Hi everyone!
I'm finally back from Sweden! No internet connection is a pain, I've noticed, especially when I come home and am faced with 120 emails... Anyway, I got some writing done while there, so here you go! Finally some face to face conversation between Voldemort and Harry. Remember, there will not be any interaction of the more... intimate *wink wink* type until Harry is of age. To avoid having to write out five years of Harry's life, there will be a chapter which will be dedicated to condense this into a more handy format. It will be a while though, as I still have to sort out a lot of different plot twists and such before then :)
Hope you all enjoy this chapter!
Red eyes followed a certain raven-haired boy as he was talking to the young Draco Malfoy and his friends. The boy seemed a little uncomfortable around the others at first, but after Draco had said something to them their originally suspicious glances turned into ones of acceptance and now the four of them were chatting away. Voldemort's eyes narrowed as the girl, Greengrass he seemed to remember her name was, actually bent forward and hugged the slightly smaller boy. How dare she touch what belonged to him?! However, he didn't let his feelings show. He wasn't the Dark Lord for nothing, after all.
Lucius was standing next to him, talking about some treaty with the Goblins of Gringotts or whatever, but he had long since stopped paying attention. It would seem that this ball had attracted some rather… unwanted elements who seemed to pay a little more attention to the Potter boy than Voldemort appreciated. 'They have no business trying to get close to him. They will soon know that the boy is mine and that I do not share my property.'
Make no mistake, Lord Voldemort didn't harbour any disgusting notions of love or affection towards the young boy. No, the reason why he had made the marriage proposal in the first place was because of the boy's power. Even now he could feel the tingling of Harry's untrained magic flitting through the air as tendrils of tendrils of intoxicating power. No doubt the boy was rather attractive, or would be when in a few years, but the Dark Lord simply didn't succumb to the weakness that it was to care for someone. Nevertheless, he continued to watch Harry carefully with a look on his face that could only be described as jealousy, though he would never admit it himself.
Just as he was about to turn toward Lucius again to answer one of the man's questions, one of the younger guests at the ball was making his way towards Harry. Voldemort recognized him as an up-and-coming worker in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. The man had a certain look in his eye that the Dark Lord disapproved of at once. There was just no way that man was coming anywhere near his Harry Potter. With that thought firmly in mind, he quickly strode towards where Harry was standing, still oblivious to the situation that was quickly turning dangerous.
A tap on his shoulder made Harry jump a little and turn around to be met with a man who looked to be in his early twenties, with a charming smile and slightly wavy brown hair.
"Excuse me, you're Harry Potter, right?" he asked as if he didn't already no know perfectly well. When Harry nodded slowly, still a bit suspicious of every guest at that party, the man positively beamed at him.
"How wonderful to meet you, Harry! I'm Joseph Grimp. I had hoped to meet you at this ball." With a conspiratorial whisper, he leaned forward a little "Truth be told, I'm not overly fond of these stuck-up parties at the Malfoys'. I guess I'm just not sophisticated enough" he added with a playful wink at Harry.
Before Harry had a chance to reply, a hand was placed on his shoulder and when he looked up, he almost shrank back from the livid look on the Dark Lord's face. His red eyes were seemed to glow with a certain dangerous tint and his lips were pressed together, as if he was forcefully restraining himself from doing what he most wanted to at the moment, which probably was rip Mr Grimp limb from limb.
"I trust you are having a pleasant evening, Harry?" he said, facing Harry rather than the now quite confused young man in front of him. Harry only nodded. To do anything else seemed like it could make the situation worse and though he didn't really know Joseph Grimp, Harry didn't want anything bad to happen to him. So for now, he would be careful so as not to further agitate Voldemort.
"I'm afraid I haven't had the pleasure of introductions." Voldemort said, now facing Grimp, his features had now morphed into a mask of pleasant curiosity. "I'm Tom Riddle, I'm kind of what you would call a philanthropist." Harry almost choked at that, but managed to keep a straight face.
Grimp still seemed a bit vary of the man in front of him, but reached out to shake the hand that Voldemort had offered him. "Pleasure to meet you, Mr Riddle. I'm Joseph Grimp, I work in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement."
"I see you have met my fiancé already." The words took Grimp by surprise and he looked about him as if he was looking for a person who he might have met earlier who could perhaps be the intended of Mr Riddle, but he soon realized who the man in front of him meant.
"Oh, I wasn't aware! Congratulations on your engagement, then!" the brunette said with a bright smile that then seemed to slowly fade away when he remembered the rumours of just who Harry Potter was engaged to. The latest gossip in the Ministry was that Voldemort himself had long had an interest in the young Potter boy and that Dumbledore was hiding more secrets than they originally were aware of. Grimp looked at Harry, who seemed to suddenly be very fascinated by the colour of ballroom walls, and then his eyes rose to meet those of Mr Riddle.
