A/Ns

Warning: mild hints of punishment and indoctrination later in the chapter.

Thank You All for the awesome response to this story.

And now to quickly answer two questions:

For my anon reviewer and anyone else who may be curious about how the ritual worked when they technically have the 'same blood', the Dark Lord was able to successfully combine the Blood Servant ritual with a ritual for disobedient children. This is the man who made multiple horcruxes in canon, combining rituals so that they recognize him and Harry as two different people despite only using one person's blood is not beyond the scope of his intelligence. Even Canon Dumbledore acknowledged that Tom Riddle was smart.

Secondly, for my reviewer who wondered about the 'blood protections', my understanding is that the blood protections themselves did not prevent them from harming each other. I believe the pain Harry experienced was due to the Horcrux. Throughout the series, Harry experiences pain in his Horcrux/scar when near Voldemort, but (correct me if I'm wrong via pm) Voldemort does not experience pain when touching Harry after the resurrection ritual. Thus the blood protection portion of that equation ended at the resurrection.

Curiously enough, Harry did not have any reaction to Diary Riddle or when he was in the same room as the Diadem in 6th year. I'll have to go back and see if there was a reaction in the Forbidden Forest or in the graveyard before the ritual began. But for purposes of my story none of that matters. Rituals negated Lily's spell(s).

In short: This is my story/response to a challenge. The canon blood protections went away as soon as the blood was used to raise the Dark Lord from the ether.


Harry was gone.

The tragedy of that was, it was Albus' fault, and he knew it.

Albus Dumbledore was having a rough summer. First, Riddle managed to find a way back to the land of the living earlier than Dumbledore would have thought. Then, in the same night, he found out that his long-time friend Alastor had actually been kidnapped and replaced with an imposter. In the space of six hours he was made to look incompetent by not noticing that one of his closest allies was not who he said he was. Plus, nobody had believed Harry when he claimed to be at the resurrection of Voldemort.

That next day Dumbledore had spent half the day arguing with the Wizengamot and Fudge about taking precautions against Voldemort and his Death Eaters, only to be called senile and all matter of names. They called poor Harry a liar, an attention seeking-brat, and all other manner of names, despite the fact that he was very obviously bleeding from a knife wound when none of the champions or stunts in the maze should have been capable of giving him such a wound.

He promised that they would see the error of their ways, but he knew that as long as people like Lucius Malfoy continued to hold Cornelius' ears and pockets that his warnings would fall on deaf ears. So he gathered the old guard, those who could still be found, and tried to conference about reforming the Order of the Phoenix.

Unfortunately, the prior hosts of the meetings were either dead or in the permanent injury ward of St. Mungos. For the longest time full meetings had happened at Fabian and Gideon's cottage outside of London, and when they were killed Frank and Alice volunteered her mother's home in a small magical village near Nottingham. Both of those properties were gone. The first sold to help Molly with expenses, the second unavailable because Alice's mother refused to give aid to who she called 'the man that got her daughter nearly killed'.

That left the Weasleys and Sirius Black as the only people with homes large enough to accommodate full Order meeting as well as being able to provide spare beds if needed. Sirius' childhood home would be best, since it was in central London and Dumbledore would take a sort of perverse satisfaction out of repurposing the home of people who had refused to back him for so many years.

But true to his forefathers, Sirius refused. He was away from England getting 'treatment' for his false imprisonment, and he would not return to England just so that Dumbledore could have a place to hold meetings. Not even the promise of seeing Harry again would sway the stubborn man. Granted, Albus' terms were not ideal: Sirius would have to stay within the four walls of Grimmuald Place whether there was a meeting going on or not, and could not retreat to the other Black properties or to the 'wherever he was' that did not see him as a criminal.

Sirius countered with the unsettlingly logical reasoning that even if he allowed them to use Grimmuald Place, he would not be allowed to treat Harry he wanted to, he would be constantly watched by other Order members, and he would be useless to Harry without finishing his treatments, which he would not be allowed to do under Dumbledore's rule. Plus Pettigrew was with Voldemort, so there wasn't even the possibility of revenge.

