My Continuation of: I'm Still Here

by Sulain

This is a continuation of the story I'm Still Here by Kathryn518. The pitch is: The war with Voldemort continued until he left that earth to another dimension, one where there is a female version of him, and he accidentally took Harry with him. He went back to Hogwarts and started working against Voldemort, with new allies, new responsibilities, and new and more dangerous enemies.

4. Chapter 4

I do not own Harry Potter

III

Chapter 4

Harry managed to get Perenelle to let him out of the infirmary just an hour after he woke up. He had been unable to stay inactive for long, and he was feeling almost normal by then. He hadn't yet talked to Draco or Daphne yet, since classes were in session. If he recalled his schedule correctly, he had missed a transfiguration and a potions class, but he really didn't care that much about it, considering how above everyone else he was in those areas. He had been unconscious most of Sunday, Saturday, and until close to noon Monday, otherwise he would have missed more classes. As he stepped into the nearly deserted halls, he decided that he would go study a book about wards Perenelle had given him. It was extremely advanced, and he had learned a lot from it. It was quite boring, but he needed every edge he could manage when fighting Voldemort.

As soon as Harry stepped into the library, he realized that people were staring at him. The pockets of people that were there looked at him with expressions of awe. He ignored them and went to one of his less secluded study places, since he didn't want anyone to find any of his really good spots. A moment later, an older male Gryffindor student with a prefect's badge walked up to him, ignoring the look Harry gave him. Harry had had enough of fame for a lifetime, and all of it had seemed to be bad for him. He had especially bad memories of when everyone hated him when he was put into the Tournament. He had been noticed and disliked almost everywhere he went, something that he predicted would happen again.

The Gryffindor, someone that Harry recognized but had rarely talked to, started to look nervous. He was tall, but didn't seem strong and didn't move like he was a fighter. He also didn't have his wand out, so he wasn't an immediate threat. Despite the prefect's nervousness, he surprised Harry by sticking out his hand for a handshake and saying "Mr. Flamel, I am David Beren, we've never met. I wanted to thank you for saving Natalie, and for ridding the school of the dementors."

"Oh, um, thank you. It was no problem really. I couldn't just sit back and let her be murdered."

"Well, if you don't mind me disagreeing with you, I would say that you could really have sat back and let her get killed. I think that I can speak for most of Gryffindor when I say that we all owe you a huge favor - and you've surely seen by now how often we... disagree with you Slytherins, so you know how hard it is for us to say that." David was still anxious, but the confidence that Harry had known him to have was starting to surface, and he was gesturing with his hands again. Harry internally relaxed a bit, more confident now in the idea that he was not about to be attacked.

Harry had an idea, and he instantly pounced on the thought. "Well, I might have a way for you to do a favor for me, if you don't mind." David looked like he regretted giving his promise of a favor and he subconsciously changed his body language to a defensive position. Still, he looked like he would at least listen. "I have been thinking about starting a club for people to better learn how to fight, I would teach people some things that I know, and other people can spread their knowledge. Would you mind talking to some other Gryffindors and seeing if they are interested? This'll be for all the houses, a joint sort of thing, so if you can tell me some people to go to for that, that would be nice."

David's jaw was halfway to the floor. "Let me get this straight, Ares. You want to teach other people how to fight like you do, as a favor from us to you." He repeated himself, seemingly trying to believe it himself. "From us, to you?"

"I take it that that getting interested people won't be as much of a problem as I thought?"

"A problem?" David was having trouble computing the possibility and he illustrated the thought by putting his index fingers over his temples in an imitation of deep thinking. "Did you forget what you have done while at Hogwarts after you killed a hundred unkillable fear monsters? You fought off two death eaters, cutting off the arm of one of them after he impersonated old Mad Eye, and you did it after you protected an entire class worth of people who were targets that he tried to attack. Listen, I was in the classroom above yours, and he destroyed the ceiling of the room you were in, and you still fought him off, despite hos powerful he is. I was one of the people that got injured when he did that." Harry would have apologized for letting that happen, but he was perceptive enough to realize that doing that would only make David talk more about how good Harry was, a subject Harry himself didn't enjoy. "If Crouch Jr. was blowing that much stuff up, it would've probably taken an extremely skilled wizard to stop him. Trust me, after you fought him off, the only reason you didn't have to defend yourself from people trying to get you to tutor them was because, and I mean this without wanting it to cause offense, but you're downright scary most of the time." David seem scared at saying that, showing how true his statement was.

Harry held up his finger, cutting off the torrent of words. "So you're saying I'm popular?"

"Well, after saving Natalie and doing some crazy stunt no one thought was possible, we Gryffindors love you as much as we could love any Slytherin. The information I've gathered from talking to other people says that Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw feel almost the same, and you are probably better than me at saying whether your Slytherins like you. Listen, some people think that you brought the dementors to Hogwarts to allow the death eaters to escape, but they really are just a small minority." David was either being completely honest, or one of the best liars Harry had seen.

"Really?" Harry might just have overestimated the universe's desire to screw him over after all, not to mention that he seemed to have miscalculated the apparent fetish most people had for hating him.

"No one that saw you fight off either Barty Crouch Jr or Bellatrix Lestrange could say honestly that you are a death eater in disguise. I didn't see you fight off Crouch, I was knocked unconscious after he blew up my classroom's floor, but I saw you there in the room when you Bellatrix revealed herself. I heard that you stopped fiendfyre when the aurors couldn't. Those of us who saw you when you were against either of them know you didn't destroy the dementors to let the death eaters out. Count me in when you start your club, and expect half the school, maybe more, to want in also."

