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Meddling with Darkness	By : zoy_grey Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Draco Views: 32786 -:- Recommendations : 4 -:- Currently Reading : 11
Disclaimer: I do not own nor make profit off of JK Rowling's world of Harry Potter, the characters or the timeline. Though I do own the plot that I came up with in this story.

Chapter List
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A/N: This is my second HP story here and just to make things clear...I'm not a native user of english and I make some errors, so please bear with me ;)

Also, I know this first chapter is not going to be much different from the original – except maybe for a few minor changes, but I swear there will be quite a lot major changes in the story from now on ;) Hopefully it won't take me too long to get to the slash part, but just to give you heads up there's going to be Harry/Draco, Sirius/(someone you'll find out after a few chapters) and Tom Riddle/(again a surprise) :)

Chapter 1

Severus Snape walked out of the Leaky Cauldron and stepped onto Diagon Alley.

The summer break was slowly coming to an end; only one more month and all old and new students would come back to Hogwarts. The potions master couldn’t make up his mind whether he disliked teaching at all, being potions master or he was unhappy with the way his life turned out in general; but the fact remained he really couldn’t find anything joyful or satisfying in his job.

Nevertheless, with the beginning of school term he needed his ingredients storage filled. Otherwise, he’d probably stay at home and enjoy the rest of the summer. Yet, here he was, heading to the Apothecary and trying to get past all the happy families rushing around, buying school supplies. Severus didn’t have any memories of shopping at Diagon Alley when he was at Hogwarts, but that’s probably due to his Muggle father hating the very idea of wasting money on magical ‘stuff’; all the books he had, belonged to his mother and were in a rather poor shape; only thanks to Lily did he get anything new at that time, since the witch had been doing shopping for him whenever he asked her to.

Those times, however, have long since passed. Lily and everyone important to him were no longer there and he lost all the chances to do something about his life, to brighten it even a bit.

“Mornin’, professor,” a loud, familiar voice got him out of his thoughts; he looked up and saw a familiar half giant standing in front of him. “Fine day, isn’ it?”

“Good morning, Hagrid,” answered Snape with a slight strain in his voice. He never had a special fondness for the man, but maybe that was caused by the half giant’s bad opinion of his House or maybe the fact that he always seemed to be happy with his life, which annoyed Severus immensely.

“Oh, better be goin’,” Hagrid said with a smile and looked towards the Leaky Cauldron. “Shouldn’ leave the boy alone fer too long.”

“What boy?” asked Snape taken a bit by surprise; he couldn’t think of any reason for Hagrid to be there with some child unless…”Are you here with a student?”

“Yep, left him at Madam Malkin’s ter get his robes,” with that he left a dumbstruck potions master.

For a moment there, Snape was torn apart – on one hand, it wasn’t his business what happened to that boy, it was Hagrid’s job to look after him; but on the other hand, he was outraged, how could Dumbledore let that happy-go-lucky half giant take care of a Muggle-born, who was new to the wizarding world. Introducing Muggle-borns to their world was a very important task, and if he wasn’t mistaken it was responsibility of either Deputy Headmistress or the Headmaster himself.

He took out his wand and cast a Tempus charm; it was late; he wasn’t supposed to spend half his day in London. He turned in the direction the gamekeeper went and sighed annoyed. He really didn’t have time for this, but something kept bugging him; some irritating voice in the back of his head; that voice kept nagging him to go check on the child.

“Oh, for Merlin’s sake!” he grumbled angrily and strode to Madame Malkin’s.

Harry walked into the shop Hagrid left him at, and looked around. He didn’t have to wait long for a witch to show up and hurry him to the back to take measure for his robes.

“Stand here, dear” she said and pointed to a stool next to a blond, pale boy.

“Hello,” said the other boy after a few moments of staring at him with a judging expression on his face. “First year Hogwarts too?”

“Yes,” Harry answered feeling a bit uneasy with the boy staring at him, but decided to be polite. “My name is...”

“I know who you are,” said the blond without looking at him and Harry quickly moved his hand to his forehead to cover his scar with his hair, but it seemed it was already safely hidden. “I don’t need your scar to know who you are,” explained the boy proudly, when both witches left them for a moment.

“But…everyone’s been staring at it…since we arrived here,” muttered the black haired boy.

“And you enjoy them doing that,” said the blond with a sneer. “Famous Harry Potter.”

“What did you just say?” asked the younger witch excited. “Where?”

