Disclaimer: I do not own anything Harry Potter related but all OC's, invented spells, new objects and AU circumstances are my own...please do not steal them.
Summery: Dedicated to all those in this world who feel they have nothing left to hold on to. This is for friendship, the build up of feelings that can result after a tragic single moment…the sacrifices people must make to insure that good can come out as the superior at all times. Unsure of slash situations…mostly focuses on friendship and moralistic issues. Set in Harry's seventh year…and beyond.
Warnings: Angst, drama, slight romance but it is mostly what many hope to be future canon. There are also adult themes in the future and violence. Please do not read if you feel you are too sensitive…please…the reasons why will be revealed possible in the next chapter.
Author's Note: I never dared to write a Harry potter fic before…I usually focus on Lord of the Rings but this is actually stemming from an original short story of mine…but here, it will be extended. I felt like I needed to share this in a Harry Potter format, because the issues focussed on here are aiming for the teenage age groups mostly, but can be read by adults too. I have placed it under pg-13 for now…but as situations become more serious and the more adult things come forward, it will be upped to R.
This chapter is dedicated to my friend Star who has leukaemia…who WILL read this and tell me what she thinks of it for a long time to come. May her strength and struggle in the face of her dreadful disease be an inspiration to all…her cell count was down yesterday, miracles are rampant *smiles* She is amazing.
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"The flapping of a single butterfly's wing today produces a tiny change in the state of the atmosphere. Over a period of time, what the atmosphere actually does diverges from what it would have done. So, in a month's time, a tornado that would have devastated the Indonesian coast doesn't happen. Or maybe one that wasn't going to happen, does." (Ian Stewart, Does God Play Dice? The Mathematics of Chaos, pg. 141)
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Chapter One: How It Always Starts
"IT'S ALMOST OVER!!" Ron's whoop of, as of yet unmatched, joy nearly deafened anyone within a mile radius as he practically pranced across the grounds the meet up with his friends, swinging his bag energetically from one arm and grinning like a Cheshire cat. Harry took a large step backwards.
"Nice to see you t…" he managed, before he was engulfed by a flurry of black robes and bright red hair, tumbling them both down to the ground with a distinct snickering heard in the background. "Oh shut up, Mione…you gave him the Fizzing Whizzbees as a so called snack." He called, muffled under layers of over-energized Weasley. The snickering simply grew louder.
Finally Ron crawled off him and stood up, offering his hand and hoisting the smaller boy up so fast he was nearly put into orbit.
"Hey steady there mate, don't want you flying without a broom now would we?"
Harry gaped at him as the three started walking across the courtyard of Hogwarts, Hermione trailing behind a bit as she searched through her bulging backpack for something or another.
"You telling me to be steady? Mate, you're higher than a kite. We still have our Potions and Charms exams to do and you're acting like the sky has turned purple and its raining Gum Drops."
"Gum…drops?"
"Muggle sweets…and I think you would have failed Muggle Studies if you didn't already know that."
"That and the fact you've been to Professor Dumbledore's office often enough, Ron." Hermione popped up between them again, gripping her large and bulky notebook to her chest (and that was for only one subject mind you).
He shrugged. "Yeah well, it's not like they're that important anyway unless the Prof changes the password quicker than he does. And the fact I don't even take Muggle Studies…now Orange Fuzzballs, there's something worth thinking about." Ron grunted a bit as he forced his feet to resume their earthly tread.
"And that's only because you helped invent them, my dear friend." Harry pulled out his wand and pointed it at Ron's feet, which wouldn't quite touch the ground, and muttered. "Gravidus." Almost immediately the redhead was staggering under what seemed to be a heavy weight and he glared at his friend.
"Stop showing off, you overdid it."
The dark headed boy merely shrugged and grinned, walking ahead quickly to avoid being cuffed by the still struggling Ron whose whole body had been weighted down to counteract the effects of Hermione's sweets.
He and Hermione and Harry had already finished their Transfiguration, DADA, History of Magic (that Harry found exhausting and was a little miffed that Hermione did not do it) and Astronomy (which he actually found dead easy) exams for their NEWTS over the last few days. All the two boys had left were Charms and Potions for today, but Hermione had yet to complete Arithmancy and Ancient Runes on top of those and would do so over the next two days…hence the numerous books she always lugged around with her and left outside the exam rooms each time they entered.
None of them were looking forward to Potions, though Harry felt quite confident he could do well in Charms. His marks in that subject had been soaring lately and Professor Flitwick had been known to get rather bouncy when his students were doing well…last time Harry heard, three teachers had to pry him from the ceiling since he had accidentally charmed himself to stick there and was too excited to remember how to get down. The image in his mind made him smile and he was so wrapped up in his thoughts that he was quite taken by surprise when he thumped heavily into another body and he went down for the second time that morning, knocking the back of his head in the ground and seeing stars.
