You think you know someone

 “Mr. Potter, sir?” The hallway reflected a green blaze radiating from the fireplace where Unspeakable Granger’s voice loomed from in the Potter residence. “We need to talk.”

 Harry sighed heavily in aggravation, making his way over to the sitting room where the fireplace was installed. Upon Sirius’ stay, the Department of Mysteries was granted unlimited access to the flew network connected to their fireplace, which meant the wards wouldn’t work on the Unspeakables.

 Ginny and Sirius were at the garage at the moment, so he was the only one to greet the intruder.

 So far, none of his children were at home. James had left the country with Fred a month ago and Lily was back at Hogwarts for her fourth year. Albus should’ve gone with his sister for his sixth, but unfortunately, he was still missing. This year’s drop off was by far the worst the Potters had to endure. To think that just last year, Harry and Ginny were able to say their goodbyes to all three of them at the train station. How he missed seeing all three of those rascals together. This year’s drop off was supposed to have just one Potter child missing from the equation, not two.

 “What now?! You were here a week ago!” Harry was exasperated by the unannounced visit. “You said we’d schedule these appointments at the end of each month, not four—seven—eight times a month—this is harassment!”

 Granger’s face swelled in guilt as he apologized repeatedly, and Harry felt bad for snapping at him.

 The Unspeakables had informed the Potters in the summer that they would perform monthly check ups on their visitor, which Harry thought was a fair trade considering they’ve permitted him to keep Sirius in his home. What Harry found deplorable was their insistence of showing up more times than the agreed amount, and they did so without so much of a waring.

 “Haven’t I told you to contact my secretary before coming here?” Harry said. “I swear Sirius isn’t going anywhere he oughtn’t!”

 “I know, sire, I know, and I am so sorry for the inconvenience—but get this.” Granger strode toward him with an air of giddiness. “Last night, I had an epiphany—I think I may have found a way to locate your son—talk to him, even—I just—I have one word for you: owls.”

 Harry stared at the younger man in concern. His brown hair looked to be as bushy as Hermione’s at the moment. His eyes were red from either clear sleep desperation or drugs. The bags under them supported the former theory. His usually pale skin was even more pallid than usual, Harry thought.

 “Adam,” Because that’s the name Sirius used to refer to him. “would you like to lie down for a bit?” Harry attempted to lead the Unspeakable to a sofa, but Adam Granger didn’t seem to have heard him.

 “Now I know we can’t risk sending them through the veil—them being living entities and very likely ending up dead—and even if they made it, there’s still the possibility of ending up in the wrong dimension for having too many Albuses to choose from, basically—but then I thought to myself, what other method is there to help find people?”

 “What?”

 “The Patronus Charm!” He snapped his fingers, grinning widely at Harry.

 “Okay, have a seat, will you?” He all but forced the other man to sit down. He decided to humor him for a bit, even though Hermione had already thought of sending a message to Albus via Patroni weeks ago before that idea proved unlikely to succeed. “The Patronus Charm, you say? And why do you think that could work? You said it yourself, there are many Albuses to choose from, so how would the magic recognize which one to deliver a message to?”

 “Well, my colleagues thought about borrowing more of—”

 “No, you already have too many samples of his blood. Why do you need so many of it? What are you, vampires?”

 “Sir, we’re only just trying to see if Mr. Black’s blood—being from someplace else—would be able to recognize its home dimension and lead us to it.”

 “Yes, you say the same thing every time you require more of his blood. Maybe it’s not meant to work, and your department needs to start thinking of other methods that doesn’t consist of draining the life out of my guest.”

 “I hate to be this person, but having someone stay with you for five months or so is hardly considered to be a guest—”

 “Adam! what is it you wanted to tell me about the Patronus Charm?” Harry knew the Department of Mysteries were hoping that by intruding too much, they would drive him into handing Sirius over to their custody if he wished to restore peace in his home. It was why there were too many Unspeakables bursting into his home by random. But he also knew that the three Unspeakables he mostly associated with wouldn’t show up to his home unless it had something to do with Albus. “You think it’ll help track the right dimension, correct?”

