Diamond In The Rough

"I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain."

-Frank Herbert, Dune, "Litany Against Fear", 1965

Lights flashed against his eyelids, flames of many colours burning his pupils, a beautiful pain. Red, blue, green, silver, yellow, purple, white, black...all the colours imaginable, all threatening to blind and consume him, all too luring and awe-inspiring for him to let go. From the flames came creatures such that he had never seen in his life. A bright hummingbird; two noble wolves, one gold, one silver; a lioness that had authority draped round her like a shroud; a bright orange serpent that hissed soothingly; a black dog of fierce loyalty; a hawk of the same colour that glared with great ferocity and finally a small field mouse. All came to him after disappearing first to his right. As they all faded into him, the fires grew higher, brighter and more painful than before. Harry turned dizzily, looking to the right. There stood a tall black stallion that pranced nervously at the fire’s edge. Its head spun to see Harry, its wild mane flying with the force of the movement. Harry saw a silver stag take a step towards the stallion, before laying its antlers on its back. He didn’t notice the flames lowering...

They were all awake now, Hermione noted. All except Harry and Draco. The whole group watched in awe as the two unconscious wizards simultaneously reached out for the other, clasping each other’s wrists roughly. Around their hands grew a globe of light, flickering with the colours of the potion. Both winced. Lyca tried to scramble to her feet but Hermione stopped her.

"Let the potion take its course."

Harry could feel the connection grow more and more painful. The heat of the flames was less great, but this new pain was worse than that had been. When it felt like he couldn’t take any more, something else happened....

FLASH

Draco was shaking him by the shoulder...he felt dead.....didn’t want move....just wanted to find his rest...

‘Leave me here....I’m not needed anymore....I’m dying anyway...."

FLASH

"You weren’t born to be the boy who lived, and your destiny is not written in the stars. You are what you make yourselves, and what others make you. And right now, I’m going to make you get up."

FLASH

"There is no WAY you are going to get away with dying in front of me a second time."

Finally, the flames died completely, and Harry felt himself plunge downwards, the pain gone as quickly as it had come

"Harry...."

Harry stirred at the sound of his voice. A cold touch at his cheek made him open his eyes blearily. Seeing Lyca, he smiled weakly. "He’s gone....finally gone..."

She stroked his face with the back of her hand. "You did it....despite being told not to. You’ll have a little bit of apologising to do. Hermione doesn’t know whether to hug you or kill you at the moment."

He looked up at the ceiling bleakly. So much had happened. But he could remember so little. Nothing full past his parting with Lyca...after that, it was all scattered jigsaw puzzles, and however hard he tried to piece them together, they fell apart again as soon as he thought he had it complete. He screwed up his face, trying hard to think. Lyca laid a hand on his shoulder.

"Harry....Harry are you alright?"

"There is no WAY you are going to get away with dying in front of me a second time."

Harry opened his eyes as the last thing Draco had said to him ran through his mind for the third time. He had to speak to him, ask him what he’d meant. He couldn’t be confused for the rest of eternity, and if just one thing could be understood...

He turned to look at Lyca again. "Where’s Malfoy?"

"Draco? He’s in there having breakfast," she gestured to the room behind her, "He woke up last night. You’ve been out of it for over a day."

"I need to speak to him..."

"I’ll show him through as soon as he’s finished, but you really should rest some more-"

"Lyca, I have to see him now. Its important."

She sighed and nodded, before going out. A few moments later, Harry heard Draco walk in. He looked up to see the Slytherin leaning against the wall, looking at him expectantly. He sat up in bed, giving Draco a puzzled look before speaking.

"What did you mean?"

Draco raised an eyebrow. "I haven’t turned mind-reader in the past twenty-four hours Potter. I’m afraid you’ll have to be a little more specific. What did I mean about what?"

Harry stopped himself from getting irritated. "What did you mean when you said you weren’t going to let me die in front of you a second time..."

The blonde wizard looked away from him, gazing blankly out of the window. It seemed quite obvious to Harry that he planned to evade the question. He frowned.

"Well?"

"There’s nothing to tell Potter, and to be quite honest, its none of your business."

"If it was none of my business, then you wouldn’t have yelled it at me back there. Where had you seen me die before?"

"Just.... don’t Potter. I don’t want to talk about it."

"Malfoy, if I have to, I’ll spike your pumpkin juice with Veritaserum-"

He was cut off by Draco’s laugh. He looked back at Harry. "I’m sure Snape would be most interested at you and your significant other’s newly found love for drugging me. Though I think I prefer Lyca’s version. Fine, I’ll tell you...Veritaserum isn’t exactly appealing to me as a recreational drug. You remember when we had just gone through the individual chambers?"

"Yes...you wouldn’t talk about yours."

"I wouldn’t now if I had any apparant choice. As soon as I walked through the door, I was ambushed by two hooded guards. They held me against a wall. And then, in front of me, another two slaughtered everyone I have even the slightest care for. My wife, my son, Lyca, Hannah, Hermione, my mother...."

"Me?"