But Dumbledore could not allow Sirius free reign around Harry, Harry might get ideas. Even when Dumbledore threatened to report his whereabouts to the authorities, Sirius simply laughed and asked 'how?' and then 'how do you think they will find me? I am heavily warded and I am only responding to your letters because I was curious about what you would say. Do you think I am so naïve as to allow myself to be recaptured after being threatened with the Kiss on sight? Even if I return I will not get my fair trial. If you could not give it to me when I was arrested while Pettigrew was still out, and you could not vouch for me the way you vouched for Snape what assurances do I have that you will treat me and my house fairly? '

So that left Dumbledore with using the Burrow until better arrangements could be made. Molly was more than happy to play hostess, but it was obvious at the first meeting that the Burrow would be a woefully inadequate permanent solution. Meanwhile things had gotten slightly worse and Dumbledore worried that Harry would be bombarded over the summer with letters and be tempted to communicate with his friends over the summer, possibly alerting Death Eaters to his location, so he took Hedwig and promised Harry that he could have the bird once he returned to Hogwarts.

Nevermind that in the very next sentence he told the reluctant teen that he 'had' to return to Privet Drive since it was the 'safest place for him.' The Headmaster was thankful that Harry still trusted him completely, took both statements at face value without thinking about them and went off for the summer. It wasn't so much about controlling Harry as controlling those who had influence over Harry, but still. Dumbledore knew what happened the last time someone with as much magical potential was left to his own devices; he became a Dark Lord who found the secrets to immortality.

Everything was fine for two whole weeks, and then the Minister called him into his office with 'questions' about Harry. Cornelius asked about Harry's home life, asked about those muggles he had met before, asked how he got along with them, asked about how the muggles handled Harry's attendance at Hogwarts.

Dumbledore realized too late that they were not merely asking after Harry's wellbeing, but questioning Harry's sanity because he lived with muggles during the summer and had little contact with wizards during the summer months. They accused him of stunting Harry's growth by secluding him away from 'normal' witches and wizards to fill his head full of ideas, then taking away any means he had of communicating with the outside world. How they found out about that, the Headmaster had few guesses.

Worse, when he tried to tell them that it was dangerous for Harry to be out, they wanted to know why. When he explained the danger of Voldemort and his Death Eaters, the Minister merely laughed, saying that Crouch Jr. was an anomaly and that the Headmaster must be getting dotty in his old age.

Needless to say, the meeting ended poorly for the Headmaster. They agreed to a compromise. He would go with Minister Fudge, an Auror of the Minister's choice and a Mind Healer to check on Harry. Dumbledore had been against the Mind Healer, simply because he knew the Dursleys weren't exactly the best examples of muggles, and they didn't have the best relationship with wizards in particular, including their nephew, so things might look worse than what they really were.

Still, he had been able to talk Fudge into ensuring that Harry stayed with the muggles before by insisting they were the only people available who could take care of him. Now that argument was shot to pieces, since his opponents were using 'Harry's' past magical outbursts against his muggle relatives as evidence that it was not a stable enough home environment for a growing wizard, that the muggles were doing something to him and that his past 'attention-seeking behaviour' was just his crying out for help the only way that people seemed to respond.

The next day was a nightmare. They had gone in under the guise of 'doing a health check on adopted wizards.', only for Petunia to reveal that she never formally adopted Harry, that he had just been thrust upon them like an unwanted fruitcake. Things only got worse for Dumbledore when the Auror asked to see Harry, to be denied for nearly a half hour only to be reluctantly shown to a room covered in locks containing a clearly injured Harry Potter whose back was clearly bleeding and who was suffering from an infection and a possibly broken ankle. The room was filthy, there was a small bucket in the corner that Vernon Dursley frowned at and snapped at the boy to 'empty his mess before he stunk up the whole place' not fully comprehending Dumbledore's subtle hints to cool his temper. Worse was the boy's then feeble attempt to get up to follow his uncle's orders despite the injured ankle, his back and the fact that the boy looked like he had not had a proper meal since leaving Hogwarts. The boy nearly fell four times before the group got over their shock at the situation and jumped into action.

Fudge had been embarrassed, the Auror had called for backup, and the Mind Healer had immediately taken Harry away to St. Mungos. The day only got worse, when the Aurors began investigating Harry's treatment and found out about the 'cupboard' where all his school stuff had been taken and locked away, preventing Harry from even working on his homework.

