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Harry Potter and the Breeding Darkness	By : Danyealle Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Voldemort Views: 297907 -:- Recommendations : 58 -:- Currently Reading : 185
Disclaimer: I am not J. K. Rowling. I do not own Harry Potter. This is a work of fanfiction and no profit is being made. It is a for-fun endeavor and no infringement is intended.

Chapter List
- 17
- 18
- 19
This chapter is written by: Aya Macchiato

Beta done by tannne and Danyealle-sama

Again, I remind everyone that the amazing Aya Macchiato has given me permission to continue this story for her. This is another of the chapters that she already had done. All I've done with this one is some basic beta work, nothing more, it's as she wrote it!

Link to the first story...

http://hp.adult-fanfiction.org/story.php?no=600095391

-Danyealle

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Chapter 17

Harry quickly went through his Prefect rounds before slipping out the Honeydukes tunnel and portkeying back to the manor just before 10:30 pm. He went into the time-turner room, went back 24-hours, and raced up the stairs to the study where he knew Tom would be waiting for him.

"Tom, you will not believe what happened today!" Harry exclaimed as he jogged in through the door and shut it behind him.

Tom looked up from his desk with hesitant curiosity in his eyes. "Oh, what happened?"

Harry collapsed heavily onto the lounge then Tom turned in his chair to face Harry and more fully give him his attention. Harry went on to tell him about receiving the scroll summoning him to Dumbledore's office later that evening before on to describe Dumbledore taking him into the pensieve to show Harry the fake prophecy and the mountain of ridiculous crap he had then spouted about the power of 'love'.

"So he's going to be giving you lessons on how to defeat me?" Tom said with an obvious air of amusement to his voice.

Harry snorted. "Yeah, but somehow I don't imagine he's going to be teaching me dueling."

"I wonder what he's going to teach you..." Tom mused quietly.

"Seeing as how he's got less than a year to live and he's supposedly going to giving me the 'information I need to defeat you', I bet it's going to be whatever he knows about your horcruxes," Harry said.

"Yes, I suspect you are right."

"Hey, you said that one of your horcruxes is in the Room of Requirement, right? Something of Ravenclaw?"

"Ravenclaw's Diadem, yes."

"I think I should retrieve it. I don't feel good knowing it's so close to Dumbledore."

Tom nodded his head, looking thoughtful. "Yes, that's probably best."

"I was planning to go down to the Chamber Saturday to get that book. After that, I can head into the Room of Requirement. Bring both of them that night. I can even use my student time-turner so that my Gryffindor 'friends' don't even notice I'm gone."

"Sounds like a valid plan."

Tom went on to describe exactly how Harry would find the Diadem as well as a refresher on where to look for the book that would detail the stealth parsel spell that would allow Harry to 'phase'.

Finally, the two decided to call it a night and headed to bed.

The next day at the manor passed too quickly for Harry's tastes. He had quickly come to realize he distinctly preferred his days at the manor to his days back at Hogwarts. It was Friday again and that night was an advanced training session. Snape was in attendance, which Harry was almost surprised by, but he figured that he had probably managed to slip out of the castle unnoticed while he was in his meeting with Dumbledore watching the fake prophecy in the Pensieve.

At just after 10:30 that night, Harry portkeyed back to Hogwarts, then went up to Gryffindor tower, and went to sleep. The next day, shortly after breakfast, Harry gave his Gryffindor 'friends' the slip by ducking into an alcove and pulling his invisibility cloak over his head while they were distracted. He rushed off to Myrtle's bathroom and made his way down into the Chamber for the first time that school year.

The horribly battered remains of the basilisk were still down there and he realized that he probably needed to banish what was left sometime soon. He wouldn't be training down there anymore so he didn't need it. It had been great at taking the brunt of his spells back when he was teaching himself Dark Arts but now he had his training sessions back at the manor and if he ever did need to practice while at Hogwarts, he could just use the Room of Requirement or shrink down one of the dummies that he and Tom had made then bring it down here.

He walked up and down the length of the snake's corpse, still amazed that it didn't reek of rotting flesh. The preservation charms on the Chamber truly were a wonder. He had utterly decimated quite a large chunk of the snake, but he had left its head untouched. He wondered suddenly if any of the bits and pieces left in there would still be usable for potions ingredients. The eyes were gone, having been gouged out by Fawkes back in his second year, but the mouth was still filled with sharp pointed teeth and fangs. The venom glands probably still held stores of venom too. It was worth looking into at some point.

Another potential project for the Chamber that he had thought up over his summer was to try and get a new basilisk down there. He had asked Tom at one point where one found a basilisk in the first place, wondering if they could capture one in the wild or something. Tom had informed him that you didn't 'find' a basilisk, you made one. It was even a fairly simple process. Theoretically, at least.

All you needed was a fertilized chicken egg, and a magical toad. You kept the chicken egg as a specified temperature, and made the toad sit on the egg from the moment it's laid until it's hatched. Then, theoretically, a basilisk would hatch from the egg.

Harry had blinked at Tom, somewhat surprised, and had then asked Tom if he'd ever done it himself.

He had, in fact. The basilisk he'd created went with him in several of his travels during his late 20's but, at some point, keeping it with him had become too bothersome and he had left it in India.

So, Harry knew it was possible and it was another thing that was worth looking into but, at the moment, he had other matters that needed attending to first.

He left the basilisk's corpse where it was and made his way towards the door and small tunnel that went into Slytherin's study. He began his search for the book Tom had mentioned, using the search spell that Tom's soul had taught him the previous winter when he was searching for a solution to surviving the second task.

Finally, he managed to find it and stuffed it into his bag before heading back up and out of the Chamber. Just before exiting the stairs, he pulled his invisibility cloak back over his head. He hissed the sink back into place as soon as he was out then quickly made his way through the school up to the seventh floor, and to the Room of Requirement. It only took him about three minutes to find the diadem. Not only did he have Tom's description of where to look, he could also feel the power and presence of his lover's soul the closer he got to it.

