The Bonds That Tie
The rest of the 14th of February was Harry sending Draco, Pansy, Theodore, Blaise, Vincent, and Gregory to Slytherin Common Room via the floo access down in the Chamber of Secrets. Harry had only guessed it would take them there given Salazar was the creator and inspiration of Slytherin House, and it was likely that he'd have an easy pathway to his private rooms that nobody else could access if he didn't want to use the entrance to the cavern and snake door into the chamber itself. As for the adults, Harry got them to the Shrieking Shack, then let them use the marble from the week before to get them to Malfoy Manor. Severus had harvested a little, and took some of the ingredients from Salazar's personal stash with Harry's permission, of course. Saturday was quiet as Harry spent the time in his room to research and also sneak out several times to go looking for the Potter Castle, but his searches were fruitless. Harry also went browsing in the Room of Requirement for the diadem, and found it. Gorgeous piece too; he stashed it away with the others until the next time he went to the manor. It was now the 16th as Harry was on his way back to his room after being down in the chamber to check through the library belonging to Salazar Slytherin. If anyone had books on the darker arts of magic, it was Salazar and Harry needed that information to find what he could on Horcruxes. The objects were nice and it would suck to destroy them, then there was Nagini, a living creature. Harry wanted to find a way to separate the soul from its carrier.
Harry was currently sitting at his desk and looking over a large map, many places were circled and the also crossed out. Places he'd traveled to in research to find his old family home, and then beside it, lists of words he'd tried to see if his Potter ring was a portkey to said location. Harry groaned at how impossible this seemed and yet, why was he still looking? Severus had everything he could need for ingredients between the basic buys, plus down in the chamber. Was finding his family home that necessary? Maybe Harry was only doing it know to see what secrets it might hold within. It was currently about 1:00 pm, Harry already had lunch, which was just a goblet of animal blood; it wouldn't last more than a couple hours, but kept Harry from just sitting there at the Slytherin table while everyone else ate contently. Harry had yet to try that potion Sanguini gave him, the one to allow him to taste and digest food again, but knew that was just eating; it would not feed or strengthen him as blood did. Sanguini had written that it would also potentially reactivate his waste bodily functions, meaning Harry would have to use the bathroom again. Sanguini said it had happened to some of the coven, but not everyone. Harry kept the potion hidden away, waiting for a good time to try it out. He also didn't want to waste it because he was a crap brewer without the Half-Blood Prince's text book.
'Harry? It's Voldemort." The dark lord said in Harry's mind.
'What do you want?" Harry replied.
"We're having a small meeting and I'd like to attempt to merge back my soul. You're currently holding those items, so you presence is required…Bring Severus and the children too, if you don't mind." Voldemort replied.
"Fine. I'll be there soon." Harry remarked.
Harry felt a sensation from his wards and recognized it as Severus's energy. Harry got up and went to the door, opening it for the man. "I take it you're ready to talk?"
"I am…" Severus replied.
"You came at an unfortunate time. I'm just preparing to head out to the manor. Tom wants to attempt to remerge his soul into one again, aside the destroyed diary piece which is gone." Harry informed.
"Oh, I can come back when you return?" Severus offered.
"I'm afraid you're being requested as well," Harry stated. "Along with Draco, Pansy, Theodore, Blaise, Vincent, and Gregory."
"That's rather bold during the middle of the day…" Severus mentioned.
"Indeed and he knows better than to call me as if I'm one of his followers," The vampire groaned. "We can talk after, if that's acceptable to you?"
"As long as it's not too late. I know you don't sleep, but it's still a school night." Severus stated.
"That has never stopped me, Professor. You should know that." Harry remarked. "I'll get to the manor on my own. You take the kids via floo,"
"Meet you there." Severus nodded and headed to the Slytherin common room. Harry closed his door and started to get his things ready to go to Malfoy Manor.
. . .
Harry arrived at the manor nearly forty-five minutes later, appearing in the dining room to find everyone obviously already there and seated.
"My apologies for being late. Dumbledore caught me on the way out," Harry muttered.
"He didn't attack you again, did he?" Pansy asked.
