: speech : is Parseltongue
/ speech / is mental speak
:speech/ is mental Parseltongue
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"Albus, you can't seriously be still trying to get them to expedite something through the Ministry? Harry is obviously just a small boy, utterly confused and lost. Even if he thinks that he is an adult, his responses are much more consistent with someone with reincarnation memories."
"Of course I can. You saw what he did to the Dementor!" Albus retorted, rounding on the Slytherin Head of House.
"Gentlemen." The two turned to the examiner, a long time Ministry employee by the name of Humphrey Krimp. He was the expert when it came to interviewing children, having the most experience of any of the aurors. He had developed the quill, which was only the first level of diagnostics that he used in his interviews. "This is in the Ministry's hands, now. As much as we respect the work that you do, we will take care of it from here." Krimp arranged the colored pages and gems around the desk in front of him.
"I'm his Headmaster." Dumbledore said calmly, putting his hands into his sleeves.
"I'm his father." Tom said, glaring at the older wizard.
"Mr. Riddle can wait with his son, but you should get back to Hogwarts, Headmaster." Krimp said. Albus looked quite put out, but couldn't argue further. After all, he had been the one who had gotten Harry arrested. He had, in fact, set up the school trip for that express purpose. The raid by the militant group had been a delightful bonus as it had shown exactly what Harry was capable of. And only a few had died in the raid.
"Quite right. Classes will resume on Monday as usual and I have some history professors to interview. I'll see you then, Tom." Albus said, before sweeping out of the office to the Apparation point. He could do more to get things moving his way from Hogwarts, where he had access to his contacts and the various intelligences he had fostered in the magical community. If Tom were thinking clearly and not so concerned for the boy, then he would similarly be leaving to take care of the political back stage. Albus frowned as he stepped into the leaving point and Apparated back to the gates of Hogwarts. Unless Tom was unconcerned because his wife was taking care of the political maneuvering while he dealt with the child. If so, a change of tactics were in order. The woman could be downright vicious.
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Harry was sitting on Snape's lap again in yet another detainment room. This one, however, had walls that shimmered with powerful wards under Harry's magical sight. He was securely locked in, with an auror scowling at him and the three year-mates who were awkwardly standing about. James looked about as confused as he possibly could to why he was still hanging around. Likely it was due to Remus, who was still staring at Harry with his utterly human brown eyes that were shining with something close to hero worship (Harry had seen enough of it to recognize it almost viscerally) and a fierce determination that would have been more in place on the former werewolf's face if the 'former' part didn't apply. Both Harry and Snape were ignoring them, however.
Harry was still trying to get a handle on his emotions and thoughts. He still wanted to sink his hands into flesh and rip it apart, but at the same time he was completely content to snuggle with his former Potions professor. It was positively dizzying. Added to that the hostility that Dumbledore had for him… he really was hoping he could just die and get it over with. The fear of the unknown in this case was not applicable. Not for the first time he roundly cursed his father and godfather. What idiots.
"So… a Horucrux?" James tried to start up a conversation to fill the silence. He got three incredulous looks for his effort. "You know, Grindewald did some research on them." He tried again.
"Grindewald? What do you know about him?" Harry asked dubiously. He was willing to be distracted by just about anything at this point.
James looked just as relieved to have found something to talk about. "I've been studying all about him, actually. That period of history is absolutely fascinating- what with the Muggles having a war at the same time, and how they were all tangled together, and the politics of the situation! It's much the same as these days over the non-humans, I think. I'm working on my Master's thesis in History to try to tie it together in a new and original way. It's really quite tricky because just about everyone on the review council is very traditional and don't want to hear theories like mine, except Dumbledore of course, but that's a whole other problem seeing as how he was childhood friends with Grindewald and defeated him and everything- it's very intimidating to try to get research out of him and then to present it back without feeling like a total prick."
Harry blinked back at his sort-of-father. He was somewhat stunned by the gush of information. It didn't seem like Potter was just nervous, a shine had come into his eyes that Harry had rarely seen outside of a few cases. One of which was Hermione when she had just finished reading some sort of esoteric Runes book that 'tied together all the theories so handily' or something to that effect.
