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
- 73
- 74
- 75
Voldemort was gone when she left the tent, leaving her alone with the masses who greeted her when she stepped outside. She wasn't sure whether he wanted her to follow or not. Already people were going back to their business in camp; what else would Voldemort need her for? She recalled his foul mood in the tent, though he had seemed somewhat cheerful when she showed up that morning. For a moment she tried tuning herself in to what exactly he was feeling, but she was distracted, too many people about. Later, she would inquire him about it, but now…
Harmony turned her back on where he disappeared in the crowd and faced the immense expanse of tents and caravans. She began walking, looking around, forcing herself to connect with the people that expected so much of her. This place—the new headquarters she supposed it should be called—impressed her. There were markets, stalls of food and supplies, large tents that housed families, children running about like they were on a playground.Children. Voldemort obviously didn't recruit kids simply for manpower; he must have connected to many families and convinced them to join every member. It must be a new method of his as opposed to taking in only the strong, young, powerful witches and wizards. But she could understand his reasons to recruit families: children trained in the Darks Arts at a young age only made for more powerful witches and wizards as they grew older. It was exactly what she feared for her own child, it being raised in the shadows of criminals and Unforgivable curses. She made a mental note to mention the use of children to Voldemort later, once they were alone again.
Swept up in the current of people, she looked about her surroundings as though she were a newborn child. She eased into the crowd as though one with them, which she liked, though she did hear people whisper sharply as she approached, but that was all. People merely watched as she passed, curious at the girl that was supposed to usher in a new era for Voldemort and his followers. She knew now how Harry felt being ogled constantly, but she told herself to get used to that feeling of being watched.
Behind her, her hand maidens followed. Thinking of where in camp she would like to go first, she stopped to ask them if they knew about any tents set up to house books or the like. The eldest, whom Harmony learned was named Melantha, replied there was a tent set up for the things saved from Riddle mansion and there might be books there. Melantha, as well as the two younger girls, Kalista and Elodie, guided her to the tent where some men were stacking and unpacking boxes of random objects snatched before their former home went up in smoke. The three women were about to follow her into the tent when she turned back around to stop them and proposed they be dismissed for the rest of the day. They merely stood there confused.
"Come on," Harmony smiled, "you don't want to follow me around all day, do you?"
"On the contrary, my Lady," Melantha spoke, the one Harmony already associated to be the leader of her ladies, "you are our most important priority. The Dark Lord was very specific: we must be at your every whim."
"Well, that's a bit much, isn't it?"
As though she hadn't heard, the eldest continued, "Whatever it is you need, be it help with dressing, doing shopping, or sending messages throughout camp, we are here for you. It is our job."
Harmony bit her bottom lip in thought as she regarded the younger girls that waited expectantly for her to give commands. "Okay," she barked, "first thing's first: I am not Lord Voldemort."
Kalista and Elodie exchanged glances at Harmony's informal use of their master's name, but Melantha narrowed her eyes at Harmony. "A very…strange first request, my Lady, if you don't mind me saying."
"It's not a request. It's the truth and I want all of you to realize that. Don't treat me like you do him. There's no need for you to fear me. I want trust."
"M…my Lady," the eldest sputtered. "My Lady, of course. Is there…anything else?"
"Yes," she replied. "Actually there is some shopping I need done. I literally have nothing but the clothes on my back. I'm not sure how long we'll be here, but if you could perhaps get me things I'll need otherwise, like more clothes: night garments, socks, cloaks, and such."
"Of course, my Lady." Melantha ordered the other two to go throughout camp to pick up various things. They told Harmony she didn't have to pay a cent for anything, which she already half-expected, but she was thankful all the same; she had little to no money left in her Underground tournament winnings since most of it had been spent on Polyjuice potion.
