The Nightmare Man's Journey

Summary: Sequel to The Nightmare Man, set ten years later. Under the rule of the Dark Lord Voldemort, much still remains the same. Yet rebels still exist, and they fight to remove Voldemort's ally, the Nightmare Lord. Will they succeed?

Pairing/s: None.

Warnings: Mentions and descriptions of violence and gore, OOC-characters, dark!Harry, time travel and other such stuff.

It's good if you've read the prequels The Nightmare Man and Birth of a Nightmare Man, or some confusion might occur.

Disclaimers: I don't own Harry Potter, nor do I make any money writing fanfiction.

NOTE: Do not re-upload on any other site; I do not give permission to do so.

-o-

Thank you all for your patience, and enjoy the last chapter of The Nightmare Man's Journey!

-o-

Chapter Ten

If there was one thing that Harrison disliked about sleeping, it was that he rarely knew how long he had been asleep. So mostly he slept in fits, almost as if his mind forced his body to wake up every few hours to make sure he didn't sleep too long. Because when he wasn't careful, he'd wake up and weeks would have passed, and while that was fine in the past, it wasn't so fine now.

But when he worked his body too hard, he crashed. Coming through a Veil and throwing his magic around like an idiot was pushing a lot of limits and he hadn't been that surprised that he passed out upon returning to his home.

Waking up wasn't easy. His eyes felt sore and gritty, his body ached as if he had been lying still for too long, and he was overly warm. But as he opened his eyes a bit, he recognized the ceiling as that of his own bedroom, to which he drew the conclusion he was at least in his own bed.

And since he no longer smelled like death, someone had indeed thrown him in the bath. Judging from the soreness in his body, and the fresh state of his hair, he must have been bathed more than once.

Harrison tried to lift his arm to rub the grit away, but something was weighing his arms down. He wasn't alone in bed, which once would have been unusual but since adopting children, it was still common enough that he wouldn't be shocked at finding one or more of them in his room.

Angel peeked up from beneath the covers, clinging like a barnacle to the arm he had tried to lift, and his movements seemed to have woken her up. He looked down at her, and her eyes slowly widened. For a few moments, neither of them blinked.

Then the barnacle on his other arm, sorry, Lucy, sat straight up and stared at him.

"He's awake!" she then yelled through the half-open door.

As if waiting for the opportunity to pounce on him, a fierce headache tore through Harrison's skull which made him hiss, reclaim both arms only to pull the pillow over his head.

"Not so loud," he groaned, voice hoarse.

Lucy breathed in and Harrison had instant regrets that he ever opened his mouth.

"Good morning!" she yelled, the loudest she could, and as near his ear she could get.

"Oh dear Merlin, someone smother me already."

Angel started poking his side insistently, and when he finally removed the pillow she flopped down on his stomach, digging her elbows into said stomach. He grunted at the sharp pain, which made her giggle. Of course it made her giggle, that little devil.

"Was that really necessary?" he asked her.

"Yeah!" she agreed.

"Alright, if you say so."

"You made everyone sad," Angel said.

"Sad?"

"Yeah, you disappeared and made everyone sad."

"Hardly everyone," Harrison said. "I assure you at least three people cheered in triumph."

Angel wrinkled her nose at that, before insisting that no, everyone was sad.

"Did I make you sad too?" he asked.

Lucy's face twisted hearing that, before she turned her head away. He could still hear her sniffling wetly, and turned his head slowly to look at Angel. Angel, whose eyes were big and round and wet, and fuck. He did not deal well with tears. In fact, he hated dealing with crying people.

But as Angel started to actually cry, Harrison's hands moved on their own, the traitors. He took her head in his hands and used his thumbs to stroke the tears away.

"That sad, huh?" he said and she nodded.

Lucy's breath hitched, one of her hands clutching his shirt. She kept wiping at her face.

"I didn't mean to make you sad," Harrison told Angel. "My little devil, no, my devils… I didn't mean that. I'm just… I'm stupid Uncle Harrison who didn't think ahead."

"You never think ahead!" Lucy burst out.

"It's one of my many faults, and the main one that will drive Elise to the brink of insanity one day."

"I wanted to kick you until you bled, but Lucian said that wouldn't be nice to Elise, so that's the only reason why I'm not doing it, you hear?!"

"I… thank you?"

Before Lucy could say anything else, the half-open door practically flew off its hinges, crashing into the wall. Elise and Lucian came in first, and stopped short when they saw he actually was awake. That was a bad idea, apparently, because the rest of the servants came stampeding in, and crashed spectacularly. Harrison stared as they all fell to the floor in a heap of limbs and curses.

He sat up and Angel decided to wipe the rest of her tears on his shirt before snuggling in. Lucy turned back to him, eyes red-rimmed but clear, and joined Angel in clinging to him. They watched the group of people struggle, until Angel giggled and said:

"I'll fucking choke you to death with your innards if you don't get off me now!"

"Elise, you're teaching Angel bad phrases," Harrison said in alarm. "Hang on a minute… you all are! Ywgraine, where did you learn to say that? No, don't bloody repeat it to me!"

"Oh, for the love of Merlin…!" Rabastan managed as he rose himself from the pile of bodies.

He immediately got snagged on Joanne's arm and fell rather gracelessly onto the bed. He grunted, and bared his teeth when Angel and Lucy had the nerve to laugh at him.

Harrison realized not everyone was part of the pile that was trying to get up from the floor. Harry, for instance, was in an armchair, and from the looks of it he had been sleeping in it.

