Chapter 10 - Converstations with Mr. Nobody

"What about my wand, Professor…sir?" Harry asked a little concerned as he sat in one of the seats.

"Oh, no need for formality, Harry. I'm not speaking to you as your professor. In your godfather's…absence, they were unable to find anyone more suitable," the last was said in distain, "so I instead get reports on your progress from the school, and I've noticed that your grades are improving. Most specifically your charm work. Has Hermione, or anyone else been helping you? Your marks are starting to rival Miss Granger's in some subjects." Remus asked.

"I'm not cheating, if that's what you're asking."

"Oh no! Nothing of the sort." Remus sighed. "I clearly am going about this the wrong way." He sat on the desk in front of Harry's. "Honestly, Harry, Dumbledore wanted me to ask you. I have no idea what goes on in that head of his, but there is always a reason behind even the simplest of questions. It was his idea to give you the wand, and he wanted me to check up on you. In my opinion, you've been doing excellently in classes."

"Oh…um. Well, things are…easier. It's almost like I know things already, but I don't, you know?" Remus gave Harry a confused look and Harry sighed, trying to think of a better way to put it. "It's like…we're going over new material, stuff I haven't seen before, and while my mind keeps trying to wrap around the concepts, my hand already knows what to do."

Remus nodded. He pursed his lips and his face took on a very…dissatisfied and concerned look. He stood up, walked over to his desk, and wrote something on a piece of paper before bringing it back and setting it in front of Harry.

"Since you don't know Latin, I am sure it's safe to say you don't know what that word is, correct?" Remus asked.

Harry nodded.

"I'd like you to try out that spell, Harry. I'm not going to tell you how to perform it, or what school of magic, such as Transfiguration or Charms, what not, that it comes from. Just read the word, and do what you FEEL is appropriate. Aim it for the grindylow in the tank over there."

Harry nodded and picked up the piece of paper. He put the paper back down, and pointed his wand at the tank. As Harry said the words, his hand moved in an odd swiping motion, and the grindylow screamed in pain. Surprised, Harry stopped, and the grindylow went back to taunting both him and Remus. When Harry looked at Remus, he was nodding, but he didn't look particularly happy.

"Remus…is everything alright?"

"I need to think about some things. I think there is something Dumbledore's not telling me." Remus sighed and went to sit behind his desk and wrote a note. "Thank you, Harry, you may go to Potions now, here is your note."

As Harry left the classroom, he bumped into Tonks. "Oh…erm…sorry, Tonks."

"No worries, Harry boy." She walked into the classroom and was met with a very reserved looking Remus. "Hey… what's the matter?" She picked up the spell Harry had left and whistled. "This one's a particularly nasty one, if I have my roots correct. What is it?"

"It's a spell Sirius created in sixth year," Remus replied resting his chin thoughtfully in his hand and looking out the window.

"Are you teaching Dark Arts as well as Defense now?" Tonks asked confused.

"No. Harry was able to do the spell."

"Well, Sirius must have taught him."

Remus shook his head. "I highly doubt it. Sirius wasn't the asshole he was when he was a kid."

"Maybe he saw it somewhere?" Tonks offered.

Again, Remus shook his head. "No, Sirius and I were the only ones who knew it. He used it once on Snape not knowing what it would do, and after we saw the effects we never spoke of it again. He never wrote it down. I remember it because I just don't forget things like that. And you were only able to recognize the gist of it because you're highly trained."

"Well, what other possibilities are there?"

"I think it's something in Sirius' wand. There's something Dumbledore isn't telling me, and I am going to find out what it is." Remus stood up, and placing a quick kiss on her forehead, he left to find the Headmaster.

"Oh COME ON, Draco! You two were OOZING sexual tension out there on the field. It exploded when he punched you. You can NOT sit there and tell me that you didn't get hard when he had you in a head lock."

