Chapter 6

All Those In Need Of A Life, Say I

Harry was walking down the hallway; the hallway that haunted him all of his fifth year at Hogwarts. It was the Department of Mysteries.

He began to run down the familar corridor and pushed open the door easily, leading him to a large, round room. He looked around, his breathing heavy and sweat dripping down his face. He glasses slid down slightly from the persperation and he quickly pushed the back up to the bridge of his nose. His eyes searched the room and stopped as a door came into view. He ran to it, anticipation and nervousness rushing through his veins. He opened the door to find that the veil swaying almost mokingly at him.

Harry turned quickly as the door closed. He could feel his heart begin to race. He was locked in. A slight clambor of feet from behind caused Harry to spin around and his breath hitched at the sight before him.

Standing in front of the veil, looking more dead than alive, were his parents. They were standing hand in hand next to Sirius and Remus. They all looked at him, disappointed and angrily. Harry noticed that his godfather and Remus looked pale and gaunt, most unlike how they were now.

"How could you Harry?" Remus asked him, his voice horribly calm. The silence could be heard through out the room as Harry shook his head in confusion.

"What? What did I do?" he asked him walking forward. Instead of getting closer to his family, they seemed to be pushed away. The room was getting longer and he took another step. They moved backward again, coming close to the veil.

"You killed us Harry. You killed all of us. If you weren't ever born Lily and I would still be alive and happy, you stupid boy. We hate you," James told him son in the same calm voice Remus had. The anger burning in his eyes was so raw and so real that Harry stepped back in fear.

Tears welled up in his eyes as he looked at his parents and friends, "No. No, I didn't! It—It wasn't my fault dad!" he yelled at his father but to no avail.

"You killed us too Harry," Sirius said pointing to himself and Remus; "If you didn't fall for Voldemorts' damn 'fake dream' then we would still be alive. You are weak Harry. You can't save the world. You're just going to die and you are going to kill the rest of us as well. We all just want you to die anyway."

Harry could feel more tears falling down his face. He shook his head again, trying to get out of this horrible nightmare but nothing happened. This was real; it was all real.

"Why were they saying such things?" he thought frantically trying to make sense of things, "Surely they don't mean it."

"Harry, just go away," someone from behind Harry said.

He whirled around and saw that his three best friends were standing by the door. Ginny was looking at him with disgust along with Ron and Hermione.

"No. You don't mean that," he said painfully. His voice was choked and he wasn't sure how much longer he could take of this. He felt his wand in his pocket and reached to take it out.

"Yes we do Harry," Ginny answered, causing Harry to stop his pursuit of his wand, "You put our family in danger and I hate you. For all I care, you can go and get yourself killed by Voldemort."

"You know what? I think I'm going to kill you Harry. Then you won't come to us with your stupid and annoying problems. Good-bye Harry," Ron said menacingly pointing his wand to Harry's chest. The rest pulled out their wands and muttered the dreaded words.

"AVADA KEDAVRA!"

"NO! NO!" Harry screamed as he woke up with a start. He shot up from his bed and began screaming at the top of his lungs. Tears were falling down his face profusely. He was looking around his room furiously trying to figure out what was going when footsteps came running up the stairs.

"HARRY!" Ron yelled as he ran into the room where his best friend was staying in. Behind him were Ginny, Hermione, Sirius, and Remus. The two eldest men ran to his side and tried to comfort him but he pushed them away.

"You didn't mean it, did you? You couldn't have," he said frantically trying to reassure himself that it was just a dream. He looked to his friends with pain etched into his face.

"Harry, you need to settle down, okay? You are okay," Remus said softly to the boy. Realizing what he was doing in front of his friends, Harry turned away quickly, trying to hide his tears.

Sirius looked at him for a moment before grabbing his godson and holding him tightly. Harry tried to struggle, pushing Sirius away with his fists. Sirius tightened his grip as Harry continued to struggle in his godfather's embrace. Finally, he stopped struggling and fell into his arms, willing himself to let go of the nightmare.

