"Ah, there's our Harry," James said, pointing, then using that same hand to wave.

Harry had yet to break free of his shock. It was as though he was back in third year and staring at his past self. Except this was even weirder— even more wrong— because this Harry was not him. There were differences between the two of them.

These differences became more apparent as the other Harry came closer.

Harry first noticed the lack of a scar on the boy's face. Then it became clear that the other Harry was, well, larger than him. Not by a lot, but the size difference that James had mentioned was there and noticeable. Harry felt a knot of bitterness tighten within him.

Harry had always wondered if the lack of food he received at the Dursleys had stunted his growth, and now he had strong evidence that this had been the case.

"Hey, everyone," the other Harry said as he approached.

James stepped forward to meet the other Harry, scooping him into a hug. James was still several inches taller than the other Harry, so he rested his chin on the boy's head. "I missed you, Harry," James said, still holding onto his son.

Harry had to look away from the scene, an unidentifiable emotion flaring up at the sight of the two of them together. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw James release the hug, only to be replaced by Lily.

Looking at the three of them clustered together, Harry couldn't help but think that they belonged together, that they were meant to be a family. James stood with a hand on each of his son's and his wife's shoulder as the other two continued to embrace. They were a family unit, no gaps between them.

Unconsciously, Harry took a step away, setting himself apart.

Harry cast his eyes over the crowd to prevent himself from staring at the family scene. So engrossed was he in the number of new faces, that when James laid a hand on his shoulder, he jumped.

"Oh— sorry to startle you," said James, pulling his hand away.

Harry shrugged. "It's no big deal, I just wasn't paying attention." And now that he was looking, he saw that James had turned his body, leaving a gap in their group. A gap just big enough for Harry to stand in. Before he could overthink it, Harry took a couple steps forward and joined the cluster.

"Harry," Lily said, looking pointedly at him, "why don't you give Harry—" She turned her gaze to the other Harry. "—some of that hand sanitizer."

Harry held out the little bottle of hand sanitizer for the other boy to take.

As the other Harry used the hand sanitizer, he asked, "So what's with all this?"

"Harry's immune system isn't right for our universe, so we're taking precautions to keep him safe," Lily said.

"So, I probably shouldn't hug him then," the other Harry said, passing the hand sanitizer back.

As Harry accepted the hand sanitizer, placing it in his pocket, he studied the other Harry's face. The other Harry certainly looked sincere about his comment, but it was hard to tell— and even harder to trust. If the other Harry had been sincere though, then maybe he was nice and not at all like Dudley.

"Maybe once we're back home, and we've removed Harry's Bubble-Head Charm," James said.

"I look forward to it," the other Harry said, raising his arm, then dropping it back down in an aborted motion.

Harry wondered what he'd been about to do. He'd been looking at Harry, so maybe he'd been about to initiate contact of some kind. Probably friendly contact, since both his parents were right there.

"Did you want to say goodbye to Ron and Hermione before we go?" Lily asked.

The other Harry shrugged. "We said goodbye on the train, and we'll be seeing each other again soon, so I'm alright."

Harry glanced around to where he'd last seen Ron and Hermione. He caught a glimpse of Hermione's bushy hair and a bony elbow that looked to be Ron's. Harry wished he'd had longer to see them. He knew that they weren't his best friends, but they looked like them.

And Harry didn't have any pictures to remember his best friends by.

Harry felt the loss of his photo album with a desperation that pulled at his breath and twisted his stomach. He stepped around Lily to get a better look at Ron and Hermione. The sight of their faces was painful and soothing in equal measures. Harry remained frozen, just staring at them, as the buzz of conversation continued around him.

"Harry, are you ready to go?" James asked.

Harry tore his gaze away and nodded.

Lily placed a warm hand on his elbow as they exited the platform. While they walked into the main train station, the others' resumed conversing, talking quietly under the bustling commotion all around them.

Harry tuned back into the conversation. The other Harry was chatting about the final game of the Quidditch Cup. Harry was suddenly curious about the state of Hogwarts' Quidditch in this universe.

"—still furious that Cadwallader fouled Eva. There was no reason to— Ginny was already after the Snitch at that point."

