Harry had succeeded in his goal of staying in bed all day long but now has nothing to do. The days trudged onward in a monotonous way that made everyday seem the exact same except for one thing: each day passed brought him one day closer to Ron, Hermione, and Draco. So when it was finally the day before the bastards arrived at the school, Harry was incapable of sleeping even a minute. So he had decided to make something for Draco, unsure as to why he had done it and why he had picked to make what he did: it was a necklace made of a simple silver chain with a silver snake dangling from the middle. Its eyes were rubies and its tongue was flicked out to make it seem like it was smelling/tasting for something, its body was even curled into the S-form of striking.
Harry—now in desperate need for sleep—had gone to madam Pomfree, whom had allowed him to visit Draco all by his lonesome and had asked for something that would help him sleep. She gave him a nasty tasting potion ("to keep people from becoming addicted") and had sent him scampering back to his room where he downed the whole bottle and passed out one minute later.
Draco was walking up the path that would lead him into the school building when Harry intercepted him.
"Let's go someplace more secluded." Draco looked at him like he was crazy but followed without much protest. His break had left him in a decent mood, the wonderful presents put on hold for the glory that Harry was sure to present him with.
Harry took Draco's wrist (it was so slender that his fingers overlapped) and led him into on of the many abandoned classrooms. They did their very best to avoid being seen by anyone as they moved quickly into the room and locked the door.
"What did you want to talk about, Potter?"
"You know, I would prefer it if you called me Harry." He smirked flirtatiously at Draco and cold blue eyes rolled.
Draco returned his attention to the window that overlooked the Quiditch field. "I would prefer if it you left me alone. But it seems you will not be granting my wish anytime soon."
Harry smiled lightly, "You know that you don't really want me to stop."
Draco cast him a wary glance as Harry walked up to him and wrapped his arms around his slim waist. Draco wanted to pull away, just because he had never really liked being touched but Harry's arms wouldn't allow him.
"Do you remember what we did in the Slitherin changing area?" Draco blushed gently and nodded slowly, his body beginning to tingle with excitement along with Harry's, "Good, then we can continue from there onward…"
And Harry bent to kiss Draco…
"Harry you deaf bastard! Wake up." A voice he would recognize anywhere yelled at him as arms shook him into the waking world. "I have something bloody important to tell you!"
"Oh what is it, Ron?" Harry sat up and gave Ron a groggy look as he rubbed his head, messing up his hair even more than it already was.
"Well…umm…" Ron stammered as he blushed and looked at Harry's bed, as if the red sheets would give him some inspiration. Harry looked at the clock beside his bed and went ahead and shut off his alarm.
"Out with it, we don't have much time before class." Indeed they did not; Harry realized that they had ten minutes to get ready for Potions class. The Boy Who Lived threw off his covers, stood up, and began to shuffle through his wardrobe.
"Okay," Ron took a deep breath and whatever it was that he said came out in a whoosh that Harry barely understood. "Ilostmyvirginitytoanotherguyoverthebreak."
"What?" Harry turned on his friend while holding a fresh pair of boxers in his hands, "You lost your virginity?" Harry smiled happily as he slipped off his boxers and quickly slid on the other pair.
"Yeah, I know." Ron sighed and threw his head into Harry's pillow, "And it wasn't even consensual. The guy raped me and I couldn't do anything because my parents would have tried to help me and he would have killed them."
"Some guy crept into your house and raped you?" Harry looked at his friend with a worried expression on his face. "Ron, this is bad. Did you get a good look at his face?"
Of course he had, but Ron sure as hell couldn't tell Harry that. "If I could I would have taken this to the police by now. I can't really do anything so we might as well let it go."
"You don't seem very traumatized… hell you even seem to have 'the glow'." Harry now looked skeptical.
"Well, it felt kinda good." Ron looked away as he continued, "And the guy had been pretty gentle the first time…"
"He raped you more than once? Well, Ron I'm thinking that maybe it was only rape the first time…if that!"
Ron blushed gently and punched Harry in the arm, "If you're lucky, maybe you'll find someone who will fuck you too."
