Chapter 11: All the Dreams you Have…

The doctors diagnosed it as a coma.

Of course, that didn't explain how his pitch colored hair had bled to an old man's white.

Raenef hadn't woken even the slightest for a month. He had been admitted to the hospital the morning after his birthday party. Hejem had driven the boy to the hospital, making the necessary phone call to Raenef's relatives on the way. Chris had been ordered to stay home and Erutis was to watch him.

There had been no head trauma, or trauma of any sort. The doctors tested for allergies, toxins, anything that could have shut his body down. They went in to his medical history, they looked in to Petunia's side of the family's medical history and couldn't find anything. They would have looked in to Raenef's father's side of the family but not only was the man deceased, so was every other relative on that side of the family and there were no accessible medical records to find.

Raenef had been settled down in to a long-term hospital room.

Two months passed. Visits to Raenef's unconscious form slowed from daily to weekly to every other week.

The neighborhood as a whole was giving the Dursleys their support, there were almost daily visits to the Dursley's home from the families of Privet Drive.

By the third month, Eclipse had vacated the Dursley home and appeared to take residence in Chris and Hejem's home. Hejem assured Petunia that Raenef's 'pet' would be well taken care of and would not be lost.

Eclipse stayed in Hejem's office, making a place for himself on the window seal. Not much for conversation passed between Hejem and Eclipse in the early days. It took till the second month for Eclipse to finally crack and bequeath Hejem with his worries and trouble—and to talk about the aggravating need to be by Raenef's side that his unconscious body in a hospital did not allow. They discussed the strange energy both men felt that night, the frightening seizure Raenef's body gained that morning.

Three months passed. Raenef's brain was functional, as in there were waves and activity. But the boy never stirred. He was expected to wake up any time, but the longer that he went without actually waking up was of great concern. Feeding tubes were a constant for him now, surgically implanted in to his body so that he didn't lack nutrition. He didn't need a breathing machine, but he was constantly hooked up to machines to assure his continued life.

At the three month mark, even though the brain activity was so high… the hospital started to talk to Petunia and Vernon about their… 'options'.

Eclipse stared moodily out of the window. It was the third month now and it was just too cruel—no one knew what had happened. Eclipse and Hejem didn't know what happened. Oh, they both knew that another party was involved, and that magic had somehow done in his little lord. But without the ability to observe his master, he was powerless to do anything to help. He had had Hejem go in his stead, but the man was not a demon. Even for a holy man, there were things that only a demon could sense.

It was two months too long to trace the assailant by a magically signature anyway.

Swiping a claw at the window he was staring out of, Eclipse narrowed his eyes as the fur over his body prickled up. No, he wasn't happy with his current predicament at all. He… desperately wanted to be at Raenef's side. Not only had he sworn to the other, and also to himself, that he would remain at Raenef's side, he had promised himself that Raenef would never be attacked again.

Lo and behold, Raenef was attacked. And he had been right next to the boy the whole time. He had been right at Raenef's side and he hadn't done a single thing. He hadn't been able to do a single thing. He didn't even understand it… he still didn't understand it.

Why? Why did this occur?

There was no answer.

And there was no one to ask while he remained in this powerless form.

Eclipse contemplated moving from the window seal of Hejem's second floor's office. There was plenty of room for him to walk around. And even then he could just go to his 'borrowed' room that Hejem was allowing him the use of. They had come to a simple agreement for future prosperity—they would both scratch each other's back when it was needed. They would help each other within the binds of culture and religion.

But Hejem was unable to help in this case. Even without the scholar followers of Hejem's faith, or worldwide libraries of great knowledge… Even with all of that, Demons still kept their secrets far from human eyes. Eclipse did not find it surprising that Hejem turned up nothing, even if he did find it disappointing.

Demons would not share their weaknesses with humans, why would they share their strengths?

Eclipse withheld the sigh as he stretched out his body delicately. He could feel the back pains that came from not moving around enough. He'd have to start taking some more walks. And who knew, maybe it could help him sort out his tension and anxieties. Closing his eyes for a moment, Eclipse just breathed and calmed himself back down.