Harry knew the name Cadwallader— the Hufflepuff Chaser— but he didn't think he'd heard of an Eva before. Harry was sure he knew the names of everyone who played Quidditch. "Who's Eva?" Harry asked.

The other Harry looked at him curiously. "Eva is our keeper. She's a fourth year and very talented— at least partially because Wood spent most of his last year here training her. I thought your universe was pretty similar to ours; how do you not know her at all?"

Harry shrugged, helpless. "I don't know— maybe she was in a different house in my universe? And didn't get a chance to play Quidditch because of it?"

"Wow, this alternate universe thing is fascinating," the other Harry said. "I mean, I've known Eva for years— and you've never even heard of her! So who's your Keeper?"

"Ron."

"Oh, don't tell my friend Ron that— I assume you mean Ron Weasley—"

Harry nodded.

"—he tried out against Eva, and she kicked his ass because he was so nervous. And that was his only chance to get on the team because she's younger than us and was trained directly by Wood for an entire year. He could've tried out again later, but he didn't want to join just to be a reserve when there was no hope of getting on the team when the primary player graduated, you know?"

Harry ran his hands through his hair. "Yeah, that's awful."

Harry hadn't thought about how small the Quidditch teams were, how limiting the number of positions could be. It wasn't fair that just because Eva had managed to beat Ron out at one tryout two years ago, Ron would never get to be on the House team. Harry wondered how many aspiring Seekers he had kept from ever playing.

"Did I mention that Harry here was the Seeker for his universe's house team?" James asked.

Harry glanced at the other Harry. "Wait, are you not the Seeker?" he asked.

"No, I'm a Chaser."

That was odd to consider. Harry had, of course, played Chaser in the odd pickup match, but he'd never played the position seriously.

"By the way, dad, where's Sirius and Severus?" the other Harry asked.

"They couldn't make it this time. Sirius has his motorbike race today," James said.

"Harry," Lily said, touching his elbow gently, "if you were wondering why Severus isn't here either, it's because he always has to go to Sirius's races to make sure, and I quote, 'Sirius doesn't break his fool neck'."

Harry nodded, struck once again by the oddity that was Sirius and Snape being in a committed relationship together.

James slung his arm around the other Harry's shoulder. "Don't worry, they'll be at dinner tonight."

The other Harry whipped his head around to look at Harry. "Wait a second— we have an even number of Quidditch players now!"

James adjusted his grip on the other Harry to ruffle his hair. "I was wondering when you'd pick up on that! Harry and I flew around the other day, and I think we're going to have quite the game."

Harry grinned, delighted with the indirect praise.

They walked back through the train station to the car and then drove back to Potter Cottage, still bantering back and forth about one thing or another.

Harry expected to be excluded from the conversation while Lily and James sought to catch up with their son. But they didn't seem to have much to catch up on. Harry realized that the other Harry must write a lot of letters to his parents. Harry wondered if they would expect, or even want, the same from him.

But Harry couldn't get too lost in his thoughts because the other Harry seemed determined to keep him involved in the conversation. Every chance the other Harry got, he would turn to Harry and ask for an opinion.

It felt nice to be so deliberately included. And the more the other Harry turned to him, the more Harry's fears about the other Harry receded.

Harry was reading alone in the bedroom when a knock on his door startled him. He quickly cast Tempus and saw that it wasn't time yet for Sirius and Snape to arrive for dinner.

"Come in?" Harry called, his voice lifting in curiosity.

The door swung open and the other Harry walked in. Harry straightened up in his seat.

"I am sick of unpacking," the other Harry said, flopping onto the bed.

"That sucks," Harry said. The other Harry's unexpected— and casual— appearance had knocked Harry off balance.

There was a long silence.

"So, you're from another universe," the other Harry said. "What's that like?"

Harry grabbed a pen off his desk and began to fidget with it. "I don't know. Weird, I guess? I was there and now I'm here."

"But what are the differences?" the other Harry insisted. "It's another universe for a reason, right?"

Harry thought back to the conversation he'd just had with the Unspeakables and remembered the shock of discovering that there was no Voldemort here. That alone was enough to make him clam up. But the other Harry was staring at him expectantly from his prone position on the bed.

"There's not that many differences," Harry began slowly. "But there's a lot of differences at the same time."

