A/N: Here is chapter 10. This story has 12 chapters, so there're still two more to be uploaded ;) Enjoy reading :)

Chapter 10 – Overlapping Dimensions

Once home Lily stormed through the living room into the hallway, up the stairs and into the nursery of her son. He couldn't even think 'of her deceased son' anymore! He was dead, but somehow wasn't. It was all so confusing.

She grabbed the stuffed animal, with which this whole think had started in the first place, and sat down in the rocking chair, in which she had spent so many hours spending time with her son, showing him picture books, telling him stories about her time at Hogwarts or just to sing to him. All of those precious times were just memories now and she did not do well to desperately hold on to them, as she had done all these years. She had been on the right track – getting better. She had gone back to work as a healer at St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries, had arranged to meet with friends, had had fun. Sure, she could not and would not forget Harry, but she had to live her life again and she had accomplished that all right. But from this day on everything was so confusing, the old, already scarred wounds tore open again and she wasn't even allowed to follow her maternal instincts and look after her baby! HE was her son! He was hurt and needed her!

The stuffed animal trembled in her hands. How dare he? Dumbledore! In the next moment, she was on her feet, grabbing onto the stuffed animal as if her life depended on it and marched back and forth. How could he dare to refuse her access to her son? The boy she would have raised. The boy she hadn't been able to hold in her arms for the last fifteen years, let alone being able to see him, as he was lying several meters in the earth in the cemetery at Godric's Hollow! And this old man who didn't know anything about motherly feelings, who probably didn't even know what she had had to go through in the last couple of years and went through now, who probably did not even know the feeling of being looked at by one's own child with big eyes and be called "Mummy" – or in his case "Daddy"… this man dared to take away the one thing she needed the most right now! She huffed and glared at the book shelf, as if it had just announced it would be on the naïve old man's side. Oh, how she wanted to tell him her opinion! How much she wanted to accuse him of inflicting so much pain on her and simply pushing past him to run to the Hospital Wing where her son was waiting for her.

Someone hesitantly clearing his throat tore her out of her rage tantrum and she looked over to her husband, who was leaning against the wooden door frame with his arms crossed over his chest. He took a deep breath as he watched his beat read wife stare at him and cautiously walked over to her. "We'll see him soon", he said in a trembling voice and timidly took her into his arms. He had seldom seen Lily so angry. The last time – before the period of mourning had turned into the 'It's all my fault'-phase and she had bathed herself in self-hatred – was when they had left Harry with Sirius, so they could have had a cosy evening in the nearby pub. When they had got back home they had seen a giggling Harry sitting on the floor, his godfather staring at him slack-jawed. On the question of what had shocked Sirius so much, the latter had only looked at them with a guilty expression and winced, as Harry had said his first word. "Pafoo!" Lily had literally exploded after hearing that. Harry's first word and it had not been "Mamma" or "Dadda"! No! It had been "Padfoot"! James had not been delighted either, but he could have hardly asked Sirius for an explanation, because he had been too busy keeping a crimson and murderously angry Lily away from his friend and trying his best to somewhat calm her down.

"But when, James?" Lily squirmed out of his arms and began to once again move up and down in the little room they were in right now. "It cannot be that this… this man", she hissed the word with so much hatred that James winced, "forbid us to see our son! Harry is in the Hospital Wing and is injured and unconscious and we don't even know what exactly is injured, how long it will take him to return to full health, and everything he has to say is 'He is unconscious'. Great! Absolutely brilliant! Exactly what I want to hear!" Fuming, she turned to James, who was eyeing her, somewhat afraid.

"This is our son, James!"

"I know that, Lily. And believe me when I say I want to see him just as much as you do! And I don't understand Dumbledore's motivations either right now, but as much as it hurts, he surely has his reasons!" James went over to Lily and this time she didn't try to escape his embrace. "Madam Pomfrey said he would awake during the day. We can't do more than wait. And whether we sit at his bed waiting or whether we use this time to think of a plan on how to tell Mary, it doesn't matter. We will see Harry today. Just not now." Since when am I the rational and reasonable one?

Lily sighed and rested her forehead on James' shoulder. "But what if he wakes up and we're not there. He will be so confused when Madam Pomfrey tells him that…"

"According to Hermione, he is used to the knowledge that we won't be at his bedside when he awakes, Lily." Hearing these words, she winced and James held her even tighter. "I think it's best if he gets prepared to the fact that we're still alive. He had to live his whole life without having us by his side. I think it will overwhelm him even more if we're there with him right in the moment he wakes up and you start to mother him."

With a smile, James squeezed the now slightly giggling Lily and pressed a light kiss on top of her head. "Believe me, he will need time and so do we."

"You're probably right", James muttered and smiled at him through her tears.

"Me and being right? Wow, for the first time!"

