Let the Darkness Take You

A two-story house appeared in front of Harry and he quickly checked that he still had everything with him. When he found that he had, he took the Invisibility Cloak off, folded it up and put it inside his black cloak and put the hood up. As he walked to the house, he felt his adrenaline pumping through his veins and he couldn’t help the smile that spread slowly across his face. This was where he’d find people who would accept him. Stepping up to the door, he cautiously opened it up and stepped inside. Two hooded people were just inside the hallway and they stepped in front of him.

“What is your business here?” the man on the right asked.

“I’ve been summoned.”

“We weren’t told.”

“Well obviously he doesn’t tell you everything. Do you even know who you are guarding the door with right now?”

“Um... no, actually.”

“I just proved my point. Get out of my way before I make you get out of my way,” Harry threatened while pulling out his wand.

“Go right ahead,” the second one said quickly while motioning Harry down the hall. Harry nodded his head slightly and continued down the hall, knowing he was going the right way when his scar began to burn slightly. The last door at the end of the hallway had a light gleaming from the bottom crack; and Harry quickly went to it and opened the door. He found himself in the room that he had dreamt of when he Saw Snape being tortured.

A small smile spread over his lips when he saw just the man he was looking for, pacing the room, with two more hooded men standing before him, cowering. “How could you two be...” he stopped talking when he spotted Harry. “Didn’t I ask not to be disturbed until I was done with these two?” Voldemort asked in a deadly quiet voice. Harry stood up straight and walked toward him, leaving only a few feet between them and bowed down.

“I am sorry, my lord. The two men outside did not stop me from entering. I did not know you were busy.”

“Well, what is your business with me tonight?”

“I have come to offer myself to you, my lord.”

“You are not one of my servants already? Most people come without the proper clothing on.”

“I had to borrow this from another one of your servants just to be safe. I wanted complete anonymity until I revealed myself to you.”

There was silence for a few moments. “You may stand. And you two... Crucio!” The two men fell down in pain and began screaming. Harry winced as his scar began to burn fiercely in his head. He had to fight with all his will to not clamp his hand over it. Instead, he bit his lip to try to take his mind away from the pain. Harry watched as Voldemort lifted his spell and levitated the two limp forms out the door and sent them crashing to the wall outside. Harry watched them fall to the floor and the door slam shut before he turned back to the man before him.

“Complete anonymity, you say? If you wanted that, then you must be one of my enemies. Afraid I might kill you?” he sneered. Under the cover of his hood, Harry rolled his eyes.

“I used to be, but not anymore. I’ve been told that you wanted me by your side, and I’m willing to give my loyalties to you.”

“Indeed. How do I know that you are loyal to me now?”

“I can only give you my word...” Harry reached into his pocket and retracted his wand and lay laid it on the palms of his hands. “…and my wand.” Voldemort summoned it into his awaiting hands and opened his red eyes in surprise when sparks emitted from it. He sent a silver mist towards the door from his own wand. A moment later, a few hooded men came in and bowed down at the Dark Lord’s feet. “Search this young man here. But, do not lower his hood quite yet. He only wants his identity with me.” Two sets of hands began roaming his body, searching for anything that may harm their master. The only thing that was on Harry was his Invisibility Cloak.

“He has an Invisibility Cloak, Master. What shall we do with it?”

“Please don’t take it! I need it to get back into the castle, otherwise I’ll be in trouble for leaving the grounds.”

“The castle?” Voldemort asked. “You are speaking of Hogwarts, aren’t you?”

“Yes, I am speaking of Hogwarts. I am a student there.”

“Convenient. I could use another person there to recruit people. What house are you in?”

“Gryffindor.”

The older wizard gave a sharp laugh and immediately the others joined in. “I am surprised. Gryffindors are usually right in Dumbledore’s pocket.” He motioned for the Cloak to be given back. “Your wand,” he continued after the Death Eaters stood by his side, “it contains a phoenix feather, does it not?”

