Mutare

Title: Mutare
Author: selene
Rating: will be NC-17, PG-13 for the moment
Pairings: Harry Potter/Dudley Dursley (Don’t freak! It’s just at the start!), Harry Potter/ OMC, Draco Malfoy/OMC, Harry Potter/Lucius Malfoy, Harry Potter/Draco Malfoy, Harry Potter/Draco Malfoy/OMC, Harry Potter/Lucius Malfoy/Draco Malfoy
Category: angst, romance, drama
Disclaimer: If they were mine, Harry wouldn’t even PRETEND to be straight.
Summary: After doing something both irreparable and irreversible, Harry finds himself on the run. He finds safety and understanding in the most unlikely of places. After all, when the world as you know it ges,ges, all you can do is to change as well. Mutare…to change.
Archiving: AdultFanFiction.Net
Warning: Directly after OotP… I don’t know if anyone actually hasn’t read the fifth book yet, but hey, to each his own. Also, hints of possible rape and the use of the Unforgivables.
A/N: This is my second try at posting a fic; the first one didn’t go too well since no one reviewed. I’m hoping things are better ttimetime around. Also, I realized there aren’t a lot of Harry and OMC pairings with a twist; thought I’d make one.
Feedback: I’m desperate!!! I need the feedback to see if I should continue this or not. Any ideas are helpful.

“speech”
‘thoughts’
{setting}

Chapter One: Novus Homo ~ A New Man

Harry lay in bed, listening to the calm stillness that pervaded every pore of his room, his house, his neighborhood. In the distance, he could here the hoots of owls as they looked for food and the rustling of trees in the night breeze right outside his window. Moonlight flooded into his room through an unbarred window and came to rest at the empty cage resting near it – Hedwig was staying at the Burrow. He sighed and turned over, resting on his side and facing the window. He stared sightlessly at what lay beyond the open shutters.

A cacophony of voices. Utter confusion. Dodging hexes and curses. A veil. Red light. Sirius. Falling. Waiting. Not coming out of the other side. Reaching blindly forwards. Someone holding him back.

Harry shook his head, trying to rid himself of unwanted memories and trying to still unshed s frs from falling. This wouldn’t be the first night since his “homecoming” at Privet Drive that he might cry himself to sleep. He no longer wanted to think about all the guilt he felt when he was alone or the self-loathing he felt every time he looked in a mirror.

He imagined what he might see if he did look at himself right now.

Green eyes that used to shine but now only stared listlessly and dully back at you. Shadows underneath them. Messy black hair that stood up in every which way. A lightning bolt scar with a permanent tinge of redness. A malnourished body that had gotten even skinnier since he had stopped eating. Raised furrows on his arms that looked angry and red, caused by his scratching fingernails.

Harry didn’t know which feature he hated the most but he did know that he hated everything about him. Everything.

He closed his eyes and waited for sleep to come.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The pounding on his door roused Harry from a restless sleep. The relentless thumps were accompanied by a shrill voice.

“Boy! Get up! Your uncle and I are going to the market! Dudley’s staying here with you so don’t bother him. You can come out and your breakfast’s on the table! No funny business, you hear?” Petunia Dursley screeched at her nephew.

When he didn’t answer, she screamed again, “Boy! Did you hear me?”

“Yes, Aunt Petunia,” Harry tiredly replied.

Snorting and muttering about useless, unnatural nephews, she headed down the stairs and out the door. A few moments later Harry heard his uncle’s car start and drive off.

Harry got up from bed and changed out of his pajamas. His cousin’s hand-me-downs dwarfed his slight frame and he felt like he was drowning in them. He walked over to the loose floorboard and pulled it open, taking out his wand. He stuffed it into his pocket and used the gargantuan shirt he was wearing to hide it from sight. Harry opened the door of his bedroom and headed to the kitchen.

When he got there, he picked up the plate sitting on the table and without even sparing it a glance, threw the food into the garbage bin. He then proceeded to clean the kitchen up. Once done, Harry left the kitchen and was about to climb up the stairs when a hand on his arm stopped him. He turned around and came face to face with his enormous cousin.

“What do you want, Dudley?” Harry tiredly asked. When Dudley didn’t answer, he made to leave and was unpleasantly surprised when the grip on his arm tightened.

“Dudley, what is it?” Harry asked again. When Dudlnce nce again didn’t answer, he shook his head and pulled his arm, cringing when Dudley strengthened his hold on him.

“Dudley, I don’t know what kind of game you’re playing but I just want to go into my room. I’ll leave you alone, promise,” Harry said.

He felt his heart rate increase slightly when Dudley answered, “That’s the problem, dear cousin. I don’t want you to leave me alone.”

Harry decided that this wasn’t the best time to be around his cousin, especially when he seemed slightly mad.

‘Smeltings must have done something to him.’

He yanked the arm Dudley was holding and intended to make a run for it when Dudley jerked him towards his huge body. He was propelled by the force of his cousin’s tug and slammed front first quite forcefully into Dudley’s chest, having the breath knocked out of him. Not liking the position he was in, Harry tried to pull away but Dudley only tightened his arms around him.

