Meanwhile back in UK a few hours earlier
In his Hogwarts office, the self-styled leader of the Light was sitting drinking his cup of hot chocolate before he went to bed. In a rare moment, he mused over his achievements in the last few decades. Dumbledore secretly smiled as his plans were coming together. His fame, as the world's greatest wizard and leader of the light would become legendary. In a few short months to come, he would be considered as the defeater of not only one, but two dark lords. Eliminating the Potters from the face of earth was a nice bonus, as his family had an old axe to grind with the family.
What many people didn't know was that Dumbledore had an old, old family feud against the Potters. His family fortune was lost to them when Donald Dumbledore gave Maria Potter love potions and tried to force her into a marriage in 1693. Maria's father found out and saved his daughter from the impending wedding by a daring rescue right before the ceremony. After his daughter was safe, he brought the whole thing to the wizarding courts. The Dumbledore clan was forced into poverty as all of their property was seized as compensation to the Potters. Donald was publicly drawn and quartered. The rest of the Dumbledores secretly vowed revenge against the Potters, as doing that openly would likely end up in the annihilation of the clan. To the Wizarding World, the matter was settled with no ill feelings and with a firm acceptance from them. Life for the Dumbledores went its usual way—live, work hard and die. But the thirst for revenge simmered all through the generations.
And now Albus Percival Wulfric Brian (formerly Beverly not that anybody knew that nowadays anyway) Dumbledore would finally have his family avenged. He smiled in pride then frowned as he thought of the hiccups to his plans.
Mainly—losing control of his puppet Tom Riddle he had created as a distraction. In the end, it proved beneficial to him in many ways though. It drove the last of the Potters into his service, and finally gave him a way to get rid of them all. At the same time, it would make him even more famous than he already was.
The survival of the Potter girl was unexpected as he never believed in prophecies. He had to ensure that she would stay weak and obedient to him. He placed her in an abusive household with the Dursleys. He even didn't have to try to push the muggles to mistreat her. They already hated the wizarding world with a passion. The promise of regular payments was added enticement to make them willing to take her in. They were already bent on treating her like the dirt on their shoes. Dumbledore's only conditions were for them to not kill her or get her killed, keep her from being molested and keep her ignorant of her heritage. He didn't want to have her completely broken or dead—yet.
In the meantime, he prepared a magically binding contract for her right after the burial of Lily and James Potter. A marriage between Harriet and one of the Weasleys, specifically Ronald Weasley, would put her firmly within their influence and in turn, his.
In the following years, he had several close calls as Vernon got really heavy handed with her and had nearly beaten her to death on several occasions. He was prepared for such an event though. Harriet escaped when she was six as she accidentally learned how to apparate. Dumbledore had to chase her through the whole breadth of the country. She was kidnapped several times by an enraged Remus Lupin or Andromeda Tonks who found out about her living conditions. He really had a hard time obliviating them into forgetting ever encountering Harriet.
After she entered Hogwarts, he orchestrated her into a 'prepared' friendship with the Weasleys. They would try to keep her oblivious and down to earth. Her sudden friendship with that bushy-haired muggle-born Hermione Granger was unfortunate as the girl brought Harriet's intelligence out into the fore. Worst, all of his attempts to dissolve that friendship ultimately failed. It ended in strengthening it instead. No matter, even that wouldn't save her from her fate now.
He finished his hot chocolate and popped a lemon drop into his mouth from a bowl nearby and smiled to himself.
Life was good for him. All he had to do now was to wait until the marriage contract become due and then he would stage a final confrontation between Tom and Harriet.
Harriet wouldn't survive it, of course. As he would tragically be too late to save the heroine of the wizarding world. But his defeat of Tom Riddle after the confrontation—he chuckled and shook his head even now at Tom's chosen name: Voldemort, what a joke!—and destruction of Tom's horcruxes would boost his legend. It would surpass even Merlin's!
And even if she somehow survived by some miracle, she would be—thanks to the marriage contract he had made for her—good as dead.
Life was good indeed! He was so caught up in his thoughts of his own 'greatness' that he failed to notice that all of his devices monitoring Privet Drive and the exact whereabouts and health of one Harriet Lily Potter had stopped working. That the marriage contract for one Harriet Lily Potter and Ronald Bilius Weasley that he had in his desk drawer turned blank. That the Gringotts key to Harriet's trust vault disappeared with it. Unfortunately for him, he wouldn't become aware of these for several days to come.
Burrow, Ottery St. Catchpole at the same time
The pitiful excuse for a male named Ron Weasley was preparing to go to bed dreaming about his future wealth, importance and "wife" he would have in several months. How he would show that half-blood mongrel her true place in the Wizarding society. He was tired of living in poverty.
