Disclaimer: The characters and settings, including any sentences taken directly or partly from the books or movies, of Harry Potter are the property of J. K. Rowling, Scholastic Books, Bloomsbury Publishing, AOL Time Link and Warner Brothers. I do not make money from publishing my story.
Harry knew he had come a long way in his education. Ever since he had been in Severus' custody, if you could call it that, he had immersed himself in his studies. Reading up on his Hogwarts subjects, but most importantly expanding on them. He had felt most attracted to the principles of warding, a blood ward was supposed to have kept him safe at the Dursleys for all these years, right.
He had also felt attracted to the principles of wandless magic. He had seen it used a couple of times before. He knew that Dumbledore was quite proficient, as was Voldemort. While he knew he was nowhere near them in magical strength and knowledge, he had seen other people do minor wand-less magic as well. Simple cleaning charms or moving things around. He was keen on learning this as well, because he still had no access to his wand.
For the past week he had been steadily trying to move things around in his room. Simply stirring his tea, moving his books towards him or making his bed. Up till now, everything had required several attempts to even get results. Most of the time his books would fly towards him, only to crash into the chair or table next to him. None of it had been very successful, but at least it had kept him busy.
Today, on the eve of his 16th birthday, he had enjoyed a walk in the gardens with Severus, during which he had satisfied his curiosity about several of the rumours that were going around in the mansion. The fact that he had mostly been confined to these quarters, except for breakfast and dinner, but only after the permanent members of the mansion had been informed of his presence, hadn't kept him out of the loop when it came to gossip.
He had been enjoying the walk with Severus, when it was suddenly cut short. He assumed that Severus had been called to a meeting, when the man had grasped his arm and quickly brought Harry back to his quarters. Harry had no desire to be present at the meeting. However, with most of the Death Eaters present at the meeting, it would be the perfect time to escape from his quarters and search for his wand. He had no intention of leaving the manor, but he would feel much more relieved, if he was the one in possession of the holly and phoenix feather wand.
Which was exactly the reason why Harry Potter was sitting in front of the door that was separating his chambers from the rest of the manor. It was also the reason why Harry was not looking particularly happy. He knew it would have been difficult. There was a ward on his chamber, albeit quite a simple one, since Harry had been reading up on wards quite intensively, but it was a ward none the less. A ward which Harry was meant to dispel wandlessly and had been attempting for the last fifteen minutes already.
He had tried different approaches, from dispelling the whole ward, to removing the ward from the door only and even to try to mislead the ward with another spell. By now he was trying to overload the ward with magic. It was a simple strategy and it required the least concentration and control on Harry's part. He only needed to summon his magic, like he would do for every spell, but now he would need to direct it towards the door without giving it a real purpose.
If someone could have witnessed Harry's attempts, it was likely that they would have been rolling on the floor, laughing. The boy had been staring at the door for a good quarter of an hour now and had gone from looking relaxed and focused, to frustrated and annoyed. He had tried to direct the magic with his hands, like he would have a wand, but also randomly throwing his hands towards the door in the hope that something would happen. In another attempt, he placed his hands on the door, calling on his magic and directing it through the door into the ward itself. He had been ready to give up on this as well, but after two minutes of channelling his magic he heard a soft clicking from the door. He was free.
Harry quickly gathered a cloak and threw it around himself, before sneaking out into the hallway. He had become familiar with the house. He knew where to find the dining room, the kitchen, Voldemort's quarters and even Severus's quarters. He also knew that he had to avoid the meeting room as much as possible tonight, because he had no idea how long the meeting would last. This also brought him to his last concern, what if Severus came back and Harry hadn't. The man would surely question where he had been, but it also meant he had to come clean about his wandless magic attempts.
For now he stopped wondering about that and quickly focused on where they would have stashed his wand. From his back pocket he took a wooden branch, something he had collected on one of his strolls with Severus, at first he had believed that this would make practicing wandless magic easier as he had something to channel his magic through, but it hadn't helped. Though he had quickly found a new purpose for the branch. He gathered his magic again and focused on the locator spell. "Point me Harry Potter's wand", he whispered.
As with the ward, it had taken a few tries, before the branch had started to move and was pointing in the direction of where Harry's wand should be. Following the general direction that the wand was pointing him in, he quickly noticed that he was going towards the less used part of the manor. While Harry was at least glad he wouldn't have to go through Lucius' undergarments to find his wand, he had the sinking feeling he knew who's quarters his wand was in. The only quarters that were present in this part of the manor belonged to the Dark Lord after which Harry realised it would not be an easy task to reclaim his wand tonight.
After he had arrived at his destination, more or less, as he was unable to enter the quarters themselves, he had scanned the door for any wards. Luck was not on his side this evening, as there were several complicated wards erected around the quarters, most were not even focused on the door, but seemed to cover the walls and ceiling as well. This made breaking in very complicated. In the mean time Harry had seated himself down against the opposite wall and was so focused on mapping out all the wards, which needed all his attention for the magic to work, that he hadn't noticed someone creeping up on him.
