Harry Potter and the Duplaticus Curse
Chapter 14 Halloween
(A.N. Okay, I'm answering a question from one of my fans. The reason Ron could tell that someone was in the room was because James made a sound, like his shoes squeaked or something like that. Also, if you've read the rest of my story you know that on Halloween, James is supposed to kill Harry. So they will definitely meet in this chapter. Enjoy!! J Malena J )
The day before Halloween, Harry, Ron and Hermione walked to Hogsmeade with the rest of the Gryffindors. Remus, who had returned to Hogwarts for a visit had whispered to Harry to meet Sirius at the same place that they met two years before.
Everyone was laughing and giggling and joking around. Ron, Harry and Hermione faked their glee and kept their worry to themselves. Harry was nervous that Sirius was going to be caught, Hermione was worried about Harry being worried, and Ron was worried about the mad-ax men that might be hiding in the bushes, waiting to spring on them when they were alone. Harry and Hermione had noticed that Ron was being paranoid (what I mean is more paranoid than normal). Anyway, before they went to the stile near the border of the town they ducked into the town pub for a butterbeer. Ron was still glancing around nervously as though they were about to be attacked at any moment.
"Ron, calm down," Harry said, sipping his butterbeer.
"I am calm," Ron said, turning around in his seat, trying to get a better look at a man that was sitting in the corner. "I couldn't be calmer."
The three of them sipped their butterbeer in silence before Ron muttered something.
"Harry, look behind you." Harry turned slowly in his chair. A man in a dark cloak was sitting at the bar. Harry recognized the cloak.
"Ron, you need to get out more," Hermione said, "Professor Ralon isn't exactly a threat at the moment." Ron continued to glare in Prof. Ralon's direction. He was too busy to notice the man come into the bar and sit down at a table in the back. Harry glanced at the clock on the wall.
"It's about time to go," Harry said. Ron, Harry and Hermione got up and walked out of the pub.
The wind was blowing fiercely. The three of them clutched their cloaks to their bodies as they made their way to the edge of Hogsmeade. Waiting for them was the familiar black dog that was Sirius. Instead of leading them up to the cave where Sirius had lived for a while, Sirius led them to a dark forest beside the mountain. They walked for about fifteen minutes until they came to a small clearing. With a small flash of light the dog turned into Sirius.
"Hi Sirius," Harry said, forcing a fake smile. "How are you?"
Sirius frowned at Harry, sat down and said, "Nevermind that. What's up with you?" Harry shrugged.
"Any luck with the Death Eater?" Hermione asked, sitting down on the ground across from Sirius. Sirius shook his head.
"Voldemort's gotten better at keeping who his Death Eaters are a secret. I think it's strange that nobody knows who this mysterious Death Eater is."
"Harry," Ron said, sitting down next to Hermione, "Tell Sirius about that dream you had." They had practiced this earlier. Harry was supposed to hint that it was James.
"Well, you see I had this dream," Harry said also sitting down, "And Voldemort was in it, along with some Death Eater that I had never met before. They were talking about me and I got the impression that the new Death Eater had some um… connection or something to do with me."
Sirius frowned.
"That's strange, I wonder what a Death Eater could possibly have to do with you," Sirius said. "I'll have to tell Remus about that."
"How is Professor Lupin's arm?" Hermione asked.
"Fine, the doctors fixed it back on. I wished I could say the same for some of the other people we were working with. They were killed by Avada Kedavra."
"I wish that there was some way to block Avada Kedavra," Harry said, "You know, besides my way."
Sirius smiled kindly.
"Did you know that your father was working on a way to block Avada Kedavra before he died. That's probably Voldemort wanted to kill him in the first place."
"Yeah I know," Harry said bitterly.
Sirius looked questioningly at Harry.
"How did you know that?" Sirius asked.
Harry shrugged, "I have my ways." He said slyly.
Sirius smiled again. All of a sudden there was a rustling in the trees behind them. Sirius looked up urgently and with a small wave of his wand he turned back into a dog.
The other three looked up at the bushes just as Remus came through them.
"It's almost four," Remus said, "You three should probably get up to the school." Harry, Ron and Hermione got up off of the ground, patted Sirius on the head and walked back up to Hogwarts. That night Harry, Ron, and Hermione, worked on the Duplaticus curse (much to Ron's dislike) in an empty classroom.
The next morning, they walked into the entrance hall they could hardly recognize the place. Booths had been set up along the walls and it was sort of dark. At breakfast, Dumbledore told the school that they would start putting makeup and stuff on at three in the afternoon, starting with the Gryffindors. When Harry, Ron and Hermione came back down to the entrance hall that afternoon there was a long line of students. Harry, Ron and Hermione got in the end of the line. Up at the front Professor McGonnagal was assigning booths to people.
