Harry was startled awake as someone opened the door to his room. It was a woman, standing there in a hospital gown. Her silhouette framed the doorway as light spilled into the dark room. She shuffled and teetered side to side as she walked towards his bed. What was she doing, why was she here?

He went to get out of bed only to hesitate. The nurse had told him to stay in bed. He should follow the rules, even if the scenario was odd. There hadn't been any exceptions to her statements, so Harry should stay put. He settled for pulling out his wand from the side table and pointing it at the woman slowly shuffling towards him. He couldn't do much with it, but at least he could poke her with it if she drew too close. Or cast a levitation charm, but somehow Harry didn't think that would help too much here.

She shuffled to a stop a meter or two away, luckily. Harry could see that her head wasn’t pointed at him, but somewhere closer to the ceiling. Harry twisted around to follow her gaze, but there was nothing there, just the dark corner of the ceiling. Harry turned back to the woman.

The woman stood swaying in place, and Harry was barely able to make out her features from the light from the door. Her eyes were glassy and her face was pale.

She began to speak with a dreamy and detached voice.

“I thought I heard something here. It’s been so long since I’ve been able to hear. I thought it was here, what was here? It’s been so long…”

“What did you hear? Are you alright?”

The woman’s gaze snapped to Harry as he spoke. Her eyes were still unfocused.

“I… I can hear you. I can hear you, It’s been so long, I can hear you. It’s been so long, where am I? Where am I? It's been so long. Endless plains of thought and pain. Are you here to help? It’s been so long.”

Harry gripped his wand tighter,

“What are you talking about, what has been so long? This is the hospital. Are you a patient here?”

“Patient, yes so patient. Frank is so patient, but he was there too. Is he a patient anymore? Am I alone here? It’s been so long. Hospital? Endless cycles of pain and cure? It’s been so long. There is no hope, time unending. I heard a voice, it’s been so long. The voice, speaking. So long, a young voice. Where is it coming from? Is it above or below?”

Harry was unsure of what to say, but the woman was not approaching closer to him as she rambled. She just remained and swayed from side to side in place. And he didn’t feel any danger from her.

“Are you talking about me? Did you hear my voice, is that why you are here?”

“...So long. The voice. I can hear it, so young. Maybe a student, like poor little Neville. Where is Neville? Neville. A student now? Good? It’s been so long, time unending. Where am I? It’s been so long.”

She dissolved into incoherent muttering again. Harry sat up,

“Do you know Neville? We are friends at school. I’m sure he’s worried that I am taking so long for treatment.”

Her muttering grew more rapid and frantic,

“Neville? The voice is friends with Neville? Liar? No, Truth. Could the voice speak to Neville? It’s been so long. Time unending, endless plains of thought. A message?”

The light suddenly turned on, but Harry ignored it as a nurse walked in. But Harry was too focused on the strange woman. The nurse who walked in didn’t seem overly concerned at the woman's presence either and opened her mouth, looking apologetic.

Harry spoke and ignored the nurse's interruption,

“I can give a message to Neville. Try to focus on my voice. You aren’t making much sense.”

The nurse froze as the swaying woman replied.

“Focus, focus, focus. Focus on the pain, voice. Voice. Where is the voice. Time unen… Voice. So close, time unending, it’s been so long. Voice…”

Harry felt entranced as he saw the woman on the verge of something. The nurse also was frozen in place, only her head snapping between the two of them.

“Listen to me. I am speaking now, focus on my voice. I’m right here.”

“The voice, so close. Unlocked door, where am I? The door is open, but the steps are slick. It’s been so long. Pain on all sides, voice forward. What if I slip? The voice, where has it gone? Everything is so dark.”

Harry felt something wash over him and suddenly it was as if he was staring down at the woman from above. He could still feel his body in the real world, but his consciousness and attention were floating here disembodied in another place. Below him, he could see the woman walking up a stone staircase in her hospital gown. The stone staircase was wet and slick and everything beyond them was a black void. The stairway stretched upwards until it faded into the darkness.

Everything was silent besides the slap of the woman's bare feet on the stone as Harry watched her.

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Harry felt something approaching from the side and a screaming face pressed inwards, as if pushing in on a thick black fabric from the side of the staircase. The face was a copy of that of the woman walking up the staircase, her features twisted in agony. The face pressed farther inwards and something felt like it began to give. Bright rips formed in the fabric where the face pushed forward and thrashed. The woman stumbled and almost slipped on a stair before catching herself and getting back up.

“I’m here. Just keep walking. Yes, just like that. What is at the top of the stairs? Don’t you want to know? Keep walking up the steps. Ignore the face. Just focus on keeping your balance.”

The face let out one last muffled scream before it dissolved and the black fabric snapped back into place. The bright tears healed shut in moments. Now there was only the endless black void and the staircase again. The woman kept walking up the stairs.

