While reading through the last few chapters (mostly to remember what this story is about.) I realized just how cruel I am to have left you guys where I did. So here it is Chapter 13 for you amazing people.

Chapter 13: Into the home of the lost

Harry groaned his head feeling foggy as he opened his eyes looking up into a misty white sky, slowly he tried to gain some coherent thoughts as he forced his oddly weightless body to sit up. He strained his sleepy green eyes trying to bring the world around him into focus only to realize that what he saw truly was what was there. Fog surrounded him smoky swirls of fog made up the walls the floor and the sky.

"Where am I" Harry asked the strange new place hoping more than expecting to get an answer from its endless depths. Taking his time to stretch his near nonexistent feeling muscles he stood pulling himself to his feet. Examining his surroundings his mind brought a strange urge forth, one to explore, to find anything that might give him a hint as to where he was or why he was here. He stretched his fingers out in front of him groping at the fog, testing its solidity before taking cautious steps forward into the mist.

His eyes searched every inch of space around him as he walked looking for any conceivable change in scenery it seemed to be a hopeless endeavor all that surrounded him was a vast expanse of greyish nothing. Nothing really moved or changed it just was. Even when he did stumble across something he very nearly missed it, it was such a small change just a bit of darker grey hiding in the fog out of his reach and almost out of his field of vision. Harry moved closer his eyes raking over the grey mass taking in its shape recognizing it as human.

"Hello?" Harry called out to the figure throwing caution to the wind, rushing towards it, happy to see something that might give him a few answers as to the world around him. "Do you know where we are?" Harry raised an eyebrow in confusion and slowed down the figure wasn't acknowledging him at all. As a matter of fact it barely seemed to be moving at all, and even though he knew he had gotten closer to it, it still appeared to be quite a ways off as though he hadn't even moved. However looking around the figure he realized that now he could see more off them, all of them moving in very small slow steps that hardly carried them anywhere. Even though they looked far off Harry could have sworn they felt as though they were right there in front of him. Harry extended his arm out in front of him reaching towards the veil like mist as he walked forward wanting to push past whatever might be blocking his way.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." Harry jumped and spun around as a voice sounded behind him completely changing his otherwise silent surroundings. His eyes wide in surprise he quickly searched the vast expanse behind him searching for, and finding, the source of the interruption. Before him stood an older man who looked to be nearing his fifties, his stark white clothes gave the impression that he wasn't truly there It looked as though he were just a floating head his salt and pepper hair and peach face floating in the mist. In fact had it not been for the black belt holding up his trousers Harry might have believed just that.

"Why not?" Harry asked recovering from his shock.

"That place is not yet for you." The man stood a good twenty feet away from Harry and seeing as he looked to have come from the same direction as Harry had moments earlier it crossed Harrys mind that he might have been following him.

"What do you mean by yet?" Harry wasn't sure if he could trust the newest addition to his little mist party but he was glad to be talking to someone who responded at least.

"That is a place for those who can not pass their tests."

"You mean I am going to have to take a test?" He walked closer to the man intrigued by his knowledge of this place. "Do you know what kind?"

"I can not be certain. I do not know your path, I am here only to warn you and set you off in the right direction."

"Warn me? Why would I need to be warned, where am I?"

"You are in a place of transition between either the lost or the living."

"The living…am I… dead?" Concern gripped Harry as he looked at the man. It would make sense, the place he was in seemed to be nonexistent, weightless and off.

"No merely stuck."

"Why am I here?" Harry asked furrowing his brow as he looked down trying to sift through his hazy mind.

"You don't remember?" The man raised an eyebrow at Harry.

Harry kept his eyes trained on the ground as he continued trying to search his muggy mind. "No." Harry sighed giving up and looking back at the man. "I can't remember anything."

"Hmmm…" Harry watched as the mans eyes slid shut a look of concentration passing over his face.

"What are y- Ahh!" Harry cried out and griped the sides of his head his hands tangling in the hair as sharp pains stabbed through his mind. He doubled over as the pain became stronger, feeling as though something were being torn from the very depths of his subconscious , yanking forth something his mind was trying desperately to suppress. Then suddenly the stabs of pain were gone leaving behind a vivid memory that took over Harrys mind incasing him in the past, forcing him to watch as a large man pummeled him, he could hear his cries, feel the crushing blows as they landed on his face, chest, back anywhere the tub of lard could reach he assaulted repeatedly, and he could sense the eyes watching from somewhere in the room. When the memory had finally let go of him he was on his hands and knees panting, gasping for air as the pain receded back to his memories. It was then as he forced back the lump in his throat and the tears in his eyes that a thought struck him.

"That… That was how I lived? With that fat bastard… if I pass this test, will I go back to that?" Harry asked of the man as he gathered himself. Slowly picking himself up off the ground.

"I don't pretend to know what awaits you in the world of the living I only know of the lost."

"What if," Harry paused considering what it is he might be suggesting. "what if I don't want to go back? Can I just choose to stay here…with the lost?"

