Worlds Collide

As they crawled through the portal into their own universe, everyone let out a sigh of relief.

They all sat in a circle on the floor, laughing loudly.

“Back to normal life… how boring.” Dazai fake pouted.

“I’m just glad to be back home.” Draco smiled.

“Man, I wish we could’ve stuck around long enough to pull more amazing pranks.” George giggled.

“Double the trouble- it was loads of fun!” Fred chuckled.

“Doubles of the two of you were too much.” Ron shuddered.

“Still, it was nice to meet another version of myself.” Hermione spoke, thoughtfully.

“I’m just glad we are all back home, safe.” Blaise smiled to Dazai who smiled back fondly.

“What is going on?” Spleen shouted.

Oh right, they were in the infirmary… Dazai glanced over at the beds of the petrified victims, knowing Madam Pomfrey was laying behind one of those curtains, frozen in time.

“We were just leaving to go to lunch.” Hermione stood up and brushed herself off. The group quickly shuffled out of the infirmary with excited giggles.

“Damn kids these days…” Spleen growled as he turned back to his book of research.

-

The group practically skipped down the hallway with a sense of joy, including Dazai. Their latest adventure was definitely one for the books!

Their excitement was short lived, however, because once they walked back into the great hall, the mood in the room grew darker at Dazai’s reappearance.

The others didn’t realize until now, but when Dazai left, the mood of most of the students had significantly improved.

Long story short, most were not thrilled at seeing him return.

The looks of contempt returned and Dazai finally felt like he was home, unfortunately.

“You guys!” Pansy shouted as she ran over to Blaise and Draco and wrapped her arms around their necks. “You’re back! You’re safe!” She practically cried out.

The two boys smiled at each other over her shoulders before hugging her back.

Snape practically shot up out of his chair. His problem child was back!

As he was making his way over to the group, Luna reached them first.

“You’re back! I’m so glad!” She lightly hugged Dazai and pulled away just as fast.

“Hey, Luna! I heard you were a big help to my friends. Thank you.”

She nodded and Ginny walked to stand beside Luna.

“I’m glad my brothers are all ok.” She said as the twins pulled her into a hug and started speaking baby-talk to her.

“Aww our little Ginny winny was worried about us!”

“Don’t worry, little one, your big brothers are back.” They patted her head.

Percy sighed with relief at the sight of his siblings being all back together again. He had obviously been worried for their well-being.

“Dazai, I’m glad to see that you’re safe too.” He said to Dazai. Was he worried about him as well?

Snape stopped in front of the group and crossed his arms.

“Mr. Weasley.” He spoke harshly to Ron who startled in response. “If you EVER pull something like that again…” he gave him a serious glare. He didn’t need to explain more, because he got his point across.

That’s right… Ron just jumped through the portal in his class while Snape was in the middle of telling another student not to. How funny!

“I won’t do it again.” Ron spoke fearfully.

“Good. As for Mr. Dazai.” Snape turned to face the boy who smiled with excitement to see him. “I still haven’t had the chance to scold you about your prank last week.”

Oh right… When Dazai faked his death. Yeah, Snape definitely didn’t like that one, did he?

“I’d like for you to meet me in my office during the next break so we can talk.”

“Looking forward to it, sir.”

“Now then, you should all go ahead and eat while you can.”

The students went back to their respective tables and ate. Many eyes were still lingering on Dazai, but he didn’t care much. He had more pressing matters…

Featherbrain dropped a letter on his lap while he sat at the table… Looks like he was back to receiving orders from Mori… Maybe he was better off staying in the other universe after all.

He’d have to read it later. For now, he tucked it into his robe pocket and continued to eat his food.

“So much happened.” Draco sighed. He had chosen to sit next to Dazai for the first time in a while in their universe. Pansy sat on the other side of him, happy that he and Blaise were back home.

“You’ve got that right.” Dazai frowned thoughtfully.

“Oh yeah, I never got to address what you told the other me!”

“Hmm?” Dazai tilted his head.

“You told him I have daddy issues! What’s that about?” Draco whispered angrily.

