ON TWO LORDS AND A PRINCE
CHAPTER 13: JOURNEY TO CHANGED FAMILIARITY
September the first soon arrived and for once Harry did not want to go back to school. Life at Llyn-y-Fach surrounded by his relatives was good, Malfoy was a frequent visitor and he was in constant contact with Ron. Surprisingly he had actually grown quite fond of his former enemy, who had an extremely sarcastic sense of humour that amused Harry greatly. Harry was pretty sure that the blond, even if he wouldn't admit it, saw Harry as a good friend despite the fact they found themselves on opposite sides of the war. It was a bond, which had developed over the month of August due to a shared passion for Quidditch, sarcasm and jest. The hatred may have disappeared but the rivalry between the two boys was stronger than ever. Malfoy had been immensely proud of finally beating Harry at Quidditch, even if it was during their fifth match if games at Hogwarts were included, it was a victory, which had resolved many of the issues the blond had in becoming friends with Harry. Malfoy's victory hadn't diminished his competitiveness though, much to Harry's delight, who enjoyed playing against someone who was almost as good a quidditch player as he was. Whilst Cho Chang wasn't a bad seeker, she certainly wasn't in the same league as either Harry or Draco talent wise. The real test for the boy's fragile friendship would be when they arrived at Hogwarts and had to pretend to be the enemies they were supposed to be. Then of course there was the war, of which they were poster boys for their respective sides. Surprisingly they hadn't let it get between them, but instead it had been a constant source of teasing, even so Harry was uncertain to how Draco would react when the death eaters began their attacks and whether it would tear the two new friends apart.
Harry's friendship with Ron had survived Hermione's barrage of letters to Ron trying to persuade the redhead that Harry was evil. Ron was having none of it, partly Harry suspected because he was still annoyed at Hermione for dating Viktor Krum. Hermione had not been allowed to go to Bulgaria, but that hadn't stopped Viktor from holidaying in Italy in the same resort at the same time as Hermione. As a consequence Ron was already annoyed at the bushy haired girl even before she had met Harry in Rome, so there was no question of Ron taking Hermione's side. Consequently Hermione was supposedly not speaking to both Ron and Harry.
The return to school was somewhat less chaotic and far more painless than what Harry was used to, then that wasn't surprising considering for the three previous years he had travelled to Kings Cross with the Weasley Family. This was further aided by the special portkey direct to Platform 9 3/4 Richard had managed to procure as a consequence of his ministry position. Harry was not best pleased with the prospect of using a portkey, he simply could not bring himself to trust that particular mode of travel anymore for fear it would lead him directly to Voldemort. He took it though, mainly through a lack of other options, as there was no Floo connection at Kings Cross and they didn't have the time to take muggle transport.
Harry's cousin, Michael, who was starting his first year of Hogwarts disappeared off to meet his friends as soon as his father would let him, leaving Harry alone on the busy platform clutching the portkey. At least only for a few moments until he was approached by a grinning Seamus.
"Harry!" the sandy blond haired boy cried, "How are you mate? You caused a bit of a stir."
Harry grinned, adopting his golden boy façade. He was genuinely happy though that Seamus remained about his friends as the Irish Boy and his best friend, Dean, were the only two of his friends that hadn't written to him over the summer.
"I'm fine despite all the hate mail I received," Harry replied, "Most of it from the death eaters, although I did receive a howler from Neville."
"Neville sent you a howler!" Seamus exclaimed out of both mirth and surprise, giving a quick glance at their forgetful dorm mate who was being lectured by his grandmother, "What about Ron and Hermione? Are the golden trio still together?" The question was answered before Seamus could finish asking it, even Gregory Goyle could have worked out Harry's opinion of Hermione by the sneer that crossed his face at the mention of the bushy haired girl's name, "I guess not then."
"No," Harry sneered, struggling to maintain his golden boy façade, "Not after she accused me of having joined Voldemort when we met up accidentally in Rome."
Seamus' jaw dropped, "Bloody hell!" he said, clearly amazed by what he had heard. Then he began laughing. Harry wasn't particularly surprised by Seamus' humour, he was the type of person who saw the funny side of everything, "You a death eater! That's the funniest thing I've heard all year."
"What was who thinking?" Another voice intervened from behind Seamus. Dean had just arrived, accompanied by his parents.
"Hermione accused Harry of being a death eater!" Seamus explained, still sounding slightly dazed at hearing of the accusation.
Dean goggled at the accusation, "What!" he exclaimed quietly sounding surprised and slightly confused as to the reasons behind the accusation, "You join the death eaters? I know you said some pretty controversial things, Seamus showed me the Prophet article, but that's just plain ridiculous."
