The Woes of Harry Potter

Chapter Eighteen

Alternate Universes

Disclaimer: Nothing you might recognise belongs to me

Everyone slept in late the next morning. The ball had lasted until half past two this morning and it was a further hour before everyone returned to their common rooms and went to bed. However, there wasn't anything for the seventh years to actually be doing. The Graduation Ceremony wasn't until just before dinner. Hermione had been genuinely confused about the whole Graduation thing as she believed it to only be an American custom but when she consulted Hogwarts: a History she'd discovered that Hogwart's favoured Graduation and believed that it was a good way to end young witches and wizard's time at school and be released upon the Wizarding World.

Harry got out of bed at half past eleven and quickly got dressed. He hurried down to the common room and bagged the last remaining computer.

"Dobby!" he called.

Dobby appeared with a crack. "How can Dobby be helping Mister Harry Potter, sir? The Harry Potter who vanquished the Dark Lord all by himself!"

"Can you send me some breakfast up?" asked Harry, "I'm starving."

"Dobby will be right back, Mr. Harry Potter, sir."

Dobby disappeared and Harry just had time to log on and access the fanfiction site before he reappeared again, buckling under the weight of two loaded trays of food.

"Dobby has your food," said Dobby,

"How much did you bring?" exclaimed Harry, just as Ron came yawning down the steps,

"Ah breakfast! Excellent! Thanks Dobby!" he said.

Dobby beamed. "You's most welcome, sir. The great sir who helped the wonderful Mr. Harry Potter defeat the evil Dark Lord!"

"You know what, Dobby," said Ron, his ears red, "I really am going to miss you."

The elf's tennis ball eyes filled up with tears and he grabbed Ron's legs in a bone crushing hug. "Thank you Mr. Ron Weasley! Thank you! Never has Dobby been told he will be missed. Never! Thank you!"

"It's ok," said Ron, his entire face flushing, "well we better have breakfast now or it'll get cold!"

"Dobby will return when you have finished," said Dobby and disappeared once again.

The two boys looked at one another, laughed and dug into their breakfast.

"So have you found anything good?" asked Ron, through a mouthful of toast, about twenty minutes later,

"I'm a bit confused. There's these two letters-AU- that keep turning up in summaries and I have no idea what they mean!"

"Alternate Universe," said Hermione, from behind them, "ah breakfast is here. Good!"

"That makes sense," said Harry. He chuckled. "I love some of them. This one here has me disappearing with a cloaked stranger and not returning to Hogwarts for five years and when I return I'm like a lethal weapon!"

"Super Powerful Harry to the Rescue!" put in Ron. They all laughed.

"Aw look at this one!" gasped Ginny, stabbing at the computer screen with her finger, "It's so sweet! Harry is rescued from the Dursley's at age two. The same night Sirius is mysteriously broken out of Azkaban. How are the two related and who's the mysterious person in the background? AU."

"I take it that it's possibly Moony and I get to grow up with him and Sirius," said Harry. He sighed. "I wish that had really happened…"

Ginny gave her boyfriend a hug. "You're seventeen now. You never have to go back to them. No child should ever have to go through what you had to go through but it's over now and you've come through it stronger than ever and that's one of the reasons why I love you like hell."

Hermione and Ron found they had tears in their eyes as the young couple held one another. After about thirty seconds, Ron cleared his throat and they began looking for more amusing AU stories.

"Look at this one!" said Hermione, "Harry is abandoned when he is five years old and left to rot in the streets of London. A gang of homeless boys find him and take him in. Ten years later, meet the new Harry Potter."

"That sounds great! Let's read it…"

"No wait!" said Harry, suddenly, "Look at that one!"

Thanks to maliaphire, CherryIzzy, Andromeda 'Andy' Black, Hermoine-Hermine, the-geek, Silver Sailor Ganymede, someone, Queenlover, HGShipper, korrd, GaryLovesPickles, chaotic pink chocobo, bruisedpapaya, random person, I am a banana (erm… they're muggle computers and enchanted by Dumbledore), Piella (sorry I couldn't be arsed to write the ball, use your imagination or watch the ball clip from the GoF trailer), littleflower2004, john and nixinox.

Aha! What has Harry seen? Wait until next time to find out (it should be on Tuesday using my free periods). Only two chapters left!

Review please. Constructive criticism is gladly received.