Harry watched as the mans gaze darkened his posture stiffening. "Trust me when I say you want to pass, the place of the lost is not something I would wish upon even my greatest enemy."

"Why? Why should I work to live if that is what I have to live for? What is the point, why shouldn't I just stay here?" Harrys frustration was rising, what kind of a place was that for him, at least here he couldn't be hurt like that. He may have only seen one memory but it was enough, it had come along with the knowledge that that wasn't the first time it had happened.

The man stood capturing Harry in his stern gaze his blue-grey eyes seeming as though they could see right through him to the very fibers of his being. "This is not your place. You do not belong here. Do not throw away your chance at escaping."

"Who says I am throwing it away!? What if I am just taking advantage of a chance to relieve myself of an old reality?" Harry refused to back down, this man hadn't seen what he had he couldn't possibly say this was worse unless he knew Harrys alternative.

"You want to see what it is you are glorifying before you commit yourself here?" The man arms raised as he gestured to the world around him. "You want to know what it is you are choosing?" And just like that the world fell. The wall disappeared the floor dropped and he was left floating in a vast blackness and all around him were people, people who seemed to be emitting their own light as they drifted slowly forward in the blackness their eyes unseeing their hands groping at nothing as their tormented faces looked upon something that simply wasn't, that couldn't be there. "Is this what you want? Is this what you believe to be better than life? If you stay you will become just like them. Lost. Searching, always searching for a way back, always looking back on what could have been theirs, tormented constantly by visions of what should be theirs. Do you really think this is where you want to be?"

Harry looked around him unable to process the gravity of his situation, all these people, hundreds of people, what were they? Who were they? How had they become this?

"Well." The mans voice boomed around him as he pushed Harry to answer forcing him to face thisplace as a reality.

"I…I don't want this, but… what I saw in that memory, I don't want that either." Harrys voice shook as he answered his eyes darting over the scene before him, his fear evident in the way he held himself. His arms crossed over his chest as he shifted back and forth, in that moment he was no more than a scared child.

The man lowered his arms as the world shifted back to its previous white state. "Everyone is dealt a different hand in life some good, others not. Nearly every time though the person has the chance to change their life, perhaps if you go back you will find that you can change your life as well." Sympathy was not evident in the man his face and body language remained distant to Harry leaving only the softer tone in his voice as a sign of compassion.

Harry stood stalk still, his eyebrows furrowed in concentration as he considered his options. Letting out a breath he looked up at the man with determination in his eyes. "All right." Harry nodded as he steeled himself for the upcoming tests. "What do I need to do to avoid that place?"

"Well, for starters you move." The man said simply.

"Move, that's all? Really?" The raven haired boy stared perplexed at the tall figure.

"Don't get short with me, I am trying to help however if you wish to continue sinking into the losts world than by all means feel free."

At his words Harry looked down to find he was indeed sinking into the ground. The fog that had once curled around his ankles was now twirling itself around his shins, smokey tendrils climbing their way up towards his knees slowly engulfing him. With a yelp Harry yanked himself forward only managing to lose his balance and fling forwards landing him on his hands the bottom half of his legs still buried as he crawled forward pulling himself from the fogs depths. Gasping Harry frantically pulled himself up rushing away from the whole a startled look on his face. Looking up his eyes fell onto the man standing in front of him who watched with vague interest as he had floundered out of the hole, and suddenly his fear turned into anger. "You could have told me I was sinking!" He shouted. "I could have been swallowed whole!"

"Did I not tell you to move?" The man raised an eyebrow and shrugged. "You can not blame me for your lack of obedience."

"I didn't know why I needed to move Harry grumbled shifting around a few steps not wanting to sink again.

"Must you know the reason for everything?" The man had closed his eyes again and stepped back from Harry his head cocked to the side as though he were listening to something. "It doesn't matter, your time is quickly waning you mustn't waste any more of it on silly questions." Harry watched as the man began to shimmer slightly his body becoming transparent. "Find your path, or don't the choice is yours." Then just like that, he was gone.

"You have got to be kidding me." Harry mumbled to himself as he glanced around him. "I can't see a bloody thing in this fog!" He yelled towards the sky hoping that someone was listening. Upon receiving no answer though his eyes drifted around him again. 'Well that isn't entirely true…' His eyes were fixed warily on the shifting grey figures behind the smoky veil. Sighing Harry faced so that the figures were directly to his right happy that he at least had something to keep him going in the same direction as he started off on his trek.

And there you have it! Chapter 13 in all its supernaturalish glory. I know it is short and that a lot of you must be thinking something along the lines of 'we deserve more after waiting a year between the last few chapters' but hey I do what I can. I am not going to unload on you guys all of my excuses this time but I am going to assure you that there is more coming and I am going to be typing it up right after I finish uploading this chapter. Please just give me one last chance guys I promise you that I will update this story before next Wednesday. That is October 31st. One last chance guys. Thank you so much. :D