 “Wha—oh—YES! The Patronus! We believe it’ll be the first step to locating your son!” Adam got up again and before Harry could settled him back down, the restless man began pacing in circles. “Just think about it, it’ll be perfect—of course, gotta hand credit where credit is due, it is the Minister’s idea, I believe—your friend really is brilliant—”

 “But you told Hermione that it couldn’t’ve worked!” Harry thought that maybe Adam was having trouble remembering things from all the sleep he certainly lacked. The man was a right mess, and that’s coming from Harry! “You told us that the void would send the magic to where it belonged, so the veil will just expel the Patroni back to where the caster is.”

 “That’s the thing, sir—don’t you get it? The man in your house can exist in two worlds that we know of, and so can your son! The-the void that the, uh, the veil leads to works cleverly, sir. It knows that whatever gets exposed to it will have to wind up somewhere beyond the countless gateways it contains—silver light as Black describes the one he passed through to get to our world—The void made sure he and your son don’t end up someplace where a merge could happen—well, not a merge, precisely. It’s actually more of a—”

 “Collision. Yeah, yeah, we established all that rubbish months ago.” Harry waved him off. Granger wasn’t spitting out any new facts, except for the half phrases that made no sense. He was starting to get tired from trying to keep up with the other man. “Get to the point, Granger.”

 “Sorry, sir, I’m getting there, just you wait, please.” Adam stopped pacing and flushed lightly. “The void couldn’t recognize where exactly Albus and Sirius should belong to, given that there are worlds that lacked their presence in them, so it could be any one of those worlds—we believe that it had traded their places, because neither of their counterparts exist in the other’s timeline.” He paused, frowning. “At least not for another two decades. If the universe Albus is in spawns its own Albus Potter before we get him out of there, a collision will inevitably happen to both our worlds—oh my God! This is bad—this will be the end—oh no. . .” He crumbled to the ground, breathing jaggedly.

 Is he seriously having a panic attack right now?

 “Adam, twenty years is a long time.” Harry sat on the floor beside him, urging him to inhale deeply and exhale, rubbing his back soothingly. “We’re going to get Albus out of there as soon as we can.” Harry never thought he would be the one to give comfort in a situation that he should be the one to receive it. It was his son missing after all.

 He helped Adam back onto the couch before leaving to fetch him a glass of water. He waited patiently for the other man to calm his nerves and didn’t say anything before he did.

 “Y’know, maybe I overreacted.” Adam spoke to himself. “Maybe the other universe won’t have its own Albus Potter, like, ever.”

 “Mmhmm.”

 “And like you said, sir, we have twenty years to figure this out.” Adam dropped his face to his hands and yawed. “Think I got off track there, sorry.”

 “S’alright” Harry cleared his throat. “I am curious though, what brought you here?”

 “Haven’t I said anything yet?” He let go of his face and looked at Harry squarely, exhaustion still evident on his face. “My point is we cannot send a Patroni into the void because our magic only left its imprint on one universe, which is this one, but not Black’s.” Adam Granger gestured widely with his hand. “Sirius Black’s magic had been familiarized with two universes.” He looked at Harry with an expression he couldn’t name. “You know what this means, right?”

 Harry thought it over before his eyes widened.

 “His magic!”

 Adam nodded. “I think his Patronus is the only sort of magic that can help find the right Albus Potter.”

 Harry snorted humorlessly. “So it wasn’t his blood you needed after all.”

 “Well. . .” Adam said squeakily. “My department still requests more of it to use in lab experiments, so I’m obligated to ask for it.” He shrugged. “Though I personally think it’s unnecessary.”

 Something in Harry’s chest tightened in anticipation, but he willed himself to not cling to any high expectations. To not have his hopes up again. Everyone had come up with many theories over the past months on how to find Albus, and each attempt had been met with a dead end.

 “If this works, Mr. Potter—and I think it will—then we will officially have our first lead.”

