"He's Lost it! He's totally mental" Ron reasoned as he paced the boys dorm. "I mean You-Know-Who in Hogwarts Castle…"

Hermione was quiet as he rambled, she looked deep in thought.

Upon waking up after the encounter in Dumbledores office, Harrys first action was to find his friends, cast a silencing ward and bring them up to speed.

"What is Dumbledore thinking, allowing you to agree to Voldemort's terms" the Brunette spoke, shaking her head.

A heavy frown marred her forehead.

Ron made a pathetic sound of disagreement.

"That's what you took away from that?! What about letting him into Hogwarts! I don't think I'll ever sleep in this room again" he shuddered in revulsion at the very thought.

"I wonder why you didn't feel Voldemort in the Castle, Harry"

Harry and Ron both turned to Hermione then as the question registered.

Ron nodded enthusiastically in agreement with the brunette.

"That's right! If he's been visiting Hogwarts then you should have felt him with your scar, mate. Maybe that means it wasn't really him?" he asked hopefully.

"Unless there's another Parseltounge speaking Incubus out there with a Magically Enhanced Snake, then it was him Ron"

He shrugged in response to the question.

"You didn't even realise he was there?", she asked further.

At a shake of Harry's head, she continued

"Tell me everything you remember about the encounter. Don't leave anything out" she pressed again, giving him a look that was full of concern.

"Well at first I didn't notice him. You're right in saying that I didn't feel him in my scar but then I wasn't in my right mind. I was worried about Remus".

She nodded, understanding.

"It was Nagini's hissing that gave him away" Harry recalled. "When he looked at me, that's when it happened. Just like at privet drive, I couldn't move. It was like he hypnotised me…"

"Hermione, what is it?!"

The Brunette had gone very pale at his explanation.

"Voldemort used his thrall… and you felt it?"

As his nod she felt Ron's bedding behind her knees and sat down on it.

Ron immediately blushed as she sat on his bed spread, but Hermione was focused solely on Harry.

"Harry, you do understand don't you...?" she began in a kindly tone.

At Harry's blank look, she huffed in indignation.

"You have read the book I gave you, right?!" She demanded.

Her tone making very clear what she thought about that.

Harry looked to Ron for help.

The Redhead shrugged apologetically as if to say, I got nothing.

Hermione looked between them before she threw her hands up in the air.

"Oh, you two are exhausting!"

She waved her wand making them flinch at the suddenness of it.

"Accio Harry Potters copy of the Monster book of Monsters Eight edition"

A loud banging startled them both, as his familiar red trunk came tumbling out from under his bed.

"Alohomora!"

She shouted the spell and the trunk sprang open.

Ignoring the obvious mess inside she caught the book with two hands as it flew out from under the items in Harry trunk.

She freed the yellow and red stripped sock from the corner of the book and turned it over.

Stroking a finger down its long furry spine she caused the book to wriggle playfully. It made a purring sound as it quivered and she untied the clasp.

She flicked through the pages quickly before coming to a stop.

She then dumped the book roughly in Harrys lap open on a chapter called Incubus.

"Read!"

She demanded of him, crossing her arm, her toe tapped the ground like a drumbeat.

Harry's eyes scanned the page. His forehead pressing into a frown as he did.

His eyes got wider then, and wider. By the time he reached the second page he was sure the disbelief was showing plainly in his face.

After all, how could Hermione think… that!

"Go on then,"

Ron gestured him.

"What does it say?"

Harry snapped the book closed; his cheeks heated in indignation.

"What you would've known had you two bothered to read it"

Hermione answered for him.

"The Incubus thrall only effects men…" Ron nodded impatiently "-who have an already predisposed attraction towards other men"

Ron nodded again before he stopped.

He made an Oh shape with his mouth as the repercussions of that statement sank into his dense skull.

Harry's blush deepened significantly at the redhead's reaction.

He recalled the words on the page.

Words like Initial Attraction and…

…Sexual Desire.

And in that instant, he felt sick and angry all at once.

He wasn't attracted to his parents' murderer!

The very Wizard had slaughtered Hundreds in his campaign for power, killing either by his own hand or at his behest.

It was ridiculous and uncharacteristically illogical of her to assume that Harry was drawn to Voldemort sexually.

