Disclaimer: Still not mine.
Warning: In this chapter the darker stuff will start, the warnings are already in the summary. So if you don't want to read about it then why are you here?
AN: I'm holding a HOUSE CUP competition. The questions are at the bottom. Don't forget to mention your house. If you don't know your house there are a lot online sorting hats you can visit.
More reviews for the last two chapters of Rifts than the first 10 of At Death's Door, WOW.
::::Does a happy little dance:::: People actually put me on their favourites lists and after only two chapters, I can hardly believe it.
RiftsChapter 3: The Houses
He couldn't breath.
It was hot, cramped and completely pitch black dark
The feeling of fear was overwhelming.
The darkness was closing in on him, choking him.
There was something there....
He couldn't get away, he couldn't breath.
No air...
"....wake up, Potter will you wake up already!" Harry could feel someone shaking him and he responded as he always did when someone woke him up, especially when it was from a nightmare.
He froze.
It took a few seconds for the feelings of complete fear and panic to ebb away and for him to realise it had been only a dream, but damn, it had felt so real that he was panting even now.
"Finally he shuts up, maybe now we can get some sleep." Harry recognized the voice as Malfoy's and turned away from the wall to see the blond glare at him from under his blanket. He looked downwards and saw that Goyle, in the bed below Malfoy's, had pulled his pillow over his head.
The bunk bed creaked and shifted as Crabbe got back in his own bed, apparently he had been the one to wake him up from his nightmare.
The nightmare... Ones like these were even worse than the ones that made sense, the feeling of fear still lingered, but his breathing was finally calming down some.
Terrified to fall asleep again, Harry sat up, swung his legs over the edge and silently jumped to the floor, the icy cold stone under his feet clearing up his head a little more.
He made his way to the bathroom and locked the door. Only after washing the cold sweat from his face, he let himself think back to the nighthorror. He couldn't help but shiver at the memory. He was really glad he was rooming with the Slytherins right now, they might not be nice, or even polite, but at least they let him be. Ron would've been all over him after such a violent nightmare, maybe even woken up Hermione.
At least this way he had some peace to get himself back together before facing the world again.
Ignoring his pale and exhausted looking reflection, he reached for his bag with toiletries. After rummaging around, he finally found what he was looking for.
His knife.
He rolled up his sleeve as high as he could and pressed the blade down on his upper arm.
After only the first cut he felt himself relax a bit and after two more he felt he might even be able to go back to sleep. The stinging pain would distract him from any unwanted thoughts or feelings that might crawl through his brain. The nightmares may be horrible, but he had to sleep if he wanted to get through the next day.
Methodically cleaning up the shallow cuts with some toilet paper and washing away the drops of spilled blood in the sink, he quickly removed any evidence. Now he just had to wait a little while until he stopped bleeding, so he wouldn't mess up his shirt and bed, and then he could go back to bed.
Ten minutes later he was as calm he could possibly get and crawled back under his blanket, trying to be as quiet as possible as not to wake the others, cast a silencing spell and tried to think about anything but the reason why he had been woken up in the first place. His thoughts immediately went to the situation he had placed himself into. He had expected his new roommates to respond differently to waking up in the middle of the night because of him, at least not this calm, but then again, they would probably torment him with it tomorrow.
That was the drawback to rooming with his second-down-the-list-arch-nemesis and to think that he had even volunteered for it.
Well, actually, Malfoy was really more third-down-the-list, behind Voldemort and Snape. Of course he shouldn't forget about Wormtail, or Bellatrix, and Lucius Malfoy was a whole lot more dangerous than his son. Actually, Draco Malfoy didn't rate all that high on his enemies list, he might be annoying, but he wasn't really dangerous, not yet anyway. If he really counted, Malfoy came below Voldemort, all the deatheaters, and there were a lot of those, Umbridge, Fudge and Snape.
Damn that was a long list for a sixteen year old.
And with that, to him at least, amusing thought, he fell back into a fitful sleep.
Harry was surprisingly the last one to wake up the next morning, he must've been really tired if he had slept this long and hadn't even woken up from the noise his roommates were making, normally he was a really light sleeper, especially right after summer vacation.
