Disclaimer: We don't own Harry Potter.

Thought I'd add the above, because cotton for brains forgot to put it on last chapter. Oh, to the anonymous reviewer that didn't so much as put a name down for us to refer to – grow up, grow a pair and sign a review next time you want to be the critic. Also – buy a bloody dictionary. 'Emo' certainly isn't what you think it is, I mean seriously, what are you? 13? And we'll write the way we like, thank you very much. If you don't like it, lump it =] But to all you other lovely reviewers, thank you for the support – I still don't quite feel like this is 'my' story, if you get what I mean… but I guess I'll have to win myself over!

This chapter is written by You Have Been Warned.

The Line Begins to Blur

Chapter Two: Collision

Where are we? What the hell is going on?
The dust has only just begun to fall,
Crop circles in the carpet, sinking, feeling.
Spin me round again and rub my eyes.
This can't be happening.
When busy streets a mess with people
would stop to hold their heads heavy.

Hide and Seek - Imogen Heap

A sharp pain in Harry's side jolted him abruptly back into consciousness. Everything was black, and for a moment, he couldn't feel anything but for the cutting throb in his side, until he noticed something warm to his right as his mind began to take a better grasp on reality. In the darkness, he could just make out the fact that they seemed to have pushed two hospital beds together, and Ginny Weasley was lying as far away from him as they could have possibly managed, wrapped up in her own blankets with one arm loose, stretched out across the twin beds to grasp his hand loosely in her sleep.

He looked at their entwined fingers for what must have been a few minutes in a groggy haze before finally realising what was happening and more importantly, where he was. He tore his hand out of hers. She grimaced in her sleep and rolled onto her side, facing away from him, curling in on herself slightly. The entire room felt colder.

Trying to sit up and vaguely recollecting the events of what was now a few days earlier, he felt someone gently knock him back.

"Harry dear, you need to keep still." Mrs Weasley's soft motherly voice lulled him back into a sense of security he had never previously acquired in hospitals.

He tried to open his mouth to speak but his mouth felt dry, and thick with lack of use. She was already a step ahead, ready with a glass of water, whispering for something he didn't care to listen for. It was when the doors opened and light flooded in, along with Sirius Black, that everything made sense.

He'd been hurt. They we're in Saint Mungo's. And he wasn't dead.

"Why… why am I here?" He asked faintly, focusing on Sirius, who was standing silently at the end of the hospital beds.

"You were hurt, mate." He said weakly. "I know you hate hospitals, but this one was kind of serious."

"No, I mean –"

"I know what you mean." He said quickly, sitting down on the side of the bed. "You're lucky to be alive, Harry, don't ever do that to me again – I don't think my heart could take it."

Mrs Weasley turned on a couple of gas lamps on the far side of the wall quietly before moving to the door. "I have to go and get the Healer, Sirius."

He pulled a face, but nodded once in agreement anyway, before turning back to Harry, who's head was spinning with the confusion of it all. Why hadn't he died?

"Sirius, please…"

He looked away. "You were hit with a rather nasty curse, Harry. It clings onto your soul, and slowly rips it from your body, empowering the person who cast it with your energy, your life. When you-know-who sent the killing curse at Ginny, and you jumped in the way, it killed you. The death eater's apparated out, and he claimed victory over your life while Ginny sat on the floor with you- your body. He gave a speech about how it would be high time that he took control – to start a new 'Empire'. I don't know what he's planning, but he mentioned something about overthrowing the Queen, abolishing the muggle government and ridding the country of the Royals. Whatever it is that he's doing, he's not going to stop until he's lording over the country, and the muggles are 'repressed' as they call it.

My dad used to talk about it when I was a kid. He would talk of grandeur and a rise in the 'Great British Empire' once again, by you-know-who's hand. As far as he was concerned, the wizarding world needs order, the pure-bloods ruling over the country, magic out in the open and the muggles and muggle-borns where they 'right-fully belong'. Under our feet." He scowled. "I never took him seriously, he was a bigot. You-know-who was powerful, but not so much that he could do all that. But this time… it feels different. Like something bigger is about to happen. He thinks that you are out of the picture, and so he assumes that that is enough."

Harry was silent for a long time, digesting the information slowly, his mind still fogged up with what had been a death and 4 days in a coma. "But what about Dumbledore? Dumbledore's a bigger threat than me – he's… he's Dumbledore. I can even fight to save my own life."

Sirius shook his head slowly. "He's marked Dumbledore next for death. But even so, you heard the prophecy, Harry."

