Chapter Text
The war was over. Voldemort had been defeated. Tom Riddle was dead. Harry was exhausted from the fighting, grieving the dead, the ones who died because of him. A gentle hand on his shoulder made him jump. A soft chuckle floated on the wind from his other side. Turning around he found Hermione and Ron flanking him with soft smiles on their faces. “We did it,” Hermione whispered.
“You did it,” Ron said, his voice full of pride as he pulled Harry into a side hug. Harry tried to smile but he knew it didn’t come out right. He may have ended the war but so many people died because of him, because of how long he let this war continue. Sirius, Remus, Tonks, Cedric. They were all dead.
Sometimes Harry wished they could just go back in time and do it all again with the knowledge they had now and end it all sooner. He had expressed this sentiment to Hermione during a late night in that tent during the Horcrux hunt after the others had already fallen asleep. She had hummed and nodded then gotten that light in her eye that he and Ron always knew meant she’d be running to the Library if they were still at Hogwarts. He hadn’t seen her research it all that thoroughly, but in all fairness he had been distracted, they both had. Especially once Seamus had come back. Now that the war was over he wondered if she would ever look into that insane idea he’d had all those months ago. As he opened his mouth to ask her about it she pulled out a folded piece of parchment and a device that looked similar to Dumbledore’s (now Ron’s) Deluminator saying, “Look what I made.”
“What is it?” Ron asked, taking the device from her to inspect it closely.
“Well, if it works properly, then it should allow us to have a redo of sorts with the war.”
“Really? You actually did it?” Harry exclaimed, grinning.
Hermione nodded smugly as she took the device back from Ron. “I was thinking that we should bring the others with us,” Hermione said.
Ron whooped quietly, “If this works we could save so many people.”
Harry chuckled as he shrugged, “Why not? What have we got to lose? Let’s do it.”
It took about an hour but eventually they were able to gather Harry’s entire Coven. They all slipped away from the castle in groups of twos and threes in order to not get caught and stopped. They had perfected this tactic in Harry’s fifth year mostly to avoid Umbridge, but it was very useful for other situations too, such as this one.
They all gathered together in a large circle in a clearing in the Forbidden Forest and held hands as Hermione stood in the middle of the circle and explained what they were attempting to do, and that if it worked they would all be sent back to the summer before Harry’s fourth year. Hermione started chanting, clutching her device so tightly her knuckles had turned white. Her chanting grew louder and faster as the magic in the air around them grew heavier and colder, swirling around the edges of the clearing and wrapping tightly around individual members of the Coven, making sure no one got left behind. Then the world went black.
For a second Harry thought he had died again, but then he opened his eyes to a messy kitchen bright with morning sun. Why so much food? Harry thought as he stared at the plate in front of him. The Dursley’s would never give him this much. He slowly looked up and around as discreetly as possible. Where am I? Harry didn’t recognize this place, it definitely wasn’t the Dursley’s. “Harry.”
He fully looked up now at the woman in front of him, she had red hair and green eyes, his eyes. Wait, that’s his mum. What is she doing here? “Harry, your mum asked you a question.” A man spoke. Turning to look at him Harry blinked hard as he came face to face with his dad. What is going on? Where am I?
“Harry.” His mum repeated firmly, looking at him disapprovingly. There was a quiet snicker to his right pulling his focus away from his newly resurrected parents. A girl who looked to be the same age as him was smirking behind her hand as she watched him get reprimanded by his – no, their parents. This was Iris, his twin sister and also the ‘Girl Who Lived’. Memories of this world started flooding into Harry’s head as he stared at the scar on Iris’s face. Oh, shit. He thought as he slammed his Occlumancy shields up. What have we done?
~~~
Fred blinked quickly as he found himself at the Burrow surrounded by his family. His dad was chatting away about something Mundungus Fletcher had done recently. Fred looked at his twin and immediately knew that he was back too. He searched the faces of his three other siblings sitting around the table relieved to see they were all there too, giving silent signals to each other. Memories of some other life slowly trickled into his head as he went back to eating. Oh, no.
Percy wrinkled his nose at their dad mentioning Dumbledore in passing, but other than that they all had a nice relaxed breakfast before being sent off to do chores.
“What are we doing about this not being our world?” George asked as they de-gnomed the garden.
“Get in contact with Harry in some way I suppose,” Fred said.