The three other boys were already dressing themselves, in muggle clothing of course, getting ready for breakfast which would be served in the hall they had passed through on their way to the dormitories. Not wanting to be the target for ridicule this early, he kept quiet until they had left. Then, as not to miss breakfast himself, he jumped out of bed, grabbed his clothes and went to take a shower.
Fifteen minutes later he was walking into the makeshift cafeteria and couldn't help but roll his eyes at the sight before him. Everyone was sitting with his or her own house, hell the tables even had the same order as the ones in the great hall at Hogwarts.
He ignored the looks he was getting and sat down at the first table, which happened to be the one where all the Hufflepuffs were sitting. Smiling at Ernie and Susan, he grabbed some bread, cheese and a hard-boiled egg to make his breakfast.
"Harry, I don't mean to be rude, but why aren't you sitting with the Gryffindors?" Harry looked up at Hannah, who was sitting next to him and was the one who had asked the question.
"I have eaten breakfast with them for the last five years. I thought I'd sit somewhere else now that we have the chance." Having said that he took a bite out of his sandwich and poured himself a glass of milk.
Suddenly someone started laughing. Harry looked up at the source and found himself looking at a brown haired girl, Perks he thought her name was, yes, Sally-Ann Perks. He didn't know her very well since she hadn't joined the DA.
"He's absolutely right," She said, still smiling widely. "Everyone just automatically sat down as we're used to. So if you will excuse me, my housemates, Harry." The tall brunette picked up her plate, passed the Slytherins and sat down at the Ravenclaw table, next to Lisa and Mandy, who greeted her with somewhat confused smiles. No other students changed seats, but maybe they wouldn't be so house orientated at lunch.
When everyone had finished, someone finally stood up from the grownup's table, where Harry spotted Remus, Mundungus Fletcher, their guide from last night and two others that had also accompanied them from Hogwarts, a woman and a man, who looked very much alike, both tall and blond. Harry didn't know them, but they had to be with the order, Dumbledore hadn't trusted anyone else to stay with them those three months.
Well three months and two weeks actually, it was still two weeks before the start of the school year and in that time they would have to do most of the catching up to their muggle classes. He guessed they would get to choose their classes now, as their schedules still had to be made and of course because otherwise they wouldn't know what classes to catch up to.
It was the wizard Harry didn't know that stood up and addressed them. "Alright everyone, settle down." Surprisingly they did, but then again everyone was very curious about what exactly was going to happen.
"I'll start by making some introductions first, as we..." He gestured towards the table behind him. "...will be the ones staying with you the coming three months. The man to my left you already know is Remus Lupin, next to him is Mundungus Fletcher." The man so called gave a wave and winked. "Then there's the representative from the school, mister Fischer." Harry thought mister Fischer didn't look very pleased to be there, probably because he had to miss two weeks of vacation. "Next to him is Chloe Tucker, my sister, and then there's me, Joshua Tucker." He smiled and grabbed a stack of paper.
"Now on to your schedules. You won't be able just pick any classes you like," There were some disappointed sounds coming from all the tables. "because it wouldn't fit in the roster, but you can choose from several class combinations, which are all on this paper. Please make sure you hand it in before dinner." As he said this, the blond man, who Harry guessed to be about thirty years old, handed out the forms.
"Tomorrow you will get your books, which are on loan from the school, so no studying today. There are games and art supplies in the cupboards over there. Everyone have some fun."
Harry smiled at Joshua's words and looked down at all the classes he could choose from. Damn, tough decision. He wanted some interesting classes, but he didn't want too much work. After all, he had magical theory work too.
Now lets see, he had always been pretty good at maths, so that cut his number of choices in half, since you couldn't have both maths and English, because those two were the classes with the most work and hours. Then there were geography and history, he hated those, so that left three class combinations to choose from, all with five classes including math and physical education. Definitely not modern foreign languages, he absolutely did not want to spend the next two weeks memorizing French words in order to make up for four years.
Two choices left, maths, PE, biology, economy and drama or maths, PE, chemistry, physics and art. Not a very difficult choice as he had absolutely no interest in economy like he did in science and maybe physics, but he was hesitant at the art part, for very good reasons.
Not hesitating for very long, he circled his choice with a pencil. He would just have to deal with the art class when he came to it.
