Crimson Ink

Taking Small Steps

Last Time:

Myrtle floated down through the floors and sat on the head of a giant basilisk, "There's good news, Debora. Tom is alive. Let's hope he had some sense knocked into him." The massive serpent hissed in agreement.

XXXXXXXXXX

Harry's green eyes snapped open after escaping from a nightmare and he bolted upright covered in cold sweat gasping for air. As his breathing steadied he noticed he was back in the very soft bed ...

"How did I get back here?... magic maybe?" Harry pondered a moment before leaping out of the bed as if it was on fire and quickly made the bed. In his mind he was sure he'd be in trouble if he was caught and now he wanted to start getting on these peoples good side. While standing on his tiptoes he reached up and turned the doorknob. A spark of fear zipped through him when the door creaked open, but after a few it became clear that no one heard so he relaxed.

First job ... learn the layout ...

The young boy stepped out of the room and looked around, "This place is huge ... I wish I had my glasses." He mumbled softly. What he didn't realize was the glasses only helped a little, but were actually nowhere near the prescription he needed. Not that his poor eyesight stopped him from exploring the vast mansion, but as he took note of each room he heard people talking downstairs and hid behind a vase as he listened ...

"Are you sure you want to leave before breakfast, Lucius?" asked a woman Harry remembered being called Narcissa.

"Yes, the scan for any dark magic should've been completed yesterday and yet those fools at the Ministry haven't contacted us." Lucius said clearly irritated with this Ministry. Harry made a mental note of that for the future.

"It's no surprise really. Peter removed the only thing of value and now they're scared shitless." Harry could almost hear the smirk on the woman's face, "but please Lucius, don't let them bring her back."

Lucius chuckled, "Don't worry, that portrait won't return. The frame had some sort of dark magic so I can argue for them to keep it if they pay for everything those idiots destroyed. They just need to separate my mother from the frame and we know how that will go," Harry gulped at the harsh tone and made a note to never make this man angry.

"Oh good." Narcissa breathed a sigh of relief. "Bells gave me her key so I'm going to the bank to quickly pick up the Hufflepuff cup for Tom-oh Peter, what are you doing? You should be resting, love." Harry heard what sounded like two people kissing and concluded that Narcissa and Peter are a couple.

"I'm going to go and grab the Gaunt ring and the locket Tom mentioned."

"Ok, you will be very careful, right?" Narcissa said softly. Harry got the feeling they were hugging, but he heard another person enter the room ...

"He'll be fine. I told him how to counter both curses so he just needs to grab them." Harry perked up as he recognized Tom's voice. "Then Sev will just need to grab the diadem. He floo called a minute ago saying he'll drop by with potions for Harry around dinner time and that he'll try to find the diadem in between classes."

"If this goes smoothly then you'll have nearly all of your soul put together." Lucius said.

"It's the last piece that concerns me, but we'll see what happens. I'll stay here with Harry and Draco. I can't do much with my magic slowly draining away just keeping my form up." said Tom.

Harry peeked out from his hiding place as he heard the shuffling of feet and saw that blonde blur step into the fireplace. The blur, who he assumed was Lucius, said something like 'Ministry'. The small boy clapped a hand over his mouth to keep from gasping in fear as the man disappeared in a rush of green fire. It was horrifying, but Harry slowly calmed down when Narcissa repeated the same action with a weird word that sounded like 'Gringotts' and disappeared. He noticed no one seemed concerned that two people were consumed by fire so what was going on?