Another Bite of the Apple

Summary: Harry's death in first year left Dumbledore with little power or influence. Now beyond desperate for a way to stop Voldemort, he initiates a ritual to pull a compatible hero from another universe. What he gets is Lilith Potter: a dark witch who doesn't trust authority figures, has all of Voldemort's memories, and is still mourning the death of her lover.

Pairing: Lilith/Hermione

A/N: This story is inspired first by the many female Harry stories by Nemesis13, and second by the many "summon poor Harry from another universe so we can force him to do it all again" stories. This, though, would be a bit darker than most of them. Lilith has had a miserable life: she was abused worse by the Dursleys, which led to her absorbing the memories and some of the attitude of the soul piece in her scar, and both of those led to her being sorted into Slytherin in her Hogwarts. And that's just the start of her problems. No one is truly prepared for someone like her, but she's also hardly prepared to deal with the presence of so many people who had died in her own universe.

There's no way this is going to go well for anyone, is there?

As always, thanks to Bonnie for not only reading this and improving on the original, but also for her help in developing the plot so far.

Publishing Note: I will once again be taking a three-week break from publishing while Bonnie and I prepare and edit the next story, A Witch and an Amazon Walk into a Bar. The first chapter will appear on May 27, a week before the Wonder Woman movie! A draft version of the first chapter appeared here in the Fluffle as chapter 3.

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, JK Rowling does.

Chapter 01 - Land of Confusion

I'm on fire.

At least, Lilith Potter felt like she was on fire. It was only to be expected, since the last thing she remembered was being surrounded by her own fiendfyre as she destroyed the Ministry of Magic. She also remembered cackling insanely as she waited for death to take her along with all the corrupt, evil people who worked there.

But I'm not dead, am I? I don't feel dead. Come to think of it, I'm not in nearly enough pain to be on fire, much less consumed by my own fiendfyre. I'm hot, and I'm definitely in pain, but it's probably not fire after all.

She opened her eyes and blinked several times. The first thing she noticed was that the world was swimming around her, and she instinctively reached for her glasses. Then she remembered that she had finally gotten her eyes fixed a few months ago, so she shook her head to clear it, which seemed to help. The next thing she discovered was that she was naked — no clothes, no wand, nothing. She was lying on a stone floor, and there was something disturbingly familiar about the room...

"Fascinating," came a weak voice, drawing Lilith's attention. To her right, sitting on the floor a few feet away, was just about the last person she ever expected to see. Or wanted to see.

"You long-bearded, manipulative old goat-fucker!" Lilith hissed, wincing in pain as Fawkes let loose with what she supposed was intended to be an inspiring song. Dumbledore's pleased expression shifted to shock and dismay. She pushed herself to her knees, heedless of her nudity, and lunged for him. "What are you doing here? There's no way you could have escaped that cave alive!"

Dumbledore feebly tried to defend himself, but Lilith grabbed his wand from his hand while simultaneously punching him in the face with all her might. It wasn't much of a punch, but the sharp crack of his nose breaking was satisfying as she pulled back, his wand still firmly in her grip. She watched as Dumbledore toppled over, his sightless eyes wide with shock.

"I didn't hit him that hard, did I?" she mumbled before toppling over herself, exhausted from her efforts.

She was unconscious when the floo in Dumbledore's office activated a few seconds later.

"Albus? This had better be good. You remember what I told you I'd do if you ever wasted our time again."

"Relax, Sirius. Hermione will be fine on her own."

"It's the principle of the thing, Remus! After everything he's done, he still has the nerve to... Sweet Merlin!"

Both men ran across the room to where two ritual circles had been drawn, one around each of the two figures lying prone on the floor.

"What the hell are you doing with a naked girl in your office, Albus?" Sirius demanded as he checked the girl over. "With the way things are going right now, they'll throw you in Azkaban for this!"

"Unlikely," Remus replied softly. "He's dead."

"What?"

"He's dead, Sirius," Remus repeated as he closed Dumbledore's eyes. "How's the girl?"

"I'm no healer, but I can't find anything obviously wrong with her. What the hell did we stumble into?"

