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this is for a Potterworld contest in the Friends of English Magic guild.
(This episode is set midway through the series, and is meant to serve for character development, dialogue and interaction.)
"Honestly Harry, at your age I'd think you could start showing a little more maturity and common sense!"
"Not now, O mistress of the mystic arts, I'm not in the mood."
"Mood for what?"
"Your lectures on my personality flaws, delivered in a tone of smug superiority none can match."
"I'm trying to keep you from self-destructing! What did you mean by pranking Slytherin like that, sending snakes under their doors? Everyone saw you do it."
"Exactly, Hermione! Everyone saw! Now just cool down and think a bit; recall some of our real scrapes...have I ever gone to pains to reveal my presence? Wouldn't I just use the cloak of invisibility?"
The girl placed her finger to her chin and considered it. "Right you are Harry, it's completely unlike you. Not the mischief part mind you, but the publicity. Sorry, really I am. You see, I'm always afraid of things going badly for you, it seems you're always in some trouble or other."
"Correct! And we know who is mostly to blame for all that, directly or indirectly! Which makes me wonder whether he has some plans afoot and needs to have me confined to Gryffindor House in order to make them succeed. Somebody's made themselves up to look like me, and now I'm on house detention, and I'll wager my broomnstick it's all setting up for some seriously nasty business."
"But what can we do, Harry?"
"Sneak out and investigate, of course. There's nothing I'd like more than to catch them at it, whatever it is! As I just mentioned, I've got that fine cloak!"
"Oh no you don't, mister! No more legal troubles for you! I'll...I'll report you myself if I have to if you try, see if I don't!"
"There now, you know you wouldn't; we've been through too much together. And how else can we put a stop to their plans?"
Just then there came a rapping on Harry's chamber door. "Come in!" called the wizardling, and then "Why, it's Dumbledore! I mean, Headmaster. Whatever are you doing up at this hour, sir?"
"Ah Harry, I just had second thoughts about that detention. Perhaps we were hasty, eh? Boys will be boys, no harm done, they were all mere grass snakes with an illusion of viper placed on them. Been a boy myself once, long ago. So...ah, where was I?" The old man is his robes of Master Wizardry smiled kindly. "Oh yes, detention's lifted, you're free. Now I must be off, it's past my bedtime."
After the headmaster left, the two students stared at each other in some confusion.
"Well, what do you think of that?" asked the lad.
"Not going much by the book, is he?"
"No, and this sudden reversal would be sure to put Slytherin out of sorts; no, it's not like him at all."
Then their jaws dropped as they simultaneously came to the same realization.
"Illusion!" cried Harry.
"Right you are!" echoed Hermione. "Someone is using illusion to look like you, and to disguise those snakes, and now...impersonating Dumbledore!"
"But that may mean the real Head is in trouble! They may have immobilized him so he wouldn't interfere with their ruse!"
"Harry, now don't be rash. What if this is all part of their plan to get you out of your room and into more trouble? Think! What is the same result, whether you accept what just happened at face value, or suspect the Head is in danger? Either way, you rush out of your room...which is just what they want! You get caught breaking detention, and then it's suspension for you. You'd truly be out of the way then, and unable to help us combat whatever they have planned. And you'd be back stuck with those horrid Muggles!""
"You just use your spells to scan the halls for traps and tricks, and I'll share the cloak. We simply can't leave the old man in danger! Oh and you'd best put an illusion of my presence in the room once we've gone, too."
"I guess there's no talking you out of it", sighed the girl. "Very well: Duplicatio!"
"It must be the way you wave that wand, or your self-confidence. But you never miss, Hermione. There's my other self, sitting at the table, reading!"
"Stop gawking and let's go, before we're both caught....All clear, no dangers yet....Down the stairs, this hall....another....I'm getting tired, Harry, casting these uncovering spells is draining me. Are we there yet?"
"Yes, here's the door...Headmaster, may we come in?"
"Enter, young Potter!" came the familiar vocie.
