Unlikely Beginnings part 55/? NC-17 overall Draco/Harry Original poster: christinefic Title: Unlikely Beginnings part 55/? Author: Christine Rating: NC-17, not this part though.
Pairings: Draco/Harry, Ron/Hermione (just D/H in this one really)
Words: 4,516 this part, overall story on the below website around 180,000 total.
If you see something screwy let me know. I miss things alot.
Notsure if I'll post this to the websites I've got this thing stashed ator not. I can't do it right now, got work in an hour. Let me know whatyou all thought. Harry and Draco made their way quickly across the grounds towards thefront gate of the castle. Harry gave out a startled yelp when he wassuddenly yanked behind a tree by Draco’s firm grip on his arm. Heopened his mouth, wanting to know what the other boy was doing, only toclose it at seeing Draco’s finger on his own lips, requesting silence.Harry looked expectantly at Draco, waiting to hear what the other boyhad planned.
Draco took a moment to peek around the tree,looking at Harry didn’t know what, but from the stiff stance of hiscompanion, he reckoned it was important. Harry chanced a peek in thedirection Draco was looking, and turned his attention back to Draco asthe blond started to speak.
“There are sentries guarding theentrance into the school,” Draco began, keeping his voice low, so asnot to alert anyone to their presence. “Every few minutes, they patrolup and down along the pathway circling the castle. Now, listenclosely,” Draco said, pausing a moment to be sure he had Harry’s fullattention. Harry nodded at Draco to continue, wondering where thistrain of thought was going. “When I say to, I want you to run, don’tstop, until you get inside. I’ll be right behind you. Understand?”Harry took a deep breath before nodding his understanding. It soundedlike a good plan, but with the way his luck had been going recently, hewouldn’t have been surprised if something unexpected suddenly happenedbefore the two of them could reach the inside of the school.
Dracoglanced around the tree once more, eyeing the sentries as they walkedpassed the entrance. After a moment, Draco quickly whispered, “Go!”
Atthe prompt, Harry took off towards the entrance, running as fast as hislegs would carry him. He hadn’t had a chance to look behind him to seeif Draco was following him or not, but he didn’t relish getting caughtby potential Death Eaters, so he hadn’t bothered looking until he gotinside. As soon as he made it in, he turned the corner so he wouldn’tbe visible from the outside.
A second later, he felt Draco runinto him from behind; Draco having been unprepared for Harry’s suddenstop. They stood there a moment, straining to hear for any sign thatthey might have been spotted running towards the school. When no onecame running and shouting after them, they breathed out in relief.
Dracotook a moment to get his bearings straight. From what he couldremember, the castle was notorious for it’s shifting walls and floors.Almost, but not exactly, like the staircases at Hogwarts. “Our robesand smaller body builds will give us away. We’ll need to find a dormroom and borrow some robes,” Draco told Harry as he led them down thehall.
“Smaller frames?” Harry asked, following along side Draco.When Viktor Krum and his classmates had stayed the year for theTriwizard Tournament, they hadn’t looked all that big. Sure, they’dbeen taller and more muscular then he’d been, but then again, they’dbeen in their final year of school while he’d been a gangly forth year.
“Yes,” Draco replied with a nod. “Most students here come from a colder climate, plus they’re just bigger to put it simply.”
Theycontinued down the hall, Draco thanking any deity out there that theschool hadn’t shifted on them yet. He stopped in front of a portrait ofa beheaded man and spoke to it. The portrait swung open immediatelyafter Draco had finished talking to it. As they walked through, Harrywhispered to Draco, “Did you give it a password?”
“No. I told itwho my father was. I wasn’t sure if it’d still work since I never woundup coming here for school,” Draco replied, making his way across thecommon room towards the boys’ dormitories.
As he followed afterthe blond, Harry looked around the room. It contained chairs and tablesjust like the common rooms back at Hogwarts, but the tapestries hangingon the walls seemed to show nothing but violent battles. He was glad hehad never come here for school because he wasn’t sure he’d have beenable to stand all the dark themes.
Draco rounded a corner,stopping in front of a door. He turned the handle and pushed it openslowly, just incase someone was inside dressing or something. Harry hadto wonder where everyone was; probably in a class somewhere he hopedsince Draco hadn’t seemed too worried about getting caught.
