Chapter 20: Endings

The door to the hospital wing burst and a James stumbled in, slightly out of breath and breathing hard.

"Madame Pomfrey! Madame Pomfrey!" Running forward he crossed the wing and loudly knocked on the door. "You've go to be in." James muttered under his voice as he continued to bang.

He balanced himself, to keep from falling forward, when suddenly the door opened and a concerned yet irate nurse stood in the doorway.

"What is it Mr. Potter?" Poppy snapped, her eyes moving over his form for any obvious injuries.

She narrowed in on his pale face and shaking hands, "Professor McGonagall sent me ahead to inform you that she's bringing Harry up. He was knocked off one of the quidditch towers."

Poppy let out a shocked gasp and immediately started to get the potions she suspected she would need.

James stood there as she bustled about, staring at a spot on the floor now that his task was complete.

"There was so much blood…blood everywhere." James whispered, seemingly lost in thought, "He was just lying there, twisted oddly. There was blood everywhere. So much blood. I didn't know someone had that much blood."

The nurse paused in her collection of potions and pushed James to a bed, "Sit."

She frowned when the boy complied without a single protest. She went back to the potions and grabbed two.

"Take these Potter."

He did as he was told and soon his eyes started drifting shut. He lay on the bed and a few minutes later he was out.

With a flick of her wand he was snugly tucked in.

She turned back to the potions, collecting more until the doors banged open again and Minerva walked in, a floating body behind her.

Poppy quickly went to them and levitated the boy onto a bed. James was right, the boy was covered in blood, however, when dealing with head wounds there was always a lot of blood.

Voices whispered in his head, but he could not understand what they meant. Only pieces here and there but none of it made sense.

Not right…

Mistake…

It wasn't time…

Send him back…

But the others-

Doesn't matter…

Things have changed…

It's too important…

WAKE UP!

At the yelled command Harry snapped his eyes open.

Pain immediately accompanied the light that flooded his vision and his eyes instinctively slammed shut. Knowing better than to groan aloud he bit his lip instead, cursing at the pain in his head. As he began to block out the pain in his head, the pain in the rest of his body caught his attention. His ribs burned and prickled unpleasantly, as well as his left arm and both legs. Straining slightly, he felt his legs, both were in some sort of casts.

Where was he? What happened?

Stilling himself mentally and physically, he reached out with his senses.

The first thing to hit him was the smell. The air was too clean, tinted with disinfectants to be anywhere but a hospital or doctors office. Was he in a hospital? Had he been in an accident?

Feeling the sheets underneath his hand, he was immediately comforted. Only one hospital had sheets that he was this familiar with.

Raising a hand to his head, he immediately encountered a large bandage. Running his hands over his face he felt many scratches and bruises. He winced as his hand touched a particularly large bruise on his temple.

Slowly he cracked his eyes opened. He was indeed in the hospital wing. Afternoon light fluttered in through the opened windows, and the curtains blew gently in the breeze.

Well the where was answered; now he simply lacked the why.

He glanced down at the parts of his body he could see. His left arm was in a cast, as well as both legs, and if he wasn't mistaken someone had bandaged his ribs.

He grinned grimly to himself. Poppy really should give him his own personal bed.

At the thought he giggled, his thoughts hazy and slow.

Harry turned his head to his left, noticing said nurse standing there. He was slightly surprised that he hadn't heard her enter and it showed on his face. Shrugging it off, he decided to smile roguishly, "Well Poppy fancy seeing you here."

Pomfrey raised an eyebrow in surprise and concern, "Well now mister Potter. It's good to see you awake."

Harry stared at the nurse's young face before murmuring in surprise, "You look fabulous. Was it a new spa treatment? Really shaved the years right off. Perhaps I'll get it for Minerva for her birthday." Harry looked thoughtful before throwing the nurse another glance. "You don't think she'd be offended, do you?"

At the outburst and questioning look from the bandaged boy an unreadable look crossed her face before it settled back onto one of concern.

