Harry Potter

&

The Door of Dimensions.

Chapter 7:

In Which Draco Catches Fire

"WHAT?" Two voices rung in eerie, equally outraged unison, followed by stunned silences and little gasps of what appeared to be an indefinite struggle for words not to come. Both boys (from where the two voices came) tried each in desperate, floundering ways to communicate their disapproval and hatred for the sudden arranged partnership.

"ME!"

"With HIM?"

Howl regarded to the two with a cool look of indifference and what some might presume to be great amusement, "Yes. You. With him. Honestly, I thought this country spawned the English language, yet no one here seems to understand it."

He shrugged helplessly and passed to the next set of desks, when Draco piped up in a splintered voice, "I will not be DISGRACED by having to work with this-- this---!" The finger he pointed in Harry's face (which wore the expression of extreme disgust) shook and shuttered, like it was having some kind of epileptic fit. Howl turned and folded his arms over his chest, looking down at Draco with a dreadful scowl on his face.

"You will be Harry's partner for this class. I'm being perfectly reasonably, Draco. Everyone is being paired with their desk partner and if they can bloody well handle it than so can you."

"But I don't like it!" Draco spat, hopefully not realizing just how childish he sounded.

"I, frankly and most courteously, don't care what you don't like. Harry isn't too fond of this idea either, but at least he had the good graces to keep his mouth shut and his thoughts to himself. You on the other hand feel the need to parade around your insolence with the audacity of toddler and the shame of a... of a..." He paused to think, then smiled broadly, "Of a drunken Hobo. You should learn some manners." Again he grinned and flicked his wrist, his fingers pointing towards Draco's chair, which lifted into the air obediently and scooped the platinum blond into it's seat from behind and plopped him down at his desk. Draco seemed to pull against invisible restraints but was unable to summon up a reply to Howl's 'drunken hobo' remark. Harry snickered at him under his breath, watching Draco's face turn the colour of an angry Mandragora.

"Shut up, Potter..!"

"Make me." Harry said.

Howl continued along the isles, checking all the students progress and ensuring they were working with their respective partner.

Harry looked at Draco out of the corner of his eye, leaning his chin onto his steepled fingers. With a bemused expression he admired Draco's struggle with the chair until at last, either the spell gave out of Howl felt a pang of guilt for putting the proud boy through so much humiliation, Draco fell from the chair in a clatter of wood and limbs. He cursed and grumbled and Howl called from the other end of the room, "Now, now, Draco. It's impossible to defend from those kind of curses so I'll have to ask you to refrain." he smiled pleasantly and arrived at Hermione and Ron's desk. Harry craned his neck to see what he was speaking to them about but Draco was insistently annoying, interrupting Harry's skillful eavesdropping.

"To THINK, I have to be subjugated to working with you, a filthy friend of that Mudblood." He scowled at Harry, who gave him the most terrifying glare back.

"Good thing you never think then, or else this might be very uncomfortable for you." Harry said lazily, completely bored with Draco's usual rambling.

Draco to hissed at this but a moment later he stood up, as several other students were, and wandered over to Howl's desk, as none of the students were. He glanced around to make sure no one was watching and with cleverly hidden swipe of his robe plucked a small vial, that looked to be empty, from the table's surface, grinning at Harry as if daring him to do anything.

Howl chimed happily from a random corner of the classroom, "Feel free to find an empty space to practice your spell, class. No wandering into the Halls." Apparently he had not seen Draco's idle hands.

Harry stood up as well, rolling his eyes at Draco's antics, "Someday your idiocy will come back to haunt you..." he said with every intention of reporting it to Howl after class, "… Let's just go over--"

"Wait a minute, Potter," His words were accompanied by a spatter of spittle that came along with the over pronunciation of Harry's last name, "What do you think you're doing? I'm not actually going to work with you." Each word was like a staple gun spitting small metallic teeth.

