Ok this is my first story so be nice if you decide to review it :) bearing in mind that there are a lot more chapters to come!
Dark Intentions
It's Harry, Ron and Hermione's final year at Hogwarts, a new student has joined the seventh year, and he's holding a dark secret of which could tear apart the context of the war between good and evil. Also there's a lot to consider, Finding the horcruxes and aiming to destroy Voldemort once and for all, preserving their friendship and making sure everyone gets out of this alive, and of course, possible the most deadly and horrifying task in Ron's mind, N.E.W.T. Examinations...
Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters, except for Shadow Vampro, yay.
Chapter 1: New arrival
Yet another traffic jam prevented them from reaching kings cross. If Harry wasn't so sure that Voldemort was abroad, he would have thought that it was him conjuring the cars on the roads and slowing them down. As he sat in the taxi Harry reflected on the past few days. He had been sitting in the Burrow's kitchen with the Hermione, Ron and the rest of the Weasly family when Dumbledore himself strode through the open door accompanied by Mr Weasly.
" I do hope I'm not interrupting anything" he said, peering over his half moon spectacles, those sparkling blue eyes giving everyone the sense that they were being ex-rayed. " I was wondering if I could speak to Harry for a moment."
"Of course professor." Harry replied, and followed his headmaster out into the back yard. In the twilight, Dumbledore looked somewhat younger than he had been the last time Harry had seen him, stronger, his long midnight blue cloak billowing in the breeze behind him. As they reached the gate at the end of the garden that led to the orchard beyond.
"Now Harry, I'm sure your wondering why I have called you out here." Dumbledore said as he turned to Harry.
"I am somewhat suspicious." Harry said, looking up at Dumbledore.
"As you should be! We cannot afford to let our guard down in these troublesome times." Dumbledore sighed and leant on the gate. "But if we cannot trust our allies, then who can we trust?"
"Ourselves" Harry replied. "Sometimes we have to have faith in ourselves before we can have faith in others.
"Quite right your are. You've grown a lot these past few weeks, and now I know for sure that you are ready for what I am about to give you" Dumbledore remarked, withdrawing a small parcel from the inside of his cloak.
"What is it?" Queried Harry as he took the parcel and held it up to his line of sight.
"It's your birthday present." He remarked, chuckling slightly as Harry opened the gift and pulled out what seemed to be a golden pocket watch with symbols etched on the outside of it.
"Wow... thanks professor..." Harry said, astonished that his headmaster could part with him such a gift.
"Your welcome my dear boy, now I'm afraid I must be off, I have matters to attend to at the ministry" and with that he strode through the gate and apparated.
Harry had wondered about the watch, it was strange. He knew Ron had one but the one Dumbledore had given him seemed different, more, magical. The first thing that differed between the watches was the fact that Harry couldn't open his. He had found a note attached to the underside of the watch and he was constantly re-reading it every chance he got. In fact he held it in his hands now, trying to decipher its meaning.
Dear Harry,
With this gift comes great responsibility. I was given this watch on my seventeenth birthday and I have kept it safe all these years, hoping to find the right person pass it on to, along with its wisdom. This watch will open when the time is right, when the time comes, when you need it most, it will open and impart the knowledge that I myself was given all those years ago.
Signed
Albus Percivil Brian Wulfric Dumbledore
Harry spent the rest of the journey staring at the piece of paper he held between his hands, turning over all the possibilities of what knowledge the watch held inside. Was it information on how to defeat Voldemort? Was it a guise on how to find the rest of the horcruxes? Or was it simply another riddle that Dumbledore expected him to figure out on his own as some obnoxious right of passage?
The car stopped outside the station, and Harry got out clutching the parchment in his fist, and then grabbed his luggage from the back and set off towards the entrance to platform 9 and three quarters. He knew that Ron and Hermione and the rest of the Weasly's were in the car behind him, but he didn't feel like talking to them just yet, not with so much on his mind. And so he broke into a run as he reached the wall between platform 9 and 10. he should have crashed straight into the wall, but instead he disappeared right through an reappeared on a smoke filled platform the other side, the scarlet steam engine in front of him bearing the name Hogwarts express.
As Harry glanced around him, across the broad stretch that was know as platform 9 and three quarters, he could make out the nervous faces of the first years, the almost anxious faces of the fourth years, and the beaming faces of his fellow seventh years. Suddenly the loud whistle of the Hogwarts express sounded, signalling the students to get on board. Harry motioned to Ron and Hermione, ho were only a few steps behind them talking to Neville and Luna.
"C'mon you two, or were gona be late!" he exclaimed, having to shout over the noise of the platform. As they hurried onto the train, they remembered to turn and wave goodbye to the Weaslys ever worrying mother.
