Through the Cupboard

By Neurotica

Twelve

This, Harry Potter decided immediately, was a very strange room. Not only was it long, dark, and cold, but there weren't any suggestions telling him this was the right place to be. As he walked, he tried to remember what had happened to him. Every time he got to the point where he was teasing Remus about Ms. Snowe, things seemed to go grainy and fuzzy and there was a strange buzzing noise filling his ears.

Up ahead, after what seemed like several days' walk, Harry spotted a bright light at the end of the tunnel. Ignoring everything he'd ever heard about death and seeing a bright light at the end of a tunnel, he continued towards it—he wasn't dead at any rate. Finally he arrived in the light and stopped in his tracks to stare at the person at his feet.

It was him. But it couldn't be—he wasn't dead—

Several seconds of panicked thinking later, Harry realized that this was the other Harry, the boy whose world he had fallen into weeks ago, whose life he was living. Whose life he had just ended.

"I'm sorry," he heard himself saying as he knelt down beside the boy. "I didn't mean for this to happen, I didn't want you to die!"

"Yeah, but if it wasn't for you, neither of us would be alive."

Harry jumped to his feet and spun around, searching for his wand, though he knew somewhere deep down he didn't actually need it. "What do you mean?"

What looked to be a ghost of himself—or maybe it was one of those echoes he'd seen in the graveyard in June when he'd dueled Voldemort—walked forward, joining him beside the body. "Think about it." Even his voice sounded like a distant echo. "There were two of us in there. That bastard used the Killing Curse—you heard the words. If I'd been alone, my parents would not be leaning over me in St. Mungo's as we speak."

"What does that mean for me?"

The echo shrugged. "Couldn't tell you, mate. But obviously there's a reason for this, right? Remus always told me things happen for a reason, even ridiculous things like some doppelganger from another universe taking over my life." He grinned. "What was it they called you back in your world? The Boy-Who-Lived? Well, guess what, you're back."

"Brilliant." Harry sat back on the floor and looked at the echo of his other self miserably. "I'm really sorry this happened to you."

"You didn't cause it," the echo said gruffly. "You didn't wake up this morning and say 'Okay, I want to completely control this bloke's life, how about it?' And really, this is going to keep Mum and Piper from being really upset and anything that does that can't be all bad, right?"

Harry nodded. "Where will you go?"

The echo pointed some distance ahead. "Up there, I reckon. Seems like a nice place. Maybe your parents in your universe will be there…" The two boys stared straight ahead while Harry pretended he didn't hear his echo sniffling or see him rub at his eyes. "Do one thing for me, will you?"

Harry nodded. "Of course."

"Take care of my family. I never really told them how much I love them, and I should have." The echo shook his hair out of his eyes and grinned. "And while you're at it, give old Moldywart a taste of his own medicine, eh?"

Harry burst out laughing. When he got control of himself again, he realized the echo was moving further down the tunnel. "You got it!"

The echo looked over his shoulder long enough to give Harry a quick wave before he headed into the light and disappeared.


Remus entered the tea room at St. Mungo's and looked around a moment before heading across the room to the woman sitting at the table. She looked up and tried to smile as he sat, but couldn't quite manage it.

"What did Dumbledore say?"

He sighed as she reached across the table and took his hand. "Well, in typical Dumbledore fashion, he seems to know things the rest of us don't and he's not quite ready to share his theories." He tried not to sound bitter about this, but he had as much trouble with that as Helen had had with smiling. "This isn't normal," he muttered darkly.

She snorted. "You're telling me," she muttered. "I saw him take the Killing Curse. It happened before I could do a thing about it and now to see him still breathing…"

"What did you tell Hermione?"

"That she needed to get on the train and I'd try to explain things to her later."

"Are you going to be able?"

"Are you going to be able to explain things to me first?"

"Touché." Remus finally managed a small grin. "Everybody saw what happened and even if they didn't see it firsthand, they certainly saw the results. Harry should be dead."

