James gives the wall one last frustrated kick before following Ron outside. He doesn't understand why the barrier is closed off, but it's preventing him from accessing the train, and he'll be damned if that stops him from getting to Hogwarts! Surely taking the flying car to school can't be that bad an option, right? Really, it's just a car. Flying or not, cars are pretty safe. It's not like they'll have to worry about traffic in the air, or anything. And they can just follow the train so that they don't get lost! Brilliant. No big deal at all.
You're an idiot! James hears Potter's panicked voice. You're going to get us all killed! Oh my god! Just because Ron thinks that he can drive a bloody flying car doesn't mean that he actually can! He wouldn't even be allowed to drive a regular car at his age! And what if we're seen?!
Oh calm down, James mutters, rolling his eyes, everything's going to be fine.
Indeed, they get up into the air and above the clouds without a problem. There's a quick scare with the invisibility mechanism, and then they almost get hit by a train, and the car does get perilously close to running out of gas, and they do almost get mauled by a giant tree, but hey, no harm no foul, right? Even when it's all over, they don't get punished or anything! Sure, Ron did break his wand. Big deal. James is fine, and that's all that matters. No one really got into trouble, even if Ron does receive a Howler and they both got a detention. The only one who really cares is Potter, and who cares what he thinks?
XXXXX
Potter's positively seething as he makes his way to Lockhart's room for his detention. Of course he's the one being punished for James's stupidity. Of course. No wonder the alter's so badly behaved; he never takes responsibility for anything! And it's not like Potter could just shove out one of the others, either. That would be beyond rude. At least the others do seem rather happy. Hogwarts, no matter how they arrive, is infinitely better than living with the Dursleys, and now that there are less watchful eyes on them (Mrs. Weasley, lovely woman as she is, watches them a little too closely, and it makes everyone nervous), everyone can begin to return to their previous activities. Already, Lily's enjoying Herbology. They're preparing Mandrakes, apparently. Though the screaming makes Potter feel sick even with the earmuffs, as long as Lily's happy, he's not inclined to complain. This, however…
He recalls this morning's class with a grimace. Instead of beginning the course with anything remotely useful, Lockhart had given them a quiz… about himself. Potter's never met a more self absorbed man in his life! What makes it even worse is that Lockhart seems to be assuming that they're the same way. It's simultaneously the funniest and most annoying thing that Potter's ever witnessed. If he could never have a drop of attention again, he would be happy. He's had too much negative attention to not distrust the positive, and actively seeking for others to look at him? It sounds absurd!
As if further proving his insanity, Lockhart had then proceeded to release a cage full of Cornish pixies on the class. Thank God for Hermione and Lily, or the little menaces would still be nesting in people's hair and hiding things where no one could get to them! It's not like Lockhart himself was any help. He's a coward, Potter's already sure. How he managed to defeat much of anything, let alone terrifying monsters, is anyone's guess, and Potter's betting that things didn't happen nearly as smoothly as his books claimed that they did.
Shaking his head, Potter knocks on the classroom door and waits for Lockhart to acknowledge him. It doesn't take long. Almost at once, the door flies open.
"Ah, here's the scalwag! Come in, Harry, come in—" And he ushers Potter inside. Potter has to fight himself to sit down at the man's desk and remain still. All that he has to do is address envelopes to Lockhart's admirers. That's it. It's not a hard task. Yes, the man touched him while getting him into the room. That doesn't mean anything. He's not about to be attacked. He does not need to switch. He cannot afford to switch! Lockhart's looking at him funny, oh god, he's noticed that something is wrong…
He wakes up alone in the hallway. For a moment, all that Potter can register is surprise. Blacking out is unusual for him. It's strange for any of them, really, and a quick check inside reveals that not even Harry knows what just happened. It makes him very, very uneasy. On the other hand, every time that they have lost time, it's been because of switching while under a high amount of stress. All things considered, Potter realizes that he can't be too surprised, not by—and then his attention is diverted by a voice.
"Come… come to me… Let me rip you… Let me tear you… Let me kill you…"
Potter's jaw nearly hits the floor.
… oh, God, Harry breathes. Is that why they lost time? Is this voice signs of someone new, someone uncontrollable? Is this who James was hearing before? No, it can't be. This blood lust sounds stronger than anything James had ever experienced. And how strong must an alter be to have caused such a complete system black out?
It doesn't even sound like they're inside! James says, finally worried by something. Are you sure that we're not just insane? Or that one of us isn't, at least, and somehow affecting the others? Potter doesn't miss the direction that James glances in, and he returns the glare full force.
Some alters can project their voices outside. I swear that I read that somewhere. Or maybe it was something that Hermione asked about? Anyway, we'll just have to keep our guard up. It seems to have quieted, anyway. Potter avoids pointing out that the voice very clearly seemed to be originating from the walls. He knows enough by now to be sure that any voice that he can hear and others can't—and others must not be able to hear this, because it's fairly loud and they're still close enough to Lockhart's room that he surely would have joined them otherwise—must be an alter. What else could it be, really?
Shaken, they return to their dorm in silence.
