A Bond of Power

Chapter Two: A Bonding

Draco sighed happily. He finally had it down. Everything he needed to know and be able to do to Apparate. He knew and could do everything. All he had to do now was pack.

Even if it was just a month before school, he had to get out. The beatings were getting worse and his claustrophobic fear was really starting to get to him. The beatings were more frequent and his father now seemed to be getting desperate. Draco whimpered slightly as he gingerly prodded his dislocated shoulder. It was a good thing he had his wand. He had found several books about healing spells and they had been very useful. He muttered one of them and gave his shoulder a sharp tap. He relaxed slightly but tensed again as the absence of pain let in his awareness of the darkness around him. Muttering to himself, he lurched up and lit his wand with a yell to vent his fear. His eyes ached from the sudden flare of light, but he began pacing anyhow. "Onetwothreefour, onetwothreefourfivesixseveneightnineten, onetwothreefour, onetwothreefourfivesixseveneightnineten, onetwothreefour..."

It was a good thing he had finally got it down he thought. This was the tenth time he had started pacing since the last beating. When you get so claustrophobic that you're willing to pace a room to assure yourself that it's still the same size with a dislocated shoulder and other injuries until the pain nearly makes you faint - it is quite obvious that you need to get out. Draco kept thinking of light that wasn't from his wand; stale air that was only relieved by the tiny door to his personal dungeon opening to allow another beating. He desperately needed to get out. The only problem was that he didn't know where to go.

Oh well, he would cross that bridge when he got there.

Luckily for him the house elves still came into his room. The house elves were really the only living beings in his house that didn't think of him or treat him as a tool, and in turn, he didn't treat them that way. It had made them as mutual allies. No one in his family really cared for him. His mother was just like his father, between him and a chance for power, they would grab the power without a backward glance for him.

Sometimes it seemed that even the house elves were treated better than him. But the house elves and Draco had a sort of deal - basically, they did what Draco requested and were respectful and Draco would let them use his room to hide in when his parents, namely his father - his mother would never stoop to beating-, were in the mood to beat up something, namely a house elf. They had never really beaten Draco since he was under the curse even at home so that he wouldn't run away during the holidays, but now that he wasn't...sometimes he thought that his father came in to beat him after the "no" for his own sadistic pleasure.

~~~

Draco thought back to the time before he had been given the Curse. Before Voldemort had been defeated, he had left instructions on putting the curse on Draco before he went to Hogwarts just in case Harry survived - however unlikely that was - and Draco's father had followed them even though the master was defeated. If Voldemort was ever resurrected, it would be proof of his father's "loyalty".

Before the curse, Draco had always been a quiet boy, and was very scholarly with a cynical and jaded view on life. He had had scores of private tutors on many things, but deep down, he had hated them and his parents. They never did anything with him except the absolutely necessary and he had never had childhood friends.

Well, it was best not to dwell on such things on the day of his leaving of this horrible place. He knew that he could trust the house elves to keep his secret so he had told them. Wills was coming into the room now with a trunk and with a lamp so that Draco could start packing his stuff. Nora was coming up behind him with his school stuff.

"Thanks you guys," said Draco quietly, they might have been allies against his parents, but it was a really touching surprise when they started helping him.

"Master," piped Wills, a tear rolling down his cheek, "we are kindred. We will always remember your kindness. We will all regret that we cannot come with you away from this place."

Draco smiled sadly at that. Even after all the beatings they still couldn't forget their loyalty.

Nora then spoke, as quiet as Draco, "Master, let us do this one small task for you before you go."

"Thank you."

All the house elves came in, Wills, Nora, Pippins, Ami, and Lulu, and started packing for Draco though there was not much. All Draco had to pack was his wand, his broom, his school robes, homework, school books and supplies, as well as several changes of clothing. While Pippins added a rather large packet of food and Draco made a decision. He calmly walked toward the shelves that had held his only comfort for months and pulled down every single book and crammed them all into his trunk. Wills had to take the food packet out in the end even though every book had been shrunk so that it wouldn't get squashed. Finally when every thing was packed, Wills handed the food to Draco who in turn took it with a murmur of thanks.

The house elves then lined up solemnly in front of Draco as he prepared to Disapparate.

_____

Voldemort sighed in frustration. Malfoy's son still hadn't gotten around to submitting. Why, he thought with a tired, angry resigned mental tone, did every villain in history have such incompetent lackeys? Malfoy knew practically nothing in the nature of torture! Although, he had to admit, the room was a nice touch, but one does not go and beat the victim to the edge of submitting then leave! He sighed; it was almost time for the dratted boy to go to school. He might as well go and show Malfoy how one is really supposed to torture.

_____

Draco intended to use the transportation system called the Knight Bus. He could use it to get to Hogwarts since he couldn't go there directly by Apparating. But you needed money to get on the Knight Bus. Then he decided to Apparate to Diagon Alley, go to Gringotts, raid his father's vault, signal the Knight Bus and head for Hogwarts. He'd even stay with the half giant Hagrid who probably hated him if it meant getting away from here.

Draco raised his wand and was about to Disapparate when he heard footsteps striding down the hallway towards his room. The house elves melted into the shadows and Wills snuffed out the lamp.

Draco had to hurry before his father got here. He was about to go when the door burst open and...Voldemort appeared. Draco gulped in fear and his mind nearly panicked, but he somehow managed to Disapparate. Unfortunately, his mind wasn't clear so the results of Disapparating were unknown. The worse that could happen would be for him to get splinched...

_____

Voldemort strode toward the little, plain wooden door that marked Malfoy's son's tiny personal dungeon. He always liked to be dramatic so instead of opening the door like Malfoy usually did, he swung it open with a crash expecting to frighten the boy out of his wits. After all, if he had to do this, he might as well have some fun...

He did receive the scaring out of his wits part, but the boy apparently didn't stay long enough for him to enjoy a reaction.

