Alice Ranger would never know how she ended up throwing her evening plans of attending her University's Halloween party out of the window in order to get in a four-hour train journey to Edinburgh with a complete stranger. Harry was a handsome man, one who knew some astonishingly good magical tricks. Still, he was claiming to be Harry Potter, and Alice kept switching between fully believing his tale, to suspecting that it was nothing but some sort of sordid scam he was brewing.

Yet, there she was, seated in front of him in their table seat, with her laptop open as she tried to force herself to start writing one of the essays that was due in less than a week. If anyone asked her how he managed to convince her to join him on that journey, she would shamelessly claim that he had bewitched her.

Truth be told, he paid not only for their return tickets but also bought them some take-away for dinner, some basic clean clothes from M&S, and he had given her an absurd amount of cash for her to find them a hotel room near the train station with her mobile phone device. He didn't seem to have one of those, and seemed to be genuinely interested in hers, which Alice thought that added some validity to his story.

As she tried to make sense of the pile of academic articles that she was slowly getting around to read, she noticed that Harry had his parchment notebook and a feather pen out of his front pocket and started writing something on it.

The sight of him writing with a real red and golden feather was enough to catch her full attention, and as she witnessed how rich was its ink that came out of its tip, she also realized he was not using an ink pot.

"What are you writing?" she asked, closing her laptop slightly to have a better look at the parchment he was scribbling on.

"A letter to Ginny," he said, barely lifting his eyes from it to acknowledge her. But the little he did lift was enough to witness her rolling her eyes and making some disapproval grunting noises. "Is there anything wrong?" he asked with a frown.

"Yeah, yeah… I just never been much of a fan of Hinny, you know?"

"Hinny?"

"Remember fanfics?"

"Oh God! Not that again!" he huffed as he facepalmed himself.

"Hinny is what we call fanfiction that pairs you with Ginny. Most of them are so boring because they tend to be canon compliant, though… you can still find some good ones, like Gothic by Brennus, where the author thinks out of the box. Or the Changeling by Annerb that has a very strong Slytherin Ginny."

"Ginny in Slytherin? Are you people crazy? That would never happen!" Harry said, raising his voice and making some of the few people in the almost empty train carriage turn around to look at them with reproving glares.

"Well, the sorting hat wanted to send you there, did it not?" she smirked with joy as she witnessed Harry Potter blushing just before her eyes.

"But that was me. Ginny is through and through Gryffindor."

"Is she? Your son was sorted there, was he not?"

"My son? I don't have a son," he protested with a frown. "Wait, do you know anything else about me that I don't?"

"Sugar!" she hit her own head with her hand. "Just forget it, okay? Now… What was I saying? Oh yeah, Ginny… why did you end up dating her again? She is so… blase?"

"Ginny is an amazing woman, all right?" he protested fiercely, slamming both his hands on the table. "She has an incredible sense of humour. She is brave, talented, and gorgeous in every way! I won't let someone who doesn't even know her badmouth her like this."

"Chill man, I've only said blase. Is that even an insult?"

"It certainly sounded like one." He crossed his arms defensively.

"I don't think Ginny is bad, I just think… I think you could've done so much better!" she breathed, holding her hands close to her chest.

"Oh yeah? Like who?" he asked with a hint of sarcasm in his voice.

"I dunno… maybe, someone like Hermione, perhaps?" she hinted at it in a playful manner. He looked outraged.

"Hermione? Are you out of your damn little mind?" he said loudly, completely forgetting they were still in a public place.

"But you guys have so much chemistry together!" Alice said with dreamy, puppy eyes.

"Of course, she is my best friend!"

"Well, that is just another proof of how well you guys get along…"

"Hermione is like a sister to me. She is my best friend's girlfriend, for goodness' sake!" he ranted, looking positively enraged and disgusted by that idea.

"And look how he treats her, right? He got drunk before their wedding and doesn't even remember that!" She crossed her arms in a challenging way.

"What? They haven't gotten married yet! And when they do, I am sure that Ron will never do such a thing!"

"Oh yeah? Give it a feel years and let me know then," Alice gibed, full of sarcasm.

"You… you…" he breathed, trying to keep his temper in check. "Ron is better than you could even… I don't even know why I am defending my best friend to you! You know nothing about them!"

"Chill dude, I know they are good, okay? I merely think… that you would be a more suitable person for someone so… emotionally complex like Hermione, okay?"

