Harry woke up and yawned. Normally, he would have dreaded the day to come, but today, he wanted nothing more than to get up as soon as possible. However, when he let his gaze wander around the room, he heard a chuckle from beside him, and he jerked his head to the left, finding Voldemort sitting on a chair next to his bed.
"What..."
"I Couldn't sleep, so I decided to check on you. If you don't mind..." he added, smirking, and Harry reddened a bit. No, he most certainly didn't mind. But damn him if he was going to admit that! Thus, he just mumbled something and got out of bed.
"Do you have any clothes for me?"
"Of course, they're in the dresser. I had one of my house-elves bring them."
"You've got...forget it, of course you've got house-elves." Harry grumbled.
"What's wrong with having house-elves?" Voldemort asked, sounding truly surprised.
"Nothing, as long as you treat them right." Harry frowned, and even more so when the Dark Lord laughed.
"Really Harry, you are unbelievable. But there is no need to worry. I treat my elves fine. They like to serve me and they do a good job, so there really is no need for me to punish them."
"Well. That's good." Harry sighed in relief. It showed that the man was at least capable of something else than the torture and murder he was famous for, - though Harry already knew that because of the visits during the nights. -
"Harry... we need to talk." The man began as Harry got dressed. Or tried to, while hiding his nudity. It didn't really help that the man was shamelessly looking at him, and not even trying to look away.
"Yes... what are you going to do about... well, me?" the teen answered when he was finished with his clothing. He hated himself for the sudden fear that rushed through him. What if he would be sent back? Thrown out? Voldemort however, seemed to read his feelings and got to his feet, approaching Harry and laying a reassuring hand on the boy's shoulder.
"You stay, of course. Unless you want to go."
"No." He said, a bit too fast, causing the Dark Lord to look at him with amusement. "I mean... I'd like to stay. It will only get complicated if I go away, and the Order will wonder why you haven't tortured me so..."
"I'm sure that's your reason." The man smirked, and Harry turned away. Suddenly, he remembered something.
"What about my stuff? What about Hedwig?" he exclaimed, suddenly distressed. How could he have forgotten about her? The Dursley's would starve her!"
"Don't worry, I am certain that Dumbledore will bring her and your belongings with him to Hogwarts or the Order. I am sorry I had forgotten, but well..."
"You didn't think." Harry finished, allowing a small, smug grin to settle on his face, and Voldemort glared at him, which should have unsettled Harry, terrified him, but it only sent a wave of playfulness through him, and he glared back, starting a staring contest. He didn't blink, not even when suddenly the door opened and someone stormed in, shouting a 'My Lord!" only to fall silent when being met by the sight of Harry and the Dark Lord trying to get the other to blink first.
"What, Rosier?" Voldemort sighed, snapping his eyes away from Harry's face, ignoring the 'Ha!" from Harry's side.
"My Lord. It seems I have disturbed you unnecessarily. I came to inform you that the Order is panicking over the disappearance of their... Savior. But it seems you have it under control already."
"He'd wish." Harry muttered, and the Dark Lord sent him a silencing –but not quite meant- glare.
"Be quiet you. Oh Rosier?"
"Yes Milord?"
"Could you wake Lucius and tell him to meet me? I have some unfinished business with him."
"Of course."
"Good. You are dismissed."
When Rosier finally closed the door, after a lot of bowing and thanking –for what reason, Harry didn't know-, Harry raised his eyebrows, turning to Voldemort.
"Wow..." he said dryly. "No torture? Are you going soft or what?"
Voldemort just chuckled. -So he did have a sense of humour...That might shock some people.- "Why should I?"
"Dunno...holding up your 'Dark Lord image'? What do you need to speak Malfoy for anyways? "
"That is none of your business, and I doubt you'd want to know. Now, I'd like for you to heed some rules while you stay here." After an affirmative nod from Harry he continued: "Every locked room stays locked, understand? I don't want people snooping around where they aren't supposed to be."
"Say what?" Harry exclaimed, disgruntled.
"You have built up quite a reputation Harry... Severus can't help but complain about it every time I see him. Not to me personally of course, -I don't have time to listen to such nonsense,- but sometimes the muttering under his breath is a tad too loud. And it made me wonder...How do you always manage to slip away to Hogsmeade, even when you're not allowed to go there?"
"You might ask Wormtail." Harry smirked. "He'll love to be able to talk about the good old times he had at Hogwarts, for sure. And you might want to ask him why he never told you about how you can enter the castle without anyone noticing... he does know. And you don't have it from me, naturally..." Harry told him, picking his fingernails.
"I didn't realise that you being here automatically meant at my side, but thank you anyways."
"Hmm... not so much aid to the Dark Side as getting back on some filthy little rat."
