10/29/03: Here's the next chapter.  Oh, I forgot to say before, but since I'm posting these fairly quickly, I only re-read my chapters once.  Please excuse any minor grammar mistakes; it's either suffering through those, or waiting a couple extra days for updates. 

Thanks to everyone for reviewing, I hope you enjoy!

10. Slytherin Past

Harry found the empty classroom without trouble and walked inside.  He was pleased to find Hermione already there, studying at one of the desks.  Harry smiled at her, then turned around and put a locking charm and silencing charm on the door - no need to make it easy to be interrupted again.

"Hi Hermione," Harry said.  "I hope I haven't kept you waiting."

Hermione started packing up her books.  "Hi Harry.  Not at all, just getting some studying done while I waited."  Harry smiled at his friend.  "So, what do you want to know?" she asked, getting right to the point.

Harry shrugged uncomfortably.  He sat at the desk beside her, looking at the empty blackboard at the front of the classroom.  "Everything, I guess.  I'm getting more and more memories, but I still can't see the big picture.  I want to know everything about me."

It was Hermione's turn to shrug uncomfortably.  "Well, I'm not quite sure what to tell you.  I don't really know a whole lot about you-"

Harry shook his head and turned to look at her.  "Please, Hermione.  You knew more about me when I was eleven, and you definitely know more about me now.  I just want to know why everyone's so…afraid of me."

Hermione face grew sympathetic as she saw the obvious distress on Harry's face.  She placed a comforting hand over Harry's.  "Well, alright.  I'm not sure where to begin, though…"

"Try at the beginning," Harry said with a smile, remembering Hermione's own advice.

Hermione smiled.  "Okay then, at the beginning. Well, the years here aren't nearly as exciting as yours, except for second year which seems about the same.  I first met you on the Hogwarts Express.  I was helping Neville look for his toad, and you and Ron Weasley were sitting in the same compartment."

Harry nodded thoughtfully.  "Yes, I think that part's the same.  You came in and fixed my glasses, right?" (A/N: did that happen in the book?  I remember it from the movie, but I only own the fifth book so I can't check.)

"Right," she said.  "Anyways, we arrived at Hogwarts and were sorted.  The hat seemed to take forever with you though, and finally it placed you in Slytherin.  It was so silent at first, everyone was shocked, until Slytherin house started cheering.  I was surprised that most of the teachers looked shocked as well, since they're not supposed to care."

Harry sat quietly, letting his mind wander through his memories; Hermione recognized his pensive look and gave him time to remember.  Harry found that he only had one set of memories up to being sorted; in either world, Hagrid found Harry, he shopped in Diagon Alley, and he sat with Ron on the Hogwarts Express.  Then he was sorted, and his two separate lives began.  But why?  Why Slytherin?  Why didn't Harry beg to not be in Slytherin?  Again, Harry let his mind remember freely.  He thought back to the conversation with the Hat; he remembered being told he would do well in Slytherin.  He remembered thinking that…that…

Suddenly, the answer came to him.  "The Dursleys!" he cried aloud.  Hermione looked at him in surprise, startled by his sudden outburst. 

"The what?" she asked.

"The Dursleys!  It's their fault I'm in Slytherin!" Harry said, pacing the room.

"I'm sorry, Harry.  I don't understand.  Who are the Dursleys?"

Harry stopped his manic pacing to look at her.  He saw the obvious confusion in her eyes and reminded himself that this Hermione probably never heard his stories about his hated Aunt and Uncle and their whale of a son.  He retook his seat beside her.  "The Dursleys are my Muggle relatives, my mother's sister's family."  Hermione gasped.  "You didn't know my mother was a muggle-born, did you?"  Hermione nodded her head.  "Well, she was.  When Voldemort – oops, really sorry about that Hermione – killed my parents, Dumbledore sent me to live with them.  They were absolutely horrid.  They hated me; they always made me feel unloved, like a burden, and they kept me locked in a cupboard underneath the stairs.  That's where I lived for the ten years before I came to Hogwarts." 