Thankfully for Harry, the younger woman wasn’t as well informed as the boy and she didn’t notice that the one she was so excited to meet was standing before her. However, he was afraid the blonde might tell her who he was and Harry really had enough of the attention for the day.

The pale boy, on the other hand, stood there silently for a minute and contemplated something; to his surprise, he saw no need for attention in Potter’s behaviour. “Nowhere, we were just talking about Harry Potter,” he told the witch and Harry was visibly relieved to hear that.

Both of them remained silent for the rest of their time in the shop, but Harry couldn’t stop thinking about what happened; the other boy kept quiet about who he was and saved him another awkward moment of worship from a complete stranger. It kept bugging him, though, why the blond did that. For a moment there he thought him to be quite arrogant and unpleasant, but he had mixed feelings now.

Finally, when Madam Malkin said he could come down from the stool, he jumped off and glanced at the boy.

“Well?” he asked looking expectantly at Harry.

“You didn’t tell her,” he started his sentence.

“Because you didn’t want me to say it,” answered the boy.

“You know who I am, but what’s your name?”

“Malfoy,” he puffed up his chest proudly and offered Harry to shake hands. “Draco Malfoy.”

Before he could take Draco’s hand there was a knocking sound on the window and he saw Hagrid standing there, waiting for him, with a wide grin across his face.

“Hope to see you in Slytherin,” the blond walked away from him, without shaking hands and although he sounded sincere, he didn’t even make eye contact. “I’ll introduce you to everyone there.”

Lucius walked out of Flourish and Blotts and headed to Madame Malkin’s, were he knew Draco was supposed to wait for him and Narcissa; they already had everything the boy needed for his first year at Hogwarts and hopefully, they could go back to the manor.

Walking closer to the shop he noticed someone standing in the shadows, near the building; that person looked familiar to him, although he was certain they haven’t seen each other for quite a long time.

“Severus, what a pleasant surprise,” he said and shook hands with the potions master. “Though, I didn’t expect to see you here. Not with all the students running around, browsing for school supplies.”

“Lucius,” the man looked at his friend from school years. “I simply needed to purchase some ingredients.”

“And that’s why you’re hiding near Madame Malkin’s shop,” said the older wizard with his eyebrow raised.

“That was just a side tour to my trip,” a slight smirk formed on Snape’s face. “Though, I don’t need to ask why you’re here,” he looked at the blond boy inside the building. “The resemblance is striking.”

“Indeed.”

“Seems like your son also finds it beneficial to befriend half-bloods,” Severus stared at the other man, remembering how Lucius became his friend in Hogwarts, even though most of their housemates hated him at that time for being a half-blood.

“Really?” asked slightly amused man. “And who would that half-blood be?”

“Potter” was all Severus said and watched changing expressions on Lucius’ face.

For a moment there he saw confusion on the other man’s face, but it was replaced by a cunning smirk; oh yes, he knew that smirk very well. It seemed Mr Malfoy has found a good reason for Draco to befriend Potter, or rather, he thought of a way how to turn that friendship to work in the Malfoys’ favour.

“I suppose Draco knows what he’s doing. But could your visit here have anything to do with young Mr Potter, Severus?”

Snape thought he brought that question on himself and couldn’t blame anyone for that. He shouldn’t be here; he wasn’t even planning it when he first set foot on Diagon Alley today; and the situation really did look suspicious. It might look as if he was following Harry Potter. Severus knew it wasn’t the truth – he merely wanted to check on some poor Muggle-born, but he never expected it to be Potter.

He had to think of something to say and he had to do it fast. He honestly liked Lucius, at least he liked him when they were in school, but the man thought he still shared the same believes as he did back during the war. True, Severus still felt the need to use dark magic from time to time, but he was on the Light side now; he swore to Dumbledore he’d do anything to save Lily and although Lily passed away, he made a promise to protect her son. During official Death Eaters’ hearings he was lifted of charge thanks to turning to the Light side in the end of the war, but some of his former friends thought it was just a lie to get away from Azkaban. Now, however, he couldn’t simply tell Lucius he was to protect Potter and that he truly switched sides to the end of the war.

“I’ve met him by accident,” he answered quickly “though it wouldn’t be bad to keep an eye on him and what he’s doing, don’t you think?”

“True,” Malfoy smirked again “well then I’d better get my son already. I do hope he’ll make Slytherin house proud.”

