Doppelganger
Part VII: The Landing
By Krystiana
krissy@zahadum.com
Disclaimer: Don't own. Don't sue. (aka HP and all other characters belong to JKR and whole bunch of other people, blah, blah, blah...)
Warnings: This chapter is pretty much PG, actually. Very tame.
Archive: My site (), FanFiction.net, Noire Sensus (if they should somehow get a hold of this), Schnoogle (eventually). Anywhere else, please e-mail me first. ^_^
This story is in no way related to my other HP work in progress, "The Dark." This is just an idea that has been in my brain for a LONG time, and I finally came up with a way for it to happen. I may not continue it, depending on the response I get. The idea will be quite happy with either becoming an actual fic or staying in my brain. In other words, let me know what you think.
This chapter was a nightmare, and ze great beta, Emma Grant turned it all around for me. It's really, really appreciated. She's helping me keep my thoughts straight. O.o
Harry reached out for the snitch as Draco was about to score another goal. Harry knew he could keep his eyes on the snitch, and Ginny Weasley could not keep up with him. Harry was delaying catching the snitch so the score would be higher. Just wait a few more seconds…
"Slytherin scores!"
Harry stretched his arm out just a bit further to close his fingers around the tiny golden ball…
"HARRY!"
His vision went white, and a sound of rushing water filled his ears. Harry felt as if he was floating down the middle of a waterfall, and he flooded with panic.
He opened his mouth to yell Draco's name, but no sound came out.
Quite suddenly, he landed. It wasn't a harsh landing, just shocking.
Harry stared straight ahead for a few seconds, waiting for his vision to clear. A blue sky and a few clouds began fading in, and he sat up.
Lying right across from him was… himself.
That blasted Gryffindor reflection of his, who was telling him that his life was wrong…
His eyes narrowed, and he stood up, grasping his broom in one hand. He slowly began walking towards that twin of his on the ground…
With a quick twisting of his wrist, his wand fell out of his sleeve and into his right hand. Standing over his double, he pointed his wand at his forehead, staring down at him with burning eyes.
* * *
Shadows filled the room, only odd angles of light seen here and there. Bellatrix entered and knelt at her master's feet. "My Dark Lord," Bellatrix began, only to be immediately cut off.
"It's happened, Bellatrix. He's here."
"That's excellent, my lord."
"I have a new task for you."
"Yes, my lord?"
"Wait a few days time, and then send him this package."
Bellatrix was almost speechless, as a small bundle was handed to her. This wasn't like the Dark Lord, giving her something so simple and small to carry out… "Is that all, my Lord?"
A smirk flashed in the darkness. "For now, Bellatrix. I will tell you the next step when the time comes."
Bellatrix bowed low once again, and left.
* * *
Harry opened his eyes to find a wand pointed directly at his head. He sat up, and followed the arm of the wand up to the bearer.
It was himself.
Ron watched in horror as Harry's double shot a spell at the real Harry. Ron didn't hear the incantation, but the iradescent blue glow was only something he'd seen when someone cast Dark magic. The spell was flying towards Harry's head…
Ron show off like a bullet, learning as far forward on his broomstick as he could. The spell was about to hit… he wouldn't make it on time…
"NO!" Ron shouted as the spell passed through Harry.
The 'new' Harry froze, his eyes widening. "What?!" he exclaimed, his grip tightening on his wand.
He felt a sudden rush of air around him, and a Weasley abruptly fell through his stomach. He clenched his teeth and aimed his wand at Ron, who was getting to his feet.
"Specico!" Again, a dark spell flew from the end of his wand. It flew through Ron, who had closed his eyes. "Damn it!"
Ron stood. "Your spells don't work," he hissed. He swung his broom around him like a baseball bat, hoping to hit this twin of Harry's on the head.
To his surprise, his broom didn't connect with anything. He watched as the broom went through his opponent's head, falling to the ground once more with the force of his empty swing.
"Who are you?" The new Harry sharply turned his head back to his twin.
"Who are YOU?"
"I'm… I'm Harry."
"No, you're NOT!" One Harry moved to tackle the other when one more person dressed in green entered the fray - an exact twin to the Draco Malfoy that Ron and Harry knew.
The new Draco wrapped his hand around Harry's, urging him to lower his arm. Harry stopped moving, looking over to Draco with wild eyes. "Why isn't anything working?" Harry whispered.
"I don't know, Harry," Draco said, forcing Harry to loose his grip on his wand. "But if you keep trying, it still won't work." He finally clasped Harry's hand around the wand.