"How's that work?"

"Well, a lot of the same people exist. Diagon Alley looks very similar and Hogwarts is still Hogwarts. Big things like that are the same, and that's apparently a pretty big deal."

"So there's universes where those things don't exist?"

Harry shrugged. "I guess so. I haven't exactly been to them."

The other Harry hummed. "What is different then?"

Harry sighed. He should have gone on for longer about things that were the same. He racked his brain for a safe difference. "Albus Dumbledore is Headmaster of Hogwarts in my universe."

"Huh. How was he?"

"He's great!" Harry said, the response automatic. "He really cares for his students and he's very wise."

"Interesting."

"So, what's it like to have two headmasters?" Harry asked, seizing the opportunity to turn the subject away from his universe.

The other Harry shifted a bit on the bed. "I don't know. It's normal for me, you know? McGonagall and Riddle have been sharing the job since long before I was born. They have it down to an art by now."

Harry nodded, trying to hide his discomfort with the idea of Voldemort as an effective headmaster. "I guess years of experience will do that."

"Harrys!" James shouted from downstairs. "Come help set the table!"

The other Harry sat up. "Harrys?" he parroted, rolling his eyes.

Harry stood up, setting the pen he'd been fidgeting with back on the desk. "I guess it's shorter than saying Harry twice."

"I guess," the other Harry said, standing up.

As they walked out of the room, Harry looked at his hands and saw that he'd gotten ink all over them from the pen. He sighed and ducked into the washroom to wash it off.

Harry jumped off the broom as he got close to the ground. He ran to meet the other Harry, who was doing the same. Harry held up his hand, ready for the high five, but the other Harry ignored it and went for the hug. Harry froze in the other Harry's embrace, then awkwardly raised his arms to return it.

The other Harry released the hug and whirled around to face James and Sirius, who were a few feet away. Harry and the other Harry walked over to the two men so that they were all clustered into a group.

"I told you we would win! But you just had to bet against us," the other Harry said, bouncing forward onto the balls of his feet.

Harry grinned at the other Harry.

"Alright, alright, you won fair and square," James said.

"I don't know," Sirius said, dubious. "Is it really fair if the competition is young and in practice?"

The other Harry glared at Sirius. "Harry, flick him on the ear for that."

Harry glanced at Sirius.

Sirius stared right back.

Then, slowly, Harry reached out and flicked Sirius on the ear.

There had been ample time for Sirius to move out of the way, but he hadn't.

"Thank you, Harry," the other Harry said.

Harry grinned at him, then looked back to James and Sirius. "So, when will you pay your forfeit?"

James and Sirius exchanged a look.

"Never?" they asked in unison.

The other Harry turned so that his back was to Sirius and James. Then, to Harry, he said, "Wow, I can't believe I don't have a father. Can you believe I'm halfway to becoming an orphan? What an unexpected turn of events."

Harry sucked in a breath and crossed his arms. That the other Harry could joke about being an orphan like that... but then, he had never experienced war. The other Harry probably didn't know any orphans, and he probably didn't know that Harry was an orphan.

Harry forced himself to release his breath.

James and Sirius both looked uncomfortable, which made sense, Harry supposed. James had probably told Sirius what Harry had said about his universe.

The awkward silence lingered, and the other Harry began to look uncomfortable too.

"I suppose the best time to get our forfeit over with is sooner rather than later," Sirius said.

James nodded, the motion glum.

"Well, get to it. Your bodies won't push themselves up," the other Harry said.

Harry did his best to shake off his lingering discomfort as James and Sirius lowered themselves onto the ground. Harry was quickly distracted by just how bad Sirius's form was.

"That's no way to do a pushup," Harry said, pointing at Sirius's bucked knees and slouched back.

"Yeah," the other Harry added, walking over to tap Sirius's knees with his foot, "I'm pretty sure you're just making things harder on yourself like this."

Sirius sighed, long and dramatic, but corrected his form.

"How many of these did we agree to?" James asked.

"Only 100," Harry said with a smile.

"We suggested fewer than that, but you two just had to bring it up to a round 100," the other Harry added.

Sirius groaned.

