Identity Crisis
Chapter 22
Harry stretched out his arm in the direction where his wand was lying. Under the gazes of the utterly shocked Rangers, it leapt up from the ground and zoomed into his hand. He allowed himself a brief smile of satisfaction at his feat. A wand-less Summoning Charm, like the ones Wolfe so often used.
Knowing he didn't have much time before the double would emerge from the lake, he sprinted over to Wolfe, boosting his speed with a Celeritas Charm…also wand-less and unvoiced. "Wolfe…are you okay?"
Wolfe's eyes bored into his own. "It's really you," he stated flatly, gasping for breath.
Harry nodded.
"Then who is that?" The tall Ranger nodded towards the lake, which had started to bubble violently in the area where the double had plunged down.
"Speculum Demon, from the mirror realm. That's where I've been all this time. I had to wait for today's eclipse to get out."
Wolfe's eyes told Harry that his answer had only caused more questions to surface in Wolfe's mind. But he didn't have the time to explain, for the bubbling indicated that the Demon had nearly risen to the surface. From his peripheral vision, he saw his red-faced companion from the mirror realm, panting and clutching his sides. "Go to him. He'll give you a restorative drink. You'll feel as good as new in seconds. Then I want you to go to Professor McGonagall, and tell her to get Godric Gryffindor's sword."
Harry handed Wolfe's wand back to him. "Thanks for the loan, and keep Bill there safe!" he added, gesturing towards the old man. "If I don't win this fight, he'll be able to explain what happened."
Wolfe eyed the old man curiously, before he nodded and stumbled over to him.
Then, fixing his stare on the lake, Harry extended his own wand and slowly began to walk towards it. He knew that he needed to concentrate if he was going to beat this demon. Obviously, it had opted to undergo transformations similar to the ones Voldemort had undergone, and had become much more powerful for it. If he wanted to emerge victorious, he needed to apply everything that he'd been taught in the mirror realm.
The Speculum Demon shot out of the lake like a rocket, and landed on the gentle waves. Then, like some twisted mockery of a holy man, he walked over the surface of the water, towards the shore.
Having performed the Oculus Reparus Charm on himself after his arrival in Africa, his eyes were now sharp enough to see that the demon wasn't actually walking on water, for he could see a patch of ice precede the Demon before it took a step. Harry was glad to see that it was trickery, because he didn't know whether he'd be able to defeat a being that could actually walk over a liquid surface. He immediately realised that that was the reason behind the Demon's show. Intimidation!
The demon sneered after it set foot on solid ground once more. "Well…well. Welcome back, brother!"
"This realm is only big enough for one of me," Harry replied evenly.
The demon shook his head mockingly. "Harry…Harry…Harry! First of all, you can't defeat me. I'm infinitely more powerful than you."
"Funny you should mention that. I'm the one holding the wand."
The Demon began cackling maniacally. "A good thing Wolfe taught us the merit of two wands, eh Harry?"
With incredible speed, the demon's hand had darted behind his back, and half a heartbeat later he had a new wand pointed at Harry. Not just any wand…but thirteen and a half inches of yew that caused a shiver to run down Harry's spine. He had no doubt what the core of that wand had to be. But that was impossible. Surely the Ministry of Magic had had enough sense to destroy it…Harry shook his head. Of course they hadn't. They had probably been terrified to touch that wand.
"Yes…my associates have been kind enough to provide me with a second wand…just in case. Never thought I'd be using this one, but it turns out it works even better." The Demon chuckled, giving the wand a casual flick that trailed reddish sparks through the air, proving his point.
The implications of the sparks increased Harry's unease. The wand had chosen a new master…an evil copy of himself. The realisation that he could be so similar to Voldemort filled him with dread. Tom Riddle and Dumbledore had both been right, that day that he'd saved Ginny in the Chamber of Secrets. Ginny…Harry shoved her to the back of his mind. He couldn't afford the distraction right now. His opponent was more powerful than any other he'd ever faced…More powerful than Voldemort or Hannibal Skaras.
