A/N: The opening scene is exactly as in CoS, up to a point.

His Second Life, or the Back-Up Plan

Chapter One

Just as Harry had begun to worry about what would happen when he hit the ground, the pipe leveled out, and he shot out of the end with a wet thud, landing on the damp floor of a dark stone tunnel large enough to stand in. Lockhart was getting to his feet a little ways away, covered in slime and white as a ghost. Harry stood aside as Ron came whizzing out of the pipe, too.

"We must be miles under the school," said Harry, his voice echoing in the black tunnel.

"Under the lake, probably," said Ron, squinting around at the dark, slimy walls.

All three of them turned to stare into the darkness ahead.

"Lumos!" Harry muttered to his wand and it lit again. "C'mon," he said to Ron and Lockhart, and off they went, their footsteps slapping loudly on the wet floor.

The tunnel was so dark that they could only see a little distance ahead. Their shadows on the wet walls looked monstrous in the wandlight.

"Remember," Harry said quietly as they walked cautiously forward, "any sign of movement, close your eyes right away…"

But the tunnel was quiet as the grave, and the first unexpected sound they heard was a loud crunch as Ron stepped on what turned out to be a rat's skull. Harry lowered his wand to look at the floor and saw that it was littered with small animal bones. Trying very hard not to imagine what Ginny might look like if they found her, Harry led the way forward, around a dark bend in the tunnel.

"Harry — there's something up there —" said Ron hoarsely, grabbing Harry's shoulder.

They froze, watching. Harry could just see the outline of something huge and curved, lying right across the tunnel. It wasn't moving.

"Maybe it's asleep," he breathed, glancing back at the other two. Lockhart's hands were pressed over his eyes. Harry turned back to look at the thing, his heart beating so fast it hurt.

Very slowly, his eyes as narrow as he could make them and still see, Harry edged forward, his wand held high.

The light slid over a gigantic snake skin, of a vivid, poisonous green, lying curled and empty across the tunnel floor. The creature that had shed it must have been twenty feet long at least.

"Blimey," said Ron weakly.

There was a sudden movement behind them. Gilderoy Lockhart's knees had given way.

"Get up," said Ron sharply, pointing his wand at Lockhart. Harry walked over to back him up if needed.

Lockhart got to his feet — then he dived at Harry, knocking him to the ground.

Ron jumped forward, but too late — Lockhart was straightening up, panting, Harry's wand in his hand and a gleaming smile back on his face.

"The adventure ends here, boys!" he said. "I shall take a bit of this skin back up to the school, tell them I was too late to save the girl, and that you two tragically lost your minds at the sight of her mangled body — say good-bye to your memories!"

He raised Harry's holly and pheonix feather wand high over his head and yelled, "Obliviate!"

Ron and Harry had shocked looks on their faces for just a moment before they both slumped to the floor. Lockhart gave his dashing smile before sending a message spell to McGonagall telling her to get down to the Chamber through Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. He sat down in relief as he heard people coming down the pipe on brooms.

Within 15 minutes Lockhart and the empty shells of Ron and Harry were brought out of the Chamber on medical grade flying carpets. They were all given beds in the Hospital Wing, due to the stress of their situation. Ron and Harry were given extra treatments for their empty state that Poppy Pomfrey just couldn't pin down a reason for. Lockhart mentioned that they could just be in shock, which Poppy just couldn't belief. "Nothing could scare that boy that much," she claimed.

Dumbledore arrived back at the school the next day. He examined Ron and Harry himself with Minerva McGonagall and Poppy Pomfrey watching. He did multiple scans of them, his face darkening with every set of results. They seemed to be perfectly fine! Then his eyes widened and his neck stiffened. 'What if?' he thought. He pointed his wand at Harry and incanted "Legimens."

He stood staring into Harry's eyes for a few moments before breaking away. His face seemed to have gained more wrinkles from what he had determined. He cast the same spell on Ron with seemingly similar results.

