The disaster known as the Evans Family Christmas Reunion of 1977 ended far more anticlimactically than it began.

Four and a half days of hot tempered anger, vicious arguments, homemade insults, and sky-rocketing tensions between every single person under the roof of the brick townhouse in Cokeworth, simmered down into a tangy displeasurable atmosphere. It was manageable, at least. No one was tearing into each other by the time Christmas Eve rolled around.

All five of them piled into the car and drove to a nearby restaurant that Mrs. Evans had made reservations at.

They ate in an awkward silence that was only broken by the sounds of other patrons in the restaurant, the sounds of clanking silverware, and the occasional comment on the weather.

Mrs. Evans and Lily seemed to be at odds, and kept staring each other down from across the table. Dania was only vaguely aware of why, something to do with Lily's lack of post-Hogwarts plans and Mrs. Evans's general dislike in Lily's choices in men.

Mr. Evans kept trying to keep James as far away from Lily as politely possible by ensuring that he was sitting between them. About half way through the meal, Mr. Evans engaging James in an animated one-sided discussion about the latest episodes of Mr. Evans's favorite day-time soap opera.

James wasn't paying attention in the slightest.

He kept leaning back in his seat and making goofy faces at his girlfriend in an attempt to grab her attention from the staring contest she was locked into with her mother. But when he wasn't focused on Lily, he was focused on Dania.

James wasn't exactly subtle when his facial expression would either morph into a scowl, or a ridiculously smug look every single time his eyes landed on Dania. She knew his reputation, from the books and from listening to Mrs. Evans rants in which she recalled every single complaint Lily had ever lodged against James in her letters home.

Dania could safely assume he was planning something. Something that she wasn't going to like.

Dinner ended with little fanfare. They squared away the bill and left.

Mr. Evans dropped off Mrs. Evans and Dania at the house and set off to take Lily and James to London where they planned to meet up with James's parents to spend Christmas day with them.

Lily and James were finally gone. It was over.

Dania didn't bother hiding her relief.

January 1, 1978 was a breath of fresh air.

A new year that held promise of new beginnings and a restart to the mess that had become Dania's life.

It had been three months since the plane crash, since Dania had found herself in the Harry Potter-esque Universe. Three months to recover, three months to grieve, three months to gather the strings of her sanity to begin pulling herself together.

She was tired of being passive. Of having things happen to her rather than going out and getting things done herself.

This was a new year. A new life.

She'd made many resolutions in the past. Lose weight, exercise more often, save more money, spend more time with her family. None of them every really panned out the way she wanted them too, if at all.

But this resolution? This one she was going to keep.

It was a new year in a new life.

What was the point of getting a second chance if Dania didn't do anything with it?

Dania sat in front of the cherry wood vanity in her room. Ankles crossed, hands folded in her lap, and eyes closed.

A moment of mindfulness, occasionally interrupted by a cough, but still, a moment of meditation.

She focused on clearing her mind, on her natural pattern of breathing, on her very existence itself.

Inhale. Exhale. Repeat.

Dania observed the sensations in her toes. Her feet. Her ankles. Her legs. Her torso. Her hands, and arms. Then finally her head.

She was here, she was present, she existed. And most importantly she was calm.

Dania opened her eyes, and the reflection of Petunia Evans blinked back at her in the three piece sectioned mirror of the vanity.

"Petunia." Dania said out loud and nodded her head in greeting. The reflection nodded back.

Silence.

She paused for a moment. No matter how many times Dania ran through and practiced what she wanted to say, she was still uncertain and unsure of her approach.

"I want to start out by apologizing." Dania began, figuring that this was a good place to start, "I was not in the right state of mind when you reached out to me and my behavior towards you was deplorable."

Silence.

Dania continued.

"I propose we work together to solve this body-sharing dilema. Neither of us want to be in this situation any longer than necessary, so the best course of action to take is to pool our resources together to come to a solution that gives us both what we want."

Silence.

"Let's open up the negotiations. I am strongly opposed to mentioning any of this to Lily, but I am willing to write to her asking for some books on soul-magic under the guise of a research project, curiosity, or whatever realistic excuse we can come up with. I don't know how to approach her without tipping her off, so that responsibility would fall to you."

Silence.

"We can also try the public library here in town. I'll admit, I'm not entirely sure where to begin in terms of research in muggle books, but we can start by looking into how different religions view the soul. It wouldn't hurt to do some digging on that topic, and we might find something useful."

More silence.

A cough bubbled up from the base of Dania's rib cage and she brought the crook of her elbow to her mouth to catch it.

"Are you causing my cold?" Dania asked, lowering her arm. "I'm not mad. Just curious to how much influence you have over your body."

