Chapter 13. … Home

… Flash to St. Mungo's …

Harry had fallen asleep, tired of the every day worrying and grieving still over Sirius.

He had felt something stir in his hand, but didn't wake up of his slumbering.

He thought he had imagined it, yet another figment of his mind.

He had been imaging many things lately, and he started to mix reality up with fantasy.

The Weasley's hadn't noticed yet, but it wouldn't last long, Harry knew it.

They had known him for a long time, and they would know in the end.

Another movement in his hand, could it be?

Harry opened his eyes. Was this really happening? He knew he couldn't get his hopes up too high, but still…

There was that slight chance of waking-up. The Head-healer had told him that there was a small, almost unthinkable chance, but, as Harry had told him, there was A chance!

… Flash to the girls mind (Selena's point of view) …

Selena felt a gigantic pull onto herself, as if something was triggering her back to the world.

Her hand had moved, but she didn't knew how she had managed to do that. She figured that, now that this person was holding her, her body finally had responded to his or her touches.

… Flash to St. Mungo's …

Harry looked at the girls. He had been imagining things again. None of the two lifeless bodies had moved an inch, and Harry knew exactly how they had lain there in that ER.

He had studied them every second he sat there and he had either started to imagine things, or they were really like that, but he had seen the amazing resemblance between that one picture Harry had once seen of their father, Regulus Black and Sirius too. Both had long, dark hair, though Selena's was rather darker and longer. Hers had a little wave in it and it came to almost the half of her back. Yasmine's was fully straight and reached a bit over her shoulders, but it didn't look like Snape's hair. It suited her, Harry thought.

Their eyes were black as the night, Harry had convinced himself of that fact.

At first he doubted, thought he imagined things again, but after telling himself it over and over, he started to believe this "lie" himself, so he wasn't sure what the truth was now, what colour they were.

Their body-structure, Harry had been even a bit ashamed to tell this to himself, he knew completely in his mind. He could draw it on a piece of paper, if he had any talent of art. Both weren't fat, nor skinny.

They had just the right proportions, although Selena had a bit more weight in her hips and upper-side. Yasmine on the other hand had a bit less on the upper-side. Their skin, well… As far as Harry remembered, they had had a bit of a tan, but seemed persons who had a rather light colour of skin, but not as light as they looked now.

They both even had some freckles, though it didn't really got noticed.

Their lips were a normal colour, Yasmine's were even close to a mix between light-red and pink. Selena's were rather dark blood-red, and in the hours Harry had studied them, he had come to the final decision Yasmine's mother must have been a person of the Scottish Highlands, of whom she had the light skin and lips, and that Selena's was more of the continental part of Europe, more of the French and Spanish site, of whom she had the dark lips and waving hair. Maybe even Italian, but he couldn't be sure.

In one way, they seemed perfect, but they weren't. Selena had a small scar on her forehead too, a thin line of maybe ½ inch, probably of a cut once or maybe a scratch given by a cat and Yasmine had a scar similar to Selena's on her chin. All things counted up together, they were beautiful girls, Harry thought, but the natural kind of beauty. If he had to admit it to himself, his kind of beauty, though he didn't really dare to think about that.

He didn't knew why he was afraid of the thought, but he just didn't dare. Maybe, it was because he didn't want to like or maybe even love a person, and than lose them all over again.

… Flash to the girls mind (Yasmine's point of view) …

At about the same time as Selena had felt the pull, Yasmine's world of thoughts and memories had also begin to tumble around. Yasmine didn't knew what had started this turning, but she didn't really felt sad about it or angry, because she had started to feel her body again. It seemed as if she finally had found the way back, even without knowing it. All of a sudden, the turning, tumbling and twisting ended abruptly.

What had happened? Did something go wrong? What had made her stop?

(… Flash to Selena's point of view …)

Selena had stopped too, and she too did not know what had happened. And what was that strange feeling she suddenly felt all over her body, mind and soul. A word sprung in her mind. It was pressure. Pressure on her skin, pressure on her body that she was feeling again. While she thought this, she suddenly started to black out again. She was forgetting something, but what? Something she needed to live.

… Flash to St. Mungo's …

Harry kept on looking at the girls, no thoughts crossing his mind at all. He just stared at them, thinking about anything. All he wondered was what was happening to them now and where they were.

… Flash to the girls mind (Selena's point of view) …

'BREATHE!' Something yelled to Selena in her mind.

… Flash to St. Mungo's …

In a few seconds, a lot of things happened.

Selena jumped right, gasped for air loudly, while her eyes were spread wide open and saw just completely white, no iris in sight, for a moment. Then she realised what had happened and she shook her head, trying to get the annoying sounds away, to be able to think clearly.

But what she didn't realise was that those annoying sounds were several alarm-systems who were set into work, because some of the potion-needles had come loose and the breathalyser had been disconnected.

It seemed to her that all hell had broken loose and she panicked again. Tried to get up to get away of the screaming sounds and the flashing lights, disconnecting more needles by doing so and triggering more alarm-systems. All this happened in a couple of seconds, but Selena didn't realise this.

Her time-believe was mixed up and so was her ability to think straight.

She looked wildly around, when she suddenly saw something laying on the floor.

Selena took a closer look. It wasn't a thing, but a person. She knew that this person was familiar, but she couldn't think of his name. While she was bending over a unconscious Harry, the door flew open.

A team of Healers came storming in, with their wands at the ready, but they all looked blankly to the scene the moment they saw that Selena was out of bed, standing there as if she hadn't been in mortal danger at all.

Seconds passed, when no one spoke at all. Selena just stared at the healers and vice versa.

