Characters © J.K. Rowling.
Plot © Sami-Lee 2004.
"But what, Draco?" Hermione asked worriedly. Draco had completely paled; he looked at Hermione.
"There's no easy way for me to say this." He said. "So I'm just going to say it – I'm in love with Harry. And Harry's in love with me. I'm so, so sorry, I didn't want to hurt either of you, I just –" Hermione placed her hand on his which had been sitting on the bed beside him.
"Before you explain, I want you to know something. On the train this morning, while you and Blaise were gone and Ron came in, I… well, I realised I'm still in love with him, I mean, I'm in love with both of you." Hermione looked down sadly. Well, that made his breaking up with Hermione easier, but it didn't help with Blaise. Draco looked at him. Blaise looked back, then he nodded.
"Don't worry, Draco, I understand." Blaise said sadly, tears already glistening in his eyes, but he didn't leave, he didn't get up and walk away.
"It's hard." Draco continued. "But I realised what the prophecy meant when it said Harry and I need to become one – we need to connect in such a way that our power is not really magic, just the one thing strong enough to defeat hatred – love. It is love that creates the magical energy strong enough to defeat lord Voldemort, strong enough to protect us from the scum he is. " He paused and took a breath. "Unless I give my heart fully to Harry, and Harry to me, we will lose." He stated, looking at Harry.
Harry stared at him for a moment. "I need to think about it." He stated, almost unemotionally. Draco managed to look even sadder and nodded. Completely ignoring Dumbledore's orders to not leave the dorms, Harry got up and walked down to the portrait hole, climbing out gingerly. He decided to go and see Sirius. He took a step forward and realised he hadn't brought his cloak. 'Dammit.' He thought to himself, before muttering it again aloud when he remembered he had an even better way of sneaking around.
The Black Leopard made it's way almost invisibly through the shadows and back toward the great hall, he had no idea how he was going to get Sirius's attention until he spotted Remus and a large black dog bounding along beside him heading in the direction from which Harry had just come. He slipped out of the shadows and started padding along beside Padfoot. The dog stopped and turned to look at the cat. The cat seemed to shrug. The cat was slightly bigger than the dog, but all the same, the dog pounced at the cat and the two sprawled over the floor, rolling in every direction.
"Harry?" Asked Lupin almost unbelievably, "Is that you? Brilliant!" He exclaimed as Harry padded over and licked Lupin's hand. Before Lupin had finished his comment Sirius was standing beside him.
"Harry, that's marvellous!" He exclaimed, as Harry was once again standing in place of the Leopard. He smiled as Sirius ruffled his hair. "What're you doing out and about at this time of night, anyways? Dumbledore strictly told you to stay in your dormitory." Sirius questioned. Harry's expression fell a little, and Sirius placed a warm hand on his shoulder. "What's wrong, Harry?"
Harry looked up at Sirius before looking back at the floor and speaking. "I don't know, nothing really, well, Draco's figured out how to defeat the Dark Lord, I mean, he has a theory, but it makes a lot of damn sense – only it means…" He paused, he could trust them. "It means I have to break up with Blaise. It means I have to be with Draco, not that I don't want to be, my god, I've wanted it since forever! But now that I have the opportunity to be… now that I'm with Blaise… " He sighed. "It's just too complicated. I don't want to hurt Blaise, but if I don't, we're likely to fail in defeating Voldemort."
Lupin looked at Harry sympathetically. "Harry." Harry looked at Lupin; he could see Harry was struggling to hold back tears. "What does your heart tell you?" Harry scrunched his nose up and his eyes shut for a moment, and a couple of tears fell to the floor. He looked back up at Remus and Sirius.
"Draco."
The large black cat that now stood where Harry had been standing put his large paws on Remus's shoulders and licked his face, Lupin laughed and then bade Harry go and sort everything out. Harry said goodbye to Sirius as well, who had turned back into a large dog, and then ran back into the shadowy corridors and headed for Gryffindor tower.
Harry appeared before the fat lady, giving her quite a scare. She let him through, mumbling about irresponsible students. Harry ran into the common room and up the stairs, taking two at a time before bursting through the door of the dormitory. Harry stood, breathlessly at the door, before he could say anything; Blaise stood up and walked over to him.
