(TW: The murder is getting so frequent I'm almost forgetting to warn you. I suppose you can consider that its own warning; I'm starting to forget. *Shrug emoji)

O My Heart, Mother Mother

Oh my heart, it's a fish out of water

Oh my heart, it's a rock in the gutter

Oh my heart, it's the black in a rainbow

Oh my heart, it's so damn so cold

So damn cold

And I throw my heart into the fire

'Cause I want to set my heart on fire

And I watch it try, befriending embers

But the ice don't melt in mid-December

Oh my heart, it's a fish out of water

Oh my heart, it's a fish on the rocks

And it bakes in the bad sun

Rookwood had blinked at the Dark Lord for a long time. He crossed his arms and closed his eyes momentarily. Then he knelt beside the Lethifold, looking at Lydia instead of the creature. He glanced at the pitiful fanged sheet briefly and said, "It's been starved. It's thin, like a wafer. We heal it; someone nearby is dinner."

Harry could feel Voldemort's stare, and could hardly resist the urge to meet his eyes. Terrified that if he did, it would somehow be obvious on his face or trigger his Horcrux.

'How bad was it? What do you think he'll do?' Harry thought.

'I have genuinely no idea what he will do. Or how much he saw.'

"Well, we get someone to feed it then?" Nagini said. "A prisoner?"

"That's assuming we can heal it? And I must ask, forgive me, my Lord, but to what end? A Lethifold… Is… Uh…"

"It is not a pet," Voldemort finished Rookwood's sentence.

"It's a good thing I don't want to keep it as a throw rug then, isn't it?" Nagini snapped.

"It is a stray, and you feel for it. Admit it." The Dark Lord said, and Harry's eyes were pulled irresistibly to him by the serpent tongue.

He bit his cheeks and returned his bug eyes to the Lethifold, then to Voldemort's familiar.

"I don't think it's fair that it was used as a tool. It's a fearsome creature. Legendary. Kept locked up… And what if it remembers?" Nagini said.

"Do you think it can speak? That it would not simply suffocate and shred you at the first opportunity?"

"It might not be able to speak, but it might recognise whoever sent it."

"Do you suggest we get it a leash? It can sniff out the would-be assassin like a dog!" Voldemort laughed, a short bark that told Harry he was just about clear out of his mind.

"I also said the potions and the disposal, but you're being a mean ass." Nagini crossed her arms over her chest and turned away from the Dark Lord.

He sighed, threw one arm in the air, "…It so happens that we have prisoners in need of punishment."

Lydia was the first to realise who he was talking about and choked on nothing. Nagini's face lit up as though Santa had told her she was getting what she wanted for Christmas. Seamus, Hermione, and Lavender were the only prisoners in the castle he knew of.

"Are you gonna kill Hermione?"

"Enough. Don't talk. Just don't talk." He seemed on the verge of saying please.

Harry bit his tongue even though he didn't want to; a wave of unbidden sympathy stayed his words. Even though his words questioned the life of someone who had once been one of his best friends, someone he thought would always be by his side. Someone he thought he'd go to war with, not against.

He had questions about how exactly they would dictate to the Lethifold who it should eat. He didn't ask. Tom was between despondent and terrified, leaving him to wonder how much exactly was hidden in his head. He didn't ask.

"Lydia," the Dark Lord said, "Close its wounds before the prisoners arrive." He pulled Harry's sleeve as he spoke so that he stumbled into whispering distance. "You want it? You will heal it; you will feed it."

Harry didn't bother mentioning that it wasn't him who 'wanted' the Lethifold, that he'd merely said 'me too' to make Voldemort flinch.

Hermione, Seamus, and Lavender were escorted into the wing by two Death Eaters that the Dark Lord dismissed. Lydia had done as asked, closing the wounds inflicted by Tom's Patronus while the room held their breath. The Lethifold didn't move, and Lydia gave a shaky nod.

"It's lost a lot of blood. I have genuinely no idea what Blood Replenishers and Pepper-Ups will do to a Lethifold," The matron said. Rookwood shrugged and shook his head.

Harry watched Hermione, her letter springing into his head and then pushed out again, followed by the dream. He had to physically shake himself to dislodge it. She was glaring at him, just as they all were. Lavender's eyes were swimming with tears, and she slowly slid down the far wall.

