A/N: So here's my version of "character-must-adjust-to-a-completely-different-world" storyline. Fabricated, supersized, and short to be sure. If you have any questions, keep in mind that the two realities are the one that I've been relating in this story, and Dumbledore's mental creation (ie, the beginning of the third HP book). So you should know the two realities fairly well. Well, for the next few chapters, at least.
Chapter 15
This Ain't No Reality
Neville was green when he made it back to the table, very green. Around the same time, Su Li was heading back for the Ravenclaw table. Both of them stopped by Harry. Neville directed Ron towards Vince, and Su nearly ordered Hermione to go see the female Mind Healer she'd just come from. That left Neville and Harry sitting semi-alone. They stared at each other, both struggling to digest the two sets of memories that they possessed.
"Hey, mate," Harry said, his voice low. "You and Able… you're my best mates, right?"
The other Gryffindor nodded. "In that… in those alternate memories, you and Ron—"
Harry made a face. "He's not my friend."
"I wouldn't mind though," Neville said, softly. "If you still wanted to be his friend and not—"
"Neville!" Harry said, "You are my best mate. Now. Future. No matter what the fake memories say."
He nodded, but he still looked a little disbelieving. Harry looked up at the staff table. McGonagall and Lupin had obviously received their memories back, and Madame Pomfrey was currently sitting with one of the Mind Healers. It didn't look like Aurora had been seen yet. Harry wanted to cry. He ducked underneath the table again and pulled out his wand. A lot of people would need comfort and support to get through this. It felt awful. It was confusion and scary and Harry didn't know what to do! With a quick flick of his wand, Harry focused on how it felt to fly and summoned Orion. The silver colt bent his head to fit under the table. "Go comfort people," Harry said, and the colt galloped off.
It took Harry a few tries to summon the patroni whose memory stemmed from the freshly returned memories. Still, he managed to summon his patroni – up through Kleio – and sent Flutterbunny and Caradoc off to comfort whoever needed it. Aegisa was told to wait for Paradise and Kleio seemed to instinctively know that she was supposed to support little Sarah. As for the phoenix, Harry wasn't really sure he wanted to bring it out from under the table, so he let it hang there for a few seconds before telling it to go see if the staff kids were all right. If they were, the majestic phoenix would join Caradoc, Orion and Flutterbunny on patrol. That completed, Harry felt better. He pulled himself out from under the table, just in time to see Ron wrench away from Vince, as if he was burnt.
The red head was the first to violently react to the memories. He leapt up, backed away from Vince. He hit the wall and started pounding on it, furiously, as if he were trying to bash his hands to pieces. "That didn't happen! Lies! Lies!" A shaking Madame Pomfrey dashed over to him and helped Vince pull him away from the wall. For his own safety, Ron was stinned.
Katie Bell sat down in the empty space across from Harry and Neville, looking oddly okay with what was going on. "I can't remember the fabrication," Katie said, "not all of it. Just… the Mind Healer said the charm didn't stick that well on me. She said I'm a… low-level empath, or something like that."
Harry and Neville looked at each other. "Ask Hermione." The bushy-haired girl was standing, slack-jawed, in the middle of no-man's land, staring at the part of the wall that Ron had been attacking. Su darted up from the Ravenclaw table to guide her friend down to a seat.
Katie cracked a half-smile. Towards the front of the Slytherin table, a first year girl was sobbing. No one from her house moved to help, and the patroni all looked too busy. Harry nodded to his friends before getting up and darting over to the little girl. He got some odd looks from the majority of the Slytherins – all who hadn't gotten their memory fixed. Harry didn't mind. He sat next to the girl and tentatively touched her shoulder.
She jerked away.
"Hey," Harry said, "It's okay. I won't hurt you."
"Of course you won't," the girl snarled. "You're a mighty, all powerful Gryffindor." She spat the last word like it was a curse. "You wouldn't have any idea what it's like being me."
He kept his voice even. "I know I wouldn't. If I knew how to be you, how could I be me?"
She slapped him. Hard. "Leave me be."
"Tell me what's wrong."
"No."
"Yes."
"Leave her along," Draco Malfoy said, drawling. "She can do what she wants."
Harry stayed perfectly calm. He was actually getting kind of good at that.