"My bed's big enough for you too, Harry," Harrison said even as the girls moved around, getting into better positions by his sides. "Lucy, that's my neck, don't choke me."

"She kicks," Harry replied, pointing at Angel. "And Lucy steals all the covers."

"You should've brought more," Lucy said, arms still looped around Harrison's neck.

"I did! Four times, you stole them all!"

"Lies."

"Lucy, still choking me."

"I'm not," Lucy said. "It's called a hug."

"This is not a hug. This is strangling. Angel, she's strangling me."

"She's not," Angel said.

Another one not part of the pile on the floor, Draco, now peeked into the room with a tray in his hands.

"Good morning," he said to Harrison. "Dick."

"Oh, shut it Malfoy," Harrison replied.

"Want some breakfast? Once people have untangled themselves and gotten off the floor like proper adults."

Once the servants heard they might force their master to wait for his food, they quickly stumbled upright with minimal complaining, although Harrison saw Christian elbow Joanne, who retaliated by pulling his hair.

"Stop squabbling," Draco ordered and they did.

Which, rude. How come when Draco ordered them around they listened immediately? Had Harrison lost his touch? Was he not intimidating enough anymore? Hang on; he didn't want to be intimidating. Well, he wanted to be, but not with the servants.

His head was hurting again, so he stopped thinking.

Draco entered the room properly, and Harrison turned to him and Rabastan.

"Fred and George said hello," he told them. "Professor Snape did not. He sneered. You two might be better at interpreting that. It could've been a hello for all I know."

"You met Fred and George?" Rabastan said. "Our dimension's Fred and George?"

"Yes, I did," Harrison said. "They escorted me most of the way through the afterlife. In fact, I met a lot of people there. An awful lot of them basically told me to be ashamed of my life."

"And?" Draco said as he put the tray down on the bed.

"Some of them said that with their actions, actually. Hermione, for example; she tried to kill me. That was a bit of fun."

"She tried to kill you… in the afterlife?" Draco said.

"I can't blame her for trying," Harrison replied. "Besides, I just had to admire her stubbornness. I bet if I return to her afterlife in a thousand years, she'll still try to kill me. You know, just for formality's sake."

"So, what, you met people you killed?" Rabastan wondered.

"It was like a walk down memory-lane… so yes, it definitely included people I killed. There was a lot. Most of them weren't terribly happy with me. Can't say I was happy to see them either, as I could've done more productive things with my time in the afterlife."

"Like what?" Draco wondered.

"Having tea with the founders," Harrison said. "Talk more with Fred and George. See if professor Snape knew how to smile in a manner that wasn't smug or looking like it physically pained him to move his facial muscles that way."

"What you're saying is that you would have rather done anything else than meet those you killed," Rabastan concluded for him.

"I'd rather watch grass grow," Harrison confirmed. "The grass wouldn't have tried to kill me, or worse, talk to me. Dreadfully boring, talking, especially when it's with people I killed. I spoke to Dumbledore too, and you know what he did?"

"He tried to kill you too?" Rabastan wondered.

"No, worse! He tried to forgive me!"

"The nerve of the man," Draco said sarcastically, before shoving a fork into Harrison's mouth. "Now eat."

Harrison took the fork out and looked ready to spit the food out. But then he chewed and swallowed, and took the plate from the tray.

"Can I have some?" Angel asked.

"Harrison needs to eat," Draco told her.

"Oh, that's true. I'll get something later then."

"I can go and do it," Joanne said. "The food, I mean. Breakfast. Is it breakfast, or lunch?"

"Brunch?" Ywgraine tried with.

"Does it matter?" Severus wondered. "Food is food."

"Uncultured swine," Ywgraine said with no heat in her voice.

Severus bared his teeth, which only made her laugh.

"Well, you can go and make food, whatever you want to call it," Harrison said. "And you can take the rest of them with you."

Several protests were raised, the servants speaking over each other. Harrison arched a brow, and everyone's voices died out as they stared at him.

"I don't need an audience watching me eat," he said.

"Might make him finish the food for once…" someone muttered.

"Shut up," Harrison said. "Now, you all know I'm awake… I'm eating, I'm… here? Present? Right, you can all feel that I'm here?"

They nodded in unison.

"Well then, you know I'm still here even if you don't look at me."

"But master…" Louis began.

"I won't eat another bite if you all stand there and stare at me."

"You're gonna eat," Draco said, "if I so have to shove each forkful down your throat."

"Nope, not gonna eat if everyone stares at me."

The servants looked at each other. They seemed to have a silent conversation going on, there was a lot of nodding among them, and all but Elise and Lucian left.

"Right," Harrison said. "I could ask what that was all about… but right now, I don't really care."

Instead he went back to eating. Normally he'd nibble on things, push them around, or cut them up into tiny pieces. Normally it took Harrison a long time to finish his food. Sometimes he didn't finish it. Sometimes he didn't even touch it. The servants had likened him to a child in that aspect. An infuriating one.

Now it was gone in two minutes, and he looked down at the plate.

"I'm contemplating licking it," he informed everyone in the room.

"Or, you know, you ask for more like a normal person," Draco said and snatched the plate from him.

"Oh yeah, that works too. I'd like some more."

"Wow, even asked nicely. I better appreciate it before you turn back to a cranky toddler during mealtime."

He left the room before Harrison could get a word in, and so Harrison settled in back against the pillows instead. Elise didn't look as relieved as he thought she would look.

"Why are you staring at me like that?" he asked.

"You never eat this much, master," she said.

"Well, the only thing I had in the afterlife was tea," he said. "And I'm not even sure it was real tea. Is there real tea in the afterlife? And how long was I there anyway?"

