Dark Union

To say Voldemort was angry was a severe mistake and understatement, he was livid. He has made little to no progress on returning to his followers. Ever since received his body back, he could not get back on his feet. He still had to collect his wand for Merlin’s sake. Voldemort knew his wand was with Lucius Malfoy, after all the man is his most trusted follower. He was still looking for a way to confront the man without sounding crazy, he needed Lucius to listen to him. But for now, he was currently stuck in a dark dingy hotel for wizards and witches. He didn’t even look like his previous snake faced self. He was more human… He had dark brown hair, pale skin, and was shorter and leaner than before, the only saving grace was that his eyes remained a crimson red. Voldemort managed to get a new wand in Knockturn Alley, so at least he would be able to do more complicated spells. Since his returning he was also magically exhausted, he knew it was normal for his magic stamina to decrease, but it was still maddening.

Voldemort was also hasty because he doesn’t want his grasp on Potter to fade away, he needed that boy for his own. The boy was extremely powerful, intelligent, and has the perfect qualities to be a death eater. His wand feels extremely similar to his own, the wood just felt different. Potter had ebony wood which Voldemort must admit, it fit him perfectly. He won’t admit is, but he is slowly starting to become obsessed with Potter, the boy was just too mysterious to not be enthralled. Shaking himself out of his thoughts Voldemort soon wrote a letter to Lucius, after spending three days on what to say he figured it out.

“Lucius Malfoy,

I must admit I am slightly unimpressed with your actions while I was away. As you are aware a follower had gotten me the stone, I have now returned. Do not tell anyone of this as I am still immobilized from my duties at the moment. Meet me at the leaking cauldron at 3 PM September 1rst, wouldn’t want your child being suspicious. Do bring my wand as well.

Your master,
Dark Lord.”

At this Voldemort sealed the letter and gave it to the owl he had recently stole from his neighbors. Giving a small chuckle he shook his head and went back to his studies. Hoping that the letter can go through the man's extensive wards, most owls took a week to get to Lucius because of them. It was useful and annoying at the same time.

---
Meanwhile while Voldemort was waiting for a reply from Lucius, Lucius himself as at Diagon alley with Draco, and Potter. The boy managed to send a letter to them though a wood pigeon, which was obviously put under some spell since when he took the letter the bird died. Lucius was surprised that the malnourished pigeon even managed to get to the wizarding world, let alone breaking into his wards. The letter basically told them to meet him at the leaky to help him buy his materials. Which Lucius gracefully accepted, the information he received from the boy’s living situation pleased him greatly. ‘So, Potter is raised with muggles, what a surprise. I assumed he was wizard raised based on how he spoke about them with clear distain.’ This made him even more curious about the boy, he was having a hard time imagining the boy being abused. But the mannerism in the letter where odd, and borderline pleading.

Lucius did not mind it; he was starting to become desperate for the dark Lords return. His son told him about Professor Quirrell, but he highly doubted it. Quirrell probably stole the sorcerers for himself, it wasn’t uncommon for someone to seek immortality. After all the Dark Lord would have contacted him, he came up to the conclusion that Dumbledore was fear mongering. He knew what he would have to do, even if the Dark Lord told him to never do it under any circumstance. When the date came, he grabbed the diary and headed for the leaky cauldron with Draco, he to needed to buy his books as well.

And that is how he got here, slipping the diary into a the youngest Weasley’s bag. Lucius noted that Ginny Weasley would be easily to manipulate just on how she fawned over Lockhart, their new defense against dark arts teacher. He saw the jealousy in her eye when Lockhart grabbed Potter, rather rudely mind you, and forced him to take pictures with him. Lucius sneered at the man, for an instance Potter was clearly injured. Lucius was surprised to see the boys disheveled state when he saw him, the boy was wearing a neat but clearly second-hand muggle button up shirt and black, had a bruise on his left eye, and he limped when he walked. The boy's scar was noticeably more inflamed than usual. Potter mannerism were the same though, disregarding his appearance Potter acted like a noble pureblood, the boy would have to claim his Lordship rings soon. After all he is the heir of the Potter estate, and the Black estate. At this point Lucius was contemplating confronting Potter on his less-than-ideal homelife.

Snapping himself out of his thoughts he noticed Potter limping towards them in rage and Lockhart nursing a bruise on his cheek. His son seemed to be just as angry, they both pulled him out of the bookstore. When the excited Lucius asked the two boys in confusion, “What happened? I’m afraid I got lost in my thoughts to notice my surroundings. Foolish me.”

