Now that I was practically alone, I could finally take the time to notice all the details I merely brushed off last night. I walked back to the library to see what it offered when I saw a book with a bright blue cover on the table in the middle of the room. Feeling curious as all hell I picked it up and leafed through the pages for a while before I realized it was another journal. On the inside of the front cover there was a table of contents written in glowing blue ink. On the first page there was a note written in the same ink.
"Dear Shadow Mage,
This is a journal of my own making. Read it only as needed. I suggest you read up only on your family, the Blacks, your house and yourself for now. This journal will update as time goes on but consider yourself warned. If you lose this journal and it is discovered by someone else, you will be forced to return to your original dimension without your Shadow Mage powers. Transporting you here was the only way to make sure you felt none of the pain of your world without killing you. In this new dimension there are several things different but several things the same. One thing you should know though is that your body and the one I gave you are trying to merge safely. You have both of your magical cores and you should take care of them both. If things get out of hand while your bodies become one, then you will either die or you will lose one.
Be careful Harry,
Dannie"
Immediately I flipped to the chapter with my name. I went to the chair by the fireplace in the library and studied the entire chapter. The old Harry was a lot like me though there was a lot that was different. The old Harry's favorite color was yellow because of the sun. He wanted to prank every student in Hogwarts during his time there because he felt the need to outshine their dad as a troublemaker since Quidditch was out of the question due to his lack of flying skills. The part I paid the most attention to was how he got the scar. Apparently when old Harry was around two-years-old he was attacked by a wolf that had wandered into their yard looking for food. The wolf was about to kill him but was hit in the head with a rock that had been thrown by Sirius. The wolf's tooth had broken on impact and when it fled the scene, it knocked Harry down onto some rocks. Luckily, it had only cut a line along his jaw, so they just washed the wound and let it heal naturally. Sirius and James both said that the scar would make him more attractive.
Next, I flipped to the chapter about the house. According to the journal, there were nine bedrooms, four bathrooms, an entertainment room, a library, a kitchen and a sitting room. I skimmed through the parts about the bedrooms since the only one that mattered to me was my own. The kitchen was normal except for the magic counter top. It could transform into an oven, a trash compacter and a cabinet. Everything was white, the walls, the ceramic tile, the magic counter top, all the appliances, the sink and even the faucet. Cleanliness was white apparently.
'Why couldn't they switch the cabinet form with a dishwasher form? Or better yet why not just add that damn form?' I thought.
The entertainment room was just a basic sofa that had to be neon green and a television set. It didn't explain why the sofa was that color, but it said that James insisted it be neon green. The carpet was brown, and the walls were a very light grey. The library was built for Lily. The shelves could fit any size book and extended endlessly either way. The bookshelves were the walls and each of them were made from oak to give the room a feeling of wisdom. The fireplace was for decoration only, it was never actually used.
'Where did you hear that oak equals wisdom mum?'
The sitting room was enchanted so that each person saw what they thought would be the most inviting and comfortable room. There was a sectional couch that wrapped around the room and only had three sections removed. There was a corner piece left out for the front door and two middle pieces that allowed people to commute between the upstairs and the kitchen. I found out the hard way that the little blue journal was only telling me what I was allowed to know about because when I tried to read up on Voldemort the journal just went blank.
"Well," I said as I shut the journal and slid it into my back pocket, "that's accurate enough for me I guess." I made my way back into the kitchen to check on Yuna.
"Good morning Harry-kun. I'd offer you breakfast but it's not quite finished yet," said Yuna.
"Would you like a hand? I've been practicing for a little while now and I think you'll be pleasantly surprised." I picked up the spatula and checked the pan. "Pancakes? My favorite. Hey why don't you pass me the syrup and I'll show you a trick."
The next few hours passed by quickly for them. They had made almost 200 pancakes, 120 eggs, 4 pounds of bacon and sausage. They also had set out four pitchers (two of them were full of hot coffee, one was milk and the last one was orange juice) of drinks to compliment the meal. As they finished setting the table, the ground rumbled, and the kids came running into the kitchen following their noses. The parents weren't far behind with the infants.
"Yuna? Harry? Did you two make all this? I'm impressed. Everyone take your seat and dig in!" James shouted. He was the first one into his chair and was already piling food onto his plate and into his mouth as he tried to use his coffee to wash it all down. Surprisingly the only four people who weren't eating like this was their last meal were Little Lily, Eric, Yuna and myself.
