Disclaimer: I own nothing in the Harry Potter universe.

"dialogue"
"mental dialogue"
"parsel"
"mental parsel"

AN: Thanks to everyone who reviewed, faved and followed! I intended to post this last night, but there was a small incident involving a mouse and it's very much unintentional and sudden capture. A word of warning. Mice can jump surprisingly high.
On another note, I've been tossing around the idea of a Nagini and Nimsey adventure as a one shot. However, I won't start writing it until I've gotten the next chapter of ODT out. So seeing as there is time before I start on it, if you have any ideas or prompts for the duo's escapades send me a pm.

Harry found himself once again sitting in Tom's office. He wasn't really sure why he was even here today. They hadn't planned on meeting and he didn't have any new ideas to run past the man. Tom was busy going over reports from the most recent raid, one Harry had not participated in, and he was engrossed in his task.

Harry had been bored though. Grimmauld place had felt oppressive in its musty silence and his thoughts had kept drifting to places better left alone. He had just needed to get out for awhile and he had automatically come to Tom's manor. So here he was occupying himself by practicing his animagus form while Tom sat at his desk working. It wasn't unpleasant and that thought in itself was mildly alarming. He had realized some time ago, to his utter shock, that he actually considered the man a friend.

His thoughts wandered. The date for their 'final battle' was rapidly approaching. They had planned it for early August. The timing was delicate. They needed enough time to discredit Scrimgeour before the fall session of the Wizengamot, but they also needed his defeat of the Dark Lord to still be fresh on everyone's minds so that they seriously considered his opinion for the next minister. The fall session was at the end of September coinciding with the autumn equinox as per tradition.

They would have a little under two months to rile the public over the ministries ineptitude in the face of Voldemort and it's inherent corruption. It wasn't much time especially considering Tom would be a virtual unknown in the political arena. He would be taking up the mantel of Lord Guant which, despite the reputation of more recent generations, was a name that still carried some clout in their world and would be recognized. As the Guants were known descendants of Slytherin, Tom would claim his absence was due to laying low to avoid the attention of the Dark Lord. That would also serve as his motivation to back Harry in opposition of Voldemort.

Additionally, a handful of his followers were in the position to vouch for him without drawing the wrong kind of scrutiny. They were from typically neutral families and while not as affluent or respected as say the Malfoy's they would be enough to provide validation. Some pretty words from Tom about new beginnings and Harry's ringing endorsements would also go a long way to ensure their victory.

Lucius was already discreetly working the pureblood circuits, putting forth the suggestion for a vote of no confidence if the minister didn't willingly step down. He might be a fugitive, but he was still influential. They had also been gathering evidence against the current minister regarding his abuse of power and mismanagement of government resources. Harry was planning a trip to have a chat with a certain bug to ensure that the press remained on their side. In short Scrimgeour's days as minister were numbered.

Harry sighed at the looming prospect of all the work they were facing. He tried to shift his thoughts back to the present and peered down at his feathered arm critically. It might have been horribly dangerous, but he couldn't deny that he had been making great progress with his animagus form since he had forced it a few weeks ago. Having experienced the full transformation had given him valuable insight into the process. He hoped to have it down before the battle as a backup escape method. Just in case.

After the fiasco where he had been captured, Tom had decided he wasn't allowed out on raids anymore. Harry had laughed at this declaration with no shortage of 'I told you sos'. Tom had not been amused and had silenced him again. Harry had just laughed harder in response despite the silencing.

Instead of raids Tom had upped their training and had even enlisted Snape to help on occasion. Harry was of the opinion that the pair of them took far too much delight out of making him suffer during their practice sessions. He couldn't deny the results though. He had improved greatly and would be able to put up an impressive show for the spectators at the very least. He was unspeakably glad that he wasn't going up against Tom in a fair fight. The man still swept the floor with him whenever they sparred.

Everything was coming together which brought him to one more thing he needed to handle soon.

"Hey Tom?"

Tom made an absent noise in response. Harry glanced over and realized the man was completely focused on whatever he was doing. Harry smirked. Well if the man was going to zone out with Harry in the room then that was his own fault.

