Adult-FanFiction.org : Harry Potter

Family Means More Than Blood	By : WingsofaDream Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Draco Views: 59826 -:- Recommendations : 3 -:- Currently Reading : 7
Disclaimer: Harry Potter and its associated characters are property of J K Rowling, not me. This story is not being written for profit, just for the lols.

Chapter List
- 26
- 27
- 28
17th December 1992: Afternoon

The room was buzzing with excited chattering, students from several of the Year groups and from all four Houses gathered in order to participate in the Dueling Club that Lockhart had started. Harry stood with Fred and George in amongst a whole group of other Gryffindors, the majority of which were Second Years. Hermione, Ron and Potter were to the teenager's right while the Weasley twins were behind him slightly and there was a group of Ravenclaws to his left. He was quite looking forward to this little display, mostly because his father was helping out with everything and Severus was a glorious dueler.

"Gather round, gather round," the proud voice of Lockhart spoke up suddenly and the students began to hush. "Can everybody hear me? Can you all see me?" He beamed a smile at a random section of the crowd as he pulled off his cloak nonchalantly, all the while strutting down the length of the dueling table. "Good." His cloak left him in a dramatic swish of fabric and he threw it into the crowd and for a few moments, excited, girlish squeals rose up. "Now, in light of the dark events of recent weeks, Professor Dumbledore has asked me to start this little dueling club, to train you all up, in case you ever find that you need to defend yourself, as I have several time; for full details, see my published works." He paused dramatically and with flourish of his arm, gestured to the other end of the table. "Let me introduce my assistant; Professor Snape."

At the other end of the dueling table, Severus was climbing the few steps up onto the top of the platform. Gone were his long, flowing outer robes but he still looked every bit as intimidating as usual in his dueling robes. Harry thought he looked wonderful and he watched the smooth movements of the dark man in awe. He had seen his father duel before as Severus and Lucius occasionally practiced together, though admittedly not as much they used to when they were all younger.

"He has sportingly agreed to help me with a short demonstration but I don't want you all to worry; you'll still have your Potions Master when I'm through with him, never fear." He told them all and Harry held back a snort of laughter. The DADA professor turned to face Severus. "First, we bow." They did so, Lockhart's a whole lot more flowery and over-the-top than Severus's. "Now, ten steps away each." The honey-blond announced once he had straightened up. Harry watched gleefully as the two teachers turned and walked away from each other; he just knew this was going to be good. "Now, on the count of three." Lockhart said as he and Severus turned to face each other at the same time, both with their wands ready. "One, two, three..."

"Expelliarmus." Severus said calmly as he thrust his wand forward with practiced technique. The spell shot towards Lockhart and the blond man was sent sailing back, landing roughly onto the dueling table a few feet down much to the amusement of every boy who was watching. Harry could not stop the slightly smug smile that made its way onto his face, proud of the actions of his father.

"Do you think he's all right?" Hermione asked anxiously, trying to veer herself around so she could see the state of the DADA teacher.

"Who cares?" Ron laughed, clearly amused by what had happened.

Lockhart pushed himself up and straightened out his clothes before giving Severus a slight, totally fake, smile. "Yes, well, it was an excellent idea for you to show them that but, if you don't mind me saying, Professor, it was pretty obvious that that was what you were going to do and if I had wanted to stop you, it would've been only too easy."

"Perhaps it would be best if we first taught the students how to block unfriendly spells, Professor?" Severus suggested in a somewhat light tone before giving the blonde man a small smirk.

Lockhart looked a little unsure for a moment before his usual smile returned to face. "An excellent suggestion, Professor." He praised before turning and glancing around the crowd. "Let's have a couple of volunteers. Erm...Haryon Snape and..." He looked around himself, his gaze traveling from the Gryffindors, past the Ravenclaws and towards the Slytherins. "...Bethany Zabini, both of you come up."

Harry felt himself pale at that and he threw a desperate look at Fred and George who were glaring up at the other end of the hall where Bethany had already come out from the crowd. The dark haired boy turned his look on his father but found that Severus was remaining neutral and stoic. Knowing that he was not going to be able to get out of doing this, Harry gave a sigh and began to edge through the crowd to make his way to the end of the table which was nearest to him. When he reached the end of the table, Lockhart politely held his hand out to him in order to help him up the steps and Harry accepted it, allowing himself to be hauled up by the older man easily.

