The Abuse in a Violently Different Dimension
By Juu & Jek
Not Beta-Read
21. No One Needs to Know
I met a tall, dark and handsome man
And I've been busy making big plans
But no one needs to know,
right now
I got my heart set, my feet wet
And he don't even know it yet
But no one needs to know,
right now
Harry got up as one of the first in his dormitories, although he never had been an early riser. This could simply be explained by the fact that all the others were sleeping out late because it was Sunday. He picked up the book he had borrowed from the library and stumbled groggy downstairs to the common room.
There he sprawled out on the large brown couch in front of the fireplace and was happily surprised to find the wood inside the hearth burning as soon as he sat down. For a brief moment he wondered if it was simply magic of Hogwarts itself or the house elves.
He shook his head, dismissing those thoughts since it made him think of SPEW, and opened the book. It was a history book, telling about no one other than Neville Longbottom. It was probably a nice enough read, and perhaps very well-written, though Harry merely skipped through it to read things that sounded familiar to him. He was mostly interested in things that Neville as the Boy-Who-Lived had in common with him.
It took only a few paragraphs to find out that the writer of the book honoured Neville like a god. This made Harry roll his eyes. It even had photographs of Neville growing up WITH his parents-fate was really unfair to Harry-and about his first four years at Hogwarts. A brief glance at the first page showed that the book was now two years old.
Neville's life story seemed rather dull to him. Nothing seriously disturbing happened during his first year at Hogwarts. He seemed to be a good student according to the several interviews with teachers. His classmates all saw him as a role-model and a perfect leader, although Harry doubted how much of that was true.
In Neville's second year there was a teacher who worshipped him to the extreme. The teacher accidentally caused a huge fire in the Main Hall on the 5th of November: the day the almost one-an-a-half year old Neville's defeated Voldemort, while trying to set off some fireworks for celebration. Harry shortly thought of Gilderoy Lockhart, who didn't get fired in his world simply because there would have been no one to replace him.
Neville's third and fourth year were as exiting as his first two. He'd never seemed to have battled Dementors, or even Voldemort himself. Harry started to wonder if Voldemort even existed in this world, since there was next to no news about the Dark Lord whatsoever.
Some time passed while Harry skimmed aloof through the book and he could hear the first Hufflepuffs waking up and getting ready to go to the Great Hall for breakfast. Harry flipped another page and then froze in his seat.
For a long time he stared astonished at the heart-shaped burn mark on Neville's chest. This picture was made at the end of his fourth year and though at the beginning of the book, there was a photo of baby-Neville with a small smudge on his chest, this one was very clear and up close.
A heart-shaped burn mark.
Harry shut the book forcefully closed and then threw it at the foot of his couch. He racked disturbed with a hand through his wild hair and sighed. There was no way that such a mark was made by the Killing Curse! He was certain of it. Was Neville even attacked by the Voldemort that Harry knew? Or could Voldemort be a totally different person in this world? What curse could possibly leave a heart-shaped scar? What in the world did this all mean?
'Where's Hermione when you really need her?' Harry thought, still kind of shocked.
"Good morning, Harry," a Hufflepuff girl said as she and a small group of students walked passed him.
"Morning, 'Mione-" Harry automatically responded, not noticing the weird look the unknown girl gave him as he still stared at the book near his feet. It was then that Jay popped up from behind the couch, made a strange half-turn as he catapulted over the back of the couch and then landed on top of the book.
He flopped down cross-legged on top op de book, frowned and then fished the offending object from underneath him.
"What are you reading?" he asked and send Harry a brilliant smile. Jay had his way of materializing quite suddenly when you least expected it, as Harry had figured out in the small week he had been in this world. Jay also had the bad habit of asking things when he could figure out the answer only seconds later by himself.
Before Harry could come up with a decent answer, Jay had already opened the book and skimmed through it. He frowned and then closed it again to check out the title. He gave Harry an odd look at his choice of literature.
"Good morning Jay. And yes I am," Harry said dryly, anticipating the other's question.
"Reading my thoughts then?" Jay laughed. "I was just about to ask you if you really were reading crap about Neville Longbottom, 'cause that's just weird."
This made Harry laugh too, he seconded that thought. Perhaps he should've borrowed a book about Goblin Wars instead? It would have been less mind-numbing! Although Harry secretly though the chapter about Neville's run in with a crazed stalker had been quite funny.
Then Nathan came down from the stairs and Jay threw the book carelessly on a small table next to him.
"Breakfast Nathan?" he asked as he propelled himself up from the couch.
"Sounds like a plan!" Nathan grinned and then looked at Harry. His grin waned.
'I'm supposed to say something to him…' Harry thought as he looked back at his so-called best friend, but nothing came up. Nathan was probably hesitating to ask him along or not.
"How about you and me go along, and Harry gets dressed right now and catches up with us?" Jay asked Nathan.
Nathan nodded his head slowly. "Okay. See you in a minute, Harry," he said with a small nod.
"And not a second later or you'll get a peanut butter jelly-sandwich in your hair!" Jay added jokingly. "Let's go, Nathan! Last one there is a slimy flobberworm!"
Harry stared after them and then smiled at Jay's attempt to break the awkward silences between him and Nathan. And since Nathan actually said a few words to him AND called him Harry-and not 'Potter'-he hoped it was working. His stomach growled, so Harry did as he was told and quickly got dressed.
