On The Other Side

A/N: A big thank you to those who sent reviews. They are very motivating for me. This chapter is for you.

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter and make no money from the writing of this fiction.


Long Live Our Lord

That afternoon Harry found himself shopping for his school supplies with James, Sirius, and Regulus in Diagon Alley. There were the same types of shops in his dimension, though the names over the doors were different. Another difference, he noticed, was the segregation in all the shops. There were separate areas in shops and separate registers, one for pure-bloods and the other for everyone else. And, though, technically Harry was a half-blood, the men he was with weren’t. And so they were afforded the best of everything - merchandise and service. Not that any of this surprised Harry at this point.

When they had covered all the supplies on the list, James announced that they were going to stop at the The House of Healing to have Harry’s head injury examined. At that point Regulus excused himself as he had a council meeting to attend. Both James and Sirius looked concerned, remembering the topic of Harry’s parseltongue was to be discussed at the meeting.

As the three of them walked into the healers, Harry wondered if this was their equivalent of St. Mungos. Again, Harry received prompt service, being escorted to the front of the line ahead of all the others waiting. He was dying to ask James and Sirius why they were more important than the others here, but again, he had to hold his tongue. Another thing to ask Tally about later on, he thought, which reminded him…

“By the way,” Harry said, as they were waiting for the healer to arrive in their examination room, “I’ve sent Tally to gather some special potion ingredients for me so I can impress Professor Snape with my advanced skills. She may be gone a few days, depending on how successful she is. They are quite rare ingredients.” There. That sounded plausible, didn’t it? After all, he was suppose to be the potion master’s favorite student. “I hope it doesn’t cause a problem for the household.”

“That’s fine, Harry,” Sirius replied. “The other elves will take up the slack.”

Other elves? Harry had only seen Tally thus far. Harry nodded in response. “By the way, when am I due at school?”

James and Sirius gave him a funny look, as if he should already know the answer to that question. “The train leaves tomorrow, remember?” James replied. “Perhaps that knock on the head is worse than we thought.”

Before Harry could respond, the healer stepped in, bowing in greeting. “Good afternoon, gentlemen. I am Healer Hopkins. How may I be of service?”

“My son had a flying accident yesterday morning. Seems he hit a tree very hard with his head. Our house elf did her best to patch him up, but he seems to be a bit… off.”

“Oh? Let’s take a look, shall we. Please lay down on the table, Mr. Potter,” the healer instructed, gesturing with his hand. “Were you unconscious at any point?”

“Um… yes, I was,” Harry replied as he lay down. “My elf used her magic to bring me back. She thought I was going to die.”

“Indeed? Elf magic…” he contemplated as he began moving his wand slowly over Harry’s head. “Seems you have a glamour spell.”

“Shit!” Harry swore, as the glamour which hid his glasses faded and the brown frame became visible.

“What?” Sirius exclaimed, startled. “Harry? We had your eyes healed long ago.”

Harry sat up on the table, pushing the healer’s wand aside. But the healer still hovered, reaching up with his other hand to trace Harry’s scar with his finger. Harry could only guess that the glamour disappeared from his scar as well.

James stood and peered closer at it. “Is that where you were injured?”

Perfect, Harry thought. “Yes, it was. And my vision is blurred. That’s why I was so late coming home that day. I made Tally take me to get these spectacles. She glamoured everything before we came home so that you wouldn’t see and worry. We thought you might cancel my party if you thought my injury was bad enough. I’m sorry.”

James sighed heavily. “Harry, you shouldn’t play with your health and well being like that. You should have been honest.”
“I know. And I’m sorry. I just didn’t want to miss my party.”

“Healer Hopkins, can these types head injuries cause changes in personality and behavior?” Sirius asked.

“Yes, such things can occur. Yet, I’d like to examine that scar further. I thought I saw a magical signature that...”

“Of course there is a magical signature. My elf healed me with her magic,” Harry interrupted, not needing anymore revelations coming to light.

“Harry, I think you should let Healer Hopkins continue with his examination,” James said. “If we have to force you to take better care of yourself, we will.”

Healer Hopkins raised his wand again, and once more Harry knocked it away with his hand, glaring.

