Theories
Harry is unable to get his conversation with Granger out of his head and he wishes his daddy was there so he could talk to him about it. He figures that the next best thing in the given circumstances, would be this world’s Remus Lupin. So as soon as he’s finished his lunch, he makes his way to the Owleryand sends the man a letter with one of the school owls.
He feels extremely foolish and embarassed when the man shows up at the castle less than an hour later.
”It wasn’t that urgent”, he mumbles, feeling his face burn.
The older man smiles at him kindly and it makes him look so much like the Remus that Harry knows that he feels his chest pinch with longing.
”I was coming to see Dumbledore anyway”, the man assures him. ”Do you want to go for a quick walk?”
They make their way outside and amble down towards the lake shore and Harry tells the older man everything that he and Granger talked about. Lupin looks anything but surprised and nods in agreement.
”It’s not very common, especially two wziards — or two witches — living and raising a child together, as a family—” Harry feels his shoulders slump and he can tell that the older man notices, because he changes his tone slightly to a more positive one. ”It’s uncommon, but it wouldn’t necessarily be unaccepted it it happened. Generally there’s more of a live and let live attitude in the magical world about these things, so if two wizards did move in together, it wouldn’t necessarily be a problem…”
”But if it’s unheard of”, Harry counters glumly. ”How many wizards are going to grow up thinking that it’s even an option?”
”Well, yes… You have a point… But”, the older man says, regaining some of his positive composure once more. ”If anyone can change that, it’s The Boy Who Lived!”
Harry gives him a pinched smile and nods, even though the thought of staying in this world indefinitely, never seeing his dads, his friends or his Draco again, ever, kills him.
Well, I can’t, he thinks passionately. I have to find a way back. I just have to!
After both his conversation with Granger and the one with Lupin, Harry does decide that it’s probably for the best if he keeps his sexuality as well as the nature of his relationship with Draco Malfoy back in his own world a secret. Despite this, he doesn’t regret confiding in the Draco and Pansy of this world, because ever since he did, the Slytherins have all begun giving him a wide birth instead of angling for a fight every other day. And as long as that continues, and as long as Pansy keeps her smug theories to herself, things should be fine.
”Parkinson knows?” Granger hisses in alarm, when Harry voices this particular pearl of optimism while the two of them are going over Harry’s theories in the Common Room and he frowns, suddenly feeling less optimistic about the whole thing. ”Are you sure? She knows about you and Malfoy?”
”Not — exactly — What?” Harry snaps, annoyed at the exaggerated look of panic that suddenly erupts in the girl’s face. ”Stop that! It’s fine, she doesn’t know anything — all I said was I think she might suspect, that’s all—!”
”Harry, that girl has the tact of hippogriff doing ballet”, Granger tells him seriously. ”And she feeds on gossip and drama—”
”She is not that bad”, Harry snaps, then slumps back into his seat sullenly when the Gryffindor gives him an outraged look in response. ”Okay, she does like drama, and gossip, but—”
”But?” Granger repeats incredulously.
”BUT — she doesn’t know for sure and she can’t prove anything, so the worst that can happen is that she tells Dra- Malfoy. He won’t believe it. I’ll deny it. Problem solved — except there isn’t even a problem to solve, so — no problem!”
”Will you?” Granger counters. ”Deny it?”
”Yeah, of course?”
”So if Malfoy comes up to you and wants a word… In private…” Granger fixes him a look that might be intended to seem heated, but only makes Harry feel uncomfortable. ”And he’s there and you’re there and he’s looking at you with his big, blue eyes—”
”They’re grey.”
”—grey, whatever — but he’s standing there in front of you, all dreamy — and — and — and I don’t know, I don’t know what you see him at all, to be honest, but you get my point —”
”No, I really don’t —”
”In that situation — if it’s just the two of you alone together, and he asks you! Will you really be able to deny it, knowing that there’s a smidgeon of possibility that if you don’t… You might get to smooch your boyfriend again?” she finishes with an exaggerated eyebrow wiggle.
”Please stop”, Harry mutters and grimaces. ”And he’s not my boyfriend. So yes. I will.”
Granger deflates a little and sighs softly.
”What now?” Harry frowns.
”You really miss him, don’t you?”
Harry doesn’t bother asking who she means, just nods sadly.
”Okay”, Granger says decisively and sits up a little straighter again, pulling the notes closer and grabbing her quill. ”Then let’s get you home… Now, you said you were in the Department of Mysteries before the change happened —”
”Yes…” Harry says heavily. ”We’ve been over this a hundred times already—”
”Well, we’re going over it again — I can’t see how the Department of Mysteries isn’t relevant here. It must have had something to do with it.” Harry nods in agreement. ”But I also don’t think it’s as simple as just taking you back there — We were all there as well, and nothing happened to us.”