The small mattress in the cupboard, the small crayon scratches on the inside of the door, the locks on the outside of the cupboard and the other small signs that a small child had been kept there for long periods of time sealed Dumbledore's fate.

He was not allowed to contact Harry, neither directly nor indirectly until the investigation was complete. Harry would be placed with a 'proper wizard family' so that he could begin his 'rehabilitation'. The Ministry would stop its smear campaign against the youth, since clearly he was being abused. There was a lot of blame going around, and most of it was going towards Dumbledore.

He tried to placate Fudge and the Ministry. If this got out it would be almost like declaring open season on muggles. Despite the first article of many attempting to paint a smear campaign against Harry, if regular witches and wizards found out that the 'boy-who-lived' had been abused almost ritualistically by the muggles he had been living with for his 'safety', Dumbledore feared what that would do for his muggle-rights initiatives. This type of controversy would be fuel to the fire for the likes of Lucius Malfoy and Voldemort.

Dumbledore was filled with righteous anger against Vernon and Petunia for the blatant disregard they seemed to have for the health and wellbeing of one of their own relatives, he really was. He just could not have the streets filled with vigilantes crying for muggle blood over the abuse of an underage wizard.

As Dumbledore sat in his office, his whirring instruments still now that the wards were gone from Privet Drive, he wondered where he had failed, when he had gotten so big that he stopped seeing the child instead of the hero. It was a wonder that Harry was not darker than he was.

There were times, sure, when Albus saw that darkness lingering beneath the surface. The boy who was almost a Slytherin was now living with a 'proper wizarding family'. The only details he had been given was that the wife was a healer who specialized in young children, the family was well off and had more than enough space to give to Mr. Potter, and that he would be 'undergoing treatment' to help cure Harry of the scars he suffered at the hands of those muggles.

Knowing what he knew of Fudge and the others who had influence over his decisions, he knew that the 'proper' family was likely a Dark one, Voldemort sympathizers who would try and indoctrinate Harry, poison him against muggles and muggleborns.

The Harry he had known for four years would be gone. Possibly forever. Albus wished things had turned out differently, that he had been a little more observant and a little less dependent on his belief that family would always look out for family. Now Albus' only fear was who would pay the price for his latest mistake.


The Dark Lord smiled as he read Elisabeth's report on Potter's health. He was recovering nicely. He was awake and dealing with being in a new house, but because he was unaware of her maiden name he did not complain. Especially when she mentioned that he was there under 'Ministry Protection'. Potter had been resistant at the very beginning, but now was being compliant with all of his 'therapy', which included a lot of indoctrination and training.

Now, however, it was time to test his control over his new toy.

The Dark Lord sat back down at his desk and began composing his orders.


Harry woke up to the amazing smell of his breakfast tray and hurried to get out of bed and into the bathroom so that he could eat.

Breakfast every morning coupled with his now ravenous appetite, were new developments this summer. The summer had started off horribly, but now he was having the best summer of his life, even if he was still a little concerned about how he got in his current situation.

When he first woke up two weeks ago, he had panicked, convinced he had been kidnapped by Death Eaters. A Mind Healer, Madam Brown, and a nurse, Madam Belby, came in and explained the situation to him. Apparently he was under Ministry Protection because of the allegations he lodged about Voldemort's return. The Minister and an Auror had come with Dumbledore and Madam Brown to take his statement and had found him beaten and nearly passed out at the Dursleys.

When he tried to explain that Voldemort really had returned and that he had been kidnapped and used in a dark ritual, the Mind Healer simply shook her head. She explained to him that there was no unusual activity reported for the night in question, and a ritual like that would have caused a large magical backlash that would have registered in the Ministry. She also explained that the 'duel' he described could not have had that result. It was plausible that he had been kidnapped, along with Cedric Diggory, and that Diggory had been a victim of some sick and twisted plot to make him 'believe' that he-who-must-not-be-named had returned.

Still, there was a tangible threat against Harry, since someone was determined to cause him physical, mental and emotional harm. Hence the Ministry stepping in to protect him by placing him with a neutral third party until the 'mess' got sorted out.

