OoOoO Chapter 4 - The Road So Far Here OoOoO

Dozens of eyes trained on Harry as Moody's question hung in the air. Your surname boy, is it Potter?

Moody stared at Harry avidly, and Harry looked back unblinking.

Lying wouldn't be wise. Not here, and not now. But could he tell them everything? Harry made a snap decision. "It is. My name is Harry James Potter," he lowered his head in a nod.

Jonathan flinched. He looked at his shoes, before he turning to his parents to look for confirmation.

James and Lily Potter stood together, hands tight in the other's palm, standing like statues in the room of quiet amazement. Harry peered at James across the room, breathing slowly. James stared back. He didn't look surprised. James met Harry's eye and a corner of the man's lips came up.

A knowing smile.

Heat simmered under Harry's chest and his nose itched at the sudden warmth. It was a smile. Half of a smile really, but it wasn't pity, anger, or an apology. It was a smile. Something that said hi, welcome back.

An answering twitch of Harry's lips automatically rose and the comfortable heat spread to the tips of his fingers.

He looked to the red headed woman on James arm, and his small smile fell away. Like a damp cloth over a fire, Harry's insides fizzled out and a pinprick of ice caught him deep in the stomach. Green eyes solely focused on him, she heaved in deep breaths that shook her shoulders. She looked at him like the world was breaking, like she'd been lied to her entire life and an unthinkable truth had been set before her without warning.

She grasped James tighter. Her hands shook in his and she leaned against him heavily like she couldn't stand her own weight. "I knew it," Lily broke out, her voice loud in the deathly silent room, "I knew you—you—"Lily shook her head, and tears fell from her face onto the floor.

Harry swallowed, his fingers gripping each other tightly. What could he do? This wasn't his mother. Not really. He couldn't comfort her; tell her it was alright, because It wasn't. Not for anyone. She was seeing the child she lost so many years ago, and he was seeing the family he never got to grow with. Harry opened his mouth to say something, but nothing came to mind that seemed right, so he closed it again and stared as Lily turned her head from him and cried into James's shoulder. Harry looked down, unsure of the silence that followed Lily.

"So you're him." Jonathan's voice was barely over a whisper. His wide hazel eyes, so colored like James's, gazed at Harry. His expression was crossed between disbelief, anxiety, a blind sort of happiness, and growing curiosity. It was so open that it made Harry stare right back just to watch the flicker of emotions slide into place every couple of seconds.

Lily's hiccupped silent sobs echoed to Harry's ears and he looked away from Jonathan back to Lily and James. He swallowed again. "Should I leave?" Harry asked.

James looked up, away from Lily, and shook his head. "She'll be okay, it's just…" he trailed off and looked off to the ground.

Harry nodded. "…a shock." Merlin did he know.

"But maybe," Dumbledore started, looking at James over his glasses, "it would be wisest if she left to collect herself."

James clenched like teeth like no that wouldn't be a great idea at all, but he nodded just the same. "Lily?" he asked softly, looking back down at his wife.

Lily shook her head and took a rapid amount of uneven, short breaths. "I'll be fine," she said, talking into James's shoulder. "I'll be fine. I just need… I just needed some time."

"You do not have to stay," Dumbledore said softly.

Lily looked up at him sharply. She opened her mouth like she was going to say something, but James's hand wrapped around her tighter, and her head fell on James's shoulder tiredly. "No Albus, I'll be fine. I'll stay."

"Are you quite sure?"

"Yes." The note of finality rang through the room and it seemed like an invisible starting flag for the rest of the wizards in the room. The tense silence evaporated as wizards and witches started conversing to each other under their breaths, looking at Harry from underneath eyelashes and at the corners of glancing eyes. Harry caught snippets of the quiet conversation around the room.

"..spell wrong. Didn't think it would work like..."

"Poor souls. Just look at the youngest..."

"...a kid. The Dark Lord won't be scared by a..."

From across the room, Harry watched as Dumbledore swished his robes around him and sat down lightly on a dark colored chair. He looked up, and Harry turned away before the man could make eye contact. Beside Albus, Moody slammed his staff down to the ground like a judge would with a gavel, calling attention to himself, and cutting off the growing voices. "Alright," he said gruffly, starting off. "So you're the son of James and Lily Potter. You have a twisted sense of what needs to be told boy, if you think that leaving out you're a child of a light family isn't our business."

