Some things do

by Tricota

AU With a blast of magic Harry gets thrown to another dimension where his parents are alive and Neville is the boy who lived. In a world where nothing is the same, Harry finds himself gravitating toward Snape as the only fixed point across dimension: every Snape in every reality, always hates Harry Potter. Somethings never change

Some things do by Tricota

SUMMARY: With a blast of magic Harry gets thrown to another dimension where his parents are alive and Neville is the boy who lived.

In a world where nothing is the same, Harry finds himself gravitating toward Snape as the only fixed point across dimension: every Snape in every reality, always hates Harry Potter. Some things never change

-88888888888-

From time to time Harry could still detach himself from this place.

He'd watch this people as they would complicate simple things, in such an amazing way, that they even managed to make it sound logical.

He felt older in those moments; alone, and out of place, and yet- Useful.

Wistful.

He could help this people, he could give them something back.

"Horrocruxes" he said knowing they would be mad he had been eavesdropping on a private meeting, but needing them to know.

"Harry!" his mother chided "what are you doing there?! this is not a game and not a place for boys to be!" Harry chafed at the boy calling, but too afraid of her, that she wouldn't love him, that she would decide he was just too much trouble, he simply lowered his head and let himself be pushed out by insistent hands, like the boy she had called him.

"Lily, please let him explain", Dumbledore looked older here, even though, by all accounts he was a few years younger. "That's very old and very, very dark magic, Mr. Potter, where did you hear of it?" The Headmaster enunciated carefully while looking him over his half moon spectacles.

They all treated him like a child here, and at some he would snap, but at others he would just give in.

Slowly, almost shyly at first he told them what he could, dancing around how he knew most of it, shocked that he hadn't done this before, and amazed at how little they knew in some aspects, yet, against all odds, so much in others.

That day they let him stay inside with the adults, he even participated and for the first time in months he felt alive, with some purpose -not lost. Not out of his depth.

This was what he knew, he knew about war, about battles, he was a warrior, damn it!, not a boy

…but, as just the source he was, they didn't let him stay in the gathering past this usefulness.

Thanks to the Potter's wards they knew him to be a true Potter and was acknowledged as such, -family and all- but he hadn't told them much else, and they saw no reason to ask more….

As a result of his own secretiveness, they only trusted him so far. It truly was his own fault but he still hated it some times.

In the end it was yet to be seen if Voldemort had held true in his original number and choices of Horrocruxes, but it shouldn't be too hard to check, and it could help matters…

Harry found himself anxious to be part of it, he had thought, when the war -his war- had ended, that all he craved was a simple, carefree existence, but once his wish had been granted he had felt...lost.

The options where too many, the horizon too big, never before had he been this free.

He didn't know what to do with himself, he kind of missed his old chains.

It was odd to finally get what he had always wanted and find that it wasn't what he had thought, and worst of all, that the fault was all his.

In the Mirror, years ago, he had seen his family as his heart deepest desire; here, he had his parents, a close circle of friends to call uncles, and a makeshift brother; but he didn't know how to be someone's son, he was afraid of even the word "uncle" to address Remus or Sirius since it felt wrong and insulting; and his brother -that had been the hardest part of it all, he was just so envious of this world's Harry.

This Harry could hug his mum just because, ask his dad awkward questions without blinking an eye, and he was just so... so damn carefree and reckless, and brave, and loud, and, and just –just happy.

This world's Harry had been pampered and protected all his life, had never been without, he had always had his parents at home, teachers at school... there had always been someone looking out for him and because of that he looked younger and freer than Harry had ever been at that age, he was also childish and sometime hurtful.

He was, after all, a normal thirteen years old.

A regular teenager, with angsty bouts, and stupid ideas, with puppy eyes, and clumsy feet and most of all, with an always ready a smile to solve the world's problems.

Harry had once heard him yell at his father that he hated him because he wasn't allowed to go with Neville to the Ministry; Harry had seen his father's flash of pain before he had tighten his jaw and sent him to his room. The next morning the teenager had apologized, said it wasn't true, "I don't hate you, I don't, I love you, you know, that right?", and had done what Harry had wanted the night before; he had hugged his dad, the fight forgotten.

Harry had just watched, feeling awkward and envious, and angry with the world. And tired.

So very tired.

-888-

"Harry?"

"Stop!, please stop! Please uncle Vernon, plea—" the whimpers became and hysterical plead when he felt himself being shaken.

"Harry!" the grip grew tighter and the shaking more frantic "HARRY!"

"Don't!, Don't!", suddenly he broke free of the dream but not of the grip.

He stayed still, very still and silent, trying get a hold of his emotions, of his fears, when a hand inmiscuted in his personal space making him flinch as it went straight to his forehead, checking for temperature.

The gesture was so gentle and his emotions so wild and raw- that Harry couldn't stop the gasp that escaped him and felt like a sob, but tears...tears he didn't allow.

"—sh, hush, it was just a nightmare, you're okay" the boy leaned a little on that cool hand still on his forehead and let himself be lead to a shoulder. Some seconds later , with a shaky breath he got control of himself and was getting ready to push away when he felt it.

The heart beat.

His dad's heart beat.

It was the most amazing sound in the world, so steady, and strong, and so very real!

He had dreamed with it for years and years, and now here it was

thud-thud

thud-thud

He felt the vibration of words, but didn't catch the words itself, so lost in the sound was he, but after some time he forced himself to let go, embarrassed at how much it had costed.

How needy it made him look.

The arms holding him hesitated at letting him go but Harry pushed himself straight.

James was sitting in the bed with him.

"My sister's first husband was called Vernon" came a voice from the room's threshold. "did you know him? Is he "uncle Vernon"?" asked his mom.

The voice startled them both.

James wanted to tell Lily not to ask any more questions. They had agreed to let Harry come to them.

Whomever had been taking care of their son in their stead, they haven't been doing a very good job.

In contrast to their little Harry, this one had an almost unfriendly disposition to personal questions of any kind. James has seen him close off to such simple questions before. He had no qualms about talking about death, and war and Horrocruxes but recoiled to pretty much anything else

This time however, Harry answered before he could say anything.

"yeah, I-I lived with them"

"I thought you lived with relatives?" Now it was James asking the questions "I thought one of my cousins…." He trailed off trying to remember his will. Had he named anyone after Sirius?

"No, but it was all right, I-"

"Mum, dad?" Harry, the younger Harry asked with a sleepy voice "is something wrong?"

"Sorry hun, did we wake you?" Lily's voice disappeared down the corridor "Everything is okay, you should go back to bed, tomorrow is the first day of school"

James and the older Harry sat in silence listening in. James was trying to think of ways to keep the conversation open, to learn more about this boy that was their son – but not their son – but yet their son –

They heard the click of a closing door and still said nothing. It was finally Harry who broke the silence. "I should go back to sleep too" he faked a big yawn "Sorry I woke you"

"You can wake me any time" the older Potter wanted to say "Why didn't you grow up with my relatives? Why Lily's? What were your dreams about? Do you usually have nightmares? Do you always wake up screaming? Do you want to talk about it?" instead he just said "Are you ready for tomorrow?"

"We'll see, I guess"

That was something else.

James wasn't used to this economical answers from a teenage boy. Harry, his Harry, still was in that age where he would jump on the opportunity to talk with his dad.

The Auror despaired at the differences, and he knew that at some point he would have to stop comparing this two boys-his two boys, but it was hard, and getting harder.

"Good night"

"Good night"

He never called him dad.

-888-

Harry didn't miss home. He didn't feel at home in this dimension either but he—

"Potter, Harry" rang loud and clear McGonagall's voice

Confusion broke the usual clatter of cutlery in the great hall and the whole body of student shifted as one big mass toward the Gryffindor table where the younger Harry shrank a little and tried explain to the closer students that he wasn't being resorted, that he had a new brother that was also named Harry Potter and was older.

questions rose from every table "a resorting?", "can they do that?", "Told you Snape wasn't kidding, he'll send us to Hufflepuff!"

Head high and with his heart trying to break out through his ribcage, the 7th year Harry walked to the second sorting of his life.

He wasn't quite as scared as the first time around, but he wasn't any less nervous either.

He glanced at Gryffindor table catching little's Harrys eyes and they shared a secret smile of sorts. 'His brother', he thought with amusement at the very idea, while effortlessly ignoring the incredulous stare of everyone else in the hall.

He wasn't any less nervous, no, but he was sure of what he wanted this time around.

His eyes singled out Ron and Hermione down Gryffindor's table, both so young, so very very young.

Once he reached the stool and the hat touched his head, everything turned black and he heard the familiar voice of the sorting hat inside his skull.

He took a deep breath, and tried to calm his aching heart.

Yes, he thought. He knew what he wanted.

The hat yelled it to the whole hall.

-888-

Some nights later, not being able to sleep, Harry was wandering the halls of Hogwarts.

Everything in this place was different. The room, the smells, the people...

The castle itself felt different and he wondered if he himself was different as well.

One thing was the same: he always had trouble sleeping in a new places, and this time it was not the exception.

At least here at Hogwarts there was nothing to feed a Dursley nightmare, he thought with chagrin, remembering the lasts nights at the Potter's.

He walked faster trying to leave the memories behind.

Those last few day's had been the worse yet; seeing them interact like a typical family had left him drowning in a sea of 'what if' that almost drove him mad with a hunger for something he didn't know how to feed.

What if he had been that Harry? What if he had came here earlier? What if he joined them outside in the picnic they were having? What if he told them-

"Another Potter," sneered Snape materializing out of the shadows "As if we hadn't enough already." He walked his way up to Harry

Surprisingly enough, that made Harry relax for the first time that day.

Trust Snape and his hatred for him and all things Potter to be a constant. Even across dimensions. He nearly smiled.

"Is it even worth an explanation to ask what are you doing out here after hours? Do you find this amusing, Mr Potter?"

"No, sir. Sorry, Professor" Snape just pursed his lips studying the boy in front of him intently. Ever since he had heard of him, Other dimensional Potter was an enigma that Snape was itching to analyze.

"Follow me, Potter, before I decide to take points"

"It would be your house, Sir" the echo of Snape heels against the stone faltered a little, the only indication that he had heard him.

They walked in an uncomfortable silence, passing along snoring canvases and the floating feather of the baron's hat, stuck on the wall where the ghost had gone off to sleep.

Finally they stopped in the middle of a nondescript corridor, across a nondescript tapestry, facing some stones that were no different from their neighbors.

It wasn't going to be easy getting used to the route to his new house. No more Fat Lady, he thought.

Snape took out his wand and started tapping a random series of stones while he spoke.

"Maybe where you come from, Mr Potter, curfew is an alien concept, but here at Hogwarts we have rules, and you are expected to follow them" the sneer was there, as was the barb, but it had- mellowed somewhat. It was Harry's turn study his professor. As with the others, this Snape was younger too, the second war hadn't started here and perhaps it was that strain that was missing...

He was still the greasy git, Slytherin's head of house, the same old imposing bat, with blowing robes and all.

But he wasn't giving him detention nor threatening to fed him some obnoxious potion. That part was new.

"Do you still teach Potions?" he blurted out.

He needed anything, something , someone , to be the same. "or was it DADA?" he mused aloud loosing it a little "last year you had DADA" this Snape, hadn't killed Dumbledore. Was he still a Death Eater? A Spy? "Nothing is certain here" Frustrated now he rubbed his scar feeling a headache building behind it, the last sleepless nights catching up to him.

Snape got an eyeful of the boy slowly falling apart in front of him, trying to discern what was different enough from their old Harry Potter to make this one a member of his house.