“Can you believe this, Lockhart totally groped him, Father. He full on just grabbed his waist and aligned himself on Harry…” Draco ranted then continued, “But Harry totally got revenge, he slapped Lockhart really hard! It was cool.” Anger flared up in Lucius, he hated people like him. He may be a death eater and a murder, but he would never force himself on someone.

“I’m sorry that happened, it's even worse you are forced to go to school with him. If he ever does anything to you or a student do not hesitate to inform me. He will be punished… Severely” Lucius stated with a dark smirk.

Potter only nodded before continuing, “Let's go, buying the books will just be our last stop the crowd should be gone by then anyway.” Lucius agreed, as he noted the clear look of concern on Draco’s face. They all decided to go to the potions shop next. His heart was pounding, he wouldn’t admit it, but he was starting to regret giving the Diary to Ginny Weasley, he acted like a brash Gryffindor. To be honest Lucius knew nothing about the Diary other than the object is interactive and has a piece of the Dark Lords soul in it. Pushing his worries in the back of his head he did his best to focus on the present with Draco and Potter.

Soon all the shopping was over, and it was time for Potter to go ‘home’. This is when he told Draco to floo home so he could talk to Potter by himself, it sickened him to think what have might happened. Potter was halfway to the door when he noticed Lucius did not follow Draco. Sighing he walked over to Lucius and asked, “Yes Mr. Malfoy?”

Lucius raised a brow before ordering Tom to give them a private table, which he reluctantly agreed. When they both sat down Potter repeated his question, “What can I help you with Mr. Malfoy?”

Not bothering for dramatics Lucius asked bluntly, “Why are you limping? Not only that but you have a rather noticeable black eye.”

Potter paled significantly but his composure remained the same. He stayed quiet for a minute for stating, “It is no concern of yours. I appreciate the concern, but I am fine. I must get going, I do not want to be late.”

~Flashback~

Harry woke up from another weird dream. He was used to constant nightmares, but these dreams just left him unsettled. As if he was dreaming about someone familiar, but he never met the man in his dreams. He dreamt of a rather charming looking man, he had dark brown hair, Pale and Crimson red eyes. He was sitting on his bed lazily practicing spells; he was clearly a strong wizard based just off the spells he was casting. When he awoke his scar burned as well, it was almost unbearable after some dreams. This was a particularly bad night, and his lightning bolt scar was bleeding, Harry attempted to heal it with magic as well but not even that was working. It made him nervous, he hoped he wasn’t losing his ability to do wandless magic. He knew it was irrational because yesterday he managed to heal his back from the lashes, he got the previous day. They caught him reading a book on the dark arts.

Harry reluctantly woke up one of his ‘caretakers’ and begged for a bandage and medical supplies. To say they were sympathetic would have been a cruel joke, not only did they refuse medical treatment they beat him for being ‘demonic’. They took him to a way to familiar dungeon and started to beat him. It must have been the worst beating he had ever received; it took a lot of strength to not snap kill them. He persevered though, and after he was a bloody mess. The majority of his wounds came from his back and legs. They had however decided it was a good idea to kick his face and covered his already bleeding face with bruises.

When the brutal assault was finished Harry got up and dragged himself to his room. His thoughts were clouded with ways to escape as he limped through the corridors. When Potter entered his room, he did his best to heal all his wounds first, he managed to use his wandless magic to remove the majority of bruises on his face, then did his best to heal his back. His attempts at healing his back and his legs where harder but he managed to heal some wounds, the majority remained on his back and legs. After his futile attempts to heal himself, he quickly got an idea, he could try and summon a bird and force it to send a letter to the Malfoy’s.

Opening his window Harry did his best to think and use his magic at will a bird to come to him. After an hour of this he was just about to give up when a Wood Pigeon flew through his window and stopped at his feet. A wave of energy sprang up in him as he gently grabbed the bird and started to put as much wandless charms and spells on the creature. The spells included a warming charm, a disillusionment charm, and a particularly strong shield that fused on the bird. Quickly writing a letter to the Malfoys he gave the letter to the pigeon and did his best at commanding it. When the Pigeon flew out Harry turned around and passed out on his bed, magically and physically exhausted.

