Disclaimer: If I owned it Harry would be with Draco and Dumbles would be dead. I'm just borrowing and promise to return in slightly used condition…
Harry ushered his Gryffindor friends into the Room of Requirement with his invisibility cloak, it had been enlarged to accommodate the large number of people he was escorting. Harry then left them to their own devices to grab Luna and Draco. He trusted Severus had his own way of sneaking about the castle.
Harry was right, when he arrived with his friend and boyfriend Severus had already shown up. He looked slightly disgruntled and Harry realized why, Hermione had already begun to bombard the Professor with a million questions.
"Hermione, stop grilling the man. We need to figure out how to sneak out of the castle without Dumbledork noticing." Severus looked thoughtful and Draco frowned.
"I have a way but 20 people will be noticed traveling with me." Severus said, pinching the bridge of his nose.
"What if we went through the Chamber?" Harry suggested, Hermione however, looked slightly nervous. "Can we get out? How do we know there's another exit?"
The Slytherins looked confused, so Harry elaborated. "In second year, you remember the rumors about the monster in the Chamber of Secrets?" They all nodded.
"Well all that was true. Ron and I went down with Lockhart because he was going to chicken out. Lockhart wanted to obliviate us but because he stole Ron's wand, it backfired and he ended up separating me and Ron due to a cave in."
Hermione squeezed Harry's hand briefly before he went on. "I went into the main chamber, and I discovered a 16 year old Tom Riddle using Ginny's life force to revive himself. He called a basilisk (yes that was the monster) to fight me, and I managed to kill it, but it got a fang in me before I could step away. Fawkes healed me and pulled me, Ron and Lockhart out of the Chamber."
Draco and Severus stared at Harry in shock. It was virtually unheard of for a 12 year old to fight and kill a basilisk. "What the hell was Dumblefuck thinking?" Draco exclaimed in shock.
"He wanted to test his weapon; make sure I tested myself every year. He wanted to be sure the Boy-Who-Lived lived for a reason, not chance." Harry scowled and Draco wrapped an arm around his shoulder.
But I got away, didn't I Dumbledore? You're furious but you want to win this war so you can't do anything yet. I know more than you think I know, and it's going to come back and bite you in the ass.
Harry was shocked out of his reverie with another question "The only problem is we don't know if there's another exit. How do we find that out?" Ginny asked slightly upset due to the story.
Harry smirked and began to hiss, a rather large snake appeared out of nowhere. It was a Taipan; she was black on top and gold on her underbelly, because of magic, she was larger than normal and her black eyes seemed to glow from within.
Hello Master Harry
Hello Caliga
"Caliga is my pet Taipan, and one of my familiars. She could probably explore the Chamber for us." Harry said, slightly amused at the way Draco stared in awe at his snake.
Do you think that you can explore the Chamber of Secrets for me? We need to see if there are any other exits so we can meet the Dark Speaker.
Caliga made a noise that sounded like chuckling to the other occupants of the room. She flicked her tongue and curled around Draco's body.
Of course I can Master. I like your choice in a mate, he ssmellsss nice and iss warm; you have mated, yes?
Harry blushed and shook his head, while Caliga let out another snaky chuckle.
That iss to bad, do not wait to long snakeling.
Caliga then left the room, hissing about shy masters and rats. The others stared at Harry for a while.
"You do realize that Taipans are one of the most venomous snakes in the world right?" Severus drawled. "Of course, she's bitten me before. These glasses I wear are props, I can see perfectly fine." Harry smirked in reply.
"Hey! Stop staring at Harry, there are other things we need to discuss!" Ginny exclaimed. "Like what?" Draco drawled. "How we're going to act when we meet with Lord Voldemort." Hermione said with a smirk.
Severus put the pads of his fingers together. "Well, because you're prospective allies and not followers you won't need to kiss his robes. You should probably refer to him as my Lord or Lord Voldemort. It would look good to show a united front, maybe with matching robes or something similar. He may also want a mark of some kind, just for communication purposes."
