If I Should Die Before I Wake

Chapter 8

Out of Harm's Way

Disclaimer: I only own the plot of this story. All of the characters belong to JK Rowling.

Ron, Hermione, and Ginny had all headed off to work, leaving Harry behind feeling very lonely and naïve. He felt like a little kid, staying home while its parents went to work. To help pass the time, he made a list of things to do.

Harry's To-Do List

1. Pick up Hedwig at Ministry of Magic

2. Owl Hagrid

3. Write thank-you's for gifts

4. Make a surprise visit to Ron and Hermione at Hogwarts

5. Make a surprise visit to Ginny at the Ministry of Magic

6. Visit Diagon Alley and bring back loads of treats for everyone

7. Buy Christmas gifts

8. Withdraw money from Gringotts

9. Take a nap

10. Eat

11. Relax

12. Go through Anne's exercise routine

Bloody hell, Harry thought, how the blazes am I going to do all that in 5 hours?

Harry took a deep breath. Okay, relax. You've just gotten out of the hospital. That doesn't mean you have to go from being a lazy bum to being a workaholic and rush around everywhere to make yourself feel useful.

Harry suddenly felt uneasy for no reason. Maybe it's just restlessness, he thought. After all, I've done nothing useful for nearly 4 years. But the unsettling feeling got worse. He needed to leave. But why?

Just get out. Quickly, said the voice. Harry thought that maybe he really did need to get out, so he grabbed his coat and headed for the door at a very rushed pace. He opened the door, hurled himself out the door, and slammed it shut as quickly as he had opened it. He was breathing hard. Probably in panic, he thought uneasily. Why did I feel like I had to leave? What's wrong?

Harry nearly slapped himself. If he was to be out of the house, he might as well do something. And, of course, in his rush to 'get out', he had left his list on the kitchen counter. He turned around to go and get it, then stopped dead in his tracks.

Something was moving in there. Shadows moved across the wall, playing tricks on his mind…

This time Harry really did panic. He fought the scream that rose in his throat, because on each shadow, he thought that he saw red pupils staring at him… just staring at him mercilessly.

He quickly apparated to just outside the Hogwarts grounds. He was safe for the moment.

After Harry entered the castle, his 17-year-old self gave him the intuition to go see the Headmaster, like he did when something strange had happened. Then, he realized that he shouldn't for three reasons. A- Dumbledore wasn't the Headmaster anymore. B- He wasn't a student in the school anymore. And C- He was grown up and shouldn't act like a baby.

So, instead, he tried to navigate his way to the Defense Against the Arts classroom, where he would hopefully find Ron. Harry hoped he wouldn't be teaching the class today, so that he could talk to him.

Suddenly Harry saw a rush of students coming down the hall. Oh, crap, he thought, I'm never going to get anywhere now. Class has just ended.

Students noticed the strange man in the hallway. Harry tried to keep his head down and hurry through the halls, but it was useless. He heard gasps, whispers, and even shouts. Students whispered to each other quickly.

"Is that who I think it is?"

"The Harry Potter?"

"What's he doing here?"

"Mr. Potter, can I have your autograph?"

Harry sighed and nodded reluctantly. "Do you have a spare quill I could keep for a while?" he asked, anticipating that he might need to leave a note for Ron if he was in the middle of class by the time he got there.

The student's face lit up. "Oh, most certainly, Mr. Potter." He pulled a pen out of his pocket, and a camera. That blonde haired boy looked strangely familiar to Harry…

"Hang on," he said frowning, "are you by chance related to Colin Creevey?"

The boy grinned widely. "He's my older cousin!" He quickly snapped a picture and it printed out for Harry to sign. While he was signing, Harry noticed the boy whispering to his friends.

"He knows my cousin! The famous Harry Potter recognized me!"

His friends looked slightly jealous. Am I really that famous, he asked himself, puzzled. He handed the picture back to the boy and started to barge through the crowds again.

"Mr. Potter, over here!"

