AN: Hi folks, sorry for the delay. This chapter is not beta-readed, again, and I regret that I can't provide you with a better quality. I hope you still enjoy the story and go on reading.
Thanks a lot to Azreal and YamiRose for recommending Daimen's Spell & Creature site to me. I'll refer to it maybe. ;-)
Another thing, Azreal sent my this: "I do have an issue with some of what you said about God and Jesus, please try and be respectful towards my religion. Thanks"
Two answers to that:
1. If you feel repelled by the content of my story, don't read it.
2. This is a fictional text, just like the bible (Sorry, I couldn't resist) and when this shakes the believes of an individual, he or she has to rethink, how strong his/her faith in God is.
So, enough blasphemy. Good bye, till the next chap, Daly
Chapter 9: Beyond Death
"Hermione!", screamed Harry and dashed around the corner.
He was hardly around it when something collided with his chest and knocked him over. He slid over the floor until his head hit the wall.
Pain filled his body and his view turned red, whereas his chest went numb. Somehow he managed to erect his upper body.
He saw four silhouettes, barely eight meters away, but through the veil of red he couldn't figure out more. It appeared that they were going away, but he wasn't sure.
Harry's strength faded and he sank backwards. His blood seemed to boil and rushed to his body. With great efforts he raised his right arm till he could touch his numbed chest.
His fingers found something that felt like feathers with a hard core.
Harry forced his head to turn until he could see his upper body. The sight was shattering.
Four, two inches long, feathered things jut out of his body.
Arrows! Who, to heaven, shot arrows at me?
Harry tried to cast a healing spell but his mouth didn't obey and lost consciousness before he could make another attempt.
Hermione closed the door to Harry's room and made her way to the library. There was a certain organisation she was very interested in.
Somewhat had struck her memory.
She went along the silent corridors, hoping not to encounter Snape or Filch. Out of sudden a yell run through the passageway and she stopped in mid-step. A shout itself was alarming, but that yell had suspiciously sounded like "Hermione!".
She took the next staircase that led downwards and turned left, in the direction where she guessed that the shriek had his origin.
As she entered the next passage she heard faint breaths. Softly she said "Lumos" and blue light erupted from the tip of her ward she had drawn out of caution.
At first she only saw four small pillars of black shadow which hung in the air and slowly faded. Then she followed the breaths and found a body at the end of the hallway.
The blue light crawled over the body and revealed a pool of blood on the chest and eventually Harry's face.
Hermione recognized him immediately and fell on her knees. She took his shoulders and shook him, ignoring the blood. Harry's head dangled from left to right. "HARRY! Come on, talk to me!", she screamed and slapped him as when he didn't respond.
Suddenly all her self-control and strength was gone and her head fell to her chest. Only now she saw the ends of the arrows, but before she could think about it, footsteps came near.
Hope was stirred for a second, but was smashed as Filch stepped around the corner in company of Miss Norris.
"You! What's going on here?", Filch croaked as he came closer. Hermione wanted to shout at him, but no word would escape her mouth.
"Oh, it's you! Now you'll get your detention you deserved for so longed. So sad that Potter isn't here. I'm sure he would be with you and then you both would … ", the caretaker's voice faded as he saw the pool of blood and Harry.
"Gosh, what happened here?", yelled Filch while he stumbled backwards. Before Hermione could try to speak Snape came around the corner with flying cloak.
"Filch! What are you shrieking? You will wake up the whole castle", Snape hissed before noticing the blood. Within the blink of an eye he had his wand ready and looked around.
When he didn't find any danger he squatted down besides Harry and waved his wand from Harry's feet to his head. It started to glow red when Snape reached the chest and as he turned back the glow was green all the time.
"He is barely alive and his whole cycle is poisoned. Filch, get Madame Pomfrey down here. Now! You! Take his shoulders and hold him upright", Snape commanded and looked Hermione in the eyes.
"Oh, it's you! What a luck for Potter", Snape sneered, but the astonished Hermione didn't even notice. She was surprised how fast Snape had grasped the situation and by the concerned look Snape gave Harry.
"Would you be so kind to aid me a little while I try to save his life", Snape snapped at her when she didn't react. He grabbed Harry's shoulders and erected the body. "Hold him in this position!", he said and eventually she did as she was expected to.
