Shock
Harry just sat there and gaped at the door where Voldemort just left. He was still trying to wrap around the fact that Dumbledore had take measures to insure that he stayed with his control, because that's exactly what it was: control. Tracking charms on his things meant that he knew exactly where he was and more than likely what he was doing during his 'adventures'. He wondered what kind of compulsions he had been under. Then suddenly his shock turned into anger. What the bloody hell does he think he's doing?! Who gave him the Merlin given right to try and control him?! He wondered what else had been done to him and why. Also he wondered if anyone knew about it. His chest tightened in hurt at the thought of Hermiony, Sirius, Remus, McGonagall, and the Weasleys having anything to do with his manipulations.
He was pulled out of his thoughts by his stomach practically trying to eat itself, reminding him that he hadn't eaten in several days. As if reading his mind Minky popped in with a tray of lunch. There was chicken noodle soup, salad, a large club sandwich and some pumpkin juice. Harry, after checking it for tampering, dug in and ate with as much decorum as one could who was ravenous. After he was finished eating and felt pleasantly full he decided to take a shower. He slowly stood up and was mindful of his wobbly legs. Once he felt himself stable on his feet he wandered over to the bathroom that was placed beside his wardrobe.
He walked in and just stood there and looked around in astonishment. The bathroom was huge! It was as big, if not bigger than, the bathrooms at Hogwarts. There was a large white marble counter top with two oval bowl like sinks, complete with a wide mirror above it, all on the right wall, with a toilet beside it. There was a large white bathtub on the left with windows beside it, letting in a lot of natural light. In the left corner and taking up half the back wall was a walk in shower with gray tile all around it and a big square shower spray in the ceiling. It also had towel racks and a hamper on the opposite wall in front of it. Also on the back wall was a full length mirror. A fluffy gray rug that matched the tile and some of the towels covered the center of the floor and a mats were placed in front of the shower and tub so water wouldn't get on the floor which was a light cream color. The walls where white like almost everything else. There were already toiletries and things set up all around so he didn't need to ask for some. It was simple but very elegant and like the rest of his rooms, he loved it.
H walked over to the walk in shower and stripped of his clothes and put them in the hamper. He then carefully took off the large bandage that covered most of the upper half of his body. Standing in front full body mirror he studied himself and noticed that just like the last time he checked there wasn't a single scratch or bruise on his body. Magic truly is amazing. Bloody hell, I better not be turning into bloody Malfoy being obsessed with my looks. He thought as he admired his new body again.
Turning away from the mirror he walked into the shower. He turned it on to his desired temperature and moaned as he felt the water cascade over him. It felt fantastic. He felt as if all the stress that he was harboring was being washed away. He felt oddly enough not only safe but stronger. It was like he was gaining his strength back and was just sort of recharging so to speak and even though it felt wonderful he was confused as to why he was feeling like this. While he had always loved being in water and felt a little more in his element in or near it, it had never made him feel like this before. The was taking it to a whole new level. He could feel his magic circling him, being somehow fueled by the water and he felt a tingling in his body. Then the next thing he new he was falling. It was as if his legs just went limp and just lost their structure, like jello, causing him to collapse. As he fell he hit his head on the glass door, causing it to open and for him to fall out and onto his stomach. He tried to get up or at least turn around but his legs felt stiff and just wouldn't cooperate. He looked down his body and stared completely and utterly shocked at what he saw. His brain just completely shut off for a moment, unable to comprehend just what it was he was seeing. His legs where no longer there. What was there in place of them however was a large tail. A TAIL! He honestly couldn't believe it. It was about three feet longer than his usual legs and it was silver at the waist which faded into emerald green down it which faded into black at the fin which looked like a large, thin, and wispy crescent moon and it was sort of lightly shimmery all over. It also had little silver fins on the sides where his thighs would be and the same fins but in green where down on his lower legs. It also felt as though there was a long but small sort of dorsal fin running along the back of it. The scales faded into skin just below his naval and as he looked at the rest of his body he noticed that he had the same little fins on his lower arms with little scales surrounding them. There was also a strange but intricate tattoo of what looked like waves and on top was the sun and on the bottom was the moon repeated on all for sides of his arm as it was wrapped around his left bicep. How...how the hell did this happen? He asked himself but then remembered his inheritance that he was sure for some reason was a possible creature inheritance. His creature half was a merperson. Slowly, as if going any faster would distort the image he was seeing, he reached out and touched it. The scales felt smooth and silky and he was slightly mesmerized by it.
