I was once an innocent boy.
I was once just a naive child treading the waters.
But then they came and dragged me down as wave after wave came crashing down on me.
I was once golden. But they came and colored me black.
I once smiled and laughed freely. But those muscles have forgotten that motion by now, and my ears don't remember that musical sound anymore. Instead, I can easily twist my face into a cold sneer, and my ears are filled with insane cackles and tortured screams.
Like any other child, I had a few cracks. But they came and fixed them. I had a family. I had friends.
Oh, how innocent I was back then.
They came and shattered that carefree life, abolished those happy memories, and ripped off the bandages that they had put on in the first place. They demolished my spirit. They completely and utterly destroyed me.
My whole life had been a lie. I thought that was the end. I would rot away in some dank cell, forever tortured by those looks of hatred and disgust in their faces until the day I died.
I thought I was just a lost soul, waiting for death to find me. I thought I was broken beyond repair.
But my thoughts of despair turned to revenge. It had started with a single tendril, but that tendril grasped hold of my other thoughts until I was consumed by it, conquered by it.
I stayed that way for a long time, until the day I conquered it. That was day everything changed. That was the day i became Hell.
The end of the world is coming. You will know it when you see. Many think it will be the glowing Dark Mark hovering above Hogwarts. But they are wrong.
The end of the world will be reflected in my jaded eyes.
I am Harry Potter, and this is my story.
O•O•O
"Harry, my boy, how could you?" These were the first words Harry heard when he awoke from his sleep.
"What?" he asked groggily, his mind still transitioning from his dreams to the real world. For once he remembered his vivid dreams.
He'd been having these dreams for almost a month now, but when he woke up, they would always be just out of reach as if teasing him. Nevertheless, he knew there was something important about the dreams. He'd always wake up with a sense of urgency but no account of what brought it on. This had frustrated him so much so he couldn't possibly be blamed for ignoring Dumbledore in favor of exploring his dream.
In his dream there had been a room full of bright white light.
Harry blinked open his eyes and immediately snapped them shut to escape the blinding light attacking his vision. Disoriented, he had stumbled around for a while, unable to see. Suddenly, there a noise, a purr to be exact, sounding from behind him. Panicking, he opened his eyes to try to locate the source of the noise.
"Aaaaargh!" he cried out as the light assaulted him once more. "Who's there," he asked and after receiving another purr in return he said, "I'm not afraid to fight you!"
Harry dug for his wand but came up with nothing. His breath was coming in gasps now. This creature had stolen his wand! He was defenseless, Harry realized.
Sirius. Hermione. Ron. Mrs. Weasley. Dumbledore. Remus. He couldn't leave them behind.
Bending his knees into a fighting stance Harry raised his fists. He wasn't going down without a fight.
"Child, open your eyes."
The voice was mesmerizing, and Harry was compelled to obey. The Imperius curse, fight it Harry, fight it. Whoever this was, they were dark. They were evil. Was this a plot of Voldemort's?
The person chuckled sadly. "Oh child, look at what they have done to you. Open your eyes."
Squeezing his eyes shut, Harry fought against the command. The person wanted to render him blind and disoriented so he would be easier prey. Well he wouldn't do it. He would fight. He would-
"OPEN YOUR EYES." The voice was hypnotizing and powerful. It was enticing. It was light and dark at the same time, and Harry had no choice but to obey the voice, all thoughts of fighting had left him.
As he was cracking his eyes open, Harry suddenly realized what he was doing. Helpless to control his own action, Harry stood there, waiting of the inevitable.
Time seemed to slow down as he thought for what creative awaited him. Was it Voldemort? Had sent summoned some kind of demon from Hell? It had to be something dark, for to control someone else's will or action was dark right? It had to be-
His mother? The first thing Harry registered was a beautiful women with flaming red and hair and sparkling green eyes. The same eyes he looked into every morning. The same eyes he saw staring back at him when he looked into the Mirror and Erised.
"Mum?" he choked out, ignoring the lump the size of Britain lodged in his throat. "Mum? What are you doing here?"
His mother smiled sadly at him. "Oh Harry, look at what they've to you." Her emerald eyes were filled with sorrow and regret.
"Mum? What are you talking about? Whose done what to me? I'm fine. I mean as fine as I can be with a mad man after me."
Again his mother smiled. "Yes, Albus Dumbledore is quite the mad man."