Ginny rolled onto her back in her sleep, flinging her hand out to grab Harry's closet arm tightly. Warmth spread from that point throughout his entire body, making him jump in surprise. Looking down to where their body's connected, he watched in awe as small jolts of electricity built up slowly between where their skin touched, mostly under her hand, it appeared, as there was an ever so small green glow coming up from the sides. Sirius was watching to. He looked pained.

"Sirius, what happened after I died?" He asked firmly.

"Harry, you died surely you want to… take that in… something." He almost pleaded, as if he didn't want to be the one to tell me what was wrong.

"I knew I was going to die when I jumped in front of that curse. I accepted it. I'm alive now, and that's great, really, but I am honestly more bothered about finding out what happened first. I can be grateful later."

The doors opened again, allowing a Healer in that he had never seen and Mrs Weasley in. The Healer sprang into action immediately, checking a chart on the bedside that magically updated itself with any developments. Images of Mrs Weasley worrying over it as her daughter slept swam in his mind.

"Everything seems pretty stable..." She said slowly. "How do you feel?"

"Sore." He said in a monotone, still looking at Sirius, who looked uncomfortable.

"Do you mind if I check your bandages?" She enquired politely, smiling when he gave her a confused look. "You were injured quite badly, do you remember?"

She pulled back the blankets carefully, then lifted his shirt up to show him the thick bandages wrapped around his torso. "There's one on my knee as well…" he said dully, remembering some of the shoddily fought fight, moving his right knee slightly, as if to make sure it was still there.

She looked over her shoulder at Sirius as Mrs Weasley took to her daughters bedside once again. "Have you told him everything that happened yet?" She carefully unwrapped the bandage around his knee, covering the one on his torso back up with his shirt, leaving it alone for the time being.

Sirius shook his head.

"I've told you, he'd be all the better for it if it was you to explain all of this."

He looked over at Ginny. "Should we not wait for her to wake up and tell them both?"

"Actually, I'd rather tell her myself, if that's alright, Sirius. I need to set some ground rules." There was almost dark undertones to the way she spoke.

Before Sirius could argue, the Healer was speaking again. "Your knee is fine, slightly scared, but healed. The other curse you were hit with went a little deeper, and we had to work a little harder to patch it up, but it should heal without any complications. It will take longer though, and it will be painful for you for quite a while." She stood straight and turned to Sirius. "You need to tell him soon, because if he's awake, then Miss Weasley will be soon to follow. And when she wakes, I need to tell them about what they should expect before it's too late."

She raised her eyebrows at him, turning to leave before realising that she'd forgotten something, swivelling around to look at him again. "My name is… well, call me Panda. I'm going to be yours, and Miss Weasleys Healer for what will be a very long time from now, I don't want you to be uncomfortable talking to me." She was blonde, but brown hair was seeping through at the roots, her hair pulled back into a large clip at the back of her head.

"Thank you for keeping me alive, then." Was all he could think to say.

She smiled back brightly, knocking the toe of her shoe against Sirius' shin lightly as she passed in what seemed to be a friendly jab. "Get it done, Sirius." There was a slight twang to her London-drowned accent that he couldn't place. He glared back, reaching up with one hand as she passed to do something perhaps out of habit, only to catch himself before it got there.

She seemed to dodge out of the way automatically anyway out of the same habit they apparently shared. She let herself out and left them to it.

"Do you know her?" he asked curiously.

"Her names Lacy Glyndwr. An old friend from school. She was in Ravenclaw. She went back to Wales after school, I hadn't realised that she worked here until a few days ago. I miss her accent." He added as an afterthought.

"Lacy? But then why…?"

"We, your dad and I, I mean, used to call her Pandora, you know – short for 'Pandora's Box' in sixth year... it just sort of stuck. See she-" he started, only to be stopped by a glaring Mrs Weasley.

"I don't think that's a situation appropriate story, Sirius."

"It's clean." He defended.

"Be that as it may, I don't think she'd appreciate the story being told either." She stood up. "It's your shift. I'm going to go get some rest… floo me if she wakes up."

"Of course."

The moment the door closed behind her he turned to Sirius, fixing him with a look that he hoped made him realise that he wasn't fucking around anymore. "Sirius."

Sirius refused to look his godson in the eye as he began the horrible descent into hell that was explaining Harry Potter's fate in life. "Harry. When Ginny was possessed by Tom Riddle's diary in the Chamber of Secrets all those years ago, he was sucking out her soul, her essence. She almost died that day because he very nearly took it all, until you saved her. Unfortunately life isn't at all that simple, her soul couldn't just be returned to her – it had been manipulated and torn away from her body, it was severed, and broken when she woke up again, and it made her feel uneasy. She spent the years after that having problems with her magic. You see, with magical folk like you and I, we are born with a magical core – that magical core is as much a part of you as your soul is, and if you take away your magic, you are messing with your soul to."