“You don’t remember? As I said, you and I talked and bonded over our daddy issues. It was at the beginning of the year.” Dazai whispered back

“You consider that daddy issues?!” Draco huffed.

“What else would it be?” Dazai chuckled.

Draco let his mouth gape open as he rolled his eyes. “Whatever.”

Dazai watched him turn back to his food, amused.

“Too bad we got home when we did. One more day there, and I might’ve gotten to witness you keeping good on your word and killing yourself.” Dazai announced.

“Killing yourself? Draco!” Pansy gasped.

“Dazai, more context!” Draco tried to calm down the other students who were exasperated upon hearing that. “I threatened the Draco of that universe. That’s all he meant.”

The other students weren’t sure if they should believe him or not. Draco actually killing someone… that seemed kind of far fetched considering the boy was pretty cowardly at times.

“Another Draco? Wait, does that mean there was another me?” Pansy asked.

“There were duplicates of almost everyone there.”

“Tell us more.” Another Slytherin chimed in.

“Alright, I guess I could tell you all about our awesome adventure.” Draco cleared his throat.

What he spoke seemed like it was a story from a fairytale. The students listened at full attention except for Dazai who recalled the events from the day before Draco arrived.

The Snape of that universe scared him and everyone was different… Blaise, however…

Dazai looked at Blaise who matched his gaze.

The Blaise of that universe had seen the scars on his arm. Not even this Blaise had seen those yet.

Other Blaise didn’t hate him or find him gross… and after what Harry said…

Would Blaise still accept him, even if he knew the truth? And how would he react when seeing the scars? Would he recoil in disgust or would he react the same way other Blaise did?

Blaise tilted his head a bit after him and Dazai played the staring game for several long seconds.

“Dazai?” He finally asked.

The boy snapped out of his thoughts and chuckled fondly. There’s no need to rush… baby steps, after all.

“It’s nothing.” He smiled as he took a bite of his food.

He overheard some holes in Draco’s story with amusement.

It sounded like the blonde boy was a superhero or something.

And you know, he kind of was that one time.

-

Dazai knocked on Professor Snape’s office door and entered upon command.

“Hey.” Dazai waved.

“Take a seat, Mr. Dazai.” Snape gestured towards the seat. Their two mugs of tea were already full and ready to be consumed.

That’s something the other Snape didn’t do for him. He wondered if other Snape had the same mug collection or not. Should he send him a letter and ask?

“I want you to tell me all about what happened in these last 6 days.”

“Hmm, where do I start?” Dazai hummed. “Oh, actually, I did have a question for you, professor.”

“What is it?”

“Well, I met a boy there who attends the Hogwarts in that universe, but he doesn’t attend the Hogwarts in our universe. He asked me to find him so that we could stay friends here too.”

“Really? That’s interesting.” Weren’t the universes supposed to be almost parallel to each other?

“Yeah. I was wondering if you’ve heard anything about him?” Dazai started as he watched Snape take a sip from his mug. “His name is Harry Potter.”

Snape immediately froze and lowered his mug with wide eyes.

“Potter?” He asked and Dazai nodded.

He set his tea mug back down and sighed. “I haven’t heard that name in a long time.”

“So you know him? Do you know where he is?” Dazai asked.

Snape sighed and met his gaze again. “I don’t know if you’re ready to hear this tale, Mr. Dazai.”

“Just tell me.”

“The boy, Harry Potter, was the son of an old friend of mine. Lily Evans was her name. Her family was targeted by Voldemort in the last war and they lost their lives.”

“Harry said something about that. He said that was the day he got the scar on his forehead.”

“Mr. Dazai…” Snape winced a little. “The boy, Harry, also died that day.”

Dazai felt like the wind was sucked right out of his lungs.

The Harry in this world… was dead?

Ron and Hermione took to him instantly. The three of them in the other universe were all best friends. Dazai wanted to bring the Harry of this universe here, not just for him, but for them as well.

But he’s dead…

Dazai lowered his head with a wide eye, visibly stunned by the news.

