A/N: Thank you again my faithful reviewers! You shall all be happily rewarded with fast updates and lots of sarcastic replies!

About "I have plans for August"; in the last chapter, the quote is actually from the movie Hercules from Disney! I was watching it the other day with my younger brothers and that scene in which Hades says this quote hit me as what I should do regarding Voldemort's attitude when giving Harry the potion. I'm sure that if you ever saw the movie you remember perfectly well the scene in which Hades the God of Hell convinces Hercules to stop having his powers only for a day, and when watching I got quite fascinated in how he used the timing, making Hercules chose really fast so that he couldn't really think about all the possible repercussions of his actions, but he also made it all about it being Hercules choice, after all that was the only way he could really lose his powers, if it was out of his own free will. Hades also made sure it seemed like he didn't really cared about what Hercules choice was, but inside he was plotting for Hercules to agree. I adapted it to my Voldemort, since I couldn't really see him showing how much he wanted Harry to take the potion. But you'll see voldie's entire plan... next chapter lol you'll understand when you finish this chapter, and then you can curse me to eternity!

This is like the Author's note of hell! Huge!

Let's begin!

Chapters 5 Bad Habits

…

"Ah! I knew it! Pay up!" said Snape from the direction of the door.

Malfoy just rolled his eyes and fetching his purse, passed a couple of galleons to Snape's hand.

Voldemort observed the exchange calmly with the look of someone who was obviously very used to these antics from his right hand man, and his left hand man.

"You know, someday this 'betting on everything' habit you have going on, will come right back at you and bite you in the arse."

The two men just stared at him and chanted in chorus: "Yes, my Lord."

"Don't spoil it!" Voldemort said, they always managed to suck all of the subservience out of the 'my Lord'… evil men! Spoiling his hard earned title! If they weren't so freaking useful… he probably wouldn't kill them either. I mean all Evil Overlord's must have minions, and one gets tired of stupid, subservient minions after a while, after all obedience has it's good and bad side, especially blind obedience, which was as dangerous as it was useful, and there was no point making a stupid mistake simply because everyone failed to point it out to him. He wasn't stupid or arrogant enough to believe he knew everything, at least not anymore, after that Potter-baby incident he'd decided to take a different approach to the all 'seeing his own flaws'. He had acted on a whim, simply because he had been insulted by Dumbledore's faith in a dim-witted prophecy. That had been a misunderstanding that he wished someone had pointed out to him, even if he probably wouldn't have listened there was always the possibility he would have, or the thought that it could be a trap may have crossed his mind. Damn, no use dwelling in the past, 14 years as a bodiless spirit had give him perspective, and in his new perspective, a couple of highly intelligent and useful, if not so obedient, minions were worth the trouble. Still they had no respect!

The two men smirked at each other.

They knew their value to their Lord relied precisely on the fact that they weren't subservient because that also meant that they weren't always compliant with his choices, and would even question him on occasion, with the due level of respect, of course, and even so they did risk a couple of cruciatus curses every once in a while, but after all what was a little pain to grown men? They could handle it and it was indeed a small price to pay for the right to question their Lord and take such an important part in the revolution he had devised.

They are after all his right and left hands, and those were positions of trust, highly sought after and richly rewarded.

Lucius Malfoy was Voldemort's public façade, an absurdly rich pureblood, with the perfect family and the right influence, and now that the war was over, he knew perfectly well the part his Lord had devised for him; he was to be the minister of magic. Magical Britain needed a good figure-head, to pass an image of union and Malfoy did represent all his ideals for this country and its people. Besides the people with power that had managed to survive the war would have difficulty obeying him, even if he had convinced most of magical Britain of his status as a innocent man, (only a victim of Dumbledore's manipulations, as were all of them and blábáblá), he had been, and still was, the icon for the Dark Side, no point forcing the situation when it was much simpler to let Lucius give the commands, his commands mind you.

Yes, Lucius Malfoy, was the perfect right hand, and he was so good with manipulating people to do what he wanted, that in the end, regardless of power or status, they ended up doing his bidding, which meant of course Voldemort's bidding!

His most genial acquisition though had been Severus Snape. Because men like Lucius were, if not easy to find, at least there was quite a feasible amount of them around if one looked hard enough, you see, Lucius was so absurdly good at his job, simply because he enjoyed it. The manipulations, and the power displays, or maybe he just enjoyed getting what he wanted, either way he was that good, a little puppet master, quite amusing if you weren't the one on a spring. Indeed he controlled the little puppets he made, with the ease and efficiency of a master. As for Voldemort himself, he was God, and he controlled the puppet master.

