Family Torture
When a Death Eater screwed up majorly lately, it apparently turned into a family thingy.
It was sort of odd.
Marcus Flint was kneeling in front of the throne.
"Forgive me, my Lord, forgive me."
Like hell Tom would. He was standing beside the throne, like a guard of honour, his wand in hand, with little Morgan standing beside him.
That idiot Flint had just given away ten of the Dark Lord's men by accident and a minor, subtle, unnoticeable compulsion charm, curtesy of one Harry James Potter. Of course, the mission itself hadn't been too intelligent either.
The Dark Lord had needed a stress reliever, after all.
It had been more than a year now since he had joined, he'd participated in countless raids, always unmasked, always on the Lord's right side.
"I am most disappointed in you, Flint! CRUCIO!"
Harry allowed himself a grin. Served the git right.
The Dark Lord's temper had cooled down, and Harry idly wondered what he'd do next. He hadn't been in that bad a mood since Draco Malfoy joined the Order.
Uncle Lucy had been really angry about that one.
"Girl, come here."
The Dark Lord never spoke Morgan's name in front of servant's not Harry, Bellatrix or Lucius.
"Here."
The Dark Lord gave Morgan his wand.
Harry blinked in surprise.
"Now, the incantation is 'Crucio'. Can you try it, please?"
"Okay, Grandpa. Crucio!"
Flint screamed.
"Very good, but you'll have to work a little on that wand movement. Now, try it again..."
"Crucio!"
Flint screamed louder.
"Well done, but you're stressing the 'i' too much. Again."
"Crucio!"
Flint screamed even louder. Served the git right. He'd seen Morgan only a few times. The first time he'd suggested to "Use her a little" with a leer that made every father alarm in Harry's head go off, and that had gotten him several Crucio's by the Dark Lord.
He was one of the few not-that trusted ones that had ever seen Morge.
Apparently, the Dark Lord was trying to get Morge to change that. Harry wished he could have spared her that, but it appeared she was having fun at the moment.
The girl loved her grandfather, strangely enough.
What was even stranger was the genuine liking Voldemort had taken to her, in spite of threatening to torture her.
"Now, that was almost perfect. Give it another try, and then we can move on to the Killing Curse!"
"No killing before she's six, Tom."
Voldie glared at him.
"I'm serious. It might be bad for her."
"Oh, all right, I'll just have to do it myself, then", Voldemort grumbled.
"Crucio!"
"Girl, I think you've got the curse down pat", he said, with a note of pride in his voice.
Morgan laughed, a sincerely happy laugh, because she had made her Grandfather proud.
It made Harry shiver.
Still, she was his little girl, too.
This evening, they had a serious discussion.
"Now, Morge, what did I tell you?"
"One shouldn't crucio people."
"Exactly."
"But why?"
"Because it hurts others, and hurting others isn't nice."
"But you hurt others. You hurt that Ginny girl, even though you liked her."
"That was to protect you. I love you, Morge, I'd do anything to protect you. But there's a difference between protecting someone and doing something for fun."
"Okay, I understand, Daddy."
"I'm glad you do."
"Are we going to help people someday?"
He swooped her up.
"We are."
"What will happen with Grandpa?"
"I don't know. Nothing good, likely."
"And with Uncle Lucy and Aunt Bella?"
"Nothing good, either."
"Grandpa thought something about horcruxes."
Harry froze. He knew what a horcrux was.
"I know where they are, Dad. Grandpa isn't always very careful with what he thinks if only him and I are in the room, and he sometimes lets his Occlumency shields down around me. He doesn't know I know Legilimency."
She looked at him, and he knew she understood what it meant, and it was crushing her inside. She loved her grandfather, she really did.
She just loved life and him more.
Then, she cracked up.
"But Dad... Flint's expression really was funny!"
Both of them shared a hearty laugh.