"Oh, sign this, Mr. Potter!"

"Don't forget me!"

"Harry Potter is here? Where is he?"

After signing several more students' papers and such, he put an end to all of the rubbish.

"Alright, look, I'm sorry everyone, but I have to see someone and I can't sign anything else. You'd all better get to class."

"But class doesn't start for 2 minutes!"

"I'm sure Professor Grimwall would understand if we were a bit tardy, don't worry."

"I mean, you're Harry Potter after all!"

"I'm not so sure Professor Snape would allow tardiness! I got a detention from him last week for being late."

Harry stopped in his steps. "Sna- er – Professor Snape is still here, is he?" he said, trying to sound casual and not cold.

"Indeed I am, Potter."

Harry whirled around. "Professor Snape! I … didn't see you there…"

Snape cut him off abruptly. "Everyone get to your classes… NOW!" he said loudly, making everyone jump and hurry off to class.

"But sir, I didn't get an autograph…" said a first-year girl in Gryffindor robes.

"That's just too bad, Miss Weasley," Snape said in a sarcastically sweet voice. Now GET TO CLASS!"

Harry wanted to show Snape that he wasn't to be superceded anymore, so he stopped the little girl. "So your last name is Weasley? I was Ron Weasley's best mate."

"Of course you were, Potter," Snape said coldly, "Now, Miss Weasley, you'd better-"

"Oh no. I'll write a note to her next teacher," Harry said with a sly grin at Snape. "Who's your father, Miss Weasley?" Snape grumbled slightly and left.

"His name's Bill. I'm adopted into the family," she said proudly.

"Ah, Bill. Great man," said Harry. "I'll sign a spare bit of parchment, if you'd like."

The girl's eyes lit up brightly. "Okay!" She pulled out the least wrinkled sheet of paper she could find, then handed it to him. She also pulled out another sheet for Harry to write a note to her teacher. After signing the parchment, Harry asked her what class she had next.

"Transfiguration with Professor McGonagall," she said with a spark of enthusiasm. "My second favorite class."

"And what's your first?" asked Harry as he handed her the note.

"Defense against the Dark Arts. It's always fun when Uncle Ron – oops, I mean Professor Weasley – teaches classes."

Harry grinned. "Does he give you a detention for calling him Uncle Ron in class?"

She shook her head. "Nope. Just a telling off."

"You'd best be off now. What's your name, again?"

"Angelica Weasley."

"Hand this to your professor, please," Harry said.

"Okay. Bye Mr. Potter."

"Bye Angelica."

He followed her to her class and stood outside the classroom door and listened to a bit of the class. Angelica took her seat, and Professor McGonagall immediately asked her why she was late.

"I have a note, Professor."

Minerva took the note and read it swiftly, her eyes darting to either side of the paper. When she reached the bottom, her eyes widened. She looked outside the door towards Harry, and he smiled warmly.

"If you'll excuse me for a moment, class." She opened the door and closed it behind her.

"Coming back for school, Harry?" she said jokingly.

He laughed. "No, just come to see Ron and Hermione. Well, actually I came out of panic." His eyes darkened.

"What's wrong?" Minerva asked him.

"I was at the house, and suddenly I felt the urge to get out quickly. At first, I ignored it, but then I did leave. When I looked back inside the house, I noticed movement throughout the living room. The shadows danced on the walls, and each one had red pupils staring at me. I apparated here because, well, I was sort of scared," he admitted, turning red.

The Professor pondered this for a moment. "Please let me know if this happens again. But I believe it was just your imagination, Harry. I'm sorry, but I need to get back to class. Owl me if you need anything."

"All right," Harry said uneasily. "Er, thanks." She walked back into the classroom. For nothing, he added to himself. But then again, what did he expect her to do? Provide a perfect explanation of what was going on? Go to the house and see for herself?

