Disclaimer: I don't own any of the character of Harry Potter, any of the spells, magical devises etc. that are the property of JK Rowling. I am only borrowing them and they will be returned to the owner undamaged and in their original packaging.

Author's Note: I wrote two chapters to this. Now I've re-thought the story so I've re-written those two chapters. It is set in Harry's sixth year at Hogwarts in an Alternate Universe, so I've ignored the events of the Goblet of Fire for the most part. I tried not to, but it was confusing the story too much. I've tried to be as accurate as possible, but of course we all make mistakes. Since I now have limited access to the internet, my ability to research exactly is a little reduced. If anyone notices any mistakes I've made, don't point them out in reviews but just message them to me and then I can correct them.

Blood and Shadow

Chapter One: Hexes and Thefts

The atmosphere in the office was decidedly frosty, broken only by the rattle of rain on the windows. Even Fawkes remained silent, his head tucked under a brilliant red and gold wing.

Professor Dumbledore cleared his throat and said, 'I think an apology might be in order at this moment.'

Harry scowled down at his shoes, his face bright red with anger. He shot a swift, sideways look loaded with resentment at Draco Malfoy, who was seated next to him. Malfoy was also looking down at his feet, his expression blank.

'Mister Malfoy?' Dumbledore prompted gently.

Harry worked out why Malfoy was looking at his feet. Not out of remorse, or just annoyance at having been caught, but because the little git was still sniggering quietly.

'Mister Malfoy,' Dumbledore said, more firmly. 'Please apologise to Harry.'

Malfoy sighed. 'Do I have to?'

The Headmaster drummed his fingers impatiently on his desk. 'Yes,' he said, his tone calm and level. It was clear his patience was waning.

'But he provoked me,' Malfoy protested, although without much strength.

'Did not!' Harry exclaimed furiously.

'Yes you did, Potter,' Malfoy said with a sneer. 'By your very existence, you provoke me and sometimes I can't restrain myself from attempting to turn you into something unpleasant. I'm only human, after all.'

'Not so sure about that,' Harry muttered resentfully.

''Enough!' Dumbledore said sharply, although Harry was positive the Headmaster was hiding a smile. 'Draco, apologise to Harry. Now.'

'I'm sorry,' Malfoy said wearily. 'Happy?'

'No,' Harry said coldly.

'And you will both spend your evenings for this week helping Hagrid in the Forest,' Dumbledore added.

Harry exploded. 'What?! I get detention?! You saw what he did to me and we both get detention?!'

'Yes, Harry,' Dumbledore said, quite calmly. 'Because I saw what you attempted to do to him which unfortunately mis-fired and hit Pansy Parkinson.'

At this, both Harry and Malfoy sniggered, then gave each other horrified looks and stopped. Harry wondered briefly if, by 'unfortunately' Dumbledore meant it was unfortunate that he hadn't hit Malfoy.

'Detention,' Dumbledore said in a tone that indicated that this meeting was now over. 'Start tonight, please, after dinner. And no more fighting. Not unless you want to spend the entire year in detention.' He paused and looked over at them and said in a tone of calm interest, 'Perhaps a spell of detentions together, helping Hagrid, will persuade you two to give up this ridiculous feud. You are both in your sixth year. You might consider growing out of this now you are nearing adulthood.' The Headmaster's tone was not patronising, but he did look from one to the other reproachfully and then added, 'The Sorting Hat will tell you that to be strong we must all work together. I would like you to consider that over the course of this week.'

The two boys avoided looking at each other, although Dumbledore, watching the expressions of horror, disgust and stubbornness crossing both faces, was willing to bet that they were thinking the same thing.

'Work with him? Hell will freeze over first!'

Malfoy ignored Harry as they left, still smirking as he strolled down the corridor in the direction of the Slytherin common room. Harry glared after him, debated casting a hex on Malfoy's back, then decided better of it. He wasn't that sneaky and he thought that it might be pushing Dumbledore's obvious amusement over the entire situation a little bit too far. Hexing Malfoy or beating him into the ground would have to remain a happy fantasy. For the moment, at least. Regretfully, he tucked his wand back in his pocket and wandered back to the Gryffindor common room, still stinging over the unfairness that had led Dumbledore to make him to detention.