"So her magical core was damaged during the process?"

"Yes." Sirius finally looked at him properly, leaning forward slightly. "And that's where that dark spell comes in."

Harry's heart stopped for a moment. "… The one that Voldemort hit me with?"

Sirius flinched slightly at the use of the dark wizards' name, making Harry scowl slightly despite the situation. "Yes. When a witch or wizard loses their magic, they die. That's the simple fact of the matter. You can't live without a soul no more than you can live without your magic; it's a very important part of you. You were dying, when he hit you with that spell. And when he tried to kill Ginny and you saved her, something strange happened. Ginny's soul was damaged and wasn't strong enough to heal itself, and yours was rapidly being torn apart by the slow depletion of your magical core. Now, as you know, when you save someone's life, a 'bond' of sorts forms. A life debt. If you die in the process it becomes stronger. That person may not be in debt to you, but you are connected as that person lives on. But somehow…. You survived. We don't know how – but you were still alive when you-know-who left."

"I don't understand what you're getting at… none of this makes any sense…" he slowly shook his head.

Sirius stood up in frustration, pacing the room. "Ginny's soul was damaged, and wasn't strong enough to repair itself. Then your magic, and soul with it, was being taken from you by you-know-who. While this was happening, you saved Ginny's life for the second time over, and died in the process. When you came back to life, Ginny collapsed and you were both taken here. Dumbledore arrived and demanded you were put together in a room like this. He explained that because of your bond due to saving her life twice, and the fact that both of your souls were torn and not strong enough to repair themselves without outside help – they latched onto one another for support. You would have died if this hadn't happened. It may even be what brought you back, we don't know – but your souls are working together to regenerate one another, and your magic along with it. Does that make sense?"

"…Sort of." He said uncertainly, looking at Ginny, who slowly rolled onto her side, looking troubled in her sleep.

He looked slightly relieved. "Right. So… basically, if Ginny isn't near you - you will die. Her soul and her magic latching onto yours saved your life, and as you are, you are too weak to function without her aid. If you separate, the distance is likely to sever this bond, which will likely kill her too." He sat back down on the end of the bed. "That's it, there." He pointed to where her hand grasped Harry's arm. "It's… more visible if there is a physical connection for the energy to flow between."

Harry swallowed, hard, not sure what to say. "So… what happens now?" He asked weakly, happy to be alive, but oh so confused as to how he could be.

"You need to stay here until you are well enough to be able to separate from one another. We think – Dumbledore thinks – that once your souls have fixed each other, the bond will be severed and you should be able to go back to your normal lives, with no repercussions. He's not sure of what the side effects will be until then. There was only ever one case similar to this documented and neither of the people involved died or came back to life, so it's all a bit hit and miss."

Harry nodded numbly.

Sirius sat and watched him for a while awkwardly, not sure what else to say. He wanted so badly to take everything back and pretend that everything was okay, but he couldn't. And there wasn't even anything he could say to make it better that wasn't a massive lie. He eventually settled on standing up suddenly and taking a step towards the door. "Do you want me to leave you alone for a bit? I'll be right outside."

Harry nodded again, not looking at him. He sighed and walked outside dejectedly, resigned to watching his godson slowly fall apart for the next few months as the weight of everything that was going wrong in his life weighed down on him like a tonne of bricks.

Harry ended up slipping down back into bed, having to remove himself from Ginny's grasp in the process. Shortly after he found himself comfortable, ready to make himself go to sleep at all costs in order to forget that particular conversation ever happened and just pretend that there was a dark wizard after him that he'd have to kill after all, Ginny moved again – this time so that most of her side was touching his.

The rush of warmth that went through him was unsettling. Staring blankly at the ceiling, ignoring the questions swirling around in his head for what must have been half an hour, he turned to Ginny once again. She didn't know. He wanted to speak to her. She'd understand how weird the situation was. She'd be able to talk to him about it in a way that wasn't completely awkward and useless. Maybe she'd laugh.

But she probably wouldn't. He didn't know what she'd do, and that scared him. Half the fact that she might hate him for what had happened, and half because he was actually in this situation with her, where they'd have to be in close proximity to one another for days, perhaps weeks at a time and he didn't really know anything about her.

"Please wake up."