"James, you're disturbing the poor kid." Remus said with a laugh. He turned back to Harry with a glint in his eyes. "Don't worry, Harry. He has that same effect on everyone- if your eyes weren't glazing over I would be worried about you."
James glared as Remus, but the interruption seemed to have set him back on tract. "But the Horucruxes- that's seriously Dark magic." He muttered worriedly.
"What do you know about it, Potter?" Severus snarled half-heartedly, squeezing Harry almost more than was properly comfortable.
"Not too much- there isn't really much to know as the information on how to do it is basically systematically found and destroyed. Only the cautionary tales remain."
/:Except in the Chamber.:/ came the faint thought, so faint that Harry was pretty sure Voldemort hadn't meant for him to hear it. Harry made a resolution to go down to the Chamber and destroy the documents as soon as he possibly could.
"Cautionary tales?" Harry murmured to himself. "Nothing could be as terrible as the truth."
"Immortality can be quite the draw." Remus replied, his face haunted. Like Horucruxes, being a werewolf conferred many benefits, including provisional immortality, though the consequences were as dire.
"You don't have to worry about that any more, Remus." James said after an awkward silence.
The brief attempt at conversation died. James was starting to twitch as he stood there, though the other three were able to keep still as their minds went into deep contemplation.
"So…" James tried again, though he clearly could think of nothing to say that would not result in getting himself hexed.
"Nothing is keeping you here, Potter." Snape snarled.
James ran a hand through his hair, messing it up farther, and huffed out a large sigh.
Harry started at the gesture and ran his hand through his own hair, noticing how tame it was with the comparison right in front of him. Snape caught his arm and forcefully pulled it down. "Don't imitate him. He looks like an idiot when he does that."
James smirked at Snape and struck a pose. "You just can't come to terms with your repressed feelings for me and the sexual frustration makes you cranky." James stated with confidence.
"James." Remus sighed.
James pulled around the chair behind him that he had been ignoring in favor of being able to stand and pace and twirled it so that the back was facing Harry and Snape. He straddled the chair and propped his elbows on the back. "Just trying to lighten the mood. I do a good job, don't I, Harry?"
"Er…" On the one hand, Harry was glad of the distraction, but on the other, Snape looked ready to start cursing the lanky Gryffindor and Harry wasn't sure that would be very relaxing. Especially if he ended up dumped on the floor.
Thankfully he was saved from having to find out as the door opened. In came a cadre of Ministry officials and Tom Riddle. This holding cell was much bigger than the first one, so they all fit.
A woman looked down at Harry. Snape set him on his feet and stood up himself, followed by James. "Hello, Harry." She said, her stern face not lightening in the least as she looked at him. She reminded Harry a bit of a plump version of McGonagall. Except without the accent. "I am the incumbent Minister of Magic, Millicent Bagnold. We have reviewed your case and your responses to the questions and have determined that we have no legal standing to keep you here."
Harry looked at her in shock, then turned to look at Tom. Though he looked pleased, he was not ecstatic. Harry wondered what in the world was going on.
/:They figured out that regardless of whether we represent a case of Dark Artefact and non-human life or this 'reincarnation' business, we are too powerful for them to do anything about. The weaklings have been marginally intelligent and bowed out before they embarrass themselves.:/
/I didn't ask you./ Harry muttered with a glare at the basilisk soul.
/:I couldn't stand your pathetic confusion any longer.:/
/Watch it, or I'll hug you again./ Harry retorted absently, trying to listen to the Minister as she outlined what they had found in the various reports- nothing he could really understand, but maybe Tom would be able to translate for him later.
/:What? Like this?:/ Came the mischievous reply. Harry went on high alert as he would never attribute such an emotion to the Dark Lord. But he was still caught off guard as the basilisk soul wrapped around his own. He felt surrounded by warmth and just the right amount of loving pressure. It felt good. It was completely disturbing. Before Harry could figure out how to react, however, the coils unwrapped, even more disturbingly feeling like a caress. Voldemort shot off into the deepest recesses of his mind and became entirely silent.
