Adult-FanFiction.org : Harry Potter

Serpentine Series	By : HarmonyB Category: Harry Potter > Het - Male/Female > Hermione/Voldemort Views: 12060 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN ANYTHING IN REGARDS TO THE HARRY POTTER FANDOM NOR DO I MAKE MONEY OFF OF THIS STORY.

Chapter List
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Voldemort waited as both Draco and Lucius bowed to him and said, "My Lord," and then turned to Harmony and murmured "Mistress." Though the display was obviously half-hearted, he did not complain as they left. His eyes latched onto Harmony's face and did not waver as Barty looked from one to the other.
"I suppose I'll be going too, then," Barty muttered after an awkward silence, and bowed to them as he headed down the hall after the others.
Harmony couldn't determine what the emotion was behind Master's eyes. He was thinking hard about something, but she didn't know what it could be. She turned slowly away, looking toward the direction of the stairs to suggest that they should go up to his chambers.
As soon as she moved away, Voldemort reached out and grasped her elbow, pulling her close to him. He bent down his head and whispered into her ear, "There are always consequences to everything we do, Harmony." Then he tilted his head so their eyes met and he added, "Remember that."
"My Lord?" she said with a frown. Why is he acting so strange? Harmony asked herself. Have I done something wrong? Did he know the truth? The more she tried to puzzle out his words, the more dreadful the thoughts she had on the matter became. She wondered if Lucius had discovered something about her and retold it to their Master.
When he released her arm and strode away, she was so confused she just stood there looking at him.
"You've done enough for today," he called back to her. "Take the rest of the day to rest. We'll continue tomorrow."
As soon as he mentioned "rest," Harmony realized she was exhausted. She followed behind her Lord and wondered at his strange behavior, thoughts of his possible knowledge of her true identity not far from her mind.
Master had a sour attitude the following day, and he seemed to push all of his anger onto Harmony. Several times he was short with her, and raised his voice as if to start a row. Harmony was used to him having a short temper, but nowadays it was becoming unbearable.
She couldn't help but feel like she may have something to do with his anger, but she had no idea what she'd done that would have set him off.
One night while they were in his bedchamber, Voldemort sat brooding in his chair. She was watching him intently from the sofa beside him, as though waiting for that moment when he finally snapped. But he only stared into the fire, and she took out one of her books to pass the time of awkward silence.
Until finally, she felt his hand on her shoulder, and he spoke.
"You want to know why I've been on edge lately," he said.
She sputtered, putting her book away, "I knew you'd speak to me when you were ready."
"Indeed. You're so unlike my other followers in that way. Often, they lack the patience to leave me alone to my own thoughts." He sat forward. The hand that had been on her shoulder now rested on the arm of the chair. "It's the Vanishing cabinet. Lucius is unsure of how we will be able to reach it because it's so heavily guarded. He has considered using an Imperious curse to force some of the Aurors to leave, but he would have to wait until the absolute last moment to do it so he wouldn't get caught. And so we have to be completely sure of which night we will use it if we are to proceed."
"Use it?" Harmony repeated, wondering what he would want to use it for.
"Yes, I can see no point in trying to take it back here to the mansion if I only need it for one use," he continued. "If Lucius can find the opening for us to act, we must gather my every follower and head to the Ministry."
Harmony sighed heavily. Voldemort leaned over and took her chin, tilting her face so their eyes met and he had her undivided attention. "I cannot tell you how important the Vanishing cabinet is. Without it all my plans—everything would be ruined."
Harmony leaned in so that her forehead almost touched his as she implored softly, "What plans?" They looked at each other like that for a few moments before Harmony spoke again, hungry for him to let her in. "There's so much I don't know, my Lord," she said with a small shake of her head. "There's so much that you're keeping from me. I don't understand why. Why won't you tell me?"
Voldemort laid a hand on her knee to quiet her. "Harmony Hangleton," he said with a half-smile as he sat up to cast a serious gaze. "I will tell you everything—answer all of your questions, anything you want when you are ready." He squeezed her knee as he added, "And when I am ready."
Harmony wanted to ask him when that was going to be, but Master had already stood up and pulled off his bathrobe so he could go to bed. He held out a hand to bring her with him, and Harmony swallowed all of her questions like dry swallowing a pill.
~~~~~
Harmony was walking around the halls of Hogwarts. She had no idea how she had gotten there, but there could be no mistaking the place. She wandered to the library as though she were gliding. That's strange, she thought as she looked down and saw that her feet were stationary even though she was moving forward.
As she entered the library, she felt the familiar thrill of seeing stack upon heaping stack of books. The smell of the parchment sent a ray of longing through her stomach, and she blissfully closed her eyes.
When she opened them, she saw something moving behind one of the shelves. It looked like a person with short, dark hair, but she couldn't be sure. She decided to find out.
The thing, whatever it was, kept disappearing behind another shelf whenever she rounded the corner to try to see it. She ran faster and faster, but it was just too hard to catch!
"Damn!" she cried out in frustration as the person disappeared again.
Harmony suddenly realized there was a low hum in her ears coming from somewhere in the library. It started out very quiet, but had steadily increased in volume as she had been chasing the mysterious person.
