A/N: I am very sorry for the long wait, but a lot of things have happened
in the time between. First my computer crashed taking a lot of stuff with
it, I am glad I had a lot of stuff on backup disks. Then I quit my job and
had to find a new one. Also I have been feeling really sick a lot and I
went to the doctor and he said I have cancer so my energy and creative
thought have been down, but now I am putting a real effort into it so that
I can finish all my stuff and post it so that you guys don't have to wait
forever. Hope you enjoy this chapter.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Heaven bend to take my hand,
And lead me through the fire,
Be the long awaited answer,
To a long and painful fight,
But somewhere along the way,
I got caught up in all there was to offer,
But the cost was so much more then I could bear,
Though I've tried I've fallen,
I have sunk so low,
I messed up,
Better I should know,
So don't come round here and,
Tell me I told you so.
-Fallen; Sarah McLachlan
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Hate is a Powerful Thing
Chapter Ten: Letters and Dreams
MostEvilKitten
He did know exactly how he got to the Slytherin table, but all of a sudden he was sitting there staring down at his golden plate listening to the hushed whispers of the people around him and the shouting of the people at the other tables. The Professors were busy trying to silence the students so that the feast could begin, but they were having a very hard time at it.
No one was silencing to them they were all busy yelling at the hat for placing Harry into a house that was obviously not meant for him. He was a Gryffindor, and not some slimy, two-faced Slytherin. That house would tear him to pieces before morning. They would serve him up to the Dark Lord on a silver platter (Harry secretly wished for that, so that he didn't have to face anyone in the school, he didn't think he could bare them).
Harry could feel all their eyes on him, and the one he could feel them most was Dumbledore's pricing stare. It bored into him straight into his soul, searching, but for what Harry didn't know. The Headmaster was the only other person who knew that the sorting hat wanted to put Harry into Slytherin house in his first year, so why was he so surprised now?
Another thing that seemed curious to Harry was Professor Snape who didn't seem to incredible surprise at this interesting development. Harry thought that his greasy git of a Potion Professor would be yell at the top of his lungs for this 'outrage' to be corrected, but Snape just sat there looking at him with a thoughtful expression.
It took a while but finally the students calmed down enough for the Headmaster to continue the speech before the feast. "Again I would like to remind all the houses that if any of your new housemates are harmed in any way they will be returned to there old house and all the point that the offending house had will be taken away and the persons in question will be expelled."
There was a pause and a pointed look to the Slytherin house, which told all of the snakes that they would be watched closely, like they needed that look to tell them that. They knew that it would be madness to harm The-Boy- Who-Lived now; I mean they weren't stupid; they are Slytherins!! No one really caught the other pointed look Dumbledore gave to the Gryffindors, who had been sneering at the Slytherins with a certain amount of malice. Then the Headmaster continued his speech.
"As I remind you returning students and warn the first years that the forbidden forest is still off limits to all students. There are also some new things on the forbidden list that is in Mr. Flich's office. Please go and look at it in your free time. Now I would like to welcome back one of our past Defense Against the Dark Arts Professors, Professor Remus Lupin." There was hushed whispered that spread through the Great Hall like wild fire. "Yes he is a werewolf but we have taken all precautions for his being here so there is no need to worry. Now lets feast."
The Headmaster finished and the food appeared on the tables and everyone dug into the bowls of mashed potatoes and platters of roast beef, everyone except Harry. He sat in his chair staring down at his plate oblivious to what was going on around him. He didn't notice the Slytherins plotting about him, nor did he notice the worried looks that the Gryffindors were shooting him.
He just stayed there staring down at his plate not looking at anything, nor speaking to anyone. He was lost in thought, thought about what happened over the summer, thought about where he might have been during the time everyone thought him dead, and thought about Tom and how much he missed him, but these thoughts were soon interrupted by a familiar voice that cut through the fog of his mind.
"Mr. Potter?" a voice said gently, rather more gently that Harry had ever heard it before. Harry looked up into midnight black eyes that looked down at him questioning. "The feast is over Mr. Potter and everyone has left. It is time for you to go to your new common room." Said Professor Snape and Harry sighed and nodded at him. "I will show you to the common room and address the other Slytherins about you." The Professor said as Harry stood up and walked behind the billowing robed figure.
"Professor?" Harry questioned. "I don't have anything for school. No books or clothes. I am afraid I. er. lost mine old things."
"What are you talking about boy?" Snape said get back into his evil greasy git role. "All of your things are up in your trunk in you new dorm new. All except your owl. The elves couldn't find her on the train."
"She's dead." Harry said so slowly that Snape almost missed it, but he didn't miss the saddened tone of the boy's voice.
