Title: The Paradox of Existence

Author: DragonLight

Summary: On Assignment for Dumbledore Harry is sent to the past and sees his lover from a new perspective, that of a teacher.

Pairing: HP/SS

Rating: R or NC-17, depending where you are

Archive: my site, and is posted on the SnapexHarryML -- both address can be found on my aurthor profile page

Author Note: I've never written a story like this before let alone read one. So if this story resembles anyone's, no infringement was intended.

A/N2: I know that I promised to answer your questions this chapter, but I can't. You all will just have to wait and see what happens in the very odd love triangle that our Harry has gotten himself caught up in.

Thank You's (for chapters 11 & 12) - Chapter 11- Lady FoxFire, Gryphnwng, LoMaRiBa, Kristine Thorne, Nagini, shitsumon, Faerie Angst, Kaat ShadowLover, KittenBabyGirl, Katy999, Kat, moraco, WittchWay, Cat Samwise, Anita Blake, Asha Dreamweaver, npetrenko, sunny-historian, tima, Scythe, Aluna, RunningWithCoyotes, QuickJewel, Green Eyes, P.L.S., Kelsey, Saavik

-Chapter 12- Lord R., Lisey, Kateri, Babsy, random fan, EternalBastet, Mamoru, Emma, Katy999, Sela, two2blue, P.L.S., Kaat ShadowLover, LeeLeePotter, Acyla, Faerie Angst, Retsnom, moraco, Saavik, Envirement, npetrenko, TigerBlak, athenakitty, Veratas4Eternity, Fading101, Cat Smawise, sunny-historian, RunningWithCoyotes.

A/N3: Thank you to all who volunteered to beta for me. I have chosen a beta, but I really appreciate your offers. I was flattered that so many people wanted to beta Paradox for me.

A special Thank You to my beta, Isis. Any and all mistakes that you come across are all my doing, and can't be accounted to her.

Warning: This story contains SLASH, if you don't like that go away.

Disclaimer: All characters that are the least bit familiar belong to JKR-same with places and items. Don't recognize it then it's mine.

*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*

Chapter Twelve: An Indelible Mark on Your Soul

*The Past*

Harry rested his head on his desk, pillowing it on his arms. His chest felt congested, as if it was filled with water, and his head throbbed. He attempted to lift his head, but colors flashed in front of his eyes, making him dizzy. This had been going on for a week, and Harry was feeling like shite. For the life of him he couldn't figure out what was wrong. A soft knock on his office door pulled him from his contemplation of his health, forcing him to slowly raise his head from its resting place. "Enter."

Albus opened the door and walked in looking concerned, the look deepened when he took in 'Octavian's' pale countenance.

"How can I be of assistance, Headmaster?"

Albus walked over and seated himself across the desk from Harry. "How are you feeling, Octavian?"

"Slightly under the weather. I'm sure I'll be getting better over the next few days. Nothing a little Pepper-Up won't cure."'

"Hmm." Albus was apparently lost in thought, but Harry couldn't care less. All he wanted to do was sleep. "Didn't you say the same thing last week?"

Harry tried to focus on the Headmaster, then decided to ask his own question. After all the quicker they got to the point the quicker Harry could go to his rooms and sleep. "What brings you here, Albus?"

"Unfortunately, I am the bearer of bad news. The attack against Harold Potter that was uncovered occurred. Exactly as you said. Harold didn't make it."

"Poor James."

"The young Mr. Potter has his friends around him. I'm sure that he'll pull through right enough. That, however, is not what I'm here to discuss, Mr. Tyler."

"Well, that explains why Mr. Potter and his friends have been absent for the last couple of days." Harry once again tried to focus his eyes on Albus. This time he succeeded. "So, Albus, what did you come to discuss?"

"I should have tried harder to convince him that we could trust your translation. I just…" The Headmaster trailed off and Harry took a look at the old man's demeanor. He was surprised to see that he recognized it.

Harry knew exactly where this was going. He had only seen Albus behave this way a couple of times, and never to him personally. It was usually directed toward Sev, when Albus had to go against his recommendation because the Order had decided that what ever he reported wasn't trustworthy. It was always the times that Sev's recommendations would have saved lives, and Albus always thought that he should have known. Albus felt guilty. Harry didn't think that he could deal with Albus when he was like this. "You couldn't know. My references weren't exactly exemplary."

