AN: Hey guys! First off, a few answers to reviews:
senpen banka & hectorav: Hope you like it!
Guest 1 : You bet, I was flabbergasted!
0Harry. 0 : No worries, I'll stick with Harry only.
Tristan Blackheart : Oh nooo. I will not replace Booker! He is too awesome! So that means…
Important! : This chapter is very heavy in information and time skips. I had to cut many ties before Harry's arrival to Columbia. So bear with me here. It would be the last chapter with time skips like this. Again, I'm sorry if you find that there is not enough action. But a few surprises await you in this chap. ;)
Next time, Columbia!
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October 14, 1996
#First entry#
*sigh* *sigh* Damn it… Damn it all to Hell… What have I done? *sigh* Thi-…This thing, *sigh* I enchanted this Dictaphone. It should do the deed… I hope. At last it would be always with me. I made sure of it. With the help of My, no… His, no…"Our" memories…
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October 15, 1996
"The mind of the subject will desperately struggle to create memories where none exist..."
I should have given a better thought to this law… She was right. But my case is unique. I don't think that Rosalind Lutece ever thought of what would happen if two identical beings existed in the same dimension at the same time… Me neither… And I paid the price. Seven months. Seven months! Merlin! I lived for seven months a life that my mind had created, without even knowing that something was amiss. Tom Harrison Riddle. That was my name. An identity that my mind came up with when my memories got mixed with the Harry Potter's of this new dimension. But that didn't stop there. No… I don't know if it was the link or something else, because I'm sure the link was destroyed that one night in the Ministry when he tried to possess me, but I received along with my alter-ego's memories, Voldemort's… I just can't describe how disgusted I am. To remember having done such horrible things, even if now I know they aren't my sins, I…*sigh* God…
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October 16, 1996
…Will the circle be unbroken
By and by, by and by?
Is a better home awaiting
In the sky, in the sky…
*sigh* I don't know, or understand why, and what make this song particular,…but I know one thing now. It's my anchor, my anchor to sanity. It is the only thing that can bring my memories back once I cross a different dimension. I don't remember the face of the woman that made me listen to it three days ago, but I'm sure she wasn't the girl I heard once. That woman, she knew, she knows…she will know…
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Chapter 2: Tears
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The first month was the hardest. I was desperate to find Sirius and desperate to get my hand back. The latter was easier than I thought. Hermione and I continued to search the Library, but as days went by, we finished by only looking in the Restricted Section. We came to an understanding that the only thing that could help me, would be Dark or forgotten magic. Hermione was more hesitant with the former, and I could understand that. We couldn't just do a 180 and start using forbidden magic. So we continued to search… And one day, I found it. A blood ritual. A forgotten and forbidden magic. The ritual could heal any wound and regrow any limb, if the caster paid the price… Blood, as its title pointed out, an immense concentration of magic and finally…a quarter of the caster's life essence. Yes. The ritual took payment by reducing the user's life. A price that I was ready to pay. And the limb formed by the ritual wouldn't be real…not of flesh and bones, but like a prosthesis created by magic. It greatly reminded me of the arm that Voldemort made for Wormtail, but I digress…
Two of the components were easy to obtain, well, if you consider giving a quarter of your life away easy, but anyway; it was the last that caused problems. Whatever people said about me, I wasn't capable of generating that much of energy by myself, at least not unconsciously. Therefore, I needed power sources. And that was harder to obtain.
After the fiasco at the DoM, the little number of friends I had, decreased even further. Still, after many unsuccessful attempts, I managed to assemble enough. So, one evening in the summer after my fifth year, we gathered in the little forest near the Burrow. Hermione, Ron, Neville, Luna, Ginny, Fred, Georges, Katie, Angelina, Lee, the Patil twins and finally myself. The ritual was long, and very painful, for them all. But I, experienced unimaginable agony… As if my soul was torn asunder… As if the very magic in my being was fighting against me… As if every fiber of my body was impaled thousands of times… And as if the new hand created by the ritual was welded to my forearm by red iron… Then I knew no more…
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It took longer than I imagined to get used to the new limb. Strangely enough, the new hand was more powerful than my normal one. To such an extent that I could bend metal with it. Of course when I discovered the new occurrence, I tried to limit its interaction.
