Returning Letter Sent

Harry Potter wasn't expecting a return owl. However, there was one there sitting on the windowsill of his aunt's kitchen waiting for him to put the dish rag down for him to take the missive. He quickly did so, while grabbing a piece of fat that he had carved off the meat and was a little too fatty for him to eat. The owl gobbled it and flew off. Harry closed the window, thankful it was getting dark earlier so that the neighbours weren't likely to fuss, and more to the point, the Dursleys. Quickly sticking it into his pocket with a napkin in between it and his scrounged meat, he washed his hands and started the dishes once again.

After he was in his room though, he opened his letter. There on the page was handwriting he had thought never to read again. His now son, Lord Voldemort, had written to him. He read the explanation of the writ, which was to make sure he understood the nature of the letters, and wrote a bit of his day as well. Harry grinned, wiped a few random tears for his kid/enemy who was now starting to open up to him, and held the letter to his chest for a brief moment. His kid was starting to grow up.

Blinking, he grabbed his pen and paper, an envelope, and the twine from the other owl, and laid it out on the desk. What was he going to write his kid today? Smiling once again, he picked up his pen and started to write. Dear son,...

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Lord Voldemort looked in shocked amazement at the letter in his hand. He thought nothing could have prepared him for the sentimentality, but then he supposed that if Draco had finally answered his father's letters, Lucius Malfoy would have written something similar. He read it again.

Dear son,

I am so thankful to be hearing from you finally. I thought I had to nay say that hope, but if my tears are any indication, I did hope for that. I am so glad to hear from you.

My days were filled with toil again today. I had just finished the chores right at sunset when I received your owl. Thanks for the discreet timing.

My little tidbit for today: Don't be desperate as much as possible. Plan ahead, even in the worst situations, and you can save yourself some of your trouble. Keep hope in something not a person, because those fail. The sun sets, and it rises. The rain comes, and the flowers grow. Birds will sing in the garden at some point. There is an order in that, an order that I fear some who are in control have forgotten. It will let you keep some respect in yourself and in your abilities. You are not your circumstances, even though some of what you have become is a byproduct of that.

I have to say, that is not an easy thing to live, but it is something I have had to practice for years.

Sincerely,

Your now father,

Harry Potter

The Dark Lord put the letter on his desk. He spoke the password to the drawer the file was held in and took it out. He spread the page out once again, quickly glanced over it, and put it in chronological order. If nothing else, he had blackmail material to keep the boy down. He smiled, closed the file, and put it back in his desk drawer, speaking the word to close it back up.

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Ever since that really awkward tea with the Dark Lord, Lord Malfoy had kept his eye on the man. His mannerisms had been slowly changing, but could not be brushed off any longer. He was starting to open up more, showing signs of being a good host when he had been a tyrant when he had last known him, and the awkwardness of his developing emotional senses remarked the coming of a lost hope. The changes were real, not just a one time thing, though the Dark Lord he knew was still there too. He had a random thought that he was babysitting another man's kid.

He obliquely spoke of it to Severus Snape, known spy in Hogwarts. His former house member looked at him thoughtfully, before mentioning that if the Dark Lord was finally gaining human senses, there was a chance of things becoming right. Lord Malfoy left that conversation knowing that Headmaster Dumbledore would not be getting this information that night, and that Snape would wait for a while if he shared it at all.