AN: New chapter, woho! The inspiration is flooding! Hope you'll enjoy!

The next morning at breakfast the Hall was bustling with rumours of Harry's late arrival to the Ravenclaw common room and the state he had been in. Piecing that together with the rumour of Tonks' tearful and not as late arrival to the Hufflepuff common room it wasn't that difficult for the student population to guess what had happened. The most famous couple in the school had broken up. That meant that they both, much to the pleasure of large parts of the school, were now back on the singles market.

There was a problem however. Although Tonks was sitting by the Hufflepuff table, Harry was nowhere to be seen. He hadn't come down for breakfast. This only seemed to prove the rumours in the eyes of the students and Tonks was bombarded with questions from the girls and even asked out by a few of the boys, and one or two girls, thinking that they should try their luck now that they had the chance. After sending the nuances a few minor jinxes and threatening to step up the severity of the curses they left her to her meal.

David was quite bothered by the great effect his hateful brother had on the student populace. In all but a night they had nearly forgotten him, the Boy-Who-Lived, when faced with a simple rumour of his brother's love life. When finally some of the students had thought to talk with him it had only been to ask if he knew anything of his brother's current situation, what his favourite flower was, if he liked chocolate, what he preferred in a girl (or boy to David's surprise) and other such trivialities. They were all quite disappointed to find that David did not know.

After breakfast David had come to the conclusion that the students of Hogwarts, in fact, knew more about his brother than he did.

.

Harry was lying in his bed, face buried in pillows, not even trying to rise up. It had been a fitful night with dreams of the only thing he could think of, Tonks. Going by the groans from his dorm mates they hadn't slept very well either. It was probably because of Harry barging through the doors in the middle of the night and then there was his restless sleep where he probably wasn't as silent as he might have liked.

"Blimey, mate!" Archie explained next to his bed. "Are you alright? You barge in on us at two and then we have to put silencing charms around your bed because of the shouting. What happened?"

Harry groaned slightly in answer. After a moment of silence Archie attempted to roll him over so he could see Harry's face but Harry refused to budge.

"Connie, mind giving me a hand?" Archie asked one of their dorm mates.

Harry could hear the heavy footsteps of Conrad Carroll, a stocky and muscular boy with short blond hair, coming closer. He looked typically like the type that was more brawn than brain with his thick muscles and love for tank tops. Surprisingly, he was probably one of the Claws that spent the most time in the library, knowing it almost as well as Hogwarts own librarian, Madam Pince. He was a quiet and shy boy but if one initiated a conversation about books with him one would find it easy to become his friend.

.

With the help of Conrad it was almost easy for Archie to flip Harry over despite his weak attempts of resistance. But what they found was not a pretty sight. Harry looked dirty and the skin around his eyes was a strained red. The most unsettling things, nevertheless, were his eyes, if they could be called that. They seemed empty, haunted as they stared straight at Archie. Frankly, it sent shivers down Archie's spine and Conrad took an involuntary step back when Harry shifted his ghostly gaze to him.

"Merlin's toe on a stub!" Archie cursed. "What happened to you? I thought you were catching up with Tonks last night!"

This had clearly been the wrong thing to say as Harry's hollow eyes quickly filled with water. "Tonks," he whispered and his eyes flashed like the breaking of a dam before the tears began to flood.

"Bloody… bloody hell!" Archie exclaimed. "Connie, can you help me get Harry to the showers?" He asked his big friend who simply nodded in response.

Together they carried Harry to the showers at the end of their dorm and put him beneath one of the mouthpieces.

"Thanks for the help, mate." Archie thanked Connie. "You don't have to wait for us. This might take a while."

Connie nodded, and proceeded to join their other dorm mates, Darnell Knight and Jorge Mathis, before going down to breakfast.

Archie, on the other hand, stayed in the shower with his best friend. He took the mouth piece from its fastening and aimed it at Harry before turning on the water, not caring that his friend still wore his boxers. He never cared for seeing his friend naked anyway, and on the bright side this would mean less laundry for the house elves. Thinking about it, Archie thought that not seeing Harry naked was also on the bright side. Not that he thought there was anything bad about the male body or anything, just that he preferred his friend with clothes on.

