DayOfTheDeadPartTwoOfThreeDayOfTheDeadPartTwoOfThree

Falling Inside The Black

"Mankind is resilient: the atrocities that horrified us a week ago become acceptable tomorrow." ― Joseph Heller

Summary: The Horcrux activating and slowly merging with him is the least of Harry Potter's worries as he begins his third year at Hogwarts. With sadistic werewolves and mass murderers running amok it's a good thing Harry's got a sense of humour.

Characters: Harry Potter. The Horcrux. Ron Weasley. Remus Lupin. Severus Snape. Draco Malfoy. Draco's apples. Various minions.

AN: Pretty much a teaser chapter. A much longer one filled with morally ambiguous choices, loss of party members and a dangerous obstacle course is coming up next. Until then...

ANx2: I really need to edit this whole story at some point. Someday. Maybe. We'll see.

Ever Yours, Pseu [The clever, magnificent and ridiculously good looking]

"Fear is a part of life. It's a warning mechanism.

That's all.

It tells you when there's danger around.

Its job is to help you survive. Not cripple you into being unable to do it."

― Jim Butcher

Day of the Dead. Part 2 of 3.

Right about then the lights started flashing at a fast enough speed the older muggleborns felt like they were at a particularly sadistic rave.

It was the unnerving loud buzzing noise that came with it that really got them freaked out. It sort of swooped, buzzing low and high and then rather too high and down again in a way that would not be out of place in a horror movie, in Harry's opinion. He'd never gotten to watch one of course but from his cupboard he'd had excellent hearing of them. Regardless of what may have happened to go with the noise, he knew screams often followed and that they brought nothing good with them unless you happened to be the one in a mask carrying a machete. He had seen the covers for the VHS. He knew what the bad guy looked like at least.

In accordance with his limited knowledge of such things, everyone did what humans did best when thrust into an unknown situation. They lost their intelligence -if they had any- and panicked. Poor dears.

Harry took the chaos in stride, waving his hand and grasping the bag that flew into his hands at the command. Their panic was, of course, understandable and he could only hope when they realized he was working toward his own self-preservation rather than attempting to calm them down and help out the lot, that they would be equally understanding. Harry was a bit of an optimist when he wanted to be. Standing there he took a glance around and resisted the urge to admit a long suffering sigh. Even the Slytherins were petrified in a group. It wouldn't be any fun if everyone else got taken out so early in the game. That and they had a few hours yet until dawn and Harry wanted to make the most of his first proper Halloween!

Not to mention he had a baby dark lord in his head and he was fairly certain that was a major advantage. One he intended to use. Frightening or not it was still a game and Harry was quite competitive.

Darting around a collection of Hufflepuffs running in circles, Harry tugged at a sleeve. Draco turned around and relaxed immediately. Harry debated being insulted that Draco thought he was any safer than the werewolf and the poison passionate goth but since they were in charge of Halloween and he was not he supposed he could allow the sentiment. And wasn't Draco just the sweetest for being concerned about Harry like that? It was fairly adorable -Harry had a crossbow and Draco did not- but sweet all the same. In the same manner, he managed to collect his minions and two of Draco's as well. They followed along behind Harry, weaving around their totally doomed classmates on their way toward the side chamber. Harry chose to come here rather than try for the main doors because he'd seen enough news reports ion Black Friday in New York City to know that large groups of people plus one exit or entrance and a lot of running usually equally in people getting trampled.

"Don't think we don't realize you're the smallest of us and thus the most likely to get made into roadkill." Said Dean, grinning.

Harry sniffed. "I'm sure I don't know what you mean."

The chamber they reached was a side room connected to the Great Hall that they remembered vaguely from their sorting. Harry knew down the other end they could get to the entrance hall near the main doors. They reached it without any excitement at all beyond the rising tension as a direct result of the nothingness. They knew something was bound to happen soon and it not happening just made waiting for it that much worse. When they got to the other door Harry paused. "Minions, be useful." He waved a hand forward.

Seamus and Dean took it with a grain of salt, opening the door and walking out of it first. Nothing happened.

"You don't have to look so disappointed." Neville pointed out. His lips were twitching suspiciously. It's okay to enjoy it Neville, Harry cooed mentally. Join the dark side. It's fun!

