Note: Unbeta'd since I have no beta yet.
Chapter 02
• Seductive Power •
It was four full days before Harry finally slept again, mostly from pure exhaustion. He was scared of seeing her again, maybe because he knew who it was and hated to like it. It didn't come and he was able to stay awake for three more nights after that. Then, a few days later, on his way to transfiguration, the world began to spin and Harry stumbled, grabbing onto something just before collapsing to the cold stone floor.
For a few moments, he was in the dream again, and he could see the back of her back, the smooth ashen white skin, delicate looking, unlike any other woman he knew. Already he could feel pleasure, an intense buildup that wanted to crest.
No longer strong enough to fight it, and finding that he enjoyed the feeling, he gave in, allowing the pleasure overwhelm him. He tried to fall into it as he had before, let the pleasure feed him and make him feel better. Then, at the very moment he began to feel the pleasure come and the feelings latch into him, everything slipped into an eerie darkness and the feeling was ripped away.
He woke soon after as well as he could determine, finding himself in the all-to-familiar medical wing. The matron, upon seeing him wake, scurried away from the potion she had been handling, and pressed her hand to him, holding him down and making him unable to move.
"You, young man, have no slept in quite some time."
Harry did not disagree with her, but he wondered why he was so weak, it was infuriating that he could not do anything, that someone else was controlling him. He stared at her, eyes burning. The matron took it wrong. "Oh no, you're not going to be getting out of here. There was something going on that no one knew about, I've rarely seen this sort of magical draining, and it has never gone on this long without someone noticing. Mr. Weasley and Ms. Granger reported that, other than your quite mood, they've noticed nothing wrong and that you've had no major scar attacks."
Anger flashed through Harry, he could not believe that Hermione and Ron were reporting his every mood. "I couldn't sleep," he finally said through clenched teeth. "That's all, I'm fine, leave me alone."
Truthfully, he wanted to go back to the dream and just fall into it, it was so much easier to just let it wash over him, so much more pleasurable. It made things better too, whenever he fell into it he was there, and it was happening to him and the pain of the world went away. It felt so good, too good to be a bad thing.
He turned away from her, closing her eyes and trying to sleep again, to find the pleasure he'd been drowning in before he was yanked away from it. Madam Pomfrey bristled and whispered a spell. In a flash, Harry was staring at them, wide-eyed and unable to move.
"Do not ignore me young man. I want to know what is causing this. Albus came to me personally, asking in on your health when he discovered you were here. He is extremely worried about what it is that's happening. According to Ms. Tonks, you've been slightly depressed, and angry that she's been following you around even thought it's her job. Otherwise, there have been no signs of illness according to her."
"I just don't feel good," Harry said weakly even though his anger was simmering under the surface. Now that he'd been trapped there he couldn't help but be even angrier. He was Harry Potter, he didn't deserve to be chained to a table. "I've been having strange dreams."
"About You-Know-Who?" Madam Pomfrey asked inquisitively, far too inquisitive for her own good. Harry was having problems controlling his anger at the moment and she was only making it worse.
"No," he snapped. "And these dreams are personal, nothing that you should be worried about. They're very personal, and they're not causing me not to sleep. If they were, in any way, important to Dumbledore, I'd discuss it with him. I don't plan on having a repeat of what happened two years ago. In addition, while I'm not a master Occlumens, I am very good, good enough in fact, that I haven't had a scar attack since I had proper lessons. It's not as if I can't keep him from invading my mind as he did before."
"Mr. Potter, I was, in no way, implying that..." Madam Pomfrey said, stumbling over her words and their meanings.
He looked at her and his mouth turned, slowly, into a sneer. She stared at him, eyes wide, no longer having any words to speak. The spell that was surrounding him faded and Harry sat up, still fighting the bits of it left, when he heard a crash. His eyes, still flaring with anger, turned towards the door as it opened.
A young woman walked through, looking as if she'd just been molested by one of the knights in the corridor. One of the metal hands was half way into her pocket while the collar of one had somehow made it around her own neck. Harry couldn't help but grin at how clumsy Tonks was, it made it so easy to know where she was. She was, by far, one of the worst choices for a bodyguard. If he never moved she might be able to blend in well, but until then, she was a complete goof.
"What do you want Tonks?" he asked, turning away from her to find some robe or something, since he was only wearing the medical clothing that the matron had place on him. When she froze he ignored her, no longer caring whether or not she was mad at him. He suddenly didn't care if anyone was mad at him anymore.