"I'm sorry Mr. Potter." The Professor said quickly and looked around to see if anyone had heard his little off character remark. Harry looked as if he didn't hear it, but Snape knew better than that. The boy had heard his remark, but he was in such a fog of memory that it hadn't sunk in yet.
They traveled through the bowels of the castle, into the dungeons where the infamous lair of the snakes lay. Few traveled down here, if they weren't a Slytherin, they would have to be crazy to. It was humored that if anyone who wasn't a true Slytherin would be cursed if they went anywhere near the Slytherin dorms, and they was where they were going at this moment.
Harry began to remember the trek down to the Slytherin dorms from his second year when Ron and he went down to the Slytherin dorms with Draco Malfoy to find out if Malfoy was the heir of Slytherin and had opened the Camber of Secrets or not. They came to the wall that was the held the opening to the common room and stopped.
Snape looked down at Harry to see if he was paying attention to where they had gone to and if he was going to hear the password, because he didn't want to have to say it twice outside the common room. The chances of a person from another house over hearing the password would become great every time someone said the password outside the common room. That was why the password changed at least once every two days, if not more.
It confused the first years to no end, but they got use to it and it taught them to be more careful with what they wanted to hold secret. The Slytherins had to learn this lesson better and another house, because they were in the most danger of Dark Wizards and Witches wanting to recruit them than everyone else, and if they didn't want to be blackmailed into serving a Dark Lord they had to be infinitely more careful about their secrets.
"Veritas." Whispered to the wall only loud enough for Harry to hear and the wall slowly opened to revel the dark common room of the Slytherin house. Harry remembered think that this place was way to dark and cold for him in his second year, but now it seemed to fit his mood perfectly. Snape went through the portal and Harry followed close behind him, into a room filled with Slytherins of all ages, and hushed whispers.
They all turned to see who had come into the common room when they heard the wall open. Only to find two people, one of which their whispers were about. Most could think how Harry Potter, The-Boy-Who-Lived, the Savor of the Wizarding world, the bane of the Dark Lord, had gotten into the house of the snakes, but there he was standing before them in robes with the patch of Slytherin on his chest. Some people were so enraged about this that they were contemplating way to get rid of this boy even thought they would be expelled for the mire thought of it.
Where other were thinking of way to use this to their advantage. Either given him to the Dark Lord so that they could be insured a high ranking in the Death Eaters or thinking of way to turn him to the dark side of magic. A person thinking of turning Harry now sat in the corner watching his housemates with a certain amount of interest. Wondering what each one was thinking.
He could tell which ones were plotting Harry's death, he could see their faces twisted in anger and hate, the other that were watching the boy in interest were the ones who were thinking of using Harry for their own good. But there was one face in the crowd that was not like the other. This one show a worried expression mixed with what seemed to be sympathy. Draco watch that face for a while before realizing exactly who it was.
Pansy sat in the far corner watching the dark boy at the door with a saddened expression. Draco watched her for a few minutes before she realized he was watching her and her expression changed to one of cool passiveness.
"Attention to all of you!" Snape said in an even tone that had no hint of emotion at all. "We are going to win the house cup this year so there will be absolutely no misbehaving this year and no one is to even think of harming our new Slytherin, or they will answer to me!"
Everyone looked up at their head of house with a little fear in their eyes, before he turned and left leaving a confused and haunted looking Harry Potter standing at the door looking out over the sea of faces. Draco sat back watching his housemates wondering who would be the first person to greet the boy.
It ended up being a seventh year prefect. He greeted Harry and showed him to the fifth year dorms. Draco sat in the corner watching and listening a bit more until another prefect came up to him with a note from Professor Snape, that told Draco that the Professor wanted to see him in his office immediately.
Draco ideally wondered what he had done to warrant the urgent tone of the Professor's letter as he made his way through the dungeons to his head of house's office not far form the common room. When Draco came to the black wooden door he took in a calming breath before pushing open the door.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
The seventh year prefect had shown him to his new dorm room, which wasn't too different from the Gryffindor room, except that there was no windows and instead of the bring red and gold of Gryffindor there was the calm silver and green of Slytherin.
There were five different four posters with green hangings. The beds were made with green coverlets and silver silk sheets, which made Harry laugh mentally. There was a wardrobe next to each of the beds along with writing tables. Harry found which one was his bed when he spotted an unfamiliar trunk, which had his initials on it. He opened the trunk to find one set of uniform and robes, all the books he needed for the year, a nice set of potion instruments, his father's invisibility cloak, the photo album he got from Hagrid in his first year, and his wand, but he couldn't remember buying any of this new stuff, and he could think of who would get them for him.
