Full Summary
It's the third week of September. Some students were slowly adjusting to the motions of school, while others were still in the summer frame of mind. Life at Hogwarts was as normal as it could possibly be --and we all know how not normal Hogwarts is.
This all changed with a dream. A rather bad dream, I'll admit.
Students getting sick
Strange things happening
And on top of that, Dumbledore doesn't know what's happening.
Add a fainting Harry, a Draco who can't sleep, mysterious new girls, Slytherins at each other's throats, a surprisingly nice Blaise, two fiery sisters, and a Luna Lovegood talking in riddles, and you'll see just how strange this gets.
Scales and sharp teeth
Fur and flames
Ancient Runes and Deadly spells
With blood spilt in vain
The Dark Lord has a plan that can end them all. And he may just succeed.
No, this is not based on the game 'Dungeons and Dragons'.
Chapter 1
Strange Beginnings
An image flashed through Draco's mind before he shot up in bed. With his heart pounding in his chest, he laid back down, only for the image to pop up in his mind again, causing him to sit up slower this time.
Strange...
It was then that he noticed he was drenched in sweat. Feeling disgusted, he went to his drawer of clothes for a clean underwear and his uniform, so that he could take a bath. He grabbed his towel that was on the chair beside his bed before heading towards the door.
It seemed that the commotion he made had woken up Zabini, who slept in the bed next to him. A half-asleep Blaise Zabini was an amusing sight to see when it came to Draco being the cause of it. The glare he sent would've made other students run for the hills, but not Draco Malfoy. He had grown used to it over the years being at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
"Why... are you... awake... at four... in the morning?", Zabini asked after looking at the clock on the wall. His voice was hoarse due to just waking up, and he looked drunk instead of his usual 'as warm as marble' expression. He spoke slow in order to not slip back into the stutter his mother worked so hard to help him overcome. Despite this, very few people actually knew of his stutter.
Blaise sat up and stared at Malfoy before running a hand through his curly hair. He looked at him expectantly before massaging the side of his head, feeling a headache slowly developing.
"I'll tell you later. I'm going for a bath.", Draco answered before turning to leave. He had just turned the doorknob when Blaise spoke up in amusement.
"The water is... freezing... at this time. Do you... really... want to take... a bath?"
Draco nodded his head, ignoring the tone of voice that suggested that bathing right now would be a bad idea. With a huff, he went on his way.
Returning from his shower, Draco realised that he very well should've listened to Blaise. His nose was already starting to stuff up and was slowly becoming red from all the sneezing he had done. He chose to ignore Blaise's snort as he entered the room and went straight to the full-sized mirror to do his hair and fix anything on his clothes that he deemed incorrect. Silence filled the room for a couple of minutes before Blaise let out a loud sigh.
"Now... will you... tell me?", he asked.
Looking through the mirror, he saw Malfoy's eyes blazing with fear as he suddenly took a step back from the mirror. The fear turned to confusion and Blaise slowly got out of his bed to approach him, curious. Malfoys being suddenly afraid never meant anything good. Blaise knew that somewhere down the line, an object of some sort would be set on fire before Draco calmed down, and he really didn't want to go through that again. He lost six expensive, elegant and really comfortable suits, along with four pairs of his favourite dress shoes.
There was no way he'd lose anything else.
"Was it... a nightmare?", he asked as if talking to a child.
If anyone else had said that to him, the famous Draco Malfoy behaviour would've awoken, but since it was just Zabini, he allowed him to see the fear in his grey eyes. When Zabini took a sudden intake of breath, Draco immediately regretted showing him.
You see, Malfoy could actually trust Zabini not to laugh at him for being afraid, but that wasn't the problem.
Blaise Maurizio Zabini was worried.
Zabinis being worried never meant anything good. It usually led to Malfoy being mothered by him, and he had his fair share of being mothered. But Draco, however, knew that not further explaining himself would lead to him feeling eyes on him every day until he told the rather inquisitive Zabini.
And Blaise had a knack for getting you to tell him something...
Malfoy signalled Zabini to follow him back to his bed and the two walked towards it. Draco fell dramatically on his bed, while Blaise made himself comfortable on it, and patiently waited. After a few seconds of silence and a muffled groan later, Draco propped himself up on his elbows to look at Zabini.
"I saw eyes", he finally said. His cheeks became pink from embarrassment.
Draco could count on literally one hand the amount of times he felt embarrassed to tell Zabini something.
"Eyes?", Blaise asked incredulously, causing Draco's cheeks to become red from further embarrassment.
"Yes, eyes! ", he exclaimed looking away.
Blaise scrunched up his face at Malfoy's Hufflepuffish behaviour and asked, "And?"
"They were dark.", he started as he gazed into nothingness. A strange feeling washing over him as he thought back on the pair of eyes that haunted his mind.
"Kinda like yours... but-"
He had managed to say these next words before the image flashed through his mind again, causing him to jump to his feet. His breathing accelerated, and soon, he felt a panic attack coming along.
