Ron Weasley and the Darkness Within

C H A P T E R O N E

A W A K E N I N G

A small, flickering white light appeared out of the seemingly endless darkness, and awoke the man. He had not been sleeping, per say, just in a state of pure unconsciousness, as if he had never been awake before.

The light soon retreated and left the man in the darkness, and he felt nothing around him. He was not standing, sitting, or lying down, he felt as though he was floating. He could not sense anything around him, nor could he hear any noise. He could move his arms and legs, but they felt numb, and when he moved his hand down to the place where he knew his left knee should be, he felt nothing but a wisp of air. When he went to put his hand upon his forehead, there was nothing there either, just the same dark wisps.

Despite the fact he could not tell where he was, could not hear or see, and he could not sense that he even had a body, the man was strangely calm. He could not tell whether he was alone, or surrounded by many other beings. (He would have called them people, but he could not tell whether he was even a person, being that he had no body.) The man also realized he had no remembrance as to who he was or how he got in such a strange situation, however, he was not concerned by this, only slightly intrigued.

However, since the man did not have a face of some sorts, he could sense that the light that was had awoken him was back, and he could feel that someone was standing over him, and that that person was in the light. It was then that he regained some of his hearing, and he heard the person who was in the light speaking to another person close by. He knew from the pitch of the voices that they were both male, and young.

"Harry," the first voice said. That person's voice had a thick British accent. The conversation continued but he could only make out a few words. 'Harry...killed...Voldemort...' was all that he was able to make out. But then that a small flicker of memory came back to the man. Harry, he thought to himself. The man could not pin the name to a face, but when repeated the name in his head multiple times, each time he got angrier and angrier. The name Voldemort was somehow befitting to himself, he noted, and it was then that all of the man's memories came flooding back.

Harry Potter. That was the name of the boy that had killed him. That was the boy who, when he was at the height of his power, had destroyed him and split his soul a seventh time. Harry Potter was the Chosen One.

So I am dead, he mused. But that could not be because if one is able to tell himself that he is dead, then he is certainly not dead, the man figured out. Why, then, did he not have a body? Why was he unable to talk, but able to hear that filthy Harry Potter? Hadn't he killed the boy at Hogwarts that night? He knew he had used avada kedvra; in fact, the man's last memory had been of Harry Potter's lifeless body falling to the ground.

Suddenly, one word seemed to fill his mind. Horcrux. If Harry Potter had not been able to destroy all seven Horcruxes, then he would still be alive. Perhaps they had forgotten one, but it would have been foolish for them to try and kill him then, for a piece of him would still be alive somewhere. The man understood then that he was not a living human, but a spirit, of some sorts, and he was alive within one of his several Horcruxes. He knew it wasn't Nagini, he was sure that he would be able to tell if he was in the body of his snake, and he knew it wasn't the ring, or the book. The more likely Horcrux was the locket. And although he had sensed when one of Harry Potter's friends had stabbed the locket Horcrux, he knew that it wasn't fully destroyed.

Now that the man had finally figured out where he was and how he got there, it came to him who he was.

He was the Dark Lord Voldemort, also referred to as You-Know-Who, by the frightened. When people refused to call him by his new name of Lord Voldemort, and instead called him 'You-Know-Who', it gave him a dark satisfaction to know that he had struck that much fear into the hearts of the wizarding world. Voldemort smiled to himself, despite the fact he had no face or lips to smile with.

He knew then that he would be reborn eventually. He knew that he would come back into power. And he knew that Harry Potter would die by his hands.

Voldemort was alive.