of warmth on his skin, 'This is officially weirding me out, but where am I, exactly? How did I get here? How do I get out?'

The last thought had barely escaped him before Harry gasped as a darkness seemed to envelop his body, covering him like a thickened tar that clung to his body, his mouth letting out a single, soundless cry before the boy wizard gasped as he found himself no longer underground, but lying flat underneath a large rowan tree, the lack of leaves telling him that it was autumn or wintertime.

Sitting up, Harry rubbed his hairline and craned his neck, feeling the joints pop as he turned his head one way and another, his body feeling surprisingly light, almost as though he had become some sort of phantom in the darkness. Craning his neck and rotating his shoulders, Harry turned his head in the darkness before his eyes widened at what he saw behind him: a gravestone, decorated with what looked like recently-laid flowers and a phoenix insignia.

Inscribed on the gravestone were words that Harry almost had to strain his eyesight to read under the dim lights of the darkness:

HARRY JAMES POTTER

Born: July 31st 1980

Died: February 13th 1993

The last enemy that shall be defeated is death

A feeling of dread rose in Harry's stomach as he looked at the headstone: dead?

He was…dead?

'No,' Harry thought, actually springing to his feet before he tested his body, 'I…I can move…I can think…I can breathe, though maybe I don't need to: how am I dead? And how…how am I alive now?'

Feeling a wave of nausea rise up in his body, Harry leaned against the trunk of the rowan tree and vomited heavily, his release lined with blackness that was almost like blood as he gulped and heaved a few more times. Even his regurgitating wasn't normal anymore: but how was he here now?

And, as he rose up, Harry glanced around, his tongue sliding over his lips while he massaged his stomach as a question burned in his thoughts:

Why was he suddenly so hungry for meat along the lines of something he wouldn't usually eat?

And there we go; short, I know, but I think you get the basic idea: anyway, as a clue, let me tell you that 'series' I mentioned is called 'In The Flesh' and is an amazing, if gory, series about supernatural forces.

This just sort of…hatched from that idea, so all rights to the original creators in the BBC

Anyway, next idea in my Den of Delights to come very soon…