After he managed to wrap his mind around the fact that he was a merperson decided that he needed to do research on what he was to see what he should expect with this new shift in his powers. He wasn't sure if Voldemort had any creature books in his library but it couldn't hurt to check. First thing's first though is to finish washing what he could and then figure out how to get his legs back. He proceeded wash his hair and upper body, not sure what to do with the tail and fins and after he finished washing he turned the water off. He reached his hand out and tried to summon a towel with what little wandless magic he could do, knowing that it couldn't be traced by the ministry especially within the wards he could somehow feel around the manor, at least that's what he thought this place was, and was surprised at the effortless ease in which his magic obeyed him as the towel went straight into his hand. He dried himself off completely, hoping that sense he was dry his tail would recede and his legs would would replace it. He sighed in relief when his tail did just that as the tingling sensation he felt during the previous change reappeared.
Sanding up he wrapped a dry towel around his waist and left the bathroom. Opening the wardrobe he pulled out a white button up top and a pair of dark blue jeans and put them on. True to Voldemort's word they fitted him perfectly. Feeling was almost weird sense he was used to his cousin's oversized clothes but they were comfortable at the same time. He put on a pair of dragon hide boots he found and then went into his trunk to grab his wand.
"Minky!" Harry called out and he elf appeared in front of him. "Can you take me to the library?"
"Of course Mr. Harry! Minky be showing yous to the library!" She nodded enthusiastically and proceeded to take him down the hall and downstairs to the library. When he walked in he was once again stunned at the sheer size and elegance of the place. The library was friggen huge! He honestly wouldn't be surprised if at least one of every book in the Wizarding World was in here. There were rows upon rows of book cases and there was even a second "story" full of them. There was also a large comfortable sitting area with tables in the center of the room. It was quite an impressive sight.
"Oh I hope I can find what I'm looking for in this place." Harry thought out loud as he set off to do his research.
Voldemort walked into the library two and a half hours later to the sight of Potter sitting at a table surrounded by books that at a closer look at the titles were about Merfolk. Huh, I wonder what that's about. Voldemort thought in mild curiosity.
"Do you have a certain fascination with Merfolk?" Voldemort asked surprised that the boy didn't even jump at his entrance.
"Something like that." Harry said, looking up at Voldemort from the book in his hands. He had felt his magic move up the hallway and closer to the door so he wasn't surprised at him being there. He wondered just how much magic he had gained from his inheritance because he had never been able to sense magic like this before.
Voldemort just raised an eyebrow and walked away to a book case further back. Intent on doing his own research. He wanted to figure out how it was that Potter was able to speak parseltongue. As far as he knew it was impossible to transfer familial abilities to other people whom didn't share blood with them, not even with the link that he and the boy shared which he had learned that he could block whenever he wanted. It may be theoretically possible with the language but that came with the ability to use parselmagic which is a part of their blood and core and he highly doubted that Potter had gotten the ability to speak to snakes but not the ability to use parselmagic. It could actually be possible that Potter had gotten the ability from the link that they shared. Grabbing a few books related to the subject, reminding himself to order a couple of family trees from Gringotts to see if he misread and the boy was actually distantly related, he went back to the sitting area and sat down on the other end of the large table where Potter was sitting. He looked pretty deep in thought, as if there was a puzzle in front of him and he was trying to figure out the next piece.
"Was there anything specific that you were trying to look for?" He asked, seemingly bored.
"Um, no not really just curiosity. I mainly have other things on my mind that keep distracting me." While that was true he was also confused and exasperated by the lack of information he wanted. Apparently a Merfolk inheritance was rare and what information he did find seem to be either speculation or stories told off of the original documentation which was just his luck really. He wasn't sure if maybe he was looking in the wrong section or what but he wasn't sure wither or not he should tell Voldemort about his predicament. He may not be the insane megalomaniac he was forced to be in the past and he may have saved his life but he wasn't about to trust him fully yet. He would just have to keep looking around for answers and if nothing comes from that then he would have to somehow convince Voldemort to let him go to Gringotts to find out. Speaking of information on his inheritance...