Some of the other students had already made it into the entrance hall though the majority seemed to be wadded up at the doors. To their right, the main doors were open to the grounds. They watched two Hufflepuffs head out in that direction. Harry shrugged and followed after them. He didn't have a plan. He was winging this stuff. He stopped halfway down the stairs. It was too quiet. He turned back and looked inside. Why go through all the trouble of freaking them out like that if they were going to leave a huge plot hole like this? They wouldn't. These guys were through, what's more- they really, really enjoyed frightening people. They wouldn't have forgotten. So, why so quiet?

"What aren't we seeing?" Harry asked quietly. Oddly this seemed to put his little group on edge.

Beside him, one of Draco's minions, whose name Harry did not know, shrugged. "It's an empty lawn. There aren't even any clouds, we can see pretty well if we stay out of the forest. Might be a good spot to be, the grounds I mean. We'll be able to see if someone is coming." About this time the two Hufflepuffs they were following were partway down the hill headed toward the greenhouses. Harry didn't think carnivorous plants were the best place to hide unless they were thinking to yank out some of those Mandrakes and chucking them at anything that moved. Savage. And to think, Harry totally had a pair of headphone he could silence and stick in his ears just in case. He frowned. That would leave the rest of his...group dead, though, wouldn't it?

In the end, it didn't matter because mind snapped back from its tangent and realized a vital piece of information the lot of them had overlooked.

"We...we should get inside." Said Harry, as quietly as he could manage. He took a small step backward. Draco stepped back as well though he did ask why they were heading back toward the madness rather than way from it. "It's a full moon." Harry looked up to emphasize this point. "It's grand that we can see but seeing a werewolf coming for you doesn't do much to help you get away from it does it? And tat just means it can see you all the better if you're standing like an idiot in the middle of a flat piece of land."

The others began to back up as well. "I thought there weren't any werewolves in the forest?" Dean asked conversationally.

"There isn't. But there is at least one on the faculty."

On a side note, Harry was pretty sure Lupin wouldn't go out on the grounds. That man was sadistic not masochistic. He probably didn't feel like being executed anytime soon. That being said, it was Halloween and this man was in charge of it and his beast would be fueling him to even crueler, darker lengths than usual. So the grounds couldn't be safe. His inner beast would be looking to pick off the weakest links first. Cowards looking to sit out the whole ordeal certainly counted. As if on some cue cloak figures appeared around the doomed Hufflepuffs. They carried thick oddly shaped stick-like objects which produced projectiles at a high velocity.

"Are those...muggle weapons?" Neville asked, fascinated.

Harry nodded, eyes locked on the objects in question. "That they are." He darted forward, to the alarm of his companions. Honestly, out of the lot of them he definitely was the best prepared. Harry pulled out his invisibility clock, pulling it about him. Quickly he grasped one of the firearms and skittered back toward the others just in case he was noticed. Harry pulled off the cloak and held the gun out.

"They're not normal guns, though..." Seamus squinted. "Oh, they're airsoft guns. That'll hurt for days."

Harry shoved the airsoft riffle in his bag. They watched the Puffs get slammed until they stopped moving and became nothing more than just a depressing pile on the ground. He had the feeling some kind of spell was on the ammunition...that or they just witnessed the death of their classmates. "What idiots." Harry decided, turning on his heel and heading back inside. "They didn't even think to duck and dodge. Run away. Conjure a shield. Nothing."

"Are we going to help them?" Asked the Slytherin Harry still didn't know.

"One," said Harry, "That was really un-Slytherin and I am disgusted. Two; heck no. If they didn't try to save themselves why should we? They know their own worth better than we do and apparently their lives weren't worth fighting for." He missed the startled looks exchanged behind his back at this proclamation. He was preoccupied with removing his crossbow from his bag and loading it. It was not a drill. The Day of the Dead was in session. He wouldn't end up a pile of bruised mush on the ground. With less than six hours until dawn the two creeptastic masters of fright would be gunning for him. After all, they had promised to have something special in store for him. Well, he wasn't going down without a fight.

"I wonder how the others are doing." harry pondered aloud.

