AN: Soo…first official Harry Potter fic. Yahhhh nervous laughter I hear the HP fandom can be pretty brutal. I know, I've seen some friends end up in the hospital or that creepy cemetery down the street. They are sorely missed.
Well, then. On to business! AND! The next chapters will be SIGNIFICANTLY longer. This one is short only because it's the prologue, and I need it to be… for purposes I'm sure I will one day realize. At the moment, I have an outline 'thingy' in my head. Also, if you're confused, sorry. It's supposed to confuse you. I guess. Now that I said it.
Disclaimer: O.O A-a-actually own Harry Potter? Gods… IT WOULD BE BEAUTIFUL! EEEE! eyes widen in alarm at the sound of a briefcase opening BUT I DON'T! And unless the rights to Harry go up on Ebay, I won't ever! So, uhh, you can just close the briefcase. Good lawyer. Good.
On to Chapter One then…
PrologueLet's just stop,
Drop everything,
Forget each other's names,
Can we please just walk away?
It could be...could be...
Like we never knew each other at all.
"Baby, You Wouldn't Last A Minute on the Creek" by Chiodos
--::--
"Albus."
The aforementioned man sighed; looking every bit his hundred and fifty years. Pulling on a silver beard, he smiled at the face of his colleague. Despite the frantic scramble the Order had fallen into over the last month, she remained as prim as ever. Not a hair wisped out of place in her bun, severe eyes calculating the Headmaster discreetly.
"Perhaps sleep is in order," Minerva McGonagall said, clasping her hands in her lap. The leather chair squeaked uneasily under her weight. From her new position, the shadows appeared to lengthen and converge on Dumbledore, reflecting off his half-moon spectacles.
"Ah, I have indulged already today." He replied. "Is there word on Harry's location?"
McGonagall pursed her lips at the flippant dismissal. He was exhausted, pale skin stretched over even paler bone. Dark rings had formed, hiding the vibrant twinkle that normally inhabited his eyes. It was unlikely, even with magical aide, he would last much longer.
"No."
Dumbledore sagged, downcast.
"A month…" He paused. "Is a long time for Harry Potter to go missing." And be found alive.
Listening outside the crooked door, Sirius flinched. The unspoken statement burned like embers, faint but scathing. Building his determination again, for the tenth time in the last hour, he ignored the implications. Striding down the stairs, he went to join the others hard at work.
After all, he had a godson to find.
--::--
Halfway across the world for what it mattered, Hermione Granger cursed viciously.
Dumbledore had asked for her assistance in brewing a Locator Potion with Professor Snape, and surly attitude aside, she had jumped on the opportunity. Ron was off on a similar mission, having taken the news harder than expected. She had been left behind to twiddle her thumbs, sitting in the dank Grimmauld house and worrying.
"Why isn't this working?" She cried, tossing her hands in the air. Sleep had not come quickly the night before and after half a day of slaving over a hot cauldron, Hermione was easily tempered.
Severus Snape resisted the urge to roll ebony eyes, and glanced up. For a know-it-all, she had performed impressively in the last few weeks.
"Did you add the Finnwig tail?" He inquired.
"Yes! Perfectly, three counter clockwise strokes after I added the powdered moon leaves. I did everything exactly as the directions state." Hermione said, fuming. Her cauldron bubbled ominously, turning a sickly shade of violet.
Eyeing the suspicious potion, Snape approached. Hermione jumped when she noticed he had swooped down directly behind her, still surprised at how quietly he walked. Although it bubbled and splattered bits of purple ooze, he saw nothing potentially harmful.
"Very well. Start again."
He was three feet from his own cauldron when he heard the anguished sob. Stunned, Snape took in the sight of Hermione Granger holding back tears, leaning over another ruined Potion.
"Again? I can't do it again. We don't have time, Harry could be in trouble right now. If it were me he wouldn't stop until he had solved this stupid formula!" Hermione said, wiping at her eyes. "It's been a month, Professor. I'm not naïve, I know the likelihood that we'll f-find him, but it's hard. Harder than I thought it would be. Not caring."
