By: Midnight Axis
Rating: Mature
Warning: The story is 'T' for now but will almost definately change! May contain M-Preg in the future, but for now just SLASH don't like don't read and no flames. You are forewarned.
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters or places. They all go to J.K. Rowling and Scholastic and other people that are in a copyright somewhere...
Pairing: DM/HP, and others
Summary: On his seventeenth birthday the Malfoy curse has set in and he he has a suspicion of who a curse would put him with. Unfortunately for him it is a curse. Dark!harry Insane!Dumbledore and a Dark Lord that's human again.
A/N: This is my first story on this site so be nice and I don't have a beta so I'm apologizing in advance for any mistakes. Thanks for reading! :)
Chapter One
The crackling fire rose past the stone top of the open fire place and roared as Harry Potter stepped through in a flash of green. The meeting here was curious in its own way. Dark and the light being brought together, but only one side knew what about. It was Malfoy Manor after all. All purebloods had their secrets.
The Malfoys, being one of the oldest and most prestigious family lines, dating back to before Merlin, had many secrets and over time one big whispered hope was passed down generation to generation. Draco Malfoy had been told one year ago today. Tonight at midnight there was a good chance he'd die.
Dying is a curious word, meaning different things yet almost always has the same definition as no one really cared enough to use the other. Died, dead, and death all have one chilling meaning that human's fear beyond most else. One word, up to five letters that make people want to run and cower under the safest place they can find, as if that could stop anything.
Draco Malfoy was not afraid anymore though. Of course he threw his regular tantrum with the notorious Malfoy temper once he figured it out, but afterwards he couldn't bring himself to care. He couldn't imagine life being happy, only imagining pits of despair as his year moved on. No, Draco Malfoy, wasn't a Veela as so many other pureblood families are. With the Malfoys, it meant so much more than that, and with limited time and almost no room for error, that much more complicated.
The fire still glanced in dancing shadows across the wall and Harry Potter took a moment to watch them, using the symbolisms of the fire to fit into his life that he found rather dreadful. How he hated his life being planned for him. Nothing short, it seemed of joining the Dark Lord as his equal would change that.
He glanced up towards the ceiling as he heard an agonized cry and knew it had to be nearing midnight. The only reason Draco Malfoy would show any weakness anymore was if he had absolutely no control over his senses anymore. Harry started towards the doors of the sitting room and out into the hallway recalling the moments in life that made his life the torture it was now.
DMHPDMHP
The tug was painful. Draco supposed his birthday gift could turn out to be the best he'd ever gotten or the worst depending on the person that appeared in the glass on his wall that he had been staring at all night. When the person he was waiting for, looks in the mirror it would show on Draco's glass and since most people look at the mirror when they get ready in the mornings, morning was Draco's best bet.
The Malfoy secret came into effect on their seventeenth birthday. This was the day that they found the one that they were meant to be with. Forever. Other pureblood families just had Veela mating tendencies but the Malfoys had been either blessed or cursed by a goddess (just depended on who you asked in the family) to find the one meant for them within a year's time or death would agonizingly occur.
Of course you would meet this person within the year limit, as it was supposedly fate, but whether that person actually accepted the said Malfoy could lead to very different verdicts. Malfoy knew the book cover to cover that his parents had given him. If a Malfoy was rejected or insulted by their 'soul' the first time they met as mates he had a high probability of dying, therefore Malfoy was trying to create a better name for himself in the month he had left before school began. He had been sending letters off to some of the pureblooded families around that he had insulted before thinking that his mate would most likely be a member of one of those families.
Malfoy was ready to go to Hogwarts and face his mate, whoever it may be, though this fact could be complicated for he was even more loyal to the dark lord now that he was actually sane. His father had a suspicion that Potter's blood made him slowly become saner but whatever it was most of his followers had become even more devoted. Of course the Lord hadn't lost his touch and still was frightening and horrifying at times, at least he was human.
Malfoy stared off into space. He was ready.
DMHPDMHP
Lord Voldemort twirled his wand through his fingers and waited for Lucius to join him. He was curious about the Malfoy curse and seeing if the potential addition to the Malfoy family would become one of his as well. Or rather the closest thing he had. He knew that Lucius had denied himself a long time ago and took potions every twelve hours to continue his life. The Dark Lord scoffed at this. If he would ever be so lucky as to find the one that was meant for him after all these long years of waiting he would not be denying him or his mate.
