Title: Gemini
Rating: T/PG-13
Chapter WC: 2,461
Story WC: 17,946
First Written: June 21, 2011
Last Edited: June 24, 2011
Posted: June 24, 2011

Summary: When Harry woke up that morning, he hadn't expected to find his own face staring back at him. He hadn't expected to be regaled with tales of time travel and war. And he certainly hadn't expected to get dragged into a world of ancient magic and intrigue. [No pairings.]

Parallel: Harry Potter

Gemini

"We cannot become what we need to be by remaining what we are."

–Max De Pree

"Well, this is awkward."

When Harry James Potter woke up that morning, he hadn't expected to find his own face staring back at him. He slowly pinched his arm, to make sure he wasn't still sleeping. That was clearly the only explanation, since what looked to be his clone was sitting at the end of his bed with a sheepish look on his face, but he felt the pain from the pinch anyway.

"Er, surprise?" the double said, and Harry noticed dazedly that even his voice sounded the same. "Sorry about this. I actually wasn't expecting this to happen; not like this at least."

It was only through pure shock that Harry didn't scream as the realization that he was awake and this wasn't a dream caught up to him. "Who—!"

"Oh, right. I'm you. Well, you from the future." The double glanced down at himself and stretched his fingers a bit. "It looks like I'm eleven like I planned—you are eleven, right?" Harry nodded dumbly. "Oh good, at least I got the time frame correct. Right, so, time-traveler. There's a war in the future and it ended badly and lots of death and blah blah blah, so I decided to travel back to the past to set things right."

"How...?"

"Time travel," the double repeated, waving his hand as though that explained everything. "I'm not going to repeat the specifics, because my head is already spinning from everything the Unspeakables tried to explain about paradoxes and advanced arithmetic formulas and all that bull."

"But you're..."

The double grinned. "Well it wasn't supposed to go quite this way. I was supposed to...fuse with you, or something." He waved his hands around again. "I'm not really sure why. Something about paradoxes..." He shrugged. "Anyway, hello little me! Mini me? I guess that doesn't really work since we look the same. Hmm..."

Harry's mind slowly pulled itself back together. "You're me?"

The double gave him an odd look. "I though we'd already been over that part," he said.

"From the future?"

"Obviously."

Harry frowned. "How do I know you're not some magical creature trying to trick me?" he asked.

"Oh…" The double blinked, looking as though the thought hadn't occurred to him. "Oh. Well… How about this: When I—we?—was six, I accidentally knocked over one of the flowerpots Aunt Petunia keeps by the sink. Dudley came in at the same time with his new lacrosse stick, so I blamed it on him. It was probably the only times Dudley was actually blamed for something instead of me." He paused for a moment and scratched his cheek. "Actually, come to think of it, it was only after that that Dudley started to chase me, so it probably wasn't the best idea…"

Harry stared openly. "Oh," he said, unconsciously repeating the double. "You're me?"

Rolling his eyes, the double sighed. "Merlin, I don't remember being this thick when I was a kid," he grumbled. "Look, this might not have been what I was expecting, but I think we can make it work. Perhaps we can pretend to be twins—we can say something about there having been an advanced enchantment over us, making everyone thing we were just one person. Mum was really good with charms, you know. Or maybe I can hide and we'll switch out whenever we need to, so that we can get more things done while everyone thinks we're the same person. Which technically we are, but that's not the point."

"But how could you hide?" Harry asked, crinkling his brow.

"Magic of course," the other Harry said cheerfully. "And I'm quite glad that the Unspeakables took a bit of time to tell me about how the Trace works. Since it's attached to a person's magic, not their physical body, and I'm over seventeen, it's already gone for me, even here."

"Trace?" Harry repeated blankly.

"Ah, it this thingy that tracks the magic of minors. You can't use magic outside of school until you're of age, see. And if you do they get all snippy and send you a warning, even if it's totally not your fault and was really just a batshit insane—but nevertheless endearing—house-elf who was copying your magical signature."

