It was just before lunch, and Harry was about to leave Hogwarts to collect Pettigrew's mother. He planned on simply excusing himself to go to the toilet and using the time turner to get back.
The school had become more relaxed now. It was no longer mandatory to be with two other people at all times. No one had heard from Hermione, or had any clue where she had gone. Harry had to fight a smirk every time someone brought up the mystery. Harry knew that the headmaster was looking for a way to give up searching, without looking heartless.
Let him struggle. The Boy Who Lived grinned.
"Hey, Gin, I'm gonna go use the loo," He gave her a pointed look, and she nodded. She knew where he was going, and he had only told her for the sake of those who might be listening.
He slipped into the bathroom, scanned the room for anyone that could be in there, and activated the portkey.
As soon as Harry steadied himself and he took in his surroundings, his jaw just about hit the floor.
Standing before him, in nothing but a towel, slightly damp and looking completely, insanely beautiful, was the Dark Lord.
"Oh, is it that time already?" Tom ran a hand through his wet hair, smirking.
"Oh, Jesus. Would you- would you put some clothes on?" Harry wasn't looking the Dark Lord's face, rather, he was watching a droplet of water trail its way down Tom's chest, eventually vanishing into the towel.
Harry knew that Tom hadn't forgotten what time their meeting was supposed to be. He was doing this to mess with Harry. To weaken his resolve. And Harry had to admit that he wasn't doing to bad a job of it.
The Boy Who Lived scalded himself when he realized that the Dark Lord had done nothing but take his shirt of. Granted, the way the droplets of water made his skin look delicious didn't help him any.
Stop it! Harry tore his eyes away and instead chose to look at Nagini, who was lazing on Tom's chair.
"Sure," The Dark Lord said slowly. Harry's gaze landed back on the man as he spoke.
"Let me just go do that," As Tom walked away, Harry noticed that he had a sway to his hips that was surely just for the Chosen One. Harry actually let out a whimper, and Tom stopped and half turned his body to face him.
He raised his eyebrow at Harry, and once again, the Boy Who Lived looked away. When he did look back, the Dark Lord was gone. Harry breathed a sigh of relief, and once again turned to Nagini.
'Your master is going to be the death of me,' The snake raised its head and seemed to chuckle.
'I had thought it was the other way around.' Before Harry could reply to that cryptic statement, the Dark Lord reappeared in the doorway.
Harry had half expected him to return dressed in bondage gear, and was thankful that he hadn't. That would have been much to far over the top for Harry's liking. He was wearing his usual dress robes, and his hair was still damp. Harry gulped and fidgeted near the desk and waited for Tom to say something.
"You will have to disillusion yourself, she knows who you are. I think it would be best if you tried to gain her trust before you take her. Trying to kidnap someone who is afraid or wary is much harder to accomplish."
Harry snorted.
"You would know." He muttered.
"Well, yes, it's my job to know these things."
"I'm sure. Anyway, anything I should know? Any easy way to gain her trust?"
Tom shrugged. "I've never met her, personally. But if she's anything like her progeny, she will be greedy and selfish."
"Okay, well, where does she live?" Harry asked.
"In hogsmeade. Just look for the least attractive house in the town."
"Seriously? Pettigrew's mum lives in Hogsmeade?" Tom raised his eyebrows.
"Yes. Why is that strange?"
Harry shrugged.
"I don't know. Just that she's so close to Hogwarts? I feel like I should have known that."
"And what would you have done about that?" Tom asked.
"Before? Nothing, probably."
"And now?" Harry paused at the question, not because he didn't know the answer, he did. He just wasn't sure about how he felt about his answer. He'd changed so much in such a short span of time, and he felt like he should feel remorse, or something.
He didn't.
"I'd make Pettigrew kill her."
Tom nodded, smirking.
"Well lets get too it, shall we?"
OoOoO
Harry stood, glamoured to look like a man in his mid thirties with sandy blonde hair and a friendly smile, in front of the most awful house he had ever seen in his life.
The roof of the small building sagged inward, the front lawn was hugely overgrown, with what looked to be a large infestation of gnomes. The paint peeled of in large clumps, mostly around the door. The paint seemed to have been white once, but now it was a color that he could only describe as smokers teeth yellow.
Harry hid his grimace as he approached the door, scaring a mangy cat from the step as he went. He knocked on the door, and it made a hideous noise, as though it were about to crumble. Harry rubbed his hand vigorously on his robes, hoping to rid himself of the germs.
