The last few weeks had been a whirlwind of new information and new faces.
Mer had entire cities beneath the waves that Harry had never known about or even suspected, infrastructure beyond what humans had ever believed possible.
Magic. There was no other way to describe it.
It was, admittedly, one of the most brilliant things he'd ever seen.
And everywhere, everyday, there were songs.
He'd always thought the siren song was intended solely to hunt humans, to lure prey, but the mer had songs for everything.
Songs for pleasure, songs for delight, songs for communicating victory.
Songs of sorrow, of pain that made his whole body clench with the shared grief of one of their number being killed or captured by human fisherman or naval officers.
Songs for healing, songs for building, songs for reassurance and friendship. Songs for everything public, if thoughts were private and personal.
Beautiful, eerie, exultant song that filled Harry up inside like the only familiar sound in the world. It was impossible not to be affected by it.
/It's overwhelming, isn't it?/ A familiar voice drifted into his head.
Harry turned a fraction, not expecting anyone to find him. Most the mer, when not out hunting, tended to stay within the protected limits of their communities. Most the mer loathed him, they knew too well how many sirens he'd taken down while he was still a human. Tom didn't loathe him - Tom thought he was beautiful.
Apparently even by Siren standards, he was dangerous.
He wasn't quite sure how he felt about that.
Either way, it was good to get away from the stares when Tom wasn't there to distract him, as he was prone to do, and Harry enjoyed the ocean stretching far as the eye could seen on every side. Relished in the feeling of the water on his skin and the peacefulness of it all. He enjoyed heading towards the glittering kaleidoscope of light at the surface too, to burst through it and see the shore and watch people, even if it was risky. To guide ships in the right direction, when he could.
He liked going down too, scooping up handfuls of undisturbed soft sand and letting it trickle away again.
He loved the ocean more than ever before with every second he spent between the waves.
The mer beside him looked familiar too, with ginger hair streaming behind her and a tail like a sunset. It took Harry a moment to place her, before his eyes widened.
/Ginny/.
Ginny Weasley had gone missing during Harry's second year as the captain of Green Lightning. He'd never met anyone as talented with a ship as her. They'd met at port - she'd been investigating siren song. Rough calloused hands and soft lips and laughter. The absolute antithesis to the song, to Tom, ensnaring and seductive and complicated.
He never even knew she'd been marked too.
/Hello Harry/.
Questions raced through his mind - the how's, the why's, the what's, the who's. A small sharp toothed smile crossed her face and he thought his confusion must have been obvious.
/Tom turned me two years ago. I wanted to learn more about the song, there is no better way to do that than to live it personally. I think he wanted to learn more too, he's fascinated by it./
/Is it always so overwhelming?/ Harry asked.
He'd managed to not wreck anymore ships despite Tom's best efforts and encouragements that he should embrace his power, but that particular song tugged right at his very blood. Constant, inescapable. To hunt, to lure, to feed.
Sometimes, he could barely think through it and it was all he could do to resist the call and not let the song burst out of him. It made it hard to focus on his plan of siren civil war and downfall. Sometimes, as he got to know the sirens - to watch them interact with each other with the same warmth and complexity as humans did - he didn't even want to.
/Yes, though I believe yours is particularly powerful as you're no doubt aware of by now. It's probably why he picked you./ Ginny hesitated. /You might have gathered by now that the song is yours, but also not yours./
Harry remembered it all too viscerally.
Tom sang to him, and he'd lost all control.
Ginny looked around, even if there was nowhere to hide and no one in sight, before leaning in a little closer all the same. It was a strangely human tic that ached in Harry's chest, compared to the graceful perfection and utter functionality of all siren movements - they never made a movement they didn't consider utterly necessary. It made sense for the ocean. Humans were wasteful by comparison, gluttonous.
/Siren song is quite communal, you might have noticed, even if we all have our own personal and private songs too. Just like oceans are all made of water, but the individual sea may be different and have a different temperament. Communities have leaders, and their song and vision shapes all of us./
Tom's song. Lord Voldemort's song.
