Disclaimer: I own nothing in the Harry Potter universe.

"dialogue"
"mental dialogue"
"parsel"
"mental parsel"

AN: Thanks for all your continued support and the wonderful reviews! We've got a few more things to establish and then the pace should pick up a bit. Unless a certain familiar keeps stealing scenes. Perhaps I'll write a one-shot of some of her escapades when I have some time.

Tom was absorbed in his reading of Potter's plans for a wizarding orphanage when he was abruptly interrupted by Nagini. She slithered up the leg of his desk and deliberately curled up directly on top of the papers he had been reading moments prior.

He narrowed his eyes at her, "Nagini, you are interrupting my work. What do you want?"

She flicked her tongue at him in a sign of irritation, "What I want is for you to stop ignoring me. You have been sitting at this desk all day and I am bored. Fix it."

Tom couldn't contain an exasperated sigh. He glanced at the clock and noted that more time had passed than he had realized. He supposed he could take a break for a late lunch and to appease his fussy familiar. He should have just gotten an owl. Then when the blasted thing got too aggravating, he could just give it a letter and send it somewhere a few countries over to buy himself a few days peace.

"Very well." He pushed back his chair and stood. Then he picked Nagini up and allowed her to coil around his shoulders. "What is it you were hoping to do now that you have gained my attention? You rarely come to me out of boredom."

Nagini pushed her head against Tom's arm prompting him to scratch her head, "I do not know, but you will have to think of something. Normally I would chase the little elves around or scare that rat man with my most menacing glares." Nagini visibly sulked, "The rat man is not here and the only elf I have found is mean to me and whacked me with a spoon when I got too close. Then it waved it's finger at me and started scolding me." She brightened a bit, "Can I eat it Master? It dared to insult a noble serpent. Especially one as majestic as I. We cannot allow such disgrace! They must be taught that such insult will not stand!"

Tom took a moment to imagine the scene and the image came to mind all too readily. He would need to have a talk with Nimsey. At that point Nagini started a loud rant about ridding the house of those floppy eared pests. Perhaps he would get the elf a bigger spoon.

"-ey will regret the day they chose to go against me and my reptile brethren. We will crush them in our coils and our venom will run strong and poisonous through their veins. Until the last-"

Tom tuned out the ongoing tirade and mentally reached out to the other annoying nuisance he sometimes dealt with. "Potter."

A sense of surprise reached him immediately followed by, "Tom? I'm surprised you would contact me. Did you have a question about the proposal?"

"No. Meet me in my entrance hall in five minutes."

This time he felt only bewilderment. "Alright...Why do I feel like this is some kind of trap? You do remember you can't try to harm me right?"

Tom felt his eye twitch. "Do not tempt me. No potter, I am not plotting some ploy to kill you. Just get over here."

He stood impatiently in the entrance hall while Nagini continued to spout out about her campaign against house elves worldwide. A few minutes later there was a crack and Potter was standing there with a quizzical look on his face. Tom briskly walked up to the boy, pried Nagini off himself, then dropped her in Potter's arms.

"Go entertain yourselves. Elsewhere."

With that he turned on his heel and strode out of the room intent on returning to his work and a light lunch.

Harry had no idea what had just happened. He had been witness to a lot of strange things since rejoining the wizarding world at eleven. Sentient cars, Dumbledore wearing pink, blast-ended skrewts, Lockhart wearing pink, an acrumantula funeral, Umbridge wearing pink, it really was a long list. This one might just top them all though. He looked down at the snake in his hands who seemed to be ranting about... house elf genocide? What was going on?

"Nagini."

"-e'll string their eyes on our tails as signs of our conquest! They will tremble in fear at our-"

"Nagini!"

This finally seemed to get her attention as she paused in her verbal onslaught. She looked around a moment and appeared to take in her change in company.

"I see how it is. Master was inspired by my passion and has gone off to start organizing the downfall of the elves."

Harry somehow doubted that's what Tom was doing, "Nagini, why is it that you want to eradicate all the house elves?"

Nagini raised herself up imperially, "The elf that serves Master had the gall to hit one as dignified as me with a spoon!"

Harry blinked. Nimsey had hit Nagini with a spoon. He barely managed to contain the snort that threatened to escape. If Nagini was willing to wipe out an entire race over being bopped in the head with cookware, he didn't want to know what she would try if he dared laugh over it. He had to turn his face away just in case she was able to read facial expressions. He could feel his lips twitching despite his best efforts.

