Adult-FanFiction.org : Harry Potter

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
- 3
- 4
- 5
A/N: I know everything in this chapter is going a bit fast, but that's my intention to go as quick through the 'Goblet of Fire' book. I just want you to get the main idea of the story and the most important things that happen during Harry's 4th year, but the real action, plotting and some...naughty parts ;) will take place after GoF. So please don't get discouraged by how quick I'm going through this part ;) I'm already in the middle of writing chapter 5 so it should be up in a few days.
And thank you for all the lovely reviews :) As for all the questions...I can't answer them right now...there would be no fun in it :P but there should be some answers to those questions in the 5th chapter ;)

Chapter 4
The following weeks after the school year started were in Harry’s opinion the best of his days in Hogwarts so far. Everything seemed to be back to normal, just like it should have been for the last three years. He was still friends with Hermione, Ron and the rest of Gryffindors, but he also had Draco now.
Since their conversation the first day of this school year Harry didn’t have to worry about the blond bullying him anymore. The Slytherin still kept bullying some other students, but Harry planned to work on that and hopefully at some point Draco would stop doing such things. On the brighter side, he was getting along with Draco really well; at the beginning they met up very early in the mornings, hiding in places like abandoned classrooms, the Clock Tower and such; places where other students wouldn’t see them. Already in the first week of school, Harry found out that the blond was studying as much as Hermione and it didn’t take long for the black haired teen to feel slightly envious. Now that he tried to remember how he was shortly before Hogwarts, he realised that he didn’t fulfil half of his plans – back then Draco has told him all about subjects taught in Hogwarts and Harry was already fascinated to hear that he’d be able to learn about runes and many other things; however since he and Ron decided to take the easy way he ended up in Divination class.
Harry even expressed his desire to change Divination for some other subject, in one of his letters to Sirius and that it was probably too late for that, but his godfather thought differently. Sirius actually suggested that he went to McGonagall and talk with her about the matter. Unfortunately, the answer was negative. His Head of house explained it was too late and that he already missed one year of classes. That however didn’t stop him; one evening, when Hermione was reading something for Ancient Runes’ class, Harry asked her if he could borrow her books from last year. She helped him, excited that she finally had something more to talk about with the boy. Ron, on the other hand was so shocked by Harry’s sudden need for new knowledge that he laughed about it the first few weeks.
Harry didn’t care though; he still liked Ron and spending time with him, but he also liked the time he spend with Draco, who became sort of a tutor to him. The blond explained to him everything he had learned last year in both Arithmancy and Ancient Runes; he even gave Harry short homework to do. Even though it all was only adding to the amount of work he had, Harry didn’t mind.
On 30^th October, Harry was waiting for Draco in the Clock Tower, as every morning now. The difference was that today he was overly excited about something, which the blond noticed immediately.
“What happened that you’re so happy?” asked Draco amused to see his friend acting like that. He noticed that Harry was getting more and more comfortable in his presence which pleased him. Draco couldn’t quite understand it himself, but since they made up and went back to being friends, he couldn’t stop some odd feelings he was having. For instance, whenever they were supposed to meet, the blond couldn’t wait and woke up earlier; also, in classes they shared with Gryffindors or when in the Great Hall Draco unconsciously kept glancing at Harry every few minutes; and the most confusing part was that whenever he saw Harry smile or at ease while being in his presence, he couldn’t help but smile himself. “You’re not going to tell me, you’re so excited about the other schools arriving today, are you?”
“No,” said Harry jumping off the stairs he was sitting on and opening his arithmancy notes.
“Then what is it?” asked Draco walking next to him. Seeing that the other teen was debating with himself what answer to give him, the blond got an idea what could it be, “does it have anything to do with your godfather?”
“How did you…” shock and fear ran through Harry’s face while he stared at him with wide eyes.
“Well, Black is obviously still missing and since I kind of figured you have met with him last school year, then maybe you actually keep in touch,” reasoned calmly Draco.
“Please Draco, don’t tell anyone. I beg you, they can’t find him. He’s innocent,” the black haired pleaded. He knew it only took Draco to mention to his father about Sirius and the Ministry would immediately send the wizard back to Azkaban.
“Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone. My mother wouldn’t be pleased if our family got messed up with him again.”
“What do you mean by that? Does your mother know Sirius?”
“Before my parents got married my mother was known as Narcissa Black,” explained the blond, still surprised at how little the other boy knew about pureblood families.
“You mean…your mum and Sirius are…siblings?” asked confused Harry.
“No, they are cousins. You know, the Black family is rather big and Sirius is the head of the family right now. Although my parents don’t seem to be on good terms with him…not only because he was sent to Azkaban, but they never really told me what happened between them. All I know is that your godfather did something stupid and entire family turned their backs on him.”
“Everyone thinks he betrayed my parents and wants to kill me, but that’s not true. He really is a great person,” Harry tried to convince his friend. “I’m sure you’d like him if you only got to know him better. He’s your uncle after all.”
“Please tell me you’re not going to meet with him,” demanded Draco looking his friend straight in the eyes. He had a bad feeling that Harry was rushing into dangerous situation again. “Tell me, that’s not the reason for your good mood today? Harry, answer me!”
Without looking at the blond, he fidgeted in his place; he knew Draco was sometimes getting in this protective mode, which he actually appreciated, but he wanted him to understand how important Sirius was to him. ”But it’s really safe, Draco. Nothing bad will happen. I just want to talk with him. I haven’t seen him in four months.”
“You’re acting without thinking again, Harry and also…testing my patience,” said the teen handing Harry’s notes back to him and asking, “When are you meeting with him?”
“Tomorrow night,” said confused black haired teen staring at his notes. He noticed Draco standing up and walking away. “Hey, what are you doing? Draco, where are you going?”
“To the Great Hall, to eat something and ease my nerves after what you told me.”
“But we haven’t even do any arithmancy,” protested Harry, who was starting to like the subject.
“I wouldn’t be able to teach you anything today and besides…that homework I saw just now was correct. You’re making progress.”

Severus woke up breathing heavily; he desperately looked around to convince himself that what he saw just seconds ago was simply a nightmare; a nightmare he has been having every single year of the last thirteen years. He felt cold sweat on his forehead and running down his spine when he remembered the dream.
In that nightmare he was in the Potters’ house in Godric’s Hollow. There was dead silence as he wandered around the ruined house to find at least some traces of life, but he couldn’t. He saw the lifeless form of James Potter and then Lily. Then there was a mad laugh of the Dark Lord and Dumbledore’s voice telling him it was his fault everyone in this house were dead. And then came the worst part, everything went black and quiet until he was kneeling in front of baby Harry who stretched his arms towards him, but all Severus could feel was anger. He felt so angry that the boy survived when everyone else was dead; and Severus was angry at himself, that in all his despair he tried to blame an innocent baby.
The potions master got out of bed and went over to his personal potions cabinet. The man took out a phial of calming draught and sat in an armchair.
He placed the phial on the table and with one swift move of his wand he summoned a very decorative black box. Severus opened it and took out a photograph in a silver frame. He gently, lovingly even, touched the person on the photograph and said to himself, “It should have been you…not Potters’ spawn…You should have been alive.”
His private moment was interrupted by a crackling sound of the fire place, followed by the voice of the Headmaster.
“Severus? It’s good that you’re already awake,” said the older wizard, ignoring Snape’s irritation. “I need your assistance with tonight’s feast and announcement of the tournament’s champions. I’ll be waiting in my office,” and without any further explanation, Dumbledore vanished.
Feeling his irritation grow even more after the message from the Headmaster, Severus stared at the phial of potion and with the sudden realisation of how hopeless he felt, the wizard threw the potion away; the glass container broke into pieces hitting the opposite wall, “I don’t want to be calm!....I want them back…I want my life back,” Severus whispered the last words to himself.

Later that evening terrified Harry walked through the Great Hall towards the Headmaster; everyone in the hall stared or glared at him and he couldn’t understand why; he never entered the tournament, he didn’t put his name into the Goblet of Fire and everyone should know that.
He glanced over at Hermione who seemed to have mixed feelings but told him to go over to professor Dumbledore; then he saw Ron’s expression and he knew his red haired friend thought he entered the tournament willingly. At that moment Harry felt the utter need to look for Draco’s face in the crowd, but he was too afraid to see the same reaction Ron had.
