Ghost of My Former Self

Harry stood there stunned. He had no idea that something like that had happened. How could he? It seemed though, that Lucius Malfoy and Bellatrix Lestrange would never change, no matter what the circumstances. And, it affected Malfoy in a profound way, by destroying his only support system: his mother. Harry knew how he felt, to have lost a mother; back in his own world, Lily Potter sacrificed herself to save Harry. At the moment, he could only speculate the reasons for Narcissa’s death. “If Narcissa died, what happened to you?”

After a split-second hesitation—barely noticeable—Malfoy spoke. “Somehow, I was able to escape unseen and got a message out to the Ministry regarding what I witnessed. Father and Aunt Bella went to Azkaban for a few years and I went to live with my closest living relative: Aunt Andromeda. Through her tutelage—and spending time with Mother’s cousin Sirius—Father’s lessons were counteracted. It’s how I became friends with you; Sirius had to play babysitter one day during the summer when Aunt Andromeda and I stopped by. We became great friends after that, even despite the Gryffindor/Slytherin rivalry that existed.

“I seem to recall the first year and a half of our years at Hogwarts was spent ensuring that the friendship we had lasted throughout our Hogwarts years; and, thus far, it’s worked. Once third year came, we started our true reason for entering Hogwarts; I will not get into that just yet, but know that you’ll find out soon. I just have to gather a few people in order to explain that. It’s important for you to hear this from everyone who cares about you,” Malfoy said, beginning to fiddle around with something in his pocket. Harry couldn’t tell what it was and didn’t worry about it for the moment since he was much more focused on figuring out how this world was so different from his own. “If you know nothing of this world—for reasons I will never comprehend—all of your friends should be here to explain this.” The next part was muttered under his breath. “She isn’t going to like this, but I have to do it.”

Harry wondered what Malfoy meant by this comment. Since he knew nothing of this world, there was really no telling as to what Malfoy might be talking about. Come on, Malfoy; tell me what’s going on. Harry mentally slapped himself. Am I really starting to rely on Malfoy for help in dealing with this? Wow; I must be losing it. There is no way that I would ever normally do this. But, since Malfoy was the only person who could explain what was going on to him, Harry had no choice to rely on the Slytherin for help with this. “Why aren’t you telling me anything more about my life?” he inquired of Malfoy.

“Because I need a few more people here to explain certain aspects of your life,” Malfoy countered. “Just give it five minutes and all the members of our group will have arrived. There’s something we all need to be together for to tell you. If I want my friend back, this must be told.”

“What would that be?” Harry asked.

“Something you need to know about only after the entire group congregates,” Malfoy replied.

“Okay, whatever,” Harry shrugged. While he awaited the arrival of the other members of the group, Harry wondered what this was about. He could think of nothing that might call for everyone in a specific group to gather regarding this single purpose. It seemed utterly farfetched. Several minutes went by and, just as Malfoy said, more people arrived; his sister and a dark haired girl that Harry had never seen before. Harry nudged Malfoy. “Who’s that?”

Malfoy eyed him strangely for a moment, then realization dawned on him. “Oh, yeah; you wouldn’t remember who she is because that whole different world thing,” he muttered under his breath. “That’s Vega Black; my second cousin and your godfather’s daughter. The three of us basically grew up together. Ever since I went to live with Aunt Andromeda, you, Vega, and I became inseparable; we entered Hogwarts and that continued, despite the rivalry between houses. Now, can we save this for later; there are others coming.”

“Who?” Harry asked.

“You’ll see in a few minutes. They’re on their way down here to meet us,” Malfoy replied.

Despite Malfoy’s assurance that the other two of their number would be on their way down, Harry grew impatient, shifting his weight from foot to foot. There was no way he could wait any longer than he had in order to find out what was going on. Answers needed to be given and Harry was quite determined to seek them out. Harry was nearly about to scream when he heard two more people on their way down. When they stepped out into the light, Harry saw someone he did not expect to be in this group: Hermione Granger. “Exactly what’s going on that you had to call me out of the library, Draco?” she asked.

“Yeah,” the girl beside her—whom Harry recognized in passing to be his sister’s friend Brianna—piped up. She tossed her dark brown hair back behind her ear, her chocolate eyes boring into Malfoy. “I thought those coins were only used for Raider purposes. That’s not supposed to happen until the end of the week. What’s with the unscheduled meeting then?”

“Slight problem,” Malfoy informed them. “One of our number is faced with a problem that must be dealt with imminently. It cannot go untreated; else our plans for later this week will never happen.”

“Why not?” Rachel asked.

