The conversations came to a halt the moment they entered the kitchen, the door closing loudly behind them.
All that confidence, that Gryffindor courage, nearly evaporated from her as she took in the room. The wizards and witches, all sitting about the single long table filled with drinks, turned to her as one. The Order of the Phoenix was smaller than she had first thought, counting only twenty odd people currently present, and Holly Potter recognized about half of them. The members of the Advance Guard she knew, from the clumsy Tonks to her old professor Remus Lupin, the tall Auror named Kingsley Shacklebolt and the intimidating but beautiful Emmeline Vance. They were all sitting with the other members. Many of whom had varying reactions to seeing her present.
Sirius, her godfather, looked as if he had been petrified in his seat. Professor Dumbledore looked momentarily surprised to see her, but then his eyes were over her shoulder, never meeting her own. A young redheaded man sitting beside Mr. Weasley looked curiously at her. Mr. Weasley himself seemed happy to see her and uneasy at her presence in the room. The man with an impressive beard and nursing a cup barely glanced at her. He seemed oddly familiar, though Holly didn't know how. She recognized Mundungus Fletcher's bloodshot eyes and unkempt appearance, who in turn didn't seem to recognize her at first, and she had to bite her cheek to keep from giggling. Swinging her eyes past professors McGonagall and Flitwick, around a pair of brown-haired witches, she found in a corner of the room a finely dressed man leaning against a wall. He had grey eyes, and when Holly met them, she got a wink and a little nod. His mouth moved, though his voice was too low to hear. The greasy haired potions professor who was standing next to the handsome man did hear, and whatever was said drew a frown from him, and it was directed at her in turn.
She didn't have any time to be surprised at Professor Snape's presence as the room suddenly filled with noise.
"Holly!" her godfather gasped. He was on his feet in an instance and had her in a hug the next. She hugged him back even as she heard Moody say, "That's Clark Kent I mentioned. Potter vouches for him, and he wants to speak with you, Dumbledore." Mr. Weasley, who had always been kind and fatherly, gave her a hug as well. "Thank Merlin you're alright!" he exclaimed. "When we heard of the Dementors in Little Whinging we were all in a panic." Then he turned to introduce himself to Harry and Holly found herself face to face with her head of house. "It's good that you're safe, Holly," said Professor McGonagall, "but you'll have some explaining to do. Running off with this… stranger?"
"I can explain-" Holly started, but Harry took the attention of the entire room.
"Everyone!" Harry shouted, and every conversation came to a halt, all eyes turning to him. "We do not have time for each and every one of us to have a personal introduction. The Dark Lord is back, if we all haven't forgotten, and we have a war to fight. So, can we please all take our seats and get to business?"
There was some muttering at that, indignation on the part of Moody, but with Dumbledore himself agreeing with Harry, everything soon returned to order. Some distrustful looks were sent Harry's way, while others were more curious, and with that they were all seated. The process of which took some time, with everyone wanting to sit beside one person and not with another. Some more muttering and a few teasing jokes were intermingled. The shuffling of seats took some time before they were all eventually situated. Holly had a seat next to Sirius, who himself was next to Dumbledore. She had Lupin across from her and they all looked to Harry, the only one of them who still remained standing.
He had his hands on his hips, a frown on his face, and then he reached into his pocket and took out an eyepatch.
"For all of us to be allies and have trust with one another, we cannot have secrets from one another." Harry looked to them all and Holly realized where he was going. The eyepatch in his hand was plain leather. Yet it was used to cover up scarring received from some vile curse. "That means that I will be revealing my true appearance, as Alastor Moody here has no doubt pointed out to you all that I am currently wearing several Glamor Charms."
"Yes," said Dumbledore, "we were told. But if Alastor is willing to give you the benefit of the doubt, then so I am."
"Just wait till you hear what he has to say." Moody grumbled.