"I just wanted to see if you were doing alright," she said quietly, approaching from the side, moving slowly. She didn't seem to be happy about the way that she was being treated, nor did she seem to want to do anything about it. Harry didn't feel sorry for her though, she hadn't shown him any consideration at all, especially when she left him tied to the chair a few weeks before. He hadn't gotten over that at all. In fact, he was pretty pissed about it.
"As if you'd care," he snapped back, still avoiding looking at her even though she'd gotten close. He frowned at her, angry that she'd even forced him into that position. If she hadn't, he could have pretended to be asleep while Tonks waited at his side and ignored her altogether.
He found a pair of pants and slipped them on silently. Behind him he heard a sob and he turned to really look at her. It was quite a surprise to see that her lips had finally returned to the normal, full lips that he'd stared at several weeks before.
"Trying to seduce me with your lips?" he sneered, finding that it was both difficult and easy at the same time, as if something inside of him was helping him do it. "As if that would help you."
There was a gleam in her eye, and it looked as if she was angry at him even though she wasn't about to let him know. He scoffed, something he'd never done, not realistically, and it felt good. "Come on, even your Aunt Bellatrix could do a better job than that..."
Tonks gaped, not sure exactly what to say to the accusation. She wasn't going to deny it, since it was obviously true, but she wasn't going to address that he was talking about her Aunt either. He stared at her, still sneering scornfully then decided to add another word, a pet name he'd heard the previous year, in a battle he'd been forced to watch, something Bellatrix had used. "...Nimmy."
Tonks moved forward faster than he expected to her, and he felt the sting of her hand as she slapped him with more force than he'd ever been slapped before. It felt as if he'd been broadsided by a Bludger. "Don't you ever call me that," Tonks snapped and stomped out of the room, furious at Harry. Probably more furious than she'd ever been in her whole life.
Harry close his eyes, feeling a sense of satisfaction at angering her, angry at himself for the same reason. He was angry at her too, for slapping him, but it didn't bruise his ego as much as it angered him that she'd actually done it. After all, he was her charge, and she was hitting him. He wondered briefly if he could use it against her, but instead decided to hold it for when he needed something from her. He stretched, feeling as if some part of him that had been permanently tense, had released. It felt so good not to hold back, even if it wasn't his usual self. It was something that he could get used to.
When he came back to the present, he pulled off the robe that had been placed on him and searched for his cloak and shit. He couldn't find it so he picked up his wand and left the Matron behind, not really wanting to deal with her incessant nagging.
The hallway was empty at first and he made his way down the stairs, heading for something, though he wasn't quite sure what. Some Hufflepuffs passed by him and stopped just after, the boys to stare while the girls whispered between themselves. He knew it because he could feel the looks and hear the whispers just enough to know that they were there. No one said anything out loud though, so he continued past them, they didn't really matter anyway.
It was when he ran into a group of Slytherin 6th years that things got interesting. They were all girls, a few of them he knew, most he didn't. All of them stopped in front of him instead of waiting until he was past them. One of them sneered. "Is that suppose to be attractive Potter?" she asked, her eyes roaming his body.
Harry whipped around, grabbing her shirt and yanking her towards him. With a deft movement he swept over her, and kissed her, shoving his mouth to hers with force. An energy sparked, and he could feel her poring into him, as if he were eating her from the inside. It felt pleasurable, but only for a moment, until the power filled him and began to seep over the edges, scalding his mouth.
With another quick movement, he shoved her away before she collapsed. He stared, furious that she'd insulted him, but also feeling much stronger than he had moments before. She shivered, frightened, and moved backwards, looking away from his eyes. "What do you want?" she asked, her voice quivering.
"Nothing a slut like you can give," he said, shoving past her and continuing past the group of girls behind her.
It was only moments before a group Slytherin 6th year boys appeared to avenge her. One of them made to step in front of Harry and he raised his wand, casting a spell before a single word was exchanged. Harry didn't stop at all, just continued past the other boys who simply made a path while glancing to the portrait that the unfortunate boy had suddenly found himself trapped in. One of them started to say something but a look from Harry cut his voice as effectively as cutting his tongue from his mouth.
Harry smirked, then ascended another set of stairs, suddenly knowing where it was that he wanted to go.
