Imagine, if you will, what it would feel like to wake up in a universe that isn’t quite yours. The faces are the same. The castle is the same. The magic is the same. But the people? The people are wrong. In y/n y/n/l’s universe, the war ended in victory—but it wasn’t a happy ending. Fred Weasley died laughing one final time. Nymphadora Tonks and Remus Lupin never got to raise their son. Lavender Brown never walked away from the battlefield. Mattheo Riddle fell before he ever got the chance to decide what kind of man he wanted to become. Countless others were lost, and the survivors learned to live with grief because there was no other choice. Life moved on. It had to. Then, without warning, everything changed. One moment y/n was standing in the Astronomy Tower, staring absentmindedly over the Hogwarts courtyard as the evening sun painted the grounds gold. The next— Laughter. Bright. Carefree. Unburdened. Not the kind of laughter that survived a war. Curious, she glanced over the stone railing. And her entire world stopped. There they were. The Golden Trio. The Slytherin group. George Weasley… Standing shoulder to shoulder with Fred Weasley. Mattheo. Alive. Laughing. Existing. No. No, that wasn’t possible. She blinked. Then blinked again. “…What the actual fuck?” The words slipped out far louder than intended. Silence. Every head in the courtyard snapped upward. Every. Single. One. For several long seconds, nobody moved. Then Pansy Parkinson burst into tears. Y/n stared. “…What?” Hermione immediately looked horrified. “Wait! No, no, don’t go!” Instinctively, y/n took a step backward. Harry threw Hermione a panicked look. “You’re scaring her.” “I am not scaring her!” “You absolutely are!” Another careful step backward. George looked like he’d seen a ghost. Fred looked like he’d become one. Mattheo hadn’t said a word since looking up. Y/n’s gaze bounced helplessly between Fred and Mattheo before settling somewhere in th