War of Timelines
Wanda: Yes, borrowing one of my own challenges again. But hey, I've been sitting on this idea for a while, and I just couldn't help myself. This is a galaxy range story, people. Buckle up!
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.
Prologue
"Don't move – STOP IT DUDLEY, YOU'RE RUNNING RIGHT AT IT!"
A horrible squealing yell and Dudley's footsteps stopped. At the same moment, Harry felt a creeping chill behind him that could only mean one thing – there was more than one of them.
"DUDLEY, KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT WHATEVER YOU DO KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT! Wand- Wand-"
This certainly wasn't one of Harry Potter's better days. Having narrowly dodged a violent confrontation with his cousin Dudley thanks to the appearance of a mutual enemy; he was now locked in a desperate struggle to protect their souls from a pair of hungry Dementors. He thought in that moment that fate might have it out for him.
However, fate was a trollish mistress, and as she often did she was about to play a trick on him...
Far away from where Harry and Dudley were being attacked, the Unspeakables were taking notes at the so called Veil of Death.
Whether or not they were familiar with the 'man was not meant to meddle' riot act that the non magical folk had subjected themselves to on a fairly regular basis, they ended up starting an avalanche of danger that would forever change the face of their world.
One of them tore the veil.
And the world erupted in blinding multicolored light.
Contrary to popular belief, the Veil of Death was not actually a gateway to the afterlife. The misconception was based on the fact that everyone who passed through the veil had never returned, so it was assumed they were dead. It was a similar thought process than that which was often given to soldiers who had gone MIA – generally they figured that if it was possible to come back, obviously anyone who fell through would have returned immediately.
However, it was not death, but other worlds that awaited those who fell to the other side.
The theory of the multiverse was pervading in the muggle world, but the magical world was more sceptical. Having the powers of magic, they were more inclined to believe that they already knew all the secrets of the world. Yes, they were quite proud of their knowledge of the world, which does indeed act as a common flaw for the community as a whole no matter what world they live in.
But the theory runs true, and it was about to be vindicated.
For every world, there is another, another afterlife, another future, another destiny...and sometimes, another Harry Potter.
No two person is the same, even if they bear similar names, appearances, voices, faces, parents and destinies. In the end, each person is different in the choices they make. That is the blessing and the curse of sentience, which formed the apex of the split timelines – the ability to choose differently, even in the face of all life has to throw at you.
And the ones who came to touch Harry James Potter's, born in the fading days of July, life, would alter it dramatically.
%&%&%&%&%&%&%&%&
Over the cries of his parent's final moments and the laughter of Lord Voldemort as the Dementor bore down on him, Harry heard something.
A loud, blistering, challenging howl.
Suddenly, the whole alley, which had been utterly black, was full of blinding light. The dementor shrieked in agony and released him at once, dropping him to the ground.
Harry scrambled up against the wall, shifting his glasses and his eyes fought to see anything in the white force. It began to dim slightly, and he realized someone was standing there who hadn't been there before.
Well...perhaps standing wasn't the right word. It was more like crouching, leaning back and forth to the point of giving the illusion of being on all fours.
When the light faded, he could see more clearly. Two people who had not been in the ally before the dementors swept down on him and his cousin came into focus.
The one crouching, the one who was still wreathed in the fading white light, was a young girl...perhaps Ginny's age, or Hermione's. She was very tall, rail thin and all muscle. But that wasn't the shocking thing about looking at her.
Her black hair was so long it fell down to her waist. It was matted with mud, flowers and briars, which gave a look of wild beauty. Her skin was dirty and covered in old scratches. Her clothes – an old leather jacket, a faded brown shirt and camouflage jeans – were also torn, muddy and worn. She was barefoot as well. Her eyes were dark green, bangs falling down around them like a forest curtain.
She looks feral. She...she almost looks like an animal.
