Short Fuse

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or its corresponding ideas and themes. If I did, well, never mind; that\'s a big if.

Summary: This takes place in Harry\'s 7th year. Draco Malfoy, Severus Snape... are they really what they seem? Some things in Harry\'s life aren\'t as simple as they seem, and with his powers growing, he begins to learn this in a difficult way.

Notes: Yes, I am one crazy mother... Welcome to the Insanity.

\"Without Warning,
Emotions Tide in like a Breaking Wave,
I can\'t remember yesterday,
I don\'t recall ever being this way before
Cause i feel weak,
Like a Defenseless Animal,
Weak.
Though my Will is gone,
Weak.
As if i never really had any strength at all.\"- \"From the Inside\" by Depswa

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Chapter 1. Slave\'s Quarters

A large boy groaned as he attempted to sit upright, his breath catching in his throat and pain spreading through each limb with every movement. His chest rose and fell raggedly with each inhale and exhale, the ache from his lungs traveling down to his legs and back up to his finger tips. His body fell back painfully to the ground, giving up the attempt. Glasses hung lopsided on his face with one lens cracked and another completely missing. The cloth of his over-sized and baggy clothes was ripped at his left shoulder and knee, and burns ran from his palm to the top of his shoulder. Jade eyes opened groggily, images of the ceiling above jaded and blurry as they came into focus, and their owner\'s mind tried to catch up with what was happening.

Harry moaned softly, not hearing another person in the room jump in response. The golden boy tried to banish so many images that came to his head. Images of his uncle, and a very heavy fist flying towards his face. His own head striking Vernon\'s door. Screaming as energy ripped through him, and the car collapsing in in itself, and black flames as somebody called out to him. All of it came so fast, it was too much, Harry just couldn\'t take it all, and again he blacked out. Behind him, a small boy watched through amethyst eyes, regarding the boy curiously, before disappearing in the shadows.
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Harry\'s eyes fluttered as he came to consciousness, feeling something soft and cool placed over his forehead, and soft humming of someone bent over him. His eyes shot open, jade meeting purple, and the other person freezing as he stared down at the now wide-awake Harry Potter. A soft \'eep\' came from what Harry could see was a smaller boy, though he looked only a year or two below Harry. His night black hair fell down passed his face, and if not for the fact he was looking down, would have covered his eyes too. Two simple red scars ran down the boy\'s cheek, and Harry caught a third smaller one in the shape of tear just below his right eye.

Harry started to sit up again, noticing no pain this time with his movement, and tried to ignore the boy who jumped away as if Harry had thought to smack him. Everything became blurry for a few seconds as the Gryffindor lifted himself off the ground and started looking around to clear his vision. The place he stood in was filthy with dust and garbage and shredded furniture. Portraits hung dead, chairs laid with stuffing half torn from their insides, and drapes hung shredded off dirtied windows that let little amounts of the moonlight through the panes. His eyes caught once again on purple, though hidden among the darkest corners of the room.

Something in his back pocket shuddered slightly, and Harry tried to feel what it was, but found he couldn\'t move his left arm. He dropped his gaze to stare at his arm, finding a burn covering his shoulder down his wrist. \'It doesn\'t hurt\' he thought, running his right hand over it, before feeling in his back pocket with his good hand, and finding his wand sticking out. \'This will be useful, I think. Now, where the hell am I?\'

\"Hey, what\'s going here?\" Harry asked the little boy, who still sat perfectly shrouded in the dark, even though it was painfully obvious he was trembling, as if freezing in the slightly chilly room. \"C\'mon, I\'m not going to hurt you kid. Get out of there, I want to talk.\" he said again, motioning to the small child.

A loud thump made Harry flinch, and he turned to the door, waiting for someone to burst through it and to demand what he was doing there. He waited for minutes before taking his eyes off the door and back to the shrouded kid. Moments went by where nothing happened, before Harry, satisfied nothing was going to happen, started to creep towards the corner of the room where the boy sat. The shadow seized up, eyeing the hand offered to him, not breathing as he waited for it to snap at him. Harry closed his eyes, before reaching forward again and smiling at the boy, nodding to indicate it was okay. Though hesitant, a pale hand finally left the dark and grasped the golden hand offered, and he let himself be pulled up.

Harry finally got a good look at the young one, seeing he was right in his assessment of the boy\'s age; he couldn\'t be any younger than 16. The boy immediately pulled out of Harry\'s grasp, wrapping himself in his own arms and not looking the other in the eyes.

\"What\'s wrong?\" Harry was confused at the boy\'s actions. \"Hey, is everything okay? What\'s your name, and why am I here?\" Harry looked at the boy\'s clothes, a single, long, cream colored and rather ragged shirt. He wasn\'t wearing any shoes, and the only other piece of clothing was a black and silver choker around his neck. Harry walked forward and grabbed the boy\'s arm, noticing him flinch back again, but then try to shake off the grasp.

