Posted : Jan. 9. 2004
Chapter One
"ABOMINATION"
Harry remained seated on his chair as he watched other students from all four houses take their leave. He had convinced both Ron and Hermione that he will follow soon after, that he just needed to sit a little, that he just had to give his stomach a bit of rest after loads of eating.
He didn't know why or how, just that he had an appetite for a little bit of everything on the Gryffindor table. 'I missed Hogwarts' was the thought he kept on shoving down his throat to explain the sudden behaviour, though no one really asked. But he was sure to have been given certain strange looks not only from Ron and Hermione, but from his other housemates as well.
Plates and goblets, now emptied of what they were used for, started to disappear and Harry noticed, in quite a slower speed than when they first came into view on the tables with their contents. "Probably decided to take work a bit easier." He murmured, practically to no one else but himself.
Harry gave out a sigh of exhaustion and stood up, only to be blocked by one of the last few people he wished to see at the moment. About a meter away from where his feet rested was Draco Malfoy, accompanied by two other Slytherins, Crabbe and Goyle.
Harry couldn't help releasing a mocking parody of a chuckle. The forty days of burning hell of a rotten summer he spent with the Dursleys were more depressing than ever, if not the same, and with thoughts of his Godfather Sirius swirling around inside his head did the improvement of the way they treated him even count. And now he was facing the son of one of Voldemort's proven, now imprisoned Death Eaters.
'How wonderfully enchanting.' He thought, his face slowly twisting into a scowl.
"How do you feel, Potter?" Draco asked sarcastically, the familiar arrogant sneer gone from his face and with eyes glaring back.
"Whether if I'm feeling extremely happy, sad, or practically sick, as you're well aware that I am sick of you, makes no difference at all as I will tell you only the truth even if I was in the mood to break every single rules in this school-" Harry rested a bit and smiled a scornful smile before continuing, "-the fact that I AM sick of you."
Draco, for once, managed to not make any sort of expression that would reveal his shock, for he really wasn't shocked, and smirked back instead. "Loved that sense of humor of yours, bloody Gryffindor. But how about the fact that I myself recently confirmed your death, Potter? Isn't that something that should concern, let's say, both counterparts?"
Harry noticed Crabbe and Goyle slightly moving forward and smirking, making exhibitions with their right hands punching their left open ones, as if trying to intimidate him, if not motivate him. He focused his eyes on Draco's face once again.
"You want to kill me?" Harry said.
Draco elevated his face up a little at the blatant more-of-a-statement question, though doing a very good job still in keeping his blank expression. He didn't answer.
"Well, aren't you going to take out your wand?" Harry asked, digging his right hand inside his robes, daring Draco to do the same.
"And what have we here?" interrupted the familiar deep, cold voice of professor Snape just before Draco could even move an inch for his wand.
Snape looked from Draco, to Crabbe and Goyle, and then finally, to Harry and his in-the-robe hand. "Mr. Potter, am I to assume that you are once again, in an attempt to demonstrate another rule-breaking action - and as early as the feast night?"
Harry tried hard not to finally put in purpose the already at hand wand.
"Classes haven't even begun yet, and your rubbish classmate of a smart girl Granger is not to race her hand to earn points for your house until tomorrow." Snape's lips curled into a small horrible grin. "So that'll make Granger's recitation, including all the points Gryffindor will ever earn from my class tomorrow - minus five." Without another word, Snape turned his back on Harry, waving the cape of his robe with his left hand and headed away.
"I didn't do anything." Said Harry quickly, not liking the idea of losing points before day one, and making Snape stop from his walking.
Draco looked at Snape and then to Harry, who noticed and glared at him. Draco smirked at the obvious desperation on Harry's face. Things might not have gone as planned but professor Snape's perfect timing of appearance to taunt Harry, though such bother, was enough for him to postpone what he has in mind and enjoy what's offered for now.
"Indeed?" Asked Snape, now looking at Harry's direction, his dark brown (?) eyes piercing through Harry green ones. "So it was not your intention to pick a fight with Mr. Malfoy here?"
"I wasn't trying to pick a fight with him." Said Harry irritably.
Snape didn't say anything for a while, just stared at Harry like he was some sort of entertainment. After seconds of stillness, he smirked (and with a chuckle) and said, "Mr. Potter, go to your house. It is late and I'd be more than glad to have you put in detention first thing tomorrow morning if I must to prevent you from doing more-" Snape was looking as though disgusted about what he's about to say. "-strange things." He then looked at Draco. "Same for you, Mr. Malfoy." And he was gone.
Harry stood there, rage threatening to demolish his last bits of self control. He knew Snape always had something against his father, which wasn't fair considering how Harry was sure he was much less like James, and as Sirius told him so the previous year.
'You're lesser like your father than I thought.' He remembered his Godfather's words, loud and clear, and all but in a good mood. If he ever finds out what keeps Snape's endless resentment from dying away..
