7. Confrontations
Having Nagini around was surprisingly helpful, Harry soon realised. Because people kept their distance, even though he saw many looking his way, or even trying to approach him, then they saw Nagini on the floor by him, and suddenly they had someone else they wanted to talk to.
There was live music in the ballroom and people had begun to dance an hour after dinner, but people sat and stood around talking both in the ballroom, in the two parlours adjacent to the ballroom, in the broad hallway and on the big balconies outside one parlour and the ballroom. With so much space, the press of people didn't get too great.
Harry circled the rooms slowly, kept to the walls and the corners and kept largely to himself, if not Astoria or Draco stopped by him to chat between dances. Voldemort did the same. He kept his distance, kept his hands empty by his sides and just … talked. About Nagini, about snakes and Parseltongue, about someone at the reception, about an interesting article in The Prophet the other day. It was subjects that was as safe and as neutral as one could possibly get them. Harry had no idea what to think about that, but he was willing to talk, because the topics were harmless, and Voldemort appeared to try to look harmless. He wasn't, of course, but he did his best to seem like it and Harry, almost against his will, appreciated the sentiment.
It was after one of the little chats with Voldemort that Harry stood on the balcony outside the ballroom, alone in this corner of it, except for Nagini that had curled around the marble balustrade. He was petting her again. It was his new job, apparently; pet Nagini. But even now he didn't really mind. The panic he had felt over the weirdness had receded and Nagini was strangely restful to be around, even when she was a nosy brat.
"I wish you had pressed for an open truce sooner, Potter; many lives might have been saved if you had."
The voice was so cold, so hateful, that Harry had trouble believing it when he turned around and saw Amelia Bones behind him, but her face was as cold as her voice and no one else was close.
"Excuse me?" He frowned.
"If you had been open about being seduced by the Dark earlier, then we could have put an end to the war with less loss, since we, evidently, would have had to live with Lord Voldemort as head of our nation anyway. If you had been honest, Potter, good people might have been alive today."
"You think that Voldemort and I have been a couple, or on the same side, for a long time?" He wasn't sure he understood her correctly, but that was what it sounded like.
"I saw how you outright flirted with him at the table, how comfortable you are with his snake and two of his lieutenants. That kind of familiarity does not arise in a single day! Not among long-time enemies." It was a growl in her voice.
Harry barked a laugh. A very angry laugh. Sparks rose around him and swirled before going out. Madam Bones blinked.
"That was me trying with everything I am to get through one of the most stressful and saddest days in years! Years of war, I might add, Bones! You don't know anything about me!"
"You cannot seriously think that anyone will believe that you haven't had a close relationship with Lord Voldemort and his forces! I already suspected it, what with you and Granger more or less retreating from the battlefield for months and …"
"Hermione has been at St. Mungo's for three months!" Harry shouted.
Here was someone he would be safe shouting at, and she deserved it too, for saying such awful, hateful things. More sparks flew around him and then flashes of power. He needed to rein it in a bit, before it got loose, but it was hard, because he had been stressed for days, he hadn't slept well for weeks, and now he was angry.
Madam Bones took a step back from him. "You will treat your elders with respect, Potter; I will be a leader of our society soon."
"And I don't fucking care!" Harry said in a singsong croon. "I show respect to those who deserve it, and you patently do not. You know, I was happy to see you, happy to know that you had survived, but now, if this is a taste of how you are going to behave as a leader of the Wizarding World … Then I have to say that I'm worried about how you are going to do it. Judging someone without as much as an interrogation, much less any kind of proof? Tsk, is that how you headed the Department of Magical Law Enforcement? How did you ever get the reputation as being fair, if that's the case?"
"I'm always fair, but I have to believe the evidence of my own senses and …"
"And I'm bloody Harry Potter, the only one in Wizarding History that has been condemned as much as he has been lauded as a hero. The one and only boy who could save all your asses! Tell me, Bones, were you among those that thought it such a great idea to have a boy save an entire society? An entire society of strong, educated and adult witches and wizards?! I have always wanted to know, you know, what most people actually thought about having a child, a minor, a boy who didn't know he was a wizard before he was eleven years old, save all of you!"
"Albus Dumbledore told us about the prophecy … There was nothing anyone could do …"
"Where in all the hells is that prophecy now!" Harry's voice boomed against the walls of the Manor and power rolled off him in golden black waves.
Madam Bones flinched away from his power, bit her lips to keep from crying out and fled the balcony without another word.
Harry turned around, tamped down on his magic and tried to get his temper in check again while petting Nagini. He wasn't surprised when Voldemort stopped a couple of metres away from him, a few moments later.