"Ar-" Harry jammed his mouth shut before he finished the question, shrugging when Voldemort whipped to look at him.

"One of you…" the Dark Lord began, removing the all too familiar letter from his pocket, "…Has been leaving clues."

Hermione's face went white, and Harry smirked, stepping forward automatically, his stomach leaping with adrenaline.

"…What I am going to do," Lydia said in a whisper, "Is leave these potions with you, my Lord. I think it's best if we… Go? Rookwood?"

Augustus and the matron left the wing with a wave of Voldemort's hand.

"You will be disappointed to hear you were wholly unsuccessful," the Dark Lord continued, following behind Harry, who almost unconsciously approached the three prisoners.

Hermione had her chin in the air, lips pursed white, shifting foot to foot while Seamus and Lavender stared at her in disbelief.

"You—won't—win." She spat, her eyes flicking to Harry and back again.

"Choose one," Voldemort said, "To feed your new dog."

Lavender sprang off the wall, screaming rage, and yanked Hermione to the ground by her hair, swinging all the way. She swung both fists at her temples once she was on the floor—no technique or experience, just bringing her arms down with force—Hermione could do little other than raise her hands, yelping. Harry felt like it made the choice obvious. He wasn't quite ready for Hermione to die if the decision was his. Lavender was busy. That left Seamus. Harry looked at him and immediately shook his head, then his whole body as he tried to back toward the door.

The Dark Lord stopped him, dragged him toward the Lethifold with magic, and stumbled him onto the black sheet. He let out a blood-curdling shriek and sprang off the Lethifold, and Voldemort knocked him back onto it. Twice more, he unsuccessfully attempted to get to his feet. Lavender and Hermione were still tearing each other's hair out on the stones. The blonde had gone completely feral, spit flying from her bared teeth, several of her fingernails ripped off entirely by her ferocity, her eyes insane.

"Lav- Laven-der! Seamus! No! Stop-"

Wards were erected around Harry, Seamus, and the Lethifold. Nagini clapped and bounced on her feet. The potions Lydia had left were shot into his hands by a borderline manic Dark Lord before the wards were solid.

"Wrong place, wrong time, Seamus," Harry said, though he wasn't listening, thrown repeatedly to the ground each time he went for the wards until Harry held him down with the curse to speed the process along—Making Finnigan howl like an animal.

'What if the Lethifold decides to eat us as revenge for the Patronus? What's the plan once it's healed?' Harry wondered, to no response.

He shot a questioning look at Voldemort when the wards were impenetrable and received nothing but a blank stare. He let go of Seamus and leaned forward to take in the Lethifold's mouth, potions in hand, thoroughly confused. He uncorked the Blood Replenishers first, three small vials, and poured them one by one onto the saw blade teeth.

Nothing happened, so he shrugged, uncorked the Pepper-Ups, and poured three of them in too.

Seamus was struggling for consciousness, dry reaching, nearly vomiting. "You're insane. You're- crazy. This is-" He was interrupted by the Lethifold.

A keening, piercing wail rang inside Harry's head. It fluttered as though it was being picked up by a rough breeze, tentacles reaching as it corrected, right side up. Seamus screamed until he passed out. Then he was scrambling, screeching when the Lethifold found him an instant later, falling on Finnigan like a veil, his shape visible as his muffled howls became wet crunching. Blood seeped out from underneath, then absorbed into the black fabric. The outline of Seamus melted away.

He could hear Hermione sobbing like a faraway thing, as though he was at sea and she was on shore. The wards hadn't been brought down, and Nagini was shoving Voldemort, who was watching Harry.

He rolled his eyes and raised his hands, prepared to blast the hospital wing into oblivion with a Patronus. The Lethifold drifted off the floor, and Harry wondered for a dumb moment where its eyes were. It hovered at head height, crackling, humming noises from its saw blade teeth as its mouth stitched closed—giving it the appearance of one smooth cut of fabric. Not a speck of blood on the thickened cloth. It formed the shape of a hooded robe. One that was looking at him.

It seemed almost casual, like it was waiting for something—an empty cloak at a bus stop.