"Three months."

"Oh. Sorry about that; didn't really feel like three months to me."

Angel and Lucy had been suspiciously quiet throughout; Harry was quiet too, but Harrison knew the young man had his quiet spells. The girls, not as much.

Angel though, she sometimes did things instead of speaking. Like now; being small for her age, she had apparently decided right now that climbing up on his shoulders was an excellent idea. Harrison decided not to start questioning it.

"Don't pull my hair," he just warned her.

Lucy however, pressed a hand against his chest.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

"Do you know how creepy it was to put my head on your chest and hear nothing?" Lucy asked. "Like, no heartbeat, no lungs breathing. You didn't even move."

"Then why did you do it?"

"I wanted to make sure you were real!"

"Poking me would've reassured you just as much."

"I'm trying to… argh, you're impossible!" Lucy punched him. "So what, you just grew a new heart?"

"Yes, I thought you already knew this," Harrison replied.

"Well, I never really had to experience you ripping your heart out."

"He used to do that," Lucian said.

"Used to," Harrison stressed, grabbing onto Angel when she wobbled on top of his shoulders.

"I hope you're not starting that up again," Lucy said. "Why did you even rip it out in the first place?"

"It was damaged!"

"You heal from stuff like that!" Lucy protested.

"It was too heavily damaged," Harrison amended. "Just easier to rip it out and start anew."

"People questioned his immortality," Elise added. "So he ripped it out and let the Inferi leader eat it."

"She likes hearts," Harrison defended himself.

"Does that mean she'll start eating on you?" Lucy asked, which made Angel make a disgusted face.

"No, she likes me," Harrison said.

"But she eats people, and if you gave her your heart she might expect to have it again?"

"I'll tell her not to eat me, then."

"That'd be good, because I kinda don't want you to get eaten."

"Well, I really don't want her to eat me."

Draco came back with more food, and Harrison dropped Angel on the bed before devouring that portion too. Elise began pouring him a glass of water when he waved at her to hand over the entire pitcher, which he then drained.

He managed to get one leg off the bed after that, when Elise pulled it up and pushed him back fully onto the bed.

"You're staying right there, master," she warned.

"Oh, here we go again…" Harrison muttered.

"I can have the chains here in a moment."

"That still sounds kinky," Harrison said and Elise glared at him. "Fine, I won't go anywhere! Except for the bathroom. I am allowed to go the bathroom at least, right?"

Elise measured the distance between the bed and bathroom, and then moved the entire bed three feet closer. She didn't even use magic for it; she just braced herself against the bed and pushed it manually while Harrison watched her with raised eyebrows.

"Alright, you've made your point," he said once she was done.

"Good," Elise replied.

"Shouldn't you two get something to eat?" Harrison asked Angel and Lucy. "You too, Harry."

"Later," Harry said, curling up in the armchair.

"I'm still tired," Lucy said. "So I'm going back to sleep."

"You have a bed, I presume. Or did you get rid of it?"

"Yours is more comfortable," Lucy said.

Angel fluffed up a few pillows and settled down, a leg thrown over Harrison's lap. Lucy did the same on the other side of Harrison and within minutes, they were asleep and he was left staring at them.

Meanwhile, Elise and Lucian were staring at him. Draco had settled in an armchair and Rabastan leaned against it.

"Why are all of you staring at me?" Harrison asked at last.

"You've been missing for three months," Draco said. "Excuse us if we want to make sure you just don't vanish into thin air."

"That sounds very dramatic," Harrison replied.

"I wouldn't put it past you," Rabastan told him.

"It's just," Elise said before anyone of them could continue. "Your magic, master… it disappeared. When you fell through the Veil. It started vanishing from us, the servants collapsed one by one and in the end… only I and Lucian remained awake."

"We lost hope," Lucian added. "That you'd return to us."

"Well, one day I won't be coming back," Harrison said and the two flinched. "Now, now, you two, everything dies. Everyone dies. Even if it takes a really long time for some of them."

"Master…" Elise began.

"But when I do die for real," Harrison interrupted, looking at them, "you will all be coming with me."

"What do you mean?" Lucian asked.

"You are alive because of my magic. You can't survive if it vanishes for real."

"Do you promise that you'll take us with you?" Elise said.

"It's not a promise, silly. Or an oath; it's just a fact. Didn't you hear me? It's going to happen. When I die, Elise, when I truly die and my magic goes away… my servants will all die with me."

Hearing something like that would probably frighten some people. To be told they would not be able to choose their own end, or cling onto life without one person's magic to sustain them. But both Elise and Lucian sagged with relief instead. Like dying with their master was exactly what they wanted.

Harrison managed to make the two leave at last, to inform the other servants of what he said, and he was left with Rabastan, Draco, Harry and the two sleeping girls.

"I met my parents," Harrison said when the silence lasted too long.

"Your parents?" Draco said.

"Yes. That was an awful experience. I never want that to happen again; I'd rather let Dumbledore try and forgive me instead."

"Sometimes, I have trouble wrapping my head around how your mind works," Draco said.

"You assume he has a mind that actually works?" Rabastan asked and got a pillow thrown in his face by Harrison.

Harry stayed quiet, staring down at the floor.

"What is it, Harry?" Harrison asked.

"Your parents," Harry began. "You mean… James and Lily?"

"Yes. My James and Lily. If yours were there, I didn't see them. So it was just my James and Lily. They were rather angry, which is weird."

"Why is that weird?" Rabastan asked.

"Well, they died when I was just a toddler, yet they were so invested in… in me, I guess."

