AN Herro! This is the second-to-last chapter until Hogwarts, or just the last, if you count Harry going shopping for supplies a Hogwarts part. Actually… It could be considered the third to last because chapter eight is likely going to be more of the train ride… anyways! That's beside the point, thank you for the reviews, on to the story! (Harry: Age Nine years and eleven months old)
Harry sighed, kicking the sofa. He was so bored. He'd rode Goliath for at six hours until he had to let him go hunting. Ever since the ministry put a huge bounty on his capture, the Dark Lord had demanded that he stay in the Riddle Manor until he started Hogwarts, at which point his magic would be strong enough that he should have little trouble defending himself. He knew there was no arguing with his adopted father, and he did understand, it was just boring! Especially on the days when the Dark Lord went on a raid and Harry was stuck being babysitted, BABYSITTED, by Severus. Harry glanced at Severus, who was still reading a book and completely ignoring him. Ugh, now Harry's foot hurt.
Harry was considering trying to Imperius Severus, but he was pretty sure that wouldn't work on the master Occlumens. Reaching out his hand, Harry wandlessly and wordlessly levitated the couch, feeling as his magic drained. Groaning, Harry plopped it back down again with a loud thud, and one of the legs broke. Pulling out his wand, Harry silently cast a reparo, watching as the leg fixed itself. Turning, Harry noticed that the foul tempered Potions Master seemed to have failed to notice. Harry jumped onto the sofa, laying across it so that he covered the most of it possible. Looking at him, Harry sent a weak jinx at Severus, watching as his robes slowly turned hot pink from the bottom up. Severus only noticed when they started to turn pink where his book was resting.
Severus raised his head, looking at the Dark Prince in front of him. This was the seventeenth time he was assigned to watch over the brat. The boy had extreme boredom issues, after only entering the mansion ten minutes ago, the boy had already jinxed him three times, broken four things, and never seemed to stop moving. Luckily, the boy didn't really put much effort in his jinxes, so Severus countered them easily enough. It was likely the boy wanted a reaction, but Severus was certain anything he did would likely cause problems, after all, the brat was the Dark Lord's son. Severus wondered for a moment if the Dark Lord had been like this when he was younger, he almost, almost chuckled at the thought. After a few experiences with the boy, Severus had found out that the boy was more of a powerful high ranked Death Eater, and saw the Dark Lord as his master, not as his father. Right now, Severus had trouble relating the boy to his father, but sometimes it came to him as clear as day how like his father the boy was. The Dark Prince could be charming and an extremely good actor if he chose to be. He was also ruthless, the Cruciatus bothered him less than anyone Severus had ever seen, and he had an extremely dark aura that he released sometimes that was very intimidating. Severus let out a puff of breath.
"Severus? Can I please go do something! I could illusion myself and go kill some Order members! Something, anything, please!" Harry asked, he never admitted it to anyone, not even himself, but sometimes he felt like Severus was the closest he'd ever gotten to a parent figure.
"No, your father has strictly ordered me to not let you out of this house," Severus growled.
"Please? Maybe we could play wizarding chess! Or duel! I love dueling! C'mon! Please!" Harry begged.
"No wizarding chess or dueling," Severus groaned.
"Are you scared? Hm? Is that why? Bet I could beat you! You couldn't dodge a spell if you tried! I'll duel you wandlessly? Please!" Harry exclaimed.
"I… I guess," Severus gave in, glaring at the brat as he attempted puppy dog eyes, it didn't really work though when his eyes looked like death itself.
"Thank you! Thank you! Finally!" Harry practically yelped.
"Get yourself together boy! It's only one duel, nothing to cause such a bother about!" Severus growled, momentarily forgetting who he was talking to. Somehow that Dark Prince didn't seem to notice, Severus sighed quietly in relief, the sooner Dumbledore let him stop being a spy the better, it was getting harder every day to play the loyal Death Eater.