“It does. It comes from the same bird that your feather did, my lord.” Voldemort looked sharply at Harry and stared.

“Leave,” he commanded the Death Eaters without removing his eyes from the hooded youth before him. He waited until the door closed and then approached Harry, trying to see through the veil of darkness that shrouded his face. “Are you ready to show me your face, boy?”

Harry slowly lowered his hood and stared into Voldemort’s blood red eyes. He stared at Harry in disbelief for a few moments before breaking out into hysterical, high-pitched laughter. Harry raised an eyebrow and calmly waited for him to speak again. “Harry Potter! As I live and breathe,” he said finally. “It actually worked. Who brought you here?”

“Nobody, I came here by myself.”

“Really? I would have thought you had gone to somebody for help. How did you know where to find me?”

“I asked another Death Eater. I only told him it was for knowledge sake.”

“And who was this?”

“Severus Snape.”

“Ah, he would have helped you no matter what. You didn’t need to be so secretive about it.”

“No, I think I did. He doesn’t like me. He’d never give me the time of day.”

Voldemort seemed to ponder this idea for a moment, and nodded his head the slightest bit, then continued with questioning the young man before him. “Now... just to be sure, you are not here for that Muggle-loving fool Dumbledore, are you?”

Harry scoffed. “I have not spoken to him since he kicked me out of the Great Hall for merely being there. I’d rather be somewhere where I know the people won’t betray me.”

Voldemort smiled and had Harry not been asking to join his side, it would have sent shivers down his spine. For some reason, this man didn’t scare him at all anymore. Even though he now held both of their wands and could strike Harry down at the mention of two words, he didn’t care. Somehow, he knew that Voldemort wouldn’t do that to him anymore. They were on the same side. Voldemort began circling Harry, twirling his wand between his hands.

“You have no idea how long I have waited for this day, Harry. After you left the graveyard the first time we met with my new body, I knew that I had to have you on my side. This has been a long time in waiting, but it will most definitely be worth it. Did the person who told you that I wanted you, also tell you that I wanted you as my second in command?”

“He said that I was powerful enough, but not that you wanted me to have the honour.”

The Dark Lord came to a stop in front of Harry, cupped his chin and turned his face up. Burning pain shot through the scar on his forehead and he couldn’t help the wince that came from the touch. Voldemort narrowed his eyes. “Why do you flinch when I touch you?”

“It... it burns my scar, my lord,” Harry stuttered through clenched teeth. The older wizard moved Harry’s fringe aside with Harry’s own wand and examined it.

“Does it do anything else?”

“I sometimes have dreams of what you are doing.”

“Is that how you knew that Severus is my servant?”

“Er, - yes, it is,” he lied. He wasn’t so sure if he wanted to rat his Potions Master out quite yet, even if he was working for Dumbledore. The information could be useful. “I Saw you giving him the Cruciatus three times a couple months ago.”

“And does it hurt in these dreams?”

“Yes. I usually wake up from the pain.”

“Hmm. I will get my best servants to find a remedy for it. Perhaps Severus will have something for you. That way he can administer it to you at school. The remedy could be easily accessible for you.”

“Oh! Can you not tell him about me? I, er, don’t particularly like him, you know. I don’t want to see him more than I already do.” Voldemort eyed him suspiciously for a few moments before laughing his eerie laugh.

“Of course. He will not know of you. Is there anybody else who you do not wish for them to know?” Voldemort said, with a hint of amusement in his voice.

“Is there anybody from Hogwarts that I would know?”

“Yes, there are two more than Severus. Draco Malfoy is one. The other one is a secret, just as you are. You will know in time.”

“Dr... Draco Malfoy is a Death Eater?” Harry stuttered out.

“Yes, he was just initiated in the middle of February. Do you not want him to know?”

Harry thought quickly before he betrayed any of his emotions. “No, I don’t. Don’t tell him either. Though if you did, maybe we could be friends, but I don’t know if I want to be.”