"Well okay then. I won't be able to teach anywhere near half the school, that would be hundreds of people, but I could certainly figure something out." Harry didn't remember David being that talkative on his old world, but it was a small difference, and he really didn't care. "If you can get back to me about it, maybe three days from now, we'll talk more about it then with some more people and we can set up an actual meeting."

David saw the end of the conversation. "Well, Ares, I'll talk to some people for you and report back Thursday. It was a pleasure meeting you, and thank you again for what you did." He shook Harry's hand again and left, leaving Harry dumbfounded. He would've been up for something the size of Dumbledore's Army, named anything other than that, especially if it had a lot of the better and older students, but he didn't know if he had it in him to teach that many people, not with so many duties.

Overall, though, that had gone so much better than Harry had thought it would go, it was almost suspicious. Had David seemed to be too nervous? On reflection, Harry realized he was being too paranoid, but old habits die hard, and he wouldn't apologize to anyone for that. Now to actually get some studying done.

Half an hour later, Draco Malfoy sat down across from him. "Ares! How are you feeling?" Despite spending so many years as enemies, Draco looked like he was actually excited to see Harry, and Harry reluctantly felt the same way. They weren't friends, but they had the same goals, and they were two of only three people in this world that were from what Harry still subconsciously thought of as the real world. Harry was also coming to suspect that he harbored a hatred for Voldemort and for his own parents that was close to Harry's own hatred. Draco hadn't seen all of his friends die over the course of years at Voldemort's hand, but he had been killed by him. It wasn't even for betraying him, it was for the crime of a single failed ambush that Draco led. Worse, Draco's own parents hadn't even asked for Voldemort to not kill him, they just let him do it. Harry felt a strange kinship with Draco because of their similarities.

Harry put up some quick wards to stop eavesdropping and to tell him whenever someone entered the immediate area, then slouched back in his chair. "I feel fine actually. Have you talked to Perenelle since I woke up?"

"No, I just got out of class and some people were saying that you were awake. I wanted to talk to you before we head off to herbology, and I guessed that you were in the library. What are you going to do about what you said after you killed the dementors? I assume Perenelle told you what you said."

"I'm going to tell James, Frank, and Sirius, just those three, about who I am as long as they promise to not tell anyone else. I should get Frank Longbottom's support, since I can heal his wife from all the damage from the cruciatus that Bellatrix did, and I think James and Sirius will support me when I explain who I am. The question is if they will agree to keep it quiet, and if they will believe me. I think so, but they are not actually my dad or the Sirius Black that I knew, they're different people with the same faces."

"I guess it is harder for you than for me. All the people I know are basically the same people they were on the other side, but every day, you see your mum, dad or godfather, and you can't help but know that they aren't the ones you should know. I'm sorry." He seemed to be honestly giving his condolences, not empty words.

They shared a moment of silence until Draco asked "Who are you going to bring with you when you talk to them?"

"Do you want to come? I had assumed it would just be me, but I don't see why we couldn't include everyone, me, you, Daphne, Perenelle, and Nicholas. Depending on when we brought him in, we could even include Regulus."

"I really don't think that's a good idea Harry. Certainly it couldn't be a first meeting thing. Even once we make Sirius understand that Regulus was actually fighting against Voldemort, Frank Longbottom might attack anyone that has the dark mark, and your... James Potter would have reason to act against him because of how much of a blood supremacist Regulus is."

Harry waved his hand to dismiss the idea. "You're right. They will eventually need to meet him, but for now, you might be as daring as they would like to go. You are still Lucius Malfoy's son, and you really weren't a very nice person back before you died. But you will help convince them that we really did come from another universe."

"Why do I get the feeling there's a punchline coming?"

Harry ignored him. "After all, the only thing that could ever get you to stop being such a huge pain is for a version of you from another dimension to merge with your old body."

"That's hurtful."

"It's true."

"Didn't your mother ever tell you that if you didn't have anything nice to say, don't say it?" Draco almost immediately realized his mistake and he immediately started apologizing profusely. Harry had heard much worse insults from him, and it was glaringly obvious that that was a foot in mouth moment, not an attack. Plus, it was quite amusing to see Draco die inside as soon as he realized what he had said. The only troubling thing about it was that he was fearful of Harry, and was very worried about how Harry might react. He seemed more like a subject begging for mercy from a king than a friend who made a single small mistake. He wasn't a friend, but Harry wasn't about to hurt him, even if Draco had been trying to insult him.

"You're fine, you've called me worse things. We've got bigger problems. Here, let's go to class now." They went, silent save for Draco apologizing more, and Harry again telling him he was forgiven.

By dinner that night, he had been approached by a number of people thanking him for killing the dementors. Even Cedric Diggory had approached him. Harry had been hoping for it, once he realized that people wanted to thank him, since Cedric was one of the deaths Harry felt the most guilty about. Perhaps if he could teach him how to fight better, he would survive longer. He told Cedric, and a few of the other older students about his plans to start a fighting club, and most of them seemed interested in the idea. But no good deed at Hogwarts seemed to go without its own punishment. A few minutes before dinner, Professor Snape approached him. Harry noticed a smile upon the professor that was out of place on his face, a genuine smile of happiness, or so it seemed. Harry didn't think he had ever seen the like on him. It set him on edge, but he controlled his expression as he walked to meet the professor. As Snape got to him, his smile disappeared and he became all business. "Mr. Flamel, the headmaster has asked me to order you to meet him in his office after dinner, to extend his congratulations and sincere thanks for destroying the dementors. He told me that the password is "licorice'."

Well that was the worst. Harry had been feeling unusually fine the entire day, so good he had decided to ask Perenelle if she had slipped him a stress relaxer potion or something, though he knew that his happiness was more likely just the result of enough sleep and a good day.

