Chapter Eight The Double

"That's what it is," George said. He was standing in his shop ready to open and arguing with Ginny. "It's the only way to explain it, right Fred? It's the only way he could'a done it."

"The only way," Fred agreed. "Believe me we've done more research since we left Hogwarts then we ever did when we were there. When Dumbledore died and we heard what happened we looked into it."

"If you're right then Harry needs to know," Ginny said thoughtfully. She was helping her brothers out in their shop and enjoyed being away from her mother. She had finally sent her an owl in hopes that she could keep her mother from sending her a howler. Her mother agreed to the arrangement only until Hogwarts opened and then Ginny would be expected to attend. There was no mention of the fact that the three of them had been missing for over a week.

"There's no way to track Harry," Fred responded, "not unless he tells you where he's at or he's seen."

"Too bad our homing devices aren't perfected," George added. "Just attach one of these bugs to the person or an object and they fly back to you and then you can follow them and track them." He held a jar of what looked like fireflies and studied them.

Fred nodded and took the jar. "Only problem is that they have this bloody light that gives them away and it's easy to see when they are attached to you. Then they get swatted and there you are."

Ginny shrugged and said, "Tell me again about Doppelgangers."

"You open up the shop George and I'll fill her in," Fred said. He was arranging merchandise on the glass counters. "It's like this sis; a Doppelganger is a double, an identical replica of a person.....a copy....."

"A Phantom self.....a double," Fred added.

George continued unhindered by his brother's interruption. " It takes a very dark spell to make one. Theory is that if a person is good then his double is evil and vice versus. In some cases it's an exact duplicate of the real person- twins- or it appears to be."

Ginny followed him around the shop and picked things up and placed them back down without really studying them. "So does this double look real?"

George answered, "It's sometimes just a shadow if the spell isn't done right. We found the information under shape-shifting, so it's sort of like that; but not. We think that the person and it's double can look very much alike, very real- solid, you know. That's what we've learned anyway."

Fred continued, "It's still remains attached to the person whose made it. It can't become independent but it can be in a different location then it's owner." Fred frowned at his own words and then shrugged. "Difficult to explain really. Another thing; it's said a doppelganger cannot live on its own if the person who made it dies. That makes sense of course."

"You think Snape did this?" Ginny asked. "Made a double of himself?" She was staring out of the shop window. The streets were bare and there were no early shoppers.

Both Fred and George stopped what they were doing and looked at her. "Or someone else made it," they said together.

Fred dusted off a counter with his wand and replaced items on it. He was nodding as he spoke, "Snape was seen in two places the night of Dumbledore's death."

"The person who told you could have lied," Ginny said wryly.

George nodded and said, "Yeah, we know. We think this eye-witness is reliable."

"Who is it?" Ginny asked.

"Can't say," Fred answered. "Got to protect their identity, don't we? We might need them for a trial or something. Don't want them killed, do we?"

George continued his explanation of doppelgangers where they left off, "There's all kinds of myths about doppelgangers. Some say the person dies if he meets his double face-to-face. Oh, and, it's said that the double casts no shadow. That's how you know who or what it is."

"That's helpful," Ginny said. "Of course on the night that Dumbledore was killed there would have been no moon and so there would have been no shadows." She was talking to herself but out loud. "So does this Doppelganger still exist or does it go away when you want it to?"

"We think it hangs around," both twins said in unison.

"You're saying that Snape's double was sent to kill Dumbledore and his real self was somewhere else?" Ginny asked, frowning.

"Spot on," George said. "If someone had tried to kill his Doppelganger during the fight at Hogwarts they couldn't have succeeded. The spell would have gone through it. It's a...projection....a shadow of the real person. Some say that it may also be a time thing. That it's a projection of a person's future self and so spells can't work on it because its not really in the here and now."

"I don't believe that," Fred said shaking his head. "That's just myth."

"It's hard to tell what's fact or fiction," George agreed. He turned a sign around on the doorway. The lettering said 'closed' so that the front side that was out of view said, 'open'. With one flick of his wand the lights came on all around the room.

"So the Doppelganger mimicks the motions of the person?" Ginny asked. "Say, if I am walking across the room; then my double is doing the same thing."

