What If?
His eyes still gazed upon her, while she was still totally oblivious that he was still looking at her in complete disbelief.
"That's my mother..." He told Su breathlessly.
"She probably isn't your mother, just a clone." Su pointed out.
"It's the closest I'll probably ever get though." He argued.
Carefully, he walked inside the room and got closer and closer to her and as he did so the more and more she looked just like the woman that he had always seen in pictures but couldn't really remember.
So this was her, he thought.
Okay, so it probably wasn't exactly her. Probably just a clone like Su suggested, but he still had to get to know her.
The question of just why she had been cloned in the first place entered his mind, but it quickly went away as she began to stir.
The sound of his footsteps on what was hard concrete floor awakened her as her eyes fluttered open.
Emerald green eyes exactly like his own looked back at him.
"James?" She asked in wonder.
She thought that he was her husband.
"I'm Harry," He admitted.
"Harry?" She asked in equal wonder.
"We've come to rescue you." He said.
They hadn't technically come to rescue her, but it seemed like the right thing to say nonetheless.
Her eyes filled with tears as she couldn't seem to take her eyes off him, but then again neither could he.
When he got close enough, she reached out his hand to touch his face.
Her hand felt warm and extremely comforting for some reason.
"I can't believe you're real, you look so much like James, only younger." She told him, "Except you have my eyes. How is this happening?"
"Are you my real mother or are you a clone?" He asked.
She seemed to stiffen at that as she reluctantly told him, "I'm so sorry, Harry, I'm a clone, I just happen to have all of her memories."
A moment of awkwardness passed between them.
Scratch that. This whole situation was somewhat awkward and he really wasn't sure how to handle it. Finally he decided to just continue to be accepting.
"I don't care, I'm just happy to see you." He insisted.
A great deal of relief flooded her expression, her mood and demeanor lightening noticeably. He hadn't even noticed her worried expression before, but now she was smiling, eyes watery.
"I am too," She agreed, "I hoped everyday that I would escape or someone would find me but I never thought that it would be you."
She reached out to hug him which he allowed her to do as he hugged him back.
So this was what it felt like to be hugged by his mother.
It felt good, he had to admit.
"Harry?" Su asked from behind him, "I'm not sure if you should be getting so close or so attached so soon. We don't know what kinds of things Dumbledore might have done to her."
"She's my mother though." Harry argued.
"She's still a clone and we still need to be careful. Mental manipulations are hard to spot, impossible without a full scan, actually." Su told him.
He was prepared to argue further, but Lily, or his mother, or whoever she was to him released him and said, "She's right you know, I really don't know what has been done to me, I could be dangerous."
"How could you ever be dangerous to me?" He asked her.
"I don't want to take any chances with your safety." She said.
Reluctantly he got up and backed a bit of a ways away, yet never keeping his eyes off of her.
"So who is your friend?" His mother asked him.
"My name is Su, sorry for being a bit rude but I just want to be careful until you've been looked over properly." Su replied.
"It's okay." She agreed, seeming to understand.
"Su is my um..." He struggled to say as he tried to come up with a good way to explain their relationship.
"I'm his betrothed." Su finished for him.
His mother's eyes went wide with surprise.
"How did that happen? I thought I arranged a marriage contract with you and Susan Bones?" She asked.
"I'm still betrothed to Susan," Harry admitted, "I'm just betrothed to Su as well. It's kind of a long story."
"One which I'm not sure we should be having just yet." Su pointed out, "We've got more important things to do."
"Can you walk?" Harry asked tentatively.
"I'm not an invalid." his mother reminded him as if this was a silly question.
She got up to go and follow them out but as soon as she started to leave the doorway, immediately a look of pain came across her face as she collapsed.
"MUM!" Harry yelled going to see if she was all right.
He was relieved to find that she was still breathing and had a pulse as he checked her over but she had apparently been knocked unconscious.
"Dumbledore must have set up a spell to prevent her leaving," Su concluded, "I'll watch her, you go get help."
He ran off, now searching for Pansy.
NEWEVENTSNEWEVENTSNEWEVENTSNEWEVENTSNEWEVENTSNEWEV ENTSNEWEVENTS
As he did so a thought struck him: she was still helping Ariana who was also in grave peril.
Could he really try to get Pansy to abandon Ariana to a possible death to save his mother?
Well it was a decision he hoped he wouldn't have to make.
He made a brief prayer to some higher power if they even existed that that wouldn't happen and he would be able to find both of them.
