Chapter 1: Chapter 1
Chapter 1
The Potters' Home
I was having a strange dream: I'm standing in some room, wearing a robe and pointing a wooden stick at a corpse. My entire body itches. Skin feels like melting wax. The insides feel like icebergs crashing into one another. The absurdity of it all is too much, so I laugh. But the sound that comes out almost makes me faint: any super villain would sell his soul for this laugh. I realize this is not my voice and run to the mirror. The face staring back isn't mine either. My body is slowly shifting from something humanoid to a human only vaguely resembling me. It feels as if pieces are melding together inside me. Then comes the pain. I fall to my knees and scream. But it vanishes after a short moment, leaving behind only a headache. And I realize this is not a dream...
I am Lord Voldemort! Well, not exactly. Foreign memories flooded my mind. Tom Riddle, also known as Voldemort, tried many methods to achieve immortality and modify his body. It turned out some of them did not play nice together- for example, horcruxes and implanting fragments of the Veil of Death into the body. Maybe the remaining sliver was ejected and replaced with a random soul. Maybe my soul merged with the part left in this body. I didn't know what happened, but the result was obvious: his memories, reflexes and abilities coupled with my consciousness. And this was good. The body was completely under my control.
Though, this raised an interesting question about horcruxes. Were they parts of Riddle or me? Would they still serve their function and save me from death? Until I get a chance to check, I better act with the assumption that I am mortal...
Question: what now? The best option would be to forget about everything and run. But I was an international criminal. I wouldn't be welcome anywhere. Tom traveled a lot in his youth, recruiting supporters everywhere... Wizards were conservative for a reason: their magical power was supported by local magic sources. The British Isles had three large sources: Hogwarts, the Ministry of Magic and Stonehenge. Each source produced unique ambient magic, the differences between them increasing with distance. Using a foreign source was hard. It usually lead to much slower regeneration of magical energy and lowering of magic reserve while staying in an adverse area... Simple travel did not present much of a problem, but fighting for your life did: after depleting the reserves, you recovered exponentially slower. If right now I could go all out every other day, in India it would slow down to once every 30 days at best. (That's why there was a Triwizard and not an All-wizard tournament. The British sources were at least somewhat felt throughout Europe, allowing Beauxbatons, Durmstrang and Hogwarts to compete with months long breaks between events for recovery.)
In my case, moving was a death sentence. I would weaken as soon as I leave Britain. The younger and weaker the wizard, the easier it was to adapt to a new source. I could get used to it... after 20 years or so, but I would get killed long before that.
Surrender to Dumbledore? And he will understand and forgive? He will kill me! The most I could hope for was a cell in Nurmengard next to Grindelwald. Riddle personally killed thousands of muggles and hundreds of wizards. People like that did not get forgiven. Nobody would believe my remorse.
Lead the aristocracy towards peace? I was not omnipotent. I was their leader, not owner. The dark mark was a beacon and a badge; I could not control or kill them through it. If I went against their ideology, they might unite to kill me. And Riddle's horcruxes were likely useless now.
It looked like I had to play the villain. No radical changes. At least not immediately, before I could properly assess the situation.
What were my assets? I was one the world's most powerful wizards. I had power, knowledge, skills, reflexes, improved body. The Mind Arts granted good memory and quick thinking but also some detachment and lack of emotion. The wand still worked but not as well as before; this needed to be fixed. I also had about a hundred Death Eaters. And twenty of the most trusted Inner Circle.
What was against me? Dumbledore. Older than me. Stronger. More experienced. Defeated Dark Lords while I was still in school, attending his classes. He also sat atop the strongest magical source in England and had a phoenix familiar with healing tears and the ability to apparate through wards. He would crush me. We fought twice. One time I retreated covered by a live shield of muggles; the second time - a live shield of wizards. He also had his Order of the Phoenix. About two hundred wizards of various levels. Two dozens of highly trained, valuable members like the Longbottoms. Hundreds of fans and cannon fodder from recent Hogwarts graduates. Two hundred Aurors. And a thousand ministry workers, though they may as well be plankton with wands.
Maybe I should just Avada myself right now? No, at least give this life a try first...
It was time to get to work. Get off the floor. Pick up the wand. The shame! Lily could have easily escaped or slit my throat with a kitchen knife while I was howling and writhing on the floor. What a headline that would have made: The Dark Lord Defeated by Potter Housewife! Good thing she was in shock and barricaded herself in the nursery. How much time did I spend thinking? Forty seconds? I needed a plan.
I transfigured James' body into a rock and put it in my pocket. Why? I'll find some use for it! Then transfigured a copy of his body from air. Using magic felt instinctive, and the energy expended on non-verbal NEWT-level spells was well below regeneration rate even with an ill-suited wand.
I walked up to the second floor and pointed my wand at the door. Not even a spell- just my will, and the door opened.
Lily Potter stood wandless in front of the baby's bed, shielding him with her body. She was young and beautiful. No wonder Severus desired her. Bright green eyes and thick dark red hair really stood out.
"Please," she begged, "Not Harry! Please, I will do anything!"
