Thanks to kmoaton for betaing! Enjoy!


"Why a snake?"

Lord Voldemort glanced up from his plans to look at the teen with a raised brow. Heinrich shrugged. He knew his question was random, especially after hours of silence, but he had been wondering about it for a few days. After staring at the heading of countless documents, it was only natural that the question would pop up.

"Why did you choose a snake as your symbol?" Heinrich questioned. "I can sort of understand the skull but the snake…"

"It is the symbol of Slytherin house in Hogwarts," Lord Voldemort remarked. "It originated with Salazar Slytherin himself." His tone informed the teen that Heinrich should have already known that answer.

"But why did Slytherin choose a snake?" Heinrich pushed. "What were the reasons behind any of the founders' choices?"

"I cannot say nor do I have any interest in the other three founders' reasoning but Salazar Slytherin chose a snake because he was a parselmouth, a gift that was rare both then and now."

"Parselmouth?" Heinrich questioned.

"He could speak to snakes," Lord Voldemort explained, irritation flashing in his red eyes at all of the sudden questions. "Just like I am able to. I am a direct descendent of Salazar Slytherin and inherited the ability."

Heinrich wondered if he should inform the man that he could hear Nagini's whisperings sometimes as the large snake passed through the halls of Malfoy Manor. Did that mean he was a parselmouth too?

Deciding to keep his silence, Heinrich turned back to the documents he was reading, idly noting that this had been one of the few conversations with the Dark Lord where he hadn't been hexed or cursed. Such conversations weren't common but recently they seemed to be increasing in number. Was that a sign that the Dark Lord was becoming more accustomed to his presence?

He would just continue to test the newly forged grounds between the two.


A few days later, Heinrich worked up the courage to ask another question that had been on his mind. It was the first opportunity he had had, since the Dark Lord had been in a horrible mood since their last conversation.

"This war has been going on for a while, even if you don't count the roughly thirteen years of relative peace."

"What's your point," the Dark Lord growled, pushing away his papers and glaring at the boy. His anger was further incensed when he realized that the teen didn't flinch or quiver under his glare. He would have to fix that but not now.

"It's a rather long time," Heinrich pointed out. "What's kept you motivated for long? I can only imagine that hatred lasts so long."

"You know nothing of hatred," the Dark Lord sneered. "Hatred has consumed many a person's life, not letting them rest until they get revenge or they die in their quest."

"Fair enough," Heinrich said. "But that doesn't seem to be the case for you. So what keeps you motivated?"

"You wouldn't understand," Lord Voldemort hissed. "You couldn't even begin to understand."

"I'd like to try," Heinrich said, surprising the Dark Lord as well as himself with his honesty. "I'll be by your side for a long time hopefully and I'd like to try."

The Dark Lord surged to his feet, a curse at the tip of his wand. Heinrich's green eyes blinked at him, absent of any type of fear. The lack of fear made Lord Voldemort hesitate on fully releasing his curse on the boy.

Without a word, the Dark Lord stormed out of the study. Heinrich watched him go silently and briefly relieved, only letting out a muffled cry when he was surprised by a cutting curse aimed at his torso. He turned his body slightly to the side to deflect the most damaging part of the curse. His arm would bleed a lot less than his chest and stomach.

Lord Voldemort didn't summon Heinrich for his lessons the next day. The teen wondered if he had crossed the line but he could only assume that he hadn't completely crossed it seeing as he was still alive.

The Dark Lord didn't know what he was doing anymore. He wanted to storm the boy's room and curse him until he was an inch away from death for daring to ask such a personal question. He barely fought the urge to cast the Cruciatus curse over and over on the boy until he was lying on the ground, chest heaving, unable to breathe. He needed to see those green eyes widen in fear and pain, black pupils dilated, needed to make the teen bite his lips in order to hold back his screams until he no longer could, leaving his throat raw and his lips swollen and bleeding.

Just imagining the sight made him hum in pleasure. It was only when he realized just how much pleasure the picture created did Lord Voldemort turn his thoughts to something else.

The next day Heinrich returned to his lessons. Neither he nor Lord Voldemort said a word about what had happened two days before. To Heinrich it seemed like the Dark Lord had plans to ignore and forget that that afternoon had even existed. It would be just like Heinrich had never said anything.

