Disclaimer: I had to get a student loan for university – do you really think I own HP? Obviously not!

A/N: Wow! So many people have added me to their alerts. I feel special! Just a few side notes, this chapter is dedicated to Jacamar (sorry about the spelling) for the awesome review! I hope any questions that may have arisen from the last chapter will be explained sufficiently in this one. I also hope that my use of italics isn't too confusing – sometimes they are supposed to represent a stressed word but I also use them to represent use of another language – in this case, Parsletongue. So without further ado, on to the chapter!

I finished the meeting and sent the rest of my followers to accomplish their assigned missions after having punished the few who had failed to please me. Now I was able to relax in my studies and think about the things that had brought me here. I was the Dark Lord and I was a vampire. A little sudden? Well let me back up a little.

My real name is Tom Marvolo Riddle but don't ever call me that – I'll have to hex you, if you're lucky enough to escape death. I prefer Lord Voldemort but most people know me as the Dark Lord, You-Know-Who, He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named, etc. My followers refer to me as Master, Sir, or My Lord for obvious reasons. Anyways, my mother died after giving birth to me having named me for my muggle father and my wizard grandfather. My father never wanted me so I was left to grow up in an orphanage until I was 11 when Albus Dumbledore, headmaster of Hogwart's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, came to tell me that I was a wizard. I still had to return every summer though.

I never liked to be control as Dumbledore learned early on in my time at Hogwart's. I was studious and quickly gained followers. When I finished school I set out on my own quest, still not sure what career to pursue. Over the course of my lifetime I have learned many things, seen many feats, and mastered many techniques. I was a Parsletongue – I could talk to snakes. I could perform wandless magic and I already knew how to become an animagus or rather, I was able transform into an animal. My form was that of a lion. It's ironic, I know. My house at school was Slytherin, the snake house and I was also Slytherin's last remaining heir.

There is something about cats, the lion in particular, that drew me. They were fast, powerful, graceful, and always looked down upon other less worthy creatures. The males are dominant and will look after the rest of the pride when needed. Above all, however, was the bond the king and queen of the pride, the alphas if you prefer, shared. I couldn't explain it then, I still can't, but I have an idea why now. You see, when I was on my travels after school, I came across a vampire. Well that encounter didn't go so well and I was now one of them.

I was well-informed about vampires when I was turned. It turns out that most vampires will turn only one human in their lifetime – their mate. There were of course rogue vamps just like there are rogues in every other species. It was a rogue that had turned me so thankfully we weren't actually mates. Now about vampires themselves, as I'm sure you have questions. You know all those myths about them? Yes? Well they're simply that – myths. We are perfectly safe around garlic, sunlight, and even stakes. We mostly drink blood though we are able to eat small amounts of human food – the better to blend in with our prey. We sleep in regular beds too! And our looks! The only creature more beautiful than a vampire is a veela. So I suppose that since you now know that vampires are beautiful and I'm a vampire, you probably want to know what I look like.

When I was younger, I was quite handsome. However, I quickly started to resemble more of a snake once I set out on my journey. You see, this journey was supposed to help me to become immortal. I had decided to create horcruxes but I almost destroyed my soul. When I was turned, my horcruxes were destroyed and my soul restored. My guess is that since vampires are immortal, I no longer needed them. Nothing even hurts us, not even our mates.

So anyway! I am even more handsome now than before my ridiculous idea of horcruxes. I have short midnight black hair with a bit of a wave to it. I have no scars, not even a copy of my own dark mark that adorns the left forearm of all my followers. I wouldn't want any kind of indicator of who I am after all. I'm rather tall and thin though nowhere near lanky. My eyes are hazel with bright red flecks the colour of blood. My followers only see my glamour, a tall, bald, snake-faced man with pure blood red eyes that burn with evilness.

After I had changed, my journey took on a new direction. I no longer needed to seek power; I already had it. I decided instead to seek out my mate. It seemed like the right thing to do; maybe I'd finally have happiness and a family that loved me. Love was the only thing that I had yet to learn. Well it turned out that my mate was a boy named Harry Potter. Unfortunately Dumbledore also learned this. I attempted to retrieve Harry on Halloween, one year after he had been born. I was sadly defeated that night and spent the next 13 years in some drifting spirit form. I knew something was wrong because I wasn't obeying the laws of vampirism. I was angry and during my attempts to get back to human state I actually lost control of myself and attempted to kill my mate several times. It was stupid I know but I thought if I couldn't have a human form, then I would make my mate into the same form that I had so we could both be together.