Anger roared through the girl's entire body. "What, so you can pick on me whenever you want but when he's around, you'll stand up for me? Shove it, Malfoy." The girl growled. "And you, Potter. Just leave."
Harry left, shrugging. "If you ever need to talk—"
The Gryffindor table had the most people who remembered both worlds now. Hermione was engaged in a very thorough conversation with Katie and looked about fine. That was good. Sarah was with one of the Mind Healers at that moment. Kleio rested by the Mind Healer, attracting the attention of a few of the other healers whenever they stopped to take a break. Slowly, people were starting to notice the five patroni scattered about the room. Harry glanced back at the Slytherin table. Flutterbunny had slithered over to the girl. Apparently, she didn't know it was a spell he cast, because she seemed willing enough to accept the snake patroni to stay next to her. Huh.
Paradise's friend Vicky was with a healer, though it didn't look like either Lily or Paradise had been fixed yet. Able and Kenneth still looked bewildered, as if they also hadn't had their memories fixed.
Harry veered off to the Hufflepuff table and the third year girls, where Megan was the only one who'd been healed. "Harry!" She nearly cried. "Sally-Anne's okay! I got a letter from her just the other day with this gorgeous white owl. She's okay!" She was crying.
Susan and Hannah sat across from Megan, both looking completely and totally confused. "You'll remember," Harry explained. "And that's my owl, Hedwig." He gave Megan a quick hug before moving off to see if other people needed help. She broke into further, happy tears. Susan and Hannah instantly sat forward, demanding to know how she knew the Boy-Who-Lived well enough to get a hug. The grateful, crying Megan couldn't explain beyond a shake of her head and a point to the Mind Healers.
Eddie Carmichael hadn't been healed yet. None of the various other Harrys seemed to have any idea what was going on. Fred and George looked like they were plotting to figure out how to market the problems, and finger food and various snacks were starting to appear on the four separate tables.
A Hufflepuff that Harry didn't know was pounding on the Great Hall doors, beginning the aurors to let him out. Harry bent in his path and moved hurried towards the Great Hall. "Hi," he said, as cheerfully as he could muster, "what do you need?"
The Hufflepuff shook. "I want out."
"Sorry, kid," said the female auror.
"Is there anything you need from outside?" Harry asked, trying to get the older boy to stop being so hysterical. "Something maybe a house elf could retrieve for you?"
The Hufflepuff whirled on Harry. "Look, kid, I don't know who you think you are, but I bet you just didn't wake up and realize that you forget that your brother's had a relapse in his cancer! You'll excuse me if I want to get to the owlery!"
The aurors looked at each other, semi-close to horrified. Harry's stomach twisted and clenched. "I—I think my owl is my familiar, so I could call her and you could use her to send your letter. Is there… is there anything I can do for your brother?"
"Not if you can convince my mom and dad to actually pay for his treatment," the Hufflepuff growled, moodily. "They don't think their stupid squib is worth the trouble."
Harry instantly called Hedwig. She instantly responded. "My owl's coming." Harry said. "And, do you know about how much the treatments cost? Do your parents have the funds to care for him?"
"Kid—" The Hufflepuff actually looked. He stopped talking. He gaped. "You're Harry Potter."
"Yes."
The aurors were staring at him. "Cor," muttered the young woman.
"Tell me about your brother," Harry said, ignoring the incredulous stares of the adults. "What's his name?"
The boy swallowed, but willingly enough followed Harry's lead to the Gryffindor table, which was nearest. "Brian, Brian Summerby. He's seven. My parents don't care much for him, because he's a squib. I've looked, there's no magical cure for leukaemia and they don't bother paying much attention to him anyway." The Hufflepuff looked resentful. "I just want to get him well."
Hedwig swooped in from the owl-light in the ceiling and headed straight for Harry and the Hufflepuff. The boy gratefully pulled a crumbled letter from his pocket and handed it to Harry. The Gryffindor borrowed parchment and a quill from Percy Weasley, who was sitting not far away. "If it's the only way to care for your brother, would you leave you parents?" He asked, not quite sure of how to phrase the letter.
"Yes," The Hufflepuff said, quietly.
"Right. Any other siblings?"
"No."
"Good."
