Stratagem Con
Chapter 1
Flight
Disclaimer: Everything in Harry Potter universe belongs to J.K. Rowling. I got nothing out of this except for enjoyment.
"HE GOT OFF! HE GOT OFF! HE GOT OFF!"
"SHUT UP!" roared Mrs Weasley.
In spite of the fact that Harry was cleared of the charges for using magic in Little Whinging, and that he was looking forward to go back to Hogwarts, he did not know what will happen next.
He considered the words that Ron had told him over one month ago.
"She went to ask him if you could come straight to us this summer, but he wants you to go back to the Dursleys, at least at first."
"Why?"
"She said Dumbledore's got his reasons, and I suppose we've got to trust him, haven't we?"
Why did he have to trust Dumbledore? He could've spend the summer holiday elsewhere. He knew that Privet Drive has never been his home, his aunt and uncle had never treated him like a son.
He did not know whether he should trust Ron or not, but he thought that it would be best not to show his suspicion in front of him.
That night, as he fell asleep, two figures appeared.
He immediately realised that it must be his parents, but he suspected that Voldemort might be using this way to trick him. However, he decided to give it a shot and see if they are real.
"There's something you've got to know, Harry," Lily said.
"What?" asked Harry.
"Let's start from Dumbledore," Lily said. "He is not trustworthy."
Harry did not know what to say, he simply stared at Lily.
"Do you know how much you have suffered while you were living with my sister?" Lily asked.
Harry nodded.
"Why did Dumbledore want me to go back there?" he asked.
"His reason for you to go back there was because he want you to be protected from Voldemort and his Death Eaters," Lily said. "He had set up some blood wards so that Voldemort would not be able to find you. But why didn't he check on you? He was raising you to die, so he had to make sure you have nothing to live for, or hope for, since part of Voldemort's soul lives in you, something has to be done about this before Voldemort could be defeated."
"No wonder I have been having dreams about Voldemort when he was angry," Harry said.
"The Dementors attacked you and your cousin this summer, was ordered by none other than Dolores Umbridge," said James. "She did this to prevent you from spreading the fact that Voldemort had returned."
Thinking back about what happened in the courtroom during his trial, Harry felt really angry, he had almost been expelled from Hogwarts for using a Patronus against the Dementors, and Dolores Umbridge was laughing about it, along with some other people in the courtroom.
He wondered whose side Fudge was on.
The Minister's disbelief of Voldemort's return would no doubt give Voldemort an advantage, and what with Fudge's leaning towards the Pureblood society, that he agreed with Wizards like Lucius Malfoy, Walden Macnair – both happened to be followers of Voldemort, this would no doubt be making the Ministry a vulnerable target to Voldemort.
And the Daily Prophet's wording of assumptions against him would only increase Voldemort's chance of launching an attack against the Wizarding world.
Thinking back of his past four years in Hogwarts, it was his home. But he knew that this year, even the Wizarding world had made snide remarks about him, and he did not know what would happen if he returns to Hogwarts.
"We are going to get you and Hermione out of here at once," said James. "I want you to have a happy life."
Considering what happened in the past few years, Harry knew how horrible the Dursleys had been to him, living at their presence had never been a good experience for him.
After he went back to Privet Drive as soon as he had finished his fourth year at Hogwarts, he spent time outside the house, determined to find out about what was happening in the Wizarding world. Upon his arrival at Grimmauld Place, he discovered some disappointing things through Ron and Hermione, from the Daily Prophet, mentioning about him being an attention seeking person, etc.
"What about Ron?" he asked, thinking of what would happen if he didn't have Ron beside him, or at least letting Ron know that he would be leaving Britain with Hermione.
"I don't want Ron to come with you," James said, "because I can't just separate families, if I let all the Weasleys come with you and clone them, some of them won't believe us, and they won't cooperate with us, so it would be best to leave them be."
Harry sighed.
"Yes, I understand that this action may not be doing good to them afterwards, but this option is by far the best," James continued.
Harry knew that he liked Hermione, but if he take Hermione with him, he would most likely be studying with her all day long.
"I know what you are thinking, Harry," James said. "If you had been brought up in a proper environment, you would have made better choices of whom you should befriend."
Harry gasped, and he realised that he had been goofing off like Ron did, for a bit too much. He had only been poring over books in the library when the whole school didn't believe him entering the Tri-Wizard Tournament.
Then he smiled.
"How are you going to get us out of here?" he asked.
"We are going to use a magic known as Metaphysical Magic to stop time for a moment," said Lily. "This magic will not be detected by the Ministry."