His dreaming and wanking were interrupted as he suddenly felt a wave of intense jealousy and envy. He wasn't sure why he felt it and he was somewhat vaguely aware that it came somewhere from southwest.
He gave a mental shrug and rolled over, dreaming dreams that now would never come true.
Crawley Regent Street, No 42
A certain bushy-haired bookworm was reading her favorite collection of short stories written by the Polish writer Sapkowski suddenly lifted her head from the book and looked towards southwest. She felt an overwhelming need to congratulate and scold someone at the same time. When she analyzed this feeling, she concluded that there was only one person in the world that could awaken both in her at once.
"Harriet, where are you and what have you done?" she wondered, accidentally voicing her thoughts out loud.
Caesar's Palace present day
The brief silence that had fallen on them, as both contemplated how to voice their secrets to each other, was interrupted by a growl from Harriet's stomach.
Harriet turned beet-red and Karen laughed softly, "Hungry?"
"A little" Harriet replied then brightened, "You know what?"
"Mhmm?" Karen hummed her questioning acknowledgment.
"As entertaining as talking and sharing secrets naked in a bed is, I think our conversation would be easier if we both were clothed and in a different environment. Having a bite to eat with it wouldn't be bad too. What do you think?" Harriet asked with a slight blush, as her eyes drifted over her wife's— "WIFE! Bloody hell!" she thought—breasts.
Karen smirked as she saw where Harriet was looking and said, "That's a pretty good idea. We both have some things to discuss. We need to be honest with each other though, if this relationship's going to work. There are things you need to know about me. So let's get dressed before that." She said with a little leer at Harriet's direction. Both of them untangled themselves from each other and the bed, searching the room for their errant clothes. Once they were decent they adjourned into the room's sitting area and ordered a light lunch delivered to their room.
As they waited for their lunch, they pondered on how the ensuing conversation would proceed, and if the other would be willing to accept the other's secrets. An uncomfortable silence settled between them. When it became unbearable Harriet got an idea and asked.
"Karen? Before we begin, did we receive any kind of marriage license after the ceremony?"
Karen frowned for a second before she slowly answered, "Yes we received one although it was strange. It was completely written in Latin on thick certificate parchment paper. I think I have it in my handbag. Do you wanna see it?"
"Yeah. If you wouldn't mind. I'd like to check something…" Harriet trailed off.
"Okay honey, I'll bring it to you." Karen said and strolled from the sofa to fetch her handbag. She returned with it in hand, gave it to Harriet and sighed, "I still couldn't make heads or tails with it." She slightly shook her head.
Harriet skimmed over the document. From what could she read, it was indeed a magically binding ceremony. Luckily, it was only possible for this specific binding to be used if the two participants were highly compatible with each other. She sighed as she gathered her courage and looked at Karen.
"Well this," she waved the license "confirmed some of my suspicions. It's nothing bad." She hastily added as she saw the look on Karen's face.
She then took a deep breath.
"There are some things you need to know about me." They both said at the same time. They looked at each other questioningly and laughed.
"Can I be first?" Harriet asked as she straightened. Karen nodded.
"Okay here goes nothing," she thought.
"I don't think that there's any easy way to break this news so I'll be blunt. Magic is real and there is a whole world hidden besides the mundane one that's full of witches, wizards and magical creatures. I'm a part of it—I am witch. And our marriage was magical, so it probably bound us by our souls." She said it fast and anxiously looked at Karen's face, reading for and fearing signs of rejection or loathing. Nothing was there, only a slightly raised eyebrow and an amused smile. "Why aren't you freaking out?"
"I already figured out that you weren't a completely normal girl." Karen said with a small smirk and continued, "And you're definitely not the first witch that I've ever met. Heck, my best friend was a witch. Plus there are some things that let me know when magic was in play when we met, and later when we married. I mean I didn't know exactly what the ritual meant or did. All I knew was that I felt magic flowing through us, as it made a…uhmm…connection between us? This wasn't the first time I've seen or had magic cast on me, so no, I'm not freaking out as you eloquently put it." She said and smiled reassuringly.
"Although, the fact that it might have bound our souls is kinda surprising. I had an inkling that the ceremony did something to us you know, making us so open to each other. I doubt you would be telling secrets like this to someone you've just known for only three days. Surprisingly, I don't feel that it's a bad thing." Karen smiled and took a deep breath. "Well I think that I would take a page from your book and be blunt, although in my case it's even more unbelievable..." She paused and glared at Harriet who had not so discretely snorted and chortled something like: "Not a chance!"
"I'm from a different reality that somehow rebooted itself and threw me into this one because I suddenly stopped existing there." She looked with satisfaction at Harriet's surprised face staring at her.
