Chapter 4: Home Sweet Home

Harry clapped absentmindedly as "Creevey, Michael" was sorted into Gryffindor and murmured, "Yeah, brilliant" in reply to Colin's bragging about a third Creevey in Hogwarts and Ron's groan of "Great. Now there are three of them". He fleetingly congratulated himself on sounding both congratulatory and sarcastic in two words, and then his thoughts drifted again.

Harry had had a rather eventful summer. After arriving in Dumbledore's office, he had stayed for a couple of days at 12 Grimmauld Place before being taken to St. Mungo's. After all, any fool could tell something was wrong. Even Harry had been slightly worried. Before his disappearance, Harry definitely remembered being abused by his uncle. Smeltings had finally gotten fed up with Dudley and expelled him, and the Dursleys had blamed Harry. Only this time, Vernon had gone too far, as was confirmed by the blood Tonks found in Harry's room. And yet, that first half of the summer seemed like a fleeting dream to Harry, or like a very old memory. He also remembered being rather annoyed with his friends' letters, but, like the abuse, that too had faded. Even more alarming, Harry couldn't remember a thing about the time in between his disappearance and reappearance.

When Dumbledore and Sirius found out, they took him to the wizarding hospital to see if something was wrong. To everyone's astonishment, there wasn't. According to the Healers who checked him – multiple times – he was in excellent condition for someone who had been abused and neglected. Quite honestly, that worried Harry. And not being able to remember what he felt sure were two great weeks frustrated him. He had a feeling that he had met some amazing people then and learned some amazing things, and he couldn't remember a single thing.

An elbow to his ribs startled Harry out of his ruminations. Ron, apparently the guilty one, leaned over and whispered, "Man, get a load of her! Who is that?" Harry glanced at the head table and cringed. The witch reminded him instantly of a cross between a human and a toad unfortunate enough to come across her.

"I haven't the faintest idea," Harry whispered back, "but I feel bad for the toad that was forced to fuse with her." Both chuckled, but fell silent instantly as Dumbledore rose to his feet after "Zeller, Rose" made it into Hufflepuff and Professor McGonagall took the stool and sorting hat away.

"To our newcomers," said Dumbledore in a ringing voice, his arms stretched wide and a beaming smile on his lips, "welcome! To our old hands – welcome back! There is a time for speech making, but this is not it. Tuck in!"(1) Ron cheered and did just that as the tables began groaning under the feast's weight. Smirking at his friend, Harry soon followed suit, his previous frustration forgotten.

"Harry! I just heard! What happened? Was it really as bad as the Prophet said?" Colin asked, excited as ever. Harry swallowed and looked up at the fourth year.

"What are you talking about, Colin?" His mind raced, trying to decide what Colin was talking about. It couldn't have been him facing Voldemort, Dumbledore explained that last term…

"Your uncle, of course! How he almost killed you! That must have been so frightening – but you don't look at all hurt – how did you heal so quickly? Bet you're glad he's dead, huh?" The boy explained and inquired in rapid succession. Harry idly wondered how he managed to not trip over his words. Then he realized what Colin was talking about, and frowned.

"Y'mean what my uncle was up to in July? Oh, that. He was just angry that my cousin was kicked out of school for being a fat, bullying idiot." Now the others who had been listening in were gaping at Harry too.

"Harry! What do you mean, oh that? The Prophet said that there was blood all over your room, and the tests proved that it was yours!" Lavender finally sputtered out. The rest were all nodding. Harry just shrugged.

"Dunno. I'm used to him being angry – he's hated me since day one and I've hated him. Sure, the blood was new, but honestly, I can barely remember the details." He frowned. "It's weird. It feels like it happened ages ago, not this summer." He fell back into thinking about it again and somehow managed to ignore the looks and questions everyone was giving him and their friends. His attention returned to real life when a fluttery, high-pitched girlish voice interrupted Dumbledore's speech with a "Hem, hem." (A/N: I'm feeling very lazy right now, so instead of just describing the rest of Umbridge's speech, we're going to skip ahead to the Gryffindors reaching their Tower. If you really feel that this tale won't be complete without Umbridge's speech, go and read her speech right now.)

About an hour later, Harry was finally able to climb through the Fat Lady's portrait hole and into bed. He was even more tired than usual, due to everyone's questions, both spoken and unspoken, and the Creevey brothers. At last he managed to say his good nights and go to sleep.

"How dare you, boy? I don't know how you did it, I don't know why, but you will pay for this!" Vernon Dursley's face was the color of eggplant as he stormed into Harry's room. Harry had just finished pulling his trunk upstairs and was too out of breath to do anything more than look at his uncle quizzically, ignoring the spittle that was threatening to cover him, and blurt one syllable.

"What?" Vernon spluttered, and this time the saliva did reach Harry. He wiped it off, irritated.

"Why you! How dare you pretend to not know! You got Dudley expelled, you, you freak!" Harry raised an eyebrow. Well, that was interesting.

"So he finally managed it. Wow. Can't say I'm too surprised, though. He's been asking for it for a while now." So have I, Harry added silently. Why should he care about Dudley's plight? Expulsion was nothing to death, and death was what Cedric got. "He's a great idiotic bully. I'm impressed that he lasted this long, really." Harry said coldly. He realized his mistake almost instantly as a fist reached his stomach. Harry was thrown back into the wall, his uncle was so strong. Then a kick aimed at the same target came, and Harry couldn't take it. Stomach acids burned his throat as he threw up the tiny amount of food he had consumed that day, right onto his uncle's shoe. Vernon pulled back in disgust.

