Title: Bitterness and Redemption

Rating: M

Spoilers: Books 1 to 6. It will not follow canon completely as I will not base my story and plot on the horcruxes.

Summary: From your abyss you are brought to our land for salvation. Harry finds himself in a world where everything is different yet still the same. What is Harry to do? Alternate Universe!

Disclaimer: I own nothing. Harry Potter and all the characters associated with him is the property of JK Rowling. No money is made of this.

Chapter 2

Confusion

The sound of soft voices filled his ears. Thanks to his training, Harry was able to contain the blind panic he felt as he woke. Evening out his breathing, Harry strained his ears to listen to the conversation he could hear.

"He's just fainted the poor boy. Just look at how skinny he is, he can't be older than 15. But where did he meet Severus? How did he meet Severus, I thought you had said he was missing. Oh, the poor boy, he has a few scars on his back that I can see has been there for a while, and that one on his forehead; I wonder where he got that?"

Harry had at first thought that it was Madam Pomfrey speaking but after that last part of her speech, he wasn't so sure anymore. I wonder where he got that? She wonders where I got it? Er, hello, Boy-who-Lived here. Savior of the wizarding world. Bane of Voldemort's existence, any other names you would like? Okay, now I'm going crazy, talking to myself and all.

Harry was just about to open his mouth and ask what the hell was going on when he heard the voice of the second person. A voice he had thought he would never hear again. The last few hours before he lost conscience came rushing up to him. Snape. Snape alive. Snape in Riddle manor. Voldemort. Or, well, what's left of Voldemort but I'll worry about that later. Then, Dumbledore. Dumbledore who had died by the end of Harry's sixth year. Dumbledore alive and well and all twinkling! What had he been twinkling at? He's dead. He shouldn't be able to twinkle at anything or anyone.

Maybe I really am going crazy. Yeah, that's it. I'm crazy. How about booking me a room right there with Lockhart? NO, I did not just think that. I DID NOT! Okay, crazy isn't the word. I'm beyond crazy, beyond help if I want to share a room with Lockhart!

"…say that he will be okay? He will make a full recovery? Severus has always been stubborn and I'm sure that he will again fight with all he has to make a quick recovery. I really hope that boy will wake up soon, I want to thank him for saving Severus from wherever he had been." Harry could hear Dumbledore moving towards his bed and decided that if someone was playing a trick on him to think that Dumbledore was still alive, well, he would just have to shock that person into pissing his pants.

Faster than anyone in the room could see, nevermind react, Harry was up on his feet with his wand pointed between Dumbledore's eyes. Harry could hear Poppy gasp from his right and an indrawn breath from his left. He had not realized that there were three other people beside him in the room. He had thought that it was just Dumbledore, or whoever was impersonating him, Madam Pomfrey and himself in the room. Well, just one more person, no biggie.

The twinkle in Dumbledore's eyes had dimmed to a barely flickering light. Just as he was about to open his mouth Harry cut him off.

"Who are you!"

Shock registered on Dumbledore's face. Harry could see that the person in front of him was debating with himself whether to just answer the question or interrogate Harry first. Well, Harry made that decision for him by poking his wand in the man's chest.

"I am Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts school of….."

"Witchcraft and Wizardry" Harry cut him off "yeah, yeah I know who Albus Dumbledore is, but you are not him!"

The vehemence with which he spoke caused Dumbledore to step back once.

"I assure you young man that I am Albus Dumbledore. The question here is; who are you?"

Gaping like a fish was certainly not becoming of Harry. But he couldn't help it. Him, they wanted to know who he was. They didn't know who Harry-bloody-Potter was. Where in the world were they? Was Harry even on earth at this time?

Closing his mouth with a snap when he saw Dumbledore's eyes begin to twinkle again (he HATED that twinkle) he answered with a sigh.

"Harry, sir. Just Harry"

"Well Harry. Now that that is out of the way, could you please tell me how you had come to be at Hogwarts and with, I might add, Professor Snape along with you?"

"Snape. I had forgotten about him. But, was that really Snape. Yes, of course it was. No one could sneer like that except for him." Harry didn't realize he was speaking out loud until he saw the amused look Dumbledore was giving him.

