disclaimer: I don't own either harry potter or final fantasy, and I hope no one is offended too badly by this story.
Harry, having decided his course of action, finally started to really take in his surroundings. He was in a hospital bed,
with the curtains drawn, but judging from what he could see of the ceiling, he was in Hogwarts, probably under the care of Madam Pomfrey. He could also hear faint voices from outside the curtain...
"..a miracle he's still alive, Albus! What possible reason could you have for leaving him there if you knew there was possible abuse! Which could have been going on for how many years now? fifteen? And now he's been beaten beyond what any normal wizard should survive, and left to die in that cupboard, which he used to sleep in Albus, I saw the words carved into the back wall 'Hary's Room', which he obviously magicked there because the wall around it is evidence enough that they tried removing the words. And he never mentions it to anyone, and you know why? He probably thinks most of it is a normal thing! He obviously learned to blame himself for everything from their treatment of him! They think of him as a freak, lesser than human, and he probably believes it now on some level!..."
Harry had never heard Professor Lupin so upset about anything before, which at this point seemed odd to Harry, he'd never been asked before what his life was like with the Dursley's in any detail at all. He heard the ex-Professor continue speaking, this time in a more broken voice.
"Lily and James...Lily..." he stopped and sobbed for a bit "..they didn't die for this. They died so Harry could live, not for him to survive in such a horrible existence!" and with that he heard footsteps and a door closing roughly.
What followed truly shocked Harry. He heard someone sit heavily, and begin to cry. and then the headmaster's voice came through the curtains very faintly...
"I have failed them. All of them. I wanted to protect Harry, but in doing so, I've destroyed him."
Harry peeked through the curtains to see the headmaster sitting on one of the hospital beds, facing away from him. If he wanted he could sneak out, but considering what he had just heard, he felt obligated to let Dumbledore know that he was still very much alive and still intent on killing Voldemort, despite anything Vernon had done.
Harry got up from the bed easily, noticing as he stood that he felt much lighter on his feet, and, somehow, much stronger than he'd ever felt before. He pulled back the curtain, catching the attention of the headmaster, who appeared shocked as Harry walked over to him, sitting on the bed across from Dumbledore so they could talk.
"...Harry?" the old man finally said. "Harry, but...how did you recover so quickly, Poppy said there would be permenant damage? You look as if nothing happened at all..."
"Well, I'm not sure. I had a strange dream while I was sleeping. Not induced by Voldemort," he said, interpreting the look on Dumbledore's face. "No, this was definitely different, although that's all I can say for sure."
"Harry I'm sorry I ever left you with the Dursley's, obviously I should have taken some alternate action to protect you,
seeing as this plan failed so miserably-"
"I don't need an apology, Professor. I'm still alive to kill Voldemort, and that's all that matters, right?"
Suddenly fire flared next to Harry and Fawkes appeared in midair, perching on Harry's shoulder, trilling sadly. The sound of Fawkes' voice, which had been soothing to Harry in the past, was causing a dull ache in Harry's chest instead.
The tears rolling down Fawkes' beak caused Harry to remember something from back in the cupboard...
"It was you who saved me, wasn't it, Fawkes? Thank you. I suppose you took me to her as well?" Fawkes trilled in the affirmative. "I'm glad. Despite how much I wish I could have just died there in the cupboard, I never wanted to leave the world to suffer under Voldemort, and considering I'm the only one who can kill him, dying then wasn't an option. It can wait till later." Fawkes began to look sad again, and Dumbledore simply looked very old and tired, and stressed out. "She mentioned a vault though, Fawkes, did she mean in Gringotts? I don't have any kind of key or anything," he said, looking to the headmaster, "Or do I, sir?"
Dumbledore sighed. "Until you are of age, Harry, no. The goblin's are holding your family's vault intil then. May I ask who 'she' is? You keep referring to someone, does this have to do with how you seem to be completely healed?"
"To answer your last question, yes, I believe so. And as for who 'she' is, I don't think I'm quite sure how to explain that. For now I'll just say she is my ancestor, and from the way she talked, the mother of all wizard kind. Would it be possible for me to be emancipated, sir? I'm sure the Dursley's treatment of me could make a good enough case for it. We really don't have time to wait for me to reach seventeen do we? Considering how many people will die between now and the time you decide I'm old enough to fight this battle I'm already fighting for the past five years, no, scratch that, fifteen years. I've been on borrowed time since that day, professor. You and I both know I don't really stand a chance at killing this man and walking away. The best I can hope for is that we both take each other out. He's got what, almost fifty years on me? That crap you came up with about love, I have to wonder sir, did you really expect me to believe that? I don't have any clue what love is, how can it be some great power I have that Voldemort doesn't?"