It was how he had hoped the situation would go. However, the Dark Lord's eyes never seemed to leave his face.

At first Heinrich could ignore the red eyes watching his every move but it was nearly impossible not to forget about it after nearly two hours had passed. Heinrich had tried to keep himself busy to ignore the sensation of being watched but as the two hour mark passed, he could no longer just ignore it.

"What is it?" he demanded. "What do you want?"

A yell tore from the teen's throat as his body was tossed from the chair. He felt the familiar fire of the Cruciatus curse tear through his veins. When the pain faded, Heinrich noted the blood dripping down his cheek. He had bashed his head on the desk when he had tumbled from his chair.

Voldemort looked at the boy on the ground and hissed in rage when he still saw no fear in the boy's eyes. When had things changed? When had the boy stopped fearing him? Even the respectful fear had been better than this absence of fear.

"I would normally kill someone for talking to me in that way," he informed the boy coldly.

"I know," Heinrich murmured.

"I could kill you."

"You would have every right."

The Dark Lord growled and kicked over a chair. Even with the threat of death looming above the boy's head, there was still no flash of fear.

"Why aren't you afraid?" he demanded. Heinrich gave a small cough as he tried to sit up. He was knocked flat by the Dark Lord's foot and coughed again.

"I don't know," the teen stated. "Maybe I realized that there was no point in watching my words or being afraid. You could kill me at any time and there would be nothing I could do. No matter where I would run to try and escape death, you would be able to find me and kill me. You marked me for life after all."

A scream tore from the boy's throat as he was placed under the Cruciatus curse again but much to the Dark Lord's fury, there was still no glimpse of fear.

"Such insolence," he hissed.

"Apologies, my lord," Heinrich gasped. The Dark Lord stared down at the boy before turning on his heel and walking away. The sight was too appealing and he didn't' want to lose control. He had already lost enough control as it was. Heinrich watched him go from the corner of his eye. Only when he was sure that the man was gone did he sit up.

"Libby?" he croaked. The house elf appeared in the room. She took one look at him before disappearing again. Libby returned within seconds, carrying a glass of water and a few cloths.

"Young sir is being injured," she noted.

"The Dark Lord doesn't often appreciate my need for conversation," Heinrich remarked dryly, taking the glass of water from the house elf. The coolness felt marvelous as it slid down his parched throat.

"The Dark Lord is not often meeting people like young sir," Libby explained. "He is not knowing how to react."

"He wants me to be afraid of him, like everyone else," Heinrich told her. The house elf's eyes widened.

"Young sir is not being afraid of the Dark Lord?" she asked in a whisper. Heinrich stared at the water in the glass.

"I should be," he said. "But for some reason I'm not anymore."

"The Dark Lord will not be liking that," Libby remarked. Heinrich gave her a bitter smile before draining the glass of water.

"No, he isn't," he said. "But he has to learn to deal with it or kill me. I don't think he has many other options."


Heinrich stared at the snow on the ground in faint disgust. It was snowing for the fourth day in a row and it looked like it would be turning into a blizzard. There was no doubt about it. It would definitely be a white Christmas and he would be trapped inside the manor with nowhere else to go.

He hadn't minded it, the first few months. However, once it started snowing, the cabin fever had set in. Now Heinrich grew more and more restless with every day he remained at the manor.

He wished that he could go somewhere else, if only for a few hours. Heinrich would love it if he were able to go back to the pack and see his mother. They had exchanged a few letters with Libby's help but he wanted to see her face and actually talk to her. He wouldn't to be sure that she was safe and unharmed.

One mistake. That would be all it would take. If Heinrich did something that severely angered the Dark Lord or if Fenrir Greyback got it into his head that the boy was shaming him and the pack, Saskia would be dead within minutes.

'She didn't deserve it'. Heinrich sighed as he continued to brood.

"Too drafty," he heard a hiss. "One would think that with all the work that was put into this place, they would do a better job at insulating the walls and heating the floor."

Heinrich stepped away from the doorway, getting out of Nagini's path. The large snake had grown more irritable over the past few weeks, ever since the cold weather had started setting in.