"I don't even know where to begin to—" Remus started, but he was interrupted by a mournful cry from Fawkes. One the phoenix had their attention, he flew from his perch over to the top of an open cabinet. Inside was Dumbledore's pensieve along with a large rack containing numerous vials of memories. Remus walked over to the cabinet. "Is this something he wanted us to see, Fawkes?"

The bird crooned in affirmation, so Remus took a closer look. Inside was a piece of parchment, which he took out and read aloud. "Remus and Sirius, I hope you don't object to my addressing you in such a familiar manner one last time, for it will be the last time. If my calculations are correct, then by the time you arrive to read this, I will be dead."

Sirius snorted. "First time he's been right about anything in ages."

Remus gave his friend a disapproving look before continuing. "I would tell you not to mourn my passing, but I know that too much has happened between us for that to even be possible anymore. Indeed, it is precisely because of that situation that I am taking such drastic steps. Given how things are, I fear that we are lost — all of us, wizards, witches, and muggles alike. Harry was our only hope for defeating Voldemort and driving back the darkness, and it is my fault that we lost him at such a young age." Remus ignored the growl of anger coming from Sirius. "For the last several years I have searched high and low for another answer, but alas, all of my efforts have come to naught. Without Harry, there is nothing and no one in this world that can vanquish Voldemort."

"So, what — we're buggered, then?" Sirius asked.

"By some quirk of luck or fate, however, I stumbled across a book which offered an alternative. While there is nothing in this world that can help us, it is possible to reach out to another world for aid. And that's what I have done: I performed a ritual that allowed me to reach out for someone who matched certain conditions. If I am successful, then you will find another person here in my office, the one person left who stands any chance of saving us. I cannot say in advance who they are or what they are like, though I expect them to be of a noble and virtuous character. I can only say that they embody certain heroic qualities established in the ritual: they are capable of vanquishing Voldemort, they are capable of overcoming death, they are ready and willing to start over somewhere new, and they are prepared to sacrifice themselves for a higher cause."

"Her?" Sirius asked, turning around to look down at the young girl. "She's probably not much older than Hermione!"

"Which means she's not much older than Harry would have been right now," Remus pointed out.

"But still..."

Remus shook his head and returned to the letter. "Nothing in life is free, of course, which is why I had to sacrifice my own life as part of the ritual. A life for a life: I must exit this world in order for someone new to enter. This is why I chose to do the ritual on the winter solstice. It is a price I gladly pay in the hope that, with this act, I can make up for some of the harm I've caused everyone. Whoever it is that has been brought to us, you must help and protect them. They will need resources and information. My personal library is already packed; it, the pensieve, and my collection of memories are all yours according to my will. The floo is set to erase any record of your passing, and the portraits are spelled to forget everything that's happened this evening. Take care in who you trust with the truth about this person. Yours, Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore.

"P.S. By now the wards have certainly alerted Minerva of my death, and she should already be on her way to my office to assume control of the castle before Madam Umbridge can get here. You have mere minutes to clean up, collect my things, and get out!"

"Bloody hell!" Sirius exclaimed as he whipped out his wand and began vanishing all the evidence of the ritual. "It's just like him to create a mess for us to clean up!"

"I'm more worried about the girl," Remus replied as he packed the pensieve and memories into the open trunk that had been left next to the cabinet. "She may have been willing to start over somewhere new, but there's no way she consented to being pulled into a new world where she'd have to fight in our war. He basically kidnapped her, you know."

"Fucking wanker," was all Sirius said before wrapping the girl up in his cloak and lifting her into his arms. "We'll have to tell Hermione, but no one else. At least, not anytime soon."

"Agreed." Taking a last look around the office, Remus saw that they had everything and turned back to Fawkes. "I'm sorry for your loss, though I can't honestly say I'm sorry he's gone." Fawkes crooned sadly. "As before, you'll always be welcome in Grimmauld Place if you want to visit." Fawkes looked over at the unconscious girl in Sirius' arms and trilled before shaking his head and flaming away.