Laughing, Lily playfully punched him on the arm. "Don't get used to it!"

James grinned mischievously and kissed her on the nose. "That's what I feared."

"Lily? Jamie?", "We're up here, Padds!" James hugged Lily one last time. "We'll be all right", he whispered in to her ear.

Loud footsteps followed and a few moments later an outraged-looking Sirius shuffled into the room. "Dumbledore doesn't plan on taking Harry away from you and before you'll start to yell at me", he added quickly, "he said that. That doesn't come from me."

"What makes you think I would yell at you?" James frowned and sent a wry grin in his friend's direction.

"Not you, her", Sirius said, pointing at Lily, who turned her head in his direction, irritated.

"Why would I yell at you?"

"Oh, Evans", Sirius said in a sing-song voice and winked at her. "As much as you'll hate to hear that now, but I can read you like an open book! And that our dear Jamie here has spent years only talking about you has probably helped as well. Something just had to remain stuck in my overly handsome head from these brainless drivels!"

"Oi! I'm never the source of brainless drivel!"

"Oh, you're not?" Lily grinned mischievously at her husband and disappeared out of the room, swinging her hips from one side to the other.

"Well, I'm sorry, Prongs, but she seems to wear the breeches in this relationship!"

"Why do I have such mean friends?" James muttered and followed his wife into the kitchen. When James and Sirius turned around the corner, they were greeted by Mary, who sat at the dining table next to her mother with a cup of tea in her hands.

"I'm off", Sirius patted James on the back, kissed Lily on the cheek and whispered, as he went past his best friend, a faint "Good Luck", before he disappeared into the fire.

"Uncle Remus said, I have a week off", the youngest Potter said and took a sip of tea. "Is there any particular reason for that?"

"Mary", Lily began, shooting an insecure look in James' direction. "We need to discuss something with you. "It's important."

"Okay", Mary took another sip of tea and eyed her parents curious. "What's up?"

But before any of them could say anything, Mary interrupted them. "If it has to do with a steaming slime at the Slytherin table, I'm innocent."

"What steaming slime?" Lily asked, puzzled and looked at her daughter suspiciously.

"Oh, nothing", Mary smiled at them innocently.

"Mary Lilian Potter, what do you mean by slime at the Slytherin table?"

"Oh, all three names", James muttered sheepishly, looking back and forth between his wife and daughter.

"Doesn't matter, Mum", the latter said cheerfully. "You wanted to tell me something?"

"Be glad that what you are home for is important, because otherwise I would drag you to Minerva's office immediately. Probably James as well, while I'm at it."

"What does this have to do with me?"

"You've probably told her a few too many Marauder stories and have put the idea in her head that a Potter had to – what did you always call it?" Lily feigned to think this question through thoroughly. "Oh yes, heat up the atmosphere." Lily smiled at him.

"Mum?" Mary interrupted her parents as her father opened his mouth, with a playfully indignant expression, to defend himself.

"Well, daughter", James began, and turned away from a still smirking Lily Potter. "As your mother just now so aptly said", he threw a glance at Lily, forgetting their banter and becoming serious again, "we actually have something to tell you." He cleared his throat and looked at his wife for help.

"As we have come back from the cemetery this morning, I have gone upstairs immediately, as you know", Lily began uncertainly, looking at her daughter. "You know as well that for whatever reason, three teenagers have appeared out of nowhere, all three of them unconscious."

Mary nodded.

"When we have brought the three to the Hospital Wing, Madam Pomfrey had immediately started to treat them. Intruders or not, we've wanted to know whether they have had any serious injuries. She has casted a few Diagnostic Spells, including a spell that shows the patient's current state of health, but also their medical history, including their names and date of birth." She looked over to James, who continued.

"You have to know that this spell, if done correctly, does not lie. Even if your Mum would cast this spell on a strange man, who has appeared in Sirius' bedroom and the spell was to tell us that this man was Severus Snape, we would know that Sirius would be lying if he said he wasn't an item with Snape."

Mary giggled and Lily kicked James' shin under the table.

"Ouch! Lily, that hurt!" James ignored the muttered "It was meant to hurt" and continued with his explanation.

"Well, you know that I mean. Anyway, Madam Pomfrey has found out that none of them had any kind of serious injuries, except for concussions and superficial wounds. However, as she has told us the names of those three, we've all been very confused, including Madam Pomfrey, because the spell has given us names, of which we knew that the people associated with them have been dead for several years."

"What do you mean, Dad?" Mary looked from her father, who was staring intently at his hands, to her mother, who was stirring her now cold tea. "Who are those three?"

