FicWad

Chapter 1
Blatantly Alternate Universe

Harry groaned as he floated in consciousness. He felt himself lying on some sort of dirt covered ground and he was sticky and wet. What had happened to him? Cracking an eye open he grumbled and cursed at the sun, who decided to shine super-extra brightly just for him today.

Propping himself up, Harry winced and whimpered as his muscles protested against his movement. They were very stiff and his bones cracked, well, everywhere. Looking blearily around, Harry intelligently deduced that he was outside.

Brilliant, he thought sourly, getting up and dusting himself off. How in the seven levels of hell did I get out here?

The last thing Harry remembered was that he was getting ready for the attack on Little Hangleton and then /BAM/; he was out here all of a sudden. Looking around, his heart stopped. There, standing majestically over the Black Lake was Hogwarts, in all her glory. But that wasn't what made Harry's heart stop and his breath hitch.

How is Hogwarts not a pile of rubble, like it should be?!

Something was wrong, very wrong. Harry knew that this was either a trap of Voldemort's or - well - an apparition or something. He knew Hogwarts was gone, he knew it! He had watched the beautiful castle burn to the ground with his own emerald eyes!

Harry quickly drew his wand and one of his swords, a rapier. He had Godric's sword, but to think in a practical sense, the sword was just too big and cumbersome to use. When he had retrieved it from Dumbledore's office after the old headmaster died, it had somehow reformed itself into another shape, taking that of a long, heavy two handed broadsword. So, it wasn't that hard to see why Harry preferred a rapier.

Looking around warily, Harry quickly and silently crept and leapt into a nearby shrub to conceal himself. Breathing evenly and calmly, Harry released his Occlumency shields ever so slightly so that he could sense Voldemort. If the monster was nearby, his scar would be burning.

There was nothing. Not even a little tickle.

Well, Harry thought, Can't be a trap or anything. I guess it couldn't hurt to look around...

Snapping his wrist, Harry's holly wand slithered up to its forearm holster and Harry sheathed his rapier in a fluid motion, letting the handguard make a quiet pinging noise as it connected with the titanium scabbard. The rapier was a gift from Fleur Weasley and her sister Gabrielle. It seemed that they would never forget what he did for the younger Veela. He still couldn't figure out what it was made out of or where they got it.

Harry quickly used the cover of the trees and shadows and made his way around the Black Lake, trying to avoid detection. It was one of the many things Alastor Moody had taught Harry before he died. Harry grimaced. The retired Auror had been ambushed along with Kingsley when they were clearing out headquarters. The Fidelius charm had been deactivated once Dumbledore had died and there was no doubt that Narcissa told her master that right away. Moody had died a hero, being able to fend off over two dozen death eater grunts while he screamed at the Weasleys to evacuate through the Floo fireplace. When the Order returned many days later to see what they could scavenge, they only found his magical eye, spinning about wildly on the kitchen countertop.

"Hey you!"

The person who had shouted out at Harry was silenced, bound, and frozen before they could even comprehend what was going on. Harry had his wand out, pointed at their forehead as he unsheathed Godric's sword from his back-strapped scabbard. The person was a young girl, maybe fourteen, no older than sixteen.

Harry frowned. She looked awfully familiar, but he couldn't place his finger on it. She had long unruly black hair that fell over her shoulders. Her face was oval in shape, and she had nice features, from her rosy lips to her perky nose. What was so familiar...?

She blinked at him furiously since she couldn't really move due to her restrictions. Harry gasped.

Her eyes!

They were emerald green.

This is some sort of death eater trick, Harry thought immediately. There is no other possible reason, this is a trap!

"I'm going to take the silencing charm off of you," Harry said quietly, but with an edge to it. "You can scream all you want, but I've cast a muffling charm around the area, so your screams will fall on deaf ears. Actually they'll fall on mine, so I'd rather not lose my hearing thanks. You will not ask questions, only answer mine and any hostile move will get you killed, understand?"

