Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter

Beta: Notsofrilly/LunaNotLoony

Chapter 9: Fire and Fall

Harrison woke up at 6 am in the morning and yawned. He rubbed his eyes and his vision slowly became clear. To his horror, he saw red and gold wall, which were definitely the wrong colour... Only then he realised that he was forced to this House the night before. Cranky, his neck hurting, he got up and dressed in red and golden robes. He almost thought that he was going to pass out and to be honest he wanted that too. Anything better than Gryffindor.

He left the room silently after he brushed his teeth, but he could not avoid the Fat Lady. She screamed loudly at him, angry that he had made her wake up this early. There were definitely no stupid angry portraits in Slytherin. To shut her mouth, he used the silencing charm and made his way to the Great Hall ignoring the annoyed looks due to the fact he also disturbed other painting in their sleep. In fact, he was slightly amused.

A few minutes later Harrison stepped in the Great Hall. It no longer was decorated, but still impressive and sweeping. He took a quick look and saw that few people were in the Hall. Even though most teachers weren't up yet, he felt eyes watching him. Dumbledore looked with his twinkling eyes at the boy and smiled. Harrison gave him no friendly look back.

"Ah. Mr. Collins. Good morning. You're early," said headmaster Dippet cheerful. It was not lost on him that the boy didn't have such a good relationship with the professor. He walked in the direction of head table.

Harrison looked at the man next to the professor and answered politely. "Good morning head master, professor." The latter came out forced, but the headmaster appeared not to notice.

"Good morning," replied Dumbledore.

"If you will forgive me, I would like to have breakfast." The headmaster nodded. "Have a nice day," and die, he wished them, with that thought lingering in the back of his head. Harrison turned away, and spotted Tom at the Slytherin table with a green book in his hands that he recognized. Advanced Parslemagic. He walked towards Tom, grateful that the book had already cast a spell on itself making non-speakers see something else than they did.

Tom looked up and saw Harrison beside him. "Good Morning."

"Bad morning," he muttered, dissatisfied.

"Bad night?" Tom looked at him with pity

"Bad year..." he said "Been stressed out." Tom nodded understandingly.

Harrison heard his stomach grunting, and picked up a sausage and put it in his mouth. He regretted that he hadn't eaten anything the night before. Tom continued further in his book while Harrison ate the rest of his breakfast. Once he was finished and Tom had read the chapter, they decided to go to the library. They walked along the Hall, with a worried look from Dumbledore piercing their backs.

When they had found the library, they looked around, amazed at the large room. It was more than they expected; the largest library that they had ever seen. With big eyes and a books devouring-looks on their faces, they stared at the spines.

They began to view the titles nearest to them. "I recognize most books of this shelf," noted Harrison.

Tom nodded. "Probably we will come across even more titles we know. 7 years to read and finish these books," he laughed. Harrison laughed as well. They started to search for books that seemed interesting. After carrying a pile of books each, they sat at a table in a corner and began to read.

Hours passed before Tom slammed his book close and looked at his watch. "It's almost time. About 5 minutes until our first lesson. "

Harrison nodded and together they laid the 20 books back in the bookcases in the right places. "What subject do you have first?" Harrison asked curiously. He took his class schedule out of his pocket and gestured that Tom did to. They swapped and studied the timetables well. Tom frowned

"We have half of the lessons together. The other half not. " He sounded disappointed.

"No!" Harrison said abruptly, voice harsh from lack of sleep. Tom looked at him worried and questioning.

"We have together first Transfiguration." Dumbledore.

"We will survive it though. At least we are together and what could happen? "he said, reassuringly. Harrison was not entirely convinced of it, but didn't argue.

"I swear, Fate hates us," Harrison growled, as they walked confusedly through endless corridors, while Tom laughed quietly. They came across several students they didn't like and wanted to curse them to hell, particularly Harrison, but Tom prevented him thereof.

