AN: Yay for reviews! I am really excited for this story, but i thought i'd just make some things clear :P
For example, this story is just for fun, that's why i will probably not go into all the sad and angsty details of peoples reactions to Sirius being back or Sirius' reaction to being there. Honestly, Sirius would be totally messed up, finding himself in a different time, with people he doesn't know. He would be expecting to see James, Remus and Peter around and then have to realise that they're all dead. Its too sad and i don't want this to be sad, so yeah, sorry for the unrealistic stuffs.
Also, for the purpose of moving the story along and stopping myself from repeating lots, Sam is gonna be super chill with everything, she will accept her new life easily. Yeah, this is also me being lazy, i don't want to write her being in denial for ages or something :P
Anyways, enjoy ;)
She was being blinded, burned, pulled and twisted. She was flying, she was suffocating and then…she wasn't.
THUD
Samantha and the dog landed hard on the ground.
"Ow," she moaned from her sprawled position, clenching her eyes shut against the light pounding into her eyelids. A cool breeze then tugged playfully at the loose strands of her hair and brought her the scent of fresh grass.
I'm outside? How can I be outside? She thought, confusedly, And what happened to the storm?
A whine sounded from somewhere beside her, she cracked her blue eyes open and forced them to adjust to the light and to find the noise. The dog was sitting and staring at her expectantly.
I must've fallen asleep; this has to be a dream.
Sam slowly sat up, taking in the peaceful surroundings. She was on a grass-covered hill and as she looked down it, she felt a bolt of surprise kick her heart.
She stared intently at the crooked house visible in the distance. She had never actually seen it before, but she would know it anywhere.
The Burrow!
While strolling down the rather steep hill, one of Sam's feet got a bit confused and tripped her and, with a loud yell, Sam found herself descending the knoll at an unwillingly fast pace.
At the end of her jarring journey, she was quite battered and sore, but at least she had moved a fair distance.
Sam forced herself into a standing position and glanced back up to where she had come from, the dog was sprinting towards her with apparent ease, lucky thing.
Well, judging by the pain, I can safely say that I am not dreaming. And…I don't feel insane…I guess the only explanation is that this is real.
How it could be, she had no idea. Despite the seeming impossibility of it all, excitement built swiftly and ran rampant through her, soaking her with its happy energy. She felt like she could run the whole way to the Burrow.
After two minutes of running, Sam fell to her knees.
"Agh," she complained, "Why is running so hard?"
A blur of black moved swiftly past her.
"Hey! That's not fair! Stop showing off!" she called after him.
He halted, turning back to her and barking excitedly, encouraging her keep going.
"Fine," she grumbled, forcing herself to stand once more.
After a further ten, painful minutes, Sam found herself standing before a lopsided sign that confirmed what she already knew. She was in the front yard of the Burrow.
She waited a moment, letting the total awesomeness of the situation soak in. Nausea suddenly overtook her.
Oh, jeepers! I can't go in there! That's the Weasley's house! They'll have no idea who I am; they'll think I'm psycho Harry Potter fangirl!
She sunk to the grass, feeling panic threaten to overwhelm her like a tidal wave.
Oh no, I am a psycho Harry Potter fangirl…
"Hello, dear, who might you be?"
It was then that Sam noticed the shadow that had fallen over her. Her head snapped up at the sound of the sudden voice and her eyes met with those of a plump and kindly looking older lady.
"Mrs Weasley?" Sam breathed, unsure if she should be scared or relieved.
The witch gave a warm chuckle, "No, dear, I think you'll find that I'm Mrs Weasley."
Sam could have smacked herself in the forehead for walking straight into that one, but, she decided to blame her slow wit on the shock of being in some sort of parallel universe.
"Right," she blushed, "well, I'm Samantha Perrick."
Mrs Weasley smiled at her, offering a hand up while asking,
"And where have you come from, Samantha? Did you get lost while visiting someone in the area?"
Sam, with the aid of Mrs Weasley, managed to put her shaky legs back in proper order. I can't believe this is happening! She chanted silently while she replied to her new acquaintance,
"I came from a different reality."
Wow, that came out so casually, how did I do that?
Mrs Weasley's welcoming smile faltered, she quickly ran her eyes over Sam as if checking to make sure she was all there. Her eyes fell onto the dog at Sam's side, he was staring intently at her, she gasped,
"Oh my! h-he looks…like…like Sirius did!"
