The (Dis)Order

Sirius woke up. He had had a very strange dream. It had seemed very real, but now that he was awake he knew just how absurd it was. There was no other universe, no other Regulus, no other him… and the Order wouldn't have let him leave the house anyway. He opened his eyes to see he was lying on the couch in an unfamiliar room. There was a table in front of him and a nearly empty bottle and two glasses on the table. On the other side of the table a dark-haired man was sleeping in an armchair. So it was true. He really had fallen through that thing. He really was here.

Suddenly the flames in the fireplace turned green and a face appeared in them. Like Regulus, the man looked older than he had when Sirius had last seen him, but he was unmistakably James Potter. But that was impossible! Well, it seemed that many impossible things had already happened to Sirius during the last night, but he still hoped they would stop happening at some point. But James was still there, staring at him from the fireplace. No, he wasn't! Dead people did not appear in fireplaces in the morning, not even in alternate universes! Sirius was just seeing things. He decided to ignore him.

'Hallo?' James spoke. So now he was hearing things too. But he was not going to talk to his hallucinations. He had survived twelve years in a place where most people go mad in weeks. He was not going to lose his mind now. He remained silent, holding on desperately to what was left of his sanity.

'Hallo?' Jams called louder. Regulus woke up and looked at the face in the fire.

'Hello, James,' he said sleepily…

So it was real. He was in a room with two dead men. That in itself wasn't really too disturbing. He had met some dead people before. Nearly Headless Nick really was all right. In fact the only dead people that made him feel uneasy were some of his ancestors' portraits. But James and Regulus were not ghosts or portraits. They were as real as he was. That made him feel rather unsure of how real exactly that was.

'It's almost noon, Reg,' James said 'Don't tell me you were still sleeping!'

'Prongs! You're real! You're alive!' Sirius exclaimed, still staring at him in disbelief.

'Umm… Yeah, I'm alive,' James said slowly 'Who are you?'

'What? Oh, come on! It's me! Padfoot!'

James just stared at him blankly and Sirius remembered what kind of universe he was currently in.

'Oh… Never mind…' he said.

'Um…' James spoke again after a moment of silence 'Reg, I've got something to tell you… Could you… err… ask your… guest to leave for a moment?'

'Why?' Sirius wanted to know.

'Look, I'm sorry… Padfoot,' James said 'but it's a secret.'

'He can hear it,' Regulus said 'He already knows… Well, It's complicated, but he can hear it.'

'No, it's ok. I'll leave,' said Sirius 'I'll go to the kitchen to get something for breakfast if you don't mind.'

And he left the room. He couldn't help thinking it was a little unfair. James was supposed to be his best friend. He wasn't supposed to ask him to leave the room. He wasn't supposed to have secrets he could tell Regulus, but not him. Of course, this was a different world and the James Potter who had appeared in the fireplace was not exactly the James Potter he had known.

XXX

'There's an Order meeting this evening,' Regulus announced as he entered the kitchen 'James just told me. Want to come? I think they should know about you.'

'Wait, you're in the Order?' Sirius realised that his brother had not managed to tell him everything last night.

'Of course,' Reg said.

'Sorry, but that's still a little weird. You know…'

'Well, you know what your other self is like. So it's just as weird for me as it is for you.'

As they discussed the differences between their universes again, Sirius wondered how it was possible that they were so different. What had changed? He was really looking forward to the meeting this evening. He would be able to meet many other people he knew. Maybe if he knew how different their lives were he would be able to work it out.

XXX

And finally the evening came. Regulus had informed some people that he was planning to bring someone to the meeting and now the two of them were waiting for something out in the street in some small town that Sirius was sure he had seen before, probably a long time ago, but, like many things in this world, it looked somehow different.

'What are we waiting for?' he asked.

'The Secret-Keeper,' Regulus explained 'You haven't been here before, and the place is hidden, of course.'

'Of course,' he agreed 'Only, I have been here before,' he said 'I know I have. I'm just not sure -'

'Good evening,' said a voice behind them. They both turned around to see two men Sirius recognized immediately as Professor Dumbledore, the headmaster of Hogwarts and his old friend, Remus Lupin.

'Ah, you must be the mysterious guest Regulus has told me about,' Dumbledore said.