"Careful Harry! Notice his smiling demeanor? It's the same fake!" whispered Hermioine as they entered.
"You freeze him then! You're best at spells", Harry whispered back.
"No, you!" she replied simply, stepping aside and nudging him.
"Take a chair, dear boy!" smiled the approaching wizard.
Harry replied, "Sir, I'd like you to take a look at my wand...like this!" He spun in the opposite direction from Dumbledore, pointed his wand, and exclaimed "Petrificus Totalus!"
"Harry, what did you just do?" his friend asked, puzzled. "Dumbledore froze in his tracks, but in the opposite direction from where you were pointing!"
"Just point your wand where I did, and say a revealing spell."
"All right...Finite Incantatum Priorem! That should release all spells but your last....Look, it's a wizard all right, but one I've never seen before, frozen in place. So do you recognize him?"
"Not a clue, except that he's a master illusionist. Well, now what? Locate the real Dumbledore?"
Hermione shook her head. "Best not; you're still on detention, remember? Unless and until this all gets cleared up, he'd have to discipline you for being out. Let's make sure this one's well petrified, and then summon and send an owl to alert someone to discover him here. Then they'll force the truth from him and you'll be off the hook."
They were soon ready to re-enter his room, when Harry stopped suddenly, saying "I can't explain it, but this doesn't seem right somehow. I get a sensation of something out of place."
Hermione wrinkled her brow. "I don't notice anything, but I agree we should be extra cautious. Let's go to the rooms next door and borrow a scrying bowl."
Peering into the surreptitiously purloined bowl, she said "Your room looks safe enough, everything's in place, and there's your other self still reading that book."
"Can you cast backward in time a few minutes?"
"It's difficult but I'll try....There! Look! She gasped. "Dumbledore is coming down the chimney! He's sneering at your double, and going around with his wand casting spells on everything! The door, the chair, your bed, the book...even your tea cup! We don't dare go in there, it's all been boobytrapped! ...Now he's going back up the chimney!"
"And probably just beat us back to Dumbledore's rooms, by chimney" Harry muttered darkly. "I don't dare get caught outside my rooms yet. We don't dare enter by the door. But if we go back by way of chimney we should be safe enough, he couldn't have set traps there since that was his own route of exit."
They were found there standing in Harry's fireplace the next morning, by the real Headmaster. Hermione had caused a luminous warning to appear floating in front of the hallward side of the door, warning of the traps, and the aged wizard had removed all the hazards. It turned out he had been lured away that night by false reports of an emergency, no doubt placed by the same evildoers. He removed Harry from detention and asked no question about how the stranger in his room came to be immobilized.
After he left, Hermione declared "All right now, question time! Why didn't you attack that false Dumbledore directly, when he seemed to be approaching you? Why did you pivot completely around and cast your spell in the opposite direction?"
"Well, it seemed as though these people were using us against ourselves. They used my desire for action, and hatred for Voldemort, to lure me into a rash response, knowing where I would go. And they used your curiosity and intellect, sure that you'd want to solve the puzzle. We had let ourselves become predictable. So I asked myself- what is predictable here? Someone is in disguise, an impersonator. What is unpredictable? That the real person is detached from the illusion, using it to distract me while he sneaks up on me from the angle of my greatest vulnerability! So then I chose the unpredictable response. Now, my turn. Why did you nudge me and tell me to be the one to deal with him, when you're the best with spells?"
"Well", replied his friend, with a small but genuine smile, "You say I'm the best at spells, and without false modesty, you're correct! You can do those well enough, but I am really good. But now there's more needed in a situation like that than mere cleverness! There's courage and intuition and thinking on your feet...I'm brave enough too in a pinch, but you are the hero here, Harry."
He just stared at her; she had never said anything like this before.
"Of course, you're still a handful for us sensible folk, hero!" she grinned as she tousled his hair.
(c) beaulolais 2007
 beaulolais · Mon Oct 15, 2007 @ 04:25pm · 1 Comments |
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