Harry Potter and the Duplaticus Curse
Chapter 6 The Reason Why
Harry didn't know what had woken him up, the end of the dream or Ron, Fred, and George scrambling toward the door.
"Dad?" yelled Ron, "Is that you?"
"Yes," Shouted Mr. Weasley's voice. "Ron, wake up your mother."
"I'm already awake!" called Mrs. Weasley from below. Ron, George and Fred scrambled from the room and went downstairs. Harry slowly followed. As Harry passed the second landing, Charlie poked his head out of the door.
"What's going on?" He asked groggily.
"You're dad's home," Harry mumbled, continuing down the steps.
The Weasley's, Harry and Hermione were soon huddled around Mr. Weasley. They were begging him to tell them what took them so long.
"All right! All right!" Shouted Mr. Weasley. "I'll tell you."
"Father I don't know if that's such a good idea," Spoke up Percy. "It's Ministry business-"
"Shut up Percy," snapped George, "Go on Dad."
"All right, when we reached Diagon alley we saw this man sitting in the shadows. He was wearing a green cloak just like Ron had said. Anyway, Percy yelled at him to come there and he ignored us. He started to run away instead. Anyway, we followed him until he turned onto Knockturn Alley. Then he turned to face us, raised his wand and shot the Dark Mark into the air." The Weasleys gasped as they heard this. Hermione had to stuff her hand in her mouth to stop from screaming.
"Now the Ministry has to cover it all up so that it won't get out into the public..." Harry wasn't listening. He had heard it all already. His mind was on different things.
Was that really my Dad? Harry asked himself. Of course it wasn't. You're dad's dead. He's been dead for almost 15 years. If he was alive, why didn't he come out earlier? It's not possible. Is it? Why is he speaking to Voldemort? He's not a Death Eater, is he?
"What's wrong?" Ron whispered to Harry. Harry just shook his head. Mr. Weasley sighed and got up out of his seat.
"I recommend that you all go back to bed and get some sleep," Mr. Weasley said.
"Are you kidding me!" George exclaimed, "We can't go to sleep after that!"
Mr. Weasley sighed again. "All right," he said. "You can stay up for a cup of cocoa, but that's it!"
So the Weasley's, Harry, and Hermione sat around the scrubbed kitchen table and had some cocoa.
Every now and then Mr. Weasley or Percy would get up and glance out of the window nervously.
Ron and Hermione kept asking Harry if there was something wrong with him, he must have shown his worry on his face. Harry lied and answered no every time.
After everyone's tenth cup of cocoa Mr. Weasley insisted that everyone had to go to bed. Now that the twins were so sugared up, they were making so much noise that Harry doubted that anyone could get to sleep (Except for Percy of course, they could hear his snores all the way upstairs)
As the twins practically bounced off of the wall, Harry glanced out the window into the now pouring rain.
A bolt of lightning flashed across the sky and illuminated the plants in the garden. Or was it only the plants.
Harry squinted and looked closely at the backyard. Sitting on a bench outside was a figure, dressed in a black cloak, looking up at Ron's window. Harry felt a flash of anger and glared at the figure. All of a sudden the man got up and walked across the sopping lawn and disappeared into the woods.
The next few weeks passed without incident. The only thing that happened was that Fred and George almost blew up the house trying to invent a candy that feels like it explodes in your stomach, unfortunately they added a little to much gun powder.
Hermione and Ron somehow knew that something was wrong with Harry, they continued to ask if something was wrong. Finally, after the 17th time in one afternoon, Harry got so fed up that he started to tell them.
"You want to know what's wrong!" Harry snapped, "I think that my-"
All of a sudden Fred and George came flying on their broomsticks into the kitchen.
"Harry, Ron," Fred said, "Wanna play some Quidditch?"
"SURE!" Ron exclaimed. "I'll go get my broom." Ron raced upstairs.
"Yeah, okay," Harry said.
"What about me?" said Hermione. "You forgot to ask me."
Fred and George looked guiltily at each other.
"Well Hermione, we don't know how to say this but, you're not a very good Quidditch player."
"I know that!" Hermione snapped, "But still, it's common courtesy to ask."
"Why bother asking if we know you're going to say no." Hermione stormed off in a huff, muttering something about politeness and courtesy.
Ron came scrambling down the stairs, his old Shooting Star over his shoulder and the Chudley Cannons hat that Harry gave him for Christmas two years before on his head.
"Hurry up Harry," Fred said. "Get your broom."
