Harry Potter is a Slytherin

Harry was lying helplessly in a cell that was probably millions of miles underground somewhere -- he couldn't even tell whether it was day or night. The Unspeakable and his subordinates weren't satisfied with what Harry told them and he had told them everything he could. "How did it feel?" How could he know how it felt when he had been asleep at the time? "When did you realize you were in another universe?" When they had told him.

However, he found that just because they had gotten all the information they could out of him didn't mean they were finished. They wanted to keep him locked up in there forever so they could "study" him. He told them that Dumbledore would save him, but they didn't believe that. Apparently they were in a secret location not even Cornelius Fudge knew about and no one would be able to find him.

The door to his cell door opened and a young blonde woman entered. Harry had learned she was named Vanita Sepontterg and that her youth hadn't made her at all sympathetic. She gave him a tray with very bland-looking food on it.

"Eat this," she said strictly.

"You know, I'm almost as young as you are," Harry pointed out. "I mean, you must've finished Hogwarts, what, two, three years ago."

"Four, actually," she said coldly. "Eat." And, with that, Sepontterg walked out of Harry's dark cell -- the cell in which he would probably live for the rest of his life...

"Harry, Harry are you awake?" a voice asked suddenly.

Harry opened his eyes.

What he saw couldn't be real -- he had to be dreaming.

Albus Dumbledore was standing right outside the door to his cell.

"Professor," Harry said in surprise. "How'd you get in here?"

"That's not important," Dumbledore explained. "I have my ways of doing things just as that Unspeakable has his way. I find my way to be more effective most of the time. Would you like to get out of there?"

"No," Harry replied, "I think I'll just sit in here and enjoy the view -- yes, I want out of thing!" Slightly taken aback, Dumbledore Alohamoraed the door open. Harry collapsed back onto his bed.

"Sorry about that," Harry said quickly.

"It was a perfectly understandable reaction to a stupid question," Dumbledore replied calmly.

"So I'm going to get back to Hogwarts now, right?" he asked.

"Well, see, you can't go back to school," Dumbledore explained. "At least not right now -- once you're out of here, you'll be on the lam."

"I'll be what?" Harry asked incredulously.

"Well, they've gotten Fudge to approve whatever they planned to do to you," Dumbledore explained.

"How can they do that?" Harry asked in disbelief. "Don't I get any say? Don't I have any rights?"

"In a word...no," Dumbledore explained pleasantly. "You're from another universe and the Ministry has yet to develop a policy for someone like that. Until they do, people like those Unspeakables can basically do whatever they want."

"Well, couldn't we fight it?" Harry asked desperately.

"We could appeal, but it could take years to reverse the decision," Dumbledore replied. "No, it would be best if you just went into hiding for the time being. I'll talk to Fudge, but don't hopeful he'll change his mind."

"No problem," Harry said darkly. "So, where're we going?"

"That's entirely up to you," Dumbledore said, "but, before you go, I have a couple of people I think you should meet." He gestured towards the cell door and Harry looked to see none other than Draco Malfoy and Luna Lovegood enter.

"Your friends have agreed to go into hiding with you," Dumbledore told him kindly.

"Malfoy's not my friend," Harry said bluntly.

"Harry, we are friends," Malfoy said a rather monotonous voice.

"No, we're not," Harry protested. "You were friends with the other me."

"Maybe so, but I'm all you've got," Malfoy replied. "Aside from her, anyway," he added pointing at Luna. "I mean, if you just have her, you'll probably go insane."

"I'd probably go with you too, Malfoy," Harry said bitterly. He sighed and thought for a moment.

"Let's go," he said eventually. "You can come, Malfoy." Dumbledore magicked a fire and gave Harry a handful of Floo powder.

"You know where you want to go?" he asked. Harry nodded and Dumbledore Disapparated. Harry threw the powder into the fire and stepped into it with Malfoy and Luna.

"The Burrow," he said eventually.

Harry, Malfoy and Luna tumbled out of the Weasleys' fireplace and into the kitchen of the Burrow. Everything looked different, though some of the furniture was still the same. To Harry's surprise, he saw none other than Professor Lupin run into the room, holding his wand.

