Breakfast wasn't bad when you're ravenous, the problem was that it wasn't filling in the least so Harry felt still as hungry afterwards.

He kept the hunger at bay by focusing on how they were supposed to get out. The most he could do at the moment was sit around while juggling theories with Hermione and the other Harry. The two Rons yelled at each other over a game of Wizard Chess. He had his mask lying next to him, staring back at him, screaming at him to do something, anything.

He glanced at it from time to time, until he decided to pick it up and stuff it back in his pocket. Maybe there was some way to use that Stone they risked their lives for to get back home. "Hey Hermione, you don't happen to know a mending or sewing spell?"

Hermione looked at him curiously. "What are you thinking?"

Harry scrambled himself up on his feet. "Ron, do you still have the power Stone?"

Ron's head twisted around. "Oh right. Yeah, here you go mate", he hand dug into one of his pockets and threw the orb to Harry, who caught it.

Harry let the stone orb twist in his hand, feeling it, touching it. Something tempted him behind the shell.

"If this thing really is as powerful as Strange said, shouldn't it be able to take us home?"

Ron shrugged with a face that said, "Don't look at me."

Harry proceeded to lift the orb high over his head and hurled it straight into the ground with as much force as he could, cracking the stone shell open. Inside was a purple oval stone. Harry crouched next to it, observing the mesmerizing purple glow. It was beautiful – calling for him to touch it, pick it up, use it. His own voice seemed tiny, pushed into the back of his head as it said, "I don't want to."

Slowly, he reached out his hand for it. "Don't touch it!" said Hermione and he hastily retracted his hand, clenching it into a fist. "You said yourself you don't know the extent of its power. What if it kills you?"

"That's true", said the other Harry.

She hurried to his side and drew her wand, slowly letting the stone hover in up to the height of her own face.

It rotated slightly as she curiously studied it – but made sure not to touch it. She seemed enamored by it, completely unaware of the world around her. Harry cleared his throat to get her attention. She did not move an inch.

"Hey, Hermione. Snap out of it", the other Ron hurried over to her side, shaking her. "You're still with us?"

She looked at Ron, bewildered and shook her head violently. "Sorry, I— ", she swallowed and then looked at Harry. "Are you sure it's not a Horcrux?"

Always with these Horcruxes. Harry simply nodded.

"What do you want to do with it?" said Hermione, still unnerved.

A lot of eyes were on him and he felt the urge to stand straight up again.

"My best bet is to try focusing the energy of the Stone into something, for example, if I make a suit and somehow make it compatible with the Stone?"

They looked at him like he had gone and hit his head on a rock.

"Mate…", Ron sighed. "Don't take this the wrong way but I think you need to take a nap, because you're totally out of it."

Harry ignored him.

"I don't think it works like that", said Hermione, glancing from him to the Stone and back to him. "Do you even know how it works?"

No, he did not. But he didn't want to tell them that because that would make him look even crazier.

Who knows? Maybe the lack of proper sleep combined with all of the nonsense had made him crazy, he hadn't slept since after the party after all and started to feel the effects.

Harry felt a crushing feeling of hopelessness creeping its way through his body, but something wouldn't let him give up.

"Okay, what do you want us to do then, Hermione? Sit here all day and do nothing? Because I'm sick and tired of sitting around! We need to do something and fast, before we're all dead!" said Harry and turned to his identical twin. "Wait a minute – how did you get to my world in the first place?"

Everyone's eyes shifted to the second Harry, who went on to just shrug. "I saw a portal appear, someone called for me and I just stepped into it. Does it really matter?"

Harry looked at him, dumbstruck. "The portal just—okay but what were you doing before it appeared?"

"I was… in the forest looking for firewood?" he said.

"And you decide to tell us this now?" Hermione stared at this world's Harry. She looked as if she really want to hit him with something.

"What was I supposed to do? Kindly refuse? You would've done the same thing, Hermione!"

Hermione just pulled a sort of sneering face his way.