"House-elf?" Harry asked weakly. It had been one of the only unknown terms his mind had been able to latch onto in the whirlwind that was his double's explanation. Regardless of whatever he said about them being the same person, his older self was clearly very different.

"You know, house-elf." The double was gesturing randomly again. It looked as though he was trying to outline something in the air, and failing miserably. "They're these odd looking pillow people with snappy fingers and baseball eyes." Seeing Harry's blank look, he waved him off and said, "Never mind; you'll see them at Hogwarts. Oh right, Hogwarts. What's the date? How far away is the start of term?"

Harry pulled his knees up to his chest and wrapped his arms around them while studying his counterpart. "It's September 1st. I'm supposed to go to King's Cross today to go to school."

The double clapped his hands, all but beaming. "Fantastic! Cutting it a little close, perhaps, but it works out brilliantly all the same. Hmm, I suppose if we're going to work together, we're going to need a way to distinguish each other, rather than just calling each other Harry. How about Harry #1 and Harry #2? I'll be #1, of course." Harry stared blankly at him. "No good? Hmm, I suppose I could always go my middle name. It'll be a bit odd since it's Dad's name, but..."

"Okay?"

The newly named James suddenly grinned mischievously. "Oh, but we really have to practice finishing each other's sentences like the Weasley twins do! The look on people's faces alone would be completely worth it."

A small smile broke out on Harry's face. At the same time Uncle Vernon knocked harshly on the door, bellowing about how he wouldn't be taking him if he was late. The Harrys grimaced in tandem, and then silently got up from the bed. James gathered up the few of their things that hadn't been packed yet—mainly clothes from the day before, since Harry hadn't really settled in to his new room in the month since he'd been moved from the cupboard under the stairs—while Harry got dressed. Harry was almost ready when James suddenly gasped delightedly.

"Hedwig!" James exclaimed while running over the owl. He marveled at the bird and cooed at her while stroking her plumage, and while the owl allowed herself to be pet, she stared at the time traveler in a way that clearly conveyed that she thought there was something mentally wrong with him.

The (technically) older wizard continued to marvel at Hedwig as he finished packing. When they were ready at last, he grinned widely and took their wand. Harry stared in surprised as his counterpart muttered a spell and disappeared before his eyes.

"You've got to teach me how to do that," Harry said, awed.

"All in good time, young grasshopper," came James' disjointed voice. "Now come on! Grab your—er, our—things and go downstairs before Uncle Vernon really does leave without us."

James grabbed the trunk, but hesitated near the door. "How are you going to come without being noticed?" he asked.

"Hmm," James said, considering the question. "I supposed that I could probably sneak into the car, but..." Harry could tell just from his tone of voice that the other Harry was grinning again. "I've always wanted to try ridding on top of a car. And with a quick sticking charm, there won't be any problems!"

Harry stared at the spot where James' voice was coming from. "Okay?" he said slowly. "I suppose that way there's no chance of you being caught..."

"Right, right," Harry said with a laugh, and then Uncle Vernon's yelling reached their ears again and they both jumped and scrambled out the bedroom.

They reached King's Cross at half past ten. Uncle Vernon dropped their trunk onto a cart and wheeled it into the station. Harry could tell that his double had made it safely because James was holding onto his shoulder, letting him know where he was.

Uncle Vernon said something that sounded rather nasty as he left, but Harry's head was still spinning too much from everything that had happened to really hear him. Magic was one thing, but time travel? And he was the one who had time traveled on top of it! He remembered James saying something about a war and shuddered. Was he really making the right decision by going to this school?

"Umm, where's the platform?" Harry said suddenly. He fumbled around for the ticket and looked at the number. "Platform nine and three-quarters?"

"This way, this way," James said quietly somewhere near his left ear while gently steering the cart to their right.

Harry took the hint and began to push while the other Harry gave him whispered directions on how to get to the platform. His heart constricted fearfully when he had to run into a brick wall and for a moment he was sure the other Harry had tricked him, but it ended up all right and suddenly he was staring up at a brilliant scarlet steam engine on a platform that was packed with witches and wizards.

