Diclaimer: Belongs to JKR. Adopted from Nia River, I only own Kyle Potter.
Chapter 3 – St. Mungo's
– Thurs, 6/2/1992 –
When Harry awoke again it was to a white ceiling and a very familiar smell. 'Damn,' he thought, 'what did I do to end up in the hospital wing this time?' He reached a hand out to the bedside table beside him and fumbled for his glasses. Only there were no glasses waiting for him. Harry looked around in search of them but couldn't find them. It was with a shock that he realised that he didn't need them at all, everything was already in focus. 'Weird.'
But Harry didn't think that it was as weird as what he had just been through, when he had been asleep or unconscious or whatever, he had found himself reliving that Kyle person's life as if it had been his own. The strangest thing about it though was that he had kept all of his own memories as well. Now Harry had two sets of memories, it was as if he had lived two lives and remembered the both of them.
Harry sat up with a groan and looked around himself. Not the hospital wing after all, he realised. 'I wonder where I am then.' Ah well, he would figure that out later as right now he was in desperate need of a toilet. Harry pushed himself out of the bed and straightened as he stood. He was out of the bed before the woman answered him. He had to grab the railing of the bed to keep himself upright at first but he managed to suppress the groan that wanted to make itself heard. Spotting a door to his left, Harry opened it and to his relief he found the toilet he had been looking for.
As he was washing his hands, Harry glanced up in the mirror that was hanging above the sink and nearly screamed when he saw the reflection. It was not his own image that was staring back at him; it was that boy's, Kyle. Kyle Potter's image was staring back at one thoroughly Harry Potter. Forcing himself to take a deep breath to calm down, freaking out would be counterproductive right now; Harry tried to clear his mind like Snape had told him to do many, many times. To his utmost surprise Harry was able to do so, easily. Out of nowhere was a memory of learning Occlumency, but Snape wasn't the instructor. Belatedly, Harry realised that it was one of the other memories, one of Kyle's memories.
Breaking himself out of his (or Kyle's?) thoughts, Harry looked back at himself in the mirror. The last thing he remembered before he blacked out and went through all those memories was watching Healers surrounding Kyle. It looked as if Kyle had been dying. And then he, Harry, had touched Kyle's arm and it had felt as if he had been sucked into something. But no… that would mean… but that was impossible… wasn't it? It couldn't be possible that Harry had somehow merged with Kyle, could it? It should be impossible but that's what seemed to have happened.
Snapping his wand out of his wand holster, Harry quickly cast an identification spell on himself. It was a handy spell that he had found during the Tri-Wizard Tournament the year before last. Granted, the spell hadn't been exactly useful during the competition but Harry was glad that he had learned it now, even though he had never envisioned using the spell on himself, in this situation.
Harry cast the spell five times before he let himself believe the results though he still felt as if it were impossible, how on Earth could Harry James Potter have suddenly become Kyle Ethan Potter. It was ludicrous. 'But so is going this far back in time to change the past,' a tiny voice whispered in the back of his mind.
A scream from the room Harry – or should he refer to himself as Kyle now? – had woken up in startled him out of his disjointed thoughts and Harry quickly opened the bathroom door and stepped into the other room, wand at the ready searching for the danger.
What he met was most definitely not what he had been expecting. Standing by his bed was a dark haired woman with a heart shaped face, a tray of potions (no doubt foul tasting ones at that) balanced on one hand, wand at the ready in the other. She reminded Harry of somebody but he wasn't sure who. It was as if he had met her somewhere, a long time ago, but he couldn't be sure. The woman looked up and the surprise was evident on her face when she saw Harry standing in the doorway.
"Oh, there are, sir!" She said this as if she had solved a great mystery. The woman put the tray of foul looking potions on the bedside table and bustled over to Harry, taking him by the arm and leading him back to the bed. "Back into bed, dear." She had a kind, motherly voice with a hint of authority, as if she wouldn't take no for an answer. She rather reminded Harry of Madame Pomfrey; when she wasn't berating Harry for ending up in the Hospital Wing and at her tender mercies in the first place.
"Goodness, we didn't expect to see you up and about for a while yet, dear," she remarked. She sounded astonished really, Harry found it rather funny. He did normally tend to do things at his own schedule rather than the pre-existing ones. As soon as he was tucked back into the bed, the woman turned business like and began casting diagnostic spells on him. Or what Harry thought were diagnostic spells at least. He thought he might have recognised one or two from what Madame Pomfrey would cast on him. He had spent so much time in the Hospital Wing that he should have something to show for it. Although, to be fair, most of that time was spent unconscious.
"Umm ma'am," Harry thought that it was best not to distract the woman while she was casting on him so he waited until it looked as if she had finished. "Err, not to sound rude but who are you and where am I?" Best to find those facts out first then he would figure out his whole Harry turned Kyle problem. That sounded so fucked up.