He slipped it into his bag and left the room. He made his way back down to the alcove that he had ditched Ron and Hermione from then used his time-turner to go back to just as he slipped off. He waited until his past self had run off under his cloak before coming back out from the alcove and catching up with Ron and Hermione.

Mischief managed, he thought to himself with a smirk.

It was about an hour later, while Harry's earlier self was still digging around the Chamber, that Harry and Hermione sat down at one of the study desks in the Gryffindor common room with the book borrowed from the Black library that detailed the steps involved in creating the family tree tapestry.

It wasn't a terribly complicated process however, it would prove to be time consuming. What's more, one of the stages was very time specific. It could only be performed at very specific times of the year.

The first potion would take just over one week to brew, and it was fairly basic in its function. It was simply a test that would determine if a person was a muggle or a squib. Hermione would have to take the brewed potion and soak two pieces of parchment in it and then send them off to her parents. Each of them would need to prick their fingers and put a drop of blood on their designated parchment. The drop of blood would stay red and then fade to brown if it was just muggle blood. If it was the blood of a squib with even the faintest traces of magical descent, it would turn the whole parchment blue.

The reason it was important to determine which of Hermione's parents her magical descent came from was because the next potion was slightly different, depending on if you were following the maternal line or the paternal line.

It was important that they get this started right away and get the results back as soon as possible so that they could start brewing the second potion on time. The second potion , the most important one, took one full lunar cycle to brew and had to be started on either the Vernal Equinox or the Autumnal Equinox. Fortunately, the Autumnal Equinox was coming up. Unfortunately, it was less than a month away. September 22nd was the Autumnal Equinox this year and if Hermione hoped to get the results back from her parents in time, they had to get started on the first potion right away.

After having read through all of the steps involved in the whole process once, they reread and took notes over the first potion.

"We need centaury, hawthorn, burdock, blood root, fenugreek, prickly ash, valerian root, and sarsaparilla..." Harry read off as Hermione jotted it down in her notes. "We've got all of that in our standard kits except for the valerian root."

Hermione looked up and frowned. "Do you think the apothecary in Hogsmeade would carry it?"

"Probably but the first Hogsmeade weekend isn't until the end of September, which is obviously too late. We could sneak down sooner than that, of course..." Harry let his voice trail off.

Hermione's frown deepened. "I'd rather not have to sneak out. We're prefects now, we're supposed to set an example."

Harry chuckled and shrugged. "Well, as an alternative, we could just ask Professor Snape for some. I'd be willing to bet he's got some in his private stores."

Hermione's eyes widened. "I... suppose we could. Do you honestly think he'd give me some?" she asked hesitantly and with an obvious air of disbelief in her voice.

The corner of Harry's mouth turned up ever so slightly, but he managed to squash the urge to smirk. "I'll ask him, how about that? If it doesn't work out, we'll see if any of the older years have any and if that doesn't work, we can visit Hogsmeade. Alternatively, you could use owl post..."

"You'll ask him?" she echoed, incredulously. "Harry, you don't have to do that. Besides, well... Professor Snape doesn't exactly... like you very much... Look, I'll probably just do the owl order option..." Hermione said with a dejected sigh.

"Hold on before you order it. Owl order will take about a week to get back and if we have to wait for it, it'll be cutting things really close. Let me try Snape first."

Hermione did not look convinced, but didn't argue any further. "Alright, so the next thing we need to tackle is where to brew it." Hermione said "I don't exactly fancy making use of Myrtle's toilet again."

Harry laughed. "Yeah, definitely not interested in that option. Hey, we could use one of the empty rooms down in the dungeons that the seventh years taking NEWT-level potions use towards the end of the year to do their long-term brewing."

"Yes, but Professor Snape would never let us use one of those, Harry."

"Remember last year when I was brewing a potion during the winter holidays in preparation for the second task? I got him to let me use one of the potion labs then. I'll just ask again."

"But that was for the tournament. There's no valid excuse for me doing this at all. It's not a school-related project, Harry."

Harry rolled his eyes. "It's an extracurricular potion, yes, but it's still practice, and this is certainly not a simple potion. Heck, maybe you can even get some sort of extra credit for the whole thing."

Hermione just looked at Harry with a blank face, and blinked at him several times. "Are we talking about the same Professor Snape?" Hermione finally asked.

Harry laughed which really only seemed to confuse her further.

"Just let me worry about it."

A few minutes later, Harry left Hermione as she went up to her door to collect her own potion ingredients to make sure she had the other things she needed while Harry made his way out of Gryffindor's common room, down the grand staircase, down through the entrance hall then down into the dungeons and towards the potions classroom.

He pulled the Marauder's Map out of his pocket, activated it, and quickly skimmed it for Snape's name. He found him inside a room down in the dungeons that Harry was unfamiliar with and assumed was probably the man's personal quarters. He wandered down several poorly lit, cold stone passageways, following the map through the unfamiliar territory until he came to stop before a large portrait that guarded the entrance to the room the Snape was inside.

Harry cocked his head to the side slightly as he looked at the portrait. It was a very pale young woman with long pitch black hair tied back low, and braided down her back. She was sitting in a rocking chair beside a window, and leaning on one armrest, her hand propping up her chin, and staring wistfully out the window. It was a gentle scene, but also had a tinge of sadness to it, somehow.

Harry cleared his throat, but the girl continued to simply stare out the window.

"Excuse me," Harry said, and finally the girl blinked and lazily turned her head.

"What do you want?" she drawled.

"I'd like to speak to Professor Snape."

She heaved a huge sigh before reluctantly standing up. "Just a moment," she said as she walked out of the picture frame. A moment later, she walked back in and sat back down. "He'll be out in a moment."

"Thank you," Harry said, but she didn't seem to be listening again as she resumed her wistful stare out the window.

Harry rolled his eyes and shifted from one foot to the next for a moment until the portrait swung open to reveal Severus Snape standing behind it, looking at him somewhat incredulously.

"What are you doing here?" he hissed.

Harry just grinned. "I've come to ask a favor."

"A favor." Snape echoed flatly. "Well, out with it. What do you want?"