He asked about sending letters to his friends, but was told that he would be able to send his friends a short note, but that he would need to spend most of his time recovering, healing and studying to make up for the summer work he had already missed doing.

So Harry started studying and learning under the tutelage of Madam Belby, his nurse. She was very knowledgeable in all sorts of subjects. She had also been appalled at how 'lacking' his education had been so far. So Harry had spent the last three weeks studying and catching up in Potions, Charms, Astronomy and learning about the Wizengamot and all sorts of protocol stuff. Part of that had been learning important family trees, most notably the different ranks a pureblood family could have. At first he had been against learning the snooty pureblood protocol stuff, but some of it had been interesting.

Everything was a lesson. There was etiquette, formal and informal greetings, addressing superiors, even at which point it was proper for a person to start using informal address with associates. At first Harry thought it was a bunch of pretentious rot, wondering who would care what he called his friends. Three weeks later, however, and Harry was starting to see that it was just about being polite.

Madam Belby was constantly harping about the importance of following rules of etiquette. Once he started learning them, he had to write lines whenever he forgot to do something. Just last night he had to write lines because he forgot the 'Professor' when discussing Snape.

Today they would be starting History and Culture, replacing Astronomy and Charms. He would be in Potions remediation till the end of break, he assumed. Not that he minded, since he was finally starting to understand the methods behind the brewing.

Just as he was finishing his breakfast, complete with his morning potions, Madam Belby walked in carrying a letter.

"This letter came for you. It will illustrate your 'situation' better. When you have finished reading it write to Gringotts. You are almost fifteen. You should start getting monthly statements. You will also need to start a correspondence course with them so that you can learn to handle your family finances. I'm sure your account manager has been keeping the vaults full, but it would be best if you took over before someone started taking advantage of your situation."

"Yes ma'am. I was under the impression I only had my trust vault, but I suppose it makes sense that I would have more than that, seeing how old the family is."

Madam Belby nodded. "Well we have already discussed your woeful ignorance. Set to it. You will have until eleven. At that time I expect you to be downstairs with the letter written."

"Yes ma'am."

Madam Belby left, and Harry examined he wax seal, trying to determine who had sent him the letter. The letter was sealed with what looked like an older version of the Slytherin House seal, and there was only one person he knew who would use that. Harry hoped that was not the case.

Servant.

As you are well aware, you were rescued from the muggles you live with by the Ministry. It was my instructions that led them to you. Do not let anyone tell you differently.

As a part of your repayment to me for my kindness, I have bound you to me. You are my servant. If you lift up your left ankle and whisper 'Master' you will see the mark of your binding. There is nothing you can do about it.

Here are my orders. You will learn everything Elisabeth Belby teaches you. You will become the best example of pureblood decorum, rivalling those who were raised in our society. You will not ever say or write the name Voldemort again. When you speak or write, you shall call him 'You-Know-Who' until told otherwise. You will deny his return. As far as you are concerned, you were kidnapped by rogues who dressed up as Death Eaters and killed Diggory. They wanted to scare you, and they succeeded. It was Dumbledore who pressed you into saying that those rogues raised the Dark Lord back to power.

You will write several people, apologizing for your slights to their person and position, and ask for forgiveness. From this moment forward, you will cease all contact with blood traitors. We will discuss the exact parameters for this restriction when we meet. You will have NO contact with Dumbledore, neither in person, by writing, by floo, by phoenix or through another person using any of those methods. You will report any person spying on you to me.

You will be in communication with me every Wednesday from the moment you get this letter until I release you from that obligation. That is in addition to any other communication I require from you. You will not speak of who I am to any person, living, dead, portrait or otherwise sentient. You will not inform anyone that what you are doing is because you have been issued orders. You will not be an embarrassment to me.

These are my orders.

Master

Harry froze in panic. He looked at the seal again and dread coiled in his stomach. He knew if he lifted the cuff of his pants he would find that mark on his ankle. Somehow V…

Harry clenched as even attempting to think the true name of You-Know-Who caused his chest to constrict and his arms and legs to feel like they were being set on fire. After what seemed to be an eternity, the pain faded.

