Out of One's Mind

Chapter I

Two weeks later.

He'd never really liked hospitals. Sure, he'd been in the hospital wing at Hogwarts more times than he could count, but in many ways St. Mungos was so very different from that.

It was big, clinical and well, white, for lack of better words. He just didn't like it, gave him an uneasy feeling.

He shuddered.

"Honestly, Harry," Hermione laughed, "you can go home if you want to. I'm practically fine."

Harry smiled guilty, he'd been caught. "It isn't that bad," he defended himself.

Casting a glance towards the door, he leaned closer to her, "Though, I don't like your doctor."

"Healer," Ron automatically corrected.

Harry gave him the finger.

Ron gasped like a true drama queen.

Hermione laughed, "Oh please, Harry. He's a very nice guy."

He made a face, "Yes, he might be, but I don't like him."

"You don't like any healers except Madame Pomfrey, mate."

True, Harry thought. He had no idea of why he disliked doctors. If he was to be honest he only said that to annoy Ron. It was something that he'd brought with him from the Dursleys he supposed. He'd never liked the doctors which he was forced to go to as a kid.

Though, that may have been the Dursley's fault and not the doctor's. But it didn't matter now. He simply didn't like them and he was fine with that.

So with another meaningful look from Hermione, the black haired boy rose from his seat. "Well I guess I'll be going then."

"Okay, Harry. Take care now." Hermione smiled.

"Yeah, take it easy now, mate," Ron said as he stood up to give Harry a friendly pat on the back.

"Of course I will." Harry grinned, bent down to hug Hermione where she sat propped up by a huge amount of pillows before making his way towards the exit. "Bye guys!"

---

He didn't really feel like going home just yet so he decided to make a short visit to Andy's, a small but cosy little café which he'd stumbled upon during a very rainy day.

A little bell tinkled when he stepped through the door, reminding the employees that they had a new customer.

He didn't have a cloak on; the weather was after all, lovely, so he chose a small table by the window and sat down before it.

"Can I take your order?" a voice came from behind.

Turning his head to face the waitress, Harry looked into the face of a young man.

"Yes, please. I'd –"

"Harry!"

Looking in the direction of the voice, he located a small girl his age, with brown hair that flowed down her back in smooth curls. Her chocolate brown eyes radiated happiness as he met her gaze with a wide smile matching her own.

"Hello, Maya," he greeted and playfully pretended to take off his hat.

Laughing at his antics, she rounded the bar and made her way towards him.

"I'll take care of this one, Andrew." She smiled at her colleague, who gave a half glare back but mumbled 'okay' before going to another table.

Turning back to Harry, she gave him a huge smile, "Couldn't get enough yesterday either, could you, Harry?"

Laughing at the wink he received from her he winked back, "Nah, you know me. I never get enough."

She patted him on the head. "From all that I'm guessing that you want your usual order then."

"You know me so well, it's almost touching," he faked, putting a hand over his heart.

"Yes, yes, you big clown," she laughed. "Your order is coming right up!"

Smiling to himself when she retreated behind the bar, Harry returned his gaze to the window or rather to the people walking outside of it.

She was a nice girl Maya, happy and relaxed. Something he wasn't use to in girls. Hell, he wasn't used to girls at all; Cho was a disaster after all. Ginny had been different, but they'd discovered that a brother/sister relationship had worked out better than their relationship ever had, so they never got back together.

Maya was different, even if he hadn't known her long, around a week and a half maybe, but he liked her. She didn't seem to care that he was Harry Potter, the Boy Who Defeated Voldemort; she just treated him like Harry and that was attractive.

Probably what got him interested, he mused.

"There you go, one black with sugar."

"Lovely," he thanked her. "No chance in you sitting down for a while?"

She bit her lip, "I'm sorry, Harry." And she did look sorry. "I can't. I promised Andrew to clean the kitchen for him if he did it for me last week."

"Now?" he asked. "But you served me, didn't you?"