The other was a boy, the same height as Harry himself. However, the similarities stopped there. The boy was dressed entirely in grey and black. He had a very sophisticated look about him, harsh and straight lined. His skin was pale and much less beaten-looking than the girl, which made the long mark going down from the tip of his chin to further into his chest all the more jarring compared to such a clean and ordinary appearance. His hair was silver grey, though it was clearly dyed from its natural colour.
That wasn't what shocked Harry the most. What shocked him was the face.
The dark green eyes.
The lightning shaped scar on his forehead.
He knew them very well. He saw them in the mirror every morning when he got out of bed. That was him. ..and yet, not him at the same time. But that was impossible! Wasn't it?
If the other boy had noticed what Harry had, he gave no sign of it. Instead, he looked around wildly for a minute before raising a hand to his ear.
"Daphne? Ginerva? Are you seeing this? What just happened?" He demanded, before pausing. When he didn't get an answer, he became visibly more aggravated. "Someone, come in! What is happening!?"
If the girl was bothered by anything that had just happened, she gave no sign of it. She stood ramrod still, head tilted slightly like she was struggling to hear something.
Harry stumbled to his feet and walked over to his cousin. Dudley had turned an ugly pasty white colour, but he was still breathing and his heart was beating. The Dementor hadn't gotten his soul. Harry felt somewhat surprised at how relieved he was to discover this. As much as he had hated Dudley for bullying him so relentlessly over the years, he didn't want him to loose his soul and die.
"More." The girl said fearfully.
"What?" The other boy demanded, brought out of his struggle with...an earpiece? Harry was sure that's what it was, but that couldn't be right – electronics didn't work with magical interference. Hermione had said so herself.
"More monsters." The girl repeated. Her voice was scratchy and stilted, and she stumbled over the word monsters.
"You-You mean the dementors?" Harry demanded, finally wrestling free of his shock to form coherent sentences. "How-how can you be sure?"
"I hear them." The girl whispered, shuddering violently. She whimpered, clenching her fists. "They're coming...they're all coming."
"Fucking...! Bullshit! What a load of...in muggle territory...complete bull..." The other boy sputtered, enraged. "Who would be stupid enough...!? Fuck! We need to get to the nearest wizard society."
He took a few steps forward and rounded on Harry, examining him for a moment before catching sight of his wand. He grabbed it and shoved it in Harry's face. "Is this yours!?"
"Y-Yeah." Harry stammered, taking it back while staring blankly.
"Good! If you want to keep your soul, take us to the nearest entrance to Diagon Alley." The boy said, visibly struggling to figure out where might have been closest.
The girl let out a dismayed cry and bolted from the alley. A moment later, Harry realized what had spooked her – icy coldness washed over him again. He exchanged a look with the other boy and, casting a levitation spell on the prone Dudley, bolted after the girl into the dark streets of Little Whining.
She was fast! Incredibly fast. Harry was reasonably athletic himself, but even exerting himself he could barely keep himself two metres behind her. The iciness in his chest was getting worse even as they put considerable distance between themselves and the street...what was going on...
Harry cast a look over his shoulder, and was horrified and dumbfounded by what he saw.
The sky above his muggle neighbourhood was filled with Dementors. They blocked out the moon and the stars, and even the air was heavy and full of despair. He swore, even in his muddled memory, that there were more even then in the time where he had rescued his godfather.
What were they doing here!?
He had to cast a patronus...but he could hardly think through the panic, the fear, the confusion and the still growing horror in his chest. He could hardly think, let alone process his thoughts enough to focus upon any of his few good memories – all he could see or hear was Voldemort's laughter, his mother screaming, the green light of death, Cedric's wide and sightless eyes...
"EXPECO PATRONUM!"
The other boy's voice cut through the gloom like a knife. A sliver fox darted past Harry and leapt into the sky, scattering the soul sucking demons like pinballs in every direction.
Harry glanced at him as they kept running. The other boy nodded slightly and pushed onwards to keep up with the girl.
