Chapter 2 | How To Get Away With Murder

Eliana didn't know whether to be grateful or curse at the fact that the train compartments had been charmed to be soundproof. When she came to from her shock, Eliana could feel her throat raw from her (undoubtedly) incessant screaming.

Eliana ignored the way she was still gasping for breath and forced herself to think.

She had no time to have a panic attack because she's currently the only witness to the death of the Boy-Who-Lived.

No matter how you see it, a known Death Eater's daughter being found by the corpse of their young saviour is already suspicious on principle. And no matter how many times she could try to prove that she did not kill him, there's no telling what the verdict would be judging from how corrupted the ministry is.

Dumbledore probably wouldn't care for a measly spawn of his enemy, but she, for one, doesn't trust Dumbledore enough to not be enraged by the fact that his golden child had died at the tips of his fingers. Then there's Lucius-well, she wouldn't put it past him to not miss the chance to be rid of her once and for all. Which meant that she already had the Light faction and the Dark faction on her heels, which did not help her chances in winning a trial.

So yeah, she would panic in her own time when her odds were not stacked against her.

"I need help." Eliana concluded after running through a series of 'What if's in her head. "I need a witness."

Pulling out a sheet of paper, Eliana performed a complex, fourth-year charm that transformed it into a paper mice. Putting it on the floor, she gave the mice a brooch that she received for her birthday.

"Find him." was all she said before the mice scurried for the hallway and flattened itself to get past through the gaps of the door.

As soon as it had successfully slipped out of the compartment, Eliana sat down and went through a few breathing exercises. She resolutely did not turn to look at the lifeless body on the floor.

"He'll be here." Eliana tried to comfort herself, "He'll know what to do."

So she waited.

She didn't know how long she had waited.

It felt like she waited for secondsminuteshours before a mice-the same paper mice she'd charmed earlier-slipped through the lower gaps of her door. She hadn't had the chance to react before the door slid open to reveal her one and only friend.

"Hey, Eli. Why did you send a mi-"

"Blaise."

She didn't know when she'd teared up, but it's obviously been a while, judging from her clogged up voice.

"Who-" Blaise looked confused when a random boy called out his name, before he finally spotted the bloodied body-Eliana's bloodied body-laying on the ground, he felt like he was going to have a heart attack, "Eli-!!"

Eliana had followed his line of sight when he turned to look at the dead body on the floor, and only just then remembered what she had done to the both of them. And it was a good thing she'd realized it then, her reflex kicked in and yanked Blaise inside just in time before his shout could alert anyone outside.

"It's me, it's me!" Eliana quickly said, whispering despite knowing that any sound she made would be blocked by the soundproof ward. "I'm Eliana, Blaise! That's not me! He's-" She pointed over to her doppelganger before dragging her finger towards her face "-this guy!" She told him before finally shifting her features back into her own.

It took him a second to register that his friend was, in fact, not dead, and then another to process what she'd just told him.

"Okay." Blaise breathed as he took a seat on the edge of the compartment, making sure to avoid any blood splatters on the floor. "Okay, tell me everything that happened."

So she did.

She told him how she saw the boy on her way to find him. How he was the Harry Potter and how he was abused in the muggle household he was dropped at. How she showed him her metamorphmagus ability and switched their appearances in attempt to get the knife away from him. And how the boy- How Harry Potter died due to the train's malfunction.

"Merda." Blaise finally muttered, rubbing his hand over his face. "That's Harry Potter?!"

"Yeah." Eliana gazed over the body and frowned sadly, "He was such a sweet boy too."

Blaise closed his eyes and clasped his hands in front of him. "L'eterno riposo dona loro, o Signore, e splenda ad essi la luce perpetua. Riposino in pace. Amen."

"Amen." Eliana echoed, recognizing it to be the prayer her friend usually gave whenever yet another one of his mother's spouses met their end.

They were silent for a while, before Blaise finally asked, "Do you have a plan?"

Eliana glanced at him and gave him a smile-or at least, tried to smile since it came out as a grimace. "Maybe." was her hesitant answer.

Blaise lifted an eyebrow at her. "How bad is it?"

"Quite bad, I'm afraid." Eliana said. Her features then shifted back into the boy's, Blaise only then noticed the visible scar right above of her eyebrow. "I'm going to die."

"What?!" Blaise hissed.

"Not literally, obviously." Eliana quicky rectified before the boy could erupt on her, "We're going to claim that he-" She gestured towards Harry, "-is me."

