Disclaimer- I don't own Harry Potter..
Chapter 9 The Grudge
Harry's day seemed to be normal enough when he woke up to the sound of Ron, Dean, Seamus, and Neville's snoring, with a soft glimmer of sunlight peeking through the crimson curtains curiously.
Normal, of course, in the terms of Harry Potter, often includes things most people don't see in their darkest nightmares or most hectic days.
Harry groaned when he tried to get up, the aching weariness of sleep not leaving him, as did the desire to not go through the rest of the day. Compared to having to run the gauntlet of curious, expectant, and downright hostile eyes, Malfoy's mocking, Snape's taunts, added into the overwhelming guilt from Sirius and Cedric's death, and the Prophecy that loomed like a knife over his head, missing a few classes by sleeping in seemed nice.
But Harry was a Gryffindor, and as such, foolishly headstrong at times, and decided to face the day. He was no coward, who would hide away from his problems, he would face them head on.
Generally speaking, those kinds of tactics end up with the person executing them dead or grievously injured, but that was just how Harry was.
Luckily for him, one of his problems had been removed, albeit a bit more permanently than Harry had ever wanted, but a whole slew of problems was about to pop up.
It was about mid-breakfast when the first of his problems came up. Pansy Parkinson, flanked by Crabbe and Goyle, unusually enough, came right up to him, glaring at him. "What'd you do to him!" Pansy demanded shrilly, causing Harry to wince at her high pitched tone.
"What?" Harry asked, narrowing his eyes and raising an eyebrow.
"What. Did. You. Do. To. Draco!" Pansy shrieked accusingly, grabbing Harry's robes and shaking him.
At this point, several DA members had made their way over, and surrounded them. "Let him go." Ernie Macmillan ordered firmly.
Although Crabbe and Goyle were at the bottom rung of the gene pool, even they knew that this was a fight they could not win, so they backed off. Unfortunately, the nigh hysterical Pansy would not be deterred.
"What the bloody hell are you on about?" Harry shouted.
"I know you did something to Draco!" Pansy shrieked again, pulling her wand out to curse him when a timely Stunner from Ron sent her crashing into the floor.
"Thanks Ron." Harry said wearily, as the teachers came up.
"What is the meaning of this?" McGonagall asked, her lips thin as ever and her eyes narrowed dangerously.
"Pansy was about to attack Harry!" Seamus protested.
"Yeah, she came up to him and kept shaking him and demanding to know where that ba- Malfoy was." Ron said, correcting himself just in time as McGonagall's lips thinned out even more.
"Well, it is true that Mister Malfoy is missing." Snape cut in smoothly, glaring at Harry with his black eyes. "And Mister Potter did have detention that night as well as Mister Malfoy. So Potter? What did you do?"
"I didn't do anything." Harry hissed, trying to use his death glare to kill Snape, but unfortunately, it didn't work.
"Innocent until proven guilty, Severus." Dumbledore reminded him, coming up behind them.
"Of course Headmaster. Until proven guilty." Snape looked at Harry very dangerously with that last comment, before adding gleefully, "Your detention tonight is with me Potter."
Something told Harry that Snape wasn't about to rest when trying to implicate Harry for Malfoy's disappearance. "Bad luck there mate." Ron muttered, patting his shoulder. "Come on, let's get on to Charms before Hermione starts up again."
Harry only nodded numbly, at once thankful that he didn't have Potions till tommorrow and dreading having to face Snape that night, feeling that tonight was going to be one very painful night.
And it would be, for more than one person.
Earlier that morning, a meeting was taking place. A meeting that would have critical consequences on the days, the months to follow.
"I am telling you Headmaster, that boy is the reason that there have been so many mysterious disappearances lately!" Severus Snape shouted, but it was muffled within the Headmaster's silenced office.
"Severus, I cannot believe that Harry Potter would ever kill Draco Malfoy. Perhaps the other way around of course..." Minerva McGonagall trailed off pointedly.
"You just hate Harry, and so you want to believe the worst about him!" Nymphadora Tonks protested.
"Enough." Albus Dumbledore's words cut through the tension like a knife, and he eased back into his chair, tired. "Severus, while I admit that it is troubling that so many people whom have wrong Mister Potter have disappeared, I hardly think Harry had the ability to go after that many people."