"What about Ginny!"

Ron started then, drawing his attention back to his friend.

"If you're attracted to blokes then why did you and her- "

"Oh, don't be a moron, Ron! Harry clearly didn't know himself until now"

Ron's face went green as he reached the same conclusion as Hermione.

"You-know-who mate. You're sure you…Uh, well I guess that's a silly question given that you, er-"

He stopped as Hermione sent him a death glare.

"He killed my parents" Harry practically spat at the girl.

Hermione's face softened, seeing his anger but her eyes remained firm.

"He killed Cedric" Harry continued to remind her. "And the Dursleys, Mad Eye, and merlin knows how many others… I'm not attracted to Riddle"

Harry finished, in a tone that clearly said he was done discussing this.

"Tom Riddle?" interrupted a different voice from the doorway.

The three turned to see Ginny stood in the doorway.

"What'd I miss?".

He groaned internally.

"Oh, just how Harry's crushing on the darkest wizard in a century – oof!"

Ron grumbled as Hermione elbowed him to shut him up, muttering something like 'No Tact' under her breath.

Harry threw Ginny a look to show just what he thought of that statement.

"Oh don't look at me like that Harry, I've known since the summer that you liked boys" she gave him a small forgiving smile. "We both did" she gestured to Hermione.

Harry sputtered with indignation.

"You've known… I'm not attracted to men!" He insisted.

Not Ginny too…

"Harry,"

He looked at Hermione as she cut in.

"When you told us about your first encounter with that Incubus at Privet Drive, the first thing I did was check the textbook", she spoke apologetically.

Ginny moved into the room and stood at the bedpost of Harrys bed.

"I thought he was handsome"

Ginny said, drawing his attention again.

"Tom Riddle," she said, by way of an explanation. "-or at least the one I met from the diary was gorgeous. And brilliant, and he had this way of speaking to me that made me feel like I was the only one that mattered in the whole world-" She blushed then lightly in embarrassment.

"Not you too!" Ron groaned and sat down next to Hermione.

"He's also highly manipulative, ruthless and self-serving", she finished for good measure. Her brown eyes moved over the room occupants in the room realising she was missing something still.

"Why are we talking about Riddle anyway?".

As Hermione began to fill Ginny in, Harry watched the redhead.

He was surprised she'd taken any notice of his predilections since they'd broken up, but now her reaction during summertime made sense. Her supposed quick transition from angry to accepting made total sense.

For a moment, he entertained the idea that Hermione's book might be right.

Truth is he had found Tom Riddle good looking. He had noticed that first encounter in second year, when the young man had materialized in the Chamber of Secrets but that hardly made him gay.

"You seriously never had an inkling, mate?"

Ron addressed him, quietly while the girls discussed.

"I mean, not even a clue…?" Ron asked sympathetically.

"I think, I'd know if I was attracted to men, Ron!" Harry glared.

"Clearly not… Ouch!"

Ron looked up at the irritated Brunette, as he rubbed the back of his head.

"Stop doing that!" he shouted.

Hermione ignored him and turned a sympathetic eye on her friend.

"Maybe it's just him-" Ginny offered.

All eyes turned on her. She shrugged by way of an explanation.

"I'm just saying sometimes we are attracted to who we are attracted to and it doesn't who they are, or what gender they are, or what family they're from…"

Ron frowned

"I'm keeping a closer eye on you".

For a long time after the conversation ended, it stayed with Harry playing on his mind, even when topic turned to the next Quidditch match and Homework.

When everyone had retired to their dorm rooms, Harry lay awake. Screened inside the safety of the red curtained walls of his bed with the candle light casting shadows onto the coloured vale, all he could do was think.

Hermione had to be wrong.

Just because Harry could appreciate the man's handsome face, didn't mean that he was attracted to the Lunatic, or any other male for that matter.

Refusing to think on it further, Harry turned over to sleep.

That night he dreamt of glowing blue eyes and black fangs.

The next few days passed in relative peacefulness. Classes with Luxor continued, the Unspeakable commenting that his sparing skills had improved greatly. Harry still found wandless magic during combat a fairly difficult assignment though in contrast his new Occlumency gift had progressed quickly.

