Through Another's Eyes

By Neurotica

Two

Harry stumbled out of the fireplace and onto the carpet of Albus Dumbledore's study. He only had a moment to ensure he wasn't going to be sick from Flooing before he had to move aside so James could step neatly out, Harry's trunk in his hand.

The wizard winked at him as they looked around for Dumbledore—the Headmaster didn't seem to be anywhere in sight... "Huh," James said, his brow furrowing as he looked around. "He said he was going to meet us here."

Harry ignored this for the moment as he crossed the study to observe Fawkes the phoenix. No matter how different everyone else in this place looked, Harry took a great deal of comfort to find Fawkes was still the same. With a smile, the boy reached out a hand to stroke the phoenix's head. In return, Fawkes emitted a short, quiet note of phoenix song—Harry suddenly found his nerves of what was to come were lessening. He turned as he heard James chuckle a little.

"What?" Harry asked, a small grin playing at his lips.

James only shook his head. "Nothing," he replied quietly. Both of them turned to look when the study door opened and Dumbledore entered, a small smile and pair of twinkling eyes their welcome.

"Good morning," the Headmaster said cheerfully. "I trust I find you well today."

James nodded. "Indeed you do, sir," he replied, leaving Harry's trunk by the fireplace and moving to sit in front of Dumbledore's desk. Harry dropped into the chair beside him.

"Excellent," Dumbledore said, smiling serenely. "Harry, I should inform you that, as per your parents' wishes, your professors are not aware of the happenings of the last several weeks. Naturally, they displayed interest in how you were able to survive the Killing Curse, but I was able to concoct a story to suffice their curiosity for the time being."

"And what story is this, Albus?" James asked with a raised eyebrow.

"That Harry was indeed hit with the Killing Curse, but as it was cast by an unqualified wizard, it was not strong enough to have the desired results," Dumbledore told them. "Your professors, Harry, are aware only that you have been ill over the last fortnight; they have been instructed to help catch you up on the work you've missed."

Harry nodded.

Dumbledore smiled. "I shouldn't keep you from your lessons or dormitory for much longer," he said quietly. "James, if you would be so kind as to escort Harry to Gryffindor Tower, I believe you and I have something to discuss upon your return."

The boy's brow furrowed as James' face went from relaxed to business-like in the flash of a second. "Of course, Albus," James replied quietly, standing and heading back to the fireplace for Harry's trunk.

With a wish of good luck from Dumbledore, Harry and James left the office, stepping on the spiral staircase as it took them into the castle's entrance hall. Silently, the two wizards made their way up the stairs to the seventh floor; when they reached the Fat Lady that guarded the Gryffindor dormitories, they looked at one another, each realizing they didn't know the password.

"Er..." James murmured, looking pleadingly at the Fat Lady.

She merely raised an eyebrow. "No password, no entrance," she said loftily.

"There you are!" said a voice behind them.

James and Harry turned to find Caleb rushing up the stairs, a wide grin in place. "Password's balderdash," he said both to Harry and the portrait.

"Indeed." The Fat Lady's portrait swung open, allowing the three Potters to climb through the hole and into the common room.

"Everyone's at breakfast," Caleb explained as they headed to the fifth year boys' dormitory. "There's about twenty minutes before lessons begin. Oh, and this is yours." Harry watched his younger brother removed a time table from the pocket of his robes.

Harry quickly scanned the column of subjects, only vaguely surprised to find the other Harry was taking Arithmancy and Ancient Runes instead of Divination and Care of Magical Creatures. His first lesson of the day was Charms.

"Well, I should get going," James said once he'd placed Harry's trunk at the foot of the only bed in the dorm that was made. "Have a good term, both of you." Caleb quickly rushed forward to get a hug from his father. James chuckled and returned it.

"Er, I've got to get my schoolbag," Caleb announced, looking between James and Harry. "I'll meet you downstairs, Harry."

Harry nodded and smiled. A moment later, he was alone with his father. "So, I'll see you at Christmas, I guess," he muttered, shuffling around uncertainly. Was he supposed to hug his father before the older wizard took his leave? It had been only natural for him to have hugged his mother before stepping into the fireplace twenty minutes ago...

James seemed to be having the same internal debate. He finally settled on sticking his hand out to the boy. Harry shook it. "Take care," he said gruffly. "If you have any problems, don't hesitate to write and let us know, okay?"

