Everything was dark. Harry put his hands out in front of his face, but he couldn't see them. He shuffled forward. His feet were bare; the ground was warm, sandy under his toes. He could hear his movements echoing back at him, as though he was in an enormous cavern.
There was a sound to his left. Then another to his right. Soon there was a racket of noise all around him. He turned, turned again, trying to place the sound. He put his hands out as though to ward off a blow, but he didn't know where, or from whom, it was going to come from. If it was going to come at all.
He felt sick to his stomach. The spinning sensation didn't stop when he told his feet to halt their movement. He fell to his knees, but world seemed to move on its own. It was like the time when his Aunt Petunia had taken Dudley and him to the park, where the carousel ride had been. Harry had hated the ride, but Dudley had wanted to go again and again and again…
There was a rasping sound, as though something great and heavy moved over the sand. Harry stared into the darkness and saw nothing. The sound was coming closer. The sand under his hands began to tremble.
"Who's there?" Harry's voice was lost in the cacophony of sound.
The presence was close, he knew it. He scuttled backwards, trying to get away, but the presence was in front of him, behind him, next to him…He swung at it, but his fist passed harmlessly through air, touching nothing.
"Who's there?" His shout made the racket grow louder. "Stop it! Just stop it! Who's there? Damn you, answer me! Answer me!" His own voice rang in his ears, the demand and question seeming to grow louder and louder. He covered his ears with his hands, but that did nothing to stop it.
The floor dropped out from under him.
Light flashed into the abyss. Harry raised his hand to his watering eyes; they were images, some black and white, some in full color, some in just reds and greens. They passed by him too fast to catalogue.
One image was of his body laying broken on the ground.
Draco, bent and bloody, nailed to a giant wooden post.
Snape with a vicious axe in his hands and a mad sneer twisting his face.
Sirius screaming at him in the parlor of a room Harry did not recognize.
Remus turning away from him, anger and pity warring for dominance on his face.
Harry shook his head, gasping for breath. He pushed out with his hands, wanting to chase the images away. But the moment his hands touched them, he was sucked in.
"This is useless, Harry! I won't stand for it any longer. You have to choose. Your lies or me." Sirius' face was twisted into an ugly expression. Harry bowed his head, hands clenched at his sides.
"I choose…"
The scene shifted, tearing past Harry before he could catch the rest of his words.
Draco was standing over the body of Ron Weasley. "You owe what remains of your sanity to Harry Potter. Believe that, Weasel, and please," Harry could see the blond's eyes glint in the dim light. "Know that I would have happily incinerated you where you lie if it wasn't for him." The blond flicked his wand over Ron and the spiders disappeared.
Harry shuddered and tried to roll away. He fell into another image instead.
There were adults all around him; healers in green robes, in yellow robes, blue, black and red. They were all shouting questions at him, some of them pushing vials at him. A pair of blue robed men came up and wrapped thick white straps around Harry's arms and upper body. They pulled down his eyelids and put in thick, milky drops. His world was blurry, it was spinning and all knew he was that they were never, never going to let him go…
"Harry!"
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Draco sat on the edge of the bed as the green lightning arched off the bedposts, the walls and ceiling. None of the magic touched his skin. He kept a careful grip on the boy's shoulder as Harry came awake, his bloody tears making his face an awful mask of white skin and rusty despair.
"Come on, Harry." He had tried shaking the boy. He had tried shouting. Now he tried waiting, even though he was ready to start ripping at his own skin.
The green eyes fluttered, opened and then slammed shut.
Draco leaned forward. "I saw that, Harry. I know you're awake."
The dark head turned away. "I didn't mean to wake you."
The blond made himself comfortable on the bed. "I was already awake," he lied.
"It was just a…nightmare."
"Liar."
A hint of a smile played at the corners of Harry's mouth. "I'm a Slytherin, remember? We don't lie, we obfuscate."
"Tell me. It was a vision, wasn't it?"
"It was nothing."