When he got to where Pansy was, he spotted both her and another man currently squatting over Ariana both waving their wands over her.
Relief flooded him as he realized that this man was likely a healer.
Never in his life had he been more grateful to see a doctor.
"Pansy!" He practically yelled, "I need your help."
She looked up at him and asked, "I'm kind of busy right now."
The healer she was currently with answered and told her, "it's okay if you need to go help someone else. There really isn't much else you can do for her now. I'll continue to watch her and monitor her and do whatever I can for her."
Pansy looked reluctant, then finally nodded and got up to go.
"Follow me," He insisted as he set off into a run.
She was somewhat slower and so he had to slow down just a bit so she could run alongside him.
"Who's injured?" She asked.
"It's kind of complicated," He replied.
"You might want to uncomplicate it for me since I'm about to find out in a couple minutes," She pointed out.
He had to concede she did have a point and he didn't want her wasting any time in shock or surprise.
"It's my mother," He admitted.
"You mean Amelia?" She asked, not seeming to understand.
"No, not Amelia, I mean my mother, my real mother," He tried to explain.
"That's impossible though Harry, your mother is dead," She argued.
"She's a clone," He told her.
It was clear she was still doubting him and he couldn't blame her, it was a hard thing for anyone to simply accept. It was even hard for him to accept even when she had been standing right there in front of him.
They finally got back to the room she had been held in however and she got to see firsthand.
"Blimey!" Pansy exclaimed as she looked down at his mother.
"You want to keep staring or are you going to help her?" Su pointed out.
Shaking herself, Pansy ignored her surprise and went to go look her over.
As she ran over her with her wand, however, she said gravely, "She appears to be under some kind of curse. The problem is I have no idea how to rid her of it."
"There must be something we can do!" He roared.
"Calm down Harry, I'll do everything I can, I promise we won't lose her on my watch," Pansy promised.
He instantly clammed up at that. He was super worried and he knew it, but him yelling at her wouldn't help the situation. Pansy would do everything she could.
She continued to furiously work on his mother, with him and Su watching very nervously.
He felt Su touch his arm but barely noticed it, as worried as he was about his mother.
Finally she came up in front of him and wrapped her arms around him.
Since Su was so short, this did little to impede his view of Pansy and his mother, but it did feel somewhat comforting to have her hugging him, so he allowed himself to continue to hold her.
He just couldn't bear to lose his mother, not again. While he really didn't know her, this was truly one of his greatest desires: to have his mother back.
When Tonks and Fleur found them an hour later, he was still watching Pansy work.
Even though he was aware Pansy had no easy cure, he knew that he trusted no one else more than her to save his mother.
Tonks and Fleur began asking plenty of questions, but Pansy was too busy to answer them and he wasn't in the right mind set, leaving Su to explain, which she did quickly.
As she did so however, she was forced to stop hugging him.
He found he missed the contact, he needed something to keep him steady, he was a total bundle of nerves and fear right now and Su had actually helped with that.
Even though he was barely listening to Tonks, Fleur, and Su's conversation, it awakened him to the realization that he felt helpless in not being able to do anything for her.
He wanted to do something, anything, but he had no idea what he, with his very lacking medical skills could really do.
Simply jumping in to help would probably only mean that he would get in the way but he also hated just standing around, potentially watching his mother die again.
What kind of cruel fate was that? That he should be the only person ever to watch their own mother die twice, both times being murdered by a megalomaniac?
His thoughts then shifted to the fact that his mother may not be the only casualty on this difficult day.
Ariana was still there as well, also fighting for her life.
She also needed him.
Since he could not do anything here he decided to go check on her as well.
After telling Pansy to continue working on her and where he was going and to send someone to let him know if anything happened, he went over to where Ariana was.
When he got there however he found the healer that was supposed to be trying to save Ariana quietly sipping coffee and talking with one of the aurors.
"How come you aren't working on Ariana?" He demanded.
"I'm just taking a break Mr. Potter," the healer claimed, "I need a chance to rest too."
He supposed that was true causing him to deflate his anger a bit.
"Then tell me what I need to do, if there is some sort of spell...or something that I can do that might help," He suggested.
After feeling so helpless with his mother, he thought this was a good idea, and perhaps he could do the same thing to help Pansy.
The healer looked at him gravely and answered, "Mr. Potter, I'm afraid that it's not so simple as that. There is no spell or potion that I'm aware of to fix this problem. Maybe she will recover on her own, but I think that it might be best if you start preparing yourself for the worst."
