Shadow of a Doubt

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Chapter Fourteen
Family Reunion

The day passed swiftly for some, agonisingly slowly for others. Draco Malfoy spent the whole time trying to convince people to turn their backs on Anders Grimalkin and all that he stood for, but seemed to find that he had little support and even less sympathy.

He gave up, eventually. It appeared that the majority of Hogwarts was backing their DADA Professor one hundred percent.

The DADA Professor himself was still in a state of bemused shock after witnessing the silent display of loyalty in the Great Hall and when he had arrived at Dumbledore's office at the appointed time, his red-rimmed eyes showed that he had most likely been crying somewhere. Dumbledore patted his shoulder gently as he came into the room.

"Now we must discuss the finer points of the plan. Mr Weasley and you are going to have to work together to pull it off effectively, and I have other plans for Miss Granger and Miss Parkinson."

Pansy and Hermione exchanged wary glances. There were many issues at stake here, not least of which was the uncertainty of the house rivalry. They had never seen eye to eye, but now at least, they had found a way to put aside their differences.

Anders nodded. "If it means finding...him, Headmaster, then I will gladly do what it takes." He gave the three students a shy smile and they each gave him an encouraging grin in return. His confidence blossomed.

They discussed the plan for a while, Anders constantly protesting that putting the students at risk was too much. This resulted in Ron finally responded by getting to his feet and yelling at Anders to just appreciate that people DID care about what happened to him. After the shocked silence had passed, Anders grinned broadly at Ron and accepted the plan.

* * * * *

Afternoon ploughed onwards into evening, as it tends to do in these situations, and before the early summer sun dipped over the horizon, a tall, lanky figure made its way slowly towards the Hogwarts grounds. Behind it, at a respectable distance - or what the figure maintained as a respectable distance, came the shadow of Anders Grimalkin.

"You foolish boy," said Gray, speaking to the shadow but not facing it. "Allowing yourself to be found out."

~Had no choice,~ said the shadow, petulantly. ~Had to respond to summons.~

"What did you tell them?"

~Nothing, Da.~

"The sooner that brat is out of my hair the better. If I make arrangements to have him permanently removed, then the proof of my actions will die along with him."

~Will I die too?~

"Of course, you foolish creature. There are times when I wish you were more substantial so I could knock some sense into you."

~Sorry, Master.~

"Go on ahead. Serve me as you have served me these past years. Gather information and report back to me the current location of my son." He drew his wand and considered it thoughtfully. "This time, no mistake. This time, he dies." He prepared to work the spell that would allow him to view what was going on through the eyes of his servant.

~Yes, Master.~ The shadow seemed dubious, regretful even, but Edward Gray, Death Eater and All-Round Bad Guy did not notice. Anders' shadow blended into the darkness of the night and was gone.

* * * * *

"Again," urged Dumbledore's voice. Ron and Anders stared at one another and as a unit, rolled their robe sleeves up and pointed their wands.

A joint-effort illusion appeared: an exact double of Anders. Ron provided the look, Anders provided the voice and the actions. This time it seemed to be fairly accurate. Dumbledore had turned down the previous ten efforts as being, amongst other things, too short, too fat, too happy...but this time, he nodded approvingly.

"Quite marvellous," he complimented the pair. "Anders always was good at illusion and it seems our Mr Weasley is additionally gifted."

Pansy and Hermione stood close by, still not quite certain what the point of this exercise was, nor too convinced that their presence was required. Dumbledore seemed to sense their uncertainty and turned to smile at them, a twinkle in his eyes. "This plan is going to rely very heavily on your participation, young ladies. I want you to accompany this illusory Anders into the Forbidden Forest. Don't worry - the REAL Anders and Ron will be right behind you - they need to keep within sight of the illusion to maintain it."

"Why the Forest?" asked Pansy, paling slightly. Hermione nodded slowly.

"Anders' father is coming for him, isn't he?"