"What is wrong with them, Albus?" Minerva asked, Poppy nodded showing that she wanted the answer as well.

"They seemed to have been obliviated." Dumbledore replied with a dark look on his face.

Lockhart slowly hid his head under his blankets, but Minerva McGonagall had already turned on him, her face full of fury. "What did you do?"

"I… I… nothing!" Lockhart cried.

"Call for Severus to bring Veritaserum in my official capacity as Chief Warlock."

Poppy ran to her office to use her floo. Severus Snape came out of the office two minutes later with a bottle in his hand.

"Open your mouth!" Dumbledore ordered Lockhart. Lockhart hesitantly opened his mouth and tilted his head back. Snape walked up and administered the customary three drops.

Lockhart's gaze went blank after a few moments. Dumbledore walked up to question him.

"Minerva, please keep record of this interrogation."

"Of course, Albus."

Dumbledore turned back to Lockhart. "What is your name?"

"Gilderoy Charles Lockhart."

"What is your current place of employment?"

"Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry."

"Did you obliviate Harry Potter and Ronald Weasley?"

"Yes."

"Why did you obliviate Harry Potter and Ronald Weasley?"

"So I could claim that I killed the monster in the Chamber of Secrets, but unfortunately could not save Ginny Weasley."

Poppy rolled her eyes. "I wonder how many times he's done that?" she muttered. Dumbledore heard her.

"Have you obliviated others and claimed their achievements as your own?"

"Yes."

"Are all your works based on other's achievements?"

"Yes."

Minerva stomped in anger, Snape sneered, and Poppy's face reddened.

"Severus, administer the antidote. Minerva, call the aurors and give them the transcript of the interrogation. Poppy, have Mister Potter moved to my office, and then transfer Mister Weasley to St. Mungos."

Everyone jumped into their tasks, except McGonagall, who stopped to talk to Dumbledore.

"Albus, what are we going to do?"

"I'm afraid that we will have to use the back-up."

"Are you sure? Isn't it a bit early? I thought you had been saving the boy's memories to check over them."

"I have my reasons to jump into action this early. Now I must go."

Dumbledore stormed to his office to find Harry already brought there by house elves. He sealed off his chambers to any visitors of any importance. He levitated Harry to his quarters and set him on an alter covered in runes. It had been made just for this occasion. Dumbledore drew runes on Harry's forehead with clay. He grabbed a staff from a cabinet and pushed his wand into a slot in the staff. He rested the end of the staff on Harry's forehead and began chanting. After five minutes of chanting, he was red-faced and sweating.. There was finally the flash of white light he had been working for. As he slumped to the floor, he said, "Thank Merlin." He then blacked out, just as Harry was waking up, but was it Harry?

Harry's eyes fluttered open. He felt his heart racing and his entire body was shaking. 'Why am I shaking?' 'Where am I?' 'Wait a second, the last thing I remember is a flash of green light, and then saying the trigger wor-' 'No! It couldn't have come to this!' 'How old is, or was he?'

Harry stood up and looked around for a moment. 'Dumbledore's office. Either he's still in school or he's just been rescued.' He then noticed Dumbledore out cold at his feet. He immediately knelt down and checked for breathing and a pulse. 'Normal vitals, looks like magical exhaustion. That means he had to do the ritual, that isn't anything like we had planned.'

Harry walked over to a mirror and looked at himself in shock. His mouth was open for a moment. 'I can't be more than 12 years old. Dumbledore had better have a damn good reason for doing the ritual.'

He wiped off the runes drawn on his forehead with the base of his palm. 'He had better have a damn good excuse.'

Harry picked up Dumbledore's staff and removed his wand. He summoned a pepper-up potion. He poured some into Dumbledore's mouth while massaging his throat so he would swallow. He then leveled the wand at Dumbledore and cast, "Enervate."

Dumbledore's eyes opened and Harry handed the rest of the potion to him. Dumbledore eagerly chugged the rest of the dose and managed to stand about a minute later.