Abruptly, a strange feeling of peace enveloped Sam and she knew she had to get this next part right, this was a moment that called for a pinch of drama. She addressed Mrs Weasley firmly, commanding her attention before locking their gazes and uttering a profound statement,
"He looks like Sirius, because he is Sirius,"
Sam then restrained herself from adding, I'm Sirius about this. She also contained her facial features, trying to stop the grin that threatened to show itself.
Mrs Weasley tried several times to form some sort of sentence but, it seemed as if her words had deserted her.
In the end, she just resorted to just gesturing for the two to follow her into the house.
Sam quickly ran her fingers through her hair, attempting to remove all of the grass that had tried to become her new hair accessories.
She knew she must look quite a fright and hoped that no-one would notice the green stains and mud on her jeans and pale blue hoodie.
"Who's that? And what happened to her hair and clothes?" someone asked, almost as soon as Sam had stepped through the doorway and into the cramped kitchen.
Ah, the panic was back in full swing now. There was what seemed like hundreds of red-headed people in the room, and they all had their attention focussed on her.
She lifted a hand in an awkward wave and said,
"Uh, hi, I'm Samantha Perrick. This dog and I are from a different reality, I hope that's alright with you."
Stunned silence. It was broken by a tall man that was standing in the doorway that led to the sitting room.
"She can't be serious!" he exclaimed and judging by his missing ear, Sam guessed him to be George Weasley.
Sam couldn't hold it back, "I'm not Sirius, he is," she said, pointing at the big black canine.
It seemed that no-one else had noticed him up until that point. There was a round of gasping, spluttering and disbelieving protestations, Sam found them vastly amusing.
She used the time to quickly deduce who was there, she found; Bill, George, Ron, Mr Weasley, and Percy.
She wondered where the women and children of the Weasley clan were hiding, and of course Harry, Sam really wanted to see him.
A woman with bushy brown hair pushed her way into the room and past George, she was followed by a woman that could only be Fleur Weasley and two other women as well, whom Sam guessed were Angelina and Audrey Weasley.
Angelina raised her voice above all the chatter in a very attention-grabbing way,
"WHAT IN MERLIN'S NAME IS WITH ALL THE YELLING?"
Then there was a lot of gaping and pointing. Sam was embarrassed to have everyone pointing at her but she was saved by the unexpected flaring to life of the fireplace.
The emerald-green flames spat out several people in quick succession and as they dusted themselves off, Sam recognised them as Harry and Ginny Potter.
Sam didn't get a good look at the two teenagers that had also arrived with them, but she figured they were likely to be Albus Severus and Lily Luna.
An awkward silence spread over the occupants of the room, Harry's face had a clear case of 'What the hell is going on?'
Everyone jumped an inch when a loud bark suddenly sounded from the forgotten-again dog sitting next to Sam.
"Explain it again," demanded Harry.
Sam was sitting at the scrubbed wooden table in the middle of the kitchen; the other seven seats were occupied by Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Mr and Mrs Weasley, and Bill.
'The Boy Who Lived' was across from her and flanked by his two best friends.
The novelty of meeting her some of her favourite book characters had worn off somewhat during the past two hours. Sam supposed that that would happen when one was forced to repeat themselves many times over.
She gave a loud sigh but nevertheless, she recounted her story of how she met the dog, how they touched the book and how they arrived there.
She had already explained about her theories of alternate worlds and how in hers, they were all fictional characters, she could understand that it was a lot for them to take in but she just wanted to find her place here and get on with it.
Sam waited as they broke into a discussion yet again; she let her thoughts drift around and found herself wondering where Albus, Lily and the other Wotter children had disappeared off to.
Will this lot notice if I leave?
She glanced about, plotting a way to get around all of the seated people and those who were standing.
"- there's a way to prove her story, Harry."
Wait, what was that? Sam forced herself to listen to the conversation.
"I did think about that, Hermione, but will it…will it hurt him?" Harry asked, risking a quick look at the dog sitting on the floor beside Sam's chair.
A sympathetic expression settled on Hermione's face as she watched her best friend closely, "No, I don't think it will."
That seemed to decide it for everyone; Hermione stood up then and pointed her wand at the 'dog'. He grew distressed and tried to back away; Sam turned in her seat and reached out to pet the soft fur on his head.
"It's going to be alright," she said as comfortingly as she could, before backing up a bit and silently hoping that she would not be proven a liar.