"What do you think that was about?" Remus asked.

"Dunno, don't care," Sirius answered as he headed for the floo. "We need to leave."

I'm comfy.

Lilith Potter felt as comfortable as she'd ever been, which was quite the improvement over the last time she awoke.

At that realization, she froze, willing herself not to give any indication that she was conscious. Her ears strained to pick up the slightest sound, but she could hear nothing, not even someone breathing. Wherever she was, she seemed to be alone.

Slowly, she opened her eyes just enough to peek through her lashes. The room was dark, but soon she was able to start picking out the usual features of a bedroom: a wardrobe, a bedside table, and perhaps a vanity. She blinked a few times, then carefully moved her head so she could see more.

I'm alone, or at least alone in this room.

Sitting up, she found that she was clothed this time, though she wasn't entirely sure if that was an improvement. Having clothes was good, but it meant that someone had taken the time to dress her in a nightgown, and she didn't like the idea of some stranger having done that. She reached out to the bedside table, but there was no wand — neither her own nor the one she thought she might have taken from Dumbledore.

Someone, probably on Dumbledore's orders, saved me from the Ministry as I burned it to ash around me. But why? And why was I in his office... naked? Lilith shivered at the thought. He expected me to die in order to eliminate Voldemort, so why save me... especially after I left him to die in that cave?

She got out of the bed and moved quickly but silently, searching through drawers and the wardrobe. The room was bereft of any other clothing, which annoyed her, but worse was the absence of anything that she could use to defend herself. She wasn't completely helpless, but she'd be at a serious disadvantage against anyone who meant her harm.

As slowly and quietly as possible, Lilith turned the doorknob and opened the door. The hallway outside was brightly lit and surprisingly familiar: the green wallpaper and snake motifs were unmistakable features of Grimmauld Place.

What am I doing here? How did they even get me here? I'm the only one alive who's supposed to have access! Maybe it was Dumbledore — he's probably powerful enough to break in if he wanted to. I don't know how he got out of the cave of inferi, but he won't survive our next meeting...

With growing fury, she stepped out into the hallway and made for the nearest bathroom. Having learned the value of paranoia at an early age, she'd hidden weapons throughout Grimmauld Place once she'd taken control of the house. In particular, she'd stashed weapons such as knives in places she was sure she'd be allowed to visit, should the worst happen, but where no one would expect her to be able to arm herself. Like the bathrooms.

"Bloody buggering shite!" she hissed as she first felt up around underneath the sink, then behind the toilet. "They're gone! Who's doing this, and how'd they even know to look?"

She left the bathroom and crept down the stairs, wishing more than once that either Kreacher had survived the destruction of the locket, or that she'd found another elf to replace him. A loyal elf would have been able to tell her what was going on, bring her clothing and wand, and anything else she needed right now. Unfortunately, Hermione had been adamant about not buying a slave, and Lilith had never been able to deny the bushy-haired witch anything.

Her musings over the value of a house elf were cut short by another surprise at the base of the steps: Walburga Black's portrait had been covered over, like something shameful that had to be hidden away. Granted, the old witch's personality hadn't been all that pleasant, and it had taken a lot of work to get her to accept Hermione, but she had become an invaluable source of information and ideas over the past couple of years. She just needed to be treated with a bit of respect and to know that she was still useful.

Lilith reached out to pull the curtains back, but stopped at the last second. Without her wand, she couldn't check for warning spells. Worse, Walburga was probably furious, and Lilith wouldn't be able to calm her down before she started shouting, alerting the entire house about her displeasure. And the fact that someone had opened her curtains.

"We need a plan!"

Lilith's head whipped to the side as voices coming from the kitchen became loud enough to hear, though not always distinctly.

"...if she's going to attend classes next term."

She grabbed an umbrella from the troll-foot umbrella stand before slowly creeping up on the kitchen door. It wasn't much of a weapon, but the pointy metal tip was better than nothing.

"...until we talk to her..."

She paused and frowned. There was something familiar about his voice, but it was too muffled to say for sure who it might be.

"...will need a new identity..."

