Chapter Thirteen - A Friend

Tracy fingered the page she was on. "I think we have a problem." Tracy panned her gaze back and forth. "I still can't see you. No matter. I know you're here." She lifted her free hand to her ear and rubbed it gently. "I can hear the ringing. Try talking."

So she hadn't heard me. Instead of just yelling, I tried to approach it like I did with magic: will and intent. I had to will it into existence. I needed… no, I knew my voice would be heard.

"You can hear me." Tracy's head swiveled around, and her gaze stopped in front of me.

"There you are. Since we haven't met, well, not really anyways, I'm Tracy Miller. Though I suppose right now I'm you." For some reason she felt the need to introduce herself.

"I'm Alexis.", I said in response.

"Well, Alexis, we have a problem besides the obvious." She gestured to her, or rather my, body. "Our body swapping ranks low on our priorities, I'm afraid." She jumped up off of the couch suddenly and passed right through me as she made her way to my bookshelf. "It took me a while to realize I wasn't in some afterlife. I did notice this pretty much immediately, however." Tracy plucked my Harry Potter books off my shelf one by one and deposited them in the stack in her arms. She carried them to my little breakfast nook only a few feet away.

"His name stuck out to me.", she clarified before I could even think to question why. "Also, your wands are all fake or dead." I got the sudden mental image of Tracy trying to perform magic with my wands and failing. I laughed. Tracy huffed.

"Anyways, these stories told the events of Potter's life. I wasn't able to read past the fourth book." She opened up the sixth book and slowly fanned through the pages. It was blank.

"I've read them all.", I supplied.

"I thought so. You told my friends about a battle. I'm guessing you're going to try to stop it." She put down the sixth book and reclaimed the fifth.

"Yes.", I admitted.

"Don't." Tracy spoke in a serious tone. She opened the book and flipped through. Most of the book was empty. The meaning was clear to me. The books were rewriting themselves.

"Why not? I could save a lot of people.", I challenged.

"You shouldn't mess with time. Terrible things happen…", she started.

I quickly interjected, "Terrible things are already happening. You and your family were killed for who you are. I'm still not convinced they weren't Death Eaters. You did die. It was awful." I clutched my hand to my chest as I remembered the terror and anguish leading up to her death. "I felt it…"

Tracy looked taken aback. "You could feel that? … I didn't think… Ohh Merlin, our connection must be deeper than I thought." She pinched herself hard, then looked to me for confirmation.

"Ahh, you didn't need to do it that hard. Yes, I can feel that." I absently rubbed the spot she had pinched. "A lot more people will die…" I moved myself to be directly in front of her face. "They shouldn't have to go through what we did if I can help it." Tracy looked to be deep in contemplation. I felt a tug on my consciousness, indicating I was waking up. "I'm waking up. I won't let it happen.", I said conclusively.

"No, I won't let you!", she half-screamed at me. "Ohh, and my boyfriend Jocelyn, stay away from him. He's mine."

I woke up with the image of my angry face yelling at me still fresh in my mind.

Without access to a clock, I didn't know what time it was. I didn't want to go back to sleep. I'd either see Tracy again or have some god-awful nightmare. Neither was wanted, so I decided I was up for the day. The other girls who shared a room with me were all still asleep, judging by the closed curtains and lack of light coming through the windows. I slung a blanket over my shoulders and walked down the steps to the common room. It was nearly empty. A single figure was draped over a couch near the fireplace.

The final step creaked, and the figure jolted up, sending the blanket that had covered her to the floor.

"Luna?" The light-haired girl rubbed her eyes and looked at me with a weary expression. "Why are you sleeping down here?", I asked as I crossed the room. I was taking a seat on another sofa when she replied.

"Ohh, I went to sleep in my bed. I sleepwalk, you see." Luna drifted her gaze to the fire as she spoke. I found myself watching the fire too. The crackling of the flames did much to calm me. I thought Tracy would be on my side. I had figured I could count on her to help me make plans. "Did you have another dream?" Luna broke the silence with a question I never thought I'd hear from her.

"How…?" I never told her anything, and she definitely wasn't in my divination class. She wasn't even in the same year.

"I heard your friends talking about you." She gathered up her blanket and draped it back over herself. "People think I don't listen, so they talk freely. Did you know Cho has a crush on Potter?" I did know that actually, but I didn't voice it.

"Point made." I chuckled. "The dreams aren't special or anything. I'm just stressed. Nothing bad is going to happen.", I assured her. Nothing bad will happen once I've changed the outcome.

Luna looked at me skeptically and called me out. "You don't believe that. Why should I? You don't hide your emotions well. You're scared."

Thoomp Thoomp

She saw right through me. If I couldn't even hide from Luna, what hope did I have if anyone else pestered me? "I am scared. I'm a muggle-born. My family and I were attacked because of who I am."

Thoomp Thoomp Thoomp

I was scared.

"I was tortured. They were killed. I'm supposed to be dead too. One of them came back for me, you know…" My hands were unraveling my braid, and I briefly wondered if I should be telling a child this. "When I was in Mungo's, he came back, wearing an auror's face, and tried to take me."

Thoomp Thoomp Thoomp

I could feel myself begin to shake.

I took a deep breath.

"The point is, I'm still scared. But I can't just lay down and die. I can't let other people go through what I did. I just… I need to know my suffering isn't for nothing." I started re-braiding my hair as Luna looked at me.

"You did grow up.", she finally said. "I'm good at listening." I let a smile cross my lips. For a moment, I felt some weight lift off of my shoulders.

At least I made one friend today.

A/N

This story was originally published on April 1st over on AO3. It is now being cross-posted. As of this chapter it is caught up to what is currently writen and uploaded on AO3. I decided to just publish the completed 13 chapters all at once rather than make people wait.

ALL updates will now be made at the same time on bolth sites.

Thank you for reading.