Here's the next chapter

Harry hit the ground, hard, but unfortunately for him, the darkness didn't come straight away. Harry felt as if several of his ribs had broken. Harry lay on the ground trying hard not to cry out with pain. Harry was in too much pain to move so he didn't see if the spell worked either. Harry's vision suddenly darkened as if someone was standing over him. Before either could say anything, blissful, painless darkness enveloped Harry and he remembered no more.

Harry's head was filled with murmurs. They sounded like people speaking but Harry couldn't discern what they were saying. He was still dazed and couldn't understand what was happening around him.

Gradually things started to become clearer but Harry only heard snatches of conversation and realized he was lying in a bed, not a very comfortable bed but a bed nonetheless.

"...three days..."

"...no change..."

"...were wrong about them..."

"...told you didn't I...?"

"...that blue light...?"

"....you think they really are...?"

"...do with them...?"

"...not Death Eaters...?"

Harry's head was a lot clearer now. He could hear whole conversations and think clearly. He lay still listening intently to an argument in the next room. He wasn't sure who it was but there were about five different voices, gradually getting louder.

"You were supposed to put them in the compartment. Why did you let them come back?" The voice was very accusing.

"Harry was in trouble."

"His name is not Harry," snapped a woman. It sounded sort of familiar. It had to be Lily.

"Yes it is and the girl is Hermione and the red-head is Ron."

"I can't believe you Remus. You are way too trusting," sighed somebody else. It was Sirius. Harry would recognize his voice anywhere.

"You're complaining? You've never had anything wrong with it before..."

"Well, we've never encountered three teens we don't know on a train that has very strong wards," interrupted Sirius.

"Anyway," continued Remus, "if we'd gone about it your way, it would have been curse them first, ask questions later."

"What's wrong with that?" asked an annoyed Sirius.

"I believe them. It that such a sin to believe three sixteen year olds?"

"You let the girl and the red-head..." asked yet another person. It was Dumbledore.

"Hermione and Ron," interrupted Remus.

"Yes, yes, of course. You let them come back because their friend was in trouble?" There was a pause and then Lily said, "How was he in trouble?" There was another pause and then,

"When Voldemort has extreme emotions like anger or he's really pleased about something Harry knows. Harry felt Voldemort was near and was in a lot of pain."

"What are you talking about Moony?" asked James loudly.

"Ron and Hermione told me. I let them back to help their friend. We left them in the office. They came outside and helped us. You saw what they did."

"Yes but how did they get their wands?" asked an exasperated James. "You had them. Remus." There was silence. Remus didn't answer.

"Remus," said James slowly, "What did you do?"

"I left them on the table." There was a loud snort as Remus said, "They needed to defend themselves."

"You GAVE them their wands?" exploded someone, possibly James, or maybe Sirius. It was hard to tell when they were shouting.

"Yeah," said Remus.

"Why?" asked Lily.

"Harry, Ron and Hermione needed to defend themselves as much as we did."

"Stop calling them that," cried Lily. "I give up Remus." There was footsteps and then a loud Bang as somebody left the room and slammed the door shut.

"You are so gullible Moony," said Sirius.

"Think about what you did Remus," said Dumbledore, in that annoyingly calm way of making a person feel dreadfully guilty when they had in fact done nothing wrong.

"I did. I believe them and am going to stick by them. Think what you want. I don't care. I know what I believe. You can't deny Harry looks like you, James, with Lily's eyes. How do you explain that?"

"Coincidence," snapped James.

Harry tried to move, he was getting a cramp in his leg. It was a mistake. He moved his stomach as well. His ribs burned. It was all too much. Harry lost consciousness again.

Harry's groggily opened his eyes. His vision was blurred. Harry could only make out shapes and colours. Harry instantly reached for his glasses. There was a loud crash as something breakable fell to the floor. Harry located his glasses and put them on. He looked around him. The room was very dark and had no windows. It was lit by soft lamps scattered around the room. Hermione and Ron were noticeably absent. Harry moved to get a better look around him and instantly regretted it. His ribs burned and he nearly cried out. Harry bit his lip and stopped himself. He had been in worse pain than this before, he told himself, remembering past incidents at school. What about the time all of the bones in his arm had been removed by that stupid teacher or the time he had fought the basilisk and almost died?

