//------------------------------//
// Chapter 14:  Jinx'd 
// Story: The Accidental Invasion 
// by computerneek 
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“So, Draco?” Hermione- no, Draco reminded himself, it’s Instructor Granger when I’m Draco- asked.
Draco looked up, from where he’d been gathering up his books.  Instructor Twilight Sparkle had been right, the week before; Herm- Instructor Granger- had put not only Instructor Hard Spell but the entire class through their paces even more than Instructor Sparkle had.  And she’d somehow balanced her effort to help bring each individual student up to speed as quickly as possible- he’d found himself working hard for the first time in…  Years?  In any case, it took quite a bit to tax him, but she’d managed it.  By the time the bell rang, he was starting to develop a small headache from all the studying, his desk was layered in books and notes, and she’d had him attempt- successfully, at that- no less than three different spells he hadn’t known before.
All in the span of a single hour.
“Hmm?” he asked, while the last of the other students walked out the door:  Instructor Hard Spell herself.
Hermione took a deep breath, and let it out again.  “Um…  How do you think I did?”  She glanced nervously around the room.
He shrugged.  “I can’t say much for everyone else, but I know you had me working harder than I’ve worked in years.”  He grinned up at her.
She nodded slowly.  “...  Ahh.  Then…”  She tilted her head.  “How about the…  thing?”  She fixed him with a curious gaze.
“The…  Oh, that.  Well…”  He sighed.  “I’m sure you already know about the flash of light and how much it tingled?”
She nodded.
He shrugged.  “Well, the tingling came back periodically, nice and gentle, for a few minutes at a time over the next day or so.  Then it escalated to waves of dizziness for a day.  Then…”  He shuddered.  “I…  I was afraid I was going to lose everything.  My head hurt to the top of Merlin’s hat, I couldn’t keep anything down, and when I went to Madam Pomfrey, she said I had a nasty fever.”  He shuddered again.  “It didn’t stop there, of course.  Before long, I had also lost sight and hearing, and become mute.  It…”  He shuddered a third time.  “It was horrible.  Then there was a spike of pain, and the main side effect you were expecting.”  He looked up at her.
She nodded, clearly understanding what he meant, though her face betrayed her hurt at the amount of pain she had caused him.
“That lasted about fifteen minutes, and took everything else with it.”  He shrugged.  “Been completely normal ever since.  No new magic or anything.”
She sighed.  “Well there wouldn’t be, like this,” she told him.  “You’ll have to take the altered form to have access to that.  But…”  She shivered.  “It’s there, all right.  It just…  doesn’t look stable.  I thought it would, but…”  She sighed.  “Nothing’s changing right now, though.  Almost like it’s dormant or something.”
He shrugged.  “Nothing left to do but wait and see, is there?”
She sighed again.  “Yeah, I guess.  Keep me posted?”





Draco sighed as he sat down next to Hermione, at the top of the Quidditch stands.
She looked at him.  “Anything new?”
He shook his head.  “Unless you count nearly breaking my nose on my way down here because of an…  inopportunely timed dizzy spell.”
“Dizzy spell?” Hermione asked, curiously.
He nodded.  “Yup.  Second one so far.  They were both very sudden, very strong, and also very brief.  Lasted just a few seconds each time, I think.”
She tilted her head.  “When was the first one?”
He shrugged.  “Couple days ago.  Thursday morning- my bed was there, so no harm.”
She scowled.  “Hmm.  I suppose…”  She scowled.  “Yeah, that’s one of the longer-term side effects I was expecting, actually.  Your essence is just adapting to the new capability.  I…  don’t know what kind of effects to expect from said adaptation, just that the process can be…”  She gestured towards him.  “Dizzying, I guess.”
Ron, seated on her other side, looked at her.  “What are you talking about?” he asked.
“Donno what Hailey thinks she’s doing.”
Draco looked up.  “What?” he asked.  Hailey, Hermione, and Ron had introduced him to the gamekeeper a week before- and while he seemed to be very nervous anytime he was in Hailey’s vicinity, something she found very amusing, he had quickly become a friend of Draco’s as well.
“If I didn’t know any better,” Hagrid continued, gazing up at the speck that was Hailey with his binoculars, “I’d say she’d lost control of her broom.  But she couldn’ ‘ave!”
