A/N: Alright, sorry this took so long, but I've still been suffering from a nasty bout of writer's block, and I did write the ending, so I got something done! I'm still not happy with this chapter, it was pretty difficult to force out, and I apologize once more for the lack of quality. This is a bit of an odd chapter, odd but necessary, you have been forewarned. I actually tried not to leave you with a cliffhanger, so there you go! ::grins::. Oh, and I almost forgot, this chapter is rated PG-13 for violence and bloody, gory stuff. Sorry, but it was a must, if this bothers you, read at your own risk, proceed with caution, but trust me, it's not that bad. Oh well, I guess I'd better shut up now and let you get reading my crap… **cough** … errrrr… I mean work… ;)
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Chapter Two
Intermundia
It was alarming from the moment it began, unlike many dreams, which usually start smoothly, luring the dreamer into a false sense of security and unreality. On the contrary, for the Boy Who Lived, everything that transpired that night was far too real… Too real to be a dream…
It began after many hours of dreamless blackness; for a long time all had been quiet and dark: almost peaceful. All of this however, was ended quite literally in a flash of lightning, green lightning in fact. Thunder split the silence as it rent the air. The quiet between this had only lasted for only a fleeting instant, and even this quiet had its own eeriness to it, an unnerving air to chill the frigid and misty atmosphere. Something, even concerning so fleeting an instant in all time and space, was chilling, horrific even about the silence, but it was nothing to what followed…
The green lightning rent the air, so bright and illuminating that even the sun seemed to cast a shadow, and divine, heavenly light seemed dark in comparison. Its fusion was so explosive it looked as though the very air would erupt into flames at any given moment. More vivid than anything Harry had ever seen before in his entire life, the simple molecules of the air were visible, each its own color, its own shade; each so disturbed and yet convoluted. It was as though each particle consisted of its own tiny, ever-expanding universe, colorful and evolving at a demonic rate, until each looked as though the slightest disturbance, the slightest imbalance would mean the apocalypse. Although this too had been brief in interval, its intensity would forever engrave into Harry's memory.
The thunder then split the sky so that every bit of the universe, each sub-particle, was doomed on its axis, shaken to the very essence of its being. The turbulence seemed to grow and grow, constantly spiraling horribly until the end of life as we know it seemed inevitable. Finally, the sky erupted into flames, flames so real and so painful that they could be none other than the fires of hell…
And there stood Satan himself. He was unmistakable in his snow white (ironically pure-looking considering its wearer) skin, his skeletal frame, his flat slit nostrils, and most horrifically his blood-red serpent eyes. Voldemort was standing before him, and somehow, at the same time, all around him. Bewildered beyond belief, Harry spun around, he tried to run, for what reason, even he was unsure, but to no avail, Voldemort was everywhere. Grinning horrifically, the Dark Lord fixed him with a glare that would have crippled the greatest of wizards, perhaps even Godric Gryffindor himself, but not Harry. Standing there in silence, shaking with a mixture of hatred, fear, fury, and defiance, Harry glared back at him with all the strength he could muster. A high, cold laughter rang through the air, and the brief moment of unnatural, uneventful silence came to a violent halt…
The flames around him changed from their natural orange, to poison green, poisoned blades filling the air surrounding the two rivals. "Welcome, Harry Potter to the third plane of existence," the snake-man grinned, "welcome to Intermundia." Harry wanted to retort, to say something awful, but that would've required constructive thought, something that had fled him the moment of his arrival. Indeed, all Harry seemed to be able to do was continue to glare at him with a mixture of the utmost loathing and monstrous disgust. Voldemort, choosing to ignore whatever sense he may have perceived from his foolish, cocky nemesis, continued, ever-smiling that demented grin. "Tongue tied are we, Harry? Don't worry, I shall fix that… Crucio!"
Harry was hit instantly with the all-too-familiar dose of pain. He was determined not to cry out, not to give Voldemort that sort of satisfaction, but all in vain. Indeed, he was quite helpless to stop the cries of agony escaping his mouth, nor could he blame himself, the pain was horrible, feeling like every atom in his body had split open and erupted in flames.
