To Kristoffer, Daphanie, and Wendy, who teased, nagged, and prompted until I gave in and wrote this little bit of lunacy, which evidently turned into a large bit of lunacy. A bit off my usual style, but I hope you all enjoy it regardless.
CHAPTER ONE
Emma Watson always enjoyed catching up with the friends she'd made while working on the Harry Potter films. Today, she was enjoying a tea with her castmates Daniel Radcliffe and Maggie Smith, both of whom she'd gotten close to over the course of filming. Rupert had meant to be here today as well, however he'd ended up needing to stay home and care for his new daughter. Emma had not yet had the opportunity to meet the baby, but Rupert had sent more than a fair share of pictures in the months since her birth, and there was no denying she was a cute little thing. Dan agreed, of course, although with much less gushing than she and Maggie exhibited.
"I can't help thinking of Alan," Maggie said quietly, recapturing Emma's attention, "as you three keep growing up, and now that Rupert's become a father. He'd have loved to have been here for all of this, and all that's to come. I can just imagine him telling Rupert's little one all about her father's antics on set, can't you? It really is a shame he's passed on."
Suddenly, Dan looked decidedly uncomfortable, and both Emma and Maggie caught the look. It wasn't an expression, Emma thought, which hinted at the grief they all still felt at the loss of Alan Rickman, but rather an all too familiar look on Dan's face which clearly told them he was hiding something. They'd both seen that look on his face all too often on set.
"Dan, what on earth of what Maggie just said could have prompted your I'm hiding something face?" she inquired, tone teasing.
"The baby looks just like Rupert, so I'm fairly certain we can rule out a question of the paternity of his daughter," Maggie speculated. "So it would have to be about Alan."
Daniel groaned. "Bloody hell, it's not fair! A bloke doesn't stand a chance of hiding anything with the two of you for friends."
Maggie offered a satisfied smirk. "Out with it, Radcliffe."
Emma giggled. Dan was sunk now, for sure. He never could hold out if Maggie addressed him by surname, so like the dynamic between the characters they'd played in Harry Potter. "It can't be that bad," she offered her friend.
He sighed. "It's less bad, and more an issue of you probably won't believe me, and more to the point I'm not supposed to say."
Maggie drummed her fingers on the wood tabletop, and stared Dan down.
After a few more moments of silent deliberation, Emma and Maggie's companion finally broke, running his fingers through his dark hair nervously. "Well, the thing is, Alan's not exactly… passed on."
Emma and Maggie both stared at him in shock. They each knew Dan well enough that while certainly a prankster at heart, he'd never joke about this sort of thing, especially not about a man whom they'd all held in the highest regard and still grieved. Emma recovered first. "Dan, you're going to have to give us more than that," she said quietly, voice trembling.
Maggie's reaction was slightly less mannered, surprising the younger woman. "Where the fuck is he, then?"
Dan winced at the vulgarity, not usually on the receiving end of that side of Maggie. "In a nutshell, Harry Potter offered him a cure under the condition that he live out the remainder of his life in the Wizarding World."
Emma laughed. "Dan, the truth if you please. That's absurd. The Wizarding World isn't real. You're Harry Potter!"
The young man winced. "See, I figured you'd say that. Maggie, don't give me that disapproving look, I can bloody well prove it, even though I'm sure your Wizarding counterpart will chew me a new arsehole for doing so. And yes, I've met the real McGonagall, and she's scary as hell."
Emma and Maggie watched in disbelief as Dan pulled out his mobile phone, looked up a number, and hit dial, immediately putting it on speaker phone. After a few rings, a male voice sounded on the other end.
"Hey Daniel, I was just thinking of you the other day, mate. How are you?"
"Hey Harry," Dan replied. "I've got a bit of a problem. Maggie and Emma sort of bullied the truth about Alan out of me a minute ago and now they're asking questions."
The line was silent for a moment. "Bugger. Well, we did suppose if anyone sorted things out it would probably be your Emma."
"Alan figured it would be Maggie," Dan replied. "In any case, I've just been called a liar for saying Alan's living with your lot, so if you could back me up, mate, that would be awesome."
"Yeah, sure, where are you?" the man on the other end of the line inquired.
"Maggie's sunporch," Dan supplied. "You can see it from the front garden."