A second man, but she didn't recognize him. She stopped at the door and pressed her ear against the cool wood, straining to hear.

"Honestly, you two, there's no point in making plans until we find out what she wants!"

Lilith froze. That's not possible... she's dead! I held her body in my arms!

"Then what do you suggest we do? Nothing?"

"Of course not. When she wakes, she's going to have questions. We need to have answers. We need to look through all this and figure out what exactly happened. And we'll need to be prepared for the fact that she won't be happy with our answers."

"Merely unhappy? She'll be..."

The words trailed off as Lilith pushed open the door. She didn't pay any attention to the two men sitting on the far side of the table; she only had eyes for the young witch sitting a few feet away.

"Oh, you're awake!"

"Hermione?" Lilith croaked as the umbrella slid from her fingers. She's alive! I was wrong, she's alive!

Hermione frowned as she stood from her chair. "How did you—?"

She didn't get a chance to finish her sentence because Lilith rushed forward, grabbed her by her collar, and pulled her into a searing, breathtaking kiss. Initially, Hermione put her hands on Lilith's shoulders in an attempt to push her away, but as Lilith's hands moved from her collar and up into her bushy hair, Hermione's protests started to weaken. When Lilith's kiss moved from her mouth to her jawline and then focused on an unexpectedly sensitive spot under her ear, Hermione practically went limp as she moaned involuntarily.

"Ahem — excuse me? I hope I'm not interrupting anything?"

Hermione jumped backwards, her face a bright crimson and her eyes wide in disbelief. Lilith's eyes were now finally drawn to the two men.

"Re-Remus?" she asked as the blood drained from her face. "Sirius?"

"Yes, but how did you know that?" Sirius asked.

"And how did you know my name?" Hermione demanded. "Who are you and... and why did you kiss me?"

"Hermione?" Lilith replied one hand reaching out. "I don't understand what's going on. Am I dead? Did I die in the Ministry after all?"

Maybe this is where the newly deceased are welcomed into the afterlife?

"Why would you think you're dead?" Hermione asked.

"I saw you! Sirius, I saw them suck out your soul! Remus, I read the Ministry report of your execution! And Hermione, I... I held your body..."

"Dead?" Sirius asked. "I feel fine."

"Padfoot, I don't think she's talking about us, exactly," Remus chided softly.

Hermione's indignant expression quickly shifted to confusion and then sympathy. "Oh! Oh, my. I... I'm so sorry. We never expected this."

"But maybe we should have," Remus added.

Lilith looked from one to the other, confusion and anger warring on her face. "What? I don't understand."

"You're not dead," Hermione said, reaching out and pulling Lilith to a chair. "And neither are we. You, uh... we..."

"There's no easy way to say this, so I'll be blunt," Sirius said. "You're not in your world anymore. This is a different world, one where things happened quite a bit differently, it seems."

"How is that even possible?"

"Theoretically, there's an infinite number of possible worlds or universes," Hermione explained. "A different one for every different decision that everyone has ever made."

"But how did I get here? This can't be normal."

"Albus Dumbledore performed a ritual that pulled you into our world," Remus said. "We didn't learn about this until after it was all done.

"Dumbledore!" Lilith's expression was now all anger. "That manipulative, scheming, goat-buggering—"

Sirius held up one hand. "You won't get any arguments here. All of us have had problems with him over the years, though it sounds like yours were especially bad."

"You know us, but I'm afraid we don't know you," Remus said. "You don't look like anyone we know in this universe."

"Which is probably good," Hermione interjected. "Who knows what would happen if there were already one of her here? In fact, maybe she could only come precisely because she doesn't already exist here."

Remus nodded. "That's possible. So who are you?"

Lilith frowned. "I've been called a lot of things. The Girl Who Lived, the Chosen One, a Dark Witch." Sirius, Remus, and Hermione all paled slightly as she rattled off the various titles she'd been saddled with over the years. "But my name is Lilith Andromeda Potter-Black, only child of James and Lily Potter, and in my universe I was the goddaughter and heiress of Sirius Black."

The others were speechless.