The entire thing had started, as usual, with him and Malfoy making nasty little comments about each other and each other's friends. Then Malfoy had made some comment about Harry's parents and Harry had made a comment back about Malfoy's parents and then they pulled wands on each other, despite Hermione and Ron's attempts to restrain Harry. Harry's own hex had missed Malfoy by a mile and hit Pansy Parkinson instead, covering her in thick black hair that Madam Pomfrey was having lots of trouble getting rid of. Harry's poor aim was entirely excused by the fact that Malfoy's own hex had only a second before caused Harry's nose and ears to sprout to ten times their correct size, almost overbalancing Harry and making sure that he spent the next three hours in the care of Madam Pomfrey. Professor Dumbledore had sent for them both when Harry's nose and ears had been returned to their original size. And now he had detention. With Malfoy.

He sighed and muttered at the Fat Lady, 'Wufflepod,' and went into the Gryffindor common room. He still had some free time before his next lesson.

'How did it go?' Ron yelled over at him above the noise. He was playing Hermione at chess, and Harry saw that he was beating her thoroughly. Hermione was glaring fiercely at the board, practically making Ron's chess pieces tremble with fear.

'I got detention,' Harry said morosely, slouching into a comfy chair opposite them.

'Aww, mate,' Ron said with great sympathy.

'Doing what?' Hermione asked, carefully moving her castle.

'Helping Hagrid. All week. And it's terrible weather,' Harry complained.

'Hah, check!' Ron crowed delightedly. He grinned at Hermione, who scowled.

'Excuse me?' Harry said, waving a hand at them both. 'Do you mind? I have detention with Malfoy? You know, Malfoy? For the week? Helping Hagrid?'

'You've survived worse,' Hermione said with a marked lack of sympathy, still staring at the chess board. 'I mean, you've faced V - Voldemort,' she said quickly, ignoring Ron's yelp of alarm. 'Detention with Malfoy should hold no fears for you.'

'Thanks,' Harry muttered. 'Thank you very much for your support.'

'No problem,' Ron said absently. 'Hermione, you've lost. Checkmate in two moves.'

'I can think my way out of this,' she insisted.

'This is the fourth game we've played today. You've lost every single – '

Harry kicked him under the table and Ron's mouth snapped shut as Harry shook his head in warning. Hermione's face was going bright red. She hated the fact that Ron always beat her at chess. Privately, Harry thought it was good for them both – Hermione got practise at being beaten at something intellectual and Ron got to beat her at something intellectual.

'When does your detention start?' Ron asked as Hermione finally conceded defeat.

'Tonight. After dinner, usual time.' Harry sighed. 'I only defended myself,' he complained.

'No one is disputing that, Harry,' Hermione said. 'But you got caught and Dumbledore saw you. Can't get out of that.'

'What, it's okay as long as I don't get caught?'

She rolled her eyes. 'No. But that's why you got detention. Beside, you did try and hex Malfoy – '

'Because he hexed me!'

'The reasons you and Malfoy tried to hex each are far more complicated than that,' Ron observed. 'Not that I'm saying it isn't okay to hex Malfoy,' he said hurriedly as Harry scowled at him and then when Hermione frowned, added, 'Not that it's good to hex people – come on, Hermione, you once punched Malfoy! Don't tell me he doesn't deserve it!' He gave up and said, 'Look, you get caught doing the crime you do the time. That's pretty much how it goes. Just be glad it wasn't Snape who caught you.'

Harry considered this, then shrugged. 'Fair enough,' he said reluctantly. 'I suppose you've got a point. But it's still detention with Malfoy…' He gave up. It was useless angling for sympathy when there was none available. 'All right. Hermione, will you help me with my Potions homework?' She looked dubious and he was positive she was about to say no, so he said quickly, 'I can't do it and my detention and then I'll probably have another detention from Snape and then I won't have time to do all my other work – '

'All right, all right!' she exclaimed, smiling. 'I'll help you with your Potions homework, you can look at mine.'