"Why, you!" He kicked the offending shoe off, and then the clean one followed, landing harshly on Harry's head. "Clean this mess up, you filthy freak. And don't think this is the end of this!" Vernon stomped out barefoot, only to stumble back, followed by a green light. He fell at Harry's feet, his blank eyes silently accusing his nephew …

Released from the dream, Harry opened his eyes to see a pale blur. Squinting, he managed to make out a kind face and pale blonde hair. His glasses then appeared on his face, and he recognized the face as Asitel's. Mumbling his thanks, he avoided her concerned eyes as he sat up.

"Harry, this is the third time in as many nights that you've had a nightmare. It was your uncle again, wasn't it?" At his reluctant nod, she continued gently. "Harry, he's dead. You saw the Aurors. You heard the news. He's dead and he can't hurt you anymore. You need to let go." Harry looked down.

"I know," he mumbled. "It's just…hard. I see a red – anything and I can taste the blood. I see a fist or a black shoe, and it all comes back. And yet, I can't help but feel bad. Those Death Eaters came for me, but they didn't get me, so they killed the Dursleys, and it's my fault and –" Asitel put her fingers on his lips, quieting him.

"You're wrong. Yes, they came for you, but you didn't know about it. You couldn't know. It was not your fault that they couldn't get away. They at least weren't injured. You were, and it's their fault. They deserved it. I'm sorry if that seems cold, but it's true, Harry, and you need it accept it, just like you need to accept Cedric Diggory's death, just like you have accepted your parents' death." Harry flinched at her casual reference to Cedric, and shook his head.

"I can't. Maybe it's just too recent, but I can't. It just hurts. Sometimes even more than Uncle Vernon's fists hurt. I can't just forget, Asitel. I can't." Asitel sighed, and Harry knew that she was accepting the hopelessness of it all, that Harry couldn't forget the pain and wouldn't dismiss the guilt until he could Then Asitel paused and smiled at him.

"Maybe we can fix that."

Harry woke up to Ron's very close, confused face. "Gah!" He pulled away. Ron straightened up, grinning.

"I knew I could get you up. You alright, mate? You woke us all up last night twice. You were groaning and muttering and rolling over both times."

"What?" Harry strained his memory, but could not remember any of what he dreamed about. He had a pretty good idea of what it had been, though. "Did I wake up?" Ron frowned.

"You woke up the first time and I asked what it was and you said that it was that hallway again, and you went back to sleep, but –"he stopped here to throw Harry a disgusted look, "the second time no one could get you up. You were making all sorts of weird noises and tossing and turning, and then you finally calmed down and slept pretty deeply. Actually, I don't think you even moved at all since then." Harry winced, rolling his head. His neck was incredibly stiff.

"It certainly feels like it." He replied. Ron grinned again.

"Well, hurry up. The others have all left for breakfast already, and we need to find out what our schedules are." Harry nodded and gathered his things, then moved to the bathroom. Twenty minutes later, on their way to the Great Hall, Ron finally broke the silence. "So what is this hallway that you keep dreaming about? You mentioned it last week, too. What's up?" Harry knit his eyebrows together, thinking.

"I'm not really sure. It's just a dark hallway, with doors all over the place. Then at the end, there's this one door. It's special, somehow. I don't know how, but it's the only one that matters. And yet, there's something wrong about it. I don't know what, but it – it scares me."

"Weird."

"Yeah."

"What about the second half?" Harry stopped. Ron continued a few paces, and then turned back when he realized his friend wasn't moving. "Mate?" He prompted.

"That scares me even more." Harry whispered. He didn't know why he was being so open about it, but he couldn't stop himself. "I can't remember it. None of it."

"What's wrong with that? It happens a lot."

"Not like this." Harry started walking again, and Ron quickly fell into step with him. "I hadn't even realized anything happened past the hallway. Even now, I can't remember anything. And yet, there's something there – I just can't reach it." Ron nodded in understanding and encouragement as Harry fell silent.

"And…?" He prodded. Harry shook his head.

"No 'and'. That's all I know." Hermione was waving at them from the Gryffindor table. Quietly cheering at the sight of breakfast, Ron rushed over and sat down. Harry pulled up a chair on the other side of Hermione and reached for the sausages. "Good morning, Hermione."

"Good morning to you, too. I have your schedules. McGonagall passed them out about a half hour ago. What took you so long? Ron, I thought you were waking Harry up an hour ago. It doesn't take that long to get ready and walk down here. What happened?" Ron got that defiant, stubborn look that only Hermione could bring out in his eyes.

"Well, sorry! Next time, you can try everything you can think of for thirty minutes to get Harry up. He was sleeping like the dead – it was practically impossible!"

"Impossible? Hmpf. Maybe for you, Ronald Weasley, but –" Harry tuned them out and grinned. They hadn't even been home for twenty four hours yet, and they were already arguing. Life was finally back to normal.

1 – This is an exact quote of pg. 208 in Harry Potter, book 5.

Author's Note - So. I was very disappointed about the last chapter. I like it, but for some reason the only one to review it was mybrother! Why didn't I get any others? Doesn't anybody love me? (crocodile tears appear) Please, review this time. I'm very proud of this chapter, even if I did have it written for about 2 weeks before uploading it. (I'm verry sorry about that, by the way, but typing is very boring. Reading is much more fun) Please review!

By the way, does anyone know how to put asteriks in? I've been trying, but for some reason, they won't stay in.