A Chance Encounter
Harrys insides were all over the place, he felt like he could throw up and never wanted to travel like that again. The minute their feet touched the ground Voldemort threw him to the ground, his arms scraping against the gravel painfully. He lay there for a moment, thoroughly winded, scrunching his eyes shut against the awful feelings pervading his senses.
"Get up." The Dark Lord uttered shortly. Harry slowly managed to push himself to his knees and then stood to face Voldemort, taking deep breaths. The man was looking at him blankly, but Harry could tell by the burning in his scar and the darkness of his eyes, he was pissed.
Voldemort looked at him intently for a moment, completely still, before suddenly flicking his arm out and sending Harry flying backwards down the path and crashing into gravel. He rolled, but could still feel his skin getting cut up by the small rocks. Harry knew this was coming, he'd known the minute he stood up on that bus, he'd known the minute the bus crashed to a halt who it was, his scar warned him. "Worthless-" Voldemort muttered as he marched towards Harry. "I told you to stay put," He hissed. "And now Dumbledore knows."
Voldemort started pacing in front of Harrys fallen figure, from what Harry could see, he looked like he wanted to peel the flesh off Harrys bones, but obviously, couldn't. Voldemort threw a spell at one of the birds squawking around, which Harry briefly saw was a peacock in the illumination of the spell, before the creature exploded into flames. He sat upright at that, and began to shuffle away, feeling pain all over as he did. "Stay!" Voldemort commanded, rounding on Harry, who froze. Voldemort stared at him for a moment before letting out a slight sigh, his hair falling over his forehead as he came to crouch in front of Harry. "Did you tell Dumbledore everything?" the man asked, looking strangely human for a moment.
"…No" Harry admitted after a moment, looking down at the ground next to him, shame taking over his body. He should have told Dobby everything and then sent him after Dumbledore, but in a moment of selfishness…and now he was stuck with the man who killed his parents, forever, his very existence creating Voldemorts immortality and an endless amount of bloodshed and suffering.
"You told him I had returned, I take it you decided not to divulge anything about my soul?" Voldemort said. To which Harry nodded again and the man in front of him smirked slightly, darkly before huffing out a small breath of brief amusement from his nose. "Get up." He commanded as he stood up and began to walk past Harry towards Malfoy Manor, looming ahead. Harry turned around and slowly managed to get to his feet. He started to limp his way after Voldemort who was already a good deal ahead of him. He was waiting for Harry at the doors, glaring over his head and turning and marching through the doors as he reached him.
Harry followed and was surprised at the noise and chaos inside, all senses were assaulted by the bright lights in contrast to the darkness in the grounds, there were people everywhere, the sound of voices and…the smell. Harry stopped, his nose wrinkling slightly, by the door, startling when it banged shut behind him and everyone looked up towards the noise, their eyes quickly darting to Harry. He stared back, uncomfortable with the attention from all these faces, faces which…he was now truly looking at, were horrific.
So many gaunt, haunted faces looking at him. A vicious snarl dragged his attention, but not quickly enough as he turned his head he felt someone tackle him to the ground, a mess of wild hair in his face and hands on his throat. Harry choked on the ground, not appreciating the amount of times he'd been jolted around that night, looking up into the large round eyes of a feral woman hunched atop him. Harry began to claw at her hands, flailing his feet around wildly in an attempt to buck her off. "Bella!" Someone said, Dracos mother Narcissa he realised as her face came up behind the mad woman and began trying to pull her off, but the woman seemed determined to kill him, her teeth bared and yellow, her breath putrid and Harrys aches were forgotten as terror flooded his body.
"Bella" Voldemort calmly said, and like that the woman was gone. She immediately removed herself and crawled to Voldemorts feet as Harry felt his vision waver and rolled onto his side, hacking coughs wracking his body as he struggled to suck in air. He stayed on the ground, tears streaming from his eyes as he continued to struggle to breathe properly. "Harry Potter is not to be harmed," The dark lord said to his followers, for this is who Harry supposed they all were. His death eaters. Voldemort began giving out orders and Harry stayed where he was until finally he could draw decent, mostly controlled breaths into his body. "Get up" he heard above him, and Harry, achingly, started to gather his limbs under him to stand, swayingly, gazing wistfully down at the floor rather than at the man in front of him. "Come," he said shortly with some disgust, and Harry began to drag himself after the dark lord. Once upstairs Voldemort began to speak. "Harry, I hope you remember what's at stake from now on, before you try anything like that again." He reprimanded. "Even without our bargain, your life wouldn't even be of any value if you were to return to Dumbledore, do you think he wo-"
"And it has any value here?" Harry mumbled out sullenly. Voldemort shot him a glare but continued walking.
