[Author's note: Thanks for the reviews! What wonderful insights and intriguing guesses! This should be the second to last chapter, unless something unexpected happens. Speaking of the unexpected: I know I promised that there would be no slash, vampires, or aliens in this story. And yet, as I am drafting the final chapters, I am realizing that I may have been slightly wrong about one of those…]

From the Files of Dr. Dumbledore

The Case of Harry P., Supplemental

I remained in my chair, reading and re-reading my notes, trying to make sense of Harry's curious statement. They killed Tom. I must admit that I had believed up to that point that Tom Riddle was a symbol, an archetype, the dark side of Harry, rather than a real person. Perhaps I am wrong. Is Tom a real person? Who is he? How did he die, and by whose hand? Was it some kind of terrible accident, or a murder?

Tom. Tom Riddle. Did not his very name suggest that he is the riddle at the heart of Harry's illness?

I read my notes yet again, slowly and carefully, seeking desperately for any clue to the riddle of Tom, the boy from the diary, the boy who bears such a strange resemblance to Harry...

Ah, so many questions still left unresolved! Who is Tom? Who is Voldemort? How did Harry get his scar, and why do his parents refuse to tell me the truth about the scar? What did happen to Reggie Black? Why does Harry subconsciously fantasize about killing his father? Why does his mother appear as the cruel Petunia and the sadistic Umbridge in his hallucinations? Who is Snape? Why did I give Hermione that old book? Why did Cedric have to die? Why did I have to lose my hand? Why did Fred Weasley die, while his brother George was scarred?

Fred and George! And suddenly, the truth leapt out at me from the pages in my hand. No! Impossible! And yet it had been there, the entire time: The doppelganger motif, the odd doubling that runs through Harry's hallucinations. Each character has a mirror image, a double. For now we see through a glass, darkly… When Harry looked in the mirror, he saw the serpent. He saw Voldemort. He saw Tom Riddle. He saw his mirror image.

Everyone has a doppelganger: Fred and George. Padma and Parvati. Remus and the non-existent Romulus. Sirius and his dead brother Regulus. Petunia and Lily. Narcissa and Lily. Umbridge and Lily. James and Lucius. James and Vernon. Snape and Slughorn. Hagrid and Grawp. Albus and Aberforth. Harry and Draco. Harry and Neville. Harry and Tom. Two vanishing cabinets, two lockets, two swords. Two Harrys?

Doppelgangers, mirrors, doubles, shadows, twins. Harry is a twin.

Harry and Tom! Harry and Tom, who resemble one another so strangely, Harry and Tom, whose twin wands share the same core… Yes, I think this must be it!

But why is Fred Weasley dead?

Fred Weasley is dead, while the wounded George lives. Padma and Parvati are separated into different houses, Remus has no Romulus, and Sirius' dark brother is gone. Why are these twins so strangely torn apart? Where do vanished persons go? Into nothingness.

Where is Harry's twin? Dead?

The Tale of the Three Brothers! I always thought there were two brothers in Harry's tale, Harry and Dudley… But what if there was a third? The invisible brother, hidden under the cloak, under Death's invisibility cloak? Three brothers: Harry, Dudley, and Harry's lost twin brother Tom…

They killed Tom. Who killed Tom? How did he die? Did he die accidentally or by design? Nobody knew who was responsible for the death of Ariana, Dumbledore's lost sister…. Do we know whose hand killed Harry's lost brother?

Kill the spare. Four is one too many. I had assumed that Harry was the spare, the intruder, the fourth, and that James, Lily, and Dudley were the three that belonged together in Harry's mind. But what if this happened before Dudley was born? Then there would have been four of them in the beginning: James, Lily, Harry and Tom. But then the four were reduced to three. How?

Did Harry somehow cause his brother's death? Is his scar, after all, the mark of Cain, the mark of the murderer? Is this the guilt that drove Harry into madness?

No… Harry refuses to harm Voldmort, even when Voldemort threatens to kill him. Expelliarmus… Not Avada Kedavra. No, Harry may have mourned and feared and loved the ghost of his dead brother, trembled before his memory and feared his revenge, but he wishes he could have protected him. Protected him from what? In Harry's hallucination, Tom Riddle killed James and Lily, and wants Harry dead as well. In return for what? Why does Harry believe that his dead brother wants him dead instead?

Harry cannot be harmed; his mother's love protects him. How very odd! How can Lily's love have protected Harry, but not Tom? Why was Harry the Chosen One? Why was Harry the Boy Who Lived, the receiver of the golden Felix Felicis, liquid luck, the blessing of the blessed?Why Harry and not Tom? No, this makes no sense!

If Harry's twin is dead, how did he die? Surely Lily and James could not harm their own child?

And yet, chillingly, there is something in Harry's hallucinations that suggests that they did. For Harry's subconscious tells me that James is both the Lucifer-like Lucius and Peter, the betrayer. And the loving Lily is the shadowy Umbridge, who inflicts torture and suffering. Did Lily and James harm Tom? No, it can't be!

Or can it?

I read my notes frantically, over and over, as I muttered to myself: "Lily and James? Lily and James - killed Tom? But why?"

I had not noticed anyone enter the room, but suddenly, I became aware that I was no longer alone. A soft voice spoke from the doorway: "No, Dr. Dumbledore. Lily and James did not kill Tom. I did."

I glanced up in utter incomprehension. There, in the doorway, stood a handsome, dark-haired man, dressed in a black coat. His face was deathly pale, but his black eyes glowed.

"Who are you...?" I whispered.

The stranger gave an odd little bow. "I beg your pardon for intruding like this, Dr. Dumbledore, but you did not appear to hear my knock. My name is Snape."