“I like the way your mind works. You like to keep your enemies... well, with the exception of me. And to think, Draco never did anything as extreme as killing your parents,” he sneered. An angry jolt of energy went through Harry and he narrowed his eyes.

“Oh, no. I still hate you for that. Don’t get me wrong here; I’ve had to live with my blasted Muggle relatives my entire life because of you.”

Voldemort smirked and paced back to his throne-like chair. “I feel your pain. Believe me, I do. Down to business, Harry, have you ever cast an Unforgivable?”

“Only the Imperius, my lord.”

Voldemort looked faintly surprised by this, but chose to ignore it. “Put your hood up again.” Harry complied and Voldemort sent the silver mist once again and two Death Eaters hurried in. “I’ll only need one of you,” he declared. “Harry, why don’t you try the Imperius first. Make him do whatever you want.” He then threw Harry’s wand back at him, and he caught it deftly in his wand hand.

“Imperio!” he cried.

The man’s body went limp and Harry commanded with his mind for him to bow down at his feet. The man dragged himself over and bowed down; and then after further encouragement, he kissed the hem of Harry’s robes. With another wave of his wand, Harry lifted the curse.

“Brilliant!” Voldemort cried as if he were teaching Harry a simple leg locking charm. “Try the Cruciatus. It’s a bit more difficult than that one.” The man that was still kneeling on the floor, cowered before Harry as he raised his wand.

“Crucio!” The man twitched but did not scream out. When Harry lifted the curse, the Death Eater looked up at his attacker and snorted.

“That’s the best you can do?” he sneered.

“Crucio!” Voldemort bellowed from his chair and hit the man square in the chest. “You will do well to treat him with respect, Macnair. He will soon be my second in command. Harry, cast Avada Kedavra on him. You’ll only be able to knock him out.”

Harry took a deep breath, in an attempt to calm his shaking hands. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he knew that it was wrong to cast the spell that had killed his parents. He quickly put an end to that thought and pointed his wand at Macnair. “Avada Kedavra!” A faint green light erupted from his wand and he heard an even more faint rushing sound and the curse hit Macnair in the chest. He immediately fell over onto his face.

“Check his pulse, and if he’s alive, just send him out into the hallway. Somebody is bound to take pity and tend to him.”

Harry fell down onto his knees and felt the man’s pulse. He felt a sinking feeling in his stomach when he found one. He had been rather hoping that the curse had worked. With a flick of his wrist, he sent the man flying through the door and ‘accidentally’ let him hit the wall, just as Voldemort had done with the two who had been in the room earlier.

“Wonderful, Harry. Although I would have preferred you coming to me fully trained in this area so that we could initiate you straight away, I am glad to have you here, so I am willing to train you three nights a week. I would do more, but I am sure you can deduce that I am a busy man. As it appears that we are connected through your scar, I believe that I will use it to let you know when I want you to come. You may go now. We’ll be in contact soon.”

Harry bowed down before him once again. “Thank you for your kindness, my lord.”

“Anything for you, Harry Potter,” Voldemort replied with a demonic glint to his eyes. Harry turned to leave but stopped when a question popped into his mind.

“If I may ask, my lord, when do you think I will be initiated?”

“I was thinking the next full moon, which is in three weeks’ time. Is that acceptable, Harry?”

“It’s perfect, my lord, thank you.” He bowed once again and left the room, thankful for leaving since his scar was burning fiercely the entire time. Wrapping his Invisibility Cloak around himself, he Apparated back to the gates of Hogwarts.

***

Draco paced around his dorm room, worrying about what Harry was up to. They had decided not to see each other until the next night, but the way Harry had gone about trying to get him to stay away... it had seemed highly suspicious. Draco had tried to shrug it off all night, but the suspicions stayed and he found that it was all that he could think about.