When Harry Ron and Hermione came to the top of the line, Professor McGonnagal consulted her list and told Hermione to go in booth number 23, Ron in booth 15, and Harry in booth 34.
When Harry entered the booth there was a short, young lady sitting there waiting for him.
"Hello dear," She said in her high annoying voice, "I'm Paula. What's your name?"
"Harry," He said, walking over to her and shaking hands.
"Oh my," she mumbled to herself.
"What?"
"Well, it's just that the scar on your forehead is going to give away who you are easily, we're going to have to cover that up. Now tell me dear, what were you planning to look like.
Harry told her and she wrote it down on a piece of parchment. Then she got up and told Harry to sit in the chair in front of the mirror. Paula spent the next ten minutes looking at Harry, measuring the length of his hair, his nose, how big his eyes were and all that stuff. Finally she started to work. First she held up skin colors to his face, until she found a good color. She painted his arms the tannish color before starting on his face. She put the tan skin color on Harry's face and neck. Next she took out her wand and tapped his hair. Instantly Harry's hair turned brownish. Next she took out her scissors and cut Harry's hair until it was much shorter. Unfortunately within a few minutes it had grown back to it's original length.
"Hmmm…" Paula said thinking about what to do with Harry's hair. Finally she took a bottle of Bluebonnet's Magical hairspray. She sprayed it over Harry's head, then she
re-cut his hair. It actually stayed the length that she cut it.
Although Harry's hair was messy enough, Paula spiked it up in the front and attempted to flatten the rest. It didn't work very well.
"Has your hair always been this difficult?" Paula asked, spraying more hair spray on Harry's unmanageable hair.
"(Cough!)yeah, I can't do anything with it," Harry coughed in reply. Paula finally got Harry's hair to stay in place with lots of Sleekezy's Hair potion. Next she took her wand and pointed it at Harry's eyes.
"Take off your glasses and try not to blink," She warned, "The last time that someone blinked their eyelids were blue for a few days. Challungo!" A blue spark shot out of her wand and hit Harry straight in the eye. His eye turned blue. She did that to his other eye and then he was finished. Harry pocketed his glasses, thinking that he could survive the night, even if everything was a little blurry.
"One more thing," Paula said, pointing her wand at Harry again, "Vocallinis!" Nothing happened. Harry opened his mouth to ask what that spell was for, but instead of his regular voice, he heard his voice with an American accent.
"Cool! Thanks!" Harry said, walking out of the booth.
"Goodbye dear!" Paula called, waving at him. Harry smiled and looked around to see where Ron and Hermione were, than he remembered that he probably wouldn't be able to recognize them. Harry went up to the Gryffindor room to see if he could recognize anyone.
Up in the Gryffindor common room there were a bunch of new faces. Everyone was looking around at everyone else. No one could recognize anyone else. When Harry came in several people ran up to him and asked, "Who are you?" Harry ignored them and walked up to his dorm. He changed out of his wizard robes and into a dark green, long sleeved shirt and beige pants. He took one look in the mirror and wondered who that brown haired boy was, before remembering that it was himself.
"I doubt that anyone will recognize me," Harry said to himself, "Not even James." Harry picked up his wand and his glasses, pocketed them and walked back down the stairs.
"Students!" Dumbledore said, "Please, serve yourself some food. Then we will begin the guessing!" All of the students started to pile food into their plates. Everyone was eating alone because hardly anyone knew who anyone else was, therefore not knowing if you were talking to your friend or your worst enemy. Harry ate a little and then looked around at everyone at the other tables. Over at the Slytherin table Crabbe and Goyle didn't' do a very good job of creating a new identity. Crabbe was wearing a wig that kept falling of his head and Goyle was wearing a fake nose. Harry tried to guess which people were Ron and Hermione.
That girl has sleek brown hair, Harry thought, but Hermione probably changed her hair color. That boy's tall, maybe it's Ron. But you can change your height with one curse. Hmmm… Finally he just gave up.
About thirty minutes later Dumbldore stood up again and addressed the students.
"Please, gather round the stage," Dumbledore said.
"What stage?" everyone cried. Dumbledore waved his wand and all of a sudden a small stage appeared in the middle of the room.
"OOOH!" Dumbledore raised his hand to silence everyone.
"We will be choosing one person at a time, please stand around the stage and please be quiet while we choose the person. The way we will be playing is sort of like 20 questions." Everyone gathered around the stage and gazed around the room and watched Professor McGonnagal choose someone. After a few minutes she led a girl with deep red hair and glasses up to the stage.
Dumbledore raised his hands to silence everyone once more, for many of them had started screaming questions at her.
"One at a time!" Dumbledore yelled. "In fact, I'll choose who'll ask the questions." Everyone raised their hands. Dumbledore pointed at someone.
"Are you in Hufflepuff!" asked one girl with a strong Australian accent.
The girl shook her head.
Dumbledore chose another person.