He unfastened a chain from around his neck, Harry recognised it as the one his mother had given him before she'd gone all strange and started disappearing regularly. Harry's features scrunched up momentarily. "No, Blaise. I can't take that from you. I can't! It's yours!" He was almost in hysterics; it was proving to be too much for him. But he refused to run. He looked at Blaise, shock spreading over his face as the smaller boy walked over and, without hesitation, fastened the necklace around Harry's neck.
The entwined snake and lion gleamed up at him. It was beautiful. "Thank you." He managed, moving to kiss Blaise lightly on the nose; he blushed and smiled, trying to hold back his tears. Harry wrapped his arms around him and the two boys held on to each other for a long while.
"It'll keep you safe, at least, a little bit more safe than if you didn't have it, and I've charmed it so that if you need help, all you have to do is rub it, and we'll know. Hermione helped." He blushed a little; Harry squeezed him tightly for a moment.
Draco watched them, suddenly not feeling so guilty, which in turn made him feel even more guilty. He wondered where Harry had run off to, and what had happened to make him return so flustered. He didn't voice his question, but instead looked up in surprise as Harry walked over to Draco and, cupping his face with one of his hands looked into his eyes. He seemed to be searching for something, only Draco had no idea what. He looked back at Harry, completely unaware that Harry had found exactly what he was looking for the in the light blue eyes. Draco watched Harry turn and walk over to the bathroom; he entered and closed the door behind him.
Draco felt horrible; he lay back on his bed and stared at the red and gold canopy above him. It felt odd, to be lying on his back in a four-poster bed surrounded by red and gold instead of green and silver. He sighed loudly, before rolling over and attempting to sleep.
The next morning everyone assembled in the Great Hall. Harry and Hermione greeted Mrs Weasley merrily, as they sat down at the Gryffindor table. Dumbledore stood before them, not at the staff table, but just on the floor in front of the four house tables.
"Good morning everyone." He beamed, his voice a little quiet. "Those of you who will be accompanying myself and professors McGonogall and Snape to headquarters – you know who you are - will kindly stay behind in the hall. Everyone else, would you please be kind enough to follow professor Flitwick down to the Slytherin common room where you will be staying for the next few days. I apologise for any inconvenience, but some of you need to be kept safer than you realise." He nodded and everyone who didn't know what Dumbledore was talking about exited the hall behind professor Flitwick.
Harry looked at Blaise and Hermione. "I assume you two are supposed to be coming?" He asked them raising an eyebrow. Hermione threw a scrunched up napkin at his head and Blaise hit him himself.
"Are you kidding? There's no way on the planet you and Dray are going without us!" Blaise said, insulted. Hermione nodded and crossed her arms.
" Good." Said Draco, leaning in and joining the conversation. "After all, what would me and Harry be with the other two smartest students in Hogwarts?" He smirked, that famous smirk, and Harry almost melted next to him. Now that it was actually happening, he didn't know what he would do. Though he still felt bad about having to break it off with Blaise, he felt a lot better knowing that Blaise understood and supported him. He ran his hand unceremoniously through his hair.
"I don't think you could get it any messier, you know." Draco jeered. Harry turned to find him watching him and froze for a moment. Then he loosened up and smiled, shaking his head. He sighed before turning back to try and find Sirius and Remus. He spotted them walking over to them.
"We're catching the train back to Kings Cross station, we'll arrive this evening. Now, you know, Harry and Hermione, that it's only a short walk from the station to Headquarters, do you think you can remember the way?" Lupin was talking quickly, they both nodded. "Ok, good, you can pair off, if possible. Now, it should be dark when we get there, which always makes sneaking easier, thank goodness, but if you can manage it, I'd urge you to make your way to headquarters in your Animagi forms. Sound fair enough? We'll deal with your trunks, Most of us will be apparating from Kings Cross, Sirius will accompany you to HQ. Right, see you on the train then."
Harry felt very confused, sitting on the train heading back to Kings Cross Station, only a day after having caught it to Hogwarts. His mind was having trouble coming to terms with everything that had happened the last few days. He sat in the compartment with Hermione, Ron, Draco, Blaise and Ginny.
"I made that potion." Ron said suddenly. "My Animagi form is a fox." He beamed and Hermione's head looked like it was going to snap she turned it so fast to face him. He looked at her strangely for a moment.
"Are you serious?" Hermione asked him, looking into his eyes as if searching for some trace of a lie. She didn't find it as Ron nodded and produced a sheet of parchment with a picture of a red fox looking curiously up at them. "Oh my goodness. I mean… Wow." Hermione stared down at the paper in awe.