Draco drew in a deep breath, telling himself not to shout at the boy. "Harry, I can't protect you if you don't tell me what is wrong."
"There's nothing wrong."
The spark of anger flared into a storm. "Don't you dare lie to me, Harry Potter." He reached out and grabbed the boy's arm. He did not shake, or pull, but let the skin on skin connection shock the other boy into opening his eyes. "I am here, Harry. I'm not going to go away. So don't you shut me out. Or, or…" He frowned and his expression grew dark. "Or I'll go brew myself a vial of the Vision Potion and take it all in one dose. So then I will be able to follow you even when you don't want me to."
"No!" Harry surged up into a sitting position. "You can't!"
"I can't?" The gray eyes glittered. "Why not?"
"Because!"
"Because why?"
"Because then you'll be ruined!" Harry looked shocked as the words came out of his mouth. He colored and turned his face away.
"Ruined, Harry?" Draco let his expression soften. "What do you mean by that?"
"I don't know what I mean."
"Liar."
Harry let out a long breath. "I'm…ruined in a way, can't you see it?" The green eyes turned back to Draco. The blond caught his breath. The gaze was clear, but almost blind by the lights in his eyes. "You're a Malfoy, Draco. You," the pale face went red. "You mean more to me than I could ever say. But I'm useless to you. Look at me." A thin hand waved over the bloody covers and the trembling limbs. "You're destined for greater things than some invalid that you care more for than you should."
Draco could feel his hands clenching in the covers. "You shut up," he said.
Harry blinked at him. "I beg your pardon?"
"You'll get it, this once." He leveled a finger at the boy, his anger and frustration and fear making him shake. "I don't know what happened when you went home this summer, but it'll never happen again. I can make up my own bloody mind, Harry Potter. The things I've chosen for myself are things that I want, and no one, not even you, will be able to get me to let them go. So you better get used to the idea that I'll be around for a very long time, at your side whether you're an invalid or not. I don't care about that."
"Your father does."
"My father doesn't understand what's going on, which makes him cranky." Draco frowned at the memory of his father shouting at him in the downstairs library. "Very cranky. But that doesn't mean that he won't come around."
"Come around to what?" Harry met his gaze. "I can barely walk. How will I get to class?"
"We'll think of some way."
"And this?" Harry held out his hand with an unpleasant smile. The limb shook so hard he had trouble gripping Draco's arm. "How am I supposed to cast spells like this?"
"Are you done being sorry for yourself?" Draco finally exploded.
"What?"
"This is…what? You looking for pity or trying to scare me away? The first you won't get and the second won't happen. So what's going on?"
"I just want to be left alone!"
Both of them looked shocked at the outburst. Draco eased back down on the bed. "Why?"
Harry looked away. "Just… never mind, Draco. Just leave me alone."
"No."
"Go."
"I can't, Harry."
"Why not?"
"Because."
The dark haired boy let out a wheezing laugh. "We sound like first years."
"You made more sense then."
Harry winced. "Draco…"
The blond crawled up onto the bed and pushed Harry back. He stayed on his haunches in front of the startled boy. "What. Is. Going. Through. Your. Head?"
Harry looked down at the covers. "I…saw something," he began.
"Saw what?"
"You." The green eyes were darker when they met Draco's gaze. The blond didn't like the new shadows. "You were nailed to a post, Draco. You were bloody, beaten and dead. And it was a vision of the future. How can I want that to happen? Because it will if you stay near me." He closed his eyes and rubbed at his head. "It will all happen. Every last bit of it." The words came out muffled and watery.
Draco let out a long breath and crawled to the boy's side. He pulled Harry close and tucked the dark head under his chin. "It won't happen, Harry. It won't."
"But you heard Pythia."
"I heard that you can see things that might happen." He shifted them so that Harry's elbow wasn't digging into his side. "We need to find her, Harry. She can tell us what the meaning of it is."
"But they were real, like the things I saw in Voldemort's mind."
"Those were memories, Harry. Remember? You told me about them."
