The Nightmare Man

Chapter Nine

The weather changed from warm autumn to the bitter start of a hard winter. Hogwarts ran smoothly while the rest of magical Britain started becoming more and more unstable.

The Ministry of Magic was conducting hunts for an ill omen, a creature of the old ages described as a nightmare, a plague. Cornelius Fudge provided with a sketch of the man since there was no photos of this horrible thing. There was not even a name to go with the man, only a title. The Nightmare Lord.

So people saw the face every day. It was in Diagon Alley, the Ministry, the magical villages and even a few in Knockturn Alley. The sketch was good, showing the details, enough so that he would be easily recognized.

Still, Voldemort, the Dark Lord who sort of got pushed to the side for the moment, disagreed with the sketch. Harrison had far more... well, power, if he used the first word that came into his mind. Harrison's presence bore more power and madness, a great fear and a lot of respect. A mere sketch did not do the man justice, Voldemort concluded.

And the eyes were wrong. They were lifeless in this sketch, not like Harrison's real ones... at first, when they first met Voldemort had seen nothing but a deep hatred and a brilliant but insane man in those eyes. But as time went on, they softened. Harrison became more human, free of that cell he had spent hundreds of years inside. He didn't lose his insanity, or his hatred, but he was, well... he was more kind to those who mattered.

Voldemort knew exactly what he was in Harrison's eyes. A child. An eager one, but still a child nonetheless. He was perhaps the child Harrison never had, if Voldemort felt like wondering if Harrison was capable of caring that much for another human being.

He should be able to. There was love in his eyes when he watched his servants. Voldemort knew Dumbledore considered him incapable of loving, but found it not quite true. He could love. He had just chosen not to.

Harrison had probably done the same at one point. Chosen not to love another living being.

Voldemort glanced over at one of the sketches again. They had started to show up a few days ago so Harrison should know about it already. He himself had been busy and wasn't aware that they were up until Lucius Malfoy notified him earlier today. He had gone out to see for himself and found them everywhere.

He himself apparently wasn't as important. No one, not even Albus Dumbledore had ever bothered trying to show Voldemort's face. Maybe because they didn't know which face was his real one. Voldemort liked to confuse them.

He drank up his coffee and left Diagon Alley, walking leisurely through the alley and moved past Sirius and Remus who had stopped at the Quidditch shop. Voldemort didn't turn around much, just enough to grin at the sight of them completely unaware who had just walked past them.

-o-

James and Sirius had started the habit of coming to Hogwarts, using the excuse of being worried for the safety of the children to be able to stick around. The Ministry actually posted a few more Aurors in addition to them, and Dumbledore allowed his Order to patrol the grounds.

They began to hold more meetings and despite James' protests, Severus was allowed to sit in on them. The man was barely able to give them any information about Voldemort and his plans, much less if Voldemort and the Nightmare Lord were working together. In their eyes, he had grown from a formidable spy into nothing but a simple teacher. Many dismissed even his skills as a potions master. The only ones who remained on his side were Lily and many of the students, who knew nothing of his spying and much more about his skills in potion making.

It wasn't like Severus looked even remotely interested while these meetings were going on. He wrote teaching plans or, to the anger of many members, corrected essays in his corner of Albus' office or wherever they held the meetings. He never requested to be there but Albus was the one to insist. James couldn't understand why. Sirius didn't care about understanding, he just wanted to curse the hell out of Severus and forbid him to come back to the meetings unless he had something about Voldemort to share with them.