Then, after a short period of staring, the Head-healer came closer and whispered her name unbelievingly.

'Selena?'

Selena looked at him. Was he talking to her? Before she answered that question, she looked around and than nodded. The Head-healer gasped too, still looking amazed and utterly unbelieving.

… Flash to Yasmine's mind …

Why couldn't she open her eyes? What was wrong? How could this happen? Where was she than, if she wasn't able to acknowledge her presence back in the real world?

Many thoughts were crossing Yasmine's mind, but to none of them she could think of an answer.

She was back in her body, she had felt it for sure… But, then again, could she be sure? Could she be sure that the pressure she had felt on her skin, wasn't just another figment of her mind.

She had been seeing, hearing, imagining too many things during those weeks, that she didn't knew the difference between truth and lie. Her hope, that had come to her, fluttered away.

… Flash to St. Mungo's …

After a full minute or even more, one of the Healers had noticed Harry on the floor and they came to his aid.

He was put in the bed where Selena had waken up a few minutes ago. After a quick Awakening-spell, Harry was back up to his feet and alive and kicking, as far as you could call that never-stopping staring and muttering of 'That can't be, she can't be up, this is not real. I can' t believe this,…' call alive.

One of the healers slowly retreated back and left the ER 5, to call the newspapers and so, to tell them a miracle had happened in St. Mungo's.

He ran to the reception, while the idea that had come to him in the ER, slowly formed a plan.

'Move out of my way!' The healer said to the desk-witch. He pushed her away and grabbed the phone.

'Hello? Daily Prophet?… I've got a big première for you!…'

AN: I know this chapter's a bit weird to some of you, but this is somehow exactly as I imagined it to be if you would really wake up out of the Tunnel Of Death. I mean, wouldn't you be like this?

You've just been weeks, although you don't know it yourself, been away in a place where truth and lie, fantasy are one, instead of two an you have absolutely no idea what had been going on in the "real world", even if that world you came from was real. It might have been a dream-world you came from and now you were in the real world… Maybe difficult to some, but I'm sure a couple of you will understand my idea.

And second, why this chapter is so dramatic? (I'm almost sure, if I get reviews for this chapter, some will say: that was WAY TOO dramatic), well, the answer is the same as above. Try to situate yourself in Selena's state of the moment. You've been gone, and all of the sudden you're back, without even knowing how or why.

And why Selena couldn't remember she had to breath to live? Well… That's a personal thing I added.

I dunno if I should tell this here or if it would interest you readers, but I'll do it anyway.

I've almost drowned for about 4 times now (twice in the North-Sea (the Canal) and twice in a river (different rivers 'course). All four times very close to it and all four times I had to save myself.) and I kinda imagined that feeling of waking up after such an experience.

In the sea, the first time I might have been 8 or so (I can swim and dive alone and in the big pole since I was three, so I'm a experienced swimmer) and I got caught in the traps of the North-Sea, while I was playing with a ball. (This ball is probably already in England, or at the bottom of the Sea.) You have sand-benches in the water and you can walk real deep into the water by those, but suddenly they end and you step into the depth (if you understand what I mean, like you missed a step on the stairway).

Well, that was the first time, I swallowed a lot of water in and started to paddle around with my arms and legs to get out of the water. I obviously succeeded in that, but sadly I'm one of those persons to whom the first warning isn't good enough.

The second time in the sea, I was about 9 or 10 then, I was "jumping" with a air-mattress into the waves and that-a-way I got more and more away from the beach (another dirty trap of the Sea here in Belgium.) and suddenly I didn't had any ground under my feet and I went under (it might have been more then a meter difference between me and the floor, so that's already far out), half grabbing the mattress to stay above. I managed to get back, with the life-guard whistling and screaming, but helping me? Hell no! What kind of life-guard is that? He's screaming angry at me, instead of coming into the water and help me, cause I was obviously in trouble! (And if he didn't saw that, he could have known because of my mother and brothers. They were screaming my name and so… Can you imagine that happening to you:)) Well, I got myself AND the mattress back to the beach, and I didn't even suffer any trauma of it. And for the third and fourth time in those rivers, well…

The third time, I got stuck with my foot somewhere in one and couldn't free myself and I panicked slightly (hemhem ;-) if you could call that slightly? No, I kept my mind clear, but only after a few seconds of pulling my leg out of control, without any result, only getting myself more stuck. Then my reason caught up with my actions and I knew I had to calm down, before I'd be freed) and in the second river, I dived under water, I wanted to touch the bottom, but the rivers in Belgium are, probably like all rivers, full of mud and sea-weed and stuff, and when I got to the bottom, I turned somehow (not intentionally) and I lost direction. I couldn't see where the sky was and where the bottom (which would equal probably to my death) was. There I was really close to my death, cause at that moment I just freaked out (remembering the three past near-drowning experiences) and I started turning and twisting all sides, to finally come above water, and gasping, like Selena did, to get air.

I don't really know why I'm telling this here, but maybe to warn my readers?

To let them know to always watch out and that somebody knows you're in the water, how experienced you are!

Cause, like I said at the beginning, I've been swimming all my life (When I was younger than 3, my dad helped me, but after my 4th birthday, I could swim completely alone, without those plastic bands around my arms. At the age of three, I could swim, but it was with those bands…) and still I've drowned almost 4 times…

Or maybe it's just because I attract danger, even more than Harry does (which is really true. If I should tell about all the times I've been close to dead in other ways, I'd be typing here for a LONG time, but than again.. As would any of my readers, right? (if not, please tell me in your review, I'd like to know if I'm really just that attractive to danger, or if it's normal)