"And what? You're going to pretend to be him?" Blaise exclaimed incredulously, "Do you know how insane that sounds?! You do know that if you become Harry Potter, you're going to heavily involved with Dumbledore, don't you?! He's probably the one who put him with those muggles in the first place! There's no telling what plans that old man has for him!!"

"I know that!" Eliana exploded with a hint of hysteria, shutting him up. When she saw his shocked expression, she paused to take a deep breath. "Sorry. I didn't mean to blow up on you." She apologized, "But do you really think they'd take our words about Harry Potter's death?"

Something seemed to click in his mind as Blaise let out an understanding noise. "You're right." He finally agreed. "You're a Malfoy and I'm a Zabini. Even I would suspect the both of us in this situation."

Eliana nodded, her shoulders losing some its tenseness at her friend's admittance. "Yeah, and they'd never suspect the Boy-Who-Lived as a murderer."

They fell into silence once again, letting the reality of it all fall upon them.

"Are you sure, Eli?"

Eliana glanced over to Blaise, who was regarding her with a solemn gaze, and sent him a small smile. "You know that I planned on running away anyways. Doing so a few years earlier is fine by me." She assured him. "Besides, I said something along the lines of killing myself to Draco just recently. It'd be the perfect plan, wouldn't you say?"

At the mention of her brother, Blaise made a disapproving face, "Is Draco being a little cazzo again?"

"Just because you said it in Italian, doesn't mean it's appropriate, Blaise-y-dear." Eliana tutted.

"He's still a dick though." Blaise grumbled, crossing his arms.

They spent the next hours rehashing on their plan before finally executing it with a couple of hours left of their trip to Hogwarts.

After sporadically filling the compartment with her magic to make it as though she'd experienced accidental magic in her shock, Eliana made sure that there was none of Blaise's presence nor magic left to find. Then she charmed the clothes to rid itself of any blood that could've gotten onto her during the accident.

As soon as everything was set and Blaise set their alibis, Eliana opened the door to the compartment, forced herself to look at Harry-Eliana Malfoy on the ground, and let out a blood-curdling scream.

It was time to see if her acting skills are good enough to trick everyone.

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The next few moments were a bit of a blur for Eliana. She didn't know how it happened but she was whisked into the a floo and found herself in the middle of a courtroom, where she could see many wixens with a high standing in the Wizengamot stood in the jury section.

"Harry."

Eliana, who had been gazing blankly at nothing in particular, turned slowly towards the source of the voice. Dumbledore stood in front of her with a gentle smile. She had to keep her expression from twitching when she saw the ridiculous garb the headmaster was wearing. She's never met him before, but that's definitely one way to make an impression.

"W-Who...?" She hesitantly asked, remembering Harry's story about having no knowledge of the Wixen World before the letter.

Dumbledore kept his genial smile as he introduced himself, "I'm Albus Dumbledore, Harry. The Headmaster of Hogwarts."

"Oh." Eliana widened her eyes with wonder, "I've heard many things about you, sir."

"Hohoho, all the good things I hope." Dumbledore chuckled.

It was awkward for Eliana, to say the least. They were literally in the middle of the courtroom and having a conversation under the gazes of many Lord and Ladies. And Dumbledore seemed to care less of the attention they were getting-both the good and bad ones.

Luckily for her, she was saved by someone she didn't expect as he cut their conversation short.

"If you are done chittering, can we get on to the investigation of my daughter's death?" Lucius snarled, his tone was the sharpest thing she'd ever heard from him.

Eliana chanced a glance towards her father and almost had a whiplash because she couldn't believe her eyes. While the man always made sure to keep his appearance tidy and well-organized, the man that she saw did not look like his usual self-Hell, Eliana even doubt that this man is any kind of presentable by Lucius' standard.

His hair was dishevelled, his eyes looked a little bloodshot, and he couldn't keep his emotion from breaking through his mask.

It's... nothing that Eliana thought he'd be.

"Yes, yes. We shall start right this moment." Dumbledore's voice brought Eliana out of her musing, and she turned to the man when he laid a comforting hand on her shoulder. "You don't have to worry, my boy. You are just called here as a witness."

Eliana nodded to show her understanding and waited as the trial started.

"Witness hearing of the first of September, by Harry James Potter into the investigation of the death of one Eliana Narcissus Malfoy-"

At the Minister's request, Eliana gave a recount of this Harry Potter's version, following the alibi she and Blaise had prepared down to the T-Harry Potter was just making his way to the loo before catching sight of the scene through the compartment's window. That's it. They agreed that a simple explanation would be less suspicious than a detailed one.