When they walked into the room, the boys saw the class was divided into two. On the left, sat the Slytherins and the Gryffindors on the right. Harrison watched the class around looking for a good spot and spotted one in the middle. They walked towards it and each sat on the side of their house. Although they were not next to each other, this was also not horrible. This was the only way to still sit close to each other and communicate.

Tom looked at the curly haired girl that sat next to him. He knew her from somewhere but didn't remember which. He reached out and introduced himself. "Tom Riddle." She looked disgustingly at her hands when she heard his last name, which didn't elude him. But in the end she took his hand to.

"Lorea Black." she said politely. He was kissing her hand like pureblood would. Behind him he heard Harrison chuckle and was disturbed by it.

"Are you family of Cygnus?" he asked curiously. She nodded.

"He's my cousin. Do you know Cygnus? "

"Ah. Yes. He is my ... friend. " It sounded weird out of his mouth. He had no friends except Harrison and that was enough. While Tom held a conversation with the other, Harrison turned the one next to him. He looked Hufflepuff-like. The boy put out a chubby hand. "Dylan Longbottom. Nice to meet you. " Harrison took it and introduced himself, also friendlily.

"Harrison Collins. It's my pleasure, Dylan. " His emerald green eyes studied him. He wondered if the pureblood Gryffindors were useful or not. Tom and he needed pureblood and half blood allies for their revolution, but Dylan didn't look like he could hurt a fly. Let alone that he could fight in a war. Harrison didn't know what he had to think of him and decided he could determine what to do with him later as he got to know the boy better.

Dumbledore walked inside the classroom and silenced the room. He opened his drawer and pulled out a bag of sweets. "Someone wants a lemon drop?" he chuckled. The first year watched him with an are-you-sane look but shook their heads. Harrison and Tom thought the same, choke on your lemon drops.

"Too bad, they are heavenly. Let me introduce myself for those who still do not know who I am. I am Professor Dumbledore, the head of Gryffindor, and I'll teach you guys Transfiguration. Nice to meet you. " Harrison rolled his eyes and looked completely disinterested, staring out the window on the other side of the classroom. "Try to do your best to get house points." The last words drew his attention. House points, huh? A plan formed in his head and he smirked, though he was unaware of it. Dylan noticed it and found his partner scary, to the point he nearly peed in his pants.

This could be the best subject ever.

The lesson ended in a crushing spectacle for Harrison and Tom. They stood in the hallway looking at the students around them. Most were injured or covered with soot. Teachers came via the steps to assist the pupils. Harrison's gaze focused on the burning room. He smirked inwardly. All this was Harrison's fault. He had managed to put the classroom on fire by 'accidentally' using a dark fire curse. By covering it with another spell, it looked like it went wrong with a Transfiguration spell.

The old man was a fool. After the man had deducted 60 points from Gryffindor due to Harrison, he started to get suspicious and focused all his attention on the others. Harrison had thereby accidentally lit the classroom in fire, because he had no supervision.

"Next time you'll do better," coughed a Gryffindor and he walked away. The Gryffindors were really so stupid as they seemed. They believed he was still really that bad in Transfiguration, but the Slytherins knew better.

"Good act," he heard someone behind him say. He looked back and saw Cygnus and Abraxas, both covered with soot, but still smiling. "Gryffindors think really that it accidentally went wrong and that you are so bad at it. They are really stupid."

Harrison snorted. "They are brainless. Dumbledore is the worst of all, placing me in Gryffindor. Did he have a death wish? " he wondered.

"Yep, you are more a Slytherin," he chuckled. Harrison looked at him with a really-you-think-so face. "It was fun today. Maybe Gryffindors are not bad to play with. " Cygnus looked at Dumbledore who was trying to extinguish the fire. In the corner of his eye, he could see more teachers came running for help.

"Well, let's go to defence against the dark arts," Tom suggested. The others nodded and walked behind Tom, who stood ahead, turning for the stairs towards the DADA classroom. But before Tom could put a foot on the tall winding marble steps, they heard someone laugh. It sounded girlish. They turned and saw Lorea Black racing to them, arms wide for a hug. She ran too fast for Harrison's liking and with one foot on a high staircase it was all error.