“Now, now, cousin. I’m trying to be friendly here. I just realized that I might like blokes more than girls. But, I need to be sure though and was thinking of a way to test my theory when I thought of you. You wouldn’t mind helping your cousin out would you? We can go to my room and I’m sure my Mum and Dad won’t bother us in there.”

Harry felt bile surge up into his throat and resisted the urge to puke when he felt his cousin’s hardness digging into his hip. He struggled wildly, intending to get just one arm free. Dudley had not expected him to be this uncontrollable and Harry was able to get one arm free. He took his wand out of his back pocket and pointed it at Dudley.

“Flipendo!”

With that Dudley flew into the wall of the hallway. He looked stunned for a minute but recovered quickly. He got up and made for Harry.

“Cousin, you just used…‘magic,’” at this word Dudley’s face screwed up in distaste, “on me. Don’t think Mummy and Daddy will be very happy about that. I was intending to make this moment ‘special’ but now, guess you’ll just have to settle for whatever I give you. And trust me, I’ll give you a lot.” Dudley leered at Harry.

“It’ll be just like the old times,” he continued.

Harry felt rage course through him.

‘How dare he think he can get away with doing whatever he wants to me! I am not a playtoy he can amuse himself with.’

Memories flooded him.

Dudley pulling his arm behind his back. Dudley giving him a black eye. Dudley shoving him headfirst into a tree. Dudley breaking his nose. Dudley taunting him. Dudley being mean. Dudley, Dudley, Dudley.

His rage erupted and he said the first curse that entered his mind.

“Crucio!”

In the back of his mind, he could hear Bellatrix Lestrange’s awful cackling in the back of his head.

He felt his anger, rage and adrenalin ebb when Dudley started to scream in pain. Dudley started to shake and convulse, tears streaming down his face. Harry didn’t know how long he stood there, watching Dudley suffer before the front door opened and his aunt and uncle came in. They immediately ran over to Dudley, faces showing identical expressions of horror at the sight that beheld them.

Uncle Vernon ran towards Harry and shook him hard, his pudgy face purple with undisguised emotion and his veins sticking out of his fat neck.

“Boy! Stop whatever you’re doing to my son! Stop it! Stop it!” Vernon yelled, his spit flying everywhere.

Harry heard his voice dispassionately say “Finite Incantum” and Dudley stopped shuddering while Aunt Petunia cradled him in her arms. He blankly heard Uncle Vernon tell him to get out of his house and never come back.

Harry vacantly climbed up the stairs to his so-called room and took his things out of the space underneath the loose floorboard. He placed the shrunken objects into his pocket and proceeded down the stairs. He impassively considered whether getting his trunk was a good idea or not but seeing that the Dursleys were blocking his way, he decided against this. He opened the front door and stepped outside.

Harry summoned the Knight Bus and it arrived a few moments later. Without even a parting glance to the only family and home he’d known in nearly 16 years, Harry ded ded the bus.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Harry paid the fare and sat down on one of the couches near the back of the bus. There, Harry started to come to terms with what he did.

‘I cast the Cruciatus on my cousin.’

Harry knew that would warrant him a one-way ticket to Azkaban. He may be the Boy-who-Lived and the Saviour of the Wizarding world but that didn’t mean anything. His title wouldn’t save him. It might even condemn him. Plus, CornelFudgFudge had a grudge against him. Harry casting an Unforgivable was just the type of propaganda the Minister of Magic needed to discredit the Boy-who-Lived. In fact, with the wards all over his house and Privet Drive, the Ministry may have already gotten wind of what had happened. It’s not like Uncle Vernon would defend him anyway.

‘I was just kicked out of my house.’

Harry officially had nowhere to go. He couldn’t go to Hogwarts because he was sure that was the first place the Ministry would look. Same goes for the Burrow. Hermione’s house was out of the question because he had no idea where it was and facing her was the one of the last things he wanted to do now. He would never willingly step into Grimmauld Place again and even if he did, there were too many adults residing there who might want to do the “right thing.” No, the safest course of action was to go to Diagon Alley. He’d withdraw money from his vault – he patted his pocket – aent ent a room at the Leaky Cauldron.

Harry felt the Knight Bus stop and saw that he had arrived at his destination. He climbed down and went inside. As he walked down the bustling street, he felt awkward and conspicuous in his gigantic clothes. He decided to get new robes first; he really wanted to get out of these filthy things. He made his way towards Gringgotts, the Wizarding world’s bank. He suddenly felt a tug near his pocket and he turned, catching a glimpse of a little monkey running away from him. He immediately searched his pockets and found that his shrunken Firebolt was missing.

Harry called out, “Hey! Give that back!” and gave chase.

He belatedly realized that the monkey had gone into Knockturn Alley. He halted for the briefest of seconds as he decided whether or not he should follow the monkey into the decrepit and dark passageway.

‘That was Sirius’ gift to me. That’s the last thing I have of him.’

With that in mind, Harry once again set off after the monkey, his Seeker’s eyes never losing sight of the little chimp as they ran down the twisting, turning and gloomy alleyways that made up Knockturn. He ran past wizards, witches and creatures that didn’t even look human. He ran past disgusting-looking apothecaries, ancient armories, s bar bars and desolate stores.

