A/N So.. well.. it's been a while right? Sorry it's been so long in the making! I kinda freaked out when I saw my exam timetable and just felt guilty whenever I was working on this instead of revision... please don't kill me! Well, some fun stuff happens in this chapter so.. here you go!

Disclaimer: I do NOT own Harry Potter! (no one noticed my fingers were crossed, right?)

*Warnings* Brutal bloody torture, it's not too bad until Harry starts at it, you can probably skip it (I've starred around the bit you can miss)

~Parseltongue~

8. Oops...

He wasn't expecting much. Mostly, Harry just wanted to see how far Sirius would go, to see if he would show any truly dark tendencies that may be just lurking underneath the surface.

Harry was usually the observer; he was used to sitting back and watching. In fact, it was usually what he preferred to do, rather than acting. It had always helped that Chiana and Rasp had agreed with his preference, as it was all the better for understanding others whilst not revealing yourself.

But this time, this time it was different.

He didn't want to see Pettigrew scream, he wanted to be the one to do it. He swiftly curbed the thought, reminding himself of the purpose of this exercise. Observing Sirius.

Half and hour in, and he was pleasantly surprised with Sirius' behaviour. Harry had expected him to be at least a bit hesitant, given his light orientated history. But it seems that he had been suppressing his darker nature within himself since he had met James Potter.

He watched from his shadowed chair as Sirius circled Pettigrew, much like he would if both men had been in their animagus forms. The traitor was no longer confined to his box like prison, but the room was heavily warded in its absence. There would be no escape.

"Peter," Sirius called softly, the heap on the floor gave an involuntary shudder.

"It's rude not to look," he continued in a sweet voice, "when someone's talking to you."

Peter chanced a glance upwards, but was immediately set upon by clawing hands, grabbing his shirt collar and dragging him to his feet, pulling his body up so his toes were scrabbling for purchase on the floor beneath him. The acrid smell of urine assaulted Harry's nose, which wrinkled with the appropriate amount of disgust. Sirius' face contorted and he snorted through his hypersensitive nose, making him look even more wretched and terrifying than it had done before.

"Especially when that someone was the man you framed for mass murder and nearly guaranteed a life of misery in Azkaban," Sirius' voice had gone quiet, dangerous and angry, eliciting a whine from Pettigrew and for his eyes to widen in terror.

"I-please! James wouldn't have wanted this, LILY wouldn't have wanted this! L-let an old friend go! Please don't hurt me!" Harry had a hard time making sense of Pettigrew's mumblings; he wondered if any of this might affect Sirius, who had been friends with him once, however long ago.

Obviously not, Sirius kept a blank face when he pushed Pettigrew harshly to the floor, Pettigrew met the ground hard, "not mention, best friend and godfather to the family you betrayed to the Dark Lord," the man paused, seemingly lost in thought, Pettigrew's next words were cut short, "traitors shouldn't be allowed the privilege of speech."

Harry shook his head slightly when Sirius looked at him beseechingly. No, he wanted Peter to scream, not drown because Sirius had cut out his tongue. Pettigrew had missed the exchange, Harry didn't even think that the terrified man had even noticed his presence.

Pettigrew tried to shrink as Sirius turned his full attention back towards him, hoping to save himself from his wrath.

"Crucio."

Well, that idea just went up in flames.

The little man started screaming before the spell had even landed. Harry closed his eyes to better appreciate the sound, whilst Sirius devoured the sight before him, eyes wide with glee. He was about ten seconds in when he cancelled the spell. Harry's eyes snapped open, half in irritation, half in curiosity.

"You betrayed them," Sirius accused.

Pettigrew lay twitching on the floor, but still managed to look up, terror coursing through his eyes, "He would have killed me, you don't know what He's like!"

"Then you should have let him, for you will suffer far more than death tonight," Sirius replied, "Crucio!"

