Disclaimer: I own nothing of the Harry Potter characters.

A Dark Cloud on the Horizon

Chapter One: I don't take shit from anyone

Who am I to question why? Mine is but to do and make others die!

"I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm tired of jumping out from the pan and into the fire. I'm sick of getting my ass kicked around every corner. I'm sick of licking my wounds and then turning the other cheek so I can get bloodied again."

"But what can we do?" Ron shrugged helplessly; the others in the train car nodding along with his stance.

"We can take the fight back to the enemy." Harry answered coolly.

"But that's for the Order to…" Hermione began to argue before Harry cut her off.

"Fuck the Order of the idiot!" Harry barked venomously, surprising the others.

"But Dumbledore knows best. He says we should…"

"That's the very idiot I was talking about…Fuck him too."

The rest of the Ministry Six paled at the vehemence of Harry rebuttal, though most chalked it up to their friend having so recently lost his Godfather during the skirmish with Death Eaters at the Hall of Mysteries.

"Look, I'm not asking anyone here to tag along with what I've got in mind. The rest of you have families to protect. Me,… I'm fresh out of family members to sacrifice to the cause which seems to be more of Dumbledore's cause than it is Voldemort's. I'm gonna introduce a third player into the game-ME!" Harry was so intense that his aura was beginning to manifest itself and a faint silvery glow suffused his body giving him an ethereal ghost like appearance.

"But Harry, be sensible, you can't,... none of us can even do magic yet, we're not of age?" Hermione tried to argue against the folly of Harry's intention's realizing that he was speaking more out of grief than logic just now.

For once, she couldn't have been more wrong.

"Wrong" Harry refuted. "We can't use wands yet, magic is just fine." Harry snapped his fingers and the door to their train car banged open so hard that the glass in the window pane cracked.

The others didn't have long to gap in varying stages of disbelief and awe because as fortune would have it, Draco Malfoy had picked this exact moment to make his end of the year harassment call, flanked as usual by his two goons: Crabbe and Goyle.

"You're a dead man Potty. You can't get away with landing my father in Azkaban. The Dark Lord will make sure you suffer a long time before you-Urk!"

Draco's threat was cut off midsentence by Harry's hand shooting out and clamping around his throat like a steel vice. His finger nails dug in cruelly and blood began to trickle from the broken skin as Draco blued and desperately clawed at the hand to relieve the pressure on his air way.

"See, this is the exact kind of thing I'm talking about." Harry commented pointedly, considering Draco no more than a minor nuisance, a mosquito in the greater scheme of things.

Crabbe and Goyle broke out of their initial surprise that anyone would dare to openly challenge them, especially with Voldemort now out in the open. They began to lumber forward, their meaty hands reaching toward Harry stopped several feet short as if held at bay by an invisible wall.

Harry continued to address his friends as if he were explaining why the sky is blue to a toddler. "Why do we allow ourselves to be victimized by this arrogant little shit? His immediate friends aren't powerful, stupid maybe, but not powerful. His rich father's in prison. He'll probably buy his way out, but so what? Money can't buy everything, certainly not breeding or he would have traded Draco in for a pet monkey. Isn't that right Draco?"

"Urk.., ah… gaaa!" Draco wheezed struggling pathetically for a simple hint of air.

Harry pulled his head forward and back as if it were nodding its agreement. "See, even Draco agrees with me. Let me make this simple for you before you pass out. Don't ever fuck with me and my friends again. You can think about it, but don't you do it." Harry tightened his hold and what little air Draco was able to drag into his lungs was completely cut off and his eyes bulged in terror as he realized he was about to die.

"I want you to reflect often on this particular moment, Draco, when you wake up and realize that you're still alive, but unlikely to ever father any more sub humans like yourself and your friends. I want you to think long and hard on whether or not you picked the wrong side and whether or not it was worth what it cost you." That said, Harry's knee flashed forward and sunk so deep between Draco's legs that the others in the room winced and crossed their legs uncomfortably, the ladies included.

Draco's eyes rolled up into his head and blood burst from his nostrils as a distinct, if muffled, "pop" heralded the end of Draco's line as Harry predicted. Crabbe and Goyle stood stammering, no longer in fury, but in horror as Harry flung Draco's broken body at them as if he were no more than a child's doll.

"You want the same, come find me-anytime." Harry threatened to which they both gulped nervously as they gathered up their broken friend between them and bolted away.

"See,.. this is the kind of thing I'm talking about?" Harry intoned seriously as he turned back toward his shocked to speechless friends. Disappointment clouded his features as he realized in that moment that they just weren't there yet and maybe never would be.

I guess it's all a matter of loss? They haven't lost enough yet to see where I'm coming from.

As disappointed as he was in the knowledge that he was alone now, he was that glad for the rest of them that they still had so much to keep them grounded in some waning sense of virtue and morality.

Harry sighed. "I guess this is where we part ways. I'm really sorry for getting so many of you hurt and putting your lives at risk,… I really am. I can't ask you to follow where I'm going because where I'm going is nowhere good."

"H-Harry, I…?" Ron came out of his shocked stupor struggling to find the words that would dissuade his friend, knowing already that it was too late. Harry had that "damn the torpedoes" look he got just before he dived into something dangerous.

