A Lion With Snakes Scales

Chapter Six

Harry was getting used to living among the Death Eaters. He would wake up late, which was a welcomed luxury seeing as he had always been forced to wake early in Privet Drive to clean, wake early at Hogwarts for lessons and wake early with the Fallen Angels to train. But here, he always woke when he pleased and always had Nagini curled up at his feet and a blonde Veela curled up on his chest. Harry never had any memory of the duo being there before he went to sleep though… curious.

Harry looked down at Draco's sleeping face. He'd thought his schoolboy crush on the blond boy would have gone away. Harry had a mate out here somewhere, so shouldn't that be the only relationship that mattered? But the crush had only gotten worse. Harry blushed when Draco spoke to him and was sure that of Draco told him to jump out the window, he'd do it.

Harry stretched and arched his back slightly, disrupting the creatures currently using him as a pillow. Draco tightened his grip on Harry's shoulders and wrapped his legs tighter around Harry's hips. Nagini merely shifted her scaly body to wrap around the entirety of Harry's legs. He was firmly pinned down.

Harry laid there for quite some time, enjoying the warmth, but soon enough his thirst was made known. It had been at least a week since he had fed and it didn't bode well for a vampire as young as he was, but he didn't dare try to push them off as he was not yet used to the amount of strength he had and didn't want to hurt them. A masked Death Eater walked past the open door.

"You!" Harry snapped at the Death Eater, baring his fangs and hissing menacingly.

The Death Eater stuttered embarrassingly and turned to run.

"STOP!" Harry commanded.

The man's eyes, visible through the mask, glazed over as he walked slowly into the room against his will. Harry smirked,

"Get them off of me, gently!" he gestured to Draco and Nagini.

"Wingardium Leviosa"

Harry felt the weight on his chest and legs disappear. He rolled out of the bed and looked up from the floor. Draco and Nagini were suspended in midair, still sleeping. Harry gestured to the Death Eater who let the pair of creatures down gently onto the bed. They immediately curled into each other to make up for Harry's absence. Harry chuckled, released the Death Eater from his control and dismissed the disorientated man from the room.

Harry stood from the floor and walked to the large wardrobe in the corner of the room. He withdrew a black robe and a white Death Eaters mask from within it. He dressed quickly, tucked the pair into the bed and left the room.

Harry walked through the castle, nodding to the occasional occupant of the manor who passed him. He walked through the twisting maze of corridors until he reached the huge stone archway leading to the dungeon. He hurried gracefully down the stone staircase and stood in front of a pair of large, wooden doors. He composed himself and walked into the main room of the dungeon. The stone room was cold, high ceilinged and full of potential Death Eaters.

"Ah Emerald, how lovely to see you" hissed the Dark Lord from the middle of the circle of fresh meat.

Harry walked to his Lord and knelt at the older man's feet, bending to kiss the hem of his robe.

"My Lord" Harry greeted the man reverently before standing at the man's left side.

"This is Emerald" Voldemort told the newcomers, placing a hand firmly on Harry's shoulder, "Emerald is in charge of creature recruitment and espionage missions, isn't that right, Emerald?"

Harry nodded and kept his face blank beneath his mask.

The Dark Lord stepped away from Harry and walked around the inside of the circle of possible Death Eaters. "Emerald will train you on use of defensive and offensive spells on an attacker"

Harry nodded again to confirm this statement and fought to keep his bloodlust in control.

"How will he do that, My Lord?" questioned a recruit about Harry's age who was either very brave or very stupid.

Tom's red eyes turned immediately to the young man.

"Good question" hissed the Dark Lord. Harry straightened slightly, it was time.

"I believe you shall be a good candidate for a demonstration" Harry hissed, looking to his Lord for permission. Tom nodded and Harry ripped his mask from his face and crouched into an attack position.

The recruits went absolutely mad, screaming his birth name and spitting swears at him, assuming he had infiltrated the ranks as a spy for the light. The man whom had questioned Harry stepped forward, ready to win his Lord's favour by destroying his greatest threat. Harry chuckled darkly and threw a punch with enough force to shatter a bone at the man's chest. The recruit was thrown back, but quickly used a quick cushioning charm to stop him from injuring himself as he hit the wall. Harry was impressed with the quick casting, but the recruit's wand was snapped against the wall. Undeterred, he ran towards Harry and tried to throw a punch of his own, but Harry caught the fist and used the momentum against him, kicking the other man's feet out from under him and pinning him to the floor.