Harry was obliged to remove his glasses and begin cleaning them with the corner of his cloak, "Well you can always try to argue with Howl again. I'm sure the chair won't disagree to reacquaint itself with your--"

"Bottom line, students!" Howl shouted over the heads of the relatively short company around him, "Magic is the language of the soul and it is commanded by the mind. Keep your mind clear and thoughts focused and you will find magic without your wand a sinch! Good luck all!"

"POTTER!" Harry snapped his head back to Draco, who was looking more and more impatient, "Hurry up and cast your vulgar spell." He sneered, which ended up a down right frown. Harry was reminded of Narcissa's face, so beautiful and gracious but completely ruined by her constantly pinched expression and pursed lips. It was obvious, and a bit funny, to see where Draco had inherited his looks.

"My spell is just as vulgar as your's..." Harry pointed out, crossing his arms. Which was true because they were both supposed to be casting 'Lumos'. Harry tried to calm his mind, only faintly reminded that he was still standing in the class room, his loathed enemy only feet away, by the obnoxious shouting Draco was committed to emitting. Draco's mouth twisted, looking even more like his mother's and somehow hightening his ever so slightly feminine and boyish looks.

"Ladies first." Harry replied with the least bit of wrath and all the sarcasm in the world, imagining something terrible and embarassing would happen to Draco. He was employing the control and restraint he had used on the Dursleys for so many horrid years, so many years of no magical ability at all. So many long yars of wanting to cast terrible jinxes upon their hideous heads. The incident with the snake at the zoo was one such incident that always came back to Harry in flashes of thought. Seeing the fat pig-boy trapped inside the cage was just too satisfying, but Harry had managed to suppress all forms of happiness when Mr. Dursely had snapped at him. Harry's eyes darkened at the thought of going back there.

"Look. POTTER--" Harry was beginning to wonder why Draco felt the urge to call him 'Potter', "Just hu--"

Had not something remarkable just taken place, Draco would have surely gone on into a long diatribe about how slow and stupid Harry was and how he was going to beat him into the ground no matter what and all those other over used lines that Harry had grown accustomed to ignoring. But as it turns out, a spell had over come the youngest Malfoy, and not, as it was supposed to be, a 'Lumos' spell. Harry blinked suddenly, every thought in his head evaporating instantly. In the course of Draco's anger he had shuffled over to Harry in order to reach a good punching distance. It was because of this that Harry noticed how short Draco actually was. In his earlier years Harry always recalled looking up to Draco, reminding himself that he was a tall, gangly, slithery looking figure but over the years, Harry supposed, Draco had grown quite small in comparison, or maybe Harry had grown quite tall.

At any rate, this disparity in height caused Harry to look down, but what he saw was not the flat chest of a boy, but a voluptuous bosom accustomed to women. Harry looked back up at Draco's face, which was still unmistakeably Malfoy, but ever so slightly different.

Harry quickly stumbled back toppling into a desk and nearly knocking a skinny Gryffindor student over, "What the-?"

Draco furrowed his brow at Harry's peculiar reaction, before narrowing his eyes. He straightened his back a little and started to cross his arms, but was somehow stopped mid-way. Harry let out a squeak of shock which seemed to call the attention of the student he had just bumped into.

"Harry?"

"N-not now Neville!"

"What's wrong with Draco..?"

"Not NOW Neville!

Draco's eyes had grown the size of small oranges and the Malfoy spawn threw both arms over the slightly bulging chest, "what did you DO to me Potter!" Draco screeched in a few octives higher than normal, which caused him to slap a hand over his mouth.

Before Harry could clearly answer, or stop giggling like a serial killer, Draco had bee-lined to the door and ran straight into Howl, who had a knack for looking invisible when he wanted.

