Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, nor am I making any profit from writing this. It's actually pulling me away from the non-fanfiction writing that I'm supposed to be doing, so take that for what it is.
Author's Note: Things are going to start getting a bit violent in this chapter. (And as there is a war going on in this story, the violence will be here for a while.) Just a warning that you might not like Tom that much at the end of the chapter. Or you might like him more. But whatever. Here's to a happy holiday and an even happier New Year's Eve.
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Chapter 11: Vier II
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They reappeared in the hallway of Tom's Manor almost instantly.
A small, frightened house elf popped in front of Tom as the older man pulled off his traveling cloak and set it on a nearby table. "Master's snake is eating other house elves, Master," it said piteously, wringing it's small green hands together. "Mixie is telling the rest of them to hide, but Master's snake keeps finding them."
Tom smirked slightly. "Then they had best find a better hiding place," he said coolly.
The house elf, Mixie apparently, whimpered but disappeared with a loud pop.
"Your snake really eats house elves?" Harry asked.
"Only when they have the misfortune of getting in her way when I have told them countless times that they will serve as food for her if they catch her attention," Tom said almost nonchalantly. He glanced down at Aviva. "Your basilisk is more than welcome to join Nagini in the hunt, if she so desires," he added.
Harry glanced down at Aviva, who flickered her tongue in and out, tasting the air where the house elf had been standing just seconds ago. He looked back up at Tom. "Where were you planning on having our conversation?" he asked.
"There's something of a sunroom on the second floor, and I will have the house elves deliver lunch to us there," Tom said. "Unless you'd prefer something else?"
Harry shook his head, offering the Dark Lord a weak smile. "I suppose this is something that I ought to be dreading," he said.
Tom smirked. "Not at all. You have done nothing to provoke me, and while this conversation will bring up some things that neither of us are going to be too keen on talking about, there is nothing for you to be afraid of," he said. "Follow me."
...
Once they arrived in the sunroom, Tom summoned a house elf and delivered to it his instructions for lunch while Harry took in the room.
The "something of a sunroom" was as big as the entire main floor of Serpicos, and Cain's office in the back room. There were a number of plants and trees throughout the room, reminding Harry of a greenhouse, and the entire far wall was constructed of glass, displaying the picturesque country outside of Tom's Manor. There was even a stream threading throughout the room, and it ended in a rather large pond against the glass wall.
"This place is fantastic," Harry murmured, looking around.
"I constructed it with Nagini in mind," Tom said, walking over to Harry and putting his hand on the small of the younger man's back. "But it is easily my favorite room in the Manor," he said.
Harry nodded a bit, glancing up at the ceiling. It had been charmed to mimic the weather outside, and at the moment, a bright sun shone down in the room while a number of clouds danced across the ceiling-sky. "Brilliant," he whispered.
Tom smiled slightly, though the smile didn't quite reach his eyes. "That came about as inspiration from my school days," he said. "Hogwarts has a similar enchantment in the main dining hall, but it has been years since I have returned there."
"You went to Hogwarts?" Harry asked, looking over at Tom.
"About half a century ago, but yes," he said. "Why do you ask?"
"When I was eleven, Cain kept burning the letters that invited me to attend school there," he said.
Tom chuckled. "That was wise of him," he said quietly, leading Harry toward the glass wall.
Near the shore of the pond, underneath the shade of a large tree, were two brown leather armchairs and a small, narrow table between them. A house elf popped in and put a bottle of nettle wine and two glasses on the table before disappearing.
"Why was it wise of him?" Harry asked as they approached the chairs.
"The years I went to school there and the times prior were well done, but the current headmaster is slowly running the school into the ground," Tom said. "And the ones who suffer -"
"Are the students," Harry interjected.
Tom nodded.
"Who's the headmaster?" he asked, watching as Aviva slid off of him and made her way toward the pond to bask in the sunlight.
Tom watched the basilisk settle on the shore of the pond. "There are animals in that pond that may consider her to be prey," he said.
"Then those animals will pay for that mistake by being her lunch," Harry said, watching Aviva for a moment longer before turning back to Tom. "Who's the current headmaster?" he asked.
"You had the misfortune of meeting him the other day. Albus Dumbledore."