"He fails" Tom stated simply, he nodded to Harry.

Harry snarled happily and slashed the terrified man's throat open with his sharp, claw-like fingernails, latched his mouth over the wound and sucked deeply, eager to drag every drop of blood possible from the human. He felt the recruit's struggles become feeble until they stopped all together as he fell into unconsciousness. Harry kept lapping and sucking at the wound until it became apparent that nothing more was going to bleed from the corpse. He pushed himself off of the body and sat cross legged on the stone floor of the dungeon, licking his hands and lips clean.

Voldemort chuckled at the boy's antics, running a hand fondly through the rainbow coloured locks of hair, contrasting marvellously with the pale skin and black clothes.

"That", Voldemort warned the remaining recruits, "is what happens if you fail me".

Harry, finished with his treat, stood and addressed the recruits, "you will all attempt to keep me at bay, one at a time, mind you. If you cannot…" Harry let the statement hang unfinished and looked pointedly at the body on the floor.

"So! Who's first then?" he asked cheerfully, eager to completely quench his thirst.

One by one, all of the recruits stepped forward and all but four were feasted upon by Harry.

Tom and Harry stood amongst the bodies as the survivors bowed to them and left.

"Have you had your fill, Harry?" Tom asked the young vampire, who was, once again, licking himself clean. The boy looked up with huge, cute, and obviously surprised, green eyes, he smiled sheepishly as he realised he had been caught.

Harry giggled, "Yeah Tom, I'm done"

Tom smiled lovingly at the boy and chuckled, "I shall have the house elves clean up then, you may go, Harry"

Harry stood, bowed and grinned to Tom before leaving.

Tom smiled to himself, "I always did wish to have a son" he mused quietly, "even if the boy is slightly touched"

….

Upstairs, Harry was standing outside Draco's room, using his hypersensitive hearing to listen to the blonde speak with his father. Sometimes he just couldn't help himself.

"Draco!" hissed Lucius, "you simply must tell him!"

"I cannot Father" Draco whispered back miserably. Harry frowned, who were they talking about?

"Oh?" Lucius questioned quietly, "and why not?"

Harry heard Draco sniff tearfully and fought the urge to burst through the door and pull the blonde boy into a hug.

"I don't think he likes me" Draco finally said sadly.

Harry couldn't believe this! How could anyone not like Draco? He was kind, gorgeous, funny, gorgeous, amazing, gorgeous and absolutely bloody gorgeous!

"Draco" Lucius whispered tenderly to his son, "he is your mate; he is destined to love you! He's already said he loves you! why can't you just believe him?"

"I do not wish for my mate to love me because he has to, father" Draco replied, "I want him to love me because I am me!"

Harry could barely breathe, Draco had a mate? No! Why couldn't he have Harry? Why wasn't Harry his mate? Why couldn't Harry get anything he wanted? Everything he wanted was taken from him! His idiot parents had to die for their stupid, flawed cause, his childhood was ripped away from him by his own family! He had to give up his humanity to keep his life and now he would never have a chance with Draco. Harry tried to swallow his disappointment and push down the bitter tears, but he just couldn't keep them at bay.

Harry turned and ran down the hall, tears streaming down his cheeks and sobs ripping their way from his throat. He got to his empty bedroom and collapsed onto his unmade bed, sobbing loudly and wailing into his pillow. He did this for quite some time until he heard a soft, high pitched, female voice quietly singing from down the hall. Getting louder as through the singer was walking towards his room.

Harry quickly choked down his tears, not willing to be seen in a moment of weakness. He listened seriously to the song. The lyrics told of unrequited love and longing. Harry scowled, willing the sing to leave him in peace. But the singing only got louder as the woman got closer to him.

As the woman's last, haunting note dissipated into the air, Harry lost the fight to keep his tears at bay and he began sobbing brokenly.

"You should never fight to keep tears locked away you know", stated a voice from the door behind Harry, "tears are not a weakness, they show that we are loved and that we are capable of love, they show that we care and that we are cared for".

Harry thought about these words as he continued to sob. A warm hand began to rub soothing circles into his back. He looked up into the pretty, dark eyes of Bellatrix Lestrange.

