Chapter 11
He checked every hallway, every room, every damn corner of the place and there was nothing.
Absolutely nothing.
Everything was empty.
“What the hell happened here?”
Since the other night, the conversation he had with Harry had been going around in their heads, about his quirk; He knew he was strong, they believed that the boy was just afraid of his quirk, but he managed to defend himself without problems from five heroes (although they tried not to hurt him), it was only due to carelessness and the detective's aim that they managed to calm him down.
They were worried about the boy's sudden emotional changes, so they called Hound Dog yesterday and "rescheduled his regular therapy sessions" (they didn't know if the conversations they had in the teacher's room counted as unofficial sessions, but they helped Harry). It was obvious that he had been dealing with his emotions on his own for a while now.
They were watching Harry prepare his backpack for today's trip, his flight leaves in 7 hours and the airport is 30 minutes from here, this was the fifth time he put everything back in order to check that he didn't forget anything.
No one specific where they were going, just that it was a long plane ride; They both raised their eyebrows when they heard him say, "Well, at least it'll be less disastrous than the flying car," and quickly decided that it wasn't worth trying to understand any of it right now.
They had not had to plan or pay practically anything, the mouse had taken care of the stay and transportation, they only had to pay for the food (and some souvenirs that they like); They didn't know what the principal was planning, but it was most likely his urge to watch the world burn.
The trip was…interesting.
To begin with, they didn't expected the first class seats, it cost a lot, they also noticed how Harry didn't even blink with the turbulence, not even the strongest ones, they even held hands at some point, but the boy didn't react at all.
They saw in the front row how the boy became a fan of pre-peculiar dystopian movies, Hizashi couldn't help but laugh at his reactions to everything that happened in them; Shouta cough (if anyone says he's laughing, they're lying) when Harry deliberately skipped all the All Might movies.
They didn't watch many movies at home, most of them were based on famous heroes and didn't catch their attention; the only one the three of them have seen together so far was an animated comedy that he didn't bother to learn the name of.
After seven straight hours of movies, Harry finally got tired and slept the rest of the flight; The blonde couldn't help but take a photo of the boy curled up in the seat.
They settled into their own places and also slept for the rest of the trip.
They were in a rental car on the way to the castle, they left early in the morning since it was a 5-hour trip, and they wanted to have enough time to explore the surroundings.
Most of the way was valleys and mountains, he didn't expect him to actually recognize anything, but expect at least a hint of recognition; What they did see was that Harry recognized the city they were in, he was nervous, twirling his wand over and over in his hands and looking out the window every few minutes.
“Are you okay?” Hizashi asked, turning around and looking at the boy.
“Yeah, just… What are we doing here?” he watched him tighten his grip on the wand.
“Tourism, we have to exploit the vacation” Harry narrowed his eyes.
“Try again because I don't believe it,” he looked into his eyes.
“The truth?” Shouta said this time.
“Preferably, yes, thank you very much” he looked at them intensely.
“We were looking for your drawings,” he said simply.
“You said you were coming to the castle with your friends” this time it was Hizashi “it's been closed to the public for quite some time.”
“We would sneak in” they waited a moment for him to continue, “we would enter and stay for hours pretending that we were knights or something like that.”
“That castle is in danger of collapsing, in fact it is already collapsing, it is not good that you entered without supervision” said Shouta.
“We were supervised… Most of the time” he scratched the back of his neck.
“By a responsible adult?”
“You could say that.”
Silence reigned in the car again; The closer they got to his destination, the more restless Harry became, he looked at the sky searching for something he couldn't identify, his grip on his wand was so tight that his knuckles were white.
“There is one thing you haven't told us yet” said the blonde carefree “When is your birthday? We must prepare for the big day.”
“Big day?” the other nod “the truth is that I don't usually celebrate it, my friends are the ones who made little parties between us.”
“Why don't you do it?” His voice sounded a little sad.