Harry frowned. "It wouldn't matter if I was from a light or a dark family."

Moody scoffed, and others that Harry couldn't name in the extended room muttered under their breaths. The thick shadows of the ancient house darkened, and Harry's rising disbelief filled his voice.

"You took me from my home!" Harry raised his voice, and turned to both the familiar and unfamiliar faces around. "For what reason, or even how you've all done it is still a mystery. I'm standing in a different universe! Kidnapped." Harry stood up, and eyes followed him. "You say you want answers to Voldemort?" Various people around the room gasped and stared around wildly at the room as if the Dark Lords presence would walk through the walls at his mention. "I want answers on how to get home. I want to know exactly what you all agreed to when you did this and how to reverse it. I have my own life, my own world, and my own people who are missing me, probably going out of their minds in worry right now because of your actions. And until then, I don't have to do a damn thing, and that includes telling you about who my parents were."

"Were?" Remus asked slowly, coming into Harry's view of vision. Remus looked for the first time, scared of the answer.

Harry stopped short before he nodded shortly. "Were."

"My dear fellow," Dumbledore said calmly, pulling the attention back to the powerful wizard. "I believe that we have all started off on the wrong foot. Let us explain—"

"Just tell me how to get home," Harry said cutting the older man off.

"As the leader of the Order, I extend my apologies, but you must understand -."

"No," he shook his head. "I really don't."

"Harry-"

"No."

Albus smiled under the length of his beard. "While we have been fighting this war for the Light for quite some time, it has come to our attention, that recently, a standing point of power must arise," he said.

Harry retraced the words through his head and sighed. Like it or not, Harry already knew he was getting pulled back in to Dumbledore's life of chess. "What does that mean?"

"A window of opportunity has been prophesized for the Dark Lord to fa—"

"You pulled me here because of a prophesy?" Harry asked, horrified. Another one? Good Merlin, absolutely not.

"You're familiar with prophesies then?" Dumbledore asked, looking closely at Harry.

Harry wasn't stupid, he knew that look. Dumbledore had heard Harry's prophesy in Harry's world, and he had no doubt that he had heard the same one here. But what was he going to do? Lie? After everything he'd told Moody? No. No, he would just have to tread carefully. "Unfortunately."

Something in Dumbledore's eyes sparkled to life. "Interesting."

He probably just shouldn't have said anything.

Harry breathed a low sigh, pushing back the urge to just up and walk away from his old Headmaster. "And, what did this new prophesy say?"

Dumbledore smiled softly. "That in the next year and a half, the light would have the chance to right the balance once more by a man who had already done it in another life."

Harry's mind reeled. Right, so it was another prophesy about him. Wonderful. "And of course, you thought it would be a brilliant idea to just go and take what you needed then? Without asking or - I dunno, a warning first?"

"Well, no one expected… a child," Arthur Weasley stated from Harry's right. Harry glanced over to the red haired man and the older wizard raised his hands cautiously. "You have to understand, we thought we were getting the witch or wizard that had defeated the Dark Lord. We didn't purposely intend for the spell to go wrong, and for the consequences to be so…" Arthur looked to James and Lily. "…intense."

Harry wanted to sigh again. "The spell worked. Whatever you did, trust me Mr. Weasley, it worked. I am the wizard you called."

Arthur looked at him strangely. "It couldn't possibly have. The defeater of the Dark Lord in your world would have—"

"Is standing in front of you," Harry deadpanned. He turned to the doubting eyes around him. "If any of you were from my world, you would know that the downfall of Volde—oh for Merlin's sake, you-know-who, was over four months ago. It had taken place in Hogwarts, and that he died at the hand of the 'Boy Who Lived', one of the many very fine titles I've been gifted with since the original fall of you-know-who," Harry said with a blatant undercurrent of bitterness.

Arthur tipped his head at him, and the room exploded into voices all trying to talk to one another.

"So you completed the prophesy?" Dumbledore asked slowly, the swell of other voices quieting to let the older man be heard.

Harry nodded. "At a great cost."

"Wait," Jonathan said at the side of the room, thinking over the conversation. "What do you mean, the original fall? There was two? More?"

