A/N: I'm on a bit of a roll, though to be honest some of these ficlets have been sitting on my hard drive for a while- a LONG while. This one is one of those, though I did to so touching up and editting of this one. It's a bit changed up from it's original form, which I may post up at a later date. Should Potter Effect (Working Title) ever become a full fledged fic, I'll likely use this version of this scene.
Also, for those who leave "Guest" reviews... I have quit addressing reviews, for the most part, in author's notes and do so through PMing. If you leave a Guest Review, I cannot reply to your review to address any questions/reviews you might have. So while I do nto begrudge you your right to leave an anonymous guest review, I can not get back to you to address your concerns /questions if you do not leave an actual member signed review- just so you know.
Warnings: Harry/fem!Shep, Deathly Hallows/Epilogue Complaint, HP canon pairings, DH Spoilers, Mass Effect 3 spoilers, Scorpious/Lily Luna (mentioned)
Potter Effect (Working Title): King's Cross Redux
When Harry awoke, it was in a void of pure white.
He was unsure of how long he'd laid there, whether it was seconds, minutes, hours or even days. Time seemed to relinquish all meaning in this place.
Deciding it was time, at last, to get up, he stood. The void seemed to get brighter for a minute before changing into Kings Cross Station- not the modern tram station it had developed into in post-Mass Effect Terran Society or the ruin it had become in the aftermath of the Reaper Invasion, but as it had looked nearly two hundred years ago when he and Ginny had dropped off James and Albus for Al's first year at Hogwarts.
His mind ventured through several fond memories of this place- his reunion with Ginny when she'd come back from her seventh year and James' shock when Samantha Entwhistle let him know she liked him by kissing him in the middle of the station before rushing off with her parents for the summer. He could almost see Lily's enthusiastic greeting when she returned home for the summer after her sixth year and the first time Teddy and Victoire returned home hand in hand because they'd began dating.
He remembered Albus' anxiousness of returning home for Christmas for the first time, having been sorted into Slytherin and introducing Scorpius Malfoy as his best friend, to his father. Even nearly two decades later, the Potter/Malfoy animosity was legendary despite the fact that the two men had put everything behind them years ago. He pictured Scorpius' fidgeting, both when he first met the polite, well-mannered boy and years later when the boy, turned young man, asked Harry for his permission to date Lily. He remembered seeing the look of absolute joy when the boy who'd eventually become his future son-in-law had been accepted both times.
Unfortunately, each and every one of those memories was tainted by the fact that none of them belonged to him. None of them were actually his. They'd happened to another Harry Potter in another time, in another place. Sometimes it was easy to forget, but in other instances, the facts would slowly creep up on him and pounce.
Each and every one of these memories that he could see- his first meeting with the Weasleys, his last meeting with Dumbledore, sending off Teddy and then James, Albus and Lily to Hogwarts, each of their returns home, his brief stint as the Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor… They'd been among the happiest in his life; they were the best and brightest of his experiences, turned bittersweet by the fact that it wasn't him that had lived that life.
He remembered standing at the Hogwarts Lake, just after Dumbledore's funeral when he, the other him, was breaking up with Ginny. What had he told her, 'it was like he had been living someone else's life'? While he never took the time to study the metaphysics of it all, that's precisely what he had been doing- living someone else's life, or they had lived his. Either way, the life he lived had not been his own. Maybe now that he was dead, the man out of time could be put to rest once more.
It was with a heavy heart and an unsure resolve that the Master of Death moved towards the train, ready to step on board and begin his next great adventure into the beyond- no matter what fate, if any, awaited him there.
"Are you sure that's the right choice?" asked an all too familiar voice. "Personally, I don't think so and I'm fairly sure you don't either. You've never been one for the easy choices, so why now?"
Harry froze, his hand on the railing and one foot on the foot hold, nearly ready to hoist himself onto the train.
"Is this real?" he asked, not taking the step onto the train, but also not stepping back. "Or is this all in my head?"
