It was Thursday night, the night after Slytherin and Gryffindors first flying lesson, when it first happened. Harry knew he had fallen asleep in the Ravenclaw tower, he knew that because he could clearly remember changing into his night clothes before petting Loki until the both of them drifted off to sleep. So, it was safe to say that Harry was more than a little confused when he suddenly found himself almost being run over by Haiden, Ron, Hermione, and Neville in a corridor with Peeves yelling about students being out of bed.
"What's going on?" Harry asked, terrified, when Ron all but shoved him out of the way of a door that Harry had been standing in front of. The door was locked.
"This is it!" Ron moaned, as everyone but the confused and terrified Harry pushed on the door. "We're done for! This is the end!" Harry whipped around towards the opposite end of the corridor when he heard footsteps rushing towards them. Someone (most likely Filch) was running as fast as they could towards Peeves's shouts. Harry quickly turned back towards the locked door. They had to get in there, otherwise they would be caught.
"Move!" Harry cried shoving passed everyone and pulled out his wand (that he had thankfully grabbed when he slept walked out of his dorm room) and tapped the lock whispering, "Alohomora!"
"I would have done that, had I had a wand." Hermione muttered as they all piled through the now opened door. Harry froze, his eyes widening, as he saw the giant three-headed dog. They had not entered a room, they had entered the forbidden corridor, and now he knew why it was forbidden.
"Haiden." Harry squeaked out in fear as he reached behind him to grab what he hoped was his brother's bathrobe. Harry glanced to the side of him when he heard a fearful squeak that had not come from him and saw that Neville was now staring in fear at the three-headed dog. Three noses began twitching and quivering in their direction. Three drooling mouths, saliva hanging in slippery ropes from yellowish fangs.
"He thinks this door is locked," Harry heard Haiden whisper, causing three sets of ears to twitch, "I think we'll be okay – get off Neville!" Apparently, Neville was the one tugging on Haiden's bathrobe. "What?" Harry felt his brother spin around and freeze.
Thankfully the three-headed dog was standing quite still (one massive paw standing on a trap door), and Harry knew that it was only still because they had shocked the creature with their sudden appearance. However, by the sounds of its thunderous growls, Harry was sure the creature was quickly getting over its shock. Harry reached behind him (between Haiden and who he assumed was Ron) and blindly gripped the door handle. If he had to choose between death and Filch, then Harry would gladly choose Filch any day.
The group suddenly fell backwards just as the three-headed dog lunged. Harry shot up and felt a wave of magic flow from him, knocking back the three-headed dog enough for Harry to slam the door shut. And then the group took off running (almost flying) down the corridor. Filch must have hurried off to look for them elsewhere because they didn't see him anywhere. But they hardly cared – all either of them wanted to do was put as much space as possible between them and that monster.
Harry broke off from the rest of the group, not really knowing where his body was taking him and not really caring. He trusted that his body would take him away from that corridor and to somewhere safe. Harry practically flew down the stairs and took every secret passage Fred and George showed him. Only pausing when he came crashing through a tapestry near the Slytherin dormitories.
Not really caring if Draco was awake or not, Harry hissed out the password and down the stairs to the main room. He quickly dashed down the hallway that led to the first-year dormitory, found the door that led to Draco's dorm. Harry launched himself into Draco's bed, scaring the poor boy from his dream.
"Kitten?" Draco asked sleepily, having quickly taken to calling him that after hearing the explanation of how Harry had gotten the name. "What's wrong?" Draco asked after noticing how bad Harry was trembling. Harry opened his mouth to tell Draco all about the three-headed dog in the forbidden corridor, however, all that came out was a loud sob as his eyes finally unleashed the flood of tears they were holding back.
"Shut up!" One of Draco's dormmates hissed out causing Harry to gasp out in shock, waiting to be slapped.
"Who do you think you are talking to, Nott?" Draco hissed back holding Harry closer to him.
"Sorry." Nott said back, there was a pause and some sounds of the other dormmates shuffling in their beds. "Everything okay?" Nott asked quietly.
"Mind your business." Draco hissed before turning his attention back to Harry who was now silently crying. "It's okay." Draco whispered to him soothingly as he shifted in his bed to make room for Harry. "Everything will be okay. I'm here, I'll protect you from whatever happened." Draco pulled the covers over Harry before wrapping his arms around the boy and held him close.
The last thing Harry remembered before his mind was pulled into unconsciousness was Draco kissing his forehead.
~Forget Me Not~
Everything hurts.
Pain was all he could feel. And had been all he could feel for quite some time now. But he was starting to get used to it. They never told him this would happen. Had he known that all he would be feeling was pain afterward he would not have agreed to do it.