Harry opened his mouth, and then closed it. "No," he shook his head. "No, you first. I want to know how you called me from another world, and what it is you think I'm supposed to do."

Dumbledore leaned forwards in his seat, his eyes fixed on Harry. "When would you like to start?"

Harry's eyes shot around the room, searching for a familiar greasy black haired man, but didn't see him. Disappointed, Harry studied Albus with a heavy heart. Had he turned over completely in this world? Because Lily hadn't died, did Snape belong to the Dark Lord's will? "Let's start with the first prophesy. The one that predicted the downfall of the Dark Lord."

A heavy silence sat around the room after Harry's words and he felt something …off about it all. Dumbledore lowered his head sadly, like he had a great weight settle over his shoulders, and great many more decades deepened his wizened face. Others around the room traded sympathetic looks. No, something was very off. "When Sybil had first predicted the death of the Dark Lord, Severus Snape was outside the door, listening in, his mind already wrapped with promises from the Dark Lord," Dumbledore started calmly. "He reported back to his master about what he found, only half of the prophesy heard, and as suspected, the Dark Lord wished to have the child killed so his rein would never be threatened."

Molly Weasley rested her head against her husband's shoulder lightly and took a deep breath. Harry saw tears at the corners of her eyes and he turned away confused. Was she crying for him? For his death? Were the Potters and the Weasleys close in this world?

"Two children fit the description from the prophesy: Harry Potter born from Lily and James Potter, and Neville Longbottom born from Alice and Frank Longbottom." From beside the Headmaster, Minerva stared at a couple near the back of the room, holding tightly to each other. A round faced woman with short brown hair had her eyes closed in grief, and her husband with dark hair held her close around the middle with his arms completely enwrapping her.

Harry was confused. Were his parents close to the Longbottom family as well? Harry skimmed the faces around him. Where was Neville anyways? He was old enough to come to an— oh. Oh Merlin's beard.

"The Dark Lord, paranoid in his rise to power, ordered for not only the children of the Potters and the Longbottom's killed, but also every child born near the end of July. He could not accept the risk that one of the children in the non-magical word becoming a muggle-born and learning to rise against him. All over Britain, children's bodies were revealed untouched, but dead throughout Europe. There was a mass panic on both the muggle and wizarding communities. Most thought that it was a band of serial killers, or a sect of Satanists that somehow poisoned the children."

Harry felt a cold shiver pass through him. It made no sense.

"Is Neville dead here?" Harry asked quietly, unaware that he'd said it out loud. One of his best mates. Dead. Because of Voldemort.

"You know him?" Alice's clear voice cut through Harry's thoughts. Her eye were bright, but her expression was fierce. "Did he grow up smart and strong?"

Harry nodded silently. He wasn't lying. Neville was no longer the fat child people could pick on. He was taller than Harry with broad shoulders and deep set eyes that he had frequently heard Padma Patil call 'bedroom eyes'. He was to be given an Order of Merlin next month along with several other 'War Heroes' for his leadership in Hogwarts in his 7th year, and the destruction of Nagini, the horcrux. He was planning on his mastery in Herbology after an accelerated 7th year course again.

Harry nodded. "He did. He's one of the bravest friends I've ever had. One of the best of us," he said with a small smile for her. The woman choked on a laugh and looked up to her husband, resting her head against him again.

"As you can imagine, it was a hard time for everyone," Dumbledore said, recapturing Harry's eyes. "Even more so for those who were betrayed." Harry didn't have to look away to see James or Remus's face to know who Dumbledore was talking about. "But the Dark Lord's paranoia grew even further from the whispers of his inner circle. His thoughts grew more twisted as the bodies of the children he'd demanded dead rose in numbers. He no longer cared for just the children born in July. He wanted them all dead born in that year, so no one, and nothing could ever rise against him."

Harry's stomach tumbled and an unpleasant chill raced down his back. Voldemort had killed him here, fine, but every other child as well? Not just Neville or the other muggles. There were even more?

"He called his followers to him and ordered for every child, wizarding and muggle alike born that year - every child that could possibly attend Hogwarts in eleven years, to be killed and brought before him." Dumbledore looked to the Weasley family sadly. "Many were taken, and too many died before the aurors and the Order could stop him."

