More to Life

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It was still dark outside when Harry opened his eyes once more. A quick look around made Harry realise he was in the hospital wing, back at Hogwarts. That meant the last voice he heard was indeed someone who had come to save him. The fact that he knew the voice all but sealed it. The very same figure was sat in the chair next to the bed, asleep.

Harry smiled faintly. Severus was ok after all.

The Boy Who Lived was just about to fall back to sleep when he heard a rustling sound from the doorway. He cracked open one eye to see Dumbledore walking towards his bed.

Harry inwardly groaned. He didn't particular want to see the Headmaster at that moment in time. He was tired, he ached and he was hungry.

The Boy Who Lived gave the Headmaster a weird kind of look. By Harry's calculation it had to be about four in the morning. He just shook his head clear and gave the Headmaster a tight smile.

"Ah, morning Harry," Dumbledore greeted.

"Morning, sir," Harry replied. He heard some footsteps echo down the corridor outside the hospital wing. As the footsteps died away, Harry spoke once more. "Sir, what happened when I reached the end of the forest?" he asked.

"You should thank Severus for that, Harry," Dumbledore began. "He had the idea that somehow Death Eaters had gotten into the castle..."

"It was Pettigrew," Harry interrupted.

Dumbledore gave Harry a sombre look. "Are you positive?"

Harry slowly nodded. "At least that's what Avery kept calling the other man anyway."

Dumbledore stroked his bread while he thought. "I shall ask Mr. Avery about that lately."

"You have Avery then?" Harry asked, glad that at least one of the Death Eaters had been caught.

"Yes. Severus stunned him before he could get away."

"What about Weasley?" Harry asked.

"Mr. Weasley is perfectly fine. He was just stunned. He's now back in Gryffindor Tower."

Harry gave a small nod.

Dumbledore leaned a little closer to the dark haired boy.

"What happened in the forest, Harry?" he asked.

Harry hesitated a little before he spoke. "Voldemort was there. He said he wanted to use my blood for a potion to bring him back to his original self, so I ran off." Harry felt a little bit like a coward when he said this, but there was a little voice in his head that told him that he couldn't have done anything else.

Dumbledore gave a thoughtful nod.

"If it helps any sir, Voldemort was occupying someone else's body. Well, more precisely the back of someone's head. I didn't see who the person was."

"Just what I was afraid of," Dumbledore murmured more to himself than to Harry. "Well Harry, I shall take my leave. You are excused from lessons later today." As Dumbledore walked out of the hospital wing, he spoke again. "You can open your eyes now Severus."

Harry heard a muttered curse from his Head of House's direction. The Boy Who Lived smiled. "Doesn't miss a trick, does he?" he said.

"No," Severus mumbled.

"You heard everything I told him." It wasn't a question.

"The Headmaster is rather loud when he wants to be," Severus answered with a small smile.

"I wasn't roaming around outside the castle, you know?" Harry said quickly, nearly tripping over his words.

Severus raised an eyebrow. "Really?"

"You don't believe me, do you? I bet you think I went looking for trouble?" Harry asked rather sulky. "Ask Weasley. His stupid pet rat was really Pettigrew."

Severus was shocked into silence for a few minutes. Eventually he spoke once again. "Why didn't you tell Dumbledore this?"

"Because he probably already knows. Stupid git always knows what goes on in the castle," Harry mumbled.

"Harry," the Potions Master warned.

"What?" Harry asked abruptly.

Severus shook his head. "Never mind."

"Where's my wand?" Harry asked rather suddenly. "I didn't have it with me when Pettigrew stunned me because I was looking for it."

"Draco found it on your bed," Severus said in a somewhat amused tone.

Harry smacked himself on the forehead. "Why did I leave it there? I always take it everywhere with me..."

"One can only wonder."

Harry looked up slowly at his Head of House. "Look, I know I'm a stupid idiot, alright? No need to remind me."

Severus gave a small chuckle and ruffled Harry's hair up. "Get some rest."

Harry did just that.

The Boy Who Lived woke again some hours later to someone poking him repeatedly in the side. He tried to ignore whoever was poking him, but the agitation began to grow.

"If you don't stop poking me in the next few seconds," Harry growled out, "I will curse you with so many hexes you won't know what's hit you."

"Sorry Harry," said a mumbled voice.

Harry knew that voice. He cracked an eye open to see Draco and Blaise hanging over him, each of them grinning their heads off. Draco poked the Boy Who Lived once more for good measure.

Harry gave him a glare. "What time is it?" he asked.

"Just gone twelve. Lunch time," Blaise answered. "What the hell happened to you last night?"

Harry pushed himself up on the bed. "Oh you know, the normal thing. You're walking down a corridor and an animagus rat jumps you and you end up being taken to a man who's housing Voldemort's spirit. Just your average Halloween night at Hogwarts."