Perhaps the hat simply needed some respelling? he mused

"Go to bed, Mr Potter" he said instead.

"do you even teach here?" asked Harry accusingly. For some reason he needed Snape to stay a Potion Master. To stay true. To be the anchor of it all.

if Severus hadn't known better he would have suspected the boy of legilimency, so intense was the stare he received. He dismissed the idea immediately, very much put upon to have even considered it.

But he saved the bit of information off the boy's rambling for later. If the professor understood correctly, the boy knew him, there was a counterpart of himself in this other dimention where he taught DADA? His curiosity was picked, but this wasn't the time nor the place to find that out, and he told the brat as much, adding the warning "Next time I will take points, Mr Potter. Do make sure that there is not a such a time"

Harry dropped his shoulders and simply turned and walked inside. He shouldn't have asked. You don't ask for what you won't get. He had forgotten, but he would remember it in the future.

-888-

After the first few weeks the wonder of a new upper student grew stale. People stared at him, sure, but he had learned how to ignore them long ago, on another castle, in another life.

Harry fell in an easy routine, forcing himself to adapt quickly. Go to classes, go to meals, study. Repeat.

It had become a new hobby of his to stalk his old friends at meals, and sometimes even in the corridors. They were and weren't the same.

Hermione was the first one in all of her classes, no changes there.

Ron still left everything to the last possible minute.

This Dean too, was fixed in trying to turn water into rum.

Neville...Neville was the biggest difference, here Neville was the boy who lived. And then of course was the fact of seeing an almost identical copy of himself across the hall with no scar.

Neville and young Harry were best friends. Ron would sometimes hangout with them but Hermione would only see them in classes.

He was distracted out of his musings by someone sprouting colorful feathers down Gryffindor's table. He smiled and looked for the twins. He found them a few places away from an indignant Lee, laughing their arses off and making some notation on a parchment.

It warmed him to know that they were still hard at work in the smiles business. To unite the family he then looked for Percy, and found him easily, marching in the twins direction, a scowl firmly in place and a head boy badge in his chest. Ron came next, mouth full and oblivious to his brothers antics, too busy hunting down some mashed potatoes to fill his plate. Then Giny...

He looked everywhere, even craning his neck to do so. Up and down the table, twice over. He found some of her year mates, but not her.

Perhaps she had left already. He looked at the time. It was late.

He poured a last glass of pumpkin and forced himself to go back to his transfiguration essay. No more procrastination, he chided himself.

It was rude to bring a book to the table but he had a sound excuse. Since none of his NEWT scores had traveled with him, he would have to take them again in the second call.

Meanwhile all of the professors were letting him attend the classes provided he could keep up. No promises made.

If he failed the exams, he would lose the year.

He scowled at the essay. Without Herm's help to keep him in track, he found it pretty hard to decide which part was important an which one wasn't. Did he have to know the 5 capital rules to every inertiral transfigurations, or to know they were five was good enough? Perhaps he could just list the names?

He scanned the book again. It was a lot of text for just 5 measly rules.

With a sigh he marked it as important. Just in case

-888-

Harry looked down at his parchment. It looked like a study in how to scratch words. The paper was soaking wet with ink.

The coming weekend was going to be the second Hogsmeade's one of the year, and while the first one had taken him by surprise, by the second he had managed to procure a slip form from one of the prefects, and therein laid his problem: he didn't know how to write the letter asking the Potters for permission.

Dear Mom and Dad? Esteemed Mrs and Mr Potter? James and Lily?

and even after he had gotten past that, opening the missive with a simple 'Hi' and rambling a little about his classes, his classmates and the weather, the form itself was worded in such a way that Harry couldn't help but despair at it:

"To be signed by Parents and/or Guardian"

Ugh!

The balled the parchment up and threw it away in frustration.

If he wanted to get away from the castle, which he did. Greatly. He would have to do it by his own means, and that meant the secret passage. He didn't have the map, but he remembered it well.

-888-

Being in Slytherin was a whole new experience.

Whereas Gryffindor they didn't care about the rules, they had only cared about what was fair. They had strong definition of justice and what was right and what was wrong, with little gray spaces in between.

Here in Slytherin they were big about the grays. They were just as ruthless as any gryff, but they cared much more about rules. Their rules, sure. But rules all the same.

They would impose parameters ands limitations on themselves so they had a framework to operate within. If doing something meant breaking their own internal code, there was no way in hell they would do it. They would break each and every school rule on the book, but none of their own.

Down in the dungeon Harry had found no friends, but outside the common room, Slytherins stuck together no matter what. Even Snape had such a code. It was different from his rules to the rest of the school, he had a special set just for his Slytherins.

"Do you know me Mr Potter?" hissed Snape in his office after catching Harry off grounds and frogmarching him the whole way down to the dungeons.

"Yes. No. I don't know!" After weeks and weeks in this place, that was and wasn't home, Harry was finally loosing it. And in front of Snape of all people. "I know my Snape, you look like him but you are not, you are so—so…so civil! nice even" his tone spoke of betrayal. Like if Snape being fair to him was the disregard of an old promise.

He looked down at his hands clutching his new book bag. Inside of it he had new books to go with his new quills which also matched his new robes and his second batch of new ties, this time green and silver. None of which had he paid himself, James—his father had insisted.

"Everything is so easy here, so….so damn peaceful" Snape looked alarmed at this, but Harry didn't see it "I even have parents now" he almost stuttered over the word, so odd did it felt on his tongue.

"And you didn't before?"

that took the wind off his sails "No" he felt miserable and wretched. He had parents! Was he complaining because he had parents?! What was wrong with him?! He rubbed his scar "I don't know how to be someone's child" there. He'd said it aloud fo the first time.

He had been chafing at the very thought for months now.

He didn't feel any better after giving it voice, though.

He looked at his teacher from behind heavy eyelashes, afraid of the tongue lashing that was sure to come. And he'd deserve it too, ungrateful freak that he was.

But heart beat later and then two and three; and still, it didn't come.

"Who were your custodians back home? How would yo have handle it before" came the question instead of the bashing "You did have guardians, I presume?"

"I grew up with muggle relations" he replied "but...How would I have..." he repeated the last words stalling for an answer "I don't know" he said after thinking it over. And he really didn't. How to acknowledge that question? there where two answers to that: The grown-up friendly one "I would go to an adult and ask"

...and the truth.

He didn't know where he was standing with this Snape. To the old one he would have told to piss off without even half a thought, but this one had not given him any reason to merit such an answer. Yet.

"The truth, if you would"

At that he sent his teacher a sharp glance "I'm not occluding?" he freaked out. He checked his shields immediately. It had become a second nature to be always on guard "they're up" He said accusingly.

Stupidly really, because now Snape was narrowing his eyes at him.

"That is extremely advanced magic, Mr Potter" came the hissed rebuke "Dark even" the professor didn't have his wand out, but it was easy to tell that he wanted to. "Who are you, Harry Potter? Where did you learned those skills, very few wizards know even the name of the Minders. Fewer yet dare practice them"

"Minders?"

"Don't toy with me, boy!" furious now.

A ripple shot past Harry, straight for the door that boomed closed.

"Answers, Potter. I want the now!"

Alone and locked up with an enraged Snape who was itching to have him at wand point, Harry discovered that what had been missing form this Snape to transform him in his Snape was the presage of an enemy. The foreshadowing of danger.

The threat of it all.

So maybe this was his Snape. Well, not his Snape, obviously, but potentially he was someone familiar all the same. Finally some footing.

And even though Merlin knew he craved for something familiar he still didn't want to bring back that promise of renewed hostility that his Snape was known for. That same hostility he could see lurking just behind the eyes of this one, ready to take form and strike.

He found he didn't want to go there. He didn't want to lose this ...amnesty of a sort that they had reached.

Decision made he lifted both hands showing he was unarmed "Sorry, ok, sorry! I just didn't know they were called that. Or perhaps here they're called something different, I don't know" at Snape unimpressed stare he kept on going "you taught me, all right, back in fifth year. Or actually my Snape, obviously.

But umm, see, my Dumbledore asked my Snape because –well, because of the connection and…" he stoped. He didn't know where to start nor how much to say.

"Oh, I see, how …convenient for you. I taught you. And to what purpose may I ask, would I teach a fifteen years old such dark spells?" the question was civil, but no so much the tone.

"We where at war" said Harry as if that explained it all. And to him it really it did

"Explain" came the caustic word. So maybe it didn't explain it all?

"I—I don't know how much I can say. Professor Dumbledore knows of my shields. I think" he rubbed his scar while trying to remember those first days "I'm pretty sure he tried to read my mind"

"Does that scar hurt? I noticed you touch it often"

"what?, this?" asked Harry taken by surprised at the non sequitur but ready to fly that way all the same.

Happy to, even.

He didn't want to talk about his war. He didn't want them to know who he had been before, this was his chance to a new start. No more boy who lived. He had done his part, Voldemort was dead. He wanted out.

In here Neville was the Boy Who Lived , and he was doing a pretty good job of it.

Thinking Snape meant his hand he looked down at the old lines. Seeing his white knuckles he relaxed his grip on the straps of his book bag "Sometimes, but not much usually" he tried to cover the marks with his other hand. Still ashamed of them.

"I meant the forehead" Said the professor as he looked at the strange mark on the boy's forehead. A scar with the form of a lighting bolt that was usually hidden behind a fringe of hair. It looked almost carved in, painfully so.

"oh" breathed Harry. People usually didn't ask about his scar. Here, in this new dimension, people didn't even look for it when he gave his name. Most of the time, he had almost forgotten that he had it. Now he felt stupid.

Snape moved his eyes from the forehead to he hand the boy was covering. "which scar did you think I was talking about? How many scars do you have?" he mocked.

Harry flinched.

"Show me the hand" Snape extended his own hand and waited to be obeyed "The right one!" he berated mere seconds later mistaking reluctance with dimwittedness.

He pushed Potter's sleeve back and was appalled at what he found. He mouthed the words 'I must not tell lies'

"what is the meaning of this" he traced the words with his thumb trying to discern what had carved them.

Potter tugged on the hand and he let him go "did you do this to yourself?" he demanded. He took a physical step back to give Potter some space, he wanted answers. The boy clutched again the satchel strap, one hand on top of the other, taking care to cover the words, he noticed. "No, you are right handed" he answered himself, after seeing ink stained fingers on that same hand. "Who did that to you?"

"I really should go" Potter took a step back "I'm sorry I snook out, I—I won't do it again, really" a lie and they both knew it. Another step back.

"Answer just one question and I won't inform the Headmaster about your little... expedition to the village" Potter turned as if to reach for the door, clearly the bargain wasn't good enough "nor will I enquire as to how did you get past our dear Mr Filch"

that got the boy's attention.

"Which question?" success!

"How did you get that scar" he said as if bored "Either one"

Again that intense stare before the drop of the shoulders.

And even after that, there was still some silence. Snape wanted to shake some sense into the brat. Even the chance to decide was more leeway he ever gave any of his charges.

"Surely it isn't that hard" he scoffed feigning indifference "Perhaps, though, this should be brought to the Potter's attention. It could be self harming" he said as if speaking from the top of his head.

That made the boy start talking

"I got it during detention" Potter showed him the hand "in fifth year, we had a new teacher. She had a blood quill, see?and-"

"What an eventful year it must have been this fifth year of yours, Mr Potter" he interrupted with a sneer, making it clear that he knew when he was being lied to "You learned to control a Minder, you got that lovely scar... anything else? Made any new friends? Wrote a book, perhaps?"

