Previously:
"That's alright, dears," the portrait said. "I heard that you two are the transfer students that we're getting?" Harry nodded.
"The password is 'Lion's Pride' for the rest of the month," the portrait informed them as it swung open.
What Harry saw as he and Hermione walked into the almost empty common room would scar him for life.
"Harry," Hermione whispered, "Is that... is that Professor Snape in Gryffindor robes, having a civil, not condescending conversation with your mum?"
Chapter 2: Whirlwind
Harry stood frozen in place as he helplessly watched his mum and his most hated professor talk calmly on the couch in the Gryffindor common room.
Lily looked over her at the door, tearing her gaze away from Snape, and saw Harry and Hermione by the portrait. "James? I thought you were upstairs. Also, who's the girl? New girlfriend already?"
Harry cleared his throat awkwardly. "Um… I'm not James, I'm Harry. This is my best friend Hermione."
Lily nodded. "Nice to meet you, I'm Lily Evans."
Snape, Gryffindor Snape stood and ran to the stairs leading to the boys' dorms.
"Oi, Potter!" he hollered, "Those transfer students you were talking about are here!" There was some muffled cursing and banging from above and the sound of feet hitting stairs filled the silent common room.
Snape turned to Harry. "Harry Potter? I'm Severus Snape. You can call me Severus." He jabbed a thumb over his shoulder at Lily. "That one is the only one who is allowed to call me Sev." He stuck his hand out in an offer of friendship.
Harry took it with his free hand warily, still holding Hermione's with his other. "Nice to meet you, Severus."
Hermione was about to introduce herself, but before she could, a magnificent stag tackled Snape, knocking the air out of his lungs. A grim calmly trotted over to Lily and licked her hand.
"Eww! Lily exclaimed. "Don't do that Sirius! That's gross!" The two smirking boys transformed back, Sirius with an eager expression.
"I wanna meet older me!" He exclaimed excitedly and Lupin and Peter came downstairs a bit more calmly.
Harry's eyes snapped to James, who shrugged, and said, "What was I supposed to do? They all saw you guys as well."
Harry nodded reluctantly and sat heavily down in an armchair, Hermione plopping down to his left. They all followed the example and took seats close to the duo, Severus and Lily looking confused.
Hermione looked at Lily and Severus. "Before you two ask anything, give Harry a chance to explain first."
The friends nodded eagerly, excited for the story that they assumed was coming.
Harry sighed wearily and Hermione patted his back comfortingly. "I'm from another dimension," he blurted. Only Severus and Lily looked shocked, confirming that the Marauders already knew. "Don't assume that this really affects any of you, because I've already noticed some different things here. For example, here Snape is a Gryffindor when back home he was a Slytherin. Sorry, by the way. Your counterpart wasn't the nicest to me... I might have trouble calling you anything but Snape for a little while."
Harry sighed again. "My parents were James and Lily Potter, the ones from my dimension. I was born on July 31st, 1980, and my parents died when I was fifteen months old, on Halloween 1981. They died protecting me from the Dark Lord named Voldemort."
James and Lily gaped, looking at each other and reddening. "When Voldemort shot an Avada Kedavra at me, it bounced off of me and hit him instead leaving me with this scar, though he didn't die either, just lost his body. When I was fourteen, he regained a body, but the Ministry didn't believe me or Dumbledore when we tried to tell people. This year was my fifth year at school where a horrible ministry-appointed defense professor wouldn't teach us defense and tortured me with a blood quill for speaking out about Voldemort." He lifted up his hand to show the scar on the back reading I shall not tell lies.
"This scar," Harry pointed to his forehead, "is some kind of link to Voldemort. I got visions from him sometimes. Yesterday, he sent me a fake vision of my dimension's Sirius being tortured at the Department of Mysteries. I thought that it was real, and went there with my friends Ron, Ginny, Neville, Luna, and Hermione. When we discovered that it was a trap and that Voldemort's servants were there waiting for us, I took what they wanted, which was a prophecy concerning me, and tried to help my friends escape. He got trapped in the room with the veil of death. We thought we were screwed until our Sirius came rushing in with a few other people and started fighting Voldemort's servants. When Dumbledore came to help, everyone stopped fighting except for Sirius's crazy cousin Bellatrix and Sirius. Bellatrix stunned Sirius backward through the veil, and not knowing what it was, I jumped in after him. Apparently, Hermione also followed. We woke up in the death chamber of your universe." Harry concluded his story and then lied back against the couch, emotionally spent.
