Double

Thank you to me new beta, Darth Marrs.

I hope you enjoy this chapter.

-appletart55


Chapter Three

Harry, Ron and Hermione left the Great Hall before anyone noticed them. They made their way to McGonagall's office.

Luckily, McGonagall was no where to be seen. It only took a few minutes for the three Gryffindors to use the floo.

They headed to the Leaky Cauldron.


"Hi," said Harry. "You're Tom, right?"

" 'Ay, that's me," said the Leaky Cauldron barman. Harry knew Tom pretty well in his world ever since his lengthy stay at the Leaky Cauldron in his third year. He hoped Tom didn't know his counterpart and that he wouldn't ask too many questions. "Wa' do ya three need?"

"We need a room," said Harry.

Tom peered at the three of them. "Just one?" he asked.

"Yes," said Harry.

"All right," said Tom. "You can head on up if you're ready."

"One more thing," said Harry. "We can pay for our room at the end of our stay, right?"

"Sure," said Tom. "That's fine."

Harry grinned. "Great."


Harry, Ron and Hermione fell asleep as soon as they found their room. The next day, the three trooped downstairs to the dining area.

"Will ya three be havin' breakfast here?" asked Tom.

"Yes, we will," said Harry.

"Do you serve muggle food here, sir?" asked Hermione.

Tom scratched his head. "Er—not really. We typically stick to wizard-fare."

"Darn," said Hermione. "I wanted to order a Full English breakfast."

"We will have whatever you usually serve," said Harry.

"How 'bout porridge, rashers and orange juice?" asked Tom.

"That's fine," said Harry.

Tom left to get their meals.

"Harry, how are we going to pay for this?" asked Hermione softly.

"Don't worry," said Harry. "I have a plan."


Harry, Ron and Hermione left The Leaky Cauldron. But, they didn't go to Diagon Alley. They walked into Muggle London instead.

"Er—Hello," said Harry to a stranger. The man was tall. He wore a suit. It looked like he was heading to a business meeting in Muggle London.

"What do you want?" asked the business man snidely.

"I think you dropped something," said Harry.

The man stopped. He turned around to look behind him.

Harry pulled out his wand. He did a quick Confundus charm.

"Who—who are you?" asked the man. His eyes were hazy.

"Sir, I think you picked up my wallet by accident," said Harry.

"What?" asked the man.

"Check your back pocket."

The man did so. He pulled out his wallet and looked at it dumbly.

"See, that's my wallet," said Harry. "It has my initials inscribed right there. It says, 'GF' for George Foreman."

"Oh, right," said the business man. "My mistake. Here."

"Thank you," said Harry brightly. "Now you better head off to work. You're late."

"Too true, too true," said the man. He walked off at a brisk pace.

Ron and Hermione looked at Harry with bemused looks on his and her face.

"What was that, Harry?" asked Hermione.

Harry grinned. "Oh, nothing," said Harry. "It's something that I've wanted to try for a long time."


After doing Harry's little trick to a few strangers (mostly business men) for around an hour the three headed back into wizard London. They went to Gringotts and exchanged their muggle money for galleons, sickles and knuts.

"We have their credit cards, too," said Harry.

Ron looked on thoughtfully. "Okay, Hermione explained credit cards to me. They're essentially free money, right?"

"Yes," said Harry.

"Then we better use them now. What if those people go home and realize their wallets are missing? Won't they do something? Won't they call the muggle authorities or something?"

Hermione nodded. "Yes, they might do something like that. But, what they will most likely do is to call their banks to cancel the credit cards. Then, the credit cards will be useless pieces of plastic to us."

"We should use them now before anyone notices anything," said Ron.

"I would usually object to that," said Hermione slowly. "We're stealing these people's livelihood. But, seeing as we're in a strange, alternate dimension—"

"—And we're broke," added Ron.

"—Yes, and we're broke," continued Hermione unfazed. "Well, considering that… we might have to act in a more mercenary manner."

"I'm game," said Ron without hesitation.

Harry shrugged. "Yeah, all right," said Harry. "But, we'll have to buy things in Muggle London. The wizarding world doesn't do credit cards."

"That's fine," said Hermione. "We need clothes… even if they're muggle clothes and not wizarding robes. We may need extra little things, too… like books, snacks, water, and all of our own bookbags to put all our stuff in…"

Hermione trailed off.

"You write up a list of things we need, Hermione," said Ron lazily. "Then, let's go shop in Muggle London."


Harry, Ron and Hermione arrived to their room at the Leaky Cauldron hours later. They were tired and pleased at their full day of shopping.

"You know I've always wanted to do this," said Ron. He laid on the bed with his head propped up against a pillow.

"Do what?" asked Hermione.