Harry started silently conjuring a multitude of Gryffindor colored small rubber balls. When he had a reasonably sized pile of several dozen, he levitated them up in the air. Then he carefully maneuvered them to right above Tom's head, taking care to keep them out of the other's peripheral vision. He let them fall.

The resulting scene Harry was sure he would treasure forever. Tom let out an undignified squawk and jumped up from his seat wand brandished. He shot off a banishing charm at the first sign of movement. This only served to send many of the red and gold bouncy balls zooming all around the room. They collided with others in a chain reaction of mayhem. They were flying everywhere and Tom stood in the middle looking utterly dumbfounded as he was pelted with the small projectiles.

That was all Harry could handle. He cracked up laughing which immediately snapped Tom's attention to him. The man gave an impressive glare that was completely wasted as Harry was having trouble breathing he was laughing so hard.

Tom waved his arm in an arc and vanished all the bouncy balls. Then he returned his glare to Harry and in a low tone filled with irritation, "What is it that you want Potter?"

Harry tried to answer, but all he managed were a few incomprehensible wheezes. He clutched at his sides and focused on breathing so he could calm down enough to talk.

Tom saw this and sighed resignedly, "Is it not enough that your very presence incites chaos? Do you really need to deliberately create more?"

Still chuckling Harry finally managed to respond, "You should have seen your face. That was bloody brilliant."

Tom scowled and leveled unimpressed number six on him. Then in a supremely dry voice, "Was there something you needed or do I need to find something to occupy your time more productively? You are more than welcome to go try and uncover whatever it is Nimsey and Nagini are conspiring. I am growing increasingly concerned that if left unchecked they will try something."

He stared at a wall that Harry knew was in the direction of the kitchen's and mused aloud, "More worrying still is the chance that they might succeed."

Harry followed his gaze and suppressed a small shudder. He had also noticed the pair together on more than one occasion. He couldn't help but agree with the man that it was slightly disconcerting how well they got along. He hoped that Tom never discovered that it was him who had initiated that particular friendship. Tom could get surprisingly creative when he wanted to and Harry would rather avoid his retribution.

He blinked and forcefully pulled his mind back to his earlier thoughts, "Err no. That's all right. I did have something I needed to ask you, but you were completely out of it. That you didn't notice a small hoard of bouncy balls hovering over you is hardly my fault."

He responded to Tom's unamused glare with an innocent smile of his own. Judging by the other's expression, Tom didn't buy his act. Harry felt slightly smug. Tom was generally hyperaware. This wasn't the first time he had tried to prank the man, but it was one of the rare few that had succeeded.

He forcibly sobered and continued, "I need to meet with the Weasleys. The twins have waited quite awhile regarding Lucius, but they want an explanation. I also need to make sure I get to Ginny before she sees you. She would recognize you instantly and we can't afford her saying anything. Other's might be willing to believe you are only a relative, but she would know better. They also need to know not to interfere when I show up to fight you."

He rubbed his face tiredly, "There are other things I need to discuss with them beyond the present situation, but they need to be done in person. I can't just send off a coded letter and call it a good job. Which brings me to my question. How should I go about meeting with them without alerting the order? Considering the fuss Moody has been putting up since our last encounter, I wouldn't put it past him to be keeping an eye on the family in case I might try and contact them."

Tom hummed thoughtfully, "Why not reserve a room at Gringotts? It would hardly be out of the ordinary if the family got together for a trip to the alley and made a stop by the bank. You could simply show up well ahead of them."

Harry furrowed his brow in confusion, "You can do that?"

Tom gave him the 'you are an idiot look', "It is a bank Potter. They have conference rooms for when clients need to meet to negotiate deals and business investments with each other. You mentioned before that you helped fund that joke store. Use that as a pretense if you must."

Harry let out a small groan of agitation, "It's always the little things. No matter how much I learn about the wizarding world, it's things like this that give away that I didn't grow up here. Everybody always assumes that I'm the Boy-Who-Lived and a Potter and thus I just know everything. People always forget that I was raised in the muggle world and didn't even know I was a wizard until I received my Hogwarts letter. It's both convenient and unendingly vexing."

