Dark Lord of Azkaban

I awoke in the early morning feeling energized and powerful. I looked down at myself eagerly, like a child opening a present. My hands were smooth, cold, and long-fingered, white and almost scaly. Every bit of my skin, from now-bare head to back to feet was slick and unscarred, reborn. I rushed to the bathroom mirror to inspect my face, noting that I seemed taller. My head was hairless, pale and scaled, a bit flattened like a snake's. I was slightly revolted by my thin lips and smaller nose, but it would have the effect on others I desired. "I am Lord Voldemort," I spoke and noticed that even my voice had a hissing quality. I laughed, rasping and high, and Bella came to me.

"My Lord, is that you? What have you done to yourself?" She seemed alarmed.

"I am as I should have been long ago," I murmured with conviction. "Freed of filthy Muggle blood and human weakness."

She didn't look convinced but tried to hide it well. I flicked my wand and looked into her mind. My Legilimency skills seemed stronger with my improved eyes, as the scanning of Bellatrix for signs of disloyalty was very simple. She felt it was beneficial to herself to follow me, and we shared many of the same goals. There was something else, an underlying hunger for me, to share in my power. I wasn't confident in her long-term usefulness, but she was a suitable companion for now.

But Pettigrew, on the other hand... He returned later that afternoon to tell us he had successfully postponed our follow-up hearings. I explained about my new appearance immediately to avoid enduring endless, pointless questions but he still alternated between gaping at me intermittently and averting his eyes entirely.

"How did you acquire this wand?" I pointed it casually at him before twirling it between my fingers.

"Are you pleased with it?" He looked happy with himself.

"Yes, I am. Now answer me."

"I transformed into a rat and stole it from Ollivander's. I'm sorry I couldn't carry it inside the box, but I made sure not to leave bite marks."

"You're an animagus." I didn't waste my time asking why he didn't tell me sooner. "Go to Hogwarts and report to me on its protective wards and other spells. I need to know what I'll be facing. I don't imagine rats would have difficulty gaining entrance."

Quirrell stomped his way up the stairs to join us. He was trembling at my new visage but still recognized me. "I was detained," he explained. "I couldn't get a wand."

I wasn't at all surprised that he failed me, but I was still angry and it was time to dispose of security risks. "I could kill Dumbledore with my bare hands, but a wand would be simpler. Fortunately, Pettigrew was more reliable than you. You did not do as I asked. I no longer need you to lead me to Dumbledore." His hands twitched stupidly, and his mouth was gaping.

Years of repressed violence with no outlet exploded in an instant. "Avada Kedavra." The green light rushed from me, enveloping me in elation. Every time I performed the curse was easier and more pleasurable than before. He slumped to the floor with the same dull-minded expression.

"He might have known more about Hogwarts' defenses than the rat would," Bellatrix pointed out.

I tossed Quirrell's wand to Bellatrix, which placated her. Without being commanded, she transfigured his body into a scrap of meat and threw it out the window for passing dogs to eat.

Pettigrew had managed to squirm out of the partial persuasive hold I had on him and was looking nauseated, kneeling on the floor. "Obey me, or live as a rat forever," I hissed at him, and he forced himself to composure.

Bella transfigured a large green-curtained bed from her pile of blankets and a Persian carpet for the floor and indicated that she approved of the wand. She clearly wanted to Crucio Pettigrew, but I needed him to complete his last task. He left hurriedly.

In the time that passed, I placed stronger wards and other protections on the flat, and Obliviated the store-owner to the point that he didn't even remember he had an apartment upstairs. I took some of his food when Bellatrix complained of hunger and ignored her requests to change her appearance as well so that she could go into the Alley for entertainment. I had all the entertainment I needed within my own thoughts.

However, my patience grew thinner after Pettigrew failed to return for five days. Sending him out without the Imperius Curse had apparently been a mistake. He didn't even answer my summons.

"Perhaps he was eaten by a cat," my companion suggested the last night.

"He will wish he had been." It was time to stop waiting. I flicked my wand and screamed out to the Dementors at Azkaban to meet me in the Forbidden Forest, seized my sword, grabbed Bella, and Apparated to Hogwarts.

The forest was oppressive at night, particularly with the sense of the approaching Dementors. Bella shivered against me, the cloud of her breath hanging long in the air, but asked in a neutral tone if the Dementors were really necessary. I ignored her. She was becoming tiresome.

