"There is a reason that you can not understand Parseltongue, my son." The teen frowned
"Oh and there is for him?"
"You know that is so."
"So you are absolutely sure know." Voldemort erased the message
"Positively. He is the one."
Théoden
Harry could remember clear as day the first time he walked through the doors of Hogwarts' Great Hall and felt magic, dark purple filled with malice and evil, fill the magical channels that ran though out his body. It was as if he had walked off a plank into a pool filled with dog vomit and shit. A second underneath the toxins left him breathless, instinctively trying cleansing himself of the taint.
But it refused to leave him.
No matter what cleansing spell he preformed or ritual of purity he completed, the next day the web cast over the school would trap him in his bed, filling him with the taint like a rapist would fill his victim as they came.
After a week, he could feel the matrix of magic affecting his thought patterns, phrases crossing his mind that he would have never thought of on his own.
He panicked. His thoughts where his own, and nothing would stop that, nothing would taint his very thoughts!
The only thing he had left to himself.
It took him near the entire year of school to secretly find what he needed, books on how to protect the mind.
Occlumency.
Harry struggled to his feet when his small creation fluttered through the room. The alive, yet not alive, creature sang it's concerns.
"I'll be fine." He smiled tiredly. The little bird disagreed completely, and let him know, loudly berating him for using so much energy. Harry ignored it, silently plucking the recorder from the bird's talons. He did not regret making the small thread creature the way it was, he knew he would not have the energy needed to recreate a messenger as he and Voldemort spoke.
-Speaker. - Harry started, eyes going wide. That isn't Voldemort…
A minuscule movement on the devise he held made him blink. A small, not even three inch snake rested on the recorder, sharp, piercing silver eyes locked on his own as the small dark green tipped tail swayed back and forth. Its scales were black, the color seeming to suck in light and so unnoticeable, he didn't even see it at first glance.
-You are the Master Harry? - The distinctly masculine voice asked quietly, nearly invisible silver tongue appearing for a split second
-Only Harry, if you will. -Harry insisted quietly. The snakeling did not reply to the soft request, instead tapping his tail against the recorder.
-My Lord and Mother have asked of me that I record your status and answer any questions you might have when you have listened to his response. - Harry swallowed reflexively, and then with a soft sigh to calm himself hit play.
-Little Speaker.- An unfamiliar voice started, the rolling of the 's' telling him this person was a snake, and female -I am Nagini, the Lord's familiar and as such I understand how my Master's mind works, and that usually he is talking of different paths, different trails the world could, and must not take, when he speaks to you. Therefore, I have sent one of my magical children, Xyl, to assist you, and tell you anything you need to know. Know this, young speaker; half of his orders are my own. May we meet again on neutral grounds, for I wish to speak to you face to face, hatchling.- The recorder cut off with a sound of static, the Voldemort's rich dark tones filled the air
-No doubt you have already noticed Xyl in your presence, and know he is my token to you, and to answer about my interest in you…did you know even my own son can not speak Parseltongue? - Harry's eyes went wide –My followers, for decadesnow, have gone behind my back and while pretending to fight in my name, rape, plunder, and burn. All acts I despise. Now listen to this, every raid that I ordered in the First War I fought against the Light of the Wizarding world, I personally attended. – Harry almost did not want to believe that proudly spoken statement, because that would mean…that cut the true attacks to barely a third–I always targeted major areas to do more damage to my opponent so that when they fell, despair and fear would spread, and the people need to be alive for that. Muggle deaths do nothing in that goal. Moreover, this is the truth for if you haven't yet found; it is impossible to lie in parseltongue. Xyl is to protect you for now, I don't want you dead, I want peace between us. I wanted you to understand, while yes I am at War, it is not with you.- Harry could not help the widening of his eyes, or that his hand went limp, the recorder falling onto his bed with a soft thump.
-There are so many different ways this Present could have continued…but the events of the Past threw us into this once bloody circle, for you see…the Past is not how you know it. The night that I attacked you, trying to kill you with the Killing Curse, is in fact a complete fabrication. I only ask now that you hear me out, and please, take what I say into consideration.
Fourteen years ago, July 31 was a day of joy for me. My lover, the love of my life had conceived barely nine months before, and had given me two beautiful sons. Both identical in every way…save one. The elder son by nearly a full day was born with shockingly emerald green eyes. - Harry'smouth had fallen open. He didn't know when, and didn't care as his arms slowly came closer and closer to his chest, one hand over his mouth, the other half curled as he shook.
-As the two boys grew, becoming more and more independent, faster than any infant had ever known to be, my eldest, whom my love had named Théoden, was already showing signs of magic, his eyes flashing when we did something he disapproved of. The first major feat, something I will never forget, is when a later confirmed traitor came forward to hold him, and light blue threads of magic held the man in place. The threads, a bloodline trait thought lost in my family, lead back to Théoden.
When they turned a full year, Dumbledore found out of their birth, and bent his Order on my son's deaths. I was furious after the attack of my personal home, not the Headquarters of my Army. I committed myself fully to the war, and she, my Sweet, hid amongst the Light, living with, and then falsely binding herself to a Light family, to protect my children. Two months later, she sent my youngest back to me, saying she and Théoden would return as soon as she could leave.
They never returned to me. The home they lived in utterly destroyed not even a day later, their paths lost to me. Locked in my rage, I decimated the Light armies, and came so close to victory…when I found them.-
Heavy foot steps echoed through the house and Harry hastily cut the recorder off, raising it to the bird even as loud lumbering steps echoed up the stairs
"Go." He whispered, eyes large, his voice soft as he waved his hands to the "Hide, get outside!" The small thing crooned, and then vanished in a flash of magic, right as Vernon burst through the door, catching sight of Harry simply staring out the window.
"Boy." He started; voice raising with every second it took him to speak "Did I not tell you to clean the house?" Harry laughed weakly from where he stood, half hunched over the window ceil
"Impossible to do." He whispered, "My legs can't fully support my weight, you know." The fat man colored, then raised his fist.
As the hours dragged on, neither noticed the Thread created bird hovering outside, the recorder in it's talons flashing red.