A/N: Sorry for the wait, had a busy week, but thanks to all the favorites and reviews, it inspired me so much that this turned into double the length of the other chapters.

~Chapter 14~ Obsessive much? – October to December 1993~

Harry glared at the moon from where he sat near the Black Lake. Everything around him was silent, though that was to be expected with it being almost three in the morning.

He'd been too troubled to sleep, and with it being the morning of October the 31st, well, he really wasn't looking forward to the day. Something bad always happened on Halloween and with Voldemort's constant nagging and hounding through both his minions and his letters (though the older man would never admit to, or call it that), Harry was about to lose his temper, or his mind, whichever came first.

He was the MoD for Merlin's sake! He didn't need protection because nothing could permanently kill him except Death itself…and yet, he couldn't tell Voldemort that because the man would wonder how he'd gained all three items in the first place and it would allow the man to easily realize that he was Ghost as nothing else would explain Ghost's presence during the ritual…not that he knew of at least.

Harry sighed. Things had really become complicated after their vow.

A low whine met his ears and he startled slightly as a wet nose pressed itself into his hand. He smiled, "Hey Sirius, why are you out here? Don't you have History class to teach tomorrow?" Sirius sank down at his side before laying his head on Harry's lap and Harry reveled at the feeling of being able to see his godfather alive again as he scratched between his ears.

Surprisingly enough, having Peter arrested and Sirius freed had been the Dark Lord's apology for the way he'd acted the night they performed the vow and it was one of the only good things that had come of it, except for the obvious non-killing vow of course.

Dumbledore had naturally jumped at trying to turn the situation to his advantage and he'd offered the man Binn's job after the ghost mysteriously disappeared a week later. It didn't take an idiot to see what had happened and yet the ministry was unsurprisingly blind.

Sirius had been unsure about the truth at first when Severus filled him in (more like stupefied him and forced him to listen), but when Harry did the same, with his memories as proof, it barely took anything to sway the man to their side.

Harry didn't blame the man for not immediately believing him because he understood that the man had followed Dumbledore for years, and the man only knew him as his estranged godson, but that didn't completely remove the hurt he felt when he realized that the man had been doubting his words.

It was a vivid reminder that the man wasn't his Sirius, but the appearance of Death with a message from the ghostly Sirius in the form of a light smack to the back of the head had him feeling quite silly for a moment as the entity disappeared once more…proving that he was never alone even if it felt like he was.

Some people might even think that he was stupid for missing his Sirius if he could see him at any time, but, even as the MoD, the dead felt as cold as ice and that was why he now reveled in being able to curl up next to the warmth of this Sirius instead.

He was happy that Death didn't reveal himself completely though…he was sure Sirius would experience quite a few flashbacks of the Dementors if he were to do that in his usual garb.

They sat like that for a while before Sirius stood up and looked towards the castle before glancing back at him. Harry gave him a small smile, "Get some sleep, I won't be out here for much longer. Just need to clear my head."

Sirius jipped before he trotted off and Harry returned his attention to the Black Lake where he could see a curious pair of young Grindylows and their guardian nearing the shore. They must have smelled that he wasn't completely human though because although they moved cautiously, it was more with excitement than anything else.

He did detect that the older Grindylow that accompanied the two moved a bit more hesitantly and he narrowed his eyes slightly before sharpening them with his magic after watching the group for quite a while.

The older Grindylow was glancing around shiftily as if he was waiting for someone to appear or for something to happen, but he didn't seem to expect that one of the younger ones would raise an alarm as they fearfully looked at Harry…no…they were looking behind him!

He quickly dodged to the left but seemed to be a second too slow as a stupefy nicked him on the shoulder. It wasn't hard to guess who the culprit could be, but for a moment he was frozen in shock as he looked at Sirius, who had his wand pointed at him after having clearly just released the spell.

But something seemed off and Harry frowned at the clear evidence of an Imperius as the man looked back at him without a shred of feeling in his eyes.

Dumbledore, as always, seemed to lose his common sense around him though and Harry was only slightly surprised when the man stepped out of the trees behind Sirius, "Sorry my boy, but I couldn't let you go down your self-destructive path any longer. The Light needs their hero and Sirius here agrees with me. So we shall now go back and I will remove any and all compulsions that those evil Slytherins have placed on you and then you will work to defeat the Dark Lord so that we can annihilate the Dark side forever!"