"Harry!" Harry blinked and came back to reality, looking up at Tom.
"What?" Harry asked, responding both to what had just happened and his name being called.
"The Minister is talking to you." Tom said. Now he was looking a bit worried.
"Sorry." Harry said almost silently, trying to focus back on the woman that, though formidable, was nowhere near the primary of Harry's concerns at the moment.
"I said, do you understand the terms." Minister Bagnold said, sounding irritated.
"Er… what were they again?" Harry was starting to feel more present in the conversation as he began to get embarrassed at essentially tuning out the woman who was giving him his freedom.
"You are to return with your adoptive father to the house and you are not to go out without being accompanied by him or your foster mother. And when you do, you need to alert the Ministry as to where you will be going."
"Aren't I a minor or something? This is something that you should tell Tom." Harry asked, confused and a bit frustrated about the bureaucratic non-sense when he could barely figure out what he was thinking about things that actually mattered.
Minister Bagnold's eyebrow started to twitch. "He has already agreed to the terms, but considering your unique circumstances, the Ministry felt that you should be informed of them as well."
"Do I have to tell you where I'm going for all my classes, too?" Harry asked sarcastically.
"You won't be returning to Hogwarts." She said, with finality.
"What! But the classes are so interesting! Especially the Bloo…" Voldemort's outburst slipped through Harry's lips before he shoved the other soul back to where it had been hiding and nearly hit it hard enough to drop himself to the floor from reciprocal pain.
"From what I understand you are quite accomplished with spells already." The Minister said, her eyebrow raising in a way that meant she probably knew the end of what Harry was saying and that his case was not being helped by his desire to study Blood magics.
Harry coughed into his fist and looked down. "Yes, ma'am."
"Do you understand the terms then, Mr. O'Donnell?" She asked pointedly.
"Yes, ma'am."
"And you agree to abide by them?"
"Yes, ma'am." Harry decided not to argue about the whole thing. It wasn't as though he thought that he should be wandering around unsupervised either. In fact, he would prefer to go to Azkaban… especially as then he could tear apart Dementors and quench some bloodlust without feeling guilty. Which was probably exactly why he was going on house arrest instead. "Are you going to do anything to me?" He asked, somewhat hoefully.
The Minister looked at him dubiously. "There will be researchers who will look into the situation and may visit you at your house." Bagnold answered after regarding him. "But from what I have been told, this is something that must be resolved by the individual in question. At least so far as the scant information we have suggests."
"Right." Harry said, remembering the Chamber. "Can I go back to Hogwarts and get my stuff?"
"Your things have already been transported back to your house." An auror said impatiently, fingering his wand somewhat inconspicuously. Harry likely wouldn't have noticed if he hadn't had the same sort of wand holster for a while. It was great for concealed carrying, but was somewhat dicey for the quick draw.
"I hid some things." Harry said, trying to look little and innocent. Which, considering what his body looked like, was pretty easy, even when the recipients of his puppy eyes were aware of his inner demon. "Treasures." He said, cheering to himself at the sudden inspiration.
"Very well. A team will escort you to pick up those few items, and then you shall return to your house."
"Okay." Harry said.
/:You could have Tom fetch them.:/ Voldemort said, sounding bored. Harry could feel an undercurrent of unease in the other soul, however.
/What are you up to?/ Harry asked him warily.
Voldemort just scoffed at Harry's blatant approach. Harry tried to grab onto the basilisk as it curled deeper in their subconscious, but when his mental hands grasped the scales a loop wrapped around his wrist and for a second they were holding on to each other… and then Harry shuddered and let the scaly body go. Weren't snakes supposed to be cold? Hadn't Voldemort's soul-basilisk been cold before? What the hell was going on.
Harry was steered out of the room by Tom's hand on the small of his back.
Remus leaned down as he passed them. "We'll come have a Fenrir's dead werewolf liberation party at your house, Harry. With a big cake, ok?"
