Title: Rescue

Author: SweetlyDesolated

Pairing: Harry (Joker)/Lord Voldemort

Series: Vinewood

Timing: Beginning of the summer before Harry's 6th year – he's 15

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, no matter how great my desire. Damn.

Summary: Harry is collected from the Dursleys by someone different, not the Order. He's saved from the return to his cupboard and starvation by the people who are supposed to be killing him. HP/LV

He heard footsteps ascending the stairs and knobs turn on all the closed doors. They wouldn't be able to find him unless he called out, but Harry wasn't feeling very partial to the strangers just then. Two pairs of feet came down the stairs again, knocking loose dust and paint that gathered in his meager living space.

"Where is he?" Harry heard a very familiar voice ask – Professor Snape.

Harry gasped and the room went silent; he must have been louder than he thought. The quiet was broken by someone knocking a glass object to the floor in the kitchen; it shattered, but a muttered spell and accusing words later solved the issue.

"Potter?" the man asked, walking right passed the cupboard.

The teen hissed out, "What is it that everything has?" *

Snape, or the man sounding like Snape, though who would want to impersonate him, stood in front of the door. "What is your Animagus form?" * he whispered so the others wouldn't hear him.

"Touché, Professor," Harry replied louder. "Now, can you let me out?"

The man chuckled a bit and Harry heard the scratching of fingernails as the lock was pried from the wooden door. The white prison gate swung open, and Harry squinted as the light from lit wands seared his retinas. He swore and tucked his head into the crook of his elbow. The incantation 'Nox' was heard several times as the owners extinguished their lights.

The hands Harry recognized as belonging to Professor Snape wrapped around his back and under his legs. A pullback of the man had Harry cradled in the man's arms, his head resting on a padded shoulder. He was lost in the billows of the Death Eater garb the man wore.

"You weigh much less than you should," the man commented, his voice pitched low. The other Death Eaters gathered Harry's belongings from his cupboard or the well-locked room on the floor above.

"Not my fault," Harry whispered, his throat parched from lack of water.

"How long have you been in there?" Snape asked.

Harry paused to think. Snape carried him into the kitchen and balanced him on the counter as he reached for a glass to fill with water from the tap. "A few days, I think. It was hard to keep track because they didn't let me out at all this time." He tilted his head back gratefully as Severus placed the rim of the cup to his lower lip, slowly letting the cool water trickle down his throat. The liquid refreshed him, and helped to fill the empty void starvation left in his stomach. Snape held a soft pear to his lips, and Harry enjoyed the fresh fruit as it staved off his hunger.

"Bathroom, then. You can finish freshening up back at the Manor," Snape told him.

Harry agreed and was again picked up, the cup left sitting on the otherwise empty counter.

Snape set Harry on the toilet to do his business, adverting his eyes to give the teen some semblance of privacy. He helped the boy to wash his face and hands when he was done.

"Is everything done?" Severus asked the gathering Death Eaters. Harry was again cradled in his arms, held securely in the thin man's grip. The masked men nodded and Severus gestured for them to leave through the back door. When outside of the wards Dumbledore placed on the house, the group Apparated to Riddle Manor. Severus staggered slightly as his feet met the ground, Harry's slight weight enough to pull him off balance. Another masked man steadied him. One other, the shortest of the standing bunch, pulled a silver and red half-mask from a pocket and placed it gently on the cradled teen's face, disguising his features.

Severus and Harry remained in the middle of the group as they walked into the throne room, where their lord straitened in his chair before standing and descending from the dais.

"Those Muggles are dead," Voldemort stated when he had his Joker cradled in his arms. He ascended the dais again and kept the small teen in his lap.

"No, it'll raise suspicion and I won't be able to get away," Harry told him.

Voldemort exhaled angrily. He hugged the slight teen to himself tightly, and dismissed his Death Eaters with a silent nod of appreciation, once they told him what had occurred. Harry's trunk was left at the foot of the dais, waiting for a house elf to take it back to their rooms. "Let's get you cleaned up," Voldemort remarked to Harry.

The teen dozed, but woke at his voice and agreed with him. Voldemort stood again with Harry in his arms and entered the disguised hallway behind his throne. He followed the hallway, silence hovering in the air between him and Harry. He reached their rooms and locked the door behind them.