She rounded the corner where the hum was at its loudest and instantly froze. The dark-haired person had finally stopped with his back to her, facing the dead end of a stone wall.
"Hello?" Harmony called out, but the figure did not turn.
The humming was so loud now that she tried to detect its source, and her eyes fell upon a stack of books on a table to her left. When she glided up to it, she put her ear against one of the books as though she listened on the outside of a beehive which had become more lively and anxious as she approached.
She had to stand tip-toed to look at the cover of the book on top of the stack. In gold letters on a thin green book, Harmony read, "Horcruxes and How to Obtain Them." Her curiosity was instantly peaked, and she wanted to pull the book down and devour its contents. She tried to reach up and grab it, when—
"Wait!" shouted the mysterious person, who had now turned to face her.
Harmony spun around, and she could hardly believe her eyes. No, she thought, it can't be! She forgot about the book as she went toward her best friend, Harry Potter, whom she hadn't seen for months. He looked just the same as the last day she'd seen him.
Memories of their younger days at Hogwarts flooded her mind as she looked at his jet black hair in its usual messy heap. She spied the trademark lightning bolt scar hidden conspicuously behind a few of the strands. And how could she ever forget his emerald green eyes—his mother's eyes.
But then Harmony frowned, and noticed that his eyes were not their usual green after all. As Harry stared blankly back, his appearance seemed to change as she watched—he was Harry, and yet he was not. No, he was not Harry at all. He had the same hair and face, but his eyes were a beautiful shade of blue.
They weren't just any shade of blue she realized. They were the exact same shade of blue as Voldemort's. Harmony became frightened as she saw that the irises were not human at all, but diamond-shaped like a snake's.
The eyes seemed to watch her hungrily, as if he was regarding his next victim, and Harmony stepped back in alarm. Who is this monster? she screamed inside her head. As her fear escalated, and the hum of the books progressed into a high-pitched screeching like a banshee, Harmony opened her mouth to cry out to her friend to come back to normal, but emitted nothing but a scream as Harry smiled, showing row after row of sharp, jaded teeth.
Harmony woke from the nightmare with a gasp. She had grabbed onto fistfuls of sheets beneath her. Then, on an exhale, her eyes rolled back into her head and she slumped back into the unconsciousness of sleep.
She was back in Riddle mansion. She climbed the staircase to her and Master's room; only the place looked different from how the mansion looked now. Instead of being covered in dust and cobwebs, the wood floors and oak staircase banister gleamed like sleek caramel in the candlelight.
As she glided up the hallway and looked inside their bedroom, she could hear a female's voice screaming and crying inside. Harmony winced as she heard a stomach-turning slap, followed by another cry. She didn't want to look, but she felt as though she needed to see, as if nothing could stop her from peering through the open door.
The four-poster bed looked like the same one, still sitting in a corner by the window, and the couch and chair were still placed in front of the blazing fire. Harmony almost expected to see Master asleep in the bed.
Instead, she saw a dark-haired woman wearing a velvet green nightgown sprawled on the bed. She was holding her bruised arms up to protect her face from the blows of the handsome man who was sitting beside her. Master?she wondered briefly. No, it wasn't her Master. She knew instinctively by the man's bearing and demeanor—as if he were the richest man in all of England—that he had to be Thomas Riddle Sr.
Then the poor woman must be Master's mother, Merope. Harmony gasped in horror as Tom Riddle senior threw another backhand at his little wife, who cried out in despair.
"But Thomas, my dearest—my love! Please understand!" she begged and pleaded with him, but each entreaty was quieted with yet another blow.
Harmony reached for her wand as disgust twisted in her gut; she sorely wished she could put an end to Riddle's abuse. When she checked her boot, there was nothing there. Her feet refused to move when she tried to surge forward and beat on the foul man with her fists instead.
Harmony gritted her teeth and flexed every muscle, but it was as if she was stuck in cement. It was useless.
"Stop!" she shouted at him, but he only continued his violent rage. However, Merope turned on the bed to look back at Harmony in the doorway.
From swollen and bloody lips, she pleaded weakly, "Save the heir!"
Harmony screamed at her, "Save who? Who is the heir?"
"The heir is the only one who can save him!"
Harmony screamed out her request again, but then the room faded to darkness, and Voldemort's parents were gone.
Harmony surged up in the bed with the ghost of a cry on her lips. She stared up at the canopy above her in utter despair. She'd had some terrible nightmares before, but none as bad as this. She rolled to her side, consoling herself with the fact that it had been only a dream, and she curled up as near to the Dark Lord as she dared without touching him.
Voldemort seemed as though he was struggling with a nightmare of his own. His body twitched, fighting some unknown force, while small, pitiful moans escaping his slightly parted lips. For some reason it made Harmony think of his mother struggling in the dream she'd just had.
Like mother, like son, she thought sadly.
Tentatively, she laid a hand on his arm, which flexed beneath her fingertips. She stroked him in a soft, fluid motion. Voldemort quieted down after a long sigh, and his body eased until his only movement was the slow rise and fall of his chest. When Master breathed with the normal serenity of sleep, Harmony retracted her hand and slowly drifted back into her own slumber.
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Serpentine Series