Everything that happened after he entered the smaller chamber, he couldn’t quite understand. He stood there and answered the questions everyone asked him, but he was too shocked to even protest that he shouldn’t be allowed to participate in the tournament. All he could think of was how much he wanted to see his godfather right now. They had a meeting planned later that night, but he already wanted to get out of here and talk with Sirius.
When he was finally dismissed to his dormitory, Harry took out his Invisibility cloak and ran outside the castle and straight to the Whomping Willow. This time he knew how to get past the tree and he slipped into the corridor leading to the Shrieking Shack.
There, in the corner of the room stood Sirius Black; but the man looked much different than he remembered him from last year. This time the wizard looked much younger and more handsome; his skin was fair but looked healthier than when he ran out of Azkaban; long black hair falling on his shoulders and grey eyes lit up with joy when he saw Harry standing in the doorway.
“Harry,” the man said with excitement and happiness, heading towards the teen. He stopped midway when he saw no reaction from his godson; for some reason the boy didn’t want to look him in the eyes and it was obvious something was bothering him. “Harry, what’s wrong? Speak to me.”
“The goblet chose me for the tournament. It made me the fourth champion,” Harry looked unsure at his godfather; he wasn’t sure he’d be able to bear seeing that even Sirius thought he entered his name willingly. However, he saw a combination of shock, fear and anger; but that anger didn’t seem to be directed at him. “I swear I didn’t put my name into the goblet. You have to believe me, Sirius.”
“It’s alright, pup. I believe you,” the man placed both of his hands on each side of Harry’s face to make eye contact with the upset teen. “Knowing you’re one of the Marauder’s son it wouldn’t surprise me if you wanted to take part in the tournament, but if you’re telling me you didn’t do it, then I have no reason to distrust you.”
At that moment Harry was grateful he had his godfather; he may have not known him for a very long time, but here Sirius was acting like a father to him, comforting him and most importantly believing and supporting him. He felt the need to embrace the other man, but changed his mind, not wanting Sirius to think he was acting childish.
“I’m going to contact Dumbledore. He’ll help you get out of this mess.”
“Don’t bother,” interrupted Harry. “He was surprised when my name came out of the goblet but he didn’t do anything. I have to participate, Sirius. There is no way out of this.”
“I’m going to kill him,” came out an angry growl of the man’s throat.
“Who?”
“Whoever put your name into that damned goblet. No one messes around with my family!” kept growling agitated Sirius.
“But I’m just your godson…I’m not really family to you,” said Harry, a slight sadness clear in his voice.
Black looked the boy in the eyes; the green eyes of Lily and the face almost the same as James’ and said with a weak but reassuring smile, “You’re as good as.”
The following hour Sirius kept giving advice to Harry and promised to meet with him more often; he even told him of a deserted cave not far from Hogwarts and how to get there from the castle’s dungeons.
“I didn’t get to ask you, how you’re doing?” asked the teen when they were about to part. “Where were you all summer and where are you staying now?”
“Don’t worry about me. I have a safe place to stay and no one is going to find me there,” explained Sirius giving him a bright smile. Harry noticed that the man had to be telling the truth since he was definitely looking way better than he did last June; he’d even risk saying that some of the girls in school would lose their minds if they saw how good looking was Sirius Black.
“Please take care of yourself,” asked Harry before his godfather apparated to his hiding place.
Feeling a little better after he talked with Sirius, Harry headed back to the castle. However he didn’t expect to come across anyone on his way there. His biggest surprise was when he spotted Draco standing not far from the Whomping Willow.
“How did you find me here?” was the first thing that came to his head.
“You told me you had a meeting with your godfather, so I just assumed you’d meet here just like few months ago,” answered the blond keeping a straight face. “You ran away just after the feast and I couldn’t talk with you.”
Once again Harry stared at his feet not wanting to see Draco’s reaction to tonight’s events. He was afraid that he’d lose both Ron and Draco as his friends, because it was clear to him by now that Ron was mad at him.
“I know no one in school believes me but I really didn’t put my name into the goblet, nor did I ask anyone else to do it for me,” started explaining Harry.
“I believe you.”