"They died for you, might have something to do with it."

"That is true. But does that mean I have to be on their side for the rest of eternity just because of that? I feel like I had the right to make my own choices, even if that meant becoming the type of person they would consider an enemy. Oh, that's right; Sirius and Remus were there too! Not like it made the whole meeting better. Worse, actually. Why did I ever like them now again?"

"Because back when you were a kid, you were on their side," Rabastan said. "They cared about you, and you cared about them."

"But that's barely anything compared with how long I've lived," Harrison complained. "And also, they must have seen bits and pieces of my life; did they honestly think I would change my mind seeing them in the afterlife? Just look back on centuries of living and say it was all a mistake and I want to be their little golden boy again?"

"They had to try, I suppose," Rabastan said.

"Just like Hermione Granger had to try and kill you in the afterlife," Draco added.

"You do have a point there. Also, the last time I saw them, I was walking to my death and had called on them. I wanted company. And reassurance."

"Reassurance for what?" Harry wondered.

"That dying wouldn't hurt," Harrison replied. "Sirius said it was quicker than falling asleep. If you die falling through a Veil, he isn't wrong, it didn't hurt falling through the Veil. But there have been plenty of times when death is near, and it's just been agony."

His head began to list to the side, and then he began having a hard time keeping his eyes open.

"What was I saying now again?" he asked after a while.

"I think the old man needs more naptime," Rabastan said.

"Naptime?" Harrison replied. "Isn't that for children?"

"Not just for children," Draco told him. "Most people like naps."

"I don't. Or do I? Elise?"

"She's not here to tell you," Harry said. "But you do take naps quite frequently."

"I do? Might as well do it now then."

"That sounds like a good plan," Rabastan told him. "That, and I'm not sure you can keep yourself awake anyway."

"I could," Harrison protested, not even bothering to open his eyes.

Rabastan walked over to the bed and gave Harrison a light shove. He flopped down onto the bed, the girls barely stirring.

"Or maybe not," Harrison conceded. "Are the devils still here?"

"You ain't getting rid of them that easily," Rabastan said.

Harrison hummed. And then he was asleep.

"That was fast," Rabastan continued.

"He normally kicks up such a fuss," Draco said.

"Like a cranky toddler," Rabastan said, which made Harry snort. "But then again, he was in the afterlife for three months. If it doesn't kill him, at least it should make him tired for a while?"

"It better make him tired and stay right here, or I won't survive Elise's temper tantrum if he runs off like a bloody moron," Draco said.

-o-

Now, Harrison had suffered injuries before. Elise had a list over every injury, only so she could smack said list in Harrison's face when he tried to argue with her about the times he got himself hurt.

He had been torn apart and put together. He had lost organs and blood and bones. He had been left in a healing sleep for years, or for days, weeks, months. He knowingly got himself injured on a regular basis, dropped his guard and thus was forced to drag himself back home with more blood on him than still in his own veins, because he was a fucking idiot.

Being dragged through a Veil wasn't really his fault. He hadn't set out to do it, like he sometimes did with injuries he sustained. Some damages done were only done due to Harrison allowing the harm to reach him. Over the last ten years, that had been slowly decreasing.

So he hadn't planned on falling through a Veil, or allowed any damage to be done to him. A new heart was something that kept him in bed for a few days, but he had slept peacefully while his new heart was created.

Usually, he would spring right back in action after things like that, like nothing had happened, much to the frustration of everyone around him. Sometimes, he didn't even fully heal before springing back to said action, which frustrated them even more.

He should've rested while the heart was created and then pop right out of bed to go about his day. Or run, to avoid being caught by an enraged Elise once she saw he wasn't listening to her orders about staying in bed. That was normal for the Nightmare Lord.

But this time? This time was different. Harrison's heart had grown back. His organs were just fine, in tip-top shape. Nothing was physically wrong with him. He should pop out of bed and waste energy just being chased around for not being in said bed, but he didn't.

Instead he slept.

He would sleep, then wake up and go to the bathroom, before going right back to sleep again. He would be prodded awake to eat something, but once he was done he went to sleep again. For two weeks, he truly only left the bed to go to the bathroom, which pleased Elise; he was staying in one place.

It also worried Elise, because he was staying in one place. He wasn't following the usual script. Even when he had lost limbs he would try and get out of bed, if he wasn't missing half of his organs or bleeding internally. If he just lost an arm, he refused to even rest; instead he just popped it back on and called it a day.

He hadn't lost any limbs and his organs were in perfect condition, and his sleeping patterns didn't match with the times when he slept for months. Harrison just seemed… tired, in a way he hadn't been before the Veil.

Angel tried to make him stop sleeping so much by making messy braids in his hair on purpose, but not even when she put pink bows at the ends did he seem to get out of whatever hole this incident had put him in.

Lucy tried to annoy him out of bed by poking his sides, but the only thing that happened was him swatting her hands away and muttering about little devils that should be in school already.

It was time for them to return to school, but Elise had taken the decision to keep them home until Harrison was back to normal. Or at least until after Halloween. Angel's school had been informed and would hand over her course work to Ywgraine to take home to Angel, and Lucy would do her work at home until after Halloween.

It was unheard of for a student to be absent for part of the year at Hogwarts, but Lucy was a special case and Voldemort had pushed for it when Elise asked. Harry and Severus had returned though, as they were professors, but Harry returned home every day instead of staying at the school. Severus remained more often, but even he returned to the Nightmare Lord's manor more than he usually did during school years.