Hermione closed her eyes as Snape began to push the arrows out of the chest and healed the wounds right after. She still felt Harry breathe and wondered how long a human could live with injuries that critical.
Like reading her thoughts, Snape said, "He must be tougher than I thought and his will to live has to be even stronger. Maybe he has a reason to hold out, hasn't he?" At the last sentence he searched Hermione's gaze before returning his attention back to Harry.
She believed to see a little smile on his face, but dismissed the idea quickly. Snape wouldn't smile. After Snape had finished his treatment of the arrows he conjured an invisible stretcher and let Harry float in the air.
Hermione took Harry's hand and exclaimed, "He's burning!" "That's the poisons doing. I know a poison that has the same effects than this one, but would it be that one he should be dead for long", Snape stated with a hint of hope.
With a soft 'plop' Dumbledore appeared. "Poppy just called me. What happened?" Before anyone could answer Dumbledore grasped the situation.
"Severus, how is this possible that someone attacked a student in the school…", he paused a few seconds and recognized Harry," …and even a student who isn't here officially?", Dumbledore asked, the voice filled with concern .
"At the moment the more urging question is how someone can survive four arrows in the chest leaving the poison aside and what we can do to hold him alive", replied Snape.
Dumbledore opened his mouth to speak, but was interrupted by the arrival of Madame Pomfrey. "Good evening or should I say morning? Mister Filch told me something about serious injuries." Now she was close enough to see Harry in the blue light that erupted from Hermione's wand. Even with the wounds closed, the blood gave an obvious impression of Harry's current state of health.
"My Lord!", was all the nurse said before she rushed at Harry's side. With a swish of her wand she freed Harry of his clothes save his boxer-short. Hermione threw a glimpse on Harry's muscular body when Snape ordered her to come along with him to fetch some antidotes from his office.
As she followed Snape she heard Dumbledore asking Madame Pomfrey, if Harry would survive and Hermione was glad that she didn't understand the answer.
Voices. He heard voices but couldn't figure out any words. The volume was sometimes high sometimes low. He thought he heard Snape. His body felt weightless and he got the impression that he was hanging in the air.
Still his blood pumped through his veins with unbelievable speed and heat. Still darkness engulfed him, but he could feel a change.
Still he had no control over his body but got the feeling to fall. At first slowly then faster and faster.
Someone poured a potion into his mouth and his blood cooled down a bit whereas his imaginary fall continued. He could hear Hermione talk with someone. The person answered and Harry believed to take notice of Amelia's voice. Suddenly there was silence.
Darkness faded into grey and then into blue. Harry floated under the most brilliant blue sky he had ever seen. Am I dreaming? His body turned and he stood in a meadow full of flowers. Despite this environment Harry didn't smell any flowers or heard the hum of any insects.
Where am I? Is this paradise? "For some this would be paradise and for others this place would be hell. I for myself think it should be nothing from both."
Harry turned around and faced a person. Whether it was male or female he could not tell, because the sun shone in his eyes. "Where are you?", asked Harry while he blinked to see better.
"Oh, sorry!" The individual's arm described a small circle and the light dimmed until Harry could see the person opposite clearly. Even after ten seconds Harry didn't know how to describe the one in front of him.
The body was more masculine in contrast to the face that was dominated by the soft features of a woman. The age was impossible to judge. The posture was straight and radiated youthful thirst for action where the eyes told of millenniums of experience. In the end Harry wasn't sure if the being was human at all.
"Who are you? Where am I?", Harry inquired feeling comfortable with his pain and numbness gone. The person smiled and seated itself in a chair which appeared out of thin air. "You are as curious as always, aren't you? Please take a seat. The journey to this plane is tiring."
Harry looked behind himself and found a chair ready for him. After he was seated he tried it again, "Are you God?" "Sort of", the Sort-of-God answered, "I'm his brother."
"Yeah, sure. You are the brother of God", Harry said with a frown. "Brother is the most adequate description. We are three, God, Lucifer and me", explained brother-of-God-and-Lucifer. "When you are brothers, who are your parents?", Harry wanted to know.
"We're born from chaos and order, light and darkness, good and evil, being and not being", came the reply. "You're kiddin' me?" The son-of-opposites sighed in a very human way. "At best I tell you the whole story.