He had enjoyed angering Minister Fudge by dodging his attempts to speak with him. His professors hadn't allowed Fudge to get into the classes, and it was easy to blend in on the way out beside a couple other students, then avoiding his staff's attempts to find him with the Marauder's Map. He had seen and thankfully not had to talk to Hermione and Iris, and Iris was looking much less miserable than Harry had been in the days after he had been announced as one of the champions. She must have either been better at dealing with the cold shoulder people had given him once he became Champion, or the destruction of the dementors had distracted everyone. Harry had even been told by all of the professors he had seen that he didn't need to turn in any of his unfinished homework. The only one he hadn't talked to about it was Professor Snape. He'd probably have to waste hours doing some potion he knew by heart, one which couldn't be sped up. But maybe Harry could put off the meeting with Dumbledore, since Merlin knew Harry had enough on his plate for five of him. "Thank you, professor, but if you could tell the headmaster that I will be unavailable until, I don't know, Wednesday evening or Thursday, I will be able to meet with him then."

Harry would never have been able to get away with that on his own world, but here, Snape was different somehow. He had taken Harry's side in arguments numerous times, over Dumbledore's objections. That might be because here, he had become friends with Lily instead of becoming an attempted lover that never got over her marrying James. Or it might have been because Harry had been sorted into Slytherin here, though this Snape didn't seem to enjoy bullying students. Had he even become a death eater in this world? How would that have affected the prophecy? Was his friendliness around him the result of being ordered to be nice to him before betraying him? So much to find out, and so little time. Harry's 'to do' list that he had written down was frustratingly long, and too little of it was quick or easy. In fact, destroying the dementors was one of the easier things he had to do, and one of the fastest, though it had been quite risky.

Snape replied to him with another seemingly genuine smile. "That would be the least I could do for you, Mr. Flamel. I have enough influence with the headmaster to push your meeting back, and if you wish, I can arrange for your parents to be there."

"Just until Thursday would be fine." That would give him time to meet with James and Sirius before then. "And thinking of including my parents is very thoughtful of you, and I would enjoy it if you did so."

"It really is a small thing, Mr. Flamel." In his next statement, Professor Snape briefly applied a dose of the disdain for others Harry had always known him to have. "Some of those outside the school may think there is a chance that you deliberately engineered the Azkaban breakout, yet those of us who felt the terrors of the dementors know the blessing you have given, and I thank you for it. This school was already in your debt, and you deepened it with your actions several days ago. I also owe you a blood debt after you stopped Bellatrix Lestrange's fiendfyre. I hope to one day repay you. Of course, you have no need to turn in your most recent assignments. I have already given you full marks for both, though please note that this only covers the classwork from while you were unconscious. I expect that the next time I assign homework, it will be done early and properly."

Wow, Snape was either very happy with what Harry had done, pointing to possible death eater connections, or he was ordered to act that way by Voldemort. Or he had gotten the one dimension where Snape was slightly good. Hard to say at the moment, but Harry was staying safe and keeping his stance so that he could easily reach his main wand. He noticed that Snape saw Harry's surreptitious actions. Perhaps that indicated fighting training, perhaps... as a death eater?

Harry told himself to stop being so suspicious of him. Logically, staying close to Lily after presumably finding a healthy way to cope with his feelings had probably led to him not becoming a death eater. Despite telling himself this, Harry didn't relax any until a moment later when he had finished talking with Snape and joined Draco and Daphne at the Slytherin table to fill them in on what had happened.

The next day, the meeting had been all set up, and Harry was just getting finished getting ready. Nicholas and Perenelle had gotten together before going to James to set the meeting up, and they decided to go for a midnight meeting. That would keep it secret from everyone, especially Dumbledore and James' own family. They were going to go to the infirmary. Draco was already there. He had feigned sickness and was currently keeping a close watch on the situation. Perenelle was still fulfilling her temporary duties as medi-witch for Hogwarts until Madame Pomfrey had healed from all the damage done to her by Bellatrix. That gave Nicholas an alibi to visit, which only left Harry and Daphne.

Harry was sitting on his bed, triple checking the list he had made in preparation for the meeting. He didn't need it, but the night before, he had started getting nervous, very nervous. He would have even given the job of meeting with them to the others, any of the others, if he could have, but no one else would be able to do it. He just felt so nervous to be formally meeting Sirius and his father, no matter the fact they weren't the men he had known. He was trying to work up the courage to leave and head to the meeting. Eventually he left, leaving his room at the same time as Daphne did hers. After she said a night vision spell, she held up her copy of the Marauder's Map, the one that she had made while helping him to get his own dimension's Map working. It was a project that required a lot of experience at arithmancy, and Daphne had joined the project despite Harry's reservations because she was second best in her year at the subject, while Harry had no knowledge of it. At that point, she hadn't known about Harry's secret. She had found out before that project that Harry was more than he seemed, but it wasn't until she finished her map on her own that she had found out his true name, and subsequently his true story.

They were going to show them the Map as one of the many proofs they had gathered for their cause. The group hadn't worried about having trouble convincing the three aurors about everything until Harry had gotten worried and decided to go all out. It had been easy to convince the Flamels, Regulus, and Daphne about his origins, but he just couldn't shake the worry that they would not believe him. The resulting group meeting had left them all scrambling to get any proof that they could think of, no matter how trivial.

"You're leaving later than you planned." Daphne said quietly as they got out of the Slytherin common room. "Are you still as nervous as you were?"

"Yeah, it might even be worse. You're late too, what took you so long." Harry winced at how adversarial that sounded once his thoughts were translated to words.

"I wasn't spending all that time on makeup if that was what you were wondering. I was finishing a few more of Sirius' maps from my arithmancy notes to give to him and James."