"The letter from Aberforth should have convinced me that you were trustworthy." The letter that Albus was referring to was in fact a forgery and the future Order had counted on the fact that Albus' brother tended to be fairly absent minded. That, with a letter from a supposed former employer that praised 'Octavian Tyler' in his career teaching young minds how to defend oneself against the Dark Arts, and a wonderfully fabricated history, was meant to convince Albus and therefore the rest of the Order of his trustworthiness.

"He didn't remember me when you contacted him."

"My brother doesn't always remember to wear socks, either. He's a tad absent minded and he's always been bad with names." Albus waved his hand dismissively. "But that is neither here nor there. I should have taken the translation seriously. After all, the majority of the other things that were translated did occur. I have come to tell you that the Order has granted you unrestricted access. They plan to take you seriously from now on. Something we should have done since the start." Albus stood to leave. Before turning to the door he waved his hand and a goblet of Pepper-Up potion appeared on the desk. "Drink up. We're counting on you."

Harry lifted the goblet to his lips as Albus exited the room. The potion gave him the extra boost that he needed to examine his situation. He hated when Albus -or anyone else for that matter- said things like that. But that was his life. Pushing that aside, he went back to his health. Severus would probably know what was wrong. Then it dawned on him; he'd have to keep a closer eye on young Severus Snape for signs of an active Dark Mark.

*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*

There was a consensus among the students that Professor Tyler looked worse than he had all year. It was the first time that they had ever seen their professor with his hair down; it wasn't tied back as usual, instead fell in messy waves around his face. His normally bright green eyes were dull and pain filled, and his face was pale, casting his scar into harsh relief across his cheek and neck. The dagger that he kept strapped to his thigh looked particularly dangerous since the person who carried it looked even deadlier than usual.

News traveled through the castle fast. In Defense class it was discovered that you had two options that fine March day. The younger students knew to expect busy work; the older students, pop quizzes.

The marauders were in a quandary. Defense was next and none of them wanted to go in and face the wrath of a sick Professor Tyler. Unfortunately they didn't have a choice. They had just gotten back from Godric's Hollow, James' home, the day before. None of them were ready for the quiz they knew would be coming. They were all standing outside of the room; Sirius was trying to convince James that they should all just skip class, while Lily was berating him for being incredibly irresponsible for not going over the homework that Professor McGonagall had sent to them for all their classes. James was tuning them both out but had rested his head on Lily's shoulder. She in turn was rubbing his back.

"Professor Tyler is standing at the door watching you bicker at each other. Keep this up and you'll be late for class. I think he expects you there." An insolent smirk plastered on his face, Snape pushed off the wall and headed through the doorway to the Defense room.

Sirius glared after him, sensing that there was something different about the Slytherin. He had noticed it when they had returned the day before, Snape seemed to have doubled in popularity within the Slytherin ranks and was even more intolerable. He had also been unconsciously rubbing his arm at odd times. Sirius knew that he should never have trusted the bastard. He had probably poisoned Narcissa's cat, or something like that. Not that anyone liked the thing anyway. Crossing his arms he stalked into the classroom after Peter and Remus.

The first thing that the students noticed when they came into the room was that their Defense professor had contracted another symptom, a hacking cough. He was standing next to his desk coughing into a handkerchief and glaring at the students in front of him. When the entire class was seated, he took his wand and shut the door before moving behind his desk and sitting down. The last was something that they never saw during class.

"Potter, Black, Lupin, Pettigrew, and Evans. You're excused. Come up to my desk after you pack up. I've written out the list of topics you missed in your absence. The rest of you, clear off your desk of everything except parchment, quill, and ink. You're having a pop quiz." Pointing his wand at the board, words began to write themselves. The topic for their quiz appeared on the board. Professor Tyler also outlined their assignment. "Your essay will cover the history, application, blocking, and removal of five of the curses that we covered last week as well as why an individual cannot rely on magic and their wand alone. Start now." The class, knowing better than to go against their teacher, all bent their heads over their parchments and started to write hurriedly. Harry turned to the small group that had lined themselves along the side of his desk. Picking up a parchment off his desk, he handed it to Lupin. "Your assignments have been slightly altered from everyone else's, so don't bother asking anyone for the answers. You are to spend this period in the library; Madame Pince is expecting you. She has a list of books for you. They should help with your assignment. Off with you."

