Disclaimer:This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling and Bloomsbury / Scholastic / Warner Bros. This is a work of fanfiction, no money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

Summary and Setting: the summer before sixth year is quite different from HBP.
Harry changed sides in June after OOP, why and how is described in RDA, so a lot has happened between the former "Savior" and the Dark Lord before this day in early August 1996 when this story Just Talking? begins.
Harry was granted a boon by Lord Voldemort for his help with the Horcruxes, see also SIOS I. Apprehension and chapter 7a + 7b of RDA. What will he ask for? Not money, fame or glory, but revenge on ... guess who?
They meet to discuss their past, present and future. They will not only chat; the Dark Lord will teach the young man a thing or two over the remaining summer and sends him back to Hogwarts with an important mission ... but I don't want to give everything away just now ;-)

Shattered Illusions of Safety IV. Just Talking? is a part of my Additional-Scenes-Series written parallel to Rise of the Dark Angel = RDA, covering events only hinted at in the main story.
RDA by Mykkila09 and Tonks-is-cool is a novel length WIP HBP AU, with the main pairings HP/DM, LV/SS, ex LM/NM, later LM/RL, NL/LL. Betrayed!Harry, Dark!Harry, Light Bashing, "Good" Dark side. Fanfiction dot net /s/5908952/1/Rise_of_the_Dark_Angel

You should be able to understand what's going on in the SIOS series without reading all of RDA if you found this first by chance ;-) However, if you like this and want to find out what later happens to a certain person, you'll have to read in RDA chapter 11 the last scene (starting with Harry and Draco waiting in Diagon Alley near Gringotts for their target on the 28th of August) because both scenes belong together and I wrote them in one go.

Rating and Warning: because RDA is rated M, I rate SIOS accordingly as T to M, because of Violence, Character Deaths, Language, Sexual Situations or some other adult themes mentioned now and then, that are considered not suitable for kids.

The first scene of RDA Chapter 11 starts out like the following, please consider this scene the Prologue of Just Talking, SIOS IV., ok? It was written by me with valuable input from Mykkila09, of course.

On the day after the visit to Diagon Alley, and speaking with Pansy and Blaise, Harry decided to speak to the Dark Lord about his boon. After lunch, he went to his bedroom and scribbled a short letter.

Marvolo,

do you have time for me, today or tomorrow? I´d like to speak with you about the favour, please.

Harry

He rolled up the parchment and sealed it; then, he tapped it with his wand and cast a simple Parseltongue locking charm on it. Voldemort had suggested establishing this routine for security reasons, regardless if they sent a letter with owl post or Hedwig. If it was routine, a habit, then there was less danger to forget it later when Harry was back at Hogwarts, when it was really necessary to keep their communication private. Finished with this task, he called, "Hedwig." A moment later, the white Phoenix-Who-Hid-As-An-Owl flashed into his bedroom.

"Hedwig, please deliver this letter to Lord Voldemort, but don´t flash into his study, you know he doesn´t like that so much. You can give it to Lucius or one of the house elves as usual. Wait around a bit. Maybe he will give you an answer right away, or he´ll send an owl later."

Hedwig took the letter and was gone in a bright flash. Harry decided to wait a bit in the privacy of his bedroom. Although he had lived in Potter manor nearly all summer, he still enjoyed the fact that it was his bedroom, that he finally had a place of his own and what a gorgeous place it was! After his miserable childhood at Privet Drive, he would never take this comfort and feeling of security for granted. Sighing contently, he stretched out on the coverlet of his bed and drifted off into a pleasant daydream about languorously exploring Draco's body.

After ten minutes, the phoenix appeared again, startling Harry out of his pleasurable haze as she landed on the headboard all of a sudden.

"Huh, that was fast, thanks Hedwig," Harry sat up and adjusted himself, before petting her soft feathers.

Hedwig thrilled and dropped a small role of parchment into his hand, with no visible seal or address, which instantly unfurled when he hissed {Open}.

Today, four o'clock, MM, back garden terrace.

