Disclaimer Notice: I own nothing you know.
Warning: Slash (male/male)
Guide: Thinking/ "Talking"/ "Parsel Tongue"
Chapter 4 – A Truce and an Argument
Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, Hermione Granger, and most of the Weasley family were all sitting in the kitchen at 12 Grimwald Place, listening avidly to Dumbledore as he told them about Harry's abuse and the bond.
Everyone sat in shocked silence. They couldn't believe Harry wouldn't tell them about what had gone on. Why would someone suffer in silence like that? None of them could figure it out. They were also confused about the bond. Dumbledore had said how Harry and Voldemort had been bonded, but not what would become of Harry nor what the bond entailed.
Sirius was the first to break the silence, "He's with that bastard!"
"Sirius, language." Dumbledore said quietly, then, "Yes, or he will die." This stilled him like nothing else could. "Now, I want no complaints toward this. I know Voldemort will not intentionally harm Harry."
"And how could you know that! You-Know-Who was always after him! What makes you think he won't hurt him?" Ron snarled at the headmaster.
Dumbledore could understand Ron's anger. This would be hard for everyone to accept, most importantly Harry. "Because of the bond Voldemort can feel Harry's emotions. As such, I think he would feel guilty if he is safe and that, for now, we should just try to prevent any deaths. Perhaps being around Harry will have a positive affect on Voldemort."
"Or Voldemort will have a negative affect on Harry." Sirius growled.
Hermione gasped, "No! Harry would never – "
"I'm not saying he'll betray us! I'm just…well, Voldemort is known for being manipulative. What if he "explains' himself and his actions and his reasoning, Harry might become confused, his loyalty would sway. I don't think he would ever do anything to harm us, but…I don't think he would help us either."
Dead silence met these words.
They all knew Harry before the summer began, but what would he be like when, or even if, they saw him again?
"Even so, there is nothing we can do about the bond. We will see him again. Have no fear."
XXX
As soon as Dumbledore left, Ron and Hermione scrambled upstairs to the room Harry and Ron would have shared had Voldemort and Harry not been bonded.
When Ron had shut and locked the door both teenagers stood in an awkward silence. Harry was their friend. In fact it was him that tied all three of them together. It was him that tried to keep the peace when Hermione and Ron got into one their little squabbles.
They were horrified by what they had heard tonight. Harry had never told them about the abuse. They could understand if he didn't want to tell any of the adults, but he hadn't told them, his best friends. Ron and Hermione wondered if he didn't trust them enough.
Hermione, for her part, wanted to know more about this bond. She wanted to know what her friend was going through.
"Dumbledore didn't go into much detail about the bond."
Ron sat down on a cot. "I, personally, don't want to know any details."
"Yes, but I think it's better if we know what we're up against."
"Up against what, exactly? Harry's the one who has to deal with this, not us!"
"Precisely, that's why we need to know as much as we can and then tell him!"
"Ron frowned in confusion. "He needs to be cheered up. If I was in his place, I'd want my friends to cheer me up!" Hermione rose an eyebrow in question. "Well, his birthday is coming up and my mom still has to take us to Diagon Alley. I think we could pick up something for him…"
Hermione perked up a bit. "And we could get a book on bonding!"
"Great, you do that and I'll get his present…"
Hermione saw that Ron had a mischievous glint in his eye. "What are you thinking?" She asked him, warily.
"We need something that will both cheer him up and protect him from that bastard!"
"And...?"
"We're going to need a lot of owls…"
XXX
Voldemort was sitting at a desk in a room on the third floor going over some plans for an upcoming battle to free all his followers from Azkaban. Fudge had yet to see that the Dark Lord was truly back, and Voldemort was going to use that to his advantage.
The moment his quill touched the paper when a loud tapping filled the room.
"Damn it!" Voldemort put down the eagle-owl quill and turned to face the window.
There, on the windowsill, was a snowy owl. Voldemort rose from his seat and opened the window, the owl then jumped onto his outstretched arm. Upon closer inspection a shock of realization hit.
This is Harry's owl. He knew this because inside forces had told him that Harry was the only student who had a snowy owl.
