Design for Life

Chapter 7 - Too Real

Hermione had screamed when Wizard had hit the floor. Harry and Ron had both stepped forwards quickly and Harry had called out for Hermione to fetch Dumbledore. She ran out of the classroom and Harry knelt down beside Wizard.

"Well, at least he's still breathing."

He looked up at Ron who still stood over them.

Ron sighed. "Sometimes Harry, I think you just exist to faint. Even other yous do it..."

"Ron..." Harry began before noting the amused look on his friends face.

There didn't seem to be much they could do to help Wizard until Dumbledore arrived so Harry balled up his cloak and stuck it carefully under his head in an effort to make him more comfortable and turned back to Ron.

"Well... What do you think of me?" he asked with a smile.

"He's different. It's very strange. Hermione and I were talking earlier, about him, before we met him, I mean, and... he's not you, Harry. He's been through some different things, which changed him."

"Ron... I know... I know what happened to him, all the time he wasn't here. I can feel his memories somehow... The memories I've been having are his. It's not pretty... I know I haven't had the greatest time in the past few years, but I knew I wasn't alone. I had you, and Hermione. Dumbledore and Sirius and Lupin and everybody were always there to help me, and I knew I didn't have to face the future alone." he looked down at Wizard "But he never had that. I can see his memories, and he spent all that time alone. The Dursleys got worse and worse and there was nobody there for him, nothing to take him away. But all I can think of is 'That could have been me' and I'm so happy it wasn't me. Part of me is glad that he was the one to suffer... Do you think that's wrong?" Harry looked worried and scared.

Ron tried to think of something comforting to say, but couldn't. Instead he put his hand out and touched Harry lightly on his arm. Eventually he said "He's here now Harry, things can only get better."

~*~

Once again all attention was on the black haired figure in bed, although for the first time Harry caught a glimpse of what it was like not to be on the receiving end.

Dumbledore and Hermione had hurried back to the classroom and the professor had quickly conjured a stretcher to take Wizard to the infirmary, followed by the three friends. Harry was still feeling as uncomfortable and miserable as he had done during his revelation to Ron about his feelings towards Wizard. All he could think was 'That could have been me' and the idea that he could think like that scared him.

Madam Pomfrey took the arrival of this other Harry surprisingly well and had checked him over thoroughly. She was now trying to get him to drink some strengthening potion as he stirred uncomfortably in bed.

Suddenly he sat bolt upright. Harry had never seen anyone go from being so asleep to so awake before, not even when Fred had dropped Neville's toad, Trevor, down the back of Angelina Johnson's neck as she slept in front of the common room fire.

Dumbledore reached out a calming hand.

"Welcome back, young man, you gave us all a bit of a shock back there."

Harry noticed Wizard glancing round him warily before replying.

"What happened?"

"You fainted." said Madam Pomfrey irritably. "When did you last eat?"

Wizard looked puzzled.

"Ummm... Day before yesterday... I had breakfast."

Madam Pomfrey rounded on Dumbledore.

"You mean to say he hasn't had anything to eat since then?" she almost shouted.

"Poppy, please... Calm down. We'll feed him up, don't worry. Get the house elves to bring something up..." he turned to Harry. "We shall postpone informing the school of our latest arrival until breakfast tomorrow, when I hope everyone will be feeling better. Now, I want you three to go back to your common room and get some rest... And please, keep this to yourselves until I can announce it to the school. The last thing this young man needs right now is hordes of visitors."

Ron, Hermione and Harry nodded, and waving goodbye to Wizard, silently left the infirmary.

They were halfway to the Gryffindor common room before anyone spoke.

"Are you Ok, Harry?" asked Hermione, reaching out for his arm but not quite brave enough to take it.

"Not really..." replied Harry, moodily.

"What's bothering you? Specifically, I mean... I'm pretty sure I know what's wrong in general."

In a low voice Harry said, "That could have been me, Hermione..."

"But it isn't."

"I KNOW!" shouted Harry. "It's not. It's him, but he's me... God, this s complicated."

"Just tell her what you told me, Harry." said Ron.

Harry stared at him for a second and then looked back at Hermione.

"Ok... He's not me. But he could have been. Very easily. One small difference and he would be at Hogwarts - his Hogwarts, with his Ron and Hermione... Right?"

Hermione nodded.

"What I'm trying to say is, that that very same difference would have kept ME at the Dursleys for five more years, and sent ME to Stonewall High to be beaten up every day and made ME run away and live homeless for a year and a half..." Harry said all this very quickly and he sighed heavily. "I'm glad, Hermione. I'm really, really glad that it was him. I feel awful for thinking that, but I can't help it."

Hermione waited for a moment until she was sure that Harry had finished and then said, "You do realise that all that's perfectly normal, don't you?"