"Why not both?" asked the second figure amusedly. "Just because it's all in your head, doesn't make it any less real. And if it is real, why can't it be in your head? Belief is a fickle and funny thing, especially where magic and metaphysics are involved. Do you believe?"
"Do I?" After a short moment of contemplation, Harry smiled. "Yes, I believe I do."
The second figure just smiled and nodded.
"Do you know how strange this is?" asked Harry to the second figure.
The man became even more amused. "I have an idea."
"Of all the people I could have met here, you were probably the one I expected to see the least," Harry told him. "Being what I am, I wouldn't have been surprised if no one had come at all."
"How do you think I feel?" the man replied. "I always assumed that after I'd made my choice when I spoke to Dumbledore all those years ago that my next time into the afterlife would be a one way trip. I never expected to return here, even from this side."
"So what do you think I should do?" asked Harry.
"Whatever you think is best," replied the man. "Whatever you feel is 'right' for you. You are the master of your own destiny, not me."
"But-" Harry began, only to be interrupted.
"Harry, you might be me, but I am not you," the man told him. "Besides, you already know what I would say and think about all this."
Harry let out a small chuckle. "Yeah, I suppose I do."
Harry then took the time to measure himself against his other self- doppelganger had sounded wrong in his head, since it was he, and not the other, that was the copy.
The other Harry wore a white oxford shirt and black tie underneath a black dragon hide vest and black pants with black, knee high, dragon hide boots. Over that was his blood red, hooded Auror's cloak and strapped to his wrist was the holly and phoenix feather wand he'd always been so fond of. The build of the other Harry was far from what he'd come accustomed to. While Harry wasn't nearly as heavily muscled as either James Vega or Jacob Taylor, he wasn't exactly small either. The original Harry, while lean wasn't nearly as physically conditioned as he had been. Musculature aside, another major feature that set them apart was their eyes. While both still possessed the emerald green eyes that had been inherited from Lily Evans, and later passed on to Albus Potter, the original Harry's were hidden behind lenses fitted onto his face by black wire frames, while Harry's had been enhanced with cybernetics and possessed an otherworldly glow to them.
"So, before you go back…" the other Harry began
"And how do you know I plan to go back?" Harry asked the original.
"Just because I'm not you, doesn't mean I don't think like you," the ethereal man replied. "Anyways, there are some friends who would like to say good bye."
"What?" Harry asked.
"Hello Potter, it's good to see you again," greeted a familiar voice, one that sent a jolt of fear and concern through Harry.
"Admiral," Harry said in alarm. "But…"
"You did what you could, it was just my time," Anderson told him. "Shame I didn't get to know you better, I think we'd have gotten along just fine. You'd have made a helluva soldier."
"I… Thanks…" Harry replied as he shook Anderson's hand. "Admiral… Wh-What about Shepard?"
Anderson smiled warmly at Harry. "Your girl is gonna be fine. She's a survivor, if nothing else. Just be there for her. It's well passed time that she was able to rely on others rather than others having to rely on her."
"I know," Harry told him. "And I will."
"Well, turn around and let us have a look at you," said a feminine voice, one he was certain he knew even if he hadn't recognized it. His eyes widened as far as they could when he saw the people who greeted him when he turned around. The red headed woman stepped towards him and placed both hands on either side of his face. There was such kindness and warmth in her emerald green eyes that Harry was almost completely overwhelmed by her presence.
"M-mum…" Harry greeted hesitantly.
"My baby…" she whispered as she enveloped him in a hug. "I'm so proud of you."
"We all are," a man said, and this time Harry was more certain of whose voice it was without having to actually look upon the smiling face of his original's father. Harry was both strangely shocked and not at seeing Sirius Black, Remus Lupin and Nymphadora Tonks-Lupin standing with him.
"D-Dad?" Harry asked tentatively. James Potter simply smiled and nodded. He took a steadying breath. "Hey, Sirius, Remus. Wotcher, Tonks."
"Wotcher, Harry," Nymphadora greeted with a wide grin.
