Birth of a Nightmare Man

Summary: Prequel to The Nightmare Man. How did Harry Potter become a feared lord of ancient times? Here we'll see the start of it.

Pairing/s: None.

Warnings: Violence, gore, evil!Harry and Twisted!Harry. Seriously, for quite a bit he's not friendly at all with humans. Be warned.

Disclaimers: I don't own Harry Potter nor do I make any money writing this or any other fanfiction.

-o-

Thanks for all the reviews!

Someone said it might be interesting if a student got a crush on the Nightmare Lord. Which got me thinking… yeeees. That might actually happen. In fact, I got more ideas just reading your reviews.

And now, enjoy this chapter!

Gore and violence is described here.

-o-

Chapter Twenty-Five

Some time passed, and Ulgar's disappearance became a thing of the past. He had a few friends but they were wise enough not to try and get revenge. Or perhaps they were too frightened, as the news of Ulgar's entire family disappearing reached the school eventually.

As for the lord, he began a habit of carrying wands every now and then. There were three different ones on his belt one day, and Rowena asked:

"Why do you have three wands?"

"Well," the lord began and took one of them, "this one was mine originally. I've had this since I was a child. This one belonged to an enemy, but the core's the same as mine so it's sort of attached to me. And this third one, I took it from someone and it became mine."

"Oh." Rowena looked closer at all three without touching them. The bone-white one was something she'd never seen before. "So this white one belonged to an enemy?"

"Yes. It was given to me afterwards."

"What kind of enemy?"

The lord looked at the bookshelves surrounding them for a moment.

"An enemy I didn't ask for," he replied at last. "I think… it was one of the first people I killed. It wasn't about having fun back then; it was to kill or be killed. I took his life to survive myself. Stupid really."

"Stupid?"

"Things happened after that," the lord said and took the white wand in his hands. "Sometimes… I will look back at that moment and wish… that he had killed me instead."

Rowena startled. The lord smiled a bit and said:

"Don't tell Elise or the others that, alright? They get so anxious when I talk about being dead, as if it'll make me leave them."

How old is he? She wondered this as he began to walk around the office, glancing at books. She couldn't convince herself he wasn't old, with the way he talked. But his face… he didn't look old. So many believed the Nightmare Lord was different people, impersonating one. Could it really be that he was the only one?

However, that would mean he was hundreds of years old! Rowena shook her head. Could someone live that long and remain sane? Then again, the lord was unstable at best. He had been on good behaviour for a while, but who knows what he was like when he wasn't there with them?

This was giving her a headache, per usual. The Nightmare Lord was a nightmare in more ways than one. Rowena gave up thinking about it for now, and followed his journey across her office.

"Have you tried to fit an entire library in here?" he wondered.

"It's not that many books."

"Well, it's a lot of books."

"Not enough to make it into a library!"

"It could be that you tried to make a small library."

"It's not a library," Rowena said. "I just like books."

"I suppose I like them too. Funny that, I was never the studious type as a child."

"You weren't?"

"Aunt told me she would starve me if I dared to be better than Cousin, so I learned early to give up."

"That's… horrible."

"Horrible pretty much sums them up. Aunt, Uncle and Cousin." The lord took out a book. "That's sort of funny too. I never get over it. One should leave the past behind if it hurts you, right? Instead I keep dragging it with me. I can't leave it behind, no matter how much I hate it."

"It's not really funny," Rowena said. "But I can understand it. Being unable to leave the bad things behind."

"Guess I deserve it. I'm a bad man after all. A nightmare can have nightmares too. Ooh, this book, I haven't seen it before?"

"I just got it," Rowena said, willing to let the subject drop. "It's got some interesting potions in it, so I was thinking of sharing it with Salazar later. He does love to experiment."

-o-

Elise came to visit Ywgraine one day, and one student from Rowena's house was completely taken with her the moment he saw her. Ywgraine couldn't have anything like drinks or snacks in the library, Rowena's rules, so instead they settled down with a book.

"Are you seriously going for her, Ragnall?" one said to him. "She's much older."

"Mature," Ragnall corrected. "Besides, she's a beauty."

"She belongs to the lord," another told him. "Give it up; she's a servant in any case. You're already betrothed!"

"She can be my mistress," Ragnall said. "Even if she's a servant. The lord will accept if I give him enough money, I'm sure."

"Hey, he's more or less responsible for the ending of Ulgar's family."

"That has nothing to do with this. I'm only buying a servant from him; it's not like I'm going to duel him for it."

However, buying a servant from the four founders' friend wasn't as easy as Ragnall made it sound.

