Morning came with glinting hot sunlight through the cracks in the tent flaps. It slipped under doorways and brought Harry awake with a satisfying yawn. Sleep had given him a refresh that he had severely needed. All the aches seemed to have slipped away from his body and he felt invigorated, ready to start the day.

Ready to use his new wand. He pulled it out from under his pillow and examined it with his fingers. He hadn't looked twice at his new wand since getting it, still mourning the loss of the old one. He had been expecting the wand to maybe react, the way his phoenix wand had reacted the first time he had touched it, but it still felt like just a dull lump of wood in his hands. It wasn't bonded to him yet, and maybe his own feelings of remorse for the old one was getting in the way. It was time to be getting on with things.

Its time to get over the old wand... Harry thought with a pang.

But this time the heavy ache of loss didn't accompany the thought and he breathed a little more easily. He stretched out, and began shuffling about his tent room in search of clothes.

Suddenly, he heard the voices coming from just beyond the tend, muffled by the silencing charms on his room. Curiosity getting the better of him, Harry slipped on his invisibility cloak and slipped out of his room. Sure enough Lord Voldemort and, ironically enough, the wandmaker Ollivander came into the tent, and they were talking about wands, of course.

"Don't let it distress you," Voldemort said, rubbing a hand over his short growth of hair. "Of course Severus would feel uncomfortable trying to get fully matched wands for his recruits. I would too if I were a recruiter. The Ministry cannot stop a person from buying a wand not suited to them as a replacement, but they CAN stop them from buying more than a few wands per year. If he's buying low grade wands and using the excuse that they keep breaking then that keeps him in the clear. The Ministry can't prove that he isn't breaking them, because low grade wands tend to do that. Even first years know that."

"Of course now he can't GO to the stores..."

"No, he can. He has many disguises with which he frequents Diagon Alley. At any rate, I didn't bring you here to discuss Severus. I brought you to discuss my Apprentice."

"Harry Potter? Holly with Phoenix feather Core, 11 inches..."

"That wand is destroyed," Voldemort interrupted pointedly. "He has a new wand now. I was hoping you could check it once he is awake, to decide what kind of core it is."

"You're worried the new core may be, as Snape said, a creature that is difficult to bond to?"

"More to the point, we know the core is a Dragon's Heartstring," Voldemort stated, sitting down at the table. "But if the Heartstring core of the wand is from a Hungarian Horntail it may not want to obey Harry at all, which may be why he's done so horribly in the duels he's been put in. Harry is quick to master new duelling spells, so he should be more capable with the new magic he's learning than he's shown."

"So he's had problems with the new wand..." said Ollivander. "And you think it may be a Horntail heartstring. Only way to know is to look. But why would the Horntail be a problem, may I ask?"

"You were at the tournament Ollivander. You know that Harry had defeated a Horntail," Voldemort explained. "Stole a Horntail egg right out from its mother's grasp. No matter that the egg wasn't a real egg, the mother believed it to be, and this sort of situation leaves a magical imprint under the skin, especially if the dragon made any sort of contact physically with Harry."

"Ah," said Ollivander. "Now I see. If his new wand is horntail he may have to drink dragon's blood every day until he is properly bonded with it. Otherwise it would take years for him to master it, as opposed to the short time it took for him to Master the Phoenix wand. He touched, and possibly bonded with a Phoenix in his first year, the very phoenix that gave the feather, and thus the wand had no trouble working with him. But a dragon core might reject him, seeing him as an enemy."

Yuck! thought Harry, moaning at the thought of downing dragons blood every morning like some sort of vampire.

"Well, I hadn't thought of giving him dragon's blood. Really too expensive and not reliable. My thought was that if he can't bond to this one, we'll give him a second wand, and keep the dragon's heartstring wand as a spare. But first we have to be sure of the core. And seeing as how Harry is already in the room, perhaps he'd like to give his two cents on the matter?"

"Uh-oh," said Harry, pulling off the cloak. "How is it people keep seeing through all my disguises?"

"It was easy to deduce," said Voldemort, ignoring Ollivander's look of incredulous shock. "You own an invisibility cloak, which you have been prone to using in the past. And there are silencing charms on the room to muffle noise so I'm sure curiosity at what we were talking about would have drawn you out eventually. That, and you forgot to shield your mind."