"You have no idea what you are talking about! Ron and Hermione had this… thing going on for years! You don't know what their relationship is like."

"Yeah, yeah… I am sure they are great together! I bet they probably agree on everything, never argue and all." She smirked, making him feel even more annoyed than he already was.

"Yes, they argue a little, so what?" he said, gritting his teeth.

"A little? Harry, you know better than me, but a little is not a good word to describe their bickering," she said, sounding amused.

"What if they do? That is none of your business, all right?"

"Yeah… I know." Alice sighed in dismay "But if … if only you had invited Hermione to the Slug Christmas party instead of Luna, similar to what happened at Paradigm Shift by Petrificus Somewhatus..."

"You know what? You have issues. You should find yourself a hobby."

"But this is my hobby! Common, let me be," she said calmly, trying to not let it show how much fun she was having in winding him up.

"You should find yourself a better hobby then."

"There is absolutely nothing wrong with reading fanfic , okay? This is a completely harmless hobby."

"Let me be the judge of that!" he protested with a frown.

"If not Hermione, who would rather be paired with? Luna? Parvati? Fleur? Daphne?"

"Who the hell is Daphne?" he said in a mixture of affront and confusion.

"Ouch! This was an unnecessary punch."

"You know what? I don't care who she is. How about we stop talking about my choice in partners and start to talk about your love affairs?" he said, crossing his arms and jutting his chin at her.

"My love affairs?" she gasped, not quite ready for that turn on their conversation.

"Yeah, let's see how you like it!"

"Touché," she raised her hands in a universal sign of peace. He gave her a victory smirk.

"So…? Tell me about it. Are you seeing anyone at the moment?"

Alice blushed furiously, and it was Harry's turn to savour his success with a wide grin.

"You know what, I don't really feel like talking about it."

"Oh yes, because it is perfectly fine to pair me with whoever you want, but when it comes to your love affairs, you don't feel like talking about it," he said the last bit mimicking a false female voice, making her laugh.

That wasn't something she had expected that Harry Potter would do, but then again, he was the son of a Marauder so...

"Whatta hell, Harry! It hasn't been an easy year with Covid and all. If you must know, the last time I dated someone for a long time was during Secondary school. And no, I am not seeing anyone at the moment," she concluded before she began drinking some water.

"What is Covid?"

That question was enough to make her choke as she was drinking her water bottle. Her eyes were wide opened, and Harry frowned at what he judged to be an overreaction of sorts.

"Damn, you don't know what Covid is."

"Er… no? Why? Is it something I should know?"

Alice blinked multiple times with her mouth wide open. Harry looked genuinely lost, and that made her almost panic. How could she explain to him what Covid was, almost two years after that entire pandemic thing started? She sighed. That was going to be a long story.

"Everything started at the end of 2019, in a city called Wuhan in China…"


With both academic essays and letters properly forgotten, the rest of their train journey went on faster than either of them imagined it would go. It was way past-midnight when they arrived at Waverley station, but in spite of how late it was, there were still a good number of muggles walking around in groups, mostly dressed up with scary Halloween costumes.

Despite the darkness of the sky, Edinburgh castle could still be seen on top of a hill through the distance. Carved lighted pumpkins and fake spider webs decorated every pub and club that remained open, and a tone of autumn leaves coated the ground of the streets. Some of the costumes worn by the muggles were so realistic that at one point Harry got his wand out, sure that it was a real Inferi instead of a muggle man.

"I'm sorry. I couldn't find a hotel that was closer to the station. They seemed to be all fully booked."

Harry nodded in acknowledgement as they carried on walking through the hilly stoned path roads of the Old Town center of Edinburgh. They were following her phone directions, which seemed to work as well, if not better than a Four-Point spell.

Their hotel was posher than Harry had imagined it would be, considering that it had cost them less than a galleon. He ought to exchange another one of his coins to muggle currency as soon as possible. Though this time he would ensure to ask Alice about what was the best way for him to do that while she was still tagging along on his small quest.

Their room was large but simple, with two twin beds, a working desk, and a bathroom. He was glad about the last one, as after being running around London for an entire day, he was in terrible need of a proper wash. When he came out of the bathroom, he found that she was already fast asleep without even bothering to change her clothes to the new ones he had bought at King's Cross station.

