'Come on, hurry up!' Dick thought to himself as he stood outside of the Quiddich field watching the line of students slowly shorten. More people had come for the tryouts then he had thought, and as a consequence, he was left to stand freezing in his light jacket from the sharp northern wind. In his left hand he clutched the broom handle of Malfoy's broom, if he made the team he would need to buy his own broom, but for now the borrowed Nimbus 2001 worked fine.
"Don't worry about it." Malfoy said from beside him, taking his shivers of cold as nerves. "You'll do great."
Dick nodded but kept his mouth closed, he didn't want his teeth chattering any louder than they already were. Finally he reached the front of the line and the team captain came over to him, "What you do is try to defend yourself and your team mates while hitting the ball toward your opponent. Got that? Good." His 'team mates' were three flying green Quiddich robes, and his 'opponents' were three other flying Quiddich robes, one was red for Gryfindor, another was blue for Ravenclaw, and the third was yellow for Hufflepuff.
He climbed onto his broom and took off into the air, he didn't take time for pleasure, he just turned to face the other figure on the ground and hefted his club.
"Ready? GO!"
A round, black ball sped toward him, he didn't have time to think, but his training kicked in and his body knew exactly what angle to hit it at to sent it toward an opponent. The red robe fell out of the air and the ball sped toward one of the green robes. Dick swooped to intercept it and with his next blow the blue robe fell form the sky. He could hear Malfoy cheering him on from below as he turned to take down the final robe, the yellow one for Hufflepuff. He suddenly wished Kory were here to see his prowess at flying, as the ball came speeding toward him, Kory's image formed in his mind, in fact, she was all to real looking. "Kory?" he asked looking at the remaining yellow robe. 'Yellow for Hufflepuff, Kory is in Hufflepuff.' The thought ran through his mind.
"Look out!" a panicked voice called from below pulling him out of his trance, "Wha-" he got out, and then it hit him.
Raven was meditating on her bed when Robin's pain reverberated through her body. Raven gasped and clutched her head, willing the pain away, this shouldn't happen, she thought, it had never happened before. Raven quickly pushed the pain aside before she blew something up and called Gar, Kory, and Vic and told them to meet her in the room of requirement.
Malfoy watched as his friend turned to face the Hufflepuff robe, Dick's performance was by far the best, his reflexes were amazing, 'I'll have to ask him about that later.' He thought. He watched as Dick tensed, gripping his club and preparing for the swing, the ball came in range but Dick just hovered there, in some sort of trance. "Look out!" Malfoy called, but it was too late and a crack rang out through the night as Dick began to fall, Malfoy searched frantically for his wand knowing he would never get it in time. 'This can't happen again, please don't let it happen again.' He pleaded silently to whatever god might be listening. In his panicked state he didn't realize that Dick wasn't high enough above the ground to cause any real damage if he fell. He waited to hear the crunch of bones breaking, or feel a shock wave run through his feet. When nether came he tentatively opened his eyes, (he hadn't realized he had shut them), to see that Dick was still in the air.
"Is he ok?" Someone asked looking up at the sight. Dick was clearly unconscious, but his left hand still gripped the broom handle, causing him to dangle limply in the air. Malfoy grabbed the nearest broom out of someone's hand and pushed off from the ground, not even giving himself the chance to get mounted properly. He ascended to Dick's level and pulled the broom to the ground hoping that Dick's grip wasn't about to fail.
"Get him to the hospital wing!" The team captain shouted and Dick was hefted up by several of the other team members and carried off while Malfoy ran after them, shouting for them to wait.
"What is the matter Raven? And why is friend Dick missing?" Kory asked as she joined the group in the room of requirement.
"Relax Kory, he's probably just trying to get away from his other friends." Gar said.
"No he's not." Raven said, and the others turned to look at her.
Kory felt her stomach tighten, if Raven was trying to get them to kick Dick off the team, or something-.