"Oh of course, I should have introduced myself sooner," she smiled, reassuring him no offence was taken at his rather abrupt questions, "I'm Healer Alice Longbottom, but feel free to call me Alice. You're currently in St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries, dear. I assume you know where that is?" Alice Longbottom as in Neville's mother? Well it had to be! He knew of no other Alice Longbottoms. And besides, there was no denying the relationship between herself and Neville now that Harry had heard the name.
But wait, Neville's parents were supposed to be in the secure ward weren't they? They were supposed to have been cursed to insanity by Bellatrix Lestrange. But… oh, of course… Harry was back in time, obviously before that horrible incident had taken place. At least now he could probably spare Neville the future without his parents too. Hell, he could probably spare a lot of kids' lives without their parents.
Harry glanced up to see that Alice was looking at him worriedly. Oh, she must have been talking to him while he had gone off to La La Land. "I'm sorry, Healer." Harry said sheepishly. "But could you repeat that, I just sort of zoned out there if you know what I mean."
"Call me Alice, dear." Alice replied with an understanding smile. "Now, I just need you answer a few questions for your file but before we begin with those I would like to know if you're in pain or not?" When Harry answered negatively, Alice raised a sceptical eyebrow but Harry just matched her with an eyebrow of his own. A silent challenge. "If you're sure then." Alice picked up a clipboard off the tray that she had carried in with her. "Well, first question then; what's your name?"
Harry took a deep breath and thought for a split second. This was it, decision making time. Deciding to go with his gut, as it had seldom led him wrong, Harry opened his mouth and answered, "Kyle Potter.
To Harry's – no Kyle's – surprise, Alice gasped and covered her mouth with her hand. She had to ease herself down to sit on the edge of Kyle's bed. Kyle reached out to steady the woman; she looked as if she had seen a ghost. "Alice? Are you okay?" Truthfully the woman didn't look as if she was okay; her face was as white as the wall behind her.
Alice stared at Kyle with unblinking eyes. "Are you really him?" Her voice was shaky when she spoke. "Are you really Kyle? James' son?" She made a reaching movement, as if she was going to grasp his hand in hers.
Kyle looked at her steadily, looking for something in her eyes; he wasn't sure what it was until he found it. It had been so long since he had seen sincerity in somebody's eyes when they asked him a question. He chose his words carefully when he answered though. "My mother…" He faltered, as a surge of grief that was so strong that Kyle had to close his eyes and breathe deeply for a few seconds nearly overcame him, much to his surprise. "My mother told me that my father's name was James Potter before she died if that is who you're referring to?" The memory of that night was fresh in his mind after watching the scene as a third party and also as living through it. It was strange; the new memories were just there, just like his memories of living as Harry Potter. Only, he wasn't Harry Potter anymore. But, he would deal with that later.
Alice had gasped again and her eyes had begun to fill with tears. Kyle was surprised at the strength of the reaction; he had no recollection of meeting the woman at all before his mother had died and certainly not after that. "You really are James' son? But… after we found your mother… we couldn't find your body… we just assumed… James thought that his firstborn had died…"
The woman was rambling but Kyle let her, using the time to sort out his own emotions; his grief at losing his mother when he was six and his grief at never knowing his father in this life. It was strange that that grief was just as strong as the grief he felt for his mother, obviously Kyle had never managed to deal with it as well as Harry had. "Did you know my father ma'am?"
Alice visibly pulled herself together when she heard the question. She looked at Kyle with such warmth, it was a look that Kyle had usually seen his mother look at him with, or other parents look at their children with. It was… nice. "Yes, I did." She finally answered. "We were friends at Hogwarts, and after. He was my son's Godfather." Now that was a fact that Kyle had never known. He wondered idly if Neville had ever known that back in his own time.
"How about I tell you about your father later, dear?" Alice surprised Kyle with the question. He smiled and inclined his head in thanks and Alice smiled back at him. She was suddenly business like again as if the last fifteen minutes had never happened. She recorded his date of birth and when asked if he remembered what had happened to him, Kyle answered with the memories that seemed to pop into his head. He told Alice that he and his guardians, who he wasn't even remotely fond of nor them of him, were moving back to Britain and they had been travelling in Muggle London when they had been in a car accident and he had told her that that was all he remembered. Which was true.
The only fact that Kyle omitted was that the story was just one of the two versions of the truth that he could have told her. The other being that he had illegally used a Time-Turner that he had literally stolen from The Department of Mysteries when he had broken in with a group of his friends, which included her son and then somehow merged into Kyle Potter's body and sort of became him after he died. That would have gone over so well.
"Yes, that's what happened dear." Alice wrote something down on her clipboard and then handed Kyle a disgusting looking potion from her tray but not feeling like arguing as he had already recognised the potion as a Pepper-Up – why was she giving him a Pepper-Up when she had already told him that he should have been resting? – Kyle just downed the potion, just about managing to avoid shivering as the steam came out of his ears. "The Aurors sensed the use of underage magic, which had probably been you accidently Apparating yourself out of the car so they went to investigate the scene. Anyway you'd already been brought to a Muggle hospital by the time the Aurors arrived. Anyhow you were transferred directly here to St. Mungo's once they found you and realised what had happened, I am sorry to say, dear, that your companions did not make it. They died on impact."