Tom raised an eyebrow at his outburst, "This is hardly a practice that is exclusive to the wizarding world Potter. It is a common practice in the muggle world as well."

Harry just shot him a glare, "Well it isn't as though I ever had money in the muggle world. Or dealt with business investments. I would never have had any need for such a thing. Besides there is nothing you can say that will convince me you don't run into the same problem. Even after all these years."

Tom looked like he was going to protest, but his expression shifted and he slowly nodded, "It is highly infrequent, but on occasion I do run into something that I would have known had I grown up immersed in wizarding culture. However, when I was in school, people initially believed me to be a muggleborn so I ran into assumptions of a different sort. Needless to say I made it a point to remedy the situation."

Harry snorted, "How much of that remedy was learning the customs and how much was intimidating your classmates so badly they wouldn't dare say otherwise?"

Tom just smiled smugly and refused to answer. Harry shook his head at the man. Tom might have charmed the rest of the student body and faculty, but he was under no delusions that Tom had controlled the Slytherin house with warm smiles and sweets. The whole talking to snakes thing probably hadn't hurt either.

He liberated a quill and parchment from Tom's desk and started drafting a letter to the goblins. He was lucky that they hadn't gone through their original plan of trying to rob the bank or this would probably not be possible. Assuming the goblins hadn't simply mounted their heads on pikes somewhere for trying. The books in the Black library on Pureblood family lines, specifically on the heads of house duties and privileges, had clued them into an alternate, perfectly legal way to get the cup out of Bellatrix's vault. Of course it had required him to take up his lordships for both House Potter and House Black, but for a price the goblins had kept that information to themselves.

He finished his letter and pulled out a WWW order form to notify the twins and by proxy the rest of the Weasleys. He was not at all ready for this conversation, but he couldn't put it off any longer. He just hoped that at the end of everything they wouldn't turn on him. Bad enough he had taken away a family member on the run for over two years, but he was now aligning himself with the Dark Lord of all people. Worst of all was the event of six months ago and well... He wouldn't blame them if they wanted nothing more to do with him.

"Do you have an owl I could borrow?"

Tom didn't look up from where he had gone back to his work. He simply summoned Nimsey as answer.

A pop announced her arrival, "What can Nimsey be doing for Master and Mister Harry?"

Harry felt his eyes widen. Nimsey was wearing Nagini on her head like some kind of scaly turban. As far as he could tell the snake was asleep. He opened his mouth to comment and closed it again. His mind had blanked and he didn't even know how to begin addressing this. He stared at the sight and tapped the desk in front of Tom without looking away from Nimsey.

The man gave him a disgruntled glare, but upon find Harry's attention elsewhere he followed his line of sight. Tom froze. No help would be forthcoming from the Dark Lord then. Silence stretched between them while Nimsey continued to look attentive and perfectly at ease like nothing at all was strange with the situation.

Finally Harry managed to weakly ask, "Nimsey, could you send out these letters for me? One goes to Gringotts and the other to Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes in Diagon."

Her face lit up and she managed to nod enthusiastically without dislodging the sleeping snake. She took the letters from Harry.

"Nimsey will be mailing these right away Mister Harry sir!"

Then she popped out leaving two stunned wizards in her wake staring at the empty space she had recently occupied.

"Tom..."

"Don't say a word Potter."

"But Tom, your house elf and your familiar.."

"No potter. Not. A. Word. Nothing happened."

Harry shot the man a slightly incredulous look, "Denying this isn't going to make it go away or stop Tom."

The man leaned back in his chair and stared at the ceiling pleadingly. Harry was starting to wonder if maybe Tom was somewhat religious. Did dark lords have a patron god they prayed to?

"It might not make it go away, but it will not be directly my problem if I do not know. I will also maintain plausible deniability for anything they do. Aside from that, dealing with your special brand of chaos and the incompetence of most of my death eaters is more than enough already. I refuse to delve any further into the madness that is..." He waved his hand noncommittally, "those two's newfound friendship."