But then again, he was a changed person. Now even though he still quite enjoyed torturing and killing the people who deserved it he felt an urge to be human and to have a family and possibly even someone who could care about someone such as he. But there was no one and there would be no one. How could anyone love him? Granted, he was human again but the deeds were done. Sometimes he thought that the reason that he had gone so insane was the fact that when he had been cursed with the Malfoy curse too (There was a good reason for Abraxas's death) he had not found his mate.
He knew Lucius enjoyed torturing his father's portrait daily but sometimes he would ask his portrait of himself just to go over and 'Crucio' the man until the portrait Voldemort was satisfied enough to help him on his schemes. Seeing as the portrait had been painted when he was still insane, the portrait was insane and much the bane of the other portraits. It was odd how the portrait realm could so resemble the real world.
The Dark Lord sat contemplating in his mind wanderings as the door opened to find Lucius Malfoy striding in. "Good news my lord," he said bowing immediately when he saw Voldemort. "I can feel that my son will be very powerful and in turn have a powerful mate."
"This is good, my friend. And now I ask, when you will find your mate?" the dark wizard looked up from the fire at Lucius.
"My Lord?"
"Your 'soul'. I apologize for forgetting the terminology, now answer," he hissed out.
"I will never find my mate again, my lord. I cannot."
"Why deny me Lucius? A fruitless gesture…" The Dark Lord looked straight into the Malfoy's eyes. "Legilimens!"
The Dark Lord saw flashes of what Lucius kept trying to hide and he pulled back to the present. "I see Lucius that you did not think it beneficial to add that your 'soul' is part of the Order of the Pheonix and almost died while you were doing your stint in Azkaban. You owe me for saving your 'soul' Lucius," Voldemort trailed off and suddenly began laughing his high laugh. "How odd that sounded," he murmured.
Lucius just stood there shaking. "I have not told my son who or my ex-wife. I know that this person would never accept me given my affiliations and I will not die while my son needs me! Perhaps when this war is won and my son's 'soul' is well accepted I will finally lay my restless mind to peace. I can only ask that you not harm him for that would surely end me."
Tom Riddle sat in silence gazing at the fire. He spoke carefully, "You are my friend Lucius, call me Tom. I cannot promise what the Death Eaters will do on instinct, but I will see that nothing I can prevent will happen to your 'soul'." He then stood and clasped forearms with the saddened Lucius. "We will prevail and at least you may end with your mate."
The look shining in Lucius's eyes was one that had never been seen before.
DMHPDMHP
-One month later-
Harry was racing to get on the train, he had just come from being thrown out of the car in front of the station, causing a scene, but he didn't care about that now all he cared about was finally escaping and his first order of business was to find what made him happiest.
He had been feeling odd since about a month ago and wasn't quite sure how to describe it, another reason why meeting Hermione would be appreciated at the moment. Life at the Dursley's was as expected as it could have been and he and Dudley had come to a sort of truce and they had started working out together in secret, an upside. The downside was that Vernon Dursley kept thinking that Dudley was under a spell and therefore had started to beat Harry this summer. Pros and cons aside he was just glad to be away.
As he entered through the magic brick tower holding up King's Cross Station, he was ambushed by many people all wanting to say hi to Harry, apparently since they would do nothing about the war themselves, their savior. This just pissed Harry off, so with a tight-lipped smile, Harry pushed his way through the crowd and onto the train, finding an empty compartment, knowing his prefect friends would find him on their rounds.
As he laid his head back on his seat, he glanced out of the window. There on the platform was a vision of beauty and hatred. Great now Malfoy will just have even more girls fall all over him than normal. Bloody bastard! And as Harry thought this, he saw Malfoy quickly bring a hand to his chest as if in pain. He couldn't be sure, but it seemed as though Malfoy was looking for someone and a whisper in the back of his mind startled him. Where are they? They were angry with me weren't they? What did I do? The whispers trailed of and Harry just sat there confused, more out of sorts with the world than ever.
DMHPDMHP
Draco had just been standing them when he had felt overwhelming anger sweep through him and with the anger brought him pain. Great, now his 'soul' probably would reject him when they first met. His eyes swept the platform and tried to sweep through the compartment windows finally landing on one with Potter in it. He was confused at the urging and decided that once on the train he would look into it further for no matter the outcome he just had to see for himself.