“My uncles never really celebrated it, my cousin is the spoiled one” the heroes looked at each other.
“They never celebrated it?” the boy nodded “then, that's just one more reason we should have a party. When is it?”
“It's… July 31" there was a pause where no one spoke.
“Harry… Today is July 31" another pause “WHY didn't you say anything?” Shouta erased his quirk before he breaks a window.
“I didn't think it was important,” he shrugged.
“Of course it is, God, I promise we'll buy you a cake when we get back.”
“You don't have to do it!” He said alarmed, “seriously, it's okay, you already did a lot for me and I really appreciate it, you don't have to do anything else.”
“Well, with your uncles, your cousin was the spoiled one, but with us the spoiled one is you, so we will throw you a party so great that even he will envy it.”
The laugh that left his lips was all they needed to get the mood back to normal.
“Happy birthday, Harry,” they both said.
“Thank you.”
Shouta had no idea how when they arrived they found nothing to prevent them from entering the grounds, Harry had to show them where to go since there were no marked paths, and they only stopped when he told them they could walk.
He tried to convince them that he could go alone, but they did not move away from him as they entered the stone path that ran through the forest; They walked for a few minutes until at some point of the way they saw a small patch that had no trees and further down the castle.
It was much more impressive than in the photos, they heard a gasp in front of them, when they turned to see Harry, he was pale, his eyes looked like they were about to fall out, he was horrified by whatever he saw.
Before they could say anything, he ran out, they followed him quickly; It got to a point where they weren't even any kind of path, they were just dodging trees and jumping over roots.
When they finally reached the end of the forest, they saw the huge structure in front of them, there was a stone bridge leading to the entrance, Harry slowly walking on it, his eyes traveling back and forth, processing everything he was seeing.
Something was wrong.
Harry knew the place, he wouldn't react like that if everything was fine; They don't know what's wrong, the place looks the same as in the photos.
“Why can't I see it?” they heard him say.
“What?” Shouta asked.
He didn't answer.
They walked slowly across the bridge, looking everywhere to try to find whatever scared the boy; No matter how hard they tried, they couldn't find anything.
The wooden door seemed ready to fall off its hinges, the hallway was full of dust and some broken stones; For every room they passed, Harry was on the verge of panicking.
“It's impossible, it can't be that big, they are never that big” he said as he took out his wand and pointed it at a random place “Riddikulus.”
And the dam broke.
A heartbreaking and horrendous scream came out from the boy, tears formed in his eyes, but he didn't let them fall; His face contorted into horror, then sadness, understanding, and finally, pure, cold rage.
They followed him through the rest of the hallways, he walked with firm and powerful steps, it was as if he were walking to the battlefield for a war.
They saw a figure dressed in black running out of one of the rooms and Harry followed him with his wand pointed at him; As he turned one of the corners towards what looked like stairs, the figure fired a blue beam towards Harry, and it quickly turned into a fight.
The rays shot out of the wands and bounced off barriers or other rays, it was like watching an indoor fireworks show; He was one of the people with a quirk equal to Harry's, he tried to erase it, but like with the boy, it had no effect.
They tried to go help him, but were pushed by a gust of air back into the hallway and a barrier formed around them.
They saw Harry throw one last bolt of lightning at the other person and this time he managed to hit one of his legs, which made him fall down the stairs, the hood he was wearing slipped over his head, revealing the face.
Another kid.
Harry stared wide-eyed at the figure at the bottom of the stairs, his eyes were red, skin paler than he remembers, much paler; His normally clean and shiny hair was dirty and dull, it seemed tangled in several places.
They stared into each other's eyes for what seemed like hours and neither moved.
“Malfo…” Harry said, and the other jumped up to run.
Harry grabbed his arm and heard him grunt in pain, his steps staggered, and gasped before falling again; He looked at the limb intensely.
“I didn't even hit your arm, don't be dramatic,” he said as he let go.
