Adrian swallowed and shakily wiped aside the tears that cascaded down his cheeks. His hands were curling tightly into his trousers, the knuckles burning with the intensity of his grasp. Water brushed down his cheeks in a tickling sensation, dripping from his chin onto the polished floor. He was crying- in front of his father...
"Those muggles," the elder mused, voice sharp and cutting in the air.
"The...Dursely family?" His father asked out loud although his tone was entirely rhetoric.
"Don't hurt them." Adrian's voice was automatic, he paled once he realized his flaw, "I- I meant please, Father."
His father had a frown curling on his lips. His eyes seemed to glow and once again Adrian felt himself quivering.
"How long have you had access to my mind?"
Adrian's eyes widened in shock and noticeable confusion. "I...What?"
In return, the presense in his mind made itself noticeable once more with a pulsing flare. It almost echoed a heartbeat, slower and deeper than Adrian's own fluttering.
"That?" Adrian asked, voice nearly a whisper as he felt it leave a soothing sting in its wake, like the burn of hot water after a bitter cold.
"Always," Adrian tried to speak firmly, mentally criticising himself as his voice cracked uncomfortably partway through.
His father frowned, displeased with his answer.
"Always?"
Adrian was right, he was displeased.
"I take it Bellatrix didn't place the chalice in your room, then."
Chalice? What chalice?
"No," Voldemort scoffed, blinking quickly in thought while a thin finger tapped against his lips.
"Perhaps... boy."
Adrian's head snapped around to stare at his father once more.
The man drew his wand this time, and Adrian couldn't help but flinch away from the dangerous weapon.
The wand slowly pointed at his face, carressing his jaw and cheekbone before resting on the bridge between his eyes and eyebrows.
Eyes once more locked together.
Red met green.
His father bit out, "Legilimens."
Adrian struggled to consciousness with the exhaustion of spending an all day awake. His head throbbed and he felt like something was compressing his chest.
No, something was compressing his chest. Something long and somewhat chilled.
"Master!" Lutain hissed excitedly, sliding his way over and onto Adrian's chest, "You are awake!"
"Get off me Lutain," Adrian slurred, blinking awake exhaustedly and knocking aside his excited serpent, "My head is killing me,"
"Likely due to the hour I spent unravelling the lamentable shields you called Occlumency."
Adrian jolted awake, recognizing the voice neither as Lutain or Nagini. He struggled to right himself, pressing his back flush to the wooden headboard.
His father was sitting in a chair, reading a book near the foot of the bed. The book closed with a clatter. It was thrown onto the bed near Adrian's feet.
"They would jeopardize your work at Hogwarts," his father drawled, a small smirk playing on his lips, "A greeting gift, from father to son."
Adrian blinked in confusion and in slight amusement at how awkwardly the words sounded. He had no idea what the man meant.
What gift? The book? Adrian couldn't read the cover from where it landed upside down. It looked old and well beyond his own reading level.
If not the book, what else did the man mean?
Adrian poked around in his mind, preparing to scrape over the mess of his walls- before brushing against something secure and strong.
"How-" Adrian blurted out without thinking, testing the barriers; they were more impressive than anything he could cumulatively structure over years.
"It seems that there is a connection between us," his father explained regally and politely, "a passageway from my mind, to yours."
"You felt true feelings, Master!" Lutain enthused, butting his snout against Adrian's arm excitedly, "You spoke true! Not yours but felt!"
"Indeed, he is rather observant," his father slipped into Parseltongue easily while holding one arm out for Lutain to coil through the fingers.
"Remarkable for his age." His father admitted after a slight pause, not bothering to look at Adrian as he complimented him.
"Silly hatchling," Lutain agreed, flexing his body between the nimble fingers.
Adrian wanted to grab his familiar and pull him from the older man's arm.
"The shields will last against that headmaster of yours. Of course, I'll make sure they're still operating on a regular schedule. Be sure not to challenge him directly, it will only arise suspicion as to why yours are now so advanced."
"Will you be entering my mind again, Father?" Adrian scraped out hoarsely, bowing his head to appear as humble as he possibly could in the situation.
"None of that," his father scowled, crossing his leg over his knee.
"You are not a servant."
"I..." Adrian's breathing stuttered and left him awkwardly pausing in the middle of his thought.. He wasn't a servant? He had been led to believe he would become a Death Eater once he had matured enough to partake in raids.
"You're my heir," his father explained stiffy, "My followers are expendable. You, are not."
Adrian's mouth fell open quietly in shock.
"You are to be raised as a weapon," Voldemort continued, swiping his hand to adjust his dark hair from his eyes.
"A weapon-"
"But, given recent information that has now presented itself, that has changed."
Adrian looked at the equally baffled Lutain.
....
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