Disclaimer: I do not own anything in this story that is recognisable from the Harry Potter books, movies, etc. Everything else however (eg. story plot, original characters, etc.) stems from my own imagination and belongs to me. No copyright infringement is intended and I am not profiting financially from this story in any way.


Chapter 3 – Homes and Histories

Sun, 18/9/2005

The Franklin brothers emerged from the bank, squinting a bit as their eyes adjusted to the sunshine. Pausing, they each took a moment to take in the atmosphere, still in awe of at the site of a peacetime Diagon Alley. Finally, Neville turned to his brother, wondering what their next step should be.

"Well, I was thinking we should find somewhere to live. Staying at the Leaky Cauldron's alright short term but I think we'll want more space eventually."

"I guess the best place to look would be Leonard & Riley's Land & Realty. Assuming that's the same here."

"Well everything else has seemed the same so far apart from the obvious lack of a war. I'm beginning to wonder what the differences actually are. Did this world's Tom Riddle just decide becoming a Dark Lord wasn't the career path for him?"

Neville snorted, "Don't know."

"Anyway, where is this realty place?"

"It's just a bit further down the Alley. Up ahead on the left; across from Gambol & Japes."

The real estate agency, it turned out, was exactly where Neville had predicted. They entered the store, Harry expecting to see a plain looking waiting room with placards advertising different properties for sale. He soon found however, that what he was expecting was the Muggle way such businesses were conducted. Evidently wizarding real estate agencies were another matter altogether.

It was a waiting room but it was the furthest thing from plain he could imagine, although Neville seemed to think it ordinary enough. Instead of placards there were rows upon rows of crystals. All were conically shaped, and most interestingly, above each floated a projected, rotating, three dimensional model of a home. There were a few other customers in the store and he watched in awe as an attendant explained some feature to a customer and touched his hand to the crystal. The roof disappeared off the house they were examining and the image zoomed in to show the details of the kitchen. Harry was suitably impressed.

"Even after all these years the wizarding world can still surprise me," he murmured.

"How so?" his brother asked, overhearing.

"These hologram things. I had no idea wizards had created this sort of thing."

"Really?" he seemed surprised, "They use it in architecture and construction as well."

"What are they called?"

"Viewing Crystals."

"Urgh, flashback to Professor Trelawney's classes."

A snicker, "Crystal balls? Completely different thing. You know I never really considered it but these things might have been useful back on raids and such."

"We could have mapped the houses before going in," Harry caught on right away, eyes widening, "Hell, Luna and the Twins could probably have worked out a way to make it work like a Marauder's Map. We'd have known exactly who was in there and where."

"Merlin, we could even have created a simple parchment version. Still would have been just as useful," Neville said, half speaking to himself as the realisation came to him.

"Why is it the great ideas always come to you in retrospect?" he pouted

"Hindsight is twenty-twenty."

After Hogwarts they all had to lay low and had decided unanimously that the Muggle world was the best place to go. Then, further into the conflict with Voldemort, the Ministry had simply been unable to maintain secrecy from the Muggles. In the end the lines between the two worlds became so indistinct that in many ways it was as though they had both combined. So it was that over time their little self-made family of mostly pure-blood wizards, and house-elves formerly of pure-blood families, had caught onto quite a bit of the Muggle culture.

"You know, even after all this time I don't think I'll ever get used to hearing you spout Muggle phrases."

"The twins did love their TV."

"Not to mention Dobby," he understated.

"No," Neville agreed dryly, "No to mention Dobby. I can still remember Winky's reaction to that little addiction of his."

Harry winced, "Yeah, I loved them and all but the whole, 'if you keeps watching then no more sexy' thing? Way too much information."

They both shared a chuckle at that. It was one thing to know abstractly that the two had been a couple. They had all been very congratulatory about it in fact. However, there were certain things they just didn't need the intimate details about; house-elf sex being one such thing.

The shuffling of approaching footsteps and a cleared throat had them both on guard and turning their attention to the man behind them. The attendant was well groomed and well dressed, exactly as one would expect. He also had warm brown eyes and a friendly smile.

"Good morning good fellows," he said cheerily, "Can I help you in some way?"

"Good morning," Neville responded.

"I'm Evan Franklin."

