Chapter 65 – Treasure in Heaven

Harry began to relax and he felt the crushing burden of Voldemort bearing down on him lifted. It seemed to Harry that the Guide had taken it from him as lightly and lovingly as a parent pulling back covers in a crib to lift a newborn infant. Harry allowed himself to be taken where the voice would have him go. He felt himself leaving his body behind; no, not quite leaving it – expanding beyond it. He expanded beyond the snake-headed man he had been struggling against; he expanded beyond his friends and the island where they all huddled together in terror: he expanded beyond the sea and the Earth. As he expanded, he encompassed them. He lost all bearing.

"Where are you taking me?"

"Nowhere really, or rather everywhere. To show you things, the things you should see."

Everything around Harry had become totally black as he had expanded and then as his eyes – or rather, he thought, it must be his mind – adjusted, he began to see a gauziness all around him and through him. It was very dim and insubstantial, but had a definite presence nonetheless. He began to hear a faint music, much like phoenix song, but more so – more strengthening, more hopeful, eternal, the spirit of love reverberating through all Creation. Then as his perceptions adjusted further, he began to see innumerable splendid, shining threads thinner than gossamer, more fine and profusely interconnected than the axons of brain cells. He knew, though he did not know how he knew, that this was something infinitely precious.

The voice explained. "Beings reach out to each other and connect with each other, some intensely with a few others, some to very many. In the spiritual realm, such connections are tangible. Beings' very reality and existence in the end depend on their connections with each other."

"So ... the threads are our friendships, and loves, and …?" Harry was at a loss to describe all he thought was meant.

"Yes, that and much more – the kindness and charity we exercise toward others. 'That which you have done to the least of these, you have done as well for Him.' The good we do toward others is treasure laid up in heaven, all the more precious when given without thought of return or reward on earth."

"But, if these are the connections between beings, then at the ends, there must be …" began Harry, as he followed one group of strands to their terminus, and found a tiny pinpoint of light. Then looking through it all, he began to see all the little dots of light throughout. They were rather like the stars he had seen as they landed on the island, but they were vastly, vastly more numerous and somehow he knew they were more substantial and far more precious.

"Souls?" he asked, to confirm his perception.

"Yes, souls - of all the beings, where the essence of creation runs stronger and brighter," said the voice. "Look over there."

Harry saw one such pinpoint of light which appeared to be connected to more than any others he had noticed. It was no brighter than any others, but it heartened Harry to see it so thoroughly connected to so many others. Then his attention was drawn to one particular thread running from it, a thread that was somehow more beautiful and precious than all the others. It led a terribly long distance to another pinpoint of light, no brighter or dimmer than any of the others, although it stood out prominently for being so distantly separated from the others. Harry perceived that it was receding at a tremendous pace and the thread was stretching behind it. It filled Harry with a profound sense of sadness.

"Who …?"

"Tom Riddle."

"He only reaches out to one person?"

"No, Harry. He reaches out to no one. Only one person would reach out to him."

"Only one would …? Then that one is …" Harry was glancing back toward the very-interconnected point.

"Yes, Harry. That is you – you have reached out in care to everyone in need – friend and foe alike."

Harry looked back to Voldemort's pinpoint, barely flickering. "What will happen to him?"

"Even now, you care? But of course, I knew you did. If you die, he will lose any connection. He will simply cease. He will not go on, nor return to the Source. He will simply end."

Harry looked toward Tom Riddle's pinpoint and felt immeasurable pity. And before his eyes, the thread disconnected and the pinpoint winked out. Harry suddenly felt himself shrinking. He lost sight of the threads, and the pinpoints, and the gauziness; he shrank down and down until he found himself back in his own body, lying on the ridge of the island. Everything had gone silent until he began to hear the sounds of seabirds, waves and weeping. The warm sunshine to his right felt good; the jagged rocks he lay on hurt him, the moist drops falling on his face soothed him: it was good to feel.

