Disclaimer: don't have the money or space too buy, let alone own, things.
Chapter Two- Prevailing Problems-o0O( Seven weeks later. Two and a half months altogether. )O0o-
Ginny Weasley was currently making her way from the library towards the Gryffindor common room, reading a book about truth charms when she rounded a corner and bumped off of something rock hard and fell to the ground. Groaning she rubbed her lower back to try a sooth the sudden pain away when she heard a voice speak.
"Well, well, well, boy's what do we have here?" a voice drawled.
Ginny could practically hear the person smirking and upon opening her eyes, which she had shut when she impacted into the wall, and Theodore Nott. Behind him stood four other higher class Slytherins, one of which she slammed into when she turned to corner. Ginny shivered slightly as she felt the group's eyes rake over her body. Looking down at herself she saw that the school skirt had slid upwards and rested about mid thigh and showed off her leg. Thankfully at least they couldn't see up it.
"So Weasley," Nott began once more drawing her attention back to her current predicament. "Ever since Potter's been away, you must have become extremely lonely. How about you and I go for a…"walk"?"
Ginny had to fight the urge to throw up. Everyone in Hogwarts used the "walk" as an excuse to find a secluded classroom and become intimate. When Theodore turned around to talk to the others for a moment Ginny quickly whipped her wand out of holster on her arm and fired off a series of stunners and full body binds at the five.
"Ms. Weasley!"
Ginny calmly put her wand away in it's holster and turned around to see the scowling face of Snape as he stormed his way towards her. Ginny flinched a little when she saw him pull his wand out of his sleeve and had to repress the urge to pull her own wand when he waved it, canceling the spells that kept the five boys behind her from moving.
"Professor!" Nott began. "We were standing here talking when she decided to hex us for no reason."
Snape held up a hand effectively keeping the teen from speaking anymore. "Mr. Nott, before you launch into, what I am sure will be, a fascinating story about how you tried to fend her off, allow me to tell you that I heard everything that was said between all of you. As such fifty points from Slytherin and a weeks detention for all of you for trying to force your ways and your bodies on her."
The group of boys began to sputter in shock and even Ginny herself had a hard time from gaping at the normally angry professor. Before Nott could talk once more Snape spoke up.
"Need I make it one hundred points and two weeks?" he hissed with narrowed eyes. The boys all gulped before leaving the scene. Ginny shuffled nervously when he turned to face her.
"Ms. Weasley, if you will follow me. There are certain things that we must talk about concerning Potter."
Ginny followed in shocked as he led the way towards his dungeon classroom. He motioned her in before him before closing the door behind him making Ginny feel more nervous than she was before. He motioned her to sit down before taking the seat behind his desk, after that he began speaking.
"Ms. Weasley, I believe that Potter was in capable of killing the group of people he was said to kill. Casting the Killing Curse takes far more hate than a schoolboy rivalry and as such Potter would never be able to begin to gather the amount of hate."
With these words he stood up out of his seat and walked over to the one that was beside Ginny's, turning it slightly to face her before sitting back down. Ginny herself was feeling more and more uncomfortable because he was now invading her personal space.
"Since I believe him innocent, there are certain things I could do, certain contacts that I could speak with to ensure an early release from Azkaban." Snape's voice was just above a whisper and the way he was staring intently at Ginny made her feel sick. Holding back the urge to throw up she asked a question.
"I-if you believe him innocent, then what are you waiting for?"
"You see although I do believe that Potter is innocent, I still hold a rather large amount of animosity towards the boy. However, there are certain things that can be done to…entice me into contacting my connections."
Ginny was rather confused at this point trying to think of something that he would want. It wasn't until Snape spoke next that it clicked in her mind what he was implying.
"You look so much like Lily." He whispered. "She was beautiful as are you but your eye's are different."
Ginny turned pale at the seductive tone he was using, and shook off the urge to throw up when he place his hand on her thigh. Not even stopping to think about it she reared back, snapping her fist forward and throwing her body into the punch at the last second. She felt the cartilage of his nose snap under the sudden pressure that it was placed under and quickly grabbed her things before running out of the classroom, leaving the unconscious professor laying down on the ground.
-o0O( )O0o-
Minerva McGonagall thought that she was a fair woman. She never treated any student better than the rest when it came to working, nor did she favor her house over that of the others, unlike a certain Potions professor. She also liked to think that if one of her Gryffindors had a problem, then they could come to her and talk to her about it. As such though many of the students never talked about their problems and as such she was surprised when she heard a rather timid knock at her door.
Getting up out of her favorite armchair and slipping on a robe, she walked over to the door before opening it and seeing Ginny Weasley standing before her looking sick, and lost. Ushering the student in she closed the door behind her before sitting her down in a loveseat across from her and reclaiming her armchair.