Draco looked away, a slight blush tinting his porcelain complexion. "I was FLYING, Pansy. The trill and weightlessness can have a tendency to make things... excited!"

"Oh come off it, you lout! You have always gotten a thrill flying against Potter, but you're not seeker anymore. Tell me, is the 'Beat-Off' pos..."

"BEATER!!!"

"..ition just as thrilling?" Pansy finished over him, a positively wicked gleam in her eye. Her voice lowered to a purr. "Or was it really when his strength was constraining you, quidditch toned muscles, smelling of sweat and sex..."

"STOP HAVING EROTIC DREAMS ABOUT MY SEX LIFE, YOU BITCH!" Draco yelled at the top of his lungs.

As the echo dissipated in the library, all that could be heard was Draco's hard breathing, which he told himself was the only thing keeping him from murdering the pug-faced princess, and a lowly cricket that had somehow gotten into the library by mistake. Pansy plopped an elbow on the table, and rested her chin on her hand, grinning like a cheshire cat at her blonde friend, who refused to look in her direction. The blush crept back up on his pale face, and Draco picked up his books, calmly leaving the table. As he passed Madame Pince's desk, he gave the woman with a completely scandalized expression a polite nod, and left the library.

Draco looked at himself in the mirror. "I can't do it."

"Oh no you don't. You made me buy new clothes, you made me wash with your froo-froo soaps and conditioners, you did my nails - which hurt by the way - and you made me walk for HOURS! You're doing it, Draco."

"I can't," Draco whined, almost sobbing. He lifted his hands to his hair again, but his arms stopped and no matter how much he tried, he couldn't make them move. Draco closed his eyes and sighed in defeat. "I CAN'T."

"Well I can," a voice drawled from behind, and when Draco's eyes went back to the mirror he saw Harry behind him. He didn't even have a moment to react; the brunette's hands rucked up his hair.

"AHHHH!!!" Draco looked forlorn at his reflection.

"What do I use to make it stay that way?" Harry asked. Draco pointed to one of the containers, and Harry scooped out a large handful of hair gel, lobbing it onto the blonde's mussed locks. Harry chuckled at the expression on his face; it looked like he was about to cry. "Oh don't fret, you big baby. At the end of the night it will all wash out and you can go back to being Mr. Perfect Hair."

"Harry..." Draco said quietly, "you had better be right, or I will beat Voldemort's plan to kill you off."

"I don't know why you're making such a big deal; you're the one who thought of the idea."

Draco said no more, instead opting for pouting at his own reflection.

When Harry was done it looked like some stray owl had tried to make a nest of Draco's poor hair. He sighed as he continued to look at himself in the mirror. "I have under thought this plan. You come out looking much better than I do, maybe we should switch."

Harry looked at him in exasperation. "And that would make sense how?"

"I don't know I just want my hair back," he whined.

"If it helps at all, you get to do my hair now, since I have NEVER been able to tame it." The pout turned into pure glee with much too much enthusiasm; frankly it frightened Harry a little. Draco got his wand. "Hey! What are you going to do with that??"

"I need to do a couple spells so your hair will stay."

Two hours later, Draco sat back and admired his handiwork. Yes, this would be a good night. "Go get dressed, and meet me in the dorm room, I have a plan on how to scare the Weasel senseless."

Harry shook his head and walked into the bathroom to get changed. Draco's attire was a whole different story. He had to enlarge some aspects and shrink others just so the clothing would stay on. A moment later he heard the door open, and when he turned around he forgot how to breathe.

Harry looked stunning. More than stunning, and Draco couldn't find words to describe it. The tailor definitely did his job, because everything was perfectly cut, perfectly hemmed to Harry's measurements. By Merlin, they even had the right amount of tightness to his shirt to show off the subtle muscles of Harry's biceps. Harry walked over to Draco's full length mirror to see the whole outfit, and Draco's face went from pale to a nice shade of pink when he saw just how well those pants fit on Harry's backside.