Malfoy’s short answer stunned the other teen; he didn’t understand how was it possible that Ron and Hermione who knew him so long didn’t trust him, yet Draco did. ”Why? Why do you believe me?”
“Because you just told me so. Besides, we discussed this tournament before and you told me you’d never want to take part in it; and then I saw how shocked and terrified you were when your name was chosen.”
“Thank you, Draco,” he smiled sincerely. “You’re my only friend who believes me.”
“And I’m going to help you through this tournament, because I want my friend alive,” said Draco, but he couldn’t force himself to smile; something was bothering him and Harry could tell.
“There’s something else you wanted to tell me, right?” the teen asked unsure.
“Dumbledore knows perfectly well what the tasks for the tournament are, but the old fool is not going to help you with them,” the blond stepped closer to Harry and put a hand on his shoulder. “I don’t know much about the tasks really, but I’ve heard from my father that for reasons unknown, the Ministry has been transporting dragons to Hogwarts.”
“No. You can’t be serious. They can’t make us deal with dragons,” stumbled the black haired teen.
“Harry, I promise I’m going to do everything I can to help you through this tournament,” declared Draco.

Sirius apparated in front of his house in Edinburgh; he saw light inside and knew his brother was back home.
The man burst inside feeling his anger grow with every minute. He checked every room on the ground floor but there was no sign of his brother. He walked upstairs and saw light coming from the guests’ bedroom, used by the younger Black.
“Regulus!” he growled again while entering the room without a word of excuse. Sirius saw his brother sitting on the bed, watching him with calm expression. “What the hell are you playing at?! You lied to me! He was supposed to be safe and now it so happens he might be in grave danger!”
“Calm yourself, Sirius,” said Regulus with a pained voice. “He is safe.”
“You call that safe? Someone forced him to take part in the triwizard tournament! That’s as far from safe as it can get!” he glared at his brother, who calmly listened to him yelling without as much as a sign of sympathy for the boy. “You knew. You knew that was going to happen. You’re the one who kept talking about trusting and helping your family…then why are you doing this?! He is our family, in case you have forgotten!”
“I never forgot that!” Regulus couldn’t take his brothers insults anymore and wanted to stand up to talk face to face, but the sudden dizziness made him sit back on the bed. “This is the only chance to get him away from Dumbledore and everyone else who’s messing with his head. We’re also planning for the Ministry to officially declare you innocent.”
“We are planning?” interrupted Sirius.
“Voldemort is planning,” corrected himself Regulus. “The point is, Harry has to win the tournament. Only then we’ll be able to get him back at your side without anyone being suspicious. Besides, he will be getting help from some of the school stuff and from you.”
“That’s if he gets alive to the end of the tournament,” commented the older man.
“That’s exactly why you have to keep in touch with him as much as possible,” answered Regulus when his head started spinning.
“What’s going on? Are you feeling alright?” asked Sirius suddenly concerned about his younger brother.
“I’m just tired,” lied the man; he knew that wasn’t the only reason; he hardly got any sleep lately, brewing the potions for Voldemort and drawing his blood for those potions wasn’t helping his health either.
“Just tired,” snorted Sirius and headed towards the stairs. “Don’t make me laugh. There should be some potions left in the cellar. I’ll bring you some.”
Regulus smiled to himself watching his brother; the man was always quick to jump into a fight and it didn’t take long to make peace with him whenever it concerned someone he cared for. Regulus knew Sirius cared for him; they were brothers, even if they had different opinions on some matters, they still looked after one another.

The first days of November proved to be one of the most difficult for Harry. A lot has changed; even his own attitude has changed, hopefully for the better. The reason behind all that was not only the tournament but the way other students treated him. Ron refused to believe he didn’t enter willingly and Hermione was torn between them – on one hand, she wanted to continue her friendship with Harry and help him with his new classes, but on the other hand she didn’t want to upset Ron even more.
Harry understood the girl and didn’t want to put her in a difficult situation, so he avoided the both of them as much as he could. The problem was that other Gryffindors as well as the rest of the school seemed as hostile towards him as they could get. Even Hufflepuffs got really nasty since they were mad at Harry for being the second Hogwarts’ champion.