“Harry!” James snapped. “Why are you being so difficult? Let the healer do his job.”

“I told you I’m fine,” Harry snapped back. But James did not seem like he would back down from this anytime soon. Harry huffed. “Fine! But I want the two of you to wait outside the room. You are driving me mad with your hovering.”

“We are just concerned, Harry,” Sirius frowned.

“Please. I’m an adult now and I’d like it if I didn’t get treated like was five years old. May I please finished this examination privately.”

James and Sirius met eyes before nodding at Harry. “All right,” James said. “You may have your privacy. But you must tell us everything afterwards.”

“Of course,” Harry replied, relieved.

As soon as the door shut behind the two men, Harry glared once again at Healer Hopkins. “I want you to tell them that you examined me and, apart from possible lapses in memory, I’ll be perfectly fine.”

“Mr. Potter, that is not your call to make!”

“It’s my body and my life.”

They both stared stubbornly at one another in silence until Healer Hopkins said, “Do they know what a skilled liar you are?”

“It’s out of necessity.”

The healer raised one eyebrow. “Really? Tell me then, how you really came by that scar. That scar is not recent. I suspect you’ve had it a very long time.”

“You don’t need to know that. I’m not here about the past.”

“In all my years as a healer, I have never seen a scar pulse with the kind of dark magic yours does. I’m beginning to suspect it is not just a scar.”

“Oh? What is it then?” Harry asked, sarcastically.

“If I were to make a judgment on the spot, I’d say it is some sort of curse or a hex. What age were you when you received it? What do you remember about the incident?”

Harry shrugged. “Look, I’m not giving my life story to a stranger. I don’t want it healed. Whatever it is, I need to keep it.” As much as Harry hated the pain and the connection to Voldemort’s mind, he was smart enough to know that the abilities he had gained when Voldemort tried to kill him were valuable tools to use in the war back home. He knew he’d have to take the suffering in order to gain the advantage the scar gave him.

Healer Hopkins appeared exasperated. “You’re a difficult young wizard, Mr. Potter. Whatever your reservations, I would like to take a closer look - if only in the name of furthering my knowledge of these matters. Would you consider allowing me to look. I promise I won’t lift your curse, if that is your wish.”

To tell the truth, Harry was a bit curious as to what the healer might find. “I will only let you examine it if you make the unbreakable vow to me that you will never tell another soul, besides me, what you find.”

His eyes went wide. “Goodness, Mr. Potter, I already told you that the visit is confidential.”

“Then I suppose this concludes our visit,” Harry replied, slipping off the table and heading for the door.

“Wait!” Healer Hopkins exclaimed. “All right. I agree.”

It was Harry’s turn to be surprised. “Really? You’ll do it?” He really hadn’t thought the healer would agree to something so serious.

The healer nodded. “Please. Let’s just get this over with.”

OOOOOO

It was over an hour later when Harry and Healer Hopkins emerged from the examination room, causing James and Sirius to rise to their feet.

“Merlin, Harry,” Sirius began, “we were getting really worried. What news do you have for us?”

“Young Mr. Potter is just fine, just fine,” Hopkins announced.

“All that time in there for ‘just fine’?” James asked.

“I had to make sure the examination was very thorough. You can’t rush these matters you know. It appears your elf did a fine job healing, but for the eyesight. He may suffer some temporary gaps in memory, but that will return with time.”

James nodded, reaching up to touch Harry’s scar, but pulling away before he did so. “All right. Thank you Healer Hopkins. Come along Harry.”

As the three of them walked away, Harry lagged behind a bit and turned to look at the healer. Hopkins was staring back at Harry, and gave him a slight nod.

Harry followed the two men quietly as they made their way down the street. His mind was a jumble of thoughts and his gut clenched at the nagging realizations that were starting to form in his mind. The words of the healer haunted every step he took.

“ It’s as if there are two of you in there, Mr. Potter. Something, or someone, has taken up residence within you.”

Sirius glanced over his shoulder at Harry. “You all right there, Harry?”

Harry was started out of his thoughts. Was he all right? No, he was not all right! It had just dawned on him that he might be a bloody horcrux! Merlin help him. He was suppose to destroy all the horcruxes in his world. So what would this mean now? He’d have to destroy himself?