"I think they're too tight."

Draco didn't hear, his entire being much more interested in admiring the Adonis that just stepped out of the bathroom.

"Draco?"

Draco's eyes roved up and down the brunette's form, and Harry looked at the blonde through the mirror. "Draco?" The spells and products Draco used on Harry's hair only pulled the whole costume together. He could almost just reach out and touch... "DRACO!"

"I DIDN'T DO IT!" Draco exclaimed, not knowing where such a statement came from.

"What?"

"What?" Draco asked startled.

"You didn't do what?"

"I didn't do anything."

Harry turned around and looked at him through narrow concerned eyes. "Are you feeling OK?"

"Yes I'm fine, what did you ask before?"

"I think these clothes are too tight." Harry turned back to the mirror.

"Nonsense. These clothes FIT, Harry. They are just different from the clothing five sizes too big you usually wear." Draco noticed that the color of the shirt really brought out the color in Harry's eyes.

"I feel naked..." Harry whispered.

"Oh posh! You're in a turtleneck Harry! You are fully covered."

"Hmm..." was all Harry responded with.

Draco smiled wickedly. "So, wanna hear my plan to scare Weaselbey?"

"RON, YOUR EYES ARE CLOSED, RIGHT???" Harry yelled down the stairs some time later.

"YES! God, I don't see why I have to…" Ron grumbled.

"Oh Ron, humor them, they're getting along for once, and I…" the rest of Hermione's words were cut off when she saw Draco.

First of all, Draco was slumping down the stairs, all grace and poise forgotten. Hermione's eyes went immediately to his hair, which was neither slicked back like he used to wear it, or smoothed down like he wore it as of late. No, his hair was… messy. It was the only word Hermione could use to describe it. It was completely tussled, as though he went to bed with hair gel and didn't take the time to look at himself in the morning. His face adorned a pair of round rimmed ugly glasses, and his clothes – oh my god, Hermione thought. Where in the world did he get those horrible things? The clothing was three sizes too big and barely hung off his slim frame. He wore a bright crimson sweatshirt that literally hung off his shoulders and a pair of old jeans. The outfit was complete with a pair of pathetically worn gold trainers and a scar drawn on his forehead.

"'Lo." Draco said in greeting, his snarky drawl gone. He stepped to stand beside Ron, holding in snickers as he knew what was coming next would be even more shocking.

Hermione was so busy staring at Draco that she almost missed Harry's entrance so soft and soundless as he came gracefully down the stairs. This time Hermione went slack jawed and a bit of a flush rose in her cheeks as she looked at the incredibly handsome man her best friend had become.

Harry's hair was lengthened just a bit, and had some sort of product that made the black tresses fall delicately into his face. He wore no glasses, and in Hermione's opinion, all spectacles should be outlawed on Hogwarts grounds because of it. Harry wore a deep forest green turtleneck, which fit snugly and perfectly on him, giving definition to his chest. Below that was a pair of well tailored black slacks complete with a fine silver belt. Harry wore nice black dress shoes that looked like they had just been polished. And as impressive as Harry looked, the way he carried himself, with such grace and confidence. It was amazing.

Harry took his place on the other side of Ron. "You can open your eyes now, Weasel," Harry said with trademarked Malfoy smirk. Ron, a little put off, opened his eyes as his head turned towards Harry's voice.

"Hey..AAAA!" Ron's eyes went wide as he saw his best friend, smirk and all. He jumped back, knocking into Draco.

"Hey, mate, watch where you're going!"

Ron spun around. "AHHHHHH!!!!!" He fell backwards when he saw Draco. And poor Ron sat there for a good minute, looking at the two boys back and forth. Harry finally took pity and offered a hand. Hermione refused to look at Harry, a blush still gracing her delicate English completion.

"If nothing else, this was worth the look on your face." Harry chuckled as he pulled Ron up, and they headed out to the Great Hall.

