Weapon

Disclaimer: Harry Potter and associated characters belong to J.K. Rowling. I am using them without permission but am not making any money from this endeavour. Characters you don’t recognise belong to me, as does the plot. No using without permission. (Hypocritical, I know.)

Weapon (Possession Chapter LXXXV)
Chapter XXXIV – Perfection of Form
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Harry blinked sleepily not quite awake but not aware enough to care even though he could hear a conversation going on around him. He was used to that though, used to waking up to the sound of people talking but he wasn\'t used to that conversation being in parcelmouth... even so he couldn\'t bring himself to raise his attention. He was warm, and comfortable, and there was a feeling of satisfaction coursing through his body. He didn\'t need to be awake. As he dreamily closed his eyes, trying to name, the conversation continued around him and he allowed himself to be lulled by it.

$You appear well, little one.$

$As do you, Sire.$

$This human\'s mind is similar to mine, so it was an easy adjustment. We get along well.$

$He is... He is different, Sire. I don\'t think I will ever be a Serpent Lord.$

$Ss, ss, ss...$ There was the sound of reptilian laughter.

$Sire?$

$I know and I do not expect you to be. We recognise other positions of power. Besides, I am the Serpent Lord and there is no need for two.$

Xaos nodded, eyes closing briefly as he acknowledged the point but the quiver in his crest betrayed that he was still not at ease.

$Just continue as you have been Little One. You will do well. Your host will not be acknowledged as a Serpent Lord but shall through my host be known as a Serpent\'s Mate and through you as a Serpent King. There is no shame in that. He has his own power to follow.$

$And he is awake,$ the timbre of the voice altered slightly and even through sleep Harry knew it was the human who had spoken. It reminded him of something and as he awoke completely he glared into red eyes.

\"You bit me!\"

Voldemort laughed softly. \"Yes I did but you don\'t appear too badly off and it is a part of the ritual.\"

Something in Harry shifted and he felt the piece of Fawkes move restlessly. It thought he was still asleep but he was going to have to let out the illusion of himself soon, least Fawkes notice the trap and all be lost. When he left this room he would return to being he they expected and already the loss of freedom was clamping down upon him.

\"A ritual you cannot complete yet,\" Harry retorted with perhaps slightly more force than he meant but the impeding entrapment did not encourage him to be subtle. The ritual was one of basilisks bonding. It was the marking of mutual ownership and it ensured that both were immune to the other\'s eyes and venom in all situations. The link between them was already complete, this would just enhance it.

For an instant it seemed like the combination of Dark Lord and Serpent would strike and show Harry just how much the ritual couldn\'t be completed but then logic clouded lust and the Dark Lord seemed as annoyed as Harry about the situation. \"I know, but separation is not sweet sorrow and it is not something I enjoy. You are mine Little One, and I want the world to know that.\"

\"I want the world to know that as well,\" Harry murmured soothingly, shifting himself against the older man. \"And the waiting is not easy on me too. I want them to see the truth, I want them to know but I want us to be able to enjoy that knowledge, not fight against their denial for years and so this is the way it must be.\"

\"Xatarass always says we humans complicate things and that I should just bite Dumbledore and be done with it... But that would not end it.\"

\"If it would, I would have bitten him already,\" Harry said. \"But you want absolute victory not the temporary peace of shock. And we will have that, in time.\"

\"Sooner than you realise I think, if you can tap into your full potential, my Little One.\"

\"Hmm?\"

\"Your animagus form, do you not feel the power?\"

Harry looked at himself. He could remember something pulling him apart and power begging for his attention but he didn\'t remember much after that until he had awoken to find his beloved coupling with him. A pleasurable state but one he hadn\'t been able to reciprocate until later. His hands didn\'t appear much different until he noted that his nails were thicker and longer... They were no longer nails but claws and for some reason he could see a lot more detail on the skin... bumps and ridges and curves which hadn\'t been there before and they pulsed with an energy that flickered slightly, waves of it rising off him. With the sudden consciousness of his body he felt pulled back, as if his centre of gravity had changed and Harry shifted and was surprised to hear the rustle of feathers. He concentrated on his shoulder blades and felt something move, cutting through the air freely and feeling light.