The group took off, and Harry fixed a glare on his face before focusing on the page in front of him. Taking out a fresh handkerchief from his desk drawer he coughed into it, the metallic taste in his mouth letting him know that if he looked he'd see blood. These were the exact symptoms that Harry experienced whenever… Harry let his head sink to rest on his desk.

Everything came into perspective. Harry now understood why Severus Snape had been acting strangely for the last couple of weeks, not even coming to the 'tutoring' sessions he had coerced from his professor. If Harry looked he was sure that he would find a new mark disgracing the young man's left forearm. Harry knew that it was a futile hope that *his* Severus would remember the symptoms that 'Professor Tyler' had while he was in school and send the necessary potions. After all, the young Severus Snape was now caught up in a different world, and Harry was sure that he was the last thing on the young man's mind.

A knock on the door dragged his attention away from his thoughts and to the door. Professor McGonagall walked in, followed by a tall blond with stunning blue eyes. Harry recognized those eyes.

"Yes, Professor?"

Minerva looked at Harry with concern in her eyes. He'd been getting that a lot lately, and it was starting to annoy him. "Mr. Hearst stopped by to visit you. He mentioned that he was a fellow professor from the school you taught at before."

"Yes, Blake. I thought it was you standing there."

"Well, I'll just leave him here then. I trust that I'll see you later, Professor?"

"I'll still be among the land of the living by dinner, Minerva. You needn't worry." Harry offered the other professor a half smile before turning to the tall man behind her. "Blake."

"Good day, Mr. Hearst."

"Good day, Professor."

Minerva walked out the door and 'Blake Hearst' approached the desk. "All right, you lot. Keep working, and if I catch a whisper while I escort my visitor to my office, there will be hell to pay." Slowly Harry stood, then led 'Blake' through the door of his office.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Blake said once they were in the semi-privacy of Harry's office.

"It's nothing, Siri. I'm just a little sick. I'll tell you later. After class." Harry whispered in response.

"You are going to sit, and I'll watch the class. I can handle them. After all it looks like a test." With that, Sirius Black, a.k.a. Blake Hearst, left the office to take care of the sixth year Gryffindor-Slytherin class. Harry felt too tired to fight him.

A little over an hour later, Sirius re-entered the office. Harry couldn't hide a smile; it was strange to see Sirius as a blond. He placed a pile of parchments on Harry's desk before sitting in the chair opposite from Harry in front of the fireplace. Sirius watched as his godson coughed into a handkerchief, then frowned when he saw spot of blood below Harry's lip.

"Harry, why are you coughing up blood?"

"Did Severus send any potions?"

"Headache drafts and sleeping potions. Why?"

"Nothing else?" Harry gave a weak cough.

"No. Are you going to tell me what's wrong?"

"Damn. The bond is acting up."

"No bond that I've ever seen acts like this. Soul joining bonds don't have this type of effect." Sirius looked worriedly at Harry.

"It wasn't a soul joining bond. It was a life blood bond." Harry watched as Sirius paled in horror, then became angry.

"That son-of-a-bitch turned you into a well! I'm going to kill him!"

"Sirius, we turned each other into wells. It was a mutual thing."

"When you said that you were bonded to each other I thought it was the wedding kind of bond."

Harry gave a half-hearted laugh. "Sev and I married? That just sounds funny. No. Our bond was to tie us together. Our lives are intimately connected. He can pull 'life magic', for lack of a better way of putting it, from me and I can do the same to him."

"I've never noticed this effect on you before. And you've been bonded for almost five years. I would have seen this."

"After the first time it happened, I started to take a potion that would suppress the bond to a point. And since I know that you are just going to ask how this happened, I'll tell you. But you have to sit there, Siri. Sit there and not say one bloody word. Do you understand?" Harry balled his handkerchief up in his fist and stared at the older man. Sirius nodded and Harry started to explain.

"Like I said, our bond connects our life blood. It's a complex series of Dark rituals." Harry put up a hand to keep Sirius quiet. "When the 'life magic' of one of us gets low, the other can pull on it to strengthen his own. That's the 'well' concept that you mentioned. There was an unforeseen complication because of the Dark Mark. In order to sustain himself, Voldemort pulls life magic from his followers, willing or not. It drains Sev, therefore Sev ends up pulling from me. So when it gets bad like this, I take potions to suppress it to a point. Sev can consciously control it from his end." Harry paused to make sure that Sirius was following so far.