Healer Alice continued, "The Aurors will want to question you of course."
"Wait," Kyle was confused. "If I Apparated out of the car then why would the Aurors want to question me? I mean, my life was in danger, they're not seriously going to press charges are they?"
Alice laughed, to Kyle's surprised. "Don't be silly, dear. It's just that Apparating in any situation before your seventeen is really hard to accomplish, it takes a person with great amount of power to accomplish a feat like that. Rumour is there are a couple of Unspeakables with them too. They're really quite curious as to how you managed it. Even tried to search through your belongings; looking for clues as to who you were they said, can you believe the nerve of them though?"
Kyle's heart skipped a beat. If the Aurors searched his belongings they were almost certain to find the Time-Turner (if that was where the thing was now), and the Unspeakables were sure to recognise it for what it was. If that had happened then all his plans were ruined.
"Did they?" he croaked nervously.
"Well of course not. I told them off right proper I did. Honestly, you're lying here unconscious and there they were more concerned with snooping at your things. Well I told them they had absolutely no right and should be ashamed of themselves. Your things are safe and sound in my office now dear, not to worry."
He sighed in relief and threw her a thankful look. Before he had time to dwell on what might have happened had Alice not interfered, a far more important question occurred to him.
"Hedwig," he asked anxiously, "What happened to Hedwig."
"Hedwig?" she asked confused.
"My owl. She's a snowy white owl and she was with me when – well when the car crashed."
"Oh the little lady. Not to worry dear, your owl is just fine. Curious thing though. Now magical exhaustion, that's not exactly your everyday ailment, although it does happen from time to time. But magical overcharge – that's what you had, which is even stranger as you had used your magic to Disapparate from the car – well that's a tad bit rarer still. And then to find not only you but your Hedwig suffering from it! Well was it not for patient confidentiality the Aurors would no doubt have been poking their noses in again, had they known of that particular curiosity."
"So she's alright then?"
"Yes, most certainly. She wasn't nearly as affected as you were. Woke up five days into your stay in a right snit. She's been acting every inch a queen ever since."
"That's my Hedwig," he smiled before a worrying thought occurred to him, "Wait, five day? Just how long have I been unconscious?"
"Today would make it an even two weeks," she informed him and then had to stop his leaping out of bed.
"You don't understand, there's something I have to do and I have a limited time to do it. It's really very important."
"Kyle Potter," she said suddenly, quite stern, "you will desist with this behaviour immediately! If it has waited two weeks then it can certainly wait another few hours."
Properly cowed, but still glaring at Alice, he immediately sat back in bed. She gave him a satisfied nod before smiling gently and tucking his blankets back in around him, and he was left wondering how anyone could be such a perfect mix of Molly Weasley's motherliness and Madam Pomfrey's strictness all at once.
"I don't really have to talk to the Aurors do I?" Kyle asked, nervously running a hand through his wild hair. "It's just that I don't really want them to know who I am, what with my little brother being the Boy-Who-Lived and all. All I'll see for ages is reporters asking for interviews and news about the Boy-Hero having an older brother."
Alice looked quite sad at the thought of Little Harry in Kyle's opinion. "Well, I'm obligated by law to inform the Aurors that you're awake and they will come here to interview you before you manage to leave the hospital."
Harry rubbed at his eyes in frustration. If he had to talk to Aurors then he would probably let something vital slip and then everything would be ruined. Things were going badly enough as it was. Alice gave him a long look before coming to a decision.
"Well not to worry," she chirped cheerily, much to his confusion.
"Not to worry? You don't understand. They can't know; it would ruin everything."
"Yes but you see there's a little matter of patient confidentiality. And a wonderfully useful thing it is too."
"Patient confidentiality?" Kyle deadpanned, wondering where on Earth Alice was going with this.
"Exactly. And the Wizarding laws in regards to it are rather sketchy you see. They're not very clear. So if I, as your lawfully appointed Healer, were to decide that something – let's say your name, just for examples sake – were to be confidential, then there's really nothing they could do about it. In fact, as they've yet to get a very good look at you, I might even be inclined to decide that your entire identity falls under patient confidentiality." She smiled triumphantly at him as he was left gaping in surprise.
"Do close your mouth dear, you look like a fish," she chided and he did so with a snap.
"Why are you doing this? Not that I don't appreciate it," he added hurriedly, this was like the Holy Grail falling into his lap; it was too good a solution to be true. Surely! "Because I do! I really do. It's just that it seems to be asking rather a lot on your part."
"The answer is really quite simple. You seem a trustworthy sort."
"I seem 'a trustworthy sort,'" disbelief obvious in his voice, "Despite the fact that you've never met me before in your life. No offence but how in Merlin's name did you come to that conclusion?"
"I'm an Empath dear," she raised an eyebrow at his still-confused expression, "Empath's can sense other people; their emotions and such, sometimes even particularly strong thoughts. No need to panic now, I've not been reading your thoughts. My ability is rather limited. I get faint feelings of emotions, no thoughts. I can usually tell whether someone is being truthful or not. Anyhow my most useful ability is to be able to sense whether a person has good intentions and whether they're trustworthy. That's how I know you're a good, trustworthy sort."