\"Wha... What am I?\"

The Dark Lord smiled. \"You are very beautiful,\" he said softly, kissing Harry\'s forehead before he answered the question Harry really wanted. \"You are a tenshi.\"

\"A tenshi?\" The black haired boy was still surprised. Thanks to the knowledge of his beloved he knew something about tenshi\'s but the amount of information didn\'t seem to be enough. Perhaps he had finally found something that hadn\'t been transferred to him.

\"I don\'t know much about them, no one does,\" Voldemort said. \"By your very being, you will know more about them and I think your little shadows know more.\"

-Of course we do,- came the unconcerned whisper, -but at the moment, there are other things that are more important.-

\"Such as?\"

-Such as the time.-

Harry tilted his head. \"What time is it?\" He asked. He had to stay in this room until morning but he didn\'t know how long he\'d slept. Even so, the last thing he wanted was for Dumbledore to come looking for him. Being wrapped in the Dark Lord\'s arms was not an image he wanted the Headmaster to think about for a while, even if it was warm and comfortable and he felt loved and accepted, even if it was where he wanted to stay. Not yet. He couldn\'t be seduced by it yet.

\"It is unfortunately time my precious that you were gone. Coming of Age Ceremonies, even for the powerful, do not last this long into the next day but they will assume you were sleeping.\" Voldemort said the last as he rose, a long fingered hand reaching out to pick up his wand before he flicked it through a lazy shape, transfiguring fresh robes for them both from the shreds of fabric that was all that remained of their others.

Harry sat for a while longer, feeling his wings arch over his head before the ends splayed on the ground behind him. They felt comfortable. His new form felt right, somehow but he couldn\'t just get dressed and go to greet Dumbledore because not even that ancient wizard could fail to detect the scent of last night\'s activities.

The Hogwarts Headmaster would rightly assume that his partner had been the Dark Lord but would the wrongly believe that it was yet another demonstration of the Serpent Lord\'s power and would act with his full power. Voldemort would fight him, and no matter what happened, Voldemort would not be hurt, but Harry might reveal those things they weren\'t ready for. No... he had to be clean when he left here but that could be a problem... There were cleaning and bathing charms but none really hid the smell of sex...

\"I can\'t...\" he said quietly. \"They\'ll smell it.\"

\"Smell what, Little One?\" Voldemort asked as he turned, tongue flickering to sample the air before a slow satisfied smile formed on his features as he realised what his mate was talking about. \"Oh...\" He was amused but at the same time he shared Harry\'s concern.

-It is nothing,- the shadow\'s interjected. -Master, complete your transformation, then change back into human, and there will be no problem.-

\"Complete? You mean that is not everything?\" The Serpent Lord seemed incredulous.

-Of course it\'s not everything,- the shadows said tersely. -That\'s a halflings form.-

The Serpent Lord\'s eyes opened wide and he looked back at his mate, reassessing what he could see. Power... Power almost without end was what he could see and that was the form of a halfling..?

-Pure bloods are pure magic,- the shadows began explaining. -They have no corporal form unless they will it and they can only be defeated by the application of more power. The form you are in now, Master is that of a Halfling because you are still holding on to your human self. That why it feels so comfortable but it is something you must let go of. Master, you will always be who you are. The shape in not important to us, Master, only your power is.-

The Dark Lord looked at his mate softly. Still... Harry might understand but he still needed to know such things. \"Your shape is appealing to me, Little One,\" he said, adding his words of reassurance to the Shadows\'. \"But of more importance is your ability. I have always said that. You are beautiful to me, not because of your impressively beautiful physical form but for the power you wield my precious and you are mine, no matter what form you take. You are more than human to me, so do not let that limitation hold you back.\"

Harry looked confused for a moment before he realised, he had already completed the most difficult part of the animagus transformation. He had been afraid of the initial loss of his humanity but with his current shape, he couldn\'t be called human. In mind he was human, in soul he was human but in shape he was not, so there was nothing left for him to fear. \"How?\" He asked.

-Just follow our lead,- the Shadow\'s said. -This time, we can show you how it\'s done.- They added, streaming around him, snuggling close.

They began seeping inside and Harry smiled as they tickled him. -See here, Master, feel here,- they gave the instructions, twisting slightly, pulling to indicate where he should change first. He closed emerald eyes, focusing on what they were showing him, letting the feeling coming from his body guide him. It was almost an unconscious process, where it should have been one driven by knowledge and while he did feel the information there, Harry couldn\'t bring himself to apply it. This was something that felt much more comfortable, much more natural if he did it this way. There was a moment when his whole body tingled, pulsing with pins and needles and then, the feeling drained out of him, pouring out through his finger tips and toes.

