Everywhere he looked, he could only see the silvery mist, obscuring the surroundings from view. Harry squinted against the mist, trying feebly to make out where he was. It was deathly quiet. Harry couldn't even hear his own footsteps falling on the ground.
"Dad! Are you there?" Harry asked.
"Damien! You better not be up to something!" Harry yelled again. It was just like his younger brother, to play a trick like this on him.
When there was no answer, Harry blindly made his way forward, cursing softly under his breath. He couldn't even remember how he got here. Where was he and where was everyone else?
Harry felt his outstretched fingers brush against something. It felt cold to the touch and had a smooth surface. Harry moved closer, trying to determine what this thing was. It was as if a switch was flicked on, and the eerie mist cleared up at once. Harry sighed in relief. At least he would be able to see where he was going now. He looked down to see what he had bumped into in the dark.
Harry felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end. Horrified, he pulled away the hand that was resting on the top of the object and stumbled a few steps away.
Harry James Potter
The silver words that were etched onto the black marble glistened like silver jewels. Harry tried to get his feet to move, but sheer terror gripped at him. He was staring at the black marble tomb. The black marble tomb that Voldemort had built for him.
Harry felt his heart beating frantically in his chest. He turned around, trying to get as far away from the tomb as possible. He stopped as a terrifying sight greeted him. Harry stood stock still as Voldemort stood before him, red eyes burning fiercely.
Voldemort didn't say anything. Not a single word left his lips. He stood at the same spot, just staring at Harry. His ruby red eyes, never left Harry's face as flames started to rise from his robes. Harry stood, horrified at the sight. He tried to turn away but it was as if Voldemort's gaze was holding him in place, refusing to let him go. Harry watched horror-struck as the flames engulfed Voldemort.
Voldemort didn't let a single sound escape him as the flames engulfed him. He continued to stare at Harry. As the flames licked over his face, his mouth opened and only one word left him.
"Harry"
Harry jerked awake in his bed. He was breathing heavily and his entire body was soaked with sweat. Harry took in his surroundings and realised that he was in his bedroom. Judging by the darkness around him, it was only the middle of the night.
Harry took a few deep breaths to calm himself. He pushed himself to sit up in his bed. He realised that he was shaking all over. He rubbed at his tired eyes and sighed heavily. Why couldn't he get rid of that damn nightmare? Every night, Harry had to watch Voldemort's death again and again. It always started differently but ended with Voldemort standing before him before flames engulfed him. Most of the nightmares ended after the flames licked over the motionless body of Voldemort, but sometimes Voldemort would call out to Harry.
Harry couldn't help the shudder that ran through him as Voldemort's voice rang in his head. It was always just one word. He never said anything else. It was always just 'Harry'.
Harry tried to go back to sleep but half an hour later, gave up and admitted defeat. It had been three weeks since Voldemort's death. Harry was dealing with this the only way he knew how to, he blocked out what he had done. He refused to talk about it with anyone. It was not that hard really, as his parents didn't want to mention Voldemort at all. Damien was happy to forget what had happened as well, so Harry found it very easy to distract his mind from Voldemort and was keeping busy with his new lifestyle with his parents and brother. His mum had tried once to tell him that it wasn't his fault and that he shouldn't feel guilty about killing Voldemort. Harry had just nodded his head and had refused to discuss it. No one would understand just how guilty Harry was. He had killed the man that had brought him up.
Harry climbed out of his bed and quietly made his way to the wardrobe on the other end of his room. He changed into his training clothes and, as quietly as he could, left the Manor to go and train in his specially built training grounds.
This was what Harry did when he couldn't distract his mind with anything else. He trained. He had been using his training grounds more and more lately as the nightmares were staring to get worse. Harry had not slept properly for days.
Harry trained vigorously, not allowing his mind to wander anywhere else. He trained for hours. He only stopped when he saw the sky turn pink as the sun came up. Harry went back into his house before anyone got up. He didn't feel like telling anyone about his nightly routine. He crept up to his room and took a long relaxing shower, to ease away the aches the tough training regime had left.