"Oh," he said, unsure of what else to say, "Well, thank you."
"Not a problem. Besides they've been awfully annoying, nosing in where they don't belong for the past two weeks. It'll be nice to get them back a bit," she grinned; Kyle wouldn't have guessed that Neville's mother would have been as devious as she was being now. Or maybe it was a little bit of subtle revenge for the Aurors harassing her? Well, whatever her reasons, Kyle was not going to be the one to look a gift horse – or the Holy Grail – in the mouth. "Now how about I draw these curtains so no one will see you and call in our friendly authorities, hmm?"
The interview that followed was rather amusing. Or at the least it was for Kyle and Alice – not so much for the Aurors. Firstly they had to speak to him through a curtain as Alice informed them they were not authorised to see his face. And secondly he answered the barest minimum of questions with Alice informing them that the majority of them fell under 'patient confidentiality'. In the end it was a frustrated group of Aurors who trudged out of the hospital room, leaving a rather pleased and smug (in Alice's case) Healer and patient.
"Can I leave now?" Kyle asked eagerly as their guests left.
"I'm inclined to keep you here overnight," she raised her voice over his objection, "However, since you're technically completely fit and I do believe you have urgent business, I'm willing to release you now."
"Thank you!" Straight away, Kyle was up and pulling on his jeans under the wretched hospital gown that he had been dressed in during his stay.
"Not a problem child. Now first I'll need to know if you want me to put your name on the file. Hush now, not to worry. You are now known as G445."
"G445?" Kyle pulled on his shirt and then a hoodie that he had never seen before but that was in his locker, to his surprise he found that all his clothing fit quite snuggly. It was strange to have Muggle clothes that were not falling off him like a shedding snake's skin. Then again, in this life Kyle Potter, while he had lived with relatives that did not particularly like him, they had at least fed him properly, educated him to the best of their abilities – which was a quite high standard he found – and they had provided him with an extensive wardrobe. Kyle was most certainly not going to complain.
"If a patient wishes to remain anonymous that is of course their prerogative," Alice explained, "However we do need some way to keep track of them. Hence the assigned code. Next time you come in you can either do so under your proper name or under your codename alias. And if you decide your secrecy is no longer needed do let us know so that we can merge your files. It really is safer for you that we have access to all your medical information in one place. Just in case of an emergency you understand."
"Of course," he readily agreed.
"Alright then, I'm just off to fetch your belongings. I'll be right back." With that the Healer bustled out of the room leaving Kyle to pull on his socks and shoes. Just as he finished tying the laces there was a hoot-hoot at the window and a weight fell on his shoulder.
"Hedwig," he exclaimed happily, "How's my best girl been?" He cooed at her. The relief that he felt when he saw his faithful friend was indescribable.
She hooted happily and Kyle grinned. Just then Alice knocked on the door and he called her in. She was dragging his trunk behind her and carried a small box under one arm.
"Ah, good. I see your two have found each other. Now, here are your things."
She handed over the trunk and box. He surreptitiously opened the latter and was relieved to see it contained his calculations sheet and his time-turner which had been missing from his jean pockets, though he hadn't really expected to find them in them as he had not being wearing the jeans when he used the Time-Turner. He glanced up to see what Alice thought of it but thankfully she appeared uninterested.
"Thank you," he said.
"Not a problem."
"No I mean – for everything," he expanded and she nodded and smiled.
"You're welcome and you're free to go now. Hopefully I'll not have a need to see you in here again," she said turning to leave.
"I hope so too ma'am." He shot her a grateful smile to convey his thanks.
"One last thing, dear." Kyle turned around at the door and looked at Alice. He was somewhat surprised to see that Alice had tears glistening in her eyes again. She stepped over to him and handed him a sheet of parchment. On it was a Floo address, 'Longbottom Manor.' Kyle looked up at Alice, the question written across his face clear as day.
"I told you that I would tell you about your father earlier. If you would like to hear about him then feel free to call me." Alice hesitated for a moment and then steeled herself. "I would also like to invite you to dinner this Saturday at around six. My husband, Frank was good friends with your father before he died and he would love to meet you. As would my eight year old son, Neville, he would be your God-brother."
Kyle looked at Alice in shock at the information. Neville was eight? 'That couldn't have been right.' If it was then that meant that Voldemort had already Marked Harry and that Harry was now the Boy-Who-Lived. But wait, hadn't he already said that he was the Boy-Who-Lived's brother? He had been going on Kyle's memories which meant that that was the truth. 'What the hell was going on?'
Alice meanwhile had obviously mistaken Kyle's silence as him searching for a way to decline the invitation politely, without offending her. "It's okay, dear." She was obviously disappointed, even if her words said otherwise. "You don't have to accept. I just thought I would –"
"I would love to accept the invitation." Kyle interrupted her; snapping out of his thoughts that were just leading him round in circles. "Saturday night at six, right? I'll see you then, Alice."