I came to my senses though. I planted one of my followers at Hogwart's. My plan worked; Harry Potter was by my side during the end of his fourth year at school and with the use of his blood, I was able to revert to human again. It was rather unfortunate that he happened to escape and I lost my chance to explain things to him.

A knock at my study doors alerted me to someone's presence snapping me out of my musings. When I opened the door I saw Dolohov, an inner circle member, and Thompson, a rookie Death Eater. It's a good thing, really, that I hadn't thought to remove my glamour yet. I was still hideous enough to answer the door.

"Dolohov. Thompson. What are you doing back here so suddenly?" I questioned using a soft yet cool voice that visibly sent shivers up and down their spines.

"My Lord," Dolohov replied, "We have good news! We sighted Harry Potter in Diagon Alley!"

This was certainly good news and I decided not to punish them but to instead have the two of them lead me to Harry. He would be mine.

We arrived in a dank alley hidden in muggle London, just outside of Diagon. I turned to my companions and ordered them, "Take me to him!"

"Yes My Lord! Right away My Lord!" replied Dolohov. Thompson just kept quiet; as a rookie, he was too afraid to say or do anything in my presence. A useless follower if there ever was one. We had only moved a block or two when I heard it – a wounded cry for help. And it sounded familiar! I ditched the other two and ran into the next alley and what I saw made my blood boil and my stomach knot with worry. Harry Potter, my mate, was lying on the ground and a fat muggle was beating the snot out of him.

I was so concerned for the boy that I didn't even bother to use a curse though I desperately wanted to. I knew that if I was to have any chance at making this work I would have to slowly adjust Harry to the dark side. Instead I cast a wandless hover charm and flung the horrid pig against a brick wall of one of the buildings next to us. He hit his head and was promptly knocked unconscious. Good riddance! Who would've figured that a simple Wingardium Leviosa could do so much damage?

I watched as Harry slowly struggled to get up. He used one arm in an attempt to brush himself off and I instantly started to worry; his arm was broken. I wanted to heal it for him but it was best to wait and see what he would do first. He looked up at me then and I saw his eyes flash with panic and fear.

"No! Not you! Anyone but you! No!" he muttered. He turned around and attempted to run but I was faster. He nearly ran right into me – not that I would've minded!

The boy turned angry now; his emotions were not all that hard to read. It was clear that he had not yet mastered occlumency. I was already profound in both occlumency and its accompanist, legilimency. While I was caught off guard he pushed me with his one good arm and proceeded to tell me to go away and to stay away from him. But I wasn't going to listen. He turned around again and closed the gap between us so that I could feel his warm body standing in front of me.

"Don't even think about moving Potter!" I hissed at him coldly my icy breath blowing across his warm neck. An involuntary shiver went down his spine when I whispered his name in Parsletongue. I wrapped my arm around him and held the boy tightly to me.

"You've been very difficult to find my slippery serpent, but I have you in my grasp at last!" I smirked while pulling us even closer together. It wasn't hard for me to tell how uncomfortable I was making my mate as I leant forward and sunk my now elongated fangs into the crook of his neck. I knew his transformation would be painful and would last probably about three days like most vampires did.

Once he was unconscious I bit my own wrist, let some of my blood flow into his mouth before letting my wound heal, and then coaxed his limp form to swallow it thus bringing about his transformation. Usually prey that was being turned would be awake while ingesting the sire's blood. I myself was overpowered. The bloody rogue that turned me had stabbed my arm and fed me his blood once I opened my mouth to scream. You probably figured out already that this was when I truly started to seek power so that I wouldn't become a victim again.

As the boy in front of me, supported in my arms, started to change, I apparated us back to my home – Castle Slytherin. I had my favourite house elf prepare a bedroom for Harry; next door to mine. After I placed him on the soft sheets and tucked him in – yes, I the Dark Lord was putting my mate to bed and tucking him in – I conjured a chair and settled in to watch him for the next few days to make sure he'd be all right.