Draco was about to follow, when he was stopped by a hand on his shoulder. "You burned all his other clothing, right?" Hermione whispered, a little thrill at the idea making her feel a little guilty.

Draco completely opened up and dazzled her with a winning, real smile. "Let's just say that boy is VERY lucky it's a Hogsmeade weekend this weekend," and the blonde bowed and offered her an arm. Hermione took it, chuckling the entire way to the Hall.

The hard soles of the shoes clicked against the marble floor as Lucius walked slowly beside Voldemort. The long hallway was empty of all persons and it felt quite lonely with nothing hanging on the walls. This was a part of the Manor that no eyes but a Lord and his Master would see.

"Do you think you have done enough to make him see reason, Lucius?"

"He is a Malfoy, my Lord, and while he may be stubborn, he will see the power that awaits him," Lucius replied, hoping that it would appease the madman.

"We could always…" Voldemort took out his wand, "persuade him."

The pit of Lucius' stomach fell. "My Lord, what use is a Malfoy's fear, when you could have a Malfoy's loyalty?"

Voldemort stopped walking and turned to his icy blonde companion. "And do I have your loyalty, Malfoy?"

Lucius gracefully went to one knee, "Always, my Lord."

Voldemort held the elder Malfoy under a scrutinizing gaze for a few moments before saying, "Make sure your son sees the same light, Lucius."

"Once he realizes just how little power he has out there without your or my influence, he will be crawling back."

Voldemort didn't respond, but instead continued walking down the hallway, deep in thought. Lucius didn't like it when he was deep in thought, because it meant that the screws that were NOT loose were planning something.

Some time during the later hours of the Halloween Party, two teens made walked as quietly as they could. Hermione giggled loudly as she and Draco made their way down the corridors.

"Did you see the LOOK on their faces when they saw you two?" Hermione giggled out. "And then Seamus, OH MERLIN..." She erupted into large belly laughs.

"Shhhhh..." Draco motioned her to be quite, and let out a giggle himself.

"Oh GOD! We're gonna get in so..." she stopped and teetered over bumping into the wall, using it as support, "we're goin' ta get in trouble if we don get back."

"You Miss, need to sober up before we go anywhere else. Your chatter is going to give us away." Draco looked around, a little loopy. AHA! Classroom. "Here." He held the door open for her, and as Hermione approached the door, she gave a very deep curtsey, which ended her face first on the floor in the classroom. Her laughter echoed the empty corridor, and Draco quickly shoved her in closing the door behind. "Have you never been the least bit tispy, woman?" Draco asked, clearly frazzled. The last thing he needed was to get blamed for getting the Head Girl drunk. No, that was due to the over exuberant Blaise, who had spiked the punch with firewhisky.

"Nope," Hermione giggled as she righted herself on the threshold and leaned back against the door as Draco sat on a desk. "You know Harry's not gay, right?"

The question shocked Draco. "Pardon me?"

"Harry, e's not gay. At least I don tink." She said very seriously, hiccupped and then giggled again. "I meant what I said about bein' his friend."

"I wouldn't dream of..."

"Oh, accordin to Pansy you do."

"It's Pansy that has dreams about me and Harry, not me."

"Butchor gay, right?"

"I don't see how that's any of your business, Granger." Draco sniffed haughtily.

"Is my busy...bussie...business cuz Harry's my friend and I LOVE him," Hermione yelled, and at the word love, she gave herself a great big hug.

Draco cast a silencing spell on the room, just in case Hermione decided to yell anything else. "Well, even if I was, it wouldn't make any difrnen...difference, Harry has girls falling all over him all the time anyway. He's probably gone through his share anyway."