Hermione bit her lip, and with a strangled cry, knocked the cauldron off the desk. It landed with a horrible crash, banging across the stone floor deafeningly. Purple potion spilled, a tidal wave of Hermione's accumulating anxiety and grief. Snape didn't flinch, observing emotionlessly. He had learned something of his student, in the time they had spent together. Something that both awed, and terrified, the Potions Master.
"Draco would say I'm acting like a first year Gryffindor."
"You are," Severus responded. He was not one to blunt the truth, no matter how cruel it might sound. Instead of an explosion of rage, like he anticipated, she laughed.
"I am, aren't I?" She sobered, and tilted her head in such a way curly locks hid her face. When she spoke, the laughter had completely vanished. Intense alarm filled her tone, as if masking a deeper truth. "Harry once told me, on a night when it was cold and lonely, what he wanted more than anything."
The witch glanced up, and Snape started. Any trace of tears had left, and what remained was a difficult fact.
"Can you tell me, Professor, how often you have longed for death?"
--::--
"I see. Yes, yes of course, I understand." Narcissa's voice murmured in the dying light. "No, he'll be there. I expect it to come soon. We have everything of value packed, stored… Possibly. Considering recent events, Hogwarts is the only option we can humanely suggest."
Draco did not need a spy to tell him who his mother was speaking about. The quality of her voice had dropped a few octaves, as it often did when she referred to her son.
"See you then. Good-bye."
An inaudible pop, and Narcissa was swinging the doors open. Her features were carefully schooled to hide her fear. Draco had never appeared so despondent, as if he had lost the will to live. If there was a time she chose to interfere, it wouild have to be now.
"That was Molly. She wanted to make sure we were coping. Love, are you all right?" Narcissa said, setting a hand on his shoulder. He hadn't looked up from the fire, entranced.
"Fine," he lied.
"Going to jump, Potter?"
The frail boy jolted, hands reaching out to clutch the edges of the windowsill. Despite it all, Draco had to admit that when he entered the Astronomy Tower, he had not anticipated the scene. Harry Potter, standing nearly over the edge and staring down as if enthralled. While he might not openly tell anyone, Draco was terrified.
Harry frowned, eyes darkening as he recognized Draco.
"What do you want, Malfoy?"
Draco's felt his face turn up in to a sneer. It came so easily these days.
"I want a lot of things, but right now I'll settle for knowing why Dumbledore's Golden Boy is about to off himself." Draco replied smoothly, inching closer in case he would have to lunge forward. No need to stop him if he was too far away.
"I wasn't going to jump."
The words were weak and rang of hollowness. Draco barked out a laugh, disbelief coloring his pale features.
"Is that so? Then why are you practically dangling from that ledge?" He paused. "You do realize, once you let go, there is no going back."
Harry turned back to stare in shock. For a moment, Draco wondered if he had said something wrong, the way the smaller boy was staring in such fascination. Until he smiled and Draco stopped breathing.
"Ah, but then why else would we choose to fall?" Green orbs enlarged, fixated on the moonlight gleaming under blonde bangs. "Can it be the rush? That intoxicating highness sending us spiraling into the unknown, until we realize that we weren't rising but plummeting? It's madness. Or love."
As he spoke, Harry turned out to the stars and something decidedly bleak crossed his face.
"Maybe both then. After all, if love is falling headlong into something unexpectedly beautiful, should it not be considered madness to embrace it?"
Draco shuddered at the raw emotion on his face. There was a touch of primal instinct to it, a piece of its attraction that he couldn't place. Yet it was a big piece and it consumed the rest.
Harry's heel slipped slightly, hanging out in the open air. Draco jerked in sudden terror, throat closing as he replaced his mask. His arms lowered to his sides slowly. The reaction had been pure reflex. Once he gazed up, he met two serious, entirely grave emerald eyes.
"If I fall Draco, will you too?"
