A/N: New chapter, yay! Since I don't have anything to say at the moment except enjoy...!

Chapter 7: The Shortest Distance Between Two Points

However, the closer Saturday and Harry's meeting with the Dark Lord came, the more worried Severus grew.

Saturday morning, shortly before ten, Severus was wearing a hole into the floor while Harry got changed for his meeting with the Dark Lord. He chose to wear dark grey trousers with a deep blue button-down shirt. Over it, he wore a black short-sleeved open robe with silver trimming. It showed status while not being overdressed.

While getting dressed, Harry observed amusedly how Severus muttered under his breath what a bad idea this was.

"Are you sure you want to go? What if this is a trap and he attacks you?" he asked again, his dark eyes boring into Harry's emerald green ones.

"Sev, calm down! Not only are we meeting in a very public place but I'm also not a weak idiot," Harry replied and stopped him by laying his arms around Severus' waist. "I know that you're worried and I won't tell you not to be as I know that you'll be anyway but what I ask of you is to trust me. Trust that I know what I'm doing and that no matter what he will do, he won't be able to harm me."

"You better come back without a scratch or trust me Dumbledore will be his least problem," Severus growled.

Harry chuckled. "Is it bad of me to think that you threatening the Dark Lord is cute?" he asked before leaning up and kissing Severus. "I'll come back without a scratch, promise. But I'll have to go now, I wanted to buy a trunk before the meeting, and I have something else to do before leaving Hogwarts."

Severus kissed him again before Harry slipped from his grasp. He watched how Harry walked out through the door with a smile. With a sigh, he turned around and walked over to his brewing station. What better way to distract himself than with brewing?

Harry quickly made his way through Hogwarts, very well aware that Dumbledore was trailing after him. It was annoying as hell that the headmaster had nothing better to do than to follow a student through Hogwarts, but there was nothing he could do about it. The old coot should mind his own business.

However, Harry knew every nook and cranny of the castle. So he stepped behind a tapestry after rounding a corner, watching amusedly as a confused Dumbledore walked past him, apparently not knowing about this passage. Harry knew that it would make the old man even more suspicious about him that he knew the castle this well, but it was either this or not being able to do what he needed to do. So, let Dumbledore suspect him, he had no proof anyway.

Once he was sure that Dumbledore had left, he came out of his hiding spot and made his way to the seventh-floor corridor. In front of the painting of Barnabas, he paced three times with a particular room in mind. When the door appeared, he opened it with a smile and entered the room filled with clutter. Expertly he moved around the piles of furniture, belongings of former students and whatever else was lying around until he reached a bust. He knew that what he was searching for was close by and so he began to look for it.

Not even a minute later he spotted the box in which the diadem was stored. Carefully opening the lid he could feel the soul-piece that resided within it. With a smile, he closed the box, shrunk it, placed several charms on it to make it nearly indestructible and undetectable, safe for him and the Dark Lord, before he put it in his robe pocket.

Looking around for a last time – he should probably come back at some point and see what else was hidden in this room as he hadn't had the time before it had been destroyed in his time – he left the room again.

Careful, that Dumbledore didn't trail him again, he slowly made his way to the bathroom that he knew housed the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets. What he forgot though in his bid to hurry was, that the bathroom also housed a certain ghost, Moaning Myrtle.

"What are you doing here? This is a girls' bathroom!" the ghost exclaimed while shooting towards Harry.

"Oh sorry," he said surprised as if he hadn't known that fact. "You see, I'm new to Hogwarts, and I was exploring the castle for a bit. All this is so fascinating...and I didn't realise that this was a girls' bathroom. I'm so sorry Ms..."

"Myrtle...my name is Myrtle," the girl giggled at Harry's sheepishness. Harry was quite sure that if she were still alive, she would have blushed.

"Ms Myrtle...," he began but was quickly interrupted by the ghost

"Just Myrtle," she told him with another giggle.

"Well Myrtle," Harry said a bit shyly. "My name is Tom Hadrian Eldrid, it was nice to meet you, but I should go now. Not that someone catches me in a girls' bathroom."

"Don't worry," she waved his worries away. "No one ever comes here, except to torment me."

"I'm sorry to hear that," he muttered while looking down and walking over to the sink he knew would open the Chamber as if he wanted to wash his hand. "I know how it is to be mistreated."

That was when he realised that the tap didn't work.

"Huh, that is strange. Why doesn't it work?" he wondered.

