"We took you in,"
Thud. A sharp pain.
"Clothed you,"
Another thud. Another pain.
"Fed you, and gave you a roof over your head,"
Another pain, lower this time.
"And what thanks do I get? Nothing but a rude, stupid and crazy FREAK WHO RUINS OUR LIVES DAY AFTER DAY!" he was yelling now.
Harry could smell the whiskey on his uncle Vernon's breath. He curled himself up into a tighter ball, hating everyone who he had ever trusted, who he had thought would protect him, and who had used him.
Vernon kicked Harry once more before stepping away to unzip his trousers and let them fall away. He then pulled his underwear off to reveal his half-erect penis. He rolled Harry over so his back was facing him, and plunged into the boy.
After five minutes, Vernon, spent, pulled out of the boy, pulled up his underwear and trousers, and left the room.
Harry, still curled up in a ball, whimpered. During his whole summer so far-it had only been a week and a half-he had not cried, whimpered, or made any noise at all during his 'sessions' with his uncle. He had held it all in, and now he felt it was the right time for the sadness, anger, and pain to be released. He thought of Dumbledore, who had used him from day one. Who had put him in this hellhole knowing what would happen and knowing that he would then be reliant on Dumbledore to be even vaguely happy. Who had sent out letters and bribing money to two who would pretend to befriend Harry and manipulate him to Dumbledore's will, and feed him lies about the people in Slytherin House and about Draco Malfoy. He brought up in his mind a list of people who had betrayed him, and who he absolutely loathed. Little did he know that at this moment Draco malfoy was talking to his father about the emerald-eyed boy.
"Father, what does the Dark Lord want to do about Potter?"
"Well, Draco, I do not know, but it was a very smart move for you to serve him without the Mark. I'm sure Dumbledore is none the wiser."
"Thank you, father, but I'm still curious."
"Yes, Draco, I know. But we will have to wait and see."
Draco sighed. He really wanted to know what was on the Dark Lords mind. And what was on Potters, too.
"Father, I need a new look. May I go to Knockturn Alley to get something a bit more…interesting clothing-wise?"
"Sure, Draco. Just don't take too long."
Harry got up to stand from his curled up position on the floor. He looked around him, and then his eyes moved towards the door, from which he had heard the sound of a cautious footstep. He shuddered, and he let his hold on his magic loosen, and suddenly there was a large black orb floating in the air directly in front of his face. He reached a hand out and touched it. He felt a tug behind his eyes as his consciousness was pulled into a different world.
After what seemed like an hour, Harry felt his mind slip back into his body. The orb was gone, and he heard another footstep, and he realised that time must have stopped while he was on his little journey.
Harry moved away from the door, and crawled under the bed. He used a screwdriver that was on the floor to pry away a floorboard, and he pulled a small shard of a mirror out and crawled back out from the darkness under his bed.
Back in the light, he held the mirror in front of his face and steadied it. He looked into a pair of eyes that were black, with tiny flecks of silver in them. Surely the mirror was wrong? These couldn't possibly be his eyes. He had bright, emerald green eyes. His mother's eyes.
Harry then thought about what he knew and remembered of his parents. He knew from Dumbledore that they were two of the most powerful aurors, and that in school they had hated each other.
Hang on a minute, he thought, they hated each other, they were powerful, so why did they have a child?
Then it dawned on him. Dumbledore had once more meddled in his life, although this time it was before he was even born. He was nothing more than a weapon of mass destruction, bred by Dumbledore. His hatred for the old man grew, and as it did, he saw in the mirror that the silver flecks in his eyes were turning red. He chuckled, something he had not done in a long time. Years in fact. It then escalated to right out laughing, and then, by the time his uncle had opened the twenty locks that now adorned his door, it was a horrible cackling sound. His uncle looked at him, then after a few seconds, started backing away slowly. When the laughing stopped abruptly, he stopped moving back towards the door. He gave his nephew a look as if to say, what in the world… and Harry stood to his full height, a full foot taller than his uncle, and looked down.
Hey, he thought, I must have grown when my eyes changed…cool.
