~ All There Ever Was ~
Author: Bachy A
E-Mail: screenwriter7@msn.com
Website: www.remnant-archive.0catch.com
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter...neither do I own J.K. Rowling. I don't own Warner Brothers – basically, I own nothing even closely related to Harry Potter. This story is meant to be pure fiction created by me using the characters of this series.
SPOILERS: If you haven't read Order of the Phoenix, and you don't want anything spoiled, you might want to steer away from this for now.
UPDATES: Chapter 2...please bear with me – the early chapters are meant to set up the story. I hope you all find it interesting anyway...
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Chapter 2: Visions in the Dark
Hundreds of miles away, a tall, thin man with unruly black hair slept, unaware of troubles in the world around him...
...Unaware, only because there was much else occurring in the recesses of his mind.
Dreams populated his thoughts, some playing out his fears, some presenting tales of the unimaginable...
...and some reliving memories long ago stifled, memories that he had no desire to witness a second time.
Life was not easy for the young man named Harry Potter. But then again...life had never been easy for him...The captured pictures in his mind were proof enough of that...
The visions brought by sleep would not leave him. On and on, over and over they ran, filling his troubled heart with the kind of tension that only realized fears bring...and through it all, life retold itself, a swirling mass of images that he had tried for so long to bury.
* * *
It was supposed to have been a happy time, one filled with the utmost joy and prospects for life ahead. But...
...it didn't hold any of that, now...
He had never before experienced such dread, and solemnity – even the characteristic stability of Dumbledore hadn't been able to bring under control the fears that ran rampant through them all.
Panic seemed to spread everywhere, like the deadliest of plagues. It was taking hold of everyone, and even the most stringent efforts of those in charge to quell the situation could not erase the anxiety.
No one had really heard the words spoken on that day, their last of schooling life. Words no longer seemed to matter – no amount of fair speaking could bring solace...or comfort. Nothing was left...nothing except the dread that lay upon their minds.
By the end of their 7th year, Harry's entire class had learned the general wording of the prophecy, the prediction that had been made so long ago. They knew that while the final inevitability may, for a while, dance just out of reach...it would eventually speed to its final judgment.
Harry Potter and his greatest enemy, Lord Voldemort, could not both continue to live...not while they both stood on opposing ground.
Horrible times, much like those that had come before, loomed on the horizon. And every single person knew it.
During that last gathering in the Great Hall, Harry had noticed the same blank, vacant expression on every single face. The same terror had descended upon them all, unannounced...there was no escaping it.
Of course, that had only applied to those present. He noticed, with an ever-increasing sense of fury, that the likes of Malfoy, along with his cronies Crabbe and Goyle, were nowhere to be seen.
During the coarse of the ceremony, the only feeling that managed to somewhat override the terror inside of him was pure malice. It had only managed to raise...visions of Malfoy, clad in a hooded cloak, off to join his father...
It had been too much – the combined anxiety and anger that ran through him drove him to depart the Hall, leaving both Ron and Hermione with confused expressions on their faces.
~{:*:}~
Much later, after the ceremony had reached its end, both of his friends had caught up with him. Even then, no matter how hard he tried...he couldn't tell them, couldn't explain how it felt to know that destiny much reach its conclusion...
...That either he or Voldemort had to die...There was no other way...
~{:*:}~
And yet, even through all of that, there was another eventuality that loomed upon them, one whose level of anxiety and sadness nearly rivaled that which they had all been facing...
...For the first time in seven years, they would be heading down separate paths, away from each other...
It hurt Harry to know that they would have to live their lives apart. Ron and Hermione had been his closest friends, the people he had trusted above nearly all others.
He had wanted to tell them both how much they meant – but with the prospects of war on the horizon...little else seemed to matter any more.
And so he left it alone, simply because that was the way it had to be...
* * *
Harry's body stirred slightly in his sleep, a small cry escaping from his throat.
A feverish sweat seemed to break out on his forehead as he moved, slowly beginning to thrash in his bed.
* * *
Darkness...darkness all around him, penetrating into his very being. Nothing could be seen...not in front, nor side-to-side – the pitched shroud covered everything.
Everything except...
"Harry.........Harry........."
That voice...he knew it so well, and yet...for the life of him, he could not place it.
"Harry.........Hary...........Harry..........."
He listened, on and on. The spectral voice called to him, urgency beginning to resonate within its tones.
He began to run, trying hard to follow the voice to its source. His breathing moving in and out, faster and faster...
He turned...and there before him...he saw it...
... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...
... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...
... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...
"HARRY!!!!"
* * *
With a loud gasp, Harry woke, quickly sitting up and breathing heavily. Leaning back against the headboard, he wiped his sweaty brow.
He shot a quick glance around his darkened bedroom.
Nothing...there was nothing there...
...Nothing was ever there...
And yet, night after night, he continued to have the foreboding feeling that, somehow, the fears played in his dreams meant something, something other than what was shown.
What did I see? he thought. He tried and tried, but no recollection of the imagery would come to him.
He did know one thing: whatever it had been...whatever he had seen...
...It had inspired an unparalleled fear in him, one that had never, ever been matched before...
Again, he looked around his room...
... ...Nothing... ... ... ...always nothing... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...
... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...
He lay back, trying his best to steady his breathing. Thoughts raced through his addled mind.
Every night...every single night had been the same since he had left Hogwarts.
He shifted under the blankets, trying to settle himself. He reluctantly closed his eyes, knowing full and well that sleep would not easily come again this night.
It never did.
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A/N: Sorry about the abhorrent length of this chapter – I hope the whole flashback/dream thing wasn't too boring to read.
P.S.
Thanks to you few (*sniff*) reviewers thus far. When I get some more, I will thank each of you properly at the end of each chapter.