"Excuse me, miss," he said in a kindly tone, "But you didn—" He stopped mid-sentence and looked down at the 'miss' he had just addressed. Blinking his lucid blue eyes a few times he began to smile and shake his head, eyeing Harry quickly before stepping out of the doorway, "I apologize Mr. Malfoy…" His grin was threatening to cut his face in two but Draco never noticed because he was already escaping into the hallway. Moments later Howl made it his business to find Harry and escort him to the front desk. He waited till the other students were preoccupied with their studies again before speaking.

"Harry, Harry.. My dear, Dear boy." He was almost in stitches and it was only with a great deal of self control (which looked like he was swallowing a very large pink grape) that he was able to speak coherently, "I seem to remember giving specific instructions about what spells to use… I don't believe 'opposite sex', 'transvestite', 'gender-bender' or any such variation was included." As he spoke he slowly leaned down onto his desk, playing with the feather of quill absently.

Harry gave him the blankest look fathomable. Antartica in the middle of snow storm couldn't have been more blank.

Howl breathed deeply, as if the pink grape he swallowed earlier was threatening to show itself again, "You turned…" his voice grew quite quiet, "….mr. Malfoy into a ms. Malfoy."

"I did WHAT!"

"sh sh! Harry, calmness.." Howl breathed deeply again, probably hoping Harry would do the same, but he didn't. Instead his face turned a brilliant shade of red.

"Can we, can we… change him back? No-not that I care! But.. that would be .. I mean,…I didn't mean to!" Harry became quite paranoid and glanced back at the class, some of which were watching him apprehensively, others who were staring off down the hall after Draco. Markl seemed to have disappeared the second Howl came close.

"It's quite alright Harry, I'll change him back whenever he decides to come out of the girls washroom." A flicker of a smile twitched over his lips but guttered quickly enough. He added a little hastily, "…just don't tell the headmaster I accidentally let a student mess with another's gender…"

Harry couldn't agree more and was about to ask him who exactly the headmaster was but Howl stood up with such shocking speed that Harry was surprised his glasses weren't knocked straight from his face. He felt the need to adjust them none-the-less as Howl bellowed across the room, "NO wandering into the HALLS! I swear the lot of you are deaf and dumb!" This coaxed a few interesting expressions from various students. Howl looked back down at Harry, crouching to his level again, "I'll make you a deal, I will keep my mouth shut about it if you keep yours shut." Harry nodded a few times. Howl appeared to be quite anxious about this incident remaining quiet, which was odd, Harry had done much worse in the past and gotten away with it. He was probably the only student who had dodged being expelled from the school more than once. Aside, perhaps, Ron and Hermione.

"Now," Howl said, biting his thumb nail in a peculiar way, "Go fetch Draco and bring him back here. The bell's about to sound and there will be no one to see him at Lunch hour." He began to expertly usher Harry across the class and passed questioning students, one hand placed firmly in the middle of his back, the other parting a pathway through the sea of witches and wizards, "Run along, I'll be in my office for when you return. Good luck!" With that he gave Harry a firm shove and ousted him into the hallway, which was immediately a throng of every shape and size of apprentice. Harry stood for a while in dumbfounded thought, wondering vaguely what had just occurred. He felt like he had just escaped a rather irritating dream, like one where you constantly have to use the lavatory but can never find a toilet that isn't overflowing. He was swiftly carried down stream by the bustle of kids, quickly forgetting all about Markl, Hermione and Ron. He cut across the stream of bodies and flung himself against the far wall, his arms out to either side. It was impossible to navigate in the halls, Harry didn't remember this school being this crowded. It had always been a simple task getting from one class to other but this was just ridiculous. After scuttling long the outskirts he spotted a pair of bathrooms, above each was small sign each with 'witch' and 'wizard' respectfully.

He ducked into the 'wizard' doorway and wandered up and down the isles, peering into each stall.