The girl was panicking. She heard me laugh and scream. But I had no plans to kill her or her child. First, the thrice-damned prophecy. What if I killed them and vanished like Riddle? Second, Lily might be useful. Not in a sexual way, of course; at least not to her husband's murderer, known maniac and psychopath. Also, Snape will probably try to kill me if I took his woman... And she would be detractive to my status anyway. Faking her death was easy, but letting her go would ruin my image.
For a moment, she froze with wide eyes. I heard her suck in a deep breath in deathly silence. Lily never hoped her plea would have any effect.
"Anything!" she repeated."Just don't kill Harry!"
"Very well," I replied.
She fell to the floor but didn't faint. I helped her up. Harry was watching us from behind her back.
"Very well?" Lily asked in disbelief.
"I will not kill you or your son, but you must vow to serve me faithfully and never betray me. Vow on your life and the life of your son. The vow will kill you before you can betray me effectively: it is triggered by any attempt to act against me or share confidential information."
A bit of wand waving - and glowing patterns appeared in the air around us, enclosing us in an odd shape. It was a rather obscure piece of magic that did not need a binder but required honest intent from both parties and could only be performed once every ten years. Riddle came across it in his search for ways to control the Death Eaters. But once in ten years was not even funny. Only the Lestrange couple was under this vow (though the served voluntarily and were completely loyal anyway). Tom wanted to use it on Lucius Malfoy last year, but Lucius did not trust anyone on principle, so the vow didn't take. Since then, Riddle started calling him "my slippery friend."
"Do you agree to these terms?" this was actually total peonage with no responsibilities on my side. I did not plan on killing them, but I should still add a clause about self-defense from Harry.
"I, Lord Voldemort, vow not to kill Harry Potter if you, Lily Potter, vow on your life and the life of your child to serve me faithfully and never betray me."
"I.. I vow... On Harry's life. And my own. To serve you faithfully," her voice was growing quieter with every word. "I vow... on his life and mine to never betray you."
"Repeat after me."
"I vow to be faithful to Lord Voldemort in both action and lack of thereof, to never, under no circumstances share any confidential information related to Lord Voldemort I receive today or at any later time, in speaking, writing or any other form, including but not limited to: telepathy, legilimency, veritasetum or similar drugs or potions, consciously or unconsciously, with the exception of following Lord Voldemort's direct and explicit orders."
"I vow to not kill your son under the aforementioned conditions but reserve the right to use lethal force if it becomes necessary for self-defense."
Red glow surrounded us. The vow has taken.
"What now?" she asked.
I looked into her eyes. Not even a hint of occlumency. I checked her mind for the location of her wand and other necessities for her and the baby, sending everything into my pocket with space expansion charms.
"We are moving. But first, give me your arm."
The marking went without a hitch. I could viscerally feel a new Death Eater near me. The horror on Lily's face was indescribable. Another swish of the wand- Lily and Harry got transfigured into miniature statues and went into another magically expanded pocket. Why? I still had things to wrap up, and a hysterical woman with a baby would only get in the way.
Visualizing the Mark, I located and called on Pettigrew and the Lestranges. Everyone appeared after a few seconds.
"My Lord..."
"Time is of the essence, Wormtail. Go to London. You will act as bait for Sirius Black. The Lestranges will help you set up the trap. The story is that Black betrayed the Potters and tried to murder you, but you managed to kill him first. You will gain Dumbledore's trust, and Black will become our prisoner."
I looked into their eyes to relay the details via legilimency. Rodolphus was carefully memorizing everything while the other two stared at me- Bellatrix with adoration, Wormtail with fear.
"Go. Time is of the essence," I ordered. Three pops, and I was alone again. I transfigured copies of Lily's and Harry's bodies, cast several spells to muddle the evidence of tonight's events and hid under strong concealment charms.
Sirius Black arrived several minutes later. He wailed over the bodies for a long time, completely crushed by grief. Meanwhile, I was working on subduing his will. Not with the Imperius, this called for more subtle charms first. Finally, I circumvented his family amulet. Despite being a strong wizard, this sad sack never learned any occlumency. Now to carefully amplify his grief and despair without pushing him to suicide...
At that moment, Hagrid arrived and began consoling him. I managed to freeze Hagrid in place non-verbally. He may not be a match for me, but restraining a magically resistant half-giant while working on Black was far from easy. I finally cast the Imperius on Black. He struggled. But his amulets were useless, and I've been in his mind for several minutes.
"Avada Kedavra!" said Black, and the half-giant dropped dead.
Black's desperate attempts to throw off the curse were futile, especially with me pointing a wand at him from a few feet away. I transfigured Hagrid's body and put it with the others. I wonder, could a high quality zombie-Hagrid convince his acromantulas to join me?
Black got on his motorcycle, and I sat next to him. I cast concealment charms on us and Fiendfyre at the house. The cursed fire was incredibly easy to create but much more difficult to control. It spread through the house almost instantly. And they said bricks don't burn! Even if I left some evidence, it would be impossible to find after all my misdirection charms and Fiendfyre. Black cast the Dark Mark over the house, and we left for London.
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