Still, there was no response. Dania couldn't tell if Petunia was just giving her the silent treatment or if Petunia genuinely couldn't hear her.

Dania leaned forward in her seat and stared into the large, pale blue eyes. She tilted the head, causing wispy waves of blond hair to tumble across her shoulders.

Petunia was often described by Harry as having very horse like features. A horsy-face with horse-like teeth sitting on an unusually long neck.

But Dania couldn't entirely see where the horse comparison came from.

The woman in the mirror didn't even share many similarities to the brunette actress who portrayed Petunia in the movies. However in Dania's humble opinion, Petunia looked like what Dania would imagine a blond, live-action version of Candace Flynn from Phineas and Ferb would look like.

Large eyes, long neck, hair just past the shoulders, wearing a red and white dress.

The resemblance was uncanny.

"Petunia," Dania said again, "Are you there?"

There was nothing.

Dania waited a few minutes longer, before she tipped her head back and sighed in defeat.

She'll try again tomorrow.

"So what's the verdict?" Dania asked as she walked out of the Leicester Square Theater and into the cold air of London. Without even thinking Dania turned the collar of her woolen winter coat up to protect against the chill.

"The movie was good. A bit too violent for my tastes, but still good." Mr. Evans stepped in time behind her, flowing out of the theater along with the rest of the movie goers.

"Did you expect anything else? It had the word 'War' in the name" Dania said with a small, bemused smile. "I'm laminating the ticket the first chance I get. And I'm buying every cool shirt and action figure I see." She added offhandedly as the duo approached the car.

Mr. Evans's eyebrows shot up at Dania's declaration, causing his forehead to crease. "Aren't you going a little bit overboard for this? It's just a movie."

"Just a movie? Do you realise how absolutely monumental Star Wars is? It's going to be a multi-generational institution. I'm going to be bragging to my kids and grandkids about how I got a chance to see Star Wars: A New Hope in theaters," Dania said, falling back to walk beside Mr. Evans.

"Whatever you say, Tuni." Mr. Evans said, the skepticism clear on his face. "It's a nice movie, but I don't think it's going to be as timeless as you say it is. I can think of hundreds of movies I saw when I was your age that hardly anyone remembers now."

Dania smiled softly, and buried her face down deeper into her coat. She opened the passenger side of the car and climbed in. "This one's different. Trust me."

It was dark by the time the movie ended despite it only being 5pm. But a myriad of street lights, neon signs, and the occasional string of Christmas lights left over from the Holidays illuminated the area.

The two of them had left bright and early that morning to make it to London to see the showing of the very first Star Wars movie. It wasn't opening night, tickets were impossible to get then.

But a week later after enough people had seen the movie that the theater wasn't anywhere near as crowded? That was the perfect time to go.

It took some convincing, but Dania got Mr. Evans to agree to drive her all the way down to London to see the movie since it was showing in exactly two theaters and not one of them were anywhere close to Cokeworth.

The drive was long, and took a huge chunk of the morning just to get to London. And then they spent a couple of hours by Mr. Evans's favorite pub because that was the one condition Dania had to agree to if she was going to get him to act as her chauffeur.

But it was all worth it just to walk into that theater, settle into the plush seats, and watch something that she had seen so many times in her own universe. In her own time.

Dania was never the biggest fan of Star Wars, she thought it was a cool series that provided solid entertainment, but that's all it ever was to her. Just a movie franchise that played in the background of her apartment as white noise.

It was always her friend Maggie who would buy the merch, draw the fanart, go to the conventions, and force everyone that she knew to watch each movie at least three separate times with her.

Watching at least something Star Wars related was practically part of the job description of being Maggie's roommate. Maggie was the real reason why Dania was familiar enough with Star Wars that she could practically quote the entire original trilogy.

But that was the entire reason why she went to one of the first showings of Star Wars now, more than four decades before her time.

Because while everyone else in that theater was experiencing the movie for the first time, the moment the opening crawl started rolling, Dania was overwhelmed with nostalgia and memories of her friends, family, and everyone that she was forced to leave behind.

It was the same movie that Dania had seen so many times, and just knowing that was nearly enough to make her cry. For a moment, it was like being back home, sitting next to her closest friend and relaxing after a long day of work.

Dania wasn't sure if she ever could go back to those moments, go back to where she belonged.

But this movie was here. It was a connection her old life and her new life. A connection that Dania desperately needed.

She would have to wait forty years before she'd return back to her time naturally. And that was a long time. A daunting number.

But between now and then, there were nine Star Wars releases. Dania could do that. She could wait for one movie, then the next, then the next, and so on. It was more manageable to wrap her head around.

