Chapter Text
Harry was bored, his dad was having a meeting with Lord Malfoy and had taken him along. They were supposed to be getting ice cream at Fortescue's and browsing the alley for his mom’s Yule present, but his father remembered last minute about his meeting with Lord Malfoy and had nowhere to leave Harry. So here Harry was in Malfoy Manor, he thought he would at least be able to roam the manor. Draco Malfoy was always bragging about how great his manor is, and Harry wanted to find some way to contradict him, but his dad had told him to wait in the room next to the one he was having his meeting it, so he wouldn’t get lost. There wasn't even anything to do in the room, it was clearly somebody's office and all the desk drawers were locked too, so Harry couldn’t even snoop. Harry had resigned himself to just lying on the couch and kicking his feet, he had been in there for 30 minutes already (actually only 5 minutes) when the door suddenly opened. Harry jumped up asking “Is your meeting done already dad?”, thinking his father had come back. But instead, a man he had never seen before stormed in. He looked very angry and even had his wand out, but then he laid eyes on Harry and looked a little confused for a second before blanking his face.
Lord Voldemort was in the library in Malfoy Manor researching a ritual he was planning when the wards on his office door went off, he got up to go see who entered his office without his permission. About a minute later the wards for the drawers in his desk went off, and Voldemort was angry, ‘someone was snooping in his office.’ Voldemort cursed the Malfoy ancestors for building their manor to be so pointlessly large and putting anti-apparition wards on it; it took a good 5 minutes to get from the library to his office.
Voldemort pulled his wand out before banging the door open. He was about to crucio whoever was in there, when a young boy of around 12 jumped up asking his dad if it was time for him to leave. “Who are you and what are you doing in my study?” Voldemort demanded.
The boy walked up to him and held his hand out, answering “Harry Potter, and my father is in a meeting with Lord Malfoy right now, and he told me to stay in this room so i wouldn't get lost. Who are you?”
‘This kid ‘Harry apparently’ doesn’t know who I am’ Voldemort thought incredulously ‘I am the reigning dark lord and ruler of magical Britain. I know I rarely show my face, but everyone should know who I am. Well,’ Voldemort thought ‘no need to end the game early’. “My name is Marvolo” he answered taking his hand.
“It’s nice to meet you Marvolo” the boy said. He looked thoughtful for a moment before perking up a bit. “Since you have an office here you clearly either live here or at least are here a lot, could you show me around? If you’re with me I can’t get lost? Surely I won’t get in trouble if someone who knows there way around the manor is with me.”
‘Oh wow, okay’ Voldemort thought ‘he isn’t pretending, he really doesn’t know who I am. No one who knows who I am would ask to go exploring a large manor alone with me.’ “I don’t know Harry,” Voldemort said instead “why do you want to go exploring so bad?”
Harry got an annoyed look on his face and replied heatedly “Malfoy, Draco of that is, is always making fun of Ron, my best friend, about how small the Weasley house is, and how much better his own manor is. I was hoping to find some type of proof that the manor isn't really as great as Malfoy says it is.”
Voldemort smirked “Humiliating a classmate is always a cause I can get behind. Let's go explore the manor Harry and I'll show you all the bad parts the little Malfoy wouldn’t want you to know about.” Voldemort showed Harry around the manor pointing him towards all the things the Malfoys wouldn’t want to get out, the screams and smells coming up from the dungeons, though he told Harry that it was the kitchens and that the smell was chickens being slaughtered and readied for dinner. And that they have a new cook who keeps cutting themselves, and that that’s why there was screaming. He showed Harry some illegal dark artifacts on display that technically could get the Malfoy lord in some trouble if they were found, and if it wasn’t a death eater in charge of the aurors. But it is technically still illegal. And the biggest piece of information, to a child anyway, was the messed up Quidditch pitch. And, if Voldemort summoned one of his followers to destroy the pitch while Harry was in the bathroom, and he had forbidden from being fixed, well that was no ones business. Voldemort definitely doesn’t still hold a grudge against Abraxas, and as such his descendants, for making similar jokes about his accommodations at the orphanage back when they were in Hogwarts.
After making sure that Harry had enough material to taunt the Malfoy Heir with, Voldemort started to lead Harry back to his office. Along the way they discussed the best ways to use the information. Voldemort really liked how Harry was planning on using it, he had some very good ideas for a 12-year-old. And if Voldemort helped Harry make those plans better, well no one was there to see it.
When they got to the hallway his office is in, the door to the meeting room started to open, and Harry, much to Voldemort’s surprise gave him a quick hug, and ran off saying “It was nice to meet you Marvolo, I’ll look for you next time I’m here.” He made it back into Voldemort’s office just as Lord Potter stepped out of the room.
Lord Potter saw him as he stepped out, and paled, giving a short bow he acknowledged him with a reluctant ‘My Lord’ and hurried over to the room Harry was in, most likely to make sure Voldemort didn’t kill him or some other such nonsense while Harry was ‘alone’ during his meeting.