Disclaimer: I don't own Harry. I own Andy. I love my Andy to death. So there.
A/N: I hope this chapter clears up some things! As usual, review please!
Chapter 13
Draco's jaw dropped. "Twin souls… Merlin, I never knew…" Castor had explained about the room, meeting the founders and the whole twin soul thing as the four walked back to the Headmistress' office. Of course, Draco's daughter hadn't helped explain. She and Andy lagged behind and barely shuffled their feet.
Draco could tell, though, that she was explaining to him. It was so unnerving, not knowing what they were saying to each other. He suddenly realized he had been unconsciously clenching his fist in the pocket of his robes, and released it. Maybe at one point in his life, he would have kept that tension. Now, though… now was different. The day before Gabi died, they had another argument. They fought a lot, but after all she shouting, she was still the only one that could ever calm him down. He missed her terribly. He never had a chance to tell her that he loved her one last time before she died. The most he felt he could do at this point was to be a good father. One thing was for sure, at least: Emeline had him wrapped around her perfect finger, and he loved her more than life itself.
Oooo
'Wow, that's so weird… twin souls?'
'Yep-a-roonie-doonie.'
'Em, did you seriously just say that?'
'Yep-a-roonie-doonie.'
'That's freaking me out.'
'Wimp.'
'Am not!'
'Are too!'
'Am not!'
'Yes, you are.'
'Why do I like you again?'
'Does that mean you give up?'
'NO!'
'O.K., then it means you're a wimp.'
"No, it doesn't!'
'Yes it does.'
'No!'
'Yes!'
'Em, how do you do this to me?'
'Do what?'
'Wind me up.'
'I don't wind you up.'
'Yes, you do!'
'We're not getting anywhere…'
'I know.'
'Do you care?'
'Not really.'
'Why not?'
'Because, I love you.'
This caused Emeline to stop dead in her tracks. He loved her? Nobody had ever said that to her before, besides her parents. She looked deep into his eyes, trying to find one flaw, one thing that would make him human. And although she could think of many reasons why he wasn't perfect, she had a feeling that those cute little flaws made him who he was. She also finally admitted to herself the strange feeling that she loved him too.
'I, er…'
'Are you ok with me saying that Em?'
'I think, er… that maybe it's ok…'
'Are you sure?'
'Yea.'
'Are you positive?'
'YES.'
'You're lying…' Castor added a particularly mischievous smile to this line.
'Am not.'
'Are too!'
'I love you too! Are you happy now? Not shut it!'
'I win!'
'You're insufferable.'
'Yep-a-roonie-doonie!'
'I forgot to mention, you slimy git, that we can talk to each other like this because our dads hated each other.'
'Is that true?'
'Yes!'
'How bad was it?'
'Apparently, on a scale from one to ten, with one as acquaintances and ten as mortal enemies… they were a fourteen. And a half. Plus two…'
'O.K., Em, I get it!'
'You do? I'm shocked!'
'Em?'
'Yea?'
'Did your father, by any chance, ever turn into a ferret?'
'Yes. Why do you ask?'
'Just an old dinner story of Uncle Ron's…'
'Git.'
Oooo
Harry watched Darcie work up the nerve to walk through the next gate. He could tell she was nervous, but the fact remained that she was definitely the product of him and Ginny, and she would never back down from an adventure. While she had been getting herself psyched up to walk through, she had written down what she had seen through the ivory gate and came to a conclusion about all of them.
Harry couldn't believe he hadn't made the connection between the dream-like things; it was so simple once Darcie wrote it down. Not all of them were nice dreams, but all of them were very unrealistic. Feeble rehashes of old hopes and fears. They didn't really mean anything.
Once Harry had swallowed this fact, he had begun to guess what might be through the dark gate. Maybe there were dreams that told the truth. It all made since to him now… The ivory gate was pretty, but that was all it was. It glossed over bad dreams and lies. But the dark gate, it was honest. It looked worse, but at least it served as a sincere warning. Like, 'I'm not here to make you happy, I'm here to fulfill a purpose. At least I'm not pretending to be what I'm not, like Mr. Flashy over here.' Harry decided to stop thinking after he imagined the dark gate with a huge 'I'm with stupid!' banner.
'This must be how she got her news; she probably saw everything that was going to happen in one of the dreams. Like when you're going through a day and you stop and think to yourself that you've done the exact same thing already. Déjà vu. And you realize you've already seen it in a dream. Yea, I bet that's what's going to happen.'
Darcie stood up, took a deep breath, and stepped past the tattered, flowing curtains. Harry followed. At first it was dark, like the other gate, but then both Potters found themselves falling in a whirl of color. There was sound here, too. It was like a radio tuning in and out, and the noise was created by people talking and things banging and other indistinguishable everyday sounds in the wizarding world.
The chaos reminded Harry instantly of the burrow.
All of a sudden, Darcie landed hard in a chair. Harry fell to the floor, but didn't feel anything. He looked up, and noticed what looked like a huge TV screen, pasted on these walls of moving color. Darcie looked completely spellbound by all of this, and just as she whispered "What now?" The screen began to show different images at lightning speed. He couldn't help but wonder how she could decipher them, so he decided to watch.
Harry caught glimpses of the Dursley's, a dentist's office, the burrow, Malfoy Manor, Hogwarts, the lake, the squid, an ice cream cone, Cho crying in Madame Pudifoot's, a frozen and dressed up gnome, maroon sweaters, house elves…
But then things became darker. Wormtail, Sirius, Voldemort, Death Munchers, The Chamber of Secrets, Ron tied to a post underwater, Cedric lying dead on dewy grass, Ginny pale and unconscious on the cold stone floor of the Chamber, Molly Weasley crying as the boggart turned into dead family member after dead family member…
Somehow, this gate communicated everything about the images to poor Darcie, and by the end of the oddest slideshow Harry had ever seen, sparkling tears were pouring down her cheeks. "Make it stop!" She yelled into the void, "Please, no more! Please!"
The slides changed again… it was now time for the future. Harry saw many images, (Hermione finding Ron alive), but they kept going and going without any explanation for him. He could tell by the look on his daughter's face that she understood everything. The images got faster as the screen grew smaller, and in an instant it was all over. They slowly floated upward, passing all the colors. The radio noise started again, but everything was more relaxed and subtle. They were once again spit back into Darcie's room. The gate shimmered away, and Darcie said one word… "Woah."