Then again, the one creeping up on him, wasn't making that much noise either as she slithered on the floor almost soundlessly. "Master will not be pleased if you enter his rooms", the snake hissed, as she covered the last feet and now laid in front of Harry. Harry lost his concentration and the magic he had been gathering flowed away into the air around him, tickling slightly when it passed his skin.
"You are Nagini right?", Harry hissed, surprised at the ease at which the snake language rolled of his tongue. He tried to keep his nervousness at bay, which was quite the challenge, as there was an 11ft long snake next to him and there was not a doubt that she was poisonous. He only wondered whether she had already contacted her master.
"That is what Master calls me, yes", she said, slithering closer to him, before erecting her head to his eyelevel. "You are whom they call, Harry Potter", she continued, "Master has told me that you speak the snake tongue." Her slitted eyes were focused on Harry and she was tasting the air with her tongue, observing Harry's every move, which currently weren't that many.
"He speaks to you often then?", Harry asked, his curiosity had gotten the better of him. "Yes, Master speaks to me about many things", Nagini answered, "He told me you are like me, that he will protect us." Somehow Harry doubted that he held the same protection as Nagini, because as long as the prophecy existed, he was also a threat. Harry was momentarily distracted, as he was contemplating the situation he was in.
"Master also said to guard his chambers for any intruders", she continued, while slowly crawling closer to Harry and finally draping herself over his lap. Meanwhile Harry's hope had flown away, now there was no way of getting into Voldemort's quarters anymore, the snake was likely to bite him for even attempting it. "Mhhmm", she purred, "You are nice and warm." However, it seemed the snake was too busy stealing his body heat to care.
"Nagini", Harry said, regaining the attention of the snake that was now curled around his torso, "You are not an intruder." Nagini remained quiet, but focused, waiting on what the boy was going to say next. "I am like you, therefore the Master would not think of me as an intruder, right?", Harry tried to sound a confident as possible, he struggled somewhat with the word 'Master', but nonetheless seemed to have acted positively Slytherin, if he said so himself.
"You speak wisely, Harry Potter", she said, as she slithered of him to the floor and was making her way across the hall to the entrance to Voldemort's quarters, "Follow me then, Harry Potter." He stood up quickly and looked around once more, for a moment he was wondering whether it would be a trap. However, he longed too much to hold his wand again to let this opportunity slide and therefore followed Nagini.
The snake erected herself somewhat in front of the door and then hissed at it, "There is no good or bad. There is only power-" She turned around looking at Harry, who knew what was expected of him. So he finished the key phrase, "and those too weak to seek it." The door opened with a soft click and Harry followed Nagini inside, "Master has taught you something already." If snakes could smile, she surely would be smiling now, because the amusement echoed through her voice, clear enough for Harry to pick up on it.
Nagini was the first to enter the room and Harry had followed suit. Harry had been in these particular quarters before, as he had woken up in the bedroom that belonged to these quarters only a two weeks earlier. While he had known that these chambers belonged to the Dark Lord, he had never quite understood why he had let Harry Potter of all people live in them. Then again he also hadn't expected the chambers to be quite so inviting either.
The room was filled with blue and silver attributes nicely matched with dark wooden furniture and an intricate decorative fireplace. Two large and comfortable looking armchairs stood near the fire, which would be especially nice during the cold winters. Nagini had slithered towards the fire place and then turned to look at Harry again, "Make fire for me, Harry Potter." It sounded like she was used to giving commands.
"I will, Nagini, as soon as I have found my wand", he said, recovering from his stunned silence. He was quickly looking around as to where his wand could be hidden. Some of the drawers and cupboards he had been unable to open, but he was hoping that his wand would just have been laying around. He had used the locator spell again, which had pointed him towards the desk. The desk was large and looked antique. Like the rest of the furniture it was made from dark wood. On the top several piles of papers were present, as were feathers and bottle of ink. It was too bad that the desk contained many drawers and compartments, of which a lot of them were also locked.
"A yes, the stick you wizards need to do magic", Nagini said absently while snuggling into the carpet in front of the fireplace. "Master hardly needs his anymore, but keeps it to catch his enemies of guard." Harry was quite shocked to hear this, he knew almost every wizard and witch was capable of simple wandless magic if they tried, but to hear that Voldemort could do most magic without a wand, was quite extraordinary as far as he knew.
"You are so alike to my Master", Nagini continued, "Your magic tastes the same, surely you can light the fire without your stick." Harry smiled at her, it wasn't a happy smile, but a smile that showed he was amused at her words, it also sounded somewhat like a snort of disbelieve. "I am sure that I am not nearly as capable in terms of magic as, the Dark Lord", Harry said, before continuing his search for his wand.
"I must agree with that statement, Potter", a voice said, coming from the doorway. Harry was quite shocked to hear that voice and immediately took a defensive position. With his back towards the wall, he dared to look at the man standing in the doorway. "Which is why I wonder how you have evaded me for all these years."