/Normally the leader of the sirens does not turn anyone personally for that reason. There is a connection between sire and the siren he created, a bond so to speak. He turned me before he became Lord Voldemort, but you.../ Ginny stared at him.
Harry's stomach lurched. /Why did he turn me, if that's not normally done?/
Ginny's tail twitched in a way that Harry had come to understand as 'no idea'.
Either way, it wasn't particularly reassuring.
/Why are you telling me this?/ he asked instead.
Ginny's caution certainly suggested that perhaps she wasn't supposed to be sharing the information with him, and anyone else he'd asked about the song had always dodged his questions or started talking about his amazing feat with the ship.
/Not all oceans are dark and fierce and bloodthirsty. Some are gentle sea foam and soft sand and turquoise waters so clear you can see the coral at the bottom./ Ginny's head tilted. /Maybe not all siren songs have to be dark and fierce and bloodthirsty either. You know they aren't, you've heard songs of peace and happiness as well as war and rage. Sirens do not have to eat humans. It's because of his song that they feel compelled to./
/So if someone else's song shaped the siren community.../
/Then maybe my brother and hundreds like him wouldn't be dead./
Harry wondered, for the first time, how many people had turned for the exact same reason as he had, only to buckle beneath the force of the siren song they were no longer deaf to. Turning left those immune even more exposed than any human ever was.
He wondered if Tom had planned it that way.
Tom under the ocean was a wonder to watch.
Where Harry assumed the novelty and the beauty of him would finally fade when he too was a siren, it simply wasn't true. Even by the standards of mer Tom seemed to be something else.
He didn't know if it was because Tom was Lord Voldemort, ruler of the sirens. Or if it was something uniquely Tom, with nothing to do with his position. Being a siren didn't change a person's actual face or brain after all and Tom had particularly handsome features.
At least it wasn't just Harry who thought so.
The memory of their kiss drifted through his mind too often.
/I hear you have been asking questions about the song and my rise to power./ Tom's voice sounded as rich and intoxicating as it always was.
The other mer around them scattered under Tom's glance, leaving the immediate ocean around them empty as they moved to different parts of the city. Tom came to a stop next to him, body half curled around his in the water.
Harry stilled, claws flexing. Uneasy with the way Tom was looking at him.
/I was curious,/ he said.
/Naturally/. Tom flashed him that charming smile again, even as his eyes remained calculating. /You always are./
Harry flashed him as oblivious and charmed a smile back as he possibly could. He shifted to put some distance between them, but stayed calm. Maybe as a human he'd been lost in the water, but they were on the same damn level now. Equal.
Tom didn't look like he bought it for a second, shifting even closer. His tail curled lazily in the water around them, like a coiled serpent. /What precisely were you curious about?/
/Scared I'll try and take your job?/
/As if you could/. This time, Tom's voice came like the crash of a wave in his head, and Harry nearly flinched at the force of it. It softened a moment later. /You are powerful, Harry. I am not denying that, I never have. But the sea has no space for your human moralities and I would not force you to change. You are perfect the way you are./
Harry had been about to say something that was no doubt unwise, about how funny and convenient it was that Tom got to decide what there was space for in the ocean, before the last comment brought him up short. If he had breath underwater, it would have hitched.
/That's not the first time you've called me perfect./
Tom's smile seemed less falsely charming this time, and somehow sharper. /No, but you always find new ways to remind me./
/I killed dozens of mer, your people hate me./ Harry said it like a challenge, his head spinning. He'd expected a fight when Tom approached him, a struggle for dominance and Tom threatening him, but there didn't seem to be any of that and he didn't quite know what to make of it. He'd geared up for a fight. Maybe when he was destroying human ships he could understand why Tom would think he was perfect, but now? /Why did you turn me?/
Tom's head tilted at the question, an eerily reptilian gesture. /We had a deal, a deal must be honoured./ he said.
