Title: Opacre
Author: Shades
Rating: PG – 13 with maybe some R
Summary: Harry Potter had no friends until Hogwarts…or so he thought. Darkness engulfs Harry at age 5…but not evil. This is the past, and of a secret Harry held close without knowing it…SLASH
Disclaimers: Do I need to tell you that I do not own Harry Potter or any of its characters? I do? Well, it belongs to J.K. Rowling, a wonderful author. I only own Lest Opacre, his family, and anything related to him. The rest belong to her.
Author's Notes: This will be slash. Between two boys. Not the shagging kind, all sex but feeling. Harry will be 10 when feelings of that sort come around, but nothing before that. NO NO NO! No pedophile!! No shagging in this story! Clear? No flames against that, OK? Flames against plot maybe but none of pedophile because I don't endorse that, constructive criticism and reviews welcome.
------- = Change of Scene
~~~~~~ = Flashback
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Chapter 14
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"People are stupid," Harry muttered a couple of days into December. He was glaring – as usual – at the ceiling, with his hands behind his head and Lest in his usual spot against the cupboard door.
Lest raised an eyebrow. "What makes you say that?" the vampire boy asked, a tinge of surprise in his voice.
"Nothing in particular," Harry muttered, still glaring at the ceiling. "Just…it's really stupid how much people care about what other people think of them. They do things, stay away from people, act in certain ways…everything they do is so people will think slightly better of them. It's stupid." He turned his gaze to the other boy. "Like I said, people are stupid."
Lest returned Harry's gaze, looking curiously at him. "What brought this up?" he asked quietly.
Harry lowered his eyes.
~~~~~~
"Thompson!" the captain of the blue team called. A brown-haired boy next to Harry shuffled forward, eyes downcast and purposely not looking at him.
Harry's face hardened. 'Does he think I'm angry at him because I didn't get chosen?' he thought furiously. 'What does he take me for? I don't care, it's just stupid gym class. Not like I got cut from a team I was trying for.' What happened next, though, managed to stab him in the heart slightly though.
"Damn it, Patterson, you left me Potter!" barked Barker, captain of the red team. "What kind of friend are you?"
Patterson shrugged. "Sorry Barker but there's no way I was going to chose Potty Wotty. You know Dursley -" he stopped abruptly, then continued. "You'll have to deal with it, mate. You got Jackson so that should even Potter's crappy ability."
Barker sneered. "Five good players aren't going to even out what midget over there is going to mess up."
Patterson opened his mouth and Harry saw the objection in his eyes. But he didn't say it. What he said instead was, "Guess you're right, mate. Sorry about that. I'll treat you to some of my mum's cookies at lunch for every mess-up Potty does."
By the time the class was over, Harry had made a homerun and caught 5 balls, causing the red team to win. Instead of congratulating him though, Barker shoved him in the dirt for striking out once and the blue team all kicked dirt into Harry's face as they walked by.
'Thanks Dudley, you're the best cousin an orphan can have,' Harry thought sarcastically as he coughed from the dirt.
~~~~~~
"Qye?"
Harry blinked as Lest's voice broke through his memory of earlier today. "Sorry," he muttered. He turned back on his back and stared at the ceiling. "Nothing in particular brought it up," he said quietly, still staring at the ceiling. "I was just thinking about it earlier today and I thought it might be along the lines of the 'conversations' that you wanted." He forced a grin on his face and looked at Lest. "You always say we don't have enough of those."
Lest looked back at him, a thoughtful look in his eyes. Harry purposefully kept his mind blank so the 13-year-old vampire wouldn't be able to gleam anything from his mind.
Lest snorted abruptly and a dry smile came onto his face. "You've known me way too long, Qye," he laughed softly.
Harry tilted his head, confused. "What makes you say that?"
Lest laughed again. "Well," he drawled, "you know when to not think around me now so I can't find things out from you." The teenage vampire laughed again when Harry playfully glared at him.
"Well, I wouldn't have to do that if you would just quit reading my mind, you git," Harry grumbled good-naturedly. "It's a bloody pain in the arse, trying not to think."
"Well, you could always think so I can read your mind," Lest said innocently. Harry tried glaring at him but it just broke into a grin they both shared.
Harry was amazed how Lest and he got even closer after he visited the vampire's family. Ever since that first meeting – there had been many more after that one – the tension between the both them seemed to have dropped considerably. Not that they didn't glare or snarl at each other once in a while but most of the time it was done in good humor. The few times they really did mean the anger never lasted long and were far in between.
