A/N: Well, we all survived 21/12/12. And Christmas has come and gone. What did Father Christmas bring you? I got lots that I wanted, but sadly I still don't own the Harry Potter franchise, so this is all still for fun and is without profit for me. Oh well… maybe next year.
A Darkened World
Between Life and Death
Harry's eyes opened slowly. He was lying face down upon a solid surface, and he appeared to be alone, judging from the complete lack of sound around him. He braced his hands against the floor and pushed himself up. Looking around he was greeted by the sight of a bright white mist that seemed stretch on and on in all directions.
It was a little disconcerting.
Far more disconcerting was the fact that he was completely naked. Looking down at himself, he was quite surprises to find that his nakedness was revealing a great difference in himself. He wasn't thin and gaunt anymore; the ribs beneath his skin could no longer be counted visually, instead he found his chest to be nicely toned with muscle. He found his arms to be the same, as well as his legs. A thought came to him and he brought his left hand up to his forehead to check…
No scar. The lightning-bolt shaped scar that had marred his forehead for longer than he could remember had faded, leaving smooth, unblemished skin in its place.
He looked along his arms, and found that the scars there were missing too; the one where the poisonous fang of Salazar Slytherin's Basilisk had pierced his arm as he drove the sword of Gryffindor through the roof of its mouth and into its brain was gone, and so was the one created by the knife that the traitor Peter Pettigrew had used to steal his blood to return Voldemort to life so many years ago.
Harry stood to his feet and twisted himself to check for another scar. To his relief the scar on his right buttock put there by Uncle Vernon whacking him with a fire poker at the age of six was also gone.
His relief was quickly overwhelmed by a shiver. While not exactly freezing, the air around him was not all that warm, and Harry was naked. He found himself with a sudden desire for clothes.
Almost as if in answer to his thought, Harry suddenly spotted white robe, lying folded upon the floor amongst the surrounding mist. He quickly made his way over to it, picked it up and swung it around his shoulders.
As he was tying the chord of the robe around his middle, Harry heard it. It was a strange sound, kind of like a whimper. The sound was followed by a pitiful moan.
Harry turned towards the sound and saw a wooden table that he was most certain had not been there moments before. Cautiously he approached it and looked beneath.
What he saw there made him recoil. The last time he had seen anything that even remotely resembled that thing was when Peter Pettigrew had dumped it in the cauldron that contained the potion that would give Voldemort his new body.
Worried now, Harry began to look around, half expecting the real Voldemort to be standing behind him. Instead what he saw came as a surprise to him.
He was back in the tent; the tent in which he had spent more than half of his entire life.
Only it was much cleaner, with everything tidied away and organised. And the furniture, though the same, was like new, rather that badly worn.
When the voice spoke, Harry nearly jumped right out of his skin.
"Hello, Harry Potter."
With a startled yelp, Harry spun around and came face to face with a familiar young woman; one whom he had seen tortured to death hundreds of times in his nightmares in the years since it had happened.
"Luna?" he half stated, half asked, in a weak voice.
She smiled a smile that he hadn't seen in so many long years and held a hand out to come "Come. Let us walk."
Almost instinctively, and without the slightest bit of hesitation on his part, Harry took her hand and allowed her to lead him out of the tent.
Outside the tent, Harry felt fresh, healthy grass caress the soles of his feet as they walked. The by now familiar mist still hung in the air, hiding their more distant surroundings from view.
Harry finally found the courage to talk, to ask the question that seemed oh so important "Where are we Luna?"
"We are in the in-between." replied Luna "We are neither in the realm of the living nor the realm of the dead. We are at the point where the cross-over between the two occurs."
"So… am I dead?" Harry questioned
"No, you are not dead. Nor are you alive." answered Luna
"What am I then?" he asked, feeling confused.
"I already told you; in the in-between; neither alive nor dead. You are between the two realms." said Luna.
"How am I not dead, though? Surely my being blasted though that wall and then falling all that way to the ground must have killed me."
"It was." replied Luna "You wouldn't be here otherwise. But you were protected."
"Protected?"
Luna nodded and reached up with her right hand to place two fingers upon his forehead where his scar used to be "Right here. That's where it resided; a piece of Voldemort's soul."
"A piece of… so I was a-"
"A Horcrux? Yes you were. An unintentional one too, I might add."
Harry thought for a moment before asking "So that's what I saw under the table in the tent?"
"I expect so. It is being picked up now, by death himself, as payment for your coming here."
"Does that mean I could leave here and carry on living?"
"If you wanted to."
"I have that choice?"
"Oh, yes."
"You mean I don't have to complete the prophesy?"
"Staying here would complete it. Remember: "neither can live while the other survives?" If you stayed here, you would be dead, and Voldemort would live. Prophesy done."