Once it had past he felt light. The previous form had felt light but this felt, this almost felt like he wasn\'t there but it was a warm feeling and Harry braced himself as he opened his eyes again.

Nothing was like it should be. He\'d seen this before though, when he changed his eyes to see magic. There were swirls and streams of power everywhere. The Dark Lord looked like a serpent that was a flame with power and his aura pulsed around him powerfully. The shielding of the room was interlaced and perfect, layered slightly for maximum strength but outside it Harry could see the magic of the world. He could see Ollivander, a bright humanoid shape that had a fuzzy back... The wand maker was too powerful to be true but then Harry knew there had to be a reason everyone deferred to him beyond his neutrality. His power though... no... it wasn\'t that a of Wizard, Harry concluded, as he looked around further. With Ollivander there were three other beings.

Dumbledore he recognised after a moment. The Headmasters aura was controlled, and his power seemed to almost flow through him like blood, each pulse controlled and uniform. The paths within him were well defined. One of the others was shadowed, the true extent of their power masked and their whole being seemed fuzzy. Harry smiled as he recognised the effects of the shadows. That had to be Sirius because his servants wouldn\'t do that for anyone else, not yet. The last one though was curious. His power seemed to be pulled in two directions. One was the normal humanoid form for a wizard, power moving up and down his arms and legs as it streamed through him. The other was more scattered. Not more powerful, but more scattered as if it didn\'t know what to do and wasn\'t quite sure how to handle the power it had. That other form was shorter that a human but was not diminished by that. Harry squinted, looking further... Remus, he eventually decided, trying to focus firmly on the second lot of power and catching, just slightly the sense of wrongness about it. Yes, that was the power signature of a werewolf, and Lupin was the only one who would be here waiting for him.

Beyond them all there were more sparks of power and the Boy-Who-Lived determined that they were morning shoppers in Diagon Alley. It was time to leave.

\"It\'s time,\" He said as he looked back at his mate, ignoring the way that when he moved his power seemed to rustle around him. It was unconscious movement but Harry knew he could control it with a thought if he desired. He was surprised though, when he was forced to look down to see his mate and belatedly he realised he was hovering. \"I... what?\" He asked, dropping to the floor and looking back at himself properly.

His form appeared solid but that was only because the power flows were so tightly packed within him. He tried focusing further but was dizzy with the number of combinations he could see and the way that everything spiralled around each other. It almost hurt to look and he turned away. There were some things you weren\'t meant to know all at once.

\"My Little One,\" Voldemort said, and the smile was evident in his voice, a gloating, joyful smile, one that betrayed almost an eternity of pleasure. \"You had better not forget who owns you, least I destroy the world. They called me a seducer, but I could only seduce the individual. You, my little Basilisk, you could seduce the world with a glance, and right at the moment, I find it difficult to care that the old man is waiting.\" A long fingered hand reached out, and gently traced along the curve of Harry\'s face. It didn\'t touch him but Harry felt the Dark Lord\'s power tickling along his own and so it felt like he was touched. He could hear though a litany, a soft hiss within his mind and knew it was the underlying emotion that his mate felt. Mine, mine, mine, so beautiful, mine, mine, mine... \"You are mine,\" the Serpent Lord articulated his desire, \"And I will prove that to you and the world as many times as it takes until there is no doubt and no one dares to think that they may even look upon you without my permission.\"

The shadows purred in Harry\'s mind and he got the impression that not everything would be as Voldemort desired but he couldn\'t bring himself to correct his beloved. There were some things that always changed from what you wanted. The Dark Lord knew that and so didn\'t need to be reminded of it.

\"What do I smell like?\" Harry asked, ignoring the ownership debate.

A serpentine tongue licked lips as the Dark Lord and Xatarass sampled the air. \"Like power,\" came the final assessment. \"The room smells of sex but you are power.\"

\"Just so long as I smell like innocent power when I change back,\" Harry said, flexing his form a little to know where the edges of his being was. He might have been energy at the time but the habits of a corporal body were hard to break and knowing one\'s boundaries was instinctive. \"So, to change back I...\" he murmured, running through the steps that were required to resume human form mentally.

