'What could be more convincing, moreover, than the gesture of laying one's cards face up on the table?'
~Jacques Lacan

It was evening by the time he returned to Hogwarts. The lights of the castle glimmered in the darkness, and every now and then he saw a shadow cross one of them, proof that there was indeed life in the old building. Dimly, he heard a wolf howl from deep within the bowels of the forest, but his pace did not quicken. He needed to clear his head, formulate the words he was going to use to try and convince Ron and Hermione to trust him, the fact he wasn't very eloquent in the first place was severely hindering him.

Walking past, his eyes were drawn to the Whomping Willow. He remembered clambering out that with Sirius, and the resulting chaos that followed. Ron and Hermione had stuck by his side all the way through that, and all the way through since... But would this time be different? Sucking in a deep breath, Harry desperately hoped it wouldn't be, that Hermione would either pick his side or be neutral like Ron. As much as he supported Tom's cause, he did not want to have Hermione on the other end of his wand.

The sound of his footfalls were silent as he crossed the courtyard, moving swiftly up the steps to the entrance. Now within the castle walls, he never felt safe, but he never felt scared either, and only now did he really feel everything setting in his mind. It was disturbing at best, as it meant he truly had picked a side now. There was no turning back.

"I wondered when you would get back," Harry heard Lysander's soft voice, all hint of jest gone, and he wheeled around, only to see the blonde vampyre walking towards him. To others it would just look as if he had ran into him by chance, but Harry knew he had been waiting for him, and he tried to mould his expression into an uncaring one.

"If you wanted to join me on my walk you should have just asked," said Harry, in what he hoped was a nonchalant tone. Lysander's raised eyebrow clearly showed that he had failed epically.

"If you needed to talk you should have asked," retorted Lysander.

"I know that," Harry's voice was colder than he intended, and Lysander's eyes seemed to frost over, taking the temperature down a few degrees.

"My reason for being here is to help you, you are making this more difficult that it has to be," hissed the blonde, his normally laidback aura was now crackling dangerously, and Harry realised that Demeter must have said something to him to invoke a reaction of this scale.

"Now this isn't going to help," Luna's voice drifted between them, and sense returned, both men backing down.

"Next time I have a problem, I will talk to you, just don't expect me to tell you everything," compromised Harry, and visibly his friend relaxed, his posture becoming more open as the seconds passed.

"Well yes, there are some things I don't need to hear," replied Lysander with a wink, the easy banter back between the two, and Harry breathed a sigh of relief. Lysander was just concerned, it was understandable, and he relaxed his defensive stance.

"We'll see how open I feel," winked Harry, as the tanned vampyre blanched.

"Now, Harry, I believe you were going to talk to your friends," Luna for once injected reality into the conversation.

"How do you know that?" he couldn't help but ask. If it was that obvious, how had Dumbledore not realised, and tried to brainwash him back to the Light?

"Your aura is bright red," replied Luna vaguely, and Harry breathed a sigh of relief.

"Do you want me to come with you?" Harry threw Lysander a grateful look, but Luna shot his hopes down in flames.

"No, Harry has to do this on his own. We'll leave you now, Lysander, I believe Blaise is wondering where you are," and Lysander looked helplessly at Harry as she dragged him back the way he came.

Alone once more, Harry quickly made his way through the silent castle, most of the populace in the Great Hall, the sounds of the many knives and forks scrapping the gold plate, and the incessant chatter audible even through the large oak doors. Taking one of the many staircases, he moved away from these ear-splitting sounds, and once giving the password to a somewhat concerned Fat Lady, he was in the Gryffindor Common room, and face to face with his best friends.

This wasn't unexpected. Over the past few days, they had noticed him missing a few meals here and there, it was only a matter of time before they ambushed him. Harry hid a smirk at the cunningness of it. How very Slytherin.

"Mate, where have you been?" Ron started the dialogue, his face etched with concern, and Harry felt a stab of remorse that he'd let his friends suffer when he himself was being so foolish.

"I was..." he trailed off, glancing around quickly to see if they were indeed alone. Hermione seeing this muttered 'colloportus' and 'muffliato'under her breath, and looking up towards the dormitories, he saw thin threads of light slither up the seams of the doors.

