(A/N): I really am sorry for the time between chapters on this one. I had finals, and I forgot anything other than finals, and then I moved and then it was winter break and I collapsed in relief and had no desire to write anything or even think for a while. I finally wrote it, but we had no internet, so I had no way of posting it for a while. Here it is, using hotspot wifi stolen from an iPad. Ha.
I revised chapter eleven, as I realized I meant to have Pravus use a lineage potion on Lily and never wrote the scene. Well, the scene is there now. Woo.
This chapter was brought to you by The Little Things Give You Away by Linkin Park, with this beautiful line I love:
All you've ever wanted
Was someone to truly look up to you
And six feet under water, I do
(Seriously, look up this song, it's one of my all time favorites and I feel like it goes pretty well with this story).
Instantly a wand was in Riddle's hand, the tip pointed at Harry. Riddle's eyes flicked between both Harry and Sebastian, and Harry knew he was trying to assess the threat level. "Who are you and why are you in my rooms?" For a man who woke up to two strange men standing over his bed, he was remarkably calm.
Harry turned and looked at Sebastian, an exaggerated pout on his face. "No one recognizes me anymore," he sighed, "why? Was I just not memorable before?" Sebastian rolled his eyes.
"It's because you changed so much. You know that, don't whine." Harry sighed again, then muttered, "Fine."
"I asked you both a question," Riddle snapped, obviously fed up with being ignored. Harry turned back to Riddle.
"You mean you can't figure it out?" he asked curiously. Riddle glared, inwardly trying to determine if that question was insulting or complimenting his assumed intelligence. He calmed himself, though, and catalogued what he knew. A man, with black hair, green eyes, pale skin, obviously not human. Another man with black hair, red eyes, and equally pale skin, probably of the same species as the other. He was supposed to know the green eyed one. He closed his eyes, sighing. Green eyes.
He opened them, then flicked his wand at the green eyed one. "Avada kedavra." The killing curse sped straight for him at lightning speed, yet it was still not fast enough. The green eyed one dodged it with seeming ease, only moving the smallest required amount to not be hit by the spell. He smirked at the red eyed one. "I told you he would try to kill me barely minutes into our acquaintance."
The red eyed one shook his head. "And I agreed with you, but you wanted a bet so you coerced me into betting against you," he sounded exasperated. The green eyed one only smiled cheerily.
Riddle was aghast. These two men had the audacity to sneak into his stronghold, wake him up in the middle of the night to talk about only they knew what, and then completely ignore him in favor of having side conversations as if this were an everyday occurrence.
"Perhaps," the red eyed one said, his face suspiciously straight, "we should do what we came here to do?"
"Oh yes," the green eyed one replied, as if he had to be reminded he stood in front of an impatient Dark Lord. "We know where Dumbledore's bases for the Order of the Phoenix are."
If two strangers in front of his bed in the middle of the night hadn't got Riddle's attention, that did. He got out of the bed, eyes fixed on both of the men. "And I am assuming you wish to tell me where they are out of the goodness of your heart?" he replied wryly.
The red eyed one snorted. "Of course not. We do benefit, obviously, why else would we give you the information?"
"I don't suppose you will tell me what this 'benefit' is?"
"Nope," the green eyed one answered, popping the 'p'.
Riddle narrowed his eyes, distrustful. "You still haven't told me who you are, and why I should trust you."
The green eyed one smirked, then waved his hand, his features shifting into that of a man Riddle remembered all too well. Fire red hair, the eyes, everything was exactly as he remembered Pravus Michaelis' hair to be. "I think you remember me," he said, slightly too smugly.
"Yes," Riddle hissed, "I do. You were the one teacher, other than Dumbledore, that disliked me. I could never understand why."
Pravus smiled, and said, "That would be because I always knew what you would become. I had no desire to ingratiate myself to a future Dark Lord, or a child with dreams bigger than his small orphanage could ever compare to."
Fury set in, and Riddle barely restrained himself from flinging another killing curse at the man. He had sown his soul back together for more control of himself, yet this man got under his skin like only Dumbledore could.
