'An Idle Mind Is The Devil's Playground'
By: Night Flame Miko
Contributed to by: Chocolate coated Blue
An: I apologise for the Gag chapter. As I said in the warning; dares from younger siblings (i.e. my brother) and sugar are not a good combination. So when he came up with a good (and even likely) way that Harry could/would probably kill himself in that scene, well…I couldn't resist. :P
In any case, some people seemed to enjoy it, so it's all good. And you have to admit that coming up with Death Threats is fun :D By the way, I have awards for the Top 5 DT's in the bottom An. So check it out, they'll be there :P
And so here is the long awaited 'Meeting'. Have fun. :)
Disclaimer: We don't own these characters
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Harry woke up.
Whilst this wasn't a really abnormal occurrence, what was, was his worried state of mind. This could have been caused by two things. One was the upcoming meeting with decidedly evil, megalomaniac Dark Lord. Or it could have been from the weird dream he just had. In fact, if Voldy hadn't have died in the end of his dream as well, he would have thought it was a vision sent by the Evil Lord to amuse himself at Harry's expense.
But he did (die). So it wasn't (sent by him).
Not only that but the dream wasn't just odd, it was unbelievable. Every dream Harry has had has always at least been believable. But tripping over his robes to impale himself in the eye with his wand?! And whilst he could admit that with his luck, that might happen, he was wearing glasses, so that would be decidedly difficult.
And then have Snape being the one to go running to Dumbledore? Mouldy-Shorts was the one who told him it was Snape who purposefully screwed up his few natural occlumency barriers just to give the Dark Lord an advantage over him at some point, so why would Snape be the one running because of his 'betrayal'.
They say that you dream what your unconscious mind thinks/worries about. If that is true than his unconscious mind is fucked.
Sighing he pushed a hand through his hair, glancing at his alarm clock. He had two hours to get ready for this meeting; they were probably going to be an incredibly long two hours.
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2 Hours Later
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Harry glanced around.
Voldy had told him to meet in Diagon Alley, but that they would go elsewhere for their meeting. Apparently both of Harry's suggested meeting places were too open, and the Dark Lord knew a place that was easier to reach then Hogsmeade and not as dangerous for a wanted Dark Lord.
It was as he was glancing around again that he noticed a vaguely familiar man walking towards him, eating an ice-cream he had obviously gotten from Florean Fortesque's Ice-Cream Parlour. It was because of this that Harry almost immediately dismissed the approaching figure, if it wasn't for the calculating gaze and self-assured walk Harry's gaze would have slipped right over him.
The gaze met his and the mouth, almost hidden by the raised ice-cream smirked.
That decided it for Harry. He looked at the vaguely familiar man, taking in Tom Riddle's appearance as he crossed the distance between them. Hair as black as ever, the faintest hint of wave in fairly straight locks. Brown eyes that looked slightly crimson if viewed just right, fairly tall and lithely built. It was definitely Tom Riddle all right.
Harry took this in fairly fast. And it said something for his fairly hysterical frame of mind that he had the immediate urge to trip up the Dark Lord, so the man would hopefully get a face full of ice-cream, just to see what Riddle would do in retaliation.
Harry nodded to himself. His conscious mind had just joined his unconscious mind in being thoroughly screwed.
Riddle stopped in front of him, having discarded the ice-cream at some point, Harry must have missed it when he got lost in his thoughts. Deciding to test how hysterical he was, (if he was at the little-girls voice stage yet), and spoke;
"Hey Tom. Where do you want to go?"
A brief sneer flitted across the others face before the mask was back in place. He spun sharply on one foot before saying over a shoulder.
"Follow me, we will be going to someplace less…open." Another sneer, this time directed at the square. "You might want to put on a notice-me-not charm as well, where we are headed you would stand out even worse than you do here."
Trusting him (yes, I know, we've been over his state of mind already), he followed after Voldemort (Evil Dark Lord) and placed a notice-me-not charm as he walked. He soon saw why as they headed into Knockturn Alley, he paused briefly before continuing on through the darker alley ways, wondering if this was somehow a trap.
He wouldn't be surprised.
They seemed to arrive at their destination a short while later; a dingy old restaurant with a sign outside that was listing slightly too far to be read properly.
They entered a surprisingly well lit, well looked after room and Harry took in the restaurant and its patrons with well practiced ease, seeing if he recognised any faces for survival purposes (not paranoia, really).
The restaurant manager seemed to recognise Tom because they were ushered fairly fast to a table in a far corner, out of the way and set for two.