"What're you doing here?" Harry asked in surprise.

"I was going to ask you the same thing?" Lupin asked coldly.

"Well, it's a long story," Harry replied. "Apparently, I'm from some alternate universe and in that universe this house is the home of the Weasley family. What are you doing here?"

"What am I doing here?" Lupin asked incredulously. "I live here."

"You live here?" Harry asked in surprise. "What happened to the Weasleys?" Lupin looked suspiciously at him.

"It's okay, you can trust him," Luna said reassuringly. "Remember, he's not our Harry -- he's from another universe."

"Sure he is," Lupin said sarcastically. "Now, look here -- the Weasleys told me to not tell anyone where they were. A lot of people hate them, you know."

"So they're in hiding?" Harry asked, feeling relieved they weren't vagrants.

"When they left they were going to Romania," Lupin replied. "That's all I can tell you. They may have gone somewhere else since then -- I wouldn't know."

"And even if we did know they were still in Romania, it would be very hard to find them," Luna added.

"That's true," Lupin agreed, walking into the kitchen. "The odds of you finding them are awfully low either way."

"C'mon, can't you tell us anymore?" Harry asked desperately, running into the kitchen after him.

"I can't," Lupin answered, "because that's all I know."

"That's all you know?" Harry asked angrily. He wanted desperately for Lupin to know more. He couldn't accept never seeing Ron, Ginny or the rest of the Weasleys ever again that easily.

"Mr. Weasley was running out of money," Lupin explained. "After I agreed to buy the house, which no one else would, he flew away in his Ford Anglia with his wife and boys."

"Wait, what about Ginny?" Harry asked, a panic suddenly coming over him.

"Ginny?" Lupin asked.

"You know, the girl," he said desperately. "She's -- she's like the others, with red hair and freckles, except that she's a girl," he said rather hopelessly.

"She was really nice," Luna said vaguely. "I knew her in my first year." This made Harry feel rather relieved that Ginny wasn't a figment of his imagination.

"I don't remember seeing a girl," Lupin said pleasantly, "but it was a long time ago, so I might not be remembering correctly."

"How many boys do you remember seeing?" Harry asked. If Ginny had disappeared, more of the Weasleys might have also. Lupin shrugged.

"Five or six, I think," he said offhandedly. "I don't know. It was a long time ago."

Harry walked over to a couch, that hadn't been there when the Weasley owned the place, and collapsed onto it, feeling dazed. He started worrying about the Weasley family, especially Ginny, again. What had happened to her? Had they looked her in Azkaban for opening the Chamber of Secrets? Surely they wouldn't do that an eleven-year-old...

Suddenly, someone with a familiar face appeared on the stairs. His long black hair was tangled, his gaunt face had the echoes of several more years in Azkaban and his robes were old and very torn. Despite this, he appeared to be nothing short of buoyant.

"Sirius?" Harry asked excitedly.

"Bless my soul," Sirius said, sounding delighted, "you're Harry Potter! You look just like James, but you've got Lily's eyes."

"Yeah, thanks," said Harry, who very tired of hearing this comment.

Something hit Harry all of a sudden. Sirius Black was standing right before him. He wasn't dead. Harry had wished desperately to talk to Sirius one more time, but now it would be to a Sirius who had never known him...

"Can you tell about my parents?" he asked eagerly, like an excited eight-year-old.

"Well," Sirius said, obviously overwhelmed by Harry's interest, "I think I'd better start off by saying that I'm your godfather. I doubt anyone's told you --"

"Yes," Harry interrupted, "you told me that." Sirius looked incredulously at him. "You see," he explained, "I'm apparently from another universe where you broke out of Azkaban in my third year."

"Another universe?" Sirius asked, sounding bewildered.

"Apparently it's happened before," he explained. "Anyway, if you want proof, I have proof. You're Padfoot, Lupin's Moony, Pettigrew's Wormtail and my dad was Prongs. The four of you were the Marauders and you all illegally became Animagi while at Hogwarts. Your little brother joined the Death Eaters and was killed by Voldemort and your childhood home is Grimmauld Place." Harry expected Sirius to look bewildered or taken aback, as everyone else had, but instead he looked impressed.

