Here's chapter two! It's a couple of days later than chapter one, FYI. I hope it's as good as all you readers out there say it is. Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or anything associated with it.
*****
Counterpart
Chapter 2-Lessons
By KZerina
Hermione sat curled up in a common room chair, her bandy-legged, fluffy, orange cat curled up in her lap. She held her Transfiguration book up to her face, studying the chapters on human transfiguration.
Crookshanks became bored and jumped down to explore the room and what it contained that he could chase. Soon, however, he began to hiss, spit, and yowl. Hermione looked up to see what he was doing. He had stopped in front of Harry and seemed horribly disgusted at him.
Hermione closed her book and scooped up her disgruntled cat, heading upstairs to her dormitory. "I know, Crookshanks," she whispered once out of earshot of the common room. "There's something wrong with Harry."
She set the cat on her bed and stroked his wild, ginger fur. She stretched out on her bed next to her cat and tried to study, but now that Crookshanks had put her attention on the clone, all she could think of was Harry. She knew he wasn't under the Imperious Curse since he could fight it, like he had in Defense Against the Dark Arts the previous school year. She was pretty sure it was some sort of naïve clone, because if it were Harry, he wouldn't be able to look evil, like at breakfast a few mornings prior, even if he was brainwashed. She wanted to help Harry, but she couldn't figure out how.
"Hermione, Earth to Hermione."
Parvati's voice snapped Hermione out of her trance.
"Are you all right? You look like you're about to cry."
"I feel like that, too. You wouldn't understand though, and I don't really want to talk about it."
Both Parvati and Lavender looked rejected. However, Delia Osbourne, a dorm mate with whom Hermione hardly ever talked, pointed out an owl tapping on the glass of the window. Hermione, recognizing Hedwig instantly, nearly pounced at the window, ripping it open and letting the snowy owl into the room. She tore Sirius's letter from the owl's leg and sent her up to the owlery where Hermione said she would meet her.
Stuffing the letter into a pocket of her robes, Hermione grabbed parchment, a quill, and ink. She rushed out of the dormitory, ignoring Parvati and Lavender's squeals about Harry sending her a letter.
In the common room, she found that Ron and Harry's double were gone. She hoped they had gone upstairs to the boys' dormitory to study. He should at least keep Harry's grades up. After all, he was the Dark Lord's servant. What would be thought of him if he didn't make good grades?
Hermione was about to open the owlery door when she heard voices coming from inside. One was unmistakably Ron's.
"What?! You're sending him where?!"
"Obliviate!"
"Bye, Pig!"
Hermione drew in a heavy breath. Harry's double had just used Ron's owl to send a message, probably to the Dark Lord himself. Hermione hoped with all her heart that she could skate through without him noticing that she had heard him use a powerful memory charm on Ron.
She opened the door tentatively and stepped through just as the two boys turned to leave. The clone watched her carefully.
"Can I help you?" Hermione asked him indignantly. "A girl can owl a letter without disturbance, can't she?"
"Probably with my owl."
"You never cared before."
"You two never fight," Ron pointed out. "Why now?"
Both Hermione and Harry's double glared at Ron, and he immediately quailed back from them. They exchanged an intense stare before the clone grabbed Ron's collar and stalked out with him.
Hermione felt like crying. She didn't know what could have happened to the real Harry Potter, her Harry. He could be dead, or if the Dark Lord had taken control of Azkaban's Dementors, he could be worse off than dead. A horrible feeling arose in the pit of her stomach. What if he had been Kissed? No, she couldn't think these things. If she did then she might start to believe them.
She wiped a small tear from her face and called Hedwig over. Hermione, with Hedwig on her knee, sat on the floor and read Sirius's letter aloud to the owl.
Hermione,
This is strange news. I'm coming to you. When's your next Hogsmeade visit? I'll meet you there at the fence. I want to meet this "Harry" for myself. I promise I won't get caught.
Sirius
Hermione pulled out the parchment, ink, and quill and wrote a short reply. Hedwig snatched the letter in her beak and flew out the window with it.
Hermione watched as the owl became a small white speck in the night sky before turning out of the owlery and heading to Professor Dumbledore's office, remembering the way with very little difficulty.
Soon she arrived at the gargoyle. Her mind was filled with a great deal of worrisome subjects.
"Lemon solvent. No wait that's the bathroom," she said so flustered she said the wrong password. "Gryffin's talon. No that's the Tower! Come on, Hermione. Pull yourself together. What did Professor Dumbledore say the other day? Oh! Right! Sugar Quill!"
