Harry had been at Hogwarts for a little more than a week and was feeling nothing but sheer excitement. It was all very strange and new to him, the professors and their seemingly strange attire; the concept of magic and the fact that he, himself, the ever so boring and ordinary Harry Potter, was a wizard; and, of course, the Hogwarts castle itself, perhaps the very opposite of his suburban home, if it could, in fact, be called a home.
At the moment, however, none of these thoughts were at the forefront of Harry's mind. At the moment, he sat next to the red-haired Ronald Weasley as they did their best to listen intently to Professor Quirrell stutter through his lecture. He had only known Ron for about a week or so and already felt a strong attachment to the boy, a feeling that was stronger than anything that he had ever felt in his life before. Ron was his best friend; he had inherently known that the moment when they first spoke to each other. Ron was basically the first person who made him feel comfortable in his new life.
It wasn't always easy to pay attention to Professor Quirrell. His constant stuttering didn't make for the most entertaining lectures. It was almost as bad as Professor Snape's drawl, maybe even worse. On this particular day, however, Professor Quirrell had his attention. Quirrell was spending the majority of that day's lecture talking about dangerous magical creatures about which anyone who inhabited and was aware of the magical world should be wary. Quirrell had just finished running through several creatures when he got to speaking about the Doppelganger. Quirrell said that Doppelgangers were non-corporeal beings that temporarily invaded the body of a host, unbeknownst to the host, long enough to create a duplicate.
"The d-d-duplicate is n-n-n-nearly ident-t-t-ical to the host," Quirrell explained, "except that the host's d-d-deepest's desires are amplified. Inh-h-h-hibition is n-n-n-no longer a factor."
Intrigued, Harry raised his hand.
"Yes, M-M-Mr. P-P-Potter?"
"Professor," Harry asked, a bit alarmed, "you mentioned the host's deepest desires. Would this include desires that the person keeps... hidden?"
Professor Quirrell paused before responding. indicatively slightly agitated. "Yes, Mr. P-P-Potter," he replied, his lips pressed into a thin line. "As I said, there w-w-would be no inhib-b-bition. Of c-c-course, most have c-c-come to an ag-g-greement that the D-D-Doppelganger is nothing more than m-m-myth."
Harry looked downward, attempting to avoid the gaze of his closest male friend. So many thoughts crept across his mind, but after that day, it would be several years before he ever paid the Doppelganger any mind.