Guuuuuuuuuys. Hi.

Okay, so I'm Solikerez, or Rezi or whatever you want to call me. Feel free to check out my stories at some point, but really, the only important thing right now is the chapter that awaits you. Read on!

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I spent the rest of that day back in the hospital wing wondering why this version of Dumbledore was such a fucking idiot. Madame Pomfrey was going to let Shilly and James know where I was and what happened to me, but no one had come to visit me yet.

I missed the Sorting, there was no doubt about that. I was bored to the point where I blanked out and started seeing things that weren't there. I could see sixteen year-old me watching me from across the room. I could see the younger version of Jily and the Marauders staring at me as if I was mentally retarded as I slapped myself on the face to see if they were actually there. They weren't. I could even see the outline of a cat's head peeking over the end of my bed. Wait. Shit. That was Soxy.

He was pawing at the edge of the bed, as if he was being pulled away by something I couldn't see. I sat up quickly- and painfully- to look at him properly. "WILLOW POTTER TREE OR WHATEVER THE FUCK YOUR NAME IS! HERMAN IS TRYING TO BATHE ME! BATHE ME. IF YOU DON'T GET ME OUT OF THIS SHIT HOLE HERMIONE CALLS A HOUSE YOU WILL PAY!"

Well... I could help him. Or I could not. Helping him would require effort.

"If you're even considering not helping me at this point Willow, I swear I will-"

"Fine!" I grabbed him and wrestled him out of what I assumed to be Shemione's grasp. I tumbled out of bed, an ache racking my body. "The things I do for you."

"I'm pretty sure this is the only thing you've done for me, Willow." I shrugged. Can't really argue with that.

"I guess I am pretty much the shittiest pet-owner ever." I laid back down on the bed as i felt pain again, setting Soxy down at my feet.

"So . . . we're here. In an alternate dimension sort of thing," I started.

"Obviously."

"Okay, I'm not going to lie, all of this is too strange. Like right now my life, if you can even call it a life, is just a huge confusing mess of time and places and dimensions and honestly I don't think I can keep up. It's draining, you know? And here I am, a fucking sixteen year-old in a ten year-old's body, having a conversation with my cat who just crossed a dimension to get to me. I don't understand any of this."

I let out a loud sigh. I was tired and stressed and confused and lonely and afraid. I didn't know whether to feel ecstatic or terrible that everything had changed. Here was a world where I had a good childhood, and so did Harry, and we had our parents. Neville could grow up around his parents, and Sirius never went to Azkaban, and so many people had better lives. But I couldn't help but feel selfish and wish for it to be after the war, and for me to be with my friends as I knew them. Hell, I wasn't even sure if my friends were my friends anymore. It was a more perfect world, and yet I wanted out.

"Willow?" Soxy asked.

"Yeah, I'm listening. "

"I know you're feeling lonely and miserable. It's written all over your face. But things will never be exactly the same way they were before. Every time you travel through time, someone or something is affected, and it's like a ripple effect. You mess with the past and the future changes. You know that."

It was true. But I still didn't want to accept it. I have magic, I should be able to zap things back to the way they were. "Why can't things be the same? Why can't I go back? You're here, aren't you? Somehow you were able to get to me. And you're telling me there's no way to get back? There's something you're not telling me."

Soxy leapt off of the bed and trotted to the doorway. "There are a lot of things I haven't told you yet. I know you want answers, but for now all you need to know is that I'm here to help you through this." He slid behind the door and walked off, leaving me behind.

"Wait, what the hell? You can't just tell me that and leave me! Where are you even going?"

Peeking his head out for a moment, he shouted back at me. "Does it matter? If you need me, click your heels three times."

What. Is. This.