"Say what, you're here, enjoying the company of the Dark Lord, and practically telling him how to take Hogwarts over, and you claim to be Light?" he said, while Harry noticed both the emphasis he put on 'enjoying' and the hand slowly sliding down his side. He repressed a shudder and fought down the urge to lean into the touch. Instead, he diverted his mind by answering the question.
"More Neutral, with a slight preference to the Dark."
"Oh? The Savior of the Light wants to be Dark?"
"I'm nobody's Savior." Harry spat out and wrinkled his nose in disgust. "I have never heard someone however, who ever asked me about what I thought about it"
"Permit me to be the first then..." Voldemort whispered. "How do you feel about being expected to save everyone from me?"
"I hate it." He whispered back.
"Then who says you have to continue?"
"Everyone on the Light side."
"Now, who says you have to listen to them?"
"Them."
Voldemort chuckled. "But I do not, and neither do you. And if we're not out to slaughter each other, there is nothing they can do about it... Especially because now, you are here with me, far away from their manipulations..." he said, and he tugged on Harry's hair so the teen was forced to look up into those captivating garnet eyes. But just as Harry's heart tried to decide between racing or stopping completely, the man pulled away. "but that is a decision you should make on your own. I believe I was explaining you the rules, no? Let's see... oh, the library. The books with a red dot painted on it, like the book lying there on the nightstand are more likely to eat you than to let themselves be read if you don't know how to handle them. And I wouldn't even try." He said in warning when Harry tried to touch it. The boy quickly pulled his hand away.
"Sorry. Habit."
"What, to touch everything that screams 'dangerous'?" he said, exasperated. "Let's see... is there anything else. Oh yes, no magic, but that is obvious, and you don't have a wand here anyways, -sorry for that by the way-. I believe that was it. Unless I have to explicitly tell you that you can't send the Order of the Phoenix my address..." he smirked.
"What is your address anyways? I mean, where are we?"
"Near the nice little village Stoner Hill, Hampshire. I wanted my headquarters to be somewhere... peaceful."
"How ironic." Harry grinned.
"Well, at least there is no living soul on the Light side who has everevenbeen here, let alone knows that the Dark Side resides in this village. Who will suspect it? There are tons of places like this one, why bother to check?" And it is a lot easier to organise large meetings here than in some apartment in London."
"Makes sense, but even there you could hide in the anonymity of the mass" Harry said, thinking about Grimmauld place.
"Then explain to me why I know where your headquarters is, and why the Light Side does not know where mine is?" At Harry's shocked look, he merely rolled his eyes. "Harry, please. Especially because they have 'the anonymity of the big city', most Order members don't apparate back to the headquarters, but walk if they want to. And the few who do apparate can't do that straight into the house because of the Fidelius charm. It didn't take me long to locate it. And really... it isn't concealed very well. When you suspect a building to be in a street, and –surprise surprise-, there is a number missing, it's not too hard to put two and two together. The only problem is the Fidelius charm, but I'm already working on that."
"My mouth is shut." Harry promised him.
"It better be. I have to deal with Lucius now, actually. I would appreciate it if you would stay in this room for thirty minutes without ravaging it or running off."
"That's an order to stay here, isn't it?"
"Yes."
"You sure know how to sugarcoat it." Harry grumbled.
Voldemort just hummed and walked out of the door. "I will be back soon, so we can eat some breakfast."
Harry sat down on the bed, wondering what the hell he would do in thirty minutes. He eyed the book on the nightstand, but it growled aggressively when he tried to touch it again and he decided he could better leave it alone.
Soon, Harry got extremely bored and, even though Voldemort had explicitly told him to stay where he was, his Gryffindor side won over, and thus, he was currently roaming the many halls and corridors in the manor of the Dark Lord –or, as Fred and George would probably call it: Tha Dark Lair-. Harry begrudged the loss of his invisibility cloak, as he would have loved to explore even the most hidden or locked spaces, but that was impossible now. He couldn't try to open or even find them without at least a house-elf noticing. For now, the public places –as far as the house of a Dark Lord could be considered public,- would have to suffice. When he turned a corner to another corridor however, he suddenly found another good reason to have his cloak.
"What? You… how… impossible!" Bellatrix Lestrange cried out, her mouth agape like a fish, and the teen wondered how much time it would take for her to regain her senses and curse him to the afterlife. "Potter! Oh, the Dark Lord will reward me greatly when I drop you at his feet!" she cackled madly. So much for fleeing.
"Bellatrix." He said sharply, coating her name with as much venom as he could possibly muster, all the while hiding his terror. Maybe some human psychology would work. It had worked with Dudley often enough, though he hoped for Voldemort that his followers where a bit less thick than his cousin. "Do you think your Lord… incompetent?" –step one, question the subject.-
"What the hell are you talking about Potter?" she growled, but lowered her wand a bit nonetheless, eyeing him suspiciously. –step two, throw the subject off balance-
"Well, don't you think that such a great wizard like him wouldn't notice his enemy sneaking through the corridors of his own house? And I'm not even trying to hide, so it is absolutely unnecessary to attack me," -step three, keep talking while slowly inching towards your escape route.-
"I don't know what you're trying to say Potter, but I do know that it's not gonna work!" –step four, run.- flashed through his head when she raised her wand, the torturing curse already on her lips.