"But he's not."

He nodded. "And I think that's what has me the most confused…" He snorted. "Though I'm not sure it should." Something had just popped into his mind, something only he and Dumbledore knew about; he had a feeling it explained everything.

Helen's eyebrows rose. "What do you mean by that?"

He sighed. "I'll try to explain later, once I've had a chance to have a proper discussion with Dumbledore."

She nodded, but her brown eyes were still watching him closely.

To avoid thinking about Harry for as long as possible, Remus thought back over the unlikely relationship he'd struck with Hermione Granger's aunt. He had met the girl herself during Hogsmeade weekends in his shop. Remus had made it a point when Harry became a third year to work on those weekends and though it wasn't often that Harry left Zonko's or the Three Broomsticks long enough to come say hello to him, Remus still enjoyed those weekends. Hermione had come in on her very first visit to the village and had planted herself in one of the armchairs with a stack of books until it was time for her to return to school.

Over the months, Remus would strike up small conversations with her, finding out that she didn't really have many friends at school, that she was Muggleborn, though her aunt on her mother's side was a witch. This was possibly what had kept Remus interested in the girl, though she was intriguing in and of herself. He hadn't known Helen Snowe himself, since she'd gone to Beauxbatons for her magical education, though she'd moved to England when Hermione was just a baby to be nearer to her family. He'd mentioned this to Hermione, and that summer, she'd walked through the front door of his shop, her aunt in tow.

Remus' immediate reaction to seeing Helen had been surprise—Hermione wasn't exactly ugly, but her aunt was gorgeous (at least, to Remus; to his everlasting relief, she wasn't Sirius' type). The two of them had started by discussing Hermione and some of the subjects they were most interested in, and the afternoon had ended with Remus' asking Helen to join him at James' and Lily's house a few evenings later for dinner. Since that dinner, where Helen and Lily had hit it off immediately, his redheaded friend had been relentless in trying to get them dating.

It wasn't until about a year ago, after Lily had urged him to do so, that he had even told Helen about his being a werewolf. To his immense surprise, instead of running away from him screaming at the top of her lungs that the monster was going to get her, she'd sat back thoughtfully in her chair and surveyed him for several minutes before announcing that it was about time he told her. Remus still hadn't found out how she'd known—she seemed to enjoy making him guess.

Since that revelation, the two of them had become rather good friends, even going out on their own occasionally, and though Remus was well aware that Helen was waiting for him to make their friendship something more, he had still been hesitant. It seemed much too good to be true. What were the chances that one werewolf could find both an entire group of friends who didn't blink twice when they found out what he was and a woman he enjoyed being around who also didn't care?

The night before, she had invited him over for dinner with her and Hermione and afterwards, while Hermione was packing her trunk, Helen had sat him down and told him flat out that they'd waited long enough, they both wanted more than a platonic relationship and what was the point in waiting any longer? Remus had started to argue, at which point Helen had pinned him against the kitchen counter and kissed him more deeply than he'd ever been kissed. He'd stayed the night with her, though nothing more than cuddles and late night discussions had occurred—Remus wasn't looking forward to mentioning any of the details to James or Sirius; they'd never let him live it down.

Then again, my spending the night somewhere that isn't my own home is the least of anybody's worries right now…

"There's Sirius."

Remus jumped at the sound of Helen's voice and turned around to find Sirius standing at the door of the tea room, a sleeping Piper in his arms, looking for them. Helen waved him over. "I take it the train got to Hogsmeade safely?" Remus asked, reaching over as Sirius sat down to brush some of Piper's hair out of her eyes.

Sirius nodded. "Whatever they were doing there in the first place, they seemed to have taken care of it," he said in a low voice. "Half the professors at the school met us down at the train station and walked with the carriages—this is the first year in a very long time Hagrid didn't take the first years across the lake."

"Considering what happened before they even boarded the train, I can't say I blame them," Remus said dully.

"How's Harry?"

