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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
- 69
- 70
- 71
Harmony woke with the bitter cold nipping at her nose. Shivers racked up and down her body even though she was pressed firmly against Voldemort's side. Her heart thumped wildly in her chest as the lasting images of a dream lingered in her mind's eye. This dream felt exactly like the others she shared with Voldemort, only this was different. Horribly different. It was as though instead of Voldemort slipping into her dreams, she dropped unwillingly into his nightmares.
She was walking up a grassy hill surrounded by the night. Smoke and fog drifted over the horizon, creeping at her ankles as she ascended. Everything was silent except for constant, incoherent whispers in her ear. They were male, female, young, and old voices. She tried to listen; to her it sounded as though they were telling stories, long drawn out tales of their lives. But as she drew closer to the peak of the hill, the voices faded into silence. She smelled fire in the air, burning of coal, wood, and flesh. Shadows raced past her, all of which were undefinable through the smoke and fog. Her instincts sensed the danger, her Serpentine charm burned, but still she walked closer to whatever horror resided on the other side of the hill.
Footsteps behind her. She felt a little hand grasp her sleeve. Harmony looked down and saw the top of a little girl's head; her hair was as black as sin, but curled down to her shoulders. By the child's height, she assumed the girl to be five, maybe older. Harmony spoke down to her soothingly, reassuringly. The child didn't look up at Harmony, but stared straight ahead. As Harmony turned her head to face forward, a shadow nearby caught her eye, slender and still. The shadow was unmistakable feminine.
A flash of green light caught her attention. She had reached the top of the hill and now realized her sense of danger has proven right. A valley dipped away from the hill and the land beyond stretched to infinity. Bodies, still and dead, littered the ground and fires raged through every building. A few lonely stragglers ran like frantic rabbits through the hellish scene, desperate to be free from danger. There was another flash of green and Harmony saw it emitted from a wizard standing a couple yards below her on the hill. It was him. He pointed his wand at the lonely stragglers and with another green cast; they collapsed to the ground, dead.
Harmony watched wordlessly as he went on and on, destroying the world without any hesitation. Harry Potter laid somewhere off to the side with Ginny and Ron close beside him. Thomas Riddle Senior was sprawled on her other side, near where her parents laid clutching each other lifelessly. She saw all this with grief choking at her heart, but she was helpless to put a stop to the destruction. The little girl gave a cry and she reached a hand down to run her fingers through her curly black hair.
When the spectacle before them was rid of every living human being, he turned slowly to face the feminine shadow standing near Harmony. The woman walked closer to them; the smoke and fog cleared and revealed Merope Riddle. Voldemort's mother wore a green gown only fit for a queen and she looked upon her son with unfathomable compassion and sadness in her eyes.
"Oh Tom," she sobbed, grasping a hand over her heart.
His eyes were black and cavernous as he stared back at his mother. His skin was paler than before, bringing direct contrast to his black hair. Harmony thought he looked dead, soulless.
He raised his wand and a beam of green light coursed through the foggy atmosphere and dispersed on Merope's chest. There was a small smile on her lips as she fell to the ground. He stared at the body for a silent moment.
Then he turned to them.
She tried to speak, but the child's cries preoccupied her and left her speechless. She hushed the girl, stroking her hair more ardently. He pointed his wand at them, but froze. She could see the hesitation in his eyes as he looked over Harmony and then the girl. The sight of the child made him drop his wand and something changed in his face. Recognition? Affection? He looked back at Harmony, then again to the child. He was trying to decide. Kill both? Kill one? Which one? Harmony could feel his emotions that came with each thought.
As she feared, he raised his wand again, but pointed it straight at her own chest. She didn't know whether to be frightened or relieved; at least he would spare the child if he killed herself. Harmony cast her eyes down to the little girl. This time, the child returned the gaze and looked back up at Harmony with penetrating blue eyes. Her small lips, like pink rose petals on a marble statue, widened in a sweet smile. In Harmony's peripheral vision, a beam of green light grew until it filled every shadow. Life left her cold and darkness swallowed her whole.
Then she woke.
Harmony poked her head out from under the cloak and her breath fogged in front of her face. Their make-shift shelter held for the night, but hardly compensated for the cold weather and a numbing layer of dew covered the cloak. The first thing she did was look over at Voldemort. Sweat creased his brow and the new burn on his neck creeping below his shirt collar was flaming red. She crept up onto her elbow gently, so not to wake him, and cool air rushed in between their bodies. Voldemort shivered and his eyes burst open. She could see the last traces of the dream etched on his face; she was curious how his nightmare had ended. Did he spare the little girl?
Voldemort's blue eyes flashed over at Harmony. She flinched and looked away. Did he know she saw the dream too? Did he know she saw him kill everyone, even her?