"Right, well, I will have to warn you all," Harry said as he took off his fake glasses and covered his Glamored left eye with the eyepatch. "My true appearance is not what you would call pretty. Life hasn't been especially kind to me, and I have scars to prove it. I also won't be insulted if you are more vocally shocked. It's unimportant in the grand scheme of things, and I've got rather tough skin."
"What is he talking about?" Sirius quietly asked Holly.
"Just don't judge him until you hear the full story," she said, "and know that he has my full support."
Harry had his wand out then, and several people frowned as they looked upon it. Holly spied the confused look on Dumbledore's face, though she didn't understand it until the man took out his own wand, which was exactly the same as the one in Harry's hand. It even had the same weird little round nodules along the shaft. The Elder Wand, Harry had called it, something that was supposedly made by Death himself and given to Antioch Peverell, or so the story went. He never did say how it came into his possession. But for there to be two of them was an impossibility, something that even Holly didn't fully understand, nor Harry himself.
The more astute members of the Order took in the sight of two identical wands and came to similar conclusions. Confusion still held in some of them. Dumbledore himself looked conflicted, white eyebrows furrowed, blue eyes alight with an emotion Holly could not place. Snape looked as if he had taken a whiff of curdled milk. Moody looked ready to growl, one hand hidden below the table. Diggle and Doge were quietly bickering amongst themselves, while Mundungus' bloodshot eyes slowly drooped even further.
Harry didn't seem to notice any of it. He simply took a breath, then pointed his wand at his face, and said, "Finite Incantatem."
Several gasped as the Glamor Charms faded to nothing and revealed Harry's true appearance. He was scarred from near a hundred battles. Fact cut up and one eye ruined. Holly had managed to pry some small details from him the day before, stories of battles long past, and what she had heard painted a grim picture in her mind. It was nothing at all like the battles she had read about in the history books, or even what Professor Binns described about the goblin rebellions. "There's no glory in it," he had said, "and these are but a small part of the price I paid."
Elphias Doge fainted at the sight, toppling from his seat. A flicker of a frown crossed Harry's face at that, before the smallest of grins tugged at his lips, and he turned to survey them all. Holly peered at everyone as well, taking in the many paled faces, the emotions. Mrs. Weasley cried out in shock, while her husband placed a hand on her arm to steady her less she too fall from her seat. McGonagall held a hand to her mouth. Tonks' hair went through a multitude of colors before it came to rest at a pale brown shade. Snape frowned but otherwise remained impassive. Moody was much the same, though his magic eyeball roved Harry's face with interest. Shacklebolt pressed his lips into a thin line and Vance leaned back at the sight, cigarette suddenly between her fingers. Sirius jerked back and Lupin cringed slightly.
The silence that hung over them at the reveal was almost uncomfortable.
All Holly could hope for was that they all understand.
"I know," said Harry, a small chuckle escaping his half-grin. "Not exactly the pretty face I wore before. I'm all cut up and down an eye. But as I've said, life hasn't been kind, and if we are to work together there can be no secrets between us. This is what I look like, and my name is not Clark Kent. It's actually Harry Potter."
"What?" Sirius said.
"By Merlin's beard." Professor Flitwick squeaked.
"That can't be right," mumbled Dedalus Diggle, whilst trying to pull the unconscious Elphias Doge back into his seat. "James didn't have any relatives."
"It's impossible," Snape bit out. "Might even be a lie."
Harry grinned at that. "I'm glad you have such confidence in me, Snape."
"Isn't Potter a common name here?" asked the handsome man. He looked bemused. "Why are we all acting as if he is suddenly claiming to be related to this other Potter you all once knew?"
Emmeline Vance rolled her eyes. "Americans," she muttered.
"Everyone, please." Dumbledore held up a hand, and all the conversations ceased. The headmaster gave a small nod in thanks and then turned back to Harry. "So far, we have had no reason to doubt our new friend here, and he had shown that he is willing to share all of his secrets to cast away what little private doubts we may hold. But what you claim does raise some questions. You claim to be a man named Harry Potter, one who may be of relation to James Potter as some here think, and you bear magical scars of a gruesome nature. The wand you wield is similar to my own, which should be impossible. To put all of that together would get an untrustworthy picture, but I feel that there is more to the story here, and I am willing to listen."
