And thus commences the final chapter in this story.

And I would like to say a Very Happy 18th Birthday to my friend FallenStar22: check out her stuff, she's brilliant!

Thank you for following me on this journey, and I'm so very sorry about my crap updates.

And so it ends, I hope you enjoy this final chapter. Sorry I'm crap at endings.

Chapter 13

"Did it work? Are we home?" Sirius' voice was the first to break the silence, but it was none of theirs which answered it.

"You are indeed, Mr Black." Harry's head snapped up to see Professor Dumbledore standing in the corner of the room, his eyes twinkling familiarly. "Would you mind terribly if I asked where you had been?"

Harry stood silently as the adults all began speaking at once, trying to explain the incredible adventure they had all had. Dumbledore looked amused at the sudden explosion of noise, and held his hand up, causing silence to fall instantly.

"One of you please." He said calmly, "Remus?"

"We were… it's hard to explain sir, but I think we found ourselves in a parallel world. It was… very different. How long have we been missing, sir?"

Dumbledore's eyebrows rose in surprise, "Just 24 hours, Remus. How long has it been for you?"

"I'm not entirely sure sir, longer than a week."

"Indeed. You shall have to tell me all about it, but for the moment, I believe you should reacquaint yourselves with your friends. Everyone has been very worried."

Dumbledore's eyes found Harry's at this comment and a small frown creased his brow as he appeared to look into his soul, in the way only Dumbledore could. Harry did not say anything, merely smiled faintly at him and looked back at the floor, which was very much out of character for the troublemaker.

With a final smile, Dumbledore swept from the room, leaving them to gather their thoughts.

"I should probably go find Dora and Teddy, they'll be worried sick!" Remus exclaimed, rushing to the fireplace, and this seemed to bring the rest of them back to reality.

"I'll go back to Gryffindor Tower." Harry said quietly, and his parents quickly drew him into a hug.

"If you need anything, let us know." James said seriously, "If you need to talk to anyone-"

"I know Dad." Harry cut him off awkwardly, "Thanks."

"Be safe." Lily pressed a kiss to his cheek, and it showed how much Harry had changed that he did not pull away from her.

"See you." Harry said with a small smile as he left Uncle Moony's office.

The corridors seemed quiet and empty, and a glance out of the window showed Harry the sun was just setting: the common room would be packed. Ducking into a secret passageway, Harry's feet brought him towards Gryffindor tower, but his mind was miles away.

I wonder what everyone's reaction will be. I wasn't gone that long… but I'm not the same person I was when I left yesterday evening… it seems so long ago.

Was it only a week? It felt like forever I was…

Harry could not bear to think of what had happened.

I don't know what to do about Ron, Dean and Seamus… I don't know if they'll accept the new me. I don't know if the new me can accept them.

What about Neville? It was my fault he turned out like this. The other Harry would never have let him be put down, and Hermione. She's such a different person there, than she is here. She was so confident, but here she's as timid as a mouse…

Was it all my fault? Have I changed these people so much?

What if-

Harry looked up to find himself in front of the Fat Lady's portrait, and looked at it blankly.

Oh no! The password!

Harry frowned as he tried to remember the password, but it had not seemed important in the other world and it seemed to have leaked out of his head.

"Dilligrout!" A familiar voice called from behind him and Harry spun around to arrive face-to-face with Hermione Granger, her hair as bushy as ever, her arms laden with books.

"Hermione!" Harry cried in relief, "Thanks! You're a lifesaver!"

Hermione looked at him strangely, and Harry remembered what she must think of him.

"Sorry!" Harry leapt out of her way so she could access the portrait hole, "Do you want any help with that?" he gestured towards the pile of books in her arms and she frowned at him.

"What do you want, Potter?"

Harry was about to answer when the Fat Lady interceded loudly.

"If you're going in, go in! I'm not going to just hang open for you all day!"

Harry and Hermione quickly avoided each other's eyes and darted into the portrait hole. Harry was about to turn to Hermione again when he was met with an explosion of noise.

"Harry!"

"It's Potter!"

"He's back!"

Harry started at the noise, feeling threatened by the large number of faces staring at him. He slid his hand into his pocket to feel the comforting weight of his wand in his hand. Hermione had vanished.

Ron's ginger hair became visible as he pushed his way out of the crowd towards Harry and Harry began to wish he had not come back here so quickly, maybe waited until the crowds had thinned a bit.

"Harry!" Ron, Seamus and Dean burst their way out of the crowd. "Where were you?"

Harry looked around to see a large number of interested faces looking towards him and felt a very sudden, very large desire to escape.

"Let's go up to the dorm, yeah?" Harry said nervously, spying the staircase at the end of the room.

"What? Why?" Dean demanded curiously.

"You don't wanna go up there, mate, Longbottom's up there." Seamus agreed.

"So?" Harry felt confused before he remembered he wasn't supposed to like Neville. "I want to talk to him anyway."

I am not going to lie about who I am now.

Hiding behind a confused Ron, the four of them pushed their way through the crowd of people asking where Harry had been, had he been skiving, what had he been doing?

Harry felt more and more compressed the longer it took them to get through the crowd, and when they finally reached the staircase, his hands were trembling and his wrists were rubbing against each other again.