She smiled sadly at him before she pulled him into a tight, motherly hug. Harry nuzzled his face into the woman's neck and inhaled, she smelled like chocolate and strawberries. Harry let another sob out in her comforting embrace.

"That's it, Love" Bellatrix whispered softly, "let it out"

And so he did, Harry cried and sobbed and choked the story of Draco's mate out in the moments when he was able to speak through his sorrow. Bellatrix whispered comforting words to him and once he had calmed down, she summoned a house elf.

"Binky, bring us as many types of sweets as you can, my hair products, my make up and my clothes", she demanded, combing the fingers on one of her hands through Harry's hair.

Two hours later, Harry and Bellatrix were lounging on his bed in their pyjamas, junk food scattered around them, make up floating in front of them, Bellatrix's clothes draped over an armchair and the wall facing them had been transfigured into a giant mirror. Harry swiped a small brush into a palate of black eye shadow, reached out to Bellatrix and brushed the colouring onto her eyelid. He leant back to make sure that both eyes were even and nodded to himself.

Bellatrix instructed Harry to close his eyes. Once he complied, she applied a thick layer of black eyeliner, then mascara and then applied a huge amount of sparkling silver eye shadow to his eyelid.

She giggled with delight at the effect it had on his eyes, they looked huge, cute and even greener, if that was even possible. Harry grinned and shook his head affectionately at the woman's excitement, she was childlike and maternal at the same time, and it was an amazing combination, especially if she was with Harry, who was just as childlike and extremely flamboyant. Harry felt a slight twinge, knowing that this woman had killed Sirius, but he couldn't bring himself to hate her for it.

Harry waved his hand at the wizarding wireless on his bedside table, The Weird Sisters began blaring from the small, wooden box. Bellatrix jumped off of the bed and danced her way to Harry's wardrobe, pulling out a few items of clothing. Harry smiled and walked over to the armchair covered with all of Bellatrix's clothes.

He rifled through them until he found a pair of black, stiletto ankle boots, a sparkly silver mini dress and a pair of black fishnets. He gathered them all into his arms and turned to hand them to Bellatrix.

She grinned, took them from him and pointed to his bed. Harry burst out laughing. There, on his bed was a pair of acid green shorts which would show the majority of his legs, black fishnets, a black corset which would show almost all of his back and a pair of muggle converse trainers.

Harry grinned, "bloody brilliant!" he exclaimed, grabbing the witch into a hug. She giggled and swatted him away after a moment.

"Go get dressed, Love, we'll show Draco what he's missing!" she encouraged the vampire with a wink.

Harry nodded and offered her the room to get dressed in, claiming that he would use the bathroom. He took a few minutes to dress then a few minutes to tease his hair until the multi coloured strands were waving to brush his shoulders.

Bellatrix smiled at the boy's retreating back. De had never thought she'd be comforting the Potter brat, the very by she had tried to kill several times. But, this child wasn't the same, he was a vampire. He was one of her kind. And she couldn't help but feel protective.

Harry emerged from the bathroom to find Bellatrix pulling her shoes on, she had obviously used a straightening charm on her own hair, as it was smooth and falling gently to her lower back.

"Wow!" Chorus two disembodied voices

Bellatrix and Harry both looked at the door. There were two little eyeballs on Harry's carpet; they had evidently slithered under the crack between the bottom of the door and the floor. Harry looked at Bellatrix before motioning for her to get onto his bed and stay there. She nodded, pulled her wand out and her eyes followed closely behind him as he crept to the door. He threw it open. The spies froze in horror, as did Harry.

"Erm… alright Mate?"

Harry gaped at the sheepish faces. He stuck his head out the door and looked up and down the corridor. Once he was satisfied that there was no-one to see, he pulled the twins inside.

"Fred? George? What the hell are you two doing here?" Harry asked.

Bellatrix jumped up from the bed, threw a locking curse at the door and pointed her wand at the ginger twins. Harry placed a hand on her shoulder and shook his head. Bellatrix looked at him for a moment before lowering her wand and sitting down again.

"Well? What are you doing here?" Harry asked the twins again.

"Well, Mate-" George started.

"The order told us that you were in trouble-" Fred continued

Harry snarled at the mention of the organisation.

"Yeah, Mate. They told us you were here against your will!" George exclaimed with Fred nodding alongside him.