~~~

He was furious.

If he could have gotten the boy to become obedient toward him, he could have had an unlimited supply of power to tap into. He turned on Malfoy who seemed to be in shock.

"HOW DID HE LEARN TO DISAPPARATE?!" screamed Voldemort.

"I-I have n-n-no idea...m-m-aster," stuttered Lucius.

Voldemort looked closely at the room; it was pitch black in there. "Lumos," he muttered. As the end of his wand brightened, he looked around and saw...bookshelves. "Why," he asked in a dangerously calm voice, "are there bookshelves in here?"

_____

Harry had finally found someone to confide in. Okay, so it was a snake, but it was someone, and besides, she was blind. If she was blind, she wouldn't see him so it was okay, he wouldn't get beaten. He shuddered. No, he mustn't think about being beaten.

He had found Alina yesterday while weeding the garden. The Dursleys had gone out to the movies and Vernon had said, rather loudly, that if the slave didn't weed the garden, he wouldn't be able to weed anything for weeks by the time he would be done with him. Yes, he was down to being called a slave now.

He somehow hadn't minded talking to Alina, speaking with Alina didn't really mean making noise....as long as he didn't dwell on the thought of not making noise.

It was now around two in the afternoon. The Dursleys were somewhere watching another movie. This meant some time to be alone with out the constant fear of being seen or heard. All the chores were done for once too.

He sat on the edge of his bed, facing the barred window. Alina slithered up next to Harry. Harry smiled at her; just looking at her gave him a small spark of emotion that he hadn't been feeling for a while. He was glad for it.

She was a beautiful snake, an albino garter with milky eyes of violet. It was really a rather nice combination. An added bonus was that Alina was very intelligent, and practical in nature, which reminded him of Hermione. Another factor was that she cared for Harry as a friend.

Ssss, Harry, you think too much. This is your day off. Have some fun for once...go raid the kitchen. You are so skinny that if you were a rat I wouldn't eat you.

"You don't eat rats silly, garter snakes eat fish and frogs."

What makes you so certain? Well, anyway, what I'm trying to say is that you look extremely underfed.

"I suppose I am a little hungry."

Good, now be sensible and go get some food.

Harry had just gotten up to walk toward the kitchen, with Alina twined around his arm when he heard a thump behind him. Behind him was his bed, what could have landed on his bed?

Whatever or whoever it was, Harry was panicking- he shouldn't be seen! He couldn't be seen! He would get beaten for it. Without looking to see who it was, Harry rushed out of the bedroom, his panic escalating with each step that he took. As Alina was wrapped around his arm, she was also taken on the wild run, an unwilling rider.

Harry! Ssss. Calm down! You don't even know what it is!

But Harry was beyond listening. He finally ran out into the garden. Somehow, looking at the trees outlined in the blue sky made him calmer. Or at least calm enough to listen to what Alina was saying.

Harry! You should go back to see who it is! Maybe it's this Ron you keep telling me! It might be someone who has come to take you away to the Weasleys or something!

Harry had confided into Alina everything the day that he had found her. He had been so desperate for someone to share his isolation. "But Alina, I'm scared...what if I get beaten for being seen?!"

That's nonsense and you know it!

