Chapter 345: Chapter 345: Finding Home
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I would like to thank my beta, Awdyr, for his help in this chapter.
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28 March 1995, Durmstrang
In a blink of an eye, he found himself in a familiar series of mountains, surrounded by snow. He was in Durmstrang. He could feel it, the sense of belonging, the familiarity of the world. He was back home.
Harry lied there in the snow for what felt like hours, just relishing how it soothed his burning magical circuits. The journey alone was gruelling, but it had been worth it. The slow deterioration of his magic because of the sheer wrongness of living in another universe was finally gone. It had been an experience and a half, one that he didn't wish to repeat anytime soon. Perhaps after a few decades, he would try again and find a way to bypass this side effect, to finally explore what's out there, to see a glimpse of the infinity of the multiverse.
For now, he simply relished just not being under some kind of slow Death sentence. After all, there was a reason why he took such a high risk as his method of travel. It could have so easily gone wrong. Replicating a complex magical incident, an accident really, from what he could remember from the magic, was definitely a gamble. Oh, it took months of work and experimentation to make things stick, and a lot of planning just to simulate the similar forces that were at play.
Still, now that he had no death sentence on his head, he could finally appreciate the small vacation he had in another universe. It was hard to see his counterpart being this painfully naïve, but it was expected from a boy essentially raised as a pig for slaughter by Dumbledore. It was nice to actually get to know Sirius though. The man was a bit childish and more than a little damaged from his stay in Azkaban, but he was very loyal and generally just nice to be around. It was a shame that his version of Sirius had been an insane serial killer. The dog Animagus had a point; if he compared both universes, then Harry's was definitely on the crazier side.
Anyway, his stay in another universe, while thankfully brief, was a breath of fresh air. And he liked to think he left the country better than it would have been if he hadn't appeared. He stopped a war, killed Voldemort's supporters who had killed dozens of people each, and ensured that his counterpart would live a long and happy life. It was exactly what he hoped someone would do for him.
And wasn't it ironic that he had just freed his counterpart from a prophecy, only to find out that he was saddled with one of his own? He sincerely hoped that meeting Mordred was some kind of hallucination that he experienced from the sheer chaos in the void between worlds. He refused the idea that he was destined to chain himself as some protector for refusing to let the end of the world happen. No, he had enough of prophecies intact or broken. His mere presence in the world was an aberration. He knew that ever since he found out he could remember his previous life. His mere existence was a crack in the wall, an unforeseen variable in the tapestry of existence, and that gave him options.
But now was not the time to think about useless prophecies and the end of times. It wasn't the time to think of Dumbledore or Grindelwald. No, he wanted something far more important, far more primal. He wanted to go home. He wanted to see Daphne.
He didn't know where she was. He didn't even know how long he was gone. The rules of Space and Time mean very little in the void between worlds. Deciding to bite the bullet, he grabbed the Elder Wand and flicked it while muttering, "Tempus."
Huh, he had been gone around four months, which was around the same duration he stayed in the other universe. There had to have been some kind of magical implication to that, but he was too drained to really make them. Instead, he focused on Daphne and decided to go to the best place he could find her, Hogwarts.
With a flick of his wand a portal opened to Hogwarts. It had been far easier than it had been during the Gringotts heist. He had to set up an entire space-time anchor in both schools to cut down the cost of making a portal, especially between two points of space that were so far apart. But now, he wasn't even thinking as he cast the spell. He instinctively knew that he could do it and it worked. His growth in understanding of space and time had reduced the cost of opening the portal, and of course, there's the fact that his magic just felt denser, more potent for the lack of a better word, since he came back.
He would get enough time to analyse the effects properly, once he saw Daphne again. He missed her terribly. Her counterpart in the other universe looked so much like her, but there was also so much that was just different. She wasn't as hardened, for the lack of a better term. Her sister was still cursed, and she wished to become a healer, but she wasn't willing to sink to the depth of magic and experiment with things she did not fully understand, not like his Daphne. It was probably because she didn't have access to any kind of really dangerous magic, and to be honest, he didn't know if that was a good thing or not. Would Daphne have been the same if Harry hadn't met her? Would she have become as jaded, as obsessed with saving her sister, if he hadn't given her hope that she could do just that in the first place?
He didn't know and to be honest, there was nothing he could really do to affect any of this. His Daphne was still her own person. She made her own decisions, even if she was influenced by his presence. There was nothing he could do to undo whatever harm that might have caused. He wasn't sure he even wanted to. There were many things he admired about Daphne, and her willingness to dedicate herself fully to a singular goal was admirable, to say the least.
Harry wondered how she fared without him. He had disappeared after entering in a fight, severely outnumbered. He didn't know what conclusions she could have jumped to, and how she might have felt. He would have been devastated if he was on the other side.