Both the boys winced as Harry mentioned Voldemort's name.

"You saw him then?" Draco asked with a small waver in his voice.

"Saw him? He spoke to me," Harry said. "He mentioned that he wanted my blood to make a potion to bring him back to his original self."

Blaise's eyes widened. "I heard my dad talking about that before I left for Hogwarts."

Harry looked at Blaise. "Really?"

"Yeah," Blaise continued. "He was talking to a bloke named Avery, I think."

"He was there last night. Him and Pettigrew," Harry spat the last name out.

"Pettigrew?" Draco said with a gleam in his eye. "Mother was right then."

Harry nodded.

Blaise looked puzzled. "Didn't Pettigrew get murdered years ago?"

"He was meant to have had, but he staged it to make out he had been killed then ran off. Of course it makes sense now. He'd get away easily if he's an animagus," Draco said.

"So Black didn't do anything wrong?" Harry said slowly.

"I told you he didn't," Draco said in a smug tone.

"You told me your mother didn't think he had done it," Harry stated.

"Same thing."

Harry smiled. "What am I going to do with you, Draco?"

"I suppose you'll dump me in the lake about half way through second year," Draco said casually with a grin as he took a Chocolate Frog off the bedside table.

Blaise shook his head. "I'd say he'll dump you by Christmas."

Draco glared and threw the empty Chocolate Frog packet at Blaise's head. It hit the light brown haired Slytherin on the head and bounced onto the floor.

Harry bit his lip to stop himself from laughing. Blaise gave Draco a smile and picked the empty packet up and threw it back. It hit Draco dead in the chest and once again fell to the floor. Draco went to pick it up again.

"Why don't you just stop now?" Harry interrupted, sensing Draco was going to once again throw the packet.

Draco ignored his friend and threw the packet at Blaise, only for it to be caught by Harry out of mid-air. The dark haired boy took the Chocolate Frog card out of the packet and threw the packet itself in the bin at the side of the bed. "Oh look, you got Daisy Dodderidge."

"Hey! Give me that! I haven't got her!" Draco protested.

Harry gave him a smirk. "Tough, you shouldn't have thrown it."

Blaise just laughed at the pair of them.

HE WHO MUST NOT BE NAMED REPORTED TO BE STILL LIVING

A Daily Prophet exclusive can reveal that You Know Who was last reported to be seen in the Forbidden Forest near Hogwarts School. Rumour has it that on Halloween night, which was only two days ago, our very own Boy Who Lived, Harry Potter, was kidnapped from the very grounds of Hogwarts, only to turn up safe a few hours later.

Albus Dumbledore was available for comment. He said, "You Know Who was indeed seen near the grounds of Hogwarts."

Minister of Magic, Fudge, claimed that the sighting is just a false alarm. "We have little to go on, only the word of an eleven year-old boy. Investigations will continue, but there is little cause for alarm."

Harry threw the paper across the table. It just happened to hit Pansy in the chest. She glared at the dark haired boy.

"Watch it!" she growled.

Harry just gave her a look that bluntly told her that he didn't really care what she thought. He took his anger out on his sausage.

"I hope Voldemort goes and bites Fudge on the arse," Harry said sulkily, once again stabbing his sausage.

"What has the sausage ever done to you, Harry?" Blaise asked, giving the sausage a mournful look.

"And bite Fudge on the arse?" Draco put in. "Where do you come up with these things?"

Harry sighed. "It's a figure of speech, Draco," he told the blond boy. "Maybe I should send Fudge a Howler."

Millicent chuckled. "That'd be rather funny to see: Fudge scared out of his wits when an Eleven year old starts shouting at him. He would be scared too, wimp."

"Maybe add a dungbomb in it too," Blaise said cheerily. "Someone should really be there to take a picture."

Harry snorted as he took a bite of his abused sausage. "How did he ever get voted for Minister of Magic?"

Draco shrugged. "It only happened last year sometime, didn't it?"

Millicent nodded. "They never did have a vote because Fudge was the only candidate. That just explains everything."

"I could do a better job than him," Blaise announced.

"Of course you could Blaise," Millicent answered mockingly.

"I'll have you know I'd be the best damn Minister ever, Millie."

Millicent leaned her elbows on the table and placed her chin in her hands. "Really? So tell me Blaise, what would you do first?"

"Pass an act to make teachers give less Homework of course and more holidays," Blaise said with a grin.

Everyone near the pair started to chuckle into their hands. "Just as I though, Blaise," Millicent said amusedly.

Harry tuned everyone else out as he thought. He had a feeling that the Minister would never fully admit that Voldemort would eventually come back. Hell, if he was Minister, he didn't think he would either having heard about the terror Voldemort had caused last time around. There would be a time for believing it eventually, but Harry really didn't see Fudge believing it at all.

And that frustrated him to no end.

