The Rules of the Game

After thoroughly berating me for over two hours about my horrible Gryffindor tendencies; which I couldn’t explain without revealing my reasons, leading to other aspects of my life that… would not be mentioned… ever. Draco finally needed a drink of water giving me enough time to slip away only to once again be thwarted from rest. I don’t even make it to my bed before I was attacked by Erebus. Why did I buy that bird anyway, bloody annoying, screeching at me for almost an hour as if I could understand. And Draco, having caught up, stood by with a smug look ignoring the fact that the bird was biting me. You’d think I’d gone off and done something stupid without telling anyone… well it wasn’t stupid at least. It was necessary; and Erebus should know my reasoning and that I could take care of myself. At least Persephone wasn’t biting me, didn’t need to worry about poisoning right then.

Finally I got some sleep, curling up in a corner with Persephone around my wrist and Erebus at the headboard keeping watch. Perhaps it does feel a little good knowing that somebody cares somewhat for me, even if it is just two animals and a strange boy.

Things at school returned to normal remarkably quick. Besides the tears of most of the female population not much concern was given over Lockhart’s death, though a plaque was hung up in the Great hall to commiserate his heroic deeds.

As for me I could barely wait a day before submerging myself in Slytherin’s books. Every single one that Tom had chosen for me was amazing. I was learning things I never would from the books in the school library and if I had a question about something I could communicate with Tom through the diary. Sometimes we’d even get into debates over a topic for hours and I’d earn another bite from Erebus reminding me to go to class or that I did have to have at least one meal a day.

I was beginning to dread the end of the school year once more, despite how I tried to ignore it. It wasn’t just the… change in my daily life, but the fact that I would have little to no time to study more of the amazing books I had just gotten. The only upside that I foresaw was that I would be able to begin testing my theory on Basilisk blood since it would draw too much suspicion if I tried it here. But I shouldn’t think such things, it is part of who I am, what I am; I should remember to be grateful and respectful to my betters.

Once again time passed faster than I would have liked, and we were heading towards the train to take us home. Seeing beautiful dead like winged horses stopped me for a moment, and it took me a while to recall reading about Thestrals. I had to restrain myself from going over and admiring one closer, ignoring the pull that I felt towards the amazing creatures. When I was back on the train I fell silent once again but Draco just accepted it and talked enough for both of us with Blaise and Pansy, allowing me to just listen.

Weasley and Granger of course had to stop by, the little Weasley coming as well making me once again internally groan. It seemed that she couldn’t stop staring at me since the day I brought her out of the Chamber of Secrets. Draco and Blaise constantly teased me, saying that she had fallen in love with me. If I knew that she was going to be this much trouble, I would have let Tom finish her. I could feel my anger stirring once more at the sight of them, but the ever intuitive Draco took care of it and began insulting them; allowing me to give fake apologetic looks behind his back until they relented and left me in peace. The remainder of the trip was silent and when we got off of the train we meet up with Draco’s father who I had never personally meet.

“Well, you must be the Potter boy that I’ve been hearing so much about.” Lucius Malfoy practically spat out while looking down his aristocratic nose at me, clearly skeptical of the worth that his son had claimed for me. Appearing before him in my cousin’s old clothes was surely not improving my reception, and I felt shame that his first impression of me was as the cheep whore that I am. It took all my control to push away the emotion and appear as if nothing was wrong.

“Mr. Malfoy, I have heard much as well; all good I assure you. And I’m most pleased to finally meet you.” I said formally, and giving a small bow.

It was clear that I had surprised him, and to avoid being rude he returned the gesture.

“Draco, you should say good-bye to Blaise.” I said off-handedly glancing at him. I saw surprise and confusion on his face for a moment, but used to my weird antics he shrugged it off and left to say good-bye to his friend.

“I have to be quick because I can’t keep my relatives waiting, but you need to hold onto this.” I said, pressing a wrapped package into his hands. “It won’t be needed quite yet; and I’m sure a mutual friend will be wanting it intact when he comes back from vacation.”

Lucius Malfoy’s eyes widened in surprise, being the first time I had ever seen him loose his mask of indifference or dislike. I was enjoying the loss of control and confusion I was causing, but I was really running late so with a final nod farewell I gathered my trunk and headed towards the barrier, leaving a still speechless Malfoy behind.

***

As expected my uncle had been waiting for longer than it pleased him to and I worried that someone else would see the hatred that was shining in his eyes. When I was within arms reach he took hold of my shoulder, squeezing until I heard the bones grinding together and felt my stomach roll. Finally he let go and submissively I followed him as he walked out to the car, thankful that everyone else was too consumed with their friends and family to see the broken boy walk off to hell.

**************************

Lucius Malfoy sat in his library nursing the expensive brandy while he stared at Tom Riddle’s diary in his lap.

“This doesn’t make since.” He whispered to himself, reverently running a finger across the cover. “Dumbledore swore that it had been destroyed. I sensed no lie from him, only pride for the success of his pawn. Does he really not know?”

Carefully he flipped open to the first page noticing very little damage to the precious artifact. With a slightly shaky hand he reached over to the eagle feather sitting in the ink well nearby, taping it gently before taking it back to the diary and writing in his normal elegant script.

/My lord?/

/Lucius? Where’s Harry?/ Lucius stared stunned for a moment at the response. Harry Potter? The dark lord is on first name basis with Harry Potter?!

/He returned the diary to me./ Lucius scrawled quickly.

/What? He didn’t even say good-bye the brat./ The diary pouted and Lucius was once again completely stunned.