The man made grand sweeping gestures and spoke as if he was performing for an audience. Honestly, he seemed to be more nutty than usual…or if you wanted Harry's full opinion, it seemed as if the man had finally lost the one last teetering marble that had kept him from making downright stupid decisions.

And it made Harry's next decision so much easier as he finally allowed his childish masks to drop. How dare the man lay a hand on one of his family!

He fluidly stood and felt the shadows curl around his shoulders as he shrugged off the spell. The Grindylows gave a screech before disappearing beneath the water, and yet Dumbledore seemed to be as oblivious as ever about the danger he was in as he gave a satisfied nod.

"It's good to see that you know what needs to be done, it might make the rest of the process a lot less painful my b-boy…" Finally, the old man's words stuttered into silence as Harry's form seemed to grow slightly older, and black wings appeared on his back as the anger on his face became more prominent.

Dumbledore started frowning as he seemed to take a hesitant step back before stopping himself, "N-now there is no need to get upset, we will do anything we can to restore you to your normal self and to reverse what the dark wizards did…we will…"

Harry snapped his fingers and watched as the man's eyes rolled into the back of his head before he collapsed. Harry walked closer to lean over the man, stepping on the man's wand in the process and snapping it, it was a fake, nothing more, "You should be happy that I have decided that you would make the perfect birthday gift for Voldemort. I don't think you would've wanted to know the alternative…"

Harry turned and looked at Sirius, the man seemed to be torn between shock, anger, surprise, and unfortunately…fear, as the Imperius was released. Harry hated it, but it was who he truly was now. He stood there, frozen, and waited for the other man to say something that would shatter their bond…already dreading the crippling emotional pain that would accompany it.

But it never came.

Instead, Sirius looked at the stars, took a deep breath, and then gave him a sideways glance, "I would wager a guess that there is a good reason why you want to give You-Know-Who's arch-enemy to him as a present…?"

Harry froze before blushing a deep, dark red, which he hoped the man couldn't see, but then he saw Sirius relax, "It seems that Dumbledore has gone completely insane so I don't blame you for taking the other side. There also hasn't been any news of attacks or murders so I take it the Dark Lord is back to his old self?"

Harry found himself gaping at Sirius. The older man was taking this a little too well.

Sirius gave a sad smile before he stepped forward and hugged Harry to his chest, even with him now looking slightly older and sporting a pair of big, black wings, "You forget that my father, Orion Black, used to be a supporter of his. I even found myself present once or twice when the Dark Lord attended some of the parties my mother held each year and the stories that Dumbledore told didn't quite match up with the man I saw. I was rebellious though, as you know, I didn't want to be forced into taking the mark…"

Sirius shifted slightly to poke at his wings and Harry couldn't help the amused smile that formed as a result, "…and Dumbledore's words easily started convincing me that the man was a monster. That is when I turned my back on my family instead of trying to talk things through with them, and I will regret it until my dying day because I never saw them alive again."

Harry felt the man give a shuddering breath and he tightened his arms where they were already clutching his godfather's shirt. He knew what he had to do next, Sirius had already seen his wings and features change, so he had to tell him the truth.

He gave Sirius one last comforting hug before he stepped back, "I have something important to tell you, but first…", Harry took out the Elder wand and aimed it at Dumbledore, who shrunk to the size of a doll before he placed the old man in a deep sleep and sent him to the Limbo dimension, with a special shield of course.

He then turned back to Sirius, but the man was watching his wand and as someone from the Black family, Harry wasn't really surprised that the man would recognize it, which begs the question, why didn't he notice it when Dumbledore had it?

Sirius lifted his hand and hovered it over the tip of the Elder wand, but it seemed that he didn't dare touch it as he spoke almost reverently, "This is the real Elder wand…I-I can't believe it. My mother used to tell me stories about it, and she would point out Dumbledore's wand after he returned from fighting Grindelwald, but Dumbledore's wand lacked the essence of Death and my mother used to say that it was because the true Master of Death had already been selected somewhere else…"

Harry felt the tension completely leave his shoulders, maybe this would be easier than he thought. "You are right, but I think we need to head back to the castle before I tell you the story. We need to make it seem like Dumbledore returned to the castle before rushing off somewhere, otherwise, they might suspect either a student or a teacher if the man were to simply disappear."

