Harry Potter and the Tri-Fold Prophecy - 2. Chapter 2

Draco Malfoy was torn. His mother was no longer the cold and distant person she had been the past few years, but instead she was warm and compassionate, like she had been when he was a child before the return of the Dark Lord. He was thrilled to have his mother back, but he was distressed because he felt he should be miserable due to his father's stay in Azkaban. The child in Draco wanted his father back, however he also knew that he was not the same man that Draco knew as a child: Lucius Malfoy had become seemingly obsessed with the Dark Lord Voldemort, and that obsession was what had landed him in prison. The Slytherin in Draco knew that an obsession to such a degree that you would fail to see reason was completely illogical, and he was starting to believe his father was not the person he appeared to the world; at the same time, however, he also knew that opposing the Dark Lord was not the wisest thing to do: Indeed, there were rumours within the Family that Regulus Black’s disappearance those many years ago was at His hand.

As these thought swirled through his head Pinky, his mother's house elf, popped in.

“Will Master Draco be joining Mistress for supper?”

Draco gave one look at the house elf cowering before him, debating whether or not he should scold the elf for entering his room without permission. Figuring it wasn’t worth the effort, he decided not to scold the pitiful creature before him, merely stating, “Yes, Pinky, I will be down shortly.”

“Yes Master, Pinky will be informing Mistress.”

Standing up from his desk, he looked at the old grandfather clock against one of his walls. He saw that it was well past the normal time for supper, and wondered why he had not been requested earlier. Leaving his room, he began his walk down to the main dining room of Malfoy Manor, three floors down from his room.

As he was walking down the grand staircase in the entryway of the manor, he heard voices coming from the dining room off to his left. Concerned that he was not made aware of guests, and by the raised nature of these voices, he hurried to the door to see who was disturbing his mother. He was shocked to find his aunt, Bellatrix Lestrange, standing on one side of the table, shouting animatedly with his mother, on the other side of the table.

“Bella, he is just a boy, he is too young to be joining your ranks. Please, don't take him,” she pleaded.

Bellatrix sneered, responding with “The Dark Lord is highly displeased by Lucius' failure. He wishes to meet with your son to see if he is worthy to reclaim the Malfoy honour, and if he will be cunning enough to develop a plan that will finally be able to take down Harry Potter, and that old fool Dumbledore.”

“You mean he wants to make an example out of my boy, he wants the rest of the Death Eaters to see what happens to families that fail him,” she replied, on the verge of tears. “Please Bella, don't take my son from me.”

“Narcissa!” Bellatrix responded sharply. “How dare you question the Dark Lord! You dishonour the name of Black with your begging! We do not beg! We take what we want, and we cast aside those that stand in our way! I will not be returning to the Dark Lord alone, your son will be returning with me, and there is no more room for discussion.” She raked a critical glare over the despairing woman. “Unless you would prefer me to call the Dark Lord here?”

“No.” Narcissa choked out. “Please, watch over him for me Bella, he is my only son.”

“Cissy, there is nothing I can do. You are quite correct, the Dark Lord is highly displeased.” Bellatrix did not appear to be one bit remorseful in her comments, her eyes alight with a manic glow that sent shudders down Draco’s spine. Was this how he expects all his followers? Loyal to Him before even Family? It went against everything Draco had been taught. Family, Tradition, Purity, these were the things he was told to value, and yet so many of the Old Families didn’t even follow these rules.

Quietly walking back up the grand staircase, Draco called to his mother. "Do we have guests joining us for supper this evening, Mother?”

“Yes Draco, your Aunt Bella stopped by to talk. She would like to speak to you after supper as well.” His mother replied, her cool, collected mask back in place. The hitch in her voice from the conversation with Bellatrix was replaced with her calm, aristocratic voice.

Draco entered the Dining room, a room that was currently set with an ebony table inlaid with platinum runes, and quickly made his way over to the seat beside his mother. Immediately Pinky and several trays of food appeared in the room. Pinky floated the trays over to the centre of the room, then quickly left, not making eye contact with anyone.

Draco and his mother shared a look, then began taking food off the trays to place on their plates. The three remained silent throughout the entire meal. Narcissa stood up, gave a pleading look to Bellatrix, then left the room.

“You wished to speak with me, Aunt Bellatrix?” Draco asked innocently.

“Yes, your Father's recent failure has caused the Dark Lord to begin looking for followers from unexpected sources, so that his enemies will be less likely to guess his actions. He wishes to meet with you, to discuss the possibility of having you fill your father's position.” replied Bellatrix.

“Very well, when would you like me to go?” asked Draco, acting as though excited by the news.

Smiling, Bellatrix took out a small hairbrush, and said “Immediately.” She grabbed ahold of Draco's arm, then activated the port key before he could even blink.

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Having finished packing his trunk of all his belongings, Harry was restlessly awaiting the arrival of Mr. and Mrs. Weasley to take him to The Burrow for the rest of the summer.

“BOY!!!” Thundered Vernon Dursley from the living room below. “Get down here!”

Harry got up and slowly made his way down the stairs. Reaching the bottom he was not expecting the sight of his 'Aunt' Marge sitting in the room with Vernon and Petunia. Dudley was nowhere in sight, but that was hardly surprising. He seemed to spend every moment possible away from the house, and Harry could hardly blame him.

“Boy, we have decided that you will not be returning to your school for freaks, but instead you will accompany Marge to Military School.” Vernon said, as soon as Harry entered the room. “We feel that they will finally be able to whip out your 'abnormalities'.”

Disgusted by their presumptions, Harry replied, “I will be doing no such thing. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley will be by later to pick me up, and I will be going with them to spend the rest of the summer.”