Harmony left them to go inside the tent. There were artifacts everywhere. It was surprising how much had managed to be saved. Tapestries were rolled up, leaning against stacks and stacks of paintings. Some silver and gold candle stick holders rest beneath heaps of old parchment next to ancient looking boxes that held unknowable treasures. And there in the corner were mounds of books resting next to an empty bookshelf, waiting to be sorted into their proper places. She could tell the shelf was barrowed off from somewhere; it was plain and dull in its decoration, a kind of thing that wouldn't be allowed in the extravagant Riddle mansion. She immediately set to work, dropping down within the piles and glancing at their titles before placing them on the shelf. She found plenty of good material for her to use in the lessons she had to conduct to the followers tomorrow. There were typical spell books and incantations she was familiar with, but there were also Dark Arts books amongst the piles, feeling like cold dead stones in her hands. She didn't glance much at those. It wasn't long before she decided to set aside a pile of her own to bring back to her tent.
With every book she set aside, Voldemort's cold voice echoed in her mind, "Yes, I was told you were a bookworm." When did he say that? It was so long ago, when he first showed her his massive library at Riddle mansion. He had mocked her and she was irritated by it. Now she smiled at the memory. Yes, she was a bookworm. But so was he.
"Hey!" a man's gruff voice called out behind her.
Harmony spun around. She thought she had been alone in the tent. Alas, she looked around and saw no one. Just she, the books, the trunks, the tapestries, the paintings…Her eyes narrowed onto the paintings.
"Oi! Curly!" the man called out to her again.
Harmony dropped her book of spells and went over to the stack. The painting on top was a nighttime scene with a knight in black armor in the forefront and a brothel in the background. With a rather curvy and skimpy woman attached to his arm, the knight staggered from side to side of the scene as though drunk. When Harmony appeared in his line of vision, he roared in approval, "There she is! Thought she was deaf, this one. What? Haven't you ever seen a painting talk?"
"What do you want?" she asked, not kindly.
A wineskin appeared in his black gauntlet hand and he took a long draft. Only when his companion snatched the drink away to get her own fill did the black knight speak again. He jammed a thumb over his shoulder, as though pointing to the brothel behind him. "There's a big burly broad that wishes to speak with thee."
Harmony's eyebrows knit together. She bent on her knees to peer closer into the painting. "In there?" she asked hesitantly.
The knight laughed riotously, his cheeks rosy red. "Try again, Curly! Look below."
Then she understood. She picked up the painting of the knight and set it aside. She gazed down onto the new painting on top, and her eyes lit up with unexpected joy. "Claudia!"
The portrait of the full-figured witch in purple robes was glaring up at Harmony with hands placed firmly on her wide hips. The ferocity smoldering in the witch's eyes could have melted away the globs of paint clinging to the canvas.
"Never," Claudia spat, "would I ever share a painting with that…that mongrel. Ever!"
"I've never been too fond of you either, plum princess," the black knight muttered from his brothel across the tent.
"I heard that!" Claudia shouted back. "I heard. I—what did he say? What did he call me?" she questioned, turning on Harmony.
"Never you mind," Harmony replied, still smiling at the woman. It felt as though she was reunited with an old friend. The last she had seen the witch in the painting was the night she left Riddle mansion to go to Hogwarts. "Claudia. It's been so long. I almost thought you burned up in the mansion."
"Almost," the witch said, lowering her shoulders like a wolf lowering its hackles. "Anyway, how have you been? Keeping out of trouble I hope. Though I doubt it somehow. You never did as I told you all those months ago. Tell me what's been going on with you. Merlin! I have never been so out of the loop. Ever since the headquarters moved here, we've been stuck in this drafty old shelter. Last bit of news I heard was the battle at Hogwarts hadn't gone exactly as Master would've liked, and when he did return to the mansion briefly, he came back without you."
Harmony asked the witch slyly, "Were you worried about me, Claudia?"
The witch stuck her nose in the air. "Master commanded that I look out for you. I was merely keeping to my job description."
"Well, I've missed you, too. After all, you did save my life once or twice."