LV

When he was finished, Harry cast an Incendio to burn the letter. Since the meeting wasn't until this afternoon, he still had some free time, so he decided to spend it with his friends. They had had an outdoor training session earlier with Rabastan and Severus, joined by Blaise and Pansy who were impressed, and everyone was outside relaxing; he decided to join them until his meeting. After mentally calling Sesshomaru, who appeared at his side instantly, the young wizard and his familiars walked through the manor to the garden.

~...~

At a quarter to four, Hedwig flashed Harry right inside the tall dark green hedge and wrought iron gates of Malfoy manor. He took a deep breath of the afternoon summer air, it was pleasantly warm here, a bit warmer compared to Potter manor in Wales, but not stifling hot.

He preferred this mode of transport to using the Floo network, because he was out in the fresh air and did not arrive covered in sooth or stumbling out of some fireplace like a drunken imbecile. With practice, he had learned to exit a fireplace somewhat better compared to his second year, that was true, but still he lacked the grace some other wizards showed. Harry had never seen Draco, Lucius or Severus stumble around or fall to the floor when arriving at a fireplace, they always landed with perfect grace and with only a few grains of sooth or even completely clean. When Harry had grumbled about this no doubt age-old pure-blood secret, they always smirked at him, but refused to explain.

Hedwig soared up into the sky to stretch her wings a bit. This part of Wiltshire was beautiful, wide open spaces, and not densely populated, so she could enjoy swooping around an hour, chasing smaller birds and out flying raptors like hawks or falcons just for the fun of flying. He had left Sesshomaru back at Potter Manor with Draco and the others.

Harry walked down the driveway towards the manor house and veered off to the left, walking over the lawn through the fragrant gardens headed to the back of the house and the garden terrace.

He marvelled again at the difference between this garden and Aunt Petunia´s idea of the perfect gardens, where he had slaved countless hours in burning heat or freezing rain to pick weeds or repaint the fence as a child. This manor garden was well kempt too of course, there was also a lawn, flowerbeds, bushes just like at his relatives house. But the Malfoy´s garden was much larger, inter-spaced with well springs, classical statues or little nooks with a convenient bench enclosed by hedges or bushes. They also had evergreen hedges growing in a spiral maze form on one side, not dangerous and sinister looking like the huge, scary maze from the Tri-Wizard Tournament, but peaceful, serene, to gently walk around at leisure or in meditation. Everything looked more natural, more alive here, there was luxuriant flowing growth, and more plant variation compared to Privet Drive.

Suddenly a house-elf popped in front of him, one hand raised towards him.

"Sir, stop. What is sir guest doing here? Sir must speak to master. Manor door is back there," it commanded.

Harry came to an abrupt stop, he hadn´t met this particular house-elf before; it looked rather young. The elf was clad in a nice, crispy white tea towel with the Malfoy crest on its breast; it looked him up and down critically. Harry was amused; the little bugger obviously took his duty seriously to not only serve his family well, but to protect them also.

"Hello, my name is Harry Potter. I have an appointment with your master´s guest today, the Dark Lord, on the garden terrace. I´m keyed into the wards of the manor, so there should not have been an alarm." Harry explained to the elf in a friendly tone.

The elf stared at him for a moment with huge eyes, then bowed low and started to apologize. "Ooooh, sir is Harry Potter sir. Sorry, sir. Welcome to Malfoy manor. I is Belby. I is a new elf. Belby heard of Harry Potter sir. Sorry, sir. Master said he improved wards. Master ordered Belby to watch for spies in hedge or garden. Master told Belby to always greet guests at gate. Belby felt the wards breached, but wards not give normal alarm. Belby was worried. Harry Potter Sir wants to speak to master´s Lord, sir?"

Harry smiled and nodded at the excited and dedicated little elf. At least this one did not seem to have Dobby´s crazy tendencies of Potter hero worship or of punishing itself needlessly. It was good to know that Lucius had improved the security around the manor, not that it had been lacking before, but one could never be too careful nowadays.

"Oh yes Harry Potter sir, go on, this way, master's master is near the roses." Belby pointed him in the right direction, before popping away.

Harry reached the terrace right on time. Coming around the last low hedge bordering the garden path, he noticed Voldemort lounging in a blue wickerwork chair besides a yellow rose bush, looking surprisingly peaceful and relaxed as he read a book. There was no one else present.