"So they had us come here-" Fred said

"To break you out but-" George interrupted

"We can see that you are perfectly at home-" Fred attempted to take control of the conversation

"With the Death Eaters-" George thwarted his attempt

"And your scars-" Fred continued

"Which are-" George said

"Absolutely bloody wicked!" they both finished.

Harry and Bellatrix took a moment to decipher the statement before Harry nodded, showing that he understood.

"They told you I was here against my will?" he asked the twins.

They both nodded, "and Dumbledore asked us to give you this" they said together as George pulled a letter from his pocket. Harry turned the thick parchment envelope to see the Hogwarts seal.

"How does he expect me to get to Hogwarts if, as far as he knows, I'm 'here against my will'?" Harry asked the identical gingers.

"Oh!" Fred exclaimed, digging through his pockets.

"He told us to give you this too" George continued as Fred pulled something out of his robes, he held it out to Harry. It was a necklace, a long golden chain with a large uncut diamond on the end. The diamond had no particular shape but seemed to sparkle slightly in the dim sunlight bleeding into the room through the windows. Harry looked at Bellatrix in question. She shook her head and motioned for him to use his wand.

He pulled the thin piece of wood from his sleeve and pointed it at the necklace. The piece of jewellery lifted from Fred's hand and floated in midair. Bellatrix drew her own wand. She made slashing movements with her wand at the necklace. The twins looked on nervously. What if they had almost given Harry a cursed necklace?

Bellatrix suddenly lowered her wand and stepped back. She looked up at Harry to report her findings.

"It was under a mild tracing charm, which I have disabled and a portkey spell leading directly to King's Cross Station, I left that one intact as it is being monitored. The necklace is Goblin made and rare, it also makes it very unique to each creature who will ever own it" Bellatrix told the young vampire.

"How is it unique to each owner?" Harry asked.

"Not each owner, Harry. The owner must be a creature"

"Oh, but what does it do?" Harry inquired

Bellatrix smirked slightly sadistically and motioned to the still suspended necklace.

"See for yourself" she encouraged.

Harry looked at the twins. They both glanced at each other and shrugged in unison. Harry took a deep breath and grabbed the necklace. He felt the diamond heat up and change shape. Suddenly, the heat of the diamond spread up his arm and across his chest. Soon enough, the heat was consuming his whole body, but then it all pulled back and concentrated onto his back. Harry grunted and fell to his knees as the burning became more intense, as if there was a sheet of silver pressed against his back.

Then, it stopped. All of it stopped. The burning, the pain even the heat in the necklace stopped, but his airways closed, he couldn't breathe. Harry collapsed to lie on the ground; he panted harshly and tried to work up the strength to stand with no breath getting into his body. He got to his knees before he collapsed again. He felt two sets of hands catch him before he fell. They picked him up from the floor and carried him to his bed, they lay him down gently and he felt the bed sink as the other occupants of the room sat down beside him.

He heard them speaking as if through cotton wool as he lay there panting. He felt the necklace being pried from his hand and his head being lifted up as the chain was placed around his neck. All at once everything came back to him. His energy returned, his hearing was restored and his breath whooshed back into his lungs.

He greedily gulped down lungful after lungful of air. He looked up at the twins, who he assumed were the ones who carried him to the bed.

"Thanks" Harry croaked.

The twins nodded and rubbed his back as he caught his breath. Harry put a hand up to rub his neck and felt the chain around his neck. But it was tight around his neck, not uncomfortably tight or tight enough to cut off his breathing again but tight enough that he could tell it was there.

He sat there for another moment before Bellatrix hauled him to his feet. He looked at her questioningly, but she just pointed him towards his mirror. He looked at his own reflection. His eyes were immediately drawn to the glittering necklace. The diamond had morphed into a small pair of intricate wings. He stared at them in awe. They were beautiful. Bellatrix giggled behind him and wrapped her arms around his shoulder.

"Wait until you see your back!" she whispered excitedly in his ear, lips almost touching him.

Harry looked at her in question, but she just giggled and tapped the frame of the mirror. The glass shimmered for a moment before the image melted away and another dripped in from the frame.

This one was a view of his back; only, it wasn't his back… was it? The image was wearing his black corset, had his skin tone and he could see his colourful hair swept over one of the image's shoulders. But his back certainly did not have a large pair of wings burned into it.