"My father's been sent to Azkaban because of you." He heard another cold voice, though this time, coming from behind. He turned around. Draco was still speaking.
"If it weren't for you meddling skunks, my father would still be here. This is all your fault, Potter. You and your trash breed friends."
"So a Slytherin does know what it feels to be human. That's a little surprising." Harry said, his eyes narrowed at Malfoy who was starting to look annoyed. He went on. "No, being able to feel alone is surprising, coming from a Slytherin. And a MALFOY even." Harry made sure Draco noticed the heaviness of the emphasis he used on the name. Draco swallowed.
"You talk so big. Just because you hated my father-" Harry cut him off.
"Let me tell you something, Malfoy." Harry began, exhaustion evident in his tone. "I never had anything against your father. He was a Death Eater and deserved what he got. Deserved all the accusations he was imprisoned for. For they were all but lies."
Draco's eyebrows were threatening to touch. He just simply couldn't believe Harry would ever dare to speak ill about his father. "My father is a highly respected man in the Ministry."
"WAS respected. Until Voldemort and his already, magically tied allies were seen at the Ministry, and by Cornelius Fudge himself too. And the fact that HE, that is to say YOUR father, was part of the plan to lure me to the Ministry, causing Sirius to die! Causing my Godfather to die!"
Draco looked shocked for a moment. "Sirius - Sirius Black? Your Godfather?"
Harry shook. How could he have been so rectless as to reveal what should be kept as a secret?
"I'm going to make you pay, Potter." Draco said, his hands now digging inside his robes also, Crabbe and Goyle following his steps from behind, advancing towards Harry.
Harry glared at them. "Get out of my way."
"You'll pay!"
"EXPELLIARMUS!"
Draco's wand flew high above as he fell painfully on his left elbow. He quickly turned his head here and there, in search of it. Crabbe and Goyle, who watched this happen, turned and were about to launch themselves on Harry when they were greeted by the sight of Harry's best friends, Ron and Hermione.
"Argh, shoot! Where is it?!" Draco growled. Crabbe and Goyle were searching their robes for their wands too.
"Hold it right there!" Ron warned and the two Slytherins stopped dead.
"Harry, what's going on? We waited for you at the common room. You said you were going to be with us in just a moment, right?" Hermione asked looking at Harry, wand still pointed at Draco, who finally got his own. "I'll explain later. We've got to get out-" He trailed off as the same flashing light sent Hermione's wand into the air.
"You're dead, mudblood!" Draco's voice echoed through the great hall, making all six of them froze. Seconds later, footsteps were heard. They began to panic, and started to run off toward their houses.
Harry, Ron and Hermione were just about to disappear behind one of the exits when they heard Draco's voice behind them.
"Potter!" They stopped and turned around.
"I'll get you. You, your weasel friend, and that meddlesome braniac of a mudblood. Mark my words." Harry felt both annoyed and amused that he couldn't help but produce a bad smirk along with a matching horrible chuckle. They then turned their back on the other three as Draco and his two companions did the same.
After all six students were gone, Filch's rough figure of a man, along with his cat, Mrs. Norris, appeared in the Great Hall. Filch grabbed a wand left deserted on the floor and examined it carefully. As he did so, a smirk widened his pale lips and pocketed the thin stick of a wood.
"Just what was that all about?" Ron said, right after they gave the password to the fat lady and got inside the Gryffindor common room.
"Yeah, what was that about, Harry?" Hermione added. "You'd be in trouble if a teacher finds you two in a duel, you know."
"Somebody already did."
"WHAT?!" Bellowed Ron.
"Ron! Ssshh!" Hermione hissed, a finger over her lips.
"Listen." Harry began. "Can we talk about this tomorrow morning? I'm a little tired."
"But Harry-" Hermione trailed off.
"Please."
Hermione looked at Ron for support, who shook his head. "If Harry says he's tired, we can't force him to speak."
Hermione only rolled her eyes. "Oh, fine." She made her way towards the door of the girls' dormitory.
"Oh and uh, Hermione?" Harry called after her. Hermione turned. "Thanks."
"It's nothing." She then smiled and finally got inside and shut the door behind her.
Harry turned to Ron, who was changing into his pyjamas. "Thanks Ron."
"No problem, mate. You go to sleep. We'll talk tomorrow. Okay?"
Harry nodded and went and sat on his four-poster without bothering to change clothes.
"Night, mate." He heard Ron say.
"Night, Ron." He said.
Harry made sure Ron was fully asleep before opening his trunk and pulling out a small black (?) mirror. It was given to him by Sirius. Why he didn't open it earlier to find out useful it really was, was a mystery even to him. He wouldn't have gone to that horrible Dolores Umbridge's office and use her fire to check up on his Godfather if he already knew about the mirror back then. So why didn't he open it?
'Simple.' Said Harry in his mind. 'Because I thought it wasn't something like it is and abandoned it in my trunk when it could, or should have been put in use.'