He looked down at the trunk for a bit more before taking off his robe, socks, shoes and shirt and climbing into bed with nothing but his trousers on. He quickly fell asleep being exhausted both physically and emotionally from the day's events. Soon he was dreaming, but it wasn't a good dream no it was a nightmare.
He was back at the Dursley's house locked in the smallest bedroom. Everything was quite, maybe a little too quite. He looked around the room where he found Hedwig's old cage sitting on his desk empty. That brought a tear to his eye and then he was lost in the memory of his lost bird, his friend, but they were soon interrupted when there was a crash from downstairs.
Then he heard his cousin's voice come through the floorboards. "Daddy, it was that freak. He is using his freak stuff and made me drop mom's favorite china."
The there came the most frightening sound he ever heard, his Uncle's heavy footsteps coming quickly up the stairs. "No!" he said as his heart seemed to stop for a moment and he couldn't breath.
"Boy!" Roared his Uncle as he heard the locks on the outside of his door being unlocked. Harry ran to the farthest corner of his room and squeezed into a small ball trying to become as small as he could before his Uncle got in the room.
When his Uncle opened the door the light from the hallway slanted in from behind him and he couldn't see his Uncle very well, but it had to be Him, because there was only two people that could loom over him like that, his Uncle and Voldemort, but Voldemort wouldn't be in the Dursley's house.
"Boy! You are going to learn your lesson one way or the other and I know just the way to teach you!" his Uncle said and slipped into the room just enough so that Harry could see his face. There was a predatory gleam in his Uncle's eye, and Harry knew that gleam.
"No!" Harry cried out and turned trying to get away from his Uncle, but there was nowhere to go and all he could do was scratch at the walls as if he could scratch right through them and make his escape, but there was no escape for Harry. "No no no no no no." he chanted as he franticly tried to get out.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Draco pushed open the door to Professor Snape's office to find the man sitting behind his desk reading a long piece of parchment. Snape looked up at him briefly before motioning for him to enter and going back to his parchment, looking as though he wanted to finish a certain part before he addressed the blond Slytherin.
Draco walked quickly up to a chair on the other side of the desk from Snape and sat down waiting patiently. It was a couple moments before the Professor finished what he was doing and looked up again at Draco. "Draco how was your summer?"
"Fine sir." He said quickly.
"Now Draco you know you can tell me anything. I am your Godfather after all." Said the Professor giving Draco a critical look.
"I know Professor, but I am telling you the truth, it was a fine summer. Not too much to do and not to little. It was like every other summer before it, except."
"Except?" Snape echoed.
"Well sire, except that you didn't visit us this summer. I missed your visit."
"Ah yes. Well I had a very busy schedule this summer that kept me from visiting Malfoy Manor." Said Snape and Draco knew what he was talking about, the Dark Lord. His father was busier this summer than he had ever been before.
"Is there any other reason you called me here other than to see how my summer was sir?" asked Draco. Snape looked at Draco as though he was choosing his words carefully.
"Yes Draco, I have a request." Said Snape before getting up from his chair and heading for a side door, to where the potions Professor kept his extra stores of bottled potions. Snape entered the room and when he came back out he was carrying a rather large box.
"What is this about?" Draco looked at the box as if it was going to bit him.
"I want you to kept a eye on our new Slytherin for me." Said Snape and he handed the box to Draco, who took it gingerly.
"This will help me keep an eye on Potter?" question Draco.
"I a way. I have come into some interesting information and I know that Mr. Potter is going to need some of the things that are in this box." Said Snape, and Draco opened his mouth to say something else, but before he could Snape dismissed him quickly.
Draco got up slowly, gingerly holding on to the box and headed for the door, but stop short before saying his goodbyes. He was half way to the common room when he opened the box to find some Dreamless Sleep Potion and some odd healing potions in the box. Draco looked at him questioningly, before shaking his head and continuing back to the Slytherin dorms.
He walked throw the almost empty common room quickly. Everyone was either asleep or getting ready for bed. When he got to the room he shared with the rest of the fifth year Slytherin boys he couldn't help but notice the extra bed that lay next to his. In this bed lay a very pale Harry Potter. He looked to pale and haunted even in his sleep, which made Draco wonder exactly what had happened to him over the summer.
Sighing, Draco put the box of potions carefully on his writing table before going to his trunk and looking for a piece of parchment, quill and ink. He was going to write his father as he had always done when he first got to school, to tell him of anything interesting that had happened on the train ride there and which students had been sorted into 'The only noble and proud house at Hogwarts'.
He sat and stared at his parchment for some times before actually putting pen to paper as it were. He wrote in his best penmanship as every Malfoy should write when corresponding to anyone, even and especially to his own father. He told his father about the train ride and finding Harry Potter in an empty compartment, how the boy was alive and seemingly in good health. He also wrote about how the boy looking as if he had been beaten and left for dead by this unknown person who took him.