Severus broke the silence. "What about me, Remus, and Peter?"
Harry looked uncomfortable. "Remus was with us during the battle where we went through the veil, and seems to be about the same as he is here, but you are radically different. You were a Slytherin and James and Sirius constantly made fun of you and pranked you. You were my Potions professor for the past few years, and you disliked me strongly because of what my dad did to you in school. Since I look like him, you hated me and would provoke me in class so I would lose points and get detentions. Here, my first impression of you is that you're a pretty nice guy... but as I said, it might be difficult at first for me. Peter… I don't know your Peter yet, but I'm hoping he's different because he was the reason my parents died in my world. He sold them out to Voldemort."
Peter looked offended. "I'd never sell out my friends! These guys are the best things that ever happened to me!"
Harry nodded skeptically, not totally sure. "Okay. Anyway, we're going to stay here for a while before we figure out how to get home, and we need to know stuff about this dimension since we have absolutely no idea what anything is really like here."
Everyone was silent, absorbing the information that was just dumped onto them.
"Also," Harry said, "Keep in mind there are likely massive differences between dimensions. I mean, look at him." He gestured to Snape. "He is radically different from our Snape... at least from what I've seen."
Snape scowled.
James decided to help out the dimensional travelers. "I haven't heard of any 'Voldymert' here, and the last Dark Lord we had to deal with was Grindelwald, so I think you guys are free from him." Harry's posture visibly relaxed, until he thought of something else.
"Actually, have you guys heard of Tom Riddle?" Harry asked. Hermione looked surprised that she hadn't thought to ask this herself.
Peter nodded happily. "Yeah! He's really famous. He's like the number one Transfiguration master in the entire magical world right now. He's invented all sorts of stuff. James is obsessed with him." Harry and Hermione exchanged a wide-eyed glance which Snape noticed.
"What is it?" he asked curiously. Harry raised his wand and wrote out the words Tom Marvolo Riddle, and then flicked his wand and they rearranged to I am Lord Voldemort.
James looked like he was about to cry. His role model's doppelgänger was a Dark Lord!
Sirius punched him. "Stop sniffling, you big baby, he's only a Dark Lord in an alternate dimension, not here!"
Hermione gave Harry a severe look. "Maybe, it would be a good idea to slow down."
Harry nodded sheepishly.
A few minutes later, and after a good amount of dimensional comparisons, the group of eight made their way out of the tower, the two dimensional travelers breaking off to go to the hospital wing to get treatment for their injuries sustained in the Department of Mysteries.
As the sextet made their way to the Great Hall, they discussed the recent events.
"I can't believe my son survived contact with a Dark Lord four times!" James boasted.
Sirius arched an eyebrow. "Your son is one of the first-ever dimensional travelers and you're bragging about him besting a measly Dark Lord with a fake name?"
Their conversation ceased, though, when they entered the Great Hall. Sitting at the head table in an animated conversation with McGonagall, was an older-looking Sirius Black. Dumbledore was mysteriously absent.
Sirius couldn't resist, "Damn! I look good for an older guy!"
James chortled as he poured some pumpkin juice. "Not sure I'd say that, mate. He looks like he's been through the washing machine a few too many times."
Sirius scowled at his best friend. "What would you know, you Babbling Baboon!" At the end of his jibe, Sirius subtly flicked his wand at James under the table, adopting a smug look on his face when James couldn't do anything but babble.
"Stop bickering. You two are like a married couple," Snape drawled, absently releasing James from the hex. The "bickering couple" in question blushed.
Suddenly, their conversation was interrupted again as Harry and Hermione burst into the hall, followed by Dumbledore, and made a beeline for the older Sirius.
"I guess that explains where Dumbledore was," Sirius stage-whispered to Lily, his voice somewhat distorted from the egg it contained.
Lily gave him a revolted look, informing him quite clearly that his table manners were nauseating, not that he seemed to care, opening his mouth and showing Lily the contents, looking almost proud.