He looked at his lined reflection on the broken part of it. 'I'm such a mess.' He thought to himself. 'So miserable. My face tells it all.' Then he noticed his unruly mess of black hair. 'Maybe if I..'
Harry returned to his trunk and grabbed another item - a comb. He stared at it, amazed. The comb looked really new, though it had been bought about six years ago, before he started his first year. He smiled and brought it to his raven locks.
By the time he finished dealing with his hair, he again took the small mirror and looked at himself. He looked better, indeed, though something was still missing. He wondered.
Finally, he took off his glasses and got a little of his bangs to rest just above his forehead and looked really pleased at the result. His vision was less clearer without his glasses, especially during the night. But he'll get used to it, he convinced himself.
The next day was breezy and oddly quiet. Harry got himself out of bed and by the look on the mirror he was holding, he made quite a mess with his hair again. He headed for the showers and when he got out, went back to his four-poster and grabbed the comb he used the previous night to arrange his hair for the second time.
"This is starting to become a daily activity." He said out loud.
"What is?" He turned at the sound of the voice. Ron was just getting up, his hair also a mess.
"Nothing." He answered, smiling slightly.
Ron too went to the showers and changed into his school robes before accompanying Harry down the Great Hall for breakfast. Hermione was waiting for them at the common room and immediately joined them right after they came out of the boys dormintory.
"So who was it?" Asked Ron.
"Who's who?" Asked Harry back.
"The one who saw you and that git in the hall?"
"Oh, that. It was Snape."
"Good heavens." Gasped Hermione.
"But we weren't in a fight yet. Until he left, that is. Malfoy and I almost killed each other." Said Harry calmly. "Anyway, remember when he and his assistants tried to stop me from riding the train back to platform nine and three quarters, two months ago, just last school year ender?"
Ron and Hermione looked at each other, puzzled. "Yeah?"
"Well, something sort of happened earlier." Harry said. "You see, a day later after Voldemort's" - Ron gasped at the name and his ears turned bright pink - "Death Eaters including Lucius Malfoy, his father, were caught, Malfoy came to me and said that I'm dead. That's probably why he attacked me then and why he did it now."
"Wait a minute." Said Ron. "You're saying that Mafloy's little rant disturbs you?"
Harry looked at him like he's never seen anything quite like Ron before. So did Hermione. "No, of course not. Just that Hermione here was asking about what was going on, and so were you. Hermione here, for once, wasn't paying enough attention though, and got her wand blew away into the air by Malfoy."
Hermione paled and looked as though she just failed an exam for a major subject. "Oh, my gosh!"
Harry and Ron looked at each other. "What's up, Hermione?" They both asked.
"My wand!" She practically screamed, horrified. "My wand! I forgot to get my wand!"
"Well, come on, let's go get it." Said Ron. "It's not as though we'll walk a mile back to the house, right? We'll wait for you outside the common room."
"No, no! When Malfoy blew it away, I forgot to get it!"
"So?" Said Ron.
"So, Ron, we heard footsteps last night remember? It was a teacher I'm sure of it, or someone who has an authority to walk on the school grounds at night. Like Filch! "What if that someone found my wand and put me in detention?!"
"Aw, get a grip Hermione. A house-elf could have found it."
"AW!!!" She stormed, leaving the two of them behind with a frown on their faces.
"But what if a superior did find it?" Asked Harry.
Ron looked as though he just realised something and said, "Or someone as worse as Snape."
They looked at each other and laughed. They could have been a bit happier if it weren't for professor Snape who seemed to appear out of nowhere and in front of them.
"Well, well, well." Snape said in his usual harsh tone. "If it isn't the two top ranking rule-breakers of Hogwarts."
Harry and Ron didn't say anything. Ron's ears were beginning to turn bright pink again.
"Potter, Weasley, come with me."
The two of them followed Snape to his office. Once they got in, they were greeted by the sight of Draco Malfoy and his to allies, Crabbe and Goyle. And someone who Harry thought wasn't suppose to be there ; Filch the care taker.
"Mr. Filch here found something very interesting in the Great Hall just last night that he couldn't believe a student would throw it away like some used rag doll."
Harry and Ron remained quiet. Snape spoke again.
"And M. Mafloy here reported to me that he and his friends knew something about someone that we, the superiors don't. what could that be, Potter?"
"I don't know, sir." Said Harry.
"Weasley?"
"No idea, sir."
Snape smirked. "Filch." He called the care taker in a tone as if ordering him to do something.
"Yes, sir." Filch said and left the office.
About fifteen minutes later, Filch returned with Hermione on his side, holding her upper arm as if she some sort of prison.
"Good, good. Now," Snape's smirk grew even wider. "Wands out!"
Harry took out his wand. So did Ron, Draco, Crabbe and Goyle. Hermione showed nothing.
"Well, Ms. Granger?"
"I- I lost my wand, sir."
"When?"
"The day before yesterday, sir."
"The day before yesterday." Snape repeated. "Why didn't you buy a new one?"
