Chapter 1
I jolted upright into a sitting position and looked at my surroundings. Where was I? It looked light a dungeon? I stared in bewilderment as everyone around me rose like I had moments ago. It was then that I noticed all the strangers, except 2 people in this room who I knew extremely well, Lily and James Potter, AKA my mum and dad. Everyone around me looked as confused as I was. What the hell happened? One minute I was practising spells with my brother and the next? My mum looked at me confused as did dad, but then their eyes flickered to everyone nearby.
"Lily? James? Is that really you?" Some man with curly brown hair that touched his shoulders, a matching moustache and brown eyes questioned my parents.
"Sirius?" Dad questioned.
He nodded and then they all stood up and ran at each other, meeting in the middle to start a group hug. Who is Sirius? And who are all these other people that are staring around like they don't know where they are. One other person in the room I recognised as well. He had short flaming red hair that stood up in a couple of places and chocolate brown eyes. He was only a few feet away from me so I budged over slightly towards him.
"Fred what is going on?" I asked him.
He looked at me like I was some stranger. Did he not recognise me? How could he not? We were together? Have been for like a year. But even now I looked into his eyes and felt like I didn't know him at all. Seriously what was going on?
"Do I know you?" Fred questioned me.
"I don't think so. What is happening? Why are we here?"
"Your asking me? The last thing I remember is being crushed by a wall in Hogwarts. I died!" He panicked.
"James? Lily? Sirius? How are you here?" Another man with short light brown hair and a matching moustache approached the three still in a group hug, joining in with it for a split second before pulling away.
It was then that I took a minute to look around at everyone. My parents were here, that's not out of the usual, that Sirius guy was here, along with that other guy that just hugged them 3, then there was a short women with purple shoulder length hair, then Fred. I also saw a guy who I kind of recognised, but couldn't really pin point him, but he was in a Hogwarts Hufflepuff Quidditch uniform so I knew I recognised him from school. Then there was Dumbledore, everyone knew who he was. Professor Snape, he was the Potions teacher than no one liked. There was a couple more people who I didn't recognise at all, and then finally I saw Moody, he was one of the Defence Against the Dark Arts professor's at Hogwarts. One that shocked me though was that Hedwig was here, Harry's and my owl. There was also some members of the order, I remember them from years ago, they were all on a poster somewhere.
"Come here Hedwig." I whistled.
The bird looked at me like I was a stranger and then flew straight onto Fred's shoulder. I looked at her strangely but shrugged it off, knowing there was something very strange about this situation anyway.
"Mum? Dad? What's happening?" I asked scared.
"We're not sure hunny. Remus? Sirius? You have any ideas? Snape is that you?" Mum asked.
"Lily?" He questioned.
"Okay we all need to relax, something is definitely happening here. But James? Lily? Indina? You all died, that is the thing I am most weirded out about." Sirius said.
"They're not the only ones that died here Sirius, so did you. Everyone in this room has died. Lily, James, Indina, you all died 17 years ago, that's why Harry is so famous now. Sirius, you died 2 years ago, Professor Dumbledore you died last year, Mad Eye you only died 6 months ago, Hedwig the same. Snape, Remus, Tonks I'm not sure about you. Cedric you died 3 years ago. You lot died over the years, you were all in the old generation of the order. And myself, I remember myself dead on the floor today. That was the last thing I remember." Fred said, pointing at everyone as he said their names.
"Excuse me? I did not die, I know you, your Fred Weasley, I know your whole family, I went to Hogwarts with you, we're dating. You're the headmaster, Snape your the Potions professor, Mad Eye your the Defence Against the Dark Arts professor. Hedwig is mine and Harry's bird. As for everyone else I don't know any of you, except my parents obviously. Dad is an Auror, Mum is the Minister of Magic." I said.
"I hate to tell everyone this but Fred's right. I remember myself dying today as well, in the battle, Bellatrix killed me." Remus said.
"I'm the same as Remus." Tonks said.
"Nagini killed me." Snape confessed.
"Well so all of us we're dead? Are we still dead? Is this a dream? Because I have been living for the last 17 years, not dead, how was I dead? I know people in this room that I would only know if I was alive." I panicked.
"How did we die?" Lily asked.
"Voldemort killed you." Dumbledore said.
"Voldemort? He's dead. James killed him years ago. I remember." Lily said.
