Harry fell the ground in a heap. He didn't bother looking around. Everything on him hurt from stress, or gardening he didn't know. Harry ran his fingers through his hair feeling as though he should just give up. He had never seen so much blood in his entire life. Neither Sirius nor Cedric had bled when they died.
He cradled his head in his hands, his shoulders shaking. No tears would come forth. They lay, stinging, on the verge of falling but serving only as a reminder that he was alive and so many were dead in his stead.
"Are you alright, mate?" A voice asked from nearby. Harry sat up sharply and turned around. "Thass an awful lot of blood." Harry rubbed his eyes, then his nose and got to his feet eyeing the character before him. There was something about him that triggered Harry's memory.
He was a boy of about eleven, maybe twelve. His voice was a bit deeper than you would expect by his young face. His skin was a dark shade of brown, like melted chocolate and his eyes seemed to hold a mischievous tint of amber. Harry liked him right away. His dark frizzy hair was done back in cornrows, which Harry understood to be popular for people of color now a days.
"It's not mine." Harry said solemnly, taking his acquaintance's momentary confusing to have a good look at his surroundings. He didn't recognize a thing, other than the fact he was in a rather ragged part of a foreign town.
The short boy clapped Harry on the back, and with a grin replied. "Well…I hope the poor bastard learnt his lesson." Harry cocked his head slightly, confused, then it dawned on him. He started to correct the boy, but then realized he had no other explanation lined up and shut his mouth.
"I'm Levi." He said, helping Harry stabilize himself. Harry felt weak, and knew that his legs were going to give out at any second. "And we might want to be getting out of the park soon. Bad people swing around when it gets dark out."
Harry didn't bother with an introduction he was too tired. "Where are we?" The simple line exhausted him. He had been tried mentally and emotionally. He wasn't sure if he could ever get the image of Mrs. Figg's dismembered body sagging against the drab old couch of hers in a final twitch of life.
"The slums of London." Levi replied, with pride. Harry smiled feebly, not caring why he had a portkey that took him to the slums of London. He couldn't even express how grateful he was for Levi's supporting arm. He didn't think he could have walked all by himself. They didn't speak again, after that, and Harry didn't bother asking where they were headed.
Harry didn't realize that he'd closed his eyes until Levi nudged him awake. "Hm?" Harry grunted, wanting nothing more than to flop over dead in the curb.
"We're here." Levi informed him in matter of fact way.
Through the darkness Harry couldn't see where here was. He saw only more grimy houses, mostly painted black or brown, or undetectable colors for chipping of the paint and wear from storms. The gardens were unkempt and the grass uncut. The culdisack reminded him uncomfortably of a ghetto version of privet drive. And also of number 12 Grimmauld Place.
Suddenly, out of nowhere a house inflated between two equally grimy ones pushing them aside. Harry stepped forwards, into the flickering light of the broken street lamp. He was at the order of the phoenix's headquarters.
Without a second thought Harry marched up the stairs and stepped inside, Levi slipping in after him. Harry was too astonished to even notice the small boy dart down the stairs and out of view.
It was exactly as he remembered it the last time he had been here. He could hear the fait snoring of Mrs. Black behind her curtain. Apparently they hadn't figured out how to un stick it yet. Harry peered around the corner into the living room. The Black family's tree neither.
"Hello?" Harry called. His voice echoed. He could hear laughter coming from a few floors up. The rooms had been cleaned. Definitely cleaned. Harry noticed that mould and mildew had been expunged from the floorboards, no doubt Mrs. Weasley's doing. Harry headed up, Levi close on his heels, having just returned.
Harry stopped outside of his room; well, the room he had stayed in during his last visit. There were two people inside, laughing. Harry recognized one of the voices as Hermione's, but the other he didn't recognize. Harry stared at the door, nervous about opening it.
"If you aren't going to open that, Mate, can I?" Levi elbowed his way in front of Harry and opened the door before Harry could protest. It suddenly dawned on him that he let a stranger into the headquarters. He moved to pull Levi back, but halted mid motion stunned.
Ron and Hermione sat cross-legged on the floor, a chessboard between them. It was easy to see who was winning. But that wasn't what caused Harry pause.
Neither of his two best friends looked as he remembered, and they were both greeting Levi with a grin and a hug like old friends.
Ron stood differently, with more composure than Harry remembered, and he seemed shorter. From across the room Harry could see he'd put on a whack of weight. He was not fat, in any sense of the word, but he had lost his gangly growing-youth look and put on more muscle than Harry could ever dream of conceiving.
With all the change he was still recognizable as Ron. His flaming red hair, his freckled nose were all the same, Hermione on the other hand looked more like Hermione's cousin than Hermione herself. She still had her bushy brown hair, but it was pulled back into a rather messy bun at the back of her head; little stray bits poking out at odd angles here and there. It wasn't her hair that Harry didn't recognize though, it was her face and her body.