"Last we saw, he's still unconscious," Remus told him. "The Healers are completely baffled by it. They don't know where to even begin treating him."

"But he's alive."

"He's alive," Remus confirmed.

"Good." Sirius leaned back in his chair. "Dumbledore said he'd be here after the feast. He wants to see Harry for himself."

"He probably won't be the only one." Helen leaned forward a little bit. "What do you think is going to happen when the Daily Prophet gets wind of this? And as soon as he recovers well enough, he has to go back to school, and if I remember my school days at all, this will be all they're talking about."

Remus sighed. "We'll deal with that when it comes," he said firmly. "In the meantime, we need to take care of Lily and James and Piper—how's Caleb?"

"Pissed," Sirius replied with a small grin. "Hagrid actually had to lift him up and carry him to a carriage just so I could get enough room to Disapparate. For now, Hogwarts is the best place for him—his friends will keep an eye on him and what good would it do having him here? Once Harry's feeling better, I'm sure Dumbledore will let him visit, but until then…"

Helen sighed and stood. "We should take James and Lily something to drink and eat. Even if they're not hungry now, once the shock of today wears off, they will be."

The wizards agreed, and Remus took Piper from Sirius' arms, while Sirius himself helped Helen buy and wrap up a large plate of sandwiches and several mugs of tea. They returned to Harry's room, arriving in the middle of yet another examination by several Healers. Lily and James were standing back a little to let them work, occasionally answering questions directed at them. James looked over his shoulder when the door opened and waved for his friends lingering in the doorway that it was okay to enter.

One of the Healers stood up straight. "When was the last time Harry took any type of potion?" he asked Lily and James.

"It's been a while," Lily said, obviously trying to think back over recent weeks. "June, maybe—he had an accident on the Quidditch pitch at Hogwarts and he had to take Skele-gro for some of his injuries."

"It was the other day," Remus corrected her. Everyone turned to him. "During the, er… incident…"

Lily's eyes widened as she remembered. "That's right. I gave him protection draught, because our house was being attacked…"

The Healer nodded. "And the time before that would have been the Skele-gro?" he asked.

Lily nodded. "He hates taking potions, he always has. The only time we could ever get him to take anything even for a little cold was when he was unconscious or we were so worried that he took it without asking…"

"Hmm…" The Healer's brow furrowed as he thought. "Well, there seem to be some lingering traces of some sort of potion, but it's much older than even June."

"What do you think it is?" James asked anxiously.

"I'm not sure," the Healer replied grimly. "We'll have to run a few more tests to really determine what it could be. Mr. and Mrs. Potter, you have to understand that this is going to take some time to figure out. Nobody has ever seen a case like Harry's, not even close, and it's going to be some time before we can give you any real answers."

Lily and James nodded resignedly. Remus felt his heart tug for them; there couldn't be anything worse than knowing someone you loved more than life itself had been through the impossible and that there was nothing you could do but wait and see how the events played out.

A few minutes later, the Healer assured the Potters he would return later on and left the room. Nobody spoke for some time as James and Lily watched their son sleep. Only when Sirius shuffled a little from where he stood beside Remus and Helen did their friends even seem to realize they were there. Lily hurried over to Remus and took Piper from him, smiling at him as she carried her daughter to an armchair by the window. Helen joined her, leaving Sirius and Remus to sit across from James at Harry's bedside.

"Where were you and Tonks?" asked James so quietly that Remus thought he'd imagined it at first. Sirius looked at his friend in surprise, finding James' face hard, bordering on anger. "You were supposed to make sure there was nobody on that bloody train."

"We were!" Sirius whispered back, glancing over his shoulder to see whether Lily was listening in. She wasn't. "Tonks was Stunned from behind and by the time I found her, my attention was far from worrying about the train anymore. Then Malfoy—"

"Malfoy?" James asked sharply. "Malfoy was there?"

Sirius nodded. "And I had no idea until he disarmed me," he said. "There wasn't anything I could have done."