The green-eyed teen had long grown accustomed to hearing Nagini's hissing, though he had yet to mention to Lord Voldemort that he could understand her mutterings. However, every time he heard her, he couldn't help but wonder. Was he a parselmouth like Salazar Slytherin and Lord Voldemort? That would mean that he was a direct descendent of the Slytherin line most likely and that didn't set well with him. He came from a family of werewolves. A snake didn't seem to fit him.

Nagini spotted Heinrich and hissed, raising her head. Her dark round eyes met green human ones.

"A strange one," she remarked before continuing her journey to find someplace warmer. Heinrich held back a small smile. He supposed he was strange. As he turned away, the teen cast a warming charm at Nagini. He wasn't sure if her scales would deflect the magic but he hoped that the gesture would at least be appreciated.

Nagini rose up again in surprise at feeling the warmth pass over her but the boy who had cast the spell was long out of sight. The snake halted her path and reveled in the heat for a few minutes, flicking her tongue out once again. Yes, that young human was definitely a strange one, much like her lord had been when he was a child.

There were many similarities between the two but Voldemort didn't want to hear about it. He always refused to listen.


Heinrich lay in bed after his lessons one night, thinking. Things were slowly but surely changing between him and the Dark Lord. He hadn't noticed the extent of the changes until today and he was starting to wonder if the other Death Eaters had noticed. He was sure Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy had, since they lived in the manor and were around the pair every single day. They were also much more perceptive than Heinrich, which only increased Heinrich's certainty.

The other inner circle Death Eaters, however…Heinrich doubted Bellatrix Lestrange was aware. The woman was highly territorial and possessive over the Dark Lord when the man wasn't around and she hadn't made any attempts on Heinrich's life. It was probably safe to say that she didn't know. There was also the option to consider that she knew and didn't care but Heinrich doubted that. The woman couldn't help but care when her lord was involved.

Heinrich only wished that the other Death Eaters were as easily to read as Bellatrix Lestrange. The others had perfected wearing a face that revealed nothing even to their closest confidants. He had often wondered how the Dark Lord was able to know so much about them and had finally asked this afternoon.

"How do you do it?" he had asked. Lord Voldemort glanced at him in faint confusion.

"Do what?" the man had growled.

"You always seem to know when the Death Eaters are keeping something from you or making plans without you. How? I highly doubt you have informants among your Death Eaters, since I've never seen them enter the manor. I always just see the ones that are supposed to update you on the Ministry of Magic's actions."

"Legilimency," the Dark Lord replied.

"Mind reading?" Heinrich asked in surprise. Lord Voldemort snarled at the term.

"Never call it that again," he ordered. "That's a Muggle term and it gives no respect to the art of Legilimency."

"Well, if it's not mind-reading, what is it?" Heinrich asked, almost petulantly.

"The mind contains many layers," Lord Voldemort began to explain. "Thoughts are only one layer. The mind also controls emotions, such as fear and desire, and feelings, such as pain. Those are just the very basics of the human mind. It doesn't include such things like memories and futures. One can study the human mind for their entire life and only touch on a fraction of the layers within it."

"Futures?" Heinrich asked. He could understand things such as emotions and memories, but he had never heard of anything called futures.

"Some people believe in fate and destiny, while others believe in free will," Lord Voldemort sneered. "However, those who study the art of Legilimency usually believe in futures."

"But what are they?" Heinrich yelped as he was hit with a stinging hex, a not so subtle reminder that he was beginning to sound disrespectful.

"Futures take into account every decision we make and every decision we have the option to make," Voldemort explained. "And each decision we make sets us on a new path that we have the option to continue on or to get off. There is no one set future. There are multiple futures that can be altered at any given moment, not by just your decisions but also by the decisions of others. The mind has the ability to recognize some of the more important decisions in our lives and will periodically bring them to the forefront of our thoughts."

"For example?"

"Everyone at some point or another will probably imagine falling in love or getting married. Those aren't just daydreams like many people believe. Our mind is giving us an idea of what one of our futures can be like if we decide to follow that path. It has to be an active decision however. One cannot meet a future partner at a pub if one never goes to pubs."