"Madame Bones has fled the party, Harry. What exactly occurred between you?" His voice was soft, neutral, not irritated or angry or accusing. He asked a question and assumed that he would get an understandable answer he would be able to believe.
"I probably should get my official pardon as soon as possible, when they begin to offer them, before she tries to stop me and put me on trial instead."
"That will not happen, but if that is your wish, then I will make it so."
"I don't trust her not to make things difficult, especially if she gets a bit of time to think things over …"
She suspects Hermione too, and if she tries to stop Hermione from getting an official pardon because of her ridiculous suspicions … What will Hermione have to do to get that pardon? Fuck. I thought she was a safe target to be angry at, and I might just have fucked up Hermione's life. On the other hand, it didn't sound as if Bones wanted to listen to reason anyway … Harry groaned.
"Me and my fucking temper," he whispered. "It felt good to shout and I really do wonder why so many adult witches and wizards thought it a good idea to let Dumbledore do as he wanted and use three teenagers to end a war against mature and powerful adults. Or just the part where I was supposed to manage to kill the Darkest wizard of our time. Fuck! In what world does that even make sense?"
Voldemort was silent for a moment. "The way I understand it from Severus, not many knew Dumbledore's plans, or how he planned to use you and your friends. He told people about the prophecy, so they would let him do what he wanted and not interfere in his plans, but other than that … A very select few knew anything further."
Harry looked out over the dark garden and petted Nagini without looking at Voldemort. "They still let him do as he wished, without protesting too much. If I had been an adult at the beginning of this war and had been in the Order of the Phoenix and heard all his dithering and nonsensical explanations … I would have gone my own way and taken a lot of people with me; let the senile old man go off on his own. If he can't give me an explanation of his tactics, he can go rot by himself. Real trust is earned, and Dumbledore did absolutely nothing to ever earn my trust. I wish I had seen that and not just been a pawn in his game. One more reason not to use children in war."
"There was the prophecy …" Voldemort said slowly, almost apologetic.
"How much do you know of prophecies, really know, as fact?"
Silence.
"After … after you took back Slytherin's locket, we hit a dead end, Hermi and me. We felt we had to do something, but we had no clues and no directions, and no one to ask. Hermi thought to take an extra look at the prophecy, or more to the point, at prophecies in general. It took us … a while, in between the fighting, but we found … someone, an oracle, an old, old oracle. We were quite … insistent … and in the end she told us some truths about prophecies.
"Every year she makes hundreds of prophecies, several every day, and when she looks behind her in time at how those prophecies transpired … Only a few, a very few, happen exactly as she sees it. A bit more happens partly as she saw it, but most … most never happen at all. Because of free will.
"Free will trumps all, even prophecies given by an age-old oracle, and she told us it has always been that way. She sees the future as it can be, given that certain people make certain choices. She might even see the most likely outcome. But the future is never certain, and humans do choose their own way, make their own future. I can show you the memory in a pensive another day. I thought you should know, in case you think that the prophecy needs to be fulfilled, one way or another.
"Dumbledore was wrong, and it was utter madness to send three teenagers out on such a … treasure hunt. I don't think I will ever understand his reasoning."
Voldemort came up on Harry's right side, about a metre and a half between them, and put a hand on the balustrade without looking at Harry. "But you did understand his plans to see me defeated? To attempt to kill me before your treasure hunt, as you put it, was a success, would ultimately have led to naught. I would have come back again."
"I understand that much, but even if he did start the hunt himself, badly I might add, he could have let someone else in on the secret and let them continue the hunt. Someone more knowledgeable and mature. He had the whole Order to choose from, and several faculty members that would have been better equipped to the task. If he absolutely insisted on following the prophecy …" Harry sighed and shook his head. "It doesn't matter now. Change of topic. Please?"
"Yes, after one statement, so as to leave no room for misunderstandings. I disregarded the prophecy a bit less than a year ago and have no need to see it fulfilled, one way or another. It is worthless to me now."
Harry wanted to ask why, what had happened, but he also wanted to talk about something else. So, he only nodded. If he were to be killed, at least it wouldn't be because of the stupid prophecy.
"If I may ask, what happened to you? Your appearance, I mean."
"Believe it or not, I did not actually plan to be resurrected without a proper face. Wormtail messed it up, naturally. It took … longer than I wanted … to be able to make some changes."
"What should I call you? I'm not going to call you the Dark Lord nor Lord Voldemort, so … Riddle? Tom? Marvolo? Voldemort? Voldy? Gaunt, isn't that a name in your lineage?"
"I utterly despise the name Tom Riddle. Marvolo or Gaunt is not much better. Voldy? Honestly, that is not even remotely funny."
