Disclaimer; I do not own any of the characters herein.

"Alright, if we are going to make you my equal in a reasonable amount of time and get this prophecy out of the way, you need to tell me about the training Albus has given you. If I don't know where to start, we'll never finish." Voldemort asked after breakfast.

"I think I passed most of my OWLs." Harry reluctantly admitted.

"Yes, but beyond that. What else has the old man taught you?"

"I can cast a patronus. Oh, and Snape raped my mind a few times while claiming to teach me occlumancy. He did a good job there, very subtle work opening me up for your influence."

"I know all about that. Surely there was something else?"

"No, in spite of all my fame, no one has ever deigned to teach me anything out of the ordinary."

"You mean to tell me that Dumbledore has known for sixteen years that you were the only one who could defeat me and he not only put you in an abusive home but never taught you a thing to help you get me?"

"When you put it that way I'm beginning to see why you hate him so much."

"You should! That's just… I can't believe he did that."

"As I said, he was really pushing the power of love angle."

"Oh that's criminal. Did he at least encourage you in that area?"

"I'm going to have to say no. Between all the bad press I get and the rumors of my mental instability, I've had all of one girl who could stand me in that area."

"How's that going for you?"

"She dumped me on our first date. The man can't even hire decent Defense Professors."

"Yeah, that bit is my fault. I cursed the job after he refused to hire me. I wasn't even full blown evil then. That bit with the basilisk and Myrtle was an accident. I can see we've got a lot of work to do then if you are ever going to be my equal and I can kill you."

"You're going to teach me?"

"Not exactly. It is theoretically possible to transfer knowledge and memories through a legimancy link. We might be able to just implant the necessary spell knowledge into your mind."

"It's only theoretically possible? Why hasn't it been explored?"

"Well normally there is a high risk it might render one or both parties brain dead. Given that the prophecy protects us, I think we can get away with it."

"If we both wind up drooling husks I think that would make us pretty equal."

"No, not really. A lot more than spell knowledge separates us. What happened to your fearlessness?"

"I am fearless in the face of death. Permanent impairment makes me a little wary."

"Coward. Alright sit down so we can get started, I don't know how long this will take. I will pass you knowledge of occlumancy first, an organized mind will not only make this easier, but you will be better able to use what you know."

"What do I need to do?"

"Just sit in the chair and look me in the eye. Relax and do not fight me as I enter your mind." Red eyes met green, and both men wondered briefly about the connotations of Slytherin Green and Gryffindor Red eyes belonging to the wrong person.

Time ceased all meaning as the minds met and shared information. Harry felt as if he were a glass, slowly being filled with sand. Each of the grains was another magical tidbit. A technique or a spell maybe…

Bellatrix Lestrange and Severus Snape entered the room sometime later. Two eyes darted over to see who was intruding, one red and one green. Two wands snapped up and one voice called "Crucio!" Bellatrix went down screaming. The effort broke the link and both men grabbed their heads and suffered a brief moment of agony before slumping to the table insensate.

Snape rushed over and checked them over. He tried to probe Harry's mind to determine what happened but ran up against a solid wall, perfect and flawless. Making a snap decision he slapped the emergency portkey on Harry before turning to help Voldemort. He would claim the brat escaped when the Dark Lord fell. With no coherent witnesses, it would be plausible…

Mrs. Weasley was in the kitchen of 12 Grimmauld place cooking lunch for the Order members when she heard the thump in the entryway. She rushed out and found Harry unconscious on the floor. She panicked for a few brief moments before snatching him up and heading for the floo. She threw in the powder and cried "Hospital Wing, Hogwarts!" as the fire turned green.
Madam Pomphrey had just escorted Professor Trelawny out of her territory when she turned to find Molly Weasley and her favorite patient entering from the fireplace.

"What did he do to himself this time? You should know by now not to take an injured person through the floo network."

"He was kidnapped and tortured by You-Know-Who! I used the floo because it was the fastest way to get him here."

"You did right then, put him down on the bed and we'll see what we can do to help him." The hospital Matron rolled up her sleeves before pulling her wand. Muttering a few words under her breath she turned to the overbearing Weasley Matriarch. "He has suffered severe nerve damage in his brain, but his magic is already working to fix it."

"What can we do?"

"Go fetch me a regenerative and headache draught from the cupboard. At this point there is nothing we can do he isn't already doing. I've seen the boy pull some healing miracles in my time, but this takes the cake. There are already traces of a potion I don't know in his system but if you hadn't told me he had been tortured I wouldn't know."

"Why is that?"

"The only spells I can prove have been cast on him in the last week are the ones I just did. Whatever they did to him I can't find. The unknown potion seems to be working to repair damage. I can only assume that whatever they did to him wasn't magical and they gave him this potion to keep him alive long enough to have their fun."

"Oh the poor dear. Here are the potions." They administered the potions to the sleeping young man who began to stir in his sleep.

"You stay here with him Molly, I'm going to run and get Dumbledore."

"Hurry!"