The boy huffed out a long breath. "It scares me," he said.
Draco kept his mouth shut and held Harry closer. It scares me too, he thought and closed his eyes. I will never leave you, he wrapped his anger tight around the promise and sent it out into the Dark. Please, don't let me ever leave him.
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Auror Rayne was at his desk with a stack of papers sitting in front of him. He was supposed to be filling out the forms – in triplicate – for all of the 'offenses' he had incurred while talking to Harry. He pushed the stack away with a grimace. The whole lot of it is ridiculous.
Dan was sitting across from him, going through his smaller pile of papers. The look of concentration was marred by the tip of his tongue protruding from the corner of his mouth. Rayne rolled his eyes and looked away.
There was a stir at the entrance of their office. He recognized the beaky nose, the lank hair and purposeful stride. Severus Snape had entered the building.
The Potions Master found their area and headed for it. Rayne got to his feet, rapping once on the desk to get his partner's attention. Dan looked up with a scowl that got deeper when he saw who was approaching.
"Mr. Snape," Dan began.
"It is Professor Snape, thank you, Auror Gest." The midnight eyes swept over the man and dismissed him. Then he turned to Rayne. "I would like to request a meeting with you. Right now."
Rayne blinked and looked at his fuming partner. "Well, I'm not sure it would be allowed."
"Oh, it is."
"Pardon me?"
"Your superiors will find it extremely beneficial to allow you this new project."
"What new project?"
Snape's smile was sharp as a razor. "That is what I would like to discuss with you now, Auror Rayne."
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Sirius stood on the veranda and stared out over the grounds of his family's estate. The day was overcast, cold and miserable for late August. He had his hands buried in the pits of his arms, keeping them from the chill.
Remus sat on one of the wooden lounge chairs behind him. The werewolf let his hands dangle between his legs and watched the steady stream of ants that marched their way across the wooden boards.
"We've got to find him."
Remus looked up at the other man. "How, Sirius? You heard the Headmaster. Harry's in a safe place."
"This is a safe place. This is the place he was supposed to be safe at. I don't care what the Headmaster says. Harry belongs here."
Remus took in a deep breath and let it out. "Well, let's think about it. He could be at the school."
"Too many people coming in and out. And I didn't smell him there."
"St. Mungo's?"
The animagus shook his head.
"Well…" Remus frowned down at his hands. "The Malfoy estate."
Sirius turned to look at him. "You think they let him go there? Why?"
"Well, he is rather attached to Draco."
"But it's the Malfoy estate, Remus."
"And this is the Black estate."
"But…" Sirius flapped his arms at his sides. "That place is evil!"
"So was this place. You think they'd let anything happen to Harry while he was there?"
"But you remember those couches! They bite!"
"And?"
"They're evil!"
"So is the nursery on the third floor."
"It's not evil. Just…odd."
"No, Padfoot. That place is evil."
The animagus frowned at him. "You would be okay with having Harry at the Malfoy's and not here?"
"I want Harry with us, as he should have been." Remus slapped his hands on his knees and stood. "But what I want doesn't matter. It's what Harry wants that's important."
"What Harry wants?" The dark eyes were shadowed by furrowed brows. "Harry wants to come home. Here. Where his family is. That's what he wants." Sirius nodded and turned back to the countryside. "We'll just have to go and get him."
"Go and get him?" Remus laughed. "You make it sound like the Malfoy's will just hand him over to us."
"Of course they will."
"Draco, Sirius. I don't think the boy will want to let go of Harry."
"And that's another thing. Harry's not some possession. He's a person. Draco shouldn't be so possessive of him."
"They're very close, Sirius. I think the possessiveness goes both ways."
"Still," there was a stubborn set to the animagus' jaw. "Harry belongs here. And he's coming home. One way or the other."
Remus sighed, but stayed silent. He followed the other man's gaze. The western horizon was cut short by a thick forest of trees; it was a new muggle park he'd read. There was a lake and other supposedly natural wonders lurking within. And beyond that lay the Malfoy Manor, surrounded by all of its protections, wards and Merlin knew what else.