He removed the silencer and the girl glared at him. "I understand," she spat at him. "Who -"

"Silencio/," Harry said breezily. "/I ask the questions, one more out of you and this interrogation is over, and you won't like that." He left the unsaid threat to paw at her mind. He removed the silencer again.

"Are you a death eater?" Harry asked. Stupid question, but he needed to know.

The girl, to his absolute relief, looked positively murderous. "If you think for one moment that I'm a death eater you're mad!" she shrieked. "Besides, I have more reason to suspect you're a death eater! You have me captive!"

"You shouldn't have snuck up on me," Harry said offhandedly. "Next question, where are we?"

She glared at him still. "That's a stupid question," she snapped. "We're at Hogwarts you fool."

"Hogwarts burned to the ground two years ago!" Harry said furiously. "I know, I saw it happen? Where are we?"

"You're mad," the girl muttered, still floating in the air. "Barking."

Harry took the chance to use Legillimency to poke around her minds. Not wanting to hurt the girl, he only searched her surface thoughts to see if she was telling the truth. The results he got were unsavory.

"Thank you doctor, but your opinion doesn't count," Harry said waspishly. "Alright, since I can tell you're not lying then answer me this: Where is Voldemort?"

The girl shrieked at the mention of Tom's fake name. "Don't say his name!" she hissed. "You're mad!"

"Yes, you've established that fact several minutes ago," Harry groaned. This girl was either really thick or had been living under a rock for the past ten years. "Alright then, what's your name?"

"As if I'd tell you!" she said haughtily. "Tell me yours first, oh great kidnapper!"

"I didn't kidnap you," Harry muttered. "How could you not know my name, the entire bloody wizarding world knows my name... It's Harry Potter."


If anything, this only infuriated the girl even more. "LIAR!" she screamed.

Harry was taken aback by the wave of anger she emanated. She must have been really angry to have been able to project her magical energy like that. "Oh shut up girl, if it proves anything, here's that blasted scar," Harry shouted, lifting up his fringe of hair. The girl stopped in mid-fuming as she gaped at his scar. There we go, finally...

"That's impossible!" she gasped. "You - you've got the same scar as /Neville Longbottom/! It's fake, it has to be!"

"/Neville Longbottom/?!" Harry sputtered. "When the bloody hell did he get a curse scar? Last time I checked, he was murdered by Bellatrix Lestrange!"

The girl's eyes bulged out. "You - you don't - but he's the Boy-Who-Lived!" she gasped out. "You must know!"

"What?! I'm the Boy-Who-Lived! What's going on here?" Harry demanded. "I go to sleep getting ready to launch a strike on Voldemort's stronghold and suddenly wake up in the damn Dark Forest where lo and behold, Hogwarts is back out of the blue and why is everything I say shocking to you?!"

The girl, who was just raging before, was now suddenly sobbing heavily and her tears soiled her Hogwarts robes, which bore the Gryffindor crest. "You can't be! You can't be!" she moaned over and over again. "Mum and dad said you were dead, you can't be alive!"

Harry furrowed his eyebrows and eloquently asked, "Uh - what?"

"You said you were Harry Potter right?" she cried. "You can't be him, Harry Potter died fifteen years ago when You-Know-Who attacked our home!"

Harry was speechless. She was still telling the truth. The girl was still talking.

"And then You-Know-Who attacked the Longbottoms, but they survived and Neville Longbottom defeated him!"

/Unreal/... Harry thought, mind reeling. "What is the date?" he demanded.

"It's - it's September fourteenth, 1995," she said, her voice wavering.

Harry was alarmed. "It can't be!" he sputtered. "It's supposed to be 1999! I know it was!"

"Maybe - maybe you traveled through time?" the girl asked hesitantly. "I - I mean we have Time-Turners and all that so -"

"Impossible," Harry interjected. "Time turners can go no further than three days back in time and I know for a fact that in my time I defeated Voldemort, not Neville. This is - this is totally messed up."

