Books of Truth

by DramaticClimax

Stuck in a room with no way of escaping except to read the books laid before them, fate grants one boy a chance at living a life he had wished for, with the one person he had been drawn to, time and time again. SLASH

2. BOOKS OF TRUTH CHAPTER TWO

From this point on, my story is going to be going off on its own tangent. I'm leaving some of the book intact, but for the most part, I'm thinking I'm probably going to be demolishing it and putting it back together with my own spin on things.

Chapter 2

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"…The Vanishing Glass"

Harry groaned loudly. "Oh bugger!" Fred and George sat up, looking at the book excitedly. "OH! I never thought we would get to hear about this in detail!" "This is going to be awesome!" The twins said at the same time. Ginny stared at them. "Wow. You've got them so excited that they're not even saying the same thing. Never seen that before." Harry snorted and raised his hand, "I can proudly say I've seen it happen more then once." He said, smirking at his red headed sister, who just gaped in reply. Neville laughed loudly and said, "It's not like our family isn't known for incest, dear sister." Ginny nodded slowly, "I know, it's just…" She sighed and leaned back, "I don't even know why I'm surprised." Neville shook his head and began reading. All of the Gryffindor children were evading the questioning or surprised looks as the chapter began.

Nearly ten years had passed since the Dursleys had woken up to find their nephew on the front step, but Privet Drive had hardly changed at all. The sun rose on the same tidy front gardens, though many were ritually ripped apart,

Harry grinned at that, remembering the look on Mrs. Petterson's face.

Sirius looked over at him and chuckled softly. "I assume that was your doing, then?" Harry nodded and shrugged. "The normalcy of that neighborhood drove me insane. I liked prettying it up every now and again." Tonks sent Harry a feral grin, which in turn made his stretch that much wider.

and lit up the slightly scuffed brass number four on the Dursleys' front door; it crept into their living room, which was almost exactly the same as it had been on the night when Mr. Dursley had seen that fateful news report about the owls. Only the photographs on the mantelpiece and the change in the furniture really showed how much time had passed. Ten years ago, there had been lots of pictures of what looked like a large pink beach ball wearing different-colored bonnets - but Dudley Dursley was no longer a baby,

Neville paused in his reading, unable to go on for laughing too hard. "Merlin, I forgot just how amusing some of your descriptions, especially that of people, can be. I am almost scared to know what mine is." Harry snorted and answered, "Probably something to do with Trevor. You were missing him on the day we met." Neville nodded, remembering his toad. Draco spoke up, curious, "Say, just what happened to that toad?" Neville looked over at the other boy and stated cryptically, "Oh, I'm sure you'll find out soon enough."

and now the photographs showed a large

"Large? Did that just say large? Are you serious?" Ginny giggled. Harry snorted and Sirius grinned, "Well, you said it a bit wrong, but yes, yes I am." Ginny rolled her eyes and flipped him off, sending the man into hysterics. "Anyway…that boy should not be described as large."

"No, he shouldn't…" Fred began.

"If anything, it should be…"

"Heavy."

"Huge"

"Obese"

Harry piped up, "A whale."

The room was silent for a moment, before the Gryffindors all cracked up, Tonks laughing so hard that she had to clutch her arm rests to keep from falling out of her chair. Even Remus, who had always been rather adamant at treating others nicely couldn't contain his chuckling.

blond boy riding his first bicycle,

"Which now sits in the garage, broken."

on a carousel at the fair,

"Which he got kicked out of for trying to stick his arm into the cotton candy machine."

playing a computer game with his father,

"Which he threw at a wall when he couldn't beat it."

being hugged and kissed by his mother.

"Which is a repulsive sight." Harry finished, sighing.

The room held no sign at all that another boy lived in the house, too.

"Where were you?" Came the question from Narcissa. "Well, that day was the 23rd of June. They always forced me and Dudley's schools to send us home for that day." He tapped his chin in thought. "Wait, when you say schools are you saying that you and him went to separate schools?" Asked Narcissa. Harry nodded, "It's for a reason, but if you don't find out in the book, then you aren't going to find out from me…at least not yet." He said decisively, eyeing her.

Yet Harry Potter was still there, reading one of the books that he had "borrowed" from his school library at the moment, but not for long. His Aunt Petunia was awake as well and it was her shrill voice that made the first noise of the day.

"Up! Get up! Now!"

Harry cringed in remembrance, "You know, she really is a timely alarm clock. Too bad I was usually awake before she was."

Harry barely jumped when his aunt rapped on the door, screeching at him. His aunt rapped on the door again, making him growl softly, but he stowed his book away under his bed nonetheless.

Harry pouted, "It had been a really good book, too." Ginny closed her eyes and rubbed her temples, while Neville asked what book it was, "Chemistry textbook." Draco's eyebrows shot up into his hairline as he asked, "What is Chemistry?" Harry looked over at the Pureblood wizard warily. "Ehh…do you know what science is?" Draco shook his head. "Harry, you should just explain it, we want to know, too."

Harry sighed in defeat. "Okay, science is a muggle practice which studies the laws of nature." Harry held up his hand when Lucius tried to interrupt. "If you've ever been without a wand, you'll have noticed there were things you couldn't do that you could normally do with a want, right?" There were nods throughout the room. "That's because magic breaks the laws of nature, or at least muggle nature. In the muggle world, things that take seconds here, could take years, like raising plants. I've seen carrots grow to their full size in a day because of magic, while in the muggle world, it takes a good half year, at least. Anyway, there are three basic branches of science. They are Earth and Space science. Basically…what how can we use the earth and space to our advantage."

Seeing that he had the attention of all the people in the room, continued on, "While we merely look at stars for their meanings, muggles have figured out ways to fly up past where humans in general can normally fly. They've gone to the moon, collected rocks from it's surface…" He watched as the wizards who nothing of the muggle world slowly became more and more shocked. "As for the Earth, they've been can track the weather down to the second, without the use of magic, though, as with any reading of the future, it is not concrete. But that is basic. They've studied so much more then that. But, I'm not going to go into that right now.

The second branch of the three main branches is Physical Science, which studies a physical object's mass and energy, namely the weight, volume and mass. Chemistry falls under this category and is much like potions for the wizarding world, I would guess. It's much too complex to go into detail at the moment, but I'm sure if you asked later, I'd explain better."

"The last and most interesting part to me is Life Sciences. That is the study of anything and everything that is alive. My favorite subject, being a wizard, is genetics. I'd really like to find the gene that triggers magic. Genes are what help us exist, basically. They are the coding of all that is living, I believe that magic is nothing more then a genetic mutation." When Harry had finished, he saw Severus gaping at him, he quirked his brow, "What? Just because I don't do well in classes doesn't mean I'm not smart. Or I should say, just because I don't do well in your classes, because you've seen me as my father instead of seeing me as me or at least my mother, doesn't mean I'm not smart. It's not everyday an eleven year old has his hopes crushed before the lesson has truly even began." He stated dryly, knowing Severus would know exactly what he was talking about. The man had the decency to look ashamed, which almost surprised Harry, even after the man's breakdown just an hour or so earlier.

"Anyway, I think magic is genetic. Meaning that, if there are Muggleborns out there, they would have come from a long line of Squibs. Actually, I know my mother did, but I'm not going to go into that, unless the book does." He said, smirking, knowing that the book would, but wanting to see these people wonder over it. "Which means, you aren't going to find out unless we get back to reading the book, so…" He motioned to Neville, who lifted the book back up with an amused expression on his face, knowing the information was worth the wait.

"Up!" she screeched again, causing Harry to wince. "Christ, woman." Harry murmured, rubbing his ears as he heard her walking toward the kitchen and then the sound of the frying pan being put on the stove. He rolled onto his back and tried to remember the dream he had been having before he had woken up to read, trying to buy some time. It had been a good one. There had been a flying motorcycle and a giant man in it. He had a funny feeling he'd had the same dream before.

"You remember that?" Came the question from Lucius. Harry nodded, saying, "It's not the only thing I remember from that night." The color drained from the Slytherins' faces as the implications of that sentence sunk in for them. Harry looked mildly amused, "You would've thought that that would have sunk in during the last chapter, when I asked about my mum." He said, giggling. "But how do you remember?" Harry just shrugged at Severus' question, a look on his face saying he knew, but wasn't going to say anything. Neville just chuckled and continued to read.

His aunt was back outside the door.

"Are you up yet?" she demanded.

"Nearly," said Harry.

"Well, get a move on, I want you to look after the bacon. And don't you dare let it burn, I want everything perfect on Duddy's birthday."

"How often did you cook for them?" Severus asked. Harry bit his lip in thought, "Every time I wasn't at school, since I could reach over the stove with the help of a step stool. Which they decided was on my fourth birthday. Lovely birthday present that, but better then most I got from them." He said, giggling slightly.

Harry groaned, "Fuck me."

Neville snorted. "You know, I've been your friend since we were eleven and seeing you putting on the Golden Boy mask most the time, I'm still slightly surprised by what comes out of your mouth." Harry giggled softly. "But not by what goes in." He responded crudely, grinning widely. Neville just smirked and shook his head.

"What did you say?" his aunt snapped through the door.

"Nothing, nothing…"

Dudley's birthday - how could he have forgotten? It was the only reason he was here and not at home.

"You considered your school as your home?" Narcissa asked, startled. Harry nodded slowly, "The Dursleys' house has never been a home to me, ma'am. It was a prison to me, more so then my school, which was technically an actual prison." He murmured, then added, "No, I'm still not explaining that. Not unless the book goes into it. Not because I'm ashamed of it, but…well…you'll find out when you get to it."