"Well, dear God," he said sounding delighted, "you have inherited James' sense of humor after all! He'd be very proud of you."

"No, I'm serious," Harry insisted. Sirius gave him a strange look.

"I know that now I'm supposed to say, 'no, I'm Sirius,'" he said happily. "Well, I think it'd only be right to tell you that that joke is as trite as...well, let's just say it's been done a lot. James couldn't get enough of it in our first year."

"No, I really am serious," Harry said earnestly. "How else could I know all that stuff about you?"

"I assume Remus told you," Sirius replied. Harry felt exasperated for a moment but then he remembered what was going on. How could he be feeling this way after seeing his late godfather for the first time in over a year?

"Sirius, I'm telling you, this is real," Harry said breathlessly. "Some rogue Ministry agents locked me up in the Department of Mysteries to study me. You have to believe me. If you have any doubt that I'm telling the truth, you can ask Dumbledore -- he knows everything about this." Sirius seemed to be speechless for a moment.

"My god, you are serious, aren't you?" he said, apparently finally getting the idea.

"Yeah," Harry said, nodding grimly. "In my universe, you escaped from Azkaban, but Voldemort rose again and you were killed."

"Really?" Sirius asked, sounding fascinated. "No kidding, eh?"

"No kidding," Harry told him.

"We studied the possibility of other universes in Arithmancy," Sirius explained, "but I never thought I'd meet someone who had experienced a transuniverse shift of consciousness. The odds of this must be...literally astronomical."

"Well, a lot of things happen to me because I'm famous," Harry said darkly.

"Being famous would have nothing to do with it," Sirius told him. "It's just as likely to happen to a two-year-old witch as to the Minister of Magic."

"Oh, so, it's a compete coincidence," Harry said. "After all I've been through this just happens to happen to me! Incredible."

Harry sighed. He couldn't believe he was having this conversation with Sirius now after wishing he could see him again for so long. Now he didn't seem to be able to remember what he wanted to talk about with him so much. Deciding it would come to him eventually, Harry politely bid farewell to Sirius and walked outside so he could think.

Was he going to be stuck here forever? Would he ever see the faces of Ron or a Hermione who didn't hate him? Would he be forced to live here for the rest of his life with Lupin, Sirius, Malfoy and Luna? Well, he had always wanted to live with Sirius...

"Ow!"

Harry turned around to see Luna lying on the ground behind him. She had evidently tripped over a fallen branch and fell onto the muddy ground.

"Are you all right?" he asked her as he helped her to her feet.

"Yeah," she said breathlessly. As soon as she was upright, she promptly threw her cloak off and then bent down to start undoing her shoes.

"Uh, what are you doing?" Harry asked her, feeling suddenly panicked.

"Taking off my clothes," Luna replied casually.

"Why?" Harry asked desperately. He didn't think Luna was this crazy.

"They're all muddy," Luna answered. "I can't go around in muddy clothes, can I?"

"But you have something else to change into," Harry said quickly.

"Do you see something else?" Luna asked in exasperation as she tossed her shoes and socks aside.

"But...you're not going to take off all your clothes, are you?" he asked frantically.

"If they're all muddy..." she said, as she let her skirt fall to the ground revealing her light pink knickers.

"In front of me?" Harry asked incredulously, forcing himself to look above Luna's waistline.

"Haven't you ever seen a naked girl before?" she asked incredulously.

"Uh...no!" Harry answered. "Well, okay, yes," he said, remembering Pansy Parkinson, "but I didn't actually see...anything."

"Well, have you at least seen pictures?" Luna asked as she pulled her shirt off over her head. Though she was fully developed, she wasn't wearing a bra.

"Okay, yes," Harry admitted, focusing his attention as hard as he could above Luna's shoulders, "but it's not the same thing." Luna bent down suddenly and Harry could only assume she was pulling knickers off, since he promptly looked away. Whether she wanted it or not, he thought she deserved her dignity.

