Their footsteps echoed through the dungeons as they walked.
Follow the leader, to their new home.
The wall opened smoothly with magic.
Slytherin was black stone and leather with dark green and silver accents.
The fires crackled merrily in the hearths.
Children, already here. Hmmmmmm.
An unclaimed alcove, with a few chairs and a table. Fine.
Harry sat down in one of the black leather armchairs in his alcove, far from any of the fires. He allowed his eyes to shut and his head to fall back.
Living was exhausting, sometimes. So easy to slip into the dark.
"What are you doing Draco? You aren't going to talk to the half-blood, are you?"
Harry cracked one eye; an emerald slit of malice.
A new symphony, all for him? It wasn't even his birthday.
Pansy Parkinson grabbed Draco's hand at the edge of his alcove, his little dragon turning around to admonish her for interrupting his approach.
Hmmmmmm. How to handle the yap yap yapping puppy?
Rolled up newspaper?
Steal her kneecaps and watch her try to totter on wobbly stilts?
No no no, too soon.
She looked so angry as she argued with Draco. She should smile.
…
Pansy was confused. Why was Draco going over to talk to Harry Potter, of all people? He had mentioned trying to find him on the train, but still…
He was a half-blood. It didn't matter that he got put in Slytherin, somehow. Frustrating, really, having Dumbledore's spy in their midst. They would have to be careful about what they said in the common room. Couldn't give the mudblood lover a reason to come down on them.
But Draco wanted to talk to him instead of her.
He even hissed at her, when she grabbed his hand to stop him.
What…
Why was the room frozen?
Draco wasn't speaking anymore. He was as still as a statue.
The fires continued to cackle merrily even as everyone went silent and petrified.
Except for one.
"Did you have something that you wanted to say, Miss Parkinson?"
Blood red eyes opened in all of the walls. And ceiling. And floor.
What.
"I don't… what's… Potter, what are you doing?"
"I just want to talk, and you seemed so very frustrated with Draco. It's not fair for you to treat him like that."
The boy's emerald eyes glowed with cruel light as he stalked towards her. She couldn't move.
He circled her, like a vulture waiting for its next meal to die.
He was behind her.
"It may take a while to open your eyes, but it's helpful to start early. There's something important that I need you to understand, Miss Parkinson."
She wanted to scream, needed to escape. But she couldn't move a muscle.
His breath was behind her ear.
"Blood is meaningless, without power."
She felt a single finger brush over the back of her neck and would have shivered and spasmed if she could move.
"All that blood is good for is drip drip dripping, the percussion of a glorious melody. You'll understand, one day."
She needed to run. Anything, anywhere to hide from the eyes.
So many eyes.
"But for now, just remember…"
Her lips were tugged backwards as if with a needle and thread, pulling her cheeks into a wide grin.
"...to smile."
A cacophony of sounds exploded around her as the world returned to normal.
"...not your business who I choose to associate with, Pansy. He's in our House now, and…"
Draco was still talking.
Potter was still in the same seat in the alcove, head back and one eye slightly cracked, an emerald orb eyeing her from the tiny gap.
She tried to scream.
"None of that now, Pansy. You'll ruin all the fun."
She couldn't scream. Couldn't speak. Draco was turning away from her, back towards Potter.
She couldn't stop smiling.
…
"Tell me something, Draco."
Malfoy sat in the armchair across from him, looking decidedly unsure of himself.
Crabbe and Goyle stood watch by the edge of the alcove, while they talked.
They were well trained, for dogs.
"What… do you want?" Harry asked innocently, his head tipping to one side as he regarded the blond with endless eyes.
"What do you mean?"
"What do you want? To do with your life? To change about the world? To have for breakfast tomorrow?"
Draco searched for the right words.
"What makes you tick, tick, tick?"
Draco tried not to slip into the bottomless ocean beneath those emerald pools.
"I want… I want to fix the magical world. Magic… magic is dying. It's regulated by spineless bureaucrats and mudbloods, watered down and sanitized. Dark Magic is banned, and its practitioners hunted. Ancient artifacts purged and destroyed. All to appease the mudbloods and the likes of Dumbledore. To keep the true face of Magic hidden behind simple spells and wand movements, so no one steps off the path. So that the ministry can control everything. So that the mudbloods don't run away and risk our secret. So that they can break our wands if they want to control us."
