Chapter Text
I had no intention of creating a new potion. None.
Yes, that was a dream of mine, and my dad promised to teach me how to create potions someday. He was always so busy with work.
How the hell he became a teacher was beyond me. He hated most kids.
Since I was born, he had gotten a bit nicer toward children, but I was surprised he hadn't killed anyone. He said he'd always wanted to own a business for potions or something.
However, I was simply trying to brew a more effective Dreamless Sleep potion due to some pretty vivid nightmares I was having. Mom had given me normal ones, but they weren't at all effective. Dad thought that perhaps I had taught myself to lucid dream and it was simply my imagination. I did have a fascination with dark magic that probably stemmed from him, but I would never imagine a man murdering my mom and some other guy who happened to be in the house. I would never dream that up on my own.
I knew something was wrong when the potion, just barely becoming the purple color it was supposed to become, turned a bright blinding white. It was sudden. I hadn't expected it and I hadn't planned it. In my four years of potion making, I had never seen such a drastic change in color.
"Hey, dad!" I called. School was on break for the winter holidays and Christmas was a few days away. Dad would only be in the room next door, his own potions lab. I was in my bedroom, since I was not allowed to be in his potions lab.
I heard a thud, a string of colorful words, and dad opened the door.
"Yes?" He asked, his dark hair sticking to his sweaty brow.
"The potion was starting to turn purple, and now it's not." I told him. Dad stepped closer. "Yes. It's not purple." He said.
I rolled my eyes.
"Did you add anything once the color began to change?"
"No."
"Did you touch it at all?"
"No." I replied. "It just changed."
"It's supposed to be a Dreamless Sleep potion, correct?"
"Yes." I told him. "Do you think the change would be from the enhancement I added?"
"No." He said. "Enhancing potions requires different measurements, but never enough to change the properties of a potion this drastically."
We watched small bubbles rise to the top of the potion, then they rose up out of my cauldron and popped a few feet above it. My dad nodded to himself.
"I'm going to take a sample of this." He reached at his chest as if to grab a vial from the inside pocket of his robes, but he wasn't wearing his robes, just a white button-up and his work pants. He huffed. "Don't do anything to it." He told me, then he hurried from the room.
I turned and watched the potion. I wasn't quite sure what had happened. I hadn't done anything differently. Had I miscounted how many times I'd stirred? Had I accidently put in ingredients that were stronger than usual? Did I accidentally put in an extra of something?
There was a faint popping sound coming from the cauldron. The glow was getting brighter. It was now actually glowing, and not just bright white.
A bubble rose from the potion and stopped midair, then attached itself to my shoulder.
Strange sticky bubbles. I noted mentally, prodding the bubble with a quill to pop it in order to avoid dangerous side effects from contact with the potion. It didn't pop.
"Violet. What is that?" I heard Dad ask. He was standing behind me, vial in hand.
"It came out of the potion." I told him.
Dad watched me prod it again, and the lack of reaction.
"Lily!" He called. I knew he was getting a bit nervous because his voice was tense. He could handle strange potions, but it was different with his kids.
"Yes, Sev?" My mom called back.
"Can you come here for a moment?"
"Sorry, Love, I'm feeding Rosie!"
Rosalie was my little sister, and she took up a lot of Mom's time.
"It's kind of serious!" Dad told her.
"So is feeding my daughter!"
Another bubble floated up and stuck to my stomach. I felt a bit of fizzing and saw that the bubble on my shoulder had burned a hole in my shirt.
"Dad?" I reached back and tugged on his shirt.
Dad turned me around and got really close to the bubble.
"Merlin." He whispered. "Lily, this potion is burning Violet!" I heard something clatter to the floor and Rosalie cried out cheerfully. There were loud footsteps in the hall, then Mom rushed into the room. Her red hair was wild and she looked scared.
"What?" She asked. Dad nudged me toward her and she inspected my shoulder, which was starting to burn.
"What is it?" She asked. Two bubbles rose from the cauldron and attached themselves to my knee and my lower back. They were followed by an onslaught of smaller bubbles which went to my face and neck. Mom cried out. My ears were covered, so I only heard mumbling from there. My heart raced in my chest, but opening my mouth could be dangerous.
My head was filled with a buzzing sound and I couldn't feel my limbs.