After some time, the monkey stopped running and it ducked into a narrow side street that had its entrance enveloped by darkness. With a deep breath, Harry plunged into the darkness.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Harry found himself face to face with a boy around his age. He was quite handsome, with wavy silver streaked blond hair that reached past his ears and bright amethyst eyes. He wore Muggle-type clothes – tight hip-hugging pants and a fitting long-sleeved shirt that stopped a few inches above his pants. Harry vaguely wondered whether those clothes gave him trouble from Knockturn’s inhabitants. A screech stopped his appraisal of the boy and reminded him why he was in here in the first place. The monkey thad had stolen his broom was sitting on the boy’s shoulder and was apparently handing his shrunken belonging to the boy.

He gathered his courage and spoke, “I’d like that back, please.”

The violet-eyed boy turned his gaze to him and Harry found himself lost in those amethyst orbs.

The boy spoke, “Why?”

Harry shook his head, as if clearing it, and answered hotly, “ Because it’s mine. Your monkey took it from my pocket while I was walking down the street.”

The boy asked, “ Doesn’t that make it his then? And mine since he belongs to me? He took it from your pocket and he claimed it as his.”

Hafrowfrowned, confusion evident on his face, “It doesn’t work that way. It’s still mine. He took it from me when I wasn’t expecting it.”

The boy answered him, “The stronger a reason it is his. You weren’t prepared to defend what was yours, thus you have no right to keep it. To the victor go the spoils of war.”

Harry, anger choosing to rear its head, said, “Look, I don’t know who you are but I just want my Firebolt back. Then, I can get out of here and to Gringgotts. I also want to rent a room at the Leaky Cauldron and sleep. I’ll be able to do all of that if you give me my Firebolt back.”

“Why can’t you go home?”

‘Home? Did I even have one?’

“It’s none of your business,” Harry snapped.

The boy looked at him, no trace of offense on his face for the hot words Harry spoke.

Harry found himself ad, “I, “I can’t. I don’t have one, not anymore anyways.”

“What happened?”

“I did something…awful to my cousin. My uncle kicked me out,” he said.

Harry didn’t know why he was telling this virtual stranger something he couldn’t even bear to tell his best friends. It was just…it was just. It was just…that feeling you get. That gut instinct that tells you to trust someone because you can. Because no matter how many times the world screws you over…it gives, too.

‘He makes me feel…protected. How strange. Not even the Headmaster gave off this feeling of utter safety. There’s something t hit him…’ Did Did you curse him?”

‘He already cursed me.’

“Yeah, an Unforgivable. That’s why I’m hiding out here. I can’t go to my friends’ hs; ts; they’ll look for me there. That goes for Hogwarts,” Harry clarified quietly.

‘Gods, I’m never going to be able to see any of my friends again. Ron. Hermione. Neville. Ginny. The professors. Hagrid. Remus. Professor McGonagall. Professor Dumbledore. Hogwarts. Gryffindor Tower. The Quidditch Pitch.’

The boy was quiet for a moment before saying, “You shouldn’t go to Gringgotts.”

Harry was confused, “Why not?”

“The Ministry will know about what you did. One of the first things they do when it comes to runaways or escaped criminals is they post Aurors at Gringgotts, to make sure the offenders can’t get money from their vaults so they can leave England,” the boy informed Harry.

‘I’m a criminal now, aren’t I?’

“I never thought of that,” Harry admitted quietly.

The boy looked at him for lon longest time as Harry matched his gaze. He was so caught up in those eyes that he couldn’t look away. It was as if his soul was actually being read. He always hated that feeling before. It was as if they looked into every inch of him…and they always found him wanting.

‘It’s different with him…’

The boy spoke up after several long moments of staring and silence, “ Come with me. You’ll be safer with me. t wot worry…we don’t bite.” The ends of his lips curled a little, giving the impression of a half-smile and the first expression of emotion since the start of their conversation. With that he turned and made his way out of the side street.

Harry stood there, shocked beyond words. This unfamiliar, mysterious boy had just told him that he’d be safe with someone he didn’t even know. That he’d be protected in Knockturn of all places. That nothing would harm him if he turned his back on everything he knew and placed both his utmost trust and what was left of his life with a stranger.

‘Who knows? Life has been stranger. And change, after all, is the only constant. I’ve had my fair share of that. Leap without looking back…isn’t that what being a Gryffindor is all about?’

The boy stopped walking and looked over his shoulder, “By the way, my name’s Magnum, Harry Potter.” He smiled again, this time a full-blown smile that made Harry lose focus. He then continued to walk out into the main alleyway.

A small part of Harry’s brain realized that Magnum still had his broom.

And Harry, for the life of him, couldn’t determine why he did what he did next.

He followed Magnum.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Mwahahaha! Done! Guys! I so need your help! This came to me while driving home from school today and I’ve only got the general idea. The details are shaky at best; that’s where you guys come in. I need suggestions for the next chapters. Oh, I don’t have a beta yet. Checking it by myself so all the mistakes are mine. If anyone would like to volunteer, go ahead. I’m going now…and I’m waiting for your replies!!