He looked into his uncle's eyes, and Vernon's breath caught.
Since when is the freak taller than me? And those eyes…Vernon's eyes bulged, and he felt his body being lifted off the floor by some invisible force.
"What's wrong, dear uncle Vernon? Is this situation a little too freaky for you?" Harry used his magic to secure Vernon to the exact place he was, and left the room in his naked state.
Harry walked down the hall to his uncle and aunts room, finding his Aunt Petunia in bed, pretending to be asleep. He quickly located his uncle's wardrobe and rifled through the clothes that were there. He found a black pair of slacks and a black belt, along with a black tee shirt of his aunts that was in there for some, unknown reason. He pulled the clothes on, and brought his uncle into the room using a simple Accio charm wandlessly. When Petunia saw her husband through her half closed eyes, she stopped pretending to be asleep and sat up in bed.
"What did you do to him?" she asked, with a tremble in her voice.
"Nothing much. I just hung him from the roof. And now he's going to watch as you-," Harry said, sitting on the bed, "-die."
Aunt Marge screamed, bringing Dudley from his bedroom on the other side of the hall.
"Mother? Father? What's happening?" he looked at Harry "What's he doing in your clothes, father?"
Harry laughed, and pointed his hand at Dudley, and levitated the pudgy boy onto the bed with his mother.
Harry looked at Vernon, and, still grinning, got p off the bed and walked behind his uncle. He took the man's right hand in his, and pointed them at Dudley, sending a bolt of bright green Avada Kedavra at the boy, making it seem, from Vernon's point of view, as though it was he that cast the spell. Then Harry directed the hands at petunia and let go of Vernon's hand, holding it in place with his magic. He sent his magic through his uncle's body, and the bolt of green light came out of Vernon's hand and hit Petunia square in the chest.
Harry looked at the bodies on the bed, and then moved in front of Vernon, who was looking at his hand in fear and awe. Harry put his finger on his uncles forehead and put a small surge of magic through the man's body, targeting his vital organs, and then pulled all the magic into a tiny ball in the man's heart, and as the magic was pulled, the flesh and blood and gore came with it, breaking through bones and other organs as though they were made of candy floss. Vernon was dead in a second.
Harry put a full body healing spell on himself, and disappeared with a loud crack.
Harry apparated into Knockturn alley just as Draco did, and somehow they managed to land back-to-back. When Harry had landed, he was already halfway through a step, and within seconds he was away, into the only inn in the dark alley, the Eloh-Lleh.
He placed some galleons that had appeared out of his pocket onto the counter and asked for a room for the night.
"An' wha's your name, then?"
"Alexus. Alexus Mortus."
"Well then, Mr. Mortus, shall I show you to your room?"
"Yes, thank you."
The man led Harry upstairs, and to a room overlooking the alley. Harry smiled an evil grin.
"Thank you mister-"
"Natas. Mr Natas."
"Mr Natas. I believe I will go and do some shopping."
"Very well, sir. Here's your key. It has a homing charm so if you lose it, it will come back here."
"Very clever. Thank you again, Mr Natas. I believe I will enjoy my stay here."
With that, both men left the room, Harry locking it after him.
Draco was making his way towards the potions specialists, he needed a hair potion he had no idea, or inclination whatsoever, to make. He went through the door, and a moment after him came a tall, black haired teen, who Draco thought he recognized from somewhere. This was fairly normal, but the thing Draco noticed about the boy was his eyes. They were black, with tiny silver flecks through them. Draco hastily moved to the counter when he realised he was staring, and hoped he hadn't made a fool of himself. After he had told the shop attendant what he wanted, the taller boy cam up beside him.
"Really, Draco, I never thought you were one to stare so openly at a complete stranger."
The attendant cane back and gave Draco a small bottle filled with pink potion inside. Draco grimaced at the color, but handed over three galleons and stepped out of the shop. A minute later, so did the other boy, who then apparated out of the alley altogether.
Draco walked cautiously into Diagon alley, and then out through the Leaky Cauldron into Muggle London.