Now, with one of my objectives accomplished, I pushed myself even further in my studies of 'Trans-Dimensional Travel'. But everything I found, was very lacking and in no use to me. One chapter from Lutece's book contained more information than the entire Restriction Section. That of course made me very desperate, and sometimes I even visited Muggle libraries. But that too was fruitless…
Until one day, in the middle of March of my sixth year, I felt…something. Like it was calling to me… And following that feeling, I stumbled on a classroom, with the exact thing I was searching for: a tear.
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"I hope you haven't touched it." Hermione said as she studied the tear in front of her. I had called her the instant that I discovered it.
"No, of course not. But I tried some diagnostic charms, without any results as we expected." I explained approaching the rip in the space-time continuum.
"Amazing... This one is different from the one in the Ministry. It seems more, well more like a rip in space than a door. I wonder how it appeared here." She whispered.
"It's random. Lutece wrote that the tears began appearing after they finished building their machine, the Siphon. Since the book is a century old, it seems not impossible for tears to have formed everywhere in the world." I explained. "What interests me though, is why I felt its presence..."
"Well, you have already interacted with it once, without speaking about the fact that you could hear what happened in the other-... Actually, do you hear something?" Hermione asked me, raising an eyebrow.
"Well, no-... Wait. I...I can hear something." I said approaching my ear to the tear, as my heart began beating faster. Suddenly my eyes widened. "The song! I can hear the song!" I exclaimed, my heartbeat getting even faster. This was it! I was sure of it. Hope completely overwhelmed my senses and all I wanted at that instant was to jump in the rip.
"Harry! Harry, calm down! You don't know what would happen!" Hermione said with panic. "You could die, or lose another thing to it, or-…"
"Listen, 'Mione; I can hear the song! The same voice singing like with the tear in which Sirius fell through. It could only mean one thing: Sirius is on the other side!" I argued. I was happy. Finally I've found something that could lead me to my godfather, and whatever she would say, I wouldn't budge..
"You can't know that, Harry. What if, what if every tear produces this…this song? Huh? You shouldn't risk like this. We, we have to inform someone; Dumbledore or McGonagall or…"
"Hermione." I said calmly, approaching and taking her by her shoulders. After giving them a squeeze, controlling to not hurt her with my left hand, I looked her in the eyes. She had to understand… "I have to do this. It is the only way. The only way for me to stop the guilt that is eating me inside… I have to do this." I continued, closing my eyes. I felt my resolve crumbling, and I know she felt it too. But I just had no other choice… "I know 'Mione. If I had listened to you last year, all of this would never have happened…
"And you should listen to me this time too, Harry. It just doesn't feel right…"
"I'm sorry 'Mione, but my decision is made." I finally said with a sigh.
"Then take me with you!" she exclaimed squeezing my hand with vigor. "You'll need som-.."
"No…" I interrupted her. It was impossible. I couldn't take her with me. "I can't take the risk. I don't know what will happen to me. I…you can't come with me…"
"And what if you never come back?" she asked me with anger. I could see her narrowing her eyes. "What if it's only a one-way? What if you die…?"
"We all have to die one day…" I answered, and already knowing what would come, I interrupted her again. "And your day is not today…"
Looking me in the eyes she understood that it was no use to argue anymore, so she clutched me in her arms and hugged me with all her forces. I hugged her back and felt a limp in my throat. Suddenly I felt scared. What if… No! I couldn't let fear take over me! I feared nothing but the fear itself. And that made me different.
"C-Could you stay for a month, or, or a week at least before leaving?" Hermione stuttered looking at me with hopeful eyes. And I felt like the last scumbag on Earth for what I had to do…
I shook my head no and she drew a ragged breath, her eyes widening. "But…why?" she whispered.
"I can't risk for the tear to disappear. And you can't ignore the fact that the one in the ministry vanished. It may be my only chance…" She pushed me away and turned her back to me. I saw as she wiped her tears with her hands while slowly walking to her bag. Suddenly a few feet away from it, she stopped and turned around.