He then wrote of the results of the resorting ceremony and how Harry Potter was resorted into Slytherin, recounting every detail he could remember from the Great Hall and also in the common room when he watched everyone's reactions to the ex-Gryffindor first appearance in the Slytherin's common room. He was about to write further about the meeting with his Godfather, but suddenly a sound interrupted his train of thought.
The sound was coming from the bed next to his, Harry's bed. Draco stopped the sound of his writing and turned his head listening. It sounded as if the boy was having a bad dream. Draco stood up and walked over to Harry's bed and opened to the hangings to find that Harry seemed to been sweating slightly. He was shifting in his bed as if trying to get away from something, but like in any dream you can seem to get away.
Draco rolled his eyes and then grabbed a hold of Harry and shook him light. "Wake up." Draco said, but the only response he got was Harry chanting one word. No.
Draco shook him a little hard and told him to wake up a little louder. This time he got a different response that startled him a little. Harry began to shake by himself and jump out of bed, tumbling to the floor and then scattering away as if he was trying to get as far away from Draco as he could, but only managing to crawl under his writing table and hitting the wall. Harry's started to scream at the top of his lungs.
"No, Uncle Vernon please don't." Harry scream, with woke the boys in the room that were sleeping and a moment later the door opened and Jonathan Pinthe, the seventh year boys prefect, came running into the room to see what was happening only to stop and staring in horror at the pale, frightened boy under his writing table.
Harry seemed to be clawing at the wall trying to get away form his invisible attacker and scream for his Uncle to stop whatever he was doing. Not long after Harry started scream almost all of the Slytherin students were clamoring at the door of the fifth year boys' room to see what was happening and if someone was killing that stupid Gryffindor who dare come down to the Slytherin sanctuary. Some whispered of the rumored curse that would be put on anyone that wasn't a true Slytherin who came down here as other whispered that Draco had gone insane and was killing Harry, but none of them had it right.
Harry was having a particularly bad nightmare about what his Uncle did to him over the summer, and Draco knew it. He could still see the unhealed cuts and bruises that littered the boy's body and he heard the boy cry for his Uncle to stop. It was only just dawning on him what could of happen to Harry by his Uncle's hand that would incite such a reaction when there was a commotion from the door and Professor Snape swept into the rush and took a moment to asset the situation before rushing to Harry's side and calming the boy down enough to get him to take a calming potion.
Moments later Snape had Harry back into his bed and asleep again, before turning to the crowd and telling the prefects to get everyone back to bed, before they were all punished for being out of bed at this late hour. Most people took a minute or two to stop gaping at what had happened before moving on back to their rooms. Some of the prefect had to take an hour to calm down some of the frightened first years before going to bed themselves.
Draco stood next to Harry's bed watching Snape calm the boy down as the other boys in the room dropped back onto their beds and quickly feel asleep again as if nothing happened. It was a while before Snape left the room, but not before he gave Draco a pointed look, trying to tell him something, but Draco was in too much shock to really understand what it could have meant.
When Draco finally came out of his stupor he entered to his letter to his father and feverishly wrote down what had just happened. When Draco had finished he read over his letter then quickly sign and sealed it. He gave it to his owl and it was off to his father, before he realized that he totally forgot about telling his father about his meeting with Snape. He brushed it off as nothing while he changed for bed. When he got into his bed he quickly fell asleep and didn't dream all night.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
When Harry got back to asleep he dreamed, but this dream was better than the last. He was back in his field of green grass and silver flowers with clear blue skies overhead. He was crying when Tom found him.
"Harry?" Tom's asked tentatively. "Harry what's the matter?"
"He was back Tom. He was hurting me again."
"Oh Harry I am sorry."
"You said that He. wouldn't come back.. That he couldn't. hurt me anymore!" Harry said hiccupping from crying.
"But Harry that was only a dream. He can only hurt you in a dream if you let him." Tom said gently. "Next time He is in your dream I want you to do something for me. I want you to kill him."
"But." Harry interrupted not wanting to hurt anyone, but Tom also interrupted him.
"No! No buts! You have to do this for your own good, so that He can't hurt you anymore. Anyways it only a dream, its not like you would be killing him for real." Said Tom with a shy smile. Harry looked up at Tom wiping away his tear and giving Tom a small smile.
"Okay Tom anything for you." Said Harry and somewhere in the real world and not Harry's dream world, Voldemort smiled cruelly.
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Response to reviewers
Gwennie: Thanks for offering, and I do need a beta, so can you read over my chapters and correct them for me please.