A few long moments later, he turned his head to look to the floor…

But instead locked eyes with the last person he wanted to see for the next several hundred years. And Krayon looked furious. Decked once again in one of his frivolous outfits of gold and earth and too tight pants and too many wind spirits fluttering around his cape and hair—Krayon was always a sight of pain to see. Eclipse tensed, his hair moving to stand in as he took in the Demon Lord's furious eyes.

One didn't need to be a genius to connect he dots. He put his lord and Krayon's dots together and…

"What did you do?" Eclipse hissed, forgoing any niceties with the Demon Lord he was sure was the cause of his little lord's coma. There were to be no formalities when involved with Krayon, the man who had been a thorn in his side since Raenef the fifth.

Krayon merely raised his eyebrows at Eclipse's blatantly rude display and sneered, "why, what makes you think the glorious me would have anything to do with something so menial?" He shifted his head daintily to the side and the wind spirits in his hair shot his elegant curls off to the side to correspond with the movement. Eclipse narrowed his eyes at the other, "why else would you be here, then." It wasn't a question, it was the logic that came with Krayon's appearance.

Eclipse had, at one point in his long, long life, assumed that Krayon would totally remove himself with involvement with the Raenef line. Near the end of the fifth's life, he hadn't seen Krayon in years. With the arrival of the sixth, Krayon had come back with a vengeance and he had come back… different. Sure, he had always been sadistic before, but he had, during the fourth and fifth Raenef's lives, been something of a ditz.

He had grown in to his own and became a demon lord to be fears when he came back.

Eclipse pulled his lips back from his teeth and warily watched the demon. The demon with furious eyes and such an amused smile—"what did you do?" He needed to fix the other's petty cruelties. It was already going to be hard on Raenef when he woke up again, he didn't need to sleep any longer then this.

Krayon eased his tapered body slowly off of the desk he had been perched on to allow his heeled, booted feet to touch the floor. "That really isn't the question at the moment." Krayon spoke airily, closing his eyes as he gracefully tossed his hands in to the air as he approached the window seal that had been housing Eclipse for the last few months. Krayon moved until he was leaning against the wall next to the window, looking down at the cursed demon.

"The question is… why are you so… weak. Pitiful. What is with that form?" Krayon reached out and flicked one of Eclipse's delicate ears, getting a hiss from the cat as well as the other backing up to the other side of the large window seal. Eclipse wasn't letting up for a moment. The other's act would not fool him. Calm and cool may be how the other looked, but he was none of those if the demon's eyes were any clue. "What does it matter to you?" Eclipse kept his voice low and did his best to refrain from hissing.

"Because you are mine." One of Krayon's hands shot out to grab Eclipse by the neck, but the advisor dodge and waved away from the hand. Krayon wasn't moving from where he was leaving against the wall, so Eclipse had no problem evading for the current moment. If Eclipse's current body could scowl, he would be scowling. As it was, his face merely wrinkled up as he growled.

Such a claim was preposterous, and Eclipse promptly told the Demon Lord so.

Krayon's arrogant laugh didn't make Eclipse feel any better.

"I took in your little lord for a wager, with your servitude on the line. The glorious me, of course, completely defeated him." It really wasn't bragging so much at this point. Krayon reached out and pressed a hand against the window as he stepped closer to Eclipse.

"You're mine…"

"But as of now, you're far too pathetic to keep." Krayon's features twisted as he made another swipe. Eclipse dodged, but it ran a lot closer that time around then the first grab. "If I'm too pathetic, you should take your leave while returning my Lord back to his natural state."

Krayon shook his head, "oh, no. Not in any of your dreams." He chuckled at his own private joke.

"… This body of yours appears to be a rather unique curse," Krayon hummed, moving to tap some of his long fingernails against the glass. "With set conditions, from what I can observe." He hummed, eyeing Eclipse for a long moment before dismissing the subject. It was of little consequence for now.

"I have… better plans now. He may not be fixed correctly, but I can toss his consciousness back in to his body, return him to this plane and allow the boy a chance to regain his strength…" He didn't have to worry about Eclipse blabbing anything of his plans, so Krayon allowed himself to speak lightly with the other.