"Maybe not, but that is only if the fragment cannot be removed. In the event it cannot be removed your life will have the utmost value." Voldemort responded, "But I suppose yes, if I cannot remove the fragment then your life will be meaningless to me." As Voldemort grabbed Harrys upper arm again and began to drag him further down the corridor, the nights events, the revelation of the horcrux, exhaustion and pain caught up with Harry and he felt his eyes roll into blackness and his body slump down down down…
Voldemort caught the boy as his legs gave out and pulled him up into his arms. Tears and blood mingled on his face, and Voldemort placed the boy on his bed before leaving the room and turning to the Malfoy library to continue his research into the removal of a horcrux. The sooner he could be rid of him, the better.
Harry stood still, wary, on the edges of whatever was going on around him. He'd been skulking about the manor, minding his own business…mostly… when a whole troupe of death eaters entered the room, glancing at and then ignoring Harry as they deposited themselves in various locations and chairs around the room, the odd hiss or passing insult thrown Harrys way. It had been a week since his escape attempt, and while he had mostly recovered, he made sure to steer clear of any Death Eaters and…well that meant everyone within the house really. The funny thing with staying in a house full of Death Eaters and Dark Lords was that Harry had stopped being quite so scared. Perhaps he was in shock, or maybe he was just very adaptable, but he realised that he was either going to die, in which case hopefully the portion of Voldemorts soul would go with him, or he was going to be kept alive. Either way there was very little he could do for the time being.
When the last of the Death Eaters had entered for whatever social event this was that was happening, Harry began to walk out of the room, his escape rudely being stopped as Voldemort himself walked in, grabbing Harry by the arm as he did and pushing him back into the room. "Stay, don't make trouble," were the only things he said as Harry stumbled and turned to glower at the mans back which continued into the room and sat down amongst his loyal followers.
Now, he was just awkwardly standing at the edge of the room, deciding that he'd be as well trying to gather as much information as possible if he was being forced to stay in the room. He'd noticed Voldemort glancing over at him regularly, Harry suspected he just wanted him here so he could keep an eye on him, it was unnerving all the same. Harry wandered over to look at a bookcase in his boredom, his mind fondly going to Hermione and Ron and their time spent in the library. He felt his heart ache wandering what they were up to, wondering if they knew, if they were trying to find him. He hoped they were. His heart, however, chilled over at the sound of Voldemorts next words "Ah, Severus, you're late." Harry whipped around to look at the man who had just entered the room, and sure enough, the old potions master had just swooped into the room, his robes billowing out behind him as dramatically as ever, his greasy hair hanging in curtains over his face.
"Apologies, my L-" The man stopped short as he caught sight of Harry, who was frozen, staring wide eyed at him. Snapes eyes met Harrys and a flicker passed over his face before he looked away and continued, coming to stand among the other Death Eaters "Apologies my Lord, I was detained".
"Severus, have you no words for your former pupil?" Voldemort said with a small smile on his lips. "I imagine you are not surprised to see him alive?"
"No my lord, I had been informed of his survival a few days ago." Snape drawled out. Harry didn't know what was going on. Clearly Snape wasn't here to rescue him, clearly Snape was on good terms with Voldemort, clearly…Severus Snape was a death eater. Harrys loathing for the man impressively grew exponentially in that moment, and he found himself glaring at him, but Snape didn't look his way.
"As I had suspected. I don't know how you put up with him this past year Severus, he is proving rather troublesome." Voldemort said softly, with a pointedly dangerous look Harrys way.
"The boy does have a talent for theatrics my lord, putting himself and others in danger, but Dumbledore never adequately punished him, I believe it has only inflated his ego." Snape drawled out nastily, finally looking over towards Harry who felt his face flush angrily. Voldemort chuckled at that, before turning to discuss something else, Snape sat down and the moment passed. Harry couldn't believe Voldemort was a death eater, well, he could, but how could Dumbledore not know? All this time he's been working at the castle, waiting for the dark lords return.