" 'Just go FETCH him, Harry…' " Harry mimicked scathingly when he couldn't locate the missing Miss Malfoy, " 'I'll just wait HERE, Harry…' " He checked once more before leaning on the sink. He looked in the mirror and realized his face was still lightly flushed. He ran the water and splashed his face with his cooled hands, sighing deeply, "….he's gonna be a laughing stock." Somehow this thought did not make Harry the least bit pleased with himself.

It was when Harry was looking in the mirror that he saw some one looking back at him from around the corner. A small, delicate face with pale complexion and silvery hair that hung like suspended cobwebs. The person's eyes were misty and sharp, like raindrops come into surprising focus. Harry blinked and turned to see who it could be, but the place where the girl had stood in the mirror only housed the dreary air that smelled of lavatory soap. He blinked again, rubbing his eyes, 'must have been a ghost…' he thought quickly. Moaning Mertle was one such creature that enjoyed inhabiting boy's bathrooms, who was to say there weren't others?

"oh!" Harry suddenly realized where Draco must be hiding and he sped out of the boys washroom and into the next door over. A few seconds after he entered the doorway clearly marked 'witches' several shrieks were heard as several girls ran from the room. Harry apologized to no one (as everyone had fled the scene already) silently, rolling his eyes and rubbing his forehead. Just what he wanted to be viewed as, a peeping tom.

He walked slowly down the isles, watching for feet under any of the closed doors. He stopped in front of one of the doors which was slightly ajar. Beneath it he could see the shoes that could only belong to a Hogwarts boy, however, the feet which were inside of them were two sizes too small, and the socks hung slack around their ankles. Harry rapped his knuckle on the door and it swung open with an eerie squeal. Harry winced and looked cautiously into the stall. Sure enough Draco stood with his back to the door, holding a small vial in his hands that looked suspiciously like the vial he had taken from Howl's desk.

"Draco…?" Harry didn't dare take a step closer but was a little surprised when Draco whirled around and eyed him venomously. Harry was expecting a lot worse.

"You have to come back to class so that the Professor..er.. Howl can turn you back." Harry said quickly and quietly, looking at his feet to keep from staring at Draco's….He put the thought far from his mind.

"Get away from, Potter. I don't want or need your pathetic help." Draco, however threatening he may have wanted to appear, just wasn't having the desired effect. The high pitches of his voice, the romantic swirl of his hair, the way his almond shaped eyes glowed when he was angry—

Harry stopped himself and almost jumped back when he noticed what he was thinking, "Gah! Draco! I don't care. Really. Now come on so Howl can change you back!" Harry grabbed Draco's thin wrist and hauled him out of the stall, feeling disgustingly manly. The smalle vile landed on the ground and smashed into a thousand tiny pieces

"Let go this instant! POTTER! Unhand me! You'll regret this! ARGH!" Draco complained and carried on and finally flung his fist at Harry's head. It connected perfectly and Harry staggered back, releasing his grip.

"BLOODY hell!" He turned on the she-Draco and glared acidly at him.

Draco smirked and cracked his knuckles, "Touch me again, Potter, and I'll hit you for real."

"Whatever, you couldn't hit properly if your life depended on it. I'll tell Hermione to give you a few tips."

"That was a lucky hit… If I'd seen her coming I'd've—"

"Run screaming like the little girl that you are? I mean, nothing's ever stopped you in the past."

"Shut it, Potter! When my father hears about this—"

"He'll what? So far you're loving father doesn't seem to have any power to help you out. Poor Draco always runs crying to his father. You're so pathetic."

"My father is brilliant. Maybe if you're pathetic excuse for a dad had followed suit he'd still be alive today, instead of dying uselessly to save your sorry ass."

"What? And become a mindless slave to an insane Dark lord!"

"Better than wussing out and marrying a mudblood whore." Malfoy shoved Harry in the middle of the chest, causing him to stumble and hit the opposite wall. Harry looked up through a shock of ebony hair, emerald eyes blazing.

