A Snake Named Voldemort

Chapter 5

Harry's face paled as he suddenly understood. That vague, detached pain he was feeling was from the binding spell, but it wasn't his pain. It was Voldemort's, coming across that strange link they shared. Dumbledore's spell apparently wasn't as weak and useless as he thought; it really just targeted Voldemort, not Harry.

It made the wizard wonder if perhaps Dumbledore suspected about Voldemort more than Harry thought he did.

"Bloody hell!" Harry cursed, jumping up and running down the flight of stairs, once again taking two at a time. He noted that as he got closer to the Common Room, that detached pain lessened but anger and an overwhelming exhaustion began to take its place.

Downstairs, he found that, unlike only minutes ago, several of the students had turned their attention away from the tournament and had taken notice to what was happening by the fireplace. With a sense of urgency, Harry approached the corner and found Voldemort's pale body half-hazardly coiled around himself.

Harry felt shocked at the sight. Voldemort's sides were heaving, and his mouth had faint traces of lather around the edges. His red eyes were dull and looked disturbingly like old blood, the bright red color faded to a ruddy brown. Harry didn't think he was fully conscious.

:You look awful,: Harry whispered. It went to show how equally awful Voldemort must have felt when he didn't reply. This was one of the times Harry hated being a Gryffindor, for the guilt he felt over Voldemort's suffering. This was the Dark Lord, murderer of innocents; in all likelihood he deserved the pain he received. But all Harry felt was the strange tangle of guilt, pity, and something else as he almost tenderly picked the snake up off the floor and pressed the long body as best he could to his chest.

:You and your luck,: Harry muttered under his breath, once again making his way out of the Common Room and up the stairs. Around him, his fellow Gryffindors whispered amongst themselves and did not move from their positions until Harry was out of sight. As he reached the top of the stairs, he could hear that they had resumed their loud card game.

Back in the dorm room, Harry crawled into bed again and settled onto his back, Voldemort still cuddled to his chest. To an outsider, knowing who the two were, the arrangement might have seemed a bit odd but all Harry currently felt was concern for his would-be killer. His hands were still wrapped around the pale body, his fingers absentmindedly stroking the smooth scales in a comforting gesture. Though Harry hated to admit it, he felt a stab of pity and understanding for Voldemort's situation. He himself had spent ten years and several summers trapped with people who hated him and whom he felt rather poorly about as well, unable to escape and completely reliant on whatever reluctant services they offered him to satisfy the needs of survival. Yes, he'd certainly been in Voldemort's shoes before.

Several minutes passed without much signs of life from the man-snake other than the steady rise and fall of his sides as he breathed. They had been further apart than the limits of their ten foot range for quite some time, Harry recalled, and Voldemort had been under the binding spell's effects for most of it. The pain wouldn't have started out that bad, giving Voldemort plenty of warning so he could close the distance between them to satisfy spell. With a start Harry realised that where he found the wizard indicated he had actually crawled away from the direction Harry was in. That probably made the spell's effects all that much worse.

Stupid stubborn Dark Lord, Harry chided in his mind.

What to do now? There was one thing Harry could think of. But...Harry had never tried to access their link himself; it was always Voldemort who took advantage of it. Could Harry connect to it as well? Closing his eyes, the young wizard felt within himself for that strange thread connecting their two minds, feeling for any clue as to the state Voldemort was in. With a start, Harry discovered that finding and accessing it was easy, and that Voldemort had no walls preventing the intrusion. Apparently with his magic bound, Voldemort's Occlumency shields were inoperable.