Chapter X
All Hallow's Eve
Harry's mind reeled. He wasn't sure what he found more shocking: Morgan, the friend he'd had for the past five years, performing the Killing Curse so easily it was almost like second nature or Voldemort, the feared Dark Lord, actually showing the emotion of love which he wasn't supposed to know anything about. Harry supposed that Morgan being able to use that curse so easily might be heredity or something she picked up when Voldemort's diary has possessed her; Voldemort sure used it easily enough.
On the other hand, perhaps Voldemort showing love wasn't such a strange thing afterall. Harry only ever saw Voldemort when they battled; his impression of Voldemort had come straight from Dumbledore. But if Voldemort really was the heartless man Dmbledore had made him out to be, why had Voldemort gotten married? He supposed Voldemort could have forced the woman into it, but given the fact that her jewelry and clothes were still present didn't that mean that Voldemort still loved her? Why would he keep the jewelry and clothing otherwise? Plus there were tons of clothing and the jewelry was obviously expensive. Why would he buy expensive things for someone whom he cared nothing for? And Voldemort certainly cared for Morgan, whatever her real name was. He had been elated in his own way to discover she was alive and he had certainly shown just moments ago that he truly cared for her as well. And he himself had told Harry that she was "someone so precious". No doubt he was proud of her; she had just pulled off a sucessful Killing Curse on her first try.
Morgan seemed a bit unsteady on her feet, perhaps from the large use of magic, so Voldemort led her to the chair behind the desk and sat her down. He shot Harry a look that clearly said 'watch her and don't let her wander off' before vanishing down the corridor without another word. Morgan watched him go and the moment he was out of sight, she began to look at everything on the desk and open the books up. Harry sighed and walked over: typical Morgan. She almost died yet again and less than two minutes after being "saved" she was back to digging through anything and everything she could. Some things never changed.
Morgan flipped through the open books on the desk. When she realized none were in english, she tossed them to the side and started on the drawers. Morgan tried the drawers, much like Harry had earlier. When the top drawer didn't open, she frowned, then pulled out her wand and muttered something. Harry was about to tell her it was best not to do that, feels the blisters pulse on his hand still, when the drawer suddenly clicked open. Morgan opened it fully immediatly. Inside were mostly quills and blank parchment, but underneath it all Harry spotted something silver and reached over to pull it out. Morgan grabbed it from his hand before Harry even got a good look at it and, grumbling, he walked to stand behind Morgan to see.
It was another wizard photograph. Voldemort was clearly present in center of the picture looking exactly the same as he currently did. Besides him, the woman from the picture Harry had noticed earlier stood, smiling softly. She was wearing the same jewelry and the same pretty green dress. There was no tense atmosphere between Voldemort and the woman, in fact it clearly showed that the two were in love. Morgan looked at her and the tears welled up in the corners of here eyes.
"Mum..." she mumbled softly.
Morgan's finger stoked her hair in the photograph and then her finger moved downward, only to immedialty fly off of the photo and cover her mouth as she stifled a sob. Harry blinked confused and looked back at the picture. He immedialty understood, for sitting upon the lap of the picture Voldemort was a small child with dark hair, bright green eyes, and a green bracelet around her wrist. The baby moved slightly in the photo, looking up at Voldemort and grabbing at his robes. One hand was held tightly in Voldemort's own and whenever the little baby looked up, he would smile - really smile. Morgan just stared at the photo, trying to hold back her tears, and Harry realized that this was probably the first picture Morgan had ever seen of her real family, probably the first time she had EVER seen her family. He remembered the choked up feeling he had gotten when Hagrid had given him the photo album filled with pictures of his parents and himself as a child (and how jealous Morgan had been), so he could understand how Morgan must be feeling. She hadn't been able to see them in the mirror as he had seen his family, even though it was her greatest desire, and since then he knew she'd been longing to. Harry placed and hand on her shoulder and Morgan looked up at him and then smiled. Finally, after what seemed like hours, Morgan put the picture away and shut the drawer, wiping her eyes off on her sleeve.
"So, where are we?" Morgan asked, and then her voice became more urgent as if she just remebered what had happened back at the Ministry. "What happened? I think I rememeber You-Know-Who finding us, but nothing more. How did we escape?"
"We didn't escape. We got captured." Harry told her, trying to keep her calm.
Which didn't work at all. Morgan stood up and withdrew the missing wand. "Well, why are still here?Why aren't we escaping? I mean this is You-Know-Who's hideout, right? We should get away before he comes!" Morgan grabbed the quil from the desk and some paper and Harry knew she was about to launch into an "attack-plan planning session".