Harry coughed before ascending the few stairs to the flagged stone platform to announce his presence and walked closer. With a slight bow, he greeted the Dark Lord, "Good afternoon, Marvolo. How are you?"

Voldemort looked up; closing his book, he banished it back to his suite.

"Harry, right on time; I´m fine, thank you," he acknowledged the young man.

Rising from his seat, the Dark Lord gestured towards the garden. "Come, let´s take a walk and tell me about you. Any unusual reactions?" He inquired while stepping down the stairs. He casually twirled his wand to cast Muffliato and a silencing charm bubble around them, to hide their conversation to any hidden listeners.

Falling easy in stride alongside Voldemort, crossing the path and ambling over the soft carpet of lush green grass that composed the Malfoys lawn, Harry smiled and replied exultantly, "I'm OK. I feel better overall, as if a weight I always carried around has been lifted. My magic seems to be getting stronger; there is more power behind my spells when I cast them as I usually do. I've had to tone it down in training today. And the reading, you know, memorizing information from textbooks – it seems easier, I read faster and remember more compared to the last weeks."

Harry sniggered, "Snape was astonished when he quizzed me this morning about something he had me read yesterday. I didn´t think it would make this much of a difference, but it does. Snape thinks it´s because now there is a part of my magic that is suddenly free, that was always working in the past on containing and shielding it."

Voldemort smirked at Harry´s exuberance and the way the young man kept his secrets confidential, constantly avoiding the 'H.' word, should there be someone listening despite his precautions.

"This pleases me; it's the best possible outcome of our endeavour. What about your scar, did you feel anything the past two days?"

Harry shook his head; he stopped and turned to Voldemort. He pushed his fringe away and beamed up at the older man. "No sir, everything is ok. No pain. The scar stayed like it was after-ah-you know."

Voldemort had turned to Harry and stepped close, to better inspect the famous scar on the young man´s forehead. He slowly raised his right hand and reached out towards the fine silver lightning bolt, which to him looked similar to either the rune Sowilo or in Anglo-Saxon Sigel, the power of the sun, or to Eiwahz, in Anglo-Saxon Yr, the symbol for the Yew tree.

"Tell me how it feels," Voldemort commanded gently.

"Ok," Harry breathed out, tensing slightly in anticipation as emerald orbs locked with the dark brown, crimson-rimmed orbs above him.

Voldemort firmly took hold of Harry´s right shoulder with his left hand and then carefully touched Harry´s scar with the fingertip of his right index finger. Nothing happened; the contact felt perfectly normal, just like the warm skin of an attractive young man. He could feel the power thrumming in Harry, but there was no negative reaction. No spark or shock, no strange tingling. He quirked an eye-brow and moved his hand over Harry's forehead through the dark hair to the back of his head, holding the young man in a controlling—but not painful—grip for a moment. Harry's eyes widened in reaction to the dominating gesture; he felt no shock or pain, only Voldemort's magic—delicious, alluring, dark power—but he refused to give in to the attraction and to lean into the touch.

"All right?" Voldemort questioned.

"Yeah, I´m ok," Harry flushed in slight embarrassment. "No throbbing or stinging, no headaches or migraines anymore. And thank Merlin I feel more normal around you sir. I-I don´t completely lose my head anymore this close to you. Thanks for convincing me to do it."

{You're welcome. What about ssspeaking Parsssel, have you tried?} The elder wizard hissed suddenly, while releasing the younger and resuming their walk through the garden heading towards the spiral hedge maze.

Harry slipped his hands into his pockets as he walked beside Voldemort; his face lit up again as another huge smile came on his face. Turning to Voldemort, he started hissing teasingly, {Yesss, of courssse! I mussst sstill be a ssspeaker to help to teach Nagini´s sssnaklingsss the waysss of the world. Can´t leave it all to the elder generation, after all. They have to learn all about pranksss too, not only about ssscaring people to death.}

Voldemort actually laughed at Harry´s words; he too felt better today—rested and calmer—despite his very vivid dreams full of snapshots from Harry's past, no doubt a reaction to the soul union.

After strolling through the maze in companionable silence for a few minutes, turning to the correct path out of habit, Voldemort asked, "So, tell me, what you have decided to ask from me? I must admit, I´m quite curious what you will chose. Money, fame and power you have in abundance; we have already discussed the people you care about, so I´m sure you won´t ask anything like that, as most other followers would, isn´t it so?"