”Well, it’s obviously to do with the specific room I was in when it happened.”
”The room with the clocks?” Granger starts drawing some kind of diagram on the bottom of the parchment. ”We were in that room too and nothing happened, so you must have done something differently — can you think of what?”
Harry sighs, rubbing his face. They’ve already been over this countless of times already, so it’s with a sense of rattling off a script that he starts describing the order of events.
”And you said Lucius Malfoy grabbed Draco and the two of them Disapparated?” Granger cuts in, still scribbling away on the parchment.
”Yeah”, Harry nods. ”I was still there, duelling with — I don’t know — at least two other Death Eaters. I was cornered. The Space Room was my only way out of there, but —”
”And the door to the Space Room — do you remember on which side of the room it was?” Granger interrupts him.
She then turns the parchment around to show him a surprisingly accurate floorplan of the Clock Room drawn at the bottom of the page of notes. Harry blinks, impressed.
”You said you were here?” Granger prompts, pointing at a little rectangle in the middle of the room. ”Hiding under this table?”
Harry nods eagerly, grabbing the quill from her.
”Yeah, and the hexes were coming from this direction, so the Death Eaters would have been at this door…” he makes a quick doodle at the door to the door to the circular room. ”Or this one… I ran this way… and there was a door here, that I opened behind me whilst blocking the hexes and then I fell backwards as the door opened and… And you know the rest.”
Granger nods thoughtfully, staring down at the small drawing. She grabs the quill back and sketches out a quick floor plan of a second room next to the first one, divided by a thick line. She writes Clocks over the first one and Space over the second one.
”What are you thinking?” Harry asks, feeling a small thrill of excitement at the idea that they might be getting somewhere, but the girl shakes her head.
”I’m not sure… It will come to me…”
At that moment, Ron returns from Quidditch practise and sprawls out between them with a contented sigh.
”What are we talking about?” he asks idly.
He stretches out languidly and then combs his fingers through his newly-showered hair and messes it up further, sending a shower of cold water droplets all over Granger, Harry and the parchment they’d been hunched over. Granger lets out a scoff of disgust and quickly pulls the parchment towards her.
”Arificus”, she mutters to dry off the parchment, before rolling it up and tucking it back into her book bag.
”Ah, you were going over your notes. You get anywhere?”
”Not yet”, Granger says shortly.
”Well, we’re running out of time”, the redhead intones.
”We’re running out of time?” Granger repeats incredulously.
”It’s only three days until the end of the year and”, Ron turns to give Harry a nod. ”You’ll have to go stay with those muggles. Trust me, you won’t like that — not all muggles are like that, but yeah. Met them once and—”
”We are running out of time?” Granger repeats again, her voice getting a shrill quality. ”We?”
”Yeah? What?” Ron frowns.
”I don’t see you coming up with any ideas!”
”I had Quidditch practise—!”
”Quidditch is over—!”
”The hell it is—!”
”The Cup—!”
”Yeah, but we can still practise!”
Granger lets out a loud noise of exasperation and jumps to her feet. The two boys watch her disappear up the stairs to the girls’ dormitories with quick, aggressive strides.
”What’s her problem?” Ron huffs.
Harry gives him a half-hearted shrug, too tired to get into it.
That night he lies awake for a long time, thinking about his conversation with Granger. He tries to focus his mind on the floor plan she’d started drawing and on their various theories, but it keeps wandering back to the part of the conversation that had been about Draco — this world’s Draco and his Draco — and Granger’s words kept coming back to him: If it’s just the two of you alone together, and he asks you — will you really be able to deny it?
Harry had said of course, but now that he thinks about it, really thinks about it, he’s not so sure he would be able to deny it. And it’s not for the reason Granger had insinuated, waggling her eyebrows like a lunatic, he thinks.
It’s because, for all the small differences between this world’s Malfoy and his Draco and as unattractive as Harry thinks Malfoy is most of the time, sneering and snarling all over the place… He still has Draco’s eyes…
And Harry isn’t sure he’ll be able to look into them and say no, I don’t love you.
But hopefully, he thinks, the Slytherins keep leaving him alone and he won’t have to find out. With that thought, he snuggles into his pillow and allows himself to drift off to sleep.
He wakes up with an intense sense of longing, but also of frustration. He thinks really hard, trying to remember his dream… As the images start coming back to him, he realises he’s been getting glimpses of his own world, his life — but without him in it!
He’d been observing snippets of scenes with his friends and family, and Draco, as they were all interacting with the different Harry — the one from this world, presumably — although, weirdly enough, Harry thinks and sits up a little more, frowning as more memories of the dream comes back to him. The other Harry didn’t seem all that confused or like he was trying to make sense of anything.
In fact, Harry thinks. He was playing along — so as not to get caught out! The imposter! He’s trying to replace me!