"Leander Franklin."

"Pleasure to meet you both. Name's Derek Short. So are you two looking for a house or just land? Big or small? Expensive or cheap? Buy or rent? Give me some details and let me help you out."

The man's honestly exuberant demeanour eased their tension and they both gave warm smiles back. Harry decided to answer his questions in turn.

"House, small, any price, and rent," he looked to Neville for confirmation.

"Renting?" he asked, curious as to why.

"Yeah. We don't know what we want to do yet so I figure renting would be the best way to go. Less hassle if we decide we want to go somewhere else or we want something bigger," he explained and Neville nodded in agreement.

"Alright then, let's go look at," a pause, then dramatically, "The Book."

Raised eyebrow and a pause, "The Book?"

"Yes, just follow me."

Short then led them toward the back of the room where a previously unnoticed customer counter was sequestered. Their guide ducked behind the counter and returned with a quill and a large book, bound in red leather. He opened the book to the first page and put quill to paper.

"This is The Book. It's a record of all available properties. Now let's see. House, renting."

As he spoke, Short made notations on the page. Looking over his shoulder, Harry observed a page with a list of questions regarding a prospective property.

"Let's see if we can't get a bit more specific, hmm?" the man asked them, "You said small but that's a bit vague. How about number of bedrooms?"

"At least two – no more than three," Neville supplied and his brother hummed in agreement.

"Price range; you said any but did you have a limit at all?"

"No," Harry said, "Probably nothing ridiculously overpriced, but other than that we don't really have a spending limit."

"Okay, I'll just mark that down," the quill scratched across the page.

He then went on to ask them a number of questions such as number of floors, number of bathrooms, with or without a garden and so on.

"Alright, any particular location?"

"Umm, I don't know," Harry said, drawing a blank.

"How about Belle Blanchard?" Neville suggested.

"Belle Blanchard?" Harry asked, looking stumped.

"Well, then we'd be near to everything while we figure out what to do. More convenient."

"No, I didn't mean why, I meant what?"

"What?"

"And where. As in what is it and where is it?"

"You've not heard of Belle Blanchard Lane?" Short asked, eyebrows rising in surprise.

"We're Muggle raised," Neville covered smoothly, "Didn't even go to Hogwarts. Evan's got a lot more gaps in his general knowledge than me though; he's a bit odd is his reading tastes – very random," he said truthfully.

"It's not odd," Harry played along, "I just want to get to the stuff that looks interesting that's all."

"Didn't go to Hogwarts? Such a pity, it's a wonderful place."

"Well, our guardian at the time didn't think it right to interrupt our 'proper' Muggle education to learn magic tricks," Harry continued with the cover story the two had devised some months ago.

"That's really too bad," he looked sympathetic.

"Oh, don't worry too much. We still got magical tutors and everything," Neville assured him cheerfully.

"Well, that's good leastways. Now we've gotten off track. Care to explain Belle Blanchard to your brother there?"

"Oh, completely forgot," he turned to Harry, "You know the square down the end of the street?"

"Only vaguely. I know it's there but I've never actually gone that far down the Alley, or even anywhere past Ollivander's for that matter. Not had the need."

"Well, that's Wizard's Square. Belle Blanchard Lane and a couple of others lead off from it. Belle Blanchard is just like a normal neighbourhood street with homes along it."

"Huh, and to think I thought there was only Diagon and Knockturn."

Short chuckled at his cluelessness,

"Well, how's it sound as a location to you?" the attendant asked him.

"Yeah, I agree with Lea; sounds like a good spot."

"Alright, just mark that down. Now," he withdrew his wand and tapped it to the page, "For the password. 'Search me a house.' And we give it a moment."

Harry tried not to shiver as the words were absorbed into the page and after a moment the words 'Search Complete' seemed to write themselves across it. It reminded him eerily of Tom Riddle's diary. Short naturally had no idea of the direction of his thoughts and happily began flipping the pages, browsing the pictures and descriptions of a number of houses.

"Hmm, let's see here. Well there are only three properties suiting all your needs. And their Viewing Crystals are located… hmm, yes, yes and yes. Right-o, let's go take a look at them shall we?" he said with an eager smile, leading the two of them to the first property.