"Mr. Potte-

Harry groaned in annoyance, stifling a yawn, "Poppy we've known each other far too long for you to be calling me Mr. Potter. Mr. Potter was my father. Though I suppose he didn't like you calling him Mr. Potter either." He let out another giggle, "Besides, you've been patching me up since first year. I daresay you know more about me than my own mother. It's just Harry."

The nurse gave him another odd look, "Mist-err, Harry. What is the last thing you remember?"

Harry stared blankly back at her. Why would she ask him that, unless-?

"I hit my head, didn't I?"

Harry tossed about on the bed, sweating slightly as he slept. Random images shooting through his head.

He was smiling at a dark haired boy. No, it wasn't him, the eye color was all wrong. James? His father? Yes that was him, and the dark haired boy? Sirius? He looked like Sirius, the same smile and eyes.

Flash

A laughing red head rolling her eyes at something he said. Ginny! His beautiful Ginny. But that's not right, her hair was all wrong and the eyes. No, not Ginny. Then who?

Mum?

Flash

A boy entered his compartment as he glanced up from his book. The boy looked like Sirius but he wasn't smiling.

Flash

The boy's lank hair hung in his face as he leaned over the potions book. Dark eyes looked at him in triumph as the boy pointed to something on the page before smirking in satisfaction.

Flash

A girl with curly hair bounced on the bench next to the boy who looked like Sirius. The boy was smiling now, his eyes lighting as he laughed.

He knew the boy…Regulus?

Flash

He was sitting on the floor present paper littered the floor around him. He looked up into James' smiling face and then to the man and women sitting in the chairs. Both of them smiled at him.

The memories came faster and faster until he couldn't take it anymore.

Harry woke with a gasp, head aching terribly.

He cursed silently as he massaged his head. Madame Pomfrey assured him that the headaches would soon pass after he regained all of his memories, but until then he'd have to just suck it up.

The headaches were not from his resurfacing memories, but rather the restorative potion. The potion was working in overtime to reestablish the pathways back to all the memories from the past year. Luckily for him, there were ways to regain lost memories as long as they hadn't been wiped away by magic.

Memory loss caused by magic actually wiped out and destroyed the memory. It was a bit like erasing pencil with a good eraser. The memory was simply erased, and if the caster was good you would not be able to tell that the person's memories had been tampered with. Usually however, the less skilled obliviators left a smudge on the mind. Not enough to cause the person undue suspicion, but enough to cause them to pause and feel as if they were forgetting something.

While memories lost from physical causes, partly damaged or fully, could be restored even if the pathways to such memories were severed.

Harry was just grateful that he wasn't going to turn out like Lockhart.

Luckily, after his first wakening in the Hospital Wing after a week of being unconscious Harry had fallen back asleep and when he awoke three days later he had remembered exactly where and when he was.

Not enough to bring him up to date, but enough to know to keep his mouth shut until he knew more. It was a skill he had learned the hard way over the past years and it had helped him out in quite a few sticky situations. His memories had been coming back slowly, and naturally, when Madame Pomfrey and the Potters decided to use a potion to speed the process along.

On his second wakening he had awoken to find Mary Potter, rubbing a hand through his messy locks. She seemed relieved when he seemed to recognize her. What he didn't say was that he recognized her from her pictures in the Potters' album, not her personally.

She had hung around for the next few days keeping him company, and telling him amusing stories of when she attended Hogwarts. Only after he assured her repeatedly that he would be fine alone did she agree to go back to Potter's Manor and her normal routine. In the days that followed, he found that he missed her company as now he had nothing better to do than stare at the ceiling as his memory was rewired.

Two weeks later, he was still assimilating all the memories. It would have been nice if they had come back in chronological order, but instead they were random, the oldest mixed right in with the newest. Fortunately however, Poppy reassured him that once he remembered everything, the memories should resort themselves accordingly.