"You can look at me, it's okay," she said encouragingly.

"Yeah, whatever," Harry said, turning to look at her, but firmly fixing his gaze on her face. He couldn't stop it from wandering down her body a few times, but Luna didn't seem to notice.

"Just pretend I'm a picture," Luna said, holding out her arms as though to emphasize her body. "It's no different."

"It's completely different," Harry said. "Just -- just get your clothes on. I'm -- I'm not...interested. Not that I don't like you or anything, I just...don't like you that way..." Luna looked piercingly at him -- to him, at least, her wide eyes seemed to be saying You can strip, too -- then it would be fair.

"Whoa, good going, Harry!" a voice said suddenly. Harry turned to see Draco Malfoy walking up to them.

"You've gotten her to take off all her clothes already!" he said cheerfully. "How'd you do it, mate?"

"Actually, I've been trying to convince her to put her clothes back on," Harry replied coolly.

"Oh, that old trick!" Malfoy said cleverly. "Reverse psychology is so successful if you can do it right."

"No," Harry interrupted, "I mean I've actually been trying to convince her to stop." Malfoy looked flabbergasted.

"What?" he asked incredulously. "What kind of bloke doesn't have sex with a hot girl who strips naked for him?"

"A Gryffindor," Harry retorted. "Well, okay, except maybe Seamus. So, you think Luna's hot, do you?"

"Oh, yeah," he said, "now that I see her sans clothing. You know, Luna, if Harry doesn't want to, I'll have sex with you. I haven't had a girl in hours," he added in a tone one might use to refer to having a soft drink.

"No, I want to have sex with Harry," Luna replied automatically. Harry blushed and looked away as Malfoy burst out laughing and started calling him "virgin-boy." Harry would have gone inside, but he was afraid that with Luna being naked and Malfoy being aroused, a sexual assault might occur. He didn't want Luna to get hurt.

"But you're already totally naked!" Malfoy protested enthusiastically.

"Actually I'm wearing earrings," Luna pointed out. Since he found it hard to look at her without letting his gaze fall below her shoulders, Harry turned away and looked at the big garden, which, even by its pervious standards, was now horribly overgrown. Lupin evidently didn't have a lot of time to care for it.

Harry desperately wished the Weasleys could still be living there. He wished that he could go inside and see Mrs. Weasley cooking up dinner or walk up to the paddock to play Quidditch with Ron, Fred, George and Ginny. But all that seemed to be from a previous life -- a life it almost seemed had never existed outside of wishful thinking.

Hardly listening to Malfoy's attempts at convincing Luna to go to bed with him, Harry got down on the ground and absent-mindedly pushed his wand into the dirt. However, about three inches in, it hit something and wouldn't go in any further. Not having anything better to do, he started digging just to see what it was. It turned out to be wood -- wood, it turned out, formed a coffin.

"Hey, you guys had better see this!" he called. As Luna, seemingly oblivious to her nudity, turned to walk over to the grave, Harry quickly looked away. Both she and Malfoy knelt down next to Harry.

"I don't think you should open it," Luna said vaguely. "It wouldn't be right." But the coffin had no markings on it and Harry had to know who it was. He pulled the coffin open.

It was Ginny Weasley.

Her pallid face had an expression frozen into it and her eyes were squeezed tightly shut, as though to hide a painful sight from them. She was completely clothed, except for her shoes, in her Hogwarts robes. Clutched tightly in her little arms was Tom Riddle's diary. She looked very young -- she could have been no more than eleven when she had died -- and equally pitiful.

Harry almost wished he had never found her -- at least then there would have still been some hope that she was alive somewhere. But maybe it wasn't too late. Maybe he could still get back to his own universe. He had gotten into this universe, so there must be some way of getting back. However, the odds of him ever finding it seemed extremely remote. The Department of Mysteries had been trying to figure out how to reach another universe for centuries.

It seemed certain there was no way back.

"Wow," Malfoy said quietly. His solemnness seemed to indicate that he possessed just he barest sense of decency -- but only the barest, Harry decided.