"To begin with, why is he in the middle of my bed?" Hermione asked.
"If you were in the middle," came the reply, "He'd lean over you to talk to me, and you might even get an elbow, to boot."
"And I suppose you're not in the middle for the same reason?"
"See, I told you she was you," Harry said, happily.
"Because I know you'll have more questions than we have time, I'll tell you our story. And it'll be me telling it because it will be faster, more thorough, and more understandable."
"It started when this guy was running out the door of the house he was living in with his aunt and uncle. All three relatives living there, including his cousin, were abusive on a daily basis, but that day was so bad he gave up and ran out. In this world, do they tell you you have to 'raise your wand' to summon the Knight Bus?"
"I've only vaguely heard of it, so maybe?"
"Actually, that's probably just as well. Anyway, if anyone says that, they're not telling you the truth. Harry saw a yellow car, and mistook it for a taxi. As he hailed it - he'd squirrelled away enough coins to get him a reasonable distance away, but alas, the car paid him no attention. But the next thing he saw was the Knight Bus, appearing out of thin air. He was so shocked he fell down, but fortunately didn't break anything. The driver, Stan Shunpike, gave him his usual speech about emergency transportation for witches and wizards. Harry jumped in - anything was better than staying where he was. Since a bus had appeared out of nowhere he wasn't going to question the wizards stuff, after all. He had the bright idea to ask to go where the witches and wizards usually go, and that was good enough. En route to the Leaky Cauldron, a half-blood, as they like to call people without eight magical grandparents, and one who was familiar with muggle money traded Harry the requisite amount of sickles for the couple of pounds he had on him. The same request got Tom the Batman at the Leaky Cauldron to open the back wall and let him into Diagonal Alley."
"And wasn't that the shock to top all shocks," Harry interjected.
"And that's where his luck, which had been running pretty well already, took a turn for the better," the other Hermione continued. "Because he ran into me and my family, heading for Gringotts."
"To make a long story short, we hit it off, he was quite the waif, basically the picture of a homeless, abused runaway," she said, matter-of-factly, but with a trace of fondness."
"He turned out to have some money in the bank, which was a huge surprise. He had to cut his hand and donate blood to get a key re-made. When they asked him, he said he'd never heard of Gringotts, Diagon Alley, or magic. Worse, he knew his mother was named Lily Evans before she was married, and that it had to be to a man named Potter, but not what his first name was. His relatives really hated him, and we discussed it and decided someone was forcing them to keep him with them."
"At any rate, he got quite a bit of money out, and my parents recommended he exchange some of it for pounds. On their advice, the bank sold Harry a wallet that went round his neck and under his arm, where his cousin's hand-me-downs would hide it.
"But that's not all I found," Harry said, and to Hermione, he sounded more excited now than he'd been since she encountered him.
"Well, there was a trunk in his parents' vault, and the spells making it light were still active, which is said to be impossible," Other Hermione continued. "And Harry realised he'd seen a similar trunk in the Dursleys' attic. Lily Potter was working as a Healer, and James as an Auror, but they quit those jobs and went into hiding, right?" But Other Hermione didn't wait for a response. "But they were both working on a project connected with the Department of Mysteries at the Ministry of Magic. And the trunk at the Dursleys' was Lily's, and the trunk at Gringotts was James'."
"They were nearly able to test the archway when Voldemort murdered them. Hermione and I did test it. We went to some strange places and immediately came back. The arches came with some harnesses you can wear that yank you back in a split second."
"But Harry thought if we went to a place almost identical to ours, we could go without a harness and actually explore," Other Hermione said.
"Which wasn't a bad idea on my part, the only thing I didn't figure on was that the magic wouldn't work in this completely similar world."
"Why wouldn't it ... er ... why doesn't it?" Hermione asked.
"We don't know, you were there when we found out," Other Hermione pointed out.
"It could be as simple as the Lily and James of this world didn't create it, and it's tied to their unique blood or something."
"Or Harry isn't the sort of Potter that can do it in this world. Harry, did you feel anything when you tried to open the way home?"
"Yes, it felt normal at first, then suddenly just shut down. Like the door opened and then shut and locked itself. Then it felt kind of dead - magically inert."
The pause after that was so long, Hermione changed the subject.
"What did your Harry Potter envision with having two Hermiones?"
"Oh, hmm ... some occasional kisses, linking arms, hand-holding, snuggling like we're sort of doing now. At least this year and probably the next couple of years."
"And you're good with that?" Hermione wondered.
"No, no, not at all," came the firm response. "I made the mistake of bringing up how famous he is and how many girls are after him already, and how I felt insecure over it."
"We can see through the portal, it's not blind travel. I saw some worlds where there were other Hermiones. I thought, well, get it out of my system and it's easier to fend off all the girls that just want The Boy Who Lived, or just want The Potter Heir. And if it's another Hermione, it's not cheating on her."
"Now you see how he is - forewarned is forearmed. But we are stuck with each other for the near future. Not sure how to fix this. Even researching will be a little difficult. We can't even trust the harnesses, we're sort of back to where we were when Harry found that trunk."
Both Harry and the Hermione sounded exhausted. Even Hermione thought she could sleep, so they exchanged "Good Nights" and drifted off.
Hermione woke up partly laying on Harry Potter's slender chest.
