Chapter 2: Newfound Power
A/N: I appreciated the comments and support that I did receive and I give thanks to the people who are continuing to read the story.
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Harry stared blindly, his screams had stopped and he was now rubbing his head irritably, blinking away the tears of pain that he had crept on him from an elbow to the head he received by the brunette who was currently on top of him.
"I'm so sorry, Harry!" the girl squealed scrambling to get off of the already hurt boy who was lying belly-up on the floor. Hermione put out her hand to help him up, and he took it, suddenly feeling more at home than he had in two months. Harry could see by the look in her eyes that she was surprised at how easily she was able to pull him off of the floor and he could see that it scared her.
She had a bright smile on her face as she put her things in the overhead compartment next to his. The girl he once knew seemed to all flood back into his mind, and it was as if she had reminded him of something. She seemed as if she was glad to see him, which he thought was a possibility but that voice in his head continued to argue that it was not true, and it could never be true, causing Harry to believe it as well. "How was your break, Harry? I'm so sorry I wasn't able to contact you over the summer. The Order forbid us from talking to you! You can imagine how furious Ronald and I were, I was pacing up and down my room just counting down the days until I was able to come and see you…and here you are…Harry!" she finished her feverish whispering all in one breath and threw her arms around him and pulled him into a huge hug which he suddenly shied away from.
An involuntary whimper passed his lips from the sharp pain that was sent through his body when Hermione touched on healing bruises, cuts and scrapes that lined his torso. He looked into her chocolate colored eyes and was even more hurt to see the sadness and confusion in when he did cringe away. She opened her mouth to say something when more people began filling the compartment.
"Hello Harry!" Ron bellowed happily bounding forward and pulling him into a manly hug. Harry cringed as his left eye twitched. Why was everybody in such a happy mood? Didn't they know the horrors that were out there? And why did they feel the need to hug him? It caused him more pain than he was actually in, didn't they know?
But how could they? He was alone for the summer with no contact with them.
Ginny looked at him strangely from his sickly pale face and to his hair, then the rest of his small body felt as if she might cry. "Hello Harry." She said, in that same sweet yet powerful voice that was always so Ginny. Harry sized her up and saw that the summer had changed her as well. She had developed more in places and gotten a little bit taller, though she was still at least a head shorter than Harry. Her hair had grown a bit longer and was now passed her shoulders. Her eyes sparkled, and something around them caught her eye, she was wearing make-up. `That's a big change…' he thought to himself, staring at her for one more moment before she moved in for a hug.
He cringed, but took the pain, yet again, trying to keep the tears that were welling in the back of his eyes at bay.
"Alrigh' Harry?" Harry had to say that Neville's face had changed immensely. He still had that goofy look about him, but he wasn't as much of a butterball as he was the previous years, it seemed as if he had dropped some of his weight and his ears actually looked proportionate to his head. His teeth looked straighter, but the huge feet in the clown-large shoes still remained. Harry said nothing and only nodded as Neville moved in to give him a hug as well.
Harry couldn't take much more of it, and reeled back as if trying to defend himself. "No more!" his voice was cracked, harsh and dry which could definitely be overlooked seeing that his vocal chords were a bit rusty from him not using them.
They all stared at him with immense confusion and he turned away from them, not wanting to look at their concerned faces. He was silently thanking Luna for being the same, dreamy-eyed blond girl that stayed back and didn't' say anything. He was glad that she didn't question the obvious, and didn't ask that obvious question that he could see on everyone's minds.
What was wrong with him?
He knew why this was harder on him than it was supposed to be. If he had went through the summer months actually seeing them and writing to them, getting their opinions and finding closure and maybe once, just once hearing that the reason the sky was gray and why the grass was never greener on the other side wasn't his fault, he might have been happier.
Maybe.
But that didn't happen, and facing everybody that he saw now, dead in his dreams every night over and over again, and then waking up in that same wretched chair only for it to happen again the next night wasn't closure.
It was torture…
He heard the hushed whispers and quiet tones that surrounded him, all talking about him he knew, but he couldn't make out any clear words. He stared out the window and sat down, and the silence continued until the train began to move only minutes later. He was grateful when they went back to their everyday lives. Their everyday lives without him.
When he felt a hot prickly feeling in the back of his neck, he knew that someone was watching him.
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It was about an hour or two into the ride to Hogwarts, not even close to nearing the halfway mark. The whole train ride thus far consisted of Hermione and Ron arguing about which Quidditch Team was better; The Ballycastle Bats or the Chudley Cannons, and then they started arguing on why Hermione cared in the first place, which Harry thought was faintly amusing and he began thinking they were arguing just to make him laugh. Which would have been an incredible feat considering everything up to this point.
As expected by Harry and probably everybody else in the compartment an unwanted surprise awaited them at their compartment door. Harry sighed and rolled his eyes. He wasn't going to pay attention to them, they were now trivial players in a game of war, and they weren't worth acknowledging.
"So, if it isn't the Potthead, the Weasel and the Mudblood. Oh, and look, the gang of failure's as well! You have the whole clan up for a tea party, then?" To Harry, Malfoy seemed to be laughing at something that was not funny in the slightest, but apparently calling them all names had been a big joke on his part, because all three of them were cackling like a bunch of idiots.
"You shut up Malfoy! Don't you dare call Hermione that!" Harry watched as Ron sprung up and defended Hermione. Same Ron…except much taller than Harry remembered, and broader shoulders as well.
"And what are you going to do if I don't Weasley? Get Potter over there to come and kill me? Just like his criminal Godfather did to his parents?"