"There's no other explanation, Headmaster!" Snape interrupted, "Five disappearances, all of them right after that same person has done something to Potter? The evidence all leads up to him!"
"The evidence is all circumstantial!" Tonks protested again, using all her knowledge as an Auror to keep Snape from implicating Harry. From what she had seen, the boy would never do that. "Harry Potter kill five people? Ridiculous!"
"Oh really?" Snape sneered. "Well he seemed quite content to use the Cruciatus on Bellatrix."
The two women paled, and Dumbledore's eyes blazed.
"Severus!" Dumbledore interrupted sharply.
"Sorry, Headmaster." Snape said, bowing his head slightly in apology. "But you must let me interrogate the boy."
Dumbledore knew Severus Snape never gave up on an idea once he got it into his head easily, and sighed. "Very well."
Later that night, Harry grudgingly, no, was commanded to by Hermione, to go to detention with Snape. Despite his protests that one of them would kill the other at this rate (although Hermione, Ginny, and Ron gave him a strange look at this), and that Snape was liable to torture him for information, it was to no avail, and he found himself walking out of Gryffindor Tower.
As soon as he left, Hermione took Ginny and Ron to a secluded corner of Gryffindor Tower, much to Dean's chagrin at being separated from his girlfriend and thankful that Ron was not glaring at him dangerously anymore.
"What Hermione?" Ron asked in annoyance at being pulled so forcibly.
"I'm not trying to implicate Harry, but don't you think its a little strange that anyone who has done anything wrong to Harry over this past few weeks has gone missing?" Hermione bit her lip worriedly, looking torn between guilt at her 'betrayal' and concern over her friend.
"Hermione! You can't be serious! How could Harry do all those things!" Ron said in outrage, standing up quickly, but his little sister and best friend pulled him down, back into his seat.
"Ron! Not so loud!" Hermione whispered fiercely.
"Look Hermione, Harry wouldn't do that-" Ron began to argue, but Ginny cut in with a low, fearful whisper.
"He could if he was being possessed. At St. Mungo's he sounded... different, angrier, scarier at one point." Ginny closed her eyes, horrified at the thought of anyone possessing Harry, much less Tom.
"You-Know-Who?" Ron whispered in terror.
Ginny nodded, not opening her eyes. Hermione stood up, knowing that there was only one course of action to take. "We need to see Professor Dumbledore then. Now."
Harry stepped into the dungeons, feeling like he was being marched down death row for some odd reason. Then again, this was Snape.
"Come in Mister Potter, and have a seat," Snape said smoothly, waving his hand at a seat in front of his desk, almost... politely?
Harry blinked once in consternation, before doing as Snape commanded, lest this strange mood be broken. Little did he know, Snape had learned interrogation techniques from the best, namely Lord Voldemort. Although the Dark Lord preferred torture, there were times when you could hear Lord Voldemort talking smoothly and politely, to convince friend or foe to join him, to talk.
And since Snape could not torture the brat, this would have to do. Besides, he thought to himself, fingering the tiny vial in his pocket, Veritaserum loosens all tongues.
"Um... Professor Snape sir, what will I be doing?" Harry asked once he was seated, looking around for a dirty cauldron to clean or some sulfur mines that Snape would be forcing him to work in.
Snape smirked evilly, and, with incredible speed, he whipped his wand out and flicked it, ropes tying Harry to the chair, much like those in the Ministry courtrooms.
"What the hell are you doing?" Harry demanded angrily, but Snape ignored him, and flicked his wand at the door, shutting it with a click. Grabbing the Veritaserum vial in his pocket, he opened the stopper and forced Harry's mouth open, and was about to pour the clear liquid in, and finally get the truth.
Unfortunately for Severus Snape, it was not to be. As soon as Snape had tied him to the chair, outrage and fury began pouring through his veins, and once Snape revealed he was going to use Veritaserum, it set Harry off. Or rather, waked the monster within.
Suddenly, Snape was blasted back by a compressed blast of air, sending him flying into the wall quite painfully, dropping the Veritaserum on the ground, where it rolled away.