Harry reached behind him and watched as the arm appeared in the reflection of the back. Harry waved his hand back and forth a little bit and gasped as the reflection did the same. It was his back. He spun on his heels quickly and glared at Bellatrix.

"What did you do?" he demanded.

Bellatrix lifted a hand to her heart, "who? Me? I did nothing, Love. The necklace is an ancient artefact, as I said… or implied… a little bit. It was made to show creatures who their mates are." She told him honestly.

Harry ran a hand through his long hair, "how do I get it off?" he asked.

Bellatrix bit her lip and frowned slightly, "that's the thing, Harry… You don't" she told Harry.

Harry was dumbfounded, "Excuse me? 'I don't'? What do you mean 'I don't'?" he asked, nervously anticipating the answer.

Bellatrix kicked her foot against the carpet and wrung her hands out. She took a deep breath before looking up at Harry, "I mean that the necklace doesn't come off until you have found and accepted your mate".

The twins looked at each other before settling into the bed a little bit more. George transfigured two large bottles of butterbeer from two pieces of lint stuck to his robes and Fred transfigured a huge bowl of popcorn from a handful of puking pastilles. They lounged on the bed and ate slowly as they watched the drama unfold.

"WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU? YOU GAVE ME A NECKLACE THAT WON'T. COME. OFF?" Harry screamed at Bellatrix.

"I WAS TRYING TO HELP YOU!" Bellatrix screamed back ferociously.

Fred and George looked at each other. That was not the right thing to say, Harry never liked needing help.

Harry's face fell and became cold as he glared at Bellatrix.

"I'm sorry you think I'm not strong enough to deal with my own problems" he said cuttingly.

Bellatrix shook her head vigorously, "that's not what I meant, Love!"

Harry shook his head, tears racing down his cheeks, "I know, I just don't know what to do Bellatrix! Maybe my mate would be better off without me… maybe everybody would" he wailed brokenly.

Bellatrix gasped in horror and pulled the boy into her arms. Fred and George looked at each other for a split second before abandoning their treats and rushing to Harry's side. They each tapped Bellatrix on one of her shoulders. She looked around at them and they looked at her pleadingly, gesturing to Harry, then back at themselves.

Bellatrix bit her lip in deliberation for a moment before nodding and passing the sobbing vampire over into the arms of the other two boys.

Harry tensed for a moment before the warmth of the arms surrounding him sunk into him and he relaxed and sagged willingly into the cradle of comfort the twins had created.

"Now, now Harry", George stated softly into the boy's left ear.

"That's no way to talk!" Fred scolded from his right.

"What would we do without you?" George asked rhetorically.

"We'd die, that's what we'd do!" Fred answered anyway.

"And Hermione? She thinks of you as a brother, Mate" George told Harry

"Yeah, Mate. She's been worried sick since you sent her to the Burrow!" Fred informed helpfully.

"That's right!" George continued, "She said something about you being afraid for her safety here!"

"Yeah, something about not trusting some of the extremist purebloods just yet" Fred commented.

"And our Mum! You're like a bloody… what is it now Fred? Twentieth son? How many sons does she have?" George exclaimed

Harry giggled tearfully from the twin's arms. Fred and George smile at how cute the sound was.

"I don't know George. But how ever many brothers we have, Mum thinks of you as another one, Harry! ...Probably one of her favourites actually …George? Do we count as two brothers or one?" Fred asked, quite seriously.

Harry laughed again, a little less tearfully this time.

"I think we count as one Fred. Seeing as nobody ever asks for Fred or George. It's always Fred and George. Maybe we should change it to Gred and be done with it!" George decided.

Harry giggled again, loudly and clearly this time, no longer crying.

"Oi! Why not Forge?" Fred objected.

"Because Forge is a stupid name!" George replied heatedly.

"As opposed to Gred?" Fred supplied incredulously.

"…Touché. Perhaps it would be best if we remained Fred and George" George relented.

Harry laughed again. The twins took it as a good sign.

"And Percy too!" George decided to continue.

Harry looked up at him, confusion clear in his eyes and tear tracks still shining on his cheeks.

"Percy?" Harry asked

"Of course, Mate! How the bloody hell did you think you never got in trouble? Percy was constantly bailing you out and calling in favours!" Fred clarified.

Harry sniffed and rubbed at his eye with his fist,

"Really?" he asked the twins.

