!*!*! ATTENTION ... శ్రద్ధ ... UPPMÄRKSAMHET !*!*!

Disclaimer: Not one single, itty-bitty, tiny atom-sized piece of Harry Potter belongs to me. This work is purely me using J.K Rowling's character to fuel my over-active and somewhat disturbing imagination. Please, enjoy the results of my depravity.

Voldemort watched as Harry hesitated, pink tongue darting out to moisten his lips.

And then he spoke. "I suppose it's simple. I just didn't want to do it anymore. I wanted… Okay, no. That's not quite right. Look, I didn't have the best childhood, and then I got my Hogwarts letter, and even that didn't go smoothly. But I got there, and I was happy. I-I felt like I belonged. It was my home. And then you sort of interrupted that with the whole Sorcerer's stone thing. And then again in the second year with the Chamber of Secrets. In the third year, I found out that I had a godfather who actually wanted me, even if everyone thought that he was an escaped murderer. Of course, Peter Pettigrew got away, and the proof the Sirius was innocent vanished with him. Fourth year was the tri-wizard tournament. You came back and Cedric died. Fifth year… Sirius died."

He got up off of the couch suddenly and started pacing with jerky movements. "Does this sound like a normal childhood to you? I know that I'm not normal, in any sense of the word, but I just wanted everything to stop for once. For things to be peaceful. But even all of that wasn't what made me decide to leave. Professor Dumbledore told me about the horcruxes. How I needed to find them and destroy them before I killed you. After he told me about them… I started thinking, connecting the dots, and then it was clear. I didn't want to believe it at first. It made me sick. But it was clear; I was a horcrux. I told Hermione about it, hoping that I'd be wrong, but she agreed with me. So, I knew that to defeat you, I had to die and someone else had to finish you off."

He paused and then repeated it. "I had to die. I had to sacrifice myself to save everyone else, everyone else. And… I didn't want to. I wanted to be happy and alive. So I left to start a new life where nothing was expected of me. For once, I didn't do I right thing. I didn't think about anyone else."

He turned luminous eyes towards Voldemort and asked, "Does that make me selfish? Wanting to live?" The question was asked almost lightly, but he could see the emotions conflicting on his face.

"No." Voldemort was surprised how sharp his voice came out. "It doesn't. It's sickening that an entire world with thousands of able bodied witches and wizards relied on a boy, not even a man, to save them. As far as I am concerned, you did the right thing."

Now Harry was staring at him. "What?"

"I said, I thought that you did the right thing. It was certainly good for me that you did it; it was good for you, and beneficial for the wizarding world. It was also a very Slytherin thing to do."

To his surprise, Harry snorted, muttering, "Like that's a surprise."

Voldemort opened his mouth to ask him what he meant by that, but Harry said quickly, "And so that's how I wound up here. Although, I didn't cut myself off from the wizarding world completely."

Voldemort nodded. "Yes, I take it that Ms. Granger knows that you're here. I suppose the Weasley boy as well?"

A cloud came over Harry's expressive face. "Actually… no."

When he didn't offer up any more explanation, Voldemort cleared his throat. "And here I thought you were so close."

"We are – were…. He's still my best mate; it's just that he wouldn't have understood. If I had told him that I was a horcrux, and that I needed to die for you to die, then I'm not sure what he would have done. I don't think he would have been all right with me… running away. And Hermione agreed with me that it was the right thing not to tell him."

Voldemort would have inquired farther, but there was a final look on the younger man's face. So, instead, he asked, "Anyone else?"

Shaking his head, Harry said, "No. Hermione's the only one who knows where I am. I send letters to a couple of other people, though."

"Like Ms. Lovegood?"

His head jerked towards Voldemort at that. "Luna? How did you know? If you've done-"

Voldemort help up his hands, cutting him off. "Relax, Harry. I haven't touched a hair on Ms. Lovegood's rather unusual head. She works for me and mentioned it today."

"Luna works for you?" Harry said blankly.

"Yes, she's my secretary."

"I… was not expecting that. She never mentioned where she worked." Suddenly, he plopped back down onto the couch next to Voldemort. "This is so weird," he said with a little laugh. "You, Lord Voldemort, and I, Harry Potter, are talking civilly and having a perfectly pleasant conversation. It isn't the end of the world, is it? Because that might explain this."

"And isn't this preferable?"

There was a hesitation, and then: "Much."

He let his eyes wander over the young man in front of him. Either he was completely comfortable in his own skin, or he had forgotten that he was currently half naked. Harry's chest was smooth and an even golden tan. His eyes drifted lower to the waistband of the sweatpants where golden skin disappeared beneath the fabric. There was still no sign of a tan line. He'd rather like to know where the tan ended, or if it even ended.

With a faint twinge of surprise, he realized what he had just been thinking. He found Harry Potter attractive. Very attractive. Interesting.

He brought his eyes back up to said person's face, only to find them staring at him with a mixture of embarrassment and alarm. He was also faintly pink-cheeked.

Voldemort smirked slightly, and then, out of the blue, Harry blurted out, "What happened to you? I mean, you look like… almost how I saw you in the Chamber of Secrets. Is this an illusion?"

Voldemort shook his head. "No, this is how I truly look. Thanks to several of Severus's potions, I appear how I did when I was in my twenties. What do you think?"

Before Harry could sputter an answer, there came the metallic sound of a key turning in a lock, and the front door swung open. "Harry! I brought some dinner. I tried that recipe you gave me last time, and I think-" She cut off abruptly as she took in the sight of Voldemort and Harry sitting together, rather closely, on the couch.