How he hated himself for it. He wasn’t supposed to worry about Harry Potter in this way. It wasn’t in his job description. It was, however, in Ron Weasley’s and Hermione Granger’s descriptions. Draco cursed them for abandoning Harry and forcing him to take on this job of worrying about him. But then, it wasn’t all their fault. Draco had been the one to start liking Harry’s friendship. Draco had been the one to start caring. Draco had been the one who started fancying the bugger. Draco had been the one... damn it. Draco had been the one to do everything that he was now cursing the two stupid Gryffindors for. Well, except for what was happening around Hogwarts.

Ha! Draco wasn’t the one that brought this all on! It was Voldemort and his sick schemes! Damn him to hell a thousand times! It was his fault that Draco was falling in lo... damn. No, love had nothing to do with it. They hadn’t even really said that they were anything to each other except a liking. It could be nothing more than a passing fancy. That was it. This feeling would pass. The feeling where Harry was the only other person in the room when they were in a crowd of people. His dark, unruly hair, his ugly round glasses that gave him that adorable, innocent look. The bright emerald eyes that stared out from behind those hideous glasses. The skinny body that didn’t give off the faintest hint of being well muscled, from hours of playing Quidditch, unless you saw him naked. The gorgeous smile with straight, bright white teeth that blinded Draco with its brilliance every time it was directed towards him. His little nose. The brilliant brain that he hid and only let it showed if prodded into it. The innocence that glowed from him, the genuine goodness that radiated from him, given to him from his parents. All these things were only a passing fancy. It wasn’t love. It was indigestion, not butterflies. It would pass.

…As would this dreadful worry that settled over Draco in the past thirty minutes of pacing his room. “It’ll pass. Harry’s fine,” he muttered to himself even as he ran from the room, ignoring the intense pain shooting throughout his body. Draco flew to Harry’s room in a blind panic that had absolutely no foundation. All he knew was that there was something wrong, something seriously wrong. He panted the password to the room, which had now been changed to, ‘Gryffindor sucks’ Surprisingly, Harry had been the one to change it the week before. Draco had laughed, completely missing the murderous intent in the green eyes. Draco closed the door and found the room to be completely dark. The curtains were all closed, blocking out the wan moonlight that might have been able to get in with the sliver of moon. With a flick of his wand, they opened, and the faint light from the moon drifted onto the bed, revealing that Harry, was, in fact, gone. Draco panicked and searched every corner of the room; even corners where he knew Harry would not be able to fit into. He even checked his trunk.

Swallowing the lump that had risen in his throat, he sat with a thump onto the trunk, but he immediately regretted it as more burning pain shot through him. Draco stood up carefully, stood in place, and stared at the door, willing for it to open, emitting a laughing Harry with an armload of candy and butterbeer from Hogsmeade, and calling out to Draco.

“Oi, Draco! I went into Hogsmeade and bought all this for us. Let’s eat!” he’d call triumphantly. And then they’d eat, and laugh like they usually did, and then they’d kiss a little. Maybe Draco would leave, maybe he would stay and sleep on the couch... or in the bed next to Harry’s warm body.

But none of these things happened. Draco stood in a stationery position for what felt like an extremely long time, waiting. By the time hurried footsteps were heard outside, his feet were more pain to add on to the already long list. The heavy door opened and, closed; and in the next moment, a dark hooded figure appeared out of nowhere. Draco had his wand out in an instant.

“Who are you?” Draco commanded.

The figure lowered his hood and revealed Harry’s confused face. “What’re you doing, Draco? It’s me. Nobody else knows our password.”

“Right,” he said sheepishly, putting his wand away. “Where were you? Do you have any idea how long I’ve been waiting here, worrying out of my mind that you were being killed or something!”

“Okay, mother. I’m sorry I worried you.”

“I deserved that. But seriously Harry... where were you?”

“I went for a walk. What’s the big deal?”

“Okay...” Draco said slowly. “So then, what’s the deal with the hooded cloak? I’ve never seen you wear such a thing.”

“Nothing. It’s new, and I thought I’d wear it.”

“But you haven’t gone shopping.”

