By Your Side
Chapter One:
Lost It All
Disclaimer: The characters and settings are not mine. Whatever you don't recognize is (most likely). The rest belongs to J.K Rowling, Warner Bros., etc.
Rating: NC-17 for mature, Slash/lemon boyxboy goodness, violence, morbidity, what-have-you.
Summary: Harry really did get expelled from Hogwarts the summer before Fifth Year and has to attend Durmstrang Academy for Magic. Draco Malfoy is sent on an explicit mission by his Father to protect Harry at all costs, bringing him home to Hogwarts as soon as possible.
A/N: Hey there! This is my newest FanFiction, and it is a work in progress! This one might take some time, but don't worry no more than a few months work (at most)! It is a little darker than my usual Fics, but I still hope you all enjoy. Please review, it is greatly appreciated! =D This is also a song-fic, hope that's no problem! The song in this chapter is 'Lost It All' by Avenged Sevenfold.
A thousand, wonderful, large thanks to my grandest Beta, PeruvianDarkness!
Run away
I'm living with a hole inside
A piece of me that I have yet to find
The edge of reason lies uneven
Turn me off, feel the blood so cold
Like a product that was bought in salt
Asking me for the impossible.
I ain't waiting for a miracle
I ain't waiting for the world to change
Under my skin lives the reason
Under my armor I lost it all
No more pain
No saviour made of our design
Fool me before I tell ya not this time
Rape my body, lost my vision, lost my mind
I had to let it go
Another day living irrational
Another day inside the dying soul.
XXXX
"Inflictum!"
The tall, lean, greying brunette easily deflected the attack sent at him in the form of a ruby red bolt. His dark, sunken eyes quickly caught hold of his target from across the yard. He raised his ebony seven-inch-long wand and bellowed, "Trinusias!"
On the opposite side of the narrow yard, a boy of only fifteen years-old knew immediately to look down at his feet. Suddenly, the long blades of sunburnt grass seemed to jump at him, coming to life and yanking at his ankles. He pointed his own wand downward and whispered, "Finite". However, as he was making the charm vanish, his attacker had moved close enough so that his wand was only at an arm's length from the boy.
The older man smirked playfully, "Vinvi-"
"Umbra Perago!" the boy interrupted. While darkness enveloped the older man, the raven-haired youth crouched and moved around to the back of his trainer. "Attonitus," he said with ease; out of his wand a murky white light rushed forward to hit the other in the back of the head, rendering him completely still.
Harry Potter wiped the sweat from his brow, which lay underneath his rounded glasses, then moved his messy fringe out of the way from his dull, emerald coloured eyes, flashing his lightning-bolt scar. He came to stand in front of Sirius Black, his Godfather and sighed lazily.
"Was that good enough?" he asked, waving his hand over the man, lifting the stunning hex.
"That was fantastic!"
"That was forty-five minutes, that was!" a third voice called from the tall, dilapidated House of Black. Leaning against the kitchen back doorway was Remus Lupin, looking tired from the full moon that had occurred only two nights prior as he narrowed his eyes at the men. "Lunch is ready, and has been for over an hour!" he called again, glaring at them. Sirius grinned largely and threw his arm over Harry's shoulders, leaning lightly against him.
"Oh, shove off Moony! We were doing Duelling Practice!" Sirius said, then stuck his tongue out.
Remus rolled his eyes and slunk back into the kitchen. Harry and Sirius entered, smiling over at Ron and Hermione, who were already sitting down and helping themselves to the prepared sandwiches. They filled their own plates, but for some reason Harry didn't start eating as he solemnly placed his head in his hands on the table top.
"So, how was practice today?" Remus asked conversationally.
"He's beaten me every time for the past two weeks. I must say that he's improved drastically," Sirius complimented, nudging Harry playfully in the side... but the raven-haired boy just ignored the jibe.
He was exhausted, that much was plain to see. There were massive crow's feet underneath both of his bored eyes, his matted hair looked as if it hadn't been washed in weeks, and his mouth was turned downwards, stuck in a permanent frown.
"You have to eat, Harry," Hermione said softly from across the table.
Harry slowly looked up to meet her eyes. The complete sadness that filled his own startled her, "I have too much on my mind to eat anything," he mumbled.
