Chapter 38: Bjorn

The weekend marked two weeks since Harry had first arrived at Hogwarts. Since he lived where he worked now, he had no idea how to balance that with taking breaks. He wasn't the only one. Every student at Hogwarts dealt with the same thing between homework and their social lives.

Harry crossed paths with Ginny frequently in the library as her NEWT year marched on. Harry liked to sit with her if she wasn't sharing a table with a handful of giggling girls. It didn't help when Ginny's friends were around that Harry usually carted the messenger he shared with Pansy. It wasn't Harry's place to moderate what Pansy talked to her friends about, but he had no doubt from the knowing looks he received that details of their relationship were certainly shared. Harry was just happy to feel secure enough that Pansy wouldn't have anything to complain about.

He spent most of the time just taking books out of the library. He met up with Hermione whenever she came up to Hogwarts. However much nostalgia that invoked for Harry as the two of them quietly worked, it made Harry miss Ron. He wrote Ron about it and had a good laugh when Ron told him to just picture him sitting there looking bored out of his mind. Hermione rolled her eyes when Harry showed her the message.

Harry and Hermione also saw each other on Monday mornings at the advisor meetings with Madam Bones. Harry hadn't made any progress aside from further organizing his notes and trying to see how it lined up with any of the obscure books he could find to read at Hogwarts.

The Norwegian Minister for Magic had reported to Madam Bones that a search of the waters west of Tromsø had yet to come up with anything. A more in-depth search would begin along the coast, which was no small task. Norway had well over fifteen-hundred miles of coastline. There wasn't even a guarantee that that was where the Death Eaters returned. They could be anywhere around Britain. The countries that bordered the North Sea were all doing the same thing. France was going to go right to the Spanish border in the Bay of Biscay.

Harry stuck around Grimmauld Place on Mondays while he waited for the afternoon Order meetings. There wasn't much to share there either. On the first of February, it was passed along that the firedrakes had safely made it from Jotunheimen. Charlie had travelled to Bergen before flying over with them. All the Weasleys asked Harry to say hello on their behalf.

They were all still out on the grounds when Harry returned to Hogwarts after the meeting. He decided to check the firedrakes out when Tonks geared up for patrol.

There wasn't much to see. The firedrakes were inside the enclosure along with the dragonologists. Tonks snorted when a hiss and spit sounded from inside, followed by Malfoy yelling "Jormundr!"

Harry pressed his lips together as things settled back down. "Have you talked to Malfoy at all?"

"He's my cousin, so yeah, we occasionally wag chins at each other." Tonks elbowed Harry lightly. "Or do you mean about something in particular?"

"I think he forgave me."

"Could have." Tonks shrugged. "He never told me anything about it. My mum just worries. She told me to keep an eye on him and make sure he's okay. I think he's better off here than at home. He definitely needs a distraction. This worked out nicely."

"Yeah."

Tonks studied Harry in the moonlit darkness. "You don't think you deserve forgiveness, do you?"

"I don't know." Harry sighed. "It was my fault, but it wasn't my fault. I guess getting mad at me wouldn't do anything to help Malfoy's situation. I'd just rather that than. . .I don't know. He's not himself."

Even though Malfoy had changed a lot in the last few years, it happened slowly. This one came all of a sudden. Malfoy had nothing to say to Harry at all, and Harry might as well not exist if he ever happened to step into Malfoy's field of view. Malfoy was alone most of the time, except for when he worked with Hagrid or hung out with Luca inside the castle. Sometimes Malfoy's gaze turned long as he stared off into space. It was like a piece of him had gone missing. With a pang of sympathy, Harry reminded himself that a very large one had.

Harry ended up going to bed when he and Tonks made it back to the castle. He rationalized that getting up early would make for a jump start on his new week of research. Since he didn't have anything to share with Madam Bones yet, Harry felt the pressure to have something next Monday.

The common room was empty when he got up. Even though Harry wasn't a student and not holden to curfew, he still abided by it. He found a seat close to the fire so that he could go over the current state of his notes before heading to the library after breakfast.