Harry sighed; this was going to be difficult. "No, Morgan, no. We're not going to be hurt here."
Morgan seemed stunned by this "Harry, did you hit your head? You-Know-Who's trying to kill you-"
"No, he's not trying to kill me anymore." Harry interupted. "Put that away, take a seat, and let me explain everything."
Morgan looked unsure, but did as Harry asked anyway, sitting back down on the chair and returning the wand to her pocket; she pushed the quill aside. Harry grabbed a nearby chair and pulled it over then sat across from Morgan and started to explain. He started back at the Minsitry when he had been caught and how he'd reached Morgan. He explained the encounter in the office and what happened when he woke up. He told Morgan everything that had happened since the arrived at the manor: the exploration, the discovery, the chase, the recovery, the intrrogation, and the binding spell revelation. He left out the part about her realtionship with Voldemort and that it was Voldemort whom has just left moments ago. By the time Harry finished, Morgan was in tears again and she flung her arms around him to hold him close.
"Oh Harry..." was all Morgan could choke out.
"It's no so bad" Harry told her, trying to calm her. "At least there'll be no one trying to kill me anymore."
Morgan sat up and dried her eyes off. "Dumbledore might, if he finds out you don't want to kill You-Know-Who anymore."
"I didn't think about that..." Harry muttered.
Just what was he going to do about Dumbledore. No doubt, he was still expected to try and kill Voldemort; he was sure Dumbledore wouldn't just say 'Ok, no problem' if he told him he didn't want to anymore.
"You could pretend!" Morgan shouted suddenly and Harry looked up at her. "You could pretend to still want to kill You-Know-Who, but secretly be spying on him for You-Know-Who: Dumbledore would never suspect you of it! ThenYou-Know-Who can kill Dumbledore and you'd be safe!"
Harry nodded. "I think Voldemort's thinking the same thing; he said he'd have to teach me Occulemy."
Morgan smiled. "With that Dumbledore woudln't be able to read your mind and see that you're really working for You-Know-Who!"
"Or learn that you're really his daughter." He added, and immedialty regretted it.
Morgan's face blanched drastically. Her green eyes moved towards the door where he had vanished not too long ago. "So he was..." Morgan's voice trailed off.
Harry nodded, mentally berating himself for letting her know in this was. It wasn't his best moment.
"So, I really can speak Parseltongue? It's not just a mistake from the diary?" Morgan asked, her voice anxious.
Harry nodded. "Yes..." He wasn't sure what Morgan was getting at.
"I'm realted to Slytherin! I'm a snake-speaker!" Morgan stood up and started to jump about. "Holy crap, I'm probably loaded! I can afford nice new clothes and books!"
Harry gaped at her...typical Morgan!
"I'm not a reject!" Morgan stopped bouncing. "And that means my name isn't Morgan!...And I'm a Princess!"
"A princess?" Harry asked, staring at her.
"What else do you call the Dark Lord's daughter but a Princess!" Morgan explained. She put her nose up in the air and used a haughtly voice. "Bow to me, lowly commoner! I am the Dark Princess!" She told Harry, trying hard to keep her face straight.
"Of course, my Princess" Harry told her and bowed.
This proved to be too much for either of them and both Morgan and Harry started laughing hysterically. They laughed and laughed and laughed until Harry was holding his sides in mild pain and Morgan was red in the face.
"You never fail to make me laugh." Harry told her smiling and Morgan grinned back. "I'm glad you're back."
"You think he'd let me get a snake?"
"Voldemort?" Harry asked. "Yeah, definatly. He's got a giant one!"
"I remeber you telling me that! I want one too! And I wanna see his! Is it here?"
"Probably could buy one in Knockturn Alley. When we go shopping for school supplies in the summer, we could make a side trip." Harry told her. "If we're allowed that is; I really don't see Voldemort letting us go shopping alone or him tagging along - he kinda sticks out."
Morgan looked upset for a moment, then brightened. "Well, we'll just have to 'get lost' then!"
Harry stared at her, the started laughting again. "What's so funny!" Morgan demanded.
"I was just thinking of what would be funnier: the look on Voldemort's face when the Death Eater who will be watching us comes back to him and tells him he 'lost' his precious daughter OR Voldemort trying to displine you when we get back afterwards and you start explaining it was all your idea."
Morgan considered it for a moment, then joined in the laughter. "Both would be hillarious! But I can top that!"
Morgan grabbed Harry's hand and pulled. "Come with me! I found something so funny earlier! Knowing that he won't kill us for this, I feel safe showing you!"