"Hey, Harry? You there? What happened, mate? You know you can talk to me." Archie tried and failed to provoke any reaction at all from Harry.

He just sat there, back against the wall, arms around his knees and stared sightlessly into the wall opposite him. Archie had never seen his friend like this before and it was deeply disconcerting.

Suddenly he got an idea. Turning off the shower he ran into the dorm room and rooted through the clothes around Harry's bed until he found what he was searching for. Harry's broom.

Returning to the shower he found Harry in the same exact spot where he had left him. No surprise there. Now, if this doesn't do anything I'll bring him to Madam Pomfrey.

"Harry!" He called sharply and the boy in question slightly moved his head in reaction. It was barely noticeable but it was a reaction. Good, at least I know that he hears me. "If you don't tell me what happened last night I will snap your broom in two." As if to show that he was serious, Archie raised his right knee and held the broom over it. He was about to start a countdown but he didn't have time to.

As if on cue, Harry's head snapped up in Archie's direction and his emerald eyes widened, finally showing hints of life.

"No!" He shouted, almost causing Archie to go deaf.

"Good!" Archie barked and threw a bottle of shampoo at his friend who caught it out of reflex. "Now clean up. I'll wait for you in the dorm. You have five minutes or this broom of yours is gone."

Harry looked Archie in the eyes, seeing that he was deadly serious, and then looked down at himself as if seeing the dirt and feeling the dried sweat for the first time. Quickly, as if his life depended on it, he took off his trunks and put on the shower, starting to clean up from whatever he had done that put him into this state.

Archie turned around and groaned slightly. He could at least wait until I was out of the shower before he goes all naked on me, he thought as he walked into their dorm and plopped down onto his bed.

.

Harry was done in three minutes and it was not because he wasn't fully cleaned. When his broom was on the line Harry Potter would defy the laws of physics to save it. He had even cleaned the back of his ears to the point where it was possible to mistake it for the polished floor of Buckingham Palace. No, he was definitely clean enough and it felt… refreshing. The only thing that was missing was To… no, don't go there, Harry thought darkly as he entered his dorm. Archie was lying on his bed, reading some muggle comic before looking up at Harry and then returned to his comic. He was nearly finished.

As Harry got dressed it was Archie who broke the silence, his comic finished and placed under his bed.

"So, talk or breakfast first?"

Harry looked at him and thought for a moment. "Talk over breakfast?" He asked and Archie nodded.

Seeing that Harry was fully clothed he rose up and proceeded to leave. "Let's go then, I'd prefer not to have to go to the kitchens."

They walked down to the Great Hall in silence, not feeling the need to speak. Harry just felt incredibly lucky that he had Archie as a friend. Although Harry felt far from good, Archie had somehow, for the moment at least, stopped Harry from falling down a painful and haunted spiral of depression. After all, there was a difference between being sad and being depressed.

Once they entered the Great Hall, all heads turned towards them. Harry got a strange feeling of Déjà vu and thought of yesterday when he had arrived with the hat. It made him forget his sadness for a moment and he allowed himself to flash a smile. He immediately caught sight of Tonks, however, and he was on the verge of returning to his hollow self. She was staring down at her plate, refusing to look up at him. He felt Archie drag him towards the Slytherin table, the table furthest from Tonks, and they sat down with their backs towards her so that they faced the wall. Although Harry hadn't actually said that his current state was specifically because of Tonks, Archie knew him too well. Despite not having heard any of the rumours yet there had been enough hints so far for him to make an educated guess of the situation.

Preparing some fruits and toasts for Harry he gave his best friend a simple command, "Eat." He then turned to the person on his other side, a surprised Gwen Ballard, a Slytherin girl in their year and inquired loudly what the reason for everybody staring at them was on this particularly fine morning.