"I've always wanted to shop in Muggle London," he said. "I've never been to a Muggle store before today if you can believe it."

Hermione rolled her eyes. "Oh, I believe it, Ron," she said. "Remember this… 'What's that? What's that? What's that, Hermione, What's that Harry?'"

"What?" said Ron defensively. "I've never seen one of those… cockroach thingies before."

"It was a coke machine," said Hermione.

"Yeah, and you can fill your cup with endless coke if the store clerk doesn't notice," said Ron brightly. "And I liked the Chinese food."

"We know," said Harry with a grin. "We noticed."


Hermione lounged leisurely on the bed at The Leaky Cauldron that evening. She read a history book about the current events in the muggle world that the three of them bought with one of the stolen credit cards that they used.

"So, what does it say?" asked Ron.

"Well, this world is very different from ours… even the muggle world. The muggle world is at war just like the wizarding world. In fact, the descendant of Winston Churchill is the current Prime Minister. His name is August Churchill."

"Anything else?" asked Harry. He was snacking on a bag of crisps.

"The wizarding world is still unknown to muggles. However, there were a series of terrorist acts that the British government is concerned about… they don't know who perpetrated the acts."

"What type of terrorist acts?" asked Ron thoughtfully.

"Well, there were a few bombings over the years. Someone bombed the American Embassy and the United Nations building in London. Also, there were small terrorist acts here-and-there… car bombings and the like. It looked like whoever did those acts wanted to kill important British government officials."

"What if those terrorist acts are connected to the war against You-Know-Who in our world—this world—oh, whatever," said Ron.

Hermione nodded. "Yes, that's what I think, too."

"All right, all right," said Harry. "This is what we know—we know that the wizarding world and the muggle world are at war. We think that the wizarding war affects the muggle world's war, too."

"That's the long and short of it," said Hermione.

"Okay. What about Harry Potter? Why is someone trying to kill him?"

"Well, other than the fact that he's Harry Potter…" said Ron. Harry threw a pillow at him. "Oh, come on… you know it's true. Anyway, other than that maybe there's a prophecy about him somewhere. Maybe he is still destined to stop You-Know-Who. He just hasn't done it yet."

"Okay, that's a good point," said Hermione. "So, obviously we know our next step."

"What's that?" said Harry.

"We need to go to Flourish and Blotts to buy more books to do research."

Harry rolled his eyes. "I have a better idea," he said confidently.


"Hi, there, Tom," said Harry. Harry took a seat at the bar. Hermione and Ron sat next to him.

" 'ello, Mr. Foreman," said Tom. "Will you be eatin' here tonight?"

"Well, we were actually wondering if we could ask you some questions," said Harry. "My associates, Peony Patil, Dean Thomas and I are from America. We have a few things to ask you about what's going on in the wizarding world."

"You three don't have American accents," said Tom. He frowned.

"We're expatriates. We've come back for the hols," said Hermione brightly.

"All right," said Tom. "Wha' do ya wanna know?"

"How is the war going?" said Harry. "Are there any new developments?"

Tom shrugged. "Well," he said. "Our boys are still over ther' in the U.S.S.R. You see a lotta lil' old ladies runnin' around askin' for donations so that they can send our boys new shoes and blankets and othe' things."

"So, is that where they think… You-Know-Who is?" asked Hermione.

"Aye," said Tom. "They think he's holed up in his fortress called The Black Spier. There are soldiers and Inferi borderin' his territory. The Inferi are the things that are really causin' problems for our soldiers… it's hard to kill 'em without fire. Fire is a difficult thing to conjure for even the most experienced wizard."

"I see," said Hermione.

"I have another question," said Ron. "Do you know anything about… a boy named Harry Potter? He may have a tragic history… many people may think he is special."

Tom frowned. "Well, I don't know about 'arry Potter, but I do know James and Lily Potter."

Harry started to cough. Ron hit his back a few times with a firm hand.

"Sorry about that," said Harry. "I've got a bit of a cold."

Tom nodded.

"So, James and Lily Potter are still…." said Hermione. She stopped herself from going on.

"Do you know where we can find James and Lily Potter?" asked Harry.

"Well, they 'av a family manor in Wales," said Tom. "Other than 'at I don' know."

"Er—how about a family named Weasley'?" said Ron. "They might have a lot of red-headed children… they might even have red-hair like me."

Tom frowned. "Sure. I know 'em. Really good people, those Weasley's. They have good stock… they got mostly boys. A few of the older ones are fightin'," said Tom.

"I see," said Harry. He tried to smile. "Thanks, Tom. That was a lot of information. We're glad for the help."

"No problem," said Tom. "Anyway, how long do you three plan on stayin' with us? I never did get a chance to ask you yesterday."

"Oh, not too long," said Harry. He grinned. "We have a lot of work to do."