Harry allowed Morgan to bring him back into the bedroom where he'd awoken and into the non-dusty closet filled with Voldemort's robes. Morgan instructed him to sit on a small trunk, which Harry pulled over, and then vanished into the clothing rows. Harry heard some shufffling behind the rows.
"Presenting!" Morgan began in a loud annoucner-esque voice "The great, the mighty, the powerful Lord Voldemort!"
And Morgan jumped out from behind the rack...wearing a too-big bubblegum pink robe.
Harry blinked and started at the robe, noticing it was a man's robe...and then imagined Voldemort wearing it...and prompty lauchned into hysterics. Morgan started making 'tough man' poses, which only made her look even sillier in the bright pink robe. Harry laughed so hard that his eyes welled up with tears and he fell backwards off of the trunk and landed on the floor with a thud, too busy laughing to even care if it hurt. After everything that had happened, it felt good just to laugh with Morgan again. Harry stuggled to open his eyes through tears and came face to toe with a pair of black boots. Harry looked up and immediatly stopped laughing: Voldemort didn't look too happy. Morgan still had the robe on, but had stopped her poses.
"Pink?" Morgan asked, raising an eyebrow. "Is this the latest color in Dark Lord trends or is there someone else you'd like to tell us?" Harry snorted; Morgan sounded like a mother questioning her child about his/her sexual orientation. It almost prompted him to launch into hysterics again.
There was a slightly twitch of Voldemort's lips as if he almost smiled, but it was gone in a flash leaving Harry to wonder if he'd just imagined it. Voldemort sighed under his breath and shook his head slightly. Without a word, he stepped over Harry, who quickly got up and straightened his glasses, and walked over to Morgan. The wand swished through the air once and the pink robe was back on the rack. He took Morgan's hand in his and then pulled slightly, indicating her to follow him. Voldemort exited the closet with Morgan following close behind. Harry scampered after them. Harry momentarily wondered where they were going but when Voldemort headed down the corrdior instead of back into the office, Harry knew.
Voldemort led Morgan into the right room, which had been cleaned and now looked like it was brand new. Morgan's eyes widened drastically as she looked around in awe. She looked at Voldemort and then pointed towards the room and then back at herself, silently asking 'Is this mine?'. When Voldemort nodded, she smiled brightly and took some tentative steps into the room, examining everything. Harry knew what Morgan was feeling; he had personally seen her room in the house where she had lived and it was tiny. Besides being tiny, it was also barren; almost all of Morgan's posessions had been hand-me-downs or junk. To go from nothing to an extravagent room like this must be beyone words.
Morgan had stopped before the vanity and was now closly examining something. It appeared to have some writing since Morgan was mouthing something.
"Va...la...?" Morgan sounded out, straining to read some faded writing, and fumbling a bit over the pronunciation.
"Vala, pronounced 'VAH-lah' which is derived from the dark elven name of 'Valara', which means princess." Voldemort supplied automatically. He paused and then added "Your mother suggested it along with a few others and I chose this one."
Harry saw her eyes widen at this and she turned to face Voldemort. "My real name?" she asked and once more Voldemort nodded.
"Vala...well, it sure beats Morgan." She commented, smiling."But I suppose I can only really use it here, at least until the summer. I can't go back to school and say my name is Vala without alerting Dumbledore that something's up, can I?"
"You will have to remain Morgan while in school...and when out in public until you graduate." Voldemort told her. "Or until Dumbledore is killed." He added with a malicious smirk.
Vala shrugged. "I've waited for this long; another year or so won't be so bad."
A mischevious smirk crossed her face and then suddenly Vala ran over towards Harry and Voldemort. She jumped and threw her arms around Voldemort, surronding him in a huge hug. Voldemort stagged back a few steps and seemed taken aback by the gesture; it took him a few moments before he put his arms around Vala and returned the gesture. Harry watched in silence and awe. Voldemort looked like he'd never been hugged before but Harry guessed it was more like fourteen or so years since he'd last been hugged.
Harry couldn't see Voldemort being a 'touchy, feely' person much less a 'normal' person, but he supposed that it was mostly because he only saw Voldemort on the battlefield. Seeing that Voldemort had taken the time to personally clean Vala's room himself (Harry was sure that Voldemort had at least a few house elves who could have done it) made him sure that there was a side of Voldemort he had never seen before, a side that probably only a few people had even seen.