Harry looked over at the Dark Lord, gouging his reaction and nodded. "You'd be right Marvolo; there is something I´d really like to do. I want to kidnap, torture and kill somebody. But the person it concerns is working at the Ministry. She was a senior Undersecretary to Fudge, but I don't know if she lost this position when Fudge was sacked. I don´t know what her current position is or if this witch is in any way connected to your plans, if she is valuable or expendable in your estimation."

"Hmm, and who might that be?" asked Voldemort, turning around another bend in the patch between the tall evergreen hedges, which opened up to a small circular area. They had reached the middle of the spiral maze. An old, gnarled, huge evergreen tree stood in the middle, like the centre of the universe.

Harry stopped and faced him with a serious, angry expression. "I want to take revenge on Undersecretary Dolores Umbridge. I want to torture and kill her as payback for all the pain that she caused me." He spoke in a harsh, cold voice, "I want her to know it´s me, Potter, the former Golden Boy, before she dies. And I want to involve the werewolves, ripping her to shreds alive, leaving only scraps for the crows."

Voldemort had also stopped and raised both finely sculptured black eye-brows at the complete change of attitude. A few minutes ago, the younger wizard had been so cheerful and happy. Now, Harry looked and sounded as if he really wanted to rip someone apart.

Intrigued, the Dark Lord enquired, "Explain," while crossing his arms in front of his chest and leaning his back against the large, old yew tree growing in the middle of the maze. He could feel the elemental power of the earth thrumming through it and intermingling with his own, dark magic. This was a special place of power; the Malfoy ancestors had created this maze around the ancient yew for a reason.

To Voldemort, yew trees had been always special, his interest starting when he bought his yew wand as an eleven year old from Ollivander's. At Hogwarts, he learned in Herbology and Potions, that yew is associated with immortality, renewal, regeneration, everlasting life, rebirth, transformation, access to the Otherworld and our ancestors and was a symbol of the old magic. The Yew is sacred to Hecate, and the Crone aspect of the Triple Goddess; both are guardians of the Underworld, death and the afterlife. Yew trees in Britain were ancient, up to 4000 years, often found around blind springs, planted as Druid groves, where later muggle churches were built.

The small evergreen leaves are dark green, even in the middle of the coldest, bitter winter, which is a symbol of life, but they were deadly poisonous at the same time. The entire tree is poisonous - wood, bark, needles and seed. They are used in several dark potions, like in abortion potion or an extremely potent poison Severus had created for him during the first war called IbidemNex, one drop of instant death. The only part which isn´t poisonous is the bright red, fleshy part of the seed that birds could eat, thereby giving them a chance at life during winter, the time of darkness and death. Even muggles revered Yew for these same reasons as wizard kind throughout the northern world.

Harry paced around the little circular space like an angry panther, his magic swirling around him in a threatening way, while he growled out, "I hate Umbridge. She´s had it out for me all right, she tormented me every way she could. It started last summer. I was still shaken from the trials of the bloody Tri-Wizard tournament and your fucking resurrection party in the graveyard, again stuck at my shitty muggle relatives, without any contact to the wizarding world." Harry sneered, "On orders of Dumbledore of course, for my own fucking good."

Voldemort frowned while watching Harry stalk around him. He was surprised by Harry's language and realized that the young man must be incredibly angry for a multitude of reasons to lose his composure like that in his presence. He disliked foul language, it was uncouth, but for now, he would wait and listen.

"To top that hellish summer off, two bloody Dementors attacked me and my cousin one evening, completely out of the blue."

"What?" exclaimed Voldemort standing up straight at once. This was disturbing. Why hadn't he known this before?

"Yes, two bloody Dementors," repeated Harry ardently, holding up two fingers of his right hand while his left was clenched into a fist. "They cornered us in a narrow alleyway not far from Privet Drive and nearly sucked my soul out, it was horrible…dreadful. I barely managed to fend them off with my Patronus, which resulted in a letter from the fucking Ministry, telling me I was expelled from Hogwarts for performing underage magic and that my wand would be snapped in a few minutes. Can you believe it? I escaped a fate worse than death by defending myself with a charm many adult wizards cannot properly cast. I also heroically rescued my worthless Muggle cousin along the way, and the British Ministry of Magic wanted to kick me out of the Wizarding World? Fucking Ministry. Last May I learned that this was all Umbitch's doing, which of course I didn´t know back then."