"No. He wanted to show me the fake locket he located in the sea cave…He doesn't suspect it's fake yet." Harry informed. "Then I told him I had work to do before Monday, he's still trying to convince me to go back to Gryffindor, and remaining at my relatives. Then there was talk of him wanting to know if I had anymore visions of Voldemort and seeing what he's up to. I could feel him trying to pry into my mind."
"He was unsuccessful, though?" Narcissa inquired.
"Yes," Harry replied. "Not sure what it was, though…I've never been able to block him before."
"It may have something to do with our bond, Harry," Severus offered. "If we can feel each other's emotions through it, find one another, sense when there's danger…It stands to reason that my shields may have extended to you. I felt when there was an attack on your mind,"
"It's possible. I'm still researching everything to do with soul bonding. All I've gotten so far is that it forms on its own when the two people are soulmates and that we can feel what's going on with the other." Harry informed. "But if such is the case, at least I'm slightly protected."
"It might not always be enough. Dumbledore can go deeper than surface thoughts, you'd have known if he did that because it's painful." Severus mentioned. "I believe you and I should go back to Occlumency lessons, Harry."
"Are you going to be an insufferable, grudge-bearing asshole like last time?" Harry folded his arms over his chest. "You got mad at me for being able to not only deflect your spell, but rebound it and look in your memories. Like I did it intentionally. You told me to block you, I did…Not my fault it rebounded on you…" He muttered.
"I reacted badly…" Severus muttered softly.
"Ya think?" Harry glared. "If you're gonna teach me, fine. If not, I'll take my chances or blast the bastard and tell him off like I did the day of my sixteenth birthday about him trying to use magic on me."
"Atta boy, Harry…I taught you how to deal with the dungeon bat well. I'm so proud!" Sirius claimed.
"Don't be a ball-buster, Sirius. Go find Remus and keep him company; he's bored all alone at Grimmauld. You don't have to be here every time I am," Harry chuckled.
"I'm just trying to do for you what I couldn't for twelve years, Harry…And still can't because I'm dead. I didn't get to be there for you while you grew up." Sirius frowned.
"I know…But I can look out for myself, Uncle Snuffles. I've been doing it for a long time." Harry told him.
"Who told you that nickname?!" Sirius glared.
"Remus," Harry stated.
"I'm gonna strangle him! I'll see you later, pup. Love you." Sirius disappeared.
"Love you too," Harry replied.
"I've never asked…But how come Sirius calls you pup, but Remus calls you cub?" Draco wondered.
"Sirius's animagus form was a dog, and since he was my godfather, he calls me his pup. And Remus, he's like an uncle to me and in wolf packs, you're family. Remus sees me like a son, or nephew, so he calls me his cub." Harry explained.
"Oh, that's sweet…" Narcissa beamed.
"You have quite the family now," Lucius informed.
"I do…I like it." Harry responded. "Now, back to the matter…You actually going to teach me, Professor, or get mad over accidents that still got the task completed?"
"I'll teach you properly. No grudge involved…" Severus promised.
"One more thing to my already busy schedule…You let me know what's good for you and I'll work my things around it." Harry told him.
"You are busy enough to be the minister of magic, Harry," Blaise laughed with the others.
"I know, it's awful…" Harry sighed. "I do the work of a working member of society and I'm still in school. Tragic. Wow yeah…Yeah, that's actually depressing as hell." He realized.
"Moving on…" Voldemort said. "Harry, did you bring the items?"
"Of course," Harry grabbed his bag and pulled out the items involving the ring and locket. "I know you have the cup and Nagini."
"I take it you had no luck in finding the diadem?" Voldemort asked.
"Can ya give me a minute?" Harry remarked as he fished the tiara out of the bag and set it down.
"You found it!" Bellatrix gleamed with joy. "I have the cup here," She set it on the table.
"That's everything then, excluding the diary which has already been destroyed. And Nagini has another piece…But these three should do for now…" Voldemort said.
"That's pending that we can put it back together, my lord," Antonin reminded.
"Yes, that is the other factor…" Voldemort agreed. "I do not know where to even begin…"
"Well, if…Killing splits the soul, and you were able to take the piece that split and put it in the object…Surely there's a way to remove the piece you placed, isn't there?" Corban suggested.
"I tried that with the cup all last week, even Nagini…" Voldemort said. "Nothing worked."
. . .