Harry came over to them, leaned down and whispered something to James, grabbed a peach, and left the hall quickly, rushing to catch up to Hermione who was looking decidedly miffed.
"What'd he say?" Peter asked, spooning some more eggs while pointedly ignoring the whimpers Sirius was making, pressing his hand to his crotch and mentally bemoaning Lily, and how good she was at punching a guy in the stones.
James looked overwhelmed. Apparently, the shocks just kept coming. "It appears that someone placed illegal blocks on Harry and Hermione's magic. Why their dimension's Madam Pomphrey never noticed is beyond me, but they're popping over to St. Mungo's to have it fixed."
Snape hissed angrily. "Those can have long-term effects if they are left in place! It damages mental performance as well, not just magical power."
James nodded after wiping his mouth. "Yeah, I know. Also, Harry's connection to Voldemort was deliberately implanted as well, and it wasn't placed by Voldemort himself. Harry thinks that it was done by the same person who did the blocks."
"We'll find out who did it later when they get back," Remus pointed out reasonably. "I'm going to tune you hooligans out now and finish eating."
On the fourth floor of St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries, Harry and Hermione were led to a room by a short, brown-haired healer. Said healer looked startled when he noticed that Dumbledore and Sirius had both followed him to the room.
The healer was about to ask them to leave before he called security, but Dumbledore spoke up in his most grandfatherly voice as the two teens sat down on the edge of a bed, "These two fine children have had illegal magical and physical blocks placed on them." Harry and Hermione's heads shot up when physical blocks were mentioned. "We would like to be present to ensure that nothing goes awry. I am Albus Dumbledore, after all."
The healer looked embarrassed. "My apologies, Headmaster, I meant no disrespect." He waved his wand over the heads of the teens, and his eyebrows shot to his hairline.
"Hmm… Very complex…" he mused. "I could use your help with this, actually, Headmaster."
"Certainly!" Dumbledore exclaimed jovially.
Dumbledore stepped forward and cast a detection spell of his own, and looked possibly even more surprised than the healer. "I've never examined anything this complex cast by anyone other than me! In fact, this looks like exactly how I would go about applying blocks if I was so inclined. Curious..." Dumbledore chanted a long string of Latin while making complex wand movements, slowly breaking down the blocks on Harry.
Once he was done, Harry glowed a blinding white, causing everyone to shield their eyes. When they looked back, Harry didn't look too different, but he seemed to now exude a presence, something Hermione hadn't noticed in anyone apart from Dumbledore. This meant to Hermione that a considerable portion of his core had been inaccessible to him previously, as the taste of his magic now permeated the air close to him. When he looked at her, she noticed that his eyes seemed to glow greener, sending shivers down her spine. Noticing her reaction to his gaze, he began to look concerned, and Hermione noticed that his magic began to react to that, reaching out and surrounding her, comforting her. She involuntarily relaxed and enjoyed the warmth of his magic, until it receded when his concern ebbed.
She looked around and noticed that Dumbledore had been watching her reactions to Harry's subtle changes and had smiled softly when he saw her relax.
She tensed, however, when Dumbledore started to chant and wave again, subconsciously anticipating the pain that breaking the blocks would cause. When it was all over, she would wonder how she had known it would hurt, but at the moment, she was too preoccupied with the all-encompassing pain that pervaded her body, making her convulse. She calmed slightly but not totally when she felt the comforting embrace of Harry's concern and continued to convulse until the blocks were all broken and she was bathed in a white light similar to what came from Harry.
Hermione was stunned. Her magic seemed different. It felt much more powerful. She could feel it swirling around her in a similar manner to Harry's. She could feel it in her veins and, she could feel it interacting with Harry's as if they were probing the magic of the other, to become more familiar. She heard Harry gasp, and she knew that he felt it too.
They both relaxed as their magics mixed with each other as if playing a game with a purpose that only they were privy to. She reached out and placed a tentative hand on Harry's arm and her eyes shot open wider as she felt a jolt go up her arm and spread all over her body. She knew Harry had felt it too, as he had adopted the same wide-eyed expression as her.