"You don't believe me?"

"How stupid do you think I am, boy? Of course 'I don't believe you' " he mocked "Blood quills are not allowed in Hogwarts, nor is any kind of physical punishment for that matter.

Now let's try again, shall we. The truth this time, if you would. I'll even help you along: What was the lie? 'I must not tell lies' What was the lie?"

"I didn't lie! Voldemort was back. I don't lie" Said Harry defiantly. He wasn't a liar!

Snape twitched at the dark lord's name and almost called him on the use of the title, but decided to choose his battles.

"Perhaps you don't lie, no. But you don't tell the whole truth either, do you, Mr Potter?" he smirked when the boy evaded his eyes "But let's not get ourselves off topic. Why would this ...teacher accuse you of lying about such matters?"

"He was back, but the ministry was covering it all up, and the people needed to know. We had to prepare, we had to learn how to fight back"

That part he didn't doubt. The incompetence of the Ministry didn't surprise him in the least.

"and the blood quill? Is it a common practice where you come from?" It pained him to even consider it. Hogwarts had always been an upstanding institution. He would have liked to think that the same was true for any and all Hogwarts, but truly, with the open possibility of other dimensions, the probabilities became infinite.

"It was just Umbridge—the DADA instructor" Potter clarified "I don't know if she used it on other students, but I don't think the other teachers knew" Umbridge. The name ringed familiar "She'd been passing along educational decrees all year, trying to take Dumbledore down, telling people we were safe...the quill didn't seem all that important at the time"

"And the Dark Lord's return?" That, truly, was the most troubling part of it all. Abusive teachers, dark practices and disfiguratives detentions aside, it all paled in comparison with the return of the Dark Lord.

Snape wondered not for the first time How similar was this other dimension?

He had been reading all related books he could find on the subject and knew the Headmaster to be doing the same. Some of the manuscripts Snape had wanted to pore over were on the library's waiting list, Albus initials were the last ones listed.

"he came back the summer before that, there was this awful ritual in the graveyard with all the death eaters. I saw my parents and Cedric and…" the boy trailed off as if lost in the memory. He looked so pained that Snape chose not to push the issue this time. If the Potters had been present, perhaps this other dimension Order had known it was going to happen. He still didn't know if that same return was feasible here, there was no point in alienating the boy at this time.

He didn't push.

"Well. There seems to be no need to contact your parents over this. You'll serve a week detention with Filch, report to him after classes"

-888-

The next morning, an owl dropped a permission form for Hogsmeade over Harry's beens at breakfast.

He glared at the head table.

Snape toasted him back.

-888-

"Hey, Potter?" jeered a childish voice some weeks later

they both turned to face Malfoy and the blond boy froze on the spot. He had forgotten about the new Potter. He wanted to pick on his year mate but he wasn't such an idiot as it to face a seventh year.

"What do you want, Malfoy?" that was little Harry.

"umm.."

"Piss off, Draco" both little Harry and Neville looked at Harry with reverent eyes as the third year Slytherin just stormed away, his two thugs in town.

"did you need anything?" Harry turned back to the two Gryffindors.

They didn't go out of their way to avoid him, but they usually didn't talk to him either.

"yeah... umm...in your other dimension it's like the same that here, right? but, like in the future or something , right?"

"not exactly the same" he slanted a glance at Neville and his sagittated scar in the neck and across the jaw "but, yeah, pretty much. Some things are the same, why?"

Neville elbowed little Harry and gave him an extra visual nudge. Cleary the two boys had discussed this before hand "Well, we had defense today, and uncle Remy showed us some-"

"wait, please wait!" he stopped them "let me guess" this could be fun "so Remus you say" they both nodded in silence. He tried hard to remember. Remus. Remus...he had had Gilderoy in second year, and Remus came after that so "so third year...what did we do in third year?" he asked rhetorically "ooh, creatures! Remus love's creatures! it's pretty early in the year, so, stop me if I'm wrong buuuut...grindylows? red caps?" with each creature he named the Gryffindor's eyes got bigger, glassed with awe "kappas?" he was enjoying himself immensely "uh, werevolves? no, wait, that was Snape" he chided himself

"told you he would help us!"

"he knows the answer to every test!"

they were almost jumping up and down with unmitigated glee. Harry laughed a little at their antics.

they faced him again "will you help us?"

"I don't know if I can give you all the answers, my memory is not that good, but maybe I could..aah..mark you some chapters in the books" he was talking off the top of his head. Was that cheating? "or perhaps just uh...general help?" he back paddled a little. Just in case.

still the boys weren't deterred

"no, help us with the Boggarts" said little Harry

"we're having some trouble with them" immediately explained Neville and looked at him expectantly

"So if I remember right, your boggart is Snape" he said pointing at Neville "and-" that gave him pause. He looked at little Harry. Was he afraid of dementors too? Peter had stayed the secret keeper here, but he was the one in Azkaban.

"closed spaces. I'm claustrophobic. Well, we are, cause you are me, but in the future" for some reason little Harry seemed proud by that notion.

"I'm not, actually"

"You are not?!" gasped little Harry all indignation suddenly "I thought you were me..."

"No, I am, I meant I'm not afraid of closed spaces. Maybe I was when I was little, but I ... got cured?"

"how?" the third year still sounded miffed

There was no easy way to explain that he had been shoved in a cupboard and locked in until he stopped crying, so Harry just shrugged.

Neville came to their rescue "How did other Neville turn Snape into something funny?"

That he knew. To the delight of the two Gryffindors he told them all he remembered about Grandma Snape, vulture and all.

-888-

Latter that week Snape cornered Harry after class

"I didn't receive any new authorized forms, Mr Potter"

"I..forgot to send it to the-to my-"

"to your parents?" Offered Snape to cut with that infernal stuttering. The boy flinched a little. Severus remembered him saying he had been raised by relatives and wondered if he resented the Potters for sending him to the safekeeping of his relations?

Merlin knew the Potters had pestered the Dark Lord time and again during the war and it may as well be that their counter parts had done the same. If this other dimention war had ragged on longer, maybe sending the boy away was the only safe option.

"Do call them for what they are, Mr Potter, or do you have a problem with that?" Snape sneered his contempt at the boy for his spoiled attitude. He had no love lost for James Potter, but in times of war people were forced to do what was safest for the loved ones. Even sending them away.

a negative shake of the head was all the answered he got. Good.

"Lets not have a repeat of the last time, shall we? In order to avoid ...temptation, I'll expect you in the Potions classroom at 9 sharp this Saturday. Wear some old clothes."

When the boy simply stood there he realized he was waiting to be dismissed. He waited a little longer before waving his hand in the general direction of the door "be gone" was all he said.

Surprisingly, it worked.

-888-

The next Saturday Snape greeted him in his office "oh, so he can be punctual" he said as if talking to an audience "You wouldn't have guessed by all the points you've lost over tardiness" he accused. More bark than bite there.

"you know about those?! Wait, I was never late to your classes, how did you know?"

"I'm your head of house, of course I know" he taunted back.

Last night Severus had managed to pilfer one of the manuscripts from Dumbledore's office. He had burned most of his lamp oil while skimming over it, and almost drove his quill dull with some notations, but today he had a better understanding on interdimesional jumps, long span time traveling and random possibilities. Or a better grasp than he had had before anyway.

No one knew much about this matters veritably, most scholars on the subject were simply philosophers rambling on and on. But some good question had arisen, and he had a live test subject at his disposal. Life was good.

"Do all head of houses know? McGonagall never told on us or anything"

"Thats because professor McGonagall isn't your head of house"

"This time" smirked Harry, happy to annoy Snape some.

"Do color me impressed, Potter. That would explain a great deal, truly" he studied the boy under that new light. It did explain much in just the same amount that it explained nothing at all. The boy was a walking paradigm. Snape had been watching him from afar the whole term. He had seen him face some of the rougher senior years without blinking an eye but he hadn't made any friends.

None of the seventh year students had been happy about the addition of a new bed to the dorms, and the pranking had became an almost serious thing, Snape had been ready to intervene but somehow Potter had managed to handle it by himself. Snape didn't know what had happen but suddenly one day the seventh year had started to give Potter wide berth, seeming almost cowed by the boy.

"Well, so here I am, there you are. I'm not off to the village, I did all my detentions with Filch ages ago, thank you very much. Can I go, now?"

"No, you may not go"

"oi!"

"An interesting story roamed the halls this past few days. Something about a boggart in Professors Lupins third year class?" he asked as if uninterested, but honestly he was getting even.

"...oh" Harry wanted to know how had Snape managed to tie him to that one but there was no safe way to ask, and not point in denying it either.

"Indeed. Now, I do remember telling you to wear something old since you'll be helping me shelve and dispose some jars from the cupboard" he looked pointedly at the boy's pristine clothes.

"If you needed help you could just told me so, instead of giving me a fake detention, but...I don't have-I-all my clothes are new" Harry burned red with embarrassment at the statement. The irony not lost on him. The one time he needed ratty clothes and he had none.

The Potters had given him everything he had needed and asked for nothing in return. Harry was still thinking of ways to pay them back; clothes were expensive, as were the books, and the school supplies, they had also fed him and gave him a room and... He got anxious just thinking about it. He didn't have any gold, and while at school he couldn't get any job. Perhaps they would let him clean the manor? they had a garden, maybe he could pay them by working on it?

"I only have what I was touching when I came here" he explained. He left out that the clothes he had been wearing at the time didn't even merit the name. After months as a prisoner of the dark lord, the rags he had been wearing were crusted with blood and mud.

Some of the fabric had even merged with his skin with the blast of magic that had both destroyed the dark lord and brought him here. All wounds healed and all bones mended. His body had felt weird for days afterward. He kept expecting it to hurt, so used had he grown to the constant pain.

Afterward, when he had opened his eyes for the first time and had seen his parents he had thought for sure he was dead. It took him days and even weeks to wrap his mind about the whole other dimension concept.

Presently he shook his head to untangle those thoughts, it felt like a blue moon ago.

"Perhaps then, we could strike a bargain of sorts" the professor's voice helped Harry anchor himself here and now, away from that other dungeon.

"what kind of bargain?" Snape had sounded like a salesman and all of Potter's sirens were blaring.

"Nothing ominous, I assure you" Said Snape reading the boy's stance "just a few questions about dimensions, and their differences or lack thereof. You mentioned for example that my counter part taught DADA, I'm curious about such things" he was laying it thick just in case.

"oh, that doesn't sound so bad. You want to know who teaches what and all that?"

"Among other things" The war. He wanted to know about the war, but Potter always closed off every time he skirted around the subject.

Was it possible that this Potter didn't come from another dimension but simply another time? Perhaps the boy's brain had be addled. For what he had read about long distance time travel it wan't unheard of, nor uncommon for that matter. The brain supplied new fantastical information to fill in the gaps that were lost in the 'travel'. This could be a sneak peak of sorts into what was coming. Or if he did indeed come from another dimension, which Snape very much doubted so, perhaps they could still learn something from that other place.

"so what, we play 20 question and I don't have to scrub the storage room?" it sounded too good to be true.

"I wasn't particularly set on an specific number of questions, but yes, essentially that would be it. Any specific reason of the number?"

"oh, that's ...like a muggle saying"

that was a question in and on itself. When had the Potter's sent him to the muggles, and how bad was it in the magical world to have wizards migrating back "Do we have ourselves a deal then, Mr Potter?"