“Fuck you, Potter,” he tried to get up again.
“Same here, Malfoy.” Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the adults still trapped in the barrier and dismiss it. “What happened here?”
Both men approached until they were next to them.
“And why do I su…” he saw them “Who are those supposed to be?” he frowned.
“They are taking me in for the moment” he said quickly, “now, answer the question.”
“Aww, does little Potter needs to be taken care of?” A smug smile formed on his lips.
The adults grimaced at the Slytherin's attitude.
“Answer me,” he growled.
“I don't know, when I arrived the place was like this” he shrugged, and looked at the heroes again “Are they Muggles?”
“Yes, any problem with that?” He crossed his arms.
Before the other could answer, his face changed to one of pain and gasped, his body stiffened, and gently cradled his arm; He heard him curse under his breath as small tears formed in his eyes.
The adults approached and slowly moved his arm away from him, Malfoy couldn't fight the movement.
They rolled up the coat's sleeves and when they uncovered his forearm they could see the dark mark, moving and bubbling under the white skin.
“You must know something, you have the dark mark,” he said firmly.
“Oh, for Merlin's sake, I don't know anything.”
“Don't lie to me.”
“YOU… ” His expression transformed into one of sadness, “…just because I'm a Slytherin doesn't mean I always lie.”
“Prove it then,” the heroes looked at him, but he ignored them.
“OH, OF COURSE, Because everyone must kneel before the incredible Harry Potter! I don't have to give the golden boy any explanations!” He pushed the men away and approached Harry.
“You do, if all this is the work of the damn Death Eaters,” he pushed.
“I have nothing to do with this! I'm not part of them!”
“You are if you have the mark!”
“I did it because my father wanted it that way!”
“Oh yes, Draco Malfoy always obeying his father! Don't make excuses for…!”
“DON'T YOU DARE TALK ABOUT THINGS YOU DON'T KNOW! You will never know because you are everyone's darling! Harry Potter this, Harry Potter that, OH LOOK EVERYONE, THE GLORIOUS BOY WHO LIVED IS BACK TO HOGWARTS,” he screamed in his face.
“Malfoy…”
“YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT IT FEELS LIKE TO BE SEEN ONLY AS THE EVIL RIVAL OF THE DISGUSTING GOLDEN CHILD!”
“Malfoy…!”
“YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT IT'S LIKE TO FEAR FOR YOUR LIFE EVERY DAY! BE TERRIFIED OF YOUR OWN FAMILY! YOU DON'T KNOW BECAUSE SINCE YOU SURVIVED, EVERYONE SEE YOU AS THE DAMN HERO OF THE WHOLE HISTORY! YOUR FAMILY TREATS YOU LIKE A KING! ALL THE DAMN-”
“DRACO!” The other finally looked at him breathing quickly, a few tears had rolled down his face as he screamed, “now you're the one who doesn't know what he's talking about.”
Shouta and Hizashi had stood still on the sidelines, but when they heard him say that, his attention was fully on him, he hesitated a little before continuing, but he still did.
“My family doesn't have me on a golden throne, they never did, because they despise magic, they despise me; When I was younger I even thought my name was boy or Phenomenon, they wouldn't let me eat for days and if I stole anything from the leftovers, they would beat me and lock me up in my “room” which was under some fucking stairs, where two adults don't fit.”
The three looked at him stunned.
“Now you're the one lying,” he hissed.
“Then let's use a fucking veritaserum and ask me again.”
No one said anything else, the heroes took them back through the hallways (Harry had to give them some directions because they almost ended up in the kitchen) and took them out of there.
They ended up at the back entrance, which was almost completely collapsed, but they could still get through; He walked slowly to where Hagrid's hut should have been, but found nothing.
“You really don't know anything?” he asked softly.
“I just know that you were missing for two months, and then I escaped here a week ago,” he responded just as softly.
“Have you been here for a week? But everything is destroyed. Why?” They looked at each other again for a few seconds.