"Psst" a hushed voice said nearby. "Oi, Potter" Harry turned and saw the head of Draco Malfoy sticking out around a curtained bit of wall. He beckoned Harry over before vanishing again. Harry glanced over towards Voldemort, but he seemed to be fully engaged with whatever Snape was telling him. Harry shuffled over to the curtain and found a door, ajar, behind it. He slipped out and found himself in a corridor with Draco stood there expectantly. "Potter" the other boy sneered.
"Malfoy," Harry returned, equally displeased.
"I suppose you think yourself clever, managing to win over the Dark Lords favour?" He said harshly. Harry noted the slight tone of reverence Malfoy spoke of Voldemort with. "How are you even alive?" He asked accusingly and as though he was deeply disappointed at the fact he was.
"What?" Harry responded, "His favour? You think Voldemort has any favour towards me?" Harry said, ignoring the flinch at Voldemorts name, and gesturing at his bruised throat and cut up face.
"Don't say his name!" Malfoy shot out quickly, suddenly looking on edge. Harry found this amusing.
"What? Voldemort?" He said, stepping closer as Malfoy took a step back, his eyes going warily towards the door to the room where the dark lord was sitting. "Are you actually scared of him?" Harry whispered meanly, enjoying taking out a bit of his anger on Malfoy.
"Do you have a death wish Potter?" Draco said, "and I'm not scared of him, my father's one of his top death eaters, one of his most truste-" Harry cut in.
"You're father is one of Voldemorts scum, one of his cult followers. Voldemort orders him around and your father obeys like a do-" Malfoy lunged at Harry, his wand forgotten as he threw a punch at his head. Harry was ready though and he managed to stumble back in time to avoid the other boys fist before launching himself at Malfoy. The boys tussled and punched each other, Harry felt dracos fist collide with his face a number of times, and in return got a fair few hits in himself. His smaller size was proving a problem however, but before they could fight much more he heard a hissing sound, and Malfoy yelped before leaping away from him. Harry scrambled to his feet to see Naginis head very close to where Malfoy had just been, he stood up himself.
"Hatchlings, fighting. Master is wondering where you've been," Nagini hissed out, winding her way closer to Draco.
"Why does he care?" Harry responded angrily and slightly out of breath, Malfoys head whipped up to Harry as he spoke. "I've not exactly gone far," Harry said, warily taking a step away from the giant snake.
"Y-y-you can…speak" Malfoy stuttered out. Harry looked over in confusion, seeing Malfoys eyes widen and his body starting to shake. Strangely, it was Harry that Malfoy was addressing and looking at with such fear.
"...What? Of course I can speak," Harry said distractedly. "Nagini, stop!" he urged, wildly hoping she might listen as he stepped forwards. Nagini rose up to eye level with Malfoy who was finally noticing the threat right in front of him as she bared her fangs at him. But Harry was distracted by a dripping sound, and looked down to notice a clear liquid dripping from under Malfoys robes, who tossed one more glance at Harry, fear mingled with mortification, before he turned and sprinted down the corridor. Nagini turned away from the small, smelly puddle, hissing in disgust and telling Harry to come back. Harry gladly turned toward the room, wanting to remove himself from whatever had just happened. He only remembered once he'd stepped back through the door just why he'd wanted to leave THIS room.
They managed to slip quietly back in, with only Snape glancing over at Harry, his brow furrowing slightly. It was only then that Harry noticed the blood dripping from his nose, and felt the bruises that were sure to develop from where Malfoy had hit him. Not wanting to draw attention Harry quickly went to the bookcase and pulled out a book at random and sat himself down in a chair at the edge of the room, wiping the blood on his face on the sleeve of his robe. Looking up briefly, he noticed Nagini had reached Voldemort and the man was looking at him, with an expression as though bemused at Harry managing to injure himself further in such a brief amount of time. Harry ducked his head into the book and began violently wishing for this all to be over soon.
As luck would have it, the gathering seemed to be coming to an end and once Voldemort had given him a short dismissal, Harry got up and fled the room as quickly as he could.