"Hey, I was wondering. When you got your inheritance when you turned sixteen how much magic did you receive from it?" Harry asked, wanting to hear from someone who had a large magical core how it happened for them because he had a big suspicion that the large amount of magic and sensitivity he got was for the most part his regular magic and not his creature magic. Everything he read said that normally people would get a relatively small amount, not to the extent that he did.
Voldemort looked up from his book and stared at him for a moment, confused before saying "I got about ΒΌ of what I already had. That's how it is for everyone. Why do you ask?"
Harry slumped in his seat a little. Even Voldemort had a normal inheritance. Why the hell was he different. "Well, lets just say that I got a bit more than twenty five percent. From what I read it wasn't normal and I was sort of hoping that it was only in relation to below, average and slightly above average wizards and witches but apparently not."
Voldemort sat up straighter at that pronouncement and put his book down, giving him his full attention. "How much more magic did you get?"
"Nearly double what I already had. I'm also a lot more sensitive to magic than I was before."
Voldemort's eyes widened slightly at that. "That should not be possible."
"Yeah I'm doing a lot of those lately aren't I?" Harry said half jokingly, half resignedly.
"Tell me what your inheritance was like." Voldemort demanded, ignoring Harry's previous comment.
"When the clock struck twelve I was hit with an extreme amount of pain. It was so bad that I had fallen on the floor and was screaming from it. It was honestly about as bad as the Cruciatus curse. While that was happening there was this sort of pressure that kept building in my chest. It just sort of built and built and expanded until it exploded and I was just flooded with magic all throughout my body. There was just so much of it and it was enough to drive away the agony I had been feeling and it was just sort of surrounding me and cocooning. I eventually passed out from exhaustion and woke up two days later not only a lot more powerful but completely healed. I had been beaten not a couple hours earlier because for the last few weeks before my inheritance my magic would randomly spike and would end up destroying something, I couldn't control it. It was worse than my accidental magic as a kid. Anyway when I went to the bathroom and looked in the mirror I noticed that my body was completely fixed. Before I was short, gaunt, scrawny, pale, I had aches and pains in some of my bones that hadn't healed right that I didn't notice, I was very unhealthy and now I look and feel as I would have if the abuse didn't happen." Harry watched as Voldemort grew angry at the mention of the abuse and what he was like before but he managed to control it this time as he took a calming breath. His brows knitted together in what looked like concern as he thought upon what he was told.
"This is actually very concerning. You should not have been in that much pain. Even most creature inheritances aren't that painful and whats even more concerning was the pressure in your chest and then the flood of magic. That is definitely not supposed to happen, unless..." Voldemort trailed off as the answer dawned on him. Then suddenly he got up and pulled his wand out, making Harry stiffen in response. Voldemort didn't even hesitate to cast a spell on him and once Harry realized that he wasn't going to do anything to him he relaxed. When Voldemort finished a sheet of paper shot out of his wand and he looked it over. As he read his face became a stone cold mask and as he once again tried to reign in his anger. He could only tell that he was angry because his magic became heavy and cold, something he had never felt before. He then wordlessly gave the paper to Harry. He hesitantly took the paper and read over the the results. His insides went cold and he became incredibly pale at what he saw.
Well? What do you think? Yes? No? Maybe? When I first thought of writing this story I was dead set on a Merman Harry. It has always been my wish sense I was little to become a mermaid and sense it wasn't possible in real life I wrote about it, but when I got to this chapter I was starting to question wither or not I should keep that part of the plot or should I change what he was. I then eventually said 'fuck it' and went ahead with it. What do you think is the results of the scan that Voldemort did? I would like to hear your theories. It may actually be easy to guess but I'm hoping it isn't :P. I'm also not sure if I'm getting Voldemort's character the way I want it. Its kinda difficult. Oh well, I'm working on it, so tell me how you guys think I'm doing so far. I am sorry for the slow story progression but as I continue to write it will get faster. I plan to have a lot of drama, action, and even some emotional parts. A lot is about to happen and I'm kinda exited. So follow, favorite and review and I should have the next chapter up a little sooner than this one.