Harry sighed, he guessed his fears were really stupid...but when he thought of all those beatings, with those - those looks, and the silence! He couldn't take it anymore! No! He didn't want to be beaten, he was already so broken.....he clutched his head as the memories came, unbidden and unwanted. He wanted to scream, and his throat pulsed like it was going to, but no sound came out, none at all.

Alina hissed in sympathy. Hssss, Harry, I know it's hard, but you have to face your fears sooner or later.

Harry's head jerked up, somehow, Alina's voice broke through. He took several deep, calming breaths. "O-okay, here I go..."

_____

Draco blinked several times; he hadn't seen the sunlight for so long, his eyes were watering with pain from the light. As his eyes adjusted he looked around. Gods, where was he?! If not for the fact that he was inside a room, he would have thought that he had landed in a junk yard. He seemed to be surrounded by what could only be Muggle stuff, and each and every piece of junk in here seemed to be broken in one way or the other. The only things that seemed to be untouched were the books in the shelf across the bed.

He should try to organize what happened...

Okay, first thing: he had been sitting on the chest so that it would Apparate with him; he had raised his wand to prepare...

Second thing: You Know Who burst through the door, nearly blinding him and scaring the wits out of him, in fact, he was still scared.

Third thing: he had felt a sense of vertigo before dropping with a thump onto this bed in a junkyard/room. He remembered seeing someone or something running out of the room though....

Draco sighed, at least he was out in the open again, and it felt so good to be the one making the decisions now. He felt such fierce joy in being free from his father's orders, and the promise of no more beatings and abuses. Looking around the odd room with his eyes watering from his happiness and from the sunlight that he was unaccustomed to, he felt as if it were all a dream. The sense of being free was so new after all the time in his room that he couldn't help but think that it would all disappear.

Draco suddenly felt a presence close by. Ever since he had been locked up, he had developed a sort of sixth sense to the presence of others near him; it had helped him prepare for his father's entrances. He hadn't felt You Know Who or his father because he had been so caught up in escaping.

He twisted around to see who it was and met a pair of green eyes.

Those eyes were the most beautiful eyes that he had ever seen; the color of shattered ocean - washed glass with the sunlight glowing through the broken shards.

They looked so vulnerable, wide open with surprise and ...fright. The fear in those eyes was so deep, it seemed to strike something deep within him, and with a shock, he recognized who those eyes belonged to. Harry Potter. But those eyes showed something so broken and full of fear, it hurt.

As Draco looked into those eyes, he felt that some chord was being struck and that pure note that was being produced was traveling throughout his entire body. With a shock, he felt that note being answered, and as it was answered, some power in him blossomed and blew through and out his body....the power met another and they merged, growing....

Draco stared, "...Harry....." he whispered...

Say my name, sun shines through the rain

The whole life, so lonely

Then come and ease the pain

I don't want to loose this feeling~ By the Bangles

_____

Harry noiselessly - everything he did nowadays was noiseless - walked up the stairs. Every few steps he would stop and crouch, the fear over whelming him. Why? Some inner part of him thought that this fear was stupid, and unnecessary, but he couldn't stand anymore beatings! Some irrational part in him was shivering with the fear of being seen because being seen meant being beaten. His inner self battered itself against the walls of his fear trying desperately to fee himself from the cage that the fear formed.

Alina felt terrible sadness for Harry, this golden boy who was now tarnished and dulled. She felt instinctively that if Harry couldn't overcome his fears at such a simple thing, then he never would.

When they finally made it to the second floor and to the door way of Harry's bedroom, at least 15 minutes must have passed. Harry peeked cautiously around the edge of the door frame and....froze. Alina slithered up to Harry's shoulder, curious about what had happened. Harry didn't know it, but Alina could see through Harry's eyes, it was a talent of hers as she was blind for life.

What first struck Alina was the absolute beauty of the boy sitting on top of the trunk which was on top of Harry's bed. He had the faintly luminescent glow of someone who hadn't really seen the sun for a while, long enough for it to be noticeable, but not enough to make him look pasty. His hair seemed to brighten the room, reflecting off the sunlight that was coming in through the barred window. The hair resembled a glowing mass of white-blond silk that fell charmingly across his face with the bangs falling into his eyes.

His face was almost delicate with an aristocratic structure and a slender build that was similar to Harry's

But what really struck Alina were his eyes. Looking into them, it seemed that the only thing that was holding the boy to his sanity were thin but strong strands of a near desperate will to survive. They had a wild and fey look of a wild animal that had been kept too long from its natural element; the mad look of something that had come close to being broken but had not and was all the madder for it. The only other emotion in there was a relief from something that seemed similar to Harry's situation. And his eyes glowed bright silver from what appeared to be tears. The color of the eyes might possibly have been duplicated if one took silver, pearl, and the grey of clouds and ground them together in a mixture.

