Author's Note: Well, that took me a while. You'll have to excuse me though. I'm afraid we've all been busy over the past month or so with school and work and, other things. My heart goes to all those involved in the disaster of September 11. I'm afraid that this part isn't really very cheerful, in fact I rather surprised myself while writing it. Please don't read this section if you are easily offended. I hope you enjoy this. A dark Harry has always fascinated me, but I rarely get to read dark Harry fics, and have never gotten to write one. Well, I'm done. Enjoy this chapter, I'll get the next one out as soon as possible.
Disclaimer: Jk Rowling owns Harry Potter and all his surrounding characters. I own and am addicted to my computer, and anyone who tries to steal it from me had better watch their back!
The next morning Harry woke before anyone else, hoping with all his might that it had all been a dream, and yet knowing that it wasn't, and that there was nothing he could do about it. And then he remembered that he WAS going to do something about it.
He looked over at Ron's bed, the drapes still closed. He thought of Hermione and Ginny. What was this going to do to them? Would they do alright without him? Would he be alright without them? He began to wonder if this was such a good idea after all…
He quietly got dressed and picked up his books and other things he would need before descending the stairs into an empty common room. He did not remain to wait for his friends, scratch that, ex-friends.
The Great Hall, too, was empty, or nearly so. There were a few students here and there along the other tables, but none at the Gryffindor one, and nobody he knew. They looked up at him as he entered, before quickly as ostentatiously returning back to their breakfasts.
Harry took no notice. He was busy thinking of a way to relieve himself of Ron and Hermione, so that everyone could see. He had to embarrass them, he had to be cruel to them, he had to…hate them. And that gave him an idea. He opened his potions book to the index, quickly scanning and finding what he was looking for. Potions was to be first again today. He had to be ready.
As the Gryffindors began filing into the Great Hall, including Ron and Hermione, Harry discreetly swept away from the table, heading towards the dungeons. He walked in silent meditation during the trip, memorizing the ingredients for the potion he would be "accidently" concocting in class, the Hatefulness potion. Its effects only lasted for a few moments, but that would be enough for him to accomplish what he wanted.
When he arrived at the classroom, Snape was already there. The Potions master looked truly shocked for a moment before recovering and deducting ten points from Gryffidor because he was "too early". Harry nodded and sat down in his usual seat, giving little thought to the reaction of his professor. Snape looked at him strangely and scrutinizingly once again before returning to his desk and sitting down.
As the class filed in, both Gryffindors and Slytherins looked surprisedly at Harry before sitting down in their seats. Harry had clearly built up a reputation for being anything but early to Snape's class.
Ron and Hermione sat on either side of him, but neither attempted to talk to him. Snape grudgingly proceeded to tell them that they would be concocting the truthfulness potion, a potion that showed one's true feelings toward another. As he listed the ingredients, Harry's eyes lit up. THIS WAS PERFECT! Harry would have checked the calender to make sure it wasn't Christmas…but Christmas didn't usually involve dungeons and Snape and parting with one's friends. The only difference between the potion he was SUPPOSED to make and the potion he was GOING to make were the beetle eyes. The truthfulnes potion called for them to carefully grind their beetle eyes, while the hatefulness potion required that the beetle eyes be whole.
When the time came for the beetle eyes to be added, Harry looked to make sure no one would be watching. Ron was busily trying to make his potion change to a dark green, as it was supposed to be, from a neon orange. Harry nearly laughed. Hermione was busy arguing with Milicent Bulstrode, with whom she had had the bad luck to be partnered with. Snape was busy commenting on the perfection of Malfoy's potion, despite its rather interesting sky blue tinge. Harry slipped in the whole beetle eyes while no one noticed.
At the end of the class, Snape, as usual suggested that they test someone's potion. Harry was expecting this and conveniently chose that moment to mutter to Ron, somewhat loudly, that Snape was a stupid git.
"Potter and Weasley!" Ron looked up at Harry accusingly before turning to Snape "How kind of you to volunteer! Both of you will take a sample of Potter's potion, which, I might add, looks a tad off color." He sneered. But to Harry, the potion's color was perfect. Indeed, it was one of the few times Harry had ever got a potion correct. Too bad it wasn't the potion he was supposed to make.