"We are the same, you and I! We don't have to fight each other. Think of the things we can do together!" the Demon said in a surprisingly gentle tone.
"I'm nothing like you!" Harry growled. "You're the spawn of evil. You have no choice but to do evil!"
The demon grinned. "Oh, but you are like me. I am what you could have been. Ask yourself…brother… why you are doing this…why you chose the path of a hero." He uttered the last word with mocking contempt as he gestured to the castle.
"People don't like heroes…brother!" he continued. "In spite of everything you've done for them, they were all more than willing to believe that I was you!" He ran a finger over the yew wand. "I had nothing to do with the attack in which this beauty was retrieved. I hadn't been in league with my associates yet. But…"
He flicked the wand and several pages on the Daily Prophet seemed to shoot out of the wand toward Harry, who read them carefully, all the while keeping an eye on the Demon, alert for any sudden movement.
The headlines read: Petra Devastator and New Dark Lord, Harry Potter, masterminds attacks in four countries. By Rita Skeeter.
"Imagine my surprise when I read that." The Demon chortled. "And that is just one of many. Accept my truce, and I will show you many more like it. Like I said, no matter what you did for them, it took just one little event to make them hate you all over again. All you have to do is lose your inhibitions and tap into your full potential. Then, you can take whatever you want! We can rule the world!"
Harry waved his wand to banish the front-page image. "Nice try."
"You think I'm lying?" The Demon smirked. "Why don't you ask your friends about it then? Go ahead… I'll give you a couple of minutes!"
Harry swallowed. Even though the Demon was evil spawn, he had a hard time ignoring its words. He knew the Demon was probably telling the truth, but Harry clung to the fact that his own friends would never have believed it. "It doesn't matter what they think about me. The people I care about would never believe those allegations."
"The same people that turned their backs on you? Do you know whose wedding we're at?" The Demon laughed sadistically. "The girl you love is marrying your enemy. Looks like she got over that little crush after all, eh? But you have the power to kill him, and take her and everything else you could want in life! Let yourself go."
Harry forced a smile onto his face. "And what would that be worth? I've seen what power does, and I've seen what power costs. The one is never equal to the other." But deep down, he felt like crying. Ginny had got over him. For the first time, he began to doubt that he could win this fight.
*
"We could arm our Curse Capsules and blow them both to bits, just to be sure," Khan whispered to Captain Faust.
Hermione balled her fists and resisted the urge to knee Khan in the crotch. "No! The other one isn't really Harry. Harry's the one with the armour…he's the good one. I know it! He removed the Freezing Curse from us, remember?"
Faust seemed to hesitate. "Are you willing to stake all our lives on that…and their lives?" He nodded to the frightened people at the entrance of the castle. Ginny was visibly shaking in her mother's arms. Malfoy was nowhere to be seen.
Hermione nodded. "Yes!"
Faust exhaled and nodded slowly. "All right! Go up to the castle. I can't use you down here anymore. It's too dangerous. I don't know what will happen if those two start fighting," he said as he gazed at the two Harrys. "That is an order," he added, as he saw that Hermione was about to protest.
Hermione clenched her jaw shut and looked around instead. Ron, Charlie and the Aurors were waiting for her decision. If she'd stay, they'd stay. So she nodded, and the Aurors turned on their heels and went back to the castle while the senior Auror remained. Then Hermione's gaze swept across the stunned bodies of the attackers, and she spotted the woman who'd saved Charlie's life, struggling to get to her feet. She aimed her wand. "Accio…Max's sister!" she said, unable to think of a better definition.
The young woman lurched to into the air and hurtled toward Hermione. She came to a hovering stop a few feet in front of Hermione.
"Max's sister?" Captain Faust frowned.
Hermione nodded. "Very long story. You'd better survive if you want to hear it!" she said, before leaving the dumbfounded German behind as she levitated the woman next to her.