When Vala finally relinquished her hold on Voldemort, Harry could see that her eyes were practically sparkling and that she was probably on cloud 9. Voldemort, finally able to breathe normally again, took the moment to remove Vala's bracelet, fom where it still resided on his own wrist, and return it to Vala's. Harry saw that her birthmark had reappeared as well. Vala smiled even wider and hugged Voldemort again. From where he was standing, Harry thought that it looked like being hugged two times in a row was too much for Voldemort to handle; the Dark Lord pulled himself free from Vala's grip the second the thought ocurred to Harry. Vala's smile wavered, but Voldemort smiled back and gently ruffled her hair, causing the smile to return. Then Voldemort turned and left the room without another sound; Vala watched until he vanished from sight.
"He really does care..." Vala mused, her voice dreamy.
"He can't show it that well yet, though." Harry responded. "Thirteen years as a ghost...if that didn't kill it, it must have burried it down way deep."
"He'll get used to it - I'm gonna hug him twice a day from now on!" Vala told Harry, stifiling a yawn.
Harry noticed. "You should get some rest; you've been unconcious, but that doesn't give your body any rest. You do need to sleep."
Vala smiled. "Yeah, I guess so. I guess I'll go to bed...but I need a shower first. There's no way I'm going to bed in these torn clothes...or covered in dirt and blood."
"Well, there's probably new clothes for you here seeing as the closet's stuffed full of em." Harry mentioned, poiting at the closet.
Vala walked past him and opened the door, only to be floored at the sheer volume of clothing. She practically shreeked in joy. Harry watched as she spent a few minutes looking at all of them before locating the nightclothes and choosing a green one made of silk with silver lace. Harry guessed, seeing as the clothes were Morgan's size, that Voldemort had also done something to them when he was fixing the room. Vala tossed the nightgown on the bed, then went back into the closet. A quick search of it proved not to have whatever Vala was looking for and she walked past Harry to try the dresser. Vala began pulling random drawers until she finally opened a drawer with undergarments; Harry averted his eyes (he was sure Voldemrt would love to hear his reason behind watching Vala pick out underwear).He heard something else join the nightgown on the bed before Vala shut the drawer. Vala picked up the items from the bed and headed into the attached bathroom.
"I'll be out in a bit" she told Harry before closing and locking the door behind her.
Harry was unsure of what to do. He wasn't tired enough to sleep, he had had a nap earlier, and he didn't want to go wandering around again. He settled for waiting for Vala to be done, in the meantime he randomly chose a book from the bookcase and sat himself down on the corner of Vala's bed. As he sat, he heard Vala turn on the shower in the bathroom. To Harry's suprise, the silver covered book he'd chosen turned out to be a photo album filled with wizard photos. The first page held a large picture of an incredibly adorbale sleeping baby Vala, who moved slightly as she slept. Harry had to resist the strong urge to go 'awww'. He flipped the page.
The entire album contained pictures of young Vala; most contained other people as well, but all the photos featured Vala. Harry ntoiced that Voldemort was almost always present in the photos with Vala, standing nearby or holding the baby Vala in his arms. Vala seemed to prefer his arms over her mother's, who was left standing besides the pair, looking happy nonetheless. There was only a year's worth of photos of Vala and Voldemort, well almost a year's worth. Harry noticed as he flipped on that Voldemort was suprisingly absent from Vala's first birthday. This Harry found curious enough to remove the photo from the album to see the date written on the back. What in the world was so important that Voldemort had missing his obviously beloved daughter's first birthday? Harry glanced at the cursvie writing on the back, which was definatly not Voldemort's, and choked.
October 31st - All Hallow's Eve. The day that he and Voldemort became bound together for all of eternity was also Vala's birthday. Harry gulped; he had no doubt that Voldemort would tell Vala when her real birthday was and want to celebrate it on that day (when they could), but Harry wasn't sure he could be happy and celebrate with Vala knowing it was the same day his parents had died. Thinking of them brought Harry's mind back to the matter at hand: just what would they say to him, knowing he had all but joined Voldemort?
He imagined that his father would be furious...and that his mother would be slightly dissapointed, but understand. He imagined that neither of them would want him to die as Dumbledore intended him to do and that both of them would be proud of him for being his own man, making his own decisions.
Harry flipped through the remaining pages. The photos of Vala and her mother continued for another year before suddenly stopping just after Vala's 2nd birthday. Harry assumed this was when Vala's mother had been either captured or killed. Although he was curious, it wasn't something he was going to bring up around Voldemort. He had no doubt that Vala would ask herself and he knew that Voldemort would answer her truthfully without any sort of torture whatsoever; which wouldn't be the case for himself.