Voldemort sat on a chair and ordered house elves to run a bath, prepare a simple meal, and bring Harry's trunk from the throne room. Water was heard in the next room over as it poured into the large bath tub. The trunk was left at the foot of the bed for Harry to unpack when he was stronger. Food on a tray was perched on a side table.

The Joker removed his mask and passed it to Voldemort, who set it aside. He picked up the warm broth in a cup and held it to Harry's lips. The thin throat compressed and released as Harry swallowed. The teen smiled, happier, as the broth warmed and filled him.

"Can you eat anything more?" Voldemort asked, worried, as Harry gently pushed the half empty cup from his face.

The teen shook his head. "Severus fed me a pear before we got here, and it filled me."

Voldemort sighed mournfully and hugged the teen to his chest once he set the cup aside. The water shut off, and Voldemort told Harry, "It's time to get you clean."

He stripped them both of clothing, tossing Harry's rags into the lit fireplace. His own he draped on the back of the chair. Voldemort pressed a kiss to Harry's scarred forehead as he carried the teen into the bathroom and set him gently in the warm water. He climbed in next to Harry and pulled his unresisting lover onto his lap.

With a cloth and liquid soap, Voldemort gently cleaned the waste, dirt, and sweat from his Harry's malnourished body. The teen's head rested in the crook of his neck, his blinking eyelashes fluttering against his skin. The Dark Lord manipulated his little lover until every inch of him was clean, as well as Voldemort himself.

They stayed in the tub a while longer, Harry's skin absorbing water from mixed potions to help counter the dehydration he suffered. * The couple relaxed, sharing gentle, chaste kisses every now and then. Finally, Voldemort groaned. "I think I'm pruning, Lover," he told Harry, still clinging to his neck. He felt Harry's smile against his neck and felt the shoulders under his hands shake with muted laughter.

Voldemort waved his hand and the water started to drain from the large tub, leaving him and Harry bare to the air. Another wave and they were clad in a large towel, the water absorbed, and the towel replaced by sleeping pants.

When the couple was reclined on the large, five-sleeper bed, Voldemort asked the one question he had been wondering about all afternoon. "Why did they treat you like this?" he asked his lover.

Harry's hoarse voice responded, "They hate me, mostly because I am magical. And then some idiot wrote that my Godfather was dead and they were angry. I used Sirius as my threat for them to treat me well. They put all my things in Dudley's second room, and shoved me in the cupboard under the stairs as punishment. They sometimes fed me and gave me water, but rarely." Harry nuzzled closer to Voldemort and breathed in the comforting scent.

"I don't want you going back there, Harry," the man told him.

"Me either, but Dumbledore will insist, something along the lines of my mother's blood protecting me."

Voldemort wrapped his arms more securely around the frail back. "Doesn't he realize the blood wards are void because I used your blood to return to a body?"

He felt Harry shrug in his embrace. "It's Dumbledore; he'll do what he thinks is best for the 'Greater Good' or something stupid like that."

Voldemort snickered. He extinguished the candlelight around the room and pulled the blankets up higher around their bare shoulders.

Harry tilted his head up and pressed his lips to the thin ones of his partner. Slowly, their mouths opened and tongues explored. Harry sighed happily and Voldemort broke the kiss, pressing another to the corner of the raven's mouth and then the pink scar adorning his lover's forehead.

"Sleep well, Voldemort," Harry whispered, his energy leaving him quickly.

"And you as well, my Joker, my Harry," the man responded. The man pulled Harry closer to his body in a warm embrace, and his eyes slowly slid closed with the onslaught of sleep.

Here's another part of the Vinewood Series! I hope you all enjoyed reading it! Please review.

~Deso

Explanations:

* The potions are in the soap Voldemort used. When in contact with skin, they absorb water and feed it into the skin cells and to the veins, where it then circulates the body. Kind of like a Wizarding IV, but simpler than needles. Just scrub and soak!

* Snape knows Harry has an Animagus form (the crow) but doesn't know what it is. He is one of a few Death Eaters who knows Harry and Voldemort are together, and is one of five people (Voldemort, Severeus, Lucius, Narcissa, and Draco) to know of Harry's abilities. The group that collected Harry from the Dursleys and know he is Joker (Snape, Draco, Lucius, Rabastan, and Rodolphus) keep everything secret. Others know Harry is Joker but didn't go to retrieve him.

* When Harry spends detention with Snape, having known Harry was Dark after the graveyard in fourth year, Severus teases him with the riddle that Harry can't figure out – What is it that everything has?

Edited 09/11/10