Thanks to: Dir en Grey, selua, Kateri1, Cassa-Andra, Meamz, Lord Master Omega, wanderingwolf, Erin, jes9 and Lady Phoenix Slytherin for review and a extra thanks to Jade29 for that correction, it has been fixed.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Heaven bend to take my hand,
And lead me through the fire,
Be the long awaited answer,
To a long and painful fight,
But somewhere along the way,
I got caught up in all there was to offer,
But the cost was so much more then I could bear,
Though I've tried I've fallen,
I have sunk so low,
I messed up,
Better I should know,
So don't come round here and,
Tell me I told you so.
-Fallen; Sarah McLachlan
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Hate is a Powerful Thing
Chapter Ten: Letters and Dreams
MostEvilKitten
He did know exactly how he got to the Slytherin table, but all of a sudden he was sitting there staring down at his golden plate listening to the hushed whispers of the people around him and the shouting of the people at the other tables. The Professors were busy trying to silence the students so that the feast could begin, but they were having a very hard time at it.
No one was silencing to them they were all busy yelling at the hat for placing Harry into a house that was obviously not meant for him. He was a Gryffindor, and not some slimy, two-faced Slytherin. That house would tear him to pieces before morning. They would serve him up to the Dark Lord on a silver platter (Harry secretly wished for that, so that he didn't have to face anyone in the school, he didn't think he could bare them).
Harry could feel all their eyes on him, and the one he could feel them most was Dumbledore's pricing stare. It bored into him straight into his soul, searching, but for what Harry didn't know. The Headmaster was the only other person who knew that the sorting hat wanted to put Harry into Slytherin house in his first year, so why was he so surprised now?
Another thing that seemed curious to Harry was Professor Snape who didn't seem to incredible surprise at this interesting development. Harry thought that his greasy git of a Potion Professor would be yell at the top of his lungs for this 'outrage' to be corrected, but Snape just sat there looking at him with a thoughtful expression.
It took a while but finally the students calmed down enough for the Headmaster to continue the speech before the feast. "Again I would like to remind all the houses that if any of your new housemates are harmed in any way they will be returned to there old house and all the point that the offending house had will be taken away and the persons in question will be expelled."
There was a pause and a pointed look to the Slytherin house, which told all of the snakes that they would be watched closely, like they needed that look to tell them that. They knew that it would be madness to harm The-Boy- Who-Lived now; I mean they weren't stupid; they are Slytherins!! No one really caught the other pointed look Dumbledore gave to the Gryffindors, who had been sneering at the Slytherins with a certain amount of malice. Then the Headmaster continued his speech.
"As I remind you returning students and warn the first years that the forbidden forest is still off limits to all students. There are also some new things on the forbidden list that is in Mr. Flich's office. Please go and look at it in your free time. Now I would like to welcome back one of our past Defense Against the Dark Arts Professors, Professor Remus Lupin." There was hushed whispered that spread through the Great Hall like wild fire. "Yes he is a werewolf but we have taken all precautions for his being here so there is no need to worry. Now lets feast."
The Headmaster finished and the food appeared on the tables and everyone dug into the bowls of mashed potatoes and platters of roast beef, everyone except Harry. He sat in his chair staring down at his plate oblivious to what was going on around him. He didn't notice the Slytherins plotting about him, nor did he notice the worried looks that the Gryffindors were shooting him.
He just stayed there staring down at his plate not looking at anything, nor speaking to anyone. He was lost in thought, thought about what happened over the summer, thought about where he might have been during the time everyone thought him dead, and thought about Tom and how much he missed him, but these thoughts were soon interrupted by a familiar voice that cut through the fog of his mind.
"Mr. Potter?" a voice said gently, rather more gently that Harry had ever heard it before. Harry looked up into midnight black eyes that looked down at him questioning. "The feast is over Mr. Potter and everyone has left. It is time for you to go to your new common room." Said Professor Snape and Harry sighed and nodded at him. "I will show you to the common room and address the other Slytherins about you." The Professor said as Harry stood up and walked behind the billowing robed figure.
"Professor?" Harry questioned. "I don't have anything for school. No books or clothes. I am afraid I. er. lost mine old things."
"What are you talking about boy?" Snape said get back into his evil greasy git role. "All of your things are up in your trunk in you new dorm new. All except your owl. The elves couldn't find her on the train."
"She's dead." Harry said so slowly that Snape almost missed it, but he didn't miss the saddened tone of the boy's voice.
"I'm sorry Mr. Potter." The Professor said quickly and looked around to see if anyone had heard his little off character remark. Harry looked as if he didn't hear it, but Snape knew better than that. The boy had heard his remark, but he was in such a fog of memory that it hadn't sunk in yet.
