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Harry Potter and the Breeding Darkness	By : Danyealle Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Voldemort Views: 297597 -:- Recommendations : 54 -:- Currently Reading : 184
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
- 23
- 24
- 25
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 23

At lunch, Harry escaped his friends to go up to his dorm room and make use of his two-way mirror to contact Sirius. He was, honestly, worried about the man and wanted to make sure he was doing alright.

Harry had put the mirror into his school bag and carried it with him just in case some sort of emergency came up so, once he'd gotten up to his room, he pulled it out, sat in the center of his bed while drawing the hangings closed then spelling a privacy spell around him.

He said Sirius' name into the mirror and waited anxiously for a response. It took a couple minutes but finally Sirius' face appeared in the reflection.

"Hey, Sirius," Harry said with a relieved sigh.

Sirius gave Harry a pointed look. "You could have warned me, you know."

Harry gave the other a sheepish grin and shrugged. "It was probably best you stayed as ignorant of things as possible."

Sirius barked out a humorless laugh.

"So did you visit the Tonks' last night?" Harry asked, anxiously.

Sirius sighed and nodded his head. "I did. Andy and I caught up on old times. Dora wasn't there because she was on some sort of assignment at the Ministry. Guarding something in the Department of Mysteries or something. Sounded odd to me. Anyway, I spent the evening with Ted and Andy so I suppose that's a reliable enough alibi."

Harry let out another slightly relieved sigh and nodded his head in approval. "Good. I'm glad that the Order, at least, isn't going to think you had anything to do with this."

"Yeah, but you did." Sirius said with a pointed look. "How much did you know about what was going to happen?"

"Everything," Harry said with an unapologetic shrug.

"Everything? So you knew they were going to murder a bunch of Aurors and guards?"

"Casualties of war." Harry responded easily.

Sirius scoffed and shook his head. "How can you be so cold, Harry?"

"It's a revolution, Sirius, and they don't happen without some bloodshed."

Sirius' response was closer to a bark than a laugh. "A revolution? Where do you get this crap? Voldemort?"

Harry sighed and shook his head. "Whatever, Sirius. Look, I just wanted to make sure you were alright. Are you safe where you're currently hidden? Are there good wards there? The Ministry is trying to peg this breakout on you so they're seriously upping their attempts to find you."

Sirius grimaced. "I suppose I'm not in the safest of places..."

Harry groaned slightly. "You need to go somewhere safe, Sirius! Things are really unstable right now, and I don't know if even I could do anything to postpone you getting kissed if you got caught right now."

"I'm not going to Grimmauld Place," Sirius said, indignantly.

"If you won't go to Grimmauld Place, what about going to an old Potter property instead?"

Sirius' eyes lit up slightly with interest. "An old Potter property?" He echoed, curiously.

"Did my dad or grandad ever tell you about a castle in Ireland called Morhda Abbey?" Harry asked.

"Yeah, I do think I remember Charlus mentioning a place by that name, said he grew up there."

"That's right," Harry said, nodding. "It's a huge castle and it's under a mountain of powerful wards. You'd be absolutely safe there. I've got six house elves on staff so you'd get three meals a day, your laundry done and everything."

Sirius laughed slightly. "Merlin, Harry! When did you do all this? Six house elves? What do you need that for?"

Harry paused and gave Sirius an innocent, but hesitant smile. "Well, the house isn't exactly empty at the moment."

Sirius' expression darkened. "Who is there, Harry?"

"Well, you'd get to see you dear cousin again..."

"Oh hell!"

"For that matter, I think that Narcissa is going over there today to help the mediwitch and the healers. So it'd be a regular family reunion!"

"No! No, no no no!"

"Oh, come on, Sirius! You'd be safe there, and you won't have to stay. Just go there until some of the heat has died down!"

"I am not staying with a bunch of bloody Death Eaters! Merlin, Harry! I can't believe that you would be using your great-grandfather's castle to house a bunch of stinking murderers!"

"I spoken with the portrait of Charlus's father, Harrison, and he is quite proud of what I've done with the abbey thank-you-very-much. And he agrees with what I'm doing with housing the Death Eaters there."

Sirius scoffed.