"Erg, Potter! You're still a blind bat with glasses!"
The sneering drawl brought him back to his senses abruptly and he groaned. So much for a good and happy start to the day.
"You must be just as blind then, Malfoy, or you wouldn't have hit him then would you."
"Oh go and harvest your hair, Weasel."
"Still sore about the taste test…"
"Shut up!"
Harry saw a blur of black robes then with a flash of blond slicked hair and an all too familiar sneer whip past him before the cheeky face of Ron popped into his vision and he felt a poke in his side.
"You ok there, mate?"
He groaned and lifted his head. "Yeah, but I think everything I know about Potions just went flying. Do you think I can skip it?"
"No, not unless you want to skip being an Auror too." Hermione commented, as she watched Ron help Harry up from the floor, the latter rubbing the back of his head gingerly.
"He'll never forgive you for those sweets, Ron." Said Harry, as he picked up his backpack and the three continued their way.
"What? He didn't like being a Weasley for a day? For shame." Ron's grin lit up his face once more and Harry simply smiled in return. Gone were the days when Malfoy's provoking would usually get a rise from Ron as he defended his family's honour or his friends. Now he had simply taken a page from his twin brothers', Fred and George, book and had turned his retaliation into amusing teasing of his own.
The last act of revenge had been sneaking the Orange Fuzzballs, he had helped his brothers make, into Malfoy's usual bag of sweets (Harry had a suspicion he had nicked his invisibility cloak for that) and had watched gleefully as the blond boy had sprouted a thick woolly coat of bright orange hair all over his face and hands…in front of the whole school no less…and had sent him screaming from the Great Hall while the rest of the students laughed.
Even Hermione had been amused, though she tried to hide it behind a stern reprisal at her boyfriend's immaturity. He had simply kissed her full on the mouth and she shut up about it completely.
Ah the charm of a Weasley.
They were now approaching the exam room and Hermione was muttering notes to herself as she read them, narrowly avoiding other students with her nose so firmly stuck in the notebook Harry was almost afraid she had accidentally glued it. But he was thankful that she had chosen to remove herself from it at least when they were still a few steps from the classroom, otherwise he would have had to stop Ron from shutting it on said nose just so he could give her his customary 'good luck' kiss. This was now being achieved and the green-eyed boy turned politely away, blushing a bit at the small sounds of affection behind him and waited near the door, looking around at the other students gathering and wondering how he would do in this particular exam.
Potions. Never his favourite subject yet needed for his chosen career as an Auror. He had quite an uphill battle to fight for this one and had been fighting the same battle for the last two years since he found out what was needed to gain qualifications. High NEWTS for Transfiguration, Charms and Potions at least…then came the three years of extra training and a clear criminal record. He was barely passing on the record factor and Potions was simply a continuous nightmare with his least favourite teacher, Professor Snape. But he had tried and studied and persevered…now all he hoped was for all that perseverance to pay off and let him become the first person in three years to gain entrance in Auror training, and after that…the first in eight years to actually qualify.
A totally uphill battle and one he was definitely going to fight and no greasy git Snape or slimy Malfoy was going to stop him. And speaking of Malfoys…
"Ah, so the blind bat of the Potter clan can actually see past his own nose to make it. And…oh ew get a room! We don't need orange rabbits around here anymore than we need to." Malfoy's drawl turned sneer of disgust in seconds snapped Harry from his thoughts for a second time, making him look quickly over to the blond boy as he regarded the still making out couple who were purposefully ignoring him and his two gorilla cronies behind him. Harry smiled and winked at Malfoy, who simply glared back.
"What you looking at, Pothead?"
Harry smirked. "The fact you are jealous Ron's getting something you're not?"
"Harry!" Hermione's shock-laden voice forced them both to turn and stare at her and Ron, though the boy holding her didn't seem the least bit perturbed at her mortified expression, merely kissing her cheek and grinning at the blond.
"I don't think I'm the one who should be worrying about orange objects here, mate." He said, tilting his head and giving another cheeky grin, infuriating the other boy even more but before he could make a retort, he was bumped from behind, only slightly, but enough to make him whirl around and blow his building temper on the poor unfortunate who had dared touch him.
"WATCH WHERE YOU'RE BLOODY GOING!!!"
The small girl leapt back and crashed into a group of 7th year Ravenclaws, forcing them to push her back in order to stay upright and making her tumble directly into Draco's arms and toppling them to the ground. Was it just Harry, or was there a lot of falling going around today?
