Chapter 9
Harry watched their defence against the dark arts professor across the Great Hall.
Out of everyone in Hogwarts, it was actually this man that intrigued him the most.
Professor Quirrell's stutter was fake, that much he could easily tell. Though his jumpiness wasn't. And wasn't that just interesting?
But of course, Harry wasn't interested in those mundane things. What interested him more was the fact that the man seemed to have two cores of sorts.
Everyone had a single core that ranged from either dark to light, as well as the greys.
But this professor had two. One was more faded than the other and seemed to be clinging onto his normal core.
The other one seemed almost to be like a parasite living off the professor's core.
However, it did seem like he was the only one who could see as such, and wasn't that just interesting?
The professor's core was dark, but it wasn't particularly powerful. On the other hand, the… parasite… was deliciously dark, if a little weak and fractured. It practically reeked of the darkness, and Harry being Harry had a rather hard time restraining his curiosity to touch and prod at that pretty core.
The only reason why he held himself back was because he had someone else to play with for the time being. That person being their resident potions professor, of course, but that was beside the point.
There also seemed to be a link between Harry and the parasitic core, and that was saying something. He rather suspected that the parasitic core wasn't so much a parasite but rather another person of sorts.
The link was even more prominent than the one he had with their dear potions professor.
However, there was only so long he could continue to watch in interest. Eventually, Harry turned his eyes back to their dear potions professor.
The man appeared almost as if he was going to snap any day now. Harry supposed that even the most resilient man would snap eventually after everything Harry did to them.
He'd taken to playing with the man at the times when the man had no choice but to force himself to use his mask to conceal what he was really feeling inside.
The more Harry played with him, the more the man seemed to strain and snap, and Harry could practically taste victory in the air. He'd be able to break that façade soon.
Green eyes met black eyes across the hall, and Harry wondered if he was imagining the slight flinch in the man's expression before it smoothened over impressively.
Draco looked at their interaction curiously, raising a brow. After these two months, he'd noticed a bit of a strange air between his Godfather and Harry, but since neither were saying anything of the sort to him, he couldn't bring himself to meddle.
Rather than being worried about Harry, he was more worried about his Godfather.
The man seemed more on edge than he'd ever seen him, and he just knew that it had nothing to do with teaching like he claimed.
While the man was acerbic at the best of times, he also wasn't as wound up like this.
Draco knew it had something to do with Harry, but he didn't know what exactly.
At this moment, Harry purred as he sent his magic through the little link that he'd discovered – something that he suspected was due to an oath of sorts – and watched the man's hand flinch.
Instantly, the man's impassive mask slammed down, and he abruptly stood up, sweeping out of the Great Hall without any warning.
The rest of the professors that had been peacefully chatting and eating looked at him with surprise, but eventually came to the conclusion that it had something to do with potions. It wasn't the first time something like this had happened, after all.
Immediately after Severus left, Harry also stood up gracefully, having had the forethought to finish his food before so that there weren't any questions asked.
Draco looked worriedly in Severus' direction, then at Harry, but he didn't say anything.
Something in Harry purred at the show of loyalty to him even over the blond's Godfather.
Ron paused with his mouth stuffed, almost choking as he tried to finish swallowing to speak. "Where are you going, mate?"
"I'm going to take a walk around the school grounds for some exercise," Harry excused himself.
Ron nodded. That was code for Harry speak of wanting to be alone for a bit.
He hadn't understood it at first, but then Draco pulled him aside one day to explain that some people were rather more introverted than others, and they needed 'alone time' to recharge since it was exhausting being around people all the time.
Of course, Harry wasn't doing anything of the sort. At least, not today.
Harry left the Great Hall, only to spot the familiar dark figure that was Severus Snape standing there.
"Mr. Potter," Severus said, his tone clipped. "I would like a word."
Harry tilted his head and smiled almost innocently. "Of course, professor."
Had Severus been anyone else, he would have fallen for it, but it remained that he was the one who had been under the child's thrall for the past two months.
Severus led the boy to his quarters, which caused Harry to raise an eyebrow, but the man would hardly have this conversation under watchful eyes or ears.
Discretion was something that Severus understood very well, and in a school like this where there were portraits reporting everything to the headmaster, it was better safe than sorry.
The moment they were inside Severus' quarters, with the door securely shut and the floo turned off, the dark man immediately dropped to his knees, his head bowed low.
Harry looked at the man curiously. "Yes, professor?" Harry asked with a smirk on his face.
Severus took a shaky breath. Even now, he could feel the caress of the Harry Potter's magic across his skin, and he was practically going mad from the seductive allure of dark magic that he was being pumped full of.
It made him feel like he was drowning and at the same time living, and it was even more heady than when the Dark Lord had been in his prime.
Severus would be a fool not to realize that the boy was well on his way to becoming a Dark Lord. If he wasn't one already, that was. A proper Dark Lord – one chosen by magic Herself – not one that had been self-proclaimed like he how suspected the former Dark Lord was.
He originally had suspicions after that disastrous first potions lesson with the first year Hufflepuffs and Slytherins, but nothing concrete.
The second potions lesson, Severus had been tensed throughout it, but when nothing happened, he reluctantly relaxed.
Of course, then, that night in the Great Hall, he had been caressed by that maddening magic again, and he couldn't escape there and then because Albus fucking Dumbledore insisted on making small talk throughout dinner.
The various things adding up over the next month led Severus to one conclusion: Harry Potter was in no way the Light wizard that everyone expected him to be.
The conclusion he came to left him dazed and unsure of himself for the first time in years.
It all led up to this moment here, where Severus was kneeling before the newest Dark Lord, all but proclaiming his servitude and loyalty.
Harry touched Severus' face, and the man shuddered at the feeling of his magic, his eyes going a bit glazed at the proximity of the intoxicating magic even as the rest of him remained impassive.
The child – no, the Dark Lord in front of him was so different from the person that he portrayed himself to be.
Outside, he was the perfect Hufflepuff. With loyalty above all else, and friends with everyone in his House.
He'd even managed to bring a Weasley and Heir Malfoy into Hufflepuff with him. If that didn't speak for how Light he was, what did?
But of course, they were all wrong, and the figure that he painted how sent shivers up Severus' spine.
He was once again reminded of the late Dark Lord, but the feeling he got from Harry Potter was so much more intense and awe-inspiring that Severus was half-drunk on it in proximity alone.
Especially now that the boy's magic encompassed his quarters.
"My Lord," Severus said carefully, making sure not to slur even though he was sure that a lesser man might have. "I wish to swear loyalty to you."
"Oh?" Harry purred, his green eyes glinting dangerously. "And what makes you so sure that I want you?"
Severus tensed a little, but it didn't show at all. He bowed his head again, not saying anything else.
The choice was in Harry's hands now.
"And?" Harry smirked, stroking the man's silky hair. "How does my magic affect you?"
Severus briefly shut his eyes as he suddenly had an idea what Harry Potter wanted from him. Why he always played with him in the most public places.
Then, he opened his mouth again, and when he saw Harry's grin, he knew that he was right.
Harry purred at man's mask shattering before his eyes, satisfaction coursing through him at having broken something – anything.
Severus was indeed drunk and addicted to his magic, and Harry half suspected that if the man hadn't been Dark before this, he would have thoroughly fallen by now.
"So, you belong to me and only me?" Harry whispered, allowing his magic to run through the man's core.
Severus shuddered again. "Yes," he whispered.
There wasn't a single part of him that rebelled against his words. For all that he had two 'masters' before this, Harry James Potter was the only one that he could see himself serving right now.
"Very good," Harry purred.
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