Slope
Quirinus contemplates new changes in himself after his visit to Voldemort in the Albanian forest.
I came back to my lodgings, the scents and tastes of the Albanian forest clinging to me. Or really, I strode to my lodgings. Strutted, even.
Actually, to be perfectly accurate, I swaggered.
I had never before in my life known the utter confidence that would allow me to swagger naturally. It was a heady thing.
Isn't it a good feeling, little squirrel?
Yes, oh yes, it was. Like taking a deep gulp of air when I hadn't realized I had been holding my breath at all. It was a feeling I wanted to get used to. To think that Voldemort had known this supreme confidence all his life...
This is how a Lord feels. And now you will know that feeling, too. Stop here, Quirinushko. A shaded note of affection rode beneath the command, warming my blood with remembered intimacy.
Look at the changes already wrought on you by our partnership.
Obediently, I stood in front of a long mirror in the inn's hallway, and looked. The man who looked back at me had a sharp vitality in his glance, the razor of his intelligence curving his smile, a whipcrack aura of danger coiling around him. This was a man who was powerful. A man to excite fear, to arouse passion. A man to walk softly around.
Oh God, yes. This was the way it was always meant to be.
I agree completely. Supple laughter slipped through my thoughts, amused, indulgent, the velvety pleasure of it building to spill out my mouth. There was a richness to its tone, a thrumming secret promise that earned me an appraising, interested gaze from a passing witch.
My eyes locked with hers for a moment as she smiled. She had the most extraordinary, sensuous mouth.
Iron will slammed down on my incipient desire. All in good time. To the room now.
I nodded, letting her pass, and made my way to my room. A shiver of anticipation rode through me as my thoughts careened over new possibilities. So many things to explore, to plumb deeper with this new knowledge, now that I - we - had the strength to finally use it.
I inhaled sharply as an enormous green snake slipped in through the open window and circled my ankles with sinuous surrogate affection.
You remember Nagini, of course.
Of course. She was obviously his familiar from the way she had interacted with us both in the forest during our experimentation. But there was a curious pattern in the braided connection sliding through her...a signature perhaps. Truthfully, I had never closely examined the bonds between wizards and their familiars.
A sudden unpalatable thought occurred to me. I looked at my own reflection in the room's mirror. Ah yes, there it was of course - that same curious pattern sliding beneath my skin.
He was riding us both, after all. With our permission.
Yes, Quirinushko, with your permission.
The unvoiced intimation lingered like frost - for now.
An uncontrolled shiver rippled through me, and I felt him savor its passage. With an effort of will long-practiced for times of emotional duress, I turned my thoughts to intellectual consideration. Why did Nagini and I both bear the familiar's bond? I had believed a wizard could have only one familiar at a time (and never mind the unsettling question of a human familiar). Perhaps because of Voldemort's current state, different rules applied?
Different rules have always applied to me, Quirinushko. And now they will apply to us. Come - we've things to contemplate, you and I.