For the Quidditch League Fanfiction Competition,

Keeper

Chudley Cannons

Prompt: Meeting one's doppelganger (Each position has been given a sign of bad luck. Your task is to write about that sign, and the events it led up to. Your prompt must play a strong role in these events.)

Word count: 2468

*.*.*

Worlds Apart

The Room of Hidden Things, also known as the Come and Go Room and later, the Room of Requirement, was one of Rowena Ravenclaw's favourite inventions. The pair of Vanishing Cabinets was Salazar Slytherin's.

Ravenclaw believed that her Room held some degree of sentience, and it would always know what its seeker needed, provided the seeker knew how to find the Room in the first place.

Slytherin believed that his Vanishing Cabinets could give witches and wizards a secret, virtual passage between any two places in the world, even into places like Hogwarts and Gringotts. The Cabinets were known to be travel-proof, water-proof and fire-proof. But he never thought to test whether they could withstand cursed fire, so only time could tell.

*.*.*

Twenty years after the Second Wizarding War

"I think something's up with Alice."

"I think that you are barking mad," Hugo snapped. "This is — what? — the twentieth time that you've mentioned that, and it's not even noon. If you're so worried about Alice, go check on her, then."

Lily glared at him. "Alright, I will," she huffed. "Some friend you are."

"At least I'm the sane one between the two of us."

"Yeah, right, I'm sure you remember that one time you tried to turn yourself into a gerbil and Teddy had to come all the way from Brazil to help you out?"

Hugo's ears went red. "Shut up," he murmured under his breath, earning himself a smug look from Lily.

She was probably about to say something too, but then she saw something to her right, where a long blonde plait had just disappeared around the corner.

"It's Alice," Lily hissed. "I'll be right back — "

"Hey, but it's Potions now — "

"Give me five minutes."

With that, Lily was gone too, and Hugo rolled his eyes at the wall before going his own way.

*.*.*

It seemed that Alice didn't have a problem walking all the way up to the seventh floor, but Lily sure did. She was clutching her side and almost on her knees by the time she had caught up with Alice.

"I should really run more," she thought to herself.

But her train of thought was derailed when she saw Alice look around herself, then walk right into the wall in front of the tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy and the dancing trolls.

Lily tried to run after her, but when she reached the tapestry, the wall was just that — a wall. She patted it and even pressed her ear to it, hoping that maybe the door was just invisible, and if she willed it hard enough, it would reveal itself.

But everything she did was a no-go.

She reached under her cloak for the Marauders' Map, then pushed it back inside when it showed no secret door on the seventh floor, nor suspiciously-located footprints.

Then there was also the fact that if she missed Potions today, her professor would let her mum know, and Lily would have to go another summer without the latest Firebolt.

Two classes and half an hour of lunch later Lily found herself face to face with one Alice Longbottom. There was something eerie about the way Alice looked at her, and Lily wondered if she suspected something.

"Um, hi," she managed a grin. "I didn't see you at lunch."

Alice sighed, and Lily frowned because it was not like her to be so morose all of a sudden. She had been like this for a couple of days now, and Lily would have probably brushed it off if she didn't have the feeling that the air around her friend was different.

She kept missing her classes and making the professors worry, and she didn't appear at lunch most of the time. She wasn't there at the Quidditch match last Saturday, nor did she spend time in the Common Room with them anymore.

Her eyes were greyer and duller, and looked sunken. And she also looked skinnier, like she hadn't eaten in days. The epitome of cheerfulness that was Alice Longbottom was gone, instead replaced by someone who looked as though they hadn't seen the light in years.

"I had things to do," she said shortly.

"Alice," said Lily, putting her hand on Alice's shoulder, "is something wrong?"

"You couldn't possibly help."

"Maybe I could, if you told me. Not that you have to, I mean — only if you meant to."

Alice gave her a small, sad smile.

"You wouldn't. There aren't any books about it."

Lily didn't know what to make of that. She tried not to feel hurt, but the Alice she knew wouldn't say anything like that.

"I'll see you around," said Alice, once again leaving, Lily supposed, for the seventh floor.