"And that," he said, barely keeping his fury from showing, "does not answer why I should trust you."
Pravus, slightly impressed at Riddles' self-control, decided to stop the baiting for now. That could wait for later. "We are creatures of the Dark," he said, his features seamlessly melting back into the black haired, green eyed guise Riddle half suspected was simply another skin to Pravus. "You are Dark, fighting the Light. It should be obvious why we would help you."
"Dark creatures are notorious for being loyal only to themselves," he pointed out, "and beyond that, what manner of creature are you? I've not heard of any even close to what I see you to be."
The red eyed one, who Riddle realized he had not learned the name of, stepped forward, his features darkening. "Perhaps," he rumbled out, voice dark and smooth with something infinitely terrifying on its edges, "you do not see as much as you think you do."
Then he was gone, one moment in full view of Riddle, the next nowhere to be seen. Pravus had disappeared with him.
Riddle felt cold all over, frozen in place, a survival instinct deep in his hindbrain warning him of an age old predator near him, behind him, around him. Flutters of movement echoed on the edge of his vision, and his breath started to pick up. He held up his wand, feeling fear as he had never felt it before, yet refusing to let it show.
"Show yourself," he demanded, and there was a quiet huff of laughter directly behind him. He spun, shooting off the first curse that came to mind.
The curse was absorbed by the wall, harmless to anything nonliving, and there was nothing behind him.
There was a puff of breath on his neck, and a voice purred softly in his ear, "Are you scared? Terrified to death?"
He recognized the voice as that of the red eyed man, and as he opened his mouth to respond, to dispel this scene that was rapidly leaving his control, Pravus appeared directly in front of him, barely a hairsbreadth separating the two of them. If before he had looked ethereal, now he looked positively unearthly. His eyes glowed in the darkness, the shadows around him flickering like flames around his face and body.
His lips were almost touching Riddles' own as he whispered, voice flowing like silk, thunder in his gaze, "I think you know what creature we are. I think that little voice of survival in your human little brain is telling you now, screaming it at you. We are, after all, predators that predate time itself."
"No," Riddle breathed, realization sending a bone-deep chill throughout his body, "demons. You're demons." He wanted to jerk away from the lips so close to touching his own, the realization that with one kiss they could eat his soul, send him to spend eternity within a demon in torment. Only the knowledge that the other one was behind him kept him from doing so.
"Very good," the one behind him purred. "Oh, how rude I've been, I haven't told you my name, have I? I am Sebastian. It is a pleasure to meet you. Shame I didn't bring my Sunday best to such an occasion, but I'm sure you understand."
Suddenly, as one, they both stepped back, standing next to each other again. "We'll meet again," Pravus said with finality, and then they were gone.
Riddle collapsed onto his bed, staring sightlessly at the wall opposite him. Demons were real. More importantly, two demons had deigned to enter the war. He knew better than to think they were on his side. Demons were on no side other than their own. The two of them would manipulate events to their liking, until all that was left of each side was rubble. No, he would not trust them to be on his side.
His eyes fell on a sheet of paper he hadn't noticed, left on his bedside table. On it was a few addresses written in elegant, flowing script. He picked it up, decision made. He would not trust them, but that didn't mean their information wasn't useful.
By the time Sebastian and Harry returned to Grimmauld Place, it was morning and everyone was eating breakfast. On the way back Sebastian had become a bit effusive with his praise for exactly how attractive Pravus had been when threatening Voldemort, which had degenerated into full on making out and continued from there. As a result, the both of them were slightly more ruffled than usual, although no less composed. It was enough of a difference, however, that almost everyone at the table instantly noticed it. Snape, sitting in the corner stiffly, narrowed his eyes at them, obviously the only one to have noticed they hadn't been in Grimmauld Place all night.
Ron was actually there now, sitting by Hermione. He had certainly grown since Pravus had last seen him. Hopefuly he had grown in maturity also. As soon as he saw Pravus, he blinked. "Blimey, 'Mione, you weren't kidding when you said he was all delicate looking."