"The man that attacked Tobias teaches children?" Harry asked as he and Tom made themselves comfortable in the chairs.
"Supposedly," Tom muttered darkly, pouring a glass of wine for both Harry and himself.
Harry grinned. "I wonder if he knew that Tobias tutored me," he said.
"It would not surprise me," Tom said. "I'm even willing to wager that the old man has been trying his best to keep you under some sort of surveillance."
"Why?"
"Because attacking you was what sent me into limbo, and he knows that. So he remains under the assumption that you are the one to save the Wizarding World from me," he said. "Though at the moment you seem less inclined to turn a wand against me than he would like."
Harry shrugged. "There's no use attacking you when you still have knowledge that I find useful," he said. "And besides, you'd kill me before I did any lasting damage."
Tom chuckled, taking a sip of his wine. "That is an odd perspective for someone as young as yourself," he said, watching the young man for a long moment.
Harry shifted uncomfortably under the perusal. "Did you have questions that you wanted me to answer?" he asked.
Tom nodded. "I do, but there is still time before we address those," he said.
A comfortable silence settled between the two of them as they took in the scenery and sipped their wine. With only the sounds of the stream in the room, it was easy enough for Harry to drop his guard almost completely.
About five minutes of amiable silence settled in before a door opened and Nagini moved quickly into the room, chasing three terrified house elves. She had almost caught one when she took note of Aviva lounging on the shore of her pond and stopped. She looked over at Tom and then at Harry.
"I trust you brought the child back without his chaperone for a reason," she hissed, moving up to Tom.
He said nothing, choosing instead to rest his hand on her head for a brief moment. Harry turned his attention over to the group of house elves, who were huddled together underneath a tree, watching Nagini with abject horror. He then looked over at Aviva, who was flicking her tongue rapidly in and out in the direction of the house elves. Needless to say, the last thing he expected to hear from Tom was the hissed dialect of Parseltongue.
"Why do you insist on chasing them?" he asked Nagini. "You are forever complaining about their taste once you've caught and devoured one of them."
"That doesn't make the hunt any less enthralling," she hissed before looking over at Harry. "The little one may join me in the hunt, as long as her blindness does not slow me down or get in my way," she added. "It is good to see you again, boy-child. I trust you have fared well."
Harry hesitated a moment before nodding. "Well enough," he hissed quietly.
"Child!" Aviva hissed angrily, moving back over to Harry. She wrapped herself around his chest and bared her fangs at him before continuing to scold him. "I told you not to speak around the Lord or the royal serpent unless I told you it was safe!"
Harry closed his eyes and bit back a groan. "My apologies," he said.
Aviva hissed out a string of curses that he hadn't known that she'd known, and butted her head against his chin. She loosened herself from his chest and turned her head toward Nagini. "If your invitation to the hunt is still open, I would be honored to join you. My child seems to have lost his mind at the moment," she hissed before leaving the room with the much larger snake, joining Nagini in hunting the house elves.
Harry glared at the ground, not sure what to do. Aviva had never been so irritated with him that she'd left the room, and he wasn't sure he was looking forward to her behavior once she returned. If she returned at all, he thought sullenly.
A painfully tight grip on his chin distracted him as his face was jerked up so that he met Tom's angry red glare. "You have been keeping secrets, boy," he hissed coldly.
Harry's gaze hardened and he said nothing.
The grip on his chin tightened, and for a moment Harry was afraid that Tom was going to break his jaw. "You lied directly to my face," he said, his tone still glacially cold.
"It won't be the only time," Harry snapped. He jerked his chin out of Tom's hold and crawled over the back of the chair to put some distance between himself and the Dark Lord. "I won't spill all my secrets to near strangers, be they Dark Lords or not," he growled.
Tom smirked dangerously. "I can fix that," he snapped, setting his glass onto the side table and stepping around the chair.
Harry deliberately took a step back, reaching his hands out behind him to make sure that he didn't back himself against a tree. "Get the hell away from me," he growled, his voice sounding suddenly deeper and rougher.
"This is a dangerous game you're playing, boy," Tom growled. He raised his hand and almost casually tossed a wandless curse in Harry's direction.
The younger man ducked, and the curse splintered a tree not too far behind him. He lowered his body to get ready to run and glanced toward the door.