"You let that bastard do that to you?!"

Harry glared hard at his godfather and set his jaw. "I let the insult slide the first time. But not this time. If you want to know, I suggest you shut up." Sirius' mouth snapped shut. He had learned the hard way that insulting his godson's bonded wasn't a smart thing to do. Everything that he had taught Harry had been turned on him. Not a pleasant experience.

"All right. I wasn't expecting the bond to become active here, for the simple reason that I'm not bonded to the Severus of this time. My thinking, as well as Severus', was flawed. This Severus can unconsciously pull on the bond that he doesn't even realize exists. It's weaker, so the effects didn't start as quickly, and instead were pretty drawn out. This is as bad as it gets, but I'm going to need those potions in order to function."

"Ok, I'll go back and explain the situation to Albus-"

"You won't mention a word of this to Albus! Go tell Severus. Not Albus."

"Why not? I'm sure that-"

"He doesn't know, Siri. Nor will he EVER find out. If he finds out that the bond that Severus and I initiated was a life blood and not a soul joining he'd make us get rid of it. And neither of us have any intention of doing such a thing."

"Why would he tell you to end it?"

"Because we could kill each other, unintentionally or intentionally. If Voldemort ever finds out about Severus spying or that we are connected in such a way and decides to kill Sev, then I go with him, painfully. The reverse can be said too. Severus has felt the effects when Voldemort has drained me, just as much as I have."

"All right, I won't mention this to Albus." Sirus' eyes narrowed in anger. "But I'm not going to guarantee that Severus is going to come out of this without a black eye."

"Don't lay a finger on Sev, Siri." Harry watched as the glint slowly faded away. Sirius stared worriedly as Harry once again coughed into the linen cloth.

"Just one last question, Harry." Harry motioned for him to continue. "Why can't the two of you ever be normal?"

Harry smiled half-heartedly at his godfather as the other man pulled out the time turner.

"I'll get those potion things here as soon as possible. Hope to see you soon, kiddo." Sirius tapped his wand against the time turner and disappeared.

*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*

A shadow crossed the book that Severus was reading causing him to look up into the angry face of James Potter. Oh no, today it wasn't just angry, it was also bitter. A new dimension to the rivalry that had encompassed the two boys since the cradle. Not a sibling rivalry, a family rivalry. Their fathers had hated each other and now their children hated each other. Of course, it was a general consensus that Potter was better then Snape but over all it depended on whom you were talking to.

Severus didn't say anything to Potter, instead just watched him.

"You should be happy. My father won't be bothering your family anymore," Potter ground out from behind clenched teeth.

Severus looked up at the other boy. He tried to think about what it would feel like to lose his father, but this failed to produce a sympathetic reaction. The thought of losing his grandfather, however... "You have my condolences for your loss, Potter." Severus attempted to go back to his book, but the shadow remained.

"You don't care, you don't know what it's like to have a family." James Potter watched as Severus' eyes narrowed in anger.

Severus never took his eyes off the page of the book that he was reading, though he did notice that the edges were turning red. "Just shut up, Potter."

"Why should I? It was probably your father. He would have jumped at the chance to get to mine."

"That's highly probable. However, it wasn't me. I'm not to answer for my father's actions."

A third voice entered the conversation. Lucius Malfoy sat himself down next to Severus and laid a restraining hand on the younger boy's arm. He could tell that Severus wanted to rip into James. "Just let it go, Potter. It wasn't Severus. There's no call to harass him."

Potter didn't move, instead turning his angry eyes to look at the pale blond boy. "It could have been."

Malfoy answered. "It wouldn't have been."

The gaze just hardened. "Then again it could have been you, Malfoy."

"Well it wasn't. Then again, I'm not sorry about it either. Stop trying to lay blame. Go bother someone else." Malfoy stood up and was trying to get the younger boy to back down, but Potter would have none of it.

"Someone killed him."

Severus spoke up from his book again. "The aurors will find out who it was. Stop trying to do their job. After all you're really bad at it. The perpetrator won't be found on school property."

James clenched his hands into fists by his sides. "Everyone knows where your family loyalty lies, Malfoy. I'd say the same for Snape, but we only know about half of his."

Severus clenched his teeth together in an attempt to keep his mouth shut and his anger down.

