Disclaimer - I do not own Harry Potter, obviously.

Thursday October 3rd, 1996 - Lunch

"Have you ever killed anything?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"Why would I?" Harry glanced over to his Slytherin friend with slight bemusement and confusion on his face. Aaron Foster was unique. In a mature, dark, and refreshing way compared to Hermione and Ron. He wasn't innocent. He knew what death was, and what it was like to come from a unloving family. He knew what it was like to lose someone you cared about, Harry didn't know this for sure but he could see it in the older boy's eyes. It was irrefutable that Aaron Foster knew pain, and knew it well.

"Come on Harry, not even bugs?" Aaron glanced at him with wide eyes, portraying his disbelief that someone had never killed a bug before.

"Well of course I have." He scoffed, "But bugs aren't.." He paused, thinking about what he was going to say. Bugs aren't significant? Their life doesn't mean anything?

"What? Bugs don't count?" Aaron spoke with an amused smile, "So if bugs are just pests to us and we can kill them then that means we can kill whoever annoys us?"

Harry frowned and didn't answer. In truth, that's how a lot of people thought and acted. If you didn't mean anything to them, then you were essentially dead if you got on their bad side, especially Voldemort's. So it was true in a morbid and uncompassionate way, and most humans were just uncompassionate towards bugs which is why everyone had killed a bug at some point in their life.

He sighed and stared out at the lake, he had taken the chance to escape Ron and Hermione's clutches and enjoy a picnic lunch outside with Aaron on the fairly warm and sunny day. His first two friends were unbearable at the moment, always asking him if he was alright, apologizing about bringing Sirius up, asking him to play quidditch, asking him if he'd done his school work. It was too much sometimes, and so he took refuge with Aaron's welcome company, which was increasingly more and more often.

He'd befriended Aaron on the Hogwarts Express. While silently trying to slip away from Hermione he'd entered a compartment that looked empty, but on his second glance he'd seen Aaron and had froze up, recognizing a Slytherin. They'd never really spoken before and only knew each other by name and from passing each other in the halls, or by chance encounters in the library. Aaron was just beginning his seventh year, while Harry was starting his sixth. Nevertheless Aaron had laughed at Harry's deer-in-headlights look, and told him to sit down.

First he'd been wary of Aaron's friendliness but eventually was drawn into animated conversation about his favorite subject, Defense Against the Dark Arts. Aaron was knowledgeable in a way Hermione wasn't, and wasn't afraid to list off various dark spells he knew and their counter curses or possible defenses. He'd be drawn back to his caution when the boy had sprouted off with a curse that turned your blood to ice, and the counter which was surprisingly a potion made with dragon blood components.

When he'd noticed Harry's unease, he'd sneered slightly and said, "If you don't know the offensive spells, how can you prepare a good defense?" Which was admittedly a very good point that Harry didn't respond to, although after that he'd borrowed one of Aaron's borderline Dark Arts books, just for the knowledge. Only the knowledge, he reminded himself.

Ron hadn't been happy when he'd entered the compartment and seen Harry speaking animatedly with a Slytherin boy. Though when Aaron had told him to shove off, and Harry hadn't spoken in Ron's defense, the redhead had left the compartment quickly, his face reminiscent of his hair. He'd laughed slightly at Ron's overreaction and prejudice. Aaron was doing a great job of keeping his mind off of Sirius and the prophecy, it was all he could do to hold onto the distraction and stay in the teen's company.

A poking in his ribs brought him out of his reverie and he blinked owlishly at the Slytherin, "Is Harry home?" Aaron said, tapping on his forehead. He blinked again and Aaron frowned, quirking an eyebrow at him.

"Sorry I got lost in thought," He finally spoke, rubbing his neck and smiling sheepishly while waving away the tinge of concern that had entered Aaron's eyes.

"Well be glad you had me to find you," The sandy haired boy mumbled while reaching for a piece of fruit, "Who knows what the wizarding world would have done if they'd lost their savior in his own mind." He mock gasped, and threw a handful of ripped grass at Harry's face.

"Well I guess we'll never know since you saved me from that horrible fate," He sighed dramatically.

"Harry?" Aaron spoke ominously, the sudden change of atmosphere scared him.

"Yes?"

"Let's go learn a spell." He sighed slightly in relief, that wasn't too bad. It just depended on which spell Aaron wanted to learn this time around.

"Which one?" He asked, the spells they'd be practicing together were increasingly getting darker, but it didn't bother him too much. After all, knowledge is power. The older boy had drilled that into him.

"Avada Kedavra." His heart jumped and he searchingly looked the other boy in the eyes, finding nothing but a challenge and determination. He glared at him for a moment, not breaking eye contact before sighing. He couldn't believe he was doing this, but the Sorting Hat hadsaid that he'd do well in Slytherin.

"Fine." He whispered, feeling like he was betraying his parents in a way. He wouldn't know until later, how much that single agreement changed his life. How one curse, and a friend he'd known for only a month would be able to flip his beliefs upside down and sideways, before they settled once again.