After those two weeks had passed with no change, Elise took a page out of Lucy's book and was there with her one day, poking at Harrison. Harrison opened one eye. Once he saw Elise, he raised his head from the pillow, squinting at them, and said:

"Why are you annoying me, Elise? I've hardly moved from the bed, I've done what you want. Now shoo."

"Don't tell me to shoo, master," Elise replied. "You're taking a walk today."

"Oh, am I now?"

"Yes."

"And if I don't feel like it?"

Elise's eyes narrowed.

"Lucy," she said.

Lucy yelled for Angel who came running, jumping up on the bed. Lucy whispered in her ear, and Angel nodded. They turned to Harrison and his eyes widened as their eyes began to glisten. But before they could start crying properly, he sat up and said:

"Alright, fine, I'll take a bloody walk!"

Immediately the girls stopped sniffling, and high-fived Elise instead.

"You get double dessert today," Elise told them.

"Traitors," he hissed at the girls, who laughed in his face and ran off.

Rabastan came into the room just as Harrison was getting dressed.

"They've got you neatly wrapped around their finger," he told Harrison.

"Oh, don't remind me," Harrison said. "It's not news anyway."

"If we're being honest, Harry's got you wrapped around his finger too. He's just nicer about it."

"That's it; I'm giving up. Hanging up my title. The Nightmare Lord is no more, there's only cranky Uncle Harrison that can't do anything but indulge those bastard children."

"I think all of their parents were married when they had their kids."

"Oh, shut up."

"Your robes are on backwards."

"… Damn it."

"Need help?" Rabastan said.

"Might as well go all out. I'm a cranky, old man who needs more naps than a toddler and I can't even dress myself anymore."

"Well, you are very good at forgetting even the basic stuff," Rabastan said, perhaps more to stop thinking about how Harrison's hands fumbled.

Could the Veil have done some permanent damage on Harrison that only now started to show itself? Was this… going to remain?

Rabastan didn't want to think about it, but it was hard not to when he realized Harrison was a lot slower than normal, and even seemed unstable on his feet. He gave in, and wrapped Harrison's hand around his arm.

"Is there something wrong?" Rabastan asked as they slowly walked down the stairs.

"I'm not dying, if that's what you're thinking," Harrison said. "It's just… strange."

"What is?"

"Adjusting."

"Adjusting to what?"

"To the living world?"

"I hate the fact that you don't sound very sure about it."

"Well, I am actually not sure about it. I've never gone through a Veil before, and then come back out it."

"Is it staying this way?" Rabastan dared to ask as they reached the front doors.

Harrison pushed them open, skin white against the sunlight. He looked sick.

"No," he answered absently. "Just… adjusting."

"You said that already."

"It's still true."

Harrison let go of Rabastan's arm, and walked out. Rabastan moved after him, unwilling to let him get too far away. Harrison stopped after a bit and tilted his head up to the sun, closing his eyes. Rabastan observed him.

The slow smile that came over Harrison's face was achingly familiar, and more like him than what Harrison had been doing for the last two weeks.

"Oh, I hate the fact Elise was right," Harrison said all of a sudden, breathing in deeply.

"What do you mean?"

"I really needed a walk."

With that, Harrison set off. He was sure on his feet, the slowness near-gone. The trees, black and glistening in the sun, began to move their branches. The sounds of them moving cut through the quiet grounds, and Harrison almost ran over to them in his usual manner.

"My lovelies!" he said, as if the trees were alive. "Oh, you look wonderful."

A few branches reached down towards him, and he reached up for them. Rabastan snorted.

"And to think I worried…" he said. "You two, you can come out now."

Elise and Lucian appeared, having shadowed them the entire way.

"He flipped from slow to fast," Lucian said. "I don't get it."

"Prolonged bed-rest isn't good for anyone," Rabastan said. "Bodies get stiff, no matter the age. You should remember that, from the past. When he slept for months on end."

"He was stiff," Elise recalled. "But he didn't wake on an off and wanted to stay in bed."

"Well, it's a bit different this time. I'm just saying, two weeks of mostly sleeping is enough to make him stiff. That, and his appetite's terrible. Fucking bastard enjoys driving us up the walls by not eating properly."

Elise smiled for a moment, but it vanished just as quickly as she and Lucian stepped up to stand by Rabastan.

"It's just," she began. "It's just that this is the first time he's worried me this much. I can't help but wanting… well."

"You want to wrap him up and keep him away from the world?" Rabastan ventured.

She nodded.

"Not that master actually needs to be coddled," Lucian said.

"He hates that," Elise added.

"Nearly as much as he hates over-boiled vegetables."

"To be fair on him, I think everyone hates that," Rabastan said.

"I just want to keep him from hurting himself, or letting others hurt him," Elise said. "Master just… lets it happen."

"Well, he's an idiot, and sorry, he's been that way ever since he was a kid. There's no cure for that."

Meanwhile, Harrison was chatting to the trees as if they were people. To him, they were probably better than most people because they weren't annoying. Some of the branches reached down far enough to grab him. The Dementors were quick to gather, some of them holding onto him so he wouldn't fall when the branches let go.

He looked over at them after a while, and hollered:

"What are you three standing around and looking so depressed for?!"

"It's your fault!" Rabastan hollered back.

"I haven't even done anything yet!"

"You will do something, you always do!"

"I know that," Harrison protested, "but don't expose me like that!"

-o-

Voldemort had visited Harrison's manor several times since the Nightmare Lord's return, in between meetings at the Ministry. There was too much paperwork and too many late nights, and not something he ever expected his life to be.

