Chapter Text
Few clouds floated in the blue azure as Harry gripped the grass beneath him. He lay spread-eagled on wildly growing grass and looked up into the sky which had been a suffering grey mere moments ago…
A golden beam of light flooded his vision.
“Do nothing! He is mine!”
A bead of sweat ran down Harry’s temple.
“Hold on, Harry.”
Harry raised his arm to shield himself from a ray of sunshine. He sat up in the fields of grass and examined his dirty hands. His left hand, partially besmirched with dirt. His fingernails were short and yet nevertheless clean. His right hand, with fingers still clutching tufts of grass. He opened his palm and let the grass sink to the ground. The little indentations which marked the segments of each one of his fingers were sullied with earth which got into the small grooves. An angry red mark in tubular shape stretched diagonally from the far end of the beginning of his tiny finger, all the way over his palm to right above the inner side of his thumb. Harry grimaced as he noticed the boiling hot sensation.
“Your mother’s coming.”
He gnawed his teeth in pain as he held on.
“It will be all right.”
Rivulets of sweat ran down his arms and coalesced into drops, dripping down the side of his hands in his peripheral vision.
“When the connection is broken, we will linger for only moments.”
His scar flooded his nervous system with waves of pain. A storm tide battering a crumbling seawall.
“First, we bow to each other.”
His spine felt like an old, creaking door that was opened one too many times.
“Come now, Harry, the niceties must be observed.”
Harry cleared his raw throat and looked around. Fields of grass on rolling hills as far as the eye could see. Jagged blackish-grey cliffs of mountains pierced the sky on the horizon. Only the occasional lone tree stood in between the unending fields of wild grass. Only the occasional chirp of a bird interrupted the silent rush and whistle of the wind. Harry leaned back on his palms and let the cool grass soothe his hands. He inhaled deeply for the first time in what must have been centuries…
His breathing came in shallow and agonised gasps.
“Take my body back, will you? Take my body back to my parents.”
His vision became blurry, whether from exertion, tears, or sweat, he did not know.
“Bow to death, Harry Potter.”
Harry groaned from effort and agony, courtesy of holding on. He could feel the searingly hot mark that his wand was burning into his skin.
“But we will give you time.”
Harry’s whole body was shaking like a leaf in a thunderstorm as he held on for dear life. The golden light intensified until he could see nothing else.
And then it snapped.
His wand, and with it came one unnatural twist of his body after the other, as he was spinning out of control in a space he did not know. Faster and faster he spun until he knew no more of left, right, up, and down. His inertia finally came to an end when he slammed into the ground with all the force of Hagrid’s bow slingshotting an arrow into a tree stump. An involuntary oomph left his lungs as his back made contact with the earth, and he looked upon the scarcely clouded sky.