A dizzying heartbeat passed before Draco finally, painfully, understood what the boy was telling him. Not in a liberal sense but an undercurrent, desperately hoping he would catch it but not expecting it. The revelation was life altering.
Staring at Harry, Draco knew what he had been hiding.
"I wasn't going to jump." The unspoken words burned the atmosphere, halted time in its hurtfulness.
At first.
"Pot-Harry. Are you okay?"
His face lowered in to shadows, turning from him in shame. The hands gripping the windowsill constricted until the knuckles were bone-white in the darkness. Harry was shaking, and deep abrupt sobs were heaving out of his chest.
"No." His voice was surprisingly strong, contradicting the pain that radiated off his form.
Draco Malfoy was the first person to see.
Harry Potter was breaking
--::--
Wormtail chattered excitedly, success animating his rat-like features. Squat legs scuttled him quickly toward his waiting Dark Lord. His master would be so pleased with him that there might not be a punishment for the delay. Fantasies of promotions or praise glimmered in his unusually elated mind. Perhaps, with the retrieval of this information, he might earn the respect due.
It was a good day for the betrayer.
Sweeping into the room, he immediately began to grovel, spitting words of flattery and subservience.
"Oh my lord, my lord, today Salazar himself smiles upon you. Ah yes. Such fortune, such good fortune…" Wormtail twittered, nose bouncing across the darkly marbled ground with each rushed word.
Lord Voldemort sneered in disgust, waving his hand impatiently.
"The news, Wormtail!" He hissed, scarlet eyes surveying the mousy man. Briefly he wondered if killing him would put the hideous creature from its misery. At the foot of his throne, Bellatrix appeared to be thinking along the same thread, because she had recoiled the instant he came through the archway. Such menace in her eyes, Voldemort could feel the intention slide from her like slime.
"Oh, of course, my lord. They have found him, so quickly. Your best Death Eaters!" Wormtail began bowing again.
"Where?" Voldemort snarled, fingers twitching to the engraved wand at his side.
"The Forbidden Forest, master." Wormtail replied quickly, sensing the rage in the seated man. His self-preservation had never been so finely in-tune.
Voldemort considered this information, stroking Nagini slowly. The powerfully snake uncoiled, drawing up to eyelevel. She had been paying close attention, like always, to the conversation between her master and his slaves.
Too close to Hogwarts, the home of enemies. This is ill favored. she hissed her displeasure, snapping impatiently at Wormtail. The man inched away cautiously, nose tweaking in fear.
Yes, Nagini. Very much so.
"Bellatrix." Voldemort said, eyes landing on her. The woman reacted, kicking Wormtail aside and kneeling before him. She was perhaps his most loyal Death Eater, and he trusted her a considerable amount.
"Yes, master?"
"Go with the Death Eaters hunting Harry Potter. Find him in the Forest and stop him from reaching Hogwarts. Do not let him breach those grounds! He is untouchable within the wards."
"Yes, master. If I may speak?"
Voldemort curled a lip and clasped his wand.
"Speak."
"How am I to recognize Potter?"
Voldemort leaned back in his throne, regal in his darkness. She met his eyes daringly, filled with determination and will. At a time, in the beginning of his reign, he had admired her spirit. Now it created problems, caused irritation. Freeing her from Azkaban had been only to reclaim more prominent, loyal followers.
"Very well. Travel as an animagus, but Bellatrix?" Voldemort narrowed his gaze as she stood and dropped her head. "Kill him, and I will be greatly displeased."
Wormtail curled into himself as she passed. The woman snapped, lunging toward him mockingly. His beady eyes followed her until they had disappeared around the door. Gazing back to his lord, he bowed to see the lustrous redness on him.
"I suppose, Wormtail, you want a prize for your delivery."
Dread settled in the pit of the betrayer's stomach as the most fear Dark Lord raised his pale wand. A demented gleam heightened the scarlet eyes, absorbing the darkness in the chamber.
Nagini chuckled from her perch atop the throne, basking in screams.