"No! Look out!" he called at the last minute, but that was all to no avail. Lorea crashed hard against Harrison who was imbalanced through the impact and hit Tom who stood behind him. While Lorea managed to get her balance just in time, the two boy fell from the top of the stairs. They closed their eyes and protected their heads with their hands as they hit each step painfully. The purebloods looked with horror at what happened and rushed to stop the falling boys. They were not fast enough. They fell all the way to the bottom there, sprawled and still. Tom felt something heavy on his body, he could not discern whether that was the pain or not. He opened his eyes and blushed. The second after Harrison opened his eyes as well and stared right into those of Tom, who looked rather uncomfortable. Harrison felt something press against his lips and his eyes darted to it. He was shocked with what he saw. Harrison was on top of Tom with their lips pressed against each other. He blushed too and rolled over next to Tom. He couldn't move too much because everything hurt. They were just bleeding. They didn't talk to each other, the awkwardness making speech impossible.

"Tom! Harrison!" they heard. Lorea, Cygnus and Abraxas ran worried their way. Lorea dropped to her knees as she went to the two boys to view better.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm always so clumsy. " She looked at their wounds. Harrison looked at Abraxas, wanting to ask how far they fell, but couldn't spare the energy. Abraxas seemed to guess at what he wanted

"3 floors."

At that time Madam Pomfrey came running looked anxious and shocked when she saw them, she had witnessed the whole horrible thing. Of course she tried to save them with a levitation spell, but they rolled of the stairs so quickly that she couldn't aim at them.

"What happened? Is this because of the fire in the Transfiguration classroom?" She asked.

"No, it was all my fault. I'm so sorry. " Lorea had tears streaming down her face of guilt. "They fell from the 7th floor stairs to the 4th floor. I was so clumsy. "

"Well, we don't have time to talk about whose fault this is, they need to go to the infirmary, so help me." The other three agreed to it. Madam Pomfrey gave the instruction to students of how they could lift Tom the best avoiding much pain. She herself took Harrison to the infirmary. They walked quickly through the school, questioning glances followed them.

Once she walked into the infirmary, Harrison mumbled something softly. A moan then followed.

"Hmm. What did you say, my dear?" she asked gently.

"Wand ... I 'm... sure ... it's broken. " he said. Again a moan followed.

"Your wand isn't the most important thing we should think about right now. Look at yourself, you're in bad shape. No state to be doing any kind of magic." she said sternly but with the right intentions.

"Luckily, his wand is broken." Abraxas whispered silently against Lorea and Cygnus. Without a wand, he couldn't use magic nor set the whole classroom on fire. But Abraxas didn't know of their wandless magic.

Madam Promfrey laid Harrison gently on a stark white bed. As careful as she was doing it, Harrison just kept moaning. He turned his head 10 degrees and saw that Tom laid on the bed next to him put there by the others. He still looked worse than him, not that he knew how bad Harrison himself looked, but decent. Harrison felt a bit guilty. Tom lay there unconscious and it was half his fault. He had taken the impact of him and got worse injured. His attention focused on Lorea when she all of a sudden wanted to say something.

"May we stay here?" she asked hopefully. Madam Pomfrey shook her head and smiled.

"No sorry. They have to rest and I must still treat them. Don't you have classes? You don't want miss lessons on the first school day already. " The three shook their heads and walked away disappointed but not without wishing their comrades well.

When they were gone and Madam Pomfrey went to the potion room, Harrison sighed. Does karma really exist? Just like he said before, a bad year. The events of today flashed though his mind. Dumbledore, Transfiguration, Tom and his kiss... He thought back to the kiss and pressed his fingers to his lips. His lips were probably the only part that didn't hurt. Tom's kiss was gentle and light, even if they had fell from the stairs and with that thought everything became black ...

Tada! Chappie 9 finished. Really, it took hours only just to rewrite. . But I hope it was worth it. Tell me what you think about it and review, follow or favourite this story please. It will encourage me. :) Up to the next one then.

XThefantasyqueen123

Words: 2,540