Harry smiled. "Alright." The two Gryffindors went to pass them and Harry suddenly grabbed the back of James' robe. "Hey."
James looked down at him. "Yeah?"
"If Snape ever started flirting back with you, what would you do?"
James turned a bit pale and almost green around the gills. "He definitely wouldn't."
"But if he did?" Harry asked desperately. "Like maybe you hugged him, and then he hugged you back and started getting affectionate?"
James looked at him oddly. "You trying to get me laid, kid?" He shook his head. "Well, I guess that would mean the way to Lily's heart would be open, wouldn't it?" He frowned. "Though she's sort of kinky. She might decide she wanted both of us."
It was Harry's turn to feel sick as the mental image came to him, though fortunately this time Voldemort was hiding deep enough that he didn't get actual memories to color in the picture, just his imagination. It didn't help that James was actually looking rather contemplative.
"It's not going to happen, Potter." Snape snarled from behind Tom. "Keep walking."
"Sometimes the questions of children carry the wisdom of…mmph!" James looked down at Harry like his new puppy had just peed on his broom. Harry just raised an eyebrow at James, whose lips were currently sealed. With hot pink stitches.
"Harry, please." Tom said, waving his wand to dispel the charm on James. "Let's just grab this thing you need and go home." He sounded so worn down that Harry just nodded. Unfortunately, the trip to Hogwarts was doomed to be anything but quiet.
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As soon as the group of five aurors, Tom, Snape and Harry had reached what Harry thought was both the farthest their route would take them to the second floor girls' bathroom and where there were sufficient things to trip up pursuers, Harry burst into action. He leapt backwards into the closest auror, throwing the witch off balance enough for him to dart around her. He cast a shield behind him to counteract the stunners coming his way and had to duck under several attempts to grab him. He hopped over a hobbling spell before skidding around the corner and taking off.
Harry raced down the corridors at speeds no human could possibly match, only a bit guilty about breaking the likely delicate political balance that had been reached on his behalf. He slipped and crashed into a wall as he made it into the bathroom, for a second thinking that Myrtle had flooded it again before having the jarring realization that she was actually his adoptive mother, still alive and not haunting anything.
:Open.: He hissed at the entrance, then leapt down to take the quicker (and more fun) tube route rather than wait for the stairs to form.
:Oh, hello Speaker.: the basilisk says as she looked at Harry fondly, her third eyelids over her glowing golden eyes. Harry paused and stared at her, wondering if he could manage being petrified as a way to neutralize himself. He wished that he had asked Hermione what it was like. But it would be just his luck to wake up from being petrified in the clutches of some dark cult that was about to bind him to do their Dark deeds. Probably not a good idea. :Hello I said.: The basilisk said again, annoyed that he had been just staring at her.
:Er… hi. Can you get me to the library?:
:I don't know that I will.: She huffed, turning and slithering away into a tunnel.
"Alright." Harry said out loud, looking at the large head with some consternation. He considered whether he wanted to try to drag the information out of Voldemort, but that might involve touching him. In fact, it almost certainly would. And that was entirely too pleasant and experience to be a pleasant experience. Harry winced at the awful sentence.
:You speak the tongue of humans, now?: The basilisk asked, coming back around.
Harry looked at her in confusion. "English?" He asked, in that language.
:How delightful! You need to start breeding right away. There was that small human with dirt-colored hair that was following your around- maybe with that one.:
:Jeff?: Harry asked incredulously.
:Yes! I believe that was the name.:
:Jeff is a male.: Harry replied, now even more disturbed. Between James, Voldemort and now the basilisk he was beginning to think there was a conspiracy on trying to turn him gay.
:Oh, too bad. Well you should have multiple mates anyway. I smelled a female on the taller thin male that was with you. You could steal that female from him. And then there was the female that was in the bathroom. I believe she is the mate of the other Speaker, though, so perhaps she should remain with him.:
Harry hadn't heard the end of the comment, which was probably just as well. The snake trying to hook him up with Moaning Myrtle might have been the end of his sanity, even without having the meddling beast tell him he should try to have sex with Lily.
