As always, Rukia felt a chill of apprehension when the Head Doctor announced that new patients would be arriving. Would it be anyone else she knew? What if Ichigo was back
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Harry came into the room. He was curious and also pretty nervous about what was going to happen. He didn't know what to expect. He could only think of a few people who might visit him. His aunt and uncle would never come to a place like this, not in his real life or the one that had been concocted for him. It might be the Weasleys but the idea of them being here really bothered him.
And then there was the possibility that Artemis had brought up... that it might be his parents. The people that Harry had most wanted to meet since he could remember were his parents. If Landel's had somehow brought them to him... He wasn't sure how he would handle it.
It would have been in Harry's best interest to learn how to handle it, and quickly. The man and woman who walked in shortly after he sat down did indeed bear striking resemblance to his parents, save perhaps that they appeared a few years older than any photographs he would have had of them, and didn't run to him with open arms (though the woman smiled at him as cheerfully as she could muster).
The man in particular looked as though he wasn't sure he really wanted to be there, every so often glancing at the other patients out of the corner of his eye. As he approached Harry, however, he did flash a quick grin and a "Hey, Tiger," even if that might have seemed a bit inappropriate for addressing someone Harry's age.
Harry stared and didn't believe what his eyes were seeing. He couldn't believe it. His mind closed down and he couldn't even think of how to work his mouth let alone say anything. His heart felt like it was in his throat. His head was spinning. This was so much worse than seeing them in the Mirror when he had been eleven, or visiting their graves.
Without even realizing what he was doing he moved closer to his father and touched him, as if testing to make sure that the man was really there and not a ghost or a hallucination.
The man was a bit startled by the way his son approached him, but a hasty glance from his wife kept him from doing anything to stop it. "Good to see you too, champ..." he went on, warily. "Sorry they wouldn't let us come sooner."
"I know it hasn't been long," the woman added. "But the house has been so empty without you. How are you doing?" She knew it would be too much to get her hopes up just yet, but she couldn't help but wish to see some improvement - any improvement in her son since they'd dropped him off here.
There were a few moments in Harry's life when though he should have been panicking, his mind was clear and careful. He wanted to scream at them to leave him alone, but he also knew that there was no way he would get this chance again. Snape had been brought back to life, so why not his parents? Why not them? He could panic and scream later. He could try and reclaim his life later. For now all the wanted was them.
He left his father and hugged his mother, tightly. "I've missed you too, Mum," he managed to say, unsticking his throat to do so. "This place is horrible. I want to come home." He couldn't believe she was really there and how he managed not to break down he didn't know.
The woman let out a faint "Oh!" as her son hugged her, squeezing back just as tightly as she was given. She turned worried eyes back up to her husband, who could already see where this was going... "See! He doesn't like it here, Jason! Let's just take him back home. I don't care who he thinks he is!"
The man, Jason, sighed wearily and rubbed a hand over his eyes. They'd already been through this when they'd dropped him off. "Now, Ivy. He's only been here a couple days. Of course he's still going to be getting used to things. We both agreed we wouldn't do this..."
"Oh..." The woman, Ivy, patted the boy a few times on the back before holding him at arms length. "I'm sorry, Danny. I know it'll take a bit to get used to."
He looked up at his mother and frowned. It was weird to hear those names and be called that name. He wanted to hear her say his name. He could have stared at her forever.
"Mum, you don't understand," he said. "They are hurting people. Ask any of the patients here. The people here are... not right. They call us crazy so they can get away with doing anything."
He glanced back at his father. That man was clearly not pleased by this whole situation, but that didn't stop him from being what he appeared to be. If this place had somehow gotten them back to life and then changed their heads enough so that they didn't even know who they were. Harry had to know.
"Don't leave me here. I'll be better. I swear." He hated how pathetic he sounded. He felt like he was trying to be a kid again, not who he had grown up to be over the past year.