After a while Harry finally settled down and fell back asleep. By then, Remus had taken Harry's friend out of the room instructing them to wait for any information on their friend. They reached Hermione's room and silence over took them. After a couple of minutes, Ron broke the silence with a loud sigh.

"What do you suppose he was dreaming about?" he asked shifting his feet.

Ginny just shook her head unable to answer the question.

"He seemed so terrified," she thought to herself, "I've never seen Harry like that."

"We can't even do anything about it. This is so terrible Ron," Hermione said to Ron who looked just as sad as she did.

"I know Hermione. I know," he replied before returning back to examining the floor boards.

Sirius and Remus returned downstairs only to find that the meeting was over. Dumbledore sat quietly with the Weasley's and Tonks.

As the door to the room opened, the group turned quickly and Molly stood up, her eyes already questioning the men.

"How is he?" she asked, her voice filled with concern.

Arthur turned to his wife and could tell from the look in her eyes that she was desperately trying to keep her emotions in check. He almost chuckled, remembering how not long ago Molly had suggested Harry die his hair red. She loved the boy as if he were her own.

"He's," Sirius stopped a moment, trying to gather the right words, "he seems to be in a bit of a shock but we got him to settle down," Sirius answered finally.

Dumbledore stood up and walked towards him, "I want to make sure that everyone is quiet around the house Sirius. We need to let Harry have some rest," he whispered in his ear. As a response, Sirius nodded and took a seat at the table.

Night flooded the house and morning soon crept in. The events of last evening were rough and most didn't sleep. Molly kept sticking her head in Harry's room making sure he was still there. When Molly would come back to bed, Arthur would run to check on Harry and come back quickly. It was obvious that everyone had chosen different methods to keep themselves awake in the case that Harry was to wake up.

When the morning came, everyone finally decided that they needed to sleep. Peacefully, they all slipped into bed unaware that Harry had finally woken up.

Harry sat up slowly from his bed and looked around his room. The sun was up but the house was so quiet. That was pretty rare. He rubbed his forehead tiredly and yawned, throwing his feet onto the side of the bed.

Harry turned and saw that Ron was snoring louder than ever in his bed. The covers were covering only his feet and his hair was sticking up like Harry's. He chuckled as his friend grumbled something about Hermione before he got up and went to the door.

Walking downstairs, Harry noticed that once again the house seemed deserted.

He walked into the kitchen and decided that he needed some food. Once a sandwich was made, Harry took a seat by himself at the table. He checked himself over and chuckled at the looks of himself. He was wearing a pair of long, muggle basketball shorts with his socks going past his ankles. He was wearing Ron's Chuddley Cannons shirt so it was extremely large on Harry's frame. He felt his hair and it was as usual sticking up at interesting angles. His glasses were not straight on his face so he felt a bit nerdy.

As he sat there in the silence of the household, Harry tried to recollect the events that lead up to now.

He remembered bits and pieces from after he came from beyond the veil. He remembered a portkey… death eaters… the knight bus… rain… a dream… screaming… then all was black and now here he was, sitting alone in the kitchen in his pajamas eating a sandwich.

"All those in need of a life," Harry said to himself, "Say I," he stopped a moment, making sure he was truly alone then threw his hand in air and yelled, "I!" He laughed at himself.

For the next hour or so, Harry wandered around the house doing anything he could to keep himself occupied. He noticed that Mrs. Black's picture was somehow taken down. After cleaning the kitchen, living room, and the extra bedroom Harry found that he had nothing to do.

Harry decided to knick Ron's chess set. Once it was successfully downstairs Harry set it up and played with an imaginary player playing against him.

As the game was becoming more intense and Harry found that he was losing, he heard a creaking noise coming from upstairs. As a reaction, he sat up immediately causing the chess table to fall scattering all the pieces.

"Who's down there?" Ron said as he scratched his head walking down the stairs.

"Hey Ron," Harry said nonchalantly.