"Go to hell, Draco…" As soon as the burning words left Harry's tongue a circle appeared below Draco's feet and quickly turned the colour of lava. Intricate designs spiralled out from the circle in every direction, drawing themselves across the cobbled stones. Eyes of nightmare and spires of flame quickly erupted into tiny fires as the drawing completed itself. Draco tried to move out of the heat but tendrils lashed out and bared his way.

Harry's eyes opened wide, sightless and knowing like a blind man's.

Only when Draco started screaming did Harry awaken and comprehend what was taking place. He was leaning against the wall, his eyes looking at the pattern drawn around Draco's feet. His heart was pounding so loud his ears were aching. They were cold and every sound was an icicle drilling into his skull. A white noise over came him as his vision lifted.

Draco was enveloped in fire and Harry dashed forewords into it. His foot grazed the circle and instantly the spell vanished, leaving only scorch marks on the ground, black and burnt into the stone. Harry gasped and caught Draco before the blond hit the floor.

He quickly slumped to his knees and sat in a stupor of blinking confusion.

Did he just light Draco on fire?

He looked down at the porcelin features that now characterized Draco's face. He appeared to be alright aside from a few scorch marks and charred clothings. However, something caused him to loose consciousness. Harry thanked some nameless God and looked at the ceiling. He was just about to endeavour carrying Draco back to the classroom when someone burst into the lavatory, looking exasperated and frazzled.

"P-Professor?" Harry blubbered.

"Harry!" Apparently Howl wasn't expecting to see Harry and Draco.

"Professor! I—"

"Silence Harry! Did you just use magic?"

"I—no! Yes…! I mean, I didn't mean to-- It just…! I don't know!"

Howl looked at Harry pointedly, his eyes, large and mirror-like, took in every detail about Harry in an instant. He muttered words under his breath and looked at the ground below the two students. He strode forewords and lifted Draco up with ease, shoving Harry aside with his foot. Harry fell back and scrambled to the wall again, staring and praying he wouldn't, for once, get months of detention.

Howl set Draco on the ground and stood over the scorch marks. He sighed and shook his head and then looked at Draco again. With another sigh and another shaking of his head he snapped his fingers, ran his hand through his hair, licked his thumb, and flicked Draco's forehead. In an instant Draco returned to his former self, his clothes once again fitting his body. Harry gaped a little and then looked back to Howl who had circled the pattern on the ground, his eyes reading the lines carefully.

"What is this nonsense? Harry, what did you do? Tell me this instant! Were you trying to write a prophecy? Or summon something?"

"I .. I.. I just … was defending myself. I told Draco to burn in hell."

Howl groaned and for a moment looked as if he would collapse on the spot. He recovered at the last second and covered his face with his hands, "I'm too late… she's gonna kill me… This..." he said, his hands suddenly pulling away from his eyes, one finger held out menacingly as if it would turn anything it touched into green goo, "…is the EXACT reason I am teaching control of magic without the use of wands. None of this ridiculous cursing and hexing and burning would have happened if teachers and professors knew what they were doing!" It appeared that Howl was highly critical of the Wizarding education system. His jacket flared and he turned about, thinking, muttering and pondering. Finally he knelt beside the pattern and took out a small notebook with a miniature quill. He scribbled for a few minutes, bit his thumb nail for a few minutes and then snapped the book shut and tucked it into the inner pocket of his jacket.

"This never would have happened… I can't believe you don't know how to detect things like this. So dangerous... so so... very dangerous." The last bit of his words seemed to grow fearful.

"Sir, in all honesty... I don't even really know what I did…"

"All the better than, Harry." He tut-tutted but beneath his somewhat cool exterior lay nail-biting panic, ready to spring and dig every terror tipped talon into its victims wits.

Howl rested his hand on the scorch marks and slowly pushed them along the ground. Lilac coloured smoke swirled upwards and into the vents, but had no identifying smell to it. The burn marks slowly disintegrated and Howl forced a grin of confidence onto his face, as he whipped the evidence clean out of existence. Harry felt a little relieved, but he knew he wasn't out of the fire yet.