"That's her problem not mine," Harry stated with an edge to his voice, "If she insists on blowing everything out of all proportion then she doesn't deserve to be my friend."
"I suppose that's one way to put it, but aren't you a little sad at the end of your friendship with Hermione?" Dean responded as the three boys began to push through the crowds towards the express after saying goodbye to their parents and wait for Seamus to receive a kiss on the cheek from his mother, much to the amusement of Dean, Harry and Harry's uncle Sam.
"No," Harry replied without a second thought as they pushed their way past a group of third years, "I hate her too much."
"You hate Hermione? Even after all you've been through together." Dean queried, sounding slightly surprised at his friend's statement.
"No not real hatred that's reserved for Voldemort," Harry responded after a moment of silence to allow him to consider the answer, "It's more of an intense dislike, kind of like how I feel about Malfoy and Snape."
"You don't hate Malfoy, even after all he's done to over the past four years." Seamus exclaimed as the three boys entered an empty compartment to the back of the train and sat down in it.
"No it's not worth the energy. He's just an immature, prejudiced, attention-seeking git, it's not as though I want dead or anything," he lied surprisingly expertly, he didn't feel the least bit guilty about his failure to tell the truth as he had no choice.
"What do you mean you do mean you don't want him dead?" Seamus asked, slightly confused as to how that would affect whether Harry hated the blond Slytherin or not. Dean seemed to be equally confused.
"Hate," Harry stated, drawing out the word so as to make it sound dark and sinister. His expression darkened as he dropped the mask of the golden boy that he wore whenever he was around his housemates, "I should have known you wouldn't know the meaning of the word," Dean began to protest, but was silenced by Harry, "Hate is not merely an intense dislike. It is wanting someone to die as slowly and as painfully as possible. It is the desire to torture someone and laugh at their pain, to crush them and break them until they are no more than a quivering shell of a person who is a vessel for your sadistic pleasure." Harry gave a cruel smirk as forgotten dreams of torturing Voldemort sprung into his mind. It is a smirk that made both Seamus and Dean shiver, "When you hate your fondest dreams are filled with the glorious screams of your enemies pain, the perfect death becomes orgasmic and your life becomes one long quest to torment and destroy your foe. I hate Voldemort. Voldemort will die by hand and nothing whatsoever can stop it."
There was a shocked silence while everyone processed what they had heard until finally a new voice spoke, vocalising the opinions of just about everyone that had heard Harry's speech.
"Bloody hell mate," Ron said from the compartment doorway. Several students had heard Harry's supposedly uncharacteristic speech, forming a small crowd to gather around, "I knew you disliked Voldemort because of what he did to your parents, but I didn't know you hated him that badly."
"Don't forget about Cedric, he was my friend too," Harry reminded Ron, while scanning the crowd, he noticed a Ravenclaw sixth year who he recognised as a friend of Cho Chang, as well as a Hufflepuff seventh year who was one of the chasers on their quidditch team. The latter's gaze seemed to soften slightly upon hearing the Gryffindor's second pronouncement.
Harry's best friend walked into the compartment, closing the door behind him. Sensing that the show was over the crowd standing outside the compartment began to disperse. As a consequence they were left in relative peace when the train left the station at least until Lavender and Pavarti entered about ten minutes into the journey.
"I'm not being rude or nothing but why aren't you two sharing a compartment with Hermione?" Lavender asked upon spotting Ron and Harry chatting avidly to Seamus and Dean about quidditch. Seamus had been extremely surprised to hear arguing in favour of the Wimbourne Wasps, but had yet to ask the reason for the raven-haired boy's change of allegiance.
The scowl that crossed Harry's face didn't go unnoticed by the girls who quickly sat down before Harry had a chance to respond, "I don't know about Ron, I'd rather share a compartment with Malfoy than with that judgemental, arrogant, pretentious bitch," he snapped. The red head indicated his agreement as the two girls looked at him in shock.
"You and Hermione have fallen out!" Lavender exclaimed, just as surprised by the turn of events as the boys had been, "Go on, tell us the juicy details."
Harry began to tell a condensed and highly edited version of his summer, making sure to leave out any references to his nascent friendship with Malfoy. He couldn't resist going into a blow by blow of his duel/fight with Malfoy, even if he didn't mention the consequences of it or Malfoy's desperation just before he fell into unconsciousness. He knew that Malfoy would be furious about mentioning the fact that the fight took place because Ron would gloat, but that would only aid Malfoy's pretend hatred of Harry. Naturally he also failed to mention Sirius, as well as the conversation about the twin lords and Tom Riddle. He had already discussed the later with Ron, but had omitted any mention of the former until something of practical consequence came of it, he wasn't sure how the red-head would react to the news that Harry was the 'Lord' of what was commonly believed to be Dark Magic.