Harry had many strange nights. But if he had to rank them, tonight would definitely be in the top three. He wasn’t aware that his body had been shivering the entire time until Monty pointed out how shaky his arm was. Since Voldemort spoke to him, Harry couldn’t stop shivering. His mind played over what had been said. Not for the first time, Harry didn’t feel safe in his own mind. Goodbye sleep.

 The last time Harry went to Dumbledore’s at this late hour was when he dreamed of being Nagini while she was mercilessly attacking Mr. Weasley. This time, he wasn’t sure if someone’s life was at stake as it had been before, but he wasn’t going to rule out the possibility. If the diadem was like the diary, then it’s undeniably dangerous. Dumbledore needed to know about the diadem now. Harry thought determinedly that once Dumbledore was made aware of the potential danger lingering at Hogwarts, Draco Malfoy would be caught red handed before anybody could get hurt. He internally thought how ironic it was that the diadem was Malfoy’s task given how his father was responsible for Tom Riddle’s diary ending up at Hogwarts too.

 But that begged the question. Did Malfoy bring the diadem here? Or had the diadem been at Hogwarts the whole time?

 Harry thought of how many times Malfoy’s name would disappear from the map before reappearing again. Was it possible that he had been searching for the diadem the whole time, and that he, Harry, just practically handed it to him? The thought made him squirm in ineffable guilt.

 Had he been fooled again? Like he had when Voldemort tricked him to go to the ministry for the prophecy that had been waiting for him to touch? Harry’s naivety then had cost a life, he would not let it cost another.

 As he was passing through the hallway, some of the portraits were wide awake, gossiping. Harry recognized them as the ones that were usually asleep in the mornings and afternoons. The portraits would grow quiet as he walked past them. Some of the figures followed him from painting to painting curiously.

 “Boy, I suggest you head to bed before Filch catches you.” One of them said halfheartedly as though they didn’t really want Harry to stop what he was doing.

 “I’m going to see Professor Dumbledore.” Harry said without looking up.

 “The Headmaster?” A feminine voice questioned from the other wall. “He left the castle hours ago.”

 “What?” Harry stopped at once, properly addressing the walls filled with paintings. “Where’d he go?”

 All the awake portraits shrugged unhelpfully. One of them muttered, “I don’t know.”

 Harry groaned but continued to walk toward his headquarters.

 “Hey, you’re not really going to wait for him, are you? He might not return until morning!” A male voice called after him.

 “Or days. Have you met the peculiar man?” A female voice added.

 Harry’s tracks halted for a second before he decided to continue on. He’d sleep in front of the office door if he had to, and if Dumbledore wouldn’t return in the following day, then Harry would have to go to McGonagall. He could only hope she would believe him.

 As he neared the statue, he didn’t bother guessing a password. He slumped on the floor, back leaning against the statue as a wave of fatigue washed over him.

 “Hey, bite me if I fall asleep, okay?”

 “You’re still shaking, Speaker.” The snake sounded upset, Harry didn’t know why.

 “I’ll be okay.” As he said it, his eyes couldn’t help but land on the engraved words on the back of his left hand. He started at the scar and snickered bitterly. Well, Umbridge, the message sunk in only physically. But that’s the way you intended it to be, isn’t it?

 Minutes passed, and Harry felt his eyes becoming drowsy. He forced himself not to give in. To keep his eyelids wide open. He knew he would not truly rest if his mind started reliving the life of one Tom Marvolo Riddle. Harry already had too many ties to his parents’ murderer, he did not need to know him that intimately.

 If Harry thought this night couldn’t get any weirder, it had been the most foolish thought to ever occur to him. The night was young, and there’re still one more surprise he hadn’t anticipated. And it came in the form of a dog Patroni.

 He stopped shivering. The warmth of the Patronus filled him with ease he felt deprived of for so long. 

 The fact anyone could bring themselves to be happy enough to conjure a Patronus now was baffling to Harry. Happiness seemed like something abstract at the moment, something that one wishes to feel but was impossible to achieve. Or maybe Harry hadn’t felt happy for so long that he forgot others were still capable of producing such emotion. The time happiness drained itself out of him was the time Sirius had fallen through the veil. But seeing the light radiating from the dog sparked something in him. Something like hope.