Hermione's wand emitted a flash of blue light towards him and, when everyone's eyes adjusted, they noticed the tall, sixteen year old boy standing where the dog had previously been.
The eyes were the same, grey, intelligent and fathomless. His hair was a short shaggy mop of soft black and almost fell into his eyes, giving his aristocratic features a more casual look.
Sam's first thought was, Dayum!
She only just managed to suppress the low whistle of appreciation that wanted to make itself known.
Sirius Black was a very good-looking bloke, even when he was wearing battered robes that were a few sizes too big for him.
In the ensuing madness that followed the transformation, Sam could have easily slipped out into another room or even outside, but, after seeing the look of pure desperation in those grey eyes, she couldn't just abandon him to a room full of people he hardly knew, well, it's more like people he couldn't remember.
There was an awful lot of hugging going on, and in many cases, crying. Sam could understand, she felt like she was intruding however and so edged the corner of the room and just watched the happy reunion, thinking about how odd this all must be for poor ol' Mr Doggy Woggy.
He was currently in the vice like grip of a tearful Ginny and looking to be trying to find a way to extract himself before he was killed by her.
After a quarter-hour of watching the large family interact with a clearly overwhelmed Sirius, Sam decided to step in, but, she then found that she didn't have to. Mrs Weasley was then ordering everyone to back off and give him some space.
The huge group all headed out into the back yard and Sam discovered where all of the kids were. Apparently it was the Weasley's mid-summer get together and the kids had been de-gnoming and tidying the garden in preparation.
As she followed everyone into the fenced off area, she could see a girl about her age, with bushy red hair. The girl was carefully arranging cutlery on the long table.
That must be Rose.
Sam mentally made a list of who should be there, looked around and tried to check off the ones she knew.
That one must be Louis, she decided, he's the only blonde guy here…and he's really pretty. Oh, that one there must be Victoire because she's making goo-goo eyes at… holy cow, Teddy's super cute!
The twenty-four year old metamorphmagus currently had very…vibrant blue hair. Sam had to tear her eyes away from the intriguing colour and cast her eyes about again.
That one has to be Dominique then, Sam deduced, studying the other girl with the silvery blonde hair before spying another pair of red heads. She laughed inwardly; oh, that one has to be Freddy! And he's gonna make young Hugo so mad.
She watched as Hugo discovered the slime that now coated his hair and punched Freddy in the arm.
Yup, Hugo Smash!
The two teenagers ran past a bored looking girl with long red hair and brown eyes, she was making a chain of white and yellow flowers.
Hello, Lily Luna.
Two other redheads, whom Sam guessed to be sisters, sat themselves next to Lily. The older one, Molly, then flopped back onto the grass and mumbled something about James being lucky that he was too busy to come to the gathering.
The adults dispersed around the area, breaking into groups and chatting, but Sam didn't quite know where to go and detected that Sirius felt the same.
She spied a large pond off to the side and headed towards it. Sirius trailed behind her, wanting to stay close to the only person he felt he knew.
They sat down and Sam had to force herself to not stare at him or badger him with questions, she needed to respect his need for space. Luckily there was some drama to distract her, ooh, someone's not happy.
A dark-haired girl, who seemed to be around Sam's age, was glaring at Rose, apparently disagreeing about something.
Rose appeared to have had enough of the conversation and stomped away from the table and the girl, marching straight over to Sam and Sirius.
Oh no, why is she coming over? What do I do? Sam exchanged a worried glance with the boy next to her, he just shrugged, you're a lot of help, aren't you?
Rose was now standing before them; she soon collapsed into a sitting position however and let out a frustrated sigh,
"Agh, Roxanne is such a cow!"
Well at least now, Sam knew which one was Roxanne. She cleared her throat, feeling that Rose needed a response,
"So, what happened?"
Sam wasn't sure if that was the right thing to ask, as it caused Rose to launch into a loud and very rage-filled tirade. While Rose ranted, Sam studied Roxanne and noticed yet another girl.
She seemed to be trying to soothe Roxanne, who was as worked up as Rose was.
"I bet Lucy's on her side now," Rose said bitterly, "this is so stupid, why couldn't she have just left me alone?"
For what felt like the millionth time that day, Sam felt uncertain of what she should do, she wondered if it would become a permanent state for her.
"Uh," she floundered, "don't worry about it."
Rose's piercing blue eyes turned to Sam for the first time, surprise was spreading over her features and she asked,
"Who are you and what makes you say that?"