"He was a Slytherin, you know! He went to school with Cygnus Black, er, not your uncle Cygnus, but your great-grandfather Cygnus. Dorea's father."

Sirius blinked and then screwed up his face as if he were trying hard to remember something long forgotten. "You know, I think Charlus might of mentioned that once. So Harrison Potter has a portrait in the abbey?"

"Yeah. So does Charlus, actually. And loads of other Potters. Anyway, you could sequester yourself away from all of the Death Eaters if you really wanted to. You wouldn't have to interact with any of them at all. The castle is huge. I suppose if you were really dead set on staying away from the lot of them, you could stay in the west wing of the abbey. Tom and I have that separated off for our use only, so none of the Death Eaters are even allowed in there. But that would mean you'd be living in the same wing as me and the Dark Lord."

Sirius blanched a bit, but then he frowned. "What do you mean you? You can't be staying there, you're at Hogwarts! Or are you just talking about the Christmas holidays coming up?"

"No, not exactly. I mean... I'm sort of leading a double life, I guess."

"What exactly is that supposed to mean?" Sirius asked hesitantly.

"I'm living every day twice by using a twenty-four hour time-turner every night. I live a day at Hogwarts then I relive that same day at the abbey. So, if you went to the abbey right now, I'd be there. Like right now. You could go there and find another me while this version of me is sitting here in Hogwarts."

Sirius' eyes widened. "That's... that's insane. Why would you do that?"

Harry laughed. "I've got a lot of stuff to do."

"Wait, Harry, please tell me that you weren't actually part of the attack on Azkaban?"

"Can't tell you that, Sirius."

"Oh, Merlin! Harry, you're fifteen!"

"So? Because of all my time-turner use I'll be sixteen in February and seventeen by next summer."

Sirius snorted and rolled his eyes. "That doesn't change the fact that right now you're fifteen. A fifteen year old shouldn't be doing shit like this! You should be worried about homework, dating and Quidditch, not breaking a bunch of bloody murderers out of prison! You shouldn't be trying to plan a bloody revolution."

Harry guffawed. "I may be fifteen but it's been a long time since I was anything even resembling a child! The world forced me to grow up fast so I did. It was grow up or die. I grew up. I could have chosen to run away from all this. To just bury my head in the sand, pretend the world outside didn't exist, sit around while Dumbledore manipulated my entire life and set me up to bloody kill myself for his distorted idea of a 'greater good'. My childhood was taken away from me before I was even born. The moment Dumbledore orchestrated a false prophecy and set an avalanche of events in motion with the intent of molding me into his own personal weapon and a martyr. I had no childhood because I was left with abusive, hateful muggles that treated me like shit. This is my taking control of the madness around me! I would rather be in control and growing up too fast then deluding myself and dying young!"

Sirius flinched back as if slapped. Harry sighed heavily and rubbed his free hand over his face. "But, anyway, Sirius. I want you to seriously consider this. Moving into the Abbey, I mean," Harry said in a softer voice. "Please, come stay at the Abbey? Just for a little while."

Sirius heaved a heavy sigh. "I'll think about it. I've got some things to take care of first."

"Please be careful, Sirius."

"Which one of us is the adult here?"

"I don't know, you tell me?"

Sirius snorted.

"Can I send you an owl? I'll send you a portkey so you can come to the abbey."

"Didn't you already give me a portkey last spring?"

"Yeah but it'll just take you to the old manor and that's not being used anymore. It's been completely sealed off. I don't think that portkey would even work anymore."

Sirius nodded. "Yeah, sure. Send an owl. But don't use Hedwig. She's a bit easy to recognize."

"Alright. Anyway, I've got to go. I'm missing lunch and the others are going to wonder what's taking me so long."

"Okay, pup. Take care of yourself."

"You too, Sirius. Be safe."

"Will do."

Harry pushed the heavy wooden door open and squinted his eyes against the harsh cold wind. He huffed slightly as he pulled his cloak tighter around him and hurried along the rampart, hugging the battlement to reduce the exposure to the wind. He quickly came up to where Draco was already sitting and slid down to sit on the cold stone, sighing in relief as he slipped inside Draco's protective wind-blocking, warming charms, and privacy wards.