"Ah, right, my Occlumency," said Harry with a hiccup, and apologized to both of them for spying. "So you think my new wand may be a problem? I won't have to drink blood will I?"

"I don't think so," said Voldemort with a chuckle. "Let Ollivander have a look at your wand first, in any case."

Harry dutifully pulled the wand out and Ollivander immediately reached out to take it for inspection. Harry sat down between Voldemort and the wandmaker as he went over it with his fingers, eyes narrow and searching, as if he could see through the wood itself to find what was inside.

"This may take some time," said the wandmaker softly. "There's a very powerful corre within this wand, no doubt, no doubt..."

"But it doesn't work for me," Harry said, rather depressed.

"It has nothing to do with you, Harry," said the Dark Lord. "It has to do with the core."

Voldemort quickly explained that while wands were tools to be used by the wizard, some powerful magical creatures left imprints upon the wizard they came into contact with, and were so powerful that even their feathers and skin, separated from the body of the being, could leave that imprint, and which was why they were often preferred as wand core to other benign magical creatures. Their magical imprint was stronger. Hence why a horntail core might react to the hostility that was left behind after Harry's defeating one in the triwizard tournament. Harry found himself more curious about this, about wands, and maybe wanted to know a bit more about how brother wands worked as well, but before he could ask Ollivander laughed and held the wand aloft.

"You were right," he said, handing the wand to Lord Voldemort. "Horntail, female too, which doubles the potential for hostility between the boy and core."

"Hm," said Voldemort, taking the wand and drawing circles with it in the air, and Harry saw with shock that the dragon wand instantly bonded to Voldemort, shooting out green and golden sparks and bathing them in light. "It seems as if this wand is rather suited to me," said Voldemort with fascination.

"Dragon's heartstring is more suited to offensive magic then phoenix feather, which is more meant for defensive magic, as I've told you many times," said Ollivander softly. "Though, I wonder now..."

Voldemort grinned, as if he knew exactly what Ollivander was thinking. He pulled out his own wand, Yew, with Phoenix feather core, and held it out to Harry. Harry was stunned.

"Give it a try Mister Potter, see if its a fit," said Ollivander promptly. "Wizards will trade their wands often in such situations as these where one persons wand is more suited to another wizard. Its custom."

Harry hesitantly reached out for the wand, the wand that held the other feather of the matched pair that had kept him bonded to Lord Voldemort for many years. The wand that had killed his parents, and Cedric Diggory. The wand which contained the feather of Fawkes the Phoenix, his friend, and the friend of Albus Dumbledore, who was now dead. The wand that was in so many ways the other half of who he had been for many years.

He took it. Instantly the wand began to sing, vibrating like a dream come true when he touched it, the familiar red and gold sparks joining the last dying light of the green and gold from Voldemort's wand, the colors melting together and settling into the ground.

Then suddenly, Voldemort's wand too started singing, seemingly reacting to Harry's wand, the two of them singing together in bright song, and causing both Harry and Voldemort to stare in confusing.

Ollivander, however, clapped his hands in delight.

"Better than I could have hoped for!" said the old wandmaker proudly. "You've found another pair!"

"Pair?" said Harry. "But they can't be brother wands! That wand has a dragon heartstring core and this is phoenix feather!"

"No no," said Voldemort, his voice, for the first time ever, sounding stricken. "He's not talking about wands with the same core. He's talking about WIZARDS with the same core."

"Huh?" said Harry in confusion.

"Its like this Mister Potter," Ollivander began to excitedly explain. "Wizards, like wands, have magic at their core. We call this our magical soul, separate from the spiritual soul which is what a ghost is. Often two wizards, not even related, will find they can magically bond these cores. This core bond, or soul bond, means that the two wizards are particularly suited to doing magic with one another. Usually a defensive and offensive pair of wands will recognize this bond between two powerful wizards who are close allies or friends, or lovers, and react by bonding themselves. In short, your wands recognized that you were Master and Apprentice, and the magical ties between you, and so bonded themselves the way brothers would. The wands can now act in unity, as well as separately, and cannot oppose each other. You can now even use each other's wands as if you were bonded to them!"