Kyle received a tearful smile in return and with one last goodbye, Kyle Potter left the building.
The first thing Kyle done, after explaining to Hedwig – of course, how could he do anything without consulting his faithful owl? – that he had errands to do today and that she could meet up with him later, was make his way to The Leaky Cauldron for something to eat. Kyle was famished. He also needed somewhere he could sit down and think so he could plan his next move, and while The Leaky Cauldron was loud, Kyle was sure he could find an empty corner. Kyle took the public Floo at St. Mungo's directly to The Leaky Cauldron in Diagon Alley. After picking himself up from the dirty floor he glanced around for an empty table. Luckily there was one in the corner, out of the way of the main pub but somewhere that Kyle could observe both exits.
The pub was mostly as he remembered it, Kyle mused after Tom had taken and then delivered his order, old fashioned and rundown looking, with a fine layer of the ever present dust still lingering in the air. He wondered for a moment that the atmosphere of the pub seemed so calm and serene. He had expected there to be a much tenser atmosphere but then he remembered that this was not his time; the incompetent Ministry had not just announced the return of Voldemort. It was not a time of war; it was the seventh year of peace in the Wizarding world since the last war.
He did not have long to dwell on that thought however as time was running short. Obviously Kyle had to change his plans, he had landed in the wrong time, his calculations had been off but he wasn't sure that he should use the Time-Turner again. He didn't like using it a second time when he knew that it wasn't as reliable as he had first thought.
When he had first arrived in the past Kyle had intended on making his way to Hogwarts to see Dumbledore immediately so he could warn him about Peter Pettigrew. It seemed however that such a course of action was not to be. According to his new memories, and what Alice had told him then the date would roughly be the sixth of February, 1992.
Kyle had supposed to arrive on thirtieth of September, 1980. Now, if he had arrived a few months early, that would not have been such a terrible problem. An inconvenience perhaps, but nothing a little waiting could not have overcome. But he was almost seven years too late. And to add to that, the whole timescale was whack. Alice had said that Neville was eight. Neville was the same age as Harry, only one day older. For Neville to be eight now meant that Harry was eight now. For Harry to be eight now meant that he would have only been born in 1984.
Kyle didn't really want to make another trip. Who knew what would happen? He could end up taking residence in another dead body; Kyle was now sure that he had been dead before Harry had been merged into the body. So there was no point in going back another seven years as that could end in an even bigger disaster.
"There's no way my calculations could have been so far off," he told himself in frustration, "A few days, or weeks or heck, even months might have been possible. But I'm off by years. It just doesn't make any sense."
Kyle finished his lunch off quickly and stood up and left The Leaky Cauldron after dropping a couple of Galleons he had in his pocket to cover the cost. His boots crunched satisfyingly on the snow covered ground in the courtyard by the entrance to Diagon Alley. His angry footsteps helped ebb away some of his frustrations as his mind considered the situation.
He wanted to just ignore that the facts weren't adding up and try another trip anyway, but he didn't want to do that at the same time due to the huge risks that he now knew were involved. Argh! It was just so confusing! Just what was he supposed to do!
His footsteps had by this stage led him out of the village and down the Alley toward Flourish and Blotts of all places. Shoving his cold hands into his pockets as he made his way to the store, he tried to figure out where to go from here.
"What am I supposed to do?" Kyle thought to himself. "Mum and Dad are already dead, Sirius is imprisoned and I'd be seven years old and living with the Dursleys by now."
As he considered those facts the answer became blindingly obvious. Stopping in the middle of the Alley, Kyle turned and changed direction. There was nothing that he could do for his parents. And though he'd be lying if he said he wasn't horribly disappointed, he realized there were other ways he could improve things.
For one he was not going to just leave Sirius to rot in Azkaban any longer than necessary. The thought of not doing anything about that situation made him physically ill. And secondly, there was no way he was going the leave a seven year old child with the Dursleys. He remembered well the hell that was his childhood and would never wish it on anyone else – even if that anyone else was technically he himself.
Luckily there was a simple way to accomplish both goals. Peter Pettigrew. The traitor should be living with the Weasleys by now. Ron wouldn't have received him yet so he should still be disguised as Percy's pet rat. All he needed to do was catch Pettigrew and take him into the Ministry. When the traitor was questioned Sirius's innocence would be revealed. He had no doubt that his Godfather would then offer to adopt young Harry who would eagerly accept.
It was a simple yet effective plan. It was sure to work.
It was a complicated and ineffective plan. It didn't work. At all.
Oh sure, it had seemed like a good idea to start with, but lately his plans seemed to not work out the way he wanted them to. At all.
First he had taken the Knight Bus to Ottery St. Catchpole. When he had arrived at the little village he snuck down an alleyway where he retrieved his Invisibility Cloak from his self-shrinking trunk which he then proceeded to re-miniaturise. Under the Cloak he had made the five minute trip from the village to the familiar Weasley home, known as The Burrow.
