"Step three?" He asked innocently.
They spent the next day cooking up a mental storm. Tom also showed him a few new spells... Dark spells and the basics of parselmagic. He didn't even know that was a thing. Testing the limits of the first living horcrux was definitely appealing but would have to be put on hold. This was a breakthrough in wizardry after all. The man wondered long and hard about his life as his mind strayed from their current issue. He took an old box from the bottom of his shelf of knick knacks. He opened the dusty thing and took out a stack he never thought he wood ever have to use for himself. Harry followed him as he entered the study.
"We'll need disguises, won't we?" Harry asked knowingly.
"You, no. I, however, do."
"Why don't I need one?"
"You can walk around the muggle world without being suspected but I, even in my human form, is too dangerous." He placed them down on a table, turning to Harry.
"So, what do you suggest?"
"I'll pick from a list of personas." He handed Harry a two page list of random people's profiles that was on the top of the stack.
"Are they dead?" He looked worriedly from the page to Tom.
"No and yes. They are documented persons that "exist" in the muggle world but not in reality. They're real without actually being real."
Harry wasn't sure if he understood that or even wanted to really. "So how're you going to pick one?"
"We'll narrow it down to the most eligible and least suspecting."
"Oh, okay."
Then they were off, crossing out any outrageous characters, old people, men similar to his human self, and the overweight, with red marker. After spending the entire day sifting through a ton of paper, Harry lay on the floor, exhausted.
Tom looked down at him, "Come now Harry. You only had to use your hands." He tutted.
Harry moaned, "You... I'm not a dark Lord. Regular things are tiring to regular people you know."
Voldemort turned back at his final page on the desk, "You're not regular." He reminded quietly.
They compared each other's last page. Harry looked up at him, "These are all pretty good. How do we narrow down these?"
Tom hummed, "Random pick I suppose."
"All of that just for you to pick one!?" He frowned at the pages.
"Do you have a better idea?" He enquired haughtily.
"Yes. Yes I do."
Tom quirked an invisible brow.
...
Harry set the hat in-between them. It was filled with small folded pieces of paper with the names on them.
"One condition." Voldemort held up a strip, it had Harry's name on it. "A day in the life of Potter would be...fun."
Harry lifted an eyebrow, "Sure."
Tom dropped it in. Harry shuffled it with a few shakes. They looked at each other and took out a piece simultaneously. Without breaking eye contact they unfolded their strips. Tom looked down and read his disappointed.
"Tabitha... Parker...?"
Harry laughed out loud at his, he handed it over, it read: 'Harry Potter'. Tom growled.
Most of their plan was coming together. But later at night in the bedroom, the silence reminded Tom of everything outside the manor, "Harry."
"Yeah?" The boy answered from the bed, where he lay sideways.
"Don't you find it the slightest bit peculiar?"
"Peculiar, what is...?"
"I expected the whole of magical England to be in an uproar over you but it's so...quiet."
"Like the calm before a storm?" Harry spoke the exact words.
"Yes..." Just like that.
Snape wondered what in the hell Dumbledore was planning to do. Something that would make him put his main goal of killing The Dark Lord on hold and shoving aside Harry Potter, to give him this incredulous task. Speaking of Potter, he'd been missing from a very calm wizarding world as Dumbledore gave them new hope...in the muggles. What the muggles had to do with anything he had no clue.
Little did they know he was on the Dark Lord's grasp. He was quite shocked seeing him the first time, he didn't take much notice of it. He probably had a charm on unaware to his own self, knowing the paranoia of the Dark Lord. Lucius had confirmed it too, the night his friends showed up at the manor. But seeing with his own eyes was spectacular. The Dark Lord and Harry... Together. Had the boy finally snapped and turned dark? So many possibilities and reasons left to the imagination.
