Author's Note: An apology to my Snarry fans: this is not the last Harrymort fic I will post - I have many in the works. More notes at the end.
Disclaimer: I do not own these characters, nor anything related to the universe they are in, and make no profit off of this work.
A Momentary Ceasefire
The figure stood quite a distance from the funeral, unnoticed by all who attended. Harry himself only saw the shrouded man after he had dismissed the minister and continued walking, away from the mourners.
He approached casually, and came to rest next to him, following the man's line of sight to the marble tomb. They stood in silence for long, companionable minutes.
"I think he'd be glad to know you were here," Harry said, softly.
"Perhaps," the man replied, non-committal. And, after a pause, "I did respect him."
Harry nodded agreeably. "You just had different views."
His companion glanced at him subtly, but Harry was now looking towards Hogwarts, its many towers and turrets, and the intrinsic magic and wonder that was more felt than observed.
"Indeed."
Harry hummed, content. The other's gaze slipped away to take in the castle as well.
A few more minutes passed.
"This," the figure began, the word loaded, "does not mean anything has changed. The wards let me enter because I do not currently harbor any malicious intent. It is only a momentary ceasefire for the sake of mourning."
Harry nodded again, slower, contemplative. He weighed his next words carefully. "And if I had no desire to keep fighting?
"Are you suggesting a truce?"
"I'm suggesting," Harry placated, before his partner could become any more incredulous, "that you let me tell you the full prophecy, and explain how it's bullshit." That got his attention. "I'm not asking to become a death eater, or some thing that you can use to taunt the light by having 'ownership' of. As I've just told Scrimgeour, I have no intention of becoming a poster child, for either side, nor do I want to become a pawn again so soon after the chess-master's death," he said, with a jerk of his head towards the funeral, where the guests were slowly leaving.
He met the man's shocked eyes, and smiled thinly. "I respected him, too. But I did not agree with some of his choices."
He turned toward him properly.
"When you're not trying to kill me, you can put that same effort into making reforms, putting an end to the ministry's corruption, bettering the wizarding world," Harry said, his voice almost a whisper. "There is a reason you got followers the first time around, and it was not through fear." He smiled, soft and genuine. "You have good ideas. The threat of death has driven you mad, but without the possibility of me killing you, you can make this world great."
"You've thought about this," Voldemort finally replied, almost fondly accusatory.
"Just a bit," he laughed. The lapsed into silence once more.
"Say that I accept," Voldemort mused, and Harry knew that for right now, these musings were purely hypothetical. "Say that I hear the full prophecy and agree to your proposal. What do you get out of the deal?"
"No more war," Harry said, simply. "No more threat of death - that's just as unpleasant to everyone else, you know. No more 'Chosen One'." He closed his eyes and visualized it, relishing the thought. "I will finally be able to live my life in peace."
"Would you vanish?"
Harry gave him an amused look after cracking one eye open. "I said peace, not solitude."
Voldemort snorted with just his breath.
"I know you would not join me," the dark wizard began, and Harry gave him his full attention once more, sensing this was important. "But no matter how false this prophecy is, I have always considered us to be equals. I did not want to admit it, but recent events," (this conversation, Harry gathered) "have proven it to be true."
Harry agreed with a humble nod.
"You have some ideas about how the world should be run, as well." Another nod. "Would you consider working with me, as opposed to for me?"
"I would," Harry smiled. "It would mean compromising," he added as a warning, a little impishly.
"For the both of us," Voldemort agreed, mock-sagely.
The Savior and the Dark Lord, against all odds, shared a secret smile.
The crowd of people had dwindled drastically, and a few people seemed to be looking around for Harry. The sun glinted unmistakably off of ginger hair, and he would recognize Hermione's bushy locks from any distance.
"We'll meet this summer," Harry decided quickly. His once-enemy, now potential ally, extended his hand. Harry blinked once, but to his credit he grasped it immediately after.
A tingle spread from the point of contact all the way down to his toes, and - there were no other words for it - his magic pulsed lightly, as if in response. While their bond was not wide open, and he could not see through Voldemort's eyes, somehow he knew that the other wizard had felt the same sensation.
Unplanned, they released each other at the same time, after a second or an age.
"We have much to discuss," Voldemort murmured.
"Indeed," agreed Harry, echoing Voldemort's earlier response, watching the man as he faded into the shadows of the Forbidden Forest. He glanced back to the group just as Hermione appeared to spot him.
He waved, and began the trek over to his friends. Well, he thought, in better spirits than he had been in for a while, that went better than expected.
Author's Note: In my head, Harry and Voldemort had been communicating through their bond for at least a few months before this encounter. They weren't exactly friendly, but they did listen to one another. Voldemort's civility got Harry thinking, and Harry's maturity got Voldemort thinking.
After this fic, they meet, they compromise, they team up, they conquer the wizarding world, they change it for the better. Oh, and manage to fall in love. But that's another story.
(I don't plan to write a sequel to this in which all of that happens, but I definitely encourage anyone who would want to! With the condition that I be linked to it, of course, because I will definitely want to read it.)
This fic has also been posted on my AO3 account! I go by theslyknave over there, too.