Harry´s fury was rising; all that frustration, fear, confusion, and outrage from the past summer came boiling up again. His black hair and clothes moved as if in an invisible wind. Voldemort watched him prowl around him and relished in the darkness pouring of the young man. It was like watching as a volcano erupted; all that rage and hate the boy had held back for so long came pouring out.

Harry´s power was like the best old red wine, caressing his senses. Salazar, this boy—no young man—was truly worthy of his attention, so powerful and glorious in his wrath. Harry would be a terrible weapon against his foes. Dumbledore was such a fool; well, the Light´s loss was the dark sides gain. He, Voldemort, would only have to direct this weapon skilfully – and take care to ensure it stayed loyal to him.

Which wasn't too difficult. As starved for affection, friendly touch and reassurance as Harry was from his deprived and neglected childhood and the past years at Hogwarts, a bit of positive attention, understanding and openness did wonders to deepen their bond, that thankfully had not suffered from the very few times he had had to resort to doling out pain as a punishment so far. It was exhilarating to witness that the Harry Potter came to the Dark side and submitted to him of his own free will, as opposed to being forced and tortured into compliance; an idea that he had briefly entertained after their encounter in the graveyard. That the cunning, stubborn and powerful young dark wizard was most eager to learn from, to fight with him and not against him anymore was beyond fortunate. Before this summer, he never would have believed such a development was possible.

Last summer, Voldemort had heard of course from Lucius and Yaxley that Harry Potter was in trouble for performing underage magic, but he had had absolutely no idea of the incredible danger the young man had been in. To think, that this idiotic ministry sycophant had recklessly endangered his Harry, his Horcrux! Regardless of what more Harry would reveal, the Undersecretary´s fate was already sealed.

Lucius had mentioned the woman a few times when reporting about Fudge and his underlings. She was a nasty piece of work; sadistic, ruthless, ambitious and cunning, that fit in well with his Death Eaters—she didn't know of course that Lucius was one—nevertheless, any potential value this woman had as a Dark side supporter was completely negated by her crimes against the boy. If Harry would not go after her – which he wanted to – Voldemort himself would have ordered her capture and enjoy killing her.

Harry´s angry voice snapped him out of his musings. "Some more letters from Dumbledore and other people followed one after the other during the next half hour. Another letter from the Ministry changed the immediate expulsion threat to a hearing about underage magic in August, where my fate would be decided. But the day of the trial, Lucius was there in the Ministry. I got a glimpse of him in the hallway outside the courtroom talking to Minister Fudge, so he must have told you?"

Voldemort was ready to speak, but it seemed as if Harry didn't really need his answer, as he rushed to recap the rest of that bizarre evening in Surrey.

"My aunt and uncle of course believed that I had somehow hexed their precious son and were furious at me for all those freaky owls that invaded their perfect muggle kitchen," Harry sneered. "Didn´t get any chocolate, in case you were wondering. They sent me to my room and locked me in, without food which of course was their usual punishment.

"Ah, and as the icing on the cake," Harry sneered, "I found out that evening that our neighbour, old batty Mrs. Figg was no muggle, but a squib and a spy for Dumbledore. He had asked her to have an eye on me! Unbelievable, this man. She wasn´t allowed to tell me about the wizarding world when I was a kid. She either never noticed the neglect and abuse going on at number four, or Dumbledore didn´t believe her. Or he believed her, but left me at the Dursleys nevertheless, for the greater good, that bastard!"

Harry was quivering in remembered hate and rage. He could not stand still, but continued to circle around the large evergreen tree and watched Voldemort out of the corner of his eyes. The man´s face wore a dark scowl, the lips pressed together. Was he angry with Harry or did he sympathize with him and feel emphatic anger at Umbridge, the Ministry, Dumbledore and the Dursleys?

