He had aimed it at where he sensed Quirrell was. For a second, he felt like it worked, that he had taken the man by surprise. Unfortunately, in a fraction of a second, chains came out of the wall behind him and bound Harry. A disarming charm hit his hand, sending his wand away, and the smoke faded very quickly.
A smirking red eyed Quirrell slowly made his way to him, twirling his wand, "That was far more entertaining than I thought it would be. I believe that we have many things to discuss, Mr. Potter."
The Potter scion thrashed, trying to get out of his restraints, the red-eyed professor smirked as he watched his useless efforts at escaping, "Don't try to run, Potter, I have enchanted these chains myself. Bound I may be by this body's pitiful magical circuits, I assure you that my skills are not diminished."
Harry stopped, understanding how hopeless it was for him to try to escape. Voldemort had just revealed himself to him. That was bad. No, it was the worst possible scenario because it meant that there was a good chance that Harry wouldn't make it out of this classroom alive.
The possessed professor grinned, "You're not surprised, are you? That I'm not who I said I was."
For the first time, Harry chose to speak up, "Is it just you in there, or is Quirrell still hanging around?"
The dark lord snorted, "You're very perceptive, I'll admit to that. No, Quirrell is still there, but mostly dormant. He hasn't been awake for months. It was a shame I had to wrestle control over his body. He felt remorseful after Halloween, almost killing students. He wanted to confess to Dumbledore. I couldn't take that risk and so, he remains asleep. But I'm not here to speak of the snivelling cowardly waste of magic that Quirrell was, but about you. From the moment you saw me, you knew exactly how dangerous I was. Dumbledore himself was fooled, but not you."
"I don't know what you're talking about," Harry protested.
"You're a terrible liar, Harry. You see, there's something you must know about me. I'm a master of Legilimency. After all, you did not meet my eyes for almost a year. It's almost admirable, all things considered; if I hadn't been paying attention specifically on you, I wouldn't have noticed it. You were good at it, very good, but you were arrogant. You didn't know everything. Yes, you prevented my Legilimency from taking hold, but you didn't know that I was also an empath."
Harry froze, and the dark lord burst into laughter. It was one of the worst sounds the Potter scion had ever heard, "Oh, the look on your face. Yes, I noticed you from the very first day. The other students were nervous, yes, but you were absolutely terrified to the bone, yet you didn't show it. I spied on you when you were with other professors, and you weren't even bothered. Even Severus did not frighten you. What you felt was an emotion that I was familiar with. It was the fear I felt whenever anyone saw me before my downfall. The crushing fear and mind-numbing terror, that would make your heart beat wildly. You felt it and I immediately realized why you felt that way. You knew who I was from the very first day, and it terrified you."
Harry felt a mind probe try to enter his mind, and immediately employed his occlumency, reining in his stray thoughts. The Dark Lord could not be allowed to enter Harry's mind. The secrets inside could very well destroy the wizarding world.
He expected Riddle to be angry, to start torturing. He did not expect the man to burst into laughter again, "An Occlumens at your age. Do you have any idea how rare that is? I wasn't even half that good when I was your age. You're something special indeed. But I'm not a master of Legilimency for nothing."
Harry could feel the mind probe shift and attacking specifically his mind. This wasn't a Legilimency probe anymore. It was something more, something deeper. For the first time, Harry was afraid. However, his magical crest started to warm up and Harry could feel the frustration coming from Voldemort as his attempts fail at breaking the mind protection of his crest.
Yeah, mental protections were commonly put on magical crests to prevent people from stealing the family spells inside them. Oh, it didn't protect against Legilimency as it senses the projected thoughts of the user, it simply stops deep dives into the mind. Mind magic was a very dangerous field of magic, which could potentially reshape the very personality of a person. No one wanted their legacy to become nothing by puppets, giving away their secrets to unworthy families. Harry's crest was no different in that regard. It protected his mind and for the first time, the professor's crimson eyes were not amused.
"A magical crest," he murmured, "that's how you're blocking me. I had forgotten about that particular side effect. It does explain how you were able to banish me from the forest. I wasn't able to return afterwards, and this body is starting to fail me without a steady supply of unicorn blood."
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