"It gets better. When I woke up in this reality, I had somehow de-aged, because in my previous one I was born in 1967." She said gesturing at her current appearance, "but I also wasn't from Earth."
Harriet stared at her with jaws hanging wide open. Karen gently closed it with her forefinger.
Harriet seemed to collect her wits after a few seconds. "Are you telling me that you're not only from a different reality but also de-aged and an alien?" Harriet said slowly as she tried to comprehend what Karen stated. The strange thing was even thought it sounded so far-fetched, she believed every world that her wife told her.
"Technically, this was the third reality I have resided in but yep, that's what I'm saying." Karen said smirking.
"Oh ok, and here I thought that I was the queen of weird." Harriet said dazedly.
Karen felt that her new wife might faint from the information overload. She moved and laid Harriet's head on her lap, gently stroking her hair.
Harriet buried her head into Karen's lap. After a few minutes of comfortable cuddling, she raised her head and looked into Karen's eyes. "Well at least I'm keeping with the family motto." She said with a slight smirk.
Karen merely raised her eyebrow at that.
"Potters never do normal," Harriet finished with a weak chuckle.
Karen nodded and added, "Well it would be awfully boring if we didn't, wouldn't it?"
Harriet brightened with that, "Yeahitwould,wouldn'titsorryittookmesolongtotake...mhmmp..." Her babbling was interrupted as Karen firmly kissed her. After a minute, Karen ended the kiss and smirked at Harriet's face.
"Honey, you were rambling."
Harriet brightened, "If this is the way you would respond to my ramblings, then I definitely need to ramble more often." She said with a cheeky smile.
"Maybe, not that I need an excuse to kiss you." Karen replied teasingly.
"True enough," Harriet replied as she leaned closer and kissed Karen soundly on the lips.
The kiss started to become heated but sadly before they could continue further, somebody knocked on the door.
"Room delivery!" sounded cheerfully from the other side.
They ended their kiss and Karen went for the door.
A young man wheeled in a cart with covered dishes and started serving it on the small dining table a bit beyond the sitting area.
Harriet was annoyed when she saw the man's unabashed ogling of Karen's chest. She cleared her throat and glared the young man into submission. After all, defeating the dark lord four times did wonders to her glare.
The boy hurriedly finished with the food and nearly ran from the room, even forgetting the tip.
Karen smirked at her, "Possessive, are we?"
"I didn't like the way he was looking at you." Harriet blinked owlishly at her.
As they sat and started eating, they started to share stories about their lives.
As Karen was telling her about her first experiences flying, Harriet excitedly interrupted her, "You can fly?! Could you show me? Please!" she said with her best puppy-dog-eyes look, including a quivering lower lip and much pathos she could muster. The whole effect was adorable.
Karen laughed as she caved in, "Come here." She gestured to her lap as Harriet bounded and snuggled. Karen wrapped her hands around Harriet's waist. "Comfy? Good," she said and gently rose into the air.
Harriet's eyes widened in wonder and looked Karen straight into her eyes and said, "You are the most amazing being that ever happened to me." And with that statement, she kissed Karen passionately.
The rest of the day passed in a blur as they spent it by telling each other their life stories, kissing, cuddling, and lovemaking.
Next morning, Caesar's Palace
Harriet slowly opened her eyes as she woke up and sighed, all filled with happiness. Despite the rocky beginning, she had the best day in her life yesterday. She was in love with someone who wouldn't judge her and who listened attentively to her life story. Someone who provided her a sense of security, despite the prophecy hanging over her head. She was loved and for every positive thing she did, it was returned doubled to her. She felt true happiness for the first time in her life.
She snuggled deeply into Karen's side and sighed contentedly.
Suddenly she felt a slight tug on the edge of her conscience. It was like she had forgotten something important. She pondered it for a while, trying to figure what was amiss. Then it hit her like a freight train. She shot up wide-awake abruptly, waking Karen and nearly pushing her from the bed.
"Jesus! I lost Moony and Tonks!" She exclaimed.
"Whaazz it..?" Karen asked confused and still half-asleep.
Harriet looked at Karen with broadening panic. This completely woke Karen up.
"I lost Moony and Tonks! They came with me as my chaperones. And I lost them!"
Harriet was starting to panic, but Karen caught her hands and forcefully stopped her from moving from the bed. "Harriet, HARRIET, keep calm. We'll find them, alright? Just keep calm. Your panicking won't help anyone, okay? Good, I'm letting go alright?" She slowly released a much calmer Harriet.
"Okay now. Moony and Tonks? Is that the pair whose wedding we were witnesses for, and they were in turn our witnesses, right?"
Harriet nodded.
"Good. Now, do they have mobile phones, or do you remember the name of the hotel where you were staying?"
Harriet nodded "Yeah I remember it. I should have remembered them in the first place! Thanks for calming me down," she said clearly relieved.