As Harry was getting his broom from his trunk when he hard Mrs. Weasley yelling from downstairs.
"WHAT HAVE I TOLD YOU ABOUT FLYING YOUR BROOMS IN THE HOUSE!" Mrs. Weasley bellowed at Fred and George. After a minute or so of bellowing Mrs. Weasley sent Fred and George to Ron's room and the game was called off. At least Hermione was happy.
The night before September the first, Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny were getting ready for school tomorrow. Mrs. Weasley had insisted that it was easier to pack the night before instead of rushing around that morning. Still, she must have been really frantic because when she went around giving everyone their underwear and socks, somehow Ginny's bras wound up in Ron's trunk.
That night while Ron was snoring loudly, Harry lay awake, looking at the posters on the ceiling with the Chudley Cannons zooming across them. It was long past midnight when Harry fell asleep.
"My lord," said Lucius Malfoy, "My lord, is the new Death Eater coming to this meeting?"
Voldemort, who seemed to be thinking very hard, simply nodded. His fingers were forming a steeple as he gazed into the bright fire. Suddenly the door flung open and a cloaked figure walked in.
"Sorry I'm late," said a voice from under the cloak. All of the other Death Eaters were standing in a circle. The figure looked at the circle and then glanced at Voldemort. Voldemort stood up and walked into the middle of the circle.
"Death Eaters," snarled Voldemort. "I'd like you to meet your new partner." Voldemort waved his hand at the figure to take off his hood. He pulled it off and all the Death Eaters gasped, except for Nott who whispered to the Death Eater that was standing beside him, "See! I told you he was alive!"
Voldemort laughed at their shock. "Surprised aren't you?"
"But My Lord!" Exclaimed Lucius Malfoy. "His son was the one that defeated you so many times!" There was a flash of Red light and all of a sudden Lucius Malfoy lay twitching on the floor.
"He did NOT defeat me!" snapped Voldemort. "Not once has he defeated me! Not once have I died!"
Voldemort took the Cruciatus curse off of Malfoy and turned back to James.
"My lord," said a woman from under a black cloak, "Please tell us WHY you have made this... this particular person a Death Eater." Voldemort laughed cruelly.
"That story would be best explained by James." Voldemort stepped aside. James sighed and started to tell the tale.
"It all started when I was an Auror," James said. "I had used the Avada Kedavra curse many times and I was fanticized by how the spell worked. So I retired from being an Auror early and spent most of my time trying to find a way to block the deadly curse in the Department for Experimental Charms and Potions. I had almost found the blocking curse when me and my family had to go into hiding.
"Then one Halloween, Pettigrew..." At this point James glared in the direction of one of the Death Eaters who cowered in fear. "Pettigrew gave away our hiding place. Voldemort gave me two choices. Either join him and let my wife and ONLY my wife live, or have all of us die. It was a very difficult decision, but I finally decided that it would be better to have my wife live and my son die than have all of them die. So I agreed to join Voldemort (several Death Eaters flinched) And he burned the Dark Mark into my arm right there. Unfortunately he didn't keep his promise. First he said that he wanted everyone to believe that I was dead, so nobody would believe that I betrayed my family. So I performed the Duplaticus curse-"
"What's that?" Interrupted Nott.
"It's an extremely difficult spell that makes a living Duplicate of one's self," James explained. "Anyway, Voldemort killed my Duplicate and left the body there. He shot the Dark Mark into the air and went to get Harry. While I was waiting out back. I heard an explosion. I looked back at the house to see it in rubble. My son was lying there and my wife was on the ground next to him. Voldemort was nowhere to be seen.
I tried to run over, but something stopped me. All of a sudden the Dark Mark started to burn upon my arm and I could go no closer. So I fled. I have spent the last the last 15 years looking for Voldemort and trying to rejoin him. Unfortunately it took me long to hear the news about Voldemort that I didn't come till a few days ago." James finished talking and stepped backwards.
Voldemort stepped forward. "And James's study was one of the reasons that I wanted him to be a Death Eater so much. Maybe now I will be able to discover the block for Avada Kedavra." Voldemort laughed cruelly.
"James, after Potter is dead you will continue your research."
There was a flash of lightning and Voldemort laughed and laughed...
Harry woke up in a cold sweat. He took no notice to the tears that mingled with the sweat droplets as he sat up in his bed. The rain was poaring down outside every now and then lightning flashed across the window. Harry stood up and looked out of the window, wiping his sweaty bangs out of his eyes. There was no one down in the lawn.
"Harry?" mumbled Ron. "What are you doing up?"