"You mean just give up and let her die?" He asked in complete shock.
"There's nothing more I can really do for her," the healer admitted, "perhaps it might be best if you go outside and wait with the others. I'll call you in if her condition somehow improves...or if it looks like you might need to say your final goodbyes."
Pansy would never have given up, no matter how little hope there might have appeared to be.
"Excuse me if I don't feel the same way," He told the healer somewhat coldly.
If he would not at least try, then he would do so himself.
Going over to Ariana, he knelt down over her and tried to come up with something that might help, yet came up blank.
Earlier he had kissed Ariana in order to give her strength. They weren't sure if it would help, but he honestly had hoped that it would.
So he leaned down and kissed her again, this time for much longer.
Her lips were unresponsive, but that didn't mean that he didn't somehow feel that it was working.
As he continued, he tried to pour his feelings for her into the kiss. As much as he might have thought of Ariana as merely a friend or just an innocent girl trying to figure out her place in life, he realized such feelings went deeper than that, although exactly how deep he wasn't sure.
One thing he did know, was that she was now a very important part of his life and he didn't want to lose her.
He tried to pour his magic into her along with kissing her, almost willing her to live.
The healer came by behind him, but he totally ignored him and continued.
Finally to his amazement a change seemed to come over Ariana. Color seemed to return to her face and she appeared to be breathing easier.
The healer came closer to her to check on her and as he ran his tests, he declared, "I don't believe it, her breathing is normal, her fever is gone, it's like a miracle!"
"Never underestimate the power of love, doctor," Harry claimed wisely.
It was a strong claim, but somehow also fitting.
After about 20 minutes to make sure that Ariana would indeed be all right as the amazed doctor simply could not believe, he went back to go check on his mother.
When he got back however, Pansy was still hovering over his mother, yet as she turned to look at him, he noticed tears running down her face.
As he looked over at Su and Fleur, who had also remained, they had pained looks on her faces, only elevating his concern.
No, it couldn't be. She couldn't really be...
"I'm so sorry Harry," Pansy managed to say.
"Is she?" He asked fearfully, a lump in his throat already forming.
What would he do now if she was really dead so soon after getting her back?
"She isn't dead," Pansy explained.
Relief flooded him, but it was shortlived.
"I managed to keep her alive, but only just. I had to stop the curse from spreading so I had to put her in stasis. I believe the muggle term would be a medically induced coma," Pansy admitted.
"Will she ever come out of it?" He begged.
"I don't know, perhaps a better healer than me might know of a cure," Pansy suggested.
That somehow seemed unlikely. Pansy while young and inexperienced was in his opinion (which was admittedly biased) one of the best healers in Britain and if she was so worried, then he had great cause to be afraid himself.
"Perhaps Ariana might know of something," Su suggested.
That actually seemed very plausible. The curse was done by Dumbledore, and Dumbledore had taught Ariana almost everything he knew. There was a chance, even a good one that she might know of a cure.
It struck him that in saving Ariana, he may very well have saved his mother as well. He hadn't been thinking of it when he had saved her earlier, but it just might turn out to be true.
"How is Ariana?" Pansy asked, sounding almost afraid to know the answer.
"She's fine and the healer says she should recover," He said simply.
While there was a lot more to it than that in just what had happened earlier, he simply did not have the voice to explain it.
Su and Pansy both went over to hug him at the same time, which he returned gratefully.
A few seconds later, both girls moved away so that Fleur could hug him.
It was a stressful time, but he just had to believe that everything would turn out okay, and at least he still had the girls to help get him through it.
Pansy, despite not knowing what to do, continued to tirelessly work until Tonks came back in to check on them.
They had wanted to stay and see what they could do, but Tonks after seeing how exhausted each of them were, commanded them to leave and get some rest.
He had wanted to argue, but admittedly he didn't have the strength for it as tired as he was. After the days events what with fighting Dumbledore both mentally and physically, fighting clones, rescuing his mother only to see her collapse, then saving Ariana and using up so much of his energy to do so, he was exhausted, on the verge of collapsing himself.
With the realization that he could not do anyone any good in the condition he was in, he allowed himself to go back to the manor and immediately get some sleep, falling asleep almost as soon as his head hit the pillow.
When he awoke late in the afternoon the next day, he got up immediately to find out what was going on with his mother.
