Disclaimer: As always I own nothing, but if I did… oh if I did! Garrrrr!
My heart goes to my beta, as always, the one and only: raven!
A/N: Ok, from here on it's the story, pure and simple. It will begin building slowly, but it will be worth it, at least that's my plane and I'm sticking to it! Also sorry for the delay, I had finished this yesterday, but in the overall there were still a couple of details I wasn't sure about including yet. I explain it better in the A/N in the end.
And that's where the fun starts!
So, as one of my reviewers said: let the games begin…
Chapter 8: What you see and what you know
And he was back in reality, once more.
Back in reality, in the rooms he had provided for Harry. He looked around; everything looked the same, except for the fact that it was now covered in darkness and candle light, outside the stars in a moonless night shone bright in a dark sky.
Night must have fallen while he was inside the boy's mind.
Yes, everything looked the same, but it didn't feel the same. He was, confused, no, it was more like he was conflicted. He was in fact not confused at all, what he had seen in Potter's mind had definitely cemented his decisions, and made him even surer of the necessity of this plan.
But it hadn't done only that.
The boy was a dangerous enemy. Remarkably as it may seem, he hadn't realized that before. It could be amusing if it wasn't so damn stupid on his part, and just plain wasteful.
As it was it took things to an all different level. The level of powerful and determinate wizards.
The level in which only two groups of wizards could reside in Voldemort's world:
Wizard who were allies, and wizards who were dead.
From his first confrontation with Potter he had realized that the boy was hard to kill, but there is a vast difference between hard to kill, and powerful. That mind reminded him too much of his own, not just the organization system, but the thinking process, Potter thought, a lot.
Severus had told him all about those Oclummancy lessons. Well, of the tries at least, but had Severus seen even the tip of the iceberg? Probably not, he had been too busy humiliating the boy.
Had he himself seen more than the tip of the iceberg, somehow he doubted it.
There was too much power, after Severus had explained him the processes involved in the potion's work and the lines he had to speak, Voldemort had been expecting a confused mind, foggy, distressed, even in panic that was one of the risks Severus had warned him about, Potter's mind could reject him, in the state of fright it ought to have been in. Instead he had 'travelled' to a calm, if strange mind. Almost identical to his own, for some strange reason he couldn't fandom.
When he had first put this plan in motion his idea was to make Potter a follower, certainly a very special follower, due to his background and their past encounters, but just a follower. If even possible of course, it could have simply happened that the plan was a no-go, in which case the solution was simply and Potter's death would be a swift and efficient end to all of Voldemort's problems.
Now tough, his original plans could, perhaps, use a little more work. In fact they needed some work if they were to actually happen, at all. With the boy's newly discovered by Voldemort and probably still unknown to Potter, power levels, well we were now playing a different game, and maybe just maybe…
He observed Harry's sleeping face. The candle light cast some rough shadows over the slightly aristocratic features, making the boy's face seem, not so boyish. Yes, maybe he was good enough to play with the big boys. Even if he was not ready to do so yet. It could be arranged, it would be troublesome, but what good thing in life doesn't require a little hard work?
Yet this was dangerous, a dangerous game that could go remarkably wrong, very, very fast. As a slightly amnesiac and extremely confused follower, he would be easily controlled. But that was no longer feasible, the boy was not confused, at least not in his mind, and he would definitely not accept his 'slightly amnesiac' state lying down. He could indeed respond really badly to it and thanks to his power levels create some real damage. Even if the damage wasn't immediate, Potter was determinate enough to get himself some answers, and when he found them, because he would, you can only keep a powerful, determinate wizard in the 'dark' for so long. He laughed at his own joke. When he found them, there would be hell to pay; maybe it was for the best, to just kill him right now.
For one thing, at least, he had learned in the boy's mind:
A follower Mr. Potter was not.
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--------(Scared you, didn't I? thought I was going to end it here, hum? Relax…)---------------
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In the parlor, three men planned, over a table that contained only a medium sized pot. Or better described, a man commanded and explained his plans to the other, while the remaining man passed around angrily. And the pot in the table was in fact a Pensieve.