Dania could wait for nine movies, with one down and eight more to go.

She could do this. She'll get home, one way or another.

"Petunia, are you there?"

"I'm going to move forward with the muggle side of the research plan. Mr. Evans is going to drop me off at the library on Friday on his way to work, and I'll take one of my journals to write down notes."

"Can you hear me? Say something if you can."

"The initial phases of our research have been relatively successful. The good news is that there are a lot of books out there about souls, and there has to be some information out there that will help us. The bad news is that there are a lot of books about souls. It's going to take forever to go through everything and pick out the most relevant ones."

"Hey Petunia, it's been a while since I've heard anything from you. Actually, it's been two months already. Are you doing ok?"

"There are a lot of books on reincarnation that might be helpful. I got a list of them from the librarian. Some of them focus on reincarnation in the philosophical while the others look at it through a religious context. It's going to take a while to get through everything so I'm going to go ahead and take home a few books on the subject the next time I'm at the library."

"Holler if you're still alive."

Dania was straight up paranoid about her new bout of good health.

The transformation happened just about as fast as the glaciers were melting in the arctic. Slow at first, then quicker than Dania thought possible.

January was spent bundled up like a burrito in blankets on the living room couch with a pair of shades on. The winter weather was harsh on her immune system, giving way to a cold, then to the flu, then to a stomach bug.

There were only maybe six days total that entire month that Dania felt well enough to actually get out of the house, and she used that time to go to the cinema.

February saw some improvements. She was still recovering from the tail end of that last bout of a nasty, wet cough, but oddly enough she felt relatively good otherwise. Her headaches were less frequent, and far more manageable than they had been. The only symptom that persisted was an overwhelming blanket of exhaustion that hung over her every waking moment, leaving her tired enough to want to try to legitimately hibernate until the spring.

Things got even better in March, and that was when the suspicion started to seep in. She didn't feel a single non-stress related headache all month, and she actually had enough strength to go outside for a walk around the nearby neighborhoods. By herself. On a daily basis.

This was a huge deal considering that since her arrival in September, Dania barely could get out of the house without experiencing dizziness and fainting spells. And now she was going out by herself and actually feeling all the more stronger every time she went out.

In April, It hit her that she hadn't been back to the hospital in a long while. Not since she had completely lost her appetite in December. Visits with doctors petered out as well. The initial interest in her supposedly sudden acquisition of a different language had died down and now her doctors ran tests on her about once a month instead of once every week like they did in the beginning.

Even Dr. Benson, the primary psychologists working on her case had stopped his house calls and now only saw her every once in a while.

Mr. and Mrs. Evans were ecstatic. Their daughter was finally getting better.

But Dania was apprehensive about the turn her health had taken.

She still remembered Petunia's parting words.

I'm going to make you live out the rest of your miserable existence in this universe on life support.

And Dania didn't know how long her luck would hold.

"So turns out there's a thing called Soul Dualism. From my understanding, it's the concept that people have two or more souls, one of which is anchored to the body and the other can wander away. I think I might classify as the anchored soul and you might be classified as the wandering soul under this definition, but that doesn't really make sense since you're the original soul of this body and I'm the interloper here. I'm going to ask the librarians and see if they can help find any more information on Soul Dualism because this is looking promising."

"Hello?"

"I found a book on New Age/Metaphysics and it's got a really big section on Soul-Swapping that really sounds similar to what happened to us. It's got a lot of information about Walk-In souls that inhabit a body that is already fully grown as opposed to one that still is an infant like traditionally reincarnated souls. The original soul leaves for the spiritual realm while the Walk-in soul takes its place, but sometimes the original soul hangs around to give the Walk-in soul a crash course on their life. Is that what's happening to us?"

"Petunia?"

"Found some articles this time, not sure if I entirely trust the journal publication but it's some more New Age stuff again. According to this one, a soul exchange typically happens during a traumatic event in the Original soul's life. Does Vernon's proposal count as a traumatic event? I'm still not really clear what happened that day. Your input would be greatly appreciated right now."

"Where are you?"

A loud clanged echoed through the house, followed by the sound of a stack of pots and pans crashing down to the floor.

"WHAT DOES SHE MEAN SHE'S NOT COMING HOME?"

Dania snapped her head up in attention and tugged the power cord of the vacuum out of the outlet. The noisy hum of the clunky machine died down. Chores were going to have to wait.

She poked her head into the kitchen, "Is everything alright?" She asked gently.

Mrs. Evans stood in profile by the sink, a parchment letter in her hand, a dish towel in the other, an owl waiting patiently in the open window. The woman turned to Dania with a desperately wild look in her eyes.

