After yesterday's confrontation with Professor Blackwood, I couldn't shake the feeling that I was walking on thinner ice than the sculpture currently transforming in my club room. His words kept replaying in my mind during dinner and all through our astronomy class: "I know you stole the hat." Whether he was bluffing or not, the fact that he'd singled me out made everything more urgent.
Once astronomy ended and we were released back to our dormitories, I didn't waste a single moment. While the other Ravenclaws drifted off to sleep (or studying it was one and the same in our dorm if I was being honest), I sat cross-legged on my bed with the spellbook hovering before me. I spent the entire night practicing one spell over and over until my fingers cramped and my eyes burned.
Invisibility
A creature you touch becomes invisible until the spell ends. Anything the target is wearing or carrying is invisible as long as it is on the target's person. The spell ends for a target that attacks or casts a spell.
Casting Time: Instantaneous
Duration: Concentration, up to 1 hour
Created by Hiuwt
The spell from the forgotten magics of the first Scribe would be my salvation, allowing me to slip unseen back into the Room of Requirement. With Aurors potentially arriving tomorrow, according to Blackwood's muttering, timing was everything.
By the time dawn's first light began filtering through the tower windows, I was pretty sure I had the spell down, of course there were placed I could improve upon, but hey nothing was perfect. I didn't even bother trying to sleep for the hour or so before breakfast would begin. Instead, I packed a small bag with essentials I'd need for my extended stay—quills, notebooks, and a few personal items—and slipped out of the dormitory before any of my housemates stirred.
I made my way back to the club room, heart pounding with anticipation. The door recognized my magical signature and swung open without resistance.
Inside, what greeted me made me stop dead in my tracks.
Standing perfectly still in the center of the room was... me. The ice sculpture that had been absorbing my magic for the past twelve hours had completed its transformation. Every detail was perfect—from the slight wave in my blonde hair to the exact shade of gold in the eyes staring back at me. It was eerie, like looking into a mirror that moved independently.
"Sup," I said, raising my hand in greeting, trying to mask my discomfort with casual nonchalance.
"Sup," my doppelgänger replied, mimicking my gesture with unnerving precision.
The simulacrum was naked, its body a perfect replica of mine down to the smallest detail, which honestly made the whole situation even more uncomfortable. The ice had transformed into what appeared to be flesh, though I knew from the spell's description that it was still partially ice beneath the surface.
"So how is it being fleshed into existence?" I asked, my voice coming out more awkward than I'd intended.
"Can't complain," the simulacrum responded with my exact intonation and cadence.
I nodded, trying to shake the uncanny valley feeling creeping up my spine. "Then let's get you dressed, shall we?"
I opened my wallet and pulled out a perfect replica of the clothes I was currently wearing. My duplicate took them without comment and began dressing itself? Himself? Myself? Someself, yeah, someself.
Once clothed, Ice-Felix (as I'd mentally dubbed him) looked even more like me. The only difference I could discern was a subtle rigidity to his posture that most people would never notice.
"Can you show me a spell?" I asked, holding out my wand.
My duplicate nodded, taking the wand between its fingers. With a practiced flick, the tip illuminated with a soft glow. "Lumos," it whispered in my voice.
As the spell activated, I felt a small but distinct pull on my magic reserves—like someone had stolen some of it without my consent. So that's how the connection worked. The simulacrum didn't generate its own magic; it siphoned mine to cast spells. I'd need to be mindful of that while hiding away in the Room of Requirement.
"Okay, it seems like everything is working fine," I said, more to myself than to my duplicate.
The simulacrum nodded, waiting for further instructions.
"Well then, let's get started. For the next three months, I want you to act like myself—help my friends, do the radio show, conduct interviews, participate in classes, do some pranks on the twins. Basically, act exactly as I would. Simple, right?"
Another silent nod. I was beginning to wonder if it could speak independently or only in response to direct questions. The spellbook had mentioned it would have my memories and abilities, but how much of my personality had transferred over?
"Try to avoid any major confrontations with professors, especially Blackwood, wait no actually try to avoid all confrontations I don't want you to break, so scrap what I said earlier about pranks," I added as an afterthought.
"Understood," the simulacrum replied, sounding so much like me that it was disconcerting.
I turned to Jarvey, who was sleeping soundly on my shoulder, his small chest rising and falling with each breath. I gave him a gentle nudge.