The gargoyle pounced aside, and Hermione stepped onto the staircase. She ran up two stairs at a time while the stairs were moving, making her reach the door to the Headmaster's office even more quickly. She reached up to knock, but as her hand was about to hit the door, it opened, and there stood the Headmaster welcoming her.
"Hello, Hermione," he greeted. "You seem flustered. Would you like to tell me something?"
"That's why I came, Professor. It's about Harry. I've figured out that it's probably some sort of a clone by the way he's acting."
"How so?"
"Well, if some part of our Harry was still there somewhere, he wouldn't be able to look evil. He'd also be fighting whatever it was that was controlling him, and when I was replying to Sirius," she handed Dumbledore the letter she'd received from Sirius. "I heard him send a letter with Ron's owl and Obliviate Ron."
"Do you think there is any way to get a hold of Voldemort's reply if there is one?"
"I could try, but I'd have to think about how. I think he knows I'm on to him."
"Very well, then. Do your best. Good luck."
"Thank you, Professor."
With that, she went out the door, down the stairs, and back to her dormitory. She went straight to bed since she knew studying was impossible. She'd never be able to concentrate properly. Her mind was stuck on Harry, and she couldn't get it off, no matter how hard she tried. She found it better to just go to sleep and dream about him, than to lie on her bed and make herself cry over him by thinking of his possible conditions, so she did.
*****
A small silver platter had been slid across the cold floor, through the bars of Harry's cell. It held several small loaves of bread and a pile of very lumpy mashed potatoes. Harry studied the food carefully before kicking it as far away from him as it could possibly go without slamming into something.
"Come now, Potter," his guard sneered. "You must be hungry."
"I'm not eating anything you or anyone else here gives me. I wouldn't be surprised if it was poisoned."
"No, Harry, it's not poisoned. I need you to continue my plan."
Harry's scar burst with pain. Voldemort had spoken. Harry gritted his teeth and bore the pain.
"Surely you must be hungry, Harry."
He was very hungry, but he'd been starved before by the Dursleys. He would be able to go without food for a while. He glared up at Voldemort, jaws still clenched so tightly that his teeth were beginning to hurt.
"Very well. Starve yourself," Voldemort said, clearly annoyed. "It's only hurting you."
He began to stalk out when he stopped and whispered to one of his minions.
"Remember, don't touch him, especially with magic. You know that it will do the same to our Hogwarts informant. So don't."
Harry acted as though he hadn't heard this. He lay down on the lumpy bunk and snubbed the food that continued to sit on the other side of his cell. A different guard took his place outside the semi-public room and watched Harry unceasingly. This man hardly ever blinked as he did so.
Finally, it grew dark. Harry's stomach was giving off somewhat embarrassing groans of hunger that Harry refused to appease. He laid his head on his pillow and sleep went over his body along with a dreamless night.
The next morning, he found a different plate of food by his bed as he woke up and pushed it away as he had done the previous dinner. The Death Eater sneered at him, but did nothing.
Harry sat up and swung his feet to the floor and leaned on his knees, fiddling with the hem of his Quidditch robes. There wasn't much else to do but stare at the ground and fidget. Maybe, if he concentrated hard enough and put all his effort into it, he could do some controlled wandless magic.
He thought he'd try a simple levitation spell at first. He looked at one if the meager rolls on the plate on the other side of the cell. He cleared his mind of everything but that roll and making it levitate. After a while of failure, his head began to ache, and his stomach growled horribly. The hunger was almost too much to bear, but he fought it and rested, trying to ease his headache.
*****
"Miss Granger, I really wish you would pay attention in my class," Professor McGonagall told her sternly. "This really isn't like you. Please see me after class."
"Yes, Professor. I'm sorry."
Hermione was having a terrible time concentrating on anything. She was wishing that Harry wasn't so popular with the dark wizards in Britain. She pulled her attention from this subject with a great deal of effort, but was finally able to keep up with the lesson which was soon over.
As the professor had requested, Hermione approached her desk after the rest of the students had left the classroom. She was ashamed of what had happened, but she knew that it would continue to be difficult to concentrate; luckily she didn't have Potions that day.
"Miss Granger, might I ask what's going on? You are one of the last people I'd expect to leave my class while still being physically present. There is something wrong, and if it is possible, I'd like to help."
"Well, Professor," Hermione started hesitantly, "it's hard to explain, or even believe for that matter."
"Please, try."
"I'm worried about Harry. He could be dead, Professor, and it's hard to concentrate."