XXXXX
Thankfully, the next few weeks seem normal enough. Despite the general strangeness of Lockhart, everything else seems to be going well. Lily, at least, is exceptionally happy. She's beginning to look forward more to Herbology than even to Charms, and Potter thinks that he's worked out why. Though not much can be said while the ear muffs are on, Lily and Blaise have taken to talking when they get the chance. Lily's too nervous to approach him outside of class, and Blaise seems to respect that, but it's obvious that they both enjoy their conversations when they can have them. Unfortunately for Lily, Potter isn't the only one who's noticed. James seems to have picked up on her crush as well, though Lily adamantly denies that that's what it is. Potter thinks that it's rather sweet, though he does wish that James would stop his mumbling about how "we are in a boy's body, though, so Blaise better not return her feelings. Merlin, if he's one of those people…" It makes Potter want to break his face, though for obvious reasons, that's not exactly possible. James is insistent that he has nothing against homosexuals, he's just a bit weary of Blaise being one, but that does nothing to soothe Potter's irritation. At the moment, they're not exactly on speaking terms, but that's typical enough that it doesn't much matter.
Besides, James won't be able to stay irritated much longer. The first Quidditch match is approaching. Again, he's pitted against Gryffindor, but he's looking forwards to it regardless. Sure, the constant griping between the two houses gets irritating, especially when he's forced to appear to agree with Slytherin—he hasn't yet found a way to publically defend his preferred house without Draco sulking for at least half a week—but all that matters to him is that he gets to fly again. He missed the final Quidditch match last year due to the whole Voldemort fiasco, and he had no chances to fly over the summer, so he's very to take to the air again. As well, perhaps he's just slightly eager to show off, even if it is the people that he wishes were his classmates who he's going to be defeating.
And then Draco gets made the team's chaser because his father has money, and James fall into such a mood that everyone finds it best to ignore him. The result of this is that James is allowed to front less, making "Harry Potter" suddenly begin to seem a lot more Slytherin. Draco, of course, picks up on this, and it's not long before he's increasing his efforts to get Harry's approval. Whatever his father must have said to him before the school year began must not be having much of an effect. The system responds to his increased attention by shoving Snake out more frequently; this, of course, only serves to further irritate James.
Really, the only good things that comes out of the new system tensions are that there's now no doubt that Hermione will talk with Lily and Harrison regardless of the activities of the rest of the system and that "Harry's Slytherin Phase" is helping to distance what Ron had taken to calling their fan club. For that matter, Ron himself is avoiding them more, and Potter can't exactly say that he minds that much.
Still, everything goes more or less smoothly, and soon weeks have passed. Potter has heard from neither the voice nor James's mysterious alter, so as far as he's concerned, everything is fine.
Life disagrees with him. James finally fronts for the Quidditch match, and lo and behold, his arm is broken by a rogue bludger! Before they know it, Lockhart's mucked up the healing even more (though it couldn't have helped that their first instinct was to hide the injury and run like crazy when Lockhart reached out to touch them), and they're in the hospital wing for the night.
It's Harry who comes to in the middle of the night. There are sharp pains all over his arm, and he's surprised that something managed to stop Bruises from being there with him. Then he realizes that the alter must have retreated when he saw something in the room that he didn't know how to deal with: Dobby.
"Bloody hell, not you again," he groans, and a single tear rolls down Dobby's face.
"Harry Potter came back to school," the elf whispers miserably, "Dobby warned and warned Harry Potter. Ah, sir, why didn't you heed Dobby? Why didn't Harry Potter go back home when he missed the train?"
Harry pulls himself up with a sudden calm that surprises even himself. "So. You're the one who made the barrier solid?" His voice is flat and even, and Dobby away nervously. With sudden clarity, Harry realizes that the elf expects to be beaten. "I'm not going to hurt you," he sighs, lying back down again, "but even you must see why that's frustrating."
Dobby nods and explains his reasoning, though he still won't say what, exactly, the danger is that Harry should be avoiding. It doesn't take long for Harry to figure out that the bludger wasn't caused by this "danger" but Dobby himself, but he can barely bring himself to care at the moment. Eventually, Dobby realizes that Harry just needs to be alone for a while and so leaves. Harry tries to fall back asleep, but some 40 minutes later, he realizes that that's not going to happen. Unfortunately, with his right arm taken out of commission, there's not much that he can actually do. He resigns himself to laying in the dark for who knows how long when he hears the door to the hospital wing creak open.
XXXXXX
When Potter wakes up the next morning, it doesn't occur to him to wonder why a certain memory is completely gone.
XXXXX
A/N: I'm going somewhere with this, I promise! :P Unfortunately, there's still a bit more that I need to get through before I can reach the fun part. Just stick with me, and, hopefully, it will be worth it! As always, thank you to those who have read, reviewed, favorited, and subscribed up to this point.
Gyuchin: Persecutor alters are those that hurt the body or a particular system member. Like all other alters, they have reasons for what they're doing, possibly including trying to scare off alters from doing things that would receive worse punishments from the abusers, holding self hatred so that the core doesn't have to, or because they think that it will somehow help the core. Other types of alters include protectors (defenders), littles (the children), fronters (the ones who use the body), the host (the one who uses the body most often), or abused alters and memory holders (the ones who experience the abuse or take the memories of it). I'm glad that you like this story! Unfortunately, at the time being, no adult is in the position to be much help for Harry.
FRK921: Actually, the average number of alters is 10 to 15, and there have been cases where over 100 alters have been found. While some systems only have 2 or 3 alters, that's actually far less common than the media would lead one to believe.
