A/n: So new chapter, hopefully I got the balance right...

Enjoy!

*+ovo+*

Voldemort slowly drifted up to wakefulness. He was warm and cuddled against two solid forms that somehow made him feel safe. It was the safety and distant soft hissing that brought him fully, yet gently, awake.

"~Good morning my Hatchling,~" Nagini hissed in amusement at the still sleepy Dark Lord.

"~Morning, Nagi,~" Voldemort hissed back as he shuffled himself out of the warm covers and into the bathroom for a hot shower. Not even Nagini denied him his morning hot shower unless he was physically too injured to have one. It was his morning indulgence and gave him a chance to safely wake up without hexing everything in sight.

The movement of the Dark Lord getting out of bed woke the other two, the sleeping spell having worn off after he had joined them in bed the previous night. This resulted in a quiet scuffle after the bathroom door shut as Severus instinctively moved to pin Harry under him. Harry, not yet awake, fought back quietly but viciously and had to be quietly calmed by the older man after being pinned as he finished waking up. Severus, on the other hand, had woken up far more quickly than his companions as he rolled to pin his charge in an attempt to keep him from setting off their host who was definitely not a morning person.

"You will let me protect you while we are here," Severus said sternly yet softly into Harry's ear. "I refuse to see you dead."

The sudden pressure on their legs had them both freeze before Harry could respond. With dread they both looked towards what was sitting on their lower limbs.

"~If you think I or Tom will let you go, think again,~" Nagini hissed with soft menace. She was very firmly coiled over and around their legs, trapping them in place. The technique had been developed to make her first Speaker listen when he was being particularly stubborn. "~You are forever more a part of our nest. Eventually, we will seek mates for you both but until you learn you are a part of our nest we will treat you like unruly hatchlings not yet ready to explore. Nestmates rest together until mating and leaving with their mate to a new nest. You are lucky we are a magical nest or you might have been devoured as a threat to the nest instead of adopted.~"

The last bit caused the pair to swallow hard and nod slowly in reluctant acceptance.

"~Stay in the bed-nest,~ " Nagini ordered before moving off of them to curl up in a nearby chair, her often normal morning observation perch. Opting to observe anything further to see if she needed to issue more orders to the house brownies.

The pair waited a minute to see what she would do before carefully separating and sitting up on the bed, observing first her and then each other.

"Potter, I owe you an apology," Severus said uncomfortably. "I assumed you were aware of the family feud that your father initiated with me while we were in school. As he was underage at the time he needed to confirm it again after his majority and it would have received its third confirmation from you considering when he and Lily... well. It is now clear to me that you, in fact, did not issue the final confirmation even if your father probably did issue the second. My actions as a result, even with Dumbledore threatening me with Azkaban or the Dark Faction deciding that I was a traitor if I did not go after you, were completely out of line. I... would like to try to start over with you if I may?"

"Okay, working under death threats that you actually can't stop is something I totally understand," Harry admitted with a grimace, thinking of his time at the Dursleys. He still had the belt marks across his back and a couple of knife scars to remind him of likely very similar situations at Private Drive to what Snape had just briefly described. The feud thing was something he still hadn't learned about but it was clear that the snarky man was dropping it so he didn't worry too much about it just then.

"Oh?" Severus asked, eyes narrowing in suspicious thought.

"I don't want to talk about it," Harry said quickly. A moment's thought had him deciding that a blank slate or at least a try at not pushing each other's buttons wasn't a bad idea. "A new start? Yeah, alright."

"Good, I wont have you fighting each other," Voldemort agreed as he stepped out of the still steaming bathroom in new robes. He had left the door cracked as he cleaned up in case the other two needed to be separated or stuck to the bed or something. As a result he had heard the entire exchange and was quite happy with the truce.

Nagini observed carefully off to one side from her chair, not yet interfering. Oh she still planed to enforce bed rest but letting them get cleaned up and wake up properly made gauging them easier. Besides, they had to be checked by the healer if she was going to avoid worrying over them enough to pull rank. She didn't do it often but the times she did kept her hatchling from half killing himself. It was also something she would have to establish with her new Speakers. Although, the leg trapping trick worked quite well this morning already. The elves wouldn't enforce her bed rest order until they delivered breakfast in any case.

"Now, while you are officially my captives I think I might have a solution to avoid being forced into killing Potter," Voldemort offered slyly.

"What?! How? Please tell me!" Harry immediately asked. He hated being hunted and needing to fight for his life!

Severus swallowed hard and tried to slide across the bed, closer to his charge. Voldemort gave the man an amused look but didn't object. He had demanded the man swear an oath to protect Potter after all.