Harry got up and began to pace.
"Actually, I think you do know, Harry. Were it not for you're love for Sirius, you would probably not be alive to worry about the rest of us, which also proves you have love in your heart, for the whole world. I believe there is a little love in any relationship though. With friends and comrades you wish to protect them, and spend time with them and do things for their sake. It is this mutual support of each other that allows us to have the great civilization that we have. With lovers it is very much like friendship, only things are probably increased above the normal desire to protect and be next to them. It is a powerful force which makes lives and destroys them, unfortunately. But with a strong enough bond, nothing could tear you away from those you love, not even death. Harry, Sirius will always be with you, he will always be a part of you because you did love him. Your parents are no different."
Harry had stopped to listen to Dumbledore's speech and was fighting back his pain over what he'd done to Sirius, but he had a mission, he could wallow in his pain after Voldemort was dead. And with a firm resolve Harry turned to Fawkes.
"Can you take me to Gringotts? To my family's vault?"
"Harry, no, you are not in any condition to fight him now." said Dumbledore quite vehemently.
Harry turned to Dumbledore. "What?" he asked, with genuine confusion showing on his face. "I'm ready now. I understand,
finally, why I'm here. I'm supposed to be a weapon, right? Just a weapon for you to use against Voldemort. I wasn't meant to live, the prophecy says so. 'Neither can live while the other survives..?' I'm not really alive at all, then. And neither is he. Actually I don't think he's really been alive for a long time now. I know Remus told you I used to sleep in the cupboard. It's true. They were ashamed to have a freak like me living in their house, and rightly so. I'm even a freak by wizarding standards, and you know it. So why are you telling me all this now? I don't care. I just want it to end. I want him to die, so that I can rest in peace."
Harry said all of this very calmly, and with an almost vacant, and very deadened look in his eyes.
Unbeknownst to Harry, another person had heard the entire conversation, and, knowing the symptoms Harry was showing, decided to try and do something about it.
"Harry?..."
Harry heard the voice and turned quickly to find Hermione standing behind him. How had he not noticed her? He quickly recovered from the surprise and smiled.
"Hello Hermione. What are you doing here?"
Hermione flinched, slightly, but then answered.
"Harry, that isn't funny, I heard everything you just said, now stop acting like everything is okay."
"What? Aren't I allowed to be happy to see my best friend?"
"Harry you aren't happy and that smile isn't fooling me. I'm not blind you know!"
"Hermione, what are you talking about," he said, still smiling, "Everything is fine. I was just about to go and save the world by killing Voldemort and dying all in one swing."
That was it for her. That smile coupled with the dead look in his eyes made her break down. With tears rolling down her face, she reached up and grabbed Harry by the shoulders. "No, Harry, wake up. This isn't you. Please... please come back to me!" she sobbed, and as the first of her tears hit the floor, Harry collapsed, pulling Hermione with him, to the floor.
"It hurts...it hurts so much Hermione...I can't do this...it's too heavy." he sobbed. "They all left me...my parents left me... the Dursley's never wanted me... Sirius...I killed Sirius, and I got you hurt, too."
She pulled him closer to her.
"Don't worry. I'm here. And I'm not going anywhere. You have to let me help, Harry. Everyone will help."
"You're not alone," she wispered in his ear. "I love you, Harry, and I'm staying. I'm not going to leave you alone."
Suddenly he pushed her away. "No! Please stop! I can't. Everyone just leaves..." Harry sobbed. "I can't have love.
right?" he asked of no one in particular.
Hermione reached up and turned Harry's head to face her. "You're wrong Harry. Everyone deserves love. Especially you, Harry. You've given me so much, you know. I couldn't thank Quirrel enough for setting that troll loose, because it brought me you. You saved me, Harry. Ron told me that it was you who thought of me, you know. I wouldn't be alive now without you.
You became my friend, when no one else would, and you taught me to trust in my heart, rather than following the rules," she said with a smile through her tears. "I do love you Harry, and nothing is going to change that, so please, stay here with me, and we can live, together we can, if we can't do it alone."
and with that she closed her eyes and brought her lips to his.
The kiss, Harry noted, was quite different from the time Cho had kissed him, despite that this time there were still tears. In fact, he had to admit, it was quite simply the best thing that had ever happened to him, and he tightened their embrace, turning to bury his face in her hair.
As the two embraced, something else was happening, however, much to the shock of the headmaster. The floor had begun to ripple outward from where the two teens were knealing on the floor, and they slowly sank through, oblivious.
