Pushed into Darkness
by Angelis Raye
Chapter 04
Warning: From this chapter forward, there will be spoilers for Deathly Hallows. They are not evident until about mid-way through this chapter. I feel very in love with this newest book. There are none that could ever top this one, in my opinion.
Also, this chapter is also not Beta'd. I have a Beta in mind, however.
There was an odd feeling that had slithered through his entire body as he started to wake. It was a foreign chill that swept through him like a blizzard, although, centered much down his spine and making him shiver rather violently. He held up his hands to his face, feeling his nose, mouth, and lips, touching them to make sure that they were still attached and he was still capable of such sensations as feeling, tasting, seeing, and so forth. As though he had been sleeping for years, he looked around himself, adjusting to the dim lighting and surreal environment. Upon sitting straight up, the heavy door opened, admitting the person he had seen last: the Dark Lord, formerly known as Tom Riddle, Jr.
"Harry, my dear... have you finally woken?" was heard, almost distantly. It sounded heavenly, that voice, as if he hadn't heard a sound for so very long. "Are you all right, Harry?"
"...Ah, I... I suppose so," the addressed returned quite awkwardly, running a hand through his hair. "... If I may... How long...?"
"How long have you been sleeping, you ask?" the Dark Lord inquired, a smirk playing about his lips, mirth dancing about in his eyes. Upon a nod, he continued, "I must say, it has been over four months... I do hope you feel rested enough, since there are many things that the two of us must go over before anything gets accomplished."
"Accomplished?"
"Yes, things like world domination and the sort..."
"Ah, that explains things. ...A bit anxious over matters like that, are you?" Harry retorted, raising a brow at the other in question.
"I suppose you know me quite well." A pause, then, "You almost have to, knowing who you are... Although, you have changed a bit since the last time you've seen yourself in a mirror. Care to take a peek now? I shall be awfully amused to see your reaction to your own self, now." Finally, as a side note, Tom muttered, presumably to himself, "Severus found it very amusing, as well..."
Having a mirror placed onto the sheets before him by long-fingered hands, Harry carefully picked up the article, peering into it, expecting something. What he saw was not at all what he was anticipating: before his very eyes, he witnessed a person not too unlike himself, although so different that it was startling. Almost dropping the offending thing, he sprang back, then brought his will back to look in it straight again. "How...?" was uttered from his lips.
"My dearest... 'how' you came to be like this? Merely opening your mind, body, and soul to me began to bring about such changes as these," he whispered into the other's ear, leaning close to the other warm body, so that their faces could both be seen in the mirror from Harry's view point. Chuckling, the Dark Lord let his weight sink into the cushion of the bed, caressing the younger man's hair and cheeks. "You are very handsome, let me tell you..."
Still bewildered by what wrought the slight differences in his anatomy, Harry touched his nose, tracing the outline of it, watching himself do the same motion within the mirror – it was a larger nose than which he was used to, although it fit his face much better than his father's had before, flowing with the waves of his hair that framed his face. The very structure of his face had changed, looking more angular than before, his cheek bones a bit higher set, his jaw a bit bolder and more finely cut. His eyes, were not as green as they had been before – they were darker than they had been, gleaming with a different light than he was accustomed to. Compared to the face next to his (which had been charmed to show the Tom Riddle of his own age, rather than what it truly looked like at the current) was very shocking, disturbing him more so than the norm. Before, the other had told him that they looked quite a bit alike, although he waved it away as a madman's muttering – now, there was undeniable evidence to that claim.
"I look... so very much like you," Harry uttered, somewhat unbelievingly. "I don't understand... this sort of thing isn't supposed to happen just like... this!"
"Yes, I know very well. You must notice that it had been over four months since you feel asleep, which is why you are seeing such changes. If you had been awake, you would have had to stop and really consider what was occurring, since you wouldn't have seen such a thing otherwise."
"You mean, that I'm supposed to be looking more like the Tom Riddle that you used to be?"
"Of course! Since you and I started to share parts of our souls, we practically have to be very alike. Because I am so much older than you are, my part has more dominant characteristics than yours, due to the circumstances. And the fact that a very substantial part of my soul is inside of you, very literally, since the very beginning of this whole ordeal, I suppose that you will begin to have more of a temperament like myself."
Harry nodded, knowing that what the other said was true, very well. He'd become set off by even the slightest of things before, but now, it seemed as though it was even worse than before -- he could keep it buried for a bit, but it would rise out of him like a snake striking out it's prey. Touching his chest with his now longer fingers, he felt his heart against his chest, closing his eyes, becoming drunk with the scent and the presence of the other at his side.