"So much for dragon's blood then," said Harry, laughing a bit nervously.

But Ollivander had calmed down a bit, and was now looking at Voldemort squarely.

"Uh, My Lord? Are you all right?"

Lord Voldemort had a strange look in his eyes; astonishment, and a little bit of pain. He closed his eyes, and took a deep breath.

"I have always heard of such bondings between wands occurring. That my own wand had been bonded to another wand by a shared creature core was something of a shock to me, being so rare. But this sort of bond, as common as it is, has never happened to me. Not with any of my closest friends or allies. Nor with even my own foster son, Severus."

Harry jerked, but Voldemort strode across the room to go stand by the door.

"Albus Dumbledore told me that there was only one way such a bond would happen to me. My soul had to truly be whole again. And for that to occur I had to feel love for someone, or remorse for something..."

Harry and Ollivander stood stock still as Lord Voldemort paused in the doorway, eyes all aglow with something like regret and an aching need for something...something Harry couldn't place.

Then he spoke it.

"I must go speak to...to Severus," said Voldemort. "Harry, could you see to cleaning up our tent? After that you're free to go to the arena and practice with the young people. I have a feeling I'll be busy all day. And Ollivander? Thank you, I shall talk to the council for you on your problem, as repayment for your help."

Both Harry and Ollivander nodded, dazed, and then the wizard left the two of them alone. Ollivander turned to look at Harry.

"You, young Potter, have just about swept the floor out from every wizard at this Revel with your presence, and more, and now this. He didn't say it in so many words, but I sensed some small amount affection towards you from the Dark Lord. Yes, affection for you may be what caused this bond, more so than anything else."

Ollivander left, and Harry lifted his new wand to look at it, feeling the pulsing warmth and the red glow of the wand like a beacon.

Affection? Harry thought with astonishment. Are we...have we become friends? No, no, I could never! My parents, this wand! How could I? How could I?"

But if the wand had any answer it didn't give it. It merely continued to sing softly for many moments, soothing Harry as if it were the singing of the Phoenix to whom its core belonged.

"So your wands bonded?" said Severus, stunned and just a little bemused.

That Lord Voldemort was regaining his humanity slowly over time had not been missed by his Death Eaters. Now the Dark Lord was pacing around Severus Snape's tent, frustration in every inch of his body, one hand tangled tightly into his short scruff of silver hair, the other on his hip. Sweat was beading down his brow, his eyebrows coming in silver and gray, his skin was now more of a flesh tone. Even his nose was starting to look a little more human.

"How is it that we get rid of one bond, and then form these others? We'll never be rid of eachother!"

From his tone of voice, Severus decided that the Dark Lord was not so opposed to this idea.

"So what now?" said the wizard, finally coming over to where Severus was sitting and slumping, yes slumping, in very human fashion in the chair in front of him. "Am I friends with the boy then? No, he didn't give me the impression of wanting to be friends at all. Yet, if he was, it would make recruiting him an even stronger probability..."

"You're forgetting one serious thing, of which you spoke to me last night while the boy slept," Severus said, putting an arch to his eyebrow. "The frustration you feel because an Apprentice cannot sleep with their Master. You want the boy. You were going to make him your plaything. But if you do that, with a bond like you have, you risk a soul bond deeper than just the wands reacting to an Apprentice link. You risk becoming his soul mate."

Voldemort didn't say anything to that, he was staring down at his hands like a lost thing, like a teenager who had just been told he will flunk a test if he didn't give up going to a quidditch finals in order to study. He was supremely confused, like nothing Severus had ever seen in the man before.

"Humanity hurts," said Voldemort suddenly. "Being human means being weak, vulnerable to death, and now, to affection. You're right Severus," the Dark Lord's eyes blazed, smouldered with obvious desire. "I want that boy, as much as I want to give up on all the paperwork and just hunt down our food poisoner like a wolf on the prowl. Ignoring the age differences, Merlin knows I haven't been human for most of my years to begin with, I think he really would be a good lover. But soul mates? That requires love, something I've always...avoided."

