Work Text:
In a sort of trance, she saw Sirius coming across the platform toward her. His hands were bloodied, as though he'd beat them against the wards. She reached up with numb fingers and pulled the transmitter off her head. She tossed it to the platform floor and summoned her wand, which lay abandoned on the other side of the stage. Sirius's face was so close she could see the exact moment it crumpled in disbelief.
She turned on the spot.
"So are you psyched to go to school?"
Harry blinked. James was scooping up a forkful of fish while grinning at… Archie. Because there was no one else that pre-teen boy could be except Archie Black with that straight nose and hair and grey eyes and baby-fat cheeks and all.
Harry stared at Archie. Who himself was staring blankly at James with no sign of processing the question. But James didn't notice, simply continuing "You're going to love Hogwarts - no place like it anywhere. Why, the things me and your uncle and father got up to when we were there… As the representative of the second generation of Marauders, you'll have to carry on the family legacy-"
"- of pranking the daylights out of unsuspecting Defense Against the Dark Arts professors!" Sirius finished with a laugh.
Harry had just seen him reaching out desperately for her. For the person he had thought was his son. He'd looked so different than he did now, as he slapped Remus fondly on the back. He'd looked scared.
Harry realized she was holding a fork and a knife. On her plate there was a grilled fish fillet and six or seven lengths of asparagus the exact shade of dried knotgrass. In a daze, she picked up a piece of asparagus and ate it.
"… What?" Archie finally said.
"What?" Sirius responded, confused about Archie's confusion.
"What - what is happening?" Archie looked around the table, at James and Lily and Sirius and Remus and not Addy, his face the picture of bafflement. He blinked slowly three times. "Am I dreaming?"
He looked at Harry. And she knew he realized her expression wasn't quite normal either.
The adults spoke up in a ruckus of concern. "Arch, are you alright?" "Is something wrong?" "Hey, how many fingers am I holding up!"
"I'm… I don't feel great. Could I go have a lie down?"
"I'll go get a Pepper up or something--"
"No, no-" Archie held up a hand. "No potions, I just need to lie down a bit." He sent a frantic look at Harry.
"I'll go upstairs with you." Harry offered. It was bizarre, she felt like her veins should be full of adrenaline, as they had been just two minutes earlier. But her body was calm, with only a slight nervous thump to her heart and twist to her stomach. She'd just been choked by a madman (which was really the least of it) but her voice didn't even tremble as she spoke over the adults. "It'll be fine, we'll be back down soon."
Harry set down her fork and knife with her too small hands and stood up. Her legs, like her voice, somehow didn't shake at all as they carried her upstairs.
They hurried into her bedroom and Archie carefully locked the door and plugged the keyhole. Another wave of deja vu washed over Harry, especially with the way Archie looked right now, small and rosy-cheeked and so very eleven . Naive, like how they'd both been before things grew so much more complicated than they'd ever expected.
"Harry" Archie breathed. Grabbing her and looking her in the eye. "Is that you? "Rigel"?"
Archie's searching look pierced the haze, Harry's numb bewilderment peeling away like the clear skin of a bubble. She burst into tears.
"It is you!" Archie pulled her into a hug. "But why are you crying? Harry?!"
Harry muffled her sobs into Archie's chest as much as she could, very aware of the presence of their family downstairs. The last thing she wanted was for a herd of anxious parents (and one wolfy uncle) to question just what eleven-year-old Harriet was sobbing so wretchedly over. Because if this wasn't a dream or a hallucination, anything and everything could have consequences. She knew that well enough.
"Something happened to you, right?" Archie whispered, half questioning half soothing as he squeezed her comfortingly. "Something that sent us here. I thought I had gone mad at first. But it's OK, I'm pretty sure we're not mad. Probably."
"It's over" Harry managed through a gasping breath. She pulled back and wiped at her face.
"What?" Because Archie wouldn't have heard any news yet even if it hadn't been the the wee hours of morning in the United States when it happened.
Harry rubbed at her running nose. "The ruse."
Archie's eyes widened. "The ruse…"
"- is over." Harry took a breath. "Rigel Black was revealed as a half-blood."
"Oh Merlin." Archie grabbed her again. Fingers squeezing tight. "We need to–" He paused. "First things first… where in the hell are we right now??"
Harry smiled wryly. Even if she didn't want to mess with time anymore, it seemed Time still wanted to mess with her. "Or when."
Ten minutes later they had settled on the fact of their situation (and admitted it aloud, which made the whole nightmare feel so much more real) and cried, and anguished, and cried some more, and it was time to figure out what to do next.
"I remember today." Archie said. "I packed my trunk for you before coming over," He took a small item out of his pocket, his trunk, which he had packed so very long ago with everything he thought Harry would need at Hogwarts.
Harry took out her own shrunken trunk too. "And I stole the Polyjuice." She remembered, going over to pull the potion out from underneath her bed.
They looked at the small collection of items between them, symbols of everything they longed for and what they were willing to do to get it.
"If we go back down and finish dinner, they'll suggest getting me home early to rest." Archie said slowly. There wouldn't be another chance for privacy.
Harry swallowed. "Arch… I still remember what I said that day. Today. Even if this blows up in our faces…"
Archie blew out a breath, "And it sure did."
Harry gave a smile that was nothing more than a tight press of the lips. Tears threatened to well again. But she blinked them back. "It did. But even so…"
Archie looked grim. "Look Harry. I thought I knew what we were getting into back then, but by now I've realized it's nothing like what we thought. I'm a pureblood, but you're a halfblood. I'm looking at a slap on the wrist while you're looking at Azkaban."
Archie was right. But… "I escaped when it came down to it, didn't I?" Harry picked up the beaker of Polyjuice. "Archie… Even if we're stuck in the past, far from the people we came to know, even if we're facing a storm that we never could have seen coming…"
"I don't regret anything," she said. Echoing the declaration she'd made years ago. "I got to learn potions from Professor Snape. I saved Draco from a coma when I was the only one who could do it. I met Pansy. They won't know me anymore but… I can't go to AIM. Any more than you could go to Hogwarts."
Archie stared at her for a long moment. "Alright, cuz" he said. "We did make this decision when we were eleven, but you're way smarter than you were at eleven, so if you still want this… I trust you."
Harry smiled and pulled him into a hug. This time she couldn't stop her tears from escaping again. "This time, we'll be better prepared."
"A lot better prepared. On three?" Archie summoned up a foxy grin to meet Harriet's nod. "One, two- "
They drank just as there was a knock on the bedroom door.
And once again, they were now hurtling unstoppably towards a future that was slightly less unknown than it had been the first time, but still held all sorts of mysteries and dangers. But it also held knowledge and friends, and the desperate hope that it would all be worth it. It had to be.