Author's note: It's the anniversary of the worst day of my life. What better way to get through it than a chapter of self indulgence?

Ps- This work is going to be teeny tiny. Maybe 15,000.

Chapter 2: Broken

Fuck. Harry muttered face first into the ground.

It felt like he crashed against a wall of stone, he thought as he finally picked himself up. He had no idea how long he had been, oh- he realized it felt like that, because he had crashed into an actual wall of stone.

He would know his first home anywhere.

He spun slowly on the spot. "How did-" His mind struggled, then it all came back to him piece by piece.

Right. Draco. In his head.

Harry heard her footsteps in the distance before he saw her.

Draco hadn't forced herself into his mind exactly. No. Harry had let her in, rolled out the red carpet for Draco even, because if she was telling the truth about Luna he couldn't let her die on his account.

Harry tried to come up with some way Luna could have figured out where he was, but he couldn't. He hadn't seen Luna in weeks. Draco said they found her where they had him- it just didn't make any sense. Either Draco was lying to him or she wasn't.

Harry stumbled forward still trying to right himself in his own mind. It all made Harry suddenly appreciative of Snape. In all the time Snape tutored him, all the times he pushed into Harry's head it had never felt quite like this. Sometimes Snape's intrusion left Harry with a migraine sure, but it was nothing compared to what Harry was feeling now. Draco had pushed in with all the subtlety of a fucking battering ram. His skull ached something fierce, and if he had to rate the pain it was as if 50 migraines were all assaulting him at once.

He could barely think, and walking around might be difficult- he needed to focus.

Harry held his 2 hands in front of him. He counted his fingers. Focused on each of them, then carefully he used his right hand to snap his index finger on the left. Bloody fucking hell. He swore under his breath as the new pain in his finger came and coursed through him.

There. Just like Snape taught him. Harry breathed in and out for a few moments. He focused on the pain in his finger, and then slowly he was able to concentrate on only it instead of any of the pain in his head. Snapping his finger was just the distraction Harry needed in order to overcome all the other irritants around him. To clear his mind, and focus on what he wanted in this moment, there was a skill to it. He dispelled the pain in his skull, and it was like a curtain dropped back into its proper place.

It was a neat little trick Harry had to admit. Even if it was Snape's. Distraction from the bigger pain, and eventually with enough practice you could even figure out how to tune out the smaller pains. Harry had figured that out, so he did it just then. He felt lighter almost instantly as the pain in his finger faded to the recesses of his mind. And from there Harry would be free to do just about anything in his head. It was genius.

Harry followed the sound of Draco's footsteps down the corridors. Twists and turns, and then Harry came to a stop. 2 large doors with brass embellishments adorning them.

Harry didn't know why Draco chose to bring them here of all the places in Harry's head, but he steeled himself before he pushed through the doors. She never did anything without reason.

"Draco," Harry called. Then he was storming into the Great hall of Hogwarts. "Where are you?"

Harry was ready to yell at her. To demand that she release Luna at once- and he would have done all of that but when he saw Draco standing there in the middle of the Great hall he stopped in his tracks.

She reminded Harry so much of the Hogwarts ghosts. She was so still, and pale. The only light in the great hall came from above them filtering downward, and it made Draco in her white robes look like some sort of haunting gothic novel cover.

She looked so fragile then... Harry wanted to reach out and maybe comfort her, but she spoke before he could.

"This is where you broke my heart," Draco said, her eyes were trained on the floating candles above them both. The great hall of his mind was so similar to the real one Harry would've thought he was actually standing at Hogwarts if it weren't for Draco. "This is where you disappointed me more than anyone ever had before."

Where Harry broke her heart and disappointed her?

Harry's jaw hung agape, shocked into silence. Then he recovered himself as he thought of how Draco had personally victimized Hermione in the past, and continued to crusade to be able to do to all muggleborns now.

Harry was about to inform her of what a selfish, narcissistic bitch she had become, but Harry realized he could no longer move nor speak. She had frozen him to the spot.

Draco smirked at him. "Don't bother trying to get out of it. When i go in someone's mind, i'm the one in charge. It might be your head, but i make it my domain." She was so very sure of herself, it made Harry itch to wipe the smirk right off her snobby face. Hermione would tell Harry to be patient however. To wait and see where this went, so that's what Harry decided to do. For now.

Draco swung her wand up in a graceful little arc, and the Great hall began to move and whoosh around them both. The tables disappeared, and the house flags withered out of existence. It all happened so quickly Harry had to shut his eyes to stave off the motion sickness.