Tom's disgusted emphasis on that last word reminded Harry of something. He opened his mokeskin pouch and started rummaging through it before pulling out his target triumphantly. He plopped it right down on Tom's desk. He made it a point to put it right in the middle of his paperwork. Harry was slightly curious how many interruptions the man would tolerate before he finally snapped and did something to stop him.

Tom gave him a nasty look for his efforts before picking up the offending object. He turned it over in his hands inspecting it. Harry felt a small bit of smugness when he saw red eyes glint with concealed interest.

While it was just a small decoration for an office or a home, it was beautiful. It was an exquisitely crafted crystal orb that had a stunning likeness of an engraved serpent on it's face. The snake was animated and slid along the face of the sphere in elegant and mesmerizing patterns. It could comfortably fit in a person's palm. It also held enchantments.

"What is this Potter?"

"I found it when I was going through some of the things in the Black vaults. It belonged to the great-great grandson of Salazar Slytherin according to the portraits. I believe it is enchanted, but you will have to figure out what it does yourself. I determined it wasn't harmful, but never took the time to explore it further. You can keep it. I brought it with me to give to you."

Tom gave him an odd look. Harry had a few guesses as to what was going through the man's mind. He doubted Tom got a lot of gifts without an agenda attached.

"Why are you giving me this Potter?"

Harry shrugged, "It seemed like something you might like and I know you value things from your ancestors. When I found it and was told who it once belonged to, I immediately thought of giving it to you. To be perfectly honest it never really occurred to me to keep it."

Tom's expression remained unreadable as he spoke, "So you just give away valuable family heirlooms on a whim Potter?"

Now the man was just being stubborn. Harry thought a moment and decided how he could put an end to this line of questioning. If there was one way to sidetrack Tom it was to imply he had feelings.

"Not on a whim and technically they are heirlooms to your family, not mine. I don't just go around handing out artifacts like the muggles hand out Halloween candy, but if I see something I know a friend would like, I like to get it for them if I can. I have no use for that and I knew you would appreciate it much more."

Predictably, Tom's eyes narrowed, "I am not your friend Potter."

Harry didn't even bother with a pretense. He just raised his hand and started ticking off fingers as he talked, "We spend a lot of our free time together. You let me call you Tom. I just pranked you and instead of threatening crucios you only got mildly irritated. We have inside jokes. Don't even bother to pretend that it wasn't you who changed Snape's robes to fuchsia during our last practice duel. We are plotting to quietly take over and revolutionize Wizarding Britain."

He gave the man a flat, pointed stare and deadpanned, "Yes Tom, we are merely business allies and former mortal enemies. However did I make such a mistake? Silly me."

Harry quickly stood up to head off any protests from the other, "Anyway it's getting late so I should be going."

He wasn't going to give Tom the opportunity to start on about how he was above friendship or some such rot. The idea was out there now. It was probably best to leave the man alone with his thoughts after hitting him with such a topic. It was also truthfully getting late so he started towards the door.

As he was leaving he left a parting remark for the dark lord to stew over, "Just keep the bauble Tom. If nothing else, then consider it a congratulatory gift for successfully putting up with me these past few months."

With that said he exited the room and headed for the apparition point. He had a meeting with a family of red heads to prepare for.

Severus entered the Dark Lord's study to give his weekly report on the status of preparations at Hogwarts and the movements of the Order. The Dark Lord was obviously working on something and the man indicated with a gesture of his hand that he would be with him when he was finished.

Severus sat in the chair across the desk to wait. He noted Potter's absence, a sight that was becoming increasingly rare as the weeks progressed. The boy always seemed to be around for one reason or another.

He had recently spent far more time in the company of a Potter than he had ever cared to. However. Severus could admit that the boy was not entirely what he expected. He was not, in truth, very much like his father. Although his propensity for getting into trouble and the childish pranks he indulged in posed a passing resemblance, the pranks were small things and harmless. He never even came close to the line of bullying that his father and the mutt so regularly surpassed.