"Excellent. Thank you, and sorry what I said sounded like I was accusing you of something, I can't very well call you out for being late while being late myself."

"No worries, Harry." They were both silent for a moment, and both were walking slowly and keeping watch on their Maps for Mr. Filch. Eventually, Daphne broke the silence. "How do you think this is going to turn out?"

Harry thought for a moment before speaking. "I have no clue, actually. I am fairly sure that they will believe us, but after that, what will they do? Will we get James to keep quiet about this with Iris and Lily, even once he knows that I am, in a way, his son? How will he react to the revelation that I had a horcrux in my head at one point? It's the same general principle with Sirius, though he will likely stick to whatever James does.

"The problem is Frank Longbottom. I don't know if I ever mentioned this to you, but on my world, he was made insane by the cruciatus, the same way his wife Alice was. That means that I don't know how he will act in this situation. I will probably get him to go along with us, though. In my world, we got much better at healing cruciatus damage, enough so that we could heal Alice. Even with that, I'm still worried, since I've been too focused on James and Sirius to think enough about him."

"Don't worry too much about him," Daphne reassured. "I know him a bit, since he's a friend of Sirius, and while he is reckless, he will do almost anything to get Alice back. It's not something I like thinking about, but I think that he would do anything except for killing innocents or serving You-Know-Who to get her back."

Harry cursed inwardly, wishing he had known that in advance. Their planning meeting had needed to be quick, and he had put too much attention to making sure they were convinced that he was who he said he was that he had neglected enough planning about how they would react.

Either way, too late now. They were at the infirmary, and the map showed James, Sirius and Frank a minute or two away from it, and Nicholas and the rest inside. Harry started feeling his nervousness flee and adrenalin rush into him. Ready or not, it was showtime.

A moment later, the three aurors walked in to the empty main room of the infirmary. Harry took a good look at all three of them while Perenelle and Nicholas greeted Frank and James, and Daphne greeted Sirius. Draco was out of sight for the moment in the infirmary office, staying deliberately out of sight. James was just like what everyone had said back on his world, a near mirror image of what Harry had looked like. He had changed his hairstyle and ditched his glasses solely in order to avoid people associating the two of them, especially due to the uncomfortable questions James might get about 'Ares' true parentage, whether or not he was the Flamel heir. For their parts, Sirius and Frank looked close to how they had appeared on Harry's world, except that Sirius looked more put together and Frank looked older and quite weathered from the dozen or so extra years in this world working as an auror.

He was mostly unconcerned with their appearances however. He cared more about their body language and how they acted. They were reserved, hesitantly entering the room and speaking in quiet voices, and they kept shooting glances at him. He was surprised to note that they were wearing their auror armor, with wands easily accessible. Sirius even looked faintly like he was having trouble not drawing it. They were definitely wary of him, and dropped most of the pretence of not being careful around him when they came up to shake his hand and greet him. While two of them were speaking to him, the other one was watching everyone else, and the two he was talking with were extremely watchful. They were surreptitious about it, of course. They were skilled aurors after all, and likely neither the Flamels nor Daphne noticed just how cautious they were being, but Harry had had a huge amount of on the job combat training and experience, and since he was watching closely, he was able to notice the unnatural behavior.

They all sat down in the chairs they had set up, using the open space granted by pushing all of the beds in the room to the end of the room, and stowing the dividers. Sirius, who Harry thought was the spokesman of the other group, tried to ignore the elephant in the room and start with a bit of small talk, but Harry shut that down. "Auror Black, let's get down to business. After I destroyed the dementors in what led to the Azkaban breakout, I fell unconscious and said that I killed several people you might possibly know, including someone by the name of Quirrel. Quirinus Quirrel was the name of the man that Voldemort possessed in Iris Potter's first year, the one that tried to steal the Philosopher's Stone. His story was covered up, and Dumbledore didn't even tell Nicholas Flamel about the full true story, something that you, Auror Potter, knew considering that you're Iris' father. That was a large connection to Voldemort, considering that what I did directly led to the breakout. I've been in so many disturbing and incredible situations in just two months that you felt that knowledge on this would help the pieces about me fall into place, so you told Nicholas and Perenelle that you would like to speak to me about what I said, and that you might decide to help me out during and before my trial if I answered your questions well enough. Would you say that that is correct?"

The aurors looked at each other in surprise, then James leaned forward and spoke. "That is not quite how I would have put it, but it is generally correct. We will help you in whatever way you need before your trial, pretty much no matter your answers. You are still a child, and it isn't right for you to be used as a political pawn to save the Minister from the fallout of his own actions. Also, it wasn't what you said that interested me, not as much as how your companions reacted. I hardly listened to the names, and I might have forgotten that you even said anything, if your friends hadn't acted like it was the end of the world. Also, while I was tasked by the leader of the aurors, Amelia Bones, to investigate your actions, I will not share any private information with her. I won't push you on anything, and even if I wanted to, which I don't, I am not allowed to use veritaserum on a minor. Unlike some elements of our leadership, we aurors have standards."

"But if you feel there is something wrong with what I say here, you will have the ability to ask me whenever the trial is, when I am compelled to speak the truth."

"In a way. I won't be asking any questions, but most of the others will want to, no matter their political affiliation." James paused in thought, then spoke again. "Also, for your information, the trial will happen next Monday, so we still have six days to stall or stop it."

Silence fell while everyone realized that they hadn't actually planned how they were going to about asking or answering questions. Nicholas decided to speak up, rolling his eyes at the situation. "James, my boy, we can sit here waiting till morning. You will not believe what he says unless he takes a truth oath or takes veritaserum, which Perenelle asked you to bring so you wouldn't think I made a fake batch of it. Pick one option and we will do it, then strap in for one of the best stories you will ever hear, a story made better by the fact that it is true."

