I was never a scarecrow 2

Part 1: YSEMF Ch 65

"I don't play Quidditch," Potter said much to Ron's relief as they walked towards the castle.

"You are remarkably calm for someone who's been pulled in an alternate reality," Hermione noted.

"Alter- what?" Ron asked.

"Well you see every decision..." Hermione trailed off. "A world where Harry was sorted into Ravenclaw rather than Gryffindor." She wasn't going to spend fifteen minutes explaining things to someone who didn't care and would never remember them.

"I didn't have much holding me there," Potter said with a shrug.

"What about your friends?" Harry asked.

"What friends?" Potter asked.

"Ron and Hermione?" Harry said waving at his two best friends.

"Miss Granger hasn't liked me since I called her on her lie on the Hogwarts Express, and the fact that I regularly outperform her in class hasn't improved things," Potter replied.

"Lie on the express?" Harry asked curiously, looking at Hermione who blushed and looked away.

"I was shy and thought everyone else knew lots of magic, OK?" she said embarrassed.

"What lie?" Ron asked.

"She said all the spells worked perfectly for her," Potter replied. "I'd already tried most of the spells and only got one out of ten right, so by asking her about it, it all came out and she never forgave me for embarrassing her like that."

"You score higher than her on tests?" Ron demanded in shock.

"Yeah," Potter agreed matter of factly, shocking the three.

"And I'm not your friend?" Ron asked.

"You are the idiot that tries to have me thrown into Azkaban every year and calls me a dark wizard at least three times a day," Potter replied.

"What?" Ron looked horrified. "I…" his voice trailed off as he remembered how he'd acted at times to a Harry who was his best friend.

"Yeah," Potter said bluntly, "Tried to get me arrested for killing Quirrel in my first year. Tried to blame me for not rescuing your sister in my second year, and then in the death of the one who killed her. Third year you tried to get me expelled as a danger to the school, since an escaped prisoner was after me and then after the destruction of the Dementors you tried to have me arrested again. Jokes on you though, after the destruction of the Dementors fudged passed a law banning me from being within five miles of Azkaban."

"Hold up!" Hermione exclaimed, preventing Ron and Harry from asking half a dozen questions all at once. "Let's go some place quiet... with a chalkboard so I can figure this out."

"If you don't mind," Harry said hopefully, knowing he didn't like to be ordered around.

"I do need to know the differences between our two worlds," Potter admitted. "Let's find an unused classroom I know of and we can exchange stories."

The four entered Hogwarts and dodged the now adoring fans of the Boy Who Lived by using several unused dusty hallways to reach a schoolroom that had been used to teach literature sometime in the thirties.

"Dobby," Potter called out, causing two elves to appear and eye one another.

Much like with the two Harrys, the two Dobbys were readily different with one being at least half a foot taller and in much better condition, dressed in neon orange coveralls like a prisoner on a chain gang.

"Cool," Ron said on seeing the taller Dobby's clothes.

"Master Harry, if I may be so bold, a name change might be in order," the new Dobby said, his voice sounding a little like Morgan Freeman if he'd been sucking helium.

"You is bonded to Master Harry Potter sir," Dobby said in wonder.

"Dobbins came to me after the death of his old master and asked to be sworn to my service," Potter told them. "He was a great deal of help during my second year, so I couldn't refuse him."

"Why do you two look so healthy compared to us?" Harry asked.

"Fuck you, that's how," Potter said with a grin.

"Very droll, sir," the newly christened Dobbins said dryly before breaking out in a large grin.

"Dobbins decided he wanted to be a proper English butler, at least in the way he speaks," Potter explained. "Dobbins, would you mind cleaning the room and giving us some lunch?"

"In Hogwarts, Dobby be getting lunch," Dobby said firmly.

"Tea and biscuits to start," Dobbins said, "Lunch proper can wait until after they finish talking. I'll clean while you do that."

Dobby smiled widely and vanished with a pop. While Dobbins started walking around the room, banishing dust with the wave of his hand and occasionally repairing something with a complex gesture.

"Aren't you going to explode now?" Ron asked Hermione, knowing how she felt about bonded house elves.

"Dobbins is the healthiest and happiest elf I've seen so far," Hermione replied. "Slavery is wrong but obviously something else is happening here."

"Ninja vanish!" Dobbins called out throwing a small grey pellet on the ground that exploded in a flash of light and smoke, disguising his exit.

