Author's Note: This is a one-shot, alternative scene to a chapter of "The Darkness Within" from "The Dark Prince Trilogy" by Kurinoone. I adore her work and always wanted to write some fanfiction in her universe. Please let me know what you think and if you'd like me to write more alternative scenes from her incredible trilogy.
Disclaimer: All credit goes to J.K. Rowling who created Harry Potter, and to Kurinoone who created "The Dark Prince" trilogy.
Premise: What if it had been Voldemort instead of Lucius who visited Harry at the beginning of "The End of Everything" in "The Darkness Within"?
How Harry had managed to drift off to sleep was a wonder. He had been kept up by the shooting pains running through his body. He figured he must have fallen unconscious at some point. He woke up as he sensed movement near him. He struggled to open his eyes and saw a figure hovering over him. There wasn't much he could do as he was laying on the ground and his hands were still bound in shackles, as were his feet. So he just remained where he was, not caring who was with him or what they were going to do next.
The figure spoke but remained in the shadows, just out of arm's reach from Harry.
"Why have you put me in this position, my son?"
Harry's head whipped up and he strained to see his father's face in the shadows.
"I put us in this position? You lied to me from the beginning!" Harry spat back.
Expecting him to react in similar anger, Harry was surprised to hear Voldemort reply quietly.
"I gave you everything. I gave you knowledge and power. I gave you skills and confidence. My men obeyed you. My most loyal followers cared for you. The wizarding world feared you. I endowed Slytherin's heritage upon you."
"I called you my son. What more did you want from me?"
Despite the incredible pain that Harry was in - and that it was caused by Voldemort's orders - he could feel his heart twinge at the audible pain in his father's voice.
"I expected you to not lie to me." Harry replied. "You saved me from my childhood. I never would have expected you to be the reason for needing saving from my childhood."
Though he still couldn't see him, Harry could hear Voldemort turn away from him.
"No one came to save me from my childhood. I had to earn my power. I wanted to give you what no one ever gave me," Voldemort replied.
"But I didn't need saving! You kidnapped me. You broke me into an abused child so that you could mold me into a soldier. What happened to you was an accident. You manipulated me on purpose so that you could consolidate your did you expect me to do when I found out?!" Harry's earnest cries were causing his already bruised torso to ache in pain. Moving gingerly around the chains, he pushed himself up to lean back against the dungeon wall.
It remained unspoken that Voldemort had never intended to let Harry find out the truth. The weight of the unspoken words hung heavy in the air between them.
After some moments of silence, Voldemort replied sullenly, "I can't let you get away with betraying me. Not after destroying my horcruxes and blatantly defying me in public."
"I didn't expect you to, " Harry responded.
Voldemort lunged forward into the dim light.
"Then what would you have me do?!" he rasped.
"Keep you half alive in this dungeon? Enduring torture forever?! Obliviate you? This mess is too big to memory charm everyone you come into contact with."
"You could let me go back to the Potters," Harry retorted.
"Over my dead body," Voldemort replied with gritted teeth.
Exasperated, Voldemort rapidly tapped his forefinger and thumb together - a gesture of vulnerability that only Harry, Bella and Lucius had ever seen the Dark Lord make.
Trying to change tactics, Voldemort warned, "The Potters wouldn't love you if they knew everything you've done for me. If they knew what you were capable of - if they knew what darkness was inside you, they would fear you. I watched the memory of your trial. Dumbledore is as conniving as ever, twisting your past into something palatable for the Wizengamot. The trial didn't even come close to recounting your transgressions. If the Potters ever found out they would forsake you as you have so unforgivingly done me."
Quietly, Harry replied, "Maybe. Maybe not. But I know they love me and now I know that they always have. That's more than I can say for you."
"You would lie to them?" asked Voldemort.
Harry smiled wryly, "Like father, like son, I guess."
Voldemort locked eyes with Harry for a tense moment. Each feeling the brief longing to go back to the comfort of the way things had been before, but each coming to the terms that it could never be.
Voldemort's vulnerability ended abruptly. Harry could see Voldemort's eyes harden with steely resolve as he spoke his next words.
"I always thought of you as my greatest accomplishment. Now I'll think of you as my greatest failure."
Harry felt the harsh sting of Voldemort's words cut into his mind which did nothing but add to the mounting pain and fever wracking his body.
Voldemort leaned down as if to caress the side of Harry's face. Harry's scar burned white hot and he bit his lip to keep from whimpering in pain.
Voldemort leaned close to Harry's ear to whisper, "You will die tonight, my son. And the wizarding world will see the power of my fury, and that none are to be spared from it. Not even my son."
Voldemort lingered for another second. Just as Harry thought he'd pass out from the pain, Voldemort straightened abruptly and turned to walk briskly out of the dungeon.
Harry was left alone in the dim recesses of the dank dungeon in Riddle Manor to await his looming fate.