Dabbling With The Dark

Chapter 17

(Warning - malexmale sexual content)

Slouched in an armchair in the corner of the Gryffindor common room, he laid his hands on his stomach and closed his eyes too damned tired to do anything else. For the three weeks after his nearly full day spent with Voldemort and the Death Eaters and the two weeks since he'd gotten his hands on the bracelet, his classes had been the easiest part of his daily life. Since that day, and the kisses, Voldemort was in his head more and more often whether he was in classes or not. When he was in classes the conversation was light and sporadic, but once his classes were over it was even more time spent studying lessons only Salazar himself would have thought worthy for a Hogwarts student to learn. He didn't complain since what Voldemort taught him was a hundred times more interesting and useful than anything he learned in his classes, but as the hour grew later his attention waned until Voldemort finally chuckled and told him to go to bed. More often than not lately, he listened when Voldemort did.

As exhausting as all that studying was, his mind was focused on other things, too. There was that small, constantly occluded part of his mind that was focused on getting his hands on the last two Horcruxes. If he focused on that part too much, sleep was abandoned in favor of his own studies on things he might need to know to get his hands on the chalice and locket since he was sure getting those was going to be a lot harder than getting the bracelet had been. Being a Parselmouth was his saving grace in that outing, but he knew better than to think Voldemort would use the same method to hide a Horcrux twice. He knew where they were, had flown to the other areas that were in those portraits he gave Voldemort and felt one in an area of forest and the other at one of Salazar's former residences, but he hadn't had the time or energy to go after them yet. He would soon, though. It was already a week into March and end of the school year was approaching fast. He wanted the Horcruxes in his possession before that happened.

While a big part of his life had revolved around Voldemort since Voldemort's return, and even before that though he hadn't known that at the time, there was a new aspect to that that he was still trying to sort out in his head, too. The man had killed his parents, had been the reason he's suffered so much throughout his short life thus far. The bastard had caused the deaths of so many people, too many for him to even name. Voldemort had tried to kill him five times already, too, and still had plans to kill him as soon as the Horcrux was separated from him. He knew that, but lately he'd started wondering about that, too.

For as much as the snake-face megalomaniac taunted him about how close he'd gotten to the man, the reverse could be said as well. Firstly, was teaching him things, lots of thing that he could easily use against the man when their much-anticipated epic final battle did happen. What stuck out in his mind about that even more was how pleased Voldemort genuinely was when he did well on a lesson. On the occasions when he related one lesson to others of the past, the elation was twice as evident in Voldemort's voice. Yes, a part of that was Voldemort's amusement over turning him more and more onto Dark Arts, but he knew better than to think that was all it was. Voldemort actually did enjoy it when he did well, and as an extension, had done things to make sure he was well, too.

Though he still felt it when Voldemort was pissed off, the intolerable inferno that used to happen with his scar had been dwindled down to just an uncomfortable burn and that was only when Voldemort was really angry. Most of the time, he didn't feel it at all and it only even itched now and then. Whatever the spells were that Voldemort had used on him, and he knew Voldemort had most likely researched them, the man did it to stop his pain and that spoke volumes. So did Voldemort using a piece of his sixteen-year-old hair to Polyjuice himself into his younger self. That was completely for his benefit. He didn't see Voldemort doing that for any other Death Eater. And that was the most telling of the change between them, that Voldemort had let him sit in and participate in a Death Eater meeting. For all Dumbledore and the Order claimed that they would help him defeat Voldemort, he'd gotten more information about what the Order was up to from that meeting than he had from the Order. Ever.