Chapter 30: In limbo

Harry opened his eyes and everything was black. His head felt fuzzy, his limbs heavy. He held out his hands in front of him but couldn't feel anything. He listened carefully but there was no sound – until…

Somewhere at the edge of his consciousness, he could hear familiar voices.

They were faint at first. Fainter than whispers. Too faint to make out anything they were saying. So he moved towards them and as he did, a dim glow shone in the distance.

He walked faster, towards the voices, and as he moved closer, the lights split into two – two specks of light surrounded by halos of gold dust pulsing gently with life. The whispers grew louder. He heard his name, spoken softly, lovingly, over and over again.

Then a voice spoke louder than the others.

"Enervate," it said.

Harry turned his head and suddenly found himself pulled forward until he stood in the middle of a bright beam of light.

He blinked.

An unsteady wand was hovering in front of his face. A familiar cloud of bushy hair. A gasp. "Harry? Harry! Can you hear me? Harry?" the voice kept repeating, pleading, and he felt awful for worrying them, for having to leave them behind. "Harry…?"

The voice grew fainter and the darkness started to encroach on his vision.

"I'm sorry," he whispered. "I just need a little bit longer."

"Harry…!"

"I'm sorry…"

And then it all went black.


"Enervate," a voice said. And if it hadn't been the fact that this voice was male when the previous one had been female, Harry would've thought he'd looped back in time. "Enervate!"

A sharp intake of breath. "Oh, thank Merlin! Harry…?"

With what seemed like a Herculean effort, Harry cracked open an eye and smiled tiredly.

They were both there, kneeling in front of him, pale with fright…