Harry snorted and began to dress, "please, I'm an alpha, Ron. I don't do up the ass like a beta." He shot a knowing glance at Ron while smiling.
"Shut the hell up, Harry! You can be such an ass sometimes."
Harry laughed, knowing Ron was partially kidding so he didn't say anything else as they got ready and left for their dreaded Potions class.
Harry paused at the dungeon doorway in shocked silence before quickly moving to his seat…with Draco sitting on the opposite side of the room. And he soon would find that whenever he got within ten feet of the white haired teen there would always be something that got in between them and Draco didn't even try to stop it.
But he didn't know that yet, so he was still optimistic. No big deal, Harry assured himself as he settled into his seat. Snape could have moved him because he thought a spell had been placed on us, no big deal.
His theory of being able to sit by Draco in Professor McGonagall's class was obliterated when he found he had been moved to the front left seat of the room. He tried to ask the teacher why he had been moved but she refused to answer. So Harry trudged to his seat, seething the entire day at his misfortune. He had been craving to see the Slytherin since he had said good bye to him over a month ago and now he was being avoided by the object of his obsession!
Hermione and Ron tried and tried to get their friend to tell them what was bothering him but he wouldn't speak to them in more than monosyllables.
So, when they got to Defense Against the Dark Arts class, Harry didn't notice how nervous Ron became. The red head hasn't told Hermione what had happened over Christmas break because he was pretty sure she would have figured it out much more quickly than Harry and he wasn't ready to face his friends about Rayhow just yet.
"Good morning class." Rayhow called out when the class had chocked itself into the classroom and prepared for another lecture that they were all convinced would never help them in the real world (Hermione already knew everything he was telling the class). "Today you all are going to learn a new spell. And even practice it in a 'real life situation'." The class perked up a little, "Do you remember the swish and flick motion that your very first teacher should have taught you?"
Ron paled considerably and told Hermione that he though he was going to be ill as everyone showed the Professor, with different amounts of confusion, that they could indeed do the motion he had asked for. "Very good class!" Professor Rayhow exclaimed while giving a secret look to Ron that hardly anyone noted, and continued. "Now, repeat the words 'laihose madream' but make sure that you don't do the swish and flick motion! That would be very bad students."
There was a chorus of 'laihose madream', the few students that couldn't seem to get it right were quickly corrected by eager students who wanted to know what the spell did. Ron was reluctant to participate at first but an earnest look from Hermione forced him to smile and mutter the words.
"Very good! I'm so very proud of you all. Now," Rayhow, like always, was practically kissing ass while he taught. "How many of you have heard of an Etrany?"
there was a longer pause then usual before Hermione finally raised her hand. "Yes, Hermione? I'm a little surprised that you have heard of such a creature."
"Actually, Professor, I was wondering if that creature was even real…" she blushed darkly when the entire room of shocked eyes turned to her. "What are you all looking at?" she snapped, turning so red that her face looked like it was about to explode.
"Do not be appalled, everyone. There really is no way our dear genius could have known what an Etrany was. You see, it is something native to a land which I discovered a couple years ago through a strange portal that I have yet to locate once more. It appeared before me when I was a mere twenty years old in the form of a mirror reflecting just like normal but, when I looked into it, the image changed and suddenly I was looking at something very different then my bathroom, I was looking at the reflection of a cave.
"You can imagine my horror as I turned to find that the image in the mirror was in fact true and I was in a foreign cave with nothing but the clothes on my back and a wand that wasn't even mine." He glanced at Hermione, "I did an interview of the place for Dumbledore before I came here and I mentioned the name of that place once, do you remember it, Hermione?"
"Alvhan?" she was still blushing darkly and there were still some stray eyes on her but, for the most part, people were now interested in the Professor's story.
"Still the genius that we all know and love I see." He smiled almost flirtatiously with her and Ron felt bile rise in his throat.
"Alvhan was the most barbaric and horrid place I have ever had the displeasure of spending two years in. predators roamed everywhere, I was hunted nonstop."
"How ever did you survive," the girl with creepy yellow eyes asked.