Harry sat down and watched as Riddle did a swift check of the room, like he just had, and proceeded to sit down gracefully, sitting in what looked to be a painfully straight posture. He then pulled a wand out of nowhere (seriously, it was so fast that the wand just seemed to appear) and cast some privacy wards before turning to what looked like an empty chair to him and hissing (not literally) over the table at Harry;
"Potter, drop your charm, I've set up the wards."
Harry did so, rubbing his head sheepishly before looking around curiously (always keeping one eye on Voldemort, magical oath or not).
"Where are we? This is surprisingly nice for what I imagined a Knockturn Alley restaurant to look like."
That slight sneer formed again before it was hidden once more, though Harry could feel something faint (though unrecognizable) coming through their bond.
"We are currently in 'Midnight Dusk'. And I'm surprised at you Potter; I would have thought that you of all people would not blindly follow stereotypes." At Harry's flush he continued in that slightly mocking voice of his, "Just because a place is labelled 'Dark' does not necessarily make it 'Evil'."
Harry nodded before deciding that if he had already put his foot in it he may as well stuff the rest of his leg down as well, "So…ice-cream?" His voice was slightly teasing, though still wary, and Riddle looked taken aback for a second, as if he had expected Harry to drop it (really, who did he think this was?).
Finally an eyebrow raised as Voldemort asked almost rhetorically,
"Well, if you saw a man like me walking around in Diagon Alley you would always be slightly suspicious at most, but if you saw a man like me walking around with an ice-cream what would you think? All previous suspicions are thrown off, simply for doing something viewed as 'mundane' and even 'childish'. Also, today is my day off and I haven't been to Fortesque's in years."
Harry nodded sagely,
"Oh, I see. Must be all that murder and mayhem thing, not good for casual appearances I spose."
He watched; fascinated as a tic appeared above Riddles left eye and a brief surge of irritation came through the bond before everything was smoothed over again. Harry decided to get things moving before he pushed the other too far (not that it wouldn't be worth it, Harry almost wanted to get Riddle angry when he looked like this, his facial expressions were so much more fascinating when he wasn't an ugly snake-man).
"So…the bond? There were some things you wanted to say, and ask…"
The other blinked and nodded,
"I will share what I have found first, then I expect you to answer some questions." A sharp look and Harry nodded, that sounded fair. "The bond was formed when I attempted to kill you that night," A glare at the coughed 'obviously', "there have been no records of such a bond being possible or having existed before, though curse-bonds are not too rare, an unforgivable-bond has never occurred before. So its possible side-effects are unrecorded.
The first point is that the bond is different both ways. This was previously unheard of, as a bond being formed at all usually causes the two to, at the most, feel each others emotions, but to the same extent.
Our bond allows me to feel all of your emotions, project images to you and possess you, although you can fight it. You, on the other hand, could only feel the extreme emotions from me, see through my eyes, as well as gain the ability of parseltongue.
Some of these points have fairly obvious explanations, the easiest of which is the emotions. I believe I can feel all of your emotions because Snape destroyed all of your natural mind barriers," Here Riddles eyes narrowed slightly and a brief wash of anger went through to Harry before it was gone again and Riddle continued, "and you could only feel the extremes from me because my mind is well occluded. This does not, however, explain why you are starting to feel more of my emotions."
Narrowed eyes in his direction let Harry know this was going to be one of the questions he was asked. "I assume it is a side effect of the bond that you gained the ability of parseltongue and I, on the other hand, could posses you, which also should be impossible considering I had a body at the time. I believe my being able to project images to you comes with you being able to see through my eyes, although these both can apparently be stopped with occlumency barriers.
The last thing I could conceivably work out is that with time the bond would get stronger. Though only if the recipients were willing, which considering our hatred for one another, is not likely."
Harry grimaced and looked down. This bond was starting to sound like bad news. He had known about a lot of those things already, but he had never had all of them laid out before him before. And to learn that the bond could get stronger…the problem with that was fairly obvious.
And Hedwig was struggling with the wards.
That could only mean one thing. He was starting to like the Dark Lord. As in a friend. Which was just all kinds of wrong, and if the bond got stronger depending on the persons willingness, and his starting to view Voldemort as a friend…ugh.
Harry really hated his life sometimes.
He was pulled out of his thoughts by Riddle tapping the piece of table he had been staring at whilst he was thinking. Looking up Riddle raised a brow, Harry shook his head and did a wavy hand thing to signal Riddle to ask his questions, another brow joined the first but Voldy humoured him and continued.
"So, do you know why you are starting to feel more of my emotions? I know for a fact that my occlumency barriers have not slipped, so I can only assume this is another side-effect of the bond. In which case I need to learn what was the catalyst."