"I had no time, sir."
"Indeed?" Snape didn't seem convinced. "Ms. Granger, I suggest you get yourself ready for what I'm about to give you."
Hermione swallowed.
"You," Snape continued, "The six of you, will be on detention every afternoon for the whole week."
"Excuse me, sir, but I think you said, the six of us?" Asked Draco, bewildered. His assistants from behind were looking dead weak.
Harry, Ron and even Hermione were smiling at this.
"Yes, I did, Mr. Malfoy."
Draco couldn't believe it. This was the second time it happened. The first was during their first year, when professor Mcgonagall sent not only the three of them, but including Draco also for staying up late just Harry, Ron and Hermione did.
Draco glared at Harry, who glared back. And then he noticed that Harry wasn't wearing his glasses and that his hair was combed and looked better, making his raven locks shinier and his green eyes more visible.
"All six of you, will spent the rest of your afternoons for this week cleaning my dungeons. No magic. Malfoy, you're to pair up with Weasley. Crabbe, you're with Granger. Goyle, stay with Potter."
The day went on and the six of them were cleaning without speaking to their partners. There were certain occasions were Harry would almost make Goyle swallow the rug in great irritation or Ron desiring more than anything to smack the cloth against Draco's face.
"Oh my - Harry!" Gasped Hermione.
"My, doing a good job for a first timer at detention, aren't you, Hermione?" Said Ron.
"No, not that, look!" Hermione waved what seemed like a copy of the Daily Prophet.
Harry frowned. What could be in the Daily Prophet that got Hermione's interest so easily?
"What's on?" Asked Harry, curious.
"Look! It's this! It's Si-" She stopped.
"It's okay. He knows." Said Harry, knowing what Hermione must be thinking, pointing towards Draco.
"He does? How come?" Asked Ron, confused.
"It's a long story, Ron." Harry returned to Hermione and made a face as though she looked different for a moment. "Were you just about to say my Godfather's name?"
Hermione nodded. "I was about to get my copy when Filch snatched my arm."
Harry's green eyes widened and grabbed the news paper from Hermione and began to read.
"Famous Harry Potter," Draco began. "Godson of a massive murderer. Wait 'till the whole school finds out."
"Maybe you'd like to take that back." Said Harry looking at him directly, though without any sense of anger, mocking humour, or even true amusement.
"Oh yeah? Why?" Harry threw at him the Daily Prophet and he too read the headlining news of the day ;
SIRIUS BLACK - CLEARED!
It was approximately nine weeks ago when a group of Death Eaters were caught in the Department of Mystery, and nine weeks ago when He-Who-Must- Not-Be-Named were seen by the head of the Ministry himself, Cornelius Fudge, and a plenty amount of other witnesses including Harry Potter, Albus Dumbledore and some other Ministry staffs. There was one however, a Death Eater who had managed to escape with the dark lord whose name is Bellatrix Lestrange, also known as the cousin of Sirius Black. The caught Death Eaters, probably seeing no hope in ever escaping again, told what they knew, thus enabling people at the Ministry what was unknown. A topic lead to another, and then finally to Sirius Black who have been in the mind of the public since three years ago when he was first announced to have escaped. It has been long believed that Black was responsible for the deaths of thirteen people about sixteen years ago and is still responsible for the escape of the now re-imprisoned Death Eaters. But a story from the captured dark lord loyalists says otherwise..
"Now, wait a sec - you knew?" Asked Ron.
"Just this morning, Weasel." Replied Draco, unenthusiastically.
"Did Harry tell you?" Asked Hermione.
"He slipped, mudblood." Both Ron Hermione were trying hard to keep their temper as to not suddenly smack Draco in the face.
"And them?" Asked Ron again, pointing at Crabbe and Goyle's direction this time.
"They're dumb."
"Hey," Breathed Hermione. "Where's Harry?"
Draco and Ron began to look around. "Now that you've mentioned it, I think he's ran outside." Said Ron.
Harry walked in the castle's corridor in a subdued manner, not bothering to worry if Snape will give him extra detention for what he did.
'And this is what you left me to live with, Sirius.' He thought, feeling quite pathetic. 'Pure misery.' Harry again took out the small mirror from his pocket and looked at himself throught it. 'Well, misery always has been my company since day one in this life. Even if I comb my hair nice.'
He looked deeper in the broken mirror, as if searching more than just his mere reflection. 'You bastard. Why did you have to die? Your name's all cleared now. But you're not here to know about it. What about me? I thought we were going to live together.. I wish I could just forget about you, so we both can save ourselves a lot of grief. But when I think your promise your broken promise..'
Harry dropped to his knees and tried hard to blink back uninvited tears.
Life sure is not fair.
TO BE CONTINUED
Author's Note : I tried HARD to keep them in character. And to make the Slash factor not as blatant as it is in conventional smutty Slash fanfics out there. (NOT that I don't enjoy them though! I love NC- 17 Slash!)
