Yo. This update comes to you before breakfast and in the middle of KH 2.5 Final Mix, so if you happen to notice any glaring mistakes, feel free to point them out. As always, thank you to all readers to far, plus any reviewers.

Minor Character Bashing: Dumbledore, Ron and Ginny Weasley, Hermione Granger.

Name note: Voldemort=snake face/Marvolo=human face/Dark Lord=either (depends on context)

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of its characters...

On the stroke of midnight, Voldemort once again appeared in the bedroom of Harry Potter. The teen was asleep again, this time without a shirt, though that was likely because of how incredibly hot it seemed to be in Surrey at the moment.

Harry being asleep was a problem. He wanted to talk to him, but obviously could not do so while he was off in dream land. Then again... Harry had thought he had been dreaming the night before, while they had been talking, so he could always wake him up and claim he was still dreaming.

Crimson slits going from the teen's bruised chest to his face, he poked him once with one of his sharp nails. Harry awakened immediately, hand going under his pillow as if he were searching for something, probably his wand. He came out empty though.

"Forgot my wand's locked up..." he muttered. Rubbing his eyes, Harry turned his sleep clouded face up at the man in the room. "Voldemort?"

"Hello, Harry."

The teen reached around for his glasses, and when he found them, slipped them onto his face. "Back for another dream visit?" He stretched and then winced, likely because of the injuries he seemed to have. Then he froze. "Wait, did you just poke me?"

"Yesss. How elssse were you to know that I wasss here?"

Harry just stared incredulously. "You could've just, I dunno, called out my name or something. I'm a pretty light sleeper you know. Have to be when you're living here," he ended with a mutter, though the Dark Lord heard him loud and clear. "Then again, I have no idea how it's possible to be woken up in a dream."

"You do not ssseem frightened to be alone with me, Harry. Why isss that?" questioned the snake-like man after a moment. Most people were terrified in his presence, so why wasn't this teenage boy who had been declared his mortal enemy since before his birth?

"This is just a dream," replied Harry almost casually. "It's not like it's real or anything."

"I sssee." It was probably a good thing that he saw the situation as nothing more than a dream, and Voldemort was not about to correct him any time soon.

"You wouldn't happen to have a Pain Relief potion on you, would you? Oh, but if this is a dream..."

Voldemort regarded the teen carefully before pulling a vial out from under his cloak, already having anticipated this. Handing it over, he stared when Harry shot him a grin and accepted the potion, not even hesitating before drinking it down. "What if I had poisssoned that?" questioned the man afterwards.

Sighing in what was obvious relief, Harry simply shrugged his bare shoulders. "Wouldn't really have mattered now, would it? I'm going to die sooner or later. If not by you or myself, I'm sure old Dumbledore'll take care of it."

A hairless brow was raised. "And why do you asssume that Dumbledore wishesss for your death?"

Laying back down, Harry sighed. "I overheard the Order talking," he replied slowly. "They want us to kill each other."

Sitting down on the edge of Harry's bed, Voldemort watched the teen in well hidden surprise. Harry was in the same room as the Dark Lord himself, and here he was, relaxing in bed, having a non-violent conversation. How...bizarre. "And if you sssurvive?" he wondered.

"They'll send me to Azkaban, because I'll have killed someone." He scoffed. "Stupid really, as they're the ones who want me to do this. I mean, it's not like anyone bothered asking me whether I wanted to fight you or whatever. They brought me into the Wizarding world and just expected me to do this."

"Then allow me to be the firssst," said Voldemort, leaning in just a little closer. "Do you truly wish to fight me, Harry?"

Eyes glowing as green as the fatal Avada Kedavra itself locked onto his crimson slits. "Nope."

"No?"

"No," Harry confirmed. He frowned. "I don't think I'm really cut out to be the Light's Saviour to be honest. I mean, I think I'm kinda dark, actually. I blame the Dursleys. Or, maybe I should blame Dumbledore for leaving me here in the first place. ...Why exactly am I telling you this?"

"The-Boy-Who-Lived, Dark? Now that is a surprise," he finished in Parseltongue, fully aware that he had done so, and not at all expecting to be understood.

Harry's frown deepened. "It's not really that surprising. I mean, just take a good look at me and you'll see."

Voldemort, for the first time in longer than he could remember, actually started. He stared at the bored looking teen before him, eyes as wide as snake-like slits could go. "You speak Parseltongue, Harry?"

"Yes?" replied the black haired boy, a look of confusion on his face.

"How long have you been able to do this?"

"Always, I guess. I mean, I didn't know until just before I started my first year, because I accidentally set a snake on my cousin at the zoo. But I found out it was Parseltongue and stuff during my second year, when I stopped a snake Malfoy conjured up from attacking this one student."