Shaking himself from the dreams of the past, the younger of the two men reached for his wand, feeling very blind for one of the first times of his life. At the touch of the wand, another rush of memories came upon him...
Remembering how Severus had given Draco the Elder wand, then later Draco knowingly asked Harry to a duel, determined to let Harry win. Once the winner of the duel, Harry took Draco's wand -- the Elder wand -- leaving him the other one, apologizing and thanking him for the service that he had provided to both him and the Dark Lord. Needless to say, Severus had willingly halted all plans that Dumbledore had built up between them, tossing them aside, now that the very person he was protecting was very safe and in the care of the Dark Lord himself, he committed himself fully to his Master's will.
Severus had explained everything that he learned from the headmaster, spilling out every memory that Harry and the Dark Lord would need to know. Including his relationship with Lily Evans. This very matter saddened the youngest of the three orphans the most, knowing how it felt to love and then lose someone you felt very attached to, although it wasn't nearly the same amount of time that he and Sirius spent together as Lily and Severus had spent together.
"This wand..." Harry muttered, feeling the power through his finger-tips. His scar began to tingle slightly at the prospect of what he might be able to do with this very powerful thing that Death had given Tom Riddle's ancestor -- Harry's ancestor as well. Perhaps he might be able to see once again? Move freely once again? After all, he was the very one to be able to possess the wand. Turning his hand to point the wand in the direction of his eyes first (since he reasoned that the worst that could happen was Blindness -- which he already had) and felt the spell rise out of the shared mind of Tom Riddle and himself, speaking it softly. A rush of almost overwhelming power crashed over him, feeling much like going from the barren desert to a vast spring, Harry could not keep himself from moaning as it coursed through his every nerve, renewing it, repairing all the damaged connections.
Very suddenly, the previously blind man's sight returned to him in such a title wave of wonderful color and sensation, he dropped the wand in complete awe.
"Tom," he whispered, tugging on the other's shoulder. "Please, wake, for me?" He shook the Dark Lord harder, determined to wake him, come hell or high water.
"Harry...? Is there something --" shocked, the Slytherin heir sobered up quickly, his mind running as fast as it could, taking in the entire scene as it unfolded. He registered the wand lying ontop of the sheets besides the both of them, shortly after he cupped Harry's cheeks, their eyes locking for the first time in so very long, the lights gleaming back in the other's eyes as well, not glazed over. The dark green, almost black, eyes that he stared into were crystal rather than the foggy glass that he'd seen before. "You can see? Even without your--"
"Yes, Tom..." he replied. "Yes! This is one of the most wonderful days in my life... I...! I hardly know what to say, now that I can see... and walk without the aid of the cane!" Saying this, he flung the cane across the room, away from his range of view. "Oh, how I missed looking into your eyes..." he trailed off with a loving hiss.
He was pulled forward into a tight, passionate embrace by the other part of his very being. Harry Potter no longer cared that the part of his soul that belonged to Tom Riddle, that was hidden for such a long time, acted as a parasite, growing and devouring his own soul as it grew, feeding a misshapen, altered version back to the original host. It seemed as though the parasite, as it was called by Dumbledore, seemed to multiply what it devoured, yet remaining intact itself. It seemingly multiplied without heed to anything else that was happening within his soul.
"I love you, Tom Riddle," he announced, suddenly, silently, almost hissing it into the Dark Lord's ear.
A bit taken aback by the abruptness of such a thing, the other couldn't think of what to do but to card his hands through his lover's hair, massaging the scalp, feeling both of their hearts beating fiercely against their chests. It took all of the courage he had gained over his life to even mouth the words that he knew he should reply. "...I... I love -- love you... as well," he breathed, his face flushed abnormally and his heart pounding even harder inside of him.
Silence stretched out before them for an immeasurable period of time, as they just held each other close, not willing to let go of the other, for fear of they might just disappear.
"Tom, shall we get ready to go to our faithful followers in the North?" Harry asked, breaking the silence, inquiring softly.
"Yes, that seems to be what the plan is. Perhaps it is also time to visit an old friend of Dumbledore's up there, as well. In the Nurmengard prision. He was the one to possess the Elder wand before Dumbledore, taken when he was defeated, then imprisoned. It is a wonder that he was not killed by the old Headmaster. Severus makes a much better Headmaster than Dumbledore ever was," Tom Riddle replied, a twisted smile forming on his handsome face. "Come, let us dress appropriately for the occasion set before us, shall we?"
To be Continued...