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Tattoo ...

When the trance came, it was Slytherin that the Ink pulled from his mind...

...lies and deception -- when the truth was too dangerous; ruthless decisions -- painfully made but rightly decided ; fearful glances from those around -- when complacency might have been fatal; strength that came when only despair was possible ; and beyond all, the might of a dark power that thrived in the deepest shadows of the night.

This time his thoughts shaped a darker image -- an emerald snake full of deadly grace and patient plans, hypnotic in its calculating coldness, and brutal in its will to survive -- a symbol of endurance, and a banner for Dark things.

To this standard alone would the broken and downtrodden come -- those who were too damaged to trust in hope anymore -- and for whom bright joy was a strange language they no longer understood . But Harry understood -- and with that part of himself that had always been Slytherin, he could still touch them, and they would see themselves in him, and allow his protection.

In darkness, he could find the lost and despairing -- and in darkness he would gather them home.

Fragment from The Mirror of Maybe...