For half an hour now Harry had been watching Dumbledore pacing back and forth in his office, obviously engrossed in thought. He didn't know what the old man was thinking so hard about, but it was beginning to worry him a little.

"Sorry, Professor Dumbledore?" Harry asked. "Can you please explain to me what's going on here?"

Dumbledore stopped and looked at him in surprise. "WHAT?"

"Well ..." Harry pointed to the portrait hanging on the wall behind his desk. It was empty. "I came here to talk to your portrait and now-"

"Oh, that, yes," Dumbledore replied, continuing his hike.

"You died," said Harry. "I was there."

"Well, I'm very much alive. That should be obvious, but you've never been the brightest." Dumbledore snapped and rolled his eyes.

"Excuse me?" Harry was sure he must have misunderstood.

„Excuse me?", parroted Dumbledore. "Merlin, I didn't miss your stupid questions, I can tell you that."

Harry stared at him with his mouth open. He had defeated Voldemort less than an hour ago and had come here to talk to Dumbledore's portrait and tell him about it, including what he had experienced in the Forbidden Forest.

"Maybe I can ask you a question now, because one thing I do not understand with all the will in the world: Why are you still alive, Harry? How the hell are you not dead?"

Before Harry could answer, Dumbledore's office door opened with a loud bang that made Harry flinch briefly. Snape came in, also alive, though he looked a little stricken. His face was a little paler than usual and his collar was still soaked with blood, but there was no sign of the big wound on his neck. Only a few pale hematomas still reminded of it.

"Professor Dumbledore, something went-" Snape looked at Harry, who was staring at him with wide eyes, and paused. "Oh. You already know. "

"Yes, I know, I know," Dumbledore said impatiently. "What I don't know is why? What went wrong, Severus? "

"Well, not everything went according to plan. I had to somewhat improvise," Snape started.

"WHAT ?!" Dumbledore screamed in horror. "You dared to not stick to my plan?!"

"It wasn't my fault!" Snape replied indignantly and crossed his arms. "It was Tom who didn't stick to your plan. I did what I could and, by the way, I almost died! "

"Well, I'm very sorry," replied Dumbledore impatiently, "but luckily you're fine. What has Tom done now? "

Snape pointed to his neck: "Well, this. He put his nasty snake onto me. I half bled to death. "

Dumbledore looked at Snape's neck and gave a short laugh. "Well, typical Tom. But if nothing else happened..."

Snape looked at Dumbledore aghast.

"Can you finally tell me why this unbearable fool is still alive? I don't have all day. "

"Unfortunately, I don't know," Snape replied. "Despite this incident, I managed to do my job of sending Potter to Tom. He then obviously did not manage to kill him, even though he has so boastfully claimed that he is the only one who is able to do it. As I said, it wasn't my fault. "

Dumbledore rolled his eyes again. "I know you don't like him, but you don't have to blame him for everything that goes wrong. Nobody is perfect. I'm sure you could have done your job better, too. "

"I ... but ..." Snape started, but the right words didn't seem to come to his mind and after a long moment he just turned and left the office angrily, muttering to himself.

Dumbledore looked at the locked door Snape had just walked through and smiled. "Don't worry," he said cheerfully. "He'll calm down again."

Harry thought it unnecessary to mention that he was far less worried about Snape than the fact that Dumbledore apparently wanted to see him dead and, if he understood correctly, had worked together with Voldemort.

"This doesn't make any sense at all," said Harry, more to himself.

Dumbledore snorted contemptuously. "You stupid boy just aren't able to stay on top of things, you are naive, gullible and not worthy of the great power slumbering inside you."

"The great what?" Asked Harry, puzzled.

Dumbledore pulled a wand out of his cloak and pointed it at Harry.

"Well then, maybe it's better that way. I wasn't sure if Tom would keep his word and leave me with your magic core instead of keeping it to himself anyway, so I guess I'll have to get my own hands dirty. Avada Kedavra! "

As if in a trance, Harry reached for the Elder Wand that he had put in his back pocket. To his horror, however, it was not there. For a brief moment he panicked. He was going to die. For real this time, he had no doubt about that.

But just a blink of an eye later, the curse already hit his body. Pain flooded him and left no room for panic. For an excruciating second, Harry's world was nothing but pain, a green light in the background.

Then it was over. The light had gone out and the pain had ceased as abruptly as it started.

Harry looked into Dumbledore's sparkling eyes, which were looking at the floor. He followed his gaze and then he saw it. He lay motionless on the floor, his eyes open, blank.

He was dead.

