Characters © J.K. Rowling.
Plot © Sami-Lee 2004.
The next morning at 11 am, the four arrived at Kings Cross Station. They pulled their trunks along behind them, rushing past muggles who were casually strolling along the platform. They reached the wall between platforms 9 and 10 and one by one they ran through. Once they were all on platform 9 3/4 they stared up at the beautiful scarlet steam engine that stood before them. Harry felt his heart do a happy little flip as someone stepped off the train and walked toward them.
"Lupin!" Harry yelled, running over to him and throwing his arms around the man's neck. Lupin smiled down at Harry and hugged him back. "What're you doing here? It's so good to see you." Harry let go of Lupin who turned to give Hermione a hug.
"I've been at the school with Albus and he thought it would make you feel better if I came down and took the trip back to Hogwarts with you. It seems he was right, as usual." Remus smiled, then turned to Blaise and Malfoy. "Mr. Zabini, Mr. Malfoy." He shook each of their hands in turn. "Well, shall we get on board?" The four nodded and followed Lupin onto the train. "I just need to have a word with a few people, I'll come down and check on you four later on." He said once they'd settled into a compartment, they nodded and he left swiftly.
"I wonder who else is here?" Hermione voiced one of the thoughts on all of their minds.
"I suppose Crabbe and Goyle, Parkinson, Nott.. Lets face it, any Slytherin whose parent is a death-eater. Probably everyone whose parents are part of the Order of the Phoenix as well…" Hermione squeaked. "What's wrong?" Draco asked, he couldn't think of anything he had said or anyone he had mentioned that might upset Hermione.
"Ron." She whimpered, looking at Harry. "We've never gone through something like this without him…" She hiccuped. Harry moved over to sit on her other side and put his arm around her.
"We'll leave you to it." Draco said, getting up and motioning for Blaise to follow, he did so. Hermione watched the two of them leave and was almost shocked when the person she had been about to cry over had appeared at the door. Ron stood in the doorframe for a moment, until Harry nodded at the seat opposite them and he entered the compartment, closing the door behind him and taking a seat.
"Hey." He said, looking at Harry and Hermione. Hermione did look notably distraught, but Harry, as ever, looked calm and collected. Ron sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. "Look, I'm sorry I got mad and totally ignored you guys. It was stupid of me, I'm sorry." Hermione jumped up and launched herself on Ron. He looked startled for a moment, before he wrapped his arms around her and put his chin down on her hair. Harry noticed him take a big breath before he leaned over and clapped him on the shoulder, Ron beamed.
"It's good to have you back, mate." Harry said, smiling back at Ron. And the three of them proceeded to catch up on lost time, discussing everything from Dumbledore's letter to Hermione's relationship with Draco.
"Man, I always thought Harry was going to end up with Malfoy." Ron said after he and Hermione finished talking about how he didn't think he was ready for a relationship anyway. Harry flushed red for a moment, before trying desperately to change the topic of conversation.
"Ron, there's something really important we have to talk to you about." Harry said, he looked at Hermione and winked.
"Oh yea!" Hermione said excitedly, "We learnt something knew while we were at Blaise's. Actually, we started learning while we were still at school, but we finished over the last week or so… " Ron was no longer paying attention to Hermione, he was staring at the huge, Black Leopard that was now sitting in the middle of the compartment.
"Whoa! You guys learnt to be Animagi? And without me? Man, how hard was it? How does it work? What's it like??" Hermione answered all his questions by producing the book from her trunk and handing it to him. He gawked at it for a moment and then started flipping through it. "Where'd you get this from?"
"Lupin, of course." Harry answered Ron's last question, smiling broadly himself as he reappeared, replacing the Leopard. "It doesn't take long to make the potion, Hermione, have you still got the ingredients with you?" Hermione nodded and rummaged through her trunk, pulling out all sorts of odds and ends. Ron stared at her as she started to chop up some of the ingredients.
"You mean I'm actually going to get to be an Animagi?" Ron cooed dreamily.
"Well, only if we can find something for the second half of the potion, it may not be so easy, depending on your animal?" Hermione stopped chopping for a moment to look up at Ron. His face fell.
"You mean I don't get to choose?" He whined and slumped down on the seat next to Harry. Harry laughed lightly.
"No, the animal chooses you." Ron nodded knowingly and sat back, watching Hermione as she continued chopping ingredients. The three sat in silence for sometime, until Ron final brought up the topic he had been trying to avoid.
"So, you and Malfoy seem to be pretty good friends then, Harry, if you're not screwing I mean." He didn't mean to sound cruel, it had just come out that way, and his face looked sorry the instant the words escaped his mouth, Harry smiled.