"Go fetch your things. Take everything that you don't want to leave here and shrink it in your bag. I'll make sure you have everything else to survive. No go and come back once you're done." She said, and as I opened the door she spoke again. "Oh, and Harry, I think that it would be nice to say goodbye to a few of your friends, without revealing too much of course."
I nodded and left the classroom, but I knew that I wouldn't do such a thing. It was better to do everything in secret. Let Hermione be the only person to know. It was better for everyone…
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When I returned to the classroom with the tear, I found Hermione already there waiving her wand around her bag and muttering incantations.
"I'm done." I said as I approached her. She turned toward me and handed me her bag. Her eyes were red and puffy, a sign that she had cried even more after I left. Again I felt like a jerk for doing this to her, but it couldn't be avoided.
"I've put a few dozen of medical potions, along with food and many shrunken books in it. I made the bag bottomless and weightless, so you can always carry it. A rune I engraved in it would make sure that you never lose the bag. Put your things in it and…I have a last thing for you…" she explained. Again, and not for the first time, I smiled, feeling blessed to have such an incredible witch for a friend.
"Thank you 'Mione." I said, feeling another limp forming in my throat. Shaking my head, I took a deep breath and followed her. Finally she handed me a rectangular black object. And at my raised eyebrow, she elaborated.
"It's a Dictaphone. I, I know that you don't really like writing, and having a bad history with diaries, I thought it would be more appropriate. Sometimes, writing, well in your case, recording your thoughts, is a good way to calm down and analyze the situation. I use this method since my young age, and I promise you, it helps, a lot. I got the idea from your book on Trans-Dimensional Travel. Rosalind Lutece mentioned a Voxophone device which she used to record her thoughts." Hermione continued. "I don't know what is waiting for you on the other side, but better safe than sorry. I only managed to enchant so that its recording time is limitless, but I can't do anything more. I'm not very good at integrating magic with electric devices. Maybe you'll discover something later. Be careful to not lose it."
"Thank you, Hermione..." I said, at loos of words.
"Harry, are you sure-…"
"Yes, 'Mione, I'm sure." I stated as I tried to summon my courage. "And it's time." I continued approaching the rip in the space.
"How do you plan on crossing it?"
"Touching it, for starters." I said, reaching my left hand to the anomaly. On contact, I felt a surge of energy pass through my body, and suddenly knew what to do.
I put my other hand in the tear and literally grabbed the rip in space and with an almighty cry tore the fabric of reality apart, creating a window-like passage for me to use.
"Harry… that's.."
"Impossible, I know…" I finished her sentence, as I felt exactly the same. Completely overwhelmed… Suddenly I heard, the song, again, but so much clearer. "The song, Hermione. It's my cue. I…I should go." I took a step in the passage when she cried out.
"Harry! Wait!" And as I turned around, the first thing I saw was her bushy brown hair before her sweet lips met mine. My mind blacked out and when I got my bearings back, she had backed away, a strong blush adorning her face.
"Mione… I-I don't know what to say.." I stuttered, completely flabbergasted by the new occurrence.
"Then promise me that you'll be ok, and that you'll comeback quickly." She pleaded. And seeing her face, I couldn't refuse.
"I promise." I said, before completely stepping in the tear before it closed behind me.
I didn't keep that promise, for it had been my last encounter with Hermione Jean Granger.
And it was the last time that I made a promise...
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The next time I had a rational thought as Harry James Potter, after I entered the tear, was seven months later… I'm sure you're wondering what in Merlin I'm talking about, but let me explain myself.
"The mind of the subject will desperately struggle to create memories where none exist..." It is a law from Rosalind Lutece's book. But not any law: one of the most important. She explains in her work, that once a person crosses the tear to a foreign dimension to him, the mind of the subject will be overwhelmed and will try to do anything to fill the gap of information; an equivalent to the subject's age. Which means, that the mind has to adapt and create memories of his life before the 'jump'.
