"Headmaster, you are absolutely sure this girl is Hermione Granger? I will not introduce her to Emily unless you are entirely sure."
"You are welcome to test them yourselves Lily, but unless a seventeen year old girl has become a better occlumens than myself, I can guarantee that she is telling the truth."
Lily nodded sheepishly, not having meant to imply that the ancient wizard was being tricked by a young girl, but simply concerned for the welfare of another mother, whose loss was so close to her heart.
"Of course, I'll just go get the girl. Moody is having me escort her and stay in her presence the entire time."
Lily, teaching arithmancy, a third year class, had never had Hermione Granger in her classes. But her husband, who taught defense, had. Never keeping anything from James, Lily had explained the situation with the six strange children. He filled her in on Hermione Granger.
If Lily had mourned her death six years ago, it felt ten times more potent now. Once the girl became a real figure in her head, with personality and friends, rather than just a name, her death felt so much more real. This was a girl who would have had such a full life ahead of her, achieving and making her parents proud. She would never get that future, all because of the ambitions of a mad man.
It made her heart ache, and made old wounds tender.
This grief was similar in quality, if not in quantity, to that she felt about her daughter. Her daughter Rose, who had been such a beautiful happy child, and wouldn't have a future either, now.
But her grief for her daughter was decidedly more selfish, as the most poignant griefs tend to be. Yes Lily mourned all the things her daughter would never get to do. She mourned her daughters first train ride, and her first potions class, and first kiss, and all the other firsts that had become nevers with the stroke of a wand.
But she also mourned her own firsts. She mourned never hearing her daughter say "mama," and never getting to teach exactly what colors look best with their shade of eyes. She mourned all the joy that her daughter would have brought her, and wondered if that made her a bad person.
But James and Sirius and Remus and Alice all mourned for their own joy too, and they were the best people she knew. Eventually, after years of turmoil, she decided it was Peter and Voldemort who were the bad people, not her.
She had hoped that her wounds would fade. They never did, it was just that she got used to living with them.
That was why she was so protective of Emily. If this wasn't her daughter, it would be like sticking a knife in the wound and ripping out all the carefully placed stitching keeping her together, and Emily would have to learn to live with the hurt all over again.
That is why she and Molly and Alice were so protective of Emily. The Mothers-who-had-Lost, Rita Skeeter had called them.
Each step brought Lily closer to the hospital wing, and though she tried to remain suspicious, cautious hope fluttered. She hoped this girl was who she said she was, unlikely as it may seem.
To think that she was going to meet her mother was both oddly relieving and terrifying.
Relieving because Ginny had woken and was pretending that nothing bothered her in typical Ginny fashion and Hermione knew Harry would be able to talk to her. And because Harry was still yet to wake, that meant she had to be the one to discuss with Dumbledore and plan and make everyone else's problems hers and she just wanted her mother.
Strange because she has a mother, one who baked her scones and took her shopping and taught her to never let other people make her act less intelligent than she was. Because she had a mother, one who had been killed by death eaters two weeks after returning from Australia.
In a way, they had both lost each other, and though she could never be the other Hermione, and this Emma could never be her other mother, maybe they could begin to mend each other's wounds.
When Lily was chosen to be the mediator, it was because she was the most neutral person they could think of. She had no connection to Hermione Granger, but could offer support and understand the situation better than any of the other staff members.
That is why she had expected her introduction to the children to be brief and forgettable. Naturally, she was shocked when wide eyes and choking sounds met her appearance at the doorway. Regardless, she moved on.
The only child in the room that she recognized was Neville Longbottom. He had been fourteen when he perished in the Triwizard Tournament, but he had never taken arithmancy. Lily didn't know him personal, but every wizard in magical Britain would recognize the boy who lived.
The Weasleys, who she assumed were the two red heads with freckles, were vaguely familiar, but only because they looked like their brother Percy, who had been a favorite of hers.
She had no recollection of the blonde haired girl sitting next to Neville, nor of the brunette still asleep on the bed.
"Ms. Granger, I'm Professor Potter, would you please come this way?"
The ravenclaw stared at her, not moving.
Now Lily was becoming worried, because Ms. Granger had been deemed the test subject for reintroducing all of these children to their parents, and she hoped everything would be alright, because God did Molly and Alice ever deserve to have their children back.
"Ms. Granger? Your mother is waiting."