Draco was eyeing him expectantly. His expression quickly grew impatient as Harry spent a minute pulling a pack of cigarettes out of his bag and lighting it with his wand. He sucked in a long drag before letting it out slowly with a heaving sigh.

"Merlin, I needed that," Harry said with a relieved grown.

"Mordred's balls, Harry! I'm dying here! I've waited all day to talk about this! Hurry up and spill you bleedin' idiot!" Draco exclaimed suddenly, and Harry's eyes went wide with shock then considerable amusement.

He snorted, trying to contain his amusement for a moment before the damn broke and he guffawed before breaking out into near-hysterical laughter. "What... did you... just say?" Harry managed to get out between his uncontrollable chuckles.

"Shut up, you prat! I'm serious! I'm dying to know what happened!" Draco snapped back, his cheeks reddening slightly in mild embarrassment.

"There's not much to say, Draco," Harry said as his chuckles finally subsided. "We broke into Azkaban, killed a bunch of Aurors and guards then let the Dementors kiss the rest. We got the prisoners we wanted and recruited a few more then we left."

"Oh, come on! You're skimming over all the good parts!" Draco whined. "I can't believe that you got to go!"

"I can't believe I told you that I got to go." Harry grumbled, still slightly annoyed at himself for letting that slip to Draco a few nights prior.

But he had to admit to himself that a big part of him had wanted to slip. He was sort of developing a, dare he say it?, friendship with the blond. It was nice to have someone his own age that he could actually tell things. He had Barty back at the Abbey for the days he was there but Barty was a figurehead in his 'post-dark' life. He'd known Draco since he started Hogwarts, although, their relationship had been anything but amicable during that time.

He had been more honest with Sirius than most. It was always a relief to talk to his godfather and not have to hold everything back. But he and Sirius had strongly opposing views on politics and the like, so, while he could be honest with Sirius, he didn't exactly feel like he could truly confide in the man or get much support or understanding. It was nice being able to be honest and confide certain details about his life in others from time to time. While he could tell Tom anything and everything, he still longed for that connection he once had with his Gryffindor friends.

It was almost odd to think he was developing that with Draco Malfoy of all people.

"Merlin, I wish I could have gone," Draco said in a jealous tone.

Harry snorted. "You just think you wish that. It was pretty awful really."

"Did anyone get hurt? I mean, on our side." Draco asked and Harry was almost surprised to hear a tinge of concern in his voice.

Harry chuckled. "No, not really. A few lesser wounds were received on our end of things but nothing serious. Obviously, your father was unscathed. No way he'd have gotten injured by any of those pathetic guards. The Ministry was really stupid with their handling of the prison. They assumed that the Dementors were enough and any humans stationed there as guards were inconsequential. The only wizards ever assigned to Azkaban are lackeys, rookies, incompetents, or people who managed to piss off someone higher up. None of them could duel worth a damn. It was pretty easy, really."

"Then what was so awful about it?"

"Well, the Dementors might be on our side and they gladly stood back while we took the place but they were still there. You do remember our third year, don't you? Not exactly the most pleasant creatures to be around."

"You didn't do anything embarrassing, like faint, did you?" Draco asked with a teasing smirk.

Harry guffawed, looking insulted. "Do I look like I would faint from a bloody Dementor?"

"You did it before," Draco said smugly, goading Harry. "Twice."

"That was two and a half years ago. I also managed to get rid of over a hundred of the bloody things with a single Patronus at the end of my third year. I'm beyond fainting in the presence of Dementors now, thank-you-very-much."

"You're lying. You can cast a Patronus? A hundred Dementors?" Draco exclaimed, in disbelief.

"Yeah, sure. I spent most of my third year learning the bloody spell from Professor Lupin. Dumbledore put him up to it, actually. I think he was hoping that it would turn my affinity Light. It actually did for a bit, but it was forced. Since I'm still young and my core is still developing, I'd gone a whole summer without performing any magic at all afterwards, and started messing with so much Dark stuff the next year, it wasn't hard to switch it back the other way. Being a parseltongue, descended from the Gaunts, Slytherins and Peverells on my mum's side, and some Blacks as well as all the mixing the Potters have done over the centuries, as well as a few other factors, really left my body far more easily inclined towards a Dark affinity anyway."