But the crack within the Ministry had to be fixed. The issue with Harrison and his legacy had largely been solved due to Harrison's actions at said Ministry. Who knew spilled guts would be just the thing to silence someone's protests?

However, Voldemort wasn't satisfied with current actions and as soon as Harrison woke up and Voldemort could ask for permission, Voldemort made sure to release an updated history of the Nightmare Lord. Including everyone who thought him a fake, and about the people who thought the Nightmare Lord was the work of a group. Mainly to show the present people how the past people had been so wrong so many times.

Lucius, upon hearing more details from Harrison's early life, dug into the Malfoy history and found Malfoys that had named the Nightmare Lord as an acquaintance, which basically said those Malfoys considered him more or less a friend.

Once Lucius had made his family's history connecting to that of the Nightmare Lord and also made it known, other families soon did the same.

"Master met a lot of people over the years," Elise explained when Voldemort brought it up.

"Be honest with me, Elise," Voldemort said. "How many of those families did he actually remember the day after?"

"He remembered the Malfoys, because they were pretty."

"Of course he did. Anyone else?"

"Not really."

But while Harrison forgot, Elise hadn't. She had pretty much written up everyone Harrison had met. Those who sided with him, and those who didn't. She wrote up the families that stood at his side, and those he brought to an end, down to the last family member and the reasoning for it. If there was a reason. Sometimes there wasn't.

"He eradicated a family line due to a duel once," Elise told Voldemort once she realized he was interested in hearing how Harrison had wrecked havoc on magical families back in the old days.

"What?"

"The son was offended so the father, lord Eurys, demanded a duel with master. The son kept referring to us as slaves. It was fun killing him."

"And the rest of the family?" Voldemort asked.

"Well, master and lord Eurys duelled for ownership. Since master killed lord Eurys, he got everything lord Eurys had, including the entire family."

"Oh… anything else like that?"

"He cut off a student's head once," Elise replied. "But he didn't touch the family."

"A student's head? At Hogwarts?"

"To be fair, the student attacked him first, and he had the right to retaliate."

"I read nothing about that happening at Hogwarts," Voldemort said. "And I read most of the books about Hogwarts' history."

"Events are left out, or forgotten. Old accounts were lost or buried. For a time, even we servants forgot about Hogwarts."

"How could you forget?"

"After the founders' deaths, it was too painful for master to hear about the school. So we forgot it, so we wouldn't accidentally bring it up."

"What are you telling Voldemort, Elise?"

Harrison looked at them both from the doorway, arms crossed and eyes squinting.

"About our days at Hogwarts," Elise replied.

"And you killing an entire family line," Voldemort continued.

"I did that?" Harrison asked Elise.

"Lord Eurys and his son, Ulgar," Elise said as Harrison came into the room.

"Eurys… Eurys… that does sound familiar…" Harrison tapped his chin a few times. "Oh! Lucian was upset I left his entrails hanging in the chandelier!"

"Yes, he was, master. And you destroyed a set of robes with that duel."

"I didn't rip it apart."

"Drenching it in blood, master."

"Well, that was a rather normal occurrence for me back in the days. Why the sudden interest in my past, Voldemort?"

Harrison didn't sound upset about it, and his posture was relaxed as he settled in an armchair. In fact, once they had gotten him out of bed Harrison had pretty turned back to normal.

"Once people began to dig, some of them found out their families once knew you. It's proof you've been around for a long time."

"Well, there will always be someone saying I'm not me. They'll say it's a group. A whole line of Nightmare Lords, made to look the same. There are some who will never believe in immortality. They'll blame everything else, anything else, rather than face the truth."

"Yes, but they'll have a harder time to convince others with all this old history finally seeing the light of day," Voldemort replied. "You're finally going to be mentioned throughout history, in history books, where you should have been all this time. Known, and not intentionally forgotten."

"I suppose that's nice," Harrison said. "But again, there will always be people who refuse to believe it. I've lived through that enough times to know this time won't be any different."

"We'll deal with it then," Voldemort said. "Instead of letting it fester like it did with Morton."

"Who's Morton?" Harrison asked.

"The man whose head you ripped off right after you returned from beyond the Veil," Voldemort said.

"I did?"

"Now you're just being difficult on purpose."

"One never knows with master," Elise said. "Master's memory is truly terrible at times."

"That's mean," Harrison said. "But unfortunately true. Elise's my memory, for the most part. I can't be bothered, and she likes making lists anyway."

Voldemort and Elise looked at each other, Elise with the look of the long-suffering. Voldemort knew by now that teasing Harrison was alright, and that while his servants would never leave him, they never said no to teasing their master a little bit.

"What do you say, you want a new master?" Voldemort therefore said to Elise. "I promise you that I'm not the forgetful type."

"I'll consider it," Elise said, and Harrison fake-gasped, hand over his heart.

"Oi!"

-o-

Unfortunately, Harrison's prediction came through. It was near Christmas, and people were already questioning his immortality. Ministry people, even! People who had been there when Harrison had decided to decorate part of the atrium floor with body parts.

Voldemort was developing a constant headache. He definitely felt like killing some of them, if not all of them. Once he looked closer, he realized most of them were part of Morton's group, because of course they were. His idiocy had rubbed off on them. They whined about petty problems just like him, and thought themselves more important than others. They acted like spoiled children, upset when things didn't go the way they wanted something to go.

Voldemort didn't like whining. Didn't really enjoy children either. How the hell had Harrison managed to raise three of them without wanting them dead at least once? A toddler, a young child, and a teenager to boot. As far as Voldemort knew, Harrison was not really a patient man, and yet they were all still alive and were very fond of the man as well.