Harry clamped a strong hand on his friends shoulder and held his friend's worried gaze with a wistful smile of his own. "Take care of her Ron, you lucky sod."

He waved after the others asking them all to... "Take care of yourselves and each other." He was just turning to leave when he turned back to the stunned group. "Oh, and don't believe everything you'll undoubtedly read about me in the papers as I'm sure it won't be reported half as bad as the real thing." With that, Harry chuckled dryly and left the train car as it was slowing to a stop at Platform 9 ¾.

He heaved his trunk up onto his shoulder and stepped out onto the platform as the train was still slowly moving. Hedwig had already been turned loose and knew where to find him; at least she always seemed to. He knew where he was going initially, but not where he would finally land, but he was making it up as he went and had a rudimentary idea of what he needed to do and where to begin.

"Harry? Harry dear…?" Mrs. Weasley called after him but he just waved to her friendlily and kept on walking undaunted toward the barricade. He passed into the London side of the train station and was morbidly pleased to find his irritated appearing Uncle waiting impatiently for him.

With a cold smirk and a pat of reassurance to the papers front Gringotts that he had took to carrying in his front pocket, ( that officially emancipated him as part of the inclusions in Sirius' last will), Harry stepped calmly up to the walrus of a man who had tormented and bullied him from his earliest memories.

"So we're landed with you again are we? I'd hoped you'd met a sticky end what with all the trouble your kind has been causing around the country, but we can't have everything can we?" his uncle sneered cruelly.

Harry just rolled his eyes and refuted. Oh, I don't know? I've always dreamed about seeing you in excruciating pain and now I will." That said, Harry purposely dropped his heavy trunk on his uncle's feet, smashing the man's toes while trapping him in place.

"Arggg..Urk!" his uncle's initial startled painful reaction was cut short by a wet grunt of intense pain as Harry's palm slammed into the man's nose shattering it.

Uncle Vernon's hands went toward the ruin of nose that was drenching his thick mustache in blood just as Harry pulled his trunk off of the large man's feet. Vernon pitched unsteadily forward unable to break his impending fall as his hands were clamped over his nose trying to staunch the flow of blood. He needn't have worried about falling as Harry's knee came forward and settled the matter for him. Harry's knee struck just beneath his uncle's chin pitching the obese brute over backward, sending him careening into the side on his own prized sedan.

Vernon's body proved the more solid of the two as the impact buckled the rear fender damaging the highly polished steel beyond anything resembling a simple, let alone, affordable repair. Vernon flew off the car and hit face firt into the paves, breaking out several teeth.

Blood pooled from the man's ruined mouth and face, though he was gaging and flailing in misery, still conscious despite the sudden and vicious, albeit long overdue, beating he was the unfortunate recipient of.

Harry could see the man's frightened eyes glazing over in pain and committed the image to memory to warm him and harden his resolve over the long days ahead.

He ignored the shocked calls of his friends behind and hastened about his business as he was sure that Dumbledore's stooges would arrive any second to spoil his revenge and consign him to yet another endless summer of misery at the hands of his hated family.

He knelt down on one knee and hastily addressed the hateful man. "Sorry I don't have sufficient time to make a proper job of it, dear uncle. Do give my regards to my homely aunt and your ponderous offspring. Oh, and speaking of Dudley; I really can't stomach the thought of you fathering any more future horrors to plague the earth, so….?"

Harry stood back up and quickly positioned himself behind his uncle. He used his feet to swipe his uncle's legs apart to give him ready access to the target of his ire and then proved why he should be considered for the position of striker on England's next world cup soccer team.

Despite his many injuries and approaching unconsciousness, Vernon came fully awake long enough to scream like the neutered pig he now was. The force of the kick sent him careening across the pavers like he was on sheer ice, rather than rough and uneven paves, to come to a groaning heap against the entry to platform 9 and ¾, effectively blocking the portal long enough for Harry to make good his escape.

"Harry…?!" a female voice gasped worriedly from behind.

He chanced a last look back toward a his friends to see a tear wrought Ginny staring forelorn and grief stricken as she was finally coming to the conclusion that he was leaving their lives-permanently. Hermione was snuffling in Ron's arms as Ron cast him a despondent look that clearly said he wished that things could go back to the way they once were. Neville held his eyes for a split second and nodded not only his understanding, but his approval of Harry decision.

Neville always was the bravest of us all. Harry considered for not the first time.

Luna just waved to him with a sad half smile that was wholly comprehensive as she was rarely allowed herself to be.

Harry quirked a last smile that promised mayhem in the offing, before he nodded his thankful farewell to his truest friends, hoping that not only would he one day see them again, but that they wouldn't reject what he was about to become.

A last wink and Harry disappeared into the crowed train station, leaving his trunk behind for the "Order of the Idiot's" perusal. With grim satisfaction he wondered what the esteemed headmaster would think of the parting gift he'd left for his consideration. The trunk contained nothing but his oversized stained hand me downs and tattered trainers cover with a nice pile of shit with a note that proclaimed:

Dearest Dumbledore:

I leave you with the same fond remembrance that you left me in when you dropped my ass at the Durley's. I hope you enjoy your shitty life as much as I did mine.

Sincerely, Lord Harold James Potter-Black, (didn't think I knew-huh?)

AKA: Nut Buster Black