Chapter 4
The younger man started when a hand wrapped around his forehead and tugged his head back so that it rested on a firm shoulder, red eyes gazing down warmly into his own green eyes, eyes that could be like cold spilt blood to others was like a warm fire after a bitterly cold day to him.
"You're stressing," Voldemort scolded.
"There is just so much," Harry said.
"And we have a long time to go through it," Voldemort shook his head, fluttering gentle kisses over Harry's cheeks.
"But we only have a few hours here and we can't keep coming back," Harry said even as he leant even more into Voldemort and allowed the comfort that he was offering to sink into him.
"We can take back to the manor everything that you want to take back and look at, and when you are ready we will bring it back and take more out, there is no rush to go through this all in one day, and there is no limit to the amount of time we can come back," Voldemort assured him.
"Thank you," Harry smiled turning and wrapping his arms around Voldemort's waist, leaning up on his toes to press a kiss to the other man's lips.
"For what?" Voldemort asked when they parted, though he looked quite pleased with himself to have made Harry happy.
"For being here with me and helping me with this, for making sure that I don't get overwhelmed by this," Harry shook his head.
"Always," Voldemort promised, combing his fingers through Harry's dark hair. "Now, let's choose what you want to look through,"
Harry went to follow him but blinked when he felt something drop around his neck as Voldemort walked past him. He looked down and stared at the beautiful teardrop ocean blue opal surrounded by shining diamonds pendant that was sitting around his neck.
"What…" Harry said looking up to see Voldemort had summoned several chests to them and was standing watching him.
"A gift, my great great great great grandfather had it made for his husband for their 60th anniversary, I can only dream that we will have that long together, but I want to promise you that, and more if the universe is good to us," Voldemort said, and Harry felt his heart thumping in his chest at the words as he closed his hand around the pendant around his neck.
He walked forward and cupped those sharp cheekbones, gazing up into red eyes that gazed back at him intently, twinning his arms around the taller man's shoulders, kissing up his throat before pressing their lips together and easing hungry, demanding kisses to those thin lips, drawing the older man to him, drawing him further into his arms and drawing him into a small world of their own where it seemed as though only the two of them existed, where it was simply them and the contact between them their lips pressed together, their bodies pressed together.
"You're far too tempting," Voldemort muttered against his lips, holding him even closer to his body, close enough that Harry could feel the reaction that the older man had had to the kiss. "So innocent," he murmured kissing Harry again and then kissing the red that had spread over Harry's cheeks at feeling the erection pressed against him.
"Voldemort," Harry whined pressing his face into the strong chest.
"Sorry," Voldemort chuckled.
"You sound it," Harry grumbled but he pulled back and smiled down at the pendant, "I love it, and the meaning behind it. Thank you," He breathed out.
"I want to give you a thousand things like this, and a thousand compliments, a thousand flowers," Voldemort brushed more kisses over his cheeks.
"I want to give you a million kisses, a million hugs, I want to hold your hand for 60 years and more, and be at your side for every second of it," Harry said softly.
"That is what I want more than anything in this world,"
"More than conquering wizarding Britain?"
"It is a close thing, but yes," Voldemort smirked as Harry squawked and pushed at him playfully. "Come on, let's choose what you want to take with us,"
"Have you been wandering around like this the whole time?" Harry asked curiously before taking another bite of his burger, glancing around at the people in the cafe with them, sitting chatting and eating and drinking, completely unaware of the fact the Dark Lord was sitting right in the middle of them.
"Pretty much yes," Voldemort smirked, taking an elegant sip from his latte.
"This is a little surreal," Harry admitted looking around. "It is nice as well,"
"Hmm?"
"Just being out, on a date with my...partner, not having anyone staring, not having any pressure for the first time in my life, just enjoying myself. Thank you," He smiled.
"Have you had a date before?"
"One, and it was horrific," Harry snorted.
"Good, I have no standard to have to beat," Voldemort chuckled.
"You definitely don't," Harry placed his knife and fork on his plate and settled back contentedly in his seat. "I think you could take me on the same date and I would enjoy myself anyway though, because you are with me,"
"I don't think anyone in my life has felt like that before,"
"I am not anyone else in your life though, as you said, we are bound together,"
"Something that I will always be grateful for,"
"Me too," Harry smiled warmly, choosing to ignore the way red eyes looked at him with a hint of shock in them, determined that he would make sure Voldemort knew for the rest of their lives how much of a gift he considered it to be that he was bound to this man, that out of everyone in the world he was the only person that he would love, that he was lucky enough to be the one to experience that love.
"Are you ready to carry on?" Voldemort asked softly placing galleons down onto the table for their meal.
