To Kill You With a Kiss

Chapter 21

The blue flames were dying in the fireplace now, and more and more of the room began to vanish into the deepening shadows. Even Voldemort's monstrous features became indistinct in the last light from the flickering candles on the wall, as if he were nothing but an image from a dream, fading into the dreamless black of a deeper sleep.

"It's getting late, Harry."

Had Voldemort's voice always been this soft? Harry felt a cold but not unpleasant thrill at the nape of his neck when Voldemort spoke. He had never really listened to Voldemort's voice before, just to his words. Who can describe the lilt of the voice that curses you? Who can look into Voldemort's scarlet eyes and recall the tone of his voice? But now that Voldemort's terrifying form was fading into the evening shadows, his voice seemed to echo in Harry's mind. It was Tom's voice, and yet not Tom's at all. It was deep and melodious, with a strange haunting quality to it that reminded Harry of darkness and curses and veela song all at once.

Voldemort continued: "Professor Slughorn offered me his spare bedroom for the night, and I have accepted his offer. Trust Horace to secure more spacious accommodations for himself than any other Hogwarts teacher!" There was a hint of laughter in his voice now. "You should go back to Gryffindor Tower and get some sleep, Harry. You need to be alert when we plan the murder of Voldemort over the next few days. I will see you in the morning."

"Go back to Gryffindor Tower?" It took Harry a moment to realize that the Dark Lord had no inkling that Harry was now in a different house. "Oh, I'm not in Gryffindor."

"Not in Gryffindor?" Harry could hear the slight rustling of Voldemort's robes as the Dark Lord stirred by his side. "But I seem to recall that you were. You must be; I remember you pulling that sword out of Godric's crumpled old hat, many years from now."

Harry smiled into the gathering darkness. "I was sorted into Gryffindor in the future, yes. I mean, I will be. But in this time, the Sorting Hat put me in Slytherin."

"Harry Potter in Slytherin?" Voldemort's voice was a breath in the darkness. "What a strange thought! And yet it does make sense; you are my horcrux, after all. Imagine, the Dark Lord's own living horcrux sorted into Gryffindor! I wonder what made the Sorting Hat get it right in this time, but not in the future."

"The Sorting Hat did get it right in both times," whispered Harry. "It knows that I belong in both houses. I may be your horcrux, but I'm also me. The Hat simply put me in the house where I asked it to put me. Both times."

"You asked it-?" Tom's voice - his Tom's voice - floated toward him through the shadowy room.

"Yes, Tom. It is... it is our choices that make us what we are."

"Our choices?" A slight pause. Then Tom whispered: "I hope you are right about that, Harry. Lumos!"

The candles in the wall sconces flickered more brightly at Tom's spell, and Harry saw the shapes of his two companions growing slowly out of the shadows.

"Wandless magic? Very impressive, Professor Riddle." Harry could sense Tom squirming at the ironic undertone in Voldemort's approval. Harry studied Voldemort's pale face as it emerged from the darkness. Somehow, The Dark Lord seemed entirely different now that his eyes were of a more normal hue. His eyes were very much like Tom's, only darker and more inscrutable.

"Our choices make us what we are?" Voldemort shrugged. "That sounds like one of those trite little things Dumbledore would say, but I suppose there could be something to it after all. I am rather pleased to learn that there is a part of you that has chosen Slytherin, Harry. You look tired, my dear; you should go and get some sleep. In the Slytherin dormitory." A slight smile brushed over his pale features. "How strange, to imagine Harry Potter sleeping on silver sheets in the Slytherin dungeon! I wonder what you will dream there... I remember that dormitory so well, even after all these years. I wonder which bed is yours? Perhaps you are in my old bed? It's the one in the south corner."