Doppelganger

AN The muggle Captain Granger survives as the soul of the witch Hermione Granger begins to reveal itself. A cover up of the mission begins.

Chpt 6 Cover Up

Captain Granger sat in her hospital bed looking out of the window placing her medical chart down on the bed stand. Her doctor did not want her to see it and finally relented as she fussed and threatened to walk out and understood why. When they found her some wounds were healed and there were fresh scars that could not be explained. It was after the sixth surgery that she fell into a coma and her doctors were baffled as there was no medical reason for her to be in that state.

She heard angry voices outside her door recognizing one immediately as the door banged open and in strode Colonel no make that General Potter. Two armed guards followed him along with Private no make that Sergeant Longbottom.

"Leave us and go back outside. I promise that Captain Granger will not escape and I will only be in here a few moments as she needs to recover."

Hermione smiled at her visitors as the guards left. "I have guards? Congratulations on your promotions."

"I just wanted to make sure you were alright." He replied as he handed her a paper as he pointed to the ceiling and spoke of the guards and how worried he was when she fell into a coma.

Hermione,

The room has ears. Do not tell them of my talks with you and only the facts of how things played out. Do not speak of the missing medical supplies. We will talk to you when it is safe to do so.

She handed him the paper as she replied back. "I am fine General. Well nothing that a little rehab won't take care of. They assure me that I will be out of here within a month."

"Good news Captain. Longbottom make sure she has my contact details and if she calls you are to interrupt me no matter what."

Longbottom handed her a card and nodded to her. "Get well soon Captain Granger and thank you for saving my life."

She watched as the two men left the room as one guard entered and looked to her for a moment and closed the door behind him.

What the hell? She saw the worry in the general's eyes.

The next day her doctor came in. "Captain Granger I know it is early for you to travel but intelligence wants to talk to you and we have no secure rooms here. I will be accompanying you to Fort Eustis and back. There is a helicopter waiting for us."

The doctor motioned to a corpsman and he entered pushing a wheelchair.

"Janice I need a uniform. I am not meeting anyone with a hospital gown that reveals my ass at mere movement."

The doctor looked to her in understanding as she motioned for her assistant to step outside as she walked to a wardrobe and opened it. She pulled out a new set of camouflage BDU's and handed them to her patient.

Janice watched as the captain removed the gown and struggled putting on the trousers. "Let me help you."

Soon Hermione was dressed and in the wheelchair on her way to the helipad with her two armed escorts.

As they approached the heli-pad she noticed the group of reporters as the cameras flashed.

Janice noticed her distress. "You are a hero Captain Granger. Everyone knows what you did."

Hermione looked to her in confusion at the doctor's words. "Well I am not going to be carried up to the helicopter in front of all these people." She stood up from the wheelchair and slowly made her way to the helicopter unaided as her doctor and her assistant walked beside her.

Soon she was strapped in and the helicopter took off.

Hermione had to repeat her story over and over and eight hours later she was finally released and told not to give out any specific details on the objective of the mission. She was fine with that as it had been a hoax anyway. And 58 people lost their lives for that.

She continued with her physical therapy and her doctor was amazed at the quick progress.

Janice walked in and greeted her patient. "Hermione your physical therapy is complete. You are going to be released in the next week."

Hermione put down the charcoal that she had been using. "That's great Janice."

"May I see your drawings?" Janice asked.

"You might be uncomfortable with some of them." Hermione told her doctor as she handed them to her. "I don't understand it as I could never draw a decent flower before."

Janice chuckled as she took her book and looked at her drawings. Some of them were very disturbing and must have been when she was on the battlefield. One was of a young soldier lying on the ground in a pool of blood reaching up. Janice thought for a moment. Her patient had held all of her emotions in and not spoke of her ordeal once. She took the chance.

"What is his name Hermione?" Janice gently asked.

"Private Reese. He always called me Captain Danger whenever I went to his camp. I could not save him and he died in my arms. His last words were that I had beautiful eyes." Wiping a tear away. "He had the darkest blue eyes you have ever seen and I told him that he had beautiful eyes as well."

As the doctor thumbed through the sketch book the horrifying images of a battlefield changed and a drawing of a magnificent castle was revealed.

"Wow Hermione. Is this castle something that you have seen in person?"

"No Janice. After I drew out all of my memories of the battle I was drawn to sketch it. It must be my imagination running wild with me."

Janice continued flipping through the book. A hooked nosed man in dark robes, a young man with a strange lightning shaped scar, and red headed young man took up the next pages. She stopped at a young woman with bushy hair.

"This looks like you if you were younger."

Hermione looked at it for a moment. "I suppose it does."

Janice closed the sketch pad and handed it back to her. "Continue in this Hermione. I think it helps you. You need to get some rest now as tomorrow you have a very important visitor."

Hermione nodded to her. She suddenly felt tired as she drifted asleep after her doctor left.

Her dreams had become even more confusing as she dreamt of a younger version of herself facing a troll as two boys saved her. She dreamed of herself walking the halls of a castle and taking classes in magic. She must be losing her mind.

***You are not. I am Hermione Granger and this is what happened to me***

She found herself watching the young woman as she was dragged naked into some sort of a room and was horribly beaten.

Hermione woke up and threw up into the bed pan beside her. She was losing her mind. Something was trying to take control of her and she vowed that it would not happen as she fell back to sleep.

She felt her shoulder being roughly shaken as she turned over in her bed. The prodding continued as she woke up and noticed General Potter and Sergeant Longbottom as she sat up.

"Finally awake Captain Granger." The general replied as he handed her a stack of papers. "You need to read these. The President will be here in two hours."

"Your blues captain." Sergeant Longbottom replied as he draped them over a chair.