Harry now didn't have to concentrate as hard to block an intrusion. Luxor has taken the opportunity at every lesson to test his barriers, and after some additional weeks of meditation, Harry had successfully blocked each attempt. He now blocked at the subconscious level.

If only his other classes had developed as smoothly. Instead, Harry found that his newly awakened senses played havoc with his class work. He found himself unduly distracted during lessons which led to more than one mishap in the classroom.

If the teachers noted his lack of concentration, then they said nothing.

Draco Malfoy however seemed to think having warned Harry about Remus Lupins trial now put them on equal footing. On more than one occasion the blonde Slytherin had started conversations with Harry in the halls. It was precisely the reason why Harry was now landed with the boy in Potions.

When Snape had accused him and Ron of attempted murder by mass explosions that third period, he had told them to split and find new partners. Ron had quickly paired up with Hermione who had already returned to her desk with the finest of ingredients. The red head distracted himself in his textbook and the Brunette busily stirred the cauldron widdershins.

Harry looked around for a partner and groaned internally as he realized the last open seat was beside Malfoy.

The potion itself was complicated enough to ensure that the boys were too busy for much chatter.

The Genus Revelare potion was designed to reveal the family lineage of the donator, by means of a single drop of blood. Upon bottle their vials the boys waited for Snape to do his rounds.

The potion master came to stand before their station and eyed their work critically. He watched as Draco went ahead and pricked a finger with the spell given them, then held his finger over his tube of yellow gloopy liquid. The potion turned a maroon colour and began to fizz.

It gave a little a pop a moment later and when the smoke cleared there appeared a parchment with two family crests adorned on it. Harry instantly recognized one as the Black crest from the Black family house picture in Sirius old room at Grimmauld place.

The other he assumed from the Green colour and Giant 'M' was the Malfoy emblem.

Malfoy smiled smugly and turned his gaze on harry expectantly.

Harry proceeded to follow the same procedure. He coughed through the smoke and gazed in wonder at his crest. He frowned in confusion and shrugged to Snape not sure where he'd gone wrong.

"How is it, Potter that even with a complete potion in your hand you still managed to mess up something so simple as adding a single droplet of blood?"

Snape asked in his usual drawl, earning a snicker from the Slytherins behind them.

Harry glared at the snide bat as he walked off and turned his attention to vanishing the remaining potion.

Draco picked up the discarded parchment.

The other students were only completing their potions now with the exception of poor Neville whose attention weaved between the book and the mustard-coloured sludge in his cauldron.

Harry flinched as the boy hastily started adding ingredients and the top of his toad livers bottle came off into the potion, along with a much too generous dose of livers.

Ron and Hermione were just finishing up also. Hermione was already ahead researching her results in one of two text books they had been given, 'History of the Britain's 12 Sacred Magical Families' and the 'Pure-Blood Directory'.

Harry looked at is his parchment again in the blondes' hands, wondering why his results had been so skewed.

The symbol wasn't one he'd ever seen before.

It was a circle completely encompassed inside a Triangle, and through the circles middle ran a vertical line.

Perhaps Luxor would know more.

As Harry's results had not worked, he had been tasked with researching the black family alongside Draco. When they left class Draco became determined that they head for the library. Harry sent Ron and Hermione a longing look as the pair headed for the Great Hall for free period.

"We're cousins you know"

Draco's voice cut into his thoughts making Harry look at him incredulous.

"Sorry?" He asked, confused.

"Distant," the blonde added by way of an explanation. "I mean, I'm related to the Blacks through my mother. As I understand it, you're Sirius Blacks Heir".

Harry frowned.

"How did you know that?".

Draco sniffed.

"Because as the last remaining Black son Grimmauld Place should have gone to me. When father turned up at the Ministry to claim the deed for the House Elf it wasn't my name on the record. It was yours". He said with annoyance in his tone. "Magically that makes you the Black heir and that makes us cousins".

Harry wondered what Ron would think about that.

"Maybe that's why your results were messed up. I mean if you had two patriarchal lines and the potion is only designed to detect one it could be the reason it broke. Either way ".

Harry thought on it and determined there could be some truth to that.

"Just don't expect me to start slicking my hair back".

Draco huffed and continued walking towards the library.

