Doppelganger
Part I: Something Strange
By Krystiana
[email protected]
Disclaimer: Don't own. Don't sue. (aka HP and all other characters belong to JKR and whole bunch of other people, blah, blah, blah…)
Warnings: None really apply to this chapter, but this fic will eventually have slash of the H/D variety. May also contain some angst.
Archive: My site (), FanFiction.net, Noire Sensus (if they should somehow get a hold of this), Schnoogle (eventually). Anywhere else, please e-mail me first. ^_^
This story is in no way related to my other HP work in progress, "The Dark." This is just an idea that has been in my brain for a LONG time, and I finally came up with a way for it to happen. I may not continue it, depending on the response I get. The idea will be quite happy with either becoming an actual fic or staying in my brain. In other words, let me know what you think.
This is version two (aka the better version) of this chapter. I'll be working with my beta, Emma Grant, to work out this fic to the greatest potential. A BIG HUGE THANKS TO HER. I'll draw you a picture... or something. ^_^ Thanks to her, I'm now REALLY excited about this fic. Yay!
On with the fic.
From the moment that Harry Potter woke up, he knew it was going to be a very strange day. Nothing in particular happened right when he pulled himself out of bed to get started that morning, but the chills running up and down his spine gave him the feeling that something out of the ordinary was going to happen.
He attempted to shake the sensation, and decided to hop in the shower to wake up a bit more. Perhaps the feelings he was getting was just sleepiness catching up with him.
The shower did the trick for clearing his mind, and he laughed internally at his so-called 'premonitions' of the morning. He had just begun drying his hair when he noticed that his reflection in the mirror was looking at him. Harry raised an eyebrow and walked towards the mirror to get a better look. To his surprise, his reflection smirked at him and wrapped his own towel around his body. Harry blinked, and the reflection was suddenly back in sync with him, looking at him incredulously.
"Bloody wizard mirrors," Harry muttered, scowling at the mirror. "They all have a mind of their own." However, the uneasy feeling he'd had when he woke up had come back in full force.
The towel in Harry's hands was the bright Gryffindor red, while the towel he'd seen in his smirking reflection's hands was a very familiar shade of green.
* * *
"Draco!"
A groan could be heard from a pile of blankets.
"You're supposed the morning person, Draco. Wake UP!"
Draco Malfoy abruptly sat up as Blaise tore the blankets from him, glaring at the dark-haired boy in front of him. His eyes narrowed as Blaise began laughing. "What's so funny?" Draco hissed.
"What in the world did you do last night? Your hair looks as bad as Potter's!"
Draco threw the first thing he could grab. The laughing boy slipped through the bedroom door just as a Potions book smacked into the wall right where his head had been.
A very grumpy Slytherin pulled himself out of bed, muttering to himself. Draco had been up late finishing his essay for McGonagall's Transfiguration class, and had gotten a little under three hours of sleep. His reflection actually gasped when he stepped in front of the mirror.
"What happened to you?"
Draco glared at his reflection, studying the dark circles under his eyes, and unhappily agreeing with Blaise's comment on his hair. Thankfully, Draco didn't have the cowlicks that Potter had, and successfully got his hair slicked back to his usual style, making sure there wasn't a strand out of place. He dressed for the day, and was just placing a mild concealment charm on his dark circles as Blaise returned to the door with Pansy.
"We need some breakfast, Draco," Pansy said, peering around the edge of the doorway unabashedly. "Are you ready yet?"
"I've been ready," Draco replied shortly, pushing past the two of them and walking out of the room.
The three Slytherins began making their way to the Great Hall, with Pansy and Blaise chatting about Potions while Draco remained silent. Draco tuned the other two out, going over his Transfiguration essay in his head once more.
"Draco?"
He glanced at Pansy. "What?"
"Would you mind looking over my Potions essay at breakfast?" Pansy smiled sweetly at Draco.
"Mine, too," Blaise said.
Draco sighed. "Fine."
"We'll run back and get them," Pansy said as she and Blaise stopped to turn around. "We'll meet you at the table in a few minutes." Draco made a sound of agreement, and once again began heading down the hall, losing himself in his thoughts.
He walked by a display case that held Quidditch trophies and a few other various rewards, and was suddenly jerked out of his slight trance. He passed the same display every day and normally took no notice of it. Today, however, something compelled him to stop and look.
All the normal trophies were in the case. Draco narrowed his eyes, silently berating himself for letting strange suspicions get the better of him. Just as he was about to turn away, the inscription on one of the trophies caught his eye. He leaned forward to inspect it more carefully.
Slytherin Quidditch Team
Co-Captains Draco Malfoy & Harry Potter
A chill ran down his spine, and Draco couldn't help but give a small gasp. He stepped away from the case, still staring at the trophy for the Quidditch cup.
