Alone

Chapter 5

"So are you coming back or not?" Draco asked.

Jake snorted again and glared at him.

"No way in hell am I going to set a foot in your world again. Hogwarts was a glitch in my life, a passing moment. This is my life Malfoy, this is where I belong," Jake answered. Draco flinched. That hurt.

"So if you would kindly leave," Jake continued, pushing him towards the door. Draco set his heel down in the thick carpet and ground his teeth.

"Listen Potter, I know you're pissed off at everybody because they abandoned you, but can you seriously wait and sit around while thousands of innocent people die?" Draco asked as they reached the door. Jake's pushing wavered a little, but then it firmed.

Yanking open the door, Jake wouldn't meet Draco's eyes.

"Yes I can. They're not apart of Jake Steven's world, so why should I care about them?" he asked as he pushed Draco out the door.

"Do you seriously think Voldemort is going to let the muggles go? Your friend is a muggle; he'll be killed sooner or later by Voldemort if you don't help us. If you don't do it for us at least do it for your friends," Draco said desperately. Jake was in the process of shutting the door, but froze again. He stared at Draco. The thought of Derek dying had never occurred to him before.

"What does he mean by your friends dying?" Derek asked slowly as Draco eased back into their apartment again. Jake slid to the floor and stared into space. Draco was correct of course. Voldemort will go after all the muggles and his friends were all muggles. His friends were going to die if he didn't do anything to help them.

But how can you even think of going back when your 'friends' turned their backs on you like that? A small annoying voice nagged at the back of Jake's mind.

But if you don't help them, Derek and all your other friends will die, another voice added its opinion.

Oh shut up! Harry shouldn't go back, not after the way everybody treated him, the first voice said irritably.

Derek waved a hand in front of Jake's face. To say he was worried about his friend was an understatement. Jake snapped out of his thoughts and smiled weakly at Derek as he clambered to his feet.

"I-I have to think about it Malfoy," Jake answered uncertainly. Draco looked like he was about to argue, but then nodded.

"Of course Potter, just don't take too long. I'll be at Hogwarts," he told him in a gentler voice and with a nod, apparated out. Jake shook his head and leaned against the wall. This little episode tonight had left him drained of energy. Derek approached his friend uncertainly.

"Jake?" he asked. Jake turned towards him with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah?" he asked closing his eyes and resting his head on the wall.

"Are you going to wipe this from my memory?" he asked. Jake shook his head.

"You deserve to know. You are my best friend after all and I'm sorry I never told you before, but you see as a muggle you can't know about magic, well you can know, but it's very unusual. But most of all, I was trying to run from what I was," Jake told him quietly, realising he was blabbering. Derek nodded and none of them said anything.

"If you want me to move somewhere else, I'll do it," Jake finally offered softly. Derek looked shocked.

"Why would I want you to move somewhere else?" he asked.

"Well you know I'm a wizard, I'll understand if you don't want to live with me anymore," Jake said. Derek laughed.

"Oi, what kind of friend do you think I am if I let the fact that you're a wizard stop me?" he asked good-naturedly. Jake broke into a smile.

"Really?" he asked hopefully. Jake laughed again. He stepped forward and enveloped him in a brotherly hug.

"Of course Stevens. Now you have to tell me about someone wanting to kill all your friends?" he asked with a raised eyebrow. Jake sighed and moved into the lounge room, where he proceeded to tell Jake about his life before his attack of the 'lost memory' disease.

~~*~~

Draco stepped into Hogwarts. He looked around and was surprised to see that it was breakfast here.

Well duh, of course it's morning here. You are halfway across the world! Draco thought to himself.

He continued walking and was rounding a corner when a student bashed straight into him.

Damn the school term! Draco thought as he picked himself up. The student apologised quickly before hurrying on to the hall to have breakfast. Draco grumbled under his breath as he walked slowly in the direction the student had gone. Albus should be there, sitting in his headmaster's place as usual.