She had gotten taller; at least an inch taller. Her eyebrows were smaller, and it made her eyes seem more surprised. She had some shiny pink stuff on her lips that reminded Harry of some of the girls he glimpsed on Dudley's television, only Hermione had clothes on. She hadn't lost weight, or changed size much, aside from the height and, Harry's face flushed, she'd developed into more of a woman that a girl. Her face and figure were more adult, though Harry noted the childish grin on her face. Her breasts and hips were relatively small, but all the same, Harry's face went crimson when he noticed the difference. He felt kind of guilty for even noticing those things about Hermione.
Harry stumbled into the room, shivering slightly. Hermione's eyes snapped up to his. Ron seemed to notice him in the same instant. They both leapt to their feet, looking at one another, then back at Harry. "You're early." They said at the same time, sharing a look. Together, Ron's hazel gaze and Hermione's brown one turned to Levi.
He held his hands up in defense. "Don't look at me!" He said, not able to keep the humor from his voice.
"For once." Ron added under his breath as Hermione's brow creased.
"Harry…" Hermione's voice was exactly as it should be, only her body didn't match it. "You've blood all over you…"
Levi stepped between them. "It isn't his." He said, grinning like a cat. "I'm not completely daft you know. He's splattered in blood, of course I asked." He responded indignantly to their twin looks.
Harry had no idea what was going on, or how Hermione and Ron knew Levi, but he didn't have the energy to find out. He didn't have the energy to do much. Except collapse into an unconscious heap on the floor, which is precisely what he did.
Harry awoke with the face of a stranger shoved up close and speaking with Hermione's voice. "Harry? Are you alright?" Harry groaned his vision blurred and his mind groggy.
Rubbing his eyes Harry nodded. The room spun.
"Harry, you just need to relax." Hermione said calmly. "I'll make you up a sandwich, or something." The thought of food revolted Harry. He had seen far to much human intestines to stomach anything for a while.
"He doesn't need food Hermione, he need to tell us what happened that Arabella let him through early, and WHOS BLOODY BLOOD HE'S COVERED IN!" Ron hollered, losing patience, as was expected in such a stressful scenario.
Harry licked his lips. "Mrs. Figg is dead." He whispered his voice as dry and cracked as his lips felt. Harry couldn't move to run his fingers through his hair, so he tossed it back with a jerk of his neck. It needed a trim. As usual.
Hermione and Ron shared another worried look.
"Stop doing that." Levi pouted, sitting at the foot of the couch where Harry was laying.
"Doing what?" Hermione asked, frowning slightly and glancing to Ron.
"THAT!" Levi and Harry said loudly, in unison. "Sharing looks like that. It's quite bothersome." Harry finished. "Now tell me what is going on."
Levi looked around uncomfortably, twisting a braid in between two fingers. "How about those sandwiches, Hermione?" He prompted breaking the silence. Hermione smiled thankfully at him and scurried away. Ron lowered himself to the chair she had been sitting in.
"Where is everyone?" Harry asked, still feeling a little dizzy. "And how exactly do you two know Levi?"
Ron rubbed the top of Levi's head and avoided the first question. "Levi here is a little scout. He really badly wanted to be part of the Order. We heard him asking about it. .He was talking to Dumbledore about it as if it were a common topic of conversation. We had to stop him, so we invited him in, and he has proven more that useful. Although he's got this great talent of making everyone want to explode, and laugh hysterically all at once. Just like your big brother eh, Levi?" Ron punched Levi lightly in the shoulder.
"Who would be…?" Harry nudged.
"Lee." Levi said, as if Harry was daft. "Lee Jordan."
Ron looked confused. "Do you not see the resemblance?"
Harry looked annoyed, and amused. "I do now."
Just then Hermione returned with sandwiches, making Harry completely forget how Ron had avoided his question, and that he still didn't know where the Order of the Phoenix members were, and what exactly he was early for.
After they had eaten through an awkward silence, in which Harry had mumbled out the customary questions about their summers so far, and laughed politely at some of their least interesting stories. He didn't understand the uncomfort levels. Hermione and Ron were his best friends. What was going on?
Harry took a deep breath. "What is going on? What exactly am I early for, and where is everyone?"
Hermione moved to share another look with Ron, but caught herself. Harry could heard Levi sigh with relief and mutter, "baby steps" under his breath.
"Harry, we have all tried to write to you this summer." She cast about awkwardly, searching for the right words. "We've, kind of been assigned…" She trailed off, finally giving in and meeting Ron's eyes across the couch. He took it as a tag.
"A quest, kind of thing…" He rubbed his forehead roughly with the palm of one hand.
Harry stared at them both expectantly, as if there was more, but they both remained silent. He licked his lips, more confused than ever. Being assigned a quest didn't explain the oddities of his current situation. It was a nice change from self appointed acts of heroism though.
"What about?" Harry asked. He was getting sick of being confused. He thought all that was over last year. He hated having to ask so many questions at once.
Ron rubbed his face with both hands. It suddenly looked like he was stressed and under rested. "We've got to go…" Yes, Harry decided that, for all his gain in weight and filling out, Ron was not sleeping well. "We're supposed to go and see if we can't find out how Death eaters are chosen and initiated, for future reference." Ron said in a rush.
Harry quirked an eyebrow, still not understanding fully.
"Harry," Hermione said gently. "We're going to the past. To your parents year, we've been assigned to track Pettigrew."