III.
Harry stood openmouthed in shock- it can't be, it has to be one of his brothers! He forced himself to stumble over and bent to see the other's face, but as he did so the other straightened and launched himself feet first down the pipe. The movement made Harry jump reflexively. Before he knew it, he too was sliding down into the blackness, to finally land in a heap. The Boy Who Lived To Fall Over, he thought ruefully.
"Lumos!" whispered a familiar voice, and Harry turned to see Ron- and it was Ron, no doubt about it- looking around in the faint glow from his wand.
What the merry hell? Polyjuice Potion? A Metamorphmagus Death Eater we didn't know about? Harry scrambled to his feet and followed the new Ron, not wanting to be left in darkness as the facsimile of his friend proceeded cautiously past the rubble left from their last visit.
Ron speeded up as they got further into the tunnel, Harry following him closely along the twists and bends, still trying to figure out what the hell was going on. It looks like Ron, and it kind of moves like Ron, though I guess everybody sneaks down a dark corridor in the same sort of way. I need him bang into something and swear, then I'll know it's Ron. Now what's he doing?
Ron had come to a halt and whispered "Nox", just before what Harry guessed was the final bend in the tunnel. He crouched down and peered cautiously around the curved wall towards the glow of Hermione's and Ron's wands, and Harry peered cautiously with him before remembering that he couldn't be seen anyway.
He stepped forward and the sight of the huge serpents with their jeweled eyes flickering sent a chill down his spine. Now memory reached out and stroked him with a cold fingertip; the recent heat of battle had not touched him the way this dark stone chamber did, across far more years. This was an area of Hogwarts he had only one memory of, and it was not heartwarming.
We were what, twelve? Ron and me, voices not even broken yet, him with a useless wand- up against Voldemort and a twenty foot snake with poisonous fangs that kills with a glance. What were we thinking? If the wall hadn't come down, he would have been right there with me fighting them. Harry shivered involuntarily.
The Ron in front of the doors hissed, and Hermione watched with breathy anticipation. Harry gritted his teeth, using the flash of annoyance to distract himself from the thought that he could have lost Ron before they'd even had hair on their balls.
On Ron's fourth attempt the snakes parted. Hermione reacted with a high-pitched giggle and a flick of her hair, dislodging some small chunks of battle debris from it. She placed one hand on Ron's arm with a deliberate movement, turning him to face her, and breathed in deeply.
Harry tensed. He couldn't help it. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the Ron concealed in the tunnel tense too; then as Hermione gazed intently into the other's eyes and parted her lips, he bolted out of hiding and dashed half-crouched behind his double, into the darkness of the Chamber.
Hermione jumped and squealed, "I saw something! S-Something moved!"
"Where?" yelped Ron, jerking around and out of Hermione's grasp. Harry silently cheered.
"I think- I think inside," Hermione answered, edging towards the door. Ron stepped forward, looking determined.
"You stay here while I have a look," he said. Hermione raised her eyebrows.
"Ron, you know I'm much more-" She suddenly seemed to change her mind halfway through speaking, and finished "-afraid of the dark than you are. So that would be really great. Of you." She giggled again, and looked at Ron coyly.
Merlin on a moped, I think Hermione's trying to flirt. Harry had seen some strange and painful things in his time but this was possibly a new level of unnatural even for him.
"Right," said Ron, glancing at Hermione uncertainly. Harry recognized Ron's 'Girls Confuse Me' face and cheered to himself again. "I'm going in there, then."
Harry followed Ron into the stagnant blackness of the Chamber itself. Ron was moving cautiously, looking around for signs of movement. He was partly concealing his wand light beneath his cloak, only a narrow beam escaping to palely illuminate the vast, decomposing remains of the basilisk.
Now, that is revolting, thought Harry. Ron gagged quietly and traced the light low along the decayed body, looking for the end with the Horcrux-destroying teeth. As his beam found the monstrous skull he started to creep towards it, still looking around. So intent was he on detecting danger elsewhere in the room, Ron failed to notice until the last moment what Harry had already observed: the other Ron was waiting a little way behind the head.