"I need some valerian root for a potion but haven't got any. I was hoping you'd be willing to lend me some from your stores. I can replenish it later if need be. I'm also going to need a place to brew a potion for one week without worry of other students disturbing it, so I'll need to be able to lock the door. I was hoping to use one of the private brewing rooms the NEWT students get to use. And on September 22nd, I'll need to brew another potion. But the second one takes a full lunar cycle, so I'll need to use that room again for that."

Snape just blinked at him. "And what exactly do you need all of this for?"

"Is that really important?"Harry replied with a simple calm smile that Snape apparently found quite infuriating.

"Well, in case anyone else actually inquires as to what you're doing, what shall I tell them?" Snape said through clenched teeth.

"Shall we go in?" Harry asked, motioning towards the room behind Snape instead of answering his question.

Snape's face contorted harshly as he barely contained a snarl and a sharp retort. Instead he simply grimaced, stepped to the side and motioned Harry in. Harry stepped through the portrait hole and entered what turned out to be a fairly comfortable looking sitting room with a couch, several arm chairs, a small table, and a lot of book shelves.

Snape shut the door and turned to face Harry with an expectant and impatient expression on his face.

"I assume this room is properly warded?" Harry asked.

"Of course," Snape said indignantly.

"Alright. I'm working on Hermione," Harry started simply. "She's a potential threat if she starts getting too suspicious of my behavior and the motives behind my actions, especially once the Defense Clubs get into full swing in a couple weeks. I've already got her boyfriend, Viktor Krum, getting her to warm up to a lot of Dark wizard ideals while I slowly chip away at her blind faith in Dumbledore. But I still needed something to keep her busy and distracted. I've gotten her started on this big ancestry research project. Getting her to find out which side of her family her magic comes from. We're brewing a potion that will determine if either her mother or father are actually squibs. Once we figure out which one of them her magic comes from, we're going to brew another potion that will be used along with a bunch of spells and a small ritual, to create a detailed family tapestry going back a number of generations. The whole thing will serve a couple valid purposes. One, I think it'll help connect her with wizarding roots if she is able to associate herself with her wizard ancestors instead of only thinking of herself as 'muggleborn'. And, of course, it will also keep her busy and keep her mind occupied with other things since both potions require daily maintenance."

By the time Harry had finished, Snape's eyes were quite wide but his face was otherwise blank.

"And this is why you need to use one of the private brewing rooms? To keep Granger distracted?"

"Yup. But you've got to admit that out of all of the Gryffindors, she is the biggest risk to me. She's the most observant and she's also nosy as hell. As far as she's concerned, anything I'm up to is her business even though it's not. I keep her distracted, I run less of a risk that she's going to start poking her nose into my business where it does not belong. The rest of the Gryffindors are too thick to really notice or care if I'm running off and disappearing all the time. It's not like I'm asking for much. The NEWT-level students don't start on their projects until second term and we'll be done with the room by then. And valerian root isn't expensive or all that hard to come by, it's just not used in any OWL-level potions so neither of us bought any."

Snape's lip curled up in obvious distaste and he looked as if he were suddenly greatly pained. "Fine," he growled out.

He spun around and the portrait door flew open. "Well, come on then, Potter. I haven't got all day," Snape said sharply as he strode out into the hall. Harry just smiled smugly and followed behind.

A few moments later, they came to a stop at the entrance to Snape's private store room. The professor muttered a few spells under his breath as he took down the wards he placed over it to prevent thievery and then he stepped inside. He came back out a moment later with a small jar full of valerian roots and curtly handed it over.

Harry took it and gave a wide grin in return. "Thank you very much, Professor Snape," Harry said with a small air of amusement.

Snape glared at him with narrow, angry eyes and his lip curled into a tightly restrained sneer.

He quickly pushed past Harry, closing the store room door and re-warding it before briskly stalking down the corridor and coming to a stop in front of one of the private brewing rooms.

"You can use this one." Snape said curtly.

Harry opened the door and stuck his head in. "It'll do. Thanks."

Again, Snape looked as if he were slightly nauseated before he turned sharply away and began to head back towards his private room. Harry watched him go with an amused smirk gracing his face. It was amazing how much his attitude towards Snape had changed over the past two months. He found he didn't even hate the man anymore. But, that probably had a lot to do with the fact that their positions had almost completely reversed. Before, Snape had held all of the power but now he was the one in control. It was a considerably more enjoyable position to be in. Not to mention, he found it exceedingly amusing to mess with the Potions Master.

Harry returned to Hermione with the valerian roots and then escorted her and her supplies down to their new private brewing room. Hermione was understandably stunned that Harry had managed to succeed in acquiring the potion ingredient and permission to use the room. She asked how he'd managed it but he just smiled and simply replied that all he had done was ask nicely.

Obviously, Hermione seriously doubted this explanation but Harry had just chuckled and shrugged.

Hermione began to setup her new workstation and had Harry add the water while she began preparing ingredients.

"Honestly, Harry, you seem to have a much different attitude regarding Professor Snape than you used to. It's... sort of confusing." Hermione hesitantly remarked while Harry set the cauldron over a conjured flame.

Harry paused and looked contemplative for a moment before turning back to face Hermione. "I learned some things about him this summer. So, I sort of understand where he's coming from a bit better. Honestly, what I learned about his motives and stuff actually makes him seem even more immature and bitter but, at the same time, I've sort of figured out how to push his buttons without getting in trouble for it." He finished with a devilish smirk.

"Harry!" Hermione said in a reprimanding voice. Then her expression shifted to confusion and her brow furrowed. "Wait... how could you... I..." She paused, clearly trying to work out in her mind how any of what Harry had just said made since. "How could you have learned about Professor Snape this summer?"

Harry chuckled. "Well, there was Sirius but I really only got confirmation from him. You know Professor Rowle?"

"The new Defense teacher? What about him?"

"He's been doing private tutoring for years. Both for home-schooled witches and wizards, and also for private extra lessons during summers. Anyway, he used to tutor Nick and he visited the manor over the summer. Not really giving lessons, just visiting as sort of a friendly thing."