What happened to me though, were a combination of this and the addition of two unique variables, that Rosalind never expected, and me neither… I received the memories of the Harry Potter of the new dimension, along with Voldemort's ones, and all of this mixed together to create Tom Harrison Riddle: sixth year Slytherin student of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry… Yep, I took Voldemort's birth name, not my best idea, but hey, it wasn't by choice. Anyway, liked I said I discovered what had happened seven months later. I was doing an errand in Diagon Alley, when a ginger haired woman asked for my help to carry her bags. You have to understand that at the time, I was no longer Harry Potter, a celebrity recognized by any magical being, nor was I Tom Riddle, the most powerful Dark Lord to have walked earth; I was a young no-name wizard that had done incredible and horrible things in his short life, that had just moved to London. I wasn't friendly, nor was I completely apathetic, so helping her wasn't that big of a deal. The main reason though, was that I felt a sudden connection with the woman. She felt extremely familiar. So I followed her, carrying two bags of food and other goodies, when suddenly she began to hum a song. I didn't recognize it, but my insides constricted on themselves, as if feeling an impending doom. And doom it was…
After I entered her house, I saw a large radio in the middle of the room, the only room, and it was playing a song:
…Will the circle be unbroken
By and by, by and by?
Is a better home awaiting
In the sky, in the sky…
The next instant, all I knew was immeasurable pain as every single one of my memories came back, crashing in my head with a force of a sledgehammer. After a few minutes of complete agony, suddenly everything stopped and I crumbled to the ground, completely out of breath, sweat rolling down my forehead. In that instant, I understood what had happened to me and for how long it had lasted. Seven months…
Voldemort's memories were crystal clear in my head; so clear that I felt tainted, foul… I hadn't done those horrible things, but it changed nothing in the fact that every time I thought about it, I saw my hands doing those things. It couldn't be described how disgusted I felt.
Finally I got my bearings back and stood on my shaky legs. And as I approached the radio, I saw a sticking note on it. I pulled it off and raised it to my eyes with a trembling hand. 'Will the circle be Unbroken?' was written on it, and instantly I understood: someone was looking after me. The question was, for better or for worse? A question to which I still can't find the answer…
But with that, I realized two things: first, that there was no Sirius Black in this dimension and never was, which made all of this completely useless; second, the reason behind Voldemort's immortality…Horcruxes, and I knew exactly where they were… That moment I understood.
And whatever people said, are saying or would say about me and my reasons for everything I've done, I'm doing or will do, there is only one way to answer it: Because I'm needed. Because I know the truth. Because there is no one else…
Oh, and because…I'm Harry Potter.
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From that day on, I started doing all in my power to stop Voldemort in every dimension I visited while searching for Sirius. Be it by destroying his Horcruxes and letting the Order or Ministry finish the job, or doing the deed myself. Every time I jumped dimensions, I destroyed a Dark Lord, and with time I lost count of how many worlds I saved doing it. But I lost count of how many times I wished for it to end, too. With each fight, each kill, each memory backlash, it became harder and harder to carry on, without speaking about the fact that I never found a living Sirius Black in any of those dimensions…
It wasn't the life I dreamed of. By a large margin. But I couldn't stop. And not because what I was doing saved millions of lives or avenged many others. No. It was my guilt. It was eating me alive. And with each world, with each disappointment, the guilt only increased.
So I carried on. Hundreds, then thousands of worlds. For nine long years I carried on. Training, learning Magic long forgotten and doing everything in my power to be better, faster and stronger for the next time. But with each victory I began to comprehend that it was getting me nowhere. Something had to be done to stop it, for even if I destroyed thousands of Voldemorts, there were still millions others that wreaked havoc somewhere else. No. It just couldn't continue like this. But then I stumbled on one world, completely different from ours. So much younger, more evolved and much more open. And that's where I finally realized, that everything I've done until that moment had a purpose. To prepare me for the 'truth'.
I could never save every world from Voldemort, it was impossible. But I could save Voldemort from every world.
And to do that, I needed to go to the core, the root… And what those nine years had taught me was to gather information. And I knew where the root was…Merope Gaunt.