'Hermione, you're a life-saver,' he said as she handed her roll of parchment over. 'Will you check it for me, too?'

She frowned, then sighed and nodded. 'Yes, I'll check it for you,' she said in a long-suffering voice. 'No,' she said curtly as Ron looked hopeful.

Let me look at yours? Ron mouthed at Harry who nodded quickly when Hermione wasn't looking, immersed in a book on Ancient Runes.

'Hear you got detention with the odious little git, Malfoy,' Fred said, as he and George appeared behind the three others. He was grinning. 'Poor Harry.'

'Yeah, just think, if you'd hit him you could have spent your detention reminiscing about how much better he looked covered in black hair,' George said. 'Would have made the whole thing worth it, mate.'

Harry and Ron both laughed at this. Hermione didn't appear to be listening, as engrossed as she was in her book. 'Shouldn't you two be working?' she said, not looking up.

'That's right, kill the mood,' George said.

'Mind you, your aim was right off,' Fred said to Harry. 'I know your aim's usually better than that.'

'He had just sprouted nose and ears a giant would be proud of,' George pointed out fairly. 'Or so we hear,' he added, looking at Harry.

Harry scowled. 'That was uncomfortable,' he said crossly. 'Madam Pomfrey was the only person who didn't start laughing the moment she saw me.'

'We had to cover him with a coat to get him up the hospital wing,' Ron said to the twins, hiding a smile with difficultly. 'We saw McGonagall in the corridor - even she started to laugh. Well, she smiled. I suppose that counts.'

'I guess Madam Pomfrey's pretty much seen it all here,' Fred said. 'She'll be used to the weird things that happen to students here by now.'

'I said, shouldn't you two be working?' Hermione said in a louder voice, frowning over the top of her book. 'We really should be, and Harry has a Potions essay to finish.'

The four boys deflated.

'Honestly, Hermione - ' George started.

'She's right,' Harry said morosely, unrolling the essay that Hermione had lent him. Although he would have preferred to continue the totally pointless conversation with Ron and the twins, she had just lent him her essay and it would have been ungrateful of him not to bother with his work. He sighed and stared down at Hermione's neat handwriting on the parchment.

'Actually, we did have a reason for turning up,' George said, ignoring Hermione's heavy sigh.

'It's something interesting,' Fred said, scowling at her.

'Well then?' she said impatiently. 'What is it?'

'Oh, interested now, are we?' George said, grinning.

'No, but the sooner you tell us, the sooner you'll go away and let us work.'

The twins rolled their eyes at each other. 'Lovely, good-natured girl, isn't she?' Fred said to Harry and Ron who, with an instinct for self-preservation, didn't reply.

'Here,' George said, dropping a copy of the Daily Prophet in front of them. 'Seen this?'

'What?' Harry said, peering at the front page and the headline written in bold, black letters.

Theft from Azkaban!

There has been a terrible breach in secutiry at the wizarding prison Azkaban. Ministry sources report that an item of great value that was secured there has been stolen. Although the nature of the item has not been revealed, it can be presumed that it is something of significant value and importance.

'Theft from Azkaban?' Ron said, frowning. 'What would anyone want to steal from Azkaban? There's only criminals kept there!'

'Exactly,' George said. 'Why not call it a break-out, or escape or something? Unless,' he wiggled his eyebrows, 'it wasn't a person what went missing?'

'But - from Azkaban?' Ron repeated, confused.

'Stolen,' Harry said. 'So it's not a person, then. What would anyone want to keep at Azkaban, except for criminals?'

'Most things of any value are kept at Gringott's,' Ron said.

'Actually,' Hermione said, 'that kind of makes sense, doesn't it?'

They all looked at her.