Harry got slowly out of bed, wincing as the 'welcome home present' his uncle had given him the day before twinged slightly

Neville paused for a few moments, looking around at the adults, four of whom seemed to just be shocked into silence, the others oblivious to the implications of that sentence. "Oh come on! Really? I mean, that was the most obvious…" There was suddenly a startled gasp from Narcissa, who stood up and bustled over to Harry, picking him up and perching him on her lap, holding him tightly, even though he was stiff as a board in her arms, she merely petted his hair and murmured nonsensical things into his ear until he started to visibly relax. As soon as he was relaxed enough, she told her husband, "As soon as this is over, we're going to file for the legal adoption of this child. Do you hear me Lucius? I don't care what it takes, I'm not going to rest until Harry here is out of those monsters' hands!" She said fiercely, still running his fingers through his hair, ignoring his weak protests.

"Harry, child, you have to understand, in the wizarding world, all child abuse is greatly frowned upon. Like with you and the Dark Lord, while the death eaters did nothing about it," She paused, glaring at her lord and her husband in turn, who both looked rather ashamed of themselves, giving her hope that not all was lost just yet, "when Lucius came home from that meeting, he ended up being violently ill. No child that has magic, especially magic as powerful as yours should be harmed in such a manner. You are the only child to have been placed under the Cruciatus curse by the hand of the Dark Lord and…" she whispered the next bit only loud enough for him to hear, "…if you were to see his face right now, you could tell he is beating himself up about it." Harry giggled softly, burying his face into the woman's shoulder as tears pooled in his eyes.

"There was a mandatory rule that all children were to be killed with the use of the killing curse. If any death eaters were caught torturing a child, he would receive what he had given tenfold before being put to death. Magical children are just too important to the wizarding world." Harry nodded solemnly, then turned to Fred, "I guess that means that Dean lost his bet." There was a moments pause before the twins snorted and George said, "Only you would think of something like that at a time like this." Harry merely sent a small smile over to them, before burying his face back into Narcissa's shoulder, feeling that she wasn't doing this for her own agenda.

…yet.

and started looking for socks. He found a pair under his bed and, after pulling a spider off one of them, murmuring a soft apology to the spider for waking it, he pulled them on.

"Wait, can you actually talk to spiders? I swear, more then once in our second year, I saw you conversing with a spider, but I just thought you had gone batty, what with the whole Heir of Slytherin thing. Sorry for that by the way." Draco murmured, scratching his head in an unMalfoy gesture of discomfort. Harry just shrugged and gave a noncommittal gesture from his new perch.

Harry was used to spiders, for more then one reason. For the longest time, he had figured everyone could talk to spiders, until he saw his aunt squish one that was trying to explain itself. They were his best friends, his only friends, reminding him much of himself, skittering around in the shadows, seeking the darkness for comfort and protection. All others either feared or hated him, but that was neither here nor there. Mostly he was used to the spiders because the cupboard under the stairs was full of them and that was where he slept.

He felt Narcissa's arms tighten around his waist as she breathed deeply, hoping to maintain control of her emotions. She was a lady after all. The adult men of the room had no such qualms, they all growled and snarled at the Dursleys, Severus beating himself up for blindly believing…oh…OH He was going to kill that old man. He paused in his nonsensical ranting, sitting back down and began plotting. No, that old fool wasn't going to get away with what he had done.

It took a good thirty minutes before everyone was calmed down, Draco, who had kept sitting in his chair, was still puffing to himself about muggles and how disgusting they were. Neville cleared his throat, pulling everyone's attention back to him, where he continued to read.

When he was dressed he went down the hall into the kitchen. The table was almost hidden beneath all Dudley's birthday presents. It looked as though Dudley had gotten the new computer he wanted, not to mention the second television and the racing bike. Exactly why Dudley wanted a racing bike was a mystery to Harry, as Dudley was almost as much of a fatass as Vernon and hated exercise - unless of course it involved punching somebody. Dudley's favorite punching bag was Harry,

A low growl came from Remus, his now completely Amber eyes flashing. Harry disentangled himself from Narcissa and slinked slowly over to the irate werewolf, crawling into his lap. "Mooonnyyyy…" he crooned, running his fingers through the other man's hair, petting him. "I'm right here. All in one piece, you see?" He murmured, taking Remus' hand and placing it against his chest. "You know you're in a very long line to get them, the front of the line being me." He relaxed slightly when Remus nodded, the Amber starting to bleed out of his eyes as a feral grin spread across his face, almost completely replicated by Harry.

"Moony gets their hearts. I honor a wolf's promise that Moony gets the hearts that pump blood through their bodies." Harry murmured into the wolf's ear, making it growl in contentment. He smiled lovingly, then stood, telling Remus, "When you and Moony become one, he will be less difficult to control. The only reason why your transformations hurt so much is because you and Moony are constantly fighting for dominance, instead of being one. Dumbledore doesn't speak the truth about werewolves. They are not dangerous unless they not one. The only other way, you've seen before, the werewolf in the dark ranks is a feral werewolf. He was born as a wolf, he was captured and withheld the blood all born werewolves need to stay sane. Even if he were to get said blood, he would still be incapable of controlling his wolf. As you can tell from his outwardly appearance, the wolf is taking him over, bit by bit. Soon, there will be no man left, only wolf."

As he finished this thought, he climbed back into his chair and onto Narcissa's lap, causing her to squeal in delight, as she hadn't been sure if he would be so open to do so. Neville smiled brightly at Narcissa, knowing she had passed Harry's test for now, he turned back to the book.

but he couldn't often catch him. Harry didn't look it, but he was very fast.

"Thank Merlin for that!" Severus murmured, causing Luna, who was sitting next to him to turn and smile at him. She sighed as she felt Fate's happiness seep into her. Yes, this had been a farfetched plan, but it seemed to be working…

Perhaps it had something to do with living in a dark cupboard or maybe it was going to a school for incurably criminal boys, but Harry had always been small and skinny for his age.

"Wait, Mr. Potter. Don't tell me you went to St. Brutus's…" Severus half questioned, slightly aghast. Harry shrugged, sending a lopsided grin to his professor. "Okay, I won't tell you then." Causing even the dark lord to cough in amusement. Severus rolled his eyes in exasperation. "How did you not get into Slytherin, Mr. Potter?" Harry shrugged once more, saying, "You'll most likely find out soon enough." Severus nodded, but still asked, "What did you do to get into a school such as that?" Narcissa, mildly confused, wondered out loud, "What is so bad about a muggle school?"

Severus sighed, running his hand through his hair, which he might add, was not greasy…, "St. Brutus's is only a school because they offer classes, though most of the…children…that…attend…that school generally decide not to go, valuing the worth of skills such as stealing and how best to kill someone without leaving a trace behind them over things such as reading, writing and maths." Harry giggled a soft, humorless giggle, adding, "Then there were those, like me, that attempted to learn everything they could whilst inside those walls." Severus worried his lip for a moment before asking his next question.

"Just what did you do to get into such…school?" The word school seemed to struggle out of his lips, as if he didn't quite want to say it. Harry just waved him off. Neville, who had been reading ahead during their interruptions, said, "You'll find out within this chapter, so if I could…" he left the sentence hanging with a quirked brow. Severus made an overdramatic hand movement to continue on, causing Neville to giggle into the book. Harry peered over at him and flicked his eyes between the two. He looked over at Ginny, who was also watching the display. Their eyes connected and Ginny nodded her head minutely before settling back in.

He looked even smaller and skinnier than he really was because all he had to wear were old clothes of the older children at his school, not to mention Dudley's, and Dudley was about four times bigger than he was.

"Before anyone says anything, I know that Dumbledore paid them to take care of me…because he paid them out of my old account, but he didn't pay them to take care of me in the loving, caring sense. He paid them to abuse me, they said so themselves…after a little persuasion, of course." He finished with a giggle, causing all of the people, minus the Gryffindor children, who caught on to that (namely, everyone but Draco) to stare at Harry as if he had grown a new head. Tonks, who had been decidedly quiet throughout this entire thing suddenly giggled, her eyes flashing to a violent red color. "D'you think we could get any other information out of them, Harry?"

Harry nodded, smirking. "If you put them in a room with no food, water or electronics, it only takes a couple hours for them to squeal like the pigs they are." Narcissa petted Harry's hair, peering over at Lucius who was staring at this boy like he did the first time Draco had mastered the Cruciatus Curse. Oh, this boy was going to be in their family faster then he could even thing to adjust, she and her husband would make sure of that.

Harry had a thin face, knobbly knees, black hair, and bright green eyes.

Severus peered over at Harry, taking in his looks for the first real time, catching the boy's attention. Harry shook his head and then peered over at Neville. "When are they coming up?" He asked, knowing Neville would know exactly what he was talking about.

"This paragraph." Was all Neville said before continuing on.

Though, most of the time, people didn't see much beyond that. He wore round glasses held together with a lot of Scotch tape because of all the times Dudley, Vernon and the boys back at his school had punched him on the nose. The only thing Harry liked about his own appearance was a very thin scar on his forehead that was shaped like a bolt of lightning. It was the only thing that never got covered by his friend. He had found his friend one night after a particularly nasty punishment,

Besides a few low growls and an indignant humming from Narcissa, everyone stayed silent for the moment, wanting to know just what the two boys were going on about.

diving inside of his mind to escape the pain, he had seen something thrashing violently against a thick wall. Part of the wall seemed to be there naturally, he figured at his tiny hands had run across it, watching as the black mass seemed to hum in contentment wherever he touched.

"Wait. Black? The color of your magic is black?" Voldemort asked, too stunned to stay quiet. Harry nodded and shifted to look at Voldemort. "Do you know what it means? The black core, I mean. I've searched everywhere except Knockturn Ally, as it is rather difficult to go there unless by accident, but couldn't find hide nor hair of what it means." Harry said, with a slight hint of frustration streaking his voice.