"To the duelling room!" the Dark Prince shouted, dashing off towards the magic practice room.
Getting out of his chair, Severus slowly walked after him. He knew he was going to regret this, even without his wand the boy was likely going to beat him, although it was a closish duel. As soon as he entered the room, the boy shot a modified version of the stinging hex at him, considered a torturing curse. Severus barely managed to duck out of the way, and responded by sending back a stunner. Raising his hands, the boy cast a shield spell, a light spell, curiously, the shield turned out a black color mimicking the boy's hair. The spell hit the shield, and was absorbed, moments later, the shield went down and a series of strong curses were sent towards Severus. These included an overpowered heat charm, something warm enough that could make burns that would cause scarring. Severus jumped out of the way only to find himself in the way of a sword the Dark Prince had conjured and banished at him, quickly, Severus cast a summoning charm on the hilt, watching as the sword flipped and he got hit with the hilt instead of the blade. Looking up, he saw the boy had somehow managed to spell a sword, from what he could tell, it had sharpening, unbreaking, lightening, and of course flaming charms placed upon it. It resulted in a flaming golden sword that flickered different shades of orange from the reflections of the flames. Severus sent a dark spell he'd made up towards the boy, it was able to pass through all of the common shields, it smothered the attacked person's magic for differing amounts of time depending on how much power he sent in it.
Then the boy speed-apparated, something that almost everyone else avoided because of the intense pain of it. The pain normally stopped it from being effective in fights, apparently not for the Dark Prince though, as before Severus even registered where the boy had gone, his wand was hit out of his hand by a burning sword, then the sword pulled back and Severus felt a sting as it poked into the back of his neck. Then his wand zoomed off the floor and presumably into the Dark Prince's hand.
"I win," the boy said, smirking as he pushed Severus away from him and gave him his wand back.
"Yes, I suppose you do," Severus congratulated him, pausing for a second before adding "Good job, that was an amazing display of magic."
The boy ignored his complement, changing the subject, "What was that spell you used at the end? The one I dodged?"
"It's a dark spell, the incantation is Kovrilo, had you tried to shield against it, it would likely break through," Severus informed him.
"Kovrilo…" The Dark Prince whispered under his breath, "What does it do?"
"It can stop a person's magic for any amount of time, depending on how much power you put into it," Severus told him, he had a fear he knew where this was going.
"Can you show me how to do it?" the boy asked.
Severus groaned mentally, "I will, but after that, we're done for the day," he growled.
"Yes sir!" The Dark Prince said, fake saluting in a very Muggle way. Knowing how the boy loathed Muggles, Severus knew that he was taunting him.
"The motion for casting this spell is fairly simple, start with your wand vertical, and then snap it straight towards what you're aiming for the moment you finish the incantation," Severus instructed, watching as the boy attempted to follow his directions, but it was hard to tell what he was doing wrong the first time he tried because of the fact he was doing to wordlessly.
After only a couple tries, the boy got the dark blue spell out of his wand, although he could use some practice, "Awesome!" he said, watching as the spell momentarily froze the dummy.
Severus sighed, Mad-eye would likely try to get him killed for teaching the Dark Prince a new spell.
-= One Hour Later, Riddle Manor =-
"My lord!" Harry said respectfully, kneeling and bowing his head for ten seconds before bouncing back up, looking into his adopted father's scarlet eyes.
"Hello again my prince, have I not told you before nothing more than a simple bow is necessary? Kneeling makes you seem like a weakling Death Eater," the Dark Lord told him, in his usually commanding tone.
"Many times, I am sorry my lord," Harry responded.
The Dark Lord turned to look at Severus, "I take it Severus has treated you well while I was away?" he asked, eyebrow raised.
"Yes, he taught me a new spell," Harry told him, carefully keeping from showing his excitement.
"Very well, Severus, you are dismissed," the Dark Lord told Severus.