Eventually Harry stood up, shakily and tiredly, Harry had been hit with the curse several times beforehand, but he never got used to the searing pain, nor the achiness that followed; but then again, it was impossible to get used to the Cruciatus Curse. "What do you want with me?" he spat, his every syllable reverberating with a white-hot surge of hatred.
Voldemort however, did not seem bothered; in fact, he seemed more or less amused at the murderous fire that raged in his enemy's eyes. "What do I want with you? Oh come now Harry, that's an easy one… I want to kill you, of course… But I can't do that here, not now, when you are safe in your relations' bed" As if he could read Harry's mind, the Dark Lord continued, almost laughing… "Oh no, no, no! You're not dreaming, you fool, it's just that I can't…" he paused for a brief moment, "Ah! What a fool I have been! I've almost given away my little secret, " his eyes glinted dangerously, "we can't have that now, can we? I'm sorry Harry but I think I'll have to punish you for my near-little-slip!" He muttered something under his breath, and Harry realized with a stab of horror that the poisoned knives were shooting at him from every direction. Before he'd had time to officially panic however, they dug themselves into him, allowing the poison to seep into his bloodstream, before painfully wrenching themselves free of his skin and repeating the process. Over and over again, for what seemed like an eternity, the million-strong blades stabbed him, slashed him, cut him through and through until not an inch of flesh remained unscathed; some even slipped inside the gashes they had made, stabbing him from the inside, not relenting for what could not have been less than two hundred years. The pain was unbearable, a million times worse than the Cruciatus Curse – if that was possible, he was burning from the inside out, his body being ripped into a thousand pieces, Basilisk fangs ripping at his every nerve. If Harry could have thought, he would have said to himself, "Is this death?"
When at last the Dark Lord drew away the knives, and watched as the boy struggled for a half-an-hour to stand, Harry felt the poison kick in at last. It felt as if every millimeter of skin was rotting away, and, horrified, he looked down to see a tiny green hole in his toe slowly grow as it ate away at his flesh. As Lord Voldemort once again began to speak, Harry's helpless body erupted in green flames, but Harry saw through them as an insane-looking Dark Lord began to form words with his mouth.
"I suppose you're wondering, then, oh 'Boy Who Lived,'" he spat contemptuously, "why it is that I've brought you here? Well… I just thought I'd have a little fun with you in your last ever summer alive, and to throw you a bone, Harry… Yes, I thought it might be amusing to give you a bit of a sporting chance," he laughed coldly, "I've decided to warn you."
With a wave of his wand there appeared beside him a woman, at least Harry thought it was a woman, who filled up the sky in front of him as though she held the entire universe in her hands. Her image however, was so incredibly blurry that all Harry could properly make out seemed to be, aside from what must have been reddish hair, bright, vivid yellow-green which seemed to be streamlining (like floodlights in a fog) from what must have been her eyes.
When she spoke, her voice reverberated as though it was being repelled and reflected by everything in "Intermundia," as Voldemort had called it, everything from the tiny particles in the atmosphere to Lord Voldemort himself, so that the words were, while clear and loud over their numerous echoes, born of an unrecognizable voice that sounded deep and misty.
"Long ago, the birth of the Raven
Saw the set of the Golden Dawn.
In the wake of death,
Was born a soul forever lost in darkness.
Two children:
Son and Daughter,
Dark and Light;
Within them there wages an eternal battle:
Dark and Light forever clash:
Each will choose a child,
Beware the pitched battle!
Set against one another –
Doomsday approaches!
The Roman Girl…
The Common Boy…
Both blind…
Both doomed…
The World is on their shoulders!
The delicate thread of life,
More fragile than ever,
Dependent on one point…
Only the lost soul can save the children
From a fate of tears –
Worldy tears to mourn them.
Save from death,
Nothing absolves the plight of the Dark Child,
The terror in its wake…
When the balance is shifted,
When the children are split –
The future is forever plunged in Darkness…
And the apocalypse approaches."
The voice then paused, but when it continued, the woman's mouth, or at least what looked like her mouth, was moving far too fast for the words escaping it, and the voice became less misty, but deeper, more intimate, more threatening… The message now seemed to be personal…
" The days of goodness and Light are done,
The White Flame's candle spent.
The Dark Sun rises!