"Now this is the first one," he said as they stopped before a Viewing Crystal at eye level, "It's somewhat in disrepair actually. A few holes in the roof, but that'll only be a problem if it rains. Also there's a hole in the floor of the living room, but it makes a fabulous shortcut to the basement."

The twins boys listened to the man's misplaced enthusiasm with disbelief as his hand on the Crystal guided the image to several other defects. This was not the house for them.

"So? What do you think?" he asked eagerly but Harry thought he detected a hint of amusement in those brown depths.

"Er- it's not quite what we're looking for," he said diplomatically and found his suspicions proved correct and the man burst into hearty laughter.

"No I thought not. This way then," he led them to another Crystal on a lower shelf behind them, "Now this one's in quite good repair. No unexpected weather or unusual shortcuts here."

They both grinned back at him and he continued on showing the house to them. It was a nice enough place but it just seemed a little too – girly. When Neville mentioned this fact he explained it had previously housed a little old lady with a fondness for flowers, knitting and lace.

"I think this is a maybe," Neville said.

"Well you don't sound terribly enthused so let's hope you take a liking to the last house. I think you'll be pleased with it."

The last viewing Crystal he showed them was at the other side of the store, on a shelf at hip level. As Short squatted down before it, the other two looked over his shoulders at the house it showed.

Unlike the first house, this one looked sturdy and well built. Unlike the second house, it had a strong masculine feel to it while still managing to seem cosy. Hardwood floor and dark coloured paints in most of the rooms were softened by the basic white of the kitchen, the picture windows and the small flower garden out front. It was a small house, but with two floors. It had three bedrooms, a bathroom, kitchen, laundry, dining area, living room and a very modest library room. It also featured – much to Neville's delight – a greenhouse out the back. Granted it was an incredibly small greenhouse, but still – it was big enough to keep him entertained.

"Well, what do you think?" Short asked with a knowing look.

"I think you already know what we think," Harry said, sharing a smile with his brother.

"Humour me and pretend I don't. I promise to act terribly surprised," he said cheekily and the boys laughed.

"It's perfect," Neville told him.

"No?" Short gasped dramatically, "I never would have guessed. Surprised enough for you? Good, I thought so too. Well come on gentlemen. Follow me to my office and we can get all the paperwork sorted out. If all goes well I think we can have you both moving in today."

..ooOOoo..

It was mid afternoon as the two brothers walked down the street, having settled matters at Leonard & Riley's. Heading past Ollivander's they found themselves in the local square. Harry, who had never been this far down Diagon Alley, looked about taking in the sights.

Wizard's Square was large and open, bathed in sunlight. A cobblestone street travelled around the edges, framing a large grassy field in the centre of which was a tall, tiered fountain. The area seemed a popular spot for families and couples, as blankets with picnic lunches were scattered about. Children could be seen shrieking happily, racing across the lawn and playing games. The occasional child even seemed determined to go for a swim in the fountain, much to their parents' dismay.

There were a few buildings about the edges of the area but for the most part there were trees and gardens. As they meandered around the Square Harry observed that there were a number of other streets leading off from it.

Finally, almost opposite from Diagon Alley, Neville led him down a narrow street paved in rounded, chalk white cobblestones. He assumed that this was Belle Blanchard Lane and the street sign he then noticed off to the left confirmed his guess.

As they wandered further down Belle Blanchard, he admired the different houses and friendly atmosphere. Neighbours chatted over their fences as they tended their gardens and now and then a stranger would wave them hello. It was nothing at all like the stifling, cookie cutter properness he remembered of Privet Drive.

"What number was it again?" Neville's voice snapped him out of his musings.

"Erm," he frowned, recalling what Mr Short said, "Fifty-five."

They drifted to the left side of the street since that was where the odd numbered houses stood. Harry led the way as Neville followed behind, letting his fingers drag along the fences, tapping on the letterboxes as he passed them by.

"Fifteen, seventeen, nineteen…" the elder twin was so lost in his counting he didn't notice when the other stopped, "…fifty-one, fifty-three, fifty- oof!"

Harry quickly regained his balance and looked down at his brother, sprawled inelegantly in the gutter.

"Graceful as always, brother dearest," he observed sarcastically, earning a scowl in return.

