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The room was dim but the red eyes burned furiously with excitement and triumph as he entered the room. 'Master. . .' at the sight of Lord Voldemort, all the Death Eaters dropped to their feet and began fervent whispers of admiration and duty. Among them, Lucius Malfoy and Severus Snape, both most trusted in the circle, dearly wanted to strain and see what it was that their Master had hauled in.

'Silence, I bring with me today my latest acquisition. Come here now, good little dog,' the thing which half crawled half resisted caused gasps and murmurs as the emerald eyes of Harry Potter burned into the darkness from his crawling position. Severus Snape nearly got out his wand to hex Voldemort in his great disgust. How could anyone put a child through such things?

'Now, this was once Harry Potter. Now, it's nothing but a piece of filthy trash. Watch him obey,' the Dark Lord the proceeded to give all sorts of commands one gave animals and the Death Eaters laughed and jeered as the child played dead, fetched a handkerchief and bowed low before its Master. Lucius let himself roar with laughter at the mocking ness of the situation.

'Silence now, Death Eaters. You are all loyal to me, are you not?' Lord Voldemort let his eyes linger upon the senior ones like Lucius Malfoy, Severus Snape, Walden McNair and some others. They stared determinedly back, willing to show their greatest sincerity. Lucius allowed a seductive smile to creep up his lips for he knew how the Dark Lord desired him like anything even though Lucius would never warm the Dark Lord's bed.

'I have played enough with the dog. And I want to pass him over to one of the senior Death Eaters . . . Lucius, do you have any objections?' Lucius Malfoy was pleasantly surprised when his Lord offered the boy as a prize.

'You have helped me round up the rest of the Dementors recently and you deserve a reward for single-handedly managing all hundred of them,' Lord Voldemort favored Lucius with a smile and gentle stroke of the hair. Lucius managed not to shudder under the more than repulsive touch.

'No, my Lord,'

'Then the meeting has ended for I'm sure you'll need to get acquainted with the little puppy, what say you, Harry?' Lord Voldemort harshly kicked the diminutive body of Harry Potter, not bothering when he got a soft cry in return as the boy writhed under the impact. Lucius laughed coldly as he reached down and grabbed a fistful of the boy's hair. A sharp cry alerted him to the fact that the boy was fighting back.

Dirty fingernails were scrapping helplessly against his cloaked arms as the boy screamed and cried, fighting like there was no tomorrow. 'I will not have my slaves disobeying me,' Lucius Malfoy spat into the pale face of the child as he let his gloved hands make hard contact with the boy's face.

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3 hours later

'Do you know who I am, Potter?' Lucius Malfoy had taken off his travelling cloak to reveal an expensive black silk shirt and black pants. He now was seated elegantly by the dining table, his hair carelessly shaken loose while he kept his grey eyes fixed on the prize which lay curled up helplessly by the foot of his chair.

Silence.

SLAP!

'Answer me, Potter,' Lucius Malfoy commanded as he forcefully uncurled the tight ball with his bony fingers and looked at the tired child who was keeping his gaze ever so carefully onto the ground. In the lighting, Lucius Malfoy saw tears of frustration and humiliation course down the boy's cheeks, wetting the expensive marble floor.

'Malfoy. Lucius Malfoy,' the words were so soft the boy might as well have been talking to the floor. Lucius Malfoy was extremely patient when it came to getting answers and he raised an eyebrow now as he nodded, an impassive smile curling on his lips.

'Very good,' he picked up with his bare fingers a piece of meat from the table and tossed it to the ground. He watched as the boy eyed the meat but stayed motionless by his chair. Like a wolf in taming, Lucius compared the two. Seconds passed, the boy's gaze left the meat and turned back to the floor where he stared at resolutely.

'Go on, you can eat that,' Lucius Malfoy encouraged the dog-boy he had by his chair. The boy refused to, stubborn as he was, keeping his eyes carefully fixed on the floor. Lucius Malfoy could turn violent as proven by the next sound.

SLAP!

There was a whimper, soft, nearly imperceptible but Lucius Malfoy heard it all the same.

He watched as the boy got on all fours and crawled to the place where the meat had landed and bent down like a dog would and ate it from the ground. Lucius Malfoy was slightly impressed by Lord Voldemort's obvious good training although he himself would never have forced a boy to eat that way.