Hermione blinked. "Wait, so you'd met him before school even started?"

Harry grinned and nodded. "Yup. Anyway, Professor Rowle sort of knew Snape, not really all that close or anything, but they do know each other a bit. Professor Rowle was two years under Professor Snape when they went to Hogwarts. So anyway, we were talking about Hogwarts Professors and Snape's name came up and I might have remarked that he tended to treat me rather poorly..." Harry's voice trailed off as Hermione gave him a look that told him she suspected just how Harry might have described Snape's treatment of him.

Harry chuckled and continued. "Anyway, Rowle told me that back when they were all in school, Snape really fancied my mum. He and my mum were best friends up until fifth year when she and Snape had a big row and my dad defended my mum. My dad and his friends, Sirius and Remus obviously, and Pettigrew, they used to pick on Snape mercilessly. Rowle said it was because James Potter fancied my mum but she wouldn't give him the time of day. She was always hanging out with a 'Slimy Slytherin git' named Snape instead so the Marauders targeted Snape for most of their pranks. It was a really nasty rivalry. Worst of all, Snape's Gryffindor rival ended up getting the girl. After my dad defended my mum after the big row, she finally started to get close and become friends, eventually dating then married. So Snape lost my mum to my dad because he messed up and called her a mudblood in a moment of anger, and I'm the physical manifestation of everything he could have had if he hadn't fucked up so bad."

"Harry!" Hermione said in a reprimanding hiss. Harry just chuckled. She paused and seemed to be going over what all he'd said. "So, well, that's a lot to think over and quite a story if it's true, but I don't see how that um, showed you how to 'push his buttons' and not get in trouble."

Harry grinned widely. "He loved my mum, Hermione. I think part of him still does. There's also this big guilt thing I think he's carrying around... it's complicated and maybe I'll explain it to you someday but I think it's sort of private for him and I know he'd be really angry if I started telling people about it. Anyway, I think the biggest problem between he and I was that he saw me as the second coming of James Potter. The man who tortured him and made his school life miserable for years, who then took the woman he loved away from him. Obviously, comparing me to my father is entirely unfair because I don't think I'm much like him at all. What I needed to do was remind him that Lily Evans was also my mum. I'm not just my dad." Harry have a simple dismissive shrug as if that was all there was to it.

Hermione blinked at him before looking thoughtful. "You've really changed a lot, Harry."

It was Harry's turn to blink blankly at Hermione.

"It's just... well, I guess you put a lot more thought into things than you used to," Hermione explained, biting her lower lip. "You think about people's motives instead of just looking at their actions and reacting."

"I like to think of it as having 'matured', not just 'changed'. It's like I said back at Grimmauld Place. I've come to understand the importance of politics and political maneuvering. Understanding people and their motives is a big part of all that. It makes it a lot easier to deal with people if you put a little thought into this stuff. I was always reacting to stuff without any real preparation before. I don't like scrambling around blindly. This works a lot better. Maybe I can even avoid getting into so many crazy messes if I keep this up."

Hermione gave him a small smile and shook her head. "Well, I hope so. You've had more than your fair share of crazy messes."

Harry chuckled. "That I have. Now let's get cracking on getting this potion started."

Hermione smiled and nodded her head.

It was late Sunday evening and Severus was in Hogsmeade at the Three Broomsticks, apparently enjoying a small glass of Fire Whiskey but was actually waiting for the right time to leave. He had a meeting with the Dark Lord that evening, however, Dumbledore had to remain ignorant of this meeting so Severus' departure from the school grounds had to remain as inconspicuous as possible.

Finally, the time seemed right and he got up to leave. Minerva and Pomona were still there, talking animatedly about the first week of classes and which of the new students in their houses looked the most interesting.

They called out their farewells to him as he left and he nodded his head curtly to them before making his way out of the pub then towards the path that lead up to the castle. Once he had gone just beyond the edge of the little wizarding village, but had not yet entered the school's wards, he pulled up the sleeve of his left arm, pointed his wand at his Dark Mark and activated the magic within it that would allow him to Apparate into the Dark Lord's manor.

Once in the manor, he fluidly strode down the familiar hallway towards the conference room where he always had his private meetings with his Lord. He usually arrived a few minutes early, because that was always considerably preferable to showing up late, and would wait in the room until Lord Voldemort came down with his snake. However, Severus severely doubted that the 'snake' would be making an appearance tonight. If the snake was absent, that would confirm that it had, in fact, been Harry Potter, all along. He still couldn't fathom why the Dark Lord had allowed Potter to observe all of their meetings. He didn't like the idea at all, if he was being honest with himself.

He preferred the meetings between he and the Dark Lord remain just that, between he and the Dark Lord. It wasn't like he expected his Lord to keep everything he relayed secret, but he still found that he distinctly preferred to have their meetings without an audience. The idea of the audience being Potter of all people had been especially unsettling.

When he entered the conference room, he came up short for a moment, finding that the room was not empty as it usually was when he arrived a few minutes early. The Dark Lord was sitting at the head of the table, apparently waiting for him. What was truly unnerving, though, was that he was not alone.

Evan Harris was sitting beside him.

Snape swallowed his stunned reaction and quickly strode inside, closing the door behind him then sitting down at the table opposite the Dark Lord and his lover... er, apprentice. "I apologize for the wait, m'Lord," Snape said bowing his head slightly.

Voldemort raised his hand in a dismissive gesture and the meeting quickly got underway. A few minutes in. the Dark Lord asked for a status update on anything pertaining to Dumbledore and the ring.

"He called me up to his office yesterday evening to discuss it, actually. He wanted my opinion and expertise in the realm of Dark artifacts." Severus said.

"What happened, precisely?" the Dark Lord asked with narrowed eyes.

"From what I could gather, the ring is more than just a ring..." Severus hesitated and glanced at the Dark Lord for a moment, wondering if he would be let in on any details that could explain what exactly was going on. The Dark Lord, however, did not offer up any information so he continued on. "There is something magically attached to the ring that he wishes to destroy. From what I can tell, he already knows a few methods that will destroy it however he is hesitating to do so because all of the methods he knows would also destroy the ring itself. For some reason that he did not disclose to me, he doesn't wish to destroy the ring. It seems to hold some other significance to him and he is attempting to find a way to destroy whatever is attached to it without destroying the ring itself."