Good? Bad? Review please! ^_^
Chapter One
"ABOMINATION"
Harry remained seated on his chair as he watched other students from all four houses take their leave. He had convinced both Ron and Hermione that he will follow soon after, that he just needed to sit a little, that he just had to give his stomach a bit of rest after loads of eating.
He didn't know why or how, just that he had an appetite for a little bit of everything on the Gryffindor table. 'I missed Hogwarts' was the thought he kept on shoving down his throat to explain the sudden behaviour, though no one really asked. But he was sure to have been given certain strange looks not only from Ron and Hermione, but from his other housemates as well.
Plates and goblets, now emptied of what they were used for, started to disappear and Harry noticed, in quite a slower speed than when they first came into view on the tables with their contents. "Probably decided to take work a bit easier." He murmured, practically to no one else but himself.
Harry gave out a sigh of exhaustion and stood up, only to be blocked by one of the last few people he wished to see at the moment. About a meter away from where his feet rested was Draco Malfoy, accompanied by two other Slytherins, Crabbe and Goyle.
Harry couldn't help releasing a mocking parody of a chuckle. The forty days of burning hell of a rotten summer he spent with the Dursleys were more depressing than ever, if not the same, and with thoughts of his Godfather Sirius swirling around inside his head did the improvement of the way they treated him even count. And now he was facing the son of one of Voldemort's proven, now imprisoned Death Eaters.
'How wonderfully enchanting.' He thought, his face slowly twisting into a scowl.
"How do you feel, Potter?" Draco asked sarcastically, the familiar arrogant sneer gone from his face and with eyes glaring back.
"Whether if I'm feeling extremely happy, sad, or practically sick, as you're well aware that I am sick of you, makes no difference at all as I will tell you only the truth even if I was in the mood to break every single rules in this school-" Harry rested a bit and smiled a scornful smile before continuing, "-the fact that I AM sick of you."
Draco, for once, managed to not make any sort of expression that would reveal his shock, for he really wasn't shocked, and smirked back instead. "Loved that sense of humor of yours, bloody Gryffindor. But how about the fact that I myself recently confirmed your death, Potter? Isn't that something that should concern, let's say, both counterparts?"
Harry noticed Crabbe and Goyle slightly moving forward and smirking, making exhibitions with their right hands punching their left open ones, as if trying to intimidate him, if not motivate him. He focused his eyes on Draco's face once again.
"You want to kill me?" Harry said.
Draco elevated his face up a little at the blatant more-of-a-statement question, though doing a very good job still in keeping his blank expression. He didn't answer.
"Well, aren't you going to take out your wand?" Harry asked, digging his right hand inside his robes, daring Draco to do the same.
"And what have we here?" interrupted the familiar deep, cold voice of professor Snape just before Draco could even move an inch for his wand.
Snape looked from Draco, to Crabbe and Goyle, and then finally, to Harry and his in-the-robe hand. "Mr. Potter, am I to assume that you are once again, in an attempt to demonstrate another rule-breaking action - and as early as the feast night?"
Harry tried hard not to finally put in purpose the already at hand wand.
"Classes haven't even begun yet, and your rubbish classmate of a smart girl Granger is not to race her hand to earn points for your house until tomorrow." Snape's lips curled into a small horrible grin. "So that'll make Granger's recitation, including all the points Gryffindor will ever earn from my class tomorrow - minus five." Without another word, Snape turned his back on Harry, waving the cape of his robe with his left hand and headed away.
"I didn't do anything." Said Harry quickly, not liking the idea of losing points before day one, and making Snape stop from his walking.
Draco looked at Snape and then to Harry, who noticed and glared at him. Draco smirked at the obvious desperation on Harry's face. Things might not have gone as planned but professor Snape's perfect timing of appearance to taunt Harry, though such bother, was enough for him to postpone what he has in mind and enjoy what's offered for now.
"Indeed?" Asked Snape, now looking at Harry's direction, his dark brown (?) eyes piercing through Harry green ones. "So it was not your intention to pick a fight with Mr. Malfoy here?"
"I wasn't trying to pick a fight with him." Said Harry irritably.
Snape didn't say anything for a while, just stared at Harry like he was some sort of entertainment. After seconds of stillness, he smirked (and with a chuckle) and said, "Mr. Potter, go to your house. It is late and I'd be more than glad to have you put in detention first thing tomorrow morning if I must to prevent you from doing more-" Snape was looking as though disgusted about what he's about to say. "-strange things." He then looked at Draco. "Same for you, Mr. Malfoy." And he was gone.
Harry stood there, rage threatening to demolish his last bits of self control. He knew Snape always had something against his father, which wasn't fair considering how Harry was sure he was much less like James, and as Sirius told him so the previous year.
'You're lesser like your father than I thought.' He remembered his Godfather's words, loud and clear, and all but in a good mood. If he ever finds out what keeps Snape's endless resentment from dying away..
