DOGWOOD

There was pleasant humming when Harry came to. He wanted to turn and curl back in the warmth but the fluttering in his stomach jolted Harry into the land of the living. He cracked open an eye and found Healer Fawley standing over him, not humming but chanting. Her Healer's robes had been left on the side of the bed and her brown hair looked as if she had touched a wall socket. It stood nearly on end and her black eye makeup had smeared a little down her face. "Rough night?" Harry asked he tried to prop himself up on his elbows.

Healer Fawley gave him a glare worthy of Draco Malfoy. "I will have you know Mr. Potter," she scolded Harry angrily, "that the child inside of you is going to expand our knowledge in biochemical bonds, organ manufacturing, and not to mention the sphere itself which has both physical and metaphysical properties."

Harry could feel himself flushing as she spoke, he didn't understand most of what she said. "Could you…translate that into English?"

"It means," her voice clouded with annoyance, "that I gave up my residency to see history up close and personal, not to have you die in my care. What in Merlin's beard were you thinking not telling me you also had Acromantula venom inside you?"

"I mean – I didn't really think about – it was so long ago and nothing ever happened. I thought maybe the cut just wasn't infected." Harry bowed his head and looked down, realizing for the first time that the bruises over his abdomen were gone. It was then he realized that he was seeing Healer Fawley without the aid of his glasses. "Whoa, I can see!"

His healer scoffed as if she were offended by his surprise. "Of course you can see, I've spent most of the day repairing your body while you slept." She paused as she sat down next to Harry and he saw her eyes soften. "Acromantula venom isn't lethal usually, Harry, it doesn't injure your cells like most venoms do. It's frightening because it lurks very deep in the body, putting the victim into a conscious coma so the spiders can feed."

Shivers ran through as he thought about what would have happened if the venom had worked properly. "Why didn't it work when I was scratched?" Harry asked his healer, "Why did it only now show?"

"Haemotoxic venom goes straight for the bloodstream," Healer Fawley told him as she waved her wand in the air. Harry watched as she created a visual of the venom entering and corrupting the bloodstream. "But Acromantula venom is neurotoxin, it seeps into the parts of your brain controlling your motor skills and shuts them down."

"I don't understand though," Harry told Healer Fawley as she smiled at him, "How does it being a neurotoxin change anything, shouldn't I still be affected?"

Healer Fawley glanced around the empty before leaning forward with an excited smile, "Has he told you? About your scar?"

Her excited eyes made Harry's stomach lurch, "Uh, yeah, but I didn't know he told anyone else." It had seemed like a secret of the highest priority. Harry wasn't sure how he felt about her knowing about it.

"Don't worry Harry," she soothed his troubled mind, "the Dark Lord has Healer Rosier and I under many, many oaths. I couldn't tell anyone even if I wanted to."

"So how does me being a Horcrux stop a neurotoxin?" He asked as he sat up. Healer Fawley held out her hands to help propel himself as she spoke.

"I've never seen anything like it really," Fawley admitted sheepishly, "Horcruxes aren't generally open for study, so you're incredibly rare. But the Horcrux didn't stop the neurotoxin, it absorbed it. It was only once I started to the process of sucking the venom out that I breached the barrier in your mind and released the venom."

Warmth spread through Harry as he realized that Voldemort's soul had saved him. "Can I ask you something?" He asked Fawley quietly and when she nodded he continued, "The other me, the one from a different world or whatever, he said that he had bonded with the soul shard, what does that mean?"

The frown creasing Healer Fawley's face made Harry's stomach drop. "I'm not sure," she admitted as she released a frustrated growl, "But that's why the Dark Lord chose me. Animology, magic dealing with the soul, is an uncharted branch of magic and I plan to work very closely with you to map it out."

"So you'll help me then?" Harry asked as his bright smile returned, "You'll help me find out what the other me meant by bonded?"

"Of course," she agreed, "By the time you deliver this baby, I suspect you and I will be sick of each other." Harry laughed and for the first time in a very long time, he felt content. He was happy and safe, he had amazing healers to care for him and the baby, and no one was looking at him as if he was carrying the spawn of Satan.