Harry tied the Hufflepuff's letter to his brother and his own letter to Mr. and Mrs. Summerby and let Hedwig fly away. "What did you say?" asked the Hufflepuff.
"I said that if they don't start caring for their son, Harry Potter is going to make their lives miserable, starting by taking away their kids and then ruining their whole existence." He shrugged. "I tried to sound threatening, but I'm not sure I pulled it off. Anyway, if they don't start caring for Brian, I'll take him in as a ward and, you know, get treatment and everything. We'll work out your situation if it comes to that too."
The Hufflepuff stared. Slowly, he stuck out his hand. "I'm David Summerby."
Harry shook his hand. "Harry Potter, nice to meet you."
Neither of them noticed the slack jawed aurors who were still staring at Harry.
Harry left David at the end of the Gryffindor table. The boy was much calmer and seemed infinitely grateful. Harry wondered how his situation would play out. He wasn't worried about his end of things; even if the Summerbys cast out Brian and David, he had enough money to care for himself, Paradise, the Spinnets, and at least a hundred other people some six gajillion times over. And besides, Harry liked helping people. Sarah had joined Hermione and Neville at the Gryffindor table. Kleio sat next to her, regal and queen like.
Harry sat down inside Kleio, forcing the indignant patronus down to the floor. "You know you're my friend, Sarah." He whispered, reaching below the table and folding her hand inside his. "No matter what those fake memories told you." The quivering girl leaned against him, pressing her cheek to his shoulder. She didn't speak. She didn't cry. She just leaned there. Exhausted. That seemed to fit the whole mood of the Great Hall.
The Mind Healers were working quickly, but they'd barely made it through a third of the people. They had to take more and more breaks between people to build up their strength. Students started to eat the finger food, albeit reluctantly. Hermione and a few of the Ravenclaws started worrying about homework. About an hour an half into the procedure, Dumbledore stood up and announced that classes would be canceled for at least the next day. Harry wished aloud that his book on languages was there. With the slightest pop of house elf apparition, Dobby appeared under the table, holding the book and grinning a maniac grin.
Harry liked having a crazy house-elf indebted to him. Hermione stared at him when he pulled the book out from under the table. He didn't even know where Dobby had gotten as it, as he didn't remember having it in the memories, but again… those were just memories. Sarah stayed pressed against him, absent-mindedly eating food on the plate in front of her. Harry promised Hermione he'd pay her back before pressing a piece of parchment and a quill into Sarah's hands. She looked at the quill, skeptical, before starting a very detailed sketch of the somber chaos within the Great Hall. She refused to move from Harry's side.
Able joined them, a good two hours into the process. He was shell-shocked, like so many others, and kept muttering about how he treated his sister. The five friends all seemed to want to talk, but none of them really knew what to say. "Later?" Harry suggested, chewing on some type of vegetable. "When we've had more time to digest it?"
His friends nodded.
That was when Paradise hit him. Literally. She raced through the space between the tables and threw herself into the space next to Harry, opposite Harry. "I'm scared," she whimpered, immediately. Aegisa was bounding down the length of the Gryffindor table, even if she wasn't tangible, people still recoiled when the lion cub bounced over their hands or through their food. "I don't want that to happen again." Harry wrapped a free arm over her shoulder. Aegisa caught up and sat on the table, staring at Paradise with her nose cocked downward.
"I'm sorry, Paradise," Harry said, holding her a little closer. "You're the best little sister I could ask for." She sniffled.
Romilda Vane approached them, standing behind Able, but not saying anything. Only Harry, Sarah and Paradise could actually see her. Able caught Harry's eye and saw the warning in it. He turned and plopped his sister into the seat beside him, before she had a chance to run. "You were so mean to me," Romilda whimpered, "Why were you so mean?"
"I'm sorry!" Able half-cried. "I didn't mean to be. I didn't want to be. It was all fabricated. Right?"
"It still hurts," Romilda said. She looked across the table at Paradise, who was tucked into her older brother's side. For that split second, Romilda was ever so jealous. She pushed it aside. She'd never want Paradise's life over her own. "I still don't want to trust you."
"Romi," Able said, "I promise you, I will do whatever it takes to regain your trust, okay? Don't let me hurt you, ever again." At her tentative nod, Able pulled his younger sister in for a hug. She tucked her head under his chin and held back sobs.