"You want to buy Elise?" the lord said. "She's not for sale."

"Every servant has a price. Just tell me how much I need to give."

"Like I said, she's not for sale," the lord repeated. "Even if you offered me your entire family to be eviscerated and hung for the crows to eat, I wouldn't hand her over."

With that the lord left.

"All servants has a price," Ragnall told his friends, writing a letter to his father. "I'll just have to bother him long enough for him to be fed up and offer the servant to me."

"See, you don't even know her name!" one of his friends said.

"I'll just force the lord to tell me, or I'll give her a more fitting name."

His father responded favourably, especially after Ragnall sent a small sketch of Elise. They could share the servant, in his father's opinion, and Ragnall had no problem with that.

Soon enough they noticed the lord began to act differently. He seemed to be a bad mood most of the time. Ragnall knew his father was good at negotiating, but when that didn't work his father began employing more dirty methods. He was no doubt digging up dirt on the lord while sending letter after letter to said lord to keep him busy from noticing anything.

Meanwhile, Ragnall learned Elise's name and found it a bit lacking. He kept thinking what he would make her do once she was his servant. She wouldn't be doing the laundry and such, no. She would be… a companion, perhaps. Sitting there and looking pretty during the days, and then during the nights…

"You're really intent on getting her."

"Of course I am," Ragnall said. "What I want, I get. The lord is looking mighty upset nowadays."

-o-

The four founders had noticed this. The lord didn't come as often, and when he did he had headaches and complained about letters.

"Someone is annoying me," the lord said. "But it's the father of one of your students and I don't want to cause waves so I'm really, really refraining myself from just going over there and rip his heart out of his throat."

"Why out of his throat?" Rowena asked.

"Because it'd take longer and hurt him more," the lord replied. "Or maybe I'd break the ribcage open and remove all of his organs before killing him."

"Master has received an average of three letters a day," Lucian said, as he had followed the lord to Hogwarts. "There are some people trying to investigate him as well. So far they don't know the location of the manor, but I do believe they've made the connection that master is actually the Nightmare Lord."

"Will that cause you problems?" Godric asked. "We could try and do something about it."

"More like it can cause troubles for you," the lord said, "and if I know humans good enough, which I think I do, they will try and use that to get me to do what they want me to do."

"Which is what?"

"One of your students wants me to sell Elise to him," he told Helga. "Most likely because of sexual reasons. After all, he's a young man and also thinks he has the right to do whatever he wants."

"Does Elise know this?" Helga demanded to know.

"Of course she does," the lord said. "Even before I was approached she told me there was a man who wouldn't stop staring at her breasts, as if that was the only interesting part of her. I don't understand this whole sexual thing; why are men so obsessed with thinking they can do whatever they want with women's bodies?"

"Because most of us are idiots who have been taught that way," Salazar replied. "My father is like that. No wonder mother despised him."

"I never thought that," the lord said. "Then again, I had many other faults to make up for that one fault most men have."

"You aren't going to sell her, are you?" Rowena had to ask.

"Why would I do that? She's my servant. I didn't make her my servant only to sell her to someone else later."

"I knew you'd say something like that, I guess I just needed to hear it out loud."

"Elise wouldn't let me sell her either," the lord continued. "She'd probably punch me in the face if I ever even suggested it."

"Elise… punching you in the face?" Godric said. "Aren't you talking about the impossible?"

"No, it could happen. I can see it sometimes that she wished she had done it already. I'm that annoying."

"To be fair," Lucian, "you do test our patience at times."

"I didn't mean to blow the cauldron up!"

"What cauldron?" Godric asked.

"Do we even want to know?" Salazar continued.

"I was just testing something," the lord said.

"And?" Helga wondered.

"His skin melted off his face," Lucian told them and the lord buried his face in his hands.

"Don't tell them that, it's embarrassing!"

"Melted… off?" Helga repeated. "What was the potion supposed to do? If it was a potion he was making?"

"Well, it was supposed to melt skin off. The balance however, was off and thus it exploded."

"Violently," the lord added. "I had to replace a bench and part of the floor. Elise just gave me a look. I can't stand that look."

He seemed to be feeling a bit better, but none of the four founders allowed themselves to forget what he said about the letters, and the student wanting to buy Elise. They refused to let someone use them to put pressure onto their friend.

-o-

Ragnall was growing tired of the lord. He still refused to sell Elise. At this point, they would have to threaten to expose his identity as the Nightmare Lord to shatter the four founders of Hogwarts.

But one day, Rowena rose up at the evening meal and said:

"Could I please have your attention for a moment?"

The talking died down as all of the students turned to her.