Voldemort snickered, "That would be my doing, actually. When I found out what it meant, I burnt every book in the library that contained it or, if it was inaccessible at the time, took it with me, as so no one could get his or her hands on it. Having a black magical core means that your magic is fit for anything, you should be able to excel in anything you put your mind to. From what I have heard about you, and yes I have been keeping tabs on you…you are par with most of your classes, at best, though I understand Severus here treats you unfairly, but that will be seen to, right, Severus?" The man nodded quickly, swallowing hard.

On the inside, since his lord, yes definitely his lord, had told them that he had tried to spare Lily, who had been his best friend, one of his few friends, as well as Harry basically pledging his allegiance to the Dark Lord, he felt as if he were truly free from a very meddlesome man's clutches for the first time in fourteen very long years. He was a dark wizard, blast it, and all of this light magic was making his skin itch.

He would follow his lord now, until the day that he died.

Turning back to the conversation, he stayed silent for the moment, soaking in all of the information coming from his lord. "Obviously, a black magical core means that you lean more toward dark magic, though light magic isn't as hard for you to control as many dark wizards, such as Lucius and Severus." Both wizards in question twitched at the thought of using light magic. Depending on the strength of the spell, light magic was bloody painful for them, if they were to be totally honest with themselves. "Whilst most children, namely anyone under the legal age, would be considered to have neutral or 'grey' magic, no matter the color of their magic. Now it is typically said that the darker the color of the magical core, the darker the magic capable of the witch or wizard, you see?"

At receiving the nods, he continued, "Dark creatures, such as your werewolf," he pointed to Remus, "will have inherently dark magic, unless they refuse their wolf, then there is a constant clashing of light and dark magic, never being neutral and yes, in the end, that clashing will indeed consume you, Mr. Lupin, unless of course you accept your wolf for who he is. Which by the way, your wolf, Moony as he is called, is actually relatively docile, just rather upset that he can't coexist with you." Remus gaped at the man, then turned to Harry for confirmation. When Harry nodded, he slumped in his chair.

"Now, we will talk more about merging your wolf with yourself after this chapter is complete, yes? I believe I have covered everything on black magical cores that I can remember at the moment, so I believe we should continue with the story." Neville nodded slowly. He was beginning to understand why so many people joined this man, though he was having a hard time deciding if he was to do so as well. The man had inadvertently robbed him of his parents. Pushing his struggles aside for the moment, he continued on with the story.

He felt the other half of this wall, this disgusting wall containing this wonderful being inside of him, was not natural. It felt as if he were running his hand through slime. Shuddering in revulsion, he was now determined to rid his new friend of this wall. His friend trembled in excitement as Harry came to this conclusion.

"That would mean someone blocked your magic?" Harry nodded at Tonks's question, adding, "That someone being Dumbledore." There was a murmur of discontent throughout the room at this statement, many of the people promising that man's death.

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Miles away, at Hogwarts, Dumbledore paused in his frantic quest to find his pawn, to shudder lightly as the cold chill of death ran down his spine. Shrugging it off as a draft, he continued on, never noticing lady Hogwarts giggling in contentment. Soon, she sighed to herself, soon her walls would have a worthy headmaster.

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He spent most of the night breaking down the walls around this being, feeling it to be masculine in nature.

Neville paused in his reading, "So that's why you always call your magic, 'he'. I thought it was just one of those things that you did." He smirked over at the boy, who now looked disgruntled and slightly embarrassed. "You make it sound like I'm crazy." Neville merely sent the boy a look that told him that he wasn't going to give that sentence enough respect to verbally respond and went back to reading.

He felt a deep connection with him, though he couldn't put his finger on it. Soon, after many hours he had made deep cracks in the wall, breaking it down enough for his friend to seep out of it, causing it to shatter completely. With tremendous force the wall was gone, leaving nothing but the now happily thrumming magic that was seeping into the boy's veins. He drew out of his mind, watching the black mist crawl down his body, fixing major injuries, though it wasn't enough to stop scarring, it helped his pain. The last thing he remembered was pulling up his shirt and sighing happily as his new friend covered his most hated scar.

Neville had to pause and take a deep, slightly shaking breath before reading the next sentence, causing everyone, minus Harry, who just buried his face deeper into Narcissa's shoulder, to sit up on the edge of their seats.

It had been deeply imbedded into his skin, hard lines, spelling out the word 'FREAK' stretched across his stomach for everyone to see and as a reminder of what he was.

There was a complete silence that echoed through the room, causing Harry to shiver, which in turn caused Narcissa to break out of her stupor. She murmured soft comforts into his ear, running one hand through his hair and the other rubbing his back intermittently, stopping only long enough to growl at those horrid muggles. Harry giggled at the woman's antics, but the sound was slightly hollow to everyone in the room.

Voldemort stood, clearing his throat to catch Harry's attention. "This glamour of yours, it is wandless magic, correct?" Harry nodded slowly. "Then you could take it down now, yes?" Harry nodded again, worrying his bottom lip. He really didn't want to have to take his glamour down, though his friend, his magic, was thrumming excitedly at the prospect of not having to deal with this anymore. It drained him greatly.

"If you let the glamour down, Severus could possibly get rid of some of the scars on your body." The boy worried his lip that much more, nearly breaking this skin. Narcissa put her hands on his face and made him look directly into her eyes, if the boy was strong enough, he could read her thoughts enough to prove what she was saying was the truth. "If anyone, anyone at all, even my own son and husband, especially my son and husband, says anything untoward to you about something you couldn't control, I will deal with them myself, you understand me, Harry?" She hadn't known him for very long, but she had never held a deep-seated resentment toward the boy as her husband and son had.

The boy seemed to calm slightly at the woman's word. He looked up to the woman, showing just how scared he was with his eyes. He had never once thought he would have to take his glamours down again. Narcissa smiled sadly and took his hand, lifting him up and placing him on her hip, shocked to the core by just how small he was. This boy wasn't even slightly awkward to carry this way and she hadn't been able to do such a thing with Draco since he had been twelve years old!

Seeing the looks on all of the other adults' faces, she knew they were thinking much of the same thing. Looking to her cousin, whom she had not spoken to in years. Their eyes locked as she gently set Harry down in the center of the chairs, on the table where the books had been only moments before. A silent promise traveled between them and years of awkward avoidance was forgotten for the boy that had claimed both of their hearts quickly. Stepping back, she let the Dark Lord and Severus walk up to the boy.

He numbly took off his vest and school shirt, wrapping his arms around his middle instinctively, he trembled as he and his magic slowly slid the glamours off. He sighed as he heard the gasps from around the room. Honestly, it wasn't that bad.

Voldemort and Severus spent the next thirty minutes bouncing ideas off of each other, making a list of potions and spells they would need, Harry putting his own input in every now and again, after he had gotten over the mortification of being half naked in front of Lord Voldemort himself. Soon they had made a full list of potions that the boy would need, spanning from nutrition and growth potions to spell and curse revealing potions.

Harry quickly jumped down from the table and scrambled to put his school shirt back on, sansing the vest and tie. He peered over at Draco's tie, then over to Ginny, who was also eyeing it. He walked over to her and murmured something in her ear, making her eyes light up, she replied, just as softly, "Five gallons says you can't." Harry just grinned and went to sit back down, Narcissa sitting with Severus, going over the list of potions.

He looked over to Draco, who seemed to be unsure of what to do with himself and was staring resolutely down at his hands, which were firmly in his lap. Harry's lips curled into a smirk for a moment, before he wiped his face of emotion. "Hey Malfoy." He called out, reclining in his chair. The blonde boy's head shot up, his eyes settling on Harry, namely his chest before he flushed (much to the amusement of Ginny) and flicked his eyes back down to his hands. "Yes, Potter?" Came the slightly higher pitched then normal reply. Restraining himself from giggling, Harry continued on, "You know, I really don't blame you for everything you've done to me and my friends." That caught the boy's attention, whose eyebrows shot into his hairline, he peeked up through his blonde fringe. "You don't?" Harry shook his head with a kind smile. Draco worried his lip, looking over at his father, who nodded.

"I…am still sorry. If there is anything I can do to make up for the things I've said and done?" Harry nodded, standing up and sauntering over to the boy. He leaned over, taking delight when the boy flushed even more so. Harry whispered into the other boy's ear, causing him to look at him strangely. "It's a start." Harry said in a louder voice, pulling back to stand straight. Draco stared at him for a moment, before nodding and pulling his tie out of his shirt and off over his head. He handed it to Harry, who gave a wide smirk in return, placing it around his own neck and fixing his shirt, he walked back over to Ginny, who was looking rather put off.

She dug into her pocket and pulled out five galleons, placing them in the boy's hand, much to the bemusement of the other people in the room. He saw all of the stares he was getting and shrugged, toying with his new tie. "I bet Ginny that I could get a Slytherin tie in five minutes for five galleons." He grinned and looked over to Draco who stared at the two pseudo Gryffindors, completely dumbfounded. Lucius, who had watched the entire exchange with thinly veiled amusement, chuckled behind his hand.

"My son, you just fell for the most Gryffindor Slytherin tactic I have ever seen." He said, patting his now pouting son on the back. Harry winked over at Draco, and walked over to him again. "Seriously, though. I don't blame you. You were caught in the crossfire of a political power game, but you'll find out about that soon enough. Worry not." He murmured, patting the other boy on the head. "I'd like for us to come out of this as friends, though." Draco merely nodded, not trusting his voice.

"Alright." Harry said, rubbing his hands together. Shall we continue with the story? I dare say most of us would like to finish this all soon." They all nodded. "And we can't do anything about the potions just yet, so that will also have to wait, yes?" Severus, Narcissa and Voldemort nodded reluctantly, Severus taking the list and pocketing it.