“What?” Draco asked again, this time alarmed.  He grabbed Hagrid’s binoculars when he lowered them, and peered up at Hailey.  He scowled.  “Yeah.  And that’s not a pre-applied curse, that’s someone actively interfering with it.”  He gave the binoculars to Hermione, who looked up as well, and muttered a curse under her breath.
“But no kid could do that to a Nimbus Two Thousand,” Hagrid said, staring up at Hailey without the binoculars while Hermione passed them to Ron and drew her wand.  “There’s nothing that can interfere with a broomstick except powerful dark magic!”
Ron took the binoculars and pointed them down into the stands, while Hermione brandished her wand almost like she was dancing with it.  “I knew it,” he announced.  “It’s Snape.”
“Snape?” Draco asked- but Ron just stuffed the binoculars into his hands and ran off down the row.  He scowled after Ron, then turned the binoculars on the stands opposite.  It didn’t take him long to find the Head of Slytherin House…  who did indeed look like he was doing something.  “Huh.  But he wouldn’t attack a student…?”  He lowered the binoculars and looked up.  “Would he, Hagrid?”
“Eh?” Hagrid asked, looking down at him in apparent confusion.
Right on time, Hermione lashed her wand forwards to point straight at Hailey, and a sudden gale blasted past them all in that direction.
“What the-!?” Draco asked.  Hermione ignored it, even though her hair was obscuring her face.  After all, Draco knew, she wasn’t exactly using her eyes at the moment.  The wind died away very quickly.
The silence held for almost two seconds, through which both Hagrid and Draco were watching Hermione expectantly, before she moved.  She wiggled her wand, and gave it a quick twirl.  “Snape is using a countercurse,” she informed them simply.  Then she scowled.  “It’s the wrong one, though, so it’s not as effective.”
“Who’s attacking?” Draco asked.
Her scowl deepened.  “I can’t tell.  Their signature seems to be scrambled.”  She sighed.  “I invented this spell last month, and it’s already been countered.  Whelp…  let’s see if they’re ready for this.”  She opened her eyes, brushed her hair out of her eyes, looked up at Hailey, and muttered something under her breath.


Up in the air, Hailey was suddenly able to control her broom again for a second- but only a single second.  It was still long enough for her to swing back onto it, though.





It was in the nature of a countercurse to be able to sense the curse, and other magics directly affecting the target.  However, it could only offer up how many there were and how powerful they were, never what they were or who was casting it.  Snape was aware that the last two were theoretically impossible, but nobody had proven it.
As such, he knew exactly when someone cast a spell on Harry- or Hailey, as he’d found out the boy could become just minutes before the match- and he also knew that they were using well over a hundred times as much power as he had ever seen out of the Dark Lord, but he didn’t know any more…  except that it was in the nature of a curse to be blind to that kind of thing.  He had only to pray that it was friendly, and prepared a cushion spell in the back of his mind to catch the boy- no, currently a girl- should he- she- fall.
Then another spell, this one a similar power level to his, latched onto the boy- girl- and he saw him- her- practically leap back onto his- her- broom in a moment of positive control, before resuming the battle to stay on.
This battle went on for perhaps thirty seconds or so, with the broom getting progressively steadier- and at one point, Harry- Hailey- made a wild sweep with one arm for some reason, before resuming the struggle with his- her- broom.
Hardly five seconds after that, he felt first one, then the other low-power spell falling off.  Finally, Har-Hailey seemed to have full control back, and was streaking towards the ground, hair streaming out behind her.  Snape lowered his countercurse, then had perhaps two seconds to wonder if that was why Professor McGonagall never used her first name or used gendered pronouns for her before he noticed a surge of heat climbing up his back.





“It was Snape,” Ron told Hailey, while Hagrid was making them all a cup of strong tea in his hut.  “We saw him.  He was cursing your broomstick- he wouldn’t take his eyes off you.”
Hermione scowled.  “N-!”
“Rubbish,” Hagrid said loudly.  “Why would Snape do something like that?”
“He didn’t,” Hermione stated firmly.  “He was using a countercurse.”
“But then-!” Ron began, scowling.  “Then why did he try to get past that three-headed dog on Halloween?”
“He did?” Draco asked, genuinely surprised by the news.  It didn’t surprise him that he was a little behind the curve with his friends- he couldn’t be with them nearly as much as they could be together, after all.