“I have nowhere else to go,” he said.
Harry is confused, he wasn't acting like himself.
“What do you mean by that? What happened to the mansion?”
“What do you think, Potter? Voldemort is there now, there are Death Eaters on almost every corner” he kicked a stone.
He saw that the others were a bit far away, he assumed it was so as not to disturb, but close enough to hear them, he didn't really care anymore.
“Why did you come in the first place? Was it your first choice?”
“Something like that? I only wanted to get out of there, all I had in mind was to go to a safe place and when I got here I didn't know what was happening” he explained calmly, seriously. What was happening to him?
“That's… how I got here,” he said.
“What?” he looked at him with a frown.
“I was escaping from the Death Eaters, the truth is I didn't know where to go, I just wanted to be in a safe place; When I made an appearance I reached a Muggle alley and meet him” he pointed to Shouta.
“Why a muggle?” he asked, genuinely interested, there was no malice in his voice.
“I don't know, but I'm more worried about how we end up here and now” point downwards, enlarging the movement.
“What does that mean?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.
“You've been here the whole time, so I'm not surprised you haven't figured it out yet, we,” he moved a little closer to Draco's ear, “we're in the future,” he whispered.
“Now I'm sure you lost your mind, of all the conclusions you could reach, that was the one you chose?” He rubbed his face.
“I'm serious, look” he took out my phone, “it's July 31, 2XXX.”
“That muggle thing is definitely damaged, there's no way it's the correct date,” he shook his head in denial.
“I'm telling you” he put it away again “everywhere it's the same, it advances the same everywhere, nothing changes… except the time due to the time zones” he said quickly.
“Okay, this is all crazy, it doesn't make sense, there is no spell capable of doing that, it is impossible without a time turner, and even if we had one, this would be unheard of; Time turners only go to the past one day, no more than that, they can't go to the future no matter how hard you try, there has to be something else” this was the first time he saw him bite his nails.
“I thought about it too, but I can't think of anything, there are no time travel spells that are safe, and we don't even know what they are, I doubt that we cast them by accident and didn't realize it or that they turned out surprisingly well” they both reminded silence for a few minutes.
They observed the sky, the changing clouds in the sky that was slowly turning gray, it would rain in a few hours; He looked at the castle intensely, Draco followed his gaze, where the Gryffindor tower was supposed to be, but there was nothing, the area was completely destroyed and in its foundations, he assumes that the area of the other houses will be similarly, except Slytherin, which was probably flooded.
“Have you seen everything?” he asked softly.
“Not yet, there are places where you can't even get because there are no roads, the stairs where we were was one of the few places that are still in full shape” he said as he wrinkled his sleeves in a nervous movement.
“We'll probably find a way through,” he turned to look at him.
“Do you want to play explorer, Potter?” He said with a smile, a real one.
“Only if you're not afraid of falling, Malfoy.” They looked each other in the eyes and ran back to the castle.
They followed the teenagers through the yard and back to the castle, it was as if they forgot that they attacked each other less than an hour ago, and it had never happened; They walked through the hallways on the first floor, there was nothing in them, not a piece of furniture or curtains or carpets, nothing, as if they built everything just as a decoration of the mountains for the eyes of tourists.
They reached some stairs that led to what the boys called the dungeons, it was dark, and they could not see beyond a few meters in the hallway, with a movement of their wands the torches that were on the walls lit up, Harry's side It was gold and Malfoy's was green; They passed a couple of hallways before reaching some large barrels, there was one almost as big as the wall.
One part was rotten and breaking on itself, when they passed through it, they saw a kind of hall, but it was completely flooded, a wave of their wands, and it was as if the water was being sucked through the skylights in the walls, the water stayed there, almost forming a liquid wall.
“I'm surprised you haven't done it before,” Harry said.
“I did, but the spell didn't last as long as I thought, I think it only lasted for about five hours,” the platinum clarified.