At this Harry's head snapped up, and he could feel the blood bubbling under his skin. The heat coming from his was so great that those around him cowered away in fear, Malfoy, however, did not notice the change in the atmosphere.
"Oh yeah Potter, I know. I know everything. I know how The Dark Lord lured you and your idiot friends to the Department of Mysteries, how you were cornered..." he chuckled and folded his arms over his chest with a knowing smirk. "And I especially know how my Aunt Bella killed your dear Godfather, Sirius Black, with the killing curse, before he could even defend himself."
Harry balled his hands into fists so tightly that his nails were cutting into his skin and the crimson blood was clearly visible as it dripped from his hands and onto the floor. It happened lightning fast, within a fraction of a second he was nose-to-nose with Malfoy, his head cocked to the side with a look of sheer insanity that caused the blonde boys' eyes to widen. But there was something else there, something more than a slight fear of him; Malfoy was terrified. And Harry saw that he looked to be to the point of wetting himself at that very moment.
That was too much to say for Crabbe and Goyle who had already fled the scene.
With the same lightning quick speed he had one bony hand on Malfoy's neck, squeezing with force that did not come from the frail, malnourished boy he was over the summer, but that of an eviler sort. "Say his name once more and I will break you." His voice held that same cracked tone which only caused him to seem more maniacal than actuality. Harry seemed to be lost in his own thoughts, his own body, and his own mind. He wasn't himself, and he vaguely remembered Malfoy sputtering and coughing curses and threats, and his friends' shrieks of horror, trying to tell Harry to let him go. They were all scared of what their best friend had become, because they knew that was not him.
"I'll…I'll get you for this…P-Potter!" He knew what Malfoy was saying was not a threat, but a promise, but seeing the look in the boy's eyes reminded him of a mouse caught in a trap, knowing that soon would be the end for him. So Harry did not fear the blonde boy who had not even retrieved his wand from his robe pockets. The blood from Harry's hands were dripping more now, from the pressure that was put on them by the force he applied in trying to choke the life out of Malfoy. It was now cascading from his hands and onto Malfoy's neck which caused the boy to squirm more.
"Really, M-Malfoy?" he tightened his hold on the boy's throat with mock laughter. "I'll murder you in your sleep."
That only seemed to make the compartment louder, now with Luna joining in, and Hermione's firm pleas for Harry to stop. He felt a soft hand on his shoulder and he looked back to see the owner of it. It was Hermione. Her tears had stopped falling but they left slight gray trails down her face, and it was then that Harry realized something so bizarre it even shocked himself.
She was wearing make-up as well.
`Where did that come from?' he thought distractedly, staring off at her face peculiarly and that's when he felt everything subside. The heat emanating from him bubbled down to the core, and the strength he once had lessened and lessened until all of that power and anger lay dormant in his body, waiting for another chance to show itself. Harry was suddenly very, very tired. The silence was loud and the tension in the air between all in the compartment was very high.
When he turned back to the scene he found that Malfoy had gone, and he felt immediately calmer, like he was safe for the moment. He looked at Hermione once more and found that she looked more distressed, scared and confused than she had been before.
Harry looked her up and down, curiosity playing across his face before he sat down, leaving himself to think. Why, when he had looked everybody over he had found something that had changed about them? Why, when he looked at everybody had they all seemed different to him when Hermione had remained the same in his mind until an instant ago, and the most important question he needed to ask himself;
`What just happened to me?' he asked himself.
`Power happened Harry, you now have power.' The voice was dripping with an evil happiness that made Harry question it.
`Is that a good thing?' Why he was talking to the sinister voice in his head was simple, because that had been his only source of companionship for the longest time.
`Power is always a good thing.'
And Harry left it at that for now, he turned his mind to Hermione, and wondered if there was anything different about her that he did not see.
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The train had arrived in Hogsmead station multiple hours after the departure from the King's Cross Station, but to Harry it felt like a lifetime.
Earlier Hermione and Ron left shortly after the scene with Malfoy for prefect duties, but Harry could tell that Hermione wanted to stay. She had cleaned his wounds as best she could with a spell as he tried hard not to look at her. He could tell that she was worrying about his well-being, but half of him was glad she left when she did; Harry didn't want her to see anymore of his newfound `power'.
Harry was then left alone with Ginny, Neville and Luna. The four of them sat in silence, Neville reading a book on Herbology, Ginny staring at the ceiling occasionally stealing glances at the black-haired boy and Luna stared at him openly, not trying to hide her confusion. Harry wished she would stop; it didn't even seem like she was looking at him, it was like she was looking inside him and picking him apart with her eyes. That was why he was thankful to go put on his robes, as a reason to leave.
They all left the train in silence, Ron and Hermione had come back now, and as Harry stepped off the Scarlet locomotive he took in a breath of fresh air, then almost wretched.
The butterflies in his empty stomach made him feel horrible, and just looking at familiar surroundings were enough to make him silently dry heave. He stopped quickly, hoping it wouldn't be noticed and hurried on to catch a carriage by himself. He couldn't think clearly anymore, he was tired of thinking actually, but thoughts about Sirius made him think about the Department of Mysteries which made him think about the Prophecy, which made him think about Voldemort and strangely enough, every time he did he got this horrible feeling in the pit of his stomach.
The feeling wasn't of fear or loathing, as usual, but of something else, something he couldn't quite place…but what was it?
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A/N: I know this chapter was a bit confusing, but it's a work in progress. Tips are welcome.
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