Hermione rolled her eyes, sniffing. "You know that's not what I said, Ronald."
Ron shrugged, and said, "Close enough."
"Harry," Hermione asked, "why do you look…ruffled?" Pravus was about to respond, but Sebastian beat him to it. "Because," he started, in a tone so lascivious and self-satisfied that Pravus almost wanted to jump him, "I just finished ravishing him, and he was particularly eager today."
There was dead silence, broken by the sound of slight choking. Pravus finally noticed that Remus was there, and vaguely thought that perhaps someone who had been a fatherish-figure to him would not take that very well, especially since they had last known him when he was rather young and foolish.
The man finally stopped his shocked choking with a bit of help from Arthur, and turned to look at them incredulously along with everyone else. Sebastian merely raised an eyebrow. "What? We are married. It isn't as if we're celibate for no reason. I quite enjoy sex, especially with Harry-"
He was interrupted by a loud cough from Remus. Arthur awkwardly cleared his throat, nodding and saying slightly embarrassedly, "Yes, well, I think we would all appreciate if you would not go into detail."
Sebastian grinned, noting the rather red cheeked Hermione, and the uncomfortable look on all of the others' faces. It seemed it wasn't hard to fluster them, despite the fact that they were adults. He assumed it was because Harry, to them, had been a boy in their mind for a long time and they were far from being acclimated to the fact that he had a husband. Oh, if only they knew.
Pravus was amused by their reactions, but kept out of the discussion. He was waiting patiently, having realized that Riddle wouldn't wait long to use their information. He doubted Grimmauld Place would be enemy free for much longer.
How long it would take, he didn't know. What he did know was that Snape was still staring at him and Sebastian, not fooled for a second by Sebastian's diversion tactic of talking about their sex life to keep anyone from noticing they had come in from the front door and make them forget any suspicions about their late arrival.
He picked up a slice of toast and idly bit into it, locking eyes with Snape from across the table. The moment their eyes met he felt a probe in his mind. He debated presenting Snape with a false set of memories of a jaded yet trustworthy man, just not bother blocking him and let him do the rather dangerous thing of going into a demon's mind, or just block him. He shrugged inwardly and let him in without a fight.
Instantly Snape stiffened, his eyes going wide and panicked, his mouth opening in a silent scream. No one in the room noticed, too busy chatting with each other and trying to forget what Sebastian had said.
Pravus latched onto the presence in his mind, dragging it further in as it kicked and screamed, trying to escape with all the effort it had. While Snape was a master Occlumens, and was good enough that even Pravus would not be able to crack his mind, he had left those defenses to peer into Pravus' mind. It had left him vulnerable to counterattack, and Pravus had struck swiftly, leaving Snape no time to retreat.
He pulled back the demon like aspects of his mind from Snape, and sent his consciousness into his mindscape, appearing before Snape, who was being held there by an invisible force. He was staring around the dark, murky backdrop of Pravus' mind with terrified eyes, and once he saw Pravus, his face contorted in rage. "Potter! Let me out of here now," he hissed, and Pravus was slightly impressed with how well he went from terrified to furious so easily. It probably came from being in Voldemort's presence so often. He was tortured on a regular basis with crucios, after all. He would have to be able to recover quickly.
Pravus shook his head, enjoying having his childhood tormentor in his clutches far too much for such a thing. "No, I don't think I will. I think I'm going keep you here, as long as I like, until you break."
He smiled when Snape scoffed at that, and responded, "Everyone has their breaking point, Snape. I know I had mine." A complete lie, but it would cause him to start thinking. Perhaps later he would feed Snape some sob story of long hours of torture under some unnamed captor's hands, and a heroic escape with Sebastian.
Growing slightly annoyed by the still irate expression on Snape's face in place of pain or terror, he stopped blocking the demon like aspects of his mind from Snape's perception. Instantly, the man started writhing in pain, screaming, his human mind unable to take the pure darkness in his own mind.