Spell, Harry said that his uncles hated magic, it was like they were in a wizard movie; These guys called their quirks magic, they had wands and they cast spells. What's going on?
“Where are we?” Hizashi asked.
“In the Slytherin common room, my house; I hope the spell lasts longer this time” they went out again.
“Your house?” He approached the boy.
“You didn't tell them anything, and you still brought them?” He looked at Harry.
“Try to get them to stay in the car, it's not my fault” he raise my hands in defense “I haven't told them anything yet, in fact, I wasn't planning to stay, but I haven't been able to come back.”
“You can not? I'm sure one of your Gryffindor friends would be willing to bring you back.” He tried to brush a strand away from his face, but he frowned when he couldn't get his fingers through the vine.
“It's not that, I really can't, the apparition doesn't work,” he sighed.
“What do you mean it doesn't work? You are surely doing it wrong.”
“I've already tried it several times. Why don't you try it yourself and see how it goes?” He crossed his arms and stopped at the foot of the stairs.
“Do you challenge me, Potter?” the other just smiled “well, so be it.”
He took his wand and held it in front of his face, they waited a moment, but nothing happened, he whispered something and tried again.
“You have to be kidding me,” he looked at the other expectantly.
“I'm afraid not,” they both sighed.
They followed them again through the hallways, they reached the stairs where they were before, at that moment they were more focused on the fight between the younger ones who did not notice how more than half of them were collapsed.
“It's strange not to see the paintings.”
“I know, the first day I came here to talk to them, but it was empty.”
Talk with them?
They climbed a couple of stairs before reaching a broken one, but when he was about to say something, both boys raised their wands again and heard a crash from below the tower; In a matter of seconds, large rocks rose and floated to form a path in front of them.
They continued carefully until they reached the next floor.
“The fat lady should be here,” he said as they ran their hands along the worn door frame, “but there's only this.”
“Fat lady?” Shouta asked.
“She is the one who guarded the entrance to Gryffindor tower, my house” he try to open the door.
There it is again, house, did they live here before? Why was it divided by houses? When pushing didn't work, Harry moved away and slammed the door, the hinges squeaked and came off, with another push he fell uselessly to the floor.
The room on the other side was filled with rubble, sunlight shining inside, as the ceiling had apparently collapsed.
Harry sighed and continued down the stairs, stopping at two more doors before reaching a specific floor, walking down the hallways and through a couple of doors and walls.
They reached other stairs, they climbed to what seemed like the tallest of one of the towers, the view was… Beautiful.
“At least something is as usual,” Draco said.
“Was it always like this?”
“Yes, they never bothered to repair this area.”
“This is where Hedwing came to sleep” they both looked at him.
“But you said it was at your school,” Hizashi said.
Both boys looked into each other's eyes for a moment and turned to face them.
“Welcome to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry,” they said at the same time, “although it's usually more impressive when it's not in ruins,” Harry finished.
“We finally know what Muggles see when they see the castle,” Draco said just before a lightning struck in the distance and the first drops of rain were present.
The four of them watched the rain fall for a moment before Shouta spoke.
“We better leave before it rains harder” the others nodded.
They were about to go down the stairs when Hizashi noticed Draco wasn't following them.
“What are you waiting for? Come on,” the blonde said, he saw the boy frown.
“If you thought they would leave you here, in an abandoned castle, ready to fall in on itself at any moment, well, you're very wrong, come on,” Harry said as he walked over and took him by the arm.
He seemed to want to refuse, but he quickly gave up, they went through the hallways and stairs until they reached the main entrance; The rain had gotten heavier and when he was about to curse for not bringing an umbrella, he saw the boys gently wave their wands upward.
They didn't understand what they did until they went out into the rain, the raindrops formed the shape of an invisible umbrella, Harry motioned for them to come with them.
They saw the melancholy glances the children gave at the castle before it disappeared among the trees.