Hermione was certain the woman standing in front of her was Harry's mother, Lily Potter. Still, she looked much older than the order photos Hermione recognised her from. If Hermione's memory was correct, Mrs Potter must have been twenty years old when those photos were taken.
"Umm, you are Mrs Potter, right?" Hermione asked.
The woman looked at Hermione's face once more, searching for the clues. Hermione was sure she couldn't get anything out of her face, since her mind was still puzzled as much as the moment she woke up, and it easily leaked onto her facial expressions.
"Is everything okay, my lady?" Mrs Potter asked. The woman now felt less fearful of her and more worried. When Hermione looked into woman's eyes, she felt the wrongness dissipating from deep inside. She turned her eyes over from the green eyes to the hands. They looked old and wrinkly.
"Well, you are Mrs Potter, aren't you?" Hermione urged the woman to answer. Because if you are, everything is far from okay, she thought.
"No?" a half question was all the answer. The hands were fidgeting.
"I am a friend of Harry's, you don't need to be afraid of me," Hermione said soothingly. She wanted to comfort the woman but she had the feeling touching her would scare her more.
"Harry?" the woman asked again confused. "I don't know that person, but you do know me, my lady. Are you really okay?"
"Okay then." Hermione was starting to get impatient with house-elf-like responses she got. She was sure the woman was Harry's mother but she apparently wasn't. It was curious she didn't know Harry, though. Everyone in the wizarding world knew her best friend.
"Who are you? Why am I here?" Hermione demanded.
"I'm Lily, your mudblood-"
"What? No!" Hermione interrupted. "No no no no, you can't just call yourself that." Then, her brain processed the first part of the answer. So, she was Harry's mother.
"Wait, what do you mean by your?" Malfoy called someone her mudblood, but she only thought that was his regular insult, not something other people would call themselves as.
"Your caretaker," Lily supplied. Hermione went back to sit on the bed. The sheets were still rumpled but she didn't want to think about that again. She covered her face with her hands and started to think.
This was not a dream, it was too realistic. She might have died in her sleep and found herself in an afterlife. This definitely wasn't what she expected of her afterlife.
"Am I dead?"
"Umm, if you aren't feeling well, would you want me to summon Headmaster Black?"
"Headmaster Black? Is Sirius headmaster here?"
"No, Regulus Black. I believe you're confusing his name with his brother's." Lily respectfully said. "He should be having his breakfast with the other students in Great Hall right now. But I can summon him if you want me to?"
That was surprising. They were in Hogwarts, but it didn't look like it was destroyed just yesterday. She really must be in an afterlife with other dead people and destroyed castles. She forgot about Regulus until now. But he was good in the end, right? She could directly ask for answers with him. And Lily acted like Regulus would be able to help Hermione.
Or even better, she could ask to floo Sirius. Lily talked as if he was alive. But it was disconcerting she acted as if she didn't know him personally. Hermione was sure Sirius talked about Lily fondly when he was telling stories about their youth to Harry.
Lily wasn't acting like how she should be at all. Calling herself a mudblood was something real Lily would never do. Deceased Lily was known as a proud muggle-born. But then again even talking to her jarred Hermione, something was clearly wrong with her. She hoped Sirius was himself.
Hermione straightened her back and decided to take action. "Mrs Potter, you're saying Regulus would help me if he can, right? I can trust him here?"
"Yes, of course. Your lord father ordered him to take care of you. He is one of the most trustworthy Death Eaters."
There were so many wrong statements in that sentence, Hermione didn't know where to start.
"You are saying Regulus Black is a Death Eater. And that makes him trustworthy?" she asked for confirmation.
Yes, Hermione knew Regulus was a Death Eater but as far as she knew, he was a failed one. And he was still a blood purist even if he tried to kill Voldemort.
"Yes, of course. No Death Eater would go against your lord father," Lily answered.
"So, you are also saying Death Eaters obey my father, who is a muggle dentist? Is he not a dentist here?"