"How'd we end up in Ravenclaw?" Harry asked curiously, ignoring his two friends staring at the slowly disappearing cloud of smoke.

"We have to start earlier than that," Hermione interrupted as she recovered. "Why didn't you end up friends with Ron?"

"No idea," Potter said with a shrug." I did have a glamour charm up but it only made me look non-descript and all I was doing was sitting there reading Hogwarts: A History to try and find out how the sorting was done."

"That shouldn't have changed anything," Harry said, "Ron ended up in my compartment because the others were full."

"Actually Mum said you looked like you need a friend and that you probably felt out of place coming from the muggle world," Ron admitted. "I didn't want to embarrass you by saying that and truthfully I was feeling out of place and like I could use a friend myself."

"Harry smiled wistfully. "Your Mum is great."

"Yeah," Ron said blushing.

"How does not making friends with Ron equal Ravenclaw?" Hermione asked.

"Ron told me how great Gryffindor was and I'd already met Malfoy, so I knew Slytherin would be the worst house to end up in," Harry said. "Plus my parents were Gryffindors."

"The purpose of going to Hogwarts is to learn magic, the most awesome thing even," Potter said intently. "I automatically deduct a dozen IQ points from anyone who doesn't try to get into Ravenclaw. Bravery, cunning, and loyalty have little to do with learning and the purpose of coming to school is to learn."

"Gryffindor is a great house!" Hermione exclaimed, before Ron or Harry could say anything.

"I'm not saying bravery, cunning, or loyalty are bad traits, I'm saying they have nothing to do with schoolwork," Potter explained. "Has Gryffindor bravery helped you learn more? Does your house encourage you to get better marks and become the best witch you can be?"

The three Gryffindors stood their silently.

"Admittedly Hufflepuff probably provides some encouragement, unlike Slytherin where they tear each other down trying to get ahead, but only Ravenclaw is designed to help you learn," Potter said with a shrug.

"Did you save me from the troll in first year?" Hermione asked, trying to ignore the voice in the back of her head telling her she should have listened to the hat and gone to Ravenclaw.

"The Troll never came near the Great Hall or Gryffindor, as far as I know," Potter said. "How did you need saving here?"

"I said something stupid to Harry when Hermione showed me up in class and she overheard so she was crying in the bathroom, when me and Harry went to get her the Troll was there," Ron said. "Harry jumped on its back and shoved his wand up its nose, and I dropped its club on its head, knocking it out."

"Hermione lied to keep us out of trouble and we became friends," Harry said with a grin.

"I don't have any classes with Gryffindor, so he didn't say anything to me to upset you," Potter told her.

"Did you run into Voldemort in the forest killing unicorns?" Harry asked.

"Never went into the forest unless I had a Professor with me," Potter replied.

"I was given detention that I had to serve in the Forbidden Forest at night to find out what was killing the unicorns," Harry replied. "I ended up fighting Voldemort and was saved by a centaur."

"I spent my spare time first year learning about how to maintain, repair, and improve brooms," Potter said. "If I wasn't studying, I was flying."

"Sounds brilliant," Harry said and even Ron looked interested.

"I don't think we have classes in that," Hermione said.

"We don't, but I've loved flying ever since I first got on a broom, so I talked to Miss Hooch and got permission to help with broom maintenance. That allowed me to test fly all the brooms," Potter said with a grin. "Naturally I wanted to make them fly better and faster so I did a lot of studying and learned what I needed to make it happen."

"I got on the quidditch team first year," Harry offered, though it didn't sound nearly as impressive now.

"Bet that cuts into your flying time," Potter said with a wince.

"Flying patterns can get dull," Harry admitted, "But it's fun flying with friends."

"I had only one friend and she was killed the year before last," Potter said softly. "But I don't like to talk about that. What else happened that year?"

"Smuggled a dragon out to my brother in Romania," Ron offered. "Hagrid hatched it in his hut."

"Dumbledore got permission for Hagrid to raise it in my world," Potter said. "OK, Hagrid and Sprout's classes may actually take some bravery to learn," he joked getting a laugh from the three.

"We also stopped Voldemort from getting the Philosopher's Stone," Ron said proudly.

"Did Dumbledore stop him in your world?" Hermione asked.

"No, it was me," Potter said as Dobbins laid out tea for everyone and vanished with another smoke bomb. "I was visiting Fluffy, as Hagrid had introduced me to him so I could brush his fur in exchange for loose hair and toenail clippings-"

"Why would you want that?" Ron mumbled around a cookie.

