This choice: Try to discover more about this new reality from their friends. • Go Back...Chapter #4Try to discover more about this new reality fro... by: Solan   As Ron gaped at Harry's changed reflection in the mirror, the former Boy Who Lived found his green eyes dropping irresistibly to the last few lines of his letter.
. . . and we'll be sure to make one of your Quidditch games before Christmas Break. Your father is so proud that you're on the team this year that he's been bragging about you non-stop; I think Sirius is just about ready to hex him the next time he starts in a conversation with "my son the Chaser".
All our love to you and John, and our best to Ron and Seamus as well!
Mom and Dad
His parents . . . his parents were ALIVE! He wasn't an orphan anymore! And he wasn't the Boy Who Lived either.
Staggering back Harry collapsed onto the nearest bed as he struggled to cope with the unbelievable new reality he had inadvertantly created.
"Are you all right, mate?" Ron asked, placing a comforting hand on Harry's shoulder. "I know this is a lot to take in, but you look like you're going to pass out."
He felt like it, too. Sucking in a deep breath, Harry did his best to pull himself together.
"Yeah, I'm okay. I'm better than okay." Standing up he gave his best friend a smile that felt like it stretched from ear to ear, joy beginning to replace his shock. "Ron, my parents are alive again! I have a family, just like I saw in the Mirror first year! It's-it's the best thing that's ever happened to me!"
"And I'm glad for you, I really am," Ron told him. "But Harry, we were just fooling around with that wand! I never woulda guessed it could do all this! We've gotta tell Dumbledore what happened and get him to help us fix it!"
"No! Why would we want to fix this? Everything is perfect exactly the way it is!"
"Harry . . ." Ron began and stopped, looking uncomfortable. "Harry, it's great that your parents are back, but now Neville is the Boy Who Lived. He's the one who's going to have to face Voldemort. And Harry, it's Neville!"
The realization of what he had done to his classmate hit Harry then. He wouldn't wish his former destiny on anyone, much less a friend! And in this changed universe Neville was an orphan, just as he had been. Harry was the last person to want anyone to lose their parents.
Except . . . Neville's parents were already lost either way, weren't they? Back in the other world they were in St. Mungo's for life, hopelessly insane from prolonged torture. Even then Neville had never been able to talk to them, not and have them talk back. While here Harry's parents were alive and sane! They loved him! They were even coming to see him before Christmas, assuming that old bat Unbridge didn't bar them from the castle on some pretext.
Harry reflexively glanced down at his hand, expecting to see the words "I must not tell lies," carved there, but his hand looked fine. Of course! With him not being the Boy Who Lived anymore, Unbridge wasn't focused on him; she was focused on Neville. Another burden he had put on his friend's shoulders-but weren't those newly broad shoulders more than big and strong enough to carry such burdens now? After all, it wasn't like he had just shoved Neville into his place without providing any help! He had given the boy what looked to be at least a hundred pounds of pure, rock-solid muscle, and somehow possessing that utterly fantastic physique had led to him being targeted by Voldemort.
Why, though? All Harry could think was that Voldemort's spies must have told him what a large and healthy one year-old Neville had been, and Voldemort had somehow taken this physical impressiveness as a sign that Neville was the child of the prophecy. And so he had made Neville that child, instead of Harry.
"Harry!" Ron practically shouted, startling him out of his thoughts. "I said it's Neville! He can't face Voldemort! You know he can't! He'll mess it all up!"
"You don't know that!" Harry countered hotly. "Maybe he's better here, more confident, more powerful!"
"Oh, come on, Harry! You just don't want to admit the truth because you have your parents back."
"Yes, I do!" Harry shouted, pushing Ron hard. "And I'm not going to lose them again just because you won't give this Neville a chance!"
Ron's freckled face reddened in anger, but before he could retaliate the door opened again and in strode Seamus Finnegan. Fortunately the wand in Harry's hand was concealed by the letter and Harry quickly folded the piece of paper around the enchanted artifact.
"What's the matter, couldn't you find it?" he asked, his cheerful mood faltering as he noted the tense atmosphere. "Hey, what's wrong? I thought you guys were going to be right back down with the board."
"What board?" Harry enquired.
"Ron's Wizard's Chess board?" Seamus prompted, looking at Harry like he thought the boy belonged in St. Mungo's. "How could you possibly forget that between here and the common room?!?"
Harry blinked, unsure of what to say. He and Ron were friendly enough with Seamus, but they didn't really hang around with him much. The look of fond exasperation on the Irish boy's face, though, suggested they were much better friends here. In fact, hadn't the letter said that his parents sent their best to Seamus AND Ron?
"Sorry, Seamus," Harry apologized. "Ron and I just got to talking about Neville. What do you say? Do you really think he'll be able to beat Voldemort?"
"If anyone can do it, Neville can," Seamus said definitively. "He's brilliant at magic, almost as good as Hermione. Of course given how much time they spend studying together that isn't much of a surprise, is it?" For some reason Seamus winked at them before continuing. "And Neville's strong as a friggin troll too! If he can just get his hands on You-Know-Who, he'll break the rotter in half!"
"Brilliant at magic? Neville?" Ron asked disbelievingly.
"What would you call someone who can cast a corporeal Patronus on his fourth try and brews every one of Snape's bloody potions correctly the first time?" Seamus retorted. "If it wasn't for Neville I bet that biased, greasy git would have taken a hundred points off Gryffindor by now!"
"Snape doesn't harass Neville?" Harry asked.
"Okay, have you two been having a nip of Firewhisky up here or what?" Seamus demanded, hands on his hips. "I thought we were best mates! If you've gotten hold of a bottle then I want some too!"
"We haven't been drinking Firewhisky," Ron hastened to assure him.
"Really? You didn't nick a bottle off of Fred and George, maybe?" Seamus asked suspiciously.
"No!"
"Well then why are you both acting like you're drunk?"
"Sorry, Seamus," Harry apologized. "I think maybe Malfoy got in some kind of hex on us earlier today. We're having a tough time remembering things," Harry improvised on the fly. When in doubt, blame Malfoy!
"Really?" Seamus asked skeptically. " After the thrashing Neville gave him and his cronies last year I thought Malfoy hadn't dared resort to anything except for insults, and not even those when the Muscle Boy Who Kicked His Butt is around."
Neville had beat up Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle? All at once?!? From Ron's face it looked like he was as eager to get more details about that as Harry, but they'd made Seamus suspicious enough with their questions already. Better to go down with him to the Common Room and try to worm some answers out of the people there.
"Do the two of you want to head to the infirmary then?" Seamus asked.
"Not right now. If it keeps happening we'll go there tomorrow. Just be patient with us, okay?" Harry pleaded.
"I have for five years already," Seamus said with a dramatic, long-suffering sigh.
"I've got the board," Ron announced, pulling it and the box of pieces out from beneath his bed.
"Brilliant, now maybe Harry or I will finally beat you!" Seamus said before turning toward the door. Stopping only to put the letter and wonderful wand under his own bed, Harry followed with Ron and his Wizard's Chess set bringing up the rear.
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