"I knew Sirius quite well when I was younger" he said bringing Harry's attention back to him. "In those days we spent a good deal of time at Grimmauld Place. My mother grew up in that house after all".

They swung a right passed the Slytherin common rooms towards the direction of the moving staircases. As they rounded the next corner Harry caught movement out of the corner his eye in an alcove up ahead. He stiffened.

As they passed it he stopped suddenly.

"Hey, I've just remembered that I've left something behind. Go ahead, I'll catch up with you in the library". Malfoy frowned suspiciously.

"You had better not leave me waiting. If you do, I'll tell Snape your contribution was virtually non-existent".

Harry rolled his eyes.

"I don't doubt that for a second"

He made to turn back and waited until Malfoy had rounded the corner before he stopped. He waited a further thirty seconds for good measure, before he cautiously approached the alcove.

The snake was coiled around the suit of armour there hissing softly. As he approached, he felt his chest constrict with fear. The memory of her being in the shack when she had tried to bite him, springing into his mind.

"Is he crazy?! What if a student found you here" Harry hissed at the snake.

The serpents' vibrant colours clashed horribly with the dark grey of the alcove walls she was shadowed inside.

The snake shared the equivalent of a laugh. It echoed around them like wind in the corridors.

"Master… wants the boy"

"Stop calling me that," He snapped at her.

Then what she had said registered with him and his eyes went wide,

"It's a long way to send you from Dumbledores office. He could have just used a Patronus"

"Not there," she interrupted him.

Harry stepped back instinctively as she unwound from the coiled position and slithered out towards him without further explanation. Harry followed her as she wove her way down the hall. He would never call her elegant, she'd probably bite him if he did, but her large bulky muscles brought her effortlessly and quickly over the stones and he had to jog to keep up with her.

By the time they reached their destination he was out of breath.

Harry stared up the door to the girls Bathroom and he started as he realised where she had brought him.

"You are kidding, right?"

The snake eyed him critically, taking in his words and processing them. She seemed to come to the conclusion, rightly, that he was perceiving this as some kind of trap.

"Master says he will not harm. He would not lie to Nagini", she hissed carefully relaying her words. "He says the Old one is hiding something from the boy. Information that he should know".

Harry frowned hearing that. It wouldn't surprise him that Dumbledore would hide something from him but why would Voldemort want him to know it. And was Dumbledore just letting Voldemort passed the wards anytime to he liked now?

He idly wondered if Voldemort were telepathically feeding the snake the words to say.

Could he see them right now?!

Disturbed by that thought, he nodded to the snake and stepped inside the bathroom.

While he hissed the password to the faucets, Nagini curled up in the corner by the door behind a statue.

Harry entered the mouth of the tunnel and was surprised to find steps leading down its wide girth. He quickly made his way down trying and noticed that the sea of animal skulls below that had once been prey to the Basilisk, were now disappeared.

He couldn't help but liken the changes to spring cleaning, and wondered if the Basilisk would still be there where it had once fallen those five years previous.

What would Voldemort say upon finding the once huge beast nothing more than a desiccated corpse?

Harry stepped forward towards the familiar heavy metal vaulted door and focusing his attention on the snakes with bejewelled red eyes. He hissed at it to open.

The lock gave way with a resounding thunk, as each Snake slid back into position and the door swung open.

Harry could immediately see the carcass of the Giant Basilisk in the center of the Chamber. What shocked him was that nothing remained if it except the Skeleton and the teeth.

He tensed as he saw the figure up ahead kneeling beside the skull. As Harry approached, the man stood up and he caught a flicker of something going into his cloak pocket.

Voldemort turned around to look at him then.

The man was just as terrifying with those burning blue eyes, as he had ever been with the red. Sure, the blue were less creepy but he still managed to get the right amount of menace into them regardless.

"I'm astonished that you came"

In English, the tone was surprisingly modulated and not at all sibilant.

"If that's true, then why invite me?"

Harry asked genuinely curious to hear the answer to that.

"Lets call it an experiment. After all, you must already believe that the old fool is keeping information from you, or you would have dismissed Nagini claims as nonsense and we wouldn't be here,"

The man's mouth lifted at the corner.

"There might be hope for you yet, Harry".