"Right, of course. I'm sorry it's just so weird seeing people I know from another world here."
The two witches travelled through the ancient hallways, which were eerily silent due to the lack of students. They had all been told to stay in their dorms until this mess had been sorted out. Hermione could hear the sound of every footstep bringing her closer and closer to her mother.
"Really, do you know me well in your world?"
"Not really, but I am best friends with your daughter."
Her daughter. Why had it never occurred to her that if another world existed in which Molly and Alice's children had never died, that the same could be true for her daughter.
Hermione must have noticed the stricken look.
"Proffesor Dumbledore explained to me that she died in this world. But that never happened in mine. She's the best friend I could ever ask for, and I think you would be proud."
Tears burned the back of Lily's eyes. She knew she would have been proud of her daughter, no matter what. But it was nice to hear about her.
"Do you think, maybe, after all of this is over, you could tell me about her?"
Hermione nodded.
They were silent for the rest of their walk.
Emily Granger sat nervously at a polished wooden table in the Headmaster's office. She had been slightly taken aback by all of the nick-nacks and magical objects whizzing around the office, but she supposed nothing could be stranger than her daughter coming back to life. No, not her daughter, another Hermione, from another world.
House elves had brought tea and biscuits and laid them out. Emily had already been there for five minutes, and even though she had promised herself she would not get her hopes up, she was terrified that some complication had occurred to make Lily late.
She was considering getting up and looking for her when the redheaded women entered the room. Behind her entered a young lady, about sixteen or seventeen
She was average height, with dark curls and beautiful brown eyes. Her skin was a glowing brown and her stance was confident, belying the nerves she felt. She looked like her mother, but had her father's tendency for freckles.
Mother and daughter stared at each other, drinking the other in.
"Hermione?"
"Mum."
Lily Potter smiled to herself, quite content by the outcome of the day.
Emily knew that this girl was different from her daughter, having had six more years to change and grow than her daughter. Hermione also knew that this woman would be different, having lived six years with the grief of her daughter's death. But that didn't stop them from hitting it off and finding solace in each other.
Emma couldn't be prouder when she heard about her daughter coming in top of the class, and becoming a prefect. Hermione saved her other not so pleasant accomplishments for another day, hoping that for today she could pretend to be just a normal girl.
Hermione had asked tentatively about how she had died in this world, causing Emily to begin tearing up, and all Hermione could understand was "troll." But that was enough.
She reminded herself to thank Harry when the other girl woke up.
They spent hours talking and catching up, before Lily had left them be, confident they would not need her help. She smiled thinking about it as she flipped through essays she had yet to grade.
Her door slammed open, and Professor Flitwick stuck his head into his favorite student's office. "Lily, you're needed in the hospital wing. Urgently." The small man panted.
When Harry had woken, it was to an empty room.
She did not know it, but her friends were safe. Hermione was with her mother, Neville and Luna had gone for a walk, Ginny was nicking food from the kitchens, and Ron was in the bathroom.
However, years of living on the edge caused her to assume the worst, and when strange adults had entered the room, she struck first, asked questions later.
She didn't know that they were simply aurors, arriving to take official statements on the happenings of that weekend.
Harry had won that fight easily, wordlessly casting expelliarmus, and then using their own wands to stun them. Really she thought, if deatheaters were going to kidnap her they might as well be competent. Contrary to popular belief, she did not beat Voldy with luck.
Her next move was to take stock of the situation. It looked like the hospital wing at Hogwarts, but that couldn't be possible, both because the wards she had helped cast on Hogwarts would not allow in anyone with a dark mark, and also because they were still in the process of rebuilding the hospital wing.
Before she could decide on a course of action however, three more adults had entered the room, one of whom she knew to be dead. Naturally, she began to duel them.
At first, the Minerva, Sirius, and Pomona didn't know how to respond, as Dumbledore had assured them that these kids were safe. But after a reducto curse missed Black by less than an inch, they began to duel in earnest.
Harry centered on the one at the front of the group. It was one thing to kidnap her, it was another to mock her by transforming into her dead godfather.
"Please, we don't want to hurt you!" her pseudo-godfather yelled.
"I suppose you kidnapped me for shits and giggles then?"
"We didn't kidnap you! We don't even know who you are!"
Right, she still had on the glamour she wore twenty-four seven, as defense against this sort of situation. It didn't matter though, whether they knew her true identity or not, she wasn't going to wait around
She hit the deatheater with a slicing curse, tearing a painful but superficial gash above his knee.