Oddly, he hardly cared. He backed away a little as Dumbledore leaned over his body and aimed his wand at Harry again. He whispered something Harry didn't understand.

Shortly thereafter, Harry was intrigued to see a bright light rise from his lifeless chest. It seemed to follow the movement of Dumbledore's wand, which aimed it unerringly at his own chest. His expression looked greedier than Ron's when he had a plate of pancakes in front of him.

He remembered that Hermione and Ron were waiting for him in the corridor and had no idea what was going on in here. He should try to tell them somehow.

Harry had barely finished this thought when he suddenly found himself right next to them in the corridor.

The first thing Harry noticed was that Hermione looked very worried. Her forehead was wrinkled and she appeared to be nervous. Did she suspect something? Maybe Snape had passed them.

Harry continued to watch her and he noticed that her eyes seemed to be fixing something. Harry's eyes followed her gaze and, to his surprise, he found Ron holding the Elder Wand in his hands. He twisted it between his fingers, swept over it, let it slide from hand to hand and looked at it closely.

Harry didn't know what to think about Ron stealing his wand. Ultimately, it was his fault that Harry couldn't defend himself and was dead. Of course, Ron hadn't known what would happen to him in the Headmaster's office, but when he looked at him now, seeing the glint in his eyes, he got the suspicion that Ron wouldn't regret his act as soon as he'd found out.

He thought he should feel anger, or at least disappointment about the fact that his best friend had stolen from him, but at the moment his feelings were covered in a veil of indifference. As if everything, Ron, Dumbledore, his life, all his memories and feelings, were far away from him and hardly accessible. If he felt something, it was easiness. With his body, an incredible burden seemed to have fallen from his shoulders.

"Imagine what we can do with it, Hermione," Ron said in awe.

"We?" Hermione asked shrilly. She sounded more reproachful than Harry was used to from her.

Harry saw Ron looking up at Hermione, seemingly startled, before being distracted by something more meaningful.

A bright light appeared at the end of the corridor from which he saw a person approaching. It was a young looking man with long white hair and a white robe. He had his eyes on Harry as he walked up to him.

Harry briefly wondered whether he should be worried, but he wasn't afraid. The man stopped in front of him and smiled.

"Are you coming?" he asked in a soft voice.

"Where to?" Harry replied, wondering if he even had any choice. He was dead. He would certainly not live forever as a ghost on earth, that was something cowards do. And if there was one thing Harry wasn't, it was cowardly.

The man did not answer, but pointed in the direction of the light from which he had come. Harry hesitated a moment to examine it.

It was brighter than any light he had ever seen, and yet it didn't blind him. It had a slight blue tinge and yet it gave off a warmth that magically attracted Harry.

Without knowing how he got there, Harry was suddenly standing directly in front of the light. He looked around again. The strange man was right at his side. Hermione and Ron obviously couldn't see the light. He saw Ron give Hermione the Elder Wand, his shoulders slightly hanging. Apparently she had just given him one of her lectures.

Harry didn't care anymore, he turned back to the light and went inside.

Suddenly he found himself in a narrow hallway. In front of him was standing an older woman, who was obviously the end of a long line of people. The hallway was quite dark, despite the bright light that was now shining behind Harry.

Did he make a mistake? He didn't know what it was he had expected to find, but it wasn't this. He turned to step back into the light, but instead ran into a man who must have just come out of him. There were already 6 other people behind him and a seventh was just emerging from the light. The passage lengthened with every additional person that appeared in it.

"Sorry," Harry murmured. "Could you please go aside, I'd like to-"

"Quiet!" The voice sounded as if it came up from nearby, even though he saw no one speaking.

"There is no going back," said another voice.

"Shhh!"

Then it was quiet.

Harry turned around again and was silent, like everyone else. And waited.

Again and again it happened that someone, like himself, wanted to leave the aisle or asked how long they had to wait.

At some point - he didn't know how long he had been in line - he also took part in the requests to remain silent. He was getting nervous and restless. He looked around to see the light that had given off such warmth and peace, but it was already too far away, he couldn't see it anymore.

He wondered if the waiting would ever come to an end or if he would have to stand in this crushing narrow and dark hallway forever. Silent and lonely, framed by people who must feel just as lonely as himself.

If only he had stayed on earth. He now imagined the life of a ghost to be almost heavenly.

Just as he was close to the despair he probably should have felt from the start, he saw that the hallway ended not far from him. There was a door that opened and closed again and again. And every time it came a little closer to Harry.

Now everything happened very quickly. Harry didn't know what to expect behind the door, but he tried to be hopeful.

Finally he was standing right in front of the door, waiting for it to open again.