Recuperation - 9

"What about them?" Ginny asked, staring intently at the mugs as if trying to decipher the problem. "They look like the ones at Hogwarts. What's wrong?"

"I…I remember," he said, feeling dazed. The air seemed to still around him and the crashing of the waves sounded distant and out of place.

Ginny frowned. "Remember?" she asked, holding her palms up in question. "What do you remember? You've lost me."

Harry swallowed, searching her eyes – for what he wasn't certain – but he knew that he needed to tell her. In the past, she'd always helped him to feel better and set things to rights. Ginny would never laugh at him, or call him mad, or tell him it was impossible.

"After I kil–" he paused, "After it was over, at the Ministry, I went into that locked room."

"What locked room?" she asked, clearly confused. "What are you on about? You didn't go anywhere, Harry. I was right with you, and you didn't leave that room until we brought you to St. Mungo's."

Harry shook his head. "No. I remember seeing you on the floor with me, and I saw Hermione and Ron, too. It was like I was floating and watching you all," Harry said, struggling to get the words out.

Ginny's eyes flew open wide, her irises expanding so much that the brown was barely visible. "You were in the in-between?"

"The in-between?" Harry asked warily.

"It's the place in-between life and death. Bill says that many people have hovered there after a life-threatening experience. Those who weren't killed instantly and managed to recover from their injuries have told about it," Ginny said, awestruck.

"I suppose," Harry said, not wanting to accept any more oddities in his life. "Anyway, there's this secret locked room in the Department of Mysteries. Professor Dumbledore told me about it before he died. I went in that room that night – and he was there, too," Harry said, tensing as he awaited her reaction.

Ginny swallowed. "Who was there?"

"Professor Dumbledore. He was waiting for me, and he said the only way to get inside the locked room is within your mind," Harry said, reaching out and grabbing Ginny's hand. She turned her palm upward and clutched fiercely.

"That makes sense. The Unspeakables study all sorts of unanswered things there," she said with a tremor.

"He said that we were inside my mind, and I'd called him because he was the one who usually explained stuff to me that I didn't understand," Harry said, not wanting to delve into the fact that his mind had been so barren at the time.

"Did he help you?" Ginny asked quietly. Her eyes were so wide – so caring – that he thought he could fall into their depths. It strengthened him, somehow.

"I couldn't understand how I'd managed to do it," Harry said, his throat raw and scratchy. "He said the voices behind the Veil helped me. He said some of them were people who'd loved me."

Ginny rested her other hand on Harry's knee, squeezing it gently and waiting for him to gather his voice to continue.

It took him a few moments before he could. "He wasn't the only one I saw," he said, a small tic working in his jaw.

"Oh?" Ginny asked, keeping the solid pressure on his knee.

Harry blinked rapidly. "Sirius arrived first. He missed the whole final battle because he was chatting up some witch," he said, chuckling a little as he swiped at his nose.

Ginny smiled softly. "That really doesn't surprise me."

"It… it was good to see him again. I mean, it was good to see him that way. It made it easier somehow," Harry said, clearing his throat.