The Second Chance
DISCLAIMER: I do not own anything of Harry Potter. This story is inspired by Kurinoone's awesome story 'The Darkness Within', which was inspired by Project Dark Overlord's wonderful fic- 'A Shattered Prophesy'.
My heartfelt thanks to HazelMidnight 20918, Serener, Kurinoone, The OtherGuyHulk, 4 Guests, Oirasse, LadyGriffin17, BlackPanther101, TommyTooth, Kimco96, Jaffaninja, v1cky84, Biaa Black Potter, Nightmare in Real Life, Phoenixx Rising, Azzy97, coolchickdiv, Ash-Bookworm113, saffarinda, lotr195, Hermione Prime and Nagineus, this chapter is dedicated to all of you in thanks for your continuous support and encouragement, which really inspired me a lot! Thanks so much! :D :D
Chapter 17: Shattered Trust
Even as Draco was transported away from the ring, Damien still looked dumbfounded, gazing at the spot where Kit's shield had expanded with disbelief and shock written all over his features. He was still wearing that expression when Rosier's Stunner hit him from behind, sending him stumbling before sprawling to the ground.
But in the next second, Rosier joined the youngest Potter on the floor as well, as Kit stood with his wand outstretched before him, his eyes a dangerous dark blue.
The silence that reigned in the Great Hall was oppressive and tense. Draco was still smirking, lightly, as he landed before the Headmaster, though his head was bowed. Dark and hushed whispers began to travel round the Hall, from student to student, but mostly there was quite a number who were in awe of Kit - as the first and last time they had witnessed such a spectacular display of the full body shield, the spell had been performed by none other than the Dark Prince- Harry Potter.
And amidst all the silence, Kit stood seemingly unaffected, before he slowly lowered his wand, his heart still beating at an abnormally fast rate, and internally fighting to keep up the already shattering glamour on his eyes. Kit took the opportunity to cast a new one over his eyes as he stooped to haul Damien up and perform the counter- curse on his fellow Gryffindor, before attending to Rosier.
It was only then when the brighter few of the Hogwarts population, who still realized that this was only a Dueling match, began to clap. It started out slow, a few echoes traveling round the Great Hall, echoing loudly, before the staff began to clap as well, and the handclap transformed into a thunderous applause, especially when the entire Gryffindor House stood up to cheer for their fellow House members.
No one was clapping at the Slytherin table.
Damien was now standing, still looking disorientated. He managed to smile briefly at his friends', especially all the Gryffindors' antics as they waved and whooped loudly, but the brief happiness seemed to disappear quite suddenly under a shadow, and a slash appeared between his brows as he tried to remember what had happened.
Kit turned around and looked at Damien. Surely, and inevitably, the youngest Potter began to remember, cobbling up the broken pieces of memories, the confusion and tension of the last moments before he blacked out. But slowly and surely, even as Damien tried to erase the image from his brain, thinking he'd been mistaken, he could still see the vivid picture, of Kit standing beside him, a brilliant blue shield expanding in the middle of the Great Hall, glowing with such painful similarity to the one he had witnessed what felt like years before.
XxXx
That night, the Gryffindors threw an impromptu party in their Common Room to celebrate Damien and Kit's triumph over the Slytherins. Kit, especially, was pulled into a whole crowd of new admirers, and much to Damien's annoyance, none of them aside from Hermione and Ginny found Kit's shield very similar to Kit's. Yes, they had admitted, Harry's shield did look something like Kit's, but why couldn't someone will equal power and skill produce the same shield as well?
It wasn't that Damien didn't want to believe it. It was just that his brother was exceptional. Different. And the thought that someone else like Kit could combat his elder brother's skills seemed indigestible to the youngest Potter.
Damien got quite a lot of praise and sympathetic consoles as well, saying that he would have managed to beat Rosier by himself if not for the sudden appearance of Kit's stunning blue shield. Most of them assumed Damien was being unusually quiet because he had been defeated by Rosier's stunner, though Gryffindor had still won in the end. But Damien, for the first time in his life, couldn't care less if his House had lost; all he could ponder on was Kit's shield, and how similar it was to Harry's.