Harry choked. "What!? Dumbledore? I'm talking about Voldemort. Mum, what's wrong? You know, Voldemort. The man who killed you."
His mum just continued to smile sadly at him.
The edges of his visit started to fade and it was only then that Harry remembered where he was. "Mum! Don't leave! Please Mum, please stay. Please, I miss you." Harry hated how his voice had cracked at the end. He was a fighter. He couldn't cry.
His mum just smiled that haunting smile of hers. "Oh Harry, why can't you see what they've done to you."
Harry jerked back into reality and found himself staring into the face of Albus Dumbledore. Against his will, the words of his mother came floating back to the front of his mind.
Yes, Albus Dumbledore is quite the mad man.
Disoriented, Harry shook his head. Unfortunately, Dumbledore had apparently asked him a question and took his shake of a head as a negative response.
"I see." said the Headmaster, his tone turning cold and his eye losing their constant twinkle. "I'm afraid then that you will have to be arrested for murder."
Harry's eyes widened. What?
"I'm sorry sir, I wasn't quite listening and so, I did not hear the question. You must've taken my shake of the head as a response to your question, but I was actually trying to dispel some thoughts in my head." Harry hurriedly trie to explain. Azkaban? Did Dumbledore just try to send hi to Azkaban? What was going on?
"Harry Potter do not try to lie your way out of this. I have fed you with Veritaserum. The truth has been revealed. Aurora, seize him." Dumbledore thundered down at Harry, and for once Harry was truly frightened of the Headmaster. He could see why Dumbledore was the leader of the light. He truly was powerful enough to rival Voldemort.
Turning back to Harry, Dumbledore spoke, "I was afraid that you would become too much like Tom Riddle. It appears that my fears have come true. Really, how could you kill your own family Harry."
Widening his eyes Harry froze. How could they suspect him of killing his family? Sure they didn't get along but…
Suddenly there was a commotion outside the door and Ron and Hermione came storming in. Harry breathed a sigh of relief. They would defend him. They knew that he would never-
"How could you, you- you SLIMY SNAKE!"
"We trusted you"
"You're no better than Voldemort."
"You've probably already joined with that bastard."
"Yeah, probably killed Cedric yourself too."
Harry watched, stunned, with tears slipping freely down his cheeks as his best friends turned on him. How could they believe he had actually killed someone? Didn't they know him?
Thinking back to the fights with Ron and Hermione, Harry concluded that Ron was still blinded by his thoughts of fame and prejudices, and Hermione still blinded by her belief in authority. Still though, didn't they know him at all?
Harry was so caught up in his thoughts that he didn't even notice was being shoved down the steps and into the Entrance Hall. People stopped and stared, whispering to their neighbors. Harry managed to catch quite a few of their conversations.
"Heard about what he did."
"How could he be so merciless."
"He's a monster."
A monster. A monster. A monster.
Monster. The words echoed around in Harry's head. I'm not a monster. I didn't do it, he wanted to shout but couldn't under the Silencing spell Hermione had put him under.
"STOP!" a voice shouted clearly towards them.
Recognizing the voice, Harry was consumed with anxiety and anticipation.
Sirius. What if he too believed the worst in Harry. He quickly quelled that thought. It was Sirius for Merlin's sake! Sirius knew him. He was his godfather.
Grinning, Harry turned around…only to twist his expression into one of complete pain and betrayal the moment he saw his godfather's eyes. They were full of blame and disgust. Of hatred and revulsion. Of the deepest loathing and rage.
O•O•O
Looking into those silver eyes, I broke a little. It was a small crack. But nevertheless, it was one of those small cracks that would spread.
Like a small spiderweb-like crack on glass which would keep on traveling outward until it reached the edges and shattered the whole piece. And like the spiderweb, the crack inside me would spread too until I shattered.
Oh how broken I would be, how utterly broken.
But like a spiderweb, there had to be some sort of push, something to keep it spreading. Otherwise, it would just stay that one single mark on the glass. Perhaps it was the wind, or perhaps it was other various cracks that would yearn towards each other.
For me, it was Draco Malfoy and his father, Professor Malfoy.
Oh yes, Lucius Malfoy was the new Defense against the Dark Arts Professor. I remember how Ron flew into a rage about him teaching the innocent children the Dark Arts and training them for his master.