"We have an announcement to make," she told them. "This might be a bit sudden, or perhaps a bit late, but this is something we agreed to tell you all. You are free to choose what to do hereafter."

Now they started to glance around, looking for friends or perhaps some clues as to what she was speaking about.

Godric was the next to rise, and then Helga and Salazar followed suit. The rest of the professors remained seated.

"We have since the opening of the school had an honoured guest here from time to time, as you all have seen," Rowena said. "He's a good friend of ours, and has given us much support during the building of Hogwarts."

"What we have not said is who he truly is," Salazar said. "So now we would like to properly introduce you to our good friend… the Nightmare Lord."

The lord stepped inside the Great Hall, flanked by Elise and Lucian. He walked between the tables amongst the whispers, and Ragnall's growing rage. How dare they ruin their plans! Those four founders… now he didn't have the leverage that was sure to bring the lord to sell Elise!

He stood up, but since he wasn't the only one people didn't notice. This… if he couldn't put pressure, then he'd just have to…!

-o-

The four founders didn't notice until someone screamed, and then they all saw it. Ragnall, standing behind the Nightmare Lord, holding onto a sword that had pierced the lord's chest.

At first, the lord looked mostly confused. Then he looked down at the sword sticking out, and coughed. Blood splattered down onto the floor. He staggered before falling down and Ragnall laughed.

"If I had known it was that easy to kill him I would've done it from the beginning!" he exclaimed.

No one tried to approach him. He was grinning from ear to ear at his horrified friends' expressions, the way Rowena's hand gripped Godric's arm. The blood pool grew larger underneath the lord's body and the students hastily backed away.

Only Elise and Lucian remained silent. The students whispered, wondered; why aren't they worried? Why didn't they run to their master's side? Did they not care? Were they servants against their will, and was now free?

Ragnall pushed his hair back and said:

"Now I don't even have to pay anything for her."

"You have attacked a friend of ours," Rowena said. "That will not be forgotten, or forgiven."

"Does it look like I'm going to stay here?" Ragnall yelled. "You don't have anything more to teach me! All I need is the lord's servant. Well, not the man. Too little in the chest area, although his face is pretty."

Elise and Lucian looked at Ragnall, then each other. Lucian said:

"I bet five gold coins that master is going to take his head off."

"Five more if he rips the heart out," Elise said.

"Deal."

"What?" Ragnall said. "Your master is dead, and now you're free for me to take!"

"Master, please stop scaring your friends," Elise said, "and get up."

"Fine, fine," the lord said as he hopped up again, sword sticking out of his chest. "I was just trying to be dramatic for once."

"You're always dramatic," Lucian said.

Meanwhile everyone was staring. Rowena stammered out:

"But… the sword… it's through… through your heart."

"I've told you before, Rowena. I'm immortal."

He spread his hands and spun on his heels to look at the students. Some of them were whispering but most simply stared in shock.

"I am the Nightmare Lord," he said. "The one who has lived for hundreds of years. I have seen the rise and fall of families. I have destroyed villages, I have set people's life on fire and watched them burn. I have seen the fall of an empire. Look at me! Look at the man who will live when you all turn into dust!"

He took the sword in both hands and ripped it out. Blood poured out of him and he laughed at their horrified faces.

"I have been shattered into pieces of myself!" he told them, making a stabbing motion with the sword. They all retreated. "My heart has been destroyed, my lungs ripped out. All of my organs have failed, and yet I live! I am the immortal man, the man of nightmares! And you…"

He turned his eyes to Ragnall.

"You've made me very angry," the Nightmare Lord continued in a soft tone. "Now… whatever shall I do with you?"

He stepped through the blood and students began to scream as they all saw the wound on his chest heal. The skin knitted itself back together and the blood flow stopped.

"It might be a bit late," the lord said as he turned to the four founders, "but I am going to kill him."

"The attack was done on you first," Salazar said. "If anyone bothered to read the rules, they will know attacks against others are strictly forbidden. If they occur anyway, the one who is attacked is within their rights to claim the life of the attacker. But if you attack his family, lord, we cannot look away from that."

"Oh, I'll try my best to be satisfied with his death then," the lord said. "Elise."

"Yes?"

"If I try to attack his family, do stop me."

"Yes, master," she said. "By breaking your arms?"

"Well, you're very good at that, but I think my spine's better. That way I won't be able to move until I've calmed down."

"Very well, master. If you try to attack that man's family, I will break your spine."

"Good. Now that's out of the way… I could take my time but we're in a school and being stabbed in the heart really hurts so…"

He swung the sword and neatly looped off Ragnall's head.