His only way of escaping all that was meeting up with Draco. The blond kept his promise and tried to help him as much as possible and Harry was grateful for that. Not only did Draco stop bullying and taunting him, he never approved or encourage other Slytherins to do that.
One morning when they met to study together, Harry was in a really bad mood. Just the other day people in school started wearing those awful ‘Potter stinks’ badges and he found it difficult to deal with. That was the first time Harry heard Draco apologize to him; the blond said he couldn’t stop his housemates from wearing those badges, but he openly refused to wear it himself, which was more than Harry would ever expect from Malfoy.
All in all, he had to admit he was starting to get very comfortable around Draco. The more he studied, the less snarky comments came out of the blond’s lips. Harry noticed he liked it when he achieved something and Draco was proud of him; it made him feel appreciated. He still remembered how he requested to be given a chance to study Arithmancy and Ancient Runes – something he tried once again, reasoning with the teachers that it was only fair to give him a chance to learn something more to have better chances with the older participants of the tournament; both professor Vector and professor Babbling made him write a test to see if he was even able to study their subjects with the other 4^th years; and to everyone’s surprise the results of his tests were remarkable for someone who skipped one year. That day Draco was boasting with pride at how well Harry did. Another advantage of taking those classes was that he could spend more time with his blond friend.
Granted, they weren’t able to openly show they were friends; it would be suspicious if they started chatting in the corridors or studied together in the library, but eventually they’ve found a way around it. Harry inspired by Tom Riddle’s diary and the Marauder’s map, suggested they make enchanted notebooks; something where they could write messages to each other without other getting any suspicions. After many failed tries, they’ve managed to enchant two notebooks and whenever one of them wrote something in his notebook, it immediately appeared in the other one’s notebook.
That was an exceptionally useful invention, especially when the day of the first task was nearing. Draco went with Harry through all the books on dragons he could find in the school library and Malfoys’ private library; the black haired teen already felt he was a master on the subject of dragons but then Draco found some new books and ordered them from the bookshop. Every day they went through spell books that could prove useful against dragons; also the books for students over 4^th year. That however didn’t help him calm his nerves the night before the task.
Harry couldn’t sleep, so he took out his enchanted notebook and wrote to Draco. He honestly didn’t think the other boy would be awake at that hour, but it made Harry feel a little better if he just wrote to his friend. To his surprise, shortly after he wrote his message, there came a reply from the blond.
Try to get some sleep. You’ll need it tomorrow. And don’t worry about the task, you are well prepared, we went through everything we could find on the subject.
The black haired smiled to himself, feeling a bit calmer to know that Draco wasn’t asleep either; it made him wonder if maybe his friend was also worried about him and that’s why he was awake.
I know. I’m just worried I’ll be too slow and won’t be able to cast the spell on time.
There was a moment of anticipation and the answer from Draco appeared.
If need be, I’ll jump in and help you with the dragon. At least it will be two against one dragon. And maybe the judges will finally decide to disqualify you after something like that.
Harry laughed quietly, not to wake up his classmates, but he was grateful for having Draco as his friend. He thanked him and wished him goodnight; he closed his notebook and went to sleep whishing the tournament was already over.

The next morning all Draco could think about was Harry. He didn’t want to admit it to anyone, but he really was afraid to lose the other teen. He heard from other’s that sometimes witches and wizards die in that tournament and knowing Harry’s luck he was in grave danger.
Later in the afternoon, he mustered all his strength to put up a mask of indifference; it wouldn’t be wise to let others see how worried he was about Potter. After all, Harry wouldn’t mind him doing so; the teen already knew how important of a friend he was to Draco. When the first task has started he couldn’t sit in his place, waiting for everything to be over; he wanted Harry to end his task safely.
Finally it was Potter’s turn to face the dragon. Just as Draco predicted, with the boy’s luck he got the most dangerous dragon possible. However, Harry was doing fine, using some stunning spells to distract the dragon, then the summoning spell to get his broom. He thought it would be all over soon when unexpectedly the dragon broke loose and started chasing the teen. Draco thought he’s heart would stop and he felt the need to hex the judges and teachers for not helping his friend; the bloody idiots were just sitting there watching the best spectacle ever as if they didn’t understand a student was in danger. He was about to throw away all his Malfoy pride and risk his father’s wrath, by openly standing in Potter’s defence, when suddenly Harry flew into the arena and snatched the dragon’s egg.