Harry decided not to ask how Luna knew the prophecy, and instead chose to say "But then he could never die."
"No." replied Luna "But then, the prophesy only said that you could kill him, not that you should. You are not as bound by it as you might think. It is down to what you want."
Harry turned away from Luna and looked around himself. The mist had retreated further, but showed nothing more than a grassy field stretching out in all directions. At some point he and Luna had sat down without him realising it.
He laid back on the grass as he thought about his situation. Above him was a bright blue sky filled with fluffy white clouds. Luna laid down next to him.
After a few long moments he said "All my life, I have suffered. I have been pushed around and beaten. I have been lied to, and stabbed in the back, betrayed and abandoned, and those I have cared for either left me or were killed."
"So what is it you want?" asked Luna.
"I want to be at peace." he said in reply.
"A commendable goal, Harry Potter. But are you sure that death is the best way to do it?"
Harry turned his head to look at her "What do you mean?"
In answer, Luna merely raised her hand towards the sky "This is what is happening right now in the realm of the living."
Above them the clouds began to darken and swirl until they met in a central point before parting as a ring. In the middle of the ring of clouds, an image appeared. It was of the camp of the International Confederation of Wizards. Voldemort's forces had brought their full power against all those within the camp, and the dark side was winning. Fiendfyre raged, burning everything in its path. Deadly curses sailed through the air, cutting some apart, blowing up others and causing others to simply drop to the ground, lifeless. As Harry watched, a bleeding Giant broke through the ranks of several US Aurors and grabbed in its huge hand the man they were trying to protect; the US Minister for Magic. The life was crushed out of the man as, not too far away, Bellatrix Lestrange brutally executed the Japanese Minister.
The scene changed. Padma was still lying on the stairs, unable to move. Nearby her remaining companions were doing battle with yet another group of Death Eaters left behind to protect the castle from intruders whilst the rest of Voldemort's forces waged war upon the ICW camp. If one of those Death Eaters got past the group, Padma was as good as dead.
The scene changed again to show Rose. She was still in the headmaster's office, leaning out of the whole in the wall through which Harry had been blasted. She was calling out into the darkness for him in the faint hope that he was somehow alright. Behind her Voldemort, although unconscious, was still breathing. As they watched, Rose backed away from the hole, her face contorted with anguish. She looked around herself, and her eyes landed on the Sorting Hat, sitting undisturbed and covered in dust upon the shelf behind the desk. She hurried over to it and pulled it onto her head. Although her plea was silent, Harry and Luna still heard it, along with the intense note of desperation it contained.
"Help me. Please."
The scene changed once more. A woman, pale and far too thin, was sitting on a bed in a darkened room. Her knees were pulled up under her chin, her arms wrapped around her legs as she rocked back and forth, tears stinging her eyes. And Harry knew instinctively who she was.
"Hermione." he said, his voice barely above a whisper.
Luna nodded "She's been like that ever since news of her daughter's disappearance reached her. No one thought to pass on the message that Rose has been found."
Harry suddenly didn't know what to feel. Hermione's abandonment of him still hurt him deeply, even after all this time, but something about seeing her like that…
"You don't hate her Harry." Luna said, as though she could read his thoughts (something Harry had had cause to believe on several occasions before).
Harry tried to get to his feet, but Luna pulled him back down before looking directly into his eyes "I know she doubted, but she did not doubt you. She doubted both Dumbledore and the mission he set you. Never for a second did she doubt you."
"She left." said Harry.
"She tried to stop Ron leaving." replied Luna, gesturing skywards.
Harry looked up and saw it; that painful moment that occurred so many years ago. Ron was storming towards the ward line in a rage. Hermione was hurrying along behind him in a panic, pleading desperately with him to return to the tent; speaking words that Harry hadn't heard on the day in question, them being drowned out by the harsh wind and hammering rain. Ron had just gotten past the ward line when Hermione finally caught up. She reached out and grabbed his arm "Ron, please-" But it was too late. With a crack Ron disapparated. And Hermione, her hand maintaining a firm grip on his arm out of desperation, was taken too.
Harry felt like he had been punched hard in the stomach; all the air had been forced out of him. As he watched his much younger self retreat back into the tent, one thought was prevalent in his mind: Hermione hadn't meant to go.
However, one question came to the front of his mind, and he asked it without really expecting an answer from Luna "But if she didn't mean to leave, why didn't she come back?"
"She couldn't." Luna answered simply "Think about it; what happened to Ron when Hermione unexpectedly apparated you out of Grimmauld Place when the Death Eater Yaxley followed you there?"
Harry blinked a couple of times before answering "He got splinched."