Severus could more readily admit that Potter was also not very much like his mother. She had been a carefree spirit, full of curiosity and enamored with the world of magic despite the flaws that presented themselves due to her muggleborn status. She never quite lost that wonder that was stamped out of so many muggleborns that tried to embrace their world only to be cruelty rejected. She was outgoing, passionate and too stubborn for her own good.

Potter did not share that idealism or outgoing nature his mother had held. He had a curious streak, but it lacked the whimsy. In place of wonder, he held a deep respect for magic itself. What had truly shaken his views on the boy though, we're his insights into their society.

Severus had been given a copy of the proposal and had initially assumed that most or all of the work had come from Granger. When he first opened it to that instruction sheet explaining the enchanted muggle folder, he believed he was going to be reading through another one of her crusades. He had been incorrect.

He could spot Granger's influence, especially in the sections regarding creature rights, but the majority had not quite meshed with what he knew of the girl. She tended to regurgitate everything she read and based many of her opinions on the standards of the muggle world. It was the main reason that the purebloods had so openly snubbed her as opposed to simply ignoring her like they did most muggleborn. The proposal was not what he had come to expect from her and so he had concluded that it was not her who had lead the project.

After he had reached this conclusion, he had not known who had been the driving force behind the reform. He had then assumed the trio had somehow acquired outside help. That was until he had spent time around Potter and the Dark Lord as they worked together. It was as if he had walked into some alternate world. Potter was insightful. Potter was informed and intelligent. Potter had reasonable and well thought out arguments and understood every aspect of the proposal in it's minutiae.

Severus' realization that Potter had been the cohesive voice behind the plan had brought him to a mental standstill. It had taken him a bottle of scotch and a day of being holed up in his quarters reviewing everything he had thought he knew about the boy before he came to the harsh truth. Potter was not his parents and never had been.

He still didn't much care for the dunderhead, the brat was far too unpredictable and reckless, but he could work with him. Potter's rapport with the Dark Lord somehow served the duel purpose of keeping the man's temper in check and providing something of a moral compass so the man didn't resort to the extremes he had in the previous war. The Dark Lord in turn was capable of dealing with the brat's mood swings. Potter could go from joking to serious so quickly one could get whiplash.

The Dark Lord stopped writing and set his quill down. He looked up at Severus and settled back in his chair.

"What news do you bring me Severus?"

"There is not much to report my Lord. Minerva has already taken care of our requests for the battle in two weeks time. She has also been asking around for any recommendations for a history professor. She reasons that while many of our planned changes will have to wait another year, there is no reason to continue subjecting the students to Binns."

"She also has a request for you in particular. She wants you to remove the curse on the defense position. I should mentioned that the particular wording of that request was quite colorful and held more than a few threats should you refuse. I have to say I support her in this matter. I have no wish to continue dealing with the carousel of imbeciles that typically take up the post."

A flash of irritation crossed the Dark Lord's face. Severus worried that he might have overstepped with his candor. He was quickly disproved of that notion however.

"Yes. I am already well aware of the frustrations my little slight against Dumbledore has caused. Potter spent a good twenty minutes ranting about the class and some of the so called teachers that were hired to fill the position. I will remove it during my next visit to the castle."

The Dark Lord paused, appearing to be thinking over the matter, "Which reminds me Severus, it was brought to my attention that you would appreciate being involved in the disappearance of one Deloras Umbridge?"

Severus raised his brow at that, "I would certainly lose no sleep should she suffer a most unfortunate accident. May I ask what brought this on? Why her specifically?"

"Potter was especially vehement when discussing her tenure at Hogwarts. To such an extent that I went to Lucius for a fuller picture on her character and influence within the ministry. While on the surface she might appear to largely support our goals, her staunch stance against creatures, not too mention her personal grudge against the boy, leave me no doubt that she would only prove a hinderance. She doesn't seem to be a person to quietly step aside either which leaves me only the option of removing her through more permanent means."

Severus could not argue with that. Umbridge was a vile woman and was still one of the most hated professors at Hogwarts. Many of the older students remembered her time amongst them and some still bore the scars as proof.