Harry sat down on his own bed, looking at her tenderly. He couldn't help but feel a wave of gratitude towards the young woman who hadn't thought twice before dropping her own plans to help him on his quest. In spite of her slight obsession with that seemingly innocent but strange hobby of wanting to pair him with the most random females - and males - he had to admit that she was a good friend to have around. She definitely had some sense of humour and was the owner of a wit sharp mind that reminded him of his best friend.

But the weirdest thing was, when he thought about the picture she shared with him for their experiment, he had to admit that they also had some physical resemblance as well. And he wondered what Alice would look now that she was older if she had her hair in its natural colour, wore no makeup and didn't have so many piercings. The image of her that came on his head only highlighted their similarity to him.


"You are looking like a grumpy vampire," Harry said to Alice, moments after she joined him at their breakfast table. In his opinion, it was her sunglasses in broad daylight combined with the heavy use of white powder that gave her that aerie, spooky look.

"Good morning to you, too. Thanks for waiting for me. I guess I probably should be glad that I am looking like a vampire. At least I don't need to make much of an effort for tonight."

Harry sniggered.

He knew she was being sarcastic. Instead of waiting for her, he had scribbled a quick note and left it next to her bed before the sunrise. He was eager to explore the surroundings of Edinburgh, and also to make some enquiries with the locals about the whereabouts of the famous author woman who had written his book.

"While you were having fun doing god knows what, I've been busy googling Rowling's addresses, and places where some fans have spotted her. I couldn't find out if she was away, though. That would not surprise me though, so don't be disappointed if that is the case," she said before she handed him a list of places she had gathered.

"I was making some inquiries too. My source informed me that a JK woman can be spotted occasionally in the city, but she is also quite private and appreciates her space. And you are unlikely to see her in crowded tourist places."

"Now Harry, your source didn't tell you anything special, that is common knowledge. Though… I'm sorry to say that I got it all wrong. I should have googled this before we left London," she said, trying to avoid looking him in the eyes.

"What was it?"

Alice gave a long sigh before she started going on about her Google research, and how it informed her that JK Rowling's official home was actually nowhere near Edinburgh. Then she carried on listing all the trains and buses they would need to get if they wanted to get to Killiechassie Estate, which was the place that Rowling officially lived. She also explained that wasn't her only address, and the famous author could well be all the way back to London, at her £4.5 million Georgian house in Kensington, as far as she knew it. Or even, on a holiday somewhere abroad, after all, travel restrictions had been lifted for a while. And at last, she went on all the securities that the houses had and were likely to have.

"In summary, the woman is a hermit! She lives in the middle of nowhere."

"Many people from the Wizarding Society do that, actually. Maybe this JK woman belongs to my people."

"From what you said, there is not much of a Wizarding Society here," she crossed her arms and slacked

"This is true. But even if she is not a witch, considering how much nonsense with my name I've seen around... couldn't she just be after some privacy?" he said, thinking about everything he had witnessed at the whole Harry Potter shop experience.

"Oh yeah, this definitely sounds like her!"

There was a brief pause when the waitress stopped by a waitress delivering both their breakfast orders. Alice and Harry were both eating quietly until she suddenly had an epiphany.

"Damn! Harry, if anyone sees my Google searching log, they will think I am a stalker. No, even worse, they will have evidence that I am stalking her." She looked very panicked, and Harry tried, but failed, to repress a small chuckle that was fighting to come out. Alice was then huffing and puffing in outrage, which led to him laughing even harder.

"You look adorable when you are mad," he said, making her hide the blush on her face with both her hands. "Listen, don't worry. We will find her. It will all be fine."

"How can you be so sure?" Alice snorted.

Harry was unable to hide the grin from his face as he got something out of one of his secret pockets. A very tiny bottle containing some golden liquid.

"Do you know what this is?" he asked, shoving the bottle in her face. She recognised it almost instantly.

"Felix Felicis? How…?"

"Slughorn. I've been carrying this for ages… just in case of an emergency, you know?"

"Oh my..!" she looked at the bottle in total awe. "Do you think this will work? I mean, your magic hasn't been… you know?"

"Some of it has worked so far, so we will see. Besides, I'm the one who is going to be drinking. I think it will be fine."

"Are you not carrying this thing around because you're addicted to it or something, right?" Alice asked, frowning her browns.

"What? Addicted? Of course not! Where did you get this idea from? I've only had this once in my life before." He looked shocked by the mere idea.

"Are you sure? Because I don't think I've got the patience to deal with a bipolar Harry like the one in Stages of Hope by Kayly Silverstorm, okay?"