"What? What's wrong?" Ron asked uneasily. He was watching Hermione, her eyes had opened wide, and she looked at the parchment in shock.
"I'm… a fox… too." She said quietly. She looked up into Ron's eyes. His expression was blank for a moment until he saw Hermione's lips curl up into a smile, then he let his own face show how he felt – he was ecstatic.
"So, what does that mean?" He asked, looking at Hermione hopefully.
"Basically, it means we're soul mates." Hermione said, looking once more into Ron's eyes. He smiled widely and pulled her into a tight embrace, which she obligingly returned.
"Whish I had a little ferret friend to play with." Draco said semi-sarcastically, watching Hermione and Ron and remembering that Harry and Blaise were both Leopards. Hermione's head shot up and she let go of Ron, turning to face Draco.
"My gosh, how stupid of me." She said, looking utterly stupefied, "I forgot to tell you about what Ron and I read last night while we were going over the book." She looked at Harry, then Draco, then back to Harry. "It was looking for something in the index, and I noticed something while I was flicking through – there's a section for advanced wizards. It says, that if the Animagus potion is brewed twice, an average wizard would produce the same picture, basically for the rest of his or her life, every time they try, the animal will be the same. But if a more advanced wizard tries again, if their power is strong enough, if it runs strongly enough through their veins – they can have two forms."
Draco's eyes looked as though they had doubled in size. Harry's expression looked as though every Christmas and Birthday he'd ever missed had all come at once. She giggled at the site of them. Harry composed himself first. "Do you think we're powerful enough?"
"Harry," Hermione said, as though he'd asked who Dumbledore was, "You are the most powerful wizards in the world! I certainly think you'll be strong enough."
"Right then, get the ingredients out, enough for two potions worth." Draco looked at Hermione; she looked back at him, her eyes questioning him momentarily. "I'm not kidding, woman!" She jumped and turned instantly to her trunk, opening it and pulling out a dozen or so assorted ingredients. Ginny and Blaise offered to help cut every up, Ron pulled the book out and opened it to page XII.
An hour and a half later, Ginny was scrambling to pull 2 large sheets of parchment out of her trunk and spread them neatly on the floor of the compartment, which now looked like the potions room after a first year class. Hermione sighed at the mess then turned her attention back to Harry and Draco, who each had a beaker in their hands. "Count of three?" Harry asked, looking nervously at Draco. The blonde boy nodded. "Ok, one… two… three." The two boys tilted their wrists and let the liquid flow down onto the parchment.
As soon as they touched the parchment, the two blobs formed a similar shape and started spinning, mirroring each other. Harry and Draco, who were both kneeling on the floor over the parchment, looked at each other. As they looked down at the parchment, they noticed along with everyone else, that the blobs had both turned silver, before one started to glow lighter and one slightly darker. They stopped spinning and started spreading themselves out, as though one were in front of a mirror and they were watching the one.
All thoughts were confirmed as the blobs turned into shapes, which turned into two almost identical pictures of wolves. Standing proud, looking out over a forest. In fact, Hermione pointed out, if you put the two pictures side by side, they formed one picture, of the two wolves standing together, looking out over the night. The only things that differed between them were the slight difference in the colour of their fur, and the eyes. One had light, sad, ocean blue eyes; the other had bright, defiant green.
The six people in the compartment stared in awe at the pictures for a long while. The carriage bumping along the tracks, indifferent to what had just happened inside it. Ginny was the first to move, she got up and went to her trunk, then she pulled out a nail file and came back over to the group. Without saying anything, she sat next to the two remaining beakers of potion, and pulled a necklace out from under her shirt. The others saw a claw and the end, which Ron recognised as the one Bill had given her a little while ago. Everything suddenly clicked into place. She filed the claw down with the nail file, letting the powder fall into each of the beakers. Then she stood back and looked at Harry and Draco.
They looked at the beakers a little comprehensively. So they were soul mates after all. They were exactly the same. Well, almost. Draco felt a shiver go down his spine. This is what he'd always wanted. He looked at Harry, who nodded and picked up one of the beakers. Draco did the same. Was he ready for this? Of course he was. Was he ready to face Voldemort? Of that, Draco wasn't so sure. He wasn't even sure if Harry was ready this time.
With one more glance at the four faces watching them, Harry and Draco lifted the beakers to their mouths and drank it. For a moment they looked like they were going to be ill, and Ron was reminded of the time that he, Hermione and Harry had taken the polyjuice potion in their second year. A few moments later, they were both sitting on the floor, looking a lot less pale.