When it finally stopped and Harry dared to sneak a peak he no longer had to wonder why Draco brought them into a memory of Hogwarts inside Harry's head. Now he knew exactly why she picked it.

Fuck.

There were swirly green and pink streamers floating down from the ceiling. The floating candles were gone, and now replaced with lanterns that shot out flames of varying colors at different intervals of time. In the back corner a stage had been placed for a band. This was the memory Harry had of the yule ball.

Harry let his eyes drift around as much as he was able, but always he kept Draco in his sights. There was no way to know what she was planning.

Draco walked towards him slowly, assessing him with the scrutiny a snake might pay to a mouse. "I was thrilled when we first met, you know. I mean the Harry Potter on the train, and in my compartment. I called it fate for a long time-" She pretended to inspect her nails, and she feigned disinterest in her own words. "You could be so annoying though. You and that big mouth of yours was always getting you into trouble and dragging me right along with you. First year i'd bet every galleon in my vault we spent more time in detention than class-" Draco pressed a finger to her temple like she was staving off a migraine of her own, and maybe she was. "Mostly when we were kids i thought you were funny."

Harry wanted to smile then, because Draco had never sounded so nostalgic of that time and never had Harry thought she was so moved by their meeting to have called it fate.

Draco circled him, and he could feel the warmth of her breath against his back. "But then 4th year... i don't know. I guess we grew up- or i grew up at least. You were never supposed to be in my life i just couldn't understand that at first, i didn't see- and it wasn't fate that put you in that train compartment- it was a fucking curse."

She set a well manicured hand against his shoulder, and her nails dug into Harry's skin. He ignored the pain and looked through her like he would any other ghost. He wondered silently which had hurt him more, her nails or her words? He was grateful he would probably be dead before figuring it out though.

"It wasn't all time spent worthlessly though. I did learn things from you. You taught me about friendship as you knew it. How it can make you stronger to believe in more than yourself... and now i think i would like to teach you something in return." She said it all wistfully.

Draco stepped back into his full line of vision, so he was staring at her not through her. Harry could feel her robes slip across his skin where his arms were exposed. He felt the goosebumps rise one by one.

"Friendship," Draco whispered between them. "Makes you weak."

Then Draco had conjured people into Harry's memory. They were all wearing exactly what they had worn to the yule ball all that time ago, and they were exactly the age they were that night as well.

Harry would have gulped, because he got the sense that Draco was about to do something rather nasty to these conjured figments of Harry's friends.

Hermione. Ron. Ginny. Neville. They all looked as frozen as Harry. Their faces, and hands stuck in a single snapshot of a muggle photobook.

Draco smirked again, then suddenly she was on the stage across the room, and she wasn't alone. Hermione had joined her. She was no longer frozen. A head covered in loose curls, and a ruffled pink dress. Harry could see enough of Hermione's face from where he was to see how scared she was.

"Harry- is that-" Hermione stammered, and her hands balled themselves nervously into her ruffles. "What-" Her voice stopped mid sentence when Draco leveled her wand next to Hermione's temple.

"Tell me where Granger really is right now. Or i kill her." Draco threatened, and motioned to the Hermione on stage.

Harry felt something shift, and he recognized Draco was allowing him to speak now.

Fake. Harry reminded himself. It was in his head. This wasn't real. That Hermione wasn't real.

Harry's pulse still raced when Draco pushed her wand tip against Hermione's temple. It glowed an angry red color. Hermione screamed, and Harry could smell the flesh burning on her face. "Where is Hermione Granger? Tell me."

Harry stayed silent. Waiting patiently.

Draco slid her wand at an angle across Hermione's throat so quickly Harry didn't even process it until Draco had shoved her off stage. Her body collapsed into a limp pile the same moment Harry felt a single tear streak down his cheek.

It was deftly silent for a second. Harry's tear was still falling, but then Draco wasn't on stage alone anymore. This time it was Neville.

Neville looked down at Hermione's limp body and started to move away from Draco, but she was faster than him. She had Neville on his knees in a second flat. Wand against his throat as he began to pray. "Talk. Potter." Draco tried again.

"Please." Harry spoke to her knowing, and hating how desperate his green eyes must look to her. "Not again."

Draco slit Neville's throat. Then he was piled next to Hermione. His body thudded when it hit the ground, and Harry tried to scream at Draco to stop it, but the sound he made instead was animalistic and unrecognizable.

"This is what friendship costs, Potter. This is why it makes you weak." She said briskly. "To love- to truly love someone- it only brings you pain."

Then Ron appeared on the stage and Harry thought he might lose his patience right there. But he forced himself to breathe.

Fake.fake.fake. Harry screamed the mantra to himself.