They traveled through the bowels of the castle, into the dungeons where the infamous lair of the snakes lay. Few traveled down here, if they weren't a Slytherin, they would have to be crazy to. It was humored that if anyone who wasn't a true Slytherin would be cursed if they went anywhere near the Slytherin dorms, and they was where they were going at this moment.
Harry began to remember the trek down to the Slytherin dorms from his second year when Ron and he went down to the Slytherin dorms with Draco Malfoy to find out if Malfoy was the heir of Slytherin and had opened the Camber of Secrets or not. They came to the wall that was the held the opening to the common room and stopped.
Snape looked down at Harry to see if he was paying attention to where they had gone to and if he was going to hear the password, because he didn't want to have to say it twice outside the common room. The chances of a person from another house over hearing the password would become great every time someone said the password outside the common room. That was why the password changed at least once every two days, if not more.
It confused the first years to no end, but they got use to it and it taught them to be more careful with what they wanted to hold secret. The Slytherins had to learn this lesson better and another house, because they were in the most danger of Dark Wizards and Witches wanting to recruit them than everyone else, and if they didn't want to be blackmailed into serving a Dark Lord they had to be infinitely more careful about their secrets.
"Veritas." Whispered to the wall only loud enough for Harry to hear and the wall slowly opened to revel the dark common room of the Slytherin house. Harry remembered think that this place was way to dark and cold for him in his second year, but now it seemed to fit his mood perfectly. Snape went through the portal and Harry followed close behind him, into a room filled with Slytherins of all ages, and hushed whispers.
They all turned to see who had come into the common room when they heard the wall open. Only to find two people, one of which their whispers were about. Most could think how Harry Potter, The-Boy-Who-Lived, the Savor of the Wizarding world, the bane of the Dark Lord, had gotten into the house of the snakes, but there he was standing before them in robes with the patch of Slytherin on his chest. Some people were so enraged about this that they were contemplating way to get rid of this boy even thought they would be expelled for the mire thought of it.
Where other were thinking of way to use this to their advantage. Either given him to the Dark Lord so that they could be insured a high ranking in the Death Eaters or thinking of way to turn him to the dark side of magic. A person thinking of turning Harry now sat in the corner watching his housemates with a certain amount of interest. Wondering what each one was thinking.
He could tell which ones were plotting Harry's death, he could see their faces twisted in anger and hate, the other that were watching the boy in interest were the ones who were thinking of using Harry for their own good. But there was one face in the crowd that was not like the other. This one show a worried expression mixed with what seemed to be sympathy. Draco watch that face for a while before realizing exactly who it was.
Pansy sat in the far corner watching the dark boy at the door with a saddened expression. Draco watched her for a few minutes before she realized he was watching her and her expression changed to one of cool passiveness.
"Attention to all of you!" Snape said in an even tone that had no hint of emotion at all. "We are going to win the house cup this year so there will be absolutely no misbehaving this year and no one is to even think of harming our new Slytherin, or they will answer to me!"
Everyone looked up at their head of house with a little fear in their eyes, before he turned and left leaving a confused and haunted looking Harry Potter standing at the door looking out over the sea of faces. Draco sat back watching his housemates wondering who would be the first person to greet the boy.
It ended up being a seventh year prefect. He greeted Harry and showed him to the fifth year dorms. Draco sat in the corner watching and listening a bit more until another prefect came up to him with a note from Professor Snape, that told Draco that the Professor wanted to see him in his office immediately.
Draco ideally wondered what he had done to warrant the urgent tone of the Professor's letter as he made his way through the dungeons to his head of house's office not far form the common room. When Draco came to the black wooden door he took in a calming breath before pushing open the door.
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The seventh year prefect had shown him to his new dorm room, which wasn't too different from the Gryffindor room, except that there was no windows and instead of the bring red and gold of Gryffindor there was the calm silver and green of Slytherin.
There were five different four posters with green hangings. The beds were made with green coverlets and silver silk sheets, which made Harry laugh mentally. There was a wardrobe next to each of the beds along with writing tables. Harry found which one was his bed when he spotted an unfamiliar trunk, which had his initials on it. He opened the trunk to find one set of uniform and robes, all the books he needed for the year, a nice set of potion instruments, his father's invisibility cloak, the photo album he got from Hagrid in his first year, and his wand, but he couldn't remember buying any of this new stuff, and he could think of who would get them for him.
He looked down at the trunk for a bit more before taking off his robe, socks, shoes and shirt and climbing into bed with nothing but his trousers on. He quickly fell asleep being exhausted both physically and emotionally from the day's events. Soon he was dreaming, but it wasn't a good dream no it was a nightmare.