"Draco!" He looked away from the case as Blaise walked up beside him. "Something interesting in there?"
Draco looked back into the case. The trophy that had previously had Harry Potter and his own name inscribed now read something different.
Ravenclaw Quidditch Team
Captain Charlie Parker
"Draco? I thought you'd be in the Great Hall by now." Pansy joined the two of them, glancing from the trophy case to Draco, who finally tore his gaze away from the statue.
"I was waiting for you," he said, turning away from the case. Pansy noticed that he didn't look directly at either Blaise or herself. "I came up with an idea to hex the Gryffindors table," he added after a moment, and then began heading for the Great Hall.
Pansy and Blaise followed, but not before Pansy leaned over to inspect the trophy that Draco had been studying. Her eyes narrowed, but she soon hurried along to catch up with the other two.
* * *
Harry left breakfast for his first class, Potions, in an extremely bad mood. All of the dishes and silverware on the Gryffindor seemed to hop away from the tired students who just wanted to eat. Harry, Ron, and quite a few others resorted to eating with their hands.
Ron and Hermione walked a little bit behind Harry, figuring that he was just in the middle of one of his brooding campaigns. After dealing with several minutes of total silence from Harry, however, Hermione couldn't take it. She sped up a bit to catch up with Harry.
"Anything in particular that's causing that expression on your face, Harry?"
Harry glanced up, a bit startled. "What expression?"
"You are positively glowering at everything. What's wrong?"
"Um… bad morning," Harry lied. "I had a hard time waking up." The vision in the mirror wasn't something he wanted to discuss.
"Well, cheer up, man!" Ron said, coming up on Harry's other side and lighting slapping him on the back. "You're starting to look like a Slytherin!"
Ron and Hermione laughed, but Harry could only smile weakly. He fell behind the other two now, as they continued on to class. He kept his eyes to the ground as he once again mulled over the strange vision in the mirror.
When Harry looked up, Ron and Hermione were no longer in front of him. Confused, Harry turned around, looking for one red head and one bushy head. When he saw no heads at all, he realized he had absolutely no idea where he was.
Harry looked both ways down the peculiar corridor. It had been nearly a year since he had last found a part of Hogwarts he'd never seen before, and nearly two years since he had gotten lost. Knowing he was going to be late for potions and would have to face the wrath of Snape upon him, he decided to try and quickly find his way back, thinking that he'd probably gotten on the wrong moving staircase.
He began walking again, hoping to spot something familiar. There were no paintings in this hall, so he couldn't even stop to ask for directions.
"I've been looking everywhere for you, Harry. Professor Snape has been trying to find you all morning."
Harry froze. He knew that voice all too well, and it had never called him "Harry." Slowly, he turned around to face his blond rival, anger rising inside of him.
"What are you playing at, Malfoy?" Harry hissed.
Draco's eyes narrowed. "What the hell crawled up your ass?"
"You," Harry snapped.
Draco threw his head back and laughed. Harry then noticed that Draco's hair was slightly longer than he remembered. "That might be true, Harry. Maybe I should say 'why the hell are you behaving like an ass?'"
"I have to go to class." Harry turned to leave. Why in the world was Draco calling him 'Harry?'
A flicker of confusion ran across Draco's face. "No, you don't. You have a free period right now. We both do."
"We're both supposed to be in potions right now!" Harry snapped, turning around to glare at Draco.
"What the hell is wrong with you?" Draco shot back, his voice growing louder. "What are you acting like this?"
Harry sneered at Draco. "Shove off, Malfoy," he said just before turning and running down the hallway.
He hadn't missed the look on Draco's face as he left - it looked as if the blond Slytherin was stunned at what Harry had said.
Harry didn't know where he was running, nor did he really care. His encounter with the strangely behaving Malfoy had shaken him.
Suddenly, he was right beside the door to the potions classroom - with time to spare. He entered the classroom, and froze.
Sitting in his regular seat in the front row, Draco Malfoy was getting out his materials for class.
Harry's eyes widened, and he found himself clenching his teeth. He took a breath and bit the inside of his cheek as he walked past Malfoy to the back of the room.
"Harry! Where did you go?" Hermione asked as Harry took his seat. "You were right behind us, and then we turned a corner and you weren't there anymore."
Harry didn't answer. He was too busy staring at a certain blond Slytherin.
Draco Malfoy had short hair, slicked back. The Draco Malfoy he had run into the mysterious hall had hair below his ears, and it fell loose. The Malfoy in front of him was also wearing different clothes that the one in the hall.
The Malfoy in front of him noticed him staring, and he sneered back. "What are you staring at, Potter?" he hissed.
Harry sighed. "Something very disturbing," he replied truthfully.
Draco was about to remark on that when Snape burst into the room, signaling the beginning of class.
