Disclaimer: See Chapter 1.

A/N:

"I've got it!"

Draco looked up from where he was researching the Doppleganger potion to see what Harry was on about. "What?"

Harry had a wide grin on his face as he leaned over the book in front of him. "We combine Doppleganger and Clone in a 3:1 ratio. It will dilute the Clone enough to keep it from copying the baby, as well as increasing the amount of control I have over it. And I can copy myself up to four times before they start getting muddied. It won't be toxic because I don't actually have to drink the thing, just put three drops of blood into the mix. There should be enough white cells that way to get enough DNA for the potion to copy. They'll sprout in normal soil and be fully grown in twenty four hours. They have no intelligence of their own, not even to follow orders. Instead, they'll be directly linked to my own conciousness, and they'll do as I direct. The copies are active for six months, then die and become compost within twelve hours."

Draco grinned. It had been almost nine weeks since Harry had been given the assignment, and though he'd had the required work done much sooner, it had taken this long to discover the alternative potion. "Can the clone do wand work?"

"Some. The clone should be strong enough for anything I come across in classes. We're not doing anything too complex in Charms right now, and Transfigurations are conducted very well by clones."

"What about Defense?" Their new DADA teacher, Professor Fabri, had been working on shielding spells and breaching curses. Both took a lot of energy, probably too much for the clone to handle and definitely not the sort of thing to expose little James to. He really wouldn't be able to do anything like that until after James was born.

Harry shook his head. "I don't think the clone will be able to handle it."

Draco frowned. "Damn. And you're going to need those spells, too." He blew out a blustery sigh. "Well, we'll think of something."

On the 6th of January, Draco and Harry got permission from Professor Snape to hijack the Potions lab. With a parting admonition not to blow it up again, Snape left them alone to prepare the modified Clone potion.

They worked separately on the two potions, no words passing between them other than "Pass the kaiba root, please." Harry's blood was an ingredient in both potions, so they'd collected it at the beginning. Harry carefully measured the portion to three percent of the solution and then poured it into the mix. It tried to clump up, but then he added the water, continuing to stir it so that everything was well mixed. Then he set the cauldron on the fire to let it boil. Draco's potion was well on its way to being finished as well.

The Clone potion had to boil for a while before they could add in the Doppleganger, so he started looking through the cabinets at the available ingredients. Three of them caught his eye; saltpeter, charcoal and sulfur. Black powder! He started laughing. Why had he missed something this simple?

Draco came over. "What?"

Still chuckling, Harry said, "I've been trying to figure out how to go about winning this war. Of course I always looked at magical means, but you know what? I've never seen a wizard yet prepare themselves against a physical attack when they were getting ready for a duel!"

Draco frowned. "How is a physical attack going to help us? You have to get too close..."

Harry shook his head, interrupting his friend. "Not any more, you don't. The wizarding world is very ignorant of what the Muggles can do these days with long range weaponry. A sniper rifle can be fired with accuracy at over a mile, no magic required. And hopefully we can set the stage before hand. We have everything we'd need here to make black powder. All we'd have to do is set caches of it around the perimeter of the battlefield and wait for them to come, then ignite them all at once. We'd have a ring of fire to keep them where we wanted them and we could fight it out on our own terms."

Draco nodded seeing what Harry was talking about. "And none of their spells would pick up on the powder. Brilliant!"

"It still won't work on Voldemort, though, will it?"

"No. He's done too much work to keep himself from dying at all. We'll still have to come up with something to get rid of him." Draco looked Harry in the eye. "You reallize you're going to have to kill him, right?"

Harry took the stare for a while, but eventually he turned away and looked down at his shoes. "I don't want to kill, Draco. But I know I have to." He growled. "It's not fair, damn it! I'm sixteen years old! I should be thinking about girls and partying and lying about my age so I can go get drunk, not protecting my family from a madman with the use of deadly force!"

"I know." Draco sighed. "But what choice do we have? And make no mistake, it will be 'we,' not just you. I will stand beside you on that day, no matter what."

"Thank you. But it's still going to be the hardest thing I've ever done. I'm not a killer. I never wanted to be special. The only thing I ever wanted as a child was for someone to accept me for who I was. Cliché, I know, but there it is. I never got that acceptance. To the Dursleys, I was an inconvenience and a troublemaker. To the wizarding world I've always been a symbol, either of failure or hope, depending on which wizard you were speaking to. Even Hermione and Ron have been like that. Hermione always goes on about duty and being prepared for it. Ron is always convinced that I can do no wrong because I'm the boy-whose-parents-were-killed-but-he-wasn't, unless I did something he didn't like, and then I was a traitor. Ron's parents, all the teachers, Dumbledore; they all just want me to be their weapon. I just want to be sixteen and not have all this responsibility! And I don't want to have to kill a man just to be safe!"

Draco itched to embrace Harry, to comfort him, but he held back. "Destiny doesn't care what we want, only what it needs. But I accept you for what you are, and I'll help you to deal with the rest, and once this damned war is over, we're going to get to know each other very well indeed!" That last was said with a leer that left no doubt as to his meaning.

Harry laughed, letting his mood lighten considerably, which had, of course, been Draco's intention.