Chapter 19: Those Left Behind

The child woke up with a start. They were lying on their back in a small patch of sunshine-yellow flowers, and they knew that without even needing to look around. Some scattered petals drifted through the air, disturbed from the child's fall from the surface; never mind the fact that, from the child's perspective, it had been so very long since that fateful tumble. Light from somewhere above cast the rest of the room in shadow, as if they had landed in a spotlight. The ceiling of stone stretched over head, cracked rock that familiar faded-but-still-unusual shade of purple.

Frisk lay there for a long moment, suspended in their disbelief.

A yellow petal landed on their nose and they sneezed.

Then they sat up.

The world remained firmly where it had been: grass, flowers, stone. Real and solid and… and real.

They stared down at their hands—clean, so long as dirt doesn't count and it really doesn't—with undisguised wonder. But before they could even push themselves to their feet, there was a vibration through the soil. With a sort of fwoop sound, a large golden flower sprouted at their feet.

Flowey wasn't smiling. If anything, he looked rather bewildered. Maybe even angry. Either way, it definitely wasn't the hollow, deranged, or sarcastic smile Frisk was used to seeing.

"What. Did. You. Do?" he asked, his already high-pitched voice maybe a full octave higher with sheer desperation.

"It's—" Frisk had trouble speaking, both because they felt rather emotionally swamped and they were out of practice. "It's gone n-now, Flowey. N-no more… no more resets. Ever."

The flower blinked. "Wha—?"

But before Flowey could even begin his planned barrage of questions, he found himself smooshed into a desperate hug. The pair of leaves that stood in for his arms twitched uselessly, pinned. He could feel Frisk shaking.

"It's— it's f-finally over."

Flowey tried for another wiggle a few minutes later, after the child stopped shivering. This time Frisk let him go. "What do you mean 'no more resets'?" he asked. "That's not— That's not possible!"

Swiping a sleeve over their face in an attempt to clean up, they shrugged. When they spoke, their voice was even more hoarse than before. "I…" Frisk took a breath and admitted, "We had been fighting Sans, but then when we died he followed us and—"

"Smiley Trashbag followed you!?"

Not phased in the least by Flowey's shocked interjection, Frisk simply continued, "He must have blasted them or something. I d-don't know, since he asked me to reset and—"

"Smiley Trashbag asked you to reset!?"

They nodded. "And he split t-them from me. I can't feel Chara at all any more. At all."

The flower almost flinched, and an indecipherable expression flickered in his eyes. He was quiet for a long moment, seeming to almost fold in on himself. His leaves curled over the spot where his SOUL would be hidden, had he had one. "I can't feel them either."

"It's over," Frisk repeated. "I-it's actually over."

It looked like Flowey was going to say something more, but he was cut off by the sound of an angry snarl.

A flare of orange light lit up the end of the hall, silhouetting a familiar figure. Multiple balls of fire spun out toward them, casting flickering shadows around the room. "Get away from them!"

The fires swirled, trying to find an opening to burn away the plant without hurting the child.

"W-wait!" Frisk clutched the yellow flower close, trying to shield him from the seeking flames. "D-don't hurt h-him, p-please!"

With a surprised jerk, the fires stopped moving.

"My dear child…" spoke a motherly voice, soothing even when it sounded so concerned. "That flower is dangerous, you must trust me. I have seen it before."

Flowey stiffened, another almost-flinch, and looked away.

Frisk shook their head. "N-no." They took a breath and, with more determination, continued, "No. He helped me. I… I was scared a-and he's kinda scary too but he's my best friend."

Still caught in their embrace, Frisk felt Flowey go very still.

Toriel stepped carefully to the edge of the flower patch and peered down. She might not be able to see the flower's face, but she searched for any sign of falsehood regardless. There was none. Flowey didn't so much as twitch toward an attack—didn't move to attack this child as he had nearly every other child she had helped in the ruins.

"It… He hasn't harmed you?"