Harry looked annoyingly at the spitting image of himself, as if he was the problem. "Okay, let's just wish for Strange to come and save us all. Maybe he's all-seeing!"

He struck out with his arms sarcastically, and for some stupid reason that was so funny to him that he laughed. Ron was right; he was feeling absolutely exhausted.

They kept looking at him, making it more and more awkward.

Hermione smacked her lips loudly. "Okay", she stood up, letting the stone quietly hover down onto a table. "I think you need to go and get some rest, Harry – no, not you – we'll try to think of something."

"I'm— "

"Just do it, mate", said Ron. "At the pace you're going, you'll kill yourself."

Harry wanted to argue but he didn't have the energy to. He opened his mouth, closed it and walked off into the adjacent room. There were two bunkbeds by the walls, a small round table in the middle and a few chairs. He sat down on one of the beds and let his head hit the pillow. Some superhero he was, willingly shuffled into the back. As soon as he closed his eyes, he felt this strange rocking feeling slowly putting him to sleep.

For some strange reason he imagined it was Hagrid's giant arms rocking him.

When Harry woke up, no one had found any kind of solution. The Rons had just given up and gone back to Wizard Chess, while Hermione feverishly looked through every book and every source of information that she had access to. Harry walked outside where the second Harry sat by the tent keeping watch.

They simply nodded to each other as he passed by, as if they had some sort of mutual understanding. He kept on walking away from camp, stopping by a tree as that very familiar gut-wrenching feeling of crushing dread and anxiety overcame him. His legs were shaking so much that he sat down leaning against the tree. Was Hermione still alive? Or maybe even worse, maybe she had been tortured into madness and everything left was a shell of a person, just like Neville's parents?

Was there even any point in trying to get back home? Was there even a way to get back home? Maybe it would just be for the best if he accepted his situation and left his entire life in the past, living out what little time that was left.

The thought alone hurt him, stabbed him like a dozen little daggers. His hand dug into his pocket for the locket that he had stolen from Umbridge. It was still breathing. Why had he taken it in the first place?

Harry spent the next days in some kind of haze, sleeping when he could, working at a way to take him and Ron back home when he wasn't eating or sleeping. His dreams were the only escape from all of his hard work – nothing resulting in anything other than disappointment and even further fueling his desperation.

His dreams were stuck in the same kind of loop his waking life was. He dreamt about Hermione. It was the same dream every time; a sunny day, no clouds in the blue sky and every time it took place on an expansive grassy field.

In the dream, him and Hermione laughed, talked – about what he didn't know or process but he knew it was meaningful to him – danced in the grass, rested in each other's laps, and eating cake.

The only inconsistency was the piece of cake they shared; it was always a different cake; chocolate cake, strawberry cake with tons of whipped cream, sprinkle-covered cake, marzipan covered cake, cake with whipped cream and berries… the cake was always different, the rest of the dream went the same, every time.

It ended with him and Hermione walking back to a house at the edge of a beach and the door closing behind them, but in some strange way he was detached from his body and only watched them go inside.

He was happier in his repeating dream, but knew that everything in existence depended on him. The others didn't bother him with other meaningless chores when he worked tirelessly – although Hermione insisted multiple times that he would help taking turns to keep watch.

He wasn't sure if he was just wasting time, but then again, he did flip a switch whenever his body left the bed and went to work.

Maybe he should just give up. But he didn't allow himself to.

His thoughts and feelings started to get in the way of his work, so he buried part of himself, only letting his real self emerge during the dreams.

The more he worked, the more he separated himself from anyone else – his mind was dead set on getting out of here.

Knowing that the others whispered about him behind his back, stared at him, talked about things they didn't want to indulge him with, he knew they wanted nothing to do with him.

Though at least two times, Ron – the Ron he knew – came up to him and patted him on his back. He suspected Ron knew exactly what was going on with him, but that he didn't want to go into detail about it.

"Get some rest, mate", Ron told him.