But the main thing that bothered Ron was Draco Malfoy. He snarled and screamed about how Draco Malfoy would be acting oh so superior now. He couldn't wait to punch that ferret into his daddy's arms. How he fumed about Malfoy for weeks on end!
For Hermione, Professor Lucius Malfoy meant something different. After all, he was a professor now, and all professors deserved respect. She was worried about how he would react to her, and whether he would try to block her studies. She didn't once question his placement there. After all, Dumbledore had accepted his placement so therefore, everything was fine right?
She didn't once think that Lucius Malfoy was at Hogwarts to carry out a mission for the Dark Lord. And so Ron and Hermione would contribute to the push that would send me to the gallows, as the Muggles say.
But looking into the silver eyes of Draco Malfoy and Lucius Malfoy that were so similar to the silver eyes of Sirius Black, I started to break.
Three sets of the same eyes that held three different meanings:
One set held only contempt for me. I think you can guess who those eyes belong to.
Another set held a flicker of remorse and indecision. It was just a flicker but for the owner of those eyes, a flicker was everything.
The third though, the third was what really ruined me. Those eyes didn't hold love or friendship or even compassion. They held understanding. As you can tell, it wasn't necessarily those emotions in the eyes that tore into me. No, it was the owner of those eyes.
O•O•O
Harry stared into those eyes in disbelief.
Draco Malfoy.
Draco Malfoy.
The boy who had tormented him since they were eleven.
He mentally snorted. He and Draco had been rivals since first year, and he had disliked him since the first time Harry had met him when Draco had insulted Hagrid. Speaking of Hagrid-
"Harry, how could yeh?"
Harry froze. Hagrid didn't believe in him? Hagrid? His very first friend? "Hagrid, I did' do whatever you all think I did! I don't even know what you guys are accusing me of! Please... please Hagrid! I'm innocent!"
For a moment Hagrid's face wavered but a sharp look from Mcgonagall chased away all doubts.
"Dumbledore sent fer me, told me all about it an'... Harry how could yeh? Yer mum an' dad, they... how could yeh?" Wiping away tears Hagrid turned and left, and with him, he carried away all Harry's hopes, dreams, beliefs... everything.
O•O•O
Do you see now? Do you see why I turned down the path I did? After every friend and ally I had turned on me, what choice did I have? With all the hate and prejudice already piled on me, someone else would've crumbled under all that pressure.
However, their betrayal was only half the journey. It was like the journey an object makes into a bucket of water. From the fall through the air into the fall through the water and to the bottom of the bucket.
The fall through the air could represent the betrayal of my friends.
Where the object goes from the time it hits the surface of the water depends on the object itself. If it is something like a sponge, it will stay on the surface forever until some other force moves it. On the other hand if it is a coin, it will sink through the water.
Someone else might've wallowed in self-pity for the rest of their life, maybe even committing suicide. Someone else might've given up.
But me... I was a different story. I was the coin that traveled the rest of the way through the water.
The main difference between the sponge and the coin are their densities. The main difference between me and someone else was that push Draco Malfoy gave me.
O•O•O
Harry was in shock.
Hagrid…Hermione…Ron…and most of all…Sirius.
Sirius especially. What a hypocrite, he thought. One would think that after being convicted and framed as an innocent man, he would learn to investigate further than just to take Dumbledore's word on everything. But no, Sirius was just like every other sheep that blindly followed Dumbledore and hung on to his every word.
But Sirius, he was like a father to Harry, and Harry had thought that Sirius viewed him like a son. But the thing was, Sirius was always occupied with something else.
It was always Peter before Harry. When Harry's parents died, Sirius could've taken care of Harry instead of going after Peter. After al those years in Azkaban, it was Peter who motivated Sirius to break out.
And now, it was Dumbledore before Harry. When Dumbledore wanted something, he got it. What Dumbledore believed, everybody else believed.
Would it always be like this? To one day have everyone doubt you and hate you and the next to have everyone love and worship you. And then when you do one single thing wrong to have everyone turn their backs to you again.
Was society really this fickle?
Harry had never looked at it this way before. Now thinking back on his childhood, he could see evidence of this everywhere. When he was younger, some of the teachers took pity on him. They had argued with the other indifferent teachers who had been warned by the Dursleys about Harry. He wasn't a trouble student, they had said. His cousin was the bully, not him.