Harry drummed his fingers along his thigh. "We could make an inconspicuous mark that acts like a two way communicator. Maybe a bracelet or an actual tattoo depends on what you guys think."
Hermione looked excited at the prospect. "I'll research two-way communicating spells and see if we can enchant the ink with it." Suddenly, a mini-library popped up and Hermione rushed over with Ginny and Luna. "They like to help her; Merlin knows I'd only screw up their organization system." Neville offered in explanation.
"What kind of design would we use and where would we put it?" Draco asked all business. Neville looked thoughtful, tapping his finger on his chin.
"What if we had a snake wrap around our wrists? It could look like a bracelet so no one would get suspicious, we'd have to clear it with the others…"
"Clear what up?" a voice asked from the doorway. "Fred!" Hermione exclaimed, rushing to hug him. "What are you doing here?" she asked excitedly.
"Well, the rest of us decided to join you for your meeting today. Aberforth was more than happy to let us use his pub to walk here so Dumbles didn't notice." Lupin cut in as the rest of Harry's group filed into the Room.
"This is great! We'll be meeting with Lord Voldemort sometime soon and Severus was talking to us about what to expect. He said we needed to present a united front, so matching robes are needed and that a mark of some kind is preferable." Harry began.
"Neville came up with an idea that he wanted to share with us, tell them Neville." Neville smiled a little nervously, even if these people were his friends he was still a little shy.
"I was thinking about a snake tattoo that wrapped around our wrists and Hermione would incorporate a two way transmitting spell in the ink so we could talk with each other."
Right on cue Hermione shouted "I got it!" she, Ginny and Luna rushed over excitedly with a very thick book. "It's a potion that requires the blood of the people that want to communicate with each other. We might need to talk to Lord Voldemort about getting some of his blood for it because I don't think we'd want to do it twice should he want to be keyed in."
Harry hugged her "You're brilliant Hermione!" her eyes were still a little wild "I love this room! It's like a personalized Google!" The magical raised people looked confused while Harry smirked and nodded.
"You said we needed to present a united front?" Tonks asked quietly. Harry nodded, looking curious. "We could call ourselves Vox Intus, which is The Power Within in Latin." She continued. "Brilliant Tonks!" The twins said at the same time.
"Luna and I can work on the robes." Ginny said. "We could have a V and I inscribed in calligraphy on the breast and maybe we should do something like that on the tattoo as well."
"Genius!" Neville exclaimed kissing her cheek. "Well done love." Harry smiled at the pair, before turning thoughtful. "I'm going to try and contact Lord Voldemort through my scar. Don't let me stay in meditation more than an hour, it could get ugly."
Harry shut his eyes and imagined the room he used for his Occulmency, a study with a blazing fire, and books that housed some of his more public memories, his secret memories were hidden in some unsuspecting places, i.e. his fireplace, the wine decanter and the painting above the fireplace.
He walked to the Slytherin Crest that represented the link between him and Lord Voldemort and rapped lightly on it. When nothing happened he knocked again, this time a little harder.
Suddenly, a 19 year old Tom Riddle appeared before him slightly disgruntled.
"What do you want Harry?"
Harry smirked "Well for one, to see if I could actually purposefully connect to your mind."
Lord Voldemort looked confused "Purposefully? You mean the times I felt you in my mind were unintentional?"
Harry nodded "I only get sucked in when you feel extreme emotions and then I feel all spells cast on your followers or prisoners; but that wasn't the reason for my visit. What I want to ask you is if I could get a small vial of your blood so that Hermione and Severus can make a potion that allows us to create a two-way link in the ink of tattoos we're going to use to symbolize our group."
Lord Voldemort considered this for a second. "So, you want me to give a vial of my blood to Severus to make ink for a tattoo?" Harry nodded "That's exactly what I want you to do. See most of the people in Vox Intus don't want the mark, so I came up with the idea of two-way tattoo's, Hermione came up with the method and Neville with the design."