"Hey Harry, did you choose already?" He looked up to find Hermione standing next to him. He moved over so she could sit down on the bench.
"Yep, I took option five. Did you?"
"No, I just can't seem to make up my mind." She frowned at the paper in her hands, but put it down in favour of looking at him instead. "So, I heard you're sleeping with the Slytherins. Are they giving you a hard time? Did you sleep okay? You didn't have any nightmares did you?"
Damn, only two minutes and she was already playing mother hen. He placed his hand on the cuts he had made this morning and rubbed them slightly, the stinging keeping down his anger, both at her and at himself for lying, again. "Mione, I'm fine, it's only three months and yes I slept fine." He said. He hated lying to her, but she wouldn't leave him alone otherwise and on top of that, he didn't want her to worry, it wasn't necessary. "I'd better hand in my form, so I don't forget. Let me know what you chose, okay? I'll see you later." He gave her a thin smile and stepped over the bench to make his way to the adult closest to him.
"Dung, can I just give you my form? Mister Tucker seems to be a bit busy." He stood across from where Mundungus was sitting and shoved the piece of paper towards the ginger haired man, who this time thankfully didn't smell of booze.
"Sure thing 'arry, I'll make sure 'e gets it." Harry grimaced a bit at that, after all Dung wasn't the most reliable person. The older man ignored the look and beckoned Harry to came closer. Making sure no one was close enough to hear what was being said he continued in a whisper. "I'll be watchin' you kids the comin' months, so if you ever need anythin', some booze, smokes, just ask me and I'll take care of it."
"Thanks, I'll be sure to remember that." Harry straightened back up and smiled at the raggedy wizard.
Perfect, a connection with the outside would certainly come in handy, especially since he had been out of cigarettes for a few weeks now, not having had the chance to buy new ones after he had gone to number twelve Grimmauld place that summer, and he doubted very much that they would be allowed to leave school grounds here.
He almost asked Dung right there and then to buy him some packs, but thought better of it. It wouldn't do to be overheard after all, he would really rather avoid the scene that was sure to follow if his smoking was ever found out by certain people. Those certain people being Hermione, Remus, oh and lets not forget Hermione.
He spend the rest of the day avoiding the Slytherins, so they couldn't taunt him about his nightmare, and the Gryffindors, so they wouldn't smother him or throw a pity party about him having to sleep in the same room as those 'slimy snakes', as Ron so delicately put it.
Despite Tucker's words he started on his transfiguration work, since he was bored anyway, but got dragged into a very long game of monopoly by Dean, Hannah and Justin after lunch, which was finally won by Justin (Then you shouldn't have sold me your railroad station, now should you?)
Both at lunch and at dinner people had started mingling more with each other, divided into groups of friends instead of houses. Although Harry had eaten lunch with the same people that had convinced him to play a game afterwards, he was surrounded by Gryffindors at dinner.
"So how are you holding up?" Ron asked him after about fifteen minutes, looking at him with pity.
Harry rolled his eyes and answered, clearly irritated. "It's not a death sentence Ron."
"Might as well be." The redhead muttered in return.
"Hey Potter, I hear you scream like a little girl." Harry looked up at the table next to theirs, where most of the, now laughing, Slytherins were sitting. Apparently his new roommates had spread the word about his nightmare, because it was Theodore Nott, a Ravenclaw, who was taunting him.
He had to press his fingernails into his hands in order to control his temper. Dammit, he had really hoped they would wait with the terrorizing until they were back in their room. Stupid thing to hope for really, of course they would want to embarrass him in the most public place possible.
Hermione looked at him disapproving. "So you did have a nightmare? Harry...."
"Drop it."
"We're just worried and you...." But he cut her off again.
"I said drop it. I don't want to talk about it and certainly not here." It came out harsher than he had wanted, but he didn't apologize. Didn't they understand that he really did not want to talk about his nightmares, about Sirius, Voldemort, any of it? You'd think that after two months of brushing them off, pushing them away, either by owl post or in person, they would, but nooooo.... They just had to stick their noses in his business.
