Jim woke up suddenly on the ground. He tried to remember where he was, his head was throbbing. 'Oh right, the Black Manor, and there was the board game and… the mirror! I got pulled inside of it.'
"I have to hurry up and go back to where Ron and Harry are." He said to himself
"You're not going back." Jim looked around and saw Harry sitting on a cube a few meters ahead of him while he inspected his wand
"Harry! You're alright! Where's Ron?" He made his way to Harry but rolled to the ground when his little brother shot a hex on him. "You're not Harry." He stated as he dusted off the knees of his pants
"I am not Harry Potter. Not anymore, at least."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean I go by Jim Potter now." The other boy said his own name with a sneer
"You're my reflection." The reflection nodded "So, I have to defeat you or something?"
"Do it if you want, but you won't win."
"Talk about cliché." Jim discreetly reached his wand pocket for said object, and his gut felt like it had frozen when he found it empty
"Are you looking for this?" The reflection said waving the wand in the air
"Give it to me."Jim said extending his hand for his wand
"Why would I do that?"
"I know me. I wouldn't fight a dirty fight."
" 'I know me' " The reflection mocked "You know yourself so much you didn't even recognize your own reflection!"
"Hey, that's not fair! Usually when people see someone who look like themselves the last thing they think is about their living reflection, especially if they have a twin."
"Twin?! That boy is not my twin, he is not my brother. He is a plague that wormed his way into my family."
"Don't talk about Harry like that!" Jim said as he ran to his reflection and punched him in the face. A matching bruise appeared on his face "OUCH!" he said holding his face. Boy, did he have a powerful punch
"Violence won't get you anywhere here." His reflection said with an infuriating smirk. Jim punched him on the gut and doubled over with the impact of his punch
"Then why did you try to hex me before?" he asked while on the ground
"Well, partly because I thought if you couldn't dodge it you were not worthy of living and mostly because I got angry at being confused with that thing." 'Okay, this prick is asking for it.' Jim thought as he kicked the reflection on the ribs. He inhaled sharply as he rubbed his sore bones "Are you done now?"
"What are you acting so tough about? I know firsthand now that my punches hurt."
"I'm a reflection, I don't feel pain. You're human, you feel pain. I have to match you and you have to match me so any bruises that I get" he said slapping himself on the face "you get too-"
"Ouch!" Jim exclaimed as a matching swelling appeared on his own face
"- and any bruises that you get" he said shooting a cutting hex that nicked Jim on the arm "I get them too." He said pointing to the blood dripping his arm
"You're crazy." Jim sneered
"If I am, then so are you." Jim managed to hold himself so he didn't attack his reflection, seeing as it wouldn't get him anywhere
"If you don't want us to fight, then what am I supposed to do?"
"I'm here to open up your eyes."
"You want me to listen to you?!"
"Ooh, at last you got something right." Jim took a few calming breaths and nodded
"Okay, fine. But first I want you to show me that Harry and Ron are both alright."
"Simple enough." The reflection said as he snapped his fingers. Two mirrors appeared in front of Jim, one showing Ron slumped on the ground and other showing Harry crying his lungs out over something
"What did you do to them!" Jim shouted as he held the neck of his reflection's shirt. The reflection only raised a brow
"I didn't do anything to them, I'm here with you." Jim held his glare a few more moments before letting go. He ran his hands though his hair
"I want to go back."
"You'll hear me out- "
"I don't care about what you have to say! Take me back!"
"I can't-"
"NOW!"
"You have to hear me first or you can't go back. Those are the rules of the game. The game you set Ron and yourself to do." Jim clenched his fists until his knuckles turned white and his nails dug in his palm and blood dripped to the ground
"You have three minutes until I beat you to the ground and get out of here myself." Jim was at the end of his patience, he wasn't even sure he could hold himself for so long
"Have a seat." The reflection pointed to two cubes on the side of the room and went to take his seat. Jim stood his ground and shook his head
"No."
"The game starts when we are both seated." He motioned to the cube in front of him and Jim reluctantly took a seat. Once he did so, a scale appeared in between them "The blue plate represents me and the red one represents you."
"So what's the game?"
"It's a battle of conviction, we have to show each other who's right. If the scale tips completely to my side, I win, if the scale tips completely to your side, you win. "
"Prepare to lose, then. I fight 'till I'm dead. What happens once I win?"
"If you win, you go back to Ron and the impostor, if I win I go back to the real world and get to finally get rid of the impostor."
"Don't call Harry that." Jim hissed between ground teeth
"Well then prove it to me that the impostor is not… well, an impostor."
"Who starts?"
"I do. We speak in turns, asking one question and answering one question." Jim nodded at the rules "So, Jim, what makes you believe the impostor is really who he says he is?"