"Does that count as taking the head off?" Elise wondered.

"Yes, it does. Five coins," Lucian replied.

"Damn it."

The lord sighed and put the sword over his shoulder. The students were still staring, either at him or at Ragnall's corpse. But some looked at him like they saw something to respect. Malfoy was one of them.

"Show's over," he told them. "So if anyone wants to quit this school because they're friends with the Nightmare Lord, your loss. I would literally kill for a chance to learn from the professors at Hogwarts."

With that he sauntered off. Salazar was quick to start cleaning up and most students seemed to have calmed down. A few of the younger ones were comforted by the elder ones but even they recovered fast.

"I guess it's a good thing most of us are used to seeing things like this," Rowena said. "But to think a student would attack… we need to make the rules more clear."

"Or have more firm consequences for those who breaks the rules," Salazar continued. "Is it only me, or did you also just realize the lord was telling the truth this whole time?"

Helga stopped.

"Oh… oh, he did. Oh dear. He did. He's… oh dear, he's immortal."

"How come that didn't come to me until you just mentioned it? I mean, he gave a speech and all!"

"I guess I was more focused on the fact he had a sword through his chest," Salazar admitted.

"Yeah… me too. Wait, where did he go?"

After ushering the students to their common rooms, reassuring them they could contact their parents at any time if they no longer wished to remain at Hogwarts, the four founders set out to find the Nightmare Lord. It wasn't that difficult; he was in the room they had personally selected for him.

Or rather, he was bathing. He was insistent on having that part and told them Hogwarts would do the rest. They didn't ask more than that, and now Elise was there.

"Lucian went to get master some new clothes," she told them.

"So… he's immortal," Rowena said.

"Master did tell you."

"Yes, he did. We just… didn't believe. Exactly… how old is he?"

"I don't know exactly how old. But I believe he has passed over six hundred years by now. Most likely even more than that."

Six hundred years…

They were all startled by the lord emerging from the bathroom, wrapped up only in a thin robe. He looked at them.

"So now you know," he said. He didn't sound upset or anything like that.

"Now we know," Rowena said. "Yes. I'm sorry we didn't believe you earlier."

"Why should you? I haven't been particularly sane for the last few centuries, so most people must look at me and see only the madness. And if there's something I've learnt, is that people don't believe those they think mad."

"But you told us, and we dismissed it," Helga replied.

"Well, now you believe me. That's good enough. Besides, you would've noticed eventually."

"We would have?" Salazar said.

"Yes. I hate wrinkles, so I don't age!"

They gaped at him. Elise sighed.

"Master is so vain," she said.

"Yes, yes, they already know that part," the lord said. "When I said I picked Elise and Lucian because they were pretty, didn't you figure out I'm pretty vain when it comes to me as well?"

"The world will suffer the day master does get a wrinkle," Elise added.

"There was no need for the sarcasm, Elise."

"Ah, I believe Lucian is back."

"Don't change the subject!"

Helga giggled.

"You're still you," she said. "Only now we know you've lived for a long time. That's why you asked for our portraits, right? To have us when we're gone?"

"Yes…" The lord became very interested in his own hair, brushing through the wet strands. "I never… I don't have a… I don't have a portrait of my friends. I've got nothing but their ashes and a stone I can use to call on their dead souls. But every time you call on dead souls, you are left with a longing."

"A longing?" Godric wondered.

"A longing to join them," the lord explained. "To die with them. I think that's the stone's purpose. To reassure the user… it's okay to die."

Elise came back with a set of robes and pressed them against the lord's chest.

"Master should get dressed," she said.

"There you go again, interrupting me when I talk about dying…"

"We still need to check your heart," she continued. "To make sure it's healing correctly."

"Yes, yes, fine. I'll stop talking about it." To the four founders he shrugged, what can you do, and went to get dressed.

"Elise?" Helga tried. "Are you alright?"

"Master always… takes his own life so lightly," she said with her back to them. "He always has. Not even the Dementors can make him change his mind for real. He'll try, and then he'll slip. Since death has no effect on him, master doesn't try to survive. He'll just test the limits… test them until they're too broken to repair him again."

"Are you telling them something unnecessary?" the lord called from the bathroom.

"Only the truth," Elise replied.

"Unnecessary then!"

"Sounds like the lord," Rowena sighed. "I don't know how you put up with him."

"It's a task I gladly take on," Elise said, "for he's the only master for me."

To be continued…

Yay, a bit faster this time!

Chapter twenty-six: The lord likes to test the limits of life and death… and the patience of his servants. What has he done now?

Until later,

Tiro