"What were you doing?" he rose easily back to his feet, "Honestly, just stopping in the middle of-"

His scolding halted as he looked in the direction of Harry's outstretched hand.

"You were saying?" he smirked with a cocked eyebrow.

"Never mind," he mumbled, a longsuffering look pasted across his face.

The house before them was more than a little familiar. It was a larger version the last house they'd browsed in the Viewing Crystals. An exact replica; right down to the stepping stone path, and the navy blue paint on the front door to which it led.

Without thought, the two had withdrawn their wands and, working in tandem, began checking the property for hexes and enchantments, before laying various wards and enchantments of their own. Harry had just cast a standard Muggle-Repelling Charm and Neville a modified Notice-Me-Not targeted to those with ill intent when they both paused, realising what they were doing. They stared at one another in surprised silence for a moment before speaking.

"We don't have to do this here," Harry said, half to himself, "There's no war and we're not hiding out."

"You're right; this isn't going to be a base of operations or some safe house. It's just-"

"A home."

They both stood there pondering that thought for some time. Then, Neville's face took on a thoughtful look which soon turned determined. Noticing, Harry questioned him on it.

"What are you thinking?"

"I'm thinking that just because there's no war going on here, doesn't mean we shouldn't take precautions. You never know when things might change."

Harry's eyebrows rose in surprise, "That's a surprisingly pessimistic view coming from you Lea. That's usually my forte."

"Actually, I think of it more as being practical."

"Ah, that makes more sense."

"Yes, I always was the most practical of all of us," he sniffed haughtily.

The effect was ruined somewhat though when his brother merely snorted and opened up the gate, messing his hair up on the way through. Neville pouted, straightening the rogue locks as he followed after.

"Its times like these I miss the twins. Normally it'd be them keeping you humble."

A wistful look appeared in green eyes, "Strange to say it but yeah, me too."

The two walked down the path, finishing casting the usual spells as they reached the door.

"Evan, you have the key right?" Neville asked suddenly, subtly searching his own pockets.

A snort, "Of course. We both know what you're like. I made sure Mr Short gave it to me."

"I would be offended, but any argument I could possibly come up with wouldn't have a leg to stand on."

"It really wouldn't," agreed Harry, who was now unlocking the door.

The door opened and they ambled inside, closing it behind them and then set about exploring. The house was just as they expected. Strong, dark colours abounded but so too did windows, admitting plenty of light. From the entry were three doors, the one opposite the front door leading to a coat closet.

The one to the left led to the small library. Shelves – currently empty – lined the room, reaching towards the ceiling. In the centre sat a desk and chair, but as the room was dark and windowless, Harry figured he would take most of his reading to the living area or dining table.

The aforementioned dining and living areas were accessed through the right side door from the entryway and the combined room ran the length of the house.

Also on the first floor, at the back of the house was the kitchen and laundry, the latter of which had a door leading to the outside where there was to be found the small greenhouse.

The second floor was similar to the first with the same dark colours and numerous windows. On the left side of the storey at the front of the house was the bathroom and toilet and behind it was the largest of the bedrooms though it was oddly unfurnished. To the right of the upper floor were the other two, medium sized bedrooms, these ones furnished. Of these Harry decided that he would take the one at the front of the house, overlooking the street. That way, Neville could have the one at the back, overlooking his greenhouse. As for the unfurnished room, he was sure they would find a use for it sooner or later.

Curiosity sated and exploring finished, he padded down the stairs, jumping down from the second to last. Looking around, he wondered where his brother had gotten off to. As he searched about he was beginning to worry when a sound from the backyard caught his attention.

"Of course," he shook his head but smiled with fond exasperation, "This is Neville we're talking about. Where else would he be?"

He headed though the laundry and out the back door before making his way to the greenhouse. Slipping inside quietly he leant against the wall, arms folded comfortably over his chest as he waited to be noticed.

"Hmm, could use some dragon dung fertiliser on the south beds… centre ones are alright but I think I'll replant some…" the young man muttered his thoughts aloud as he pottered around the nursery, stopping every now and then to feel the soil, "…northern beds are beyond hope… I'll have to- Oh! Evan!"

He jumped, finally having noticed his audience. Harry watched as his newly made brother caught his breath before smiling sheepishly.