Pettigrew screamed again, but this time Harry kept his eyes open, his hands gripped the armrests of his chair in an attempt to stop himself from leaping up to destroy the creature himself. He held himself back, for Sirius. The man had suffered thirteen years in wizarding hell because of that man, Sirius deserved his revenge, and Harry needed to watch Sirius exact it. He gripped the armrests harder.

Pettigrew's screaming stopped, he had less than a moment to recover before another cruciatus was sent his way. Harry couldn't take his attention off the man as Pettigrew's eyes rolled backwards into his skull and his back contorted to a ridiculous angle, almost breaking the bones.

When Sirius lifted the curse again, there were small beads of moisture on the man's forehead, and tear tracks down Pettigrew's grimy face.

"Ple-ase," the rat wheezed, throat raw from screaming, "stop – I'll... do.. an-anything."

Sirius obliged, a thoughtful looking gracing his features, "Anything?"

Pettigrew looked up hopefully, "Any-"

"Bring them back," Sirius growled, "you said anything, so: Bring. Them. Back."

Colour visibly drained from Pettigrew's face, so it was nearly the same shade as his hair. The watery mould colour of his eyes almost disappeared as his pupils dilated with fear.

"Sectumsempra! Sectumsempra!" he screamed at the man, each word was followed by a bright flash of light and a dull thump as each of Pettigrew's hands hit the floor, fallen from the stumps that were crossed protectively over his head.

Sirius grew calm again as he watched the blood pour out of Pettigrew's arms to pool at his knees in a perfect circle of red. Pettigrew himself had only eyes for the stumps that had once extended into his hands, his face morphing from one of fear into one of pain and disbelief.

"One for Lily and one for James," Sirius informed him calmly, "they shall be glad to know that no one else can suffer at your traitorous hands."

The words had settled nicely into the room by the time that Pettigrew found enough of his mind to wail and crawl towards Sirius, bloodied stumps extended. Unfortunately for him, he was not in his own mind enough to notice the pool of blood beneath him, and when he slipped in it he, naturally, extended both arms to catch himself.

The resulting scream was delectable, but it was cut short as Pettigrew passed out.

Sirius didn't even look at Harry, snapping himself out of his trance like state and casting an incendio at both of Pettigrew's forearms, then dispelling the flames. The method was primitive, especially for a wizard, but the veins were cauterized. Pettigrew would not be dying of blood loss.

"Auguamenti."

The man came back around with a splutter. Confusion and suspicion turning to pain and fear in a matter of seconds. He looked up to see the statuesque visage of Sirius towering over him, raising his wand for another spell.

"Sirius."

Harry had had enough. To him, his voice had come out tight with the effort of restraint he was putting himself through, but he hoped it came across more sharp and commanding. Sirius had frozen in place, unwilling to go directly against a command from a person to whom he had placed his full allegiance, but wanting to hurt Peter more all the same.

"You have had an hour to play with your friend," at this Sirius lowered his wand, tucking it just inside his robes and watching with an amused expression as Pettigrew frantically searched the room for the menacing voice, "would you be kind enough to let me have a go to?"

Sirius hadn't expected the last sentence to be voiced directly behind him. He took one step to his left, revealing Harry, and then twirled around to face and incline his head to him.

"Of course, it would only be fair," Sirius didn't mind really, his bloodlust had been mostly fulfilled, and he had no doubt that Harry would do a far better job torturing Pettigrew then he could ever do. He then took a further step backwards, giving Harry room to step forwards into the light.

"J-James?" he asked tentatively. Sirius stiffened where he stood.

Harry smiled, in any other situation, it would have been reassuring, but here, it made him look feral, demonic. His midnight black hair contrasted with his dancing emerald eyes and brilliantly white teeth.

"Close, but not quite," he replied, still with the smile on his face, "James Potter was my father. I'm his son, Harry Potter. And I believe you are the reason why my life has been so unpleasant." Harry stood then, turning his back to Pettigrew as he lovingly drew his wand, twirling it between his fingers and caressing the polished holly. Watching helplessly was the only thing the man on the floor could do.