"Nothing," Harry whispered, "Go back to sleep." Ron rolled over and fell back asleep. Harry didn't fall asleep again.
"Harry, did you get a lot of sleep last night?" Hermione asked. "You don't look so good." It was the next morning and Hermione, Ginny and Ron were sitting at the kitchen table eating their toast.
"He doesn't look that sleepy." Ron said thickly with a mouthful of toast.
"That's because you're still 99.9% asleep," Hermione snapped. "I'm serious Harry, what's wrong."
Harry shook his head as Mrs. Weasley came bustling into the kitchen.
"Eat fast!" Mrs. Weasley said. "We have to go soon!" The four of them wolfed down their breakfast before running back upstairs for their trunks.
When all four trunks were downstairs there was a honk outside.
"Oh!" Exclaimed Mrs. Weasley, "That's your father! He's arrived with the cars." Fred and George decided to join Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny to the platform. When all of their trunks were packed away they climbed into the Ministry Cars and Drove away.
When they reached King's Cross they loaded their trunks onto carts and wheeled them over to the spot between Platform 9 and 10. The platform number was 9 and 3/4. The platform was invisible to the Muggle eye, but everyone else was used to getting onto the platform. At a run, the four of them ran into the solid wall of brick. Instead of crashing they went right through the wall and onto Platform 9 and 3/4.
Several Hogwarts students were already waiting to board. Harry Ron and Hermione went to get a compartment to theirselves. They loaded their trunks into the compartment and looked out of the window.
Mrs. Weasley was waving, Fred and George were making faces at them. All of the students boarded as a voice called, "THE HOGWARTS EXPRESS WILL BE LEAVING IN 5 MINUTES!"
"Bye Mom!" Yelled Ron.
"Bye Mrs. Weasley," cried Harry and Hermione. Harry sat back in his seat. He glanced out the window once more. By the wall of the platform was a figure, a figure dressed in a black cloak. The figure was looking straight at Harry. Harry glared back.
"Harry," Said Ron. "Are you okay?"
"Why wouldn't I be?" Harry replied.
"Well, you just looked like the window insulted you or something," Ron asked. "Are you sure everything's alright?"
Harry nodded. "Yeah I'm alright." Harry glanced back out the window, but the figure was gone."
Chapter 6 The Reason Why
Harry didn't know what had woken him up, the end of the dream or Ron, Fred, and George scrambling toward the door.
"Dad?" yelled Ron, "Is that you?"
"Yes," Shouted Mr. Weasley's voice. "Ron, wake up your mother."
"I'm already awake!" called Mrs. Weasley from below. Ron, George and Fred scrambled from the room and went downstairs. Harry slowly followed. As Harry passed the second landing, Charlie poked his head out of the door.
"What's going on?" He asked groggily.
"You're dad's home," Harry mumbled, continuing down the steps.
The Weasley's, Harry and Hermione were soon huddled around Mr. Weasley. They were begging him to tell them what took them so long.
"All right! All right!" Shouted Mr. Weasley. "I'll tell you."
"Father I don't know if that's such a good idea," Spoke up Percy. "It's Ministry business-"
"Shut up Percy," snapped George, "Go on Dad."
"All right, when we reached Diagon alley we saw this man sitting in the shadows. He was wearing a green cloak just like Ron had said. Anyway, Percy yelled at him to come there and he ignored us. He started to run away instead. Anyway, we followed him until he turned onto Knockturn Alley. Then he turned to face us, raised his wand and shot the Dark Mark into the air." The Weasleys gasped as they heard this. Hermione had to stuff her hand in her mouth to stop from screaming.
"Now the Ministry has to cover it all up so that it won't get out into the public..." Harry wasn't listening. He had heard it all already. His mind was on different things.
Was that really my Dad? Harry asked himself. Of course it wasn't. You're dad's dead. He's been dead for almost 15 years. If he was alive, why didn't he come out earlier? It's not possible. Is it? Why is he speaking to Voldemort? He's not a Death Eater, is he?
"What's wrong?" Ron whispered to Harry. Harry just shook his head. Mr. Weasley sighed and got up out of his seat.
"I recommend that you all go back to bed and get some sleep," Mr. Weasley said.
"Are you kidding me!" George exclaimed, "We can't go to sleep after that!"
Mr. Weasley sighed again. "All right," he said. "You can stay up for a cup of cocoa, but that's it!"
So the Weasley's, Harry, and Hermione sat around the scrubbed kitchen table and had some cocoa.