"Sorry, got caught up in it all."

"Don't apologise. You're you. It's to be expected that a greenhouse would call to you sooner or later."

"Sooner it would seem," they shared a smile, "I never realised how much I missed it. I had my own greenhouses at Longbottom Manor you know? And then at school Professor Sprout would let me use hers whenever I wanted to, even outside of class. Then the war really started getting bad and we all left Hogwarts. The few times I managed to do any planting…"

"Someone would catch up to us again."

"Yeah, and I'd have to leave everything behind."

"Well no worries about that any more then," he grinned cheerily, determined to break up the melancholy atmosphere, "If you so please you can work in here from sunrise to sunset."

"Sunrise to sunset hey?" he teased but Harry could see the eager light in his eyes.

He leaned forward and whispered conspiratorially, "Longer, even."

That earned him a grin.

..ooOOoo..

Wed, 21/9/2005

It was several days later and the Franklin brothers were sitting down to dinner. There was one good thing, in Harry's mind, that had come from his living with the Dursleys. Their insistence on treating him as an overworked, underappreciated house-elf had the unexpected benefit of – among other home skills – making him a fantastic cook. Fortunately it was not a skill he was bitter about and in fact he quite enjoyed losing himself in the making of a meal.

When his skills had come to light some years ago, he had been wrangled into replacing Dobby working in the kitchen with Winky. Dobby had at first broken into noisy sobbing over that fact. Free he may be, but he still had plenty of traditional house-elf pride. It had taken them all some convincing to make him understand that he was a very good all round house-elf, but he was especially suited to areas such as cleaning. Winky on the other hand, was particularly suited to cooking. And as for Harry, cooking was a talent of his and one he enjoyed, and Dobby wouldn't want to take that away from him would he?

This was of course all entirely true but it was mostly the latter argument that clinched it for the overenthusiastic elf. If it made 'the great Harry Potter' happy then it must be so.

And thus were the two sat at their dining table one evening, happily enjoying a delicious meal – courtesy of Harry – and chatting between bites.

"You know, we've been lazing around for a couple of days now," Neville said, drowning a crusty piece of homemade bread into his soup.

"Well maybe I have but you've been more than a little busy, what with the greenhouse. I know I'm not an expert on Herbology but even I know that it's looking brilliant," he said and his brother blushed at the compliment.

"Well, maybe. Still you've been busy too, what with getting all those books from our vaults and setting up the library."

"True. I wasn't sure whether or not to get out the darker texts and some of the rarer ones. I'd like to have them all on hand but I don't want to risk them being seen or someone stealing them."

"You could always ward the library."

"That's exactly what I was thinking. I know I was never able to find information on it back in our original dimension, but I might have more chance here. Channels are more organised and all without the war muddying them up."

"Find what?"

"The Fidelius Charm."

"The Secret Keeper Charm?"

"Yeah. I looked some during the war but with everything the way it was I didn't have much luck. I had been thinking we could use it to hide headquarters like the Order used to."

"Then we wouldn't have had to keep moving around whenever we were discovered," his blue eyes widened at the thought.

"Exactly. Unfortunately the only wizard who I knew for sure had the information wasn't exactly someone I was willing to go to for a chat."

"Dumbledore," he said simply and Harry nodded.

The two were silent for a moment but for the dinging of spoons on bowls as they considered what it would have been like if they'd had a fully secure base for the Resistance.

"Well, no point dwelling. It simply wasn't to be," Neville said pragmatically.

"Suppose."

"Well, you can look into it all you want now," green eyes brightened at the thought, "Besides; you've completely sidetracked me from my point."

"What point?"

"See, I'm so sidetracked you didn't even know there was a point," he said with an overdone tragic expression, only to have a piece of bread thrown at him.

"Save the dramatics. They're really not your thing."

"And they're yours?"

"Someone had to carry on Fred and George's most noble work," Harry said soberly.

"Too true," Neville returned in and equally serious manner before both broke down in laughter, "Anyway, you've distracted me again."

"Sorry," he said, not looking it at all, "Do continue."

"Well, I originally mentioned that we've both been lazing around."

"Which it has been established is entirely untrue," the younger brother interrupted, much to the elder's annoyance, "Hey, you threw bread at me!"