"My father's been sent to Azkaban because of you." He heard another cold voice, though this time, coming from behind. He turned around. Draco was still speaking.
"If it weren't for you meddling skunks, my father would still be here. This is all your fault, Potter. You and your trash breed friends."
"So a Slytherin does know what it feels to be human. That's a little surprising." Harry said, his eyes narrowed at Malfoy who was starting to look annoyed. He went on. "No, being able to feel alone is surprising, coming from a Slytherin. And a MALFOY even." Harry made sure Draco noticed the heaviness of the emphasis he used on the name. Draco swallowed.
"You talk so big. Just because you hated my father-" Harry cut him off.
"Let me tell you something, Malfoy." Harry began, exhaustion evident in his tone. "I never had anything against your father. He was a Death Eater and deserved what he got. Deserved all the accusations he was imprisoned for. For they were all but lies."
Draco's eyebrows were threatening to touch. He just simply couldn't believe Harry would ever dare to speak ill about his father. "My father is a highly respected man in the Ministry."
"WAS respected. Until Voldemort and his already, magically tied allies were seen at the Ministry, and by Cornelius Fudge himself too. And the fact that HE, that is to say YOUR father, was part of the plan to lure me to the Ministry, causing Sirius to die! Causing my Godfather to die!"
Draco looked shocked for a moment. "Sirius - Sirius Black? Your Godfather?"
Harry shook. How could he have been so rectless as to reveal what should be kept as a secret?
"I'm going to make you pay, Potter." Draco said, his hands now digging inside his robes also, Crabbe and Goyle following his steps from behind, advancing towards Harry.
Harry glared at them. "Get out of my way."
"You'll pay!"
"EXPELLIARMUS!"
Draco's wand flew high above as he fell painfully on his left elbow. He quickly turned his head here and there, in search of it. Crabbe and Goyle, who watched this happen, turned and were about to launch themselves on Harry when they were greeted by the sight of Harry's best friends, Ron and Hermione.
"Argh, shoot! Where is it?!" Draco growled. Crabbe and Goyle were searching their robes for their wands too.
"Hold it right there!" Ron warned and the two Slytherins stopped dead.
"Harry, what's going on? We waited for you at the common room. You said you were going to be with us in just a moment, right?" Hermione asked looking at Harry, wand still pointed at Draco, who finally got his own. "I'll explain later. We've got to get out-" He trailed off as the same flashing light sent Hermione's wand into the air.
"You're dead, mudblood!" Draco's voice echoed through the great hall, making all six of them froze. Seconds later, footsteps were heard. They began to panic, and started to run off toward their houses.
Harry, Ron and Hermione were just about to disappear behind one of the exits when they heard Draco's voice behind them.
"Potter!" They stopped and turned around.
"I'll get you. You, your weasel friend, and that meddlesome braniac of a mudblood. Mark my words." Harry felt both annoyed and amused that he couldn't help but produce a bad smirk along with a matching horrible chuckle. They then turned their back on the other three as Draco and his two companions did the same.
After all six students were gone, Filch's rough figure of a man, along with his cat, Mrs. Norris, appeared in the Great Hall. Filch grabbed a wand left deserted on the floor and examined it carefully. As he did so, a smirk widened his pale lips and pocketed the thin stick of a wood.
"Just what was that all about?" Ron said, right after they gave the password to the fat lady and got inside the Gryffindor common room.
"Yeah, what was that about, Harry?" Hermione added. "You'd be in trouble if a teacher finds you two in a duel, you know."
"Somebody already did."
"WHAT?!" Bellowed Ron.
"Ron! Ssshh!" Hermione hissed, a finger over her lips.
"Listen." Harry began. "Can we talk about this tomorrow morning? I'm a little tired."
"But Harry-" Hermione trailed off.
"Please."
Hermione looked at Ron for support, who shook his head. "If Harry says he's tired, we can't force him to speak."
Hermione only rolled her eyes. "Oh, fine." She made her way towards the door of the girls' dormitory.
"Oh and uh, Hermione?" Harry called after her. Hermione turned. "Thanks."
"It's nothing." She then smiled and finally got inside and shut the door behind her.
Harry turned to Ron, who was changing into his pyjamas. "Thanks Ron."
"No problem, mate. You go to sleep. We'll talk tomorrow. Okay?"
Harry nodded and went and sat on his four-poster without bothering to change clothes.
"Night, mate." He heard Ron say.
"Night, Ron." He said.
Harry made sure Ron was fully asleep before opening his trunk and pulling out a small black (?) mirror. It was given to him by Sirius. Why he didn't open it earlier to find out useful it really was, was a mystery even to him. He wouldn't have gone to that horrible Dolores Umbridge's office and use her fire to check up on his Godfather if he already knew about the mirror back then. So why didn't he open it?
'Simple.' Said Harry in his mind. 'Because I thought it wasn't something like it is and abandoned it in my trunk when it could, or should have been put in use.'