"What, are you stupid? Dad and Dumbledore saw his memories, besides he's got no reason to pretend he's me. Why do you-"
"Uh, uh!" the reflection waggled a finger in front of Jim's face "You've already asked your question, and the answer to that question is no, I'm not stupid."
"That was a rhetorical question!"
"But still a question. And I don't recommend you keep interrupting me. If we interrupt the other we loose our next turn. Since you didn't know I will let it slide this time, but the next is for real. Okay?"
"Yes, and you've asked your question, now I'll ask mine."The reflection smirked at Jim "Why do you hate Harry so much?"
"It's obvious, he's a leech that's slowly killing my family. A good for nothing, weak, cowardly shrimp like him has no right to be a Potter. He's stolen my father and mother from me, stolen my room, my bed, my friend, my name. You seem to be the only one who hasn't realized the plague that boy is, but don't worry, I'll open your eyes until the end of the game. Why did you give that leech my name?"
"I'm older, I think dad's name's cool, and he looked like he needed it. What do you get from changing my mind?"
"I get to look at you from the mirror and not see this pathetic sight. What has you so attached to that thing?" Jim hesitated a bit before answering. This question hits too close to his heart and he didn't want to open up his heart like a girl in front of a guy he barely knew
"Harry's me, you know, yet he's already suffered so much. I got to live with my mom and dad, learn about our culture, have friends, food, a warm bed, nice clothes, while Harry had to live with those two devils. I don't know what happened with him on the past, and honestly, I'm too scared to know, because I think I'll never be able to look at him the same way. Harry flinches every time someone touches him, he gets nightmares every night, his back is a patchwork of scars from living with the Dursleys, he barely knows a thing about the wizard world, sometimes I catch him pinching himself on the arm to see if he's dreaming or not. I can talk the whole day about the reasons I have to protect Harry." Jim was surprised at how honest he was being with his answers "Why am I saying this much?" he wondered aloud
"You can't lie to yourself. Each and everything we both say is the pure, untainted, truth." Jim inwardly cursed himself for wasting his question again "You just told me the reasons you protect that creature, and not the reasons you love him. Maybe all the things I told you showed you there's nothing to love about that boy?" Jim clamped his hand over his mouth and shook his head "Come on, answer me." Jim trembled until he couldn't hold himself anymore
"Yes…" came out in a tiny whisper as a tear leaked from his eye. The scaled moved as the blue plate came down a bit and the red plate went up the same amount "I am jealous of Harry! I know he's lost his parents and all but that gives him no right to take my parents from me!" More tears came out of Jim's eyes and he struggled to keep his composure "I try to feel sorry for him and understand him, but sometimes I just get so jealous and I think I am the worst monster of all, so I thought that if I was the one to protect him he would leave my mom and my dad alone. I'm the worst." Jim worked hard to reign back the control over his tears, and when he was only sniffling he lifted his head "Why are you doing this to me?" he asked as he saw the look of delight on his reflection's face
"This is all for your sake. You are not a monster, Jim. You are right, that boy is a menace, which is why I want to get us both rid of him. This world needs just one Harry Potter, which is also why you only changed the order in both of your names, so that once you got rid of him it would be easier to get your name back. Am I wrong?" With each word of the reflection, the scale tipped a little and by the question it would only take a little push for the reflection to win
"No." Jim had lost the fight in him and only succumbed to the reflection's wishes. The blue plate touched the ground and the red plate crumbled. The reflection stood up and patted Jim on the shoulder
"Don't worry, you won't be trapped in here. After I fix things back in the real world we'll go back to the way we were." Jim stood where he was and sobbed at his misery, cursing himself and promising he would never forgive himself if his reflection really killed Harry
"JIM!" Harry was tending to Ron's injury when he saw his brother coming out of the mirror. He had many wounds, his clothes were blood stained, his eyes red and slightly puffy, there was something different about him, but it was his brother, his Jim. He ran to him and trapped him in a hug, which even surprised him a little. Usually he got really wary about physical contact, but he knew Jim would never push him away
"Don't touch me, impostor." Jim said pushing him to the ground
"J-Jim? What's wrong?" This wasn't like Jim at all. The Jim Harry knew would never treat him like that
"You. I'll get rid of you now." He said pointing his wand to Harry's head. Harry just shut his eyes and waited for his end. The curse Jim shot, however, got pushed away by a shield Ron conjured
"Get away from him, Harry!" Ron shouted, but the boy was frozen in place. He just trembled, not knowing what was happening around him anymore. "This obviously isn't Jim! Come on!" Ron shot a stupefy spell at Jim and pulled Harry to his feet "Are you okay?" he didn't have time to really check over Harry, so he just took his being alive as a good sign and pushed Harry behind him when Jim stood up "I don't know what happened on that mirror, but this is an impostor."