The next hour was spent with the group trying to figure out how. Harry had stayed quiet, reading a book he'd brought from Salazar's library. Harry had spent time down there on Saturday to find anything on horcruxes or merging a shattered soul back together. Harry didn't find much, but it might be just enough.
"Harry, you're very quiet." Narcissa mentioned.
"Reading while you all sort out this soul merge thing." Harry replied, never looking up from the book. But he did finish it off and put it aside to grab the other from within his bag and start reading again.
Severus looked over Harry's shoulder and saw he was reading a book that was in another language. "What language is that?"
"Parseltongue." Harry responded calmly.
"Where did you get it?" Severus wondered. "I thought Dumbledore got rid of all those books."
"These were in Salazar's library," Harry informed.
"Anything useful?" Lucius asked.
"Perhaps." Harry remarked as he went over next to Voldemort and inspected the locket closely. "Open." Harry hissed in Parseltongue. The locket reacted, flicking open as a dark cloud of smoke burst upward. "Harness it."
"How?" Voldemort asked.
"It's your soul! Approach it, welcome it…Take control of it." Harry told him.
Voldemort stood up and approached his soul as he tried to walk into it and nothing happened. "Now what?"
"I didn't say it was guaranteed." Harry remarked. The cloud moved violently as Harry had to use a shield to keep it back. "Okay…So if you can't just take it back…There's something else we're missing." He considered. "Wait…" He paused a moment. "If…Murdering is an act against nature and splits the soul then maybe to only way to merge it back is to be remorseful, regretful…"
"I have to what?" Voldemort stared at him.
"You have to feel remorse for what you did, regret it…You have to be sorry." Harry informed. "Who did you kill when you made the locket?"
"I don't know…Some muggle girl." Voldemort tried to remember. "I've never regret anything I've done before…I always had a reason for it."
"Harry Potter…I've seen your dreams. Bullied and abused all your life…Your only friends as the ones who are as dark as you, ignored by the man who you are bound too…" The voice told Harry.
"You can put a cork in it. You don't know me…And you can't possibly have seen my dreams because I don't sleep." Harry grabbed the Basilisk fang from his bag, putting it at the base of the locket and applying pressure as the cloud screeched in pain and Voldemort too, held his chest. "It's the only way, Tom." Harry remarked. "If not, there's no other way than destroying them."
"I don't know how to feel sorry about it. I only see the path I took and this is where it ended up." Voldemort said.
"You need to remember what you were before this. You turned into this because of Dumbledore, his manipulations. Remember that you were just a kid who got taken in and led down a dark path. You were just a boy who made bad choices because of someone else. Understand that the bastard doesn't control you anymore. This is your life, not his. Take a page out of my book…Choose a different path now. If you could go back in time and change something, would you have ever made the horcruxes? Knowing it would turn you into this? Do you feel bad about the people you've hurt to get you here when all you wanted back then was to just be understood and not seen as a monster?"
"Yes. Yes, I do. I'm sorry for the people I've hurt and killed in my bid to rule the world. I'm sorry I killed your parents, made you suffer all those years. If I could go back, I wouldn't have done taken such a dark path." Voldemort admitted. Just like that, the cloud stopped it's violent moves and settled, growing smaller until it took the cloudy form of a younger Voldemort. The souls of the cup, ring, and diadem appeared as well and took a form of the dark lord. Voldemort put out his hand as the figures took it and bowed before vanishing back inside his body. Slowly, Voldemort's form changed to a male who had gained back his nose and normal skin tone; he appeared about sixty years old. "I haven't felt this good in years…"
"Amazing what the soul does," Harry told him.
"Thank you, Harry…" Voldemort put a hand on his shoulder. "Couldn't have done it with you."
"We'll work on Nagini…It should be too hard," Harry reassured.
"You take the objects with you, just so Dumbledore doesn't think any different…When the time comes; he'll realize the soul pieces have been removed and figure out that it was probably me. Should drive him pretty crazy to know I got to what he wanted first. Well, you…But I don't find it wise to reveal that you were helping me." Voldemort remarked.
"Of course," Harry nodded as he gathered the pieces and got them away in his bag. "Come here, Nagini…I wanna try something." The snake slithered over and into Harry's lap, then onto the table.
"Is it going to hurt?" The snake asked.