They made a deal. Dazai was supposed to find Harry and Harry was supposed to find Dazai so they could all keep being friends.

If the Harry of this universe died as a baby… then where was the Dazai of the other universe? Would Blaise be able to find him?

“If you’d like.” Snape spoke softly. “We could go visit the boy’s grave tomorrow since it’ll be the weekend.”

Dazai looked up and met his eyes. Maybe that was the closure he needed?

He could always write the other Harry a letter and send it through one of the portals if one opens again.

The portals in the school were way more stable than they had been, so finding an active one would be a challenge and may take a while, but it wasn’t impossible. There was still a slim chance.

“Alright.” Dazai sighed. He took a sip of his tea to help distract him from these gross feelings within him.

The taste of honey bit his tongue, and he pretended to hate it.

“As far as the other stuff goes…” Dazai huffed.

He told Snape a vague version of the story, leaving out several details. Snape didn’t need to know that his other self had scared Dazai, causing him to hurt himself. There were many things he really didn’t need to know.

Snape nodded along and hummed. “I see. Sounds like you had fun.”

This was nice, bonding with his favorite professor again. He didn’t miss many of the things here, but moments like this made it worth coming back.

“As far as your prank from over a week ago… we can address it another time. You should probably tell your friends about young Potter.”

Dazai nodded. “I’ll tell them tonight when we have the chance to properly mourn.”

That’s right… How will they take the news?

-

That evening, Dazai held a brief hell’s hounds meeting in the room of requirement.

Everyone took their seats and Dazai sat at his desk, grim.

“Dazai? You’ve seemed so down since we’ve returned.” Draco said.

“What happened?” Blaise patted his back, sharing Dazai’s chair with him.

“Tomorrow, we are going to visit Harry.” He spoke sadly.

The others watched him, waiting to hear what the problem was.

“When he was a baby, he was attacked by Voldemort. He lost his parents that day. The Harry we met in the other universe had survived the attack.”

“He survived in that universe… are you saying that in this one…?” Ron caught on.

Dazai nodded. “In this one, he didn’t make it. He died as an infant along with his parents.”

The room was filled with devastation, mostly from Ron, Hermione, Draco, and Dazai.

It was silent for several minutes, as everyone sat in their seats and silently mourned.

“We will be visiting his grave.” Dazai closed his eye.

He heard the sound of weeping escaping from Hermione’s lips.

Ron patted her shoulder in an attempt to comfort her. He looked like he was trying his best to hold in his tears as well.

Dazai’s chest hurt. He knew those two deserved to have Harry in their lives. The three of them held such a strong bond. He hated that the chance for this Ron and Hermione to have the same thing was ripped away from them.

That Voldemort… he will pay.

Draco held a sad face, and silently stared at the floor.

They weren’t even close in the other universe, but this Draco actually had the chance to bond with Harry.

What a tragic situation.

-

After everyone returned back to the common rooms, Dazai took the time to finally get a shower! It had been over a week, and he desperately needed one.

He was used to looking away from his scars, but his eye accidentally caught some of them.

These scars apparently meant that Dazai was a survivor like Harry was… like Harry should’ve been…

He clutched his healing wrist wounds to his chest as he let the warm water rush over his body.

Harry didn’t survive. Did his baby self even get a scar?

Dazai wanted to die, but how would his friends feel if he left them behind like Harry did?

He hates his scars, they’re unsightly and gross… but he was still here, after all… still surviving.

When he went to sleep that night, his past didn’t haunt his dreams, instead, he slept with fond memories of his time with Harry, sleeping peacefully for the first time in a long time.

He didn’t want to acknowledge that it was due to gross feelings such as these, so instead, he decided to blame Draco for his lack of sleep up until now.

That jerk…

-

The hell’s hounds went with Snape to visit Harry’s family’s grave.

They placed a bouquet of white carnations on the grave, reading the names on the tombstone.

“James Potter
Lily Potter (Evans)
Harry Potter.”

Under their names was a short message that read.

“The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.”