"I gotta say, kiddo, I didn't think I could be any prouder of you after Voldemort was defeated. Saving the world is a big deal after all, but this… Saving the galaxy? I almost can't wait to see what you do for a third act," Sirius told him.
"I think I'll pass," Harry replied as Lily Potter released him from her embrace. "I've done enough heroics to last a lifetime."
"Or three, in your case," Tonks piped up. Harry simply rolled his eyes.
"You of all people should know that you can't change what you are," Remus spoke up. "Like it or not, being a 'hero' is the core of what you are and helping people is what you do."
"Wish I could say he got that from me," James replied. "But we all know that no matter what he looks like, Harry has always been his mother's son."
"Just don't forget to a break every now and then," Sirius told Harry. "You've got yourself a woman whose 'saving people thing' is almost as big as your own. Don't get so caught up in helping others that you don't take the time to help yourselves. Drag her to some remote part of the galaxy where the two of you can be alone and just be yourselves for a while."
"I will and… Thanks, everyone, for everything," Harry replied.
"Don't mention it," Sirius replied. "And as cliché as it sounds, don't hurry up to join us any time soon."
As moved from them, he was approached by another group of people. Before he could react, he was accosted by a woman with bushy red hair who shouted "Uncle Harry!" at the top of her lungs who enveloped him in a hug that would have done both her mother and grandmother proud.
"Hello Rosey," he greeted as he hugged her back. When she released him, he greeted the first of the other three people with a handshake, "Hugo."
The second greeted him with a handshake as well, but he pulled is male best friend into a hug anyway. "Ron."
The third warmly greeted him with a hug of her own. "It's good to see you guys again, Hermione."
"Oh, Harry," Hermione replied.
"How have you guys been?" Harry asked.
"Good, but weird, since there's two of you now," was Ron's, rather simple, straight forward response, which made Harry smile. His grin only widened when Hermione slapped him in the arm for his 'insensitivity'. "Dammit, woman!"
For good or ill, Ron would always be Ron and Harry wouldn't have him any other way.
"We've been fine. The big question is how are YOU doing?" Hermione interjected.
"Good," Harry replied. "Surprisingly good, all things considered. I've I got plenty of friends whom I consider family and a woman who gets me better than anyone else, despite the short time we've been together."
"Oh, we know," Ron told him. "Even if we hadn't been looking in on you from time to time, Rosey and Hermione can't keep from gushing about how happy you've been lately. They strongly remind me a lot of Parvati and Lav back in the old days."
"Ronald…" Hermione warned her husband with a slight edge to her tone.
"Hey now, it's the truth!" Ron said with his hands up in a placating gesture as he moved to keep Harry and Rose between him and his wife.
An amused Harry turned to an equally embarrassed Hugo. "Are they always like this?"
"Yes," was his reply.
"Good to know some things never change," Harry replied, to which Rose giggled.
"It really is good to see you, Uncle Harry," Rose told him.
"Even if I'm not exactly me?" he asked.
"Don't think that because Cerberus made you that you aren't you," Rose insisted with a frown. "You ARE Harry Potter with everything that comes with it. The encounter with the other Shepard should have taught you that, if nothing else. Magic and technology could replicate only so much, it was you who made you who you are. Even though you aren't THE Uncle Harry that used to tuck me in sometimes and read me stories you are still MY Uncle Harry because of what's in here."
She tapped his chest over his heart as she said the last part.
"I don't know what to say." He replied.
"You don't have to say anything, Harry," said Hermione who'd since stopped glaring at her husband. "Because we love you and always will. Now it's almost time for you to go. You might have helped save the galaxy, but there is still much for you to do."
He said his good byes to them, hugging Ron and Hermione, then Rose and even Hugo before greeting the next person.
"You are an odd one, aren't you, Harry Potter," said the voice of the sole female turian Harry had ever spoken to, Nyreen Kandros, who'd sacrificed herself to save the hundreds of people outside of Afterlife from a dozen adjutants.
