Darkness Within

Summary: While on patrol the death eaters find a crippled and dying Harry Potter in the home that was supposed to protect him. Confused and lost on what they should do, they take him to Voldermort, from there everything spirals out of control.

OMG I don't have disclaimer! I am not making any kind of money out of this, I am writing purely for your entertainment, No I don't own anything J. K. Rowling is a wonderful inspiration and a lovely person and owns all (Please don't sue me)

Dark!Harry (I have been DYING to do one)
Harry/Draco – Because you know, YES
Manipulative!Dumbledor
Bad guys win alright let's just get that out of the way

Mentor!Snape

Chapter 3: Awakening

Harry felt oddly light as he slept, the world around him seemed fuzzy and his heart beat in a slow, sleepy rhythm.

"I'm dead," He whispered softly to himself as his eyes came open, looking upon what seemed to be a nursery.

"Not yet," A soft voice spoke and he whirled around and his face broke in to a gleeful smile, "Hello love." Lily smiled and opened her arms to her son, welcoming him. The red haired woman wrapped her arms around her boy with a protective fierceness that her house would be proud of and tears fell from her eyes. "Oh baby I'm sorry."

"No Mum, I am, I failed," Harry said and Lily shook her head,

"Harry, you are a child," She said "None of this should have fallen on to you." She held her boy closer to her body, tears falling from her face as she buried her nose in to his mass of black hair, sobbing softly.

"Mum," Harry said "What's going on?"

"You're walking a thin line right now, hovering between death and life, barely alive but not yet dead," She whispered as she ran her hands down his back "It lets me talk to you, and I need to talk to you."

"Mum?" Harry backed away and looked up at his mother who knelt down and looked up at him, matching eyes watching one another carefully.

"Albus knew," She whispered and Harry's eyes widened softly and Lily nodded "He knew everything." She stood up again and ran her hands over his head and leaned down to kiss the scar on his forehead, "Fate didn't choose you, love, he did."

"Why?" Harry asked and Lily shook her head and hugged him close once more.

"Harry, Love, I know this will sound ludicrous and I know you may lose your faith in me, but I need you to trust the people who are now caring for you," She spoke and Harry looked up at her, "I need you to stop the rule that is Albus Dumbledore."

"What?" Harry was confused and he looked up at his mother who wasn't smiling, but looking at him with concern in her face, true worry etched in her eternal form.

"He knew about Peter, I told him even after James said not too we needed someone to know, just in case, and he told no one, he let Sirius suffer in his place, he let us die Harry, do you understand, Voldermort may have risen the wand but Albus Dumbledore let him, do you get it?" She asked urgently as the room around them began to fade and Harry's face began to pale, "He even knew about the Dursleys." Harry choked and sputtered as his mother faded away, running her hands through his hair one last time and mouthed an 'I love you' before she vanished completely and Harry woke, looking up in to the pale grey blue eyes of one Draco Malfoy.

"Malfoy?" Harry's voice was scratchy and slurred.

"Potter, good of you to join the living, you been out for nearly three days," Draco said and looked down at the green eyes teen, "For a moment there I thought we lost you."

"Where am I?" Harry slurred and Draco helped sit him up, giving him a glass of water and pulled a few potions from the bedside drawer.

"Malfoy Manner," Draco responded, "My father found you on Death's door, shoved in a cupboard." Harry took the water slowly, his entire body felt heavy and hot but the water helped cool his burning throat.

"Why didn't you just kill me," Harry asked and turned deadened green eyes towards the blond. Draco didn't know how to respond, so he didn't. "The Dark Lord was here."

"He was," Draco nodded,

"Why didn't he kill me?" Harry asked and Draco opened his mouth and closed it then took a deep breath,

"He thought it would be unfair for him to kill you while you stood on Death's front step," Draco said plainly and looked at his black haired rival.

"So he still plans to kill me, have me healed and released and then have at it, hunt me down again," Harry grinned and then chuckled darkly, "My mother told me to trust those who were caring for me."

"The Dark Lord isn't the one caring for you, we are, the Malfoys and Professor Snape," Draco said and Harry turned his eyes towards him again, listening. "We are the reasons you are alive, Potter, we plan to keep you that way….hold on, your mother is dead."

"I saw her in a dream," Harry spoke, "She told me not to trust Dumbledore, and to put my trust in those who saved me and what do you mean 'keep me that way' I'm in your house, this is the very headquarters to the death eaters."