/I heard the ruler of sirens didn't turn people./
/And who told you that, Harry?/ Tom's smile was the sweetest he'd ever seen, and Harry's eyes narrowed. /I admire a healthy curiosity./ Tom's voice, too, was an almost purr in his head, more silken and seductive than ever before.
/You admire a healthy curiosity...but you won't answer any of my questions, and funnily enough no one else will either./
/Someone must have done./
/No one of importance./ Harry shifted, as Tom circled him in the water. /If you admire curiosity so much, fill in the gaps./
/How can I do that when you won't fill me in on what you know already?/ Tom returned. /Besides, nothing is free in this world. We wouldn't get very far if it was. How about an answer for an answer?/
Harry's jaw clenched, mind racing through his options. He was certain that deal tilted in Tom's favour. Tom knew more, he had more to trade with.
But maybe, just maybe, if he guarded his secrets so fiercely he had more to lose too. The worst Tom could do to him was kill him, and that had been a possibility when he considered drowning rather than transforming in the first place.
But Ginny could get hurt.
Dozens of humans got hurt every day under the siren song.
He might only get one question, he'd have to make it count. But what question?
Harry jutted his chin up. /Deal. An answer for an answer. What was the real reason you turned me? You could have sent any of the others to do it if it was solely about the deal. You didn't have to do it personally. There's a bond, between sire and siren, you never mentioned that before./
Tom stayed silent for a moment, seeming surprised that Harry asked that question out of all potential questions.
/Yes. There is a bond, one largely unexplored by someone in my position as your informant told you. Swim with me…/ Tom began to move, leaving Harry to keep up as they left the siren city behind. Instead, they swam into deeper, darker, colder waters which cloaked them like shadows.
It wasn't particularly comforting - it felt more like the ocean equivalent of being lead down a suspicious alley in order to be quietly disposed of.
/I knew you would be powerful,/ Tom said softly. /It was obvious from how strongly your blood called out when we first met./
/My first siren call, you said./
/Yes./ Tom glanced at him, even and considering. /Land and sea are at war, humans and sirens are at war. You know this. It is the reason you consented to the change, hoping to fix that problem, yes? No matter what it took to do so? I'm not stupid, Harry. I know you have been plotting ways to overthrow me ever since I turned you. You have your informants and I have mine./
Harry's stomach twisted but he kept his expression as blank and unreadable as he could. Tom didn't seem to be expecting an answer, though he watched Harry closely.
/Sirens rely on humans to survive./ Tom continued. /Maybe one in a hundred humans are born with the capacity to change, and we are fortunate that so many are born on the coastline, but not all of them. We are still trying to evaluate what precisely causes some to be born with the song, and others not to be. Meanwhile, our forces dwindle year by year. You know this too, you have killed hundreds of sirens during your career as a naval officer. So you can imagine that the continuation of our species is quite the problem./
/And where do I come into this?/ The long-winded response wasn't the simple and evasive answer Harry had anticipated.
/Your mother was a siren,/ Tom said. /She was pregnant with you when she transformed. I believe you may hold the key to a new way of creating sirens./
After all the dodging, all the refusals to answer his questions, the bluntness of the response took Harry by surprise. His mouth went dry and he froze, tail curling in the darkness. His heart hammered in his chest.
/Meaning?/
/Ah ah, it's my turn to ask a question, I believe./ Tom flashed him another smile. /Who was your informant?/
/Are you going to hurt them?/ Harry demanded.
/So many questions./ Tom practically crooned now, eyes gleaming in the darkness. They weren't the eyes Harry recognized, they burned like hellfire. /I want my answer, Harry. You owe me an answer, that's how this works./
Harry stayed silent, before answering reluctantly.
