Chapter 13: Fool me once…

So much for the chance to get to know his family…

Harry tried not to let the thought get to him too much. After all, what was one more disappointment in the whole sequence of shitty events that was his life? He was just tired. So tired of it all.

Listlessly, he watched James hesitate, his wand still raised. He'd told him he would leave, and he was planning on doing just that – leaving the Potters' property at least. As far as leaving this entire dream world behind… He'd just have to figure something out as he went along.

A muttered word brought Harry's attention back to James. The man seemed to have come to a decision and was currently watching with avid interest as his spell had Harry lighting up like a Christmas tree until, with a final burst of golden light that engulfed all of Harry's body, the spell faded.

Though Harry felt none the wiser, the whole display seemed to mean something to James, who looked slightly dazed by the result.

"Right," he said, his voice hoarse. "Right, let me just…" He raised his eyes, meeting Harry's squarely for the first time since that morning. "I just need to speak to Lily for a second – I'll be right back."

Whatever James had in mind, however, Harry wasn't to find out. As soon as James removed the spell from the door, a girl with hair redder even than Ginny's came running into the room.

"Anna! No!" Harry heard Lily shout, but it was too late.

The girl spun around, and her eyes widened in surprise upon seeing Harry.

"Hey, who're you?" she asked.

"Anna…" James groaned as Lily entered the kitchen, followed by Sam and his other sister – Violet, Harry reminded himself.

Far from intimidated, Anna turned to look at her parents. "Dad, that boy looks just like you!"

And before either Lily or James had the chance to say anything, Sam piped up cheerfully: "That's our brother Harry. I brought him along from another world where he didn't die."

There was a second of stunned silence. One second – then everything exploded with shouts.

Harry saw James exchange a weary look with Lily.

"Listen…" he said, holding out his hands – though if the gesture was meant to restore peace to the kitchen it failed abysmally.

"Bullshit!" Violet shouted over everyone else, only to have Lily say "Language! Honestly, this is the last time we let you lot spend the day with Sirius if you come back talking like this."

But Violet wasn't having any of it. She glowered at her mother.

"Oh, who cares – everyone here's heard worse," she retorted. Then she rounded on Sam. "And how can you say that? It's not funny!"

"I'm not kidding, it's true!" Sam replied, his voice going high in his indignation. "Tell them, Harry!"

Harry found himself pinned by five pairs of eyes, their expressions ranging from pleading to furious. But before he had the chance to answer, Violet snorted.

"As if I'd believe anything he says. You don't believe him, right?" she asks, turning back towards her parents.

"Look, Vi…" James started saying. But his reasonable tone seemed to infuriate the girl further.

"But Dad! That's dragon dung and you know it! There's no way –"

"Violet!" Lily cut in, her voice sharp. The girl turned her head so quickly her glasses almost flew off her face. She pushed them back on her nose with a vicious jab of her finger.

"What?" she shouted. "How am I the only one who sees what's going on here?"

Harry felt strangely calm. He glanced around the room. Everyone was in various stages of upset apart from Anna, the red-haired girl, who looked around her apparently delighted at the chaos that reigned in the sunny kitchen.

Violet, however, was still screaming and gesturing wildly. "He… He's playing tricks on us again. It's like the diary last year – it's all the stuff I've written, about Harry being alive..."

Harry gasped. It was a quiet sound but nevertheless cut straight through Violet's rant. And suddenly, everyone was watching him again. He only had eyes for Violet.

"What diary?" he asked.

Violet shot him a venomous look. "Shut up, I'm not talking to you."

"Violet!" Lily snapped.

"He's clearly a Death Eater, I don't see why I should mind my manners with him."

"Do you mean you wrote in Tom Riddle's diary?" Harry asked, a pit of dread opening in his stomach at the stunned silence that followed. It was beginning here as well.

"How do you know about this?" James asked. Harry noticed his wand was out again and he'd stepped forward.

Harry hesitated. He had no idea what had happened exactly and what the Potters had been told about the reality of Tom Riddle's diary. He looked at Sam, but the boy had hidden his face against Lily's leg.

"In my world," he said eventually, "the Chamber of Secrets was opened in my second year at Hogwarts by a girl who'd been given Voldemort's old diary. Voldemort tried to possess her and come back to life."

"Wow," Anna croaked. "You said his name. Vi, he definitely can't be a Death Eater."

Violet herself had lost her earlier bravado. In fact, she looked quite shaken – whether because of the information about the Chamber of Secrets or because he'd said Voldemort's name, Harry wasn't sure.

"This was all kept under wraps here," Lily said after a beat, catching James's eye – and Harry wondered again how much they knew about what had happened with the diary. A glance at Violet's ashen face made him guess that a lot of it had been left out. "How did you find out about this?"

Harry shrugged, looking away.

"I was sort of involved," he said at last when it became clear that nobody was going to speak before he'd answered the question.

"Involved how?" James asked.

"I sort of… um… helped the girl escape from the Chamber," he said between gritted teeth.

"Like Professor Dumbledore did for me…?" Violet asked in a small voice.

Harry's stomach did a somersault. She'd been down in the Chamber? He looked at Violet properly for the first time. She looked so little. Had Ginny really been that young when she'd been possessed by Riddle? For the first time, Harry started to understand where teachers had been coming from when they'd told him he'd been too young to be meddling.

He caught Lily and James's eyes before turning back towards Violet.

"I don't know," he said quietly. "I don't really know what happened here, but I stopped Voldemort from possessing my friend and we escaped the room together."

"But you were in your second year, you said…" James said, pulling a visibly distressed Violet towards him. She hid her face in his chest, her shoulders shaking.

Harry nodded.

"Right," James said slowly.

"Right," Lily repeated, standing up abruptly. She looked at James who nodded as if answering an unspoken question. "I think that's enough drama for now. Sam, Anna, why don't you go take off your shoes and wash up, and I'll make us all some hot chocolate. I'll call you when it's ready."

Both children brightened at that announcement and scampered out of the kitchen, screeching dibs on the nearest bathroom. James nodded at Lily again before leading Violet out of the kitchen, whispering softly to her as he went.

Left alone with Harry, Lily ran her hands through her hair before turning to face him. "Alright then, let's have it."

A/N: I'm back! So sorry for the delay in posting this chapter. Real life has been extremely hectic, and I've also been trying to untangle a few plot-knots that I tied myself into with some the earlier chapters (oops…). We'll see if I managed to do a convincing job at that. Anyway, I have a few more busy weeks ahead of me so unfortunately the updates are going to be a bit slow still for the next little while, but I have most the story written so I will be finishing this! Thank you all for reading.