Voldemort pretty much had the ministry around his little finger, so he guess he could spare some of Lucius' time and duties to help him with his own change of plans. Which he was glad for, being separated was heart wrenching. Draco would be left behind but Lucius would not have their baby in any life threatening danger (of which Snape tried to remind wasn't a baby anymore) and their Lord had not asked of it, not that he would have; he was still a person with a heart...or understanding at least.
He watched as the blond primped himself in the vanity, wearing a silky cream coloured robe. There was a knock on the door.
"Enter." He ordered.
The little elf popped in, knocking was a rule for bed chambers... Ever since that incident.
"A letter master. From... The Lord."
He took the paper, carefully sealed with the dark mark in stamp.
"Oh my..."
Lucius turned continuing to brush his hair. "What is it Severus?"
He dismissed the elf and walked over, scooting onto the cushioned bench to show his blond the letter. He screwed his face in an 'un-pureblood' way. One of the moments exclusive only to Snape, which he loved.
"Oh, I absolutely hate the taste of polyjuice." He turned back to the mirror. Severus had long stopped asking why he always did himself up to just go to bed. 'Always be ready' he'd told him and making the dark man laugh.
"Aren't you worried about... Everything else?"
Lucius turned to him, "Hm? Of course not. We didn't dedicate ourselves to a wizard to not have faith in him." Severus hummed, he was right. "I'll just get a make-up artist. I'll put a hire out tomorrow." The serious man wondered what kind of characters they would be, he surely wanted to be creative with it. What it would be like to walk in someone's else's shoes, what he would be like if he wasn't the darkened Snape, was definitely exciting. Everyone else's characters were also anticipating to see, alter egos and hidden personalities would definitely shine.
The next morning, the first thing Tom did was take out a small box from the top drawer of his desk in his (their) bedroom. He opened it, showing two sections. He picked up the smoky ruby then a gold piece from the other half of the box and held his palms open. The little artistically detailed gold snakes slithered onto the ruby, encircling it then freezing into place. He undid Harry's necklace and added the ruby, now a pendant. He felt them moving slightly against his skin, it was weird.
"What's this for?" He looked down at it.
"Since we most probably won't be able to use any magic where we're going, potions included, this is an alternative. This stone is two of a kind." He took his out from his robe pocket, a same red ruby but cut differently. "It could be replicated but in imperfection. I was going to make one but then I managed to...acquire it." Replicating a version of the stone was going to take days. He had no idea if those extra days would make up for something but certainly hoped they did.
Harry quirked a brow, "What do they do?"
"Here." Tom put his on.
Harry blinked at him. At each blink he looked different. Then Tabitha Marvel stood in front of him. She was short, slim, brown skinned, with her black hair in a neatly tucked bun, pointy features and round mouth. "What...?"
"Infusing the 'essence' of Tabitha with magic creates a perfect form of the polyjuice potion." He explained, Tabitha's lady voice speaking.
"Why do I need one?" He wanted to ask what the 'essence' of someone even was but decided against it from receiving a scolding.
"Well for safe keeping of course." He said in an obvious tone. "And also you can see through it with yours." Before Harry's questioning face asked how he explained, "It's quite simple, just whichever you want to see, you'll see."
Harry focused. Then Tom's image slowly faded back. "Neat." Tom looked him up and down as he took off his necklace. "Wha...?"
"I'll get Philip to give you a makeover before we leave." He said more to himself, turning and walking away.
"Oi! What's wrong with my look!?" Harry followed him.
Although Tom made so much emphasis on having to hurry, it took two days for him to tell Harry step four.
He approached Harry "This mission is very dangerous and as such all precautions need to be made. We can't risk any mistakes or secrets being revealed." He stated in a dictator's tone.
Harry looked to the side in thought then back at Tom, "What does that mean...?"
"It means I need to be reunited with the horcrux inside you."
There was only one way for that.
A/N: Added this chapter in for more depth. Plan to do more as this story is a kind of rough outline, I just needed to get it down before it disappeared. I posted it to see if people like the idea and so far over a hundred and sixty people did! Amazing, so now I definitely got to rework this.