"I'm going to bed." He stood up and made his way out of the room without looking at anyone. Once in the dormitory, he picked up his transfiguration book again, sat down on his bed, leaning against the wall and with his legs crossed, and continued reading from where he had stopped that morning.
He really needed to get his mind off things, anything was better than thinking about....
Shit, he couldn't even concentrate on some schoolwork. He threw his book towards his bag and leaned back, pulling his knees up to his chin and curling his arms around them. He didn't understand, usually homework would distract him enough, but not now.
He had worked so hard that summer to distract himself, with housework and homework during the month at the Dursleys and after he was allowed to leave, with the extra work and training that Dumbledore had given him, especially when it concerned occlumency.
This was stupid, he was letting himself get distracted. He summoned back his book and submerged himself in the text about mammal-arachnid transfiguration, not letting his thoughts wander again.
That's how he was found later that evening by a group of students, consisting of almost all the Slytherins, some Ravenclaws and surprisingly Ernie Macmillan, who immediately ducked back out the door, clearly not wanting to be seen in his present company. Harry thought he saw someone else standing outside the door, but he couldn't see who it was.
"Piss off Potty, we want to talk in private." Harry looked down at Malfoy, who was the one to order him to leave, but otherwise he didn't move. He was not going to be intimidated out of his own dorm.
"Then go somewhere else, I'm busy." He shot back.
"Why don't you go bug weasel and mudblood for a while, or is there trouble in paradise?"
"I have a better one, why don't you go bug the Gryffindors? It's what you do best after all." He didn't wish Malfoy on anyone, but rather them than him.
Malfoy actually looked surprised at Harry's comeback, but instead of retaliating with words, he drew his wand. "I said leave, Potter."
Harry had already drawn his wand in reflex the second he heard the door open, keeping it in his hand, but out of sight, hidden behind his right leg. Even now he didn't raise it, not wanting to let this fight end up in a duel.
At the sight of Malfoy's wand, Parkinson immediately shot out her arm and pulled down the blond's arm. "We'll just use the girl's dorm. Let's go Draco." She said in a tone that made very clear that she wouldn't tolerate any arguments.
Malfoy lowered his wand slowly and turned towards her. "Fine." Was all he said and he steadily walked out the door.
Harry didn't look down at his book until the entire group hard turned to leave.
"What an idiot, he didn't even draw his wand." He heard Zabini say, something that earned her snorts of laughter from most of the students. After that unknowingly unwarranted insult they moved to the opposite room in silence.
Harry raised his hand to put his wand back into the wandholster on his right arm. As he looked up he saw Parkinson looking at him, clearly surprised.
"Maybe not such an idiot after all, hmm?" He said, smirking at her shocked face. "Thanks Parkinson, I wasn't really feeling like an exchange of curses tonight."
She sneered. "I didn't do it for you. I just didn't want to loose those fifty points in case a muggle saw him." She turned and followed the rest of them to the Slytherin girl's room.
Before Harry returned to his reading, he couldn't help but think that the next months were going to be very tiresome.
End chapter 3.
Ah, almost twice as many words as the last chapter.
Here are the HOUSE CUP questions. Don't forget to mention your house.
For 10 points: What's the big surprise for Harry when school starts?. Hint: It concerns one of the students.
And the last question will be valid throughout the story.
Earn five house points for everything that contradicts the canon series, and I mean something that is really wrong and that I should correct.
Thank you very much for the reviews, in alphabetical order:
angel74 and
ArwenMGranger: Is this soon enough? :)
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Insanechildfanfic: Thank you again.
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kagomepotter: Thanks again, you'll always be my first :p
Kimi-sama: Sorry no yelling match, they were too tired, but things won't go too smoothly in the future, promise. Thanks very much for your review.
Midnight33: I'm very glad you find it interesting, I hope you like the rest too.
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SandiBebop: Thanks for your enthusiastic review, I like stories about them going into the muggle world too, but most of them are too sappy for my taste or too focused on the romance, so I decided to do one myself. And I'm honoured to be on your favourites list, thank you.
Yuri3: Thank you for reviewing and I will definitely write more.
Heh, heh, everyone wanted to know about his nightmares waking up the Slyths. Hope I haven't disappointed you, but they were too sleepy to really argue.
Please review, I love them, I do, I really do. :)