Chapter 2
Fred and George were most interested when they found a new-but-not-first-year-face in the crowd.
He was standing with the Black-Lupin children and they wondered, if he was another adopted one.
He and that young one in Lupin's arm.
"I count-"
"-six-"
"-do you reckon-"
"-that Black-"
"-and Lupin-"
"-try to rival us Weasleys?"
Grinning sharkishly at each other they approached they newest victim, the new-but-not-first-year-face, when he was left alone.
Both Aurora, probably to find Ginny, and Gabriel, probably to find Potter, had scurried in the direction of gathered Gryffindors followed by Crow-was-it-? and the two adults with the kid. Orion seemed to have long disappeared to who-knows-where.
Only that newbie seemed to have been in too much in thoughts to notice.
They were about to tap him on the shoulder from behind to give him a natural seeming scare that wouldn't gave price to their joker disposition, when they found themselves eerily stared at by four pair of eyes. And none of them where from the boy or even human to begin with. Fucking creepy snakes.
The boy turned around tilting his head at them curiously.
He looked like that Potter brat. But not the same. He just seemed different.
Scrawnier.
Calmer.
Less arrogant.
Less trouble.
The next words slipped totally unintentional from Fred's lips.
"Is that a runespoor?"
"Actually three-headed?", his George immediately continued.
"And a garden snake?"
The boy stared at them warily and nodded.
"Wicked!", they exclaimed together to diffuse the tension before looking at each other thoughtfully.
"But very Slytherin", they remarked more hushed.
The unknown entity in front of them narrowed his intensive green eyes at them in a challenging manner.
"Would that be a problem?" Like a test- They both shook their head. -and seemed to have passed.
"No matter what house a prank victim is a pr-", they stopped.
A revelation hit them and they nodded sagely at each other.
"Well played", one exclaimed with staged seriousness.
As the other cried out in faked dismay, "What trickery!"
"We admit defeat this time around", the both said. Their plan was known. At their own fault even.
And both twins had a feeling that the boy in front of him hadn't even orchestrated it.
That had never happened to them before. They shrugged.
"I'm George Weasley", Fred said.
"And I'm Fred Weasley", George said.
"Or Forge!"
"And Gred!"
"We go by that, too"
"If you say so", the boy commented offhandedly before grinned shyly at them as he introduced himself: "Nice to meet you. I'm Jamie Hadrian Evanson-Peverell"
"Fancy name", one twin.
"And Peverell", the other one.
"Sounds very familiar", both commented. Very familiar.
The newly introduced Jamie Hadrian Evanson-Peverell shrugged at the twins antic although smiling.
They talked a bit before the twins wandered off again. Probably looking for Lee.
What to do now? Maybe he should go looking for Moony. The man was going to teach this year after all. He smiled remembering that Professor Lupin still had been the best DADA teacher he had so far. Followed by fake-Moody. For an evil henchman the guy had been a rather competent if unorthodox teacher, if one didn't hold traumatizing Neville and Malfoy into against him. Harry kind of did.
Pulling his wand out he performed the Point-me spell to get a general direction and begun to walk there.
A walk that was cut halfway short when a familiar three-years-old with turquoise hair run into him with a huff, followed by two older twin girls that also crashed into them. It was no wonder Harry landed laying flat on his back with three children sprawled over him.
"Jamie!", the three-years-old called him and Harry was for once rather glad that Teddy was such an intelligent child to understand that he couldn't use Harry's name anymore.
"Hullo, Teddy!", Harry, now Jamie, said smiling gently at the grinning child sitting on his chest.
The two dazzled girls with auburn hair like his mother, too, seem to get hold of themselves. They looked like they couldn't be older then Teddy by one or two years.
When they looked at them though he could see their mismatched eyes widening.
"H-Harry…", the one with the glasses stuttered out as they both quickly scrambled down from him.
And he wondered if they knew his counterpart and why they would be so fearful of him.
"Nope", he said as he stood up, "Ain't Harry as Teddy here already said", he pulled the two of them to their feet, too before they could react, "my name is Jamie and it's nice to meet you two pretty ladies", he said ending the whole thing with a gallant bow and a charming smile that send them giggling and Teddy clapping.
"So", Jamie, he had to get used to the name, looked at Teddy, "where did you left Professor Lupin?"
