Chapter 6

Harry lazed on his bed, staring at the ceiling as he recalled the tumultuous events of the past week.

He was getting better and better with evading people and their nosy questions; after all he did have lots of practice over the years. He couldn't bring himself to tell anyone about the happenings; even Viktor. The fact that he had been so...enamoured when around the Dark Lord was a fact he would bring to his grave. He would rather die than let anyone know how he behaved like some love-struck teenage girl. There was something about the Dark Lord that caused him to react in such an uncharacteristic manner. Harry had initially wrote it off as the characteristic of the man's magic; seductive and lazy, much like the man. The man's magic was like a rubber band; it was loose and relaxed when pressure wasn't applied, but was taut, alert and full of kinetic energy when pulled.
As mesmerizing as his magic was, Harry was certain it wasn't the man's magic that had him reacting in such ways. There was more to it and no matter how hard he wrecked his brains, he simply couldn't come up with a plausible reason.
The Dark Lord would be coming for him any time soon, and Harry was determined to not display any more of such pathetic weaknesses the scheming Dark Lord could use to manipulate him with. He knew what sort of a man the Dark Lord was an he couldn't afford to let his guard down like he did in all the previous encounters.

The man wanted something from him; and he wasn't going to give in to him so easily.

He suddenly felt a rush of familiar magic in his apartment and jerked up into a sitting position.

Speak of the devil, Harry thought as the door creaked open.

"I see you've found my home," Harry said in amusement. It was no surprise that the dark lord had managed to track him down. He suspected that it was due to the ring that was still stuck on his finger. It didn't really bother him as much as it should. The ring was after all, rather aesthetically pleasing and Parisinus seemed to rather like it.

"You call this a home?" Voldemort sneered as he looked around the room in disdain, "I though the Potters would have been rather well off."

True, the Potters did have quite a sum of gold in the vaults, but he had no access to those vaults until he was of age. Neither did he have access to the properties owned by the Potters nor the artefacts he was dying to get his hands on. The only vault he had access to was his trust vault and there was a limit to the amount of Galleons he could redraw from it annually so he didn't want to splurge on his living conditions, in case he had an emergency need for the money. He grew up in rather similar, or maybe even worse conditions so his living conditions didn't really bother him. He spent his money with much care, but tended to splurge on clothes and books. Fine clothings were a luxury he never experienced while growing up, and he saw no harm in spending a bit more on them now that he could afford to; especially since they would resize to fit him which made it a worthy investment.

Still, Harry felt rather insulted by the man's words. Defensively, he snapped, "Well not everyone had Malfoys at their beck and call."

Voldemort was obviously annoyed at Harry's tone and attitude, and Harry thanked Merlin for the oath Voldemort had made to not hurt him back in his first year, or he would surely be writhing on the floor under the cruciatus by now. "Come; I do not wish to stay in such a degrading environment any longer than I have to," Voldemort said as he grabbed Harry's hand, ready to apparate.

"Wait!" Harry said as he tore his arm away from Voldemort's tight grasp, dashing out to the adjacent room he had turned into a study.

:Parisinus,: Harry hissed as he grabbed the sleeping snake up, causing her to jerk awake in annoyance.

:You better have a good reason behind your uncivilized behaviour,: Parisinus hissed.

:We're leaving,: he said, wrapping her around his shoulders.

:Hello beautiful,: another voice said as it approached from behind.

:Another speaker,: Parisinus replied, interested at the new parselmouth.

:Yes,: Voldemort hissed in return before turning to Harry raising an eyebrow, :May we leave now?:

Harry nodded; he didn't really need anything else other than his clothes and he was sure Voldemort would have his house elves fetch them after they left.

With that, Voldemort wrapped an arm around his waist and they apparated to wherever the Dark Lord resided.

Harry was well aware of the discomfort that came along with apparation but experiencing it first hand was much worse than he had imagine. He felt as if the world was spinning around him and he was rather sure he would have fell if not for the strong arm that held him up.