There were compliments sent to us through stuffed mouths and too much coughing all throughout breakfast. Yuna and I were shocked when there was no food leftover even though we had cooked enough to feed upwards of forty people for three meals. After that morning Yuna and I had become inseparable. Usually we would take Sakura, Rosa and Alex out to play Quidditch or swim in the lake before returning around noon to play with Little Lily, Amanda, and Sylvia for the rest of the day. When everybody else 'wanted' to relax I would take Yuna out to the park for a picnic or just go for a walk with her.
I would sit and read most of the time while Yuna would write in her diary or chase butterflies. Every now and then we would find ourselves just playing tag in the middle of Godric's Hollow which always brought out the other kids. I may have had the mind of a 17-year-old but since I was given a second chance at life I figured I could save the world while also catching up on the childhood I missed out on in my dimension.
Soon enough it was my birthday. My parents had asked me to go to the store for some last-minute groceries while they baked my cake. So, I left to get some of the strangest groceries. Things like dragon fruits, mangos, and even kiwi. There were a few drinks too. Almond milk, fruit punch and gallons of water. I paid the street vendor and headed home.
About a block away from my house, I saw something flash from behind a bush. I carefully walked closer until I was able to identify the source of the flash. It was a plain silver ring. After checking it for any curses and finding out there were none, I pocketed the ring and continued my way home.
I walked through the front door of the house and saw that they had really gone all out for my birthday. There were streamers and balloons strewn throughout the house. I went into the kitchen and saw that his cake was still in the oven. As I set down the groceries everyone jumped out at me and screamed "Surprise!" I nearly had a heart attack. For some reason I felt safe enough here that I no longer used my Shadow Mage abilities to make sure everything was okay.
"Never do that again guys, I'm serious. You almost gave me a heart attack." I was clutching my chest and trying to catch my breath as everyone surrounded me.
"Oh, come on son, it couldn't have been that bad. Honestly, if you did have a heart attack I'm sure Yuna would be more than happy to give you the 'kiss of life' which would be great considering she's probably the only one here willing to save you," James joked. Lily instantly slapped him. "Ouch! Hey, you know I was kidding. That slap was uncalled for."
"Stop smiling at me James. That may have been a joke, but I know that the only reason you said Yuna would be willing to save him was because she was closer to him than you are." Lily was freaking out on James and I was apparently the only one dumb enough to get between them.
"Okay you two, please stop fighting, this is supposed to be fun, right? It's a party so relax," I said.
"Fine, but you are on very thin ice James. Behave or you'll be replacing Harry on the couch. Speaking of, why have you been sleeping on the couch?" asked Lily. Behind her, James gave a sigh of relief and a silent thank you to me.
"Well Uncle Sirius and his family stay over so often and every night Yuna asks to watch a movie or read a book with me. Usually she falls asleep almost instantly and instead of me carrying her to her bed I just let her sleep in mine. I don't know what's in her room and I don't intend to find out. Not to mention that it would be improper for the two of us to share a bed at this age. Though I accidentally fell asleep with her on my bed last night." To me the logic made sense because I had the mind of an adult, though I kept forgetting I also had the body of a child. My mother's response shocked me more than anything else had in both lives.
"Sweetie, you're ten-years-old, when you hit about fourteen, then I'll worry." Lily was acting so strangely that Sirius asked the question that was on everyone's mind.
"Lily, while I completely agree with you, shouldn't you have asked me or my wife for confirmation on that? Secondly, WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?" Sirius' tone and volume made Lily cringe. "You are either sick or you are letting someone influence you because the Lily I know would never have been so calm about hearing her son not only be overly polite but also extremely more mature than James and I."
"Uncle Sirius, you have no right to be talking to her like that and with all due respect your little plan about finding a way to get me to date your daughter to 'unite the families' really isn't that subtle. So, pardon me if I'm wrong but you shouldn't yell at my mum for her views on the relationship between Yuna and me when you and dad probably have a wedding already planned out." I was patient, but the way Sirius was behaving was just plain wrong. With that I excused myself from the party and locked myself in my room so that I wouldn't try and hex anyone.
Everyone had left me alone for a good few hours until Yuna tried to give me the birthday present she picked out. "Harry-kun, can I come in? I wanted to give you a gift." With a wave of my hand I opened the door for her. "I know that you want to be left alone but I really wanted you to have this." She pulled out a little red box with a ribbon tied around it.
"Thanks," I said as I carefully took the gift. "I don't know what everyone's deal is down there. It's like no matter where I go either something good happens or something bad happens. Oh right, the gift." I pulled the ribbon off and opened the box. It held a digital watch. "Wow thank you Yuna-chan, I've actually been meaning to get a watch anyway, so this is perfect."