"Human emotions get in the way of custom, duty and honor," said Severus promptly. "We Dark wizards tend to fall into the trap of thinking that emotions like these are weak, and can gain us nothing. But you already have found a powerful bond to Harry has gained you much. A more powerful wand, a bonded pair of wands that can work between you both, a strengthening of that Apprentice bond, and moreso, the wands may just be able to react to your commands now readily without the need to touch them, or be within visual distance of them, as long as Harry is near. Think about it."

"I have been. I have been. Believe me Severus, I'm the last person who could recognize the power of love, but here it is. The power that I did not know that Harry has unending resources of, and now I know how it can undo me, how this power can defeat me. Its making me human. If I did make him my lover, he could readily destroy all the hard work I've done learning Dark Magic, training, making myself strong..."

"Maybe now is the time to start learning how to use Dark Magic in a different way, without using hatred as the means?"

"I don't understand," said Voldemort. "Explain."

"Well, my Lord, first, a confession," said Severus, feeling a slight fear and panic in his breastbone. "I didn't hate Albus. In fact I..."

"Was his lover...I know," Voldemort shook his head. "Somebody told me, think it was Wormtail, trying to put you in disgrace. Little did he know that same-sex pairing were not any sort of offense to me. Though you could have picked a better target for your affection..."

"But I didn't hate Dumbledore, and I used the killing curse on him!" said Severus desperately, trying to make his point before this went in a bad direction. "I was able to use love, not hate, to the same effect."

"What? How? Oh, I see, it was the emotion that decided the effect."

"Which is why you've always been, shall we say, lacking when it comes to ritual magic in which there are multiple casters," Severus continued. "To work with another person requires a certain sort of bond, a type of shared humanity, that leaves an imprint which permits the magic to work within the group."

"Like the bond between my wand and Harry's. Ah! Now I understand."

Voldemort laughed, and Severus thought for a moment that he was going to throw a fit. But instead he sat down again and stretched his hands out.

"So what should I do to school myself in this new technique?"

"Well, for starters, you could be teaching Harry instead of me," said Severus with a huff. "Which will prove especially more useful to him now that your wands are so bonded. You need to learn to work together."

"Truth," said Voldemort. "All right Severus you are off the proverbial hook. I may take over teaching all the young people. You can then take over the paperwork."

"Oh no you don't," said Severus with a grin. "You know those papers only mean something to the Council if they are coming from you."

"So, you write the papers, fill out the tedious paperwork, and I'll sign them. Simple."

"Thats the muggle way of doing things," Severus huffed.

"If it works...?"

Severus stared at his Lord for a moment, then chuckled.

"All right, you teach the young people. Get old Grindelwald out into the ring with his own youngster and you two can have a grand old time I'm sure."

"Ah yes, Gellert. That might just be a proper idea. But not today, today I just want to work with Harry, in preparation for the Harvest Spell tonight."

"Ah, now there's a proper way to learn how to work magic in unity. You could be Bella's second in the spell instead of me."

"I beg your pardon?"

"Its easy," said Severus. "You are used to pulling magic from others by force. You'll have to pull magic from the others to give it to Bella, but with their hands linked you'll only be able to pull it if they are willing. Since they'll be fully willing in light of the Harvest Spell and the need for safe food to eat, then it should be like taking candy from a baby."

"Ah well, that is a good idea."

"Exactly. And I'll play thirds, in case Bella falls out of the Spell. Then you take over for her and I take over for you."

"Excellent," said Voldemort brightly. "Though my singing voice is atrocious, so lets just hope Bellatrix can handle tonight's spell."

"I'm sure she shall, my Lord. She's been practicing."

Both men chuckled fondly in the memory of Bellatrix trying to hide herself in her tent while she practiced singing, and having the silencing spells fail without her knowledge so that the whole camp could hear her recitation of Bizet's famous Habanera piece.

Catching Bellatrix Lestrange singing a muggle opera had been only one of the highlights that the Revel had brought into their normally dreary state of battle readiness. What else would they have to look forward to as the month moved forward? The council was even already considering extending the Revel for a second month!

But first we need the food to last us that long. Lets hope the Harvest Spell works. And that we can unmask the traitor and prevent a second poisoning of our resources!