Dracoopened up one of the wardrobes close to where the door was, pulling outtwo blood red robes and tossing one to Harry. Harry almost caught itwith his face since he hadn’t been paying attention, looking around theroom still. Once he had the robe in is hands, he put it on, noticinghow much warmer it was compared to his own school robes. Draco did likewise, grabbing two furs as well so they’d appear more bulky. Once theywere dressed and could conceivably pass as Durmstrang students, theymade their way back out into the hall and into the main school.
Theywalked down the hall again, which had shifted while they had been inthe dorm room, blocking the way they’d come. Harry continued to followalong Draco, arranging his fringe as much as possible to try and hidehis tell tale scar, which had begun to throb even more since they’darrived at the dark school.
They turned down a different hall,coming upon a group of surly looking boys. Draco continued on, ignoringthe group and about to walk around them when one of them spoke up. “Aw,would you look at this. Little ickle first years,” a dark haired, darkskinned boy said, laughing along with his mates.
Draco continuedto ignore them, trying to usher Harry passed them. He didn’t think itwise to draw too much attention to themselves, especially since he wasworried Harry might accidentally get hit in the stomach. They didn’tget very far when another boy stepped in front of the two Hogwartsstudents, blocking their path.
“Now, now. We didn’t say you two could go. We’re not finished,” the first boy spoke again.
“What do you want?” Draco asked suspiciously, not liking where this was possibly going.
Thedark haired boy, which Draco suspected was the group’s leader, steppedin front of Draco, invading his personal space. “My mates and I thinkyou’ve got great potential to be our little whore,” he whispered justloud enough for all of them to hear, causing the others in the group tolaugh. Draco pulled out his wand from its holding place inside hisrobes, but before Draco knew what was happening, he heard Harry give astartled yell.
“Take your hands off me!” Harry shouted,struggling to get out of the boy’s grasp. Harry had been in the processof pulling out his own wand when one of the other boys had grabbed him,pinning his arms behind his back.
“Let him go,” Draco saidthrough clenched teeth, trying to keep his body as calm as possible sothey wouldn’t try to take out their anger on Harry as revenge againstDraco if they knew he was worried about him.
“I don’t think so,” the leader said, laughing with his mates. “My mates and I like ‘em frisky.”
Draco growled low in his throat, pointing his wand at the boy holding Harry and shouted, “Stupefy!”
Theboy who’d been holding Harry was hit in the face with the spell, theonly part Draco was able to aim at, thanking the heavens for Harry’sshorter height. The boy let go of his hold, collapsing to the floor ashe was stunned. The others pulled out their own wands, but the leadergrowled out, “No! This little bitch is mine!”
The others in hisgroup backed away, smirking towards Draco. Their leader was known forhis dueling skills. Draco cracked his neck, getting into position,keeping one eye on the leader and the other on the main group. Harryhad his own wand out this time, having retrieved it from its holdingplace within his robes as soon as the stunned boy had let him go.
The leader shouted, “Crucio!” Draco blocked the spell with some effort using a shielding charm.
Beforethe leader could utter another spell, Draco shouted, “PetrificousTotalus!” The leader hadn’t been expecting this, stiffening and fallingback onto the floor with a wincing ‘thud’.
The leader’s ganggaped at Draco, as the other boy fell to the floor. They backed off,dragging the stiff boy down the hall before turning a corner out ofsight. Draco didn’t wait to see if they’d come back and grabbed Harry’sarm, pulling him along behind him in the opposite direction of thetrouble making boys. Harry gave no sign of protest at being jerkedaround this time, wanting to get as far away as possible himself.
Theycontinued walking down the hall, looking behind themselves occasionallyto make sure they weren’t being followed when they ran into someone.“Really!” Came an indignant voice, presumably the person they’d bumpedinto by accident.
“Sorry,” both boys said quickly, hoping it was a teacher and not a Death Eater they’d ran into.
“Really,now,” the professor began, eyeing the two boys as she smoothed out herrobes, “What’s so important that has you lot running down corridors?”
Thetwo boys looked at each other, silently communicating whether or not torisk it and ask this professor, who oddly enough looked almost exactlylike Professor McGonagall. After a moment, Draco turned to address theProfessor. “We’re looking for Professor Snape. Do you know where he is?”
TheProfessor raised an eyebrow at Draco; he seemed very familiar to her.‘Ah, yes,’ she thought. She remembered now. She’d seen his fatherstrolling the corridors on the Dark Lord’s business. “Well, you boysare in the right area. Just continue down this corridor, take a rightthen a left. That is of course if the walls haven’t shifted by then,”she said, looking over her glasses at them. Draco thanked the Professorand took off down the corridor with Harry following after him.