Satisfied, Pravus left his mindscape and returned to reality, where everyone was staring, horror struck, at a screaming Snape. Apparently the pain from his mind was enough that he was screaming in both places. Perhaps he would experiment later and see how much pain Snape could take without screaming. Or perhaps not, he enjoyed watching him scream.
All of the Order members were panicking, not knowing what was wrong with him or how to stop his pain. Arthur had gone moments ago to contact Dumbledore through the floo. Panic was rampant. Sebastian, of course, was trying hard not to show his amusement, a fight that Pravus was familiar with, as at the moment he was going through the same valiant battle.
The whole house rocked, and Pravus very nearly lost his control over his amusement and laughed when he realized that this was the moment Riddle had chosen to attack Grimmauld. Was it really this easy to make everything come together? They had barely meddled.
Everyone froze, the only sound coming from Snape, who was screaming himself hoarse. His throat would definitely be sore later.
Dumbledore chose that moment to enter the room, Arthur trailing after him. Dumbledore approached Snape, frowning. He waved his wand over him, and then turned, his expression grave. "It seems he is trapped in an illusion in his own mind. A form of torture that even Voldemort never mastered. Who is doing it, I do not know."
The whole house rocked again, and Pravus stepped forward. "While that is very tragic and I feel for him," he drawled sarcastically, "I believe we have bigger problems right now. The whole house is rocking, and I'm fairly certain it's due to the wards being taken down, and there is only one reason that would be happening."
Dumbledore nodded, his face drawn, as the house rocked once again. He looked around at the few Order members there, and was about to speak when a patronus of a small bird fluttered in from the window. The bird's beak opened, and out came a message in the voice of someone Harry had never met.
"Headquarters Three compromised. Death Eater attack. Need backup." The patronus then dissolved, leaving a dismayed looking Dumbledore. Quickly following that patronus was a cat patronus, McGonagall's voice coming from this one. "Headquarters Two compromised. Death Eater attack. Commencing stone defense. Backup needed if available."
Harry felt a self-satisfied smirk threatening to break across his face but reigned it in. Instead he fixed a lost and slightly panicked look on his face, looking around at the other panicked faces around him. "What are we going to do?" he asked frantically, just as the house rocked yet again. He could feel the wards about to break down.
Dumbledore looked at all of them grimly, his face drawn. "We'll abandon this place and instead break up into two groups. One will go help Headquarters Two, and the other will go help Headquarters Three. We'll not go to fight, only to evacuate the other members of the Order and leave for a safe house." He glanced down at Snape, obviously at a loss with what to do with him.
Sebastian stepped forward. "I will bring him to the safe house then go to help whichever group Harry is in," he said smoothly. Dumbledore nodded, looking relieved.
Sebastian scooped up Snape, carrying him into the other room where the floo was. There was the telltale whoosh that came with the use of floo powder, and then Sebastian was gone. Dumbledore nodded at them all determinedly. "We must leave now, before it is too late to save anyone."
They split into two groups, with Pravus ending up in the group with Ron, Hermione, Arthur, and a few other Order members he didn't know the name of. They used the floo one by one, appearing in a rubble strewn room filled with fighting wizards and witches.
For the first time, I will respond to reviews here, since I always feel awkward doing it by PM:
Cynical0range: I addressed that a little bit in this chapter, Voldemort put all his soul pieces back into himself. Harry is helping exactly for that, he wants to watch them destroy each other, and is giving himself a front row seat. Voldemort never tried to recruit Pravus because of the school thing, Pravus made it very obvious he didn't like Riddle, that scene with Riddle asking to be his apprentice cemented that.
MistressofDeathSarena: I am trying to keep this T. I also said in an authors note sometime ago that I have no interesting in writing sex. I started off writing about souls a lot, but I realized it was kind of repetitive and thought it would feel so for all of you too after a while.
Elfin69: Just wait and see ;)
Thank you guys for reading! I'll try to have a chapter up sooner, I didn't mean to leave you guys on a cliffhanger for so long.