He took the letter that she carried, but when he tried to take the small package, which he assumed was his mate's belonging's, the owl snapped at his fingers. He cursed and set her on his desk.
"Wait here, you'll see Harry in a minute."
She looked at him in such a scornful way, that Voldemort felt like she could actually understand him, but the moment was brief when he saw the style of writing his name was written in.
"Dumbledore." Voldemort murmured.
With careful hands he opened the letter and started to read…
XXX
Upon waking, Harry noticed that he was quite alone. This was good, considering he didn't think he could look into the face of his adversary ever again.
A fruity smell reached his nose and he turned to see a bowl of chopped fruit on the bedside table. His stomach gave a hungry growl. He reached over and carefully took the bowl into his hands, picked up the fork and ate a piece of fruit. It felt like heaven when it touched his tongue. The last time he had ever even had a choice to eat fruit was when he was at Hogwarts. At the Dursleys' he was only allowed to eat small pieces of bread and cheese.
He had just finished eating when someone knocked wanting to come in. Harry quickly checked to make sure the he was completely covered and said, "Come in."
The door opened and Voldemort came in with a white owl on his shoulder.
"Hedwig!" Harry stretched out his arm and Hedwig flew to him. She nibbled his finger affectionately, in turn, he stroked her feathers.
Voldemort cleared his throat, effectively catching his mate's attention.
"Dumbledore sent your things." He pointed to the miniature trunk still attached to her leg. "Would you like me to enlarge that for you?"
Harry nodded his head slowly and took the package off of the owl's leg. He turned to Voldemort and handed it to him.
Voldemort set the trunk down on the floor and with a wave of his wand, it grew to it's normal size.
"Thanks." Harry mumbled keeping his eyes downcast.
"Your welcome." Voldemort replied with a frown. Harry is still afraid of me.
"Since my stuff is here I guess that means Dumbledore agreed to let me stay."
Voldemort sighed and sat on the bed, which made Harry tense. A shot of anger ran through him at his mate's reaction. "Harry, I am not going to harm you!"
"I…I know that." Harry stammered. "It's just…before I was eleven, before I met a family like the Weasleys, I had always been touched in anger and distain. Before I was eleven, I didn't think I was someone worthy of love." Voldemort was shocked to hear his mate say such things. Especially since Harry had spoke so harshly to him only hours ago.
"You see, I'm not used to this kind of attention. I might never be. So, I'm sorry if you get annoyed or angry at me because I'm…"
"Shy, timid…There are many words that could fill that void."
"Yeah." Harry continued to keep his eyes downcast, his body was shaking.
Voldemort wanted nothing more than to hold Harry in his arms, but settled for words instead.
"No, I'm sorry. I should not have gotten angry at you. Even more so, knowing what you've been through."
A moment of uneasy silence passed until Harry said. "Truce?"
"Truce." Voldemort replied with a soft smile.
As they had been talking the sun had dipped below the horizon and a few candles alighted of their own accord.
"I'm so tired."
'Perhaps you should go to sleep then."
"Alright."
Harry was about ready to turn over and do just that when Voldemort said, "I've just remembered." He reached over to the nightstand and took the salve off of it.
"Um, could I shower and get dressed first?" Harry looked at him hopefully.
"Yes, but I advise you to leave your shirt off."
"Okay…Could you…uh…leave?"
Voldemort took the hint. "I will be in the next room when you are done." Then he left.
Harry got up stiffly and grabbed some of his clothes out of his trunk, then limped to the bathroom. When he opened the door and stepped inside several candles lit up all around the room.
Harry gasped at the sight that now lay before him. This must be at least three times as big as the Prefect's bathroom! In the middle was a tub the size of a miniature swimming pool off to the left was a shower and to the right was a toilet. Fluffy black towels hung on racks and Harry's favorite part of the room was the stained glass windows. There were four of them, each connected to the other, all had different colored backgrounds. The one to the far left showed a fierce, red dragon rearing up on its hind legs breathing fire. Next was a pearly white Unicorn also rearing up and striking an invisible enemy with its horn. After that was a magnificent, golden phoenix, rising up from its ashes. Then Harry turned to the last creature, a chill ran up his spine. It was a basilisk. There was no mistaking those scarlet eyes.