"So you mean to kill her then?"

"Perhaps." A sinister smirk stole over the man's face, "However Potter had some fascinating suggestions that did not involve her death. They ranged from the more benign, such as turning her into a pink toad and leaving her alone in a swamp, to the more malicious of having Fenrir bite her and forcing her to suffer out the rest of her existence as the very thing she despises most. He apparently has no love lost for the women."

Severus could not fully hide his surprise at that. Potter might not have been as he believed, but it was still out of character for him to be so cruelly vindictive. It seemed that even Saint Potter had his limits. That Potter was willing to work past his issues with the Dark Lord who had killed his parents and attempted to kill him numerous times, but would not even grant this women the mercy of an easy death was telling. He must truly and utterly loathe Umbridge.

Another part of Severus' mind wondered if the Dark Lord was aware of just how much weight he was giving to Potter's opinions. Even when the boy wasn't physically present his influence was plain to see. It was odd to see the man working with another person instead of ordering them around. In the earlier days he had been more open to suggestion, but the final decision was always and only the Dark Lord's. He had never compromised to accommodate another person like he was willing to do with Potter. Then again it was possibly because Potter was the only one suicidal enough to argue with the man over anything.

The Dark Lord idly picked up something off his desk and started toying with it. Severus could only tell that it was small and round. Ruby eyes focused once more on Severus, "What of the Order?"

Severus scoffed at the thought of the Order, "As ineffective as ever. Moody has been on a rampage ever since Potter's disappearing act. Half the order is trying to draw out what it was that Potter had been talking about that Moody had reacted so strongly to. The other half are convinced that he's under imperious or some other form of control as they cannot understand why Potter would refuse to work with and help them defeat you. They all blame Moody for not keeping a closer eye on their precious 'chosen one'."

"Neither group have suggested doing anything of their own volition. Now that Potter has shown his face again they immediately reverted to expecting him to pull out another miracle and ultimately save them all. They seem to believe they are nothing more than moral support and shouldn't have to confront you personally. At most they expect to continue stalling the death eaters and breaking up raids."

Severus did not bother to mask his disgust as he spoke on, "Excepting the Weasley family and a few of the older members, most of the newer recruits apparently joined out of desperation and fear. They were hoping that themselves and their families would be protected by joining and worked only to those ends. Now that the true savior has resurfaced they are no longer so willing to risk themselves when there is somebody they can hide behind. No matter that most have never even spoken to Potter or laid eyes on him until his capture."

That elicited a dry chuckle from the other, "Perhaps Potter should have stayed in their company longer. Ten minutes with the boy when he wasn't drugged up on truth serum would have likely been enough to dash those hopes. His irreverence alone would have left most of them askance."

Aristocratic features donned a thoughtful expression. Severus watched as the other placed the object in his hand on the desk between them.

With a gesture of his hand he enquired, "What do you make of this Severus? It was recently gifted to me. Allegedly it was originally owned by the great-great grandson of Salazar himself. I have determined that it holds enchantments to prevent most basic and some more complicated eavesdropping spells from being cast within its vicinity."

Severus carefully picked up the object to inspect it closer. He made a sound of appreciation as he watched the serpent idly trace a path across the crystal's surface, "It is a fine gift my Lord. Even if its origins were to prove false, the practical aspect more than makes up for it. It is also a stunning piece of art."

He placed the orb back on the table. He wondered why the Dark Lord would mention such a thing to him. The man would boast about his power or intellect, but he wasn't one to flaunt his wealth and possessions. He seemed to hold little value of material possessions which implied Severus was being shown this for some other reason.

It seemed his questions were to remain unanswered however. The other man simply took the orb back with a muttered 'Indeed' of agreement and said nothing more on the subject.

"If that is all you have to report Severus then you may leave. I have no new orders for you at present and will alert you should I need your assistance with the Umbridge woman. You may inform McGonagall of my intentions regarding the curse on the defense position."

The man returned to staring ponderously at the crystal sphere and Severus took the dismissal and left to return to the school.