/Ginny Weasley./
/Thank you./
Harry darted forwards as Tom turned, seizing hold of a pale wrist. /Don't hurt her./ It wasn't a plea, he didn't mean it like that. He meant it like I'll rip your lungs out with my bare hands if you touch her. A song of command and warning and fury that saturated the water between them. /You admire a healthy curiosity, don't you?/
Tom's pupils dilated, dark and alien.
/You knew her, as a human. She talked about you a lot. Is that why you are so protective of her?/
/I'm protective of her because it's the right thing to do./ Harry paused, considering Tom's answer still. /Is that why you changed her personally?/ he ventured. /Because I knew her?/ It sounded arrogant and self-absorbed to even suggest it, and yet…
It was impossible for the sea to crackle, to taste a storm in the water, but the hair on the back of his neck stood on end as their gazes locked.
/It was one of many reasons,/ Tom said, softly, like he was confessing something intimate.
Harry wet his lips, and the song swelled in his head, itched in his bones, and - and - the moment broke as Tom looked away. His gaze slid down to Harry's grip on his wrist.
Harry let go somewhat automatically, like he'd been scalded.
Tom turned away once more.
/You're a bit obsessed with me, aren't you./ It slipped out before Harry could stop it but it did get the Tom to stop once more. /Because I can somehow help you create new sirens? How am I supposed to do that when I don't know your plan?/ Harry pressed. He wasn't, frankly, sure if he wanted more sirens in the world if they would be such dark, bloody creatures under Voldemort's siren song.
Somehow, impossibly, Harry only had more questions now than he'd started out with.
/Would you like to make another deal?/ Tom asked. And this time, when he looked back, Harry knew he hadn't imagined the scarlet in the siren's eyes. /Let me worry about everything, and Miss Weasley will be perfectly safe. Turn this into a war, and I'll give you casualities starting with her tongue in your sleeping pod. You want to keep everyone safe, don't you?/
Harry's insides chilled.
That time, he didn't stop Tom from swimming away.
Carnage stained Harry's hands.
The ship sunk towards the bottom of the ocean, the bodies floated in the water with the flesh stripped right to the bone.
Harry could feel the song differently now; feel it humming satiated and delighted in his blood and in the back of his head and in every inch of him like he could drift spent and high.
His stomach revolted, his mind flinched, his heart sank like a stone.
This wasn't supposed to happen again.
Yet every day, the song - the bond between him and Tom - seemed to only grow stronger. He didn't know what Tom was doing.
He hadn't even talked to the Siren Lord in months, hadn't talked much to any of the other mer. So much for his brand new family under the sea.
Of course Tom found him now, as the city swarmed on the spoils of his hunting.
/How does one become the leader of the sirens?/ Harry asked, before Tom could say anything. He wasn't sure he could deal with the other's praise right then.
/Still curious?/
/Did you expect me not to be? I've behaved, haven't I?/ Harry spat.
Tom hummed, a crooning soothing sound.
/Curiosity is admirable, ignorance is bliss. If I told you, you would only feel compelled to sacrifice everything for a humanity that no longer wants you, that never wanted you, out of some remnant loyalty to what you used to be. You would not be able to help yourself from playing the hero, even if you would not enjoy being me, Harry./
/I wouldn't be you./
/You imagine you would be soft sea foam and gentle waters if you took my job?/ Now Tom sounded mocking, a smirk on his lips that left Harry frozen. /You know as little about peace as I do, Harry. Look at what you just did./
/Because of your bloody song!/
/You slaughtered hundreds long before I ever turned you./
Harry opened his mouth to protest that - but it had been his reaction to finding out his future hadn't it? He'd hunted sirens. /I was protecting people,/ he managed. /Humans./
/And now you're a siren, yet you condemn yourself and me for feeding and protecting your own kind?/
/Sirens don't have to feed on humans./
/No, they do not./ Tom agreed with an ease that gave Harry pause. /Just like humans do not have to slaughter sirens, pour oil in the ocean, and fish to the point of causing irreparable damage./
/So it's revenge?/ Harry bit out. /Who does that help?/
/It's pest control/ Tom replied. /If they truly wanted peace, all they would need to do is move away from the coasts, so they cannot hear the song./
Harry stilled at that. They stared each other down, equally unyielding.