Hagrid, meanwhile, dropped the teapot.  “How do you know,” he said slowly, “about Fluffy?”
Hailey looked at him.  “Fluffy?”
“Yeah.  He’s mine.  Bought him off a Greek chap I met in the pub last year.  I lent him to Dumbledore to guard the-!”  He caught himself, and went silent.
“Yes?” Ron prompted eagerly- but instead of an answer from Hagrid, he got a slap on the arm from Hailey.
“No need to pry,” she reprimanded him.
“N-Now, don’t ask me any more,” Hagrid said gruffly.  “That’s top secret, that is!”
“But Snape’s trying to steal it!” Ron pleaded.
“Ron!” Hailey barked.  “What if he’s trying to protect it from someone that’s trying to steal it?”
Hagrid nodded.  “He’s a Hogwarts teacher,” he said.  “Of course he’d protect it.”  He sighed.  “Listen, you forget that dog, and forget what it’s guarding.  That’s between Professor Dumbledore and Nicholas Flamel.”
“Nicholas Flamel?” Hermione parroted.
“He and his wife, Paranel, are six hundred and something years old,” Draco recalled.  “Because he made the Philosopher’s Stone.  And a man that old, with friends like Dumbledore, is going to have a lot to hide.”
Hailey looked up at Hagrid, who was sputtering incoherently, then at Draco.  “Like the Philosopher’s Stone itself?”
Draco blinked.  “Er…  Yeah, I suppose he’d want to hide that.  I mean, it makes the Elixir of Life- which makes the drinker immortal- and can turn any metal into pure gold.”
“Immortal?” Ron asked, looking at Draco.  “Then how are we sure he isn’t trying to steal it?”
“More like,” Hermione barked, “who is Dumbledore trying to protect it from?”
“Voldemort,” Hailey said simply.
The effect was immediate.  Ron, Hagrid, and Draco gave involuntary shudders.
“Don’t say the name!” Ron hissed.
Hailey ignored him.  “Because when he tried to kill me…  I mean,” she looked at Hermione.  “Can part of the soul be destroyed when the rest remains?”
Hermione shook her head.  “No.  It’s impossible to destroy a soul- except, I suppose, by a dementor, but even they can’t destroy only part of a soul.  And the soul has to be whole to pass on to…”  She shrugged.  “The beyond, I guess?”
“What’s a dementor?” Hailey asked, curious.
She shook her head.  “I’ll explain later,” she told her.
Hailey shrugged.  “But anyways, when he tried to kill me, if my parents can-!”
“He tried to kill you?” Ron interrupted, confused.  “Didn’t he try to kill Harry?”
Hailey looked at him.  “Ahh…  Yes.”
“Then how did he…?  He can’t exactly die twice, can he?”
“Uh…  I’ll get to that.”  She turned away from him.  “If my parents can leave pieces of themselves on me, then what about him?  Could Voldemort have left a piece of himself behind in this world- perhaps not on me, but on someone else- even something else?”
Hermione scowled.  “I don’t know.  I’ve…  never seen any books that say it’s possible, but I’ve seen it happen, so…”  She shrugged.  “Probably.”
“Right.  Then when his body is killed, what’s the rest of him going to do?  Does it, perhaps, float around and wait for the right moment to just spawn another one with the help of the Elixir of Life?”
Hermione opened her mouth to speak, looking distinctly uneasy, then closed it again for a second.  “That’s…  possible,” she said eventually.  “Though I’ll have to admit I don’t know enough about how these kinds of things work.”
Hailey nodded.
“Then Snape’s trying to steal it for him!” Ron concluded.
“He’s a Hogwarts teacher,” Hagrid reiterated.  “He’d do nothing of the sort.”
Hailey rounded on them.  “I’m not so sure that reason stands, Hagrid,” she informed him, before turning to Ron.  “But I know he’d do nothing of the sort because he saved my life today.”  She gave him the stare.
It was Ron’s turn to be distinctly uneasy.  “How does that…?”
“Because if he was working for Voldemort,” Hailey continued, ignoring Ron’s shudder, “he would have tried to kill me instead.  As a matter of fact…”
“Why?” Ron injected.  “Why would You Know Who care about you?”
She looked at him again, looking somewhat bewildered.  “I’ll get to that,” she told him.