When Harry came downstairs and entered the kitchen, he saw that the rest of his family were already up. His mum was preparing breakfast, as usual. She turned around as Harry came inside. Her face lit up as she looked at her eldest son.
"Morning!" she said happily.
Harry smiled and replied with 'morning' as well.
He joined his dad and brother at the table. Damien was still rubbing sleep from his eyes but for once, James looked wide awake. Lily joined her family at the table and the four of them had their breakfast and talked about what they were going to do with their day. Damien had already decided that he and Harry were going to practise their Quidditch techniques, while Lily was going to finish her gardening project. James said something about Sirius coming over and them working on 'Auror stuff'.
Just then James felt some disturbance in the wards of their house, he was instantly on alert, he stood. Harry, Damien and Lily who were eating also paused to see why was James standing on oof a sudden.
Lily asked "What happened James, is everything alright?"
"No, I felt some disturbance in the wards", James said.
Harry listening this also stood, and said "I am also coming". James nodded and said "Ok".
Lily and Damien also stood but stayed at their place and saw James and Harry making their way out. Just as James and Harry went out when the floo turned green and Sirius stepped out onto the rug. He brushed the dark locks out of his eyes and gave Lily a broad smile.
"Morning! Am I late for breakfast? I can..." He said but words died in his mouth seeing their expressions. He asked Lily hastily, "What happened, where are James and Harry?".
Lily replied " James felt some disturbance in wards so he and Harry had gone to check outside". Before she can finish her sentence, Sirius was making his way outside and said "Lily I am going to help them stay inside ".
As Sirius made his way outside, he saw James and Harry and ran to catch up. "Hey, James!" Sirius shouted. James abruptly stooped and glanced at Sirius and said "hey Padfoot"
Sirius caught up with them as they continued waking towards the forest in their house where James felt intrusion and said "Lily told me what happened so I thought I would help".
harry hearing this turned and said "ok Sirius, but Dad can we move fast?".
James said "Off course". And they continued walking.
Just as they were about to reach the edge and heard sound of leaves and they stopped, wands in their hands, they turned to look in the direction of sound and paused when they saw the intruder.
There in front of them was none other than Voldemort's snake Nagini in a fighting stance, ready to strike.
Seeing her harry froze, and took a step-in front of James and Sirius. seeing harry nagini paused and hissed "Young master, I was looking for you only".
Hearing the hissing sound James and Sirius felt creepy but when Harry also hissed "Nagini, but why?", they felt much creepier hearing it and could not stop them from thinking that how much Harry resembled Voldemort.
Nagini replied " Young master, after Master died" Harry winced "Nagini was alone and thought that I will meet you and ask that if Nagini can stay with young master and talk to her as she fell alone now"
As Nagini spoke Harry felt conflicted as he loved Nagini and was very fond of her but he cannot ignore that she was reminder of Voldemort and also, he was not sure how his family to respond to it.
As James saw conflicted emotion on Harry's face, he moved little forward all the while eyeing Nagini and said "What happened Harry, isn't it Voldemort's snake? what is she doing here?"
Harry again winced and replied as Sirius also now stood in side of James "Yes dad, she is his and her name is Nagini, she came to meet me here, if you don't mind can we go inside and talk?" he said hastily.
James was confused as he glanced at Harry and Nagini, then turned to look at Sirius with a confused expression, who shrugged in doubt, then he looked at Harry who was busy staring at Nagini though James could tell he was not focused on Nagini but deep in thought and asked "She as well?" pointing towards Nagini.
Harry then looked at James face then at Nagini who still looked ready to strike but not at Harry but at James and Sirius. He then again looked at James and said "yeah" uncertainly.
James looked at Sirius who nodded his head, then James looked back at Harry and agreed to Harry who then conveyed the same to Nagini, who relaxed her stance and ready to follow Harry.
Then James, Sirius and Harry started moving towards the house with Nagini behind them, the slithering voice formed by nagini was getting on the nerves of James and Sirius who were not at all thrilled by the presence of Voldemort's snake at their house, they were so engrossed in their musings that they didn't see Harry's expression as they moved towards the house.
Each unsure of what will happen further...
To be continued…..
