A Hop Skip And A Jump Away

Gringotts

A whisper campaign began almost the moment that Voldemort and Harry Potter left the school grounds. The open acknowledgement of the full blooded creatures in attendance had floored those aware of their own creature blood. It was no longer a battle between the Dark and the Light but a command from Lady Magic herself. They would wait for the decision of the Goblins before proceeding, after all only those in the forbidden forest had sworn to these two new lords of magic.

Harry woke slowly to the sounds of a quiet conference between Voldemort and Snape. Blearily he looked around the room, noting the fact that it was similar to a shabby and dirty version of the room at the Leaky Cauldron he'd stayed in during the summer just before third year. Neither of the older wizards noticed that he had woken, as a result he was able to quietly observe them as they discussed something he wasn't awake enough to discern. The lack of other noises despite the shabby open window showing a brilliantly blue sky and some random roof tops of clearly wizard origin told the young wizard there were silencing and privacy spells in place.

"~How long do you think it will take him to realize that you're not planning on treating him like a slave this time around?~" Harry asked, the hissing tones of parseltongue almost lost in his sleepy voice after having observed both wizard's body language and their quietly animated discussion for a good five minutes.

"~About when I decide to prank him.~" Voldemort hissed back with a careless shrug, completely ignoring the fact that Snape was still watching him warily. "~I'm thinking of dying his hair pink or dosing him with a prank potion to get it across... When did you first realize I wasn't going to mistreat him?~"

"~When I reviewed the differences between the memories in the graveyard. If you had been planning to act like a git again you wouldn't have offered him just about anything.~" Harry hissed back dryly, not wanting the dour potions master to know for certain they were discussing him.

"As soon as we've gotten at least one vault sorted out all three of us are going to need clothes and basic supplies," Voldemort pointed out, switching to English to include Snape in the discussion. Having decided to ignore the pointed comment about his actions and the supposed largess in regards to the boon he had bestowed on Snape in the form of Harry himself.

"Good, I can finally get something decent to wear," Harry said sleepily with a large yawn, still not properly awake.

"Finally got tired of those rags you use as a fashion statement?" Snape sneered at the sleepy eyed teen.

"Not a fashion statement, they were my cousin's and then I was never let out of sight long enough to get money from my vault and buy my own. Not that it would have mattered anyway. Uncle Vernon would have assumed the new stuff was stolen or something and forced me to watch as he burned them the moment I got back to the Dursleys. If that was all they did then I would have gotten off lucky. Hell, I'm lucky they never tried to kill Hedwig and usually gave my stuff back in time for the train," Harry told them, having nearly fallen back asleep, moments later he was back in dreamland, completely unaware of the fact that he had informed the other two that he'd never had his own clothes.

"I don't think we'll get any concrete answers out of him unless we use Veritaserum or Legillimency. He's normally more reticent, even with people he likes so I must conclude that it was the exhaustion talking. As possibly damaging him is no longer a viable possibility perhaps we should contrive a meeting with his relatives and extract the information from them?" Snape suggested slowly as they both stared at the sleeping teen.

"You may be right," Voldemort said thoughtfully, ruby eyes narrowed in concentration. "First, however, we need to ensure either his emancipation or get his guardianship reassigned to one of our own people. I probably shouldn't have shown up at Hogwarts but explaining the situation in such a way that it was impossible to repress was the best short term solution overall. Once we have the situation publicly acknowledged and confirmed as an emergency we'll have more breathing room and can start preparing everyone. It is inevitable that there will be a certain amount of violent conflict between the magical world and the muggle world when we are revealed. I will have to discuss how he handled it in the other timeline since I was already dead at that point."