"I'm not an impostor, Ron. I just opened up my eyes and saw who the true enemy is." He answered in an emotionless voice that sent shivers down Ron's spine. This wasn't the voice of a person who just tried to murder his brother, and it looked just so wrong on Jim "Get away from him, Ron. I don't want to hurt you." Jim took a step forward
"Over my dead body." Ron hissed
Jim sighed and ran a hand over his hair like he always does "Fine. Confringo!" Jim shot a quick hex at Ron, but he cast a shield in front of him and Harry. The hex exploded upon contact with the shield, creating a thin smokescreen in front of them, shielding Jim from their vision. Ron pulled Harry closer to his side, but the boy pushed himself away, claiming he could take care of himself. Ron knew he wouldn't be of too much use because he exhausted his magic a few minutes before, but he still trusted his back to Harry. At least he would be on alert and wouldn't be so much of an easy target
"Harry, stay alert, the fake Jim is really trying to kill us." Ron whispered to his partner and Harry nodded. 'As if I hadn't noticed it.' Ron saw the glow of a spell being cast and deflected it and casted another stupefy spell at Jim "Jim, what's the meaning of this?! You'll get us killed for real!"
"That's the plan."
"Are you being controlled by something?!"
Jim let out a dry laughter "What makes you so sure that I'm fake?"
"Well, for starters, the Jim I know would never attack me, and he is a true family-type of guy. And even if he truly hated Harry, he wouldn't attack him when he didn't have his wand with him. Jim's not a coward."
"A coward?!" Jim got a furious look on his eye and charged at Ron. It took the ginger everything he had to keep the flurry of spells from hitting him and Harry. His dislocated shoulder wasn't making things easy for him
"You use your shields too!" he said to Harry
"I don't know how!"
"You will regret ever siding with that fake, Ronald Weasley! That thief should be gone from our lives! You will never steal anything from me again, you rat!"
"W-What did I steal from you?"
"Everything! My family, my friend, my house, my room, my bed, my name! You stole all I had! And I will take it back!" Jim had blasted away Harry's wand and threw Ron across the room. He stood in front of Harry, the tip of his wand on Harry's forehead "I won't miss this time."
"Jim! If you can hear me, come on out! I know that's not all you got! You fight 'till you're dead, right?!"
"Hey!" They heard a shout from behind and turned to see Jim pointing his wand to himself "Don't you hurt Harry!" he said and shot a hex at the fake Jim
"J-Jim? What's wrong?" Jim heard from inside the mirror. He turned around to see what was happening outside the mirror. He saw his back and Harry was on the ground, he was shaking like a leaf and looked like he was about to cry. He saw Ron blasting a spell at him and couldn't see where himself was anymore. Ron was on Harry's side in an instant and Jim relaxed a bit at that. His breath got caught up in his throat when he saw the Confringo spell being cast, he knew the damage that spell could do when used right.
"Ha! Take that!" He cheered when Ron blasted his fake away from him
"Jim's not a coward!" he blushed at hearing his best friend talking about him like that
"Ahh, why do you have to know me so well, Ron? But you're wrong, I am a coward."
"You fight 'till you're dead, right?!" Ron's words stuck close to his heart and Jim couldn't keep the tears he fought so hard to get back under control away anymore. He looked to the ground, right where the reflection was being shown and saw his wand. He picked it up and twirled it around his hand, figuring out his next move. He tried the charm undoing spell and, surprisingly, it worked. He stepped out of the mirror to see his brother one step from being killed
"Hey! Don't you hurt Harry!" He didn't have much time to think and cast one of the strongest hexes he knew. It didn't matter if he ended up dead because of it, all he thought was saving Harry. His fake turned around and got hit right in the middle of the chest. He waited for the matching injury, but it never came. He walked to where his reflection laid, and knelt in front of him
"So, you made up your mind?" his reflection asked him
"Yeah. I'm Harry's protector, I'm his big brother. I guess it's my job to love him, and having to share my family is a small price I'm now happy to pay."
"Just don't regret it." His reflection said as it disappeared
"I won't." Jim answered certainly
"What was all that about?" Ron asked as he stood up and leaned on the wall
"You guys are better off not knowing." Jim answered with his usual smirk
"Jim?" Harry asked from his position on the ground. Jim rushed to him and extended his hand for Harry to take. The boy quickly flinched before he saw it was not dangerous and took Jim's hand. The two brothers stood there awkwardly until Jim pulled Harry to a tight hug, Harry hesitated a while and slowly accepted the hug before hugging back
"Look, Harry, the things that fake said, forget about them. They're nothing now. Okay?" Harry nodded and smiled at Jim, who smiled back
The sound of the dice falling to the ground ruined the touching family moment. The three boys groaned before turning to it. Surprisingly, though, the words CLEARED were written on it, and the door to the next room opened.
"Do you think it's a trap?" Ron asked eyeing their way out
"Only one way to know." Jim said and the three adventurers walked through the door