Draco was building up momentum.
"They're strangling the true power of our birthright! Standard lists of spells and endless lists of illegal curses, illegal runes, illegal wards, illegal everything. Magic isn't supposed to be safe! It's not supposed to be Light! Our ancestors sacrificed lives and burned entrails and screamed into the night while bathed in blood, and now… we wave sticks and babble nonsense."
Harry hummed appreciably.
"You have more floating around in that pretty head of yours than I thought. I am pleasantly surprised."
Draco was frozen underneath the suddenly intense weight of Harry's eyes.
"Very well, Draco. Together, we shall do as you described. Let us bring the blood and venom and beautiful symphony back to Magic once more."
The common room seemed to fall away as Harry's power loomed around him, a great maw of endless teeth and eyes.
Harry once again held out his hand to Draco.
"Join me, little Dragon. Together, we will languish in the blood and sweet screams of our enemies, and we will enforce and entice our will upon the world."
Draco's hand trembled as he reached out and grasped his Lord's hand.
Harry twisted his grip and brought Draco's hand to his lips, brushing a kiss onto his knuckles with a wide, sadistic smile on his angelic face.
His eyes gleamed as they bored into Draco's soul.
So many eyes.
…
Severus stared at the child from across his desk, the dim firelight illuminating the many options ingredients lining the walls.
Something was wrong with Harry Potter.
His Godson was acting strangely. He expected Draco to hate Potter on principle, but the opposite seemed to be true.
Miss Parkinson was terrified of him.
Whispers followed the famous child with Lily's eyes everywhere he went.
And unfortunately, the boy was Severus' problem.
How had James Potter's son ended up in Slytherin?
Severus cursed his old nemesis once again.
It wasn't enough that the bastard took Lily.
Wasn't enough that for all James' boasting, he couldn't even protect her. Useless, pathetic sycophant.
He had to spawn a demon with his enemy's face and his Love's eyes, to haunt him years later.
A child that Severus had sworn an Unbreakable Vow to protect, all those years ago. To whom he owed a life debt, however tenuous the connection to James' actions that fateful night.
And now the reminder stared at him with shining verdant eyes.
Eyes like a killing curse, like the one that took Lily away.
Severus wasn't sure what to say now.
Luckily, or unluckily, James' spawn took away his opportunity to speak first.
"So many twisted threads in your soul, Severus Snape. So many… interesting… strands, tangled and knotted in the dark."
What…
"Oh my, and what do we have here?"
Severus froze as he felt a tug on his soul.
"An Unbreakable Vow? Very naughty, Severus. You should know better. An open-ended Vow, to protect little. old. me?"
A glowing emerald chain of pure magic appeared in the cursed child's hands.
"Before you ever knew what I was? How very…. Trusting… of you. Usually, it's rude to give pets as a gift, but I suppose I'll make an exception for one as useful as you."
The chain connected to a collar now locked around Snape's throat and soul.
Harry tugged on the chain with casual ease and Severus was pulled down against his desk, his wide and terrified eyes now level with the demon child in front of him.
"Now, no running off to Dumbledore. That would surely put me in danger, and we both know that you can't do that. You can't do anything that may put me in harm's way. Truly tragic, for you. Not for me. This is all quite lovely, for me. I didn't think I would have a teacher with so many eyes, so quickly, but you just had to go and throw yourself at my mercy."
Snape's blood was cold as the child's cruel eyes bore into his soul.
"No more time to be a double agent, Severus Snape. Your soul is mine, now."
Snape closed his eyes as the boy's laughter echoed and filled the room.
"None of that melancholy, pet. This is a happy occasion, so make sure to smile for me."
Snape's mouth twisted into an agonized mockery of a wide smile while his soul screamed.
…
"How was your chat with Mr Potter, Severus?"
Dumbledore and McGonagall both looked down the staff table at him.
"It went better than I expected. He seems much more like Lily than James, which is a pleasant surprise. Despite the challenges, I think that he will do well in Slytherin."
Dumbledore smiled and nodded before returning to his breakfast.
Snape could still feel the collar against his throat.
…