Chapter 4. Puzzle

It was September, 2nd. All students were currently in their morning classes, except for one, who was currently lying on a bed in the hospital wing. Madam Pomfrey and Albus Dumbledore were standing beside said bed and looking at the student in question, Harry Potter, with concern.

"How is he, Poppy?" Albus asked, his shoulders were unusually slumped.

"Magical coma, Albus." the mediwitch replied sadly. "I made sure to erase all traces of dark magic from his body, but whether he will or will not wake up is up to Mr. Potter himself."

"I see." the headmaster sighed. "Keep me informed, Poppy." he asked.

"Of course, Albus." Pomfrey nodded. Dumbledore cast one last look at the motionless form of Harry and walked away.

Pofrey looked at her patient. "If- No, when he wakes up," she grumbled, "I am going to give him a piece of my mind." she huffed. "The year had just began and he is already here, making all of us worry." her gaze softened in the end and she went on with her usual business.

xxx

Harry opened his eyes. He found himself in a ruined world. After looking around he deduced that he was on a floating piece of rock, considering how near the horizon was. Above him was a starry sky.

All around Harry saw ruins. Destroyed buildings, starships, citadels. He walked somewhere away from the spot where he woke up. He certainly did not enjoy the view.

The scenery was rather monotonous. Ruins, ruins, corpses, more ruins, crashed starships, even more ruins and barren land. Nothing pleasant. He wondered where he was.

"You are in your mind, your very soul." answered an all-too-familiar voice. Suddenly Harry found himself standing near the edge of the rock, looking straight at the platform with an elaborate metal and golden throne on it. A teenager was standing near the stairs that led to the top of the platform.

"What?" Harry asked dumbly.

"You are in the depths of your soul." replied the teenager, his outline was rather hazy though. Harry tried to focus on the speaker and he managed to clear his vision. He gasped.

"Tenebrae!"

xxx

"Coma?" asked Hermione in wavering voice.

Pomfrey nodded gravely. "Yes, dear. I do not know when or even if Mr. Potter wakes up. All we can do now is wait."

Hermione felt her legs turn jelly and sat on the edge of Harry's bed. She looked at her first and best friend. She couldn't lose him. She couldn't. What will her life be without Harry?

Ron looked at the exchange with terror. A magical coma was no laughing matter, it only occurred if a person severely overused their magic. Few woke up after this. He hoped Harry would, he didn't want to lose his best friend. His hand found its way to Hermione's shoulder. The witch, however, failed to notice.

xxx

"Yes and no." replied the teen.

"Tenebrae, Vitiate," he morphed into an older man in sith robes, "Valkorion, and finally," the teen morphed into a mirror image of Harry, though his eyes remained orange, "Harry Potter. That's who I am."

"No, I am not you!" Harry shouted forcefully as he took a step back.

"You can't lie to yourself. You say one thing, but your body contradicts your words." the doppelganger smirked. "And besides, I am not exactly any of those four, despite what I said."

"What?" Harry narrowed his eyes. "Explain! What am I doing here and how do I get out?!"

"Calm down, Harry." the doppelganger raised his hands in peaceful manner. "I will explain everything. After all, I can't let such an opportunity pass."

"Then start talking." Harry said irritably.

"Oh well." the clone sighed. "I am a representation of your repressed emotions and thoughts. Make no mistake, Harry, I am not, nor have I ever been a separate entity. I was born from you, when you started denying who you really are."

"Who I really am?" Harry asked in confusion.

"Don't lie to yourself, Harry." the doppelganger smirked again. "That dementor did you a favor. He fractured your soul, and now it is repairing itself, reintegrating all its parts in all the right places."

"That is supposed to mean what exactly?" Harry asked skeptically.

"That means, that you will remember your entire life very soon, you remember most already, don't you?" the doppelganger grinned.

Harry clutched his head when realization hit him. Memories flooded his mind like a tidal wave. Tenebrae, Vitiate, Valkorion – all memories of his very long existence returned to him. He collapsed on his knees.