"So we have the choice to make any one of those futures come true," Heinrich stated. Lord Voldemort sneered at the simplicity of the statement. This was how he had been able to penetrate the boy's mind in the previous year. The boy had the tendency to simplify things that could not be simplified.

"Legilimency requires navigating those different layers. To influence someone, one must find their way to the right layer, the right part of the mind. Once there, the person performing Legilimency must interpret the findings there, which is not always so cut and dry. The human mind differs depending on the person. While one may think in words, others think in pictures or numbers. One may think in a straight line while others follow patterns and even more have no steady line of thought. Once inside the mind, the person performing Legilimency must alter their strategy depending on the person's mind."

"It sounds complicated," Heinrich stated. Lord Voldemort nodded with a sneer.

"Ninety-five percent of those that attempt Legilimency will end up going mad or dying because they cannot take being in another's mind," he said. "One should understand the art before attempting to penetrate someone's mind and it is a rare occasion when someone actually takes the time to learn and understand. Many think like you do—that's it's simply reading the mind."

Lord Voldemort stared at the boy.

"Never attempt Legilimency," he ordered. Heinrich bristled at the order but kept his mouth shut. "You would surely die. You would not have the patience or the delicacy to manage someone's mind. Even the smallest attempt would probably rip the victim's mind to shreds and there's no telling what it would do to you."

It had been an interesting conversation, Heinrich mused. He had been more interested in the discussion about futures than the actual explanation of Legilimency. The concept of futures seemed to be a mix of destiny and free will, something he hadn't even believed was possible. It suggested that the future could be changed at any moment, not only by oneself but also by the decisions of others. Nothing was set in stone unless one chose it to be.

"Libby?" Heinrich called. The house elf popped in.

"The young sir is needing something?" she asked.

"I just had a question," Heinrich admitted. "I can understand if you can't or don't want to answer it."

"Libby will be trying her best to answer young sir's question," the house elf said.

"What do house elves believe about the future?" Heinrich asked. "Do they believe in destiny or free choice?" Libby looked startled at his question and Heinrich realized that one had probably never taken the time to actually ask what house elves believed.

"House elves is being born to work and will work until they die," Libby said. "If house elves are being good, then they will be serving the same family until they die. House elves is not having time to be thinking of the future. Instead, we is always thinking about work and what is needing to be done."

"What about when all the work is done?" Heinrich asked. Libby shook her head, causing her ears to flop against the side of her head.

"House elves' work is never being done," she explained. "Once things is clean, they is being dirtied almost immediately again. Cleaning is never being done and house elves is never stopping their work."

"Not even to sleep or eat?" Heinrich asked.

"House elves eat while we is cooking," Libby said. "And house elves is not needing sleep."

Green eyes blinked in surprise.

"You don't sleep?" he asked. "Seriously?" Libby nodded.

"Is young sir having any more questions for Libby?" she asked. Heinrich shook his head, still in disbelief. He hadn't realized that house elves didn't sleep. Libby disappeared, leaving Heinrich to stare at where she used to be.

"House elves don't sleep," the teen muttered. "That's pretty amazing."

The fact was still on his mind the next afternoon and he couldn't help but bring it up.

"Did you know that house elves don't sleep?" Heinrich asked. "That they're physically incapable of sleeping?"

Voldemort glanced at him in annoyance.

"Yes, I was aware," he said and attempted to return to his paperwork.

"It's pretty impressive when you think about it. How much work do you imagine we could get done if we didn't sleep?"

"More than what's getting done right now," Lord Voldemort muttered.

"Are they born not being able to sleep or does it just happen when they start working?"

His question was met with a loud sigh.

"House elves aren't born," Lord Voldemort snapped. "They are created through magic. When a house or building is built through magic and there's enough power behind the magic, house elves are created using that power. The magic that created them is tied to that specific house and is typically transferred to a person or family. The magic is what ensures the loyalty and obedience to a certain person, place, or family."

"But—" Heinrich yelped as he was hit with a stinging hex. The Dark Lord made a pointed attempt to return to his paperwork in hopes that the teen would get his message. Heinrich sighed. This conversation was done.


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