"What is Metaphysical Magic?" asked Harry.
"Metaphysical Magic is a type of magic that is beyond what Wizards can think of," Lily explained. "It can do pretty much anything to both the Muggle and the Wizarding world, and no one will be able to recognise it."
"Only people who live beyond death can receive it, however, they only receive it if they truly need it," James added. "It is issued by Death."
"Can you stop the time for as long as you want so I can just do whatever I need to do?" Harry asked.
"We are only allowed to stop time for a maximum of thirty minutes," Lily said.
"Where do you want me to go once I get out of here?" asked Harry.
"To the Granger's residence," James said. "But I want you to prepare to leave the country. It would be best if you can get a passport from Gringotts before you leave this country."
"Where are we going to go after we leave Britain?" asked Harry.
"Canada," James said. "You and Hermione will be attending a new school called Saint Acute Academy of Magical Arts, which starts on the second week of January."
Harry gasped, but then he smiled.
"To prevent anyone in the Wizarding Britain from becoming aware of your absence," Lily said, "we will clone you, and your friend, Hermione Granger, before we get you two out of here."
"We will first get the part of Voldemort's soul out of your head, Harry, and we will banish it into your clone," James said, "in this case, if Voldemort gets angry, your clone will have dreams about him."
"Will any Wizards be able to tell whether it is the real me or the cloned version of me?" asked Harry, his mind on Dumbledore, Voldemort and some of the other people who knew him.
"We will prevent any of the Wizards in here to be able to acknowledge that you had been cloned," Lily said. "By simply making the clones identical in every aspect, no one would suspect any of them. Plus, using a clone to protect the original is an uncommon thing in the Wizarding world, unlike the Polyjuice Potion effects."
"And it won't be necessary for us to help prevent you and Hermione from being discovered by anyone in the Wizarding world in Britain," said James. "Once we made the clone, the people in the Wizarding Britain would think that you are there, they would not have the thought that another one of you staying somewhere else, and therefore wouldn't be thinking of tracking you down."
"We will get two toy robots, and turn them into your appearance and Hermione's appearance," said Lily. "We will make them function exactly like the real you and Hermione would."
"And how long are you going to keep those robots appear like us?" Harry asked.
"We will transform the cloned you and Hermione back into robots at a certain point, depending on what happens," Lily replied. "There's really no need for you to know when we are going to do this."
Harry smiled.
Then another thought occurred to him.
"What about Sirius?" he asked. "He's locked up as well."
"We will clone him as well," said Lily, "but he will need to get a trial as soon as he gets out of this country because he was accused of a crime that he did not commit."
"You could've appeared to me years before now to get me out of Britain, though," Harry said.
"You are right, we could have snatched you away from the Dursleys before you even arrive at Hogwarts, or even before your second year. But we would like to seize the correct moment to get you out of here, since we had discovered Dumbledore's insistence for you to return to the Dursleys had been a bit of a burden for you, right after you had witnessed Cedric's death, plus the fact that people were publishing lies about you, this is the right time to get you out," James said.
/Scene Break/
Soon enough, Harry found himself in a house that he had never been before, he glanced around, and saw Hermione standing next to him.
A moment later, their trunks appeared in front of them.
"You are in my house, Harry," Hermione said.
A moment later, a man appeared.
"I know that you two would come," he said. "Nice to meet you, Harry, I am Dan Granger."
He paused, and then he said:
"Come, Harry, I will show you where you can sleep," he said.
Harry followed him into a room, and then Dan turned on the light.
Harry scrambled onto the bed, and pulled the blanket over him, while Dan turned off the light.
"Sleep well," Dan said. "We can talk tomorrow morning."
Then he walked out of the room.
A few moments later, Harry fell asleep again, and then he saw his parents.
"The fake Harry and Hermione has been created, Harry," said Lily. "Now it is time for me to take the piece of Voldemort's soul out of your head."
She pointed her finger at Harry's scar, and after a few seconds, Harry felt something oozing out from his scar, and then Lily disappeared.
"She will be back in a second," James said.
"Would anyone be checking us?" asked Harry.
"At the moment, the time has been temporarily stopped," James said.
Just then, Lily arrived back.
"That's it Harry, I have already taken the part of Voldemort's soul out of your head, and inserted it into your clone's head," she said.
"I will say it again, that you don't need to worry about being identified," James said. "No one in Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place or Hogwarts, or the Ministry would realise that you and Hermione have been faked."
