By the (Bloody) Hand of the Other (a.k.a. His Equal, a.k.a. A Little Prick)

By stealacandy

Disclaimer:

1. Drinking blood is vile! Doesn't bother to JKR, who insists on bleeding us completely from all our money by an endless succession of mediocre books we simply "must" buy, if only to complete the set. I, on the other hand, am all for a good, entertaining story, which is why I write fanfiction, which, sadly, means I do not get any compensation for it - certainly not monetary compensation, or any other material sort, and barely even the satisfaction of having people read it, as so few do, and so precious few of those bother to review...

2. If you absolutely must drink blood, try to make sure it doesn't contain anything harmful, like... HIV virus strands, or... traces of basilisk venom.

Author Note:

I know, I know, it's been a while since I updated - life's been hectic the last few months, I haven't got much time to write anymore. But, for the new year, this is a treat for you.

I would like to thank my great Beta, Jim (jacee2u), he's been beta-proofing the future chapters of Hobgoblins for me, but I haven't got around to post them, and even he, too, is so busy that he hasn't updated his own fic, "Consequences" (go read, it, scoundrels, it's good, and it's a Honks!), in months, has deigned to Beta-proof this one for me as well.

Happy new year, and enjoy the story!

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By the (Bloody) Hand of the Other (a.k.a. His Equal, a.k.a. A Little Prick)

By stealacandy

"Haha!" cried Malfoy, as he walked out from the corner from which he had stunned Potter. "I am Dark Lord Ralf Yoco the Mad! Now I will have my wicked ways with the witches of Gryffindor, and you will be blamed for it!" he cackled madly, then commenced to grab the hand of Harry's prone figure, prick it at the finger, and make him bleed one drop of blood into the vial he was holding.

"Ah, polyjuice!" he said. "The wonders of Uncle Sev's lab!". He drank the potion. "Blurgh," he said, then walked away, towards the Gryffindor tower.

'Darn,' he thought to himself. 'I forgot to ask him for the password first."

A short while later, Harry gained consciousness again, waking up from the magical sleep that had overtaken him, as the magic behind it waned. He took one look at his surroundings, wondering what he was doing on the floor. Shrugging it off, he finally turned around and resumed walking to the Great Hall.

Several hours later, the dead remains of Draco Malfoy were found. After a fashion, it really was hard to recognize him. Madam Pomfrey declared it above her knowledge to discover what had happened to him, and how did he come by the strange form that he was transfigured to. All she was able to do, was ascertain the cause of death, which was poisoning - the toxin being basilisk venom, which he apparently imbibed.

An expert was brought from the Ministry, and he declared that "the boy must have attempted some dark-magic ritual to transfer himself, that has gone badly wrong on him."

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Over at the Ministry of Magic, in the bowels of the Department of Mysteries, a white orb went pink. Or maybe not, this story probably takes place in AU sixth year. But no one in Hogwarts or the Ministry knew that.

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Many years before:

(1) "Oh, what a sweet child," said James, and pinched the baby's cheek. Draco whimpered softly.

(2) Auror Potter scanned the wall in the manor he was raiding. Something just didn't seem right. He took a step backwards... and bumped into the baby carriage that somehow had made its way there. The baby inside began wailing. "Oooh, sorry," he apologized.

(3) "Coochicoochicoo" cooed Lily at the sweet, fair haired toddler. Draco, the toddler in question, gave her a death glare, trying to look intimidating. Mrs. Potter only found it even more endearing and cute. Little did she know...

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"The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches, born to those who thrice defied him, born when the seventh month dies... And he shall have a power the Dark Lord knows not, and the Dark Lord would mark him as his equal..."

Harry Potter arrived at the Great Hall, rubbing a sore place on his index finger. He must have stabbed it somehow. 'Oh, well,' he thought. 'it's only a little prick'.

The End...

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Footnote:

A couple of people wrote to tell me they didn't get it, and a third only got it on reading it a second time, and even so missed a couple of things, so, for anyone who didn't get it from the story itself, here's a brief explanation:

The prophecy refers to Harry as the subject, but the dark lord it mentions by title, not by name, is not Voldemort, it is, in fact, Draco Malfoy. And he find his fate accordingly.