Krayon looked down his nose at Eclipse and a smirk as cruel as it was jagged explained the glint that had appeared in his eyes. Eclipse felt the fur on his back rising as the air grew thick with tension and he tensed from his spot on the window seal, eyes wide as he stared at the sudden threat that Krayon was making himself out to be. The Demon Lord hadn't needed to speak a word, his intent was clear in the very air around him as he took a single step forward.

But Krayon was always one for theatrics.

"Well… For now, for now you'll be my pet." Krayon laughed as his too quick hand slammed down on to Eclipse's neck, slamming his weakling form in to the seal that he had been perched on. There had just been no escape from it. Dazed, Eclipse hung limply in the air as Krayon held him up by the fur on the back of his neck.

"I'll keep you close to my side… until your little insult to demon kind can suitably take his training again. I'll rid you of this… curse." Krayon's lips had turned up cruelly as he swung Eclipse side to side by the demon's fur. "I'll give you your beautiful, powerful body back to you…" He reached out with his other hand and scratched the cat's chin even as Eclipse regained his bearings to snap his teeth at the demon.

Eclipse didn't catch that finger.

"And I'll promptly wipe that little snot's existence from the planet." Krayon's face glowed with contempt, anger and something akin to pleasure. Not only had that brat had the gall to injure him so, the little bastard had kept Eclipse's curse from him as a sure sign that Krayon wouldn't be able to eliminate him. It now told Krayon that the boy never planned on having Eclipse change his services.

Krayon would force a change. He wanted the prestige, he wanted the status that came with Eclipse.

But overall… he had never gotten as much amusement anywhere else. The Raenef line was disgusting, disappointing yet amusing at the same time. That line had found a human that he had truly been interesting in before she had died. He had been bored for so long, and now that the Raenef line wasn't as extinct as he had assumed it was from so many years of quiet… He had inserted himself neatly in to the Raenef's life and had promptly ruined it for his own amusement.

This, Eclipse's curse, was an honest set back.

But nothing could ruin his good hopes.

Eclipse hissed and moved to claw at him, but Krayon promptly smacked the cursed demon in to the wall and dazed him again. Readying his incantation, Krayon belted it out, watched Eclipse's futile struggle with great amusement.

…so maybe he was taking pleasure out of Eclipse's pain for his vindication, but this was a century's resentment coming through for the other. Krayon did not appreciate being slighted. Not in the leas t bit.

He finished the incantation and disappeared, Eclipse's last futile yowl of protest fell on to no one's ears.

The next morning Raenef awoke in the hospital in a screaming fit.

By that evening, he slowly awoke from a sedative coma to fragmented memories and no clue of who he was, who the Dursleys were… or to who anyone was. He didn't know any names or places, he couldn't remember his schooling, and Raenef's underused muscles were put in even more strain over the fact that he couldn't remember how to properly move.

He was immediately started on rehabilitation and he flourished under his Aunt's love and care when she was in the hospital and he connected with Dudley as the boy once again offered Raenef the proverbial olive branch.

The damage that had been done had been extensive, but Raenef would rebound. Or hopefully he would rebound. The nurses were starting to report crying fits during the night, nightmares that made him wake up panting or in screams. Night terrors, Raenef had trouble sleeping but he never really remembered what he dreamed about.

It were the little things that were adding up.

On the fourth month in to Raenef's stay, he was released from the hospital and plans were to reintroduce him to his schooling at a most basic level. The doctors had been sure that his basic skills would return quickly with a reintroduction in to school. The Dursleys found a tutor to help things along with Raenef, to get the other back to his place in the world.

Raenef still had his nightmares, and sometimes he woke up screaming. But without the cause or any real way to stop it, they just prayed that they would ease with time. And a month later they did.

All things considering… Raenef didn't come back the same. He was still shy, but it was no longer the docile shy that Raenef had owned. He was distant with his old friends to the point where they all slowly drifted from him. Dudley started to ignore the boy, and he was slowly isolated. His memories didn't really come back, but he was able to relearn the school material at a decent pace for him to be placed within the school to work with special teachers to return him to his proper level.

Hejem and Chris moved from the neighborhood, and they didn't leave a forwarding address. Petunia was still bitter over the fact that Raenef's pet, Eclipse, had disappeared.

Erutis slowly drifted off to children her age. She stopped coming around.