Harris was frowning deeply while the Dark Lord's face was mostly blank except for the furious storm that appeared to be raging behind his eyes. It sent a shiver down Severus' spine. He also realized in that moment that whatever was special about the ring, Harris seemed to be in-the-know.

"You said he wanted your opinion and expertise? What did he ask you?" the Dark Lord asked.

"He wanted my opinion on whether or not I believed that soaking an object in basilisk venom would be sufficient when usually one would need to impale or fracture the object first. He also wanted to know if I knew of any suppliers that had any basilisk venom available."

Voldemort's eyes flashed angrily. "You will do everything in your power to guarantee that he does not acquire any basilisk venom."

"Of course, my Lord."

"If at any point you get the indication that Dumbledore is about to make his move to destroy it, or if he comes to a meal and is no longer wearing it, I want you to inform Harry Potter immediately. Is that understood, Severus?"

Severus blinked for a moment, still finding himself bewildered by this order but slowly nodded his head. "If you wish it, my Lord, it will be done."

Voldemort gave him a lingering, narrowed, glare. "Potter is in the possession of a student issue time-turner this year. Should some sort of emergency action need to take place, he will be in the best position to accomplish the task."

Severus gave a curt nod to acknowledge that he understood his Lord's order and at least, slightly, understood the reasons behind it. He was fortunate that the Dark Lord had seen fit to explain anything at all, really.

It was also quite a shocking revelation that Potter had managed to get his grubby little hands on a time-turner. Probably used his fame and all those connections in the Ministry he seemed to have mysteriously developed over the summer to weasel his way into getting one. As much as Severus hated the idea of Potter getting even more special treatment, he had to admit that it could be considerably useful for the Dark Lord's plans for Potter to have his own time-turner.

"I understand, my Lord. I will be sure to contact Potter right away should it appear that the ring is in eminent danger."

"Good. Now, let's move on to..."

And so the evening continued. Harris spoke up a few times to Severus but mostly he remained quiet or leaned in close to the Dark Lord's side and whispered his observations directly to him. Severus simply tried his best to pretend the man just wasn't there. When he let himself actually think about the true nature of these two powerful wizards' relationship it made him flinch.

It was a bit strange observing their interactions though. Harris looked perfectly comfortable at the Dark Lord's side. Not at all disturbed by his appearance, or the way his voice tended to hiss, or his unsettling, high pitch. He wasn't disgusted or frightened, or even intimidated by the Dark Lord.

Severus tried to fight it, but he found his eyes lingering on the Dark Lord's physical appearance much more than he normally would. Observing the intricate details. His skin was thin, paper-like but scaly textured. Some scales were small while some where larger. The wide, thin neck that seemed to have a small, cobra-like hood going from his neck to his shoulders. His thin, overly hollow cheeks that exaggerated his sharp cheekbones, giving him a skeletal-like facial structure. His flat expanse where a nose should be, occupied by nothing but two thin slits for nostrils. His flat, lipless mouth. His sunken eyes sockets and the small almost constantly narrowed eyes within. Their bright red color with slit pupils. The white, bald scaly head and two little nubs for ears. He was monstrous. Combine that with the obscenely powerful waves of Darkness always rolling off of the man and he was truly a terrifying creature.

Utterly frightening.

And this man, this Evan Harris, was fucking him. Severus shuddered... and not the good kind, either. But, he had to remind himself that, according to Dumbledore, the Dark Lord had the ability to look human as well. He had heard that the Dark Lord was a very handsome man in his youth, not that he really knew much of any information about who the man used to be or how exactly he had come to be the monstrous form that Severus now found sitting before him. Or, what would possibly possess him to become this... creature when he had once supposedly been so handsome and charismatic.

He couldn't help but wonder how this man, Evan Harris, could possibly have come to find himself in a relationship with the Dark Lord. Was it simply a desire for power? He highly doubted the Dark Lord would open his bed to someone who merely sought to use him for power.

He knew that it was truly none of his business nor was there any likelihood that he would ever be told exactly how the two of them had come together since the only ones who knew were the Dark Lord and Evan Harris himself and neither seemed particularly open about such details. Yet, Severus couldn't help his curiosity. It was just such a powerfully bewildering situation.

Severus wondered if there was anyone else who actually knew about the two of them being involved, intimately. Dumbledore knew only because he had somehow stumbled upon the two during a private moment, and Snape knew because of Dumbledore. But did any other Death Eaters know? For that matter, did anyone in the Order know? Dumbledore was extremely tight-lipped with his own secrets but he had shared this information with Severus. Had he seen fit to share it with anyone else?

Severus tried to imagine out any possible reasons Dumbledore would have to revealing such a detail to anyone in the Order and couldn't really think of any. The Dark Lord was seen as an inhuman monster by the Order. Portraying him as a man capable of being in a romantic relationship with someone would only confuse this portrayal. Dumbledore had no desire to try and humanize the Dark Lord in the eyes of others. He was the enemy and that was where it stopped for them.

Severus suddenly wondered... Did Potter know? Was Potter aware that the Dark Lord had a lover? It was Severus' impression that Harris lived in the manor with the Dark Lord and Potter had apparently lived in the manor all summer long.

He shook his head to try and clear it and refocus on the Dark Lord and the information he needed to finish relaying. His mind was far too convoluted with unimportant things. The relationship status of his Lord was not his business, and he needed to stop thinking about it.

Severus was endlessly thankful when the meeting was finally over so he was able to leave the manor and his disturbing thoughts behind.

The days continued to pass for Harry. At the end of the second week of classes, which was actually nearly 4 weeks since the start of term for Harry thanks to his 'every-day-twice' lifestyle, Harry and Tom were finally ready to make an announcement to the Advanced group of Death Eaters. The group that was currently made up of 23 Death Eaters, gathered in the ballroom as usual and waited for the Dark Lord to enter so the training to begin. But this evening started differently than had become usual.

