Harry Potter and the Duplaticus Curse
Chapter 13 The Announcement
"That went well," Harry said sarcastically, plopping down on one of the armchairs in front of the fire.
"It looked absolutely chaotic," Hermione said, gesturing toward the window. The table that Hermione was sitting at was littered with her notes and rather large textbooks. A few minutes later Ron came down from the dorm room.
"Hey Hermione," Said Ron, "Can I speak to you for a moment?"
"Sure," said Hermione, not looking up from her notes, "What about?"
"I need to talk to you in private," Ron said. Hermoine put down her quill and stood up and went into a corner with Ron. Despite the fact that they were across the room, their voices carried over to where Harry was sitting.
"I think he's upstairs," Ron whispered.
"Who?"
"HIM!" Ron nodded.
"Well we should tell Dumbledore," Hermione said instantly.
"But you said on the train that we shouldn't tell anybody."
"Ron, if You-Know-Who's upstairs, I think it wou-"
"No, no, no. You-Know-Who's not upstairs, the other person," Ron said.
"Who?"
"You know."
"Ron just tell me." Ron leaned forward and whispered into her ear.
"Harry's Dad." Hermione's face paled slightly.
"Should we tell him?" She asked. Ron shrugged. Harry finally spoke up.
"HEY!" Harry yelled, "I can hear you from over here." Ron blushed, than walked back over to Harry.
"Now Harry," Ron said, "Don't panic-"
"Ron, have you ever known me to panic?"
"I'm just saying, don't loose your head."
"Ron, relax. I'm not going to do anything that you wouldn't do."
"That's what I'm afraid of."
Harry just leaned back in his armchair.
"Hermione," He said suddenly, "Have you finished my book yet?"
"Yeah," Hermione said, sitting back down at her table, "I asked Ron to put it into your trunk."
Harry got up. Ron grabbed his arm and spun him around.
"Where are you going?" Ron demanded.
"To get my book," Harry said, pulling his arm out of Ron's grasp.
"I'm coming with you," Ron said suddenly running after Harry.
Harry climbed the spiral staircase and pushed the door open.
It looked just like it always did. There was nothing out of the ordinary. Ron was still acting like there was someone there. Harry walked over to his trunk and pulled it open. He pulled out his book and closed and locked his trunk once again.
"Harry," Ron said tentatively, "Would you mind checking the Map, just in case." Harry shrugged, but pulled the trunk open again and pulled out the Marauder's map. There was no one out of the ordinary around. He handed the map to Ron who scanned it.
"AHA!" Ron exclaimed suddenly. "Professor Flitwick is in the hallway!"
"Ron, he's a teacher. He's allowed to be in the hallway."
"Oh yeah."
After looking at the map for ten minutes Ron seemed satisfied and put the map back into Harry's trunk.
"Finally," Hermione said when they returned to the common room.
Harry sat back down into the armchair and opened the book. Harry could understand why Hermione was interested in it, there were many wonderfully helpful spells in there. One spell called Galacartus was for getting rid of Vampires, another one called the Hawthornious spell shot poisonous needles at your opponent. After about thirty minutes of reading up on spells Harry found one that caught his eye. On page 213 was a spell that Harry wanted to learn ever since the summer. He turned to page 213 and read the title of the spell.
The Duplaticus Curse
"Hey Ron," Harry exclaimed. "I bet you want to learn this spell huh?"
Ron went over and read the spell's name.
"Uh… Harry, isn't this the spell that your, um… dad used to, um…"
"Yeah, cool huh?"
"You want to learn it?"
"Yeah, why not?" Ron just shook his head. Harry started to read up on the spell and how difficult it was. Ron kept glancing nervously at Harry. All of a sudden there was a tap-tap-tap on the window. A large tawny owl was sitting on the windowsill. Harry stood up and opened the window. The owl fluttered to Harry's shoulder and stuck out his leg. Harry took the note that was attached to his leg and opened it.
"It's from Snuffles," Harry said.
Harry, It read,
We haven't made a lot of progress in our search for the new Death Eater. Unfortunately we were ambushed by a group of Death Eaters. Remus lost his arm and had to go to the Wizarding Hospital, Norrawed. I had to sit outside while the doctors re-attached Remus's arm, they didn't allow Dogs in the operating room. Anyway, we believe that he has something to do with you. I don't want you to worry.
Remus and I are going to be in the area in about a week. On the thirtieth we will be passing by. Remus is going up to the school to say hello but I'm going in my other form. Anyway, Remus will pass by you and he will tell you where to meet me. Ron and Hermione can come too.
Sirius
"Cool," Harry said, passing the note to Ron. Ron glanced quickly through the letter. Than he looked up at Harry.
"Do you think we should tell them about…" Ron trailed off. Harry glanced over at Hermione. Hermione looked up from her notes and sighed.
"I guess we can hint to them," she said slowly. "But let's forget about that for now, I'm hungry, let's go eat.
The Great Hall was busy. Since Dumbledore still hadn't gotten the house elves back there was a bunch of elderly witches watching around, serving all of the students. As Harry, Ron and Hermione sat down, Dumbledore stood up and waved his wand, trying to get everyone's attention.
"As you all probably know," Dumbledore said, "Halloween is fast approaching. My colleagues and I have decided to add a little twist to this years celebration. A costume party."
There was a murmur of interest sweeping around the hall.
"Now, this is a very special party, instead of going as some goblin or a princess, we are going to all dress up as a person."
"HUH?"
Dumbledore waved his hands, "Let me explain, the reason I'm telling you this so early is because you need to brainstorm what you want to look like. You get to decide what you want to look like and then, on the day of Halloween we will have booths set up around the Entrance Hall. You will go into the booths and a makeup witch will help you become what you want to look like. Then, at the end of the party, we will have a guessing contest. You will give various hints and everyone else will try to guess who you really are."
Everyone was talking excitedly. People up and down Gryffindor table was saying stuff like, "I want to have Blond hair!"
"I want to make my nose shorter."
"Maybe they can give me a face lift!"
Professor Dumbledore waved his hands again.
"Don't forget to keep it a secret," He yelled. "Or else it will be easy for people to guess who you are."
Everyone was much quieter after that.
Later that night, as Harry laid in bed, he thought about what he'd want to look like for Halloween. Ron had been sitting in a corner for the rest of the night, writing down what he wanted to look like in secret. Harry hadn't put much thought into it. But still, it would be lots of fun…
(A.N. Stupid, I know. I had to rush and type the rest of it. But rest assured that the next chapter will be much more interesting. It's about the Halloween party!
P.S. DEATH TO HOMEWORK! DEATH TO HOMEWORK!)