Harry quickly pushed himself away from the Dark Lord as soon as he could stand stably, remembering his resolution to not show any weakness, however minute in front of the Dark Lord. The man raised his eyebrows in amusement before leading Harry up the stairs and through a corridor to a library where the Dark Lord sat behind a desk, motioning for Harry to sit across him. The manor the Dark Lord had brought him to was definitely not a Malfoy's; which disproved the rumours of the Dark Lord residing in the Malfoy Manor. It was simple and rather plain, which was a complete contrast to how the Malfoy's would be. There were no portraits along the hallways or anywhere, as far as he could tell, and there wasn't any unnecessary decorations or furniture.

The library however, made Harry's mouth drop. Books were the one thing Harry splurged on and he had his own sizeable collection but in comparison to the Dark Lord's, it was nothing. Books lined the shelves that reached the ceiling. The shelves covered the whole circumference of the circular room. In the centre was a large study table which was nearly the width of his height. On the smooth, black polished surface sat an inkwell and quill along with a small stack of paperwork.

Harry settled on the plush armchair and told Parisinus to entertain herself while they spoke. Voldemort informed her of another snake, Nagini, his familiar, which had Parisinus slithering off excitedly.

After the snake had left, leaving the two alone, Harry broke the silence and asked, "What do you want from me?"

Voldemort's lips curled into a smile, seeming to have predicted Harry's question. There were dozens of questions running through his head, but the most pressing and concise one was this.

"What do I want from you," Voldemort purred, reclining back on his chair, "There are many things I want from you. However, you will only get to know what it is I wish to seek when I do so. As for now, all I want is for the beacon of the Light to stay out of this war."

"Are you sure that is all?" Harry raised a brow, questioning dubiously.

"Ah, it would be rather...pleasant if you were to join me, don't you agree?" the Dark Lord whispered as he leaned towards Harry.

"You'll have to wait for hell to freeze over if you want me to bow down to you and worship the ground you walk on," Harry snarled.

"I do not need to seek out groups to affiliate myself with to better solidify who I am; nor do I have any idealistic vision of myself. I have no wish to be part of your cult of death eaters," Harry continued, scowling at the thought of being one of the man's puppets.

"I never said that I wished for you to be one of my numbers," Voldemort said, "Alas, you seem rather opposed to joining me."

Before Harry could defend himself, Voldemort continued, swatting the air away, "No matter; Lord Voldemort will eventually get what he wants. For now, you will reside in this manor with me. You are not to contact anyone and you may not leave without permission. If there is anything you require, simply call for my house elf, Minny, and she will get you whatever you need. You may feel free to roam this side of the wing, the death eaters are banned from here. However, if you ever feel the need to socialize and get to know my death eaters better, I highly suggest you call for me first. They are not aware of our relationship."

Harry highly doubted he had any say in the arrangements so he simply nodded in silence. He appreciated the fact that the man wasn't exactly forcing him to do anything against his explicit will, yet.

"What are your aims and goals?" Harry asked.

Voldemort seemed pleased by his interest in the war and told him, "I plan to tear down this pathetic excuse of a ministry we have. I will re-establish the old traditions, re-educate the children and rid the world of those filthy muggleborns. Our kind has been sullied by the interbreeding with muggles."

"Are you going to exterminate them?" Harry asked curiously. The Dark Lord's loathing for muggles was a well-known fact. He himself did not fancy muggles but his hate did not run as deep as the Dark Lord's did. He loathed mankind as a whole, not only muggles. People were all disgusting to him; both muggle and wizards.

"Exterminate them?" Voldemort repeated mockingly, as if the idea of having anything to do with muggles itself were a joke.

"No, I do not have the time to waste on insignificant creatures such as muggles. Instead, I want the muggle world become completely isolated. I will no longer allow them to dilute any more wizarding blood," Voldemort continued.