For the next day and half I had Tingle, my favourite house elf, bring me my meals to Harry's bedroom. I left him only long enough to use the washroom. I was content to just watch him sleep as he transformed. Alas, my happiness was not to be. Tingle appeared and informed me that Lucius Malfoy and Severus Snape wished to see me. I sighed and had Tingle lead me to them. I won't bother telling you what they wanted because it was really rather boring. I will tell you, however, that I threatened to hex off their masculinity should they happen to disturb me again before the start of next week. The look on their faces was amazing! The shear horror looks that they wore were more comical than anything and I had to steal myself not to laugh. I growled at them to go home and then I headed back up to Harry's room.

I had only been gone maybe a half hour but upon my arrival back at my mate's room I noticed that he was sitting in bed, thinking from the look of contemplation on face. Now being the dark lord that I am, I wasn't used to using manners and this was my home after all. I just walked right in and sat down at the foot of the bed seeing as how my chair from earlier must have been put away by Tingle or one of the other elves once I had left the room to see to Snape and Malfoy. When I sat, he looked up at me. The brat even had the nerve to glare at me! I had to tell myself that he didn't know about our relationship yet. Instead, I commented on his revival, which shouldn't have occurred so soon, now that I think about.

"I see you're awake now. My little serpent must be confused right now," I said softly then hissed, "You are mine now! You'll be safe here."

My mate rushed to answer me and you could tell he was angry at what I had said, or I hoped it was just at what I said!

"No, yes, never, and definitely not!"

Huh? What was he talking about? I didn't ask a single question let alone four! I must have been lucky though because he actually elaborated without me asking him to.

"No, I'm not your serpent. Yes I'm horribly confused. I'll never be yours and I'll definitely not be safe here!"

It pained me to hear those words coming from my mate's mouth. I decided right then and there that I was going to do whatever it took to make him come to trust me. I noticed Harry trying to get up as I was thinking this thought and more. Concerned for his well-being I scolded him for his brash attempt at escape.

"Don't even try to escape Potter. You haven't healed completely and you will not leave this bed until I deem you healthy enough to do so!"

Ok, maybe I shouldn't have ordered him to but he wasn't going to listen otherwise. I was too tired at this moment to fight with him though so I did something to prevent the inevitable dispute. I gave him his wand back and commented that I had the feeling he was looking for it. I had removed the trace on it – he could now do magic anytime he wanted without those fools at the ministry of magic finding out. I told him as much.

"Don't over do it or you'll be back on bed rest while your magical core heals itself," I added. I thoroughly enjoyed the confused look on his face at the way I was treating him. I was giving him is wand, that I had summoned via wandless magic, and the boy was looking like I was about to kill him. It's a shame really that my vampire side had picked him for my mate because I still enjoyed the effect I had on him. Another thought occurred to me; what if I was too dominating? I didn't want him to leave. I couldn't stomach the idea of Harry returning to Dumbledore to be controlled and manipulated again. Aware of these strange thoughts, I immediately became ashamed of myself for hating him all those years that he had a body and I didn't. It was foolish and I realized that I was starting to seem more Gryffindor than Slytherin.

"What do you want with me?" the voice of the younger wizard in front of me questioned, bringing me back to reality. "I thought you wanted me dead?"

I was gobsmacked! Of course he would think that. I had treated him as my enemy in my search for regaining my body. I had some explaining to do but it was going to have to wait. I would answer his questions when I was ready and I informed Harry of that.

"Let's just say that I have come to the conclusion that you can no longer hurt me," I answered. "The rest of your questions I will answer in due time but for now, get some more rest and if you need anything, call on Tingle. He'll help you with whatever you need."

I got up and left his room heading next door into mine. As I turned down the covers and changed out my robe I thought about how well that meeting had gone. Harry hadn't tried to attack me, so that was good. He was resting and I would be answering one or two of his questions at breakfast tomorrow. He now had complete access to my favourite house elf and I could now rest easy knowing that I had finally gotten my mate near me and only had to focus on the Death Eater's and Dumbledore's idiotic plans to thwart me. Yes, I was content and slept well for the first time in a long time.

A/N: One final note – before I go getting any flames, I want everyone to know that I already know how out of character Voldemort seems. Don't worry. His thoughts and his actions are two very different things. You will be able to see the difference as time goes on. Harry is the one who will be OOC according to the book's perspective since he will eventually go dark. That's all for now! Hands out cream puffs to all her fantastic readers! ^,~