As if Archie's loud inquiry was the starting shot, Harry was soon swarmed by students asking their own questions, causing him to turn around to see what the commotion was about. He only heard the first question, however.

"Is it true that you and Tonks broke up?" One of the boys asked, a second year, Harry thought.

It was, nevertheless, all that was required for Harry's usually warm emerald eyes, that the students were used to and loved, to turn cold and hollow. Their apparent emptiness halted the other students from asking their questions and they all, just like Connie had, took an involuntary step backwards, shuddering slightly.

Archie, worried for his friend now that his suspicions were confirmed damned himself silently for not going to the kitchens anyway. He stood up and turned Harry around to his plate once again where he obediently returned to follow Archie's previous command. Archie moved so he was in between Harry and the annoying students meddling in stuff they had no business in.

"Leave." He said simply although this one word was layered with threats and his tone made sure that they all understood it. The results were the students scattering like the wind. Archie did have a little of a reputation himself, although it wasn't as great as Harry's.

Sitting down again he brought out his wand and cast the strongest silencing charms that he knew around himself and Harry.

"Tell me everything." He said, voice soft as he noticed his words had a sort of soothing effect on Harry.

Harry took a drink from his pumpkin and then he breathed deeply, preparing himself to retell all that happened after the Feast yesterday.

It took him ten minutes. Archie was a good listener, giving him time to retell some parts when he needed it and urging him to go on when he needed it.

It felt good to tell him. Like a small weight had been lifted off his chest. When he was done Archie put a reassuring hand on his shoulder and brought him into an embrace.

"You'll get out of this mate. I'll make sure you will."

They pulled apart and Harry returned to his breakfast. "Thank you," he said between bites and Archie simply nodded in turn. They finished breakfast, undisturbed by other people.

Luckily it was the weekend and there were no classes for the day. After breakfast Archie and Harry went out to the grounds and lay down in the grass, basking in the warmth of the sun while they still could.

After a while Harry took off his robes, showing off his well-toned chest in the process, earning himself a questioning look from Archie. In response to the unasked question, Harry shrugged nonchalantly.

"I need to move my body. Care for some training?"

Archie shrugged in response and also took off his robes, revealing a body equal to that of Harry's, to then join him in stretching.

Together they made quite the pair and they soon had quite a few spectators, ranging between girls and boys from all years and houses. Hogwarts united to watch a pair of heart-throbs train. The thought put a slight smile on Harry's lips.

The stretching was followed by a number of physical exercises using their own bodies as weights, push-ups, sit-ups and a series of other stuff. They even had a planking competition to see who could stand the longest but after five minutes they grew bored and stopped it. Their tanned bodies were now glistening with sweat and almost shined in the sunlight, giving off a bronze like hue.

Finally Harry had enough of the physical exercising. He picked up a stick and threw it towards Archie who caught it deftly.

"Let's spar." He said and looked for another stick. A shy girl in her second-year soon stepped forward, holding a stick of appropriate size. He stumbled as he was about to thank her and blinked, somehow seeing Tonks face on her, his heart beginning to heart. Once he looked up, however, there were only the blushing cheeks of a red-haired Hufflepuff girl in front of him. She looked nothing like Tonks. He quickly regained his posture, and thanked her with a charming smile.

He turned back to Archie and saw that he had already shaved his stick into a smooth pole and charmed it to feel soft at the touch. Drawing out his wand, Harry quickly did the same to his own. They had done this quite often before and it could hurt rather badly to get hit by the sticks, in some cases even bones were broken. It had taken some time but after a lot of research they found the charms they needed to lessen the damage they would inflict on each other. They would still often enough leave some rather large welts and bruises on each other, though.