Every now and then Mr. Weasley or Percy would get up and glance out of the window nervously.
Ron and Hermione kept asking Harry if there was something wrong with him, he must have shown his worry on his face. Harry lied and answered no every time.
After everyone's tenth cup of cocoa Mr. Weasley insisted that everyone had to go to bed. Now that the twins were so sugared up, they were making so much noise that Harry doubted that anyone could get to sleep (Except for Percy of course, they could hear his snores all the way upstairs)
As the twins practically bounced off of the wall, Harry glanced out the window into the now pouring rain.
A bolt of lightning flashed across the sky and illuminated the plants in the garden. Or was it only the plants.
Harry squinted and looked closely at the backyard. Sitting on a bench outside was a figure, dressed in a black cloak, looking up at Ron's window. Harry felt a flash of anger and glared at the figure. All of a sudden the man got up and walked across the sopping lawn and disappeared into the woods.
The next few weeks passed without incident. The only thing that happened was that Fred and George almost blew up the house trying to invent a candy that feels like it explodes in your stomach, unfortunately they added a little to much gun powder.
Hermione and Ron somehow knew that something was wrong with Harry, they continued to ask if something was wrong. Finally, after the 17th time in one afternoon, Harry got so fed up that he started to tell them.
"You want to know what's wrong!" Harry snapped, "I think that my-"
All of a sudden Fred and George came flying on their broomsticks into the kitchen.
"Harry, Ron," Fred said, "Wanna play some Quidditch?"
"SURE!" Ron exclaimed. "I'll go get my broom." Ron raced upstairs.
"Yeah, okay," Harry said.
"What about me?" said Hermione. "You forgot to ask me."
Fred and George looked guiltily at each other.
"Well Hermione, we don't know how to say this but, you're not a very good Quidditch player."
"I know that!" Hermione snapped, "But still, it's common courtesy to ask."
"Why bother asking if we know you're going to say no." Hermione stormed off in a huff, muttering something about politeness and courtesy.
Ron came scrambling down the stairs, his old Shooting Star over his shoulder and the Chudley Cannons hat that Harry gave him for Christmas two years before on his head.
"Hurry up Harry," Fred said. "Get your broom."
As Harry was getting his broom from his trunk when he hard Mrs. Weasley yelling from downstairs.
"WHAT HAVE I TOLD YOU ABOUT FLYING YOUR BROOMS IN THE HOUSE!" Mrs. Weasley bellowed at Fred and George. After a minute or so of bellowing Mrs. Weasley sent Fred and George to Ron's room and the game was called off. At least Hermione was happy.
The night before September the first, Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny were getting ready for school tomorrow. Mrs. Weasley had insisted that it was easier to pack the night before instead of rushing around that morning. Still, she must have been really frantic because when she went around giving everyone their underwear and socks, somehow Ginny's bras wound up in Ron's trunk.
That night while Ron was snoring loudly, Harry lay awake, looking at the posters on the ceiling with the Chudley Cannons zooming across them. It was long past midnight when Harry fell asleep.
"My lord," said Lucius Malfoy, "My lord, is the new Death Eater coming to this meeting?"
Voldemort, who seemed to be thinking very hard, simply nodded. His fingers were forming a steeple as he gazed into the bright fire. Suddenly the door flung open and a cloaked figure walked in.
"Sorry I'm late," said a voice from under the cloak. All of the other Death Eaters were standing in a circle. The figure looked at the circle and then glanced at Voldemort. Voldemort stood up and walked into the middle of the circle.
"Death Eaters," snarled Voldemort. "I'd like you to meet your new partner." Voldemort waved his hand at the figure to take off his hood. He pulled it off and all the Death Eaters gasped, except for Nott who whispered to the Death Eater that was standing beside him, "See! I told you he was alive!"
Voldemort laughed at their shock. "Surprised aren't you?"
"But My Lord!" Exclaimed Lucius Malfoy. "His son was the one that defeated you so many times!" There was a flash of Red light and all of a sudden Lucius Malfoy lay twitching on the floor.
"He did NOT defeat me!" snapped Voldemort. "Not once has he defeated me! Not once have I died!"
Voldemort took the Cruciatus curse off of Malfoy and turned back to James.
"My lord," said a woman from under a black cloak, "Please tell us WHY you have made this... this particular person a Death Eater." Voldemort laughed cruelly.
"That story would be best explained by James." Voldemort stepped aside. James sighed and started to tell the tale.