Both shook their heads and Fred answered. He stood behind a counter and arranged the items under the glass. "Not necessarily. The double doesn't necessarily echo the movement of the person. They can talk and interact and....well....function like a real person."

Two Snapes! Ginny thought and grimaced. It would be hard to tell the difference.

The three stared at one another. "I've heard that you can walk through one just like you can a ghost," George said softly. "The thing is Ginny, we'd like to blame Snape as much as the next person. We think he's a bloody git!"

Fred nodded and continued, "But he might just be innocent. You-Know-Who could have split Snape into two parts and used the Imperious curse on the Doppelganger and made it kill Dumbledore."

"How can you say that?!" Ginny exclaimed. "Snape is a evil wart......"

The both jumped in. "We KNOW sis. We wanted to believe it, too." Fred said. "This witness was very convincing."

"And this person seemed to think that the real Snape wasn't aware of his double," George said.

"It's the only explanation," they said together.

"What if Harry meets up with this double and thinks it's really Snape?" Ginny asked.

"This double can kill him but he can't kill the double?"

Fred and George nodded sadly.

The bell on the door rang and they all three turned to see the first customer of the day.

Harry spent some time circling the area until he found the little house tucked into the trees. It was in the shadows and the garden was overgrown so that it was effectively camouflaged. He knocked on the door and waited a long time before he heard footsteps.

Elizabeth Higgins was an elderly witch with gray hair, a sweet face and strange dark eyebrows that almost met in the middle. She was hunched over and apparently stricken with arthritis as her hands were knobby like an old tree branch and she walked stiffly.

Harry introduced himself and explained his task. She ushered him into the small cottage and settled him at a kitchen table. She sat out biscuits and tea and bustled about the small room while they talked.

Harry studied the room with its' odd assortment of articles and objects that filled every available space and shelf. In amongst the bits and pieces he noticed items from Hogwarts. He wasn't sure if she had actually gone to school at Hogwarts or had just collected memorabilia.

Like Helga Huxley, Elizabeth Higgins launched into a history of the Hollows, and particularly, into its' lurid past. She not only mentioned his parent's but went into some detail about what happened the night they died. Harry pulled his hair down into his eyes, bent his head over his cup and hoped that she would not see the scar. She rattled on enthusiastically about the subject without really looking at him.

"It was terrible, terrible times," she said, shaking her head. "Those poor people. Brave they were. I understand that they knew You-Know-Who. That he wanted something from them and they wouldn't give it to him. It was said they refused him three times. The last time was their doom. They were killed soon after. Of course, everyone about the Hollows kept themselves locked in and in hiding. It's was 'orrible too see the Dark Mark floating above somebody's house, 'specially when it was your friends. I'd grown to like the Potters. Such nice young folks. As you can see I collect things. That Mrs. Potter, Lily was her name, she brought me things now and again. Things, she thought I'd like." The old woman dusted away at the clutter and rearranged items as she talked. "I'm a bit of an eccentric when it comes to my collections."

Harry's eyes drifted over the objects cluttering the kitchen with renewed interest. My own mum could have owned one of these, given it to the old woman as a gift, he thought.

"Not to long before they were murdered she was here sitting in that very chair having a cuppa with me," Mrs. Higgins said. "That's history and it's probably not something you care about knowing. Still, it was a dark time. It seems that we are having another since You-Know-Who returned."

Harry squirmed uneasily. I should have known the closer I got to Godric's Hollow the more people would remember, he thought to himself.

The old woman didn't notice his unease but chattered on. It seemed like she wanted to give the history of every object in the room and Harry was impatient to get on his way to Godric's Hollow. He interrupted a long discourse on a trunk that supposedly belonged to a grandnephew of the Horace Scrimgeour, the Minister of Magic.

"I'd like to come back and talk to you some more, Mrs. Higgins," Harry said and stood, "but I have a delivery to make and I wanted to stop by Godric's Hollow and visit there."

"You do?" she said, with a serious intent look in her eyes. It's been abandoned for all these years, my boy. I'm not sure the house still stands in the Hollow; the castle does, but not the house."

"The castle?" Harry asked.