After a few moments, he felt he had sufficiently collected himself to turn back to the still indignant snake. "Nagini, what if Nimsey apologized? Do you think you could maybe postpone wiping all elves off the map if she did?"

Nagini looked borderline mutinous, but she turned up her nose with a curt "Perhaps," She looked at Harry, "but if it tries it again I will not hesitate to strike."

Harry figured this was as good as he would get. He called out, "Nimsey."

There was a pop and the small being was standing in front of him. She looked from him to the snake still draped over his arms then raised an eyebrow expectantly. "What can Nimsey be doing for Master's guest and Miss Snakey?"

At least she was calmer than Dobby. Harry shuddered to think what a confrontation between Nagini and the hyperactive house elf would be like. He was suddenly extremely glad he had sent Dobby to work for Andromeda and Teddy.

"Sorry to bother you Nimsey, but I think there might be a bit of a misunderstanding. Nagini seems rather upset and says you hit her with a spoon."

The elf sent a stern look towards the snake, "Miss Snakey was trying to cause all sorts of troubles. She kept knocking things over and was making a mess in the kitchen. So I told her she was a bad Snakey and she wasn't to do that." The elf put her hands on her hips and looked quite admonishing despite her small stature.

Harry sighed, "Nagini, were you purposefully making a mess in the kitchen?"

The snake looked away, "Maybe." She quickly jerked her head back, "I was bored! Tom was ignoring me and the elf wasn't running like all the ones at the silly blonde man's house always did and there are no rats to chase around here! My favorite rock was cold, so I couldn't even nap."

Now Harry felt a little bad for the high maintenance familiar. "Nimsey, it seems that Nagini was just bored and upset that Tom didn't have time for her. Maybe you could give her a rat or two to chase and heat up her rock for her?"

Nimsey's stern visage brightened, "Nimsey can be doing that! If Miss Snakey wants to come with Nimsey, Nimsey will get Miss Snakey a big rat and heat the rock."

Nagini perked up at that proclamation and hastily slid down from Harry. She slithered up to the house elf, "Luckily for you I have more important matters to deal with than destroying your little species. I suppose I will have to let you live for now."

Nimsey looked questioningly up at Harry. Harry just shrugged, "She says thanks."

The elf ran a long finger down Nagini's spine, much to the snake's pleasure. Then the pair walked, or slithered, happily away. Harry wondered what kind of mayhem the two of them would cause now that they had resolved their differences. He almost pitied Tom.

Harry looked at the empty space the two had last occupied. Almost.

When he heard a light knock, Tom glanced up to see his study door open. He supposed he shouldn't be surprised to see Potter standing there after he had all but dragged him to the manor.

"You might as well take a seat now that you are here." He noted the absence of his enthusiastic familiar, "Where is Nagini?"

Potter moved over to a chair on the other side of the desk, "She got a bit distracted and wandered off again." He tilted his head slightly, a distinctly amused expression crossing his face, "It's somehow fitting that you have a snake with such a lofty ego that an acceptable form of retaliation against even the smallest of slights is all out war. They do say pets take after their owners. I guess there's some truth to that."

Tom leveled his most unimpressed glare at the brat, "Nagini is a familiar, not a pet and she has always been a force unto herself. I assure you I had nothing to do with it." Potter did not look convinced, but at least he had the sense to refrain from further comment on the subject.

Tom gestured to the papers before him, "Potter explain to me why you insist on keeping children with their muggle parents instead of just taking them into our world at a young age. Considering that most of the other related topics revolve around less exposure to muggles, I find it surprising you would be willing to jump through so many hoops to make leaving them feasible."

Potter pulled over a couple of the papers Tom had been reading over and skimmed them. "Ignoring the more obvious argument of morals and ethics which I'm sure would fly in one ear and out the other with you, the answer is twofold. First, while your moral compass might be more than a little broken, if you tried to forcibly remove children from their families you would run into a great deal of opposition from the muggleborns currently in our society and many of the more pro muggle families. Since these are the largest demographic of people who would support me in the wake of your demise, we need to keep them mullified. They might not have the votes in the Wizengamot, but they still hold a fair amount of sway as a collective."