Voldemort shifted onto his elbow and winced. Harmony laid a gentle hand on his chest and pushed him back down. He gave in with a grunt. She reached over to her sac and brought out the burn balm. She pulled the cloak down to his waist and peeled his shirt away from his chest. He moved onto his side to allow her to tug his arm from his sleeve. When she smoothed on the cool balm he sighed heavily, closing his eyes and the muscles beneath her fingertips relaxed. After she finished, she mumbled an excuse to go over to the stream to wash her hands. Voldemort pulled her cloak up and his hard eyes followed her as she went away.
Harmony knelt on the rocks by the stream.
The dream still set her on edge. In her experience—though she detested admitting it— most of her dreams had a way of coming true: dreaming of Voldemort, seeing Riddle mansion burning. Divination was the only class she flopped in. It all just seemed a bit of rubbish, dream reading and tea leaves. But now? She didn't know. But of course, the dream they just shared couldn't possibly be a vision of the future: Voldemort's mother had been there, the dream couldn't possibly come true if she was dead.
But dreams reveal one's innermost thoughts and feelings. Perhaps this nightmare was trying to tell them something. She feared what exactly that "something" might be.
Harmony shook her head. "Rubbish," she muttered under her breath, and she bent over the water to dunk her hands in. She gasped against the cold and within seconds of scrubbing her skin was completely numb. After wiping her hands dry, she reached behind to undo her dress. She unclasped the back down to her waist and shimmied out of the sleeves. Her hands felt like blocks of ice as she applied the balm to her own burns. Gritting her teeth against the biting cold, she sensed the Serpentine charm slithering up her back, and she felt his eyes watching her. Feeling his eyes wasn't exactly correct, more like she felt his emotions while he watched her. It was easier to get a sense of what he felt now that they were in such close proximity.
When she was finished, she bended over once again to wash her hands. The motion of folding over the stream sent her head spinning and her stomach rolled. Nausea hit her like a brick wall. Her hand flew over her mouth, but it wasn't enough to stop her from being sick onto the side of the stream. Her face burned with embarrassment when Voldemort got up from their bed and came over to kneel beside her. His hands went to her bare waist for support. She shook her head to try to assure him she was perfectly fine. But then she bended over and threw up again by the stream.
"We need something to eat," he said. "And water, you need water. You must be dehydrated."
Harmony groaned and looked up at him. She needed to tell him the truth, that she was sick because she was pregnant with his child. But the words couldn't come out of her mouth, perhaps due to her mouth being spoilt with vomit. Her face twisted into a disgusted grimace.
His fingers traced her spine tenderly. "Clean yourself and we'll search for food. You don't need to whine, I'll help you." Harmony tried to shoo him off again but he moved her hands away and helped her back into the sleeves of the dress. She spent a couple minutes cleansing her mouth with the stream water, and when she was finished she put on her sac and cloak and they set off together into the forest.
A streak of lightning flashed across the sky and thunder rumbled between the many trees that surrounded them. A single drop of rain landed on Harmony's cheek after she plopped a berry into her mouth. They found a couple bushes not far from the stream that was teaming with fruit, and she spent a while filling her sac with them. In the distance she saw more fruit baring trees.
She looked over to Voldemort who was sitting against a tree with his eyes closed. "You know," she began and he opened his eyes a sliver to look at her, "we could last a while here in the forest if we wanted to. There's plenty of water. There's food, like fruit and meat. How big is this forest?" She scanned around as though this would answer her question, but all she saw was more and more trees that went on forever. She nodded. "Someone could build a house in here and I don't think anyone would ever know about it."
He got a look on his face that told her he knew what she was getting at. He chided her, "We can't stay here. What kind of fool do you take me for? No, we have to go back to my headquarters."
She raised her eyebrows at him dubiously. "Go back? We can't go back to the Riddle mansion, there's nothing left! And it would be crawling with Aurors."
He looked at her completely and the blue in his eyes stood out in the cold, gray light. "Of course we won't be returning to the mansion. My muggle father's home was merely a meeting place for new followers who wished to join us."
"You…made a new headquarters."
"Yes. I knew staying at the mansion would be too risky. And, as it turned out, I was right." He leaned back against the tree again and looked at her though his lashes. "I found somewhere new, somewhere bigger. The place suites my needs quite well. For now."
Harmony forgot that the whole time she had been on the run, apart from looking for her, Voldemort had been recruiting more followers and rebuilding his realm of power.
She twirled a berry in her fingers thoughtfully before she asked, "And how many more people have you recruited?"
He stared at her and a smile stretched across his lips. "You'll see," was all he said.
Much to his disappointment, Voldemort didn't yet have the strength to Apparate to this new headquarters. And they were stuck together walking through the forest, made to duck under low-hanging branches and climb over fallen trunks. The weather was overcast and although the dense tree tops sheltered them from most of the rainfall, their clothes soon became soaked and the trek unbearable. Harmony shivered at his side, unconsciously walking closer to him to retain body heat. But he was no fool and he slipped his hand into hers, bringing her closer for warmth. She glanced up at him thankfully.