Harry knew that his master was the newly risen Dark Lord. Harry could not quite decide what was worse, that he was now under the control of he-who-should-not-be-named or that he was going to have to do some painful things, and he couldn't even hint that he was being controlled by someone else. He couldn't turn to Dumbledore. He learned the first day that he was not allowed to contact his Headmaster. Now he couldn't even 'hint' to someone as to what was going on.

How would he survive? Who knew how long he'd have to 'serve' he-who-must-not-be-named? If he didn't have Ron or Hermione to talk to whom else would he talk to?

Despite wanting to, Harry didn't have time to crawl into bed in a depressed heap. He knew from the sound his bedside clock had just made that he only had an hour to write the letter to Gringotts, and it had to be perfect; no blotches and perfectly legible penmanship. He was getting faster with a quill but Madam Belby was never satisfied. She used phrases like 'horrendous' and 'an affront to decent writing everywhere'. With his Master's orders he would have to exceed his previous performance in order to keep those annoying sharp pains at bay.

Maybe he could send a letter to Sirius. Even if there was nothing Sirius could do having a semi-sane person on his side would help him endure the enforced exile from everything he had known up to this point.


Sirius had been in a panic for the better part of the last month and a half. First he finds out that Dumbledore took Harry's owl so that he would not be 'tempted' to communicate with anyone while staying with the Dursleys. It was a ridiculous idea, and dangerous given the current situation. What would Harry do if there was an emergency and he needed to contact someone? It wasn't like he could use muggle means to call. The Dursleys didn't have a floo and he doubted Harry knew that many floo addresses anyway. Harry's ignorance had been fully on display the past two years, and Sirius doubted anybody had been trying to integrate the youngest Potter into society.

The idea that nobody seemed to care about Harry's future after Hogwarts sent Sirius' thoughts down a dark path. So instead of focusing on those depressing thoughts, he focused on recovery from Azkaban.

Then he found out that Harry had been taken from the muggles he lived with because the Ministry was afraid that the 'complete isolation from normal society' was negatively affecting Harry's judgment, ability to function in society, and ability to discern facts from imagination. There were subtle hints of abuse, especially given that the person fostering him was a trained healer.

After that Sirius tried sending Harry letters, but each one came back unopened, which he knew was completely unlike the pup. As heavily coded as the letter was, he didn't think anybody but Harry could understand what was being said. Although, it could be that Sirius was being panicky, and that all of Harry's letters were being screened and that only certain people were allowed to talk to him.

That disturbed Sirius, but then he got a letter from Harry that scared him to his core. Harry had been affected by dark, ancient magic. Without saying it in so many words, Harry had managed to tell him that a powerful and dangerous wizard had orchestrated his 'release' from the Dursleys in order to make him a servant. When Harry described the 'mark' he found on his ankle, Sirius had never heard of it, but the fact that he had a mark at all was troublesome.

The sketch of the mark on Harry's ankle led Sirius to understand that Voldemort had gotten control over Harry, which was trouble, deep trouble, for everyone. However, it had taken going back to Grimmuald Place for Sirius to understand how bad things were.

Harry was Voldemort's blood servant. That was as bad as things could get. Harry could not disobey direct orders from Voldemort, or else his magic would kill him. Harry was already experiencing severe pain because of the decision to write the letter to Sirius. He had been forbidden from talking to 'blood traitors' or telling anybody that he had been made a servant. Sirius agreed with Harry's speculation that Voldemort would try and separate him from any and all Dumbledore supporters.

That would spell trouble, especially if Voldemort expected Harry to associate with the children of other Death Eaters. They may function, but none of the true emotional support that existed between real friends would be available to Harry.

As Sirius sat in the home he swore he never would return to, he contemplated his options. He could go to Dumbledore, or he could try and solve it on his own. Sirius ruled out Dumbledore as soon as he thought about it. There was no telling what he would try to do to Harry in order to exploit the master-servant link. They had already been talking rather ominously about Harry's scar and how it always seemed to react whenever Voldemort was nearby. Not only that, but from what Harry wrote and he read about the blood servant link, even actions he took could affect Harry.

So after thinking, studying, and thinking some more Sirius decided he needed to talk to an expert in the Dark Arts, someone he never thought he'd ever need to have a civil conversation with again.

Now, standing in the hallway, he pulled the curtain back, covering a wince as the portrait began screeching. As he stood there calmly he waited for her to notice that he wasn't responding, and wasn't ducking his head and rushing away. When she finally went silent, he smirked.

