General Disclaimer and Warnings, please see chapter 1.

Hearing the Dark Lord's order at Malfoy to heal him enough for interrogation, Harry decided to give up his pretence of sleeping. He opened his eyes, blinking a few times to clear his sight and slowly pushed himself up on one arm, wincing and hissing from the sharp pain in his ribs, back and shoulders as he moved his torso up until he carefully half sat, half leaned against Nagini's coils.

He quickly glanced around to orientate himself in the room. He and Nagini lay on a nice red and blue rug with medallions and finely executed floral motif right in the middle of a square room, lit brightly by a dozen hovering candles overhead. The walls were lined with cabinets, bookshelves, wand panels, and decorated with several maps.

Two closed wooden doors in different walls, one besides a fireplace, so the other door led presumably out into a hallway. One mullioned window in the wall opposite, but he couldn't run and escape that way – not that he dreamed of doing that in his current condition – because it was right next to a desk. Behind that desk sat obviously Voldemort, clad in dark blue robes, and two men equally clad in dark wizard robes were standing next to Harry and the snake, in front of the desk.

He felt dizzy, the room seemed to sway and tilt around him, so he closed his eyes again, and concentrated on breathing steadily. Nagini hissed soothingly next to his head. {Hello sssneaky raven, what'sss wrong with you? Don't be afraid, massster will help you sssoon.}

Harry didn't answer, he wasn't sure yet whether it was a good or bad idea to reveal that he understood her. But he wanted to show that he was friendly, grateful and not aggressive, so he slowly stretched out his right hand and gingerly caressed her skin a few times, just as if he would pet a cat, a dog or a Hippogriff, it didn't matter. He didn't really think about the possible danger or how odd this would look to his rescuers or kidnappers or whatever they were.

Nagini eyed the boy's movements and the progress of the hand warily; ready to strike and nip him with her fangs should he try to pinch or hit her, only to be pleasantly surprised when she felt the gentle touch turning into stroking and petting. {Yesss, that feelsss good! Fine ssnakeling, sssuch a polite boy,} Nagini commented.

Harry blinked and peeked at her, not able to suppress a happy smile. He felt the same thrill he had felt in Magical Creatures class, when he won the trust of a dangerous beast like Buckbeak and was able to pet him for the first time, while nobody else dared to go near them.

The three wizards had noticed Potter stirring and turned to look at him, puzzled. Malfoy and Avery exchanged a disbelieving stare, their eyes widening, eyebrows identically arched upwards. Only their many years of pure-blood training stopped their jaws from hitting the floor.

Voldemort heard and understood Nagini's hissing, but wasn't sure if he had heard correctly - again. He scrutinized Potter who had finally woken up, only to blink in astonishment as he noted his demeanour. Potter didn't scream or jump up in a panic, trying to scramble away from the snake and the wizards in the room like any normal captive would do, instead he leaned his head and shoulder against Nagini's twice curled body as if she was a sofa cushion, reached out a hand and - he was truly petting her!

The same thought showed upon the men's faces: Harry Potter was stroking Lord Voldemort's perilous, poisonous familiar as if she was a cute kitten and the snake obviously liked his attention. Another unexpected development. When would that boy stop being so, so weird, so unpredictable? Why wasn't he showing fear of the snake or the situation he woke up to?

Harry noticed the absolute stillness in the room. Nobody was talking, so he carefully opened his eyes completely and peered up at the three men. Noticing their gobsmacked stares, he tried to supress a smirk, but his lips quirked upwards a bit. He kept quiet; he didn't want to say anything if it wasn't absolutely necessary while his throat hurt so much, and so he lowered his gaze again at Nagini's head.

Watching her sway back and forth in pleasure, he continued to stroke her glittering scales, mesmerized by the intricate diamond shaped pattern and the sensation of touching a living snake. This was his first time doing that after all. He had only seen and spoken to that giant boa at the Zoo a few years ago, not touched it like this, and the fight to the death with the King of Serpents at the end of second year had been a terrifying, violent encounter.

Lucius shook himself out of his stupor and stepped closer to Potter, drawing his wand. The boy looked doubtfully up at him through his wild, dark fringe, quickly glancing towards the Dark Lord and back to Lucius' face, ceasing the petting of the snake. Wincing he pushed himself a bit more upwards into a freely sitting position with his legs crossed, then stayed still, calmly poised, waiting, his hands on his knees and his eyes fixed on Lucius right hand holding his wand. He didn't act at all like one would expect the young Gryffindor or any other Light side prisoner of war to act like.

"Potter? I'm going to examine you now. Do you understand?" asked Lucius.

The boy nodded once; ashamed of his condition he stared down as if the floral pattern of the fine rug was the most interesting thing on the world.

Malfoy pointed his wand at Potter to cast the diagnostic spell meant to ascertain the overall health and state of injuries on the young man to determine how to best fix the worst damage.

Unexpectedly Voldemort interrupted him, rising swiftly from his seat and calling out, "Stop, wait Lucius!"

Malfoy looked puzzled to the left at his master, holding his wand at the ready. Potter raised his head and also regarded Voldemort with a surprised, worried and curious expression.

"Did you or Garrick cast anything at Potter before now? Any kind of magic, like a Stunner, or maybe levitate him?" queried Voldemort, twirling his own wand agitatedly in his long, thin fingers.

"No. No we didn't master," replied Malfoy perplexed, wondering what this was about and looking over to Avery for confirmation, who made a short gesture of denial.

"So you brought that boy here, into your manor, into my presence, without scanning him or his clothes for tracking or eavesdropping charms or some kind of listening device?" Voldemort asked scathingly. "What if there is something on Potter that records not only magic cast by, but magic cast at him and transmits that information? Or a Portkey?"