"Your mothers family is some family, but then the arguments are understandable if you're related to Malfoy," Seamus surmised after the explanation, even if it was accompanied by a warning not to reveal that Harry and Malfoy were cousins. Harry knew that Pavarti would probably slip up at some stage, but with the warning it would be later rather than sooner.
"I am not related to Malfoy and if you say otherwise I won't help you when Malfoy hexes you into next week," Harry insisted emphatically in precisely the same tone that he had used exactly a month previously just before the fateful duel. Of course this time he didn't believe what he was saying, but he had to keep up appearances.
"Don't worry I won't say anything. I like you too much for that," Seamus replied, "Although I want to know whether you heard anything about your father's family, about from about your uncle?"
Harry sighed, the subject of his father's ancestors was a sore one, he didn't like being descended from a bunch of evil, grovelling death eater types, but then Sirius had said that his father was even touchier on the subject, "I'm a descendant of Seth Potter," he said simply and firmly in a tone which begged no response. None was given verbally, even by Dean who looked as though he hadn't heard the infamous folk tale of the follower of Grindelwald whose defence was that Muggles were inhuman beasts ripe for the slaughter. The expressions of sympathy did not go unnoticed by Harry, who was pleased that his friends hadn't held his fathers ancestors against him.
The girls were long gone when the compartment door flew open about two thirds of the way into the journey. Malfoy stood in the doorway, complete with sneer, his two cronies flanking him and a prefect badge pinned on his school robes. Harry glared at him, annoyed at the blond's overdramatic entrance.
"Truce is over Potter," the Slytherin sneered, his smirk covering the lie expertly. The truce they had agreed was permanent, a fact that Harry had reminded Malfoy the last time he had seen him. Even so they had to be seen to be enemies, anything else was too dangerous for Malfoy and likely to lose Harry all of his friends.
"About time. I'm fed up at having to be nice to you," he said coldly, standing up to meet the supposed threat.
"No," Malfoy replied, "You'll need to save what little charm you have for Chang. I heard she's available now, after you got the dark lord to kill Diggory for you."
Smash! Malfoy's head collided with the windows on the far side of the corridor. He was pinned down by an extremely angry Harry who refused to put up with any accusation that he was responsible for Cedric's death, especially from someone he regarded as a friend. The raven-haired boy had barely been able to resist hexing the blond, even if he had agreed not to fight each magically. Physical confrontations allowed them to whisper to each other without anyone else suspecting or overhearing.
"Apologise or else," Harry demanded. He wasn't faking the angry tone this time.
"I'm sorry but I had to provoke you," Draco whispered so that only Harry could hear or see him speak. Harry relaxed slightly, although so much that his friends would have noticed, "We need to meet up tomorrow in the old potions classroom."
"OK," Harry responded equally as quietly and still somewhat angrily. To the observer the whole exchange had looked as though the archenemies had been glaring at each other.
"It seems that your pathetic Gryffindor brain is unable to comprehend the fact I did not say you killed Diggory, merely that you are not entirely sorry to have him out of the way," Malfoy sneered for all to hear. It was an insult which sounded as if it ought to provoke Harry, but actually wouldn't in practice, meaning that Draco wouldn't be beaten to a pulp by an out of control Gryffindor.
Instead Harry simply grabbed hold of him and pushed him onto the floor of the corridor before walking back into the compartment and slamming the door shut, an angry expression on his face. He didn't even notice Malfoy pull himself off the floor and stride dignifiedly down the corridor, his two cronies accompanying him.
Sincerest apologies for taking so long, but I had writers block on another fic that I'm writing, which had a knock on effect on this one. I'm not struggling to write this fic though, so I should be able to release another chapter by June 21st. I won't be abandonning this fic though, that will never happen and I hope that none of you will stop reading it even if it will technically become AU.
I slipped in a little about Harry's fathers family as well. Thanks to his Uncle Sam (Lilly's elder brother) Harry knows a lot more about his father's family then I've given the impression of in the fic. I've mentionned the important bits, like the fact that the Potters are traditionally a dark family and that Snape was James' cousin, but there is a but more to the story of his grandfather which will revealed within the next couple of chapters. Also Harry's other Uncle (Harry 'Slinker' Potter, James' elder brother) has a major secret which Harry does not know yet, but which will be revealed soon.
Finally, Thank You to all those who reviewed Chapter 12. The reviews were much appreciated.