"We...believe so," said Dumbledore. "Edward Gray is an evil man and will stop at nothing, it seems, to rid himself of his son. My plan is not to kill him, but to capture him so we might extract information from him. I surmise that he will put in his appearance in the Forest, along with the other evil creatures. We will create a little scene with the illusory Anders discussing a Defence Against the Dark Arts practical that is scheduled to take place and he has enlisted your help. This makes it seem natural and feasible that he would be in the Forest, and less obvious that it's a trap."

Dumbledore clapped his hands together. "Right. Let's see if this thing looks the part. Over to you, gentlemen."

There was a pause as the illusory Anders seemed to consider something. Ron had got the man's look, slightly apologetic stoop and slouch off to a tee, and the real Anders noted to himself that he had to make an effort to stand tall.

He smiled to himself. This situation needed lightening. And for once, he was going to do it.

"Miss Granger, detention for not completing your essay properly," said the illusory Anders suddenly, and Ron and Anders exchanged a look.

"That," said Hermione, stiffly, "was not even remotely amusing."

Even Dumbledore tried to hide a smile behind his hand.

* * * * *

The illusory Professor Grimalkin walked in the perimeter of the Forbidden Forest with Hermione and Pansy at his time. Some distance behind, under the cover of Harry's Invisibility Cloak, came Ron and Anders, concentrating on maintaining the illusion. Periodically, the illusion would shift, losing its solidity and whenever that happened, Ron would poke Anders in the ribs. Without their joint concentration the thing wouldn't work, and the young Professor seemed nervous to the point of hyperactivity.

Anders had the illusion discussing the finer points of Stealth tactics for hunting vampires, a topic they had touched on very, very briefly earlier in the term, but his blue eyes kept darting in every direction but in that of the illusion.

"Professor," hissed Ron. "You have to pay attention."

Anders nodded, his face grim and determined.

"And here you see the common garlic," the illusion was saying. "The perfect vampire repellant."

Anders and Ron exchanged a brief, knowing grin.

Then the grin became an expression of abject horror on the face of Anders.

Edward Gray stood there, leaning up against a tree, looking for all the world as though he had simply been hiking in the woods and had simply stopped to take a rest. Ron stared at the young Professor and with a great effort of will, duplicated the horrified expression.

"Well now. If it isn't my cherished son. Hello, there Anders, how are you?"

"Da..." The voice was Anders, but it did not come from the illusion. Fortunately, perhaps, the clouds had chosen that exact moment to cover the light that filtered in from the moon, and Anders forced himself to focus. "Da...I thought you were..."

"Dead? Oh, no, dear boy, I'm very much alive."

Edward smiled a nasty, cruel smile and pushed himself away from the tree. At six feet six, he was taller than even Professor Grimalkin, and the way he moved was sinewy, snake-like. "Very much more alive than you will be when I have finished with you. And what about these charming young ladies? Aren't you going to introduce me to your little girlfriends?"

"We're not his..." began Hermione, but Pansy, strangely quick on the uptake, put on the most innocent, frightened expression that Hermione could ever remember seeing on her face.

"Oh, please..." she said, her voice wobbling on the verge of tears. "Please don't tell, will you?"

Gray's eyes widened in an expression of approval. "I'm almost proud of you, boy. I never thought you had such nerve in you. Actually, I know precisely how much nerve you have in you. I spent long enough hitching a ride in what you loosely refer to as a brain."

"Are you going to hurt us?" said Pansy, in that same, little-girl weak voice. Gray glanced at her momentarily and sighed theatrically. "Ah, dear child, would that I could. But I'm here with a view to achieving only one murder this evening, attractive as though the offer might be...although..."

His eyes roamed over first Pansy and then Hermione and his tongue ran around his lips lasciviously. "Three deaths for the price of one...no, you're right. It's too tempting. But do let me complete my appointed task first. There'll be time enough later."

He held up his wand and pointed it each girl in turn, binding them tightly. They both fell to the ground and it was all Ron could do to hold Anders back from under the cloak. In fact, he was close to bursting out himself, but something told him that now would be a bad idea.

