Chapter Two

Lunch and a New Friend

Riddle looked as happy as Harry had seen him. His face lit up in quite a nice way and he looked oddly approachable.

"Kill anyone I know today" Harry asked, with a false cheerful tone. "Or did you just go for a spot of muggle torturing?"

"I don't think you knew them actually," Tom smiled. Harry looked away, hoping that Tom was just joking.

"Can I have some shoes?"

"Shoes?" Tom said, "I thought you might feel like lunch, but since you threw the last thing I gave you at my head. I'm not convinced that it's in my best interests"

"If you let me go then you wouldn't have to worry about it," Harry grumbled.

Tom ignored him, "Come downstairs now, if you behave yourself then you can eat something. If you don't then you can keep me company while I eat." He had a strange gleam in his eye now and Harry didn't want to be Tom's entertainment. He had an uncanny feeling that it would involve no inconsiderable discomfort on his part.

Harry went downstairs first, slowly so that he could try to see all of the doors on the landing. They were all a uniform pine and all shut tight. Harry thought he saw the tell-tale flash of a ward run over one the door jambs.

"You won't be going in any of those rooms, Potter."

Harry could see another door on the ground floor now, it probably led to some sort of living room or dining room. It might even lead to the front door. There had to be one somewhere. Maybe they were underground, Harry thought absently, he still hadn't seen any windows. And Slytherins seemed to like dungeons.

The floor was cold in the kitchen now, the fire must have been out for a while. Harry sat down in the seat he was in yesterday and felt a sticking charm fix him to the chair and his feet solidly to the floor. He raised his eyebrows.

"Can't have you trying to bash your brains out again." Riddle said.

Riddle took a pan off the stove, freezing the flame as he did so. Two bowls and spoons flew onto the table. Tom put the pan down, made the bowls fill themselves and summoned himself a roll from the counter, like he did this every day rather than only having a body for less than a week.

Harry shook his head, it wasn't the first time he had the feeling that he had been asleep for a lot longer than he had thought. He started to eat his soup hungrily, it was better than he had expected from a 16 year old dark lord. "Tom?" he asked uncertainly, the other boy looked up, "What's the date today?"

Tom considered before answering, "This is July."

Harry's stomach dropped, along with his spoon and his jaw. He went into the chamber on the 22nd of June. Definitely more than a week then. "What did you do with me?"

"Relax Potter," Riddle said, "You slept for most of it. I just used you to top up my energy. I had to leave little Miss Weasley behind after all. Would you rather I had finished her off instead?"

Harry ducked his head angrily. Of course he didn't want Ginny to have died.

"The energy transfer works a lot better with you anyway so don't worry. I probably won't need to use her again unless I decide to kill you" Harry was starting to get slightly worried about the casual allusions to his possible impending doom. But they seemed to make Tom more cheerful…

"You were quite cute curled up on my kitchen floor for all that time, actually. Nagini wasn't very happy of course, she thought we should just kill you. And it was a nightmare trying to not step on you sometimes." Harry looked at his wrist, he had wondered how he had got that weird bruise, and no wonder he had a sore back- would it really have been that much effort to levitate him upstairs or something?

"Have you stopped with the energy thing?"

Tom nodded, "Totally finished. Now I have a body I can keep myself well enough. The body is the tricky part, you know."

"Really?" Harry couldn't think of anything else to say to that. They didn't exactly teach this at Hogwarts. They tended to teach them that this sort of thing was impossible, though Snape would probably tell them that there was a potion you could brew to do the same thing. Harry finished his soup and to his delight the bowl refilled itself instantly. Riddle frowned at him diving straight in.

"We're going to have to teach you some table manners. It is obvious that you were a Gryffindor."

"I'm still a Gryffindor!" Harry said through a mouthful of soup. Tom looked disgusted and flicked his wand so that Harry was suddenly being held upright in his seat by thin, strong strings which prevented him from slouching. The soup spoon also shifted in his grip into a more polite position so that Harry was holding it less like a spade.

"The first thing they teach new Slytherins is how to not embarrass their house. Obviously that is something they skip in the lesser houses. In future, you will eat properly at all times or you will not have anything to eat."

Harry growled but was glad that Tom hadn't taken the meal away. He had been behaving more like Ron in an effort to annoy the meticulous older boy.

Harry felt something alive brush past his ankle.