"And I am grateful for the opportunity to tell it," Harry said, smile stretching across his lips. Then he cleared his throat and held his wand aloft for their viewing pleasure. "To answer all of your questions, I first need to ask one of my own. Do any of you here know anything about the Multiverse or the theory of dimensional travel?"
No one seemed to know. Holly herself still only grasped the faintest edges of the concept. Having it explained to her over a plate of treacle tart whilst a drunken brawl broke out in the Leaky Cauldron did not make for an informative discussion. In fact, they had barely touched the topic before their attention was swayed.
"I thought not. Multiversal Theory is basically unheard-of from my dimension, and by dimension, I mean that literally, I come from a different dimension that is similar but also different to your own. I know, it sounds ridiculous and crazy, and most likely unbelievable, but I assure you that I am not making this up. How else would you explain the fact that I too bear the Elder Wand, something utterly unique and impossible to replicate? How would you explain the identical scar on my forehead that I share with Holly?"
He tapped his lightning bolt scar and several of them leaned in to get a closer look. The renewed shock of it had them murmuring to each other, while some like McGonagall and Mrs. Weasley looked between Harry and Holly herself with unease. She could almost hear the questions they were asking themselves. Was Harry the future that was laid before her? It hadn't worried her, for Harry had assured her that he was going to set things right, to prevent her dimension from spiraling into chaos like his own had.
"So, you are like our Holly?" Sirius sounded as confused as many looked. Her godfather moved his hands as he spoke, one seemingly representing Harry himself, while the other for his goddaughter. A pair which rose and fell like the opposite ends of a seesaw. "You. The… son of James and Lily? If I'm understanding this Multiverse theory correctly."
"Essentially." Harry offered Sirius a curt nod, before turning to the rest of the group, and Dumbledore himself. "My name is Harry James Potter. I'm the son of James Potter and Lily Potter. I was hailed as the Boy-Who-Lived when I supposedly killed Voldemort-" Several people flinched at the mention of the Dark Lord's name. "-as a boy less than two years old. I have the same lightning bolt scar and the same relatives in the Dursleys. As far as I can tell, my own dimension and Holly's share a lot in common, though there are some major differences."
"Foremost being that Holly is in fact a girl." Dumbledore concluded, drawing a smattering of chuckles, and a grin from Harry.
"Yes, indeed," said Harry. When he smiled, he looked younger. Like the years and scars didn't weigh him down like a thousand-pound weight. Though his single green eyes remained sad as he looked at them all. "Holly here is my counterpart in this dimension. Which means she has gone through more or less the same experiences that I myself went through up until this point. Through good and bad. Like Holly, I too was forced to compete in the Triwizard Tournament even though I was underaged. I too encountered Sirius when he escaped from Azkaban and discovered that Peter Pettigrew was the real traitor. The Chamber of Secrets and Slytherin's Heir? I killed that Basilisk with the Sword of Gryffindor. Even our first years at Hogwarts are the same. Quirrell died at my hands as he did for Holly, the faint remnant of the Dark Lord's soul attached to the back of his head. I say all of this not to boast of my achievements, but to convey how serious I am, and how dire our situation actually is."
There was a tightness in her chest as she listened to Harry speak. A tingling up her arms. She saw that everyone around her too was nearly captivated by the speech. A natural orator. Even though Harry proclaimed that he disliked the spotlight and the attention he received when hailed a celebrity like the Boy-Who-Lived, Holly could see that he was very much suited for it. He had a confidence about him that made people want to listen. She so very much wanted to be like that.