"Wanda!" Charlie cried, as he and Ron rushed over to Hermione.
The woman gave him a weak smile. "Charlie!"
Charlie grabbed her out of the air and cradled her in his strong arms as he, Ron, Hermione and the Auror continued towards the castle. "What's wrong? Which curse hit you?"
"Don't…know!" she mumbled. "Portkey…on my wrist…on their wrist…ten minutes…go back!"
Ron checked both her wrists, and saw the yellow band, pulling it off.
All of the sudden, the woman seemed more alert. "It's gone…I feel fine!" Then she looked at the Portkey band in Ron's hand. "Undead son of a… He set me up!" she began to rattle. "Oh Charlie, I'm so sorry! I knew it was wrong to work for Anastasiou, especially after I met you. I knew he did bad things, but he took me after my parents were killed, and I had no reason to doubt his word, but I knew he was hiding something from me, and I tried to leave him, but he's got Charlie hostage to make sure that I wouldn't leave and…"
"Charlie's right here." Ron frowned, looking completely puzzled.
"Not him…my son." she said, looking at Charlie with tearful eyes. "Our son."
Charlie stopped walking. "I have a son?"
"I was with child when I left Romania," she sobbed.
"But why did you leave me?" Charlie groaned. "You could have been honest, I wouldn't have turned away from you… I have a son?"
"Anastasiou would have found me anyway… and killed you!" she wailed. "He's going to kill Charlie now…give me that Portkey… I have to return; he will kill my son if I don't. Why did you summon me?"
"Come on. We have to take her up to the castle," Hermione said and grabbed the hysterical woman's hand, patting it in an effort to calm her down. "Don't worry. Everything will be all right…you said your name was Wanda?"
"Actually, my name is Selene," the woman said shyly.
Charlie stopped again. "You didn't tell me you real name? So when you told me that you loved me, was that a lie too?"
"This isn't the time to sort out your love life, Charlie," Ron said. "Wanda…Selene…the reason Hermione summoned you is because you're Wolfe's sister."
"Who's Wolfe?"
"Read Hermione's mind!" Ron said. "I understand you mind readers can gather information much faster that way."
"How…did you know?" Selene gasped.
"The gift runs in your family. You have a twin brother… oh, just read my mind!" Hermione huffed, running out of patience.
Selene nodded and looked into Hermione's eyes, and Hermione tried her best not to blink, fearful that she might break the connection if she did, as she let all the relevant information rise to the surface of her thoughts.
"He…lied to me!" Selene said after half a minute, and started sobbing. "Anastasiou…He killed my mother…he used me!" Her eyes widened in panic. "Charlie…your sister, we have to find her! She can't marry Malfoy! He's a creep. He doesn't really love her. He just wants her as a brood mare. I know, I read his mind on several occasions."
"Did you happen to read how he manages to baffle Sneakoscopes?" Ron asked, looking very interested all of the sudden.
Selene shook her head. "I know he owns a talisman that allows him to do so, but I got that information from one of the other people who'd been watching Draco Malfoy for Anastasiou. I don't know what it looks like."
"Why have they been watching Malfoy?" Charlie asked.
"Because the wanted to recruit him. In fact, I was personally sent to invite him to join Anastasiou's organisation, and he didn't really resist that much. Not that he'd had much choice, but he hadn't seemed repulsed by the idea. He told me he wanted Anastasiou's people to kill Percy Weasley. At the time…I didn't make the connection to you. But when I did, I tried even harder to get away from Anastasiou."
Hermione's heart rate sped up considerably. They had Malfoy now! But there was still that other issue. "Ginny seemed to have been just about ready to cancel the wedding a couple of weeks ago. Then Malfoy shows up at her doorstep and she changes her mind overnight. Do you know how he managed that?"
"Was this the day he went into hiding?"
Charlie nodded.
