Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Cloned (Sorcerer's Stone)

Someday I'm going to meet the person who gave Neville that wand, Professor McGonagall thought. And we'll introduce ourselves, and then I'll say, Thank you for ruining seven years of my life.

Neville was, at the moment, trying to transfigure his quill into a piece of blackboard chalk. The rest of the class had already completed the assignment. But the feeling of everyone staring at him was only making Neville mess up even more.

Neville looked up at Professor McGonagall. She started to get up from her desk to dismiss the class. Neville panicked and waved his wand wildly, trying to do something, anything, before she spoke.

He did do something. There was a blinding flash of light. The class, knowing Neville's history of accidents, dove for cover under the desks.

"Wicked!" shouted Ron when he could see again. "We've been cloned!"

-----

Professor McGonagall and Professor McGonagall spoke to Madame Pomfrey and made an announcement during lunch. "There seems to be nothing to do about the clones except wait for the spell to wear off. Meanwhile, so that there will be no skipping lessons while your clone attends instead of you, students and their clones are expected to attend classes."

"So teachers will please arrange for extra desks to be placed in their rooms no later than an hour before class. Thank you."

Professor McGonagall glared at Professor McGonagall. "An hour? That's too slack. They should be ready the day before."

"Really?" Professor McGonagall retorted. "And what are the extra desks going to do overnight? Tapdance?"

Down at the Gryffindor table, most of the students were enjoying the clones.

"Look at Ron!" Ron told everyone. "He's got fifty-eight peas speared on his fork! I can never get more than thirty-two!"

Harry and Harry had loaded up spoonfuls of mashed potatoes and were flicking them at Malfoy.

"Hey!" Malfoy shouted. He glared over at the Gryffindor table.

"He did it." Harry and Harry pointed at each other.

Hermione was arguing with herself.

"Look, it's powdered mandrake root with distillation of flobberworm mucus. I looked it up this morning."

"For a shrinking potion? No, it's wiggentree bark, I'm sure of it."

Neville had been made to sit at the opposite end of the table from Neville. None of the Gryffindor students were willing to risk a Neville accident multiplied by two.

-----

The clones disappeared overnight, leaving most people relieved that they were gone. Ron, however, spent weeks trying to duplicate the spell and get his clone back, and Harry was never able to look at a spoonful of mashed potatoes with a straight face again.