Today was one of the few times he actually wanted to thank Dudley for hunting him down when he was younger. Though it had been one of the things that had made his life miserable back then, he had to admit that his reflexes and speed had improved greatly over the years. The curse missed him and he sprinted down the halls, trying to shake the insane witch off. Damn it! It was entirely unfair, he didn't even have a wand to defend himself with! Bellatrix' maniacal laughter echoed in his ears, and just when he looked over his shoulder, he bumped into someone else.
Oh fuck. He mentally cursed, but that thought immediately left his mind when he looked up.
"Bella. What are you doing?" Voldemort drawled, annoyed, and after that he hissed under his breath: "And for that matter, what are you doing out of your room?"
"I was bored!" Harry hissed back, "You don't think you can just lock me up in my room, do you?"
"We'll talk about this later." Voldemort said, growling a bit, beyond a doubt because Bellatrix was rudely interrupting them with her pathetic stammering of apologies.
"M… My Lord… you knew he was here?"
"Bella, do you think me incompetent?" the Dark Lord asked her, narrowing his eyes and ignoring Harry who had a laughing episode because of his wording.
"Of course not Milord! Please, accept my humble apologies!" She glared at Harry, who clacked his tongue to imitate the sound of a whip –and succeeding surprisingly well to his own amazement.
"Then you are dismissed and let me handle this."
She bowed deeply and shuffled backwards until she was around the corner.
"Gosh, you've really got them under your thumb, eh?" Harry said, more to himself than to the Dark Lord.
"Yes, and I'd like to keep it that way. Harry...please, you can't just run off like that. What if she had gotten her hands on you and tortured you for hours? I can hardly go play the good guy or something in front of them and throw myself in front of the curse."
"But she didn't get me."
"Yes, but she meant to! I am not joking if I say that you are not safe here without me explaining things to them first! No, I was not planning on keeping you in your room forever, but I had planned that for the coming day. Surely you can keep yourself busy for so long." Voldemort said, getting irritated, and Harry ducked his head.
"I'm sorry." He said, and he really did mean it.
The man sighed and rubbed his temple, which made Harry chuckle. "What?"
"Nothing... it's just that you look so... human at the moment."
"Well, what a compliment," the dark wizard said, and rolled his eyes. "You're giving me a headache, you know? Come on, I'll bring you to your room."
They walked through the manor in silence, and Harry got the insane urge to take the man's hand. The urge was stomped down, for he had no idea what the reaction would be, but it was with reluctance. Once back in the room, Voldemort clapped his hands and a house-elf, a strange, bouncing tiny one who reminded Harry of Pigwidgeon, appeared.
"Ditty, be so kind as to bring us some breakfast." he said, and she bowed her head, popping away again. When she arrived a few seconds after that with some food-laden plates, Harry noticed how hungry he actually was, sat down on the bed and started shoveling food in his mouth. He'd never been one for etiquette.
XxX
Voldemort watched the boy eye the food and swore to himself to take revenge on the Dursleys some day... purely coincidentally attacking somewhere they were shopping or so since Harry wouldn't let him kill them... Harry was too busy eating to notice his stare, and he used the opportunity to get a good look at the teen. He was still confused by all the feelings which, even by just looking, awoke inside of him. He had detached himself from them long ago, -or so he had thought- but now this flow of emotions came crashing down on him again, and he just didn't know what to do with it. Also, he had no idea how Harry felt, though he clearly enjoyed touch. Physical attraction however, meant nothing if there was nothing else. And even the former was strange. Normal people would never have let some snake-human touch them, even without the whole Dark Lord status or a shared past of being enemies, and yet, the boy seemed to calm under his touch. It was odd indeed. Not that Harry Potter had ever been normal, but still… odd.
Harry finished his breakfast in a record time and leaned back in the pillows of the bed, closing his eyes while clearly savouring the feeling of being full. Voldemort wondered just how little food he had been given in that hell hole, and made up a list of nice curses in his head, finishing with an Avada Kedavra. Oh, how he would savour their screams... Absentmindedly, his left hand drifted to the teen's face, and he slowly began to stroke the soft skin. Harry tilted his head backwards and sighed contently.
The Dark lord took this as a sign to continue, and went to lie next to the boy. After what seemed hours to him, he was sure Harry had fallen asleep, as his breaths had slowed and deepened. He was surprised that, when he shifted his arm because it prickled from the uncomfortable position and thus stopped patting Harry's hair, the young wizard grumbled in his sleep and snuggled up to him, twisting and turning until finally, he was draped over Voldemort's chest. It seemed he would have to stay here this day.
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Xx GeMerope
