More Horcruxes
The next morning, Harry felt that his side was decidedly soaked.
Morgan had cried most of the night, before finally falling asleep.
He slowly opened his eyes.
Morgan was still lying there, sleeping peacefully.
He just continued observing her.
Slowly, she began to twitch, as in a nightmare, before waking up with a scream.
He held her, when she woke up, while she sobbed in his shirt.
"Morge? Can you tell me... the whole story?"
She didn't answer immediately, but slowly, she stopped crying.
"I saw the night your mum and dad died. My grandparents."
That wasn't good.
"Grandpa killed them."
"He's killed quite a lot of people."
"I know. That isn't the scary part."
For a moment, he felt angry... then he remembered that Morgan's point of view was a bit unique. She'd seen enough people die and her grandfather kill often enough that she didn't think it scary.
"He... he had an odd feeling when he... died the first time."
Okay.
"He didn't recognize it. I did."
That didn't sound very good.
"Dad, I think... well, I'm pretty sure you're a horcrux."
Him? A horcrux? He thought about it, silently.
"It fits. It fits every single fact that I know of."
"But Dad... what are we going to do?"
"Well, I think I'll be able to find a solution. Don't you worry, Morge. We're Potters. We're luck personified."
She cracked a grin.
"Whatevery you say, Dad."
"I've got a question though: Why on Earth can you read his mind, and no one else?"
"Well, he can't keep his Occlumency shields up all the time."
He waited.
And waited.
"And?"
"Especially not when he sleeps, and I'm the only person besides him who can get into Gramps personal quarters. He likes me."
Harry laughed. It really was true - Tom loved Morgan, in his own, twisted way, and cared for her. Didn't stop him from executing his plans, but, as Morgan said "Letting feelings interfere with your plans is just plain stupid." was a very Slytherin motto.
It fit their strange family better than he ever could have thought when he was still the Gryffindor Golden Boy.
While Bella was on an assignment, and Morgan and her Grandpa were playing chess, Lucius and Harry were talking.
"It looks like Morgan is giving him a hard time."
"Well, she is clever. Seems to run in the family."
"You're not above self-promotion, are you?"
"Nah, it's in the other side of the family. Together with a certain amount of madness."
"Too true."
Silence.
"Why do you actually put up with playing with her. I mean, me and our Lord, well, we're her family, Bellatrix thinks it's fun, and you... well, why do you accept having to play a princess?"
"Don't remind me of that."
Lucius seemed to think whether he should say anything else or not.
Finally, he answered.
"You do know she's as Dark as they come?"
Harry nodded.
"She's what, three years old? She can produce darkfyre and a Crucio that doesn't leave you standing. Oh, I know the Dark Lord is practically immortal, but even he will want to retire and let someone else take over, eventually. And she's the one who is ideal for the position. Being her Uncle Lucy has long term advantages."
Harry blinked. Legilimency said he was being honest.
"You seriously think she'll be a Dark Lady one day?"
"What, do you think she's too cute or something? She has the talent, she has the ambition, and she'll grow into it. She wouldn't make that bad a Death Eater right now, discounting for size and fearsomeness, and she's just out of her nappies. She's already better than most of our new recruits at the Dark Arts."
"Why are you being so... open?"
"Because if you suspect me of any motives that can harm her, I won't stand much of a chance. Honesty sometimes is best."
"Honesty sometimes is the best method of manipulation", Harry mumbled.
"Pardon?"
"It's a quote I got from Morgan."
"That's exactly what I mean. Just out of her nappies and already as Slytherin as they come."
Silence.
They both went back to observe the chess match, lost in their own thoughts.
Tom lost that time - a pout and a puppy-dog look from his granddaughter had distracted him so he moved his queen one square less than he should have, on a field that had the unfortunate trait of being diagonally forward to one of Morgan's pawns.
Let's just say, puppy-dog looks and granddaughters do not mix well with chess-playing skills of grandfathers. In fact, the former are highly acidical and likely to dissolve the latter, while being sickeningly sweet at the same time. They're much like lemon drops that way.
Harry had been assigned to get something out of Bellatrix' vault while she and Tom had some "quality time" with Morgan a few months before her fourth birthday.
He'd refused, if it wasn't an ideal opportunity to get rid of Hufflepuff's Cup.
He'd went inot Gringotts - under Polyjuice, obviously - into the account, stabbed the Cup, got the stuff they'd wanted him to get, some Dark Arts books as presents for Morgan for her birthday, and walked out again.
Not that exciting. He was just hoping that Bellatrix and Tom hadn't had any crazy ideas for a family outing.
Diary, check, Ring, check, Locket, check, Diadem, check, Cup, check.
Missing: Himself and Snake. And of course, Wormtail had been out on an assignment and still had not come back. Harry sincerely hoped he wouldn't show up again.
They had had a crazy idea.
Their brilliant plan had been going to a reptile exhibition.
A Muggle reptile exhibition.
Morgan appeared to be in heaven. "So many snakey-snakes! Yay!"
She did know that "snakes" would have sufficed, didn't she?
"Morgan, I want you to... Morgan?!"
The girl had disappeared, as anyone could have guessed.
Hours later, a frantic Voldemort and a close-to-despair Bella were found by a very much annoyed Harry.
"You should have been back hours ago! What happened?"
"We, uh, we, we lost Morgan."
"YOU DID WHAT? Okay, I'll help you search."
Minutes later, they discovered Morgan, hissing happily back and forth with some boa constrictors and being rather put out that they had to go home.
"But why? I had so much fun, and we haven't been there that long yet... It's too early to go home! Please?"
"No. You've been here for six hours, that's enough, young Lady. Home and bed for you."