Chapter Seven: The Death of Harry Potter

Harry realized the situation was spinning out of control, so he decided to owl one of the only adults he could truly trust. Sirius. Harry was to frantic to even address the letter to 'snuffles', he simply took out a piece of parchment, and wrote a sentence.

I need help, this weekend at the Hog's Head.

He couldn't include any information that would give away his secret, and Harry could only hope Sirius would be able to show up.

He made his way back to the tower, and after a short argument with the fat Lady and the other woman who had joined her in the painting, he managed to get her to open the door.

The blast of noise that met Harry's ears when the portrait opened almost knocked him backward. Next thing he knew, he was being wrenched inside the common room by about a dozen pairs of hands, and was facing the whole of Gryffindor House, all of whom were screaming, applauding, and whistling.

"You should've told us you'd entered!" bellowed Fred; he looked half annoyed, half deeply impressed.

"How did you do it without getting a beard? Brilliant!" roared George.

"I didn't," Harry said. "I don't know how -"

But Angelina had now swooped down upon him; "Oh if it couldn't be me, at least it's a Gryffindor -"

"You'll be able to pay back Diggory for that last Quidditch match, Harry!" shrieked Katie Bell, another of the Gryffindor Chasers.

"We've got food, Harry, come and have some -"

"I'm not hungry, I had enough at the feast -"

But nobody wanted to hear that he wasn't hungry; nobody wanted to hear that he hadn't put his name in the goblet; not one single person seemed to have noticed that he wasn't at all in the mood to celebrate...Lee Jordan had unearthed a Gryffindor banner from somewhere, and he insisted on draping it around Harry like a cloak.

Harry couldn't get away; whenever he tried to sidle over to the staircase up to the dormitories, the crowd around him closed ranks, forcing another butterbeer on him, stuffing crisps and peanuts into his hands...Everyone wanted to know how he had done it, how he had tricked Dumbledore's Age Line and managed to get his name into the goblet...

"I didn't," he said, over and over again, "I don't know how it happened."

But for all the notice anyone took, he might just as well not have answered at all. He was tired of being ignored, tired of having people assume they knew what he wanted, and what he thought.

When Lee tried to place a crown on Harry's head, it was the last straw. He couldn't take this anymore.

"ENOUGH!" He yelled, "I can't take this anymore! I wish I wasn't in this stupid tournament!" Everybody froze and stared at Harry. He turned around and began stomping up the stairs to his dorm room, feeling rather like a child.

Everybody got out of his way. He supposed he was also angry because he hadn't seen Ron or Hermione, and he wondered where they could have gone.

Everything was crumbling down around him. He thought he had a year to figure out what he could do about his true identity, but now he had less than a month.

It was all happening too fast, and the only people he could turn to were Ron and Hermione. And he didn't know where they were. Then when he went into the boy's dormitory they were already waiting.

"We didn't think you would feel like celebrating, so we came up here," Hermione said.

Harry smiled, even now his friends could cheer him up, "Thanks," he said, "but things have gotten even worse. I found out that the tournament is a magically binding contract, and since I'm not magically Harry Potter…" He trailed, off, not wanting to explain the ending.

Hermione gasped and put her hand to her mouth. Ron gave him a pained grimace. They both understood what a magically binding contract meant; Ron from being wizard-raised, and Hermione from knowing just about everything.

"What are you going to do?" Ron asked.

Harry sighed, "I've decided that Harry Potter had to die."
"What?!" Hermione yelled, "That doesn't make any sense! You still have a year left on the spell, and I'm sure we could get you out of the tournament one way or another…" near the end of her short tirade she trailed off, understanding that there wasn't much they could do.

"I did owl Sirius," Harry said, "I'm hoping he can help me with all of this."

Hermione smiled, "Well at least there will be some sort of adult involved."

Harry sighed, Hermione was finally appeased, for now at least. For the rest of the night the thre tried to brainstorm different ways to kill off Harry Potter, and have Antonius Malfoy appear, and have the two seem unconnected. It was more difficult that Harry expected. For a moment a thought went through his head that Voldemort would be very happy at the death of his enemy.

They couldn't figure out a good way to fake a death, so the three of them decided to wait for Sirius.

Finally the Hogsmeade weekend came around, and Harry was ready to meet Sirius. He had told Ron and Hermione that it would be too dangerous to have all three of them meet him together. It would make people suspicious. Harry only hoped that Sirius would show.

He walked around the village, keeping his eyes out for a black dog. After a half hour of wandering, and no sign of Sirius, Harry decided to take a break. He began heading towards the three broomsticks, but then he saw a dog standing at the back door of the Hogshead. He headed over to the mutt, and smiled when he recognized Sirius' animagus form.

"Hello Padfoot," Harry said, and then the dog began walking off. Harry followed Padfoot out of the village and into the woods.

He had to climb over rocks until the two of them finally reached a cave. After walking a bit into the cave Sirius transformed, and was immediately enveloped in a hug by Harry.