Pomfrey predicted that it would be another two weeks until he had regained his full memory, until then he was restricted to the Hospital Wing with nothing more interesting to do than homework and studying for finals. Of course he didn't need to study for finals, but to keep up appearances he had to appear busy every time Poppy bustled out of her office to check on him. As soon as she disappeared back in her office, he would give the first year's text a dirty look and discretely play with his wandless magic. His wandless magic had grown in leaps and bounds over the past year and he now felt confident that he could wandlessly cast spells up to fourth year level.

During breaks and after dinner his friends or the Marauders would visit to keep up his spirits. Even Lily and Severus came a few times, the other boy hanging back behind the ever chipper red head putting in a word here or there.

Harry even had Remus as an overnight 'visitor' twice since he had been there. The other boy looked absolutely dreadful the morning after the full moon, but Harry simply nodded when Remus said that he had suddenly fell ill. Harry felt bad for the older boy and decided that with his appearance of a potions prodigy he would team up with Severus and Lily to produce the Wolfbane Potion years before scheduled.

As soon as he had seen Regulus and Arcturus privately the two had told him what had happened before he fell.

Arct had still been checking Regulus over when he had glanced up and saw a blue spell hit Harry in the back, toppling him forward over the wall. The two seemed extremely bothered, and were only put at ease when Harry assured them that there was nothing they could have done. However, Arct would still occasionally send guilty glances Harry's way when he thought the other boys weren't looking.

Malfoy's apparent anger at Harry's injuries, left many in the Slytherin House uneasy and on edge, fearful that the seventh year would take out his frustrations on his housemates, as he already had. The older Lestrange boy fell victim to the Headboy's angry wand a few days after Harry's 'accident' and none new why except for the two boys themselves. While Malfoy was still angry, he seemed to calm down somewhat after his attack on the third year.

No one had seen who had thrown the spell, but the teachers and the headmaster were still investigating the matter. Regulus and Arcturus were convinced that it was Malfoy, but Harry believed otherwise. Why would Malfoy go out of his way to protect him, only to attempt to murder him later? It made no sense, yet Arcturus was steadfast in his conviction though he wouldn't say why.

James also believed that it was Malfoy, though Harry never discussed it with him.

The only uplifting note was when Harry convinced Madam Pomfrey to allow him to attend the last quidditch match of the year. Grudgingly she agreed, giving him strict orders not to overexert himself and to stay away from ledges. Who knew that the healer had a sense of humor?

Harry thoroughly enjoyed the game, cheering on James and the Gryffindors while his friends and he sat in the Hufflepuff section. Harry had donned a Gryffindor pin and held a sign that he made for James which proudly proclaimed, "Potter is a God." The sign garnered many laughs and eye rolls from the students, and yells of surprise when the sign occasionally let out a loud roar. The red and gold immediately caught James attention and he smiled proudly, casually bringing a hand through his locks as he did so. Harry smiled widely, guessing that James would interpret it correctly as his good luck wish.

Abigail cheerfully sat beside him chatting away the whole match, which finally ended when the Ravenclaw seeker caught the snitch. The lead that the James and his fellow chasers had wracked up quickly disappeared as the snitch was caught. Even with their hundred point lead they lost the match and the cup by a meager thirty points.

The Ravenclaws were elated as they were awarded the Quidditch Cup and the Gryffindors were downtrodden. James looked as if he had swallowed a lemon, and quickly disappeared into the locker rooms as the ceremony took place.

Harry, however, wasn't disappointed in the least. He enjoyed watching James fly about, glad that he was able to see what people used to tell him about his father. James really was a natural on a broom, and with a few more years of experience he could easily see James skilled enough to pursue a professional quidditch career.

As the students headed back to the castle after the match Harry dragged his feet as he was lead by his friends back to his prison. On his way there, they ran into Remus. Harry gave the sign to the brown haired boy and asked him to give it to James for him, as well as his congratulations for a game well played. Once Lupin had started back to the Gryffindor tower, Harry turned with a sigh and started back to his prison before his jailor came looking for him.