"Yes," Harry took the hand offered to him and followed him out of the cafe, the two of them drifting down the alley window shopping. They had already bought a few things for the manor, the living room and bedroom, to make it more theirs than the impersonal place it was right now.
Harry had also purchased a few items while he was in the store getting his clothes, things that he was fairly nervous about wearing and excited about wearing for Voldemort, and items that he had been bright red while purchasing and the store owner had winked at him as she rang it up and stashed it away for him so Voldemort wouldn't see them guessing that it was a surprise.
"I don't know what he is going to do," The voice caught Harry's attention and he looked over to see Hermione and Ron standing with the twins talking.
"I hope that he is ok," Fred agreed.
"Not Harry, Dumbledore, he needs to get Harry back, and he is going to have to clean up the mess that Harry had made," Hermione huffed.
"I know that they didn't treat him well, I can't believe that he would do something like that though," Ron shook his head.
"...we literally pulled bars off of Harry's window when he was 12...mum has been sending him food every summer because they starved him," George said slowly.
"Not treating him well is like saying we look similar. I don't think Harry did...that to them, but if he did, fuck they deserved it!" Fred growled.
"Harry was foolish, he only had to wait a little longer. How he broke the wards I don't know, he isn't smart enough to do that, and how he worked out Dumbledore was monitoring him through them, I don't know," Hermione huffed.
"You're kidding right! The fact Dumbledore wove them into the wards that were meant to protect Harry is just…" Fred shook his head, seemingly unable to carry on. Harry glanced at Voldemort, a questioning look on his face as to whether he had been aware of that little addition to the wards. Before the older man shook his head Harry knew that he had not, going by the narrowed his and pinched lips.
"Harry is impulsive and foolish, this has proven that, Dumbledore did it to try and protect him," Ron rolled his eyes.
"He had to have added them when he created the wards around that house, Harry was a baby, I am not sure how prophetic Dumbeldore is claiming to be now on top of all his other acclaimed virtues, but I am not sure how impulsive a baby can be," George growled.
"He…"
"Don't...just don't!" Fred held up his hands to stop whatever Ron and Hermione were clearly about to say, matching fury on both the twins' faces.
"We will be discussing this with Dumbledore!" Hermione hissed.
"Of course you will, while you're kissing his arse try not to get too lost up there!" George snapped, the two of them turning and walking away from the gawping duo.
"Do you want to go home?" Voldemort asked softly getting Harry's attention back to him as Ron and Hermione stormed off.
"No, I have wasted too much of my time on them. I am having a good time," Harry smiled at him.
"Are you sure you are ok?" Voldemort frowned a little stroking Harry's cheek.
"If I did not have you, no I wouldn't have been. But I have you, I have a home that we are making together and to go back to. I am fine, honestly,"
"Come on then, I want to show you a store that I think you will love given your apparent penchant for ornaments," Voldemort said dryly.
"I appreciate you indulging me," Harry laughed.
"We can get a few chests for your possessions that I took from that place so they can be stored safely in our bedroom," Voldemort said leading Harry down the road.
Harry was humming to the music playing from the record player that Voldemort had bought for him when they were in the alley, along with a huge amount of records.
He was sorting through the items that they had taken from the Potter vaults, looking through them curiously, setting aside the things that he was interested in looking at closer, and setting aside the other items to go back to the vault.
It was definitely interesting to look through most of them, and it was taking him a while to do. He wasn't sure where Voldemort was, he had gone out on an errand, but he wasn't concerned, the trust that he had in the other was a little odd to him, especially considering the things that he had heard from the two people that were meant to be his best friends, but this bond that was deepening between the two of them seemed to have given him a calm and centring that he had never felt before, and he was sure that he would never feel with anyone else.
"Where is My Lord?" A voice snapped with disdain, making Harry lookup startled to see Lucius Malfoy standing there looking at him with extreme disdain.
"Don't know," Harry shrugged going back to the book he had been reading through. Voldemort had told him that the higher level Death Eaters would have access to the manor now with Harry's permission, he wasn't going to spend the rest of his life hiding away.
"I asked you a question!"
"And I answered it," Harry said without looking up from his book.
"You little slut, you are nothing more than a concubine for My Lord who has sold himself to spread his legs! You think that you can speak to me like that! You will tell me where he is now, and I may not hurt you!" Harry knew without looking up that Lucius had drawn his wand and was now pointing it at him.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you," Harry said calmly, turning his page.
His arm warmed up where Voldemort's mark sat on his forearm as Lucius' spell hit him, bouncing off of the ward that Voldemort had wound into his mark to protect Harry having created a similar ward to the blood wards created by Lily and Dumbledore to protect Harry from him, using the blood sacrifice of the Dursleys - particularly Petunia as his blood relative - something that would particularly protect him from those that bore his Dark Mark.