It was soon after that he discovered someone was following him. As he moved through the corridors he could hear the steps echo occasionally out of tune with his own. He never saw them though, and as he approached the Room of Requirements, he wondered if they were going to attack him or if they were following him for other purposes.
The door opened on the first pass, it had been doing that since the middle of last year, he heard a sharp breath and he whipped around. "Accio invisibility cloak," he said quickly and quietly. A second past and the cloak came shooting towards him revealing a surprised Blaise Zabini. He knew her well; the slim Slytherin had become active over the last two years.
Until then she'd been a quiet, shy girl, but lately she'd had quite a mouth. She didn't participate in the things that the other Slytherins chose to involve themselves in, but she usually got in a lot of trouble for doing other things. She'd been caught four times dueling in the hallways in the past month. Rumor was that all of them had been boys who propositioned her.
Harry stared at her, his eyes narrowing. He had seen one of the boys who'd had the misfortune of dueling with her, and knew that they had been beaten badly. At the moment he wondered what it was that they'd seen in her, she wasn't all that attractive. She would do though, because it wasn't physique he was looking for, merely power.
"Are you coming in or not?" he asked, holding the door for a moment before entering without her, her cloak held tightly in her hand.
When she entered, Harry was sitting in a luxurious sofa that wasn't far from the door. Hogwarts had created something like a lounge room, but it was dark, not the bright colors that Harry was used to. He didn't know why, but it was comfortable, much more in tune with his mood right now. He had folded the silvery cloak over the end of the sofa and was waiting for her.
"An invisibility cloak... expensive."
Blaise's eyes traveled across the room and it changed. Instead of a comfortable lounge room, it looked more like a dueling room, but severely padded. It stayed dark, and the couch that Harry was on was suddenly at the edge.
"You know the secrets of the room," Harry said simply, not even asking if he was right. He was curious as to who had told her, since he knew that she hadn't been a part of the inquisitive squad.
"I've been here before," she commented, her eyes lighting up. "Now, fight me."
"Fight?" Harry asked, staring at her, wondering why she was so tense. She looked as if she'd just got through with a fight. "Why do you think I'd fight you?" he inquired, smiling and trying to shut down her defenses. He didn't even bother raising his wand even though it was in his hand. For some reason everything felt so wrong, had someone raised a wand at him, especially a Slytherin, even the day before, he would have jumped at them, jumped at the chance to vent some of his anger. He didn't feel like that now, he didn't feel like that at all.
"Fight me," Blaise insisted. Harry finally raised his head to look straight at her and she froze, staring. "Your eyes," she said taking a step back. "They're black."
Harry blinked, not saying anything. It troubled him that he hadn't noticed it before, but everything was vivid, perfect, he could see her, but he could see her, the tiny movements she made as she breathed, the fact that she was tense, the way her skin shivered as he stared at her, her pupils dilating.
"Mmm," was all Harry could say, it felt right, so very right. He knew how unnatural this was, how impossible it was that he was calm, but he really didn't care. She was trembling inside, from excitement, and not from the fact that she wanted to fight him, it was what she'd do after she defeated him. He could see it all.
"Come here," Harry said, feeling so at ease that it didn't bother him slightly that she was gunning to take him down.
"Fight me," she said, her resolve weakening, he could tell by the change in tone, and the slight variance in her body language. He sighed again, basking in the feeling he was having.
Blaise moved, and though her resolve had weakened, Harry could see that she was preparing to fight. He stood in a movement as smooth as it was swift. She raised her wand and shot a spell at him as he glided forward, not really walking, nor flying. She had enough sense to start a second spell before he caught her wand hand and crushed it between the two of them. She was breathing hard, breathing so very hard. He sighed again, feeling her against him, finding the feeling intoxicating, the warmth of her skin and gentle movement of it.
The feeling faded, and a terror rose up in him like bile. He pulled away and wretched onto the ground, hating what he'd done over the past hour. So much had happened, and when he'd done it, it had been easy, a simple wave of his wand a flick of his hand. It had felt so good to be so powerful and as scary and heart wrenching it was, he was sad that it was gone.
"Blaise," he said, looking up at her, "help me," he managed to say before collapsing.
• Edited 2004.12.15 •
Yeah, Harry's a little OOC, but I'll explain it next chapter, if you're around for it. I will tell you this, even though Harry's mastered the basics of Occlumens, the new connection platform that he's developed with Voldemort is stronger than anything that's gone on before.