Maybe if people were prepared, it wouldn't be as bad as last time. Maybe.

Harry's brain was still working overtime, trying to think what kind of potion could restore a person's spirit back to their body. He wasn't any closer than he was yesterday. He really did hate the library though. Madam Pince was always looking his way, as if she thought that he would run into the restricted section the minute her back was turned.

Maybe he could get Draco to look for him. He was way better at Potions than Harry was.

Harry sighed. He was just glad today was a Saturday. He didn't think he'd have been able to get much work done today.

He turned to look at Draco. "You written to your Mother yet?" he asked.

Draco shook his head. "Haven't had time."

"C'mon, we'll go and do it now. I need to get my mind off what happen at Halloween," Harry said as he stood up.

The two boys went outside and walked close to the Owlery before sitting themselves on the ground. Draco fished a piece of parchment and a quill out of his pocket. He began to write rather quickly, but neatly. He stopped after a while. "Shall I mention Halloween?" he asked.

Harry shook his head. "Sev has probably already told her anyway."

"Probably," Draco murmured. He then carried on writing the letter. When he had finished, he read it through.

Dear Mother,

Sorry I haven't written to you before now, School has been a little more demanding than either Harry or I thought it would be. (Harry, who was reading over Draco's shoulder, snorted at this) We're both in Slytherin, as Sev has probably already told you.

Hogwarts has been enjoyable so far. Harry is still hopeless at Potions. (Harry tried to protest about this, but realised Draco was right) Lockhart is an annoying person. He never teaches us anything. You can even ask Harry if it is true or not if you don't believe me. He looks like the kind of person to run a mile if he saw a golden snidget.

I'll write again soon. I'm just assuming that Sev is telling you everything that's going on at Hogwarts. I don't want to repeat what you already know. Sorry the letter isn't very long.

Draco.

"Aw, c'mon Draco. Where's the 'miss you'?" Harry teased.

Draco growled at him and began to fold the letter up. Harry stopped him.

"Ask if we can stay here for Christmas," the dark haired boy said.

"Why?" Draco asked.

"Because I want to look in the Library without Pince staring at me."

Draco sighed, but asked in his letter anyway. "If we don't go home she'll probably come here."

Harry nodded.

"Look what we have here. The Death Eater in training," a voice interrupted them both.

The Boy Who Lived looked up to see Malkin stood in front of him. The Gryffindor was on his own for a change. He looked as though he was going to the Owlery himself.

"What do you want Malkin?" Draco asked neutrally.

"Nothing much," Malkin said with a smirk. "Just wondered what lies the 'Boy Who Lived' was sprouting off now."

"Malkin, why don't you just piss off before I make you," Harry said without any malice though he was thoroughly irritated on the inside.

"I bet you stunned Ron last night, didn't you. It was all just a ploy to get out the castle and speak to the rest of the Death Eaters. Then you make up a story about being kidnap. It all fits," Malkin said smugly.

Harry's hand twitched towards his wand. "I'm warning you Malkin."

"I bet you wouldn't know what curse to use anyway," Malkin taunted.

Harry, who was just about on the end of his tether, gave Malkin a glare and pointed his wand at him. "Furnunculus!"

Malkin screamed as boils began to cover his body. The Gryffindor ran off nearly tripping over himself without another word.

Draco sniggered. "You should do that more often."

Harry smiled. "You know, I should. That made me feel a hell of a lot better." He then frowned. "It'll come back and bite me in the arse though."

He was right. A few minutes later Malkin came back outside, uncursed, with Professor McGonagall following him. Harry sighed.

"You know it was worth it really," Draco said while giving the dark haired boy a nudge in the ribs.

Harry smiled. "He really was annoying, wasn't he?"

Draco just nodded.

"There he is!" Harry heard Malkin shout. "He hexed me while I was just walking past."

Draco jumped up off the group. "Don't bloody lie!"

"Mr Malfoy," McGonagall said sternly.

"Well he's lying!" Draco protested.

"Mr Potter?" McGonagall turned to Harry.

"I did hex him Professor, but he was calling me a Death Eater in training," Harry said truthfully, not seeing any other way to get out of any trouble anyway.

McGonagall gave the dark haired boy a sharp nod. She looked at Malkin then back at Harry. "You can both have detention-"

"But Professor!" Malkin interrupted.

"No buts," McGonagall said firmly. "Report to me tomorrow night at six and not a minute later. Understood?"

Malkin gave a sulky nod.

"Yes Professor," Harry said.

The Professor then walked away. Malkin gave Harry a glare.

"That'll teach you, you tell tailing git," Harry spat at the plump boy.

Malkin just huffed and walked off. The Boy Who Lived just watched him go.

"Oh, I can see detention is going to be a lot of fun tomorrow night," Harry said sarcastically.

"Isn't it?" Draco replied.

Leatrix Malfoy ~ 24^th November 2003