Claudia's lips twitched in what could have been a smile. "Tis true. You would have been lost forever in the bowels of the mansion in a perpetual daydream after what you saw in that room."
Harmony hid her grimace and slowly bent over to pick back up a spell book.
Claudia's sharp eyes narrowed up at Harmony from her canvas. "By the way…"
"Oh gargoyles," Harmony said quickly. "Look at all these books. I hate seeing them all scattered about like this. I think I'm going to just-"
When Harmony left Claudia's line of vision to retreat into the safety of the books, the purple-robed witch shouted out, "No-no-no-no, get back here! I just remembered we had a certain conversation last we saw each other, regarding what you saw in that future room of yours. Weren't you preg-?"
"I don't know what I saw," Harmony said in a rush, "and neither did you. That woman could have been anybody."
"You know she was you. I can see the fear in your eyes."
"I'm not afraid of my future."
"You are. Everybody is in some way. But I also hope you remembered what I told you about the future: it can always change. That room merely showed you what your future would be if you stayed on the path you were taking. And?"
"And what?"
"Have you changed your path?"
Harmony thought about the pregnant woman she saw in the room that was supposed to reveal a moment in her future. She thought about Narcissa, revealing that she was in fact going to have a baby. She thought about Claudia and whether she could trust her with the truth. Harmony hugged the book to her chest and shrugged timidly.
"Oh, Merlin's beard," Claudia hissed as she gazed up at Harmony's sad but coy smile. "So it's true…Can I say it?"
Harmony frowned down at the witch. "Say what?"
"I think this would be an opportune moment to say this."
"Say what?"
"I'll just go ahead and say it then."
"Okay."
"I told you so."
Harmony's shoulders sagged as she shook her head.
The black knight's voice carried over from his painting on the other side of the tent, "What? Curly is really what?"
Harmony jumped when Claudia suddenly screeched, "It's none of your bloody business, mongrel!"
The women exchanged respected looks.
"So I take it you haven't told my master yet."
"How can you tell?"
"Oh, I figured you to be the kind to keep something like this until the very last minute."
Harmony shrugged in reply.
"So why haven't you told him?"
"Because…" she began to say, but looked over her shoulder at the black knight's painting and inched closer to Claudia to whisper, "Because I'm afraid that if he has a better replacement for his heir then he'll get rid of me. What use to his plans would I be then?"
"And by 'get rid of' you mean 'kill'?"
"Well," Harmony said, "yes."
Claudia was silent a moment, her lips thinning as she pressed them together in thought. "That does sound like something the Dark Lord would do," she began, but then added, "a year ago."
"What? What do you mean?"
"I mean people change. When Master eventually returned after the battle at Hogwarts, I noticed something different about him. Don't ask me to explain how, but he was just unlike himself. Sometimes I'd walk into a painting and he'd be there in a room, just sitting, staring at nothing. And I always wondered at what he was thinking about. You're right, his plans are important to him and I'm sure at one time they meant everything, but now? Now that you're involved, I'm not so sure."
"You know I've never wanted this," Harmony said as she placed a hand over her arm where she felt the Serpentine charm slithering. "I never asked for any of this to be brought on me. I don't want the same things he does. I don't want to be a part of his plans."
"Then for heaven's sake, girl!" Claudia exclaimed. "Why are you still here?"
Harmony thought for a long moment. Why, indeed? "Because…because that's what you do for the people you care about. No matter how hard things get or how horrible the things they do, the ones you care for are all you have. I need to stay with him. Not just because he wants me to, but because I know it's what he needs. Look, I can see his dreams from time to time. Oh Claudia, they're horrible. There is so much death and dying on his behalf, it's like deep down he believes he's meant to be alone for the rest of his life. It's like his hunger for power is trying to…compensate for something. I don't know, but the way I catch him looking at me sometimes…Claudia, I know I'm close to making some kind of break through."