He needed an answer.
As if his thoughts had summoned him, Kit suddenly appeared, lounging carelessly on the sofa beside him, his azure eyes piercing.
"So Potter… in the end I was still required for services to save your behind," the elder said, smirking.
Despite everything, a small part of Damien was still able to get annoyed.
"Go away," snapped Damien irritably. "You're attracting the crowd. It's disturbing my peace."
"What, have the Potters bought the Gryffindor Common Room sofa as well? It's not yours," Kit taunted, that insufferable smirk still in place.
Damien didn't feel like dealing with the elder Gryffindor. He was feeling tired, and confused, and he wasn't sure how he was supposed to act in front of Kit anymore. They used to trade insults, irritate each other no end. But so much had passed in the last twenty- four hours, and within that time period, Damien had lost whatever trust he may have had for Kit's words.
Something had happened in the Room of Requirement, he was sure of it- yet he couldn't remember. That was the thing that sent chills up his spine. He began to wish that he had heeded his elder brother's advice to never take off the Layhoo Jisteen- the one day he had decided to do so, this had happened.
Why couldn't fate just let him rest for a while?
Suddenly, Damien realized that Kit was scrutinizing him, an unreadable expression on his face.
Damien immediately stiffened, though he wasn't sure why- and immediately stood up to leave. All he knew was that it wasn't safe to be in close proximities to Kit. Just to give himself an excuse, he went over to the table to grab a drink.
He was just holding a cup of coloured liquid with strange bubbles in it when a voice suddenly said by his ear, "You don't want to drink that."
On recognizing the voice, Damien whirled around, feeling infuriated. "Will you just leave me alone already!"
Kit raised an eyebrow. "That cup contains alcohol. It's Firewhiskey, actually."
The elder Gryffindor then reached for another cup with exactly the same liquid in it. Damien narrowed his eyes, but before he could say anything, Kit beat him to it. "You're underage," he merely told Damien, smirking.
Damien felt irritation rise up in him and immediately threw back his head and began to down the Firewhiskey as fast as he could down his throat, just to prove a point. Kit's eyes widened slightly at Damien's actions, and actually managed to wrestle the cup away from the youngest Potter- but not before it was already three quarters empty.
As a result of his actions, Damien's throat immediately seared with such ferocity he stumbled backwards and hit the table, his hands clutching the edge for support.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" snapped Kit, putting the cup as far as possible from Damien's reach. "That was the most childish thing I've ever had to misfortune to witness. If you think you've managed to prove a point-"
Despite everything, Damien still managed to roll his eyes, though he did it blearily. "Go 'way…" he muttered, waving his arms around drunkenly. Kit bit his lip in annoyance. Damien always managed to irritate him, no matter what the youngest Potter's condition!
He glanced around automatically for Ron and Hermione, but they couldn't be seen. Gah. What was he supposed to-
"Watch it!" hissed Kit, automatically using his wandless magic to save the entire row of cups from toppling over the edge, thanks to Damien the Drunkard's clumsy actions. He frowned at the youngest Potter, who was now turning tomato red rapidly, and Kit was beginning to fear that Damien was going to faint.
"Why in Merlin's name did you have to do this!" muttered Kit, cursing Damien as he roughly tugged the younger wizards' hand over and slung it around his own shoulder. Damien seemed to protest weakly at this, but his words were strung together an incoherent.
"Move," instructed Kit snappishly.
But Damien, being a Potter, stubbornly refused to.
Kit rolled his eyes in exasperation, before tugging the Gryffindor even more viciously, and half- dragged the youngest Potter away from the crowd, who barely even noticed a thing. Potter meanwhile remained extremely uncooperative and decided to flail his limbs about like a drowning diver. When they finally reached the middle of the boys' dormitories staircase, Damien's flailing arm managed to catch Kit's unawares, and it smacked him directly in his right eye.
