Doppelgänger

Cleary the castle was empty, Tom had spent hours in the library and nobody else had arrived to bother him.

Anyways, at the moment he had an idea of where to start… sort of. He would go to the Room of Requirements, take some valuable things that surely nobody would miss and go to sell them in Knockturn Alley. With that money he would get some false documents and a new wand.

Deciding to use the secret passages instead of directly walking across the corridors, Tom reached the seventh floor and walked three times back and forth in front of the tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy until the secret door was revealed.

Upon entering, he found the same chaotic scene he had left.

He started looking through every mountain of paraphernalia, carefully avoiding those cursed elements that could bring him harm while keeping those that could possess actual value due to those exact curses.

Considering that, in order to make it to Knockturn Alley, he would have to walk all the way out of Hogwarts' protections (he wouldn’t risk using the floo of an office), apparate to the Leaky Cauldron, get into Diagon and walk all the avenue until he reached Knockturn Alley, and all this without drawing unwanted attention to himself, Tom procured taking only what he could put inside the pockets of his robe.

At the end he found a goblin-made ring with a big blue sapphire, some books (Dark Arts related and non–Dark Arts related equally), a pearl necklace that, judging by its emblem, once belonged to Merpeople Royalty, and some leather bracelets capable of repelling some minor curses (such as the Stinging Hex). Tom considered keeping one of the bracelets, but decided against it since he was perfectly capable of blocking and dodging those spells easily.

He shrinked his charge and, taking a series of intricate passageways, he got out of Hogwarts and started walking until he reached the border of the protection barrier. Then, he appeared in Muggle London, two streets away from the Leaky Cauldron. He made said distance on foot and entered the bar. He went through the place to the alley on the back. There, he pressed the right sequence of bricks with his hand and opened the secret entrance to the main street of Diagon Alley.

While walking he noticed the new shops that had opened, but also those that had been there way before his own Hogwarts days. When he arrived at Knockturn's entrance, he saw that it was nearly the same as it used to be. Both avenues, Diagon and Knockturn, were always familiar territory, second to Hogwarts. Neither the school nor those two main streets had changed too much, and it was comforting in a way. 

'Knockturn… comforting… Ha!'

Anyways, getting over the wave of nostalgia, Tom got on guard, lest someone decided to take everything he had just for being distracted. 

For a moment he considered going to Borgin & Burkes, but discarded the idea quickly, thinking it too risky. It was improbable, but his ex-employers may recognise him.

He traveled across the street until he saw a little shop without a name, but full to the brim of everything and anything.

The little bell over the door announced his entrance to the old lady crouched behind the counter. She was short, with tangled, greasy gray hair that didn't reach past her shoulders. Her eyes were small and brown, her face was full of wrinkles, her nose was on the big side and her lips were thin and chapped. When she smiled at him, Tom could see her yellowed teeth, with a few that were already black and about to fall.

“Good morning, young man,” she greeted him with a raspy voice. “How can I help you?”

“Good morning,” answered Tom with a charming smile. “I’d like to sell some things, please.”

“Sell some things, you say…” the woman thought out loud, carefully studying the man in front of her. “Let's see what you've got.”

Negotiations took over an hour until they finally agreed on 300 galleons for everything Tom had brought.

The wizard was about to leave the shop when an idea crossed his mind.

“Excuse me, madam,” he called the owner once again. She stopped what she was doing and looked at him. “I have a meeting later and I was wondering if perhaps you may have something I could wear. 

The old lady thought for a bit. “I don’t sell any formal robes, if that's what you are looking for. But I can offer you some jewelry if you wish,” she said. “Maybe a ruby ring or-”

“No, you’ll see…” he interrupted her. “I wouldn’t like to stand out," he explained giving a certain tone to those two last words. “I would hate to outshine my host.” 

The woman raised an eyebrow. She looked through the window, checking both sides of the street. Then she looked for something under the counter. She pulled out a wooden box not larger than a book. She opened it revealing the green velvet lined interior. Over the velvet rested a necklace, a spherical black pendant hanging from a silver chain. The sphere seemed to be a smoky quartz, no bigger than a marble and runes seemed to be carved over the entirety of its surface. That impeccable work, Tom knew, could only belong to the goblins.

The wizard looked at the woman expectantly.

