A/n: Number two!! Hope you like. If not, sorry!!

Two...

The death of his fellow champion, Cedric Diggory, had had a somewhat drastic effect on Harry. There were several reasons for that. One, he'd liked Cedric, even fancied him to some extent, he'd lost another person he was close to. Two, it had happened right in front of him, three, it could have been prevented if Dumbledore had actually cared to try and four, it had been practically ignored!

It all just made him sick. This situation with Cedric, the fact he had never known his parents, his families treatment... People were still dying! He was meant to save them. Well, he was going to, but he could do nothing on the 'Light' side. Dumbledore was a doddering old fool who manipulated everything and everyone around him. He did have his uses though. At the beginning of the summer, the headmaster had placed a spell on Harry so that any magic he did would be undetected. The object of this had been to ensure his protection. But, of course, the best defence is a good offence.

The moment Harry returned to London, he shrank his luggage, signalled for the Knight Bus and set off for the Leaky Cauldron.

……………………

Getting off at the pub, Harry was ready to curse Stan and Ernie to oblivion. He was trying to go un-noticed for Merlins sake!

"Bye Neville... or is it Harry? Which name 'ya goin' for today?"

Harry growled as he pushed his way into the Leaky Cauldron. Hiding his face in his hood, he managed to make it through to the courtyard with only a few glances in his direction. Stepping outside, he paused. Where to go first? Probably best to do the most dangerous and illegal stuff first, then, at least if he died, he'd die rich. Wrapping himself tightly in his cloak, he tapped the brick and stepped quickly through the archway and down the side road before anyone had a chance to see him. Perhaps it was two extra years, or his current mental state, but Knockturn Alley wasn't as scary as it once was.

As he stood in his dark corner, surveying his surroundings, he caught sight of a silver-blonde hair. Malfoy Junior. Excellent, Harry smirked, time to have a bit of fun.

"Malfoy." Harry said, in a quiet sing-song voice.

"Who's there?" The boy whipped around, fists raised and ready for a fight.

"That," Harry said, stepping out of the shadows and pulling off his hood, "Would be me."

"Potter! What in Slytherins name are you doing down here?" Malfoy said.

"I think I should ask you the same question. Shouldn't you be with your little Death-eater friends?" He said, smiling.

Malfoy looked hurt and angry. It was the most emotion Harry had ever seen on the boy. "Contrary to popular belief, I do not copy my fathers actions to the last letter. I do have the ability to think for myself."

"I find that hard to believe. Prove it!"

"And how do you suggest I do that?" Draco snapped, "Without getting myself killed." Under the anger, there was a note of pleading in his voice.

Harry's smirk only grew, "By joining me."

Malfoy laughed, "In joining the light, I'd definitely get killed. In addition, what pride I still retain will not allow me to pledge my alliance to Dumbledore."

"Who said anything about Dumbledore? Or indeed about joining the Light? I said join me."

"But... Potter, you are the Light! You're the 'Golden Boy'! The 'Saviour'!" Malfoy half yelled, exasperated. "I cannot join you and not join the Light!"

"You can if I no longer support the Light." Harry said in a hushed voice. Malfoy was dumb-struck enough to allow him to carry on without interruption. "Both current sides in this war hold numerous flaws. The Dark does not understand humanity. Love and emotion are strange to them. The Light refuses to see that in each of us there is dark. They also refuse to use certain spells as they too are considered evil, or too powerful. Indeed, as Voldemort once told me himself; There is no good and evil, there is only power, and those too weak to seek it. That has now become some-what of a motto to me..."

"Wait, Potter, stop. Let me get this straight. You're on neither side of this war?"

"Yes and no. I'm on neither the light side, nor the dark, but I am in this war."

"How does that work?" Asked Malfoy.

He almost looks cute when he's confused, thought Harry, "I'm starting my own side! A mixture of the two, picking the best ideologies and methods from both." Harry explained. "If you join, you'll be second in command, my first recruit."

"Second? What about Weasley and Granger?" The Ice Prince was still confused.

"Too close to Dumbledore. Too cushioned."

There was a long pause. Harry was amazed to see that Malfoy was considering his offer already.

"Why me?" Malfoy asked, with none of his usual arrogance or pride.

"Why not?"

"How long have you got?! During the years we've known each other I've gone out of my way to make your life hell! I've tried to get you expelled more times than I can remember and I've tried to get you killed almost as often!"

"And you had very good reasons to do so. Your father brought you up to believe that you were above everyone else. The general prejudice of the Wizarding world pretty much outed those I chose as friends. Also, I refused your friendship in first year, a blow like that can do serious damage to a persons ego. And... well... I've not exactly been pleasant, have I?"