Hermione watched the men leave as she began to read the papers from the past six months. The enemy was so cocky in the decimation of the men that they allowed foreign reporters to watch. So that explained how everyone knew about her. The journalist had stayed on the cliffs of the canyon snapping pictures as death descended upon the outnumbered troops. The kiss that she had given Longbottom was captured and was on the first page of several newspapers along with a video that captured her throwing down her helmet and armband as she manned the machine gun against the last rush.

She dressed into her blues and adjusted her nametag and ribbons and looked into the mirror. Her hair had only grown about three inches and she had not even begun to gain back the weight that she had lost during the coma. She noticed her fellow survivors joined her as she turned away from the mirror.

"You look fine Captain." The general told her. "Come your ceremony is being held in the hospital cafeteria."

They entered and Hermione hesitated a moment looking at who sat at the temporary stage. She felt the colonel tighten his hand on her elbow and motioned her forward.

General Riddle stood from his seat and returned their salute and offered his hand to the Air Force doctor. "Captain Granger it is a pleasure to finally meet you in person. You are an extraordinary young woman."

Hermione shook his hand as he motioned her to sit down beside him and watched as the room began to fill up with reporters and most of the medical staff. She cheered up when she saw her mother and father wave to her from the middle of the front row.

Soon presidential music filed the air and everyone rose. "The President of the United States of America."

"Please take a seat." The President replied. "I am sure that everyone recognizes the officer that we are here to honor. General Potter and Sergeant Longbottom personally told me of the heroism of Captain Granger. General Potter?"

General Potter approached the microphone. "Captain Granger was in-flight with her normal camp rotation and was diverted to my group as our medic had fallen ill. Due to the weight limitations of her aircraft one had to stay behind and she volunteered so that the young medic could get treatment for a life threatening illness. An arrangement for a replacement medic was made, but the enemy jammed our communications so a rendezvous was never arranged. Realizing the danger she was in Captain Granger removed her officer rank and took over the duties of a medic as we continued our mission. She even had her hair cut such as ours to blend in so that the enemy would not know that she was a female. We were suddenly attacked by a force that grossly outnumbered us and she tended to the fallen. The enemy noticed it and directed fire to her to keep her from her duties. Wounded, she continued on as the attacked suddenly stopped as the enemy pulled back. I called for assembly and found that only Captain Granger and Sergeant Longbottom responded to my call. The attack began again and I was wounded and lost consciousness. Soon Sergeant Longbottom became incapacitated. Pulling off her medic arm band and helmet she manned a machine gun and took out the remaining enemy soldiers as she succumbed to her injuries. She is the bravest soldier I have ever known despite the fact that she is not a soldier. I am standing here today because of her selfless actions." He took his seat.

"Captain Granger I was informed by the Air Force Chief of Staff that you are out of uniform. I believe that someone here has the items you need to get you back into regulation." The President said as he motioned for her to approach him.

Hermione stood next to the President at attention. She had checked over her uniform. What was the President talking about?

She watched as her parents joined her as Sergeant Longbottom handed her father a case containing a pair of gold oak leaves.

"Hermione we are so proud of you." Her father whispered to her as he removed the captain bars and replaced it with a gold oak leaf.

Her mother on the other hand was not subtle as she pinned the other gold oak leaf on. "Hermione you told me competition was fierce but I am surprised at the lengths you went to get a promotion." She joked.

Hermione looked embarrassed as the audience recognized the joke and chuckled as they applauded her promotion.

The President spoke again. "Now that is taken care of I can continue. Major Granger was originally put in for the Air Force Cross by General Riddle. After extensive review by the Chief of Staff's her award was upgraded as her actions met the requirement, the only thing holding it back that she is a woman and not supposed to be in direct combat. She was forced to be there by circumstance and performed admirably and suffered extensive injuries because of it. It was obvious that her actions were done to protect the soldiers she was with."

The President turned to the Air Force Chief of Staff that appeared next to him and took out a ribboned medal. "Major Hermione Jane Granger it is my honor to bestow upon you the Medal of Honor."

Hermione lowered her head in shock as the President placed the medal around her neck.

"I thank you for your sacrifice for your country." The President replied as he motioned her to the microphone.

Hermione looked to the audience as the cameras flashed. "Remember not my actions but those soldiers that did not survive. I did my best to serve them. I thank you for the honors. I remember a song by country singer Billy Ray Cyrus from 1993. It is titled Some Gave All. I gave some but the soldiers I was with gave all. I stand here in testament of their sacrifice." Thinking of Private Reese dying in her arms as a tear slid down as she wiped it away.

The President led her back to her chair and saluted her as she returned the salute. He knelt down and whispered into her ear. "You are always welcomed at my house. Remember that."

Soon the cafeteria emptied leaving Major Granger and her parents alone. Her father wrapped her into his arms. "Kitten let it all out."

She melted into his arms feeling safe as she cried into his shoulder thinking of the soldiers that she could not save. They deserved more than to die for petty hate and cover up.

_ _ _ )

Professor Snape was called to the Headmaster's office. "It seems that Miss. Granger's doppelganger has survived. Have you noticed that the two stars are even brighter?" Pushing a muggle newspaper to him.

He read it and placed it down on the desk. "And what does that have to do with me?" He snarled out.

"I think that it very much has to do with you Severus. You told me that you saw a surge of magic when she was attacked. Are you sure that you have told me everything concerning Miss. Granger?"

Snape looked to Albus. "I have told you everything that I know concerning Miss. Granger Headmaster. May I be excused?"

Albus nodded as he watched his spy leave. He was holding something back.

A/N BDU Battle Dress Uniform

Hermione's soul resides in her doppelganger and made an appearance though drawings and dreams. Who will win?