"I didn't hunny. The last thing I remember is sending the kids of to Hogwarts. The last thing I remember about Voldemort is he disappeared off the face of the earth when he killed Alice and Frank Longbottom and tried to kill Neville but failed and then disappeared because of some prophecy that said if he didn't kill a boy who was born at the end of July then he would come after him and kill him one day." James revealed.
"No, are you sure?" Lily asked.
"Positive." James replied.
"We didn't die, James you did, Neville wasn't targeted, Harry was." Some man said.
"Frank? How is this possible?"
"I don't know because Alice and I weren't killed either." Frank said gesturing to a women next to him who I assumed was Alice.
"Well both of you are wrong. Voldemort killed both of you and Indina, then tried to go for Harry but the love you gave him Lily protected him and the curse backfired and then Voldemort along with your bodies disappeared of the face of the Wizarding World. Well this is obviously where you have been. I think what has happened here is you have all thought you were carrying on the life you wanted to live, like a never ending dream, and you have been in this trance for 17 years. Harry is 18 now. And you Alice and Frank were tortured by Bellatrix using the Cruciatus Curse, you went insane and eventually died in Hospital. " Dumbledore explained.
"How is that possible, the last time I saw Harry we was waving him off on his first year of Hogwarts and Indina was in her third year." James said.
"And the last time I saw Harry was when he left for his last year at Hogwarts." Lily said.
"And I was just with Harry 5 minutes ago, we were practising spells at the burrow,your home, he had just become of age." I said to Fred.
"That wasn't real. I don't know you. I know of you but I don't know you." Fred said.
"Okay so we know something weird is going on here. The last thing I remember is being in Grimmauld Place with you and Tonks trying to get you together." Sirius said.
"I don't know what to say. I remember myself dying, that's all I remember." Remus said.
"Okay well just so were clear the last thing you did that was real was confront You-Know-Who before he killed you in Godrics Hollow, same with you Lily and you were just a 3 year old when he took your life Indina. Sirius you went to save Harry in his 5th year at Hogwarts when he found the crystal ball. Dumbledore, Harry said you were killed by Snape last year in the astronomy tower. Mad-eye you died transferring Harry from his Aunt and Uncles house to the Burrow when we all took the polyjuice potion and became him and that is when George lost part of his ear, and the same with Hedwig she died that night too. Alice and Frank you both went insane in hospital like Dumbledore said. As for everyone else I don't know anything except you were in the order." Fred said.
"Okay this is not the time to freak out anyone, first if we really were dead we need to get out of here and find out if this is even reality, because apparently the last 17 years of my life haven't been. We need to find a way out." Mum said.
"I guess we could try the door." Dad said.
As I was standing right by it I tried to unlock it, but to no avail.
"Does anyone have a wand so we can unlock it?" I asked.
"No. Everyone stand back." Mad-eye said.
We all stood back against the far wall as Mad-Eye stood up. He banged his stick whilst staring intently at the brick wall. All of a sudden the bricks shattered and we was all staring out at the dark night sky. We was in an abandoned dungeon by the looks of things and nothing was around, no other house, nothing. We all slowly walked out and onto the street.
"Okay we need to figure out where we are and how to get back to everyone." Remus said.
"Are you crazy? We can't all just show up we're all dead." I said.
"Well you can all do what you like but me myself want my family and friends to know that I am not dead and to try and get back on track with my life." Fred said.
"Yeah hunny don't you want to see the real Harry? He doesn't know us, wouldn't it be nice for him and us to get to know each other. Yeah we saw him in the trance we were in but he doesn't know us, hasn't seen us in 17 years." Mum said.
"I didn't think of it like that. I guess that sounds fair." I muttered.
"Okay well we somehow need to set up a portkey. I have my stick that can make one but we need an object to enchant it." Mad-Eye said.
Dad took off one of his shoes and gave it over to the man with one fake eye. He started whispering spells and enchantments, with Snapes help. Once he was finished he told everyone to take hold.
"Where is it taking us?" Fred asked.
"Hogwarts." Mad-Eye said.
"You can't apparate in and out of Hogwarts." Fred said.
"With my help you can. I am the current headmaster of Hogwarts, I will always be able to do that as long as I am headmaster." Snape said.
"Your headmaster?" I questioned.