The problem of course was the time. Since my very first jump, every dimension I traveled to had the same timeline as my original world. I never traveled in the future or the past, that was a constant that I just couldn't explain. So I began planning, thinking of each and every bits of knowledge I acquired during my travels, and finally after I week, I came up with a completely irrational idea. Mix sand from the Time-Turners with an already existing tear. And despite how crazy it sounded, I was certain it would work.
And it worked…Surprising as it was, it still worked. After I stole the sand from the Department of Mysteries and found the nearest tear, I emptied my one pound bag with sands of time, pouring my magic along with it and thinking about the date I needed. Then I approached the now reddish tear, completely different from the usual white-blue, and tore an opening in the space, again thinking hard about the date and place I wanted to go to. The passage opened with a strange scream-like sound, startling me, to say the truth. But I paid it no mind, because I saw exactly what I was searching for on the other side. I stepped in the opening and was surprised for the second time when the tear didn't close behind me, like it always did. Maybe I could use it to return back to my time? I pushed that thought away and walked toward the big manor in front of me, the Gaunt Mansion, the last living descendants of Slytherin. Now came the delicate part. What to do with the girl? Memory charm her? Or kill her..? A hard decision to make, because even if I had lost a big portion of my ethical side, it was still present. Finally I decided on a third choice…
I stealthily sneaked in the house after pinpointing the girl with a spell and found myself in her room, looking over her sleeping form. Raising my Elder wand that I acquired in one of the dimensions, I launched a sickly purple spell at her without an instant of hesitation. She restlessly turned in her sleep, as if knowing what I had done to her. But all would be useless. The spell wasn't actually a spell, but a curse that made her sterile… There wouldn't be any Slytherin Heir anymore, no Dark Lords from the Gaunt family, no Tom Marvolo Riddle. Then for good measures, I crept in her father's room and did the same. Better safe than sorry…
Now, it was final. I had done it. And by the same way destroyed every dimension with a Voldemort. Those realities no longer existed. My home world no longer existed. The multiverse was changed forever, and every world that was attached to this root simply disappeared…completely erased from reality.
Suddenly I heard a screech from outside. Like the one I heard when I tore the opening. Of course! Since I destroyed the other dimensions, the tear could no longer sustain itself as there was no mirror universe on the other side. Thinking rapidly, I apparated near the tear and instantly regretted my decision. The noise was too painful to the ears. The screeches were even more frightening up close. I tried to see if I could distinguish something from the other side, but shook my head at my own stupidity. What was I hoping to see, nothingness? And then, my heart skipped a beat. The tear was beginning to widen and something like vacuum created in it, beginning to suck everything near it. I started to panic. What would happen if the rip wasn't closed? Would it tear this reality apart? I couldn't let it happen. It was a root dimension. If it was destroyed, it would be bad, very bad. So I began chanting incantations that could help me close the widening gap, but it was useless. Magic couldn't control the power behind the tears. And I knew of only one way to close it, direct contact.
Thus, I foolishly approached one side of the tear and grabbed the rip, pushing and willing with all my power to close it. After a few moments it began to pay off, and the opening began closing down. After a few agonizingly slow minutes, I managed to reduce the tear's size to a normal opening like I used, but the screeches it produced only intensified. With a cry of anger I took both sides of the rip and began closing it. But suddenly, I heard a particularly violent shriek and felt a powerful explosion on the other side, despite seeing nothing. The said explosion made me stumble and I lost focus for a fraction of a second, but it was all that was needed, for the next instant I felt myself being pulled in the darkness of the tear, as it closed behind me…
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When I woke up from my forced jump, I pushed myself to my knees and looked around. 'What the…?' was my first thought, as I tried to understand where I was. By all logic, I should be dead, but here I was on the floor of a strange looking chamber. Was I actually dead?