Harry looked down at his clothes. They were squeaky clean new, and the questions didn't sound so bad.

He had gotten kind of used to those type of questions anyway. At the start of term, after the initial mistrust, everyone wanted to know "do you know me?", "is this or that the same?", "who won X match?", "do you have the answers to this test?", "Do you know if I did that?", "If I ask her out will she say yes?"

It had become some sort of game among his year mates. At first they had all been very wary about him, specially the Slytherins who were distrustful of all unknown things and very much skeptical on most matters, but in the end everyone wanted to know about themselves.

"yeah, okay" at Snape firm stare he mended "umm, I mean yes sir, we have a deal"

"Good. Let's go to my office then"

In the office the professor took his time moving some graded tests from the desk to an auxiliary table, the paper smeared with red ink to the point of bloody murder. From a drawer he took out a big grimoire, some parchments and a notation book.

Harry was smart enough to be nervous.

Snape dipped his quill in the inkwell, studied Harry as if the boy was some sort of potion experiment, looked down at his notebook, found his point in place, and fired. "What makes you think this is another dimension and not simply a point in the past?"

"Don't you want to know if you still teach Potions or something like that?" fretted Harry "I though...what kind of question do you have in mind?" he tried to read Snape's notebook upside down.

"Next time you'll ask that first" Snape's smile was nothing if not feral. He repeated the question.

"Bret-che-to's?" Read Harry instead of answering, almost crossing his eyes in the effort to discern what was scribbled in Snape's flourished hand writing.

"Basselor" corrected Snape

"oh, that's the french guy, right? I went over this with the Unspeakables" at Snape's look of surprise he added "you didn't think that they would let me walk around just saying I'm from another place, did you?" the question was patronizing but not the tone, so Snape let it pass. This once.

"So it has been confirmed? You are indeed from another dimension, not just..."

"brain damaged?" supplied Harry with an easy smile that took the professor by surprise. "Nah, I don't think so, at least not more than before I came here"

There was an easy jab in there that the professor chose no to acknowledge. This once, he told himself. Again.

"there are other author besides Monsieur Basselor" supplied Snape on scholar mode.

"they tested me in different ways, I don't know much about authors, I remember the french one, because it was something to do with time turners and they took me to this special room" they had taken him to the time turner room down in the department of mysteries.

He remembered it well from his last time there with his friends. He had had to occlude with all his might to keep the memories at bay.

They were all dead now.

"Had they defined yet how this came to happen?"

Harry relaxed a little, Snape wan't exactly asking the regular questions but this was easy too.

"If they did, they didn't tell me"

"And you didn't inquire? Don't you want to go home?"

Maybe it wasn't so easy after all. He occluded. Harder. Detaching himself as best he could from the pain "There's no one left" at Snape's prolonged silence he answered what hadn't been asked but was still hanging in the air between them "The war ended, we won. In the end the light won, but we lost too many. There was nothing left for-" he stopped, not trusting his voice not to crack with another word. He cleared his throat and tried again, forcing an upbeat tone that cost him much "I'd like to stay here. The Potter's are letting me stay at their home, and Professor Dumbledore spoke on my behalf to take the NEWTS"

Snape marveled at the resilience of the boy. For a second there he had feared tears and a sobbing teenager, but the boy had pulled himself together fast enough, raising himself a notch on Snape's books.

They studied each other in silence. Snape spoke first while writing something in his book, Harry braced himself for the next question "Regarding your NEWTS, have you decided yet which career would you like to peruse" at Potters surprised stare the potion master defended himself "I only ask as your Head of House. This is a fifth year question, you realize" they shared the inside joke, and as the boy's frame relaxed Severus saw for the first time how very young he really was. It wasn't an accurate description to call him boy, but it wasn't that far off either.

He held himself aloof most of the time, never truly blending in with his classmates, he was too serious and solitary, but he wasn't any older than the other students. He didn't fit in, and Snape was starting to understand why.

There were a million more questions he wanted to ask, but he couldn't quite bring himself to do so at the moment. He didn't usually coddle his charges so, but for this time...

"I haven't decided yet, actually. I kind of like the jobs the unspeakable do, it seems kinda cool" prattled on Harry

" ' it seems cool? ' that's the criteria you'll apply to this influential decision? 'kind of cool?' I think not, Mr Potter. Try again" the vehemence in the professor's tone took them both by surprise "What are you good at, if anything?" said Snape fishing for his old sneer but falling short.

"I don't know, Quidditch?"

"And yet you're not on the house's team. Which position do you play?"

"Seeker" mumbled Harry

"We need a seeker" accused Snape "I don't remember seeing your name on the try out's list"

"What about teaching DADA?" evaded Harry, there was no way he was playing against Gryffindor "I once taught a DADA club. We did pretty well. You can guess the year" he gave the professor a charming smile.

Snape almost smiled back "Were you any good?"

"wanna duel?"

"Feel so sure of yourself, do you?" he was enjoying the harmless banter.

"Sure I do, I know all your dirty tricks, Professor, and you know none of mine" he sat straighter in his chair, imitating Snape posture. Shoulders back, head high, arms crossed. He even did Snape's voice as best he could " 'You're letting me in, Potter, push me out, focus on the corners. On three!' and you would fire at two" he dropped his Snape posture, his smile back "I even got your wand once" he boasted

"No, Mr Potter, you got my counter part's wand back" he was both amused and perturbed at the imitation. Potter just laughed it off.

Snape wondered if Potter was that good, or if his counter part was that bad.

-888-

Something woke up Severus and it took him some time to find out what was wrong, it's been years since the alarm had last whistled.

Every head of house had such a device. Most of the time it was an impractical instrument, Snape only carried his with him, because he was sure at one time during his days as a student the thing had saved his life.

A pocket watch crammed with so many hands that the face itself was practically obscured. One hand for each student. It had many useless notation instead of numbers such as 'in the grounds' 'in travel' 'hungry' and 'in class' but just important one: mortal peril.

Four hands were stuck at that time, he could only read the top one. It was a seventh year student who was supposed to be in bed.

A similar chime should be going off on the headmaster's office. He sent Albus a patronus to let him know he'd been alerted, shrugged on a robe, took his wand and sprinted off in the dorms direction, the watch in his pocket, burning almost golden red with intensity of the whistle.

He heard someone running in his direction and immediately took out his wand. It was Montangue, one of the seventh year. Upon seeing him the boy stopped running and wheezed for breath, face slacked off with relief.

"Potter's gone mad" he rasped "there's someone in the room, screaming bloody murder" Snape took him by the arm, and marched him in the direction of the dorms. Needing more information but not having the time to stop and chit chat, he kept on walking, taking the boy with him.

"Who's in the dorm and how did they get there?" demanded Snape, not angry at Montangue but taking it out on him all the same.

"I don't know" coughed the blond, still struggling for air, running next to the professor "We were sleeping"

"And Potter?"

"He knows the creep, he was talking with him. I think Potter owns the guy something, he kept apologizing to him"

"Is this person armed?"

"No, but Potter..."

"what?"

"He's-" The boy trailed off, lost in thought. It wasn't the noise nor the voices what had woken up Broice, but the cracking of the magic that irradiated from Potter. He rubbed his arms still remembering the feeling of having every single hair standing on end.

They had reached the entrance to the common room. Snape was talking but Montangue was still thinking on Potter and the backlash of magic. He hadn't known Potter was so powerful

"-what?"

"I said" repeated Snape "stay here and wait for the Headmaster. Inform him of everything you just told me"

Inside the common room Snape found other two seventh years. No one looked harmed. One of them pointed to the dorm and Severus followed that direction.

Snape told them to wait outside with Montangue just in case.

On his way to the pointed door, he felt the magic before he heard the voices.

He pushed the door open and walked inside making no sound. Wand at the ready, a million spells running trough his mind, one for each situation, one more deadly than the last. No one hurt his charges and got away with it.

He expected to find walls specked with blood and a stranger with a necklace made out of Potter's intestines, but instead he found a disarray of things thrown to the five corners of the room, some still floating in the air, and the air almost an impossible thing to breath in, thick with magic.

Sitting on the floor among the shards of a broken window, Potter was rocking back and forth, head in his hands, hands gripping his own hair, almost tearing it out and saying "Im sorry, Im sorry, I'm sorry" over and over again as if it was just one endless word.

Snape focused on the stranger. He had searched the place for someone else, but it was just the three of them.

What he had thought was a man was just a boy. Red hair, a familiar visage if older, Snape found himself looking at the profile of one of his third year students. Ronald Weasley.

Weasley was talking to Potter, his tone low and vicious "it should have been you! We died because of you. Everyone's dead Harry, everything you touch, you kill. They hurt us, you let them hurt us"

What was doing Weasley here? Clearly, this boy was from Potter's dimension. Were the two dimensions merging?

Suddenly Weasley changed. In front of Snape very eyes Weasley morphed into a bushy hair girl who took a step closer to Potter.

The air grew impossibly thicker and the beds started to tremble along the other furniture. Snape too took a step closer, but it felt like swimming on jam. The movement sluggish against an almost tangible magic that was cracking up the air

The girl breathed in long through the nose, savoring Potter's fear. Potter drew in tighter on himself.

"Why didn't you stop him sooner?" asked the girl "You knew what you had to do? We gave you the wand"

"I couldn't! I tried!" came Potter desperate plea "They captured me - I- he was stronger than me" sobbed Potter

"You were his equal Harry" the voice was softer than Weasley's but the tone just as vicious. Snape was starting to understand what was going on. He had an inkling of what to do, but he found himself wanting to know more about Potter's past , of Potter's fears "You knew the prophecy. It was your responsibility. We weren't supposed to die! YOU KILLED US, HARRY, YOU WERE WEAK AND YOU KILLED US, YOU DIDN'T- "

"Ridicculus" the girl transformed into a birthday hat and fell to the floor.

"Hermione, nooooo!" yelled Potter reaching for where the boggart had been.

Albus walked past Snape, and Severus felt himself burn with shame at no having been the one to cast the spell.

"Boggarts feed on our greatest fears, Mr Potter...Harry" said the headmaster with a soothing voice "but they never speak the truth" Dumbledore walked the distance across the room at a slow rhythm, taking care not to startle the boy "what you heard tonight were not the words of your friends" the boy chocked on a whimper, his whole frame shaking with a grief so deep that Snape had to advert his eyes, utterly repentant at not having put a stop at this sooner "you have to understand that" having reached the boy, he crouched down to put a hand on his shoulders "those were not Ronald and Hermione"

Some tense seconds later the whole room shook when the furniture dropped as one. The air went back to normal and Snape found himself releasing a breath he hadn't know he had been holding.

"Are you hurt?" asked the headmaster helping the boy to his feet. Potter was hugging himself, his body pliant in the headmaster's hands, the will gone from his bones. He shook his head no. "Let's still go to the infirmary, I would like Poppy to make sure you are all right. Perhaps she could give you something to sleep tonight" Albus still had that soothing cajoling voice. Guiding the boy around exploded pillows and splintered wood in a no nonsenses manner. "Do you feel up to walking? would you rather floo?"

When they reached the communal room the were more than four students there. Snape silenced everyone with just a glare, and the headmaster and Potter simply walked pass.

Snape stayed behind to take care of it all.

Once everyone was back in bed, and he had had some answers from Potter's dorm mates he walked up to the infirmary. He had taken deliberately longer than what was truly necessary, still ashamed of how he had handled the whole situation. He didn't feel up to facing Potter just yet.

There had been no traces of the cocky student that he had in his office a few days ago.

