Title: Until The End

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.

Summary: He would be there, anywhere he wished him to follow. Even if his throne crumbled, even if his brilliant crown rusted, even if the bodies piled up endlessly. He would be there. Until the very end.

Pairing: HP/TMR

Warnings: Eventual slash, blood, gore

(Chapter) Rating: T

Words: 883

Until The End

Prologue

Fire.

Inferno.

Blaze.

Shattering glass.

SCREAMS.

It's too much for him. Too much and too soon, especially when he was dragged away from the scene by those whom had started. He had been made to watch his house crash down around him and he had been made to watch his life shatter. Shatter like the frosted glass windows that had lined the great manor that he had once called home but had now been reduced to nothing but charred wood and powdered glass.

And then, he had been locked away in darkness with his last vision being of a burning house and his mother's shadow, flames engulfing her. His eyes narrowed on the witches and wizards donning their red robes and their orange masks. They stared at him with big grins and he only felt hatred. Hatred flooded through his veins and made him less than human.

They touched him and tortured him and he still felt the blistering pain as they branded him, as if he were cattle and nothing more. And this only caused his hatred and his urge to revenge to increase.

So, really it shouldn't have come to a surprise when he unwittingly summoned that creature of darkness and absolute and unadulterated hatred.

He had only been lying there before, surrounded by utter darkness and then he had felt something fall upon his face. It was light and it tickled his pale, ice cold skin and he blew it away and it floated off. He vaguely recognized it for it was…a feather. He was so tired…he couldn't even bring himself to care anymore. He cared about little else except his revenge…something that he had never thought he'd be able to receive.

Something harsh and bright entered his view and his eyes narrowed as they were trained upon the beacon of light that came to him, like a saviour in the bitter, lonely darkness. He felt something else fall on his face and he raised an eyebrow at the soft, white feathers. More and more began to fall until they almost completely obscured his view of something that rested in the light.

He stared in confusion at the long body and once again, his mind made the connection. It was a snake. It had a long and powerful body and looked as thick as a grown man's thigh. It should have been frightening but in his short time hidden from view, he had seen scarier things.

"I've summoned you then…" he rasped and there was a long hiss that emerged from the light at the end of the long tunnel to hell.

"Yes, young one. Not many wish for me to appear. How did you know of me?"

The voice was low and sounded as slick and slimy as a snake. It should have been disturbing for him to imagine the voice coming from an animal.

It wasn't.

"Stories. I didn't mean to summon you. And yet…you're here. I believe I know what that means. There are always hidden truths in fairytales."

There was a hissy chuckle of amusement that spoke of DARKNESS, RAGE, and HATRED.

"Think carefully, still. Should you reject the Faith, even this once, you will never see the gates of Heaven and all that await you there."

The voice sounded less like a hiss now and more like the voice of a grown man. The deep, baritone voice sent shivers down his spine. Fear rose the hairs on the back of his neck but he ignored that deep fear that had been cultivating in him since he was but a child. Instead of screaming in fright for his damned, dead mother, he let out a frigid laugh, brushing away the fear as if it were nothing but an insignificant insect.

"Do you think I, a practiser of witchcraft and that one who summoned you here, am among the faithful? The gates of Heaven were closed t me from the moment I was born."

He was careful to keep his voice without inflection or tone. He droned and it was easier this way. It was easier to mask his scepticism and fear this way. So much easier to keep in his pain and his screams…

The snake let out another low chuckle. It was that same, disconcerting baritone voice and now, the snake seemed to be amused, of all things. He couldn't quite understand how this…thing found his predicament amusing, but he supposed that the problems of mortals mattered not to it.

"I shall ask anyway. Do you wish to enter a contract with me?"

His green eyes flashed.

"I do."

The white feathers that had been swirling around him like a blizzard seemed to rot from the inside out and quickly turned different revolting shades of brown and a single inky black feather floated down from the swirling mass and landed upon his right eye and seemed to stick there.

He screamed soundlessly, raw and white-hot pain spreading from around his eye and throughout his entire body. His back arched as he stared at the snake that was slowly uncoiling and rising into what appeared to be an unnatural standing position. He stared, unable to make a single sound as the snake morphed into a humanoid shape.

The last thing he saw were glowing red eyes.