Gathering

Warnings Strongly Apply: sex and swearing... We're talking about a 15yr old here people...

A/N: Wow - all wither before the power of procastination... At least there's certainly nothing in my willpower you need to wither from, because obviously - it's not particularly strong...

xXx

There seemed to be a chill in the summer breeze as Harry began jogging away from the house. It stung his face and made his eyes water and his skin shiver, although, he thought as he let out a sobbed breath, the breeze may not have been to blame. Footsteps echoed his movements somewhere behind him, but no one called to him and he wondered if he was being paranoid, or if there was someone who had been watching him yet again. If there was, they probably already knew what happened, his anxious mind told him. A louder, angrier voice reminded him that if they knew and did nothing, then they were as much to fault as he.

Either way, Harry ran faster. He was afraid of death but he refused to think about what he was running towards because he was too concerned with all the mistakes and things he was running away from. In his mind the only thought that had become clear was that Voldemort would solve all of his problems, Harry didn't care how or why but still, he knew that he would.

So he opened up his mind and screamed into it, trying to open something that he knew was there, but didn't know how to get to. He called and called and called for Voldemort as he wove his way through the back streets of Little Whinging, making sure he lost the tail that may or may not have been there.

His breath was rasping as he arrived in his usual haunt, the yellowing and deserted children's playground. Harry let out a sigh of relief at the pop of apparition and the imposing silhouette that signalled the Dark Lord had answered his call. It turned into a strangled, frustrated cry though as many other pops announced the arrival of the rest of his death eaters.

"Can't you ever do anything without a fucking audience?" Harry yelled furiously like a petulant child.

To his credit, Voldemort didn't even bat an eyelash as he approached; he just lifted a questioning eyebrow at Harry's wet face and rasping breath and smiled as he tsk'd mockingly.

"Harry, Harry, Harry – Language. What has gotten the boy-who-lived so worked up? Perhaps I need to get Dumbledore for you?" He asked causing chuckles among the otherwise very confused death-eaters.

"I want to deal with you alone" Harry bit out forcefully.

"But surely Harry, anything you have to say to me, you can say in front of my most trusted family." Voldemort said, spreading his arms to encompass his followers standing jauntily behind him.

'No', thought Harry, 'I can't, because that would devoid the point.' Realising the need for a fast change of tact, Harry shot back pompously,

"I challenge you to a duel; winner must cremate the loser's corpse" he said, causing curious twitters amongst the death-eaters.

"You don't want to duel Harry Potter." Voldemort whispered conspiratorially, "You want to die, and you want me to kill you – Why?" he asked threateningly.

"Why do you always have to be so fucking paranoid?" Harry growled angrily "This has nothing to do with that stupid prophecy! It's not some trick to kill you! You're the one who reckons I have a fucking hero complex so why the hell can't I just want to fight you?"

Voldemort whipped his hand across the space between them in the blink of an eye and latched threatening fingers around Harry's neck.

"Because you're lying about something…Those muggles have given you a dirty mouth Harry. Don't you know the appropriate way to act?" Voldemort questioned domineeringly as he gripped a limp Harry's throat.

For a second Harry's breath hitched and his heart skipped a beat before it started racing again as he thought Voldemort was referring to something else, and he knew but he couldn't possibly… Then Harry realised he was talking about his bad language and tried to get a hold of himself. It was too late however; Voldemort had noticed his panic and was smiling curiously.

"What did you do Harry?" He whispered audibly with a wide smirk.

"PISS OFF!" Harry yelled furiously "It's none of your business 'why'. I'm standing here, giving you what you've hounded me for the last 15 years to get and you won't even do one little thing for me! Fine" he said, annoyed as he tried to unsuccessfully push Voldemort's hand off of his neck. "If you won't kill me and burn me right now, then I'm leaving. I don't have time to dick around with your mind games."

"Why the rush Harry? You need to be somewhere afterwa – Dumbledore!" he concluded triumphantly. "You've done something and you don't want him to know, do you Harry?" Voldemort said with cheerful intrigue.

"Shut up!" Harry spat as he tried to pry Voldemort's fingers away from his neck. It was only then that Voldemort noticed Harry wasn't actually suffering anything but restraint from his grasp and logically, that had to do something with love. What exactly, he wasn't sure.

"I notice Harry, you're not screaming" he said conversationally.

"YOU'RE THE MOST ARROGANT BASTAR-" Harry started screaming, once more misinterpreting what Voldemort meant, but he was abruptly cut off when Voldemort stroked from his scar down the side of his still-wet face, smirking pointedly. However it was Voldemort who ended up shocked by Harry's reaction. He saw the fear light in his eyes at the intimate contact and then Harry just dropped. He didn't struggle, he just dropped to the ground, he looked betrayed at Voldemort's actions but more then that, he was terrified and he was being submissive.

"Don't" Harry pleaded, a sob wrenching from his body. Of all the people, why Voldemort? Honestly they had the simplest relationship of anyone in Harry's life – one would kill the other, so what was he playing at? If Harry was being just a tad paranoid about contact with men right now, then he figured in the case of Voldemort he would rather err on the side of caution so as to avoid the butterflies betraying his rationale again.

Meanwhile, the death eaters were twittering and chuckling as they stood behind Voldemort. Having, as they did, no real clue as to what was going on, the fear Potter displayed was something they recognised and craved to see. Voldemort on the other hand was trying very hard to contain his shock at a submissive Harry to his widened eyes and set mouth.

He bent to try and grab a hold of Harry again, who was doing his best to scoot away from him while muttering half formed requests of 'no', 'don't' and 'please just leave me alone'.

"Alright Harry, no more games" he said matter-of-factly as he whipped out his wand.

xXx

A/N: Well, really that's not exactly a finished chapter.. but that's where I got up to and figured - meh, might as well post tonight.

For any that assumed I was being a tad specific when I said 5 of you will be smart or whatever... yeah, actually there was a percent sign there, and while I'm trying to avoid ranting I would still just like to point out that a pros...titute is a profession, not a derogatory word in need of censoring.

So... as far as the story's concerned:

Parseltonge girl - Whether or not he was raped depends on your definition of rape. I'm leaving it to everyone to make their own decision because to generalise there could be very upsetting for some. Plus the whole point of his guilt for it is that he doesn't really know either.

I like to think my writing has matured, last chapter was my graduation into the realms of lemon... can't say it wasn't tricky when you're the kind of person that laughs if someone says penis... but I think it worked out alright...

My main goal for the moment with this story is to try and keep people in character, as opposed the OC atrocity that is Voldemort in 'Caged'. I draw a line however between being oc and being realistic... so if you're of the opinion that a swearing Harry is oc, I'm of the opinion that a non-swearing Harry is not realistic to his age and cirumstances, censorship is something that exists to sell children's books (that's a bit of an over-generalisation, but you know what I mean).

Thanks to my reviewers - parseltonge girl and panther73110

Katty xx