Premature Exit

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, I am just a spoiled rich kid with too many toys.

A/N: Thank you reviewers Shadow of the black abyss (how very right you were when reviewing chapter five, I had to prevent myself from answering you properly last chapter) Lady Arwen of Rivendell, Moonfyre and Eric2.

Chapter 7

Harry lay on his bed gazing up at the ceiling, his room was decorated with Quidditch players who flew around playing a match that restarted every time the seeker caught the snitch. He watched as a beater from a team dressed in green (Slytherin, perhaps?) drew his bat back to hit a bludger straight at the opposing team's chaser, who was heading for goal. The bludger hit the chaser on the back and there was a sickening crunch, Harry winced slightly. Lily had tried to stop James from decorating Harry's room in this way due to the fact it was distracting and noisy, but Harry had stepped in and said he liked it, causing his father to grin stupidly and his mother to give in. The chaser, a girl wearing the dark red of the other team, screamed loudly for a split second before falling motionless to the ground. Harry watched her be lifted magically off the ground by officials and out of sight. Her teammates were looking a little angry, the red team's seeker committed a sure foul by coming up behind the beater who had hit the bludger and hitting him the face. It was almost amusing and had a certain comedic value to it.

There was a knock on his door. Harry cursed silently; he had almost managed to get away from everything back then. He had nearly forgotten about the prophecy, it's contents, the wizarding world and home. Home as in Hogwarts, because whatever the circumstances he still felt like Hogwarts was his home. No matter who lived in the strange but not quite right world around him.

Now everything rushed back to him, the crowd was cheering on his wallpaper…the green team had scored a goal.

"Harry?" asked a quiet voice from behind his door he noticed immediately as Lily's. She sounded sad, the enthusiasm she had held in her voice previously was not there. Harry perked his head up and then sat upright, he felt a bit hot although he was certain that the temperature around him was normal.

"Come in," he said. The door opened slowly and in came Lily, her hair was hanging a little limp and her eyes had lost their sparkle, but she wasn't crying, neither did she look like she had been. She seemed very, very shaken. She had her wand in the hand she was not using to hold the door and levitated a tray onto Harry's table. It dropped somewhat suddenly as the people in the wallpaper started crying in outrage. Someone had committed a foul that the referee had not seen. Lily looked around in surprise before calming down.

"Damn James and his silly ideas," she said to herself, the she turned to Harry and looked a little awkward, "I was just wondering if you were hungry, Harry, and then I realised you said you had a headache and felt absolutely awful that you hadn't got a drink or anything. Does it hurt badly?"

Harry shook his head but Lily did not seemed satisfied with that answer.

"I can reverse this if you want," she said, gesturing towards the walls, the audience were clapping wildly as the red team's seeker had caught the snitch, "I can hear it from downstairs, James told me not to worry, but I do."

She used her hands to brush her hair away from her face and looked ever so slightly uncomfortable.

"It's ok," Harry replied, a new game had was about to start although not all of the crowd had taken seats, it was much quieter.

"If you're sure," she said, then she looked around in distaste, "I'll at least tone it down a little bit, I can't hear myself think." So she did so, and with that she said goodbye and left, closing the door very slowly behind her. Harry felt a bit mad, that was what he was counting on; he didn't want to hear himself think. He didn't want to think. The game being played now had so far been a very solemn affair, the players moved slowly and nobody even tried to break the rules, the crowds were silent…maybe they had fallen asleep. Now he had no choice.

But what came to him was something quite different to what he'd expected. He was not thinking about the prophecy, or Voldemort, or even his parents. Harry realised he was intent on getting back.

It was strange, now he knew everything and knew that he was much safer where he was, he wanted to go back to the wizarding world. Without him, all hope was lost. What was everyone doing in his absence? Were the ministry still so obliviously ignoring his return, or had Voldemort stopped being so secretive now Harry was gone and declared full on war? If the latter, how many people he knew had already perished? And what were his friends doing? Had they given up on him as soon as he had almost began to stop wanting to go back? Now Harry knew his place, he needed to go back. He needed to return, somehow, even if noone had ever managed it before. He was barely thinking about the burden would lay upon his shoulders, only that he needed to get back to it to be laid.

The simple matter was that without Harry Potter the whole world would become extinct. Whatever Voldemort said, there was still the fact that there were not enough pure bloods and magic would slowly but surely die out. The muggles would all be gone, and then the muggleborns, half bloods and then the purebloods who stood amongst the dead. Harry could not, would not, allow this to happen.