"Alright, be there in a jiff," came an agreeable reply, causing Maggie to open her mouth in objection to Dan arbitrarily inviting God knew who the hell this man was onto her property, and Emma was inclined to side with Maggie on this. Dan had clearly lost his mind.
Maggie's mouth closed again firmly, however, when a moment later the phone line was dead, and a man in his thirties, tall and slender with dark messy hair and round framed glasses, appeared out of thin air just outside of her sunporch. "Dear God," she whispered.
"Basically my initial reaction," Dan admitted.
Emma gaped. "It's impossible. Magic isn't real!"
"Emma, you just saw a guy materialize out of thin air, and you've worked in the film industry long enough to know what's fake and what isn't," Dan said, nudging her gently. "Come on then, let's introduce you two."
He stood and moved over to the door to let the new arrival onto the porch. "Maggie, Emma, this is Harry Potter. The real one. Harry, I've told you all about these two."
The two women just stared in wonderment as Harry fucking Potter bowed slightly and addressed them each in turn. "Dame Maggie, Miss Watson. It's a true pleasure to meet you both. I will do whatever I can to assure you that Daniel has not lost his mind. I realize this is all very unsettling to you, Merlin knows it took Alan awhile to get past the shock of it all, but he's adjusted marvelously and as it seems you're in on the secret now, I imagine you'll adjust as well."
Maggie stood stiffly from her seat. "The only proof I will require, Mister Potter - if that is in fact truly who you are - will be to see Alan Rickman. If he is alive and as well as you and Dan indicate, then any other wonderments you might deem to offer will be superfluous in comparison to that miracle."
Emma agreed wholeheartedly.
Minerva McGonagall sighed in exasperation after getting Harry Potter's Patronus, once more feeling a sense of certainty that the Potters in general were simply out to drive her to an early grave. She'd been enjoying a lovely breakfast with her lover when he'd sent word that he was bringing a trio of Muggles to Hogwarts. Granted, one of them she'd had chance to meet before. Daniel Radcliffe was a kind, caring young man who had portrayed Harry in the Muggle film franchise which had chronicled the Chosen One's life story. The films had been based on a series of books written by a squib called Rowling, and while they in general got the story right, the details were just different enough that the Ministry had not felt the need to obliviate Muggles by the millions, which is what it had come to by the time they'd gotten wind of Rowling's literary success.
Still, Daniel had been oddly knowledgeable about certain aspects of her life, and the lives of people she knew, to the point that it was almost unsettling. The only reason she didn't dislike the Muggle man immensely was because, well, he was a likable man, and had not once used his foreknowledge for nefarious means. She suspected that like Harry, Daniel would have sorted to Gryffindor, were he a proper Wizard instead of just a fictional one.
Joining Daniel today, it seemed, would be Miss Emma Watson and Dame Maggie Smith. The singular reason that she was indulging any of this at all was because Harry bloody Potter had opted to save the life of the muggle actor who had portrayed Severus Snape - Alan Rickman - when the man had fallen ill with cancer, and in the years since and quite despite herself, Alan had become a dear friend. He often spoke of friends left behind, and of his wife Rima, who all thought him dead, and Alan had nearly come to regret his decision to come into the Wizarding World at all until the day that Harry had brought Daniel to visit him. After that, Alan had a link to the Muggle world, and it was enough for him.
Now, Dame Maggie and Miss Watson would be reuniting with their friend, and she was certain Alan would be pleased to see them, although she feared that too much exposure to the Muggle life he'd agreed to leave behind would ultimately bring him back to where he'd been in the months following his release from St. Mungo's - wallowing in a depression worthy of Severus Snape and regretful of ever having come here. Minerva didn't wish to see her friend unhappy, but he was dead according to Muggle records. He could not go back. He had no choice but to remain in the Wizarding World, and they simply couldn't take requests on who to inform of his continued existence. Harry had felt that Daniel deserved to know, having portrayed himself in the films, and that hadn't been hard to sell to the Wizengamot. Miss Watson and Dame Maggie had the benefit of having worked it out on their own, basically, and Harry had convinced the Wizengamot not to obliviate the women who'd portrayed Hermione Granger and herself.