"And now it's down to you and me," said Gray, turning his full attention to the illusion, which Ron hurriedly have draw back in alarm. The more he did this, the easier it was becoming. "Speechless, I see, brat," sneered Gray. "Surely you aren't still afraid of me, a big, grown Professor like yourself."

"I was never afraid of you, Da. Intimidated...yes. Afraid...no. There was more pity than fear. Pity that you felt it necessary to treat me the way you did in order to exercise your authority. Pity that you found it necessary to live as a Muggle in order to conceal your identity."

There were tears shining in the illusions eyes as Ron glanced at Anders and duplicated the expression on his Professor's face perfectly.

"You? Pity ME? That's laughable, brat. You are a weakling. A weak, half-blood fool with no intelligence and less courage. Even your shadow has more courage than you."

"Where is my shadow?"

"You'll see it soon enough," said Gray, that same sneer on his thin lips. "It is running an errand for me. That's why I took it, you know. To use as my assistant. And all the time you were maintaining your pathetic illusion, I was able to slide easily into your mind and watch the world around you through your eyes. All these years, brat, I have been with you through everything you've done. Apart from when you were in Azkaban."

The illusion shuddered involuntarily.

"The fortresses defences did not allow me to penetrate through to you. It was most peaceful not having to live through your constant misery and self-pity. But, alas, Azkaban was the only option after my attempt to get rid of you failed so dismally."

"The...accident."

"It was no accident, brat. It served a dual purpose. Peterssen was a Death Eater gone over to the Other Side. It was my job to ensure he was punished, and what a glorious ending it was. Of course, if you had died too...that would have been even better."

"But why? Why do you want rid of me?"

"Because you're a thorn in my side," spat the man, moving closer to the illusion, which took another step back. "Whilst you were in Azkaban, I realised just how peaceful life is without you in my head. I determined to get you sent back there, or to get yourself killed. Either would have suited."

"Why didn't you just break the link, then? Come to that, why did you establish it in the first place?"

"I was expelled from Hogwarts," said Gray. "I needed a way to learn what I had lost. And by the time you were eleven, your mother had molly-coddled you so much, you were more pliable than I could have wished. I rode in your mind that very first day..."

"That's why I ended up in Slytherin."

"Of course! The Sorting Hat was torn for so long between what it KNEW you were, the weakling Gryffindor, and where you needed to be. But I won that battle, didn't I, brat?"

"I could have shared the knowledge with you."

"Pah! Left to your own devices, you'd do little more than be a street illusionist. All the real stuff you ever learned is mine, Anders. Not yours."

"So break the link. You go your way and leave me to go mind."

"Break the link. You make it sound, oh-so-very simple, Anders. Sadly, there is only one way that can be achieved. Either by getting you sent back to Azkaban - and you even failed spectacularly at THAT...or...are you understanding me here? Or am I going to have to paint a picture for you?"

Gray took a step towards the illusion and reached out as though he would grab it by the robes.

At that moment, there was a snap of a twig, that took the attention of not only Gray, but also Ron, who momentarily lost his concentration. Fortunately for him, the illusion disappeared for only the briefest of moments before he pulled himself back to attention.

He turned to give Anders an apologetic stare.

But the Professor was no longer under the Invisibility Cloak with him.

"No..."

Ron's eyes turned towards the two men standing in the clearing in the Forest. Edward Gray turned back to...

...Professor Grimalkin.

Cursing silently at the man's foolish...courageousness, Ron drew himself down as low as he could, clutching the Cloak tightly around himself. To re-establish the illusion now would be total folly, and he might be Ron Weasley - but he had more than two braincells to rub together.

He cast a quick glance at Hermione and Pansy, but other than looking uncomfortable and a little scared, they did not seem to be in any immediate danger.

His concern was with the young man now standing proud and erect before the evil that was Edward Gray. There was a fierce kind of expression in Professor Grimalkin's eyes that sent shivers racing down Ron's spine, the kind of expression he'd seen all too often on the face of Harry whenever he'd been opposed with such overwhelming odds.