"Hello, Mother."


It was all Harry could do not to shake like a leaf. He balled his hands into a fist, and willed the images to go away.

Since receiving the letter from his Master, whenever he wasn't studying Potions or Etiquette, he was being assaulted by images of war, famine, and unspeakable horror. The pictures, and memories, were of muggles attacking each other and wizards. The books were full of accounts of young witches and wizards, too young for formal training, being attacked because of their accidental magic.

It was a scenario that hit a little too close to home. It was what made his study of History so uncomfortable. Binns never covered this stuff, usually sticking to pure wizard history or goblin wars or the like. Not these nightmares where muggles took out all their frustrations on innocent witches and wizards. All Harry could see were before and after images; children playing happily in a field, watching some older witch or wizard do something with a wand, flying around on smaller toy brooms, and then tragedy. Those same faces appeared again; sometimes broken in pain, bloodied and drawn in horror.

The vilest were the pensive memories. You could feel the terror and witness the intentional infliction of pain. It was easy at first to dismiss the pictures and written stories as propaganda, but the live memories were apparent, and some of them were uncomfortably recent. Although the memories were a part of the public record because they had been used in a trial, there was still something horrific about seeing the memories of muggle attacks live and in colour.

At first he wasn't as bothered by the memories, believing that they pulled the worst ones for him to view in order to convince him of the 'evil of muggles'. That was before he recognized one of them as a memory HE provided to his Mind Healer the first week of his 'rehablilitation'. Seeing the small five-year-old version of himself cradling a broken arm as Vernon spit insults at him mixed in among similar memories spread across the decades broke something in him. When the nightmares began, it was Vernon's face he saw. Even the older pictures started looking like Vernon and Petunia rather than the faceless muggles they had been before. It was disturbing and he often had trouble thinking of muggles as anything but Vernon-faced monsters that wanted to 'beat the magic out of him.' The lastest dream had involved an entire army of Vernon clones. He had been surrounded by the broken bodies of small children in robes, clearly magical children, and the Vernon-army had some type of device that made it impossible for him to use his magic. He was actually powerless to stop them. They had guns and other large weapons and…

Shaking the nightmare away, Harry got out of bed and finished his toilette before going to the small dining room that he shared with Madam Belby. It was a special week, with just over three weeks before Hogwarts he would go out to pick up some of his school supplies. Of course, they would both be wearing glamours that would only come down in Gringotts. The glamours were new, a novel idea someone should have thought of years ago. He'd already been to Gringotts once, to settle his accounts and get new keys. He was wealthier than he first imagined, and the first thing Madam Belby did when she found out he wasn't a pauper was force him into Twilfit and Tattings to buy a 'proper wardrobe'. They spent the rest of that day shopping and outfitting him to 'look like a proper wizard and not a Dickens character.'

Harry actually laughed a little at that memory. Madam Belby had been horrified when he opened his school trunk, pulling out Dudley's castoffs and the misshapen things he always got when he went shopping with the Weasleys. They never had money for new robes, so Harry never felt the need to show off that he could afford them. Those that could be salvaged were sent to the donation bin, and those that were too horrid for words were burned.

Dressed in his day robes he started eating the breakfast that appeared before him. He knew that Madam Belby would show up soon and have some tea while he finished his breakfast. If there was any mail to be had, she would bring it to him. Sure enough, she showed up ten minutes later bearing three thick envelopes.

The first was from Gringotts. The audit of his account was finished, and aside from the odd withdrawal here and there the audit found nothing extraordinary. His father had not done anything like give Dumbledore all his money and Dumbledore hadn't been skimming off the top. The withdrawals seemed to be payouts that could be easily recovered.

Harry set that letter aside and opened the letter from Hogwarts. It was the standard letter. Quidditch was back, students in year four and above were 'greatly encouraged' to bring dress robes and formalwear for special events occurring throughout the school year, and the standard list of books. Harry saw that Divination and Care of Magical Creatures were still on his schedule, despite his dropping both of them in favour of attempting a tutoring program so that he could sit the Ancient Runes and Arithmacy OWLS. His Head of House, McGonagall, explained that he would not be able to drop either without consent from the Headmaster, and the Headmaster had not given his consent. Harry couldn't figure out why, but there was little he could do about it.