Half of the court seemed to believe her, while the other half was less keen on it-some even suspected that she, as in Harry Potter, had been the one to kill herself, since she was the sole known witness to 'her death'. And that led the whole room into a screaming fest.

Eliana wanted to bang her head into the wall from all the shouting, each man trying to talk over one another, sounding more like a child rather than a mature adult.

Why were they even debating on this?

There was literally an easy way to solve this misunderstanding. They were Wixens, for fuck's sake! They have magic and potions that muggles couldn't even dream of existing. Why were they so adamant about dragging this on when they have the solution staring right at their faces.

Glancing at the headmaster who stood not far from her, Eliana made herself look as helpless as she could and approached Dumbledore. "Sir... Isn't there some kind of magic that'd tell us if I was telling the truth? Like a truth detector in the movies." She innocently asked the elderly man.

The pureblood supremacists, near enough to hear her, scrunched their noses at her, acting as though the mere word of 'movie' would taint their noble bloods. Truthfully, Eliana, herself, wasn't quite sure what a movie is, but snippets of Harry's rants of his muggle family filled her in enough to be able to accurately use it in a sentence.

Dumbledore's eyes twinkled at her suggestion and ruffled her hair, "Why yes, my boy. That's an excellent idea." He praised the bespacled hero, "Three drops of Veritaserum should do the trick. All in favour?"

Nobody objected to it.

Veritaserum is, after all, the most straightforward way to clear things up. Especially when used on a supposedly unexperienced eleven-year-old.

It didn't take long for them to take the truth serum out of the storage. Taking the required three drops, Eliana fortified her mind to keep just a sliver of consciousness throughout the process and watched as everything became hazy.

"Who are you?"

It was a question that she expected and she's prepared for it.

"Harry James Potter."

The one thing about metamorphmagus is that when they took on an appearance, they didn't just morph their physical body, they also changed right down to the genes - though this was not knowledge known to the public, Eliana only discovered this tidbit of information after scouring through her mother's notes on it as soon as she realized that she had inherited the trait.

Which would mean, she technically is Harry Potter, if based only by her current DNA.

Had she not known this fact, she would've never requested for such measures.

The next question came.

"How old are you?"

Easy.

"Eleven years-old."

Then the third.

"What date is it today?"

"September 1st, 1991."

After the last filter question, Eliana braced herself for whatever they'll throw their way.

"Did you really stumble upon the deceased student's body during your way to the restroom?"

Another thing about this trial, is that Veritaserum, while forces you to say nothing but the truth, does not force the drinker to answer questions thrown their way. So if one had their wits with them, they could just talk around the truth while seeming to give them the truth.

It was fortunate that Eliana had the thought of acting out the alibi before alerting them of the body.

"Yes, I saw the body through the glass when walking towards the loo."

It was also really fortunate that Cornelius Fudge hadn't said her name that round. Of course, she had a plan to manoeuvre around it, but he made it much easier for her to answer.

"And did you or did you not murder Eliana Narcissus Malfoy?"

Well, that's an obvious answer.

"No, I didn't."

And that's it.

Eliana Narcissus Malfoy is officially dead.

And she is now Harry James Potter.

Swallowing the antidote, Eliana blinked away the haziness effect of the potion and distantly noted Dumbledore putting a hand on her shoulder once again.

"Come on, let's get you to your sorting, my boy."

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- Inside A Single Compartment -
Blaise: *Looking at the time* "The train's already moving, Where is that girl?"
Blaise: *Hearing a shuffling sound from the door*
Blaise: *Sees a paper mice scurrying through the doorgap*
Blaise: "Che diavolo?"
Mice: *Shows the brooch he'd gifted her a couple of months ago before turning back into a mice and leaving the compartment*
Blaise: *Scampering after it* "Hey-! Wait for me-!!"

Lucius: *Visibly suffering for his daughter's death*
Author: "Yesss, prepare to grovel bitch! GROVEL!!"
Also Author: *is the one who wrote the Malfoys to be a bitch to Eliana in the first place*

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Answer: Not to be the murderer. Obviously.

Love it when bad people realize their actions and regret them. Lucius should suffer for his actions and repent himself before Eliana would show herself to him again. Oh, and Draco as well, but he'll get his own screen time.

J Out!