Petunia watched, pained that Raenef had fallen so far from himself, but she was more then determined to right the boy. To help him gain back his friends and his life. She was starting to smother him, but he loved the familial attention and he accepted the smothering with a smile and eager hugs.

He was fixing himself… but he was coming up wrong. This wasn't Raenef.

In the fifth month after the incident, Petunia realized just how much Raenef… no, how much Harry had changed.

Petunia watched, horrified and frozen in place as the plate that slipped through Raenef's fingers slowed down and hovered above the ground. Raenef watched it as well with wide, curious eyes that were filled with amazement and awe.

This shouldn't have happened. This wasn't supposed to happen.

Everything had been so perfect.

She watched, numb, as the boy leaned down and gently picked the plate up, feeling it for strings as he did so. She continued to stand by the kitchen table, next to the supplies she had pulled out to make sandwiches as Raenef… no, it wasn't Raenef anymore. It was a hollow, bitter realization but Petunia knew, in this single instant, that the young boy she had loved as a second son was truly and wholly dead.

Only Harry Potter, Lily's son, remained in the wake of Raenef's 'death'.

There would be no recovery back to Raenef. The memories of these years may come back to the child eventually, but he wouldn't be Raenef no matter how much he may remember. He could never return now that he had done it. There was no return from magic.

Her knees gave out from under her and Petunia fell back on to the seat of her dress. Raenef… no, 'Harry' jumped, startled as he looked over to his Aunt as if realizing that she was there for the first time. He smiled, wide and toothy and innocent as he bashfully held up the plate to his Aunt. "It didn't break!" He said as he continued his journey and placed it on the table. He paused, shifted and looked to his Aunt with that same curious expression he had held since he had been brought home from the hospital with little to none of his memories intact.

"Aunt Petunia, why are you sitting on the floor?" He asked, turning to face his Aunt with his small hands resting on the edge of the table. It was like watching a train wreck, Petunia supposed. It was like seeing one's life flash before their eyes except it wasn't her life she was seeing, but of the events that led to Raenef's loss of memory and subsequent death where only Lily's offspring remained. If she hadn't let him go to that sleepover, he would have been just fine. If she hadn't allowed him to go, he wouldn't have been in the coma.

She didn't know for sure, but she knew that something had gone terribly, terribly wrong. If he hadn't lost his memories, he could have gone on his whole life as someone normal! Someone without any abnormal traits… Someone who wouldn't leave her… Her heart clenched as she watched his curious face start to wilt in the presence of her scrutiny and silence. He could have grown up here, with her, and gone to University and make a life for himself in this world.

But now he was only borrowed goods.

Just like Lily had been.

Petunia lowered her eyes and whispered harshly for the boy to go to his room. The boy hesitated and Petunia almost had to yell at him—he scampered out in time before she could bring herself to do it.

He was only borrowed goods. Never to belong to the world she lived in. Something hot and terrible rushed through her. A familiar old feeling that had died with Lily, a feeling she hadn't expected to feel again while the boy lived a happy and normal life. The hot rush of jealousy, of envy and of pain; the emotion was so strong Petunia was almost sick because of it. He had been family. Her second son was dead now because Harry Potter didn't belong to her, even she wouldn't be as foolish as to believe he would be able to stay now that he had showed his… magic.

Lily had been condemned just as easily. Magic was a poison that took all that was good from her life—Petunia knew this and had accepted it and had praised God every day for not allowing Raenef to be 'gifted' with such a trait. He had been so happy and whole; but with one single taste of magic he was now tarnished beyond repair. Lily had tried to explain what using magic had felt like. Petunia had seen the near fanatical gleam in her sister's eyes as she had spoken.

Magic was a poison, an addiction. Harry would soon fall under it's terrible spell.

He wouldn't want to stay. He would be just like her baby sister. They were just children, awed and amazed at the idea that magic really existed. But Petunia knew the truth behind it all. Even with something was beautiful and as glorious as magic appeared to be, the world wasn't made for magic, humans weren't made to really use magic. That was why it was such a poison. It was such a violating addiction that ruined the happiness of all that it touched. Magic was an abnormality to the world and it created an imbalance.

Like Lily, Harry would soon be going to that place where she couldn't protect Lily. Leaning heavily against the table, Petunia acknowledged the fact that he would die, just like her. Magic would be the death of him, just like her.

