"Oh, Harry, I think the Twins got you this morning." Hermione said, concerned.
"Huh?" was her best friend's response as he turned his tired eyes towards her, the dark circles around them only a bit better compared to yesterday. Hermione frowned looking towards said twins, who were laughing at something Lee Jordan was saying.
"I am going to speak to them, pranks are one thing, but you haven't been sleeping well for days Harry."
Harry looked at her oddly, and then grimaced, before frowning and rolling his eyes, confusing Hermione greatly.
'He must be so tired he's getting confused.'
"Hermione...what are you talking about?" He asked, resigned.
Hermione sighed, and picked up the hand mirror that her mother gave her this summer, opening and showing it to him.
Harry froze, his eyes widening while his jaw dropped, and Hermione was taken aback by the look of horror he had as he looked at his own reflection.
'It's not that bad, for them it's even tame.'
But Harry didn't seem to think so, he raised his hand, ever so slowly, reaching for the lock of hair over his right eye. He touched it lightly, as if afraid it would attack him.
The light green color was from root to tip, and looked even more prominent when set against his normally jet black hair.
'Must've been a charm, to color the hair like that.'
Her friend rose abruptly, almost tripping on the bench as he all but ran out of the Great Hall, leaving behind a very confused Hermione.
Harry ran into an out of the way boy's bathroom, going straight to the mirror to take a better look, he had to hold himself in the sink to not fall.
"Why. Is. My. Bloody. Hair. Green?" He was taking deep breaths, the feeling of vertigo almost overtaking him.
"..."
"Answer me! If you are going to stay in my head, then bloody tell me!" His voice broke, and he glared at his reflection, the lock of green hair almost taunting him.
But it wasn’t just it, for some reason, his black hair taunted him too, as did his chin, and the shape of his eyes.
Everything was right and wrong at the same time, as if he was two halves of different persons mashed together.
The pitter pater of water drew him out of his thoughts, and he looked around for a leak in the ceiling, but when he heard it just below him, he realized it was the sound of his tears hitting the sink.
He looked back in the mirror, the tear tracts were clear, even in the low light.
“I haven’t cried in years… don’t even know who I am anymore.”
“It’s okay to cry, and you know who you are, you just haven’t fully realized it yet.” that dreaded, young female voice spoke in his mind, the same one from his dreams and nightmares.
Harry fell to his knees, beyond caring if he was going mad or not.
“Who are you? Please, be honest.”
“I-I am you, Harry, and I am also not, I am…a part of you from before, but also someone different, we were separate once, but we…fused, and became more than the sum of our parts. But that world is long gone, and in this new one, most of what we were was, well, locked into me. You do however look very similar to how you were before.”
“That sounded like a bunch’a of nonsense, do you have a name?”
“...I think I was once called…Sothis.”
The name resonated in him like nothing else, a Deja Vu of something he hadn’t lived yet, a distant feeling of power and loss that would’ve drove him to his knees if he wasn’t already there.
“Sothis…yes, I think, I think that’s right.”
But she had told him more than that, he didn’t need to be Hermione to know that.
“You said from before…before what?”
” This world is cyclical I think, and even those like us are bound to its turns.”
“Those like us?”
”You wouldn’t believe me if I told you, we will remember in time, we have already begun, it will not be easy, but…I think you will like a lot of it, there was much hardship, but also much happiness there. Best you go to sleep, the dreams will get clearer with time.”
And the dreams did get clearer, in a sense, he remembered a large man he called father, he remembered learning how to swing a sword, how to fight.
He remembered a castle not as magical as Hogwarts, but a school nonetheless, and he remembered…teaching, but the students, there were no names or faces, all he got was a feeling of fondness for some, regret for others, and something he couldn’t identify for a few.
The flashes of battle were the worst, he remembered cutting men apart, the screams of pain, the smells, the anger and regret he felt at fighting, but overall, an encompassing feeling of purpose and dedication to something or someone, maybe even more than one someone.
He had gotten much better with his sleep schedule after that morning, even Hermione didn’t look so concerned.
His hair getting green was explained by an elaborate prank he had the twins do, and how he thought it looked cool, so he decided to keep doing it.
Professor McGonnagal was not happy, but turns out Hogwarts doesn’t have rules for student’s hair color, as long as they want it that way.
Malfoy calling him ‘Grasshead’ made him laugh more than he should.
It all changed when the delegations arrived.
First was the Durmstrang one, out of that ship, out of all the students that came out, Harry felt like he had to find someone. And while Ron was almost jumping up and down after seeing Krum, Harry’s eyes slid over the crowd, but he couldn’t find anything.
Then, came Beauxbatons. Harry couldn’t help but smile upon seeing the Pegasi, because how could they be called anything but, and for a single, crazy moment, he imagined two women in armor mounting them, but it was gone in the blink of an eye.
The carriage they pulled was incredible, a marvel of enchantments, Hermione had whispered, but the sense of anticipation that filled Harry made him almost not hear her properly, focused as he was on that carriage door. First was a giant of a woman, taller than Hagrid even, and following her.
Harry’s heart skipped a beat, and his breath caught, a flash of fondness, nostalgia and a feeling he could only call love filled him.
Long white hair, blue-purplish eyes, and grace that couldn’t be natural.
She looked beautiful in blue, but it didn’t fit her, same as Harry though a Lion didn’t fit him, but red did. And Harry thought she would look wonderful in red and gold.
An aftertaste of Bergamot tea teased his tongue, one he had never drunk, but somehow knew the taste better than any other. The memory of a balmy, spice smell he recognized as from Carnation filled his nostrils, and Harry smiled, openly, happily.
He couldn’t tell you why, other than that seeing that girl he didn’t know the name of, did it for him, so easily he didn’t even have to think about it.
**”...And here we go again, I just hope you won’t burn this world for her dreams too.” **
Flashes of terrible battles passed by quickly, but Harry was beyond that, a single unifying certainty was in his mind.
“For her, I would.”