"Wait, I have one last question, before we continue." Came from Ginny. "I'm just wondering, since you can heal yourself magically, why didn't you heal yourself before going to sleep the night before on this day in the book?" Harry scratched the back of his head. "Well, me and my relatives had a sort of agreement. If I didn't heal any wounds they gave me on Dudley's birthday, they wouldn't harm me at any time during the summer." He finished with a shrug.

Ginny nodded and turned to Neville, who cleared his throat and brought the book back up again, crossing his legs in his seat.

From that day forward, Harry had used his new friend to heal himself and cover anything that would show through. His relatives were so excited about being able to harm more places of him without fear of repercussion that they didn't even punish him for the obviously freaky thing he was doing.

"Well. Thank Merlin for that, though I don't see how that is freaky…" Draco murmured more to himself then anyone else, though his father and George heard and nodded solemnly.

Still the only thing he couldn't heal or hide was the scar on his forehead. He had had it as long as he could remember being at his relatives house, and the first question he could ever remember asking his Aunt Petunia was how he had gotten it.

"In the car crash when your parents died,"

"What? They said that they had died in a car crash? That's preposterous!" Narcissa screeched, forgetting being dignified for the moment. "Never in all my years…Lucius…" she whined, stomping her foot, much to the amusement of the other people in the room. Lucius just nodded and said, "We shall plan this out after the reading, I dare say." Calming Narcissa down enough that she sat gracefully back in her chair. No one had the courage to say a word about her lapse.

she had said. "And don't ask questions."

Don't ask questions - that was the first rule for a quiet life with the Dursleys. There were many rules that Harry had to follow while living under the Dursleys' roof, but that rule had to be the most important one of them all. After the first initial warning that had come when he was three, he would receive a smack as an answer to any question he asked. Soon, he had stopped asking for anything at all.

Severus made a noise of dawning understanding. "So that is why you are so bloody curious about everything while at school. I had always wondered about that." Harry nodded slowly. "Which makes all of your adventures make that much more sense." Harry grinned and nodded. "And here I thought you had a saving people thing." Ginny snorted in amusement. "Just wait until the second book." She said, shaking her head. Harry added, "Or the end of this book."

Uncle Vernon entered the kitchen as Harry was turning over the bacon.

"Comb your hair!" he barked, by way of a morning greeting.

"You know, I've never heard him say more then five words in a sentence. Well, except that time with Hagrid, but I think he was so scared that the stupid ran away from him." Harry mused, the twins nodding in agreement.

About once a week, when Harry wasn't in school, Uncle Vernon looked over the top of his newspaper and shouted that Harry needed a haircut. Harry must have had more haircuts than the rest of the boys in his class, every summer, put together, but it made no difference, his hair simply grew that way - all over the place.

Severus shook his head, "That would be the Potter genes. Lily always thought that Potter used some spell to make his hair grow the exact way he wanted it to everyday, but everyone else knew that that was just how Potter hair grew." Harry giggled, smiling softly. He loved getting information on his parents, the good and the bad.

Harry was frying eggs by the time Dudley arrived in the kitchen with his mother. Dudley looked a lot like Uncle Vernon. He had a large pink face, not much neck, small, watery blue eyes, and thick blond hair that lay smoothly on his thick, fat head.

There were noises of hilarity from everyone in the room. Harry just smirked, wondering if his real description of Dudley was in there.

Aunt Petunia often said that Dudley looked like a baby angel - Harry often said that Dudley looked like a pig in a wig.

There was a moment of sheer silence in the room, then the twins broke it by laughing uproariously, clutching their stomachs. The rest of the room soon joined them, Tonks failing in her mission to stay in her chair, even Voldemort was cackling gleefully. "Oh, bloody hell, Kor. I love your descriptions." Neville shuddered and added, "I'm now extremely afraid of your description of me, but can't wait for your description of Dumb and Granger."

Harry put the plates of egg and bacon on the table, which was difficult as there wasn't much room. He ended up perching his precariously at the edge of the table. Dudley, meanwhile, was counting his presents. His face fell.

Harry let out a long sigh. "You know, they go through this every year, you would think that my relatives actually enjoyed this exchange."

"Thirty-six," he said, looking up at his mother and father. "That's two less than last year."

Draco gaped at the book. "He's complaining about getting Thirty-six presents? I've never…" Narcissa cut him off, "And you never will, Draconis. Now hush." Draco's mouth shut with a snap, causing many of the Gryffindors to fight down their amusement.

"Darling, you haven't counted Auntie Marge's present, see, it's here under this big one from Mommy and Daddy."

Severus sneered. "Mommy and Daddy? How old is this child?" Harry shook his head. "He's about a month older then I am." He replied dryly, his eyebrow quirked. Severus ran his hand over his face, "I am very glad that he is a muggle, Mr. Potter. Or at least a squib. Merlin forbid I ever have to meet him in a non-violent sense, as I'm sure it would turn violent very quickly."

"All right, thirty-seven then," said Dudley, going red in the face. Harry, who could see a huge Dudley tantrum coming on, began wolfing down his bacon as fast as possible in case Dudley turned the table over.

"So, that is why you eat the way you do?" Draco asked, before his eyes widened slightly and his mouth snapped shut again, his face flushed with embarrassment as his parents chuckled. "Draco was raised on stories about you, you see?" Narcissa continued on, ignoring her son who was staring pleadingly at her, shaking his head furiously. "When he was seven, he forced the elves," there was a piteous groan from Draco who covered his now cherry red face with one of his arms, "to hold a mock wedding for you and him." She finished in amusement. Harry shook in silent laughter, as Lucius buried his face into his wife's shoulder his shoulders shaking in mirth. Fred and George ran over to Draco and hugged him tight, "That" "is" "so" "CUTE." They said, the last word in unison as they cuddled the blonde whose face was so red, you could almost see the steam coming from it.

They curled around him, latching on tightly, even through the blonde's weak protests. Soon, he was quiet and the twins smirked to each other over his head. His mother and father stared at the scene, thankful that their son could no longer deny that part of himself. They really didn't care whom he ended up with, as long as he was happy and, of course, gave the Malfoy line an heir. In the wizarding world, men could reproduce just as…well many not just as easily as women, but it was still common practice in most wizarding societies. Narcissa smiled contently and curled against her husband on a now expanded chair. She was starting to wish they never had to leave this room.

Aunt Petunia obviously scented danger, too, because she said quickly, "And we'll buy you another two presents while we're out today. How's that, popkin? Two more presents. Is that all right?" She ended almost frantically, amusing Harry to no end, though he didn't show it on his face.

Dudley thought for a moment. It looked like hard work. Finally he said slowly, "So I'll have thirty…thirty…" Harry rolled his eyes minutely, honestly, he kept forgetting just how stupid Dudley was.

"Harry, how could you forget that? It slaps you in the face every time he speaks to you." Harry just shrugged, saying, "No idea."

"Thirty-nine, sweetums," said Aunt Petunia.

"Oh." Dudley sat down heavily and grabbed the nearest parcel. "All right then."

Uncle Vernon chuckled.

"Little tyke wants his money's worth, just like his father. 'Atta boy, Dudley!" He ruffled Dudley's hair.

There was a collective shudder of disgust that went throughout the room. "That is possibly the most disgusting display I have ever read in my life." Neville sneered down at the book, surprising Severus and Draco, both of whom had never seen that look on the boy before. Severus thought the boy to be almost…attractive when he didn't have that clueless look on his face. His brow furrowed as he backtracked. No, not attractive, calling someone attractive meant getting your hopes up and Severus knew better then to do that.

At that moment the telephone rang and Aunt Petunia went to answer it while Harry and Uncle Vernon watched Dudley unwrap the racing bike, a video camera, a remote control airplane, sixteen new computer games, and a VCR, Harry started taking mental inventory of everything that was unwrapped and picking out the items he knew Dudley wouldn't miss.

Harry smirked, remembering that. "How much of what you own was stolen from the muggles, Harry?" Harry giggled and replied, "Oh…all of my muggle items." Ginny coughed and blinked at Harry. "That's like…Harry, that's over one thousand muggle pounds worth of stuff." Harry grinned and scratched his nose, "More like…ten thousand." Fred and George chuckled from their spots. "How much would that be in galleons?" Narcissa asked. Harry thought for a moment, then replied, "About two thousand galleons." He said with a nod. The Slytherins all stared at Harry for a moment, who in return just quirked one of his eyebrows and peered over at Neville, signaling him to start reading again.

He was ripping the paper off a gold wristwatch when Aunt Petunia came back from the telephone looking both angry and worried.

"She looked rather constipated, if you ask me." Harry said in thought.

"Bad news, Vernon," she said. "Mrs. Figg's broken her leg. She can't take him." She jerked her head in Harry's direction.

"Harry Potter has a name, you stupid muggle." Came the sour reply from Voldemort, which caused Harry to stare at the man in wonder. He had never heard him say his first name in any other tone but disdain or sadistic glee. The way his name rolled off his tongue…he shivered in delight, but said nothing, not noticing that four other people in the room had seen that display.

Dudley's mouth fell open in horror, but Harry's heart gave a leap. Every year on Dudley's birthday, his parents took him and a friend out for the day, to adventure parks, hamburger restaurants, or the movies. Every year, Harry was left behind with Mrs. Figg, a mad old lady who lived two streets away.

Neville paused in his reading, "So, they made you travel all the way from your school to their house, which I assume, seeing as you are there until summer, is rather far away, only so you can cook and clean for that one day, then go back to the school the day after that?" Harry nodded, giggling softly. "They never made much sense." He said with a slight shrug.