"So what you think?" said Voldemort.
"I can't believe you did it again! You managed to piss Severus off yet again!" said Lucius, while observing Severus anger filled passes, and muttering.
"The day I can't infuriate Severus is the day you can chain me naked to a bed, dress me up in black leather, whip me and perform deliberate sex acts on my person. But that's not the point; do you think it will work?" continued Voldemort, completely ignoring the angry, passing man.
"Of course not! It has never been attempted before… it's preposterous!" interrupted Severus.
"Yes" continued Voldemort "It has never been done before, and that's precisely why it will work."
"You have decided then?" said Lucius
Voldemort made a soft inclination of his head, the closer he would ever come to a nod.
Severus raised his arms in exasperation "This will end badly. Don't come and say I didn't warn you!"
Lucius laughed at his dramatic friend. "Fine, we will call it: Operation Will Most Likely End Badly, But It Could Work Because The World Likes To Annoy Severus, And This Would Be A Great Way Of Doing So".
And they proceeded to collect memories in the Pensieve. And select them. And rearrange them. And some, just some, completely transform them.
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Harry woke up with a jump and a very big headache.
His first thought was that this was a very bad hangover.
As he looked for his glasses on the little table by the bed, they were there, even so he looked at the distorted forms around the room, and his second thought was that he did not know exactly where he was or how he had gotten there.
His third thought was that he had no recollection of when he had gotten drunk. And this thought was followed by a series of other thoughts in that same line: he also couldn't remember what he had drunk, where he had drunk it, or with whom...
Strangely enough, a domestic elf popped in.
"Oh, the little master is awake! I'll call Master right away!"
"Wait! Where am…" But the elf had already popped out.
He looked around the room again, then he put his hand under the pillow and searched over the little bed table for his wand, it wasn't there. And he never slept without his wand, he couldn't find it! Where was it?! And his glasses?! And for that matter where the hell was he?
He couldn't freaking remember how he had gotten here!
"Damn! What the hell did I drink?"
"You will have to tell us that yourself Mr. Potter."
Harry jumped for the second time since he had woken up and looked to the left in the direction of the voice; he saw the distorted figures of three men. One of them stayed by the door while the other two advanced.
Harry frowned "I can't remember…"
"Oh do not worry yourself about that, Severus did say you could be expecting some memory lost, after all you have been asleep for the past 5 months." The man continued.
"5 MONTHS!" Harry yelled. "How the hell, and… Severus?" he glanced to the other man that so far had been silent, and noticed, although he couldn't distinguish the man's features, something recognizable in the black robes, and the man's way of standing. Could that be?...
"That would be me Mr. Potter." Said the no-longer-silent-or-anonymous- man.
"Professor Snape? What are you doing here?"
"Professor? I'm afraid I haven't been your professor for a while now, Mr. Potter…"
Mean while the other man had sat down on the edge of the bed. Harry could now observe him slightly better but he still couldn't see much, the man then proceeded to extend him, his glasses.
Harry put them on and found himself with a clear view of the man with thirty to forty years of age, dressed in robes of black and gray cloth, embroidered with silver. He looked at the man's hand in front of him and noticed of the paleness of it. That paleness stretched itself to the man's strong neck and to his face. Although marked by that almost livid paleness, this man had a remarkably handsome face; a strong jaw and aristocratic lines, while his teeth, as white was pearls, were set off to admiration by a delectable mouth. Harry looked up from the nose, quite straight, directly to his eyes.
They were penetrating and sparkling… they were also red.
Harry screamed.
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A/N: And here is where everyone hates me. But it's late and I'm tired and the next chapter will be up by Sunday! I swear. It's practically already written, I was in doubt about publishing it all together and decided not to, I felt like this was a good place to stop, (ok, so it was only good for me!) it's 4 am and I have a birthday party in the morning. Sorry!
Either way, tell me of what you think will happen… you'll probably not get it right, but why don't you give it a shot… it's in that button… you want it… I bet in five second you won't even remember why the hell you didn't review before! XD
+scalvim+