I must have somehow traveled to another dimension or universe/, Harry deduced. /Well, why not, stranger things have happened in the wizarding world, Luna Lovegood for instance...

"Can - can you let me go?" the girl asked timidly. Harry waved his wand absentmindedly and she floated down to the floor. She sat down heavily with her legs splayed out to the sides and stared at him. Not knowing what to do, Harry just stared back.

"You do look at lot like them," the girl pronounced out of the blue.

Harry was intrigued. "Like who?" he asked.

The girl looked scandalized. "Mum and dad!" she said tartly. "Don't tell me you never thought about that?"

"'Mum and dad?'" Harry repeated dumbly. "You mean they're a - alive?"

The girl looked at him as if he were stupid. "Of course you sod!" she exclaimed. "Why wouldn't they be?"

"Because in my - well - universe they were dead," Harry said flatly. The girl wisely shut her mouth. "So you said our mum and dad right?" he said quickly. "Does that make you my sister of some sort?"

The girl nodded uncertainly. "I suppose so," she said. She shyly stuck out her hand. "I'm Naria Sarah Potter!" she said brightly. "And of course you're big brother Harry," she continued as they shook hands. "Or would have been," she added.

"Would have been," Harry said wistfully. "That's right, I died here..."

"Mum and dad were so sad for a long time when Professor Dumbledore told them that you had been murdered," 'Naria' said sadly. "Peter was sent to Azkaban for betraying our family and it took mum and dad a long time to get over your death. And then they had - well - me!"

"Pettigrew's in Azkaban eh?" Harry mused. "That's too good for the likes of him, I killed him personally a few years ago."

"You /killed/?" Naria gasped.

Harry gave her a pointed look. "We were at war," he simply said. Naria shut her mouth wisely.

"That's awful," she said quietly. "You-Know-Who's back in this world you know, he came back last year when -"

"Lemme guess, Triwizard Tournament, Neville had his name put in by Mad-Eye, who was really a death eater, third task had the cup as a portkey and Voldemort used Neville's blood to resurrect himself?" Harry asked.

Naria stared at him speechlessly. "How?" she managed to choke out.

"Same thing happened to me in my fourth year," Harry told her. "That was like four years ago..."

"Neville is still so upset over Cho Chang's death," Naria whispered. "So is Cedric, they were dating you know. Neville feels that it's his fault that he told Cho to take the cup with him."

Harry whirled around from his pacing. "Cho Chang?" he gasped. "Wow this really is another world!" Seeing Naria's questioning gaze he quickly explained, "You see, in my world it was Cedric who was in the tournament, not Cho and they were also dating."

"Neville fancied Cho," Naria said. "But now that he thinks he got her killed, he's totally sank into depression."

"Neville here sounds a lot like I was when I was younger," Harry said thoughtfully. "Listen, I'm sorry for hexing you like that but I'm really paranoid and all."

"That's ok!" Naria said cheerfully. "I'll let it pass since you're my big brother and all!" She flashed him a cheeky smile.

"Yeah, big brother," Harry said quietly. "Listen, I've got to go and I'm pretty sure you have classes or something so -"

"You're not leaving are you?" Naria asked wildly, clutching his arm tightly. "But you've got to meet everyone! Mum and dad -"

"Will probably think I'm a death eater in disguise, like everyone else would," Harry interrupted gently. "No I think right now I should lay low for a while, figure out my next move."

"But - but you can't leave," Naria said quietly, her eyes threatening to tear up. "I'm your sister, you can't leave me!"

"Technically I'm not since I'm not even from this universe," Harry corrected. He then realized that while Naria didn't inherit her mother's red hair, she still received the temper that it came with.

"I DON'T THINK SO!"/ /she hollered. "YOU ARE COMING WITH ME HARRY JAMES POTTER AND THAT IS FINAL!"

Harry gulped. Naria's green eyes were flashing dangerously and her grip on his arm was awfully tight. "Y - yes sister," he muttered.