Closing the distance to just a few feet they began to circle each other, sticks in front of them, pointing at their opponent. Suddenly Harry took a few quick steps, closing the distance and brought his stick down in small but quick arcs, aiming for Archie's legs. Archie easily blocked all of his attempts, however and managed to push him off with a shove. He then advanced upon Harry and swung his stick upwards in a wide diagonal arch that, had it been a sword, would have made a long slash from Harry's waist to his shoulder. Harry, knowing that if he tried to block it the strength of Archie's swing would make him lose his stance and leave him wide open for another assault, dodged nimbly by jumping backwards and before Archie could bring down his stick again Harry brought up his own, forcing Archie's to stay up in the air. While their arms were locked in a battle of strength Harry aimed a kick at Archie who brought up his knee to intercept it to lessen the damage made. It was a faint however and Harry drew his leg back slightly to then quickly swipe it beneath Archie's raised knee to target his other leg, the one he had all his weight on. With his leg swept out from under him, Archie fell on his back and without being given a chance to recover, he found Harry's stick aimed at his throat.

"Dead," Harry said and gave him an amused smirk before pumping his fist in the air to the cheering of the spectators.

Archie growled in irritation and pushed Harry's stick away with his free hand. "Again," He said and rose up. They moved a few feet from each other and another sparring match began.

They continued to spar for quite some time, trying out the new tricks and techniques they had learnt or come up with during the summer. They switched naturally between strength, precision and agility in unpredictable combinations and patterns.

They were in no way real swordsmen, following one or another of the schools, but they were self-taught, learning from whatever books and muggle movies they could find and their only limit being their imagination. There was only so much that you could learn from books alone and there were certainly mistakes in their stances that they were unable to see in themselves or their friend. They believed, however, that their unorthodox and mixed style was far from bad and in an actual fight they might do rather well. But if an opportunity presented itself and they could learn from a real swordsman they would definitely grab it.

After quite some time when Archie was showing Harry the move he had used to win the latest spar, he had seen it in a muggle movie called 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon', they were interrupted by a voice that had yet to reach puberty.

"What are you doing?" The voice said and the spectators split to let through a short raven haired first year, with glasses and a lightning bolt scar on his forehead. David Potter was wearing a condescending sneer as he approached his brother.

"What does it look like kiddo?" Harry replied while trying to replicate what Archie just had showed him.

"You are fighting like muggles!" David accused them.

"Ten points to Gryffindor for your incredible display of intelligence!" Archie announced, earning quite a few sniggers from the audience and a reddening of David's cheeks.

"Why? You are of the Ancient and Noble House of Potter. You shouldn't fight like muggles when you have wands!" David insisted, earning a heavy sigh from his brother who had now turned his attention to his brother.

"And what if I become disarmed or am unable to use magic for some reason? Should I then be as defenceless as a lamb? While magic is indeed far superior, I would prefer not to be too reliant on it and have a few other things up my sleeve."

David paused for a moment, seeing the logic in his brother's argument. The little git was, nevertheless, intent on somehow embarrassing his brother and, seeing that his first tactic failed, he changed approach.

"You know, I would prefer it if you kept your love life private. It is quite boring and utterly disinteresting hearing about your pathetic breakup. Just because nobody at home listens..."

He got no further as a palm struck his chin, the force of the blow sending him tumbling to the ground. The audience went completely silent.

"You insolent little git! Shut your mouth before I do it for you." Archie, the one who had struck him, shouted. He then turned, with the rest of the spectators, to look at Harry.

Harry had frozen in place, his mind fighting to not give in to the pain. His eyes had adopted their previous hollowness as the inner battle raged on. He could somehow notice the audience gasped as he gazed upon them, but he couldn't see or hear anything. He was losing the battle and his senses were shutting down. He fell into the darkness.

.

Archie swore as his friend so quickly reverted to the very same state he had forced him out of.

"I suggest you run or I'll make you wish you had." Archie told the Brat-Who-Lived darkly.

The brat made as if to retort before he looked over to his brother. Nervously, and wisely, he scuttled away while clutching his aching cheek.

Archie watched him go before turning to the rest of the audience.

"Leave."

There was no room for argument and they turned as if to go but just before they left a second year girl, the same girl that had given Harry his stick, gasped and pointed to Harry who was beginning to fall backwards. Archie was there in an eye blink and caught his friend as he passed out.

