A/N: Hey everyone, hope all is going well. There will be short flashbacks in this chapter. Thank you for all of the support you give in this story. If you're a writer here then you understand the effects it can have. Now without further ado, on with the story!
Flashbacks
Changing My Life
Chapter 24: Plans and Pride
"Come in!" McGonagall called from her seat in her office. The door opened and in stepped Harry. She looked up at him. "Potter, what can I do for you?" She questioned as he stepped forward, closing the door behind him.
"I know you probably aren't going to agree with what my plan is but I need you to understand it. I'm leaving Hogwarts." Harry started.
"Well you are right about my not agreeing. What could bring about this response?" She inquired, frowning slightly.
"I need to do something that I can't do from here. Everything I've done so far, has been from here or that I could just go for a little while during the day, but that won't work here. I need someone's help that I wouldn't be able to get here." Harry explained.
"And what exactly is it that you want me to do?" She questioned, leaning back in her chair with her hands intertwined laying in her lap.
"Dumbledore will notice I'm gone within the first day. He'll ask anyone if they've seen me, heard of me, anything." He continued.
"So you want me to lie when he asks." She guessed.
"No…" He paused at her raised eyebrows. "I want you to help him." He finished. Her eyebrows rose higher, practically into her hairline.
"I'm afraid I'm not understanding."
"The only way to win a someone else's game, is to make them think you're playing."
"Continue." She beckoned.
"We're playing the same game. But we're at a disadvantage, we're playing two games. At the same time. So the only way to turn the tide into your favor is change the rules and the board. Make moves that can't be predicted or even seen until it's too late and the kings in checkmate. Because then it's your game and they don't even know it."
"Very well Potter. Good luck with that next move. I'll floo if I need to contact you." She assured. Harry nodded before leaving the room to go get ready.
After breakfast the day after they left Hogwarts, Harry, Hermione and Draco all met in the study where there was a map on the research table that was in the left half of the room.
"The only way to win a someone else's game, is to make them think you're playing." Harry told Draco and Hermione while all three leaned over a map.
"How do you make someone think you're playing without actually playing?" Hermione interjected.
"We're playing the same game. But we're at a disadvantage, we're playing two games. At the same time. So the only way to turn the tide into your favor is change the rules and the board. Make moves that can't be predicted or even seen until it's too late and the kings in checkmate. Because then it's your game and they don't even know it." Harry said in a voice that while calm, still sent a shiver down Draco and Hermione's back.
"How do you change a board without someone noticing?" Draco remarked sarcastically.
"You use things that they don't understand. Can't imagine." Hermione realized, fully understanding.
"Like what?" Draco retorted.
"Wizards and witches often don't realize things can be done without magic or that things don't have to be done a certain way. You do something in a way they wouldn't think of? They wouldn't see it until it is too late."
"What exactly are you implying?" Draco sneered, shifting his head to face her in response.
"Absolutely nothing." She paused until he looked back down. "Only that wizards can't always see the big picture." She commented causing his head to whip back to face her with a sneer.
"You have no right to talk like that!" He spluttered.
"It's easier to ask for forgiveness than permission." She retorted before continuing, "Like right now, you've been looking specifically at the vault door for a way in and out. But if you take a step back, you'll see that the door isn't how we have to get in." She finished. Draco, still upset looked down at the map.
"That makes no sense!" He exclaimed, angry.
"Actually, she's right. The vault door will be physically impenetrable. But the surrounding wall… well I don't think the goblins built the bank with muggle means of breaking in, in mind." He sharing a look with Hermione, who had a grin on her face.
"Well it seems like you two have it all figured out! Why do you need me?!" Draco exploded.
"Because it's always good to have a contingency." Harry grinned, causing Draco to gap.
"You played me?!" Draco realized, upset.
"Maybe so. But you'll still get what you want in the end." Harry assured him.
"Not very Gryffindor of you Potter." Draco growled.