He walked into a Goth clothing and accessories shop, and picked out ten outfits and an armful of accessories. He paid for them in muggle money and left the shop. He walked around until he found a public toilet black and, holding his nose, went in. he checked that there were no muggles in there, and apparated back to Malfoy Manor.
Harry appeared with a loud crack in front of a muggle Goth shop, filled with black clothing and accessories. He walked in, put the muggle attendant under the Imperius Curse, and Accio-ed one of each item in the shop, which he then walked into the back room of, un-Imperio-ed the attendant, obliviated her, and apparated out of the shop and back to the Eloh-Lleh. Once there, he stripped out of Vernon Dursley's now dirt covered clothing, and walked with his bottle of potion, and tipped his head over the sink. He poured the contents of the bottle into his mass of tangled hair, and massaged it in with his hands. His hair immediately untangled, and went limp. He tugged on a chunk of his fringe and it grew an inch. He then tugged on the rest of his hair and pulled his fringe over his left eye and pulled one chunk out into a long spike that stuck out from his head. It stayed there. He spiked the rest, and soon the diameter of his head was around 24 inches. He went back to the bed and pulled out a pair of baggy black pants and a black shirt, a black, baggy hooded jumper and a black leather belt with a silver snake clasp. Hw found a necklace with a tiny hollow glass pendant that looked like it was filled with blood. He pulled the clothes on, and looked in the mirror. He had also taken a large supply of gothic makeup, and applied thick black eyeliner, thick black lipstick, almost white foundation, and mascara to his face.
He took a smaller bag off the desk and tipped its contents on the dresser. Ear, lip, belly, eyebrow, and tongue rings. He picked out his favorites and put them in. eight in his right ear, five in his left, a barbell with a tiny snakes head on one end in his left eyebrow, a plain titanium ball stud in the centre of his bottom lip, a plain silver ring a centimeter to the right of it, a black metal bar in his tongue, and nothing in his belly button.
He stepped back, cast a sticking charm to his makeup, and looked at the person in the mirror and smirked.
Oh my god, he thought, I can smirk better than Malfoy can. Cool.
Draco walked up to his bedroom and stripped to his underwear, then walked into his ensuite bathroom. He leaned over the sink and massaged the potion through his hair. It was suddenly black, and Draco combed it into a Mohawk. Looking into his reflection, he smirked.
Dumbledork will have a fit, he decided, excellent.
He pulled on one of his new outfits, applied thick almost white foundation, heavy black eyeliner, mascara and lipstick, cast a sticking charm, put in a few ear-, lip-, and tongue-rings, stepped back and looked at himself again, letting a chuckle escape his black lips.
Inside number twelve, Grimmauld Place, the Order of the Phoenix were in turmoil.
"If Severus was here we could see what Voldemort was up to," Minerva McGonagall said.
"Well, there has to be some clue as to Harry's disappearing act. I didn't even sense the wards at all, and when I went to the house it was like there were never any wards there. Ever. It must have been some powerful magic to take down my wards without me even noticing." Dumbledore said, "It must have been Voldemort. I can think of no other wizard anywhere near as powerful as I am. Yes. It must have been Voldemort."
Voldemort, however, was laughing his head off. The boy who lived, Harry Potter, was missing. AWOL. Disappeared off the face of the earth. He was so absolutely happy that he was crying tears of laughter. Severus Snape stood before him, looking slightly bewildered.
Snape had been at number twelve, Grimmauld Place, had heard the news of potter going AWOL and apparated to Voldemort's secret lair immediately. He knew the dark lord would want to hear this piece of information immediately. And he was right. The Dark Lord had heard the news, paused for a minute, and then burst out laughing.
They think it was me He thought, the stupid arses think it was me
"What should I tell the Order, Lord?" Snape's voice cut through his thoughts and brought him back to the world
"Tell them it was me," he replied, "who knows? It could be fun!"
He returned to laughing hysterically.