'Maybe whatever it was that was stolen was something that no one wanted to risk anyone getting hold of,' she said. 'I know the bank is usually secure and that the goblins are excellent at security - but if you wanted to put something where there would be no chance of it being stolen - well, who in their right mind would steal something from Azkaban? Who would even think of looking there?'

'She has a point,' Fred said, sounding impressed. 'Anyway, there's a big hoo-ha about it.'

'I wonder what it was?' Ron said.

'Which brings us to the point of this little visit,' Fred said.

'We were wondering if Sirius might know anything about it,' George said to Harry.

'Probably not,' Harry said.

'He was a prisoner,' Hermione reminded them. 'He wasn't exactly allowed to wander around and poke about, was he?'

'He's the only person who might know,' George said, shrugging.

'Who would actually tell us,' Fred added.

'Meaning?' Ron asked.

'I bet you a box of Sugar Quills old Dumbledore knows,' Fred said. 'But I'll bet you another box he wouldn't tell us, even if we asked.'

'So you're hoping Sirius might,' Harry said, shaking his head. 'Why are you so interested?'

'Cos it's interesting,' George said, picking up the paper. 'That's all.'

'I'll ask him in my next letter,' Harry said, picking up his quill again and looking ruefully at Hermione's essay and his own blank sheet of parchment.

'Fair enough,' Fred said and with that, the twins had gone.

'Honestly!' Hermione muttered, resuming her reading.

'You got to admit, it is interesting,' Ron said. 'I'm wondering what was stolen now.'

'No one else is that interested,' Hermione muttered.

'No one here's interested in anything in the Daily Prophet unless it's proclaiming something about You-Know-Who or printing nasty stories about Harry,' Ron said.

'If it was kept at Azkaban, I bet whatever it was, it was dangerous,' Harry said as he began to write slowly, trying not to copy Hermione's notes but trying to stick as close to her general theme as he could without risking Snape noticing.

'Are you going to ask Sirius?' Ron asked him.

'Yeah, but it's not that important, is it?' Harry said, pausing in his writing. 'I'm not going to worry about it - why should I? Can't be anything about Voldemort, can it? Else everyone would be worried about it here, too.'

'What if it is something to do with - You-Know-Who - Vol - Voldemort?' Ron said quietly. It had taken Harry a long time to persuade Hermione and Ron to say the name, and they both still winced or jumped when one of them said it.

Harry shrugged. 'Then we'll find out eventually, won't we?' he said with a lightness he did not feel. 'We usually do when something involves Voldemort, usually at the time when he's trying to kill me, but at least we find out.' He smiled at the expression on Ron and Hermione's faces. 'Honestly. I was joking, lighten up, won't you?'

The bell rang for their next class. Quickly, the three of them gathered their things up and hurried off to their Charms lesson.

Professor Flitwick had them practising Colour-Changing Charms silently, although most of the class, with the obvious exception of Hermione, still hadn't got the hang of using magic without saying the incantations aloud.

Harry went back to bemoaning his detention. 'It really isn't fair,' he said, trying to change his mouse from white to purple. 'I might just hex Malfoy just so I deserve having detention.'

'Harry, will you shut up about your detention - ' Hermione began impatiently when Seamus interrupted.

'Dumbledore gave you detention, too?' he said. 'You didn't actually hit Malfoy!'

'He did hit Pansy,' Hermione pointed out, although she didn't sound too bothered about that, considering how much she disliked Pansy Parkinson.

Seamus waved this aside. 'But still! Malfoy deserves to be hexed!'

'Hear, hear,' Dean said, frowning at his mouse and waving his wand. His mouse remained stubbornly white.

'You heard about that stuff in the Daily Prophet?' Neville asked, joining in.

Hermione rolled her eyes. 'The two subjects of the day,' she muttered, turning her mouse purple and then green and then back to white with a few flicks of her wand. 'Harry's stupid detention and the stupid thing stolen from Azkaban. Can't you all just give it a rest?'

The boys all ignored her. She rolled her eyes again and entertained herself by turning her mouse a varieties of colours and then pointing out the fact she had managed that to them just to irritate them.