He found Tonks first and asked her.
"I'm afraid there has been no change," Tonks admitted, "what Pansy did saved her life but the literal team of healers that Amelia sent to try and figure out the problem haven't been able to come up with a cure either. We've been sending out messages to other healers around the world, although of course keeping the identity of Lily secret. Don't worry, we'll find something."
It was comforting to know the lengths they were going to try and save her, but until a cure was found, it was still worrisome.
He would say that Ariana was still their best chance at saving her, not only because she was Ariana, but because she was Ariana, and she had some serious skills and knowledge.
That thought made him feel slightly guilty, almost like he wanted Ariana to be okay just so that she could save his mother.
"What about Ariana?" He asked.
"She at least is fine," Tonks explained, "we think in perhaps a couple of days she should awaken."
He nodded. A couple of days was longer than he wanted to wait, but it couldn't be helped. As long as the curse was held in stasis, there was still hope.
After finding out just where his mother was, inside a previously empty room, he went over to the bed she was on and got a chair so that he could sit by her and hold her hand.
Soon after, Susan came in and without a word got another a chair and sat by him, holding his other hand for comfort.
She said nothing, possibly because she couldn't think of what to say, or because she figured he could just use some silent support, but in any case he was grateful for it.
Finally he spoke, but not to her, to his mother as he began explaining things about his life beginning with early childhood when he had so wanted a mother, his real mother back and not his awful Aunt Petunia.
Before he knew it, he found himself telling her his whole life, starting from that time, through to getting his Hogwarts letter, meeting the girls, everything.
Susan listened quietly to all of it, even when he spoke of her in particular: his first memory of her, watching her play quidditch, kissing her, falling in love with her. He supposed it would have seemed incredibly romantic had he been telling all of this to her directly, but under the circumstances she still said nothing.
When he finally finished, however, taking many hours to do so, he thanked Susan.
"Thanks Susan for being here for me," He told her gratefully.
"Of course," She replied simply, "I've already lost my mother, but I can't imagine what you're feeling right now."
She squeezed his hand reassuringly, which he returned.
"It'll be okay," He said with far more confidence than he felt.
She gave him a kiss which he returned before they both went back to their silent vigil.
During this time just about everybody came in to check on them, with each of the girls as well as Amelia staying for some duration of time.
Since both of his hands were taken, Gabrielle sat in his lap, but he wasn't bothered at all by her small weight.
Amelia when she came in, brought two plates of food for him and Susan, which he reluctantly ate, the food tasting almost tasteless despite it being one of his favorite foods.
When he tried to recall later just what food it was however, he could not even remember.
When night came, which admittedly took not that long after waking so late, Susan suggested that they both go get some rest.
Finally he agreed with her.
Yet when he tried to, he couldn't sleep. After finding out his mother was in a coma, he just couldn't help but still think about it.
Could it have turned out differently?
Possibly.
One thing he did know was that he couldn't blame Pansy.
She had worked hard and tirelessly to try and save her and his mother might have died had it not been for her efforts.
Pansy had never given up and he knew that his mother being in a coma was hurting her just as much as it had him. She like any healer, did not like seeing her patients suffer.
In truth, she probably could have found a way to save Ariana had she not become busy with his mother, yet fortunately he himself had managed to find a way.
He could not bear to have lost Ariana either. As upsetting as having his mother in a coma was, he found he was still grateful that Ariana would be okay.
His efforts to save her had certainly sparked something in him. Feelings for her that he had not realized that he had.
She was so beautiful, not in a traditional sense, but beautiful to him. After the many months she had spent with them, she was already a part of the group, but had never been one of "his" girls.
Now it appeared that he might actually want that dynamic to change after her wanting it all along.
Did he love her?
He wasn't sure.
Like her, definitely, love her as in more than just a friend? That was harder to answer
Did he want to find out if he loved her?
Yes.
These thoughts about Ariana however were not what occupied his mind most.
They had had so little time together, his mother and him, even less than he had had as a baby and yet now what might have been a happy reunion for them had been stolen by some nefarious plot by Dumbledore to steal that away.
How he hated that man. Due to his meddling and lust for power, more lives than his own had been disrupted and it appeared that would only continue.
"I'm going to kill him," He said aloud to himself.
He wished more than ever that he had managed to kill him, but was murder justified?
When comparing it to the many lives that Dumbledore had destroyed it certainly was. Individuals who could not be contained in any prison and would only do harm deserved to die. Certainly Dumbledore deserved to be among their ranks.