"No," he whimpered quietly, "no… It's not me.. Not me… No…"

"You know the truth." Valkorion, who Harry's doppelganger turned into, stood over Harry. "You can't hide from it. You can only accept it now."

Harry shook his head, still looking down.

"Accept who you are." Valkorion said more forcefully. "You will never be able to move forward otherwise."

"What troubles you, Harry?" asked another Harry, with orange eyes, suddenly.

"He- he killed so many." Harry whispered, but his voice boomed in the perfect silence of his soul. "So much darkness, so much evil."

"It was you, Harry." his doppelganger said gently. "You have just forgotten yourself for thirteen years after three thousand years of slumber. Your new experience is talking for you – a naïve boy. You are not a boy, Harry, you are the greatest Dark Lord of the Sith in all of the Galaxy."

"I'm not!" Harry objected.

"Very well." the doppelganger smiled. "Then you will leave soon. You know the truth now, Harry, there is no hiding from it anymore." he grinned. "And given time you will come back. Believe me, and yourself, after all, you have more than a thousand years of experience."

Darkness claimed Harry once again.

xxx

His eyes opened grudgingly, it felt like lifting a mountain of sand though – hard and futile. In the end Harry won and managed to look around. He didn't see anything but blur, however. Harry tried to call somebody, but his throat was as dry as a desert. He managed to only rasp something unintelligible. That was enough to attract someone's attention though.

"Mr. Potter!" he heard Pomfrey's unmistakable voice. So he was in the hospital wing in Hogwarts. That was good. "You're awake!" sound of steps was heard and then someone gently put Harry's glasses on him. The world came to focus once again. "Here you go, Mr. Potter." she smiled.

"Wa-…ter." Harry rasped.

"Of course." the mediwitch nodded and conjured a glass of water. She gently brought it to Harry's lips and he drank. The liquid tasted like ambrosia at the moment.

"Thank you." Harry said once the glass was empty. He tried to sit up, only to gasp in pain.

"Don't try anything foolish, Mr. Potter." Pomfrey admonished him sternly. "That dementor nearly killed you, Mr. Potter. You were in a magical coma for a week. I managed to cleanse your body from the dark energy left by the dementor, but you will feel intense pain for some time. I will give you suitable potions though." she looked thoughtful. "Yes, that should cover everything. Now rest and don't even think of moving." she walked away, to the fireplace. Harry saw a flash of green.

"Yes, he is awake, headmaster." Harry heard Poppy say. So Dumbledore wanted reports on him, not exactly surprising, but some part of him didn't like it.

It was a couple of minutes later that Dumbledore sat beside Harry's bed with a small relieved smile on his wrinkled face.

"It is good to see you are up, Harry." he said kindly. "You have given us all quite a fright, your friends visited you every day."

"How are Ron and Hermione?" Harry asked frantically. He tried to sit up reflexively only to hiss in pain.

"You shouldn't move, Harry." Dumbledore said. "The amount of dark magic left on you after the dementor kissed you was tremendous. It managed to inflict immeasurable amount of harm upon your body. As for your friends, they are perfectly safe. Your magic made the dementor flee."

"It's called dark side corruption. And no amount of pathetic rudimentary force manipulation can get rid of it. And it was the power of the dark side that made this failed experiment flee." Harry thought. Then he wanted to slap himself. These were Tenebrae's or Vitiate's thoughts, not his. But he was both. It was so confusing and frustrating.

"Sir, what were these creatures?" Harry asked. "Madam Pomfrey called them dementors, but the name doesn't exactly say much."

"Ah yes," Dumbledore's smile faltered, "dementors – the most foul creatures known to the wizarding world. Created by the Ancient Ones, they feed off their victims' happy emotions. When they kiss you, they suck out your soul."

"Was I…?" Harry asked, gulping. He dreaded the answer.

"Yes, Harry." Dumbledore nodded, his face unreadable. "You were kissed. You are the only survivor of this procedure by the way."

"Oh great." Harry groaned. "Even more attention." Dumbledore chuckled.

"I am afraid so, Harry." he replied, a smile back on his lips. "The Prophet has already written about it."

Harry just sighed. A heavy sensation appeared in the pit of his stomach.