Voldemort strode in briskly with Evan Harris walking directly behind him. They came to stand at the head of the room and paused as the room fell silent. "Starting with tonight's gathering, we will be meeting twice a week until the end of October. Our focus will shift from general preparation to a far more specific set of training scenarios and goals. On the eve of Samhain, we shall attack the island prison of Azkaban." Voldemort said in a loud, clear, commanding, voice.

A few low mutters broke out in the hall but they were instantly silenced by a sharp glare.

"The Dementors have already sworn their allegiance to me and have agreed to show us no resistance. Once I break down the prison's wards, we will only have the Aurors and guards to contend with. Since the Ministry is so obscenely confident in their control of the Dementors, there are few of them stationed on the island, and only the lowest of their ranks are sent to there. The post is seen, more often than not, as a demotion or punishment since no one in their right mind would want to voluntarily spend so much time around Dementors. It should be a simple task for us to deal with the Aurors and retrieve our captured brethren as well as free any additional prisoners who are willing to swear their allegiance to me and our cause from the prison then return with them."

After a brief speech, Voldemort set the majority of those in the room to their standard training practices just to keep them busy while he called a smaller group of 5 Death Eaters forward to speak with him. The smaller group was made up of the most skilled and, basically, the highest ranking of the Death Eaters. They were his 'Inner Circle', and they would be acting as generals, leading the others during the attack. They were Lucius Malfoy, Barty Crouch, William Pritchard, Delroy Nott, and Emmet Yaxley. Voldemort and 'Evan' went on to explain precisely what the plan was, what each step in attacking the prison would be, what each of the inner circle members and those under their command, would be expected to do.

They broke up shortly and each of the inner circle 'generals' called their group of subordinates forward then began to relay their instructions and what training scenarios to practice in preparation. Despite the suggestion that the mission shouldn't be a challenge for the Death Eaters, no one was naive enough to believe that it would actually be easy. It was Azkaban after all and no one had ever even dared to attack the prison before.

Snape was dismissed from the next month and a half of Advanced Training sessions since he would not be expected to participate in the prison break in. Obviously, he was not to mention anything about the prison break out to Dumbledore and he was told to tell Dumbledore that he hadn't been summoned at all lately, that he felt that the Dark Lord was keeping something big from him. That way he wouldn't be suspected when the break out suddenly happened without any warning from Snape to the Order.

When the meeting was done, everyone was told the next time they were expected to appear at the manor and then dismissed.

During the following week of September, Harry and Tom spent a portion of each of their days together at Morhda Abbey, preparing it for the move there then for the Death Eaters who would have to live there once they were retrieved from Azkaban.

The castle had a fair number of magical portraits spaced throughout it so Harry gathered them all up then relocated them into the west wing that he and Tom had decided to designate as their private wing. Most were put in the large drawing room on the second floor that held the Potter family tapestry and the portrait of Harrison Potter. Harry had also located a portrait of Charlus Potter and Dorea Potter nee Black and spent one whole afternoon just asking them questions.

Dorea was never kicked out of her family for her ideals but she was never very popular amongst her siblings and cousins since she wasn't such a stickler for pureblood supremacy as the rest of them tended to be. Charlus was clearly a bit arrogant and was rather vocal in his very strong beliefs in the Light agenda. According to Harrison's portrait, his son had rebelled a bit against him during his school years and went very 'Pro-Light' for the sake of having a cause to call his own. It was during Grindlewald's war, and being 'pro-Light, anti-Dark wizards', was seen as a very brave, courageous, and 'Gryffindor' thing to do at the time. Harrison put much of it down to peer pressure and Charlus' desire to be accepted amongst his house mates.

Harrison, as his brother and his father before him, had always considered himself a moderate who leaned a bit more to the Dark so many of his friends and business associates were people he had met during his time growing up in Slytherin House, which included Dorea's father Cygnus. Dorea considered herself a moderate as well but stood by her husband Charlus, despite his boisterous dislike for anything Dark. They were all interesting people to talk to even if Harry was quickly finding that he didn't particularly like Charlus much. But Harry was glad that he was finally getting an image in his mind of his family history outside the publicly accepted line that the Potters had always been some sort of legendary Light aligned family so, of course, it made sense for them to produce the Light's 'savior'.

One of the older portraits Harry found in the manor was of a Jheames Potter, who was Harrison's great-great-grandfather. It was a very, very old and small portrait that Harry had found in one of the bedrooms on the third floor in the eastern wing of the house. He had relocated it to the drawing room and hung it on the wall with several others he had recently collected.

The portrait hadn't spoken to Harry much at all aside from telling him his name and helping him find his position on the family tapestry so Harry could understand his relation to the man. But some time later, while Harry was explaining some of the current wizarding world's politics and magical views to some of the other portraits he had gathered in the room, the portrait of Jheames had guffawed loudly when he had heard Harry mention that the wizarding public seemed to be under the impression that the Potters were some sort of Light scion family. When Harry had asked him what was so funny about that, Jheames had said it was funny because their family actually descended from one of the most powerful necromancer's families the world had every known which made Tom look up instantly in interest and caused Harry to almost choke.

"Necromancers?" Harry had sputtered as soon as he'd recovered from his initial shock.

"Yes! The Peverells, boy! The Peverells!" Jheames said with his nose in the air. "Ignotus Peverell was your ancestor! Didn't you know?"

"Who's Ignotus Peverell?" Harry replied in confusion. This was obviously not the proper response because Jheames seemed to puff up in indignation.

"Who's Ignotus Peverell? The youth these days! Don't know a thing of their own history! Downright dishonorable!"

Tom had come up to stand beside Harry and was looking on with narrowed eyes and the look of someone who was deep in thought. "Was this Ignotus Peverell related at all to a Cadmus Peverell?" Tom asked.

"Related? Of course they were related! They were brothers! Two of the three brothers. Ignotus, Cadmus, and Antioch! The only three wizards who could ever claim to have surpassed Death! The most powerful legendary necromancers to ever roam the Earth!" Jheames declared proudly.