James, Frank and Sirius looked at each other, then Sirius asked "May we have a moment to discuss this?"

Nicholas gave his assent, then the aurors left to talk amongst themselves. Harry, already tired from the later night than he preferred, leaned back in his comfy chair, eyes still slightly open and watching for anything.

A moment later they came back, and Sirius again acted as spokesman "James here was very against in any way using veritaserum or a truth oath, but since both parents obviously wish for it to happen, and since both are in the room with us, you may, if you wish, speak a truth oath. That way, you are free to not answer any question you wish, and your parents can stop us if they feel we are straying into the wrong areas. Is that fine with you, Ares?"

"Yes that's fine, but I would like to start off by explaining how I got myself into that situation with the dementors, starting with actions that happened years before I was born. It will take a while, and I would like you to not ask questions. It would be best if you took notes, now that I think about it. Perenelle can get quills and parchment for you to use from her office."

She got the supplies and brought them around, despite their protests that they wouldn't need to write anything down. Harry guessed that they would start taking notes for questions before he finished explaining what in his world had gone differently before the time he was born. When they had their supplies, he took a deep breath, then stood up, trying to push down the remainder of his anxiety as he held up his wand and spoke a magical truth oath. Magic oaths were usually done by the performer saying a cost if they broke the oath, then stating something. In Harry's case, it would be promising on his magic, that he intended to say only his best idea of the truth for the duration of the conversation. If the oath was preformed properly, a white shower of sparks would briefly erupt from his wand, then disappear. Magic oaths were rarely used and so weren't taught in schools, leaving it less and less well known. They weren't useful for criminal proceedings compared to veritaserum, which didn't require the full knowledge and consent of the person it was used on, not to mention that magic oaths required a person to have access to their wand. They also weren't very useful for day to day activities. Harry had only seen it done a few times until Nicholas and Perenelle, who were from eras where that type of magic was used far more, used it a lot in front of him.

He spoke the truth oath, then said out loud "My name is Harry James Potter, the son of James and Lily Potter, and I come from a different world, a world where a second war against Voldemort left almost everyone with magic dead." After that, he continued his story from beginning to the end, so far as it had happened. He told a more in depth version to the aurors than he had done with the Flamels or Daphne, so they too learned things about his life. He started with explanations of what had differed in his world before the time of his second birthday. Every time he got to a part they had proof for, such as the explanation that Harry was the magical lord of both house Potter and house Black, he showed it to them, knowing it would save time later. It was at about the time Harry showed them all the house Potter and Black rings, rings which were magically bound to him as the adult lord of those houses, that the aurors started viewing him not as someone that desperately needed St. Mungo's mental ward, but as someone more or less sane that came from another world. They were also astounded when Harry showed them the new Marauder's Maps that Daphne had made, as well as Harry's original one.

The only thing that he left out, that he could think of, was how he had been given and then destroyed the horcrux. He had left out any description of the horcrux that had been in him because he didn't want anyone to know what he had done to get rid of it. He even regretted telling the Flamels, no matter how much they reassured him that he had had no choice in what he did. Despite their assurances, he felt like he should have done anything other than what he did, no matter how much he knew he didn't then have any other options.

The only interruption that came to his story came when he finished explaining what had happened to the Longbottoms after Voldemort's first downfall. He explained that he now had the knowledge to heal Alice, which prompted several minutes of discussion that ended with Harry promising to heal her, but that they would need to discuss the particulars sometime later, since if they decided to keep Harry's origins a secret, they would need to heal her quietly.

When he finished, he took another truth oath where he promised that he had spoken only the truth, so far as he knew it. By that time, he had told them how Draco was now on their side, and he had joined them in the room. The Flamels then took a truth oath each, swearing that what Harry said was true to the best of their knowledge. Draco did the same as the Flamels, though he also swore that he was truly against Voldemort, and had no intention of harming any of them. That hadn't been planned, but it was hardly an unwelcome addition. After several hours of telling the aurors his story, he sat down and asked if they had any questions.

James Potter sat, listening to Ares, no, Harry, ask them if they had any questions about his story. The Malfoy heir, who had been a death eater before his first demise, sat beside him, trying not to smirk at all of their reactions. At least he didn't say anything. The explanation that Harry had given them all seemed to fit together, except for the explanation of the Azkaban breakout, and Harry said he didn't have much more information than James did about that.

James had been, to severely understate the situation, quite worried when Harry had said that he was the son of James Potter. He would never cheat on Lily, and while he thought that she wouldn't think he would do such a thing either, the mere idea of her believing such rumors disturbed him. It would tear apart the family that they had kept whole through attack after attack by Bellatrix Lestrange, even if Lily's temper would never explode enough to attack him. Plus, any allegations like that would certainly be shamelessly pounced upon by the media, especially with his and Ares' remarkable resemblance. But then he continued his sentence and said that he was also Lily's son, which seemed incorrect, considering it was impossible that he wouldn't know about Harry. Then he said that he was from another world, and James continued his journey across the emotional spectrum in just a few seconds.

Harry then told the strangest story James had ever heard, at least when he considered that the events weren't just strange, they were parts of events that he had lived, but events that were warped and twisted from what they should have been. Harry talked about how James had been an auror there as well, but that James and Lily had died on that mysterious night Voldemort fell, not his parents like in the real world - well, like what had happened in his world.