“You watch your tone, boy!” Roared Vernon. “We have clothed and fed you for almost 16 years, and you WILL DO AS WE SAY!” As he yelled, he rapidly made his way over to Harry, grabbing him by the shoulder and dragging him farther into the living room. “We know you can't do anything to stop us, we know they'll kick you out anyways if you do!”

Frowning, Harry realised they were right, but he also realised he would rather be kicked out of school than spend anymore time with the Dursleys. Voice full of barely controlled anger, he replied, “That may be, but the Weasleys wouldn't kick me out either way, and so I choose to go live with them. If I have to use my 'freakish abilities' to get out of here, then I no longer care.” He shrugged out of the tight grip, and noticing the lights had started flickering, quickly fled to the relative safety of his room.

Harry quickly made his way up the stairs, sparing a second to glance at the clock: half an hour and the Weasleys would be there to pick him up. As he was just checking the lock on his trunk, he heard the unmistakable sound of Vernon Dursley's tremendous bulk coming up the stairs towards him.

Uncle Vernon stomped up the stairs, and the entire house trembled under his immense girth. He exploded into Harry's room, purple with rage.

“BOY!” He raged. “We have fed you and clothed you out of the goodness of our hearts. How dare you talk to us like that in our house! You will be going with Marge, and that's final! I don't want to hear any more about your abnormality or your freak school!”

The temperature in the room was dropping quickly, and there was an odd blue glow seemingly emanating from the walls. Harry's voice was icy as he responded, “Is that so?” Harry never turned from the wall as he spoke.

“Yes it is bloody well so, and you will look at me when I am speaking to you!” Uncle Vernon reached out to spin Harry around, but he never made it. Harry spun around, glaring at his uncle. His words still held the same quiet, icy tone as before, however there was now fire in his words too, a rage that was finally leaking through after the many years of being treated worse than even the most unfortunate of house elves.

“I am through listening to you, Vernon Dursley! You have never done anything for anyone out of the “kindness” of a heart you don't even have! You took me in because you had no choice in the matter!” Though his words were quiet, they rang through the air as if shouted. The background noise of birds in the trees, cars on the streets, and wind through the bushes had faded away to complete silence. “No longer will I listen to you. No longer will I be abused by your family. No more will I be your servant. No longer will I protect your family from dark forces out of some need to protect those around me. You no longer have to worry about hiding my 'abnormality'. I have decided that I would be far better living on my own than with you.” His words held a finality that dared Uncle Vernon to challenge him.

Uncle Vernon, oblivious to the baiting, was enraged by the news. “And just where do you think you'd go? I could have you back here in a minute by placing a single call to the authorities. We will have you off with Marge, even if we have to have you arrested to do it!” Uncle Vernon was looking smug now, sure that he had won the argument. “And don't think we would just let you leave either, we know you can't use any of your freak powers when you aren't at that school! We can stop one boy from leaving this house easily!”

“If I have to use magic to escape this prison, I will. Don't force me into that decision, as I assure you the results would not be pleasant for you.” Harry's voice held none of the icy calmness now; It rang with fiery power, and with each word, the blue glow in the room grew more intense.

Still oblivious to the power surrounding him, Vernon Dursley reached out to grab Harry. “BOY! YOU WILL DO AS WE SAY!”

“I will not. I will no longer allow myself bow to the will of an abusive muggle!” With the last word his eyes erupted into blue fire, sparkling and flashing.

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Arthur Weasley was running very early, as his wife Molly had urged him out the door saying he should surprise Harry and get to know the Dursleys, saying that if they just knew some adult wizards, they would be far less intolerant. Goodness knew teenagers could get on the nerves of the most saintly! Ron, Fred and George had come along, because they figured the sooner they led Harry out of the Dursleys the better off everyone would be.

George was the first to hear the shouting going on in the house.

“Merlin's Pants, what could they be on about?”

“George!” admonished Mr. Weasley, “Don't let your mother hear you saying that,” he added with a slight grin.

“Sorry Dad, but you gotta admit that sounds pretty bad,” replied Fred. Just as he finished his sentence, a bright blue beam cut the air from the top left window in the house.

“That's Harry's room!” exclaimed Ron.

The sound of an explosion shook the air, as all the glass in the block shattered spectacularly. The ground around the house was trembling, and the house itself looked like it may fall apart at any second. Ron took off for the house at full speed, and yanked the door open with the twins and their father in quick pursuit. They stumbled up the stairs, clinging to the railings, just in time to see Vernon Dursley get thrown through the wall next to Harry's room, colliding with the hallway wall, sending cracks splintering through the plaster, finally to collapse in an enormous pile on the floor. They ran up to the room to see Harry floating in the middle of the room, a blue halo of energy spinning around him. His eyes were still ablaze with power, but his eyes lightened in recognition when they landed on the Weasleys.

“H-h-harry?” stammered Ron. “W-wh-what's going on?”

At that, Harry collapsed, the power in the room vanishing, his eyes returning to their normal green before closing. Fred rushed forward just in time to catch him before his head hit the floor.

“What was that?” Fred asked in awe. “Was Harry possibly creating that much power?”

“I don't know.” Arthur was troubled. “We should take Harry back to the Burrow, and contact the Headmaster from there. It feels like the wards protecting this location have fallen, so we should apparate from here.”

“Is Harry going to be alright?” asked Ron.

“I don't know, I have never seen that much raw power at one time, and if Harry was indeed summoning it... it is best not to dwell on it. Harry is strong, if anyone can pull through this he can.” Arthur still sounded uncertain, however he simply said, “Side along apparition on three: Fred, George, you take Ron. I'll take Harry. One... Two... Three!”

End Chapter 2