Still, there was nothing more he could do but try to find her as quickly as he could. He jumped into the portal, arriving in Hogwarts, relishing returning to the castle. Oh, he had missed it very much. There were small differences between it and the one he stayed in the other universe. It didn't feel as alive, as filled with magic as this one did. There was a distinct lack of history there, not so much magical, but the sheer conceptual idea that this was a place of protection, a place of education, a true safe haven for all magical children. That was the message imprinted in every stone of the castle, one that was probably enhanced by both Gryffindor and Slytherin who were Champions of the Light and Dark at the time.
And yet, there was something muted as he arrived. The students ignored him, of course; he didn't think most of them could see past his privacy charms, but there was a lack of joy that was spread around the castle, a lack of wonder and amazement. Students just walked around with their books, silently, with a very few faintly speaking to one another discreetly.
What the hell had happened there?
The incident in Durmstrang, if it could be called that, should have happened in another school. It shouldn't have affected them at all, and yet it somehow did. No, something else happened, something that made people wary of speaking with one another, made people afraid of standing out, something that sucked the happiness out of Britain's magical children.
He felt it in the air, a tension that clung to every corner of the castle like a fog. The warmth of the Great Hall, the usual hum of excitement over Quidditch matches or upcoming exams, was absent, replaced by an eerie silence. Even the portraits seemed subdued, whispering to one another in hushed tones as if they too were afraid to be overheard. Whatever had cast this shadow, it wasn't just the usual fears of a dark spell or a cursed artefact—it was something deeper, something that had struck at the very heart of their world.
Harry walked around to his common room, seeking to speak with either Blaise or Tracy. They would know where Daphne would be. He was so preoccupied that he didn't realize that someone had noticed him, someone who he definitely didn't expect.
As he entered one of the deserted corridors, he heard a yell, "Harry? Is that you?"
He turned and saw who spoke up to him, "Longbottom?"
"I can't believe you're alive. Everyone thought you were dead. You just vanished during the task and Greengrass looked unconsolable for some reason. What happened?"
"It's a long story, pretty complicated, but to be brief, I was involved in a magical accident and was trapped someplace. I was just able to get back. Speaking of Daphne, where is she? I'm guessing she's with the tournament delegation, but shouldn't you have been there too?"
Neville looked uncomfortable for some reason before speaking up, "It's a bit of a long story too. Gran decided that she wanted me back home and since I already did the task in Durmstrang, my contractual obligation is technically gone. Well, I had to pay a hefty fine, but people didn't really mind me leaving anyway, especially because of the ruckus I caused."
"What did you do now, Longbottom?" Harry spoke up, feeling slightly exasperated by the other boy's consistent antics. Well, that wasn't really fair. Longbottom seemed to have become fate's stress ball, especially when he compared him to Harry's counterpart, who also happened to be the boy who lived. He would be a hypocrite if he said that Harry didn't have a hand in what happened to the boy, especially after the mess that was the Chamber of Secrets. Now, he realized how much of a fuck-up that was. He shouldn't have killed the World Serpent. He could have probably managed something. Well, not really. He didn't really know about its existence in the Chamber in the first place and dealt with it the only way he could at the time. If he could go back in time, he would have done things differently, but unfortunately, actual time travel was far beyond his reach and was most likely impossible.
The boy who lived gave Harry an incredulous look, "You really don't know. I thought you might be messing with me or something."
"You're probably the first person I spoke to since I came back and the castle just feels wrong, depressing, even. Everything is quiet, there aren't any students messing around. People don't laugh anymore, not really. And the pranks, the duels in the courtyards, they've all stopped. It's like everyone's waiting for something bad to happen."
"Well, you're scarily right. Ever since the war picked up, things haven't been the same here. A lot of people lost their parents in the war."
Harry gave the boy a confused look, "War? What war? I was only gone for a few months. How was this enough time for a war to start here?"
"Well, the night you disappeared, Voldemort came back. Dumbledore refused to come back to Britain, even after the ministry cleared him of all charges that were pending against him. But then Voldemort found himself being opposed by an army of weird werewolves that called themselves the Lycans. They could turn to wolves at any time and are stronger, though they don't infect people. They're led by this woman they call the Red Witch. Ever since she came out of thin air, this entire country has been in an all-out war."
The last Potter froze at that. Seriously? What the fuck had happened in the last few months?
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AN: Again, I'm not really sure about this chapter. It's weird to say it, but I feel kinda rusty when I write the original storyline. The Earth 2 arc felt more like a vacation than anything. Anyway, I hope you like it and if you don't, then I don't mind rewriting it. For those asking about Daphne, I have something special in mind with their reunion, and I thought that having her explain what happened would have made it less impactful. Don't worry, you'll get to see it soon. As usual, please let me know what you think and if you have any suggestions.
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I tend to upload drafts of early chapters on there to get people's opinions of them so you can read up to 20 chapters ahead as a bonus.
Thank you guys for your support in these hard times.
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