The reveals kept coming, but in the end he had a few main takeaways. First, Harry was an incredibly skilled wizard, one with a larger skill set than he had realized. He had known that after watching the memories of him fighting off Crouch Jr, but Harry's new information showed his skills more fully. Harry, in addition to his combat skills, seemed to be a master of wards, roughly equivalent to the goblin curse breaker he said he had been trained by. James wondered if the person that taught him in wards was Arthur Weasley's son, the one that had become a curse breaker. Harry was extremely reluctant with naming his friends and teachers from his side, and he seemed to be consciously only naming people James knew. The question was irrelevant for the moment. The important thing was that Harry was excellent at potions, wards, and most areas of fighting, he was competent but nothing special at subjects like herbology and care for magical creatures, and he had a barely elementary knowledge of arithmancy, as was shown by his need for Daphne's help remaking the Marauder's Map.

Second, he realized just how dangerous Voldemort really was, though hearing that Harry, the Flamels, and Sirius' brother had gotten hold of almost all of the horcruxes was slightly comforting. Really, it was most difficult to hear just how many people in the magical world, and even the muggle one, had died from Voldemort where Harry came from. Apparently, almost every British wizard, witch, and magical creature had died in his war, which engulfed the entire globe and caused the deaths of as much as eighty percent of the magical world's population. That was a mind boggling figure, and he liked the thought of the hundreds of demons Voldemort summoned little better.

Yet all of the academic knowledge of hundreds of demons or millions of deaths couldn't compare to the fear he felt when he realized that his daughter had been given, however unintentionally, a horcrux that Harry said that he was unable to remove without killing her in the process. James knew that the millions of deaths Harry described were worse than any pain Iris would feel in the war, but that number of deaths was no more than a statistic. His mind physically couldn't grasp the pain of those deaths, but he had seen Iris hurt, and he would do almost anything to stop it from happening again.

Third, he realized that Harry probably was their best hope of defeating Voldemort, in whatever form he was in. That brought up an incredibly important question. No one had yet put forth a question, and James needed to talk about something that had been bothering him for a while. "I've been wondering, Harry, what form did your Voldemort take in this world. Do you think he took over this Voldemort's body?" That would be the best case scenario by far, considering that Voldemort was a husk of himself hiding somewhere at the moment.

Harry paused for a moment of thought, then said "yes" at the same time Malfoy's boy said "no". Harry continued before Draco elaborated, but he looked less confident as he explained. "Draco and I haven't discussed this yet, as you can see, but I felt that our Voldemort would have taken over yours. I only have a copy of my fifteen year old body because of how different Iris and I are. We're even different sexes, and we grew up with completely different life situations, different histories. We are similar to each other, but everything I've found indicates that both Voldemort's are essentially identical people. In fact, it might not even matter since during fourth year..." Harry suddenly let out several loud curses, proving to James that the two worlds definitely were similar in that respect. Good variety too. Suddenly James connected the dots.

"You said that your Hogwarts allowed students in at age eleven, not twelve like here, which would mean that if he rose again at the end of your fourth year-"

"He'd already have this body back by this point here. I still have the scars from fifth year after a teacher used a blood quill on me for talking back to her in class. By that point, Voldemort had been back for months."

Sirius interjected himself into the conversation. "Harry, what teacher would use a blood quill on a student? Did my mother live long enough in your world to teach at Hogwarts?"

Harry mostly ignored the question. "No. Malfoy, why do you think there are now two Voldemort's?"

The Malfoy seemed surprised at being put on the spot like that. " Um... okay, well, I think that I took over this Draco's body only because I was a ghost when I went here, and because we were so similar. Seriously, I remember a bunch of conversations that were exactly the same, word for word, as the ones I had in the other dimension. Really, the only three differences between the two worlds in the early lives of both versions of me, at least that I've thought of, were me treating Potter slightly differently, me starting school a year later, and Lucius being more involved with secret meetings and the like. The real point is that the situation is far different for him than for me. We really don't know. Actually, I was thinking that it might even be better if there are now two Voldemorts. Think about it. Who would know more about how to defeat Voldemort than Voldemort himself?"

"How will that help us? Either way, we'd still have one Voldemort left, and it would certainly be the stronger one." Perenelle Flamel didn't see the possible advantage right away, but James thought he did.

"If there are two of them and they fight, then they burn resources attacking each other. Harry, how many horcruxes does your Voldemort have left?"

"I think just one. His snake, Nagini, was extremely dangerous, obedient, and it resisted damage just like a horcrux. He also took it with him to this world, like I did with my owl. This Voldemort might have Nagini by now, he has the Slytherin ring that Bellatrix wore while she was impersonating Madame Pomfrey, Iris is a horcrux, and we have the locket, cup, tiara, and the diary was destroyed back in Iris' second year. That leaves my Voldemort, if he has his old body, with a massive physical advantage but with one horcrux instead of several."

Harry's response gave James another question. "Do you have any idea why Bellatrix was at Hogwarts this year, and why she didn't kill my daughter before she was found out?"

Sirius held up his hands in a pleading gesture. "Now, I think it will be best if we meet later, preferably several times later, to talk about what we think Voldemort will do and how we will stop that, but for now, I think we should keep our questions to just any questions we have about Harry's past. Merlin knows we have enough to ask about there. If we finish with that before half of us fall asleep, we can talk about what we can do for the trial, then call it for the night."

James looked around intently for the first time in a while, noting that it was was far later than he had thought. In fact, Harry was the only person in the other group that looked fully awake. The aurors had all taken wakefulness potions before the late meeting, as commanded by the auror manual, so they were all fine. Harry, for his part, looked like he was just about to spring into action and start firing spells. It was something that James thought might be normal for him. Unlike him, Draco and Daphne looked like they were struggling to stay awake, and even the Flamels were looking a bit worse for the late hour. Everyone quickly agreed, and the aurors spent the next few hours grilling Harry on every detail of his past. He was reluctant to talk about a few things, but he gave almost every detail about of his past clearly and without, James thought, much or any embellishment. If anything, he gave himself too little credit. They would have to remember that. They also asked Draco some questions about his and Harry's past, which he answered honestly, judging by how poorly his answers painted him. James would have to think about the boy in more detail later, but for now, he trusted him more than he liked.

