There was a desperate banging on the door. He really didn't need to guess who it was. He was gueesing how long it would take for trhe person to get there. He underestimated her. He gave her thirty minutes. It was not even twenty. He closed the book, hid his parchment and meandered over to the door. He lifted the latched and opened the door with such a ferocity that the candles all blew out. A girl with honey brown hair fell forward onto the wooden floor. She was gasping violently and took more than a few second to get back to her feet.
"You're – here." She got out between breaths.
"You may want to look into this new thing I've heard about. It's supposedly unbelievable." As soon as he knew he had her attention he continued. "Walking. Nothing like it. Takes you to the same place without the hassel of running." She took the liberty to sit on a chair near the floor level window. Harry returned to his work, he had hidden it just in case someone else was at the door. She appeared to slowly gain control of her breathing. He was scribbling on a long sheet of parchment. He seemed really frustrated by something. He shouted "papelious" and "camalus." His quill and parchment were replaced by a pen and a sheet of paper. Perhaps it was easier for him.
"What are you doing?" She asked, trying to start a conversation.
"I am not sure."
"You are writing something, aren't you?" She asked. He glanced up at her.
"Oh, oh. I thought you were asking it on a more profound level. I am taking notes."
"On what?"
"Potions."
"What type."
"Many types."
"For what purpose?"
"To intoxicate myself to the point of pervebial self-destruction. Why do you ask?"
"Are you trying…thinking of killing yourself?" She said very slowly, as if she could see him bend before he would snap, and she could avoid it.
"Not yet, but maybe in a couple months, why not? You know, you should try everything once. I tried getting killed. And as you can probably see, that was one crazy experience."
"Don't joke about it!" She cried out. He looked up at her with dead eyes.
"I'm not." She decided it was time to alter the subject of discussion.
"You look sick." She said not lacking disgust in her voice.
"Yes, mother."
"Well, you obviously don't have a mother to tell you, so I have to." She slapped her hand over her mouth. She was panicking. She went too far. She wanted to cry, to say she was sorry, but she was in too much fear to speak. She saw him halt and softly put the pen down. His body started shaking. He was holding something in. Hopefull he wouldn't kill her. He turned to her and lifted his face. He was laughing. How could he be laughing at such a horrible thing?
"You – that's great – you see – you think – you're my mother!" He was becoming hysterical. He couldn't hold it in. He stopped slowly. "Wait, stop picking on my or I'll tell my mommy, HERMIONE!!!" He broke down into more laughter. "Hey ma, I'm hungry, why don't you whip out a tit for me?" He was uncontrollable. He must be sick. There was no other explanation. Finally he sat back and stopped laughing while she was getting ready to cry. She was just so happy when she was told he was here. And he was treating her like, like, like she was insignificant. Maybe she was. She couldn't tell anymore. She was loosing her best friend. Or was he already lost? He was even enjoying her disgracing of his parents. He had lost all respect for everyone. He wasn't himself. He seemed like, he just didn't care anymore. He didn't care about anything.
"I have to go" she said. She jumped up from her chair and ran from the room. She made it forty feet down the hallway until she felt a sharp sudden pain in the back of her leg. She staggered to a stop and started rubbing it forcefully. She never really had a muscle cramp before. To her utter embarasment, someone who was walking by put a vial in her hand. She looked at the person and to her full humiliatiion, Harry Potter was shaking his head slowly.
"It'll get rid of the cramping. I'm going to the kitchens. Have a nice afternoon." Without so much as a hint of pity, or sympathy, he just marched away, down the hall.
So that was all she got. She runs to Dumbledore, runs to Harry, gets a less than satisfactory welcome, disrespects his parents, gets insulted by a lack of anger, runs away, and this is what he gives her? A vial of potion. A sudden hate and anger overcame her. She never even got this angry at Malfoy. She threw the potion against the floor and it shattered, sending shards ricocheting off the floor and walls. If Harry didn't want any friends that would be fine with her. If hewanted to be alone, he would be alone. But when he comes back, she would not look twice at him, before tellng him no. And that was final.
A sudden twitch in her leg filled her with regret.
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The street was empty. The lights were out. A solitary figure stood, staring at a house, but inside the house he only saw slaves. Lower than the creatures. Weaklings. Yet they had the nerve to turn away from him. He, who grew to so much power, by his own path, through his own work. Did they not know he would have his revenge on them. He smiled openly,, showing his sharp pointed teeth. Better to eat meat with. He sent the energy away. He would have his way.
Numerous pops were heards, followed by the appearance of two dozen black robed men. They had with them a whimpering young girl. She was of seven, or eight. Old enough to know what she saw, young enough to not be entirely believed. Oh, a wonderful age at which to scar someone for life.
