Hey there is no excuse for why it took me so long so i won't try. forgive me! please
Chapter seven: brief return
Harry and Sirius sat quietly in the corner of the hall, trying to talk quietly but above the music around them. The table where they sat was still littered with the remains of supper the hour before and they'd simply pushed it aside to make room for their elbows.
"So, you could hear him?" Sirius asked, raising his eyebrows. Harry nodded and sighed, looking over his shoulder and watching Lynn dancing with Ron, bobbing in and out of the crowd while Draco and Hermionie appeared here and there behind other dancing couples. For some reason, Harry thought of the Yule ball in his fourth year. "But he's in another place...dimension or something, right?"
"Right." Harry said simply, now watching his mom dancing with some man he'd never seen before. "I think...but my other self is there to. Voldemort knows and Wormtail had seen him." Sirius glanced over his shoulder at Peter Pettigrew who was talking with some ministry men and sighed.
"Oh right...him." Harry would have smiled if he didn't feel so miserable. "Look, Harry..." Sirius turned back to face him. "I don't know what to do. I feel sorry for you, I truly and honestly do and I wish you could stay here but...my Harry has to come back and you have to leave. He doesn't know anything about the dangers you do, he could die. Now, if they think he's a decoy he may be safe but..." Sirius trailed off and looked at Harry sympathetically. "I'm sorry."
"No, you're right." Harry answered, watching his father being interviewed by some reporters. "I have to go back...I need to." Sirius put a comforting hand on his shoulder.
"Yeah. Now, I want you to have fun." Sirius gave him a half smile and nodded over his shoulder. Harry turned to see Piper sitting at a table near by, her foot tapping with the rhythm. She looked so pathetically sad that Harry felt sorry for her and angry he hadn't paid more attention to her. "Go, I'll hold up here and wait for one of Sam's family to pass...she's gotta be good lookin' mind you." His eyes searched the crowd and settled on one of the bridesmaids near the bar. He checked his breath and smoothed his cloths. "Excuse me, I'm going to go and...have a drink." And he left, wending his way through the crowd towards the blond haired beauty. Harry sighed and went the opposite way towards Piper.
"Hey." He said, sitting down next to her and looking at the dance floor. He couldn't really see it though, all his senses were fogged by the conscious notion that his...or not his...girlfriend was sitting next to him. He could feel her presence, almost smell her perfume...it was quite unreal. "Having fun?"
"Not really." Piper replied in a resigned voice. "No one's asked me to dance but Ron and Draco and I turned them down." Harry remembered Hermionie and his discussion last year about Cho and how she had told him Roger Davis had asked her out to show Harry she'd picked him. Harry was suddenly relieved he'd shared his feelings about it with her but slightly scared with his new knowledge.
As a new, slower song came on, Harry swallowed his fear and turned to face her. "Wanna talk about...us still?" He asked. Piper, who looked pissed, shook her head. "Well then, wanna dance?" Piper shrugged but there was a twinkle in her eye. "Fine..." Harry said, standing up and mimicking having an invisible partner. "Me and Sheila will dance all by ourselves and you can just sit there watching. She's great though." Piper laughed and slowly stood, walking over to where Harry and 'Sheila were. She tapped an invisible shoulder.
"May I cut in?" Harry let go of Sheila and blew a kiss to the far end of the room where she had 'gone'. Piper laughed and folded herself into his arms. Harry was surprised he wasn't scared anymore, it was like it was natural to hold her and want to be with her and that scared him more then dancing with her, not because it meant commitment but because it wasn't his own emotions...they were the other Harry's. "What's wrong? You seem different."
"There's a lot on my mind." Harry answered, putting his chin on the top of her head, revolving slowly. "Just my dad and the wedding..."
"They look happy, hey?" Piper asked. Harry looked over the top of her head and caught a glimpse of the new Mr. and Mrs. Dancing through the crowd. Suddenly, his eyes hit Dumbledore and he froze. Dumbledore was watching him from his seat on the edge of the dance floor, twinkling blue eyes locked on like missals. Piper pulled away and looked up. "What?" Harry shook his head and watched Dumbledore get up and walk away, out of the hall.
"Wait, I have to talk to someone and he's leaving. I'll be right back, I just have to..." He trailed off, leaving Piper standing there with her hands on her hips. Harry pushed his way across the dance floor and then shot off at a fast walk around the edge, squeezing between tables, chairs, talking people and dancing couples and finally gained the peace of the door out.
The night air whipped his face and he frantically searched left and right. Dumbledore was at the end of the parking lot, heading for a black limo on the edge of the lot. Harry was slightly struck dumb at the strange sight but then realized that the witches and wizards here had to come by Muggle transport and there was an apparition sight not to far away.
Muggles on the steps smoking watched him as he ran down the steps and into the night, yelling, "Professor Dumbledore, wait! Stop!" Dumbledore stopped and turned, his hand on the handle. He smiled simply and then disappeared inside. "No! Stop! I have to talk to you!" Then the car was gone as if it had just apparated itself. Harry stopped, frozen and stared at the place where it had been. Why would Dumbledore leave him like that?