He found the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom and peeked in. An old man was teaching the class, and Ron was standing next to him. It looked as if they were doing a demonstration. Ron suddenly caught Harry's eye, and looked puzzled in a good way. He gave Harry a look that said, 'I'll get out as soon as I can.'

After a few minutes, Ron walked outside the door.

"Hey, mate!" he said happily. "Decided to stop by to see your old pal?"

Harry laughed. "Well, I was going to surprise you later, but…" he cut off and frowned.

Ron's excited expression faded. "What's wrong, Harry?"

Harry told Ron about the sudden urge to get out of the house, and then seeing shadows creeping inside with red pupils on them.

Ron stared at Harry wide-eyed. "You mean to say, Harry, that you thought you saw Voldemort?"

"That's what it seems like, doesn't it?"

"And-and you're sure you didn't… imagine them?" Ron said suspiciously, but also in a worried voice.

"Ron, really, I'm not crazy. All right, maybe I am… but I'm just telling you what I saw. I never said that Voldemort was in your house, but that's what it looked like."

"We should go back just to check things out. Maybe it was just some lamp in the house that flickered or something, Harry. But I guess Hermione and I shouldn't just not believe you or something."

So Ron and Harry hurried down to the library, where Hermione was spending her free period from Muggle Studies. She looked up as she heard footsteps down the hall.

"Ron? Harry? What are you two doing here?" she asked.

"Well, Harry said he saw… something… interesting in the house a while ago. He apparated here."

"But he couldn't have apparated here. Harry, you couldn't have. It says in Hogwarts a History-"

"Erm, yes, Hermione, we know," Harry cut in quickly, "I apparated just outside Hogwarts grounds."

"So what did you see, Harry?" Hermione asked with a concerned expression on her face.

Harry launched once again into the story of his leaving the house immediately. Hermione's eyes widened.

"So you're positive that you saw Voldemort in the house and-"

"Yes, Hermione," Harry said, exasperated. "I didn't say he was there, just that's what I saw."

"All right. I think it's time we use that certificate for a break from part of the school day that we received a month ago, Ronald."

Ron grinned. "We never did use that, did we? Let's go!"

So the three of them walked casually to the edge of the Hogwarts grounds and then apparated to the end of their street.

Suddenly something dawned on Hermione. "Harry, you really shouldn't be apparating just after you got out of the hospital like that. You could've splinched yourself easily."

Harry laughed. "Well, I'm still here in one piece, aren't I? C'mon, let's head toward the house."

An uneasiness grew bigger and bigger in Harry's mind as they approached the house. Ron and Hermione seemed unaffected since they continued their light conversation about wizards who'd gotten splinched over the ages.

"What a bunch of dolts," Harry could scarcely heard Ron saying with a chuckle, "you'd think they'd apparated before… Harry, are you all right? Is something wrong? You look a bit peaky."

At the mention of his name, Harry snapped back to reality, though he felt like he was going to be sick from the nervousness that had increased to paranoia in his mind.

"I'm fine," he managed to mumble. "Still think something's in there though."

They approached the front door now. Harry had to force himself to go up the steps to the house. The voice was telling him to leave again.

Don't go in.

I'm with Ron and Hermione, I'll be fine.

Do you want to put them in harm's way too?

No. We'll be fine. Nothing's in there. Leave me alone.

Turn back while you still can.

Stop that! I'm just imagining you.

No, you're not. I'm your subconscious…

"LEAVE ME ALONE!" Harry said aloud without realizing it.

Ron and Hermione looked taken aback.

"Er, sorry for that mate. We'll bugger off… but what'd we do?" Ron asked hesitantly.

Harry shook his head. "Nothing. You didn't do anything. Just talking to myself, is all. Something's telling me to not go in again. That's all."

"Harry, we don't notice anything, so how about we just go first?" Hermione asked soothingly, as if speaking to some scared child.