"It might," Harry replied. "Do you trust me?" The snake nodded firmly. "Stay still…" He instructed before his eyes turned a glowing red and put a hand over Nagini's heart. A white aura appeared around the reptile as it soon became transparent for him to see through. Harry found the blood curse that trapped her as a snake, but also the foreign piece that was not part of her. Harry stood up and focused to go into a green mist form before flying right into Nagini's body and grabbing hold of Voldemort's soul piece, then he worked to untangle it from her own soul. Harry held it close and finally flew out the other side, returning to a standing form in physical body.
"How the bloody-," The students in the room asked quickly.
In Harry's hand was a small blue orb, small enough to be a marble or bead even. Harry walked over to Voldemort. "This might hurt you, fair warning…" Harry shot his hand into Voldemort's chest as it went through like a ghost arm and Harry put the piece back in place with the rest of the soul. Voldemort gasped, panting before Harry pulled his hand out and stepped back as Voldemort ended up turning into his fifties. "From what I see…You're still missing a piece. Not the diary one, though."
"You can see my soul's missing pieces?" Voldemort asked.
"I can…" Harry nodded. "You are missing two pieces, but I figure the diary is one of them. You sure didn't make more than the ring, cup, Nagini, locket, and diadem?"
"Certain." Voldemort replied. "How could I still be missing a piece?"
"Dunno, but you are." Harry confirmed. The vampire now looked at Severus, who seemed to be in deep thought. "Severus."
"Yes?" Severus responded.
"You know something, don't you and don't lie…I can feel your emotions, remember that…" Harry asked.
"There…Is something Dumbledore told me last week when I gave him the faked report of the meeting…" Severus admitted.
"Go on…" Voldemort pushed.
"I think it's better if you just see it…" Severus told Harry. "I know you can enter my mind, go ahead…I allow it."
Harry walked over to Severus and stared into his eyes as Harry found himself watching the scene in Dumbledore's Office.
/Flashback/
"Don't walk away from me, Severus." Albus demanded. "Whether it has been revealed to you yet, or not…I know Voldemort is recruiting the children of his current death eaters, and he will assign one of them the task of killing me. They will be unable to, but the dark lord will turn to you to complete the job. You must be the one to kill me, Severus. It is the only way. Only then will the dark lord trust you completely."
"I'm not killing you, Albus…And neither will any of my snakes. None of them have been recruited, none have attended any meetings. Now…Are you quite finished? I have things to see to." Severus remarked.
"There will come a time that Harry Potter must be told something, as he refuses to listen to me, but you must wait until Lord Voldemort is at his most vulnerable." Albus said firmly.
"Must be told what?" Severus pushed, now facing the headmaster.
"On the night that Voldemort went to Godric's Hollow to kill Harry, and Lily Potter cast herself between them…The curse rebounded. When that happened, a part of Voldemort's soul latched itself onto the only living thing it could find. Harry himself." Albus paused. Flashes of Severus entering the house, bypassing James Potter's body and going down the hall to the nursery where he found Lily, dead, on the floor with a sobbing Harry in his crib. The shock hit Severus as he immediately began to cry and hit the wall at the sight. "There's a reason Harry can speak with snakes. There's a reason Harry can look into the dark lord's mind. A part of Voldemort lives inside him." The look on Severus's face showed everything, the realization of what happened.
"So when the time comes, the boy must die?" Severus asked.
"Yes. Yes. He must die." Albus nodded softly.
"You've kept him alive so he can die at the proper moment. You've been raising him like a pig for slaughter!" Severus scolded harshly.
"Don't tell me now that you've grown to care for the boy?" Albus remarked.
Severus looked at Albus with a hateful look that cleared said he'd always cared and it was no secret. Severus raised his wand and flicked it as a silver light came through. "Expecto Patronum…" He whispered as the doe gracefully pranced the room and went out the window.
Albus seemed shocked, finally looking back to Severus. "Lily? After all this time?"
Severus stared, keeping his shield up. "Always." There were flashes of Severus breaking down, cradling Lily's body against his with a little Harry in the background. "So the boy must die?"
"Yes, he must die and Voldemort must be the one to do it. It is essential." Albus told Severus.
/End Flashback/
Harry retreated from Severus's mind, staring at him with surprise. "I-I…" Harry hesitated. "I'm a horcrux?"