They arrived, hundreds of them, and for once, they evoked no visions in me. I was one with them, living to cause suffering, ready to see the fear in my enemy's eyes. We charged toward the school in a great cold fog. I had just reached the gate when an enormous white light came from a high tower, the headmaster's office, and my army fled, scattering into the forest and back to their island residence in the north.

I attempted my permanent burning curse and found that the building was impervious to it. Alone, my attack failed, and Bellatrix looking very ill from the Dementors, I abandoned my plans. I no longer had the element of surprise, so perhaps it was not yet time to be seen.

I returned home, cursing my impulsiveness and lack of preparation, and tossed Bellatrix into the corner, missing her bed so that her head cracked against its corner. I would kill the rat, the damned rat that failed me, kill the ignorant old fool of a headmaster, and I would find a way to burn the school to the ground. I stared at Bellatrix's unconscious body and tried to think of a reason not to kill her right now. My vision was flashing with rage and a splitting headache as I slashed her curtains with the useless sword. I held the blade poised above her pale throat, watching the breath rise in her chest. She had lied, pretended to be strong when she was as frightened and weak as everyone else. Whether one or one thousand Dementors, I had thought she was superior to that. She hadn't contributed anything useful to my cause, and I was in a deeply foul mood. Slowly, delicately, I traced a heavy line across her throat.

She came awake with the pain immediately, clutching at her throat with one hand and everything else within her grasp with the other. The crimson blood flowed to the floor, soaking her clothing, and her agony seemed to increase instead of fading with the loss of it. It was a rather impressive weapon after all. She groped at me and soiled the edge of my robe. Her shrieking irritated me immensely, heightening my headache, and I wished I'd taken off her head.

"Silencio," I muttered and sank into a chair while the sword clattered onto the floor. The blood had gone from a soothing river to a dreadful mess that threatened to soak through the carpet entirely. My god, even killing her was irritating. "Avada Kedavra" and the bleeding thankfully ceased. I threw a blanket on the floor to soak up the excessive puddle, levitated her onto her mattress, and let it be.

I was enjoying a quiet day of reading and planning when Peter Pettigrew burst in. "I apologize, master, for my tardiness."

"Would you care to explain the reason for that?"

"My friends were asking questions. I needed to go to a birthday party for James."

"I hope you enjoyed yourself," I growled. "Has there been news of my attack on Hogwarts?"

He looked startled. "I didn't know that was your doing. There was news of the Dementors escaping Azkaban, but apparently they came back by themselves." He edged around me to sit down and caught sight of Bellatrix covered in congealed blood. I hadn't disposed of her body, feeling rather pleased and focused by the sight of it.

"Oh, Merlin!" he cried and began to scream. Originally that effect I had on people had impressed me, but now I was damned sick of it.

"Shut up, or you're next! Accio sword." It flew into my hand and I aimed it at the cowering rat menacingly. "Report on Hogwarts' defenses now. No more blathering."

The protections on Hogwarts were more elaborate than I'd expected the complacent society to require, but most were the same as when I was as student, and some had even been lifted after the war had ended. Apparently Pettigrew had gone in first as a rat and followed up in his official capacity as a member of Magical Law Enforcement after the Dementors had come. He convinced Dumbledore the attack was an isolated fluke and that his defenses were adequate as they were. His loyalty was acceptable, but his timeliness was very poor. He asked what he could do next.

"Your usefulness has come to an end." He looked about to bolt when I aimed my wand at him. "Muto bestia." He was transformed into his rat form, and I put him in a body bind. He squeaked muffledly. It was a shame I didn't have any snakes to eat him, but destroying him myself would be satisfying. The squealing grew louder as my heavy shoe rose and then ended when I stomped him with a squelch and a crunch.

I wasn't in the mood to clean up messes, so it was time to move on. I changed my clothes, gathered my sword and hilt, set the building on fire, and apparated near the lake at Hogwarts.

The wards around the far edges of the school grounds were weak, and no one ever thought to protect a storm sewer pipe. I made my robe impervious to wetness and stepped into the large slanting tunnel that led into the lake. I transfigured myself gills and slid into the water.

I stayed away from the merpeople but needed to waste time crushing a few bothersome grindylows. It didn't take long to locate the thin, magically sealed vent in the floor of the lake that kept the Chamber below from flooding but allowed emergency access. A contained rush of water sent me crashing down to the stone floor from the high ceiling. Upon inspecting myself, I was unharmed but had lost my sword in the lake. No matter. I removed my gills and was amused at how the fall would kill anyone but Slytherin's heir. I was recognized and protected in this place, right under Dumbledore's nose.