The look in Claudia's eyes was heavy with a deep sadness and pity Harmony wasn't used to seeing in the strict witch. Claudia sighed heavily, shaking her head. "You know what I'm going to tell you, don't you?"
Harmony dropped her head, looking down at her hands.
"You have to tell him."
Harmony shut her eyes tightly, shaking her head.
"Don't be daft! Have a little trust, girl!" Claudia chided. "Besides, the longer you wait the harder it will be. Your appearance will change soon enough; he will see your stomach grow and then you will have some serious explaining to do."
"I will tell him," Harmony said defensively, but when Claudia rose a critical eyebrow up at her, she added, "eventually. I just want to be sure he'll want both of us and not just the better replacement."
Claudia pinched the bridge of her nose between her eyes. "You know, for being the brightest witch of your age, you really are the most stubborn as they come."
Harmony smiled down at the witch sheepishly, though glad the matter had been settled.
She moved Claudia's portrait upright onto one of trunks so she could watch while Harmony finished moving the books to the shelves. Grabbing a couple blank pieces of parchment, she jotted down spells to teach in her lessons the next day. Her other partner in teaching volunteered to create the schedule. She wasn't sure what kind of help Barty was going to be. She was afraid he was only going to make an embarrassment out of her in front of everyone.
Not having eaten that day, Harmony found Melantha and asked where she could get something to eat. The eldest handmaiden escorted her to the market where they found a large food court filled with booths, tables, and feasting people. At one of the food stalls, Harmony ordered a shepherd's pie with pumpkin juice. Kalista and Elodie returned from shopping, carrying parcels of clothes, lavender soap, and shampoo. In thanks, Harmony offered them to order something to eat as well. Melantha declined, but the younger girls gleefully ordered a treacle tart with golden syrup. Most of the tables were full but seats were quickly offered to them, which they thankfully took. While they ate, people approached them to offer her gifts and food as though word of her lack of personal belongings had spread. Harmony thought of all these people that most likely left their own homes to be there and how they themselves had few belongings, so she declined their gifs as politely as she could. Except for one: a handmade silver-wire bracelet offered to her by a girl some twelve years old. The material wasn't extravagant but the knotting was intricate and it slipped onto Harmony's wrist with perfection.
The air smelled delicious with food: sweet, salty, tangy, and everything in between. People talked and laughed in groups. So different from the atmosphere Harmony remembered at Riddle mansion, which was usually heavy with silence and dust and cobwebs. After they ate, her ladies gave a tour of all the nearby activities. There were five or six recreational tents used for anything, one of which would house Harmony's lessons the next day. But what took up most space were the homes. Tents and caravans of every size were sardined together, but despite the dense crowd, everyone seemed to be getting along. People gathered around friendly fires, chatting, reading, eating, and even playing music. Men and women worked to keep the new headquarters organized. More tents were always being erected and food was always being carried in by new followers. Harmony could tell the large new operation was still in its charitable stage. Right now, all they had was what the followers could supply from their own belongings. But she knew that would change; Voldemort would eventually decide to let them pillage other towns to keep their growing population provided for.
While all the able-bodied individuals did the heavy work, Harmony often found the younger generations hanging out in the recreational tents, playing games or practicing duels. For a while, she sat on the benches set up along the walls and watched them cast spells back and forth. They all looked to be her age and she thought about joining them, maybe showing them a thing or two. It had been awhile since she had spent time with people her own age. The last she could think of was with Draco Malfoy and, well…spending time with him hadn't been really worth much. She decided not to join the others; once they noticed her presence, they ogled her until she began to feel awkward and left.
Within a couple hours Harmony was already tired of socializing and craved the comfort and isolation of her and Voldemort's tent deep in the forest. But before she decided to take the long trek back, she stopped by a medium sized tent that contained a large group of children; among them she recognized Aislin. The girl spotted Harmony peering into their little daycare and a smile spread on her pink lips. The witches in charge tried to stop the little girl from rushing over, but Harmony assured them it was alright. Though once Aislin came to her, it was as though it gave all the other children permission to stop what they were doing to crowd Harmony, overwhelming her with wide eyes and questions.
