The Child of the Seventh Month

2. Monsters and Men

The first thing the child could remember knowing was pain. Pain and pleasure, as they were always mixed together, two sides of the same coin, one resulting in the other or postponing the other.

More often than not, whenever he did something that could cause him happiness, it was only short-lived and would unmistakably prompt pain in the end. Otherwise, whenever he did something that could result in pain, it would prove to bring pleasure as well.

The lines were blurred, never in the same place, terrifyingly unstable like the one who had set them. The one who was the child's worst fear and his greatest source of comfort, the monster lurking under his bed and his knight in shining armour. The man's facial features as distorted as the child's understanding of the world.

The child had a faint idea of the concept of evil and good but it appeared meaningless compared to the borderline that divided pleasure and pain. More often than not, they would merge, so why evil and good couldn't merge together as well? He had said that to the man of the house once, and it had earned him a hard glare that after a second dissolved into something almost appreciative, further proving his point.

The man of the house, as the child had initially referred to him in his mind, or the Lord, as everyone called him, was the first person he remembered knowing. He was the one who had taught him the difference between pain and pleasure, and the one who had shattered it and showed him that they were no different at all. He was the only one worth knowing.

The only human worth knowing, the child would have to amend. Nagini, the Lord's serpent, was the child's best friend, though he also liked the other snakes living in the house. She had been around for as long as he could remember, serving as his guardian and protector - he had spent long hours in her embrace during infancy, wrapped in her long body as soon as the house-elves had done tending to him. Only the Lord would be able to come close then, as she was known to strike at anyone who dared approach.

The Lord himself was and wasn't the child's guardian. He kept his distance from him, especially during his early childhood, and never showed much interest in his person. Yet, the man allowed the child to live in the Manor - because if the child was certain of anything, it was that he was there only because the Lord let him be. His first lesson in life had been that everything in the world belonged to the Lord; the house, the snakes, even the great Nagini, the small village in the distance, every living creature in the Manor, even the child himself. There was also a good chance that the Lord was in control of the weather, the child suspected, since it was always gloomy and raining. The Lord appeared to have a distinct liking for sad and angry things.

The mansion they lived in was enormous and full of blind alleys, perfectly designed for explorations, although full of dangerous corners it was better not to venture in. Whenever the child felt the need for an extrusion, one of the many snakes would follow him and hiss at him, or at the source of potential danger, in alarm if there was such a need for a warning. Whatever he did, the snakes would report later to the Lord, he had come to find. The Lord could talk to them - the child had caught himself listening to their odd hissing conversations at least a dozen times. He wished he could understand their language, and had asked the Lord to teach him once but the Lord had merely smiled in response and explained that it was not a skill to possess but inherit.

The worst things the child had found in the house yet were the people in dark hoods and silver masks. They weren't always in but the possibility of stumbling upon them was high enough to reduce the number of places the child frequented. They were the most likely to be found in the halls or the stairs between the floors so the child was very cautious when travelling between the rooms. They were not allowed to enter without the Lord's permission but the Lord didn't discuss who and when he allowed in the house.