The apparation wards could only be taken down from the inside of the building, and my Chamber was indeed attached to the inside. The wards automatically molded themselves to the shape of the school, underground and around the Chamber, covered by a second layer that encompassed the entire grounds out to the edge of the forest, which I had already circumvented. I planned to apparate to Dumbledore's rooms and use the Chamber as a stronghold if I needed to fall back. Unfortunately, the wards were more complicated than I had anticipated, and several hours of failed attempts forced me to decide to go up by foot.

The voices of two giggling boys echoed in the corridor. "Hurry up, Neville! Snape will be back this way soon!"

"I'm trying! What was the spell again, Harry?"

"Shh! Hide!"

Two boys, one red-cheeked and round-faced and one with glasses and unkempt hair, both wearing Gryffindor colors, were standing behind a statue when I approached. Hostages, excellent.

They both turned a sickly shade when they saw I was not a professor. "Oh, Merlin," whispered the boy with glasses. "My Uncle Peter told me about you."

I frowned. What else had Pettigrew done? "Your uncle was the rat? I killed him. Come with me, or you'll be next."

"He's mental," the other boy sobbed. "Don't listen to him, Harry."

"I'll fight you," Harry threatened, pointing his little oak wand at me. A Gryffindor indeed. I administered my improved Silent Crucio briefly, and that subdued him. Neville was crying so badly that I put the Imperius Curse on him.

Harry twisted free of my grip and tried to run. "Imperio!" He relaxed and returned. "Take me to Dumbledore," I commanded, and Harry led, with Neville behind, acting as shields.

It seemed neither child knew the password to the Headmaster's Office, so I blew the door off with the Reductor curse. Dumbledore was sitting at Dippet's old desk smiling as though he believed he were the victim of a prank. His hair was now white and longer, but his face had hardly aged. I had imagined Dumbledore dead so many times that seeing him was a shock, and it took me a moment to remember to throw the children into chairs and bind them. He drained of color when I asked, "Do you recognize me?"

"Tom... You've changed. What have you done to yourself?"

Damn him, he still makes me feel like a nervous child. I managed to conceal it from him. "You will address me as Lord Voldemort or die."

"Surely you've come here to kill me anyway."

"There are things worse than death. You taught me that by imprisoning me. You're worse than my father." I had no idea what prompted me to blurt that out. He was evaluating me now, staring at me with those piercing eyes. Well, I could strike back.

With a physical jolt, I hit a solid wall I didn't expect to encounter, not just Occlumency, but a full mental shield that enclosed his mind. He was prepared. As little as I thought of him, he had managed to defeat Grindelwald, and that was no small task.

"What do you want with these children?"

"Nothing anymore," I replied.

He whispered something before his voice boomed like a loudspeaker, "Evacuate the school immediately. All prefects--"

I cut him off with a Crucio he didn't expect. Indeed, I had originally planned a Dementor's Kiss, a fitting punishment for the man who arranged my incarceration, but that had proven a failure. The Cruciatus curse was more satisfying though: I could see his fear of me in his eyes as I stood next to him. He wasn't screaming, merely wheezing and grunting as he fell out of his desk and twitched on the floor. I knelt down to watch his face and see--no feel--his sanity slipping away.

"I've been waiting fifty years for this, Dumbledore," I spat at him. "You could never leave me alone, could you? You ruined my life."

"You were a murderer," he rasped. "You could have destroyed the world."

"I could have ruled it, and you took that away from me. Tell me you fear me!"

He struggled to rise one last time before his mind became incoherent, and he couldn't answer me, could barely breathe now.

I was distantly aware that Harry had broken my Imperius hold and had begun screaming. What could the boy do, anyway? I didn't sense the Apparation wards falling.

The life was draining from Dumbledore, and I was feeling wild with ecstasy. My life was complete. There was nothing more I could want, no power I didn't have. For no one had stood in my way and lived. His wet blue eyes closed, never to pierce me again, never to accuse me again, and I laughed at his tears and his weakness. You thought you were powerful, but you're dead, just like all the others. Somehow he looked just like my father, I realized, confused.

Still laughing, I turned around to see two men with long, black hair, one very greasy, a man with glasses who looked like the boy, a sandy-haired man in shabby clothes, and a petite woman with long red hair, all surrounding me. The woman ran to check the boys, and the man with stringy hair raised his wand. Doesn't he know no one can hurt me? I am the Dark Lord Voldemort. I'm... immortal.

I was still laughing uncontrollably, lost in my pleasure, when I heard the word "Avada", and the world went green with a rush of wind.

The End.