"Now, Dumbledore, do you mind explaining why I was brought back with the ritual in Harry's pre-teen body?"

"Oh thank lord, it worked!" Dumbledore exclaimed in relief. Harry's eyes narrowed as he glared at Dumbledore.

"Well, you see, Harry was completely obliviated. Normally, I would have just restored his memories with the copies I frequently made over the school year, but I have reason to believe that Voldemort has a corporeal form again."

"Fine, I suppose I can understand that, but what is your reasoning that he has a corporeal form? And who the hell obliviated Harry?"

"I had been watching that magnificent map you and your friends had helped me make, and I noticed 'Tom Riddle Jr.' running across the school grounds before going off the map. I examined memories from many students and saw someone looking just like a teenage Tom Riddle going through the halls. And as for who obliviated Harry, that would be Gildorey Lockhart."

"That little ponce," Harry stood contemplating things for a moment, "but I can deal with him later. Do you have any clue why he looked like a teenaged Tom Riddle?"

"Well, based on the body of a young girl found in the Chamber of Secrets," Harry's eyes widened, "he appears to have used a horcrux, and it drained her life to give him a new form."

"Horcrux? Chamber of Secrets?"

"A horcrux is a piece of someones soul embedded into an object, and as long as that broken off piece of soul is safe, the main part of the soul, or the conscious part, cannot be destroyed. Fortunately, the broken off soul pieces can be destroyed individually, somewhat similar to what we did. And yes, I did say the Chamber of Secrets. It was opened this year. I suspect Riddle's horcrux posessed Ginny Weasley to do so, I assume, considering that she is the one whose life was sucked out for the horcrux to get its own body. It turns out Harry is a parseltongue, I believe that to be a side effect of Riddle's failed murder."

"What? That makes no sense, Riddle's spell never Harry's soul, obviously, so it must be from something else!"

Dumbledore thought for a moment and blanched. Harry's eyes widened at the same moment. Dumbledore's eyes flicked up to Harry's forehead. Harry went to look in the mirror again to see what was on his forehead; he saw the scar and his mouth drooped open.

"There's a piece of him... in... in Harry?"

"I would assume so, Mr. Potter."

"How can we get it out?"

"I will research on this topic of horcruxes, I suggest you start training to get this body in shape, both magically and physically. I think it would be best if we kept this between ourselves."

"I'm afraid I disagree, Albus." Harry responded, "We should at least recruit Flitwick and McGonagall in this. Flitwick has good background knowledge of most fields of magic, and McGonagall can help me train and study. Besides, if I remember correctly, they were both in on the back-up plan anyway."

"Very well," Dumbledore agreed, "I'll unseal my office and call them here immediately." However, as soon as the office was unsealed, Minerva McGonagall, Poppy Pomfrey, and Filius Flitwick rushed up the stairs and into the office. They had thought that the office unsealing might have meant Dumbledore died of magical exhaustion, or just of old age, he was around a century and a half.

"Well, I guess requesting their presence is unnecessary. Unfortunately Poppy, I'll have to request that you leave."

She did quick scans of Harry and Dumbledore and then left, mumbling all the way.

McGonagall and Flitwick just stared at Harry in awe and sadness.

"Did it work?" Flitwick asked while staring.

"I'd have to say it did," Harry said with a grin, "did you miss me Minny? How about you Filly?"

They both rushed to hug Harry. McGonagall, while crushing Harry, whispered through tears, "Of course we missed you. But damn you, I hope this is your last prank. Things are getting a bit serious here."

"I suppose I did prank life. Speaking of Sirius, did he raise Harry well? And why isn't he here to check on his injured godson?"

That's when everyone got uncomfortable.

"What? Where's my best friend?"

"Well James…"

Author's note: If any of you have read The Lie I've Lived by jbern, yes, this is my spin on that. But all that will be similar will be the James Potter aspect. I'm expecting this to be my biggest story, and the best written, I edited this chapter more than once. I know, weird!