Remus jumped at the sudden appearance of his godson's slumped form in the empty Great Hall. His surprise quickly changed to concern at the state of Harry. He lay on the floor bleeding from various cuts and his clothing was torn and dirty. He did not stir and remained unconscious at Remus' anxious prodding.

"Harry? Harry! Wake up!" He looked around the Hall frantically, not a teacher in student in sight. He quickly cast a patronus to inform both Madam Pomfrey and Headmistress McGonagall. He continued to study Harry for any more serious wounds but was reluctant to move him or use enervate till he knew what Harry's condition was. He knew well the damage that could be inflicted by trying to help without better information.

Peering down at Harry, he realized something odd, he didn't smell right. Besides the smell of blood and the tang of something noxious clinging to Harry's clothing, his underlying smell was off. Not only that, but he was too small. He looked to be several inches shorter and incredibly underfed.

This couldn't be the son of his best friend whom he had seen just hours ago. Nothing on Hogwarts grounds would cause this result. Nor could it be a polyjuice, since his appearance didn't actually match the Harry he knew. Remus cursed. He was almost positive this wasn't James and Lily's son but he couldn't be sure till he saw the Harry he knew in front of him. The map would be incredibly helpful right now but It was at the Potter's house right now.

Remus' frustrated and confused thought were interrupted by the arrival of Minerva and Poppy who stopped short at the sight of Harry. Minerva spoke as Pomfrey immediately started to examine his prone form. "Good Heavens! You said there was an emergency in the Great Hall, but this-!" McGonagall looked worriedly at Harry, "What in Merlin's name happened?"

Remus got to his feet and rubbed at his face, "I have no idea. I was on my way to look for Grossbeak to talk about Erklings for one of my classes next week when Harry suddenly appeared in front of me."

Minerva turned to stare incredulously at Remus, "He apparated?"

He shook his head, "No he was unconscious and didn't make a sound. Whatever it was, was not apparition. And I don't think this is our Harry."

Pomfrey spoke up at this, "He's right, he's far too skinny and far too short." She stood up and conjured up a stretcher, "I don't see any critical injuries, so I'll bring him to the medical wing, I can do more there." With that she levitated him gently and made her way to the staircase with the unknown boy trailing behind her.

McGonagall shook herself from her confusion and spoke, her obvious unease making her abrupt. "Remus, go find Harry. Make sure this really isn't him. I'll call James. He ought to know what's happening."

Remus nodded and started heading to the Gryffindor dormitories, concern for Harry foremost at his thoughts. If only he had that darned map.

"James!"

The Head of the Aurors looked up from his desk to see his old professor speaking to him from the fireplace.

"Minnie?"

"It's Harry, bring Lily and come to the infirmary immediately."

James' blood turned to ice. He knew parents were only summoned if something seriously wrong had happened. After all, broken bones could be fixed with a simple spell.

"What happened?" he demanded.

"We still don't know, Remus is asking his friends. He just appeared in the Great Hall unconscious. We don't even know that it's hi-," She suddenly stopped herself and shook her head, "You know what, nevermind. I'll tell you the rest when you get here."

"We'll be there shortly." He got up grabbing his cloak, not bothering to clean up the ink he had spilled in his haste.

James ran downstairs to find his wife, "Lily! Lily, where are you? We need to go to Hogwarts now!"

Lily ran in from the kitchen wand at the ready, "James? What's is it?"

"It's Harry, somethings wrong" Her shocked face quickly steeled into worried determination.

"What happened?" Lily asked as she threw floo powder into the living room fireplace. "Headmistress' Office!" she shouted.

"Minnie says she doesn't know yet, and Remus is investigating," he answered as they stepped through the floo.

Poppy Pomfrey was horrified. She had often treated Harry over the years everything from broken bones to colds, but she had never seen him in this condition. Her patient was malnourished, dehydrated, had cracked ribs, various scrapes and bruises, a bleeding, inflamed forehead, a depleted magical core, and if her diagnosis spell was correct, though she prayed it wasn't, had been put under the cruciatus curse.

She and her apprentice Anna had already fixed the ribs and other injuries but the odd cut on his forehead was resisting healing; she had to put twice as much power into her spells than normal and she could not remove the scarring. She could give him pain potions, but there was no way of undoing the damage the cruciatus curse had wrought with what she had on hand. The malnourishment wouldn't be fixable without several weeks of potions. She was fairly certain it was the magical and physical exhaustion that was causing the state of unconsciousness. All in all, she had never seen a student in such bad state in all her years of Hogwarts.

Poppy was baffled at what could have caused his condition. Obviously, someone had cursed the student illegally and probably caused the other injuries. Magical exhaustion could definitely be from defending and escaping his attacker, but the malnourishment could have only happened over a very long period of time.

She had noted to changes in form like Remus but was unable to explain it. She had cast multiple glamour and identification charms, but they all confirmed that he was indeed Harry Potter, son of James and Lily Potter in his natural state.

"Oh my god. Harry!" the redheaded witch exclaimed when she spotted her son lying still on the infirmary bed. "Will he be okay?" the worried mother asked as her husband stroked her back looking shell-shocked.