Hermione shook her head furiously, but stopped when she hit the back of it on the door. "Ow... No. Harry doen't really go out. He's only been on one date, and it was with that BITCH Cho." Draco's eyes widened by Hermione's conviction of voice. "He liked her, and I was really hoping she'd like im, but she was always SO hung up on Cedereric. He kissed her once, Harry did, and it was complet" Hermione thought really hard, "ly distasteful." Hermione leaned her head back against the door, staring at the ceiling. "He's not really made time for it again. Romance. He doesn't believe it's worth his time, with the war 'n all." Hermione blew out a large dramatic sigh, "Thinks maybe if he gets done with it all someone'll love him for HIM instead of for what they wantim to be." She looked dazzled at Draco, "Can't say I blame him," she finished with a far away voice.

"So Potter has trouble with the ladies does he?" Draco asked, very interested now.

"Not neces…not really problems, it's more…" Hermione sighed in frustration. "I've seen how he looks at Ron and I…me, Ron and me. It's like he doesn't believe he's gonna have that. And can ya really blame him?" she asked a little loudly. "He's got nobody, Draco. NO BODY. He's just all alone and he has nobody."

Draco smiled. "You said that already."

"Anytime he gets a nobody…" she thought for a moment, "a somebody. It just…all goes downhill. And I don't mean like a good fuck or anything," at this Draco's eyebrows rose, he had never heard the Head Girl swear before. "I mean like someone to love and not in a mush…y way." Draco looked at her with a confused expression.

"There was his parents," she said holding up two fingers. "And…whoosh, takin'. Then there was Sirius," she said, wiggling the same two fingers. "And just when it's all gonna work out, BAM!" she enunciated by slamming her fist on the floor, to which the very serious expression changed to one of lots of pain as she jammed her two wiggling fingers on the ground. "AHHH!" Draco didn't have to hush her since she did a pretty good job by stuffing her fist in her mouth.

"Well, he has you and Ron, right? You guys will stick by him no matter what."

Hermione nodded, "But it's not the same is it? We're not FAMILY, Draco. We'll never truly understand him, all the expectations he has to live up to, all the responsibility. Harry was just a little boy, thrust into a world he never know…knoew…knew, and was expected to immediately pick up where he left off as if at one year old he actually knew what he did."

"What about the family he goes home to for summer?"

Hermione was sobering up at this point and gave him an incredulous look. "He lived in a cupboard, Draco, for the first eleven years of his life. A cupboard under the stairs. He's not as slim as he is from exercising too much, and the clothes he wears are not five times too large because he prefers them that way."

"Oh, that's right," Draco whispered to himself, "father said something about his home life."

"Pardon? I didn't catch that."

Draco looked back up at Hermione. "Oh, nothing of any importance. Looks like you're a bit more level headed. Ready to get back to your dorms?"

Hermione nodded, standing and wobbling a bit but otherwise gaining some composure.

"Pansy, will you get off this whole subject?" Blaise said exasperated.

"Oh, you've got to be curious though. I mean, we obviously live, and won, and things are happy with rainbows and sunshine, but you've got to wonder about every day life." Pansy said, daydreaming.

"Nope," Blaise responded flipping the page in his Astronomy book.

"Nope? That's all you've got to say? Nope?" Pansy was tapping her foot at this point.

"Fine, Nope, I don't wonder, because I know."

Pansy narrowed her eyes and looked Blaise up and down. "You know what?"

"How our futures turn out."

"WHAT?"

Blaise rushed Pansy and covered her mouth with his hand. "Shut up you bloody woman!"

Pansy yanked Blaise's hand down. "What do you mean you know?" she whispered.

Blaise looked around. "I wrote myself a note. About what I found out in the future. When we came back, even though my mind was erased, I still had the note. Now, I don't know how or why things happen the way they do, just that they do."

"Well, what did you write down?" Pansy asked with bated breath.

Blaise gave her an impossible look. "I'm not telling you, some of it's about you. You're better off not knowing. It's good. Don't worry about it." Replacing his book in his bag he started to walk out of the library.