Voldemort had truly kept his promises. Harry felt safe, protected, and happy – all foreign feelings that Harry was trying to normalize inside himself. He didn't want his baby to grow up with the fear and harm that Harry himself had. Healer Fawley interrupted Harry's inner musings with a dainty cough, "I've done all I can to heal your body – I'm afraid that with the baby inside of you I can't administer anything to help your malnourished bones other than a vitamin supplement that Healer Rosier helped me concoct. You need to take it three times a day, one vial with each meal, okay?"

Harry nodded as he watched her place the potions on the nightstand. "Alright, now I'll mostly be working from afar unless I'm called but on Sundays, we'll get together and try to figure out what it means to be a human horcrux, okay?"

"Thanks for everything, doc," Harry told her gratefully, "I don't even want to think of how awful this could have been without you."

"It's my pleasure Harry," she told him with a small smile.

Harry watched her lean back and disappear into a plume of black smoke. When he was alone, Harry stretched and decided he needed a shower and food. So he made his way across the hall and started the taps for a quick shower. When he was clean, Harry made his way to the kitchen. To his surprise, Voldemort was already in the kitchen nursing a steaming cup of coffee and reading The Daily Prophet.

"Oh," Harry stopped for a moment at the sight of Voldemort. "Good morning."

"Good morning Harry," Voldemort hummed without taking his eyes from the paper.

Moving to the refrigerator, Harry watched as Voldemort took a sip of his coffee and his eyes slid closed for a moment of pure enjoyment. "You're staring, Harry."

Harry jumped and turned back to the fridge, "Just a bit jealous," Harry lied as he reached in to grab a carton of eggs. "Can't have coffee while I'm up the duff. Do you want some eggs?"

For the first time Voldemort looked away from his paper and grimaced when he found Harry wearing Dudley's cast offs. "That would be nice," Voldemort agreed as he set his paper down, "Do you own any clothes that you aren't swallowed by? Great Salazar, you have the stomach of a nine-month pregnancy and you can hardly tell with those clothes!"

Harry felt his cheeks redden as he turned on the stove. "My school clothes don't fit anymore." He admitted, not turning around to see Voldemort.

Harry heard the paper hit the table with a smack and the scrape of the wooden chair being pushed out. But he didn't look back until he felt Voldemort within arms-reach. Voldemort was leaning with one arm against the countertop, crimson eyes following Harry. "If you need something Harry," he sounded strained, as if annoyed but not wanting to let it show, "you have to tell me. I can't read your mind, if I don't know something is a problem I can't fix it."

Harry relented with a nod, "Fine but while we're on the subject of problems – where have you been sleeping? I've been in the bed every night since I've arrived."

If anything, Voldemort seemed amused by the sudden turn in the conversation. "The bedroom next to mine has decent mattress," he told Harry as he returned to his coffee, "and it is close to you should you or the baby need anything during the night."

Splitting the eggs onto two plates, Harry set Voldemort's down in front of him and then took a seat across the table. "I don't want to take your room from you, I'll start looking for one I can move in to."

"Actually," Voldemort leaned forward and rested his elbows on the table, "I would prefer it if you would stay there for the time being. As you mentioned, I do have quite a lot on my list to do and since you are already in the process of making this place livable I've decided to spend the day warding us from harm."

Harry swallowed a bite of his eggs before he asked, "But what does that have to do with where I sleep?"

"My room is the only room protected right now," Voldemort informed him as he took a bite of his own eggs. "It would please me a great deal if you could stay in my room – at least until I have the entire house warded."

With a nod of acceptance Harry reached for the paper. The Daily Prophet held no news of Voldemort's return. The main article was over a scandal involving Celestina Warbeck and an up and coming artist named Gabriel Auckland. Harry turned the page, not interested in the gossip of famous people's love lives. Who cared that Celestina had run off with an artist for a weekend getaway?

"Is there anything you need?" Voldemort asked, interrupting Harry's perusal of the classifieds. It was odd and yet fascinating to see the listings for magical artifacts being sold and the help wanted ads for everything from a curse breaker to a herbologist. "I don't think I should be back in the house before supper, so now is your chance for any requests."

Harry thought about it for a moment, considering what he could do to fill his time up. For a moment, a pang of loneliness shot through him. He missed having Ron and Hermione around but as Harry looked at Voldemort and thought about everything he had already provided, he couldn't bring himself to tell the man who had already provided much more than anyone had ever had. "No," he said as he took another bite of his breakfast, "I should be able to find something to do. The house still needs a lot of work and I have my old school books if I get tired."

