Disclaimer:
Harry Potter and all of its characters belong to J.K. Rowling.
I own nothing but the original characters I make.
"Dialogue"
'Thoughts'
-Author notes-
Chapter 97: Lost in a Fake World
"Today is a great day, you guys." Harry sounded very excited as he spoke with the fake Ron and fake Hermione.
Ginny got closer to take a better look and noticed how well-made all these statues were. Their faces were well-defined and resembled their real counterparts almost exactly.
"Oh… there I am!" While looking around, she found herself sitting with one elbow on the table, pretending to read some Quidditch magazine. "Did I do that a lot?" Ginny wondered if that was how Harry saw her.
She then found and recognized many other students at the Gryffindor table, like Neville, their Quidditch teammates, her twin brothers, even though they never finished that school year.
Beyond the table were many others, like Luna Lovegood, looking out of the window.
Even Draco Malfoy was there, wearing his typical smug grin.
"Merlin, Harry… how long did you spend making all of these?" Ginny wondered.
She could tell that every single one of these replicas took a lot of effort to create. He must have done all of this just to feel a bit less lonely.
Ginny shifted her attention back to Harry, who was sitting and still talking about what he was going to do that day. Apparently, he had finally acquired all the components to fabricate his own Time-Turner. So this was a very exciting day for him. It had taken him many decades to learn how to make every single part of it.
Just as Harry was getting started in the process of Time-Turner creation, Ginny noticed that the back half of the Great Hall was starting to change. Another scene was beginning to appear.
She moved towards it and found Harry standing in the middle of a large empty chamber, surrounded by walls of pale grey stone. Pieces of shelves were splattered all over.
"Oh…" Ginny knew this place despite having never seen it. It was described to her in detail by Neville when telling them about what he went through at the Ministry.
This was the Room of Time, where the Department of Mysteries stored all the Time-Turners. This was the place where everything started.
Harry stood there with his new creation in hand. A handcrafted Time-Turner, ready to be used. "Please… work." He muttered to himself, but Ginny heard his plea.
He gave it a few turns and waited… nothing happened. He tried to turn it the other way, hoping that would work, but again… nothing.
Ginny watched with teary eyes as Harry grew increasingly desperate after every attempt, until he finally gave up and collapsed onto the floor of the chamber.
She understood his despair. So far, he had been pushing through the solitude offered by this frozen world because he had a clear goal in mind. He spent decades of study and preparation to reach this point, hoping that it would work and that he would be able to leave this world.
And it failed completely.
"There is no time in this place…" He muttered out loud, finally understanding why the Time-Turner was never going to work.
"Now, the only chance I have is to wait for this plane of existence to collapse on its own, but even then, there is no guarantee that I would be able to go back. And…" He couldn't say it out loud. It was too much. His calculations, based on the only recorded incident that was similar to this one, were not optimistic, to say the least.
"Harry…" Tears fell from Ginny's eyes.
"I can't do this anymore…" Harry collapsed to the ground, completely exhausted.
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Ginny watched as Harry remained there, lying on the floor. Life seemed to have been drained from his eyes, and they were now empty.
He did not move for over a week, and Ginny stood at his side the whole time, even though she knew it was pointless. He was not the real Harry, and this was just a memory.
Ginny was sure that Harry had been hoping to die at this point. That would normally have been the result of spending so long with no food or water. However, this world was not going to let him out so easily. This was nothing but the beginning of his torment.
But then, Ginny saw a change in him.
"This is pointless…" he eventually said after being silent for so long. "I need to do something… nothing is going to change if I just lie here forever."
He stood up from the ground with difficulty.
"I still have so much to learn about magic. I can't really know for sure that there is no other solution with my limited knowledge. If I keep studying, I may find something, and if the answer is not in Hogwarts, there are other magical schools out there. I promised that I would see them again. It's too early to surrender yet… I haven't tried everything yet."
Ginny watched Harry regain some of his lost hope and smiled. "That's right, Harry. You can do this. You already did… You beat this place and made it out."
As Harry disappeared once more, the scene began to change, bringing her once more to Hogwarts, where Harry appeared to be preparing himself for a very long journey.
"Am I going to watch him relive his entire time in the frozen world?" Ginny wondered if this was what she was supposed to be doing.
The words of Lady Rose resounded in her mind. "If you get lost in his mind, you may never get out."
"She was right!" Ginny exclaimed. "I can't keep doing this." A part of her wanted to stay next to this Harry and watch his entire journey. But if she did that, her real self out there was probably going to die, and then the real Harry would never wake up.
Ignoring the scene taking place around her, Ginny shifted her attention to the sky. "First… I need to get out of this part of his mind." This was not the real world, so by making use of her pure will and determination, Ginny flew through the air and into the distant sky, disappearing into the clouds.
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