She smiled. "Yes, but that was an exception. Now I have to get back to the dirty kitchen. It was nice to talk to you Harry, as always."

"Same Maya, I hope I'll see you tomorrow."

"Yes, we all hope that." She winked before returning to the kitchen.

Sighing in his coffee mug, Harry once again scolded himself for not having the guts to ask her out. It shouldn't be that hard. He was pretty sure that she would say yes, but he didn't know what to do on a date. So by not knowing what he was asking for, he created the whole asking-for-a-date problem.

Taking another sip from his coffee, Harry enjoyed the warm feeling that it brought with it, filling his whole chest with comfortable warmth.

He admitted that he'd become a somewhat of a coffee addict, probably from all the coffee he'd consumed during all the late study nights with his friends. Now, he had to have it during the morning to function at all. And if he got the chance to drink a cup during the day, he wouldn't say no to that either. He was sitting in a coffee shop right now, after all.

Draining what was left of his dark liquid of pleasure, except what was at the bottom, Harry rose from his seat. Having already said goodbye to Maya he directly made his way to the exit.

Looking at his watch he saw that it was beginning to get late, 5:00. Still, it was the end of June, the sun had yet to go down, and so it was as light as ever on the streets.

Beginning to make his way home, Harry decided to take a detour through the park.

After one year of intensive training, studying, and war. After one year of fighting in said war, he had come to appreciate the beauty of things. Nothing special, he just found himself enjoying things like the blue sky or the green grass on different levels than he ever had during his school days.

He turned right on the little gravel path.

A few children were playing on the swings. Harry smiled at their cheerful happiness; they needed so little to crack a smile, seeing them laugh like nothing was wrong in the world made him feel like it really could be restored.

"Excuse me, mister!" a trembling voice addressed him.

Looking down, he saw a small blonde haired girl; she couldn't be older than five, standing there with tears in her eyes.

"Hi there," Harry said as he lowered himself to her level. "Can I help you?"

Nodding, she pointed at a tree behind him, "Sara got stuck in the tree when we were playing. Can you please bring her to me?" she asked him as a tear rolled down her cheek.

He was confused. "How did your friend climb up there?" The tree was rather tall after all and no branches where in a small girl's reach.

"She didn't climb," the girl answered, giving him an astonished look. "We were throwing her in the air."

Ah, now everything clicked, it was a doll. He should have known. In the back of his mind Harry was surprised how good she talked, or maybe he just didn't know anything about kids.

"No need to be sad, I'll bring her down," he promised the crying girl.

She looked expectantly at him.

Standing up again, Harry turned towards the tree; it didn't look like an impossible task. Grabbing a branch, Harry pilled himself up on it, hoping for it to hold his weight.

'What you do for the kids," he thought as he grabbed another branch and climbed higher up.

Ah, there it was; a cute little blonde doll with a red dress. Taking hold of it with his left hand, Harry kept his balance with the other one.

Climbing down again with the doll in a safe grip he turned to the little girl, smiling at the hopeful look in her eyes.

"Did you bring her down?"

"Of course I did. Sara is very happy to see you," he said as he handed the doll over.

A huge smile formed in the girl's face, her tears forgotten. "Thank you so much, mister!" she screamed as she hugged her doll to her chest.

"No need, kid," Harry answered as he patted her lightly on the head.

Giving him one last smile, the girl ran back to her friends; whispering something and pointing at Harry and then at her doll.

Waving at her and her friends Harry took up his walk through the park, a smile gracing his face the whole way home.

---

Turning the key in the lock Harry opened the door to his apartment.

He'd never really liked Godric's Hollow. He always felt like he should remember so much about that place, but he didn't have one single memory of it. It didn't feel like home. And it was too big for him. That's why he'd chosen to get his own little apartment, nothing fancy. A kitchen, a bedroom, bathroom, a small hall and a living room, he didn't need more.

Stepping into the kitchen, Harry started to prepare coffee to drink while reading the Daily Prophet which lay on his kitchen table.