Tom seemed to anticipate Harry's line of thought, and he deliberately moved to place himself directly between the younger man and his current plan of escape from the room. "This disrespect is not something that I cared to see from you this afternoon," he said coldly, taking in Harry's every move.
Harry glared. "You would prefer that I save it for a later date?" he asked, his voice little more than a feral snarl. His eyes flashed amber. "How about the day that I officially claim a side in the war? Or when you finalize whatever you need for immortality?" His eyes flashed amber again as he quickly searched the room for another escape route.
Tom said nothing. He took a step toward Harry and winked at the younger man, smirking coldly when the he fell to the ground, writhing in pain. "You are making this unnecessarily difficult," he said coldly as he approached Harry.
When Tom stood directly over him, Harry glared at him through amber eyes before closing them. He bit back the screams threatening to pour out as the agony increased. It felt like hot barbed wire was being dragged through every vein in his body, and there were painful spikes digging into his skin wherever it made contact with the ground.
Tom's anger seemed to seep away the longer the younger man was writhing and whimpering in pain. Internally, he was impressed with the way Harry was able to swallow the screams that normally tore out of the throats of those subjected to this particular curse. He noticed the young man biting down on his tongue and he knelt down so that he was sitting next to Harry.
Just as he bit down on his tongue to suppress another scream, Harry opened his eyes and glared at Tom. He reached up the hand that was not grabbing for purchase on the ground and dug his fingers into Tom's closest leg as hard as he could.
Tom showed no reaction as Harry drew blood from his leg. Instead, he caressed the younger man's face almost lovingly. "Would you like me to lift the curse?" he asked quietly.
Harry groaned and nodded, clenching his eyes shut as Tom silently increased the intensity of the curse.
The older male smirked. "Then scream for me."
Harry dug his fingers deeper into Tom's leg, and the older man winced slightly, but showed no other reaction that he was in pain. Harry's fingernails scraped against the bone, and Tom increased the intensity of the curse yet again, his eyes narrowing into thin red slits. "One scream and I will lift the curse."
It took only seconds before an agonized scream ripped from Harry's mouth as he continued to writhe in agony.
Tom waited a long moment, listening to the screams from the young man before lifting the curse. The young man slumped against the ground, unconscious from the pain, and Tom carefully pried Harry's fingers out of his leg. He healed the wound and did a quick medical scan on the younger man. He wasn't seriously injured, though his body and magic would need some time to recuperate from the curse.
He picked Harry up, carrying him as a husband would his new bride, and left the room, heading up a private flight of stairs.
The young man had an incredible tolerance for pain, Tom mused as he made his way up the stairs. The defiance was delicious, and he very much doubted that the boy would be anything less than a challenge. For a moment, the Dark Lord smirked, thinking that the Fates had not done either of them too much of an inconvenience. Harry was clearly powerful, and while he lacked the sort of experience that Tom had gained by his age, all he needed was a bit of training before he was ready to take his place beside the Dark Lord.
He would have to deal with a few small matters when the young man woke up, though. The first being that Harry would confront him about what he conceived to be a broken promise, and Tom would have to have a word with the basilisk.
He nudged open a door to a private suite and carefully set Harry on the queen bed next to the window.
There was no response from the young man, and were it not for the slight rise and fall of Harry's chest, he might be inclined to think the boy dead.
"Mixie," Tom called quietly as he spelled the curtains of the room shut so as not to disturb the sleeping inhabitant.
The house elf popped up in front of him immediately. She looked around the room and her ears slumped a bit when she noticed Harry on the bed. "Is Mixie needing to be digging another grave?" she asked. "Mixie isn't wanting to put the boy in a grave."
"He is not dead," Tom said, mildly irritated. "Make sure that no one but you or I come into this room until the boy is awake, and I want to be alerted the moment he wakes up."
Mixie nodded. "Mixie will be going to tell the others to not be coming in," she said before popping away.
Tom looked back down at Harry. The young man was nearly glowing with power as his magic set about easing whatever pain he was in, and it was all Tom could do to stop himself from prodding the boy's magic with some of his own.
He scowled slightly at the urge - he hadn't felt the interest in testing another's magic in years, and he refused to revert back to habits from his days at Hogwarts. With one last glance at Harry, he turned and left the room, shutting the door quietly behind himself.