Chapter 3

The Plan

Tears welled up in Harry's eyes and he beckoned them back but he just couldn't control himself. Thoughts of how Remus would be taking this news made him cry even more and how Remus would be crying for his dead wife and son. After all the time it took him to actually tell her he loved her, it was all gone in one morning while the rest of the wizarding world ate breakfast.

Harry dropped to the floor and a very painful thought occurred. Why did they go after her of all people? Why? Because she was the only one that went to see the Dursley's this summer and Harry asked her to go there.

"Mate, maybe you should skip classes today..." Ron could see the pain and had tried not to be the one to tell Harry but he and his brother drew straws and he came up short. No one deserved to hear this news and he knew Harry would take it hard.

"Why did they kill her..." Harry asked in a soft voice.

His eyes were glossed over and dark.

"Well, bloody hell mate do they need a reason? Blimey, they're Death Eaters remember. They've got death in their voice now don't they?" Harry knew Ron knew more.

"No Ron, the truth. What did your father say they wanted." Ron swallowed and gave in "they wanted coordinates to your family's house mate. But she didn't tell 'em so there's good news in that."

Harry thought about it, he almost wished she did. Then the family that loved him would be alive and the one's that mistreated him could sit there and beg for their lives. Anger started to surround Harry and another thought occurred. She did it for Harry. They always do it for Harry. What if there was no Harry Potter? Then people would have to stop dying for him. And Voldemort would stop looking because Harry Potter would be dead. The plan began to grow in Harry's head as Ron started to get worried with the twisting looks on Harry's face.

"You alright, mate?"

Harry looked up and nodded and started to wipe the tears from his face. He would plan it tonight and no one would die for him anymore, not ever again. After fixing himself, Harry and Ron left the classroom and went back into the great hall. They took their seats and Harry looked at Hermione. She had given Ron a look as if saying, "did you tell him."

Harry became outraged and held it back. They both knew and no one spoke. Harry's whole body started to shake and he got up to leave the hall and go to his rooms so he wouldn't blow up the hall. Little had he known that a tall dark haired man was staring at him, with concern?

Harry got to his rooms and started to go through books that would help him make a clone of some sort. He found a spell and a potion that if used together you could make a dead clone of yourself. Problem was that it was unbelievably difficult to make and making a dead clone was irresponsible. Most people looked against the spell because you would be taking particles and DNA of yourself then as soon as it is alive, the end of the spell kills whatever soul it may have. The good thing is, you kill it before it tries to take a soul of another. Harry decided that this would have to do and would set out for ingredients after classes.

Harry had transfiguration first thing the next morning. He grabbed his things after getting dressed and rushed down through the exit to the corridor. He watched the paintings dazzle and grace each other, all bowing and singing. He reached the transfiguration classroom and took his seat just in time.

As he sat listening to McGonagall give the differences in rats and mice and how changing one did not mean the other would change the same way, he couldn't help but feel sad that in just a week she may not know he were alive. A bit of guilt must have crept up on his face and as his professor had noticed it she asked

"Mr. Potter, are you alright?" Harry jumped up and realized he had to put up his mask. "Yes professor, sorry, guess I'm just a bit tired, won't happen again." After a minute, she seemed satisfied by the answer and continued the day's lesson.

Towards the end of the day, after all the classes had been finished Harry thought that he needed to start acting miserable. It wouldn't do if he was cheerful one day and then committed suicide. Even if the ministry believed it, Hermione and Dumbledore wouldn't.

The investigation would continue and they would know everything. So in order to save the plan, Harry would play depressed for a while. It would work because Tonks had just died for him. Maybe he wouldn't have to pretend after all.

After a few days, people began noticing Harry's misery. Hermione had just pulled him to the side one day and gave him a very worried look. "Harry, are you...ok?" Harry just mumbled something that sounded like a "hmph yea".

"Harry, it wasn't your fault about Tonks. She did it for you, she wouldn't want you loathing yourself for the rest of your life."

Show time.

Harry turned around in a huff and gathered as much pain as he could and let his voice quiver.

"YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND, HERMIONE! YOU UNDERSTAND NOTHING! YOU HAVE YOUR FRIENDS, YOU HAVE YOUR FAMILY AND NO ONE SHORT OF AN IDIOT WOULD DREAM OF HARMING THEM BECAUSE THEY ARE NORMAL! PEOPLE AREN'T THROWING THEMSELVES AT YOUR FEET AND BEGGING YOU TO HELP THEM! NO ONE HAS DIED SO YOU COULD LIVE! LOOK AT ME...there's nothing left...so just...leave me alone...". Harry walked off.