"It's a very special watch. It changes colors to match whatever your wearing and it also changes times when you go somewhere where the time changes. Plus, there's a little button on the front that opens a calendar, so you can save important dates like anniversaries or birthdays. I thought that would be helpful since you're about to go to school. I won it in a contest in Diagon Alley. I got two of them since it was supposed to be a couple's gift. Oh, it's also waterproof, and the battery never dies," she said animatedly.
Yuna's birthday was a little closer to the school year and the only person who remembered it was me. After the gift she got for me, I just had to give her something better. At the last minute I remembered the blue journal. I frantically flipped to the chapter about Yuna and focused on her favorite things. Luckily for me the book just gave me a detailed list. 'She likes the color lavender, her favorite food is sushi, and she likes fiction books. Since this is so vague and you're stupid what she wants for her birthday is a kiss from you and a new diary. Just make her one like yours and kiss her dumbass.'
"Well that's convenient and very hurtful," I said to myself. Luckily for me, mum had taken me with her on a shopping trip to Flourish & Blott's bookstore to pick up a new book on potions, so I quickly bought a basic journal and hid it in my pocket to avoid being embarrassed by my mother for buying a gift for a girl.
On August 12th, I made sure that Yuna was asleep before casting the necessary spells on the journal. I then proceeded to wrap and hide it before heading down to the kitchen. The journal said her favorite food was sushi, so I made waffles. I was a good cook but I'm nowhere near that good. When Yuna came down the stairs with everyone else, I pulled her back into the living room.
"Hey what did you want for your birthday again? I couldn't remember what you told me, so I went out and got you something I thought you might like so I'm going to go get it while you stand here in shock as you realize that we just walked up the stairs without you even noticing." I dashed into my room and grabbed her journal. "Here you go Yuna-chan."
"What?" she asked, clearly still in shock. I laughed as I handed her the gift. She unwrapped it slowly scared of what it could be. For her last birthday, the old Harry gave her one of his old scarves. "A journal? It's exactly what I wanted! Thank you so much Harry-kun."
"Well I do have one more gift for you." I gave her a devious little smile. "Close your eyes and have a little bit of faith in me."
Yuna was nervous but since I had been so nice to her she decided to trust me just a little bit more as she closed her eyes. That's when I went for the kiss. I was gentle and very quick with it but she still nearly fainted. Her wish had finally come true. The rest of their summer just seemed to skip by until there were only a few days left to pack.
I was currently in my bedroom going through all the things I had brought with me from my old universe. My endless bag had my old Hogwarts trunk which contained my battle robes, weapons, Firebolt and several different books. I had billions of knuts, sickles, and galleons. I guessed that I probably had enough money to last several very extravagant lifetimes. Then there were the items I held onto for their sentiment such as the photo album from Hagrid and the bottle cap from the bottle of firewhiskey Sirius and I had shared just before I started my fifth year. Lastly there were pictures of Ginny and I at a dance, Tonks and I at our wedding, and Hermione and I after we had started dating. I had been able to sneak in a kiss on their cheeks just before the pictures were taken.
I was trying to make sure that I would be able to save all my friends this time around. I had to remind myself that all the days of suffering were behind me and that this world would be different.
Today was the day that I was going to Diagon Alley to get my school supplies. My mother decided to take me to get my school supplies alone so that the other kids wouldn't try to spend their allowance on useless things. I had asked to go alone but my mother quickly denied me any hope of going in peace. I pulled up the broken floorboard under my bed to return the items back into their hiding place. I had just began humming a lullaby Mrs. Weasley taught me for the children I was going to raise with Ginny when I heard someone walking down the hallway.
"Harry..." Lily called through the door with a quick knock. I scrambled out from beneath the bed but knew I wouldn't be able to get off the floor fast enough, so I started doing a few push-ups as the door opened. "Are you ready yet?" she asked as she laughed at the muggle exercise.
"You bet. First, let me finish this set then we can leave." I did a few more push-ups as she laughed at me. As I left I silently recast the protection spell on the floorboard with an inconspicuous wave of my hand. I could never let my family find out that I was the Boy Who Lived from another dimension and the items I kept hidden would more than give me away.
Much to my dismay our first stop was at Gringotts Bank. The betrayal of the goblins was still fresh in my mind. With their early alliance to Voldemort, the goblins had crushed the economy of the entire wizarding world causing even more panic and distrust. Once the Order had discovered that the goblins had intended to remain hidden away safely within the walls of Gringotts, they had every member attack the bank with full power. The goblins were able to hold out for three days with the hopes of Voldemort's assistance, though, once they realized that the Dark Lord had forsaken them, they had no other choice but to surrender when I arrived and began pushing them back.