The skeleton of a man nodded towards his followers, and the girls eye's were pinned open. A shield was placed around all of them. The leader went forward to a metal plate in the road. He lifted the plate with his hand and withhis wand, he knocked the valve open. A loud hissing erupted from the damaged metal. The man placed his wand into the hole he had created and whispered a few well chosen, and unheard words. An explosion sent him five feet into the air, and twenty feet backwards. He quickly got to his feet to avoid being disrespected.
He was in time to see it. On each side of the street, the houses burst into flames, one after eachother, sequentially down the street. The girl was screaming. A large metal piece was dropped near the flaming hole created by the explosion. The leader approached the girl.
"Soon, there may be some, people, who will want to know everything you have to say. It would be best if, you told them the truth." With a sequence of pops, they all disappeared, leaving a seven year old girl on a street covered in flame, breathing air thick with smoke and screams. She was the lonliest person in the world.
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Harry's eyes opened, so bloodshot that one would think all of the blood vessels had popped. He had been reading when it happened. He checked his watch. 7:45. He had to get there. He didn't know how but he knew where he had to go. Grabbing his broom, he started running. He had to get there. Some could still be saved. He mounted his broom and sped down the hallway. He went up the stairs, and turned into the entrance hall.
Everything was happening over and over in his head. Why didn't he know it was going to happen? Could it have been prevented? Was there anyway to to tell? What the hell had happened? Was he responsible? Everything seemed to be mounting against him. In desperation he shouted the one word that came to mind.
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"Eat something" said Ron, concern on his face. She was staring at her face, which she hadn't even put anything on it. "What in Merlin's name did he say?"
"Nothing."
"Then why are you acting so…………depressed? What happened?"
"He was just busy, writing stuff from a book." Said Hermione.
"Was it the same potions book he was carrying when we saw him in the halls?" asked Dean, who had been pulled into the conversation earlier.
"Yeah, I think so."
"That one is from the resticted section." Claimed Dean.
"How do you know?" Asked Hermione.
"It had the red bar on the binding." Finished Dean. They all nodded in assent.
Hermione stopped talking and tuned out of their conversation. It had occurred to her that she could block out Harry as much as she needed, but Ron, he had to be brought to her side. She could only think of one or two ways to do this. She turned to him.
"Ron, would you have sex with me?" She realized what she had said far too late. She began to flush as Ron spit out his porkchop.
"WHAT!?!?" He yelled, before gaining control over the volume of his house. "Could we possibly talk about this somewhere else?" He was turning a brighter shade of red than sghe ever could. The Gryffindors nearby were all staring at her shell shocked. Unable to move, talk or eat, they watched her. She put her face in her hands, hiding herself from the world. What had she done? She had asked Ron for sex in the middle of dinner. It would be all over the school by morning. Malfoy was going to make hell. Two people who saw her humiliation dove to the rescue. It happened that for this once, Fred and George were at opposite ends of the table. Fred stood up.
"OYE, GEORGE" Fred called, "WOULD YOU HAVE SEX WITH ME?" George looked confused for the shortest time before catching on.
"ABSOLUTELY! HEY, ALICIA, WOULD YOU HAVE SEX WITH ME?" in seconds, everyone was asking everyone else for sex, and in minutes, the laughter was so loud that no words could be heard. It took a while for everyone to calm down. Hermione displaced herself to where Fred was chatting idly with Alicia Spinnet. Hermione sat down and when the first opportunity presented itself, she thanked Fred.
"Ah, no problem Hermione. We know what happened last year. We all gotta stick together, us Gryffindors." She smiled softly, and left Fred and Alicia to their own mechanisms. She had barely sat down and finally decided to eat something.
"FUUUUUUUUUCK!!!!!!" The word was uttered from one mouth, but it's sheer volume and echoes off the stone of the castle made it seem like everyone was encase in the sadness and anger behind the word. Everything went silent, until there was an earth shaking snap and shriek as the front doors of the castle burst open. Harry Potter, leaning almost flat against rose above the trees and set speed records which would never be broken.
In ten minutes Harry would see the flames and smoke on the horizon. By fifteen all the flames would be put out, and by twenty, nearly every auror on duty had surrounded Harry Potter on Winston Oval, ten miles south of the greater London area.
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"Harry Potter?" Said one of the aurors. They all stepped back. It was a very cinematic sight. A young man with a bleeding forehead, the blood smeared back into his hair from flying, all around them was a heavy smoke, darkening the already twilight sky. His blood appeared black, and he made no movement of attack or defense against the aurors. The weeping of some families nearby could be heard despite the sirens of the fire engines.
"What are you doing here, Mr. Potter?" Some of the aurors began to lower their wands, but put them back up when slapped by others.
"I heard there was going to be a weenie roast somewher around here. It looks like they went ahead without me." He took a breath. "What the hell do you think I was doing, I was putting out flames." You don't see any, do you?"