"And this was just the start of the trouble Umbitch caused me in fifth year. As you know, she was appointed by Fudge himself to Hogwarts as the new DADA teacher and so called High Inquisitor. She gave me endless detentions, forced me to write hours on end with a cursed blood quill, until the message sunk in, as she called it."

Harry stepped close to the elder wizard and held his hand up. "Here, look, I removed the glamour. How much did you know about all of this, Marvolo?"

Voldemort´s hand shot out quick as a viper to grab Harry's wrist. He carefully inspected the back of Harry´s right hand. There, he found faded scars, letters etched deeply into the skin; I must not tell lies. Voldemort scowled, locking fierce eyes with the young man.

"Then don´t tell lies Harry, tell me everything. I will not protest any punishment this woman suffers at your hand. Believe me, if I had known about this, I would have tortured and killed her myself!" Voldemort stated. "Umbridge was always a supporter of the Dark Side, not a Death Eater of course, but she could have been useful in the Ministry. Nevertheless, she has forfeited the right to live."

Voldemort's eyes glowed. {Nobody touchesss what isss mine} he hissed, completely incensed, as he tightened his grip possessively and tugged Harry closer with his left hand on the small of Harry's back. Harry shuddered and gasped.

"I didn´t know how bad your living conditions were or what happened to you last summer or during fifth year," Voldemort continued, "Lucius and Yaxley only overheard that you had performed underage magic and got an expulsion hearing for it, but not what exactly you did or why you did magic. Umbridge must have known you were all alone in the muggle world if she got to your relatives' address. That was attempted murder, nothing else. Most adult wizards can't defend themselves against Dementors."

Hugging the young wizard possessively to his chest, Voldemort snarled out, {Ssshe will pay} all the while glaring daggers over Harry's shoulder, his eyes shining more red than dark brown.

Harry relished in the fierce embrace, the feeling of dark power curling and unfurling over him and leaned his head for a moment on Voldemort's shoulder. Nodding with a nasty teeth baring grin, he viciously hissed his answer. {Yesss, ssshe will.}

He knew Voldemort's vice like grip would leave a bruise on his wrist—it hurt quite a bit—and he felt a tad uncomfortable pressed this closely to the older man, to any other man that wasn't Draco, but he tolerated Voldemort's possessiveness because it felt absolutely fantastic to be so valued and protected. Here was living proof again that he mattered, that someone cared, that he wasn't worthless like his relatives had always told him. Harry felt better, seeing that the Dark Lord shared his sentiments against the toad. What would he have given last year to have an adult that believed him and took action against that vile woman!

It was mind boggling that one letter of complaint to Voldemort of all people would have ended Umbridge's reign at Hogwarts for the simple reason that last year, the Dark Lord had considered Harry as his to hurt and kill—but still, as his—and under his protection against all other threats.

Voldemort loosened his grip again, studying the back of Harry's hand for a moment longer before asking, "I wonder, did she treat other students the same as you, or were you singled out? Severus never mentioned anything like what you said. He hates Umbridge as she was a nuisance and a menace, but he never reported of her harming students with a blood quill. That´s torture to write hours with one until it scars like this."

Harry answered with a glare and wrenched his hand lose, to take up his agitated pacing around the circular maze centre again. "No. Severus wouldn't know, at least I don't think so. No Slytherin children suffered under her regiment at Hogwarts in the last school year, because none of them was so foolish as to provoke her as I did. I was just so angry; I lost control over my mask and because of that, I couldn't keep my mouth shut. I knew you were not a figment of my overactive imagination. She gave blood quill detentions to several of the Gryffs, very few Claws and some Puffs who believed my claims that you were back.

"Why was it not reported?" Voldemort wondered. "How is it no teacher knew of it? Did no student complain?"

"I was the first one she used it on." Harry recounted, his insides burning with anger. "After that detention was over, I went directly to McGonagall. When I tried to tell her what happened, she snapped at me to keep my head down and not to get into any more trouble. She didn't even let me tell her how the detention actually was and what it was exactly that Umbitch was using on me, a student."

He sighed and shook his head. "When she brushed me off without actually hearing what I had to say, I believed that the other teachers wouldn't listen to my complaints either. And when the other students realized that my own Head of House wasn't willing to listen to me, they decided not to say anything. After all, if the Gryffindor Golden Boy, Dumbledore's favourite student for the past four years, couldn't get his own Head of House to believe him, then what chance did they have?"