Harry hated it there, almost as much as he hated the Dursleys.

"Which I now know she acted the way she acted on Dumbedore's orders." He said dryly.

The whole house smelled of cabbage and cat piss and Mrs. Figg made him look at photographs of all the cats she'd ever owned, many of the later ones ended up being kicked by him, on "accident".

"Is that where you got the cat for…" Harry nodded, smirking. "Though, I think that might have been one of her kneazles." Neville chuckled, shaking his head.

"Now what?" said Aunt Petunia, looking furiously at Harry as though he'd planned this, though that would've been rather difficult for him, seeing as he was ushered into the house and put under watch the entire time he had been at that stupid house.

Harry knew he ought to feel sorry that Mrs. Figg had broken her leg, it really just amused him, it really wasn't easy when he reminded himself it would be a whole year before he had to look at Tibbies, Snowy, Mr. Paws, and Tufty again.

Harry shook his head, "You know, she named every new cat after whichever cat had died before? Honestly…I think she had a thing for cats in the way Filch does with Ms. Norris." He said, causing more then one person, including himself, to shudder.

No one could think of anything that could possibly make that thought less frightening, so Neville just continued reading.

"We could phone Marge," Uncle Vernon suggested.

"Don't be silly, Vernon, she hates the boy."

Harry violently shuddered at the mention of his aunt Marge, something that didn't go unnoticed.

The Dursleys often spoke about Harry like this, as though he wasn't there - or rather, as though he was something very nasty that couldn't understand them, like a slug or a piece of dirt on their food.

Harry scratched his chin, saying, "More often then not, I usually thought about them that way as well." He shrugged.

"What about what's-her-name, your friend - Yvonne?"

"On vacation in Majorca," snapped Aunt Petunia.

"You could just leave me here," Harry put in hopefully (he'd be able to watch what he wanted on television for a change and maybe even have a go on Dudley's computer).

Voldemort smirked and said, "How deceitful of you, Potter. And to think I was planning on killing you. What a waste that would've been." He said almost morosely. Harry sent him a small, shy smile, before turning back to Neville. Severus and Lucius looked at each other triumphantly. This definitely wouldn't be as hard as they thought.

Aunt Petunia looked as though she'd just swallowed a lemon.

Severus snorted, saying, "Rather astute observation there, Potter." Remembering the horse face woman, "Though, I don't know how you could tell the difference between that and her normal face." Harry snickered and shrugged.

"And come back and find the house in ruins?" she snarled. Harry thought the idea had merit, but said, "I won't blow up the house," but they weren't listening.

"They never listened."

"I suppose we could take him to the zoo," said Aunt Petunia slowly, "…and leave him in the car…"

Narcissa growled and said, "That is completely unethical! Inhumane! Barbaric! And…" Harry cleared his throat. "Ma'am, if we could continue the story, they don't leave me in the car." Though disgruntled, Narcissa settled back against Lucius.

"That cars new, he's not sitting in it alone…"

Dudley began to cry loudly. In fact, he wasn't really crying - it had been years since he'd really cried - but he knew that if he screwed up his face and wailed, his mother would give him anything he wanted.

"Draco used to do that, until he was about five." Narcissa mused, staring over at her son. Draco flushed again, and replied, "Well, yes, enough zapping spells and silencios and I figured out that that wasn't going to work." His father looked rather smug with himself. "Frankly, I'm quite happy they made those spells." He said softly, ruffling his son's hair, who squawked indignantly. "Corporal punishment on a child is so…barbaric." He finished with his lip curled. Harry tilted his head, "So…if you were to adopt me, you wouldn't ever raise your hand to me?"

Narcissa made a noise of discontent, "Goodness no, child! Besides, you're old enough that we shouldn't need to punish you in any way, nor would we attempt to. All rules in our house are for the safety of other people, so if you happen to break said rule, well, you'll be punished enough without us having to harm you, though it's nothing that causes anything more then mild pain, if that." Harry nodded slowly, his body visibly relaxing. "I'd like to think about it, I know Sirius," he motioned to his godfather, "would love to adopt me, but…" he looked over to Sirius apologetically, "I think I need someone who is a bit more…stable to raise me." Sirius waved him off, giving him a lopsided smile.

"Pup, as long as my cousin lets me see you more then Dumbledore does, I'm fine with it. Also, it'd be great if I could actually leave my house. Being cooped up in the ancestral house seems to have knocked about as many screws out as Azkaban did." Narcissa nodded slowly, putting her hand on her husband's arm, "As long as you don't harm or upset Harry in any way, I'm sure it will be fine. Plus, the grounds of the Malfoy Manor are much larger then that of the Black house." Sirius grinned contently. Harry giggled, but added, "Still, this is a rather big decision and I'd like a bit more time to think about it, if that is okay?" Narcissa and Lucius nodded, smiling.

That he was even considering it after everything Lucius and Draco had done made them very happy indeed. From the twin sandwich, Draco said, "If it's any help, I'd actually really like having a brother." Harry smiled at him, nodding. He then turned back to Neville, who lifted the book back up with a smile and continued to read.

"Dinky Duddydums,"

Kind of. "WHAT?" Neville cried out, dropping the book. "She…she calls him…Dinky…" He dissolved into stitches, clutching his stomach, followed not too far behind by the rest of the room. "Oh merlin. When we go to their house…I'm not calling him anything but that." Harry chuckled, nodding slightly.

"don't cry, Mummy won't let him spoil your special day!" she cried, flinging her arms around him.

"Still not quite sure how she managed that." Harry murmured, causing the people in the room to snort.

"I…don't…want…him…t-t-to come!" Dudley yelled between huge, pretend sobs. "He always sp-spoils everything!" He shot Harry a nasty grin through the gap in his mother's arms, to which Harry sneered at.

Just then, the doorbell rang - "Oh, good Lord, they're here!" said Aunt Petunia frantically - and a moment later, Dudley's best friend, Piers Polkiss, walked in with his mother. Piers was a scrawny boy with a face like a rat. He was usually the one who held people's arms behind their backs while Dudley hit them.

"Severus. Write down that boy's name." Voldemort murmured to Severus, who nodded, quickly jotting down the name.

Dudley stopped pretending to cry at once.

Half an hour later, Harry, who couldn't believe his luck, was sitting in the back of the Dursleys' car with Piers and Dudley, on the way to the zoo for the first time in his life, legally that is.

"I still don't know how you managed to get that monkey." Harry just smirked at Fred. "Wait, you stole a monkey?" Draco asked, staring at the boy. Harry nodded, his smirk growing that much wider. After watch Draco impersonate a fish for a couple moments, Neville continued on.

His aunt and uncle hadn't been able to think of anything else to do with him, but before they'd left, Uncle Vernon had taken Harry aside roughly, bruising his arm.

"I'm warning you," he had snarled, putting his large purple face right up close to Harry's, making the boy flinch in disgust, "I'm warning you now, boy - any funny business, anything at all - and you'll be in that cupboard from now until Christmas, no matter what your school says."

I'm not going to do anything," said Harry, as innocently as possible, "honestly…"

But Uncle Vernon didn't believe him. No one ever did.

The problem was, strange things happened around Harry almost everyday and it was just no good telling the Dursleys he didn't make them happen, because even he knew he did.

Voldemort stared openly at Harry. "You did accidental magic everyday?" Harry shrugged and nodded, "Well, it wasn't accidental after I had unlocked my core, but yes, I did."

Once, Aunt Petunia, tired of Harry coming back from the barbers looking as though he hadn't been at all, had taken a pair of kitchen scissors and cut his hair so short he was almost bald, 'accidentally' cutting his ear in the process, except for his bangs, which she left "to hide that horrible scar."

"How awful!" Narcissa cried forlornly, grabbing at her own hair and staring at Harry's. Draco nodded quickly, disentangling his arms from the twin sandwich to feel his own hair, causing the twins to snicker.

Dudley had laughed himself silly at Harry, who, after spitting in Dudley's evening snack, spent a sleepless night imagining school the next year, where he was already laughed at for his baggy clothes and taped glasses, never mind that much of the clothing was stolen from them and that Harry's glasses were like that because of their doing.

Next morning, however, he had gotten up to find his hair exactly as it had been before Aunt Petunia had sheared it off, much to his delight. He had been given a week in his cupboard, no meals, and a quick lashing for this,

"So…not only did they hit you, they also withheld food from you?" Lucius all but growled. Harry nodded and shrugged, flushing, "I don't see how that is hard to imagine. I mean…" He motioned to himself, unable to finish the sentence. Everyone in the room nodded solemnly, Severus adding a nutrient potion that he had created himself to the list.

even though he had tried to explain that he couldn't explain how it had grown back so quickly.

"I really couldn't. I had asked my magic if he had done it, but he had told me he hadn't, so I had had no clue at all." Harry said, scratching his head. Everyone who remembered James nodded, knowing his hair was the exact same way.

Another time, Aunt Petunia had been trying to force him into a revolting old sweater of Dudley's (brown with orange puff balls).

Draco wrinkled his nose with a soft, 'ew' but refrained from commenting further.

The harder she tried to pull it over his head, the smaller it seemed to become, until finally it might have fit a hand puppet, but certainly wouldn't fit Harry.

Remus looked at Harry and asked, "Just how old were you when that happened?" Harry thought back and said, "I had been six at the time." Nodding his head slowly. "Wha- You did a successful shrinking charm, holding it for long enough for a most likely huge sweater to shrink to the size of a person's hand…and is the sweater still that same size?" Harry nodded, standing up and walking over to his bag, pulling the shrunken sweater out and walking back. "She let me keep it, saying I shouldn't waste good clothing."