"I'm glad it wasn't real," Romilda said.
"Me too."
Harry, Neville, Hermione, Sarah and Paradise all looked like they agreed with the two Vanes. Up in no-man's land, Ginny Weasley stood, shakily, as if she didn't trust her feet to keep her upright. Madame Pomfrey watched her, worried that she'd react like her closest brother. Ginny just closed her eyes, struggling to breathe. She passed out of her own accord. One of the student healers caught her before she could hit the ground. The youngest Weasley was escorted out of the Great Hall to the infirmary.
All of the staff had been healed by now. Three hours in and nearly all the Gryffindors, most of the Hufflepuffs, a good portion of the Ravencalws, and only a few Slytherins had been healed. None of the Mind Healers had touched Dumbledore or Snape. Apparently, they had unbroken the charms on each other. Which was unnerving. Did they have so many secrets they wouldn't let anyone in their minds? Harry wondered if there where methods to keep an unwanted person out of his head. The healers had to be using some difficult mind magic…
The phoenix patroni swooped downward and landed, well, seemed to land, in the space between Hermione's and Neville's head. Hermione looked up at the stately silver bird. "I don't remember this one. Or the swan. Should I?"
"I don't think so," Harry said, not even fully sure when he'd first conjured the phoenix. Sure, he remembered the phoenix's starting memory. And Dumbledore had been there, which was odd. He'd yet to put his patroni against a dementor again, not since that night at the Quidditch pitch. He didn't want to fall again. The swan was also at least semi-new. "The swan's name is Kleio."
"Can patroni even be magical creatures?" Hermione asked.
Sarah half smirked. "Can anyone even create multiple patroni?"
"Point," Hermione said, nibbling on a quill nub. She'd had her book back with her when they were called down to the Great Hall, so unlike the majority of the students, she had something to do. Sarah had half-finished her artwork. Harry had started translating a piece of text from English to Latin. When he had the passage completely in Latin, he cast a translating spell and the words switched back to English. He had a few glaring mistakes, but nothing too major. He had a lot more problems doing the same process with Egyptian and then with Greek. Fluency was hard.
"We've been here for three hours," Able said. Romilda was still at his side. "What do you think will happen when they finish?"
"We already don't have school tomorrow," Hermione didn't sound as disappointed as she normally would have. "I don't think most everyone here really wants to think about lessons and learning." This was coming from a girl bent over a history textbook.
Alicia Spinnet sat down next to Sarah and took her sister's hand. "You okay?" Sarah nodded. "Need anything?" Alicia persisted. Sarah shook her head. The older Spinnet glanced down at the piece of parchment with a half-finished sketch. "Which colors do you want?" Sarah shrugged. "Sarah! Which colors do you want?"
Still slightly hesitant, Sarah looked at her older sister with grateful, awe-filled eyes. "Red, orange and yellow, as bright as you can make them."
"Right." Alicia used her fingernail and chipped off three slivers of wood from the table. She pulled out her wand, concentrated, and had the slivers of wood about the size of a pencil. With another spell, Alicia charmed the slivers to be hollow. She plucked three more slivers from the table and transfigured those into graphite before casting a color change charm. Harry and his friends watched with interest. It was a pretty simple group of charms and transfigurations, and none of them had thought to construct pencil in such a manner. Alicia jammed the three sticks of graphite in the hollow pencil shafts, cast a final spell that no one recognized, squeezed her sister's shoulder and left.
Sarah picked up the yellow pencil, pressed to the parchment, and started scraping away.
Paradise whimpered. "I love magic, I really do. But I'm trying really hard to like it right now."
Harry nodded.
Hermione pursed her lips. "Who gets naming rights on the phoenix?"
Harry blinked. She was thinking about that now? Well. It probably would have been hard not too, what with that phoenix perched above her shoulder. He was attracting a lot of attention from around the hall. People were beginning to remember and figure out that the odd silver animals were Harry's. "Do you have any suggestions?"
"Let me thing about it," Hermione responded, looking up at the bird again.