"I never knew," Voldemort murmured as his dark eyes narrowed. "To think that the woman would use such a barbaric tool on students to hurt them and that Fudge, incompetent fool that he is, allowed it to happen..."

"Oh, that was not everything that happened," continued Harry his angry tirade. "On the day of the History of Magic exam, after you send me that fucking vision about Sirius, Umbitch wanted to use Veritaserum on me and was this close," Harry lifted his hand and indicated a minimal space between his thumb and index finger, "to use Cruciatus on me, a student. She would have, if Granger and Snape hadn´t intervened. Can you believe that? Bugger, Granger and Snape saved me, again; Severus…my saviour, my hero." Harry grinned, his fury burned out mostly before his face and voice turned resigned and sad.

"You know what the worst of it is? Because Umbridge controlled all the mail and had blocked all the fireplaces at Hogwarts, I couldn't contact Sirius anymore for months. After you sent me that bloody vision, I assumed him to be in mortal danger, but Granger insisted it could be a fake. I wanted to check up on Sirius before jumping to conclusion, that's why I broke into Umbridge's office to try and use her Floo. I did manage a short Floo Net connection to Headquarters and spoke briefly to Kreacher, the old house-elf. He said Sirius was out. Later that night, after Sirius was dead, I learned that that wasn't true, but earlier when it mattered, I couldn't contact Grimmauld Place again, because Umbridge barged into her office.

"What followed was her interrogation of me; her attempts to use Veritaserum and Cruciatus. Granger and I lured her into the Forbidden Forest, where we then escaped and rode on Thestrals to London together with the others. So, I put a large part of Sirius' death on her doorstep. By the way, I haven't forgiven you for this; I can't, although I completely understand why you tried to lure me there. I know you tried to get the prophecy by other means first; for example, I had one vision of Rockwood reporting to you before the other one around Christmas when Nagini attacked Arthur Weasley."

Voldemort nodded his head. Well, he had to believe what Harry told him. He could read the truth in his eyes. And now they had arrived at a most unpleasant topic, again. Better not dwell on that vision and the debacle at the Ministry. Although, it had led to a few positive outcomes in the end; his possession of Harry, the revelation of the prophecy and their new alliance, rescuing his Horcruxes, the regaining of his sanity and his new passionate relationship with Severus.

His mind went over all the information he was just given and knew he would enjoy seeing Harry take revenge, especially considering Umbridge had almost cost him his Horcrux. She had dared to hurt what was his, which was inexcusable. He used to torture and kill people for far less offence.

And, there was of course the issue of the oppressive anti-werewolf regulations this senior Undersecretary was responsible for. Fenrir had ranted and raved about that often enough, and Harry´s god-fatherly friend, Remus Lupin was affected too of course. The law from 1993 made it nearly impossible for known werewolves to get or hold a decent job in the Wizarding world. That explained Harry´s wish to include the werewolves in his revenge on Umbridge.

"Very well then," Voldemort concluded, looking down at the younger wizard. "The favour is granted; Dolores Umbridge is yours. I shall have the necessary information collected so you know when best to abduct her. You should plan her punishment and execution together with Fenrir and Remus. This would be the perfect occasion for us to meet the pack leaders and to show them that I am sincere in my wish to end the repression of the werewolves."

"Thank you Marvolo. Yes, I will speak with them as soon as they are back. If possible, I want to go through with it on the night of the next full moon, which would be the twenty-eighth." Harry smiled darkly, happy that he was finally getting revenge on the toad that had made his life hell.

Voldemort saw the smile and he relished in the malice in it. 'Yes, Albus Dumbledore should have been more careful with the Saviour. His loss is my gain.'

"Alright Harry, I'll keep that evening free of any other commitments or meetings," Voldemort said and he gestured for Harry to continue walking with him. The two walked in comfortable silence for a bit before Voldemort broke it. "Harry, there is something I'd like to speak with you about."

"Ok," Harry nodded. "What is it you want to talk about Marvolo?"

"Albus Dumbledore," Voldemort snarled.

~ TBC ~