The Open Sea

THE OPEN SEA -
CHAPTER ONE

Harry James Potter was having an utterly crap day.

Buth the day had only just started.

'So,' you ask yourself, 'how can he already be having an 'utterly crap day'?'

Well, there were three perfectly good, logical reasons for that, which, surprisingly, weren't the same one three times over.

One: He had only gotten about four hours of sleep the night before, which his authoress can tell you from personal experience is NEVER good, even if only a shor nap was needed.

Two: He had procrastinated on his summer homework, and the Fifth, going on Sixth, Year had only a little over a month to complete all of said homework, for all of his classes. (A/N: I'm assuming that they get out of school around mid-June, sort of like elementary through high schoolers do.)

Three: He had a raging hangover. This authoress is not talking about the 'slight head rush when I sit up'; I'm talking about the full blown 'someone's jack hammering into my skull with a gigantic rustly spoon and I've been run over many times by something very large and heavy with too many feet to count when any sort of light comes into my line of sight'. THAT kind of hangover. The reason for the hangover was why he had only gotten about four hours of sleep the previous night, which was still technically now.

You may be thinking, 'But Harry is a nice, naive, teen boy. Why should he have a reason to have a hangover, let alone have one?!'

Wait. You mean to say that you did not know?! Well, this authoress wouldn't expect you to.

What no one, not a single soul outside Harry and his little group knew, was that Harry hadn't always been the nice, naive teen boy that everyone thought him to be. He hadn't been, in fact, for nearly a year.

'Wait! Nearly a year?! How?!'

Okay, that's it! Either you sit down, and STAY quiet, or else this authoress will tie you in a chair, and force you to watch every single episode of 'Barney and Friends' ever made!!!!

'Le GASP!!!!'

That's right. *nods derisively* Now, where was I? *looks up*

Oh, right....

~FLASHBACK BEGINS~

He hadn't been naive, or any of those other adjectives, although he was still nice, for nearly a year. It had begun right after the Tri-Wizard Tournament. He had realized that he couldn't trust anybody who allowed him getting into that much danger on a regular basis. So, the first chance he had when the Dursleys left, only about four days into the summer vacation, he put on an outfit that he had bought especially for this occasion; he had gotten it in Hogsmeade when he had a chance to get away from the Gryffindors and other students and staff. It was in a store that was tucked in a corner, between a large store and the brick wall border of the town.

The outfit was simple. It was a dark blue t-shirt with a pair of light blue jeans and a black belt and trainers. He had only needed it for the day that he was to leave, so he could get a new wardrobe and not have to walk around wearing Dudley's hand-me-downs.

When he had left, wearing a black cloak with a large hood that he could pull down over his head so that no one would see his face, or more importantly his scar, thus recongnize him; the first person he saw, but the last one he had expected to see (although he figured that he would, considering his 'perfect' luck) recognized him: Draco Malfoy.

It was Harry's fault, if he were truthful. He had been walking down an alleyway that he knew headed to Diagon Alley, when he had stumbled, and, in his attempt to not fall, he had, like anyone else would, grabbed on to the closest thing he could reach, which happened to be said blonde scion, sending both to the ground with Harry on top. (A/N: That is not a foreshadowing of anything between them, so don't think too much into it. Plus, get your minds out of the gutter (like I should be saying that to anyone); Harry will not top, and Draco will (possibly) not bottom.)

After a quick, and surprisingly civil, conversation between the two, which consisted of Draco asking why Harry was there, Harry being closer to Knockturn than Diagon, and Harry truthfully replying that he had gotten tired of being put into danger that he needn't have gotten into; nor was it his fault that he got into it, as most believed. Draco took the other's hand and led him into a nearby flat that Harry had never noticed before.

What Harry had seen inside the flat surprised him, but only slightly. Sitting in the room that was obviously meant to be a lounge, were ther other, Fifth, going on Sixth, Year Slytherins, but that wasn't what surprised him; the part that surprised him was that the lot of them were wearing Muggle clothes, like he was, but all in dark colours.

"Guys," Draco said, then, after a look from the females in the room, added, "And girls. It seems that Harry here has finally seen the Light.... or should I say 'Dark'?" It was at that moment, that the other Slytherins smirks, which had appeared on their faces when they first saw Harry, grew. "And because you have finally come to your senses, you are unoffically part of our little group here; we can make it official later.

"Despite what the other houses think, we Slytherins are not just a bunch of cold-hearted bastards and bitches; all of our parents were married, thank you very much. But anyway, we aren't cold-hearted; the bonds we have are closer than any of the other Houses, particularly because of how the other Houses treat us. There are no secrets between anyone in this House. Albeit, it's not very diffictult to keep secrets from someone if you don't really know much about them. So now's the time of introductions."

And with that, he turned and sat on the arm of one of the couches, dragging Harry with him to sit in the armchair between the two couches.

"My name's Blaise," the bloke next to Draco spoke up, after a few moments of silence. "I enjoy candle-lit dinners and moonlit strolls on -- " Harry and the others snickered as he was cut off by a thump on the back of his head, courtesy of Draco. "Fine!" he huffed, then continued. "I love my Dray," he sighed contentedly, wrapping his arms around Draco's middle.