"Good luck, Harry." Lockhart wished quietly as the Gryffindor passed him and they released each others hands.

"Thank you, Sir." Harry replied, unable to summon the good humour to crack a smile. After all, this was the man who had just put him in this situation after all. Maybe he could talk Draco into doing something to the man's breakfast again.

Reaching the middle of the table and coming face to face with Bethany, Harry half paid attention to the instructions they were being given. The rest of his attention was taking up with staring the Slytherin in front of him down. She had a glare on her face which could probably be lethal in some situations. After a while of staring and since Lockhart had not stopped talking yet, the Gryffindor allowed his eyes to wander over to the crowd of Slytherins who he had not been able to see from his position before. His eyes instantly fell onto Draco who had pushed his way to the front and was watching the both of them intently. Someone else who caught Harry's eye was Blaise Zabini who was looking up at them both with something akin to awe in his eyes which, in one way, he thought was rather sweet; must be nice to have an older sibling.

Abruptly, the command to bow came from behind Harry. Both he and Bethany brought their wands up to their faces, held up vertically. It was then that Bethany's lips curled in a sneer. "Scared Snape?"

Harry raised an eyebrow at her slightly. "Not particularly." He answered truthfully, his tone completely unimpressed with the question. That seemed to annoy the girl and her smirk morphed into a glare. Harry just kept his gaze on her steadily until he turned around to begin to take his ten paces away.

"Now," Lockhart said sternly once the two Fourth Years were in place and had faced each other again. "On my count I want you to cast your charms to disarm; only to disarm. We don't want any accidents here." A pause. "One, two..."

"Enverte Statum!" Bethany called as she thrust her wand towards Harry.

Not expecting the abrupt attack, Harry could not think fast enough to defend himself and the spell hit him right in the stomach. He was sent flying back, turning several times in mid-air before he landed on his back roughly causing a gasp of horror to rise up from almost everyone who was watching. A small cry of pain forced its way out of his throat and he closed his eyes against the sensation as he hoped that the feeling would fade quickly. When he felt a hand on his shoulder, he opened his eyes to see Professor Lockhart leaning over him. The man offered his hand once he had Harry's attention and the Gryffindor readily accepted it, once again being hauled up by the DADA teacher. This time however, the moment that he was back on his feet, the teenager had his wand pointed straight ahead of himself, directly at Bethany who was still looking rather smug with herself.

"Rictasempra!"

The spell shot towards Bethany in an instant and collided with her chest. Immediately, she fell onto her knees and began to laugh in the most obnoxious way. Several people laughed as well, laughing at her rather than with her. Harry watched as his father sneered down nastily at the girl, probably more than a little put out by what she had done to him, and yanked her up to her feet by the collar of her robes while ending the spell which Harry had put on her. She stopped laughing almost at once and her already flushed cheeks darkened. A positively poisonous glare marred her face as she jerked her robe back into position with a quick movement of her shoulders before pointing her wand to Harry again who was still aiming at her, more than ready for another attack.

"I said to disarm only, Miss Zabini!" Lockhart told her in a raised tone.

She seemed to totally ignore him however as she brought her wand back and cast a second spell; "Serpensorsia!" With a flash, a cobra was shot out of the tip of her wand. It landed with a light thump in the middle of the table and it wasted no time in slithering forward, hissing at various students as it passed them.

"Don't move, Haryon, I'll get rid of it." Severus assured as he moved forward.

"Allow me, Professor." Lockhart insisted, walking forward himself and the Potions Professor came to a stop. "Orlate Ascendele." That ended up doing absolutely nothing of use and simply entertained some of the students as the snake was sent shooting up into the air before it landed again with a rather cringe-worthy thud.

"Not sssafe." The snake hissed as it reared up as if ready to strike, facing the crowd of Ravenclaw Second Years who backed away from the snake warily. "Pain. Mussst defend, mussst kill..."

"No, don't." Harry hissed back soothingly without even thinking about when the others around him would hear. "You're perfectly sssafe, no one isss going to hurt you."

"No, danger, mussst protect myssself from thhhessse creaturesss." The snake insisted as it stared intently at a Ravenclaw boy and for a few horrible moments, Harry really thought that the snake was going to actually attack the boy.