The potions master walked away and finally headed to the Apothecary. His mind was still on Lily and the promise he made to Dumbledore. No matter how many years have passed, he couldn’t forgive himself for everything he had hurt Lily with; Lily who was his only true friend; the only person who never betrayed him. It would make him feel better if she hated him, but was still alive; but no, because of his mistakes she was dead, he lost everything dear to him and now had to look after her son. That was another matter that was running in his head – he thought he could do it with ease, protect Lily’s son, because Harry was a part of her, but to make things worse, the boy had James Potter’s looks; Harry Potter’s existence was a constant reminder of how wrong Snape’s life had turned out.

After the many hours of shopping Harry and Hagrid finally arrived at the train station and were waiting for the train Harry was supposed to take to go back to the Dursleys. He didn’t really want to go back, though. It was true, he was overwhelmed by how everybody treated him – like a hero, but now that he knew he was a wizard, he didn’t feel like spending another month with his relatives, who hated him for who he was.

Immediately he thought of all the house chores he’ll be given as soon as he gets back home. It would be a punishment for his freakishness, he guessed. He wondered what the Dursleys will say about his school things and his new pet; he was certain they weren’t going to like an owl in their perfectly normal house.

“Hagrid,” he asked when something came to his mind. “Do I need to know the exact address of the person I want to send a letter to or is the name enough for the owls to deliver it?”

“Yer fine with just the name, Harry,” the half giant smiled and searched his pockets for something “Here’s yer ticket fer Hogwarts.”

Shortly after that his train arrived and he got onto it with all of his strange little packages.

An hour later he was standing in front of 4 Privet Drive and tried to force himself to go in. Moments later the front door opened and his cousin, Dudley, walked out but froze the second he saw Harry.

Harry had never in his life seen Dudley so scared to see him, but he was quite satisfied that for once it was his cousin to run away and not him.

“Mum! Dad!” he ran into the house again and Harry spotted that the little pig’s tail was still there.

His good mood didn’t last long, though. Uncle Vernon showed up in the doorway and called for him “Don’t stand there, boy! Come here!”

The first week after his birthday was awkward, to say the least. The Dursleys were avoiding him as much as possible. Now, that Harry bought his first wand, they weren’t so certain they could treat him the way they did before; probably, they were worried he’ll curse them.

On the bright side, he got a room of his own. It wasn’t a room other kids would want to have, but he was pleased he didn’t have to live in the cupboard under the stairs. Now, he had his own bed and desk; he could keep Hedwig and school books with him and since Dudley was still afraid of him, Harry spend most days in his room reading his new books.

That, however didn’t last long. Aunt Petunia was furious that her Dudley had that awful pig’s tail and took out her anger on Harry by giving him chores. By the beginning of the second week of August, Harry nearly forgot about the wizarding world; every day he had loads of dishes to wash and garden to maintain, he had to vacuum the entire house once a day and wash uncle Vernon’s car twice a week. Because of all that, by the end of each day Harry was too tired to do anything else. He wished he had some friends, at least one; one friend he could write to and take his mind off of his relatives.

Suddenly, an idea popped into his head – he had people he could write to; he wasn’t sure what to write to Hagrid about, but there was also someone else whom he could ask different things about the magical world.

Harry jumped off of his bed and searched his school supplies for a piece of parchment, ink and a quill. He thought for a while how to begin his letter and what to write really; he haven’t thought it through earlier; all he knew was that he needed to have contact with someone from the wizarding world.

Harry wrote the name, but quickly crossed it out and wrote

Malfoy,

I hope it is ok for me to write to you. You’re the only person from the wizarding world that I’ve met and I hoped you could tell me more about Hogwarts.

I’ve read a book about it and it made me a bit confused. You mentioned Slytherin, and I already know it’s one of the school houses, but there were a few bad opinions about it. I don’t understand. Is it a bad house? Could you tell me more about it?

Hope to hear from you,

Harry

The boy scribbled on the envelope Draco’s name and handed it to Hedwig; the owl took of immediately and Harry wondered if his letter would reach the blond or was Draco even going to be happy about his sudden message; after all, they weren’t even friends, but the blond was the only person his age he met at Diagon Alley and Harry wanted to make friends, even if the other boy’s attitude was a bit arrogant and overwhelming.

It was already late afternoon and Draco was sitting by the window in his room, reading one of the books his father bought for him. He was indulging himself in it for the last two days or so, needless to say the book was covering the subject of a rather shady type of magic and the boy found it simply fascinating. Thanks to the training sessions with his parents he was getting more and more confident in the use of his magic – thankfully, the wards surrounding Malfoy Manor were strong enough to prevent them from getting a warning letter from the Ministry. On second thoughts, Draco was absolutely sure that even if the Ministry dared to send them such letter, his father and grandfather had enough influence inside the Ministry to take care of such trivial matter.