Not long after he'd gotten settled, one of the doors on the men's side of the common room opened. Harry's insides flushed for the possibility it was Malfoy. He relaxed and smiled instead. "Hey."

With a cheeky grin, Charlie ruffled Harry's hair on his way past behind him. "All right?"

"Yep," Harry replied. "You're up early."

"It's two hours ahead in Romania. What's your excuse?"

"Getting the jump, I guess." Harry gestured at his messenger. "Didn't get a chance yesterday, but everyone back home wanted me to say hi to you for them."

"Oh yeah." Charlie dropped down onto the neighbouring couch. "I'll probably be able to go to the next Order meeting and all that. Malfoy and I'll get everything set up here and see what we're working with. These firedrakes definitely got some attitude, especially since the one's pissed at Malfoy for not seeing him in so long."

"I'll tell Ron next time I talk to him to maybe expect you, then. I think your mum more than anyone wants you to swing by home."

Charlie laughed. "She would."

They'd seen each other at Christmas, but Charlie was easy to talk to anyway as they caught up. Close to eight, others started to rouse in the common room. The night watch Aurors—the German pair, currently—returned from their job and greeted the French ones as they traded off. Harry became very interested in his notes again when Malfoy emerged.

"Were we still on about checking the firedrakes before breakfast?" he asked Charlie.

"Yep." Charlie clapped the side of Harry's arm. "See you around, eh?"

"See you."

Harry glanced at Malfoy, but Harry might as well be another piece of furniture for all the attention Malfoy gave him in return. The same went at breakfast. Harry usually sat beside Hagrid at the staff table, and Malfoy had taken up at the other end with Snape. With Charlie and the firedrakes here now, Hagrid was otherwise preoccupied. He was big enough for Harry to fall into the background on his side opposite Charlie and Malfoy. Harry got up quietly enough to slip off when he was done eating.

By the time he'd collected his things from his room, Madam Pince had made it to the library to open up for the day. Harry was the first one there and the only one present until later in the morning. He took a break for a quick lunch before going back. While he read a book about hags, he went back and forth with Hermione.

You're not missing much at the Ministry library either, she'd written him.

It doesn't feel right spending this much time here, at least not without panicking about something I need to hand in this afternoon.

If that were the case, Ron would be right there with you and I'd be telling you I told you so about getting it done on the weekend.

Harry laughed quietly to himself and went back to reading with more focus:

There is much speculation throughout history regarding hags and haggedry as to whether or not their taste for the flesh of children negated their human-like intelligence. Like the wendigo of North America, it was put forth that hags only mimic the qualities they share with humans as a means to lure prey. However, it was advocacy to the contrary, that hags merely suffer from a severe purine deficiency, which left them off the extermination decree lists of the 1800s.

Harry had the thought mid-last-week that perhaps the term druid encompassed subtypes of magic-users. It made sense that maybe all liches were druids, but not all druids were liches. Because his and Hermione's jobs practically overlapped at the moment, they ended up helping to further each other's notes. Could hags be druids? They didn't particularly sound like something that had power over life and death. They might not be anymore a druid than someone with a health condition like gout was.

Quiet footsteps marked the first students arriving for afternoon study. They only really registered in the back of Harry's mind. He looked up to see if maybe Ginny had made it here, since her Tuesday afternoons were usually empty. Harry didn't see her. He did meet gazes with Luca Parasca since he happened to be looking at Harry as he arrived.

Luca raised his fingers off his bag strap in a makeshift wave, which Harry returned. Harry would've thought Luca just as likely as Malfoy to hate him for the impact he'd had on his life. Dagmar had been his friend, and Harry was partnered with his mum when she died. Maybe as far as it went for Parasca, Luca knew Harry could hardly be blamed for that. He might know the same details that Harry did about how she'd just been overwhelmed along with Kingsley. It was maybe just as hard to blame Kingsley for not realizing the situation was more dire, especially since he was most likely being slowly picked apart by the Death Eaters right now.

