Disclaimer: You know the drill, I own nothing but the plot. Since someone had to "flame" me, I must once again remind you that this is SLASH!!!! Yes all you homophobes, SLASH! So this chapter is dedicated to all of you slash haters (please notice my obvious sarcasm)

Cheers to anyone reviewed, and thank you for the laugh "slash hater."

This takes place a few weeks after the last chapter.

Chapter 3

[And you can't fight the tears that ain't coming

Or the moment of truth in your lies]

Platform 9 ¾'s, the train platform where the Hogwart's Express came every August to take the students back to Hogwarts. This would be the 6th year Harry and Co. were at Hogwarts, one year too close to 7th year, the year that ended the protection the school gave to you.

Harry had been picked up by the Knight Bus two days prior, so that he could have ample time to do his shopping in Diagon alley. He had visited all the stores that he needed, and even had time to just lay back and do impulse shopping. Well, it wasn't exactly what he did when he was impulse shopping; it was what he bought.

" 'Reoccurring Dreams: What's real and what's not'," Hermione read from the cover of the book Harry was reading when he had finally found her and Ron on the train. "Honestly Harry, did Trelawney scare you last year? Maybe we should ask Dumbledore to let you switch classes."

"Now really Hermione, I'm fine!" Harry protested. "Uh.... a friend of mine has been having reoccurring dreams, and I thought that I should read up on it. Who knows, it might be important."

"Fine, keep your secrets. You're not a very good fibber Harry."

Harry sighed and looked out of the window to the platform. The conductor was calling out that there were five minutes left, and students were saying tearful good byes to their parents. He saw Mrs. Weasley scolding at Fred and George for handing Ginny what seemed to be a plain box, but Harry was sure that the contents were not so plain. Since the year before was the twins last year, the role of troublemaker had to be passed down to another Weasley.

There was a pop as someone apparated onto the platform. Harry immediately recognized the pale pointed face of Draco Malfoy, Gryffindor's most hatted. He recognized his father, Lucuis Malfoy, as he apparated right next to him. Lucuis grabbed Draco's upper arm, and whispered something in his ear. Harry thought he saw fright come on Draco's face, but the next moment it was gone, replaced by the usual sneer that stood in it's place.

"Something wrong Harry," his best friend Ron asked him.

"Oh! No, there's nothing wrong. Do I look sick or something?" Harry answered him worriedly.

"You just look tired. I suppose it's just the thought of having to spend another year with that git Malfoy and stupid and stupider."

I don't think that I could endure another train ride with stupid and stupider.

Harry jumped, looking around franticly. Upon seeing no one but Ron and Hermione, he sank back down in his chair. There was a whistle outside, and the Hogwart's Express rolled out of platform 9 ¾'s.

"Harry, are you sure you're alright?" Hermione asked him. "You don't seem to be yourself."

"Don't worry about me," Harry told her, "It's just the O.W.L's are this year, and it's been getting on my nerves. I didn't get a chance to study very much this summer. The Dursley's weren't exactly happy about Dumbledore showing up to give them a talk about Voldemort and I."

Harry gave them a brief description of the summer, making sure to leave out all parts about the dream and Uncle Vernon hitting him. Without those facts added in, it made the summer seem as dull and boring as it usually was.

Throughout the afternoon, people poured in to say hello. Neville showed up (of course looking for Trevor, whom he had once against successfully lost) followed by Seamus and Dean, trying to get away from Parvati and Lavander. Dennis and Colin Creevey had shown up, and much to the annoyance of Harry, with a new muggle camera called an I-zone with something called sticky film. All and all, the afternoon seemed normal, but something was missing.

When the train pulled into the station, they all quickly got off, and into the carriages that were awaiting them. Hermione and Ron were talking about whom they thought the new DADA teacher was going, while Harry stared out of the window. A light rain sprinkled down, as the mass of the castle/school rose out of the night. Harry, Hermione, and Ron ran with everyone else into the great hall as soon as the carriages stopped, trying to get out of the now pouring rain.

They were making their way to the Gryffindor table when someone bumped into him, knocking him to the ground. He didn't have to guess who it was, he should of known. Draco Malfoy stood over him, but instead of the gloating look he should have had, he looked truly sorry, until Ron noticed.

"Malfoy," he growled, while helping Harry up, "Go play in a busy muggle street."

"No thank you," Draco sneered. "I was rather enjoying myself. How can the great golden boy live through he-who-must-not-be-named trying to kill him but still can get tripped. Potter, you're worse then I thought."

"And of course you would know," Hermione said, springing to Harry's defense. "When's he coming this year? Your father's in his inner circle, you should know, shouldn't you?

An unreadable look came on Draco's face, before he muttered, "I don't have to put up with this," and walked away to the Slytherin table.

"He's so horrible to people," Hermione muttered. "I wish that he would rid us of his existence."

I've been so horrible to people, that sometimes I wonder if I deserved it all. It's just my due.