"Sirius!" came the cry from the doorway.
Harry turned ready to take out whoever the newcomer was, but stopped short when she saw the face of her long dead mother.
"Stupefy!"
When Harry woke up for the second time, she was bound and blindfolded. That would make escaping harder, but not impossible. She tried summoning the nearest wand, but none came to her. Next, she tried to use a simple cutting charm on the ropes binding her, but found it ineffective.
"You've got a potion in your system suppressing your magic. If you agree to behave, we may ween you off it. If not, it's an experimental potion, and I'm just dying to figure out the side effects of long term usage."
Harry knew that drawing voice, and snarky humor. She also knew it couldn't be him.
"Go to hell."
"Fine." She heard a door open and snick closed.
And then there was silence.
The professors of Hogwarts stood gathered outside of the room, waiting for Severus's returns. He had assured them of his potion's effectiveness, but they still feared for their colleague.
The headmaster was away on ministry business, and so they did not know how to handle this girl from another world.
When Snape exited the room, they stared at him expectantly.
"She has been trained by an accomplished occlumen. I would not be able to get past her shields without damaging her mind, and I would first like to know whether she is dangerous or not."
Moody, having arrived after hearing that two of his aurors had been taken down by a seventeen year old girl, pipped in, "Of course she's dangerous. No one who isn't attacks like that, my men said she summoned his wand wandless and non-verbally. There's no reason for a kid like her to know that magic unless she has something to hide."
Snape curled his lip in disdain for the other man's, in his opinion, over aggressive display.
"She has the Black chin, and hair."
Those were in fact, the only features that Harry's glamour did not change.
"You think she's a Black?" Sirius asked.
"It's impossible to tell. It could just be inherited from a distant relative. But she definitely has relation to an old pure-blood family."
"Which makes her a prime suspect for a deatheater" Moody said.
"She doesn't have the mark."
"And neither does the Malfoy boy, but we all know who he serves."
"Regardless, she refuses to speak to me. I think we'll have to use veritaserum."
"Do you have any Severus?" asked Minerva.
"I always keep some handy."
Lily looked skeptical, "Are we sure? Using veritaserum on a child…" She had proposed simply asking Hermione for help with her friend, but the other professors had pointed out that it was Hermione who had told Dumbledore the other girl was safe in the first place.
"You saw how she fought Lily, she's dangerous. We can't afford to let our emotions get the best of us" Moody replied.
The door opened again, and who Harry assumed to be the fake Snape reentered the room, followed by several other people.
"Petrificus" the curse hit her, and Harry panicked. In her experience, deatheaters used this when they were about to move her, which was never a good thing.
But instead the man moved closer and pried open her mouth, and tilted a bottle down her throat. It was either swallow the liquid or choke on it. Harry grimaced at the unmistakable taste of veritaserum.
"I didn't know deatheaters used veritaserum. I thought the preferred method was cruciatus."
Severus raised an eyebrow, but she couldn't see it. He now knew that the girl had a background that would make her familiar with how veritaserum tastes. He also knew that she either believed they were deatheaters and knew how deatheaters functioned, or was a very good actor.
"What is your name?"
Thinking quickly, Harry responded with "Harriet Dursley." Technically she had gone by that at one point in her life. Lily studied the girl, before deciding the name must be a coincidence. No way was this girl related to Vernon.
"Do you have any connection to Voldemort."
"…yes" Moody drew his wand, presumably deciding this was proof enough, but Snape held him off. Snape decided to narrow down his questioning.
"Are you loyal to him?"
"No."
"Are you loyal to any that are loyal to him."
That question was met with silence. "Well, answer it girl."
"I know the answer should be no, but the serum won't let me say it." She sounded confused.
"You expect me to believe that? You must explain yourself further."
"I was once in love with a deatheater's son, but he died."
Snape was silent processing the information. Moody counted it as another piece of damning evidence, but the rest of the professors felt silent pity. She was so young to have loved and lost, they thought.
"Who are you? Why do you have me here?" So far, Harry had played along, knowing that fighting veritaserum was useless, and doing so would only make him angry. But that didn't mean she was going to be submissive.
"I am the one asking the questions. Are you a light or a dark witch?"
Harry resisted this time, showing that she could and would make this process as long and drawn out as was possible if he didn't answer her questions.