Voices were talking and arguing in the outside world, Harry could sense it. But all that mattered was the woman and the staircase. The farther she ascended the more the faces attacked, sometimes two or three at a time now. Harry could only keep talking as the woman stumbled more and more often. All she had to do was not pay them any attention and they would dissolve. But Harry could see it was growing harder for her as they continued upwards, Harry's consciousness traveling with her as she ascended.

There was shouting and crashes coming from the outside world now, but Harry remained focused. They had gone far enough that Harry could now see the end of the staircase. Something glimmered at the top, something besides the empty void.

The frame of an open door.

Through the frame, Harry could see his body sitting in his hospital bed, staring into space. It was an odd feeling as he watched his mouth move through the door even as he floated inside this space.

“So close, you’re almost there. Don't you want to see what's out there? Look at that door. That feels significant, something you should work for. Far better than this black void. Don’t get distracted at the last stretch.”

Five faces pressed inwards all at once, and the woman made the mistake of meeting one of their gazes through the black fabric of reality. The face shifted and its features changed, and immediately the thing swelled to titanic proportions. The black fabric of reality tore around its lips with a loud rip and a high pitched harsh and screechy voice tore through the tear.

“Crucio! Crucio! Yes, squirm muggle lover! Hahahahaha.”

The laughter was high pitched and insane as the massive face began to break through, its nose and mouth now pushing through the widening tear. Its eyes were still covered, being held back by the fabric even as the face strained to push farther forward, to push all the way through. Its teeth were gray and rotted, but its lips were twisted into a cruel smile. Harry spoke forcefully to the woman on the stairs,

“Ignore it! The more you give it attention the more powerful it grows. You’ve come too far, you’re barely a hundred stairs away. Look to the door. You’ve come so far, don’t give up when you’re so close.”

With what seemed to be a supreme effort, the woman tore her gaze away from the massive face and fixed her gaze up and onto the door. The face began to shrink, but it kept screaming and ranting. Its graying teeth were twisted into a snarl. The woman on the stairs began to scramble upwards on all fours desperately. She was barely fifty stairs away from the door now. More of the smaller faces pressed inwards, but the woman ignored them, her eyes only on the door.

Good.

The screaming face went silent, and the smaller faces stopped pressing inwards from the sides. Harry looked back. The nose and mouth behind them began to swell in size, and Harry could see the smaller faces merging with the shouting one, joining into one. The apparition began to rush up the stairs. Harry turned back to see the woman barely ten stairs away from the door. But she made the mistake of glancing back as the face resumed shouting.

Instantly the face swelled until it covered the horizon, each twisted tooth now as large as a car. Its voice boomed as it cackled, and its smile twisted into a grin as its full head broke through. It's eyes flickered in madness and delight.

“You can never escape, Longbottom! Crucio, Crucio! You think you can just walk away and forget? Crucio! You deserve this, just like the others. There is no happiness out there, only more pain. Crucio!”

The woman was frozen as the massive face rushed towards her from the bottom of the stairs.

Harry shouted as emotion welled within him as the woman just stood there. Frozen by the apparition’s words.

“Go, It’s right there, the door! It’s only ten steps away, don’t let them get you now! Not when you're so close!”

The woman didn’t move, still seeming frozen in place. The apparition was still raving and would be on the woman in less than ten seconds.

Harry tried to think of what would snap the woman out of it. She said she had known his friend, right?

“Neville! Neville is through that door. If you go through you can go see him, give that message yourself!”

The woman shook her head and her lips moved, but Harry couldn’t hear what she said. The apparition let out an enraged screech as the woman turned back around and made her way through the last few steps. She threw herself through the doorway towards the view of Harry’s body. As her body passed through the door’s frame, she began to dissolve into white motes, and the view of the other side became distorted until it only showed a massive white beacon in the dark void.

“No no no. Crucio, suffer! Nooooooooooo.”

The apparition dissolved under the bright white light with one final scream. The open doorway kept growing brighter and brighter until the space was no longer black, but white on one end, and dark on the other. Harry felt his strange state begin to fade and after a moment he was back in his body.

— — —

Harry blinked. The room was filled with people staring at the woman who had climbed the stairs. They were all silent and in shock as the woman began blinking heavily and turned to take in all the people around her staring at her agape. She reached down and lifted the hem of her medical gown and rubbed it between her fingers.

She spoke. “Where am I? Why am I at a hospital? Where’s Neville?”

One of the nurses stepped forward, tears in her eyes.

“Alice Longbottom… It’s a pleasure to have you back. We’ve all missed you.”

Harry watched as the confused woman was led away, many of the doctors having tears in their eyes at the sight of her asking questions about what was happening. Many stared at Harry in undisguised awe, and he felt vaguely uncomfortable. What had just happened with the stairs felt like it was something extremely personal. Not something that should be explained to others.

Harry didn’t know what had happened, but he knew it felt right. He had helped that woman somehow, and his head hurt when he tried to analyze it any deeper than that. Suddenly, a wave of exhaustion washed over Harry. He closed his eyes and within moments he entered a deep sleep.