THE FRIENDSHIP OF RIVALRY
Notes:
Disclaimer - I do not own the setting of Harry Potter or any of the characters; those are the property of J.K. Rowling. I have however added a few new names, given that this story is centered on the time after Harry and Draco have graduated. The plot is entirely mine.
This story is a male x male slash so please don't read it if you don't like to read these types of fanfics.
Key:
"Thoughts"
"Speech"
Chapter 8: First day (Draco)
Draco groaned as he woke and it took a few seconds for him to realize where he was. He glanced to the side of the room and saw that Harry was still fast asleep. He stood up and softly walked towards the chest that he suspected held the book with the ancient rituals inside.
He sighed when he found it locked and he knew that Harry had been speaking parseltongue when he closed it. This meant that he had no way of opening it to take a look at the book.
He didn't want to ask Harry about it since he would probably refuse to show the rest of the book to him and so the only way to read it would be to borrow it for a while and then put it back before Harry realized it was gone.
All he had to do was wait, but he was so excited at the prospect of gaining new potion recipes that he knew it would be hard to stay patient.
He decided to write a note containing the details of their plan to his godfather and it wasn't long until he received his reply. Severus will follow his instructions during the potions classes and he would make it easier for students to come to them once they were ready.
He was glad that he tested his godfather for influences when he'd taken the time to visit him before meeting Harry. Severus had clearly been shocked when he'd asked him for his help.
A soft moan sounded out in the room and Draco glanced at Harry who seemed to be having another nightmare. He set all thoughts aside and moved closer to Harry's bed.
He knew he would probably be sucked into Harry's consciousness again, but he didn't mind. The strange feeling was worth it because he learned a bit more about Harry every time.
He also knew that most, if not all the things he saw, contained memories and thoughts that Harry would never reveal to anyone if he had a choice. So Draco didn't intend to give him any choice in the matter. It wasn't good for Harry to bury everything in such a way.
Draco leaned over to touch Harry's arm and the moment they touched, the world became black in front of his eyes and a second later he found himself in a graveyard. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary until he heard a shout and came upon a scene that would certainly give even him nightmares.
He saw Cedric Diggory fall as the death curse hit him and he turned to see Harry being held by a statue. He tried to run over to him, but something snagged at his feet and he fell. The nightmare seemed a bit too real and it unnerved him.
He looked up as Harry's screams rent the air and he paled as he saw that a vaguely familiar Death Eater was cutting a deep gash into Harry's arm.
He didn't think twice as he stood back up and morphed into his animagus form. His chosen form was a snowcapped Felidrake. Basically, he had the body of a snow-white panther that was half a size bigger than an average panther and he had the legs, claws, wings, and horns of a dragon.
He bumped the man away from Harry who seemed to be in shock as he noticed him for the first time. "Draco, please tell me it's you in your animagus form before I freak out." He gave Harry a stern look that said 'who else would I be' before Draco wandlessly healed his arm and broke the part of the statue that was holding him, with his claws.
He dragged Harry onto his back then took off into the sky. Below him, he could see Death Eaters panic as they tried to make sense of what just happened and the scene made him smirk even in his animagus form. "Uhm Draco? You weren't kidding when you said that you managed to merge your two animagus forms." Draco snorted at the obvious statement and flew even higher. He then looked at Harry with a question in his eyes. 'How were they going to get out of there?'
Harry seemed to pick up on his thoughts because he pointed to the Triwizard cup that had been knocked to the ground. Harry immediately tightened his hold on him and Draco grinned. Trust a seeker to know that he was about to descend into a very fast dive.
Draco curled his wings in then dived. The rush of falling was so exhilarating and the way the Death Eaters scurried around to get out of their way before wildly throwing hexes at them, had him mentally snickering even as he heard Harry's exclamation of shock. That is until he realized why Harry sounded so panicked. Voldemort had risen from the mixture in the cauldron and he immediately fixed his eyes on them.
Draco pulled up sharply and narrowly escaped the killing curse as Harry bent down to snatch the trophy. The world around them glowed as soon as Harry had the trophy in his possession and Draco found himself back at their room in Hogwarts with Harry opening his own eyes a second later. Silence descended in their room until Draco couldn't take it anymore.
"What the bloody hell Harry?! You actually saw Voldemort at the Triwizard cup tournament?" Draco felt shocked and unnerved as the scene played out before him again. He'd thought that Harry had somehow made the situation sound worse than it had been at that time, but instead, he realized now that Harry had been downplaying the entire thing.
