They arrived in the entrance hall of one of the many random manors that Voldemort owned. The dark wood paneling and gleaming surfaces with rich tapestries told Severus that the staff, be they house elves or something else, took great care of the place. He wasn't given a chance to look around properly since almost the moment they landed Voldemort was moving again, down a hall and up a short flight of stairs only to enter a large room. The room was covered in bookshelves and books but it wasn't their final destination as Voldemort paid it no mind only crossing the room to a niche that turned out to be yet another short hallway hidden by an illusion.

The hidden hallway ended at a heavy oaken door carved with vines, trees, and forest life that opened to Voldemort's touch and a short burst of magic. The sitting room behind the door was cozy and already had a roaring fire in the giant fireplace along with a tray of refreshments set out on the coffee table. The delicate silver tray and service sat on a heavy yet simple dark cherry wood coffee table in front of a burgundy sofa with matching wingback chairs to either side, all facing the fire place. Voldemort easily moved to the sofa with Harry still in his arms as Nagini finally slid down to the floor to curl up at his feet as Harry continued his exhausted nap in the other man's lap. Severus stood off to one side, uncertain as to what he was supposed to do.

"Sit, and tell me about our little menace. You say that your past impressions have been inaccurate, tell me of the discrepancies you've discovered," Voldemort ordered softly, indicating one of the wingback chairs.

"The largest one that has jumped out at me is that there are indications I somehow missed that he is or was abused," Severus admitted bluntly, knowing it was a sore subject for both of them even as he watched Voldemort immediately tense, unconsciously clutching Harry closer. "I had apparently deluded myself into thinking that his defensiveness was arrogance or was caused by his own recklessness which led to the various dangerous situations he has dealt with over the years. This was not the case. His position was confirmed when he verbally attacked his relatives shortly before the meeting, with liberal hints that littered his answers when he submitted to questioning under veritaserum, which he willingly submitted to at the time. He is highly protective of me and of those he considers his and has repeatedly promised me that I will not be a slave despite being submissive to him."

"Then placing the two of you in a separate room until you've become more comfortable with me is going to be out of the question," Voldemort rumbled thoughtfully. "It also explains why he fought the bond so much and that he had to feed from you before he was willing to take my blood. Starving himself like that was dangerous and utterly unnecessary and I expect you to help me keep him from trying it again. Hopefully we can teach him that he is worth all of the trouble that he causes since I very much doubt that he believes it himself. Perhaps he would be willing to help punish the people that hurt him?"

"The most violent I've seen him is when he's protecting someone else," Severus pointed out quietly. "He also admitted that the hat wanted him in Slytherin as well as that Black and the Weasleys officially adopted him recently. The adoption at least is likely the reason that he allowed them to bully him into taking the Veritaserum despite only being willing to let me administer it and literally sitting in my lap during the entire questioning. He seems completely oblivious to any injuries he incurs to his own body or mind as long as whoever he is protecting is safe or otherwise achieves his goal, such as during a Quidditch match."

"We'll have to do something about that," Voldemort muttered before shifting the subject. "You said something about his relatives? Tell me about what happened."

"They were waiting on the muggle side of the barrier for him and their reactions along with the resulting argument were abominable," Severus admitted. "The three of us were to shocked to do anything but watch as he made it clear that he's never returning to them again, that there are people who actually want him, and that their treatment of him was inexcusable. I have no doubt that had the discussion been held privately his uncle and cousin would have resorted to physical violence."

"Then Bella might just enjoy her new toys," Voldemort growled darkly, utterly furious at the treatment his mate had received.

Voldemort was distracted by the sound of a magical clock chiming the supper hour as their tea disappeared to be replaced by a groaningly full coffee table of food with a small stack of plates, three goblets, and sets of silverware. Grumbling a bit over the actions of the house elves he shifted Harry's sleeping form to lean against him before each older wizard took a set of dishes and served themselves. Absently brushing Harry's bangs away from his forehead and brushing the scar earned a mewl from Harry and a quiet gasping groan from Severus. Looking between his guests with interest Voldemort did it again and noticed them both squirming with quiet panting and mewls of pleasure. With an evil triumphant smirk he pressed firmly on Harry's scar and spiked his magic into the mark, enjoying the sound of both of them coming, leaving a wet spot on their pants.