Tears spilled down his eyes, and finally his cracked voice spoke out. \"Please, sir, let me go, he\'ll be back soon, and he\'ll be very displeased with what I\'ve done. Please, let me return to the veil. I don\'t want him to find me, please...\" his voice died in his throat, and Harry stared wide-eyed. \'What. The. Hell!?\'

\"Who\'s coming for you? What are you talking about? What veil?\" Thousands of questions spilt from his mouth at one time, and with each one the boy became more frantic. The movement itself reminded Harry of Dobby when he tried to go punish himself and was being stopped. \"Hey, stop, just answer me!\"

The boy stopped at the command, before gazing up at Harry. He seemed calmer than before, but his eyes still remained as sad. \"What would you like me to tell you sir?\"

Harry was taken aback from the sudden compliance, before gathering himself back up. \"First of all, who are you?\"

\"I am called Io, sir.\"

\"What happened to me? Why am I here?\"

\"Sir, your magic called me to you, sir, as it did to several others. I was already near you you called for help, and lent my energy to you. Everybody heard you sir, and answered your call. Your magic heard our response, and was unleashed. Your car was ripped apart from the amount of energy, sir, and I found you later. I took you back to my master\'s, and I helped heal your injuries.\" Harry blinked, trying to wrap his mind around what they boy had said.

\"Everybody heard me? What does that mean, Io?\" Harry saw a tear drop down Io\'s cheek.

\"You called for more magic, and the world supplied it. Every person and creature heard your call, and lent you their magic so your change could happen.\"

\"What change...\" he began to ask, but stopped as something struck him. \"Io, did you say you had a master?\" Another tear.

\"Yes, sir, I did. Master will not be pleased with what I have done. I must get away, or my punishment will be most severe.\" The boy yanked his arm away from Harry and dashed back to the dark, hiding himself once again in the shadows. \'But, he is a kid. Who takes someone so young as a servant?\' Harry\'s thought were interrupted as the door in the room slammed open, and three men walked through the portal.

\"Yes, my \'Ethereal\' is really fun to be with, gentlemen. Makes my position much less stre-... Who the hell is in my slave\'s quarters!?\" yelled the one in the lead, glaring at the-boy-who-lived intensely.
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Draco glared up at his father and Dumbledore, his fists tightening in rage at the two who looked at him, expecting his response. His silence was enough of an answer for Lucius, who pressed his finger to the bridge of his nose and sighed in annoyance, knowing that his son was not happy with what he had just heard. Dumbledore sat and regarded Draco, eyes twinkling and lips set in an expectant smile under his long and white beard.

The Malfoys had been in his room for a few hours, explaining under Veritaserum, why they had decided to switch sides, and what information Lucius currently had on Voldemort. Lucius had told Dumbledore about Draco\'s not hearing the call, and Dumbledore had gone into his own explanation of what it meant. It wasn\'t long before the silence was broken by Draco.

\"So, you are telling me, that I am \"the-bloody-git-who-lived\"\'s mate?!\"silence rang out again at this statement, nobody moving to speak. Then, Dumbledore rose from his seat, and pointed his wand at Draco.

\"Obliviate.\" he said, and turned to Lucius and Narcissa as they rose in outrage. Draco slid in his chair, out cold, but un-harmed as Dumbledore brought his gaze on the elder Malfoys, and raised his hand to stop their yells. \"He does not need to know yet, Lucius. He will have to know eventually, but now is not the time, and we will need his un-divided attention, and yours, while we prepare Harry for that eventuality. You know what year it is.\"

Lucius growled and glared at the headmaster, but nodded his head in agreement. \"I understand, but don\'t forget, our allegiance is to Potter, not you and your Order. My son will not know for now, but I do plan to tell him when the time if right. Understand?\" Dumbledore nodded his head in agreement, before sitting back down and motioning to the young boy, seeing him open his eyes and stare in bewilderment at the old man.

\"Ah Draco, glad you could join us. I was just going to allow you and your parents to meet an informant of the Order.\" with another wave of his hand, the door to his office opened, and Severus Snape glided through, a small smile playing on his lips. Draco scrambled from his seat and watched his head of house wide-eyed.

\"Snape! He is a Death Eater! I\'ve seen him at the meetings myself!\" declared Lucius, his hand gripping his wand in his cane tightly. The headmaster chuckled, and the potions professor\'s smile, if anything, grew. Draco had never seen Snape smile like that.

\"Sorry to disappoint you, Luc, but I I told you once before, I am nothing like my father.\" The man\'s onyx eyes locked with Lucius\'s pale blue ones, before he faced Draco and nodded politely. \"Draco.\"

Draco closed his mouth and nodded back. \"Sir.\"

Another twinkle came from Dumbledore\'s eyes, as he snapped his fingers, and Dobby appeared. \"What can Dobby do for you, sirs?\" Lucius looked down at the house-elf with distaste. \"OH, Mr. Malfoy sir, uhh...\" Dobby looked scared at his former master.

\"Dobby, I would like you to show the Malfoy\'s to their rooms. You are not to punish yourself if they ask of it, clear?\"he shook his head and nodded, not really looking at the headmaster, but watching Lucius, and pointing the way to the door.

\"This was please...\" and Dobby lead the way out as he left to show the guests their rooms. A soft swish and Snape had turned himself away from the retreating sight of the Malfoy family, facing Dumbledore with an even greater smile than before. Snape was learning to hate that smile, but returned one just as devious.

\"So, does the boy know?\"

\"Not yet, my boy, not yet. Not even his parents understand all of it, I\'m afraid.\"
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Ah, slightly longer. I didn\'t actually expect to get reviews yet, nor find myself writing the next chapter on the same night as I finished the first. Oh well, in my land the phish are never happy. No, that\'s not a typo. I\'ll start thanking reviews in the third chapter, and some constructive criticism would be appreciated, though I\'m surprised that the comments I got were positive. Thanks ^_^! Hehe, cliff-hangers! Sleepy -_-