He nodded his head and so we all grabbed hold of the portkey as Mad-Eye counted down from 5 and as he finished the number 1 I felt a swirling sensation as we were lifted away into the sky. We landed in Hogwarts and I didn't recognise the room we were in but due to it saying headmaster above the door I figured that is where we were.
"So we can't exactly just walk down and make out like we never went anywhere. How will we work this?" Mum asked.
"Well this is going to be a mystery to everyone, so tell me if you don't want to do this but I think Indina should go down since no one recognises her since she was a toddler when you disappeared and no one will be freaked out by your face." Fred said.
"Okay. Where am I going?" I asked.
"Just follow the noise." Dumbledore said.
"Hold on. When I died there was a war going on I don't think she should go alone. I have a twin, I can pull of going down with her everyone will just think I'm George and I haven't been gone for 17 years it won't be too much of a surprise." Fred said.
"Okay then." I said,
So we did exactly that. The castle was exactly how it was in my dreams, or whatever I was in. But I did follow the noise. There wasn't much, which was always a good sign since there was a war going on here. But the castle was in ruins, it was destroyed.
"I can't believe this, what happened?" I asked Fred.
"Voldemort and his death eaters attacked the castle. People died, a lot of people so if everyone who has died because of this war has come back I want to know where everyone else is." Fred replied.
"I can't believe this is possible." I said.
"Me either."
We finally reached the bottom of the stairs and the doors to the great hall were open wide. I looked to Fred to gesture him in but he shook his head.
"I can't. I can see my family, if I walk in now they're all going to be so surprised. Lead them out here." He said.
"Fred it's gonna be better for you to go in with me. This is strange but if everyone finds out at once it will be easier." I said.
He sighed and then followed me in. We went unnoticed for a few seconds, everyone was helping their injured family and friends, a lot of people sobbing over their lost family members. More bodies were being moved out. I looked over to what I assumed were Fred's family as they all had the matching flaming red hair and they were all sitting round just crying their eyes out. I looked to Fred. I could see he didn't know what to do. He couldn't exactly go over there and just say hi like nothing happened.
"Don't worry. Just approach them. You can't go about it any other way. It is gonna be strange but it is the only way." I told him.
So together, since he pulled my arm with him, we approached his family members. They were all so upset. How is this possible for us to come back like this? They all looked up as they saw him approach but some of them turned their gaze back to their laps except one women.
"Hi George." She said.
George? Was that the twin he mentioned earlier. Yes, that was his twin. Well this was easier this way I suppose, now he could wean them in to telling them it was Fred. As I looked to a few feet away I saw an identical looking Fred, slowly approaching, but looking at his feet. Well, how is this going to pan out? He approached and then the rest of the family lifted their heads again, absolutely wide eyed. The twins hadn't noticed each other yet though. George sat down, still staring at his feet before his head rose and him and Fred's eyes linked.
"Freddie?" He questioned.
"It's me Georgie." Fred choked.
George stood straight up and ran the few feet to his brother before pulling him into a bone crushing hug, both of them sobbing and then the rest of the family joining in. I backed away and looked at some people around the great hall. I saw an incredibly tall man just standing there. I knew him, that was Hagrid. See the weird thing about this trance was that I knew most of the people in this room that looked around my age. Then I caught sight of Ron and Hermione. Where was Harry? Then Hagrid stepped aside and I saw him. Except he looked straight past me and to where the Weasley's were. He nudged Ron and Ron diverted his gaze from Hermione to his family. He walked over to them, obviously upset and obviously he hasn't seen Fred yet. I mean he was in the middle of his family crushing him. Obviously they would be, they thought he was dead, well he was dead just 1 hour ago. Once he reached them though, along with Hermione and Harry they noticed him when they all separated. He looked just as shocked as everyone else as well as did my brother who didn't know me and one of his best friends, who also didn't know me.
"What? How is this possible?" Ron asked Fred.
"I don't know mate but it is possible. Now get over here and hug your brother before I die again." Fred joked.
That was Fred for you, he had to turn every serious situation into a joke. That was why we were such an amazing couple in my trance. But looking at him now and looking into his eyes I feel like I know nothing about him, he's just another stranger I know the name off, but at the same time I feel like I know him so well. As Ron joined in on another group hug, everyone's attention seemed to divert to the people that had just walked into the great hall. I thought they were staying upstairs.