"How would these communicators work?"
"You'd say the name of the person you want to contact or the whole group if you want to send something like a meeting time and then tell them. They could then respond if they want, it also enables for us to send intelligence more efficiently."
"Very well." Lord Voldemort said, with some hesitation "Send Severus tomorrow at 6pm for the vial of blood and then have someone come do the tattoo Saturday at around 11pm."
"Thank you Lord Voldemort." Harry said, glimpsing Voldemort's shocked face before dissolving the connection.
When Harry opened his eyes he saw Severus cast tempus and the time flashed 12:30. "He's been in it for 55 minutes we should get ready to pull him out soon." Hermione said worriedly. Harry laughed quietly "Always looking out for me 'Mione."
All concern for Harry flew out the window when he was pelted with a hundred questions. "Whoa, calm down you guys. I'll summarize for you; he accepted and wants Severus to come tomorrow at 6pm then another person at 10pm Saturday to do the tattoo. Which brings us to an important question; who is going to do the tattoo?"
People suddenly started talking all at once; shouting out the names of the people they thought should do the tattoo. George stood on one of the tables provided and whistled loudly. "I think we should let Harry do it! He's one of the most magically strong people here and if I've read Hermione's research correctly, the potion has to be made the day we are going to use it."
There was a general murmur of agreement and Harry blushed but put his head together with Hermione so he could learn how to do the tattoo with magic. It took about 20 minutes and then 15 more for him to get an acceptable design using regular quill ink.
The week passed quickly for the 21 people of Vox Intus as final preparations for the tattoo and robes were made. Excitement from Ginny and Luna was palpable all through Saturday.
They met in the Room of Requirement at 9:00, Hermione brought the potion, Ginny and Luna brought the robes –hidden of course- and Harry was letting down his magical shields so he could have more magic readily available.
The robes were unveiled first, and they were well worth the wait. They were made of a dark, shimmery emerald green with the groups' initials emblazoned on the breast, they had silver branches sewn onto the hood in the shape of a panther (Harry's animagus form) and the clasp was made of two silver hands clasping an onyx orb that seemed to glow within.
"You girls did a wonderful job." Harry whispered in awe as the cloak fell over his shoulders. This statement was met with others, nobody expected the girls to make something this wonderful in the quantity Harry requested in a week.
Now, Harry was going to start working on the tattoos. All the blood was added to the potion, including Lord Voldemort's, and Harry did his wrist first. The snake was such a dark blue it looked black and flashed blue in direct light, he made it wind around his wrist, making it bite it's own tail and look like it was raised off his skin, finally he made the eyes gold with silver flecks and swirled silver in the scales.
The design took about 10 minutes per person so by the time Lord Voldemort's meeting time approached; everyone was staring at their new marks in awe. "This is amazing Harry, it actually looks like a real snake is twined around my wrist." Ginny gasped.
Harry blushed and ducked his head, unused to the praise, even from his closest friends. "I'm going head to the Chamber now, Caliga will guide me to the other exit and then I will disapperate from there."
Caliga, I am ready.
Coming Masster
Harry slipped under his invisibility cloak and followed his familiar out. He was dressed to impress in black skinny jeans, black dragon-hide boots, a red silk shirt with the first two buttons undone and his hair swept into that just-been-shagged look and colored with silver stripes, a black cloak with a stag clasp completed the ensemble.
When Harry got out of the Chamber, he realized he was just outside the wards and concentrated on his scar before disapperating.
When he arrived, the mansion was as imposing as he had expected; all that was missing were the bats flying around and the lightning storm. Harry began to walk the long path from the gothic gate to the front door.
This Dark Sspeaker iss being quite cliché iss he not?
Harry laughed as he approached the door and knocked firmly.
That he iss my preciouss Caliga, I wonder if Wormtail will ansswer the door? Harry pondered with a malicious hiss.