"Then I guess the hat was right. I should've been in Slytherin. But in the end, it's easier to do Slytherin things when people don't think you're capable of it." Harry smirked and raised his eyebrow, just daring Draco to say something but he didn't even have to. Draco was to shocked to do anything. He never would've thought. Draco looked Harry in the eye and nodded, it wasn't only a sign of agreeing but a sign of respect for the Slytherin that had been in Gryffindor robes. Draco may have been a lot of things but blind wasn't one of them. He could recognize a true sign of cunning and power when he saw it. Harry was a Slytherin in more than just name. Even if Draco didn't want to admit it.
"Okay, so how do you do a muggle break in?"
"How do you plan to get into a bank vault that isn't yours?" Amelia questioned.
"Now if I tell you that, wouldn't you have reason to arrest me?" Harry inquired with a smile.
"Not technically as it's all hypothetical, right?"
"Of course." He assured her. "So I'm thinking muggle means." He continued.
"Smart, it's doubtful that they have protections against that. But still, what of muggles to you plan to use?"
"I'm thinking battery operated power tools. Maybe a jackhammer or two." He answered without batting a eye.
"Battery operated power tools, maybe a jackhammer." He answered Draco.
"Um Harry, jackhammers make a lot of noise." Hermione reminded him.
"Not if magics involved. The perfect break in is a balance between muggle and magic." Harry told the two.
"A silencing or muffling charm?" Draco guessed looking up from the map. Harry nodded in response.
"What about the vibrations?" Hermione questioned, flipping through a notebook that was on the table.
"It's so far underground nobody would feel it." Draco answered.
"Alright and how about getting seen? We obviously don't want to be recognized." Hermione continued.
"I was thinking simple ski masks?" Harry answered sheepishly. Hermione looked at him incredulously before sighing.
"Honestly, while sad that would probably work." Hermione remarked.
"Why's that sad?" Draco shifted from one foot to the other.
"Because of its simplicity." Hermione answered. "All goes back to not seeing the whole picture. To understand it, you'd have to understand both halves of the world, magical and muggle. Which, many witches and wizards do not." Hermione reminded him.
"And in this case, that's in our favor." Harry informed them.
"Alright so how do you plan to get these power thingys?" Draco questioned Harry.
"It's easier than you think." Harry shrugged. The three resumed looking through the map of the bank and the vaults.
While Back at Hogwarts
"Daphne! I'm talking to you! Don't just walk away!" Tracey continued calling after her as they made their way to breakfast. They had been walking together but then Tracey asked said the off-limits word 'Harry' which caused Daphne to get upset and walk faster away.
Whipping around so fast, Daphne almost made Tracey slam into her. "Look, I don't want to talk about it, okay? He doesn't matter." She stated firmly before turning around and continuing walking.
"So what? You're just going to act like nothing happened?! Like you never met him? Like he didn't change your life? Make it better?" Tracey yelled after her. She didn't stop so Tracey continued, "Your problem is your pride! You're too self-absorbed and stubborn to even think of just stopping and listening!" Her words stopped Daphne in her tracks. She turned back to face Tracey and came back so she was mere feet from her.
"My pride?" She said shocked. "It's not my pride that's stopping me from listening. It's my common sense. And maybe you're right, he did change my life but in the end it wasn't for the better. He almost ruined my life. Because of how self-absorbed he is!" Daphne exclaimed.
"Maybe if you actually tried to see it from his point of view, you might get it." Came a voice from behind Daphne. It caused both girls to look behind her at the source.
"Longbottom! This a private conversation!" Daphne snapped.
"If it was private you wouldn't be having it in the middle of an open corridor." Neville retorted approaching them. "I don't know where you get off talking about him that way, but you have no right." He held his ground.
"I have no right! Yeah, let's talk about no right! He had no right to do what he did, but hey did that stop him? No!" Daphne threw in his face. Neville's eyes widened, he finally saw what was really going on.
"Hmph, you're more mad about your pride being hurt, then about what he did. If you understood him, you would get why he did what he did." Neville remarked.