"Yesss, you're right, you mussst protect yourssself, but not from him. I am the one who wishhhesss to do you harm." Harry said quickly to get the snake's attention away from the boy and onto him.

It worked and the snake turned to look at him. "You are the danger?"

Harry remained silent, simply staring down at the reptile.

The snake let out what was probably the snake equivalent of a chuckle. "You lie." It accused easily seconds before it was hit by a spell and disintegrated right in front of Harry's eyes.

Harry blinked a few times once the snake was gone, finding himself oddly disorientated. However, after the few seconds it took for him to completely regain his senses, he realised that every eye in the hall was on him and it abruptly hit him, what he had done. His eyes widened in slight horror and his eyes shot from face to face, each staring at him in confusion and fear, until he reached the face of his father. The man was staring at him warily, almost as if he did not know what he expected the Gryffindor to do next. It was the last straw for the teenager.

Within the space of a few seconds, Harry had spun around and fled, leaping from the table and landing again a good distance away, the continuing momentum helping him in running even faster. At the back of his mind, he knew he was heading towards the Gryffindor Tower but at the forefront all he could think about were all those eyes, staring at him. He knew what they had all been thinking; Voldemort. This was why he had kept it to himself for so long, because he did not want people to think that about him, he did not want to ever see Severus look at him in that way. Tears entered his eyes at the thought but he fought them back stubbornly, at least until he could hide behind the curtains which surrounded his bed.

"Harry!" A voice, it sounded like Fred, called after him but he ignored it. He did not want to see the way the ginger-haired boy would look at him now. He just wanted to hide, forever preferably.

"C'mon, mate, it's only us!" That was George's voice that time.

Harry would have kept running if it was not for the fact that the staircase he was standing on chose that very moment to move. He bit back a wail of frustration and instead settled for collapsing onto a steps, wrapping his arms around his legs and burying his face in the tops of his knees, concentrating solely on the task of fighting back his tears. All too soon the sounds of footsteps had reached him and come to a stop just in front of him.

"Harry?" Strange, that sounded like Hermione "Are you all right?"

"Just peachy."

"You already knew?" Fred asked gently and Harry felt the boy's form settle beside his right on the step.

"Yeah."

"Why didn't you tell us?" George inquired, sounding only worried as someone sat down on his left, too small to be George, so he guessed it was Hermione.

"Why do you think? I don't need another reminder of Voldemort and neither does anyone else."

"Second Year, when you were bitten by the snake, it happened when you were trying to talk to one didn't it?" Fred guessed.

Harry simply nodded glumly.

"Blimey, mate, don't ever let anyone tell you you're boring."

"Harry, have you thought about what else this could mean?" Hermione questioned from beside him and Harry turned his head to the side slightly in order to look at her. A faint blush was on her cheeks and she was looking down at her knees intently. Obviously feeling his eyes on her, she glanced up at him for a moment before looking back down at her knees. "Everyone finding out about your...Gift, probably couldn't come at a worse time, what with the attack on Colin Creevey and the message on the wall in blood."

"What do you mean?"

"According to the legend, the Chamber of Secrets can only be opened by the Heir of Slytherin. There's a reason the symbol of Slytherin is a snake, Harry." She told him seriously, finally getting the courage to lift her gaze to him for more than a few seconds. "Salazar Slytherin was a Parselmouth; he could talk to snakes too."

"And now everyone's gonna go around thinking that Harry's his great-great-great grandson or something." George gasped, realisation lighting up his whole face.

"But I'm not!" Harry cried, sitting up properly before slumping forward, dejectedly. "I can't be..."

"You're a foundling, Harry; for all any of us know, you could be." Hermione told him gently, reaching forward shyly and patting Harry's knee a few times.

Fred brought an arm around his shoulders in a supportive hold which Harry leaned into gratefully. Could he really be the Heir of Slytherin? Surely he would remember opening the Chamber, unless he was in some kind of trance when he did it, spurred on to do it by some innate, inherited trait. But he had not always been an Parselmouth, right? Or was it just that he had never had the opportunity to speak to a snake before and so never found out? There really was no way to tell. Hermione was right; as far as he and everyone else knew, he could very well be a descendant of Slytherin himself.

