章節 22: Chapter 22
Harry
Harry had always considered himself to be a pretty reasonable guy.
"P-Potter! S-stop this…"
He didn't pick fights unless the other guy instigates it, he didn't make absurd demands or compensations, he didn't hold grudges for too long if the issue is minor….
"Arghh! You will pay for this, Potter!"
But like any hotheaded guy, he'll become a ball of explosion when his temper finally snaps.
"My father will hear about th-!...Why, You halfblooded freak…!"
And he wouldn't stop until his temper finally abates.
"S-stop Potter…"
Especially if the anger was old, bundled up in a cold rage—raw and malicious.
"Pl-please….Pott- Harry..Stop…"
The evidence was right here at his feet, as he pushed the struggling Malfoy down before once again burying his fist in the younger boy's stomach, making him hunch over.
The boy hurled down his breakfast, puking his guts out in the woods of Dartmoor forest.
They weren't that far away from the crowd really, around just 100 meters or so from the Level 1 tents that bordered the entire settlement area. But the woods provided just enough cover that the screams wouldn't echo around, and no unsuspecting eye would find them.
"You know, Draco…" Harry started, before leaning down to stare at the boy with mock curiosity. "Can I call you Draco? Or do I need to pay some special fees to say your most gracious name with my half-blood mouth? Hmm?"
'What a bunch of rubbish.'
Malfoy didn't reply, his shoulders heaving in dry sobs as he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. His entire body was shaking and shivering, his pale face may as well have belonged to a ghost. Tears and snot ran down his face, mixing in with sweat and supplying their own disgusting sheen to make the boy look extra pathetic.
Harry didn't care, his sympathy had long since dried up for people like him. His boot came down hard to step upon the boy's palm, crushing it underneath and eliciting a gasped yell. "I can call you Draco, right?"
The boy half-whimpered and half-sobbed, giving frantic nods. "…Please."
He shook his trapped hand desperately. "L-let me go...Please…Please, Harry."
"Hmm…" Harry mused 'seriously', before applying some more pressure on the boy's broken fingers, getting a full-blown scream this time. "I don't think I will."
There were four more bodies beside Malfoy. 2 of them were in a much better condition, having simply been knocked out. The other two, however, were in an even worse condition than Draco, with trails of blood dripping down from their broken noses and teeth.
Unlike Draco however, they weren't crying.
'Of course they weren't. Blasted psychopaths.'
Harry snorted, finally removing his boot from the boy's ruined palm.
At once the boy dragged his hand back to his chest, heaving deep breaths of pained relief.
Harry leaned down, taking a knee beside the boy. "See Draco, when I got your letter, I knew something was up from the start. The boy who'd spent the last three years trying to brainwash my…hmm…foolish self, shall I say?"
With almost tender care, Harry took ahold of the bleeding boy's blonde hair and dragged his face up, making their eyes meet. "That boy would never send me a bloody invitation, would he? At least, not one so…sweet and polite. But I still came, see? Your words convinced me. Cause I was curious. Curious to see what you'll do…"
There was genuine fear and helplessness in the boy's eyes now. The same eyes that had once looked down on him, even more so in this life, were now empty of any pride or arrogance.
The eyes were windows to the soul. The saying becomes quite literal when the said eyes are viewed by a Lvl 3 Legilimence…and right now, Malfoy's eyes showed him the boy's true personality: Cowardly and fearful.
With a contemptuous snort, Harry dropped down the head, standing up. "What I didn't expect was to find a tortured Blaise begging me for help."
A sudden bout of anger surged in his mind, and like he'd been doing so the whole day, he let it fill him with no resistance from his Occlumency shields.
The result was another vicious kick to Malfoy's stomach, making him curl up around his leg with a pained sob and whimper. "Please…..I'm s-sorry..".
Harry chuckled. "Of course you are."
Who wouldn't be? After getting beat up by a magically strengthened opponent. His beatings would never have had the same intensity before the rituals.
Idly, Harry did realize that he was taking the anger of someone else upon a mostly innocent boy. After all, this wasn't the Malfoy who'd killed Hagrid. That Malfoy had paid the price for his crime years ago.
Yet, Harry couldn't care less. He didn't think his anger was too dark or undeserving…after all, Blaise was still his friend, no matter what misgivings Harry might have had about the boy. To see his tortured and bleeding form had struck a sore spot in Harry, releasing the wild beast that he'd become in the last few months of his previous life.
The merge may have healed the more obvious wounds on his mind, but his hatred and rage were still ripe as ever. This new life, and the people around him, had simply pushed it back.
Till now.
His eyes idly went through the woods, taking in the trees with unexplainable feelings. This was the same forest where the snatchers had kidnapped him and his friends so long ago. They'd been so innocent then, thinking they'd seen the worst this world could throw at them.
Suffice it to say, they'd been proven wrong quite thoroughly time and time again.
Harry sighed, really not having expected the day to proceed like such. It had started normal enough really, with him and Bella leaving for Potter tent early in the morning. He'd gotten his first view of the enormous tent then, a gigantic thing able to house 3 different families together.
