Rory woke up on a tiled floor, and it took a while to realise that she wasn't any where near the fight she had just once been. She looked down and saw that her dirty clothing had been replaced with a pair of pajamas, purple in color, and soft and warm against her skin. Her hair was long and shiny, and fell prefectly in tendrils down her back.

She pushed off the yellow floor and blinked a few times to be aware of her surroundings. It was a kitchen, but not just any random kitchen, it was the one of her home. Its yellow coloring was higlighted beautifully in the sun but the edges of Rory's vision was blurred, as if there was a light fog surrounding her. The rich aroma of baking coffee beans and lilac filled Rory's nose and brought her back to good times shared with her mother...

And, speaking of which...

Rory saw the long brown hair before she saw anything else, and even when her mom turned her blue eyes to Rory and smiled, Rory could only continue to stare at the top of her hair. There was a crown of garlands that sat atop of her mothers hair, it was out of place in the kitchen, but Rory could care less.

"Coffee's made," her mom said happily. "Just in time for you to wake up!"

So many questions filled Rory's mind, but she didn't want to ruin this moment with them. She ran to her mother's arms and hugged her tightly, and Rory let out tears she didn't even know she was holding back. Lorelei embraced her tightly, letting her daughter just cry out her sorrows.

"Nothing was the same once you died," Rory cried into her mom's pajamas that matched hers.

"I didn't think it would be," Lorelei admitted. "Let's sit, and we can talk."

Rory felt like a petulant child as she wiped the tears from her round blue eyes, and Lorelei steered Rory down onto a chair at the table. Then Lorelei continued to go and pour two cups of coffee.

"Mom, what is this?" Rory asked as she looked around.

"Its happiness," Lorelei replied easily with a sigh and then sat down with Rory.

"Have you been watching me?" asked Rory, her tone betrayed her hope. She wanted her mom to have been watching, she wanted her mom to have seen how she's grown up, what she had done, and what Harry had become.

"I barely looked away," replied Lorelei. "Your brother is amazing, so is your father."

The mention of Sirius made Rory's mind wurl bitterly as she remembered the empty shell that had become her father, and her blue eyes found her mother's. Lorelei's mouth twitched a smile that gave Rory immense comfort, strange how mothers can do that with the smallest of gestures...

"Harry is amazing, I love him so," Rory said and she reached for one of the coffees her mother had in front of her.

"Hey!" Lorelei shouted loudly, and Rory recoiled. "You can't drink that, not util you make up your mind."

"My mind?" she asked unsurely.

Suddenly hurrendous scream filled their little kitchen, and Rory sprung up form her seat in alarm, and Lorelei stood next to her. Two naked forms, hardly recognisable as human, began to slump down a long dark hallway. Their bodies were charred, the skin had been melted from their bodies and now only raw burns covered them, and Rory had to supress her gag.

"What's that?" squeaked Rory, unable to find her voice.

Behind them, they dragged a screaming form. It wore long dark robes and thrashed around against their relentless grasp. The hood fell back, and the red snake eyes of Voldemort found hers. He didn't say anthing but screamed in sheer rage and terror as he disappeared once more into the darkness.

"Where are they taking him?" Rory asked, running to the doorway, and peered down the black hallway.

"It isn't for me to know," Lorelei replied. "And you won't ever go there either."

"How do you know?" Rory asked Lorelei.

"You've come here now, you weren't chosen for that afterlife." said Lorelei.

Afterlife, the word swirls in her mind and suddenly it clicks.

"I'm dead!" Rory called and Lorelei nodded. Rory looked down at her body and began to prod at it. It felt so real, it felt like true flesh and blood, but apparently it wasn't. Rory had become an entity, a spirit and nothing more. Her mind shook and Rory couldn't grasp it, and she couldn't grasp what she was missing out on, and what she was gaining.

A spirit couldn't enjoy mortal pleasures, she would never be able to kiss Jess, never would feel his touch again. She would never embrace Harry, her brother, or help her father get better. She would never see Ron and Hermione again, and nor would she see Harry and Ginny marry. But she would be able to be with her mother, and over time others would come, no one is immortal after all.

"But Rory," Lorelei said softly, it drew Rory from her thoughts and she looked up to her mom. "This can change."

Rory blinked a few times. "Pardon?"

"Oh, this is going all wrong!" Lorelei cried. "I wanted to tell you differently!"

"Like how?" Rory asked.

"Like The Matrix's 'Red Pill, Blue Pill' kind of feel." Lorelei answered with an irritated growl.

"Well, you don't have the carrisma Laurence Fishbourne had," Rory replied lightly, it was the complete opposite to how she felt, and her brain spit and rumbled as it tried to work properly like a car running out of gas.