"Please don't joke about your father's blood, my lady. Dark Lord would kill another elf of yours if he heard you were comparing his blood to filthy muggles." Well, it seemed Regulus was not the only blood purist here.
If Hermione understood Lily right, the person she called her lord father was the dark lord, and if the dark lord was still Lord Voldemort, her lord father was Voldemort.
She would assume it was just mentally unstable Lily's ramblings if she didn't remember a very healthy looking Malfoy, also talking about her father. She remembered him being fearful of her father and as far as she knew he never met with her muggle father before. Just to be sure, Hermione asked, "Do you mean my father is Voldemort, here?"
"Of course. If you just lie down, I will summon headmaster-"
"No! You don't need to," Hermione jumped from the bed and stopped Lily from whatever she was about to do. People thought she was Voldemort's daughter here. And none of them would be happy to hear his daughter was feeling particularly muggle today. Hermione wanted to gather her thoughts before speaking to anyone about her situation. Voldemort was still a dark lord, not a light one. One wrong step might have found her at the tip of a wand.
So, she decided she would first speak to Sirius. She recalled Malfoy mentioning Snape and he was also an option, but the main thing that put him on the light side was Lily's death and she was standing in front of her right now. So far, the people living in this world appeared to be the dead ones from hers. Of course assuming Malfoy died before he could flee the battle. An idea came to her mind.
"Do you know if Albus Dumbledore is still around?" Hermione asked.
Lily's eyes went as big as saucers. "That blood traitor has turned tail with the fear of your lord father. But no one has seen him for years, where have you heard of him, my lady?"
"It's nothing. I think I just heard his name somewhere. Just forget it, okay?" The poor woman was just so confused. While she seemed to answer Hermione's questions, Hermione wasn't sure she wouldn't go sell her out afterwards. No offence to Harry but his mother wasn't dependable here.
Okay, so reaching out to Sirius. She needed to go see Regulus who was currently the headmaster and having breakfast at Great Hall. Then request to floo talk with Sirius.
"What about Remus Lupin? Is he around as well?" Hermione would prefer cool-headed professor Lupin to Sirius who was always short tempered. She also wasn't sure she could deduce Sirius's mood correctly. There was a time she thought he was a serial killer. But then he turned out to be a fluffy dog. A huge one but still on the good side.
"I don't know who that is, but please don't go looking around for dangerous people, my lady!" Lily pleaded. She was sincere about her concern, Hermione noted.
"Okay, okay. As you can see, my mind is a little bit confused today, so I will go have a talk with the headmaster. Would that be okay?" Hermione felt the instant relief coming from Lily.
"Yes, of course," was the answer she got. She was happy to pass on the responsibility.
Hermione was not as relieved as Lily, though. There was a small chance Sirius was a dangerous choice. But if he was also a death eater and sold her out, she could accept her fate. She didn't think she could survive being the daughter of Voldemort anyway. Or maybe she could fake amnesia. And run away to Australia. She knew how to erase the trails.
But, never mind that. She assumed she was dead anyway. She would cross the bridge when she came to it.
"Okay then," Hermione said and made to the door. Then, she remembered she had no wand on her. She didn't saw a wand in the room, either. She didn't want to go out to an unknown Hogwarts defenceless.
"Mrs Potter, do you know where my wand is?"
"Your wand? It must be in the dressing room, I will bring it right now," Lily said and passed her to take downstairs quickly.
Hermione followed her but, couldn't keep up with. They were in a tower which she would have called Gryffindor Tower if it was not for the lack of maroon and gold coloured decorations. Instead, there were Slytherin snakes on everything.
She decided to go straight for where the common room was and found herself in a common room which could only belong to Slytherins with all the elegant looking sofas and love seats with snake carvings but it was still the same Gryffindor common room with fireplace and the window positions. They were in Gryffindor Tower, Hermione decided, not to kid herself.