"Well then, go on. Jarvey, climb his arm and act like usual."
Jarvey grumbled something unintelligible, stretching his limbs before jumping down from my shoulder. He scampered across the floor and climbed up the simulacrum's leg, settling into his usual position.
"I don't like this," he began, but then paused, his expression changing. "Wait, actually this coldness is pretty soothing."
Coldness? That gave me pause. I placed my hand against the simulacrum's arm, but couldn't detect any unusual temperature—only the familiar signature of my own magic pulsing beneath the surface.
"Can you feel that, Jarvey? Is he cold to the touch?" I asked, suddenly concerned about a potential flaw in my plan.
"Yeah, not like ice-cold, but pleasantly cool," Jarvey replied, snuggling deeper into the crook of the simulacrum's neck. "Like a pillow that's always on the cool side."
That was unexpected. Perhaps Jarvey's heightened senses could detect the ice beneath the magical flesh, or maybe it was because he was my familiar, either way since I couldn't feel it other humans also wouldn't be able to, at least I hoped so.
"Well then, get to it," I said, pointing at the microphone on the table and the guitar propped against it's stand. "Start the morning broadcast like usual. Just don't break the guitar, even if you can repair it with magic."
Both Jarvey and Ice-Felix nodded in unison. My duplicate crossed the room with my exact gait, picked up the guitar with practiced ease, and settled onto the chair. After a moment of tuning the strings—an action I'd performed countless times—the simulacrum leaned into the microphone.
"Welcome back to Real Wizard FM, where we play all your favorite chants! Today we're starting once more with American Pie by Don McLean!" Ice-Felix announced with the same enthusiastic inflection I always used.
As the first chords rang out through the room, I felt another pull on my magic—stronger this time, as the radio spells activated, thankfully it still wasn't too much magic, in fact almost no spells used much of my magic except for stuff like misty step or flight, so I'm sure it would be fine, well pretty sure.
"Welp, that's that," I muttered, feeling strangely naked without my wand or Jarvey. Their absence left an emptiness I hadn't anticipated, both physically and magically. But sacrifices had to be made for the greater pursuit of magical knowledge.
Taking a deep breath, I placed my hand on my chest and focused my concentration, picturing my body fading from view like morning mist burning away in sunlight.
"I Cast Invisibility."
I felt the magic surge out of me and then flooding back into me, wrapping around my body like a second skin. The sensation was peculiar—not quite like wearing a cloak, more like being submerged in perfectly temperature-matched water. I glanced down and saw nothing where my body should be.
Looking back at my duplicate, I caught Jarvey giving the pre-arranged signal—a paw raised in a thumbs-up. Great, it worked.
I approached the door, careful not to make any sound. With an invisible hand, I unlocked it, slipped through, and closed it softly behind me.
The corridors were starting to fill with students heading to breakfast or early classes. I pressed myself against the wall, moving slowly and deliberately to avoid accidental collisions. The walk to the seventh floor seemed interminable as I navigated through increasingly crowded hallways, but finally, I reached the familiar corridor with Barnabas the Barmy's tapestry.
After carefully checking that no one was watching, I placed my invisible hand against the other side of the wall, focusing intently on what I needed—a perfect study space with the Sorting Hat inside, plenty of food to last months, books on magical theory, and most importantly, coziness.
What I wanted to be comfortable, could you blame, I was going to become a hermit, but I was still a kid.
A shadowy door materialized on the stone wall, visible only to me due to my clear intention. I slipped inside quickly, the door vanishing behind me the instant I crossed the threshold.
Once safely inside, I released the invisibility spell, my body fading back into view like watercolors bleeding into white paper.
"Holy hell!" the hat yelled, nearly jumping off its pedestal. "Where did you come from?"
"Hello to you too," I replied with a satisfied smile, feeling the weight of the spellbook in my mind. I summoned it forth, the grimoire materializing from thin air and settling onto the desk beside the Sorting Hat. "Time to unravel your magic."
The hat's fabric twisted into what I could only describe as an exasperated frown.
"Gods, I hate being stuck with a kleptomaniac wizard."
A/N: Welp here you guys go, enjoy the chapter, we are finally almost done with the first year, gods this was a long time. I think that we will be done with the first year in the next 3 chapters. Which also means that soon we'll actually get to see Harry Potter and the golden trio, I've wanted to write about them so much lol. Either way author out.