"Ron?" Harry asked looking to the Weasley's with wide eyes. "Ron's dead too?" The twins were the only ones who looked up and nodded at Harry.

Fred glanced at his ashen faced mother and leaned forwards. "Did you know him in yours too?"

Harry nodded blankly. "He's my best mate. Has been since first year," he said quietly. He and Ron were both dead here. Were they all? Seamus? Padma? Susan from Hufflepuff? "Hermione Granger?" Harry asked, his voice quiet. "Did she survive? She would have been a muggle born."

Dumbledore was silent for a moment, taking in Harry's anxious face. "I do not recognize the last name Mr. Potter. And if she indeed was muggle born, then there is a large chance that she was killed before she could attend Hogwarts, or before we could find her."

Harry took a deep breath and rubbed the back of his neck, suddenly exhausted. Ron, Hermione, and Neville all gone from this world. Voldemort really was a monster. "And then?" Harry asked. "What has he done since then?"

"He's completely taken over most of Europe," Remus answered for Dumbledore, crossing his arms in front of him and looking around the room. "All the 'dark' creatures the ministry once threw out and shunned to magical boarders turned to help you-know-who. He's named himself Emperor, and all who oppose him as domestic terrorists to his regime. The war for Europe officially began after the death of Harry Potter, and it's been back and forth for for nearly two decades. Unfortunately, that means that it's leaking through to the muggle world again."

"The muggles?" Harry asked, suddenly horrified at the mental images assaulting him from his imagination.

"He was surprised at the technology of what muggles could do when backed into a corner," Arthur answered with a tight smile. "But even the numbers of the Order cannot be everywhere at once."

Harry furrowed his eyebrows together confused. Did that mean…? "What about the Statue of Secrecy? Do muggles know of us then?"

Remus and Arthur traded glances. "No. Most of the populace doesn't," James said.

"But," Arthur started slowly, "some could not be shielded from the attempts of the Dark Lord."

"What does that mean?" Harry asked, becoming more confused. The muggles knew, but didn't know? Only some knew? Was there a mass panic? Was magic being prosecuted like people had feared?

"It means," someone new said from the dining room door, walking in and echoing steps against the wooden floor, "that Order members couldn't find all of the muggles and wipe their minds." Harry turned his head to the new voice and nearly choked when he found himself looking straight at Sirius Black.

Sirius, who looked healthier. Stronger. More grown up, but less haunted then he had been when he'd gotten out of Azkaban. His face wasn't as thin, his hair looked thicker and there was a tan glow about his face that suggested he'd been outside more than inside recently. He looked better than Harry had ever remembered seeing him. "Sirius," Harry breathed out.

Sirius gazed at Harry as he walked farther into the room, coming to a stop besides James and Remus. "Harry," he nodded slowly in greeting. He reached out his hand as if to shake it, but then put it behind his back and looked to Remus. "Remus sent me a message about your… trip. It's nice to finally meet you."

Something like a snitch seemed to be lodged in Harry's throat and he had to swallow a couple of times before he could return an answer. "And you, Mr. Black."

Sirius pretended a flinch. "Just Sirius please. Mr. Black was my father."

Harry nodded. "Sirius then."

Sirius grinned and looked around the Order. "So where were we?"

"We've been explaining to Mr. Potter the history of our world compared to his," Dumbledore explained. "We were just explaining the ministry's involvement."

"So you told him how about the civil war, and the Order?" Sirius asked.

Harry frowned. "What about the Order?" Looking around, Harry could already tell that the Order he had previously known in his life was completely different from this world. For one, there were much more members around the room. Just turning his head and doing a quick head could, Harry could tally more than fifty people in the magically expanded dining room. That, and he was sure some of these members weren't from Britain.

"As Remus has said," Dumbledore explained, "The War for the Light started when Harry Potter died in this world. His story spread across all of Europe, and you-know-who officially took over the British Wizarding Society. Those that opposed his rule had to ban together to stay alive."

"The Order of the Phoenix," Harry nodded along.

Dumbledore smiled. "Quite. So as time passed, and more people fell to his Death Eaters, the larger his resistance became. The Order of the Phoenix grew beyond the walls of Hogwarts and its own society."