*.*.*

For the next few days, Lily spent most of her free time trying to locate Alice and pacing in front of the tapestry wall on the seventh floor. Even Hugo seemed to have noticed the difference in Alice, because he always looked concerned when she was brought up.

"Oh, I just want to see if Alice's OK; open up already!" she yelled hopelessly at the wall, her voice echoing through the empty corridor. Lily shuddered, then suddenly, the wall before her seemed to tremble slightly. A rift appeared down it, and before she knew it, she was looking at a great brown door with rusted rings.

It made her forget that she had History of Magic in ten minutes, that she had asked Hugo to save her a seat. Her heart thumping, she heaved herself up against the door and pushed it open, almost stumbling into the room.

The place was stacked with things from floor to ceiling — chairs, brooms, books, rickety old cupboards — all on top of one another, made into tall pillars with narrow bits of floor between them for people to walk.

But the thing with all the objects was that they were all burnt. Parts of them were missing, charred away, and the rest of them a horrible sooty black. It was as though the entire room had caught fire many years ago; it made Lily feel somewhat sad.

Even the floor was black, and it made a series of footprints stand out. They led to what seemed like the farthest wall, behind all of the other pillars, and whatever it led to must have been what Alice came looking for every few hours everyday.

It was a simple cabinet. Nothing odd about it. But looks are deceiving, Lily told herself, guarding herself in case something jumped out of the cabinet.

It was empty. Just a plain box where a human Uncle Ron's height could comfortably stand in, and it seemed to look rather unaffected from whatever had damaged everything else. She would have thought that it had been brought in recently if not for the slightly burnt inside corners.

Her wand tingled against the skin of her palm, and her hair stood on end as she stepped inside the cabinet.

Here goes nothing, she whispered and pulled the doors shut —

It was like travelling through Floo, except without the flames. Her elbow knocked into one of the walls, pain shooting up her upper arm. She hugged herself tightly, bracing herself for anything that was yet to happen.

The doors flew open with a bang, and Lily tumbled face-first out of the cabinet onto cold tile.

Lily dared to look up. It was dark, the only light coming from an expensive-looking chandelier hanging from the ceiling and a couple of dimly lit lamps. The floor was slippery, gleaming and a sickly green that sent shivers down her spine.

Then there was some muted shuffling from outside, and Lily quickly hid herself in the cabinet again, careful to not close the doors fully.

"The Dark Lord is feeling particularly generous lately — "

Lily's blood went cold. That was undoubtedly the voice of Scorpius Malfoy, but colder and eviler. And then he entered the room, his blond hair all over his forehead like he had just gotten into a squabble. A girl walked in behind him, and Lily vaguely recognised her as Seraphina, Scorpius Malfoy's cousin, who also happened to be her brother's yearmate.

"The Dark Lord explicitly told us to keep an eye on you," said Seraphina, eyes flashing, addressing someone Lily couldn't see.

"Yeah, and we'll know if you've done something. Like I was saying, be thankful the Dark Lord is feeling kind."

"Speaking of," said Seraphina, "you are supposed to see him today."

Scorpius swore under his breath, then looked towards where Lily sat huddled, and she held her breath. Her dad hadn't told her about any Vanishing Cabinets, she thought. But she knew now that there were, in fact, two Cabinets. And from what Lily had just been through, she assumed they were used for some twisted kind of time-turning or teleportation, or maybe, travelling through dimensions.

Seraphina walked out of the room, tossing her hair over her shoulder in a way that reminded Lily of Aunt Fleur, and Scorpius stormed after her. Lily sunk back against the back of the Cabinet, letting out a breath of relief.

"Psst! Over here — "

Lily gasped. This was yet another familiar voice.

"Lily, is that you?"

Alice Longbottom. The real one.

Then a bright blue eye appeared in the gap between the two doors, and Lily knew it was indeed Alice.

"How did you know?" she whispered, terrified.

Alice pulled the doors open.

"I saw you when you arrived," she said, grinning. "Your hair is too hard to miss."

"What are you doing here? I saw you at Herbology last."

"That wasn't me," Alice replied, and Lily was already too overwhelmed to think about it. "I haven't been at Hogwarts since last Monday. That was my — doppelganger, if you can call her that."

Lily had reached a point of complete mystification.