Howl held his own hand protectively, black ash covering his palm.

"Who'd have thought a thing like that could be in a place like this…" he whispered, "…gone, but the magic is still here." His eyes shot up to Harry, twin glacier tipped arrows struck deeply and the black haired boy felt paralyzed for a moment.

"Get out of here, and take Draco with you."

"But I can't carry –"

"It's fine, he'll walk on his own." Howl flicked his clean hand upwards one finger pointing to the sky. He gestured to Draco quickly made a figure-eight with the same finger and then swiped his hand through the air like a knife. Beside him, Draco had gotten to his feet, and began to walk towards the door, all with the motions of a dead man. His head hung listlessly to the side and his eyes were closed and still.

"Take him to the Hospital Wing and get him checked out then go straight to your room and stay there."

Harry nodded and swallowed, following Draco. He glanced once over his shoulder to see Howl walking about the lavatory, checking in sink holes and under toilet seats, like a senile man trying to find his dentures. Ahead of him Draco's movements were jerky, but he seemed to be fully capable of making it to the Hospital Wing on his own, so Harry, as soon as he had the chance, veered off to one side and began to speed down the hallway that typically led to his Dormitory.

He arrived at the painting of the Fat Lady and looked up at her, "What's the Password?"

The Fat Lady looked down at him, appalled, "My dear boy, did you really think I would give you the password so easily? Even if I did have it would certainly not hand it over to the likes of you in an instant! You do know that Gryffindor's aren't in this area this year, don't you? You've been moved to a more secure Dorm, apparently. I think it's a lot of balderdash, but that's what you get when you're being chased by mass murders. Oh! Dear me, Harry my boy, That just slips out, you know? I know you understand! So I can't give you that password either. In any case! Run along now dear! I haven't got all day to sit here and look pretty." By the way she said it, it was clear that she in fact did have all day. Harry closed his eyes groaned to show how tired and fet up he really was.

"GREAT. Just great."

He began to wander the stair cases. Once he stayed on one stair to see all the ways it could actually go. He found one that led the Hufflepuff, one led to Slytherin and one led to Ravenclaw, which was funny because he could have sworn each dorm were on separate levels of the castle…. Aside Ravenclaw which was in the opposite wing. He got off at the Ravenclaw hall and wandered around for a while, asking random students if they knew where the Gryffindor's were housed.

He bumped into a lithe seventh year with perpetually black hair and cole rimmed eyes. The boy gazed at Harry with endless night irises, before smiling a little, "So you're the one who's seeking the Dark Tower."

"Huh..? No…. I'm looking for the Gryffindor Tower… do you know where it is..?"

The pale boy smiled, his eyes becoming little slivers of darkness in his clear face. He pointed in a direction, "Strange….He can help you. Funny, I always pictured you'd be taller."

Harry blinked at the boy and turned to look the way he was pointing. It happened to be right where an all-too-familiar figure was walking, Markl, who was coming up the stairs and had spotted Harry. He looked exasperated and dishevelled, "Harry! Good lord... You have no idea how long I've been looking for you! I just stopped to ask that Draco fellow where'd you gone off to but I don't think he quite understood me… He looked as if he'd been into the pipeweed if you know what I mean..." Markl continued to ramble and Harry looked back to thank the tall, dark Ravenclaw, but he seemed to have wandered off.

Markl stood next to Harry, "Whatcha looking at? Nevermind! Come on, I found the dorms. Man, it's a good thing I found you! I could have been in big trouble!"

"Trouble? How come?" Harry was now too frazzled to care what was going on. He just wanted to sit down somewhere, or puke. Puking sounded good about now.

"Well because! Didn't you know? I thought you did for sure by how you kept eluding and evading me. I'm your Bodygaurd for this year." He smiled, then.

Yes, puking sounded good right about now.