Hello again, everyone! I know, I know you're all wondering how I could start another fic when I haven't updated my current fics in forever. Well I'm being attacked by rabid plot bunnies at the moment; plot bunnies that refuse to be ignored. The plot bunny for this story refused to let me sleep at all until the first chapter of this fic was finished. So here it is! Hope you enjoy the story and review, review, review! I don't have a beta so please excuse any errors. Thanks!

Disclaimer: Do Draco and Harry start making out in the Great Hall in any of the books? No. Then I don't own Harry Potter or its characters. I'm just borrowing them really! I also don't own Beauty and the Beast, though I'm not sure how long this fic will follow that plot. Anyway don't sue!

On with the fic!

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Skin Deep By: Silver Twilight

Summary: AU. A retelling of the classic fairy tale Beauty and the Beast, with some slight changes. Did I mention its SLASH? HarryDraco. Implied SiriusRemus. Past DracoTom. Evil!Dumbledore.

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Chapter One: The Beast

Once upon a time, in a land far away yet closer than anyone could imagine there was a tiny kingdom by the name of Meridian. Meridian was a very small kingdom consisting of only one small village, a rather large peaceful forest, and the castle and its inhabitants. The kingdom was ruled by a kind yet rather young prince who was only eleven summers old. The king and queen had died of mysterious circumstances when the prince was only a summer after the prince was born. Even though the kingdom was small the people were happy and the kingdom flourished. Until one day a wizard came to take residence in the village.

Now the people of Meridian were average witches and wizards who lived peaceably with their magic using it only for good, never thinking of using it for evil. And they assumed everyone was this way welcoming all who came to their home. But this wizard was power hungry and wanted nothing more than to take control of the kingdom and its people, using them to conquer many more kingdoms and villages.

The quickest way to do this was to gain the prince's trust, compelling the prince to hear only his voice, to obey only him for he had heard of the prince's power from the villagers and decided he would make the perfect weapon. So he made his appearance one of an old man, changing his mannerisms to one of grandfatherly kindness to fool the people of Meridian and gain entrance to the castle.

Once inside the vast castle the wizard set about getting close to the prince, acting the part of a concerned grandfather to hide his ulterior motives. Soon he gained the prince's confidence and he set about carefully compelling the prince. He started slowly not wanting anyone to suspect anything was wrong, but soon every word he spoke to the prince was edged with compulsion. And no one was the wiser. Using his power over the prince the wizard began to train him to be the ultimate weapon against any enemy he might face in the future.

By the time the prince was thirteen summers old he was firmly under the wizard's control. Not even his advisor the one who raised him since his parent's death had much say over him anymore and the wizard was plotting to get rid of the man so no one could interfere with his plans. Confident his success was imminent the wizard began urging the prince to get rid of the advisor.

He was aware he had to take this matter slowly, as the prince was deeply attached to the man. One misstep would have the boy's power rearing up to snap his compulsion. And if that happened the past two years would have been for naught as the prince would then realize he had been compelled and the wizard would be ran out of the kingdom.

So he took things slow, for every critical word the advisor uttered he was there to analyze it, whispering to the prince tales of treachery and deceit. And the advisor was very critical as he didn't understand why the prince would want to spend all of his time training or in the library. He complained that the prince never went outside anymore unless it had something to do with training, and he noticed the prince never played games anymore as kids his age are want to do. But most of all he noticed the prince was spending all his time with that thrice damned wizard. (A/N: ooh, someone's jealous)

The wizard could tell the advisor was beginning to get suspicious of him and he knew that soon the man would figure it all out and give the game away. So he presented to the prince the idea of banishing the advisor from the castle. He knew the child would never just abandon the man to the wild, magic or no magic, so he proposed he be sent to the village where the prince could visit him if he so desired. The prince agreed to his proposal and the advisor would be well on his way in just a few days.

The wizard kept a close eye on the prince in the days leading to the banishment, looking for any sign that his compulsion was breaking. When there were no changes the wizard breathed a sigh of relief, everything seemed to be going according to plan. And it did go according to plan right up until the spell to banish the advisor was about to be cast, when suddenly the advisor lifted his head from the defeated position it had been in and locked gazes with the prince, and his compulsion snapped like a rubber band.

It took the prince a moment to come back to himself and gain his bearings, but when he did his anger was so great that his magic almost killed the wizard. The wizard managed to avoid the killing blow, though it missed him just barely. The wizard tried to salvage his plan by trying to soothe the irate prince. Using his gift of compulsion he tried to apologize to get back in the prince's good graces. If he could get the prince to forgive him then maybe his plan could still work, if not all of his planning over the last to years were for nothing. It took another spell thrown at him by the prince to make him realize the prince was now immune to his compulsions.

Knowing the hopelessness of the situation the wizard prepared to depart. But before he left he would leave them all a little gift for wasting his time. Calling upon his own magic he began to chant in an ancient language long forgotten, invoking a curse on the castle and all who lived there. Once the curse was fully formed he threw it at the prince watching in satisfaction as it hit its mark and the prince screamed in agony.

The curse twisted the prince's appearance until he looked more animal than human. But it didn't stop there it raced along the stone floor of the castle twisting its inhabitants into various forms, and turned their happy home into a cold, dreary place to live. It raced from the castle to the forest twisting the natural magic of the place into to something far more sinister, and making absolute certain that no one from the castle would ever be able to leave its borders. Finally it raced toward the village erasing all knowledge of the castle. When its work was finished the wizard nodded in satisfaction content with the punishment that had been dished out.

Turning back to the prince the wizard concentrated and a rose appeared hovering for a moment above the prince before falling in front of him. Nodding once more the wizard prepared himself to speak the words that would complete the curse, for you see to complete this type of curse you must tell the cursed how to break the curse.

It was quite brilliant when you think about it, telling them how to end their torment would give them hope. Hope that would slowly die with time and torment them more than any curse ever could. So the wizard drew himself up and spoke these words to the prince knowing they would be imprinted onto his memory until the curse was broken. If the curse was broken.

"The rose before you is no ordinary rose, it's truly an enchanted rose that will bloom till your twenty first year. If you can learn to love someone and earn their love in return before the last petal falls off the rose the curse will be broken. If not you and all who live in this castle will stay cursed forever"

Turning on his heel the wizard began to walk away, before stopping and turning halfway to look at the prince. Smirking he spoke once more.

"If I were you I wouldn't even bother trying to get someone to fall in love with me. I would just try to get use to my new form. After all who could ever learn to love a beast?"

With one last sneer the wizard vanished to parts unknown leaving the inhabitants of Meridian castle to suffer under his curse. The years passed slowly for those under the curse, but they soon got used to their new forms. Though they never gave up hope, they did know how to end the curse after all. Now if someone would only wander into the forest. But that was unlikely to happen, as though they couldn't leave the forest they could hang around its edges. Careful not to be seen of course, and they knew from listening to the villagers' talk that the forest was believed to be haunted.

Before long the prince's twentieth birthday was upon them. Their prince had grown cold and angry in the wake of the cure. Often erupting into fits of helpless rage at the slightest annoyance that could last for hours on end. But now that they only had one year before the rose started to wither the prince fell into despair. For who could ever learn to love a beast?

TBC…

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Whoo-hoo finished, now hit that little button and REVIEW! And for anyone who's interested I'm looking for a beta.