Harry was about to input his on thoughts on the situation, but was interrupted by the abrupt standing of the Dark Lord.

"We will continue this conversation over dinner. Come, I will bring you to your chambers," He said as he turned to leave the room. Harry followed the man further down the hallway, through a few turns, before the Dark Lord came to a slight stop in front of a door, hissing in parselmouth. The door swung open, leading the two men into a large room with walls painted fern green. Voldemort stretched out a hand, motioning for him to enter.

In the middle of the room was a large bed, big enough to fit at least four people comfortably. That however, was the only thing in the room. The room was depressingly bare of any personal touch and Harry planned to fix that the moment he could.

He heard the door click shut and turned around, expecting to be alone in the room. Much to his surprise however, the Dark Lord stood behind him, patiently waiting for him to finish admiring the room.

"This is my room," Voldemort said.

His room? Then what was Harry doing here!

As if he had read his thoughts, Voldemort explained, "I'm apologize for the lack of rooms within the west wing. There are no guest rooms in my manor and the only sleeping chamber there is is my room. I'm afraid you'll have to spend your nights in the same room as me."

Harry choked at the realization. Merlin! He was going to have to sleep with the Dark Lord? Blood rushed up his face, colouring his cheeks red with embarrassment.

"My, what thoughts could possibly be running through your mind to have you so flustered?" Voldemort asked teasingly, stroking Harry's face with the back of his hand. The cool hand, soothing on the warm surface of the rosy cheek.

When did the man come so close?!

Harry wanted to protest, scream at the man, objecting to such preposterous living arrangements but the only things that came out of his mouth were incoherent utterings.

The Dark Lord took a step away- Thank Merlin- and said amused, "Sadly, I happen to be a wizard, in fact a rather competent one, and have prepared a separate room for you."

"This will be where you shall stay," Voldemort said as he opened a door situated at the back of the room. Harry hadn't even notice the existence of the door there. Now that he looked closer, he could see three doors in the room; one of which he assumed led to the washroom and the other to a closet or so, as the man didn't seem to have a cupboard.

"I'm afraid I have business to attend to. I will have someone inform you once dinner is ready," the Dark Lord said before he exited the rooms, leaving Harry alone.

Relief washed over Harry when the Dark Lord finally left the room. There wasn't a second who could relax when around the Dark Lord. He refused to let his guard drop around the other man and had his walls raised high. Having to constantly reinforce his emotionless façade around the man was exhausting, especially since the man invoked such an array of emotions in him. The thought of having to sleep with the man was horrifying and even with the revelation of his own room, the fact that Voldemort was just a door away was nearly just as scary.

Harry had no idea where he was, not even the name of the manor he was in, but one thing he knew was that he wouldn't be getting much sleep while staying here.

Lucius Malfoy could not help but notice how awfully good the Dark Lord's mood seemed to be that day. It wasn't terribly obvious, but to someone like Lucius who grew up around his Lord, it was evident that the Lord's mood was much more pleasant than it usually was.

However, the Dark Lord's mood didn't seem to last long.

The Dark Lord's inner circle were gathered in the meeting room within the Dark Lord's private residence to report their weekly progress as per usual and like always, Lucius went first, updating the Lord about the happenings within the Ministry. Every single person was assigned a specific task, even the escapees from Azkaban. The war was about to escalate to its peak and the Dark Lord could not afford to allow any one of his most capable Death Eaters to loiter about, doing nothing. Including himself, there were five of them within the Ministry. Augustus Rookwood was an unspeakable in the Department of Mysteries, which gave them insight to the highly confidential research of the Ministry. Theodore Nott Sr. was the head of the Department of Magical Transportation, an incredibly useful position he had worked equally hard to get. Thorfinn Rowle was an auror in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement and Walden Macnair was an executioner.

