Darkness and Shadow

Chapter 1

Apologies to anyone who has this fic on their alerts. I decided to add the Prologue after Chap 1 & 2 were already posted. I didn't mean to create any confusion!

Disclaimer: Harry & Co. belong to J.K. Rowling, blah, blah, blah, blah, etc, etc…

Warnings: Contains Graphic Violence and Graphic Sexual Content (consensual and non-consensual) M/M, Yaoi, Slash, Gay…etc. If this isn't your cup of tea, press BACK

Pairings: Harry/Draco

Summary: Harry looks for a new way to help the Order win the war, while Draco comes to terms with some new abilities. Can the two of them manage to stay together when the War seems determined to pull them apart?

Have you ever been lonely?

Do you have any fun?
Do you ever think of me?

I'm just no one

Lyrics and Music by Head East - Never Been any Reason.

Harry arrived on Platform 9 ¾ after an uneventful summer. The Dursleys had treated him as a house elf, nothing new there. He had dark circles under his eyes. Nightmares kept him awake almost every night. If he was lucky he would get three of four hours of sleep before a nightmare woke him and he spent the rest of the night sitting in a corner and staring at the wall.

It was during these times when he thought about what could be done to win the war. Then maybe he'd get some sleep. He snuck away from the Dursley's a few time for some fresh air and discovered the local library. Since he had so much more free time he decided to take out some books.

Hermione would be so proud, he thought.

He grabbed a few fiction ones just for fun, but he also picked out a few that he hoped had some wizarding connections. He found one that specifically covered the history of the witch trials around the world. He was sure he was sleeping if Professor Binns had covered it in class.

Most of the books didn't have any connection to real wizards, and didn't help explain why Voldemort would want to destroy muggles. The one on religion didn't cover anything about real wizards. The section on witchcraft was full of tree-hugging crap. He browsed through some of the other sections out of curiosity and found an interesting chapter on Buddhist meditation. He thought he might try out, and see if it would help him sleep better.

After the next nightmare he sat in the corner legs crossed and trying to clear his mind. He wasn't very good at it and it wasn't helping. He sighed, and thought about how much time he spent worrying about things that couldn't be changed. About arguments with the Slytherins that wasted time and energy, but didn't do anything to win the war against Voldemort. He decided that in September he would work to change that, and Harry Potter began to make a Plan.

He got on the train and sat down with all the other Gryffindors as usual. Ron and Hermione were already there chatting happily with each other. He walked over and sat next to Ron.

The three of them were talking when Draco Malfoy walked into the compartment followed by Crabbe and Goyle as usual.

"Look it's the Golden Trio," he sneered, and looked down at Ron's faded robes in disgust. They had been Fred's at one point, and were quite faded. There was a bleached spot in one corner along the hem from a failed experiment. Ron had tried to ink over it to remove the spot, but that only made it worse.

"Hey, Weasel you should get Potty here to buy you some decent robes, since your precious Daddy has such a lousy job he clearly can't afford to buy you any."

Ron started to stand and reply when Harry caught him by the collar of his robe and pulled him back down. Harry threw both legs over him to keep him in place.

"Ferret, you…" He started and turned to Harry in surprise. "Harry…?"

Then Harry's hand clamped over his mouth. Ron stared at him completely shocked.

Harry leaned over and whispered into Ron's ear, "If you move or say anything else to Malfoy I will stupefy you without a second thought. We're going to sit here and ignore them. I'll explain later. Nod if you understand me."

Reluctantly Ron nodded. Beside him Hermione hadn't said a word but stared at Harry in amazement.

"Harry let go of Ron and swung his legs back onto the floor. He then turned toward Hermione. "So Mione how was your vacation? Did you get to spend some time with Ron?" Harry didn't get a chance to make it over to the Burrow that summer much to his disappointment.

Catching on quickly she looked at him and smiled. "It was great!" she answered. "My parents took me to Germany this year, and I got to see where the Berlin wall came down. I got a bunch of books about WWII. I even brought you some.

I didn't get to see Ron until the end of the summer but we had a great time at the Burrow. Didn't we Ron?"

She nudged Ron who was still glaring at Malfoy. "Ron?"

"Hmm… What? Oh, that's right Mione," he said, slightly distracted, but knowing it was best to agree.

Meanwhile Malfoy stared at the three of them. He didn't know what to make of it. He should have gotten some sort of furious response from Weasel at least. If there was anything he loved it was to be the center of attention during any circumstances, and he wasn't going to let them get away with it.

"Well it's nice to see that Potter here finally has you under control Weasel. Do you do tricks on command as well?"

Ron turned to Harry after giving Malfoy a dark look. Holding in his temper with a helpful poke from Harry he asked, "So what did you do this summer Mate?"

"Well, mostly it was the usual," And Ron and Hermione nodded in understanding. "But I did have this great idea, and I can't wait to tell you about it. I spent some time in the Library, and that's when it occurred to me."

At this point Malfoy sneered and said, "Poor Potty, stuck with his muggle relatives all summer. Too bad you couldn't have stayed with that convict of a Godfather. Too bad he was killed trying to save your sorry ass. You may as well have pushed him through the veil yourself."

This was calculated to make Potter react. Stand up and punch him or throw a hex at him, so he was very surprised to see a big smile on his face. His face started to burn in anger. No one ignored a Malfoy.

What he hadn't seen was the slight nod toward Malfoy and his goons that Hermione had made. Harry grinned in agreement, seeing that she understood what his plan was. Well, part of it anyway. She really was the smartest witch in their year.

"I also did some gardening for my relatives this summer," Harry said. "It was actually a lot of fun."

"My parents made Fred and George get rid of the garden gnomes this summer because one of their experiments blew up, and turned the whole kitchen neon pink," Ron said. "Mom was really mad about it. They offered to change the color, but she wouldn't give in." Ron laughed. "At least I didn't have to do it."

"I never see any gnomes around our house. I wonder if they're just a wizard thing." said Harry. "What about you Mione?"

"How stupid are you Potter? Weasel gets those filthy things because they're so poor they can't even afford a house elf, and Mudbloods don't get them because their houses don't have any magic," said Draco with a sneer.

"We don't have any. I don't know what my parents would think if we did," laughed Mione completely ignoring Malfoy. "They get enough shocks from seeing everything the wizarding world can do."

"You can have ours," commented Ron. "They're a pain. They get into everything."

Malfoy turned, and stormed out of the compartment. Crabbe and Goyle fell into step behind him.

Hermione giggled once they were gone, "That was almost fun. Did you see the look on his face?"

"I dunno Harry, I think you've finally cracked. Malfoy's face was priceless though. He was starting to turn so red I thought he might explode," added Ron with a laugh.

Harry grinned.

"So what's your idea?" asked Hermione.

Harry looked around to make sure they were alone, and explained, "Ok, well I had a lot of time to think this summer. I was trying to get my mind off of what happened last year, with Sirius and everything so I thought we should find a way to help…," Harry lowered his voice to a whisper so no one would hear them. "The Order, fight Voldemort.

The best way to do it would be to get as much information we can on the other houses. And yes, I do mean all the houses. All the fighting isn't helping us. We can make up a plan later on when it's private. I'm hoping that we can get some inside information from people who might be supporting the Death Eaters."

"Harry, how can you think that any Gryffindor would side with You Know Who?" asked a horrified Ron.

"Really Ron don't be so naive," said Mione. "Peter Pettigrew ring a bell?"

"We need a secret place to meet so no one finds out," said Harry.

"Room of Requirement?"

"Sure."

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