Do not do anything rash Ssnakeling.
Harry sighed in disappointment even though his familiar had a point. He drew back his hood when the door opened; he needn't worry about being recognized as his scar was hidden by his fringe. As he stepped into the entryway, Caliga wrapped her way around his waist and then his neck; freaking out the minion sent to lead him to Lord Voldemort.
He was led through a labyrinth of hallways sometimes chatting with Caliga, others ogling at the sheer cliché-ness of the whole house. It reeked of a bad horror movie; How very Voldemort. Harry thought dryly.
He was finally brought to a meeting room that had Lord Voldemort leaning against a desk with a fire blazing and whiskey in his hand.
Caliga, thiss iss Nagini, sshe iss the Dark Sspeakerss familiar. Nagini, thiss iss my familiar Caliga. Do try not to eat anything bessidess ratss pleasse.
Caliga seemed to pout before following Nagini out of the room and Harry turned to regard the Dark Lord.
"I have to thank you Lord Voldemort." Harry began. "It was you at the Department of Mysteries that prompted me to look deeper, to separate myself and the people I care about from Dumbledore."
Lord Voldemort smiled, that's right, genuinely smiled. "It is a good time when someone so young and so strong sees the injustices done to him. May I see your mark?" Harry pulled back his right sleeve and let Voldemort manipulate his wrist.
"It makes a statement, but is elegant. You said the Longbottom boy came up with the design?" he queried lightly. Harry nodded his affirmative "He is actually quite talented both mentally and magically. His Grandmother constantly clipped his wings so he didn't really embrace his talent until 5th year."
Lord Voldemort looked thoughtful "Which wrist would you like it to be on?" Harry asked, quietly redirecting the focus to the tattoos. "Right. You have the vial of potion?" Harry nodded and 10 minutes later Lord Voldemort was looking at his new tattoo.
"This will communicate with anyone who has this mark?"
"That is correct. You can try it if you wish. I wouldn't be surprised if you get a startled answer, even if I prepared them." Voldemort smirked and touched the mark briefly before whispering "Severus Snape"
Harry smiled as he felt the triumph through the link as Severus replied. "I will take my leave, I must be back soon or the old fool will get suspicious. Let us know when a full meeting will be called to introduce us, preferably during the weekend."
I'm here Masster. Caliga said as she slithered into view. I can help uss out of here.
Goodbye Lord Voldemort, good hunting Nagini.
Be careful Gold Sspeaker, Dumbledore iss not someone to messs with lightly. Nagini hissed as she twined around Voldemort.
Of coursse Nagini, we will be back ssoon.
Harry swept from the room with Caliga whispering directions in his ear. He apperated back to the outside entrance of the Chamber of Secrets and wandered tiredly back to the Room of Requirement.
Caliga left shortly before he reached the Room so she could hunt rats and freak out Ms. Norris. When Harry arrived in the room, Draco was instantly by his side and whispering comforts in his ear. Telling him it was alright to be exhausted and that they were going to sleep in the Room together.
"Mmmh. Did the others leave?" Harry murmured sleepily as he felt Draco's magic wash over him, changing him into sleep pants and nothing else. "Yes love, I shooed them out after Lord Voldemort contacted Severus."
Harry pulled Draco's face close to his own as he whispered "Thank you so very much my dear beloved. I don't think I could handle the questions. However Voldemort's mansion is exactly how you'd picture it; stone gargoyles and everything."
Draco chuckled and kissed Harry briefly before kissing both eyelids "Go to sleep Harry, you are tired and tomorrow we can spend the whole day together, just you and me." The last thing Harry heard was Draco whispering he loved him before he descended into Morpheus' arms.
AN: It's officially 1:05 and this chapter is done! So what do you think? I'm hoping my good buddy AtraThestral can draw me a picture of the robes and snake tattoo.
Reviewers will get an HP plushie of their choice and flames will be fed to the giant squid in my moat.
Kathy