"Brilliant, isn't it?" James said quietly and Harry nodded before quickly halting the motion when a couple of people looked curiously at him.

They carefully made their way through the crowd, with James sticking right behind him to avoid being jostled by the crowd. They found an empty compartment near the end of the train and James used a whispered feather-light spell to help Harry get their trunk inside. They settled into the compartment and from the sound of it, James had stretched out across most of the seat across from him while yawning.

"Well this will be interesting!" said James. He said something else in Latin and Harry saw a streak of blue light hit the compartment door, and then the window. A moment later the invisibility charm around James faded away and he founded himself staring at his own face once again. It was rather disconcerting.

"What was that?" Harry asked.

"Locking and wizard repulsion charm for the door. It'll prevent anyone from wanting to open our door, and even if they do it'll be locked. I put a similar repulsion charm on the window, so that we won't be seen. Now we'll finally have privacy to talk for the rest of the day."

Harry wasn't entirely sure he wanted to be alone with himself for the rest of day. Not that he had a choice, but still... "You mentioned a war," he said after a moment.

The other Harry seemed to deflate and for a moment he looked like the eleven year old boy that he was supposed to be. An unidentifiable emotion crossed his face, but it was gone as quickly at it had come. James looked out at the people milling around on the platform as he replied.

"Yes, there was a war. Voldemort wasn't as dead as everyone thought he was, and he found a way to fully come back," he said. "It won't happen for quite a few years, but the Wizarding world was still drastically unprepared. It...it didn't go well. He took us by surprise and the Wizarding had no real way to fight back." He shook his head sadly and then, inexplicably, a small smile pulled at the edge of his lips. A moment later it was smothered into another frown. "We had some interesting times," he explained at Harry's questioning look. "We may have lost in the end, but some battles were won. I'd say 'you'll see', but I'm here to make sure that that you won't see."

"How?" Harry asked. "Even if you are from the future, here you're still just eleven. How can you stop a war?"

James grinned, suddenly brimming with confidence. "I have more than just a few tricks up my sleeve," he said. "But first on my list is to get you started on learning magic; trust me, you're going to need it." He leaned forward, abruptly looking stern. "You have to be serious about learning magic. I wasn't, in the beginning. I was more interesting in playing with my friends and running around having adventures—and it cost me. With magic you can literally do anything you can imagine, but you have to know what you're doing. Can you promise me that you'll put your all into studying magic?"

Shrinking back into his seat, Harry found himself rather intimidated by seeing such a grave look on his own face. It made him look years older, and for the first time since he'd woken up that morning, it hit Harry that his time travelling companion really wasn't his age, but was someone possibly decades older with real experience in fighting with magic. It was a bit scary to think that this was who he would become, but also a rather awe-inspiring.

"Yes," Harry said, suddenly determined not to let him down. "I promise I will."

James sat back in his seat and smiled. "Good," he said. "I'll help you with your classes, to fill the gaps with some tips that helped me learn magic more easily. But we're not going to start off with that quite yet. First we're going to go over some important cultural things that you need to know about the Wizarding world, goblins, centaurs, merpeople, werewolves, and the rest of the world. Most of these will be things that you won't be taught in school; things I had to find out the hard way. And I want you to listen closely, because this going to be very important in the future."

If anyone had walked by the compartment that day and by some miracle been able to resist the repulsions on the door and peek inside, they would have been greeted with the odd sight of two identical boys seated across from each, completely drawn into their conversation. One of the boys was leaning back with one arm over the back of his seat while his other hand twirled a wand, confidently speaking. The other younger looking boy was leaning forward, eagerly drinking up what he was being told with a bright gleam in his eyes. And if they saw this, that person might have thought that these boys didn't look quite so identical after all.

A/N: This, for once, is not an abandoned idea, but rather one that I'm actively working on right now and wanted to post to get an initial reaction. It's definitely an idea that I'm having a ton of fun writing - the scene I'm working on right now, not too far into the story, involves Harry rappelling down the side of a building in Venice. If/when I'll post it will be when I'm done or mostly done with the story (mainly to avoid having a ton of half finished stories on my account).

-S.R.