Harry nodded. "Of course," he replied. "Erm, thanks..."

James smiled a little and winked. "Don't mention it," he replied, releasing Harry's hand. "Well, I'll let you get your things together for lessons. If I get a chance, and if you stay on the team, maybe I could come watch a Quidditch match at some point."

"I'd like that," Harry said sincerely, smiling.

After a few moments of staring at one another, James cleared his throat, ruffled his hair a bit, and finally decided to leave. Harry raised his hand in farewell as James reached the door and glanced over his shoulder before leaving the room. Shaking himself a little, Harry quickly went to his trunk before changing into his school robes and stuffing Defense Against the Dark Arts, Charms, and Herbology books into a backpack. He arrived back in the common room to find Caleb waiting for him on one of the tables.

"Ready?" Caleb asked as they headed out the portrait hole.

Harry sighed deeply. "Do I have a choice?"

Caleb only chuckled and led the way down to the Charms corridor. They split up here, Caleb needing to head for Transfiguration. The smaller boy wished Harry good luck before waving and rushing off again. Harry took a very deep breath and let it out slowly, laying his hand on the doorknob of Professor Flitwick's classroom.

Here we go again.

James went straight from Hogwarts to the Ministry and quickly made his way to Auror Headquarters where he found Sirius waiting for him in his office.

"How'd it go?" his friend asked as James walked around his desk and collapsed exhaustedly into his chair.

The Head Auror shrugged. "All right," he replied. "If Lily had had her way, Harry wouldn't have left the house at all. She's been a little overprotective of him lately."

"Can't imagine why," Sirius muttered dryly. James glared half-heartedly at him. "Well, you'll be happy to hear that our mutual connection in one Dark Lord's Inner Circle has relayed some very interesting news."

James' eyebrows shot up as he sat forward eagerly. "And?"

Sirius sighed and waved his wand over his shoulder to close the door. "Voldemort was initially rather annoyed to find out Harry survived the curse," he replied. James nodded; he'd expected that much. "Now, however, he seems quite pleased that things worked out the way they did."

James' eyebrows rose again. "Why?"

"No clue," Sirius responded. "He was overheard muttering something about results, but didn't say much else."

James sighed heavily and rubbed his eyes under his glasses. "Well, if Lily and Dumbledore are right about some potion Harry was given during his kidnapping causing all this parallel universe stuff, maybe that is the result he's talking about."

"Possible," Sirius agreed, nodding. "Any idea how you want to go about finding Malfoy?"

Shrugging, James sat back in his chair again. "Chances are high we won't get him for months—even before all this, Voldemort kept him on a short leash."

"Probably still pissed off after the mess at Gringotts a few years back," Sirius responded. James smirked and nodded at the memory. "Ah, well. If we're lucky he'll fall into a pit of rabid pixies and we won't have to worry about it."

Chuckling, James reached into his drawer to remove a file for a case he and Sirius had been working on for years. "We should probably do something to earn our pay," he said in response to Sirius' glare at the folder.

Rolling his eyes, Sirius moved his chair around the desk and the two friends began to work.

Harry was the first person in the Charms classroom. He looked around for a moment, finding Professor Flitwick hadn't even arrived yet, and went to take a seat at the table he'd always occupied with Ron and Hermione in his old world. After letting his schoolbag slip off his shoulder and retrieving his textbook, Harry tried to wait patiently for the other students to arrive. He found himself rather relieved that Dumbledore had sent him directly to Gryffindor Tower, then to his first lesson upon his arrival instead of the Great Hall. At least during a lesson, people couldn't crowd him asking tons of questions he couldn't answer.

Behind him, the door opened and Harry turned to find a group of fifth year Gryffindors and Ravenclaws enter. He spotted Ron and Hermione briefly before a squeal sounded and the group was parted. Harry barely had time to brace himself before Lavender Brown threw herself at him. He fought to push her arms—which were slowly cutting off his air supply—away from his neck. As everybody took their seats, Harry managed to convince Lavender to sit in a chair rather than on his lap and glanced around the room. The Ravenclaws were rolling their eyes at Harry and Lavender, while most of the Gryffindors took chairs in close proximity and easily ignored the display. While Seamus was asking what had happened to him and if he was okay, Harry discovered Ron and Hermione both sitting on the Ravenclaw side. Ron was carefully avoiding looking anywhere at Harry, but Hermione met his eyes and gave him a small sympathetic smile.