Harry looked surprised. This time Hermione did take his arm gently.

"Harry, you're human, just like everybody else. It's perfectly normal to be relieved when something bad that could have happened to you happens to somebody else... Remember when Goyle hit that bludger at you, and you ducked and it hit Katie instead?"

Harry nodded.

"Well, I'm sure you felt bad that Katie was hit, but you didn't beat yourself up over it now, did you? Did you feel guilty for ducking out of the way? No. Remember what Wizard said, you escaped, he didn't. There's nothing either of you can do about it..."

Ron sniggered. "No, he didn't feel guilty, but he did throw a wet-start firework into Goyle's cauldron..."

Now it was Harry's turn to smile. "Was that the time he grew excessive body hair, or the time Goyle, Crabbe and Malfoy lost their voices for the rest of the day? That WAS peaceful, wasn't it?"

"Definitely the body-hair incident." Hermione said. "They lost their voices after you switched their ingredients round because Draco toadnapped Trevor and threatened to dissect him."

"Oh yeah... That was a beautiful shot with that firework though, right on target..."

They continued reminiscing about past glories against the Slytherins until they reached the Gryffindor Portrait hole. They entered the common room giggling like lunatics, surprising Seamus and Colin Creevey, who were playing Exploding Snap by the fire.

"What are you lot laughing about?" Seamus asked.

"Ah..." sniggered Harry, trying not to laugh. "Two words, Mr Finnegan... bouncing ferret..."

~*~

Draco stomped loudly into the Great Hall at Breakfast. He was not having a good day. First Goyle had kept him awake by snoring louder than ever after the silencing charm around his bed had worn off during the night. Draco had then overslept and in his rush to get ready had snapped one of his shoelaces.

Draco radiated 'go away' vibes as he sat down to what he hoped would be a peaceful breakfast.

Before the students had started to eat, however, Dumbledore, conspicuous by his unusual presence at breakfast, stood up and tapped his spoon against the jug of pumpkin juice that stood before him.

"Ahem... If I may have your attention for a few moments..."

The crowd of students fell silent, and Draco looked up from his toast, interested in whatever the Headmaster thought was worth interrupting breakfast for.

"These walls have seen many unusual things..." continued Dumbledore, "...and today is no exception. Hogwarts has a new pupil; one I think you will all recognise. I ask for your understanding in this matter, and for your co-operation. Come in, please."

All pairs of eyes turned to the main door, which swung open.

~*~

Harry gave Wizard what he hoped was a reassuring look as the doors began to open.

Wizard looked like he always did, his green eyes betraying nothing of his feelings and his face set in determination. They each took a deep breath and stepped into the hall.

~*~

For the first time in a very long while every single person in the Great Hall was absolutely and perfectly silent, and then everybody began talking at once.

It took Dumbledore several tries to restore some kind of order as Harry and Wizard walked slowly through the hall and calmly took their seats at the Gryffindor table.

~*~

Draco watched as the doors opened and stared at the sight that met his eyes. He had had some suspicion that Dumbledore's announcement would have something to do with Harry Potter, everything at Hogwarts did in the end, he sighed reflectively, but nothing could have prepared him for this. Standing in the doorway were two figures, both in black Hogwarts robes. One, the familiar form of Potter, with his stupid hair sticking up every which way, he recognised immediately and he turned his attention to the other boy. He was the same height as Potter, or thereabouts, but he seemed to be thinner. Draco snorted as he noticed the other boy's haircut that managed somehow to be stupider than Potters, Who had a Mohican these days? Really? Draco's eyes flicked over the figure. Why was he so familiar?

"Oh my GOD!" Draco shouted at the same moment as the rest of the hall erupted into noise. "Now there's two of the bastards!"

~*~

It had been agreed that Wizard should attend classes with Harry and so, after breakfast, they walked to the Transfiguration classroom surrounded by crowds of students fascinated by the new arrival. Harry remained nervous and on edge while Wizard seemed to be able to maintain an exterior of perfect calm. The fact that he hadn't spoken to anyone remained though, and he brushed off all questions with an expansive shrug.

Harry didn't sit next to Ron or Hermione in Transfiguration that day, he sat with Wizard, sitting as silent and still as a statue on a separate table. Professor McGonagall entered the class and strode past the rows of desks to the front.

"Good Morning class. Today we will be continuing our work on trans-species transfigurations. You will each be issued with a small Flobberworm, and expect each of you to be able to transfigure it into another animal by the end of today's lesson, our newest arrival excepted, of course." she said with a glance at Wizard. "Points will be awarded to those of you who are able to transfigure it into something as different from its original form as possible."

McGonagall waved her wand and tanks containing a Flobberworm each appeared in front of each student apart from Wizard. "You may begin."

