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Title: It Took Me By Surprise

Alternate Universe: Obscurial!Harry (Fifth Year right after the Battle at the Ministry)

Rating: T

Warnings: Past character death, references to past child abuse, and Dumbledore

Inspired By: Prompted by my girlfriend and done while listening to "It Took Me By Surprise" by Maria Mena

Summary: Harry has just lost the last family he had left and now, of all things, he has to deal with Malfoy. It was bad enough when he found out he was an obscurial, but now learning that might be the key to defeating Voldemort? He just- He just wanted his life to be his again. He was so sick of being nothing more than 'the Boy Who Lived.'

::

"...he will have power the Dark Lord knows not…"

Harry panted harshly in the middle of the destroyed classroom, hands shaking and wand tossed on the ground near the second he had walked in. He could barely handle the thought of having things in common with him, but remembering that their wands were the same-

One of the wooden desks jerked into the air and slammed into one of the windows, glass shattering with a mighty crash as the shards fell down with a noise that shouldn't be so soft. Staring at the mess, Harry glanced over his shoulder when he heard the door open.

"Potter. Why am I not surprised to find you destroying Hogwarts property this close to the end of the year." Malfoy. Gritting his teeth, Harry shook as the chalkboard cracked cleanly in two. Malfoy didn't even flinch. "Oh, how terrifying."

"Get the fuck out of here, Malfoy." The last thing on this earth that he wanted to do was deal with Draco fucking Malfoy. "Now."

"And be blamed for letting the Wizarding World's Golden Boy work himself into a self-destructive fit? No, I don't think I will leave." The chair Malfoy was about to reach for cracked down the middle. "You're so dramatic, Potter." Malfoy took out his wand and tapped the chair. "Reparo."

"I don't want to deal with you fucking Slytherins!" Half of this was Malfoy's fault. If Harry had gotten there earlier instead of being caught by Umbridge and her student followers then maybe- Maybe- "Get away from me!"

He felt his magic jerked out of him and thrown wildly about the room, destroying everything it touched and ripping into whatever was left behind. When the wave passed, Harry shook on the floor, staring at where Malfoy's shield charm was dropping. Not a bad charm if it kept all that out.

"Why are you here." There was no… Ah. "Go on, then. Rub it in. That's what you're doing here, right? To let me know that I've lost everything? That I'm an orphan all over again. That-"

"Oh, do shut your mouth, Potter." Malfoy stood up so fast his chair clattered to the floor. "I suppose I shouldn't be surprised. No one can throw a pity party like you Gryffindors-"

"Pity party?! My godfather was murdered by your fucking aunt! He was imprisoned for years and nobody believed him! Now look! He's dead because of me!" The debris in the room swirled around them, the threat lingering in the air. "He's dead because of me."

"You're going to give yourself all the credit, then? Please. He was an adult. He knew what he was running into." Harry wasn't even aware he moved until he had Malfoy pinned up against the wall, panting heavily as he felt his own magic swirl around him. "You idiot."

You have no right- No right-" The slap to his cheek startled him more than he would have thought, Harry staring as Malfoy pushed him back without any bit of magic to the push.

"It's not a secret. You're an obscurial." That word. That fucking word. As if being Harry bloody Potter wasn't enough, he was also apparently a ticking time bomb that couldn't even control his own magic. Just having him in Hogwarts was danger enough and just that night he had almost destroyed the Ministry of Magic after… "Offing yourself by losing control is a pretty poor way to repay the man that saved your life."

Sirius… What would he say to see Harry burning through his magic like this? To see him losing all the control and walls he had built up and unable to control anything as it all crumbled under his touch. "What's it matter anymore?"

"You're the only chance we've got." Staring at Malfoy with wide eyes, Harry stumbled as he was pushed again. "Don't you get it? The Dark Lord is well and truly back and if he wins then we're all doomed. You think I want my world destroyed?"

"Please. You made it perfectly clear how you feel about all of this, Malfoy. Should I bring up second year?" Muggleborns could have died and Malfoy would have been pleased.

"And you believed everything you said and did as a second year?" Ye… Tom had fooled him, too. "I was told stories of the war too, you know. I was told about how we were supposed to be right. I'm a Slytherin, not a Gryffindor. I know when to keep my doubts to myself."

"You could have helped- You could have helped! Instead you've been tearing others down and helping Umbridge destroy the school-"

"What else was I supposed to do?!" Malfoy didn't look like the perfect pureblood heir anymore. His cheeks were flushed a splotchy red and his chest was heaving as he shook flyaway hairs out of his face. "The only reason I'm here- The only reason is because you're the only chance this bloody World has of surviving this!"

"I don't want to be!" His words echoed off the walls, Harry shaking as cracks began digging themselves into the stone walls themselves. "I don't want to be the savior of the Wizarding World! I don't want to be The Boy Who Lived! I just wanted a mum, and a da, and a home, and instead I'm a curse that could kill so many people!"

"So fucking use it!"