There was weeping and bowed heads staring at the ground in grief.

Other than the cries and the sound of the wind blowing, there was silence. Everyone had the opportunity to silently mourn and remember the friend that should’ve been standing beside them.

‘Harry, I found you like I said I would. Unfortunately, I couldn’t bring you back to Hogwarts with us. I hope you have better luck than I do over there.’ Dazai thought, fondly.

Better luck, huh? Was it better luck that Dazai was still breathing while Harry was 6 feet under, with bones the size of a baby? Or was it better luck that Harry achieved the one thing Dazai wanted his whole life while Dazai was left here to continue suffering?

Was it better luck over there for his friends to have Harry, or was it better luck for his friends here to have Dazai?

So many questions. So many unknowns. No simple answers. How frustrating.

He felt a hand intertwine with his own and looked up to see Blaise, who was standing at his side.

The boy didn’t say anything, but he did bring a great comfort to Dazai.

Maybe each universe was how they were supposed to be, as unfortunate as it seemed.

He squeezed Blaise’s hand as he closed his eye and felt a breeze rustle his hair.

“Rest in peace, my friend.”

-

When they returned back to the castle, Snape returned to his office and held the papers in his hands with a chuckle.

Dazai didn’t think his grades would follow him home, yet, Snape (HP) had other plans. He sent all of their grades through the portal that morning and Snape (MaM) was writing them into the grade book.

Dazai’s grade had jumped up a whole letter, something that would absolutely disappoint the boy.

Snape smirked. He wouldn’t tell him of his grade until the end of the year. The shocked expression on the boy’s face will be worth it!

-

Dazai spent that night at his desk, with a quill to paper.

He wrote Harry a letter, asking the boy to keep the contents from everyone else.

He wrote of the boy’s fate in his universe and apologized for not being able to bring him back with them.

He also decided to share his life story with Harry. Why? Well, because he’s not going to tell anyone else.

He very likely wouldn’t see Harry again and he wanted to know all he could about him. An exchange of information should suffice.

‘What about you?’ He wrote on the last line of his several paged letter.

Sending it the next morning wasn’t hard. The portal in the great hall was on the ceiling in Dazai’s universe, so he settled on using wingardium Leviosa to lift it into the portal.

The day after, he received a letter back from Harry.

During their first break of the day, he asked for privacy in the Hounds office.

Reading it over, it seemed they had a lot more in common than Dazai had originally thought.

Both came from abusive upbringings, both had scars, both were survivors.

The pain in his chest sunk in even deeper.

Seemed like life really did hate him. He couldn’t have the one person who would’ve truly understood him.

How unlucky…

They both took advantage of the rift by sending letters back and forth any day they could.

He couldn’t have Harry here, but at least they could do this much for now.

-

So many things happened in the following weeks.

They had defeated the basilisk, and Dazai had just learned that the petrification victims would awaken soon.

Blaise and Dazai both tampered with the potion, in hopes of finishing Madam Pomfrey off.

What they didn’t realize, however, was tampered with potions can sometimes visibly change, even only subtly.

There was a secret investigation being held to determine who tampered with that potion, but for now, the victims were brought into hiding.

The news of their supposed “deaths” hit everyone in the school pretty hard, but the ones in charge of figuring this out had to make the perpetrators think they got away with it.

As for Headmistress Mcgonagall, she knew the news broke Snape’s heart, but she couldn’t tell him just yet.

The letter she sent through the portal reached Madam Pomfrey (HP) and she was able to brew an extra potion and treat the victims over the summer break.

They managed to transfer the patients through the portal and into the HP universe for safety.

She felt uneasy about watching herself lying in the bed, frozen and petrified, knowing someone had intended to kill her, but she had a duty to save everyone here, and she would do her absolute best to make sure she did it right!

When the students return back to school for the next school year, Madam Pomfrey (MaM) will make a comeback along with the other victims.

It should be an interesting turn of events.

Meanwhile, when Dazai was back home for the summer, he kept feeling a sense of dread in the pit of his stomach… but why?

Something felt off…