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Chapter Eight

Fred and George sat together long into the night bent over a small letter. They shared identical grins, never making a sound between them, preferring instead to use their connection between them. They had been able to ear one another's thoughts since they were children. No one had ever really been able to tell them apart. Except one. The one they now intended to make theirs.

Harry made his way through the crowd of people, the singular thought of coffee heaven coursing through his mind. This whole conference thing was wearing on him. The delegates were all sprawled this place and that grabbing whatever their preference for breakfast was from the buffet. The house elves had specific sections for each convoy, depending on what their tastes ran. Everyone was clustered around their own groups, speaking in this language and that, struggling through the early morning haze. He and Xaven shared a look but he abandoned the connection for the coffee that was shoved in his face. Tom stood before him with an amused smirk but Harry couldn't bring himself to tell him he was a jackass and just smiled his thanks at the Dark Lord. Tom knew he was not a morning person. Especially when he had been out all night. He liked that the man knew his quirks so well. He sipped the coffee with a hum of bliss. He even knew how he liked his coffee! He looked up at the man with a grin.

"You just earned some serious brownie points." He said and Tom laughed.

Demetri met them at the front of the queue.

"Your night went well I presume." The Sluagh asked, his question sounding more like a statement.

Harry's mind sharpened with every sip of the delectable liquid. Vanilla Nut Crème…Black, the way God intended it. Bliss! He nodded to his friend and noted that Tom seemed to be listening with especial interest now.

"It did. Everything is settled now. I have what I need."

He thought on the blood that was soon to be his with a pleasant shiver. His project would be flawless. Perfect. Speaking of projects, where was his special helper? Draco was no where to be found and he knew that he had been instructed to attend the gala event. Hm.

Demetri descended the stair, making his way to the two most powerful men in the room. He could hear the chitter of Harry's other less live unseen protectors in the air. Voldemort and he shared a long look between them. They both were going to have to get used to each other now. Before, they had been content to ignore each other aside from their acquaintance through Harry. They were from both opposite ends of the Dark world. Harry tilted his head to the side and in seconds, one of his puppet minions scurried up through the crowd, eliciting stares and some outright gasps from some in the room. It whirred and clicked like a machine though no machinery was visible. It was a frightening thing to behold, however. The mannequin was faceless except for a wide jester's grin, from the center of which a thin short tube jutted like a proboscis on some insect. Its body was thin and its hands oddly shaped with one long hook-like finger where the index should have been. It clicked in a way that resembled a purr and Harry's mouth quirked upward as he ran a finger over the thing's cheekbone.

"Find my assisstant. I require him." He ordered it with a true purr as if he were speaking to a favored child.

The thing made an awkward squat bow and scurried up the wall, using the clawlike extensions on it's hands to move up to the ceiling and scurry away. Tom raised an eyebrow as Harry gave him a wicked grin. He wrapped his arms around Tom's neck, much to the man's pleasure, and kissed his lips softly.

"I must be absent from the proceedings for a span tonight. I will be back before ten." He said, swaying lightly in the Dark Lord's arms, betraying his good mood.

Tom held him against him as he swayed but he was trying not to frown.

"Who are you seeing?"

Harry smirked.

"No one. I must attend to my…more delicate experiments. My last ingredient has been acquired and I am anxious to begin my testing."

Tom nodded and at last a grin spread across his handsome face.

"Well then, I wish you luck."

"Thank you."

Harry looked over and was met with a bleary eyed, angry Draco who stood under the watchful guard of his puppet. He sniggered. Draco looked as if he had barely had time to throw on a robe before being ushered out of bed.

"Ah, there you are, lovely. We're going to be do some experiments at last today. You will finally be able to put yourself to good use."

Voldemort looked between the two teens with a wry grin. Sometimes, it was so hard to remember that Harry and the youngest Malfoy were actually the same age. They acted as if they were decades apart. Draco gave him a scathing look but merely proceeded to the breakfast table grumpily. Harry patted his puppets head before it was relinquished from duty and disappeared back into the depths of the manor. Tom watched it go, wondering just how many of those fearsome soldiers Harry had created from the harvested souls of murders, thieves and villains. No matter how nefarious they had been in death, they all bowed to the Puppetmaster's whim in death.

Harry grinned like a Cheshire cat when his newest creation stood from the tub it was in. Draco looked pale and horrified and yet transfixed and awed. The puppet was the exact replica of Neville Longbottom.

"Who is your master, my puppet?" The Puppetmaster asked, his eyes alight with triumph.

A whole year of researching and he had at last been successful.

"You are, Master."

Harry walked around his creation with glee.

"You are the first of your kind. My Mimiqui. You are my General and as such, I will be sending you on a mission of the utmost importance. You will be invading the school Hogwarts, as the student Neville Longbottom. Seek him out and extract his essence. Afterwards, you will feed him a polyjuice potion and destroy him. You will take his corpse to the Headmaster and tell him that he attacked you. I have already implanted the false memories in your mind. You will claim that he was under polyjuice, which will explain the traces of the potion in his system. You will live as Longbottom. You will get close to the Headmaster. He believes the boy is his play thing and will do whatever he presses into his thick skull." Harry grinned wickedly looking far too cheerful in Draco's opinion, " The goal is simple. Kill, replace, and finally, destroy from the inside. Do you understand?"

"Of course, my Master."

"Good. I will keep in touch in the usual way only. Your comrades will follow suit. You will know them."

Draco watched the puppet disappear through the floo with a mixture of anxiety and intrigue. Harry had allowed him to hear all of that. So...What now? The Puppetmaster turned to him with that same too cheerful smile. Suddenly, Draco had a wand pointed between his eyes.

"Now, lovely. I do believe I need a Vow from you if you're to leave this room with your memory in tact."

Review and Merry Christmas!!