"Tom!" Panic crept into his voice. He could only move his knees, he had no way of getting away from whatever it was. And it was huge. It circled around both of his feet and started making its way up his leg. "Tom what is that?"

Riddle looked way too calm, "Don't move, Potter." Harry was already frozen in place and shot Tom a dirty look. "Potter, meet Nagini. Nagini, try not to eat him now he's awake." Harry caught the Parseltongue edge to his voice. It was a snake then.

"Hello, youngling. You are finally awake. The master said we can kill you someday, it's much more fun when you are awake."

Harry's mind was blank with fear. Normally when he was about to die he had a chance to move, to try to escape. Now he was strapped in his chair with the huge head of what felt like a very large magical serpent lying in his lap.

"Potter, say 'hello' to Nagini. She's been very patient waiting for you to wake up."

"Hello Nagini." Harry managed weakly. "Tom, can I go now? Please."

Riddle frowned, "That was not parseltongue, boy. I know you can speak, you made the journey to my ancestor's halls unaided. You will have to become accustomed to Nagini, you know. She has a free run of this house, I will not deny her that."

No, Harry thought, it's only me that can't go anywhere. "It makes me a little nervous, you know, having to talk to someone who's been promised they can kill me."

"Does it scare you, Harry Potter? That is useful to know."

Damn, Harry thought. Three guesses who his companion was going to be next time Riddle got mad at him.

"Master, can we kill him now?"

"Not yet Nagini. We need him a little more first."

Wait, what? "What do you need me for?" Harry asked

"What does the youngling say?" Nagini hissed.

"Potter, it's not polite to speak in a language that is not spoken by all present company."

"I can't just hiss on demand! It doesn't work like that." Every other time he had spoken Parseltongue he had been looking at some sort of snake. He couldn't see the one that had planted itself in his lap.

"It is not just hissing! This is an ancient and noble tongue." Riddle was incensed. "When do you normally speak it?"

"Normally, it's when I'm talking to a snake. Or something that looks like one anyway." He was surprised that it had worked with the tap actually. Maybe that one was special somehow.

"Do not be foolish. If you speak the language of the snakes then you will always be able to do so. You are simply not trying hard enough."

"Maybe that's only if you're born being able to do it. The only reason I can is because you blasted me with something when you tried to kill me!"

"I hardly tried to kill you," said Tom, "Voldemort hasn't really been me since he was 16. I'm the more charismatic, less insane version of the Dark Lord we all know and love!"

"Thank you for the potted history…"

"What's happening?" Nagini hissed.

"I am explaining to the boy why I kidnapped him"

"No you aren't! That's not at all what's happening!" Harry shouted, confused. He flinched hard when Nagini jumped at the noise.

"I would be if you would stop getting scared and just shut up." Tom said. "We were just talking about how you now possess some of the same powers as me, were we not?"

Harry nodded, he wasn't certain him shouting that five minutes ago counted as a conversation but at least Riddle had started talking.

"Do you at least understand that I am a part of the man you know as Voldemort? I only have half of a soul. I was trapped in my diary with that. The Voldemort that you know has split his soul many times. He becomes weaker and less human every time. There is not much man left in him now."

Harry considered this. "So you mean there are other things like you? Loads of Voldemorts stuck in random things, and they get less powerful. So is the original one the weakest then? He seemed pretty strong to me."

"You think that was strength? That pathetic creature that feeds on unicorns? Yes, there are others. Pieces of a once proud soul which have been gathering dust and rust in hidden priceless heirlooms cared for by incompetent idiots."

"So which incompetent idiot had your diary then?" Harry asked, puzzled.

"I left it within the capable hands of Abraxas Malfoy. It seems that he got himself killed by someone in the war and his idiotic son found many of the items which I left in their manor."

Harry grinned at Voldemort insulting Malfoy's father.

"So what happens if one dies or gets destroyed or whatever?" Harry asked. He didn't really see the point in the soul things. Maybe Voldemort made them by accident or they were some sort of by-product.

"Within the correct circumstances, one of the fragments becomes sentient. There are a few ways to get hold of a body. I used the simplest method. Miss Weasley poured her heart and soul into that book and I willingly accepted. And when we left, I brought you along to top up from before fetching the ingredients for a potion to fully strengthen me. Including some of the poison from my dear Nagini here." Harry thought he might get an even worse headache if Tom was going to insist on switching languages mid-speech.