It was fairly simple because it was the form ingrained within him. It was the form that was natural. A lot of magic was like this. You knew the process but you didn\'t direct every part of it because once started you trusted the magic to take care of the rest. That was where mastery lay. Being able to direct every part of every spell, meant that you understood it completely but more importantly you could disrupt it, change it, make it do what you wanted it to.

When the Dark Lord in combat seemed to stop another\'s charm without countering it that was what he was doing. He was simply taking control of the magic in a section where the caster wasn\'t directing it and forcing the charm to do his bidding. He changed the streams of magic to something more useful to him rather than what the intended charm said. It was simple really, anyone could do it, but not everyone had the ability to understand magic to that level or the will to take conscious control over something that was unconscious.

All Harry did really to change back into his human form was picture vaguely how he had been and will his power to flow in that direction. He mentally said the words of the animagus charm and he felt his power react as it began flowing on the path that was his human form. He felt himself change and relaxed.

It didn\'t hurt this time because he wasn\'t afraid. He wouldn\'t be afraid of this again, and this time he was changing into what he thought was right.

When it was done though he sighed and sat cross legged, looking at his feet. He was human but... it felt empty.

\"Harry?\"

\"It\'s alright,\" he said after a moment. \"Do I smell okay?\" He asked reaching out to take the robes that had been created earlier.

\"You smell clean. It doesn\'t suit you. It makes me what to dirty you,\" Voldemort said, reaching out to embrace his mate. He licked roughly along Harry\'s neck. \"And you still taste good, but you are concerned about something...\"

\"I feel... I feel empty. I feel weak.\"

-Because you are human,- the Shadow\'s said softly. -Bear with it, Master, just for a little while.-

\"That is why I said you should not let the limitation that is humanity hold you back. And for wizards like us, my Little Basilisk, it is a limitation. You will learn to control it though, in time. I would show you but I think it better for Dumbledore\'s benefit if you learn that under his tuition so that he feels you are not a threat or at least so he believes that you are one controlled.\" Long fingers tugged the last of Harry\'s robes into position, smoothing them slightly. \"Now... though it pains me, you should go, least they come looking. While I would enjoy showing them your true loyalty, now is not yet the time.\"

Harry closed his eyes briefly, trying to adjust to the feeling that was coursing through his body. His muscles felt hollow and his eye lids felt heavy. He had had power in his grasp and it was his but it almost felt like he had let it go, it almost felt like he had given it up.

But he would regain it. Later, he would regain it and he would learn to control it and he won\'t be hindered by the shell of humanity. Not if he was going to feel like this.

\"Kiss me goodbye,\" he said, putting his arms around the Dark Lord\'s waist. \"I\'ll need something to remember you with,\" he added, pulling his mind away from what was only a temporary physical weakness.

\"And last night was not enough?\" Voldemort asked archly.

\"Last night was just a warm up.\" Harry responded saucily. Last night was simply a sample of how they would spend their nights once everything was over.

The Dark Lord was eager to comply with his mates request and he supported Harry\'s head with one long fingered hand as they kissed. As always his mate tasted of aniseed and vanilla, the two combined uniquely into something that was addictive. Innocence and experience, power and strength, youth with maturity... his beloved was everything the Dark Lord wanted. He wondered how history would record it if the two of them gave into their desires mid battle...

Separation might be the fastest and most efficient way of getting absolute control over the world but that didn\'t mean it was easy.

They pulled back eventually, flushed slightly but each tasting of the other.

\"Now go,\" Voldemort said. \"Dumbledore will no doubt want to test the new extent of your power.\"

Harry smiled in that way that the Dark Lord knew no one but him had ever seen. It was a smile full of confidence, arrogant and almost self righteous but oh so true for his mate. \"He\'ll find that out in time. For now though, I\'ll show him exactly what he wants to see.\" He reached out and opened the door, not looking back as it closed behind him.

Voldemort watched the door close and sat back into the chair, enjoying the quiet that was the shielded chamber. He had to go as well. He had many things to do but first...

\"You will help him?\"

-Of course we will. He is our Master and our Master cannot afford weakness.-

The Dark Lord nodded as the shadows flickered and faded. They would teach Harry what he needed to know because it suited them not him but that would be enough.

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