Harry was enjoying himself, strolling through muggle London and scaring a lot of them, doing some walking-on-air to freak out those who noticed, and he kept raising himself with each block, until he was a full foot above the pavement. He was wearing a black trench coat that went all the way to the ground, and flared out to a full circle when he turned over a pair of black leather pants that hugged all the right places, a silver necklace with a pendant of a spider wrapped around a ruby, and a tattoo of a snake around his belly button.
He walked down an alley and put his feet back on the ground. He then thought of the boy in Knockturn alley the other day. Draco had grown a tiny bit over the two weeks Harry had been away from school. An inch, maybe. Not much more than that. He had looked pretty good.
He looked hot, Harry thought. Whoa. Where did that come from?
Harry searched his mind for his memories of the blond angel. For some reason they all had feelings of love attatched. Why had he not noticed that before? He had been too wrapped up in his supposed hatred of the boy from Ron and Hermione's-no, Weasel and Grangers-opinions of the boy to notice his own opinions.
He brought up his list of who to eliminate and went over their names in red.
He paused and thought for a minute, then put on the list Gryffindor House.
He walked deeper into the alley, going so far that even the gang graffiti on the brick walls had disappeared. It was like it had a ward of some kind over it. Then he felt it. A soft resistance. And a gentle pull. Pulling him deeper into the alley. He guessed these were wards, pushing muggles away. The pulling he couldn't explain.
When he reached the end of the alley he looked about him. There was nothing but more bricks. He felt a tugging at his hand and gave in to it. He followed the tugging until his hand found a brick in the wall, he touched it, and when nothing happened he sent a small jolt of magic through it. He blinked when nothing happened. Suddenly, when he opened his eyes, there was a door. A black solid oak door, the same size as those in the great hall in hogwarts. He pushed them open, and there he saw a shop he knew was only in Knockturn alley. He wandered in, and when he turned around the door was gone. Just a brick wall.
Interesting, he thought, this knowledge could come in handy later on.
He walked the distance back to the Eloh-Lleh and went in to his room to sleep.
Draco spent the remainder of the summer wandering the halls of the manor; it's grounds, and anywhere else he had access to. His father had laughed at his hair, and said that when combined with the full Goth makeup the Mohawk was quite frightening. Considering the fact that it stuck out eight inches from his head and it looked like there was no gel or wax of any kind involved –which there wasn't, that was the nature of the potion- he was kind of freaked out.
On the thirty-first of august Draco returned to Knockturn alley to get his schoolbooks. He didn't get his books from Flourish and Blotts; he got his from Marverio Kirke's Book Shoppe, which was in the dark alley, not Diagon. When he entered the shop, he felt a pair of eyes on him, and, looking around, he saw the same eyes he had seen in the potions shop. Black, with silver flecks.
When he came back to hi senses the strange boy was standing beside him, looking at him. Draco blinked, and just kept looking back.
"Come with me, Draco. We must speak in a more, private place." The strange boy had spoken again.
"Alright. Where to, then?" Draco replied, barely realizing he had.
"I have a room at Eloh-Lleh. We'll go there."
The boy walked out of the shop, Draco following on his heels.
At the Eloh-Lleh Draco followed the boy into the room. The short trip had been quiet, with not a word spoken between the two boys.
"So, why did you ask me here? What do we need to speak about? Hell, I don't even know your name!" Draco burst out, he was nervous in the presence of this hot, strange boy.
"Oh, you know my name, alright. It's been spat out with insults so many times I would hate to think you've forgotten it," replied the other boy. "but let's start again, from scratch, shall we?" Draco nodded. "You go first."
"Draco. Draco Malfoy." Draco said, holding out his hand.
The other boy held Dracos hand within his own.
"Harry. Harry Potter. You may know me better as Scarhead, Potty, The Boy Who Lived." He shuddered.
Draco sat there, dumbfounded.
"Why are you hiding out in an inn in Knockturn alley?"
"Because I realised just how much they all used me. I realised it was they who forced me to turn away your hand of friendship. It was they who put me in that hellhole and left me to be tortured." Harry's eyes got darker, and the silver flecks went black.