Harry jumped again, looking around for the source of the voice. Hermione and Ron exchanged a glance that clearly stated that they were going to talk to Dumbledore after the great feast.

'Poor kid,' Ron thought to himself, 'Malfoy must have pushed him over the edge.'

Little did Ron know, he wasn't far from the truth.

[When everything feels like the movies

Yeah you bleed just to know you're alive]

"You're getting it done tonight," Lucuis told Draco, "and I don't want to hear you complain. It's something that you should be proud of."

"I don't want it!" Draco screamed. "Don't touch me! Leave me alone."

"Don't make me bind you! You will go out there and do what I say. You won't be an embarrassment to the family damn it! If you put one toe out of line, I'll give you to Voldemort to do whatever he wants with you."

"Stop it! Please father, don't do it. I don't want to be branded. Not by him!"

Lucuis struck Draco hard over the side of his head, and watched his only son fall into unconsciousness. He quickly took Draco's wand from him, rendering the frail boy harmless. 'He always was a weak excuse for a Malfoy,' was the thought that was in the elder Malfoy's mind, 'but when he has the dark mark, then he will be great.'

When Draco finally awoke, he saw that he was in one of his father's dungeons, surrounded by Death Eaters. He almost tried to yell for help, but remembered that no one would be able to hear him, and all it would warrant was another beating from his father. He looked around even more, and saw that his father was holding a low conversation with Voldemort, the man that made his life miserable. The Death Eaters began chanting a spell, and moving around Draco. A light began to swell from them, a dark, shiny black, that made its way to the tip of Voldemort's wand.

Voldemort came into the circle, followed by Draco's father, and stood opposite from where Draco was paralyzed on the spot.

"Are you ready to become one of us, young Malfoy?" Voldemort growled at him, in a voice that could have made the demons of hell run in fright.

Draco tried to say no, but when he opened his mouth, a yes came out. He tried to say no again, but his mouth wasn't opening. A look from his father told him to stop trying to talk, that Lucuis had put him under the impervious curse. Draco screamed for him to stop in his mind, but all he got in reply was a smirk.

"We've been waiting a while for you to join us," Voldemort continued, drawing the point of his wand to Draco's upper arm. "Tonight you will become one of us, tonight you will attain the certain victory."

He brought the tip of the wand to Draco's skin, and the black light surrounded Draco's arm. He screamed in agony, for it felt like he was being ripped apart from the insides, like something was slowly eating away at him. He tried to move, to shrink away from it, but he was rooted to the ground. A burst of memories came to him, mostly about his father beating him, the failure that he always seemed to be, and the fact that he had let Harry Potter be better then him. Harry, innocent Harry, was in his memories for another reason. Harry, who had held his through the night subconsciously, was seemingly telling him to stay strong, and not to give up hope.

Voldemort brought the wand away from Draco, the black light vanishing when he did. The dark mark was what remained, Draco was now branded by the seal of darkness, his everlasting doom. He tried to think of Harry, the kiss that they shared in their dreams, when Lucuis jumped. Draco inwardly winced, since he was under Impervious, his father could see everything he was thinking. He was tired and sore from the pain the ceremony had caused, but couldn't do anything until his father let his hold go.

"I'll take him to his room, he looks tired," a voice said.

His father released his hold, but Draco instantly wished he hadn't done so. The pain rushed in ten times stronger, making Draco fall to the floor. The person picked him up, and started up the stairs, heading towards Draco's room.

"I'm sorry that you had to go through that," the person said, sounding strangely familiar. "Some die when they get branded, I'm glad that you survived it."

He opened the door to Draco's room, and walked in, setting Draco on his bed. Draco sat up, to try and see whom the person was, and say the familiar outline of the potions master at Hogwarts.

"Thank you professor," Draco managed to say through the pain.

"Severus, out!" barked a voice from the doorway.

Draco inwardly cowered, for the voice belonged to his father, here to see why Draco had been thinking about the one and only Harry Potter. Snape turned towards Lucuis, and held him in a glare for a moment, before looking away, and walking out of the room. Lucuis walked over to Draco and slapped him across the face.

"You shame me," he snapped, "Those thoughts are not normal, you're a Malfoy! You're straight damn it! If I ever hear or see you think about Potter in that way again, I'll kill you myself."

With another slap, one that left Draco gripping onto reality, he was gone. Draco sat still for a moment, before reaching over to the nightstand by his bed and pulling out a knife. He slowly dragged the blade over one of his wrists, watching the blood flow out.

'I'm not dead yet,' he said to himself, 'It's just hard to know if I'm alive or dead these days'

That had been a week ago, Draco mused, just a bare week ago. A week since his father found out, a week since he had been cursed by the dark mark. And it was just a week ago that he had finally realized his true feelings for the boy who lived

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Any question, comments or reviews? I hope you liked this chapter and I will try to get the next chapter out later this week if not tomorrow.