"The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches…"

"They put you in a box, well then fucking break it." They were both angry, but Harry felt like Malfoy was full of more rage than people could ever guess it. "I have to work within mine, but you can shatter yours."

"And do what? I'm 'Gryffindor's Golden Boy,' remember? I'll be the Savior to win the war and save everyone, but at what cost? I can barely cast an Expelliarmus without it going wrong!" All of his magic came out either too strong or warped itself into something else entirely. He wasn't… He was a curse, not a wizard.

"Try harder." Clenching his fists and ready to throw a punch, Harry only stopped at the look in Malfoy's eyes. "Try harder." It was a look he had seen on the face of every Gryffindor at least once. "You don't think we're all scared? Guess what, we're terrified, but you're the only one who can do something about it."

"...born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies…"

"You were born to stop him- To change all of this." The words didn't seem to stop, pouring out of Malfoy before he could probably even think them through. "You think we don't know that Slytherin needs to change? You don't think I'm driving myself crazy because a part of me is screaming at me to shut up for saying as much as I am? I'm the perfect pureblood heir, but I'm scared because I know the stories. I know the stories the other families didn't tell their kids."

"You… You're scared." He had never thought- It was a dumb school rivalry, he knew it was, but he had never thought about Draco Malfoy being scared. "Why- Why would you tell me all of this? Why now-"

"Because now he's not going to hide in the shadows anymore." Voldemort. He had been seen and he knew Harry and Dumbledore had both just lost a battle. He wasn't going to hesitate. "I'm the son of a Death Eater. How long until he uses me?"

"You're a kid." They were kids. They were both fifteen and yet here they were talking about war and death and how the world was about to go to shit. They shouldn't have to be thinking about this- They shouldn't. "We're both kids."

"You're the only one who's going to be able to defeat him, Potter." The words were said as if they were nothing but truth, Malfoy meeting his gaze without flinching. "Only you."

"...and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not…"

"Because I'm the only obscurial to survive this long." He had looked into everything. He should have died before he got his Hogwarts letter, but here he was. He almost wished-

"Because you're you." Malfoy shook his head, a laugh tearing its way out of him. "Merlin, you don't even realize it. It was never the fact you were an obscurial that made you powerful. It was the fact you're you. The first to rush into danger, the first to stick his nose in the messes he should be avoiding, and the first - the very first - to show up when there's danger."

"That sounds like a weakness, not a strength." For some reason, Harry was no longer shaking as much. "So, what, you think I have some crazy power that lets me be in the wrong place at the right time?"

"Certainly explains the last few years, doesn't it?" Malfoy picked up his wand and walked around the room, Harry watching as he repaired each broken object one after the other. Harry wasn't sure how long he had been there, but the early morning dawn had grown to a brilliantly glowing sunrise at this point.

"Why are you here- I know what you said, but why. We're supposed to be 'enemies,' right?" The laugh Malfoy gave had Harry giving a reluctant smile of his own.

"Sounds a bit childish now, doesn't it?" They had just entered a war. What could a school rival due that could compare to that? "Bloody hell, I'm going to regret saying this, but you're stronger than you know."

"I don't think I'm strong at all," Harry said, startling when he felt the sensation of wood- Malfoy was pressing Harry's wand into his hand, expression serious.

"You're the strongest wizard I've ever met. Stronger than he'll ever be."

"...and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives…"

"I can't change what happened tonight. I wish we could go back to being school rivals and I could insult your friends while you figure out whatever I'm plotting, but-"

"What's the point." Harry watched as Malfoy gave a single nod. "Why are you here, Malfoy?"

"As much as I hate to admit, and truly, I do, I know you well enough to know that someone needed to knock sense into you. Your friends are too kind. They'd give you space."

"So you risk being torn apart by wild magic to get me to see sense?" Bloody hell. For as much as Harry was a Slytherin, Malfoy was a Gryffindor, huh?

"Please, as if you would ever let yourself hurt someone who didn't deserve it." Malfoy looked down at his wand, biting his lip before looking back to Harry. "Someone needs to clean up the damage you cause."

Pausing at that, Harry looked around the classroom. It was back in pristine condition, every bit of damage repaired as if it had never happened. It… Malfoy had repaired it all as if it was nothing.

"You…" Harry looked to Malfoy, a laugh ripping its way out of him. "I really should have shook your hand on the train."

"Shaken. It's- Sweet Merlin, Potter, you do need help if you can't even speak English correctly." Malfoy turned on his heel and walked towards the door, Harry staring after him and barely believing what had just happened.

Putting that morning aside, Draco Malfoy had just come in, talked him down, and fixed everything his magic had broken. "Well, Potter?" Malfoy paused in the doorway, looking over his shoulder at him. "Coming?"

"Yeah… Yeah, I'm coming." His entire world had changed in a single night, and while it might never be good again, it didn't look like it was getting worse. That was something, right? And as much as he hated to admit it, Malfoy was right. Sirius wouldn't want him hurting himself like this. "Hey, wait up!"

"...the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies…"