Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter
...
Harry shook his head from side to side, his view shrouded by clouds of fog. All around him he could hear whispers, people speaking in hushed voices to one another. He didn't need to hear it properly to understand what topic was being discussed.
"Harry!" screamed a voice from nearby, one very familiar to Harry.
"Hermione!" he said in a hushed tone before he charge forward in the direction of her voice, Through the fog surrounding him he soon saw a light up ahead, one very similar to the streetlamps that had adorned Privet Drive. He skidded to a stop when he saw her, scrunched up in a ball as his relatives yelled derogatory terms and stomped on her bruised and bleeding form.
"Help!" she screamed before Dudley punted her in the face.
He could hear the crack from where he was standing.
Harry sprinted as fast as his legs would allow him but no matter how fast he ran he was able to make no ground. If anything he seemed to be getting further away. Harry desperately checked his pockets as he tried to find his wand but as soon as he stopped looking at Hermione the screams stopped and the image before him had vanished.
"Hermione?"
"Harry!"
That wasn't Hermione screaming his name this time but someone equally as important. "Neville, where are you!" shouted Harry in frantic desperation. The response wasn't particularly coherent as Neville simply screamed out in agony, Harry running in the direction he believed his friend was.
It didn't take long but he felt physically exhausted as he spotted Neville beneath a flaming torch, his body spasming in agony as Malfoy and his cronies shot curse after curse at the twitching boy. Once more Harry reached for his wand, not losing sight of his target as his fingers grasped around his weapon.
As he lifted his wand however a hand held his arm down. "You must learn to forgive Harry," said Dumbledore in his grandfatherly tone. "To not know forgiveness can be a terrible thing."
Before Harry could utter a response he felt the fingers on his left hand go rigid and his line of sight shifted as he focused on his hand as ice crawled up his skin, encompassing his flesh. As it continued to climb higher and higher, the tips of his fingers began to shatter away, pieces of himself breaking away like snowflakes.
He screamed.
…
"Mister Potter!" screamed Professor McGonagall before Harry bolted upright, sweat pouring off his brow as the curtains around his bed settled down. Grasping for his glasses, Harry's sight focused as the thin wires caught around his ears to find his Head of House staring down at him.
"Professor?" he said in confusion before he understood why the drapes surrounding his bed had been waving around in the first place. His blanket had been tossed halfway across the bedroom while random belongings had been thrown in all manner of directions. How his glasses had remained on his desk was unbelievable on it's own. Neville, Seamus and Dean all stood behind their Head of House, Minerva guarding them from any other potential threats.
Ron remained asleep.
"What happened?" he asked slowly.
"It would seem," said Professor McGonagall as she adjusted her own glasses to look around the room, "That you were having a nightmare. A particularly troublesome nightmare as your magic was flaring about quite erratically when I arrived."
"I'm…I'm sorry," he said apologetically, thankful that nobody had been injured by his unintended assault.
"I will have to form Headmaster Dumbledore in the morning and perhaps organize a private room for you until such a time where we can ensure that another incident like this doesn't happen again," declared Minerva.
"I understand," said Harry still looking at his bed covers.
"Please understand that I must do my best to guarantee the safety of all students, each of you must consider yourself lucky to have not been harmed," said Professor McGonagall turning her attention to the three students cowering behind her. "Thank you for alerting me as soon as you did Mister Longbottom. Had Mister Potter's magic continued to flare for much longer you may not have had a bed to return to tonight."
As Professor McGonagall left, telling them all to do their best to get some more rest before the morning, Neville sat down on Harry's bed before returning to his own mattress. "Are you alright?" he asked of his friend.
"It was just a nightmare," said Harry still refusing to make eye contact.
"Do you want to talk about it?" asked Neville.
Seconds ticked by before Harry finally answered. "No."
…
It wasn't long before notifications were being sent out to all those students wishing to return home over the Christmas break. As these requests were being handed out by the Heads of Houses, Professor McGonagall asked Harry if he would like to return home over the period to spend time with his relatives. She honestly couldn't figure out why Harry felt so strongly about temporarily leaving the castle.
Neville looked up from the form he had been given. "I'd like to stay with you Harry, I really would but my family holds a yuletide festival over Christmas and I've been asked to attend," said Neville bashfully. "I can ask Gran if you'd like to stay, as a little way of saying thanks for the new wand."