"Ok, if you drink this coffee you'll stay here with me forever," Lorelei explained, pointing to the one on the right. She gave Rory a sad smile, and Rory mirrored it. "If you drink this one," she inclined to the left one. "You'll return to your body, and continue on with your life. But, there will be a cost."

"What?" Rory asked, curiousity over ruling everything else she was thinking.

"When you died, it took so much energy and power," Lorelei began.

"It did, thank god Harry helped, I wouldn't have been able to do it on my own." Rory muttered.

"Exactly, the sheer drain of it exhausted your body, and you died," Lorelei said boldly.

It would be Rory's legend, The girl who died to save them all. She could just see it being carried by every newspaper's headings. First page spreads, she'd have a photo beaming out, and every child would know she died to have for them to live freely.

"But if I returned..." Rory prompted.

"Then you would live on, but the magic wouldn't return to you," her mom replied simply.

"I wouldn't have the power back?" Rory asked.

"You would have meek things, telekenisis, turning rocks to sparrows, leaves to butterflies, and the such," said Lorelei.

the thought of loosing the amazing power Rory had only recently been given felt daunting. But, she had gotten on without it for the first twenty years of her life, why couldn't she continue like that? Though it had been exilerating, to have the power at her finger tips, to have every sense pulse in a new way.

"Did anyone else die," Rory asked suddenly, a fear has gripped her heart as Rory's mind thought of Harry. He had helped her, his body had been exposed to the draining force, but had it drained him dry?

"Harry's fine," Loreleie explains. "In a coma actually, he was exhausted too, but you bore the brunt of it."

"Can I see my friends," Rory asked in a torn voice and Lorelei nodded.

She sweapt her hand over the kitchen table and an image consumed it. It was like a whole was burrowing deep into the earth, and suddenly Rory could see into the poolhouse. Everyone was grouped around eachother, people casting healing spells, others were spread across the lawns, calling out for lost friends. Harry lay in a balnket of broken glass just outside the poolhouse, his face etched with worry in his comatose state. And in a clearing of people in the poolhouse, Rory could see her body, lying in a moveless heap. Jess was enterring the poolhouse and that's when he spotted her.

He ran to her body and brought it up towatds him, and when he saw that she gave him no reponse to his touch, he gave a loud cry and held her close to him. His handosme featurse were screwed up into a pained expression as he weapt. And in the corner, Sirius sat hunched in the darkness, rocking back and forth.

Rory could stand it no longer and looked away with a cringe. Quickly, Lorelei sweapt over the table and the image wiped away and was replaced by the light wood.

Rory looked to her mother and saw that Lorelei was observing her the way she used to, as if Lorelei stared long enough she could hear Rory's thoughts. Rory didn't want to abandon her mother, she wanted to stay with her mom and keep her happy, but her heart was torn. Jess was crying, Harry was in a coma and Sirius was devistated.

"Rory, I will always be here, but they won't," Lorelei said. "They need you now."

Rory shook her head as tears fell, the two Gilmore girls sprung from their seats and embraced tightly, Rory never wanted to leave her mom's embrace and she cried even more.

"Will I be able to come back later?" asked Rory. "Is this heaven?"

"Feels like it," Lorelei said without letting Rory out of her grasp. "They have lots of good movies, some before they are even released in the mortal world!."

Rory drew away and looked down at the two coffee cups, and her hand trembled as she reached for a mug.

"That's my girl," Lorelei cooed. "Drink deep, my darling daughter."

Rory obeyed and drank her chosen cup, tears fell silently as a portal opened in the doorway. Lorelei gave Rory's hand a tight squeeze, and there was the great comfort only a mom can give a greiving daughter.

"Don't regret this, Rory," Lorelei said. "I will greet you when you return. My love will never fade for my daughter."

"I'll see you when I come back." Rory replied through her sobs, but she still wasn't sure if they were cries of happiness or sadness.

She stepped into the portal and it closed after her. Lorelei stepped back to the table and drank the untouched coffee that Rory had rejected. She wiped the table with the soft palm of her hand and it descended back to mortal plains, showing her the poolhouse of her parent's house.

Jess still gripped to Rory's lifeless body as tears fell down his cheeks in heavy streams. But suddenly, Rory's body gave a jerk, and her blue eyes shot open. Lorelei watched with a sad sigh as Jess let out a happy cry and put his lips on hers. Rory gave him a tight hug as they shared a sweet embrace, and Lorelei watched as Rory cried in happiness.

"Don't come back for a while," Lorelei said to the image of her daughter. "You belong with Jess now, not me."

And with that, Lorelei sweapt away the image and happily sat down infront of the tv, switching it The Godfather Part 1. Aah, her mind sighed, peace...

(A/N) No reviews, hmmm... Oh well, I loved writing this, but two more chapters, peace decends on the world, so Harry needs to start putting thing back in order.

In teh next Chapter Harry wakes and brings three back with him...