The door flew open. Lily stood there. She saw Harry staring at her and smiled.

"Oh, thank Merlin your awake." She took a step into the room.

"Ho long was I out of it?" asked Harry. He had lost all sense of time.

"About six days."

"Where are my friends?" asked Harry shortly, reminding himself not to move. Lily took another step closer to Harry.

"They're alright. They're in another room. They've been awake for about an hour now."

"Good." Harry closed his eyes. This woman was so irritating.

"Look," she said slowly, "I know you have a right to act like that. Your friends are too."

"I want to see them," interrupted Harry.

"I don't think....." she began.

"I want to see them," said Harry, more forcefully this time. Lily nodded and said,

"Fine then. Hold on a minute." Lily turned and walked out of the door. Harry opened his eyes and stared at the ceiling. The darkness of the room made up for the horrible clinical white that he was used to when he had woken up in the hospital wing at school.

A few minutes later, Lily returned following a floating Ron and Hermione. They were both unable to walk. James followed her in and quickly conjured up two more beds in the small room. It was fairly cramped now, with three beds. There was just enough room for James to conjure two chairs, one for himself and one for Lily.

"You alright?" asked Ron pushing himself into a sitting position. He must have been in less pain than Harry as he was able to move.

"Yeah, just woke up. What 'bout you and Hermione?"

"We're fine. Can't move my legs though." As if to prove a point, Ron pulled up the woolen blanket and tried, unsuccessfully, to move his legs.

"Hermione, if you ever suggest that spell again I am going to hex you with every spell I know," said Harry darkly.

Hermione chuckled, winced, and said, "Yeah well, I didn't know it was going to affect us as well. But it seemed to work anyway. " Lily cleared her throat. The trio turned to look at Lily and her husband.

"See. They're still here," said Hermione.

"Thank you for noticing us. Now, what did you do outside the train?" asked Lily getting straight to the point. Harry bit his lip and pushed himself into a sitting position, trying not to cry out. He could feel his ribs healing but they still burned. He looked up and glared at Lily.

"You don't believe us, yet you rescued us and kept us here until we woke up. Why?"

Lily looked at her husband, hesitating.

"Umm. We think we made a mistake."

"Oh, so you've finally realized that?" said a voice from the doorway. Five pairs of eyes turned to the doorway. Remus was standing there.

"I thought you refused to believe us. I heard you arguing with Remus." Lily and James stared at him.

Ron frowned and turned to Remus.

"Why did you believe us?"

"Your story seems to make a weird twisted kind of sense." Ron raised his eyebrows.

"I'll explain it to you later."

"And why do you now believe us?" asked Harry to Lily and James.

"You saved us during the battle," said Lily slowly.

"You could have killed us when we were unconscious, but you didn't. It took us a while to see it. What was that blue light anyway?"

The two boys stayed silent. They looked at each other and then silently agreed to let Hermione answer since it was her idea. They turned to Hermione and indicated for her to answer. She smiled knowingly and said

"It's similar to the Impediment Jinx in the fact that it stops attackers, but it is much, much stronger. It involves more concentration and strong will to actually cast it. It will blast people away from the caster and in a lot of cases it kills them because of the force at which they hit the ground. It can be directed at a certain group of people, skipping some in an area and affecting others. That's why, when we cast it, we had to picture Death Eaters when we cast it and that's why nobody from the Light was injured. Nobody was injured, where they?" she asked apprehensively.

James nodded and said, "One person but he's alright now."

Hermione frowned.

"That shouldn't have happened. I've been researching the spell for months and in none of my tests it..." She stopped and smiled slightly at the look of amazement on the adult's faces. Harry took advantage of the silence and voiced a question.

"What about Sirius and Dumbledore? Do they? Because they seemed totally against it."

Remus walked into the room and sat on the end of Hermione's bed.