"Also, Potter-"
"Harry, please."
"Harry. Why are your eyes all…"
"I need to tell you the whole story."
And he did.
The next hour was spent telling Draco what had been happening over the summer.
Draco took it all in and worked it over in his mind.
"So you, the boy who lived, killed three muggles?"
"Yeah. I also found a new look. As you can see. It's interesting that two, so very different, chose the same look on the same day. Did yo pay for yours?"
"Yes, why? Didn't you?"
"No, I just Imperio-ed the attendant and then obliviated her and apparated away. I've also found out that I can do some pretty cool stuff. Watch."
Harry stepped back, into the shadow in the corner of the room. Draco watched as he silently disappeared, then stepped out of the other corner.
Draco did not notice this, and continued to look curiously into the corner Harry had disappeared into.
"Behind you, Draco." He whispered into the blonde's ear, startling him.
Draco whirled around.
"H-H-Harry! How on earth did you get there?"
"I just willed it so. I can go into shadow for days. Months even. And the best thing is, no one can detect it. I came out in hogwarts and it didn't notice me."
"You fooled Hogwarts? Wow! Not even Dumbledore can fool Hogwarts into thinking he's not there!"
"I know. Now, the reason I asked you here, Draco, is to bestow you also with this power. The orb said I could. And I think that you will make the perfect shadowdancer. That's the name given to us by the orb that creates us."
"Who or what is this orb?"
"It is, quite simply, the orb. Here, I'll show you."
Harry pulled his hand in front of his face, and there appeared a black orb, that seemed to be glowing black.
"Touch it, and it will show you all, and give you the powers and the name of the shadowdancers."
Draco tentatively touched the orb, and he felt a tugging behind his eyes as Harry's face faded.
Back in the room, and in the world around it, time stopped. After a few minutes, Draco returned to his body, and time jumped back into life.
"Whoa…that was…amazing!" Draco said.
"Come, Draco. I'll show you the wonders of the shadows." Harry said mysteriously, leading Draco into the shadows in the corner of the room. He and Draco faded to become shadow, and they disappeared from sight.
Mr Natas walked into the room, to tell Mr Mortus that there was a bug problem in the lower levels, and to ask if he had the same problem up here. When there was no one in the room, the man scurried into the room, made the bed and straightened the pictures on the walls. In doing this he walked through Harry and Draco, who were still shadow.
"Wow." Draco gasped, amazed at what was happening. Harry immediately covered Draco's mouth with his hand.
Mr Natas, still standing in Harry and Draco, froze and looked around him.
"Wh-who's th-there?" he stammered, obviously scared out of his wits.
Harry released Draco's mouth and held up an index finger to his lips.
The man, visibly shaking, scurried out of the room, leaving the two boys to laugh their heads off at him.
"Poor bugger," Draco said once they were out of the shadow, "We gave him the fright of his life!"
"I know. When you do it to muggles it's ten times funnier."
"Well, now that we've sorted that out, I believe you need some schoolbooks. We can just fade in, grab them and fade out. No-one will ever know we were there, except, of course, the missing two copies of the seventh year books we each need."
With that, Harry and Draco faded out of sight once more.
In Flourish and Blotts', Titania was bored out of her skull. She had been in this bloody bookshop since eight that morning, and it was a quiet day. Jut when she was about to fall over in a doze, she saw movement out of the corner of her eye.
That's odd, she thought, I didn't hear the chimes ring.
She opened her eyes fully, and saw through the shelves two boys, in their late teens, she guessed. When she got out from behind the desk to see if the two needed assistance, they disappeared. Where to, she didn't know.
Maybe it's my mind playing tricks on me, she thought, they say it can happen after a boring day. Yes. It's all in my mind.
In the great hall, Dumbledore had just finished his welcoming speech, the first years were sorted, and everyone was happily eating.
Well, everyone except Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy, who were not there.
Dumbledore sighed and stared at his plate.
"What's wrong, Albus?" professor McGonagall asked, a hint of concern in her voice.