Hermione looked aghast.  "I'm so sorry Harry."

Harry continued.  "In my world, I didn't want to be in Slytherin because You-Know-Who was in Slytherin, and I didn't want anything to do with him.  But in this world, I…I must have hated the Dursleys so much!  The hat told me Slytherin could help me achieve my goals, and at the time, revenge on the Dursleys was my only goal.  That's why I accepted being placed in Slytherin."  Harry slumped in his seat, suddenly feeling exhausted.  One simple decision changed so much.  After a moment, Harry spoke again.  "So, what happened next?"

Hermione cleared her throat.  "Um, well, you kicked our butts in Quidditch, that's what," she said, eliciting a smile from Harry.  "First year went along normally, and we tied for best marks.  Then, at the end of the year, we found out Dumbledore died and You-Know-Who returned," she added sadly.

Harry nodded.  "That's right.  You-Know-Who came back.  In my world, he kept his return a secret for a year, before making an appearance.  The wizarding world at-large has only been dealing with his return for a few months."

"Well, he's been around for four years now," Hermione said grimly.

Harry waited, but it didn't look like Hermione was going to continue. Harry needed to know what's been happening, so he gave her a little prod.  "Hogwarts seems mostly the same.  I would have expected some kind of…upheaval by Voldemort's return.  I mean, even the children of Death Eaters are still here."

Hermione looked at him strangely.  "Like who?"

Harry shrugged.  "Well, there's Malfoy, of course.  Then Crabbe, Goyle, and Nott.  But those are the only ones I recognized."

"Recognized?"

"In fourth year, er, my fourth year, when I was kidnapped, You-Know-Who called his Death Eaters using the Dark Mark, and they appeared where I was being held."

"So…do you know who else is a Death Eater?" Hermione asked.

"Well, sure.  There's Avery, Jugson, Macnair…and then the ones who broke out from Azkaban, like Dolohov and Lestrange," Harry said bitterly.

"Avery, Nott, Macnair…just like we thought…" Hermione said to herself.  But Harry heard her.

"We?  Who's we?"

Hermione looked at him surprised, then flustered.  "Um...nothing.  Er, just a few us a Gryffindors…" she said.

"Hermione, you forget that I spent the last five years being your best friend.  I know when you're lying."

"Please Harry, don't ask…"

Harry looked into her eyes, all of a sudden an image flashed before his mind: McGonagall, the Weasleys, Tonks, Moody…  "It's the Order, right?  The Order of the Phoenix?" he asked excitedly.

Hermione looked ashen.  "No!" she said in a high-pitched voice.  "It's not the Order…it's…"  She looked at Harry and seemed to realize that somehow, he knew.  "How did you…?" she asked weakly.

"In my world, I knew all about it.  Dumbledore was the head, and Lupin, Tonks, Mad-Eye Moody, Kingsley Shacklebolt, all the older Weasleys-" 

Hermione's face registered her surprise as Harry ticked off the names of the members of the secret society.  "Have..have you told anyone?" she interrupted.

Harry looked a bit insulted.  "Of course not!  Why would you think that?"

Hermione stammered a bit.  "Well, I mean…you're in Slytherin…"

Harry stood.  "Voldemort killed my parents," he said firmly, ignoring Hermione squeak at hearing the name.  "I will do everything in my power to defeat him," he finished, thinking of the Prophecy.   "How do you know about the Order?" Harry asked, realizing that even in his own world, they were not allowed officially into the Order.

"I was recruited last year.  A lot of the Gryffindors are in the Order, and a few of the Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws too."

"In my history, they wouldn't let us into the Order.  We were too young."

"You-Know-Who's been back for a number of years here.  Maybe they thought we were needed." 

Harry thought a moment and then nodded in agreement.  "Please Hermione, tell me more about You-Know-Who.  What's he been doing since his return?  Why aren't things more…hectic?"

Hermione took a deep breath.  "Well, since his return, You-Know-Who's been mostly consolidating his power in Eastern Europe.  It's starting to look like Gr-Grindelwald all over again."  Hermione shivered slightly.