TheProfessor watched the two boys head down the corridor, warily. Shewasn’t sure why exactly they were looking for Professor Snape, but shewagered it wasn’t anything good. She wasn’t particularly alleged withthe Dark Lord, but she taught at Durmstrang because she quite fanciedthe Dark Arts. She pulled out her pocket watch, noticing the time.She’d better hurry or she’d be late to her own class. She glanced oncemore down the corridor the boys ran down, before turning to hurry toher class.
@*>~
Snape had walked quickly back to hisroom; he knew that no one would be checking the floos at the momentsince the Dark Lord had most of the Death Eaters searching high and lowfor the two boys. Once inside his room, he stopped in front of hisfireplace, knelt down and grabbed a bit of floo powder from its holdingplace. He tossed some into the fire before saying, “Hogwarts, ProfessorLupin.” The flames rose up in a green light before dying back down toits original flare. Snape quickly stuck his head closer to the flames.“Lupin,” he said.
Remus had been on his way out of his office;it was early still and he had a few errands he needed to run before hisfirst class in the morning, when he thought he’d heard a familiarvoice. He paused a moment, straining to hear. He listened hard for abit, but hadn’t heard anything. He shrugged, thinking he may have beenhearing things due to fatigue. He made his way back towards the door,when he heard the voice again, only louder this time.
“Lupin, come quickly.”
Remusran back towards the source of the voice, kneeling quickly in front ofhis fireplace and saw Snape’s face peering at him from within theflames. “Severus? What is it? Why are you fire talking to me, aren’tyou worried you’ll get caught?” Remus asked in rapid-fire succession,glad to see the Potions master wasn’t hurt.
Snape held himselfback from rolling his eyes at the other man. “I don’t have time foridle chit-chat, so listen. I haven’t found Malfoy or Potter yet, andneither have any of the Death Eaters. I presume they’re trying to blendin with the other students here and doing so with moderate skill sincethey’re in the same building as the Dark Lord and haven’t been capturedyet. Of course,” Snape continued, glancing over his shoulderoccasionally in case one of the Death Eaters decided to barge insuddenly. “This whole mess could have been the Dark Lord’s plan fromthe beginning. Potter never did get the hang of Occlumency.”
“Well, whose fault was it to stop training him?” Lupin replied, frowning at the disembodied head of Snape.
Snapesighed. “We don’t have time to argue semantics, Lupin,” Severus said,glaring at the other man. “I need you to apparate to Lena, Russia.”
Remus’ mouth fell open. “Are you mad?” What in the world was Severus planning?
“Iassure you, Lupin, I am in my right mind,” Snape answered. “Let theHeadmaster know if you must, but I need you there to spy for me.”
Remussighed and nodded; seemed he’d be going to Lena. Lupin opened his mouthto say more, but Snape’s head had disappeared, leaving the normal amberglow of the fire in the logs. Remus hoped Severus would be all right,especially since the Dark Lord or his followers could very well havedetected him.
Remus stood up and made his way to his officedoor, not wanting to waste any time and hoping Dumbledore wouldn’t betoo upset his Defense Against the Dark Arts professor decided to takean unscheduled trip. Remus made his way through the school and down thelawns before walking passed the gates and apparating to Lena.
Lupinappeared in the town of Lena, quickly heading towards the main streetsfrom the alley he’d apparated into. He slowed his pace, trying to looklike any other tourist out for a stroll to take in the sights; notthree meters from the alley and he’d suddenly stopped. Cursing himselffor not having done it before leaving Hogwarts, he quickly butcausally, raised the hood of his robes. He’d spotted the tell talerobes of a Death Eater; he was just very thankful that the man’s backhad been towards him.
He had no idea what Severus had planned,but he couldn’t help admiring him. He’d actually missed the grouchy manwhen he had to go off, per the Headmaster’s orders, to Durmstrang.Lupin knew he was beginning to have feelings for the Potions professor,he just wasn’t sure if anything would come of it. Yes, he and Severuswere becoming something akin to friends, but he knew Severus was stillangry about the incident in the shrieking shack all those years ago,which he’d had no part in whatsoever.
Remus sighed at histhoughts. Maybe he should lie down or something. He was feeling verytaxed by the long distance he’d apparated and he just wanted to relaxand maybe sleep, but he knew he couldn’t. Severus was counting on himto scout out Lena. He hoped all the apparating Harry had to endurehadn’t been too hard on him. It was tiring enough when one was in goodhealth, but it was probably worse when one was with child. Remus spentmost of what little daylight he had left lurking about the darkwizarding town of Lena. He must have been to what felt like twentypubs, on the look out for anything amiss. The worst thing about thiswhole trip was how in heaven’s name had Harry and Malfoy been able totraipse amongst the streets without getting seen once? Or had they?