"Are…" Ginny started quietly, "Are you gonna try it?" She looked expectantly from one to the other.
Harry and Draco closed their eyes. Harry imagined himself running through the forest, the wind whipping his face, the ground crunching under his swift feet. Draco imagined himself standing, proud, watching over the forest, the moon in the sky above him, the breeze whistling through his fur. Harry thought about all the different scents of the forest. Draco picked them up too, the pine, the freshly fallen decaying leaves, the smell of coming rain.
As they opened their eyes, they saw that everyone in front of them was staring, unbelievingly, at two fully-grown wolves sitting before them. It looked like Hermione and Ginny had even stopped breathing. Draco moved first, getting up and moving over the where the two girls sat, he liked each of their noses and Ginny threw her arms around his neck suddenly, scaring him. He yelped and Harry seemed to jeer. Hermione leaned over to where Harry was still sitting and gently stroked his neck; she couldn't believe how soft he was. He moved to a more comfortable position and let Hermione scratch him behind the ears.
At that moment Lupin came back into the compartment. He looked at Ginny and the wolf, at Hermione and the other wolf, then at the empty seat where Harry and Draco had been sitting when he left. "Wait a second… Harry's Animagi form is a Leopard, right?" He looked again at the two wolves, and then did a double take as Harry and Draco re-appeared.
"Yea, and my form is a ferret, believe it or not." Draco scowled for a moment. "But it seems that we have two forms…"
Lupin stared at him, slightly bewildered. "Yes, it certainly seems that way, and you're almost identical – well, that makes sense doesn't it! The prophecy – 'Harry Potter and his Twin.' Now it makes a lot more sense! But… wow, you're soul mates. I've only witnessed that once before." He said, looking from the blonde-haired boy to the raven-haired one. "And that was James and Lily."
"That was… what?!" Harry asked, startled at his mothers name being mentioned. He had, obviously, known that his father was an Animagus and that his form was a stag, but he hadn't known his mother had been one.
"After we left school and joined the original order, James talked Lily into learning the art of becoming an Animagi, naturally, she got it first go. And she was a doe. A female deer. They were definitely soul mates." Remus said, staring at nothing in particular, daydreaming, no doubt, about their school days together.
Harry stood up and moved over to place his hand reassuringly on Lupin's shoulder. Lupin looked up and thanked him silently. Harry smiled back. "But how do you both have two forms?"
"Well, in the very back of the book, it says that if an average wizard were to make the potion again, then it would simply produce another picture of the same animal, and would do so their entire life. But a stronger wizard – well, the second time they try the potion, if they're strong enough, it shows their second animal. We thought we'd try it and see what happened. And, well, you saw." Harry stammered quickly, as though he was still trying to figure out what to make of the whole thing. He looked at Lupin, who didn't say anything for a while.
"Well, I guess you two really are strong than the average wizard." He managed, then stood and turned to leave. "Do you want to tell Sirius about this, or should I?"
"I'll tell Sirius, you can tell Dumbledore and the others." Harry said, shakily, standing to follow Remus out of the compartment. Once the two had left, Draco couldn't contain himself any longer.
"Wow! I mean… just… wow! Did you see that?! We're the same, I mean, wow, that was so awesome… that was… " He stopped when he noticed the other four looking at him strangely. "What?"
"Nothing." Hermione said, breaking into a smile. "Nothing at all, we're so proud of you!" She exclaimed, throwing her arms around his neck and kissing his cheek softly. He smiled warmly at her and squeezed her close to him for a moment.
"I'm so sorry about everything, Hermione. How can I make it up to you?" He smiled down at her, his arms still around her waist, ignoring Ron who was trying hard not to fume behind him.
Hermione's lips curled into a mischievous smirk. "When this is all over, you can buy me dinner." She smiled and he kissed her head. Hermione however, could not ignore Ron. "Purely as friends, of course." She giggles.
"Of course." Draco replied, then he let her go over and settle in Ron's lap, settling himself on the seat opposite them and thinking about Harry. He couldn't believe his luck. After all their years of fighting, all the times he'd called Harry a bigheaded idiot show-off, he turned out to be the Boy-Who-Lived's sidekick. Not Ron, Not Hermione, him. He looked over at his four friends, sitting in the compartment with him and smiled, it looked like his life was finally starting to go right, or was it…?