DARK

He had gone into the dark a while ago, snuffled out like a candle, a quick death that hadn't been able to show proof of the fight he'd put up before they finally got him.


Chase Harper. Wonder boy. Annoying boy. Crazy boy. All things that someone had said at least once in their lives if they knew him. And who didn't know him? In the seven years he'd been at Hogwarts, he knew a great deal of people--most of whom either loved him or flat out hated him.


Floating through the void. He liked it. The weightlessness. The not caring about much beyond floating peacefully where he liked, flickering between the land of the living and the dead. He saw the past, the present, the future. It changed constantly.


And then, one day, his void was shifted into a new place where there was consistency. A place with trees and a garden, a giant squid walking aimlessly about, a small dog, a park. A car. A talking goat. The impossible, the real, the beyond mention. And he walked, hoping for his weightless void to return. And it didn't.


In its place, however, was a large house. A very, very, very large house. With blue shutters and a white picket fence--it was so large Chase could barely fathom its existence let alone enter. So he didn't. He watched it for months--minutes--years--waiting for something to happen.


"Aren't you going to come inside?" she asked him.


"Me?" he answered.


"Yes. Chase--please, come in," the voice called again.


Chase wandered to the front of the house, stepping past the gate and up to the steps leading to the porch. The door opened and James Potter smiled at him, taking a pie from his hands that had somehow randomly appeared between the gate and the door. "Oh, yes, here--" he offered it up quickly. "Uhh--Potter!"


"Which one?" came the voice behind him again. Lily Potter wrapped her arms around his form, her grasp firm. Surprised, for once, Chase whirled to look at her. This was no dream of his supplied by his boredom. This was..


"Lily?" he asked again, his hands tingling, "Lily--my Lily? LILY?" He paused. "Wait--are you--"


"Dead?" she replied, her eyes a little sad, but still rather humor filled. "Yes, very dead. A lot of us are. We all die eventually."


"Harry?" Chase whispered.

Lily looked back at James who was now wearing a large hat and an apron that would have put even Dumbledore to shame. "He's the boy who lived."


The void returned after their dinner and Chase was grateful for it. He didn't have to think or breathe or talk or do anything. He just floated--like a feather--on the in-between.


"You going to stay out here forever?" Lily asked him, catching him like one might rein in a kite. He floated to the ground, tethered by her hold on him. She caught his gaze--his guilty eyes--and felt a wave of pity roll over her.


Instead, she let herself go--let them both go--and they floated together, their eyes closed as they embraced the void again. A llama swam past. "I missed you," she offered, holding his hand, her fingers tangled with his. She whispered nonsensically as she held him close, glad if only for the company of her friend that had died just barely before she had, died protecting her, died loving her.


Chase tried to pretend she wasn't there--but couldn't. He caught her gaze, pushing a floating goldfish out of his face, before sighing. His breath bloomed in the void, the wisps of vapor spreading into the night to light up the 'sky' like stars. He sighed again and the moon formed. They were illuminated and she saw right into his soul, right there, as he started to cry.


"Oh, Lily, I'm so sorry."