In the infirmary, through the glass of the little office's door he spied the silhouette of Albus and a shorter blue plump form that had to be the matron. Only one bed was occupied in the whole ward. Potter slept on it soundly, a squat pink bottle on the table next to the bed explained why he looked so peaceful. Dreamless sleep.

"He wasn't harmed but for a few cuts on the hands. Poppy healed those already" Albus stopped next to him. They both stared at Potter

Snape gave a tight nod. Adrenaline gone from his system he felt tired and hollow. "I'll ask the madam to keep him here all day tomorrow. I'll contact the Potter's first thing in the morning"

When Albus said nothing he kept on talking to fill in the oppressive silence, explaining what had woken him up, how he had managed to reach the dorm, how the boggart had gotten there...

When the headmaster finally spoke it wasn't to answer anything of what Snape had just said, but to give voice to what was running rampant in Severus mind.

"I wonder if his past can be avoided in our future"

-888-

"Snape" greeted the elder Potter some hours later at the teacher parent reunion Severus had called.

"Potter" he greeted back. They had grown past they childish grudge, but not much. No hand shake there.

"Severus, what happened?" that was Lily "we went to the infirmary, Madam Pomfrey said he was magically exhausted"

"Did you talk to him?" He wanted to know. He had visited his student before classes, but not since. Potter had been sound asleep.

"No, he was still sleeping"

Snape checked his clock. Three in the afternoon.

"Snape, why is my son in the infirmary?" given the reluctance he had seen in the boy to acknowledge the Potters as his parents Snape was surprised to hear them claim him as their own so easily.

"There was a boggart in the room" He explained "I honestly do not think it was even a prank. One of his dorm-mates has an affinity for dark creatures. I once had to snare a lethifold from his trunk" he rubbed his temples, half rambling half thinking aloud "I'll make a trunk's inspection this afternoon, just in case"

"A boggart? He is magical exhausted!" worried Lily "Little Harry told us Harry taught him how to fight a boggart. Are you sure it was just that?"

"what do you mean a prank?" asked Potter

He didn't know how to explain what he had seen last night. Some of the boggart's words still nagging him. He went for the easy answer

"There had been some heavy pranking at the beginning but nothing as of late"

"Against Harry? He didn't say anything on his letters"

"His dorm mates were resentful of sharing the space and he was a new target to some other students" he explained "Potter took care of it himself"

The elder Potter sat straighter in his chair and Snape realized he might have to start calling his student by his first name to tell them apart.

"What kind of pranking?"

"It is of no matter now, it is in the past"

"Clearly it's not! It couldn't have just been a boggart, you heard Lily, he taught Harry how to fight them off, he knows the spell. I want the names of his dorm mates, I want to speak with their parents. I shouldn't have allowed him to go to Slytherin I should have asked for a resorting"

"The boy is where he belongs" spat Snape affronted. He had been the first one to complain to the headmaster about a Potter in his house, but the boy had proved himself time and again. He was sneaky, ambitious and clever. Even too clever sometimes. "Have you talked with him about his past?" he tried to calm himself, after last night, and on such short sleep, his mood was almost mercurial. To top it off, a teacher parent reunion with a Potter had never occurred to him even in his wildest nightmares "Boggars feed on fear, even if he knows the spells it does not take just the word to cast off the creature" there. That had been decent.

Lily sent him a grateful glance "He has nightmares" she explained paving the road back to the matter at hand "We think his relatives-" she stopped herself, the words too painful to be spoken.

Potter helped her out "We think he comes from an abusive household" Lily let out a muffled sob and Potter took her hand into his "He has these horrible nightmares and the are scars that..." James trailed off "Was that his boggart? His uncle?" the title came with a growl

"No" he answered while going over this new bit of information in his head; An abusive household? He never saw that one coming. He could not match the boy he knew, who stood up to bullies, who was so very sure of himself, so strong and powerful with an abused child "No, the boggart was -" his friends he was about to say, but he didn't want the conversation to get side tracked "Are you sure? what scars? which nightmares?" he couldn't help but ask.

"We do not know much, he doesn't talk. We tried asking but he closes off on himself, he is so shy and we did not know how to board the subject"

Potter was not shy! He was one of the most obnoxious, hard-nosed, bloody independent students Snape had ever had. Resourceful too. He had managed to sneak off two other times to the village, under Snape's very nose. He told the Potters as much.

They were talking about two completely different people.

"He wakes up screaming his uncle's name"

"Maybe I was calling for his uncle? He has grown up with them, maybe he misses them?" Potter was not abused. Snape would have noticed. Potter was wreck after the war he had survived, with emotional wounds that were wide open if you knew where to look, but abused children didn't- Potter was not abused!

"No, he was definitely not calling for his uncle, he flinches back, as if expecting to be hit"

"If the boggart wasn't his uncle maybe it wasn't a boggart at all. Severus, What could he be more afraid of than his nightmares?"

"It was just a boggart"

"and the magical exhaustion?" challenged Lily

He explained them what he had seen last night. The magic, the air, the creature's words, the-

The words...The prophecy. The boggart has spoken about a prophecy. Could it be? Could the realities be so different? Suddenly he had a million questions to ask and no one to asked them to.

They had fallen on a contemplative silence, everyone trying to match what they knew with the new Harry that was being discussed

"What do you know about his past?" asked Snape, some of the anxiousness bleeding in his tone

"What are you thinking?" asked Potter picking up on Snape edginess.

"About his past, what do you know about his past? Where he comes from. This other dimension, we know there was a war and that the light won. We know he lost his friends. What else do you know?" he needed answers!

"He lost his friends?"

"We know he grew up with my sister"

"Yes, yes, we know that" He brushed it off. He knew that already He needed answers! He had half a mind to storm into the infirmary and shake Potter until he woke up. Was he the boy of the prophecy?! Was his awful past a possibility here? "We know he fought in the war, but to what capacity?"

-888-

"Are you the boy who lived? Snape asked that very same afternoon. After the reunion with the Potters he hadn't waited even a second before he stormed off in the infirmary direction.

"No"

"Don't lie to me Mr. Potter" came the hissed rebuke. The boy shrank in on himself avoiding the professor's eyes. He trembled a little. Snape almost took pity on him.

Harry rubbed his scar and several pieces clicked in place in Snape's mind.

"How did you get that scar?" he asked softer than before.

Immediately Harry dropped the hand, afraid he was giving himself away, but it was too late. He closed his eyes as if pained.

"Why do you want to know?"

"What happened?"

After some seconds of silence tear run down the boy's cheek and Snape felt about as miserable as the boy looked "We won" said Harry with a painful smile "I killed him. In the end I killed him. But he was stronger than we ever though" he almost rambled, a little high on whatever Pomfrey had given him for a dreamless sleep "I killed him, but he killed everyone I loved first" Harry's heart twisted at the memory.

"How did you kill him? And more importantly, how did he came back in the first place" Snape was being ruthless and he knew it. The boy was literally on his sick bed, last night events still fresh on his mind and his mind still groggy with the after effects of the potions.

"Please" begged Harry thickly "I don't want to- I can't- Please don't ask me about the past"

"Is your past possible here?" pressed Snape. It worried him how soft he must have become given how hard it had been to insist on the questioning.

"No" Potter shook his head, trying to clear it "I asked the Unspeakables. They said every difference sets free a new possibility. But Neville is the boy who lived here. Peter is in Azkaban. My parents are alive" He spoke as if he were listing things off

The Potters were dead? Hadn't the boy said he had seen in them the day of the Dark Lord's return? Every answer brought up many more questions "Peter?" he asked instead wishing for his notebook to check on his notations.

"Pettigrew" said Harry "in my world Sirius was sent to Azkaban in his place"

"Black betrayed your parents?" he had trouble believing that

"No, Peter Pettigrew sold my parents to Voldemort, but he faked his own death and no one knew Sirius and he had changed places." it hurt to speak about the past, but it also lifted a weigh he didn't know he had been carrying "Years later, it was Pettigrew who brought Voldemort back" Snape's attention peaked at hearing speak about the return, even as accepted it at hearing the differences.

He looked the boy in the eyes or tried to. Potter was lost in a painful memory that Snape had brought back. Apologizing for having pushed so hard he said "About your friends, your parents... I'm sorry for your lost" he wasn't a man prone to such sentimentality, but he felt he owed as much

I rictus of pain crossed the boy's face but it was gone the next time Severus looked. He felt even worse. It was easy to forget that Potter didn't react to things like other teenagers did. Just because he wasn't crying his eyes out didn't mean his heart wasn't being cut to a million pieces. He would do well in remembering the boy's ability at hiding his emotions.

"Thank you" the word was thick with pain "Please don't tell the- Please don't tell my parents" The Potion Master realized that the hesitation was not born out of contempt as he had thought, but out of unfamiliarity. His heart took another stumble and Snape didn't know if he could resist many more.

He had heard Potter say once before that he didn't know how to be someone's child and Severus was starting to understand what he had meant by that.

"Surely you don't mean to keep something like this to yourself?" he was scandalized with the very notion

"I'm a freak enough as it is" was the answer " I'm from another dimension and another time at that. They were too kind to take me in. I don't want them to-"he stopped

"To what, you don't want them to what?" insisted Severus when Harry didn't finish the sentence.

'to hate me' Harry had been going to say, but he censured himself knowing how needy that made him look "To scare them off" he said instead.

"They are your parents, Mr Potter. Do believe me when I tell you that they care for you. Greatly"

"Please don't tell them" Harry begged again and Snape saw the shadow of an abused child lurking in that plea. Were the Potter's suspicious true?

"I can't promise you that, Mr Potter" a hand on his shoulder stopped him from saying more. He turned sideways to find the hand belonged to the James Potter, who gave him a grateful nod.

"You are not a freak Harry" the boy startled at his father's words, he hadn't seen him walk in "And I'm glad to know about your past, we want to help you" The boy kept his eyes firmly to his own hands, breathing erratically, working hard to pull himself together.

"I don't mean to be so much trouble" he apologized in a small voice

"You are not" explained James, feeling as if he had a better footing this time. Knowing where Harry had come from explained a lot about the boy's mannerisms. He took a step closer to the bed.

Snape had left them alone.

James realized he would have to thank him later for his enormous break through they had managed with Harry.

-888-

"Whatever have you done to that boy, Severus Snape"

Snape looked at Minerva.

"I assure you, I don't know what you are talking about" he denied

"Hmm" was all McGonagall had said, clearly unconvinced.

It had been over a month and then some since the interrogation in the infirmary.

Ever since Harry had avoided Snape like the plague. He hadn't visited him even once in his office, and Snape had realized that before that he had done so many times. Harry would come to him asking about some subjects, not always potions. Sometimes he would stay after he had gotten his answer, nose buried in a book. A companionship kind of silence that worked for both of them.

But no more.

Christmas had come and gone and still no insufferable brat to steal his cookies and share his tea.

Snape had even gone so far as to ask the wolf about his holiday's, knowing him to celebrate them in the Potter Manor but Lupin had proved to be a waste of time, information and other wise.

It was of no matter now. The next weekend was a Hogsmeade one, and Severus was sure he would catch Potter off grounds.

But as it turned out it simply was not meant to be

"Quite the scholar you have become, Mr Potter" said Snape. Harry, who had been expecting his head of house, didn't startled. Much. "with your NEWTS behind you, and since you haven't come with any other questions to my office, I must concede to my surprise" said the Potion Master running a finger down the spine of one of the books on the table 'Inconsistenses of anomalous ambiguities in the big enigmas of every reverse oddity. And where to find them by Angus Partorius'

Harry just shrugged. He wasn't going to admit to Snape that he had been avoiding him ever since the Professor knew the truth about him, so "There's your pebble" was all he said instead, pointing to the rock that Snape had cursed with a follow-me spell and slipped in Harry's bookbag.

