28 Chapter 26: Halloween (From here to 45 is not corrected. Read at your own risk, I'm working in it)
There were several days that passed until today's date. Our efforts paid off, with Tonks we spent a lot of time trying to make my clone look different, and it can be considered a goal achieved since yesterday, although she didn't particularly know what for.
She cost us as the amount of blood in the clone's body is proportional to the mass of my body and static, so we couldn't add or subtract things from it, but simply subtract from one side to add to another and vice versa.
The first thing we did is make her body taller, this part was very difficult for two reasons. First, because doing so completely lost the balance of both the clone and my real body by having to process the movements of two bodies with different formats, for a while I was more clumsy than Tonks. And the second thing is that we didn't have much material to stretch the clone, mainly we made him lose some muscle, causing him to be weaker in strength than my real self, and we also reduced the consistency of some parts like the bones, causing him to be more fragile, the good thing is that his body is quite light so it compensates to a certain extent.
On the other hand, on her looks I mostly left Tonks to guide me, while I just did the flesh sculpting job. According to her, I look quite handsome, not an eccentric and natural beauty like mine, but someone who has symmetrical and well-detailed features in the style of a sculpture. He looks different from me on the face with only a few similarities, but nothing that can directly connect us.
And finally, a characteristic that is very remarkable in my person could also be changed, to a certain extent. The bright blood red color of my hair and eyes could be darkened, now more than red blood it looked like coagulated blood, partly because that was the way I modified it. It had that dark burgundy color or almost black purple that some blood sausages have.
With his new look he looked like a skinny student, maybe the same age as Tonks, not very athletic and a bit clumsy, but with a good face.
Coming back to today... Today is an important day, since today is Halloween, the day the troll appears at school during dinner, and I have taken this situation into account for various reasons.
The bottom line is Hermione. In the original story she had turned away from everyone because of her attitude, but my participation prevented that and she usually just behaved a little bossy with me, but she tried to avoid it with others, she even had a good relationship with her roommates, no a great friendship, but they would be close friends at least. Although after what I did she cut herself off from everyone, it wasn't for long enough for Ron to have the reason to tell her he doesn't have any friends or anything like that that would make her go cry in the girls' bathroom when a troll he's on the loose, so not if that scene will happen.
And the other thing is, I don't know how much money the merchant will give me for the troll, but I'm eager to find out, although I still don't know how I'm going to move the body.
After preparing a skull-shaped breakfast for Hermione, I left my bedroom and already felt that the atmosphere was different, not only because of Halloween, but because the tension in the air could be breathed from miles away. No Slytherin had done anything against me since Snape had reprimanded them until now and it was making me a little nervous.
The common room was lightly decorated and you could see how several students woke up early today. It seems that several people are excited for this day, especially the younger children, I even saw how Malfoy was already awake, which is rare at this hour.
When Draco saw me he gave me a death glare similar to the ones he gives me when he tries to make fun of me like all these previous days, but I ignored him until I was near the common room door, at which point I turned my head. and I told him.
"Hey Malfoy, I didn't know you dressed like Muggles, cute princess costume, it fits like a glove" I yelled at him before running off.
I thought I heard his yelling and complaining, but I ignored them and hurried on. I went out to the castle to train with Tonks one last time before he leaves for the show. The effort he put into our 'last training session' was interesting. If it wasn't for him having to get his stuff ready for when he leaves, we could have a workout in the afternoon.
We said our goodbyes and I went to breakfast, I was sitting at the Ravenclaw table talking to Penelope, since we became good friends in this time and she has been asking me about Percy to see if she can make amends for her mistake in some way, although we also talk of various topics. He also tried to give me advice on how to fix Hermione and I appreciated it, but I'm not sure it worked.
And finally, after breakfast we went to class. We didn't have Charms class with Gryffindor, so I didn't know if it all happened like the original story, who knows if Hermione and my brother even sat together. Still, while my clone attended class, my real body was left waiting in the hallway outside the Charms room, just in case.
After waiting a long time, the door in the distance opened and I could see how the children came out, I paid special attention to Ron who was with Harry and some other children.
"It's a nightmare, I'm serious" Ron told Harry as they walked down the hall "No wonder she hung out with my freak brother, and even he seemed to end up getting away from her, they can't stand it between monsters"
After he said that I could see how Hermione crashed into them with tears starting to come out of her eyes.
'Ron and our sister's, how can things completely different from the original scenario cause the same damage' I thought as I clenched my fists and teeth to see how my brother was an idiot.
I can't take it anymore, I always ignored Ron and all his idiocy, but now due to my complicated situation with Hermione I have been very sensitive to everything related to her, and no matter how much consideration I had with him for being a child, I was not going to to tolerate it this time.
"I think he heard you," Harry said to his friend, not noticing how someone was quickly approaching them.
"So what..." Ron was replying, but was suddenly stopped by something rapidly approaching him.
My brother did not notice my appearance until it was very late, nor did I notice how I retracted my fist and turned it forward just at the height of his head. My arm extended in a straight line perpendicular to his face, landing the blow right on his big nose. There was a loud crack coming from Ron and his body flew back at least a meter.