Myrtle floated over. "Oh, that tap never worked, even when I was still alive," she told him when she suddenly began to sob. "The only thing I remember about it when...when I died...were two large yellow eyes right next to this tap."

With a wail, she dived right into the next toilet and vanished, flooding half the bathroom with it.

"That was easy," Harry muttered before turning towards the tap again. "Open," he hissed.

Like the last time, the sink sunk down into the floor and gave way to the large pipe that led down to the Chamber. Knowing more about it than last time though, he asked for stairs before he descended down the tube but not without closing the entrance again.

While walking further and further down the stairs, Harry mused what he should do about the ghost. He would have to stay on her good side to keep her quiet or she will probably rather sooner than later snitch on him. The best would probably be to befriend the lonely ghost. He knew only too well how it was to be alone and he didn't doubt for a second that if he showed her kindness, that she would keep his secrets.

Harry grimaced at that thought, this was far too much like Dumbledore's methods for him to be comfortable with. Though he would never abuse her trust, that much was clear, he just didn't want her to blab about him.

He sighed deeply. Maybe he could actually befriend her without her getting a crush on him. That had been creepy in his time. Harry shuddered at the memory of how she had stalked him. He would have to see how things develop.

A few minutes later, he stood in the large Chamber and was wondering where to best place the Horcrux so that it was safe. Not that anyone other than him or the Dark Lord would be able to get in here in the first place. Though considering what it was, he wanted it to be safe. He wouldn't risk it for anything.

Muttering under his breath he – for the first time – wandered through the Chamber in the hope of finding a good hiding place. However, it seemed that he wasn't all that silent as he suddenly heard a rumbling coming from the central part.

"Who dares to intrude in these halls?" a distinctively female voice hissed.

"Oops!" Harry muttered, not having known that the basilisk could get out on her own.

Actually, he had forgotten entirely about the basilisk. Were Severus here he'd probably berate him for being so stupid and careless.

"Uhm, hi!" he greeted the sixty feet tall snake in Parseltongue that just slithered around the bend ahead of him and towards him. "It would be appreciated wouldn't you kill me. I just came here to keep something safe that belongs to Tom Riddle."

Harry could only hope that the snake knew whom he was talking about. It was a good thing that after meeting her in his second year, he read up on basilisks. So was it that they had a second pair of eyelids that prevented their deadly gaze from harming anyone.

"You can speak?!" the snake exclaimed surprised, stopping in front of Harry and scenting him with her forked tongue. "You know Tom?"

"Yes, I can speak, and yes, I know Tom. Actually, I'm going to meet him soon..."

"You're going to meet him? How is he? When he didn't return after what happened to that poor girl...I feared that the meddling man did something to him," she hissed so quickly that Harry had problems understanding her. "It was all my fault you know? The girl I mean...I was careless. Salazar told me that I was never to hurt a child in these walls, that I was to protect them but I failed! It was all my fault!"

"Calm down," Harry said to the worried snake.

He took a step towards her and gently patted her snout that was just in reaching distance.

"Tom is alright. The meddling man didn't get to him, but he kept a close watch on him. Tom was worried that he would lead him straight to you. That is why he didn't return to you," he explained to her.

Okay, he didn't really know whether Tom hadn't returned because he was worried that he would expose the basilisk or because he was concerned that Dumbledore would gain some leverage against him. However, he had a feeling that Tom would never want to endanger the basilisk as it had once been Salazar Slytherin's familiar.

The basilisk seemed relieved that Tom wasn't hurt or worse dead.

"Can I come with you? I want to see Tom, please," she pleaded, and if Harry wasn't entirely mistaken, she also tried to convince him by giving him very effective puppy-dog eyes.

Harry couldn't help himself but laugh. A sixty feet long basilisk staring at him with puppy-dog eyes was just hilarious. He had no idea that a snake was even able to pull that off or any other facial expression as it was.

"How am I supposed to take you with me without anyone noticing?" he asked with a chuckle, ignoring the now pouting snake.

"Oh, I know how to solve that!" she exclaimed excitedly while turning around and quickly slithering towards the main part of the Chamber. "Salazar invented a spell especially for this occasion when he saw how large I got. It was so that he could still take me with him.

"How many times has he taken me to the market when he went to buy ingredients for his potions. Sometimes I offered him some of my venom, or he would collect my skin when I shed it to sell it or to experiment with it. I was forbidden from harming anyone of course.

"Or when he took me with him in the large forest that surrounds the school. I could freely chase my prey there while he collected plants and other things."