Remussighed again, stepping inside the last pub on the street he’d beenchecking. His step faltered a moment when he finally found what he’dassumed he’d been looking for. Right in the middle of the pub, were twoDeath Eaters. If their robes hadn’t given them away, the two masks laidout on the table in front of them did. Remus made his way to the barand ordered himself a drink, all the while keeping an eye on the tworobed figures. He accepted his drink and paid the bar keep as he sathimself on a stool, which was thankfully within earshot of the two men.
The two Death Eaters hadn’t said much of importance; talkingmostly of their families and Quidditch, but nothing Remus really neededto know. After an hour of listening to the two men talking, Remus wasabout to move on when he suddenly heard Snape’s name mentioned. Remussat up and strained to hear.
“I’m pretty sure Snape’s on ourside, mate,” the Death Eater closest to Lupin said to his companion.“He basically spilled about that Potter boy, saying he was on his wayhere to Lena.”
“I reckon you’re right,” said the other man. “Why do you think all of us are out scouting these bloody cold areas?”
Remusfroze, anger welling up inside of him a moment. The glass in his handshattered suddenly at hearing what the two men had said about Severus.‘Did he really give Harry up to the Dark Lord?’ He thought franticallyto himself. He shook his head to himself at how ridiculous that soundedto him. Dumbledore would never allow Snape to continue helping theOrder if he’d suddenly changed sides. Snape must have had to tell theDark Lord what he’d wanted to hear to keep himself in the dark wizard’sgood graces. Either that or the Dark Lord found out about Harryhimself. Remus sighed quietly, wondering just what the two boys hadbeen thinking to go off after Snape.
Remus sat quietly at thebar, hoping Severus was all right and not at the mercy of the DarkLord. Merlin knew what would happen to Severus if Voldemort found outwhich side Severus was really on. He couldn’t help his feelings for theother man. He’d never mentioned how he felt about Severus to the man.He wasn’t sure if he felt the same way and he didn’t want his heartbroken if he was rejected, so he kept quiet and just enjoyed the factthat he at least had the man’s friendship, if not respect.
Remuswas brought out of his thoughts when he noticed the pub go suddenlyquiet. He turned a bit on his stool, making sure he wasn’t beingobvious in his spying of the two hooded figures and watched as theythrew some money onto the table before grabbing their masks and headtowards the door. Remus waited a beat before following after the men.He sighed in irritation when he couldn’t see the men at all. Theymust’ve been called by Voldemort and simply apparated away.
Remuswandered around, looking through shop windows and such, wondering whathe was suppose to do now. All Severus had told him was to scout outLena and look for anything unusual going on. Everything had seemednormal except for the two Death Eaters he’d overheard and that one whothankfully hadn’t seen him. He supposed he should stay and wait forword from Severus. He really hated leaving Hogwarts in the middle ofthe day without a word to Dumbledore, but he trusted Severus and knewthere was some method to his madness, even if he wasn’t sure what itwas.
He hoped Harry would come through all of this relativelyunscathed. He also wondered where Harry would live after all was saidand done. He knew the boy wouldn’t be going back to his Aunt and Uncleif he could help it. Although, would he decide to stay with hisfather’s only remaining friend, or would he choose to live with Malfoysince they had a child together? And, if Harry chose Lupin, would hewant Malfoy with him and could Remus honestly say at the moment if he’dwelcome Malfoy into his home?
@>*~
Draco and Harrystill hadn’t found Professor Snape. They’d followed the directions theprofessor had given them, but by the time they’d gotten to where shesaid he’d most likely be at, the walls had changed and they foundthemselves more or less where they’d started. They had to spend thenight under Harry’s invisibility cloak in a broom cupboard. Harry hadfallen asleep cuddled up next to Draco, but the blond kept waking up atevery little sound that got too close to where they were hiding. Theycouldn’t use the invisibility cloak to roam around since there werewards surrounding the school that would alert anyone to them. They werejust lucky no one had thought to ward the broom cupboard, but then notmany people had that type of cloak or would want to sleep in a cupboard.
Thenext morning, Draco was tired and cranky from lack of sleep, but heknew Harry required it more then he did. They needed to find Snape andsoon, even if he wasn’t able to do much for them, they could at leastfeel like they had accomplished something and finally get to talk withhim.