That thought sank like a rock in Harry's gut and drew his focus back to what he'd been reading. He had to remember that it wasn't currently his job to find where Kingsley was located. There were capable people working on that with the exact same knowledge Harry had. He'd know as soon as they managed.

Harry's eyes slid out of focus again. Sighing quietly, he braced his chin in his palm. Luca had found a seat a few tables away. Now that Harry got a better look at him, he looked tired. His face had gone long as he slogged through whatever essay he currently worked on.

The snippet Harry read about hags had mentioned their near-placement on extermination lists in the 1800s. Hermione had also said a year and a half ago at their first Hogwarts Order meeting that doppelgängers were included on those. Although nothing had ever pinned Luca down as somehow being connected to Voldemort, Harry wondered if maybe the idea of physical likeness applied to someone else.

Harry dipped his quill so that he could write to Hermione again. Hey, what are your thoughts on Hildegard possibly being a doppelgänger?

Hermione didn't respond in the couple minutes Harry watched the page, so he figured she'd gone back to it as well. Doppelgängers were likely to be druids. Harry looked around the library and wondered how he might seek information specifically out about them. Hermione had learned about doppelgängers in History of Magic, so Harry asked Madam Pince if she had a copy of the NEWT textbook used for the course.

There wasn't much on doppelgängers in there, really. Hermione had pretty much told them all everything during that one meeting. They were seen as beings that lacked any sort of capability for love toward their children. The mother would have a baby without any need for a man to contribute, and half of her soul would go into the child during birth. When the mother got old, her body would die and she would take over her daughter's body. Her daughter would disappear, she would have another child, and the process would repeat. The exterminations—now deemed genocides—took place in Britain, Scandinavia, Russia, Finland, and Germany.

A niggling feeling started in the back of Harry's mind. He pulled his work messenger toward himself and flipped to where he'd expanded his profile on Hildegard. He'd pasted her mugshot picture there to go with it, as well as the picture printed of Dagmar when her death was announced in the Daily Prophet.

The resemblance between them had always been uncanny. It only grew stronger as Dagmar got older. Harry didn't really like this theory because it only made Dagmar's life more unfortunate than it already was. If Hildegard was a doppelgänger, then Dagmar started her life on a countdown timer. Why would Hildegard ever bother to get involved with someone like she had Magnus Norheim and Erik Ramstad? She would outlive them. And why would she and Erik have arranged Dagmar to marry anyone if she wasn't going to live for very long anyway? If Hildegard used daughters for the purpose of elongating life, then she'd only been about Harry's age the last time she made that sacrifice. If Hildegard didn't like to live long enough in any particular body to see forty years old, then what did she expect to come of Dagmar going with Malfoy? Hildegard had been genuinely excited for Dagmar and Malfoy when Harry told her they'd gotten engaged.

And yet. . .

Harry started going through everything he'd laid out plain in front of himself. Hildegard was hundreds of years old. She'd lost her clan a couple centuries ago. Hildegard played with souls, which was how she and Voldemort became acquainted. Harry had never been able to figure out who Dagmar's father was. Could she really not have had one at all?

What about other things that Hildegard had told Harry? She'd said she had a phylactery, but was that only a play on words? Did this have something to do with why Hildegard tried to kill herself in Azkaban? If she died, would she have escaped away into Dagmar's body? That thought was horrifying, considering it would've put her at Hogwarts. Even worse, Harry wondered if Hildegard might have tried to pass as Dagmar.

What about Bjorn? How did Hildegard have a son if she was a doppelgänger? Bjorn had definitely existed. Magnus wouldn't have told Marit about a boy for no reason.

A weird wash of realization came over Harry. He felt like he slid outside of his body, his eyeballs moving independently of everything else as his head rose. While Harry watched, Luca heaved a sigh and stopped writing so that he could read over his work. Like Dagmar, as far as Harry could tell while working close to Parasca, Luca didn't have a father either.

Harry looked in the messenger he shared with Hermione. She hadn't replied yet, so he wrote again. Come to Hogwarts ASAP. I'll meet you in Dumbledore's office.