Slowly I stood up and pushed my glasses from my face. I no longer needed glasses, after a magical surgery I went through a few years ago, but I still wore my old spectacles. They were a part of me, and were one of very few things that reminded me about my world. Of course the lenses weren't of the magnifying type anymore; they were just simple glasses, with a few enchantments here and there. They were unbreakable and no one but me could take them of my face. I massaged my sore eyes for a bit and put the spectacles back. Again, I looked around, but this time distinguished the details. Statues of shirtless and bald men stood around the chamber, like pillars supporting the celling; behind them were giant windows but because of the darkness I couldn't see outside. At my right I perceived a strange square mechanic door, with 'Securis' engraved in its upper part. After taking a better look, I could see that something was written above the door, but again because of the darkness, I couldn't read it. Summoning my wand to my hand, I waived it and illuminated the chamber with a bright light. This time, my jaw literally dropped from the sight. The night wasn't the reason for the darkness outside, light just could never reach those windows…because the building, and many others I could see in the distance, were underwater… A city underwater…
"Rapture…" I whispered, reading the signboard above the door.
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Rapture was a city underwater, erected after the Second World War by a certain Andrew Ryan. A city where people could live in prosperity and without fear of influence from the nations, politics or wars from the outside. A brave and interesting concept, in my opinion, but everything has to fall one day. And Rapture fell. Torn by a Civil War…
As I searched for anything to help me survive until I could find a way to the surface, I realized that I was the only living being in the whole city. It was silent like a tomb, but strangely enough, the city was still powered, so I encountered many security devices, leaving me for the first few times, injured. After I accustomed myself well enough with the city, I discovered that the only way to go to the surface was using a Bathysphere, a little submarine-like thing to move through the city. Sadly, it just refused to work for me. Fortunately, I was a wizard and that made me able to do things other couldn't: apparate. Of course I was very careful to teleport to places I could clearly see, otherwise risking to apparate in the water, to be crushed by the massive pressure. In the end I found nothing else to help me leave the place, and strangely enough, there were no tears, anywhere. I had the ability to sense tears miles around me, and I sensed nothing. Days turned into weeks, weeks turned into months and five months went by like this. I lost hope in finding a way out, and to say the truth, I no longer needed a way out. Yes I was alone, in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, miles under the surface, but I needed no one. I had fulfilled my duty. I had repented for my sins. And I was exhausted. Exhausted from all this 'saving worlds' thing. I was fine staying in Rapture… Until one day I felt something; a tear. For the first time in five months, I felt a tear.
Immediately, I rushed toward it, rapidly apparating here and there. But suddenly a bone freezing screech stopped me in my tracks as I saw what was producing that inhuman noise. A giant bird-like creature was being crushed by the water's pressure, as it desperately tried to resist it. What was it doing here? How had it appeared here? Because I was sure I had never seen the thing in Rapture. Frowning a little, I approached the window and tried to see with what the bird was interacting. And I saw two silhouettes near the window, as the beast finally produced a final screech. People! There were people in Rapture?! I didn't know what to think, but I nevertheless focused on the window and apparated in the chamber, only to see the Bathysphere sink in the water. 'How..?' I thought, urgently looking around. It was the first room that I had discovered after arriving to this city. Shaking my head, I retraced the bathysphere's route, and apparated away, to only see the little submarine raise toward the surface. No! They were going away!
Suddenly, I stopped in my thoughts. Why was I unnerved by it? Hadn't I decided that I wanted to stay here? Hadn't I decided that it was enough?
"No…" A little part of me whispered in my head. "The decision was made for me" it continued. "It wasn't my choice…"
Abruptly I realized that it was my only way out, and that I…wanted out. Quickly, I apparated to the highest building in Rapture and pinpointed the Bathysphere. What I wanted to do was borderline suicidal; I wanted to apparate in the Bathysphere. Teleporting inside an object was very hard, teleporting inside a moving object was incredibly difficult, and teleporting inside a moving object while underwater, was a death wish. Shaking my head from those thoughts, I focused myself and pushing a big portion of magic, disappeared from my spot. The next thing I knew, was being crushed by thousands tons of water. I had failed the apparition. My eyes widened to disturbing proportions, my lungs felt like they were being squeezed beyond repair, and my blood felt like acid, as it burned my insides.