Minerva was about to speak in the fair tone that she usually used with students when she saw that Ginny was crying silently. Getting up from her armchair she moved across the room and sat down next to her before speaking in a soft tone.
"Ms. Weasley…what's wrong?"
Ginny shook her head not ready to talk about that Snape was trying to come on to her. Feeling a hand firmly grip her chin, her head was forced upwards and she found herself staring into the eyes of her Head of House.
"Ms. Weasley, I cannot help you if you do not tell me what's wrong." She said firmly.
Ginny reluctantly nodded before explain the incident in the hallway, followed by the fact that Snape was trying to come on to her. When she finished she was in tears in disgust while McGonagall's mouth was in a thin line and her eyes were flashing in anger. She stood up and pulled Ginny to her feet before walking her all the way back towards the Common Room.
Watching as the young lady walked in, Minerva turned around as soon as the portrait closed behind Ginny and began to walk at a brisk pace towards Dumbledore's office. Snapping the password out she quickly climbed the stair and entered the office without knocking first. Dumbledore glanced upwards when he heard the door open but if he was surprised then he didn't show it. Covering the piece of paper he was writing on he crossed his hands before talking.
"Minerva, what a pleasant surprise. Would you care for a lemon drop?"
Minerva shook her head negative before sitting down and talking. "Albus, tonight I received a visit from Ms. Weasley."
"What a delightful young lady. She has quite a sharp mind doesn't she?"
"Indeed but I am not here to talk about how bright she is. Tonight she came to looking lost and disturbed and when I questioned her she reluctantly told me that Severus tried to force her in a position of sexual favors, just because she looks like Lily Potter used to!"
Dumbledore gained a dark expression on his face a muttered to himself, too quiet for McGonagall to hear. He shook his head and looked up at the angry professor. "My dear, I assure you that I will handle the matter in the proper way."
McGonagall narrowed her eyes for a moment before nodding sharply and quickly left the headmaster's office. Once she was gone Dumbledore quickly summoned Snape up to his office by using his fireplace. When the potions master had entered and sat down Dumbledore began talking.
"I just had a rather interesting talk with Minerva." Dumbledore began in his best grandfather voice. "She came to me and told me about a conversation that she had with Ginny Weasley."
Snape's face turned white upon hearing these words. Before he could talk Dumbledore began speaking again, slowly losing his grandfather voice and slowly gaining anger.
"Need I remind you that while I give you a large amount of leniency here in the castle, this does not include trying to fulfill your own perverse dreams about those who are long dead? Severus, time and time again I told you to become more careful and yet the one time that I decided to trust you in respecting my words you deliberately go behind my back and do something such as this."
Dumbledore sighed before thinking about his rapidly deteriorating options, and not for the first time since Voldemort fell, he curse Harry Potter for putting him in this situation.
"H-headmaster," Snape began angry with himself for allowing his fear for the person in front of him show. "We could simply erase her memory along with Minerva-"
"Severus." Dumbledore snapped. "I have told you again and again that due to Minerva's animagus form memory charms will not work. Cats have a high amount of curiosity and rest assured that after awhile she will notice something is wrong and will find a solution to regaining her memory. It is for this reason that we cannot do the same with Ms. Weasley."
Dumbledore sighed heavily before rubbing his eyes wearily behind his glasses. "This is one hole that I will be unable to keep you out of." Dumbledore said in a tired voice before he looked up sharply once more. "Be glad that you are still of use to me as my spy and as a potion's master."
Snape visibly trembled before nodding. Recognizing that as a dismissal he quickly moved out of the room and made his way back towards his chambers.
-o0O( Three weeks later; Three Months and a week altogether )O0o-
Harry felt his body slowly begin to scream in agony from the numerous amounts of exercise step he had been doing since his second week in Azkaban. Ignoring the pain that was shooting through his muscles, he pushed himself farther and farther until, eventually, his arms gave away and he collapsed on the floor from the top horizontal bar he was using.
Lying there and breathing heavily Harry though back to when the Dementor's first began to loose their effects around him. Oh yeas, he had noticed that it was only him since the other's still shrunk to the back of their cages when the demons passed by.
Shaking his head so as to clear it of distracting thoughts, Harry forced himself into a sitting position before feeling the small twinge between his shoulder blades. This feeling began about a month ago, or at least what Harry thought was a month, time slowly began to slip away after awhile. Each day it would twinge at random times, although after awhile of him working out it began to happen at set times.
Since Harry couldn't tell for certain what time it was, he began to use the twinges as a sort of biological clock. Unfortunately over time they began to increase more and more so the whole time telling thing lasted for about a week. Hearing his cell door open he looked over at the small window and watched as a slimy scaly hand slid in a tray of food.