Moving on to his other acquisition, Severus Snape was one rare, rare man, he was so rare in fact, that it was a bit of a miracle that Voldemort had gotten this man's loyalty. Well, maybe not his complete loyalty, because Voldemort seriously believed that Severus Snape was loyal to no man but himself. Either way Snape was not a man you wanted as your enemy, or working against you, he was scary. Really, he (Voldemort) thought there were few people who could match his level of scary, and Snape could, it was a different scary though, you had to know it was there to see it. Basically it was simple to explain Snape's type of scary, when comparing it to let's say, Lucius type of scary. Lucius could hate your guts and still smile pleasantly at you, and he would do it so well you would never believe he was plotting your painful demise in his head. Now, Severus was a different case, he wouldn't smile at you if he hated you, then again he didn't need to, instead he would act, many people believed Severus to be a man of few actions and many thoughts, and indeed he was, when you compared the amount of actions to the amount of thoughts thoughts won every time, but when you compared the nature of those actions, you got a bit of a surprise, Severus Snape was a man of action, that which Voldemort liked to call, a man with a plan. His actions weren't of the type to stab you in the front or even in the back; they were instead based on a plan. He planned it first, and then he would completely become what he needed to be to fulfill his plan. The scary part for Voldemort was the way he did it, whatever it entailed, he would do it, and he didn't need to change his personality or lie to do it. Actually that was why he was such an accomplished Legimmens, he wasn't really lying, and he truly believed he was the persona he created. Scary…

Want an example? Voldemort had always been aware of Severus abilities, but only recently, well after he had come back had he seen the extent of Snape's abilities.

You see, going to Dumbledore and telling him he was terribly regretful about telling Voldemort about the prophecy was Voldemort's plan, he told Snape to do this, simply because it made it easier to find the Potters, they had no idea of course where they lived, but it was simple enough to get inside Dumbledore's little army, and once he was there how remarkably easy it was for Snape to get Wormtail to spill he was the Potter's keeper, actually Snape was the reason he was the Potter's secret keeper in the first place, after all he had spread, following his lord's command, the little seeds of suspicion inside the order members' heads.

It was a quite genial plan of his, if he might say so, after the seeds had been planted he just had to wait for them to grow and the fact that Peter Pettigrew was chosen to be the keeper, was just a lucky, but quite reasonably expected, event. Then Snape had used his special talents to convince he was much better off with the dark side.

Yes, Voldemort had know Severus was good at infiltrating himself wherever he wanted, and at getting people to believe only exactly what he wanted them to believe. But what he hadn't known was exactly how good.

Once he (Voldemort) had disappeared Severus had realized he needed someone to watch his back, to make sure he wouldn't end up in Azkaban as many others did, since he didn't have Malfoy' fortune another plan was in order, and what better way than remaining exactly how he was? So he became a spy for the light, didn't lie about anything, it's not like there was a Dark Lord to provide him with a good let out for his darker urges, anymore. Torturing students would have to be enough for a while, sure Snape hadn't thought he would have to be on the Light's Side for so long, but it wasn't really a problem. He was who he was, he didn't change it, and he didn't have to. Yes many believed he was a death eater, they were right obviously, but he didn't need to lie about it, if confronted he would be the first to admit it. His mask was that good; he was so deep into it that sometimes, he even forgot it was a mask.

As he often said: "You do anything long enough to escape the habit of living
until the escape becomes the habit."

And that was exactly what was scary about it, he created a story, a life, and he lived it, utterly as if it were his own, deeply into it. In a way it was his life. He wasn't necessarily happy, but that wasn't the point, the point was survival. The rest was adornments.

Voldemort found himself wondering sometimes if Severus was really what he saw or if that too, was a mask. Scary…

It was useless to think about it though; it was not as if he was going to find out if Severus didn't want him to. Besides Severus was on his own side, but supported whatever side pleased him most, and for now, that was the Dark Side, Voldemort's Side, so it was all about keeping him there. Once again scary in its simplicity.

For that he had made Severus Snape his left hand man, his controlling yet unseen hand. He would make him the new Headmaster for Hogwarts, the children are our future after all, and the right education was very much needed. Besides Severus agreed with all his beliefs about the magical children, muggle-borns should be taken from the muggle world and put into ours, at birth. They would no longer be muggle-borns because they would be raised in our world and would feel no need to ever go into the muggle world. He admitted it was necessary to renovate the blood and gene pool, they were fresh magic and regeneration is essential for our world but the muggle world should be completely separated from the magical one. No more breeding of wizards with muggles, it only created problems for our world.

Besides as the Headmaster he wouldn't actually have to teach anything and to be perfectly honest he knew for a fact that Severus hated to teach, and was a horrible teacher. Also this way he would get the necessary free time to continue with his research in his preferred field: potions.

The fact that his right and left hand got along so nicely was really just a lucky coincidence and a much appreciated one. For as different as their personalities were they had many a similarity, they trusted each other in the way men who don't trust anyone do. The fact that Severus had become Lucius son's Godfather had come as no surprise to him. Also he was pretty sure Severus cared about Lucius and about his godson, he was human, somewhere, deep down. It's a good thing he didn't pick his followers by their humanity.

-----------------------------------XD--------------------------------------------------

A/N: Crap! I really wanted action in this chapter… next one! Definitely! This totally got out of hand, I realized I had to explain my two favorite secondary characters, which are Luc and Sev, they are funny and they do have a major role in this story! So I started to explain them and got lost on how complex they are to me. And I have a limit of 2500 words by chapter. And a minim of 1500. It's the equivalent to three pages on my word program on the pc. Really most of my chapters will be around that length, after that I get lost in the characters and they start to get a life of their own that sometimes destroys the tempo of the story. Please tell me if you feel I destroyed the tempo for this story!