"Oh, er, well you see, I woke up in this dark room. I didn't know where I was. I had fallen asleep in my rooms but when I awoke, I was in this cell with no windows and no light. With a lumos I was able to illuminate the room and almost fell over Snape. He was on the floor, lying in a small bundle. I couldn't believe it was him when I saw him. Well, you are here in front of me and that is just as unbelievable so I guess I will skip over all my disbelief. We talked for a while and then he told me we were in Riddle Manor. RIDDLE MANOR! And to top it off, he told me that he had come there by summons from Voldemort (ignoring all the gasps he heard, he was quite used to that, he continued), yes Voldemort, who is supposed to be dead. But well, he never could stay dead for long could he. No, he just had to come back and make my life more of a living hell than it had been."

Pausing for breath Harry looked up and saw an expression he had never thought he would see on Dumbledore's face. Gob smacked. That was the only way he could describe it. Completely, utterly, gob smacked.

"Sir, are you alright?" Harry was beginning to get fidgety now. What had he said? Yeah sure it was a surprise that Voldy was back again but so was the fact that Dumbledore and Snape had somehow come back from the dead.

Receiving no answer, Harry took a look around him. Madam Pomfrey was standing there with terror filled eyes. Behind her Harry could see that her office was open and when he took another look he could see the calendar on the wall. It said July 1997. It was July yes, but 1997? It was 1999. Had she forgotten to replace her calendar for two years running now? No, Harry had seen the calendar not a month ago and it had had the correct date then.

Something weird was going on and he was going to do his best to figure out just what that was.

Turning his head to his right so as to identify the other person in the room, Harry froze on the spot. A face he had seen in photographs. A face he saw whenever dementors came too close to him. A face he had once seen in the Mirror of Erised. A face he had thought he would never see again except in death, was before him now.

Sparkling Emerald green eyes met his and he found that he was not the only one who gasped. The shock on the woman's face soon turned into fury and Harry was hard pressed not to back down.

Who knew that eyes could convey such emotions so strongly?

"Who are you?" Harry really didn't like the snarl that accompanied her voice. She had clearly spent too much time in Snape's company.

"Who do you think you are?" Harry countered her "parading in a body of a dead woman. Not the best course of action to take really. You might have been more convincing if you decided to pose as Moning Mertle, she at least, had been stuck here on earth since about 1950 and I might just have been able to believe that she had found a way to re-enter her body with a spell or something. But to pose as Lilly Potter, really, you death eaters have got to come up with something better."

Harry could see that they were surprised. What he didn't know was if they were surprised that he knew his own mother's name, for she sure looked surprised that he knew her name, or that he had accused them of being death eaters. Well, they were, weren't they. That's the only logical explanation there is. Oh, where is Hermione when you need her?

"Excuse me young man. If I may, since you already know Lilly here's name I will skip that introduction. This fine lady here is Madam Pomfrey and as I'm sure you already know. The patient on the bed behind you is Severus Snape. And I can assure you that not one of us is a death eater posing as someone else."

Harry was looking at Dumbldore skeptically. Yes sure, there was Snape he had saved from Voldy's clutches. And Harry was almost certain that it really was Snape. Then there was Dumbledore, alive and well right before him with that damnable twinkle at it again. But Lilly Potter, now that was a bit harder to believe. His mother had been dead for the past 18 years so please, forgive him for being skeptical.

"Okay, if you are not death eaters, could you please explain to me how it is that not one but suddenly 3 (with Voldemort 4) people had suddenly come back from the dead?"

The confusion was clear on all three faces. Well, it was worth a try. Harry reasoned with himself.

"I'm afraid I don't understand the question young man. Who do you think had died? And when?"

Harry was about to answer when the door to the hospital wing opened.

The wand which had all this time been pointing at Dumbledore was quickly pointed at the entrance to the wing.

For the second time that day Harry was gaping like a fish. Tears sprung to his eyes and he was hard pressed not to let them fall.

In a whisper with emotion that spoke more than words Harry uttered only one word.

"Moony"

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Remust Lupin opened the door to the hospital wing. He had come to collect his monthly supply of the Wolfsbane potion. As he entered he saw a sight that would stay in his mind for quite a while.

There stood Albus Dumbledore with quite a curious expression on his face. Poppy had a look of confusion mixed in with terror on her face and Lilly stood with an expression that should not have been possible at all. It was a look of both hatred and hope. What she was hoping for was beyond him but he would ask her later.