"Fine girl. I am Professor Snape of Hogwarts. We currently believe you have been transported here from another dimension, and we are questioning you to make sure that you do not pose a threat to the students of this school."
"Another dimension? Really inventive, that one. If you want to kill me just get on with it."
Snape narrowed his eyes, seeing through the false bravado.
"Now you will answer my question, are you a dark or a light witch?"
"I use dark spells if that's what you mean." Once again Moody began as if to curse that girl, but Snape held him back again, not yet satisfied he had the entire story.
"Which dark spells have you used?"
"Imperious, the killing curse, and sectumsempra." Snape, and everyone else in the room, were stunned. That such a young girl had used curses that even some of the most experienced deatheaters could not use. It was terrifying.
"Where did you learn that last curse." Snape asked, his voice deadly quiet.
Harry paused, knowing that if these were deatheaters, a connection to Severus Snape would lead them one step closer to her true identity.
"From the half-blood prince."
"How do you know of that name!" now his words came harsher.
"How do you?" Harry replied.
Severus turned to address the rest of the room. "I have matters I need to discuss with Ms. Dursley. Alone."
Moody didn't like that, "What have ya to be asking the girl that you can't say in front of the rest of us?"
"Did Dumbledor not leave me in charge in his absence?" The question was quiet, which made it all the more terrifying.
"Just don't get yerself hexed," Moody grumbled as he, and the other members of the Order of the Phoenix, filed out of the room.
Snape fixed his attention back on the girl. She was confusing to him. None of them could place her identity, despite all the other children being fairly easy to. Additionally, all of her companions were undoubtable light wizards. How did she fit into the group?
They seemed to regard her as their leader though, and he could understand that. Perhaps, as the leader she had taken certain hardships and responsibilities upon herself so that the others didn't have to. It wasn't uncommon for senior aurors to postpone a junior member's first killing for as long as possible.
"How do you know about the half-blood prince?" She demanded of him.
"I am him."
"Really? Fine, what was the spell sectumsempre labled as."
"For enemies."
Snape exited the room, having learned more, but not being any clearer for it. Her identity remained a mystery. If it wasn't for her pureblood features, he would think she was a muggleborn. She obviously had some relation to the Black family, but he couldn't think of any other wizarding families that had lost children around her age, certaintly not any with the last name Dursley. He had dismissed a glamour, no wizard would be able to hold one for as long as she had been under observation.
Furthermore, the stubborn girl refused to believe that she was in another realm, and not being held hostage. She refused to even believe his identity, despite the fact that he knew information that no other could possibly know.
It was obvious that she had had some sort of connection to him in her world. Perhaps she had been a favored student, not that he had many.
"Well, what did you find out?" Flitwick asked when he turned to face the rest of the order.
"Not much, she seems to think I am a deatheater holding her hostage. The only thing I can say for sure is that she is concerned for her friends. I think the next best course of action would be to allow Ms. Granger to try to talk some sense into her."
"It that safe, for Ms. Granger I mean?" Lily asked. If the girl could take down three members from the order, Hermione wouldn't stand a chance.
"I don't believe she would hurt her own friends."
"I'll go get her then."
When the door next opened, a much lighter gate made its way into the room. The person approached Harry, and with a quick tug, removed her blindfold.
Her eyes took a few seconds to adjust to the light, but when they did a welcome sight greeted them.
"Hermione! I was so worried. We have to get out of here quick, before pseudo-Snape comes back again, they tried to tell were in another dimension, can y-"
"We are." Hermione cut her off.
"Ok, why don't you untie me and I'll check you for a befuddlement jinx."
The Ravenclaw sighed, this wasn't going to be easy.
"Harry, all of the members of the order are here. They know who we are. I've been around them for more than an hour, so I know it's not polyjuice. I can't find anything that doesn't point to us not being in another world."
"They could be using a glamour, like me-"
"You know the average wizard can't hold a glamour for as long as you can. It'd exhaust them."
She paused, before continuing, softly, "Harry, I heard some of them talking, about- about a Malfoy. I think. Um I think, maybe we should check your shoulder, to um, to see what colour it is."
Harry turned her head away violently, "he's dead, Ok Hermione? It'll be red."
"I just, wouldn't that convince you? Can't we just check?" Hermione knew how hard this was for her friend, but the sooner Harry accepted what was going on the sooner they could make a plan.