"I take it that there's something interesting about me beyond the fact that I don't already exist here?"

Sirius ran a hand down his face. "Yeah, you could say that. You... well, in this world, James and Lily had a son, Harry. Not a daughter."

"And where is he?"

"He actually is dead," Remus replied.

"He died in our first year," Hermione added in a small voice. "He died while trying to save me from a troll that had broken into the school."

Lilith arched one eyebrow. "Let me guess: he didn't have a knife to stab it with."

"Troll skin is too tough for knives to be very effective," Remus said with a frown. "Even enchanted knives and swords are of little use."

"That's why you aim for the eyes," Lilith replied. "It's what I did. Works wonderfully."

"That's how you saved your Hermione?" the slightly-green witch asked.

Lilith nodded. "That was the start of our friendship. I made sure she got her own knife, though."

"You seem to have a thing for knives," Sirius observed.

"I never go anywhere without at least one," Lilith said, running her hands down her sides. "Well, except for now."

"Sorry," Sirius replied, looking a little sheepish. "Apparently nothing that wasn't you could come along for the ride. You appeared in Dumbledore's office completely naked."

Lilith's expression turned angry again. "And why did your Dumbledore haul me all the way from my universe to this one?"

"We're not sure yet of his exact reasoning," Remus said. "We have yet to go through all of the notes and memories he left for us. From what we can tell, though, he believed that our Harry was the only one who could defeat Voldemort."

Lilith sagged in obvious resignation.

"You know about Voldemort, I take it?" Sirius asked.

"More than I'd like to."

"That fits," Remus continued. "Dumbledore blamed himself for Harry's death, and so also blamed himself for the fact that Voldemort might be unstoppable now that he's regained a body. So he took it on himself to summon a hero from another universe." He pulled out a piece of parchment and looked at it before continuing. "Someone who was able to vanquish Voldemort, who could overcome death, who was ready to start over somewhere new, and who was willing to sacrifice themselves for a higher cause."

"So, it wasn't enough that I did my Dumbledore's job by killing my Voldemort. Oh, no, an entirely different Dumbledore decided that I needed to do his job too and kill yet another Voldemort!" Lilith had pushed her chair back and was nearly shouting. "Is there a queue forming up somewhere? Are there scads of Dumbledores taking numbers and waiting for their turn to use and abuse me?"

"Lilith, no," Sirius interrupted, taking her hand. "I don't know why Dumbledore was so fixated on Harry or thought he was the only one to stop Voldemort, much less why he thought the job should go to you, but I... we won't force you to do anything."

"You don't owe us or this wizarding Britain anything," Remus added. "If you'd rather leave Britain entirely and settle somewhere else—"

"The Blacks have an island," Sirius inserted with a grin.

"—or even if you merely want to relax on a beach, we'll support you."

Lilith sighed and stared at the table right in front of her. She had no idea what to do. She certainly didn't want to have to fight Voldemort yet again, especially given how it had gone the last time. Settling down somewhere else — anywhere else, really — sounds like a good idea. A beach sounds even better. It isn't like I asked to come here and fight in their war, after all... not that I ever asked to fight in my war, either.

She felt Hermione place a hand on her arm. "And you don't have to decide right this minute," she said. "You've got lots of time to think about it."

Lilith looked up and gazed into the eyes of the bushy-haired witch next to her. This wasn't her Hermione — that was obvious now . There were too many little details that were different. However, it was a Hermione.

It was Hermione.

Lilith was pretty sure that no matter what universe she found herself in, Hermione would be a target for blood purists like Voldemort and his Death Eaters. Because she was smart. Because she refused to meekly walk away when challenged. Because she would fight.

That means I'll have to fight, too. Maybe at some point I'll be able to convince her to leave, perhaps even with me, but until then, I can't abandon her. My Hermione would never forgive me.

"I'll stay," Lilith said, holding Hermione's gaze until the bushy-haired witch turned away, looking a little uncomfortable. Lilith then faced Sirius and Remus. "So, plans. How am I supposed to get established here, and what exactly has been going on?"

It was going to be a long, long Christmas holiday.