"I'm here to thank you for it. After all," Harry turned his head towards Pettigrew, another terrifying grin on his face, "you reap what you sow".

Pettigrew started mumbling rapidly, sometimes the words 'please' or 'stop' or 'forgive me' were said loudly and clearly enough to be understood.

Harry looked down at the figure appraisingly, "Sirius was right you know, traitors shouldn't be allowed the privilege of speech."

Pettigrew's mouth closed with an audible click.

"Ahh... much better," Harry said, making a show of closing his eyes and enjoying the silence, "but silence won't be enough to save you."

xx

A whispered spell later had Pettigrew hanging from the ceiling, arms tied together behind him, the rope joining them together disappeared upwards into the rafters, Peter's feet could just about touch the ground, but he had to stretch a lot to get there.

Harry smiled, "at first you think to yourself, 'I can hold myself up forever,' but your arms will grow tired, especially given their condition, and you will try to support yourself on your feet. But your toes can only just touch the ground, and so you will hang in agony."

Peter let out a horrible wail, his feet were desperately scrabbling for purchase against the floor that was tantalisingly within touching distance, but Harry was right, he couldn't support himself there. But it was far less painful than supporting himself using his handless arms, so he hung. His earlier shuffling had caused him to swing from side to side; as he accelerated to his original position he could feel the weight of his body pulling him downwards, the strain on his arms was unbelievable and he could hear the slow grinding sound caused by his shoulder bone rubbing against the socket.

"Now, it really would be far too easy to let you just hang there wouldn't it?" Harry asked lightly, as if he were talking to a small child.

Pettigrew was now sobbing pathetically, pleading to be let down, for Harry not to hurt him anymore. Harry ignored it all in favour of casting an ingrown toenail hex. This elicited a shriek from Pettigrew, who now had blood dripping from his toenails onto the floor, making it even harder to find purchase with his feet.

"When, in about an hour, your feet are actually able to support you on the ground, it will not be because the rope has extended, but because your shoulders would have been completely deformed by your body weight," Harry went on, seemingly oblivious to Pettigrew's pain, "and that is a theory I will test."

Harry took a step back to admire his work. He noticed Sirius looking on with an expression of slight horror on his face, one that was mixed with awe and pleasure of course. He also noted Rasp's presence in the rafters, all he could see was one beady unblinking eye staring down at him. Harry gritted his teeth, he would do Rasp proud, if the snake could ever feel that way.

He pointed his wand at Pettigrew again, casting another ingrown toenail hex, but this time he altered it so that it would affect his hair instead. Harry hadn't thought it possible, but Pettigrew shrieked louder than had had done before, Harry smiled, it was probably akin to the Cruciatus turned physical. He uttered a spell to make the hair grow about a centimetre inwards, causing Pettigrew to open his mouth in a silent scream, before enlarging each one to the size of a tooth pick and ripping them all out antagonisingly slowly. Every single hair from Pettigrew's body was now gone, each one pulling a pinhead's worth of flesh with it, they all dropped to the floor in a shaggy mess, which Harry promptly set fire to.

Pettigrew feebly tried to lift his legs up to avoid the flames that licked at his toes, whimpering as the movement caused his body to rotate and face the flames full on. Harry was reminded of spit roast.

Blood seeped out of each hole where a hair used to be, becoming small red dots that grew and eventually covered Pettigrew's skin like a second skin.

The flames were beginning to die out when Harry heard a sharp voice in his head.

xx

~We are done with the second task master! We are returning to the tower!~ Harry paused and quickly followed his mind link with the snake to see through her eyes, she was looking through a small peep hole in Harry two's robes, they were walking away from what seemed to be the lake side with the rest of Hogwarts ahead of them.

~Good, I shall be back within the hour,~ he replied before closing off his mind.

Harry would reflect later on, he knew he would, that perhaps it was unwise to let your mind drift off to another place when torturing one of Voldemort's followers. He would also reflect upon the fact that he hadn't chosen one of the best protected buildings to indulge in such activities, nor had he taken all the precautions that he could perhaps have taken. But that was for later.

