Dark Union

He awoke with a shudder; it had been a while since he had another nightmare, and it was worse than usual. His hands were violently shaking, as he wiped the sweat off his forehead. He knew he wouldn’t be getting anymore sleep for the night. Although what caught his eye was the fact that the Dark Lord himself was peering down at him. An odd sense of fear struck in him; he had completely forgot about their training sessions! He may not bow down to Voldemort but that didn’t mean he wasn’t aware of what the man could do, he knew the Dark Lord could do way worse than what those filthy muggles had already done to him.

Harry quickly put on his impassive mask on and explained, “My apologies Sir, I had assumed that we would have stopped the lessons tonight. Since well Hogwarts is resuming tomorrow.”

“You are correct to an extent; I do not plan to beat you up again tonight. Hurry up and put a shirt on, I do not wish to speak to you while you are indecent. I shall be waiting outside your door, do not take long.” The older Slytherin stated a bit too softly for his liking, and then left. The sudden realization that the man must have seen the whip marks along with the word written on his chest ashamed him to no end. And it had to be the Dark Lord! The most powerful wizard alive had seen the most pathetic part of him, hot rage burned in him. His hatred for muggles had never been so intense. Shoving those emotions down he quickly got up and put on his robes.

Just as the older man said he was waiting for him outside the door. The man smirked and stated coldly yet oddly comforting, “I can practically feel the anger radiating off you, Potter. Do try to keep calm as the thing I am about to show you is rather delicate.”

He nodded but didn’t bother answering, he was too confused on what this ‘delicate thing’ could be. Harry followed Voldemort obediently as they walked in a section of the Malfoy Manner he had never personally seen. It was darker and gloomier than the rest if the manor, which was an accomplishment in itself. If Harry was a year younger and a bit more naive then he would have described it as scary, but now it was just slightly unnerving. Finally, the pair reached a door and Voldemort said, “My personal office, for now at least.” He waited for no response and entered the room, Harry quickly followed suite. What he first noticed was a twelve-foot snake curled up on a sitting chair near a fireplace. And the worst part is that the snake felt oddly familiar, as if it was a missing piece of him. Although the room itself was beautiful. The room consisted of a large grey fireplace, along with a dark brown loveseat couch. There was a black table which had papers strewn around, and a candle that was obviously charmed to light the whole room. There was a portrait of Merope Gaunt, and Harry couldn’t help but feel some sort of sadness when he looks into her eyes.

“What did you need, Sir? I must admit I am a tad bit confused.” He asked politely.

Voldemort nodded and picked up a black box that had some sort of golden runes on bottom of the box and handed it to him. Harry stared dumbly at Voldemort for a few minutes in awe of what he was trying to do. He then retorted after a few seconds, “I would be more surprised if you weren’t confused. Open the box.”

Harry carefully put the box on the table and slowly opened it. What he saw surprised him, a small black and white snake stared back at him. “I-I sir?” He questioned as his eyes opened comically wide as he lost his composure for the second time tonight.

The Dark Lord chuckled and explained, “It would be ghastly for a Parseltongue to not have a snake. If anyone asks you how you got it say Lucius Malfoy gave it to you for Yuletide. In case you didn’t know what kind of Snake it is, it’s a California Kingsnake. It isn’t poisonous as I hoped, but Hogwarts will most likely let it slide if it cant hurt a student. Especially with recent events…”

Nodding Harry asked, “What were the runes for?”

“Nothing much. It is just to expand his lifespan; it should live for about hundred years now compared to its 20-30 years of life.” The Dark Lord explained as he walked over to his own snake and started to stroke her scales.

Harry nodded and said, “Thank you, sir.”

Voldemort stated rather coldly, “You are welcome. Now take him back to your room and familiarize yourself with him and do give it a name. You are dismissed. I shall escort you back to your room, I doubt you memorized this place already.”

Harry looked down at the snake and told him, ‘We are leaving, I’ll explain everything to you later.’ The snake did an expression of displeasure but only hissed in an okay. Harry then turned to a smirking Voldemort and said, “Yes sir, that would probably be best.”

“Good, there is something I wish to talk to you about.” The Dark Lord declared. And at that, the two walked out.

“Tell me Potter, have you had any sort of dream about me? If so, what did you dream about?” Voldemort asked, clearly in deep thought.

He tensed slightly, although he cursed himself. He really is out of it today, usually he isn’t so jumpy. ‘How did he know?’ Harry thought to himself as he pondered how to answer that question. Forcing himself out of those thoughts he answered truthfully, “Yes, I have indeed dreamt about you. It’s mostly about random things you have done in the day, but sometimes it is about…”

“About what?”

Harry shrugged in discomfort; it is rather uncomfortable to admit that you witness the Dark Lord kill people daily. He said as cold as possible, “It is mostly just you kill those filthy muggles, planning raids and doing speeches to motivate your followers. Or sometimes it is just you torturing death eaters.”