The other Harry pulled out his wand and summoned two folding chairs from the shed. "Here you are, Harry," he said, handing one of the chairs over. "There's no need for our feet to get tired while we supervise them."

Harry smirked and unfolded his chair to sit in it.

As James and Sirius were doing their 28th pushup, Lily and Severus came striding out of the house, each with a cool drink in their hand.

"What is going on out here?" Severus asked, raising an eyebrow.

Something about his tone and expression reminded Harry of Snape— the Snape from Harry's universe.

"Well, Harry and I won the match," the other Harry said.

There was a long silence before Harry realized that the other Harry had paused to let him continue with the story.

"And that means James and Sirius lost the bet," Harry said.

"Ah, so that would explain why they are on the ground, proudly displaying their utter lack of workout regimens," Severus said with a smirk.

Harry grinned and nodded.

"Do you mind if we join you in watching the show?" Lily asked.

"Of course not," the other Harry said. "Pull up a chair and join us."

Lily and Severus exchanged a look, then walked around to stand behind James and Sirius. They both summoned chairs and sat down in them, reclining with their drinks in hand.

"I must say," Severus drawled, "the view really is delightful from back here."

Harry glanced at the other Harry, who was miming making himself throw up. Harry snorted and nodded in agreement.

"Stop— ogling— us," James said, panting between each word.

Harry bent down and scooped up an acorn that was on the ground near his chair. He flung it at James, aiming for the back of the neck, which was where James' thick hair wouldn't protect him as much.

With the precise hand-eye coordination of a Seeker, Harry nailed the throw.

James's hand came up to slap at the back of his neck, and he collapsed onto his chest and face. He pushed himself up to his elbows and looked around. "What the hell was that?"

Harry wiped the smile from his face, adopting a serious expression.

"I have no idea what you mean," Harry said.

"And don't you have pushups to be doing?" the other Harry asked.

James grumbled and rubbed at the back of his neck. Then he heaved a heavy sigh and got back into pushup position.

"And that last one doesn't count," the other Harry said.

"It's not my—"

"Do you really want to waste your energy quibbling over a single aborted pushup?" Lily asked, raising her eyebrow.

James shook his head and recommenced his penalty pushups.

Harry looked over to Lily and mouthed, 'thank you'.

Lily smiled in return.

The remainder of the pushups passed by quickly enough. Thanks to his position as an Auror, James was in reasonable shape. This allowed him to catch up to Sirius and even finish first.

"C'mon Sirius, you can do it! Just three more!" James encouraged, clapping his hands with enthusiasm.

"You sound like a little league Quidditch coach," the other Harry said.

"I was your little league Quidditch coach," James said. "Some habits die hard."

Harry felt a sting of jealousy at this. Here was yet more proof that the other Harry had been raised in the wizarding world with loving parents. Harry had not even known that little league Quidditch existed, though now that he thought about it, it made sense. Beneath his jealousy was also a sense of loss. He would have loved to play little league Quidditch, but he would never get the chance to.

Maybe— maybe one day Harry could coach, though. This world was peaceful enough that Harry could imagine himself running around, chasing children (his children?) as they zipped around on brooms.

"—did it! You're all done now," James said with pride.

Sirius flopped down onto his back and groaned. "Never again. That was awful."

Thinking back to their last family dinner, Harry made another suggestion. "How about we make the penalty removing yourself from the cooking rotation, next time?"

Sirius lazily raised a hand to point at Harry. "That was a low blow."

Harry smiled.

"So you already know about Sirius's… culinary talents?" the other Harry asked.

"Sort of. I just know that he hates being removed from the rotation."

"Ha ha, sure, laugh at the old man lying on the ground, miserable. We'll see who's laughing when I write up my will."

The other Harry scooped up another acorn from the ground and pegged Sirius in the nose with it.

"A-ha! So that's what happened to me!" James exclaimed, whirling around to thrust an accusing finger at the other Harry.

The other Harry paused, though his eyes did not flick over to Harry. "I'm sure I don't know what you mean."

"You hit me in the back of the neck with one of those acorns and made me do a pushup over again," James said, indignant.

"If you say so," the other Harry said with a shrug.

Harry frowned, glancing at the other Harry. Why hadn't he thrown Harry under the bus? Harry had been the one to throw the acorn, after all.