"Well, he did meet with Cyrus Hague the day he went into hiding, but he was Polyjuiced. Anastasiou's men got the information out of Hague. He sold Malfoy magical sleeping powder with its counteragent, and a ring that had been turned into an enslavement collar."
"Cyrus the Virus?" The Auror…Perkins…asked.
"Hague the plague?" Charlie frowned.
Hermione balled her fists in frustration. Ginny had been searched for such a thing, but she hadn't been wearing any new jewellery. Only the ring that Harry had… She gasped. "Son of a…" Of course…how could I have missed it? We've been looking for new jewellery, but I bet that ring was an exact replica of Harry's!"
"Did you catch that, Perkins?" Charlie growled, looking at the Auror a few paces behind them.
The wizard nodded grimly. "Possession of illegal dark-magical artefacts, including an enslavement ring, which counts as an unforgivable! Ties to a criminal organisation…conspiracy to murder."
"Did I mention that he amassed a small fortune with the smuggling of dark artefacts? He's got it stashed in Petra," Selene added.
No one could comment on that, because a huge explosion took place behind them, rocking the earth. They were blown down by the shock wave that rolled over the grounds. Hermione tuned around and saw the monster sneering, its wand aimed at the place Harry had been standing, which was now surrounded by huge dust cloud.
A golden figure leapt out of the cloud as if gravity didn't apply to him, shooting a curse at his monstrous opponent, who dodged just in time, causing the curse to slam into the lake. A hundred-foot column of water shot upwards, forming a brief rainbow as the vast amount of water reflected the sun as it came down.
Hermione's mouth opened in awe as Harry landed nearly a hundred a feet away. She'd only seen Wolfe perform feats like that. She'd had no idea that Harry, too, was able to do them.
Harry had barely touched down, before he had to leap aside again, this time to dodge the green beam of the Killing Curse. In mid-air, he shot the same curse back at the impostor, who dodged as well. This told Hermione that neither could merely shrug off the most powerful curse.
Then they both shot the Killing Curse at the same time…the spells connecting in mid-air. A bright beam connected the two wands, and more lines emerged out of the first beam, forming a cage of light around them. Hermione then realised that the impostor was using Voldemort's wand, remembering Harry's explanation about the occurrence of Priori Incantantem when two brother wands were forced to battle one another.
She focussed on the bead of light in the beam, seeing it sit in the middle of Harry and the impostor. Then, the bead started moving towards Harry, whose arms began to shake violently.
*
Harry couldn't believe the power the demon had acquired. The bead came closer and closer to his wand, which began to shake uncontrollably even when he held it in both hands. Meanwhile, the Demon merely held his wand in one hand with ease, an evil glint in those red eyes. Then the unthinkable happened…the bead connected with his wand, which began to shake even more, and now he was unable to remove his hands from the wand even if he wanted to.
Smokey shadows started to pour out of his wand and drift upwards… the spells he'd used. Then, another shadow started to come out…more slowly this time. Harry's heart felt like it had turned to ice. It was the image of an old woman in wizard's robes, and she raised her nose in the air.
"I hope you two wipe each other out!" she snapped, her voice sounding distant. The next shadow to come out was a very corpulent and oddly familiar one. No…it couldn't be…"Uncle Vernon?" Harry said through clenched teeth.
"Yes…the fat Muggle!" the Demon said blithely. "Tortured him a bit first."
Harry barely restrained the urge to vomit. Did this mean that Dudley and Aunt Petunia would be coming out next?
"Oh, due to the meddling of our former fellow Rangers, I didn't get the chance to put dear cousin Dudley and Petunia out of their misery." the Demon said as if he'd been reading Harry's mind. "Not to worry, though. Their time will come. But I think I'll kill the Weasleys first!"
"No…" Harry groaned as another shadow emerged from his wand. He recognised Omar Saleh. Then another shadow came out…and another. All the people who had been killed by the Demon and it was entirely his fault. They looked at him with blank expressions on their faces. He wanted to tell them he was sorry, but what good would that do? It wouldn't bring them back…If he'd listened to the caretakers, none of this would have happened. Tears began to leak out of his eyes as the guilt tore his insides apart. His strength was ebbing. He didn't want to go on. But he had to. He couldn't let the monster hurt the people he cared about.