He left the book on his night stand. He would return it later that day. There was just one thought bothering him: why a peanut butter jelly-sandwich in his hair? Was that a private joke or something?
Breakfast was decent. The food of course was great, and Nathan and Harry carefully conversed together again, which seemed to please Jay. All in all, things were starting to look brighter again. Afterwards though, Jay went off to his girlfriend and apparently he also had Quidditch practise that afternoon.
Harry and Nathan shared an uncomfortable look. Both trying to decide if they should invite the other into doing something together, when of all people, Wicket walked up to them. She gave a polite nod towards Harry and then asked Nathan if he had some time to spare for her.
Nathan send an even more uncomfortable look at Harry who simply shrugged. He tried to look as unconcerned as he could, since he thought Nathan might be worried about the ex-girlfriend-of-Harry thing. It worked and while Nathan left to talk with Wicket, Harry went back to his dorms to fetch the book and bring it back to the library.
It was quite a bit later that day, when Harry finally left the Library again. It seemed he was becoming as studious as Hermione; Ron would probably try to check his temperature if he were there. See if he was not ill. Harry still could not see the pleasure in reading books, but he had no other choice.
He was walking through the hallway and wondering if Quidditch practice would be over already and if he could borrow a broom to fly with for a bit, when he was accosted by something, small, shiny and very familiar. For a moment, Harry only wondered why there was currently a snitch flying enticing in front of his face, but then he lunged at it. The little snitch, anticipating his action, quickly fluttered away and down the hallway, making sure he was still near enough for Harry to catch up with it.
The green-eyed Hufflepuff started to grin, recognizing it to be the same behaviour the little ball boasted on the Quidditch field, and not one to refuse a challenge, he ran after it. He was glad he didn't have a book bag with him, for it would have slowed him down and he darted around a corner only to slam forcefully into another person.
The air left his lungs and he quickly held onto the other to keep them both standing on their feet. He gasped as he felt several parts of his body ache from having slammed into the other. Perhaps his speed had been a little too fast.
Harry was about to apologise when he noticed who it exactly was and he violently pushed away, making them lose their balance and they both fell hard on the tile floor.
Draco Malfoy groaned with his eyes closed and a grimace of pain was on his face. Harry in turn cursed below his breath as now his tail bone was hurting quite badly too. The blond opened his eyes and stared for a moment disgruntled at Harry.
"Gee, thanks for pushing me down-" He muttered as he rubbed over a spot on his chest where Harry's elbow had slammed into.
"You should've watched out when you turned the corner, Malfoy," Harry said accusing, though he knew it had been his fault too. Malfoy seemed to bring out the worst in him.
"I'm sorry, I was just distracted."
Harry bit back the harsh reply he had on his lips at hearing those words. Malfoy just apologised? Harry mentally hit his forehead; he had forgotten that this was not the Malfoy from his world! This was the abnormally decent one! Aw man, well, since he had given his excuses it would only be polite if he did the same.
"I'm sorry too. I was trying to catch a rogue snitch," he finally said.
Malfoy blinked and then gave a rare laugh. "Funny, I was after that one too. We dropped the Quidditch box and accidentally let loose two bludgers and the snitch. We caught one of the bludgers already, but the other two are still on the loose."
Let that just be the time that a certain snitch decided to grace them with their presence by hovering near Draco's ear. Harry's hand shot out by instinct to snatch it out of the air and Draco flinched away from him. Harry stared for a moment at the small golden ball in his hand; it's wings were fluttering like an maniac.
Draco also stared at the snitch. "Oh-."
"Here." Harry pushed it into Draco's hand and chuckled. Never did he expect to hand over a snitch to Draco Malfoy of all people. "Now you only have to get that bludger."
Draco was now the one staring at the snitch in his hand. He glanced up and Harry noticed that his eyes were a nice mercury colour. He'd always though Draco Malfoy's eyes were blue. Funny. Just as funny as the fact that they were sitting on the cold floor of a corridor, slightly bruised but for one time not because of a fight between them.
This Draco was actually quite agreeable and he didn't sneer as nastily as the other.
His butt was getting quite cold and Harry decided to stand up and Draco reached out his free hand. "Since you were the only who pushed me down, you should be the one helping me up!" Draco claimed with a grin.
Harry shrugged and held out his hand which Draco grasped firmly. Harry gave a short pull, but still used too much force, and Draco stumbled against Harry. Harry blinked as he felt the other against him and then something fluttered against his chest.
It were the wings of the snitch.
Draco stepped undaunted away from him. "Thanks. Hey, since that bludger is still on the loose: be careful, okay? I'll see you around."
"Yeah," Harry answered and stared after him. This was the second time he had bumped into Draco Malfoy. Wait a minute. How many people had he literally ran against these past few days? Four people? Five? Was he getting as clumsy like Tonks or something?
Harry shook his head bemused. Perhaps he'd been a bit too distracted lately, or was it simply because some people seemed to badger this world's Harry that they kept trying to make him fall to the ground? He made a mental note to pay more attention to where he walked.
He didn't encounter the rogue bludger, but heard later on in the Hufflepuff dorms that it apparently went straight for Neville Longbottom, but was blocked by Ron's head. Harry grinned. Finally it was not him who was the trouble magnet!
To Be Continued