Harry burst into the dormitory, breathing fast, trying to escape from the crowd. Ron, Seamus and Dean followed him closely.

"Harry, what's wrong?" Ron's face looked worried as he looked at his friend.

"You look like crap." Dean was frowning as he searched Harry's face for something.

"I'm fine… just… I wanted to get out of there. You guys need to know the truth and I don't know what's real any more. I just… I'm fine."

Harry looked across at Neville's bed, containing a very startled Neville, his eyes wide. Neville looked at them for a minute before sighing and beginning to stand.

"You can stay here, Neville." Harry told him, much to the surprise of Ron, Dean and Seamus. "It's your room as much as it is ours. I swear I won't hurt you."

Neville looked gobsmacked as he sat back down on his bed and watched Harry curiously.

"Mate, what happened to you?" Dean sounded seriously worried as he frowned at him.

"It's a very long story… but what happened, changed me.

"You know I went looking for Uncle Moony last we- last night? Well, something happened."

"Is Professor Lupin okay?" Ron asked worriedly,

"Yeah. Nothing like that… I mean, something happened. We were all – me, Mum, Dad, Uncle Moony and Uncle Padfoot – about to eat dinner when there was an explosion. We were transported to an Alternate Universe."

"Yeah, right mate. If you don't mind me saying, I think you might have had too much to drink!"

"Ask them if you like!" Harry retorted angrily. "I'm telling you the truth and it's up to you if you believe me or not!"

"Sorry mate, carry on." Seamus looked sceptical.

"This Universe… it was dark. As in, evil. There was this evil wizard, Lord Voldy-something, and he had these followers… the Death Munchers, I think they were called. It was nasty. When we got there, there was this massive fight going on in Hogwarts, there were people dying everywhere."

Harry's voice was shaky as he remembered, his face pale.

"Ron, your brother, Fred. He was killed. So was Uncle Moony and Aunt Tonks, Teddy was a baby, orphaned. There was the other me… my doppelganger. He was – he seemed to be the one in charge. His parents were killed by the evil guy when he was a baby, he was brought up by the Dursleys. He killed him. The other me, he killed Lord Voldy-thing."

Harry shook his head to clear it.

"He was so much better than I was. So much braver, so much stronger. He was a good person."

"You're a good person!" Dean was quick to interject, but Harry shook his head.

"He had two best friends, and they were closer than anyone I've seen. Ron and Hermione."

"Granger?" Ron looked gobsmacked. "Why would we be friends with her?"

"She was a good person, Ron. You were in love with her. She's the one that allowed us to get back home. I'd never seen you so happy." Harry met Ron's gaze and Ron stared back, bewildered. But he seemed to believe him.

"Neville." Harry spoke to the curious boy on the bed. "I'm sorry. I am so, so sorry for what I've done to you. I've repressed you constantly, and stopped you being who you are capable of being."

Neville looked at Harry confused. "I'm nobody, I'm not important!" he said quietly.

"You are, Neville. You – the other you – he was brilliant. He led Dumbledore's army, and was head of the rebellion when the school was taken over. He looked like crap, mate, but… he killed the snake, Voldy-man's snake. With Gryffindor's sword."

Neville looked startled. "I did that?" he said in a small voice.

Harry went over to Neville and knelt on the floor in front of him.

"Yes, you did. And you're capable of that. You tried so hard, and you are, and always have been, a much better person than I ever was."

Harry looked back at his friends, who couldn't seem to comprehend what was happening.

"Neville's our friend now, okay?" Harry told them, "he's better than any of us-"

"Hey!" Seamus interrupted Harry "just because you've gone all high and mighty, doesn't mean you can insult the rest of us! And that still doesn't explain your freakiness on the stairs!"

Harry flinched backwards. "I don't know what you mean." He said warily, "I'm fine."

"Tell us the truth, Harry." Ron was looking at him carefully, like he would break any minute. Harry could not look him in the eye.

"The Death Munchers came to the house." Harry said in a quiet voice, "they thought I was the other Harry. They…" Harry brought his legs to his chest, making himself into a ball, his back to Neville's bed. "They took me. I – I don't know how long for. I… they tortured me."

Harry shuddered as he remembered the feeling of being so weak.

"It was in the woods… they took my clothes. I was cold, so cold, and the pain…"

Harry's breath shuddered. "I forgot who I was, where I was."

Neville's hand on his shoulder startled Harry out of the memory, and he looked up at his friends. "Sorry." He said, forcing his wrists to stop sliding over each other.

"But, Harry, mate." Ron spoke up carefully, "You were only gone a day!"

"I… we were there for ages. Days, more than a week." Harry said, "I don't understand it either, but…"

"I believe you." Neville's voice piped up from above, and Harry saw his worried gaze fixed upon him. "You're too different to be gone a day."

Harry smiled slightly, shaking himself.

It would be okay, he thought. He was safe now, he would be okay. Tomorrow, he would find Hermione and talk to her, but for now… it might take some time to change his friends' views, but he knew he would be able to make them realise, just like he did…

From now on, he would be better.

I know it's not a very satisfying ending, but it had to end somewhere.

I hope you have enjoyed reading this as much as I have writing it.

Oreal