Wowie! When I opened my email box this morning, I never imagined that I would have such a great turnout! I had 42 responses on my new stories. Thanks to all of you who reviewed. It means a lot. I also have to thank my lovely Jinxy, for typing my stories out even when she was so busy with her babies. Thanks cookie! I owe you one! Also, I would like to make a note. I will only be putting one disclaimer on my newer stories at the beginning of the first chapters. These will account for all of the following chapters as well. I do hope that I don't disappoint anyone with my new stories. I hope that they are just as good as you all expect them to be.

Dedicated to: meikouhaikitsune! Thanks for your super awsome reviews!

Chapter Two As I Walk Through The Valley Of The Shadow of Death

The icy water hummed around him but was silent all at once. He could feel the cold power that animated every Inferi in the lake running through him. As if he had ties to every one. His maker's steel like arms were still wrapped around him in that unnatural sleep. Those dead unseeing eyes were open. His maker was awake as was every one of them. He knew that, in all of that inky blackness, if he were to call the Inferi, they would come. He could command them if he chose. What had woken them? He extended his awareness out, trying to discover the strangeness that had Called them. What had changed about their surroundings that should make them wake from their slumber? There. It was as if a cord attached to his very soul was jerking at him, bidding him to come to the surface. He frowned. He burned with the hatred of his betrayal still. He would not be anyone's puppet again. He thrust that strange magic back up through the link, letting whatever sat on the other end know that he would come but on his own terms. He floated silently through the water, watching the Inferi he passed. Yes, he knew that he was no longer among the living. The reason for his existence was unknown to him though. What exactly made an Inferi? Perhaps, he would soon know. The locket pulsed around his throat.

Voldemort stood in the boat in the center of his lake furiously. His Horcrux was gone and he demanded to know why! The Inferi Lord had better have some bloody answers, that's for sure! He extended his hand out over the glassy surface of the lake and summoned up the bond he had with his creations. There was something…different about the Inferi Lord. Curious.

"I summon you, Lord of the Inferi. Keeper of the Silent Ones. Come to your purpose. Come to your master." He hissed.

He felt the connection tug at the undead but, instead of the Inferi Lord imply bowing to his will as usual, there was an answering tug. Voldemort only had time to simply frown before his own magic was shoved back at him. He wavered before turning an angry glare on the water. Something was going on and it wasn't something he had anticipated. The Inferi were just reanimated corpses. They should have no free will. Unless it wasn't merely an Inferi. Unless something else had taken root in his cave. Someone had been here. He wasn't ruling anything out. The Inferi Lord was coming to the surface. He would get his answers shortly enough. Several yards out, a single head poked over the surface. Then, just feet away from the boat, another peered out of the water. Everywhere, Inferi were rising with their Lord. It seemed that they wanted to see the interaction themselves. A hand grabbed the edge of the boat and a form pulled itself out of the water, over the edge of his vessel. He stared for a moment while he righted himself, his shock almost naked on his face. Harry Potter's green eyes stared up at him from beneath 

sopping wet black hair. His face was pale as death and around his neck glinted Slytherin's locket. He was absolutely…floored.

"Potter?! YOU are the Inferi Lord?! How-! What did you do?!" He yelled, not bothering to censor his words despite how completely juvenile they sounded.

Harry smirked wryly.

"I seem to be dead, Tom. I expect that your Horcrux has something to do with it. As for how I have come about my present state of unlife, I suppose you should ask our dear traitorous Headmaster. He seems to have all of the answers." The hatred in him coated his words like tar.

Voldemort raised an eyebrow, his eyes flicking down once toward the locket. It was possible, he supposed, that wearing the locket could have helped in Potter's transformation but…it was incredibly unlikely. No. Something else was amiss here. Something he just couldn't place.

"And what exactly does Dumbledore know, Potter. Tell me."

Harry's smirk grew and he leaned on closer to the Dark Lord, touching his clothed chest. His eyes closed as if he were savoring the feel of a living, beating heart and the warmth of a living being. He leaned close enough to kiss.

"Everything. He knows everything. About all eight of your Horcruxes. Where they are hidden. He knows your life from the beginning, Tom." He whispered in his ear.

Voldemort did not show any inclination that he had heard his given name but instead laughed, suddenly, high and mirthless. He touched the locket around Harry's throat and jerked the thing off. When the teen did not fall at his feet as an ordinary corpse, the gleam seemed to leech out of his eyes.