"Fine."
Hermione moved behind her, and slowly moved aside her robe. Swirling around her right shoulder laid a wyvern. It was a majestic beast, with its head was on collar bone, as if the dragon were resting on her shoulder, and its wings wrapped around her side and touched her spine, its tail coming just to the small of her back.
It was white.
"Harry, look." Hermione said, breathlessly, both from the shock, and from the joy she felt for the slytherin.
Harry turned her head, catching the white head of the wyvern in the corner of her eye. She stared at it until her eyes began to hurt. It had been six years since her soul mark had been white, one year since it turned black to red. She stared, and she felt the tears that hadn't fell a year ago begin to fall, now, as she stared at the miracle on her shoulder.
"I believe you." She said.
Hermione hugged her friend until the tears stopped falling.
Harry and Hermione exited the room together, and immediately several wands were drawn in her direction.
"Relax," she said, holding her hands up I front of her, "I'm not gonna attack, I trust you guys now."
"And what makes you think we trust you?"
"The soup of the day is chicken noodle at the Leaky Cauldron." The wands dropped. So it seemed all the children were familiar with the orders secret codes. Great.
"Huh. Weird that they'd be the same across dimensions, isn't it?"
"Why did you attack us earlier?" Asked Brown, the Auror whose wand she stole.
"I thought you were deatheaters. Was the man whose leg I got really Sirius Black?" questioned Harry.
This time it was Minerva who responded, "He most certainly was. He's in the hospital wing now, if you care to apologize."
Harry nodded, not sure she was quite ready to have a casual conversation with her long dead godfather. She opened her mouth, intending to ask McGonagall about what time lunch would be, when a man in a dark billowy robe turned the corner.
Before, she assumed it had been a deatheater, but now that she knew the truth, she was struck with the sight of her, also long dead, head of house.
Before she rightly knew what she was doing, she launched herself at her only consistent parental figure, and wrapped him in a hug. As soon as she released what she was doing, she backed off and let go of the potions master who had stiffened at her touch.
"Er, sorry, it's just, you're kind of dead in my world. But I get that you don't know me here, and so that was weird."
He just stared at her.
"Would you care to explain why you felt there could be any possible reason I'd be welcoming of a hug, in this world or another, Ms. Dursley?"
Right, they still thought she was Harriet Dursley.
"You were kind of a father figure to me," she explained, while everyone within hearing range looked at her incredulously. Severus Snape? A father figure?
"My own parents died when I was very young. I suspect I died with them in this world. Anyways, you were my mother's good friend when you were in Hogwarts, and so when I came you kept an eye out for me," Harry continued, looking nervously. She hadn't considered how awful it would be to have all her loved ones back from the dead, only for them to hate her.
"I don't know anyone by the last name Dursley."
Harry looked at her head of house sheepishly, "you wouldn't, that's my aunt's last name, which I went by before coming to Hogwarts, my real name is Rose Harriet Potter."
When Harry had told them her name, the members of the order stood silent, giving her an opportunity to look around and observe the people present.
None of them were pleased to hear that Lily and James Potter were dead in another world, or that their daughter had turned into a quasi-dark witch who fell in love with deatheater's sons.
Harry took stock of the group surrounding her. Of course Professors McGonagall, Snape, Sprout, and Flitwick were all present. There were the two Aurors she didn't know, and an old woman who looked like Arabella Figg, but it had been years since Harry had last seen her, so she couldn't be sure.
She wondered, if all these people were alive, did that mean that Remus, Tonks and Fred might also be? Or even Colin Creevy and Dobby? Or Cerdric?
She realized, that several seconds had gone by since she had announced her name to the room, yet they all were continuing to stare at her. Several more seconds went by, and she almost opened her mouth to ask what the problem was, when another figure turned the corner, interrupting her once again.
"Is everyone alright? Oh Hermione, I see you convinced your friend. Hello, my name is Professor Potter, pleased to make you acquaintance."
Harry let out a half choked sob.
"Did I say something wrong?" Her mother asked, oblivious to the situation.
Gently Hermione leaned over, "Harry, I think now might be a good time to let your glamour drop."
Slowly the syltherin's features morphed. She lost a couple centimeters, and maybe a stone. Her eyes turned from a hazel to brilliant green. Her cheeks lost their roundness, and her mouth became wider.
Staring back at Lily, was her own face.