Disclaimer: Harry Potter and all characters, places et al. are owned by J.K. Rowling
A/N: another one, the end is drawing slowly nearer... :)
Chapter 19
Harry raced down the stairs as fast as he could. He basically flew through corridors, slamming other students coming home from their Hogsmeade weekend out of his way, ignoring their shouts and insults. He didn't care. His mind was so fixated on Draco and this letter; he didn't actually see Professor Snape as he ran into him at full speed.
"Potter!" Snape hissed. "Bloody look before you run around like a headless chicken in school corridors."
Harry shook his head and looked over Snape's shoulder. He was right in front of the main gate – and he had to get through it.
"I'm sorry, Professor," Harry managed to say with an almost normal voice. "I forgot something in Hogsmeade, I wanted to get it," he lied. And from the sneer that appeared on Snape's face, he knew it, too.
"For someone who's supposedly too ill to go to Hogsmeade, this must be a miracle." He looked Harry into the eyes. "Don't lie to me, Potter."
"I just need to get out, Professor," he said, fighting the rising anger inside him.
"It's too late anyways, Potter," he answered him. "I'm just waiting for the last students to return. No new students out. Simple, isn't it? One would suspect you'd read the school rules…"
"I must get out!" Harry hissed through clenched teeth.
"No, Potter!" Snape raised his voice. "And now go, before I decide to report this to the Headmaster. Don't make me test my patience even further."
Harry stood there, shivering with anger. But he couldn't attack Snape. He didn't care about being kicked out of school for it, but the Headmaster and all the other teachers would be after him. Not the best way to get quickly out of the school. He could tell him, Harry knew that somewhere inside him; but it would also reveal things he didn't want to be revealed, especially not to Snape of all persons.
"Yeah," he finally said, "I'll go."
Harry turned around and raced into the main castle again. He still knew alternative known ways out of the school.
Then he stopped dead in his tracks and smacked himself. He didn't have to use any doors or secret passages. Not now, with his newfound abilities. He chided himself that he had forgotten. But when he read that letter, the implication it meant sunk in, he sort of lost it; he had acted on reflexes, old reflexes, and had just run.
Now he breathed heavily and quickly lost himself into an empty corridor. He looked behind him and around, before he drew the shadows closer.
He stepped out of the shadows right inside the Shrieking Shack in a dark corner. He was about to look around when he heard someone scream. Not someone, he corrected himself. Draco!
He took his wand and rushed to the source of the scream. It seemed to come from upstairs, in some of the rooms. He turned around a corner where he thought he heard Draco scream, when –
"Incarcerous!" He heard a shrill voice shout from behind him. Before he could turn around, he was hit by thick chains that quickly wrapped around him, immobilising him completely. Harry tried to stand, but soon was toppled by the massive weight of the chains.
He felt himself lifted in the air and float across the corridor. When the hovering spell ended, he fell down hard on the floor. He felt something besides him and turned his head as good as he could. There was Draco, barely conscious.
"Harry…" he whispered.
"Well, well, well," an arrogant voice pierced through his anger and shock. "Patience actually pays off." He managed to turn his head in the direction of the voice and there she was, in all her magnificent glory – Bellatrix Lestrange. She was still gaunt, but not quite as much as last time. And she smiled, very coldly.
"Welcome to this little meeting," she continued conversationally. Harry tried to get himself free, even tried to call to the shadows, but for some strange reason he couldn't. He felt them, alright, but whenever he tried to touch, to feel them, they shrunk back. Just as if they were alive. Waiting for something. Judging him.
"Potter, I don't think wiggling will get you free." His concentration was torn back to Bellatrix as she chuckled. "You know, the Dark Lord will be quite happy when I bring him not only the traitor's son, but also his lover," she spat on the ground, "Harry Potter."
"I will kill you!" Harry shouted.
"Oh, I really doubt it." She pointed her wand at him. "Crucio!" she said almost playfully.
The pain was unbearable. It raced through his body, tearing, ripping at it. His body spasmed, or at least tried to, as he couldn't move inside his chains.
"But before we go to the Dark Lord, I will play a little with you. And you know how good I'm at this…" She laughed. And he was again hit by this intense pain. This time, though, something inside him, deep, deep down, started moving, slowly, very slowly.
"It was all too easy," she smiled at him. "Of course, my real target was this scum," she pointed at Draco, "but then I learned of this relationship with you, Potter. And I thought to myself, 'you could use that, Bella'. And I did.
"I don't know where you went today, Potter, but I will find out, of course. My contacts in the school told me that the Malfoy boy was alone and you were 'ill'. But for someone ill, you were neither to be found in the hospital wing, or in your room." She laughed as Harry's eyebrows shot up. "You really should close your windows to your little love nest. An oversight, I'm sure. Then I just had to write that little letter in your handwriting and have it sent to Malfoy. Quite easy, when you have someone on the inside. Then the scum came, and I waited. And you came even quicker than I had hoped. A little gamble once in a while is really worth it.
"And when you came, you were too stupid or too preoccupied with your fears for your little loved one that you walked right into it." She laughed again. "How easily ran into the trap…" she shook her head. And such a simple one. Just a few manipulations and the sounds were coming from somewhere else. Anyway, where was I?" She cleared her throat. "Oh, yes. Crucio!"
He tried to, he really did. But he couldn't stop himself. He screamed at the top of his lungs. The feeling inside him grew stronger, slowly, slowly.
"Now, tell me," Bellatrix asked him suavely, "where have you been? And what happened to Erad, hm? The poor Lieutenant's notes weren't all that clear."
Harry said nothing and just stared at her.
"The heroic type, aren't you?"
He readied himself for new pain, but this time it wasn't him to scream. It was Draco. He seemed to be weak, very weak and his scream was only a shallow shadow of a scream.
Harry's vision blurred as darkness waved through it. Deep within him, a powerful feeling crawled out of its cage, creeping ever so slowly.
"He seems a little weak, isn't he?" Another scream of agony. "The Longbottoms took some more before they broke."
And Draco cried again, weaker. And another one.
"Harry, help me…" he managed to whisper before he was cut short by another agonising attack.
The thing inside him moved quicker, close to the surface of his consciousness, ripping at his mind.
"Harry!" Draco cried out with the last fervour he had in him.
It had been enough for Harry. He felt himself give in to whatever was inside him. The barriers crumbled and this…something took control. Had Bellatrix watched him, she would have been shocked. As it is, she watched Draco twist in agony, laughing at his love.
With a shriek so strange, so otherworldly, Harry's whole body transformed, morphed. It seemed to darken from within, to wither. Claws of shadowy darkness formed, his face became a mask feral rage, shot through with darkness.
His new body flowed through the chains as if they were nothing. His hand struck Bellatrix's chest from the side and his hand wasn't stopped by it. It flowed through her chest until he found what he was looking for. His hand pressed down on her heart, crushing it. With a terrible scream, far worse than anything he heard before, she crumbled to the ground.
But Harry didn't stop. Couldn't stop. With a feral scream he launched himself at the twisting body. His shadowy claws ripped at her; blood was everywhere.
"Harry!" a weak sound penetrated through him.
Draco! He stopped, turning around. Draco was still lying on the ground, his eyes pleading to Harry.
He turned towards Draco, grabbing him, clutching him to his body and let the darkness engulf them both.
With Draco still clutched tightly to him, he stepped out of the darkness in his living room. As he laid Draco down on his bed, he felt the world around him blur and start to loose definition. The last thing he felt was himself falling to the ground.