"Harry will be fine; he is recovering from exhaustion of his magical core and needs rest. However your son had a variety of other injuries. But I'm not entirely sure this is your so-"

"He's not Harry!" the occupants turned to the doorway to see the Gryffindor Head of House trailed by the Headmistress and a perfectly healthy double of the teenager on the bed.

"Wha-what?" James had seen many things in his life, but seeing two of his son was not one of them.

"Harry!?" Lily walked forward to give her son a hug. Harry returned her hug distractedly as he was staring at the boy on the infirmary bed.

"I found Harry in his dorm. His dorm mates can all confirm where Harry has been. So this can't be our Harry," Remus explained as he approached the bed where the patient lay asleep.

"But he is. When I realized this boy was shorter than normal, I did several identification spells. They all agree that he is Harry."

"Can somebody please tell me why I have a twin?" Harry interrupted, staring in fascination at his clone.

All the members of the room turned to look at the Potter couple in askance, all wondering the same thing.

Lily gave them all an incredulous look, and an especially scathing look for her husband, "What? Are you kidding me? Harry doesn't have a twin. I pretty godamn sure I would know." They all looked ashamed at that.

"Well then who is he? Even the map says he's me." Harry pulled out the infamous Marauder's map pointing out two dots in the infirmary both labeled Harry Potter.

"I'll look into I see if there's any reference in the archives, but I imagine we'll have to wait till he awakes," McGonagall gave a heavy sigh, "You Potter boys were always trouble."

Harry could hear voices. He still hadn't figured out how to open his eyes, so he wasn't sure who they were, but they did sound familiar.

"So he's your son? But he isn't?"

"Every identification test says he's my son. We even did a goblin ancestry test, same thing."

"Well there's no fricken' way to fake that, you'd have to be like Merlin or something. Congrats Prongs, it's a boy!"

Prongs? That was very familiar. Ugh if only he could get the cobwebs out of his brain.

"Very funny."

"So he's Merlin, Merlin is putting some heavy-duty magic on him or you really have two Harrys."

They were talking about him?

"We checked him for any kind of magic, nothing. his core was nearly depleted except for some dark magic residue clinging to his forehead. We think that's from whoever cast the cruciatus curse though," the voice paused to heave a sigh, "That's why you guys are here. He hasn't committed any crimes that we are aware of. He's clearly been in a fight with a dangerous witch or wizard, so we've sent out an alert for suspicious activity but so far zip. We need to know if there's a threat and if he's dangerous too. And how in Merlin's name did he appear in the Great Hall?"

A female voice snorted, "Yeah and you're not at all interested in the fact he's a clone of your son."

Harry had finally figured out how to flutter his eyes open.

"Hey look he's waking up!"

"Shh!"

"Oh shit," Harry thought, "I'm dead" as he looked up into the interested faces of James Potter, Sirius Black, and Nymphadora Tonks.

"Here drink some water," said his father still staring avidly at his face as he handed him a cup.

Taking a large gulp he croaked, "Thanks."

"No prob kid. Now I hate to hit you with this right after you woke up, but who the hell are you? and what's the last thing you remember?"

Looking up into the kind face of his father he answered, more than a bit confused, "I'm Harry? And um, I guess catching the elder wand as Voldemort's avada kavara rebounded. Crap! It must have killed me again."

The three aurors exchanged looks.

"Right. . . Bypassing all dead again stuff, and the your name is Harry thing, because I really don't want to get into that, who's this flight of death character? Is he dangerous?" Harry's godfather asked this in the placating tone Harry imagined one would use to humor an insane person.

"You-know-who?" Harry asked incredulously.

"No I don't that's why I'm asking."

"Wait, wait, wait. What? You guys don't know who Voldemort is?"

Tonks ignored his disbelieving stare, "I still wanna know why he thinks he's dead."

"Because you guys are here."

More confused faces were exchanged at that.

"I don't get it," His dad said.

"You're all dead, I saw you die myself," Harry said exasperatedly, pointing at Sirius. "Look since you guys don't seem to know anything and you think I'm crazy, why you don't get Dumbledore."

"Pretty sure I'm alive. You know Dumbledore?" James asked, clearly surprised, "Why do you want him? He's been retired for twenty years. And I'm not sure I can get a hold of him, last I heard he was in Italy with his husband for their fifteenth anniversary."

Harry gaped at that. So he wasn't dead after all, maybe just insane. He was pretty sure his afterlife wouldn't feature Dumbledore traipsing Europe with his longtime husband.

"Look we just wanna know what happened to you and where you came from. You mysteriously appeared in the great hall cursed to heck. Are you or whoever you dueled gonna put to people's safety in jeopardy? Also there's the part you seem to be my son's double except shorter. We really need to get to the bottom of this."

Harry still reeling from the revelations started at that, "I'm shorter?! What?"

Tonks snorted, "Is that really what you focused on? Can we administer versiterium to verify your story? Not that we don't trust you, but we really don't trust you"

"Do I get a choice?"

"Not really, no," Sirius admitted.

Harry crossed his arms, "Fine."

So thoughts? Any feedback would be great. If there's anything I can do to make I better please tell me.