:Look, can you just open the library?:
:First things first I suppose. The first master did have an extensive collection of books on how to properly mate with others of your species.:
Harry wondered desperately if the snake had any concept whatsoever of too much information.
As it turned out, the basilisk was correct. The first five books he opened that looked like they were about Horucruxes had illustrations that proved that they most definitely not. In full color with movements helpfully enchanted into the pages. Even knowing that he was running out of time Harry ended up mesmerized several times as he tried to figure out what was going on in the picture, and then if it really was physically possible. Reading the captions for a few he realized that they weren't, at least, not without the charms that were outlines in the text. "I'm beginning to have some very disturbing thoughts about what you did down here, Voldie." Harry muttered to himself, blushing a bit as he opened one book that was not just two consenting adults… there were many more than just two, and some of the 'adults' were definitely not human.
Harry felt a flash of fear, rage and frustration as his finger moved to the next book. He grinned widely as he opened it and saw detailed how-to's on Horcruxes. With a great deal of satisfaction he called up some magical fire and burned the book to ash, having to increase the power in the spell significantly in order to bypass the wards on it. Voldemort rushed to the front of his mind and tried to shred his thoughts, but Harry took that as a good sign. Though the pain he could still feel the spikes of emotion when he reached a useful book. He burned seven before Voldemort's struggles turned to despair.
Harry double checked all the rest of the books, opening his mind as wide as possible to the other in order to make sure he wasn't missing anything because Voldemort was trying to hide it. Harry found that it was relatively easy to feel out the other's emotions. He could even feel layers to them, from surface ones he'd always picked up through his scar deep down into ones that it seemed Voldemort wasn't even aware of himself. Harry pulled back hastily. He didn't know what to make of all the various impressions he was getting and even if he did, he wasn't sure he wanted to know in that much detail. It felt much more intimate than the 'hugs' they had been doing lately, besides which, it gave Harry a whole host of uncomfortable emotions he didn't want to deal with thinking that Voldemort probably could see that deeply into him, possibly always had.
Harry left the library and was walking back to then entrance when Tom and the others finally found him, all out of breath from trying to keep up with him. "Harry." Tom said, looking at the much smaller wizard with despair in his eyes. "Why did you do that?"
"I had to." Harry said, then shrugged.
Tom closed his eyes as if he was in pain. Harry grabbed at his chest, wondering if he was hurting the other man. Actually, now that he thought about it, that hadn't really happened for a while.
"I wish you hadn't, Harry. We finally got these things worked out tentatively, and then you rub it in their faces that nothing we can do will affect you in the least."
Harry just looked down at the ground as the aurors got over their fear of the basilisk curled up with one eye only half open as she watched the most recent invasion of her den and came over to cast binding spells on Harry and carry him away. Harry didn't resist at all, nor did he say anything to Tom. What was there to say? Everyone present knew that it was true, much as everyone also wished it wasn't. Well, with one exception. But he wasn't in control of the body at the moment.
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A/N- I've taken some artistic license with the werewolves in this story. I have no idea whether canon werewolves are immortal or not. More likely not, seeing as how crappy Remus looks. But I'm going to pretend that comes from fighting it and/or taking Wolfs' Bane and/or not eating humans. Anyway it doesn't really affect the story. I also probably took advantage of making up a 'cure.' Some werewolf stories (where it's really a curse, not a 'virus' or something else biological) have it so that if you kill the biter wolf, then the bitee wolves will turn back, which I thought fit better with a magical world anyway. Added bonus it worked better for the plot, too.
I also made Millicent Bagnold the Minister, but maybe had a bit of something politically weird hinted at, as she was the Minister the year after this story takes place, but I didn't feel like making a Minister up when it was going to be a relatively minor role anyway. And it seems plausible that she had a bit longer a term (though maybe a bit unlikely as it's already a 10 year term). Whatevers.
Also some slashity! For Disco-Dancing. There probably will be no actual slash in this story. And if it is, will be totally incidental. But it's always good for some humorw, ne?