Feeling better about his return to Hogwarts, Harry tried to answer some of the questions being thrown at him. Professor Flitwick's arrival saved Harry from having to answer Lavender's question of whether he'd missed her.

"Settle down, settle down," Flitwick called, climbing up on his stack of pillows.

While the professor tried to explain that day's lesson—Silencing Charms—Harry was trying to free his right hand from Lavender's death grip. Twenty minutes later, Harry had succeeded in casting the charm and inwardly smirked at how Lavender didn't seem to realize her voice couldn't be heard as her mouth continued to open and close, forming silent words.

Harry found himself very relieved to find that after Charms, his next lesson was Arithmancy, and Lavender wouldn't be there—she was off to Divination. Rolling his eyes at Lavender's overdramatic temporary goodbye, Harry was still wiping lipstick off his cheek when he entered the Arithmancy classroom. A moment's search found Hermione sitting, predictably, at the front of the classroom; Harry made a beeline to sit beside her.

"You'd think you'd be used to her reactions by now," Hermione said quietly, looking through some notes Harry assumed were from the last lesson.

Harry only shrugged and retrieved his textbook. He looked over at Hermione when the young witch muttered a charm, tapping her roll of notes with her wand. A duplicate roll appeared beside the original; Hermione handed the copy to Harry. "What's this?" he asked, opening the roll.

"All the notes you've missed," she responded quietly as Professor Vector entered the room.

"Thanks," Harry murmured, setting the roll aside to pay attention. Hermione gave him a small smile in response.

The rest of the morning went quickly. Harry arrived in the Great Hall for lunch and glanced around for a moment before choosing his seat beside Caleb. His brother was sitting across from Ginny Weasley and a boy that Harry assumed was in Caleb's year. "Mind if I sit?" Harry asked when he reached Caleb.

Caleb looked up and smiled. "Go ahead," he responded.

"You can sit here," Ginny said rather stiffly, grabbing her schoolbag. "I'm done anyway."

Before anything else could be said, Ginny was quickly leaving the Great Hall. With a small sigh, Harry took her seat and began to reach for a few sandwiches on the platter between himself and his brother. He'd been getting reactions like Ginny's on and off all morning, and though he'd tried to work out what his other self had done to annoy these people, he'd finally realized that if he lingered on these things too long, he wouldn't ever get any of his schoolwork done.

And what's worse, I don't even know half the people who don't seem to like me... Harry thought as he chewed his food thoughtfully.

"Happy to be back at school?" asked Caleb, reaching for a sandwich in the middle of the table.

"I guess," Harry murmured. "Going to take a bit of getting used to..."

A sympathetic look on his face lived briefly on Caleb's face before it was replaced with one of exasperation. Harry began to ask what was wrong, but he spotted the problem entering the Great Hall. "Can't she go anywhere alone?" he asked the younger boy.

Caleb snorted a laugh as Lavender spotted Harry, beamed, and practically ran between the tables to reach them. Sighing heavily, Harry tried to continue eating his lunch, blocking out Lavender's rather annoying voice as she gushed about what they should do during that weekend's Hogsmeade visit. At some point, Caleb had to stuff his hand in his mouth to keep from laughing at the look of severe annoyance on his brother's face. He choked out a see you later around his fingers, grabbed his schoolbag, and headed out of the hall. Harry was certain he could hear Caleb's laughter long after he should have.

Harry's first chance to really see and speak to Ron Weasley arrived just after dinner that night. All day, though Harry had tried to break away, Seamus Finnigan and Dean Thomas hadn't drifted far from their friend, cutting down his chances to do anything on his own. When the three boys had entered Gryffindor Tower, Seamus and Dean arguing about the differences between Quidditch and football and which sport was better, Harry scanned the common room, searching for anyone he actually wanted to be around. Caleb, he knew, had gone to the library after dinner to work on an essay for Transfiguration; Hermione was absent as well. With a sigh, Harry started for the sofa in front of the fire until he spotted Lavender Brown spotting him and making a beeline for him once again.

"Going to bed," he hurriedly told Seamus and Dean, then added at their raised eyebrows, "Headache."

Wasn't a complete lie, he mused, somehow managing to avoid Lavender's path. She does give me a headache...

