Chapter Text
Voldemort sat on his throne, at the Malfoys’ dining table, the three blonde purebloods practically shivering in fear at the annoyance ripping through him in waves. Harry Potter had, once again, gotten away from him.
Ranting about how he hadn’t managed, for the third time, to kill the Boy-Who-Lived, he heard the youngest boy, the one in Potter’s year, snort. Immediately, his mother’s eyes widened and she started apologising for her son’s behaviour so profusely that she practically smashed her head in the mashed potatoes whilst bowing.
Ignoring Lucius and Narcissa’s apologies, the Dark Lord stood up. “Draco,” he started, and Narcissa immediately stopped talking. The boy was on the verge of tears. “tell me, if you disapprove of my methods,” the addressed opened his mouth to speak, but promptly shut it when Voldemort continued talking, “how would you do it?”
After a few seconds of silence, Lucius started scream-whispering to Draco to answer, instead of just staring at his plate like a fool. The comment earned a whimper out of the young Malfoy, and he opened his mouth. However, for a few seconds, nothing came out of it. Until–
“He’s severely allergic to nuts.”
Voldemort blinked at the blonde-haired boy. The trembling in his voice would be, in any other circumstance, an immediate red flag to tell Voldemort he was lying, except that the boy knew not to come up with a lie by now. He asked him to repeat again, and this once Draco managed to let out the information without any stutter in his voice.
Even though the statement had not been a direct answer to his question, Voldemort sat back down and didn’t mention the slip-up any further. He could hear the adults’ sighs of relief at his dismissal of what would have earned the boy a Crucio, but he was too deep in thought to punish anyone for these actions.
Because Tom Marvolo Riddle had been allergic to nuts.
He had refused to let his superior self take on the allergy, and in this indestructible form, he was sure that the condition did not affect him anymore (though he had refused to try any products containing nuts, ever), and this revelation shook him to his very core.
‘Your soulmate’s allergy will be the same as your own. It will be your business to find out what you are allergic to, and compare it with anyone else’s.’
For muggles, this concept of soulmate was (1) seen as idiotic and as superstitious as religion, since nobody could prove that soulmates existed, and (2) almost impossible to use, as many muggles have more allergies than one. For wizards, however, it was another story. Wizards never got more allergies than one – only the one that they share with their soulmate – and if you have none, that means that you have no soulmate. Of course, this only happens to a very slim percentage of the population.
However, this revelation that the boy was allergic to nuts meant that Harry Potter was his soulmate. His.
From this moment on, Voldemort decided that Harry Potter would not be subject to his murder attempts anymore. No; instead, he would be subject to his courting.