Familiar faces

Harry opens the door and finds himself in a long hallway. He stops. He wasn't looking for anything, wasn't asking for the Room of Requirement to become this place. He was just walking by, thinking about his parents, and the war, and how he was so alone because he sacrificed so much.

Harry is curious, and he starts walking again, wand at the ready. He comes to a room. It's empty, save for a pensive by the far wall, but when Harry comes closer he sees it's not a pensive at all, but something else, that he's never seen before. The basin is large, a meter in diameter, and it's filled with white fog. From the basin, Harry can now discern sounds. Laughter, and himself taking excitedly about a Nimbus 1999. He is drawn in, touching the fog, lowering his arm deeper and deeper. And then he falls, right through the basin and through the fog, noting that his body was left in the room, and then he sees it, a stone cottage in a pretty English village, and then he is inside the cottage, in a bedroom with quiddich posters and muggle movies and red and gold curtains, and there's a boy, a little boy who looks exactly like he did at eleven, and then Harry stops falling. He opens his eyes, and he is flooded with the boy's memories, their minds changing to fit into one head. And then he smiles, because in this world, Lily and James Potter are alive and well.

...

Lily Potter is drinking tea in the kitchen, Harry having gone to bed an hour ago. She tells herself he's asleep, but she knows he's not. Like his father, Harry rarely does what he is told. Instead of sleeping, he invents pranks, or flies out the window on his Nimbus. She doesn't mind, because she knows the wards around the house wouldn't let him go more than half a mile in any direction.

Tomorrow Harry is going to Hogwarts. When he got the letter he was so excited he made them go for school supplies at once. On his list, prank supplies were a number one priority.

Suddenly Lily hears footsteps coming down the stairs. She looks up, and there's Harry. He is looking at her with a sort of awe, as if she were something magical and rare and unexpected. "Mom?" He says, and she says "Yes, Harry, what is it?" And he just smiles and she thinks she must have imagined it. "You should be in bed. Big day tomorrow. You wouldn't want to miss the Express?" He nods, and then he goes to hug her and she hears him say "miss you" and she replies "I'm gonna miss you too, honey".

...

The next day the whole family is at Kings Cross Station. Sirius is there, and a tall bearded man who is apparently Harry's grandfather. It's strange for him that so many people care, when in his own world he had to ask the Weasleys for help. He hasn't stopped smiling since his father tickled him out of bed and gave him the Invisibility cloak.

By a stroke of luck his wand turned out to be the same familiar Phoenix one. Apparently the scar did not affect it's judgment, and Harry is glad. He misses Hedwig, and his Nimbus 2000, and Ron and Hermione, but he knows he will see them soon. He wonders if the sorting hat will know what happened. He hopes not. His actions screamed Slytherin more than his parseltongue ever did.

Now he is in the train, waving at his family from one of the windows. His mom looks a little teary-eyed and his dad puts his arm around her shoulders and Sirius tells her she'll hear from Harry soon enough, in a howler from McGonnagal. Lily smiles then, and as the train starts Harry is filled with a sense of belonging, and all his feelings of guilt about leaving his world and usurping this Harry's body disappear in the face of his happiness. He starts walking, looking for Ron's compartment because he knows his friend won't come sit with him this time. He regrets not meeting Ginny and Mrs. Weasley, but he wouldn't miss the precious moments with his parents for the world.

Finally, he sees it. Ron looks so small and unfamiliar and when Harry opens the door and asks to sit with him the boy looks almost worried. Harry never realized how nervous his best friend must have been.

"I'm Harry Potter. What's your name?" He asks, and for a second is surprised when there's no gasp and no pointing at his scar.

"Ron Weasley. Your parents are aurors right?"

"Yeah. Dad's head of the department. I think he knows your father, Arthur. Doesn't he work in the ministry too?"

"Yeah he does. He says your parents fought in the first war. He says they are Griffindors through and through. I'm gonna be in Griffindor as well, all my brothers are, it's the coolest house. What 'bout you?"

"I guess. Though Slytherin wouldn't be too bad. I know for a fact my mom's friend used to go there, and he's the bravest man ever!"

Ron looks doubtful, unable at 11 to see a difference between "evil" and "Slytherin". Harry doesn't want to argue and changes the topic.

"Have you brought a pet?" he asks, fully expecting to see Scabbers.

"No. I wanted an owl but my parents... Well they don't think I need one so they don't want to waste money on it." He looks uncomfortable and Harry doesn't know what to say. He realizes what this means, that this Peter is still human, possibly still friends with his parents. He tries to remember, sifting through the other Harry's memories. He can't remember Peter ever visiting, and suddenly he sees a newspaper, the Prophet, and 5 year old Harry asking his parents: "Why is Wormtail in the newspaper?", and his mom crying and he realizes that Peter is dead, and he is so relieved and also somehow sad that he won't be able to save him.

"Harry?"

"Yeah, sorry, I was just thinking of something" he explains, and is about to add that he has a brown owl, Godric, when the door slides open to reveal Neville." He must be looking for his toad" Harry thinks, when he hears Ron's "Merlin! You're Him! You're Neville Longbottom!" And Harry sees the scar on the other boy's forehead. "Oh no", he thinks, and offers Neville his hand, as though he were ordinary, as though his misfortune didn't lead to Harry's happiness. In retrospect, Harry should have figured it out sooner.

"I'm Harry Potter. Wanna sit with us?"

Neville is surprised. "He's probably never met anyone who treated him like a friend", Harry thinks, remembering years of staring, and gushing, and asking for an autograph. He decides then and there that they would become friends at once, before Neville is left to face Quirrell and Riddle on his own.

"I might, but I have to find my toad first. It's called Trevor, and I think I might have forgotten it in London. Have you seen it?" He sounds hopeful, and as Harry and Ron shake their heads he sighs and moves on, promising to come sit with them if he finds his toad. He never comes, and Malfoy doesn't come either, looking only for the Boy Who Lived. Harry wonders if Neville will fall for the Slytherin's friendship speech.

Hermione however, does come, and Harry asks her to stay. She looks unsure, friendship being, to her, an almost unfamiliar concept, something she yearns for but doesn't have. As she sits down, Harry starts talking about school, and she pulls out Hogwarts: A History and assures Ron that to be sorted, fighting a troll is not necessary. They play exploding snap and when she leaves to let them change the three of them are already friends. As the train stops in Hogsmeade, Harry knows this year will be the best year of his life.

...

Albus Dumbledore is sitting at the high table, looking at his students. He is happy to see them, eager to start a new year and to meet the first years. It always amuses him to learn just how many of them think he is mad. In all honesty, he isn't sure they are wrong. Minerva strives to protect his reputation and deducts points for that kind of talk, but even she has to admit that the Headmaster is rather eccentric, and that state of affairs pleases him.

This year, however, was going to prove to be unusually entertaining, and he might have to forgo some of his crazier ideas. Not only must Albus protect the Stone, but Neville Longbottom is coming to Hogwarts. He doesn't know that much about Neville, not enough to tell the boy the truth, but he knows he has little choice. He hopes the child is a Griffindor, hopes he has talent and courage and the ability to find loyal friends to help him, but from what he heard Neville has no special talents. For a moment, Albus wonders if Harry Potter might take the other boy's place if Neville should fail, but he dismisses the thought. After all, Voldemort did not mark young Harry as his equal, so the prophecy wouldn't apply. Albus sees Minerva lead the first years into the Hall and he forgets, for the moment, the problems of the future, and prepares to listen to the Sorting Hat's song.