The wards remained despite Nagini's protesting, almost as loud as the weeping coming from Hermione and Lavender. Though the Dark Lord's familiar seemed to think he was about to be attacked by the creature, Harry didn't get the feeling that he was. Instead, it was drifting slowly forward. The hem of its body reached for him while it made a crackling, popping, purring noise.

He flicked his eyes at Voldemort and back again—had found him unmoving, staring at Harry.

He didn't know anything about Lethifolds, but he did know some things about highly dangerous, intelligent creatures. He bowed his head slowly. It mirrored his motion, so he reached for the cloth at equal speed, Patronus ready under his barely stable fingers. His hand met the Lethifold, and it didn't attack. He could feel the vibration of its purrs, faint under the rippling fabric. Nagini had stopped shoving the Dark Lord repeatedly and instead had stopped to watch with him.

It opened as though pretending it had a clasp, the hood floating like a head was already in it. Harry was strangely reminded of a horse kneeling for a rider and stepped forward without thought. It took his movement as permission and moved to drape over his shoulders.

"…What." Tom said, the first sign of life in over half an hour.

"Wicked," Harry said, watching the smooth, almost velvety silk creature form an incandescent black cloak, pretending to clasp at his neck, humming a quiet purr at the back of his head. "Wicked," he repeated, laughing as he turned to face the Dark Lord and Nagini.

She was bouncing on the balls of her feet again, shoving Voldemort less violently while he blinked, swaying with each push. He hesitated to bring the wards down. Harry figured with good reason, he'd been the one gnawed on by the Lethifold. Though it had settled on his shoulders as if it could be trained like a Crup, Harry had no idea what would happen once it was exposed to others. Whether or not it would suddenly decide he was a convenient snack.

The pop of its purrs went some way in reassuring him. It drew air past his face as though breathing through the hood, rippling by his ears and making the hairs on his arms stand up.

"How do I look?" Harry asked when the wards dropped, forgetting he wasn't supposed to speak and that Lethifolds were extraordinarily dangerous at once.

"Like a baffling fucking mystery," Voldemort said. "What am I supposed to do with this."

"What do you mean?" He had to raise his voice over the sobbing, and the Dark Lord behaved as though he couldn't even hear it.

"You are wearing a Lethifold."

"Yeah." He lifted the creature experimentally, unsure of his movements, worried he would irritate it. It seemed entirely unphased.

"Are you to wander the halls of my castle with a Lethifold on you?"

"…I dunno, am I?"

"You should give him a name!" Nagini said, simultaneously giving him a gender.

"Bed Sheet," Harry said automatically, making the Dark Lord flinch. "Can you shut them up?"

Instead, Voldemort pressed a hand to his Dark Mark, and the doors opened instantly. The two Death Eaters that had deposited the prisoners recollected them, and instead of pity for the weeping girls, Harry was thinking about something else entirely.

"Do you think he's going to poop on me?" He asked.

"…What?"

"Bed Sheet. Do Lethifolds poop?"

"…Walk. Patronus at the ready."

"Yeah. Sure."

The halls were empty of students, the second period of lessons running by then. As he followed the Dark Lord, Nagini beside him, he repeatedly touched the Lethifold, breathing evenly on his shoulders as though asleep. Soft and warm.

"I kinda like the Lethifold?" He said as they broke into the freezing air outside Hagrid's hut.

"Of course you do. Why not. Why not? Sure. You like the Lethifold. Everyone likes the Lethifold. What a normal, logistically smooth, fun pet for you. Trouble-free. Unconcerning." Voldemort nearly babbled his words, and Harry screwed his nose up.

Cedrum was waiting outside the Vivariums, and Harry was relieved not to see any of the Necromancer's charges after his last conversation with Ginny. Cedrum wore a lemon-yellow suit with white gloves and was checking his pocket watch before he saw them. He gave a short bow, and if they were late, he didn't mention it.

He entered one of the new Vivariums first, and the Dark Lord shoved him in after him.

It was almost as cold inside as it was out. Fir and red spruce trees were scattered around, and Harry immediately recognised Massachusetts, the lake between two short mountains, where Nagini had told him about her family.

"…How long ago did you have this made?" Harry figured he shouldn't have been surprised that Voldemort treated the Horned Serpents as inevitable. He was ignored in favour of Rookwood, who entered moments after them.