Teddy grinned innocently at him and Jamie couldn't help but feel that it must be the Marauder genes.
"Uncle Remus is with our parents", the girl without the glass chimed in with a shy smile.
Jamie smiled back.
"Then I guess I have to bring his two wayward students back to him"
Both girls giggled again.
"Silly, you", they said, "We're only five! We don't go to Hogwarts yet"
"Still, I rather bring you back before anyone gets worried", he said as he took Teddy by the hand, "and excuse me for not asking earlier, but what would you two charming ladies be named?"
They giggled again and Harry wonders, if girls always did that when they were together. One of them didn't even seem like the type, but on the other hand he also didn't know them yet. Bad Harry- Jamie. You don't stereotype.
And he wonders if all twins could do the whole twin speech thing, but he only had met two pairs of twins in his life so far. The Weasley twins and the Parvatis.
"I'm Violet Juno Potter", the one with the glasses introduced herself calmly.
"And I'm Lilac Julie Potter", the other one chirped.
And while Jamie's mind reeled around the fact that the two girls were Potters, Teddy certainly didn't miss a beat to introduce himself, too.
"I'm Teddy!" "We know that already!", both twins said and couldn't help but laugh.
"So, why did you call me Harry earlier?", he asked them although he thinks he knows.
"Because you look like him", Juno explained, "He's our big brother."
Julie nodded, but couldn't help but also add: "But you're a lot nicer!"
"He's a git!"
"And a dork!"
"And a prat!"
"And a jerk!"
"And you're not", they both ended it together.
And Jamie couldn't help but give a laugh even though he just learned that his counterpart wasn't…nice…
"And please, don't tell our mother we said that!", Juno said.
Julie nodded pouting, "although he deserves it!"
Jamie nodded, looking serious as Teddy made a motion of zipping his mouth shut.
"She'll hear nothing from us", he said in a confidential tone as if he was keeping a state secret and was happy to hear when they both giggled again.
The Harry of this world sounded terrible.
At one point one of them pointed in the direction they were going and Harry looked in that direction only to get his breath stuck.
There were his parents. Well, the counterparts of his parents. Alive.
There they stood together with Moony and Padfoot.
And Crow and a girl his age with short auburn hair like mothers.
His mother, who looked vibrant and lively as she laughed at the antics of the marauders holding hands with his father, who still looked incredibly besotted with her.
Jamie smiled sadly. He doesn't think he's ready to meet them yet.
"Well, until we meet again, Myladies", he said with flourish and bend down to kiss both their hands.
"But we wanted to introduce you to our parents!", Julie whined, but a tug from Juno on her hand silenced her and Jamie smiled at her and she gave a small smile back.
"Another time", he said, "But do tell your uncle Remus that I'll be waiting in the train"
"Now run along", he said and shooed them in the direction of their parents although Teddy insisted on staying with him as he entered the train to look for a compartment.
Bugger that too perceptive brat for his age.
…oOo…
They passed the Parvati twins and Lavender at one point, who both stopped to coo at Teddy.
Lavender in the end scared Teddy a bit and she needed to be tugged away by the twins when they parted ways. She scared Jamie a bit, too.
And although he was not looking for anyone in particular he entered the compartment where he found this worlds Hermione sitting in.
"Hey", he greeted her not exactly sure how he should act.
She looked briefly up from her book her mouth turning to a scowl and Jamie was left in his mind cursing his counterpart again.
"Potter! What do you want?", she said in a clipped manner, bookmarking the page and closing the book when he didn't leave.
She looked up glaring at him when she noticed something.
"You're not Potter"
He grinned at her abashed.
"Eh, no, I'm not. Hi, I'm Jamie Evanson", he introduce himself.
"I'm Teddy!", the young boy she hadn't noticed before behind the teen exclaimed before she could introduce herself. He looked like a smaller younger carbon copy, strangely with the scar included.
She smiled at the kid. "Nice to meet you. I'm Hermione Granger"
She blushed when Jamie kissed her hand and laughed when Teddy copied the movement.
Boys never treated her like that. She was just a bookworm after all.
"Nice to meet you, too", they both said.
"So, can we keep this-"
Teddy interrupted him with slowly said today newly learned words trying to pronounce the clearly, "-char-ming la-dy-"
"-here company", Jamie ended the sentence a bit dumbfounded.