"I eventually managed to convince Sirius that you weren't trying to kill us all. I told him what happened with Sharon," he looked at Hermione, "Cedric," he looked at Ron, "and me." Remus looked at Harry. Harry had paled at Cedric's name.

"Are you alright Harry?" Harry looked over at Ron, ignoring Remus. Ron nodded.

"It was him, Harry. Sorry, I should have told you." Harry looked back over to Remus and shut his eyes again. He still had nightmares about. Everybody had said it wasn't his fault but HE was the one who told Cedric to take the Cup with him. If it wasn't for him, Cedric would still be alive.

"Let's just take it together."

"You're on."

He and Cedric both grasped the handle.

Instantly Harry felt a jerk somewhere behind his navel his feet had left the ground. He could not unclench the hand holding the Tri-wizard Cup; it was pulling him onward in a howl of wind and swirling colour, Cedric at his side.

From far away, above his head, he heard a high cold voice say, "Kill the spare."

"Avada Kedavra!"

There was a blast of green light. Cedric was lying spread-eagled on the ground. He was dead.

"Harry. Harry. What are you doing?" Where did this come from? He didn't remember this. Harry opened his eyes. Everybody was staring at him.

"Nothing. Just remembering," he said quietly. Ron and Hermione nodded slightly. They knew better than to ask because they already knew. James opened his mouth. It looked like he was going to ask Harry what he was remembering. Ron held up his hand and shook his head. James frowned but closed his mouth.

"How do you know everybody around here? That's one thing I can't figure out."

"That's what I'd like to know. They knew me and that bloody scared me." Sirius had appeared in the doorway. Harry looked away from Sirius. He knew his Sirius was dead. It hurt too much to see someone he loved standing in front of him when Harry had saw his fall.

"Yes, I think if you want us to believe you unconditionally you have to explain who you are and where you come from." Dumbledore appeared next to Sirius.

"Love to. But we still don't know where we are or how we got here," said Ron.

"You're at our HQ in London. We brought you here whilst you were unconscious." Ron looked at Sirius and raised his eyes to the ceiling.

"Not like that," he snapped. Ron looked at his friend. She was smart and knew about everything. Hopefully she would have an answer. Hermione cocked her head sideways and appeared to be deep in thought.

"I've got it!" she shouted suddenly, making everybody in the small room jump. Harry's face regained his colour and Ron continued to stare at her.

"No, really. It's that book..."

"I always knew too much bloody reading was bad for you," interrupted Ron.

"Shuttup Ron. Everything's the same, yet different. I read about stuff like this last year whilst both of you were still in the hospital wing." She paused for effect. "We traveled to an alternate reality." Hermione finished looking extremely pleased with herself. Her words were met with a stunned silence. Harry shook his head.

"Hermione, I don't think..."

"Harry, we've traveled time so why not realities? The theory is that there are an infinite number of realities." Hermione was talking very passionately. She believed in what she was talking about and she was going to tell these people whether they wanted to hear or not.

"Hermione..." interrupted her red-haired friend.

"Ron, shuttup. Where was I? Oh, yeah. Every time there is a fork in a world, a decision or something that could result in different outcomes, a new reality is formed to compensate for each possible outcome of one event. Some are almost identical and some are so different they are unrecognizable."

"Hermione..." Hermione glared at the dark-haired boy who dared interrupt her. He shrank backwards and closed his mouth immediately.

"I've thought about this and it makes sense. Trust me." Her words were once again met with silence. It was broken when Dumbledore decided to speak.

"What she speaks is true. I too have read and know about this. I have known about the theory of alternate realities for a while, but I didn't know it was possible to travel to others. Tell me, if you truly come from another reality, what was the event that separates us?" Hermione didn't know. Neither did Ron. There was a long silence.

"I didn't die," said Harry quietly, looking at his hands.

"What?" asked Sirius. "I didn't hear that." He was standing by the door and Harry spoke to quietly fir Sirius to hear him,

"I didn't die, they did," said Harry, louder this time. He pointed at James and Lily and avoided looking at Sirius.