"Where did you get the huge snake from anyway?" Harry asked, "Did you nick it from a zoo somewhere?"

"I did not 'nick' Nagini. She is a very rare, very magical being. I fetched her from Albania where she was being cared for for me. With any luck it should slow down my elder self as well. From what I have heard he has been there. Nagini was perfectly happy to come with me. It irks her to be milked every day. And I can easily provide her with more than enough food."

"Wait, so the Oldie Voldie was living off snake milk, and you went to Albania to steal her so you can stop yourself from coming back? What did you do with me while you were in Albania anyway?"

Tom stared at him for a minute. "I have absolutely no idea which part of that I should be correcting first. I left you here of course. I could hardly take the unconscious 'saviour' of the wizarding world through the international Floo system, could I?"

Harry felt a bit put out about being left on the kitchen floor for however long while Riddle wandered off to another country. "You just dumped me? What if you'd died? What if I'd died?"

Tom looked at him scornfully, "I tied you up of course. Couldn't have you barrelling about the place if you woke up. You dying then would just have been delaying the inevitable. You are the expendable one in this situation after all. You already saved the world when you were one, you aren't going to be able to top that."

Tom decided that now would be the best time to release Harry from his chair. Harry instantly looked down at the snake.

"Oh, holy shi…"

Harry was cut off again by a silencing charm. His eyes almost dropped out of his head. The snake was enormous. It wasn't exaggerating when it threatened to eat him. She was probably three times Harry's height from head to tail.

"So now you can talk?" Riddle sniggered, the noise sounded slightly foreign from him. It would have suited Malfoy a lot better. Maybe that was another thing that they taught Slytherins on the first day.

He stopped here to look fondly at the snake who responded by uncurling herself a little and slithering over to him to have her head stroked. Harry collapsed in his seat, trying to breathe through his frantic heart beats. Tom smiled happily at this and Nagini wound up him and draped around his shoulders like some kind of terrifying scarf.

"But back to you Harry," Tom said gesturing to him across the table. "You are here so that I can try to examine exactly why you survived. Your mudblood mother could not possibly have known more magic at her young age than the great Lord Voldemort at the height of his powers."

Harry seethed quietly, everyone always told him his parents had been brilliant for their time. And Tom had practically just finished saying Voldemort was a weak idiot.

"The Dark Lord is not a fool, Harry Potter. He has a greater knowledge of the old magic than almost anyone alive. He learned those from the Lord Slytherin himself!"

Harry frowned, Slytherin was definitely dead. He had died about a thousand years ago.

"Parseltongue, Potter. Slytherin was a parselmouth. Voldemort is a parselmouth. Have you not come across parselscript? Even if people are suspicious of you, they had no right to deny you that heritage- however ill-gained it may be. The head of Slytherin house at least should be aware of it, not to mention Dumbledore"

Harry felt that he couldn't be blamed for not knowing that it existed. Snakes aren't exactly renowned for their writing ability after all. He had to laugh at the idea of Snape willing teaching him anything he wasn't being paid to which wasn't related to ingredient preparation in detention.

Harry wished he could just go back to bed. He was still pretty worn out. Mind you, that probably had a lot to do with being Riddle's personal battery pack for however long.

Riddle stood up, carefully dislodging Nagini who slithered loudly out of the room, obviously bored with the lack of live meals. "So Potter, did you do anything useful while I was away?"

Harry mumbled, "Some transfiguration revision, nothing very interesting. White rabbits into slippers sort of thing. Probably not enough torture for your taste- too cutesy"

Riddle smiled happily, "Yes, but you have to start small to think big! Rabbits are mammals, quite close to humans really when you get down to it, well close to muggles. It's not that much of a stretch."

Harry wasn't sure whether to be impressed or disgusted by Tom's casual and confident suggestion of alternatives. He settled on disgusted and felt quite nauseous.

"I'll take a look at what you have written and if it is not complete gibberish then we can show you some parselscript, then you can translate a couple of books for me and I might be convinced to keep you around for a couple of weeks after all!"

The parchment zoomed downstairs and Harry felt sicker. Tom probably wasn't going to be impressed by the snitch pattern bordering the pages. Harry sincerely hoped that parselscript turned out to be intuitive. Lessons with Riddle sounded far too stressful.