There For You
Rating: R for attempted suicide (this chapter) and future slash.
Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters they are owned by the amazing J. K. Rowling. I did however think of the name Merbri and the spell Bracchium Caedo but who cares about the stuff I made up :-)
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Chapter 1 ~The Merbri~
It was a silent and cold night, and Harry Ron and Hermione were on their way back from Hagrid's hut. They had just finished talking to him about his newest "pet" a merbri*. Which the trio thought was very dangerous, as most of Hagrid's animals were.
"Hagrid, it may look cute now, but when it gets older, and bigger, it will bite and poison people with its snake heads!! There is no known cure for a merbri bite!" Hermione said in her I-know-everything voice. When the three had discovered Hagrid's newest monster Hermione had gone straight to the library to get information on the creatures.
"Sure there are cures!" Hagrid stood up for the merbri. "They can keep yer alive. You wont die from a merbri bite per say."
(A/N: I can't do Hagrid's accent sorry! lol)
"Yes, they have medicines that can keep you alive, but you slowly go insane!" Hermione's temper was rising rather quickly.
"But Hermione! I've already named the poor feller!" Ron groaned, "Here we go" he said to Harry quietly so Hermione wouldn't hear him. Harry gave him a look as if to say "How much longer!?!" "Besides, she wont bite if I train her not to!" Hagrid complained.
"BUT HAGRID!!! You can't train it not to bite!!! It's in the things nature!"
"Um...what did you name it" Ron asked hesitantly, hoping the human volcano, a.k.a. Hermione, wouldn't turn towards him.
"Ron," she said angrily, "now is not the time"
"Penelope!" Hagrid replied, happy that someone had asked a positive question about his new baby. Hermione scowled.
In the end the two boys sensed it was time to head back and convinced Hermione to come with them, but not before they promised her they would go to Dumbledore about the whole mess the following day. "Maybe he can take the poison out of her." Hagrid had said hopefully. Now the three were under Harry's beloved invisibility cloak heading to the castle in silence. Finally Harry spoke.
"This whole thing doesn't sound a bit familiar to you does it Ron?"
"Well at least it's not a dragon this time, and Malfoy wasn't there to see the thing." Ron replied. "It's too bad Charlie doesn't work with merbris as well." He chuckled.
"Well once Dumbledore is involved, I think Hagrid will give it up." Hermione said knowingly
"It's name is Penelo-" Ron was cut short when Harry grabbed hold of is friends and pulled them to a halt. "What in Merlin's name was that for" Harry clamped a hand over Ron's mouth as a dark figure stopped and looked around.
"Who do you suppose that is?" Hermione whispered.
"Will you shut up!!" Harry shot back. The figure stopped again and after a moment or two decided no one was there. The figure was walking towards them, obviously headed to the Forbidden Forest. As it got closer to the trio, something metal shone silver in the moonlight.
'What the hell?!' Harry thought, 'that looks like a…but it can't be…but what else could it be??'
The figure passed and Ron and Hermione gasped at the tall boy who walked by . . .with a knife, just as Harry had thought. He had finally concluded that the object that shone in the moonlight was indeed a knife, so when the tall boy passed the three friends, he didn't look at the knife, as Ron and Hermione had, but at the boy's face.
"Malfoy." He whispered in shock.
"Wonder what he's up to." Ron muttered when Draco was out of earshot.
"Its Malfoy, it can't be anything good, and who cares anyway. He's probably off to terrorize some poor animal. Lets get back to the castle before we get in trouble." Hermione replied. Ron gave Hermione a surprised look; she couldn't stand animal torture, yet here she was saying 'who cares if he's off to kill an animal.' He decided that her mind was occupied by the merbri incident and she didn't know what she was saying.
"He had a knife, he's probably going to kill himself." Harry put in.
Harry knew Draco must be miserable after his particularly bad summer. After escaping from Azkaban for the fourth time and killing about a dozen muggles who stumbled into a death eaters meeting thinking the house they were in was a nice bed and breakfast, the Ministry of Magic had placed a rather harsh death penalty on Lucius Malfoy.
"Its about time he died." Ron said.
"RON!" Hermione scolded, "We can't just let a person kill themselves, even if it is Malfoy!" Ron was relieved that Hermione was thinking straight again but angry by her reaction.
"Oh come on Hermione, he'll take one look at the knife and decide he's to beautiful to die, then he'll brag about how he almost killed himself but had this wonderful vision of women surrounding him and telling him he's to pretty and the world would be at a loss if he died." Ron said in one uncaring breath.
"I suppose..." Hermione said not feeling up to a good fight with Ron.
"No he won't." Harry said simply.
"What?" Ron and Hermione said confused.
"His father was killed! Do you know what that's like? To have someone so close to you die?! NO!!" Harry was getting angrier the more he talked. "I know what that's like, it's not a warm fuzzy feeling deep down inside! It hurts like hell! I know what he feels like! I wanted to kill myself on many occasions when Sirius died! I came so close once. And don't make a big deal of it Hermione, it was over a year and a half ago and I obviously didn't do it. I had friends to help me get through it! I realized that killing myself would be horrible on you two. Malfoy doesn't have anyone anymore! No one to help him deal! No one to make him realize that death is the worst possible answer!" Hermione was in tears by the end of Harry's speech, Ron was shocked and Harry himself was almost in tears.
Even if it had been over a year and a half since Sirius's death it still hurt Harry to think about it, it always would now matter how much time would pass. Finally being able to let out his bottled up feelings was a relief, yet the look on Hermione's face when he was finished speaking made him feel like Sirius had died all over again. She had an extremely apologetic look on her face mixed with a face of horror because of the suicide news.
"Oh Harry! I'm so sorry!" Hermione hugged him tight and wept.
"Yeah mate, we had no idea how horrible things must have been for you and now for...Malfoy." Ron said hesitating at Draco's name with an odd look on his face and patting Harry's back.
"Issalright." Harry's voice was muffled by Hermione's arm.
Nether boy was sure what to do about Hermione, who didn't seem to want to let go of Harry and was still crying. Soon enough the crying stopped and she let go.
"We're going to have a long talk with you later Harry Potter" Hermione sniffed, "But for now, lets see what Malfoy is up to."
Ron groaned again and Hermione shot him her famous 'shut-up' look.
Sure enough Malfoy was standing in the forbidden forest fingering the knife and looking at it fixedly. The three slowly removed the invisibility cloak as Draco finally raised it into the air and aimed it at himself. Hermione gasped and buried her head in Ron's shoulder. Ron was pleasantly surprised at Hermione's actions and wrapped his arms around her. Harry started for Draco.
"Oy, Malfoy" Draco spun around unable to identify who Harry was in the darkness of the woods. "I know I hate you and everything but I can't let you do that, I wouldn't have anyone to fight with."
Draco, out of shock at the disturbance, grabbed his wand and bellowed "bracchium caedo**." Harry fell to the ground and clutched his arm in pain.
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A/N: Please review! I would like to hear what people think of the story so far and I am open to any suggestions!
*Merbri is my own animal creation, it's a bird with snakelike "hair" that bites and poisons. (Yes, the "hair" bites and poisons not the bird)
**Bracchium Caedo is a spell I made up; it means to cut the lower arm. (Not a horribly bad cut but a somewhat deep one! And the literal translation [Latin] is forearm cut)