A/N: Tadda! The end! The very end! The very, very end! Now, this wraps up the part about Remus, but if you haven't finished reading 3003, it could be extremely confusing. Just a warning. I would honestly recommend reading 3003 before reading this chapter. :)
Chapter 16: Epilogue--Part 2
He had just finished changing when Ron stuck his head in. He could see Ron laughing at him with his eyes. He scowled angrily at him (although with his new, and apparently humorous face, it didn't have the same effect) and Ron seemed to understand that Harry didn't want him to say anything. "Do you need anything for the spell? A potion? Anything?"
"Nope," Harry said, walking past Ron out the door. "Barely even need my wand."
"Okay," Ron said, his happy mood completely undaunted (increased, in fact) by Harry's disgust over his robes. "This way."
Ron led Harry up two flights of stairs and down two separate hallways before pausing at the door.
"You sure you don't need anything?" Ron asked.
Harry fixed him with a completely serious gaze. "I need everyone to leave the room."
"Why!" Ron asked, unhappy about this new request.
"Because," Harry said, careful to pitch his voice low. "My new face will melt completely off when I stop paying attention to maintaining it and I don't want anyone to see it."
Ron seemed annoyed, but he complied, telling everyone in the room, Hermione, Sirius, the nurses, and the kid, that they had to leave. Harry smiled pleasantly as they filed past him, but glared at Sirius and Hermione when they smiled at his robes.
Then he entered the room.
Remus was looking at him, immobilized.
Harry locked the door, put an impenetrable spell on it, then removed his face charm. "Hey there, Remus. You missed a heck of a lot of action."
Remus didn't respond. He couldn't.
Harry sighed. "Okay, I'm going to take the charm off of you, and though it will only take a matter of seconds, it's a complicated charm and I don't want anyone getting suspicious, so we'll need to stay in here for a couple of minutes. Don't go banging on the door." He smiled slightly. For some reason, it was easier to smile lately. Maybe the happy mood was infectious.
He tapped Remus on the forehead with his wand, muttered a few words, then sat back.
Remus blinked. Gradually, as feeling was doubtlessly returning to his face, he began to move his facial features. Finally he was able to sit up.
"That's all it took?" He asked incredulously. "I've been sitting there for weeks and all you had to do was tap my forehead and speak a few words?"
Harry shrugged. "Don't blame them for not figuring it out. I designed it to be hard to remove." He smiled slightly.
"You designed at spell?"
"Yep. And now it's in standard use in Ministry of Magic for catching criminals they don't want to hurt. Only a few of the top rank employees know how to work it. No idea how Malfoy found out." He smirked. "Probably had it performed on him so many times he started to figure it out."
Remus rubbed his arms, wincing. "I have been so stiff. It's rather hard sitting there with Hermione crying because she thinks you'll die or Sirius coming in trying to be cheerful but looking like he hasn't eaten in weeks."
"Wasn't made for long term use," Harry said apologetically.
"Was that an apology?" Remus asked incredulously. "From you? What happened while I was down?"
"Nearly got my soul sucked out of me," Harry said. "I swear I thought I was going to die." He said the last part quietly, not even sure why he said it. But it was true, and he felt like there was less knotted up inside him once he got it out.
"That makes two of us. I suppose it was Malfoy?"
"Talisman Malfoy needed a host body," Harry said. "Got me before I realized what was happening. Had to have the kid break me out."
Remus's eyes narrowed. "Does he know about you?"
Harry shook his head. "From what I've heard. I wouldn't have been able to recognize myself that night. So I got here, changed my face--"
"And your clothes, I see," Remus said, smiling slightly. Harry scowled at him.
"I think we've wasted enough time," Harry said. He changed his face back and opened the door, breaking the impenetrable charm in the process. "Done," he announced to the waiting crowd.
"Already?" Hermione asked, standing up from her place on the floor. "We thought you'd be longer, so we sent Harry to get some drinks."
"In here," Remus called from the room.
Instantly Harry was forgotten as everyone in the hall hurried to greet Remus.
They were all talking excitedly, trying to fill Remus in with the events, punctuated by remarks of how happy they were to have him back.
Harry looked around at the happy room, feeling oddly isolated from it. Time for him to go. With a flick of his wand, his robes changed to black and his face changed back to its original appearance. He was preparing to disapperate when he felt a strange chill in the air, not unfriendly, but more like a shift in the direction of a cool breeze. He stood on edge, feeling oddly protective of the room and its inhabitants.
There.