“Owl order, Draco,” Harry snapped.

Draco stepped up angrily to face the other boy. “What are you hiding from me? I can tell you’re leaving something out. So... you went for a walk, but where did you go?”

“Around the lake. Stop with the interrogation already. I didn’t go anywhere where I’d be harmed. I’m alive, aren’t I?”

“I don’t believe you.”

Harry smiled and leaned forward to place a small kiss on Draco’s lips. “Can’t you just take my word for it? I was just out for a walk, Drake.”

Draco scowled and moved away. He recognised that tone of voice. It was a slick voice, used for when a person was hiding something and trying to butter somebody up, by using that tone of voice with them. “That’s the thing, Potter. I can’t take your word for it because I don’t trust you.”

“And you expect me to trust you?” Harry replied angrily.

“Why shouldn’t you? I’ve been nothing but honest with you, Harry!” Harry very roughly grabbed Draco’s left arm and pushed up his sleeve to reveal the Dark Mark. Draco paled upon seeing the murderous look that Harry was giving him.

“Oh really. When did you get this little tattoo, Malfoy? Did you see Snape’s and immediately decide, ‘hey, that looks kind of cool. Where can I get me one of those?’ I could have sworn that you would have rather done anything else than to grovel down at Voldemort’s feet. Tell me, whose what side are you really on, Malfoy? Light or Dark? What’s it going to be?”

“Harry... I swear I’m on your side. I swear.”

“Are you sure about that?”

“Yes! I’m on your side!”

“And do you know what side that is?”

“The Light! Why are you asking me this? You know what side you’re on, Harry! You’re on the Light. I’m only a spy like Severus is, I swear. You can ask him yourself. My father was pressuring me and he told me that there was an operative inside Hogwarts. He said that the operative would come to me if I agreed to become a Death Eater and Severus persuaded me to become one so I could find out who it was.”

“And did you?”

“Yes, I did! But I haven’t told anybody. You have to believe me, Harry. I’m only doing this for you.”

“Then you’ll find that you’ll be severely disappointed in the end. Your work will all be for nothing.”

“No, it won’t. Everything will be okay. You’ll defeat Voldemort and we’ll be okay.” Draco leaned forward and kissed Harry deeply, passionately. The Gryffindor kissed back. Harry threaded his fingers through Draco’s hair and Draco wrapped his arms around the shorter boy and pulled his body to his own. Draco sighed into Harry’s mouth. I love this boy, he thought, and didn’t bother to correct himself. The two pulled apart and Draco fell against Harry, as he said. “I’m sorry. I’ll do anything for you.”

“No. You can’t do that. You’ll be hurt in the end. Drake, I think I want to go to bed. Maybe you should leave.”

Draco felt something rip out of his chest. Those last words sounded like he was breaking everything off. He looked up at Harry and silver met the end in the emerald eyes. “No! What are you doing this for? I’m what you want! You’re what I want, Harry. Damn you for it too!. You’ve turned me soft! The only thing I’ve got left is my hatred for Muggles, Muggle-born, and Voldemort. You’ve made everything seem less important. You’ve even got me saying cheesy lines like that!”

“I’m sorry. We can be friends.”

“Friends?” Draco scoffed. “Fuck you, Potter. You can continue in your pathetic existence with no friends to help you because you just lost your last friend.”

“Drake, just because I don’t want us to be together doesn’t mean...”

“Fuck you! You know why I don’t want to be friends? Because I realised just now that I... I love you. Okay? Happy now? Does that make you happy? I’ve never said that to anybody before, not even my parents and I just said it to you. You broke through my shell,” he said sarcastically. “God, I was right what I said on the train ride here. Everywhere I look, there’s Potter. But now, it’s in a slightly different way than what I meant before, because now I’ll be looking for you. I’ll be searching you out in the crowd. What is it with you and getting under people’s skin like this? I can’t stand you! You make my skin itch and crawl. You make me want to...” Draco stopped in his rant and stared at Harry’s surprised face. Before he knew what he was doing, he had kissed Harry as roughly as he could. When he pulled away, they were both panting for air. “I hate you,” Draco hissed and stormed from the room.