"I can blood adopt you," Voldemort offered, refusing to let himself think on why he was jumping straight from the original idea of a simple truce to all out adoption. He also wasn't going to admit that now he had the other two Parselmouths he wasn't quite sure what to do with them. Beyond getting them checked out as healthy and protecting them from the "Light", one of the best ways of which was simply to make them family, he hadn't a clue what to do. It would take him time to re-write his plans and possibly talk the two into helping. Hopefully he would have that time... hopefully.

Severus made a sound of shock and dismay before quickly cutting it off. Voldemort gave him an interested look. Did the other man harbor some wish to adopt the brat himself? Well, he could accommodate that he supposed. Of course it could be in regards to the Parsel Oath and the protection based Unbreakable Vow that the oath had revealed. He would find out in time. Both wizards were his now after all.

"~I suggest you return to the bed-nest and let them have a turn in the water room,~" Nagini hissed lazily. "~The small squeaky ones noticed your tiredness and decided on bed rest for all three of you today. They will be bringing your early sun food soon.~"

Voldemort cursed before quickly ushering the other two into the bathroom. They could share while he sorted out clean clothes for them and shrank them appropriately. He knew the elves had some how figured out a way to communicate with his familiar but he had yet to figure out how. He had absolutely no doubt that the elves had been given orders after he retired for the night. If the three of them weren't in bed when breakfast finally arrived they might not get a chance to leave the bed before breakfast the next day!

Severus and Harry only needed an exchanged glance to pick who was washing and who was using the toilet first. It was nice that they were being allowed to clean up and not being shoved into a dungeon cell. A bit of a shock to find that they were sharing quarters with their primary captor but... nice. They didn't bother trying to figure out if the threat of bed rest from Nagini was real since Voldemort had clearly taken it as a given once informed. The pair was done quickly, not having bothered to take extra time beyond their hurried wash and dressing in provided shrunken clothes that clearly came from their host's own wardrobe.

As a result they were just barely climbing back into bed when the popping sound of elves and breakfast arriving echoed through the room.

"Master Lord beings naughty," the lead elf that had popped in glowered at them, easily able to tell they had been out of bed and moving around. "Master Lord is waitings for breky befores Goblin's Healer beings checking hims and new wizards!"

"Yes, Lindsey," Voldemort agreed quickly. Normally he would get up and get ready for the day then call for breakfast. He was, however, grateful that Nagini had thought to have the elves call a Gringotts Healer, it had completely slipped his mind yesterday and he needed to have both Harry and Severus checked.

Elf Lindsey glowered at her charge. Technically, she should be called Riddle Lindsey as she was bonded to the Dark Lord and he had never bothered to change his legal and magical name. It was, however, acceptable for a bonded elf to go by Elf in the case of a hidden family as long as they were, in fact, bonded. Those house elf-brownies bonded to a magical building or estate took the location name as their formal surname and identifier before their individual name was spoken. Lindsey, along with the other elves bonded directly to the Dark Lord, knew his past as a part of the bonding process. An elf bonded to a family became a part of that family.

Dobby, on the other hand, was one of those rare examples of an elf driven to act by an outside magic and punished for it by both his own magic and the magic of his family. On top of that he was just plain odd and it made him an outcast as the conflicting magics would eventually kill him along with possibly everyone near him. Unless he found a balance between the conflicting magics, something nearly impossible to accomplish, his elf magic would call out to other elves begging for his death. This happened in an attempt to keep him from harming a child or killing someone he was supposed to protect.

"Whats is new wizards being?" Lindsey asked as they were finally served their breakfast trays in bed. She needed to know if they were his lovers, his captives, or something else altogether. It would change how the elves responded to them.

"Mine," Voldemort said firmly. He wanted it clearly understood that the pair belonged to him personally. "If they wish to leave they must clear it with me first. They can defend themselves or each other, once I return their wands, but may not otherwise cast spells against anyone. For now they are restricted to my rooms, the library, and the dining room for meals. No outside contact and any mail gets read by me. I will handle any punishments personally."

Severus and Harry exchanged uncertain looks as they silently started in on their food. They hadn't expected to get their wands back at any point much less be allowed to use them, even if only for defense. As far as they knew, even with the deal in place, they were permanent prisoners and only the odd way they had been handled had them as compliant as they had been.

"Very goods Master Lord," Lindsey squeaked and they popped away, leaving the three to their breakfast and a very smugly watching Nagini.

*+ovo+*

A/n: Ideas are welcome!

Next chapter, the Healer!

Chapter after that... Madam Bones, maybe?