As Lily made her withdrawal from the bank, I had kept a very close eye on the unfriendly goblin teller. The goblin's name was Ragnok. This goblin had used the security dragon to burn two members of the Order alive as he danced with glee. As Lily turned to leave she seemed shocked at the look on my face. To Lily, the goblins were very reliable and had proven to be very trustworthy over their many years at Gringotts. She didn't know how vicious and bloodthirsty they could be when something they wanted was being kept from them.
As we were about halfway through getting supplies we stopped at a vendor for some snacks when we saw Neville with his parents, who looked young and healthy, a far cry from the near-helpless shells I had met at St. Mungo's in my dimension. I had a feeling that Neville would be just like Malfoy from the second I had seen him. Neville was so stuck-up and conceited that he seemed to think he owned all Diagon Alley. I didn't want to jump to conclusions, so I decided that I would give Neville the benefit of the doubt before I finally made up my mind.
"So that was the Boy Who Lived. Try not to be too impressed Harry. After all he is a human like us," said Lily. Her voice was so laden with sarcasm I couldn't help but laugh. Ironically that was the very same thought I had when people started calling me a hero. We looked over to Neville one more time to watch him whine about how the first years weren't allowed to bring their own brooms.
"You don't like them?" I asked as I remembered that the Longbottom's were friends with the Potters in my old life, but I hadn't heard my parents say a word about them in this dimension. Of course, they didn't talk about Peter or Remus all that much either.
"We used to be really close to them but when their son became the Boy Who Lived, they became pompous snobs who think they should get whatever they want just because their son was able to survive the killing curse from Voldemort. Frank was even promoted to a Captain of Magical Law Enforcement, though there were many others far more deserving of that position. Alice was a very sweet and gentle person too but now she thinks she's some sort of goddess because her son survived against Voldemort when he was just a year old. Sadly, it cost the lives of his aunt, uncle and grandmother." She finished with a sad look on her face as we entered the bookshop.
The mood had lightened up quite a bit by the time they arrived at Ollivander's. As they were entering the shop, the Longbottoms were leaving. Neville had gotten the Holly Phoenix wand which worried me. I knew that the wand had only chosen me in my dimension because it sensed the horcrux within me but that didn't make me feel any better about Neville having the wand I wanted. They had barely crossed the threshold of the store when I sensed someone behind me under the cover of a disillusionment charm and I reacted on instinct. Just as I was reaching for the goblet on the counter to strike, the man had shot a spell knocking the cup out of my reach.
The old man's eyes widened with shock as well as my mother's. "Harry James Potter! You could have really hurt him. Apologize right now young man!"
"Sorry sir, I was just scared and wanted to protect my mum." I hung my head slightly. Being chastised by Mrs. Weasley was one thing but it was a lot worse when it was coming from my own mother.
"It's quite alright my dear boy and very brave of you to try and protect your mother instead of hiding behind her." Ollivander had begun trying to probe my mind trying to find out how I was able to figure out where he was through a disillusionment charm. My only response was to increase my mental barriers to full power, which threw Ollivander out of my head.
"Hello there Mrs. Lily Potter. 10 inches, willow and unicorn hair. Let's get to business, shall we? It has been a very busy day indeed so let's not wait around while my store fills up," said Ollivander. "Alright Mr. Potter, please hold out your wand hand."
"I'm ambidextrous," I said. I purposely left my other wands at home since I didn't want Ollivander to sense either of them. That would've led to many questions. I just wanted an identical wand to the one I had gotten all those years ago. Not to mention I still had the elder wand.
"Why didn't you ever tell us that?" asked Lily.
"Well I thought you already knew." In truth I had been taught how to duel with both hands by the Flamel's.
Ollivander had left to find a wand that would match me while his tape measure was working furiously, taking a lot longer than it normally did. I had only tried about ten wands before the destruction had been deemed hazardous.
After they tried the last few remaining wands Ollivander spoke up, "Well Mr. Potter you have gone through all of my normally available wands. However, there are a few wands that I have collected over my many years as a Wand Crafter that I will allow you to choose if you are willing to pay at least 50 galleons. Keep in mind that these are all legendary wands that have belonged to some of the most powerful witches and wizards in history."
"Fifty galleons?! I got my wand for 7!" Lily was furious.
"Don't worry mum, I'll buy it." I reached into my pocket and pulled out a few handfuls of galleons.
"Harry, where did you get all this money?" asked Lily suspiciously.
"Well you do give us all an allowance of 20 galleons a month, so it really shouldn't surprise you that I saved up about 80 galleons. I thought my wand would be a bit more expensive than that," I said. While we were talking Ollivander had gone to the back of his shop and retrieved the box of wands.