He knew without a shadow of a doubt that Dumbledore would now find a way to recuperate and resume his plans, whatever they were, which could only bode ill.
Yet now he would be even more dangerous, more cautious and invisible, tucked away from him or anyone else being able to watch him as they had while he had still been headmaster.
There was nothing he could really do about that other than to catch him and that would not be easy, unless you counted the good chance that Dumbledore would likely be seeking him out, only this time for revenge.
He could say that it was no longer his burden to bear, but he could never accept that. One way or another he would do everything he could to catch that piece of rubbish and kill him before he could hurt anyone else.
It was this resolve that would give him strength.
After trying for another half hour to get to sleep, he decided to just get up and check on his mother to see how she was doing.
When he got inside the room she had been put in, he found Pansy already there standing over her.
Pansy was slightly startled when he came up behind her, but also allowed him to put his arm around her.
"Any change?" He asked.
"No, nothing," She responded, "maybe Ariana will be able to do something when she gets better or perhaps one of the healers that Amelia contacted will know something so it isn't hopeless yet."
"No, but it's still scary," He admitted.
"I wish there was more I could do," Pansy replied.
"I know that you did the best you could. She might have died without you there and I'm very grateful for that," He told her, kissing her gently on the lips.
"Thanks Harry," Pansy said, "I just wish there was something more I could do."
"It's not your fault," Harry insisted, "if it's anyone's fault it's stupid Dumbledore's."
She continued to look at him for a moment and then nodded.
"I suppose you're right, I still worry though. I couldn't sleep a wink," Pansy said.
"Neither could I," He said before trying to put on a brave front, "I'm sure that everything will work out okay."
"If you believe it will, then I will too," Pansy answered, putting her confidence in him.
"I love you Pansy," Harry told her.
"I love you too," She said almost reverently.
Despite all that had happened, the experiences they had faced over the past couple of days had certainly strengthened his relationships with the girls and help him understand even more just how much they meant to him.
He considered them to be his family, and if he was to lose his mother all over again, he could not get through it without them.
It was an important thing to note: the desire he had for a future family with them was strong enough to overcome the potential loss of his old one.
Yet it would still be hard to lose an opportunity he had never imagined receiving: having his mother back.
Pansy leaned in and kissed him and he began kissing back, their desire more out of a need to be close to each other and dispel any negative emotions they were having then lust.
It felt so good to have that sort of comfort.
After a few minutes of making out, she pulled away from the kiss and said: "Make love to me Harry."
"Are you sure now would be a good time?" He pointed out.
"I just really need to feel loved right now," She answered.
While the circumstances were not ideal, he had to agree that he wanted to feel the same thing.
He agreed and accompanied her back to his room and as he did so, he couldn't help but think that the last time he had had sex was with Gabrielle.
It wasn't so much this that caused him to think, it was the fact that this had been what had saved him from Dumbledore.
Well, when he met up with Dumbledore again, he'd have at least one new memory to fight him with.
DUELDUELDUEL
Meanwhile Dumbledore lay on a bed in his new secret hideout in France already fitted with a new arm which he tested by grinding objects around him into powder.
It was not a real arm, but it still had some major advantages, one of which happened to be increased strength.
Nothing would stop him from achieving his plans. While he lacked the ability to make more clones, there was more than one way to take over the world. In time he would get back to using clones, but for now, he would start with his backup plan using all the resources he still had at his disposal.
He was down to only Voldemort and then 1 clone, Montague, the French head of magical law enforcement. It turned out that getting him cloned was a good move on his part. Even if the French did cooperate in trying to find him, he would be safe here as long as Montague ensured none of the French aurors got near him.
"Sir?" Montague asked, "I'm not sure how long I can keep my men away from here forever."
"Don't worry," Dumbledore answered, "this will only be temporary."
"Sir, where will we then be going?"
"Patience," Dumbledore urged, "we'll have to do this carefully. The first step is we'll need money, a lot of it."
"I'm afraid I don't have access to the amount of money you would likely need," Montague admitted, "and it would be too risky if I were caught stealing it."
"Whatever you could manage to steal would be nothing compared to what I'll require," Dumbledore replied, "they say the world is run by it's people's desire for money. Why take over the world when you can simply buy it? We're going to test that theory."
"How sir?" Montague asked.
"We're going to need a gold mine," Dumbledore answered as he laughed.