When his final two weeks of confinement had passed Harry happily left the Hospital Wing to take his exams. Regulus and Arcturus both thought that he was a bit touched in the head when he happily made his way to the tests.

He was rather happy with the ease of the exams; he even felt that he passed history this time around.

When the following week rolled around Harry was happy to find that he had came in top of his class in everything except history. Regulus, Arcturus and Abigail had done fairly well as well. Lily was top of the class in Charms and Herbology, second in potions after Snape, while James claimed top spot in Transfiguration and second in Defense, again after Snape. Amusingly, Sirius claimed top spot in Divinations, how that happened Harry wasn't sure, but his godfather had always been good at spinning a tale.

On the morning of the last day the three friends lazed about on the lawn near the lake, happy and content.

Regulus and Arct because the exams and their first year were over, Harry because the yearly spring brush with death had passed.

The two purebloods talked about what they were going to do with their summer, while Harry dozed contently. A dark look came over his face and he rolled over on his side, beginning to sweat.

The morning light filtered through the window in the dark room, casting shadows on the chair and its inhabitant in the middle of the room.

Harry regarded the man in apparent boredom, "Is it ready?"

The hooded figure rose as they answered, "It is my lord. He will be here today by dinner."

He smiled, pleased that his latest plan was coming to fruitfulness. Given that it had not been his original intent when he placed his follower there, but it would seem that fate was on his side.

"See that he is, and Dodgerson, make sure that he is not injured. He is important to me and my cause. I will not have him unduly harmed." Harry hissed.

The bowed head nodded once, "It will be done."

With a gasp Harry jerked out of the vision.

"All right there Potter?"

Harry looked over at his two friends who were staring at him in concern.

"Fine, just a weird dream."

Regulus looked unconvinced but Arct nodded his head in acceptance.

As his two friends went back to their conversation Harry turned his thoughts inward. Who is this Dodgerson? And who were they planning for? Obviously whoever it was, was not a willing participant of the meeting, or else Voldemort would not have told the Death Eater to insure 'his' safety. This person was important to Riddle's cause?

"Ready for the feast?" Harry was pulled out of his thoughts at the question. Both Regulus and Arcturus were looking at him oddly again, but Harry waved it off.

"We still have twenty minutes. I need to check over my trunk, so I'll meet you there, yeah?" Harry stood and brushed his pants off.

Arcturus stood as well, "Do you want us to come?"

Smiling slightly Harry waved off his offer before turning and heading back to his dorm room.

When he reached the room he quickly and silently locked the door before heading over to his trunk.

On his third awakening in the hospital, after he had regained some of his memories back, he had noticed something that wasn't there before the match. A high-level tracking charm had been placed on him without his knowledge. Given that the charm would not harm nor impede him while he was at Hogwarts, it only gave his general location, he had left it alone. However, now that he was heading home for the summer he could not guarantee that he would be spending his full time doing 'Potter approved' activities and such a tracking device would prove burdensome. So it simply had to go.

Rummaging through the trunk he pulled out some of the pieces of jewelry he had received for his birthday and Christmas. He would need something to transfer the charm to, something that would not be easily forgotten or misplaced. Merlin only knows what would happen if he showed up at Hogwarts next year and his tracker said he was elsewhere. He finally settled on a nice piece that Regulus had sent him for Christmas. The small snake pendent was truly Slytherin worthy, it even had emeralds for its eyes.

"Vestigiumrecanto." Harry hissed in parsaltongue. He had found that when he spoke the spells in parsaltongue the spells were more likely to do what he wanted, even when they shouldn't be able to. The tracker was extremely strong and well done, but with the modified spell and his determination he was able to transfer the tracker to the small snake pendent.

He let his fingers run over the silver snake, feeling the magic run beneath his fingers gave him a sense of satisfaction, knowing that he could now move about undetected. With one final stroke he gingerly placed the pendent on his chest before replacing his jewelry.

