Whisper

Disclaimer: I do not own the book titles the Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mister Hyde, Frankenstein, or X-Men. I make no money off of this story.



Chapter 9: Dragula-Rob Zombie



They got out of the room as quickly as possible when the Dementors passed them. Evans had lead them to another abandoned classroom and waited for the Dementors to leave the area. Kid had become still after leaving the memory, hardly moving on his own free will and had distant looking eyes. He was more then scared of the memory. He was terrified.



Draco looked over at Evans. The teenager had slid down the door and had his eyes closed, breathing heavily. He looked as if he was getting an anxiety attack.



“It was his memory wasn’t it?” asked Draco. “One of Potter’s?”



Evans nodded. “Did you think it was a sob story?” he asked. “Everything Hermione told you?”



“Granger told me, but I thought….”



“Still thought that we got everything we wanted on a silver platter? No, we had to earn everything we got, even the status of Savior of the Wizarding World, at great cost, but no one paid more then we did.”



“I understand now. I’m sorry.”



Evans nodded and checked the corridors again. “All clear. Let’s go.”



Draco helped Kid up onto his back as Evans kept checking for Dementors before they left the classroom. As they walked around Draco noticed that Evans tended to avoid corridors that lead into towers and dead ends. Draco was surprised the teenager was still sane, much less thinking of hiding places while stuck in the same memories everyday. Even Kid, who had all but lost his ability to speak, was still trying to live after surviving an attack from the Dementors, wandless and magicless. Suddenly Draco never felt more respect then right then for Evans, Kid, and even Potter.



But something still nagged at Draco. He knew a bit about multi-personalities, but it was so rare for wizards that the subject hardly came up.



“Evans,” called Draco. “What do you know about multiple personalities?”



“Not much,” said Evans. “Harry did read about it once as a passing interest. That and alternate realities.”



“Do you know where the information is?”



“The Library.”



Draco blinked in surprise. “The Library?”



Evans chuckled. “This may be Harry’s mind, but it’s still Hogwarts. What’s a school without a library? If you want information, go to the Library.”



And they did. After setting Kid down with a children’s book Potter must have read as a child, Draco and Evans looked over the shelves. Most were bare, but the rest were filled with books or papers Potter had read or written.



“Multiple realities. Multiplication. Multiple of Multiples,” read Evans, going through the titles.



“Alter ego. Alternate dimension. Algebra,” read Draco. “This was filed wrong.”



“That usually happens when Harry tries to remember something,” said Evans looking through a book.



“Algebra?”



“An argument with Hermione. Don’t ask.”



“Hey, what’s this?” Draco pulled out a stack of papers, but Evans quickly grabbed it away from him and put it back on the shelf.



“It’s nothing,” said the teenager and with a glare that told Draco to leave it alone. Draco did, but not before reading the title.



The Real Life of Harry Potter: The Boy-Who-Lived



They looked through every book and paper Harry had ever read or wrote, but still couldn’t find anything.



“There’s nothing here on multiple personality disorder,” said Draco. “No unless you include The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.” Draco placed the book back on the shelf.



“I was sure it was here,” said Evans. “I was sure he read something on it and it wasn’t Frankenstein.”



“He doesn’t read a lot, does he?” asked Draco looking at the empty rows of shelves.



“The Dursley’s hardly gave him any books, and if they did it was one of Dudley’s tatter old ones, or something he didn’t want. And since Dudley read nothing but comic books back then and would die before giving them up…Well, you get the idea.”



“Comic book?”



Evans held up a small paper book, no bigger then a magazine with a picture of a group of people fighting. On the cover it read X-Men.



“Wolverine was our favorite,” said Evans putting the comic book back. “Hey, it could be in Ravenclaw tower!”



Kid looked up from the book he was reading.



“I thought you said the dormitories were password protected,” asked Draco.



“No, that’s the other dormitories. Ravenclaw just asked you questions. And since they are questions Harry knows the answers to, it should be easy.” Kid shot up from his seat, slammed his fist on the table and glared at Evans. “Oh, yeah, and there’s another memory there.”



“Well, we’ll come to that when we get there,” said Draco. “But right now I need that information. It could be important.”



Evans nodded. “Right. Don’t know why you want it through.”



“I’m a Mind-Healer. Every little bit of information on a person’s psyche is helpful.”



“Harry’s gonna need to see a shrink after you’ve been in his head,” said Evans picking up Kid and leading them out of the Library.



“Shrink?” asked Draco following. “Why does he need to shrink something?”



Evans looked at Draco first in surprise, and then laughed. Kid giggled against Evans’ shoulder. Draco’s face flushed in anger and glared at them.



“What’s wrong with what I said,” demanded Draco. “What’s so funny?!”



“I’m sorry, Malfoy,” said Evans. “I forgot you weren’t raised by Muggles.”



“Thankfully.”