Elsewhere Ron Weasley found himself in a room full of lookalikes of his various family members, none of which seemed to remember his name. Down the way three Ravenclaws found themselves in a library where, try as they might, they couldn't read any of the book. Upon discovering they couldn't read anything they'd written either, it appearing to be some sort of gibberish, they proceeded to have mental breakdowns. Standing in the room separating the two a lone figure loomed, glancing between the one sided transparent wall on his left and then the one on his right. The figure sipped his tea.

Two levels above Cedric Diggory lead a group of Huffepuffs wearing combat vests and chewing jerky. They walked through the halls with purpose, checking the corners and the shadows if each room they passed. It would later be discovered that Harry had lent Cedric the Art of War, seemingly unaware of the possible repercussions. For the two masterminds of this night of terror, it merely made the game even more delicious. It was far more fun to play with your food when it made a real effort to survive. Crushing it was unexplainably satisfying.

"Harry?"

The raven haired wizard blinked. "yes?"

"You've been standing there zoning out," Neville explained, warily. What? Hadn't he ever seen someone space out in the middle of a combat situation before? He really needed some more life experience. Honestly.

Harry blinked again, slower. "Ah. Don't worry about. I was just...imagining things."

"Guys?" In front of them Dean and Seamus had come to a stop. There, at the main staircase they all stood for a moment. Usually there ere many moving staircases one could use at one's own peril, leading from floor to floor. Were they replaced with alligators? Lava? Demons? No. They were simply gone altogether.

"That...seriously limits our area of cover." Said Harry, finally. "I suppose we'll just have to wander around here a bit and hope for the best. We'll probably get picked off one by one doing that. How anticlimactic. I was kinda hoping for a heart pounding run through a maze with potentially dangerous obstacles. This is...just a letdown." Wordlessly Draco handed Harry an apple. The Gryffindor took it, perplexed. "I haven't even done the eye thing or the voice or the-"

"It's free. Just eat it."

"Why?" Harry asked, feeling stubborn.

"You're hungry. You're not yourself when you're hungry."

Bemused Harry took a sharp bite out of it. "Oh! We should go down into the dungeons. We use only a small portion of them for classes, the rest are labs and things, right? And the dorms? Why don't we try to get to the Slytherin Common room and then barricade ourselves in for the rest of the night? This will be easy-"

Draco turned to the others and smiled. "See? Now he's positive again."

"I sort of feel like that was cheating," Dean whispered to Neville. He fiddled with his sleeve, as if unsure he was allowed to make such comments. He was just a minion after all.

"What do you mean?" Neville whispered back, following after their mentally unstable leader.

"I don't know." Dean frowned. "I just feel like we should have wandered about a bit, and failed at finding an alternative place to go a few times before we figured out we could go to the dungeons. It's like we skipped a necessary part of the build up for this scene."

Nevile grinned. "We're with Harry, mate. He's just skipping the boring bits no one cares about so we can get to the good stuff. The good stuff, in this case, involves a crossbow apparently, and a bezoar and holy water if you take what he said earlier seriously...so it being good is relative. Still, trust me, we're not missing anything important. Whatever happens next is going to be good."

Harry turned around, annoyed. "Will you quit that? That's my job Neville. You're just supposed to appear to know something I don't when it comes to social interactions. Leave the flexible fourth wall comments no one else understands to me. Okay?"

"Sorry Harry."

Harry glared once more for good measure then faced forward. "Oh look. The dungeons have been turned into a Labyrinth." At least that's what the handy hand-painted sign sitting innocently beside the stairs leading down to the dungeons said. It was spelled right and everything so Harry was inclined to believe it was legit. How wonderful! He'd always wanted to meet the Goblin King. Or run from a Minotaur. He'd take what he could get.

"Do you think it's safe?"

They all turned to look at the Slytherin who spoke. Draco cocked his head, perhaps pondering the question. Then, quite suddenly he kicked the other Slytherin down the steps. The boy came to a halt at the end of the stairs. He gave them all a rather rude look. Giving an annoyed huff the boy stomped forward- only to be slammed into from the side by an unexpectedly large piece of rock on a rope. His body went flying somewhere to the right. It struck another wall and it crashed to the floor. They knew that because they heard it. Gah.

"I'm going to go with 'no'." Said Draco.

PseudonymousEntity

2017

Notes: Thoughts, Questions, Theories and Limericks always welcomed.

AN: A bit of a teaser for what's coming. I'm horrid I know.

Ever Yours, Pseu