He smirked and handed the tiny sweater to Remus, who stared at it in amazement. "A shrinking charm lasting this long…that's…" He struggled to find a way to finish the sentence, Ginny came in and saved him, "That's Harry." She said decisively. Remus nodded, causing Harry to flush in pleasure, not entirely used to being praised.

Aunt Petunia had decided it must have shrunk in the wash and, to his great relief, Harry wasn't punished.

Narcissa let out a small breath, "Thank Merlin." She said faintly.

On the other hand, he'd gotten into terrible trouble for being found on the roof of the school kitchens during one summer vacation. Dudley's gang had been chased him into an ally, wielding small weapons, when, as much to Harry's surprise as anyone else's, there he was sitting on the chimney.

Neville blinked at the book, then to Harry. "You apparated…" Harry looked over at Neville and said, "You know, I still haven't read about that." Ginny rubbed her forehead, "Of all the things you have read about, you haven't read about apparation?" Harry shook his head, "You know I'm only to the D's!" He said defensively. Ginny blinked slowly, before nodding. "Right, I forgot you were working from the Z's. Sorry, Kor." Harry just waved her off. "So, wait…you've read every book in the library…to the D's?" Draco asked, slightly aghast.

Harry nodded, grinning widely. "Any book I want to read, I just copy and take with me. Then, I take a copy of a textbook and spell the book I want to read into the textbook, or into a quidditch book. No one questions what I'm reading if I'm reading something pertaining to school or quidditch." Harry finished with a shrug. "Actually, I usually just copy any book I want. I haven't paid for a book in…well, since I learned the spell to copy books." Neville snorted, shaking his head. "You realize, no other person would've though of that, right?" Harry nodded again, "That's why I've never been caught. When a book is copied, the magic on it the original book that prevents stealing isn't on the copy, thus, you can walk out and no one is the wiser. Though, there are some stores that have pesky anti-copying spells on them, but they're easy enough to get around."

No one seemed to know what to say to that, so Lucius began explaining apparation to Harry, who stopped him when he got into the explanation of what it feels like. "So, it feels like something sucking you through a straw? Then…whatever I do, it's not apparation." Harry said, "What I do…it's like…" Harry worried his lip, thinking of the best way to explain it. "It's like…walking or just moving in general, but you move through the shadows." He tilted his head, considering that the best explanation he could think of at the time.

Voldemort made a choking noise. "You mean, you can shadow travel?" Harry looked at him strangely, but nodded, "I guess so." The older man shook his head. "The wonders of you, Mr. Potter, never cease to amaze me. The last person that was able to travel the way of shadows, thus controlling the element of shadows was Grindelwald himself." Voldemort looked at Harry in heavily veiled awe. Neville made a soft noise, catching the attention of everyone in the room and breaking the small staring match happening between Harry and the Dark Lord. He lifted the book in his hands with a quirked eyebrow, before beginning to read again, not caring in the slightest if the other people in the room were done talking yet. The story was about to get interesting!

The Dursleys had received a very angry phone call from the headmistress, who had been there that day finalizing paperwork for the school, telling them Harry had been climbing school buildings.

But all he'd tried to do (as he had shouted at Uncle Vernon through the locked door of his cupboard, clutching his chest) was jump behind the big trash cans outside the kitchen doors. Harry supposed that the wind must have caught him in mid-jump.

Neville paused, staring over at Harry. "Don't say a word." He growled in embarrassment, "I was eight at the time." Neville merely shook his head in amusement and continued to read.

The worst thing he could remember doing, in terms of the punishment he had received, which had sentenced him to his school.

Everyone in the room who didn't know the story, which was everyone but Harry, leaned forward, or in Neville's case, gripped the book tightly in excitement and apprehension.

It had been a normal school day at his old, normal school. He had been playing on the playground by himself, as usually when Dudley had come up to him and kicked him, Harry assumed it was his way of getting Harry's attention.

Having had quite enough of the constant bullying, Harry had lashed out, the hatred coursing through his magic only fueling him as he ran toward a small game of baseball that was being held. He had stopped in front of the batter and yanked the bat out of the boy's hands roughly, his magic pushing the boy back at the same time, sending him flying back into a post, where he hit his head, falling to the ground in a heap.

Spinning toward Dudley, he marched toward the boy who had been waddling over to him, the bat clutched tightly in his hand. Dudley, who had been too far away when Harry had taken the bat from the other boy, didn't even turn his eyes to the object in question as he sneered. "Baby Potter thinks he can fight me, ay?"

Harry had snarled loudly, before running at the fat boy, gripping the bat tightly with both hands, he swung hard, his friend seeping into the bat, making it as hard as steel, he grinned when he heard Dudley's skull crack and laughed loudly when his blood had splashed across his face.

Everyone who wasn't reading or Harry drew in a sharp breath, many wondering how a child could take delight from such a display of violence.

By the time he had been pulled away by police, he had sent nine children and four teachers to the hospital, the boy who he had stolen the bat from dying from his injuries at the hospital.

"You had killed someone before even entering Hogwarts?" Narcissa asked faintly. A shadow crossed Harry's eyes as he thought back to his trial. "More then one person, ma'am. Two other students and a teacher also died." He replied quietly, closing his eyes, not wanting to see their reactions. To say he was startled when a pair of arms wrapped around him, not the arms of a female, he noticed, was a bit of an understatement. He opened his eyes slowly and stared up into the face of an equally shocked looking dark lord. Voldemort pulled back quickly, clearing his throat awkwardly.

"No one is going to judge you negatively for this, not if I have any say in it, Potter." He murmured before turning and walking back to his chair, staring up at the ceiling. Harry blushed with a small smile, before peering around at all of the people in the room, whose faces showed a mix of awed and astonished. Sirius shook his head, "Well, I for one am glad that you're not anything like what Dumbledore had told me you turned out as. I was afraid you were going to be boring, but you're definitely anything but." Harry giggled when everyone else in the room nodded, he settled his eyes back on Voldemort, who was still staring adamantly at the ceiling, feeling a slight tingle where the man had touched.

His smile widened as he turned back to Neville, who didn't say a word about the exchange between the two, just starting where he had left off.

The punishment wasn't all that bad, all things considered, he had spent most of his time sitting in a small jail cell, being leered at by some of the older inmates until they had found out just what he was in there for. He ended up not having to return to the Dursleys' until months later, after the trial had finished and he was to start attending St. Brutus's for an undetermined amount of time.

The Dursleys were too afraid of Harry when he had come back to punish him more then they usually did, though he did spend a good while in the cupboard. He spent a month at the Dursley's before starting at his new school, thus beginning his punishment mandated by the court.

"And that is the tale of how I ended up attending St. Brutus's." Harry proclaimed, scratching his head. "Rather anti-climatic, if you ask me." There were nods and murmurs of agreement from the people in the group, Neville just snorted and said, "Anything would've been anti-climatic after that, Kor." And continued reading.

But today, nothing was going to go wrong. He was spending the day in a place where his relatives didn't want him to go, with his relatives and frankly, anything that ruins his relatives day, even minutely, was even worth being with Dudley and Piers as well as to be spending the day somewhere that wasn't his school, his relative's house, or Mrs. Figg's cabbage-smelling living room.

While he drove, Uncle Vernon complained to Aunt Petunia. He liked to complain about things, in fact, it was his favorite pastime: people at work, Harry, the council, Harry, the bank, and Harry were just a few of his favorite subjects.

"I have the feeling he doesn't like you, Kor." Said George. "Oh, what gave you that idea, Deimos?" Asked Fred. "No clue, Dolos, just a feeling." Harry snorted and shook his head as the two bantered back and forth over Draco, who looked like he really didn't mind at all.

This morning, it was motorcycles.

Sirius pouted and said, "There is nothing wrong with motorcycles, thank you very much!"

"… roaring along like maniacs, the young hoodlums," he said, as a motorcycle overtook them.

"I had a dream about a motorcycle," said Harry, remembering suddenly. "It was flying."

Fred and George stopped bantering to stare at Harry. "Really? Did you honestly say that to your uncle?" Harry smirked and nodded, "I liked his reaction."

Uncle Vernon nearly crashed into the car in front. He turned right around in his seat and yelled at Harry, his face like a gigantic beet with a mustache: "MOTORCYCLES DON'T FLY!"

Most of the people in the room snickered at the description, while George said, "Oh, you're right, his reaction was worth it." Fred nodded in agreement with his brother, both of them grinning widely, "Don't you agree, Draco?" The boy in question blushed a red that was worthy of the Weasleys, red spreading all the way to the tips of his ears as he nodded weakly.

"Stop torturing the boy." Neville admonished in entertainment, shaking his head as he turned back to the book.

Dudley and Piers sniggered.

"I know they don't," said Harry. "It was only a dream."

Sirius snickered and said, "No it wasn't."

But he wished he had gone into detail. If there was one thing the Dursleys hated even more than his asking questions, it was his talking about anything acting in a way it shouldn't, no matter if it was in a dream or even a cartoon - they seemed to think he might get dangerous ideas.

"Which would be a correct assumption." Harry said, grinning to his family, who grinned back, leaving those not in his family mildly confused.

"Wait, what is a cartoon?" Draco asked. Harry thought for a second before pulling a memory from his third year, "You remember when you sent me that note, back in third year?" Draco nodded, looking slightly chagrined. "Well, if you were to take that drawing, make it into a fifteen or so minute segment, and put it into a box, to play it to a mass of people, that would be a cartoon. Though, I may have to show you…" He said, peering over at Narcissa and Lucius who both nodded minutely, they were interested in this cartoon thing, no matter if it was muggle or not.

It was a very sunny Saturday and the zoo was crowded with families. The Dursleys bought Dudley and Piers large chocolate ice creams at the entrance and then, because the smiling lady in the van had asked Harry what he wanted before they could hurry him away, they bought him a cheap lemon ice pop.