The glowing dog approached Harry and now that he could see it properly, his heart thumped so rapidly and loudly he could almost hear nothing else. The dog looked so much like Snuffles. Almost as if—

 “Harry, it’s me, Sirius. I’m alive.” The sound coming from the glowing dog was like music to Harry’s ears. He thought his mind must have officially snapped if he was hearing and seeing this. “I’m supposed to direct a message to Albus, but I couldn’t do it without speaking to you first. I’m so sorry I disappeared.”

 Harry felt his windpipe close. This was Sirius’ sincere voice alright.

 Had he gone crazy?

 I’m dreaming. He realized, breathing jaggedly. The thought didn’t make him feel grim at all. It was the very opposite. This might be the best dream for him to have. Or rather, any dream that was Voldemort-free was a good dream in his standard.

 The dog wasn’t done though.

 “I wish I could speak to you in person, but where I am makes it difficult for us to reunite. I won’t even know if this reaches you, but if it does, remember my voice. This is real. I am not dead, and I am going to come for you. I promised you’d be my first priority like you should’ve been in 1981. I will not let you down like I did then. You have my word.”

 Harry smiled lazily as he gazed up at the dog. He wished to never wake up if it meant he could listen to these reassurances forever. To know that he was loved and wanted. To drown in the delusion that Sirius had somehow survived the veil and was coming back.

 “I am in a different universe, apparently. Just ask Albus and I’m sure he’ll tell you all about it. If this message reaches you, please tell Remus that I am alive. And urge Albus to learn the Patronus Charm. It may be the only way we can communicate until I find a way back to you. You were so brave back at the ministry, Harry. I know your parents would’ve been crazy proud of you. I know I am. Please be safe. And talk to Albus!”

 With that, the dog very quickly hurried away from him. Harry couldn’t have caught up even if ran after the glow.

 When the dog no longer was in his presence, Harry felt the warmth leave with the dog. He let out a whimper at the abrupt coldness that returned to him. The coldness that Voldemort had left in him from their previous chat. He wasn’t shivering like he was before, but the absence of the dog really made Harry realize how miserable he’d been.

 Well, it was a dream anyway, so why did it matter?

 “What was that?” He felt the snake coil on his arm. He wasn’t sure if he had just woken up or if this dream felt that real.

 “What was what?” Harry said dully.

 “You know what! That glow! It was speaking to you, it speaks human.”

 “Y-you saw it?”

 “Are you telling me you didn’t?”

 Harry pinched himself hard. He wasn’t dreaming.

 “Have I slept at all, Monty?”

 “I would’ve bit you if you did, wouldn’t I?”

 “The. . . the dog?”

 “It wasn’t a real dog. It was something else. What did it say to you?”

 Harry’s head started spinning. That. . . the Patroni was real. That message. Sirius’ voice.

 What had the dog said? Aside from telling Harry to speak to Dumbledore, Sirius kept saying that he would come back. That he wasn’t dead. What else had it said? Harry wished he could ask Monty that question, but the snake couldn’t understand a word that wasn’t spoken in Parseltongue.

 Sirius said that he had meant to send the Patronus message to Dumbledore, so no doubt the dog left Harry to deliver it to Dumbledore right this second.

 Sirius was alive. He was in a different dimension but alive.

 Dumbledore had tried convincing Harry of the possibility that Sirius might not be dead. That he and Al had switched places. Harry had refused to even entertain that idea, let alone believe it.

 How many times had Harry told himself that until there was solid proof, Sirius was as good as dead to him.

 That proof just presented itself before Harry a moment ago.

 “Sirius is alive.” He whispered. He hadn’t realized that his face had been wet until he raised his hands toward it, wiping away the long traces of tears that wouldn't stop falling. “My godfather is still alive.”

 “Good for you.”

 Now Harry really needed to speak to Dumbledore.