The thought occurred, rather wildly, to Ron that at least Harry had had a break from being hounded this term.

"You going to resort to violence again, Da? You always do that when you're losing. And you ARE losing. It's there in your eyes, see." This time, Anders took a step towards his father, who simply stood his ground, scorn oozing from every pore.

"You foolish child," he said, in a low, dangerous voice that Anders recognised only too well. The years of misery, the years of physical abuse he'd taken from this man flashed before his eyes in an instant. The time Gray had locked him in the under-stairs cupboard for daring to ask if any money could be spared to buy a new robe for school. The time he'd pinned Anders up against the wall and half-throttled the life out of him. Anders met his father's stare with a defiant look of his own.

"No wonder Mam hated you so much," he said, bitterly. "You must have put her through hell over the years."

"You are too much like her. Weak. Muggle-born fool that she was. How easily she was convinced. When I found her, scared and fearful of being disowned by those she called family just because of her condition...how easily she came round to my way of thinking. I even convinced her in the end that you WERE my son. Still, when she died, it was HIS name on her lips. Yes, she suffered, but it was all her own fault for being weak and easily manipulated. That she produced you at the time my plan came to fruition was perfect. Of course, eventually she simply became an irritant."

Anders felt the world tilt and steadied himself, fearful for a moment that he was going to faint. "You killed her, didn't you?"

"Of course. It was the only way to stop her. She had become suspicious."

Anders shook his head. He felt physically, violently sick. "You bastard."

He took a swing at his father, but misjudged the distance and the blow missed Gray by several inches. The other man laughed nastily.

"You have been an entertaining puppet all these years, Anders," said Gray, swinging his wand idly between his fingers. "And look! Speaking of puppets..."

Ron's eyes turned in the direction the man's wand was pointed, to see the small figure of Anders' child-shadow entering the clearing. His jaw dropped.

Anders stared at it, and it seemed to stare back at him, taking a few hesitant steps towards him. Gray pointed his wand at the shadow. "Not so close, my little friend."

~Mine~ said the shadow, pointing at Anders. ~My human. Mine. Want.~

"You can't have. Never mind, little friend. You'll soon be as non-existent as him."

This time, Anders' blow connected, and Gray, winded, let the wand fly from his hand, and it landed several feet away, just in front of Ron's feet. As quietly as he could manage, Ron shuffled back, away from it.

"Fetch it, slave," said Gray, in a bored kind of way, rubbing his jaw where Anders had hit him. The shadow stared up and scurried across to the wand. Ron stared at it in abject disbelief and it looked right at him.

~Is working~ it said, in his mind, and then pushed the wand under the Invisibility Cloak.

Turning, it scurried again towards Gray and handed him a wand.

Ron let out his breath, barely noticing that he'd stopped breathing in the first place. The shadow looked again at Anders, who was staring at it, stunned. So busy was he paying attention to it and not to Gray, that when the blow to the side of his face came, he hardly seemed to notice it.

Hermione and Pansy's eyes had widened in shock and horror at the turn of events, and now as Gray landed blow after blow upon Anders and their Professor sank to the ground, they began to wriggle against their bonds.

"I'm bored with this now," said Gray, suddenly, raising his hand to deliver another blow to the bleeding young man in front of him. "Let's get this over wit..."
The blur of something large and black suddenly shot out of the bushes and knocked Gray over sideways. Anders sat up, shaking his head to clear his ears which were ringing. There was blood pouring from his nose, from multiple wounds on his face and his eyes were refusing to focus properly.

The huge black dog growled at Gray who got slowly to his feet.

"Oh, really," he said, angrily. "I do NOT have time for such foolishness."

Ron was ripped between staring at what had happened to Anders and what he was fairly certain was Sirius Black.

Gray raised the wand and pointed it at the dog.

"Avada..."

Anders got to his feet unsteadily and stared hazily at his father. "No..."

"Kad..."

"I said, NO!"

"...avra!"

Anders hurled himself towards the dog, placing himself between his father and the intended target of the Killing Curse.