As Draco stepped on the train he knew that his 'soul' was definitely there and apparently around Potter's compartment if that was what the urging to look at that certain compartment had been about. He quickly found Pansy and Blaise with Crabbe and Goyle.
They looked up as he entered and all started a group hug with him. They knew about the Malfoy curse and were anxious to hear about it. So after all the friendly pleasantries they got right down to business. Though they may not show it, Crabbe and Goyle were actually the quickest and brightest thinkers of his friends. A Malfoy did not surround himself with idiots.
"Who are the top possibilities for your 'soul'," came from Crabbe.
"I bet it's in the Golden Trio," Goyle spouted off. "Most mates are and the Malfoy curse seems like it would do that to you."
Draco sighed. "Actually Greg, I think you're right. I felt a pull from the compartment filled with the Golden Boy and his lackeys when I stepped onto the platform. Not to mention that I felt anger when my 'soul' apparently looked at me."
Vincent clasped him on the shoulder. "We're here for you, but I don't think that you want to try looking for anyone on the train, Draco. Too many people in too close quarters and if things get ugly, you're gonna want to have Pomphrey nearby."
Draco almost started sobbing at the thought of his 'soul' rejecting him, the one that was supposed to want him the most. If is 'soul' didn't want him, he didn't deserve anyone.
Pansy and Blaise glanced at eachother. Pansy spoke first. "Draco it has become our mission this year to get you to find your mate and to live happily with them in whichever bliss you desire. We don't care if you're straight, bent or whatever bloody orientation there is nowadays. We're here for you!" The rest of the group happily concurred.
"Thank you guys so much. I don't deserve you."
"Come on! You know once your mate, 'soul', I keep forgetting, gets past their prejudices and sees the real you they'll have no choice to love you for who you really are!" As this left Blaise's mouth, everyone just stared at him.
Greg spoke first, "Either you've matured or gone crazy it doesn't really matter just don't do that randomly again without warning. I think we've all gone into shock at the thought that you might have actually said something intelligent."
And with that statement all the sober conversation dried up as Blaise flung himself at Goyle trying to hit him while simultaneously trying not to annoy Pansy's very irate cat that normally liked clawing any flesh within reach.
They soon reached Hogsmead and scrabbled into the carriage pulled by the thestrals and as one the happy Slytherin group entered the Great Hall. Draco tried to ignore the pulls but couldn't help but look around once and awhile once arriving at the Slytherin table, in the vain attempt that it would be made easy by being a Slytherin who all worhshipped him especially as he now was a seventh year and one of the most powerful students at the school. Being a Malfoy had its perks.
As the group sat through the mandatory speech and sorting of the first years, Blaise and Pansy were whispering to each other like crazy. Draco would have thought that they were going out if not for the fact that they were decidedly both gay and had their respective crushes on people that they refused to name. This made Draco think that they were somewhere close to the Golden trio or maybe part of it from the way they vehemently refused to tell their secret. Draco thought this rather unfair considering he was the one that had his entire life spread out for them to see.
Draco couldn't decide how he would feel if his friends hooked up with the Golden Trio but as he thought this a feeling of possessiveness came over him as he thought of Blaise and Potter… Harry seemed to fit better. After this unsettling thought came more unsettling feelings as he thought about how he wanted to murder Blaise for touching Harry.
This was beginning to all fall into place all to well with all the clues. Despairing as he knew that now his life hardly had a chance of working out for the better he turned to his plate of food. He had thought that maybe the Malfoy curse would have gone easy on him but it seemed almost worse than his father's.
His father's situation annoyed Draco. The only reason his father had stayed alive and not attempted to approach his mate for twenty-five years had been the bitch of his mother getting him drunk and having sex with him. Knowing his father had pretty much been raped for his position and power in society as well as his beauty saddened Draco and brought up boiling hate for his mother at the same time.
Draco glanced over towards his most likely mate and saw Harry glancing over at him and with a flash of annoyance looking away again. Oh yeah, that hurt. Harry Potter savior of the Light side of the war, wanted for dead by his master, and all around mortal enemy was his 'soul'. Go Malfoy curse. You really landed a whopper this time.