Rayhow eyed her for a moment, "I created a spell to help me survive. Whenever you kill an Etrany you might as well make yourself a will while you're at it. these buggers are nasty, and when you kill then they regenerate remarkably. I once blasted one into tiny pieces and the only thing left of it seemed to be a toe but the thing just regenerated. That's not even the worst part.
"whenever they regenerate the reproduce, creating a twin that's even more angry than the first one. I had to make a different spell up, something that would kill them and would keep me from being killed. So I merely froze them in the air, with the words that I have recently taught to you."
The Professor motioned to someone in the hallway and suddenly four professors (including Hagrid) carried in a huge cage (easily bigger than the large behemoth Hagrid) that rocked dangerously from side to side as the creature within crashed into the thick steel walls.
Ron immediately thought that there was no way in hell the 'laihose madream' spell would hold back something as huge and mean as that.
"Set it down here please!" the men holding the box grunted with the effort and quickly dropped the heavy box as gently as possible onto the floor. There was a pause in activity in the box before it thrashed around more violently then ever before.
"Now, Rayhow…" Hagrid began but was immediately cut off by Rayhow.
"Would you, Hagrid please go get the youngling? I would never allow the children to use a new spell such as this on something so huge. I am merely going to show them what I had to fend off in order to write my new book on that wildlife. Which," he suddenly turned back to the class and looked directly at Hermione as he spoke, "I would like to give you the first copy for proof reading, Hermione."
And Hermione looked like she would faint, "Are you sure, Professor?" she seemed to have forgotten all about what had happened before the break. The incident with Ron, how Rayhow had looked so murderous when she had confronted him, how he had almost threatened her very life.
"Now hold on there." Hagrid hurried in, "Rayhow, I don't think we should be lettin' this thing outta the cage, even if you are here somethin' might go wrong."
"I have already obtained permission from the Headmaster. But you could go an pester him about it while I conduct my class if it would make you feel better. Professor Snape, would you please go get the youngling since Hagrid is reluctant?"
Snape nodded stiffly and disappeared along with the other three men. Snape wondered in agitation as to the reason why he had to do grunt work but did not dare say anything against Rayhow aloud. He had gotten a taste of the man's anger first hand and he didn't want a repeat. Ever.
"I am truly sorry that you have to wait a little longer," he smiled and then glanced casually at the crate that seemed to have started banging around much more violently. No one seemed to notice one of the bolts had started to come loose.
"Nevil, perhaps you should just leave, you're looking a little green." Hermione mumbled to the boy trembling beside her.
Taking a deep breath, Nevil Longbottom mumbled that he would be fine. "You shouldn't worry about me so much, Hermione."
Hermione smiled sweetly, "You know I can't help it, ever since Christmas and my dad flipped…" she gripped his hand more tightly (their laced fingers were hidden from view by the table) and she felt the sweat forming in his hand. She had a feeling it wasn't just from fear but excitement as well.
"Professor," Ron suddenly raised his hand, the appendage trembling in the air. "I have to go to the toilet room." And before anyone could say anything, Ron had run out of the room, giving the shaking cage a wide berth. Something looked off about one of the corners of the cage but he couldn't think about it for long before his stomach screamed and bubbled with the urge to regurgitate his breakfast.
In the hallway, Ron encountered Snape who was holding a much smaller cage that the adult was able to wrap his arms around.
When Ron made it to the nearest bathroom he ran into the first unoccupied stall and chucked. When he was finished he just sat in the stall, fear twisting his gut painfully.
Rayhow looked on approvingly as the entire class was enraptured by the larger cage, a mixture of fear and excitement on their collective faces. Upon seeing the much smaller cage the majority had calmed down immensely while other group looked disappointed. Then, Rayhow explained that he would be the one taking on the larger one and they sat back in their seats to see this idiotic teacher kill himself.
"As I explained earlier, whenever you kill these things they regenerate and become a lot stronger, it took me a couple of tries to figure this out. When that happened I was surrounded by the pissed off creatures, they were spitting and hissing and trying to bite me. I had only a handful of seconds to come up with a spell that would do just the trick and I stuck 'laihose madream' together and made them into a spell.
