Disclaimer: Nope. I own nothing.
Chapter Eleven
Dumbledore sat in his office, puzzling over the latest intelligence report from Voldemort's front. In the last six months, the attacks from the mysterious Puppet Master that had eliminated nearly half of the Order in a series of vile assassinations had all but halted. Meanwhile, attacks from Voldemort himself had tripled in their number and intensity. Voldemort seemed to be venting his rage through his attacks. The werewolves, Fae and Dragons had all allied themselves with the Dark. The Dementors and the Incubi Courts were sitting around twiddling their thumbs, though. They seemed to be waiting for something to happen. He heard a soft knocking at his door and smiled.
"Come in, Mr. Longbottom."
He sighed, staring out at the blackness, his heart heavy. Six months. One hundred and eighty days he'd been gone. Four thousand, three hundred and ninety two hours since he'd left everything and disappeared into the night. Six month since he'd had his heart broken. His breath created a fine white mist on the cool windowpane and he toyed with the idea of tracing an image into it. He heard the door open behind him and his stifled gasp.
"Harry?"
Harry turned around to face the one he had let go. The man who had really loved him…The only one he had trusted with his plan to the leave the manor. He hadn't planned to return at all but it seemed that Fate was determine that he see this war through to the end.
"Severus, I missed you." He said softly, offering him a small smile.
Severus shut his bedroom door, quickly crossing over to him but Harry halted his progress with a raised hand about a yard away. The potion's master frowned at his once lover. Something was very wrong. Harry usually loved affection.
"I missed you too. Are you alright?"
Harry sighed and his smile fell away.
"Severus, I have to tell you something…I'm pregnant."
Severus's whole body tensed and Harry winced inside. He hadn't wanted to come back even after he'd found out months ago, but he knew how pleased Severus would be when he learned that he had a child. Tom, he wasn't so sure about. Could he deny one of his children the right to their father? He wished he could but…it wouldn't be right.
"His?" Was the man's only response.
"And yours. Twins."
Severus looked like he was about ready to collapse. "Twins…" the potions master breathed in disbelief.
Harry felt a knot of fear coil in his chest, tight and uncomfortable. He couldn't do this alone. It was selfish to say, but true. He couldn't do the single parent thing.
"If you want them…" Harry heard himself whisper and Severus jerked around as if he'd been burned. He found himself suddenly engulfed in a dark-robed embrace, and his eyes suddenly filled with tears. He had tried to remind himself that this was not the end of the world, that he had Severus. But it all seemed so bleak without him. Severus was trying to calm and reassure him but it was no use. He allowed himself to be laid down to rest, which was fortunate because his legs chose that moment to rebel and collapse under him. His once lover began giving him potions to drink to which the puppeteer complied with slight amusement. Severus sighed once again before sitting beside him on the bed. He looked as if he were going to say something but instead just shook his head and leaned over to kiss him deeply, thrusting every ounce of his desperation, sadness, and happiness into that one kiss. No words were needed between them. The last six months had not been kind to anyone in particular, especially the two of them. Harry nearly sobbed again at the contact before the door opened suddenly.
"Severus, I believe I've-" Voldemort began, but when he saw who was in the bed and the tender embrace they had been in, he froze and his voice fell away.
No one had seen nor heard from Harry in six months. For him to just show up in Severus's rooms was…The Dark Lord found himself at a loss for words. Harry looked…terrible. There was tiredness in his eyes that spoke of days in misery and nights lost to aimless meanderings and the tired brooding of the insomniac.
"Harry."
"Lord Voldemort." The teen said, looking at Severus's pale hands in his lap rather than at those crimson eyes that seemed so different from last he had seen them.
Voldemort seemed to bristle slightly but it was suspected. Harry was treating him like a colleague, not someone whose arms he had been so intimate in, and who had once been his whole future.
"Good to see you back and well. I suppose I will brief you on our current situation in my study at eleven. I will see you then. Severus, I left the files on your work station." He said stoically before turning on his heel and walking away.
Harry's lip quivered and Severus wrapped his arms around him once again. Harry's thin frame shook with his sobs.
"What am I going to do, Severus? He hates me and I can't do this again! I can't! I don't want to feel like nothing again…"Harry cried while Severus held him tightly.
The man laid his once lover down in his bed with a Dreamless Sleep potion to rest and went to give into the demands of his master.
Voldemort watched the young man shut the door behind him and enter his study calmly. Harry held himself with that same assurance and self-confidence that had attracted him to the teen years ago. It was only in his eyes that he had changed. It wasn't until Harry had left months ago that he realized just how much his "Services" really did swell Voldemort's power base. He wasn't sure how the teen did it but whatever it was, it had worked. Since he had left, the whole underground had mobilized to find him, with no success thus far.
"Harry."
"Voldemort."
They shared a thick silence for some time while they both took their seats.
"Harry…How have you been?" Was the only thing he managed to get out, a fact that he cursed himself for.
He was acting like a lovesick sap! This wasn't who he was! It wasn't who he had ever wanted to be! Harry's face remained collected as if they had only ever been colleagues. It was something that would have raised his fangs in fury months ago. In their time away though, he had learned that he couldn't fly off in anger with Harry. He just couldn't. He did need him. All of his allies were counting on him standing by his side and the Dementors and Incubi had sworn to only ally themselves directly with Harry.
"Well enough. My experiments have been coming along nicely with all of the blood I gathered from my dealings with the other Courts and hordes. I have enough from each species now and my work is nearly complete." Harry replied offhandedly as if it were something light, like the weather, not the building of an indestructible army.
The Dark Lord nodded silently. He would not ask for him back. It was his idea for them to separate in the first place. He would not fold. He had no reason to feel…guilty. Or betrayed.
