THE POWERS OF CHANGE

A/N: Wow - I actually have a chapter two!!! Okay, it may sound silly, but it's a big feat for me! Here's chapter two then - oh, wait, must do that annoying disclaimer thing again..

Disclaimer: Do I own it? No. Will I ever own it? Only if the rest of the world suddenly snuffs it, and I'm the only one left who knows what the story is.

Wait - one more thing!! I'd like to thank my only reviewer from the Prologue - DMZ. Thank you!!!

CHAPTER ONE: The Interrogation

The bushy haired professor named Hermione Granger shouted, "HARRY??!!"

The dark haired man grinned. "I do believe that is still my name. It hasn't changed, has it?"

Hermione spluttered fro a response. Her mind wasn't working properly. What was he doing here? How did he get here? Where the hell has he been? "What- how- when-" she couldn't seem to form the right words. He certainly did look like the Harry Potter that she remembered - the same jet black hair that wouldn't lie flat, the same emerald green eyes, hell, even the same blasted scar, but he seemed wiser, and softer around the edges.

Professor McGonagall spoke up, cutting off Hermione's incoherent statement. "How do we know that it's you? Harry Potter disappeared twelve years ago, and is presumed dead. Where the hell have you been if you're Harry Potter?"

The other professors were silent, wands still pointing at Harry.

Really, he thought, I didn't expect this. I'm still me after all. Has it really been that long? "H-h-how long, exactly? I wasn't aware that more than five years had passed"

Minerva McGonagall's eyes widened a bit at this. "It has been exactly twelve years, two months, and three days since the downfall of Lord Voldemort. Harry Potter also disappeared that day, and hasn't been seen since. How can you prove that you are Harry Potter?"

Hermione frowned at this. She better not be right - I can't do that again. This one's not Harry either.

Harry looked directly at McGonagall. "Prove who I am? Let's see - I was born on July 31, in the year 1980, to Lily and James Potter. When I was one, Lord Voldemort killed my parents, leaving me with this ruddy scar. Dumbledore left me with my horrid Aunt and Uncle, and Dudley, oh, can't forget him - and when I was eleven, Hagrid brought me Hogwarts where I met Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. In my seventh year, Voldemort attacked Hogwarts, he and I were forced to fight in some other dimension called the Overlap, where he was defeated, and I was stuck, for about five years, only apparently it was more than that. What more do you need to prove it's me??" Harry looked at McGonagall, who scowled at him.

"We have had people claim to be Mr. Harry Potter over the years - and all that you have said could have been read out of a history book. I don't know what it is with your five years, because it has certainly been twelve." Whipping her wand out, she put Harry in a full body bind, and turned to her other staff members. "Asha, take this one to your dungeons, and test him there. No, Hermione, you may not help. You do not need to deal with one of these again." Hermione had been about to ask to help, but nodded, and stepped away.

Again? thought Harry. What does she mean? Why are they doing this? Don't they know it's me? He had been too shocked to try and duck away from McGonagall's body bind charm. And now, he did not try and break it. Another women had stepped toward him, it was the lady named Asha. He had never seen her before.

"The whole test, Headmistress?" Asha asked, not looking at Harry at all. Harry noticed that she didn't speak with a British accent at all - in fact, where an accent would be; there was a steely nerve.

"Yes, Asha. The whole test. Report back to me when you are through." with that, McGonagall turned away from Harry, not giving him a second glance.

Asha turned to survey Harry, floating him up and beginning to lead him down the corridors. Harry noticed that she could not have been older than he was, but she had most likely seen much more of the world. She had hard gray eyes, and not a touch of emotion passed over her face as she led him down through the dark passageways of the dungeons. It was much lighter than Harry remembered - there seemed to be some sort of magical lighting filling the corridor. Asha led him further down, past the old Potions classroom, and to what Harry remembered as Snape's office. Where is the slimy git now? Harry wondered. Asha led him into the office, which was contrastingly dark compared to the newly lit corridor outside.

Asha partially undid his body bind, only enough to force him uncomfortably into a small chair. Harry could not see anything around him, but heard her mixing something, and the clinking of glass. The next thing Harry realized, Asha was pouring something down his throat, forcing him to swallow. Harry remembered the peppery taste of the liquid burning down his throat from only one other encounter with it - it was Veritaserum - the Truth Potion. Harry gasped for breath, his mind swimming.

He saw the vague outline of someone in front of him - Asha. She began interrogating him. "What is your full given name?"

Harry felt his voice speak without him telling it to. "Harry James Potter."

"How old are you, Mr. Potter?"

"Twenty-three."

"Where have you been for twelve years?"

"In the Overlap, and traveling in other universes."

"Why did you not return?"

"I couldn't, for a long time. And when I could, I wasn't ready to come back."

"How many were killed in the final battle with Lord Voldemort?"

"I don't know."

This seemed to puzzle Asha. She paused a second before asking, "Who is the current Minister of Magic?"

"I don't know."

"Who teaches Transfiguration at Hogwarts?"

"I don't know."

"Who won the last World Quidditch Cup?"

"I don't know."

"Is Severus Snape dead?"

"I don't know."

"Is Remus Lupin dead?"