My vision went black.
There wasn't any real change, except that I was laying down. I could feel a mattress beneath me. It wasn't my bed, though, my bed was much more firm.
I blinked and rolled onto my side. My head throbbed and my eyesight was incredibly blurry.
"Oh, you're awake." A male voice said softly. I sat up slowly and faced the owner of the voice. A boy about my age with bright green eyes and messy black hair. He had a jagged scar on his forehead, like a stretched out z. He wore a baggy t-shirt tucked into dirty, ripped jeans. I licked my dry lips.
"You've been asleep for about an hour." He said. "I was out for roughly half that. She's been asleep for a while, but she only got here recently." He gestured to a red haired girl asleep on another bed.
"How did I get here?" I asked him.
"Same way I did, I suppose." The boy told me. "A spell backfired on me and I appeared outside. Then you showed up with some pretty nasty burns. There was a pop when you appeared, which was funny. She showed up in a flash of light."
"Who are you?" I asked then, looking around. Was I in the Hogwarts Hospital Wing?
"I'm Harrison Potter." He said.
"Violet Snape. Is this Hogwarts?" I asked. Harrison nodded.
"None of us are from this reality, though. It's very strange."
"Reality?"
"Like, each of us are from the same place, but different versions of that place." Harrison explained.
"So in this reality, none of us exist, but everyone else we know does." I said, more to myself than him.
"That's the theory." Harrison confirmed. There was a groan and we looked back. The girl who had been asleep suddenly shot up and looked around.
"Who are you?" She asked Harrison and I. We were silent, glancing at each other. When it was clear that I wouldn't be speaking, Harrison cleared his throat.
"I'm Harrison Potter, this is Violet Snape. You are?"
"Potter? Really? My name is Clara Potter." The girl said. She had dark red hair that was cut short and fell over her forehead in messy curls. Her eyes were bright green.
I tucked my raven hair behind my eaar. We all seemed to have the same color eyes.
"Ah, you're awake." I heard. I recognised the voice and turned back to face Albus Dumbledore himself. He wore bright yellow robes and his eyes twinkled happily. At his side were my dad, Professor McGonagall, Professor Flitwick, and Professor Sprout.
Harrison cursed loudly and fell back onto his bed, while I watched my dad. He stared back at me, as if he was trying to read me.
"If you don't mind, could you please tell me how you three got here." Dumbledore asked us. As if I hadn't heard, I looked at Harrison.
"If this is an alternate reality, does that mean my dad isn't my dad?" I asked.
"It's all just theory, Snape." He said. I heard several gasps at the name which proved my assumption. "I have no idea."
"Well, you answered the question anyway. Thanks."
"Uh, I don't know how we got here." The Clara said.
"What are your names?" McGonagall asked.
"Clara Potter." Clara told her.
"Violet Snape." I said, staring directly at my dad. He studied me, a look of mild alarm in his eyes.
"Harrison Potter." Harrison didn't move.
"And who are your parents?" McGonagall sked after that.
"James and Lily Potter." Clara said immediately.
"Same as her." Harrison said. "Except they're dead."
"What?" Clara asked loudly. "They're dead? How did they die?"
Lily. That was my mom's name.
"Voldemort killed them." Harrison replied. The adults flinched at the name.
"But they're still alive." Clara protested. They're still alive and my older brother goes to Hogwarts. My dad is an auror."
"Harrison has a theory that we come from alternate versions of this. So in your world Lily and James are alive and kicking while in Harrison's they died a while ago." I explained. I understood something when I heard the stories and thought on it a bit.
"While it appears that in my world, Lily did not marry James Potter like she did in yours. We are talking about Lily Evans, correct?"
Two nods.
"It seems that we are three children of Lily Evans, because in my world she married Severus Snape." I made eye contact with my dad who looked less alarmed and more of a cross between furious and sad.
"Is the drama genetic?" Clara asked.
"Excuse me?" I asked.
"Well, my godfather is Severus Snape." She said. "And he acts just as dramatic as you."
"Dramatic? The man's terrifying!" Harrison intervened.
"He kind of is." I laughed. "Especially when I mess up potions, but I'm good at potions so it's not often. And yes, the drama is genetic. And required. Dad is very sarcastic and it takes a certain level of emotionlessness and a good glare just to get through a morning."