Draco sighed and put his arms over Blaise's. "Why do I put up with you?"

Blaise rolled his eyes, as if this was a conversation they had often. "I proved why, and I did so on the bed, in the hall, on the -- " Draco cut him off again, this time by pressin his lips to the other's.

Before the snog got too heated, the two pulled apart, Draco turning his head to raise an eyebrow at Harry. "That was unexpected of you."

"Huh?" Harry asked in confusion.

"We'd expected you to jump up and start screaming 'Queers! Queers!' or 'That's disgusting!' or something like that, like any close-minded Gryffindork would."

"Three reasons for that," Harry hels up a finger, "One, I'm not a 'close-minded Gryffindork,' as you may think, and as you put it. Two," he held up another finger, "that would be incredibly stupid, considering that I'm outnumbered eight to one. And three," he held up a third finger, "it would be very hypocritical of me if I did." His smirk grew as he awaited the rest of the group's reaction.

"You are now fully part of the group, although still unofficial," one of the girls said, as the others' eyes lit up in recognition. "I'm Pans, and this is Daph," she gestured to the girl that was leaning against her and cuddling the the forearm of the arm that was wrapped around her shoulders.

"Greg," said the bloke on the other end of the couch, slightly leaning against the bloke next to him.

"Vince," added the bloke next to Greg, wrapping an arm around the other's waist.

"Millie," the girl in between Draco and another bloke spoke up, leaning on the latter as she nodded her head.

"Theo," the bloke Millie was leaning on said, raising the arm that wasn't wrapped around her waist.

"And I'm Drake," Draco finished finally.

"And we're going to give you a makeover," they all said in unison. "Because there's no way that you're gonna be part of this group looking like that!" Pans and Millie added.

They all stood in unison, Pans and Millie pulling Harry to his feet and Drake waving his wand, causing a large trunk, about twice as big in all directions as a normal trunk, to appear vertically on the rug in front of the hearth, where the armchairs and couches were situated.

"As you can see, all of us like wearing clothes that are on the darker spectrum of colours," Blaise began, gesturing to the other seven Slytherins and himself, "We also have piercings and a few tattoos, none of which you can, nor will see at this time," he finished, and Harry noticed that each of them had multiple piercings in their ears, along with at least two on their faces. "Basically, this style is called punk."

"You, however," Daph picked up from where he had left off, "would be more suited to something more along the lines of an 'emo' look."

"Which, in appearance, is basically punk, only there's less piercings and more frequency of bright colours," Millie explained, seeing that the Raised Eyebrow of Confusion[TM] was marring Harry's features. Harry nodded as the other blokes opened the trunk, revealing several rows of clothes hung up on either side, along with shoes below and accesories above.

"Do you have anything against cross dressing?" Pans asked, raising an eyebrow. Harry shook his head and shrugged, a non-verbal form of "Not really." Pans gestured and Drake waved his wand, causing some of the clothes and accessories to disappear, replaced moments later with ones with a faintly more feminine appearance.

"These are all spelled to shrink or grow for a person, based on their size," Drake gestured to the things in the oversized trunk.

"It's also really convienient," Blaise picked up from where Drake had left off, "Because if you have something made fore you, you don't have to keep getting bigger sizes made every time you grow out of something."

"There's this one outfit that we want you to try on first, just so we can see the colours and shades that would look the best on you," Millie said, standing, along with the other girls, as Daph and Pans walked over to the clothes and began pulling certain articles and things out, turning the shelves rather like those glasses stands one would find at a shopping centre. (A/N: Me likey them. Fun to spin when bored.)

"Wait. Daph, Pans, Millie, hold on," Theo said, holding up a hand, and the girls stopped, rather suddenly, in the middle of what they were doing. "Everybody, can you see it?" he gestured to Harry.

"He looks a little bit wavy," Millie said.

"Kind of like he's in a heat wave," Theo added.

"But that can only mean -- " Daph gasped.

"You don't think -- " Pans asked.

"It has to be, but we can only hope that it's not," Blaise said, a bit solemnly.

"Strip," Drake told Harry.

Harry did so, feeling a little uneasy, considering the conversation he had just heard. Once he was down to his boxers, he stopped.

"You can tell even more now," Vince said heavily.

"There's no other explanation, then," Greg said, just as heavily.

"Harry, hun?" Millie asked, and Harry turned to her, glad that someone was going to explain something to him. "This is going to hurt, she said, a little sad at the fact that she had to do this -- or, at least, help in doing this.

"Everyone ready? Blaise asked, taking his wand out. He watched them do the same and nodded. "Okay, here we go."

"Sruom Alg Felsyh Tevomer!" Drake, Blaise, Theo, Millie, Vince, Greg, Pans, and Daph all shouted at once, pointing their wands at Harry.

~*END CHAPTER*~

[Authoress's Note: Can you guess what they said at the end of the chapter [i.e, what the spell was]? It will be revealed next chapter [although I have no idea when that will be].