"Hey there pup," Sirius said. Then he frowned, "You said there was something urgent, what is it?"

Harry sighed, and then proceeded to tell Sirius everything. He was glad that Sirius didn't
run away at the start of the conversation. He almost expected that to happen, but Sirius stayed through the conversation. His face only showed mild signs of shock.

At the end of the tail he he looked at Harry and said, " I guess there is only one thing I can do." He got up to his feet and looked at Harry, who had also stood up, "I'll have to help to I make sure you don't get yourself killed."

Sure, it might have seemed strange to any outsider. A boy hiding an immense secret and a fugitive sitting in a quiet cve planning the death of the Wizarding World's largest celebrity, but to Harry it was perfect. They talked for a while, discussing time frames and how and when the 'murder should happen.

They ended up deciding that it had to be before the first task, for obvious reasons, least of which being that Harry couldn't even enter the area as a competitor without his magic ripping him apart. His 'death' also had to seem heroic and brilliant, otherwise no one would ever believe he had actually died. The boy-Who-lived had to die a martyr.

At first Sirius thought he could sneak into the castle, and he and Harry could 'fight', and Sirius could slip him some draught of living death, before 'killing' Harry with a wandless Avada Kedavra (Of course it would merely a spell that mimicked the killing curse). Harry decided against this though, he wanted Dumbledore to be fooled, and he knew Sirius was innocent. Harry also didn't want his innocent godfather framed for anything else.

They opened up the Marauders Map and began looking for the names. Harry hoped they could find a death eater lurking in the castle or something similar, so they could engage them in a fight.

The only thing Harry found strange was that Mad-Eye Moody was once again in his office with Barty Crouch...wait a minute, Crouch was also just outside the Forbidden Forest. He pointed this out to Sirius.

"There's no way he can be using a time turner, and Mad-Eye is constantly in his office," Harry said.

Sirius nodded, "There is definitely something odd about this situation, I say you go and check it out. Hopefully you'll find something that will kill you."

Harry smiled, at least there was something here that he could use. They talked a bit longer about the details. Sirius owled ordered some draught of living death and promised to send it to Harry. They also decided that Sirius would come back in a week's time, and sneak in to where his body would be kept and administer the antidote.

They parted ways, and Harry met up with Ron and Hermione, after telling them everything they spent the rest of the day in Hogsmeade, smiling, laughing and happy for the time being.

…

Harry scowled as he tried his best to duel Barty Crouch JR. When he went down to Mad-Eye's office to confront him about his dealings with Bart Crouch he wasn't expecting this. He dodged another killing curse and tried to figure out a way to die without actually dying.

He looked above him and saw the dragon skeleton hanging from the DADA ceiling. He smiled, finally an opening. The skeleton began to fall after Harry threw a well-aimed diffindo curse at it. He dodged out of the way, unfortunately, Crouch Jr. wasn't so lucky.

Harry couldn't tell how badly he been hurt, but he was down and Harry heard footsteps quickly approaching. He quickly pulled out the draught Sirius had sent to him yesterday and drank it. As his vision tunneled he saw the door open and a multitude of Professors standing in the doorway.

…

Sirius scowled, it had been a lot harder this time to sneak into Hogwarts. Dumbledore must have put up more wards. not that Sirius blamed him, it was a good idea. He saw Harry sitting pale as the moon on the hospital bed. For a terrifying moment he wondered if he was actually dead, and he didn't take the draught or-

He stopped himself before he went any further. He had the administer the antidote. Sirius quietly poured the antidote into Harry's mouth and cast a silencing spell. Harry bolted up and started coughing.

He looked at Sirius, "That was far more unpleasant than you made it out to be."

Sirius shrugged, "It was your idea, come on, we have to go."

Harry nodded and the two began to open a window so they could fly away on the two broomsticks Sirius had shrunk.

Suddenly the doors burst open and Ron and Hermione were there. They ran over and hugged Harry.

"We just wanted to say goodbye before you go," Hermione said.

Then Ron spoke, "We also wanted to give you this," he handed Harry a bag. He peeked inside and saw his broomstick, his invisibility cloak, and other personal items. Harry smiled at them.

"Thanks," he said, "but won't someone notice these things missing?"

Ron shook his head, "Nope, we made some pretty convincing replicas by using ...some sort of curse…"

"The Gemino curse," Hermione cut it. "Speaking of replicas, we better make a pretty convincing replica of you. Sirius nodded and pulled out his wand.

He said a quiet spell and a copy of harry appeared on that bed, looking exactly like he did before. Hermione gasped, "How did you do that?"

Sirius smiled, "You'll figure it out," he said with a smile.

Then him and Harry got on the broomsticks and flew off into the night. Harry looked back and saw Ron and Hermione waving at him from the window He smiled, at least Ron and Hermione would know the truth. He would have hated to leave them thinking he was dead.

Harry looked over at Sirius, "So where are we going?"

"Somewhere safe," he laughed and sped up, Harry racing after him.