Harry's head was turned to the left. He barely opened his eyes a slit. Every fiber of his body was aching and it hurt to move anything, even so much as his eyelids. Hermione was leaning over him, crying. He could hear others around crying as well. With effort, he forced his hand to move a bit. The edge of Hermione's robe was over his hand, so he caught the edge of it and gave a feeble tug. She started to look toward it and gasped.

"I'm thirsty," Harry feebly rasped. It hurt to even breathe enough to say this, or to move his tongue and lips to make the words.

"Harry!" Hermione screamed joyously and threw herself on him, kissing him all around his face. The others, too, started screaming and piling on to celebrate. Every muscle and joint in Harry's body felt like it would snap and be ground to powder, but Harry accepted it. He could take some pain for the people he loved.

Once the hubbub had calmed a bit, Harry was able to whisper, "Where is he?"

"Harry," answered Hermione, "after you collapsed, the spell kept going for what seemed the longest time. But all of a sudden, he just disappeared. Several of us ran up here. I started checking your pulse and your breath and I couldn't find anything."

"I checked where he had been," said Ron, "but all I could find in his robes was his wand, a few bones, a shriveled hand missing a finger, and some brown dust."

Harry rasped sadly, "I thought I could still heal him."

Ron laughed, and then said with both admiration and a little exasperation, "You know, Harry, it took Dumbledore until he was over 100 to get that crazy."

Harry forced a weak smile. "I must be in the NEWT class in insanity."

"Harry, can you get up?" asked Remus. "I can't believe you're comfortable lying on those rocks."

"Give me a hand, gently," whispered Harry, as Remus and Dean Thomas bent and took Harry's hands and slowly pulled him upward. Harry was unsteady on his feet and grasped Remus's robe to steady himself.

"You said you were thirsty?" asked Dawkins. "What's in the bottle you had with you?" Dawkins bent down and picked up a small green bottle and a brown-wrapped package from where Harry had been lying. "Looks like a wine bottle," he said.

Harry barely shook his head. "I didn't bring wine."

Dawkins tapped the top of the bottle with his wand and the cork gently eased out. He took the cork and gave a sniff. "Smells like wine to me," he said. "Really good wine at that." Handing the brown package off to Tonks, he said, "Here you go, Harry."

Then he raised it to Harry's lips to help Harry drink. Harry drank deeply and kept drinking. He was surprised at how much the bottle held. It warmed him and made him feel whole and peaceful. When he had enough, he stopped the flow and nodded. He could still barely move. Dawkins lowered the bottle and put the cork back in the top.

"Are you hungry, Harry?" asked Tonks.

"Yes, famished. Did you bring something?"

"Not me – that package you had is a loaf of crusty bread." She broke off a bite and put it in his mouth.

Harry chewed it deliberately and savored it. "That's good. More, please." She kept breaking off chunks and feeding him. When he nodded, she stopped and wrapped up the bread again.

"Hey, Potter," said Dawkins, holding up the bottle. "I thought you were thirsty – this bottle's full."

"Really? I drank more than I thought the bottle would hold. It must be a magic wine bottle. What does the label say?"

"Let's see, it says, 'To be shared freely; I will not fail to quench."

"Well, it says it's to be shared," said Harry. "Pass it around. I'm sure most of you are thirsty, too, and it makes you feel wonderful."

"Harry," said Tonks, "The label on the bread says 'I will restore, so long as I am shared.' Look at this – the loaf is whole again."

"I guess we should do as it says and share it," said Harry, and the loaf was passed around, and they all took as much as they needed. When the loaf came around to Tonks again, it was still a whole loaf.

Tonks wrapped up the bread again and took the bottle from Dawkins. She helped Harry put them in a couple of inner pockets of his robes. "Here, Harry. It seems these were meant for you."

"I'm just the caretaker. They were meant for anyone who need them." Then Harry looked around to his friends. "We have to get Lestrange back to the Ministry. Tonks, she's your kin: how about you and Remus taking her?"

