He gave a small, slightly sad smile. "A friend of mine is being picked on. I want to go pick him up... would it be alright if we invited him with us in the library?"
Several eyes went a bit hard at the idea of someone being bullied. Hermione gave a firm nod. "Of course Harry. Lead the way."
Harry felt the thread, following it around some statues, under a staircase, and through a fake wall before he reached an almost deserted hallway.
Draco Malfoy and his two meat puppets were laughing at a boy who had clearly been pushed to the ground.
Harry heard the git sneer at the child at his feet. "At least now you are where you belong, at the feet of Purity. A squib like you are a shame to your blood-traitor parents." Harry stood straight, and stepped back. Wrath could handle this.
Neville Longbottom had handled many of his trials so far. The rude and unthinking comments from Ron had made things tough, and the rest of the house considered him barely above a squib. But he had stayed firm.
When he had reached the common room and found out the password changed, he couldn't get the older students to listen to him. He had gone down the hall to try and find someone his age...
His eyes were on the floor. The physical assault wasn't much, but the words... Draco was saying things he whispered to himself at night sometimes. Dark fears. He could fight pain, but his heart hurt too.
"Oh dear. Mr. Malfoy, I am afraid you have been impolite." Neville looked up and saw Draco turn white. It looked like his skin was dipped in milk. From behind him and the two now frozen boys was someone... he couldn't quite see him.
"Three on one, Mr. Malfoy? I see you are not confident in your abilities. I am glad you are aware of your own weakness."
Neville knew it wasn't directed at him and he STILL felt shivers in his spine. This voice had age, experience, and it was judging Draco Malfoy lacking. VERY lacking.
"Run along, Mr. Malfoy. You know how dangerous this castle can be for some people."
Draco turned... It was the body of Harry Potter. It had to be his body, for his flesh was like a corpse wrapped around the THING that was now looking upon him with such sadness. The worst was Harry's left eye... His right was glowing green, full of sadness... but the left was an abyss, darkness, the end. And dying inside that dark was an ember of green.
Harry's left eye was watching Draco, and Draco could not move. His bones were stone, his skin was freezing, and bone hands were on his shoulders. The words seemed to live inside his skin.
"You may leave, Mr. Malfoy. Have a pleasant afternoon." The thing paused. "Oh... and do leave Mr. Longbottom alone. The boy has greatness inside him."
Neville looked at what was likely Harry Potter. Somehow those words felt more true than anything he had ever heard. This was not an opinion, this was not a question. Inside Neville Longbottom was greatness, just like outside there was sunlight.
He didn't even notice when the three terrified boys ran past. Harry smiled, transforming almost instantly back to the boy Neville had worked with early that same day. The change was almost as disturbing as the aristocratic way he had terrorized the children. "Neville, I would like to invite you to join my friends on a trip to the library. It should be interesting, if you wish to join us."
Neville had barely noticed the boy and girls surrounding Harry. They also seemed to be recovering a bit from the amount of energy that had filled the hall. He gave a hesitant smile. "S... Sure Harry. I would like to go."
Harry grinned. "And if you are worried about that squib thing, I may have a solution for you. Turns out that I have a bit of a trick when it comes to doing the impossible."
The young boy with only a toad for a friend gave a silent vow that if Harry Potter could help him, Neville Longbottom would never give him cause to regret it. "So are we going to talk about the whole 'I became Wrath' thing?" Hermione seemed a bit hesitant.
Harry shrugged. "Sure. Ask away."
Hannah giggled. "Ok. What's up with the whole 'I became Wrath' thing?"
Harry pointed at his head. "When I gave Wrath my darkness, I also gave him my fighting abilities and my desire to protect others." He shrugged. "To be honest, it is better this way. I mean, if it was up to ME, with NO restrictions, I would have probably hurt Draco. Badly. Possibly permanently."
Neville felt shocked. "You would have killed him?"
Harry shook his head. "Nah, he is just a kid mouthing off what his parents tell him. But I might have turned him into a squib, or disabled his ability to use a wand." He noticed that only Hermione was still walking. He raised an eyebrow at the shock. "What? If I can fix magical cores and allow your wands to sync with you perfectly, of course I can do the opposite."
Neville shuddered. "I think many pure bloods would prefer death to that."
Harry sighed. "Well that is just silly. There are more important things than magic."
Terry walked closer. "Like what?"
Harry seemed to shrink a bit. "Family." He shook himself a bit. "And friends. Helping people. Magic can be a great tool, but I can do a lot even without it."
Hermione grinned. "You can also fix teeth without magic."
Harry was starting to get into it. "And fly without magic."
"And cook amazing food without magic." "And launch a goat into orbit without magic."
"And... wait, what?"
Harry waved his arms. "WELCOME to the library! Everyone be very quiet, don't want to disturb Madam Pince."
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