"I'm joking! Believe me, when you need me, I'll find you. Now stop worrying about that and get well quickly. I want to get started before my fur turns gray."  And with that, he disappeared.

~~~

"Shilly, I don't want to go home," I groaned as she helped me out of the hospital bed later that day.

"We have to go Willow, it's not your turn to go to Hogwarts yet. And for Merlin's sake, stop calling me that name. I am your mother, not your friend."

"That's what you think," I mumbled, walking to James, who was waiting by the door for us.

"Ready, Wil?" I nodded. He gripped Lily and I tightly and a tug in my stomach told me that we were in the middle of apparating. Soon the surroundings had changed and I found myself stumbling out onto the front steps of the Potter household. This was it. This was where my alternate life began.

The front door flew open and a giant dog bounded out. I fell back, landing painfully on the ground. First day in this new world and I was already flat on my ass. I was off to a great start.

~Secret_Ninja from here on in~

“OI!” Lily shouted as I hit the floor. The dog looked up at her sadly and ran back inside. Sirius Black then came barging out the door. I vaguely wondered why he hadn’t just transfigured in front of me, but I was too excited to ask. He was a lot healthier looking than he was in my reality – that said, in my reality he’s dead.

“That damned dog!” Sirius cursed.

“Why do you two keep letting it into my house?” Lily was quite enraged. And I was the cause of her anger. Whoops.

“It’s a pretty sweet dog half the time.” James shrugged, and I realised Lily didn’t know about their animaguses. Animagi? Whatever.

“Willow, why are you on the floor?” Sirius put on a fairly convincing look of surprise.

“You knocked me over – oh, I mean that dog did.” I said, staring at him unblinkingly.

He looked scared.

Good.

I jumped up and hugged him - “You’re alive!” I found myself shouting.

“You say that like it’s a surprise.” James – should I call him dad? - and Sirius said at the same time.

“That’s cause you fell through the veil.” I said without thinking. Sirius placed me on my feet and looked from Lily to James to me.

“Willow, what are you talking about?”

I let out a long, frustrated groan. “Okay. Uh. Mum. And Dad.” Saying those words seemed weird for my mouth. “And Mr. Sirius Black.” I don’t actually know what I call him in this reality. “I had this hyper-realistic dream last night. It’s – uh – really off putting.”

“Since when do you call me Mr. Sirius Black?” He said, looking really at a loss.

“Since when do you say ‘hyper-realistic’?” Lily added.

“Like I said, my brain is really confused.” James picked me up and threw me over his shoulder.

“Let’s continue this conversation over some tea.”

~~~

“Ew is there sugar in this?” I grimaced and spat my mouthful of tea back into my cup.

“Yeah…” Lily said slowly. “You always have your tea white with three sugars.”

“I don’t even have my tea white, what the heckle.”

“You have never drunk black tea in your life.”

“How did I not notice that there was milk in this cup?” I sighed loudly. “Geez, I couldn’t pour water out of a boot with the instructions written on the heel.”

Lily stared at me.

“My ten year old woke up this morning, rambling nonsense – swearing! And then becomes an eloquent creature… I miss your gibberish about llamas. And I never thought I’d hear myself say that.”

“Ugh. Lily. Llamas are so pre-war.”

“She’s doing it again!” Lily fumed and James put his arm around her.

They were all sitting a fair distance away from me, almost examining me. Like I’m a cray cray. I am cray cray.

Literally, like my cat came from an alternate dimension to come here and talk to me.

I’m insane.

“Okay, so in this dream right – like at first I was ten – and I was being raised by the Malfoys —“ The trio groaned. “Oi it’s your fault. You did some dumbass charm and sent me to them. Before you died and then you died. And then you got the blame and went to Azkaban for ages…” they looked really shocked as I explained this whole ‘dream’ that I’d had, but they were patient and allowed me to basically explain my entire life. It was kind of nice, because they were interested. “So yeah, it was really detailed, and I’m just confused.” Or it was completely real and I changed the timelines. Whatever.

“That’s okay Willow. It’ll take you time to readjust.” Lily said, she sighed and gave me a hug. “A similar thing happened to me a year after your father and I got married…”

“She went completely insane.” James rolled his eyes.

“I had this complex dream where I’d grown up a muggle in Japan. So I spoke Japanese for a month and had to relearn some English. It was a very confusing time – especially when James showed me a mirror and I was terrified that I was a white girl with red hair. I expected that I was Japanese. It was weird.” She shuddered.

I sighed. Maybe there’s some greater purpose to this reality, maybe Soxy has dramatic tales to tell me. Maybe there’s more prophecies and this world isn’t as good as I think it is.

But maybe I should sit back and relax, and enjoy having parents and a good life…

Maybe I can try out the whole ‘being loved’ thing.

Who knows, it could be fun.

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Hey guys! It’s Lucy here – I just wanted to apologise cause Rezi sent me this like a week ago and I was on holiday and couldn’t upload it. So now I’m back, and I added stuff to try and make up for me taking forever.

And also because I was on holiday I didn’t get around to making the Q&A video. I will make it, I promise. I legitimately will. I’ll even bring in special guests for it. Like my cats. And some of my friends? My boyfriend? Who knows. I’ll make a super awesome video and you guys will love it. I hope. I could also narrate a chapter of the books? Idk. What something cool that you guys want me to do? Because the video won’t be up til after the 15th of November now. Cause Uni is hell equivalent. Idk. I’m open to suggestions.

Thanks again to Rezi for the awesome chap. And thanks to everyone for reading xoxo