Macnair was not part of the inner circle. He was a lowly halfblood and the only reason as to why he had a job in the Ministry was due to his betrayal. He was assigned the task of being an executioner after he denounced his master, a fact that made Lucius look down on him even more. The four others had worked their way to the top of the Ministry while the pathetic halfblood unlike the pathetic halfblood. Macnair unlike the four did not hold any significant position within the Ministry and was like many others, a addition to their numbers.

Lucius bowed respectfully and went back to his position after he had finished his report on the progress of the integration of the Dark Arts into international laws. After the death of Bartemius Crouch Sr., Lucius had been promoted from the head of Britain for the International Confederation of Wizards (1) to the head of the Department of International Magical Cooperation. The promotion had made the Dark Lord incredibly pleased, so much that he granted Lucius's wish for his son to join the Dark Lord's army a year after he was of age rather than when he was sixteen. Draco was no doubt going to be a Death Eater, however Lucius wished to have his son go through at least a year of rigorous training before his heir joined their cause. He knew how dangerous and possibly fatal being a Death Eater was and he wanted to Draco to be fully prepared before he joined.

Narcissa had been overjoyed when she heard the news, she too had been incredibly worried about their precious son joining the Death Eaters unprepared. The education at Hogwarts simply wasn't good enough under the influence of that incompetent old coot.

There were eight others in the Dark Lord's inner circle; five of which were wanted by the ministry. Bellatrix Lestrange, Rodolphus Lestrange, Rabastan Lestrange, Antonin Dolohov and Bartemius Couch Jr. The Lestranges were in charge of training the Death Eaters in the art of combat while Dolohov and Couch were tasked with the discussions with the Magical Beings.

The three others were Severus Snape, Peneus Greengrass and Josef Krum. Severus was a spy for the Dark Lord while Greengrass and Krum held positions within the French and Bulgarian ministry respectively.

The Inner Circle hardly suffered under the cruciatus, having spent enough time around the Dark Lord to know how to avoid angering the man. Today however, seemed to be Severus's unlucky day. The Dark Lord's good mood was replaced by an unadulterated rage that had the man's magic pulsing ferociously around the room. Severus had only said one sentence before he was writhing under the cruciatus curse. He told the Dark Lord of the Order members Dumbledore had sent to follow Potter, causing the Dark Lord to snarl in anger. After less than half a minute, the Dark Lord lifted the curse off Severus, allowing him to continue with his report. Apparently the Boy-Who-Lived had disappeared while on his watch, a fact that he had yet to report to Dumbledore. Some how, that fact made the Dark Lord lips curl up like the Chesire Cat's and seemed to please the Dark Lord greatly. The Dark Lord told Severus to tell Dumbledore that his golden boy was away in Bulgaria having a rendezvous with his "boyfriend". Krum seemed to flinch slightly at the Dark Lord's words but Lucius didn't give it much thought.

After the Dark Lord had dismissed the Death Eaters, they bowed respectfully before flooing off.

Hm, Lucius couldn't help but wonder what his beautiful wife would have the elves prepare for dinner.

The Dark Lord sat at the dinning table, patiently waiting for Harrison to arrive.

He had sent Minny to fetch the boy once the last Death Eater flooed out. He had yet to tell anyone of the addition of Harrison and didn't plan to do so until the boy was ready. He still required the boy in Hogwarts as much as he loathed something of his being within the reach of the old coot. He did not wish for the boy's identity to be exposed to even his Inner Circle due to the danger it might put Harrison in. Tongues would wag and were Severus to be a traitor, Harrison would be in a precarious state.

He heard the nearing footsteps that no doubt belonged to Harrison and surveyed the boy as he walked closer.

The boy was wearing a pair of fitting slacks and a loosely tucked shirt. His hair was still slightly wet which had the Dark Lord cringe in annoyance. He pointed his wand at the boy from his seat and with a flick, his hair was completely dry. The boy rolled his eyes as he greeted, "Well, hi to you too."