"Really!" they chorused together.

Harry smiled, Percy didn't seem to like very many people and he was one of them!

"And even the bloody Death Eaters seem to like you!" Fred exclaimed

"Yeah Mate! You've got Bellatrix Lestrange dressing you up! ...are you sure you aren't here against your will?" George continued

"Blink one for yes, twice for no!" Fred whispered jokingly.

Harry threw his head back and let out a bark of laughter, then looked at Fred and began blinking in rapid succession.

"…I have no idea what that meant" Fred informed the young vampire.

"Neither do I" Harry confessed with a laugh.

"Well then! Now that the tears and self consciousness have faded, I believe we have quite a bit to catch up on!" George declared, eyeing Harry's scars.

Harry nodded and squeezed the twins once more before pulling away from them and leading the way to his bed. Bellatrix squeezed his shoulder comfortingly as the trio sat down.

Harry looked at the twins, "what would you like to know?" he asked the ginger duo.

"Well, Mate-" George began

"Where did you disappear to?" Fred asked

"Yeah, Harry! Dumbledore said you just up and left your aunt and uncle's house!" George continued.

Harry ground his teeth together, "up and left? Up and left! I was abused in that house! I was raped in that house! I was very nearly killed in that house! By the time I got out of there I was disfigured and so badly hurt that I almost had to be carried when Dudley and I 'up and left'! I was so close to being dead that I had to have my humanity stripped from me! I think I was perfectly entitled to 'up and leave'!"

"YOU WERE WHAT!" the twins screamed in unison

"I can't believe the nerve of that old coot!" George exclaimed

"What else did he say?" Harry asked

"He said you threatened your family with magic, vandalised private property and fled the house with Dudley Dursley as a hostage!" Fred replied

"I'LL KILL HIM! I'LL CUT HIS EYES OUT AND USE THEM AS OLIVES IN A MARTINI! I'LL BURN DOWN HIS PRECIOUS SCHOOL! I'LL USE HIS BEARD AS A BLOODY SKIPPING ROPE!" Bellatrix screamed furiously.

Harry sat grinding his teeth together. Dumbledore would pay, he was sure of it.

"Would you like to hear what really happened?" Harry asked the twins, surprisingly calm.

They both nodded their ginger heads.

"I'll go and let you have your privacy" Bellatrix said, she knew it would be hard for Harry to relive this to large amounts of people at the same time.

Harry gave her a thankful look as she left and took a deep breath and opened his mouth.

"I can't even remember when it started. It's been happening since I could remember. I was woken early by my aunt Petunia, I cooked, I cleaned, I served them, I ate only what they didn't want and then, once my duties for the day were completed, I was locked in my cupboard again until morning" He told them

"Your cupboard?" George asked, afraid of the answer.

"Yes, my cupboard. Freaks don't get bedrooms… or even beds" Harry said as though he were speaking of the weather.

"You didn't have a bed?" Fred asked, pity and anger clear in his voice

"Well, I was in the cupboard until I was about twelve, then I was given a bedroom, then I was put back in the cupboard again and I slept on the floor of the cupboard under the stairs" Harry informed the twins.

"Good Lord! Bloody muggles! They have no sense of right and wrong!" George fumed.

"Right Mate, carry on" Fred encouraged, eager to hear just how badly he would have to hurt these muggles.

"Right, well on my third day back in Privet Drive, your father and Mad Eye turned up at the front door, they told my uncle that Sirius had died and that I would need comfort and that they should, and I quote this directly, 'go easy on me'. Well, as soon as they left, the proverbial shit hit the equally proverbial fan. Vernon went berserk. He chased Dudley and I upstairs. Dudley was going to try to protect me, but I pushed him into a cupboard and locked it. Vernon came in screaming for my owl and he got angry when I refused to tell him where she was. But then she flew in the window, so I tried to keep him away from her but he got angrier after that. He grabbed me by the throat, hauled me off of my feet and killed Hedwig. He held me there with no oxygen until I passed out. When I came around, I was in the cupboard again, Hedwig was dead and I had my first scar." Harry said, he pulled his corset down to show the first scar his uncle had ever given him, the work 'freak' emblazoned on his chest forever.