The wand in question was ten inches long and made of elm, the hair of a unicorn resting in the centre of the essential utensil. Harry had met Madam Longbottom at the entrance to the school when she arrived only a day after the incident that saw Neville require a new wand. Her eyes told of great experience and she didn't flinch in the slightest at the sight of Harry. They spoke briefly, her biggest comment being that Harry showed great restraint in not destroying another's wand in punishment. Harry simply said that such an act would likely create further retribution down the line and that by simply installing fear into his opponents would do wonders down the long run.
Madam Longbottom had been chuckling until she and Neville had Apparated away.
"Thanks Nev but I think I'm just going to stay here," said Harry as he scratched at the back of his head. "Less likely to get in trouble here."
"I'm afraid I can't stay either," said Hermione. "Mum, Dad and I had plans in place since before school even began, I can't very well cancel on them now."
"That's fine Hermione, don't cancel anything on my behalf," said Harry. He swallowed a little in understanding that once more he was going to be alone in a crowd but having been in such an experience for so long a couple week break would feel like nothing. "It'll give me some time to figure out our next plan of action."
"You don't have to do this alone, Harry," said Hermione as she rested her palm atop his fist, the young boy not realizing he had even clenched his fingers closed.
"Thanks," he said weakly as Neville patted him on the back.
"We really don't know just who's going to be staying," said Neville. "I trust though that you're not going to paint yourself as the bad guy while we're gone."
"I think I'm already painted as the villain," joked Harry at his own expense.
"Maybe more of an anti-hero then," said Hermione causing the two of them to chuckle lightly.
"Anti-hero? What does that mean?" asked Neville.
"Harry in a nutshell," said Hermione, Harry mildly scowling at the comment but choosing not to argue against it. While she knew Neville was clueless about the comment she doubted Harry knew more the basics in regards to how she commended him. Having been a witness to his terrifying assault against the three Slytherin students she felt she could give no higher prestige towards her fellow Gryffindor student, even if he didn't properly realize the prestige she was bestowing upon him.
"And on that note, I'mma head to the library to prevent myself from stowing away in one of your pieces of luggage," said Harry as he stood up from the dining table, his half eaten meal now forgotten. Part of him actually wished to jump ship away from Hogwarts and reside alongside his friends but knew that his disfigurement, while could potentially be tolerated, did not give him the right to intrude in such a way.
"Want us to…" started Hermione but when Harry didn't even slow in his place she knew it was pointless to finish her question. Biting at her lip, she growled momentarily for having been ignored but knew better than to try and push anything. Taking a calming breath she looked at Neville and saw anxiousness written all over his face. "What do you know, Neville?" she asked.
"It's his magic," said Neville glad that nobody was near enough to overhear what he was going to say.
"What about it?"
"I told Gran everything the other day, I couldn't help myself but when I told her that Harry had frozen a creature in place she had stopped in the middle of the street and nearly stumbled over. She asked me if Harry had ever used any other ice spells and I told her about the time he had killed the troll. She told me that elemental magic should never be used if necessary. Look at Fiendfyre for example. As soon as it is cast it's almost impossible to stop!"
"So what does ice magic do then?" asked Hermione.
"Gran wouldn't say but she said that if Harry knew what was good for him he'd stop."
Hermione frowned at that, the elderly woman likely knew what she was talking about and had cut the conversation off there to protect Neville from the information. Considering Harry had only found the one book on the topic throughout the whole library by a random fluke she sincerely doubted that she would find one describing the adverse effects ice magic contained. Worrying about her friend, she wondered just what would happen to Harry if he kept pursuing this form of possibly dark magic?
…
Harry watched as light patches of snow glided past the window, drifting towards the very growing piles of white powder covering the ground. Hermione and Neville had left on the Hogwarts Express only half an hour ago and he was already missing their company. He wholeheartedly believed that he'd likely say not a single word during their absence. There really wasn't anyone he would approach to make conversation with.
That didn't mean that somebody, or two in this case, would track him down instead.
"Hello Harry…"
"We knew you'd be here…"
"Hence why we have come here…"
"As we'd like a word with you…"
"You powerful little wizard you," finished both Weasley twins at the same time.
Harry didn't bother responding with words as his gaze slowly shifted from the window to the sight of the red headed twins. He wasn't sure whether or not they'd been truthful in knowing that he was in this location but since their way of speaking, while comical when first introduced to it, was now grating on his nerves he didn't want to make them say anymore than necessary.
"A man of few words…"
"Intimidating indeed…"
"To most perhaps…"
"But not too us."
"Either one of you talks, or neither of you do," declared Harry, the emotion in his voice cold and lifeless.