"No," they answered firmly.

The tall fluffy monster decided to keep a cautious eye on the flower anyway, though she would refrain from further attacks. For now. But enough of fighting, she still needed to introduce herself. "I am Toriel, caretaker of the Ruins. I pass through this place every day to see if anyone has fallen from the surface. Are you injured at all, my child?"

Frisk shook their head, and they couldn't help but smile at the monster who was their mother in all but blood. Not now—or yet, perhaps—but that didn't change Toriel's kind, mothering nature from wanting to check that they were okay anyway. Then, seeing that the child was reluctant to stand but not wanting to tower over them as they talked, Toriel knelt down.

To Frisk, the world seemed to blur. Darkened as a memory pulled them away. They were no longer on the patch of flowers, no longer free from that oppressive voice in their mind, and they were standing before a huge door. Toriel, clothes torn and stained with her own blood, had been forced to one knee by Frisk's own hand. There was already dust in the air, choking and heavy with their sins. Pieces of Toriel crumbled away, and her eyes looked at the child with newfound horror.

"Now I see who I was protecting by keeping you here."

All Frisk could do was watch, even as someone else's pleased grin spread across their face.

Flowey felt Frisk's heart rate skyrocket, and their breathing came in short, desperate gasps. Every exhale sound like they were begging for something, crying for something, but as if they didn't have a voice to speak with. "Frisk? Frisk!"

The child started to shake, and there were tears in their eyes.

He twisted his leaves around them in an almost-hug, trying to bring them back from whatever this was… Then his eyes landed on Toriel, who had come as close as she dared—not nearly as close as she wished—when the episode had begun. His mind made the connection easily enough, and he curled a vine out to gesture for the goat monster to come closer.

"Help," he said, making it sound less a request and more a demand.

Toriel didn't need to be told twice. She wrapped the child into a warm embrace, a soothing pulse of green healing magic settling the child's mind into peaceful rest as she rocked back and forth. Flowey, who had been gathered into the hug as well, given Frisk's determined grip, set a leaf on their chest. Their breathing had calmed, and he was inexplicably relieved.

"You are both coming with me."

Flowey looked up with a start, and there was an angry retort on his lips.

"Both of you," Toriel repeated, and her voice left no room for argument. "This poor child needs you, so, even though I still have my doubts… you shall be coming as well." The paw not gently cradling Frisk scooped up the dirt around the base of his stem before he could protest, depositing him carefully into one of the deep pockets in her dress. She didn't even seem to care that doing so meant filling her clothes with soil.

"Hey— Watch it!" Flowey yelped, swaying with the abrupt relocation.

Toriel stood up gracefully, still hugging the sleeping child to her chest with one fluffy paw. "Let us go home, my child."

The movement provided Flowey with a chance to untangle himself from Frisk's grip, so, instead of being stuck squashed in the middle of an unwanted embrace, he was able to straighten out and simply look around as he rode along. If he didn't know what he knew—couldn't feel what he felt, that emptiness Chara had always at least somewhat filled—he would have thought nothing different of the world. The walls were the same cracked, purple stone as always, the occasional vine tracing a path from the floor to the ceiling. Toriel hummed a calm, moving melody as she made her way through the halls and puzzles of the Ruins.

Flowey drooped, and one leaf couldn't help but curl over the space where his SOUL would have settled.

That emptiness, consuming him since he had woken up all those resets ago.

It had torn at Chara too, he knew.

Yet now… it was gone. He felt almost, well…

He felt.

That, more than anything else, told him that this time was different.

Author's Note:

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Undertale.

Some of you might recall that, back in the author's note of chapter 3, I mentioned a possible parallel story about what's happening in the Underground. I've decided to simply tell that story in short bonus chapters that will come every once in a while, as opposed to setting up a whole 'nother fanfic.

I hope you had a happy Halloween!
Thanks for all the wonderful reviews and I hope you enjoyed this short bonus chapter!

See ya on the flipside, everyone!