Everyone sent him worrying glances but didn't say anything else. They ate silently for a few minutes. "It's all pure rubbish, this is," Ron said finally, throwing his sandwich down on his plate and pushing his chair backwards. He crossed his arms and seemed to be pouting.
"Dumbledore will fix it soon. I know he will," Hermione said hopefully, smiling comfortingly at Harry who shrugged.
"It's quite difficult, though, for even Albus to overrule the Minister. That is why we must await a second trial, but, sadly, we're not being given one until Christmas," Remus explained softly.
"Fudge is a damned fool, he's too blind to see that Voldemort's returned and he's taking away Dumbledore's 'weapon' just to hit him where it hurts. He's a bloody coward," Sirius spat, whenever they directly spoke about the Trial in which Harry was expelled from Hogwarts for using Underage Wizardry, the older man would always become livid.
"They have to keep Harry safe at Durmstrang as well, it's not like Headmaster Karkaroff is going to hand him over to Death Eaters,"
"Igor Karkaroff is a Death Eater, 'Mione," Ron groaned, "And going to school there is like going to school with bloody Slytherins. Only Slytherins!"
Harry sighed loudly as everybody turned towards him, "There's nothing we can do about it so let's just drop it already,"
"But, Harry, it'll be so dangerous-"
"Well, what do you expect me to do, Ron? Stay here with Sirius and Buckbeak all year round?" Harry snapped and rubbed his temples frustratingly, "That's what all this training is for. So I can defend myself against all those ruddy bastards that go there,"
"Not to mention all the bleeding studying," Ron mumbled sadly. Harry had been tiring himself out, attempting to catch up and surpass all of the learning which would be down at Durmstrang. Their curriculum wasn't quite like Hogwarts, even though most of their classes were the same. Theirs were centred around using the Dark Arts instead of defending against them, even in classes such as Charms and Transfigurations.
"Speaking of, I should go. Thanks for lunch, Remmy," Harry said, and before anybody could even mention him not eating again, he was out of the room and dragging himself up the stairs. He passed all of the bedrooms and immediately went for the third floor which held only the study. It was a small study, lined with dusty family heirloom books all containing dark material. There was a single window in the room, in the corner above a small wooden desk which held Harry's temporary Potion set.
Harry hated this room, but it was the only place he could get peace and quiet in the entire household so he could concentrate on his reading and brewing. He had always been wretched in Potions, so he had to pay particular attention to studying it over the summer. At Durmstrang, Potions was one of the foremost courses. He was just glad he wouldn't have to deal with Professor Severus Snape as his teacher any longer.
Sighing, he settled down in front of his set where a batch of Deadly Sleep was being brewed. To which a touch to the lips of the liquid would cause instant a coma, one where the drinker could be revived by only one specific counter-potion. It had just finished setting for exactly twenty four and a half hours, which should be the perfect time to add the last batch of ingredients.
Harry took hold of his knife and uncorked a bottle of Doxy Eggs, of which he chopped up two into sixths. He grabbed the ladle, took the lid off of the thick, green potion and stirred to clockwise as he added the eggs. Then came the Worsmwart and Acromantula venom, provided by Hagrid,- Harry stirred for sixteen more turns before stopping. He peered down into the heated Potion, which had now turned a lighter green and had thinned out. It looked perfect, so he bottled a couple of samples. One for a trial, and others for later if they were to become necessary at school which started in one week. Now he just had to brew the counter-potion just as perfectly so he could test them out.
There was a soft knock at the library door. Harry took out his wand and turned around to greet Hermione who was stepping into the room, biting her lower lip. "How is the potion coming along?" she asked tentatively.
"Finished, I do believe. Just need to clean up," he said, placing the vials on the table and waving his wand over the cauldron, "Scourgify," it wiped itself clean.
Hermione came over slowly to help put the ingredients away into the small ingredient cupboard to the left of the desk. "And how are you doing, Harry?" she asked gently, reaching out to place her hand on Harry's shoulder.
He quickly shrugged it off, not particularly fond of all the pity he was receiving lately. "Fine," he muttered.
"Just fine?"