From her viewpoint, the damaged portion of the room wasn't visible.

Voldemort gazed back at her. Wearing a soft purple jumper and a pair of jeans, holding a bag full of food, was Hermione Granger. Her hair was far less bushy than he remembered, caught up in a loose ponytail, and she was still staring at them.

He waited for her to firing hexes at him, but it never came. Instead, something seemed to click in her head, and a sly grin formed on her lips. "Harry… Is this Thomas?"

His eyes widened. She had no idea who he was. Of course. She's never seen him before, only Harry had. She had no idea that she was looking at Lord Voldemort. His mind went over the implications of what she said. If she thought he was Thomas, since she must not have noticed the fact that his eyes were red, and he was sort of, then that meant that Harry had talked about him to her. And from the way that she was grinning, they had been good things.

Harry's face was beet red now; he opened his mouth to say something, but Voldemort cut him off, smiling charmingly at Hermione. "Yes, I am Tom. A pleasure to meet you, Ms…"

The smirk on her face broadened. "Granger. Hermione Granger." Her eyes flickered between Harry and Voldemort again and she asked, "I'm sorry, was I interrupting something?"

Voldemort said, "Yes," at the same time that Harry finally found his voice and shot to his feet with a "No!"

"No, really, if you two are busy, then I can always come back later," Hermione said, backing towards the door and still grinning widely.

Voldemort decided that he rather liked her.

"No! Hermione! This isn't Thomas, or it is… Sort of. I mean… argh. This is Lord Voldemort."

The smile quickly dropped off of her face, and she stared at Voldemort. Finally, she seemed to notice his scarlet eyes. A moment later, a wand was in her hand. "Harry… What's going on?"

Voldemort sighed. He had had just about enough of people pointing wands at him today. And he couldn't even hex them for it because it would put a severe dent in his plans.

Harry scratched his head awkwardly, and said, "It's kind of hard to explain, Hermione. But you can put your wand down. He's not going to kill us." He turned to Voldemort. "Right?"

He nodded smoothly. "Correct. I won't harm either you or Ms. Granger unless you attempt to harm me first. I believe we've been over this, Harry."

Meanwhile, the no-longer bushy haired witch was staring at them, mouth opening and closing, but no sound was coming out. Well, the Dark Lord mused. It must be hard to wrap her head around the notion of them sitting together quite amicably and not trying to kill each other.

She closed her eyes for a moment, and then opened them. "Okay… So let me get this right. You two are no longer enemies? And you're not trying to kill each other?" Her voice was shrill with disbelief.

Two nods greeted that.

"I see. Umm… Good." She collapsed down onto a stool, which was a little wobbly as one of the legs was falling off. "And how did this happen?"

"I'll tell you about it later, Hermione," Harry said quickly, after a glance at Voldemort.

Voldemort tilted his head back to look at Hermione. "You seem to be taking this quite calmly, Ms. Granger. I would have thought that you'd be more disbelieving."

She merely waved that away. "I've seen what you've been doing to the wizarding world. It's nothing like what we thought was going to happen. In fact, it's the opposite. After seeing that, I'm almost willing to believe anything. I mean, if I can go from toting the laws of physics to getting a letter saying that I'm a witch, this is completely possible."

He couldn't help a smug grin from spreading across his handsome face. Things were going so much more smoothly than he had anticipated. It was rather nice when things just fell into place. He could see the girl darting glances at Harry, practically vibrating in her seat with the urge to ask questions.

In a single fluid movement, Voldemort rose from his seat. "I think it's time for me to be going. I'm sure that you two have a lot to talk about."

Hermione jumped slightly. "Right. Well, it was a pleasure to meet you..." She trailed off, clearly unsure how to address him.

"Riddle. You may call me Riddle." He turned to Harry, who seemed bemused by the whole situation. "Harry…. It was a pleasure."

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Hermione's eyebrows shoot up in surprise at his tone.

Harry smiled, slightly awkwardly and nodded. "Right. So, Tom, I take it that this means that we're… at peace? You'll leave me alone and I'll leave you alone and everyone can be happy?"

Voldemort shook his head. "Leave you alone? Oh, I don't think so. In fact, I look forward to seeing much more of you," he practically purred, and then he turned on his heel and disapparated.

Before his body vanished completely, he heard Granger say, "Harry… Why are you half-naked and talking with Voldemort?"

He laughed, but the sound was swallowed up by the magic, and he disappeared.

Wow... it's been a long time, something that is totally and completely my fault. Erm... I suppose the only thing I can say is... please don't find out where I live and torture me for hours before killing me because I haven't updated in so long. I can't offer any excuse, either, except for the same one as last time. College. I seem to drop absolutely everything when the quarter starts and focus only on school-work. It's not healthy... but my GPA is 3.6, so I guess the studying pays off. Right... Anyway, I'm just really, really sorry that it took me this long to get another chapter up, and I wanted to say thank you to everyone who reviewed and kept reviewing, asking me to update. And an extra thank you to you guys who sent me PMs and pushed me to get another chapter out. Due to the fact that there's just so freaking many reviews, I'm afraid I'm not going to answer them. Well, that and the fact that, if I did, it's been so long that most people probably would have forgotten what they asked in the review or what we were talking about. But, umm, yeah. I hope you all enjoy the chapter.

Ja ne,

Rumer Hasit