The sounds of footsteps once again reached the ears of Harry and his companions and they all lifted their gazes to see none other than Severus stalking towards them. Harry quickly scrubbed away at his eyes to get the few tears which had managed to escape away before getting to his feet. He stayed where he was though, allowing his father to come to him, his head hung in another attempt to hide his slightly red and puffy eyes.

Severus stopped inches away from him, the tips of the man's shoes in Harry's line of sight. Harry stopped himself from trembling at the thoughts of all the things that might happen now, most of which were not very nice. His father might be angry for him not telling the truth about his abilities; they might get into another one of their terrible arguments which resulted in neither speaking to the other for days; this might be the last straw, what with the lying and secrets, and his father might not want him anymore. After all, he was a teenager now, more than capable of looking after himself if he had to. Severus could quite easily send him away and not suffer from so much as an ounce of guilt.

More tears came to Harry's eyes and he squeezed them shut tightly in a stubborn attempt to keep them back. It was just then that he felt a large, slightly rough pad of a finger brush across his slightly clammy cheek. He did not open his eyes but he did not fight it when his father brought an arm around his shoulders, covering him in the folds of his robes in the most secure way. Silently, Harry was led back down the stairs, kept tightly at the side of his stern father.

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18th December 1992: Evening

Harry tried his hardest to concentrate on what he was currently trying to write but it was practically impossible with so many people in the Gryffindor common room staring at him openly. With a slight frown, he lifted his head and looked ahead of himself where there was a table of Second Years watching him. They all held eye contact with him for a few moments before they all turned away, returning to their own work. They were not the only ones who were watching him though but he turned back to his work anyway. Still unable to concentrate, he flickered his eyes up to meet with Fred and George a second later, both of who could only give him looks of sympathy.

It was all so stupid and unfair! He was a Parselmouth and that was not a very common gift but that did not mean he was the Heir of Slytherin. Did people believe him though? No one was taking into account that he was the one who had beaten Voldemort or the events which happened just before they had stopped school for the summer. He supposed it did not help that he had been found with Mrs Norris when she was petrified, but Fred and George had been there with him! At least his father had been all right about everything though. The previous day, when Harry had been taken down to the dungeons to talk everything through with the Potions Master, he had finally told the truth about his ability to talk to snakes. Severus had been completely understanding and not in the least angry though he had been scolded for keeping things to himself when they were obviously important. He did not know what the opinions of Draco and the rest of Slytherin was, he had not had the time to speak to his best friend yet.

Finally having enough with all the staring, Harry threw down his quill and flipped his book closed irritably. "I'm taking a walk; take my stuff back up to our dorm when you're finished please." He told them in a monotone as he rose from his chair, once again catching the attention of the entire room. Ignoring everyone, he passed through the room with an expressionless face, not allowing anyone to get even a hint of what he was truly feeling, because inside he was hurt and he hated himself because of it.

He left Gryffindor Tower silently, his head hung dejectedly as he shuffled along, not really having anywhere to go, just not wanting to be under the constant scrutiny of everyone in Gryffindor. All he could say was that he was thankful beyond words that the twins and Hermione at least still had faith in him. Ron seemed unsure around him now, never meeting his eyes and keeping any conversations they might have to a bare minimum and Potter...Well, Potter was taking the opportunity to torment him. It was somewhat reassuring though; if the boy could use it as a subject of taunting then it probably meant he was not taking the accusations too seriously.

Suddenly, the deep, hissing voice which he had heard so many times since the beginning of the school year came to him. He froze instantly in an attempt to hear exactly where the voice was coming from. It was not just in his head, he refused to believe that possibility. It was too much of a coincidence that he heard it just before things turned up petrified...Oh Merlin, did that mean someone was in danger now? With that thought in his head, Harry broke into a run. He had no idea where he was going but running felt like he was making an actual effort.

Turning a corner, Harry skidded to an abrupt stop when he saw the form of Nearly Headless Nick floating just ahead of him. He was about to greet the ghost when he realised that he was just floating there with his head hanging to the side by the bit of flesh which kept his head attached to his neck. With a light frown, Harry allowed his eyes to wander over the still ghost and his jaw dropped when he saw what was a few feet behind, laying completely still on the floor.