"Can I see your charm?"
"What's Master like?"
"Are you his wife? That's what my mum calls you."
"Do magic! Do magic!"
"Can I see your wand?"
"I heard you used to go to Hogwarts-"
"I wish I could go."
The last one who spoke caught her attention. It was a little blond-haired boy with freckles. She bent down to a knee in front of the child and asked him over the voices of the other children, "What do you mean you wish you could go? Aren't you?"
The boy shrugged his skinny shoulders. "Mum and Dad say I'll be going to school here, like all the other kids."
"Here?" Harmony asked incredulously, "You mean here, as in this campsite?"
The boy smiled, showing his gapping set of baby teeth. "Of course, silly, where else would we go?"
Oh my god, Harmony hissed in her mind. She couldn't imagine a life without Hogwarts. These poor children depraved of their chance at a proper education: she refused to hear it. It had to be a part of Voldemort's plan to raise the children as proper Death Eaters: with a controlled educational system. Seeing all the smiling children, giggling and playing, and then thinking of them growing up to be dark mercenaries; the thought made her shiver. She forced a smile at the little boy and ruffled his blond hair. "Well, we'll see about that."
His eyes lit up. "You mean I can go to Hogwarts!"
"I said we'll see–" but before she finished, he jumped and wrapped his small arms around her neck, shrieking with joy. She felt another child leap onto her back, holding on to her shoulders, and at once, little hands wrapped around her in playful hugs. Her forced smile eased into a real one as she found herself laughing with the others.
"My Lord!" One of the school witches exclaimed. Harmony looked over at the woman just in time to see her drop into a low bow. Her head spun around to the entrance of the tent where, sure enough, Voldemort stood like a tall, dark omen amongst the vibrant children. His hard blue eyes were narrowed on Harmony, not accusingly, but as though unsure how to comprehend what he was seeing. One by one the children dropped off her shoulders and stepped away from her dress.
He blinked and the emotion in his eyes faded. He said to her simply, "Time to go."
She nodded and stepped around the children to go to him. As they were leaving, one of the children could be heard saying clearly, "What happened to his skin?"
Voldemort growled, groping at the collar of his cloak to conceal the vicious burns that ravaged one side of his jaw, creeping down beneath his clothes. Harmony watched him out of the corner of her eye. Was he still in a bad mood? She placed a delicate hand on his arm, but he just turned his face away from her. Yep, she huffed in her mind as she dropped her hand, still in a bad mood. She wondered what had turned it on since this morning.
People bowed as they passed, followed by scattered voices saying "Lord and Lady," but Voldemort ignored them as he usually did, always striding past as though on a mission of more importance. Harmony smiled at everyone politely, trying desperately to keep up with Voldemort's long-legged pace. In an attempt to cheer him up, Harmony told him about her day: taking a tour of the campsite, sorting through the saved spell books, greeting everyone who approached her, even her delicious meal at the market. "People showered me with gifts: food, money, jewelry, but I declined most of them."
"Good," Voldemort grunted in reply. "Modesty is an admired trait in a leader."
"So," she hinted meekly, "they like me."
"Indeed."
"Aren't you happy?"
"I am relieved."
"I thought that was what you wanted, for them to see me as your equal."
"I did." He froze and turned to her. "But keep in mind that seeing you as my equal and liking you are two completely different things. These people are not your friends. They are your followers. You command them. Punish them if need be. The way you let those children embrace you like a parent, it…it's…Since when do you like children?"
"Since recently," she muttered.
But he didn't catch her meaning and went on. "Not only will you be a leader someday in the far future, but you will be their mentor. Now, have you ever been in a personal relationship with one of your mentors?"
She knew it was supposed to be a rhetorical question. He was trying to make a point. But she couldn't help herself. "As a matter of fact…"
He cast his cold eyes on her.