"He was hit in the head by something, I don't know what, but he's in the hospital wing right now. That's why I called you here, we can't go visit him, it would not match our cover."
For a moment Kory felt relieved, then Raven's words sunk in.
What? How do you know?" Vic asked.
"Dumbledore contacted me." Raven responded (lying).
Kory didn't care about their cover, she turned and ran for the door before any of her friends could stop her. The room of requirement was about three floors below the hospital wing, but Kory ran them all, not stopping until she was standing, panting, in front of the door.
Catching her breath, Kory opened the door and walked into the room.
Malfoy sat alone besides Dick's unconscious body, it had almost happened again, his helplessness, the fall, it was all the same. 'Don't think about it. It's the past, it doesn't affect you any more.' He told himself firmly, but he knew it was a lie, everything that had happened that day had affected him, the choice he had made would be with him forever.
Flashback
Lucius Malfoy opened the door of his house to find a short, fat wizard standing in front of him.
"Um," the little man started, "Can I please come in?"
"Why would I let you in?" Lucius asked.
"Because you fool," a harsh voice Lucius knew well spoke up, "I want to come in."
"M-Master?"
"Remember, I want that child, no other, this body will not last much longer, but someday when I return to my full power, I will want him." Voldemort's voice spoke from the back of the other wizards head. They were standing in Malfoy's living room.
"Yes master." Lucius replied.
The fat, little wizard spoke, his voice wavering in fear, "I won't last much longer? You mean I'm going to die?" He never got an answer as his eyes rolled up into his head and his body thumped dead unto the floor.
Lucius felt a cold wind pass by him, "I will do as you command master." He said and then turned and began preparing to leave.
Somewhere in the United States a six year old Draco Malfoy ran through the almost deserted park, his father chasing after him and his mother sitting on a nearby bench reading. He wasn't called Malfoy back then, his name had been Riddle. His family had been living in the U.S. since his great-great-great grandparents had come over looking for a new life many years before. His family was well respected, known for their generosity and good will, that's probably why Voldemort wanted him. His family showed none of the traits Voldemort held in high esteem, so Voldemort knew they would never come to his aid unless he corrupted the youngest and most vulnerable Riddle son.
Mr. Riddle pretended to collapse onto the soft grass, and Draco rounded back.
"Got you!" Mr. Riddle yelled as he grabbed his son and pulled him into a tight bare hug.
"Well, well, well, this is a touching scene." A voice spoke causing Mr. Riddle to look up, a man wearing a long, dark robe with the hood pulled up stood in front of them, holding a wand in his hand, "But I hate touching scenes, why don't I just change this, just a little bit." He twitched his wand upward and a scream hung in the air as a figure began to fall from the sky.
"Jennifer! No!" Mr. Riddle yelled as he raced toward his wife's falling body. He fell a few feet short and she hit the ground with a deadening thud.
"You bastard!" he screamed as he grabbed his wand and ran widely toward the hooded figure.
"Don't worry, you'll be joining her soon." The man replied coldly.
Draco would remember both screams for the rest of his life.
The little boy sat slumped by the bodies of his parents, not understand why they were so limp.
"Mommy, I'm cold, I wanna go home." He said as he shook the lifeless body that had been his mother.
"Come with me son, I'll take care of you." A gentle voice spoke in his ear. Draco turned to face a tall man with slick blonde hair.
"Who are you?" Draco asked backing away.
"My name's Lucius Malfoy, I'm going to help you." The man spoke, "I know who did this, if you come with me, my Lord will help you get strong, you can become a man and have you're revenge."
While only six years of age, Draco understood everything the man said, he looked back one last time at the bodies of his parents and then went forward and stepped into his new life.
Draco Malfoy, now eight years old woke screaming from his dream causing his adoptive father to run into his room.
"What's the matter? What happened?" Lucius asked, worry showing clearly on his face.
Draco didn't answer, instead he asked a question of his own, "Who was it?"