Harry quickly rushed forward, dropping to his knees beside the stiff body of a boy he recognised from the duelling club yesterday. He was a boy in Ravenclaw, Second Year he thought, and he was petrified. The Fourth Year closed his eyes in regret; maybe if he had not have stopped to try and hear where the voice was coming from he could have got to the boy in time to protect him. Opening his eyes again, Harry reached for the petrified boy's hand and gently ran his fingers over the greyed flesh. It was as he did that, that some movement over by the wall in front of him caught his eye. He glanced up quickly and saw that there was a trail of spiders again, scuttling along in a neat line.

Footsteps suddenly came towards him quickly and Harry practically jumped away from the Ravenclaw's body guiltily, knowing exactly how it would look if he was found here with a petrified body again. But before he could even gather his thoughts enough to even consider running away, Filch came walking around the corner. Filch! Of all people, why did it have to be Filch?

The moment the man saw him, his eyes lit up in malicious delight and Harry could do nothing but sigh dejectedly and wait for everything to kick off. Because it would; it always did.

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20th December 1992: Evening

It was official; Harry was now the most feared boy in the school. After he was found at the scene where the latest victim was (he had found out that the boy's name was Justin) everyone's suspicions of him increased ten-fold. Whereas before people had merely stared and speculated, the majority of the student population now truly believe he was the one behind all these attacks. Because of this, they had stopped staring but only as they were afraid of what might happen to them if they did so. Now the common room cleared when he entered and people avoided him like the plague in the corridors.

The only consolation that he had was that neither his father nor Professor Dumbledore seemed to think he was actually responsible for the attacks. When Justin had been found, Professor McGonagall had taken him to see the Headmaster where the elderly wizard had assured him that he had full faith that Harry had not done anything when, strangely, Hagrid had burst into the office protesting Harry's innocence. The Headmaster had asked him if there was anything Harry wanted to tell him and the teenager had seriously considered spilling his guts about everything and anything out of pure gratitude. His old attitude of keeping quiet rather than worry everyone had won out however and he had answered with a simple "no".

Now, at that very moment, no longer feeling comfortable in the Gryffindor common room, Harry was on his way down to the dungeons to either spend some time with his father or to see if he could snag some time with Draco. The blond had managed to catch him a few times in between lessons over the last few couple of weeks to check up on him but they had not had a chance to sit down and have an actual conversation for quite a while.

The corridor Harry was walking down being so quiet, the bang that suddenly came from his side sounded deafening and the teenager actually cried out in surprise, turning in the direction the noise came from while staggering a few feet back. His eyes fell onto the sight of a door, only a door, and although the beating of his heart levelled out a bit, he did not drop his guard. Cautiously, having no idea what to expect, Harry reached for the door knob. Wrapping his hand around it, he gave it a twist and a pull only to find that it was locked. As far as he was concerned that was as much as he needed to know and he released the handle with the intent of turning around again and continuing on to the dungeons.

However, before he had taken more than a step away, another bang came and it was definitely from behind the locked door. Harry looked at the door handle warily even as he pulled his wand out. With a long stride, he stepped from one side of the door to the next so that he had to reach across the door to hold the handle. He took a few seconds to adjust his grip on the handle before raising the tip of his wand to it.

"Alohomora."

Harry felt and heard the door unlock and he did not waste a second in yanking open the door, pulling it towards him. Whatever it was that was on the other side obviously had not been expecting the door to suddenly open as there was a cry; no, two cries, shortly before the sound of something hitting the floor.

Harry quickly stepped from behind the open door, his wand pointed down to the floor just in case. However, he instantly found that he was in no danger as there, sprawled out on the floor, were two half-clothed boys who he recognised as being Second Year Slytherins who hung around with Blaise Zabini. Taking his eyes off of the two underwear-clad boys for a moment, Harry peered around the side of the door to see that it was actually a broom closet the two had been locked in. He turned his gaze back onto the two Second Years and they lifted their head to look up at him slowly, clearly embarrassed about being found in such a situation. Then, the taller one opened his mouth to speak.

"No, don't." Harry interrupted, bringing his free hand up as a sign for any possible speech to stop. "I really, really don't want to know why you two were locked inside a broom closet, half naked, with each other. Just, get dressed again and go back to the dungeons and I won't say anything to anyone."

"Our clothes aren't in there." The taller one muttered, blushing.

"Someone must've taken them." The fat one agreed quietly.