Though Lavender seemed to want to follow him up the stairs to the boys' dorm, she merely pouted a little when she realized Harry wasn't turning towards her and went to sit with Parvati. Thinking he really needed to do something about Lavender Brown, Harry pushed open the fifth year boys' dormitory door and entered. In his old world, Harry's four-poster bed was between Ron's and Neville's. Here, it was on the other side of the circular room between Dean's and Seamus'. Harry couldn't help but think how odd the dorm looked from a different perspective. Just as he was digging through his trunk, looking for something to occupy his mind until bedtime, the door opened again. Harry had fully resigned himself to Lavender chasing him up the stairs, and found himself quite surprised to find Ron had entered instead.

The red head stopped in his tracks as he spotted Harry, a look of dislike and mistrust on his face. "Hey," he murmured, heading towards his own bed.

"Hey," Harry replied. "Erm, how was your summer?"

Ron's eyes shot up from where he'd been staring at his bed as though he believed it was some sort of trap. "Stupendous," he said, his tone dripping in sarcasm. "What do you care?"

Harry sighed and shook his head before returning to his open trunk. Ron would take some time, he realized, retrieving his pajamas. When he turned around, the redhead was sitting on the edge of his bed, his legs dangling off the side, watching Harry rather closely; it looked as though he was trying to figure something out. "What?" Harry said. "Do I have something on my face?"

For a moment, Harry thought he spotted amusement on the other boy's face, but it was gone too soon to be certain. Ron shook his head. "No," he said stiffly. "Sorry..."

Harry turned away and abandoned his search for his pajamas, preferring to lie down in his robes instead. Ron returned to looking for whatever he'd come up for and left with a scroll in his hand a few minutes later.

With a sigh, Harry folded his arms behind his head and stared at the canopy above the bed. Regardless of everything that had happened, regardless of how he'd come to this place, he had hoped this new life might be easier than his old one had been. And in some ways, it was; he had his parents here, two people who would do anything for him; he had siblings; and it seemed to him that Voldemort hadn't dedicated his time and resources searching for him. He had no doubt that the Dark Lord would kill him if ever given the chance, but that could be dealt with.

This world's Harry had been so different for him. He'd had more confidence than Harry could ever imagine holding and had lived his life without any real hardships. He was rather spoiled and used that to his advantage. He hadn't even realized how interesting his brother was until it was far too late.

Harry recalled finding out about his other self's kidnapping when he'd been only five. All the adults in his life believed this had been Voldemort's doing, and Harry didn't doubt it, but he couldn't help but wonder why Voldemort hadn't killed the child he'd taken. He'd overheard his parents talking late one night about what this kidnapping might have done; they believed Voldemort had forced Harry to take some potion that skewed his view on reality so thoroughly that it could open another universe, the one Harry had come from.

And his original universe or not, Harry was right back where he was before the attack on Platform 9 ¾ where his other self had been destroyed by Draco Malfoy's Killing Curse. His scar, which he hadn't seen since his arrival to this place, was where it had always been; he was still looked at very oddly through the halls of Hogwarts and whispered about when people thought he couldn't hear them.

He wondered vaguely if his scar's reappearance would bring on the connection he had with Voldemort, the one where he could sense what the Dark Lord was feeling or how near he was. As though confirming this thought, Harry's scar prickled and he rubbed at it absentmindedly.

So overall, he thought blandly, nothing's changed. I'm still the effing Boy-Who-Lived, even if the circumstances are different... And I'll still have to deal with all the visions I had last year.

Harry shuddered a little as he recalled some of the fits he experienced during his fourth year at Hogwarts. People are still going to think I'm mental if it happens here...

He'd learned rather early on that what people didn't understand had strange effects on their behavior: the lack of knowledge scared them, causing them to build defenses in their minds with the front of anger, and they did everything they could to come up with some explanation for what they didn't understand.

And sometimes, those explanations are not kind to the people involved.

Oh well. Nothing I can do until it happens.

Yawning heavily, Harry removed his glasses and set them on the bedside table before curling up on his side and falling into a fitful sleep.

AN: Yes, I know it's been forever. I apologize for the horrendously long wait. But trust me when I say I've only recently recovered from the worst bout of Writer's Block I've ever suffered from. Not to mention I've had a horrendous day myself, so please improve it a bit and review. Hopefully it won't be another four months between updates.