He looked at his lined reflection on the broken part of it. 'I'm such a mess.' He thought to himself. 'So miserable. My face tells it all.' Then he noticed his unruly mess of black hair. 'Maybe if I..'
Harry returned to his trunk and grabbed another item - a comb. He stared at it, amazed. The comb looked really new, though it had been bought about six years ago, before he started his first year. He smiled and brought it to his raven locks.
By the time he finished dealing with his hair, he again took the small mirror and looked at himself. He looked better, indeed, though something was still missing. He wondered.
Finally, he took off his glasses and got a little of his bangs to rest just above his forehead and looked really pleased at the result. His vision was less clearer without his glasses, especially during the night. But he'll get used to it, he convinced himself.
The next day was breezy and oddly quiet. Harry got himself out of bed and by the look on the mirror he was holding, he made quite a mess with his hair again. He headed for the showers and when he got out, went back to his four-poster and grabbed the comb he used the previous night to arrange his hair for the second time.
"This is starting to become a daily activity." He said out loud.
"What is?" He turned at the sound of the voice. Ron was just getting up, his hair also a mess.
"Nothing." He answered, smiling slightly.
Ron too went to the showers and changed into his school robes before accompanying Harry down the Great Hall for breakfast. Hermione was waiting for them at the common room and immediately joined them right after they came out of the boys dormintory.
"So who was it?" Asked Ron.
"Who's who?" Asked Harry back.
"The one who saw you and that git in the hall?"
"Oh, that. It was Snape."
"Good heavens." Gasped Hermione.
"But we weren't in a fight yet. Until he left, that is. Malfoy and I almost killed each other." Said Harry calmly. "Anyway, remember when he and his assistants tried to stop me from riding the train back to platform nine and three quarters, two months ago, just last school year ender?"
Ron and Hermione looked at each other, puzzled. "Yeah?"
"Well, something sort of happened earlier." Harry said. "You see, a day later after Voldemort's" - Ron gasped at the name and his ears turned bright pink - "Death Eaters including Lucius Malfoy, his father, were caught, Malfoy came to me and said that I'm dead. That's probably why he attacked me then and why he did it now."
"Wait a minute." Said Ron. "You're saying that Mafloy's little rant disturbs you?"
Harry looked at him like he's never seen anything quite like Ron before. So did Hermione. "No, of course not. Just that Hermione here was asking about what was going on, and so were you. Hermione here, for once, wasn't paying enough attention though, and got her wand blew away into the air by Malfoy."
Hermione paled and looked as though she just failed an exam for a major subject. "Oh, my gosh!"
Harry and Ron looked at each other. "What's up, Hermione?" They both asked.
"My wand!" She practically screamed, horrified. "My wand! I forgot to get my wand!"
"Well, come on, let's go get it." Said Ron. "It's not as though we'll walk a mile back to the house, right? We'll wait for you outside the common room."
"No, no! When Malfoy blew it away, I forgot to get it!"
"So?" Said Ron.
"So, Ron, we heard footsteps last night remember? It was a teacher I'm sure of it, or someone who has an authority to walk on the school grounds at night. Like Filch! "What if that someone found my wand and put me in detention?!"
"Aw, get a grip Hermione. A house-elf could have found it."
"AW!!!" She stormed, leaving the two of them behind with a frown on their faces.
"But what if a superior did find it?" Asked Harry.
Ron looked as though he just realised something and said, "Or someone as worse as Snape."
They looked at each other and laughed. They could have been a bit happier if it weren't for professor Snape who seemed to appear out of nowhere and in front of them.
"Well, well, well." Snape said in his usual harsh tone. "If it isn't the two top ranking rule-breakers of Hogwarts."
Harry and Ron didn't say anything. Ron's ears were beginning to turn bright pink again.
"Potter, Weasley, come with me."
The two of them followed Snape to his office. Once they got in, they were greeted by the sight of Draco Malfoy and his to allies, Crabbe and Goyle. And someone who Harry thought wasn't suppose to be there ; Filch the care taker.
"Mr. Filch here found something very interesting in the Great Hall just last night that he couldn't believe a student would throw it away like some used rag doll."
Harry and Ron remained quiet. Snape spoke again.
"And M. Mafloy here reported to me that he and his friends knew something about someone that we, the superiors don't. what could that be, Potter?"
"I don't know, sir." Said Harry.
"Weasley?"
"No idea, sir."
Snape smirked. "Filch." He called the care taker in a tone as if ordering him to do something.
"Yes, sir." Filch said and left the office.
About fifteen minutes later, Filch returned with Hermione on his side, holding her upper arm as if she some sort of prison.
"Good, good. Now," Snape's smirk grew even wider. "Wands out!"
Harry took out his wand. So did Ron, Draco, Crabbe and Goyle. Hermione showed nothing.
"Well, Ms. Granger?"
"I- I lost my wand, sir."
"When?"
"The day before yesterday, sir."
"The day before yesterday." Snape repeated. "Why didn't you buy a new one?"
"I had no time, sir."
