Adult-FanFiction.org : Harry Potter

Falling Inside the Black	By : Pseudonymous_Entity Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Draco Views: 4837 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: If you recognize it from Harry Potter it isn't mine! I do not profit from this work, it is intended for entertainment only.

Chapter List
- 1
- 2
- 3
Ron's previously unnoticed and presently irritating over-protective and far too bruise inducing tendencies did not fade come morning.
It started off as normal a morning as Harry ever got. He'd dreamt of torture and screams and green flashes of lights, basilisks and dementors. The usual sort of therapy fodder. When he'd woken at three in the morning tangled in his bedsheets and glistening with a sheen of sweat he decided to get up and ready for the day rather than return to his ill-adjusted mental dreamscape. A good choice, he'd thought, at the time. Harry stood beside his bed in the semi-darkness, not shaking as badly as he could have been, contemplating his next course of action. Getting dressed probably. A shower first actually. He dug through his trunk in search of his newest school clothes and lay them on his bed. Harry paused. This is where he ran to the shower and ran back and got dressed before anyone could see him, running around for the rest of the day without a care his shirt was button unevenly. But everyone else was trying something different this year, weren't they? Either in light of reaching teenage-hood, if that was the word for it, or because they all sensed this as a year of change he didn't know. He did feel a need to be a part of it though. Harry conjured a mirror with unsteady hands and decided not to wonder how he had known how to do so because in first year he turned a man to ash with his bare hands and in second year he listened to and was nearly killed by a basilisk. Doing things that were rare or abnormal was just his way.
Asking questions would only give him headaches and possibly thrown in Azkaban if only to keep from further freaking out the magical public with his not normal-ness.
Looking himself over in the mirror Harry gave a decisive nod and turned to his clothes. Tailoring them to fit him better, turning the slacks just a bit darker and the shirt a little longer and looser. It would be more comfortable, he thought, and his pants being a little too form fitting didn't bother him. He had had more than enough of wondering around in pants thirteen bajillion sizes larger than necessary. He took a shower and washed his hair. After he got out he took the time to straitened it out and after a moment of indecisiveness he brushed it back as he had the night before. It was getting a little long. He didn't think his hair usually grew long, unless you counted the one time his aunt had shaved it down and the next day it was back to the way it was. Maybe he should let it keep going.
His clothes on, stuffing the tie in a pocket because screw ties and unbuttoning the top three buttons on his shirt, he eyed himself critically. He looked rather good actually, in his opinion. Harry threw his book-bag over his shoulder, said to hell with his outer robes, grabbed his apple from last night and headed to the common room. If his chin was lifted a little higher and his stride lengthened in smugness there was no one there to witness the event. He sat in front of the fire munching on his fruit and reading through his text books. He hardly shook at all now.
He was fine after all. Totally fine.
The book review went by quick enough. The words and the information familiar and coming to him easily. Magic always came to him naturally when he bothered to try in class, it was the theory that he had always had a problem with. He didn't see what good knowing the hows of it did when he could do it without knowing. But it was important. And interesting. Or it was now anyway, he was pretty sure he wouldn't have cared last year. Of course he'd been accused of being the Heir of Slytherin last year but really was that any excuse to slap the education being offered to him in the face? Harry went through the recommended reading at the back of the Potions and Transfiguration texts, scribbling down titles that caught his eye. It was a good idea to learn more about it considering he almost died every year, oftentimes more than once. Why hadn't he bothered to learn more before? For that matter, he was a wizard wasn't he? Why didn't he try harder to learn magic? It was magic! He could do anything if only figured it out, magic was a shape-shifting tool of possibility. To waste it was stupid. He was better off with the muggles... His thoughts trailed off and Harry shoved them violently to the back of his mind and slammed a gate across them to keep them there. He didn't want to think about the muggles.
Harry knew that part of his desperation to look nice and do well stemmed from his Muggle relatives insistence on his looking like a street urchin, and his undeniable obsession with proving himself. Proving he was better than they were, that he was more than a freak. He knew this as well as he knew his hero complex towards people he hardly knew came from his guilt over his parent's death. They died trying to save him from the Dark Lord. It wasn't his fault, a baby can do much to protect anyone, but Harry had survived when they had not and running unprepared and ill-informed into dangerous situations for the good of others had helped to assuage his guilt. It was ridiculous to feel this way. He knew it, he did. Hell he hadn't known them, he hardly remembered them and when he did they were dying. He felt no particular emotional attachments to th. Parents were supposed to do what they could to protect their children. It didn't stop it from strengthening his relatives remarks about him being worthless and useless and weak. The sorting hat was righter than he wanted it to be. A thirst to prove himself.