"So I've been told a time or two," He replied. "I'm just me."
"Despite what you think, you are special. There are very few out there that are like you," Nyreen told him. "Anyone who knows to look can see it in every fiber of your being. Not even Shepard possesses that which make you who you are, but she is not far off. Aria was another, but she rarely ever lets it show. You and Shepard brought that out in her that day in a way I never could."
"Don't sell yourself so short. I'm sure, in time, you'd have gotten through to her," Harry assured her.
Nyreen shook her head. "I gave up on her. Were you in my place, would you have done so?"
"Who am I to say what I would or wouldn't have done," Harry inquired. "We don't know how we'd act in certain situations until we've lived them. You might have left Aria for a time, but you didn't leave Omega. If you thought she was beyond hope, you'd have abandoned the station completely. Instead, you not only stayed, you fought for it."
"I couldn't let Cerberus get away with abusing and subjugating the people of Omega," Nyreen replied.
"The fact that Omega was not only Aria's home, but something she loves more than anything didn't factor into your reasoning, not even a little bit?" Harry asked skeptically.
"Perhaps briefly," Nyreen acknowledged. "You have a pure heart, Harry Potter, untainted by all that's been thrown at you. The galaxy will need that in the coming years."
"I'll do my best," Harry assured her.
"I know," she responded. "That is why you will succeed where many others will not."
"Good bye, Nyreen."
"Spirits be with you, Harry Potter."
It was while leaving Nyreen, that Harry was confronted face-to-face with his other self and his other self's family.
He still found it disconcerting to be looking at a copy of himself that was both him and yet not.
With the original Harry Potter, was his wife, children, godson and their families.
Holding each of them was exactly how he remembered and yet different. If anything, it was when he held Ginny in his arms that he realized just how different he was from his elder self. There was no fluttery feeling, no ache of longing, nothing. He still thought fondly of her, and he cherished the memories of her that he had, but she wasn't his future- she wasn't his anything and he was strangely okay with that.
That didn't mean that the situation wasn't still slightly awkward for him.
It was the original, pre-Mass Effect Potter who spoke first. "Surreal, isn't it?"
Though Harry knew he didn't have to answer as the question was rhetorical, he did anyway. "Very."
"Ready to go back to the land of the living?" Harry was asked by his other self.
"How was this possible?" Harry replied not answering his original self's inquiry. "Everything I know about magic and death says that this shouldn't be possible.
"You're human, you aren't meant to understand," Potter informed him. "We're the Masters of Death, for what all that entails."
"Which is?" Harry asked.
"Something you'll have to learn for yourself," Potter rebutted.
Harry huffed derisively, though only half-heartedly. "You're more cryptic than Dumbledore."
"I'm not allowed to tell you, honest," Potter said in an attempt to placate and reassure his post-Mass Effect self. "You'll understand once you're in my place."
"In your place?" Harry asked incredulously.
"I may have been the first Master of Death, but did you really think you'd be the last?" Potter asked. "The Power of Three. Three magical artifacts, three Masters." He shrugged. "I'd be surprised if our third wasn't another variation of us, shaped by his time and the Hallow he will use most."
"The Resurrection Stone," Harry stated in realization.
Potter nodded. "Dark times are ahead, but not for you, your time is done- for now. Don't go seeking the other Hallows. They may find you, but they are not meant for you. Just as I cast aside the wand and the stone, so must you, the stone and the cloak."
"That doesn't sound ominous," Harry replied sarcastically.
"Sorry, destiny's a bitch," Potter said with a shrug. "Something you should already be well aware of."
"True…" Harry said ruefully. "I'm ready. What do I have to do to get the girl and ride off into the sunset?"
"Wake up," Potter answered promptly.
Harry suddenly found himself in a dark cavern of some sort, unable to grasp where he was as he suddenly sucked in a deep breath- which was quite painful. As everything faded to black, he heard activity around him.
"Look!"
"-nd him!"
"-ll the Admir-"
And then he knew nothing.