Almost as soon as this came to mind, there was another knock at his door followed by the opening of it. It was James. Harry blinked in surprise; he had expected it to be Sirius with this type of arrival. He looked to the food on the side that was still untouched and then back to his father. James summoned a chair and sat down on it, there was a shriek from down below them that suggested that Lily had been sitting on it before.

"Lily said you felt ill," he said, "but I thought it would be something else. See, you don't get ill in this plane, neither do you eat or feel or even smell. It's weird." He paused, then said, "is this about what we told you?"

Harry felt surprised, his father did not waste time, it seemed like such a difference to people lingering on about something else and never really getting to the point they wanted to make. Harry was about to nod to save further complications, but then stopped himself. He wondered briefly if his father would know if he were lying, was he an occlumens? Harry had never asked.

"No," Harry replied truthfully. James waited and Harry wondered to himself whether he should bother trying to explain himself. He didn't want to try and say that although he had been enjoying himself, he knew he should leave. Or perhaps James already knew, and this would be much easier.

"You want to ask about getting home without upsetting Lily or me?" he asked very seriously. Harry was a bit taken aback; he had not expected that.

"Are you an occlumens?" he blurted out. James flashed a grin and looked like he might have laughed.

"Hell no," he said, "I thought it would be only logical that you want to speak about it and that, with Lily here, it would be hard."

Harry stared at him for a moment and them felt himself smile, something he had not done for what seemed like an eternity now. He suddenly felt like he could say what he'd been longing to say and hear an answer he may or may not have been expecting. He had told himself not to get his hopes too high, but neither to drop them completely.

"So, could Sirius and I ever get back?" he asked, he could not stop himself from sounding hopeful.

"Well," James replied, "it's never been done before. Occasionally when someone falls into here they make their way to the spirit realm where they effectively die. But I suppose it's possible providing you have not entered the spiritual plane."

He sounded so casual that Harry was sure he was going to announce some way that Harry could get back. He wasn't getting one, though, James was evidently thinking very hard. Harry hoped that his father could not hear his heart pumping ever so fast, was he feeling excited? Excited at what? Excited at leaving the people he'd wanted to meet for so long and going back to a life which ultimately could result in his death or Voldemort's? Harry suddenly felt a little low again; this wasn't a situation that he could win either way. He heard his father mutter a word and looked at him eagerly, his second long sadness forgotten.

"Merlin," James muttered, he had his head in his hands so that it was impossible to read his facial expression. His voice was also a little muffled so that Harry was not sure he had heard correctly.

"Sorry?" Harry asked, trying to sound calm. He didn't feel calm though; he felt just the slightest bit crazy. He was not sure whether it was being able to get back or just the whole strangeness of where he was finally starting to have a permanent effect on him.

James looked up with an interesting lopsided grin on his face.

"Merlin," he repeated.

Harry stared at him, he had heard for definite that time. He was very surprised, he had learned about Merlin in History of Magic (he had even found it slightly interesting) and knew that Hermione had several books that mentioned Merlin in some way. He had been a very powerful and all knowing wizard from a long time ago, maybe even a bit like Albus Dumbledore, even muggles knew of Merlin. Harry remembered vaguely one time when he had been forced to wait for Dudley to have an injection at the doctor's surgery for a holiday that Harry had not come on, that he had found a book on Merlin in the waiting room. Harry had been very young but not a bad reader, he had read a few chapters before Aunt Petunia had noticed it and confiscated the book.

"I don't know how it could be done," James warned, but his voice also held traces of whatever it was making Harry feel so happy, "but I know that if there is a way, Merlin would know about it."

Harry and James exchanged rather stupid looking grins. So Harry would be going home, it was like the feeling that had been a small slice of hope had expanded and was now making him almost giddy. He was going to see his friends, and now that everything had happened, maybe he would be ready. Maybe…just maybe…

But that word had been hopefully only a few minutes ago. Maybe Harry's life wasn't exactly looking up, but it was ever so slightly better. That would suffice, for now.


Yay! I finished the chapter on time; I was worrying that I wouldn't. I worked hard on this throughout a very bad headache-turned-migraine simply because I love writing, but I would love it even more if you were to review. Aaaah time, I have too little of it. I'm really sorry, my Dad is yelling at me to get off the computer so I'll have to answer questions and reviews another time. Sorry.