"I did warn you," Harry murmured as he turned another page while a stunned Lucius stumbled to his feet from where the rebound of the spell had thrown him into the wall.
"Crucio," A cold voice hissed, and Lucius hit the floor again as the spell slammed into him, burning through his nerves. Voldemort stepped fully into the room, ignoring Lucius as he writhed on the floor, making his way over to Harry. "Are you ok?" He asked combing his fingers through Harry's hair.
Harry looked up from his book with a welcome smile. "Of course, I knew your mark would protect me, and I knew you would come if he attacked me," he said surely.
"Always," Voldemort leant down to kiss him as the spell wore off of Lucius, the blond man rolling onto his side to look at them in shock, panting and twitching with the leftover curse. "What did he say to you?" his bonded asked him, Lucius' eyes widening with panic and he realised how badly he had miscalculated and misunderstood the situation.
"I am fairly sure Lucius was labouring under the misapprehension that I was some sort of sex slave cross concubine cross prostitute for you as he called me a slut, said that I had sold myself to spread my legs for you, and he made the insinuation that he was above me and thought that I should treat him with a lot more respect," Harry hummed.
"Interesting," Voldemort nodded, leaning down to kiss him again before turning to Lucius. "I must apologise to you, Lord Malfoy,"
"My Lord?" Lucius looked between the two of them, utterly confused.
"I seem to have not explained myself properly. Harry is my other half, my partner, my lover, he will be my husband, and he will carry my children. He will be my consort, and he is equal in position to me," Voldemort said, and the panic that crossed Lucius' face was fairly satisfying. "Crucio,"
Harry grimaced when within a few moments a dark stain appeared under Lucius' crotch.
"The house-elves will clean it thoroughly," Voldemort reassured him.
"I hope so, I relax in this room, I don't want a stain on the carpet,"
"They will clean it out, don't worry," Voldemort said. "I will make sure that they all know exactly who you are to me, and what position you hold over them. I clearly overestimated their intelligence,"
"That isn't your fault, maybe you should make flash cards this time," Harry snorted.
"It seems as though it is the only way to deal with them," Voldemort sighed annoyed. "Take him to his wife," he waved to Lucius and the house elves who had been waiting popped in and grabbed Lucius who was twitching dramatically now and sobbing, popping out of the room with him.
"Did you have fun wherever you were?" Harry asked patting the sofa next to him hopefully as three house elves popped in again to work on the urine and blood covering their carpet, and another dropped a tea set off, beaming when Harry thanked her as he shuffled forward to pour tea for the two of them as he liked doing while Voldemort sat down next to him.
"I did. Severus Snape is in my dungeon, the Weasley Twins are thinking about joining us, and I have set a trap to capture the two that have betrayed you," Voldemort hummed, taking the cup that Harry was partially holding out to him, sitting blinking at him.
"Oh you have been busy," Harry said.
"Are you ok with what I have done?" Voldemort asked, gently pulling Harry so that his back was resting against his side, wrapping his free arm around him as he took a much needed sip from his tea.
"Snape made my life miserable for no other reason than I was James Potter's son, he made presumptions about me, and tried to make my life as difficult as possible and I have no doubt that whatever Dumbeldore planned to do to me, he would have gone along with. And I am fairly sure that Dumbledore was planning on me dying along with you,"
"I am going to kill him, unless you do not wish me to," Voldemort said factually.
"I am not going to ask you not to," Harry shook his head.
"The Twins were concerned about you, they were happy to know you were safe, and they actually thanked me for killing the Dursleys after everything that they had done to you, especially when I told them why the wards broke, not too much detail, just that they had drawn blood from you,"
"They are not stupid, they will guess how bad it would have been," Harry shook his head.
"They were also not impressed when they realised that Dumbledore would have known exactly why the wards broke, and he has not said anything. Any doubt that they may have had was washed away with that, I believe that they will choose our side because you are on it. They care for you,"
"I am fond of them, they have been like brothers to me really over the years, looking out for me, and making sure that I am ok. They always cheered me up when everything got too much,"
"Your ex-friends?" Voldemort asked softly.
"I do not want you to kill them," Harry said after a moment.
"Of course," Voldemort nodded immediately. "Whatever you choose,"
"I think spending eleven years in a tiny cell, cleaning and doing chores with not being allowed to speak to anyone would give them a good idea of how 'dramatic' I was being," Harry hummed picking his book back up and settling more comfortably against Voldemort's side.
"Done," Voldemort kissed his temple, peering curiously over Harry's shoulder at the book he was so absorbed in. "Interesting?"
"It seems that my great, great, great grandfather was quite the slut, this is practically porn to be honest," Harry laughed.