"Stop it, James." Lily Evans had joined the small group. There were others around that were watching the situation with growing interest, but they gave it a wide berth. The young lady had one hand at Potter's elbow and turned to Severus. "He's just upset. I'm sure that he would never have said that otherwise."

"Just. Go. Away." The tone of voice was well controlled and the words were short and clipped.

Malfoy crossed his arms and glared at the pair. "Yes, mudblood, go away."

Severus snapped his book shut and stood up. "Would both of you cease this nonsense, I do not -"

"It figures that Severus Snape would harass a poor guy that has just lost his father and insult his girlfriend."

"Shut up, Black." Sirius Black came and stood beside his best friend and glared at Snape.

"I don't think so. Why don't you just leave James alone? He did nothing to have to deal with the likes of you."

"Well, maybe if he would keep his bloody mouth shut, I wouldn't be 'harassing' him as you put it." Severus started to walk away from the tree and the people standing there.

"You unfeeling bastard! I heard what was being said about Lily. I'm sure that you had just finished insulting James. No one talks to my friends like that." Sirius charged at the other boy and tackled him to the ground.

"I bet that you didn't hear a word that was said Black." Severus twisted so he could grab the other's wrists in order to keep from getting hit. "You just jumped to a conclusion without thinking and then went off half-cocked. You never were overly smart."

The two boys continued to sling insults at each other as they rolled on the ground both attempting to gain the upper hand.

The large, strong hand belonging to Hagrid pulled Sirius up by the back of his robes off of Severus. Professor Amygdalus helped Snape up and grabbed him roughly by the arm.

"Black! Snape! What's the meaning of this?" Professor McGonagall demanded as she pushed through the crowd of students. Neither boy responded, even when they were shaken by their respective holders. "Not talking?" McGonagall turned and stared at the surrounding students. "Lupin, go and get Professor Tyler. He'll straighten them out." The two boys blanched; over the last few days Tyler had had a hair trigger, especially since he was obviously still sick and it was said even Mme. Pomfrey couldn't figure out what was wrong.

*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*

"Professor Tyler!" Remus Lupin skidded into his professor's office and stopped short at the sight that greeted him. A strange man was sitting on his professor's desk, and professor Tyler looked 150% better.

"Yes Mr. Lupin? How can I help you?"

Remus shook himself before delivering his message. "Professor McGonagall wanted me to come and get you."

"Any particular reason why?"

"Sirius and Snape were trying to kill each other." Remus watched as the strange man's mouth hung open in shock. Maybe he should have worded it differently.

"I'll be right there. Wait outside of my office please." Lupin nodded and exited the room. Harry turned to the man that was still perched on the corner of his desk. "Sorry, Dray. I have to deal with this. I'll see you next time." Harry stood up and headed to get his cloak off the hook by the door.

Draco slid off the desk and stared at the other man in shock. "You think that I'm going to miss seeing you ream out Severus and Sirius for getting into a fight? I bet that seeing you ream them out as kids is three times as funny as it is when they're adults. I'm going with you."

Harry just shook his head and walked out the door. Draco grabbed his black trench coat and followed.

*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*

The students watched as Professor Tyler approached the quad with another man walking beside him. The two looked like complete opposites. Professor Tyler looked like he was back to normal. His dragon hide trousers were fitting and tucked into his dragon hide boots. The shirt he wore was cuff-less long sleeved and open necked. The scar stood out on his face and strands of his black hair got loose from its tie because of the wind.

The man beside him was his total opposite. While professor Tyler looked like a rogue, the other man was unblemished. His chin-length golden brown hair was perfectly still, even though there was a brisk wind. He was wearing what appeared to be an expensive Italian muggle three piece suit with a muggle overcoat. The looks on their faces were totally opposite. The 'muggle' wore a smirk on his face, but professor Tyler was smiling.

Lupin went over to stand by Potter and Pettigrew, and Harry approached the group of students where the boys were kept separated by their teachers. It was obvious that they still wanted to go at each other. "You can let go of them Simeon, Hagrid. They won't try anything right this second. Will you, boys?"

"No sir." The two chorused together. The men dropped their charges and stepped back. The two boys looked up at their professor who was looking at them with hard eyes.

"So which one of the two of you wants to tell me what this is about?"

Neither answered. They looked anywhere other than at their professor.