"You could have sent a warning," James murmured, his anger ebbing away slowly.

"I was busy making sure Tonks was still alive."

James ignored this. "My son could have died," he said through gritted teeth. "Both my sons, my daughter, and my wife."

"James, I know," Sirius tried to say.

"No, you don't know, Sirius!" James hissed. "You think you do, but you don't. You didn't see him, Sirius. You didn't see what he looked like, crumpled up on the ground, lifeless, thinking you were never going to see him smile or laugh again. That was the worst thing I've ever seen as an Auror—not even as an Auror, as a human being. Everything slows down and all you can think about is how you used to hold him in your lap and hug him and comfort him. My son should be dead right now, Sirius. Explain to me why he's not!"

Sirius gulped. "I can't," he said hoarsely.

James nodded, looking back down at his son. "So don't try to tell me you know what I'm going through," he said dully.

Sirius stood up silently and left the room. Knowing it wouldn't do any good to go after him, Remus remained where he was, trying to decide whether it would help or hurt to remind James how much Sirius loved his godson. He finally decided to wait until James had had time to calm down a bit more.

At some point, medi-witches arrived with extra beds for those determined to stay the night with Harry. Lily lay down on one with Piper almost before the other witches had left, and fell fast asleep within minutes.

"She's in shock," Helen told Remus quietly when James went to use the bathroom. "I think we all are to some degree."

Remus nodded in agreement. "Look, you don't have to stay if you don't want to," he told her. "You've probably got better things to do…"

Helen only rolled her eyes. "Shut up, Remus," she replied, nudging him gently in the shoulder. "They're my friends too, unless you've forgotten."

Remus smiled as she took his hand tightly in her own, not wanting to admit how much of a relief it was that she wasn't going to leave right now.

James returned just as the hospital room door opened, and he, Remus, and Helen all turned to see Dumbledore entering, looking very grave.

"Albus," James said, standing to shake the Headmaster's hand. "Thank you for coming."

"Not at all, James," Dumbledore replied, giving Remus and Helen a small smile. "How is he?"

James sighed and fell back into his chair. "Alive," he responded flatly. "That's about all we know right now."

"And that is the only thing that matters right now," Dumbledore said sternly, looking at James over his half-moon spectacles. "It is much preferred to the alternative."

James nodded fervently in agreement. For the first time all day, Remus really saw how exhausted his friend looked. Once Dumbledore left, he would insist that James get some rest himself.

With Remus' help, James explained the day's events to Dumbledore, obviously hoping that the older wizard might have more input than the Healers had been giving them. Unfortunately, Dumbledore seemed just as clueless as the rest of them, or that was the front he was presenting to James.

After promising to look into what had happened to Harry, Dumbledore looked over at Remus. "I wonder if you might walk with me to the Floo, Remus?" the Headmaster said. "Just in case I lose my way…"

James didn't seem to hear a word that wasn't in relation to his son. Pressing Helen's hand tightly for a moment, Remus stood and followed Dumbledore out into the corridor. "What do you think, sir?" he asked immediately once the door had shut behind him.

"Are James and Lily yet aware of the phenomenon that occurred in their home some time back?"

Remus shook his head. "Not yet," he answered. "I didn't want to mention anything to them until we had something to really share…"

"I believe the time has arrived that they know the truth." Dumbledore sighed heavily. "From what I have gathered of the day's events, Harry was certainly hit with the Killing Curse. Had there been only one soul residing within his body, he would be dead; however, since his body held two souls, the attack only affected one of them, and the other took over as soon as his body had a moment to recover from the shock."

Remus' brow furrowed. "And which soul was affected?" he asked slowly, trying to ignore the way his heart was starting to pound uncontrollably.

"Until Harry wakes, we cannot know."


AN: Yes, this does mean that Lily and James will find out about the parallel universe thing soon, next chapter actually. Anyone want to theorize on how they'll react? Thank you all so much for all the reviews! Please keep them coming!