The day, however, took an unusual turn with the arrival of Malfoy's letter, politely asking him to join him in one of the shadier parts of Dartmoor forest. He'd been amused really, at how stupidly non-subtle the letter was. And all he had intended then was to teach the precocious brat and his little guards a small lesson at humility, while having some fun in the process.
That plan had gone out the window, however, the moment he'd reached the place.
Malfoy and his ilk were there to welcome him of course, along with Greengrass, Davis, Bulstrode, Blaise,…and Carrows.
Greengrass and her bestie were standing away from the others while the rest formed a semicircle around what seemed to be the main focus of their little circus: the mutilated body of Blaise.
Apparently, Malfoy did not believe in Harry's rise to power and fame and wished to get the secrets of his success out of him. Blaise was the first to be questioned, and the boy's refusal to answer had led to a type of cruelty Harry would never have expected from 14-year-olds.
The Malfoy of his world might've become a Deatheater eventually, but he was still very much a normal teenager at this age. And a normal teenager had no stomach for the type of things they'd done to Blaise.
So unless this Malfoy was some hidden psychopath—he wasn't, if Harry's memories were to be believed—he wasn't the one to do this.
That pointed towards the anamoly; the Carrows.
According to his memories, the Carrows were a very controversial topic in magical Britain. Born from the product of incest, they were said to be largely in the back of beyond, not mixing with the rest of the sacred 28 families. While the purebloods were more accepting of them, there were of course still exceptions like Weasleys and Longbottoms.
To Harry, none of this mattered. Incest was the least weird thing he'd stumbled upon over the years.
But the Carrows themselves….now that was a different subject altogether.
Honestly, Harry could've stopped all this from escalating further. Could've easily Occluded away his rising fury, thinking through the situation logically. With his father, Mother, and Godmother so far up on the ladder of ministry, all he would've needed was enough evidence to convict Malfoy and his little band for some nice prison time. And Blaise would've worked splendidly.
But he hadn't. Why? Because he didn't want to.
The attendance of Carrows was the final spark in the embers of his rage. They may not be the ones to kill Ginny, but they were just as mad as their parents. And vengeance does not stop for logic.
Thus, Harry had let loose. Just a bit, of course. They were still children so nothing overly painful…
A multitude of low groans spread through the forest, all belonging to the broken bodies of his victims.
….Well, maybe a little painful.
"Uhmmm!" A low voice pitched from behind him, and he turned to see the bound-up form of Parkinson trying to struggle through her bonds. She was relatively unharmed, with a simple rope tying her wrists together and a spell sticking her lips up.
With a raised brow, Harry slowly ambled towards the girl. "Something to say, Parkinson?"
The girl stopped moving completely, freezing up like a deer in the headlights.
With a wave of his hand, her lips were unstuck. "Go on, then."
She looked a whole deal more uncertain now, her brows furrowing in a frown of trepidation.
She opened her mouth several times before finally finding her voice at another whimper from Draco.
"You should let them go." She spoke low and cautiously, her eyes darting around his body, trying and failing to look him in the eye. "The Aurors won't like this, Potter. You could go to Azkaban for this."
Harry snorted, an amused smirk spreading upon his face. "Do you honestly think that, Parkinson?"
He leaned down towards the girl. She tried scrambling back but his hand darted forward, digging into her scalp as he gripped a handful of her hair.
She shrieked, arcing her back painfully as he dragged her head beside him. "Look around you, you daft cow. All the damage I've done to you lot? There's not a drop of magic involved. Should you try to complain about me, people will simply laugh you off. 6 wizards getting beat up muggle style? You will be the biggest jokes in the school. And me? I'll get a slap on my wrist at worst."
He snorted again, letting go. "That's just wizards for you."
He restarted his stroll, his feet taking him to a tired Blaise.
Harry had done a good enough job of healing the more severe cuts and lacerations. He may not be Madam Pomfrey, but the Vulnera Sanentur spell that he'd copied from Snape could be used for more purposes than just Sectumsempra injuries.
Still, the boy surely had some internal bleeding remaining. Even though Harry used Anapneo on the boy to clear his cough, he still spat out globs of blood in coughing fits.
It shouldn't have done more than irritate Harry at seeing this really. While he felt a little bad for getting the boy caught up in his business, it wasn't anything really new or rage-inducing for Harry.
….Or well, it shouldn't have been.
But the sheer sight of the weak boy, huddling with his legs tucked under his chin as he shivered and panted, made Harry's blood boil in anger.
"Can you hold on for a few minutes, Blaise?" He asked, realizing he wasn't quite done with this lot.
The boy nodded, giving a weak smile. "Of course. And Harry….thanks."
He squeezed the boy's shoulder before moving towards Daphne.
"Harry." The girl greeted, trying to hide her nervousness behind a pretty smile. "I'm glad you're her- Uhm!?"
His fingers closed in on her jaw, digging tightly inside her cheeks. "Did you know?"