Harry had to hide a smirk. It seems that the basilisk was very talkative though with how long she was alone now it was no wonder that she got excited that she had someone to talk to. He could imagine Tom sitting here with her and listen to stories about Salazar for hours on end while petting her.

This image became even more apparent when they reached the room hidden behind the entrance in the statue. It was like a fully furnished living room. To the left was a large area that was cushioned and obviously meant for the basilisk. On the right stood several high-back chairs around a table just in the right height to work at and the walls were covered in bookshelves filled to the brim with ancient but perfectly preserved books. In the middle was a large fire pit in which a fire merrily burned, keeping the room warm.

The basilisk slithered up to one of the shelves and began to scent the books. When she found the right one, she poked it with her snout.

"This one, little one," she told Harry. "The spell should be on the first pages."

Harry was genuinely astonished how intelligent the snake was.

That thought brought him back to what happened in his second year. Even then, when the basilisk had tried to kill him, and he had to kill her in self-defence, he had thought that it was a waste of a life. However, now that he knew her better...he honestly felt bad for what he had done. He swore to himself that he wouldn't let it happen a second time.

The basilisk observed him.

"Are you alright, little one?" she asked worriedly.

That brought Harry out of his musings. Shaking his head to get the last remains of his memory to leave him, he walked over to the bookshelf.

"Just memories of the past haunting me," he answered ruefully. "Which book was it?"

The massive snake looked him over with a critical gaze but dutifully pointed at the book with her tail. Harry picked it up and flipped it open. It took him a bit to get used to the squiggly lines that rearranged themselves into English words, but soon he was reading it as if never read anything else.

"To shrink the basilisk...," he read out loud. "This seems to be it."

He carefully read the instructions, but it was a reasonably easy spell to perform. After practising the wand movements, he turned to the snake with a questioning look.

"Stop staring at me and shrink me already, little one," she hissed in irritation. "I want to see what changed since I was out the last time."

Harry chuckled over the eagerness of the snake but complied. With a flick of his wrist, he cast the spell and watched in fascination how the sixty feet long basilisk slowly but surely shrunk down to mere sixty inches with a thickness of two inches. Her forest green colour also lightened a bit. With her deep green colour, one could have mistaken her for a green snake if she wasn't thrice their size.

Once she stopped shrinking, she slithered over to Harry and up to his shoulder where she settled comfortably.

"Comfortable?" Harry asked her amusedly.

"Very. You're warm and soft," she replied with a content hiss.

Harry shook his head. He couldn't believe it, he was about to walk through Diagon Alley with the deadliest snake in existence coiled around his shoulder. He wondered how he got in this situation again but shrugged it off as his brand of luck. Only he would befriend a deadly snake and take her to a meeting with the most dangerous man of this time.

For security reason and not to freak out the other people milling around in the Alley, he cast a strong notice-me-not charm around her.

"By the way, what is your name? I don't want to call you snake or basilisk all the time."

"My name is Amaterasu, little one," she said with a hissy chuckle.

"It's a beautiful name, but I think I'll call you Tera, quicker to say. I'm Harry," he introduced himself, scratching the scales behind her head lightly, eliciting a pleased hiss from Tera.

"Keep doing that, and I won't mind too much that you mangled my name, little one."

That made Harry laugh.

"Maybe, but we'll have to leave now or I'll be late to my meeting with Tom. I have to do a few things beforehand," he explained to her while taking the box out of his robe pocket, unshrinking it and placing it in an empty spot on the shelve.

"What is that?" Tera asked curiously.

"This is what belongs to Tom and needs to be kept safe," Harry replied while leaving the Chamber, closing everything behind him.

"It will be safe here."

"That is why I brought it here," he replied while carefully looking around in the bathroom to see whether Myrtle was nearby.

Once he was sure that no one was watching, he climbed out of the hole and dusted off his clothes. After closing the entrance again, he made his way to the closest passage that would lead him beyond the wards of Hogwarts.

"Careful, the meddling one is coming this way," Tera suddenly hissed in warning.

Harry, knowing that he had no time dealing with Dumbledore right now, delved behind a tapestry depicting some goblin war. Luckily, Dumbledore walked right past it.

"The old fool is really annoying," Harry hissed in disdain.

"Tom said the same," Tera nodded in agreement. "The man kept a very close watch on Tom."

"Not only on Tom. I didn't arrive under the best of conditions, and now Dumbledore thinks that I'm either working for Tom or even am his son which is ridiculous," Harry scoffed.

