The Nightmare Man

Epilouge

A few months later

The air was hot, the sun blazing down on everyone. The summer was turning out to be hot and humid with little to no rain surprisingly enough.

Harrison solved this by having at least a few of his children nearby. The Dementors were naturally chilly, he wasn't sure where they got that from, so they were only too happy to snuggle up around him and cool him down.

"You're weird," was Harry's only comment before he begged Harrison to make a swimming pool.

After having the teen explain what exactly a swimming pool was, Harrison made one and Harry refused to leave it except at night. More or less. Someone dragged him out when he tried to sleep there.

Right now Lucy was learning to swim with Elise and Joanne who both loved the pool. As heat apparently wasn't good for small children Angel was inside and away from the sun. Severus was baby-sitting her, more than happy to not go out which of course only spurred more rumours he was actually a vampire. Harrison offered to give him a set of fake fangs when he returned as a potions professor at Hogwarts, and Severus was seriously considering it.

For now though Harrison didn't want to make anything.

"Summers didn't use to be this hot!" he complained to Lucian. "This is unnatural!"

"Actually, it's quite normal nowadays. You've been spending too many summers in a damp cell underground."

"At least there was no bloody heat down there!"

The Dementors moved closer as Harrison fanned himself. Lucian, dressed in light clothes, sat down underneath the shade beside the Nightmare Lord and said:

"Why not use a cooling charm?"

"I'm not good with those kinds of spells," Harrison said. "You know, I can move a mountain with a snap of my fingers but ask me to levitate a spoon... Merlin, magic is complicated at times."

"You can levitate things."

"Have you seen me levitate a spoon?"

Lucian thought about it as Harrison got more comfortable.

"No," the servant admitted.

"Well, it wasn't much spoon left after I tried to be honest."

"Our great master, defeated by a spoon."

"Yes, defeated by a spoon... oh, Voldemort's here. Doesn't that man ever stop working?"

"No, he doesn't."

"At least Harry's not here to great him alone. That was one awkward silence I walked in on."

It had happened not too long after the final battle. Harrison had been in the dungeons, preparing... guts, if you had to ask, and for some reason no one else was there when Voldemort arrived. No one else but Harry. Harrison had walked up ten minutes later to a tension he could cut through. To make that tension go away he made a snap decision and painted stripes on Harry's cheeks with the blood on his fingers, making the teen shriek in rage. They ended up having a physical fight that made Voldemort snort, and the tension was gone.

Harry was still wary of the Dark Lord but they did manage to greet each other politely before one of them fled from the room.

Voldemort came out to the back where they were and took one look at Harrison with his Dementors before glancing over at Lucian and saying:

"When he made you into his servants, he dished out all of his sanity to you guys, right?"

"Oi!"