“I’m just tired,” he mumbled.

“It’s been a long day,” Sirius agreed. “Let’s go home.”

OOOOOO

Vincent Crabbe made his way down the center isle of the Hogwarts Express, looking for the trolley witch. It had been over an hour since she had come by and he was getting thirsty again. He didn’t want to wait any longer, so he got up and went towards the back of the train.

He disliked leaving the front compartment and having to gaze upon the lower classes in the back. At least the ones he passed in the isle had the good sense to lean away from him, otherwise he would have had to hex them for daring to touch him.

He was almost to the back where the trolley witch was handing out pumpkin juice to some disgusting first years, when he spotting a familiar figure through the window of a compartment. He stepped up closer and peered through, frowning as he gripped the handle and slid the door open.

Curled up asleep on the seat was Harry, all by himself in this back compartment. Crabbe could guess that no one would dare bother a seventh year Slytherin back here. He bent over the sleeping wizard and shook his shoulder.

“Harry? Wake up.”

“Hmm?” Harry mumbled.

“What the hell are you doing back here? We thought you had missed the train. No one saw you get on at all.” Crabbe sat his heavy frame down across on the opposite bench, grimacing at Harry. “You look like shit.”

“Fuck off. I’m too tired to answer all your questions. I didn’t get any sleep last night.”

Crabbe’s smile grew. “You played with that muggle girl all night didn’t you? Did you fuck her? No, wait, you don’t like girls. Tortured? Did you finally feed her to the big snake?”

“Shut your evil pie hole. Can‘t you just let me fucking sleep?”

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” Vincent scowled.

“I already told you. I’m tired. I just want to sleep, not sit around and talk to you prats.”

Crabbe got to his feet. “Prats? Fuck you, Harry. I hope some low-borns ass rape you back here.” He left the compartment, slamming the door.

Harry turned over on his back. What an idiot he was! He reached into his robe pocket and pulled out his invisible glasses which another of Sirius’ house elves had reapplied the glamour to. James had promised to take Harry to an another eye healer on his next visit home from Hogwarts as they had ran out of time to do so yesterday. He had also had the scar glamoured again so he wouldn’t have so many questions to answer.

Harry sat up, his legs bent on the bench as he leaned against the window. He shouldn’t be here. He was wasting time while Voldemort was destroying the world he loved back home. He wasn’t even planning on attending school seventh year in his world. He had to get back and start looking for the Horcruxes. And, unfortunately, he might have found one yesterday. He glanced over his shoulder at his reflection in the window. Could it really be true? He had a piece of Voldemort’s soul inside of him? He didn’t want to believe it, but if he put all the pieces of evidence together, then all signs pointed to it being true.

After crying his frustrations out most of the night, he had come to the decision in the early dawn hours that he would find all the other horcruxes, destroy them, and then, perhaps, he’d be able to find someway to get Voldemort’s soul remnant out of his body. There had to be a way to exorcise it. But he worried that the remnant would find its way back to Voldemort and strengthen him. But could he make the ultimate sacrifice? Would he give up his own life just to make that madman more vulnerable? Would it even work if he did?

He was wondering if the Voldemort in this reality had made any horcruxes when the door slid open again revealing Blaise Zabini. He scanned Harry’s disheveled appearance with concern. “You all right, Harry? Vincent said you were in a foul mood, but I chanced coming back here anyway.”

Harry sighed. He wouldn’t be able to hide forever. “Yeah, I was a bit over the top. I had a rough night, is all.”

“Are you avoiding us?”

“No. Honestly, I just needed to sleep.”

“We would have let you sleep. Gregory and Teddy are snoring away up there. You didn’t have to disgrace yourself by coming back here.”

“Disgrace myself?”

Blaise looked over his shoulder in disgust at some passing students. “Yes, in the low-born cars.”

There was that word again. ’Low-born’ Harry wondered what that was since muggleborns were no longer allowed to attend school. It couldn’t be half-bloods, since the Slytherins didn’t consider Harry low-born. It was another thing Harry couldn’t ask about without giving himself away. It would certainly help to have Tally with him 24/7, but she was on her quest to find a Kortle seed which was far more important.