When he was sure everyone's attention was turned to their Flobberworms, Harry leant over to Wizard. "How many of my memories do you have?" he asked.

Wizard turned slightly in his seat so that he was facing Harry. He raised an eyebrow questioningly.

"I mean, can you remember any magic? You said that you remembered the spell last night, so can you remember anything else?"

Wizard closed his eyes and as the seconds ticked by Harry began to worry about him again.

Suddenly the other boy's eyes flicked open.

"Give me your wand." he said gruffly.

Harry's hand tightened protectively around his wand. "Why?" he asked.

"I want to see how much I can remember."

Harry handed over his wand grudgingly and Wizard weighed it up in his hands.

"It's too heavy." he said finally.

"It's just right..." said Harry defensively.

"For you, maybe..."

"But..." began Harry, wondering where the conversation was going. "But we're the same..." finished Harry.

Wizard regarded him silently for a while. "You don't believe that, do you though?" he said simply.

Then he shut his eyes and lifted the wand.

~*~

Sirius had been travelling for just under a day, and he hadn't managed to get out of London. He had decided it was far too risky to be seen as a man while surrounded by Muggles who might still remember him, so he had been travelling as a dog, which while safer had the downside of not being able to use public transport, so he was walking. Sighing inwardly he cursed freeing Buckbeak the year before, but then again, it was hard to stay incognito in Muggle London with a Hippogriff, they were quite conspicuous. It would take him a long while to get to Hogwarts, he mused. He darted across a busy road and leapt a fence. Landing gracefully on the other side, he barked in delight, finally he was out in open countryside. The grass under his paws was wet and cool, and Sirius couldn't help rolling over and over.

Finding Wizard had been a great shock, and the thought that there was someone out there who was both powerful and twisted enough to perform the spell that could have caused the collision of the two worlds, frightened him. He was scared for his godson, but then, hadn't he always been scared for Harry? Scared for him when he was a baby in Lily's arms, wondering what the future would be for him. Scared for him when he was in Azkaban, worrying about his life with the Dursleys. Scared for him when he was fighting dragons and facing down Voldemort... He smiled as much as his physical form would allow. If he ever saw James again, he'd have to have words. 'You lied to me, Prongs,' he thought. 'You said being Harry's Godfather would be easy...'

~*~

Wizard was laughing. Tears were streaming down his cheeks as the dragon roared at a group of girls cowering under a table. Everyone had screamed as Harry's Flobberworm had blossomed into a huge Hungarian Horntail, the same as Wizard remembered from Harry's memories. He had wanted to show them that he could do just as well as them, he wanted to show Harry what he could remember and he wanted to prove to himself that he could really do it. By the way the stern looking teacher was shouting at him to change the dragon back, he reckoned he had impressed them. Harry was shouting now, he was lying awkwardly against the far wall where he had been thrown a flying chair.

"For God's sake, change it back NOW!"

Wizard turned and smiled at Harry and waved his wand again, saying the words he had never learnt. The dragon shrank at once, leaving only a very confused Flobberworm, a wrecked classroom and some screaming students.

~*~

"What the hell did you do that for!?" demanded Harry after a shocked McGonagall had allowed her equally shocked class to leave. "Someone could have been hurt, or worse!"

They were walking back in a group towards the common room. Parvati was crying and being comforted by Lavender and Dean. Everyone was giving Wizard, and by extension Ron, Hermione and Harry, a very wide berth indeed.

"I just wanted to prove I could. I wanted to see how much of you I could remember. You asked me and I showed you."

"I didn't think you would turn a Flobberworm into a huge dragon though!"

"No, you didn't think I COULD turn a Flobberworm into a huge dragon."

"Well, no, I didn't," conceded Harry, "but what were you thinking conjuring a dragon in an enclosed, crowded classroom?"

"Hah! You're just scared to try."

Harry and Wizard were shouting at each other now, across the hallway.

"Scared? What, scared to hurt my friends? Scared of getting someone killed? Yeah, I'd say I was scared of that."

"No, you're just scared of using magic. I mean, bloody hell Harry, it must have crossed your mind that you could..."

"Could what?" interrupted Harry, "Rule the world? Voldemort tried that and look where that's got us. Years of pain and terror. Magic isn't like that, you don't know anything about it."

"No, I don't know anything about it! And you know why? Because all the time you were here figuring out the bloody ethics of pulling a rabbit out of a fucking hat, I was getting threatened by bastards with knives and getting thrown downstairs!"

Harry said nothing and just stared at Wizard marvelling at how different everything could have been.

"Harry!" whispered Hermione, "Snape!"

Harry turned to see the tall, black haired professor striding down the hallway with his robes billowing.

"Headmaster's office," he said, smiling a nasty smile. "Both of you. Now."