The third letter stilled his hands. It was from his Master.

Servant.

Prepare yourself to meet with me on Thursday evening. A portkey will be delivered to you on Thursday morning. It will activate at 19:00. Be dressed and prepared to meet with me at that time. It will be a grave mistake if you are not holding that portkey when it reappears in my home.

Master.

Harry sighed. The letter was short and to the point, as always. There was no mystery what this meeting would be about. It was the first time he would get direct orders from his Master, and they likely had to do with setting up the boundaries for who he could and could not talk to while at Hogwarts. Likely some other things as well that would be painful for him.

Harry sighed. Hopefully it wouldn't be too painful.


The Dark Lord sat on his chair patiently as the clock chimed the hour. Sure enough, Potter appeared, tumbling down as if the trip had been horrendous. He stayed on his knees, eyes on the ground.

"Up. I did not command you to kneel. You have not earned the right to kneel in such a manner."

Potter scrambled up to his feet but kept his eyes down. Good.

"Was the portkey any trouble, or were you not holding it until the last minute?" The Dark Lord asked.

"I've always had problems standing upright when taking portkeys or using the floo. I always fall down."

The Dark Lord raised an eyebrow, but the move was lost on the whelp in front of him.

"You are intelligent enough to have worked out that I am your Master. Your letters have been informative, but your education is still incomplete. For the next two weeks you will cease all other academic preparation and focus solely on History, Etiquette and Protocol. I do not have faith that you comprehend the gravity of the danger muggles pose to our society, and no servant of mine will be so lacking in that fundamental truth. You also retain faith that your situation will be resolved through the intervention of Albus Dumbledore. Your remaining time this summer will be spent correcting that mistaken belief."

"Once you return to Hogwarts, you will only socialize with those I have approved. Any other individual you may speak to for purely academic reasons. You are not allowed to pair with Weasley. His family opposes me and as my servant being associated with him even as an academic partner is counterintuitive. You will not speak to Albus Dumbledore or any other teacher unless it relates to classwork and your courses. You indicated in your letter yesterday that you had been denied the opportunity to drop Divination and Creatures. That is the only matter that you may speak to him about. If he protests or insists that you take those classes rather than more useful academic pursuits, you will inform him that you would withdraw from his school and pursue private tuition. Understood?"

"Yes, sir." Potter responded.

"You will remain here for the last three weeks of your summer holiday. An escort will take you Diagon Alley for the books you will be studying. You will study the assigned work and be prepared to perform a demonstration of the day's lesson here in this room at the end of each day."

"Yes, sir."

"You will be assigned a private tutor who will continue your education as my servant, and you will be expected to continue your weekly reports to me until such a time that I feel your progress is adequate enough that you do not require constant monitoring. Your training will continue at Hogwarts until I feel that it is complete. Understood?"

"Yes, sir."

"Finally, You are a Gryffindor, and your deficiencies can be blamed on that. You will petition for a re-Sort into Slytherin. You will sit with them for lunch, and pair with them for every class you take where it is possible. Your partners have already been instructed to allow this. Do I need to remind you of the consequences of disobeying my orders?"

"No, Sir."

"Good. If there are any complications and anyone attempts to force you to sit with the blood traitors you used to call friends while your petition is pending, you will take your meals in the kitchens. You will not skip meals and you will continue with any regime that Elisabeth Belby has established for you. I cannot have half-starved, malnourished servants. Understood?"

"Yes Sir."

The Dark Lord nodded. There was still a defiant tremble in the boy's shoulders, but by now he seemed resigned to his fate. His indoctrination training had actually been going well, the potions he was being slipped helped speed him along. Mild doses of a compulsion potion mixed with a 'nightmares alive' potion brought the terror of muggles to life in Potter's mind, and that was helping reshape Potter's vision, but there was still work to be done. The Dark Lord could not risk sending Potter to Hogwarts and away from his servants if the boy still had loyalty to Dumbledore and sympathy for muggles. Both would have to be stamped out with impunity. That, and he would have to gain the boy's loyalty so that he would willingly take his Mark and truly drive the final nail in Dumbledore's coffin. Getting the boy in the right frame of mind was the first step.