Swearing, he levitated Harry and started the long walk to the infirmary. He left the clothes for the House elves.

It was quite a sight to see two of Hogwarts most popular boys walking bare breasted in the halls of Hogwarts. Well, one of them was walking, the other floating next to him. No one dared comment anything, though, as Archie glared at anyone opening their mouth.

He came to a halt, however, when he heard the voice of Professor McGonagall.

"Archibald Mimosa!" Archie cringed slightly at the use of his full name. "Whatever is the matter with Mr. Potter?" She ignored their state of undress in favour of the state Harry seemingly was in although she did see the number of welts on both of their bodies. "Did you knock him out with that sparring of yours?" She asked disapprovingly.

"No, Professor," he answered earnestly. "This is something else. He was broken hearted and we trained to get him to think of other things but then he was reminded of Tonks and he became like this."

"Surely a simple heartbreak is not responsible for this?"

"I agree, Professor."

"Well then, what are we waiting for? Let's hurry up and escort Mr. Potter to the infirmary." McGonagall said and conjured a shirt for both Harry and Archie.

Archie flared his nose in irritation at the Professor's tone but wisely complied without comment. They quickly made their way to a surprised Pomfrey.

"Only the second day of the term, She said and shook her head while levitating Harry to one of the beds. With the practiced skill of a professional she went through a number of diagnostic spells and after a few moments she dispelled Harry's shirt, revealing quite a number of bruises. She gave Archie a doubtful look and he shook his head.

"No, Madam Pomfrey. It's not because of our sparring." And so, he told her what he had told McGonagall just a little earlier. The Medi-witch's reaction was much like McGonagall's.

"You mean to tell me that Mr. Potter is in this state due to a simple heartbreak?" She inquired while raising an eyebrow.

"I don't know, Professor. Please, just help him." Archie pleaded and plopped down on the bed next to him, exhausted as he was. He groaned slightly as he lied down on one of his newly attained bruises.

Without speaking she dispelled also Archie's shirt and eyed his bruises. It was not the first time they had come to her after a training session. She went to a cabinet and brought out a salve and handed a tube to Archie, who gratefully accepted, before returning to Harry. She began to rub the salve onto Harry's bruises while speaking so that both Archie and McGonagall could hear.

"Rub this on now and before bed tonight and your bruises should be gone by tomorrow." She explained before addressing McGonagall. "Minerva, would you be so kind and go and get Albus? I think he would like to see this."

"Of course, Poppy. I'll be right back." McGonagall answered and exited the room.

Once the door closed behind her, Archie plopped down on the bed and let himself succumb to the comfort of his dreamland.

.

Harry was standing on an empty grassy field with the sun shining. He recognized the place. It was his mind. He had been there several times through his Occlumency. But it shouldn't look like this. There should have been a wide ring of tight iron walls surrounding the plain along with quite a few other surprises he had concocted up for intruders. Somehow it was all gone and that didn't bode well. Not well at all.

The last thing he could remember was struggling against something dark and painful. He was losing that battle and now he was here, in his mindscape.

As if he had called it, something clad in black fell down from the sky and landed right in front of him, shrouds of black mist bellowing out from where the thing landed like ripples in water.

Looking at it closer, Harry could see that the thing clad in dark was a surprisingly handsome man with very pale skin, bordering on albino.

"Who are you?" Harry asked the intruder of his mind.

"I, my dear boy, am Lord Voldemort and I have finally broken into your mind." The man's voice was smooth as silk, almost alluring.

"What? You are dead." Harry said in disbelief. "You died when you attacked my brother and I ten years ago." The man, Voldemort, cackled at him.

"No, my boy, I did not die. I am immortal! Something as simple as an Avada Kedavra is not enough to kill me."

"But why are you here? In my mind?"