He was back at the Dursley's house locked in the smallest bedroom. Everything was quite, maybe a little too quite. He looked around the room where he found Hedwig's old cage sitting on his desk empty. That brought a tear to his eye and then he was lost in the memory of his lost bird, his friend, but they were soon interrupted when there was a crash from downstairs.
Then he heard his cousin's voice come through the floorboards. "Daddy, it was that freak. He is using his freak stuff and made me drop mom's favorite china."
The there came the most frightening sound he ever heard, his Uncle's heavy footsteps coming quickly up the stairs. "No!" he said as his heart seemed to stop for a moment and he couldn't breath.
"Boy!" Roared his Uncle as he heard the locks on the outside of his door being unlocked. Harry ran to the farthest corner of his room and squeezed into a small ball trying to become as small as he could before his Uncle got in the room.
When his Uncle opened the door the light from the hallway slanted in from behind him and he couldn't see his Uncle very well, but it had to be Him, because there was only two people that could loom over him like that, his Uncle and Voldemort, but Voldemort wouldn't be in the Dursley's house.
"Boy! You are going to learn your lesson one way or the other and I know just the way to teach you!" his Uncle said and slipped into the room just enough so that Harry could see his face. There was a predatory gleam in his Uncle's eye, and Harry knew that gleam.
"No!" Harry cried out and turned trying to get away from his Uncle, but there was nowhere to go and all he could do was scratch at the walls as if he could scratch right through them and make his escape, but there was no escape for Harry. "No no no no no no." he chanted as he franticly tried to get out.
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Draco pushed open the door to Professor Snape's office to find the man sitting behind his desk reading a long piece of parchment. Snape looked up at him briefly before motioning for him to enter and going back to his parchment, looking as though he wanted to finish a certain part before he addressed the blond Slytherin.
Draco walked quickly up to a chair on the other side of the desk from Snape and sat down waiting patiently. It was a couple moments before the Professor finished what he was doing and looked up again at Draco. "Draco how was your summer?"
"Fine sir." He said quickly.
"Now Draco you know you can tell me anything. I am your Godfather after all." Said the Professor giving Draco a critical look.
"I know Professor, but I am telling you the truth, it was a fine summer. Not too much to do and not to little. It was like every other summer before it, except."
"Except?" Snape echoed.
"Well sire, except that you didn't visit us this summer. I missed your visit."
"Ah yes. Well I had a very busy schedule this summer that kept me from visiting Malfoy Manor." Said Snape and Draco knew what he was talking about, the Dark Lord. His father was busier this summer than he had ever been before.
"Is there any other reason you called me here other than to see how my summer was sir?" asked Draco. Snape looked at Draco as though he was choosing his words carefully.
"Yes Draco, I have a request." Said Snape before getting up from his chair and heading for a side door, to where the potions Professor kept his extra stores of bottled potions. Snape entered the room and when he came back out he was carrying a rather large box.
"What is this about?" Draco looked at the box as if it was going to bit him.
"I want you to kept a eye on our new Slytherin for me." Said Snape and he handed the box to Draco, who took it gingerly.
"This will help me keep an eye on Potter?" question Draco.
"I a way. I have come into some interesting information and I know that Mr. Potter is going to need some of the things that are in this box." Said Snape, and Draco opened his mouth to say something else, but before he could Snape dismissed him quickly.
Draco got up slowly, gingerly holding on to the box and headed for the door, but stop short before saying his goodbyes. He was half way to the common room when he opened the box to find some Dreamless Sleep Potion and some odd healing potions in the box. Draco looked at him questioningly, before shaking his head and continuing back to the Slytherin dorms.
He walked throw the almost empty common room quickly. Everyone was either asleep or getting ready for bed. When he got to the room he shared with the rest of the fifth year Slytherin boys he couldn't help but notice the extra bed that lay next to his. In this bed lay a very pale Harry Potter. He looked to pale and haunted even in his sleep, which made Draco wonder exactly what had happened to him over the summer.
Sighing, Draco put the box of potions carefully on his writing table before going to his trunk and looking for a piece of parchment, quill and ink. He was going to write his father as he had always done when he first got to school, to tell him of anything interesting that had happened on the train ride there and which students had been sorted into 'The only noble and proud house at Hogwarts'.
He sat and stared at his parchment for some times before actually putting pen to paper as it were. He wrote in his best penmanship as every Malfoy should write when corresponding to anyone, even and especially to his own father. He told his father about the train ride and finding Harry Potter in an empty compartment, how the boy was alive and seemingly in good health. He also wrote about how the boy looking as if he had been beaten and left for dead by this unknown person who took him.