Draco sighed with relief seeing the dragon tamers rushing to take care of the beast. ‘Harry is safe,’ was all that ran through his mind.
He saw his housemates rushing to congratulate Krum his performance and in the corner of his eyes he witnessed Gryffindors running towards Harry; all of a sudden all of them considered him their friend again, forgetting how they treated him the past few weeks.
“Bloody idiots,” he snorted and walked over to Krum, like the rest of Slytherins.
When the event was finally over and most of the students headed back to the castle, Draco noticed Harry sneaking away towards the Forbidden Forest. He followed his friend not far into the forest and was met with the sight of Harry lying on the ground, laughing madly while a big black dog jumped around him licking his face.
“No, stop it! Padfoot, that’s gross!” protested Harry in between laughs. He sensed something was wrong when Sirius stopped his foolish act and stared at something behind his back. “What is it?”
He looked around and spotted the blond standing there, his arms crossed on his chest and one light eyebrow raised.
“Draco!” Harry jumped from the ground happily and rushed over to his friend, showing him the golden egg he won just minutes ago. “Look, I’ve done it! I have the egg!” his enthusiasm dropped when the blond didn’t praise him. “What’s wrong?”
Malfoy grabbed the egg looking at it with disdain. “I couldn’t care less about that egg,” saying that he threw it to the ground.
“Hey, you don’t have to be mean…” Harry’s words were silenced by the sudden embrace the blond pulled him into. “Draco?” he asked surprised by the action, although he didn’t find anything unpleasant about it.
“I’m just glad you’re alright.”
Sirius, still in his animagus form, sat there watching the scene in front of him. He knew the blond boy was his cousin’s son; he even heard from Harry that they were friends now, but there was something else about Draco’s behaviour and although he couldn’t quite say what it was, he liked it that Harry had someone in Hogwarts that cared about him.

Regulus held another box of potions in his hands. It wouldn’t take much longer to finish the reviving process; something he was looking forward to. Not only would he need some good rest but it also meant Voldemort would be back to his normal self.
He entered the Riddle House and headed to the master bedroom. For the last few weeks, the Dark Lord’s body has developed so much it became necessary for the wizard to lie in bed. Opening the door as quietly as possible, he saw a figure of a man lying on the bed with his eyes closed. Voldemort didn’t look completely like himself yet, but at least he already could move around and drink the potions without anyone’s help. Thin, pale arms and the snake-like face were far from how Regulus remembered the Dark Lord, but according to his calculations it shouldn’t take long to get to that point.
Black put the box on a night table and suddenly felt a cold hand grab his wrist.
“It’s you Regulus,” said the Dark Lord more to himself and let go of the other wizard when he heard a yes. “How much longer will it take? The reviving process.”
“This requires patience,” said Regulus uncertain of the other man’s reaction. “But it shouldn’t take more than two more months.”
“It’s not the time or the effects it has on me that I’m worried about,” the blood red eyes looked at the younger wizard intensely. “Every time you come here, you’re getting weaker.”
“It’s alright,” he reassured. “I simply want you to get your strength back…my Lord.”
A snort came from the lying figure of Voldemort, “As if you had ever called me that when not surrounded by other Death Eaters.”
A smirk formed on Regulus’ face when he heard that comment; he kneeled by the bed and handed the potion to the other man. He watched the bottle being emptied and waited silently for the other wizard to speak.
“I think it’s time to prepare our old property for the Death Eaters’ meetings,” said Voldemort. “You still have it in your possession, correct?”
“Yes, I just sealed it and hid the entrance key at Gringott’s,” answered Regulus.
“Then unseal it. We’re going to need a new place. This house is too easy for Dumbledore to track down.”
“I will see to it,” the younger one stood up and turned to leave, but a hand grabbed his wrist again; gentler this time.
“Everything is going according to the plan. And shortly, everything will be back to how it was.”
“I know…I have trust in you,” Regulus smiled to the other wizard; something he didn’t do very often lately; but he truly had faith in him.
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Meddling with Darkness