"Yes, your assumptions are correct. Now, I recommend you leave these premises immediately and hopefully we can both go away from this incident no worse off." The threat was evident in the now icy-cold voice of the Dark Lord and Grimp suddenly found himself scampering towards the exit, red eyes following his steps until he had disappeared out the large entrance doors.
Harry had kept his thoughts to himself while the young Ministry worker had been there, but now he turned around to face the other man, annoyance and anger mixed equally in his green eyes.
"What did you do that for? He hadn't done anything to you! There was no reason to threaten him like that!" he fumed, but remembered to keep his voice down so as not to alert the other guests to their discussion.
Voldemort didn't reply, instead he grabbed Harry's shoulder even harder and steered him towards the doors to one of the smaller living rooms in the manor. When the door closed behind them, the Dark Lord turned Harry so that he was facing him.
"Not done anything to me, you say? He was quite obviously after you and you are mine. Lord Voldemort does not share his property." Despite the dangerous glare in the red eyes and the hard grip on his shoulder, Harry couldn't hold back his anger.
"I'm not anyone's property. You don't own me because we're engaged, I am still my own person with my own thoughts and opinions and nothing you can say or do will ever change that!" he almost screamed and for a moment he was surprised at how easily the anger flowed through him, as if all the resentment and hurt he had experienced because of Voldemort came to the surface at once.
To his surprise, this tirade garnered nothing but Voldemort staring at him with something unrecognizable lurking in his eyes, neither of them saying anything. Harry had a childish desire to try to stare the other man down, but quickly discarded the idea as it was just too ludicrous to try to stare down the most powerful wizard in the world. At last Voldemort broke the silence.
"Despite what you might believe, Harry, I'm not harbouring some ulterior motive in proposing the marriage contract. My ideals have been perfectly clear from the start; I wish to marry you because I see a great potential in you to become a truly powerful wizard." Pausing, the man held a hand out as if to almost touch something invisible floating in the air "I can feel it even now, the almost tangible threads of magic streaming from you in waves. With time, you will learn to control these waves, to suppress them, and only let them out when you wish them to. I want to be the one to stand by your side, to teach you how and guide you as your magic develops."
Emerald eyes narrowed in mistrust. "But you must have some personal motive, something to gain, by marrying me. I don't believe that you would marry me just because you want to teach me how to properly control my magic, there must be something in it for you too."
With an almost imperceptible tug of the lips, the Dark Lord's eyes suddenly glimmered with some haughty contentment. "Yes, you are perfectly right. I gain an invaluable ally. A powerful wizard to stand by my side and rule alongside me. Do not doubt for even a second that this is a privilege I would give to just anybody."
Harry still didn't want to end the discussion, this was a perfect opportunity to get everything he had been brooding over for the last weeks, or even years, off his chest.
"Okay, lets just say it's like that. But what if I don't want to serve alongside you? Your ideals of pureblood supremacy is revolting, it's simply not true that muggleborn or half-bloods are any less valuable than any pureblood heir parading down the halls of their manors. The smartest witch in my year is a muggleborn, she didn't know anything about the magical world until she got her Hogwarts letter."
"Exactly, she didn't know! That is what I wish to change. Dumbledore has somehow made it seem like I only want to exterminate all muggles and to greatly control the muggleborn population." Voldemort had started pacing back and forth in front of the young boy, evidently passionate about the subject at hand. "I believe that people born to muggles, but with magical abilities, should be informed about it and have the same opportunities pureblood children have when it comes to learning about magic. It is simply not advantageous for our society to have most of our young only learn of the existence of magic or of Hogwarts when they are eleven, when the pureblood children are born and bred into embracing every aspect of our traditions and society."
Despite himself, Harry couldn't help but agree with the man. How could he? The arguments put down by Voldemort made sense to him and he could still remember his shock and confusion when Hagrid had told him that he was different, that he was a wizard. All the enigmas of his childhood, those accidental spurts of magic, were suddenly explained. Imagine the difference that knowledge would have made if he had known from the start and could perhaps have had a chance of avoiding detection from peers and teachers, not to mention his aunt and uncle? However, he didn't express his views out loud. Instead, he chose to further question the man in front of him, who had now sat down in one of the armchairs and had motioned for Harry to do the same.
"That's all well and good, but how do you intend to accomplish this? By monitoring every single household in Britain to see if there is a magical child living there? And what of the children whose parents are opposed to magic? What if the parents decide to repress their kid's magical abilities rather than encourage them?" Harry suddenly felt somewhat vulnerable as he realized he had just described the attitude of his relatives when it came to magic and how much their treatment of him had hurt him, was still hurting him.
Waiting until Harry had positioned himself in the armchair opposite his own, Voldemort leaned backwards and put one perfectly manicured hand on top of the other. His youthful appearance suited him well, Harry decided, though it was quite obviously a disguise and not how the man actually looked.
"How do you think the Ministry manages to send warnings to wizards who are underage and who, accidentally or not, use magic? How do you think Hogwarts knows who will be her students when they turn eleven?"