"Miss Granger, he's not anywhere near dead. He was sitting right behind you in class today."
Hermione sighed and stared at the ground solemnly. "No, Professor. That's not Harry. He doesn't act properly, and Hedwig can't stand him. It's not Harry. I know it."
"Very well, then, Miss Granger. It seems I can't help any. I wish you good luck in figuring out this mystery. If there is anything I can do to help, please, don't be afraid to ask. I'll do what I can."
"Thank you, Professor," Hermione said and left the room and headed to lunch.
After eating by herself, Hermione headed off to the library to research more on magical clones. She found several ways to create one, but a few conditions fit with all of them. One was that the clone would have to drink a potion in order to continue to exist. Another was that whatever magic performed on either the clone or the original would happen to the other, though physical assault was possible, but not recommended since the clone rejuvenation potion required recently live tissue from the original specimen.
This information was somewhat comforting. This told her he was probably still alive since the clone would need his tissue to stay alive. Hermione could sleep a little more soundly during the upcoming nights.
She also found that the clone would be totally loyal to his creator, in this case, Voldemort. Hermione sighed and closed the book with the page dog-eared. She approached Madam Pince and checked it out so she could present the information to Professor Dumbledore after dinner.
The headmaster took the book and said he would take it to Snape and see how a person would go about making the clone rejuvenation potion. If he knew, they might be able to get somewhere with the information.
Hermione thanked him and headed back towards the common room. On her way, she heard angry voices in the hall to the fork opposite the direction of Gryffindor Tower. Curiosity taking the better of her, she sneaked down the hall and remained unnoticed by either of the boys. One was Draco Malfoy, the other, Harry's clone.
"Don't mess with me, Draco. You know what's going on, don't you?"
Draco, who was being held up off the ground and against the wall by the shoulders of his robes, nodded weakly with a slight squeak.
"Good, then you won't mess with me, will you?"
Draco squeaked again with a shake of his head this time. The clone dropped Draco to the ground where he fell to his knees at the clone's feet.
"Get out of here," the clone sneered maliciously as Draco scampered away.
Hermione slid back into the wall and hid behind a statue. The clone passed by without even glimpsing her. She sat on the floor and ran her fingers through her hair. She was glad she was avoiding the clone. She didn't think she would be able to stand him if she still thought it was Harry, and there would have been some serious fights between them that would have hurt her more than anything.
She sighed and picked herself up off the cold, stone floor and went back to the common room as she had originally planned. She slipped to bed inconspicuously and hoped more than ever that they could get the real Harry, her Harry, back soon.
*****
So, kind of interesting, I think. You? I hope so. Please tell me in a review whether you did or you didn't, but flames shall be used to light candles as the Christmas/ Hanukkah/ Kwanzaa/ any other holiday seasons approach.
I'm glad for the response that I received from reviewers. I have never had that many reviews for one chapter before. Thanks to all of you!
Notes to the reviewers:
Moonlight: Glad you liked. Hope you liked this as well.
Sky Chief: I agree, it's weird to have a random person walking around acting as someone else and being so out of whack that it becomes stupid and annoying.
Thanks for the constructive criticism, and my sister mentioned that too when she read it. What's going on is that I was focusing on Hermione and she didn't notice Ginny's reaction and in the Great Hall she wasn't paying attention to Ron (not like anyone does) and I'm not so sure he wasn't stuffing his face rather than talking, but I guess I could have mentioned that. Thanks for the information and I hope I did better in this chapter. If I didn't say something and I'll try to incorporate it in chapter 3.
JediHermione: Intrigue is good. ^.^ I'm flattered that I'm on your favorite authors list. Thanks!
Harry and Hermione's Daughter (Gemini): Standards are just what you like and a weird way of putting it. Hope you liked this chapter too! Also, congratulations, you are the first reviewer to review one on my stories twice! Thank you!
Richelle: Yes, it is H/H. And I am a solid H/H fan that can hardly stand anything else.
TrueFan: More is to come after this too. Hope you enjoyed this chapter.
Centra-gal86: I understand that you like this. That very long "great" was a nice touch to the review. I don't usually get a big chance to update but thanks to Thanksgiving break I finished this chapter sooner than I expected.
So, thanks to all of those who took the time to read this and review it! It is much appreciated. It makes me feel like writing more and getting the story out sooner, because I know people are reading it.
Again I ask for constructive criticism if you have it, and any questions you have I'll answer as soon as I can.
KZerina ^..^