Dark Lord's Pet

Like Clay

Harry

Okay, so what he was doing was sort of wrong- but like, not really? Asking Voldemort whether or not he should return the pieces of his soul to him wasn't a good idea. Harry wasn't sure how much the lack of aspects of him was contributing to his mental state and way of thinking.

He'd converted a lot of Voldemort's serotonin to melatonin, but very quickly, and the other man had fallen asleep almost instantly. A niggling feeling of guilt wormed it's way in his chest, but this was about Voldemort's health long term, not short.

He first replaced the one Death had given him, the one that used to belong to the diary that Ginny had been possessed by and had the Tom Harry was taught to hate in second year. It was a large piece of the man's soul, and he arranged it so that it would go back together, but not just yet. There would be a lot of damage incurred if he only put in one piece and healed the soul because then it would be very unlikely for the other bits to be able to rejoin.

It's kind of like if you cut a finger off in two pieces, you could attach them properly all at once, but if you only replaced one and it healed, the second would never reconnect. 

Going by what Death had instructed, he carefully withdrew the pieces of soul from each horcrux save himself and Nagini and replaced them into the man's core.

~Nagini?~

~Yes hatchling?~

~Do you know what your master put inside of you?~

Something changed in the snakes eyes and she said, ~Whatever do you mean?~

~Nagini, from that answer it's pretty apparent you know. You know that you're his horcrux.~

~And?~ Her tail began to lash back and forth.

~I want to put him back together.~

An aura of fear wavered around the snake, and she hissed softly, ~If you take it out of me, I'll die.~

~I can stop that from happening, Death told me-~

~No, Harry,~ he was pretty sure that was the first time she'd used his name, ~I have cancerous buildup in my lungs. I won't be able to breath if you remove the horcrux, Master found me dying and the horcrux saved me.~

Harry felt a bit dazed. He hadn't even known snakes could get cancer. Biting his lip, he fisted a hand on his thigh.

~Could I- Could I try to remove it? I have an affinity for healing.~

~No darling hatchling. Master looked into it so maybe I would not be so uncomfortable all the time. It's too far progressed, not even magic can save me.~

~Please, please could I just try?~ Harry asked, feeling that maybe it'd be different for him since he was Master of Death.

~Alright.~

There were large cancerous masses in the snakes breathing passages, Harry understood why she'd've died if he just took out the horcrux. He decided that the idea that made the most sense to him was if he'd be able to just remove the cancerous cells, pluck them out and just have them sort of apparate outside of her body.

He took a single cell out first.

~Feel anything?~ Harry asked.

~Yeah, the floor's cold.~

A charm to warm the floor later and Harry continued, growing bold enough to start removing larger sections of the unnatural growths. 

~I-I'm breathing better now,~ Nagini said, voice awed, ~It's been so long. . .~

Even at a faster pace, it took Harry several hours to complete the removal of the cancer tissue. There would be no problems for Nagini if he took the soul out now, so that's what he did.

He withdrew also the smallest fragment from himself, buried within his scar, and sent it into the older wizard to join with the rest. Focusing the warm sensation of his healing magic on the badly damaged core of the man, Harry began to manipulate the matter, sort of like clay, smooth and turning and rolling and reconnecting the separated parts.

It wasn't boring, but Harry's eyes began to droop the longer he worked. The magic was very taxing, and his fingers were just working on autopilot by then.

When at last he felt the perfection of a smooth orb beneath his fingers, he gently blew on it and rebooted the connection between the Dark Lord and his soul before falling into oblivion, the job finished and finally able to take a break.