Dumbledore's Office- Our World, 1996
Recovering from his fall, he looked around. This was Dumbledore's office, as he remembered it in second year. Still full of strange objects and a perch were the phoenix would have been. He sighed relief. The phoenix wasn't there, and if it was, he would have surely been found and caught. He dusted himself off. He saw a copy of the Prophet, which at first made him think he was hallucinating. The Prophet had been dismantled and rebuilt as his privately owned company, made to print the "truths" of the Wizarding worlds, instead of those outrageous stories that he was overstepping his boundaries. The man who wrote that article disappeared rather mysteriously three weeks later.
He scanned the date: September 9, 1996. The date was still the same the last time he checked. However, these headlines seemed preposterous. Lucius Malfoy pleads insanity, Dementors seen near the Americas, Boy Who Lived greets New Minister- WHAT? He almost screeched at this outrage. That name had been outlawed and erased from historical archives. Anyone who called him that would be sentenced to life in Azkaban without trail. Not that there was a Wizengamot anymore. He read further:
"Our new Minister was surprised to find young Harry Potter
catching up with her for a surprise visit.
Representatives claimed that business was "casual, though there was
lengthy discussion regarding new Auror recruits, and what was to
be done about the rising threat of You-Know-Who and his followers,
publicly made know to us three months previously by disgraced
Ex-Minister Cornelius Fudge.
Harry James Potter is starting his sixth year at Hogwarts and is currently in Gryffindor House and Top Seeker for his Quidditch team."
He sat down for a moment, trying to figure out all this new information. A new Minister? Voldemort a threat? HARRY POTTER, A GRYFFINDOR? It then hit him. His other Choice, of course! Remembering the riddle, prophecy thing, he tried to put the pieces together:
You've tried to take an unwelcome gift
Now the powers here must shift
Worlds connected, once apart
Lion or Serpent must devour heart
Seven weeks time you've got to take
To destroy the other in your wake
Two become One, see your voice
Your path entwined with the Other Choice
So it all made sense. The other Harry had to die in order for him to live. Only seven weeks time? He needed four to construct a perfect plan, and the other three to recruit henchmen to do the work for him. He would need to find his "Master" again, but this would be difficult. His identity was out in the open in this world, and everyone in it was after him. Besides, where would he find one half of himself?
His thoughts were interrupted as he heard footsteps coming up to the office. He quickly swirled, the only way to activate his cloak, which only turned invisible at his will.
The door swung open. He took a gasp. Who else to enter but the former mirror image of himself. Harry James Potter. Defenseless. Unsuspecting. Perfect.