Malfoy
He didn't answer.
Maalllffoooooyyyy?
Malfoy!
He heard someone say his name, but at the same time, he didn't. He was too busy trying to push the image to the back of his mind, but he couldn't. How could he possibly-
"MALFOY!"
"Huh?", Draco managed to croak out as he snapped out of the trance he was in. The slightly annoyed Zabini guided him back to the bed and made him sit down, giving him time to calm down. Malfoy sat rigidly in place, and Zabini gave him a long and hard look.
"What... colour... were they?"
He waited patiently as Draco took his time before responding.
"Black..."
After discussing ways to keep his mind off of the mysterious black eyes, Draco proceeded to do some neglected homework in hopes of distracting himself. Fortunately, it worked. He was now busy stressing his brain with Ancient Runes instead. While he did that, Zabini dozed back to sleep, only to hear his black owl's loud hooting an hour later.
A loud groan was heard from the once again annoyed Zabini as he reached his hand towards the the bird and lazily smacked its wing. Naja, his beautiful-- and quite proud-- black owl, let out a sound of annoyance, then proceeded to hoot even louder. Zabini removed his head from under the pillow he used to try and block out the noise, and swatted after the bird again. This time, Naja flew out of the way, and began to circle the room, still hooting.
Although slightly annoyed by this, Draco couldn't help but let out a chuckle. It wasn't even Friday and the males of his dormroom were already reluctant to get out of bed. Naja's role in the morning, seeing that she was a nocturnal creature, was to wake up everyone in the room at exactly 6am. Naja was actually a great help, because depending on what happened the previous day, Zabini would be classified as either a light sleeper, or heavy sleeper. Today just happens to be a day when he slept lightly, so Draco understood his irritation at the sudden loud noise.
Theodore Nott, a fellow Slytherin whose bed was to the other side of Draco's, groaned loudly and flung his pillow at the bird.
Should I let it hit the bird? It's quite annoying. But if Naja is injured, Zabini will not only hex Theo, but me as well.', Draco thought in the second that passed.
"Accio", he mumbled, pointing his wand at the pillow. The pillow narrowly missed the bird and went to him instead.
"Windgardium Leviosa"
The pillow moved to where he wanted it to, which was over Goyle's head. With a few flicks of his wrist, Draco repeated a downwards-up motion, hitting Goyle on the head until he sat up, clearly annoyed.
"Merlin! I'm up! I'm up!"
The other boys in the room shared a laugh at this before they proceed to start getting ready for school. Soon, Blaise Zabini, Draco Malfoy, Theodore Nott, Vincent Crabbe, and Gregory Goyle were ready for school. They left their dorm room and headed towards the common room to wait for the females of their year.
"I can't believe she did that!"
All (rarher inquisitive) eyes in the common room turned towards Tracey Davis who was conversing with Pansy Parkinson. The two girls lowered their volume, and continued their gossiping, blissfully unaware of the males waiting for them.
"Parkinson!", Theodore called out to her.
She didn't seem to hear so he called out again.
"Parkinson!"
She let out a loud gasp before exclaiming rather loudly.
"OH-NO-SHE-DI-D'NT!"
Almost everyone else in the room saw Theodore's irritation and immediately covered their ears, knowing what he would do next. Zabini was noted to do so rather reluctantly and with an exaggerated eye-roll.
"Sonorus", he hissed as he pointed his wand to his throat.
The girls were almost at the door when they were scared silly by the loud noise.
"PANSY ARMILA JAKEYSHA MADELINE PARKINSON! I HAVE BEEN CALLING YOUR GOSSIP-ENGROSSED ARSE FOR THE LAST MINUTE!"
A combination of embarrassment and fury was painted on her face and she cast the Amplifying Charm before replying.
"WHO IN EFF-ING SALAZAAR'S NAME TOLD YOU TO PROCLAIM MY MIDDLE NAMES!"
"YOU'RE THE ONE WHO IS SO OBLIVIOUS TO YOUR SURROUNDINGS!"
"I AM NOT! AND YOU COULD HAVE GOTTEN OFF YOUR LAZY ARSE AND JUST-"
Before Pansy could even finish her statement, a calm, almost inaudible voice spoke.
"Shut up..."
Silence suddenly filled the common room and everyone turned to a scarily calm Zabini who had just spoken. He was sitting on one of the couches, his legs crossed and hands folded in his lap. His posture was one of poise and grace, never slouching. He was wearing his usual expression, his chin tilted up just slightly, implying that everyone else around him were less than him.
At least that's how things work in Zabini's mind.
It was known throughout all of Slytherin that the eldest Zabini child and heir of the Zabini household was an arrogant, and incredibly vain, blood purist through and through. But that didn't stop girls from wanting to "do him" or "have his children".