"Grindelwald?" 

Hermione shivered again and then fixed Harry with a look.  "Honestly, don't you pay attention in History of Magic?"

Harry shrugged.  "I guess in either world, Binns is too boring for me to stay awake," he said with a smile.

Hermione chuckled.  "Grindelwald started by consolidating his power in Germany, then reached out to try and conquer all of Europe.  Most historians think his downfall was trying to work with the Muggles, a mistake You-Know-Who isn't repeating, at least for now."

Harry nodded his understanding as memories starting filtering through, memories of news clippings about Voldemort's latest activities and the heated debates in the hallways and the Great Hall between Slytherins and Gryffindors.  "So, with You-Know-Who on the Continent, we've been mostly left alone?"

Hermione shrugged.  "You-Know-Who still attacks us every now and again, as if to remind us that we haven't been forgotten.  He makes small terrorist strikes around the world while he builds his power base."

Harry and Hermione sat quietly, each lost in their own thoughts and memories.  "Well, that tells me about Vol, er, You-Know-Who.  What about me?" Harry asked.

Hermione thought a moment.  "I'm not sure about you."

"I thought we already discussed this, Hermione."

"No.  It's not that I don't know about you, your past.  I just don't know why you did the things you did.  But there is a lot of speculation."

"Why don't you tell me what I did, and then why you think I did them," Harry suggested.

Hermione nodded.  "Well, academically you're at the top of the class, tied with me," she said begrudgingly.  Harry smiled inwardly at her irritation at not being at the top by herself.  "Except that…well…you've always seemed very interested in the Dark Arts."

"Yeah, I thought so," Harry said.  "I realized in Defense class today that I seemed to know a lot about it," he added glumly.

"Yes, well, that's one of the reasons why people are…weary of you.  That, and the incidents."

"Incidents?"

Hermione nodded.  "In second year, there was that whole Chamber of Secrets thing.  Then, when you rescued Ginny, it only increased the rumors.  And then there's the dueling club."

"We have a dueling club?  In my world, we only had one in second year."

"That's right.  Professor Lockhearte started a dueling club, but he ran off right before the end of second year, something about stress he said.  When Professor Scott arrived, he reinstated it."

"So, what happens in the dueling club?"

Hermione shrugged.  "You always win.  Even against seventh years, even when outnumbered three against one, you always win.  And you usually use spells we've never heard of, spells that are borderline dark magic."  Harry nodded, understanding his lack of fear when confronted by nine Gryffindors.  "And then," Hermione continued, "there's the fact that bad things always seemed to happen to people who made you angry."

"Bad things?"

Hermione nodded.  "Bad things," she said, clearly not intending to finish.

Harry put his head down on the desk.  "I don't seem to be a very nice person," he said.  "So, the other big question: why?"

Hermione looked reluctant to answer.  "I guess there are two main theories: that you want to join You-Know-Who, or that you want to replace him."

Harry found that he took the news rather well.  In fact, as he thought about it, he realized the truth of the statement…this Harry agreed with Voldemort's stance against Muggles, but he would never serve the man who killed his parents.  The Harry of this world wanted to replace Voldemort.  But no one, not even the Slytherins, knew that.

A/N: Yay, no cliffhanger!  They have more to talk about, but nothing exciting, and this chapter was getting long anyways.  Next chapter – things start to develop between our Harry and Hermione.  I wasn't actually planning on getting those two together until the end, like in my other story, but they just couldn't stay away from each other!  So, prepare yourself for upcoming fluff!

Romm: true, and Harry's a bit too scary to have stalkers :)

crazed: sorry about the wussy Draco.  I'll explain more about why I made him so soft in an A/N later; but don't worry, he'll be more…recognizable as we get closer to the climax.

ears91: Hopefully everything makes sense now: in both world's, everything's the same until he gets sorted, which of course changes everything afterward.

naughty little munchkin: you better study hard if you've got that short of a memory!  Maybe I should stop updating for a while until your done with your exams ;)  Oh, and thanks for popping over and reading my other story :D