"I also have a signed form" he informed the professor, his tone this side of smug. Pointing to the paper bellow the rock.

"How ever did you managed that?" asked Snape in such a dry tone that Harry almost smiled. He had missed Snape.

"I asked" he bragged in the same tone anyone else would talk about a big break trough "Was there anything else, sir?" he asked politely, borrowing one of his early year tones with the Potion Master.

Severus studied the boy in front of himself.

They were on an almost deserted library, and this being a Hogsmeade weekend, only first and second years were about.

Potter was clearly hunting for some information, he had a disarray of books and parchments on the table. "No, Mr Potter, I believe that would be all" he said while creasing the form in half and secreting it to one hidden pocket before walking out of the sun drenched library to the safety of his beautifully damp dungeons.

The pebble he left behind.

-888-

"I sense there is more here than simply a random act of curiosity."

Of course he did. "Possibly," hedged Harry weeks later, frustrated at not having found any answers on his own "I don't want to alarm anyone, it's just that..." When all was said and done, Snape was the only one he could think of to ask. He trusted the potion master and more to the point: he knew about him already

"A noble thought, I'm sure" interrupted Snape "And you don't wish to tell me, I can appreciate that." And he did. Last time he had pushed too hard. He had had his reasons, he hadn't done it simply to satisfy his own curiosity, but he had pushed all the same and in doing so he had learned Potter's limits.

He didn't want to alienate the boy again.

Harry rubbed the back of his neck and sighed. "It's not that I don't, exactly. I just don't want to give too much information away yet. You're all better off than we've ever been. What if say too much or do something wrong and send you all off track? What I send you on a goose hunt? What if I'm wrong?" it scared him witless, and it was plain to see that he had stressed over the subject.

"What if you tell me what you are thinking and we decide for ourself what to do with that information" coaxed Snape

"weren't you listening?! What if I influence you wrong?" fretted Harry tormented at the very thought.

"Let's try again. What do you need to know?"

Too wound up to sit still Harry started pacing the office, trying to find the words to ask what was on his mind, Snape had half a mind made to snap at the boy to sit down and be still, but he resisted.

Severus's patience was rewarded when Harry finally stopped in front of the professor.

"I'm hearing voices in the walls"

"I...see" Said Snape while trying to think up names of renowned mind healers. This wasn't the topic he had been expecting

"Do they tell you to do things?" He asked trying to be as un-specific as he could.

A few years ago a stressed up Hufflepuff had re-potted the whole of the green house n3 because a doorknob had told him to do it.

It wasn't unheard of with magical folk, specially with muggle born ones.

Spell casting was more than just silly wand waving and simply speaking some latin words; to cast spells, to do magic, the mind of the caster had to be wired in a special way.

That was the root problem with mingling with muggles. Their body, their minds weren't quite ready for the strain that meant magic, the result of that union, magical and muggle, were repotted green houses and apparently voices in the walls. Among other things.

"It's not like that" reproached Harry finally collapsing on a chair. How to explain he thought he had heard voices from a basilisk?

"Are you muggle born?" wondered aloud Snape, discarding possibilities. Was Lily Evans a witch in Harry's dimention?

"It's not like that" repeated Harry, sharper this time "both my parents are magical" he granted reluctantly.

"but you were raised by muggles?" inquired Snape. Perhaps the Enchanted Madness had to do with not just the innerness wiring of the mind, but also the nurturing of the caster?

Centuries ago Merlin had established the Segregation Statute to protect all magical folk. Now a days it was completely unheard of to have a magical child be raised by muggles, so this questions didn't arise much. But one could never know, nor be too careful, specially with blood as old as the one running trough this boy's veins.

"Cut it with the prejudice, will you?"

"Watch your tone Mr Potter" rebuked the professor, more out of habit than anything else. It worked all the same.

"In my second year there was a bas- we had a creature- There were some petrified students" he stopped. That wouldn't do. He tried another path "I asked Harry about his second year.

He told me there was a problem with Professor Lockhart and that Remus had come to take his place. He also told me there was one missing student, and some petrified others, but he didn't know anything else" There. Snape ought to pick that up and give him some answers.

"And?" Asked Snape and Harry almost growled his frustration.

Finally Severus took pity on the boy "Harry just ask your question and we'll go from there"

Green eyes studied the man across the desk, it was all the professor could do not to fidget. Whatever it was the boy had been searching he found it, for he asked "What happened to Colin last year?"

"Lockhart" growled Snape and then went on to explain "We found Creevys body in the DADA office with traces of dark magic. Whatever spell was casted, it backfired addling the idiot's mind, but not without draining the boy's life force first.

I take it it was not the same in your world?"

"No" said Harry lost in though "Colin was just petrified with the others. Hermione too.

It was Ginny Weasley who went missing, but we found her before it was too late. Lockhart had nothing to do with it, he was just a fraud who tried to erase mine and Ron's memory but... he was just a fraud" He repeated. Deliberately omitting the Voldemort part of the deal.

"So, our worlds are more different than you though" stated Snape meaningfully "perhaps that should encourage you to speak more freely" he waited for that to sink into Potter's stubborn skull.

"Yeah. Yes" something was still nagging at Harry's mind "you are right, it's just that..."

"Stop it" the professor snapped his fingers under Harry's nose, effectively cutting the boy's morose thoughts "Stop looking for similarities where there are none. Stop overthinking things and try to experience this dimension as a second chance to recover whatever things you didn't have the first time around"

That earned him a rare smile "You know Professor, no matter the dimension, you always did make it difficult to argue with you."

The professor chuckled. "Nice to know I'm consistent. Now let's try it for the third time, Mr Potter, and tell me what's on your mind" the easy tone behind the words relaxed Harry to so such a point that he spoke without censuring his thoughts.

"I shouldn't be here" he confessed "I don't belong here, what if I change something fundamental. There are two Harry Potters in this reality"

"But you are here, so there is no point in that. And I for one, am grateful for the chance to discover that no all Potters are dunderhead"

Harry blinked at that and ruthlessly tried to squelch the pleasure that was trying to invade his chest at the words.

"But that wasn't really what I meant to say" Said Harry and Snape silently lifted an eyebrow challenging Potter to say what he had meant to say. That he didn't trust his voice after seeing the pleasure his words had brought to the boy's face was just coincidental.

"You probably wouldn't believe me if I told you, and I'm not sure it would be a good idea if I did." Harry didn't know a lot about paradox theories, he had tried reading on the subject but the topic was a heavy one, mired with possibilities and probability and just thinking about it made his head hurt "but here goes anyway: last time I heard voices there was a basilisk in the drains. Voldemort was trying to return, so he opened the chamber of secrets. He was going to drain Giny's life force. I was almost too late"

"And you think this is the same voice-Wait? A basilisk? Are you a parselmotuh?" he gripped his chair harder "Of course you are, why wouldn't you be?" Snape answered himself using sarcasm to find some balance.

Harry had the grace to look chagrined. "I was thinking of going to the camber, but last time Fawkes flew us out, and I'm not sure if he'll help me this time; I don't have my broom, and ummm last time I killed it, the basilisk I mean, but I don't know if the one here is still alive, and I haven't found any good books on how to fight one" the idiot rambled on

Snape just groaned out loud. The things the boy said. A book on how to slain a basilisk. A book.

After the professor simply sat there, rubbing his temples as if fighting down a migraine Harry had to ask "Are you sorry I told you? Do you want to pretend this conversation never happen? We could, maybe you could point me in the general direction of a book and I-"

"Potter stop" he interrupted the insensate rambling. The boy flinched and Severus tried again "Harry, there are no books on how to slain a Basilisk, and if there were that wouldn't be the solution" they slipped off into silence was again. Snape didn't know where to start.

"I'm sorry" came the small voice "We could pretend..."

"Pretend what? that you are not hearing voices? that there is not a potential basilisk roaming the school walls?"

"I'm sorry" he said again. He didn't mean to be such trouble.

"Don't be. I'm glad you told me. I shudder to think of what you would have done on your own. A broom, Mr Potter? You would face a basilisk with a broom?" he almost chuckled at the idea, all dark humor there.

"It would be more than what I had last time" Potter bragged and took a deep breath before saying "I like it better when you call me Harry"

Snape did chuckled that time

"All right. Harry. Let's see what we can do about this basilisk of yours"

And Potter told him all he knew.

Snape had to bite his tongue more than once to not curse at all the idiots in this other dimension. To let a twelve years old to face such creature!

He wondered if what he had seen in Harry before and had thought of independence didn't have to do with the Potter's suspicious.

It was one thing to face some bullies at school, but it was something else entirely no to ask for any help when it was clearly needed. That trait spoke of a distrust of any and all adults. He made a mental note to look into it.

He wanted to meet those muggles.

In the end they would made arrangements to go into the Chamber. Dumbledore would be informed as would some key members of the order.

That night Snape laid awake in bed, daydreaming about it all.

The Chamber of Secrets, he thought with reverence . It was a legend among legends, and to be able to see it.

He almost didn't sleep at all and the next day he almost hummed his euphoria, that very week he didn't take any points.

The rumor had it Snape had even patted a second year in the head after the poor Ravenclaw had run into him.

As they told it, Snape had fixed her tie and told her to be more careful in the future.

No points taken, no detention assigned. No nothing.

A happy Snape was a scary Snape.

The children behaved better than ever, they were terrified out of their minds

-888-

"Daaad!" yelled a happy Harry running down the corridor to catch him "Came to see the match?"

"Harry!" he exclaimed happy to see his son "Not this time, kiddo. Hey Neville" he greeted the other boy.

"Hullo, Mr Potter"

"What are you two boys doing here?"

"Uncle Remus told me you would come today, I wanted to see you"

"He did, did he?"

"Yeah, we had tea yesterday"

The three of them turned to the sound of footsteps. Harry and Snape appeared form the corridor that came from down the dungeons.

"Is something wrong with Harry, dad?"

"What? no, of course not, he is just going to help us with something from his dimension"

"Hi" said the older Harry when he finally reached them.

Snape simply ignored them and walked straight into the headmaster's office. Git.

That left James with two Harrys and two boys who lived.

It was always strange having the two Harry together in the same room, knowing they were potentially the same person and seeing all the differences.

To the two boy who lived part he still didn't know how to react.

Before they could all say much Remus and Hagrid came the other way and there were new greetings all around

"Well boys" he said messing little Harry's hair "You better go if you want to catch the match. Cheer for me, will you?"

They promised they would and ran off in the direction of the closer staircase. Not a care in the world.

Harry watched them go, a wistful smile on his face. James wanted to say something but didn't quite know what, so they all rode the stairs to Albus office in silence.

In the headmaster's office Snape and Minerva were discussing something about quidditch and as soon as the group walked inside Snape turned to Harry and threatened "If I loose five galleons Potter it's going to be on you"

It was on the tip of James tongue to call him on it, that was no way to speak to his son, but Harry chuckled it off.

It was McGonagall who asked what James had wanted to know and that's how he found out his son had been in the quidditch team "What position did you play?" he asked

"Seeker" said Harry, shy, always economical with his words.

"Where you any good, Mr Potter, should Gryffindor be afraid?"