Malfoy bit his lip. “Rachel, even you must admit that your brother has seemed a bit off. It’s been like this all week. There was even a point where he didn’t know who you were.” Rachel’s jaw dropped at that statement. “Shocker, I know,” Malfoy said in response to that. “But, it is the truth. All week your brother’s been trying to feed me some malarkey about living in a dimension completely opposite to this. Even I didn’t believe it at first, but, going over everything, it all fits. If we want the Harry we all know and love—yes, Hermione, I realize you’ll never like him, but I wasn’t really counting you in all this—then we must re-educate him about the life he led here. He knows nothing of this world we’re in.”

“Not even—”

Malfoy shook his head. “Nope; this is exactly why I called you all down here. I have ten days to help Harry recover the knowledge of the fifteen years he missed. For that, I’m going to need your help. I think that, through our combined efforts, we might be able to provide Harry with all the knowledge he needs to know about this dimension he’s stuck in.”

“Is this really necessary?” Hermione grumbled. “I’d like to return to the library. Do a little studying. Maybe some research for that Herbology project that Professor Sprout assigned.”

“Sorry, but no,” Malfoy replied. “This is not a request.”

Hermione groaned and slumped down into a sitting position. She shot a glare at Harry in passing. How can she hate me so much? What caused it to be like this? Admittedly, Harry and Ron never became friends with Hermione until after Halloween of their first year when they saved her from the troll Quirrel let in the school. If Voldemort never existed as Dumbledore explained, there would have been no reason for Quirrel to ever let a troll in. Consequently, the friendship Harry formed with Hermione Granger during that first year never developed. “Okay, now can you please explain to me what’s going on? You wanted to wait for them and we have. Now I’d like to know what they were needed here for.”

Hermione scoffed. “For once, I agree with him. I’d like to hear this.”

Harry looked to his so-called friend, waiting for an explanation. “Okay. When you, Vega, and I were about six, we happened upon a blank piece of parchment in your father’s study. Not a one of us knew what it was, at least until Rachel caught us looking at it and informed your father of what we were doing. He and Remus—who stopped by for a visit while James was baby-sitting us—were reminiscing about their time at Hogwarts when Rachel burst in tattling on us. We thought we were done for until James and Remus called for us. Turns out James and Sirius were waiting for the day we’d find that spare bit of parchment.”

“The Marauder’s Map!” Harry exclaimed knowingly. The Marauder’s Map was truly one of the best things that ever happened to Harry. Having it kept Harry close to his father, a reminder of what he lost.

“Good,” Draco replied. “You know of it. I won’t have to explain that to you then. Well, dear old Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs. You have no idea how grateful we were to them. Well, not so much Wormtail; Peter disappeared to Australia and no one’s heard from him since. Remus, Sirius, and James, however; they taught us everything we ever needed to know about Hogwarts. There was also one other thing that they taught us how to do, something you really need to know.” Harry quirked an eyebrow. “You and Vega have an inherent ability within you; maybe if I mention the words stag and dog, you’ll know what I mean.

The dog and the stag—Padfoot and Prongs—Harry recalled, were the animagus forms of his godfather and father respectively. That didn’t really mean all that much. But, when coupled with the fact that Malfoy mentioned the words transform, Marauders, and pranks in an earlier conversation, Harry began to realize what he was getting at. “We’re animagi!”

“Yeah!” Rachel exclaimed.

“Her too?” Harry questioned. Malfoy nodded. Even my sister. Probably everyone in this room can do it. Wow, Animagi. Never expected that one. But, what did that have to do with the story Malfoy had yet to regale him with? If Harry wished to understand his past, or rather the life he might have experienced if Voldemort never existed, then Malfoy needed to stop messing around and explain what was going on. “So, all six of us are animagi?” he asked.

“All six,” Vega confirmed.

“Explain,” Harry demanded.

Malfoy rolled his eyes and explained what was going on. “Well, as I mentioned to you earlier, it was around our third year that our true purpose for our coming to Hogwarts began. James and Sirius refused to teach us how to become an animagus until we were capable to go to Hogsmeade. It was probably for the best since you and I dealt with the ramifications of us being friends in opposing houses, particularly ones that have a known rivalry during the first two years. During Christmas holiday of our third year—Rachel’s and Briana’s final Christmas at home—we went to Godric’s Hollow to begin our studies on how to become animagi. By the end of our third year, we were all able to transform, thus becoming the Raiders.”

“The Raiders?” Harry questioned.