"Can you still cast it? The Patronus, I mean? Even though your affinity is Dark now?"

"Yeah, sure. Did it last night, actually. I'm sure you can imagine why. You know... a prison full of Dementors is usually good motivation for properly casting an anti-Dementor shield."

"Even though they weren't fighting you?"

"You've been near Dementors," Harry said, "just being near them is enough to make a person feel sick. Depressed, cold, miserable, hopeless... it's awful. Worst of all, it was affecting the other Death Eaters and making their work sloppy. Having a Patronus up blocks all those effects. It doesn't just hold the Dementor back, it also holds back all of the effects of being near them."

Draco nodded his head, looking fascinated. "I want to see it."

"See what?" Harry asked, bewildered.

"Your Patronus," Draco drawled while rolling his eyes at Harry being so slow on the uptake.

Harry blinked. "Oh... Well, I suppose." Harry pulled out his holly wand, his cypress wand was currently stowed in his bag with his glamour ring, sitting beside him, aimed his wand down the rampart and brought forth the memory of dancing with Tom at the Samhain festival. A smile curled his lips and he easily performed the wand movement as he spoke the incantation.

White mist billowed from his wand, quickly taking the form of a large cobra that slithered around the stone floor, earning a gasp from Draco, before turning around and looking at the two teens expectantly. It reared his head up and extended the hood, hissing at the blond, causing him to jump slightly, to which Harry snickered, before the Patronus dissipated into a cloud of misty vapor and completely disappeared.

"Bloody hell! You can even perform advanced Light spells well! Damn it, Harry. I really do hate you." Draco said with a mixture of awe, jealousy, and annoyance in his voice.

Harry burst out laughing. "Thanks," he said. "Although, that's really the only advanced Light spell I know so I wouldn't exactly say that sets any precedence."

"Yeah, whatever." Draco said, rolling his eyes. "So, you said you used a time-turner so that you could be at the Hogwarts Halloween feast at the same time as going on this Azkaban thing but how did you get to there? To the Dark Lord's castle, or your castle... whatever. And to Azkaban? You're not marked, right?"

"No, I'm not marked. That would be too risky." Harry paused and pulled up the left sleeve of his robes, exposing his unmarred forearm for Draco to see, but also revealing the wide leather cuff still strapped to his bicep. "I do have this, though," Harry said, pointing to the cuff. "It's a portkey that will take me directly to the Dark Lord. It also gets warm if he wants to summon me."

"Brilliant," Draco whispered as he looked at it with awe.

"But I didn't actually use it, I usually don't need to anymore since I can just Apparate there."

"But you're underage! How can you Apparate and not get caught?"

"My Trace is gone. The Dark Lord removed it last spring." Harry said with a smug grin.

"It can be removed?"

"Yeah, it was a pretty easy ritual, actually. I can probably get the details for it from the Dark Lord if you'd like. It's why I was able to practice magic all summer long without ever getting caught."

"I figured you were just behind really good wards."

"That too but it's still better to be safe than sorry."

Draco smirked and rolled his eyes. "Well, the wards at Malfoy Manor are capable of preventing the Ministry's Trace from detecting when I perform magic but it would be nice to be able to use my magic where ever I went." Draco drawled.

Harry chuckled. "I'll see about getting you a copy of the ritual."

Draco smirked at Harry and gave him a curt nod.

The two lapsed into silence for a few minutes as they resumed smoking. "I'm curious, Harry..." Draco began slowly and Harry turned his attention to the blond. "Did you see the prisoners, the Death Eaters rescued from the prison, I mean. Were any of them... sane?"

"They were pretty out of it and I didn't have a lot of direct interactions with any of them. Mostly I was with the team that went and acquired a few new recruits from one of the other wings."

"Oh," Draco said, with a nod and a far off look in his eyes.

"You want me to check on your aunt and uncles? I'm going back tonight."

Draco's head turned and he looked at Harry with wide eyes. "You are? Really?"

