Occulumency

Harper awoke to her alarm in the darkness before dawn. She dressed quietly and slipped from her dormitory down to the Slytherin common room. The torches weren't lit so the only light was the green glow from the magical fire in the hearth. Harper warmed herself as she waited for Daphne. All in all she would rather be going jogging and dueling with Theo. She still wasn't sure how far she could trust Daphne despite the life debt. A dim light coming up the girl's stairs warned of Daphne's arrival. Moments later Daphne appeared lighting her way with her wand. Daphne Greengrass truly looked green and more than a little spooky lit by nothing but the green fire in the hearth.

She dropped a curtsey. "Good morning, Mr. Potter. Are you sure you want to go through with this?"

No, she wasn't sure at all! "I need to do this, Miss Greengrass and I think you will keep my secets."

"I will." She paused. "I've been thinking. Your dreams tell you more about the future than you let on, don't they? That's why you're so anxious to learn occulumency."

"You are correct." Being friends with Hermione, who was a young genius, it was sometimes easy to forget that Daphne was just as exceptional. Daphne was behind Hermione in books smarts and theory, but what she lacked there she made up with power, skill, and insight. Daphne just didn't flaunt it the way Hermione did. It didn't really surprise her that Daphne made some good guesses. "Walk with me, we can talk and find an empty room."

Daphne nodded and followed as Harper led her out of the Slytherin dorms and into the warren of empty rooms in the surrounding dungeon. She wasn't sure just what to say to Daphne, but she knew that she should say something to prepare her. "You're right about knowing more than I've said. I have layers and layers of secrets. I know you're going to find out some of them today. We can talk about whatever you see after."

"You make it sound very mysterious, but you are a riddle, Mr. Potter. You were raised by muggles, but you are a more powerful and skilled wizard than any in our year. Most of the school thinks you are dark. You're not, but you are more cunning and deliberate than any realize. I'm looking forward to getting to know the real Harry Potter."

Harper sighed. There was no real Harry Potter. She was pretty sure that Harry had died the night she became him. She'd felt no trace of soul or memories from him. Harry Potter was a lie. The truth was Harper Potts. That was a truth she hoped to keep hidden, even from Daphne but she had no idea how well her mental defenses would work. "You may be shocked. You already promised to keep my secrets. Would you give me one more promise? Whatever you learn today, you won't run off. You'll give me a chance to explain."

Daphne curtsied. "I promise. I'll let you explain. I'm looking forward to it."

"Thank you." Harper paused at a doorway and looked inside. She didn't know what the room had been used for, but it was clean and empty. "This room looks like it should do."

"As you wish. We should sit. It's easy to get so caught up in a mind that you fall over." She sank to the floor, tucked her knees under her and arranged her robes. "I might not see anything. I've never really done this before. My father had me use legilimency on him, but I could never get anything. I tried on Millie's cat, but that was just confusing."

Harper took a breath and focused her mind. She used a visualization technique, a large heavy bank vault door slamming shut around her thoughts. The locking wheel spinning and her thoughts were secure. She was scared and tried for her meditation. "Whenever you're ready."

"Right." Daphne brought out her wand. "Legilimens!"

Daphne's face in front her seemed to waver and vanish replaced instead by the solid bank vault door that she had visualized. It was working! Then she felt something a presence behind her and then image and image flooded her suddenly, a like channel surfing with a flood light…

… crying because she'd found clumps of her beautiful long brown hair on her pillow when she'd awakened. She'd known it was coming but… Hiding upstairs but listening as her mother and father screamed at each other downstairs. Her father had 'needs', too. There was screaming and shouting and hateful, hateful things being said and it was all her fault because she was so sick… the basilisk circling her and her hand on chicken hidden in the bag, but the monster was suspicious, so suspicious… Vernon Dursley smashing in door and her in pain and suffering but none of this was real…

The door spun in her mind, heavy steel door slamming shut pushing and closing her out. She heard the slam, smelled the metalness of it and felt alone in her mind.

Once again Daphne was in front of her. "I don't think I understood any of that. You had been cursed so your hair changed color and fell out… You were sick and they were fighting and the basilisk. Why is there a huge basilisk in your head?"

"Questions after." She'd seen things, but not the critical things. She could explain the basilisk. "Why don't you rest a bit and then we'll try again."

"I thought we were going to talk."

"We'll talk after. If you want my secrets, you'll have take them."

Perhaps that had been the wrong thing to say because Daphne's face firmed. "In that case, I'm done resting. Legilimens!"

She felt the pressure inside her head, and she thought of the heavy door, visualized it slamming shut. Her mind was a vault, solid walls all around. The lights flickered…

… "Cinderella dressed in yellow went upstairs to kiss a fellow. Made a mistake and kissed a snake. How many doctors did it take? One! Two!" She kept skipping rope as the other girls counted until she made it to twelve and then tripped on the rope and she fell on her hip… Myrtle flying in to her rescue. Not silly little Moaning Murtle, but a scary ghost of vengeance… The bruise on her hip was ugly and purple and wasn't going away... Surfing the internet, reading up on leukemia herself because no one would tell her the truth… Sitting in a real movie theater like a big girl with her parents as the lights went down and Lilo and Stitch started. It was big and loud and she had popcorn… Lighting up the little stash of marijuana that Uncle Norm had slipped her. Not legal and she had to hide it from her mother, but she was dying anyway so what did it matter? When she was high the pain went away and she didn't want to throw up all the time…

… Shut the door, in a vault. "Get out!" And the door slammed shut and she was staring at Daphne Greengrass again and feeling sick. She'd seen more that time. She'd seen way too much.

Daphne's eyes were large and she looked scared. "What's going on? Those are memories in your head are of a girl. Who are you, really?"