"Myn, what are you doing here?"
Harry snapped back to reality and sat up, looking frantically around for a hiding place before he noticed that Lest was snickering. He narrowed his eyes and balled up his fist, hitting the vampire in the shoulder.
"You jerk!" Harry snarled as Lest fell over laughing. "That wasn't funny! I almost had a heart attack!" He hit the other boy again when he didn't stop laughing. "Shut up!"
"I didn't realize Myn had made you so paranoid," Lest managed to choke out while laughing. "The look on your voice…" Lest collapsed into laughter again.
Harry continued to glare at Lest while fighting the rising blush on his cheeks. Ever since their first meeting, Myn had continued to 'play' with him whenever he would visit. Part of him was terrified every time he went to meet her since he didn't know whether or not he would have to run and hide in order to escape from being turned into a Raggedy Ann. Another part of him loved the times he had Myn (when she wasn't trying to dress him up) because she had become like an older sister to him who he could go to in order to be hugged and be given affection.
Myn had also helped improve his relationship with Lest. While Lest had at first been part of the enemy in the game of 'dress up' because of his "helpful" suggestions to Myn, the vampire boy's side quickly changed after Myn began to reminisce. Dressing Harry up began to remind her of the times she used to dress Lest up – she had photos, which Harry had cracked up and Lest had glowered and blushed on seeing – and she decided to revive dress-up with Lest.
Needless to say, Lest quickly became a great ally in finding spots to hide from Myn.
Harry continued to glower at Lest until he stopped laughing, fingering the emerald and sapphire ring Myn had given him on his eighth birthday. (When he received the ring, Lest had one of his few and rare moments of being absolutely dumbstruck since the ring was apparently one of Myn's most valued possessions. It had warmed him greatly when Lest had told him that but he had been a bit confused as to why Lest seemed somehow downcast when he opened Lest's gift of a scarlet scarf.)
Lest let out a few more snickers while Harry continued to glower at him. 'Jerk,' he thought. 'Don't know what you're laughing at since Myn does it to you too.'
Lest stopped laughing and returned Harry's glower. "Shut up," the vampire boy muttered, turning slightly pink and Harry smirked.
"That's what you get for reading my mind," he replied smugly.
Lest rolled his eyes and resumed his original position of sitting against the cupboard door. "Yeah, yeah. Whatever," Lest drawled. Then he blinked and groaned, smacking his forehead, causing Harry to jump in surprise. "Damn, I almost forgot." The teenage boy looked at Harry. "I was wondering if you wanted to spend your winter break at my house."
Harry blinked.
…
He blinked again. "Come again?"
Lest rolled his eyes. "Your winter break starts next Friday right?" Harry nodded slowly, still slightly shocked and confused by the vampire's request. "Well, instead of spending it here with these idiots and having an Unmerry Christmas and New Year, I was wondering if you wanted to spend it with me and my family."
Harry stared.
Lest raised an eyebrow. "Why are you looking at me as if I were insane?"
"Are you sure you're not?" Harry asked carefully. At other boy's bewildered look, Harry rolled his eyes and felt some depression press down on him. "Lest, I would love spending the holidays with you and your family. But how the hell am I suppose to get away from my own for those two weeks? They don't know about you, remember? And I don't think they would take too kindly to you if you revealed yourself to them."
Lest sighed in relief. "Is that what you're worried about?" He snorted and patted Harry on the head, which caused Harry to growl at and push the older boy's hand away. "You idiot. Forget so soon about certain little techniques I have? Like mind control?"
Harry's eyes widened. 'Oh, well that would help,' he thought, feeling embarrassment creep up on him slowly and beginning to push the depression away. Then embarrassment itself was roughly pushed away by confusion.
"Lest," he said slowly, "I thought you weren't allowed to use those techniques until you came to age?" He looked quizzically at the other boy and felt depression returning. 'Damnit Potter,' he thought glumly, 'do you have to find a problem with everything?' He mentally sighed. Having a bitter childhood kind of destroyed looking at anything without finding fault with it.
"Don't worry about it, Qye," Lest grinned. "It's taken care of and I promise I won't get in trouble."
"I find that very hard to believe," Harry murmured under his breath. Lest just grinned in reply. Harry rolled his eyes.
Lest once again patted him on the head. "Quit worrying or you'll have gray in your hair before your time," the older boy said cheerfully. Harry smirked.
"If I don't have gray now, I'm not likely to get any anytime soon," he snickered. 'Having a vampire for a friend is a good way to become immune to white hairs,' he thought cheerfully.