The peaceful atmosphere was shattered as Dumbledore clapped his hands together, clearly excited. "Excellent. This part will be even more flashy because as powerful as Harry seems now, the connection is sustained by his own magic, so Harry will be even more powerful once the portion of his core dedicated to the connection is freed." After that explanation, Harry looked eager, and the healer looked very confused and out of place.
"Miss Granger," Dumbledore said gently, "Would you mind terribly if I asked you to please remove your hand from Mr. Potter's arm?" Hermione blushed, not even realizing that she was still holding on. Dumbledore nodded in thanks, and then looked back at Harry, who had suddenly tensed. "Please relax, Harry. This will not hurt. In fact, this should feel like a great burden is being lifted from your soul."
Harry nodded hesitantly, remembering Hermione's and his own pain when their blocks were removed. Dumbledore began to chant in Latin again, but this time kept his wand carefully pressed against Harry's scar. After around fifteen seconds, Dumbledore pulled his wand away and Harry's scar became much less defined.
"You will still always have this scar, I will not be able to affect that, but it will be much less noticeable from now on," Dumbledore informed him.
Harry, however, didn't hear Dumbledore's words, he was struggling to control his magic, as its output had increased dramatically with the removal of the connection. It felt as if his magic was trying to escape from every orifice and every pore. He couldn't hold it all in, so he let go, desperately hoping nobody would be hurt.
A massive surge of power came from Harry, knocking the power out in muggle homes within three-hundred yards of him, but the surge only generated a faint breeze inside the hospital room.
Hermione shivered again as Harry's magic washed over her. She couldn't explain the sensation. She had felt the magic of others before, It didn't make sense that Harry's magic had evoked such a reaction from hers. The only real explanation she could come up with was that her magic and his magic had just recently become more powerful. But then, that would mean that the strange feeling would eventually subside, and Hermione somehow instinctively knew that that wouldn't happen.
Everything about their situation now was completely mental, Hermione decided. They fell through the veil of death into another dimension, where they befriended the doppelgängers of Harry's parents (and friends). Harry's mum was dating Snape who was actually cool, and somehow they had illegal magical blocks on them and apparently someone had fabricated Harry's mental connection with Voldemort. That didn't even cover the fact that here, the last Dark Lord was Grindelwald, and Tom Riddle is a famous law-abiding Transfiguration master. Then, when the blocks were broken, Harry's magic made her shiver.
What the heck is going on? Hermione thought, finally overwhelmed.
Hermione was startled out of her thoughts by Dumbledore, who began to speak again. "I can only think of one person who could cast these blocks and create that horrific connection. Mr. Potter, I'm sorry, but the only possible conclusion is that my doppelgänger cast these. The magical signature is too similar to mine to dismiss."
Hermione fainted dead away. Too much craziness had happened in the previous twenty-four hours for her rational, logic-driven mind to process. This was just the final straw.
Harry grabbed Hermione as she slumped over to stop her from hitting the ground, and laid her down on the bed.
Sirius burst out in outrage, "You mean that our Albus stunted Harry and Hermione's magical and physical development? AND made a fake connection to a Dark Lord? Why in the name of Merlin would he do that?"
Dumbledore rubbed his eyes wearily. "I'd assume that he'd want to control the savior of the magical community. He'd want the glory that came from mentoring and advising him. I know this because I used to be like this myself. However, it was like a slap in the face when I tried to do this to a young prodigy named Tom Riddle and he almost turned dark. After that, I realized the error of my ways and resolved to never attempt it again."
Sirius eyed Dumbledore warily. "I'll assume that our Albus never had this awakening?"
Dumbledore nodded hesitantly. "Since Tom turned dark in your timeline, I'm just going to assume that something else caused his eventual descent into darkness, because if he had caused it, then he'd probably have reformed himself as well."
The healer looked completely baffled. "Excuse me, could someone explain to me exactly what has happened here?" he asked.
Dumbledore obliviated him. "I'm sorry, in my excitement, I forgot he was here," he explained apologetically.
As the healer blinked, recovering from the selective obliviation, Dumbledore spoke to him. "The blocks have all been removed. Thank you for your time, honorable healer."
The healer nodded dazedly while Harry woke Hermione. The group of four then made their way to the lobby where they flooed back to Hogwarts.