Luna gave a nod and replied "And so did Hermione. And seeing as Ron is a far less capable magic user that Hermione, he did a far worse job of apparating with her then she did with the two of you."
The need to know quickly won out against his dread of finding out, Harry asked "How bad?"
"Half her right calf muscle, six toes, her left hand, three fingers on her right hand, part of her left ear and her right eye were missing when they arrived outside the Burrow." answered Luna "A splinching is easily solved if you can find the missing body parts, like they did with Susan Bones' legs during your apparition lessons at Hogwarts. However, Ron also splinched himself, opening up his old wound as well as losing several more pieces of himself. Neither he nor Hermione were in any fit state to tell anyone else where they had come from and no one at the Burrow knew how to track their apparition path, so their wounds had to be treated through other means. You only have to look at Mad Eye Moody to know how hard it actually is for wizards to re-grow eyes, especially without proper medical assistance. Fortunately for Hermione they managed to repair everything, but it was a month and a half before she was fit to do anything, despite her protests. By the time she could go back to where your tent was, you had gone. And though she frequently checked every one of the places where you had previously camped, you path never crossed with hers again. And all too soon, she was forced to leave Britain with everyone else."
Harry remained silent for several very long minutes as he digested that bit of news. Then he found that he just has to ask "Rose told me what she knows of how her parents got together and had her. Was that the entire truth?"
"As far as Rose knows? Yes."
"And the real truth?"
"Ron forced himself on Hermione when she was still recovering. She was ashamed that she couldn't fight him off, and terrified of what he would do to her if she said anything."
Harry nodded thoughtfully, and then asked "Why did Ron become what he did?"
Luna thought for a moment before replying "Ron's actions were mostly due to an increased level of jealousy, depression and anger, as well as the influence of the Horcrux. To his mind Hermione left you with him, chose him, even though it was unintentional. That Hermione clearly regretted it and would rather have been cold and suffering with you than warm and safe with him was just too much for him to take. Combined with his own guilt at abandoning you Ron quickly began on a dark downwards spiral that made him who he ended up being."
Harry remained quiet for a while as the fate of his one-time best friend sank in. He tried to find some sympathy for the red-head, but found it very hard. It would be easy to blame all of Ron's shortcomings on the Locket, but the curse of the Horcrux did not work like that. Those feelings had to be there, at least on some level, to begin with. Sure the Horcrux had made those things worse, at least initially, but Harry and Hermione had managed to wear the Horcrux alright without ranting and raving at each other; at least until Ron had started that ill fated argument.
Finally Harry spoke again "I've got to go back, haven't I?"
"I already answered that Harry." replied Luna "You don't have to do anything. The choice to go back or go on is entirely yours to make. The question is, do you want to go on and be with your parents and friends now, or do you want to win your war, avenge their deaths and have a bit of happiness in your life before going on to be with your parents and friends?"
"I have all the Horcruxes." said Harry.
"You do." replied Luna "And there are ways to destroy them ready at your disposal. With the piece of Voldemort's soul gone from your scar, their influence over you would be greatly weakened."
"Voldemort has the Elder wand."
"He does. But you have the other two Hallows."
"Really? I know I have the cloak, but the stone…"
"Will be found at the close." Luna replied, cryptically.
Harry's eyes lit up in recognition "So the doddering old fool was good for something useful then?"
Luna shook her head "Not really. He knew about the Horcrux behind your scar. The Resurrection stone was intended to be his final manipulation of you; using the ghostly spectres of your parents to encourage you to walk to your death."
"That was the important information Snape had for me, wasn't it?"
Luna nodded "Yes, but don't feel bad about not listening to him; there were many ways in which the Horcrux within you could have been gotten rid of, and it has been. You just robbed the greasy git of the pleasure of sending you to your death himself."
Harry nodded.
Luna got to her feet and brushed herself off "Well, the decision is now yours to make, Harry Potter. To go back, simply return to your tent. To go on, just follow me."
Harry got up and pulled Lune into a hug. He felt rather than saw her smile as she nuzzled into his shoulder. Then she pulled back and, with a smile on her face and a tear in her eye, she turned and began to walk away.
Harry had the strongest urge to follow her. He turned and looked towards the tent, and then back at Luna.
The choice was his to make, but he no longer knew exactly what he wanted.
"Harry?" Rose called desperately for the sixth time "Harry, are you there?"
She was inside the Headmaster's office, leaning out through the hole in the wall through which Harry had been blasted only moments earlier. She couldn't see Harry anywhere below, and he gave no vocal response to her calls.
She pulled back from the hole, tears stinging in her eyes. She was well aware that Voldemort was lying unconscious behind her, and without Harry, it would be up to her to end him once and for all. The problem was, when Harry was blasted through the wall, the sword of Gryffindor was taken with him.