Fred and George sniggered, knowing how Harry ate things like that. Draco tilted his head, asking, "What is an ice pop?" Harry mock gasped at the question, saying, "Why, it is only the best treat a person can have! Why, we should all have one right now!"

As if it had been planned, a plate with a ice pop appeared in front of everyone, perched on a table that had jumped out along with them. All of the Gryffindors picked theirs up and promptly put them in their mouths, sucking on them. The twins glanced over at Voldemort, who was watching Harry. The both grinned at each other over Draco's head and then picked up the blonde's ice pop and put it in front of the boy's face, who opened his mouth cautiously, taking the pop by the sticks, he licked it, his eyes widening in delight, he put it in his mouth and started to eat it contently. Neville stared around the room, sucking his own ice pop, and waited for everyone to start eating theirs.

He watched as his potions professor slowly picked his up and began to eat it, having to shift a bit in his seat…Merlin…he tore his eyes away from that to watch the older Malfoys finally gather enough courage to do the same, Narcissa's reaction much the same as Draco's had been. Finally, Voldemort, who had taken to intermittently poking his and staring at Harry, who seemed to be enjoying his ice pop a bit more then what was proper for civil society, took up his ice pop and licked it tentatively before doing much the same as the others in the room.

As soon as Neville saw that everyone in the room was at least attempting to eat their ice pop, he continued on with the book.

It wasn't bad, either, Harry thought, licking it as they watched a gorilla scratching its head who looked remarkably like Dudley, except that it wasn't blond.

Neville heard Ginny choke on her ice pop as other in the room laughed or chuckled around the pop.

Harry had the best morning he'd had in a long time. He was careful to walk a little ways apart from the Dursleys so that Dudley and Piers, who were starting to get bored with the animals by lunchtime, wouldn't fall back on their favorite hobby of hitting him and Vernon wouldn't 'accidently' knock him in the back of his head. They ate in the zoo restaurant, and when Dudley had a tantrum because his knickerbocker glory didn't have enough ice cream on top, Uncle Vernon bought him another one and Harry was allowed to finish the first.

"Merlin, he must be one fat child." Narcissa murmured in disgust. Harry replied wryly, "He is. About four or five times bigger then Crabbe and Goyle." Draco shuddered, pulling a face.

Harry felt, afterward, that he should have known it was all too good to last.

There was a collective groan from everyone in the room, minus Harry and the twins. Harry peeked over at Voldemort, wondering if he knew about this particular gift of his.

After lunch they went to the reptile house.

Voldemort quirked an eyebrow, wondering. He and Harry's eyes connected before Harry's darted back to the book. Voldemort blinked at the boy, but didn't comment, knowing he would find out soon enough.

It was cool and dark in there, with lit windows all along the walls, Harry felt instantly at home in this place, feeling the want to curl up next to one of the snakes resting in this part of the zoo. Behind the glass, all sorts of lizards and snakes were crawling and slithering over bits of wood and stone.

Dudley and Piers wanted to see huge, poisonous cobras and thick, man-crushing pythons. Dudley quickly found the largest snake in the place. It could have wrapped its body twice around Uncle Vernon's car and crushed it into a trashcan - but at the moment it didn't look in the mood. In fact, it was fast asleep.

"Reminds me a lot of Nagini." Harry giggled and smirked at Voldemort. "It is Nagini, isn't it?" Voldemort said, amusement tingeing his voice. Harry's smirk just grew wider as Neville started reading again.

Dudley stood with his nose pressed against the glass, staring at the glistening brown coils.

"That actually did make him look like a pig." Harry muttered, causing Lucius, Severus and Voldemort to snort to themselves.

"Make it move," he whined at his father. Uncle Vernon tapped on the glass, but the snake didn't budge.

"Such disrespect!" Voldemort growled, wishing for his lovely Nagini. The room itself giggled and a snake appeared hissing angrily. :What is this nonsense! One moment I am resting on my warm rock and the next! Master!: She cried, slithering over to Voldemort. :Where are we and what are we doing here?: She hissed in a whining voice. Voldemort petted her head soothingly, :Do not fret, Nagini, we are safe here. No harm shall come to us whilst we are here.: Nagini nodded, though still not calm, she slithered up onto her master, coiling around him, drawing warmth from him.

"Do it again," Dudley ordered. Uncle Vernon rapped the glass smartly with his knuckles, but the snake just snoozed on.

Nagini's head shot up as she hissed. :I remember that muggle human named Dudley!: Her tongue flicked through the air, she turned to look at Harry, flicking her tongue out toward him. He shook his head minutely, to which she bowed slightly, coiling back up against her master.

"This is boring," Dudley moaned as he shuffled away.

:And you're fat.: Nagini retorted to the book, causing Harry to barely stifle a snort. She peered at him and hissed in amusement.

Harry moved in front of the tank and looked intently at the snake. He wouldn't have been surprised if it had died of boredom itself - no company except stupid people drumming their fingers on the glass trying to disturb it all day long.

:I thought I had once. But then I just realized that I had fallen asleep and woken up upside down. Rather funny feeling that.: Voldemort chuckled at his snake, running his fingers along her scales.

It was worse than having a cupboard as a bedroom, where the only visitor was Aunt Petunia hammering on the door to wake you up; at least he got to visit the rest of the house.

:This human child did not have a proper bedroom?: The snake asked, slightly appalled. Voldemort shook his head, ignoring the many looks they were receiving. :How preposterous!: She hissed lowly.

The snake suddenly opened its beady eyes. Slowly, very slowly, it raised its head until its eyes were on a level with Harry's.

:Being stuck in a small glass box for your entire life tends to give you a flair for the dramatic.: She hissed sardonically to the book. Harry had clutched his side, glaring at the snake as he did his best to not laugh.

It winked.

Harry stared. Then he looked quickly around to see if anyone was watching. They weren't. He looked back at the snake and winked, too.

The snake jerked its head toward Uncle Vernon and Dudley, then raised its eyes to the ceiling. It gave Harry a look that said quite plainly:

"I get that all the time."

"I know," Harry murmured through the glass, though he wasn't sure the snake could hear him. "It must be really annoying."

The snake nodded vigorously.

Neville paused, staring directly at Voldemort, who turned to his snake. :Nagini, you couldn't understand English until I had made you into a Horcrux, correct?: The snake nodded, staring at her master, wondering how he could be so slow when it came to the younger snake speaker.

:So that means…what does that mean, master?: She coaxed, pointing her tail to the other snake speaker. :It means…that he can speak our language.: A different voice came from across the room, :Dingdingding. We have a winner.: Harry hissed, a slightly derisive tone in his voice.

Nagini hissed out a laugh, slithering down her master's body over to the boy, who allowed her to curl around him. She laid her head down next to his head, on his shoulder, flicking her tongue out to his ear as she hissed low enough for only him to hear. :You know, he talks about you all the time. Harry this and Harry that. Drives me insane, really. He even talks about you in his sleep, though most of those times, it's about mating with you.: She smirked as well as a snake could when she felt the boy's face heat up, oh, it was going to be fun, playing with them.

Neville coughed lowly, catching everyone's attention.

"Where do you come from, anyway?" Harry asked.

The snake jabbed its tail at a little sign next to the glass. Harry peered at it.

Boa Constrictor, Brazil.

"Was it nice there?"

The boa constrictor jabbed its tail at the sign again and Harry read on: This specimen was bred in the zoo. "Oh, I see - so you've never been to Brazil?"

"You know, I've always thought that was rather offensive what the sign said. Calling you a specimen." Harry murmured as he pet Nagini, hearing her hiss in delight. "You're not a specimen, if anything, you're a work of art." Voldemort's breath caught in his throat when he heard Harry say that to his snake as Severus and Lucius smiled to each other.

As the snake shook its head, a deafening shout behind Harry made both of them jump. "DUDLEY! MR. DURSLEY! COME AND LOOK AT THIS SNAKE! YOU WON'T BELIEVE WHAT IT'S DOING!"

"That would be Piers." Harry said, sneering slightly. "A guy can't have a decent conversation with a snake without being interrupted or having the snake blasted." Severus, remembering the incident from second year, said, "Gilderoy deserved to end up where he did, even if it was just for that."

Dudley came waddling toward them as fast as he could.

"Out of the way, you," he said, punching Harry in the ribs hard, making a couple of them crack. Caught by surprise, Harry fell hard on the concrete floor.

Both Harry and Nagini hissed in remembrance of that.

What came next happened so fast no one saw how it happened - one second, Piers and Dudley were leaning right up close to the glass, the next, they had leapt back with howls of horror.

Harry smirked, while Nagini hissed in laughter.

Harry sat up and gasped; the glass front of the boa constrictor's tank had vanished. The great snake was uncoiling itself rapidly, slithering out onto the floor. People throughout the reptile house screamed and started running for the exits.

As the snake slid swiftly past him, Harry could have sworn a low, hissing voice said, "Brazil, here I come…Thanksss, amigo."

"Did you ever happen to make it to Brazil?" Nagini shook her head sadly. Harry worried his lip, because nodding to himself and saying, "Whenever we get the time, we're going to go to Brazil, okay, Nagini?" To which the snake hissed in extreme delight, nodding her head quickly. :I would love that, little snake speaker.: Harry smiled at the large snake, stroking her head lovingly.

Voldemort watched on, fighting the small smile that tugged at his non-lips, knowing it wouldn't do anything besides scare the other people in the room. He leaned over to Severus and murmured in his ear about pushing ways to get his former looks back. Severus nodded and wrote that down on the list of things that needed to get done.

The keeper of the reptile house was in shock.