The vault hadn't worked, but she knew why it failed. The first time she'd visualized a door and Daphne had come from behind. The second time she'd visualized the door and three solid walls and Daphne had entered from above. She had to visualize solid defenses all around. This was working, but Daphne was having a major freak out. "I told you that I had secrets. We'll talk about it after."

"We'll talk about it now. I don't know who or even what you are! Are you a doppelgänger? Because you're not Harry Potter." Daphne had her wand gripped tightly.

"No, I'm not a doppelgänger!" Or was she? She'd heard the word before. It meant double, but not like a twin. "Um, what is a doppelgänger?"

"A body thief! It's a dark creature that takes over the life of another person."

Harper felt like Daphne had just ripped the foundations of her world out from under her again, because she was a body thief. She wasn't really Harry Potter. "These are real creatures? Are you sure they're not just stories made up when someone was caught using Polyjuice Potion or human transfiguration to disguise themselves?"

"No, they're real and they're dark. They eat people and take over their bodies and their lives. Is that what you are?" She moved her wand back towards Harper. "Who are you?"

"I'm the same person who saved you from a Mountain Troll. How do you can tell if a person is a doppelgänger?"

"Veritaserum or legilimency. "

"If legilimency could uncover a doppelgänger then it would take a pretty stupid doppelgänger to invite someone to use it on them, wouldn't it?"

"Or maybe it would take a pretty clever one to have someone who owed it a lifedebt teach it occulumency." There was a palpable presence of power about Daphne now. The atmosphere felt charged like a storm brewing. "Who. Are. You?"

Harper clamped down on her thoughts. "Come find out."

"Legilimens!" cried Daphne.

The world faded and the vault door slammed shut. Four solid walls, steel reinforced concrete several feet thick, floors and ceiling the same.

A pounding at the door. "Who. Are. You?"

The solid vault door held. The walls held. The floor and ceiling held, but yet her name seemed to whisper within the vault. "Harper Potts." It came from nowhere and everywhere and it was impossible to deny her own name.

Daphne was in front of her, wand pointed at her face. "No more excuses. Who are you, Harper Potts? And what did you do with Harry Potter?"

Sitting on the floor without her wand in her hand and with Daphne's power crackling in the air, she didn't think she could do anything but talk. "Alright, Daphne. You win. I'll tell you, but you already know who I am. I was born Harper Potts in a world not too different from this one in the year 1997. I died in 2013 at the age of sixteen. I not a doppelgänger. At least, I don't think that I'm a doppelgänger. I died as Harper Potts, but instead of moving on, I woke as Harry Potter."

Daphne didn't look at all ready to back down. "What happened to Harry Potter?!"

Harper shrugged. "Honestly, I don't know. I woke up in Harry Potter's body, this body this past summer. He was badly injured. Harry lived with his Aunt and Uncle and they were very abusive. The night I woke up in Harry's body he had broken ribs and a concussion. My mouth tasted of blood and stale vomit and… there is no polite way to say this, Harry had fouled himself. When a person dies, their bladder and bowels let go. I think Harry died. His spirit moved on and for whatever reason I took his place."

"And you expect me to believe that reeking pile of dragon dung that you're shoveling at me?!" Her wand stayed aimed right at Harper.

Harper shrugged. "I know it is a lot to believe. I didn't believe it at first. There are times that I still have trouble believing it, but you looked in my head. You read my name. I'm Harper Potts, a muggle, born of muggle of muggle parents with no magical power at all. I have memories of a childhood in the muggle world with a loving mother and a father who left when times got hard. I have no memories of Harry's childhood." Except what she read in the books, but leave that out. That was the one thing that Daphne hadn't found.

"Prove it!"

"You saw it in my thoughts. If you don't believe that, then what kind of proof can I offer?"

Daphne frowned. "You could let me back inside your head and this time don't try to throw me out."

Harper didn't need to think that through. "No. I trusted you far enough to practice occulumency with you, but that was different. No way am I going to lie back and let you mindrape me."

"Mind rape? I just want to see if you're telling me the truth. I think you are a doppelgänger. This Harper Potts persona was just your last victim. Now you're pretending to be Harry Potter. I should tell Professor Snape, no I should tell my father and maybe the Headmaster."

"You think I'm a dark creature? You're the one pointing a wand at me. I'm the one who saved your life. Do I act like someone who is dark? What happened to your promise to listen to my explanations and protect my secrets?"

"I am listening! And you're not at all what you pretend to be! You're a parselmouth and you have memories of a basilisk in your mind. A basilisk! They kill with a look. Then there was that ghost. I knew there was more to you, but you are darker and more cunning than I ever imagined!"

"I'm not dark." Yet, how could she prove that. Daphne wasn't really listening. She was running on emotion and reacting. She glanced at the wand Daphne had pointed at her. Would she really use it? "If you're going to hex me, do it. I won't stop you." Harper pushed up off the floor and stood slowly giving Daphne all the opportunity in the world to hex her. She braced herself for a curse, but none came.

Daphne rose as well and lowered her wand, but didn't put it away. "You lied to me. Repeatedly. You aren't even who you claim to be. I won't turn you in or betray your secrets, but my eyes are open. I don't trust you any longer. Stay away from me. Stay away from Tracey. You can have the Granger girl. I'll be watching you now."

"I have secrets. I'd hoped that I could share them with you. I see I was wrong. Good day, Miss Greengrass." Harper turned and walked away. With each step she expected to be hit by a curse from behind, but nothing happened. She had expected Daphne to be shocked, but not like that. Hopefully Daphne would cool down given time and space and would listen. In the meantime she could look up doppelgängers in the library. Then maybe she would understand what set Daphne off so much and maybe even find out about herself.