"Are you a Ravenclaw?"
The girl nodded. There was a murmur around the room.
"Are you Jolice?" Asked a boy.
"No," said the girl.
"How 'bout Katrielle?"
"No."
"Are you Lauren?"
"Lauren isn't even in Ravenclaw!"
"Yes she is!"
The girl answered no.
"How 'bout Padma?" One girl yelled.
"Yep!" The girl stepped down from the stage to thundering applause.
"Oh Bravo!" Dumbledore cried. "Who will be our next contestant?"
Eventually they had found out who numerous people were, Draco, Justin F-F, This one boy named Derrick, and Sean. After an hour or so the teachers set up a drink stand and people drank while they guessed. Harry went up and got a drink before going back to watch.
"What are you doing here?" James asked urgently to the man who had just apparated by his side.
"Making sure you're doing your job," said Lucius Malfoy. "Specific orders from the Dark Lord. He seems to think that your loyalty might waver."
"You're wasting your time," James snapped. "I'm going to do it as soon as I go up to the castle."
"Yes, but then you get to have the pleasure of finding Potter, and killing him in front of hundreds of witnesses. You might even get killed yourself. What a pity."
"What are you talking about?"
"It's Halloween James, all of the students and staff are in the Great Hall celebrating. It's not going to be easy finding your son."
James glared at Lucius.
"Let's go," James said coldly, walking up the Hogwarts grounds, pulling his dark cloak up close to his neck, and drawing his hood over his head.
Harry was watching a boy up on the stage when someone tapped him on the shoulder.
"Hey," whispered a voice in his ear. Harry turned around. Standing there in the shadows was a man in a dark cloak.
"Hey," the man said again, "You. Do you know where Potter is." Harry was about to tell the man that he was the person he was looking for, but he caught himself.
Harry lied and shook his head. He could recognize the voice. The man nodded and walked out of the room.
A girl came up next to him.
"Some party," She said, picking up a drink off of the table.
"Yeah," Harry said, not recognizing her voice at all.
"You having fun?"
Harry shrugged.
"I'm not really, I just learned that I was talking to the most annoying person in our class for half the evening." Harry chuckled.
Professor McGonnagal was searching for a new person. She pointed at Harry.
"You, get up there," She said. Harry set down his drink and walked up to the stage.
People immediately started guessing.
"Are you in Slytherin?"
"Are you Joshua?"
"WHO ARE YOU!"
Finally, when Dumbledore regained order, he pointed at someone to ask Harry a question.
"Are you in your second year?"
"Nope!"
"First year?"
"NO!"
"How about your seventh year?" The girl who Harry had been talking too earlier said.
"Nope."
"Sixth year?"
Harry nodded.
"Are you Jon!"
"I bet it's David."
"You guys aren't even close," Harry said.
"Are you Ron." Someone shouted.
"No."
"Crabbe?"
"Hell no!"
"What House are you in?"
"Are you in Slytherin?"
"No."
"Gryffindor?"
"Yep!"
Immediately everyone started yelling.
"Are you Dean!"
"I bet it's Colin!"
"Hello, he's a sixth year!"
"How 'bout Gregory?"
Harry's neck was getting tired from shaking his head so much.
After a few more people asked questions, Dumbledore raised his hands.
"Give us a hint!" Professor Dumbledore yelled.
Harry put his hand into his pocket and pulled out his glasses and put them on.
"HARRY!"
"That's Potter?"
"Boy he looks different."
"Of course he does."
Harry got down from the stage and walked back to where he had been standing. The girl had disappeared.
At midnight the party ended and Dumbledore sent everyone to bed, but not before returning everyone to their original form. Ron was revealed to be a regular sized blond haired person with no freckles. Hermione was a person with small glasses and long brownish-blond hair.
"That was fun," Ron yawned later that night when they were climbing into their beds.
"Yeah," Harry said, yawning. A few minutes later Ron's snores filled the air, and everyone in the dorm was asleep, except for one person.
"Ready," whispered a voice.
"Yeah, but I'm not the one doing this, you're the one who has to stab him," said another voice.
"I know," The door opened noiselessly and no one walked in (so it seemed.)
"You should do it in the lung."
"What?"
"So he can't cry out for help." James nodded and pulled out a long knife. He approached the bed that his son was laying in, sound asleep. He raised the knife and hesitated.
"Well, what are you doing? Get it over with!" James paused for a second before bringing the knife sweeping down and into his son's chest.
Harry's eyes snapped open and he made a sort of gurgling sound in his throat. He couldn't speak, he couldn't breath, and he could feel the blood trickling out of the wound.
He looked wildly around the room and his eyes landed on James. James pulled the knife out of Harry's chest and stepped back. Harry's eye lids fluttered and he tried to cry out for help once more. But it was no use. Harry's eyes closed and a few drops of blood fell onto the floor.