"You know, it's been a while since you've made me do this," James said, taking a slow step towards the other Harry. "I'm going to enjoy this a lot."

With that, James launched himself at the other Harry, grabbing him in a tight hug. Then, holding the other Harry pinned against his chest, James started to grip the other Harry's ribs in a vice hold as the other Harry tried to get away.

James towered over the other Harry, his size and stature ensuring that the other Harry's struggles were futile. The sight of the other Harry held in James's crushing embrace brought back painful, stinging memories of Dudley holding him down to beat him.

Sirius bounded over to join in, blocking Harry's view of James and the other Harry, and all Harry could see was Dudley's gang joining in for a round of Harry Hunting.

Harry took an uncertain step forward.

"Stop, please!" the other Harry begged. "I can't—" He broke off into a shriek, the sound painful and desperate.

Harry pulled out his wand and fired off a quick Petrificus Totalus. First at Sirius, then at James. Once both men were frozen, Harry rushed over to pull them off the other Harry.

"Are you alright?" Harry asked, looking him over for injuries. Besides a flushed face, he seemed fine.

"Er— yes. Thanks for the rescue," the other Harry said.

Harry blanched, realizing he had overreacted. James and Sirius had been tickling the other Harry. That must have been a shriek of laughter, not a shriek of pain as his instincts had told him it was. Harry had attacked James and Sirius over a bout of tickling. He struggled to control his racing heart.

Harry stared at the other Harry and decided he, at least, wasn't too upset. Harry took a deep breath. "It's the least I could do considering you did—"

Harry was cut off by a stern look from the other Harry, who jerked his head in a silencing motion. Now that he knew the other Harry had only been tickled, Harry did not understand why the other Harry was covering for him like this anymore. James didn't seem too mad about being hit by the acorn, so it didn't seem like it would be a big deal for him to find out that Harry had been the one to throw it. Although— maybe the other Harry really disliked the tickling and was trying to protect Harry from it?

Then Harry looked over at James and Sirius, who were still caught in the petrification, and realized that the other Harry was probably trying to protect him from the fallout of that particular stupidity.

It felt odd to have someone (potentially) seeking to protect him from an unpleasant experience, but Harry couldn't deny that it felt nice.

"Are you going to unfreeze our husbands any time soon?" Lily asked, pleasant and airy.

Harry jumped. He'd forgotten that Lily and Snape were there, watching the whole thing. He wondered why neither of them had stepped in or intervened when James had assumed that the other Harry had thrown both acorns. And— why hadn't either of them stopped Harry from petrifying James and Sirius?

"You could do it yourself," the other Harry pointed out.

Lily shrugged. "I could do a lot of things. I think James and Sirius could use some time to sweat it out."

Harry looked back and forth between the pairs of adults. Lily had said to let them sweat, but Harry had been wrong to freeze them. The thought that he had been wrong drove Harry to raise his wand and unfreeze James and Sirius.

"Aw, Harry, you should've left them a bit longer," the other Harry said.

Harry took a precautionary step away from James and Sirius, who were shaking themselves out. "I shouldn't have frozen them in the first place," Harry said, uneasy.

Sirius slapped James on the shoulder. "Hey James, guess what?"

James looked wary. "What?"

"You got your Head-Auror-ass kicked by a teenager!"

James rolled his eyes. "Your ass was also kicked by a teenager."

"I'm sorry," Harry burst out.

James and Sirius both turned to look at him.

"If you're apologizing for petrifying us, don't," James said. "You were just protecting Harry, right?"

Harry nodded.

"Then I should be thanking you. Your heart was in the right place, we just need to work on getting your brain in the right place before you act."

"Okay," Harry said, beginning to calm down.

"You're one to talk about having your brain in the right place," Sirius said.

James elbowed Sirius in the ribs.

"Can we just go in now? Please?" the other Harry asked.

"Oh, of course," James said. He began to walk towards the house, closely followed by the others.

Harry trailed into the house after the rest of the group, sinking deeper into thought as he went. James wasn't mad at him for overreacting. The other Harry was far from what Harry had expected him to be, and Harry couldn't be more relieved.

Things were looking up for the summer.

AN: thank you all for reading! please leave a review letting me know what you thought!

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