Sirius nodded and Harry molded the shadows around him before adding a bit of magic, which created a perfect replica of Dumbledore. A few simple commands later and the shadow golem rushed off towards the castle with instructions to bump into and to chat with at least one staff member, and if it happened to be Salazar or Severus, well, all the better.

He then turned back to Sirius and held out his hand, "Hm, Salazar, Severus, Sirius…I really have a strange habit of trusting people whose names start with an 'S'." Sirius looked at him strangely but didn't comment as he took Harry's hand.

Harry used the shadows to carry them directly into the Chamber of Secrets, but unfortunately, he completely forgot about Selene and the man quickly dragged Harry behind him in an effort to protect him the moment he caught sight of a gigantic snake, even though Harry was sure that the man had already worked out that he was the Master of Death.

Luckily Selene usually had her inner-lid closed and she immediately relaxed when she felt Harry's magic. She gave a hissed greeting before eyeing Sirius to make sure he wasn't a threat and then she slithered off into the back of the Chamber.

Sirius stood frozen before he slowly turned to Harry, "T-t-that was a basilisk! They don't grow that big, do they? What the hell is it doing in a school…", the man trailed off as he finally caught sight of the snakes that decorated the room, "…this is the Chamber of Secrets! How the hell did you find the Chamber of Secrets?!"

Harry couldn't help it, he burst into laughter. The man really wasn't reacting as he expected him to at all and it felt good, "As I said, I will tell you what happened, but you might want to sit down, and unfortunately I am going to need an oath to ensure that the information cannot be extracted in any way."

Sirius nodded his understanding, and Harry led him to the library where they took a seat on the comfy couches where Harry told him everything that had happened in his past world and then in this one. He had to admit that he'd been afraid that Sirius would be irritated or angry at him over quite a few things, but the man was mostly angry about the fact that he'd walked to his death, and about the people from his other world taking so much from him.

Harry had just finished explaining his sorting when Salazar appeared, still in his Lockhart disguise, and Sirius jumped before pulling his wand on the man, "How did the pompous bafoon get in here?!"

Harry laughed and Salazar smiled before he allowed his disguise to fall away, "Good evening, Sirius. I see that Harry has finally filled you in? Forgive me for not introducing myself properly before…I am Salazar Slytherin…"

The man waited for a response but got none as he stepped closer and waved a hand in front of Sirius' face before looking at Harry, "I think I broke him….if I'd known that this was all it took to shock him into silence I'd have done it long ago. Oh and Severus requests your presence. Apparently, Dumbledore just talked to him during his morning rounds and the man had been acting quite odd…"

Harry nodded and looked at Sirius, but the man still seemed to be in a state of shock. For some reason, he felt as if the two men had quite a few things to talk about so he used the shadows to travel directly to Severus' study.

The man in question was checking on a potion that had already been simmering for weeks now, but he looked up and immediately made his way towards Harry as he appeared, "What happened? Did he do something?"

Harry didn't have to guess who Severus was referring to, "Yes, he used the Imperius on Sirius and had him stun me before declaring that he would remove everything that the dark side did to me. I naturally lost my temper the moment he involved Sirius in such a way and the man will now make a lovely addition to this year's present."

Severus gave a hum of consideration, but Harry could see the anger in the man's eyes, "Is Sirius alright?"

The question took Harry by surprise, but he nodded, "He is fine. I also filled him in on what really happened and he seemed to accept it all. I left him in the Chamber with Salazar when I came to see you because he seemed to be in shock once Salazar introduced himself."

Severus nodded before he checked on his potion once again. He then took a dreamless sleep out of his pocket and handed it to Harry, "I thought you might need this later, given what day it is, but it seems you started early this year so I suggest you go back to my rooms and sleep. I will tell everyone that you aren't feeling well."

Harry smiled slightly before he took the potion and hugged his godfather. He then made his way to the other man's chambers, though he didn't drink the potion right away.

He first summoned Kreacher and instructed the elf to give him the locket. The elf was reluctant at first, but Harry allowed Regulus' ghost, which he'd retrieved a few years back so that he could reunite Sirius with his brother, to speak to the elf.

Once he had the locket in his possession, he followed Voldemort's example and he fashioned a matching bracelet from his magic before imbuing it with numerous protective spells.