His eyes were beginning to refocus in his own body when he noticed something was wrong. He had learnt that the first second or so after using Chiana's senses was much like being submerged in icy water, idly, some subconscious part of his mind wondered if that would ever change.

After a second sensation passed and sound and sight and smell came roaring back to him. Pettigrew was lying, stupefied, on the floor. The small wounds on his body had been healed, and the rope binding him to the ceiling, cut. In about his eleven o'clock, a lean-built man was standing, wearing a faceless white mask and entirely black robes, at his nine o'clock stood Sirius, wand out, panting heavily and obviously furious.

It had taken a quarter of a second for Harry to process this and draw his wand, pointing it unwaveringly at the attacker.

The masked man sent a dark purple light Harry's way, he ducked under it and wordlessly fired a blasting hex to accompany whatever Sirius had cast. The attacker threw up a shield charm and sprinting towards the unconscious form of Pettigrew, not once pausing in his spell casting. Harry avoided most of them, sending back ones of his own in quick succession: blasting, cutting, blasting, cutting.

The figured paused and cast a shield charm that absorbed all their spells and crouched low over Pettigrew. The masked faced turned to look up at him and there was silence as both parties calculated their next move, or rather, Harry and Sirius did.

The masked man used the time to say just three words, "We need him."

'Death eater!' screamed Harry's mind, finally realising the masked man's intent when he placed his hand on Pettigrew's arm.

"Avada Kedavra!" screamed Harry, aiming for Pettigrew.

But it was too late, both the masked man and the attacker had disappeared with a resounding crack.

All Harry could do was stare at the spot where they vanished.

x ~ x ~ x

~You let them get away,~ Rasp was less than impressed.

~I did not let them get away,~ Harry said defensively, he felt it was a fair comment, he hadn't just handed Pettigrew over after all.

~But away they went,~

This time, Harry growled, ~I was caught off guard.~

~You let yourself be caught off guard,~ Rasp hissed back.

As he had predicted he would, Harry once again thought on his foolishness, he had been far too hasty. And perhaps not as thorough in his own training as he had let himself believe. He remembered again the apparent ease with which that lone death eater had outwitted both him and Sirius.

~He was good,~ he said quietly, ~whoever he was, he was good.~

Rasp turned a critical eye his way, ~then you need more duelling practice.~

Harry very nearly snorted, ~and who exactly will fill the role of my duelling partner?~

~That is for you to work out,~ Rasp said, before slithering off in his usual manner.

Harry and Rasp had headed straight for the room of requirement to meet with Harry Two and Chiana, reaching through the relatively new bond to Chiana, telling her of the new meeting place. Now, Harry, Harry Two and Chiana were left in contemplative silence.

Harry barely refrained from groaning, wanting nothing more than to cast a freezing charm at the retreating serpentine form, not that he wasn't used to Rasp giving him an idea but not any type of plan to follow through with.

"Malfoy."

Harry looked up, "Beg pardon?" he asked, surprised.

Harry two rolled his eyes, it looked better in real life rather than in a mirror, Harry noted.

"Perhaps you should just reabsorb me and see," Harry two said, offering his arm. Harry looked at him quizzically, but then supposed that maybe it would be just a little too paranoid of him to ask why.

He took the offered arm, locating the slightly raised skin at the base of his doppelganger's thumb, the only indication that it wasn't Harry himself. He pressed his nail against the mark, feeling the skin tear and then a strange sensation as he reabsorbed his ganger. He could just about compare it to being drenched by a spray hose, just without the water. He shuddered as a flood of new memories invaded his mindscape.

He opened his eyes and looked at Chiana ~Guard me,~ he said, knowing that the precaution probably wasn't necessary, considering the location. Probably. But Harry's preferred option was to deal with absolutes, and having Chiana watch over him would absolutely ensure his safety.