"What do you mean? Who was who?" Lucius asked.
"You told me you knew, you told me you knew who killed my parents." The boy looked up to face the older man, tears glistening in his eyes.
Lucius looked into the face of his son, and with four simple words, one lie, he sealed Draco's fate, "His name was Potter."
End Flashback
Malfoy looked up as the door to the hospital wing swung open pulling him out of his memories. A girl walked in and he recognized her as the Hufflepuff girl Dick spent most of their history of magic class staring at. He knew he should act disdainful, should tell her she was not wanted, but for once he let it be. 'Your father wouldn't be happy.' A voice in the back of his mind told him, 'He's not my real father.' He retorted as the girl drew up a chair and sat down next to him.
They sat in silence, neither looking at the other for over a half an hour. Finally Malfoy turned to face her, "Hi, my names Malfoy, Draco Malfoy."
She smiled at him, "I'm Kory, nice to meet you Draco."
No one had called him Draco in a long time, it kind of felt nice, more real. He returned her smile with one of his own and they went back to sitting in silence once again.
"Hey Raven!" someone called as she walked into the Gryfindor common room, turning to face the voice Raven walked over to where Harry, Ron, and Hermione were sitting. Harry and Ron were playing wizard chess and Hermione was doing homework.
"Where were you earlier?" Harry asked her, "We wanted to know if you're going to Hogsmead tomorrow."
"No." She replied bluntly, causing Hermione to look up from the homework she was doing.
"Come-on Raven, you'll like Hogsmead, everyone does." Hermione argued.
"No." Raven once again replied, she started to turn away to go to the dormitory but Ron reached out and grabbed her arm to stop her.
Raven didn't hear what Ron said next, because the moment he touched her, his thoughts and emotions crowded into her head.
'I wish she would come.'
'Why does she act so weird.'
'I'm gonna beat Harry, just make this move and I'm all set.'
'Hermione looks so cute when she's doing homework, heck she looks cute doing anything.'
'I love Hermione.'
'No, bad boy, don't think that, baaaaaaaaad boy.'
Raven tried to cut Ron's thoughts off, but they just kept coming, finally she pulled her arm free and walked to the stairs, just barely able to keep herself from running. One last thought entered her mind before she mounted the stairs, 'Raven is kind of scary, I wonder what she's hiding from us.'
One of the many suspended lamps above the common room exploded as Raven forgot about walking and ran up the stairs, racing into the dorm room, only stopping when she was on her bed cut off from the outside world.
She forced herself to breath and stay calm, she should have realized what was going on when she had first felt Dick's pain, she was losing control, the barriers in her mind were beginning to crumble. Raven started to meditate, finding her center, calming herself, and rebuilding her metal barriers until she was under control once more. That done, she set about finding what had caused the lapse in control, it didn't take long as the answer was fairly obvious, it was the influence of having new friends, friends that didn't know about what she really was. Having friends had always made controlling her emotions a little difficult, but the addition of three new friends had almost pushed her over the edge. With new friends, she had to worry about how the would react to her ancestry, but if she didn't tell them, then they might try to get her to show emotion thinking that they were helping her when really they were just hurting her more and more.
Raven went deeper into her meditation and let her thoughts go for the moment, right now she had to focus on staying in control and not letting anything else get in her way.
"Was it something I said?" Ron asked Harry and Hermione as they watched Raven head toward the stairs. Neither got a chance to answer however, as one of the floating lamps exploded above them and bits of glass rained down, disappearing as they fell.
"Maybe we should just give her some space," Hermione suggested, "I mean, maybe she feels that we've been pushing her too hard to find out what she's hiding."
Harry nodded, but Ron spoke up in defiance.
"You can't tell me you don't want to know, we hardly know anything about her, she hasn't told us anything about herself. We're supposed to be her friends and yet she remains a mystery. How can we trust her when we don't even know the little things like who her family is?"