Harry smiled, if no one in Grimmauld Place or Hogwarts would be able to realise that he and Hermione had been faked, the Dursleys would certainly not be able to realise this either, only that they would be too happy to get rid of him.
He was confident that his parents had made the fake version of him to look completely identical to his real self, and they would also make his clone to act exactly like his real self.
He nodded.
"Why did Voldemort want to kill me when I was a baby?" he asked.
Lily pondered this question for a moment.
"I believe that now is the time to let you know," she said. "There was a prophesy made by Sybill Trelawney before your birth, and it said that you are able to vanquish Voldemort."
"So Voldemort heard the prophesy?" asked Harry.
"Voldemort only heard the beginning of it," Lily replied. "He believed that after he had killed you, no one would be capable of killing him."
"Severus Snape overheard the prophecy, and he was the one who had passed the information to Voldemort," James added.
Harry sighed, this information had made him to hate Snape even more.
/Scene Break/
On the following morning, Harry got up, and he walked out of his bedroom into the dining room, then he saw Hermione and her parents.
"Harry," Dan said. "This is my wife, Emma Granger."
"Your parents told us what we ought to do," Emma said.
"What do you think about the fact that you will be faked?" asked Harry.
"To be honest, we really don't want this to happen to us, but for your parents' sake, Harry, we will comply with their wishes," Dan said. "I don't think there is a better way to stay away from the danger that is happening in Britain than the way that your parents had designated."
"How do you feel about leaving like this, Harry?" Emma asked.
"I feel this is a good idea," Harry replied.
"How do you feel about this, Hermione?" Emma asked.
"I am going to miss Hogwarts, but it doesn't hurt to go somewhere else, consider that I might not be safe here anyway," replied Hermione.
Sirius arrived into the dining room a moment later, and he greeted Harry.
"Sirius," Harry said. "Good to see you again."
"Hello Harry," Sirius said.
"Did my parents fake you as well, Sirius?" Harry asked in a whisper.
Sirius nodded.
After they had eaten their breakfast, James and Lily appeared again, and they teleported Harry to Gringotts.
Harry met Griphook at the counter, so he walked up to him.
"How can I help you today?" asked Griphook.
"I would like to get a passport," Harry said.
Griphook nodded.
"You will need to take a photo first, and then we will print it out for you a few hours later," he said. "Follow me."
He led Harry into a room, and then he handed Harry a form for him to fill in.
After Harry had filled in his form, he handed it back to Griphook.
"Now we will need to take your photo," Griphook said.
Then he walked away into another room, reappearing a moment later with a camera in his hand.
"Go and sit down on the chair," he said, gesturing at a chair on Harry's right side.
As soon as Harry did what he was told, Griphook walked opposite where Harry had sat, and then he held up the camera, and took a shot.
Then he checked the photo, and nodded.
"Come," he said.
Harry got up from the chair, and followed him back to the reception area.
"Now, just wait, we will have the passport out ready for you."
Harry sat and waited.
Half an hour later, Griphook arrived back, and handed Harry his passport.
"Thanks," Harry said.
Putting the passport into his pocket, he slowly made his way out of Gringotts.
/Scene Break/
"Did you get your passport, Harry?" Hermione asked as she saw Harry appearing in her home.
"Yes, I did get it," Harry said.
"Good, now we are going to get ready before we leave," Hermione said.
They made their way to the living room, and saw Dan and Emma again, and they sat down.
"There's no need to do anything about this house and our dental practice," Dan said to Emma. "Because we have already been cloned, and as soon as we leave, the fake us will come to live in this house."
"And I expect that anything we take with us will be duplicated once we leave this place," Emma said.
"When are we going to leave, anyway?" asked Dan.
Before anyone could answer, James and Lily appeared again.
"Preferably no later than tomorrow, but you can wait one week if you need more time to prepare," Lily said. "We will book you guys a hotel once you are ready to go."
"We will take you guys once you are ready," James said, and then he handed Harry a bag, and waved his hand for a while. "However, I should mention it is really important for you to leave as soon as possible."
Harry took the bag, and he realised that it was not heavy at all, and a question occurred to him.
"What is this bag for?" he asked.
"I have taken out all your money from your vault, and placed them inside this bag," James said. "This bag has a Feather Light Charm and an Undetectable Extension Charm on it, so you would not feel anything."
"What should I do with all those money?" asked Harry.
"You will need to open a vault once we get you to Canada," said James. "And Sirius, I will do yours later."
"We have duplicated all your money so that no one will notice that there's no money in your vault in Gringotts," Lily said.