"Potions ingredients for broom care," Potter replied. "Anyway music started playing and Fluffy fell asleep. I saw Quirrel sneaking in, but he didn't see me with Fluffy between us, and I heard some suspicious mutterings about resurrecting his master and ruling the world, so naturally I went to inform the Headmaster."

"But the Headmaster was gone and McGonagall threatened you with detention," Harry said.

"Yeah, Quirrell was skilled with compulsion charms, so she didn't listen to a word I said," Potter said. "Naturally that meant I had to go after him."

"She was under compulsion?!" Hermione demanded.

"Yeah, I mentioned her behavior and Dumbledore told me why she'd acted that way," Potter explained. "So I had to go myself."

"You beat all the challenges yourself?" Hermione asked surprised, pausing in her writing on the chalkboard.

"Lighting up my wand, to see where I was, drove off the Devil's Snare," Potter said. "Using a broom to catch a key was easy and I used the same broom to fly over the chessboard. Quirrell had killed the troll so I didn't have to deal with that."

"How about the logic puzzle?" Hermione asked.

"I cheated," Potter admitted. "I poured them all out and waited to see which ones would refill."

"They wouldn't make the poisons refill since they only needed someone to drink them once," Hermione realized, making a note of that on the alternate timeline she was writing on the board.

"And it was easy to figure out the right one from the only two that were left," Potter agreed.

"And you destroyed the stone so Voldemort wouldn't get it and burned Quirrel to death with your touch," Harry guessed.

"I didn't burn Quirrel to death," Potter said shaking his head. "I used my blood and a chunk of stone to make a crude bludger that bashed in his skull."

"Wasn't that complicated?" Hermione asked.

"Three simple runes made it attempt to destroy everything, but me, as my blood formed the runes. Took out Quirrel, the mirror, and was busy destroying the pillars supporting the ceiling when Dumbledore arrived." Potter sighed. "The old man has some fast reflexes and managed to stop it before it could kill him or bring the ceiling down on me."

"That was reckless!" Hermione exclaimed wide eyed.

"I figured I was already dead; Voldemort had me, so I wanted to take him with me," Potter explained. "And of course when word leaked out that I'd killed a Professor and almost killed Dumbledore, so Ron Weasley reported me to the Aurors."

"Sorry," Ron offered lamely.

"I won't hold your double's actions against you," Potter told him.

"Thanks," Ron and Harry chorused.

"There was an investigation and quite a few things came out," Potter said.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0

"I'm sorry I couldn't save your stone," Potter told the Flammels. "But I think I know how to recover it!"

The old, old, old couple chuckled. "Kid," the old man said, "that's not the only stone we had. We've had centuries to make more."

"So you aren't going to die?" Potter asked hopefully.

"We've chosen to do so, rather than tempt any more dark lords," the old woman said with a smile. "But it's not because of you or your actions."

"After over half a millennium we've squeezed life for all it's worth," the old man said. "It's time to see what death has to offer."

Harry thought about that for a second. "I've already got a Dark Lord after me, got any notes on how to use the stone?"

The old couple laughed so hard they had to wipe tears of laughter from their eyes.

"I like you, kid," the old man said. "You got balls."

"When they drop I have feeling they'll leave craters in the ground," the old woman teased.

"We'll leave you some books in our will," the old man promised. "But to give you a hint, the stone is like a still."

0o0o0o0o0o0o0

"The Flammels assured me they were eager to die and could easily make another stone, but chose not to. The Goblins said they were still alive when I left. Last I heard they were planning to go out with a bang and were experimenting with long range portkeys," Potter said, not telling them of the details of his meeting with them.

"So I didn't kill them?" Harry asked hopefully.

"Nope," Potter assured him, "And Quirrel was as good as dead once he was possessed, so even that was a mercy killing if you don't consider self defense a valid reason to put him down."

"How about second year?" Harry asked changing the subject.

Potter winced. "Second year I gained my first real friend... and then I lost her," Potter said quietly.

"We can skip-" Harry began, figuring Potter was still broken up over Ginny's death.

"No," Potter interrupted him," I might as well get it out of the way now. Second year saw the Chamber of Secrets opened and I found a mentor in our new Defense Professor."

The trio stared at him in horror.

"What?" he asked.

Typing by: Abyssal Angel