"Good, wake me up if you need something," Karen yawned, laid back and snuggled to Harriet's side, wrapping her arms around her.
Harriet chuckled at her wife's antics. She definitely wasn't a morning person. She wiggled over to the side of the bed, her wife's arms wrapped tightly around her waist, and reached for the phone on the bedside table.
She picked up the receiver and dialed reception.
"Could you please connect me to a Holiday inn on Highway 15? Yes, I'll wait." After a few seconds, the call was rerouted to the reception of Holiday inn. She asked to be connected to Mr. Lupin's room. After a few beeps Moony's haggard voice came on the line, "Hello?"
"Moony! It's good to hear you!" Harriet said in an extremely relived voice.
"Cub?Thank Merlin! Where were you? Were you all right? Could you get here? Wait a second. Dora, wake up, Harriet's calling!"Followed by a series of grunts and sounds of a scuffle as Nymphadora Lupin née Tonks violently protested against such a rude method of waking her up. After some brief struggling noises and a quick and muffled explanation done by Remus on the line that Harriet could hear, Tonks was awake enough to participate in the conversation. Lupin's voice returned, "Now, could you answer my questions?"
"Yes I'm all right and I'm in Caesars Palace. Moony, before I continue... Umm, how much do you and Tonks remember from the day before yesterday? Mainly that evening?" There was a quick discussion on the other end of the line.
"Er, not much to be honest. We were ...uh you see, we were a bit ...indisposed."
"In other words you both were three sheets to the wind you mean." Harriet's amused voice replied.
Moony audibly sighed. "That about sums it up." He said resignedly.
"Do you remember the wedding chapel?"
"Somewhat. You and someone else was there with us and you both served as our witnesses for the wedding." Remus replied with a question in his voice.
"Do you remember the next couple to get married?" Harriet asked, mischief coloring her voice. She could literally hear the wheels turning in Moony's head.
"Wait a second, there was this blonde girl with you at the wedding and… and… oh!" He was unable to finish his sentence as the realization struck him.
"Bugger me... Please tell me that didn't happen what I think happened? It didn't, did it?" He rambled on.
"Okay, I won't tell you then" Harriet replied and silence followed. After a minute, she heard Dora's voice on the line.
"Harriet? What did you do to my Remmy? He's just sitting here with his jaw hanging open."
Harriet did as she was asked and told her. She was rewarded by a dull thud as Dora fainted. Luckily that woke Remus up from his reverie and he quickly attended to his wife. He quickly checked her up and placed her back in bed before he picked the dropped handset.
"Harriet you owe us some explanation! It's half past eight so let's have breakfast somewhere. What do you say?"
"Okay, let's meet at Caesar's Palace hotel restaurant at ten then? My treat. What do you think?"
"All right, we'll see you there. And Cub... please take care of yourself 'till then." He bid farewell and hung up.
"That went well." Harriet thought. A half-hour later, she managed to coerce Karen out of bed. Three-quarters of an hour later. both of them were showered and changed in fresh clothes as they entered the elevator hand-in-hand to get to their breakfast with the rest of Harriet's family.
A trio of disgruntled men with a baby joined them in the elevator. They looked familiar but Harriet couldn't place them but she was sure that she had seen them before. She looked at Karen who nodded as she recognized this three too.
The bespectacled man with the missing tooth looked at them questioningly. And asked, "I am terribly sorry but have we met in the last two days?"
Harriet and Karen exchanged looks as both of them came to the same conclusion that these three looked as if they were in a seriously bad situation and decided to help them out.
"Yes, I think we met two days ago at the Bellagio? You were playing blackjack with us there." Replied Karen as she looked at Harriet who nodded in confirmation. "But there was a fourth guy with you back then." All of them perked at hearing that. The one with a stubble on his face and longer hair asked, "Doug was there with us? That's great news, could you two tell us what were we doing or where were we planning to go next?"
Karen looked at Harriet who just shrugged as she didn't remember much from the night and Karen continued.
"Well, we weren't very sober but from what I remember, after the game we handed you keys from the car that we drove there." The three of them blinked at her in surprise. The one without a tooth asked slightly stuttering, "Why?"
"We were too drunk to drive and it wasn't ours in the first place." Karen replied with a shrug.
The trio stared at her incredulously. The elevator stopped at the required floor and as Harriet and Karen exited, Harriet turned to the trio and added, "Good luck with finding your friend. We hope he's all right." Before she turned and walked hand-in-hand again with Karen towards the hotel's restaurant.
After they were out of earshot Harriet said to Karen with a giggle. "I just wonder if they knew what type of car we gave them."
"I don't know but I would pay good money just to see the look on their faces as they find that detail out." Karen replied. They both laughed at that.