When the woman answered the door, Harry nearly chocked on the stench that came from within. It smelt mostly of cat, and all the things that came out of a cat. Harry didn't miss the irony. Pettigrew's mother was a cat lady. He nearly snorted at the thought of a teenage Peter growing up with an army of cats.
She eyed Harry suspiciously, and he grinned widely, hoping to make her feel more comfortable.
The woman herself matched the house, if that were possible. The clothes she wore were torn in places, and her hair was wild and unbrushed. She stank like holy hell. Harry almost laughed himself right of the step when he realized that her teeth almost exactly matched the paint.
He managed to compose himself.
"Hello there, my name is Harry Evans. I was just at the Hogshead, and I found this." Harry held out his hand, and in his palm sat a great fat diamond broach.
He and Tom decided that they would appeal to her greed. The broach itself was of course a portkey.
"I asked the barmaid, and she said that she had seen it with you. I thought I would return it. It looks mighty expensive. Is that a real diamond?" The woman's expression went from wary to greedy in seconds.
"But of course! Only the best fer me!" Her words were strange to Harry's ears. The way she combined crude language with sophisticated language grated on his ears. Her voice itself reminded him eerily of Hagrid.
She yanked the broach out of Harry's hand and examined it with glee. Harry smirked. Stupid woman. He thought, as he grabbed her arm.
"'ey! What yer doin' yer worthless swine!" Harry grimaced and activated the portkey.
They both landed in Voldemort's study, Harry using the disgusting woman to stop him from landing on his face. She was swearing and flailing her arms, and Harry raised his eyebrows and stood back, narrowly avoiding being hit in the face.
She hadn't yet noticed the Dark Lord, who was sitting calmly at his desk, looking all intimidating in his Voldemort form.
"Yer have no right ter do this te me! I am a lady of importance! I-" Her rant was cut short when she noticed who was sitting across from her.
She let out a pathetic whimper and dropped to her knees.
"Constance Pettigrew. It's nice to finally meet you. I believe that your son is waiting to see you downstairs."
"My- my son? I haven' seen 'im in such a long time,"
Voldemort stood and beckoned for her to stand.
" I do apologize for the abduction, but it seemed necessary."
She nodded her head profusely.
"It's no trouble, me Lord, I was jus' stunned is all."
The Dark Lord said nothing as he walked out of the door. Constance followed him, and Harry was close behind her. He knew that once she saw the state of her son, she would likely try to escape. Or fight back, but that was less likely.
The lower they got into the manor, the warier Constance became. She must have sensed that something was wrong, but was to cowardly to try and leave. Yet, at least.
When she did lay eyes on her son, however, she instantly turned around and made to run away. Only to run square into Harry's chest.
"Ew, get off me you disgusting lump of stink," She panicked and tried to get around him, only to have her arm twisted almost out of its socket.
"Where do you think you're going? Don't you want to see your son?" Harry spat, twisting her arm further, making her whimper.
"Has she got a wand on her?" Harry asked over his shoulder. Voldemort came forward and raised his own wand, waving it over the witch. Pettigrew had long ago heard the commotion, but from his vantage point, he had not yet seen his mother.
"No, she doesn't." The Dark Lord put his wand back into his robe pocket, and went to the cell door.
"Pettigrew, stand back," Harry said as he shoved the woman forward towards Peter. Harry decided that he would need a shower after this. Constance was rubbing off on him as she tried to escape.
"Only my master can tell me what to do! You let my mother go!"
Harry had completely forgotten about the glamour. He didn't look like himself, so the rat wasn't about to obey him.
"Oh, for the love of- My Lord, could you remove the glamour?" He had decided a while back that he would treat the Dark Lord with respect around his followers. Especially Pettigrew.
"Of course," Harry heard Voldemort come up behind him, and he wondered why. There was no need for close proximity to remove a glamour.
Harry got his answer when he felt the Dark Lord's wand trail down his neck. He was so startled that he nearly let the struggling woman go.
"That isn't necessary and is hardly appropriate right now," Harry bit out.
"Don't forget about the vow." He added in warning.
"I'm not forgetting about the vow. I'm not touching you. My wand is."
Harry bit his lip as he realized that particular loop hole. Damn it, he thought to himself as he felt the glamour slip.
"Now, Peter, stand back." And he did, instantly.
"Oh, I'm sorry master, I didn't realize it was you! Wouldn't want to obey the wrong orders!" Pettigrew laughed nervously.