“This necklace is what you need,” she started. “The goblins used this kind of artifacts during their civil wars to infiltrate inside the enemy’s side. The necklace does not alter your appearance. Its aim is to combine the magic of the runes with the natural properties of the quartz to affect anyone who looks at you. So, if you encounter someone you’ve already met, they won’t be able to recognise you. For that person, you’d be whoever you want to be…” Tom could not help the smile that creeped to his face, that necklace was exactly what he was looking for. In his satisfaction, he nearly stopped listening to the lady. “... Also, this will create a shield over your mind. As you probably know, the goblins are unable to use Mind Magic, so they infused this little things with the same capabilities a master occlumence would have in order to protect their thoughts from the wizards and witches that were hired by them during the war." The woman was proudly showing off the jewel over her counter. “Of course, these objects were forbidden by the Ministry of Magic to prevent the goblin race from possessing ‘unfair advantages’ over the rest,” she finished her tale.

“How much would it be?” asked Tom way too quickly. But it was already too late.

The woman smiled. It wasn't good. “100 galleons.”

Tom gritted his teeth, looking at the women through narrowed eyes. He covered a sigh, intending to calm himself.

‘Guess I should be grateful she didn’t ask for the 300 galleons altogether.’

He took out the money he had put in his pocket mere minutes ago, then paid.

He exited the shop with the necklace already placed around his neck.

He bought his new wand in another  of the shops there at Knockturn. An extra pair of galleons and the owner of the shop made no questions before handing him the wand, only explaining its details and particularities.

It was 32 centimeters long and its core was made of phoenix feather. That last bit was no surprise, after all, his first wand  used to have a phoenix core too. It was useful to easily learn new spells. However, it's said that being chosen by this specific core can be quite difficult since it comes from an extremely independent and notoriously distant creature.

The wood, on the other hand, actually called his attention. Cypress wood was, apparently, related to immortality. Tom couldn't decide if that resulted to be oddly fitting or terribly ironic.

Also, it seemed that cypress shows the inevitable path toward autodiscovery.

Not really sure of what that could mean for him, Tom left the shop, wand in hand, and made his way to the pub Murky Vials.

Thirty years was a long time, but if there was a counterfeit business that could survive that long it was Geminis's.

Upon arriving, he requested the counterfeiter. Tom was then led to the back of the pub where a 40-something years old man was sitting behind a desk. His hair was short and had a sandy color, his skin was pale and he had brownish eyes hidden behind a pair of thick square, black glasses that took half of his face. All in all, the man gave the feeling of someone who wouldn't go out of a building as long as he could help it. His slightly slouched posture while bending over his paperwork and the way the man practically ignored Tom's presence in favor of his own work, gave away the lack of actual social interaction. But the neatly polished gray suit and the methodically arranged desk were proof of his professionalism.

Looking at him, Tom could actually see some similarities with the old Geminis of his own time. He concluded that counterfeit was a family business.

Tom sat down on the chair in front of the desk.

"What can I do for you?" asked this new Geminis in a no-nonsense tone.

"A new identity, as complete as you are able to," answered Tom in the same way. "A degree too. I'd like to keep my Defense Against the Dark Arts mastery."

Hearing that last bit Geminis looked directly at him, but only for a moment before his eyes went back to his papers. A moment later, he put aside the documents he was reading and took a new roll of parchment and a quill.

"All right." He dipped his quill in the inkwell. "New name?"

"Aramis Williams," he answered.

"Place and date of birth?"

"January 1st, 1959, Newcastle."

"Magical education?"

"Durmstrang, Darfor House, and The Scottish National Institute of Defense and Duel."

"Do you want to choose your parents' names?" asked the counterfeiter.

"That's not really important," said Aramis, shrugging.

"Very well, Mr. Williams," answered the other in a bored voice. "Your new documents will be ready in two hours. It'll be three days until we get to infiltrate in the Ministry and deposit the fake copies into their archives."

Aramis arched his eyebrows.

'It used to be at least a week…'

"It'll be 50 galleons," said Geminis at the end.

Aramid paid and got out of the little office and into the bar to order some lunch. He had gotten out of Hogwarts that morning after hours looking between tonnes of rubbish in the Room of Requirements for some mildly good things. He had spent the rest of the time running his errands, it was past 13.00 and he hadn't had a bite of food.

Two hours later, Aramis Williams left Murky Vials and made his way towards the Leaky Cauldron to book a room to sleep for the night.