Chapter 5

Erin woke up. Rubbing her eyes, she got up immediately, as usual. She looked to her clock and cursed. It was early, too early.

Erin walked downstairs. As she got to the hallway on the second floor, something made her stop in her tracks. She could hear anxious whispers coming from her parents' room. She tiptoed towards it and peeked in through the barely open door. Her father was pacing around in front of the bed, where her mum was sitting, holding her head in her hands.

"We can't send him back there Lily, it's mad! There's got to be another way we can get Harry back without having to send this Harry into the hands of a murderous villain in that other world! They're both our sons! What if we could get Harry back here and keep this Harry here, too? Anything's possible, right? We're wizards, we can do magic, for Merlin's sake! It's got to be possible!"

Lily shook her head and lifted her head. "James, you know we can't do that. The whole prospect of alternate realities is that there can't be two of the same person in the same world. That's why when Harry got here our Harry was transported over there."

James swore.

Erin frowned. What in the name of god were they talking about? They mentioned Harry's name more times than was necessary in each sentence. None of what they said had made any sense to her. Our Harry? This Harry? They were almost talking as if there were two Harry's!

Erin tiptoed away from the door and headed towards Harry's room. She was surprised to find the door wide open. Her brother was sitting on his bed, hugging his knees to his stomach. He was looking at something. Erin squinted. It was a photo album.

"What are you doing?" she asked her brother suspiciously. Harry jumped.

"Er– I was just – you know…" he gestured helplessly.

"Right… Harry, I just overheard mum and dad talking, they're being awfully strange! They were talking about you…" she trailed off, her eyes narrowing in thought.

Harry looked uncomfortable. He avoided her eyes and went back to looking at the album.

"What's going on Harry, I'm not stupid, you know. I noticed you were acting strangely yesterday at breakfast. And now you're looking through photo albums, for crying out loud!" exclaimed Erin, grabbing her brother's hand and pushing herself onto the bed next to him.

"Nothing's going on… I'm just not feeling very well, that's all!" he said defensively. He didn't think his parents would want his siblings to know about all this. And personally, he didn't want them to know. He was quite sure Mark would be too young to understand anyway.

"Not feeling well? Well, that's not what it sounded like when mum and dad were talking about you earlier! They were saying our Harry this, this Harry that…"

But before Harry could come up with an answer, Lily and James came into the room. They stopped in their tracks when they saw Erin there and exchanged looks. James shrugged. Lily nodded, took a deep breath, and told Erin to remain seated.

"Why?" asked Erin, perplexed.

"Because, this is going to take a while," answered James.

It had taken two hours, but Erin had finally come to believe what her parents- with occasional input by Harry- had been trying to tell her. Her brother Harry had switched places with a Harry from another world, who was now sitting next to her.

"So you've never met Mark or me?" she asked him, for good measure.

"No, I haven't," answered Harry.

"Well then… Er- you know my name's Erin… I'm fifteen– don't give me that look, I know I don't look it. In all fairness, you don't look seventeen either," she said, grinning.

"Well, you should see what I really look like. In my world, I mean. I suppose the past couple of years haven't exactly helped… I guess I must look pretty worn out over there, huh?" he mused, a faraway look in his eye.

"I'll bet you do… can't imagine a man as evil as Voldemort existing… Are you sure he tried to kill you when you were just one?" she asked incredulously.

"Yeah… you should see his supporters too… some of them are as bad as him. He's got this one Fenrir Greyback follower. He's a werewolf. He goes after children on the full moon- on purpose, too!" Erin gasped. Harry suddenly remembered something. "Hey –is Lupin a werewolf here, too?"

"Remus? Yeah, he's a werewolf alright. Why'd you ask?"

"Just curious," shrugged Harry. "Fenrir Greyback's the one who bit him, you know? He told me on Christmas. And at the end of the year, when Dumbledore– when he– you know… Anyway, Greyback was there, and he bit Ron's brother, Bill. And it wasn't even the full moon!"

Erin gasped once more. She gave Harry a compassionate look.

"I can't believe you don't even have mum and dad over there… and Sirius…" she shuddered at the thought. She loved her godfather dearly.

"So," said Harry conversationally. "In this world, how am I? As a brother, I mean." He thought of Ron and Ginny. "Am I overprotective?" he asked jokingly.

Erin laughed. "Yeah, you are! I went out with someone for the first time last year, and you nearly killed him when you found out! You started accusing him– something about a love potion…The row we had…I think we didn't speak to each other for about a month after that," she said.

"Seriously?" asked Harry, thinking that if he had a sister in his world, he would surely appreciate her too much to ignore her for so long. But then he remembered how back in fourth year he'd had that row with Ron, whom he considered more of a brother than a friend, and smiled knowingly.

By the time Harry and his sister got downstairs, Lily and James had already taken out half of the books from the library. The entire kitchen floor was covered with discarded books. James was mumbling while leafing through a big old book. Lily was frowning and reading out loud a section from another book. Erin coughed. They both looked up.

"What are you guys up to?" she asked.

"If you must know, we're checking to see what really happens when two people are transferred through magical layers leading to alternate worlds. But I don't understand a word of this anyway, I think we'd do better to go to Dumbledore as soon as possible," said James.

Lily shut the book she was holding, looking frustrated. "You're right, James, let's just write Dumbledore. I don't even think he's in Hogwarts right now, he said something about a vacation on the beach at the end of term," she said. Suddenly, as if remembering something, she turned to Harry. "By the way, Harry, you probably don't know this – I'm the new Charms teacher at Hogwarts. I just started two years ago, when Flitwick retired. Do you have Flitwick in your world?"

"Yeah, I do! Wow – you're a teacher at Hogwarts? So you teach me and Erin?" asked Harry, looking delighted and curious. "What do you do, dad?"

"I'm chaser for Chudley's Cannons, of course! The best one of them, too!" he said, looking proud.

Harry looked even happier than before at this piece of information. "Wow, wait till I tell Ron what you guys would be doing in my world if you weren't – you know…" he finished awkwardly. His parents looked depressed for a second but returned to their normal selves a moment later.

"So, Harry, how are you at quiddich? Our Harry's seeker and captain of the quiddich team at Hogwarts. Never lost a game!" said James proudly.

"I'm seeker and captain too, but I did lose a game once." James tried not to look surprised. Harry seemed to notice this, for he hurriedly added "But it wasn't really my fault, you see, it was the year Sirius escaped from Azkaban and they set up Dementors around the school- they showed up at the game." Lily and James looked frightened and repulsed by this piece of information. "Dementors at Hogwarts…" muttered Lily, shaking her head.

"I still can't believe people thought Sirius sold us out to Voldemort," said James.

"Yes, well, let's not dawdle. Harry, will you help me write the letter to Dumbledore? I'm sure Peter will manage to get it to him quite soon, he's really fast," said Lily.

"Peter?" asked Harry, looking doubtful. He'd been quite satisfied to hear that the Peter in this world had died of a wizarding illness five years ago.

"Yes, that's our owl's name," said Lily, looking at him apologetically.

"We should change his name," said James, looking a bit murderous. "Knowing what he would've done if there was a dark lord in our world… are you quite sure Peter did all of that?" James asked Harry for the tenth time since he'd heard the story. Harry nodded regretfully.

"Alright, alright James, there's no time to waste, who knows what our Harry's up to in that other world." She looked at Harry remorsefully. "We don't want to send you back, but at least you can handle yourself over there on your own, and you know what's going on. Our Harry's too mischievous for his own good, who knows what he'll do."

"No, you're right," said Harry. "Let's go write that letter."

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