He blinked multiple times and looked at her with a concerned look on his face.

"You are utterly mad, do you know that?"

"Who, me?" Alice said with a clearly mocked sense of indignation.

"Yes, you. How many of these stories have you read, anyway?"

"Well, not many, you know. Maybe just one or two… tens of thousands or something? It is very hard to keep track, you know."

"Merlin's beard. You are a lost case, Alice." He shook his head and had a long pause where he drank the remains of his tea in one go. "Right." He pocketed his precious Felix Felicis bottle back in his auror robes. "We'll do this as soon as we check out."

"It's a date!" she answered with a mischievous smile.


They were still at the hotel lobby when he removed the tiny golden vial from his robes again. He closed his eyes, trying to focus on the things he wanted to happen the most: to find that Rowling woman who seemed to know way too much about him; to arrest the thief; but mainly, to return to his own universe. And then he drank all the contents in the small vial.

Soon, he began to feel that usual burst of overconfidence that came along with Felix Felicis, and he knew, he just knew, that he would be back to his own world before lunchtime.

"Right, last go!" he said with a grin, as he started marching to the hotel reception desk and grabbed one of the city maps before he left through the entrance door.

"Is it... working?" Alice asked him, sounding a little bit doubtful.

"Yes. Of course, it is. Come on, let's go. This effect of Felix won't last forever." He said, rushing through the door with Alice on his heels.

"Harry, the train station is on the other way."

"We are not going there, no. I feel like visiting one of the tourist attractions I was advised to see this morning. I have a feeling that is what we should do," he said without even turning his head to look at her.

"Are you out of your mind?" Alice looked at him in an almost confrontational way as she tried to keep up with his hurried pace. "Are you sure it is working? Couldn't you merely be thinking it is working because you believe it is working, without it actually being working?"

"No, Alice, I had Felix Felicis before. I know how it is supposed to feel. Come on, I feel like we need to hurry if we want to be there on time."

"On time for what?"

"No idea." He shrugged before he checked his map to see if he was on the right path.

"Where are we going, anyway?"

"We are going to a place called Calton Hill. I've heard they have a beautiful view of the city up there."

Alice quickly checked her phone for directions and saw that it was quite a long walk.

"That place is too far away. If we need to get there quickly, how about we get a cab?"

Harry considered her idea for a millisecond, and then he quickly dismissed it.

"My feeling is that we must walk there. Come on, Alice, keep up."

They carried on walking at that rushed pace for almost half an hour until Harry had the sudden surge of visiting a coffee shop to get a latte. The coffee shop, like everything else in the city, had a spooky vibe to it, thoroughly decorated for Halloween with paint stains on the window pretending to be blood, fake skulls, black and red lighted candles, not to mention pumpkins all around the shop.

"Weren't we supposed to be in a hurry?" she complained as they were queueing behind about five different customers.

"Yes. we're still in a hurry."

"You are making no sense, you know? While you queue there for your coffee, I will go and use their restroom, okay?"

Harry shrugged again, and she groaned as she went on to the back of the shop. Even though they had quite a large seating area on the back of the coffee shop, they didn't seem to have many staying in customers. Only three, to be exact, all wearing covering masks, and all of them working on their respective laptops. Alice didn't pay them any mind at first, but when she returned from her toilet break and had a better look at the middle-aged woman who was writing frantically on her laptop, the young student had no doubt. Even if the mask still hid half of her face, the woman in question was JK Rowling.

Alice's jaw dropped, and her eyes widened instantly. Her sudden recollection was enough to make Rowling's eyes leave her work and focus on her. It was the famous author who spoke first.

"Alice?" Rowling asked, both her eyes wide open in shock.

Alice just nodded and slowly walked away from the famous author and returned to the place where Harry was now being served. No other customer was in the front of the shop apart from him now.

"Do you want anything, Alice?" Harry asked casually. She shook her head to say no, and soon was whispering in Harry's ear.

"She is here. Look!" Alice said, pointing at the woman who was now packing up her belongings in the back of the coffee shop. Harry didn't seem very surprised to find that they had somehow stumbled on the exact person they were hoping to find.

"I told you that the potion was working, didn't I?" he said, slightly cocky as Alice remained with both her mouth and eyes wide open as she gazed at the best sold author of all time.