Harrison rolled his eyes but Clara giggled. "I can't imagine living with him."
"I can." I told her seriously. She broke into a fit of giggles and I turned to face the headmaster, who was watching the exchange intently.
"So you have absolutely no idea how you got here?" Dumbledore asked. I felt compelled to look him in the eyes, and when I did, I felt the strange sensation of someone poking around my mind. I glared and turned away, throwing my shields up.
Stupid legilimens. I thought angrily. I suppose he did have a reason to want to read my mind and figure out the truth, but forcing your way into someone's mind was not only incredibly rude, but also extremely offensive to anyone who wasn't aware it was going to happen.
"What are we going to do?" Harrison asked. A good point. What were we going to do? How were we going to get home if we didn't know what brought us here in the first place?
"Well," Dumbledore said with a sigh. "I suppose you'll have to stay here."
"In the Hospital Wing?" Clara asked.
"In the castle." I corrected her. She turned a bit pink.
"Oh." She said quietly. "How long will we be here?"
"Oh we'll just spend the weekend and then all-knowing Albus Dumbledore will have us all sorted in time for Christmas." I told her sarcastically.
"Really?" Clara asked hopefully. But even she knew it wasn't true.
"No, Potter. It's likely we won't be back for Christmas. Hell, we'll be lucky if we're home by the end of the year." I said. Something squeezed my heart. I had never spent a holiday away from my parents. Sure my dad was right in front of me, but he'd never glared at me like I was the spawn of Satan himself like this version of him was.
Clara didn't respond, she just looked down at her hands. Her knuckles were white and she appeared to be clasping them very tightly.
I was suddenly reminded of my sister. Sure, Clara was older and had green eyes instead of black and had curly hair instead of stick straight, but Clara was obviously a younger sibling. That meant she had never had to be the strong one for someone else's sake. I swung my feet over the side of the bed. Trembling harshly, I made my way to her bed next to mine and curled up next to her. Immediately, she leaned into me. She definitely had some bad memories judging by the way she accepted the embrace when we had barely met an hour before.
I stroked her short hair, shutting out the whispers around us.
"Have you ever been alone away from home, Clara?" I asked.
She shook her head slowly. "I wasn't allowed to go to Hogwarts since Voldemort is in charge of everything. I've never even been to a sleepover."
"Your parents are scared." I said. It wasn't a question.
Clara nodded.
"When I was ten, I befriended this muggle girl who lived on our street." I said. Stories were helpful, right? Mom always told me stories about stupid things her ex-boyfriends or dad did in school when I was sad.
"Well, this girl, her name was Evelyn, she invited me to sleep over one night for her birthday. None of her friends from muggle school were able to make it, but I could since we lived so close." I said. "I was terrified. I said so too. My mom said that I didn't have to go if I didn't want to but dad..." I trailed off to look up at the other Dad. "He was reading, he's usually reading, but he looked up from his book and he said "Violet Lily, you don't go to that party, you are breaking your promise to that girl." and I would have been. I told Evelyn that I would go." I smiled to myself. "Then dad gave me that look that dads give you when they're disappointed and I knew, I was going to that sleepover whether I wanted to or not." Clara giggled a bit into my shoulder. I didn't know if the adults were even in the room anymore.
"But that night, there was a pretty bad storm. As a kid I had a problem with thunder. My mom always said I got it from Dad because of his past and then Dad would hiss at her that I didn't need to know about that." I rolled my eyes. "But I was laying there in the dark, trembling in fear, and I realised: I just got to suck it up."
"That's depressing." Clara murmured.
"It's kind of a household rule." I laughed. "But I realised, there was no one who would stop the thunder from thundering, no one who would come take me home that late at night. But there was Evelyn's mom who would protect me if there was danger. And, the next day, my parents would be there to hug me and tell me everything was okay." I stopped, there wasn't much else to tell.
Clara wasn't tense anymore and there were tear streaks on her cheeks.
"How old are you, Clara?" I asked quietly.
"I'm twelve." She said quietly, like she thought she would be made fun of.
"Oh." I said. I looked over and made eye contact with Harrison. We were both thirteen, I was sure. He nodded, confirming. Sure it was only a year, but one year can make all the difference.
2669 words
3/29/2020