"Ah, good. Forgive me, found some damn snow in the desert Vivarium. Release the female first, Widrich," Augustus said when he was within speaking distance. "…Harry…" He cleared his throat and looked at Voldemort, then back to Harry. "…Is he wearing…"

"Yes. He is wearing it. He has named it."

"He," Harry said, shrugging. "I named him Bed Sheet."

Rookwood frowned, waved his finger at the air, and swayed on the spot. "I think I'm going to… I'll- I'm going to sit down." Rookwood plopped on the dry, cold grass while his eyes rolled around.

"…Has this never happened before?" Harry asked, lifting Bed Sheet slightly and letting him drift back down.

"No. No, it has not happened before." The Dark Lord sounded ready to strangle him, so he fell quiet and watched Cedrum instead.

The necromancer eyed Harry suspiciously while he took a small chest from his breast pocket and enlarged it. He looked at Rookwood, who waved a hand absently at the water in the distance.

"Can I talk to her? Ekeer?" He asked Cedrum, who looked at Voldemort.

"I could not care less," he said, though he sounded like he could actually care significantly less.

Harry followed the floating trunk to the water, and the Dark Lord followed him.

The chest was lowered and opened at the water's edge. Harry stood well back while she emerged, the blue crystal between her eyes sparkling in the dull sunlight—blocked by cloud cover.

"I know you," she said when she saw him, "You are the one with poetry. You said you would help me find a mate."

"We did!" Harry said, "Well, technically, he did." He pointed at Voldemort.

He'd stopped further back and watched from behind Harry.

"And he made this place for both of you. He speaks the serpent tongue, too," he gestured the Dark Lord closer as Ekeer watched him, blue eyes curious.

"Who are you? Why do you hide your face?" Ekeer asked, most of her body still in the chest.

"I am Lord Voldemort."

Nagini hadn't come with them; she was sitting in the grass not far from Rookwood.

"How old do you think the Horned Serpent is? Because, Ilvermorny-" Harry had more question to ask, but Voldemort was cringing with each word said.

"He would have to be close to five hundred years old." He took out the chest containing said serpent, placed it on the ground and told Harry to step away.

"Boy. Thank you. I will not forget," Ekeer said.

"No worries, I didn't do that much, really," Harry said, awkward as he backed up.

He sat down to watch, careful not to sit on Bed Sheet, almost barking a shocked laugh when he recalled that he was wearing a Lethifold, briefly forgotten.

The male Horned Serpent was God-sized even compared to Ekeer, his head more than double the size of hers.

"What is your name?" She asked him, their snouts nearly touching as they assessed each other.

"I was named Sciron," He moved for the water, and she followed. "What is your name?"

"My name is Ekeer. Do you like poetry?"

Sciron had raised his head above the water. Ekeer had joined him, touching the underside of his jaw with her snout, and Harry felt like he was watching something he shouldn't. The Dark Lord had stepped away from the water and seemed unconsciously drawn backwards toward the spot where he was sitting.

"It's freezing in here! Goodbye!" Nagini called, her voice shaking.

The serpents vanished beneath the surface, and Rookwood followed Cedrum out, steadier on his feet. The instant they were alone, Voldemort removed his mask and hood and practically collapsed into the grass beside Harry. Already talking fast.

"I have stressed the importance of your education, and you have resisted incessantly. It must have been sublimely easy to keep you stupid; you are willful in it. You have made it abundantly clear that you know nothing and have no intention to rectify it. As my living Horcrux I will have better from you. To that order, you will cease your regular classes, save for those that prepare you for the upcoming event. I will educate you."

Harry blinked at his pre-prepared speech for at least thirty seconds, "…You will? Like every day? You're going to teach me?"

"…My brightest pupil. Unparalleled genius."

Harry decided that while he looked pained, he also seemed relieved, his shoulders slumping.

"I'm your only pupil?"

"Incredible. Truly. How do you do it?"

"…Dunno. Just comes naturally."

The Dark Lord laughed, genuine and gone in the same instant.

"…You're teaching the others in the chamber. I guess I'm not your only student?"

"I have not taught them a single thing, Harry. I am merely watching them duel."

"Have you already chosen who will compete?" He wondered.

He was ignored. Instead, a House Elf was summoned to bring them breakfast.