~End~

The last few days passed in a blur; he was left alone at the orphanage for rest of the break. When Harry had just arrived at Hogwarts and he was already feeling better, the magic energy around him thrummed around him causing great satisfaction. He was sitting in the Great Hall listening to his friends talk, while doing his best to ignore the stares. They were staring at his black eye, which was almost healed completely. In all honesty he forgot about it until he got into the train and the first thing he heard from Theo was a question about his eye and why he is limping. At that point it would have been useless to heal it, too many people saw it anyway. It would have been more suspicious if the wounds went away suddenly, he just told everyone that he was on his broomstick and he fell off. Which everyone believed, after all he never acted like a filthy muggle like the other muggleborns or muggle raised. other than Draco who has become annoyingly aware that he is raised by muggles. Luckily however Draco didn’t comment other than the worried gazes he got.

While he was quietly sitting at his table waiting for the sorting ceremony to begin, Granger out of all people walked up to him with a scowl on her face. Not in the mood for drama Harry asked in the politest tone possible, “Hello Mrs. Granger, what I can I help you with?” He could feel his fellow Slytherins glare at her cold and meanly, they acted completely different than they did last year. This year they are more protective and polite, as last year they ignored or mocked him and treated him like nothing. Harry wonders what the personality change was, but he didn’t care enough to find out.

Granger still scowled but did not attack like Weasley. No, she said, “I hope you know I studied all summer; I’ll beat you in grades even if you do cheat.”

The sudden realization clicked, and Harry gave a cruel smile, it seemed to have put off everyone since they never really saw emotion on his face. “Tell me Granger why is grades so important to you? Shouldn’t it be the want to learn instead, I hate to tell you this, but grades are not an accurate way to deem someone’s worth as a human. I feel sorry for you, the fact you feel like I’m superior compared to is almost pitiful.” At these words everyone in the Slytherin table laughed as Granger paled and walked away.

Draco turned to him and said, “Gee Harry you didn’t even have to call her a mudblood, you straight up just stated the fact, and she ran away!” Theo laughed but did not say anything.

Harry just said in return, “I don’t believe in mindless bullying, Draco. Its best to tell them the facts in an argument so the person cannot disagree with y-“ Before Harry could respond a bunch of first years entered the great hall. Groaning Harry looked up to see a red-haired girl that looked like Ronald as a female, all Harry could think is how the Weasley family managed to multiply once again. Something was off about her though. She was more withdrawn, she was pale and shrunken in. She reeked of dark magic as well, she did not look like a person who was in the dark art. There were many factors that did not make sense, like she was born into an extremely light but poor family. How had she managed to get dark books? they are all overly expensive. Why does she practice the dark arts? Harry didn’t comment though, he could care less in a the Weasley was practicing dark magic.

Dumbledore soon got up and said, “Hello students and welcome to another yeah at Hogwarts! If you are a first year, I hope you had a good experience so far. I won’t take too much of your time as I am sure you are all hungry. Let the sorting begin!”
At these words Harry stared at the first years. Analyzing them like you would an unknown object. After all he is to be widening his range of ‘friends’, or at least that’s what he will call them. In all reality he is going to use them as followers of sorts, he needs them incase something goes bad, and he needs help. He notices a blonde girl wearing her robes, she had an almost dreamy look to her. Everyone in the group seemed to have avoided her as well, but he could almost see the magic aura around her. Yes, he has seen stronger, Draco and Neville are both stronger than her, but it was still impressive, nonetheless.

“Ginny Weasley” McGonagall yells to the group, the withdrawn girl puts the hat on her head and it immediately yells, “GRIFFINDOR” Harry remains impassive. He was waiting to see what house the blond girl was in, he hoped Slytherin, but he isn’t too picky.

Finally, her name was called, and Harry waited in anticipation. The hat seemed to have taken a longer with her sorting than himself. After a full ten minutes the hat yells, “RAVENCLAW!” At this everyone started clapping, including Harry.

----
Lucius was sitting at the leaky cauldron practically shaking with nerves, if this is really the Dark Lord than he really has some explaining to do. The mystery man seemed to be late, but Lucius arrived early so it isn’t too surprising that it has felt like ages. Five minutes later a young man dressed in slightly ratty dress ropes entered. He had immediately shot a gaze at Lucius and started to walk over to him, Lucius was going to leave until he noticed his eyes. They were crimson red, and his pupils were just slits. Fear shot up in Lucius he was too shocked to notice the man sat down at his table. He felt like the Dark Lord.