Time to make a friend, Sam thought before replying with more confidence,
"I'm Samantha Perrick and you don't have to worry, I'll be on your side."
A bright grin, one to rival the sun in fact, crept onto Rose's face.
"On my side?" she questioned, "I like the sound of that…I'm Rose, by the way,"
She stuck out her hand and Sam shook it.
"It's nice to meet you, Rose. This is my friend, Sirius Black" she introduced, gesturing to him and trying not to giggle.
She never thought she would ever say those words; Sirius Black is my friend…oh snap, is he? I never asked or anything!
Feeling frantic, Sam turned her attention to him. He beamed brilliantly at the two of them, leading Sam to have the impression that she hadn't lied to Rose. Yay.
Relief calmed her nerves then and the three settled into an easy conversation, it mostly revolved around Sam and Sirius recounting their story, again.
Rose was very interested in the whole idea and even cited some books that might help explain it all. She stopped mid-sentence, spotting one of her favourite cousins,
"Oi, Al! Where have you been hiding?"
Her sharp question was directed at a teenager with untidy jet black hair and bright green eyes. He made his way over to them, shrugging in answer to Rose's question.
Introductions were made and, to Sam and Sirius' great relief, Rose took over the re-telling of their story.
Sam decided that the near instant bond that formed between Albus and Sirius, was more about the fact that they were of the same age and gender, rather than anything else.
Albus was a quiet type and very unlike his older brother James or the James that Sirius had been best friends with but nevertheless, a strange new friendship was born.
By the time dinner rolled around, Samantha had been properly introduced to everyone present. The large family was sitting at the long table, enjoying a hearty meal and the crisp summer air.
Sam was worried for Sirius, knowing it was a heck of a lot for him to take in. She made sure to keep sending him reassuring smiles, thankfully, Albus was perceptive enough to try and help Sirius' adjustment.
Al chattered to him about what Hogwarts was like now and Sirius was disappointed to hear that Professor McGonagall had left a few years ago,
"It would have been nice to see ol' Minnie again," he said wistfully, "though terrorising her probably wouldn't have been same without…without James and Remus."
Sam, who was seated between Rose and Sirius, felt a heavy ache in her chest, poor baby, if I knew him a bit better and knew it wouldn't creep him out; I would give him a hug.
She settled for giving him a quick pat on the back of his hand and tried to change the subject a little and address something that had been worrying her,
"What's going to happen to me? Do I get to go to Hogwarts?" she asked anyone who was listening.
Hermione, who was across from her, answered,
"I've talked with Ron and we've decided that you can come and live with us…if you want to."
Sam shared an excited glance with Rose and let happiness free within herself,
"Really? I would love that!" she practically squealed.
Hermione gave her a kind smile, "We'd love to have you and I'm sure Rose wouldn't mind having another girl around, especially one her age."
"This is great!" Rose exclaimed, "And I can help her prepare for school too!"
"Of course you'd think of that, Rose," Sam chuckled, "Wait…does that mean I get to go to Hogwarts?"
The adults that had been listening to the conversation exchanged looks before Hermione answered,
"I should think so, after all, soul bonds can only occur between two people of magical blood, but we can't be sure if it's enough to get you to Hogwarts. We won't know for sure until we go to Diagon Alley."
Sam felt heat rush to her face and turn her fair cheeks pink, she had forgotten about whole 'soul bond' thing. Sirius turned to look at her; a speculative expression on his face but Sam refused to look at him.
"I wonder what house you'll be in, do you have any idea?" Rose inquired of Sam.
Hmm…, "I have no idea at all, probably Hufflepuff or something," she shrugged.
"Well, as long as you're not in Slytherin," Sirius said, a hint of darkness in his tone.
"Hey!" interjected Albus, "My best friend is in Slytherin!"
Sirius had the grace to look at least a little shamefaced, "Sorry, but I don't think I'll ever get used to the 'Not all Slytherins are bad' thing."
Albus grinned at his new friend, "That's alright, they're all prats anyway, especially my mate, Scorpius."
AN: Yeah, so just for this fic, Albus is not a Slytherin, though personally i think he probably would be. Anyway, how's this chapter? ;) Anything you want referenced in the future? Did you see the Hulk reference? ;)
Haha yeah the Sirius/Serious pun is overdone, but i siriusly couldn't resist and i will never try ;)