Que Sera Sera

Chapter Eight

The fire in the Gryffindor common room and there were only a handful of students remaining after the train had left returning many back to London for Christmas.

Sitting by the fire was five students. Ron, Hermione, Ginny and Angie were huddled together on the floor, poring over an almost violent game of exploding snap. Harry was avidly watching them and carelessly flicking through Lily's diary, which now never left his sight.

"Right Weasley," screeched Angie at the top of her lungs, "you're toast!"

"Which one?" Asked Ginny and Ron in unison, laughing at the frustrated brunette who was scratching her head in frustration.

"Both of you, if you don't let me win the next game." She picked up the cards from the floor and put them into a pile, watching them shuffle themselves. "Right, who's turn to deal?"

"Mine," called Hermione, hungrily picking up the cards and starting to deal them up. Although she didn't want to admit it, she was just as competitive as Angie and was also thinking of booting the Weasleys out of the game if they one another game.

"Wanna play, Harry?" Ron asked, looking up at his friend, who was perched in a nearby armchair.

"Nah," replied Harry, "I much prefer watching you."

"Okay then, that's cool," laughed Angie, a devilish grin on her face, a plan forming in her head. "Right, anyone want to make the game more interesting?"

"What do you mean?" Asked Ginny, winding a lock of her fire engine-red hair around her finger.

"I mean," she started, pulling a small coin purse from her robes, "lets put in dibs, whoever wins gets... er... three sickles." She removed three sickles and laced them in the centre of their group. "Any other takers?"

The rest of the group threw in odd coins, and Harry even ventured to his room and put a galleon in the booty. In total, they were now playing for one galleon, eight sickles and four knuts, a fair amount for a snap game.

The group was halfway through their game, with much ranting and raving involved, when Harry gave out a cry.

"Wassa matter?" Asked Ron, forgetting the game and losing the pile of cards to Angie who shouted 'snap' before he could.

"Scar hurting? Another dream?" Asked Hermione, putting her cards on the ground and standing up to see to Harry.

"I can go get Madam Pomfrey for you if you want," offered Ginny, looking up in shock.

"No, no, nothing wrong with me, it's just that-" he answered, reassuring them all.

"What?" All of them, including Angie, asked.

"It's this," he replied pointing to a picture in the diary.

The picture consisted of the Gryffindor Quidditch team, victorious that year. The main focus of the photo were the two students holding the Quidditch Cup, both with silver badges clasped to their scarves; one reading 'Head Girl' and the other 'Quidditch Captain'. The two students looked quite extraordinary. As the picture was black and white, it was difficult to tell the colour of their hair, but it wasn't necessary.

Ginny broke the silence by saying what was on everyone's minds.

"It's you and Angie, Harry, well at least it looks like you."

"Lily and James," whispered Hermione, "in the flesh. They really did exist and the resemblance is remarkable. You're both the spitting images of them," she finished turning to Harry and Angie.

Angie's jaw dropped, "who was or is Lily and why do I look like her?"

"Well," started Hermione, looking at Angie with frustration, "Lily was- er- a good friend of Harry's father, but I don't know why you look anything like her. There is no one called Lily in your family, you said so yourself."

"This is really creepy," Ginny shuddered, staring at the photo wide-eyed. "If I didn't know that this photo was twenty years old, I could've sworn it had been taken yesterday."

Hey," exclaimed Ron, who had been quietly thinking, "maybe that's why Snape hates you Angie. Harry, had Lily done anything to Snape when they were at school?"

"Not as far as I know," he replied, "but I haven't read it all yet, only taking it a day at a time, still got work to do you know."

"Oh, okay then, but that explains it, 'Potter and Evans together forever', looks like it, hey?" Ron said, referring to Snape's first words to Angie.

"It's almost like your parents have been reincarnated," muttered Hermione, counting her thoughts off silently on her fingers.

"Um," started Angie, who'd drawn away from the group, "is it just me, or has anyone else noticed some strange things happening? I mean, I keep hearing voices, but I never see who they belong to and the portrait hole opens and no one enters or leaves and last week, when I handed out the marked homework in McGonagall's class, one of them was named 'Peter Pettigrew'. He's not in our class, I've never heard of him."

Ron's eyes narrowed at the mention of Wormtail.

"Oh we have, Angie," and the group launched into the tale of Voldemort and Harry's parents' deaths.

"But yeah, Angie," said Hermione, still deep in thought, "I have noticed some strange things, Harry swore he wasn't in Charms last month, but I tell you, he was there the entire lesson sitting where he always does. And I've heard the voices too."

"Me too," whispered Ginny, "but I've seen someone I don't recognise. She walked through the portrait hole and I said 'hello' to her, but she didn't reply, so I turned to say something else to her, but she'd disappeared. I just thought I was going mad."

"Something happened in our room a few days ago, I think," stammered Ron, his face paling, "I was standing at the door talking to Seamus when we thought we heard someone in our room. When we opened the door, it was empty. What about you Harry?"

"Not really," he lied, scared to tell them about the incident a few nights ago. He'd been too scared to visit the hospital wing and see the person he'd found, not really wanting to know whom it was.

"It's strange, it's almost like we've slipped into a time tunnel, where the two times have mixed, but they don't completely gel. We see them, but they don't see us."

"Really!" Scoffed Ron, laughing Hermione's idea out of everyone's minds. "All I think we need to do is stop worrying about all this palava and get some sleep, then we might consider things in a more sane way."

"My God," gasped Hermione, "it's the smartest thing I've heard him say."

"Yeah," agreed Ginny dryly, "ever, but I agree, sleep is good."

"Uh huh," nodded Angie, already heading to the dorms, "sleep will help us and we can talk about it in the morning, if it still seems important. G'night boys."

"G'night," yawned Ron and Harry as they headed towards their dorms.

Try as Harry might, he couldn't get the though out of his mind. Maybe Hermione was right, time is repeating itself and the now-Gryffindors are seeing the then-Gryffindors, but who knew. Possibly Dumbledore would know the answer and would be able to put everything into perspective, but it could wait, couldn't it?