He nodded in gratitude when Chiana agreed before diving back into his own mind, stopping by his forest for a second to admire it once again before shifting into the chamber. He was pleased, but not at all surprised, when he discovered that all of his ganger's memories were somewhat neatly organised into a cauldron crafted from what looked like a solid gold hydra just to the right of Salazar's face.

Harry watched the memories with little real interest, pleased that he had come in third and a little surprised when Beauxbaton's champion hadn't managed to retrieve her sister, whom teachers had rescued as soon as Harry, being the last, had resurfaced. Luna had been his 'treasure,' which Harry had quirked a lip at, realising the true purpose of the Yule Ball. One important thing he did notice was the intense stare that Malfoy was giving his memory, to his credit, Malfoy's face was completely unreadable, until... just there. A small, and baffling, nod when he made eye contact with his memory. Nothing else came of it though, and before he knew it, Harry was talking with himself and shortly found himself back in the chamber.

He reclined back into a plush armchair that appeared behind him, thinking that perhaps his other self had been thinking along the right lines. Harry frowned, before deciding to ignore just how strange that had sounded. He opened his eyes slowly to find Chiana gazing directly at him.

~Draco Malfoy huh?~ he murmured. Chiana just blinked back at him, Harry tried a different tact, ~I feel wary about this,~ he admitted, ~Is Malfoy to be trusted with the knowledge of what I am?~

Chiana blinked at him again, probably unaware of what Harry had just told her. He petted her scales fondly; she always had been the stranger of the two.

~He has a good scent,~ she said quite suddenly, causing Harry's hand to twitch a minuscule amount. He was about to reply when she hissed ~mouse!~ and sprang from his hand, lightning fast. Harry fancied that he heard a small squeak a second before Chiana started hissing taunts at her unfortunate victim. Harry allowed himself an amused chuckle that quickly turned into a yawn and he noted how still his muscles were from being immobile for so long.

He was a little surprise that Chiana had remembered Malfoy's 'smell' at all, if that had indeed been who she was talking about. Chiana was too engrossed with gorging herself for Harry to be able to question her about it though, so he took it as a sign to begin winning him over, and found himself outright grinning when Chiana slithered back up to him with a tail hanging from the corner of her mouth.

He thanked the stars that he hadn't been placed in Gryffindor.

x ~ x ~ x

Harry had spent the past week studying the Malfoy heir, despite his snap decision a week ago; he had yet to approach the other boy. Not that Malfoy was making it easy for him.

The past week he had spent studying Draco had taught him that the blonde was hardly ever alone. When he wasn't in lessons, he was with Zabini, or Parkinson, or Davis, or Greengrass, Harry had even seen him talking quite a few times with Antony Goldstein! And as if that wasn't enough, he was followed nearly everywhere by Crabbe and Goyle, who Harry was eighty per cent sure that he had hired as bodyguards. It also made Harry wonder if Draco could keep his fairly hefty secret.

Harry was in the room of requirement again, glaring at a seventh year ancient runes textbook. Luna was sat opposite him, reading a book on some obscure spell creation.

He had been surprised when, the night after the second task, Luna had found and sat in the room of requirement with him. He had raised an eyebrow when she had sat down opposite him, she had replied with a noncommittal shrug and pulled out a copy of the Quibbler. Despite the many hours they had spent in each other's company during the past week, they had yet to exchange a word.

"You've read that book before," she pointed out quietly, eyes darting from side to side at a rapid rate. It made Harry wonder if she read an entire book a day, or just until she got bored, she always appeared with something new each day. The statement made Harry look down at his own book again, mildly annoyed that she was partially right; partially because he hadn't actually read a word of it.

He looked up again. Luna had paused in her reading, her pale blue eyes watching him sharply and, even though their eyes were completely different, he was reminded of Rasp. Luna didn't need to speak for him to understand her message. Tell me. He could feel Chiana entering his mind and he lowered his defences enough so she could look through his eyes.