Blaise gestured with his hand. “Come on. We’ll let you sleep. I promise. Just get out this part of the train.”

“Fine, if it will stop everyone from bothering me,” Harry huffed, rising to his feet and squeezing past Blaise who didn’t move out of the way. Harry got the feeling that Blaise enjoyed the brush of their bodies as Harry went by him, his eyes sweeping Harry’s body up and down. Harry could imagine Blaise was eyeing his bum all the way to the front of the train.

When they entered the front car of the train, Harry paused a moment to take in the lavish décor - a feature definitely absent from the Hogwart’s express in his world. As he sat down in a seat next to the window, he began to realize that ‘low-born’ most likely had something to do with wealth. Across from him sat a sleeping Theodore Nott and Draco Malfoy engrossed in a newspaper. Blaise seated himself directly next to Harry, a little too close for comfort.

Draco lowered his paper and looked at Harry appraisingly. “Slumming it?”

“I’m not in the mood to give a shit right now,” Harry grumbled, pulling his robe over his head as the other two boys watched, revealing a tight fitting t-shirt that emphasized his nicely cut muscles. But Harry was oblivious to their gaze as he rolled up his robe and placed it against the window for a make-shift pillow. He immediately shut his eyes, hoping they wouldn’t try to engage him in further conversation.

“Suit yourself,” Draco replied. His eyes drifted over to Blaise who was still checking out Harry with interest. This was going to be a possible problem. Harry had finally laid his relationship with Blaise to rest and now Blaise was taking a renewed interest in him.

Honestly, Draco couldn’t blame him. Harry had definitely become more interesting over the summer. His hotness factor had increased ten-fold since last spring. It wasn’t just the improvements of his body, but his confidence and wit were markedly more abundant. And those things made the total package very alluring. Not to mention he was a parselmouth and hearing him speak it was very sexy.

For the life of him, Draco couldn’t figure out how someone could change so very much over a span of a few months. Draco had always been a very hard person to impress. He had the highest standards in their group of friends and, therefore, had never found anyone, male or female, he would consider interesting and appealing enough to spend more than a few nights with. And Harry had always seemed unremarkable in appeal. He was a friend, sure, but he had always been a bit spineless and whiney.

But this ‘new’ Harry seemed quite the opposite in personality. What could have happened to make him change so drastically? Harry had definitely caught his interest. Something that was rare for Draco.

He glanced again at Blaise, who had now leaned further against an unsuspecting Harry. Draco laughed silently and shook his head. He decided that Blaise would not forge another relationship with Harry. Not until Draco had figured out the growing attraction he felt.

Yes, something definitely happened to Harry this summer. And Draco fully intended to find out what it was.

OOOOO

Harry had to remind himself over and over not to appear surprised at all the differences he saw, but it was one of the most difficult things he had yet to do. Almost everything he observed around him made him want to vehemently declare his objection to. This world was messed up beyond repair, in his honest opinion.

The segregation of the train cars was only a small portion of the growing list of things about this world he found intolerable. Walking into the Great Hall for the welcome feast was another experience that made him want to knock everything over in anger.

First thing he noticed was the table arrangements. Slytherin table sat just under the professor’s table, in a spot of honor. It was far more lavishly decorated with silver settings and loaded with gourmet treats. The other three house tables were pushed toward the back of the room, had no table clothes, and appeared to have shoddy wooden plates and settings with only cheese, bread, and goblets of water.

He couldn’t help stopping for a moment, staring in shock at the down trodden faces of the other houses as his ’friends’ made their way to Slytherin table blissfully ignorant and/or uncaring of the suffering of others.

His eyes fell upon two red heads huddled together at the Gryffindor table. Harry practically gasped out loud at the unkempt, underfed appearance of Ron and Ginny Weasley. They must have felt him staring and raised their heads to look at him. Ron scowled at Harry, and took Ginny’s shoulder, turning her away from Harry’s gaze.

Harry couldn’t help taking a few steps toward them when he was yanked back buy someone who had just grasped his arm. Harry swung around and pulled free, anger on his face.