Voldemort opened the door, and Harry threw the disgusting woman in. She turned to face them, probably about to yell some more, when she stopped in her tracks.
"You! Yer Harry Potter! Yer the reason me son is on the run!" She appeared to have forgotten she was no in a cage with no obvious escape.
"And now 'e's callin' yer 'master'!" She seemed to be speaking more to herself, before she turned to her son.
"Wha's goin' on here?" Peter flinched away from his mother's almost ineligible shouting.
Harry was content to just watch. Apparently, so was Voldemort.
Peter didn't answer his mother, instead, he turned to Harry.
"Why is she here? Did she do something wrong? If she did I'm sure she didn't mean too. She means well." Harry crossed his arms across his chest.
"That's not why she's here." A smirk found its way onto Harry's face, and once there, it only grew larger.
"Then- well, why is she here?" Fear finally crossed Peter's face, and Harry smirked wider. He didn't answer for a moment, instead choosing to fiddle with a piece of loose string on his robe. He wondered idly if that was even normal. Weren't wizard clothes supposed to never decay?
"Well, she's here because I want you to kill her." Harry looked up as he spoke, reveling in the fear and confusion on the rats face.
"But, master, she's my mother! Surely there is something else you want?" Harry shook his head.
"There is no room for argument. You kill her or I do. And trust me, it wont be pretty if I have to step in there."
Peter's face fell, and Constance seemed to be getting more enraged by the minute.
"How DARE yer try te get-" She was cut off by the Dark Lord's silencio, but her mouth continued to move and her finger waved about accusingly.
Peter looked positively dejected.
"But, master, I don't have a wand." Harry laughed.
"Well, you'll just have to strangle her, wont you, wormtail?"
Pettigrew bit back a sob, but nodded.
"Yes, master."
"Petrificus Totalus," Harry muttered, his wand pointed at Constance. Her mouth finally stopped moving and she fell over backwards, stiff as a board.
Peter came to kneel beside his mother, and put his hands around her throat, sobbing.
"This is for my parents, you son of a bitch," His anger made his mouth form words in parseltongue, not English.
Harry watched with grim satisfaction as he strangled the life out of his own mother.
OoOoO
"I feel like I need a shower." Harry proclaimed, as the two ascended the stairs. He rubbed his hands on his robes. He could still smell the stink.
"You may have one here." Harry grimaced. No, he wasn't going to have one in the Dark Lord's home.
"I'll just have one when I get back to Hogwarts." He muttered.
"You can't go to the bathroom and come back smelling like unwashed cat lady. Your friends would know something was amiss." Harry groaned. He had almost forgotten that to everyone else at school, he was merely using the toilet.
"Well, can't you just cast a non stink spell or something?"
Voldemort smirked.
"Uncomfortable, Potter?" Harry blushed and ducked his head. No matter how hard he tried to be confidant in the Dark Lord's presence, to be flippant or sarcastic, the man knew exactly how to turn him into a shy little school girl. And he hated it.
"No. No, I'm fine, perfectly peachy, actually. I just don't bloody feel like having a shower here."
The Dark Lord let a small laugh escape.
"Suit yourself. Scorgify." Voldemort had his wand pointed at Harry, and he hadn't even noticed. Gods, he is quick. Harry thought, though he didn't show how impressed he was.
He felt much cleaner after the Scorgify, but he still didn't feel like the cat lady stink was quite gone. He would deal with it when he got back to Hogwarts. Hopefully no one noticed the smell.
"I'm going, I'll see you whenever." Harry said, preparing to activate the portkey.
"Tomorrow night." The Dark Lord said.
"Why?" Harry paused. There wasn't much else to discus.
"Because that is what I am requesting of you. Don't forget your place." The Dark Lord warned.
"Alright, alright, don't get pissy, I'll be here. Any particular time?"
"As soon as you can get away." Voldemort answered.
"Okay. I'll be here." The Boy Who Lived once again prepared to leave. And once again, he was stopped.
"Harry,"
The Chosen one's eyes shot up at the use of his first name.
"For whatever it is worth. I am sorry about your parents." Harry blinked three times before he could open his mouth to respond.
"I thought you weren't going to apologize?" Harry asked, his voice soft.
"Don't look a gift horse in the mouth, Potter. Now go on, you've had an incredibly long bathroom break."
(A/N bawww aren't they so sweet? In an awful, awful way, of course. Love you guys :D)