Entering the hall, the conversation ceased a little as Draco made his way to the head table where Dumbledore and Professor Hermione Weasley were sitting. Albus and Hermione, seeing Draco, quickly excused themselves and gently pushed him into a nearby room where they could talk privately.

"Well did you talk to him?" Hermione asked nervously. Draco nodded. The time change was finally catching up to him.

"What did he say?" she asked. Draco yawned.

"Nothing you want to know," he answered. Hermione looked ready to kill.

"Did he want to come back?" Albus cut in. Draco shrugged.

"He was pretty much pissed off at everybody in the wizarding. He's actually living with and as a muggle, you knowing, sharing a flat. Anyway, he said no in the beginning, but then I told him that Voldemort will go after muggles and his friend wasn't going to be an exception. Then he kinda collapsed, but told me he'll think about it. Then I left," he finished.

"You left?" Hermione screeched. "How can you leave?"

"Well I couldn't stay could I? He was pissed off at me for popping back into his life and besides there was nothing to say after he told me he'll think about it. And if I didn't leave, he probably would've thrown me out," Draco said icily. Hermione was about to say something else, but Albus shushed her.

"I'm sure that was the best Draco could've done under the circumstances," he told her gently. Hemrione, obviously, did not think so.

"Could you have done any better?" he asked. Hermione flushed.

"I was the one who save him and he still slammed the door in my face. If it wasn't for the fact that his muggle friend wanted to know as well, he would've thrown me out. And I wonder how someone who betrayed him could've done better," Draco pointed out rather needlessly. Hermione's eyes fill with tears, but she would not cry in front of him. Draco stood up stiffly.

"Now if there is nothing else, I will leave," he said before gliding out the door, his footsteps silent.

~~*~~

Draco collapsed into his bed, tired to the bone.

Well that was interesting. Potter sure has changed a lot. He isn't the thin, shabby boy he was when he was seventeen, Draco thought as he closed his eyes and fell asleep.

~~*~~

"Are you trying to tell me that this guy named Voldemort is against non-magical people?" Derek asked in disbelief. Jake nodded. He had just finished telling Derek everything and Derek was now sitting on the sofa in a state of shock.

"And are you telling me that only you can, er, kill him?" Derek asked gingerly. The thought of his friend killing someone was not comforting.

"Well maybe, I'm sure Dumbledore could probably kill him, but you know," Jake said with a shrug. Derek nodded.

"So you're from UK?" he asked again. Jake nodded.

"What happened to your accent?"

"Well at first I disguised it, but then it started to disappear since I've been living here for so long."

"Right."

"I think I'm going to go and have a shower and maybe turn in early," Jake mumbled and went up to his room.

~~*~~

Albus Dumbledore sat in his office, twirling a wand in his fingers. He stopped at looked at the wand. It was Harry Potter's. Technically he was supposed to have snapped it, but something happened the day he snapped it. Albus sighed.

~~Flashback~~

Albus looked at the wand. It was Harry's. He sighed and picked it up. Where had Harry gone wrong? Setting it back on the table, Albus got out his own.

Pointing his wand at Harry's Albus muttered a few words of choice. Harry's wand started to tremble. Rising off the table, the wand started to spin faster and faster.

Suddenly it was enveloped in a cloud of white smoke. When the smoke cleared, a few words made of smoke were left.

Albus sighed again.

The last spell cast by the wand was the Avada Kedavra that killed Percy Weasley.

Albus couldn't believe it. He had hoped, no wished, that Harry was innocent, but the last spell was the killing spell and it was cast at the time that Pansy and Blaise had said it was.

Walking to the desk he picked it up and looked at it woefully. Closing his eyes, Albus bent it, expecting to hear the crack of wood being snapped in half. Instead the wood didn't even curve. Opening his eyes, Albus stared at the wand, then snapped it again.

Nothing.

The wand wasn't budging. Trying every spell Albus could think of on the wand, he was shocked to see that not even a scratch was on the wand.

Picking it up, he locked it in a secret compartment in his office.

He started wondering then.

~~End of Flashback~~