The two simple questions put Harry a bit off guard and he could only sputter while trying to find a reasonable answer.
"The answer is that the magic inherent within each child is noticeable to the magical community, the air becomes saturated with magic and this is easily picked up by magic more ancient and complicated for even me to understand. All we know for certain is that every magical child will be detected and registered upon their birth. Even muggleborn." He added when he saw Harry open his mouth in protest.
"And also, I won't ask for your forgiveness for the death of your parents. To apologize would only tarnish their memory. Instead, I will say that I regret it, they were a highly competent witch and wizard and the magical community lost two valuable members that day. However, had not the words of Albus Dumbledore brainwashed them to extent it did, they could still be alive today."
Harry was, quite frankly, at a loss of how to react. The other's words had caught him completely unprepared, so instead he searched Voldemort's face for any trace of trying to placate him or lie to him. The only thing he could find was red eyes staring back into his own green ones, a deeply felt sincerity shining through. To his surprise, Harry became aware of the fact that this was the most human he had ever seen the Dark Lord or even imagined him capable of being. With a pang of realization, the boy had somehow stopped thinking of Voldemort as the Dark Lord Voldemort, the man who murdered his parents, to instead regard him as another human being prone to mistakes as any other. Of course, the man himself would never admit to this and Harry was quite aware of the fact that Voldemort was tiptoeing on the edge between humanity and monstrosity, but despite this he felt himself sympathizing with the older man.
As if Voldemort could see this change of feeling towards him, he rose and offered Harry a hand. Hesitating for just a second, Harry accepted it and was pulled to his feet, his eyes seemingly fixed to those of the other man. After just a second, but what felt like a small eternity to the young boy, Voldemort released his hand.
"You know that poor eyesight is easily fixed by magic, don't you?" he asked with a small smile on his lips, which made his face look friendly and welcoming. "If you want to, I could fix it right now."
Nodding dazedly, Harry took glasses off. Though the offer of making his eyesight better could've been taken as an insult, Harry was honestly happy about the suggestion. Wearing glasses was very much inconveniencing him in everything from Quidditch to just walking in the rain. And if he forgot them somewhere or lost them, he was practically blind and helpless. They made him feel vulnerable and he had more than once wished that his eyes would work flawlessly with just a flick of his fingers. In other words, he was not likely to turn down the offer.
"If you just close your eyes, this will be over in a second." Voldemort assured him and Harry did what he said, though a little tentatively as he would be let defenceless if the wizard tried anything. When he didn't feel anything, he lifted his eyebrows questioningly.
"Is it over? Can I open my eyes now?" A small chuckle reached his ears and Harry opened his eyes in annoyance, ready to yell at Voldemort for making fun of him. However, the words stopped in his throat. He could see, for the first time in Harry's life everything around him was perfectly clear. Had he really been walking around for twelve years believing he could see? That was nothing to how the world now appeared. The colour of the armchairs, a deep red, had so many nuances depending on where the light from the dying embers in the fire hit it. Everything was so perfectly visible and detailed that the raven-haired boy found himself at a loss for words. A single tear slowly made its way down his cheek, but he couldn't find it in himself to wipe it off.
"Thank you." He whispered, not trusting his voice any more than that, but the feeling was not less audible. Voldemort smiled yet one more of those tug-of-the-lips smiles and lifted an arm to wipe the teardrop from Harry's face. The gesture seemed so out of touch from the personality Harry had come to expect from the Dark Lord and it left him even more confused that he already was.
"You're quite welcome, Harry. It was the least I could do."
The moment was ruined when there was a knock on the door and Lucius stepped in, seeming quite annoyed and upset about something. His usually cold and emotionless eyes were dark with anger.
"My Lord, we seem to have an unwelcome guest on the property. He claims to want to see Mr Potter and threatens to cause mayhem if he's denied this."
Voldemort's eyes narrowed, but showed no other sign of being angry at this piece of news. "And who is this intrusive guest?"
Lucius' eyes flickered towards Harry for just a second before once again facing the Dark Lord.
"My Lord, it seems Dumbledore has managed to get him released from Azkaban to be used as a pawn to get Potter to come back in the clutches of the headmaster. Right now, the man waiting in my office is Sirius Black, Harry's godfather."
*dumdumdum daaaaaam*
Sirius is here! :D *does happy dance* Remember, Harry doesn't know who Sirius is, as he hasn't met or heard of the man before. Harry is starting his second year at Hogwarts in this story, meaning Sirius would still be locked away in Azkaban. However, Dumbledore seems to have been meddling and decided Sirius could be useful after all... Let's see where this leads to!
Also, hope you like the conversation between Harry and Voldemort! Harry is still super confused about how to feel - he's fluctuating between anger and something he still doesn't understand. That Voldemort is capable of showing emtions and behaving like a human being when all he's ever heard is that the man is a monster, will be something that will be confusing him for some time :P