Opening the window, Harry took a deep breath of fresh air while listening to the comforting simmering of the coffeemaker.

'Hedwig has been gone for a long time now' Harry thought as he gazed at the sky. He wasn't worried, no it wasn't strange if she stayed away a couple of days, he just missed her.

Grabbing the paper from the table he looked at the first page.

The Boy Who Lived Secures Our Future!

He snorted. After two weeks he still made the front page. Hopefully they would tire soon.

'Not likely' Harry thought with annoyance.

Putting down the newspaper, he turned to a cabinet and brought forth his favourite coffee mug, a beige-cream coloured one which he'd received from Mrs. Weasley.

He poured some coffee into it and then sat down by the table.

Taking a sip of his coffee, he opened the paper, ignoring the first pages about himself and how he'd defeated Voldemort. He'd never given an interview, so in a way he was impressed with Rita for writing a story with barely any information to go on. Not that he should be surprised anymore, but he couldn't help it.

He turned the page again.

The dementors were still free, prowling the forests. He skipped that part too, he knew enough about it. He'd meet enough of them while fighting the war.

He turned the page again and promptly choked on his coffee.

The head line said: Severus Snape Has Been Found!

Rage boiled up inside of Harry. It had been almost a year since Dumbledore's death, but it was still fresh in his mind.

With anxious eyes, he scanned down the page.

It seemed as though the Ministry believed that Snape was hiding information about where the last horocrux was to be located, as well as the last Death Eaters.

'Yes,' Harry thought bitterly, 'the last horcrux.' Sure Voldemort had been destroyed, but he'd never succeeded in finding the last piece of his soul. If the Death Eaters got their hands on it first, Voldemort could be restored. Harry knew all that and he knew that the Ministry wanted him to search for it.

But he'd done his part in the whole. He'd killed Voldemort. Now the Ministry had to do the rest.

More than slightly annoyed, he continued to read.

Seems like they had a hard time trying to pry information out of the slimy git, Veritaserum didn't work on him.

'Big surprise,' Harry thought dryly. Snape was a potion master after all, he'd probably taken some sort of antidote.

The next part though, was not what he'd expected.

Due to the fact that Mr. Snape is resistant to concede information, he is to be sent to Azkaban.

"What!" Harry screamed, dropping his cup, not caring about the coffee that spilled onto the table.

"Snape deserves a harder punishment than that!" Harry roared in anger. Azkaban was still working as a prison, just without the dementors. People like Snape deserved the kiss. He knew it was cruel to think that, but quite frankly, he didn't care. The former potion master deserved to die.

Closing the paper, no able to read any more, Harry rose up to fetch a rag to clean up the spilt coffee.

Wetting the rag in the sink, he leaned his forehead against the cabinet above it.

"How can they let him live? So what if he sits on information! The old git will never let go of it." Harry snarled to the empty room with such venom that it made his shoulders tremble.

He took a deep breath and then proceeded with cleaning up the table and then throwing the rag back into the sink.

He was just going to sit down on his sofa to grumble when something tapped on his window.

'Hedwig,' was his first thought, but it wasn't.

"You're a Ministry owl," he mumbled when he saw the seal on the letter.

Opening the window, he took the letter; not offering any treats to the owl, though it seemed the bird wasn't expecting them anyhow because it promptly turned and flew away.

Leaving the window open, in case Hedwig would return, he retreated to the sofa and opened the letter.

Dear Mr. Potter

Your presence is requested in my office, June 25 at 08:00 am.

It is urgent.

Rufus Scrimgeour, Minister of Magic.

'Scrimgeour? What the hell does he want now?' Harry thought, more than highly annoyed at this point. The Minister never asked for anything from him unless it was important, which the letter said clearly that it was.

Sighing, he decided to show up tomorrow seeing as how there would be such a great fuss about it if he didn't. Whatever Scrimgeour had planned for him, he wouldn't do it. No way.

That night Harry slept troubled.

End of Chapter I