Hermione just cooed at Teddy and ushering them in. It kind of miffed Jamie that Teddy was like a free card into the female heart while he only get laughed at.
"You're brother is not raising you to be a lady's man is he?", she asked looking up with fake glare at the other teen.
Jamie spluttered.
"God, no", he said thinking of the possible trouble before looking thoughtful as if he was complementing something, "although my godfather may…"
It was more in an afterthought that he added to explain, "And I'm not his brother, but his godfather"
Hermione laughed.
It wasn't until later on the journey that she learned that the boy was a metamorphmagus and grilled Jamie for information about it.
"Anyway sorry for being so cross with you before", she apologized, "I mistook you for someone else"
"No harm done", Jamie said as he put his trunk away and sat down, "You're not the first one today"
"Who's that Harry?", he asked, "He sounds like a git, a dork, a prat and a jerk as his sisters so eloquently put it" He wondered if should feel insulted insulting himself. Nah.
"Yeah, that's sounds about right", she laughed, "He's just like the typical school yard bully"
Jamie looked at her in wonderment, "Why would someone want to bully you?"
"I'm not well-liked, because I'm kind of a know-it-all", she explains, "which is why I'm always at odds with Harry and two other boys"
"Two other boys?"
"Yeah, Draco Malfoy, who's a right git", she said pointing out of the window where Jamie quickly spotted a familiar blond head together with his parents and three unknown people saying goodbye.
Two of them where blond around the age of Juno and Julie and Jamie wondered what it was today with twins. The other one was black head their age with locks of hair that curled up at the ends and aristocratic features that seemed too familiar. Jamie wondered who it was. The boy didn't exist in his old world.
"-and Ron Weasley. Who is such a dork", she continued and begun to rant about all three of them before looking at him sheepishly.
When he told her that he had meet Malfoy at Diagon Alley already and kind of befriended him, she looked even more uncomfortable.
He cracked her an understanding lopsided grin. He knows how Malfoy could be.
Malfoy sounded in this world just like the arrogant prejudiced youth he was in Jamie's old world and Ron just seemed to be what he could have been considering the golden trio's relationship before the troll. Just more arrogant and self-confident maybe. Jamie stopped thinking about it when he begun to set parallels between Ron and Malfoy. He knows they're actually have quite a few similarities, but he doesn't really want to think about it. His counterpart on the other hand seemed awful, but he doesn't want to judge him yet before he actually met him. Maybe he was just more stern with himself?
It was soon that they lapsed into a comfortable silence as the train just started to move.
Professor Lupin had found his way to them and was now napping together with Teddy in the corner at the window.
Hermione was reading her book again and Jamie just watched slowly faster getting sceneries passing by the window.
He could hear familiar voices when the compartment door slid open.
"Sorry, the other compartments are already full and-", Neville broke off mid-sentences as Ron came to stand beside him. Hermione was glaring at them.
While Neville was to Jamie's surprise quite confident Ron was glaring back at Hermione.
"Erm, hi, I'm J-", he started trying to break the tension when Ron interrupted him snapping quite loudly: "Stuff it, Potter!"
Although he immediately begun to apologize furiously when Teddy started to cry being awoken so rudely from his nap that an agitated Jamie had to fuss over him and noticing that Jamie indeed was not the accursed Potter.
"You're not Potter" It was Neville, who stated the now obvious fact earning himself a due look from the unknown boy that send him blushing in embarrassment before he composed himself again.
The unknown boy did the same having now successfully calmed the child down and instead grinned at the two boys standing in the doorway.
"Hi, I'm Jamie Evanson"
"Ron Weasley"
"Neville Longbottom"
"Teddy!" "Remus Lupin-Black", Jamie ended.
Stopping to glare at each other even Ron and Hermione cracked a smile and Jamie was again thanking the universe for his godson.
It was a great accomplishment Jamie believes that he gotten Ron and Hermione to get along enough to have them both seated without any great argument breaking out.
Teddy was napping again on Remus's lap this time across from a reading Hermione.
Which was next to Neville and Ron, who were talking about Quidditch with Jamie, who sat across from them next to Hermione. Professor Lupin stayed asleep and Jamie was sure he was faking. And it was despite small disputes between the counterparts of his two best friends rather peaceful.
Only disturbed when halfway on their journey Draco Malfoy slid the door open glaring at Jamie.