"You have to be a very powerful witch or wizard to be able to accomplish such a task and you must use words never previously used before or it won't even work.
"Well, now that they were all trapped in my spell I ran away and tried my very best to map out their territories and stayed very far away from them."
"Did anything else huge and nasty come after you?"
"Well of course…" none of the students (or the Professor) were prepared at all for what happened next.
The bolt had come out of its place a couple sentences back and the Etrany had felt the weak spot, it attacked that area savagely, tearing into the steel with the utmost intent on destruction. Its baby was somewhere else, taken from it a long time ago and its furry was directed at the one who now held the cage it could smell its baby in. it leapt out, thrashing its long tail around the room and baring its body for the students inspection:
Its body was massive and covered in black scales. The shape of said body was like that of a velociraptor only too big to even hope to be one of old. With huge teeth, claws and tail with a spike at the end, this thing could take down a wale shark easily; even though the shark would be quiet a bit bigger there was no way it could match the Etrany's claws or furry.
Are you imagining this creature? Do you see it in your mind as clearly as I do? Now imagine such a creature furious beyond any hint of rationality at you and then pouncing at you because you have its captured child in your arms.
Professor Rayhow had a moment of shock before the Etrany was atop him, about to tear him to pieces.
The being with yellow eyes watched with horror as the Etrany broke out of its cage and headed for the man who was supposed to be able to handle this sort of thing. It dashed from the room, its human body twisting and changing until it was in its true form in order for it to escape any form of pain. The sight of its age old predator and genocide initiator had driven the being beyond the point of fear and had made it run, headlong, away from that room.
"'Laihose madream'!" someone suddenly screamed from the doorway while completing the swish and flick motion perfectly.
Harry, having been just as scared and shocked as everyone else, looked toward the door with huge eyes. he was the first to do so but definitely not the last.
Standing in the doorway, wand extended, body leaning on the doorjamb, panting heavily, was Ron Weasley straining from the effort of keeping the thrashing beast about a foot off the ground. The fear that had been twisting in his gut had been coming from his unconscious mind telling him that the bolt in the upper right corner of the cage hadn't been stable enough. He had come rushing back from the bathroom when he realized what he had noticed subconsciously and had gotten there just in time to stop the Etrany in mid-leap.
The words of the spell left Rayhow's mouth before most of the class had registered the Etrany had been caught by the red headed Weasley. Shackles much larger than Ron's puny thinks encircled the creature to secure it better. The strain of holding the massive creature in the air did not show on Rayhow's face as he smiled at the class:
"Easy peasy," he exclaimed and the class could have sworn that the handsome teacher had gone insane—or was showing a hint of his insanity—if his hysterical laughter was any indication.
The insane laughter stopped when Ron collapsed onto the ground in a heap, his body and mind exhausted from strain. I hadn't taken too much for Ron to be knocked out but keeping something that big, that powerful, and that pissed off feet off the ground by sheer will would knock out just about anyone who had never done it before. Rayhow quickly walked up to Ron and gently picked up the boy in a bridal style grip.
"I'm afraid that this class is over, you all will be able to try the spell tomorrow. See you then!" he smiled fakily as he left with Ron limply hanging in his arms.
"I wonder if Ron is ok or not," muttered Hermione as the walked out of their finale period class together. Hermione glanced back at her secret boyfriend which Harry noted easily.
"I'm sure he'll be fine. How's you and Nevil doing?" Hermione stopped dead in her tracks before quickly trying to regain her composure.
"Whatever are you talking about?"
"Oh don't play dumb, it's so obvious." Hermione shot him 'a look'.
But the look took on a dejected air, "I thought we were being really careful…"
"Ha! I wasn't sure if I was right or not and now I know!" Harry pointed in her face and laughed, desperate to think about something other than…
"That was just wrong, Harry!" she exclaimed and glared at the teen whom, she realized, was completely ignoring her. "Harry?" she followed his gaze to see Draco at the other end of the hall.
She looked at the ground for a moment. "You won't be happy without him, will you?"