"Maybe she doesn't like her family Ron, all I'm saying is that we shouldn't push her so hard to be around us, Raven's different than most people, she probably has a good reason for being the way she is." Hermione argued.
Ron deflated under her accusing stare, "I didn't mean it like that, I just have to wonder about her sometimes." He said, hoping that Hermione wasn't mad at him.
"Doesn't everybody." Was his only response.
The weekend and most of the following week passed without further incident. Vic walked into his last class on Friday feeling joyful, as most people do on that particular day of the week.
Vic entered his defense against the dark arts classroom and walked along the back wall to get to a seat near several of his new friends. He noticed that Raven, who was in this class with him, was sitting on the other side of the room. The room was large and square with several ornate wooden bookshelves lining the back walls. Most of the shelves held books, like they were supposed to, but several of them held other items of interest from different parts of the world. Vic hardly noticed them as he walked by to get to his seat, but his bag snagged one of the larger vases and set it off balance, Vic quickly reached out and steadied the vase before continuing to his seat.
"We're going to be doing something a little different for the next few weeks." Professor Sandscope told his class of Gryfindors and Ravenclaws. Professor Sandscope was the new defense against the dark arts teacher, so far he had shown a vast knowledge of all things dark and eerie. "I've decided to teach a subject not normally taught in this school, I want to teach you about demons."
Vic's head shot up from his desk where he had been 'resting his eyes'. He glanced over in Raven's direction, she was sitting calmly showing that the professors words had in no way affected her, at least that's what it looked like. Vic cursed himself for not having chosen a seat by her, where he was currently sitting, across the room from her, he could not help her quickly if needed.
"Demons are among the most powerful and evil creatures that we know of, fortunately for us they are so rare that we have not yet had to fight one."
Vic watched Raven closely as the professor went into detail about how evil and truly terrible demons were.
"All demons, no matter how powerful or weak all share one trait in common, they have no mercy and they delight in causing pain and suffering."
Raven would look calm to any else in the room, but to Vic, who had lived with her for several years, she looked slightly agitated.
"They are monsters spawned from the darkest evil, the pits of hell, and no matter what mask they wear, they will always be a terrible monster inside."
Was it his imagination, or was Raven moving her lips, speaking very softly, perhaps saying a chant to herself over and over again.
"There is one demon in particular that is brought to our attention as being the greatest and most terrible to ever exist."
Vic clenched his jaw as he waited for the words he knew he could not stop.
"His name was Trigon.
Somewhere in the back of the room a vase exploded.
Hehe, cliffhanger, please send reviews if you have any suggestions for what should happen next.
I would like to apologize for my laziness when it comes to looking up spellings of names and whatnot. Please don't hate me, I'm only human after all.
Now I will explain why I put each Titan in the house that they are in.
Raven- I put her as the only Gryfindor because I wanted her alone so she didn't have any of the other Titans to notice that things were getting out of hand. Also, I wanted her with Harry, Ron, and Hermione because they are very much against everything evil so it puts her in a dilemma about telling them the truth.
Dick- I put him into Slythern because it is my opinion that his ambition is his greatest trait.
Kory- I put her in Hufflepuff because I think that's where she belongs, what with her being happy all the time.
Gar- I put him in Hufflepuff because, like I said before I wanted Raven to be the only Gryfindor, and I really couldn't see him in Slythern. And between Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw I think he belongs in Hufflepuff because he is very loyal and he doesn't really have a bad bone in his body, if you get my meaning.
Vic- I put Vic in Ravenclaw because, like Gar, I couldn't see him as a Slythern, and as mentioned before, Gryfindor was closed. I didn't want three Titans to be in the same house so I put him in Ravenclaw to spread out the Titans.
Thank you to all my lovely reviewers, please keep reviewing.
To GS Dragono- Don't worry about the Gar-Rae getting out of hand, that will be mostly one sided. I don't like Raven parings either because they seem to change her character too much.
Now back to my normal plea, please review.