Understairs
Hand it Over

"Um. That's a nice journal. Did your aunt get it for you?"

Lily turned, no Alisha turned to look at Ginny, realizing that everyone would be calling her Lily despite that not being her name. "No. Just something I picked up on my own time."

Which wasn't a lie. She couldn't rightly tell Ginny she'd stole it off her to stop some nefarious plan Lucius Malfoy put into place, yet a thought crossed her mind. " Perhaps, maybe I shouldn 't do this on my own. "

She couldn 't ask Ginny, the intended victim, for help, but she wasn't sure who else as Percy came back to put their trunks up high. Even as they departed the train, and she found herself riding in the boat with Ginny, she didn't know, her mind overwhelmed with the experience. And then it was her name called, to go up to the sorting hat.

"Oh. Hello, one from another world."

Which, of course, the hat would know.

"That's quite the monstrous task you've set yourself, but did you stop and think about what other changes would occur because of your actions, the negative effects."

"But what negative effect could there be? Now nobody will be petrified."

"If you're able to…"

"I'll turn it over to Dumbledore! I'll go to his office and hand it over."

"Tonight?"

"Tonight? Well, to get there…" the hat gave precise details. "But it's quite brave of you, don't you think?"

"But I'm taking the easy way out."

"Oh, I guess that would make you prime for Slytherin."

"No. Please."

"Griffindor!" the hat called, to which—Lily had been looking for her brother and Ron, yet she didn't see either one there. Despite what she'd done, things had stayed the same. Except, this time, she had the book, and there was nobody to open the Chamber of Secrets because she'd turn it over before capitulating to the plan Lucius put forth.

And it bothered her that maybe she could have said something, anything to her brother that might have convinced her that taking the car might not be a good idea, her entire body feeling numb from not seeing him. Ginny apparently noticed and turned her head to look at her. "You notice they're missing as well."

To which Percy sighed. "Mum will be right mad at whatever they've done." He looked at the food. "They may be late and missing the opening feast, but you should enjoy it, particularly since it's your first year. And congrats on getting into Gryffindor."

"Yes. Congrats," Hermione said, smiling.

She put on a fake smile. " And how am I to sneak away with this foul thing stuck close to me? "

Yet, she started trying the food, deciding that one of her first letters would definitely be about the food, a subject she knew Dudley would want to hear about, yet another part of her thought otherwise, that it might be unfair. But then, some of the foods he described did smell good, but he'd also want to hear about how the food magically appeared in front of them.

So she ended up filling her stomach until she saw the students dismissed to head to their dorms with perfect like Percy telling them how to get there as—there was a comment about Snape missing, which in turn meant—it was difficult to remember every detail from the books without some sort of wiki or such, which didn't help her overall frustrations.

And then McGonagall and Dumbledore left, before all three came back, a thought crossing her mind that they'd been punished. She fidgetted, unsure of what to do until that moment when the students were dismissed, and she could pass it off as her getting lost or her even looking for her brother as she'd not seen him, and it would make sense for her to wonder what had gone on.

She followed the Sorting Hat's instructions until she found the gargoyle that led up to the Headmaster's office, and she found herself looking, wondering what the password would be. "Lemon Drops?"

"Oh my. Shouldn't you be at Gryffindor Tower, Lily?"

She turned to see the person she came to see looking at her, holding the sorting hat, her mind unsure of what to say, mainly since Lemon Drops didn't work.

"It's actually Licerouce Drops this time around," Dumbledore said, to which the Gargoyle began to move. "And don't worry, your brother won't be expelled. Or Ginny Weasley's brother, for that matter. So shall we see you to the tower?"

"Horcrux," Lily, no Alisha, blurted out.

To which Dumbledore stared and then said. "I had to wonder how the first year with little to no knowledge of the Wizarding World managed to find my office, let alone knew I tend to use sweets as passwords."

"It's in the books. And," Alisha frowned. "The Sorting Hat told me how to get here."

"Interesting. This means what you have to tell me is important, right? Shall we go up?"

She started up the stairs and found a relatively warm office waiting for her. Without being asked, she made herself feel comfortable while taking in Fawkes, who was molting. Dumbledore sat in his chair, smiling.

"So. What is this about?"

"I'm not from this world."

"That's a rather bold statement to make. Do you have any proof?"

She pulled out the journal and dropped it onto his desk. "Horcrux."

"Which I'm guessing you know what that is, right?"

"It's an object that contains a part of the soul, but this one was going to be used to possess Ginny Weasley so she'd open the Chamber of Secrets this year. It wasn't a spider, you know."

"So, the one way of vindicating Rubius Hagrid of that event so many years ago—you've removed it from play?"

"I…"

"I'm sure you've not thought of that, but I'm not sure if that's proof. But then, it is odd that you knew it was a spider that Hagrid had when the chamber was last opened."

"It was Tom Riddle. Who's name rearranges to Voldemort. Well, Lord Voldemort." Alisha let out a sigh. "And the hat knows."

"And things have otherwise happened in the books as you expected?"

"Well, yes. Well, sort of. Our Aunt—no, Harry's Aunt and cousin are nicer because I exist in this world. And it's been bothering me what kind of changes my existence would cause. And…" Her hands clenched the arms of the chair, glad to be rid of that book.

"You wanted to be in charge of the changes? Can you give me a bit more detail regarding what has happened?"

To which she rattled off what happened the previous year, off the top of her head, to what happened over the summer, noting that Harry hadn't gone to the Weasley family as he should have, so she'd taken the journal, not realizing they've still have taken the car. "Mrs. Wealsey will be sending a Howler tomorrow."

"I see. What about this, Dobby?"

"Dobby?"

"The House Elf. What kind of things will he do this year?"

"By that, you mean sabotaging the Quidditch match and Harry getting hurt and Lockhart vanishing his bones? Oh, and…" Alisha frowned. "And Harry would, after defeating the Basilisk with the help of Fawkes, give a very nasty journal back to Mr. Malfoy, who would hand the book to Dobby, and there would be a sock."

"So, effectively, by doing this, you've managed to rob not one but two people of their freedom?"

"I—I hadn't thought of that."

"Well, it is certainly true that the Chamber won't be opened this year." Dumbledore stood up and set the journal into the safe. "But what about the other years. For this book series to be popular in your world, aren't their other years for you to worry about? You can't simply take this on your own, but perhaps it would be best…"

"Peter Pettigrew," Alisha blurted out, biting down her tongue upon realizing what she'd said.