This was another thing, better food over an increase of time. Harry doubted that it was the ministry, and from remembering that time Sirius spoke about his time in Azkaban, this wasn't normal. Not really caring who it was that decided to give him better food he shrugged and made his was over to the wrapped sandwich and glass of cool, pure water.
After eating his meager yet filling meal, Harry slowly climbed into his little space on the floor that held all the clothing that Harry wasn't using and Hagrid's large moleskin coat and slowly slipping into a fitful sleep.
-o0O( )O0o-
After five hours of nightmares, Harry felt himself waking up slowly. At first everything was warm and Harry began to hope, once, more, that Azkaban was a dream, until he felt the unnatural cold that always hung in the air. Shaking off the coat that covered him he sat up before closing his eyes and entering his mind.
During his short stay here Harry, wanting ways to keep Voldemort out of his head, came across the ability to enter his mind one night when the Dementor's gathered outside of his door. Upon a few weeks of trial and error, Harry finally managed to begin building defenses around his mind.
Slipping into his mind Harry began to start rebuilding from where he had last left off. As usual Harry showed up where his mind actually was, behind all of the barriers he had up so far. The inner most was a giant steel wall ten meters thick, followed by a sea of shadows, a lightning cage, a hurricane of random memories, and finally the last part that he was about to finish.
Harry carefully placed each brick in place before covering them with white wood paneling and quickly finished the roof after. Moving onto the outside he set up a fence, which surrounded the building with fifteen meters in between the fence and the building, and added a large garden. Through the garden he made random paths that went every which way and ended in either random or horrifying memories.
Finishing up he added the gate before stepping back to admire his greatest defense…a small white cottage, with a white picket fence. Looking at the cottage from the outside he felt like something was missing, before it hit him. Quickly creating a beast so terrifying that the devil himself would flee before it out of all the memories he had of the Dark Creatures encounters in his years, and from what he read from books, he ended up with a dog the size of his foot.
Giving the puppy instructions on guarding, Harry quickly withdrew from his mind but not before adding a small sign that read, 'This is Fluffy. He is the Destroyer of Worlds.' Opening his eyes in the real world, Harry took note that breakfast arrived while he was meditating. Moving over to the tray he ate the meal without bothering to see what it was before standing up and beginning his work out.
A few hours later showed Harry cleaning himself in the small sink that was in the cell, as best as he can. Just as he finished replacing the clothing that he wore, his cell door opened up and three Auror's walked in.
"Surprisingly Potter, you have a visitor." The lead Auror said holding Harry at wand point.
When Harry didn't make any movement towards the three, the leader grew annoyed before reaching out and slamming his fist into Harry's stomach, causing him to fall to his knees. Reaching down, the leader grabbed a handful of hair before dragging Harry out of his cell and towards the tiny meeting room. Opening the door, the leader through Harry into the room before closing the door and locking it.
Harry slowly sat up, leaning on the wall for support, and rubbed his bruising stomach. Looking around he didn't see anyone in the room and slipped back into his mind when he felt a Dementor gliding towards the room. This time though, instead of hearing anybody start to scream, he heard a faint rattling sound. Not wanting to risk being vulnerable to the Dementor's Harry fueled his shield with magic.
Hearing the door open, Harry opened his eyes and found himself looking into the twinkling blue eyes of Albus Dumbledore. Harry allowed his eyes to harden a bit before falling into a light meditation so as to dampen the emotion that he know will come from meeting Dumbledore.
"Hello there Harry." Dumbledore said as if he wasn't visiting the Boy-Who-Lived in Azkaban.
Harry simply ignored the old man and continued to look straight forwards, not moving an inch. Dumbledore sighed silently before kneeling in front of Harry and looking straight into his eyes. Noticing the blank look in them he quickly called upon his magic and entered Harry's mind
The first thing that he felt when he entered Harry's mind was him hitting a wooden wall. Shaking himself off Dumbledore looked upwards to find a nice little white picket fence surrounding a homey looking cottage. A little ticked off that Harry managed to actually learn Occlumency, Dumbledore shrugged it off with a smile at how pathetic Harry's defense actually was.
Standing up he quickly made his way towards the gate and upon reaching it he saw the sign about fluffy and laughed it off when he saw the puppy staring at him intently. Thinking nothing about the tiny creature behind the fence, Dumbledore opened the gate and stepped a foot inside, when all hell broke loose…for Dumbledore that is.
When he entered the gate and turned around to close it he heard the tiny puppy start to growl. Not thinking anything about it he turned around, ready to punt the creature away if necessary and found himself looking into a furry knee. Looking upwards Dumbledore found three heads staring at him with a maniacal glint in the three pairs of eyes. Before the old wizard could do anything, lightning quickly surrounded the Cerberus and the middle head reached down and clamped its mouth around Dumbledore's middle.