With a relieved sigh he closed his trunk, spelling it shut with only the most basics of charms. Anything that was not to be seen by prying eyes was hid in a concealed compartment on the bottom side of the trunk, protected with a simple blood ward and password in parsaltongue. The only person that could possibly open that trunk was Voldemort himself, and that was only if he had Harry's blood.

Harry sat between the two boys, as the students around them chatted excitedly. Happy voices could be heard floating across the Great Hall and laughter occasionally cut through the din.

The Great Hall was decorated in Ravenclaw's colors and their banners flooded the walls. Harry could hear Verena loudly complaining a few spots down at how Slytherin had been swindled out of the house cup once again. The comment made him roll his eyes in exasperation. He still hadn't figured out how the girl was sorted into Slytherin, she whined more than Millicent did in his future.

He tuned her out as he piled his plate high with food. He wanted to eat as much of Hogwarts food as he could, considering he wouldn't be eating it for nearly two more months and all they'd have later was candy on the train.

He grinned widely when he heard a very snappish voice hiss, "You blubbering dunderheaded fool! Cease your incessant whining!"

He didn't even have to look down the table at Snape to know that the boy would have a snarl on his lips while glaring at the now gaping girl.

"While I never-!" Came the offended gasp.

"Of course you never! Now shut your trap."

Harry bit his lips to keep from laughing at the indignant huff. Both Regulus and Arcturus were grinning slightly while they continued to talk, pretending they had not heard Snape's comments.

As the meal wound down, the atmosphere dimmed slightly, especially among the upper years. Harry glanced up at the head table where Albus was gazing out across the hall. The headmaster's twinkling blue eyes took in the chattering students with a sad smile on his lips. Even Harry knew that the end of another year was bittersweet for them all, especially Albus. The old man felt personally responsible for each and every one of his students to a certain degree. With the troubling times, the old man would feel as if he was thrusting them unprepared to the cold cruel world.

Indeed, if Harry was skilled enough to break Dumbledore's mental barriers, the boy would have found that these were the thoughts that occupied the old wizard's mind.

Each and every student held a spot in his heart, and with the passage of time he couldn't help but dwell more on his failing as a teacher than his successes. Looking into the past he could clearly see where things could have been different if he'd acted differently. Alas, it was not healthy to dwell on the past overly much. Rather, it was best to take the lessons the past offered and move forward from there.

Albus slowly stood, his purple robes falling around him, the dancing stars sparkling brightly. Minerva tapped her glass calling attention, and soon silence had descended the hall and the students gazed at their headmaster, some with smiles on their faces, others with tears in their eyes.

"The end," said Dumbledore, looking around at then all, "of another year." He smiled slightly, if it was a sad smile or not no one could say.

The students stared enraptured and listened intently.

"The end! It seems to come far too soon for some and far too late for others," he paused as his eyes wandered over the students, taking in the tears and smiles, "Though there is nothing to fear of endings."

Harry looked around at the upper years as Dumbledore continued.

"We must all come to an end one day. However, it is not the ending that is memorable but rather the journey in which we met that end. So I say to all who've met their end this day…do not see this as the end, but rather the beginning." He smiled wider, his voice low and soothing, "Do not shed tears because it is over, but rejoice because it was able to happen. I hope when you look back upon this day, you do not do so with sadness, but rather fondness and love."

Albus paused, his eyes lingering on the seventh year students, "I tell you, go out into the world and begin anew. Do not fear the unknown, but rather embrace that which you do not know. Do not forget where you came from and who your family is. We may not be the most functional family, but we are family nonetheless." He spread his arms wide, "Hogwarts will always be your home, and if ever you find yourself in need, do not fear to come back to that once you claimed as your own."

The students excitedly rushed the 'horseless' carriages in their excitement to return home. Harry and his friends sedately made their way to an empty carriage. He spared a glance at the black skeletal winged horse that the carriage was attached too before opening the door and holding it until Regulus and Arcturus entered. With one final gaze at the castle he had called home for eight years now, he gave a small smile and entered the carriage. 'One year down, six more to go,' he thought with a wry grin.