Slowly he trudged back to the hall and went around the side of the building to where there was a small garden surrounded by trees. He sat in the dark on of the benches and listened to the sounds of merriment and laughter, floating out through an open door nearby, light from inside spilling out onto the grass.
He leaned back in the bench and let his head hit the tree behind him, he had to go back but he really didn't want to. Going back meant facing his horrible destiny or...his horrible end and either way he'd be alone for both. He let his eyes wander upwards and thought about what Dumbledore said, 'our love ones never truly leave us.'
Were perhaps his mother and father and Sirius up there now? Or was this a place where his heaven didn't exist because his parents were still alive? Where his parents gone and the other Harry's parents all he had or did his follow him wherever he went...or whenever he went? This confused him and he shook his head as a leap of anger swooped down on him.
"How dare you leave me!" Harry screamed at the night sky through the leaves that sheltered his head from the full moon's light. "I trusted you! You were all I had and you left me! I hate you Sirius! I hate you! How could you...I hate all three of you! And I hate Dumbledore to, he did this, it's his fault!" Suddenly the anger subsided and he was left shivering. He hated them all. How could they leave him like this, alone with out anyone? He had to get away. Someone was likely to have heard his outburst and would, even now, be on their way.
Harry sprang up from the bench and began to make his way through the trees on the side of the hall. He'd go around and into the parking lot where maybe he'd find more peace and quiet. Stay there for a while and then attempt to go back into the hall and apologize to Piper for leaving her again.
The trees around him were thick and dark and the only way he was able to stay close to the hall was by listening to the loud music. As the glimmer of the parking lot came through the trees Harry sighed with relief and was just pushing through the last of the brush when he froze.
There was movement behind him. It sounded like footsteps coming closer and closer, there was also breathing; human breathing only it sounded different, labored. Harry glanced up wards, towards the sky and caught sight of the full moon...maybe Lupin wasn't as all right as everyone thought?
Harry watched the darkness as it closed in on him and slowly pulled out his wand and raised it. There was a weird sound and suddenly a dark crouched shape loomed out of the darkness. It was large and moving slowly as if about to spring. Harry was about to run or attempt to do a spell when a powerful surge of electricity hit him, wheeling him back out of the trees and onto the parking lot's pavement.
Gasping and clutching his ribs, Harry sank to his knees as his world began to revolve. It felt like he was in a floo fire but he knew he had to get up. That thing in the forest was still after him. He was shocked again, this time his feet couldn't move against the blast and he was knocked onto his back, staring at the sky, his glasses gone.
The fuzzy dark shape of something was moving on the edge of his vision, gleaming eyes watching him. Harry closed his eyes and felt himself leaving.
There was a warm tingling all over his body. He tried to move but his limbs and all were to heavy. He couldn't even open his eyes. Harry took in a deep breath and tasted moldy, dusty air. It was nothing like his mother's house or St. Mungo's.
Opening his eyes, Harry found his world only a fuzzy faded blur with large dark spots everywhere. The ceiling above him though, that look shabbily familiar. He was in Grimwald place, he was sure of it.
Sitting up, Harry stared around, blinking back his vision, trying to clear it. How did he get here? Had Regulus brought him here?
No, this was the room him and Ron shared during last summer the way he knew it, not how Regulus had. Not knowing quite what to expect, Harry laid back down quickly and closed his eyes listening to the sounds around him and pin pointing the sound of movement outside of the room.
The door opened and some one entered. He strained to hear the hints of who it might be but couldn't pick up on it. The person set something that sounded like a tray down next to him on the night table and a warm hand touched his forehead. Harry flinched at the sudden and unexpected contact and suddenly; Mrs. Weasly's voice was there.
"Harry, dear?" she asked. Her voice was anxious and strained, as though she hadn't had enough sleep. Harry tried to speak but it wouldn't come. Instead he opened his eyes and stared at her through his messed up vision.
From what he could see of her she looked terrible. There were blotchy marks on her cheeks and her eyes were red...like she'd been crying lots.
"Mrs. Weasley?" Harry asked quietly. She smiled and sat down next to him on the bed, her soft weight pulling down the mattress. "Where am I?"
"Grimwald place dear." She answered, running a hand down his face. "You've been out of it for about two weeks, I'd say." Harry opened his mouth to tell her she was wrong but something was dragging him back...he could feel himself sinking again. He closed his eyes, praying to stay and let the other him deal with that monster in the trees but he couldn't, something was dragging him back. Mrs. Weasley was shaking him and calling his name but he couldn't get a grip on himself and the world was dark again. He'd gone back.
Laughing Dragoness: I'll never give up on him either. We have to be srong! We all just have to be strong and complain alot, because complaining is good.
AgnesSophia: Hey, i like you're name. Voldy knows harry is not harry, weird i know but we'll find out how and such in later chappies.
Nikki101: Yes! Decoy! Cool eh? The east coast? Cool. keep reading and reviewing.
DragonHunter200: Yeah, i always manage to make weddings interesting, not just on paper. The whole wig thing, something like that really did once happen to me so...I still liked 3 tho, anfd i'll get it. i just hope the 4th is better. that was my third fav.