"Ronald Weasley and Hermione Granger are those two, who have been lying in the hallway", Lily whispered, looking down at her cup, which trembled slightly in her hands. She could not bring herself to say his name. "Molly's son and Hermione have been killed by a troll a few years ago. I have assisted Poppy to exhibit their death certificates." The Weasleys were close friends of the family. Ginny, although one year above her daughter, was one of Mary's closest friends. After Ronald's death, Lily had offered them to take care of the arrangements for his funeral, but they had refused. Although Lily was capable to understand how Molly felt, the grieving mother had told her she would have to organize everything herself to be able to accept the horrific events. Since that moment, the Potters had visited the Weasleys more often and had shared their experiences with them. Thanks to the rather sad occasions, a deep friendship had started to develop between the two wizarding families.

"Who is the third?" Mary asked. She didn't know how it could be possible for dead people to return and appear in their house, lying on the ground injured and unconscious, but that question would have to be answered later on.

James stood up and sat down at the table next to Lily, wrapped his arms around her and whispered soothing words in her ear. After a few minutes he looked up and focused his inscrutable expression on Mary. "Harry James Potter."

Mary blinked at her parents. "What? Harry? Our Harry?"

Lily nodded.

She stared at her parents as if they had lost their minds. Harry was dead! They made sure she wouldn't forget that. How could she, even if she tried? Pictures of him and her parents were everywhere in their house. Pictures of her as well, but Harry's photos were treated like sanctuaries. Was she to take one off the wall to look at it, she would put it back an hour later to its exact original spot. When Mary had been younger, she had once pushed a picture of her brother from the window sill while playing and the glass protecting the photo had shattered, leaving her and two days of house arrest as the consequence. Two days because of a stupid picture! Sure, she loved to listen to stories about her brother and she wished for nothing more than to have been able to get to know him. When she had been little, she had each time blown out the candles on her birthday cake, not wishing for a broom or new books like every other child of her age, no, she had wished to get to know her brother. When, after years the wish had not been fulfilled, she had begun to wish for Harry to know how much he was missed and how much she wanted to see him. A little jealousy had always been present, but the desire had been stronger, even today. And now her wishes would finally come true? Finally, she would get the chance to see her brother? To talk to him? She really doubted that. What if the spell had failed? What if hoping for the unthinkable to happen would only leave them heart-broken again? The pain of such a disappointment would almost be as strong as loosing Harry all over again and in a weird and twisted kind of way that would be the case.

She looked at her mother, who smiled at her through the tears that were still running down her cheeks. Her Dad still embraced her and ran his hand reassuringly over her red hair. They believe it, Mary thought involuntarily. They really believe that Harry's back. But the dead didn't just come back to life. No magic, as dark as it may be, could raise the dead from the grave. It was just impossible! Her parents had told her themselves!

Why did they believe this illusion? She decided to ask this question out loud. "Why do you believe that someone has somehow managed to trick Death?" Her eyebrows rose until they disappeared into her hair line. "It isn't possible to revive dead people. That you yourselves have told me and yet you sit there and be all happy and delighted that supposedly Harry is alive again!" How naïve could they be? Were they desperate enough to reach for the most unbelievable, irrational illusion to just be able to live in the belief that their son had returned from the dead and we would all live together happily ever after?

"Dumbledore has an explanation for it", Lily said quietly, nodding at James, who slowly released her from his tight embrace but didn't leave her side. "We have reacted just like you, Mary. It is impossible to revive the dead. No magic in the world is capable of doing so. But Dumbledore's conjecture has proved to be correct after talking to Hermione. He only needs to speak to the other two, just to be sure. He said it is possible that not only our world exists, but many others parallel to ours as well. Like different dimensions, different coursed of events of people's individual lives in different orbits, if you can picture it."

Lily sat up straighter and began to retell Dumbledore's theory of the appearances of already dead people.

"…and that's why he had survived in his world. One person has made a different decision and another pathway has formed, in which we have died but Harry didn't.

"Somehow, the worlds seem to have overlapped", James said, running a hand through his jet-black hair, which resembled his son's so much. "Something must have happened that has caused the two dimensions – ours and Harry's – to fuse for a moment and thus the three youngsters have been able to enter our dimension. As I said, Dumbledore is confident in many respects but he's not quite sure about how something huge like this could possibly have happened. For this he will need Ronald and Harry's versions of what has been the last thing they have done before losing consciousness."

Mary had covered her face with her hands and groaned. Why did everything have to be so damn complicated? She rubbed her eyes and slowly looked over to her parents, who eyed her with worried expressions. She took a deep breath and blew all the air back out again.

"So it's true? Harry lives?"

Lily nodded, a slight smile forming on their faces.

"Well? What are we waiting for?" Mary suddenly said, jumping to her feet.

"What 'what are we waiting for'?" James asked, puzzled and stood up as well.

"What are we sitting around here for? I want to meet my brother!"

A/N: Next chapter: Harry's reaction to the most shocking news of his life and his meeting with his family :D