"Yes, my lord," Severus responded, leaving through the floo.
Voldemort looked at Harry. He wasn't sure what to do with the boy, he was, he admitted, afraid that if the boy found out he was starting to become stronger than he that his Dark Prince would destroy him, like the prophecy stated, although Voldemort wasn't certain it was his Dark Prince that was prophesized. He wished he had that prophecy, but it was warded so that only he or the 'Boy-Who-Lived' could pick it up. Wait, Voldemort carefully hid his shock at his own stupidity from his face, his Prince could also pick up this prophecy because of his immunity to wards!
Then, almost like he could read his thoughts, "Can I please go on a mission? Just something easy, something not risky?" the boy asked.
Voldemort pretended to ponder it for a moment, "I suppose, could you do a little job at the Ministry for me?" He phrased it like a question, but it was obvious it was a command.
"Yes! I mean, yes my lord, what would you like me to do?" his Prince asked, his mask flickering for a moment.
"There is a prophecy about me and your old brother in the Hall of Prophecies, I would like you to retrieve it for me. Because of your ward immunity, this should be fairly easy," Voldemort informed him.
"Yes my lord! I'll go immediately," his Prince told him, grabbing his wand and summoning his Dark Prince attire.
A moment later, Harry apparated into the Hall of Prophecies, "Drop your wand and put your hands up!" A shocked Auror said, one who happened to be directly behind him.
He couldn't believe his luck! Someone to kill as well as a prophecy to collect! Dropping his wand, Harry turned around. Shock spread across the Auror's face as he realized just who had managed to apparate into an anti-apparition area. Grinning gleefully under his mask, Harry wandlessly cast a killing curse at the man, watching as the Auror fell to the ground, dead. Harry frowned, that had been too quick, it didn't really make him feel any better about the lack of raids in the last two years. 'Accio Prophecy' Harry thought, thinking of his father's prophecy but also wondering about a prophecy about him. To his surprise, moments later, he saw two prophecy orbs flying towards him. He caught them both, looking at the pedestal they had been on, he saw that the one that had him was just him, labeled Dark Prince. Casting a duplicating spell on the orb, Harry then threw one of the voice recordings of his prophecy on the floor. He listened as the words came out.
"The Dark Lord arises
Eyes of Death and
Soul of black,
he seeks revenge from those who wronged him,
The Dark Lord arises" The voice rasped. Harry gasped, Dark Lord? Him? He wasn't a Lord of anything! Although he most definitely seeked revenge on his birth parents and brother. Shaking his head, Harry decided that he would share it with the Dark Lord or other Dark Lord now? Sighing, Harry grabbed his wand and apparated back to Riddle Manor, an orb in each hand. He saw that the Dark Lord had settled in the seat Severus normally sat in. He started to pull back his leg to kneel, then corrected it to a deep bow.
"I have returned, and I found a prophecy that is supposedly about myself, I hope you don't mind that I took it?" Harry asked once he had straightened up again.
"Yes, yes, that's fine, can I see the prophecy about myself?" the Dark Lord asked, his mask failing as he attempted to suppress his curiosity of what his prophecy said.
Harry handed him the prophecy, watching as the Dark Lord cast a spell that released the words of the spell. It was much more complex than his own, but seemed to point towards Griffith being the chosen one. After all, Griffith did have the lightning bolt scar on his forehead. Looking at the Dark Lord though, it seemed something was wrong. The Dark Lord seemed to have forgotten he wasn't alone, as a look of worry and contemplation spread across his face.
"Is something wrong my lord?" Harry asked, the Dark Lord looked up sharply at him, quickly masking his emotions.
"I need to show you something my Prince, put down your occlumency shields," the Dark Lord ordered.