The next day, Uncle Vernon had gone to talk to those teachers. He brought along fabricated documents recording Harry stealing small tokens and participating in various vandalisms and graffiti. Of course this wasn't true. It was ridiculous that a six year old could even accomplish half those things. But the teachers had believed Uncle Vernon and Harry was treated with a hard glare every time he passed under their radar.
Dudley was certainly very satisfied with that and took advantage of the teachers' blind eye when it came to Harry being bullied. Every day Harry would go out during recess and get pulled into the corner of the yard before he had even take one step out. He had tried to leave before anyone else and seek shelter in the library but the teachers insisted on keeping him after class to "speak with him" on these occasions.
He knew what they were really doing though. They were helping bully Harry. They were bullying him. There was no possible way to deny it. Especially not after one of the worse sessions with Dudley.
Harry had taken various beatings but that day, he had been especially sore. But that wasn't what had made that day special. No, what made it special was the teacher who had looked Harry in the eye right as Dudley was throwing a vicious punch, and after Harry had fallen to the ground, the teacher had looked at Dudley and smiled at him.
That was the same teacher who had complained the most about Harry's poor appearance compared to his cousin's pristine clothes in the beginning of the year. But one conversation from Uncle Vernon and he had twisted around his whole perspective without even hearing Harry out on a single word.
What a fucked up world.
And now the light side was unreasonably condemning him to prison while the dark was sympathizing with him. What was going on?
O•O•O
Harry woke up with a gasp, sweat drenching ever part of his body.
"Hello Potter." the cold voice jerked his head up. When his eyes met those icy blue ones of Ronald Weasley and the brown irises of Hermione Granger, he couldn't stop himself from widening his eyes.
"Hermione, Ron, you've come to help me. I knew you would believe. How could I ever doubt you?" Harry said immediately.
He was overjoyed. His two best friends were here. They were here to prove him innocent because they believed in him. Of course they believed in him. That's what best mates were for right? And to think of Hermione and Ron ever turning their backs on him after everything they had gone through. Quirrel, the Chamber of Secrets, Dementors, Peter Pettigrew, the Triwizard Tournament, and finally Cedric. They were best mates. They were inseparable. They were-
"-done with you!" Ron spat at him, pulling him out of his thoughts.
Staring at the pair above him with a gaping mouth Harry responded with the only response he had. "What?"
"How could you Harry? We believed in you. We trusted you." That was Hermione.
"No Hermione, it's still me, the same Harry you've always known. You can still trust me." Harry insisted desperately. What was happening? Why weren't they supporting him? Why weren't automatically jumping to his defense, apologizing for their shock and lack of action earlier?
Harry didn't mean to sound like a brat but these were his best mates. His best mates. They were supposed to be there for him, always, not turn their backs on him at the sound of another's order.
Harry peered at Ron and Hermione and the bars behind them. Wait, bars? For the first time since he had woken up Harry examined his surroundings. From what he could seen in the dim lighting, it looked like he was in a cell. A cell fully equipped with iron chains and a nonexistent bed or toilet.
He snapped his attention back to his former best mates. "Where am I?" he demanded.
Ron sneered at him. "The Ministry holding cell of course, where criminals like you belong right before their trial. Personally I think we should just skip the trial and throw you into Azkaban. This trial is just a waste of time."
"Ron, don't think like that. The trial will bring us publicity and money. Things we never got when we stuck by him all the time. He got all the fame and spotlight, and our parents had to spend more money, mending all the clothes we ruined on our trips. But with the trial we can get all of his possessions and vaults. We'll finally be recognized for the hard years we've spent trying to stabilize and murderer." Hermione said in a light voice as if she wasn't just confessing to going after Harry's personal possessions.
"Blimey, you're right Hermione! We'll probably even be on the front page of the Daily Prophet! I can see it now. 'Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, Heroes Who Saved Us From a Ultimate Death.' Ahh. I can't wait."
Hermione snorted. "At least now that horrible Skeeter woman will be put to good use. I know for a fact that she has nothing but vulgar things to say about you Harry. So don't count on anyone's support."
And with that they swept away into the empty corridor.
"Wait! No! I didn't do it. Please just let me explain!" Harry cried out desperately after them, his best mates, his last hope.
For a moment Harry numbly stared at the matching set of flowing robes on Ron and Hermione. They've probably already started to get that money, he thought. As the tail end of the robes disappeared around the corner, the dam broke and Harry's tears fell freely from his eyes.