"It all started when I was an Auror," James said. "I had used the Avada Kedavra curse many times and I was fanticized by how the spell worked. So I retired from being an Auror early and spent most of my time trying to find a way to block the deadly curse in the Department for Experimental Charms and Potions. I had almost found the blocking curse when me and my family had to go into hiding.
"Then one Halloween, Pettigrew..." At this point James glared in the direction of one of the Death Eaters who cowered in fear. "Pettigrew gave away our hiding place. Voldemort gave me two choices. Either join him and let my wife and ONLY my wife live, or have all of us die. It was a very difficult decision, but I finally decided that it would be better to have my wife live and my son die than have all of them die. So I agreed to join Voldemort (several Death Eaters flinched) And he burned the Dark Mark into my arm right there. Unfortunately he didn't keep his promise. First he said that he wanted everyone to believe that I was dead, so nobody would believe that I betrayed my family. So I performed the Duplaticus curse-"
"What's that?" Interrupted Nott.
"It's an extremely difficult spell that makes a living Duplicate of one's self," James explained. "Anyway, Voldemort killed my Duplicate and left the body there. He shot the Dark Mark into the air and went to get Harry. While I was waiting out back. I heard an explosion. I looked back at the house to see it in rubble. My son was lying there and my wife was on the ground next to him. Voldemort was nowhere to be seen.
I tried to run over, but something stopped me. All of a sudden the Dark Mark started to burn upon my arm and I could go no closer. So I fled. I have spent the last the last 15 years looking for Voldemort and trying to rejoin him. Unfortunately it took me long to hear the news about Voldemort that I didn't come till a few days ago." James finished talking and stepped backwards.
Voldemort stepped forward. "And James's study was one of the reasons that I wanted him to be a Death Eater so much. Maybe now I will be able to discover the block for Avada Kedavra." Voldemort laughed cruelly.
"James, after Potter is dead you will continue your research."
There was a flash of lightning and Voldemort laughed and laughed...
Harry woke up in a cold sweat. He took no notice to the tears that mingled with the sweat droplets as he sat up in his bed. The rain was poaring down outside every now and then lightning flashed across the window. Harry stood up and looked out of the window, wiping his sweaty bangs out of his eyes. There was no one down in the lawn.
"Harry?" mumbled Ron. "What are you doing up?"
"Nothing," Harry whispered, "Go back to sleep." Ron rolled over and fell back asleep. Harry didn't fall asleep again.
"Harry, did you get a lot of sleep last night?" Hermione asked. "You don't look so good." It was the next morning and Hermione, Ginny and Ron were sitting at the kitchen table eating their toast.
"He doesn't look that sleepy." Ron said thickly with a mouthful of toast.
"That's because you're still 99.9% asleep," Hermione snapped. "I'm serious Harry, what's wrong."
Harry shook his head as Mrs. Weasley came bustling into the kitchen.
"Eat fast!" Mrs. Weasley said. "We have to go soon!" The four of them wolfed down their breakfast before running back upstairs for their trunks.
When all four trunks were downstairs there was a honk outside.
"Oh!" Exclaimed Mrs. Weasley, "That's your father! He's arrived with the cars." Fred and George decided to join Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny to the platform. When all of their trunks were packed away they climbed into the Ministry Cars and Drove away.
When they reached King's Cross they loaded their trunks onto carts and wheeled them over to the spot between Platform 9 and 10. The platform number was 9 and 3/4. The platform was invisible to the Muggle eye, but everyone else was used to getting onto the platform. At a run, the four of them ran into the solid wall of brick. Instead of crashing they went right through the wall and onto Platform 9 and 3/4.
Several Hogwarts students were already waiting to board. Harry Ron and Hermione went to get a compartment to theirselves. They loaded their trunks into the compartment and looked out of the window.
Mrs. Weasley was waving, Fred and George were making faces at them. All of the students boarded as a voice called, "THE HOGWARTS EXPRESS WILL BE LEAVING IN 5 MINUTES!"
"Bye Mom!" Yelled Ron.
"Bye Mrs. Weasley," cried Harry and Hermione. Harry sat back in his seat. He glanced out the window once more. By the wall of the platform was a figure, a figure dressed in a black cloak. The figure was looking straight at Harry. Harry glared back.
"Harry," Said Ron. "Are you okay?"
"Why wouldn't I be?" Harry replied.
"Well, you just looked like the window insulted you or something," Ron asked. "Are you sure everything's alright?"
Harry nodded. "Yeah I'm alright." Harry glanced back out the window, but the figure was gone."