However, as much as Alina would have liked to have stared at the boy's beauty through Harry's eyes, something else was happening. She could feel a tight, magical tension growing in the room. It was a huge amount of magic and she had to find the source before it caught someone's attention; namely, Voldemort. Alina tensed as she sent her soul into the Other Plane, the plane of pure magic to see what the disturbance was.

She was nearly frozen by the sheer amount of magic that was building on the plane where the two boys spiritually were. If it wasn't' controlled soon, it would soon start affecting the physical world without guide or order. That in it self would be disaster.

When a wizard said a spell, he tapped into this plane and there the plane's magic flowed towards the spell caster, the castor took some of it, gave it a direction and an order and released it. The more powerful the castor, the more magic flowed. With out the direction and order, magic would simply flow off and warp everything it touched.

Harry didn't know it, but Alina was in truth his familiar, and as such, she had to control his magic until he could himself. As a familiar, she was to guide and aid him throughout his entire life, a lifelong mentor, counselor, and guide.

She couldn't, and wouldn't force the magic to become dormant, but she could and did drain it evenly across the plane - temporarily.

_____

Draco gasped as the power that had flooded him only moments before was beginning to fade. He could tell that it was still there and could come back in an even larger magnitude, but having it fade made him feel...almost empty. He probably would have felt empty if not for this other presence in his mind and soul.

Finally, he had found the other half of his soul or at least that was what it felt like. He could feel this other presence beginning to meld with him. Soon it would know everything about him. His whole life, all the little faults and good things that made him what he was, he would be baring his soul to his other self. And he would also be learning all the little quirks that made up his other self as well. Learning them, and learning to accept them.

He tensed as he felt his other exploring him. He knew it was a silly fear, but, what if he was rejected? He didn't, just couldn't think about that possibility. So, even as he acknowledged it as an utterly ridiculous reaction, he reveled in the joy that he was utterly accepted. Every single little quirk, fault, and wrong was found, noted, and accepted.

This person was his soul mate; soul mate. The words seemed to echo through his mind as he slowly slid off his trunk, past the bed and onto the floor. He slowly walked toward him, feeling an unexplainable need to touch his other self; a need for contact.

______

Harry felt a shudder throughout his entire body as he experienced the exact same things that Draco was.

Alina only nodded her head, this was right; there was no need for her to interfere. Soon, she would become both their familiar, and there would be a need to reveal who she truly was to them.

As Draco walked towards him, Harry lifted a hand in response. As their palms touched, the most fantastic feeling flooded Harry. A sudden flare of joy that started at their joined palms and crept slowly throughout his entire self, intensifying with each moment.

Something snapped in him and all the traumas and fears flowed from him and even as the faded from him, he could feel a similar reaction Draco. As they were broken, they would be melted, melded and made into a newer, better form; stronger for the fact that they were two instead of one.

The traumas would never really leave them, but they were stronger from them. Harry might never speak again and Draco would probably be claustrophobic for the rest of his life, but having faced their fears, they would be better, more prepared.

Without a word, for words were unnecessary for them, they got up in union and walked purposefully toward their belongings. Draco packed Harry's belongings for him while Harry got out his broom. They then packed their trunks and Hedwig's cage onto the boom. The objects seemed to shrink and grow light under their touch though neither noticed.

Once everything was packed, they went down to the garden, the Firebolt trailing along in the air behind them. Once they reached the garden, Draco got onto the broom with Harry in front of him. Draco wrapped his arms around Harry as he kicked off, and off they flew; away from the fears, the traumas, and the sad things, and into an unknown future.

Harry leaned into the wind, what was this tight burning feeling in his chest? What this yearning, a longing that was just waiting to be fulfilled; this utter unexplainable joy? Did he know it, Draco? Even as he thought this, he felt the other's reassuring pressure; felt the thoughts that he was thinking, the affirmation. How silly, of course he knew, Draco knew his whole soul and mind. There was nothing left to hide from him.

Every thought that he thought would be known instantly by him. Every single feeling, every want, every flaw, every perfection would be known and vice versa. Harry could have laughed at this revelation, but deep down, the fear still gripped him. He was happy though when he felt Draco's arms tighten in sympathy. He leaned back a bit into Draco's arms and sighed happily.

After about a half hour flight, they landed, unnoticed in the small courtyard behind the Leaky Cauldron. After entering and securing a room with two beds, they settled in to relax and revel in their newfound bond. A few days after they settled in, Harry and Draco got their annual Hogwarts letters.