Author's note: Ok, so this is my first fanfic and the first time I've let anyone read anything I've written, so please cut me some slack. Constructive criticism is welcome :)
Summary: After the events of fourth year, Harry resigns himself to a summer of stressful waiting at the Dursleys. He has no idea what he's in for when Draco Malfoy pays an unexpected visit, toting a silver-eyed blonde with an unusual ability…
Disclaimer: I do not own anything from the Harry Potter franchise!
Chapter 1: The Waiting Game
Harry James Potter was by no means an ordinary child. At 15 years of age, he had encountered so many challenges that the classic term "Danger Magnet" was one he accepted with dark humor. Most of these challenges arose from Harry's status as a wizard, albeit an underage one. Wizardry certainly did nothing to make Harry more ordinary, what with werewolf professors, three headed dogs, and all other manner of things that were all part of the Hogwarts experience.
As of this summer in particular, Harry was about as happy as he was ordinary. Being tortured and watching the return of an insane megalomaniac tends to bring down one's mood, and Harry was no exception to this phenomenon. Nor was his condition improved by the survivor's guilt that hounded his every nightmare, or the lack of contact with his friends. To be honest, no one would begrudge Harry Potter his irritation, except perhaps Severus Snape, and Harry really didn't give a damn about the opinion of such a slimy git anyway.
Despite any expectations to the contrary, Harry's summer had been remarkably boring thus far, a fact which made him quite nervous. Voldemort had returned, and there had been no death or destruction? It was an absurd notion, one that made his stomach tighten with worry. If nothing had happened yet, he could only assume that when Voldemort did act, it would be on a grand scale. And so Harry spent the first two months of his summer waiting. He waited for his friends to send him news of the Death Eaters' activities. He waited to be retrieved from Privet Drive. He waited for Voldemort to try to kill him for the umpteenth time. And most of all, Harry waited for anything to make the waiting less stressful.
When the other shoe did drop, just as Harry had expected it would, it was not a large presentation. There was no hellfire raining down on Number 4, no cackling Death Eaters, and no sudden flashes of green light that meant another life had been snuffed out. Instead, the fruits of Harry's long summer of waiting took the form of a bruised and bloody Draco Malfoy popping into existence in his front yard. He was cursing up a storm, tugging a bemused looking girl along by the hand toward Harry's front door. His eyes lit up as he saw Harry's stunned form sitting in the flower beds, wand out and held slack in his hand.
"Oi, Potter! Don't just stand there like an idiot, help us inside!" Malfoy called out. Harry simply adopted an indignant expression as he was then chastised for lack of manners. "Honestly," Malfoy continued haughtily, "you'd think Perfect Potter would be a bit more considerate. Some sort of greeting would be called for, at the very least." Here, the blonde girl he was still pulling along stifled a giggle and rolled her eyes apologetically in Harry's direction.
"Be nice, Draco, or he might just hex you," she said teasingly. To Harry, she said, "I'm sorry, my brother's an arse. But he is hurt rather badly; do you think you could help me patch him up? Won't take but a few minutes and we can be on our way." Malfoy shot her a stern look, and then started to object, but Harry cut him off.
"Hand over your wands and I'll help you," he told the girl through his own shock. He was still trying to get over the fact that this unknown girl had called Malfoy her brother, but she had one thing right; Malfoy was a mess. As much as Harry hated the blonde pain in the neck, he wasn't the type to leave someone bleeding on the street. And so he accepted both Malfoy's and his sister's wands—despite Malfoy's protests—and snuck them in through the garage, thanking Merlin that the Dursleys were out for the day. Once they were settled into Harry's room, and he had anything he might need, Harry raised his eyebrows and just waited. Eventually, Malfoy looked down, sighed, and offered a compromise:
"You patch me up, and I'll tell you exactly what happened."
And so began the next chapter of Harry's very complicated life.