Since he was sure, that Dumbledore was long gone, he continued his track to a passage he knew led to the outskirts of Hogsmeade. As soon as he was past the wards of Hogwarts, he apparated away, landing in a small side alley of Diagon Alley.

A few glamours later, he walked to the trunk shop while listening to Tera how things had been in Tom's youth.

It didn't take him long to not only get a seven-compartment trunk that included a fully furnished potions lab with several wards around it to assure that the fumes were absorbed and fresh air brought in. The trunk was quite expensive, but Harry didn't care.

Another thing he got was a three-compartment bag with bottomless and lightweight charms to carry his school things around in.

Tera was happily giving her opinion to everything as well as little anecdotes of what Salazar or Tom did. Harry had to suppress laughter when she told him that one day, Tom had gotten completely lost in Hogwarts but insisted that he knew where he was and how to get back. In the end, he admitted defeat and asked Tera to lead him back. What Tera never told him was that Hogwarts – who he also learned is a sentient building – had been toying with him.

Just imagining how frustrated and irritated Tom must have been made Harry's day.

After he was done in the trunk shop, he went and bought a few other things he would need but hadn't the time to get last time like parchment and quills.

All in all, he didn't need long for everything and was done with another hour to spare. Bored and knowing that he could defend himself if needed, not to mention the deadly snake around his neck, he decided to venture into Knockturn Alley. His first stop was a quick perusal of Borgin and Burkes, but nothing caught his interest there.

What caught his interest though was a small apothecary a few houses down. It turned out that the apothecary was specialised on extremely seldom ingredients and in good quality too. He already had quite the stack of ingredients when his gaze fell on a jar containing basilisk skin.

He chuckled lowly, knowing that thanks to the snake around his neck, he probably will have enough of that himself. Severus probably will be ecstatic that he can experiment with basilisk skin and venom, well after he was done berating him for his stupidity.

"May I help you?" a young woman, no older than twenty, asked him, ripping him out of his musing.

Harry blinked a few times before he shook his head. "Thank you, I'll take this."

With this, he handed the basket with the chosen ingredients, each in their own glass container, to her. She quickly summed everything up and after giving her the right amount, he stored everything away in his new bag and left the store with a "Goodbye".

Casting a quick tempus, he saw that he still had twenty minutes when he remembered that he should get Tera something to eat. Walking to the Magical Menagerie, he bought her several fat mice under the disguise that they were for his owl.

This didn't take long either, and since he wanted to be early, he made his way to the Leaky Cauldron.

There he chose a table in the back corner with a good view of everything. Tom, the bartender, brought him a butterbeer and left him to observing to coming and going. In the meantime, he fed Tera a few of the mice he bought, which she gleefully devoured. Afterwards, they talked more, Tera eagerly anticipating to meet Tom again.

"I would ask you though to stay hidden until I tell you that it's okay to come out," Harry told her. "I don't know how Tom will react when seeing me and I don't want you to get hurt."

Tera nodded in agreement and curled around his midsection, effectively hiding under his robe.

It was two minutes before one when the door towards the alley opened. Harry, who had been watching a family two tables over, looked towards the door to see who came in when he choked on his butterbeer that he was sipping at that moment. He pointedly ignored Tera's hissed chuckles.

The man, who looked to be in his mid-twenties, strolled over and with a smooth movement sat opposite of Harry while casting several spells around them to prevent others from listening in.

"I would have expected a more eloquent greeting than you trying to kill yourself with butterbeer," he said to Harry, who was currently trying to get his breathing back under control.

All that Harry could do though was staring. The man, who was obviously Tom Marvolo Riddle aka the Dark Lord aka Lord Voldemort, looked nothing like what he had expected. In fact, he looked like an older version of the Tom Riddle he knew from the diary. His hair was a bit longer and framed his face in small waves.

The gaze of those brown eyes was sharp and constantly observed and analysed their surroundings. 'Constant Vigilance' came to his mind but he somehow doubted that Moody would find that thought amusing. Though Harry could see that a glamour was cast over them, hiding his real deep red eyes that Harry could see beneath it. He had to admit that they fitted the man far better than the brown ones.

Underlined was this by a long open black robe with green trimmings over an Anthrazit coloured button-down shirt. Wasn't Harry happily and sincerely in love with Severus, he would undoubtedly give Marvolo a chance.

Harry stared at Marvolo for a long time until the man had enough and cleared his throat. Realising, that he not only had stared but also was caught doing it, Harry did the mature thing, he stuck out his tongue.

Marvolo rose an eyebrow, but his amusement was plain as day.