For a moment Ron seemed to be a bit disoriented. He looked every direction and when his eyes met Harry's his head tilted a bit and he squinted as if trying to recognize him.

"Harry?" he said questionably.

Harry laughed.

"Yeah, who else would it be Ron? Want a sandwich?"

Ron smiled and ran to his friend giving him a "manly hug" as he would call it.

"You're awake!" he said happily as he and Harry started towards the table.

"Yeah. How long was I asleep since it's such big news?" Harry asked sitting across from his friend.

"Wow… umm… about three or four days."

Harry's eyes widened slightly.

"Why was it such a big surprise for me to wake up?" he asked causing Ron to look at him with a mildly surprised expression on his face.

"Well, you were pretty banged up when you came back and you were moaning and all that. Then we saw what happened… how you were put under the crutiatus curse and it was not something that was nice to see mate. Then you were screaming from some dream," Ron answered now stuffing his face with the last remaining pieces of toast.

Harry merely nodded trying to remember the events.

Just as he was about to ask Ron about what happened while Harry was asleep a rumbling came from upstairs.

"What the---," Ron said but before he could finish he was trampled over by Hermione and Ginny.

They both practically pounced on Harry causing him to fall backwards on to the floor.

"HARRY! YOU'RE AWAKE!" Hermione screamed her bushy hair in a ponytail.

He managed to mumble something but the two girls were still on top of him.

"What is going on here? We are trying to sleep!" Mrs. Weasley bellowed walking down the stairs.

"What is going on? Did you not hear me?" she asked again.

After a moment the girls stood up revealing a much disoriented Harry Potter.

"OH! HARRY!" she screamed, picking up the boy and bringing him into a bone crushing hug.

"Mrs.---Weasley----can't---breath," he said through breaths.

Molly immediately let go and looked at her sergeant son with tears in her eyes.

"Well, this calls for a celebration! Kids get Arthur, Sirius, and Remus up! I'll alert Dumbledore and everyone. Oh, they'll be so thrilled!" she said prancing away to the kitchen.

Harry looked at Ron who was currently choking on his sandwich from laughter.

"Ha, ha Ronald. Now shut up and come on," Hermione said to Ron as she also pranced up the stairs, Ginny and the boys in tow.

"Ginny and Ron wake up your dad. Me and Harry will wake up Sirius and Remus," Hermione said pointing in the direction of the rooms.

Harry and Hermione tip-toed into the room and suppressed their laughter as they looked at the two men. Remus was once again on the floor, his blanket tangled up between his legs. He also seemed to be sucking his thumb. Sirius was sprawled horizontally on his bed with his head hanging off his bed.

"You wake up Sirius," Harry whispered.

Harry walked up to Remus and poked him on the shoulder.

"Remus, Remus, wake up!" he whispered in his ear.

Remus swatted Harry and ended up waking him in the head while muttering a "shut up you git" in the process.

Due to Harry's quick thinking he thought of a way to get him out of bed.

"Remus! Tonks came up to me and said she wants to marry you and shag you silly," he said in a deep voice.

Remus immediately sprung up from bed and ran to the doorway.

"Tonks?" he said before he heard Harry doubling over in laughter on the floor.

"That was not funny Harry!" he yelled at his best friend's son who just kept on laughing.

All of a sudden, Sirius ran from the room with a terrified look on his face yelling Molly's name. Harry turned to Hermione who was also on the floor laughing.

"What did you say?" Remus asked as Hermione and Harry began to calm down.

"Well, I tried just about everything to get that man up. I figured that he died or something but then I remembered that he is very close to this one odd thing. It was this really ratty and old blanket. It had all the marauders signatures on it and it had some sort of quote from them under it. So I told him that Molly had decided to make it into tea cozies, socks, and the rest was going too made into some rags. Well, after that he ran out screaming for her so I guess it worked didn't it?" Hermione said as she walked off downstairs.

Remus rolled his eyes as he and Harry walked out of the room downstairs where Sirius was yelling at Molly for ruining his favorite blanket.