Harry, having decided his course of action, finally started to really take in his surroundings. He was in a hospital bed,
with the curtains drawn, but judging from what he could see of the ceiling, he was in Hogwarts, probably under the care of Madam Pomfrey. He could also hear faint voices from outside the curtain...
"..a miracle he's still alive, Albus! What possible reason could you have for leaving him there if you knew there was possible abuse! Which could have been going on for how many years now? fifteen? And now he's been beaten beyond what any normal wizard should survive, and left to die in that cupboard, which he used to sleep in Albus, I saw the words carved into the back wall 'Hary's Room', which he obviously magicked there because the wall around it is evidence enough that they tried removing the words. And he never mentions it to anyone, and you know why? He probably thinks most of it is a normal thing! He obviously learned to blame himself for everything from their treatment of him! They think of him as a freak, lesser than human, and he probably believes it now on some level!..."
Harry had never heard Professor Lupin so upset about anything before, which at this point seemed odd to Harry, he'd never been asked before what his life was like with the Dursley's in any detail at all. He heard the ex-Professor continue speaking, this time in a more broken voice.
"Lily and James...Lily..." he stopped and sobbed for a bit "..they didn't die for this. They died so Harry could live, not for him to survive in such a horrible existence!" and with that he heard footsteps and a door closing roughly.
What followed truly shocked Harry. He heard someone sit heavily, and begin to cry. and then the headmaster's voice came through the curtains very faintly...
"I have failed them. All of them. I wanted to protect Harry, but in doing so, I've destroyed him."
Harry peeked through the curtains to see the headmaster sitting on one of the hospital beds, facing away from him. If he wanted he could sneak out, but considering what he had just heard, he felt obligated to let Dumbledore know that he was still very much alive and still intent on killing Voldemort, despite anything Vernon had done.
Harry got up from the bed easily, noticing as he stood that he felt much lighter on his feet, and, somehow, much stronger than he'd ever felt before. He pulled back the curtain, catching the attention of the headmaster, who appeared shocked as Harry walked over to him, sitting on the bed across from Dumbledore so they could talk.
"...Harry?" the old man finally said. "Harry, but...how did you recover so quickly, Poppy said there would be permenant damage? You look as if nothing happened at all..."
"Well, I'm not sure. I had a strange dream while I was sleeping. Not induced by Voldemort," he said, interpreting the look on Dumbledore's face. "No, this was definitely different, although that's all I can say for sure."
"Harry I'm sorry I ever left you with the Dursley's, obviously I should have taken some alternate action to protect you,
seeing as this plan failed so miserably-"
"I don't need an apology, Professor. I'm still alive to kill Voldemort, and that's all that matters, right?"
Suddenly fire flared next to Harry and Fawkes appeared in midair, perching on Harry's shoulder, trilling sadly. The sound of Fawkes' voice, which had been soothing to Harry in the past, was causing a dull ache in Harry's chest instead.
The tears rolling down Fawkes' beak caused Harry to remember something from back in the cupboard...
"It was you who saved me, wasn't it, Fawkes? Thank you. I suppose you took me to her as well?" Fawkes trilled in the affirmative. "I'm glad. Despite how much I wish I could have just died there in the cupboard, I never wanted to leave the world to suffer under Voldemort, and considering I'm the only one who can kill him, dying then wasn't an option. It can wait till later." Fawkes began to look sad again, and Dumbledore simply looked very old and tired, and stressed out. "She mentioned a vault though, Fawkes, did she mean in Gringotts? I don't have any kind of key or anything," he said, looking to the headmaster, "Or do I, sir?"
Dumbledore sighed. "Until you are of age, Harry, no. The goblin's are holding your family's vault intil then. May I ask who 'she' is? You keep referring to someone, does this have to do with how you seem to be completely healed?"
"To answer your last question, yes, I believe so. And as for who 'she' is, I don't think I'm quite sure how to explain that. For now I'll just say she is my ancestor, and from the way she talked, the mother of all wizard kind. Would it be possible for me to be emancipated, sir? I'm sure the Dursley's treatment of me could make a good enough case for it. We really don't have time to wait for me to reach seventeen do we? Considering how many people will die between now and the time you decide I'm old enough to fight this battle I'm already fighting for the past five years, no, scratch that, fifteen years. I've been on borrowed time since that day, professor. You and I both know I don't really stand a chance at killing this man and walking away. The best I can hope for is that we both take each other out. He's got what, almost fifty years on me? That crap you came up with about love, I have to wonder sir, did you really expect me to believe that? I don't have any clue what love is, how can it be some great power I have that Voldemort doesn't?"