That was when the last student was healed and the mind healer all seemed to deflate, all exhausted. Healer Mena, their obvious leader, moved over to the staff table, talking animatedly with Poppy, Dumbledore and McGonagall. Dumbledore did not look happy with what the women were telling him. After a long while, Dumbledore stood and the women moved away from in front of him, giving the students a clear few of their headmaster. "Hogwarts," Dumbledore said, quietly, "as just suffered an unimaginable travesty against you, its students. As such, we will be cancelling all classes, clubs, rehearsals, and practices for the following week."
Astonished, pleased gasps ran through the students.
"You may remain at Hogwarts. You may also write to your guardian and, if they are capable of coming to get you, be released into their custody. For muggleborns and students incapable of arranging transport home, the professors of this institution have offered to transport some students to their respected homes via side-along apparition. Please note that side-along apparition is only truly capable with one person and is very tiring, so we cannot transport everyone in such a manner. Also, if you are being transported with side-along, we ask you pack no more than a book bag. We are releasing you from the Great Hall at this moment; please be polite and do not stampede the owlery."
"Harry—" Hermione said, when he made no move to get up, "can I borrow Hedwig?"
"I sent her off with a threat," Harry said, waving a vague hand through the air. "Which you probably want to hear about, but I'll tell you later. So, sorry."
"You can use Lucy," Romilda said, still stuck to Able's side. "I mean, Able's got his own owl to message our parents."
"Thanks, Romilda," Hermione said, smiling. "I've got parchment right here if you guys want to start writing letters now."
Alicia reappeared while Able, Hermione, Neville and Sarah scribbled notes to their parents with brief exclamations and wishes to be picked up. The Great Hall emptied quickly, with students running back to their common rooms and dorms for writing utensils and parchments. "On Thursday," Neville said, cautiously, "do you guys want to floo over and we could spend the day together?"
Hermione looked slightly glum at that, but Harry and Able both nodded. The rest of the girls seemed to think they were not invited. Professor Sinistra said down next to Paradise and the little girl unlatched from Harry and latched onto her guardian. "I could probably come get you, Miss Granger, if you want to attend this get together."
Hermione beamed.
"Sarah?" Neville asked.
"Oh, urm," Sarah looked at Alicia, before looking back at her friends. "Yeah. I think I can make it."
"Awesome," Neville said. "Let me get all your floo addresses. And Paradise, Romilda, if the two of you want to come, that's fine." More nods, more exchanging of papers. Parchment was torn, scribbled on, and passed between the four magical families there. Hermione watched the exchange with a half interested air. Professor Sinistra did the writing for Harry and Paradise, as neither of them actually knew what their floo address was. "I'll firecall or owl you if Gram says it's not okay."
"It's been an odd day," Hermione remarked.
Harry's patroni gathered too him and he started dispelling them. "Yeah. It's just— I'm definitely glad they aren't going to force us to try and learn. I don't think my mind could handle that."
"See you Thursday then," Sarah said, standing. Alicia took the note from Sarah's hand and headed for the owlery. Able followed her, promising to owl his note, Hermione's note, and Neville's note.
"See you Thursday," Neville echoed, somberly.
"Come on you too," Aurora said, to her two wards. "We're leaving now. The elfs are already transporting what you need over to my cottage."
Neville and Hermione left together, Sarah and Romilda followed them. Hermione seemed to work extra hard to keep the two younger girls involved in the conversation. "Aurora," Harry started, "are Tyler, Ciara and Becks all right? I—I think I hurt Becks, without meaning too. At least, it was earlier this morning and I wanted to apologize but…"
"She understands, Harry," Aurora said, running a comforting hand through his hair. To Harry, it still felt rather weird. But he grabbed his book on languages and followed Aurora and Paradise out the back door of the Great Hall. They moved through the castle at a pretty quick clip, heading for Aurora's chambers. She didn't grab much, just whatever books happened to be lying on the little table, before handing both Harry and Paradise floo powered. She told them the passcode and Harry flew through first, feeling that the whole thing was rushed and hurried and something was very, very wrong if she'd been that insistent of getting them out of Hogwarts so quickly. He managed to move out of the way before Paradise fell through. The two of them stood there, in the dark of an unknown house.
Aurora flooed through, flicked her wand, and the lights blared on. "Welcome home, kids."
Harry and Paradise looked at each other, eyes wide. Would that finally be true?