But I couldn't die here! I just couldn't! So with all my willpower that was still present, I pushed all the magic I could muster, and after a few agonizingly long seconds, I apparated…
Crashing to the ground with tremendous force, the last things I saw before blacking out, was: 'Welcome to Rapture. Opportunity Awaits'. Opportunity my ass…
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Three weeks after that near death experience, I received another visit…a visit that surprised me even more than the last…
"How are you doing, Mr. Potter?" a female voice asked behind me, startling me out of my wits. Rapidly I turned around, my wand drawn, to see two persons; a man and a woman. Both, redheads, wearing matching beige-orange suits. They seemed very similar, like twins, but I could feel something odd about them. They were not normal. Their only presence here proved that point.
"Do you think that he went deaf after years of seclusion, brother?" the woman asked, turning toward the said brother.
"He sure seems like it, sister." The man answered.
"Oh, well that sure makes our work harder. Do you by any chance, know hand signs?"
"I fear that no."
Were they for real? They were crazy, crazier than me, and that was saying something. What interested me though was how and why they were here?
"How do you know my name? And how did you get here?" I asked, narrowing my eyes and clutching my wand harder.
"Oh my, he is not that deaf after all, brother."
"Indeed, sister."
"Do I have to force the answers from you?" I asked again, taking a step toward them.
"Will the Circle be Unbroken, Mr. Potter?" the woman asked with a smile that sent shivers down my spine. 'How?' I thought, but then my eyes widened.
"You were the ones…! You helped me during my travels through different dimensions!" I exclaimed. Now that I thought about it, I remember a ginger haired woman that always interacted with me. But for what reason? What was their purpose? And who-…
"You're Rosalind Lutece!" I exclaimed, my eyes widening.
"Hum, quite quick witted, you are Mr. Potter. A pleasant change from the people we usually interact with." Rosalind said with a nod. "And this is my brother Robert Lutece." She continued.
"And by your brother you mean your counterpart form a different dimension, I presume?" I asked, raising an eyebrow. This time they seemed genuinely surprised and I smirked in my head.
"Interesting…" Robert remarked.
"I haven't traveled through thousands of worlds without picking a few things here and there." I explained. "But the most important question is, what are you?"
"A constant…" Robert began.
"An invariable.." The woman continued.
"What? That doesn't expl-…"
"No, but we're here for a reason, Mr. Potter." Rosalind interrupted me. "We have a deal for you."
Um, no, a proposition." Robert continued.
"What sort of…?" I asked, an uneasy feeling settling in my gut. They weren't human, that was certain. I couldn't even feel their presence, like they weren't even there.
"A way out-…
"...of this place"
"For something in return I suppose?" I asked.
"Yes.."
"No.."
"You don't make any sense." I whispered, getting annoyed with their answer methods. They reminded me actually of the Weasley twins.
"Just for a little bit of help." Rosalind said.
"And what if I say no?" I asked, curious of their answer.
"Really Mr. Potter…"
"…you have stayed here for…"
"…exactly five months, three weeks, one day, fifteen hours, thirty eight minutes, twenty-…"
"Alright, alright!" I interrupted the woman. "And if I say yes, what do you want me to do?"
"Protect the girl." Robert answered, handing me a picture of a young woman that seemed about twenty of age. The photograph wasn't very clear, but I could see that she was attractive.
"Why does she need to be protected, and more particularly, by someone like me?" I asked the redheads.
"Because she is like you." The man answered.
"A witch? Why does a witch-…"
"No, Mr. Potter." Rosalind interrupted me again. "She is…like you."
"Like…" suddenly I understood. "She can open tears, like me…" I whispered.
"Indeed." The ginger haired woman agreed.
"We will let you think about our offer, Mr. Potter, until tomorrow evening." Rosalind said. "I hope you'll make a good decision." She continued, as if talking about weather.
"Oh, and you better switch that coffee pot." Robert advised, pointing behind me. And after I turned toward the said coffee pot, and waived my wand to stop the fire, I turned back toward the man, to see, that they had disappeared.
"Sneaky bastards …" I whispered with annoyance, approaching the table and making me some coffee. I had many things on my mind. And I had only until tomorrow to decide what to do. Damn it. This would be a long night…
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AN : I really hope you liked the chap! Please leave a review and say what you think.