Evans shot Draco a look before continuing. “A shrink is a slang word Muggles call psychologists, Mind-Healers. They’re also called counselors and therapists. They nicknamed them “shrinks” because that’s what patients describe what they do to their mental and emotional problems. Only the process take years to get over, not a few sessions.”



“It’s sometimes that way with wizarding patients. Sometimes they put a barrier around something so big it takes years to break down.” Draco smiled at the two alter egos. Somehow, making them laugh or smile made Draco feel complete. Like he did something right for a change. Especially Kid. The boy hadn’t laughed in so long he had forgotten how.



“Well, laughter is one step closer to talking,’ thought Draco and looked at Evans. James Evans was everything Harry Potter was as a teenager. Reckless, brave, calculating, and thinking of others before himself. Draco had tried to ignore the positive qualities Potter had while they were at school together and always looked for something to annoy the Gryffindor with. There was something about Potter that pulled Draco to him, like a rubber band stretched to it’s limit and was about to snap, and Draco couldn’t really figure out what it was. And now he felt the same pull to Potter’s teenage alter ego. And he felt affection toward Kid as well.



Draco shook his head. What was wrong with him? He knew he liked men, but to fall for a fifteen year old boy, and Potter’s alter ego at that? He must be desperate.



Draco knew he liked men over women when his affections to Pansy didn’t go past friendship and all the prospective brides his father picked out didn’t pique Draco’s interest. So Draco went out with Blaise Zabini, then Theodore Nott, and a few other guys that caught Draco’s attention, but none have been long lasting. He just couldn’t find a guy who could compliment him, and he might have found one in Potter’s subconscious?



“I must be out of my mind,” mutter Draco under his breath.



“Did you say something,” asked Evans, looking at Draco.



“Just thinking out loud,” said Draco quickly, a slight blush on his face. “Sorry.”



“That’s all right. I could have used the noise. It’s too quiet.”



“Yes, it is.”



They quietly walked through the halls and corridors. Several times Evans led them away from certain areas and Draco obediently followed, trusting the teenager’s knowledge of his surroundings. They didn’t stop till they came to a door with an eagle head knocker. Evans reached up and knocked the handle three times.



“Three questions,” said the eagle head.



“Three?” asked Draco.



“It usually does more then one because Harry’s not as smart as a Ravenclaw,” said Evans and both looked at the eagle head as it recited the question.



“As I was going to St. Ives,” quoted the eagle. “I met a man with seven wives. Each wife had seven sacks. Each sacks had seven cats. Each cat had seven kits. Kits, cats, sacks and wives, how many were going to St. Ives?”



“A riddle?” asked Draco.



“Looks like,” said Evans. “A nursery rhyme, actually. A child’s riddle, but one to make you think.”



“Seven, seven, seven, seven, plus one,” said Draco. “Fourteen, twenty-one, twenty-eight. Could the answer be twenty-eight?”



“That is incorrect,” said the eagle head.



“Maybe we have to multiple,” said Evans. “Forty-nine, three hundred forty-three, two thousand four hundred and one, sixteen thousand eight hundred and seven? Is that the answer?”



“Incorrect.”



“That wasn’t right either,” said Draco. They were silent for several minutes thinking over the riddle. Draco couldn’t answer it since it was a Muggle riddle and he was used to wizarding ones.



“Wait, wait a minute,” said Evans. “I just thought of something. What if it’s a trick question?”



“What does that mean?”



“The riddle introduces a person going to St. Ives. Then it adds the man, wives, sacks, cats, and kits. Seven of each. What if the question wanted you to think of those five things instead of the real answer to the question? What if only one person was going to St. Ives?”



“That’s a lot of ifs.”



“It’s the best we’ve got.” Evans turned to the eagle head knocker. “Is the answer one?”



“Correct,” said the eagle head knocker and both sighed. “Second question. What’s black and white and read all over?”



“What does that mean,” asked Draco. “What can be black and white and red all over?”



“Harry wasn’t very good at this one,” said Evans. “He never could figure out an animal or object that had all three of those problems at once.”



“Black, white, and red,” quoted Draco. “Red, red. Red is a color. Foxes are red, so are cardinals, and robins have red breasts.”



“There are also red tailed hawks,” suggested Evans. “And phoenixes.”



“Tiger’s are beige, so that doesn’t count. Red, red, what else is red?”



“Harry read a book with a red cover once.”



As Evans spoke something clicked in Draco’s mind. “What did you say?” he asked.



“What? Harry read a book.” Evans shrugged. “Nothing special.”



“No, it is. You said ‘read.’”



“The book cover was red. So what?”



“Not the color, the adjective. Potter had read a book.”



“Of course,” said Evans smacking his head. “They both sound the same aloud, but written down it’s different. Black and white and read all over. Read as in it was read. But what was read?”



“A book,” asked Draco to the eagle head.



“Incorrect.”



“A paper,” asked Evans.