That thought gave him second wind, and he forced the effect of the Priori Incantantem out of his wand. No more shadows came out of his wand, as he forced the bead to crawl towards the Demon…inch by inch. He couldn't break the connection…he had to hold on for his friends' sakes…for the sake of the whole world.
He roared in anger as he forced the bead to slide along the beam faster and faster. The Demon was unable to turn it around, and the bead connected with Voldemort's wand. The shadows of the previous curses came out first. And nothing could have prepared Harry for what was about to come.
He'd never exactly known how Sirius had been killed, or who had killed him. Voldemort had gloated about it, of course. He'd gloated about killing Dumbledore and Hagrid as well. But Harry had never been sure. When their ghosts tumbled out of the wand, one after another, the emotional strain nearly caused him to black out. It seemed they had been the last three people who had been personally killed by Voldemort.
Hagrid's giant shadow loomed over him behind Dumbledore and Sirius' shadows. "Hang on, lad!"
"Harry…what is happening?" Dumbledore asked. "That isn't Voldemort."
"Speculum Demon…Mirror Realm," Harry managed to choke out, and the tears began cascading down his cheeks once more. His arms had gone numb, but by some miracle he was still able to hold onto the wand. And now, it was the Demon who couldn't let go.
"You've been to the Mirror Realm?" Dumbledore asked.
"Should've listened to caretakers," Harry grunted. "They told me not to seek out the portal that could take me here. They told me to wait for the eclipse instead. But I didn't listen. I'm responsible for the existence of that thing! All these people are dead…it's my fault."
"No!" Sirius said sternly.
Harry shook his head. "My fault."
"If you want to blame yourself, then blame me for your parents!" Sirius said, the distant quality somehow not detracting the sharpness from the statement.
"Not…same!" Harry gasped. How could Sirius say such a thing? It had been Wormtail's fault, after all.
"Exactly the same!" Sirius replied. "I made my choice by making Wormtail your parents' secret-keeper, against your father's wishes. But we both know I couldn't have foreseen the consequences. Believe me when I tell you that wallowing in self-pity won't help. You chose to take your own path, as I did, and it had consequences. Face them!"
One of the shadows who had been standing in the periphery of the light-cage, a wizened old witch, stepped forward. She nodded to the demon. "It killed me in Petra… you did not. Do not let our deaths drag behind you, like chains of your own making. That can have terrible power over you. Forgive yourself."
"For letting you die?"
The shadow shook her head. "For being alive."
"Touching!" the Demon roared. "Unfortunately Harry won't have a lot of time to dwell on your pathetic advice because this ends now!"
A great boulder ripped itself out of the ground, and smashed into Harry. Had it not been for his armour, he would have been a bloody stain on the side of the boulder, but the damage had been done. The force of the blow had broken ribs and ruptured organs beneath the armour. It had absorbed some of the force of the blow, but it had been charmed to repel curses, rather than physical attacks.
Harry's wand slipped out of his fingers and the connection broke. Seconds later, all the shadows dissolved into nothingness.
*
Something wasn't quite right, but she didn't know what it was. And there were two Harrys?
The evil Harry suddenly let loose a massive Reductor Curse, and Harry didn't get away in time. The explosion engulfed him, sending chunks of earth and rock catapulted in the air. The debris rained down and destroyed many of the castle's windows. The shock wave created by the attack blew down the Rangers on the grounds, and some of the people around her staggered as well. Her ceremonial veil was whisked off her face by the wind.
Then she saw Harry rise out of the dust cloud and shoot a green beam at the Evil Harry, who deftly evaded it and returned the attack just as Harry was touching down. Harry again leapt aside, and both then fired at the same time, their spells connecting.
