Dark Memories

Book 2 - Part 17: The Realm of the Dead

Harry felt warm and safe, and when he opened his eyes he was standing in a mist of pure white.

"Harry..."

The voice was far away, behind him? He looked around, but saw no one in the white mist.

Where am I? he asked himself.

He looked down at himself, finding clean unblemished robes and no wounds.

"I'm dead?" he whispered.

"No, not exactly," he heard a voice behind him. It almost sounded familiar.

He saw a figure in the distance.

"Come, Harry. There are people waiting for you," the man said gently.

Harry went forward, and the closer he got to him, the more the fog cleared, until he found himself in a clearing, and upon looking around, he realized it was a lightly treed valley of some kind.

The sky, or rather skies, was layered, the beauty of it unrivaled by all the things of earth. The only thing he could compare it to was a sunrise, only this looked like seven of them, overlapping and weaving over one another. It was purely awesome.

Looking forward again, his eyes suddenly came to rest on a number of people, but the only people he was able to recognize were...his parents.

The man he had seen earlier was nowhere in sight however.

His jaw dropped slightly, his eyes understandably watering a little.

James and Lily, and those with them, smiled.

Lily opened her arms.

"Come here," she said softly.

Harry went to her, taking the few steps until her arms wrapped around him, allowing him to fully fall into her embrace....

Harry breathed in her sweet sent of (could he believe it?) lilies, memorizing her soft touch and the feel of her arms around him—the first motherly hug he could remember.

Soon after, he felt a hand come to rest on his shoulder.

Pulling back, he found his dad smiling down at him.

"Hello, son," he said, giving a hug soon after.

Harry couldn't believe it. He was with his parents! Death wasn't bad at all.

As if they knew what he was thinking, they each gave him a soft smile.

"We have a lot to tell you, Harry, before you go back," Lily said.

"Go back?" Harry asked.

"Yes, you are not yet bound here. You are meant to go back, to be given a chance to continue living," James said.

"A chance?" Harry asked.

"Let us explain everything to you, in order," Lily said, leading them forward into a lush region of grass and away from the others who were now also shifting away to give them privacy.

They sat down, Harry idly wondering if this would count as a picnic.

"You are not truly dead, Harry, but let me explain before you start asking questions," Lily said.

"Okay," Harry said.

"We've been watching you, and know you know about the Horcruxes, and that you have destroyed all of the horcruxes Riddle presently has made; however, there is one that has just recently been destroyed you don't know about. Harry, this will be hard to hear, but you must know, for it is one of the main reasons why you will be able to go back. You were a horcrux. Voldemort had unintentionally given you a piece of his soul that night."