1. "The one with the power... ...approaches" - refers to Harry, and here's why:

2. "...to vanquish the Dark Lord" - Draco styles himself a dark lord.

3. "Born as the seventh month dies" - which canon already has it referring to Harry, as he was, in fact, born on the 31st of July, or, in other words, at the end of the seventh month.

4. "Born to those who thrice defied him," - Harry's parents managed to annoy, or inconvenience, Draco Malfoy three times, thus they thrice defied him.

5. "And the Dark Lord would mark him as his equal" - in the finale, Harry rubs his finger, which has a scar - just a little prick - marking the equal of Draco Malfoy. Draco give's Him the prick in the finger when he draws blood. So Harry has a little prick. And Draco is a little prick. Some, though, might argue that he's actually more than a little prick, and maybe they're right. But maybe he has a little prick, and his prickliness is just a form of compensation? Who knows? Either way you look at it, Draco marked Harry as his equal in that aspect.

6. "And he shall have a power the Dark Lord knows not" - Harry has traces of basilisk venom in his bloodstream, from his ordeal his second year at Hogwarts. By rights, it ought to kill him - ought to have killed him already. But Harry has the power to not be killed by it - possibly because of Fawkes the phoenix's tears. Draco's blissfully unaware of that, and in the end, it's that poison he draws from Harry's veins that kills him. Additionally, Harry has experience with polyjuice potion and knows the dangers of mixing animal DNA in the potion instead of human (i.g. Hermions the catgirl), Draco probably doesn't know about it. (I assume Madam Pomfrey is discreet. Now, I don't know if snake venom holds DNA, but saliva does, and Harry's bound to have gotten some basilisk spittle in his system when he was bitten. Which is why Draco shows some signs of transforming into a snake.

7. "And either must die by the hand of the other" - Draco was poisoned to death from blood he drew from Harry's hand, specifically.

8. "For neither can live while the other survives" - Harry survived being bitten by the basilisk, which, incidentally, was set loose by Draco's own father, in a plot which presumably was at least partially directed at Harry, at least according to Dobby, the Malfoy's house-elf.

Additional notes:

Harry woke up from the stunner because Draco died, like Dumbledore's petrification wore off when he perished.

Draco, other then being poisoned to death from the basilisk venom in his potion, was also affected like Hermione was from the cat hair she put in the potion - only he has part of a snake (basilisk venom) part of a bird (phoenix tears), and, of course, part of a human (Harry's blood). Which, now that I think about it, is also Voldemort's blood, and he's not exactly human either, is he?

So put together, the polyjuice potion did a number on his body, which is why he looked so strange when they found it, convincing them he tried to work some dark ritual to somehow enhance himself.

I wrote the entire story just so I could end up with the punchline of "a little prick" being a mark of Draco's equal. I used several elements from stories I already wrote, in particular, Harry's parents annoying somebody three times, then he declares himself a dark lord and marks Harry, or someone else and his parents, for that matter, I wrote a series of stories like that, and one day, perhaps, if I hadn't thrown them away without noticing, I might even find my notes, type them and post them here! So hold your fingers for me, but don't hold your breath...

Well, I hope that clarifies matters. If you need more explanations, don't hesitate to ask.

On that note, I would like to post here one of the notes my Beta, Jim, wrote me:

Para 10: "carridge" should be "carriage", and "somehoe" I beleive is "somehow had", unless you are referring to Narcissa, then it should be "some hoe placed there", and "appologised" should be "apologised".

Embarrassing, it is, I didn't spell-check it before sending it to him, the poor soul. But I rather liked his idea...

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Omake: If Things Happened Differently

"Harry Potter, you are stand accused of Raping eighteen underage witches in Gryffindor Tower, do you have anything to say for yourself, Potter?"

"Yes, Minister. I am not guilty, I was stunned and left in a side corridor while someone impersonated me using Polyjuice."

"And we should believe you because?" asked the Minister.

"Oh, please, Minister," said Harry. "Do you think I could sleep with eighteen witches in less then an hour? Which coincidentally is the duration a polyjuice potion lasts? There is only one person that I know of that has such extreem an early ejaculation problem."

In the crowd, all eyes were turned towards one person, and Fudge knew he lost his case - again!