At first it had seemed luck was on his side. All the children were out in the backyard. His attention was immediately drawn to a young Ron, looking happy and whole. He felt tears come to his eyes at the sight and had to take a moment to get control of himself again and focus on the task at hand. He looked around again at the other children, his attention stopping on one Percy Weasley. Kyle was surprised to see that Percy was still just four years older than Ron. He had thought that there would have been eight years older. Then a teenaged Bill Weasley came out and started roughhousing with the twins.
It was strange, Kyle thought, it was as if time had been put on hold for four years and then started up again. Where he had been born in 1980 in his own time, here – he still hadn't figured where here was out yet – Harry hadn't been born until 1984 and so Voldemort hadn't been defeated until 1985.
Kyle turned his attention back to Percy; or more specifically, the pet rat being held in the boy's small hands. The very pet rat he had come looking for. Or so he had thought.
As he snuck up to the boy considering just how he would get the rat from him, he soon became frustrated and impatient. His emotions translated into a show of accidental magic, summoning the rat to him.
As the rodent came sailing towards him, first Percy and then the other Weasley children squealed in surprise. His own attention however was fixed on the rat. A strangely unfamiliar rat. A rat with all fingers and toes accounted for. He stared at the perfectly normal rodent which had fallen to the ground before him long enough for young Percy to race up and retrieve his pet. Harry barely paid him or the other chattering children any mind. He was confused. There was no way that rat was the traitor. And if a perfectly common magical rat was living at the Weasley's…
"Then where in Merlin's name is Pettigrew?" he finished aloud.
In a distinctly Hermione-ish moment he realised what needed to be done. Research.
Since he did not have access to Hogwarts' extensive library, Kyle decided to simply buy the books he would need, since he recalled that he had some leftover galleons in his money sack. And he had also brought the gold from all the Potter Vaults with him as well, though he didn't want to open his trunk without any privacy, best leave that till later then.
While buying the books was a good idea in theory, in practice it was not quite so simple. After Flooing to the Leaky Cauldron in Diagon Alley – and once again having to pick himself up off the floor afterwards – he quickly headed towards Flourish and Blotts. Once there he spent a good hour searching for possibly helpful texts before it occurred to him to actually ask for assistance.
As it turned out books on time where not exactly the most common of reading and the few that the store possessed weren't what he was looking for. He was by this stage becoming rather short with the clerk and about to give up in frustration when the fellow made a comment.
"You seem pretty desperate to find out whatever it is you're looking to find out. Honestly, I don't know why you don't just go to the Library," the man said to him.
"The library? What library?" he asked and the man seemed confused at his confusion.
"Well, The Library of course," then a thought seemed to occur to him, "Oh! You're Muggle-Born aren't you?"
"Er, well sort of yes," Kyle admitted, "But what's that got to do with anything?"
"Well it explains why you've not heard of it. The Library's common knowledge to most Wizarding folk," the man tsk'd, "They really ought to fill the Muggle-Borns in on these sorts of thing when they get to Hogwarts."
"I agree," Kyle responded – partly because he did, and partly because the man looked set to launch into some rather extensive complaining, and Kyle was feeling impatient to find out how to get to this fabled library, "So where exactly is it?"
"Don't worry lad, it's easy enough to get to. The destination is 'The British Library, Wizarding section'. You can just Floo right on in."
After thanking the man he went back to The Leaky Cauldron and stepped into the green flames.
"The British Library, Wizarding section," he spoke clearly and was whisked away.
Stumbling, but managing to keep on both feet, Kyle wondered to himself if he was finally getting the hang of this Floo thing. Then he looked up at his surroundings. He was thoroughly impressed. This had to be one of the biggest and most luxurious libraries he'd ever seen. Not quite Hogwarts standard in the way of size of course, but still impressive nonetheless.
He immediately began looking around for someone to help him. He soon spotted a woman with a badge reading 'Library Assistant' and headed over towards her. She was looking from the shelves to the scroll of parchment in her hands, her quill scratching away whatever it was she found.
Getting closer, Kyle managed to get a good look at her. With her elaborately set greying blonde curls, high heeled boots, and rather ostentatiously bejewelled spectacles she reminded him disturbingly of an older version of Rita Skeeter. He almost turned around then and there before deciding that he really didn't want to spend another useless hour searching through books when he could just ask for assistance.
"Excuse me, Ma'am," he said hesitantly.
The woman, looking impatient at being interrupted, raised a questioning eyebrow in his direction.
"Sorry to interrupt you, but I was wondering if you had any good books on time-travel?"
Without a reply she turned on her heel and walked swiftly towards a bookshelf on the other side of the room. Her heels clacked loudly on the tiled floor as Harry struggled to keep up. When they reached the bookshelf the woman's finger's began dancing over the spines of the books until with an "Aha!" she pulled out the book she'd been looking for.
"Here," she said, handing him the huge book, "Time-Travel Troubles and Trip-Ups by Viator Tempus. You'll find this to be the most thorough writing on the subject of time-travel. Now, if you'll excuse me."
Then without another word she turned away and clacked back to her desk before he could even offer a 'thank you'.