Harry's eyes locked with the globally famous author and he waved at her, as if he was saying hi to one of his old mates from Hogwarts that he hadn't seen for a couple of years. JK Rowling frowned her eyebrows over the distance. The shop barista gave him his coffee on a paper takeaway coffee. Harry thanked the man, and raised his coffee cup to JK Rowling, in a cheering gesture, and without saying anything else, he left the coffee shop.

Alice remained there for a few seconds as if her brain was slowly trying to keep up with everything that had just happened. She looked from Rowling, who was almost ready to leave the shop back to Potter, who was already a good few meters away from them. It took her a while to decide what to do next, but soon she left the shop and was running on the streets to catch up to him.

"Harry!" she said, a bit shortof breath for running up the steep hill. "Why didn't you go there and talk to her?"

"Because if I stay here any longer, I will be late to Calton Hill."

"You are making no sense. You just saw the exact person you wanted to find! And finding Rowling is an almost impossible mission, mind you. And you just bumped into her like this! What are the odds? If this was fanfiction, I would say that the author was an extremely lazy fucker, you know?"

"Can you stop talking about those fanfictions, please? Also... don't look now, but I think we are being followed."

Alice tensed, and Harry forced her closer to him, by bringing her to a single armed embrace while they carried on walking. She noticed that Harry's hands were touching his wand beneath his Auror's robes.

"Who is following us?" she whispered, already fearing what his answer would be.

"Rowling, of course. But she is also being followed, and I am not sure if she knows that."

He increased his pace as they entered the park, and he decided to go off the signed trail in order for them to seek shelter from peering muggle eyes. As soon as they were off the sight of the general public, Alice noticed Harry had his wand out. Not even a second after, they all heard a sharp female voice hissing the words of the worst Unforgivable curse.

Before the female voice could even finish uttering the ruthless curse, Harry had already turned and pushed Alice out of the way. All the presents were able to witness the lack of green lights coming out of the white-robbed witch's wand, as she frustratingly aimed her cherry wooden stick at the famous author.

Harry grinned, as he immediately knew that unlike him, the white robbed witch was unaware of the limitations of her magic on that universe. Fully confident that it would work, he sent Petrificus Totalus in the witch's direction. She fell down on the ground almost immediately. He ran back to the place where Rowling was standing still as a statue.

"Are you okay?" he asked the woman that apparently knew more about his life than even his closest friends.

"Yes," she said, with a dumbfounded look on her face. "You are Harry. And you… are Alice," she said the last bit while looking at the woman who was slowly approaching them from a distance.

"How do you know me?" Alice asked.

Rowling did not reply to her question. Her attention was focusing on Harry Potter, who was kneeling down next to the witch that was laying down as hard as a stone statue. He got her wand from her hand and offered it to Alice.

As soon as her hands touched the cherry wooden wand, she felt a heat emanating from her fingertips, and before she knew it, they all watched pink and silver sparkles leaving the tip of the wand.

"You are a witch, Alice!" Harry said, slightly surprised by that turn of events.

"Am I?" she directed her question to the famous author, who just confirmed it with a nod of her head.

"Of course you are a witch! Don't you remember me, Alice?" JK Rowling asked, feeling slightly hurt.

"You are JK Rowling. You wrote the Harry Potter series."

"No, Alice, before that. Don't you remember?"

"Ahm, no?"

"We're best friends at Hogwarts, until, you know…after the Battle of Hogwarts, everything was too much for me to handle. I just had to run away. I'm sorry I shared Harry's life like this. I know how both of you like to live your private life. I honestly had no idea how big this book would turn out to be."

"So this is true. Are we in a different universe from the one we came from?" Harry asked.

"Yes, the only way you will be able to go to Hogwarts in this universe is through my books, movies, theme parks, merchandise, theatre plays…"

"Yeah, we get it. You are ridiculously rich," Alice said, cutting her off.

"And you are also a witch," Harry stated, looking at Rowling, who confirmed his affirmation with a head nod. "Right. Would you mind telling me how you happen to know so much about me? Because you know things that are not public knowledge."

"Alice told me most of the things I know, of course! Don't you remember me, Harry? We used to be friends."

"I think I already said that I've never seen any of you before," he said with a frown, as he adjusted his glasses.

"I was Alice's best friend? Two years your junior from Hogwarts? I was a Gryffindor too. I even played on the Quidditch team during your sixth year, when you were the team captain! How could you not remember me!?" Joane Rowling was looking like she was about to burst into tears.

