A cry of pain escaped her lips as the fist impacted against her face. Her pain receptors cried out as lights filled her vision.
She tried to shake her head and will the pain away, but before she could, Crabbe grabbed her by the hair and yanked her up, adding to the pain she was already feeling. Tears leaked from the corner of her eyes as the feeling of her hair being ripped from her scalp set her nerve endings on fire.
"Daphne!?" Tracey screamed in shock at seeing her friend being manhandled. While Tracey was gaping, Hermione was moved into action. She stood up and pulled out her wand, pointing it at Crabbe.
"Petrificus Totalus!"
Crabbe's body suddenly stiffened. His hand let go of Daphne's hair, allowing her to stumble back into the compartment window, and snapped to his side. For one second all was still. Then Crabbe fell backwards, hitting the ground with a meaty thud.
"Filthy mudblood!" Malfoy spat as he pulled out his own wand. "I'm going to teach you a lesson on ―"
Draco Malfoy did not get to finish his sentence because at that exact moment the compartment door was slammed open.
Everyone turned around to see the person who had entered and gasped. There, standing in the doorway, his killing curse green eyes actually glowing like someone had cast a lumos behind them was none other than Harry Potter.
And he was pissed.
XoX
There were few times in recent years that Harry could remember being angry. The most recent two being when his friends had attacked that troll while he was trying to come up with some kind of plan to defeat it, and the other being when Ron Weasley rudely asked him if he remembered the night his parents died.
Yet even in those moments, the anger he felt then was absolutely nothing compared to what he felt at the sight before him. Daphne Greengrass was on the ground, tears in her eyes and a large bruise forming just off the side of her left eye. On his hands and knees beside her, dry heaving as he leaned over a pile of his own vomit was Goyle ― his friend's handiwork no doubt ― and in front of Daphne, laying stiff as a board was Crabbe. Tracey was standing up and looked ready about to cry, Hermione had her wand out and Lisa looked completely confused and afraid.
Then there were the other two, Draco Malfoy and Pansy Parkinson. Parkinson he didn't care for. She was just a follower. Malfoy was the ring leader here.
He watched with a grim smile as the two idiots that were still capable of standing and dared to attack his friends pale at the sight of him. His enhanced nose could practically smell the fear they were beginning to radiate.
That was good.
A nearly invisible wave of his hand conjured a modified silencing barrier. There was no need to let anyone in the other compartments know what he was doing.
"Potter ―" Malfoy tried to speak, but Harry would not give him the chance. Before the blond boy could finish his sentence, Harry was moving.
A wave of his hand in Pansy's direction conjured a set of ropes that quickly and efficiently bound the girl tight enough that she gave a sharp yelp of pain. The foolish girl was then sent crashing to the ground as she lost her balance.
Malfoy's eyes widened more. He made to point his wand at Harry, but by that point in time Harry was already within his guard.
Slapping Malfoy's arm to the side, Harry let the wand move up and over his shoulder as he closed the distance between them. There were so many moves he could make up close like this. Perhaps he should grab the boy's shoulders and slam his knee into the fools gut? Or maybe he should take the arrogant sod by the head and smash the idiots face against his knee? That one did sound awfully satisfying.
But no. He had a few things to say, and Malfoy wouldn't hear them if he was busy crying in pain. Plus, Harry wanted to see the fear in the boy's eyes as he realized how big a mistake he made when he attacked Harry's friends.
Grabbing the boy by the collar of his robes, Harry spun around and slammed Malfoy against the wall. The boy's yelp of pain was stopped early by a choked gasp as Harry gripped his neck with one hand and squeezed. Enhancing his body with magic, Harry lifted the child into the air.
The way Malfoy's eyes bulged from their sockets in fear was incredibly satisfying.
"It seems I have been to lenient with you, Malfoy," Harry's voice came out as a sibilant hiss that had Malfoy shuddering in fear. "Do you remember what I told you would happen if you hurt my friends again?" The fool in his grasp opened his mouth to respond, but only a rasping gurgle came out as Harry's fingers squeezed his neck harder. "I told you that if you ever went near my friends again, I would hunt you down and bring you such suffering that Voldemort himself would piss his robes in fear."
"Well, guess what?" Harry's smile was as cold as it was feral. He smelled urine as Draco Malfoy pissed himself. "You get to find out that I always make good on my threats."
Malfoy strangled cry of pain was drowned out by the sound of lightning crackling as Harry conjured purple electricity to his hands. Arcs of electrical discharge coursed from Harry's fingertips into the blond boy in his grasp, lighting nerve endings a flare and causing what Harry hoped was indescribable amounts of pain.
Soon, the smell of charred flesh began to permeate the room as Draco Malfoy's skin began to burn. small, red blisters appeared on his skin. The hair on his scalp began to blacken and crisp, turning to ash and falling away from his head. Soon, the boy was bald and the skin on top of his head began to blister as it too was burned.
"Harry! Stop it!"
Hermione's voice filtered through his ears. Harry blinked as he came back from his rage. He looked up at Draco, who looked like his skin was about to start blistering and blinked once more as lightning charged through his body like a thunder storm.
The lightning stopped as Harry let go of Draco Malfoy, allowing the boy to drop down the ground with a pained moan. He was still alive, and would be fine in a few hours provided someone fix up those burns and give him a potion to help deal with the pain.
Harry turned around. Everyone flinched when his eyes landed on them. Their faces looked at him in fear, their eyes wide and frightened at the terrible act he had just committed. They were afraid, afraid of him, of what he had done.
Harry felt sick.
"Here."
Hermione flinched as Harry turned to her, but instinctively caught the bottle and the vial he had thrown at her.
"The bottle contains a healing salve for burns and the vial contains a potion that will deaden nerve endings to stop someone from feeling any pain. Use them on Malfoy."
Spinning around, Harry left the compartment, pushing past his frightened and shocked friends, who moved out of the way like the red sea parting as he ran past them.
He needed to be alone right now. He needed to think. Most importantly, he needed to be away from his friends. Harry would not admit to it, but the looks of fear they had given him hurt worse than any curse, and he did not think he could bear the sight of them looking at him in fear any longer.
.
.
.
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