cloudy with a Chance of freedom

chapter 25

Harry dropped the casual attitude of his friendly persona. Dealing with the Light faction had been a total headache and a half, and they were supposed to be the reasonable ones!

Right now he needed every bit of his Slytherin cunning to get the people who Voldemort recruited the most from to take him seriously. It had been a relief when he realized he had won over most of the Light faction that didn't automatically side with Dumbledore.

Where Harry Black had been was now the Immortal Skull-sama, future Cloud Arcobaleno.

And he was about to lay down the law with these fools.

In the darkness, pretty words meant little, but power... power spoke volumes. They would not respect him for his limited ability to speak with Slytherin cunning... they had been raised and trained in it from birth.

No, today he needed to wear the power that had made him feared on the battlefield against the same people he was going to be in a room with like a cloak and make them listen. But he couldn't brow beat them with it... he needed to display the subtle cunning that came naturally due to his upbringing.

"Am I the only one terrified of what he's about to pull off?" asked Blaise, adjusting his outfit. He would be attending as Harry's...no, this was definitely Skull now... Left hand. Just as Camellia was dressed and ready to act as his Right, with Fon acting the silent enforcer. He was firmly in the same mindset that made him so deadly and effective among the Triads before being shunted back to his younger body.

"Are we ready?" asked Skull.

This wasn't the quiet, well spoken "Heir Black" that had dealt with the Light faction. This was the fucking Man-Who-Conquered. A man who went up against Voldemort and won. Who had been across countless battlefields before he had enough...and was promptly tapped by Checkerface as the Cloud Arcobaleno less than a month after he left.

There were no words, as they all calmly waited for Dobby to take them to Malfoy Manor.

Skull gazed at the 'former' Death Eaters dispassionately. They all thought he was Dumbledore's pawn and most generally didn't believe the rumors their heirs told them about Harry Black.

Time to show them who was in control here.

His smile was all teeth and made Narcissa flinch at the sight of it. She clearly knew what was about to happen and was just hoping to avoid being caught in the blast radius.

Camellia discreetly signaled her aunt to hide behind them...under the guise of girl talk of course. Narcissa took the hint without hesitation.

Skull allowed the fools to dig themselves into a nice deep grave. Every snide comment about how he was little more than a child and one of Dumbledore's pawns just reminded him exactly why he was doing this.

So when the talk began to die down, his smirk widened. Fon was strongly reminded of Reborn when he was being a major asshole and was going to thoroughly enjoy trolling some fool who had pissed him off to the point they went insane or did most of the work for him.

He settled in to enjoy the show.

And he wasn't disappointed.

Skull's eyes glowed a terrifying amethyst ringed with amber as he slowly, but clearly pressed them all with his Flames.

The sneers and snide comments died off first. That was followed by a cold sweat on the brow of many who had come to Riddle's call. It didn't take much to make it hard to breathe for the weaker-willed Wizards.

"Let's get one thing perfectly straight. I didn't come here to placate a bunch of grown men and women into thinking I could change the way things have been for centuries or that I could usurp Dumbledore at his own game. I'm certainly not going to cater to people who were so weak that they failed to do a basic background check on a man they so eagerly enslaved themselves to, despite his false promises of a glorious future. I'm here to show you exactly what will happen if you piss me off or are foolish enough to join up a second time with a kinslayer," said Skull casually.