Harry gently rose out of his mind feeling every bit as abused as he was. He opened his eyes to see the hospital wing with better clarity than ever before. He groaned in recognition.

"Oh good, you're waking up! Hold on Harry dear, the Headmaster is coming. Madam Pomphrey has gone to get him."

"That's good Mrs. Weasley, I need to use the loo first. Excuse me please."

Harry hobbled over to the water closet and made sure he hadn't been followed before closing the door. He loved Mrs. Weasley dearly, but she was a bit overbearing. He quickly charmed the lenses of his glasses clear and made them into a portkey before putting them on. They wouldn't work on Hogwarts grounds, but as soon as he stepped off, it would appear he had been kidnapped again. Not for the time, he was enormously grateful that Voldemort had removed the tracking spells from his wand.

He never expected to be grateful to Voldemort for anything, but then again he also didn't expect him to be more helpful than Dumbledore. Apparently sanity was an overrated quality. Neither of the two most powerful wizards of the age were sane and it didn't slow them down.

He quickly took an inventory of his mind using his newly acquired occlumancy skills. He appeared to have everything Tom Riddle studied at Hogwarts and a bit beyond that. He knew it was only a drop in the proverbial bucket compared to what was sure to come, but it certainly wasn't bad for only a morning's work. The Slytherin side of Harry desperately wanted to suck Voldemort dry of magical knowledge. He had never interpreted the prophecy in that light. He had expected to go down in a blaze of glory or else have that luck of his save him at the last minute. Voldemort seemed almost insulted that somehow Harry was to be his equal, and was going to ensure he became something worth the title before facing him down. Well at least he would have a fighting chance.

He emerged from the bathroom to find Professor Dumbledore and Madam Pomphrey entering the hospital wing. Madam Pomphrey saw him and started shaking her head and scolding.

"What do you think you are doing out of your bed? You've suffered severe nerve damage, you shouldn't be walking yet. We don't know that all the right nerves have reconnected yet."

"Yes ma'am, I just needed to use the loo."

"Harry, I know it's going to be hard, but we must know what happened last night." Dumbledore said in his best saddened grandfather voice.

Harry slammed his occlumancy up to maximum strength before answering. "I was kidnapped using a portkey while I was asleep. When I arrived I was without my glasses or my wand. Voldemort and I talked for a little while before I lost consciousness again."

"What did he say? We must know what happened."

"He knows Snape is the spy. He discovered the prophecy."

"He must have pried it from your brain before you became proficient at occlumancy."

'Meaning you've tried to break in since you entered the room you sneaky bastard!' Harry thought. "He said he kidnapped me so he could finish off the prophecy once and for all. He said the prophecy didn't say who would win and that he was clearly superior."

"Can you remember anything else? Maybe if Madam Pomphrey knew what happened she could help you faster."

"I don't remember any torture. The last thing I remember was Bellatrix Lestrange entering the room and hearing the cruciartus curse cast before I woke up here."

"Madam Pomphrey will take care of you Harry. She is the best there is."

"Professor Dumbledore, why was I never trained better if you knew the prophecy all this time? You knew I would have to face him but you never tried to help me."

"Like I said in my office, I was only trying to let you have a childhood. You must forgive the failings of an old man."

In his mind Harry was using every foul word he knew to describe Dumbledore. He really was a manipulative bastard.

"I don't think the power of love is going to help me sir." He tried to sound young and pitiful, "Surely there must be something else."

"No my boy, trust me. Love has a power few ever know."

Hand gestures and creative anatomical suggestions joined the foul language flowing through Harry's mind.

"If you say so sir. Where am I to go now? Are you going to take me to Headquarters? The Burrow maybe?"

"No Harry, it is far too dangerous. You must return to your relatives. Only the blood protections can protect you right now."

'And where were they when I was kidnapped?' He asked himself. "Sir, may I ask for a favor?"

"Of course you may, and if I can accomplish it safely I will try to accommodate."

"I would like to study ancient runes and arithmancy here in the fall. I've been studying on my own and would like formal instruction." Score one for Riddle's memories, those were far more interesting classes than divination and he could use them as cover for something else assuming he was still alive at the end of the summer.

"I am sorry Harry, but without an Owl in the subject you won't be allowed into the class."

"But those students who are home schooled take their tests at the ministry in the last week of July. Since I studied on my own, that should count as home schooled right? Those classes will help me much more than divination when I must face him again."

"You have a point. I will try to arrange for you to take the tests."

"Thank you sir."

Madam Pomphrey decided that was enough for now and shooed the Headmaster away as she moved to retake her patient.

"Madam Pomphrey I do believe I've missed you in the few weeks since I was last here."

"Next time just drop in for tea. I honestly don't know how you get yourself into these messes. In my day people had the sense to stay away from homicidal dark lords and their sadistic henchwomen."

"I'll try to remember that." Harry said with a chuckle.

When Dumbledore's damnable portkey dropped him right back in Dudley's second bedroom at Privet drive later that afternoon, he made haste to gather his possessions into his trunk before activating his portkey on his glasses. The old man hadn't even allowed him to stay overnight in the hospital wing "to recover".