Probably.
No one had told him what would happen to him when he had agreed to do it. Then again, he supposed that was because no one knew what would happen. This had never happened before.
No one had ever done what he had.
But something had to be done. They couldn't just sit back and watch as that monster that had once been one of them taint everything in his evil. They had to protect everyone.
Did they really have to protect everyone?
He didn't know why he had allowed himself to be talked into doing something. Maybe she had looked at him just the right way. Maybe he had said the right thing at the right time. Maybe they had gotten to him at the right time.
He regretted doing anything.
Was that the taint speaking? Who knew anymore. He certainly didn't. Nothing was White and Black, Good and Evil, Right and Wrong anymore.
Was it ever that way?
Everything he had ever known to be true and right had been destroyed the second he had left his home. Nothing had made sense, and yet at the same time, everything made sense. His eyes had been forced open that day.
The universe was full of chaos, the way it should be.
At one point he knew where he stood. He had stood firmly with the side he had once believed to be the right side. The side that he thought could do no wrong.
Now, he didn't belong to either side.
He didn't have a side. He couldn't care less which side won. It was all the same to him. The world would either be filled with too much light or no light at all. Either way, he would never belong, not anymore.
He was too pure for the tainted side, yet too tainted for the pure side.
He wondered if he should be worried about the way his thoughts were split now. He had two voices in his head. One pure and innocent. One dark and tainted. Both voices were his. At one point he only had one voice in his head. But that was before he had been sent to deal with the taint. And he had dealt with it the only way he could.
He became one with it.
The world was now safe from the taint. He had protected everyone. But he had lost more than the humans would have. He had lost his way home. Lost his ability to spend time with friends and family. And worst of all, he had lost the one he loved.
He had lost his mind.
He didn't know how to feel about everything. Part of him wanted to scream and cry and make everyone feel the same way he did. The other part of him accepted everything and made peace with the consequences of his choices. Either way, he was free to feel whatever way he wanted. He was free from anyone telling him how to feel. How to act. What to think.
He was free, unlike everyone else.
He was free to do what he wanted. Free to follow any guideline he wanted. Do things the way he wanted. Think whatever way he wanted. It was peaceful.
It was chaotic. And it was beautiful.
~Forget Me Not~
For the few days after the three-headed dog incident, Harry tried to stay as close to Draco as he could. Even choosing to ignore the angry growl Draco had let out when he had seen Haiden and Ron the morning after the incident. However, Harry found it difficult to stay next to Draco when he would blink and suddenly find himself standing in front of the door leading to the forbidden corridor. Each and every time this happened, he felt a painful tug in his soul. There was something beyond that trap door that was both calling him towards it and shoving him away.
Harry was beginning to get scared. Something was happening to him, something that he was sure wasn't normal. Not only was he being pulled towards the forbidden corridor by some unknown thing, but he was also beginning to have strange dreams, well, dream. There was only one. And it freaked him out.
Harry knew that he needed to talk to someone about what was happening to him; however, he didn't know who to talk to. Scared of his dream, Harry had begun staying up at night reading, writing, drawing, or anything else he could think to keep him awake. And his constant all-nighters were starting to affect him. The Weasley twins and Draco had begun to constantly ask if everything was all right and if he was feeling okay. And even though he wanted to tell them everything, something was keeping him from doing so. Even Severus had begun to take notice that something was wrong and began to watch him more than he usually did.
And it was probably because of his sleepless nights and constantly trying to keep himself away from the forbidden corridor that Harry wasn't shocked when he suddenly found that two months had passed. And with everything that was happening, it was no wonder why he lost what little control of his magic he had and collapsed in Charms.
On Halloween morning, Harry stumbled out of the Ravenclaw tower to the smell of baking pumpkins wafting through the corridors. Professor Flitwick announced in Charms that he thought that they were ready to start making objects fly, something that they had all been dying to try since they'd seen Professor Flitwick make Loki zoom around the classroom (something Loki had found quite fun). Professor Flitwick put the class into pairs to practice, Harry's partner was Draco.
"Now, don't forget the nice wrist movement we've been practicing!" Professor Flitwick squeaked, perched on top of his pile of books as usual. "Swish and flick, remember, swish and flick. And saying the magic words properly is very important, too – never forget Wizard Baruffio, who said 's' instead of 'f' and found himself on the floor with a buffalo on his chest."
The professor gave them all a feather in which they were to practice on. And as Harry blinked the feather into focus (trying to remember the incantation) he sneezed. And with that single sneeze he sent a powerful wave of magic that caused not only every single feather in the classroom to fly into the air, but also the professor. And then, everything went black.