Sirius gestured to the room of witches and wizards around. "It's an international cause now." He grimaced. "One of the leading."

Harry tried to come to grips with everything he was hearing.

James smiled. "So all of that basically, and then the witch hunters."

Harry's head snapped to the older wizard. "Witch hunters?" he asked. That wasn't something his world had. No, if the ministry had even the slightest suspicion that a muggle had gotten wind of the magical world, they would have been obliviated faster than most could get a muggle investigation. It wasn't right, but after the fall of Voldemort, no one wanted to deal with the possibility of another war. Even a muggle one.

Remus nodded. "Like Sirius said, Order members couldn't obliviate all of the muggles Voldemort had attacked in his early years."

"After initial international backlash, you-know-who has held some form of the Statue of Secrecy. He hasn't announced us to the muggle populous, at least not yet, but we're willing to bet that it'll be a future goal of his after he's conquered Europe," a blonde woman stated, coming from the back of the room and standing beside Sirius. She kissed him on the cheek in hello, and it was only then that Harry noticed the golden wedding ring on Sirius's finger. Sirius was married.

The blonde witch was vaguely familiar beside the reflection of his godfather, but Harry couldn't put an immediate name to her.

Remus followed up after the mystery woman's announcement. "There were just too many muggles that saw things previously. Some got angry and scared. Not the best two emotions to mix together, and they started a sort of …gang."

"A witch hunting gang?" Harry asked, mixed feelings sorting through him. "Do they hunt all witches and wizards?"

"Any they can get their hands on. Light or Dark side doesn't seem to matter to them," Sirius said, his arm around the mystery wife.

Harry breathed out. "That's… different. That didn't happen in my world. Not at all."

"It's only been recently that the muggles have gotten more aggressive," Gideon Prewett said.

Harry met the eyes of the red haired wizard. "I feel like there's more to that. What do you mean aggressive?"

Fabian shifted in his seat next to his brother. The laugh lines around his mouth deepened as he frowned. "Lucius Malfoy's youngest son was murdered two months ago by a sect of self proclaimed witch hunters. As he's one of you-know-who's favored Death Eaters, there was almost an all-out war."

Yes well, Lucius would call for that against muggles, especially if he thought something lesser than him had managed to kill his own blood. But youngest? Was it Draco? Or was it someone from this world that Harry's didn't have? "Youngest son? Lucius has two?" Harry asked.

"Three," Sirius corrected. "Draco, Rogan and Mathew. Mathew's death has sparked more muggle murders than we, or you-know-who's stack of 'aurors' for the statue of secrecy knows how to deal with recently."

Harry couldn't believe his ears. There was so much. So much was different from his world.

"So," Harry started, shaking his head. "There was no boy-who-lived here, the Dark Lord is try to take over the world, The Order is a bunch of resistance fighters, and muggle gangsters hunt who they think are wizards and witches. Is that all?"

Harry looked to Dumbledore for his answers, and the old wizard nodded. "It would seem that you have most of the information regarding our world." He raised an eyebrow at Harry. "Now would you tell us yours?"

Harry glanced around the room, looking over every face before he sighed. He was too wrung out with all the new information in his head to argue. "Yea, I guess it'd be for the best at the moment."

"How do we know—" Moody started to say, but Harry cut him off, thinking ahead of his old teacher's paranoia.

"Dumbledore has a pensive doesn't he? If you don't believe my words, you can believe my memories," he growled out.

Moody blinked like he was surprised. "That'll work."

"Fine," Harry deadpanned. He turned to Albus. "Would it be alright if we brought it here from your office? I'm sure we can …enlarge it for the rest of the Order as well."

Dumbledore looked over his glasses at Harry and smiled in his grandfatherly way. "Do you believe it would be faster than explaining it all here?"

Harry motioned to witches and wizards assembled. "That, and no one would have reason to doubt me." Harry didn't look at Moody, but he could feel the man's magical eye on the side of his face. "I just want to get back to my own home. As soon as this is all through, you can do with the information as you want. I don't really care."

There was a pregnant pause in the room, and Harry felt for some reason, that he must have said something off.

"You didn't tell him?" Mrs. Weasley said, sounding ill.

Harry's eyebrow came together. Didn't tell who what? He turned. "What?" he asked Mrs. Weasley.