"Don't call me that" Harry frowned, not liking how normal it sounded coming from the megalomaniac.

The man clucked his tongue at that.

"It is your name... Harry James Potter".

"Harry is what my friends call me. You're definitely not one of those".

The man stepped forward until they were but a foot apart.

Harry hated how he was forced to look up at the other, and the bastard knew it too, if the way his eyes crinkled in enjoyment was any tell.

"A shame that you should no longer feel physical discomfort at my displeasure,"

His gaze drifted to where Harry knew his scar was located.

"You have earned my wrath many times more than anyone before you, and yet I no longer feel the need to rip your throat out with my bare hands. Tell me, Harry…"

Harry gritted his teeth.

"…why do you suppose that is?"

Smouldering blue eyes stared down at him waiting to see what he would make of that.

Harry frowned, not sure of what the man was getting at.

"I have a theory" he began again. "One that I am very keen on testing"

The man smiled, and if Harry didn't want to punch the man square in that elitist jaw of his, he might consider it a charming smile.

… attractive even? Asked a mocking voice in his thoughts, that sounded suspiciously like Hermione.

"And what is that?", Harry asked, partly curious, but mostly just wanting to be done with this and away from the man.

Instead, he got the opposite of his wish as Voldemort leaned in so close that Harry felt his breath on his face.

He refused to back away, knowing the wizard would see it as a weakness.

Whatever challenge the man was looking for in his eyes, he must have found it because Harry didn't miss the way the mans eyes flashed, predatorially.

"The theory is that Dumbledore has been lying to you, for a long time I surmise, and about a great many important things".

The man leaned in closer still so they were practically nose to nose.

"What if I told you that he knew about the attack on Godrics Hallow before it happened".

Harry's eyes snapped up to meet the blue eyes, and he searched for the hint of lie in them.

His heart beat faster as he found none.

"What are you implying exactly?" Harry asked, his voice shook with surprise hearing the accusation.

Voldemort continued to stare openly at him, and Harry realised that he was probably being manipulated.

Did he care though? If what the man said was true…

"I'm saying he let it happen" Voldemort confirmed. "he saw a very convenient way to rid himself of a dangerous enemy, and he decided your life, and the life of your family was worth paying for it. After all, he could have erased Severus Snapes memory of the Prophecy entirely before he brought it to me".

Harry felt shocked hit him with the forced on a stream train.

Snape did what?!

The man stepped back out of his personal space, and nodded seeing the uncertainty and the anger in the now blazing green orbs.

"Why are you telling me all this?" Harry still had the mind to ask. "What have you to gain from it".

"Call it shared interest. Dumbledore may use less extreme methods but he's manipulated the Minister, his Order and you into thinking has the answer to it all"

"I think you see it," he nodded to himself, "or you've started to, at least"

"You have a very important role in this war. A mere boy of 17. Has it never crossed your mind as to why you haven't been trained to the degree you should have been? Dumbledore continues to keep you on the sidelines, and to my great annoyance you refuse to stay there. Jumping in time and time again to thwart my plans".

Harry had wondered this very thing, many times in fact. Of course he was being trained now, though Voldemort didn't know that and he wasn't about to divulge that secret anytime soon.

Harry silently bolstered his mental defenses.

"Dumbledore knew about that Halloween night," Voldemort nodded, in certainty. "he could have stopped it but in the end he chose not to interfere, just as he did with your werewolf at the ministry. Funny that, how those who cease to be of value to him are conveniently disposed of".

Harry swallowed, not liking how the comparison rang out.

"Maybe, but you're poking holes. Trying to set me against him. Why should I listen to a word you say?"

Harry asked, suspiciously.

If what he said was true however then Dumbledore was not the person he thought he was.

Voldemort's sharp eyes evaluated him further.

"You shouldn't," the man admitted. "but I have never before lied to you. You are being manipulated into a weapon that is being wielded against me. Trying to kill you hasn't worked out for me, despite my best efforts. You could say I'm willing to try my hand at diplomacy.

I once offered you a chance to join me. Perhaps you'll rethink that when you look him in those twinkling eyes of his, and watch him lie directly to your face".

Voldemort smirked.

"And do ask him about his good friend Grindelwald. That should shake him up".