"Of course," sighed Hermione happily. "That would change everything."

"Hermione's right. That would change everything Harry."

"How exactly?" asked Sirius curiously. He was now leaning against the doorframe.

"On Halloween in 1981 when V-Voldemort came to Godric's Hollow, what happened?" asked Hermione.

"W-what had that got to do with anything?" stuttered James. Lily burst into tears and James pulled her into a comforting embrace. Neither answered the question so Hermione looked first at Remus and then Sirius. She was quite uncomfortable with seeing Sirius but she hid it better than Harry.

"This is a horrible thing to remember so I hope you appreciate it," snapped Sirius. "I'll simplify it for you. Voldemort came whilst Lily and James were outside investigating a noise. There was a loud bang and when they tried to get into the house, all of the doors had sealed themselves. The house filled with bright green light and then the Dark Mark was shot into the air. The house was just a smoking pile of ruins after they had finished. Voldemort had murdered their son, my godson, Harry."

"Did anything happen to him?"

"Who? Voldemort?" Hermione nodded. Sirius shook his head. "Nah. He left. Harry was just another casualty of war."

"It's that prophecy. They cause so much trouble," muttered Harry. "It ruined my life."

"What are you talking about?" asked Dumbledore. Ron opened his mouth to answer but Harry stopped him.

"This is my story Ron. I'll tell it." Ron nodded. "Firstly the prophecy is the one Trelawney gave when you were interviewing her for the Divination position. "My parents were murdered on Halloween. I never knew them. My dad tried to give my mum a chance to escape with me. You see this scar." Harry slowly lifted his hand to his forehead and moved his hair out of the way so that the lightning bolt scar was visible. There was a loud gasp as everybody saw the scar that had given Harry so much fame in the Wizarding World.

"How did you get that?" exclaimed Remus.

Dumbledore interrupted.

"I'm sorry but I have to go. Urgent business to attend to. Tell me about this later." Remus nodded. Dumbledore turned and walked off. Remus motioned for Harry to answer the question.

"You can only get a scar like this when you are at the receiving end of a powerful, evil curse." Harry paused. "I was at the receiving end of the killing curse." There was a loud gasp as all of the adults in the room heard this.

"H-how did you survive it?" asked Lily

"My mother died to save me," he replied without looking at the red-haired woman. "The curse rebounded off of me and hit the caster, who then disappeared for ten years trying to regain his strength."

"I'm sorry about that but what has this got to do with what I told you?" asked Sirius. Harry didn't answer straight away. He looked back down at his hands.

"My parents are Lily and James Potter and the curse rebounded onto Voldemort whom everybody thought was dead for fourteen years but us three have known he wasn't since we were in our first year at school and who keeps trying to kill me because of some stupid prophecy." Harry said it quickly without taking a breath. He immediately looked away. It was very clear to everybody in the room that he hadn't want to say any of that.

Nobody said anything. To say that the adults looked shocked would have been an understatement. Lily looked as if she was going to cry.

Remus regained his voice first.

"Okay then. I think you better explain everything." Lily made a move forward as if she was going to hug Harry, but then she seemed to think better of it. Harry was glad. It wouldn't have done his ribs any good if she had hugged him.

Harry looked very upset at what Remus said. Remus quickly realized he probably had some very horrible things in his past that he didn't want to remember.

"Okay Harry, if you don't want to tell us everything, just give us enough to understand." Harry relaxed at this. He nodded.

"Okay. I'll tell you some of it. Ron, Hermione, interrupt whenever you want." Hermione interrupted immediately. She appeared to have wanted to say this for a while.

"Remus, when you first asked us our names why did you think we were lying?" Remus turned around on the end of the bed to face Hermione

"It was hard to believe because you were using the names of two people whom we knew to be dead and one which is obviously a muggle name, yet she was a witch."

"I'm guessing it's the boys who are dead here. I know Harry is, but what happened to Ron's counterpart and what is so wrong with a muggle-born witch?"

The adults looked uneasily at each other. Nobody looked as if they were going to answer.

