I DO NOT OWN HARRY POTTER, ETC. IF I DID I WOULD BE FILTHY RICH, AND SURE AS HELL WOULD NOT BE WRITING THIS HERE.
(All chapters will be headed by a song title and performing artist, these songs are one that I think fit in with the story line, and I would recommend you check them out, coz they are great songs.)
This story is set in Harry's final year of Hogwarts; all events occurring in the books are the same except for the events of the past year.
In this story none of the Death Eater stuff happened at Hogwarts.
Instead there have been numerous attempted murders of Dumbledore, though none have succeeded, Voldemort has been steadily recruiting Death Eaters and now has a small army, and at the end of the last school year, said army launched an attack on Durmstrang, and almost all there were killed.
Chapter 1
I don't like Mondays – Boomtown Rats
Draco stormed loudly down the train carriage, fuming. Why was it that his two closest, dare he say it, friends, had to be complete morons, sure having them as 'friends' had its advantages, they had talents one could suppose, they were big, brawny, Goyle could fit his fist in his mouth, and he had to admit they had connections of a sort. But really, all else aside, they were morons, whose only qualities that were in any way redeemable, were their ability to do what they were told, when they were told, without questions and the fact that they seemed totally devoid of morals, however these too could be attributed to their enormous stupidity.
It seemed that Crabbe and Goyle had failed to develop brains over the summer; their most recent act of stupidity having highlighted this.
Goyle, unfortunately for Draco, had made mention of a certain young lady, who had provided Draco with some degree of companionship over the summer. This mentioning, had resulted in somewhat ugly incident, in which Pansy had discovered a number of his discrepancies, particularly in regards to their relationship.
Due to this, Draco would not be getting close to her for awhile.
Slowly, as Draco's thoughts began to turn to joys of the past summer, he realised he had almost reached the train's end. Not to be taken as a fool, he quickly selected a nearby and empty looking compartment, and entered.
The compartment, however, was not as empty as it seemed, seated in the far corner was a waif of a girl. From the door Draco studied her sleeping face, he had never seen her before, a fact he sure of, "a face like that I would have remembered" he thought silently to himself, yet she was too old to be a first year, and too young to be a teacher, as such he could only surmise that she had in fact transferred schools at least midway through her schooling.
As he continued to stand, face still flushed with anger, the girl began to moan and struggle in her sleep, for a moment he watched her, hoping she would wake, yet she did not and soon tears began to spring from her eyes. Seeing her continued distress, Draco walked hesitantly towards her until he stood before her. Crouching to see her face properly, he gently placed his hand on her shoulder and began to shake it ever so lightly, fearing that he would hurt her due to her delicacy. She did not wake, so he shook harder, yet still she did not wake, and the tears continued to pour from her eyes and moans still escaped her clenched lips. She could only be under the spell of a sleeping potion, he concluded, and was tempted to leave on this realisation, yet he could not, such was her distress. So he stood again, then sat down next to her.
Deep within her troubled sleep, the girl must have felt him next to her, and his hand rubbing her back in comfort, so she huddled towards him, and the moans began to subside though tears continued.
-o-o-o-
Some time later, Draco heard footsteps and voices, in the almost silent carriage. As they drew closer he began to recognise the voices, they belonged to some of his least liked year mates. They were, as he liked to think of them, Potter and co.
They took their time, as at least two of them were bickering, and though usually he would have listened to what they were saying for future verbal ammo, he became distracted. The girl's breathing had become heavy and ragged, she began moaning once more, but suddenly it all abated, there was a sharp intake of breath, the moaned name "Dom", a bite to the lips, and soon blood began to trickle slowly from her once perfect lips.
Without thinking he grasped at his cloak, which he had changed into earlier, and held to her mouth, soaking up the blood. As this action was completed, the door slid open once more, to reveal, Potter and co, fuelled by an anger that surprised even him, he glared at Potter, who was in his eyes the ringleader of a circus freak show, "this compartment, is full Potter, take yourself, the mudblood and the weasel somewhere else, my personal recommendation is off the side of the train".
"Malfoy, there is more than enough room for all of us in this compartment, and as much as it pains me, we must force our company upon you, as all the other compartments are full" replied Hermione in a furious but controlled voice.
