Through your black hair, my hands

Chapter 71-82

71.

Harry really was feeling quite guilty about what he had done, because he was so much more powerful than James there wasn't really much chance that the two of them would be in any kind of conflict in the near future, using legilimency under these circumstances was really a little too much. Even if he didn't know what kind of schemes James was hiding in his mind, with his intelligence and experience, it wasn't like he would have been duped by an inexperienced novice like James anyway.

Harry could only attribute his bizarre action to two things, the first was the bloody and terrible war that he had been through in the past. For him it had only been six years since the war, six short years was not enough for Harry to be able to blithely forget the paranoia, hyper-vigilance and other war time habits that he had maintained every minute of every day over a significant period, back then, the first reaction on encountering the enemy was to use legilimency to see if he could glean any useful information from their minds. Luckily, unlike Hermione, he had not gotten into the habit of casting cutting curses the moment he met an enemy. The second was obviously the past five years he had spent in Slytherin, during which he had picked up some really bad habits, like wanting to know the thoughts of everyone who associated with him, so that he could get close to his target or sabotage any plans his target might be making. This is why he had unconsciously and without guilt, dipped into James' mind using legilimency. Of course, now he was feeling guilty.

"Oh? Legilimency?" Voldemort was shocked as he repeated, unable to believe his ears. Had his little Harry just told him that he had used legilimency on James Potter? His kind and tolerant little Harry who never retaliated against his oppressors?

On seeing Harry's ashamed nod in response, Voldemort was so thrilled that he immediately planted a kiss on Harry's lips, a deep passionate kiss that almost made Harry pass out right there. "Harry, you're finally becoming a Slytherin!"

Taking deep breaths to try and calm his heartbeat, Harry rolled his eyes, that was the last thing he wanted to hear.

Voldemort was ecstatic as he embraced Harry tightly, kissing Harry's cheek which was flushed from the recent oxygen depriving kiss, then he asked, "Baby, what did you see in James' foolhardy mind?"

Voldemort's sickly sweet voice gave Harry goose bumps, was his becoming more Slytherin really that exciting for Voldemort? "You... you seem very excited."

"That's because you're finally acting like a Slytherin." This meant that the differences between he and Harry were growing smaller.

"Oh," Harry nodded though he was not quite sure what Voldemort meant, something o flashed across his mind but it faded before he could grasp it. "Don't call me baby, I... I'm not used to something like that." To say the truth, it was a little off-putting.

"Alright my dear Harry." Voldemort accommodatingly used another term of endearment that Harry didn't dislike, "What did you see?"

How to say this, Harry grimaced a little. He had seen a lot, such as how passionately James felt about Lily, that was something that the whole school already knew; such as the various plans James had for interacting with Harry then extracting information from him and using him to pass false information back to Voldemort- that was not something he could tell Voldemort, otherwise James may not live to see tomorrow's sunrise, at latest he would be disposed of by Yule; also such as... thinking back and forth, the only thing Harry could tell Voldemort about was the conversation between Dumbledore and James just before he came into the office, the conversation between a mentor and a disciple, filled with caring and a desire to nurture from the elder and respect and obedience from the younger.

"Dumbledore suggested that James learn occlumency and gave him the "Basic Guide to Occlumency" book. The reason he gave was so that James would be able to fight for the Order of the Phoenix with a clear mind in the future." Dumbledore had not made a single mention of Harry at the time but both he and James were aware of who they were talking about, and who the occlumency was supposed to protect James' mind against. Harry had never demonstrated his legilimency but that did not mean Dumbledore would ignore the possibility, he was sure that Harry was skilled in this mind magic so he had to teach James how to occlude his mind. As always Dumbledore had made sure to cover every possibility, although he had not directly ordered James to do anything, James' every action and path went exactly according to Dumbledore's wishes.