He closed the book and wanted to change his seat, since the setting sun was making it difficult to read by the window. At the same time he looked outside and saw something odd; a white spot on the horizon and it was growing bigger with every passing second.

He put the book away on his night table and walked to the window again. This time the white spot was big enough for Draco to make out the shape of it; he was pretty certain it was an owl; a big, snowy owl flying straight for the Manor or rather his window.

“That’s odd,” he commented to himself when the bird indeed headed towards his bedroom’s window. He opened it and allowed the owl to fly inside. “Got something for me?” he asked while trying to get the envelope from the animal.

“Who could that be from?” he wondered when he didn’t notice the senders name on the letter. He looked around to see that the owl was still there, waiting. “So, the one who send you expects an answer,” he said with a sneer and opened the letter.

Inside was a short letter written in a poor handwriting. Draco scanned it briefly to get to the end and see who send it, “Potter.”

The boy was quite surprised, to be honest, that famous Harry Potter wrote to him; the saviour of the Light side wrote to a Malfoy; that was interesting, hilarious even. Though, Draco didn’t mind. He thought it might be good for him and his parents if the public saw him being friends with Potter. Besides, he was rather pleasantly surprised when he met him on Diagon Alley, that the boy didn’t act like he wanted the worship of others.

He read the letter and wondered if he should be offended by Potter asking him if Slytherins were bad people or only amused. When he read the short message for the third time, he found himself not quite understanding the part about the other boy not knowing anyone from the wizarding world; he was Harry, bloody, Potter for crying out loud; it was true that nobody knew where did the Potter heir live for the last ten years, but he must have lived among their kind, right? It was impossible for the wizarding world’s saviour to live somewhere else than among magical folk; but why did he write he doesn’t know anyone other than Draco? Surely the Light side did everything to provide their Golden boy with everything he could possibly need. That however was exactly what made the blond mad. Draco was used to being spoiled by his parents and everyone around, because he was a Malfoy and his family earned such treatment. Potter, on the other hand, did nothing to gain it, he simply survived the Dark Lord’s attack and already almost everyone in their world pampered him; and still, he was complaining about it.

After the first wave of anger passed, Draco calmed down and decided it was only the right thing to write back to the other boy; maybe he’d even get an answer from him about his living arrangements.

“He couldn’t be living with Muggles, right?” passed through the blond’s head.

He sat down at his desk, took out a parchment and thought for a moment how to start the letter; would it be wise to be on first name basis with the other? Finally, making up his mind he wrote

Harry,

It’s alright to call me by my name, though I don’t think you should do that in public. Let’s just say, some people in our world wouldn’t be happy to know you and me keep in touch.

As for Slytherin, people who never were in that house spread rumours about us being evil, but that’s not true. Even Merlin was in Slytherin and he wasn’t a bad person. I’m pretty sure I’ll be sorted into Slytherin, because my entire family was in that house. Don’t know really where you’ll be sorted into, but if we end up in the same house I can show you around.

By the way, I was wondering about something you wrote. How come you don’t know anyone from our world? I mean, you’re Harry Potter, everybody knows you. They had to put you with some magical family, right?

Draco

P.S. You’re owl is quite smart, she found me without my address, which is Malfoy Manor, Wiltshire, by the way.

He folded the parchment and gave it to the bird.

For the rest of summer Harry felt better. Even if the Dursleys gave him more and more chores, it wasn’t so difficult to bear it; all of that thanks to Draco writing back to him. By 1^st September he was certain he could call the blond boy his friend.

Harry remembered how nervous he was when he waited for Hedwig to come back that day he sent the letter to Draco. He was almost sure his owl would come back without delivering the message. To his surprise, Hedwig not only delivered his letter, but also brought back Draco’s reply. He read the letter several times; taking in all the information he got from the other boy.

The last of August, Harry was checking his trunk for the trip to Hogwarts. His aunt and uncle were watching television downstairs and pretended he didn’t exist.

Just when he was about to go to bed he heard a knock on the window and saw a familiar eagle owl. Harry jumped off of the bed and took the letter from the bird; the owl hooted and flew away.

Harry was glad he decided to write to Draco three weeks ago. Since then he learned a lot about the wizarding world and the blond boy. At the beginning he thought that Draco was like Dudley – arrogant and spoiled by his parents, but since Harry informed him about his living arrangements and that Harry was forced to put up with his magic hating relatives, Draco changed a bit.