Even when Draco's father had explained the entire scene, it had only been briefly since no one had been allowed to know that Voldemort had let Harry slip through his fingers again. The sight of Voldemort rising from the cauldron and then setting his sights on them was now etched into Draco's mind forever, even if it had just been a dream this time around.
"I more than just saw him; unfortunately he'd used my blood at that time to return," Draco remembered the cut on Harry's arm. "So they used blood magic to bring him back?" Harry just nodded silently while clutching his healed arm to his side.
Draco wanted to comfort him, but there was nothing he could say so he lightly squeezed Harry's shoulder before pulling on his school clothes. He glanced up to see that Harry was doing the same, but it wasn't long before Harry asked him another question.
"Draco… how were you able to merge your animagus forms?" Draco smirked. He had been expecting the question much earlier. He turned to Harry and made a face as if he was wondering whether he should tell him or not, but Harry started looking irritated so Draco quickly answered him. It's not like he really wanted to keep it a secret from him anyway.
"The trick is to first complete the form in your mind. But each time you form the image it must have the exact same details. Once you can form the mental image without changing the details, then you can mentally merge your two chosen forms into the single form that you created." Draco looked at Harry to ensure that he understood and received a nod.
"Uhm Draco? What would happen if you tried to merge four different animagus forms? Do you think it would be possible?" The question was unexpected and it took Draco a few moments to think things over before he could formulate a clear answer.
"Well it could be possible, but no one has ever managed to gain four complete animagus forms before. Animagus forms portray the personality of the person that utilizes them and I have found that you can only merge them when the different forms have something in common. In my case, both my forms were predators and they both command the ice element. One was formed by my ability to adapt to any situation and the other was formed by my cunning."
He thought for a moment before attempting to explain even further. "If you had four animagus forms then that would mean that you have what could almost be described as four different and completely opposite personality traits that can only be found in four different creature forms. But that's impossible because it would be a constant struggle for dominance as each trait battles against its counterpart. This can lead to random episodes of explosive anger, sadness or recklessness, and the inability to feel fear for the sake of one's own survival…"
Draco looked at Harry with a worried expression and he wondered why he would even ask such a thing. Harry was by no means unstable so Draco was pretty sure that he wasn't asking this because he actually had four different animagus forms. "Maybe he's just curious? It is an interesting subject after all since no one else had ever thought to try it."
His mind wandered and he wanted to ask Harry about the dreams, but they would be late for breakfast if they stayed any longer, so he would have to wait. Harry however didn't look like he was ready to go down to the Great Hall yet. "Come on Harry we need to get to breakfast. Unless you have a food delivering house elf stashed somewhere."
Harry finally grinned then shook his head. "I'd rather not call Kreacher here and get into trouble on my first day. You know we are not allowed to request the services of our elves at Hogwarts."
Draco rolled his eyes. "Exactly my point, now get up and follow me. We have potions class with the Gryffindors right after breakfast and I'd rather not want to find myself sitting next to one because we couldn't find seats fast enough." This prompted Harry to move and they were soon heading down to the Great Hall.
Draco allowed Harry to lead the way down to breakfast. He wanted to make sure that Harry understood the symbols well enough to not get lost in the dungeons. It surprised him when Harry led them directly to the Great Hall without making a wrong turn. "Well, I must say it's good to know that you will be able to find your way to here at least. When we make our way back I'm going to ask you to lead us back to the dungeons as well.
Harry simply grinned and said, "You're on" before heading directly towards the Slytherin table. Draco had to admit that he was surprised at how easily Harry had been able to accept the Slytherin house.
He sank into his seat next to Harry and saw that he was already talking to Jean and Theo. He almost felt out a little but Harry turned towards him and dragged him into a conversation about the teachers before he even realized it.
After breakfast, Draco found that he had a lot to think about as they walked to the potions classroom. The conversation around the Slytherin table had clued him in on some people that he and Harry might have to look into as soon as possible.
The old caretaker, Mr. Filch, seemed to be skulking about more than usual and the students have pointed out that they've seen him entering the Forbidden forest before the start of the summer vacation, even when he usually would have avoided the forest like the plague due to being a squib.
Most of the students thought it was the fact that his companion, Mrs. Norris had died, and they concluded that this might have finally sent him over the edge.
The students also recalled that both Hagrid and Professor Trelawney had been acting out of character, but Draco decided to watch them himself before he made any assumptions.