Merlin he was just the poster child for potential homicidal maniac wasn't he? Someone pushed around until they snapped and offed everyone around him.
Pleasant thoughts to dwell on at the start of the day. It was still better than listening to his parents die over and over. Munch. The apple was finished. Harry was pondering finding the kitchens and getting another when the first stirs of life ran through the tower. So instead he waited for his friends to get ready and come to the common room. He would walk down with them and avoid a lecture from Hermione this early in the year. After lunch would be better. He stood and stretched.
"That's a new look Potter." Harry looked over his shoulder.
"It seems to be a running theme this year Seamus."
The Irish boy gave him a crooked grin. "It does doesn't it? Everyone is taller or grew their hair out or something."
"To be fair my genetics decided to skip out on the growth spurt thing so I have to settle for fixing my hair and dressing a tad nicer."
"You've always been short mate. At least it's nothing new."
Harry turned around. "I suppose so. It is irritating walking around with the world looking down on you though. Did you know most of the second years are my size or taller? Have I grown at all since I was eleven?"
The taller boy cocked his head and looked him over. "You don't look like you're eleven if that's what you mean." His voice came out a little strained. His face was a tad flushed too.
Concerned Harry took a step toward him and put hand to the side of his face feeling heat beneath his fingers. Fever?
"Are you alright? You are getting a little warm." Getting sick at the beginning of year wasn't the worst thing in the world, they mostly did reviews, but they had there first Hogsmead weekend coming up soon and missing it wouldn't be any fun. It wasn't even getting cold yet.
Seamus swallowed. "I'm alright Harry. I think you should take a step back-"
"Harry!" Both boys jumped, Harry automatically reaching for his apple in his pocket before remember he'd eaten it. That boy was going to give him a bloody complex. Ron came barreling down the stairs and did what Harry had to admit was an impressive ninja-like leap and twirl, landing between them, pushing them apart. The ginger put up a hand, asking for a moment, half bent over and panting for breath. Harry and Seamus exchanged amused glances.
"Are you alright there Weasley?"
"Yes. Swell."
"Are you sure you are feeling well Seamus? Do you want me to walk with you to see Madame Pomphrey?" Harry asked, ignoring the dramatic ginger. Passing out in a corridor couldn't be healthy.
Seamus cleared his throat and averted his eyes in apparent embarrassment. "I don't think that will be necessary no." He shifted on his feet for a moment. "If you would like to though maybe you could-"
Ron straightened suddenly like someone had shoved a rod through him, "You can go now Finnegan. Harry's going to be going to breakfast soon, we're just going to wait here for Hermione."
Harry stared at Ron. That was beyond rude.
The usually easy going Irish boy gave Ron a hard look, nodded at Harry politely and took his leave. Harry realized as the boy went through the portrait hole that it was some sort of power play between the two of them. Gryffindor did power plays? When in Merlin's name did that happen? How had he missed that? And what were they even fighting over? A position of some kind? A rank? Had he been asleep these past two years or what? Harry scowled at himself. It was thanks to luck alone he wasn't dead already. He needed to start paying more attention. He paused, had Seamus called him Harry?
He fixed his sights up at Ron, who seemed to have recovered his breath, feeling both confused and angry. Power plays concerning him were his business weren't they? Why was Seamus being excluded? It was similar to Ron's reactions to Malfoy at dinner the night before, which was stranger as well because as far as Harry knew Ron and Seamus usually got on. More dictating whom Harry was allowed to interact with, that's what it was. Being bossed about. His life controlled without a thought to his preferences. He didn't like it. "What is wrong with you?" He demanded.
"Don't you know any better? Honestly what am I going to do with- what the hell are you wearing?"
Harry blinked, tilting his head down to see himself. He still looked fine as far as he could tell. He returned his gaze to his bigger friend. "Why? What's wrong with me?" The outfit followed the school guidelines, he'd gone ahead and checked while he was waiting for everyone to wake up. Did it not look as nice as he thought it did? And why did it matter what Ron thought anyway? He hadn't ever cared what Harry wore before had he?
"Nothing you look great." Ron assured him. He seemed sincere too.
"I, um, okay." Harry stumbled, he couldn't remember the last time he felt so off balance. Did Ron have Bi-Polar? "Thank you?" Seriously, what in the ever loving hell was going on?.
Ron gave a nod. "You're welcome. Now go change."
"Excuse me?" He said it politely, face pleasant. He sort of wanted to hit him though.
Harry caught sight of bushy hair from the corner of his eye. He turned his head and saw Hermione coming toward them, her head in a book. The girl skipped over and around obstacles without looking up, heading to breakfast. Must be a radar all bookworms had genetically. A thought occurred to him. "Hermione." He called, projecting nervous cheerfulness.