He flew down the hallways, not caring if anybody heard him, not caring that Filch was currently yelling after him, telling him to stop. Draco stopped caring when Harry stopped caring. That was probably a good thing since he was a Death Eater. Killing people wouldn’t be such a problem anymore. It was looking like a sunny alternative to bothering with Harry. Just as he was passing up Snape’s door, he stopped in his decision to a hasty retreat to bed and instead started pounding on his godfather’s door. After a few moments’ pounding, low grumbling could be heard from inside and in the next second, Snape’s angry face appeared in the doorway.

“Draco! What are you doing, pounding on my door at this hour of the night? Some of us need to get our sleep. Go to bed!”

The door was about to be slammed on his face but he pushed it open and slid in past Snape. “Are you deaf? I said, go to bed! I am not in the mood for this right now.”

“You know what I’m not in the mood for, Severus? I’m not in the mood to help out snivelling Gryffindors anymore. Potter can go sod off for all I care because he doesn’t want our help anymore. He’s fine just as he is.”

Snape tiredly rubbed his temples and shut the door. When he spoke, it was in a calm, calculating tone, with the anger sitting at the bottom, waiting to come out. “Draco, it is two in the morning. I do not feel like talking to you or anybody for that matter. And when your chosen topic of conversation is Potter, I really do not want to hear it. I hear enough about him during daylight hours. Let me rest after dark.”

“Normally, I would respect that, but I’m telling you, Potter doesn’t want anything to do with me! He found out that I’m a Death Eater, don’t ask me how, but he has! He started asking me what side I was on and I told him that I was on his side and he asked me if I was sure. Of course, I’m sure! Then he started going on about how I wasn’t sure that he was on the Light side. Well, he didn’t say it in so many words, but he pretty much implied it. I hate your idea. I am not dealing with any more Gryffindors for the rest of my life.”

“Tough luck. You work for a whole load of Gryffindors.”

“Bloody hell! Then I’m not going to be on the Light side anymore. I really don’t have any qualms with killing people anymore. Every time I do it, I’ll just imagine Potter’s face and I won’t feel any remorse because I’ll just be killing Potter over and over again. Don’t worry, I won’t tell Voldemort about you being a spy. I still like you.”

“Draco... shut up. You’re rambling and I know you don’t really mean that.”

“How do you know? You don’t know what goes on inside my head! I hate Potter and I’ll do anything to go against him.”

“I can’t believe I have to do this,” Snape muttered irritably under his breath. “Draco, listen to me. I know that you do not hate Potter. You may hate certain things about him but you do not hate him and if you deliberately do things that are against his beliefs, you will never get him back.”

“Who said anything about getting him...”

“Silence! I am not done speaking. From all the ramblings that I have picked up from you, it has finally got Potter. Where was he tonight?”

“I don’t know. He came back with a black hooded cloak though.”

“Oh, wonderful,” Snape said sarcastically. “Just believe me when I say that he probably didn’t mean any of those things that he said to you today. Do not change your loyalties now, Draco. You may hesitate to turn me in to Voldemort, but I will not hesitate to turn you into the Ministry of Magic.”

“So, you’re threatening me now?”

“Not threatening, warning. You know what is the right thing to do. And what is it?”

“Staying on the Light side,” Draco grumbled.

“Will you do it?”

“Fine! But don’t expect me to be nice to Potter. He’s made his decision and I’ve made mine. We are not friends anymore and there isn’t anything you can do about it.”

“Fine. Now that we’ve got this settled, get out of my rooms.”

“Nice speaking with you, too,” Draco complained, while being pushed out the door.

“I wish I could say it’s been a pleasure, but well...”

The door was slammed in Draco’s face, leaving him in the cold and darkened hallway, shivering.

“Bastard.”