He was getting off topic. The group. They were demanding more proof of the Nightmare Lord being who he claimed to be. As if they hadn't seen Harrison in action before.

They were acting brave when they didn't have to see Harrison face to face. They turned into more into Morton every time Voldemort had to interact with them, just as moronic and ignorant and downright rude.

Just how angry could Lucius get if the atrium floor was covered in body parts and blood two times in the span of six months?

Voldemort was thinking out scenarios and explanations to give to Lucius when he inevitably would end up slaughtering at least a few members of the group surrounding him, prattling on and on about the Nightmare Lord and what a fake he must be, when he heard the most wonderful interruption:

"Good evening, Voldemort. Or is it morning? I couldn't tell when I left home and there are no windows here. Why is the Ministry underground now again? Do they enjoy the damp? Is there damp?"

Everyone in the group went silent. All bravado and complaining stopped at the sound of Harrison's voice. They parted and turned as one, staring at Harrison. Harrison looked back at them. Elise however was glaring at them from her spot next to her master. Ywgraine, sweet Ywgraine, was casually flipping a dagger while smiling widely at everyone in the group.

"Harrison," Voldemort said. "I didn't expect you to come here. You don't care for politics."

"You have to do politics when visiting the Ministry?" Harrison said, frowning. "Is that a rule? Elise, is that a rule?"

"No, master. But you usually only come here for political reasons."

"I do? Last time I was here, I killed people. That was fun. Also, did you know you can nail people to the roof? With swords?"

"Yes, I do know that, master. You've done it before."

"Yes, with Cornelius. That was also fun. But no, not politics, Voldemort, that's not why I'm here."

"Anywhere you'd like to go then?" Voldemort asked, very eager to get away from the group before he accidentally killed a few of them.

Surely Lucius wouldn't be that angry if it happened? It wasn't like the world would miss any of them.

"I wanted to see the Veil," Harrison said.

"That can certainly be arranged, but may I ask why?"

"Just curious."

"Master has already promised not to touch the Veil," Elise said.

"What did you threaten him with?" Voldemort asked her.

Most of the group had begun to edge away from them. Fucking morons. Brave and ignorant until the danger comes near.

"Routines," Elise replied, which made Harrison grimace.

Of course something like routines would be a genuine threat for Harrison.

"And three meals a day that he has to finish," Elise continued.

"I eat three meals a day," Harrison protested.

"No, master, you eat one, maybe, and nibble on two, and sometimes you don't even do that, you just arrange the food on the plate into a smiley face and leave."

"Oh, hush. The Veil, Voldemort? Who are these people anyway?"

They all flinched when Harrison's attention was turned to them.

"No one important," Voldemort said. "But I do hope they are going to stop bothering me for something that's already been proven?"

Elise glared harder. She at least seemed to recognize them. Harrison however, was looking at them with more of a confused look.

"Elise, do I know them?" he asked. "They seem familiar. This… feeling is creeping up in me."

"What feeling, master?" Elise asked.

"I just have this… urge to tear them apart. Can I do that? That would be fun. Voldemort, can I do that?"

Already now magic sparkled in his hands. The group took the chance and fled out of the atrium and Harrison reined the magic back in.

"Aw, they ran away," he said.

"You can always chase after them, master," Ywgraine said sweetly.

"Oh, it wouldn't be that fun to kill them that they're worth that much of my time."

"They were part of Morton's group. The man you killed?"

"The man who considered you a fake," Elise explained.

"Yes him, I do actually remember him this time around," Harrison said.

"Liar," Ywgraine replied.

Harrison swatted a hand at her, and Voldemort moved to lead them to the Veil.

-o-

Two days later, eight of the members of that group ended up eviscerated and hung up by their own entrails. They stopped bothering Voldemort and Lucius after that.

Harrison pretended to be innocent for about five seconds, before admitting to killing them.

"So you did chase after them," Voldemort said.

"No, Elise did," Harrison replied. "She thought it might make me happy."

"And did it?"

"Well, it certainly was entertaining for a bit."

-o-

Christmas. A Muggle holiday Harrison remembered hating when he lived with the Dursleys. It was hard not to, when he was locked up in the cupboard while they ate food and opened gifts.

It had become better at Hogwarts, he rather liked Christmas back then, but then he lost track of the holiday for many years, due to it not existing back where he ended up.

However, it was now a holiday that had somehow become… tradition? Perhaps mostly the last ten years. Harrison remembered celebrations before his imprisonment, but also Elise hanging up bone garlands for no goddamn reason. Nowadays, she usually only brought them out for Christmas.

This Christmas was no different, and another tradition that apparently was in lately was waking Harrison up way too early on Christmas morning.

Angel and Lucy did, that is, by jumping on him. Harrison pulled his head from the pillows bit out at Lucy:

"Are you not a teenager?"

"Yes?"

"Teenagers sleep late. I remember that much, at least. They don't go up at dawn and harass their poor uncles."

"I don't feel sorry for you," was all she responded with before falling on his back. "Did I break your back?"

"Don't sound so bloody elated about it, you menace. And no, you didn't. It's rather hard to break a spine. Necks however, necks are easier, it's all about the twist…"

Angel ran off to the bookshelves.

"Pick something not bloody," Harrison told her as he finally pushed Lucy off him. "Elise will have my head if I read something bloody on Christmas. I don't understand why I can't; you two aren't bothered by it."

"Do you think it's strange you still read for us?" Lucy asked once Angel came back with a book and Harrison was sitting up against the headboard.

