“Hello, Harry Potter,” Lord Voldemort said in his high, cold voice. When Harry said nothing, Voldemort conjured an armchair and motioned for him to sit. “Leave us,” he hissed at Wormtail, who bowed. He backed slowly out of the room, eyeing the Dark Lord cautiously. As the door finally closed behind him, Voldemort returned his attention to Harry, who had remained standing, arms folded across his chest.
“Who are you?” Harry asked, sounding much more confident than he felt. As if he sensed this, Voldemort laughed; a cold, bone-chilling sound. Harry nearly cringed from the sound.
“All in good time, my dear boy,” he nearly hissed. “Sit.” Harry realized immediately that it was not an offer; it was a command. Finding the idea of keeping peace with this stranger for the moment quite appealing, Harry obliged. He sat in the armchair that had been conjured for him uncertainly, keeping his eyes locked on the floor. “Come now, Harry, don’t you remember?” Voldemort said almost kindly, but not without a slightly malicious gleam in his red eyes. It was time for his plan to begin in earnest.
“What do you mean? Remember what?” Harry inquired warily, looking up.
“I’d heard that you had lost your memory, but I hadn’t expected this,” the Dark Lord replied, putting his head in his hands to hide his triumphant smirk. That incompetent fool, Wormtail, had finally brought him information that was not only accurate, but useful for his malicious intentions.
“Are you going to tell me what you mean or not?” Harry asked irritably. He had been taken from a warm, comfortable bed in the middle of the night, was weak and confused, and had kept an exceptionally calm attitude through it all. Now, however, he allowed his temper to get the better of him as his mind demanded answers. Why was he here? Where was here? Who was this man? What was going on?
Voldemort sighed, lifting his head once more. “Well, you were fighting along with the rest of us when someone put the Cruciatus curse on you.” Before he could continue, Harry interrupted.
“The what?”
“The Cruciatus curse. It causes unbearable pain to its victims,” he explained, trying to keep the enthusiasm he held for the curse out of his voice. “You were kept under the curse for so long that we had thought you’d died.” Voldemort lowered his eyes to gaze dramatically into the fire; the perfect touch. “But they would have left you if you were dead. No, they took you with them instead. No doubt to fill your empty memory full of lies.” This part was spoken more to himself than Harry. He paused slightly before continuing, now speaking directly to the boy again. “What exactly did they tell you?”
Harry hesitated for a moment, uncertain of whether or not he should answer. “Not very much,” he admitted, shrugging. “They were mostly just asking me things that they thought would trigger memories.” He wasn’t sure where the Dark Lord was going with his questions, but decided that answering him was better than angering him. However, he remained wary of the other occupant of the room.
“I see…” Voldemort held his silence for a moment or two, making sure he had the perfect words for his plan. One wrong word could completely destroy everything. After all, he had to admit that, while naïve and young, Harry was hardly stupid. “Well,” he began, “I suppose I should explain everything. From the beginning.”
“The beginning?” Harry clarified. He was getting answers, but something in the deep recesses of his mind was saying that something wasn’t right. If this man was his friend, why did his… servant, for lack of better words, kidnap him? Before Harry could pursue this train of thought, though, Voldemort answered him.
“Yes. The very beginning,” the Dark Lord said solemnly, his eyes alive with suppressed glee. Now was the time. “Not long ago, Harry, you became a Death Eater.”
“A what?” Harry didn’t think that that sounded like a good thing, although the Dark Lord had seemed to mean it as a compliment. What good could possibly come from being something called a… Death Eater?
“A Death Eater; one of my followers.”
“Followers?” Harry really didn’t like the sound of that.
“To many, I am known as the ‘Dark Lord.’ My followers and I have been trying to make the Wizarding World a better place for a very long time, Harry,” Voldemort explained, choosing his words with great care. “We want to purify this world and make it fit for everyone to live in harmony with one another.” This statement nearly made Voldemort grimace. Live in harmony? Only fools like Dumbledore believed in these thoughts. “Those people that Wormtail took you away from are our enemy. They have been against my organization since the beginning.”
“But,” Harry interrupted, “they seemed just fine to me.”
“Of course they did,” Voldemort said sympathetically, laying a long-fingered hand on Harry’s shoulder. “They have wanted you on their side for a long time.”
“Why?”
“You are my most valuable servant, Harry. Without you, I would suffer quite a blow. They saw your loss of memory to be the perfect opportunity to convince you of your loyalty to their side and turn you against me. Their kindness was merely a front, dear boy.”
Harry mulled over Voldemort’s word for a while. Then, quite forcefully, he broke the silence. “So, let me get this straight,” he began, his voice a bit harsher than he had meant it to sound.
“Yes?” Voldemort almost hissed.
“I’m one of your followers?”
“Yes.”
“A… Death Eater?”
“Yes.”
“I have been for a while?”
“Yes.”
“And those people are the enemy?”
“Naturally.” The boy is falling for it perfectly, the Dark Lord thought with great satisfaction.
Harry had lapsed into silence once again. For some reason, in the back of his mind, he didn’t think he should trust this wizard or anyone in relation to him. Yet, in the predominant portion of his psyche, he couldn’t help but think that the Dark Lord’s words had made sense. The people he had been with had told him small, trivial details, but never the general picture. What were they hiding? Why hadn’t they ever told him anything deeper about who he was? They’d given him the necessities, like names and recent events, but nothing more… solid than that. Maybe it was because what Voldemort had told him was true… Maybe they were the enemy…He was brought out of his dark musings by Voldemort’s voice.
“I understand that this must be a bit overwhelming for you,” he began. “Perhaps after a good night’s sleep, things will be a bit clearer.” Harry nodded distractedly, still trying to determine the truth. Voldemort called loudly, “Severus?”
The door opened and Severus Snape entered the room, his eyes widening only momentarily as he laid eyes on the thoroughly-confused Boy-Who-Lived. “Yes, my lord?” he said smoothly as he bowed to the Dark Lord.
“Severus, I would like you to escort Harry to his quarters,” Voldemort replied evenly. Snape’s brow furrowed slightly in confusion.
“His quarters, my lord?”
“His quarters, Severus,” the Dark Lord hissed dangerously.
“Yes, my lord.” With that, Snape swept from the room, neither of its other occupants seeing the worried expression that crossed his features, darkening them momentarily.
“Well, Harry, I suppose I will say goodnight,” Voldemort said kindly. “We shall speak more on this matter later in the day.”
“Yes, sir.” Harry stood, making his way to the door. As he reached for the knob, he turned to look at the now-standing figure near the fire. “Thank you,” he said, leaving the room. The door closed behind him and Voldemort heard Harry and Snape walking away from his chamber. He sat back down in his seat and vanished the armchair that Harry had just vacated. As he stared into the dancing flames, a satisfied smirk spread slowly across his snake-like features. An outsider would have found that to be a more painful sight to see than the feeling of one hundred Cruciatus curses.
“No, Harry. Thank you.”
As I am a firm believer in the Snape-is-a-good-guy-but-still-a-git Theory, I had to include him in some way! There’s more to come between Harry and Voldemort, though, so do not worry… too much… I’ve always noticed that when someone with wicked intentions starts to twist the truth, the hero starts to doubt what he has been told or taught. That seemed to fit this chapter pretty well, so I hope you like it and, as always, please review!
~Moony
Cruciatus Cursed by Moony 62442
Chapter Notes: Ta da! I give you chapter seven, everyone! I think you know by now that nothing you recognize is mine. It’s Jo’s (because I’m never that lucky!). So, enjoy and review, please!