"It was bad enough playing HIM last night," she replied, then added with a sigh, "but I owe you too much to say no."

Then Fred and George, who had been whispering and giggling in the back stepped forward, and George said, "We'll get her back to Hogwarts, Harry. From there the aurors can collect her by Floo."

"Why am I suspicious of offers from you two? You'll get her to Hogwarts?"

They nodded.

"In one piece?"

They nodded.

"You're not going to DO anything to her?"

"Harry, if you can't trust us who can you trust?" said Fred. Harry felt good to laugh along with the others at that.

"Anyway, Harry," said George, "What's it to you, really? How many times would you have been willing to kill her? Ron said you were none too gentle with her yesterday."

"That was to serve a purpose. Now she's helpless, so we have a responsibility."

"Ron's right, you are crazy," said George, "but I like the ways you're crazy."

Harry accepted this with another pained smile. "Maybe the Ministry will decide to just keep her as she is - that's out of my hands - but we've won, and we should at least act with some dignity about it. Ach, what am I thinking, talking to you two about dignity?"

They grinned, then said together, with hands over their hearts, "That hurts, Harry Potter – no one's more dignified than we."

"Well, if the twins are going to take her, then you're off the hook, Tonks. But I think when you get back, you and Dawkins ought to take care of her. For a couple of aurors, she should be quite a prize to bring back. For now you can wrap up Riddle's remains – the hand should be offered to Pettigrew's mother, that's all that will be left for a burial. The other bones should be taken to the cemetery in Little Hangleton and buried in the grave marked Thomas Riddle. I'll take the wand and discuss what to do with it with Dumbledore."

Then Harry turned to Luna Lovegood. "Can you get some sea water, Luna?"

"Sure, Harry," she said, conjuring a bucket with a long rope, which she used to draw the bucket back in after tossing it into the sea.

When Luna brought the sea water, Harry told Neville to lay the basilisk wand on the ground. Then everyone closed their eyes, while Luna poured sea water over the wand. The wand turned into a rooster, while the basilisk popped free. The rooster immediately began crowing at the dawn sun, killing the basilisk. Hermione conjured a protective cover around the basilisk so it could be studied later. Hannah Abbott offered to carry the rooster back to Hogwarts.

"Well, then," said Harry, checking his watch, "Darn, it's frozen." Then he looked at the height of the sun. "I think you'll all have just about enough time to make it back to Hogwarts before the Final Feast, given that Fred and George won't be able to travel so fast with their passenger suspended. Neville and I have an errand to run, so we might be a bit late, even though we can travel as fast as my broom will go. I'll keep in touch with Remus by mirror. It'd be nice if we can all arrive together, but if not, you can report in ahead of me."

"Harry, what kind of errand do we have to run?" asked Neville.

Harry smiled. "I'd rather not say. Just trust me – you won't regret it."

"I do trust you, Harry, but can we use the Floo network this time. I'd even take being apparated."

"Sorry, Neville, I need the time to think about what's happened here this morning. Besides, I'm feeling a bit shaky, so I don't want to try apparating so far with a person. Can you bear with me for a few more hours of flight time?"

Neville sighed. "If you say so, Coach."

"Harry, are you up to flying? You're still not moving so well," asked Hermione.

"I can handle a broom, and I'm healing, so I think I should be as good as new by the time I see you all again."

Remus then asked, "Before you go, Harry, are you going to tell us what was going on that whole time when the green light was holding between you two?"

Harry creakily put a hand on Lupin's shoulder and looked him gently in the eye. "I'm not ready at the moment. It was … I just need to think it through. Just let me say this for now: for whatever guilt you may have felt over the 'phony curse' deception everyone kept up all year, for the lies that were told, and for setting up a situation as dangerous as this past day has been, to the extent you think you may need it from me for anything done, all is forgiven. That goes for all of you. Be at peace."