Adult-FanFiction.org : Harry Potter

Ancient and Noble Houses	By : Lomonaaeren Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Draco Views: 29877 -:- Recommendations : 2 -:- Currently Reading : 5
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. I am making no money from this fanfic.

Chapter List
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Chapter Two—Shadows in the Soul

            “I don’t know, Harry.” Hermione’s voice was soft as she looked at him out of the fire. “Do you want me to come over?”

            Harry closed his eyes and rested his hands on his knees, forcing himself to think about that question rationally. If Hermione came over, then he could speak to her more naturally, and show her the books, and the place where the shadow had been. Maybe she would know charms that could help protect him.

            But now, talking it over with someone else, he had to wonder just how rational he was being. The books were the only thing he couldn’t really explain. The shadow in the mirror and the way he’d thought his looks had changed were probably only imagination, the way Hermione had suggested they were. And the serpent shadow was probably a manifestation of a Dark artifact he hadn’t found in the house yet, not a sign of Voldemort.

            But what about the way the serpent shadow called you “master?”

            Harry had to shake his head. Really, the reason he was conflicted about having Hermione come over was that he would have to clean up the house if she did, and he was happy with the comfortable mess it was currently in, where he could remove some of the grime of centuries when he felt like it, and leave dishes in the kitchen for Kreacher to wash up, and let his clothes lie on the floor where they fell.

            “Harry?”

            Hermione, right. Harry opened his eyes. “You’ve reassured me it’s probably not Voldemort,” he said, with a faint smile. “Why don’t we leave it alone for today and see what happens? If the snake comes back, I mean? That’s the thing that scared me the most.”

            “Not the books appearing next to your bed?” Hermione asked. “That would frighten me.”

            “That’s because you know where your books are at all times,” Harry pointed out.

            “The world would be better if more people lived like that.”

            Harry snorted and rolled his eyes. “Of course it would, Hermione. Meanwhile, I still don’t know what the purpose of that shadow was, or what’s going to happen. I’ve been living here for a month, and these things just started happening. What if—well, what if they’re just more of the house’s defenses and I’m getting upset over nothing? I didn’t even ask Kreacher about them. I should.”

            “House-elves know a lot more than most people think about the way houses behave,” Hermione began. “It’s even in their name…”

            Harry nodded absently through most of the resulting lecture, his thoughts on Kreacher. He hadn’t seen Kreacher this morning, now that he thought about it. Of course, Kreacher spent a lot of time at Hogwarts with Winky, and it wasn’t really unusual for him not to be around unless Harry wanted him for something.

            “Kreacher!” he called, interrupting Hermione. She put up with it, rolling her eyes.

            Kreacher appeared beside him after a slight hesitation, and stared at Harry. Then he bowed to the floor, his ears scraping the wood, his hands folded in front of him in a way Harry had never seen before. “What can Kreacher be doing for Master Harry?” he whispered, his voice hoarse.

            “Tell me why you’re treating me this way,” Harry snapped, and folded his arms. “You looked at me as though—as though I was a stranger. And there are shadows in the house hissing at me and calling me master, and books moving around and putting themselves where they shouldn’t be, and shadows in mirrors, and—do I look different?” He turned to Hermione. “Do you think I look different?”

            Hermione studied him, and then shook her head. “Maybe a little pale from not going out in the sun?” she offered. “That’s it.”

            “Master Harry is becoming master.”

            The tone in Kreacher’s voice made Harry turn quickly back towards him. Kreacher was studying him in a way that made Harry think greedy, but then Kreacher bowed and looked back down at the floor, so quickly that it was hard to tell.

            “What does that mean?” Harry demanded. “Tell me what that means right now.”

            “It means that Master Harry is coming to fit the house,” Kreacher said, blinking up at him. “Master Harry is being more comfortable here, and fitting it.” He clapped one hand to his forehead suddenly. “Kreacher is not getting Master Harry his breakfast! Kreacher is to be fixing this right now!”

            He ran away, and Harry heard the banging of pots and pans a moment later. He exchanged a baffled glance with Hermione, who was chewing her lip. “That wasn’t the way he’s been acting since the war, was it?” Harry asked. “Or am I just being paranoid?”

            “No, I don’t think it is,” Hermione whispered. “He seemed glad about something, but what that was…” She trailed off, frowning into the distance. “I need to do some research about house-elves,” she said, so suddenly that Harry jumped. “I read something about this months ago, but I don’t remember what book it was in.”

            “You don’t remember what book it was in?” Harry asked.