Throughout the questioning, Sirius did most of the talking, once they realized Harry responded better to him than James for some reason, especially once Sirius got more comfortable with the situation and stopped needing to force his normal carefree personality as much. Frank, like they had planned, stayed quiet and in the back, listening and seeing everything. He was actually quite communicative normally, but they had found that his stare was unnerving, and they had wanted any advantage they could get over the Flamels, back when they thought that the immortal alchemist was the one pulling the strings.

It was around three in the morning when they had no more questions about Harry's origins, and when they had to think about what they should do for the trial. They needed a quick conference just outside the infirmary to figure out what to do, though that didn't require much discussion. They would help Harry Potter any way they could, and they would keep his secrets from everyone. Even their closest family, if Harry thought it was for the best. Even if it wasn't, they needed his trust to have the best shot at winning the war.

The real question was how to protect Harry from the trial, and that was where the real discussion started. The three walked back in to the infirmary and spotted the tail end of a discussion located where the beds had been pushed. It was warded against eavesdropping, but the aurors still kept a respectful distance until Nicholas Flamel saw them and nudged Harry. He looked up, waved his wand to dispel the wards, and walked over to them. He was obviously nervous, his posture reluctant. He was even closer to drawing his wand than earlier, and he had his arms crossed in an odd way to be able to draw his primary one from his left arm holster. James wondered what Harry would do if he told him that he would tell everyone Harry's secret, or arrest them or something. For the first time that night, James felt fear as he realized that Harry might actually try to kill them if they opposed him. It wasn't that he was evil, but it was obvious that Harry's entire purpose now was to destroy anyone named Voldemort, no matter the consequences to himself.

James wanted to make it clear to everyone that he was on Harry's side. "Harry, or if you prefer, Ares, the three of us discussed it quickly, and we knew that we would have to aid you in any way possible. I won't tell Lily or my children your secrets. They don't even know what I'm doing tonight, just that Amelia wanted me to gather facts about your case and that I wanted to investigate a possible lead. I can't promise to be able to aid you in everything, but I have my own vendetta against Voldemort, and I know now who can best lead us in the fight. Count us in." Harry didn't reply as everyone sat down, but he looked close to tears, and the fight had left him.

Sirius took up the conversation from there. "Well, now we've got to talk about the trial, unless there's something else you want to say first? Okay, here's my thoughts, though I haven't given it enough time. We can't stop the trial. Fudge has too much support from the center of the Wizengamot, wizards and witches that aren't poor, poor 'Imperio victims' like Malfoy and his ilk, but aren't dead set against them like Dumbledore and our large group are. A few years ago, Dumbledore could have cowed the entire Wizengamot with a word, but his failures defending Hogwarts have been too damaging to his reputation, even though it was partially repaired after speaking multiple times against both the dementors being here and the way the Tournament was handled. Yet even he might not want to stop the trial.

See, here's the problem, and why so few people from the Wizengamot are talking about your trial. No one wants to be the person that advocates for a child to be put under veritaserum and questioned about suspected criminal activities, but even those that vocally oppose the trial wonder if you are a death eater. How could they not, after the breakout happened so quickly? Anyway, many of them want House Flamel secrets too. The odd thing is that the 'Imperio victims' have been vocally supportive of your rights."

Harry interrupted Sirius. "Do you think they were told to?"

"Hard to say. It could be, but I honestly think that it isn't the case here. I think that the reality is that a group of death eaters understands consequences better than much of the Wizengamot, despite half of the death eaters being roughly as intelligent as your average troll. If the Wizengamot can force a child to submit to questioning under truth serum, despite his father being able to turn rocks to gold, what else could they do? The point is, I won't be able to stop the trial. Too few people truly oppose it, and half of them or more won't say anything against it in case you can provide something juicy. It is going to happen, we just need to figure out a way to beat veritaserum."

Everyone was silent and started looking at Harry. "My potion resistance powers won't stop it, and I don't know if it's possible to magically change the sound around an area, to make it seem like I am saying something different than what I actually am. I was hoping one of you would be able to spike the potion at some point, since you are all aurors and are on the Wizengamot. Are you able to do that?"

"We'd be able to, but an extremely small dose is taken by three members of the court, chosen for their political opposition to each other. This is an extremely high profile case, and Fudge will take no chances with the goings on. If you know how to set a delayed reaction in the potion that will only counteract it after that test, we could get away with it, otherwise, there's no chance."

James felt that even that pessimistic response was too generous a reaction to the idea. "We'd have to time it extremely well, otherwise it won't work. Even then, it would have to be an incredibly lucky guess for us to know the exact minute or two length of time after the Wizengamot tests the veritaserum, but before Harry says anything incriminating... like his name. It would only be reasonable to try if Harry has precognitive abilities he hasn't told us about, and ones that could somehow help us here."

Harry was getting a defeated look again. "I have no divination abilities, though it would be nearly impossible for me to get them to work like that, and even if I did, I can't give my magic a clock." The eight of them spent a few minutes throwing ideas around, all of them unworkable. Simply not going to the trial was likely the best solution that was suggested, but that would also make Harry and the Flamels fugitives. It would keep the truth secret, but it would keep them away from Hogwarts. No one wanted to risk it, not to mention the problem of keeping Regulus alive in the Chamber of Secrets.

Suddenly Draco slapped his forehead and half shouted "Wait! We're all idiots. I think?" Everyone looked at him in confusion until he elaborated. "Mr. Flamel, are other people able to do what Harry does when he puts a drop of his blood in a potion to make it attuned to them?"