“Well, we couldn’t very well call ourselves the Marauders,” Malfoy replied. “No, we decided to refer to ourselves as the Raiders instead; James and Sirius wanted us to call ourselves the Nuevo Marauders, but you were adamant about the name change, stating that your physical similarities to your father might cause them to mistakenly think that James Potter returned to Hogwarts. While the Raiders consist of the Marauders’ offspring and it is to be assumed that we might act like them, there are certain differences. Not only are two Potters, a Black, and a Lupin in this group, but mine and Hermione’s involvement is the telltale sign that the Raiders are different from the Marauders that existed twenty years ago.”

Harry nodded in understanding. “Okay, that explains why Brianna’s here; she’s a Lupin. But, what about Hermione? If she hates me so much, why would she be a part of a group I’m in?”

“You can thank Vega for that,” Draco explained. “They met on the Hogwarts Express, just before meeting up with us. Vega and Hermione became fast friends and invited her to join, an offer she accepted before meeting us. She took an instant disliking to you—still not sure why—but still went along with the offer. Over the past six years, it’s rare that you and Hermione were ever anywhere near each other. Vega and I made quite sure of that.”

“Anything else I might want to know?” Harry questioned. Malfoy, Vega, why even Rachel; they all seemed to be avoiding one very crucial tidbit of information. They seemed to dance around the subject every time it came up. I think I need to ask about. Otherwise they won’t mention it. “Maybe what our animagus are. If I can transform, I think I need to know. And, maybe I need to know about a certain former friend of mine and how I never became friends with him,” Harry made a point of noting. After spending years of being friends with Ron, it seemed odd not to. Understanding why was Harry’s intent.

“Oh, you mean Weasley,” Malfoy realized.

“Well, obviously!” Harry retorted. “Who else would I mean?” Since realizing how cold Ron acted towards him, Harry wondered what was going on. And, learning about the fact that Voldemort never existed in this world merely affirmed that Harry needed to understand why everything in his life seemed so different. Ron’s cold behavior infuriated him.

Hermione was the one to question Harry regarding this particular line of inquiry. “Why would you want to know about Ronald Weasley? You’re mental to even ask such a thing.”

“Yeah!” Brianna piped up. “He’s the enemy.”

“Do you intend on fraternizing with the enemy?” Hermione asked.

Whoa. Déjà vu, Harry realized. He remembered Ron saying something along the same lines to Hermione during fourth year about Krum. It was extremely weird for Hermione to say this after the events of the Tri-Wizard Tournament. “He was my friend in the world I lived it,” Harry countered. “I want to understand how I never became friends with him.”

“Why?” his sister asked.

To help his sister understand, Harry used an analogy to illustrate his point. “Rachel, if you woke up into a world where you weren’t friends with either Brianna or Annie, wouldn’t you wish to know what happened?” Seeing how close his sister was with them reminded Harry of the friendship he had with Hermione and Ron. It was a shame that friendship no longer existed.

“Yeah,” Rachel admitted. “I guess I’d want to know.”

“Precisely,” Harry avowed. “Now, who here knows what’s going on with the Weasley family?”

“I think Vega and I may be the only ones,” Malfoy explained. “My family—through my mother—is distantly-related to the Weasley family. Septimus Weasley married Cedrella, my first cousin, twice removed. That makes Ronald Weasley my third cousin through his father’s side. Vega and Ron are second cousins through his mother; related by marriage. Problem is though that the Weasleys are rarely ever associated with the Black family because they’re blood-traitors. Vega and I learned about the Weasleys because they’re family for us. Arthur and Molly Weasley only ever had one son: Ron. You’ve seen the type of person he is; he’s a Gryffindor prefect, Quidditch Captain and their Keeper, and he happens to be in line for…”

“…making Head Boy next year,” Harry finished, knowing what was coming next. After hearing Ron explain this exact same thing when he stood in front of the Mirror of Erised, he knew what was coming. When the rest of the group stared at him, Harry shrugged. “Long story short, my first year I found the Mirror of Erised—a mirror to show your one true desire—and looked inside. I later showed Ron the mirror and he looked in. The life you described for him is exactly what he saw his life like.” Now that Harry thought about it, maybe the Mirror of Erised didn’t actually show one’s desire; maybe it showed a completely different world.

“What did you see in the mirror?” Rachel asked.

“Me? I saw my family,” Harry admitted.

Before the conversation could continue, Malfoy cut in. “Can we get back to our original reason for being here?” He glared at Rachel. “Discuss this with your brother later. It’s not the time.”

