Harry blinked several times. He felt strange as though waking from a nightmare. No, not a nightmare. More like a lifetime in hell. Trapped in limbo where there was no going forward and no going back just the same endless loop over and over again. At first he'd tried to fight it, but fighting became useless quite quickly. Soon he'd succumbed to the power of the place he was trapped in. But then something had changed. They'd come for him. Sirius, Lucy, and Ginny had come for him. The three people he'd thought of most when he still had control over his thoughts, they'd come for him. They'd save him. Hadn't they?
"Harry?" Though it hurt terribly to do so Harry opened his eyes. He saw the smiling face of Albus Dumbledore looking down at him.
"Welcome back young man," he said. "You gave us all quite a scare." Harry smiled weakly at his professor. If Dumbledore was here that had to mean everything was okay. As long as Dumbledore was around everything was always okay. "Sirius," he suddenly remembered. "Lucy, Ginny"
"Fine," Dumbledore said. "See for yourself." Harry looked around and sure enough he saw his rescuers. Lucy was being embraced tightly by Oliver, Ginny was being fussed over by her mother and the twins. Sirius was talking softly to Remus. They were okay. "Harry?" he turned and saw Hermione by his side. He grinned at her and she gave him a big hug. "I'm so glad you're okay," she said through tears. "I was so scared"
"Hey be careful 'Mione, you're gonna suffocate him." Harry smiled weakly at the familiar sound of his best friends voice.
"Hey Ron," he said. Ron sank down on his knees.
"Gave us all a pretty good scare there mate," Ron said.
"Sorry bout that," Harry said.
"You're all right then?" Ron said with concern.
"Yeah," Harry said. "I'm okay now."
A bit later they all sat around the kitchen eating and talking. Those who had been in limbo were amazed to learn how everyone here had been battling Death Eaters while they'd been in hell. Harry listened quietly as Lucy, Sirius, and Ginny talked of what they had faced in limbo. His fears, his nightmares, but also their own. No one had pressed him to talk of what he'd experienced in limbo. Needing air he took his tea outside to the porch and sat on Sirius's old glider.
"Are you all right, Harry?" he looked up and saw Ron and Hermione standing there.
"Just felt like some air," he said. "Didn't get to much fresh air in hell ya know?" They nodded solemnly.
"If you'd rather be alone," Hermione said.
"No," Harry said. "I'd really rather not be alone." They nodded and joined him on the glider. They quietly swung back and forth for awhile.
"Harry," Hermione said after a bit, "I wanted to ask, I mean it's fine if you don't want to talk about it, but what was it like. Limbo." Harry sighed.
"It was like, I don't know. Like time just stopped and all you had was the same old nightmares and fear over and over again. After awhile it's all you know. When they found me, I didn't even recognize them at first. All I knew was that they were in danger and it was my fault. I wanted them to go away, so they'd be safe from me, but they wouldn't. They just kept telling me that they loved me. Over and over they kept saying it"
"And that brought you back?" Ron asked. "Three people telling you they love you"
"No," Harry said, only understanding himself just now. "Them saying it didn't bring me back. I had to know they loved me. When I finally knew, that's when the place started to go to pieces. It didn't want to let me go, any of us. But they wouldn't let go of me, wouldn't stop telling me they loved me even when it was hurting them. That's when it let us go. It had to. Their love was hurting it. I heard it yell in pain when it let us go"
"Whoah!" Ron said. "I thought you'd been through the worst anyone could go through mate. But it's all been kid stuff up till now"
"Oh I don't know," Harry said. "From what I heard you guys had a rough time of it here. Taking on fifty Death Eaters"
"Well," Ron said. "yeah, that took some pretty darn quick thinking and talented wand manouvering"
"You got knocked out five minutes in Ronald," Hermione said scoffing. Ron blushed crimson.
"You should have seen it though Harry," Hermione said. "Everyone, even Snape, rallying around you all defending you"
"Yeah," Harry said. He thought about all the people here who had volunteered to go to hell to bring him back. He thought of the three people who had been chosen, who had faced all his own demons and their own to save him from his own personal hell. He thought of those who had been here fighting to keep his body intact so that he could come back. "I'm the luckiest kid in the world," he said.