After another trip through the invisible rubber tube, Harry found himself in a muggle neighborhood.
"Where are we?" he asked Dumbledore.
"We're at my friend's house, of course!" Dumbledore went up the stone path to the house in front of them, Harry close behind. He knocked on the door. A woman in her late thirties answered the door. Harry could have sworn he'd seen her before.
"Albus! Come in, come in! I see you brought Harry with you, good, good! She'll be so pleased!" the woman exclaimed, ushering them inside. Harry wanted to ask who 'she' was, but didn't bother. He would consider it impolite.
"Where is your daughter?" Dumbledore asked, looking around.
"She's in the bath, she needs to come out soon…" Fall Out Boy could be heard from upstairs.
Harry was being quiet. He was scanning his memories for any sign of this woman. Where had he seen her before?
"Honey! Get out of the bath! Our company's here!"
"Okay, Mom," a girl's voice answered.
"The food's almost finished, why don't you sit down?" they both sat at the dining room table.
"Professor, who is she? She looks familiar…" Harry asked his Headmaster, gesturing toward the woman cooking.
"Her name is Marie. Marie Jones. Do you know her, Harry?" Dumbledore said.
"Jones…" Harry was thinking where he heard that before.
"You took long enough!" Marie said as the girl came down the stairs, hip-hugging jeans and V-neck shirt on. She had nice, long, dirty blond hair that went down to the middle of her chest and hazel eyes. "Hi, Dumbledore and… Harry?!" she said, surprised.
"Jamie!" Harry exclaimed.
"Do you know her?" Dumbledore asked.
"Jamie! I haven't seen you since elementary school!" Harry said. She had been his best friend at school until she moved out in third grade. She was the only one that wasn't intimidated by Dudley.
She sat down in the seat right across from Harry. "I didn't think we'd ever see each other again! This is definitely unexpected!"
"I know! Dumbledore, did you know about this?"
"I didn't know you knew each other… I suppose you know even less that neither of you are muggles, then," Dumbledore said.
"You're a witch?" Harry asked Jamie.
"Oh, yes! I found out that I'm a Metamorphmagus, too! I go to a special school for people with extraordinary powers. Do you go to Hogwarts then?"
"Yup. I wish you'd come to Hogwarts too… Can you actually morph?"
She laughed and made her hair identical to Harry's. "Does this answer your question?"
"About your ability, Miss Jones, I was wondering if you could help us with something." Dumbledore cut in. Harry let out an "ah!" of understanding.
"Sure, what is it?" Jamie said.
"Harry has to do something secret and he won't be able to go to school. We want to keep it secret, of course, so we need someone to take his place. That's where you come in. How thoroughly can you transform?"
"Into Harry?!" she breathed, unbelievingly. "But I don't know anything about how he spends his time, who everyone is, all that!"
"He can teach you, can't you, Harry?" Marie asked.
"I can try…"
"We can start after dinner, then."
They all ate the pork chops, potatoes, corn, peas and mushrooms that were put in front of them. After dinner, they each had a plate with a slice of pie and ice cream. Harry started to talk to Jamie about his life at Hogwarts.
"Well, Hermione and Ron are my best friends. Hermione has brown bushy hair and she's really smart… Ron has red hair and has one sister and five brothers… there are a lot of people at Hogwarts! I can't possibly tell you about everyone!"
"Maybe I could carry around a list of names or something, can you make anything like that?" Jamie asked.
"The Marauder's Map! I have this map that shows all of Hogwarts' grounds and even secret passages… It labels everyone, so you can know all their names."
"That's perfect!"
Harry told Jamie about all of the adventures he's had at school – The Philosopher's Stone, the Chamber of Secrets, Buckbeak, Sirius, Peter Pettigrew, Lupin, the Triwizard Tournament, Fred and George's joke shop and the adventure to the Ministry of Magic a few months before. He told her a little bit about each of the teachers and about some of the people he knew.
"Hermione's really smart, so I'd be really careful around her… Ron – not so much. You could go around him with your hair like it is now and he would think I got extensions or something…" Jamie laughed.
"You had a very exciting life, didn't you?" Jamie said.
"You'd think I'm a magnet for trouble, or something," Harry joked. Jamie laughed more.
"Okay, let me try to look like you now! Stand up!" he obliged. She made herself grow slightly taller, her chest flattened itself, her hair became short, black and messy, her eyes turned green, and her face contorted itself into Harry's.
"I can't make a scar like his, I don't need glasses and my voice can't change." She complained to Dumbledore.
"You can wear glasses without magnifying in them, I can give you a temporary scar and I can change your voice. There aren't any problems." Dumbledore said cheerily.
"I hope I can do this without being too girly! I'd definitely be classed as a pure girly girl!"
"I'm sure you can do it," Harry reassured her.
"Do you change in front of your friends?" she asked, biting her lip.
"No way! I go behind my bed curtains! Why?"
"Because I can't transform into a boy that thoroughly," she said.
"So. Are you ready to be Harry?" Marie asked Jamie.
"I think so… Even though I'm not a boy! What do you think, Harry?" Jamie asked Harry. Harry nodded.
"That's good, because it's time for them to go. Goodbye, Albus, Harry!"
"Goodbye, Marie, Jamie," Dumbledore said from the door.
"Bye, Jamie, bye Mrs. Jones," Harry waved goodbye.
"Bye Harry! I'll mail you!!" Jamie said, waving from the doorway when Harry and Dumbledore were walking away.
They wouldn't see each other for a very long time. Harry's things were being sent by floo to the Jones', Harry wasn't allowed to leave the island and nobody was allowed to enter it. The only communication being done would be by Hedwig and Jessie's owl, Mercury.
Dumbledore put many spells on the little island so that nobody could apparate in it, no floo can go through it, and not even a passing boat could see it. Hedwig and Mercury were the only ones able to go through the magic around it.
"I guess it's just going to be me and you for a while…" Harry sighed to Jessie on the island.
"Well, at least we're not completely cut off from the world. We still have the owls!" Jessie reassured him.
"Yea, but it sucks that I can't keep my firebolt!" Harry had had to send the firebolt to Jamie.
"Come on, let's go to sleep. We're starting to train tomorrow."
"Oh, goody," Harry said sarcastically, following Jessie into the cabin.