"Youngest player in a century" said Harry blushing a little, but obviously proud of himself "I thought you were going to expelled me for sure, Professor" he told McGonagall and laughed, the memory was a fond one it seemed "instead you took me to Oliver, and he explained the rules of the game to me. Slytherin never won a match again" the last part he directed at Snape, who stood up straighter, lips pursed.

It was the first time James was seeing them interact.

It was almost a comfortable familiarity the two had, as odd as that sounded. He felt more than a little jealous.

"Wait-You were a Gryffindor? I knew it"He glared at Snape. Every Potter, since no less than five generations back had been a Gryffindor. It had chafed him to have Harry in another house. That it was Snape's house added only salt to the wound.

"A mistake on the hat's part, I'm sure" said Snivellius, all haughtiness "The boy is, where the boy belongs"

"The boy is standing right here, thank you very much.

I'll have you know I was a pretty good Gryff" he hassled Snape.

He hassled with Snape "besides you should be glad I chose Gryffindor the first time, you hated my guts"

"Indeed?"

"Reminded you too much of my dad, I did. I got the impression you two weren't exactly friends at school?"

"You could said that again" Chuckled Remus. Harry grinned in his direction

"Well, if you ever change your mind young man, we could alway do with a new seeker"

"You wish" threatened Snape to the head of Gryffindor's house

"Thank you, professor" said Harry graciously to Minerva "I'll keep that in mind"

They all laughed and it was the most relaxed James had ever seen Harry. He could see traces of his Harry's boyish features in him.

"Did I miss something?" Asked Dumbledore as he came in from door hidden behind a bookshelf.

"Aye! We were just arguin' bout Harry's house here, sir" said Hagrid, his belly still shaking with laugher.

Albus looked at Harry over his half-moon glasses and with twinkling eyes told him to let him know whatever he decided.

Harry nodded politely and James was glad this economical answers weren't just with him.

"Well my friends" continued Albus after they had all seated in whatever chairs they had found. In Hagrid's case, a trunk. "I gathered us all here today to address some new information that has arisen regarding the chamber of secrets. Harry?" he gave him the word

"Yes, umm, during my second year someone opened the chamber and abducted Ginny.

In here I know that things happened differently, the professor" he meant Snape "told me what happened, but I heard some..noises.. in the walls, and I worry it might be the same creature we had" Hagrid perked at hearing about a creature, and Harry turned to address him "there might be a basilisk" Hagrid whistled his appreciation while the others looked properly scandalized.

"And you know where the opening is, Potter?" asked McGonagall

"Yes, professor"

"Harry was kind enough to show Severus and I the opening" intervened Dumbledore "So we know that at least is the same.

I called on each of you here today because of your special abilities. Remus and Hagrid, you are both experts with creatures in your own fields, we might need your spell casting and your sheer force at some point" Albus spoke to each one of them "James, your training as an auror will help us immensely.

And Minerva I need you stay in the office covering for us should anything happen"

Albus explained the situation and the plan to them, but all too soon they found themselves walking the corridors in silence, guided by the headmaster. Each lost in their own thoughts.

A cheering could be heard coming from the quidditch stadium. Someone had scored.

James was glad it was a Quidditch weekend and knowing Albus knew it was no coincidence. They found no one in the corridors.

When they reached the girls bathroom Remus and James exchanged some looks, but they said nothing. They trusted Albus implicitly.

"Myrtle?" asked Harry

"You came back!" half cheered half sobbed a girly voice

James looked around wildly, had they walked on a girl using the utilities?

Hagrid sputtered something and covered his eyes with meaty hands. His face bright red.

"I said I would" said Harry in a soothing voice "Here, I brought you something"

They all watched as he put a rotting apple on the floor. Maggots and all.

"oooh" gushed the girl, all tears forgotten "It's been ages since I had one" and proceed to float down the floor and through the rotting apple doing yummy noises.

It was the stranger things James had ever witnessed. He had some questions, but just as he was going to ask them Snape cleared his throat "If you are quite done, Mr Potter" James threw him a dirty look.

Harry brushed his knees of any debris from kneeling, and walked to a sink were he whispered some words to it.

As soon as he took a step back a huge gaping mouth opened where the sink used to be.

Amazing.

The whole group gathered around looking down and the smell of decay rose up to meet them.

"Well, there are not two ways to it" said Harry and extended a foot as if to give a step inside. Snape and James grabbed him by an arm each, holding him in place.

"Where the hell do you think you are going?"admonished James "this is as far as you go" he informed him

"There's a maze down there, not the mention the basilisk, you wont stand a chance" rebuked Harry

"And what makes you think you would" sneered Snape, and James for one had to agree with the git

"I think you can answer that question yourself. I've done it before. Besides, there's another gate. You can't open it without me"

Snape seemed ready to argue the point, as was James, but sparks shot out of Albus wand

"Gentlemen, please. I'm afraid young Harry is correct, much as it pain me to bring him into certain danger, we need his guidance"

"I wont allow it" James stood firm " Albus, he is just a boy" he turned to Harry but the teenager spoke first

"I don't need your permission I'm-"

"I'm your father, young man" He spoke over whatever Harry had been going to say "and I wont allow you to do anything else beyond this point, it's too dangerous down there, don't you see that?" he pointed the gaping hole.

Harry opened and closed his mouth a couple of times. Lost for words, heart beating hard.

"Harry" that was Snape "listen to your father" he said printing extra meaning to the words. James startled at the remark but didn't take his eye's off the boy to gape at him as he wanted to.

All the others had kept silent. Myrtle's yummy exclamations as she went over and over through the rotten apple were the only noises in the room.

"James, you are right of course. It would seem I didn't think it through and I apologize for that" Conceded Albus and James nodded his thanks, finally breaking eye contact with his son.

The boy was still breathing hard and glaring at floor. But he wasn't yelling at James that he wasn't his father. He had feared it for a second there, before Harry had looked away.

"Perhaps Harry could tell us the password to the second gate?" Remus was always the logical one "And where to find it, I'm thinking. If is hidden as was this one, perhaps a drawing wouldn't go amiss"

a sink over the other wall had started rattling ominously since the discussion and James didn't understand why until Snape put a hand on Harry's shoulder.

The boy took a deep breath and calmed himself. The rattling stopped.

"The second door is more obvious, but the password, it...ahm...it's in parseltongue, Professor"

A parselmouth, his son was a parselmouth.

James tried hard not to react, Hagrid persigned himself tree times over, and Remus...

James could have kissed Remus "I've told you to call me Remus, at least when we are not in classes. But you are right it's a hard language to speak"

"thank you" whispered Harry meekly and James could have cursed. The boy was 17 going 30 going 7.

"What about one o' those speaking guardian thingies? boomed Hagrid in the ceramic bathroom

"Of Course! That's a brilliant solution Hagrid" celebrated Albus

"Do you know how to cast a Patronus, Harry?"

Harry slanted James a side glance and nodded to Remus "I don't know how to make it speak, though" he confessed.

"That's the easy part m'boy, here" explained Albus and showed him the final wand movements that would carry the message.

Harry practiced the movements two times before the Headmaster deemed him ready to cast, and then, before James very eyes stood Prongs in all his glory.

He was his son guardian.

His heart was racing so hard it hurt. Harry might have never called him dad, he still might never do, but he was his patronus. His animagus form was his son patronus. He blinked hard, his eyes moist.

Snape stood rigid.

"Very good" praised the headmaster as Prongs strolled around them, looking for a threat, anything to defend them against "Now try the last part"

"Come here boy" called Harry and lifted a hand for the deer to butt his head against. Harry waved his wand as the Headmaster had taught him and whispered something in the patronus ear.

"A very well behaved patronus you have there, Harry" praised Remus

"Thank you, but all credit should go to you, truly, Remus. You taught me how on conjured him" He petted his patronus once. It was the most corporeal guardian James had ever seen.

Harry was still evading James eyes, looking uncomfortable at the revelation of his patronus.

"The match wont last much longer, we should proceed" said Snape and he was right

Prongs nodded one time and immediately dipped into the entrance. They where all ready to do the same when Harry stopped them

"You should wear this. I asked the elves for some lost glasses" He explained as he took a disarray of glasses out of his book bag "I spelled the corrections off. This way, if the basilisk is there and sees you, we can wake you up"

they each took one except Albus who pushed his up his nose. James magnified a pair for Hagrid.

"Most thoughtful, Harry" said Snape and then glared at everyone, daring them to make a comment as donned his. They were the only black pair, but it was obviously a very feminine one. It was a comical show. James would have laughed his arse off if it weren't for the situation. They might be going to face a basilisk.

"Be safe" murmured Harry and they jumped in the whole.

-888-

It felt like ages since they had left. At least three more scores had been cheered that Harry had hear of, but he had been concentrating so hard on the entrance, trying to pick up something from down below, that there might have been more.

He wished he had a clock.

He would have spelled a telling-time charm, but he had never been any good at those. Hermione was their little clock, she was the one with a better estimation of time. Ron and him where pants at it.

He went to seat again by the entrance, legs dangling. The temptation to push a little a slip in was so high that he collected his legs below himself.

How long had it been? Where they all right? Should he go for help?

Myrtle had left to sulk in one of her pipes, the apple long forgotten, so he was all alone with his thoughts "I'm your father" James had said, and the words had circled like mad in Harry's head.

He stood up and paced again. How could he made such a claim? didn't James know he was dangerous, a freak? Everything he touched he killed. James was little's Harry's father. Harry didn't belong here.

"I'm your father"

He paced faster, the motion bleeding frustration, the rustle of his robes the only noise. Suddenly the door boomed open and a flash of red flew by, straight for the hole on the floor.

"Fawkes!" he exclaimed and followed him to the opening, his heart beating hard. What should he do?! Should he go for help? And to whom?! Everyone he knew and trusted was at the other side of that entrance.

Everything he touched he killed.

He should have never told Snape, he should have gone in there alone!

"Accio Broom!" he called, not caring which broom came. He mounted it has soon as it slapped his hand and flew inside without a second thought.

In the near darkness of the tunnels it was easy to follow the wake of Fawkes golden mist.

He took sharp twists this way and that. Chest flat to the broom, wand at the ready, the blood running loudly in his ears, his magic building a storm that urged him on, pushing the limits of the broom.

Like a flash he crossed the second entrance. His patronus had worked.

The light of the camber blinded him for a second but he soon found his bearings. He overflew the room taking it all in.

Hagrid was laying on his side a pool of blood at his feet. Fawkes was healing him with a tear. James was at his side.

He next found Remus, he was petrified, but he had the glasses on. Harry hoped beyond hope they had worked.

Snape was taking cover behind a boulder, the Basilisk gave and earthy shriek that made the very foundations of the cambers tremble and charged for the professor. Dumbledore was casting spell after spell at the creature, but with such thick skin none was working.

"STOP!" yelled Harry from above and wished he could tell for certain if he had spoken english or parsel. Harry made a dive in front of the snake, trying to keep the attention on himself so Snape could regroup with the others.

Whatever the language it worked. The basilisk changed directions, enraged.

"HARRY NO!" yelled James

"Cover Hagrid!" He yelled back and angled for the tunnels in the far back. He made a feint in the last second. The basilisk went into the tunnels and Harry flew to the others.

"Is he okay?" he asked for Hagrid, worried.

Strong hands took him by the arms shook him hard before he found himself crushed in a ferocious hug. "I told you to wait outside" his dad told him, the worry clear in his voice. He was soaking wet and Harry guessed he had fell in one of the pools.

