Disclaimer: See chapter 1

A/N: As all ways, major props to my betas, you guys rock. Sorry for the delay in this chapter but I am getting ready for finals and finishing my research papers. This means that updates will be iritic at best for awhile. I am going to close the polls on Harry's sexuality when I post the next chapter, any votes after I post the next one will be ignored.

5: The Fog

I took a deep breath, crossed the street and pushed through the door into the pub. A peeling sign above the door told me it was called the "Leaky Cauldron". I stepped into the pub; I was right about no one being there this early; in fact I was alone. The pub was dark and rustic; it had the atmosphere of being incredibly old, but lacked the must or stillness that most historic buildings do. There was a bar running halfway down the right of the door, made of the same age blackened wood as the rest of the pub. After the bar was a stone fireplace, it was even older; it is so large that three people could stand up in it comfortably. To the right there was a wooden flight of stairs leading to a second floor, this too was made of the same black wood. Under the stairs there was two private looking wooden booths lit with candles. In the center of the pub, tables seemed to be scattered randomly throughout the space.

As my eyes adjusted to the gloom, I heard someone coming down the stairs. I cast around for cover, I decided on ducking through a door that blended into the wall on the far side of the pub. How I knew that was the one to go through or indeed how I knew it was there at all, I didn't couldn't tell you but I did. As the steps from upstairs reached the first steps, I had shut the hidden door.

The second I stepped out in to the back alley, I felt a wonderful fog fill my thoughts. I felt light as if all my worries and stress seamed to float away. Aside from my worries, something else left me; something that had been such a deep part of me for so long that its absence felt like a gaping wound. With that wound something broke through the fog, one thought. "I will be great." I said as the thought ran through my head.

Shortly afterwards a strict female voice cut through the mental fog telling me to "Come to me." I started to walk over to the apparently solid wall, and then froze. "Why should I?" I thought. The voice came again, only more forceful this time "COME TO ME." It was too late though, its hold over me was already weakened. "If I'm going to be great I can't be at someone else's beck and call." I reasoned. The fog was no longer blanketing my thoughts but was rather like a badly tuned radio signal.

I staggered to the brick wall and sagged against it for support. I was wrestling for control over my mind, to regain my strength, my individuality. The closest I can come to explaining it is comparing it to trying dig a hole in the sand, you can make progress but it is always trying to fill its self back in. I would push the fog out and it would come crashing back in, each time the fog would get a little weaker.

As this back and forth continued for what seemed like an eternity, it was in actuality only a minute or two, I remembered IT. I could use it to force the fog out much faster, perhaps follow it to the source of this fog. I gathered IT, letting the fog roll in a little more due to my split attention, and prepared to direct it to repel this invading fog. Once I was ready I unleashed IT using it to strengthen my outward push.

At first it seemed to be working, the fog was almost completely forced out. I allowed myself a brief moment to bask in my victory, one more push and I would be free. Just as that thought hit me, I noticed a strange feeling rushing through my body, or more accurately out of my body. My IT wasn't pushing the fog out it was being drawn into it, feeding it.

I felt something I had not felt in a very long time, fear. I was terrified that this fog was going to rob me of the one thing that made me special, the one thing that separated me from the masses. I could not stop the flow no matter how hard I tried, the fog just kept pulling more and more of IT from me.

Just before I was sucked dry of all my IT, the flow suddenly stopped. Before I could even begin to hope I would make it out of this mess with my IT intact, the fog swept back in. I tried to resist, but with my own IT fueling the fog, it was unstoppable. The floating sensation returned and so did the voice only this time it seemed smug. "Come to me" she said gently, with only the faintest hint of smugness, and that's just what I did.

I straightened up and, directed by the voice, ran my hands over the bricks of the wall I had been leaning on. As I did so, the bricks jumped aside forming a brick arch way leading down a cobble stone street with shops lining both sides. I paid neither the shops nor their attendants getting ready for the day any attention, as I quickly strode down the street following the summons put forth by the voice.

I was approaching a massive marble building that easily dwarfed the other buildings on the street. I hurried up the stairs, and through the large double doors, made of bronze. As I went passed the doors I vaguely noticed that the doorman was not human, but rater was a short, swarthy creature with long hands and feet. It bowed as I walked past, but even in my fog induced confusion I could tell it was forced. I was bowed through, just as reluctantly as before, by two more of the creatures. The doors where engraved silver this time, though I couldn't be bothered to read them because I was nearing my goal.

I was now in a vast marble hall with a long row of counters to one side, each manned by a creature. I ignore those and make for a door about half way down the opposite side of the hall. This door is also made of silver, only this time it had a coat of arms engraved on it. As I enter, I feel a vague tingle wash over me and then dissipate.

With the dissipation of the tingling, the fog also disappears. All of my IT flows back to me in a one big rush. I feel my anger rush to the surface directed at both my own weakness and at who ever had tried to steal my IT and my freewill. I cast about for something to direct my wrath at. I was in an ornate, windowless office with an expensive looking wooden desk and three ornate, but still comfortable wooden chairs. Directly in front of me is another of those creatures, though this one wore far more expensive clothes than the others.

He, I assumed it was male based on the clothes and pointed beard, had a decidedly more sinister cast than the others. He was missing the point of his left ear and wore a crimson silk eye patch, over the right eye, that didn't quite cover the scar that started at his right temple and went straight down towards where his eye should have been. Seeing my scrutiny he gave me a smirk and a mocking bow.

This finely broke through the last of my self control. I used IT to swirl the air around me and snuff the candles plunging the room into total darkness, the only light in the room was an eerie green light coming from my eyes. Lacing each syllable with malice, I said in a deathly quiet voice, which still cut through the sound of the rushing air, like a shout "You have three seconds to convince me why I should not rip out your other eye and force feed it to whatever family you leave behind. Starting now."

A/N: This is your last chance to vote on Harry's sexuality, straight is leading currently (I think). REVIEW