"The second part gets a bit complicated. Have you read the sections regarding squibs?"

Tom picked out the corresponding sections for reference, "Yes, you said you want to bring them back into our society as they are technically magical beings and it would reduce the amount of witches and wizards born into the muggle world. Seeing as squib lines are apparently where most if not all muggleborn stem from. You also have some mention here of squibs being capable of using passive magics."

Potter nods, "Correct. I suspect that with some blood tests we'll discover that many of today's muggleborns will find that they are either distantly related to the current noble houses or the closest living relation to a noble house thought dead. It could be that when they come of age, they will be able to claim their Lordship and reestablish an old house. What would happen if we put those children into orphanages and allowed the current pure blood families to adopt them? Not only could they gain some control over the house assets and seats until the child comes of age, they could also raise the child in their own image. We want to diversify the Wizengamot, not indoctrinate more people into the current system of corruption."

"If we simply take the children and ignore the parents and siblings, then we are still leaving the squib lines out in the muggle world and we will continue to see rising numbers of muggleborns. So instead we get them involved. We find the children earlier than eleven and enroll them in a new system of magical primary schools. This will expose them to the magical society younger and present them with less of a cultural shock when they do go to Hogwarts. They won't feel so lost and won't cling so desperately to the familiarity of muggle customs. I suspect that many wizarding families would also appreciate a separate school to teach young children instead of placing the burden of education strictly on the parents or expensive tutors."

"Then we connect the parents. For most muggleborn parents, their only point of contact with the wizarding world is their children. If we put them in touch with say, the other parents of their children's primary school classmates, they'll naturally form their own support base. Things like accidental magic won't be such an issue with people to talk to who understand and can help. Hopefully, this will reduce some of the stigma and fear in many muggle households when confronted with magic. It will also serve to bring the families further into the magical world and potentially keep them there."

Tom leaned back and thought over all Potter had said. He raised some good points. While it would be a fair amount of initial work contacting the families, ensuring secrecy and bringing them into the fold, it would make efforts further down the line a lot smoother. For it all to work though, there would need to be a way for the squibs to contribute as meaningful members of their society. It was the only way the pure blood families would even remotely consider tolerating their presence while also avoiding the squibs leaving again due to feeling like second class citizens.

"You genuinely believe that you can incorporate squibs into our society simply because they can perform passive magics?"

Potter gave him a slightly disbelieving stare, "Of course. I think you are underestimating just how pervasive passive magics are. About the only thing a squib can't do is hold a wand and actively cast spells. Spells are hardly the only way we perform magic. With a few high level exceptions, potions are all made using passive magic. Herbology, runes, arithmancy, astrology, history, certain older styles of rituals, the handling of most magical animals, and plenty of other less common branches of magic rely heavily on passive magic. Take enchanting objects for example. The carving of runes on the object often has to be done by hand, without magic so that it does not interfere when the magic to power the enchantment is cast. Rune arrays that use ambient magic could easily be created and activated by a squib. Even the more practical branches of divination, such as scrying, have both passive and active means of utilization."

"I think if we have a group of people dedicated to furthering those branches of magic, we would find a wealth of innovation that would benefit everybody. It's a goldmine of untapped potential that our emphasis on wand based magics has led us to neglect. I think we are all idiots for letting such manpower go to waste due to prejudice."

Tom was completely stunned. At Hogwarts, they teach the students that magic is magic. They never really delve into where magic comes from or how it's channeled. In truth there are many ways to manipulate magic. A wand is called a focus because it does just that. It helps draw magic up from your inner reserves and actively shapes it into some force that alters the world around it. That is what squibs cannot do. They don't have that inner source to mold and press upon the world. However, passive magic manipulates the magic in the surrounding environment. It's a more subtle and also delicate approach and requires the ability to allow magic to channel through the body, but it does not actually drain any kind of inner reserves. It is how wards can stay active without constantly draining the person they were tied to. Or how enchanted objects don't lose their enchantments over time. Potions also rely heavily on it as a catalyst, many of the ingredients simply would not mix or manifest the more magical properties without it. This is also one of the reasons potions tend be so volatile while in the brewing stage and mistakes manifest in such unpredictable ways.

It had never occurred to him before that squibs were actually different from muggles although it should have. They can see the magical creatures that muggles can't see and utilize magical objects and transportation, such as the floo. He had just never given any thought as to why this was the case. After all they were just squibs. The entirety of wizarding society were a bunch of blind fools. Potter was right. The shear potential was staggering.

