Chapter 164: Reality

Chapter 164: Reality

If you want to support me check out my patron at /athassprkr

I tend to upload drafts of early chapters on there to get people's opinions of them.

I would like to thank my beta, Akisu, for his help in this chapter.

---------------

1st November 1995, Hogwarts Earth 2

(Harry Potter POV)

The woman sighed and nodded, "Alright. Consider this to be your first lesson."

"What is it?"

The woman chuckled, "Reality as you know it is but an illusion. You need to hone your senses, to differentiate between what is true and what is false."

Suddenly, gravity seemed to have reversed itself, and Harry was pulled away to the side. The wall sort of separated itself, revealing a familiar dark damp room. This was the chamber of secrets. But there was something wrong, something horrible, the basilisk wasn't dead. Harry ran for his life with his eyes closed.

What the fuck was going on?

Harry didn't have time to even think about an answer as the giant snake started attacking him. Reflexively, Harry closed his eyes to avoid the giant snake's death eyes. He felt something very heavy impact his chest and send him flying back into the water.

Without meaning to, he opened his eyes and met the basilisk's sickly yellow eyes. For some reason, the eyes didn't kill him, not that he minded much.

In his shock, he didn't move as the giant snake reeled back and leapt at him, jaw first. Just as he was about to be eaten alive, the basilisk turned into smoke, surrounding Harry, and messing with his vision.

The Boy-Who-Lived was then thrown into the air and landed into a familiar graveyard. He saw Cedric getting killed once more and watched as the shadows took the dreaded form of his mortal enemy, Lord Voldemort.

The dark lord looked at him with a sinister smile, "Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived, come to die!"

Harry was immediately overwhelmed by his fear of the man, no, monster, before him. He did his best to run away, sending spell after spell desperately at his enemy.

However, this didn't seem to do much as he was immediately clipped with a banishing spell that sent him flying back. From the shadows, Voldemort slowly walked towards the downed teenager. Harry could hear the mocking laughter of the Death Eaters in the background.

Voldemort, on the other hand, sneered at him, "Are you truly the one who is supposed to defeat me? Have I been wary of a child who barely knows how to hold a wand? You're weak, Harry Potter, just a useless but lucky little boy, who should have died with his parents. Your mother's sacrifice is wasted on someone like you."

Harry kept crawling away into the shadows. Suddenly, he found himself in a familiar cupboard, he looked at his tiny hands in surprise; he was younger again. His Aunt Petunia looked at him like he was a disgusting turd, "Do you think that your mother would have sacrificed herself if she knew how pathetic you would have ended up being? Worthless little freak!"

Uncle Vernon picked him up and sent him towards the shadows that swallowed him up, and spat him back to the graveyard. Voldemort was still there, waiting for him, "Oh, there you are, Harry, there's no need to run away, accept your death like a man."

Harry didn't like the sound of that. Before he could ask her to clarify, she continued, "The more pressing issue is the fact that you're still holding back. Not just with your magic but with your mind. I have seen every secret you have, and the boy that survived his abusive home was nowhere to be found the second he stepped into Hogwarts."

"I don't know"

The defense professor sneered at him, "You're the boy who learnt how to pick locks so that he could eat scraps after everyone was asleep. You're the boy that got exactly the grades needed just so that his relatives wouldn't call him out on cheating. You're the boy who learnt his cousin's reactions exactly and knew how to distract him when he wanted to beat him. That boy was a survivor, he thought about everything carefully before doing anything. However, the second you stepped into Hogwarts, you leapt into danger whenever you could, you kept downplaying your abilities so that you would fit in better. You're never going to fit it. You're a celebrity among students. Every action you took was scrutinized, and all you did was disappoint everyone with your mediocre results."

"But"

"No buts, Potter, you, throwing your life away like it meant nothing is very concerning. I had hoped that it might have been the result of mind magics but no, it was all you. Your mother would have been disappointed to see you do this. Do you think that she gave her life, just so that you would run from acromantula in the forbidden forest, or hunt down dangerous criminals?"

Harry stayed silent at this, wilting under her accusation. There was a grain of truth in them; Harry had been chasing danger after danger ever since his first year. But everything he did was because he wanted to save the school, right?

"I had to; it was my responsibility"

The woman snorted once more, "Kiddo, the traps in your first year were geared to delay the intruder, not stop. The stone was obviously fake. Your second year, the chamber had nothing to do with you. If you think for one moment, that you weren't the luckiest boy in the world for surviving that, then you'll be terribly mistaken. In both of those encounters, you survived either thanks to Dumbledore or because of pure luck. You barely knew a couple of spells. You were first and second years for Merlin's sake. You have to realize that you have no responsibility to these people. You don't need to be the hero. You don't have to save the day. Let someone else do it, especially when they're more qualified than you are. When you accept these words, we'll have our next lesson."

Harry nodded and turned around, "Where are we?"

"Physically, we never left the great hall."

"How? I followed you to your office after you were done eating."

Professor Sayre gave him a smirk, "I told you before, mind magic is a very powerful field of magic. I simply felt that you wanted to speak to me and connected with your mind."

"So, none of this was real? All of this was in my head?"

"Of course, it was in you head, Harry. But why does that mean that it wasn't real. After all, reality is an illusion."

Harry then looked panicked for a second, "Then did I stay frozen for half an hour in the middle of the great hall?"

"Of course not, Harry. The mind moves differently from the body. From my calculations, barely ten seconds have passed in the real world. Now, I think it's time for our conversation to end, Mr. Potter."

Professor Sayre just touched his temple and Harry was thrown back into his body. He was back at the great hall. He looked around and saw Ron and Hermione looking worriedly at him. Ron was the one to speak up, "Are you alright, mate?"

Harry nodded, "I'm fine."

Hermione didn't seem to believe him, "Why were you staring at Professor Sayre?"

"She's a very scary woman."

Ah, yes, scary indeed.