/They have just as much right to be there, it's land./
/They can have the coast if they stay on land, as you are intimately aware - they do not./
Harry narrowed his eyes, but couldn't actually think of a good response to that.
/Our bond has been getting stronger. Why? Where do I fit into any of this?/
/You are a prototype./
/To create more sirens./
/Ten years is too long a time to wait for the deal, it allows sirens to grow too used to the facade of humanity. It is allows them to convince themselves that they are humans changed into sirens, not simply sirens taking their true form./
Which was, to Tom's mind, Harry's problem. Harry who had been born of a human father and a siren mother. /And that involves me slaughtering ships...why?/
/All of the ships you have slaughtered have had potential sirens on,/ Tom said. /Sirens you have since bitten./
/Sirens who are dead and drowned./
/No,/ Tom sang out, delighting in Harry's surprise. /You have never actually looked at the carnage you create, have you? You are always too busy feeling guilty about it and trying to get as far away as you possibly can from the scene of your crime./
/Flesh, blood and bone./
/Your bite is a rather potent and interesting alternative,/ Tom said. /Considering what you are. Considering you are connected directly to me, too, thus furthering my blood line too./
/And the connection between us getting stronger?/ Harry felt lightheaded.
/Of course, the process still needs tweaking and I don't think you're quite safe to set upon the coasts yet,/ Tom said. /So far the only ships you have deigned to go for have been pirate ones./
Harry's stomach dropped. The plan became clear, and if Harry had anything in his stomach to throw up, he would have done.
/And not the little eight year olds that you want to turn and raise as your own. Which is why you wanted - needed - the sire bond to try and influence me. Whether I like it or not./
/You are the most exquisite weapon I have ever seen,/ Tom murmured. /With me to wield you, you and I are going to change the world. Being a siren in your blood, Harry. In your bones and your flesh and your soul. I did promise you a brand new family under the sea, did I not?/
As the rage coalesced in Harry's song, so did the song and Tom smirked rather smugly.
/Deals go both ways,/ Harry warned.
/They're not very bloodthirsty. What did you do? What did you do?/
/They're not just yours,/ Harry replied. He met Tom's gaze with blazing eyes. /Guess I'm not as good a weapon as you thought. Weapons don't fight for peace, do they? You were wrong./
Tom spent a long time watching him after that.
Ten years passed.
Ten years of battle and negotiation and slaughter and rebirth. He grew to know Tom rather well in the ten years of them working together.
The siren communities thrived, over-spilling with new life and young blood and a new brand of sirens that thought little of humanity.
Views about children deaf to siren song changed too. The Ministries had passed their solutions - offering up siren children to avoid having them hunted by force.
Between him and Tom they'd managed a strange sort of peace, or maybe a stalemate. Either way, the attacks on the coasts had stopped. It was Harry's demand for going along with Tom's plans, in the end.
They rebuilt. Cities spread under the ocean. He and Tom found something of their own, strange sort of peace between them. It was impossible not to, with how closely obsession and song kept them entwined.
Now, Harry had finally found out the secret of becoming the ruler of the seven seas after all that time. Tom Riddle became Lord Voldemort, and sold his soul to the ocean in return for its power. As ensnared by the song as any of them, or maybe so.
But Harry had always been born of the sea, so maybe Tom Riddle sold his soul a little to Harry too.
It wasn't quite sea-foam and turquoise waters, but sometimes it was.
The sea had never been quite one thing or the other, had it? And maybe neither had siren songs.
A/N: So this chapter was a bit of a nightmare to write, mostly because of the sheer amount of ground to cover without completely tipping the structural balance of the story. I was aiming for something a bit more like the first chapter, but I don't know if I managed the same feeling or not. Either way, I hope you enjoyed the story!