Madame Hooch had flown down to where the five boys were staring at one another. She gaped at the two doubles dressed in green. "What's going on here?" she demanded.
A voice well-known to Ron and Harry answered Madame Hooch. "Who the hell knows?" Harry turned and felt a small surge of relief when he saw the Malfoy familiar to him approaching the group.
The hush that had fallen over the crowd was being broken as more and more whispers got shot back and forth.
"Who are they?"
"WHAT are they?"
"Are they holding hands?"
"…Slytherin?"
The two Harrys were staring at each other, their red and green Quidditch uniforms standing in stark contrast. Draco, releasing the hand of the Harry dressed in green, walked up to the Harry dressed in red.
"I'm assuming your name is Harry Potter?" he asked.
Harry found himself not being able to do anything but nod. "I'm Draco Malfoy," the blonde said, sticking out a hand. "Nice to meet you."
Harry looked down at the offered hand. He blinked at the hand, suddenly finding himself unable to move.
"You can't trust him, Harry!" Ron hissed, clenching his broom and his teeth. "His 'friend' used Dark Magic!"
"I'm just introducing myself, Weasel," Draco said, his hand still held out.
Harry bit his lip. "Nice to... meet you." He reached out to shake Draco's hand, but found his own hand going straight through the other's. Both boys looked down in surprise. Draco opened his mouth to comment, but was cut off.
"Harry! That's Malfoy!" Ron said, his eyes wide. "Well, maybe it's Malfoy, but it's still a Slytherin!"
"You're exactly the same, Weasel." Ron jerked his gaze over to the other Harry, startled at hearing the same venom Malfoy would use in Harry's voice.
"Gentlemen."
The five boys turned to see Dumbledore approaching. The new Draco immediately went back to his Harry's side and grasped his hand once more.
"Perhaps this would be better sorted out in my office?"
"So you know how this happened?" The green-clad Harry practically spat out his words. His Draco shot a warning look at him.
Dumbledore merely gave them all a small smile. "You four, come to my office. Follow me."
Harry turned to Ron as the other three followed behind, the Malfoy familiar to them the most reluctant. "Talk to Hermione," Harry said. "See what she knows."
Ron smiled weakly. "Give me the full story when you get back in." Harry gave Ron an even weaker smile as he turned, but Ron suddenly put a hand on his arm. "Harry!" Ron lifted up Harry's arm. "Good game."
There, clasped in Harry's hand, was the snitch.
Harry blinked. He didn't remember catching it, and he certainly hadn't realized he had been holding it.
Madame Hooch fell out of her stupor. "Gryffindor wins!" she cried.
A few angry shouts arose from the Slytherin section, but the crowd was mostly quiet as Harry handed her the snitch and he ran to catch up with the others.
* * *
Narcissa Malfoy looked up from the book she was reading. A house elf had appeared in front of her. "Yes?"
"There is a visitor here, Mistress."
"Show them in here, please."
"Yes, Mistress."
Narcissa closed her book and stood to replace it on the bookshelf. She honestly had no idea who the visitor could be; she'd had so few guests since Lucius went to Azkaban…
"Narcissa…"
She turned, and saw a face she had not seen in years… her sister. "Bellatrix!" she exclaimed, her face lighting up. Narcissa moved to her sister, and the two hugged. "I'm surprised you risked a visit to the manor - there are ministry officials looking for you. They've already stopped by asking if I'd seen you!"
"That's why I waited such a long time," Bellatrix said, drawing away from her younger sister. "And I knew you'd be lonely, with Draco at Hogwarts and poor Lucius being locked up…"
Narcissa smiled. "Yes, it has been very quiet around here. House elves are not the most interesting conversationalists."
Her sister laughed. "That's definitely true." The two sat on the sofa, making small talk.
"How is Draco doing?"
"He's not the top of his class, but he's up there. He's been tutoring the first and third years in potions."
"Well, Severus is an excellent professor."
"True. He's also the seeker for the Slytherin Quidditch team. They had a match today… I wonder how it went?"
Bellatrix nodded. "I'm sure it went well. Draco was always good on a broom."
"Have you heard from Sirius?"
Bellatrix's smiled dropped. "He's dead, Narcissa. He never came over to our side, as we thought. That little rat, Peter Pettigrew, framed him all those years ago. I thought Lucius would have told you. He's known for two years."
Narcissa's mouth fell open. "Lucius never said a word. He rarely tells me his 'business' stories - I didn't even know you had escaped until it hit the Daily Prophet." She shook her head. "So Sirius spent thirteen years in Azkaban for something he didn't do? That's horrid!"