"Unless you're planning to help, piss off!" he yelled at him. He felt his mind slowly drifting into madness. The sleep he did get wasn't enough, the food never filled his belly, and the constant work was tearing him down. He felt a constant anxiety beating in the side of his throat and chest. Time was running out.

During some nights when he simply couldn't fall asleep no matter how much he tried, he instead spent his time reading books he borrowed from Hermione until he passed out.

A week passed, or maybe two? Maybe only a few days and it seemed longer than it actually was? It took about three days until they apparated out of the forest and moved the tent to an open grassy area near a lake.

He stared at the watch on his arm. Barely past midnight. He was standing near the lake, staring at the Stone which he let hover in front of him. The thunderstorms were so bad now that he really shouldn't be out here.

"Do something, you useless rock", Harry whispered. He was very tempted to grab it, use it and just get it over with. He lifted his arm, about to take it in his hand. He stopped himself, his fingers hovering just a few inches away from the Stone.

Then something happened. Orange sparks appeared right above the lake. Harry frowned. The sparks expanded, creating a circular portal in the air over the lake and the shape of people stepped through.

His body filled with brimming joy as soon as he saw Strange with the two Peters, the Weasleys, Fleur, Tonks and Lupin – well they fell straight into the lake with a loud splash.

They looked surprised as their feet didn't touch the ground. Harry thought it was almost comical.

He couldn't see where they had fallen, all he heard was splashing and confused and angry yelling. Maybe he ought to help even if he didn't understand why they had chosen to appear in mid-air.

Overjoyed, Harry let the Stone drop to the ground and dove into the dark water, and swam towards them.

"How did you find us?" Harry asked.

"Maybe let us get out of the water first, alright Harry?" said Fred.

Some of them were already on their way towards the shore, Strange simply flew up out of the water, his red cape soaking wet. Out of everyone, mr Weasley had trouble swimming, Harry went ahead and offered his help. He hauled mr Weasley's arm around his neck with one arm, swimming towards the shore with the other.

"Really fascinating", said mr Weasley. "Muggle Magic."

Harry didn't know how to answer that but didn't want to explain it really wasn't Muggle Magic so he just made a noise in agreement.

Ginny, Fred and George seemed to know how to swim however and fast at that. They were at the shore ahead of Tonks, Lupin and mrs Weasley. Eventually all of them including the two Peters stood on the shore, drenching with water.

Strange now had a strangely shaped necklace hanging around his neck giving away a faint green glow – another Stone, Harry assumed.

"Why the lake?" Harry asked.

"It was certainly not on purpose", said Strange, but before he could elaborate, he was interrupted.

"Mum? Dad?"

Harry turned around. Both Rons and the other Harry and Hermione were hurrying towards them.

Mrs Weasley kind of froze seeing double of her youngest son.

"Wait!" Lupin immediately drew his wand.

They stopped in their tracks. Ron looked at his entire family standing there. His face twitched into a strange kind of grimace. "What are you doing?"

The other Harry looked straight at Ginny, confused and a bit scared.

Why was Lupin doing this? They had come here for a reason, hadn't they? Had Strange not told them about the multiverse? Harry's fingers slowly moved to his wand tucked into his wrist holster.

He attempted to catch Strange's look to make him stop Lupin, but he just got a look telling him, "Don't", and a barely noticeable headshake.

"They can't be trusted!" yelled Lupin.

"It's us, Remus!" said Hermione clearly upset. "But not from your world. To you we're other people, yet the same people you know."

Tonks seemed skeptical too.

"Didn't anyone tell you?" Harry had enough of this. Most heads turned to him; Lupin's wand moved from one Harry to pointing at him. "The multiverse! Bloody hell, we don't have time for this! They aren't Death Eaters!"

Lupin took a deep breath and lowered his wand arm.

"Okay good. Can we go and help Hermione now?"

Lupin didn't seem to fully trust him. He lightly swayed in one spot, still holding his wand.