"Fine! I don't understand him then! I really don't care!" She exclaimed.
"Then don't act like you understand why he did it. You may know the reasons on a 2-D level but you don't know what it really feels like for him." Neville told her.
"Oh really? Well then why don't you tell me?" Daphne mocked.
"I can't, because I know loss. I know what it feels like. But not on the scale he does. I don't know betrayal, I don't know that feeling. And he is doing everything he can to make sure we don't have to."
"Well then why isn't he here explaining that to me? Why are you here trying to tell me about things even you don't understand?" Daphne questioned.
"Maybe because he's gone?" Neville snapped.
"Excuse me?" Tracey interjected when Daphne didn't say anything.
"He left, even I don't know where he is." He answered.
"What about Hermione? Does she?" Tracey questioned.
"If I knew where she was, I'd ask her. But then again I probably wouldn't have to at that point." Neville told them.
"You mean she's gone too?" Tracey continued.
"Uh huh, and my guess? Where ever they are, they're together. Helping each other, working together. Amelia floo'd us in the room yesterday after you guys left. Told us what he was planning. And Hermione went after him, I guess she found him in time." Neville recalled.
"And what's he planing?" Daphne spoke up.
"It doesn't matter." He denied.
"Obviously it does if you won't say." Daphne pushed.
"Fine, he was going off to find Malfoy, okay?" He gave in.
"Why?" Tracey and Daphne questioned in unison.
Sighing, Neville looked away and answered, "Amelia said he was taking a risk, going to him for help. So whatever he was looking for, he was pretty desperate to find."
"It doesn't matter. He can do what he wants, I'm going back to my life." Daphne pulled away and left for the Great Hall leaving Tracey and Neville standing there.
"She's just mad." Tracey assured him.
"No she's not." He said causing Tracey to look at him. "She's rattled. That contract was incredibly close to being signed. She always knew that being with Harry was dangerous but I think she's just starting see what really happens when Harry is like this. She's never seen this side, she called it the hero. It's not, it's his instincts. Something he will always go back to no matter how much he changes. It's who he is, and that, he can't change." He continued looking in the direction Daphne went. She turned her head to face the same direction.
"I don't think he'd want to." Tracey commented. "From what I hear? He may look like his father with his mothers eyes, but his personality is more his mothers. At least that's what my mother's said." She continued when he looked to her. Neville nodded.
Dumbledore's Office
"Albus, I saw him leave the grounds yesterday. He just walked out like he had a right. Arrogant! I tell you! Just like his father!" Snape snarled.
"That's where you're wrong Severus." Dumbledore said not looking up from the parchment he was reading. While Snape's head whipped to face him. "He may look like his father, but he is showing more and more of Lily's personality. Which is very alarming."
"That boy is nothing like Lily! For you to even say that is preposterous!" Snape exclaimed angrily.
"Severus! I know your reservations about him but it is about time you start seeing Harry for what he is. And that is not his father." Dumbledore warned.
"It doesn't even matter, the brats gone. Hopefully he dies wherever he is." Snape sneered.
"Enough! You will help find him! I don't care what you think of him. It's for the greater good and in the end you know what will happen. Everything will be worth it." Dumbledore snapped.
"Fine." Snape said reluctantly before leaving the office with his cloak bellowing behind him. Dumbledore sighed when the door slammed.
He waved his hand causing a chess board to appear in front of him on his desk.
"I will win Harry. It's only a matter of time. After all it is for the greater good." Dumbledore said to the empty office as he moved one of his pawns on the board at the same time as one of pawns somewhere else was moving into action.
A/N: Hey everyone, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. So if you haven't noticed, I've kinda been writing anywhere from 2,000 to 3,000 words each chapter. Right now, I believe this is a good length as it allows me to update consistently and on time. I try to be at least a week ahead so I can have one as a backup in case something comes up and I don't have time. Hope you enjoyed and happy reading! -DS