'For God's sake, Harry!' Hermione snapped at him. She was still robed, her same old self, but a bit blurry. Harry felt water logged, and even more stupid than before. He blinked, and sat up. 'Leave me alone!' There were people all around him. Dubledore, Hermione leaning over him. McGonagall, Snape, Ron, Ginny. Draco. No Cho Chang, he noticed. 'We thought this might happen,' Dumbledore said wisely. He looked fake, now. How had Harry ever believed that that beard was real? He'd been so stupid! His first instinct was to reach for the wand and perform avada kedavra on all of them, or on himself. But then he remembered that all that was fake, too. 'It will take time to come round to the idea, of course,' McGonagall said kindly, 'you must go to the Gryffindor common room and wait while we decide what to do. This discovery was totally unplanned, you understand.' Harry, who wasn't in a mood to do anything they said - they, who had betrayed him so terribly - stood up and looked out over the lake. Dumbledore cleared his throat. 'Perhaps there's a better way,' he said, 'what would you like to do, Harry? Perhaps you'd like to go abroad or something? Somewhere quiet where nobody knows you? Or would you rather stay in England, live a celebrity life? You've been well-paid for the experiment, you realise. You have rather a stash of money in Barclays.' Barclays. How stupid he'd been to believe in the goblins, and vault 713. But, at least he didn't have to go back to the Dursleys. Anything was better than that. 'Of course, you could go back to the Dursleys,' Snape said, 'you'll realise now, of course, that they are your real parents?' Harry stared at him for a second, horror struck. 'What?' 'Well, of course. Dudley is your brother. We picked them out as perfect for this experiment.' A tear trickled down Harry's cheek, and he brushed it away angrily. 'I want to live in the castle,' he said at last. 'The castle?' a hint of panic came into Hermione's eyes, 'you can't do that! It's. it's just a large prop. Besides, it's becoming a tourist attraction. They'll love it. And even if it wasn't then you couldn't live there by yourself, you'd have social workers banging at your door all hours of the day. You wouldn't last there more than a week by yourself. No. You should go somewhere far away.' Harry turned away from her, anger bubbling inside him. He didn't want to leave the magic world behind. Even if it was just fake. He was an idiot, a total fool - he couldn't go out into muggle society like that. He'd die of shame. Only, he couldn't run away from them all. It was all so complicated. 'No,' he said at last, 'it's OK. I'll live with the Dursleys. I'll suffer. Don't worry about me. Not that you would anyway. When does the train.' 'You can take a taxi home,' Dumbledore said. 'Go and pack your things.'

Muggles were all over the school as Harry went to collect his belongings together. Workmen in overalls, people removing bits of fake wall. Projectors being moved away from portraits where Harry had actually believed moving images survived. A lump burned in his throat as he got to the Gryffindor common room and saw the perfectly normal picture of the Fat Lady's background propped up against the stairs, the Gryffindor doorway gaping open. His supposed friends were gathering their belongings inside, and tried not to look at him as he stalked to his room. There, he flung himself on the bed and allowed himself to cry aloud.

Miles and miles away, Voldemort sat. He had news from an insider that It was all working beautifully. He fingered his gleaming wand in a self- satisfied manner, and smiled to himself.

'Harry,' Vernon greeted him, a nervous edge on his voice. Harry looked him in the eye, scowled, and looked away. His trunk was on a trolley, Hedwig in her cage on the top - his souvenir. 'It's not your fault, Harry,' Hermione said. She had insisted on coming with him for the journey. Ron had not spoken to him. 'there were times when we all believed it was the truth. We all wanted to tell you, but our contracts.' 'Shut up. I don't care.' 'OK. Well, e-mail me or something sometime. I'm really, really sorry, you know.' He said nothing, and she climbed back into the taxi and left. 'You can have all the same privileges as Dudley now,' Petunia said consolingly to Harry, 'it was so hard for us, bringing you up like that. But it's all over now.' Dudley said nothing, and looked at Hedwig distastefully. Harry knew it would be a long time before he was ever equal to Dudley in any of their eyes - fourteen years of treating him like some type of vermin had to have left its toll. Privet drive looked much the same as usual. Harry took his belongings to his room and refused to come out for supper. Somehow starving himself felt like punishing them. He took out his school books; Standard books of spells, the Book of Monsters, and put them in a pile on his trunk, which was metal, and burnt them all. Soon after, he fell asleep. Harry dreamt that he was sitting in a floating chair, flying around Hogwarts, and it was all melting before his eyes. Everyone there was melting too, and they were all running around desperately, holding their melting faces and other people's melting hands. And then, in the middle of the school, he saw a robed body holding a wand which was controlling the melting. The robes were not melting. Nor were the wand, or the hand holding it. Harry instinctively knew it was Voldemort. Voldemort turned, and saw Harry. His lips peeled back and he gave a long sneering laugh. And then he waved his wand and the melting stopped, and everyone in Hogwarts was standing, laughing at him in just the same way, only. only there was a sense of duty - of hysterical fear. Then, Harry woke. Only, he could still hear Voldemort's laugh.

Sorry I haven't written in ages! More will come soon (hopefully). I've got back into it now. Can I have your opinions please on whether I am allowed to add some LOTR characters and make it into a cross over, or would that just ruin everything? I don't think I should, but it's so tempting!!! Please review!