They had tried to blend in with the other students millingabout, on their way to their next class or what have you. Draco feltHarry walk into him from behind when the blond suddenly stopped. Upahead were two hooded figures that Draco recognized as being DeathEaters; he knew who most of them were thanks to his father. Dracospotted a classroom across the corridor they were standing in anddragged Harry quickly inside. Both boys were surprised to see theprofessor from the other day; this must have been her class.
Dracopulled Harry after him as they made their way up to the teacher’s desk.“Pardon us, professor,” Draco started, drawing the professor’sattention.
“Hello again, boys,” she greeted. “Were you able to locate professor Snape?”
Dracoshook his head. “No, ma’am, the walls changed on us before we could.Would it be all right if we sit in on your class? My friend and I,” hesaid, indicating Harry, who was letting Draco do most of the talkingsince even with the shifting corridors, he seemed to know his wayaround the dark school. “We’d be first years of course, but we wantedto see if this would be a school we might like to attend.”
Theprofessor eyed the boys suspiciously; they were a little old to beattending any school as first years. “I don’t see the harm in it. Justplease be respectful and don’t disturb my class.”
“We won’t.Thank you, professor. Come on,” Draco said, pulling Harry behind him.They found two empty seats at the back of the class. Draco raised thehood of his robes to cover most of his face and Harry followed his cue,doing like wise.
The professor was pretty sure they weren’ttelling the truth. The boys were acting very suspicious for one, andwith their accents, one would think they’d be attending that school upin Scotland. She supposed this was why the two boys had been lookingfor Snape, but then he wasn’t really a teacher at Durmstrang.
Dracoand Harry settled back as the class began to fill up. No one noticedthem, or if they did, they didn’t seem to care. Harry was surprised tofind out the subject of the class. He knew this school taught the DarkArts, but he couldn’t believe they were actually teaching the studentsthe Unforgivable Curses. He supposed he should be glad that they wereusing insects rather then each other, but of course, the school wouldhave had some major explaining to do if all their students died fromperforming the Killing Curse on each other.
An hour had gone bybefore the class was finally dismissed. The two boys stayed back untilall the students left before they headed out into the corridorthemselves. They continued wandering through the school in search ofSnape; they didn’t want to wander too far least they found themselvescompletely and utterly lost.
“Well, this is just brilliant,”Draco growled, throwing his hands into the air out of frustration.“We’ve wasted all this time walking around and there’s no sign of Snapeanywhere. Please tell me why I went with you again?”
Harry frowned. “We needed to talk to him,” he replied, fingering a loose thread on the hem of his borrowed robes.
“Talkto him about what? All we had to do was wait for him to return to theschool, but oh no, we had to go after him. I must’ve been out of mydamn mind,” Draco seethed, running his hands through his hair inagitation, making his hair stand up in little spikes about his head.
“Well,” Harry said, trying to ignore the blond’s ire. “At least we haven’t run into any Death Eaters?”
“Pfft,”Draco scoffed. “With our luck, they’re probably hiding in the toilets,waiting for that opportunity when one of us needs to take a piss.”
“Um, Draco?” Harry said suddenly, facing the opposite direction the blond was standing.
“What?”
“Erm,those two blokes over there are staring at us,” Harry said, gesturinghis head down the corridor towards the boys he’d pointed out.
Draco whipped around, hand on his wand as he did so. “Hmm,” Draco started, “I don’t think they’re You-Know-Who’s minions.”
“How can you tell?”
“I don’t recognize them. Probably just more blokes after my arse,” Draco said, eyeing the two robed figures warily.
“Well,it’s a nice arse,” Harry said smiling, trying to diffuse the tension hecould sense radiating from the blond in leaps and bounds.
Dracosnorted and rolled his eyes at Harry. “Funny, no really.” Draco grabbedHarry’s sleeve and pulled him along. “Come on, let’s keep looking.” Heled Harry around the corridor, having to back track a few times due tothe shifting walls.
“Say, is this an all boy school? I haven’t seen any girls yet,” Harry asked, looking around as if for the first time.
“There are girls here, just not very many and we wouldn’t be able to pass as girls even if we tried,” Draco replied.
Harrykept quiet for the moment at that as they continued their walk down andaround corridors, hoping eventually they’d have to run into Snape, evenif by accident. The odds weren’t that much against them, were they?They just hoped Snape hadn’t already left, which would have reallysucked.