"Harry, what are you doing!?" Tracy screamed beside them. "She's Daphne, for Merlin's sake!"
Harry responded with an absent wave of his wand, rooting the girl in place and stopping her hands from touching the wand.
His eyes never left Daphne. "Answer me. Now."
"I didn't know, alright!?" She yelled, looking genuinely hurt and angry. "Malfoy wanted to humiliate you in front of everyone, to show you aren't anything special. So he dragged all of us with him. Your name has been circulating amongst the Princes, and he didn't like that. We had nothing to do with him. How could you even think that!?"
He stared into her blue eyes, silently using Occlumency to scan for any guilt or deception.
There wasn't any. She was clean.
But she also knew exactly what was about to happen today….and let it happen. It doesn't matter if it was willingly or unwillingly.
With a disgruntled huff, he let her go, turning away.
His furious eyes scanned through the fearful crowd as he marched to the middle of the circle to address all of them.
He spread his arms wide, presenting himself. "Look at me."
A wave of hesitance went through them all, none daring to glance up except Blaise.
His fists curled up in impatience, and he bellowed out with a snap to his command. "All of you, look at me!"
And they did. They scrambled upright fearfully then, even the Carrows.
"I rule Slytherin now, and you lot shall follow me, willingly or unwillingly." He declared slowly, daring them to voice any disagreements. None did. "If I must spend a whole bloody year in those dungeons, I shall have better companions than a bunch of cowardly backstabbing snakes, so from now on consider yourselves to be upstanding members of the society."
He could see Davis opening her mouth, displeased, but an elbow from Greengrass silenced her down.
"Forget about those princes and princesses… " He continued with a snarl, his words coming out in hisses as the Parseltongue mixed in.
"From now forth, you put your faith…" His hand curled up at himself. "In me."
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It was around afternoon when Harry arrived back to their tent, having escorted Blaise back to his Level 6 tent. On his way, he also tried to find Fleur, but unfortunately, he didn't know where to look. She'd been quite evasive for the last few days, and her letters had been a bit scarce.
More than once he found himself wondering if the girl was playing some stupid game with him. Everything he knew about her in this world was mostly through letters after all.
Who's to say she wasn't just trying to get back at him for her loss in the tournament by leading him around with some false offer at friendship?
That seemed unnaturally petty and immature, but as he'd realized, he had nothing to judge the girl aside from her letters.
Hell, she might not even be present here today for all he knew, making him waste his time needlessly.
Whatever the case, he held out a slight hope that his misgivings were wrong. While he didn't necessarily care for her games, it would've been good to have an actual friend.
When he reached the tent, Bella wasn't present, being busy handling things for the final match. Instead, he was greeted by his twin brother.
"Where were you?" Jacob asked, looking impatient and hurried. "Nevermind, do you know where Dora…eh, Nymphadora went? You were gone for too long so we sent Bill and her to find you. But they've had a sodding spat, and now no one can find Dora."
Harry yawned, stretching his body. "Where's Lily?"
"Why does that matt…you know what? Whatever. She's off to get Aunt Bella, it's almost lunchtime now and she wasn't answering mom's Patronus. Dad's doing some form filing to get a half-day today, and others are all busy and don't think it's anything serious. But they don't know her like I do. I've been trying to search for her but I….ahh…I haven't had much luck."
Harry sighed, turning around. "Fine. I'll do it myself."
"Be back before lunch or mom will be pissed!"
He waved his twin off, once again leaving the premises of their tent.
'What an eventful start for the day.' Harry mused, amused. "What are the chances that the rest will pass peacefully?"
Bloody none.
Still, he couldn't help his excitement.
'The day has just started. Whatever it may bring, it is sure to be eventful.'
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AN: Aaaaand finished! Next up will be the main course of the quidditch final.
Now my biggest concern in this chapter is Harry. I had this scene in my mind even before I started writing this fic, and now that I finally gave words to it I couldn't help but feel apprehensive that it just didn't come out right. Did Harry feel too OOC? Too dramatic? Or did it all feel natural?
My patrons ranged from 'A little dramatic' to 'Overly dramatic for a war veteran.' Which is fair. I know Harry looks quite a bit self righteous and even arrogant at times. But they are all problems to be solved for his future character development. I can't have him be a perfectly mature and wise person from the start. His life had been way too fucked up for that, and I find protagonists as such to be boring. Nothing against you if that's your thing, but it's not mine.
Though I can promise that he'll work it all out eventually. You just gotta wait and see.
Anyway, Let me know if you enjoyed the chap. I really want to reply to some reviews, which I always forget to do in this fic, but my head is hurting something fierce right now. Next chapter though, I'll answer whatever questions you may have.
Well that's it for today. Hope you enjoyed this chapter, I'll see you in the next post.
Have an awesome day/night!
P.S: Sorry for the delay! I took an extra day in my latest chapter, thus shifting all the updates back by one day. So next chapter, which is for Mystique Soldier, will come on 9th.
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