"If he knew so much about them, then he would realize that there are only seven. Not eight."

"Then how am I still here? It is your soul piece inside me that keeps me 'alive', for lack of a more appropriate term. I am a Horcrux. Ever since that day fifteen years ago. My mother was the sacrifice needed. Dumbledore knew this and for that he left me here to the Inferi. I guess he didn't count on them not finishing me off. Properly." He finished off with a shrug.

The Dark Lord looked as if he had swallowed a large, squirming thing. Lovely. Harry imagined one of Snape's weird jar things wiggling around in Voldemort's throat. He would have grinned if the situation had been less daunting. He wanted his revenge just as much as the Dark Lord wanted Dumbledore dead, but his body ached to again submit to the black depths and to rest forever. He needed this though. He could kill Dumbledore on his own but it would be much more difficult. Besides, he did not yet know his own limitations. Dead was dead but just how much of the dead part counted in his situation? Voldemort was silent for a long moment, thinking this new situation over solemnly. Harry knew much of Dumbledore's future plans and could help him thwart the old man or at the very least frustrate him. And 

Potter being a Horcrux, for he had no doubt that he was, he would need protections that he could only give in person. He could feel now, the connection between them for what it truly was and cursed himself for not realizing it sooner.

"You will need to come with me. I have to make sure that the old man doesn't realize this new turn of events and take advantage of it. If you are at my base, I can be sure that you are protected at all times." He said at last, slipping the locket into his pocket.

Harry merely tilted his head, that sardonic smirk playing on his lips again.

"Oh no, Lord Voldemort. I am not merely a piece of you now. I am the Inferi Lord too and I require the flesh and blood needed to seal the alliance between us. If I am correct, and I know I am because I have my creator's knowledge of it, to seal an alliance with a new Inferi Lord, you must offer a taste of your own flesh and blood."

The man raised an elegant eyebrow. Yes, eyebrow. Now that Harry was fully awakened, he could see the difference in the man before him. He was handsome, that much was certain. Much how he pictured Lucifer would look before his fall from grace. An excellent analogy. He looked much like an older Tom Riddle. It was a good thing that he was gay. Harry wondered if Dumbledore had seen that similarity between himself and the Dark Lord daunting. Was that one of the reasons he had opted to destroy him rather than use him against Tom? Voldemort raised the sleeve of his robe, baring his forearm. It was pale and unmarred except for a cigarette burn near the bend of it. Harry had similar scars. Many of them in fact. How similar they were to one another. He touched the small flaw with one cold hand. Tom's wand drew a line across his arm in one bleeding stroke. It wasn't deep but it was sufficient enough for his purpose. Silently, and with watchful crimson eyes, he took in the sight. Harry wondered if he would be disgusted by it. Nothing like a person flinching from you sucking the blood off of their arm to knock down your self confidence. Harry took the offered appendage and ran his tongue lingeringly over the wound before latching onto it. The blood was charged with power like it was liquid electricity. It was thrilling. He drank as deep as he could before the wound would give no more. No doubt the Dark Lord would have a very interesting looking hickey tomorrow. The man was just about to carve a piece of his flesh off when Harry stilled his hand. Tom looked at him with a light confusion. Just as well, too. He'd rather not give up a bit of skin for Potter.

"If you wouldn't mind, I would rather have my taste of your flesh in a more…pleasant way." He purred and scoffed at Voldemort's surprised look, "I died a virgin. Do you really expect me to stay that way in the after-life?"

Tom shook his head and looked at the boy before him. Potter wasn't the scrawny brat that he had known in his first year either, or even his fourth year. He had grown into his slender, toned frame and, the fact that he was very dead aside, he looked lovely. Perhaps it wouldn't be such a chore after all.

"Very well. Let's get back to the base beforehand though. I don't imagine that the boat would be all that comfortable." The Dark Lord said calmly but noted without relish the fact that another being was skimming across the water.



Harry watched the shadow flow over towards them like an inky sheet across the water. His maker seemed to be sending him a going away gift. It stayed out of the boat but looked out of the darkness with silver eyes. They looked like a wolves at night with the light reflected off of their mirror like surfaces. It didn't approach further so, with a short glare, Tom bid the boat back to the surface. It followed close behind but disappeared once they were safely out of the cave. Harry had no doubts that that was not the last that they had seen of it though.

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