"Get…OFF!!" The Slytherin's shrill voice of fury now had the girl in tears as she quickly scrambled away and cowered against the opposite wall, shivering as the blond boy advanced with Crabbe and Goyle stuck to his sides like proverbial gluesticks. His face softened into a predatory smile and he stopped, placing both hands on his hips and tilting his head at her. "Well well, if it isn't little Bottle-eye Peep who lost her sheep."
"Baa." Mimicked someone from the gathering crowd and several people tittered. The ones who weren't laughing were simply looking either too scared to cross the irate blond and his cronies, or were simply looking in confusion. The latter were actually only three people; the trio of friends who had stopped their teasing and were wondering what this was all about.
"I…I didn't mean it." She stuttered, rubbing at her eyes under the glasses that seemed to be made of double-layered glass, almost like bottle bottoms.
Harry was starting to get an idea where half the cruel nickname came from.
"Fleecy here didn't mean it…aww what a shame." Malfoy looked around and smirked, getting more snickers from the other Slytherins and some nervous smiles from other houses. Only the Trio dared to openly disapprove.
"Now see here Malfoy. You shouldn't be treating someone obviously younger than you like that…it's simply not…"
"Proper? My dear Granger…who said I was ever proper?" He sneered at her and turned back to the small girl, her bushy brown hair reminding Harry of Hermione when she was younger, before she perfected the Hair Straightening spell.
"As a prefect I must insist…"
"Did I ask for your opinion?" He drawled, eyes still boring holes into the shaking girl in front of him. The rhetorical question was met with silence and he nodded. "Thought not. Now…Fleecy…I would like to know why you decided to bump me while I was in the middle of a very important discussion?"
"Closer to a yelling match." Ron muttered under his breath and Harry silently agreed. Keeping the attention away from themselves while Hermione went to grab a professor was their main priority right now…the girl never liked hallway confrontations, she almost always lost them. Snitching to an adult was a certain way they could get the offender caught in the act without them knowing till it was too late.
"I…I didn't meant it, I said." The girl, who appeared to be a fellow Slytherin, squeaked after a lengthy silence. Malfoy's eye started twitching.
"You_already_said_that!" He ground out, all semblance of control seeming to slip from his grasp.
Harry really didn't know what to do. Almost all students attending this exam had shown up but no one was going inside, all eyes riveted to the uncharacteristic open malevolence of the blond. He knew when it started though, about two years prior when his actions in the Ministry caused the exposure of Malfoy's father as being a Deatheater and consequentially getting him thrown into Azkaban. Even after he escaped, Malfoy Junior still had changed and his temper was ever being flared…his self-control…lost.
It was a feeling of mixed emotions when a low voice spoke quietly over the din of mutterings, ceasing them almost as affectively as if someone had screamed 'shut up'. Hermoine resumed her place next to Ron and for Harry…it was relief when Malfoy suddenly composed himself and relaxed his fisted hands, backing away from the girl almost nonchalantly to face the owner of the voice. Then came the inward groan when his suspicions were proven correct by the sight of long greasy black hair and a hooked nose peering down at most of them (he came eye-to-eye with Ron now), and a sneer quirking the corner of his sour mouth.
"Are there any problems, Mr Malfoy?" his voice was low and dangerous, but placed in a quiet calm he reserved only for his own house.
"No, Professor…no problems at all." The blond shot a glare at the girl and she bit her lip hard, possibly to stop herself getting into more trouble with a big mouth.
Harry wondered where he had seen her before, an apparent Fourth year or less, he couldn't tell due to her small stature. It was clear she was Slytherin…but apparently not a very popular one.
"I see," Snape drawled before shooting a glare at the rest of the students. "Well? What are you waiting for? Inside!!" The sharp voice snapped them all to attention and Harry trudged in slowly, peering back at 'Fleecy' as she stood still against the wall with Snape leaning over her, apparently asking her something. He saw her shake her head hurriedly, chancing a quick glance into the exam room before saying something to Snape that he couldn't hear before scurrying off after a nod from her professor.
The boy caught a look on the older man's face then…almost like he was…sad. But it was wiped clean and his usual sneer was plastered back as soon as he turned back into the room, forcing Harry to find a place quickly and sit down before he was targeted and lost more points for tardiness.
But the expression lingered in Harry's mind for a long while afterwards…almost causing him to fail the course miserably due to lack of attention. The scare wiped it from his mind for now under the professor's glare and he got down to work, trying to keep calm.
His future was at stake.
Tbc…
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AN: Please review…to get feedback will prompt me to write faster. I hope to get another chapter out in a few days if not less…I have a free day from work tomorrow so we shall see. I am one not to reveal what is to happen in the future…the only way you'll find out is if you are patient and read them. This should be worth your time…a few things in here I myself went through so I do know what I am talking about. I watched the rest…it's no laughing matter…what will happen in this fic that pertains to the real world does happen every day…and the results always make the news.
Be well. Vana E