Suddenly, Voldemort stopped and grabbed his arm, his nails digging into his skin. His eyes widened and he stared into the Dark Lords eyes, his red snake like eyes locked into his. His mind started to burn, and it felt like something was just ripping through his head. It was the most pain he had ever felt in his head in his life. The older man didn’t even say anything, just stared at him. Finally, after three grueling minutes the man let go and growled in almost unhuman tone, “I am sure you can find your way to your quarters from here. I need to think, do not tell ANYONE about this. Do you understand?”

Harry just nodded and speed walked to his room. He refused to show the fear on his face, but he didn’t doubt that the man already knew. He felt his magic seep out of him defensively and break something, but Harry didn’t look back to see.
---
When he entered his room, he put the box down and opened the lid, letting the creature exit the container. As he spent a few minutes to calm down, the snake decided to slither back on the bed. Forcing himself to calm down he sighed, Harry sat on his bed as he stared down at his snake, the creature seemed to stare back. Finally, he spoke in parseltongue, ‘Hello, do you have a name?’

The California Kingsnake seemed to have tensed before hissing suspiciously, ‘Another speaker? No, the man with the red eyes told me that you shall name me.’

‘Ah, the man with red eyes in named Voldemort, although you should call him the Dark Lord if you meet him again. How about Eris? It is the Greek Goddess of chaos, or perhaps Hephaestus? He is the Greek God of fire. If you think of something else just tell me.’ Harry told the snake coolly; they hadn’t talked much but he knew he would adore this creature.

‘Eris. It has a ring to it. What is your name, master?’ Eris asked with adoration.

Harry smiled in pure obsessiveness at being called Master. He OWNED this creature, and it is completely at his will. Forcing those emotions down he continued politely, ‘My name is Harry Potter. I know I just received you, but I need to go to Hogwarts this morning. I can’t leave you here.’

Eris just looked at him dumbly and said sarcastically, “It isn’t like I have much of a choice. But nonetheless, I would be delighted to go. Do you have the proper material to take care of me? Although you better not force me in a cage for the rest of my life.’

‘I will never force you in a cage for the rest of your life, I am no monster. No, not at the moment. But when I arrive to Hogwarts, I will send a letter Magical Menagerie requesting the items I need. I am tired, I want to rest. Is it okay if I put you back in your box for tonight?’ Harry responded casually.

Eris seemed to have done the snake version of a sneer at the thought of going in that black box again but had nodded anyway. He proceeded to gently grab Eris and put her back in her box, he smiled and went back to bed.
----

The young Slytherin sat in the train compartment reading with Eris casually hung on his shoulders. Draco, who was sitting besides him had distracted himself by staring at the window, absorbing the beautiful imagery. His reaction to Eris surprised Harry, his companion didn’t even seem to be affected. He just smiled and told Harry how cool it was. As for the rest of their friends, they had decided to sit in another compartment with Daphne Greengrass and their group. Well, he couldn’t quite pin where Neville or Luna was, but they were probably sharing some random compartment. Other than that, Goyle and Crabbe stayed, and they were eating cauldron cakes and trying to do their Yule homework as fast as possible. The pair had tensed slightly when they noticed the snake but did not comment. He did wish Theo was with them since they seemed have been getting closer, but he wouldn’t complain. He would probably find him after the train stopped like a puppy who needed its master. It was all domestic bliss. That was until Draco got news that Weasley botched a spell and his nose turned red and lumpy. bored and decided he wanted to bother the Weasley and their friends.

“Come on Harry, you can’t tell me that you don’t want to bother them just a bit! Plus, that blood traitor and mudblood deserves it.” Draco whined.

Harry rolled his eyes at his friend; he was such a child when he wanted to. He would have normally glared at his friend for saying mudblood, and blood traitor but now he can’t seem to find the will to care. As for his relationship with the Weasley they had entered the agreement to leave each other alone, although the Weasley did look at him odd sometimes. He wouldn’t want to risk their relation returning to the constant arguing again. Sighing, he retorted, “Fine, but I’ll just watch and defend you in case you get your arse hexed.”

Draco smirked devilishly; he obviously took this as a win. Harry couldn’t help but think he made a mistake. His friend then laughed, “Me getting hexed? Wouldn’t dream of it! Anyway, come on.”

Harry got up and followed his friend.

In the end it turned into a huge brawl when Weasley cursed Draco with a “eat slugs” spell. To Harry was unimpressed with the fact that he had to disarm Weasley and drag Draco to the compartment AND then ask an older student to conjure a bucket was an understatement. Harry concluded that he really needed to conjure things, even if transfiguration bored him a bit. Not that he didn’t practice it, but he wouldn’t lecture his friend now since he was puking his guts out, but he would do it later for sure.

Sighing, Harry looked at the roof of the compartment waiting for school to begin once again.