"...Someone stole your clothes?" Harry checked in a disbelieving tone; why in Merlin's name would anyone want to steal a set of over-sized Slytherin robes? The two boys simply nodded slightly, their eyes fixed to the floor. The Gryffindor released a groan; why did this sort of thing always happen to him? "Fine then," he sighed as he pulled off his school robe and held it out to the two boys. "Hold this across yourselves or something and I'll walk you back to the dungeons."

"Why do you have to come?" The taller boy asked with a frown.

"Because it's my robe and I was on my way down there to see my father anyway. Now, unless you want to walk the rest of the way in nothing but your underwear, hush and let's get going." Harry ordered firmly, giving a little dismissive gesture with the hand which did not still hold his wand.

The two Slytherins exchanged looks before turning around and beginning to walk off. Harry followed on behind, keeping his eyes firmly on what was further up the corridor rather than the sight of the half naked boys a few paces in front of him; it was not a pretty picture in the least.

Soon, but not soon enough for Harry, the three boys were standing outside the entrance to the dungeons...And then there was nothing. The two burly Second Years just stopped and after a few seconds turned to look at Harry. The Gryffindor stared back at them for several moments before he frowned lightly. "What?"

"Cover your ears." The short, fat one ordered.

Harry rolled his eyes and did as he was asked, also turning around just to make sure. It was hardly as if he did not already know the password, Draco always trusted him with it at the beginning of each year so that he could go and see him whenever he wanted. It was doubtful the other Slytherin students knew that though so Harry played along if only so that the two boys would not cause a huge fuss. Even though he had his ears covered, Harry did hear the portrait swing open. He turned around, allowing his hands to drop and wordlessly followed the two boys in. Ignoring the stares which instantly fell on him as he and the two boys walked into the Slytherin common room, they walked through calmly, no doubt going to the boys's dorm room in order for them to hide so they no longer needed Harry's robe.

However, it was as they were passing a neat seating area, Harry's eyes flickered over to it to see Blaise Zabini was lounging on an arm chair easily and just opposite him and to the side on the three-seat sofa, were the backs of two very familiar heads. The Gryffindor frowned lightly in confusion and looked back at the two boys in front of him before looking back to the three Slytherins in the sitting area. When he looked back though, his eyes widened in surprise when the short, fat boy turned a little and he caught sight of his face. It was the same boy! Exactly the same...Until the brown hair suddenly started to fade into ginger.

"Oh my Goddess..." Harry murmured, watching in horrified fascination as the hair continued to turn orange. That had to be Ron because no way would Fred, George, or Percy sneak into Slytherin territory for any reason. And then the other boy was most likely Potter. But how had they managed to do it? The two boys suddenly jumped to their feet and scrambled away to the way out of the common room, Blaise Zabini calling out after them. His curiosity aroused, Harry was fully intent on going after them.

"Oi, where are you going?" The short, fat boy in front of Harry called after him.

"There's something I forgot to do." Harry called back as he sped up into a run, chasing after the two disguised Gryffindors.

"But your robe?" The taller one said.

"Keep it." The Gryffindor replied simply as he swerved around a corner, just in time to see the figures of the fake Slytherins disappear through the portrait hold. He picked up his pace, intent on not losing the two boys, and therefore could not stop himself when Draco suddenly came around a corner and they collided.

"Harry? Are you here to see me?" The blond asked curiously as he held onto the slighter teenager to stop him from falling backwards.

"Not now, Draco." Harry said distractedly as he forced his way away from his best friend and darted off towards the exit again. He practically jumped out of the Slytherin territory, entering the neutral area of the corridor behind.

Glancing from side to side, Harry searched for any sign of the two boys he was chasing and was pleased to see that they were not too far away. They were ahead of him and on their way up, about three staircases up already. He did not hesitate in charging off, taking the steps two at a time. It was when he was half way up the first staircase that he thought he heard Draco call after him but he ignored it, intent on catching up with the two boys.

What on Earth did they think they were up to? And how did they manage to do it? Glamour charms were unlikely as Ron's hair had started to come through and such intense charms would be beyond the capability of either the Weasley or Potter; he was doubtful that Hermione could manage it either. Maybe it was Polyjuice Potion. He knew a bit about it from his father and it was taught in Seventh Year but for a Second Year to do it? Considering how smart Hermione was and the fact he caught her taking ingredients from Severus's personal stores a while ago, he would not have put it past the girl to be able to do it. And he was going to find out for sure; he just needed to follow the two boys because they were most likely heading straight to tell Hermione how it went.

