Bent over the sink in the expansive bathroom of his chambers Harry shoved two fingers as far back into his throat as they would go. His body jerked as the gag reflex was forcibly engaged. Tears welled in his eyes, blurring his vision, and blood-tinted saliva spilled over his lips. The contents of his stomach rose up his throat only part of the way before dropping back down again; it took him five tries before his body cooperated, spilling the prophecy into the basin of the skin with a sickening splat.

Weak in the knees, the raven took a few moments to catch his breath while leaning heavily against the sink. Once he'd gathered his strength back together he straightened up and turned on the faucet. Lifting the little orb from where it rested against the raised drain cover and running it under the water. Drying the glass with a towel and slipping it into the pocket of his robe. After clearing away the remains of the vomit and aggressively attacking the taste left behind in his mouth with copious amounts of tooth paste and mouthwash the raven picked at the state of his hair for a while before leaving his bathroom behind and heading towards the Dark Lord's study.

Harry's footstep thudded dully against the dusty rug covering the corridor's floor. Dim light filtered in through the windows as the sun began to rise, the shadows casting strange shapes across the walls. Pausing at the appropriate door Harry turned his head to look at the blocked the entrance of the Dark Lord's bedroom before going inside.

Quietly crossing the dark room to stand before the desk, he reached into his pocket and set the prophecy down with the soft clank of spun glass on wood.

"I believe I told you to wait in your chambers, Harry." Voldemort said, his towering form filling up the doorway. "It took longer than you expected to regurgitate the prophecy?"

"Nagini makes it look effortless. Apparently, it's a lot easier for a snake to bodypack important objects than it is for a human." Harry dipped his head. "I'm to be punished?"

Long fingers tipped his chin up to meet red eyes; the other hand removing the false glasses from his face. After a brief kiss Voldemort repeated "punished?"

"My plan fell through. Ten Death Eaters are in Azkaban because of me. Lucius was your second in command-."

"Ame." A gentle touch of his finger to Harry's lips was enough to silence the raven. "Those Death Eaters. Lucius. You, almost, and the prophecy as well. All that I lost and might have lost tonight lies squarely on Bella's shoulders."

"She'll be punished?" a mild tinge of desperation had entered his voice. Fanatically devoted. Willing to spend fifteen years locked in Azkaban for the Dark Lord without complaint. What if those factors combined would be enough to make him inclined to let her off with just a warning?

"Yes, my lion. Bella, loyalties aside, will be punished gravely for losing me Death Eaters; for almost costing me the prophecy and you. For being so presumptuous as to assume that her service, while admirable, in anyway entitles her to being at my side as you are. But you, Harry, still need to be properly rewarded for your achievements." Voldemort removed his hand. "First, since you are here, shall we determine what the full prophecy says? Whether or not there's anything left for us to fear on the horizon? What say you?"

Mouth suddenly feeling very dry, Harry nodded. The Dark Lord lifted the prophecy in one of his large hands, the spun glass melting out of sight for a brief moment, and broke it against the side of the desk like an egg. A misty figure rose up from it and, as they began to speak, Harry realized with a start that he was looking at Trelawney.

"The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches. Born to those who have thrice defied him. Born as the seventh month dies. And the Dark Lord shall mark him as his equal, but he shall have power the Dark Lord knows not. And one must die at the hands of the other for neither can live while the other survives. The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord shall be born as the seventh month dies."

Voldemort straightened, dropping the halves of the broken orb onto the desk. "The Light went through so much, all to protect the knowledge that they'd lost." He said. "I know your 'power' my little Horcrux. And now you are the only one who cannot live without me."

"I wouldn't want to live without you." Those words were dangerous. Toeing the line between the cultish devotion expected of the Dark Lord's followers and an admittance of feelings which would all but surely get him killed. "I'd rather die."

Voldemort's interpretation of the meaning behind his statement seemed to be the former, as his reptilian face split into a grin. "How far the Boy Who Lived has fallen."

"The Boy Who Lived is dead." Harry replied. "He was eaten by a lion this past summer."

"Indeed." Those fingers resumed tracing his lips. "Are you prepared, my cherished, to receive your reward?"

Heartrate picking up again, the raven's pupils dilated. "Yes." He said, breath catching. "Shall we go to your chambers?"

"My chambers?" the gentle motion along his lips ceased. Voldemort's voice was laced with vindictive amusement. "My chambers? No, Harry. You will never see my chambers. You're my Consort, among your duties is satisfying my needs, but you are not my lover. That room is mine and mine alone."

He'd known. He'd known before Nihil has broached the matter. Had certainly known after. Known, even if he hadn't wanted to face it, even if he'd tried to convince others and himself otherwise, that he was nothing to the Dark Lord. A vessel; a hole; an object. But to hear it. To have it so clearly stated…" Nihil sank his claws into the feelings which welled up from the remnants of who he'd once been and dragged them away before the hurt and regret of the choice he'd made could show on his face or trickle over their link. "I hadn't meant to suggest otherwise." Harry said. "My chambers, then?"