Ivy gave her husband another worried glance at this and the man came to their side. He laid both hands on Harry's shoulder, meeting his eyes. "Dan. Please understand. We all knew this wasn't going to be anything fun, and I wish we could come by more often, but the Institutes's going to do the best it can to help you get better. That's very important. I'm sure if anyone's getting hurt it's because they're throwing fits or purposefully breaking the rules or whatnot. And as much as you know I'm for the rulebreaking," here Harry got a fleeting glimpse of a roguish grin, "I hope you can behave yourself well enough that they can treat you right."
"Just focus on being who you really are, Danny," his mother added then. "I know you can do that. Then you'll be out of here lickety split!"
Harry pulled away from his mother--his mother--sighed. He wanted to stay by her forever, but he needed to find out what they knew about this place. He needed to know how to get them out safely. If Landel had brought them back to life somehow, then he wanted to bring them back home with him. He needed them. He thought that he had gotten over it, when he stood on their graves and cried for them in front of Hermione, but in truth he never wanted them to leave.
He moved to the table they were standing by and desperately tried to force back the tears forming in his eyes now.
"It's fine," he said. "I'll try." He looked back up at his beautiful mother. "Tell me what's been going on back home, please? I want to know everything."
He couldn't lose it in front of them and scare them away. If he only had one shift to be with them, and if it had to be while pretending to be someone else, so be it. He would deal with it. As long as he could look at them and talk to them.
Neither one of them seemed all too convinced by their son's sudden willingness, but they weren't about to argue any further either. Ivy smiled at him and gave him one last ruffle of the hair. "Nothing new's happened since you left. Your father and I are still working. The dog made a mess of the living room - I think because he misses you." Jason muttered a faint damn mutt in the background at this. "And we've both been trying to read up on, well, your 'alter ego'..." She gave her husband a very poignant look as she said this and he cleared his throat.
"I've gotten through the first book," he muttered. It had obviously been a challenge just to get him to read that much.
Harry looked from one to the other. It took him a moment to realize what they were talking about, but when he did the realization hit him hard, as if it had had a hand and had slapped him across the face. "Oh..." he said, looking down at the table. His throat had a lump in it he could barely swallow. "Pretty ridiculous, huh? Magic and all that..." after a moment he looked up at his father, hoping to say something that would make the man smile or laugh, even if it was just a fake. "Wait, you read a book?" he teased.
James Potter had been the top of his class at Hogwarts, but he had also been a class clown, a bully (as much as Harry hated to admit it), and an athlete. It had been Remus in the memories with his nose in a book. Harry tired hard not to think about Lupin (his body dead on the floor of the Great Hall...) rather he watched his father, hoping for some kind of approval or some hint of a smile.
He hated feeling so pathetic, but it would be the only chance he had.
Harry's comment did get a bit of a smirk out of his mother, and his father turned slightly pink in the face but quickly recovered. "Ha. I'll have you know I read plenty, twerp. When is suits me." It wasn't so much the fact that they were fiction books that had kept Jason from completely catching up just yet. It was the fact that they were children's books. Very thick children's books that he couldn't believe so many kids actually managed to get through.
It was good to see some acknowledgment from their son that he knew the way he'd been acting had been odd. It wasn't the strongest reaction, and there was a fair chance he was just saying what he thought they wanted to hear, but it was still an improvement. Ivy brushed back hair from her son's forehead. "There's nothing wrong with reading about magic and wizards. Everyone enjoys a good bit of fantasy every now and then. It's just... when you take it too far..."
Harry looked at them both and then managed to smile slightly. "Harry's parents are dead," he said. "And here you two are. That means I can't be him, can I?" And for that moment, Harry realized that he was almost willing to believe he was Daniel, if it meant that they would be waiting for him to come home. Of course, it wouldn't be like that and he couldn't abandon the people who needed him back home.
Ivy made a noise somewhere between a whimper and a squeak and at once had embraced Harry again. "Of course we're not dead!" Not that she wouldn't be willing to give her life for her son like the woman in the book had. She'd do it in an instant. But for the poor boy to be imagining himself as someone who'd lost both of his parents... Life hadn't been so dull with them, had it? "Please don't go thinking such things."
"I'm afraid you're stuck with us a bit longer, Dan," Jason wore a soft but wry smile, hands now stuck in his pockets.