A disruption. In the far corner of the room, he felt time shifting angrily, trying to close the hole that was steadily forming there. From what he could tell, it wasn't his own time, and Harry wasn't in the mood for anything to go wrong to day. At that moment, he almost closed it, but something stopped him.
Actually, there's something quite important for you to do before you go back. He remembered Fate telling him in that brief moment when he had dozed off. So he waited, ready nonetheless, to close the portal in an instant, but it was steadily reaching larger proportions.
The other people in the room suddenly seemed to realize it was there.
"What is it?" Ron asked.
Just then, a voice floated through, sounding strange and distant.
"I need help. Please help me."
Harry's eyes narrowed. Somehow, he knew that voice.
"I don't have the strength. I need your help or I'll loose."
"Who is it?" Hermione asked, taking a tentative step closer to the portal.
"Stay away from it!" Ron said, pulling her back. "It could be dangerous!" Hermione looked at him annoyed, and jerked away. "They need help!"
"It's me!"
"Who is it?" Remus repeated, leaning closer to the portal, fascinated.
Some kind of noise was coming from the background. It sounded like a child crying
"Did you hear that?" Ron asked, eyes narrowing.
"What is it?" Sirius asked.
"Where did it come from? Where does it go?" Hermione asked, her quest for knowledge getting the better of her. She took another step forward.
"I need your help! I can't do this without you and I don't have any time! Please help me!"
Hermione took another step closer and Ron stood protectively next to her, although not pulling her back this time. Remus stood up from his bed (still in full robes, Harry noticed sourly) and walked forward on slightly shaky legs that quickly regained their balance. "They need help," he pointed out.
"We have to go," Hermione said, taking another step forward.
"You're crazy!" Sirius said emphatically.
"Are you just going to stand there?" Hermione asked incredulously.
"I'm going in," Remus said suddenly. Everyone looked at him, but his eyes were fixed on the portal.
Just then, Hermione moved. Faster than anyone could react, she had leapt at the portal.
"Stop!" Ron yelled, making to grab her. He missed.
Ron and Sirius both leapt after her at the same time, bumping into each other as they jumped through.
"Harry?" asked a voice on the other side of the portal.
"Where are we?" Ron's voice asked on the other side as Sirius's voice asked, "What's going on?"
"Who are these people?" Hermione's voice asked, sounding as though she were talking to someone she knew.
"Is that Harry?" Sirius's voice asked incredulously.
"There's a little girl here!" Hermione cried.
"Is that Harry?" asked Sirius's voice again.
Remus seemed to have made up his mind to go through. He looked back at Harry as though surprised to see him still in the room. "Here I go," he said, shrugging. With that, he leapt through.
With the room emptied, Harry cautiously approached the portal. Voices were coming out of it, confused voices that were rather muddled, but Harry caught the general gist.
Did he feel slightly guilty about letting the others go through while he hung back and assessed the situation?
A little.
It appeared to be sometime in the future. It couldn't possibly be in the past. He knew everything about his own and the Potter boy's past and he had no memory of anything like this. There was a person there that seemed to know the kid, but none of the others. That was odd. Maybe--
A voice floated through the portal and the hair on the back of Harry's neck stood on end.
Voldemort.
What was going on? Voldemort was dead. Completely and thoroughly dead. He knew this for a fact.
A date was mentioned. 3003? Bloody hell. And he thought he did a lot of time traveling. But why would Harry be in such an outrageous year? More importantly, why would Voldemort?
Hermione's voice floated through clearly, asking he very question he was wondering.
"Why don't you just die when you're supposed to?"
"My dear Granger," Voldemort's voice said, amused. "I do."
The next part of the conversation informed Harry that the Harry through the portal was, for some reason, sixteen. What was going on?
The next moment it was hard to hear anything. He recognized the sound well. Fighting. Apparently the kid really did need help. How many times was he to pull him out of difficult situations?
Actually, there's something quite important for you to do before you go back.
Harry sighed.
"Here we go again," he muttered, and leapt through the portal.
'''''''''''''
A/N: Again, if you don't understand, read 3003. The end. I promised I'd finish this and I did. At the moment I'm not working on anything new. In fact, although I started a 3003 sequel, I realized that my writing in 3003 was so terrible in itself that if I didn't correct the problem, I could never show my face for as long as I live. So, I'm hoping I can finish it and I really have been working on it, but if I can't, that's it! Thank you everyone for reviewing me and sticking with me through my time of disappearance and reappearance. Newer reviewers, sorry to come and go so fast!
Signing off,
--Gilthas