Unfortunately, even though Harry had reached the top of all the stairs and had still managed to keep the boys in sight, when he entered a corridor and saw the boys turn a corner, he followed them only to find that they had completely disappeared. He slowed to a stop and gave a huff of frustration. He could not believe he had lost them! A couple of fat Second Years in heavy robes could out-run him? It did not make sense! With a sigh, he leaned against the left-hand wall and allowed himself to catch his breath now he had nothing more to run for.

"Harry!" Draco called from down the other corridor and Harry groaned; he should not have kept on running like he had, it only made him look suspicious and if he did not need anything at that moment, it was to look suspicious. Seconds later, Draco came charging around the corner, looking rather flustered. "Harry, what the hell was that?"

"Sorry." Harry sighed quietly, running his finger tips over his eyes tiredly, wondering frantically how he was going to get out of explaining this without getting his fellow Gryffindors in trouble and also not making him look completely crazy.

"What is wrong with you lately?" Draco asked him gently as he stepped up to the side of his best friend, resting his hand on the other teenager's shoulder.

Harry gave another sigh and he made a snap decision; play the sympathy card. He wordlessly launched himself into the arms of the Slytheirn, wrapping his arms around the his waist and snuggling his face just under his chin comfortably. Draco seemed to tense slightly at this sudden display of affection but he soon adjusted, his muscles relaxing and his arms coming around Harry firmly, holding him close as the fingers of one of his hands came up to stroke his hair gently.

"Hey, what is it? What's wrong? You can tell me."

"Everyone hates me." Harry whispered, speaking the first sympathy-inducing thought that popped into his mind. "What have I done Draco? I just don't understand."

It worked a treat. Draco instantly launched into a whole reassuring speech about how Harry was not hated and even if he was, he still had the blond. As Harry listened, he idly wondered if he should be concerned with how easy it was for him to lie to people still. This was just a blip though, a relapse if you will, it did not change anything, he was still going to keep working on stopping his lying.

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31st December 1992: Night

Grey stone, grey sky. Everything was grey, depressed, everything falling into despair. A familiar man sat huddled into a corner a tiny, stone room. At first glance, he was doing nothing. On closer inspection, it was clear that his arm was moving ever so slightly.

The other person in the cell stepped out of the shadows, towards the man, curiosity driving Him on though He still did not think people could see Him in situations like this. He knelt down next to the man to try and see what was he was doing exactly and frowned lightly upon hearing a small chipping noise. Angling His head slightly, He managed to peer into the darkness behind the man and catch a glimpse of something shiny in his hand. By the way the shine kept appearing and reappearing again, He guessed it was something metallic and was being used to chip away at the old, crumbling wall.

And then there was a horrible sound, a sound that made the man freeze instantly and Him to turn around in a second. There were three of them, all heading towards the barred gate which blocked the doorway into the room. The atmosphere turned freezing, even He could feel it and He was not really there. The three hovering figures in floating black cloaks stopped by the door and the one in front held out a bony hand. The fingers curled into the palm and the door slid back into the wall at the same time.

The man began to blubber, to plead, to order the three figures to go away. They ignored him though, completely. They did not move over to him, they did not even seem to acknowledge him. They went straight for Him. They knew He was standing there! How?

He was surrounded and it was so terribly cold. Then there was pain; terrible, heart wrenching pain that ached deep in his chest. And He heard a the sobbing of a woman. He felt so alone, so horribly, terribly alone. He would never be with anyone again. He was unwanted, He had been abandoned, no one loved Him, no one ever would, He'd be alone forever...

Harry's eyes flew open in an instant and he scrambled to sit up in his bed. He was breathing heavily and the lingering feelings from whatever it was he had just seen chilled his body. What had he seen? Was it a dream? It had felt too real to be a dream. Had it been a vision of some sort? Then why had those black-things been able to see him? He had never been seen when he had had a vision before, so why had he this time? And those sounds he had heard, of the woman crying, what was the significance of that? Why had he felt so suddenly alone? Was it all because of those creatures?

With an exhausted sigh, Harry collapsed onto his back. There was only one thing he could be completely sure of at that moment and that was the identity of the man he had seen in that horrible room:

Peter Pettigrew.
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Family Means More Than Blood