"Er… I'm sorry, but you were just not there?" Harry's frown deepened.

"No, that is not possible! I was definitely there, unless…" Joane Rowling suddenly began to frantically pace from one side to the other. "Unless you are from a completely different universe, Harry! Yes, that would make sense!"

But before Rowling had any chance to explain to them what would make sense, Alice chose that moment to interrupt her for a second time.

"Come on, this all makes zero sense!" Alice said, beginning to lose her patience with all that nonsense. "I definitely never met you before, Rowling. And Harry, you know damn well I only met you for the first time a few hours ago."

"Me, I am sure I've never seen either of you before," Harry said, looking from one female to the other. "Though, about you and Rowling, I am not that sure. Look," he said, getting the picture she had shattered in half when they were doing their experiment. "The girl on your left does look a bit like Rowling, doesn't she?" Harry said, joining the shattered portrait back together with both of his hands.

"Nonsense. Can't you see that Rowling here is many years older than me? She could be my mother! She has children who are way older than me! Yes, the name of the girl in this picture is Jo, but having the same name doesn't make her JK Rowling."

"Alice! But that girl is me!" Rowling said, pointing at the picture full of frustration.

"No, that is Jo, and... Anna! The three of us studied together at secondary school at… at…" Alice was trying to force her mind, but she suddenly seemed to have forgotten the name of her own secondary school.

"At Hogwarts!" Rowling answered, full of concern. "You must have made some wrong calculations when you tried to make your Hop'tal! Why did you do that? You had a perfect life with Harry. I told you to leave me be and stay there!"

"I…" Alice replied, thinking about her early life, but as she forced her mind to think about her past, the more her memories seemed to become an enormous blur. Who were her parents? Where did she live? Why was she working in that lab yesterday? She was unable to answer these and many other questions.

"Memory loss and confusion can be side effects if that is not done properly. You must also have made some mistakes when you were calculating the time and place that you were to arrive. You poor thing, Alice. It must have been so scary for you to arrive here with no one to help you."

"I… have no idea what both of you are talking about…" but now Alice was beginning to doubt her own recollection of the events, as the more she tried to remember, the less she seemed to make sense of things.

"Where do you know Alice from again…?" Harry asked JK Rowling, as he bent down again in order to physically go through the white witch's pockets.

"She is Alice Granger, Hermione's little sister, obviously. How can you not remember her, Harry?" Rowling asked him, an expression was full of shock.

"Hermione doesn't have a sister," Harry frowned as he got hold of the small globe, smaller than a penny coin. He knew to be the one thing that had been responsible for transporting him and the Mahoutokoro's witch to that universe.

"Oh no! I must have created another universe when I wrote that slightly different version of the story. I've heard that has also happened with Tolkien and some other few authors…" Joane gave him a pitiful look as she reached that conclusion. Harry was quick to shrug that off.

"Listen. I have no interest in what you've made as long as you can tell me how this thing works so I can take me and my thief back to the universe we both came from?"

"Sure. It should be easy enough to send you both to the place you came from," Joane Rowling said, getting the small globe and showing Harry exactly what he would need to do in order to activate that piece of magical gadget.

"So are you just going to go back and leave me here?" Alice looked straight at him, a tear refusing to leave her eyes. She was disheartened.

From the first time since he had swallowed the lucky elixir, his confidence of what should be done seemed to fade. It took him a few moments for him to recompose himself and focus on which outcome he wanted to achieve.

"You will be fine, Alice. I would take you with me if I thought it would be the best thing for you. But you would never truly fit in there. Your journey is on a different path from mine. You will be fine, Hermione's little sister." He gave a small kiss on her forehead and allowed himself to hug her tenderly. She allowed him to do so, and as they both succumbed to the comfort of that embrace, glimpses of a lifetime she had no recollection invaded her mind.

As they stayed still, sharing that moment for what felt like both a millisecond and an eternity, the image of herself as a young child playing hide and seek in a playground with her bigger sister came to her mind. How she felt so lonely when her sister left for the famous wizarding school, and how they both were so excited when Alice received her first Hogwarts letter. How she met Jo and Anna at the feast, and they were immediately best friends.

Alice remembered how her sister shared the secret of her borrowed time-turner with her, and how she helped Hermione cover her tracks for Ron, Harry, and the others. She also recollected how Hermione ended up making Harry invite Alice as a date for the Yule Ball, because her sister knew how much Alice wanted to see the event. Then how much she panicked, when she realised that it meant they would open the event.