"Yes Potter, you as well. It was so real...it was like you really had just been dragged from your chambers to mine. I believed it...believed it absolutely. As soon as they’d killed the last of you, they let me go. I...I couldn’t do anything. And, I vowed there and then that if there were anyway to not only have you all back, but be able to protect you, I would. The four hooded guards came up to me then, and gave me this-"

Harry watched carefully as Draco pushed up his sleeve and showed him a gold band that fitted his wrist perfectly. It had two words of Latin engraved upon it over the vein.

"Patronus Iuratus"

Harry looked up at the grey eyes looking at him expectantly. "What does it mean?"

"It means, Potter, Protector Under Oath. I can’t escape from it. I don’t break my oaths anyway, and this is further reminder. So, if you are happy..." Draco turned to go.

"Draco.."

He turned from the doorway, "What now?"

"Thank you. For saving my life."

"Nothing beyond the call of duty I’m afraid. Now, if you would let me go, I have a breakfast to eat. Even us accidental life savers have to consume the odd meal. Though I probably shouldn’t accuse a courageous Gryffindor such as yourself of knowing such things."

With that he left, and Harry was alone with his thoughts.

"Harry?"

Harry looked up from the piece of toast he was debating over whether to eat or not, and saw Hermione looking over him with what looked like concern in her brown eyes. He gave her the largest smile he could muster.

"Good morning."

"Actually, its afternoon now. You took your time in getting up. So, how are you feeling? Draco’s alright, but he didn’t take as much potion as you did."

Harry pondered for a moment. "I feel alright in myself. But..."

"But what?" Hermione’s eyes narrowed in worry.

"Well....I cant remember it. The thing with Voldemort....ever since leaving Lyca, ‘til finding myself in bed...all I have are jigsaw pieces, and I cant fit it all together. I wish I knew completely what happened....but I only have remnants...will I ever remember it all Herm?"

She sat down at the table, brow furrowed in thought still. "To be honest Harry? The potion we used to get your soul back together...which I’m guessing you have at least vague memories of...we made it up. We don’t know what the side-effects are. So, I hope it’ll come back. It might not even be the potion, but something to do with the Curse. So...I can’t tell you. We can but hope."

He nodded. "That’s fair enough I suppose...I just I knew where we go from here."

Hermione placed a hand on his shoulder. "We go on breathing, go on taking breath and doing what we can. Voldemort may not be our enemy anymore. You can kill a man, but you cant kill his idea."

"It’s just like he said..."

"What?"

"Draco. He said to me, ‘You weren’t born to be the boy who lived, and your destiny is not written in the stars. You are what you make yourselves, and what others make you.’. He was right I suppose..."

Hermione chuckled. "One thing we can say about Draco is that he can come out with the most insightful thing you can imagine. And the next minute, something so completely narrow-minded, it sends you spinning. But that time he was right. Our destiny goes unwritten. Even yours. And we just remain, even when everything we thought we lived for has gone. We still remain."

Remus sat in his office contemplating. He wasn’t alone. By the window, Sirius paced to and fro. He looked uneasy. Finally, he looked at Remus, who turned to face him too.

"Do you think he’s really brain dead?"

"I dont know Sirius, I certainly hope so."

"If he isn’t..."

"Then we’ll try something else. That’s what we always did before."

"There’s nothing to try this time Moony, you know that as well as I!"

Remus put down his goblet, getting up to look out of the window. "Whatever happens, there’ll always be enemies to fight Padfoot my friend. And, personally, I wouldn’t have it any other way."

Sirius smiled and gripped his old friend’s arm. "We’ll keep going then, I guess."

"We’ll keep going. You, me, Hermione, Harry, Lyca, Ron, even Draco..."

The black haired man sighed, looking out the window himself. "We never took time for breath before, why would we start now..."

They both fell silent, looking out of the window over the school grounds, watching as the moon started to slip behind the clouds

"Want anything ‘Mione?"

Lyca walked into the room she and Hermione were sharing, not far from Gryffindor Tower. She put down the tea tray she’d brought herself before looking inquisitively at the older woman. "Tea, Coffee, Food?"

Hermione turned to her, looking a little dazed. "Actually.... I really want bananas. As many as plausibly possible. And peanut butter. Deep need for peanut butter"

Lyca eyed her carefully, her head tilted as she gave her friend a calculating look. A few moments later, she nodded decisively.

"Don’t suppose there’s any chance of you being...well...pregnant again, is there?"

The woman bit her lip. "Is it really that obvious?"

"Just a little."

Hermione sighed, and rubbed her eyes wearily before conjuring up 4 bananas and a jar of peanut butter. Dipping one of the fruit into container, she took a bite, ignoring the slight look of disgust upon Lyca’s face. Lyca waited before asking her next question.

"When do you plan on telling Ron?"

"Not yet. He’s stressed Lyca. What with Charlie’s death...I was going to tell him that night, but then we were called out..."

"You have to tell him sometime. It won’t be all that long til he notices."

"Soon. I promise. Soon."

With that, they both sank into silence.

Everything was dark at the Riddle house. The tall figure lay on the bed unmoving, its chalk white skin a striking contrast to the ebony black robes swathed around it. No sound came from outside, there being no mortal guard, only wards. No wind shifted outside, no star twinkled through the heavy clouds, no moonlight shone through the curtains.

In this deepest of nights, the man on the bed opened his eyes a crack. Red were his irises, a chilling colour. They swept the room, leaving none of it untouched by their sight. Slowly, it closed it again.