Harry's lungs were burning. What had started as a bad day had turned into a nightmare. Despite having been struck with two separate patroni, the sheer number of Dementors following them were as relentless as ever. Harry's head was ringing from the screams and the pressure of the icy feelings...he stuttered, stumbled, and heard the girl roar again one last time before the world faded into darkness.
**Some Time Later**
Dumbleore went straight for Little Whining once he realized something was seriously wrong, but he himself and Kingsley Shakabolt reached the suburbs twenty minutes after the Dementors had been chased away.
They found the feral girl there, crouching over the bodies of Harry and another boy that looked remarkably like him. Neither boy was moving, though there was still enough colour in their faces to ensure that they were alive. The girl was on all fours, pale and exhausted from casting the final patronus.
She hissed like an angry cat when Dumbledore approached them, her eyes narrowing and her back arching when recognition flickered through her eyes. When Kingsley attempted to touch her, she spat at him and headbutted him, pushing him away from the boys.
Dumbledore attempted to stun her in response to this, she was obviously distraught, only to be shocked when the spell struck a shield and harmlessly disintegrated. The girl glared at him; she had summoned a shield spell silently without him noticing.
A child that young, using fluent wandless magic?
Ignoring him, the girl turned to Harry and nudged his shoulder. When he didn't respond, she turned her attention to the other boy, shaking him and growling in his face. When neither were roused, she made a small noise of distress deep in her throat.
Dumbledore waited for her to become truly distracted when he attempted to stun her again. This time, it did work, and she slumped over Harry and passed out.
Gently the old man walked up to her and turned her over. Kingsley gasped.
All three children had the famous lightning bolt scar.
"What's happened here, Dumbledore?" Kingsley asked.
"I don't know." Dumbledore admitted, looking down at the three with an increasing feeling of alarm. He wasn't used to not having the answer to the situations they were faced with. "Let's bring them all to St Mugos. Hopefully one of them will know what we don't."
He transfigured stretchers for Harry and his two friends, placing them each on one. Then they hurried off, hoping to head off the Ministry goons who would inevitably come searching for ammunition against the Boy Who Lived.
**~At St Mugos~**
Harry woke up an indeterminate amount of time later, in the warm white walls of the magical hospital. For a moment, he wondered if the Dementors had just been a nightmare, one of many he had been experiencing since Cedric's death.
Then he felt a small hand on his shoulder, turned his head to the right and saw the girl. She was sitting on the bed next to him, and she smiled a bit when she saw him siting upright.
"Awake! You still have soul. That's good," She said happily. Her words were stilted and awkward, as if she wasn't used to speaking.
"What...what happened?" Harry asked.
The girl frowned and shrugged uncertainly. "Don't know. Was asleep in woods one moment with a friend. Then suddenly I was in the street with you. I..I felt like I was being carried away. Like in rapids. You understand?"
"Um...sort of." Harry said hesitantly. He didn't understand, but he had a sense he wasn't the only one. "I saw you take care of those Dementors. That was pretty cool."
The girl beamed. "Soul suckers. First line of defence I learned."
"That's brilliant." Harry said. The girl blushed a bit and looked away. "What's your name?"
"Name..." The girl pondered for a second before saying, "Heather. I am Heather. Potter."
"Potter?" Harry didn't even have time to be surprised before the other voice broke in. He and Heather turned to see the other boy sitting upright, eyeing them with shock and suspicion. "That's impossible."
"Why? Who are you?" Harry asked, heart thudding. Don't tell me...
"Hadrian Soprano." The boy said shortly. "But I was born Hadrian Potter."
End Chapter
My brother rented The Sopranos recently, so that's where the idea for Hadrian's last name came from. Great show, even if my somewhat squeamish nature makes it hard to watch at points. There will be multiple romantic pairings (that includes Ginny, Hermione and others...), multiple world dichotomies, and plenty of surprises I don't want to give away yet. I hope you guys are as interested as I am!
Read and Review please!