"She's not coming home," Mrs. Evans said as her voice shook. She closed her fingers around the parchment and crumpled the paper in a tight fist, "Lily's not coming home once she graduates."

Dania blinked. What? Was that supposed to happen?

"May I see that?" Dania asked, reaching out as she crossed the distance. Mrs. Evans wordlessly passed on the letter for Dania to read.

She scanned through the contents with her brows drawn together in concentration. When she got to the end, she reread the whole thing again.

And then it clicked.

The First Wizarding War.

The Order of the Phoenix.

Dania didn't realize that Lily and James were recruited so earlier. And so young too, Lily had only just turned eighteen a few months before. But then again the UK was the only country in Europe where the enlistment age for the armed forces was sixteen, so maybe they weren't that young in that context.

"I knew it," Mrs. Evans said harshly, slamming the towel against the kitchen counter in a show of anger, "I knew that boy was bad news from the beginning. I told her that he wasn't good for her, and now look what happened! He took my little Lily-flower away!"

Dania looked over at the older woman, "I don't think this was James's doing. I'm not even sure if he had anything to do with this at all."

"Well I'm positive he didn't help either," Mrs. Evans snapped back.

"Lily says she won't be home immediately, not that she won't come home at all." Dania said, glancing back down at the wrinkled letter, "Apparently her employment under Headmaster Dumbledore starts the day after she finishes Hogwarts."

Mrs. Evans pressed her fingers against her temples. She stood in the middle of the room for a few beats, radiating frustration and irritation like there was no tomorrow.

Then she spun on her heel, kicked a chair out from the table, and sat herself down with a loud thump.

"It's bad enough that they don't allow Muggles to attend the Hogwarts Graduation, even if we are family." Mrs. Evans said before suddenly deflating, "But now Lily doesn't want to come home to celebrate with us. I had so many plans… I was going to organise the biggest party for her... Invite all her friends. Buy her a new dress. Give her a pearl necklace just like my mother gave me when I finished school, just like the one I gave you, Tuni, when you finished school..." she trailed off, eyes staring off into the distance.

They were quiet for a moment, with only the sound of a ticking clock breaking the silence.

Dania leaned back against the counter, and carefully placed the parchment down beside her "It will be ok, we'll celebrate when she gets some time off from work."

Mrs. Evans let out a heavy sigh, "But when will that be?"

"Have you moved on, Petunia? Left for the afterlife, the spiritual realm, or whatever that next world is supposed to be? I don't think you have. It doesn't feel like you've left. I can't really describe it, I'm just calling it a gut feeling."

"I've started working on researching the scientific perspective on body-swaps. Most of it's just sci-fi fiction, but I found a few academic biology magazines that discuss the effect a potential mind/body-swap would have on the brain. Since each brain develops differently based on experience, they've theorized that if body-swapping was possible, the skills of person one would not transfer to person two. Instead person one would acquire the skills that person two's brain had been trained to do but since person one doesn't know those skills they won't be able to do it. The idea is certainly worth looking into."

"Are you ghosting me? Is this the soul equivalent of ghosting?"

"I decided to test that theory I was talking about earlier by doing some drawing of roses since it's a relatively simple activity and it's the only thing I actually know how to draw. I didn't seem to have any more trouble than I normally do, so I've come to two possible conclusions. Either the scientists were wrong in their thought experiment, or you know how to draw roses the exact same way I do."

"Time's running out if we want to involve Lily in this. It's almost June and she only has a few more weeks of left access to the Hogwarts Library. I don't know where else she'll be able to get information for us after that."

"I'm going to take your silence as an indication that you are alright with not asking Lily about this."

"The deadline's up. Lily graduated, and is doing God knows what now."

"Hey Petunia, how are you doing?"

Author's Note:

Happy New Year everyone! And welcome to 2020! It's a new year and a new decade and I'm so excited to see what it has in store! And to celebrate, here's an extra long chapter for all of you only a week after the last update. I hope you guys enjoyed reading it! :D

All of the research that I did for this chapter was literally just looking through Wikipedia to find information on the soul. I am not claiming to be an expert on this or anything but I wanted to dig deeper into how a self-insert might go about trying to understand their situation, how it worked, and why they were there.

Like this one, the next few chapters are going to be moving quicker through time than the last couple of chapters did. Mostly so we can finally get Harry onto the scene. This chapter covered 1978, so the next chapter will be 1979, and after that it'll be 1980.

A big thanks to everyone who read this story, to everyone who followed and favorited it, and especially to those who took the time to leave a review. Your feedback and support is a monumental factor in my desire to write this story, and Cursed Reality would not be possible without you guys.

Seriously, Thank you! Let's make 2020 the best year yet!

~Lost-In-The-Muse