"He's a good person, Ron, you should give him a chance." Harry said, Ron glanced over at Hermione, before looking back at Harry. "I understand why it would be hard for you, Ron. But I know you're better then that. Come on, give them a chance." Ron just looked at Harry for a while.
"Oh, Alright Harry." He smiled and laid a playful punch on Harry's shoulder. Harry feigned defeat and fell over on the seat, his head hanging over the edge, his tongue hanging out of his mouth.
"You better put that tongue away before I bite it off." A distinctly Slytherin voice said as two people entered the compartment. Ron looked up to see that Blaise had spoken, his face beaming and Malfoy was behind him, trying to hold back a laugh. He did look like a nice bloke, when he wasn't smirking, Ron noted. Harry sat up and stuck his tongue out at Blaise who returned the gesture. Ron looked at Harry.
"Ron, Blaise and Draco. Blaise, Draco, my good friend Ron." He said, "Let's pretend like you've never met before, so this is your first real introduction." Harry said, smiling. Ron's hand shot out straight away.
"Pleased to meet you both." He said, smiling. Draco's anxious expression evaporated and he smiled warmly, taking Ron's hand in his own.
"Pleasure." He stated. Ron noticed for the first time that Draco in fact did not have Lucius Malfoy's eyes. He had his own, and they glittered a warm, ocean blue. Maybe it was due to his recent personality change. Ron shrugged it off and held his hand out for the second boy. He was slightly smaller than Draco, and his brown-ish hair sat neatly on his head, the opposite to Harry's, he smiled.
Blaise took Ron's hand and shook it, his hand was warm, his skin soft. Ron smiled once more and then sat back down. Draco took a seat next to Hermione, while Blaise sat on Harry's other side. The five of them then started discussing what they could do to help the situation they were heading into.
"Bill reckons that we're going to get shoved down in the dungeons and wont be able to do much of anything, Ginny yelled at him, of course. But I don't think Dumbledore will let them, I mean, after all, if Harry and Draco are allowed to fight, then the rest of us should be there to back them up, right?" Ron had stated a while later. Hermione, Harry and Draco all looked at Ron strangely.
"Well, I know Dumbledore is going to let Harry fight, but what on earth does that have to do with me?" Draco started, then realised there was something much deeper going on. "Right, what do you two know that we don't?" Draco said, looking at Ron and Blaise. Ron shrugged his shoulders and Blaise started with an "Oh, well..." Before someone knocked on the door and Lupin appeared again.
Harry, Ron and Blaise all looked at Him, Hermione hadn't stopped looking at Ron and Draco was looking at Harry. Lupin stepped into the compartment and shut the door. "Ok, which of you two mentioned the prophecy?" All heads shot around to look at Lupin. "Ok, ok, seeing as I decided to pop up in the wrong place at the right time, I might as ell explain. Ron and Blaise know about the prophecy because of their wizarding background, that would explain why Hermione hadn't heard it. Dumbledore has asked everyone who knows not to tell Harry, he didn't want him to feel anymore burden until it was absolutely necessary to know, he was going to tell him himself when you arrived at the school, but it's probably better you hear it from me anyway."
He took a deep breath and ran a hand through his hair, removing his fringe from his face. Then he turned to Draco. "I suspect the reason you don't know is because your father never told you. He didn't want you to know. He kept denying that his son would be part of such a prophecy, and that it was a load of crap. But we know now that it isn't, because the first part of the prophecy has already come to be true."
Harry looked at Remus, Blaise and Ron. "Well, what is it?" He and Draco both asked apprehensively. They watched Lupin as he looked down, the back up at them.
"The year will come, the two will meet, at Hogwarts they will both compete." Lupin started.
"Enemies the two shall be, of one on one and three on three." Blaise recited.
"For years the two shall not be friends, nor attempt to make amends." Ron continued.
"A Truce – the two are friends at last, to fight the demons of ones past." Lupin went on.
"And then the dark lord will arise, and terror pass across our skies." Blaise…
"A war will wage, it has begun, for now the two are almost one," Ron…
"Once they're one the world shall know, the power of the two will grow." Lupin…
"Together they have powers strong, this is where the two belong." Blaise…
"Defeat the dark, the two must win. Harry Potter and his Twin." Ron finished, looking at Draco.
"It's not literal of course, it doesn't mean you and Malfoy are related or anything." Lupin hastened to add. "But it does state that you two have some sort of power between the two of you. Something strong enough to defeat Voldemort." He looked at Harry now, who was staring at him.