Lest blinked, looking confused and Harry snickered again because he knew the other boy had read his mind and not understood. A moment later, Lest looked at him with an annoyed look in his eyes.
"Ha ha, it is to laugh," Lest said sarcastically as Harry continued to snicker. "Honestly, it's going to be a hell of a two weeks with you. I should have said no to Myn."
Harry stopped snickering and tilted his head at Lest, puzzled. "She was the one who suggested you stay over for the break," Lest explained. "Practically begged me this past weekend, never knew she could be so annoying." Lest blinked. "What's the matter with you?"
"Nothing," Harry muttered, flopping down on his bed. "Can you go now Lest? I'm feeling kind of tired."
Lest looked at him, slightly worried but nodded reluctantly. "Alright," he said slowly. He got up and silently opened the cupboard. "Night Qye," he said. He got no reply.
As the cupboard door closed, Harry hastily and angrily scrubbed a lone tear from his face.
-------
"What do you mean you can't go?" Lest asked in a startled voice the night before winter break began. "We've already got a room set up for you and everything. Why in the name of all that's holy can't you go?"
"I just can't," Harry snapped from beneath his blankets. "I can't go. So leave it alone. Sorry I made you go through all that trouble for nothing."
"It's not trouble," Lest growled, moving closer to Harry and tugging at his blankets, which the younger boy held close. "I – we – want you to come. And I know you want to so how come you're saying no?"
Harry growled but the older boy just kept tugging at his blankets. 'Damnit Lest,' he thought furiously. 'Leave it be!'
"I'm not going to leave it be until you tell me why you've decided to say no!" Lest half-shouted, finally managing to pull the blankets from him. Harry snarled wordlessly at Lest but the vampire just met his glare with his own. 'Damn bloody stubborn bloodsucking git!' Harry thought furiously, hoping Lest was reading his mind. His wish seemed to come true as the other boy's face darkened but before Lest could say anything, Harry spoke up.
"Why the hell do you care that I'm not going anyway?" Harry snarled.
"Because…" Now Lest seemed to struggle with himself. He shook his head and glared at Harry. "I want a good reason why you're not going after you said you would. I'm not leaving until you tell me why the hell you're not coming!"
"Leave it alone, Lest!" Harry half-shouted, shooting up from his cot and glaring heatedly at the vampire, whose blue eyes were burning. "I can't go so stop bugging me about it!"
"I will when you give me one good goddamn reason as to why you're not coming!"
"Burn me! You just won't leave it alone, will you?!" Harry shouted, shaking. "Why the hell do you care?!"
"Because I want you to go!" Lest snapped finally. "Alright?! Is that what you wanted to hear?! I want you to come to my house and spend a nice holiday with me and my family instead of with these damn relatives of yours who don't know half your worth! I want to know why the hell you don't want to go when you're better off with me than these pigs!" That put a halt to Harry's anger for a moment.
"I didn't say I didn't want to go," Harry muttered, slightly reeling from the fact that Lest cared for him. "I just said I couldn't."
"Well, why the hell can't you go?" Lest snarled, not noticing Harry's slightly dazed expression. Lest's tone of voice brought Harry's temper back up and his eyes flashed.
"Fine!" Harry half-growled, half-snarled. "You want to know why I can't go?! Fine! The Dursleys are leaving, all right! They're going to Majorca and I'm going to stay stuck for the entire winter break at a batty old woman's house and if the Dursleys caught any hint that I was gone or if anything funny happened, they wouldn't think twice about doing some permanent punishment!"
Silence reigned.
Above Harry's cupboard, the floorboards creaked. 'I hope we haven't woken them up or I'll have to worry about that punishment sooner than expected,' Harry thought dimly in the back of his mind as he stared at Lest's expressionless face.
"Is that the only reason why you won't come to my house?" Lest quietly after a few minutes had passed between them and no noise had come from above. 'Thank god they're heavy sleepers,' Harry numbly thought as he laid back down on his cot, curling up into a small ball, all emotion drained from him.
"I think it's reason enough, don't you?" Harry mumbled, averting his eyes from Lest's and staring at the dusty floorboards. He heard the vampire boy sigh and run a hand through his hair. 'Would've been nice if I could go,' Harry thought glumly, not caring if Lest was reading his mind or not.
"You're really an idiot sometimes," Lest muttered and Harry chanced a look at him. The older boy didn't look angry anymore but rather a bit exasperated and relieved. Harry raised a questioning eyebrow at him and he rolled his eyes.