"Why are you here?", the blond asked.
"Why shouldn't he be here?", Ron immediately bit out fuming confused when he was ignored. That never happened before
At the blank look from Jamie, the Malfoy heir gave a sigh.
"Why weren't you looking for me?", he elaborated.
Oh! Understanding dawned onto the scrawny black-haired twelve-years-old.
"I didn't see you when I came onto the train, then I found Hermione and I guess I didn't thought about it later on and just expected to meet you at Hogwarts…"
"What would you even want from someone like him?", Ron asked angrily.
"Nothing against you", Neville immediately tried to do something about Ron's thoughtless words as Ron looked sheepishly at that when he noticed.
Jamie sighed and smiled at them reassuringly.
"His company", Malfoy spat with a due look before turning to Jamie again.
He was about to say something when he was stopped by the Weasley again.
"Why would you want to spend time with a…muggleborn?", he asked.
Ron now turned to Jamie.
"You are, aren't you? Evanson is not a wizard name"
"Actually I'm what you call a half-blood", seeing Draco tense he added at least to calm some of the blond's nerves, "But both my parents were wizards"
"At least something", Malfoy commented haughtily and shrunk a bit under the glare of four pair of eyes, even the one of his newest friend and he bristled a bit before glaring back.
He also didn't know why in the end he didn't left right there now that he found out that Jamie was only a half-blood, but maybe it was the snakes. He remembered that boy had four snakes and they were his favorite animals, which had nothing to do with house pride, beside cats and his eagle owl. And maybe it was because the boy wanted Draco's opinion when they were shopping in Diagon Alley and always interrupted him when he started his sentences with 'My father reckons…' and 'My father said…' instead asking for his own thoughts on the matter, prompting him to actually think about the matter at hand.
It had been refreshing to meet someone, who wanted to be his friend because of himself instead of his parents and family like it was normal within Slytherin.
"But I reckon you'll be in Slytherin?", he asked instead closing the compartment door as he sat himself beside the black-head despite protest of the Weaselby.
"We occasionally get half-bloods"
Unbeknownst to him Jamie knew that, recalling a boy by the name Tom Riddle, the potion master Severus Snape and the fact that he himself had been close to being sorted there.
Instead Jamie decided to play clueless and just asked: "Slytherin? That's one of the houses, isn't it? I heard of them"
"I wouldn't get myself sorted there", remarked Ron, "There are only dark wizards coming from there."
"Does that mean you would just abandon me or any other friends of yours when they were sorted into Slytherin?", he asked truly curious about the answer.
Ron spluttered: "No, I- Why would I do that, I mean we would be friends and- Merlin, I don't know?"
Neville to the amusement of Draco, was trying to reassure Jamie, too, that they wouldn't just abandon him in that evil house.
Jamie grinned brightly and them all.
"But I reckon that Gryffindor is the best house", Neville said with Ron backing him up after Jamie reassured them that he didn't take what they said as offense.
And then it just escalated into an argument between the three boys about which of their houses is better, but at least it wasn't about blood purity.
He laughed when Hermione leaned in conspiratoringly as the others were occupied just to tell him, that he could if he want to, also join her in Ravenclaw.
In an afterthought it was strange that Hermione wasn't a Gryffindor. After all she didn't have a reason to chose differently in his old world, because of him, did she?
…oOo…
Jamie couldn't help, but give a exaggerated: "Again?", when the door slid open again just few minutes later.
It was the boy, he had seen with Malfoy at the train station.
The boy snarled at them all before his eyes settled on Malfoy, who was momentarily trying to beat Ron on the wizarding chessboard that was balanced on a side-way put trunk between them while Jamie and Neville were playing Exploding Snap with Teddy, who was stroking Draco's ego by having the same blond hair, although he kept Jamie's brilliant green eyes.
"What are you doing here?", he asked Malfoy and Jamie had the feeling of deja-vu that the other occupants also had.
Even Teddy looked at the boy in the doorframe funnily and the kid had been asleep when Malfoy had stormed in.
"As you can see, cousin", so that's the familiarity Jamie noticed, "I'm wiping the floor with the Weasel at wizarding chess", the Malfoy heir answered with a smirk, putting his pawn forward closing in for a check.
A smirk that was immediately wiped away when Ron closed his trap for checkmate.