"I have never heard you speak in this language, Harry," said Voldemort, now attempting to conceal his rather obvious shock.

Harry shrugged in what he likely thought was a casual manner. "I've been avoiding doing so, actually."

"Why would you do that?"

Another shrug. "Cause it scares people? I dunno. I'm tired of people staring at me like I'm some sort of...freak show."

"Harry..." Caught in an unexplainable moment, Voldemort reached out and gently caressed the teen's jaw, wary of his sharp nails. He said nothing, but saw Harry's eyes widen. Harry didn't pull away though, in fact, he seemed to be too shocked to even move, yet there was no fear in his eyes. Unsure of why he had even made the motion in the first place, Voldemort slowly pulled away. "The Light is filled with foolish and fickle people, isn't it, Harry?" said the Dark Lord, intent on bringing Harry's attention away from what he had just done.

The green eyed teen yawned tiredly. "I know. The moment something bad happens, it's my fault, but when they need my help, I'm suddenly their Saviour again." He scoffed again before yawning once more. "How stupid..." His eyes fell shut and seconds later, he was asleep.

Voldemort very nearly smiled at the sight. He was still surprised that the teen could be so...casual around him, but it pleased him nonetheless. He doubted Harry behaved this openly around Dumbledore. Reaching out, he pulled off Harry's glasses and stared down at them. Why was he even wearing these things? Why hadn't he taken a Vision Correcting potion? Most children did, which was why you only ever saw adults wearing glasses in the first place.

Setting the glasses down on the side table where Harry had picked them up from, the snake-like man got to his feet and, with a last look at the peacefully sleeping teen, vanished...

Marvolo collapsed onto his bed with a soft sigh. He ran his fingers through his dark hair, lost in thought. Why does Harry know Parseltongue? Only direct descendants of Salazar Slytherin end up with this gift, so how? For that matter, how exactly did this connection between us come to be?

"You went to see him again, Master?"

Marvolo sighed again, not really in the mood to deal with his familiar. "Yes, Nagini."

"And you didn't kill him yet?" questioned the snake, slithering onto the large bed to curl up on his chest.

"No." He reached out automatically and began stroking Nagini's smooth scales. "He knows Parseltongue, Nagi."

Nagini gave a hiss of surprise, but seemed to be thinking, just as the Dark Lord was. "You two can see into each others' minds, right? And sense each others' emotions too?"

"Yes."

"Then...can't he be like me?"

The man stared down at the snake on his chest in confusion. "Like you...?"

"Yes, like me. A part of you." When Marvolo continued to look confused, Nagini gave the snake equivalent of an exasperated sigh. "I hold a part of you in me, Marvolo. Can it not be that the boy does too?"

"...A human horcrux," whispered Marvolo, finally understanding what his familiar was saying. "Yes... Yes, that would make sense..." he trailed off in thought. He had been planning on using Harry's death to make his final Horcrux, but as that hadn't worked, he had turned his loyal familiar into one in his stead. Was it possible that the killing curse rebounding sent a piece of his soul into the boy anyway? That wasn't exactly how it worked, but had it occurred?

Harry being his Horcrux would explain quite a bit. It could be why they had their mental connection, and why Harry could speak the ancient tongue of serpents as well. But then he frowned as another thought came to him. Why did Harry feel pain when he was near him? If he was a Horcrux, then he should be feeling comfortable around him, not in pain. Nagini was his only other living one and she never felt pain, so then why Harry?

Then again, Harry hadn't seemed to be in pain the past few days that Marvolo had been to see him. Well, not pain caused by his presence at any rate. The pain Harry always felt when near him always seemed to distract him from focusing on the teen too closely. Were those things connected somehow? Did Dumbledore have something to do with this? Marvolo wouldn't have put it past him.

Marvolo sighed again, exhaustion building. He needed to speak to Harry again. The man wondered whether Dumbledore had told him about Horcruxes yet, or if he even knew about them. He blinked suddenly. If the old man did know, then Marvolo knew he had to make sure his other ones were safe. He wasn't going to chance anything, especially after the destruction of his diary. Lucius had been punished and forgiven for that, for the loss of the diary was what had helped him regain his sanity-and his original appearance in the first place.

Tomorrow. Tomorrow, rather-today, he would check on his other Horcruxes, and depending on how long it took, pay Harry another visit. He wanted to confirm the Horcrux theory...

Whew, okay, this is all I have for now. I don't have enough for another chapter, so updates will be slow now while I work on that. I'm open to suggestions and ideas. Looking forward to reviews! Laterz!