"But the glass," he kept saying, "where did the glass go?"

"No where. I had just made it invisible and permeable." Harry said, his eyebrow quirked, answering the question before anyone in the room could ask it.

The zoo director himself made Aunt Petunia a cup of strong, sweet tea while he apologized over and over again. Piers and Dudley could only gibber. As far as Harry had seen, the snake hadn't done anything except snap playfully at their heels as it passed,

:I might have cut it a little close once or twice.: Nagini admitted happily. The two Parseltongues in the room snorted, Harry cheering Nagini and stroking her head even more.

but by the time they were all back in Uncle Vernon's car, Dudley was telling them how it had nearly bitten off his leg, while Piers was swearing it had tried to squeeze him to death. But worst of all, for Harry at least, was Piers calming down enough to say, "Harry was talking to it, weren't you, Harry?"

The people in the room groaned, while Harry just shrugged, saying, "I got him back for that." Refusing to go into detail just yet.

Vernon waited until Piers was safely out of the house before starting on Harry. He was so angry he could hardly speak. He managed to say, "Go - cupboard - stay - no meals," before he collapsed into a chair, and Aunt Petunia had to run and get him a large brandy.

Harry lay in his dark cupboard much later, wishing he had a watch. He didn't know what time it was and he couldn't be sure the Dursleys were asleep yet. Until they were, he couldn't risk sneaking to the kitchen for some food.

"Hence why Kor can sneak around school practically unnoticed." George said, Fred adding, "Well, one of the reasons." They smirked to each other, then to the rest of their brothers and sisters.

Harry gave a content sigh, snuggling further into his chair and Nagini's coils, who hissed soothingly, happy to help keep the boy calm.

He'd lived with the Dursleys almost ten years, ten miserable years, ever since he'd been a baby and his parents had died in that car crash, if you didn't count when he was at school. He couldn't remember being in the car when his parents had died. He had always thought that to be strange, as well as having no inset fear of cars in general.

Sometimes, when he strained his memory during long hours in his cupboard, he came up with a strange vision: a blinding flash of green light and a burning pain on his forehead. This, he supposed, was the crash, though he couldn't imagine where all the green light came from.

Voldemort drew in a sharp breath at the reminder. No one should have to remember that…he sighed, beating himself up over that night. His followers watched on, now gaining hope of a chance of restoring their lord to his former glory.

He couldn't remember his parents at all. His aunt and uncle never spoke about them, and of course he was forbidden to ask questions. There were no photographs of them in the house.

When he had been younger, Harry had dreamed and dreamed of some unknown relation coming to take him away, but it had never happened; the Dursleys were his only family. Yet sometimes he thought (or maybe hoped) that strangers in the street seemed to know him.

Harry rolled his eyes, sighing in remembrance of Diggle. The man had always and probably always would, freak him out. He honestly hoped Creevy didn't grow up to be like him. He was much too entertaining to have to kill.

Very strange strangers they were, too. A tiny man in a violet top hat had bowed to him once while out shopping with Aunt Petunia and Dudley.

Harry giggled. "Flitwick. He is horrid at blending in with muggles."

After asking Harry furiously if he knew the man, Aunt Petunia had rushed them out of the shop without buying anything.

A wild-looking old woman dressed all in green had waved merrily at him once on a bus.

He had to think back to remember her, "Bagshot, for sure. She's another person I've only met once or twice at most, but…you remember her."

A bald man in a very long purple coat had actually shaken his hand in the street this past summer and then walked away without a word.

He rolled his eyes, running his hand over his face. "Diggle. That man scares me. I'm very glad to have only ran into him twice."

The weirdest thing about all these people was the way they seemed to vanish the second Harry tried to get a closer look.

Voldemort nodded, "That would be the wonders of apparation." He stated, peering over at Harry, who snorted. "It's still creepy."

At school, Harry had no one. Though, he didn't really mind this one bit, he had set his reputation early, so no one would take advantage of him.

Harry shuddered at the memories of that school and just what the other boys would do to each other.

In a way, it reminded him of being at his old school with Dudley, because everybody knew that Dudley's gang hated that odd Harry Potter in his baggy old clothes and broken glasses, and nobody liked to disagree with Dudley's gang.

Neville quickly closed the book, tossing it over to Sirius, who fumbled with it, but caught it.

"Before we continue with this, I believe we have an issue we need to talk about." Harry announced, staring pointedly at Remus, who nodded solemnly.

"Don't look like that, Remus. It won't be painful or turn you into a wild animal, so calm down. To merge with your wolf, you just need to set up a communication with him and talk to him. Every wolf and human have a different way of setting up this communication, so I can't tell you an exact way of doing so." Harry explain to Remus, who nodded again, his brow furrowing.

"Now, may I suggest we break for a quick lunch while Moony works on merging? After that, we can continue with this book."

There were nods from every person in the room as a the tables appears, plates already positioned on top of them, carrying each person's favorite meal, as with what breakfast had.

x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x

3,478/15,576

Oh. Oh wow. You…you guys are amazing. I come back to check reviews after sleeping and see I have nine…NINE reviews (and…like…70 story alerts, what? Holy crap balls). On not only my first fanfiction, but one with a plot that seems to drive people away. I really wasn't expecting any and was really excited when I saw that I had gotten two after a couple hours of posting, the first being constructive criticism which is ALWAYS welcome, as I've never done this before. I was actually overjoyed that someone even noticed my story…but nine reviews…wow. I just…wow…I seriously have nothing else to say because of how happy that made me. So…I'll just respond to the reviews now.

OH WAIT. Before I do that, I just have to say. I do go over every chapter, no matter how long for grammatical errors, because I make a lot of them, but I know I'm not going to catch all of them, because I have a minor reading disorder, nothing huge, obviously, but I'll sometimes switch words around, or letters, I guess that would be dyslexia, but I don't want to call it that because it isn't…that bad. ANYWAY. If you do happen to notice an error, please point it out. I'm not going to bite anyone's head off for pointing that stuff out or giving me constructive criticism, I just don't want comments that are like "lols u suck." Because I know I suck, but I sometimes blow.

All blowjob humor aside, here are my responses to your reviews:

Little Lunacy – Well I really hope I can make the rest of my chapters as interesting for you as this one was. I, too, got bored of reading them, so…I decided to write my own. A little off tangent, I guess, but oh well.

ElementalFoxGoddess – haha, thanks. I try to insert as much humour as I possibly can into my writings. Especially since most of my writing was for teachers and many of them don't rightly like people writing about sex for school papers, but if I added it in a humourous sense, then they would tell me it was creative…teachers confuse me, but my writing is a lot more interesting now because of it. I'm a bit obsessed with this pairing. I was struggling for a long time for which Slytherin I was going to put Harry with, but Harry just seems to fit with Voldie.

Lightsoul34 – Well, thanks, I was a little worried people would pass this story up, deeming it unoriginal. The first chapter took the longest out of all of them. It's just so difficult for me to write just commentary. But, I'm hoping that I can get chapters out within days of getting one out. I mean, I really have no reason to not get these stories out rather quickly, as I like writing and have oodles of free time. Oh gosh, I just said oodles, anyway, yes I am going to explain the nicknames, it probably won't be until halfway through this fanfiction or the next.

Dweiathecat – lol! I think that Voldie sent some of his magic into Nagini, along with making her a Horcrux, so she could protect herself if need be, with Parselmagic, it would make sense, I mean, dark magic, mixed with a soul shard from someone who is admittedly insane would be enough to change any being's physical composition, if you ask me.

randomazn – Thanks.~ Here is the update. I hope it came soon.

EquusNanashi – I've seen one other fanfiction with this pairing. It was alright, but didn't have exactly what I am looking for with a story like this. The only one I've seen so far that I love, would be…The Pen is a Sword: Book One by A Being of Violet Fire. The pairing is Harry/Draco, though. But it is still really good, in my honest opinion.

Haha, I made it this way because I was tired of seeing stories like this that had little to no outside story. I really want to be able to continue this story once they are done reading the books, you know? Hopefully branch out all the way to past Harry's seventh year. Have a couple stories past the main part of the story. I mean, I really don't want this to just end after the reading of the fourth book, where they all go off on their merry ways and continue on as if nothing ever happened.

devilin – haha I'm excited for the next chapter, too and I'm the one writing it.

Zenro – awww thanks. I try to make it as balanced as possible, you know? So, it makes me happy to know that I'm actually succeeding.

I will be reading through and responding to every review to the best of my ability.

Also, beyond the Harry/Voldie pairing, whom do y'all want to see together?

I'd really like to pair Neville and Severus together. Don't you think that would be absolutely adorable?

And the twins with Draco, or Draco with Ginny or Draco with Luna, I'm not quite sure just who I want to pair Draco with, though I've always thought Draco/twins was…for lack of better word…hot, so I'll need some opinions on that.

I'm also not sure whom I want to pair the girls with. I'm not very good at pairings that include girls, but I'm certainly going to try.

So far, I've got:

Harry/Voldemort

Severus/ Neville (I mean, come on, one is obsessed with plants, the other with potions…)

Lucius/Narcissa (I don't have the heart to split them…it's just too cute)

Now here is where y'all come in…VOTING TIME:

Twins/Draco: 0 votes

Sirius/Draco: 0 votes

By the end of this, I'm going to have Draco paired with someone, particularly male, because, honestly, the boy just screams gay. Doesn't him with the twins or Sirius just seem so freaking hot? I just…I don't even know. I'm not sure about Luna. I've got an idea for her, but it would require her living without a pairing. Also, if you all have any suggestions about who you want to see paired with who, just send a review. Also, I don't know if y'all know this, but you can review anonymously.

Also, the galleon amount came from a muggle money to galleon converter.