Harry blinked, used his Hermione-translator in his head and when he worked out what the last part of the sentence was asking, thought about how to answer. He couldn't lie, for one, Voldemort had for all purposes been strictly honest with him up to this point, and he wouldn't be the first to lie, and for second, if Voldy really wanted the answers he could legilimise Harry without hurting him, and gain the answers forcefully. Or, bar that, simply legilimise him once this day was over. So, sighing, he answered, knowing this could end very badly,
"Well, I have a theory…and basically…" Raising his eyes he saw the Dark Lord's fixed gaze on him and promptly lowered his eyes before rushing on, "…IthinkthebarriersareloweringbecauseafterwestartedwritingeachotherIstartedlikingyoubetterandsoyourocclumencybarriersarebeingforcefullybroughtdo-"
He stopped when a hand waved infront of his face again as irritation and faint…amusement? came from Riddle, raising his eyes to Riddles he definitely noticed the spark in those eyes and grinning sheepishly he rubbed the back of his head when he realised that Voldy had caught none of that. He then said it slower, having gained more courage now that he had already said it once (although too fast to understand).
"I think the barriers are lowering because after we started writing to each other I started liking you better and so your occlumency barriers are being forcefully brought down."
Voldemort blinked, seemed to consider this, raised an eyebrow before said eyebrow snapped back down into a frown/sneer.
"Potter if you are lying to me I am going to kidnap you, wait till this day is over and then take you apart piece by piece with a rusty spoon."
Blinking at the threat Harry shook his head before stating firmly, "No, I'm not lying. I can't believe it either, but it is the only explanation for why Hedwig would be struggling to get through the wards. They stop letters from friends right? And considering it's all based around who I view as a friend…" He sighed and dragged a hand down his face, feeling the weight of the world on his shoulders, "I really don't need this right now."
Looking up he caught the slightly confused look on Voldemorts face before it was quickly replaced, remembering a question he had asked himself once he asked his not-so-arch-nemesis now,
"Have you ever wondered what things would be like now if you hadn't heard the prophecy? I mean, if you never came for me that night then I would never have been marked and the prophecy would never have been set in motion…It's one of those self-fulfilling ones, isn't it…"
Riddles face was blank but Harry could feel how he was thinking through his response carefully, putting together what he was going to say systematically to get across exactly what he wanted,
"I have considered it at times, but it seems redundant to look it over now. The prophecy has already been set in motion, and I have heard that once they have been begun they cannot be stopped. I try not to think of 'what ifs', a complete waste of time at best, a loss of life at worst."
Cocking his head a familiar smirk spread across Harry's face.
"I suppose your right, though I would love to pull out one of my impossible stunts now to stop the prophecy. Some one else can kill you, I'm quite happy to sit back and watch the fireworks."
Voldemort sneered slightly, though Harry could feel there was no maliciousness behind it, "Like you could kill me, Potter. Though I would also appreciate an ending to the prophecy, I do not need to waste my time fighting you when I have much more important revolutions to occur."
Shaking their heads slightly in unison, they both pulled out their wands and cast a tempus charm to check the time. Looking up Harry and Tom noticed what they had done, or more precisely, done at the same time without thinking. Harry looked vaguely disturbed but Riddles mask remained firmly in place, though Harry could feel another undescripable emotion coming from him.
Standing at the same time Harry grinned and got a sneer in return.
"Well Potter, it seems our wonderful (note sarcasm) chat is coming to its end. I suppose this is the end of our little correspondence, considering your going to stay with your little…friends." The sneer increased with the last word, but Harry simply grinned wider.
"I don't know, Tommy-Boy. I can safely say you should expect some more mail over school term, I wouldn't want my resident Dark Lord to get lonely, now would I?" He batted his eyes at said Dark Lord and leaped lightly out of the way at the swipe and threatening growl.
Strangely, Riddle didn't feel angry.
Deciding to ponder on it later, Harry placed the notice-me-not charm on once again, and as soon as the privacy wards were down walked out and backtracked to Diagon Alley. Not noticing the pair of once-again crimson eyes following his retreat.
Tom Riddle smirked,
"Friends, huh?"
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An: Sorry people, its really late where I am now. So when I can see without everything being blurry again, I will change this Authors Note to add the cookie winners. I wrote them down on a piece of paper somewhere, and it's just…to…far…away.
But I promised I would have this chapter done soon, so here it is. Hope you enjoyed. I know it wasn't really funny, but I figured this needed a more serious nature to it, for their first meeting.
And to make up for the Gag chapter last chapter, I made this one longer for you all. I hope you appreciate it :P
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