Harry looked over at Tom. "Who's Cadmus Peverell?"

"An ancestor of mine apparently." Tom said dryly.

"Wait, you mean we're related on both my mother's and father's sides?" Harry asked incredulously.

"Apparently so," Tom said with an amused smirk. "If I recall correctly from my own ancestry history research, during my youth, my great-great grandfather, a Gaunt, and descendant from the Slytherin line, married a woman who was the last descendant from the line of Cadmus Peverell. Cadmus' actual place in my family history was so many generations ago it was near impossible to trace the connection. The only reason I know of his name at all is because the ring that Dumbledore has stolen from me was passed down from a Cadmus Peverell."

The portrait gasped. "You've found the ring?" Jheames whispered and his eyes were wide with awe.

Both Harry and Tom's attention instantly focused back on the portrait.

"What do you know of the ring?" Tom asked sharply.

"It's the resurrection stone! Cadmus' greatest achievement! Out of the three brothers, Cadmus was the most achieved in the Black arts of death. A Necromancer of the highest caliber! Ignotus and Antioch both created powerful magical artifacts that allowed them to escape Death themselves but Cadmus' ring defied Death utterly by actually reversing his power! The ability to revive the souls of those who have already passed into Death's icy grip!"

"Wait, the ring can bring back the dead?" Harry asked incredulously. "You said that Ignotus and Antioch created artifacts too? What were they?"

"Antioch was said to have created a wand so powerful that no one could ever defeat the wielder in a head-to-head duel. He called it the Death Stick. It was supposedly made of elder wood and thestral hair but had so much more to it than that. As for our ancestor, boy, Ignotus created an invisibility cloak so powerful that even Death could not find you beneath it. A cloak that would never fade or weaken. I never tested it while I lived but I heard that my own grandfather even hid beneath it and took a killing curse yet he survived. Death was not able to find him to take his soul so he remained alive."

Harry choked on his own breath. Tom's eyes grew even wider and his face was actually slacked a bit with shock.

"The cloak has been passed down in our family for centuries. From father to eldest son." Jheames continued and then he paused to give Harry a piercing look. "It hasn't been lost, has it, boy?"

"No. Ah, actually, I have it right here." Harry paused then went over to a love seat where he'd left his bag earlier and pulled the cloak out.

Tom was instantly by his side, suddenly far more interested in Harry's cloak than he had ever been before. Harry allowed him to take it to examine it closely. His brilliant eyes taking in every detail of the fine silvery material of the cloak's inner lining and then examining the invisible exterior. He waved his wand over it and began muttering spells before looking over the results of whatever detection spells he was casting.

Harry turned his attention back to Jheames's tiny portrait. "So these Peverell brothers were necromancers?"

"That they were, childe. Although I doubt many remember it that way these days. There was some ridiculous childrens story written about their creations. The cloak, the stone, and the unbeatable wand. Made it out to sound like the items had been gifted to the brothers by Death rather than they having been the creation of the brothers themselves."

"But they weren't gifts." Harry clarified.

"Of course not! The brothers created them! They were great, powerful, wizards! It takes an incredible level of brilliance and tremendous power to create such amazing magical artifacts as these. There are those people out there that would refuse to believe that any individual wizard could ever be capable of such a feat. They insist on giving the objects a truly omnipotent origin. 'Something so powerful would have had to be created by Death' or some such rot. No. No, boy. Our ancestor created that cloak! You should keep it with you and always treasure just how incredible a thing it is. It is a symbol of just how powerful a bloodline you descend from!"

Harry nodded his head dumbly as he looked back at Tom, still examining the cloak with intense interest.

A cloak that could protect the person beneath it from the killing curse? Was that even possible? Was there a way to test it?

Harry realized suddenly that there was a way to test it. Just put someone under the damn thing and shoot a killing curse at them. It could be anyone really. They could just go pick up some random muggle and test it that way, in fact. Or even an animal. He'd seen some geese in the lake...

"Kozy!" Harry called out, calling one of the more recently acquired house elves to him. The small young house elf appeared before him an instant later, bowing low and asking her master what he needed.

"Go fetch one of the geese I saw swimming on the lake. Don't kill it but you can stun it." Harry said and Tom looked up at him as understanding flashed across his eyes.

"Yes master. Kozy will be fetching you a goosey right away, sir," the elf said bowing low again and quickly popping away.

"You intend to test it on a goose?" Tom asked, walking closer.

Harry shrugged. "Proof-of-theory test. If the goose dies then it's probably just an old legend. If the goose lives, we can test it on something more advanced like a muggle or something."

Tom chuckled and then looked thoughtful. "Are you sure you're not worried about damaging the cloak?"

Harry paused and frowned. "Hmm... hadn't thought of that."

A moment later Kozy appeared holding a limp goose by the neck. "Master's goosey," the little elf said, giving a small curtsy.

"Thank you Kozy," Harry said dismissively.

"Is Masters needings anything elses from Kozy?"

"No, Kozy. You may go."

The little elf bowed and disappeared with a soft pop.

Harry looked at the unconscious goose on the floor then over at the cloak in Tom's hands and back again, frowning slightly. Finally he sighed and shrugged. "If it doesn't work, we won't try it again. The killing curse doesn't generally cause physical damage, right? It just releases the soul from the body."

"That is true," Tom said with a nod. "Do you wish to place it?" Tom asked offering the cloak to Harry. Harry took it and laid it over the unconscious goose. He returned to Tom's side, withdrew his cypress wand, aimed it at the spot on the floor where he knew the invisible goose was laying and calmly shot off a killing curse.

The green light flashed brightly, illuminating the drawing room for a moment before it impacted with seemingly nothing and was gone. Harry and Tom walked back over to the goose. Harry bent over and picked up the cloak, examining it's under lining for any signs of damage while Tom waved his wand over the bird. Harry glanced over as Tom cast an enervate and the goose's head began to wobble then lift off the ground. The bird looked thoroughly disoriented and when it tried to stand it fell over a few times.