"Well?" asked Hermione impatiently.

Finally Lily answered. She moved away from her husband but her eyes were very red.

"Two years ago Ron Weasley was trying to save his sister from capture. She survived and we found her injured but alive and safe. Unfortunately Ron had died but it looked like it had taken several Death Eaters to stop him. "Hermione, you have to understand this. There are no muggle-born witches or wizards anymore." Hermione frowned at Lily. Lily looked at her husband and then back at Hermione. "When a witch or wizard is born into a muggle family, the entire immediate family is murdered by Voldemort and his Death Eaters. They don't what to 'pollute our race'."

"W-what!" Hermione, for once, was lost for words. She looked horrified. Ron gave her a sympathetic look. He wanted to hug her but he couldn't move. He spoke next.

"If You-Know-, oh alright Harry, don't look at me like that. If...Voldemort, there, I said it. If He kills muggle-borns what happens to muggles, halfbloods and purebloods?"

James answered this time.

"You know this is really strange. Everybody here knows all this stuff. I've never had to explain it before. Muggles are treated like slaves; halfbloods are treated like the dregs of the earth and purebloods, depending on whether they are Light or Dark, either have Voldemort ruling through them or they lose everything and are forced to hide."

"Like us," added Lily.

Ron and Hermione just stared at James trying to digest what he had said. Harry listened without saying a word. James turned to Harry and said,

"Aren't you going to say anything?"

Harry's shoulders started shaking. It looked like he was crying.

"Are you alright mate?" asked Ron. Harry looked up at Ron. Ron's eyes widened. Harry wasn't crying......he was laughing.

"What is so funny?" asked Ron curiously. "I don't see anything funny about that." Harry stopped laughing. He coughed and said,

"Sorry. It's just really funny. I just thought of two very strange things. Don't ask me why." Harry looked up at Sirius and then quickly back down at his hands. "I bet your mum wasn't too happy when you chose to fight for the Light side."

Harry glanced over at Ron and Hermione and they both burst out laughing. Sirius looked indignantly at the laughing pair. He was about to say something when Harry started talking again. "From Voldemort's point of view I can see why he treats people differently, but honestly. He treats witches and wizards like the dregs of the earth and he is one of them."

"What!" exclaimed Remus. He spun around on the bed to face Harry.

"What do you mean Harry?" asked Sirius.

Harry sighed and shook his head. Some people were just so slow. Harry didn't know how he ever had a sensible conversation with these two.

"Didn't you know? Voldemort's a halfblood. Dad's a muggle and mum's a witch."

"No. Both his parents were magical," corrected Remus. Harry shook his head again.

"They weren't."

"He's telling the truth you know," said Hermione

"Yeah. V-Voldemort's full of ridiculous pureblood and tainted blood nonsense but he ain't even a pureblood," added Ron.

"I don't know where you heard this you three, but you're wrong," said Lily.

"I don't think so," said Harry. He looked over at Ron and Hermione. They looked very amused. "Voldemort, or Tom Riddle, whichever you prefer, told me so himself."

James stood up quickly, knocking his chair over with a loud crash.

"What! Arrghh, hold on a sec." James' foot had got tangled in the chair. He tried to pull it out but only succeeded in falling to the floor. Sirius burst out laughing and had to hold onto the doorframe for support. Remus just rolled his eyes and muttered something that sounded distinctly like, "Idiot." Lily smiled at her husband.

"Do you want some help darling?" she asked sweetly.

"No. There we go. Foot's free." James jumped up and immediately pretended that that incident had not happened.

"As I said before. What!"

Hermione and Ron chuckled.

"Harry, tell 'em how you know."

"Yeah, James'll probably fall over another chair if you don't tell him soon."

Harry settled himself into a much more comfortable position. His injuries were almost healed, he could feel it. Harry then opened his mouth and began relating everything that had happened in his second year.

"It all began when a House elf came to visit me during the summer..."

I won't be able to update for a while as my friend from the states is staying and we are going on holiday next friday for two weeks.

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