“Yeah. It’s time for you guys to tell me the animagus forms and any nicknames we all have from being Raiders,” Harry insisted. Spending time with Remus and Sirius made Harry aware of what the Marauders were like. If they—and Harry’s father—were the ones to teach them, it was clear to Harry that certain aspects about the Raiders would remain true to its predecessor. What they were Harry had no clue. “Explain the Raiders to me.”

“What do you want to know?” Vega asked.

“Everything,” Harry informed the dark-haired girl.

“Well, Draco over here only mentioned how we came to be. Dad, James, and Remus taught us about their years at school and how the Marauders came to be. At first—before Draco went to live with Andromeda—it was just the two of us. It was even before we learned of the Marauders. See, whenever our fathers got together, the four of us would be set in the playroom; I think it was done to secure our friendship. It worked out so that Rachel and Brianna had their own thing going on while you and I did something else. Draco’s addition to the group because of him being my second cousin only strengthened the group. It was with his help that we were able to break into James’s locked study to look for parchment.”

“It was locked?” Harry asked.

Vega nodded. “Apparently, it was a test. When we were ready to hear the story of their years in school—and of the Marauders—it would only be after we found a way to sneak into James’s study. Our fathers kept expecting us to figure out how to get in and find the Marauders Map; I doubt they ever expected it to happen after Draco became a permanent fixture in our group. After that, the five of us got lessons regarding a subject they called Marauder History. And, when I became friends with Hermione, she learned an abridged version of that history. Problems for Raiders arose when we were sorted; you and I in Gryffindor, Draco in Slytherin, and Hermione in Ravenclaw. We dealt with that issue until the very beginning of our second year; both the Gryffindor/Slytherin rivalry that existed and how we were to meet up when the group was split among three of the four houses.

“When Brianna was sorted into Slytherin and Rachel sorted into Hufflepuff at the beginning of fourth year, things settled down for good, after only hearing sporadic insults throughout our third year. It was actually Dumbledore who helped us end that; he knew who we each were—with the Marauders being legends and all—and made it known to the school that the Raiders were promoters of house unity. We were capable of coexisting. Whereas the Marauders were all of Gryffindor, the Raiders found themselves placed in all four houses, in a perfect position for Dumbledore to make it known that inter-house unity was possible. Inadvertent as it was, the Raiders became role models for the school.

“Dumbledore’s blessing helped us immensely. We were able to start doing a lot of what we wanted. When we got permission to go to Hogsmeade, we began using the Honeydukes basement as our meeting place. It’s the one place we can sit and discuss Raider business; Rachel and Brianna knew of the secret passageway the moment they entered Hogwarts thanks to our fathers, so it was the perfect place to meet. No one would ever suspect that two first-years knew the location secret passageways, even if they were the offspring of legendary Marauders.

“Now, regarding the animagus thing. Well, we have some rather interesting ones. Brianna, for instance. All of us expected her to transform into a wolf because her father is a werewolf. She instead transformed into a cat like McGonagall does; she’s a brown spotted cat we call Mist. It’s actually Draco that transformed into a wolf, a white wolf we dubbed Tiberius. My animagus form is black fox called Rhapsody and Rachel’s is a Shih Tzu dog named Sol. Finally, Hermione is an otter called River and you are a lion we call Sahara.”

“A lion?” Harry asked.

“Yeah,” Malfoy replied.

A part of Harry always expected that he would be a stag like his father. Plus, his Patronus was a stag; though that was in a world where his father was dead. It seemed as if a part of his personality changed as well in this world. Hermione’s personality didn’t change, aside from her placement in Ravenclaw; last year when they were doing Patronuses in Dumbledore’s Army, Hermione’s Patronus was an otter. It came as no surprise that her animagus form would be the same. Whereas Hermione’s personality was the same, Harry’s personality differed. “Anything else I may need to know about this?” Harry asked.

“Yeah. You should probably beware of Weasley, Filch, and Snape,” Malfoy replied. “They hate us. Weasley because he’s a git; and Filch and Snape because of the Marauders.”

“Good to know,” Harry replied.

“Are we done here?” Hermione asked.

“Pretty much,” Malfoy informed her.

“Good. I’m out of here. I have some studying to do. If you need me, I’ll be in the library,” Hermione stated, standing up and striding out of Honeydukes’ basement in a hurry.

After Hermione left, the rest of the group scattered. Rachel and Brianna headed off next to go spend some time with Annie. This left Harry, Malfoy, and Vega sitting on the basement floor. Silence flooded Harry’s ears for a few minutes before Vega broke the quiet. “Sorry, guys, but I need to go speak to Hagrid about something,” Vega intoned. “Later.”