'Now, tell me, how did you get into the Dark Lord's hands?'

There was no need for slapping now for the boy stopped in half crawling position to answer meekly, 'Diagon Alley,' the voice was hoarse and weak as the boy kept his head down for fear of letting Lucius Malfoy see the tears. Harry had not spoken for the last two weeks and he was trying to learn how to speak again.

'Is this the first time you have spoken since your capture?' Lucius Malfoy asked while delicately choosing a piece of lettuce from his plate.

'Yes,' the same hoarse and rough voice, frayed around the edges with slight fear.

'I see,' Lucius Malfoy said shortly as he tossed the piece of lettuce onto the floor before hastily saying, 'You may use your hands,'

Harry stopped in mid-bent and then looked at Lucius as though fearful he had heard the wrong thing. Lucius Malfoy nodded, authority clearly given. He watched closely as the boy stretched out a pale hand and closed the dirty fingers around the green piece of food and brought it to the small mouth, chewing slowly. Was it just Lucius' imagination or was it that Harry really gave him a grateful look?

'Thank you, Master,' the boy's voice was still as hoarse and low.

'Very well, tell me, did the Dark Lord feed you often?' Lucius Malfoy let his fingers run through the boy's hair, carefully tangling out the messy hair. It was a slightly erotic gesture but it was innocent in this situation.

'No, sir,' the boy was trained to obedience, broken harshly, Lucius realised.

'Good boy,' Lucius Malfoy now had a bit of bread torn and he dropped it next to the boy. He watched once more as the child took the piece of bread and ate it without a word. This was true slavery to its best, when the slave no longer cared about how much food it had been given.

'Potter, look at me, I may not be as nice as Albus Dumbledore who will feed you from a golden spoon but we both know where we stand. You are a slave now and you do as a slave does. So long as you do as you are told, I guarantee no harm will fall but if you disobey me, you face the consequences. Answer when asked and silence when not, do you understand the rule?'

Lucius Malfoy had never compromised with a slave before but the boy was different and he was willing to compromise.

He watched the disbelief in the green eyes turn to understanding as the boy replied, 'Yes, Master,'

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2 hours later

'Master?' Lucius Malfoy looked up from the paperwork from the Ministry he had been dealing with. His gaze lowered to the hesitant boy on all fours by the door. He was about to ask what in Merlin was the boy on all fours for when he remembered that the Dark Lord had trained the boy that way.

'Get up, Potter. You only behave like a dog at mealtimes and when visitors come,' Lucius Malfoy penned the last lines of the letter elegantly in his neat script and then set aside the paper. He looked at the boy and studied him. The boy was lean for his age and height. Not that he was tall but that the boy was thin even for a child whose height did not correspond with his age.

'Yes, Master,' the well-practiced answer.

Why in the world did he come? Lucius questioned himself then remembered, he himself had called for the boy to come as soon as the bath was done with. Lucius was not touching any slave whose body reeked of dirt and the Dark Lord.

'I was thinking. You will obviously not be going back to Hogwarts this year, or forever, for the matter. Your education will be stopped. I am offering you here, a chance to have an education, only it's taught by me. I want you to think about it. I do not routinely offer my slaves an education taught by me, but I see your intelligence,'

Lucius intended to let the boy think about it and turned away to write another letter, this time to Draco. He needed to let the boy know the foundations of what was happening.

'Master?'

Lucius' grey eyes raised sharply to meet Harry's emerald ones. Would the boy accept or would the stubborn Gryffindor streak in him reject? Lucius was secretly pleased when he heard the answer.

'I would like to be taught by you, sir,'

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Ok, so here is the next chapter. I was honestly amazed that one of you actually thought I would end the story there. . .well, I would never do that as I see this plot a quite nice one. I can exploit from here. Keep your reviews coming in as I love reviews. . . (yes, the author is obsessed with them - she'll die if she doesn't receive at least two per day)

This is one story I will never stop because it means a lot. One of my pets died the very day I wrote this which was yesterday night. He died peacefully but I still feel the loss, it's like a part of your heart is being tugged away. It hurts to some extent. That's why I devote this story to my hamster Edison-Faye.

Love,

Ice And Fire Vanessa