"I'm just worried about Harry. And Mr Malfoy is not present, either. I worry that he has joined his father and the Death Eaters." Dumbledore sighed again.
Just then a black bird-like creature swooped into the great hall, and flew straight to Dumbledore, dropping a scrap of black parchment with something written in blood red on it in front of him, where it hovered in midair before his face.
What makes you think we're not here, Dumbledork?
Dumbledore's head shot up. Surely that wasn't Harry's writing?
Laughter came from between them, and the two teachers looked toward it.
"Harry! Where are you?" Minerva's voice was full of surprise.
"You didn't think we'd make it that easy, did you Dumbledork. Turn around, and we might show ourselves." Minerva could hear the sneer in Draco's voice.
"Mr Malfoy, if I may ask, where were you last night? Your father was worried you had been kidnapped." Snape said, with a trace of relief. He had worried that Draco had turned his back on the dark side and turned Light. Lucius would have killed him if he had.
"Tell Lucius that I have been taking great care of Draco, and that he is not to worry of what you feared." Harry materialized in front of Snape, his back to the older man. Everyone in the room gasped at his Goth look, because by now everyone in the room was watching the spectacle at the teacher's table. "Now. Dumbledork. I wish to change houses."
"Why, Harry? You have many friends in Gryffindor." Harry could see Dumbledore's mind working at a million miles an hour, and turned to Professor McGonagall.
"Would you fetch the sorting hat, please, Minerva?" Harry asked her in a professional manner.
Minerva stood, dumbfounded, and fetched the ht from its stool behind the table.
"Thank you, Professor." Harry said as he took the hat from her.
"SLYTHERIN!" the hat yelled as soon as his fingers touched it.
"I think that is enough. Draco, I believe you have something for Snape to give to your father."
Draco materialized, and the whole great hall sucked in a breath, as they had with Harry.
He walked to Snape, and handed him a rolled up parchment.
"Do not show this to Dumbledore, or anyone who is likely to let him know its contents. Give it to father. Oh, and give this one to the Master. The same rules apply." He whispered into his godfather's ear. "If you break one of the rules, you will severely regret it."
Snape nodded his understanding, and then Draco moved to stand next to Harry.
"Where to, Harry?"
"The Slytherin common room, I believe. We'll call Dobby to bring us something to eat."
The boys looked around them and faded from sight.
"What the…"
"Albus, what on earth was that-fading thingy-they just did?"
"I honestly have no idea, Minerva. I have no idea."
The hall suddenly broke out in whispers and Dumbledore realised just how quiet it had been.
"You don't think-"
"We can only hope he has not gone dark, Minerva. We can only hope."
Dumbledore then fled the hall, thinking he needed to look this up.
When Harry and Draco arrived in the Slytherin Common Room Harry had the best idea he had had in a long while.
"Why don't we go to the Chamber?"
"Chamber? What Chamber?"
"The Chamber of Secrets, idiot! It's perfect. We won't even have to go down the horrible pipe! Come on!" he grabbed Draco's hand and faded, rushing to the chamber, sliding through the floors and through walls.
"Whoa! This is pretty cool!" Draco exclaimed as they arrived in the main chamber.
"Yeah, I know. And in second year, after we got weasel back up top, I came down heaps. It's like, a secret hiding place. Nobody else could get in. and I explored a whole heap."
He touched a large green gem in the wall with some weird carving around it.
"It's the eye of a snake. See the other one is just there." He pointed, "The body goes out over there."
Open. Harry said in Parseltongue.
The green gem glowed brighter, and a chunk of the wall disappeared to reveal a large room with black carpet, walls, and furniture. There was a heavy oak dining table, and matching chairs, one of which was missing.
"I know where the missing chair is." Draco remarked.
"Really? Where is it?"
"In the Manor. It was a present to my father from someone..."
"It must have been Tom. He opened the Chamber last time."
"That makes sense."
"Wait till you see the bedroom."
Harry walked out of the room and traced the snakes tongue, stopping when his hand rested on a tiny red gem in the groove.
Open. He said again, and another chunk of wall disappeared to reveal a black door, which Draco opened.