Nodding, Harry quickly dropped his mediocre shields, then looked into the Dark Lord's eyes, struggling to not put up his shields as his adopted father used legilimency on him. He watched as almost a simple member of an audience as his father sifted through his memories, working backwards to the point of when Harry must've been no older than two years old. Harry watched as an event he had heard recounted to him a million times before took place. The Dark Lord burst into the nursery where he and Griffith were sitting on the floor. Then, to Harry's shock, the Dark Lord pointed his almost bonelike wand at Harry-baby and cast the killing curse. The spell the proceeded to hit some sort of killing curse colored shield, before a beam of yellow light struck Griffith in the forehead, and the now blue shield faded away, the Dark Lord had apparated away at the point when it first started to reflect, as his curse breakers had taken down all the wards on the house. After the light of the yellow beam faded a small red cut could be seen on Griffith's forehead, in the shape of a lightning bolt.
Gasping, Harry was pulled out of the memory as the Dark Lord left his mind, "What does that mean?" he asked the Dark Lord.
"It means that it is more likely you are the prophesized child my Prince, as you are the one I marked as my equal. Now that my suspicions have been as close to confirmed as they can get, show me this other prophecy you found," Harry carefully took his orb out of its stand and handed it to the Dark Lord.
After listening to it, Voldemort decided he needed to look deeper into those prophecies.
-= Order of the Phoenix Headquarters =-
"I had to babysit the Dark Lord's son again," Severus told Dumbledore as he, Dumbledore, James, Sirius, and Alastor sat at the end of the large table.
"Oh? That would be the thirteenth time you had to watch him right?" Sirius asked, he had found it extremely amusing when he found out Snivellus was stuck with the Dark Prince while the Dark Lord went on raids.
"It would be the seventeenth time actually, and the boy managed to convince me to duel him," Severus winced, rubbing the back of his neck where there was a scab. He had found out that the little cut the boy put in the back of his neck was a bit worse than he'd thought it was.
"Hah, that would be quite the sight to see, how quickly did you lose?" Sirius asked, chuckling at the thought of a young boy defeating Severus in a fight, although it was obvious the boy could.
"I held my own for a while, granted he decided to battle me without a wand. For some reason he is also obsessed with swords," Severus informed him.
"That is interesting indeed Severus, as if I recall correctly, swords were the preferred weapon of Godric Gryffindor," Dumbledore observed.
"Don't get any ideas about him being a 'true Gryffindor at heart'. His obsession with swords is more likely related to his love of pain. He also has absolutely no sense of honor. He's most definitely a Slytherin, he reminds me much of his father at times," Severus warned Dumbledore.
"No my boy, I would never imagine any son of Voldemort-" Everyone cringed, "would ever be a Gryffindor, not any son like the Dark Prince anyways. Now I fear we have another matter on our hands, although I have a feeling I've figured out the culprit," Dumbledore started. "A few hours ago, an Auror by the name of Alan Niakem was murdered with the killing curse in the Hall of Prophecies. Two prophecies were stolen, one being the prophecy about your son, James. The other was the one that claimed the Dark Prince is the Dark Lord," Dumbledore told them.
"Did the Ministry records show anyone inside other than the Aurors at the time?" Moody asked.
"That's what makes this curious Alastor, there was no one unaccounted for that would have been able to reach Alan without apparating," Dumbledore informed them.
"Apparating! Everyone knows the Ministry as apparation wards everywhere except for the apparating points, which are closely monitored!" James all but shouted, "It's impossible for someone to get in by apparating, did that wards go down at any point?"
"No they did not, and it's not necessarily impossible. There is an extremely old dark spell I've heard of that could do it. The spell causes extreme pain that was known to make those who did it go insane. It had to be done on a developing magical core as well, and was extremely advanced magic. The book with the spell in it was lost centuries ago though, I am not sure how the Dark Lord acquired it, if that spell is indeed what the Dark Prince did on himself," Dumbledore said.
AN Yeah! Chapter six, I'll see you guys with the next chapter, Diagon Alley, soon enough, 'till then, cya!
-Ariana Flynn Riddle