            Hermione scowled at him. “I’ll let you know when I find something,” she said, and disappeared from the fireplace.

            Harry looked around the room, filled with dancing shadows since the fire was still lit, and shivered. Then he drew his wand and murmured a charm that would splay out all the shadows flat on the floor. It was really supposed to be used to tell whether one of your enemies was hiding in a dark corner, but Harry was more interested in the shape of the shadows right now.

            None of them resembled a serpent. Harry stifled a sigh and turned towards the kitchen—

            Only to stop when he saw that one of the shadows did look like that, after all. It seemed to have a long flat head and a huge coiled body, like a python. It lay across the threshold of the kitchen, barring his way.

            Harry swallowed, but there wasn’t any spit in his throat to ease the transition. He ended up pressing backwards, his hands flattened on the walls, panting so hard that he thought he was going to pass out. The shadow remained still, and Harry could still hear Kreacher working in the kitchen as though everything was normal, but it was very much not.

            It seemed, after five or ten minutes of that—the time seemed to stretch and pass hazily around him in the midst of his terror, so Harry really wasn’t sure—that Harry firmed his backbone and decided there was only one way to deal with this. Even if Kreacher had come out of the kitchen, Harry wasn’t sure that he could banish the shadow.

            “Go away,” he hissed in Parseltongue.

            The snake immediately rose up, a long, long pulse of shadow, two meters at least, off the floor. For a moment, a smaller piece of shadow seemed to detach itself from the rest, and Harry recognized the flickering of a forked tongue. The snake ducked its head and slithered away from him, towards the staircase. Even as Harry turned to stare after it, the shadow blended with the shadow of the stairs, until he could no longer tell the difference.

            Harry turned back and walked mechanically into the kitchen, where he sat down on a chair with a thump and stared at the wall. He ended up jumping when his food appeared in front of him.

            “Master Harry is beings tired?” Kreacher looked at him, ducking his head a little when Harry tried to look back. It seemed as though he was trying to hide his eyes under his ear-hair. Harry opened his mouth to reply, and had to pause again when he realized that the motion looked like the way the snake had ducked its head.

            Maybe not just a duck. Maybe a bow.

            “What do you know about the history of the house, Kreacher?” Harry asked slowly, stirring his spoon through his cornflakes. “Are there books here about the history of the Black family? And the history of Parseltongue?” He still didn’t know why the shadows looked like snakes, but maybe that was only happening because he was a Parselmouth, and someone else would see different things.

            Kreacher jerked, and his ears flapped. “Master Harry is wanting to know the history of the Blacks?” he asked eagerly.

            Harry stared at him for a second. Kreacher was almost hovering off the floor, his fingers clasped and a blissful expression on his face.

            “Well, yes,” Harry said at last. He wanted to go on and explain about the snake shadows and why he wanted to know about them, but Kreacher was already backing away, beaming and bowing and wringing his hands.

            “Master Harry is to be saying no more.” One of Kreacher’s eyes closed in a great, sly wink that was as disturbing as some of the expressions on Bellatrix’s face. “Kreacher is finding them for Master.”

            Kreacher vanished, and left Harry blinking at the spot where he had been. There had been a dark light in his eyes, Harry thought numbly for a moment, the way he had looked when he cuddled some Black artifact to his chest or chuckled over its existence to himself.

            Then Harry shook his head sharply and turned back to his breakfast. No, that wasn’t true. He was imagining things. Kreacher was a thoroughly reformed house-elf. He didn’t even call Hermione by that horrible name now, and he didn’t hide away in corners, and he didn’t try to attack people who weren’t attacking him.

            The curl of coolness up his spine was more likely due to the snake shadows and what it would mean if part of Voldemort’s soul still lived inside him. That was his real problem, and the sooner he could solve it, the better.

*

            Timeangel93: You’re on the right track, but it’s more complicated than that.

            And he will have some interaction with Draco in a few chapters, but not right away.

            ladilyn: Thank you!

            delia cerrano: He won’t be appearing until Harry goes back to Hogwarts.

            BAFan: Thank you!

            SP777: Do you mean sentient shadows? It does seem like it, if they can respond to commands.

            moodysavage: Thanks! That’s what I’m aiming for.

            AwfulLawful: Right now, Harry would never agree to use Dark Arts, at least not more than one or two spells that he’s already used, which means the shadows would have a lot of work on their hands.

            ChaosLady: Thanks! Updates will be on Friday and Saturday evenings normally, but this one’s on Sunday because I ran out of time on Saturday.
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Ancient and Noble Houses