"Oh. My. God. This is so amazing!"
Harry followed the other boy into the room, which was very large, and sported a bed that was at least three times larger than a king size. The color scheme was emerald green, black, and all the metal bits and pieces were pure silver. Draco ran to the bed, kicked off his shoes, jumped on the bed and started jumping. Even though he had done the exact same thing five years ago, he followed suit. Everything was better with Draco.
"You don't mind sharing the bed? There's only one." He asked the once blonde boy, who was grinning as he bounced around the bed.
"Not at all!" he said, bouncing over, tripping on Harry's shoe that had somehow found its was onto the bed, and knocked Harry over, both boy's toppling to the mattress, with Draco on top.
Neither moved for a minute, they just lay there, looking into each other's eyes.
Draco moved his head closer to Harry's, and then stopped, unsure. Harry closed the distance and brought their lips together.
"Oh my god that's so hot!"
The boys broke away from each other at the sound of the voice.
"Who's there? And how did you get in?" Draco asked, annoyed at the sudden interruption.
"Oh, please do not be alarmed," the voice said, "you see, I was the one who sent the orb to you, Harry."
"Okay, but who exactly are you?" Harry asked, getting off Draco and sitting up.
"Please don't scream when you find out." The voice said, and a form materialized in front of them.
"You're-"
"Salazar Slytherin."
"But-shouldn't you be dead?" Harry asked, bewildered that one of the founders was standing before him and his lover.
"If I was an ordinary wizard, yes. I should be dead. But, you see, I'm no ordinary wizard. I am the ShadowMaster. I have the ability to control shadows, and send the orb to create more of my kind. You boys are only at the ShadowDancer level at the moment. You can fade in and out of shadows, and hide in them without being detected by anyone else than each other and myself. I can sense you at any given time, whenever I need or want to. I can also tell who your Mates are. Many ShadowPeople have Mates who are not of the race, but you two are special. You are each the others' Mate. If that makes sense."
The boys nodded, still taking in all this information.
"When you, um…mate, your bodies will change, and a child will be conceived. If you do not want this to happen just yet, you must both drink a spoonful of this potion." He held out a large glass bottle filled with a bright red liquid that looked suspiciously like blood, which Harry took from him and examined.
"It looks like blood." He remarked.
"It is. Mine. For some reason unknown to me, my blood will stop you from conceiving a child. If you need more, just touch the spider on the bottle and say 'refill requested'. I will get the message and give you some more. My blood replenishes in my body after two seconds of the loss, so you needn't worry about that. And you need to know also not to entrust this knowledge to anyone else. If they found out I was residing down here I would be removed and exterminated."
"Sir-"
"Salazar. Please, just call me Salazar. Or Sal."
"Sal, why have I never seen you down here before now? I mean, I came here almost every night."
"I know you came every night. I put sleeping spells on you to help you sleep. I knew that it was not the right time to give you this gift, but I did know that you were the one I was to give it to. On that night at the Dursleys, I was there. In the shadows, when I felt your pain. I could not stop him from doing what he did, because I was a tad weak, from speaking with Lucius all night and the day before. I'm sorry Harry. But, your magic grew from that anger, that overwhelming rage. I thought you might appreciate that extra bit of power. anyway, I left the orb with you and watched in the crystal wall what you were up to, I watched Draco, and I sensed what you felt for him. I visited in your dreams as a shadow to tell you to pass the shadow on to him, and bring him closer to yourself."
Harry hugged Draco closer, and kissed his head.
"And for that, I am eternally grateful."
Draco tilted his head back and kissed Harry's lips.
"I'll leave you boys to it then, shall I? My room is directly opposite this one. The password is snakebite in parseltongue. Oh, and Draco, you can speak parseltongue, too. It was part of the gift of the shadows."
"Thank you, Sal," Draco said, much more at ease with the ShadowMaster.
"Lets begin where we left off, shall we?" Harry suggested as soon as the man had left the room.
"Alright then." Draco replied, flopping onto his back and pulling Harry down to meet his lips.