We were born on the plane you call paradise long before time came into existence. Everyone of us was immortal and gifted with the ability of creation and an incredible amount of imagination.
For are endless period we did nothing more than to create thinks. God his angels, Lucifer his demons and I the multiverse."
"So they fought each other?", Harry interrupted.
"No, that came later. They had some sort of contest. You have to known that we had to learn and to perfect our arts. As matter of fact this is the first other plane I created." A pause unfolded as the creator looked around as if to take in the essence of his surrounding. Then he sighed.
"Everything began with this very place. Envy crept upon Lucifer as he saw what I could do. He saw a power that he could not achieve and that awaked his anger for his devils were mortals whereas my creations would last forever. That was the first time I noticed that by all things in common we were different in our attitude. Lucifer was always the daring and hot-blooded one but also personified envy, hate, strength, cunning and the thirst for omnipotence, I hadn't seen before.
God, who scorned my work as I had to find out, was intelligent, clever, arrogant, naïve and longed for admiration. From that point I'm blessed and cursed with wisdom and insight, so I think.
In order to prevent a war I created a plane for each of my brothers and gave them the knowledge to alter their homes at their will. That kept them at bay and for some time as they were focused on themselves but I foresighted the day when the conflict was inevitable and I created my greatest and most horrible work. Your universe."
The creator's face darkened with sorrow and remorse when he continued. "As the day came where Lucifer and God was about to release their fury I presented them the humans. Living beings that could admire and be dominated."
"Stop for a moment", Harry interrupted, "I thought God created the world and the humans." The being smiled sadly. "Yes, yes. I told you God was intelligent and clever. He assumed that the admiration of the humans would belong to their creator and so he pretended to be this very one.
Where did you stopped me? Ah, yes. I focused and bounded the concentration of my brothers on your world and placed myself in the role of a judge and imposed the duty on myself to create balance between my brothers.
A quite unnecessary duty since my brothers were equal in power and will. The plan of God to present himself as creator and Lucifer as destroyer was matched by that one as the devil implanted his lust for power in the humans heart", Harry's host finished his tale.
"To sum everything up, God and Lucifer battle on the earth with the humans as tools to fulfil their respective desires?", Harry asked holding his upcoming rage in check.
"This sounds very negative but yes, in general you are right", was the answer. "What about the rule that for every good thing a bad thing has to come in existence? This rule doesn't include a third party", Harry wanted to know.
"The explanation is easy. There is no such rule. This phenomenon is the result of the fact that my brothers and their followers matches each other in power, which brings us to the reason why you are here."
Harry shifted his position in the chair and strained his muscles unconsciously.
The other stood up and suddenly three orbs levitated in front of Harry.
They seemed to be made of fluid, but looked massive, despite that the ball in the middle changed its size rapidly and was sometimes smaller sometimes bigger than the other ones, which were at the same size.
It was blue and small rivulets of silver, that radiated silver light, ran over the surface. The left sphere was white with golden slivers in it, which glowed liked golden flames. The right globe was deep red with black cracks, that apparently consumed the light.
"I give you a choice few humans had. These are your cores, three aspects of power, fighting each other for supremacy and therefore weakening each other. I will erase two aspects and you will be stronger than before, but choose carefully."
The creator lay a hand on the right orb. "If you choose the way of absolute power you can shape the world according to your imagination. All power would lie in your hands and no being on the earth could ever dream to match your force. You would be the immortal ruler of the world and you alone would lead mankind's way to welfare."
Harry felt the longing desire to touch the globe and hold the energy of it in his hands, but resisted the temptation with some effort.
The creator's other hand rested on the left orb as Harry paid interest again.
"Or you choose the path of unification. Gather the people around you, be the subtle hand that guides them and use their strength as yours. You would be pathfinder to everlasting delight. It would be an honourable and glorious quest and your life would be full of joy and you would be admired by everyone for your bravery and fairness."
Harry had to suppress the urge to dive into the golden fire and the promise of admiration while the third brother lifted the two orbs higher in the air and released them hanging in a way that they formed a perfect triangle with the third orb.
Holding the sphere between his hands without touching it, the mysterious deity went on. "Or you want me to give you freedom of body, mind, conscience, obligations and rules. What's is your decision? You may take all the time you need."
Harry didn't need much time to decide, but hesitated to pronounce his final choice.