"You will always address me as 'My Lord' when in my presence. It will be 'Yes, My Lord or No, My Lord. Do you understand? "

The boy trembled violently for a full minute. The Dark Lord could actually see the boy fighting the pain in an effort to ignore the order. Finally he gasped out something that sounded like 'Yes, My Lord'. The boy continued to tremble from the after effects of his pain.

"I did not quite understand you. You must learn to speak clearly." The Dark Lord was enjoying this. It was truly too bad he could not gain more followers this way. The magical toll was too great.

"Yes, My Lord." The boy said, the words coming out faster this time.

"You will soon come to realize that there are more benefits to being in my service than there are for those who refuse me. As long as you remain my servant I shall have no reason to kill you."

"What about my friends?" The boy shook harder for a moment, his punishment for speaking out of turn.

"You have no friends." The Dark Lord said simply. "Anything that was your life before you woke up under the care of Madam Belby is dead to you, and I will decide what your life will be from now on. As you learn and prove your faithfulness, you will gain freedoms, but for now your life is mine, and I am very possessive. Understood?"

"Yes, My Lord." That resigned almost-slump.

"I can guarantee that your life will be much better under my service than it was when you were my enemy. For one, we are no longer enemies so none of the lies you were told for the first fifteen years of your life matter. Secondly, you will be a part of our world, rather than continuing to live in the fringes, hated by the world. You will be free of the mantle of the 'boy-who-lived', the Prophecy matters not."

"Prophecy, My Lord?" The boy questioned. Surely Dumbledore had told this whelp of the Prophecy. Was the boy full of that much honour that he fought so valiantly merely because he had been told that he must?

"Dumbledore has not told you of the Prophecy concerning us?"

"No, My Lord. I asked, and he told me that I was too young to know."

The Dark Lord crept closer to the boy, knowing that he was telling the truth. Dumbledore was truly a fool.

"There was a Prophecy that declared you as a threat to me. I do not know the whole thing, but we will handle that when it comes, Servant. I attacked you because you were a threat to my goals. I killed your parents because they stood in the way of my attack on you."

The boy still stood tall. "Permisson to speak, My Lord."

The boy was a quick study. "Granted."

"Living with the Dursleys was hell. At first I was angry with you because it was your fault that I was sent to live with them. Then you tried to kill me outright. I heard about the horrible things you did, you hurt my family and friends… "

The Dark Lord lifted the boy's head, facing him to lock his emerald eyes on him. The boy's eyes widened when he saw the beginnings of hair reapparing on his head. There would be time for that discussion later.

"Firstly, you damaged me, turned me into mere vapour. Although I murdered your parents, think of the others who were made orphans on BOTH sides. There are orphans among my followers, just as you are not the only orphan among Dumbledore's followers. I am NOT the reason you lived with the muggles. That blame lies with whoever discovered you alive afterwards. You are a Potter. I am sure you know by now how many other families you are related to?"

"Yes, My Lord."

"And you took away from that, of all the proper families related to your father, none of them were appropriate, but that your mother's muggle family was? That as close as your father was to the Longbottom family, that not even she was worthy of raising you properly?"

The boy stilled. Perfect. He was thinking about it. "No My Lord, I did not take my father's relations into account."

"When you do, when you examine all of the facts leading up to this moment, you will reach a conclusion. I am not to blame for you living with the muggles. And I did not force the muggles to treat you as they did. That is simply their nature. They are violent, brutish and will kill anything that is more powerful than they are. They force us to hide, to deny who and what we are. They call us abominations, when it is they that are unnatural. After all, Gaia is Magic, the earth, sky, winds and waters are full of magic, so how is it that a being that comes from this earth is without the magic that flows through the earth?"

"I don't know, My Lord."

The Dark Lord chuckled. "There is no answer to that question, Servant. It is merely food for thought. "

The Dark Lord tapped another portkey. "Go, pack your bags and your trunk. Be ready at 10 in the morning to pick the portkey back up. It will take you directly to your chambers here. Be dressed for an important meeting. You will be meeting with a few of your carefully selected peers for lunch. You will become acquainted with them. Understood?"

"Yes, My Lord."

"Dismissed."