"I like where you're thinking, my boy, and yes, I think that it'll work. I've never seen someone doing that before I met Harry, but it worked when I tried it on my own. The potion I put it in didn't change or strengthen its effects, since I haven't overdosed on potions like Harry did, but it kept the effects exactly the same, which shouldn't happen when a new ingredient is added. We could try it here, if James still thinks he can spike the veritaserum. I assume you were wanting to know if it was possible for James or Frank to spike the potion before the trial with a drop of their own blood, leaving Harry with a potion that will work for the testers of the Wizengamot but not for him? "

"Yes, so you think that it'll work?"

"Only one way to find out, my boy. Harry, if you don't mind using some of your personal store of it for the experiment? I can refill you whenever I get back home."

A suddenly excited Harry pulled out what looked like Mad Eye's magic trunk from one of his pockets, and set it down on one of the chairs after expanding it, after he moved the chair so that he didn't need to turn his back to anyone. He fiddled with different things inside it, and finally took out a small bottle of veritaserum. "You keep a bottle of veritaserum with you?" James asked.

It was Nicholas Flamel that answered him. "Not just that. He keeps a whole stash of useful potions in there, all of it kept from going bad by the excellent spells its previous owner put on it. But that's just one of its compartments. I don't know what all else he keeps in there."

"Apparently he has the Malfoy fortune hidden away somewhere. It would technically be my rightful inheritance, I think, but I did die on that side, so it's more that he's stealing Lucius' gold, and I fully support that." Draco was definitely trying to distance himself from his father, and James still didn't know what to make of the heir of Malfoy. He was a former death eater, but he was almost likable, which kept James from hating him no matter how much he distrusted the man.

"Technically Draco, it wasn't all your gold. Get back to our world and it'll still mostly be there, we just took some trinkets here and there from several vaults, for sentimental value you understand."

"Didn't you tell me that you got hundreds of pounds of gold?"

"Well, us sentimental sorts have to keep our spirits up somehow, plus you lot were trying to murder us at the time."

James broke into the conversation. "Whose vaults did you take from?"

"Only death eater vaults, mostly the Malfoy, Lestrange, and Carrow vaults. We wanted to rebuild wizarding society, back before we realized how broken the world was. Anyway, here's how you do what I do with potions. "He demonstrated dropping a drop of blood into a potion, which he divided into two parts, handing half to James and telling him to drink it. He did so, and immediately felt the half effects of the potion. "Is this the draught of peace? If it is, it is less powerful than usual" It made him feel calmer and relieve stress, but James thought it felt slightly off somehow, and it was definitely not as powerful as usual, if he was right about what potion it was.

"Yes, it is. Now for the veritaserum." James repeated what Harry had done to the draught of peace into the small bit of veritaserum he had been handed, then pushed it over to Harry. There wasn't a sound as they all watched him drink it. He waited a moment, seeming to be afraid of what might happen.

Finally, right when James was about to inquire as to the effects of the potion, Harry finally seemed to be ready to say something. He had a smirk that was identical to the one that James had worn whenever he succeeded in a difficult prank back when he was a student. "I think that Cornelius Fudge is handling every problem currently as well as possible, and he is really the best man possible who can defeat Voldemort."

III

Well, that's chapter four. Sorry it took so long, this chapter is multiple times as lengthy as any of my previous chapters, and it took longer to write word for word than the others because this chapter is so important. Add on college work, insomnia, and me being sick for a while, which all slowed me down, and this chapter took until now to finish writing. The next chapters will release faster than this one, I think. They'll focus on Harry's meeting with Dumbledore, Draco's meeting with Lucius, the meeting of Dumbledore's Army 2 (but it's named anything other than that,) and on James, Sirius, and Frank meeting Harry again to plan and talk about the future. I'll definitely write Draco and Lucius meeting first, since I want to talk about how the death eaters broke everyone out of Azkaban, though Lucius won't say everything about it. I don't know how many chapters I will divide these four large sections into, but I have some time to figure that out. I also have to introduce Fleur, who is the last major character I haven't really talked about or shown yet. She'll be in a ton of this later on, and I want to introduce her as early as possible.

In other news, I got a bunch of reviews from people. Thank you all for those, and for everyone that took time out of their days to critique or praise my writing. I'm not lying when I say that I enjoy receiving critique, because it helps me hone in better on what I need to do to improve. I want to specifically talk about a few of those critiques/recommendations now.

Guest was confused at how many of my own characters I added in and wondered if I am going to be using any of them again, and more generally asking why I am introducing my own new characters. That is a valid concern, and one that I hadn't considered, since I don't come from a background of fanfiction. I added in new characters like the aurors that Amelia worked with to expand the world, and if you don't know a character's name when you first read it, you will be safe assuming that you can call them 'background character #1' or something and be fine. Currently, I have an OC character that will ascend to the height of side character of a single plotline, but only because there's no one already written that could fill that role. Again, unless you see an OC character a bunch, you don't have to pay any attention to them.

Jslee102 is asking how exactly the death eaters managed to break everyone out of Azkaban. I hadn't previously considered that in enough detail until I read this review, and it is the reason I am writing the Draco and Lucius meeting next. They also recommended I tag this story differently, which I will look into.

Lastly, Maesda wishes I could write chapters like Kathryn does. While I would love to write chapters that long, I write better when I release chapters faster, since I get bogged down a lot if I don't have an immediate end goal in sight. I'll probably experiment writing longer chapters (I expect the trial chapter to be longer than this one) but nothing so long as Kathryn's chapters.

Thank you all so much for reading this and for all the praise, it really means a lot and it keeps me going.