"Indeed?" Snape didn't seem convinced. "Ms. Granger, I suggest you get yourself ready for what I'm about to give you."
Hermione swallowed.
"You," Snape continued, "The six of you, will be on detention every afternoon for the whole week."
"Excuse me, sir, but I think you said, the six of us?" Asked Draco, bewildered. His assistants from behind were looking dead weak.
Harry, Ron and even Hermione were smiling at this.
"Yes, I did, Mr. Malfoy."
Draco couldn't believe it. This was the second time it happened. The first was during their first year, when professor Mcgonagall sent not only the three of them, but including Draco also for staying up late just Harry, Ron and Hermione did.
Draco glared at Harry, who glared back. And then he noticed that Harry wasn't wearing his glasses and that his hair was combed and looked better, making his raven locks shinier and his green eyes more visible.
"All six of you, will spent the rest of your afternoons for this week cleaning my dungeons. No magic. Malfoy, you're to pair up with Weasley. Crabbe, you're with Granger. Goyle, stay with Potter."
The day went on and the six of them were cleaning without speaking to their partners. There were certain occasions were Harry would almost make Goyle swallow the rug in great irritation or Ron desiring more than anything to smack the cloth against Draco's face.
"Oh my - Harry!" Gasped Hermione.
"My, doing a good job for a first timer at detention, aren't you, Hermione?" Said Ron.
"No, not that, look!" Hermione waved what seemed like a copy of the Daily Prophet.
Harry frowned. What could be in the Daily Prophet that got Hermione's interest so easily?
"What's on?" Asked Harry, curious.
"Look! It's this! It's Si-" She stopped.
"It's okay. He knows." Said Harry, knowing what Hermione must be thinking, pointing towards Draco.
"He does? How come?" Asked Ron, confused.
"It's a long story, Ron." Harry returned to Hermione and made a face as though she looked different for a moment. "Were you just about to say my Godfather's name?"
Hermione nodded. "I was about to get my copy when Filch snatched my arm."
Harry's green eyes widened and grabbed the news paper from Hermione and began to read.
"Famous Harry Potter," Draco began. "Godson of a massive murderer. Wait 'till the whole school finds out."
"Maybe you'd like to take that back." Said Harry looking at him directly, though without any sense of anger, mocking humour, or even true amusement.
"Oh yeah? Why?" Harry threw at him the Daily Prophet and he too read the headlining news of the day ;
SIRIUS BLACK - CLEARED!
It was approximately nine weeks ago when a group of Death Eaters were caught in the Department of Mystery, and nine weeks ago when He-Who-Must- Not-Be-Named were seen by the head of the Ministry himself, Cornelius Fudge, and a plenty amount of other witnesses including Harry Potter, Albus Dumbledore and some other Ministry staffs. There was one however, a Death Eater who had managed to escape with the dark lord whose name is Bellatrix Lestrange, also known as the cousin of Sirius Black. The caught Death Eaters, probably seeing no hope in ever escaping again, told what they knew, thus enabling people at the Ministry what was unknown. A topic lead to another, and then finally to Sirius Black who have been in the mind of the public since three years ago when he was first announced to have escaped. It has been long believed that Black was responsible for the deaths of thirteen people about sixteen years ago and is still responsible for the escape of the now re-imprisoned Death Eaters. But a story from the captured dark lord loyalists says otherwise..
"Now, wait a sec - you knew?" Asked Ron.
"Just this morning, Weasel." Replied Draco, unenthusiastically.
"Did Harry tell you?" Asked Hermione.
"He slipped, mudblood." Both Ron Hermione were trying hard to keep their temper as to not suddenly smack Draco in the face.
"And them?" Asked Ron again, pointing at Crabbe and Goyle's direction this time.
"They're dumb."
"Hey," Breathed Hermione. "Where's Harry?"
Draco and Ron began to look around. "Now that you've mentioned it, I think he's ran outside." Said Ron.
Harry walked in the castle's corridor in a subdued manner, not bothering to worry if Snape will give him extra detention for what he did.
'And this is what you left me to live with, Sirius.' He thought, feeling quite pathetic. 'Pure misery.' Harry again took out the small mirror from his pocket and looked at himself throught it. 'Well, misery always has been my company since day one in this life. Even if I comb my hair nice.'
He looked deeper in the broken mirror, as if searching more than just his mere reflection. 'You bastard. Why did you have to die? Your name's all cleared now. But you're not here to know about it. What about me? I thought we were going to live together.. I wish I could just forget about you, so we both can save ourselves a lot of grief. But when I think your promise your broken promise..'
Harry dropped to his knees and tried hard to blink back uninvited tears.
Life sure is not fair.
TO BE CONTINUED
Author's Note : I tried HARD to keep them in character. And to make the Slash factor not as blatant as it is in conventional smutty Slash fanfics out there. (NOT that I don't enjoy them though! I love NC- 17 Slash!)
Good? Bad? Review please! ^_^