"C'mon! Voldemort got her! Are you serious?" Harry dodged a quick spell darting out of Lupin's wand. Angrily he walked up to Lupin and smacked the wand out of his hand.

Lupin looked surprised.

"Dumbledore's dead! The universe is about to kill us all, Hermione is most likely dead and you're worried that some of us might be disguised?" said Harry with a raised voice. "What did Dumbledore even tell you? How did he die? Because he sure as hell didn't trust me with anything! He didn't tell me anything about Voldemort or the Horcruxes aside from that stupid prophecy."

Lupin and Tonks exchanged looks, both extremely skeptical.

Harry shook his head and distanced himself from Lupin, instead looking at Strange. "Never mind! Let's just go. Strange, do you mind?" He mockingly mimicked the circular motion of a portal opening with his finger.

Strange quickly rolled his eyes, sighing. "I will. First tell me this: how do you keep making things worse for yourself?"

Harry scoffed. He didn't feel offended, but the way he said it made it sound like everything was his fault.

"Look, I didn't try to travel to another universe. It just sort of happened when I tried to apparate to Hermione because she didn't come with us. I realize how stupid it was, I know it doesn't work like that. And because of that she might be dead and I don't know how to deal with that."

He stopped talking as his voice cracked and felt embarrassed.

"Oh, Harry…", mrs Weasley put a comforting hand on his shoulder. She tried her hardest to bring him into a hug but he struggled away from her arms, feeling even more uncomfortable seeing the solemn looks on the others faces and Lupin's lowered head – as if they were already grieving Hermione.

Thankfully Peter changed the subject. "What about the Stone? Do you have it?"

Harry looked around. "Yeah, I dropped it somewhere…"

"There it is", said Hermione.

She let the Stone hover over to Harry, he was ready to take it but Strange caught it instead with his magic.

"I'll take that. Nothing personal, Potter. I'm just not comfortable with taking another risk."

"That makes me feel loads better", said Harry sarcastically.

Strange took out a small spherical container from his pocket, which he dropped the Stone into, and then proceeded to summon a portal at the edge of the shore.

"After you", Strange gestured towards the portal.

"You go ahead", said Harry to no one in particular.

As Tonks, Lupin, Fleur, most of the Weasleys including Ron – who awkwardly waved at his twin – and the two Peters walked through the portal, Harry and Strange stayed behind with the trio of this world's Harry, Ron and Hermione.

"You're lucky, Potter", Strange told him. He seemed a bit antsy, perhaps just as stressed over the whole world ending situation as Harry was.

"Oh?"

"You've got friends willing to travel through worlds for you. Those kinds of friends are hard to come by."

"Yeah, I know", said Harry. He turned to the doubles of his friends. "Thanks for letting us stay. I wish I had something to give in return, uh – take care?"

"It was nothing. Good luck, Harry", said Hermione with a smile.

"Go get her", grinned the other Ron.

Hermione and the second Harry glanced at him.

"You had to make this worse, didn't you?" sighed Hermione.

The other Harry unexpectedly approached Harry. He extended his hand; Harry confusingly shook it.

"Nice meeting you Harry. I'm sure Hermione is alright, if she's anything like my Hermione she certainly can do more than defend herself."

"Yeah, you're probably right. I just never expected to meet another me in the first place. The multiverse is pretty intense, huh?" said Harry.

"Very", smirked the other Harry.

"Unfortunately, I'll have to erase your memories of this event", said Strange to the trio, looking slightly regretful. "We can't take the risk."

Harry wanted to say something more but only returned the smiles and raised his hand in an awkward kind of wave as he entered the portal and out onto a street.

Author's end of chapter notes: I know there hasn't been any proper Spider-Maning, don't worry it's coming! Originally for this chapter, I was going to have Harry be much more depressed but that's not really part of his character to just give up so easily. He's certainly suffering, but not as much as originally planned. A certain house-elf was supposed to make an appearance in this chapter too, but I thought Doctor Strange messing up and opening a portal above the lake was a bit more exciting.