"Just returning it, now shh. Much better. So, my point was going to be that we've had enough time to get settled. We should really start looking into the history of this world."

Harry, who had been pouting over having bread thrown his way, straightened up and dropped the pout. He nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, you're right. It's been great being able to do what we want for a change, but we really do need to start that research."

"So, tomorrow then?"

"Yeah, tomorrow."

..ooOOoo..

Thu, 22/9/2005

"Come on Lea!" Harry yelled up the stairs from the living room couch where he was sprawled, waiting.

"Coming!" pounding footsteps on the stairs followed by a thump announced his arrival, "Damn it. I swear those stairs intentionally trip me up. Hey, don't laugh. I could break my neck one of these days."

Harry just shook his head with an amused smile and moved to help his friend up from where he had landed at the base of the stairs. Together they headed to the front door. As he grabbed his cloak from the cloak stand he realised Neville's wasn't there.

"Got your cloak Lea?"

"Darn. Hold on," he raced towards the stairs.

"Washing yesterday, it'll be folded in the laundry."

Footsteps abruptly changed paths and instead headed toward the laundry. Ten minutes and a few more delays later, they were finally organised and heading out their front door. Giving a cheery wave to a neighbour watering his flowers they closed their gate behind them and headed toward Wizard's Square. When they finally reached it, Harry went to head left to Diagon Alley only to be brought up short.

"What?" he looked curiously at the hand holding his robe.

"What? More like 'where'. As in, where are you going?"

"Diagon Alley. Flourish & Blotts. Books for research. Any of this ringing any bells?" he stated, obviously confused.

"You want to actually buy all the books then?"

"Well, what else am I suppose to do?"

Neville stared hard at him for a moment as though trying to decide whether he was being genuine. Realising he was he gave an amused snort and shook his head.

"What? What's so funny?"

"Sorry, it's just- even after all this time it takes me by surprise when there's some obvious thing about the wizarding world you don't know."

"Not my fault," he exclaimed heatedly, "You can blame Dumbledore for leaving me with the bloody Muggles in the first place."

"I know, I know," he placated, "And you really shouldn't say things like that so loud in public. We're supposed to be keeping up identities remember."

"Sorry," he looked down, an embarrassed expression on his face, "I tend to lose my calm when it comes to him."

"Yeah I know and it's understandable. Don't worry about it. We both know I'm usually the one to slip up with this sort of thing."

"So, what were you going to say about the books?"

"Oh, right. There's no need to go to Flourish & Blotts because we can just go to the library."

"They let people do that? Besides, I'm not sure I want to be that close to a certain old man."

"No, not Hogwarts' library. You honestly thought that was the only wizarding library there was?"

He blinked. He had indeed thought just that. Now that he thought about it though, it really didn't make much sense. Neville finally released his robe and they started walking again in the opposite direction as he answered the question.

"I'm guessing then that it's not."

"Nope. See the tall blue building over there? The one with the two raven statues guarding the front," he pointed of to the right a ways.

"Yeah."

"That's Rowena's Library."

"As in Ravenclaw?"

"Exactly. It wasn't set up by her or anything though. More like, in her honour."

"Hence the blue and the ravens I take it?"

"And the bronze detailing you'll see all over the place when we get there."

The two soon found themselves inside and Harry looked around, taking in the décor. The library had a look about it that hinted it was intended to look quite grand. However, everywhere you looked was various shades of blue – even going so far as to stain the wooden shelves a dark navy – and overdone bronze detailing which made it all seem a little tacky in Harry's personal opinion. Still, the size of the library itself and the selection of books were rather impressive even if not quite Hogwarts' standards. And that was the most important thing.

The two of them quickly got down to business. Harry went about fetching a number of books on recent history and Neville retrieved a stack of newspapers from the Daily Prophet archives. Since the most obvious difference in this world was that it wasn't losing a war against Voldemort they decided to research that first, in particular his activities during their Hogwarts years.