Fred and George looked at one another at the threat that had been made towards them. Had any other first year dared to speak like them in such a way they would find themselves entering the Great Hall with pink hair and wearing a ballerina outfit. The boy in front of them however was no mere first year, hence why they had tracked him down after all.
"Very well," said the one on the left, taking the lead. "We've been making some inroads lately into what Dumbledore has got hidden away on the third floor, right next to where you froze whatever it was that you were fighting. Don't worry, we got rid of the evidence for you."
Harry swallowed begrudgingly at that, none of the three first year students had contemplated getting rid of the golem having been too focused on Neville and his injuries. In hindsight that could have been a very terrible thing had the after effects of the duel with the Slytherin students been caught by anyone else.
"What do you want?" asked Harry.
"We're not looking at getting you into trouble or bribing you to do anything you want to," they said defensively. "The thing is though that we are in need of your help."
"My help?"
"You see, we've been poking our noses into spaces that aren't so welcome, down the Forbidden Third Corridor in fact," they said, pausing momentarily before remembering that his brother couldn't follow on his sentence. "There's a door down that corridor with a Cerberus tucked behind it."
"A Cerberus, a three headed dog?"
"And a big one at that," commented the other twin, happy to be able to make some manner of noise without breaking their unofficial contract.
"Talking to a certain groundskeeper who enjoys his Brandy a touch too much, we discovered that you can lull the dog to sleep with a bit of music," said the one on the left. "So we did and found a trapdoor hidden underneath the beast. Figuring, why the hell not, we went down and landed on a bed of Devil's Snare. Intimidating at first when we had no real clue what it was but once we figured out what it was, getting through was simple. The next problem though was something we couldn't do on our own and would like your assistance getting through."
Harry bit at his lip as he contemplated just what the Weasley twins were asking of him. He had nothing against them by any means but knew very well that the whole family was quite loyal to Dumbledore. The twins though were the odd ones out of the bunch and considering their general lack of care for the rules suggested that there could be something of an alliance to be made out of this.
"I'm in," Harry declared, not even bothering to hear what the task he was required for was. Considering his strength with ice magic he already had a few ideas in mind as to what he could be required for.
…
Or they could have not wanted him for his ice magic at all. "You want me to fly up there, find the exact key needed for the door and help you guys get through to the next room?" said Harry in as much of a deadpanned voice as he could, looking on at the task ahead with displeasure.
They had snuck out later that night, the twins having cast Silencing Charms to ensure that their footsteps made no sound. Harry had been somewhat intimidated by the Cerberus' size but Fred (or at least he assumed it was Fred) pulled out a flute of all things and played a terrible butchering version of whatever he was trying to play. The sad thing was that it worked.
Throwing themselves down the trapdoor, Harry understood what they meant by the Devil's Snare being dangerous if they had no idea how to deal with it. He was also then shown the exit the twins had used, a spiral set of stairs to a door which the twins proclaimed only was visible from one side. Then of course they had pushed further into this room which was currently causing their current predicament.
"What key am I even trying to get?" asked Harry.
"Don't know."
"We were just going to try them one at a time until one worked."
"You know what, screw that," said Harry as he whipped out his wand and focused on the door that lead to the next room.
"We already tried to unlock it, didn't work," one of them said.
Harry meanwhile had no intention of unlocking it. Channelling his magic and focusing on the wooden door in front of him, Harry cast quickly and the room grew colder before the exit slowly froze over, ice penetrating deep into the timber. The twins took this as their cue as they pulled out their wands and cast at the target.
"Bombarda!" they shouted in unison, the explosive charms shattering the recently frozen door and allowing them access to the next room. "Good job Harry."
"Why didn't one of you guys come up with the idea to blow up the door earlier?" asked Harry.
"We figured it would trigger an alarm," they said in unison, the three of them then pausing as they slowly understood that they likely only had a handful of minutes before their presence was known.
"Push forward or leave?" Harry asked of them, his eyes sharp as he tried to figure out what they would choose.
"Leave," they said after only a couple seconds of deliberation. Harry nodded in acknowledgement before the twins cast Incendio at the remains of the door, their flames quickly burning away at the evidence that a door had ever been there to begin with. After ten seconds, the twins stopped their spell to see that the proof had evaporated, no ice being left behind. Without another word, the three students quickly made their way toward the exit and silently hoped they weren't caught in the act.
There would be another time to try their luck once more.
Christmas holidays had only just started after all.