As casually as he knew how to act when his heart tried to beat out of his chest, Harry gathered his things. He debated signing out the textbook he'd borrowed, but that would take more time than he cared to delay. Free of the library, Harry walked as fast as he could up to Dumbledore's office. He really hoped Dumbledore wasn't too busy to hear out an admittedly far-fetched theory. If anyone could strike it down, it would be either him or Hermione.

No noise came from behind Dumbledore's office door. Harry half-expected not to get a response when he knocked. Dumbledore was there, though. He invited Harry in.

Dumbledore sat at his desk with a pile of parchment in front of him. He smiled warmly. "Need something, Harry?"

"I need you to tell me that I'm wrong about something," Harry said as the office door closed behind him with a wave of Dumbledore's wand. "I think Hildegard might be a doppelgänger. I also think that she lied to me when she said that Bjorn was dead. I think it wasn't a locket or whatever that Magnus took, it was him."

Dumbledore's expression turned serious while Harry spoke.

"If that's true," Harry went on when Dumbledore didn't reply, "I think Bjorn is here. I think he's Luca Parasca."

Dumbledore conjured Harry a chair. "Sit."

While Harry did, Dumbledore steepled his fingers together underneath his chin. His brow furrowed and lips worked as he considered it.

"Ekaterina never said that Luca was adopted, nor is it in his records," Dumbledore eventually spoke. "She's listed as his birth mother. Did she ever tell you anything to the contrary when you worked together?"

Harry shook his head. "I noticed some weird things, though. She had personal pictures of her and Luca on her desk at work. No husband. No sign of Luca's dad. No baby pictures. She said something weird about Luca when me and her were going out to Azkaban with Dagmar and Malfoy. I can't remember what it was now, but it was enough to confuse me. Something about not spending enough time with him, or something."

"Hm."

While Dumbledore went back into thought, Harry opened up his messenger to his notes on Hildegard. "When's Luca's birthday?"

Dumbledore rose and headed into one of the doors behind his desk. It contained a multitude of shelves. Harry was so focused between waiting for Dumbledore and trying to find the next puzzle piece in his work that he nearly jumped out of his skin when the fireplace whooshed. Looking wind-swept, Hermione stepped off the hearth.

"What's up?" she greeted him with.

Harry gave a quick explanation of what he wanted her to play devil's advocate against. He was just finishing up when Dumbledore returned from the records room.

"His birthday is on December twenty-first," Dumbledore told them. "He was born in 1981."

"If we can trust that and assume that Luca is Bjorn, it means Hildegard was about seven months pregnant with him when Voldemort disappeared," Harry said. "We were told through Bellatrix that the phylactery was incomplete. Could that have been what she meant?"

"It could be." Hermione spoke slowly while she thought. "Is there any way that we could confirm any of this about Luca? His birthday, things like that? If he was born past September of 1981, then why is he in seventh year? He should be in sixth."

"That was my doing," Dumbledore told her. "Or, rather, the way the Slavic education model translates to the British one. Luca would have essentially repeated a year if I'd placed him in fifth when he started. He wrote the OWLs over the summer and received an E or higher in every subject. He was prepared for NEWT level."

"Okay. . ." Hermione pressed her lips together. "So the year he's in is irrelevant. If this is the way the evidence is leading, shouldn't we at least start by confirming that Luca is adopted? We could ask his grandparents. They would know without a shadow of a doubt."

"An owl would take at least a couple days, and I don't know if this is something we should delay on," Harry replied. "If it's true, it's bad. Say Luca is Bjorn. Say Voldemort is still alive. Say Voldemort's been putting all of his energy into looking for him. If Voldemort hears that Bjorn—Luca—is here, he's going to bring everything he has down on this school."

"What about any of Luca's friends?" Hermione suggested. "Maybe they know."

"What if Luca himself didn't?" Harry replied. "He wouldn't have told them, and it would be really upsetting to suggest that when he's just lost his mum. You have enough of a hard time feeling like you belong, when you're adopted."