He walked up to the seat of Sturgis Podmore. "Keep this safe for me," he said, and handed the confused man his wand. Then he reached into his mokeskin pouch and pulled out the fresh copy of the Daily Prophet. A single finger tapped the bold headline. "Not everything of this dimension is the same as my own history that I've lived through. Chief among them is the very fact that I am here, and that Holly was not in Little Whinging when the dementors came. With my intervention, she did not get caught up in it, and so her fifth year will be different than how my fifth year turned out."
"You faced dementors over the summer?" asked Kingsley Shacklebolt.
"They nearly sucked the soul from my cousin, Dudley Dursley." Harry looked to the Auror. "I saved him with a Patronus Charm and was hauled in front of the Wizengamot to face a trial for my use of magic whilst being underaged and outside of school because of it. As you've most likely read, Fudge and his Ministry are attempting to discredit both Holly and Dumbledore, and my breaking of the law only added fuel to that fire."
"But that didn't happen." Holly grinned.
"It didn't." Harry agreed. "But that brings me to my next point. Because I've stopped Holly from being forced to use underaged magic and break the law, my knowledge of my past is no longer as useful as it once was. With no trial in front of the Wizengamot, it means that Dolores Umbridge might not be appointed as the next Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, and if that doesn't happen, then more changes might be made and so on and so forth."
"The butterfly effect," said Emmeline Vance. She rolled her lit cigarette between supple fingers. "Change one thing and you've changed innumerable other things down the line."
Harry snapped his fingers at that. "Exactly."
"So, your knowledge of your own future is quickly becoming useless the longer you stay here and change things, assuming that everything between two alternate dimensions is the same." Snape drawled.
"Basically," said Harry with a shrug. "But the entire point of my being here is to prevent Holly's life turning out how my own did. Which is why I've already taken steps in defeating Voldemort."
The reaction to the name was less than it was before, though Holly still saw that some present were fearful to even hear it spoken aloud. Diggle clutched at his top hat like a child would a teddy bear. The two brown haired witches flinched. Harry looked directly at Dumbledore, tapping his lightning bolt scar once more, and Holly saw the headmaster's eyes widen behind those halfmoon glasses.
"What kind of steps have you taken?" Moody demanded.
Dumbledore's eyes flicked away from Harry, meeting her own, and she didn't know what she saw. "Steps to deal with something that I fear to be true," he said. "Because if it were true, then it would mean that the darkest and vilest sorts of magics have been wrought, all in the name of power."
"They're called Horcruxes," said Harry, a grim frown on his face. He came to stand right behind her seat, so it looked as though everyone was watching her as much as they were watching Harry. Dumbledore had an expression on his face that Holly had never seen before. Something that made her stomach twist. "Pieces of a soul ripped apart from the body and placed into a container. Voldemort has created several of them, each of which is sustaining his immortality, and one of them used to be inside of Holly's scar."
Elphias Doge fainted at that. Holly watched as her professors all reacted in their own way, with McGonagall slipping into Gaelic as she cursed, Flitwick squeaking in shock, Snape scowling down at the table, and Dumbledore with the look of fear and disappointment shining in his blue eyes. Moody hissed at the fact that she used to have a Horcrux in her forehead whilst the handsome man muttered out a soft, "fucking hell." Tonks looked confused and quietly asked what a Horcrux was, something which Kingsley Shacklebolt didn't know, and neither did Emmeline Vance or Sturgis Podmore. Mundungus Fletcher let out a jolted snore from where he was slumped over, looking all like a pile of rags. Sirius looked confused, and then angry at his confusion, while Lupin paled even further. Of the three Weasleys, the young man she assumed to be Bill, the eldest son and Curse-Breaker, showed something other than fearful dismay.
He looked furious.
"Holly had a Horcrux in her scar!?" he shouted, slamming a hand down on the table hard enough to rattle the glasses and cups of tea. "H-How did no one know? Any Horcrux is considered a Category One Dark Artefact and subject to immediate destruction."
Immediate destruction... The words rattled through Holly's mind as several people started to speak up at once.
