Phantasmagoria! Part One

7

The river Styx was so wide that it took some time for Harry to wrap his head around it being a river to begin with.  The molten silver waters seemed to stretch on forever, glittering like reversed stars against the earthy, subterranean roof above them, and resulting in a dizzy sense of being suspended upside down from the skies.

On the glimmering horizon, they made out the blinking lights of distant ferries, manned by unimaginable things. There was no sign of a shore.

‘I guess swimming’s been taken out of the itinerary,’ Draco commented dryly. ‘Pity, I did so hope to get a dip.’

‘You better hope the water’s drinkable, or we’ll both die of thirst in a day or two,’ Harry said brusquely. The exertions of the day had left his tongue stuck to the roof of his mouth and the little moisture that remained in his throat felt thick and irritable. ‘Come on.’

Gingerly the companions made their way to the water in fits and starts, sending volleys of pebbles down to the shore as they made their descent. Harry’s heart sank as he searched furtively for any signs of plant life, which might have meant that the river waters were safe to consume. 

Draco’s arm suddenly shot out and pulled him behind some rocks. ‘Someone’s coming.’

Harry cocked his head and listened to the faint sound of muttering that grew into a belligerent monologue. Then a man came into view, wearing bunch of rags that seemed to be shedding in little bits and pieces around him as he walked. He came to a stop directly in front of them, eyes roving blindly over the rocks.  

‘I ken smell a foul surface stench! Who be you, then? Mighty chary, loitering about in the shadows. Show yourselves!’

Taking a gamble on his instincts, Harry pushed himself from the rocks and stood up, yanking Draco along. ‘Just two weary travelers. We don’t mean any harm.’

‘Harm me? Harm the Dreadful Ferryman of Hades?  The stranger laughed derisively at his proclamation. With his sour mein and long, shaggy hair he looked like a possible long dead relation of Filtch’s. ‘What be your name then, fearless one?’

‘Harry Potter.'

The ferryman looked him up and down. ‘Dead already eh? Lost the fight? Yarg, didn’t think you’d make it anyways. Yer shorter than I expected.’

‘What about me?’ The blond pressed, then at the blank look pointed at himself. ‘I’m Draco Malfoy, the spy who turned the tide- order of Merlin, second class?’

‘Never heard of you,’ Chauron said dismissively.

‘Yet you know Harry Potter.’ Draco said, looking disgruntled. ‘Why am I not one bit surprised.’

‘In the good old days, heroes were a dime a dozen. Passionate! Willing to die for a cause! That’s what it’s all about,’ Chauron roared, glaring at Harry as if it was all his fault. ‘Now, we’re lucky to get one miserable man every hundred years, countin more on nerdy luck than muscles! Weak, the lota you. Look at that’

‘Ow!’ Draco shrieked. ‘Stop poking me!’

‘All bones and ribs, ye’all are, useless!’

‘Uh, Chauron, what we came here for-‘

‘My name is Kharon! Kharon! Spelt with a bloody K!’

‘Oh for the love of- does it really matter?’

‘How’d you like it if the world started calling you J’arry?

‘Point taken,’ Harry said, wincing as Draco burst into laughter.

‘I suppose you’ll be wantin’ to cross her then, hur? The big bad Styx.’

Harry nodded. ‘We can pay.’

‘Forty-five dollars,’ the ferryman grunted. ‘All major currencies accepted, no barter, and NO bloody credit cards!’

‘That’s highway robbery.’

‘Haven’t you heard of inflation before?’

‘We have something even better,’ Draco said smugly as he fished out his coins. ‘I think you’ll find this quite familiar. ’

‘What’s this rot then? An obolus! By Pluto’s chin, I’ve not seen the likes of that for five thousand years,’ Khauron marveled. ‘Where in the Upper Realms did you manage to find one?’

Draco puffed up his chest and opened his mouth to explain.

‘Brings back memories, it does, but honestly, this isn’t worth a donkey’s ass.’ Khaoron shuddered. ‘Used to have to row by hand, in those days. Took me forever to get one bloody load of these buggers across.’

‘Surely you can smuggle us on board..’

‘No money, no ticket. No ticket, no ferry.’ Kharon gave them a hard look, and relented. ‘Well, me’s not talked to a hero in tenscore years, and doubt there’d be one hurryin along anytime soon. You can use me old boat, quiet-like, yer ken? Don’t use it anymore now that we have the ferries- she’s tethered yonder.’ He nodded at the pier.

‘So much for your obolus,’ Harry said dryly to a deeply chagrined Draco.

‘A word of caution to yeh: if one drop of river water from the Stxy lands in your mouth, you’ll be mute for nine years. Not a sound!’ Khauron warned. ‘And she likes to play with her food, Stxyie does. Yer been warned!’

Draco, who had been peering with great interest at the whispering waters, started backing away. ‘Did you say Stxyie likes to eat people?’

‘I didn’t say that.’

‘But-‘

‘Its complicated,’ the ferryman said firmly as he turned away. ‘Yer been warned!’

‘I really don’t like this,’ Draco complained. ‘Everything in this realm wants to eat us.’

‘Thank you, Kharon, we wont forget this.’ Harry said warmly.

The ferryman looked embarrassed. ‘Yarhg, be off with you. And mind you get those stupid scholars to change my name when you get back to the surface!’

*

It turned out to be a rickety old rowboat, its boards cracked and wrapped with age.

Luckily it floated – if a little shakily, and barely kept the waters of the river by the time the two men got into it. As was the natural order of things, Harry found himself doing all the rowing, while Draco did all the complaining.