Blaise merely arose from his seat and walked out of the Slytherin dormitory, each quick, long and fluid step seemingly having purpose and without stumble. The other 6th year boys got up and followed, Pansy Parkinson and Tracey Davis hurrying after them.
Out in the vast hallways of the Dungeons, the group of seven was met by the two sisters, Astoria and Daphne Greengrass, fellow Slytherins, and together, they made their way to the Main hallways of the school. The Slytherins made jokes and mocked those that passed them, Zabini remaining quiet, his eyes flashing with annoyance everytime they tried to drag him into a conversation unworthy of his time.
When they were several feet away from the large oak doors of the Great Hall, a familiar voice cried out a familiar name.
"Harry!"
It was the bushy-haired Hermione Granger. She was holding the Golden Child, Harry Potter, as he slipped in and out of consciousness. This drew attention to the three, and a Ravenclaw third year immediately ran to get Madam Pomfrey.
"Merlin! This happened this morning!", Ronald 'Ron' Weasley cried out as he and Hermione tried to keep Harry on his feet. Potter was mumbling incoherent words while trying to keep his eyes open. "What happened this morning?", she demanded as Potter now fainted.
"He said 'eyes'! Something 'eyes' and his scar hurting!"
The group of Slytherins shared looks and they all agreed -Malfoy and Zabini albeit quite reluctantly- to gather more informationon what was happening. "His scar?", Granger asked before pushing back his messy black hair from his forehead. The lightning shaped scar was now glowing red and the group of Slytherins immediately knew sensed that this was more serious than it looked.
Granger let out a loud gasp, drawing attention to it, and Weasley called out for Madam Pomfrey, whose voice they heard almost immediately after.
"Move!"
Students stepped to the side to allow both Madam Pomfrey and Professor McGonagall to get to them. Madam Pomfrey examined his state, then called for someone.
"Where's Swaby?"
The said male made his way through the crowd and knelt down beside the unconscious Potter. He poked the scar, earning a flinch from Harry, then took out his wand and mumbled something while pointing to Harry's scar. Harry gasped, regaining consciousness and quickly sat up, causing him to feel dizzy and lie back down, groaning and mumbling something. Swaby pulled Harry to his chest, then looped an arm under his knees, the other arm placed around his back for support. He rose to his feet with Harry in his arms. The Chosen One was still muttering as Swaby carried him to the Infirmary, the two adults following behind.
The Slytherins then turned around and walked off, soon entering the Great Hall. Blaise glanced at his unlikely best friend, Draco Malfoy, with worried eyes before replacing them with eyes of disinterest.
'Today has suddenly become interesting', Blaise thought in bitter amusement.
They had barely sat down before the students around them started buzzing with conversation, the recent event of Potter fainting being the main topic of discussion. Zabini gave an exaggerated sigh and eye-roll, Pansy and Astoria having to stifle their giggles at this.
An annoyed Zabini was an amusing Zabini.
The rest of the day had gone by as normally as it usually did. Neville Longbottom blew up a cauldron, Hermione Granger and Draco Malfoy had another heated argument, Pansy Parkinson embarrassed a group of Hufflepuff fourth years, and Blaise Zabini managed to resist the ever growing desire to hex Professor Slughorn for being too giddy. Yep! The day was going pretty well for them.
That was until their free double session with Griffindor.
"It's pronounced BRA-ckium Em-MEN-do! Not BRAKE-ium Em-MAN-do!", Granger yelled out in frustration at Weasley. This sparked an argument between the two that had Saint Potter take a stepback as to indicate that he would not be dragged into their disagreement.
Blaise almost instantly cast a Silencing Charm around him, before once again, drowning himself in his particularly large and ever growing volume of "The Complete Guide to Wizarding History". Theodore let out a chuckle at this and discreetly cast a Finite Incantatem, terminating all spells within their vicinity.
Potter's hair sprung up from its Hair Keeping Charm and Granger let out a squeak of surprise as the books on their table toppled over, hitting the She-Weasley that was present at their table. The Colovaria placed on Crabbe's hair reverted it back to the pink it was dyed in by accident during Potions class, and finally, Blaise's Silencio was terminated. The sudden rush of sound seemed to spook him and he almost dropped his book. Several other individuals around them, namely Griffindors, had their spells terminated as well.
Theodore fell into a fit of laughter as he watched everything unravel around him. He was, however, scared silly when every Slytherin affected by the spell shouted his name, some of them even using Sonorus to do so (Blaise was in this group)
"THEODORE NOTT!"
Several of the girls threw stinging hexes at him, but he luckily cast a Protego before any of them could hit him. He them proceeded to run as they chased him into the school, away from the outdoor study area near the Black Lake.
"I swear... Playing little pranks like that seem to be the only thing he's good at other than getting average grades.", Gregory Goyle said loud enough for their group of Slytherins to hear. He then proceeded to shake his head at Vincent Crabbe's attempt to change back his hair, before he plucked the wand out of his hand and cast the Colovaria for him.