She smirked at him, and after a moment he straightened himself, adjusting the front of his robes. He glanced around at the crowd, not meeting her eyes.
"Besides me."
Harmony hid her smile as she shook her head.
As they ascended the hill that separated the camp from the forest, he explained why he had come to find her:
"A welcome dinner for us has been organized by our most loyal followers. We'll be meeting them at the main tent in a few hours. You and I have been traveling in a forest for the past couple days; both of us need a wash and change of clothes before we go to the dinner."
Harmony nodded submissively as he guided her back to their tent. When they arrived, she had expected him to pull out a large tub that had somehow gone overlooked. Instead, he found a sac and stuffed it with a change of clothes and soap. After Harmony decided to follow suit with her new clothes and lavender soap, he threw the sac over his shoulder and left the tent.
"Where are we going?" Harmony asked after a couple minutes of walking through the darkening forest. The sun was setting and cast long shadows through the trees.
"Somewhere to bathe, of course."
She guessed a river or stream nearby. But she was wrong. He took her closer and closer to the mountainside that hugged the valley of the campsite. Before long, she began to hear a constant rush and the air became damp with cool moisture. They made a break through the trees and there, in a large nook of the mountainside, was a waterfall cascading into a large pool of crystal blue waters. It was beautiful with the sky above a pinkish-purple hue from the sunset and the falling water glittering in the rising moon.
Harmony watched Voldemort as he rid himself of his shoes and socks, setting them orderly on the shore. Yes, she liked this place. It was out-of-the-way, secluded; somewhere a person could truly be alone. She took out her lavender soap, setting it aside, and started to undress herself. When the back clasps of the dress—Merope Riddle's dress—were undone, the fabric slid off her body like liquid to the ground. Wearing only her thin cotton underdress, Harmony picked up the green gown and rolled it into a ball so it didn't catch too much of the moisture from the waterfall that had coated her skin in seconds.
She picked up her soap and straightened, looking for Voldemort. He was in the process of unbuttoning his shirt, one of many layers he usually wore. His eyes gazed around their scenery casually as the opening of his shirt widened with each button undone. She wasn't sure why these actions always attracted her undivided attention. Whenever he dressed, changed, undressed her eyes would watch his every moment with fascination. It was the way he did it: shedding his many layers of clothing, she couldn't help but think as she watched that she was seeing not Lord Voldemort but an ordinary man with needs and all-too-human necessities.
He fed the shirt off his shoulders one at a time then whipped it to the damp ground. Impossibly pale skin covered his arms down to his stomach which flexed as he moved. A couple inches below his belly button, his belt cinched up black trousers around his lean hips. Her eyes froze their journey down his person and flicked upward to meet his face and she realized his gaze was hard on her.
"Well, what are you waiting for?" he asked. His tone was almost taunting, as though he held an advantage over her for catching her in the act of ogling him.
She blinked away any last traces of the spell she had put herself under and smiled at him sheepishly. Holding her lavender soap to her chest, she stepped into the pool and goosebumps rose up on her body. The water was chilly, especially because the weather had been cold lately, but it was a good kind of chilly—the kind that pierced every pore and made the nerve endings come alive. She stepped on small pebbles at first, but the closer she came to the waterfall, the more the pebbles turned to sand which pleasantly squished up between her toes. Withholding a gasp when the water came up to her stomach, she watched as a shadow rippled beside her beneath the water. When Voldemort came up from the surface, a pale hand immediately went to slick back his black hair. Pearls of water rolled off his forehead, over his lips, down his chest. The sight made Harmony feel less than graceful with her arms clutched around her chest, shivering from the cold.
"Go down," he said, placing a hand on her shoulder. "You'll get used to the cold more quickly."