She remembered the summer and winter holidays with Harry, Jo, and the Weasleys at Grimmauld Place. She revived all the meetings of Dumbledore's Army, and the battle against the Death Eaters at the Ministry of Magic. She saw Sirius dying like a hero in front of her eyes, saving both her and her friends Jo and Anna from Bellatrix's unmerciful hands.

She remembered clearly the expression on Harry's face when she saw Harry hugging Cedric's dead body; his Godfather dead; Dumbledore dead. She then saw how she forced Hermione and her two best friends to take her on their Horcrux hunting camping trip, by grabbing her sister's arms just before they apparated away from Bill and Fleur's wedding.

She then saw how she forced their hand to keep her hidden with them, by threatening to run away on her own, even though she was still an underage and had the trace on her.

She recalled all the sensations she felt when Harry and she shared their first kiss, just after they escaped Nagini in Godric's Hollow. She felt the piercing pain of Bellatrix carving mudblood into her wrists, as the witch tried to get information from Hermione.

Still lost in their embrace, Alice then looked at her wrist, and saw the words appearing there in front of her eyes, just like magic. Harry looked at her hand at the same time she did, and Alice began to wonder if he was also sharing the wave of recollections she was having. Harry gave a gentle, tender kiss on the scar at her hand, as another storm of memories insisted in penetrating her mind.

Alice envisioned blurred memories of Jo and her in Shell Cottage, and then when the trio decided to finally depart and leave her safely hidden with the eldest of Ron's brothers. She then saw the message burning on her Dumbledore's Army coin and immediately made her way to the last battle with the others. She witnessed so many people dying, but the worst memory she had was when she visited Snape's last memories alongside Harry.

She felt a deep knot in her throat, when she remembered how she had tried and failed on forcing herself not to cry. Alice then felt her vision going blurry by the tears that were fighting not to fall at the present time too. She looked up at Harry, who still had both of his arms tightly wrapped around her waist, and saw that he was going through the very same struggle.

Following an abrupt impulse that he would never know if it had been influenced by Felix Felicis or not, Harry pulled Alice's head with fierce desire, and engulfed her lips in a passionate, deep kiss. She immediately answered it with equal eagerness, and as they explored each other's body, both their minds were immersed in more and more repressed memories.

"I must go now. I need to return to my own world. Do you understand, Li?" he said tenderly stroking her chin.

She felt an enormous pang on her heart, but she nodded regardless. It was almost as painful as it had been to say goodbye when he was marching to his death in the Forbidden Forest.

He gave her another kiss on her forehead.

"Somewhere, in another universe, there is a very lucky Harry longing to see you again. Let him know what a lucky bastard he is, okay?"

She nodded, as she felt like her voice had disappeared.

"Jo, it is time." Harry said, looking at the older female, who nodded in agreement.

After both women said their farewell to the Man-WhoLived, Joane walked away with Alice, so they would be out of range and not transported to Harry's universe by accident.

Alice felt an inexplicable pang in her heart as she witnessed Harry disappear into an explosion of white light. She allowed Joane Rowling to hug her as the lifelong friends they had been once, and soon Alice was crying all the tears she had boldly held back until that moment.

"Alice, I still have the portal that brought me here. I've built a wonderful life in this universe, and I have no plans of ever going back. But… I can help you back to our own universe if this is something you would like to do?"

Alice's heart was beating fast. She knew there was only one thing she should do.

THE END


A/N: Thank you for reading this mad as a hatter short story.

Yes, this is really the end. Sorry, I know there are way too many unanswered things, but I am basically a tourist on a holiday in this fandom. Time to love you and leave you now.

Thank you, Nauze, for doing beta-work on this story. Most of the stories recommended here were recommended by him.

This was written specifically for the OCtober event at the STS discord server. Feel free join the party: /W8mPRfPh9w

As someone who always had a soft spot for OCs, I found it very hard not to join their event this time. And this was my humble contribution to the pot.

Any other reason for writing this? Well, firstly I don't remember seeing many (if any!) HP fanfic where Harry Potter himself is stuck in our universe. This is a trope that is a guilty pleasure of mine in the LotR fandom, so I decided to make my attempt doing this with HP.

Secondly, I am aware that originally Hermione was supposed to have a sister, and seldomly seen fanfics giving her that sister. So I wanted to do that too, cause, why not?

At last, please review?