"Just how old are you?" he asked amused.

"35...well I was 35 before I was killed and ended up in this universe in this time," he answered truthfully with a shrug.

"That explains a lot, certainly your maturity," Marvolo explained his eyes sparkling in merriment.

"Hey, I happily inform you that I'm very mature, thank you very much," Harry whined, not that he would ever admit to whining. "And what did you expect? One of the Marauders is my father, another my godfather and the third my honorary uncle."

"So, you are a Potter, interesting. I'd say James' son?!" Marvolo speculated, he could see the slight resemblance to the youngest Potter spouse now that he thought about it.

"Got it in one. Yes, James Potter is my father though I have a distinct feeling that he won't get together with my mother this time around."

"Don't you fear to create a paradox?" Marvolo was intrigued, the possibilities alone.

"Nah, since this is not the same universe I was born in, I'm safe," Harry replied with a shrug and sipped his butterbeer. "At least that is what I was told."

"Interesting, very interesting...," Marvolo muttered. "Is that why you stared at me in the beginning? Because I look different to your version of me? I had assumed that you'd know how I look like," he said with a chuckle.

"I don't know what I expected but certainly not that!" Harry muttered, still shocked that Marvolo looked so...normal. "I mean you do look like an older version of the sixteen-year-old self I know and I also know how you looked like as a child. But the version of you I met...how you might look if you continue down the path you're on at the moment..."

Harry shrugged helplessly.

"What do you mean how I might look?" Marvolo asked tensely.

"Well...," Harry sighed deeply.

This wasn't how he wanted this conversation to go. He tried to find out just how sane the man was and not thrust information at him that might turn him hostile. However, he also knew that there was no way that Marvolo would let it go and he seemed very sane to him, but he knew that this could be just a mask.

"This will take some time to explain though first I have a question but please, for Merlin's sake, keep in mind that I'm not against you. Actually, I'm currently very much inclined to give you the wizarding world on a silver platter. So, anything I know and tell you is not meant to threaten you but to warn you so that maybe the future doesn't play out the same way again. Because I certainly do not want to live through it a second time," he explained tentatively, wanting to bring his point across.

Marvolo looked at him for a very long time, wondering what the teenager knew and why he might think that the not so young teenager might use his knowledge against him.

"How many Horcruxes did you make so far?" Harry tentatively asked.

In an instant, Marvolo went from relaxed and curious to tense and closed off. How did he know about his Horcruxes? Ah yes, he was from the future, but this was never meant to get out. Did he know where they are hidden? Had he maybe already destroyed one? He would have to check on them.

"Tom, please...," Harry pleaded before he sighed again. "You want to know why I was so shocked over how you look? Those Horcruxes...they are changing you, destroying you. In my time you had six...later even seven. They left you insane, a complete madman who threw the Unforgivables around as if they were candies. Who punished his followers for no reason at all.

"And your looks...oh your looks. I mean I already knew that you were handsome in your youth but when I saw you coming through the door...phew. If I hadn't already someone I love and were happy with him, I would definitely try and hit on you," he explained with a smirk. "Voldemort of my time however...let's just say he was a monster inside and outside.

"I'm willing to help you, ready to stand by you as you crush your enemies but should you choose to go down that road again, should you decide that madness is what you want...I won't hesitate to stop you!

"The future I saw, the future I come from...I will prevent it no matter the price."

Marvolo sat there stunned silent, and that was a feat in itself. A monster inside and outside? Utterly insane? What had become of him? Will become of him? This was indeed not what he envisioned when he decided on Horcruxes as his way to immortality. No, he wanted immortality to have all the time needed to make the changes to the magical world he wanted to do. Beginning with their idiotic believe that inbreeding and keeping their blood pure was a good thing and ending with the utterly corrupt system.

However, how was he supposed to achieve all this if he was insane? Not! That was the simple truth about it.

But then…did he actually believe that the boy…man…whatever, sitting in front of him was telling the truth? What proof did he have? He could be telling him all this to stop him from making more Horcruxes so that he might kill him more easily.

"I see that you don't know whether to believe me or not. The best I think is, that I show you," Harry spoke up when he saw the conflict warring in the other's mind.

He looked him straight in the eyes, but at first, Marvolo didn't react. Only after giving him a soft mental nudge, Marvolo finally caught up and used Legilimency on Harry. Moments later they both found themselves in Harry's mindscape which was an endless field of grass with flowers of different colours scattered all over it.