After Vega disappeared, Harry was left sitting with what should have been his worst enemy. Even after hearing everything explained to him, it still felt weird referring to Draco Malfoy as a friend. Hermione was more his friend than Malfoy was. I don’t think I’ll ever get used to the fact that I’m friends with him and not Ron. Harry stood. “You know, I think I better go myself. I need to go and let all of this information soak in,” he explained.

“Yeah. Go,” Malfoy said. “Before you do though, you might want to check under the loose floorboard in your dormitory. There’s something there that might be of interest to you.”

“Noted,” Harry said, leaving the Honeydukes’ basement. As he did, Harry wondered what Malfoy might be talking about. He emerged from the one-eyed witch statue and realized that it was far later than he might have realized; it was late afternoon and it seemed as if they missed lunch in order to go over Harry’s missing fifteen years. Upon going to the kitchen to get something to eat, Harry headed back to Gryffindor Tower. He needed some alone time to sort through the knowledge Draco, Vega, and Rachel informed him of.

As he headed into Gryffindor Tower and up towards his dormitory, Harry bumped into two seventh-years in passing. They were speaking in hushed tones, hoping no one would take any notice of what was going on. Harry knew though; for years, Harry had seen these two particular people do exactly that. But, it made no sense. According to the story just regaled to him, Ron was an only child in this world; those two couldn’t exist here. And yet, they did. Okay, that’s weird, Harry thought as he headed to his dormitory. How do they still exist? Apparently, when Harry next saw Malfoy—or even Vega—he’d have to question them about what he just saw; there had to an explanation for the biggest pranksters Hogwarts had seen since the Marauders to exist here if Ronald Bilius Weasley was an only child.

Harry came bursting into his dormitory and went straight for the loose floorboard Malfoy informed him of. It was not a very smart idea, but Harry’s curiosity got the better of him; he wished to know what was down there. Underneath the floorboard was a mirror. To anyone who found it, the item would seem innocuous; to Harry, however, he knew this to be a two-way mirror, one of a set. In his own world, Sirius gave him this on Christmas during his fifth year; he never opened it until after his death. Apparently, he got it much earlier in this timeline. But, who had the match? Which of his friends owned the other mirror? “Draco or Vega?”

“Good. You found the mirror,” he heard Malfoy say.

Harry looked down and saw Malfoy’s face in front of him. “So, you have the mirror. You could have mentioned this; I knew of the mirrors. Never really used them, but I knew of their existence.”

“And, how was I to know that?” Malfoy inquired.

“You could have asked,” Harry stated. “Though admittedly, I expected Vega to have the mirror since it was our fathers that owned these mirrors when they were our age. Why do you have it?”

“Because I’m closer to you than she is,” Malfoy informed him.

“Oh. Well, you have some explaining to do,” Harry told him.

“What about?” Malfoy asked.

“While I was on my way through the Gryffindor Common Room, I passed two red-heads on my way in. Those two red-heads—in my world—are Ron’s older brothers; consequently, Fred and George should not exist,” Harry explained. “So, tell me, how is this even possible?”

“You passed the Prewett twins?” Malfoy questioned.

“The Prewett twins?” Harry asked.

“Gideon Prewett’s sons, a year above us,” Malfoy replied. “Fred and George are friends of ours. It’s kind of funny that we’re friends with them since they’re Ron’s cousins; though he does hate them as much as he hates us. Vega used her family connections during first year to gain their trust, and keep the Prewett twins on our good side. I don’t know about the world you’re from, but those two are known pranksters in this world. If she didn’t, then we would surely get pranked as much as everyone else in the school usually does.”

Harry nodded knowing. “In my world, they have a joke shop: Weasley Wizard Wheezes. Before becoming entrepreneurs, those two enjoyed pranking fellow students. School was never their forte.”

“Agreed,” Malfoy replied.

“Now, is there anything else you might want to inform me about?” Harry asked. Although he was informed about a good chunk of his life, there were parts of his life that Harry still wasn’t clear on. Dumbledore’s orders were for Malfoy to tell Harry everything about his life. That had no yet occurred. Something more needed to be told and Harry knew it.

“I do,” Malfoy replied, “but it has to wait. It’s easier to show than tell you. Meet me and Vega after dinner tomorrow in the Room of Requirement. We’ll show you what we mean then.”

Malfoy’s head disappeared from the mirror and Harry placed the mirror back underneath the loose floorboard. He wondered what else Malfoy had to reveal about the life Harry led. What must be shown rather than told? Harry asked himself. What do they have to show me?