"But, even so, why would you need me? You're Harry Potter! You don't need help with anything, so how could I be in anyway useful?" He sounded like he was trying to convince himself more than Harry.

"The entire Wizarding community think I'm crazy!" Harry said, "And I want Dark magic books and equipments. Do you honestly think it'll be easy for me to get them?"

"Dark magic? You, want to learn Dark magic?! I don't believe it!"

"After everything I told you, it's that that you don't believe?" Harry laughed. "It's immaterial anyway, as I don't need you to believe what I say, but what I believe." He sighed. "Are you in or not?"

Malfoy hesitated, not taking his eyes off Harry. Eventually, he nodded his head, not saying a word.

Harrys face split into a wide grin. "Great! First task; Shopping!"

It was easier to have the young Malfoy take Harrys money and buy all the required items, especially the dark ones. It meant less questions as the Malfoy name commanded some respect. After visiting every shop in both Diagon and Knockturn Alley, Harry made his way back to Gringotts to exchange the required amount of galleons to one thousand pounds. It took a quarter of an hour to get Malfoy from the pub into muggle London. The boy was adamant that he'd catch something or be seen consorting with non-magic people. Harry finally got so irritated that he stupefied Malfoy and levitated him through the pub and out the other side, dropping him rather harder than was absolutely necessary. It was a very good thing that the blonde was unable to use magic, else Harry would have been in serious trouble.

"So, why did you drag me into this mud-hole?" Malfoy sneered, as they walked along the main street.

"I need a new image." Harry said, ignoring Malfoys snort of; 'That's for sure!' "I can hardly rule the world looking like this!"

Malfoy smiled. Now he was in his element. Clothes shopping he could do, even in muggle town. Grabbing Harry's hand he dragged him into the first clothes shop, which incidentally was Topman, and began piling clothes on the poor boy. After making two complete circuits of the shop, Malfoy pushed Harry into a changing cubicle with instructions to try each piece of clothing on. After the first two outfits, the aristocrat made up his mind that this was the wrong shop. He therefore walked out, leaving Harry to apologise to the store workers about the mess before coming back and dragging him out too. Once outside, Malfoy spotted two young boys, dressed in black clothes. Not being familiar with the Goth style of dress he was very interested in it. Finally, after begging Harry to talk to them, Malfoy marched up and asked himself. Big step! Next second, the brunette found himself again being dragged behind a hyped up shop-a-holic. The shop they eventually entered was about half the size of a badminton court and completely black. There was no one else but the store keepers there, so Malfoy had full rein. He spent about £700 pounds on clothes, make-up and accessories for Harry.

"You're gonna make me poor!" The boy-who-lived(-to-die-of-poverty) shouted.

"Oh, stop complaining." Malfoy said, as he noticed the tattoo and piercing parlour in the back of the shop. "You can always sell yourself."

Finally getting out of the shop, Harry was sporting two new piercing and three tattoo's. One was a bit of a joke, it was a black upside down lighting bolt on the back of his neck. When he saw it, he couldn't resist. The second was a chain of black and blue daisy's around his left wrist. The last was a large dragon that covered the entirety of his back. He had decided that this would be the symbol of his side of the war, in opposition to the snake and the phoenix. It was by now nearly completely dark.

"So, Potter, you going back to the muggles?" Malfoy asked.

"Hell no! I'm talking to Tom and getting a room at the Leaky Cauldron." Harry said. "What about you? You going back home?"

"No. Father kicked me out. Well, actually, I ran out. It was either disownment or get the Dark Mark. I chose the former! Pansy and Blaise are staying at the pub with me. They got the same ultimatum."

"Hmmm, do you think they'd join me? I mean, tattoos are optional. If you get one, they can be of whatever, and they won't hurt when I touch it!" Harry said, jovially.

"Well," Said Malfoy, "Anything's possible. I joined you, didn't I?"

……………………

And so it happened. Harry spent the entire summer learning both Dark and Light spells and recruiting where he could. By the time school started, the only adult on his side was Snape, who was sick of both Voldemort and Dumbledore. He being Malfoys godfather also played a large part in his joining. Harry sighed, no doubt Weasley and Granger were writing to his won godfather about his antics. Sirius had been unable to contact Harry over the summer, so the boy had not had a chance to explain. Howler here we come. Ah well, best to worry about that when it came. Now they had to work on calling each other by their first name...

A/n: so? Waddaya think? No flames! I ignore them, or scream back at you.