Harmony held her breath and let her legs give out from under her as she dunked into the water completely. When she was immersed, needle pricks pierced her every pore; it hurt at first, but time soon eased the pain until all that was left was her heart pounding in her ears. Voldemort went down with her, and when she was done adjusting he pulled her hand through the water and they swam over to the falls. Beneath it, the cascade pounded her back like a deep tissue massage, and when they came up they were on the other side hidden behind the crystal curtain of the waterfall. There were nooks in the soaked rock wall for Harmony to set down her cleaning things. She started on the soap. With her back to Voldemort, she drenched her hands in suds and used her fingers to scrub at her skin. The lavender smell wafted up from her body and she smiled at its pleasant scent. The thin fabric of her cotton underdress plastered to her like an extra layer of skin; it had been awhile since it was washed, so she merely scrubbed her hands over the fabric. Hopefully once it dried, it would still smell like lavender. Behind her, Voldemort splashed around, dropping into the water to get rid of the soap suds. When she was done scrubbing her body, she reapplied the lavender soap to her hands and brought it up to her hair.
The roar of the waterfall was loud enough that Harmony didn't hear Voldemort move towards her until she heard his breath in her ear. He inhaled deeply through the nose, taking in her new scent. His fingertips pressed into her hips and he brought her flush against him. Her breathing came quicker, which he surely must have noticed. With his head hanging languidly in the crook of her neck, he brought up a hand and slipped it in the opening of her underdress. He rested the hand against her heart where he felt it fluttering like a trapped bird against his fingertips.
"Am I frightening you?" he purred as his lips brushed the base of her neck.
She opened her mouth to reply, but only shallow gasps came out. Giving up, she just shook her head. As if drawn to its master, her Serpentine charm slithered almost seductively up her arm and over her shoulder to where Voldemort's warm lips were. She had always considered the Serpentine charm to have a mind of its own, but now the idea occurred to her the Voldemort's mind and the snake's mind were one and the same. She thought about the charm constantly roving over her, feeling her, caressing her, familiar with every inch of her body. And she suspected Voldemort was more familiar with her contours than she was.
He moved his head so he could see the side of her face, and he brought a hand up to tilt her chin in his direction.
Harmony caught a glance of the severe burns on his arm getting close to her—that brutal blemish—and she winced, looking away.
Seeing this, he immediately froze. And all the sudden his touch was gone and two feet was already between them.
He growled over the roar of the waterfall, "Am I really that grotesque to look at?"
Harmony spun around with a reply fast on her lips. "No, of course not! It's just…they look painful."
He snatched her hand that had gone up to cover her breasts, which could be seen through the thinness of her wet underdress. He placed it gingerly against the burned part of his chest and held it there.
"Go ahead, feel," he commanded then added tauntingly, "You didn't mind touching me so much last night."
She blushed as she hazily remembered their feverish passion from the night before.
He dropped her hand, but she kept it on the burns, caressing the uneven texture. Muscles moved and tensed beneath her fingertips.
"Well?" he spat.
"Well what?" she murmured in reply.
"What are you thinking about, woman? I can't read your mind."
She wondered a moment. "I'm trying to think of what was so important to you that you had to run into a burning building with little to no chance of escape."
"Family heir loom," he replied. "Irreplaceable."
"I'm sorry to hear that."
"Why?"
"Weren't you unsuccessful in retrieving it? I don't remember seeing you come out of the burning mansion with anything."
"Oh," he chuckled. "I got it, alright."
"What?" Harmony cast her eyes up at him curiously. "What was it?"
He was silent for a moment, just watching her. "You'll find out soon enough."
"Or now," she argued.
He shook his head. "Not now. Not ready."
He didn't clarify whether it was she or he who wasn't ready, but he spoke no further about it. Whatever the object was, the idea of it obviously distracted Voldemort's mind; he stared off into nothing while he finished cleaning himself and refused to meet Harmony's eyes when she silently demanded it.
So, she thought to herself as she finished washing the rest of her hair, I'm not the only one still keeping secrets.
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Serpentine Series