“I trust you have brought my wand, Lucius?” Voldemort demands in a dark tone. Lucius quickly fishes it out of his pockets and handed it to him without word.

Voldemort laughed at him before continuing, “I am sure you have question. Ask them, I cannot stand hearing you think.”

Flushing out of embarrassment he said, “I- I- My Lord, I was just wondering how you look so different... Not that it is a negative thing of course! Why wasn’t I notified that you would be stealing the stone? If that was you of course.” Lucius then looked down; he hated the awkwardness of the conversation.

“Ah well Draco had probably informed you about the sorcerer's stone, since you already knew about it. I had possessed Quirrell in order to steal it. I have not notified you or other Death eaters because I did not want the information potentially getting to Dumbledore, it was too risky. As for my appearance it was different from using my Horcrux’s, instead of preforming a ritual I had to simply just liquify it and drink it. It was a lot less destructive. Since I drank the potion, my body overtook Quirrell’s, and he transformed into my more human form.” Voldemort stated his cold dark eyes staring at him. Lucius didn’t quite understand what he was saying, it was too complex for him. ‘How could someone possess someone to the point the original person dies inside the body?’ Lucius thought to himself, he wouldn’t ask. No, he needed to inform Voldemort on what he did with the Diary. Lucius just hoped that he wouldn’t be murdered for it.

“I must inform you that I have done something very stupid and brash out of desperation for your return, my Lord.” At these words Voldemort’s cold eyes filled with anger.

He snarled, “What did you do?”

“The Diary, I slipped it into the youngest Weasleys books… I am sorry, my Lord.” Almost immediately he felt a jab of pain, it wasn’t nearly as bad as the Cruciatus curse, but it was still painful.

“I was expecting better, Lucius. You have disappointed me, I would have killed you, but I still need your help. I wish to take refuge in your manner while I get stronger, I need to be powerful before I summon the rest.” Voldemort sneered. Lucius only gave a respectful, not trusting his voice.

“My name is, Leon Malfoy; I will be a ‘distant relative’ for now. Your wife, Narcissa, may be aware of my true identity. No one else, if someone finds out obliviate or kill them. Now preform apparition to the manor.” Voldemort stated as he grabbed onto Lucius’s arm. Sighing Lucius apparated them to the manor, terrified for the future.

---
Albus Dumbledore had called for Harry to meet him at his office, he had ignored the boy all last year and he was starting to regret it. Not only had the boy befriended Draco his father seems to have approved of the friendship enough to invite him to his residence. That wasn’t even the worst part, halfway through last year he could feel the dark aura around the boy growing. When he met the boy, he already had a dark aura around him, but it was faint and not as prominent.

So here he was sitting in silence waiting for the boy to arrive. After a few minutes he heard a knock on the door and immediately knew who it was. Opening the door, he calmly offered the boy a seat and said in his normal grandfatherly tone, “Hello Harry, do you know why I had asked you to go to my office?”

“My name sir is, Mr. Potter. We are in a strictly professional relationship; we are not friends. As for your response no I do not know why you asked me to go to your office. Am I in trouble?” The boy asked coldly, Dumbledore paled. It was already going bad, and it hasn’t even started.

“My apologies My. Potter, it was not my intention to offend you. And no, you are not in trouble. I just wanted to see how you are adjusting to our school.” Dumbledore stated keeping his voice professional, all the grandfatherly love out of his voice. Albus found it quite hard to not sound like a grandfather, he was naturally parental towards people he cared about. It saddened him deeply that the boy was so against any form of affection.

Harry looked at him curiously, studying him. Finally, he said in a polite tone, “Thank you for your concern, I have been doing wonderfully. I enjoy most of the classes and I have made a few friends.”

Albus asked, “Most? Which classes have you been struggling with.”

“Oh no I haven’t been struggling with the class, it’s just that the teacher and I do not get along very well. You probably already know this but its potions.”

Albus nodded in agreement, Severus has been complaining about the boy since day one. It certainly does not help that the man is Harry’s house leader. “Yes, I understand. You may go now, thank you for your time, Mr. Potter.”
---
Harry only nodded and left without word, thankful that the headmaster did not push him to talk about it. He was tired, so he immediately started walking towards the common room when he heard a voice around him. It was dark and unhuman, it sounded like a snake, but he could not see a snake in his area.

All he could hear was,
“KILL”