Ron. Hermione. How could they. He trusted them. If their roles were reversed he would've had their backs immediately, no questions asked, no pleas made. Because he believed in them. Because he always thought that their friendship was the only thing holding him up. And now that was gone.
O•O•O
"Get up Potter." the bark from one of the guards was what Harry woke up to.
He knew what day this was. The day of his trail. Suddenly his heart jumped quicker. The day of his trial! He would request Veritaserum and prove his innocence. Things would go back to normal and… no, that was wrong. things would never go back to normal. There would always be a gap between him and Ron ad hermione now. He couldn't easily forget the hatred in their eyes nor the cold tones and words they threw at him when what he needed most was a lifeline.
"Potter, you have guests." Harry jerked up. Guests? He hoped it wasn't Ron and Hermione again, coming to gloat abut their upcoming fame or something. Harry rolled his eyes. over the past few days leading up to his trial all the Weasleys, Sirius, Remus, and a few of his classmates had been there to accuse him or insult him.
Who would it be this time? Lavender? Dean? Seamus? Susan Bones?
Draco Malfoy? His mind screamed when Harry first saw the shock of platinum blond hair followed by the custom silver eyes of most purebloods.
"Potter." Malfoy simply said then lingered by the door watching Harry.
Oh bloody hell, might as well go along with this. It wasn't as if he had anything to lose.
"Malfoy, how have you been?" he replied.
"Better then you." Malfoy looked at his clothes in disgust then wrinkled his nose as if he'd smelled something rancid, which was probably true as Harry hadn't taken a bath or shower since the day he was arrested which was about a week ago.
"It comes with living in a cell for a week. Guaranteed a filthy appearance and smell."
"Whatever Potter. I just came to tell you that…they're all idiots." He shuffled his feet, looking as un-Malfoy as can be.
At Harry's questioning look, he elaborated.
"The people who are just tossing you aside for the sake of having drama. Everybody at school who believes this rubbish. That bucktoothed Granger and that disgusting Weasel who should've known you enough to know that you have a bleeding heart and would've never killed those people.
Harry stared at Malfoy in shock. He couldn't speak. He couldn't move. He just stared.
"Anyway that's all I came here to say. The odds are piled high against you. With the way things are looking, you're living the rest of your days out in a cell even if you've never lifted a single harmful finger."
And with that said, Malfoy practically ran out of there. In any other situation, it would've been funny, a Malfoy all flushed and embarrassed and actually running. But this was't any other situation, and Malfoy being here and supporting Harry proved that.
Harry sighed. What was it with Malfoy? First that expression on his face when Harry was being confronted by the entire school, and now…this, whatever this was.
Why? Why was it that only Malfoy saw the truth? Even when his best mates couldn't even see? Harry knew the answer to that one. His supposed best mates who too blinded by fame and wealth to care about him He wondered if they ever cared about him or if they just hung around, hoping to gleam some publicity from being the Boy Who Lived's friend.
Suddenly Harry heard the key turn in the lock. He stood. It was time.
O•O•O
"Harry James Potter, you have been accused of the murder of William and Charles Weasley, Henry Granger, and Narcissa Malfoy. Do you deny it?"
Harry was horrified. Bill and Charlie Weasley? Ron's brothers? Hermione's dad? Malfoy's mother? Of course she sided with the dark but he never had any troubles with her, only her son ad husband.
Didn't these people know him at all. Why was it that only Draco believed in him? Especially when Draco had the most reason to turn on him and scream for his blood and his head on a spike. It didn't make any bloody sense.
"Mr. Potter. We are awaiting your answer."
"I deny these claims. They are ridiculous."
"Are you willing to take Veritaserum to prove your answer?"
"Yes." Harry spoke with finality. This was the moment of truth. The moment where finally realized just how wrong they were. And it would be sweet. Victory and freedom are always a sweet combination.
"Very well. Please administer the serum. Only three drops are needed."
Something was shoved under his nose and Harry's head was tipped back. This was it, he thought. This was it. Just as the third drop hit his tongue, the scent of the potion wafted into his nostrils. his last thought was that the potion didn't taste as bad as all the others. It actually tasted pretty sweet.
Please review and tell me if you want this to be a two-shot or an actual story. I hope you enjoyed since this is my first Harry Potter fic.
~ Ivystrike