She prayed it wouldn't go further than them, however, for everyone's sake. Harry could only cash in so many favors, even if he was the Hero of the Wizarding War and all that nonsense. Minerva's thoughts made the journey from the Head Tower to the dungeon level of Hogwarts pass quickly, and she rapped on the door of Alan's quarters. When offered to be set up anywhere in the whole of the Wizarding World after his cancer had been sorted, Alan had adamantly insisted that if the choice was truly his then he'd like to reside in the former quarters of the deceased Potions Master he'd portrayed on film. The Potions lab attached had been converted into a small, indoor greenhouse given Alan's lack of magic to muck about with Potions and such, although under Pomona's instruction Alan was learning to care for a number of magical plants, and he was enjoying some experimentation in hybridization that had actually turned into a profitable business for him, even if Harry had managed to sort out his financial support in a decidedly Slytherin manner, otherwise.
"Minerva!" Alan greeted, smiling. "What a surprise. Do come in. I was just working on splicing a common Orchid with Devil's Snare. I'm attempting to create a smaller hybrid that maintains the magic properties but isn't quite so unmanageable."
She chuckled. "Did Filius put you up to this?"
He smirked. "He may have hinted at a desire for something of this nature. It wasn't a bad notion, though. That said, I'm not sure the orchid will take the splice without negating the magical properties. I may have to hybrid it to a smaller magical plant, but I've had such success with the orchids that I wanted to at least give it a go."
"You've been with us less than five years," she mused, "and yet it feels like you've been a part of the magical community for so much longer, Alan. It is so easy to forget, sometimes, that you're a Muggle."
"The fact that you tell the students I'm a Squib surely doesn't help you with that particular memory," he teased. "In any case, I doubt you came all the way down here to talk about Herbology. What can I help you with?"
"I've come to cajole you out of the dungeons for the afternoon," Minerva informed him. "You are evidently getting visitors."
Alan looked at her, puzzled. "Visitors?"
"Harry is bringing Daniel to see you," she said, wincing slightly as she saw his face light up at the implication, "and Daniel is bringing along Miss Emma Watson and Dame Maggie Smith. You've talked of them enough that I do imagine you'll be pleased to see them."
He smiled broadly. "I knew Maggie would bully the truth out of Dan at some point. Emma is a smart one, too. I can't say I'm surprised she worked things out. I will be very glad to see them all. You'll be joining us, I trust?"
She nodded, sensing that it was important to him to see the friends of his past and the friends of his present getting along, as if it validated the choice he'd made five years ago. "If you'd like me to. I'd enjoy meeting your friends."
Alan began packing up his workstation in preparation to join her back upstairs, when he paused, a mischievous smirk playing on his lips. "Minerva?" he drawled.
"Yes, Alan?" she asked, suspicious. When she'd first met Alan Rickman, she'd expected someone surly and foul-tempered like Severus had so often been, tempered with a sharp wit that one tended to grow fond of given time. Alan certain had his moody side, and she'd seen him lose his temper once or twice in the time she'd known him, and he absolutely had a sharp wit about him, but above that was a man who cared deeply and more to the current point, had more in common with Fred and George Weasley than Severus Snape. Alan Rickman never, ever passed up an opportunity to tease, prank, or in general coerce you into a certain action and make one think it was their own very good idea.
"Is Hermione around?" he said casually. "I mean it's only fair if you're to meet your counterpart, then she ought to meet hers."
"I can probably tear her away from her writing for the afternoon," Minerva replied. "Although why do I get the feeling that your desire to have Hermione there has less to do with her meeting the actress who portrayed her and more to do with some ulterior motive. Merlin, Alan, no mistake you would have been a Slytherin."
He snorted. "I'll take that as a compliment, Minerva. To answer your question, I was just imagining the look on Maggie's face when she realizes that her Wizarding counterpart is having a romantic liaison with Emma's Wizarding counterpart."
Minerva snorted. "Just because Hermione and I are together does not imply that Dame Maggie and Miss Watson would be likewise inclined toward each other."
"I did not imply otherwise," he agreed. "However, the implication will still make dear Maggie blush like a schoolgirl, and that is something rare to see. Emma, if I know her and I certainly do, will take advantage of the situation and tease Maggie a bit over her reaction. That fine girl, there's another Slytherin for you, Minerva. Hermione may be Gryffindor, but while Emma is brave, it's her ambition which stands out the most."
Minerva sighed. A Gryffindor Hermione and a Slytherin Hermione in a room together sounded like a disaster waiting to happen. It wasn't that she felt her lover and Miss Watson wouldn't get along - the opposite, really - they'd get along too well and be plotting to take over the world by next Tuesday.
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