"Yeah I..." Harry paused and twisted his face a little before mentally shrugging. Oddly enough? He sort of trusted Draco. And he knew that the only person the blond might tell this was his father and Harry wasn't really worried if Lucius found out. Draco would be careful. He wasn't stupid. And as an added bonus, Draco was already quite accomplished with Occlumency. "Honestly? I go every night."

"Are you serious?"

"Yes. I've got access to a twenty-four hour time-turner and have used it to re-live every day since September first. I live a day here at Hogwarts then go back twenty-four hours and live the day all over again, but with the Dark Lord."

"Bloody hell! That's ludicrous! Surly you're not so important to his plans that he wants you around that much?"

Harry laughed and shrugged.

"Doesn't that get confusing?" Draco asked.

Harry barked a laugh. "Yes. Yes it does. But I've gotten used to it. Been doing it four months now, so I'd better be used to it."

"Four months? You said Septe... oh. So instead of two months since term started, it's been four for you? Circe, that would be maddening! How can you stand it?"

"It's really not that hard. Gives me lots of extra time to get everything done, of course. I've got loads more going on than most people, so I need it."

"I imagine. So you're still going to all the Death Eater meetings? And you do it all under a glamour?"

"Right."

"And my father and the others still have no idea that you're there?" Draco asked rhetorically before snickering quietly and shaking his head. "Merlin, if they realized that they were fighting side-by-side with Harry Bloody Potter."

Harry chuckled. "I know."

They were quiet again for a moment before Harry turned back to Draco. "So... your aunt?"

"Right, yes, I think I'd like to know."

"You're mum is supposed to be there in the morning, actually. Lucius said that she'd be coming to help the mediwitch and healers with looking after the escapees."

Draco coughed a bit on his cigarette smoke. "Is your secret alter-ego on a first-name basis with my father?" He asked with a mixture of incredulity and amusement.

Harry grinned. "Maybe."

"What name does Father know you by?" Draco asked with a curious sparkle to his eyes.

Harry laughed. "No way. If I told you and you told him, he'd likely have a bloody heart attack."

"Oh, come on, Harry!" Draco whined, and Harry found that entirely amusing.

Harry continued to chuckle and shook his head. "No. Maybe I'll tell you further down the line but not right now."

Draco rolled his eyes, huffed, and took an indignant drag from his cigarette. Harry just chuckled more.

"So, have you ever met your aunt?" Harry asked.

"When I was a baby I'm sure," Draco sneered, rolling his eyes. "I was only about a year and a half old when she got put in Azkaban."

"Right, good point. What about your other aunt?"

"Other Aunt?"

"Yeah, Andromeda. The one that married a muggleborn."

Draco sneered again, only with far more disgust than the playful sneers of earlier. "Oh, her."

Harry snorted and rolled his eyes. "Merlin, Draco, don't be such a ponce."

"What did you call me?"

"A ponce. Honestly, you'd really hate your own aunt just because she married a muggleborn?"

"He's nothing but a poor, filthy mudblood." Draco said, sticking his nose into the air, snootily.

Harry snorted. "Have you read any of those articles about muggleborn in the Prophet lately? Your father was even quoted in that story the other week. What was it called? 'The Annihilation of the Muggleborn Myth,' I believe."

Draco frowned, "Yes, I read it. It's just stupid propaganda. Rhetoric for the ignorant masses."

"Actually, it's true. And if we can get all of the muggleborns back in the magic world, they'll stop breeding with muggles. It's the muggles that we need to stay the hell away from, not the so-called 'muggleborn'. They're still magical. They're still us."

"Do you spew this tripe in front of the Dark Lord?"

"He 'spews' it in front of me, actually. He's the one I first heard about all the creature blood origin stuff, from."

"If it's what the Dark Lord believes, how come I'd never heard anything like that before, then?"

"In the early days it was easier for him to get followers and respect by sticking with the dogma all the old Dark families of Britain already followed. It was Grindlewald's line during the second muggle world war, when the German wizard was allied with Hitler. The Dark Lord was using it as well only to gain the loyalty of everyone who followed Grindlewald up until he got defeated. But now he's already got respect of the Dark wizards. Plus, everyone sees that he was powerful enough to not die, or at least not stay dead, so there's sort of that shock and awe thing added to it. He's not wasting so much energy trying to form his initial base. He's got his base. What he's got to focus on now is winning the actual war with as few complications as possible.”