"We have to get both Hagrid and Lupin out of here. The blood seems to enrage the creature" said Snape

Harry looked at his broom. It looked piteously small compared to Hagrid "Do you have a way out?" he asked Dumbledore.

"I have a portkey" said the headmaster as he fished an inkwell from a pocket

They could hear the basilisk blundering it's way trough the tunnels.

"Rip. Kill. Destroy" hissed the voice in the tunnels over and over again

"Harry, take the portkey and go with them" ordered James

Harry wasn't listening to him. He was trying to follow the voice. Trying to discern from which tunnel it came. He centered it on one and tried to move the boulder from which Snape had been taking cover before.

"Leviosa" he waved, but the rock was too heavy for him "Damn it!" he broke the spell and immediately incanted two columns of power. The string of words long and complicated, he made the columns feed his casting and tried again "LEVIOSA!" this time the boulder moved, barely but it moved, and not a minute too soon. He covered the entrance to the tunnel and they felt the basilisk crash against it.

"We have to stop it!" he told the other's "If we just leave, it could still hurt someone else"

"We are not leaving Mr Potter, you are" informed him Snape.

The basilisk gave another enraged shriek that chilled them all to the bones. They all stood with the wands at the ready, looking wildly around.

Harry turned his head this way and that, but he couldn't pin point the voice to a single tunnel.

Fawkes chirped a last musical sound and they all turned in time to see Hagrid's wound close. The giant was white as a sheet, but still trying to stand up and help

"You need me. I can help. Let me help!" He told them as his father and he tried to push Hagrid to his feet.

The chamber shook. It seemed the basilisk had deemed the tunnels too long and was making it's own.

They all helped a wobbling Hagrid to Remus side. "Let me help" Harry told them again

"Now it's not the time to have this discussion, Potter, take the bloody portkey and go" Snape almost never called him potter his days. Harry could hear the worry in his voice too

He took the inkwell from the professor's hand taking care to only touch it with the fabric of his robe

"Hagrid, can you hold on to Remus?" He asked. Hagrid gave a tight nod and to probe it took hold onto the werewolf stony hands.

"Good. Catch!" he said and threw him the inkwell. In the blink of an eye they disappeared.

He turned to the others "You can give me detention when we're out. I'm staying ACCIO SWORD!"

"Oh, you are in so much trouble, Mr Potter" hissed Snape, and Harry just grinned at his professor.

Adrenalin rushing in his blood, he felt more alive and centered that he had in a long time.

"Gentlemen, we need a plan"

"Stay alive?" suggest Harry

"One more cheeky remark out of you and you'll be in detention over summer as well" said James, but he was smiling.

A flash of silver and a CLANG! was all the warning they had as Gryffindor's sword drove itself a few inches into the wall.

"Huh" said Harry "I wasn't sure it would work"

It took three of them to take in out the wall.

"We need high ground" said James while looking around "There" he pointed Salazar's shoulders

Harry put a hand to the wall "It's getting closer" he told them

"We can fly in Harry's broom, maybe two at a time. Up!" Dumbledore held out his hand and the broom obeyed. He handed it to Harry

"I don't know many offensive spells, whoever is up there is our only cover"

They decided Albus should go first. Offensive magic or not, the headmaster's sprained ankle was decisive

Albus and James tried going first but the broom was too old. They would have to do it one at a time. Beside's his protestations, Albus went up first.

As soon as he had reached the statue's shoulder the creature made his appearance. Dumbledore fired spells at it, so charged with magic that they left a trail of light and colors it their wake, but the creature wasn't distracted.

The three sill on the ground ran in different directions. The Basilisk chose Harry.

Snape accio'ed the broom while James chose the path of brut force spelling whatever rocks he could find at the beast, even casting some water bombs and then transforming them to ice. Nothing.

Harry meanwhile run like hell taking care not too look back. He took a roll to one side, but the basilisk changed directions with him. It wouldn't be fooled a second time.

Snape and now Albus had the upper ground and where casting like mad but the basilisk wouldn't be deterred. It wanted Harry.

"Harry the broom!" yelled Albus as he directed it with his wand in Harrys path. Harry jumped on top of it and flew off.

Up, up, up.

The basilisk tried to creep up the walls to catch him, ripping harry's robe but it not touching skin.

Next time Harry looked, Albus and Snape were helping James climb up the statue. James must have casted some gecko charm for he was sticking hands and feet to the rock.

Harry flew in the other direction trying keep the creature occupied when he saw the sword. They had let it drop when the basilisk had appeared.

A plan in mind he flew straight for it, the basilisk hot in his trail.

"Fawkes, the eyes!" He yelled over his shoulder, hoping the bird understood. A musical call of war was all the answer he needed it.

After getting the sword Harry flew back, fighting the instinct to look at what was happening. The scales of the creature extended forever bellow him, it seemed even bigger than he remembered.

The basilisk screamed and screamed, the sound horrible, the very walls vibrated with the resonation. Fawkes matched every screech with a shrill. It was a mythical battle only seen in books. A basilisk and a phoenix fighting for dominance.

"It hurts" screamed the basilisk and Harry's heart went to it "It hurts, it hurts, kill, destroy"

Harry flew lower still, until creature below him was at arms length as it writhed in pain and fury and hate.

Harry changed course once again. When before he had been flying toward's the tail, this time he was doing so towards the head. He saw Fawkes picking it's eyes out, it's beak red and bloodied, but more important that that, Harry saw a soft spot in the juncture of the head and the body of the giant snake.

He readied his sword, locked his legs on the broom and flew straight to it, holding the sword with both hands, his body shaking with the strain to fly true.

"AAAAAAARG! he screamed and closed his eyes just in case. A few seconds later he felt the sword crash agains a scale before glided into meaty flesh. As he had done before in the tunnels Harry fed his magic into the broom, pushing deeper, harder.

The basilisk recoiled in pain, and Harry felt as his arms almost dislocate from their sockets with the movement of the snake trying to dislodged him. Still he held on. He lost his broom in the struggle and in the next agonizing writhe of the creature Harry crashed against sharp scales.

He scrambled to his feet, never letting go of Gryffindor sword and as soon as he could stand he gave a mighty last push that drove the blade deeper still in the head of the beast, effectively killing the last basilisk on hearth.

With that last push of the sword an artery had been severed bathing Harry in smelly warm blood.

He stood there forever, hands still holding the hilt for dear life, breathing hard, dripping blood... until James climbed up to him.

"Harry?" no answer "Are you all right? Are you hurt?"

As soon as his father put a hand on him Harry jumped back, almost falling off the basilisk. James helped steady him repeated the questions.

"Yeah. No. I mean, no. I'm okay" he looked down at himself. He recognized the symptoms of shock "I need a bath" he said, trying hard to stand off the shaking of his whole body. He locked his legs below himself "Do you think this is poisonous?" he meant the blood

"Only if it gets in your mouth" told them Snape from below where he was helping the Headmaster walk

"I think it might have" conceded Harry spiting out red

It took some maneuvering to get them both down the creature.

The broom was a pile of splinters against a wall, and the charm James had used to climb wasn't good enough to haul someone else. Given Harry's dislocated shoulder they simply hovered him down, to the many complains of the boy.

Harry shrugged off the bloodied robe wincing and grimacing during the whole ordeal while his father hovered around trying to help. Albus, who had conjured a walking stick for himself, with Fawkes perched on his shoulder was regarding the massive beast. Snape followed the Headmaster's eyes first to the basilisk and then to the boy.

The Potion Master walked up to the carcass and clicked a fingernail against a scale the size of his hand. Pure lead. More than that, it was pure digested lead. Basilisk's fed primarily on rock and stones, assimilating into their scales whatever minerals they couldn't digest. Each single scale was worth a fortune and the beast was colossal.

His eyes went back to Harry. He was sure they should have died today, they had miscalculated greatly. Two times that day the boy had saved their arses, once with the stupid glasses and the second time with a broom a sword. And not just any sword

"Albus, is that?"

"Gryffindor's sword?" Twinkled the old man

"Sorry 'bout that" said the boy. He had wiped himself as best he could with the inside of his robe but there where still maroon stains on the sides of his face and the top of his ears. He had been trying to spell the blood off the glasses with his left hand, the motion awkward when Severus walked up to him and silently extended his hand, Harry gave him the glasses with a shrug "the sword I mean" he continued apologizing "It worked last time and I couldn't think of anything else"

Snape handed him back clean glasses and stood there folding his now bloodied handkerchief "You can't spell away magical substances, Harry"

"huh"

"All that power and not an ounce of common sense to go with it" the words where harsh, but the tone softened them up to the point where it had sounded almost affectionate. For Snape

Harry could not resist grinning and Albus chuckled. Jame's just shook his head.

They were silent after that. Each lost in their own thoughts.

"There's a third entrance in the statue" Harry told them, no being able to bear the silence much longer" I wonder if Riddle-Ow!" he had tried to point the entrance with his injured arm.

"Let me see that shoulder" said James "I think is dislocated, take off your shirt" he said tugging on the cloth

"Ouch!" repeated Harry "I know it's dislocated, can't you set it with a spell?" he whined sounding a little petulant.

"No, madam Pomfrey would, but we have to get there first. It's better to do it right away before the muscle goes cold" explained the Auror "Come on, take it off" he insisted.

It took some maneuvering but between the two Potters they managed to win the war against the clothing.

"Snape help me out here" directed the elder Potter

Snape strode over and stood beside them. Harry twitched when two sets of hands held him down. It was a jump held back with iron will.

Severus gazed down. A tightening of the jaws were his only reaction to the many scars that crisscrossed the boy's back. The skin was marred with silvery dirt and it stretched, in streaks of pale and flaming red, over rutted flesh. Harry bit his lips and looked down in shame.

James probed this way and that and sizzling pain pulsed like heat through Harry's shoulder, making him jerk.

Feeling a bit like a sideshow attraction, Harry looked around again, disliking so much of an audience. "Do you think Riddle was here last year?" he asked the Headmaster "If our realities are the same he might have-AAARGHH" he couldn't help the scream. With a a sickening sound his joints popped back in place. He had to grab Snape's arm to overcome a wave of dizziness. An arm snaked behind his back, helping him stand, or he would had fell to his knees.

Second later, when he could trust his feet again, he took a step forward.

He tried to move his shoulder, but the limb did not want to move quite the way he told it to. He knew from experience it would pass.

He nodded his thanks to the other two, and hastily donned his shirt. His whole body complained to the rushed motions, but he felt vulnerable with his scars bared to the world.

He knew what he looked like. Voldemort wasn't known for his healing charms, and he had been at his mercy long enough. He wished he had his robe to put another fabric between himself and the world.

Bolstered by stubborn determination, Harry formulated his question again "Do you think Riddle was here? If he recovered the Horrocrux, if he fed it with Colins magic..."

"Then Lord Voldemort is back" finished Dumbledore for them all.

THE END

END NOTES: This is not a betaed story, and so, any and all mistakes you've found are mine.

I appreciate all corrections.

On January 18th I made and update of the story fixing some such mistakes. Hopefully we have got them all this time. Or at least most ;)

Reviews are most welcomed, and very much loved.

Make my day, let me know what you thought of this fic.

*Harry's take on how Gryffindor and Slytherins react to rules is something I read once in tumblr and fell in love. I don't have a name to credit, The image print I have is rather poor, but I didn't want to take credit for that which wasn't mine

If know the owner please let me know, so I can credit accordingly

If you've gotten this far: Thank you for you're time

About Reviews: I'm stupidly shy about answering them, but please know that I read each an every one (some many times over!) and cherish them as you wouldn't believe. 3