Perhaps working with Potter would not be such a headache after all. He possessed a level of understanding and insight that Tom would never have expected from the boy. Whatever else he had done over the past couple of years, he had not spent the time idly. Tom shuffled through the papers on his desk until he found the next topic he wanted to discuss. He picked up a quill and ink for notes and they set to work.

Over five hours. They had been working for over five hours and Harry hadn't even noticed the time pass. They had only stopped when Nimsey interrupted by telling them, with little room for argument, that it was time to eat. Harry really should put more effort into remembering to eat regularly. Now that he had established himself semi-permanently at Grimmauld, there really was no valid reason for him to be skipping meals. He was just so used to going without between the Dursleys and all the running, that he honestly just forgot most of the time.

Eating habits aside, Harry was still thrown by just how brilliant the other man really was. It was one thing to hear about him being incredibly gifted and the top student while he was at Hogwarts, it was another to actually witness the man at work. Their proposal covered a lot of the what's and why's. What things should change, why they needed changing and what those changes should be. However, it was lacking in the how's. They had the general order of events, but most of the logistics needed to be fleshed out. Tom was truly excellent at it. Harry could tell he was a meticulous planner and Harry was almost glad the man had split his soul and lost his rationality those years ago. Where Voldemort failed, Tom Riddle would have conquered Wizarding Britain with a laughable ease.

Harry stretched until he felt his spine pop, earning him a disgusted look from the other. "I've been meaning to ask, why haven't you brought up the prophecy yet?"

Tom gave him the you are an idiot stare, otherwise named unimpressed number five. Harry suddenly felt like he had missed something obvious, but couldn't think of what it would possibly be.

"Did you learn nothing in your divination class about prophecies Potter? The prophecy between us has been rendered invalid."

What. Harry stared at the man. His brain stuttered to a halt as it repeated those last two words over and over again trying to make sense of them. He must have misheard that. Maybe Nimsey had slipped something into his food.

"What?"

Tom sighed, "Do you know how prophecies work and why only some ever come to pass despite all of them being real?"

Harry couldn't do more than stare stupidly at the man. Tom continued, "A prophecy is a glimpse into a possible future. Or more specifically a set of futures. It is why the wording is often so vague since there are multiple paths it can represent. What makes prophecies unique from just very accurate deductions of future events is that they can be empowered. If the parties involved act on the prophecy they give it power. Think of it as a kind of force that draws events in a certain direction. Once a prophecy has been empowered it is actually very difficult to stop. I'm slightly amazed you did. More so since you obviously didn't know what you were doing."

"If I had been in full control of myself at the time I heard the piece of our prophecy I would have still acted upon it. Not in the manner I did of course. I would at least have made sure I knew the whole thing before taking action. However, I would have acted on it if for no other reason that I knew that Dumbledore would also act on it. Who a prophecy is spoken to isn't random. The recipient is just as much a part of it as the players. This is why prophecies are often considered self fulfilling."

"However Dumbledore is dead and the only other two people who's names were on the prophecy orb were yours and mine. The moment we made a binding oath to cease hostilities we stripped the prophecy of its power. Neither of us can currently act on it even if we wanted to. After our agreement is at an end, if we resume hostilities we could conceivably activate it again, but until such a time, it holds no power over anyone."

Harry's brain had essentially shut down. He could not wrap his mind around everything he had just heard. He really hated divination. As far as he could tell trying to meddle with the the future had never worked out well for anyone. He slightly wondered if the prophecy really had been rendered moot or if it had in fact simply already been fulfilled like he had thought. He supposed it didn't really matter. Though it made him a little angry with both Tom and Dumbledore for jumping onto the prophecy bandwagon so easily. He understood that Tom was a little more than slightly insane and Dumbledore had been desperate, but that prophecy had made a lot of his life hell. He hadn't even known why until he was fifteen. Now he hears the whole sorry mess could have been avoided. Well, he felt justified in being somewhat bitter about the situation.

He rubbed his face and tried to snap out of it. It was all in the past and there was nothing he could do about it. He might as well make it back to Grimmauld Place before he allowed himself to sulk over the unfairness of it all. Maybe he would make himself feel better by shooting spitballs at the portrait of Sirius' mother. She hated it when he did that. He had charmed a straw to change the color of the spitballs at random and make them extra sticky. It never ceased to be amusing and always brightened his mood.

