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Chapter 1 – A turning point

Harry Potter was in the Department of Mysteries, desperately trying to pull Neville up by his robes.

From the corner of his eye he watched his godfather, who was fighting against Bellatrix Lestrange. When Neville shouted "Dubbledore," having problems to speak with his bloodied noise, he wasn't even listening.

He still looked at Sirius with a mixture of awe and terror, feeling a cold, unpleasant premonition twisting up in his gut.

"DUBBLEDORE!" Screamed Neville, and a part of him thought: We're saved.

Another part of him acted like he was in a trance. He let go of Neville, who unceremoniously fell onto the floor, his legs still kicking the air uncontrollably.

Running down the steps, he trained his wand on Bellatrix. Before he had a chance to act, a red light shot out of her wand and missed Sirius by inches.

If someone had asked him what was he thinking about when he stepped between the fighting pair, he wouldn't have been able to answer. Still in his trance-like state, only a tiny piece of his consciousness registered a movement in front of him, when Sirius tried to push him away.

He felt excruciating pain as something hit him right in his back. As though in slow motion, he saw himself passing Sirius by mere inches, falling forward, heels over the head, straight into the Veil.

His vision became black and he knew no more.

Harry opened his eyes slowly, only to shut them quickly as the morning sun blinded him. He should have known that the glowing red under his closed eyelids meant intense light, but in this dizzy state of mind, he wasn't thinking clearly.

Slowly, the memory of late events returned to him and he carefully turned his head from the light.

He was in the infirmary at Hogwarts; he had spent quite some time here in the past so he recognized the surroundings immediately. He groaned, feeling as though a Hippogriff had chosen his chest as a place for landing.

He heard footsteps and voices somewhere at his left, but that part of the infirmary was bathed in sunlight, which he wasn't ready to face again yet.

"But Madam Pomfrey, please," he heard Hermione say, and smiled to himself.

However his happiness didn't last long, as the school nurse shooed away everyone who wanted to visit him.

"Good morning, child," she said and smiled warmly. "How do you feel?"

"Bad," he croaked, taking a deeper breath and immediately regretting it.

"The curse you were hit with was pretty nasty, but I can give you some potions to ease your pain, since you are awake now."

He only nodded and drank the slimy substance, taking it all in one big mouthful. It must have been a good potion despite its taste, because he felt as though an invisible hand took all the pain away.

"Thank you," he said and smiled back to the nurse. "Can you tell me how long I need to be here?" he asked.

He wanted to know what happened after he blacked out, and if his friends were all right.

"As a matter of fact, I needed you to wake up, to check your condition. Since the pain passed as you drank the cure, I think there is nothing which keeps you here."

Madam Pomfrey left and he noticed some clothes, folded neatly on a nearby chair.

His dizziness eased and he swung his legs down. Nothing, he still felt good. Shrugging, happy that all his questions would be answered now, Harry started changing clothes.

And what's that?

Under the shirt lay a green tie with a Slytherin pin attached to it.

Some house elf must have mistaken him with Slytherin. He decided to think about it later, wearing everything except the said tie.

Hermione had left some time ago, so he wasn't surprised to find the corridor empty. He headed towards the Headmaster's office.

"Tsk, tsk. Someone thinks that he's so important that the school rules does not apply to him anymore," said a cold voice right behind him and Harry nearly jumped out of his skin.

He turned immediately and his eyes widened in shock. His mouth opened but no sound came from it. Hadn't be it the miraculous potion, he was sure he would be in a dead faint by now.

A/N: Big thanks to manicrose for correcting the chapter.

This story waited for two months to be published as no one wanted to help me with it. I'm just saying that people don't want to correct things written by non native speakers and tend to ignore my messages instead of simply declining my request.