Harry glanced at her, a flicker of gratitude replaced sadness for only a moment, "it's not up to me anymore. He's the only thing keeping up apart." Harry slid a hand into his pocket and clutched the present until the tongue cut into his finger. Harry didn't flinch at the pain, he welcomed it, used it to keep his head on as straight as possible.
The raven haired male took a couple of steps toward Draco and froze when those blue eyes landed on him. There was such a sadness there, such an emptiness that Harry found it difficult to breath. And Crabbe and Goyle suddenly came and blocked Draco from Harry's sight, making an almost intimidating wall between them.
"Damnit!" exclaimed Harry in utter furry as he walked up to a wall and slammed his hand full throttle into the hard stone. A cracking sound registered dully in his mind but he couldn't feel the pain yet.
"Harry, no!" yelled Hermione as she went quickly to his side, "What did you do?"
A pair of icy eyes suddenly returned their attention to Harry upon hearing the exclamations.
"nothin'," Harry tried to hide his hand from his worried friend as well as his own face.
Draco pushed by Crabbe and Goyle and ordered them to go away or else. He couldn't help himself, he had to know if Harry was ok; there was no fighting it and he knew he would hate himself if he didn't go to the teen now.
"What do you mean nothing? The last you did that you broke your knuckle!" she grabbed his shoulder and jerked him around and gasped, "Why would you do that again?"
Harry looked down at his swollen hand and the bone protruding from the place his middle knuckle used to be. He simply shrugged, still numb. "I have a bad feeling about something…" Harry caught sight of Draco making his way toward him. "Hermione, please go away."
"What? Why?"
"I'll explain later," he didn't take his eyes off of Draco so she followed his eyes once more. "Please."
"Ok, but you better tell me everything later." And with that she took off, linking arms with Nevil as she left and giggled at something he said.
Draco walked up and took Harry's hand within his own without saying a word and definitely without touching the protruding bone.
"What did he do to you?"
Draco looked up at him and said nothing. Harry searched those blue eyes and a vision struck him and Draco at the same time.
Lucious pulled Draco on top of him and slammed himself deeply into Draco's tight ass. Draco's eyes widened with horror and he yelled loudly.
"He is mine, Potter!" a voice hissed into their ears, "You will not turn him against the Dark Lord nor his people."
Draco called out for his father to stop and received a slap to the face a switch in positions; Lucious pushed Draco off of him and pulled the boys legs onto his shoulders as he penetrated him as such.
"If you touch him even once more as I am now then I shall end your life." Draco's pathetic cries of stop reverberated throughout their heads. "You have been warned."
Their eyes refocused on each other and they both knew instantly that the other had seen the horrendous visions of Draco's father raping him. Draco tried to slip his hand from Harry's but failed when it gripped back; absolute furry shown in his eyes and made Draco shrink away from Harry with fear. Had he done something to make him angry?
"Is that why you are running from me? Do you really think he could kill me?"
"Potter, please…" Draco whispered as he looked at their clasped hands, the bone glaring at him accusingly. It was his fault Harry had gotten angry and done that afterall. "It must hurt," Draco looked more closely at the damaged appendage while trying to push those horrid images into the back of his mind.
"Only gripping your hand."
"Then don't," Draco looked up at Harry's angry face which had slowly begun to soften.
"Then you'll run. I don't want you to run from me."
"I don't want you to die," Draco countered loudly as he got up in Harry's face. Showing just as much aggression as Harry had moments before.
Harry's response was to press his lips to Draco's harshly and briefly. "I love you too much to let you go now." Draco gasped at the confession, his eyes wide in startle interest. "Here," Harry reached into his pocket, slipped something cold into Draco's limp hand, closed those cool fingers around this object, then walked away without another word to see the nurse about his hand.
It was starting to hurt now.
As Harry walked away, Draco looked into his hand to see the most breathtaking necklace he had ever seen before in his life. Without thinking about it, he slid the chain over his head and let the snake slide deeply into his robes.
Thank you, Harry. He thought as he quickly walked off to the Slytherin common room.