Very suddenly, two plus two equalled four in Draco’s head.  Hailey was either trying to tell them that she was Harry…  or wasn’t too concerned about hiding such a fact.  “Oh!” he gasped, slapping a hand against his own forehead.  “I think I get it.”  Then it crossed his mind that he’d seen both Harry and Hailey several times over the last several days- just never both at once.  “But how do you do it?”
Hailey glanced at him, and grinned.  “Later.  Anyways, from the evidence, we know that Voldemort is here, at Hogwarts, and trying to steal it himself- we just don’t know who he is.”
“You Know Who is You Know Who,” Hagrid said, confused.  Even Hermione looked confused.
“It’s Voldemort,” Hailey corrected him.
“Don’t say the name,” Ron hissed.
“It’s Voldemort,” Hailey repeated, this time at a yell.  “It’s a word.  What are you afraid of?”
The silence lasted for about three seconds.
Finally, Hailey let out a sigh.  “Anyways, we technically know who he is, but we simultaneously don’t know who he is, because he doesn’t have a body.  He can’t physically handle the Stone himself- and, presumably, can’t just pass through stone, wood, and three-headed dogs to reach it for some reason- maybe he needs a physical hand to manipulate it for him or something.  But he could easily be riding someone- on their body, one of their possessions, something.  And we don’t know who that someone- who his servant- is.”  She looked around the table.  “I’d bet my broomstick it’s that servant that was attacking me earlier.”
Hermione let out a gasp.  “Oooh!  That must be why I couldn’t tell who was attacking.  Their signature was messed up because they’re sharing their body with Voldemort, which has naturally resulted in the Essence being scrambled, which…”  She trailed off, drawing odd figures on the table with her finger.  “Yup.  His effect is probably larger than your parents’, though, and he’s either always ‘agitated’ or becomes so whenever his servant is going to attack.”
“Larger?” Hailey asked, gesturing down at herself.
Hermione looked at her.  “Well…”  She paused, thinking, then smiled.  “I guess.  But mothers are like that.”
Hailey laughed.
“What I meant,” Hermine began again.  “Er, what I guess I meant, is that Voldemort is going to have some kind of long-term effect on his servant, probably at least a little transformational.  It might be small enough to hide with clothing, since a lot of the effect is probably inside anyways, in the mind, where he can directly bolster his servant’s magical capabilities.  Which makes him very dangerous.”
Hailey nodded.  “So if we find out who he is and find ourselves in a stand-up fight against him, it’s potentially equivalent to a stand-up fight against Voldemort himself at the height of his power, sans backup?”
Hermione nodded as well.  “Exactly.”  She looked at Hagrid.  “I assume Fluffy is basically unstoppable unless you know some specific secret about him?”
“Yeah,” Hagrid nodded.  “You just-!”  He froze.
“Nice catch,” Hailey told him.  “Do you know if Dumbledore knows who he is?”
Hagrid shook himself out, then shook his head.  “Nah, he can’t.”  He sounded uneasy as well.  “If he did, he’d never let ‘im anywhere near the Castle.”
“Wait a minute,” Ron said suddenly, eyes wide, before he turned to Hailey.  “Are you saying you’re-?”  He stopped.
Hailey turned to look at him calmly.  “Yes.”
“That you’re-?” Ron repeated.  “You’re Harry Potter?”
She nodded.  “Yes.”
“I’d still like to know how you do it,” Draco said.  “I’ve been trying to build a genderswap spell for years, but haven’t managed it.”
She shrugged.  “I don’t,” she told him, looking back at him and smiling cheerfully.  “My mom does, whenever I hit myself in the face.”
“Your…  What?”
Hermione nodded.  “She’s right,” she said.  “And there’s no known way to duplicate it, unfortunately.  Unless your mother wants to sacrifice herself to protect you, but I rather expect you prefer her alive.”
Draco shuddered.  “Yeah, and I’d rather not have V-Voldemort coming after me either.”
“Me neither,” Hailey told him flatly.  “But honestly, I didn’t have much of a choice in the matter.”  She shrugged.  “I’m sure there’s a way- like she said, no known way.  And she’s already demonstrated rather well that we- that wizardkind knows next to nothing about magic, right?”  She looked mischievously at Hermione.
Hermione smiled abashedly.  “I only discovered a new field of magic,” she mumbled.
“And in so doing proved just how little we know about the core of how magic works,” Hailey nodded.
Hagrid, who seemed to be having trouble following the conversation, pulled out a fresh teapot and started making tea again.