Dumbledore waved to them as they left his office, and Sirius said goodbye before heading to his classroom to begin teaching his first class.
Their first day of classes was a whirl. The most notable changes in their education were a competent Potions professor and the best Defense lesson they ever had. Harry and Hermione were justifiably surprised when they experienced Sirius's lesson. They never expected him to be so good as a teacher.
Just as Harry and Hermione made it to their seats, the doors to the classroom swung open dramatically, and Professor Sirius Black stepped through, holding himself proudly.
He marched to the front of the room, spun around, winked at Harry, and then proceeded to call out attendance.
"Now…" he looked around the room imperiously, "what have your teachers been teaching you?"
Remus raised his hand and when called on, listed a bunch of dark creatures and a few basic jinxes.
Sirius looked disturbed at the lack of proper defense instruction. "Well… today you will learn the disarming charm and the basic shield charm; Expelliarmus and Protego. Pair up! Mr. Potter and Miss Granger, help those that need assistance, as I know that you two already can do this."
After they had helped a few students by correcting their wand movements and stances, Sirius called them to the front of the room, while the rest of the class continued to practice. He quickly informed them that after classes, they were to see the headmaster and begin their training. Apparently, Dumbledore had tasked the Unspeakables in the Department of Mysteries with finding them a way home, and their dimension still had its Dark Lord problem.
The estimated time of completion, according to the Unspeakables, was unspecified, but somewhere over three years.
Upon hearing this, Hermione burst into tears, and Harry closed off his emotions to keep them at bay.
Harry and Hermione kept to themselves for the rest of the day's classes, only speaking when spoken to. The Marauders were confused at this turn of events. They had thought that Harry and Hermione were relatively sociable, and didn't hear what the older Sirius said to them until lunch when they interrogated Harry and Hermione.
They were torn between cheering that they would have new friends for a while and keeping the celebration to themselves because of Harry and Hermione's reaction to the news.
The correct choice was clear.
They whooped and hollered, yelling their joy to the heavens.
When Harry looked at them furiously, clearly outraged, James stepped forward and explained that they were happy because their new friends weren't leaving so soon, and most importantly, they wouldn't get killed by a megalomaniac as they got home.
"How the hell does being stuck here for three years help?" Harry snapped.
"Intense training," James suggested. "But if you do that, I want in!" The rest of the Marauders plus Lily and Snape looked just as excited at the prospect of advanced training.
Harry looked properly abashed, not having thought of that. He quickly apologized for his outburst.
Then, the expressions worn by the Marauders, Lily, and Snape darkened as they were told what Harry and Hermione's Dumbledore did to them.
The rest of the classes were a blur. Soon, Harry could be seen leading their group of eight to Dumbledore's office to request for them to be involved in the training.
Dumbledore took one look at the eager faces worn by his students and his resolve crumbled.
The first day was a planning meeting. Dumbledore made a list of things that would be useful to learn, and the students provided suggestions to add and remove things from his list.
By the end of the meeting they had a tentative list consisting of the following:
For fifth-year:
- Animagus training (non-Marauders)
- Advanced defensive magic (Harry and Hermione)
- Intermediate/advanced defensive magic (Marauders, Snape, and Lily)
- Controlling power output (Harry and Hermione)
- Silent casting
For sixth-year:
- Combat-oriented Transfiguration
- Combat-oriented Charms
- Muggle fighting
For seventh-year:
- Formal dueling
- Stealth training
- Basic wandless magic
Harry, Lily, and Hermione were shaking with excitement at the thought of all of the new skills. Sirius, Remus, Peter, and James looked disturbed at the thought of what they would be learning on top of all of their classes. Snape looked mildly interested.
As they walked back to Gryffindor Tower, all present reflected on their past day.
Harry was pissed at his dimension's Dumbledore.
Hermione was pissed at her dimension's Dumbledore.
Sirius was pissed at Harry and Hermione's Dumbledore.
James was pissed at Harry and Hermione's Dumbledore.
Lily was pissed at Harry and Hermione's Dumbledore.
Snape was pissed at Harry and Hermione's Dumbledore.
Remus was pissed at Harry and Hermione's Dumbledore.
Peter was pissed at Harry and Hermione's Dumbledore.