After staring in awe at these mystical beasts, Harry finally went over to the shower and ran the hot water. He really would have wanted to take a bath but he also didn't want to make Voldemort wait.
While he was lathering up his body with soap, careful to mind his bruises, he began to ask himself what his parents would have thought about his situation. Would they be understanding? Angry? Sorrowful? He wasn't sure. He wanted very much to send a letter to Sirius asking what he thought. Maybe then he could gauge his parent's reactions a little better. Maybe…
He shook his head angrily to get rid of those thoughts They're dead! And they're never coming back. So, get over it!"
But still a shadow of their faces haunted him.
Harry got out of the shower and dried himself off. Better physically, but awful mentally. He decided to get dressed in the bathroom just in case. Voldemort had the crazy notion of coming in and checking on him. As requested, he left the shirt off.
It was hot in the steamy bathroom, so when he opened the door he wasn't prepared for the blast of cold air that hit him. He wrapped his arms around himself in an attempt to get warm, but was unsuccessful.
Trembling, he walked over to the other door and knocked shyly. He heard a rustle of paper followed by a thump and then the door opened.
Voldemort took in his mate's trembling state. "Cold are you?" Harry nodded. "Well, climb into bed." Harry nodded again, walked over to the bed, crawled in, and snuggled into the covers.
As Voldemort worked on his chest, he said, "Harry, I forbid you to use magic." Harry opened his eyes and looked at him. "Why?"
"Because I would rather no one at the ministry find out where I live."
"Oh, right. I promise, I won't."
"I also don't want you to tell anyone about what goes on here, should you tumble across any of my plans." Harry tensed. Voldemort glanced at his face. Harry was glaring at him. "I'm only recruiting people for now. So long as Fudge still thinks you are a lying brat."
Harry was still glaring at him. "What do you mean by, 'For now'?"
"Harry, just because you and I are now bonded does not mean that I will stop. If you can't accept that then you will just have to turn a blind eye to what happens."
"So what are you planning to do, kill every muggleborn and half-blood you come across?"
"No, not exactly…" Voldemort had many plans for the wizarding world but didn't think that his young charge would like what he had to say.
"Muggleborns and half-bloods are people not animals!"
"Muggleborns and half-bloods share blood with muggles and muggles are scum! Your relatives are the perfect example!" Voldemort said as heatedly.
"Not all muggles are the same! And besides have you seen what mixing all pure magical families are doing? It's creating squibs! Meanwhile, if you mix a muggle with a witch or wizard the child will be born with magical abilities! Our best chance of survival is to mix with muggles!"
A small part of Voldemort realized he was right, while the rest of him wanted to argue. So, instead of getting deeper into this conversation by exchanging hurtful words he decided to drop it.
"I will think on your words, but for now let me finish here."
Voldemort could still feel the spark of anger coming from Harry, but it did quiet down some when he started to knead his back.
XXX
After Harry had fallen asleep, Voldemort wrote a letter to Lucius telling him to bring Draco to the upcoming meeting, and to arrive early so that he could discuss private matters with him. He wrote another letter to Severus Snape telling him to arrive early also. Then he sat down at his desk to think.
XXX
Sorry it took so long...But it might make you happy to know that I already have Chapter 5 written, but I still have to make a few adjustments, and I also just started on Chapter 6. :)
By the way, I need some advice. I am thinking about writting a sex scene for this story, but unfortunetly I'm not very sure how to write one in the first place and second I don't want to get booted off of here 'cause people take offense to sex scenes that they read by their own free will...(Bakas!)...Anyways...I really, really don't want to be booted off of here. I can always just say that they hadnight of passion and be done with it. So, what do you think? Should I, or shouldn't I?
I also have a story brewing in my mind about a HP/SS mix. I'm torn between making it a Harry turns into an animal from Neville being a screw up in potions and then having to live with Snape...Or a Snape is no more useful as a spy so he turns into an animal to keep a watch on a depressed Harry story. What do you think? (I promise that I won't start it until after D.S.M. Well, unless I know I can handle two stories at a time. :)