Remus kept his sigh quiet. It was going to be a long day, he just knew it.
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"Harry?"
The dark haired boy turned at the sound. He saw Draco standing in the doorway, his head tilted to one side.
"What?"
"What are you doing?"
Harry looked down at the mess around him. "I'm learning out to walk," he said.
Draco entered the room and approached the other boy. "I don't understand."
Harry let out a long breath. After Draco had left to get cleaned up and have the house elves bring food, he had done some thinking. He needed Pythia. He needed to know if what he had seen was real, or if they were things that would not come. So while the blond was out, he had decided to find the Path that would bring him to her.
Draco crouched at the edge of the circle. "What did you use?"
"Chalk."
The circle around Harry was small, inscribed on the wood floor. He had been trying to remember the symbols they had used at school for protection, but had drawn a blank.
"May I join you?"
Harry looked up at the formal tone. He met the gray gaze and nodded. He reached over and rubbed out a spot in the circle. Draco stepped in. He filled the space and pressed a finger to it. Power flared through the circle, creating a small breeze that stirred their hair.
Draco frowned down at him. "We should leave a note. For Father and Severus."
"I already did."
"Did you include the fact that I would be going with you?"
"Yes." Harry shuffled to the east edge of the circle. "Do you remember how we did this? I can't remember the symbols."
"Here," the blond took the chalk from him and leaned over. It was a small circle, pressing them close together. Harry felt his face grow hot and he hoped the blond had not noticed.
Draco put the chalk to the edge of the circle. The line flared, green and silver, then the world around them disappeared.
"What'd you do?"
"Nothing!"
Draco's free hand was clamped around Harry's waist. They had the floor beneath them, and that was all. Harry covered his eyes with his hands. It was too much like the Abyss he had seen in his dreams.
"What's wrong?"
"It's happening again."
"What?"
The floor disappeared from beneath them. Only Draco's hold on the other boy kept them together.
They landed on a path of silver sand. It was still pitch black around them. It was the same Darkness that Harry had seen in his wanderings through the Otherworld. But this time it did not seem hostile. Merely curious.
"Where are we?"
Harry stood with the blond's help. "I think we're close."
"How do you know?"
"The Path." He was barefoot, like in his dream. He swallowed hard against the rush of fear that swept over him. Draco's presence at his side helped to push the feeling back.
"But Harry, we're in the middle of…Merlin!"
He looked over the blond's shoulder to see what had startled him. The entrance to a cave had appeared out of the Dark. The Path led up to it and disappeared inside.
"I guess that's where we're meant to go." Harry started forward.
"Wait." Draco kept a hold of his arm. "What if it's a trap?"
"If it is, then we'll be fine."
"How can you know that?"
Harry shook his head. "I don't know how, but I do. We won't die here, nor will we get hurt. But we have to go."
"Why?"
"Because the Dark is waking."
How he knew these things was something Harry was trying very hard not to think about. But everything that had come out of his mouth he knew to be true. The knowledge had simply appeared in his head. He shivered and reached out to grab the blond's hand.
"Please, Draco." He looked up into gray eyes. "Just come along. We'll be fine."
The other boy frowned, studying his face. "Your eyes are normal again," he said.
"What?"
"Before, in the room. They were filled with lights and shadows." A long-fingered hand reached up and touched his cheek. "Now they're back to normal."
Harry fought the urge to look away. "Maybe it's because we're here." He pulled at the hand in his grasp. "Come on. We're making her wait."
Draco frowned, but nodded. He turned his hand in Harry's grip until he could lace their fingers together. "You and me," he said. "We'll do this together. Promise me."
"I promise."
They turned and faced the entrance to the cave. No light pierced the outcropping. It was a veil of black that hung before them and showed no reflection. Together they stepped through.
End Chapter Seven
A/N: Thank you for all the reviews!