"Yes. Even though he didn't agree with us, he was still family…"
"I always appreciated his sense of humor. How did he die?"
Taking in a sharp breath, Bellatrix bit her lip before answering. "He was killed in the same battle that Lucius was captured at."
"Oh, my." Narcissa shook her head. "It's such a shame that conflicting beliefs have to divide our family so horribly. He was one of my favorite cousins, even if he didn't behave like a Black."
The two sisters were silent for a few minutes before Bellatrix finally spoke up again.
"Would you like to get Lucius out of Azkaban?"
* * *
Four chairs. Four boys.
Two faces.
Even Dumbledore had to admit it was a strange sight. Even identical twins had minor differences he could pick out, but these two sets of doubles could only be told apart by their clothes, in the two Harrys' cases, and their hair with the two Dracos.
The four boys were now sitting in a line in front of his desk, each wearing a very different expression. The Draco Malfoy he knew had an annoyed look, while his twin's face appeared very flat and neutral. Harry Potter, on the other hand, was sitting on the end of the row of boys, looking a bit sick. The green clad Harry was glaring at Dumbledore, waiting for him to speak.
The headmaster folded his hands on top of his desk. "This is quite an unusual situation."
"Stating the obvious," Harry muttered, still glaring. "Do you know how it happened?"
"Unfortunately, I have no answers at the moment," Dumbledore replied.
"Are you going to get answers?"
"I will use all my resources to figure this out," Dumbledore assured Harry. "However, something like this has never happened before. What I suggest we discuss now is how we handle this in the meantime."
"What do you mean, 'in the meantime?'" Draco, the 'new' one, asked, brushing a stray strand of hair out of his eyes.
"Unless I'm gravely mistaken, you two are still attending school. I would not have you miss out of an education simply because you aren't at YOUR Hogwarts."
None of the boys said a word.
"There's a few matters of confusion that we should clear up, for the students as well as the professors. We can't have two Harry Potters and two Draco Malfoys -"
"You already do," the more familiar Draco snapped.
"What I mean is perhaps we should refer to our two 'visitors' by something slightly different."
"Like what? I'm not changing my name," the green-clad Harry said.
"There's no need for that. Would you mind temporarily using your middle name in addition to 'Harry?' You could simply be known at 'Harry James.'"
"Sounds stupid, but that's fine."
"And you will be known as 'Draco Lucius.'" Dumbledore said to Draco.
"Fine."
"Now, I would like you all to go to the hospital wing to be checked over. I'm not sure what effect this could have on you, since we're not sure how it happened. Don't let Madame Pomfrey keep you too long, though - dinner will be served soon."
The other four moved to get up, but Harry James stayed in his chair. "What about schedules? Sleeping arrangements? Culture shock?"
Dumbledore smiled, his eyes twinkling just a bit. Harry James rolled his eyes. "I'm about to speak to Professor Snape about all of those things. For now, hurry to the hospital wing so you don't miss the feast."
"And what about us not being able to touch anything?" Harry James demonstrated by cutting his hand through the air, going through Harry's leg. "What if we can't eat?"
Dumbledore reached forward and picked up a small container, pulling off the lid. "Lemon drop?"
Harry James shot Dumbledore his most vicious glare yet, but picked one up and put it in his mouth.
"If you can eat lemon drops, you can eat anything. Now that's interesting..." Dumbledore leaned back in his chair a bit, a thoughtful look in his eyes. "Your... ability to come in contact with objects, but not people, is quite interesting. That may be a clue to what's happened." He looked at the boys again. "If you come across any other strange... symptoms, inform me at once." The boys turned to leave again.
"You do realize that Voldemort is behind this, don't you?" The other three boys froze, and turned back around.
"Harry…" Draco Lucius murmured, a warning tone in his voice.
"I do have a feeling that he is. However, we don't know how or why he's done this, if it is indeed Voldemort. You are dismissed." Harry James opened his mouth one more time, but the headmaster cut him off. "That's an order."
The boy glared at the headmaster, his eyes challenging, until Draco Lucius tugged on his arm. Finally, he stood, turning sharply to leave.
* * *
Narcissa closed the door, excitement bubbling in her stomach.
She had missed her husband so much, and Bellatrix was going to see to it that he escaped. Sirius had done it, Bellatrix herself has done it… and if those two could escape from Azkaban, there was no way Lucius Malfoy would be able to be held.
Lucius would be back. He would be in her arms once again.
To be continued…