Kit swore and let go of Damien at once, but immediately regretted doing so when Damien began to lean far too backwards and begin to fall.
"For the love of Merlin!" Kit nearly shouted in exasperation as he caught hold of Damien's wrists in time and pulled the Gryffindor to safety. "Will you stop doing this!"
Damien, in reply, shot a lousy kick off to Kit's right, which ended up with him nearly falling back down the stairs again.
"What the hell, Potter- you do realize I am actually trying to help?!" Kit snarled as Damien continued to struggle in Kit's grasps.
Damien's eyes suddenly shot open, and he glared at Kit with such intensity that Kit felt as though a block of ice had slid down his back. "Leave- me- alone," Damien said in a low voice, his eyes as though daring Kit to come nearer.
Kit, in response, merely tightened his hold on Damien's hands, preventing the Gryffindor from doing something else foolish.
"You're drunk, Potter, thanks to your own foolhardy actions. Now I'm trying to help," Kit tried explaining, his eyes meeting Damien's troubled hazel ones evenly.
"No. You don't help," slurred Damien, before coughing violently all over again.
"You'd better not throw up all over the carpet," warned Kit, a second before Damien did exactly that.
Fabulous.
Kit gritted his teeth as splatters of vomit fell on his shoes and robes, but still he held on grimly to Damien's falling and swaying figure, not sure why he didn't just let the Gryffindor topple backwards and fall. Damien had nothing to do with him…
The youngest Potter retched, then looked up again, tear tracks running down his cheeks after vomiting the alcohol. Kit felt like swearing all over again. He didn't even want to look at the state of his robes.
Using one hand to keep a tight hold on Damien, he performed another wandless cleaning charm, which immediately restored his robes and the carpet to its original cleanliness. Turning his eyes back to Damien, who was panting slightly, he rolled his eyes again and continued the tiring process of dragging the Gryffindor up again.
When they finally arrived at the boys' dormitories, however, Damien's strength seemingly started to return. The younger wizard started to thrash about all over again, and resulted in Kit getting kicked thrice at the same spot in his stomach. Despite his initial uncertainity as to why Damien had protested so vehemently at Kit helping him, the elder Gryffindor felt irritation claw all the way up to his heart as he looked at Damien's struggling figure.
At the fourth blow, Kit's patience finally snapped. He let go of Damien and allowed the youngest Potter to stumble backwards and fall, hitting his head on the dashboard in the process. Kit felt as though he couldn't care less.
If Potter wanted to make everything so bloody difficult, Potter might as well help himself!
Then a thought occurred to him.
But what if Potter vomited all over somebody else's bed? That wouldn't be too good…
Kit wondered what happened to his initial statement of him not caring less.
Sighing, Kit produced his wand and turned around- only to find Damien immediately reaching for his and pointing it at Kit, shakily, as well.
"What now?" snapped Kit angrily, patience long past breaking point. "I swear Potter, you're just trying to make all this more difficult for me!"
"Leave- me- alone!" said Damien again, his eyes fixed on Kit, before snapping shut, then open all over again. His entire being was swaying, unstable, but his wand was still pointed at Kit determinedly.
"Glad to see our hatred for each other is mutual," said Kit coldly. "For your information, Potter, I was going to cast a spell to make you feel better."
Damien snorted.
"Oh yeah? Like in the Room of Requirement?"
Kit's eyes snapped towards Damien's hardened gaze, something cold sliding down his back all over again, feeling as though something had squeezed his heart.
"No," he replied quietly. "I never meant for it to be that way."
Kit lowered his wand and left without another word.
A/N: Sorry for the extra long wait and this shorter chapter! I'll try to make the next one longer, I promise. Please do let me know what you think! Was this chapter a little choppy...? -.- I didn't check it before updating...
Rating system:
:D for awesome
. for lovely
O for okay
and X for terrible.
Do rate! :D
P.S. Ahhh, Merlin Season 5 is coming out a day after my birthday, I can't believe it! :D CHEERS!
Epsilon Scorpii