Beware the Serpent-Bearer,
Where corrupted blood is made to look pure,
Beware the child lost in Darkness…
Lest your soul be eternal damned…"
Her chilling words echoed louder and louder until it seemed that Harry's ears would explode. The little hairs on the back of his neck stood on end as her image burst into bright red flames as she transformed. Her cackle became higher and higher until it at last changed tone (and thus gender), and Harry saw, she had become Lord Voldemort. The many Dark Lords laughed their menacing laugh, louder and louder as he spoke, all at once. "I just thought I'd give you fair warning, Potter, see the look on your face…" Harry saw a thousand images of faces flash before his eyes across Intermundia in a split second… "Just thought I'd let you know… And I would watch out for all your little friends: mudblood and muggle-lover, your precious Dumbledore, your dear Godfather and his friend… everyone… You have no idea what I could do to them!" His cold, high laugh erupted into green flames that engulfed Intermundia as he spoke these last chilling words, and Harry suddenly sat bolt upright in bed…
However, Harry didn't even have the chance to try and convince himself that it was all a dream, because he suddenly realized he was drenched in blood… As his eyes flew around the room, he saw that that last personal message was written large, gleaming red in blood on the wall opposite him, and that his quills were flying around the room, writing furiously on spare parchment, all of their own accord. The room flashed violently green and Harry saw them coming through the wall, into the room, closer to him… They were dead bodies, corpses with murder in their eyes, gleaming in fresh blood, all with their arms outstretched, all fast approaching Harry… He recognized them, his parents, Ron, Hermione, the Weasleys, the Grangers, Sirius, the Gryffindors, Cho, Cedric, the Dursleys, Lupin, Dumbledore, Tom Riddle, everyone he knew, and even some people he didn't – all bloody corpses, and fast approaching him, whispering and shouting things Harry couldn't understand. He looked up to see the ceiling suddenly begin to rain blood, and felt cold, strong hands grip his head forcefully from behind. With a stab of horror and hatred Harry saw Lord Voldemort standing above him, his gleaming scarlet eyes, and his long, white hands forced Harry's head down to watch the angry dead approach.
Suddenly, his fear-widened-eyes narrowed with irrepressible anger, and without warning, without really knowing why, taking even himself by surprise, Harry shouted: "AVADA KEDAVRA!"
All disappeared in a flash of green light, and Harry suddenly found his eyes growing heavy. Having almost no choice in the matter, he felt himself fall back onto the pillows and all grew dark as he shut his eyes and suddenly fall fast asleep…
Harry awoke the next morning to find himself panting deeply, and bathed in cold sweat. Sitting up in bed, feeling achy all over, he attempted to comfort himself… "It was all a dream," he told himself, breathing deeply, "it was all just a dream." Or was it?…
Harry saw parchment on his bedside table, and his heart temporarily stilled as he saw written in fresh ink:
" The days of goodness and Light are done,
The White Flame's candle spent.
The Dark Sun rises!
Beware the Serpent-Bearer,
Where corrupted blood is made to look pure,
Beware the child lost in Darkness…
Lest your soul be eternal damned…"
Eyes wide with terror, Harry brought the parchment over to his wardrobe where he flung open the door… Dropping the parchment limply, it took all his strength not to scream out against the shock… In his mirror he was reflected, and every inch of skin bore deep, green scars… He was more mangled than Mad-Eye Moody.
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A/N: Wow, that chapter was rather odd wasn't it, I knew it would be strange but I didn't think it would end up being that strange, it just came out that way. As I said before, this was a very awkward, forced chapter, so I once again apologize for the lack of quality. Normally, I would thank you each personally for your review, but as it's 1:45 AM and I have to get up early I don't have the time, however I promise to do so in the next chapter. Thus, momentarily this will have to do: Thank you to all my reviewers for your love, support, and constructive criticism. Getting so many reviews in such a short time has made me soooooo happy I can't even tell you, whether bad or good, reviews make me smile from ear to ear, and now I understand Ady and other fanfiction writer's insatiable thirst for them. Shout out to all my Riddles, hehe, you know who you are and it was you who gave me the courage to go ahead with this idea in the first place so I wanted to thank you especially for your love and support, you guys are all awesome writers! See you soon! ……… luv, Naralina