"That's for you to learn to close your big mouth" I told him as he fell to the ground. Maybe it was a lot, but it felt so good that I even feel bad about it.
"AaaaaHHHHHHH" Ron screamed as he covered his face, blood running in stained heaps quickly all over his body.
"What are you doing?!" Harry yelled as he ran to pick up his friend, but when he saw all the blood on him he freaked out.
It seemed that he wanted to come fight me along with all the other Gryffindor boys after seeing Ron's state, but he didn't move away from him because he was still crying while holding his bleeding nose, and he didn't have time to do so either, as there was a furious roar.
"Mr. Red! What is he doing?!" Professor McGonagall was heard walking briskly towards us.
"He hit Ron," Harry said furiously to the chorus of all the other lions.
She approached Ron and seeing his state she got worried, she used a spell to clean the blood from his body and face, and she had to put some effort to remove his hands from Ron's face to see how he was doing. .
"She's broken a lot," she said making a clicking sound of her tongue, then she gave me a deadly look "Get Mr. Weasley to the hospital wing quickly," she told Ron's companions.
They left dragging Ron who couldn't stop crying. On the other hand, Professor McGonagall was looking at me furiously, maybe I was wrong... no, it wasn't wrong, I'm not going to show weakness. I looked at her seriously without looking away from her.
"I hope she can give me an explanation" she demanded of me.
"Just family discussions" I replied without hesitation
"A simple fight does not reach those extremes, his blows have completely broken her brother's nose" she said quite dissatisfied with my answer "15 points less for Slytherin"
"I could take fifty or a hundred off, but I'd still do it again if necessary"
"MR RED!" She yelled at me "I thought you were someone knew how to accept your mistakes" she said referring to me 'Accepting my punishment' earlier in the principal's office.
"I'm clearly that kind of person, but now I haven't made any mistakes" I said causing him to be annoyed, but also to doubt the reason why I was so firm in my position "I only speak the truth, my actions are not usually superficial , if I do something it is for a justifiable reason" 'most of the time'.
"I would like to be able to dig deeper into this matter and see that he receives the punishment he deserves" He said with the intention of knowing the reason for all this "But Headmaster Dumbledore was looking for him, I think that after talking with him he will also be able to decide what to do in this situation. Follow me Mr. Red"
I followed her without protest, actually I wanted to go to Hermione to see how she was doing, but it seems that she will have to wait. Precisely the teacher caught my real body, if she were the clone she could let her go in my place while I go to look for her, but it's not like that. Actually I also wanted to use this moment to have a real conversation with her and try to fix our situation and for that I wanted her to be my real self to show sincerity. But it's not going to be like that, I still don't think it will take that long.
We went back through the gargoyle and entered the director's office, it was exactly the same as before. When we arrived, the director was feeding Fawkes, he just turned around when he saw us and then went to sit at his desk.
"Here is Mr. Weasley, Professor Dumbledore, I would also like to let you know that before I brought him I found him breaking his brother's nose with a punch, I hope he can decide on the matter"
"Thanks Minerva, don't worry, I'll take care of it, you can leave" he nodded and then dismissed the teacher.
McGonagall left the office and I was left alone with the old man. He motioned for me to sit down and I did, he didn't want to slow me down so I played along.
"Looks like you're in trouble again" he mentioned.
"It's just a brother fight, nothing new in the world and nothing that should be of much importance"
"You should not take it so lightly, it is not good that the brothers are fighting, it is better if they can get along because they are people who will be there through thick and thin. You should try to settle their differences"
"Do you have siblings?"
"Yes"
"Get along?"
"We get along as well as brothers should get along"
"And you have never been in a fight, you never got to the point where one of you hurt someone dear to the other and the other wanted to hit him in the face to make him see reason and understand his mistakes" I asked him intentionally that way, since I knew a little about his relationship with Aberforth to gain sympathy through projection, only in this case I was the one who broke Ron's nose.
"..." he didn't say a word, he just looked at me.
"That's why...nothing out of the ordinary, Ron is very lucky that he has so much patience and that this is the first time he has retaliated"
"Still I think you should try to fix things between you" he said quickly, but without the original hypocrisy, wanting to end the subject.
"Let's move on, I have things to do. Why are you calling me?" I asked him to get to the point
"I have accepted your application and I have managed to open one more position within the program, although I have not yet given your data giving you time to reconsider it, keep in mind that no matter my influence, they will not take a child seriously within the ministry "
"I thought we already agreed that this was confirmed" I mentioned, but I didn't get any response from the old man "And I don't need to reconsider, I already decided to do it and refusing now would be a waste of my previous efforts"
"Okay, but I want to warn you that if he can't show a certain performance or shows obstruction to normal work, I'll immediately remove him from there and he must return to school without protest, is that okay with you?" I wonder, though he didn't mind my answer anyway, it was more of a warning than an option.
"It's fair" doesn't get you in trouble, never mind a few small conditions.