The heavy book was set down at a nearby table with a rather loud 'bang'. Wincing at the noise and the glares from the surrounding witches and wizards he quickly sat down. Kyle immediately opened the book and began scanning for anything that could explain the obvious inconsistencies from this past to what it should have been. Turning to a random page near the beginning his attention was immediately caught and he began to read.
'…Truly changing time is impossible.
When one travels back in time anything they do will have already happened. If it hadn't then in changing it they would remember a past that had never truly happened, which is not possible. Besides that fact, if they could actually change something then their past self would have had no reason to change it in the first place and thusly they never would have time-travelled to begin with…'
As he considered this he became even more confused. Did this mean he was supposed to go back in time all along? But if that was so then it meant that he wouldn't be able to make any changes to the timeline because the past he remembered was already set. Sirius couldn't be released from prison and he couldn't be rescued from the Dursleys.
"No," he told himself quietly but firmly, "I refuse to believe that. There has to be a way to change it all. And besides, none of this explains why Wormtail isn't where he's supposed to be."
So he kept reading, determined to figure this situation out. Had he perhaps inadvertently changed something somehow by travelling so far back? But no, that didn't make any sense. Frustrated, he tapped his fingers loudly on the table as he kept reading, then ignored the glares and "Shh"s as the information on the page began looking promising.
'…It is theorised that should one somehow manage to cheat this rule and attempt to travel to a time when their future self had not already done so, the universe would intervene to prevent a paradox.
"It is most commonly believed that this would happen by the traveller being shunted sideways. And so whilst they would indeed travel to the desired destination in relation to time, they would also find themselves in an alternate dimension.
"For further information on alternate dimensions, this author humbly suggests the further reading of his highly lauded text,The Theories of Trans-Dimension Travel…'
Frozen in shock Kyle sat staring at the page for several minutes before it sank in. He'd landed himself in an Alternate Universe. Oh God! He'd royally fucked up this time! Literally!
After the shock over the fact that he was actually in an Alternate Universe had worn off – as much as such a shock could wear off – Kyle quickly set to further research. He was able to find the relevant books well enough on his own by searching the history section and the Daily Prophet archives. Settling back at his desk with the additional texts he soon immersed himself in his study of the history of this world. He wanted to see if there were any obvious changes, and was devastated by what he found
For the most part this world's timeline seemed to run parallel to his own; except of course that four year stand-still. The histories began to diverge however, sometime around the war against Voldemort.
Much like in his home dimension, Sirius was arrested on November 1, just after Halloween of 1984. Charged for the murder of Peter Pettigrew and twelve Muggles, he received no trial like in Harry's dimension. The difference however was that instead of being sent to Azkaban he was given the Kiss.
Overconfident with Sirius's destruction, Pettigrew grew lax and was spotted several months later and apprehended on January 1, 1986. After being subjected to Veritaserum the rat revealed all. The public had of course been as horrified to discover that an innocent man had suffered such a fate as the Dementor's kiss.
The next obvious difference was with Barty Crouch Sr. Harry recalled that in his dimension Crouch had dropped in popularity when his son own son was revealed as a Death Eater. The whole fiasco destroyed any chance he had of reaching the position of Minister of Magic. Whilst the same was true in this new dimension, here he also had the addition of Sirius's unjust death blamed upon him. In the end the man was put to trial and sentenced to Azkaban after investigation uncovered he was also responsible for the unethical treatment of captured and untried prisoners; which Kyle was fairly sure was merely a euphemism for torture.
He continued searching out any differences and in particularly looked for any information on Remus, wanting to know what happened to the last Marauder in this dimension. There was little on him it turned out, other than a rather moving Prophet photograph of him at the funeral of Lily and James. There was also a mention of the werewolf in an article about Sirius's innocence. It said that Remus had not been seen since the news was revealed and was believed to have fled the Wizarding world; not that anybody could blame him after what had happened, Kyle just wondered why he hadn't tried for custody of baby Harry.
By this stage he had begun wondering if perhaps this world was even worse than the one he came from, when he came across another difference; the Longbottoms. The Longbottoms of this dimension were subjected to torture the same as in his history; however the results were rather different. This he knew already as he had spoken to Alice just that morning, but it seemed here that Frank Longbottom had recovered from the ordeal after roughly two months and had returned to work as an Auror. He continued reading and came across something he had been wondering about since that morning. In Kyle's world, Alice Longbottom had been an Auror, in this one she was a Healer. After reading the end of the article about Frank going back to work it answered Kyle's unasked question by mentioning that Alice Longbottom had changed her profession from Auror to Healer due to the 'dangerous risks that came with the job.' Apparently she hadn't wanted to risk anything happening to her and Frank as then Neville would be left on his own. Kyle agreed with her decision whole-heartedly.
Under normal circumstances Kyle's heart would have soared at the thought of the shy, but courageous Neville Longbottom being able to grow up with his parents. At the moment however, he took in all these revelations feeling only numb. He was still stuck on the fact that the Sirius here was dead and too late to be saved. Technically the man he was reading about had never been his Sirius. His Sirius had died in the Department of Mysteries at the end of last term and he wouldn't be coming back – despite all Harry's best efforts otherwise. He knew this, but dammit it still hurt.