Magic was the death sentence here. It was the gift turned back on its owner.

It was a poison that Harry would die of as well.

With great power came great consequence. Human beings had to pay for the life that they were given. They had to work for it and the hardships that normal people faced day to day was the price that people like her paid. But for the magic that was given there had to be a sacrifice of some sort, a special sacrifice. There was something that needed to be given in order to pay back the Creator for giving such a gift.

Harry's parents had paid for it and Harry would pay his price as well. The price to be paid would be Harry's life, like all of the magical people before him, a life would be what was needed to pay off the debt he had made with the creator. To live, someone had to die. Harry was already gone, and his happiness would soon be the price. Like a drug addiction, he would crave more and more magic. He would want to use it more and soon his very happiness would depend on it.

He would be totally detached from her then, and Petunia knew that, while that initial letter that came with Harry on that doorstep spoke of peace in that world of poison, she knew that there would be no peace. Not for them. Closing her eyes and resting her forehead against the table…

…Petunia prayed with her tears in silence—and wished a painless death for the boy she used to claim as son who was now, no more then a stranger. And a stranger she would stay to him, not an ounce of warmth would touch the boy from her. She needed to distance herself. Her son was dead, and she would not endure a second death.

Harry Potter was already dead. He had died the moment that plate floated so innocently above the ground.

Harry leaned against the door of the smallest bedroom of the house with a sob, his hands reaching up and scrub harshly at his eyes. He didn't understand what he was doing wrong! No one… no one liked him anymore. The people who had been his friends had left him…

…the people who were supposed to be his family were disappointed in him…

He was trying his best!

He wanted to remember, but at the same time there was a faint echo of knowledge inside him that said he didn't really want to remember. And Harry feared over the fact, he was so scared. He couldn't remember what happened and no one understood it. And he was so scared of finding out now. He was scared of a lot of things now.

And he just didn't now how to deal with it.

Harry slide down to the floor of his room with a whimper.

And he always felt so alone! It was an ache that he had been feeling ever since he woke up. He didn't know how to describe it, but he knew that something was gone. Something more vital then his memory and something more dear then his family.

And just then… when that plate had stopped from hitting the floor he had been filled with… something. Harry was hesitant to call it magic, but he wanted to call it something. He wanted it to be something he'd feel again because that something had made the painful ache of his body… better. He hadn't felt so sad for a few brief, blissful moments and he wanted that feeling again.

He wanted magic. It made him feel better. He wanted it so, so terribly bad.

He didn't want to feel this empty anymore. Raenef turned his eyes to the items of his room and willed them to float. The possessions in his room levitated up from the ground with a black crackle…

And Harry smiled through his sniffles as something akin to liquid happiness started to flow through his veins and he told himself…

… this was home…

…right?

Harry Potter felt like he had gone home the moment Hagrid introduced him to the Wizarding World. His place in the world grew and the feeling inside assuaged itself into something so distant that the child soon forgot it and moved on.

He moved on. He was home.

Petunia Dursley forced herself to stop mourning. She moved on.

Eclipse, in pain, could not move on. And he wished dearly to be back at the side of the child he was meant to protect and help grow. But in his weak state, he couldn't even dream of such a thing. He and Raenef were at the mercy of another Demon Lord…

And he mourned for his weakness, and he mourned for Raenef's pain…

And the remembered promises that broke faster then rain.

You haven't seen the world outside for days

You sleep

You hope

You wait

Imagination disappears and all the dreams you have

You save

-Our Lady Peace, "Right Behind You"

A/N : Alright... this is all wrapped up now. I guess some things probably went unexplained. If this didn't make any sense to some of you or if you see any inconsistencies... please point them out. Like just now, I noticed that chapter ten was actually called 'chapter eleven' and I hadn't noticed. If something like that shows up, someone would be willing to tell me, right? Either way, read and review and I'll do my best to get to work on the sequal soon.

A/N 2 : ... oh dear, Thank you so much Black Flash. You really saved me there. I hope the edit turned out alright. Thank you so much for telling me about that. I should have known about the health care. I guess it just slipped my mind too much since I don't actually live in the UK. Thank you a bunch.