He then wrote of the results of the resorting ceremony and how Harry Potter was resorted into Slytherin, recounting every detail he could remember from the Great Hall and also in the common room when he watched everyone's reactions to the ex-Gryffindor first appearance in the Slytherin's common room. He was about to write further about the meeting with his Godfather, but suddenly a sound interrupted his train of thought.
The sound was coming from the bed next to his, Harry's bed. Draco stopped the sound of his writing and turned his head listening. It sounded as if the boy was having a bad dream. Draco stood up and walked over to Harry's bed and opened to the hangings to find that Harry seemed to been sweating slightly. He was shifting in his bed as if trying to get away from something, but like in any dream you can seem to get away.
Draco rolled his eyes and then grabbed a hold of Harry and shook him light. "Wake up." Draco said, but the only response he got was Harry chanting one word. No.
Draco shook him a little hard and told him to wake up a little louder. This time he got a different response that startled him a little. Harry began to shake by himself and jump out of bed, tumbling to the floor and then scattering away as if he was trying to get as far away from Draco as he could, but only managing to crawl under his writing table and hitting the wall. Harry's started to scream at the top of his lungs.
"No, Uncle Vernon please don't." Harry scream, with woke the boys in the room that were sleeping and a moment later the door opened and Jonathan Pinthe, the seventh year boys prefect, came running into the room to see what was happening only to stop and staring in horror at the pale, frightened boy under his writing table.
Harry seemed to be clawing at the wall trying to get away form his invisible attacker and scream for his Uncle to stop whatever he was doing. Not long after Harry started scream almost all of the Slytherin students were clamoring at the door of the fifth year boys' room to see what was happening and if someone was killing that stupid Gryffindor who dare come down to the Slytherin sanctuary. Some whispered of the rumored curse that would be put on anyone that wasn't a true Slytherin who came down here as other whispered that Draco had gone insane and was killing Harry, but none of them had it right.
Harry was having a particularly bad nightmare about what his Uncle did to him over the summer, and Draco knew it. He could still see the unhealed cuts and bruises that littered the boy's body and he heard the boy cry for his Uncle to stop. It was only just dawning on him what could of happen to Harry by his Uncle's hand that would incite such a reaction when there was a commotion from the door and Professor Snape swept into the rush and took a moment to asset the situation before rushing to Harry's side and calming the boy down enough to get him to take a calming potion.
Moments later Snape had Harry back into his bed and asleep again, before turning to the crowd and telling the prefects to get everyone back to bed, before they were all punished for being out of bed at this late hour. Most people took a minute or two to stop gaping at what had happened before moving on back to their rooms. Some of the prefect had to take an hour to calm down some of the frightened first years before going to bed themselves.
Draco stood next to Harry's bed watching Snape calm the boy down as the other boys in the room dropped back onto their beds and quickly feel asleep again as if nothing happened. It was a while before Snape left the room, but not before he gave Draco a pointed look, trying to tell him something, but Draco was in too much shock to really understand what it could have meant.
When Draco finally came out of his stupor he entered to his letter to his father and feverishly wrote down what had just happened. When Draco had finished he read over his letter then quickly sign and sealed it. He gave it to his owl and it was off to his father, before he realized that he totally forgot about telling his father about his meeting with Snape. He brushed it off as nothing while he changed for bed. When he got into his bed he quickly fell asleep and didn't dream all night.
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When Harry got back to asleep he dreamed, but this dream was better than the last. He was back in his field of green grass and silver flowers with clear blue skies overhead. He was crying when Tom found him.
"Harry?" Tom's asked tentatively. "Harry what's the matter?"
"He was back Tom. He was hurting me again."
"Oh Harry I am sorry."
"You said that He. wouldn't come back.. That he couldn't. hurt me anymore!" Harry said hiccupping from crying.
"But Harry that was only a dream. He can only hurt you in a dream if you let him." Tom said gently. "Next time He is in your dream I want you to do something for me. I want you to kill him."
"But." Harry interrupted not wanting to hurt anyone, but Tom also interrupted him.
"No! No buts! You have to do this for your own good, so that He can't hurt you anymore. Anyways it only a dream, its not like you would be killing him for real." Said Tom with a shy smile. Harry looked up at Tom wiping away his tear and giving Tom a small smile.
"Okay Tom anything for you." Said Harry and somewhere in the real world and not Harry's dream world, Voldemort smiled cruelly.
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Response to reviewers
Gwennie: Thanks for offering, and I do need a beta, so can you read over my chapters and correct them for me please.
Thanks to: Dir en Grey, selua, Kateri1, Cassa-Andra, Meamz, Lord Master Omega, wanderingwolf, Erin, jes9 and Lady Phoenix Slytherin for review and a extra thanks to Jade29 for that correction, it has been fixed.