"It's something he's going to have to face eventually, if this is all true." Hermione pressed her lips together. "What if we could confirm that Hildegard is a doppelgänger first? We could ask Magnus' sister too if she knew roughly how old Bjorn was. Did Hildegard specify that, maybe?"

"She told me he was smothered because he was crying, and that Dagmar had gotten out of bed in time to see it," Harry recalled. "If Bjorn was older than Dagmar, wouldn't he have gone to Hildegard and Magnus' room if he needed something in the middle of the night? Dagmar was two and a half. Anyone older than that would've been capable of walking and talking. He needed someone to come to him, though."

"Confirm it anyway," Dumbledore told them when Harry and Hermione both looked to him for his opinion. "It wouldn't hurt. If this is indeed the missing piece, we must act without haste. However, we must use discretion in case it's not. Talk to Marit first."

"What about Helka?" Harry asked. "We could ask her about Hildegard. If they were old clan members, then that probably means Helka is a doppelgänger too."

"How would we talk to her, though?" Hermione tucked some hair behind her ear. "We have no idea where Leidfall is, and she doesn't speak English."

"Parseltongue," Harry reminded her. "Same way Dagmar did. And there are people who know where it is. What about that coworker of Malfoy's? Him and his cousin were the ones that took them out there in the first place."

"You should start there, then," Dumbledore said. "Until it's no longer possible, discretion is a must. It's not worth causing more upset if we're wrong. If we're right, it has greater consequences on Luca's life than him finding out his birth parents are Hildegard and Voldemort. He's being hunted, and we can only keep him safe and hidden here without his knowledge until the end of June. There is a potion we can use to confirm relation, but it takes at least a week to brew. I will start Professor Snape on it."

Harry looked at Hermione. "Feel like sticking around? We could come up with some sort of plan and maybe go through this a little bit more. It's still a new enough idea that I haven't fit it into my notes."

"Sure," she agreed. "If we're going to see the druids, Madam Prickle would prefer me involved."

Harry and Hermione needed somewhere private to go, where there was no danger whatsoever of being overheard. There were a scant number of classrooms near Dumbledore's office. Harry led Hermione into one.

Hermione had gone quiet. "Can I see your notes?"

Harry handed over his messenger. Hermione's eyes blurred as she read everything over, although it wasn't with a fervent zeal. She looked nervous, which turned sad. She didn't say anything when she reached the end.

"What?" Harry asked.

"There's something else here," Hermione said in barely more than a whisper. "Hildegard told you that her phylactery broke, right? If she's a doppelgänger, then she was talking about Dagmar. That means that the two of them weren't connected anymore."

"What about Hildegard trying to off herself in Azkaban?"

"Well, let me finish. Bellatrix said Dagmar was collateral for the phylactery. If Voldemort dies, she dies. You hit Voldemort with a Killing Curse, and you described it like a snapping sound when it rebounded to Dagmar. Her body wasn't recovered, Harry."

Harry stared at Hermione. He saw the connection, even though he didn't want to. The only thing worse than Dagmar being dead was her body being used by somebody else on top of that. And yet. . .

"Could she actually be alive, then?" Harry asked.

Hermione had already started to shake, her cheeks flush and eyes wet. She tried to read over Harry's notes again, but gave up because her eyes were too blurry.

"It's probably best to assume not," she whispered with a sniffle. "Malfoy can never hear this. You saw how much it hurt him at the last Order meeting he sat to discuss the possibility. This would destroy him to know she's up and about but it's not really her. We can't give him that kind of hope that she could be saved. He would absolutely cling to it. I already am."

Harry was too. He couldn't stand at all that he had killed Dagmar. He'd sought any way he possibly could to make up for that. Harry might have been able to in the full scope of the war by continuing to work on bringing it to an end, but that felt inconsequential to the people he'd already hurt. More than anybody, Harry wanted to make it up to Malfoy. The only way to truly do that was to bring Dagmar home if he could.

"How about a trip to Norway?" Harry asked Hermione.