"I'm sorry, but I have to agree with the man", said a voice from behind them. "As such I do believe, that I must ask you, Malfoy was it, to leave, as my sister and I were here first."
With that the girl began to break through the barrier of sleep and lifted her tearful and bleeding face to the door.
Soon a hulk of a man, struggled through the crowd outside the carriage. He was huge, to the point that he could be likened to a bear, but had a wolf like grace about him. He could only be described as intimidating, and though Draco could see the similarities between the man and the girl, he found it hard to believe him to be her brother, simply because of his size and strength, and her seeming lack of it.
As soon as the man saw her face, his previously calm face began to morph into one of absolute rage, yet after looking deep into her eyes, he smothered it and in voice more fearsome due to his control, he requested that Draco "please leave us, now."
Draco rose and left almost immediately, with nothing but a goodbye glance at the girl. He had gotten in enough trouble last year, this was his final year and he did not wish to start detention the moment he arrived; besides had he stayed, a trip to the infirmary would have been imminent.
-o-o-o-
The moment Draco left the carriage, the man rushed to his sister, he knelt down before her, and wrapt his arms around her.
In a voice only she could hear, he whispered, "Tiges, oh Tiges, you dreamt again didn't you. Please let me give you something stronger next time, you can't keep doing this to yourself, I know you want to face your demons, but this is too much, you haven't slept unaided for a month. Please let me help you. Just talk to me."
She didn't respond, only nuzzled closer into his shoulder and sobbed.
Aware, that they were being watched, the man moved so that he was seated next to her, in much the same way that Draco had been, then turned to the crowd still outside the door and beckoned them in.
"Come on in, you'll only block up the passage if you stay there"
Led by Harry, Hermione, Ron, Neville, Luna and Ginny slowly sidled in.
Fearful of an uncomfortable silence which might descend on them and remain for the rest of the trip, Harry spoke, "Hi, I'm Harry", the rest followed, introducing themselves, one by one.
"Yeah, hi, I'm Dominic, but call me Dom. This here, is my twin sister, you can call her Tiger, just don't ask why."
"So, I suppose you and your sister are new, though if you'll forgive me saying so, you do look a little old to be first years", said Ginny in a ploy for information.
"You're right we are new, and we are a little too old to be first years, which would explain why this is our final year"
"I take it then that you transferred to Hogwarts", questioned Hermione as she waded into the conversation.
With a quick glance at Tiger, Dom replied, "Yeah, Tiger and I were at Durmstrang…"
Abruptly there was a united gasp from the listeners, and silence followed.
Harry, left uninformed over the summer, due to owl problems, had no idea as to what Dom referred, and as such asked the question, "Why did you leave".
This too was met by a silence, though more uncomfortable than any other he had ever encountered, and to add to his personal discomfort no one bar Dom would look at him.
After staring intently at Harry, for what seemed like hours, but only moments, Dom began to speak, all the while comforting Tiger.
"On the last day of the school year, a small army of Death Eaters, many of which were students, descended upon Durmstrang. The entire staff and most of the student body were butchered and murdered in the worst possible ways, of those who were there and survived, most were sent mad. I was lucky, I wasn't there when it happened, but I saw the aftermath, Tiger saw the whole thing, and only just survived. She's probably the only person who was there that didn't go mad or die."
"I'm so sorry"
-o-o-o-
For the majority of the trip afterwards, silence ensued, only broken by Tiger's occasional whimper, though eventually even that stopped.
The only other semblance of a conversation, afterwards, occurred when once again Trevor, Neville's frog, escaped his grasp and launched himself straight onto Tiger. Surprisingly, this did not shake her, and as Neville bent towards her to retrieve his Houdini-like frog, Dom simply said "don't worry about the frog, Tiger is quite fond of animals, so he will not bother her".
With that Tiger began to gently stroke Trevor's ever swelling and shrinking chin, and slowly a small smile reached her otherwise dead eyes, though there was no sign of one at her mouth.
I hope you enjoyed this, the first chapter.
Feel free to review, but please be constructive in your criticism as otherwise it is pointless and benefits no one.
