Disclaimer: Harry Potter and all of its characters belong to J.K. Rowling. I own nothing but the original characters I create.
"Dialogue"
'Thoughts'
-Author notes-
Chapter 275: Harry's Memories
"You want me to enter your mind?" Lyra asked again.
"There are some things that… unless you see them for yourself, you won't be keen on believing them. I'm afraid that explaining my… let's say 'special circumstances' with words… well, it won't be enough."
"Is it that incredible? I knew it! You are a time traveler, right?!" Lyra stood up from the couch with excitement.
"Calm down, Lyra. You'll see soon enough. You need to sit back down."
"Right…" She calmed down a bit. "So, what do I have to do?"
"Normally, you would use Legilimency on me, but since you haven't learned it yet, we'll have to do it differently." Harry pointed his wand at her.
"Hold on, isn't that the same as before? You will enter my mind," Lyra said.
"It is a bit more complex than that. A mental attack like Legilimency works by establishing a connection between both minds. The one doing the attack will always have the advantage. But if the other person is skilled enough, they could use that chance to turn the attack back to the aggressor."
"You mean that I can enter the mind of someone who is attacking me?" Lyra had never heard of that before.
"It is possible. And I will put aside my defenses to grant you entrance so it will be very easy in this case. Now… let's begin."
Harry used the same spell again, but this time, instead of trying to access Lyra's inner mind, he opened the connection even wider while removing any resistance on his end.
A moment later, Lyra's mind was diving into his.
When she regained her senses, Lyra found herself looking at the moon and stars.
"What is this? When did we leave the house?"
"We didn't... Look around you."
As she heard her brother's voice, she looked ahead of her and was shocked by the view.
"Whoa! What in Merlin's name happened here?!" She appeared to be in the middle of a large city, but everything was in ruins. Most of the buildings were half-collapsed and there was fire everywhere.
"What city is this?" she asked.
"We are less than twenty blocks away from the River Thames. If you look towards the East, I believe that St. Paul's Cathedral is that way… and if you keep going in that direction, you will reach the Tower of London. Or whatever was left of it."
"This is London?!" Lyra did not have the chance to visit these big cities very often, but she was somewhat familiar with London at least.
"This is not 'your' London. This is… or was… 'my' London," Harry told her.
Lyra made a confused expression, but when she turned around to look at her brother, she could not find him.
"Harry? Where are you?"
"Look to your right."
She now realized that the voice of her brother was not coming from anywhere in particular and then remembered that she was inside his mind.
When Lyra followed his instructions, she found a small group of young people, walking through the ruined streets of the city.
She had no idea who they were at first, but they began to walk directly towards her and as they got closer… their faces became a lot more familiar.
"Are they?... no, they look…"
"Older? They are older than the ones you know. Around eight years older, in fact. But you can still tell who they are?" Harry asked.
"Of course!" Lyra sounded a bit offended by the question.
The one at the front of the group was a tall young man with short dark hair, brilliant green eyes and a pair of circular glasses. He was wearing a dirty brown trench coat. But no matter how ragged he looked or how much older he was… she would never fail to recognize her own brother.
"That's you!" Lyra smiled. "You look so old!"
"I was only twenty-one back then…" Harry's voice sounded slightly bitter.
"And the other ones…" She pointed at the bushy-haired girl at Harry's side.
"Hermione!... wow! She looks so pretty, even with those dirty robes."
A bit behind Harry was a redheaded man with slightly long hair and a very unfriendly expression.
"Is that Bill Weasley?... or Charlie?"
"That is Ron Weasley," Harry answered.
"That's Ron?... you were friends with him?" Lyra raised an eyebrow. From all of Ginny's brothers, that was definitely her least favorite. And considering that Percy was one of them… that was saying a lot.
"I was…" Harry did not deny it.
"I don't know who the last one is…" On Harry's other side, was a tall and strong-looking man. He had short brown hair and a chiseled jawline. The man was wearing something that resembled more armor than a wizard tunic and carried a sword on his hip.
"He is kinda handsome though…"
"You do know him. That is Neville Longbottom."
"What?! That's Neville?!" Lyra was completely shocked. "Is he really going to look like that in a few years?..."
"I can't give you any guarantees… this version of Neville has gone through a lot already."
"Version?..." Lyra took a step back when she noticed that they just kept coming closer to her.
"Wait! Neville?" She put her hands forward as to stop him, but the figure of Neville continued forward and passed right through her as if she wasn't there.
"This is just a memory, remember? You cannot interact with them in any way. You can just watch…" The voice of her brother resounded everywhere and made her feel a bit foolish for her actions.
"Right… I forgot." Lyra turned around and could now see the backs of the group.
"Where are they going?"
As she asked that… the top of one of the nearby buildings exploded into a rain of fire and debris.
Some massive figure came crashing down and landed close to the group.
The creature reminded Lyra of a gorilla. She had only seen its picture in books but this one seemed many times bigger than those. Its fur was also of a different color. This one was bright red… just like its eyes. And it had four arms…
That 'thing' roared with pure rage and everything around began to shake and break.
"To answer your question… they came to kill a demon."
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