Later that day, Dan and Emma took Harry to the clothing store, and bought him some outfits, and then they exchanged their money to Canadian dollars.
As soon as Harry got changed into his new outfits, he looked in the mirror, and smiled.
/Scene Break/
About one week later, Harry, Sirius, Hermione, and Hermione's parents were ready to leave Britain.
Then James and Lily appeared, and teleported them to a pavement.
"We have booked a hotel for you guys, and it is not far away from you," James said.
Harry, Hermione, Dan, Emma, and Sirius made their way to the hotel, and they entered.
After they had gone through the formality, they went into the rooms that they had booked, and they placed their things inside as they arrived inside.
"It's already past eleven o'clock, though," Dan said, glancing on the clock that was hanging on the wall of their room. "The time in Britain is clearly different."
"A few hours time difference is not really such a matter to me," Emma said.
After Dan, Emma, and Hermione adjusted their watches to the time showed on the clock on the wall, they sat down.
A surge of excitement washed through Harry, as he knew that no one would be able to discover that he and Hermione were actually not there.
"What do you think about being faked, Hermione?" Harry asked in a whisper.
Hermione giggled.
"It is like that we are in two places at once, but it is more secure than just getting away from Britain," she said quietly.
/Scene Break/
As the end of the holidays approached, the cloned Harry found himself daydreaming about Hogwarts, he could not wait to see Hagrid again, to play Quidditch, and to stroll across the vegetable patches of the Herbology greenhouses; it would be a good thing to leave Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place as the house is quite dusty and musty, and half of the cupboards were still bolted shut and Kreacher wheezed insults out of the shadows as you passed there, although the cloned Harry was careful not to say any of this within earshot of the cloned Sirius.
Living at the Headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix was not nearly as interesting and exciting as the cloned Harry would have expected before he experienced it. Though members of the Order of the Phoenix came and went regularly, Mrs Weasley had ensured that the fake Harry and others were kept well out of earshot.
On the very last day of the holiday, Ron entered their bedroom, carrying a couple of envelops.
"The book lists have arrived," he said.
The fake Harry took his letter, opened it, and saw that there was only two pieces of parchment inside, one was the one that informing them about the term dates, and the other one telling him what books he would need for the coming year.
He scanned the book list, and discovered that there are two new books, one is the Standard Book of Spells, Grade 5, by Miranda Goshawk, and Defensive Magical Theory by Wilbert Slinkhard.
"There are only two new books this year," he said.
He wondered who had requested the book, Defensive Magical Theory, to be added to the book list this year, and then, Fred and George appeared with a crack.
"We were just wondering who had requested the book, Defensive Magical Theory, to be placed on our book list," Fred said.
"I am wondering who is going to be teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts this year," George said. "We overheard mum saying that Dumbledore had real troubles finding Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher this year."
"As far as I am aware, not a single Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher lasted more than one year," the fake Harry said.
Ron, meanwhile, was staring at the letter from Hogwarts.
"What's up with you, Ron?" Fred asked.
He leaned closer to Ron, and gasped.
"What's up, Fred?" asked George.
"Ron has been made a Prefect," said Fred.
A few moments later, the fake Hermione arrived.
"Harry, did you get one too?" she asked, holding out her badge.
"No, Ron's got it," the fake Harry said.
/Scene Break/
Meanwhile, Sirius had received his trial at the Ministry of Magic in Canada, and he was found innocent. After the trial, he declared guardianship of Harry.
Harry had set up a vault in a Wizarding Bank called Debilo, and placed all his money inside his vault.
"Both of us are free now, Harry," he said in a low voice.
Harry knew that it was true, and no one in Britain would be looking for him and Sirius since they had both been cloned, and their clones were still in Britain. He knew that this would totally fool the Wizarding world, not to mention that Dumbledore's plan would fall apart later on.
He did not receive any news about what happened to his clone, but he knew that his parents would keep him updated about that, so it would not be much of a big deal to him. All he knew was that his clone would be going to Hogwarts on the following day.
A/N:
That's it for this chapter.
What do you think about the fact that Harry, Hermione, Sirius, and Hermione's parents being cloned in Britain, while their real selves are in Canada, and that no one in Britain would realise that they have been cloned?
By the way, Stratagem Con means Plan to Deceive.
Any reviews/comments are appreciated.
Now, if there are grammar mistakes in any chapter of this story, if you want to point out that there are grammar mistakes, please tell me where I went wrong, don't just say 'you have grammar mistakes' and stop there, otherwise I would never know how to fix up this story.