"Do you honestly think this is the ONLY place we own Potter, come on now," Draco said "We are high class pure bloods with a dark history, we have enough gold and silver to buy half of Britain."

"What are you saying?" Harry asked as he watched the blond,

"He's saying Potter, that we're leaving," Lucius said from the door way, "I told you to call me the moment he woke up."

"Sorry Father," Draco said as Lucius strode in and ran his hands over the boy's face and through his hair, "Can he travel?"

"He'll have to, as soon as Severus gets back we will have to leave," Lucius spoke and Harry took the man in. His robes were forgotten, he wore a medieval type shirt with a leather vest, tied tight and low on his hips, his legs covered in dark black leathers, he seemed to have gone back in time almost, Draco was dressed in a similar way.

"Where are we going?" Harry asked and Lucius turned towards him and shook his head,

"You will see what we get there Potter, lend him something to wear Draco, and be quick about it," He hushed and Draco headed off to find Potter something suitable to wear.

"Why are you doing this?" Harry asked and Lucius looked down at him,

"Because, Potter, I'm a Father first, and I can't stand to watch a child suffer under the hands of those who claim to protect him, and I won't stand by and watch my son die at the hands of a coward," He said and Harry felt something inside him stir and he nodded. Draco reappeared with a pirate like shirt and some leggings and a cloak to match it all.

"These are all I have that might fit," Draco said and Harry took them, nodding as the two left to give him the privacy he needed to change. "Do you think this will work?"

"No, but we have to try," Lucius said as his wife came rushing down, dressed in a flowing green dress that draped about her in layers of silk.

"Where is Severus?" She asked and Lucius looked up at her with blazing eyes,

"Handing in his resignation."

Severus stormed through Hogwarts with such powerful strides that he made the pictures themselves tremble. He turned the corners with such force his robes caught on to the bricks and were tugged free with barely so much as a break in step, he paused only a moment to snap out the password to the gargoyle before he stepped towards the Head Master's office.

"Ah Severus…"

"You lying old bastard," Severus hissed, causing Fawkes to wake up instantly on his perch to find out who dared insult his human.

"Severus!" Albus looked appalled and Severus stood there, blazing in his own magic, barely contained, "Severus what's this about?" Albus asked, "Take a seat, lemon drop?"

"No," Severus said so smoothly, in a voice so deep it made the portraits shutter, "No, I don't want a seat, I don't want you sweets I want you to talk old man, about one Harry Potter."

"Harry is on vacation…"

"Liar!" Severus snarled, his magic cracking between his fingers, his hair moving softly about his face, "Harry Potter is not with his relatives but you knew this, didn't you, you knew his aunt and uncle wanted nothing to do with him, and you knew that when they left on vacation they left the boy in their home to die, bathed in his own blood."

"Severus what are you…" Magic blasted, and Albus's own answered but Severus' anger out powered the old man's calm intent, causing a lash of wild magic to blast across the office like some raving wolf. "Severus! Calm down!"

"Or what?!" Severus howled as his magic played about him, making his robes billow around his frame, his hair rushed around his face, "You said you would protect the boy, you promised he would be safe and now he lay dying, he trusted you Albus and you sent him to his death!"

"Harry Potter is none of your concern Severus," Albus drawled as his own magic began to whirl about him.

"He is my concern, I held him as a baby, cried with him over his mother and yes, I swore to my best friend as she lay dead in her son's nursery that I would let nothing happen to him," Severus said and his eyes blazed as Albus looked on at him in shock, "I was there, Albus, long before Black, and as I lay that sleeping baby down in to his crib, I swore then and there I would protect him, and I do so again, but this time, against you."

"Severus, you have no idea what you are talking about," Albus said, trying to regain what little control he had over the man back, his magic swiftly working its way towards him, coiling about him in a golden string that snapped on contact.

"I know exactly what I'm talking about Albus…I quit," Severus spoke and whirled away, his teaching robe dropping on the floor like a heavy winter coat that needed to be shed. Albus stood there in shock, his best spy and man was gone, such artful words and petty lies that kept him at his side, all that work, wasted over a teenaged boy bound for death.

"Damn him," Albus hissed to himself, unaware of his familiar that stood on his perch with wide eyes horror and forsaken pity. The phoenix watched as the man strode away, his anger causing several book cases to tip over and trinkets to spin about wildly, everything fell back in to place when the bedroom door slammed shut.

Cooing softly the phoenix glided off his perch and out the window, a sad song chilled the night as the magical bird flew away, never to be seen by Albus Dumbledore again.