"The fact of the matter is that the neutral wizards won't easily follow someone they think is a psychotic murdering bastard. If he can win over the neutrals on some issues, it'll mean less resistance for him. Neutrals are mostly halfbloods or purebloods of lesser families with no political standing. Or they're Muggleborn. They usually don't give a damn about how many generations back they can claim 'pure' magical blood. But they can still appreciate the concern over losing our magic by thinning our blood further, losing our traditions and sacrificing our culture for the sake of 'progress'. Or giving up the old ways in order to make the muggleborn more comfortable, or by having our ideals washed away by people who want to modernize to keep up with the muggles and their messed up society.”

"The less exposure we have to the muggles the better. They're doomed anyway. But we really can't exile all our muggleborns because if we did that, then the muggles might stumble across them and start to figure out that we're here too and take us all down with them. We can't deal with the muggles yet because we're too divided and there're just too damn many of them. Best way to avoid the problem is to bring the muggleborn back into our society and cut ourselves off from the muggles, completely."

"Why bother bringing them into our society?" Draco said with a sneer. "We should just kill the lot of them off. They're just filthy blood anyway. Even if they are descended from squibs of pureblood families, they've still bred with muggles. Too much muggle blood in them. They'd just contaminate our lines with their filth."

"We can't kill them all off because of that point I made earlier about wanting to woo the neutrals." Harry said, rolling his eyes. "If we come off as a bunch of psychotic murdering crazies out for genocide, no one outside the old Dark families will follow us. Besides, I see little need to kill the mudbloods off. They can still be useful members of society and some of them are still magically powerful. The ones that have too much muggle blood and are too magically weak can just be sterilized. They can adopt any magical orphans out there if they want kids."

"Sterilized? Well, that's an idea, I suppose. But I don't see how any of them could be 'magically powerful' at all since they're descended from squibs and muggles."

"Yeah, but you've seen for yourself that some muggleborns can still be magically powerful. Look at Hermione. She may not be a magical powerhouse but she's brilliant and you'd be hard pressed to find a spell she can't perform. I'm actually in the works of figuring out her magical ancestry. I'd bet you ten galleons she's descended from an old Dark family."

Draco scoffed. "Granger, from a Dark family? How ludicrous. I'll take that bet. What are you doing to figure out her ancestry?"

Harry chuckled. "She and I have brewed a potion and ordered a blank tapestry. We're going to perform the ritual in a couple weeks when it arrives to generate the actual family tree on it. So I guess we'll know for sure then."

"Hmph," Draco coughed out, rolling his eyes.

"But anyway, back to the argument of muggleborns being inherently weaker. Studies prove that one or two generations of lesser blood can sometimes bring new life to an old bloodline. Revitalize it. Add a little genetic diversity into the soup. It's when you start getting three and four generations of breeding with muggles that you start to get problems. Weak magic and more squibs."

"The Dark Lord really buys into the tripe?" Draco asked with a disbelieving sneer.

Harry snickered and then bit his lip. "Promise not to tell anyone what I'm about to tell you?"

"Harry, you know I won't tell anyone any of the stuff you tell me. I thought we'd already covered this?"

"Yeah, I know, but this one is kind of... well, the Dark Lord doesn't really like this getting around."

Draco's eyes lit up with increased curiosity. "Yes, yes, I promise. What is it?" he asked, impatiently.

"His father was a muggle."

Draco blinked. "Who's father?"

"The Dark Lord."

Draco's eyes widened and his face slacked, comically. Harry smirked and snickered quietly.

"You're lying."

Harry laughed and shook his head. "Honest truth. Swear it."

"Bullocks!"

"No, I really do swear it's the truth! And if you ever wanted proof that a single introduction of some fresh blood can revitalize an old, dying pureblood line, and result in a seriously powerful wizard, he's that proof. The last line of descendants from Salazar Slytherin was a pathetic bunch. It's really sad how they'd degenerated through the centuries. I think I mentioned to you, they were called the Gaunts? My mum descended from a squib from their line. I saw some Pensieve memories of the last of them and they were a nasty sight. But this one, rich, handsome muggle caught the eye of the last Gaunt witch. She snatched him up with a love potion, and bam! You've got the most powerful, brilliant, wizard to come along in hundreds of years. Fortunately, he inherited his muggle father's looks because the Gaunts were a right awful sight to behold. Far too much inbreeding in that family. They did awful things to themselves in the idiotic effort to remain pure."