"Oh, I am going to enjoy this," Voldemort said with evil relish as Severus slumped into his chair panting, accidentally dumping his plate to the floor next to his chair. An idle wave of his wand had the mess on both his mates and the floor cleaned up as Voldemort set his own plate carefully back on the small table before sinking back into the couch with Nagini snickering at his feet.

Harry, dragged into a half awake state by his climax groggily pushed himself up into a sitting position as he realized that he didn't recognize where they were. He gave a little yelp as he was dragged back into Voldemort's lap to be petted and cuddled, much to the green-eyed vampire's hidden pleasure. Twenty minutes later Severus had pulled himself together, retrieved and magically cleaned his dumped plate before serving himself some more food while making up Harry's plate. His hesitation as to what to do with it had Voldemort silently demanding the smaller wizard's plate before, with an evil grin, he started to hand feed the annoyed vampire.

"I'm not a baby!" Harry protested between bites, not really trying to get away or even struggle in his mate's grip.

"No, you're my submissive mate and I will feed you if I feel like it," Voldemort countered with an evil chuckle, already plotting how to use what he had discovered within the last several hours.

"He's dominant to me," Severus pointed out softly, his cheeks bright red at what had just happened as he took a bite of his food. Voldemort gave a low laugh of amusement as he realized he'd gotten two lovers in one fell swoop that would enjoy him being in charge in the bedroom but were stubborn enough not to be complete doormats. Perfect.

"So the lighting bolts mark where my soul pieces are and they can be used to cause either pleasure or pain," Voldemort said thoughtfully before glancing at Harry to check why he was refusing the latest bite of food which turned out to be some cooked carrots.

"His transformation changed some of his dietary needs and he can only stomach certain foods in small quantities or with special preparation," Severus offered, realizing what had happened. "I'm afraid that carrots are a bit difficult for him to consume. If he's already eaten two small bites of them that's his limit for the day, no matter how much he enjoys the crunch of them when they are fresh. We discovered the hard way that consuming too much of certain plant types makes him very ill. Though almost everything in the diet of a Phoenix is in his as well, which I put down to a combination of his breaking reality routinely and the Phoenix tears in his blood. He also, predictably considering his vampiric state, can eat very rare meat and has a fondness for anything heavy in iron."

"Ah, that makes sense. Can he eat potatoes?" Voldemort asked, considering what else was on either of their plates that he might feed his little mate.

"I'm right here," Harry said grumpily. "And yes. Which is weird since I went from mild dislike to loving them provided they're mashed or fried in some way. They also don't have a lot of iron. Can't have anything with pumpkin, or any kind of squash in it. I can have just about any meat or seafood. Its mostly plants I have problems with. We're still finding more that I can and can't eat but some of my reactions were... scary."

"I'll keep that in mind," Voldemort said solemnly before feeding him a piece of meat dripping with juices that had Harry moaning in delight. Severus, feeling left out, focused on his own food until Harry resurfaced from his perfectly seasoned rare cut of beef and noticed the signs of his withdrawal.

"Not again. Severus, how many times do I have to tell you I'm not getting rid of you? That I'm not going to mistreat you?!" Harry growled, carefully sliding out of Voldemort's lap to stalk over to his anchor and glare at him.

"You've found your mate, I understand," Severus said, hiding behind a curtain of his hair as he played with his food. Voldemort put their plates aside as a precaution while he watched them interact.

"Clearly you don't," Voldemort said calmly, cutting off Harry's furious reply as he stood up and gracefully moved behind the potions master, making the dour man tense as he forced himself not to track him with eyes and body.

"I would be obliged if you would elaborate, my lord," Severus asked almost plaintively as he tightly shut his eyes, dreading what he might see or what might happen to his heart if he opened them. A dark chuckle from far to close to his left ear had him opening his eyes in surprise almost the exact moment that Voldemort's hand landed on his left forearm and the horcrux underneath his skin. Pleasurable lighting danced along his arm as the Dark Lord flexed his magic, dragging a groan out of Severus.

"You should have trusted our little vampire, now we get to punish you for your lack of faith," Voldemort told them both before banishing Severus' plate to the overfull coffee table and drawing both of them reluctantly along with him into another room, which turned out to be his bedroom. "Lets see, Severus needs to be punished for thinking once I'd found you I would simply toss him aside and Harry needs to be punished for practically starving himself before our meeting. I think trapping you on the bed for the night like little children will be enough for the moment. As our relationship grows the punishments and rewards will change."