Alternatively, everyone was very excited at the thought of advanced training, though the Marauders were a little wary of the workload.
Harry Potter was an explosive brew of happiness and confusion. He was starting to see the benefit of staying here for a while. They'd train, finish school, and finally expand their group of friends. Harry would never admit it out loud, but he had recently been wishing that he had more friends than just Ron and Hermione. Sure, he was somewhat close to Luna, Ginny, and Neville, but he really spent most of his time with Ron and Hermione, and he needed more friends. Despite the fact that they were great friends to have, he couldn't spend the rest of his days with only two people that he ever really did anything with.
Now, he had the opportunity to make new friends. Granted, they were the doppelgängers of his parents and friends, but they seemed like really nice people.
Plus, he was now more powerful than ever and didn't have a parasitical connection to Voldemort stuck in his forehead anymore.
The only thing that was confusing him now was Hermione. He kept on getting these strange tingly feelings that were similar to what he had felt around Cho earlier in the year. Plus, there was a really weird feeling that he kept on getting once his magical and physical blocks were removed whenever he and Hermione were close together. It was almost if their magics were interacting with each other. The worst part was that it felt really good. Today, he had noticed for the second time how good Hermione looked.
Slowly, piece by piece, he put the clues together and realized that he fancied Hermione Granger.
Why did it take me falling through the Veil for me to notice this? He cried out mentally.
He was, however, still completely baffled by everything that had just happened. Even after thinking about things, he was still shocked by everything. He was sure that it hadn't completely sunk in yet, and he was equally sure that he was going to unconsciously bottle up his emotions when it did hit him, making him and everyone around him miserable.
He did not, however, have any idea how to solve that particular problem.
Hermione Granger was having the best and worst day of her life. Best, because she had made several new friends, been given the opportunity to get advanced training in several subjects, and it seemed like Harry was beginning to return her affections.
Yes, Hermione Granger fancied Harry Potter. She had for a while, though she couldn't quite place when she had started to feel that way.
There was a few negatives to the whole scenario, however. They were now stuck here for three years, and she wouldn't see her parents for that amount of time, nor would she see her beloved familiar Crookshanks, though she was sure Harry was feeling the same about Hedwig, his owl. She was especially worried, though, about that prophecy that she and Harry had heard minutes before falling through the Veil. She would have to analyze it in detail later, to determine possible meanings besides the obvious. She was sure that the ramifications of the prophecy had not fully hit Harry, and was determined to be there for him when they did.
He had just gone through so much in the past day, and she was just sure that he was bottling it all up. That was, admittedly, what he had been doing over the past year, bottling it all up.
No, she wouldn't allow him to do that anymore. She was going to help, whether he wanted her to or not!
Another thing that had shocked her was the actions of one Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, the one from her dimension. Because of him, her faith in authority figures had been irrevocably shaken. The Dumbledore here seemed nice though.
She wasn't about to blindly trust him, though.
James Potter was shocked. Almost to the point of being figuratively electrocuted. He was sure he was in denial about the whole situation anyway.
Sirius Black was also shocked, but mostly disappointed. He hadn't gotten a chance to talk to his doppelgänger yet! It was very sad. Maybe he would get to talk to him tomorrow? Sirius perked up at this thought, looking much happier.
Severus Snape was pleased. Harry Potter was cool. Hermione Granger was cool. They were friends now. Sure, some crazy shit had happened today, but he'd think about it later.
Lily Evans was so proud of Harry. She wasn't entirely sure where the maternal instincts came from but, she couldn't help imagine what it would be like if Harry was legitimately her and James' child.
Remus Lupin was unconcerned. He would think about it later. No matter what, he was happy that he had two new friends and that they were staying for a while.
Peter Pettigrew was offended. He would never betray his friends! He couldn't believe that his doppelgänger had. What an idiot. That guy must have not appreciated what he had, or he must have been jealous.
Peter was not jealous. He was very happy with the friends that he had and even happier that he now had two new friends that seemed really nice.
A first-year walking past the large group wondered why almost everyone there looked thoughtful, and why everyone was quiet.
He realized that he must have been looking too closely when the boy with the long and greasy black hair glared at him.
His stomach did a flip and he walked faster, desperate to get away from the scary fifth-year.