"You're really serious?"

"Honest truth."

"Merlin..." Draco breathed in shock.

"Not a word to anyone!"

"Of course not!" Draco shot back, defensively. "No one would ever believe me, anyway."

Harry chuckled.

Draco screwed up his face in thought for a moment and Harry couldn't help but smile when he thought about how comfortable Draco had become around him, if he was actually allowing his emotions to display on his face without feeling the need to completely mask them.

"What did you mean by 'it's a good thing he took after his father's looks'? I mean... well, he doesn't exactly look... human."

"Oh, that." Harry paused, debating internally for a moment. He'd already told Draco that Tom's father was a muggle; it seemed minor to reveal the other thing. "That's actually a serpentine transformation," Harry finally answered.

"What?"

"Well, I told you towards the end of summer that my ability to turn into a snake is a parselmagic spell, a serpentine transformation. There are lots of different forms that a parselmage can learn, and the way the Dark Lord looks in front of everyone else? That's one of them. But he can turn it off and look human whenever he wants. When he's human, he's really incredibly handsome."

"Really? Wow." Draco breathed and Harry could see the awe in the blond's eyes.

Quiet lapsed again for a moment and Harry could tell Draco wanted to ask another question. "If his father was a muggle, why does he hate them so much?" Draco finally asked. "I mean... how could he end up leading the wizards in the last war on a crusade to wipe them all out?"

"Well, he was orphaned. His stupid muggle father abandoned his mum after she let the love potion wear off because she deluded herself into believing he would love her back or stay for the baby. She died just after childbirth so he was raised an orphan."

"How do you know all this?" Draco asked incredulously.

"He told me. Are you forgetting again how he and I are related?"

"Yeah, but even if you're related, I have a hard time believing that he'd just tell you things like this. It's awfully personal, and not exactly the sort of things he'd want to get out."

"True. True." Harry conceded. "We're... close. But, anyway, he basically grew up hating muggles. He was raised in a muggle orphanage and was treated terribly by them. So he certainly had plenty of hate for them all on his own. Not really enough for genocide but muggles were the easiest scapegoat to use as well as easiest rhetoric to form in order to gather loyal and enthusiastic followers back after Grindlewald fell while he was recruiting his own army. The Dark sect was already deeply resentful, and fearful, of muggles for the damage the Great Wars had brought to them and the muggleborn for the extra risk of exposure they brought to our doorsteps, so it was what he used to gain support. He didn't even have to really believe it all himself, he just needed followers and that was how he got them."

"And now that's changed?"

"Like I said, he's already a name. Everyone knows how powerful and dangerous he is. Even after he's been gone more than a decade, people are still afraid to say his name! He doesn't need to build a following from the ground up. And even the purebloods aren't as resentful of the muggles at this point as they are resentful of the Light. The Light party in control of the government is the one bending over backwards to placate the muggleborns to make them feel welcome and all that rubbish. Spineless wizards who are scared shitless of anything even remotely Dark so they outlaw everything. The old families blame the muggles and muggleborn for it but even more so the Light wizards in control who enacted the laws. They're the enemy right now and even the Neutrals can see that the Light power base is going overboard on some things or not doing enough with other things. Win over the Neutrals and we've got this thing in the bag."

"And the Death Eaters are okay with this switch in goals? Not attacking muggles anymore? They're okay with that?" Draco asked.

"Sure there are some that aren't too happy but they're more afraid of the Dark Lord than they are angry over the switch in targets. And most of them can see the logic in the switch too. It's not like the Dark Lord has totally forgotten about the muggle problem. He's still going to address that but not until after we've got control over Britain."

"I can't believe that he'd let you in on all his plans."

Harry just shrugged.

They chatted for a little bit longer before it was time for them to go on their Prefect rounds when they parted ways.
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Harry Potter and the Breeding Darkness