"May I see your wand please?" asked the leader. He was obviously quite confused and trying to stick to protocol.
"Give me yours, and I'll do it for you, it's not a spell that can actually be faked, you know." The leader looked at one of the younger looking aurors, and the auror tossed ihis wand to Harry. Harry put one wand in each hand, put the tips together, and whispered "Priori Incantem." A wave of water was emitted from Harry's wand, causing six of the aurors to be sucked to the ground. "Satisfied?"
"We need to run some tests in the area." He was looking carefully at Harry. The silence fell heavily, as Harry and their leader exchanged stares.
"What's stopping you?" chided Harry. The was a small pop, which grabbed their attention.
"Albus Dumbledore!" shouted one of the aurors.
"What is going on here?" said another.
"If you need, I will account for Mr. Potter up until fiteen minutes ago" explained the headmaster.
"Why not after that?" inquired the auror.
"He had left. On his broom, I might add."
"That's, that's perpostrous!!!" said the auror.
"I would say the same, Mr. Wilkins, but I had the liberty to collect this on my way here." Sighed Dumbledore. The man took a piece of parchment from the headmaster and read it in shock.
"Do you have your broom, Mr. Potter?" asked the leader. Harry opened his cloak, and slid his broom from a specialized pocket he had installed. He just noticed the wax and protective finish had been scratched off everywhere except where his hand had been during flight. He handed it cautiously to the auror, who had some trouble deciphering the serial number and comparing it to the one on the parchment. He was successful in the end. "Do you know what this means. This breaks every record there ever was. How is it possible?"
"I cannot answer these questions. The only who was there, just handed you his broom" Dumbledore stated. All eyes naturally trailled to Harry. He shrugged his shoulders.
"I don't know, I was really angry. I did what was necessary." No one seemed to believe him. "LOOK, I was in the middle of an adrenaline rush, I couldn't help it."
"An average speed of 2,114 miles per hour? That's faster than sound! That's faster than a bullet! Any bullet!" Claimed the auror in disbelief.
"Don't forget a recorded top speed of 2,730 miles per hour" whispered Dumbledore aloud. He appeared to be very proud of Harry. The score of other aurors were just looking at him in alarm. " I think he may be going through a second stage developemental process. Some of you may remember those." A few rolled their eyes in realization of the possibility. Second stage developemental processes were known in that they produce sudden, extremely strong magical pulses from the person going through them. This power never lasts. However, it would make sense in Harry's case. His fury and a pulse sent through the broom could very well have sent him at uncharted speeds.
A shrieking beep sounded. All of the aurors apperated away uniformly, as if they were all connected, leaving Harry and Dumbledore alone. Dumbledore used his reflexes to grab Harry's broom before it hit the ground. Being dropped from the apperating leader, named Wilkins. Harry let out a sigh as he accepted his broom from the headmaster. It was in horrid condition. Scratched, bent, cracked, you name it.
"I suppose, anyone who watches records will know. It'll be everywhere by the morning. I hate publicity." Harry groaned.
"I won't even mention the shouting of profanities to the entire school."
"Thanks."
"Don't mention it. So how much were you able to salvage?" Harry's eyes became dead at the question, and his voice became hollow.
"Not much. I got twelve people out of burning houses. Eight were already dead. Three were burned beyond saving. The one I got out would have made it without me. All the house were entirely destroyed. It wouldn't have mattered if I never showed up."
"But you did, and that deed speaks very highly of you."
"I don't care, headmaster. I don't want this getting out, do you understand?"
"Entirely, mr. Potter."
"I couldn't even find the girl."
"Whom?"
"He brought a young girl here to watch, he made her watch, but when I got here, she was gone."
"We cannot do everything we want to, Mr. Potter."
"Try telling that to Granger."
"Ah, you mean Hermione. I believe she learned her lesson during third year. Perhaps it is your turn."
"Keep talking. You were lying about the developemental second stage whatever you call it thing, right?"
"I was not lying, I was…"
"Exagerating the truth."
"Well said, Mr. Potter. How are you going to return to the school?"
"First I'm going to Hogsmeade to get a very strong drink, and then I'm going to make it stronger, and maybe I'll take the midnight portkey back."
"Then, I will see you tomorrow, Harry. Have a safe trip."
"Likewise." With a small pop the old man disappeared. Leaving Harry, and all of a sudden, he knew just how the little girl felt.
Had to get this one out quick, because I won't be able to update for a while. MID-TERMS. Not fun. Anyway. Thanks everyone for reading, and I hope you review. It isn't too much to ask you to review. You spent how long reading this? Couldn't you spend two minutes on a short and nice review. Please consider it. Thanks to all my past and present reviewers. Everyone else who has mid-terms, good luck. Happy reading.