"And here I was thinking I would have to fight him all on my own, remind me to thank Doctor Seuss for the knowledge that I wont be." Harry looked at Draco and they both looked away as they made eye contact, Lupin scowled at Harry for making fun. "Sorry, but I still don't know anything about this power we apparently possess."
Draco sat up straight and looked at Lupin, he remembered for a moment the static crackle of energy that had passed between himself and Harry when they had shared a rather close moment only the day before. "Are you trying to say that me and Harry are going to work together to defeat Voldemort? Well, I kind of figured that much a while ago, but it was actually prophesised? Wow." He ran his fingers recklessly through his hair and looked at Hermione for a moment. "The only thing I don't understand though," He said, turning back to Blaise and Remus. "Is how exactly do Harry and I become one?" He ventured a look at Harry, who had started turning a very light shade of pink.
"That," Lupin's expression turned glum "is what we are trying to figure out. We can't think of anything unless it means becoming friends, and you've already done that, so what more can there be? We're thinking maybe it's just figurative or something." A few people exchanged glances, including Harry, Draco and Blaise.
"Surely Dumbledore would have some idea." Hermione said, re-joining the conversation. She took Draco's hand. "I mean, he's usually the one who deciphers these prophecies, isn't he?" Lupin nodded.
"Anyway, I believe we're almost there, I'll need to have a quick word with the driver. I'll meet you up in the castle, I believe Albus has dinner waiting." He winked and left the compartment.
"Right, well, I'd best go up with Mum and the others, I'll see you guys up there?" They all nodded as Ron left the compartment and shut the door behind him.
"What about your parents?" Harry asked, looking at the other three in turn.
"I think my parents will have been informed perhaps they're on the train, I wouldn't know, they've no way of contacting me, not to mention I hadn't thought of it, or I would have owled them." Hermione stated, suddenly furrowing her brow in thought.
"I think my mother's already at the school, ever since my father disappeared, she's been vowing she'd fight against him. Lucky for me, my father had no interest in me." Blaise said, looking pitifully at Draco.
"My mother went into hiding a while ago," He started, talking slowly, looking from one expectant face to the other, he realised that Blaise was the only one who really knew what went on at Malfoy Manor. "More from my father than anything else, I think. And my father, well, we all know that besides the fact that nobody cares if he dies anyway, he's where ever Voldemort is." His eyes held a large amount of anger, mixed with what looked like a fair amount of fear as well.
"Speaking of which, we all thought that you would eventually become a Death-Eater, what happened?" Hermione asked, voicing the exact question Harry and Ron were also thinking.
"Ha!" Malfoy gave a fake laugh and suddenly turned serious again. "Do you seriously think I would have joined them? I know I acted like an evil prat, but I seriously never would have considered joining the likes of Voldemort. He's just… Inhumane. Not that my father didn't seriously try. He tried everything from force to bribery. Nothing worked, I wouldn't give in, and eventually the dark lord bade him leave me be. He said I wasn't worth the effort."
"Wow. You really are one of the soppy good guys." Harry said, slapping him on the back. He smiled and started turning slightly red when Harry took a moment longer than necessary to remove his hand.
"Well, do you have any idea what my father put me through?" Draco started. Blaise looked to the floor, he knew. "Beating after ugly beating every summer holidays. The verbal abuse was just as bad. Then there was what he used to do to my mother…" Hermione moved instantly to wrap herself around Draco, he let his head fall onto her chest trying desperately not to cry. He barely managed.
Harry and Blaise exchanged a quick glance before Harry turned to Draco. "I know how it feels." Harry said, moving to sit next to Draco. "My Uncle, the muggles that I live with, they… well, for the first 11 years of my life I lived in the cupboard under the stairs. I probably wouldn't even fit in there now," Harry looked down; he had surely grown a lot since first year. "My cousin, Dudley, used to beat me up, a while back he became a junior champion boxer and his mates and him used to use me as their punching bag…"
Draco hadn't realised that Harry's past had been so bad. He smiled warmly at Harry. Harry smiled back, and for a split second Draco felt the crackle of magic in the air again. Maybe all they had to do was share a mutual feeling. Well, that wouldn't be hard, they both wanted to kill Voldemort, if they were both standing in front of him he was sure they'd both be experiencing feelings of anger and hatred. Perhaps, though, negative feelings just wouldn't cut it, after all, Harry and Draco had been fighting for most of their school life, and the magical energy had never been there before – perhaps they had to both be feeling something strong.
Perhaps they had to both be feeling love.