Marvolo looked around in interest and amusement. "Very interesting mindscape," he said.

Harry shrugged. "It serves its purpose."

"So, what did you want to show me?" he asked, directing his undivided attention to the teen.

"You have to know something beforehand," Harry replied. "In a few years – though I imagine that it will be different this time around – one of your followers will tell you the first part of a prophecy. I will tell you the prophecy fully but not now as we have more important things to do. Just know that the prophecy is either self-fulfilling, faked or complete shit. However, you took it seriously and began to hunt down a certain child that was part of the prophecy."

"I hunted down children?" Marvolo choked out. Just how insane had he been?

Harry nodded. "You did and what I show you now is the direct result of your actions."

With that, he showed him first what he remembered happened on that fateful Halloween night when Voldemort attacked the Potter cottage. He followed that up with each instance when he met the shade of Voldemort up until the resurrection in his fourth year. Until then Marvolo looked positively ill.

Everything he had worked for, all his plans...this raving madman was indeed not how he envisioned his future.

"How...how could I fall so far?" he brought out in a mere whisper.

"I honestly don't know, but I suspect, that in the next years before that Prophecy was reported to you, Dumbledore did something that pushes you over the edge. Or you finally created one Horcrux too much and shattered your mind to the point of insanity," Harry told him honestly while showing him fifth year followed by the sixth.

"How sure are you that this is the result of the Horcruxes?" he asked tentatively.

Marvolo didn't want to believe it, didn't want to think about it but if this...this monster was truly the result of him creating his Horcruxes...well, his first action in the morning would be not only to research how to reverse those he already made but also other ways to achieve immortality.

"Well," Harry began, not entirely sure that he should introduce the concept of him being Master of Death just yet. "I have...an acquaintance who deals with souls on a daily basis, and he told me what creating a Horcrux honestly did to the creator. It not only puts a small piece of your soul in the container but half of it.

"Think about it...creating seven of them...you'd operate with less than 1% of your soul! Not only that, with each piece of your soul that you stow away you also shatter your mind, your sanity and your magic. You might or might not feel it yet but you will if you create more of them."

In the meantime, the battle of Hogwarts and his willing sacrifice played out around them.

"You willing stepped in front of m-...the killing curse?" he asked, not even able to say 'my killing curse' because that madman was definitely not him.

Harry chuckled lowly. "The day you attacked me when I was a baby...your soul was so shattered already that with the rebounding of the killing curse your soul shattered even further. With nowhere to go the severed part went into me. You accidentally made me a Horcrux, and the only way to get rid of it was for you to kill me."

"How did you survive?" Marvolo asked astonished.

"Let's just say that I'm very tough to kill." Harry chuckled again.

They both silently watched the final fight between Harry and Voldemort, how the killing curse rebound again and killed Voldemort for good this time.

"You took him down, good," was all Marvolo said to that.

Harry stared at him in utter disbelieve. He had just shown the man that he had, in fact, killed him and he found it a good thing.

"This thing was an insane monster," he elaborated when he saw Harry's face. "You did good taking it down. I'm not him, and I promise you that I'll do everything in my might that I'll never become him. Thank you for showing this to me, it made me rethink a lot of things."

Harry let out a breath of relief and a tension that he didn't know he had left him. The conviction with which Marvolo has spoken proved just how solemn the man was. This was one thing less to worry about. He had to admit that he had been anxious about Marvolo's reaction to this.

"Then I'll gladly help you in your endeavour of changing the world. Just a little warning. You should rethink the hiding places of your already existing Horcruxes. Both the cave and the Gaunt shack are a too obvious hiding place, and I fear that if Dumbledore wants to find them that he'll realise this more sooner than later. Hogwarts actually is also very obvious though I took the liberty to relocate it to the Chamber of Secrets. Dumbledore cannot get in there. That reminds me, someone is waiting to meet you," he added with a smirk.

Marvolo nodded slowly. He knew he should be worried that Harry knew so much, not to mention actually was in possession of one of his Horcruxes but somehow, he was glad about it. Weird, he would have to think about it at a later point of time once he processed and analysed everything. It was a lot to think about, and he would have to carefully plan out how to proceed.

"The details of our cooperation we can talk about later once you had the time to think about everything," Harry said with a smile, this had gone far better than he had anticipated.

Marvolo again nodded. "This seems to be for the best."

With that, he retreated from the other's mind.

"Reduced to a mere acquaintance, am I now?" a deep slightly raspy voice asked once they both fully returned to consciousness.

A/N: 'til next chapter!