"How come you get to know and I don't? Do I have to marry Duncan Blaine?" she whined as she followed him.

"I absolutely refuse to tell you; why don't you just tell your father you don't want to marry that weird Russian bloke? And I know the future because, my dear, I obviously was the Slytherin one of the group and outsmarted you all."

"Says he who was put in Huffelpuff," she scoffed.

Blaise gave Pansy a hurt look and covered his heart. "And what kind of friend would I be if I gave you all the secrets of your future instead of letting them unravel on their own?" he asked as he made his way to the Great Hall.

"A GOOD ONE!!" Pansy yelled.

"Well, guess the bloody hat put me in the wrong House then." With that, Blaise made his way through the large doors leaving Pansy to flounder in the hall.

"I hate you," she said, and entered the hall for lunch.

"Hey Draco, could I borrow your Potions notes later on tonight? I wasn't able to get that part on the papyrus plant."

"Sure," Draco said, looking up and instantly regretting it. Harry had just come back from the showers, and was clad in only a towel, and a short one at that. Draco let out a silent squeak, slammed his eyes shut, and started muttering "Dead puppies, dead puppies, dead puppies," under his breath.

"What was that?" Harry called.

Another silent squeak. "Shit, he heard me," Draco whispered. "Nothing!" he called, and threw his notes onto the floor, quickly throwing his curtains closed and hiding in the dark light on his bed.

Harry looked at the notes in the middle of the floor. Draco was not one to go throwing school work around; he was on par with Hermione when it came to respect for school work. "Are you OK, Draco?" Harry asked, walking over to his bed, his hand poised to crack open the curtains a little.

"No!" Draco called. "I…have a migraine. The light is affecting it."

"Oh," Harry said, pulling his hand back from the bed curtains. He lowered his voice so as not to increase the headache. "Alright, I will just take these and get the notes I need, and I'll put them on your desk when I'm done."

"Whatever!" Draco called, thanking any god out there that he didn't come face to face with the emerald eyes that haunted his dreams as of late. "I hate being seventeen," Draco muttered to his crotch.

In the dark of the night a cloaked figure stood on the edge of the forest, not daring to go any further lest it meet with the inhabitants of the dark place. A twig snapped and the figure whipped around.

"Are you Mr. Nobody?" a deep voice called.

"Who wants to know," a younger voice answered back from underneath the cloak.

Instead of answering, a hand came out and grabbed the cloaked figure by the throat, pushing the smaller body up against a tree. "All right! All right! Yes, I am Mr. Nobody." The hand loosened a bit, "Although next time I'd hope you would ask someone their name instead of offering them an alias since they could just lie to you." The hand tightened again. "Not that I'd do that!"

The figure was thrown to the side.

"What news do you have for our Lord?"

"I've set everything up, Potter has the portkey in his bookbag, and the castle will be virtually empty during the winter holidays. I overheard the teachers talking, and they'll be half staffed 4 days before Christmas. Nobody will be in the Gryffindor seventh year dorms. All you need is to activate this," the cloaked figure on the ground threw a pencil at the two men towering over, "and it will get you right into the castle, through the wards, and into the dorm room. There's probably an intruder alarm system, so you'll have about 20 seconds to get Potter and portkey back out before someone is able to get to the dorm room."

The two men looked at each other and nodded. The one on the left said, "You will be greatly rewarded once Potter is in the sights of the Dark Lord."

The figure on the ground smiled as the two figures disappeared into the woods.

A/N: Forgot to add this at the end of Chapter 9 - Doing the conversions from Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, one Galleon equals around 5 Pounds which is about $9.82. That means that the 15,000G Lucius has allowed his son is around $148,000. Man, I wish I was rich!!!

YAY! We're halfway done!!! Chapter 11 is going to be pretty dark. I would say more but I don't want to give anything away.

If anyone would like to read other projects I am writing right now (including Original Fiction) I am posting them on my myspace. The link is on my profile.