Around midday, Harmony asked if they could stop to rest; not for herself—her nausea subsided hours ago—but for him. The pain on his face was undeniably clear, and by the way he tried pinching his shirt away from his body, she knew his burns were still bothering him.
"It's bad now," she said once she finally convinced him to take a break. "Just wait until it starts to itch, and then you'll really be in trouble."
"It is not so bad," he said firmly and when she raised her eyebrows at him in disbelief he added, "I have endured far worse pain."
Her smile fell; now that she did believe.
The rain started as a trickle but quickly crescendo into a heavy downpour. They sat with the cloak over their heads as Harmony worked on his burns. After the balm absorbed into his skin, he buttoned back up his shirt. He stopped her as she started to put away the burn balm canister.
"What do you think you are doing?" he asked. His tone made Harmony freeze. "You need to put some on your burns."
"Oh," she sighed and explained," I don't think I need as much. My burns aren't as bad as yours."
"I have told you; it's not so bad for me. I don't need your help."
She glowered. "When you escaped from the fire, your skin was ready to fall off your body. I don't know how you can stand it right now. You don't have to pretend to be strong around me."
His face soured at the word "pretend," and he leaned toward her under the cloak. By the earnestness in his voice she knew he was speaking straight from within.
"There is no pretend. I have to be the way I am because I am a leader. People rightfully fear me because I know what I want and I know how to get what I want. A leader cannot feel fear and neither can they show it. My pain is irrelevant. This is why I am the Lord and the rest stand at the fatal end of my wand."
They stared at each other for a long moment; only the patter of the raindrops on the cloak filled the silence.
Then, "Sometimes pain isn't such a bad thing," she said, dropping her eyes to the black buttons on his shirt, "feeling the bad makes us remember the good." She shrugged, "It's only human."
"I don't care about being human," he said, "I just want to be stronger."
"I don't believe that."
He raised an eyebrow at her.
"Take last night's dream for example."
His face slacked and covered it with a hand.
Harmony nodded, her cheeks growing warm. "I saw it, too. Yes, it was horrible, but I think the dream was trying to tell you something. When you killed everyone, you showed no emotion, not one hint of feeling. I think that if you only just acknowledged how your actions affect peoples-"
"It was just a dream," he interrupted, his voice edged with annoyance. "It was a ridiculous dream that means nothing. Anything can happen in dreams; I do not know why I killed everyone—well…almost everyone. There was that child. Do you remember? There was only the child and I left alive, and then I woke."
Harmony nodded, letting him know that she remembered. She remembered the little girl with curly black hair, sweet little pink lips, and striking blue eyes-
Striking blue eyes. She clutched at her heart when she realized who the child was. Voldemort frowned at her spontaneous show of emotion. He laid a hand on her shoulder and asked her what was wrong.
Harmony felt a horrible pain in her chest knowing it took her this long to realize they had dreamt of their own child. But how could that be? She wasn't sure if it was going to be a girl. Voldemort didn't even know she was pregnant!
She wrapped her arm around her stomach as though to keep herself from splitting in two.
"Are you going to be sick again?" he asked.
She just shook her head. How, how, how, she screamed in her mind. She shut her eyes tight, trying so hard to remember every detail of the child's face. His description of the dream mulled over in her mind. There was only the child and himself in the end. He killed everyone but himself and his child. Why? Why did he kill her in the dream when she was supposed to be vital to his plans of immortality? She was supposed to be his heir…
Her insides froze when the thought came to her.
The baby she now carried inside her, the same baby of Voldemort's flesh and blood, would also be his heir. His true heir. If she told him that she was pregnant, what would he think of her then? With a true heir, born without any imperfections, he would be able to raise the child and make it exactly the way he wanted his heir to be. With the baby, Voldemort would no longer need her. With that being the case, would he still…want her around?
Harmony unfolded from her fetal position and gazed into his concerned eyes. With a sickening feeling in her stomach, she realized that she was actually jealous of her unborn child.
Her dreams had an annoying way of coming true. Did that mean that after their child was born, Voldemort would get rid of her?
Would he really kill her?
She didn't want to believe it, but suddenly she couldn't bring herself to tell him that she was pregnant. He had said so himself: "People rightfully fear me because I know what I want and I know how to get what I want." She wanted to push all the doubts that came rushing into her mind. She wanted to fold into his arms and believe that everything was going to be alright. But she was too clever for that.
"Are you feeling alright?" he asked, his fingers brushing her bangs out of her eyes.
She moved her face so his hand cupped her cheek. Her affection for him couldn't change. If she could just make him trust his emotions, if she could just get him to acknowledge that what they shared was something akin to love, she could make this right. She just needed to.
Harmony smiled sadly. "I'll be alright."
- 69
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- 71
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Serpentine Series