"Harry. Mate- help me." Ron begged. "She'll kill me if you don't."

"Well?" Draco demanded clearly having none of the patience Harry was resigning himself to. Harry shook his head, and closed his eyes so he didn't have to see it when she gutted Ron and sent him over the stage. "Fine. Make more of it difficult than it needs to be. I'll just keep doing this. Over and over. Again and again. With all of your friends- until you decide to talk."

Ginny was on stage before Harry could muster up anything to say to Draco. Fuck. It didn't matter how much he reminded himself that these were not his friends- it looked so real- they sounded so real when they died. The screams- the begging- Harry wished he was being tortured by Bellatrix again, that he could take. This though- this hell Draco concocted Harry didn't know how much more he could take of it.

...Then it dawned on Harry. The screaming. The begging. His friends would never die like that. Especially not at Draco's hand. Harry was fairly certain if Hermione was going out she would at least take a swing at Draco. Ron would kill himself before he stood there begging for help.

He was done being patient.

These were not his friends. They were not real.

Harry concentrated on the pain of his broken finger, bringing it back to the forefront of his mind. He pushed off Draco's enchantment with ease, but remained still in his place so as not to give himself away.

Draco was circling Ginny like a shark. Using her wand to turn her face back and forth, and all the while Ginny cowered under the scrutiny.

"What was it Ginny Weasley had that i didn't? Why did you take her to the yule? I've always wondered- our pedigree is the same so it isn't that and you're not exactly a purist are you? Was it the tits? Weasley had great tits." Draco shrugged and poked at Ginny meanly. "She's sort of pretty in a poor sort of-"

Harry interjected. "Not pretty like you she isn't."

Draco raised a brow. He could see the wheels turning in Draco's head. The calculations being made. She narrowed her eyes on him as she raised her wand to Ginny's neck.

"It was never like that with Ginny, just for the record. She kissed me that night after the dance. I swear."

Harry knew that had to be it. Why Draco brought them to this memory. Harry hadn't taken Draco to the yule, but Draco had seen him that night after the dance outside Gryffindor tower when Ginny shoved him against the wall and snogged him in front of their friends. Harry hadn't known what to do. He hadn't wanted to push her away and embarrass her, so he had gone along with it. Harry had seen Draco briefly on the stairs as they moved, but he hadn't thought she gave a single damn about it back then. Now though. Harry was seriously reconsidering. Draco said he broke her heart that night. Other than his kiss with Ginny he couldn't think of any other way he could accomplish that. Perhaps Harry had been mistaken all these years in his belief that his feelings for Draco had been one sided. Had she loved him to, at one point? Could she still hold some sort of torch like Harry did for her even now?

"Flattery won't get you anywhere with me in here. You don't get to say that to me, after everything." Draco scoffed indignantly.

"You asked," Harry resisted the urge to shrug. "didn't you?"

Ginny was pivoting back and forth on her feet but she wasn't looking to Harry like Ginny anymore. Her hair was blonde, not red. Her freckles were disappearing one at a time in front of him. Harry was in full control of his mind again and Draco had yet to notice.

"If you don't want the real Luna Lovegood to end up like them-" Draco pointed at his friend's bodies. "then i suggest you start talking."

Harry smiled at her. His itch about to be scratched.

"You only said i had to let you in, for her to be spared. Not that i had to tell you anything in here." Harry pointed out.

Draco's eyes went colder if that was somehow possible. She turned to plunge her wand into Ginny. Harry however had accounted for that, and he surged forward. He managed to grab Draco's arm just before she made contact with Ginny. Her eyes grew wide in disbelief.

"That is not possible- you can't-" Draco's voice shook with uncertainty. "I control- i was trained by-"

Yes. Of course Draco wouldn't understand how Harry broke her enchantments. She was trained by the absolute best, but so was Harry. Draco just had no idea. Another Order guarded secret of Harry's.

Then Harry allowed Ginny to wisp out of existence. Draco was still staring at Harry as his arm held hers in place.

"It is possible." Harry said triumphantly. "When you're me." Harry let the copies of his friends fade out.

Harry tightened his grip on Draco's arm and pushed her along. "It's a shame you don't seem to like my friends very much." Harry said. "Under completely different circumstances- i think the trio would have been a kick ass quartet." Then Harry was jumping off the stage and pulling Draco right on after him. Hogwarts crumpled around them, and Harry found himself and Draco back in his cell.

Harry pulled them both from his head without any magic.

"No. I know what you're capable of." Draco's eyes were saucer wide, and unblinking. "You couldn't have."

Harry laughed weakly. "Maybe you just don't know what I'm capable of anymore."