It took a while and by the time he finally finished it was breakfast time already, but instead of grabbing something to eat, he followed Severus' advice and drank the potion. He would take some time later to write Voldemort's letter, even though the man's birthday was still two months away.

~~~…Voldemort…~~~

Voldemort was frustrated, and dare he say it, slightly (very) disappointed. It was his birthday and he'd attended a ball that had been held by the Malfoys in his honor a few hours previously, only to come home early in the hope that he would either catch his mate unawares or that he would find a present waiting for him, but nothing happened.

Had something happened to his mate? Had he forgotten it was his birthday today? Maybe he was just busy…but with what? What could keep him so busy that he forgot? Had his mate heard about what happened with the Potter boy? Was his mate now angry at him for some reason?

The doubts were driving him insane and he wasn't used to feeling this way. He walked towards his bedroom, intent on taking a shower to distract his mind for a bit, and that is when he saw it…a present wrapped in familiar paper sitting on his desk. Though for some puzzling reason this one had quite a few holes that had been poked into the sides.

A smaller present sat on top of it, and it had a letter tied to it with a black bow.

Voldemort ignored the relief that spread throughout his chest as he walked towards it. He didn't even stop to cast the usual detection spells. His mate had not forgotten!

He reached forward and carefully loosened the letter before just barely stopping himself from sniffing at it. He was not going to lower himself to the level of some school girl with a cru-damn it! His body unconsciously relaxed as his mate's scent enveloped him and he closed his eyes for a moment to savor it before he eagerly opened the letter, hoping that his mate left some clue to his identity.

Voldemort

By now you are probably wondering why I keep sending you presents and why I seem to know so much about your life. I wish I could tell you, honestly, it would make things so much easier for me, but I doubt that you would accept me as I am.

Sure you know that I am immortal, just like you are now, but I doubt that you would want me or even interact with me once I tell you how that came to be.

I know that I will still tell you one day though because I wouldn't want any secrets between us.

I know you are fighting a war from the shadows, against a man that basically forced you to become a Dark Lord in an effort to fight against his manipulations and bias, and I hope I haven't overstepped any boundaries, but I would ask that you open the top present first.

The first present holds something of yours and also something from me. I hope that it keeps you safe and that you would use it…

The second present was an unplanned but welcome addition that will help you win the war, but as I said, I hope I didn't overstep…

As always you will find something in there for Nagini as well.

Happy Birthday,

Ghost

Voldemort felt a strange crushing feeling in his chest as he read the letter. He wanted to grab hold of his mate and reassure him that he very much wanted him, but the confession told him that Ghost didn't even know that they were mates.

This posed a problem because it meant that he probably wouldn't meet his mate until the other man personally confronted him. His eyes were once again drawn to the second-last paragraph of the letter. Something that would help him win the war?

He curbed his curiosity and obediently opened the first present (Nagini was currently out hunting and he refused to wait a moment longer), which held another packet of stunned vampire bunnies as well as a few actual golden-colored bunnies in between. Voldemort almost wanted to hide those because he dreaded trying to figure out how to summon them if Nagini happened to like them more than the vampire ones.

He set the packet aside and took out a flat velvet box. He could immediately sense the Horcrux inside and he eagerly opened it. Slytherin's locket lay neatly on the cushioned surface and it took him a moment to notice that something else lay in the center of it.

He gently picked up the bracelet and immediately felt the power curl around his fingertips in protection. It made his breath catch and he attached it to his wrist without a second thought, only to sigh a little in relief as the ache that his mate's absence caused, lessened slightly with his power wrapped around him.

He then spent a few moments looking at the locket. A part of him wanted to wear it once more, but even though it was still precious to him, it was now tainted with the memory of his past mistakes. He picked it up and placed it in the hidden compartment that he'd made to house the objects that carried the pieces of his soul.

Voldemort then eagerly turned towards the last box…what could possibly be inside?

~Harry~

Harry lay awake with wide eyes as his mind kept running over what he'd written in the letter. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but now he wasn't so sure. He'd basically CONFESSED to the Dark Lord!

He picked up a pillow and pressed it over his face, almost hoping to die from embarrassment. At least he would be able to come back to life after the Dark Lord murdered him once he finds out just who Ghost really was, which was what probably would have happened if the vow weren't in place.

He closed his eyes and tried to sleep, but knew he would be tossing and turning about for the rest of the night.

(A/N: Just had a crazy thought, would you like me to add Sirius as Salazar and Severus' third?)