"Ah, now that is an interesting question." Voldemort said and went into teacher mode. It was kind of disturbing. "It seems that, when the killing curse rebounded from you two, a piece of my soul fastened itself onto you, one on you and one on your lovely little brother." He paused a little before continuing. "Your mother, although she wasn't present, had protected you with some sort of shield of love," Voldy grimaced at the word 'love'. "But now, with your heart broken by that beautiful metamorphmagi," To Harry's disgust Voldy was licking his lips at the thought of Tonks. "It was the perfect opportunity for me to break through. I'll admit that you fought well and with the help of your friend you almost stopped me but then your little brother chose to intervene and it allowed me to finally break through."

Harry thought about the muggle movies he had seen where the villain always revealed his plan right before he thought he had won. Either Voldemort had watched too many muggle movies, which Harry doubted, or this was a pure coincidence or the muggle movies were surprisingly accurate in depicting evil villains. Deciding to play his part as the hero, he chose to taunt He-Who-Must-Ne-Hyphenised. "So, Voldy, you mean that my brother and I are The-Boys-Who-Lived?" Harry asked with an amused smirk. Not something that the fearsome and dark Lord Voldemort was expecting.

"Yes," he spat venomously, "but soon there will only be one Boy-Who-Lived as the world believes."

And with that, Voldemort attacked him. Harry found himself surrounded by darkness and he felt pain, insurmountable pain. He heard Voldemort's cackling laughter outside and he could feel himself being taken over. He tried to desperately come up with something, anything that he could use to get out of the situation.

He imagined sending a pulse out from him and felt the pain lessening, but it was only momentarily. Realizing that Harry was resisting, Voldemort increased his pressure.

Suddenly, Harry remembered what Voldemort had said in his 'evil villain'-monologue. His comments about love and what had allowed him to break into Harry's mind. Voldemort must have thought that he had finally broken Harry as the boy started to laugh. It was all just way too cliché. Voldy had given the key to how Harry would defeat him right before he began his final attack. Maybe He-Who-Must-Ne-Hyphenised had watched too many muggle movies.

Harry took a deep breath, though he didn't know if he actually needed to since he was in his mindscape, and he thought about Tonks. More specifically, he thought about his love for Tonks, ignoring the fact that they had broken up. In fact, once he had localized it, he ignored everything but that feeling of love, not even noticing that it was for Tonks anymore.

"What is this?" He heard Voldy say.

Harry opened his eyes to see a bright pink fire spreading out from him, burning the darkness of Voldemort. He concentrated on pushing the pink fire, his love, further from him and, erasing every trace of the darkness from Voldemort making the man give off an unearthly shriek.

"Stop!"

"No, Voldy." Harry said, walking towards the Dark Lord in his once again green mindscape. "You do know that you brought this upon yourself? It was you who made me realize how I could defeat you. Kind of ironic, isn't it?" And so, he had almost finished his part as a hero in this muggle movie. Gathering a ball of pink love in his hands he held them at the side of his waist. "Ready, Voldy?" He asked, mocking the wide-eyed Dark Lord. "Ka...me...ha...me..."

"What are you doing?" Voldemort asked, fearful of this unknown incantation.

"Oh, just a muggle reference," Harry answered. "Ha!"

A beam of pink shot straight towards Voldemort and, since they was inside of Harry's mindscape, Voldemort wasn't able to dodge or block it. Upon hitting the Dark Lord he let out a shriek that would unnerve even a dementor. Luckily, Harry was no dementor and so, he only watched as the pink spread from Voldemort's chest until it enveloped his whole body.

The Dark Lord then exploded and for a minute pink snowflakes fell slowly and softly on the grass of Harry's mindscape, erasing all evidence of Voldemort inside of Harry.

Harry closed his eyes for a second, relishing in the victory of the moment. When he opened his eyes again he was pleased to see the defences of his mind were back in place. Thinking for a second, he added some wizards on his walls capable of doing only one thing. That is, sending pink rays of love against intruders.

Pleased with himself, he left his mindscape, and opened his eyes to the real world.

AN: So, what you think? I thought it was rather good myself. Don't know if the fight vs Voldy was serious or not XD PINK KAMEHAMEHA

Please review!