‘Really, what was Godfather thinking, sending us down here with so much misinformation.’

Harry looked longingly at the brackish waters. He knew quite a few people who’s voice he didn’t mind not hearing for nine years or so, Draco and that bastard Snape being two that topped his list. 

They both looked up as a giant ferry past them, her passengers waving merrily.

‘Evil man, that Khauron,’ Draco observed. ‘He should change his name to Sauron.’

‘You read too much,’ Harry told him sourly. His shoulders were beginning to burn from the effort of rowing.

Draco eyed the lip of the boat as the splashes of the rock ‘Don’t make such a big splash. And your rowing is so uneven that you keep meandering us to the left.’

‘Would you like to row this thing?’

‘Point taken.’

They both lapsed into brooding silence after that, one that became more and more oppressive and Harry found himself glaring venomously at the blond as a litany of past hurts and grudges paraded through his brain. This was all the stupid blonds’ fault.

The more he rowed, the more Harry’s anger seemed to choke him, coiling around his heart. His heartbeat hammered in his ears, going faster and faster. Across the boat, Draco’s face was purple with ugliness, and he seemed to be breathing faster as well. Well, his Highness had no right to be angry. No right at all. He was nothing but a treacherous, manipulative, leaching little snake-

It was almost as if Draco could read his every thought, because the blond suddenly burst out, ‘Oh, you’re so full of self-righteous SHIT! You’ve got righteous shit pouring out of every ORIFICE-‘

Harry’s mouth went on autopilot. ‘You did nothing but USE me for seven fucking years! You turned me into your errand boy, your punching bag, your fucking piggy back ride-‘

‘I’ll give you what I think you’re worth! In this case nothing!'

Maybe if you’ve given me a little sympathy instead of being the self-absorbed little prick you are-‘

‘Maybe your muggle relatives had it right after all, eh? Freak show!!’

‘You and your bloody father have taken turns to broke my nose, is that some sick sort of Slytherin tag game, huh? Malfoy method of family bonding?’

‘If you hadn’t incited him with all your sardonic commentary, he wouldn’t have! Its your own bloody fault! You destroy everything with your own hands Potter, it was you all along, so don’t blame anybody else! Peopledie because of you, remember?’

‘You selfish, spoilt, whore!’ Harry almost screamed, abandoning his oars and standing up abruptly. ‘Say that again and I’ll run you over with Gryffindor’s sword!’

Draco pitched forward and grabbed his shirt. ‘Do it, your bloody coward! It’s the route you always take! Thegreat Harry Potter: what a self-pitying, washed-out has been he turned out to be-‘

‘NOTHING but fucking hubris-, Harry roared back at him, and they ended up grappling like two rowdy sailors, snarling and spitting

Harry’s thoughts because so incensed that he could not hold a coherent thought, beyond a sudden, fiendish need to hold that smarmy, hateful blood under the water and watch him drown.

Draco had lunged for one of the oars which Harry intercepted and kicked into the water. Overcome by the violent motion the blond pitched into the river with an outraged scream. His pale, scrawny arms scrambled for the boat almost immediately, and Harry lifted a booted foot to smash on his fingers, but Draco hurled all his weight against the side he was grasping on and with a triumphant cry, and capsized the little boat.

The water was as roiling as Harry went under, singing in his hearts and egging him on his homicidal mission. It was only the silver glint of the sword of Griffindor by his side that finally caught his eye as he flailed in the water, looking for Draco, and for one brief moment, the blind anger blanked out, leaving him slightly confused.

Through the haze of rage a nagging surface memory tugged at him, and he kicked desperately to the surface and tugged Draco to his chest, where hence the blond immediately wound his hands around his neck and begun to choke.

‘Draco, it’s the river!’ Harry shouted, shaking him. ‘Styx is the river of hate. Let go of your anger, or you’ll drown!

‘Draco!’ The blue eyes were still unseeing, so he shook him again, and held him above the water. ‘Think of your parents. Think of Malfoy Manor. Think of all the things you didn’t get to say to Lucius.’

The waves crashed tumultuously around them, and Harry clammed a hand over his companion’s mouth to keep the river waters from entering. ‘I love you, you bloody shit,’ he roared. ‘And I’m stuck in fucking Hades because of you, so you better not die on me or resurrect both you and your useless father and de-’

The blond gasped suddenly and clutched at him. His blue lips worked soundlessly for several  moments before he spoke.

‘Yo-you don’t have the brains to resurrect inferi-‘

Harry was thankful for his tight grip on him, because, a wave suddenly rolled them to the shore tumbling them both unceremoniously on the pebbly shore and retreating sullenly back into the river.

For blessed knew how long, Harry couldn’t bring himself to move a finger. All emotions had drained out of him, left him weak and exposed. When he finally hauled himself to Draco’s side, the blond’s eyes were closed, and his features were set in a rare expression of neutrality that made him look almost peaceful.

‘Those things I said in the boat,’ Harry aid tentatively, ‘I didn’t mean it.’

‘I know,’ the blond said tiredly as his sky-blue eyes blinked open. ‘I’m sorry too.’

‘Friends?’

‘Never,’ Draco said flatly and with so much finality that Harry thought his heart had sank under the waters of hated Stxy with Kharon’s boat.

Then he felt his hand clasped by cold, shivering fingers. ‘You’ll always be more than that.’

‘Wanker,’ Harry said fondly. Then he smiled.

*