"Why?" Harrison said, confused. "You want me to."

"Yeah, but we aren't kids anymore."

"You have to be a kid to have someone read for you? That's stupid. Now shut up and listen."

They shut up, and listened. It was a good morning.

At nine, they all went downstairs and Harrison thought he should be nice, thus eating his breakfast without complaints or arranging the food into a smiley face. Both Harry and Severus were present, having left Hogwarts last night. Severus would return later, apparently, while Harry was spending the holiday here, taking Lucy back to Hogwarts the day before the new term started.

"Is this the point where I should ask about grades?" Harrison asked the girls. "I do remember asking about them before."

"I'm doing fine," Lucy said. "Severus would kick my arse otherwise."

"And I wouldn't?" Harry asked.

"You're too nice."

"Kick her arse twice for me," Harry said to Severus.

"What does fine mean?" Harrison wondered. "I thought I was doing fine in school, but that didn't mean I actually did fine in school."

"You were adequate," Draco told him.

"So vague, Draco. So vague."

"You didn't get any Trolls, so you weren't a complete failure in class."

"Well, I've got EE in most subjects," Lucy said.

"What does that mean?" Angel asked.

"That she does well," Elise replied. "Angel is doing well in school, too. Her reading comprehension is higher than that of her classmates. Her teachers think it's very sweet that her guardian reads to her still."

"They think I'm sweet?" Harrison wondered, and shuddered. "That sounds awful."

"You're completely bonkers, Uncle Harrison," Angel corrected. "But also nice. It's kind of weird. Can we open our presents after breakfast?"

"Ask Elise."

"Can we open our presents after breakfast, Elise?"

"Yes, you can," Elise said.

Harrison didn't know how it happened, but the living room was always crammed with gifts. Mostly because he bought gifts for everyone. He actually went out of his way to get everyone something that they actually would enjoy. He did wonder if it made him soft, but he'd been doing it for ten years already and he didn't feel soft.

Just… his family deserved gifts in his opinion.

And he kept getting gifts too! He wouldn't admit to it easily, but he liked gifts. He liked them very much, and he wasn't going to read too much into that.

Elise handed over a few letters as he was finishing up breakfast. One was from Voldemort, but all formal and Ministry of Magic-like. Harrison didn't care for politics still, and probably never would.

However, he knew there were things he just had to accept. Like going to the Ministry. Let people see him, and know he was real and still very much alive. Because if he didn't, people would start to say he was fake. Like they always did.

The letter penned out a gathering. A gala of sorts, for tomorrow night.

"What reply should I write?" Elise asked.

"I'll do it," Harrison said. "Two of you lot are coming with me tomorrow; if I have to be bored, so do two of you."

"I can go!" Ywgraine said. "Can I bring an axe?"

"No," both Harrison and Elise said.

"Aaw," she pouted. "But I like axes."

"I like pulling out people's hearts, but I don't get to do that tomorrow night," Harrison replied.

"Can I take a dagger then?"

"A small one," Harrison conceded. "Now, let's not think about boring stuff like that. Presents?"

It was all very domestic, he realized as he let Angel and Lucy pull him to the living room. All very tame compared to history's Nightmare Lord. It really was no surprise that this modern world thought him a fake, but at the same time, wasn't everything more grim and violent back in the day? Did they think ancient lords like him never adapted, or changed?

He knew he had mellowed out compared to his early days. But those early days were rather depressing to look back on, and something Harrison didn't care to repeat. If he was more around now, people would probably adapt to how he was today as a dark lord.

Certainly capable of violence and murder, but knowing when to rein those urges in. Well, most of the time.

"We need a bigger living room," he heard Lucian say as the servants began to file inside.

"Gods, no, don't give master any idea to get even bigger packages to make a bigger living room just as cramped as this one," Joanne replied.

Fred and George were already sorting gifts out, Harrison's slanting handwriting identifying which gift went to whom. Of course, he was receiving gifts too but Harrison liked to watch others open theirs.

Harrison settled back in an armchair to watch. The Weasley twins were teasing Harry, or holding Angel's gifts above their hands which made them laugh for a few moments before Angel launched herself at them. Having trained by climbing Harrison for nearly ten years, she had no trouble climbing them despite their shrieking and moving around.

It was a familiar scene that Harrison surprisingly didn't get tired of. He leaned his head against his hand, a smile on his face. Everything, in this moment, was just fine. More than fine. It was wonderful.

People would continue to forget what he could do. Or they would ignore it. They would call him a fake. Part of a group that had persisted for so many years. There would always be excuses, Harrison knew that. Even if he started coming to the Ministry more often, even if he let himself be seen in public more often, there would always be someone who called him a liar. A pretend lord.

But that was okay. He would be on this earth for a very long time still. He would be there to remind people who he was. That no matter how long the peace lasted, the Nightmare Lord was still amongst them. Ready to strike fear into their very hearts, and send them off to the afterlife.

The Nightmare Lord would be their monster in the dark for centuries to come, and he would enjoy it.

End

And here is where we say goodbye to the Nightmare Lord for the time being. Thank you all for sticking with me.

There will be more stories about the Nightmare Lord in the future. One-shorts or longer ones, I don't know. I have one idea already, but who knows how long it will take for that one to be written?

But at some point, you'll get to see how Harrison is doing and what problems he might have to face.

The Nightmare Man-series might end up on AO3 as well, I have been contemplating that. If so, the chapters will most likely get a brush-up by me, perhaps correct some grammar or stuff like that. If I upload the series to AO3, I'll post it on my profile page.

Until then,

Tiro