"You were there, weren't you Harry," he couldn't tell if there was any disappointment in her tone, but in her eyes Curiosity and Sadness were dancing, and Curiosity was quickly taking the lead.

"I was," he said again, less uncertain than the first.

"Are you alright? Blimey, the change in you..." Ron trailed off, and Harry knew he meant his rejuvenated appearance and not his vampyrism.

"Yes, I just needed a little help with something," answered Harry vaguely, and mentally he congratulated Tom. The heir had survived in Hogwarts without anyone knowing, he hadn't even lasted a term! It was quite depressing really.

"Harry," Hermione had her 'no nonsense' voice on, and Harry tried not to look at his feet, although he was amused when Ron did, "You are not going to sway us by being vague, give us the details again, and then we'll decide."

Sighing deeply, he motioned for them to sit in front of the fireplace. They took the couch, presenting a look of solidarity, whilst he took one of the armchairs.

"There has been another prophecy, in this one, it states that if Tom and I do not work together, then the wizarding world will fall. This has bound us together, and he has trained me until now I can sometimes beat him," Harry let a small smile escape, "The two realms, the Light, and Dark, are not meant to meddle in the wizarding world. The Light got around this with Dumbledore as their puppet, the Dark with Tom. The Light soon began to take over, swaying those against the Dark, you've seen it in ministry campaigns, and the balance between the magicks started to shift. I am just trying to restore the order, and Fate wants that too, but with our inaction, the Dark will cease to exist, and the wizarding world will be ruined."

"And did Tom agree to a meeting to back this up?" asked Hermione, and Harry could already see she was half convinced, his story matching up with last time, in what her memories of the 'Old Harry' would tell her would be impossible if he was lying. As it was, the evidence the prejudices the Light had shown in recent years did back it up quite a bit, along with the treatment of Lupin that was particularly close to Hermione's heart.

"Yes, but now, since I have told you this, Dumbledore can find out, and you are in danger. Memories give-"

"Certain impressions that can indicate if they are Light or Dark," interrupted Hermione, "I read up on mind magic when you had to do your Occlumency lessons," she added sheepishly.

"Exactly," he confirmed, glad she would see the reasoning behind this next bit, "I never knew this, and so when Tom told me he was naturally angry-"

"This prophecy has linked you together, you couldn't drink because you had unbalanced it, and it made you suffer until you got back to him. This is absolutely fascinating!" interrupted Hermione again, Sadness totally eradicated now, and Curiosity practically doing a victory lap.

"Er... Thanks, Hermione, that's about it," Harry felt it best to use the prophecy as an excuse, and not the fact that he was in love with the Dark Lord, although he did wonder of there was something to it. Hmm, he would need to ask Tom. "Anyway," he continued eventually, "With the change there comes certain abilities. Tom's was legilimency, and he needs to mask the impressions these memories emit."

"Voldemort is going inside our heads!" yelled Ron. Harry had been waiting for something like this, and merely gave Ron a weary look.

"If you want, he can do it to me first, and then you can see you'll come to no harm," said Harry evenly.

"Will we be going to the Dark realm?" asked Hermione, nerves creeping into her voice for the first time.

"If you want to find out the truth, then yes," replied Harry, and he saw her resolve become firm in the face of getting facts.

"Now?" The tone of her voice already told Harry he had her on board, and he nodded.

Ron, seeing he had no choice exclaimed loudly, "Well lets bloody get it over with then!"

A/N: Thank you for the feedback! I'm overjoyed that so many of you are still with me :D I'm really sorry about replying to reviews, my life has been hectic just now, and I've had an epic powercut so I couldn't get on my laptop. I know this chapter is short, but there should be another at the weekend which should be longer, originally it was part of this one, until I realised that there would be too many things covered in one chapter! I hope you've enjoyed this one, and to my old readers that your memories of the other characters are refreshed - I'll admit I had to look back to get a better idea of how I portrayed everyone - and I would really appreciate it if you review, I will try and reply this time :)

NOTE: If this is unsatisfactory, I can do a re-write, I'm exhausted, so I apologise if it is.

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Harry Potter :(

I apologise for any spelling and/or grammar mistakes contained within this chapter.