"I don't know."

"Does Ronald Weasley have any children?"

"I DON'T KNOW, DAMNIT!" This answer rocked Asha a little. She stopped asking questions, and cast a few spells on Harry. One was caused him to glow bright blue for a second, then died down. She also looked inside her desk a minute, and seemed to be consulting a bit of old parchment, looking at him, then back at the parchment. When she was satisfied, she stood up, and undid the spell binding him. "You are, indeed, Harry Potter. We should go inform the Headmistress."

Harry looked at her, and then stood, so that he was taller than her. "I'm glad I'm who I thought I was. Now, my turn to interrogate you. Who exactly are you?" he asked, a bit irritated now.

Asha sighed. Harry saw that her eyes had softened just a hair, not much, but a just a tad. "I am Asha Delancey, Hogwarts Potions Teacher."

"What does Hermione teach?"

"She teaches Transfiguration, Mr. Potter. If you don't mind, I do think it'd be better if you talk to the Headmistress." The softness Harry had thought was there was now gone - and Asha Delancey walked out of the room without another word, waiting for him to follow.

Harry turned, and followed her out of the dungeon, and to the gargoyle that had once hidden Dumbledore's office, and now hide McGonagall's.

************

Delancey led the way up to the Headmistress's office, which had changed quite a bit since Dumbledore had been Headmaster. Harry winced slightly - no, he thought, don't think about Dumbledore now.

The office still had the old portraits of the headmasters and headmistresses, but where Dumbledore's office had always had lots of items making funny little noises, now, it was perfectly silent. The Sorting Hat was still in the same spot it had always been, but where Dumbledore's Pensieve had been was now a bookshelf. There seemed to be a few broomsticks lying about, and two barn owls perched up by one of the windows. And then there was McGonagall herself, watching them emerge from the spiral staircase.

"Well, Asha?" she asked. Her face was very grim set.

"I ran every test, Professor. He is, indeed, Harry Potter. There is no way he could have fooled all the tests," Delancey answered.

Professor McGonagall was taken a back for a moment. "Are you sure?" she asked. "And, is he telling the truth about being stuck in this Overlap for only five years?"

Delancey nodded. "It's positively true. He should be seven years older, but he's not."

McGonagall nodded. "Very well. If you will leave us, please?" Delancey slipped out of the office quietly, without another word. McGonagall turned back to Harry. For a brief instant, Harry thought he saw a tear in her eye. She was surveying him, looking over his grown up stature, and his heavy hooded cloak. After a minute, she managed to say, "It really is you. Where have you been, Harry?"

Harry shook his head, looking downward. "It's very difficult to explain, Professor," he sighed, and then asked. "What's this about twelve years, Professor? It can't have been that long. Surely -"

"No, Harry - It has been twelve solid years since the downfall of Lord Voldemort. Things are settling down now, and people have begun to believe that he truly is gone, " She turned toward her desk, and scribbled down a note on a scrap of parchment. She handed it to one of her owls, and then turned back to Harry. "We thought you were truly gone, too.

"Now, I should tell you some things, before Hermione comes," she motioned for him to sit, and took her seat on the other side of her desk. Harry did so, trying to understand why everyone was acting so alienated towards him. It was like they were walking on eggshells around him. None were really showing much emotion towards him. Had so much really changed? Had they all changed?

"Harry," began Professor McGonagall. "After you and Voldemort vanished through the rift that was created, and we won the battle over the many Death Eaters, there was a long period of pure misery for many of your friends. Hermione and Ron particularly." She paused for a moment, Harry feeling very confused. "Harry, twelve years ago - two weeks after that final battle - you emerged from that Rift."

"What?! But - Professor, there was no way -" But McGonagall raised a hand to silence him.

"At the time, we truly believed it was you. We never thought to administer a Veritaserum test on him, or anything like that. Wee just took his word, and accepted his story that he was you, and had defeated Voldemort in a place through the Rift, and had now returned.

"It took us two months before we realized that something wasn't right. Everyone was discussing things that took place at Hogwarts during their years. Your impersonator said something odd, that didn't correspond with what everyone else remembered. Ronald Weasley then began noticing things about this impersonator that weren't like the way you usually acted.

"Eventually, he was confronted, and captured. It turned out to be Lucius Malfoy, under the Polyjuice Potion. It had gone unnoticed that he wasn't among the dead, and we eventually extracted from him that he had plans to kill many of us, as soon as we began to trust him. He is now dead." She stopped, letting Harry soak all this in, before saying one last thing. "That story goes much deeper, but that's the short summary."

Harry sat quietly, thinking. Lucius Malfoy, pretending to be me, so he could kill everyone left. I'd bet my life Voldemort planned that one as back up. "Is that why everyone was acting that way, when I entered the school?" he asked.

McGonagall nodded. "You will find, Harry, that many things have changed in twelve years. Even if only five years passed for you."

~~

A/N: Okay, you know the drill. You do, don't you? You've forgotten? Alright - we'll review it once more. I write the story, you read the story, you click the button down to your left, and tell me what you liked/hated/found amusing/thought should be changed/was wrong/etc, etc, etc. Got it? Now, let's out that plan into action!