Harry bit back his next words, and managed to not propose the name Snakeface, but it was a near thing. It was what Hermione and he had called Voldemort in the past years, Old Snakeface, but Harry assumed that this was one of those things he would be much better off not saying, and preferably forgetting that he ever said. Besides, the appearance that had given the idea to the name was changed drastically for the better.
"Then Voldemort is the only alternative left," Harry said instead, "unless you have anything else you prefer that I don't know about?"
"Voldemort will do just fine. If I should change my mind, you will be the first to know."
That made Harry turn towards him. Voldemort was already watching him.
"Why?"
"You are my husband. I believe that a spouse should know certain things before other people get to know them."
"Alright, I guess …" Harry watched him for a moment longer before looking out over the garden. Not long after, Voldemort left him with Nagini on the balcony.
In the end Harry ventured inside again, wanting a chair and a butterbeer. Even knowing that the strange feeling of safety that he felt around Nagini didn't come from alcohol, he didn't want any more.
The whole day was bizarre and had changed his perspective on several people, and he didn't know why it had happened or how they had manipulated him or what their goal was. But now he was inclined to think about Draco as a possible ally, and friend in the future. He thought of Astoria as someone he already liked and trusted up to a point. Nagini was utterly safe to be around and would protect him with all her might, which was completely ridiculous.
And Voldemort. Voldemort was trying … something. Harry didn't quite know what he was trying. To seem harmless? Friendly? An ally? As an actual husband and partner? It made him dizzy to think about.
Harry had taken two steps inside the doors when he felt someone behind him, almost grabbing his shoulder. He crouched and took half a step back, out of easy reach, grabbed for his wand. No wand. He shot forward, grabbed his startled attacker by the shoulders and pressed him hard and fast downwards towards Harry's knee that came up to meet his assailant's face. He only broke the attacker's nose, and not his whole face, because he remembered where he was in time and loosened his grip and reduced his force enough to not completely incapacitate him. When he realised he had his hands on Lucius Malfoy, he wished he hadn't held back. He let go and Malfoy fell to the floor.
Then Nagini was there, catching Malfoy in her coils and rearing up over his face, hissing threateningly. Harry took several steps backwards.
"Lucius!" It was a shout and Narcissa Malfoy came hurriedly towards them. Harry could see Astoria stop Draco before he came nearer too. "Tell her to let him go, Potter!" Mrs. Malfoy shrieked.
"I can't tell her what to do. I'm not her Master," he said and kept his shaking hands on his back. Adrenaline was surging through him yet again.
"I told them that I can't tell you what to do, as I'm not your Master, but if you feel like squeezing the bastard a bit harder, I would be much obliged," he told Nagini in Parseltongue.
Nagini hissed and tightened her coils. Malfoy whimpered and groaned. It probably hurt, but it wouldn't kill him, unfortunately.
"No, see, that's what I get for trying," he said to Mrs. Malfoy.
"Are you having fun with one of my lieutenants?" Voldemort asked in that cool, silken voice he apparently could use when it suited him, even when speaking Parseltongue. It was just on the outside of threatening, just barely. It made the adrenaline in Harry surge up even more. It didn't help that he stood behind Harry. Voldemort stepped up beside him, a couple of steps away, and looked down at Lucius.
"He tried to grab me, I stopped him, hurt him a bit and then Nagini took over. I didn't ask her to."
"But you did ask her to frighten him some more." His eyes were fixed on Nagini and Malfoy on the floor.
"Yes, but he did try to grab me. Maybe, if this leaves enough of an impression, he will not try again. Better for everyone that way."
Nagini tightened her coils even more and began to open her jaws wide, as if she was preparing to eat Malfoy alive. Mrs. Malfoy shrieked and drew her wand. Now Draco and Astoria hurried over.
"My Lord!" Mrs. Malfoy begged, going to her knees.
"I see your point. Well done, my dear. I think that's enough for now," Voldemort said to Nagini.
Immediately Nagini released Malfoy and went towards where Harry and Voldemort stood. She butted Voldemort's hand until he petted her gently.
"You did good, dear," Voldemort said and Nagini went over to Harry.
"Thank you for helping me and stopping Malfoy from making it a bigger fight," Harry told her and petted her. "I appreciate that."
"We do not want the young consort to experience any more fear or danger, do we Master?" Nagini said, almost happily while Harry petted her.
"No, Nagini, we most certainly do not want that."
Harry didn't understand how or why, but while he stood there watching Malfoy getting to his feet, and being healed and cleaned by Mrs. Malfoy, he realised Voldemort's words had a distinct sound of the truth.
A/N:
Hope you enjoyed this glimpse into what Harry's relationship to Voldemort might be like.
Please tell me what you think!
And thank you for favourites and follows.
A big thanks to Ladylillalove for beta reading!