"No one knew because very few people know what a Horcrux is in the first place," Harry explained. "Even then, the only surviving witnesses of the night Voldemort attacked Godric's Hollow is Voldemort himself, and Holly. No one saw what happened. I'm still not entirely sure why the Killing Curse rebounded. But it did, and in the process, Holly was made into a living Horcrux, much like I was."
"But you managed to remove it," said Dumbledore, looking at Holly for what felt like the first time. Was that why Dumbledore was all but acting like I didn't exist? Harry had said that his fifth year at Hogwarts was one of the most frustrating he had been through. "The one in young Holly's scar as with your own. You would not have made mention of it otherwise."
"Yes," he sighed, resting a hand on Holly's shoulder. Her hand met his and she looked up to meet his singular green gaze. He looks so very tired. "Neither of us have a Horcrux in our scars." Harry looked back to Dumbledore. "You won't have to worry about any harm coming to her, or any information leaking through a bond or vision. That connection to Voldemort has been completely severed."
Dumbledore all but collapsed against the back of his chair, shoulders sagging as he exhaled a breath he seemed to have been holding since the start of the meeting. Sirius looked as if he was going to cry, though Moody was gazing at her with his magical eyeball at such intensity that he seemed like he was trying to burn a hole through her lightning bolt scar. Snape clenched his jaw and touched his left arm.
"Well," the handsome man spoke up. "I think this calls for a celebration! Holly isn't a Horcrux anymore and that means there's one less of the fuckers out there to deal with!"
"Time and place, Alexander," drawled Emmeline Vance, though she produced a small metal flask from her fashionable robes and passed it to him all the while.
"Trying to lighten the mood is all." The flask was taken in hand and quickly uncorked. "We're all acting as if someone just died."
"Our work is far from over," said Harry. "But for right now, I think we can all agree that progress has been made in our fight against Voldemort and his Death Eaters. I'd also like to think that I've gained your trust?"
"Of course, Mr. Potter." Dumbledore said, gesturing to one of the several open seats at the table. "Though I would very much like to continue speaking about this concept of the Multiversal at a later time. For now, I believe dinner is soon upon us, Molly?"
With that, the meeting came to an abrupt end, and the kitchen once more filled with noise. Mrs. Weasley jumped to her feet and started ordering people about, waving her wand at the copper pots and pans that hung from the walls, floating meats and vegetables through the air and towards the countertops. Holly wanted to join the conversation that Dumbledore and Harry were having, but she found herself pulled by her godfather into more introductions, and she felt both happy and annoyed to be with him.
"This is Alexander Carmichael," Sirius said, and Holly shook the handsome American's offered hand. "He joined with the Order after reading of Voldemort's return in the Daily Prophet."
"It's very nice to finally meet you properly, Ms. Potter," said Alexander, his smile revealing straight white teeth. Holly felt her cheeks heat up slightly. "Thought I'd come over and do my part in keeping the place safe from this Voldemort fellow. My mother's Scottish you see. Plus, it's not every day you meet someone who's survived the Killing Curse, which is a feat many of my fellow Americans claim to have done, yet none have been able to offer any proof."
"I didn't exactly do anything," she said, touching her lightning bolt scar.
"Still, damn impressive stuff." Alexander gestured to Sirius with his flask. "Much like Sirius here becoming an Animagus before graduating. That's nothing to shake a stick at."
Alexander excused himself after that, making his way over to Emmeline Vance, and Holly came face to face with the two brown haired witches she had almost forgotten were present for the meeting. They're twins, she realized. Everything from the color of their eyes to the shape of their chins were the same. Identical. "This is Marigold and Guinevere Rionarcher," said Sirius, though he didn't exactly say who was who. "They're both from Canada." Neither of the witches seemed to mind that Sirius couldn't tell them apart. Holly shook both of their hands and offered them a smile.