Harry finally stopped fighting with himself as he watched Voldemort cast the spells that would keep them on the bed and allowed himself to sink to his knees. He refused to allow himself to sit at Voldemort's feet but did permit himself the luxury of pulling Severus down next to him to cuddle with. Voldemort, noting this, decided he didn't like them on the floor as if they were groveling. He bent down and scooped Harry up with a squeak from the smaller male before dumping him onto the oversized canopy bed only to turn around and pull Severus over to the bed and dump him upon it as well.

"Mine," Voldemort said smugly as he watched them untangle themselves from each other, trapped on the bed and subsequently unable to fall off the bed by accident. Nagini laughed from where she had settled near the fireplace in her perfectly positioned and protected warm bed.

"What about desert?" Harry asked plaintively after successfully untangling himself from a shocked and slightly disgruntled Severus.

"I don't want to over tax your system and you already drank eight or nine mouthfuls of blood tonight but if you're still hungry I can ask one of the elves to bring you both a bowl of broth and a cup of hot chocolate," Voldemort offered, still smug over his victory of getting them in to his bed and keeping them there, at least for the night.

"He ate more than half a plate of real food, while he has been eating actual food it was still more than I've seen him eat in times past even before the transformation," Severus pointed out, earning a frown of concern from Voldemort.

"Yes, I remember what he said before about being used to not getting enough," Voldemort said disapprovingly. "Its something that someone is going to get punished over."

"Please don't," Harry protested, looking more than a little alarmed.

"We can discuss it more in the morning," Voldemort said firmly. "We've all had a long day and need to rest. We can have the difficult discussion over who harmed you and what to do about them in the morning. Make no mistake they will be punished just as you will be punished if you did not seek help or put yourself needlessly at risk."

"I..." Harry stuttered, looking lost even as Severus pulled him backwards into a protective, comforting hug.

"Let us take care of you, let us listen and help you," Severus suggested, his rich baritone sending a shiver of delight down Harry's spine even as it coaxed Voldemort closer so that he climbed into the bed and wrapped both of them in another layer of warmth and comfort.

Harry broke down as his entire life poured from his lips while he clung to his mates, this last offer of longed for comfort finally being too much after such a stressful day. By the time he was done his tale and sleeping in their arms, completely emotionally exhausted both men were trying to keep their fury and protectiveness in check. Cuddling the small vampire close they slid under the blankets to the virulent hissing of dire threats by an enraged Nagini as they focused on taking care of the smallest of them.

"His life has been worse than mine yet he still opens himself up in an effort to do better and protect those close to him," Severus said in wonder, cuddling close to Voldemort even as he was firmly wrapped around Harry.

"One of the many reasons that I'm keeping both of you," Voldemort agreed tiredly. "I will find some way of repaying his relatives for their lack of concern and this Umbridge woman for torturing my mate, once I find wherever the Aurors have stashed her. Dumbledore's negligence has shaped all three of us and he will eventually pay for it but for the moment he is out of reach. Though I would pay dearly to see the look on his face when he discovers that he is forever banished from our beloved Hogwarts. He has miss used the school as his main base of operations for too long and put the children at risk."

"Do you wish me to leave?" Severus asked hesitantly, worried that he would be not only sent away but sent back to spy once more with all of the risks involved.

"I couldn't even if I wanted to. Harry is far to attached to you for all that he hasn't taken you. If the two of you had been intimate it might be more understandable but our little menace has forged a bond with you that is only barely short of how strong our own bond will grow. Rejecting you now would be rejecting him and I am not willing to once more go searching for a wife, it was a nightmare before and it would be a nightmare again," Voldemort said amusement dancing in his voice and relaxed mirth dancing in his ruby eyes as he gripped the obsidian eyed male even more tightly, drawing him further into the bundle of cuddling they had formed. "No, my dear Severus I'm afraid that you're stuck with two possessive lovers who will fight viciously to keep you. Even if you hadn't been a Damphyr we're far to attached to you to let you go now."

Severus breathed a sigh of relief and greatfully snuggled back into Voldemort's grip, glad he hadn't gotten far and that his insecurities hadn't ruined it for him. Less than an hour later Morpheus drew the remaining occupants of the room into his realm of dreams and fanciful possibilities.