Turning away from the other readers around him, lest they should look up and notice the tears falling down his face, Kyle quietly allowed himself finish mourning for his godfather – the knowledge finally sinking in that he was truly gone and could not be saved. After a time he gave a sad sigh and wiped his eyes. He found solace in the fact that he might still have a chance to save Remus. The man mightn't be his surrogate father but he was still fundamentally Remus. Subtly looking around Kyle was relieved that no one had noticed his quiet breakdown and he contemplated what to do next.
The fact of the matter was that he was stuck in another dimension with no idea of how to go home. He could always reset the Time-Turner and try anyway but who knows what dimension he would end up in. He could very well end up in a world with Voldemort as Minister of Magic. In comparison this world really wasn't all that bad. If a way to go back home became available to him then of course he would take it. Or would he really? He had nobody back in his home dimension. His parents, Sirius and Remus were dead. Ron and Hermione might as well be and the Weasley family had shunned him. So what had he really to go back to? But even if he had wanted to, the way things stood at the moment he was stranded here. So the question was what to do while he was here?
Kyle had had had three original goals in travelling to the past – or what he had assumed to be the past. Firstly, save his parents from Voldemort by warning them of Pettigrew. He had arrived too late to prevent that, even in this dimension. Second, save Sirius from Azkaban. But Sirius was long dead here, or as good as dead. Thirdly and lastly, save the younger Harry Potter from a life with the Dursleys. He'd already partially failed there. This dimension's Harry Potter had already spent seven years in that hell. Additionally his plan to get him out had all revolved around Sirius being freed and able to take custody.
He pondered that for a time wondering how else he could get Harry out of the Dursleys apart from the obvious but undoubtedly unwise path of kidnapping. No ideas came immediately to mind so he instead decided to turn his mind to himself. He needed to figure out what to do with himself. Luckily the only good thing – which was one of the weirdest things – was that he didn't need to assume a false identity to avoid detection as he was already Kyle Potter, older brother of Harry Potter.
"Actually," he murmured quietly to himself, "If I'm Little Harry's older brother then shouldn't I be the one who inherits the Potter Estate? I should probably check that out." Kyle knew that he already had the money from his old dimension so he could just live off that and not take Little Harry's inheritance but he had read somewhere before that a child could assume a Lordship of an Estate as young as eleven so long as he was the next in line for it. The Potter Estate came with a Lordship and Kyle was to be sixteen this coming July. If Kyle were to assume this Lordship then he would be emancipated and he could legally take custody of Harry. He would make Harry his heir and he would make sure that he didn't squander the money so it would still be there for Harry. Although... wait, even if Harry was the one who was supposed to inherit the Estate, the mere fact that Kyle existed in the first place meant that he couldn't. Suddenly Kyle felt as if a huge weight had been lifted off his shoulders; he wouldn't be stealing Harry's title and inheritance as it was his in the first place! Well, he hoped that it was.
Either way he knew what needed to be done. Research. With a quiet groan he massaged his temples. Research really was more Hermione's thing; all of this reading was giving him a headache. Nevertheless, it really did need to be done, so he lifted his head out of his hands with a sigh and wandered around searching for any books on Wizarding Law about Lordships and emancipation.
As it turned out the Wizarding Law section was easily found as it was one of the largest in the library. He really shouldn't have been surprised. With how obsessive Pure-Bloods were over bloodlines and hence their Lordships it only made sense that the Wizarding World would keep meticulous records of such things.
The texts were conveniently arranged – alphabetically and subcategorized – so the law books on what Kyle was looking for were easy enough to find. Selecting the largest book, thinking it would be the most thorough, he lugged it back to his desk. It had obviously been unread for some time as it let out a cloud of dust as it thudded loudly onto the table. Kyle broke into a sneezing fit and by the time he regained control of his nose more than a few people were giving him severe glares and scathing looks. Cringing he sat down and carefully opened the ancient book to the first pages.
He found himself quite excited about this whole thing; this could be the key to saving himself – or rather Little Harry – from the Dursleys. That in turn would mean that he Kyle would have somebody to call family. Kyle had always wanted a little brother and if he could figure this out properly then his wish would probably come true sooner rather than never.
An hour later and Kyle left the library with a bright grin stretched across his face. He had been surprised to find that the laws were written in Legalese but that he could understand them. It seemed that he had been correct earlier when he had thought that Kyle Potter was the male version of Hermione. He had found the laws he'd needed and luckily they were exactly the same as they had been in his home dimension. Now all Kyle had to do was go to Gringotts and claim his Lordship, deposit his gold so it could begin earning interest and acquire guardianship papers for the Dursleys to sign.
But before he could do that though, Kyle had to find somewhere to sleep for the night. He had been quite shocked to see how dark it had been when he had left the library. So, with that thought and thoughts of what tomorrow would bring for both him and Harry, Kyle made his way to The Leaky Cauldron in search of a place to lay his head for the night.
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