"Oh bugger me!" George exclaimed

Harry smiled wearily before continuing with his tale,

"Dudley and I have been friends since I was in second year; he tried to help me all the time once the beatings started. Vernon demanded that Dudley beat me as well. But every time he told his father he was going to beat me, he brought me food and treated my wounds as well as he could, but I could never keep the food down, so I just kept losing weight." He paused for a moment to gather his thoughts and push the memories of agonizing hunger pains away.

Fred and George looked at each other in silent understanding; Harry needed them now, no revenge on the muggles. Yet

"Because I didn't have my wand, my magical core started attacking my body to use up some of the magic that needed to be released, and it sped up my malnutrition and made everything more painful. I was in agony. But then something else made it all worse. My uncle started raping me and after a week of it constantly two or three times a day along with three beatings a day, he told Dudley to start raping me too." Harry's voice wavered and wrapped his arms around himself as though he were fighting to keep himself in one piece.

George began to stroke Harry's hair in an attempt to keep him calm. He pushed his head into the other boy's hand like a kitten and took a shuddering breath before continuing.

"Dudley just… snapped a little bit. He got my aunt and uncle out of the house for the night, packed our things and snuck me out. We took the Knight Bus to London and stayed with his gang."

"A Gang? Like a street gang?" Fred asked, astounded at how much Harry must have changed to even be associated with a gang.

"Yeah. The Fallen Angels. We were pretty much a group of nobody's with nowhere else to go. Dudley and I had run away, Dervla has a death sentence hanging over her head, Shadow had the same treatment as I did but by her parents, which I suppose makes it worse, Blade's parents are dead, Ash and Ruby are just duplicates of her, Pierce is wanted for multiple murders in America, Xander is a member of Greyback's pack, Viper is a vampire and Max is Viper's mate. We were all abnormal, Dervla is a veela, Dudley has a little bit of magic in his blood, Shadow, Blade, Max, Ash and Ruby are all witches, Xander is a werewolf, Pierce is a bloody assassin and Viper and I are vampires!" Harry exclaimed.

"You're a vampire?" George questioned

"Oh, yeah. I was too weak to survive without being changed so I was changed as soon as Shadow realised how weak I was, being caught halfway between human and creature. I was forced to give up my humanity to save my life." Harry answered

"What about your sire? Don't young vampires need their sire's blood for a year?" Fred asked

"Yes, but I would've changed anyway. I have creature blood already. Vampirism is my creature inheritance, I should've changed on my sixteenth birthday but my magic prevented it because it would have been too dangerous to change around the Dursleys." Harry clarified

"Oh, well how long did you stay with the gang?" George inquired

"I stayed with the gang for a month; I found Hermione two weeks after I got there so I kept her with us. We met you and the rest of your family in Diagon Alley three weeks ago. But after you left Hermione and I met a girl in a café, Shauna. She turned out to be a Death Eater, Hermione flew off the handle, and she dragged Shauna outside and tried to kill her in an alley. I got Hermione off of her, but not before she managed to slash a dagger down Shauna's chest. I threw Hermione against the wall too hard and she was knocked unconscious. So there was nobody there to stop me when I attacked Shauna because she was bleeding. But someone did. My mate made me stop. So I took the girls here and I just kind of stayed. Tom offered me a position among the Death Eaters and I took it, but I sent Hermione to you, I thought she may not be safe here." Harry explained

Fred and George nodded in understanding.

"Are you safe here?" George asked, concerned for his friends' safety

"Well… I'm not dead yet. Yes Mother! I'm perfectly safe, I'm a Death Eater, Tom's not going to kill me anytime soon and if he tries I have Shauna, Bellatrix, Draco, Lucius and probably even Severus all on my side. I'll be fine!" Harry reassured the twin.

"Shauna? She's the one you met in the café isn't she?" George asked

"Yes. And she would prefer if you didn't talk about her when she isn't present" called a feminine voice from the door.

Harry snapped his head up to look at the door. Shauna was leaning there, book in hand, obviously relaxed. Her ears and tail were all out. She sashayed her way to the bed and sat down beside Harry.

"What are you doing here?" Harry asked

"Draco needed a little bit of comfort but he got a little too weepy" Shauna answered

"So you just left him?" Harry asked, outraged.

"Yes" Shauna stated simply.

Harry huffed and ran out of the room, eager to check on Draco.

With everyone they were familiar with out of the room. The twins resorted to their favourite trick. Stating the obvious in unison,

"You're a cat…"