I'm so sorry for the long wait but here it is, an update, finally! I assure you, this story is not abandoned! Unfortunately I'm not feeling great about this chapter but I don't know how to make it better. Hopefully the other chapters will be more interesting once we actually join the canon story (though it won't probably happen for a few chapters still, two or three at the most). Anyway, hope you like it! Tell me what you think!

Interlude

Feeling came back to her hands first. Harri clenched her fists slightly, her eyes closed. She realized she was lying down on some soft surface, the smell of antiseptics reaching her nostrils.

Opening her eyes felt like a gargantuan effort but she tried anyway. Her muscles felt sore and useless, weighting a tone.

At last she blinked and the room came into focus. She was in some kind of muggle hospital room, her body attached to various machines, one of those beeping in time with her heartbeats.

A nurse entered the room in that moment, leisurely skimming through the chart in her hands and walking without looking where she was going. Then she raised her eyes when she was standing in front of her bed and blinked in surprise.

"You're awake!" She said with a shriek. She turned around without another word, probably to call a doctor.

A few minutes later a man in his late forties entered the room, the nurse from before following in his wake. He smiled kindly at her and said, "Welcome back Miss Parker. You've been asleep for quite a long time; you had us all worried. In fact, we weren't sure if you'd ever wake up at all, especially after yesterday. Your heart stopped beating for a few seconds, 45 to be exact. Fortunately you recovered though and now, here you are. It's a miracle."

Harri looked at him confused. Why had he just called her Miss Parker? And why was she in a muggle hospital of all places? She would have thought she would have woken up in the Hogwarts Infirmary if the battle had been won. Except…she wasn't supposed to wake up at all, was she?

Like a flash, the memories of the hours before her final facedown with Voldemort came back to her. Snape dying, his memories that she poured in Dumbledore's pensieve, the revelation that the only way for Voldemort to die was for her to sacrifice herself. And then she had walked, like she was supposed to, straight to her death. She remembered the feeling of the Avada Kedavra hitting her chest. But then, if she had died, why was she alive? And why was she there?

"Miss Parker?" The doctor's voice brought her back to the present. Harri looked at him but didn't try to speak.

"Do you remember what happened to you?"

Harri tried to clear her throat but it felt scratchy. The nurse immediately poured her a glass of water and helped her sit down against the pillow. Her hand trembled a little when she took the glass from the nurse but otherwise she was able to drink on her own. The doctor nodded satisfied at that. He waited patiently for her to finish her glass and then asked her again. "Do you know what happened to you?"

"I-I don't know…" Harri asked, not sure what was safe to say.

"You and your parents were in a car accident Miss Parker. I'm sorry to say that your parents didn't make it."

"What?" Harri asked, even more confused. The doctor must have her confused with someone else.

But then, once again, the flash of a memory made her way into her mind and she remembered. She had died, yes, but she had woken up in a strange, white, clean and deserted King's Cross station. She remembered a mirror had appeared in front of her, showing her reflection and yet not exactly, and when she had touched its surface she had somehow fell through it and then…and then what?

"Where am I?" She asked the doctor. She read the label on his coat: Dr. H. Jacobs.

"You're in Brighton General Hospital. You've been in a coma for six months."

"Six months?" Harri asked with widened eyes. "What day is it today?"

"It's the sixth of May, 1996."

Harri did a double take at that. The battle at Hogwarts had happened only yesterday and yet somehow, she was in a completely different place and the doctor was convinced her name was Miss Parker and not Potter. What the hell was going on? Did it have something to do with the fact that she had touched that mirror? She remembered wishing she could have the life of the girl she saw in the mirror, the one who looked like her but that Harri had known wasn't her.

Was it possible then, that she had somehow become that girl? After all, by all accounts, she should be dead and yet, here she was, alive once again.

"Miss Parker, I know you must be feeling a little disoriented right now but I assure you, it's temporary. Your vitals are good and it appears you are recovering extremely well. In fact I'll say you're recovering even quicker than I would expect, given the time you spent comatose. If things continue as they are, you should be out of here in a week at the most. Of course I will recommend some physical therapy to help your muscles recover after the time you spent motionless. For now I'll leave you to rest, I'm sure you'll be tired. Your closest relative has been notified that you are awake so she should be here soon."

Harri nodded, still completely confused and watched the doctor leave the room.

Her mind was still churning with questions and yet she drifted off to sleep without even realizing it. Her sleep was fitful, often interrupted with dreams of things she had no real recollection of. It was all a twirl of faces, names and places she didn't know but that somehow felt extremely familiar.

She woke up even more disoriented than before to find an old lady sitting in the chair near her bed.

"Grandma?" She asked without thinking. She shook her head. Why had she called this woman grandma? She looked familiar though, though she couldn't say she had ever seen her before.

"Oh, Hayden baby, you're awake!" The woman said in response, getting up from the chair she was sitting on and sitting on the bed next to her instead. The woman hugged her carefully, probably to make sure she wouldn't get hurt inadvertently. "How are you feeling?" She asked once they had separated.

Harri shrugged. She registered the fact that the woman – her grandmother? – called her Hayden but for now, she ignored it. "Tired. Other than that, rather well."

"Oh baby, I was so worried!" The woman's eyes filled with tears and she hugged Harri again. "Your parents…they…"

"I know. The doctor told me." Harri said, feeling pain stinging her chest and not really understanding why.

"I thought I lost you too." The woman continued. "But you're here. Oh, thank god you're awake!"

Harri smiled at her. "It's okay grandma, I'm fine. I'm here."

The woman nodded, drying the tears that had fallen down her cheeks. "The doctor said you'll be out of here in a few days. After that, you'll come home with me of course."

Harri nodded, not knowing what else to say. "The funeral? Was it…?"

"It was a beautiful ceremony. They all said nice things. I'm only sorry you couldn't be here."

"I know, me too."

"But I'll bring you to the cemetery as soon as you're feeling better."

Harri felt her eyes going moist, the unexpected urge to cry taking her by surprise. These people the woman in front of her was talking about weren't really her parents and yet, why did it hurt as much as it did? Why did it feel like she had lost them anyway?

She was starting to accept the fact that she had somehow become the girl she had seen in the mirror, this Hayden Parker. She remembered wishing for another chance so maybe that wish had been granted. But why then, was she an orphan once again? A family, that's all she has ever wanted and yet, once again, she had lost her parents without having the chance to know them. Was she cursed somehow? Destined to watch history repeating itself?

She cried in earnest at that and the woman embraced her once again, joining her in her tears. After long minutes, exhausted and with no more tears to shed, she fell asleep, a last goodbye to her old life and the people in it the last thought before falling willingly into Morpheus' arms.