"How entertaining," sarcasm dripped from Voldemort's words, "I expected at least a list of things to procure while I'm out."

Harry pushed his plate away and leaned back in the chair. Dealing with a Voldemort who wasn't trying to kill him made his head hurt. He didn't want to ask for more than he'd already been given but Harry knew he was right. He would get really bored by the time lunch rolled around. "Fine if you want a list, I'll make one."

Just as Harry stood to leave, Voldemort called out, "I'll be leaving in an hour."

Harry marched back to Voldemort's room as he tried to think of the most outlandish requests. Maybe if he came up with a long enough list Voldemort would stop hounding him for stuff he needed. What he needed was a friend. Someone to come over and hang out – preferably not throwing abortion charms at him. If he were honest with himself, he was more angry at himself than he was annoyed with Voldemort. Voldemort was just providing, as he had sworn to do, it was Harry who had only made two friends during his entire time at Hogwarts. And some friends they turned out to be.

Finding parchment and ink in his trunk, Harry thought about things he probably did really need. He knew he needed to know more about the baby and how it was developing, so the first on the list was baby books. Harry also knew he couldn't fly until after the baby was born so he needed something to occupy his time. Catalogs, Harry wrote just under the books. Baby Stuff, Books, Clothes, Furniture, etc.

At least then he could shop from home as he needed. Harry smiled at mundane requests and decided to spice up the list with a Dragon. He chuckled as beneath that he wrote, Hedwig. He hadn't seen his owl since he had run from the Order and Harry missed her terribly. If Voldemort could find her, all the better, but the idea of him hunting Hedwig down was enough to make him laugh quietly to himself.

Getting serious, Harry knew that in the near future there would be war. Voldemort had confirmed it and Dumbledore was already preparing for it. Harry knew he needed to get serious about his magical education so that he could protect his child should the need arise. So under Hedwig he wrote DADA/DA Books. Hopefully Voldemort would have a better sense of what kind of books he should study then Harry and could choose what he thought was best from the selections available.

After adding a few odds and ends for hygiene and comfort – Harry padded back down the stairs in better spirits. He found Voldemort in his office, sitting behind his desk and scribbling madly on parchment. "Busy?" Harry asked as he knocked lightly on the door.

Voldemort looked up and set his quill down, "Not at all, come in." When Harry sat in the sofa he had arranged in the corner Voldemort asked, "Did you come up with a list?"

"Yeah," Harry sent it floating towards Voldemort with his wand and laid down on his side with a pillow to cushion his head.

Harry watched as Voldemort glanced at the list in eager anticipation. "You want a dragon?" the Dark Lord asked incredulously as Harry dissolved into a fit of giggles. "You do know we live in a muggle town?"

"Great," Harry laughed, "it will already have food."

For a moment, Voldemort stared at Harry but then it seemed even he couldn't suppress the barest hint of a smile. "Aside from the dragon, I see no unreasonable requests. Any last-minute adjustments before I leave?"

"We could train the dragon to protect the baby from Dumbledore and his Order?" Harry asked, dissolving into another round of laughter. His whole body felt light and carefree for the first time. As he sat up and saw the humor in Voldemort's bloody eyes, Harry realized for the umpteenth time that he could do anything he wanted to do all day and there would be no one there to stop him. He could even do magic.

And that's exactly what he did. Voldemort left with only one rule, not to leave the house while he was gone, and then Harry was free to do as he liked. He spent his morning exploring the house further. He had found that there was another bedroom across the hall from Voldemort's, right next to the bathroom that Harry thought would be perfect for the baby.

After lunch, Harry cleaned the entire space out and was pleasantly surprised to find it perfect for a nursery. By the time it was time to stop for a break Harry was performing most of his charms and transfigurations silently, which Harry had prided himself on after seeing Voldemort use so much wandless and wordless magic.

When the cleaning was done, Harry knew his energy had been zapped. He headed down to Voldemort's office with the intention of dozing by the fire, but curiosity had always been a weakness of Harry's. The parchments Voldemort had been writing on were still laid out and Harry couldn't help but take a peak. What he found made him wish he had never looked. At the top of the parchment was AZKABAN.