'Yeah, I guess I am.'

'Who are you then? I don't think we have met before.'

'Actually we have,' Sirius said 'But it was… er… a different me… or a different you…'

Remus and Dumbledore didn't seem to understand much of his speech.

'Apparently this is Sirius,' Regulus tried to give an answer that made more sense. Dumbledore looked him with mild surprise. Remus was quite shocked.

'Not – your brother?' he said.

'Well that's where things get more complicated...'

'How about saying I'm your other self's brother?' Sirius suggested.

'It still makes no sense,' Remus said.

'How about "my brother's other self"?' Regulus tried.

'What's that with the "other selves"?' Remus still didn't understand 'And besides, whoever you are, I don't think you look like him.'

After a lot of explanations they finally understood more or less who the mysterious guest was and what he was doing here (at least, as much as the guest himself understood). Dumbledore seemed to fully accept the story. Remus was more skeptical. At last they were ready to go to the meeting. Suddenly Sirius saw a house he had not really noticed before. It was the house he remembered Lily and James Potter living in. Now it was not a surprise that Remus was the Secret-Keeper. Another part of what had happened in this world became clear suddenly.

XXX

'It's you!' James was quite surprised to see Sirius enter the house in Godric's Hollow.

'You know him?' Remus asked.

'Not really. But he was at Reg's house when I talked to him today.'

'I told you you can tell him everything,' Regulus said.

'Who are you anyway?' James asked Sirius.

'I suppose the story can wait until we are all here,' Dumbledore said 'Sirius can explain everything at the meeting.'

'Sirius?' James asked 'As in Sirius Black?' then he turned to Reg 'What's going on here?' and finally to Sirius 'You are Sirius Black?' he wanted to ask some more questions, but he was interrupted by Sirius trying to give him an answer.

'A version of him from another universe,' he had finally managed to find the right words.

'What?'

'From a world where we were best friends,' he added.

'I was your friend?' James was shocked again 'What was I thinking?'

'Probably that it's fun to prank Snivellus together,' Sirius told him 'Or that my idea of how to help Moony deal with his furry little problem was quite good. Or maybe -'

'What did you just say?' Remus gasped suddenly.

'Is something wrong?'

'Did you just say "furry little problem"?'

'Yeah, I guess I did,' Sirius answered 'So that's still the same here?'

'How did you know?' Remus demanded.

'Prongs and I worked it out together. In our first year at Hogwarts.'

'You and who?' James asked. Sirius suddenly understood that, since the whole Animagus thing had been his idea, James and Peter might not have come up with it.

XXX

Sirius looked around the room the Order of the Phoenix had gathered in. Apart from Lily, James and Regulus there was noone who was supposed to be dead or not supposed to be there (unless you counted Snape. Sirius never quite believed he was really on Dumbledore's side now). That is, except for a short, plump man with something rather rat-like about his pointed nose. He looked quite different here, but to someone who had known him at school he seemed a lot more similar to Wormtail than the man Sirius had met in the Shrieking Shack had been. How dare the little rat be here…

'You!' Sirius had tried to control himself. He really had. But apparently it was impossible 'What the hell are you doing here?' he yelled at him.

'Stop it,' Lily told him 'What are you doing?'

'Lily, this little rat is the reason why you are DEAD!' Sirius roared. Everyone who had not heard the story yet stared at him, confused.

'W-what are you talking about?' Wormtail asked.

'You bloody well know what I'm talking about, Wormtail!' Sirius continued shouting 'I know who you really work for!'

'Stop it, will you?' James said loudly 'What the hell do you think you're doing?'

With some help from Remus and Regulus he manaed to stop Sirius from attacking Peter. Sirius struggled against them for a moment, then he finally calmed down a bit.

'Look, I know what happened to you,' Reg told him 'But you can't assume it's the same here. I'm a different person here and so are you. Why can't Peter be different as well?'

Everybody was watching the scene, not understanding a word of what was being said.

'Sirius,' Dumbledore said 'I think you should tell us your story now, to avoid further confusion.'

Sirius was quite tired of telling the story over and over again and didn't really believe it would ever be possible to avoid the confusion, but he sighed, sat down and began to tell his story for the third time.