"Well, since there isn't a reason, I know exactly what to do." Everyone looked at Harry curiously. He turned to look at the two professors and the groundskeeper. "No reason to stick around. I'll take care of them. McGonagall, Amygdalus, and Hagrid all started to move off the students following behind, but everyone stopped when they heard the next command issue from 'Tyler's' mouth. "I didn't dismiss the students. I want all of you gawkers to form a rather large circle." The students followed orders and Black and Snape tried to creep into the circle too. They were grabbed by their arms. "Not you two. You're the main attraction. If you want to beat each other to a bloody pulp, we'll all watch." Harry moved out from the middle of the circle only to be accosted by Professor McGonagall.

"Professor Tyler. Are you sure that you know what you're doing?"

"Minerva, boys will be boys. Don't worry. They won't hurt each other too badly. I'll keep an eye on them." Minerva looked dubiously from the two boys glaring at each other in the middle of the circle of students to 'Octavian'.

"Well, Professor Dumbledore seems to have approved of how you deal with the boys so far. I'll trust in his judgment."

"Thank you, Minerva. All right boys, have at it."

Draco moved over to stand next to Harry. "Ha- er, Octavian, they're going to kill each other!" Harry looked at the boys. So far they hadn't moved. They were looking alternately at the teachers and students the ground and each other but they weren't making a move. They both looked nervous.

Minerva cleared her throat. "Excuse me, but who are you?"

Draco looked taken aback. "Me? Oh so sorry. I'm … Jayson. Jayson Devonshire. Pleasure to meet you, professor …McGonagall wasn't it?" Draco flashed one of his smiles, but those had never worked on the 'old broad'. Draco decided he needed to add more to his reason. The truth could work. "I'm a friend of Octavian's. I knew him at his former post. Professor Hearst told me about Octavian here being under the weather, and I decided to come out to see what I could do. I've been known to heal him up before." McGonagall seemed content with that explanation.

"Well, we were all a little worried about Octavian. I'm glad you know him well enough to help." Minerva backed off, and Draco turned to look at Harry, who was in the process of telling the boys to get a move on, after all he didn't want to sit and watch them stare at the ground all day.

"Octavian? They are going to kill each other. This isn't a smart idea." Harry turned to flash Draco a smile.

"We didn't kill each other when we had our big fight at this age." Harry paused before continuing. "And we were armed."

Draco couldn't believe that his friend was this dense. "So what? We had knives, and wands, and…. That doesn't matter. They still have their wands. I'm telling you they'll kill each other."

The students in the immediate vicinity were all looking at the byplay with interest. "Jayson, if the two of them were too bloody stupid to use their wands the first time, they're too bloody stupid to use them this time." Harry made sure his voice carried to the middle of the circle where the dumbfounded boys were. It was obvious that they heard, since they started to search for their wands in all the usual places. "Besides, I took the liberty of borrowing them for a time." Harry took two wands that were hidden from view in the folds of his cloak and held them up. "They can't do much damage with their bare hands. Now if it were us…." Harry let his voice trail off. Severus was rubbing off on him. Terrorizing the students could be fun.

He grabbed Draco's shoulder and pulled him over to where they would have a better view. "Have at it!" When the two boys still didn't move he leaned over to Draco and whispered, "Devonshire? You do realize that's a place."

"I always thought a piece of England should be named after me."

Harry playfully punched the other man on the shoulder. "You are so bloody conceited."

Draco shoved him back, catching on to what Harry was up to. "I'm conceited? How dare you. I feel insulted."

"Then my work is done." He shoved Draco backwards.

After the other man stumbled back and regained his balance he slid a glass dagger out of a hidden sheath. "I hate you, Octavian." He lunged at Harry with the dagger pointed at his throat. Harry was quick, drawing the dagger out of his thigh sheath and bringing it up to twist the dagger out of Draco's hands. The glass dagger went flying and landed on the ground, shattering. Where it shattered, a bluish liquid soaked into the ground causing the grass to die rather quickly. Harry then had his dagger pointed at Draco's throat. "Don't leave anything visible, please." Draco whispered to Harry. Instead of answering right away Harry slid his dagger back into its sheath.

"You always were too quick to draw a weapon, Jayson."

Draco looked shocked. "You broke my dagger. That was new! Do you realize how much that cost!"

Harry looked past Draco to where the only remainder of the dagger lay. He shrugged. "The hilt's still good."

"Arse-" Harry closed his hand over the other's mouth.