He reappeared outside the Riddle home in Little Hangleton and set his trunk floating in the air behind him as he crossed the wards and ascended the steps. A few death eaters tried to stop him as he entered the home but he paid them no mind. He hissed at them in parseltongue and they froze in fear.

"I knew you would return." Voldemort's cold voice called as he entered the main hall.

"The old coot tried to put me back into the home you kidnapped me from mere hours after I 'escaped torture too unspeakable to name' without bothering to change the wards in the slightest. You may want to kill me, but you're honest about it."

"Admit it, you've tasted forbidden knowledge and you want more."

"That too, I have a very large Slytherin side, and it thirsts for knowledge. The sorting hat almost put me into Slytherin, but that pompous fool Malfoy had already been sorted there and he was an insufferable git. I had to beg it not to, and it only complemented my cunning deception."

Voldemort laughed. "A most cunning deception indeed. If you hadn't just walked back into the home of your executioner calm as you please I'd almost wonder if it was where you really belonged."

"There is that of course. But as the indoctrination all first years receive says, Gryffindors go forward. Besides, if we are going to work so hard and meet as equals, I've at least got a fighting chance to avoid the execution."

"Or after I show you the power of dark magic you may reconsider and join me."

"What was it you said to me in my first year? There is no good or evil…"

"There is only Power and those too weak to seek it. And so today you return to my home seeking the power only I can give you. You are learning well."

"What did you do with Snape if you don't mind me asking? I was very surprised to wake up in Hogwarts."

"He is currently in his potions lab. I have need of many delicate potions I don't have the time to make myself. He has escaped punishment for now, but when you die, he will join you. He will not be informed of your continued presence. Let the fool think what he will."

"I'll make you a promise if you'll grant me one other last request."

"Two last requests? That's unusual, but I guess since your first one would have to happen anyway, I can afford to consider it."

"If I don't survive, be sure that Dumbledore gets what is coming to him. I'll promise the same in return."

"Are you kidding? Of course that old coot is on my list. By not preparing you better, he's actually making me work hard. That headache was a killer wasn't it?"

"Not as bad as some of them you've given me over the years."

"After dinner we will return to our efforts. There is much still for you to learn, and more to do. Have Trippy bring you to my quarters after you have eaten and we will not be disturbed again."

Later the next day Harry was amazed at all the magical knowledge that had been forced into his head. He had a slight headache from his morning session, but Voldemort had told him there wouldn't be an afternoon session. There was something else they would do instead. He followed the house elf to the room he was expected to be in.

"Come in Harry, now we're going to start making you equal in magical strength as well."

"How are we going to do that?"

"There are many ways. Most ways to increase ones magical potential as you might guess are scary Dark magic, or so says the ministry. I know your distrust and unwillingness to use Dark magic, so I've arranged a different sort of ritual for today. This ritual will forcibly expand your magic core."

"You haven't given me your ritual knowledge yet. Why isn't this way used if it isn't Dark?"

"Firstly it is obscure knowledge, which is also why it isn't on the Dark magic list like other non Dark rituals. Secondly, it's exceedingly painful. Thirdly and most importantly, it almost certainly wouldn't help most people."

"Explain the last one if you would. If it won't help most people how do we know it will help me? This could just be a long torture session."

"It will be a long torture session, but that's beside the point. There is only about a one in one hundred chance that it will expand a person's core. The other ninety nine times it will shatter their core leaving them squibs and probably killing them. The original intent of this ritual was to break a prisoners magic before putting them in jail, sometimes it had to be performed twice. No one ever survived a second time through."

"And you are counting on the prophecy to prevent my death and magical loss? Damn, that's ingenious."

"You've got a prophecy protecting you. Take the long shots, it can't hurt you in the long run."

"What do I need to do?"

"Since this is supposed to be performed on prisoners, you don't do anything. In fact, I will be chaining you to the floor. This will hurt a lot, but it will yield results."

"Can't we do this one later if it's going to hurt so much? We've still got a lot to cover in magical knowledge."

"No, I've got a specific set of rituals that you will be partaking in. By expanding your magical core first, the others will have a larger natural base to work from meaning we will need fewer of them to bring you to the proper level. Given that almost all rituals to boost power require sacrifices, you'll thank me later. Are you afraid of a little pain?"

"Alright, if you think it's really necessary."

"So you know, I'm going to enjoy every second of your pain. It will be most exquisite."

"I honestly expected nothing less."

To call what came with the ritual as merely painful was a horrid lie of the greatest magnitude. If the cruciartus was the worst pain one man could inflict on another, then this was divine retribution from on high. He felt every cell in his body explode and reform as the magic was pushed to it's limits. It lasted so long he could not remember what the cruciartus curse felt like, but he seemed to think it was preferable for some reason. Two hours of unending hell later, he collapsed against the floor and heaved one breath of cool clean air before surrendering to the darkness.