She looked around the room frantically for something, anything that would help her. And she saw it; the only, tatty, worn black wizard's hat, sitting upon the shelf behind the headmaster's desk, covered in a thick layer of dust.
And it occurred to her; hadn't her mother once told her about Harry's adventure in the Chamber of Secrets? Hadn't Harry, on that particular adventure pulled the Sword of Gryffindor out of the Hogwarts Sorting Hat?
Would it work for her? She had never attended Hogwarts, and thus never sorted into a house, but would she be found worthy? Would she be able to summon the sword?
She made her way over to the hat, took it from the shelf and put it on top of her head.
Desperately she wordlessly pleaded "Help me. Please."
And a voice answered her "Unite the founder's artefacts, young one, and earn their power."
Then, as though squeezed by some invisible hand, the hat contracted and something solid knocked against the top of Rose's head. She pulled off the hat and reached inside it. From within she drew the ruby-hilted silver sword of Godric Gryffindor. As the blade gleamed in the light provided by the flaming torches on the walls around the room, Rose thought about what the voice from within the hat had said, and she recalled the book she had read in the tent so long ago; the paragraph that referred to the uniting of the artefacts of the Hogwarts founders.
And without thinking, she did it. She hung the Locket around her neck, placed the Diadem across her forehead, sat the Sorting Hat atop her head, held the cup in one hand, and grasped the hilt of the sword in the other.
She felt powerful magic pulse through her body. The Locket, Diadem and Cup began to glow brightly, and she understood; they were purifying themselves of their dark taints so that they could perform the tasks for which they were originally intended. A far higher magic, created by the founders of Hogwarts themselves, was undoing what Voldemort had done.
Three loud screams filled the air and from each of the three remaining Horcruxes a green mist seeped. The screams came from the mist, and continued until the each mist faded.
And then the voice of the Sorting Hat came to her again "The power of Hogwarts Castle is at your disposal, young one. What to you command?"
"She will command nothing!" shrieked a voice "Hogwarts is mine! Avada Kedavra!"
Voldemort was back on his feet, and had seen what had happened to his last remaining Horcruxes.
Rose turned just in time to see Voldemort raised her wand. Quick as a flash, and not entirely of her control, her right arm came up and the killing curse struck the Sword of Gryffindor, bounced off of it and smashed into the opposite wall.
Voldemort gave a scream of rage and raised his wand to fire off another curse when suddenly the hand holding the Elder Wand was cut clean off.
Both Rose and Voldemort watched wide eyed as the hand fell to the floor with a soft thud. The fingers fell open, and the wand shot out of the hand's clutches. Both pairs of eyes followed the wand through the air until a hand came up and caught it.
Harry Potter stood by the hole in the wall, his own wand in his left hand, the Elder wand in his right.
"How?" hissed Voldemort "I killed you, I saw it with my own eyes."
"That is none of your concern." replied Harry "Right now; you have more serious things to worry about, for I, unlike you, am now the master of death."
Keeping the Elder wand aimed at Voldemort, Harry pocketed the other and then pulled open the mokeskin pouch that hung around his neck. From within he drew first his cloak of invisibility, which he draped around his shoulders. Then he pulled out the small golden snitch that had been left to him by Albus Dumbledore. He placed the small object to his mouth and pressed his lips to it.
Slowly the golden body of the snitch opened up and a tiny stone rose out of it. Harry shoved the snitch into his pocket, and then took the stone into his hand.
"Behold, the treasures of the three Peverell brothers; the three Deathly Hallows; the Elder Wand, the Resurrection Stone and the Cloak of Invisibility."
Harry's bright, emerald green eyes locked onto Lord Voldemort, who, for the first time in decades, wore a look of pure fear upon his face.
And, echoing words spoken to him in the graveyard of Little Hangleton over twenty five years previously, Harry spoke "Bow to death, Tom."
A/N: So how was that? I had originally intended for Lily to be the one to talk to Harry when between life and death, but looking back I realised that Luna's death had such a bad effect on Harry that it really needed to be her. Plus, I've already done a story where he met Lily there.
For Hermione haters, sorry but this is the way I always planned it. Even in canon when Ron reveals that he and Hermione had been talking behind Harry's back, it was out of disappointment at their lack of information. Hermione never doubted that Harry had told them everything he knew, but was disappointed by the lack of what he knew. And her leaving was always intended to have been accidental.
In case you are wondering about the founder's artefacts, go back and re-read Chapter 6, as it is explained there. Voldemort never knew of the potential power, and never wore all five items, that's why he never had their power.
UPDATE: 30/12/12 I've added a little bit wherein Luna explains some of Ron's behaviour, just to clear the issue up.