Harry got up and began to pace.
"Actually, I think you do know, Harry. Were it not for you're love for Sirius, you would probably not be alive to worry about the rest of us, which also proves you have love in your heart, for the whole world. I believe there is a little love in any relationship though. With friends and comrades you wish to protect them, and spend time with them and do things for their sake. It is this mutual support of each other that allows us to have the great civilization that we have. With lovers it is very much like friendship, only things are probably increased above the normal desire to protect and be next to them. It is a powerful force which makes lives and destroys them, unfortunately. But with a strong enough bond, nothing could tear you away from those you love, not even death. Harry, Sirius will always be with you, he will always be a part of you because you did love him. Your parents are no different."
Harry had stopped to listen to Dumbledore's speech and was fighting back his pain over what he'd done to Sirius, but he had a mission, he could wallow in his pain after Voldemort was dead. And with a firm resolve Harry turned to Fawkes.
"Can you take me to Gringotts? To my family's vault?"
"Harry, no, you are not in any condition to fight him now." said Dumbledore quite vehemently.
Harry turned to Dumbledore. "What?" he asked, with genuine confusion showing on his face. "I'm ready now. I understand,
finally, why I'm here. I'm supposed to be a weapon, right? Just a weapon for you to use against Voldemort. I wasn't meant to live, the prophecy says so. 'Neither can live while the other survives..?' I'm not really alive at all, then. And neither is he. Actually I don't think he's really been alive for a long time now. I know Remus told you I used to sleep in the cupboard. It's true. They were ashamed to have a freak like me living in their house, and rightly so. I'm even a freak by wizarding standards, and you know it. So why are you telling me all this now? I don't care. I just want it to end. I want him to die, so that I can rest in peace."
Harry said all of this very calmly, and with an almost vacant, and very deadened look in his eyes.
Unbeknownst to Harry, another person had heard the entire conversation, and, knowing the symptoms Harry was showing, decided to try and do something about it.
"Harry?..."
Harry heard the voice and turned quickly to find Hermione standing behind him. How had he not noticed her? He quickly recovered from the surprise and smiled.
"Hello Hermione. What are you doing here?"
Hermione flinched, slightly, but then answered.
"Harry, that isn't funny, I heard everything you just said, now stop acting like everything is okay."
"What? Aren't I allowed to be happy to see my best friend?"
"Harry you aren't happy and that smile isn't fooling me. I'm not blind you know!"
"Hermione, what are you talking about," he said, still smiling, "Everything is fine. I was just about to go and save the world by killing Voldemort and dying all in one swing."
That was it for her. That smile coupled with the dead look in his eyes made her break down. With tears rolling down her face, she reached up and grabbed Harry by the shoulders. "No, Harry, wake up. This isn't you. Please... please come back to me!" she sobbed, and as the first of her tears hit the floor, Harry collapsed, pulling Hermione with him, to the floor.
"It hurts...it hurts so much Hermione...I can't do this...it's too heavy." he sobbed. "They all left me...my parents left me... the Dursley's never wanted me... Sirius...I killed Sirius, and I got you hurt, too."
She pulled him closer to her.
"Don't worry. I'm here. And I'm not going anywhere. You have to let me help, Harry. Everyone will help."
"You're not alone," she wispered in his ear. "I love you, Harry, and I'm staying. I'm not going to leave you alone."
Suddenly he pushed her away. "No! Please stop! I can't. Everyone just leaves..." Harry sobbed. "I can't have love.
right?" he asked of no one in particular.
Hermione reached up and turned Harry's head to face her. "You're wrong Harry. Everyone deserves love. Especially you, Harry. You've given me so much, you know. I couldn't thank Quirrel enough for setting that troll loose, because it brought me you. You saved me, Harry. Ron told me that it was you who thought of me, you know. I wouldn't be alive now without you.
You became my friend, when no one else would, and you taught me to trust in my heart, rather than following the rules," she said with a smile through her tears. "I do love you Harry, and nothing is going to change that, so please, stay here with me, and we can live, together we can, if we can't do it alone."
and with that she closed her eyes and brought her lips to his.
The kiss, Harry noted, was quite different from the time Cho had kissed him, despite that this time there were still tears. In fact, he had to admit, it was quite simply the best thing that had ever happened to him, and he tightened their embrace, turning to bury his face in her hair.
As the two embraced, something else was happening, however, much to the shock of the headmaster. The floor had begun to ripple outward from where the two teens were knealing on the floor, and they slowly sank through, oblivious.