“Incorrect.”



“A poster?” asked Draco.



“Incorrect.”



“Of course!” said Evans. “A newspaper!”



“Correct.”



“A newspaper?” asked Draco.



Evans shrugged. “It was the last thing I could think of.”



“Third question. Why do hot dogs come in packages of ten and hot dog buns come in pages of eight.”



“What?!” said Draco. “That doesn’t make sense.”



“It’s a logical question,” said Evans. “Hermione said the best wizards can name every spell in existence but don’t have one iota of logic. Through I don’t know why he chose hot dogs.”



“Can you figure it out?”



Evans laughed. “I’m good, but I’m not that good. God, I wish Hermione was here.”



“Well, Granger isn’t. Think!”



“I would if you weren’t yelling at me!” said Evans with a glare. After Draco nodded and stepped aside did Evans begin to think. “Why do hot dogs come in packages of ten and hot dog buns in packages of eight? Well, it’s not so you can buy more hot dogs. Why can’t anything be easy?”



“Then the world would be perfect,” said Draco.



Evan’s head snapped up. “That’s it!”



“What’s it? What’s with the sudden insight?”



“You’re not the only one to have an epiphany. The answer is that the world isn’t perfect, but no matter how much life throws at you, you’ll always have a hot dog.”



“A logical answer” said the eagle and the door opened.



“It seemed to be correct,” said Draco. “No matter how preposterous it sounds.”



“I have my moments,” said Evans with a smirk. Both took a deep breath, Kid between them, holding each of their hands, and they walked through



(He was being thrown, hurled through a vast area. He could feel the familiar pull behind his navel identified by the cup he held was a Portkey and he and the boy next to him were intentionally pulled from their previous location to a new destination.



Just as suddenly as they were taken then they landed heavily onto the ground. He slowly got up, his injured leg almost giving away, and looked around. He was standing in an overgrown graveyard, tombstones cracked or broken. In front of him was a angel shaped statue on top of a headstone. Looking next to him he saw that his traveling partner was Cedric Diggory.



“Where are we,” asked Cedric standing up.



“I don’t know,” he said. “But this is wrong. All wrong.” Even then he had a strange feeling that they weren’t alone. “Someone’s here.”



“Wands out,” said Cedric immediately taking charge. He was actually glad someone was instead of him. Both took out their wands.



A short hooded walked toward them carrying what appeared to be a wrapped bundle. A baby probably.



His scar suddenly burned fiercely and he clutched at his head just as a rasping voice spoke.



“Kill the spare.”



“NO!” he yelled just as the Killing Curse was uttered. A green blast shot past him and hit Cedric, killing him right before his eyes.)



Draco gasped when the memory released him and he staggered against the wall, Kid holding tightly to his hand and arm in fear, and Evans clutched his other sleeve to steady him. Both looked at him in fear, not fear of the memory but on how it would affect Draco. Draco was amazed and, in a way, happy that both personas was concerned about him. He softly squeezed Kid’s hand and grasped Evans’ arm, smiling at them both.



“I’m fine,” he said. “I just didn’t realize it would be this intense.”



“It’s one of Harry’s worst memories,” said Evans. “Just be lucky it wasn’t Sirius’ death. Book case is over there.”



Draco looked over to the bookcase that covered one wall of the Ravenclaw Common Room. It looked like any other Common room, except for the bust of Rowena Ravenclaw. Draco ignored the details and went to the bookcase, looking through the titles and papers.



“Found it,” said Evans a short time later. It was a fine white sheet of paper. “It’s a computer print out.”



“Computer,” asked Draco.



“A box that allows you to store a large amount of information, with a special cable you can look up information as well.”



Evans handed the print out to Draco and the blonde Mind-Healer read it.



Dissociates Identity Disorder is a psychiatric diagnosis that describes a condition in which a single person displays distinct identities or personalities. The diagnosis requires that at least two or more personalities routinely take over the individual’s behavior. Memory loss that goes beyond forgetfulness is common in DID victims. Earlier versions of the condition was named Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD). The condition is mostly confirmed in the United States of America.



Many believe DID isn’t a valid disorder and should be classified as a trauma disorder. The case for DID is hypothetically associated by a number of abuse that accurse during childhood.



Draco finished reading and looked up at Evans.



“What does it say,” asked the teenager.



“Evans, was Potter abused as a kid,” asked Draco.



Evans face went red. “Of course he was. You saw the memory.”



“I mean more then the occasional beating. Was he….”



“NO! And don’t you ask that question, ever again.” Evans’ face was red from anger. Draco nodded, allowing Evans to have his momentary outburst of bravery, but Draco, like any Slytherin, would find the truth.



To Be Continued



For a great Harry Potter story on Multiple Personality Disorder read Lomonaaeren “Changing of the Guard.” A great story by a great writer. The hot dog question came from “Bullet Proof Monk”. It was logical and funny at the same time.