Harry stood up and pocketed the vials, "What else am I supposed to be? Ecstatic? Depressed? What more do you want from me?" he growled, fists clenched. Hermione's eyes fell down to the scar on Harry's right wrist; it was still purple from where Wormtail had cut him to bring Voldemort back to life merely two and a half months ago.
"It-It's just that... you're so distant lately, Harry. We're all so worried. We just want to help..." she was whispering softly, approaching him from behind, he relaxed slightly but still seemed highly agitated.
"There's nothing more to do, okay. I just need to study," Harry mumbled, attempting to sound reassuring but sounding anything but.
"Harry, you're not gonna believe this!" Ron groaned loudly, entering the study with a newspaper crunched in his hands.
"What's Skeeter writing now?" he sighed.
"Page Four," Ron ordered, thrusting The Daily Prophet at Harry who took it from his best friend and opened it up.
There, in the middle of page four, as a family portrait of the Malfoy's looking prim and proper. Harry looked immediately to the boy in the middle, smirking that infamous smirk. His hair seemed to have grown since the school year, it was an even lighter blonde and it fell delicately around his intense silver eyes that pierced through the photograph. He was leaning on one foot, his arms crossed and his pointed nose held high in the air, his chin jutted out aristocratically. The Malfoy signet ring shone off his left index finger, caught by the flash of the camera.
Harry quickly scanned the article- by the time he was finished he was glaring daggers at it. His emerald eyes burned, his hands clenched around the paper, almost tearing it in two. A dark aura seemed to resonate around him, Hermione even backed away instinctively. His emotions were so influential on his magical core as of late, for he had grown in power nearly tenfold since the beginning of summer as he was finally developing his natural abilities.
"What does it say?" Hermione asked, directed at Ron who was eyeing Harry carefully, making sure he didn't break something nearby.
"Malfoy's going to Durmstrang too starting September. His Father said Dumbledore-"
"Professor," Hermione corrected.
"Professor Dumbledore," Ron continued with an eye-roll, "couldn't offer a sufficient enough education or some codswallop. Went on-and-on about how successful and worthy Karkaroff is, yada-yada-yada. It's all bull, anyway, we know it's just a ploy to get Malfoy in there to spy on Harry,"
"We don't know that!"
"We know Lucius is a Death Eater," Ron shrugged, shoving his hands in his pockets, "Why else would he suddenly make him change schools when Harry does? Obviously he has been spying on him for the past five years,"
"Malfoy's always wanted to go to Durmstrang," Harry thoughtfully said to himself, recalling when he first met the blonde five years ago in Madame Malkin's Robes For All Occasions. The youngest Malfoy had been rambling on about how much better Durmstrang is than Hogwarts.
Hermione and Ron shot Harry a strange look for the comment, "Whatever the reason, Malfoy's there now and he's the worst of all the snakes," Ron snarled gloomily.
"Fucking arsehole, always makes things worse," Harry mumbled angrily, thrust the paper down onto the ground and stormed out of the library.
'Great, not only do I have to leave Hogwarts and go to Durmstrang with a bunch of Death Eater Wannabes but now I have to deal with the prat prince. Fucking Malfoy,' he thought to himself, storming all the way down to his room that he shared with Ron right beside the Master, Sirius', bedroom.
Harry nearly threw himself down on his bed where books and scribbled parchment notes lay, he grabbed the first thing he could and began reading. It was his Wandless magic book he had found in the library. A few moments later, Ron and Hermione were at his door, walking in without even knocking. He glared up at them from over his pages, "I'm studying, come back later,"
"About Malf-"
"I don't want to think about Malfoy, Ron, so kindly piss off," Harry whispered through clenched teeth, his eyes returning to his pages. Ron was about to protest but Hermione quickly pulled him from the room, softly closing the door behind them.
Harry decided to keep reading, to keep studying to keep his thoughts as far away from Malfoy as possible, not wanting him to make a terrible situation worse. It was safe to say that Harry was stuck in his room the rest of the day and night, fearing that if he left the comfort of his books and magic all thoughts would rush back to reality all too soon.
Burn it all
Burn it to the fucking ground
Believe the words that I don't want me around
Life with vision, indecision
World collision and heads will roll
With nothing left except the pain to show
Mental imagery on the floor.
I ain't waiting for a miracle
I ain't waiting for the world to change
Under my skin lives the reason
Under my armor I lost it all.