The last person standing in the room was quite a sight. A boy whom looked no older than fifteen stood with his wand pointed right at Remus. His eyes held so much emotion that Remus just wanted to comfort the young man, even if he didn't know him.

The whisper was very soft but with the ringing silence in the hospital wing it was quite easy to hear.

Just one word.

"Moony"

Remus Lupin stopped dead in his tracks. There was only about two hand full of peoples who knew his nickname and the young man in front of him was not one of them.

The eyes which looked so much like Lilly's conveyed both hope and longing in them.

"How do you know that name?"

Shocked disbelief quickly replaced the hope and longing.

"Moony? Don't you remember me? It's Harry."

The hope with which the boy spoke broke Remus's heart. It was as if he was longing for his father to return. Or a best friend that was long lost.

"I'm sorry, but I don't know who you are. How do you know my name?"

Whatever reaction he had expected was not what he received. Tears spilled from the boy's eyes. His face held such hurt confusion that it was all he could do not to just put his arms around the young man. Yes, Remus could see that he was indeed a young man and not a boy. His eyes told that he had gone through what no 60 year old man should have gone through in his lifetime.

Before anyone could say anything else they heard a raspy voice calling to Dumbledore.

Realising that it was Snape who was waking up, everyone's attention moved to him.

"Albus, he's back. He's definitely back and he doesn't trust me anymore. I don't know how, but a young man got me out of the cell." His voice was horse and cracking and before he could continue, Poppy thrust a potion in his hands.

"Drink. I will not have you exhausting yourself by trying to talk when you can't really use your voice. What on earth happened to you Severus?"

The answer, surprising everyone, came from the boy.

"I would hazard a guess that he had suffered quite a number of Cruciatus curses and by the looks of things a few cutting curses as well. The cause for his voice failure would be the prolonged exposure to the cruciatus. I know for a fact that Voldemort favors that curse above all else. Except maybe Avada Kedavra."

Once again everyone was looking at Harry with horror. How on earth did this boy know what curses Voldemort favored? And the fact that he said his name!

"Oh, you're here I see. And just what in the world were you thinking talking to the Dark Lord like that? You really have a death wish don't you?" Harry could see that even thought he had said it with contempt and a sneer only Snape could execute, there was an underlining awe in his voice.

Was Snape impressed? Impressed with him, Harry? The world was ending. Gather your belongings and move into the nearest, deepest pit you can find. The world was definitely ending!

"Well, since he had tried to do that quite a few times already I really don't see the big deal. So, he was going to come after me. Again. Not as if I'm not used to that. He's been after me since before I can remember!"

Okay, these looks was beginning to get irritating. Didn't they have any other expression except gob smacked? Maybe if he said BOO real loud they would get another expression on their faces. He wasn't sure it would work, but really, anything to just get THAT expression off their faces.

"What!"

"Exactly who are you?" There was no sneer, no scowl and no underlining emotion Harry could detect from Snape. Just a curious confusion.

Did they really not know who he was? Was he even Harry Potter? Yes, he was, there was no way that he could have dreamed up all that had happened to him. And the pain of the deaths of his friends was too real to be fake or a dream. So, no, he really was Harry Potter and they really DIDN'T know who he was.

Well, guess I should just tell them.

Maybe if I tell them my name THAT would change their expressions. For he, sure as hell had been more than a little surprised to find all of them alive and well. What would they do if they heard is name. Had Lilly Potter ever been pregnant with Harry Potter in this weird and wacky world that Harry now found himself in. That's it! He was somehow in another world! There was no other explanation. Was there other world's? Guess there is, for I am in one!

Well, let's find out if there was another Harry Potter in this world.

"My name is Harry James Potter. Son of Lilly and James Potter." Harry heard a thud from his right and could only guess that his 'mother' had fainted. If Remus's complexion was anything to go with, he was soon going to join her on the floor.

Well, I guess I had accomplished one thing.

They're not sporting that irritating expression anymore!

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A bit shorter but I'll try to update again soon.

I've decided that I'm going to make this a romantic comedy. Not sure who Harry will end up with but it will most probably NOT be my own character. If you want him to end up with someone specific, tell me. Doesn't really matte if it's man or woman as I will not write any graphic scenes, so please tell me, who should I pair him with?