Mrs. Weasley looked Harry straight in the eye and Harry nearly jumped back in surprise. Mrs. Weasley looked old, Harry suddenly thought. Her eyes were downcast, the wrinkles in her face seemed shadowed, and the weight of the world looked like it had hung on to Mrs. Weasley for far too long. "Mr. Potter," Mrs. Weasley licked her lips and breathed in deeply, "you can't leave. Not just yet."

Harry didn't understand. "I'm giving you what you wanted and then I'll be on my way. You can reverse the spell."

"Well," Mrs. Weasley sighed, her face falling.

Harry was a touch scared. "What?" he asked. "What?"

"It was a blood spell," Lily's voice answered, and Harry turned to her with a swelled throat. "Every active member in the Order gave one drop of blood. One drop to draw the runes, and with that one drop… it's a magically bound promise."

"What type of promise?" Harry's thoughts were in a whirl wind trying to piece together Lily's words, but in the darkness of Harry's subconscious, he knew, he just knew, he wasn't going to be able to come home for quite some time. Of course not. Why would anything be that easy?

"We asked for a warrior to defeat the Darkest of our Wizards in the runes. When we wrote it down in blood, it was a promise meant for the wizard coming through the veil. The wizard that comes through cannot go back until what he's promised is done. Until the Dark Lord falls in this time Harry, you cannot go back to your world." Lily looked away and clutched James's hand.

Harry's eyes took in the witches and wizards watching. "You've got to be kidding me," Harry said quietly. He snapped his gaze to Dumbledore, anger rushing through his veins and raising his voice. "And you agreed with this? This plan? To just rip someone away from their world, and expect them to be okay with being in a blood contract after the most dangerous Dark Lords in all of time?" Harry looked at him with unbelieving eyes. "Are you insane?"

"We had no choice Mr. Potter. The time of the prophesy is clearly at hand, and we needed the warrior that could save our world." Dumbledore's eyes shone under his glasses, but Harry didn't think it was from tears.

Harry felt dumbstruck. Another prophecy, another War. He shook his head. Not again. He couldn't. "I'm not your warrior. I'm just Harry."

"Just Harry did the impossible in his own world," Dumbledore said.

Visions of a crumbling Hogwarts flashed through his mind. A dying Snape. A dead Lavender Brown. Fred's unnatural stillness on his first home's stone floor. "I had a lot of help," Harry argued weakly.

"You would have help here," Dumbledore said back. "An entire organization of help."

No, Harry shook his head, had had help from people he trusted. He couldn't say the same for the people here. Not now. Maybe not ever. "I…" Harry shook his head again and sat back down on the chair behind him. "This is wrong." This was very wrong. He was never meant to be here, never meant to see his family again, the possibility of what his family could have been. Never meant to know what he'd lost.

The fight seemed to drain out of Harry as he thought about that. He realized he was stuck. He had no Hermione with him this time to tell him what to do, or no Ron to pull him up and push him to do something. He was on his own, and he had no idea to get himself out of this.

"Just..." He waved a hand at the air uselessly. He had to do something, even if it meant so he had time to think. "Get the pensive."

Dumbledore was the first to jump at Harry's tired words. "Of course," the old wizard nodded. "Sirius, if you would…"

Sirius stood up at his name, releasing his wife, and pulled Remus along with him easily. "We'll be back in a minute," he winked at Jonathan, trying to break the sour mood in the air. "Feel free to keep the time."

"Prat."

Sirius backed up against Remus dramatically and clutched at his heart. "You wound me."

Remus didn't even roll his eyes. He simple stepped past him, and Sirius made hurt eyes at him before they both disappeared in green flames at the end of the room.

Jonathan turned to look at him closely. "You know, I'm actually looking forwards to seeing what happened in your world."

Harry looked away and out back towards the fireplaces. "Don't be." Because he wasn't. What was he going to show them? The adventures Ron, Hermione and him had had? The thousands of school rules they'd broken? The things he'd one that he wasn't so proud of? His time with the Dursleys?

Harry gritted his teeth and stared at the fire place stonily. No, he wasn't going to enjoy this at all.

So there you have it.

UP NEXT: The Order takes a closer look at the life of Harry Potter.

~Missmusicluver