Ivy had a tight grip on her son, and it seemed as though she'd be willing to do just that - take her son back home and cook him a nice hot meal and forget that he'd ever had to be a part of all this. But her husbands hand on her shoulder reminded her otherwise. She held the boy at arm's length, a sad smile on her face. "I'm sorry," she said quietly. "Just a little while longer."
"We should go." Jason didn't look much happier about this decision now than his wife, but he knew if they stayed it would only become more difficult.
And then there was the possibility that Artemis had brought up... that it might be his parents. The people that Harry had most wanted to meet since he could remember were his parents. If Landel's had somehow brought them to him... He wasn't sure how he would handle it.
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The man in particular looked as though he wasn't sure he really wanted to be there, every so often glancing at the other patients out of the corner of his eye. As he approached Harry, however, he did flash a quick grin and a "Hey, Tiger," even if that might have seemed a bit inappropriate for addressing someone Harry's age.
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Without even realizing what he was doing he moved closer to his father and touched him, as if testing to make sure that the man was really there and not a ghost or a hallucination.
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"I know it hasn't been long," the woman added. "But the house has been so empty without you. How are you doing?" She knew it would be too much to get her hopes up just yet, but she couldn't help but wish to see some improvement - any improvement in her son since they'd dropped him off here.
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He left his father and hugged his mother, tightly. "I've missed you too, Mum," he managed to say, unsticking his throat to do so. "This place is horrible. I want to come home." He couldn't believe she was really there and how he managed not to break down he didn't know.
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The man, Jason, sighed wearily and rubbed a hand over his eyes. They'd already been through this when they'd dropped him off. "Now, Ivy. He's only been here a couple days. Of course he's still going to be getting used to things. We both agreed we wouldn't do this..."
"Oh..." The woman, Ivy, patted the boy a few times on the back before holding him at arms length. "I'm sorry, Danny. I know it'll take a bit to get used to."
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"Mum, you don't understand," he said. "They are hurting people. Ask any of the patients here. The people here are... not right. They call us crazy so they can get away with doing anything."
He glanced back at his father. That man was clearly not pleased by this whole situation, but that didn't stop him from being what he appeared to be. If this place had somehow gotten them back to life and then changed their heads enough so that they didn't even know who they were. Harry had to know.
"Don't leave me here. I'll be better. I swear." He hated how pathetic he sounded. He felt like he was trying to be a kid again, not who he had grown up to be over the past year.
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"Just focus on being who you really are, Danny," his mother added then. "I know you can do that. Then you'll be out of here lickety split!"
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He moved to the table they were standing by and desperately tried to force back the tears forming in his eyes now.
"It's fine," he said. "I'll try." He looked back up at his beautiful mother. "Tell me what's been going on back home, please? I want to know everything."
He couldn't lose it in front of them and scare them away. If he only had one shift to be with them, and if it had to be while pretending to be someone else, so be it. He would deal with it. As long as he could look at them and talk to them.
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"I've gotten through the first book," he muttered. It had obviously been a challenge just to get him to read that much.
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James Potter had been the top of his class at Hogwarts, but he had also been a class clown, a bully (as much as Harry hated to admit it), and an athlete. It had been Remus in the memories with his nose in a book. Harry tired hard not to think about Lupin (his body dead on the floor of the Great Hall...) rather he watched his father, hoping for some kind of approval or some hint of a smile.
He hated feeling so pathetic, but it would be the only chance he had.
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It was good to see some acknowledgment from their son that he knew the way he'd been acting had been odd. It wasn't the strongest reaction, and there was a fair chance he was just saying what he thought they wanted to hear, but it was still an improvement. Ivy brushed back hair from her son's forehead. "There's nothing wrong with reading about magic and wizards. Everyone enjoys a good bit of fantasy every now and then. It's just... when you take it too far..."
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"I'm afraid you're stuck with us a bit longer, Dan," Jason wore a soft but wry smile, hands now stuck in his pockets.
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"We should go." Jason didn't look much happier about this decision now than his wife, but he knew if they stayed it would only become more difficult.
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