"Ragmar Dorkins!" that Ron suddenly whispered, as the Ron holding the lit wand opened his mouth to yelp.
"Wha-?" came out instead, in a kind of strangled gulp.
"I'm you, but you're not going to believe that, 'cos you're me, so I thought, if I-" the one Harry had decided to think of as Other Ron, the second to descend into the Chamber, pointed to himself, "knew I had decided to do this when I was you-" he pointed at the first Ron- "which I didn't, but if I had, I, that is, you-" his finger was waving back and forth between them now at high speed, "-would have thought of a password to prove to you that I was me, and that password would have been-"
"Ragmar Dorkins," finished Ron, looking flabbergasted. "You- I- actually used the Time Turner." Other Ron had run out of breath and seemed to be slightly unsure that he'd finished off pointing at the right one of himself, but he nodded and took a step around the foul head, closer to Ron.
Ron went from flabbergasted to on guard with a speed that impressed Harry. "You could just be some bloody genius Death Eater on Polyjuice," he almost growled at Other Ron, who raised his eyebrows, made a noise of disbelief, and took another step.
"Some of 'em were quite bright," Ron said defensively. "Everybody knows I love the Cannons. Besides," he frowned, and Harry saw him raise his wand, "you could be using Legilimency." Other Ron looked exasperated.
"Yeah, because we both know how fantastic I am at that, definitely good enough to do it painlessly and without you bloody noticing, you berk."
Harry heard giggling, and realized it was himself. Ron makes me giggle. The thought made him feel warm. Both Rons. That thought made him feel hot all over, and he filed it away for future consideration. Along with the revelations that Ron had access to a Time Turner, and that sometimes he really was the only person who could understand his own explanations.
"No, but if you're not me, you'd be good at it!" the first Ron was arguing; but his wand dropped again a little.
"You'd still bloody well notice! Besides, loads of people are crap at Legilimency. Harry can't do it that well," said Other Ron, as though that was the defining factor in any assessment of magic.
"Ron! Rooo-ooonnn? Is everything alright?" Hermione's quiet call from the doorway reached them across the Chamber. Harry watched with baited breath as identical pairs of blue eyes locked on to each other. Ron tightened his grip on his wand.
Other Ron raised one hand in a 'wait!' gesture. "Give me a chance and I'll prove it to you," he whispered urgently.
Ron hesitated for a long moment, then nodded. Other Ron called, "I'm okay, Hermione! Stay where you are, I'll be back in a minute."
"I'll come and help," she called back, and Harry giggled again as both Rons suddenly looked panic-stricken and slightly guilty.
"No, no, you stay there, it's really disgusting in here!" Other Ron yelled, trying to sound simultaneously calming and cheerful.
"Honestly Ron, I can-"
"There's tons of putrid intestines and huge lumps of rotting flesh crawling with maggots and things!"
Harry and Other Ron both looked at Ron, who shrugged and grinned.
"I'll- I'll just guard the entrance, then," Hermione called rather more faintly.
Harry drank in the sight of them looking at each other. If Mrs. Weasley had had two sets of twins... Merlin's beard, what would school have been like if I'd had two of Ron? He felt his cheeks flush warm again.
"Prove it quickly, then," said Ron with a determined look. "This is doing my head in a bit now. And there's a war going on upstairs that I should be fighting."
Other Ron looked identically determined, and wiped the back of one hand across his mouth. "Come over here." He walked into the shadows on the other side of the Chamber.
"What? I'm not following you into some dark corner!" protested Ron, nevertheless doing just that. Harry followed too as Other Ron glanced back over his shoulder and said, "Well I'm not doing it standing next to a rotting snake!" He came to a halt and turned suddenly, so that Ron almost bumped into him. Other Ron bit his lip and put one hand on his double's shoulder.
"Probably, nothing I can say will convince you, because-"
"Don't start that again," began Ron, then tailed off as he (and Harry, now watching closely from behind him) tried to read the expression on Other Ron's face.
"I have to stop us making a huge mistake," he said with a mixture of pleading and defiance; and before Harry had time to think about what that could mean, Other Ron pulled Ron closely to him and kissed him passionately.