“Hermione hasn’t made the coins yet,” his twin whined quietly at that minor inconvenience as Fred started planning a letter.
~~~
Hermione jumped as a book slipped out of her hands. She was standing in her room, school supplies scattered around on the desk next to her. Why such a mess? She thought as she closed her eyes, took a deep breath and slowly reached out with her magic. After wandlessly and non-verbally cleaning up her desk she dropped into the chair, pulling her wand out of her hair just as memories rushed past her closed eyelids. Sitting up straight she whispered, “Shit.” She’d really messed up now. She hoped the others were in this alternate world with her and they weren’t scattered around in different places. Taking a deep breath she pulled a notebook and a pen towards her and started to make a list.
~~~
Susan squeezed Hannah’s hand as the memories of this world they had found themselves in ended. Turning to her friend with wide eyes, she felt her friend shaking slightly. This was not what they’d been trying to do. Susan hoped everyone had made it here safely Hannah’s breathing slowed after a minute then she whispered, “This is a strange world.”
Susan snorted, “Yeah, really strange.” Harry apparently had a twin sister in this world who was the ‘Girl-Who-Lived’, though Susan didn’t buy that, as this world’s Harry had the same exact scar in the same exact place that their Harry did. The girl - Iris apparently - was probably just cut by some debris when the house imploded. Harry’s parents were also alive in this world, Sirius Black is alive and healthy and not a fugitive. In fact he has kids which Susan found the strangest of all. Standing she pulled her wand out of her pocket, they would need to get wand holsters again, and prepared to send Harry a patronus when Hannah spoke again, “The Trace, Susan remember?”
“Oh, shit. A letter it is then,” Susan sighed as she flung herself back on her bed.
~~~
Lavender laid down on the picnic blanket as Parvati and Padma pulled out different snacks. This world so far seemed much better than their original world and Lavender was determined to enjoy it as long as she could. Her girlfriend settled next to her while Padma whistled softly.
“We need to contact either Harry or Hermione,” Parvati said as she twirled her wand through her thin fingers.
“It’ll all be much easier once we get the Trace taken off,” Padma sighed.
“That probably won’t be until the start of the year for most of us. The Weasleys might be able to do magic soon seeing as they have Percy who can take their Traces off,” Lavender added.
“I hope everyone else is alright,” Parvati said, popping a strawberry in her mouth.
~~~
The house was nice. Big. It reminded Neville of his house Longbottom Manor, which made sense as this was Potter Manor. He’d just been stepping out of the floo when he’d ‘awoken’ in a sense and gotten the memories of this world. Apparently he was an arse in this world, which sucked. His mother - and wasn’t that strange - was speaking to Lily Potter as they waited for Sirius Black and his son. Neville was friends with Leo Black and Iris Potter and Eloise McKinnon-Meadows which was sure to be helpful, especially this year with the Tournament, as it had usually been the four of them in the middle of the yearly disasters, what with Iris being the ‘Chosen One’.
The door to the Floo room opened and Harry stepped in. Neville carefully made his way over to his friend so their mums wouldn’t notice yet. “Harry,” he whispered.
Harry beamed, “Hey Nev, did you get those different memories too?”
Nodding, Neville sat on the sofa, “This is going to be even more complicated than we thought.”
“Do you think you could be an R.A.B this year?” Harry asked.
“Of course,” he assured just as the door opened again and Iris came in with her dad. Harry sighed softly as he eyed his family. Neville wanted to reach out and comfort him but he couldn’t, not if he wanted to be a good secret agent to get information for Harry.
“Harry,” Iris shrieked when she finally caught sight of him. The floo flared as she yelled at her twin about ‘bothering’ Neville. Hearing a snort he turned towards the fireplace to see Leo chuckling. Even Sirius looked a little amused as Iris continued. Harry sat silently, his face so perfectly still it was a little scary. Harry had once mentioned to Neville that he had perfected that blank mask at the Dursleys, he was sad to see Harry have to use it here with a family that was actually supposed to care for him.
“Iris, that’s enough,” Lily finally stepped in, “Your friends are here.”
The girl slowly deflated before turning to Neville and Leo as the floo flared again. A blond woman stepped into the room smiling at Lily and Alice as her daughter followed her out of the fire. Soon the four of them were heading to Iris’s room. As they left the room Neville smiled when he saw that Harry had already escaped to his room.