Lily soon came down the stairs and gave a wand to her. But it wasn't her wand. No, it was Harry's original wand. Holly and phoenix wand, which was a twin to Voldemort's.
She should have seen that coming. She felt bad about taking Harry's wand but she needed every protection she could get.
When the wand touched her, it resonated with the magic inside her. Her wand resonated with her, but never this strong. She was overwhelmed with the magic she felt. She looked at the wand in her hands with wonder. She could hear Lily asking her to leave quickly with a muffled voice. She quickly put the wand into her pocket. She hadn't felt that kind of resonation with Harry's wand before.
She turned to Lily and said, "Okay, I'm leaving. Wish me luck," and left the common room without looking back again. She felt Lily's bafflement anyway.
She was continuing her journey through the familiar castle with hurried steps until she collided into a figure turning around a corner. It was Luna.
They both went to their bottoms, and an empty jar that was in Luna's outreached right hand just a second ago, lay broken next to them.
"Oompf! Luna!"
"Yes, Hermione," she answered in her typical dazed voice. She was looking at the broken jar sadly.
"You are here? Why are you here?" Hermione's eyes went wide with realisation. "I thought I was dead with only dead people around but if you are here then you must be also dead but you weren't dead last night, do you know what's happening? I feel like this is your expertise. And I don't think we are safe, I saw Malfoy but he was not spitting on me, actually kissed me and we were naked but that's not the point I should be making right now, the point is he seems to think I'm Voldemort's daughter and Harry's mother seems to think the same, but I'm starting to think I only imagined her but then she said she didn't know anyone named Harry then I thought Harry was not around but if you are here maybe he and Ron are also around. But she gave me Harry's wand and it was not broken, and books say wands can never be fully repaired, and it resonated with me, more than my own wand does," she rambled quickly.
It was clear Luna wasn't understanding half of what she just said. So she decided to go for a simple question.
"I thought I was dreaming and then dead, but if you are here I might not be dead. And I don't think I'm dreaming, everything is too real. You haven't died in your sleep last night, have you?"
Luna looked doubtful. "I don't recall dying last night, no."
"Oh, okay," Hermione said. It turns out she was actually relieved to hear she wasn't dead yet.
"Do you know what's happen-"
"You! Stay away from her!" A familiar voice shouted.
"Harry!" Hermione's eyebrows shot up. Her face shined with happiness. Harry was here! They could solve whatever was going on together.
Harry made a sour face at her and went to help Luna raise up. Luna looked at the jar again but gave up on it and raised to her feet.
Harry was eyeing Hermione carefully. She felt his grumpiness radiating but he was here! She couldn't stop her giddiness.
She was just about to start her rambling once more but Harry turned his back to her and pulled Luna away with him. That was pretty rude. Hermione sat gaping.
She was going to call Harry's name but she saw his school robes. He was in Slytherin school robes. Luna was in her regular Ravenclaw ones but Harry wore Slytherin colours. That was no good. This Harry might also be a Death Eater. She thought he probably wasn't but he was not acting like her best friend here, either. He didn't even act like he would speak to her in foreseeable future.
This was no dream or afterlife. She needed to be careful. She needed to find what was going on. She couldn't trust Sirius if she couldn't even trust Harry. Actually thinking about it, blood purist Lily didn't go weird about her asking of Sirius, that meant he was in her father's good graces. Probably with his little brother.
Crap, she was even starting to think Voldemort as her father. She needed help.
She was still at Hogwarts, so Hermione could go search for answers in the library. Maybe, this situation could be something like time-turner related, where the only one aware of the changes is the user. But she didn't use a time turner, or anything of that kind last night. And she knew only the user would be aware of the changes. She as an uninvolved party couldn't be aware of the changes as she was right now. That was a strict rule of time travelling. So she was sure this wasn't a time-turner case.
She would try to find what changed about the world and how and what spells could be the cause. And only trustworthy resource was the library. The books couldn't sell her out.
Thanks for reading!