"Yes, yes dear. Godric Gryffindor's castle- or the remains of it- up at the end of the valley. Nevertheless, they named the Hollow for it. All of these Hollows are connected to the founders of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardy, you know. You can't go a mile without stumbling on something connected to it. That's why I have a special collection of things connected to the school." She waved her arm around the sitting room which was also full of objects.

"Of course, I didn't attend," she said, sadly and shook her head. "Just not good enough with magic. I get by, of course, but just. Enough not to be called a squib."

She guided him to the door with a palsied hand on his arm. "I'll point the direction out for you. Mind you don't stay there after dark." She shivered and they stepped out into the sunlight. "I believe that the place is not a welcoming place anymore."

Harry said very little and followed her simple directions which amounted to pointing in a direction and telling him to look out for a row of large oak trees all standing in a line.

"I don't know this Mr. Birdman," she was saying. " I imagine he's new to these parts. But you'll find the house at the end of that row of trees."

"Mrs. Higgins," Harry ventured, "Where is this place, the one that the Potters lived in? Is it near?"

The woman stopped and once again scrutinized him. "It's very near. If you travel up the valley it is the house that sets at the foot of the hill where Gryffindor's castle rests. It's in the shadow of the castle itself."

Harry nodded and thanked her and mounted his broom. He watched her make her way back into the cottage and floated above her house for a moment. He wished he knew the Fidelius Charm so that he could protect her. He wasn't sure he could be her secret-keeper without her consent or knowledge, but he had a sixth sense that was prodding his mind about her. He couldn't lay his finger on what the issue was but he sensed that there was something here that he needed to know.

With a glance back he turned and flew in the direction she had pointed. One more delivery, he thought. This will be Slughorn or it won't but I will soon find out. Harry didn't give any thought as to why Slughorn would have chosen Godric's Hollow to relocate after Dumbledore's death.

Snape sensed rather than heard the door to the front of the house open and close. He stopped what he was doing and listened. It's probably Draco moving about, he thought. However, Snape was not a man to brush things off so lightly. He sat the flask down that he held in his hand and slowly slipped through the kitchen.

One-by-one he examined each room. Draco was gone, that was obvious. Snape chastised himself for not keeping a closer watch and yet he was not sorry to see him leave. He knew Draco would stay hidden. He didn't want the Dark Lord to find him and he certainly wouldn't give up Snape's whereabouts to their master. Draco knew that it was either die by Snape's hand or the Dark Lord's and Draco knew that Snape was angry enough that he would do it.

Snape stood still and sniffed the air. The house was still, empty and yet; not empty. He felt unusually drained of energy and fatigued as if some force was feeding off of him. He pressed himself against the wall and waited. The figure stood in the front lounge; his identical twin. He knew what it was although he would never have expected it in a million years.. The Snape-double stepped in and searched the room with his eyes and then seemed to vanish.

Snape waited for a minute, holding his breath, before he felt safe enough to move. He was dumbfounded. A Doppelganger! he thought with horror. So that is how it was done!

He knew without question who made it and why it was made. He also finally knew the secret that Narcissa Malfoy and Bellatrix Lestrange had concealed from him and he could feel himself grow angrier with each passing minute.

He knew very little about these dark replicas, but knew enough to understand that if they met face-to-face it would almost assuredly be his death. That's what you wanted wasn't it Lord? he questioned the empty room in silence. You used my doppelganger to kill Albus so that I would be blamed because you knew that I would never kill him. Then you set that horrible wraith to find me knowing that I would die or go insane when I encountered it.

All the pieces began falling into place.

Snape folded his arms and leaned against the wall and thought of all the instances in history that he could recall of doppelgangers and what he knew about them. The one he had just seen was very life-like and not a filmy copy; a ghostly counterpart of himself. Therefore, it meant that this double could interact with him, talk to him, even offer advice; although any advice it offered would be misleading or malicious.

He knew that it took very, very dark magic to make it and he would have to find a means to destroy it or it would haunt his footsteps for the rest of his life. All the while, it would be under the Dark Lord's control and always it's misdeeds would be attributed to him. He also knew it would be back, forever searching to make contact with him.

Snape twisted himself away from the wall and went back to the cauldron where he was preparing a potion. This time he was in a very depressed state of mind. The Dark Lord had been very, very clever.