“Whoa,” Blaise held up his hands. “What’s wrong with you? Did one of those scum say something to you?”

“Keep your hands off me,” Harry growled through clenched teeth.

Blaise seemed shocked for a moment and then hurt. He glanced at the Gryffindor table, trying to see who may have bothered Harry, but none of them met his eyes.

Harry pushed passed Blaise, angrily, stalked over to the Slytherin table in disgust. This place was a disgrace. Why would people even consent to send their children to such a school where they would be treated like dirt? And then it dawned on him that they probably weren’t given a choice. No one seemed to have choices in this world. They all did what they were told, or else.

He sat down and grabbed his steak knife, slamming it down into the table and cutting the decadent cloth. Theodore Nott and Gregory Goyle sat across from him, watching him in concern. “Feel better now?” Teddy asked, eyeing the damage to the table.

Harry was so angry, he couldn’t even speak. He was afraid of what would come out of his mouth. Blaise sat down next to him, eyeing him warily.

“Tell me who bothered you, Harry,” Blaise pressed.

Harry turned his face to him, full of malice. “Ask me that once more, and you won’t like the consequence,” he hissed.

“Ooohhh,” Teddy laughed. “Better back off, Blaise.”

Blaise snarled, but kept quiet, causing Draco to stifle a smile. Draco loved Harry’s anger at Blaise. It was far sexier than the groveling he displayed last spring. Harry seemed to be turning heads all around. Strong, angry, and hot Harry was the newest sensation, it seemed.

And that was just the first terrible experience of the welcome back feast. The second came shortly as they were all directed to rise as the headmaster and staff entered the hall to be seated. Harry reluctantly rose, feeling the bile rise in his throat as only two professors were recognizable to him. He expected Snape, but the second was worse.

Umbridge.

“What the fuck!” Harry couldn’t help saying out loud.

His friends glanced at him, hoping no one else heard their angry friend. Luckily it seemed no one had.

And worst of all, Umbridge went straight to the headmaster’s chair. Harry wanted to pitch his steak knife right between her beady little eyes. Harry shut his eyes a moment, willing himself to calm down. This world was exactly the one he needed to prevent happening to his. Everything thus far was completely unacceptable. He’d rather be dead than live in a world like this. He began to think his other, dead self was better off now.

“Please hurry, Tally,” he muttered under his breath.

When he opened his eyes, he noticed Snape was staring at him with concern. Harry looked away. Somehow he was going to have to get through this. But first he needed to calm down. His anger was making him stand out too much, he knew that. Another gift from Voldemort - anger extremes.

He glanced around the table, deciding to focus on the food in order to stop listening to the welcome speech of the woman he hated the most in his world. He began singing the Hogwarts song in his mind as she read a letter from ‘Their Lord’ which was followed by three chants of “Long Live Our Lord.” When the tribute to Voldemort ended, everyone was allowed to sit down and begin eating.

The Slytherins seemed to ignore Harry during the feast, as they could sense that he didn’t want to bother with anyone right now. But everyone one of Harry’s ‘friends’ covertly watched him as they talked amongst themselves, wondering what had happened to upset Harry this much.

Draco observed him glancing over his shoulder ever so often at the Gryffindor table, but who had caught Harry’s attention over there, he couldn’t figure out.

It was hard for Harry to see Ron and Ginny so oppressed. It seemed that Neville Longbottom was there as well, but Harry couldn’t be sure if it was him or not. He’d need a closer look. He couldn’t see too well from here because there was such a wide gap between the privileged table of the Slytherins and the other houses smooshed together in the dark back of the hall.

He also noticed that there was no sorting ceremony. He supposed that everyone in this world already knew their place since birth.

After the feast, Harry silently followed the Slytherins back to where their rooms were. He had no idea where that would be. He just wanted to punch something right now.

One thing he noticed… they were definitely not heading toward the dungeons. They seemed to be climbing the stairs toward the towers where Gryffindor was house in his world. It seemed that Slytherins were in the towers in this world. But there must have been a major remodel when Voldemort won the war because the common room was much larger and more lavish. And, each of them had their own bedroom, opulently decorated. Harry could only guess that the rest of the houses did not come close to this level of luxury.