"Perfect, tomorrow you will bring your double at 8 in the morning to be able to present him to the ministry envoys, although I remind you that they may not treat you very well considering your age, they may be very disdainful of you"
"I already have that problem covered"
At that time I dispelled my clone that was waiting to enter another class and made it appear in front of us. I then approached him to start the edits and within a few minutes, where the director just watched me work without stopping or commenting, I finished having my clone look like I had worked with Tonks.
"Here he is, what do you think?" I said to the director who was walking around the clone analyzing him.
"Pretty impressive, although I can see that it's not easy, even so it can bring many surprises and I hope not very bad" he said this last part with special emphasis while he narrowed his eyes at me.
"I don't promise anything. With this aspect at least it will go more unnoticed and I won't have to explain anything to my father if we cross paths in the ministry"
"Certainly, it also saves me some problems and tedious explanations, I only asked for one more place, but I did not clarify anything about you when I asked for it to make it easier to get it. I would have many complaints if they saw it for what it is, now they will be less. What name will you use with him?" I wonder as he continued to analyze my clone.
"I haven't decided yet..." I kept thinking "When I come tomorrow I'll introduce myself, now I have things to do, so we can finish the talk" I said showing my haste.
"Okay, I won't give any of your information until you arrive tomorrow to introduce yourself. Your background will be a young wizard who had to leave his formal studies for a few years due to family reasons and owed his parents a favor so apply for a place in the program so that you can take advantage of it and try to give you some tools and experiences for the future"
"Okay," I said as I quickly headed for the door to go find Hermione.
"Mr. Weasley, we still haven't done anything about her punishment for the fight with her brother" the old man reminded me.
"Punish me tomorrow, today is Halloween" I said without looking back and walking out the door.
Now all I had to do was find Hermione in the girls' bathroom, I hope, I don't know if she's crying somewhere else, but it would be the first place to look. Maybe I should have bought the copy of the map from the merchant last time, this happens to me because I want to save money.
I was running down the hall heading towards the girls' bathroom, but as I rounded a corner I suddenly saw a stream of red light rush towards me. It was so close that I couldn't help it, I knew what it was, since I witnessed it many times in my duels with Tonks, it was the stunning spell 'Stupefy'.
In a second everything went black.
When I opened my eyes somewhat sleepily I realized what happened "Damn" why did I have to have my clone deactivated, if my clone was working even if they left me unconscious I could still manage with it, I'm an idiot.
Now I find myself somewhere, hanging by my hands as I can't feel the ground under my feet. I am tied hands and legs, leaning against what seems to me to be a cold brick wall, while in front of me is an extensive covering made of cloth. And the worst of all is that I am almost naked, I only have my underwear on me and it seems a little out of place, maybe someone was about to take it off me, but stopped at the last moment because of the sensation.
Using my blood magic, I manipulated a mass of blood to try to run whatever was covering me. It was tricky as I didn't have my hands to help me with gestures to manipulate it, but I was still able to remove it from wherever it was held. It turned out to be some kind of flag with the Hogwarts crest printed on it, when it lost its hold the flag floated in the air and then disappeared.
It seems it was a spell, maybe it was set to disappear over time or when it was removed to show me in this situation to everyone who passed by, since apparently I am hanging from one of the towers of Hogwarts, from what I can watch. Another thing I saw is that the sky has started to darken, it's getting late damn it, I have to hurry to see Hermione, maybe this day is all destined to go wrong.
I used my inventory to remove the ropes from my feet, but I still couldn't find a stable footing to try to climb up. I couldn't do the same with my hands because I couldn't trust that I wouldn't fall, and because of the height I couldn't trust my current abilities to come out unscathed.
The only thing I could think of is to use [message] to ask someone for help, but I also didn't want to be seen like this for nothing, the fewer people the better, so I'll try to use my clone first and if it doesn't work then I'll ask for help.
It was a bit far from the window it was hanging from, so I had to make my clone very close to me so he could hold onto me, praying the rope would hold both of us. When I tried it it worked, I made my clone appear and before falling he was able to hold on to my feet, but his weight was heavy and he had to support it.
Using my blood magic to try to lift his body into the air or at least make him lighter, as well as him using his strength to climb through me, we were able to get him to hold on to the rope. With their help, he was able to climb up and enter the tower. From there my clone was able to use the levitation spell on me, while with the other hand he pulled the rope and I used my feet to try to climb the brick wall.
Both of us inside the tower sighed heavily, we were tired, more because of the post-adrenaline effect than because of the effort itself, although it wasn't easy. As I put on a new set of clothes that I had inside my inventory, I cursed whoever did this today, I'm going to take horrific revenge, but now I have no time to waste.
There is still time before the troll shows up, I have enough time to go get Hermione, have a chat with her, get her out of the bathroom, fight the troll and chat with her again. I don't know if only with the clone I will be able to defeat the troll, if so I wouldn't need to cut my time with Hermione. What I have to do now is go with my real body to the girls' bathroom to see if she's there and with my clone to the great hall in case she doesn't find her in the bathroom.
My clone and I high-fived and headed for our targets.
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Comment what name you want for the modified clone. The most voted or that seems convenient will be chosen. (if not I will choose randomly with my incredible ability to name)