Harry gave Snape the worst sneer he could muster (which earned him another loss of Gryffindor's points) and then thrust a vial of his potion into Ron's hand, taking one in his own. Both gulped the potion in one swallow.
For a moment, nothing happened, and Harry wondered if he had done something wrong. He hoped he hadn't. But somewhere inside him, he hoped he had. All questions were answered, however, when suddenly an undeniable rage sprouted within him which directed itself towards that… red-headed…Weasley, in front of him. That stupid, irrational, carrot headed piece of $*#&! He sneered at the dumb $&^&$ in front of him, wondering what the Hell had possesed him to call such a stupid, jealous, imbecile his friend.
Ron's face contorted to show equal rage. "You!" he shouted.
"That's right Weasley, me!" Harry shouted back.
"You bastard!" Ron countered. "You sadistic piece of %^&*!"
Somehow Harry found the presence of mind to redirect his rage away from simple cursing into a subject. "You deserve what your'e gonna get, Weasley. You AND you're family!" Somewhere deep in his mind he knew that he didn't mean this, and that Ron's family was his family as well, but right now he was to busy enjoying the shocked look on that stupid Weasel's face to heed it. "What, speechless?" he taunted. "You always were incompetent. I don't know how I put up with you and the Mudblood for so long."
During this speech the entire class had gone pale, except for Malfoy, who looked quite amused. Even Snape seemed to be paler than usual and at a loss for words. In the corner of his eye Harry saw "that Granger girl" with a horrified look on her face, and turned to face her.
"What are you looking at Mudblood!? You always were an insufferable know-it-all. Didn't know this did you? All that reading and you're still to stupid to figure out the simplest things. How typical of you and you're kind!"
As Hermione's face contorted into a mixture of true surprise and hurt, Harry knew somewhere in the depths of his mind that he had gone WAY too far. He finished by throwing her the most sinister look he could conjure up and turning back to Ron, who had nearly recovered.
"Always wanted to do that," Harry stated to Ron in mock gleefulness.
"It's always about you, isn't it?" Ron returned angrily. THIS was the direction Harry had wanted to go when he had made this plan. He smiled wickedly.
"Jealous?" He asked calmly, the evil sneer still distorting his usually somewhat handsome face.
Ron responded by with all his might throwing a punch at Harry's chin, and, at the last second trying to pull back. The result was a relatively light punch that would cause no permanent damage, but still hurt and knocked Harry down. The potion had worn off. Ron looked stunned, as did Harry. Had he ACTUALLY said those things to his best friends? The looks on the faces of the class answered his question plainly.
Surprisingly, the first one to recover was Ron, who offered his hand to Harry who was currently sitting, not getting up from Ron's punch. After a moment Harry took it, and stood up with the help of his best friend. He wished that the potion hadn't worn off yet. He wished that the hatred it generated could help him do what he was about to do. As he stood up, he caught Ron's eye, and held it. They gazed into each others eyes for what seemed an eternity, but in reality was only the shortest of moments. Then Harry gathered all the strength he could muster and punched Ron as hard as he could in the stomach. The boy doubled over in pain and writhed on the floor in agony. Harry looked down at him for a few seconds, forcing a sneer to appear on his face where there should have been a look of absolute horror, and briskly walked out of the room
As he left the room of petrified students he forced out a cackle. But it was not his usual quiet and joyful laughter. It was cold and heartless. It was evil. He had heard that sound once before. It was long ago, fourteen years to be in fact. He remembered that cold heartless laugh from the night his parents had died. He remembered that cackle coming from the most powerful, most evil Dark Wizard of all times. It had haunted his nightmares for fourteen years. And now it was his. And it would haunt him and the rest of the potions class for the rest of their lives, however long…or short they might be.
Author's Note: Ok. Like I said. Dark Harry. Note that this does NOT mean that Harry is actually evil. Remember, he has to ACT that way to push everyone away. With that noted, I hope you enjoyed it. If you did, please review and tell me so. If you didn't, please tell me why not.