"....and Ron I've packed you extra underwear just in case you have an emergency..." at which point Ron slammed the door shut and stormed off, his face the colour of a new quaffle, muttering something about going to find them a cabin. Harry and Hermione found him at the end of the train a few minuets later, his face still bright red.
"...there aren't any cabins empty, Neville was full and I sure as hell don't want to share with Malfoy." He stated, cooling down a little, since his mothers outburst.
"Ok Ron, keep your pants on, but if you cant, there's extra ones in your trunk..." Hermione's voice trailed away as both her and Harry erupted into a fit of giggles.
"Oh very funny, that's right laugh it up." Ron then threw open the door of the cabin he was standing next to and harry and Hermione followed, tears streaming from their eyes. Only once they entered did they notice a solitary figure draped in black robes sitting in the corner, his nose buried in a leather bound book.
"Oh, we didn't mean to intrude, do you mind if we take a seat?" Hermione asked, blushing as the figure looked up and gazed at her, his eyes, a light golden brown, taking her in. Hermione found herself mesmerized by the beauty of his glare, and with difficulty she stole her eyes away from him and sat down in between Harry and Ron.
" Thanks, I'm Ron, this is Harry and Hermione." Ron gestured to Harry and the now red faced Hermione.
"Pleasure, my names Shadow, Shadow Vampro." He said, his accent English, but Hermione detected a touch of something deeper, Middle European she guessed. He then shook both Ron and Harry's hands, and gesture to Hermione who took his hand sheepishly.
But as she did so, she gasped, his hands were so cold!
"So I haven't seen you around before, your a little old to be a first year aren't you?" Harry questioned.
"Ah, yes, I've only just recently moved to this, for what better word, island, therefore I have decided to conclude my studies at Hogwarts, and I must say I'm rather looking forward to it." Shadow replied politely, yet with a hint of secrecy in his voice, at this Harry felt that he wasn't being told the whole story, and his hand clenched around his wand in his pocket. As if to confirm his theory, shadow looked at him for a few moments then returned to his reading.
A few hours passed and the light began to fade from the surrounding countryside, and like clockwork, the lamps on the inside of the train came on. The artificial light gave Hermione the chance to observe shadow more closely. His hair jet black, tied back in a ponytail with with his fringe cut short except for two thick strands hanging over his eyes. His skin, pale and, as she had found out, cold to the touch. His facial features were perfect, his eyes just the right size, his nose in just the right place, his lips a thin line as he concentrated hard on his book. Also, she noticed, he had a short thick scar drawn down the middle of his left eye, had he had some sort of accident? Or was it something more complicated than that? At that moment the compartment door opened and in strode the tall, elegant frame of Draco Malfoy, followed by his less than elegant cronies, Crabb and Goyle.
"Well well well, if it isn't Potter and the mudbloods." Malfoy sneered.
"In case you've forgotten Malfoy, I happen to be pureblood, just like you." Ron retorted.
"Your nothing but a blood traitor in my mind Weasly, and thats just as bad as being a mudblood." Malfoy growled, clearly insulted that he had been compared to Ron in some way.
"If I may interrupt, I find your ignorance and general prattyness quite a bore." Shadow said, drawing a long, sleek, black wand as he stood, power emitting from his body, power of which seemed to fill the cramped space of the cabin.
"You dare to challenge me? Who do you think you are? Do you have any idea of who I am? I am Draco Malfoy!" exclaimed Malfoy, emphasizing his last name.
"Well I think my name is Shadow Vampro. Hmmm... Malfoy...Malfoy, ah yes, you must be the failed death eaters son? Lucius Malfoy's boy am I right?" Shadow sneered, pointing his wand directly at Malfoy's chest.
"How..how dare you, you...you'll.... pay for that remark" stammered Malfoy, drawing his own wand, but before he could utter a spell, Shadow reacted with lightning speed and shouted his own.
"Consoliuos Vectum!" He shouted. No sooner had the incantation left shadows lips, Malfoy was blown of his feet with a loud bang and thrown into the opposite compartment. As Malfoy sat up, the other's saw the damage done by Shadow's spell. Malfoy's face was contorted in panic and pain as a long pair of antlers grew from his scalp, along with grotesque purple blisters covering his face. He scrambled to his feet and ran out of the compartment, as he got to the now gaping hole were the door had been he stopped.
" You just wait till my father hears about this..." and with that he ran down the center of the train, a newly grown tail waving behind him, Crabb and Goyle stumbling behind him.
Shadow looked around the compartment, and saw that all eyes were on him. Hermione was the first to recover, setting about repairing the damage that shadow's spell had caused.
"Well, not the best way to greet someone, but I guess it was appropriate for that worm." Shadow said, returning to his seat and picking up his book. A stout woman wheeling a trolley laden with foodstuff knocked on the door;
"Anything from the trolley dears?