Harry nodded a little bit, "I admit, I had worked that much out."
"His goal might not have been another world. It might not have occurred to him. For all we know he could have been aiming for the past of your world, in an attempt to kill your parents or grandparents before they were born." Perenelle nodded, "However, his desire was too specific and focused just on you. Based on what you said he stated, in his arrogance he just wanted to be away from you. I'm going to go further and guess part of his desires were a world that hadn't been destroyed. So there was still a magical world to rule. But he didn't take into account a world with a 'Girl-Who-Lived' nor another instance of himself to contend with and he would have emerged into this world using the Mirror as a direct portal. He likely would have come right through to this world."
Harry nodded slowly, her words making sense to him. He could certainly see Voldemort being arrogant enough not to take into account all possible contingencies. It was the one constant exploitable blind spot Voldemort had. His own arrogance. Harry was going to comment as much but he could tell Perenelle wasn't finished.
Perenelle nodded a bit, "However the ritual was aimed for Voldemort's desires, when you entered the Mirror, your desires may have interfered with the ritual."
Harry frowned and sat forward a little bit, wincing slightly as he felt the shift in the muscles of his shoulder, from the bones currently being rebuilt by the concentrated skelegro. "How so?"
Perenelle continued to pace slowly and sounded like she was working it out in her head as she spoke. "Well your own desires would have been divined by the Mirror and applied to the ritual. Voldemort desired a place where you weren't. You desired to stop him. The way I see it is that the ritual could have done one of two things. It took your wishes separately. He wanted to go to a world away from you so the ritual granted that. Based on what you said, that you wanted to stop Voldemort and the ritual would have tried to grant that."
She paused and then frowned further. "Another option is that he never considered the idea of true alternate worlds, since as far as I know the entire concept is mere conjecture. Of course another option is that your entry into the mirror completely negated his desire. Since yours was to stop him, and his was to travel to another world…The Mirror and ritual could have taken your desire quite literally, and it just… stopped him. He could be just floating in nothingness now."
At that point Perenelle threw her hands up in the air in exasperation "I HATE when amateurs try and create their own rituals. They do it without thinking things all the way through. You never know what could happen, especially when you throw in powerful magical artifacts, subconscious desires, and direct interference in the ritual. Anything could have happened."
Nicholas chuckled softly at his wife's irritation but knew better than to speak up.
Perenelle took a calming breath as she turned to regard Harry thoughtfully. "Now the question is whether you're here to stop that Voldemort, or the one that you believe may still be alive on this world."
Harry scowled a bit at her last words though his indignation was broken slightly at her previous assessment of Voldemort as an amateur "'I believe maystill be alive'?" He echoed with a frown on his face. "The events on this world are too much like the ones on my world for him not to be alive."
"Not everything is the same I'll grant." Harry said, cutting off the objection he could see coming from both Perenelle and from Nicholas.
"But based on the events of the two worlds, some things don't change. For example, just tonight… last night, whatever you want to call it. World Cup victory for Ireland with Viktor Krum catching the snitch. Exactly like it happened in my world. The same with the attack after the cup. While the attack by death eaters was a little different it still happened, just like it did in my world… though it didn't end the same way." Harry added the end with an almost feral grin.
Nicholas raised an eyebrow at the implication and then gestured with a hand at Harry's leg and then his shoulder, "That's how you got those injuries? You faced a few death eaters?"
Harry shrugged, "Two dozen, give or take. They were not expecting anyone to stand up to them. They get their jollies torturing people knowing no one will stand up to them. I disabused them of that notion. Even if I was bloody stupid about how I went about it."
Nicholas sat back, at the number his eyes wide for a moment then thoughtful as another calculating look crossed his face. Though he remained silent for the moment.
Perenelle didn't see the look cross her husband's face, instead she remained focused on Harry. "You realize that just because one thing happened doesn't mean that there's a lot of similarities across the board right?"
This time genuine irritation crossed Harry's face. He lifted his good arm and pointed his finger at Nicholas."About three years ago, you gave Dumbledore the philosopher's stone. He told me that you gave it to him for safekeeping because you knew dark wizards were after it. It was first stored in Gringott's then moved from that vault to Hogwarts. It was hidden behind traps that a group of three determined first year students could overcome. Dumbledore also promptly announced to all of the school, including a former death eater and a professor that was being possessed by the wraith of Voldemort, and most importantly, 400 or so children, 'Don't go into this area unless you wish to die a most painful death.'"
Perenelle snorted, "He said that to children? Might as well have painted a big sign on it for students to go there."
Harry grinned at her comment and nodded. "After my friends and I discovered a professor was after it, and no one would believe us, we decided to stop him. As first years we got past the traps, I faced Voldemort and forced him to flee. When I woke in the hospital Dumbledore told me that he had spoken with you and that you had agreed to destroy the stone and that you had 'enough elixir of life to put your affairs in order' before you'd face the 'next great adventure.'"
Perenelle and Nicholas exchanged long looks at that.
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