Chapter 276: The Old World

Disclaimer: Harry Potter and all of its characters belong to J.K Rowling. I own nothing but the original characters I make.

"Dialogue"

'Thoughts'

-Author notes-

Chapter 276: The Old World

"A demon?!" Lyra almost jumped from the shock. "But demons are not real…are they?"

"Demons are very much real, Lyra. They just don't exist in the same realm of reality we do," the detached voice of Harry explained to her.

"Then what is that one doing here?" Lyra pointed at the creature.

The other Harry and his friends had already started their fierce fight with the demon as Lyra and he spoke.

"That one, and many others…were brought here by a madman who only cared about achieving his goals, no matter the price…"

Lyra then realized that something was missing…or more like, someone. "Where is Ginny? What about Luna and Astoria?... What about me? Why aren't we helping you fight that thing?" If her brother was already in his twenties during this time, that meant that she and her friends were already adults too.

"Luna was busy, working on something else. I never met Astoria, so I don't know what she could have been doing by then. As for Ginny…she was killed, almost two years before this happened," Harry said with a bitter tone.

"What?! Ginny died?" Lyra turned around, but of course, her brother was not there. "Can you explain that better?"

"There is not much to explain. She was killed at the beginning of the war. Back then…we didn't even know there was a war at all. We all thought that it was over…we were so wrong…"

"What about me? And Holly? Mom, Dad?" She could only guess the worst now.

"Calm down, Lyra. It's not what you think."

Lyra's eyes did not move away from the battle. She could never have imagined that she would see something like this.

"Then… this is the future?... Is this going to happen to our world?" She had reached a dreadful conclusion.

"What you are seeing right now is not your future. This is not your world."

Lyra's eyes opened wide.

"Not my world?"

"Correct. Since humans began to manipulate time with the use of time magic…there have been countless fractures in our time and space continuum. As a result, many different realities and timelines have been born. What you are seeing before you is just one of the many possibilities."

"Are you saying that this is like…a different reality?" Lyra asked.

"Yes. A grim reality in which Voldemort, at his lowest point, decided to open a gate to the Netherworld and bring a host of demons to destroy the world. To you, this is just a different reality, something that didn't happen and will not happen in your world. But to me…this is my past…my old home."

"You…" Lyra realized. These were Harry's memories, so he had to have lived this before.

"You came from another world?"

The burning city around Lyra began to vanish into smoke, along with the figures of the demon and the ones fighting it. And it was soon replaced by a different landscape.

It wasn't exactly a better one. This one was a completely barren land, devoid of everything. There were no signs of life or buildings, or…anything at all. Even the sun was looking dim while washing over the grey dirt and stones.

"You are correct."

Lyra detected that the voice of her brother was different, and it was now coming from behind her.

When she turned around, she found herself face to face with a tall man. He had short dark hair, an unkempt beard, and wore some ragged clothes, filled with holes and covered in that grey dirt.

It looked like this person had gone through hell and somehow came back.

But a quick look into his bright green eyes was enough for Lyra to know that she was in front of her brother.

"You look like shit."

"Don't let Mom hear you say that," Harry chuckled.

"So…this is what you really looked like?" Lyra asked.

"This is what I looked like by the end…yes."

Lyra moved her eyes around the area. There wasn't much to see.

"And where are we?"

"We are in the same place as before, but around twenty years later than the battle you saw," Harry explained.

"Twenty years…" Lyra muttered.

"By this point, most of the planet looked like this. They destroyed everything… the few remnants of humanity had to hide underground."

"You didn't beat the demons?!" Lyra exclaimed. She could not imagine her brother losing a battle, not even to something like a demon.

"No, I'm afraid not. This was not something that could be won in the first place. The moment Voldemort opened that gate… he doomed us all."

"You-Know-Who did all of this?" Lyra had heard terrible tales about the Dark Lord, but she could never have thought he could destroy the world in such a way.

"Did you at least kill him?"

"I did…I think, at least."

"You are not sure?" Lyra asked.

"No, you see… that's when I died."

"You died?! But wait…"

"I am not a ghost…" Harry hurried to add.

"That's not what I was going to say!" Lyra looked offended.

"I don't understand either how it happened. I remember dying in this world and then…I woke up in the body of a younger version of myself. In your world."

Lyra stared at him for a while without saying anything. But then…all of a sudden, she smiled at him.

"I think I understand now. I just have one question…"

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