"Good. Where have you been all this time?" Sweet and to the point.
"Like I would tell you. I have the full intention of returning there once the battle is won, Voldemort. I don't plan on ever living here again." The Puppet Master said with a derisive snort.
Voldemort stood and walked over to be closer to the now standing teen.
"Don't…talk like that, Harry. You haven't called me that name in private since you first came here. Why must you act like a stranger with me now?" He whispered, touching the long dark unbound hair that spilled like a curtain over his shoulders.
Harry jerked away, quickly crossing the room to the fireplace. Far away, from that wandering touch and those piercing crimson eyes. He couldn't take the look in those eyes right now.
"Because I am a stranger to you, now. I don't think I ever did know you. I thought I did, but it seems the Dark Lord has so many masks that the one I saw was just one more face he showed the public."
Voldemort's eyes bore into his own with a fierceness that would have bowled over a different man.
"You don't seem to be a stranger to Severus."
"You made it blatantly clear to me that you were no longer concerned with who I slept with. As for Severus, we have only slept together once. He is special to me. I treasure him far too much to just sleep with him and leave him after." Harry hissed.
The Puppet Master's words had their intended effect and sank into the Dark Lord's psyche, deeply. Had he taken Harry for granted all that time ago? He had taken what he did for granted, yes, but had he not appreciated Harry himself enough? Harry shook his head.
"Our time was over long ago, Voldemort. Severus knew what I was and accepted me for it anyways. Now it is he who holds my heart."
Voldemort felt that cool rage begin to simmer. He had no reason to be angry. After all, Harry was right, but he had always been a sore loser. Being with Harry was no game though. He had made his intentions to not be with Harry distinctly clear but…what if he had changed his mind? It wasn't fair of him to string him along, but he found himself angry none the less.
"Of course he does. Your mind is just full of him now, it seems. And what does Severus do when you hop through other people's beds? Does he sit at home and wonder where you are or if you're ever going to come back? What does he do when you skip off for six months?" He hissed angrily, his eyes blazing hotly.
"And what does it matter to you? You didn't want me enough to compromise and now it just pisses you off that someone loves me enough to do what you didn't have the balls to! You leave Severus out of this!"
"Oh yes, Severus is so great! He's so special! What does he have that I don't?! And what about all of those other people? All of the men and women you've slept with! How can Severus even bare to touch you after knowing the things you've done?!"
The statement seemed to slap the teen in the face for he rounded on his ex furiously. Voldemort took a step forward, preparing for battle.
"How DARE you! You're the one who rejected me! Not the other way around! And don't you dare tell me how to live my life! It was my 'whoring' that got you the allies you have today! So don't you dare go all self righteous on me! Don't you dare! It's bullshit and you know it!" He hissed back.
"Oh, don't I dare? You enjoy every minute you take in those people's beds! You'd sell your firstborn if it meant the freedom to hop through anyone's bed you wanted! And now Severus?! Who HAVEN'T you slept with? Don't make me laugh! You sleep with anyone who will have you and then you turn around and patronize me."
Harry reeled, his rage burning still and yet diluting in the face of the sting of Tom's words. He shoved the Dark Lord against the wall, hard enough for his head to hit the wall. He could almost feel his stomach convulse against the things now housed there.
"Did it ever occur to you that I waited because I actually LIKED you?!! Huh?! Did that ever come across that thick skull of yours?!! Those other people mean nothing! That's why it never mattered! Did you ever think that just maybe I didn't want to jump into something with you only to be thrown away like all of the other lovers you've ever had?!! NO! Because you were too busy thinking of what a WHORE I am!! Well fuck you! My children will never see this hideousness and they most certainly will never see YOU!"
How dare he! Harry's fury made his insides tremble and as he made a quick exit from the room, he clutched his stomach tightly, trying to soothe his children through the rage and grief. He needed Severus and some space. His protectors raged on around him, making sure to slam the door behind them on their charge's way out.
Severus entered Voldemort's chambers quietly, watching as the man glared and wrestled with his anger. If anyone knew why Harry was suddenly crying in his rooms alone, it would be Voldemort. Especially, in his circumstance.
"My Lord, do you know anything about Harry? He seems very…upset. I tried to get him to tell me but he wouldn't." He approached the topic slowly and without judgment.
Wouldn't. More like couldn't tell him because he was crying too hard. Voldemort looked up at him angrily.
"I sent him away. I don't need a whore with unwanted baggage." Was the curt reply he received.
Severus's jaw nearly dropped in surprise. He had been sure that Voldemort would be thrilled. Unwanted baggage?! So that was what the man thought of Harry's little surprise. He'd never heard such casual cruelty. Perhaps the teen had gone to take care of it? Would he have his children aborted?! Or maybe he went to kill something. Hopefully it wasn't his children. The Dark Lord's response had been rather abrupt and caustic and they had probably gotten into a rip roaring fight over it. He could see why Harry would be angry. The teen had wanted to keep them and if Voldemort thought so little of the situation…
"Even in his condition? Surely, you can see why that would be most unwise. I told him such myself. And shouldn't I have a say in the matter as well?" He asked somewhat frigidly.
His lord looked at him reproachfully.
"Why would you have anything to do with Harry being angry? And what does that have to do with him storming off? He's pissed, not comatose." The man growled, drinking deeply from his wine glass.
Severus sighed deeply. That explained it. Harry hadn't gotten the chance to tell him. That made his job easier if not somewhat more uncomfortable.
"My Lord, I apologize for the confusion. It wasn't anger I was referring to when I mentioned Harry's condition." He waited a moment until he was positive that he had the man's full undivided attention. "Harry's pregnant with twins. One of them is my child…and one is yours."
Voldemort immediately choked on his wine.
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