He opened the letter and quickly ran through the text.

Harry,

I probably should have told you about it sooner, but I’m doing it now. Some people don’t trust my family and it would be suspicious if they saw tomorrow in London that we are already friends. But don’t worry; I’ll be waiting for you at the platform. I’ll pretend we don’t know each other and then offer you friendship; it’ll be less suspicious that way.

See you tomorrow,

Draco.

Harry stared at the parchment and a million questions filled his mind – why was it so strange for him to be friends with Malfoy? What others had against Draco’s family? True, Draco was spoiled etc., but even though all that, Harry thought him to be a nice person and wanted to be in the same house at Hogwarts as the blond.

Harry finally managed to get on Hogwarts Express and found a free compartment. He wanted to search for his friend, but remembered what Draco wrote the other day – they were supposed to be strangers. Considering all that, he decided to wait for the other boy to find him. In the worst case scenario, he’d travel alone, but would meet with Draco at Slytherin table in the Great Hall.

Not much later, a red haired boy, Ron, and a bossy girl, Hermione, joined him and accompanied for the rest of the trip.

He didn’t mind them joining him, but he couldn’t wait to see his first ever friend; after all, Draco promised to meet with him.

After a few hours Harry lost hope for meeting with the blond boy on the train. Instead he listened to Ron talking about Quidditch. Harry already knew all he needed about that sport, but since he was supposed to pretend he didn’t know anyone from the wizarding world, he pretended he hasn’t heard about Quidditch from Draco.

All of a sudden, Ron stopped talking, because the door to the compartment opened and three boys walked in.

Harry noticed it was his blond friend and his two “bodyguards” – Crabbe and Goyle. He has never met them, but Draco told him about them in his letters. Immediately, Harry felt better; finally he’ll be able to officially befriend Draco and later get sorted into the same house as him.

“They’re saying down the train that Harry Potter is in this compartment. It’s you then.” Draco looked at Harry with his usual arrogant look, but Harry could see that the blond was also glad to see him. “This is Crabbe and Goyle. And I’m Malfoy, Draco Malfoy.”

That moment Ron coughed loudly to hide a laugh, but failed.

The next thing Harry knew was Draco getting angry and insulting Ron. From there on everything went completely wrong. Even though Harry was aware of the fact that the blond was a very proud person and quick to insult people he didn’t like, but this time was different; he never thought his friend could be this nasty to the redhead; Draco even insulted Ron’s family.

“I’ll call a prefect if you don’t stop,” said the bushy haired girl; Harry almost forgot that she was still there.

“And you are?” Draco eyed here with disgust visible on his face. “You must be a Muggle-born. Why even bother going to Hogwarts? People like you would do the wizarding world a favour to stay with your Muggle relatives.”

For the first time in his life Harry felt disappointed and angry, really angry. He had many occasions to be mad before – at aunt Petunia, uncle Vernon, Dudley and his classmates or teachers for not seeing that he was bullied - , but he never felt this angry at them. Harry wanted to hit Draco for his behaviour; here Harry thought he found a friend, yet Draco seemed to enjoy insulting people living among Muggles; the blond knew Harry lived with Muggle relatives and now he was saying there was something wrong with that. For almost a month Harry wrote letters to Draco and thought they were friends; and now he found out that the boy despised people like him; he was being lied to for all this time.

“You’ll soon find out that some wizarding families are better than others, Potter. You don’t want to go making friends with the wrong sort. I can help you there,” said Draco when he stopped spouting insults at Hermione and Ron.

Harry saw the blonde staring at him intensely and waiting for him to shake his hand, but the black haired boy never did that. “I think I can tell the wrong sort for myself, thanks,” and looked proudly at stunned Draco. That moment he mustered all of his courage to stand up to Malfoy and decided that no one, ever, was going to fool him again; he didn’t need people who only pretended to be his friends, but in reality despised him.

From then on Harry’s life changed a lot from what he expected it to be when he got onto Hogwarts Express. His supposed friend became his biggest enemy. Slytherins, whom Draco claimed to be so great, came out to be the most heartless and awful people in school; and their Head of House, Severus Snape, was the most awful teacher Harry ever had.

He couldn’t complain, however; he gained wonderful friends in Gryffindor. The only thing that bothered him was the fact he had to go back to 4 Privet Drive every summer.
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Meddling with Darkness