The boy dragged the chair slightly which caused the Dark Lord to twitch in annoyance at the sound of the chair scratching the floor. He'd forgive the child for now since he hadn't gotten rid of his trace yet. He snapped his fingers and food appeared on the table. The two ate in silence, finding it rude to converse while eating. He noticed the small amounts of food Harrison ate and frowned. He would have that fixed, he thought as he placed his cutlery down.

"So," Harrison started saying as the plates disappeared from the table, "What business were you up to?"

The boy seemed awkward, not knowing how to break the ice. He didn't seem like he was used to having conversations over dinner and the way he tried to start the dialogue was so painfully gawky that it was amusing.

"Why? Could it be that you're interested in joining me?" Voldemort smirked, as the boy scowled.

They spent the next hour continuing where they left of. Voldemort was impressed by the intelligence and maturity the boy held and for once, wasn't torturing a person who blatantly disagreed with him. Without doubt, he would keep the boy by his side regardless of what the boy said. The boy was a good asset and Voldemort was not one who would let talent go to waste.

They spoke of not only the war, but of the philosopher's stone and many other things. He would hand the stone over to Harrison and allow him to meddle with it as promised and in return, the boy would report his findings to the man. He noticed Harrison's inclination towards Ancient Runes and made a mental note to pass the boy a few books he would be interested in.

The boy stretched like a cat and yawned, eye lids starting to droop. Harrison was obviously tired from the events of the day and Voldemort had things to do so he got up and brought the boy to the bedroom, in case he got lost in the hallways. Harrison schlepped his feet, nearly tripping a few times in attempt to keep up with Voldemort's brisk, wide steps but to no avail. He hissed for the door to open and made his way to the bathroom to shower as Harrison came in after him.

When he exited the bathroom in a fresh set of garments, he saw Harrison sitting on his bed, seemingly waiting for him rather than in his own bed, sleeping as Voldemort thought he would be.

"Why aren't you in bed?" he asked the boy curiously.

"I have something I need to ask you," the boy said, seemingly nervous. Voldemort raised an eyebrow at the boy's words, urging him to continue.

"Why me?" the boy asked, emeralds staring intently into his eyes.

He smirked, knowing that it was only a matter of time before the boy asked that question. He sat beside the boy, caressing the soft skin of the boy's face.

"Do you honestly think I would answer all of your questions for free?" he whispered. The boy jerked away from his hand, glaring at him.

"What do you want?" Harrison scowled.

"Join me," he smiled.

Harry should have known.

The lack of sleep he had been having for the past few nights was starting to take a toll on his body and he was about to sleep when he suddenly remembered the pressing question he had forgotten to ask, having been caught up in the topic of the war and philosophers stone. It was a question he had been dying to ask for the past fourteen years of his life and the thought of waiting till the next day to get his answers was just too unbearable.

He waited for the only man who could give him the answers to come out of the bathroom, sitting impatiently on his bed. He asked him thinking the man would tell answer his question, but he forgot the one thing he should have kept in mind the whole time. The man was a Slytherin. Not only was he from the Slytherin house but he was the last living Slytherin, descendant of the Salazar Slytherin. No doubt, the man expected something from him and Harry had a bad feeling he knew what the man was going to demand.

"Join me,"

Harry opened his mouth to protest, then closed it, remembering that this might be his only chance to get his answers. But were answers really worth having to degrade himself to such an extent, simply to know something that happened in the past? He could always search for the answers himself but he doubt he would ever come anywhere close to the truth.

"Join me in my meetings with my Death Eaters. That's all I ask," Voldemort continued, grabbing his chin and making him look at the man.

"You don't want me to be one of your Death Eaters?" Harry asked dubiously.

"No, you are above them," Voldemort answered sincerely.

Harry nodded without further consideration. So long he didn't have to grovel at the man's feet, he didn't mind joining their meetings.

"Deal."

A/N: I actually went to search up what the specific shade of green I had in mind was named.

(1) Something like the UN.

This chapter is longer as I promised!

Comments and reviews please?

17/07/13