It made sense now, until Harry and Draco were together, in love and felt that love like a power running through their veins, only then would they be able to defeat Voldemort. He looked at Harry for a moment, before looking at Blaise and then finally letting his gaze rest on Hermione. He didn't want to hurt anyone, but he knew he would have to say something, for unless he gave his heart fully to Harry, and Harry to him, they would lose. Their love would protect each other, just as Harry's mother had protected Harry as a baby. Draco remembered his father complaining about Lily Potter, and what she'd done for her son. He'd have to tell them, and soon, but he decided to wait until after dinner.
They reached Hogwarts later that evening, and as they made their way over to the carriages that would lead them up to school, Harry noticed Draco turn his nose up at the Thestrals, Blaise and Hermione were indifferent as they pulled ahead and climbed into one. "You can see them?" Harry asked, turning to Draco sharply, almost dropping his trunk.
"Of course I can, you think my father let me leave while he tortured innocent muggles at home, I think not." Draco drawled, his hatred for his father seeping out of him like sweat. He clenched his fists and climbed into the carriage next to Hermione. She took a hold of his hand, and he smiled at her.
They sat in silence as they made their way up to the school. None of them felt like speaking, let alone had anything to talk about. When they reached the school and climbed out, the four of them looked up at the castle. Harry wondered what would happen to all the students who had stayed at school for the holidays. He supposed they would be sent down to the dungeons with the rest of them, or sent elsewhere, if not home. He sighed; the school didn't look welcoming. It started to rain and he felt Hermione shiver next to him.
They pushed through the large oak doors and entered the school that they had left only a week or so earlier. The removed their dripping coats and made their way into the Great Hall. There were a hundred or so people gathered in the hall already, but it looked extremely empty, as it did during the Christmas holidays, but now even less so with it's lack of decorations and elaborate Christmas trees.
They noticed that almost all of the professors were present, including Hagrid. Hermione and Harry also recognised several members of the Order milling about. They smiled widely as Tonks passed them and waved. It didn't take them long to find Dumbledore. He was talking quietly with Lupin in the far corner of the hall, his expression looking rather grim. Harry was too busy paying any attention to them to notice the large black dog bounding up to him, and didn't until the dog had knocked him over and started liking his face wildly. Harry managed to shove him off before he knelt down next to him and threw his arms around the large dog's neck.
Next minute, Harry was kneeling on the floor of the Great Hall, wrapped in the embrace of his Godfather. "It's so good to see you, Harry. How've you been?" Sirius said, releasing Harry enough to look at his face, he rans his hands over Harry's hair adoringly, before letting him go and standing up.
"I'm fine, it's good to see you too." Harry stood also and then turned to his friends. "Sirius, this is Draco and Blaise." Sirius politely extended his hand and shook both of the Slytherin's. The five of them then took a seat as the food appeared and Sirius brought them up to speed about what had been happening over the last week.
"Snape found out, actually." He said when Draco had asked who it was that was spying at the time they'd found out. He knew there were several double agents working for Voldemort. Harry looked impressed and snuck a glance over at the potions professor who was currently talking heatedly with Remus; it looked like they weren't agreeing on something. "Anyways, I hear Remus told you about the prophecy. How's that going?"
"Not very well, but you are looking at four brand new Animagi." Hermione said proudly. "Remus gave us your book." She added at Sirius's questioning look, he smiled and nodded as she explained.
"You'll have to show me later." He smiled and they all nodded.
"Anyways, about the prophecy, we still aren't really sure about what it means when it says – "
"Actually, Harry, I think I've figured that out, I need to speak to you guys about it after dinner." Draco interrupted. Sirius smiled.
"Look, I need to go and have a word with Dumbledore, I'll leave you four to it, ok?" Sirius smiled before standing up and leaving the table, Harry watched him leave. They all turned to face Draco.
"I think we should leave the hall, I'm sure we're sharing a dorm." Draco had been right, the four of them were sharing a dorm in Gryffindor tower, seeing as everyone knew they would just sneak out to visit each other anyway. They made their way up to the room where their trunks had already been laid by the beds.
"So Draco, what's up?" Blaise asked, Draco's expression fell and he suddenly looked like he was going to be sick. He looked at Blaise, then Hermione.
"I'm so sorry, but…"
Mwahaha. A cliffhanger. And a horrible one at that. I don't think I've mentioned what year they're in, if I have tell me. Anyways, I wanted Sirius to be alive in my story, only because I love him so much and I couldn't afford to have Harry be too upset. Well, that's chapter 7, hopefully I'll be able to get chapter 8 up soon.
Cheers and please Review.
Sami.
Miaow.