"Right. Well I suppose that answers that question. If I were to ask you what you did to Snape, would the answer involve anything equally world shattering? Please don't tell me he did something like smile. I'm not sure my fragile mind could handle such a revelation."

Tom lightly scoffed, "I don't believe he is physically capable of the action. Fear not Potter, my conversation with Severus was nothing so extraordinary. However, I am curious as to how you know about it."

Harry tried to picture the man smiling and immediately regretted the action. To distract himself, he decided to answer Tom's implied question, "The other day he came storming in to the place I'm staying, letting loose his usual litany of insults at me. You must have really messed with his head though. Once he calmed down he was borderline pleasant company. Well, maybe that's a slight exaggeration. He is still Snape after all."

Harry saw Tom narrow his eyes in irritation. He wondered if maybe he had just gotten Snape into a bit of trouble by admitting to that. Snape hadn't said not to mention it though and the man was nothing if not careful. Still, he supposed he owed it to the potions master to make sure Tom wasn't too upset.

He interrupted whatever unpleasant thought Tom was likely entertaining, "Why the glare of doom?"

Tom's attention snapped back to him, "He did not mention having such easy access to your location."

Harry raised his eyebrow, "That's probably because he didn't. What he has access to is the old Order headquarters. It was abandoned after the Headmaster's death for safety reasons. We used it mostly as a dropoff location and a place to store extra research. The other day was the first day I actually saw Snape in person since the end of my sixth year. The majority of our extremely limited contact was through intermediaries. I've only recently been staying there and I'm vaguely surprised he bothered to look for me there at all."

For good measure he added, "He wouldn't have been able to tell you the location anyway. We put it under Fidelius."

Well tom only looked mildly put out now. He considered it a good deed done and tried to move the conversation back to the original point, "So what did you do to him?"

Tom got a rather sinister smirk on his face that practically exuded smugness. Harry suddenly felt a bit wary of the answer and wondered if maybe he shouldn't have asked. He hadn't exactly been joking. After the shock of the prophecy, he really didn't want his world view thrown again quite so soon.

"Nothing too extreme. I simply told him the truth." If anything his smirk grew more sinister at that statement.

Harry once again questioned if maybe he should just stop now. He had never been one to heed caution though. He steeled himself for what might follow and plowed on, "The truth?"

"Oh yes. I merely informed him that I knew of his little betrayal and that should he attempt such acts again he will suffer greatly for it. Beyond that I told him of our current cease fire and your hand in my return. We did not go much into depth over the details. I wanted him to return home and truly reconsider his position in this war. Once he has had proper time to process events I will offer him one last chance to rejoin the ranks or I will dispose of him."

Harry got the impression that there was more that was being left out, but he decided not to press the issue for now. After his conversation with Snape, he thought he might know which way the man would choose so he didn't feel a pressing need to attempt interference. Besides he couldn't really blame Tom for being angry with Snape. It was true the man had betrayed him after all. Harry didn't group him with the likes of Wormtail mostly for the fact that Snape's betrayal had fallen in Harry's favor and he probably defected for much less pathetic reasons than the rat. That Tom was considering options that weren't torture and death proved just how far he'd come from being Voldemort.

Harry glanced at the clock and noted that it was growing late. "I should probably be heading back." He had a sudden thought and couldn't help but grin, "You know the next time you want me over here to discuss something just say so. No need to use Nagini as an excuse."

Unimpressed number two. Maybe he should begin keeping a tally. Perhaps start up a betting pool amongst Tom's minions. He could take requests on things to tell Tom and then they could bet on which glare would be given in response.

"It was not an excuse Potter. She was being insufferable. I figured you deserved each other's company." Tom looked thoughtful for a moment, "However, you have proven yourself not entirely incompetent. I will likely call on you again in the future."

Harry raised an eyebrow. Was everybody on the dark's side incapable of giving anything but backhanded compliments? Maybe it was some kind of prerequisite to join. Mentally shrugging, he gave the man a casual salute in confirmation then let himself out.

As he strolled back to the apparition point he thought over recent events. He couldn't say he had ever expected things to turn out as they had, but he thought they were going rather well all the same.