Snape immediately began writing things on the board, with a swift order to copy everything he wrote. Harry picked up his quill and began writing, but his thoughts wouldn't leave what had transpired a few minutes ago.
Harry had seen several strange happenings during his time at Hogwarts, and quite a few of them were more outlandish than his bizarre meeting with Malfoy. He quickly began mentally listing possibilities. ~Perhaps someone in polyjuice, playing a trick on me?~ He dismissed that thought; no one would be so eager to trick him that they would go to the lengths of brewing the polyjuice potion.
He also crossed out many other probable causes, as well as instigators of such a prank. Ron certainly wouldn't play a trick like that. Fred and George were ruled out since they had no way of getting to Hogwarts, although Harry kept them in the back of his mind. Seamus or Dean didn't have the determination to prank him, and Neville didn't have the means. After much deliberation, he also crossed Malfoy himself off the list, on the basis that Malfoy couldn't possibly have a motive to present a 'nice' version of himself to Harry.
~Maybe Malfoy IS an evil twin, and the good twin has escapsed from Malfoy Manor...~ Harry thought, a small smile playing on his lips.
"Potter!" Harry snapped his head up at Snape's sharp tone. He realized he had long since stopped copying and instead just been staring blankly at his parchment.
"Sorry, Profressor Snape," Harry said quietly, quickly scribbling the last few steps of the Matamilla Potion on his parchment.
"Ten points from Gryffindor, for grinning like an idiot instead of doing your work." A quiet laughter came from the Slytherin's side of the room. Snape went back to the lesson, and Harry let his thoughts wander back to his humorous evil twin theory. Hermione elbowed him as a glassy look came over his eyes.
~Two Draco Malfoys. That's a laugh,~ Harry thought before finally attempting to fully turn his attention to Snape's lesson.
* * *
As class ended and Draco was gathering up his books and notes, he felt someone watching him. He looked up and scanned the classroom, noticing Potter staring at him through narrowed eyes.
"What is your problem, Potter?" he hissed, slamming his Potions book shut. "You act as if you've never seen me before."
Potter merely blinked at him, and raised an eyebrow. "Have I?" With that, he swept past Draco and out the door.
Pansy watched him go, then turned to Draco. "What do you think that means?" she asked him.
Draco ignored her, shoving books into his bag with unnecessary force. "Idiot Potter," he muttered bitterly. "Trying to be bloody cryptic..." In truth, Potter's behavior had created an unsettling feeling in his stomach, all too similar to the sensation he'd had after that morning's hallucination.
Draco closed his bag and stormed towards the door.
"I think you need a nap, Draco," Blaise commented, a laughed rising in his throat. Draco didn't stop and left the Potions dungeon without responding.
Draco now had a free period, and he decided to go to the library to study for his Arithmancy exam. As he walked, the feelings lessened. ~What do I care what Potter's behaving like?~ he thought, dismissing the vision he'd seen this morning as something he'd imagined due to his lack of sleep.
When he reached the library, he felt a sudden wave of dizziness come over him. He reached out and gripped the edge of the doorway, putting a hand to his head.
"Draco? What's wong?"
The blond Slytherin looked up, but with the vertigo he had, he had no way to tell who it was. "Dizzy…" Draco said softly. "I think I'm going to pass out." Draco's knees gave out, and he pitched forward.
Whoever the person was managed to catch him and help him into a chair. "Drink too much again, Draco?" the stranger said, giving a small laugh.
"No!" Draco snapped, upset at his display of weakness. The room's spinning was slowing down. "I just didn't sleep enough."
"Still feel like you're going to pass out?"
"No. I'm fine." Draco squeezed his eyes shut, pinching the bridge of his nose. "You can leave now."
The stranger made a sound that resembled a sigh of relief. "That's good , although you sill should probably go see Madame Pomfrey."
"I'll be fine," Draco said.
"That's right - you won't go when you really need help, but you're more than willing to subject yourself to Madame Pomfrey when you want to get out of class. You even faked the fucking flu."
~I never told anyone I faked that,~ Draco thought. Confusion washed over him, but Draco felt good enough to lift his head. "What do YOU know?" he snapped just before he recognized the 'stranger' in front of him.
Harry Potter, minus one pair of glasses, minus one Gryffindor uniform, and plus one Slytherin uniform, sat before him.
"Potter?" Draco said, his vertigo coming back full trottle.
He passed out.
* * *
Harry was more confused than he'd been all day.
One second, Harry had been leaving potions and heading to divination with Ron.
Now he was in the library and staring at an unconscious Draco Malfoy.
Harry only had one thing to say.
"What the HELL is going on here?"
To be continued!!
A/N: Charlie Parker, as in Charlier Parker the sax player. First name that name to mind. ^_^