Harry didn't like being spoken to as if he was crazy, but he sighed reluctantly and nodded. Ron and Hermione slowly entered the house and quickly flipped on the lights. Harry understood why they had done this and was extremely annoyed. They had obviously turned on the lights in a hurry so that the dark house wouldn't form shadows in his mind. But he was sure he had actually seen them! He wasn't crazy, and besides…

Get out now before it's too late.

Oh, you again. There's no one here. See?

You're endangering yourself and your friends. Leave now.

Nothing is wrong so stop bugging me.

Nothing is wrong yet… in five minutes you will be dead in the blink of an eye. GET OUT.

Harry was about to tell the stupid voice to 'shut thehell up' but Ron's voices interrupted his thoughts.

"Oi, Harry, come over here! This isn't mine… there's some strange black sphere over here that's sparking!"

When Harry saw what Ron was pointing at his heart stopped dead. Ron must've seen the look on his face because he started to look pale too. Finally Harry found his voice.

"HERMIONE! THERE'S A BOMB IN HERE!"

A shrill scream was heard from upstairs. Ron looked thoroughly confused and scared.

"What's a bomb? Harry, what's a bomb? WHAT IS A BLOODY BOMB DOING IN MY HOUSE?!" he shouted in panic.

Hermione ran down the stairs quickly, her face ashen white. "Ronald, a bomb is a muggle weapon that explodes and kills you! No time to explain! We need to apparate out of here! How about to Diagon Alley! One-two- oh and Harry don't splinch yourself- Three!"

They all closed their eyes apparated hurriedly. But when they opened their eyes, to their dismay, they found that they were still in the house.

"I guess one of us could've messed up in all this panic, but all three of us?" Harry asked nervously.

Hermione groaned. "A wizard must have enclosed the area in a powerful spell allowing no magic to be performed inside of it! To hell with magic… RUN!" And with that she and Ron took off toward the door.

"Hermione – wait!" Harry cried, suddenly remembering the voice. "We have five minutes… actually probably four by now. Can't we try something more sensible first?"

"Harry, how do you know we have five minutes?" Ron asked.

"You know the voices that told me to get out earlier? They were talking to me again, and everything that they've said has been accurate so far, so I think we can assume that we have four minutes left!" Harry said hurriedly. "Let's put a shield on everything we can and then leave!"

Hermione still looked unsure. "Harry, you can't think, are you sure… you need to be positive, this is a bomb…"

"Hermione, believe me. And by now, we probably only have three minutes!" Harry shouted and dashed upstairs to his room. Ron and Hermione followed suit.

"Anyone know a shield spell to repel a bomb?" Harry yelled over his shoulder.

"How would I know? I don't even know what a damn bomb is!" Ron screeched.

Hermione yelled some complicated charm over her shoulder, and after a couple failures, Harry and Ron quickly caught on. They dashed about their rooms shielding anything valuable to them.

"Two minutes…" Ron said loudly.

Hermione hurried out of her room. "I'm finished. This is making me nervous, so I'll wait for you two by the door."

Ron finished within thirty seconds. "C'mon Harry, we need to go! I want to be far from this 'bomb' or whatever it is!"

"I know, I know. I'm coming!" Harry shouted and headed out of the room. Then something caught his eye. The photo album that Hagrid had given him that had pictures of his parents! He shot the spell over his shoulder as he headed out the room. But he missed!

"THIRTY SECONDS, HARRY!" shrieked a hysterical Hermione.

He grabbed the photo album and hurled himself down the stairs as quickly as he could.

The door was locked. "Alohamora," Ron said, but the door didn't budge. "We're done for," Ron muttered hopelessly.

"Oh move over," Harry snarled. He turned the lock and opened the door. "Ever heard of actually unlocking a door by hand?"

Ron ignored him. "Ten seconds…" Ron muttered, and they took off at a run. Soon enough they heard a loud explosion form behind them, and they stopped running and turned around, out of breath.

Harry had gotten out of harm's way once again.

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Sorry about the delay. We just got back from vacation two days ago, and then I was busy submitting my story to yesterday because it was a submission day. Enjoy this chapter!

Kelsey