"Draco Malfoy," he said softly, noting the subtle way her jaw clenched while the rest of her face remained impassive. Interesting.

"Top of every class," she said after a moment, "as long as it's not with Hermione Granger," she smirked, the expression making her look like a totally different person.

Harry waited a moment longer, what Luna had said was common knowledge after all. The silence stretched and Luna went back to reading her book. Harry continued to openly study her, a vague idea forming in the back of his mind.

"And yourself?" he asked in a conversational tone.

"Seventh," she answered, deadpanning, "but you and I are very much alike in that respect."

Harry curled one side of his mouth when he saw Luna giving him a small smile. He snapped his book shut and placed it on the arm of his chair, standing himself up half a second later.

"Duel with me?" he asked nonchalantly, leaning very slightly forwards and cocking his head in a half bow. He was gratified to see a quick flash of surprise in her eyes before she also closed her book and stood up. Suddenly the room was Spartan with nothing breakable in sight and the only splash of colour were the two chairs they had previously been sat in.

Harry was still standing in his half bow as Luna bemusedly returned it before non-verbally firing off her first spell. Harry's eyes widened fractionally and he sidestepped just in time to avoid the garishly bright orange spell aimed his way. He quickly returned one of his own, cursing at it hit the wall behind Luna. Then he was a bit unsure of what to do, listing all the spells he could fire at Luna in his head, and trying to pick out the best one to use that he forgot to look around and was very nearly too late to block a purplish spell aimed at his head. He finally found a spell, aiming it at a point just beyond Luna's left ear, the yellow spell found its mark and released a sharp noise, loud enough to make Harry wince on the other side of the room, cursing as he remembered that the caster was supposed to shield themselves beforehand. It was safe to say that Luna had fared worse though, if the way she was clutching her head was anything to go by, but Harry had missed his chance whilst berating himself and Luna had cast another purple spell at him. He sidestepped again and sent off another noise spell, aiming for the other side of Luna's head. This time he remembered to protect himself, but so did Luna.

She cast some sort of hex his way and it took him a moment to realise that she hadn't been aiming at him. He dived quickly out of the way, the motion seemed to surprise Luna, and this time Harry didn't waste the opportunity, silently casting expelliarmus and petrificus totalus in the same heartbeat. It wouldn't do to hurt possibly his only ally after all.

He suddenly let out the breath he hadn't realised he'd been holding in. The weight of Luna's wand in his hand didn't feel as satisfying as he thought it probably would have been, neither was seeing Luna, frozen, on the stone floor.

~Because both you and she were about as dangerous as newborn mice,~ Chiana stated reprovingly.

"Finite incantatem," Harry watched as Luna shakily got to her feet. He couldn't help but agree with her.

"That was... humbling," Luna said between breaths. Harry cocked his head, it had been embarrassing, and it made him want to seek out Malfoy for help even less.

~You can't pretend this problem doesn't exist! And you can't fix it by looking at those dead trees either,~ Chiana pointed out.

Harry couldn't help a thin smile, knowing the truth when he heard it, Draco Malfoy would be essential.

"I thought you would be better, given your track record," to which Harry raised an eyebrow, "as the boy who lived, not to mention Hogwart's champion."

"The first, I very much doubt had anything to do with my duelling abilities, and I had time to prepare for both challenges, and it would be even more embarrassing to be on par with a Grindylow," he replied to the unspoken question.

"My father would disagree, he nearly lost his arm to a Grindylow," Luna said with a hint of a smile. Harry let out a small chuckle at the image and when he heard Luna outright laughing, he followed suit.

Besides, Luna may have just given him his answer to his little blonde problem.

A/N soo... can anyone see what's going to happen next? I can see how some people might be getting a little impatient for a certain dark lord, so the next chapter should cover quite a bit of time so expect an appearance at around chapter 10 (this one is EIGHT). :)

I'm really happy to still be receiving reviews (even after this long period of radio silence) and I feel like a proper writer now I've hit the 100 mark! I love you guys! :D

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