"And that is how you start a fight. Now why don't you two bloody each other up so everyone can go back inside." That did it. The two boys went at it, finally realizing they had carte blanche to attempt to kill each other.

*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*

The two boys stood in front of Professor Tyler both looking the worse for wear. He had dismissed all the other students and sent them off to dinner. The only ones that remained were the friends of Snape and Black. They both seemed rather anxious to get the injured boys to the hospital wing.

"Well, I hope that you boys learned your lessons."

"There was a point to it?"

"Shut up, Jayson. Must you undermine my authority?"

"Every chance I get."

Harry shook his head and looked at the two young men. Neither seemed very repentant. "All right then, what do you suggest I do with them?"

Draco's fake violet eyes flashed. "Make them heal each other's wounds. No medi-witch. They're in sixth year. They've been studying healing charms, I assume."

Harry had expected something like that. "All right you heard him. No Madame Pomfrey. The two of you have to take care of each other, to the best of your abilities. You do a half-arsed job and you'll be visiting me for detention." Harry watched as the two reluctantly played guinea pig to each other's healing charms. The only things that couldn't be healed were Sirius' ring finger and Severus' nose, both of which were broken.

"You can go to Madame Pomfrey no. I'm sure that she already heard the whole story and is expecting you to show up any moment." To students at Hogwarts there was only one thing worse than getting hurt; going to visit Madame Pomfrey. Especially when you got hurt and could have avoided it. Both boys looked down at the ground. "I take it you don't want to go?" They shook their heads. Well that explained Sirius' permanently crooked finger and Sev's nose. Harry turned his head to look at Draco. "Dinner?"

Draco scrunched his eyebrows together. "I don't think so."

"What? Why not?"

"You destroyed my dagger, you bloody git. Do you have any idea how much that cost." Draco started to walk away.

Harry still aware of their audience called after him, "Jayson!"

"Not to mention the poison that was inside. It took a lot of time and money to make that stuff, and for what? So you could smash my bloody dagger!" Draco continued to walk away.

"I have a really good bottle of firewhiskey."

"You couldn't bribe me with all the firewhiskey in the Leaky Cauldron," Draco called over his shoulder.

"Come on, Jayson!"

"No!"

Harry reached into his boot and pulled out a small flat square-ish piece of metal with a circular hole cut through the center. Taking it between his fore and middle finger he threw it toward Draco. The git ducked.

"You're getting predictable, Octavian." Harry heard a thunk as the projectile hit a tree. "Good firewhiskey, you said?"

"The best."

"All right, but you are still paying for my dagger." Draco walked back over to Harry and the two started to head for Hogsmeade. The sound of running steps stopped them and they looked back in time to see Potter and Black reaching for the projectile.

"I wouldn't touch that if I were you." Harry called as they made their way over to the tree. He reached out and pulled it from the tree.

"Why not, professor?"

"Madame Pomfrey wouldn't be too happy with me if I sent you to the hospital wing and you were barely breathing." The four boys grew pale.

Draco snickered. "Barely breathing, Octavian? They're hearts would've been beating overtime, not to mention they'd probably start to convulse. I won't even mention the nausea"

"True, but all this would happen only if they cut themselves."

"Highly likely. Those things are sharp." The two men had already started to walk away from the small group, the projectile disk held carelessly in Harry's hands. "What type of poison did you tip those things in anyway."

"Forgot."

"Test it." Harry turned to look at Draco.

"You're bloody insane. I'm not tasting it, I just pulled the thing out of a tree." Draco grabbed the thing from Harry's hand and drew it across the other man's palm.

"Bloody Hell! Don't do that!"

"Well?" Draco watched the blood well up from the cut. Harry stopped, rubbed his thumb against the wound, and tasted it.

"We were wrong, not American Nightshade. Black Nightshade."

"Even more fun. Paralysis, fever, slowed breathing, heartbeat fluctuating from slow to fast, joined with hallucinations."

"Well at least it wouldn't kill them."

"Granted. Are your darts still tipped in that lethal poison made with Angel's Trumpet?"

"Some. I tipped some others with an Oleander based poison."

"Aren't you nice?"

"From time to time. Are you going to heal this cut, Jayson?"

The two men made there way to Hogsmeade talking about various poisons and the research that Draco was doing. They never noticed the group of deathly pale boys that watched them go. And the boys never even noticed that Peter had fainted halfway through the conversation.