When she was introduced to Aberforth Dumbledore, the younger brother of Headmaster Dumbledore, she almost didn't believe the man. Even more so at the fact that he was the current owner of the Hog's Head Inn down in Hogsmeade. "Albus casts a very large shadow," the man muttered, "and you'd best not get lost in it." Then he merely nodded at Sirius and took his leave.
Holly looked to her godfather. "What did he mean by that?" she asked.
Sirius rubbed at his jaw, the beginnings of a beard scratching at his fingers. He had dark bags under his eyes. "I don't exactly know, kid. Aberforth was like that when I went to Hogwarts. Though, I did hear about a rumor involving some goats."
By the time she finished meeting everyone, the kitchen was half empty, and Harry was nowhere to be found. Holly quietly slipped away from her godfather's side when he got distracted in a conversation with Tonks and Lupin. The hallway was deserted so she decided to head for the stairs in search of her counterpart. She passed by a pair of long moth-eaten curtains and an umbrella stand that looked like a severed troll foot. The oddities of Grimmauld Place caught her eye, and she so wanted to explore the rest of the house after seeing each one, but she ignored them for the moment. When she reached the base of the stairs, she heard voices coming from above, and they sounded feminine. Lavender and Parvati. She had completely forgotten about her friends in their haste to get into the meeting and explain who Harry was to the rest of the Order. Holly stepped past the dangling ear, took the steps two at a time, and didn't spare more than a glance at the row of shrunken heads mounted on the wall as she went.
"Holly?"
The voice that called out her name was so familiar to her ears that it had tears prickling at the corners of her eyes. Lavender was leaning against the banister, blonde curls hanging over one shoulder as she held her hand to her ear, blue eyes wide with shock. Parvati was standing right next to her, head pressed right next to Lavender's, as if she were trying to listen to whatever it was the blonde was holding in her hand. In that moment they both looked like angels from heaven, beautiful angels.
Lavender dropped whatever it was she was holding. "Holly!"
They both came rushing over to when Holly's legs gave out, crashing into her as she landed on the top step, and Holly laughed as she hugged her friends. All the faint anger she had at them for seemingly abandoning her over the summer disappeared as she held them. Even when Harry had told her the reasoning, a small part of her didn't believe. But she did now. Lavender, her smart and faithful Lavender, was in her arms, wiping the tears from her cheeks. Parvati, so opinionated and beautiful, giggled as she whispered sweet nothings into her ear. The tightness in her chest fluttered as she laughed, her words caught in her throat, a million thoughts jumbled together.
"We're so sorry for not writing," whispered Lavender, smiling sadly as she held Holly's face in her hands. Her own eyes were watery. "You have to know that it wasn't our idea to keep you in the dark like that, Halls. We never wanted-"
"I know." Holly managed; the smile stretched across her lips turning into a grin. "I know, Lav-Lav. I don't hold it against you, or you Pati. Never."
Sitting on the second landing, she laughed as she cried, and she knew that the three of them must have made for a truly odd sight. Fred and George Weasley found them first, the twins appearing suddenly with a loud crack, and they almost looked like they were going to Disapparate just as fast when they saw the three of them arm in arm, teary eyed and giggling like lunatics. Then Ron Weasley appeared, confusion written all over his face, and it only set them laughing once more. Ginny Weasley only poked her head out to see what was going on, and she froze at the sight of them all.
"I think they've lost it," said Fred.
"Most certainly," agreed George. "And where's our Extendable Ear at?"
"Lav dropped it." Parvati said. She was on her feet in an instant and pulled Holly up with her. "We weren't able to hear anything though, oddly."
"But that doesn't matter right now." Lavender added, taking Holly by the arm. It felt so comfortable to have Lavender and Parvati back at her sides. So very right. "Holly's here and we've got months to make up for."
Yes, she thought, there's much and more to say. So much that I've got to tell them.
Fred balked at that. "But-"
"Come on," said Parvati, leading the way. They brushed past Ron who all but leapt out of their way. "By Morgana's Eyes, so much as happened! There's so much that you've missed over the summer. You wouldn't believe some of the things we've heard too."