"How come that someone so stupid can play chess!", he complained the same time as his cousin talked again.
"My question is what you are doing in such distasteful company, Draco", the boy spat as he glared at all the other occupants, who just stared or glared back at him.
"I mean a blood-traitor, a mudblood, the golden boy and even Potter! I thought you wanted to look for that new friend of yours?", he bellowed clearly agitated.
"That is the friend I meant", Malfoy said gesturing towards Jamie.
The other looked shocked.
"You befriended bloody sodding Potter?", the black-haired boy gasped, trying to grasp the concept of these two being friendly with each other, "I thought you hated him?"
And really Jamie could bang his head against the wall.
"Why is it?", he begun in calm dangerous tone that promised pain if the answer was wrong, "that every single person I seem to come across in this bloody school mistakes me for some stuck up prat I've never even met before in my life!"
Instead of glaring at the occupants around him he stared at them with such a look that was a cross between saying your beneath me as he had seen so often from Narcissa Malfoy and still found quite impressive and a stern disapproving teacher look that made people squirm guiltily.
He fully ignored the twitch he saw from Moony trying not to laugh thinking of the truth and by now had sat up and was observing everything with utmost interest of a not-involved bystander like Teddy.
"My apologizes then", the boy said smoothly holding out his hand as if the few minutes prior hadn't happened, "May I then inquire your name"
Jamie grasped the hand and wondered for a briefly how the boy would react when he introduced himself.
"Jamie Hadrian Evanson. And you are?"
The question was ignored. Shaking his hand only briefly to not lost face the boy retracted his hand quickly looking at Jamie disdainfully.
"Another mudblood?", he inquired looking some what as if he had bitten into something sour, "Draco I'm kind of disappointed in your choice of company today. What would your father say"
"He's probably going to be a Slytherin, Hydrus", Malfoy tried to reason with said cousin.
"Then he will have to prove himself first to be so when he is", the teen, now identified as Hydrus, said, "until then he's just another mud-"
Jamie sighed and interrupted the argument that even Ron wisely kept away from in caution of making it worse.
"Actually I'm after your own definitions termed a half-blood and not as you incorrectly assumed without a proof a muggleborn or in the more intentional politically recognized term New Blood. As of I also do not see any fault in being new-blood. And if you had any knowledge of genetical inheritance, which I do know most wizards don't have, you wouldn't mind either. Not to mention that the term pureblood is even more incorrect unlike the widely used Old Blood as you don't know what had been breeded in and out of your family before your bloodline was documented. And while old-blood seemed to refer to wizarding aristocracy with far-rooted lineage it is utmost unbecoming that you, Hydrus Lestrange, who despite your noble status are entirely lacking the manner to introduce yourself, which you should have been probably taught and learned by now. Now is there anything else you like to say, heir Lestrange", Jamie ended his speech with flashing eyes lowly hissing the last part of the sentence.
But it was enough to wake up the snakes on him, who unrolled themselves and were now staring and hissing at the boy in front of them, who quickly went from red-faced red-seeing anger to being sickly pale in confrontation with such dangerous animals and only meekly shook his head.
Jamie smiled ignoring the "Bloody Hell!", from behind him clearly coming from Ron as he gesture to his left side. Only Floare turned to the red-head curiously.
"Now, would you like to take a se-", he stopped when he felt a familiar sensation.
Why hadn't he thought that it would happen in this world?
He knew Neville was the Boy-Who-Lived. He had Remus in his compartment.
Just because Sirius already escaped Azkaban and even had his name cleared? How could he be so naiv?
As the window begone to frost over he quickly ushered Hydrus into the compartment and toward the windows with all the others despite protest and inquiries for his strange reaction toward the sudden cold. Professor Lupin also stood up pressing a bundled up Teddy into Hermione's arms as he took out his wand to be ready. Even his snakes quickly slithered to hide under Draco's robe, who was farther away from the door.
In a split-second decision Harry stepped forward to close said door when he came face to face with a dementor. To close to react.
Flashes of his former life passed in front of his eyes, his mother's voice, Cedric, Voldemort, Sirius, Hocruxes, the battle of Hogwarts, so many many death, dead, dead friends, green flashes, dementors.
Before he fainted into the embrace of darkness he could hear Moony's voice conjuring blinding light.
"Expecto Patronum!"