Ginny had only heard about the event, which followed… what would happen if brother wands fought one another. Many lines emerged from the one that connected the wands, forming a strange cage of light.
"Ginny…it isn't safe…we have to go inside!" she heard her mother shout. But the voice sounded distant to Ginny. She had trouble concentrating and her mind felt like it was all fogged up. A thought was lost in the fog, and was trying to find its way out, but the burning sensation around her finger kept tugging her mind in a different direction. But it was wrong! Something wasn't right.
She looked around for Draco. She saw Wolfe scooping a flustered-looking Professor McGonagall into his arms and bolting into the castle at an incredible speed, leaving behind an older man, dressed in what looked like Muggle cowboy clothing.
Hermione, Ron, an Auror and Charlie were coming towards her. Charlie was carrying one of the people who had attacked them…a woman. But she wasn't acting hostile even though she was conscious. That didn't make any sense at all. In fact, she looked really cosy in Charlie's arms, and she was urgently talking to her escorts.
Again she searched for Draco, but he wasn't anywhere in sight. Somehow, she wasn't at all surprised by it, and that thought increased the burning sensation in her finger. It had really started to hurt, causing Ginny to look at her hand. The ring was smoking and turning black.
"Oh, no…Harry!" she heard her mother gasp, and Professor Lupin, standing beside them, howled. Ginny turned her attention back towards the duel. Harry was on the ground and some shadowy figures were dissipating quickly. Harry was terribly hurt, and she couldn't bear to see him like that. She loved him…The fog in her mind cleared instantly, and the burning around finger her ceased. She looked at her hand and saw the ring turn to dust on her blistered finger.
"Harry!" she wailed. Ripping herself away from her mother, she stormed onto the ground and ran towards Harry as fast as her legs would carry her, not caring that every step took her closer and closer to the terrible monster… the evil Harry, who had to be some sort of impostor. Ginny ducked beneath the arms of a particularly large Ranger who tried to stop her and continued towards Harry.
She dropped to her knees beside his broken body and looked into his glazed eyes. "Harry…please don't die," she sobbed, taking her hem of her dress and wiping away the blood was oozing from his mouth.
"Gin?" he whispered
"I'm here. I won't leave you…" She bent down and kissed him on the lips. "I love you so much…I don't know what came over me."
"Gin!" Harry simply repeated, staring off into space.
The heart-wrenching realisation that he was simply delirious and couldn't actually see her drove Ginny out of her mind with grief. He was calling out her name, but he didn't know she was right there beside him. He'd die, not knowing how much she loved him.
"Come here to die?" a cold voice asked.
Ginny looked up into the pale, snakelike face with the lightning scar in its forehead. "You won't get away with this!" she drew her wand out of the sleeve of her dress.
"Oh, and you are going to kill me, I suppose?" the monster cackled. "What are you going to do? Scare me to death with that Weasley temper? Or are you hoping that I'll kill you, so you can join Harry?"
Ginny thrust out her wand. She didn't care if the Curse would bounce back and kill her. She had to try… "Avada Ke…chhhhuurggh."
The monster was making a clutching gesture with its bony hand. "What's the matter, having trouble saying the incantation? A bit out of breath, are you?" it cackled. "I don't think I'll kill you. No…I'd be doing you a favour, wouldn't I?"
Tears streamed down Ginny's face, but she did her best to give the monster a defiant look.
"Expelliarmus!" A dozen voices roared out, and the monster's red eyes widened as a bunch of spells converged on it, making it lose its magical grip on Ginny and sent it skidding a few yards back. But it had managed to hold onto its wand. Ginny glanced over her shoulder and saw the Rangers glaring at the monster.
"Pathetic!" it roared. "Is this the best the Order of Illumination can do?" It extended its wand and shot an unvoiced curse in the general direction of the Rangers, who scattered to avoid it.
The power of the blast threw Ginny down, and she fell next to Harry, who had lost consciousness and was looking deathly pale. He wasn't breathing any longer!
***