"Listen," Alice continued. "We need to be quick. I was stupid. I found the Room of Requirement on Monday after I heard about it from your cousin Fred, and went messing around with the Vanishing Cabinet, and now here I am.

"People think the Cabinets stopped working after someone lit Fiendfyre in the Room during the Battle of Hogwarts, but it's only half-true. Something went wrong with the mechanism, and now the Cabinets transfer people between dimensions. Universes. Parallel worlds. Whatever you want to call it."

"So — "

"Listen," Alice pressed a finger to Lily's mouth. "You-Know-Who's alive in this world. Most of the Order of the Phoenix are either dead or in Azkaban. Except the ones who managed to run away. They're trying to reform the Order, but these people caught my twin, the other Alice. I can't go back unless someone else comes to take me back. I really don't want to stay here, Lily."

Alice was looking really frantic now, and Lily gripped her shoulder.

"Good thing I came then," said Lily. "Don't worry, we're going back."

"But what do we do about my twin?"

"I think it's better if we think about that once we get somewhere safer, don't you?" Lily tugged on Alice's arm, pulling her inside the Cabinet with a loud thump.

"I'm sorry," Alice hissed, when she knocked her head against Lily's. "Are you sure about the capacity — "

They could hear voices now, and it was clear that someone outside had heard the ruckus. Lily clapped her hand over Alice's mouth and pulled the doors shut and held them that way, even though their legs were barely inside.

"Who's there? Longbottom — "

Lily bit the inside of her cheek to keep herself from screaming, because this was far more nauseating than the first time. Her head was spinning like it would come loose any moment now, and her knees were sore and numb.

They were blasted out of the Cabinet and into a pile of burnt books like a pair of cannons. The Cabinet could not take two people at a time, it seemed, because one of the doors was now barely hanging off the hinges.

"Oh no," Alice mumbled. "Oh no, oh no, oh no."

"We have two of you at Hogwarts now," Lily completed her sentence for her, horrified.

"I wasn't supposed to find this Room in the first place," Alice whimpered. "Professor McGonagall's going to murder me. Everyone's going to murder me. What do we do?"

"Well, I'd say it's better than having death looming over your shoulder, like it was back there."

"But my twin can't go back. This is a matter of dimensions, Lily. What if something has gone wrong? This is even more complicated than time-turning."

"We'll see," Lily said, looking around her. "We need to get out of here first."

*.*.*

"Don't worry, she doesn't ever show up at lunch," Lily whispered to Alice, who was close to biting her nails all the way off.

Lunch was normal, their friends were unassuming, Lily and Alice tried their best to look normal as well. Even though Alice was doing a poor job of it.

"Hey, Alice," Hugo ran up to them after lunch, however, grinning. "Looks like Lily's finally gotten ahold of you."

"Don't mind him," said Lily quickly. "I was just concerned. Your — you, I mean, were acting very strange."

"She looks perfectly fine to me," Hugo shrugged. "Except what really happened during History of Magic, Al? You were right behind me in class, weren't you? But then Binns was calling for you, and you'd suddenly disappeared."

Lily's blood froze, and she looked at Alice. Did that mean that Alice's twin had gone back somehow?

"And Lily, you asked me to save you a seat," Hugo turned to her next, "but you never showed up! Don't tell me you were up on the seventh floor again."

"I — erm — "

Hugo laughed, far too cheerfully for Lily's overwhelmed self. She grabbed Alice's elbow, stifling the urge to throw up, or worse, start bawling.

"Merlin, you look so worried, Lil," he shook his head. "Don't worry, I would never snitch on you. Unless, of course, you don't let me ride your new Firebolt when it arrives."

*.*.*

The next morning the pair of fourth-years back inside the Room of Requirement.

"She's not here," Lily said disbelievingly, reading the note. "She's gone back! The Vanishing Cabinet sent her back."

"It could be," Alice said from behind a cloud of dust as she tried to pull the Cabinet away from the wall.

"Don't mess around too much," Lily warned. "We couldn't handle it if you got sent back to that awful place."

"I feel so bad. I can't believe how hard it must be for them back there," Alice sighed, looking sadly at the Cabinet. The thing stared back at them, empty and soulless.

"Yeah, me too."