The ropes holding Harry snapped as he stood up, a titan rising from his throne to smite the heretic that dared defy him. The air around him began to darken, before the entire classroom was covered in darkness. The air around him began to twist malevolently, violently, and his eyes darkened till they became midnight black.
"Now that wasn't very nice." Dark Harry admonished, much like a parent scolds a naughty child.
"Now what should I do to punish you Snapey?" Dark Harry said, smirking at the outrage on the Potion Master's face as he heard the childish nickname. "Oh," He said in mock amazement, "You don't like Snapey? How about Snivellus?"
Now that name set Severus Snape off, and he stood up, and angrily yelled, "Stupefy!"
The Stunner slashed through the air, and struck the demon head on. It had the same effect that throwing a rock at a charging crash of rhinos would do. It simply annoyed him.
"Don't like Snivellus?" The demon asked faux concernedly, "Does it bring back bad memories? Well, we all have to face our past sometime. Lets see you face yours."
Snape's eyes widened at the realization at what was about to happen, and was about to fire another spell when darkness surrounded him.
Memories began flashing through his head, lasting for a moment and yet an eternity. His drunken father beating him. James Potter hanging him upside down after the DADA O.W.L. Nearly getting killed by Lupin the werewolf. Voldemort torturing him, one of many times. Becoming shunned by people as a Death Eater, forced to come work with Dumbledore, his talents overlooked by prejudice.
The terrifying, menacing Potions Professor Severus Snape was brought to his knees by his own memories, collapsing then to the floor and shaking with terror as his life began flashing through his mind again and again, the worst parts of it.
And Severus Snape had a lifetime or two of bad memories.
Dark Harry stood above the Potions Master, smiling with vindictive pleasure. The old prick thought he could force me to reveal myself? Not a chance. No one will stand in my way.
Unfortunately, most major movie villains also say these words, and someone always does in fact, stand in their way. Such is the case tonight.
Suddenly, the door burst open, and Albus Dumbledore, Minerva McGonagall, Tonks, Ginny, Ron, and Hermione charged into the room, stopping dead in their tracks and staring at the demonic apparition.
Thanks to Harrie, Gyre, Lunatic Pandora1, CharmedMilliE, Night-Owl123, dan, jeff, Maxennce, Saetan, Lady of Masbolle, blade, Szihuoko, FroBoy, harrysmom, Cattatra, DoomIceGaze, japanese-jew, LOSL, Discombobulatedperson, Jews Will Rule The World, jbfritz, VFPC, Stryder, Shaldana Blackwater, My Lil' Angel, Silver Butterfly04, Wren Truesong, lucas13, Shadowed Rains, A-man, Emma Barrows, Akalon, mashimaromadness, dead feather, Hidden Shadows, and Lady Urquentha for reviewing!
Q&A
Maxennce- It appears you are correct.
Saetan- His core. That's why it was so painful.
Lady of Masbolle- Does the demon come out only in private? Or perhaps there is something else... Dean will definitely help bring out Dark Harry... but not in the way you expect. Finally, Dark Harry actually did do what the guy in Angels and Demons did. He pierced Malfoy's lungs. I wrote that without thinking.
Szihuoko- Nice guess. No werewolves though.
harrysmom- He's more than Harry's anger. As for taking people's souls, that's a critical clue I've given up. Finally, I did say Harry would never kill a friend, didn't I?
Cattatra- Looks like they already did...
DoomIceGaze- Harry got out earlier than Malfoy.
Discombobulatedperson- Yes. Yes I do.
Stryder- Neither do I, neither do I.
Wren Truesong- It was. Was this inevitable too? Anyways, lots of people have been wondering when everyone will get a hint. Now they have. And yes, he does eat souls. They're quite tasty.
lucas13- That's alright if you don't like H/G fics. There's not going to be that much of it, but it is critical. Harry and Ginny are the most important people to the plot.
mashimaromadness- You have good instincts.
dead feather- Soon, perhaps, perhaps are my answers to each question respectively.
Lady Urquentha- Perhaps.
AN: A lot of people wanted Malfoy to live as a squib... but chances are he would have squealed on Dark Harry. (Little wanker.) Well. That was fun! Thanks for reading and please review!