/You do know that that was Harry Potter. The cause of your downfall, right?/

/Of course. But he was just a baby, and he’s not what he seems./ It responded, somehow conveying a ominous smirk.

“No, I guess he isn’t.” Lucius responded to the empty library, stunned once again by the boy he had only met a few hours ago.

********************************

“FREAK!”

The shout froze my very bones for a second before I forcibly relaxed my body. I carefully set down the ornament I had been dusting and with my head lowered followed my uncle’s voice to the kitchen. I was barely through the door when a fist cracked across my jaw, throwing me back and slamming my head into the edge of the doorway.

“You think you can slack? You think that after being away for so long that you can just get away with being lazy?!” He thundered before punching me in the gut, making me thankful that I hadn’t had anything to eat for the last four day; I didn’t even want to think of what he would do if I threw up on him.

“It’s 2:00 and I want lunch! I shouldn’t have to tell you this, now get to IT!” He yelled, grabbing a hold of my head and throwing me to the floor in the direction of the stove.

I lay still, trying to get the dizziness to pass and thankful that he had left the room by the time I stood. I supposed that the 3 hamburgers and half a pie he had had two hours ago didn’t count as lunch, so I got up trying to find something in the fridge I could cook for him.

I just barely finished setting out a large sandwich with chips and some fresh tea when he returned and demanded his food. Everything seemed like normal and I was about to return to my chores when he stopped me.

“Boy, you stay.” He commanded.

I felt like a dog when he would speak to me: sit, stay, come, go. But the alternative to obeying was something that I didn’t want to suffer through if necessary; besides, not like I hadn’t been doing this my entire life. So, like the obedient little bitch I am, I went to take my place against the wall, ready to get him anything if he needed it.

“No. Come here.”

This was new, and new was never good.

“Get under the table like the worthless piece of shit you are.” He demanded, food spraying from his mouth, and my stomach mourned the waist. I had believed that he just wanted to torture me further by making me watch him eat when I was so hungry myself. I should have expected that he would want something else.

“It’s been too long since I’ve taken your sweet mouth. Get under there and lets make sure that you haven’t forgotten anything, or else we’ll just have to make sure you get plenty of practice this summer.” He said with a laugh as he shoved me further under the table and began to unbuckle his pants.

I took a deep breath, trying to relax myself. I still don’t understand why it was so hard for me to do this when I came back for the summers. Before I went to that wizard school I could do this without a thought.

He was right, I am spoiled. That school’s giving me ideas that I can’t have here. I have to remember that these are different world, with different rules… but what about Lockhart? He changed the rules, it was just like here. God I’m so confused…

A smack across the head brought me out of my thoughts and I felt sudden fear seize my heart for a second.

“Boy if I have to say it one more time, I’m going to skin your hide.”

I let out a breath, allowing the fear to pass with it. I rested my head against his thigh for a moment, silently thanking him for being tolerant of my error, and then set to task on the engorged cock in front of me.

It had been a long time since I had had his prick in my mouth, and it took me two tries to get my throat to work properly but than it a came back to me quickly. I did everything the way I knew he liked best. Licking, massaging, swallowing, anything in the hopes that he wouldn’t carry out his promise of taking me to the basement since I had plans to begin my experiments tonight.

It wasn’t long before he was filling my mouth with his bitter fluid, and after making sure there were no remnants I remained still under the table to make sure that he was done with his whore.

“Fuck boy, I hate it when you’re away.” He said breathlessly as he relaxed in the kitchen chair, enjoying what is supposedly a good experience. When enough time had passed he got up and left, shouting something about finishing my chores as he left through the doorway.

*****

I waited until everything was silent, until I was sure that all of my ‘family’ was deep in their dreams before I sat up and summoned a mage light. With a flick of my wrist the panel on the side vanished revealing my enlarged library and a jar filled with a yellow fluid. Quickly I pulled out one of my needles and transfigured it into a goblet and with a whispered word filled it with water. Another needle was switched into an eye dropper, and bracing the jar securely between my legs I unscrewed the lid to one of the most deadly poisons.

~What are you doing?~ A hiss asked from behind me.

~An experiment... with Ira’sss poissson~ I answered offhandedly, concentrating on adding just three drops to the full glass.

~Great. Experiment with poissson, sssoundsss like a great idea. You know experimentsss ssshould be done on ratsss first, not YOU!~ Persephone hissed, clearly annoyed.

~Hush, I resssearched thisss many yearsss ago, theoretically it ssshould work.~

~Wait. Theoretically? Ssso were going on jussst a theory that you won’t die?!~

~Persssephone, I won’t change my mind. Ssso you can be sssupportive or not.~ I told her, screwing the lid back on and placing it back on the shelf. I shifted everything back to how it should be, uncertain as to how coherent I would be after taking this.

~Harry… don’t die.~ She hissed softly by my ear.

~I’ll try.~ I hissed back before gulping down the entire goblet.

For a moment nothing happened, I just got the usual strange sensation of feeling the cool water traveling down my esophagus, a sign that it had been too long since I’ve had anything to drink. Then it hit me. At first just a sharp cramp in my stomach but the pain slowly spread out incasing my entire body and growing more intense by the second. I used my last ounce of concentration to get up a silencing shield before screams of pain broke free of my throat. I thrashed around on the rags that serve as my bed, trying to find any position that was less painful, but finding nor respite from the agony.

“I think this was a mistake.” I choked out, blood dripping from my mouth before I lost myself in the pain, and could think no further.