For one thing, he had learned from Harry that Hagrid seemed to be overly fond of dangerous creatures and this meant that if Hagrid had some poor 'defenseless' meat-eating creature stashed away somewhere in his cottage or the Forbidden Forest, then he was pretty much being himself.
The fact that Professor Trelawney was spreading a lot less doom and gloom than usual was a little troubling, but it made Draco wonder whether or not she had just finally realized that her predictions didn't come true as much as she would have liked them to.
A lot of students would be happy if that was the case and Draco himself would be ecstatic if he didn't have to sit through another lecture about how he should tell her if he found any negative energy lingering around him.
Draco was dragged from his thoughts as they reached the potions classroom. They were the first to arrive and they immediately took the desk as far away from the rest of the class as possible. Harry seemed to wonder why the table had been so strategically placed as he stared at the rest of the class and Draco let out a mental groan. "Why does he always pay attention to the things I don't want him to notice? Now I'm going to have to tell him about Severus."
"Draco, why are we sitting so far away from the rest of the group?" With a sigh, Draco turned towards Harry. He had hoped that Harry would stay oblivious to Severus until Draco had a chance to explain things to him by showing him that his godfather had changed, but of course, Harry always had to do the unexpected and foil his plans.
"Well you chose to ask Professor Lupin for help. I visited my godfather before coming to see you. After he gave his permission, I had him tested for the polyjuice potion and the imperious curse, and both showed negative. I then came up with a sign that he would make every time he enters the class just to let me know that he is still himself." Harry looked like he was about to make a loud protest, but Draco silenced him. "Put your prejudice away and just monitor him, would you? You will see that he has changed a lot since you saved his life."
Draco knew that Harry would be reluctant, but he pushed the issue anyway. They had a mission to finish and he wasn't about to allow petty feuds to get in the way of accomplishing their mission. Harry nodded and faced the door, waiting for the students to file in before the potions master made his entrance.
Severus looked directly at Draco before turning to face the class while tapping his right hand's forefinger to his side three times and then making his hand into a fist. Draco nodded in acknowledgment and took out his books before placing his quill down with the end pointing straight towards Severus. He saw Severus acknowledge his signal before the potions master headed towards the board to write down his name.
During class, Severus made full use of Draco's plan as he explained what the potions module would entail. He would ask questions and when none of the other students could answer, he picked either Draco or Harry to answer the question for them. Some Gryffindors mumbled something about unfair advantage, but Severus set them straight by saying that some students actually read through their books before they came to class.
The rest of the day's classes were spent answering question after question and Draco concluded that Severus must have mentioned to the other teachers about the two first-year 'geniuses' that he had the pleasure of having in his class. Everyone knew that Snape praised no one and so they all wanted to see for themselves if this was true.
Draco felt tired by the time lunch arrived and since DADA had been postponed, they at least had the rest of the day off. After eating, he followed Harry to their room where they decided to talk about how they were going to approach Professor Lupin.
Harry was sure that the werewolf would help them and Draco kind of had to agree since he had been the one to tell Draco where he could find Harry. The man always tried to stand by and help Harry and for that Draco was grateful.
He had been appalled when he heard about how Harry had been treated and Draco was intent on making up for his behavior since it had been his attitude that had made sure that things went wrong between them in the first place.
Draco realized that Harry had started talking and he turned his attention towards him. "The Wolfs-bane potion helps him, but he has to suffer through the change or the potion would lose its effect. Unfortunately for us, that happens tonight so we will have to wait until early morning to go see him."
Draco sighed. "You know what will happen if we get caught sneaking around the school right?" He didn't know why Harry was acting as if it was easy to sneak around the castle.
It might have been easy to sneak out from wherever Gryffindor was located and the teachers might have even turned a blind eye as the students snuck out, but sneaking out from the dungeons was very hard, even more so for two students.
Harry grinned at him and Draco wondered what he had up his sleeve. "I will show you how we will get out of the castle Draco, but first we need to rest. We can't wander around the castle and stay alert when we are too tired to even think."
Draco nodded. He really wanted to know how Harry had managed to sneak around undetected all those years ago, but for now, it could wait.
They each changed into a pair of comfortable clothing before getting into their beds. Draco didn't think that he would actually be able to sleep but after a few minutes of listening to Harry's breathing as it evened out in sleep, Draco also found himself drifting off.
Thank you for reading this fanfic and thank you to those who are following this story…