Tom stunned it again and the two wizards looked at each other with wide, disbelieving, eyes before looking back down in awe at the cloak in Harry's hands.

"Bloody hell." Harry whispered.

His cloak could block the killing curse.

And, apparently, Tom's ring could bring back the dead.

They kept the goose in a small pen in the cellar where Tom was in the process of setting up their future potions and work lab. Every day when they visited the Abbey to continue their work setting it and the rest of the castle up, they would observe the goose for any signs that it was going to either die or recover. It continued to be disoriented for several days but, by the end of the week, it appeared to be in perfect health.

Jheames' portrait seemed rather smug when Harry had gone back up to the west wing drawing room on the second floor and informed him that the bird truly had survived. He said it was just a testament to the incredible power of their ancestor and his utter brilliance.

Tom had also spent some time trying to research the 'resurrection stone' that Jheames had mentioned. They realized rather quickly that this could be why Dumbledore was trying so hard to find a way to destroy the horcrux without harming the actual ring.

"You know, Tom, I was thinking," Harry mused one day while the pair was eating lunch back in the manor.

"Yes, love?" Tom asked absently.

"Well, Dumbledore had my father's cloak all those years while I was with the Dursleys. He said that he'd had borrowed it from my father so he could study it."

Tom looked up and silently told Harry to continue with his eyes.

"Dumbledore knows several very powerful disillusionment spells. He can make himself invisible without the need for an invisibility cloak so he never needed it for anything like that. But what reason would he have to want to borrow it so he could 'study' it, unless he realized it wasn't just a normal demiguise cloak?"

"You think he knew what it was. That he knew it was the cloak from the legendary Peverell brothers?" Tom concluded.

"I think it's a very reasonable explanation. Which would mean that he knows about the Peverells, and thus, that he would probably also know about the ring."

Tom sat back in his chair and nodded. "It adds up. And Dumbledore seems the type to find value in a stone that can bring back the dead."

Harry had spent his Hogwarts-days during that week since Jheames' revelation closely observing Dumbledore whenever he had the chance. So far the man always wore the ring. Every meal, Dumbledore would sit at the head table with the ring firmly in place on his blackened, shriveled hand.

Every day, Harry would reach out subtly with his magic and check to make sure that Tom's soul was still intact inside the ring, and so far, much to his relief, it was.

His first three weeks worth of time at Hogwarts wasn't something Harry would have considered difficult at all, however, it wasn't particularly interesting or challenging either, especially in comparison to his alternating days spent with Tom and the Death Eaters. While at Hogwarts, he forced himself to study ahead in all of his classes so he could keep his grades up. He no longer had his companion to whisper the answers to Snape's questions in class and no amount of natural proficiency in practical magic helped him with classes like Potions, Arithmancy, Runes, History and Astronomy. He had to actually study, read his texts, and take proper notes, to maintain good performance in those subjects. Unlike Charms, Transfiguration, and Defense, which focused a lot more on practical demonstrations of magic, which he almost always mastered after just one attempt or was already familiar with from his self-study and his training with Tom.

And while he wanted to be good at magic for his own personal reasons and benefit, he also found himself wanting to get the best marks he could in order to impress Tom. Tom was a genius, both magically and intellectually, and Harry didn't delude himself into thinking that he would ever completely match up to the man but he still didn't want to disappoint him by having poor academic performance. This was his OWLs year, and he had high hopes that, despite all that Harry had going on, he would get Outstandings in every subject he was taking.

And so, during his alternating days at Hogwarts, he spent most of his time outside of classes, studying. Hermione loved it, of course. He was spending a lot of his time with her, in fact, thanks to both his studious attitude and the fact that he had helped her with brewing the potion for her family tree project. They had finished it and sent the treated strips of parchment off to Hermione's parents. Harry had ended up having to distract Hermione with extra library and study time just to get her to settle down from all her nerves.

Ginny had helped a lot though with calming Hermione down and, thanks to Harry now taking two of his classes with her, Harry was spending even more time with the youngest Weasley than he had the previous year. Whenever in the library together, and Luna happened to pass by, she was invited to join them, making Harry's normal study group now comprised of three girls and himself. Hermione had been a bit cold with the blond Ravenclaw in the beginning and the two still tended to butt heads from time to time, but Harry had managed to establish a nice balance in the group that headed off most arguments before they started.

Ron, obviously, felt very out of place with them. He still had little-to-no interest in putting any serious effort into his academics and it appeared he had hoped that Harry would have given up on his crazed 'pursuit of better grades' that he had developed the previous year because of the tournament. Now there was no longer a tournament. No longer impending doom or the looming threat of deadly creatures to motivate him. Surely, Harry would return to normal now. But obviously not. Ron had quickly given up his continued attempts to drag Harry off to do more 'interesting' things, and left him to the girls.

He was, instead, spending a lot of his time with Dean and Seamus again. By the end of the third week of classes, Ron was sitting almost exclusively with the other two boys and only occasionally coming to speak with Harry about specific things or to ask for help with some assignment he had forgotten about or put off until the last minute.

One of those 'fun and interesting' things that Ron still bothered to speak with Harry about was Quidditch tryouts, which were being held that coming weekend. Ron was incredibly eager but also obviously nervous. He was going to be trying out for the only open spot on the team, keeper. It had previously been held by Oliver Wood, the old captain. But Oliver had graduated the previous year, leaving his position now open to whoever could earn it.

The new captain of the team was Angelina Johnson, the most senior member of the team being a seventh year, and one of the chasers. She was holding tryouts that coming Sunday to fill the open spot but also for some extra reserve team members in the case of anyone being sick or injured during a game.

Harry found himself apathetic about it all but tried not to let it be too obvious since both Ron and Ginny were excited about the coming Quidditch season, not to mention most of their housemates and they expected Harry to be excited as well. He wasn't though. And in fact, Harry had quite enjoyed the previous three weeks of Hogwarts time without any worry about Quidditch practices to concern himself with but he knew that as soon as the team had a keeper, practices would start in earnest.

Just one more thing to add to his already overly-full plate.
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Harry Potter and the Breeding Darkness