That pain had come out so real because it had been. Years of it flooded his eyes and as he yelled at Hermione, the truth of the boy who lived had been revealed. He could feel pain, he was human after all. And he left a very human Hermione behind to cry for him.

Harry ran to his dormitory to act like he were sleeping and as soon as everyone slept, he crept up and gathered his father's cloak. He headed to one place where no one dared go. Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. Harry snuck in past a few prefects and went inside. Moaning Myrtle happily awaiting his return while the cauldron on the floor bellowed and seeped a puss like foam.

"How's it turning up Myrtle?" as her haunting body lowered itself to the ground, she eyed him much like a predator to a prey.

"It keeps bubbling up, but not much I could do about it. I'm only dead."

Harry ignored her misery and continued to add the last bit of ingredients in hopes that he was doing it right. He suddenly wished a solemn potions master were here to help but in that thought came a remark from just the year before.

"Fools who wear their hearts proudly on their sleeves, who cannot control their emotions, who wallow in sad memories and allow themselves to be provoked this easily - weak people, in other words - they stand no chance against his powers! He will penetrate your mind with absurd ease, Potter!"

Harry became angry. That man knew what was going to happen, he knew the dark lord would attack Harry's mind. Why? Because Severus Snape was in fact" a bloody fucking git" as Ron would say.

A pain shot to his heart as he realized that these people, even Snape, would think he were dead. There would be no visiting. After everything was done, he would have a new life and never see the wizard world again.

The potion was completed, after weeks of returning to the bathroom to work. Harry worked on the next phase of his plan. Harry had to work on concealment charms and disfiguration charms to change his looks. He first changed his appearance. It would only be a slight change but one thing was sure, his mother's eyes had to go. He let a tear slide down his cheek. He was particularly fond of those eyes. Nevertheless, he gave himself ordinary brown eyes, and made his hair go from jet black to a sandy brown.

He added a bit of weight to himself and made himself taller. It felt awkward to walk in legs that seemed not his own. He then added concealment charms to be sure that his face wouldn't change. He put one concealment charm on another and made sure that all was safe. He added about two years to his age just to be sure no one would have questions.

Glad that he had succeeded after looking in a mirror, he got to work on putting the potion into a large vial and bottled it up. Using a cleansing potion he cleared the workspace and got rid of his cauldron. It wouldn't do for Hermione to find it and figure out what he had planned.

Harry grabbed everything and before leaving, gave Moaning Myrtle a last goodbye wave that sent her howling tears of pain into a toilet. She had been sworn to secrecy and she liked Harry. She wouldn't tell about him ever. Harry made his way through the stairs and made it to the front doors. He ran down to the edge of the castle and up to the lake. He took a knife and hesitantly cut a small bit on his arm. As blood oozed, he captured it in a vile. Then using a doubling spell, made more of his blood and smeared a bit on the rocks by the side of the castle. He then created the clone. A soulless clone that would currently only do or say what he pleased. Harry needed just one person to watch him die to be sure the story would be right.

He put a charm on himself and the clone, so if he walked then the clone would walk. If he spoke, the clone would speak. He then sent the clone inside the castle and hid in the outskirts of the woods.

Meanwhile, in the castle, Harry was walking up to the top of the tower closest to the rocks. As he continued, he heard a familiar cold voice creep up inside his soul.

"Out for a stroll, Mr. Potter?" Harry looked at him with a blank look and shook his head no. Snape with a confused face saw the boy continue up the stairs.

"Mr. Potter I will not be disrespected by an imbecile with a complex now get back here this instant." Harry continued to move to the nearby window and as he looked out he looked back to his professor with a meaningfully painful face. Realization of what Harry planned to do next drew up on Snape's face.

"Potter, don't do anything foolish, I won't lose my job because you decided to be a drama queen, now get over here and away from the window. " A fear Harry had never expected drew itself from Snape's lips. Harry's foot on the edge, one last look at this lovely castle and Harry's body had fallen aimlessly onto the rocks where blood had mopped the structure and his body floated along the shore. A tear fell from the boy's face as he drew up his cloak and ventured into the woods. Goodbye dear home, I will miss you so.