"Just because you're changing caretakers doesn't mean I've lost my mind control abilities," Lest said dryly. "I just have to alter them a bit. I'll make it so this 'batty old woman' won't remember having to take care of you for the entire break. Then I'll bring you back a day before these damn relatives of yours return and make her think you've just been very quiet all break. Simple."
Harry stared at him, his hopes – try as hard to repress them – rising slightly. "Can you do that?" he asked, some of his hope seeping into his voice.
Lest smiled slightly and patted his head. Harry, for once, didn't push his hand away but continued to look at him with wide eyes. "O ye of little faith," Lest murmured.
Harry closed his and buried his face in his ragged blankets. "Thank you," he mumbled, his throat and chest feeling tight. Lest just patted his head again.
-------
"Now who can that be at this time of hour?" Mrs. Figg, the batty old woman, wheezed as she left Harry and her photo album of cats. Harry watched with some apprehension as the small old lady disappeared down her hallway, heading to the front door. 'Is that - ' Harry didn't manage to finish the thought as a strangled cry came from the front door. He leapt to his feet without thinking, dropping the album, and sped to the front door.
A dark figure, framed by the moonlight, had a small figure in its arms. Harry froze for a moment, uneasily wondering what it could be. Then a familiar voice made him relax.
"Qye," came a slightly breathless voice, "if you don't mind, could you perhaps help me with this small-but-not-so-light woman?"
Harry snickered slightly as he walked over to help the struggling vampire. "What, the big bad vampire can't pick up an itsy bitsy human all by itself?" he laughed. Lest just glowered at him as they moved the unconscious Mrs. Figg over to the couch she and Harry had been sitting on just a few minutes ago. The smile vanished from Harry's face and he looked worriedly at her.
"Ah, Lest," he asked hesitantly. "Just what did you do to her?" The old woman looked pale and her breathing was deep and slow. Lest carefully laid her out and put the fallen album on the table next to the sofa.
"Nothing life threatening," Lest said dismissively. "She'll be ok as soon as she wakes up though she'll be a bit foggy." Harry turned from looking at Mrs. Figg just in time to see Lest shove something violet in his pocket. Harry raised his eyebrows at Lest. Lest just looked flatly back in reply. Harry mentally put it on his list to ask the vampire about later.
"So, do you have your stuff?" Lest asked, running his right hand through his hair, his left still in his pocket, possibly clutching whatever that violet thing was. Harry nodded and went to the armchair that held his small, moldy and battered knapsack, picking it up. "Excellent," Lest said briskly, bringing out an envelope from his pocket.
Harry eyed the envelope warily. "Please tell me we're not going to your house using that stomach-tugging-thingy, again," he said, grimacing. Lest grinned.
"Don't know any other way," the vampire said cheerfully. "We could always walk those thousand kilometers if you want, though." Lest laughed when Harry grumbled and dragged his feet over to the laughing boy.
'I hate traveling this way,' he thought sourly as he grasped the vampire by the arm. Lest just chuckled and Harry gave him a silent glower. Then he closed his eyes as something tugged him behind the naval and the cat-smelling house disappeared in a swirl of colors.
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AN: *reads over* Wow, I did a lot of scene changes in this one. Did it bother anyone? Oh well, it looks good to me. *sings* Another one bites the dust, another one bites the dust…
(Lest) *mutter* Never let you listen to oldies again.
(Draco) *eyes Shades* Is she ok? We need her for the rest of this damn fic and Perfect.
(Lest)*snorts* She was never ok.
(Shades) *smacks Lest and Draco*
*from inside the locked room*
(Harry) HEEEELLLLPPPPPPPPPPPPPP!!!
(Shades) *turns back to Lest and Draco* You haven't rescued him yet?!?!?
(Lest and Draco) *shift uncomfortably*
(Draco) We were about to. *turns to Lest* Ready?
(Lest)*nods* One…two…
(Draco and Lest) THREE! *hold out fist*
(Lest) Damnit, draw again! Stop choosing paper!
(Draco) *glares at Lest's hand* Why don't YOU change?
(Lest and Draco) *glare at each other*
(Shades) *stares at them* Oh my god…*calls to Harry* We'll have you out of there in a min Harry!
(Harry) YOU'RE ALL DEAD WHEN I GET OUT OF HERE!!!
(Myn) *muffled, from inside* Shhy shhy dolly.
(Shades) *beats head against wall while Lest and Draco continue 'rock, paper, scissors'*