Initial findings showed that the Dark Lord had never been resurrected. Despite vague mentions of the Boy Who Lived being chosen, The Triwizard Tournament in this world had gone off with only the three school champions – Victor Krum, Fleur Delacour and Cedric Diggory. Also, the competition had finished with Cedric taking the cup and being Portkeyed, not to a graveyard, but out of the maze to the cheering of fans as the event organisers had intended. They both wondered why the Voldemort of this place had not used the tournament as he had in their world, to trap Harry Potter.

Not being able to find any other recent activity by He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named they decided to look further into the events of his first rise. This, thankfully – or perhaps not – seemed to follow events of their world. They were working through the years up to his defeat and taking note of common events when Neville suddenly started making choking noises. Looking up Harry observed that he had gone quite pale and placed a worried hand on his shoulder.

"Lea, what's wrong?"

Rather than answer he shoved the Prophet that he had been reading towards him and sat back, hands covering his mouth and obviously in shock. Harry, beyond curious, looked down to see what was going on. The paper was a special edition, dated November 1, 1981; the day after Halloween. His growing feeling of unease was quickly explained as he read the front page headlines.

'You-Know-Who Defeated!'

'Neville Longbottom Boy-Who-Lived'

He reread it a few times, gaping at the bold font. He looked up to his brother to find him, if not collected, then at least a little less pale.

"Does this say what I think it says or do I desperately need a new pair of glasses?"

"You don't wear glasses anymore," Neville said dimly and his brother gave an exasperated sigh.

"Really not the point of that question."

"Oh, right. I-it, ah. Well if you're seeing- that is to say," he growled suddenly, annoyed at his own stuttering, "It says that in this dimension, I defeated Voldemort."

Harry nodded dumbly, "Yeah, that's what I thought," he said weakly, dropping the newspaper to the desk.

"Well," said Neville after a moment, "This is… unexpected."

That broke the tension and both laughed aloud, quieting to an occasional chuckle at the nasty looks of other readers nearby.

"So we've found the obvious difference," Neville began, "The question is: what does it mean?"

"The first question that comes to my mind is how this affected the Triwizard Tournament. Why he didn't use it to lure – well, Neville?"

"That I think I know the answer to."

"Do tell."

"This Neville's parents died that night so he went to live with his Gran, same as me."

"He did?"

"Yes, didn't you read the articles?"

"Sorry," he drawled sarcastically, "My attention was just a little caught by the headlines."

"Yes, yes. So anyways, this Neville-"

"Who shall from this moment forth be referred to simply as 'Neville', for simplicities sake," a glare, "Sorry, continue."

"Neville was raised as a pure-blood wizard with all that that entails."

"Meaning?"

"Meaning that unlike you, he would have known that to be magically binding a contract must be entered into willingly."

Harry frowned, "Yes, the Goblet of Fire. Wish I could say I was disappointed in Dumbledore for failing to mention that, but it was really just another drop in an already large ocean wasn't it?"

"Yeah. Didn't help your reputation none at the time that you chose to compete though. It either meant you really did enter your name and were compelled to, or you were doing it for the attention, or you were just brave to the point of stupid."

"And neither Granger nor Weasley ever mentioned anything," he groused.

"Dumbledore probably told them to keep quiet," Neville agreed.

Harry sat there fuming for a time before huffing and sagging in his seat dejectedly.

"There's no point in my getting worked up about this. It's over and done with."

"And on the bright side, you'll never see any of them ever again," Harry perked up happily until he continued, "Unless you run into their alternate selves."

"Gee thanks."

"No problem," he grinned cheerily before sobering and hesitantly adding, "And I am sorry you know. F-for not telling you either. It's just t-that I- well I figured-"

"That Ron or Hermione would have told me. Don't worry about it Lea; there's nothing to forgive. We weren't as close back then and you had no reason to suspect they'd keep that from me."

"Thanks."

"No problem. Now, what say we keep reading? We know what happened to this world's Neville and family. Let's find out what happened to Harry and his."

After a little more research they had their answers. In this world it seemed, the two friends' lives were somewhat mirrored. Whilst this Neville lost his parents and defeated Voldemort, this Harry's parents were tortured into insanity by death eaters. There was one consolation however.

"At least they figured out Pettigrew was a traitor," he almost whispered, "At least he got to grow up with Sirius."

"Yeah," Neville said just as quietly, an arm wrapped consolingly around his brother's shoulder, "There's that at least."

..ooOOoo..

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