Voldemort's response was to lift him into his arms and whisk him down the hallway to the red and golden room. Sparing a brief glance of distaste at the color scheme as he set the raven down, he snuffed the lights with a wave of his hand leaving everything a uniform black.

"Strip." Voldemort said, voice firm and gaze expectant as Harry turned back towards him. "Slowly."

Harry shed the school robes he still had on and dropped the fabric to the floor. Lifting his hands to his shirt and began to unbutton it. One button at a time. Worrying at each of them just short of long enough to provoke the other man, allowing the cloth to fall apart and reveal the pale pane of his chest to hungry red eyes. The chill of the room raised dusky nipples pert. Then it, too, fell to the floor leaving Harry in only his pants.

He was tempted to stop there, to simply tease at his waistband for a while, but an impatient hiss from the older wizard corrected him of the thought. Opening the button of his pants and loosening the zipper just enough to get them down, Harry slowly inched the fabric over his legs and stepped out of them. Leaving himself naked before the Dark Lord.

Talons ran through his hair, tilting his head backwards. Thin lips devouring his mouth. Hands running down his neck; over his shoulders; along his sides; seizing handfuls of his arse; kneading the plush flesh; parting the cheeks and teasing at the virgin hole hidden inside. Harry inhaled sharply, allowing the forked tongue into his mouth; shuddering against him as the slim muscle coiled lithely around his own.

Harry's lips were swollen, kiss bruised and wet when the Dark Lord pulled away. Moving his attention to the raven's neck. Sinking his teeth into the pale flesh and drawing blood; lapping the red fluid away as he moaned. The older wizard's attention dropped lower. Passed his Adam's apple. Down to his collarbone. Soon bite-marks bloomed like blue-black roses across his skin, braceletting his throat.

Something cold and sharp brushed against his ribs and Harry looked down. Watching the bone-white wand move lower. The point trailing across the taut, sensitive skin of his exposed stomach. Stopping at his swollen base. "Morsmordre!" White hot pain flared up where the point of the wand met with his skin, at the center of the valley between the wings of his hips. A black brand formed itself into recognizable shapes: a fanged skull; a serpent which spilled from its mouth like a hissing tongue, coiling up along his shaft.

"On the bed." Voldemort hissed, cold grip closing around his flagging length; the warmth of his touch, the sensitivity of the newly branded skin and two sharp tugs chased all ill effects of the pain away. Drowning the little raven in sensation. "Do not keep me waiting, Harry."

Harry couldn't be certain if he was thrown onto the bed or simply toppled onto it but either way he ended up there; on his back and supported by his elbows. Voldemort wasn't far behind, his own clothing banished and skin so pale it glowed in the gloom.

The raven's legs fell open and the Dark Lord settled between them. Engorged, scaled flesh pressed into his hip. Thin lips and forked tongue found his chest, lapping at the hardened buds. Sucking and biting. Marking and claiming. Harry's head lolled back as slender fingers prodded at his entrance once more. Investigating. Invading. One finger. Then two. Then three. Touching. Stretching. Forcing their way deeper. Hunting down and abusing the bundle of nerves deep in his core.

"Say it." The demand was half a hiss and half a snarl, red eyes glared down at him from above as he removed his fingers. Reveling in the whine of loss the smaller male let out in response. "Address me as your Lord."

"Master-ah!" The word cut off into a strangled moan as Voldemort's hips snapped forwards. Driving in to the hilt and filling him up to the brim. Harry's back bowed off the mattress, the bed shaking beneath the brutal pace the Dark Lord set. Equal parts pain and pleasure flooded through the raven's body as he was thoroughly shagged without time to adjust to the intrusion of something far larger than the fingers used to prepare him. Teeth back to snapping at his neck and shoulders, leaving the skin a patch work of bruises and blood and giving him little choice but to wrap his arms and legs around the man above him. Nails scratching at the sharp planes of boney shoulders. Fingers clutching convulsively at the sweat soaked sheets. A red hot coil winding tighter and tighter in his belly until it finally snapped. Points of color bursting behind Harry's eyes as the orgasm crashed through him with enough force to steal his breath. Muscles clamping down around the Dark Lord, who, with a grunt and a final deep thrust, spilled himself inside him.

Left boneless and feeling very warm Harry slumped against the silken sheets, teetering dangerously on the edge of sleep, but to his surprise the Dark Lord seemed to have no intention of staying there with him. Pulling himself free of the smaller male, he wrapped his body back up in the black cloak. "You'll attend your first meeting at the end of the month where you'll be marked properly and receive your next assignment. I'll have some measure in place to balance out your inefficiencies by then. Until that time you're to stay at the manor."

Without waiting for his reply Voldemort swept from the room, the door swinging shut behind him with a quiet click. Alone and used, Harry curled onto his side and stifled a sob in the rumpled sheets.