Harry paused, not knowing which room was his and glanced about as the others headed off to get settled. A guy Harry didn’t know was leaning against the back of a sofa, watching Harry with interest.

“Hey, Harry. Did you have a good summer?” he asked.

At least it was a stranger, Harry thought. Someone he didn’t hate… yet. “No, not really,” Harry replied, honestly.

The boy grinned. “That’s too bad. Mine was nice. Traveled quite a bit.”

“Yeah? Do you want to talk about it more? In my room, perhaps?” Harry thought this might be the perfect opportunity to have someone lead him to his room unwittingly.

The boy bit his bottom lip and swept his eyes down, blushing a bit. “Sure, we could do that.”

He pushed off of the sofa and began walking down the hall with Harry following behind him. When they reached a door, the boy placed his hand on the knob and opened it, pausing.

Harry looked past him into the room, seeing what he saw. Blaise Zabini was standing next to the fireplace looking inquisitively back.

“Conner?” Blaise began. “What are you doing here?”

Harry stepped into room. “The bigger question is what are you doing here? This is my room, isn’t it?”

“I wanted to have a word with you,” Blaise replied. “In private,” he added, glancing at Conner.

“This is not a good time,” Harry stated. “Conner was just about to tell me about his summer.”

Conner stepped into the room, grinning in triumph at Blaise.

“Harry…” Blaise began.

“Get out,” Harry ordered.

Blaise stood shocked a moment. “You’re a fucking wanker, Harry, you know that?” He stormed past them, stopping at the door and glaring at Conner. “And you better watch your back.”

Harry closed the door, wondering what he was going to do now. Conner obviously thought Harry was coming on to him, but Harry just wanted to find his room. Now what?

Harry flopped down into one of the arm chairs in front of the fire. What a bunch of gay drama this place was. How was he ever going to survive this.

Conner came and sat down in the other arm chair facing him. “You all right?”

Harry rubbed his face wearily before turning his attention to the bloke. “I don’t know. It’s not been a very good day for me.”

“Or a good summer, it seems,” Conner commented. “Maybe this day doesn’t have to end so bad, though.”

Harry sighed at the flirting. “Were we ever friends?” he asked.

“What? What do you mean?”

“Have you ever considered yourself my friend?”

Conner looked at him strangely and shook his head. “Not like your other friends, I suppose. I don’t know what you’re getting at. We’ve had a bit of fun with each other, but I don’t know if that makes us friends. Do you think it does?”

Oh, great. How many blokes had the other Harry been with?

Harry shrugged. “I don’t know. Look, I’m a bit exhausted right now. I think I should get some sleep.”

“Alone?”

“Yeah. Sorry.”

Conner looked disappointed as he stood to go. “It’s all right. Some other time then?”

“Sure,” Harry replied, wanting to keep things pleasant.

After the door closed behind Conner, Harry let out a heavy breath. By Gods, Tally had better hurry and find that Kortle seed. Gazing at the fire, he wondered if the floo system was available in the room. He doubted he’d have that much freedom around here, but he wondered all the same.

Suddenly the flames crackled and a face appeared in the ashes. “Harry?”

Harry got on his knees and moved closer.

Regulus.

“Yeah?”

“How did your first day back go?”

“Fine,” Harry lied. “Is Tally back from the errand I sent her on yet?”

“Tally? No, I haven’t seen her.”

Harry frowned. “What do you want then?”

“It’s the Dark Lord, Harry. He wants to meet you in person.”

“What?”

“I’m sorry. Certain members of the council won’t let it rest. They went to the Dark Lord and informed him of your parseltongue. He wants to meet you.”

“When? Now?”

“No, in a few days time. Headmistress Umbridge will not refuse to let you leave. But I want to meet with you first. I’m coming to Hogwarts tomorrow.”

“I guess I can’t refuse.”

“No, you cannot.”

“All right. Whatever. And, if you can do me a favor - let me know the moment Tally gets back.”

OOOOO

A/N Wow! I finished another chapter. Miracles do happen. But I think it’s because I do enjoy getting reviews again. So, please, don’t hesitate. Let me know your thoughts. Thank you!