Harry woke, rather uncomfortably, to a blinding white light. The infirmary he thought with a groan. Somehow he had survived the killing curse, again, and was sent to the infirmary. He could make out the blurry figure of a woman. That had to be Madam Pomfrey; he thought wearily, I'm going to be stuck in here for weeks now.
With a sigh he tried to sit up only to find that he couldn't. It wasn't that he was unable to move but there was a weight on his chest that prevented him from really going anywhere. He reached for his glasses but only meet air. His attempts at seeing were rewarded with a giggle and soon after his glasses were set on his face.
His vision swam into focus only to see a girl sitting in his view of the room. The girl had to be a few years younger then him, at least 14 if not younger. Her long blonde hair was pulled back into pigtails tied back with big fluffy bows and her eyes where a deep blue with just hints of green. Realizing she was the weight on his chest he tried to shift a bit but couldn't manage to free himself.
The girl giggled again and pointed to the bright white light that had woke him up in the first place "Great isn't it? Did you think you were in heaven or something? I thought it up all by myself, just don't tell Salus, she'd have a fit!" He looked to where she pointed seeing what looked like ghosts of miniature lambs. The small things pelts were shinning brightly giving off a happy light if such a thing were possible.
"Where…" Harry began but stopped himself at her amused look "wrong question?" Receiving an enthusiastic nod he sighed, "Of course it is" was his muttered response. While he didn't mean to be so cranky he felt like hell, woke up to a blinding light coming out of sheep and to top it off he had some stranger sitting on him.
"Who would be more appropriate" The voice that came from the foot of the bed was sleek. It had a cool tone to it that washed over the listener in a way that while quiet in a way that it would seem to be overlooked demanded the attention of everyone who heard it. Looking as best he could with the girl still perched on him he was able to see that a man stood in the door he hadn't been aware of. Leaning against the doorframe he seemed to watch the seen uninterested and yet his eyes were scanning Harry as though trying to search his very soul.
The girl had spun around at the voice "You're not going to tell are you?" She didn't wait for a response before continuing in a rather rushed fashion "Because you shouldn't be tattling on your counterpart, who by the way has down things for you all the time…"
She was interrupted by the cool detached voice "First of all I owe you nothing so don't even start that. I'd rather like to see you get yourself in trouble rather then me running off to tell about it. Lastly, you're crushing him"
The girl didn't seem to want to pay attention to him until the last part. When she heard the part about crushing him she jumped off "I don't weigh that much" she huffed but had gotten off non-the less.
Without the girls weight on him Harry was able to pull himself up to properly see around the room he was in. Contrary to what he had thought when he first woke up he wasn't in a hospital wing, nor was he in any room that would have passed for one by even the unconscious. The room was rather dark, most of the light coming from the now softly glowing sheep, however the dark colors in the room seemed to be putting up a good battle at extinguishing any light that dared to come into the room. He was sitting on a good-sized bed. The black sheets made it seem as though the dark of the room was trying to encase him as well.
His attention was pulled from the room to land on the man that was still standing in the door. From the way he looked he was obviously disinterested now that he had freed Harry from being trapped against the bed. Messy blond hair fell into his eyes but he didn't bother to brush it out of the way. Harry couldn't tell exactly what color his eyes were with the way he was standing. He seemed comfortable though, wearing black pants that didn't seem so much as baggy but more just hung off him. A white tee shirt was the backdrop for some sort of charm that hung around his neck. Too Harry it looked like the outline of the head of a dragon at the top of a cross. "So are you going to tell me then?" he asked once finished examining him.
The gaze that had been focused on glaring hatefully at the sheep turned to him. Looking mildly amused he made his way closer to the bed, at which point Harry could see that his eyes were a light silvery blue. Standing over him the man seemed rather imposing "no"
Harry didn't have the chance to become started by the single word or even annoyed that he hadn't gotten an answer as another voice came from the door "Darius, stop hassling people" The response to that was the man to glare at the woman standing in the door before moving himself to lean against the wall next to the bed muttering "whatever"
The woman came over, long red hair pulled back by the small braids she had made. Violet eyes smiled at him making him feel a bit more at ease with the situation. He was rather surprised that he was as calm as he was in a place he didn't know.
"How are you feeling, dear?" she asked, the motherly tone surprising him a bit. "Not too bad I hope" Getting a shake of his head she nodded "That's good, wouldn't want you to…"
The man interrupted her "While thing whole thing is touching, really it is, I'd prefer to get this over with and leave" there wasn't so much as a harsh tone to his voice there was a bit of impatience.
The woman nodded to him with a sigh "You're making this any easier, Dar sweetie" Earning a death glare from him but he didn't say anything, seeming resigned to the horrible nick names that came out of the woman's mouth. "As you're so intent on speeding this up…" she didn't finish but Darius seemed to know what she meant and was grateful for moving on.
He looked to Harry watching him a few more moments, like he had when he first came in "He'll do" the assent made the woman's smile even more "If that's out of the way I believe I have more important things to do" He was stopped but the woman's hand and sighed at the hitch in his escape.
"Don't go wondering off just yet, I need you here for a bit dear" Turning back to Harry she nodded "First, my name is Saundra. The girl over there," She pointed to the one who had been sitting on him not too long ago "is Karina and he," motioning to the man "is Darius. If you need any help ask us, or anyone else for that matter and you will be shown the right way" After a slight pause she began again "This will be a bit hard to swallow, dear, but just listen with an open mind" She receive a hesitant nod.
"You are in a sort of afterlife" at the almost horrified look she quickly amended "You're not dead. You are very much alive, however there's a bit of a problem with you going back home right away. You see, we are people who sort of, keep everything in balance. And I am now certain that you are as well."
Darius voice cut in with a scratching remark "Wish it was that you were dead now hum?" He received a warning glance from Saundra and so went to silently glaring at her.
Harry watched them a bit confused "I don't think I know what you mean. It is ridicules and I want to go home, now" He had enough of the whole thing and just wanted to go home to Hogwarts and go to sleep, pretend it was all a dream.
"You can leave whenever you wish," She gave him a slightly pleading look "However if you don't take on what we ask of you the world you return to will most likely become wreaked within a few months, if that."
Darius decided to speak up again "Funny how she can put the world on your shoulders isn't it?" He ignored the defensive 'Well its not like we have any other way' and continued, "The point is, you can stay, learn what she wants you too and then go home with enough power to beat the entire wizarding world with a stick." Continuing to ignore her protests "Or, you can have me take you home right now and pretend like none of this ever happened"
Harry watched him shocked. It was probably the most direct choice he had ever been given. Nothing on either side to make him worry about hurting others, just the strait truth of what would happen to him. Then again, if he stayed he would be able to learn a way to get rid of Voldamort from what Darius had said.
His thoughts were interrupted "Don't do that" at his confused look Darius explained "Don't think of other people, it complicates things. You will never be able to please everyone you want so do what it is that you want to do" After a few long minutes he smirked. The other two looked downcast, as they seemed ready to let him go home.
They were stopped short when he nodded "alright" was the quiet answer they got. The two woman were confused seeing that it could be takenin any number of waysbut Darius just chuckled.
I know, I am very slow at actually writing things. I've just not been in the mood lately... I have the third chapter already started but I'm not sure if it will be finished any time soon.