Shooting out of bed in such a hurry he trips over the duvet and falls face first to the floor, Harry curses loudly and flails his arms and legs, trying to get duvet off himself.
”Harry? You alright, mate?”
”YES! NO!” Harry exclaims. ”I’m not alright!”
”It’s just a duvet—”
Finally managing to kick the duvet away completely, Harry flops over onto all fours and pushes himself up to standing. The other Gryffindors all pause what they’re doing and stare back at him, slack-jawed and apprehensive as he stands there seething.
”Mate…” Ron croaks.
”I’m going to kill him!” Harry roars.
The other boys flinch in unison.
”Who?” Longbottom squeaks.
”The imposter! Your — your — Potter!” Harry more or less spits the name out.
He feels like his very skin is sizzling with rage, the more he thinks about it.
”He’s insinuated himself into my life, my family, my — my — I will not just stand by and let him replace me!” Harry adds passionately, pointing a determined finger at Seamus’ face and recieving nothing but a couple of owlish blinks in response. ”If he thinks he can just waltz in and usurp me from my own life, he’s got another thing coming!”
”Mate, it was just a dream…” Ron croaks.
Harry’s rage, along with his finger of determination, wilts at that. Was it just a dream?
It’s not impossible, but…
No, he shakes his head furiously. ”No. It was real. It was definitely real—!”
”Okay, well…” Ron gives a sort of shrug that is part placating and part what are you going to do about it? ”In that case… If we’re going to have any chance of figuring this out… And getting you back, then…”
”What?”
”Then we need Hermione”, he says with a decisive nod and finishes pulling his jumper on.
”Her— what? I thought you were at least going to say we need to go to the Headmaster, or better yet, Professor Snape!”
”Now, I know you’re new to this place, so I’m going to let that slide”, Ron says seriously. ”But trust me… You want Hermione.”
”Oh okay…” Harry mumbles.
Harry zooms out of the dorm and takes the stairs two at a time. He finds the girl is waiting for them in the Common Room and eagerly makes his way over, but before he can even open his mouth, the girl jumps to her feet and waves a parchment in his face.
”I’ve got it!” she exclaims. ”I think I’ve got an idea!”
Harry stumbles back, startled.
”I was up thinking about it all night—!”
”Granger!” Harry snaps impatiently, grabbing the girl by the arms to get her to stand still long enough for him to tell her. ”Whatever it is, it will have to wait — I need to tell you something!”
”I have something to tell you—!” the girl counters, wrenching free from his grasp with a scowl and shoving the parchment in his face again.
”Well, this is important—!”
”THIS IS IMPORTANT—!”
”Hermione”, Ron pipes up behind them. ”Did you get any sleep? You look like—”
”Shut up Ronald”, Granger hisses, her hair getting frizzier as if to make a point.
”Yeah, shut up, Ron”, Harry snaps. ”Granger! Focus!”
”Harry, I got confused by the clocks!” Granger exclaims happily, pinning him with a manic look. ”But it’s time!”
Ron might have been on to something after all, Harry thinks with a frown. Granger isn’t going to be much help like this—
”It’s time, Harry!”
”Time for what?”
”No — IT’S TIME —!”
”For what?” he exclaims in exasperation.
”THE ROOM YOU WERE IN IN THE DEPARTMENT OF MYSTERIES — IT’S A TIME ROOM! TIME, NOT CLOCKS!”
Oh —
”TIME!”
”Okay!” Harry shouts. ”Time! So what?”
”I — I — don’t know exactly — yet”, Granger mumbles, rubbing her forward. ”But you were in the Time Room and you fell — that’s undoubtedly important — through the door between that room and the Space Room — maybe a portal? — Time and Space, get it? — I think the fact that you fell is definitely significant, because you will have been suspended in the air between the two rooms — in both and neither room at the same time —”
Harry is aware of the small audience they’ve attracted and hears one of the Patil twins mutter something about the golden trio being a lot more melodramatic laterly under her breath to her friend.
”Look, Granger”, he says calmly. ”I had a dream — although I’m sure it wasn’t just a dream—”
”Not him?” the girl frowns.
”What? Oh — no — I dreamt about my world and the Harry from this place was there in my place.”
”That makes sense”, she nods thoughtfully. ”Well, it doesn’t necessarily make sense. But at least it makes things easier…”
”How?” Ron and Harry say in unison and the girl blinks and focuses her eyes on them again.
”Well, if it’s as simple as the two of you having swapped places, then we just need to figure out a way to swap you back”, she states matter-of-factly. ”If there would have been more realities and more Harrys involved, it would have made things a lot more complicated. Don’t you think?”
Harry blinks.
”Yeaaah…” he says slowly, then adds sarcastically, ”We still need to figure out a way for me to somehow travel through time and space—”
”Well, you’ve done it once already”, Granger says and shrugs.
”She’s got a point”, Ron says.