The Dream Trilogy Book One: To Dwell On Dreams (A Harry Potter FanFiction)

Chapter Forty Three

Chapter Forty Three

Harry managed to cling onto the satellite dish and his spare coat as he Flooed back to Godric's Hollow, and was met by a very strange look on his mother's face as he stepped from the flames. "Present," said Harry with a shrug, and placed the dish and coat on the floor by the mantle. Lily was sitting on the sofa facing the fireplace, and Harry dropped tiredly in the armchair on the right. "How's Sarah?" he asked, rubbing his face to get some life back into it. 

"Okay," said Lily, fidgeting with a thread at the foot of her jeans. "She's stopped crying." 

"Well that's good," said Harry, genuinely pleased. 

"She's started throwing things instead." 

"Ah." Girl after his own heart, thought Harry. 

"Harry," said Lily slowly after he'd spent a few minutes listlessly staring into the fire. "Could you come into the kitchen?" 

Harry turned to look at her, and as soon as he saw her expression his stomach dropped. She was trying to look calm, smile even, but there was something very wrong with her eyes. "Um, okay," he said, feeling his pulse start to race. What could possibly be wrong now, he thought as he struggled to get his coat off and followed Lily through the open door leading to the kitchen. 

Sirius was sitting at the large oak table where Harry had had his one and only family dinner, where Lily had filled his rucksack with sandwiches. He had a fat, cream coloured envelope he was twirling between his hands. He gave Harry a weak smile as he took a seat; Lily positioned herself by Sirius' side, and suddenly Harry felt like he was being interviewed. 

"What's wrong?" he couldn't help but ask, his mouth dry as a bone. Sirius and Lily exchanged a glance, then Sirius placed the letter carefully on the wood, face down so Harry could see it had been opened. 

"I did what you asked," Sirius began. "Before you went to Germany." Harry's eyes flicked to Lily, who was staring at her lap, almost on the verge of tears. All he could do was nod. Had Sirius found anything? Was that what this was about - had he discovered something about parallel universes? He'd told him not to involve his parents though, he thought anxiously. 

He made himself nod, then Sirius sighed. "I was in the library, I remembered I'd done some kind of History project back at school, the second or third year. Obviously that's a long time ago, but I'd done some research with Nearly Headless Nick. He liked to tell stories." 

Harry, could feel his breath catching in his throat. Where was this going? "Okay," he said slowly. 

"Nick said over the centuries, a few people had gone missing, and some had come back swearing they'd travelled further than any man had gone before." Harry was certain he stopped breathing. Was Sirius saying other people had fallen into other realities, and more importantly, that they'd got back? 

"So I was on the ladder, looking on one of the top shelves for James' old text books, when there was this noise, like thunder, and the floor started trembling." Harry forced a breath in. A storm, like the one that had suddenly appeared outside the old History of Magic classroom? 

"It was coming from in here," he indicated the kitchen. "So that's where I ran, and the closer I got, the more distorted the world got. Lily came too - James and Remus were outside and didn't hear a thing. 

"I was seeing double of everything, perfectly. But then I saw this." He picked up the letter, scooted it over to Harry, then tapped the table with his fingers. "It was right here, in the middle. But the thing was, whilst everything else was overlapped like two separate pictures, there was definitely only one letter. Then it was like someone snapped an elastic band, and everything sprung back to where it should have been. Leaving the letter."