Dumbledore screamed in pain as the lighting that coursed through the massive beast entered him before he was sent sailing through the air and landing in a soft bed of grass. Lying there for a moment Dumbledore recovered a little before trying to stand up. Upon failing for the third time he finally decided to look at what was obstructing him and prayed that fluffy hadn't returned.
To his slight relief he saw that it wasn't the dog as he feared, but then his relief turned into panic as he recognized the vines wrapping around him as a Devil's Snare. Unable to move his wand since the plant's vines covered his hand entirely, Dumbledore allowed himself to relax. Sure the mental pain from his probe "dieing" would give him a massive headache but at least he could take a potion for it.
After a minute of not struggling Dumbledore Felt the plant bend a little before feeling himself being launched through the air. Mistaking this as freedom he quickly began to ready himself for the fall when a rather large tree grew from a tiny sapling. It took a second for Dumbledore to remember the tree but by that time it was too late.
Outside of the mindscape, the real Albus Dumbledore was flinching each time a branch from the mental Whomping Willow before finally being thrown backwards after his probe hit the ground, was picked back up by Fluffy's middle head and thrown out of the fence, resulting in his probe being destroyed.
Dumbledore picked himself off of the ground with a painful moan, and held his head in his left hand, trying to stop the world from spinning. Turning towards Harry with anger palpable on his face, he raised his wand to perform an enveloping pain curse, when the door flew open and five Auror's stepped into the room.
"Are ye' all right there sir?" asked the first Auror.
"Ah, yeas. It appears that in my old age, my body cannot move quite the way it did when I was younger, and I simply tripped over a chair. Not to worry though, no last damage has been done." Dumbledore said after making sure to hide the pain in his voice from the titan-sized migraine running through his head.
The Auror's seemed to buy this excuse before informing the old man that the visiting hours were over and that Harry needed to be placed back in his cell. Dumbledore agreed quickly, wanting to do nothing more than go home and drink a gallon of headache reduction potion. Shooting Harry one last look of loathing, which none of the other men in the room saw, Dumbledore was escorted out by three of the five men.
Harry barely acknowledged the Auror's who picked him up by his arms and dragged him back into his cell. It was only after the door slammed shut, and Harry could hear the series of locking charms being cast that Harry finally allowed emotion to show on his face in the form of a small grin. Re-playing the scene of what happened to Dumbledore, Harry slowly began to begin his daily exercise routine.
-o0O( The Darkest Part of Harry's Mind )O0o-
As Harry slowly went through each of his exercises something began to stir in Harry's mind. It was buried so far down that Harry himself couldn't feel it, even when he was reviewing his mind. This small corner was where all of Harry's bad memories and emotions that he gained over the years of his short life were stored, forgotten, yet remembered.
Sadly one thing that Wizards don't normally think about is even though they believe that they are far more superior to muggles, they are in fact far behind in many stages. One of these being health, be it physical or mental. As such when something that infects a magic-user and the healer don't know what's wrong with the patient, instead of trying to search into the muggle world to see if there would be anything about it there, they decide to try and create a new spell to cure it.
Anyways, many things that are known about in the muggle world are not known about in the wizarding world and one of these things is SPD, or Split Personality Disorder. Usually this occurs when the victim has suffered so much pain in their lifetime that they begin to shove all of the bad things into the subconscious. Over time this tiny little space begin to grow from all of the negative emotions being feed into it until, eventually, it grows a mind of it's own.
Most cases such as this have the victim creating a timid personality to cope with the mental and physical abuse dealt, and when this personality manifests itself then it will try and become the best slave as possible, so as to avoid abuse. However, in some unusual cases another personality is born. This persona feeds upon the dark that lies in a person's very soul; slowly becoming hungrier and hungrier until it takes control in order to find more darkness.
Unfortunately it was this persona that began to manifest inside of Harry. It slowly waits for the day where it may break the chains holding it captive and roam free.
-o0O( TBC… )O0o-
A/N: Four thousand three words. Not that bad considering that my first Story slowly built up to three thousand. This chapter is a build up chapter till the true beginning of the story starts. Let me just say that what Snape wanted Ginny to do came to me after I read a story that had something similar to that happen but Ginny actually agreed. This was what I think Ginny would truly do.
At first when I started this chapter, I was going to have Harry come into contact with the symbiote suit from Spider-man, since I'm in a Spider-man mood but after thinking about it for three seconds, and then scrapped the idea. Sure Venom Harry would be awesome to see, but I want to do something I made up and didn't get from my comic books.
Anywho! The part about Harry's final Occlumency defense is something I thought about lying in bed one night and began laughing when I imagined what would happen to Dumbledore. I found it funny, whether you guys (and girls!) do or don't doesn't really matter much to me.
Until Next Time!
Dragonmage182