"Harry." She greeted pausing before him.
"I heard Flitwick is giving a pop quiz."
Brown eyes snapped up. "What."
"I don't know if the information is accurate but I was wondering if you would go over-"
"-the required reading from the summer as a refresher just in case? Of course. You can quiz me as well. Come along. Quickly. Breakfast has only just started so we have more than enough time to go over a summary of all of the chapters. It's lucky you're up so early this morning." Her eyes returned to the book and she walked to the portrait hole.
Harry gave Ron a helpless gesture and trotted after her. The red head's footsteps sounded behind him, from his muttering Harry assumed he was less than pleased. Served him right for trying to boss him around really. Who did he think he was, Harry's keeper? Who faced the Dark Lord first year? Harry. Who defeated the basilisk? Harry again. He could take care of himself thank you. And there was nothing wrong with what he was wearing. If anything from the looks he got passing through the corridor everyone else seemed to approve. They turned left and started down the staircase. Was it jealousy? He knew Ron was sensitive about things like money and new possessions. It was only school clothes and Ron cared less for his own appearance than anyone else he knew. His robes were always rumpled, his tie uneven or undone. Did he dislike Harry looking better than him? Or was it that his clothes were tailored? As a pureblood shouldn't he knew how to do that? Or was it more of female thing? Not that it mattered, if he only asked Harry could do it for him as well. He thought over last nights events and replayed them beside the altercation with Seamus.
Protective certainly, from what he didn't know, and possessive. Bossy. Controlling. Keeping others away from him. Was he afraid of losing Harry's friendship if he made other friends? But he had done it with Malfoy as well and Harry hardly ever had interactions with the blonde and most of those were petty insults, which looking back was embarrassing and he wouldn't be repeating the action, or fighting. Was one moment of not trying to kill the Slytherin enough to really warrant physically moving Harry to keep him away? Harry let out a quiet sigh. He'd figure it out eventually and then he would address it.
This behavior couldn't continue. Harry cared for Ron, he was his closest male friend, but this made it look like Harry was lesser than him somehow. The boy was obviously used to speaking up for him so Harry must have given him the impression it was okay to do so. He remembered the red head had done it his first year as well, accepting Malfoy's taunt for a duel on Harry's behalf and naming himself as his second. Harry had to side step quickly to avoid tumbling into Hermione when she slowed at the door to the great hall. He just had an epiphany. That interaction first year, Ron had instigated a power play against Malfoy.
"Aren't you going to sit down?"
Harry shook his head and glanced around. He was standing at the Gryffindor table, Hermione seated before him, Ron seated to his left. The read head looked at him curiously.
"Yes." He sat, flicking his eyes along the table. Greasy and sweet didn't sit well with him.
"I'm just going to make a list of the topics for each section Harry than I should be ready to start." Came Hermione's voice over the top of her textbook, a sheet of parchment beside her.
"Sure Hermione. Take your time."
He was going to have to sit down and go over all of his interactions and experiences since entering the magical world. Had he been sleepwalking? Harry was utterly disgusted with himself. There was no excuse for not noticing other people were dictating your life. Maybe if he had paid more attention he could have handled the student reaction last year better. He scoffed. Better. Anything was better than letting a group of teenagers treat him like dirt after pointing at him in awe the year before. Public opinion was easily swayed, He should have done something to ease their nerves and influence their opinion of him into a better light. That year could have been less unpleasant.
A clatter brought his attention down. The plate before him was being filled with a bagel and chopped fruit. He followed the arm dishing his plate to the person sitting at his right. He felt his jaw fall open. Malfoy was sitting at the Gryffindor table and he was putting food on his plate. He narrowed his eyes and flicked them over the table. There weren't any bagels or bowls of cut up fruit there. Suspicious he turned around and looked at the Slytherin table. They had them. He turned back around to see Malfoy studying him.
"Eat." The blonde commanded.
Harry sent out a pulse of magic at the plate. No cyanide. Having no idea what else to do, and still in a bit of shock, Harry picked up his fork and started eating. Malfoy gave him a small smile, stood and returned to his own table.
Harry glanced around cautiously. To his amazement no one noticed. Ron would have had a seizure he was sure. He shrugged to himself and finished about half of his meal. If Malfoy suddenly wanted to give him the good food he wouldn't convince him to do otherwise. It was useful really. And okay he might be, only a little, curious about the personality shift. All of this just from being friendly the night before?
He made a mental note to be really nice to the Slytherins in the future.
They gave you things.
- 1
- 2
- 3
You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.
Report Story

Falling Inside the Black