Harry Potter and the Quest of Immortality
Standard Disclaimer: None of the characters, places or anything you recognise belongs to me, it all belongs to J.K. Rowling, except for the plot, and anything you don't recognise as being part of the original canon.
A/N: This is my first fic, I shall try to stick as closely as possible to the original canon of books 1-6, therefore there will be spoilers. Beware. Any comments are welcome, as is constructive critiscism, but no flames please.
Prologue
Riddle Mansion, 24th of July 1997
It was a very dark night, in Little Hangleton, the graveyard looked quite eerie with a continuously swirling mist above it, as though it were haunted. Beyond the graveyard a mansion stood at the top of a hill, Riddle House. Still the people of Little Hangleton went nowhere near there, so far three Riddles and Frank Bryce had died there, for reasons unknown.
At the far end of the mansion was a room with a would-be beautiful fireplace, had it not been covered in dust and dirt. A hooded man sat in a throne-like chair, contemplating. This man's name was Tom Marvolo Riddle, also known as Lord Voldemort. His eyes were as red as blood, and seemed to be giving off a reddish glow, which illuminated his snake-like face. His skin was as pale as death and his cruelty knew no bounds. His appearance was the result of many dark spells and rituals and his first steps on the path to immortality. Immortality, the one thing Voldemort wanted more than anything else, even more than killing Harry Potter, he was just an obstacle to be dealt with, when the time was right.
Voldemort sat in his seat contemplating.
"Twelve of my Death-Eaters, in Azkaban because of that boy," he thought. 'Angry' was not the word to describe Voldemort right now; 'infuriated' was more like it. Wormtail then walked in to the room, and with a dutiful bow he addressed his master:
"My Lord there is someone here to see you…"
"Wormtail, do me a favour and dispose of him," Voldemort answered in a tone of boredom.
"My Lord, in fact he wishes to see you now, he sent me up here with a message." Wormtail handed the note to Voldemort, it read:
Riddle, come to the dinning room immediately, you filthy Half-Blood, I have some information which may interest you…
There were two things in that message which angered Voldemort, the first was the reminder of his past, second was, being given an order. In this mansion, it was he who gave the orders, not the reverse. He ran down through the house and burst into the dinning room, there a stranger stood wrapped in a black cloak and masked. Through the eyeholes in the mask, all Voldemort could see was red eyes, eyes that actually inspired something, like an old fear that he couldn't quite place.
"Wormtail, you may leave this room and make sure that none of my faithful Death-Eaters interrupts us," said Voldemort. Bowing once again Wormtail left the room, then Voldemort cast a privacy charm along with a silencing charm to make sure that this encounter was not disturbed.
"Who are you, give me your name," was the first thing Voldemort said, to the stranger
"Are you scared Riddle?" the stranger answered, giving a short cackle which showed how evil this person was. "Because if you're not, I will make you feel fear and in time you will call me Master." The threat was evident in his voice, and Voldemort cracked, he sent the Imperius Curse:
"Imperio, tell me your name." The stranger shook off the curse and said, in a mocking tone of voice:
"Was that your controlling curse, how weak."
"Crucio," Voldemort answered, the man took the curse and laughed, he then said:
"That felt like you were tickling me, you need practise." 'What was the matter with him,' Voldemort thought, he was angry and hateful, and the curses were not working on this man.
"So you will die," Voldemort said to the stranger, refusing to accept that he was frightened of this person, whoever he was. He then screeched those two words he loved so much "AVADA KEDAVRA." A brilliant flash of green light, and yet as Voldemort looked at the stranger about to die, he thought to himself: 'No, matter how powerful you are, this curse is unstoppable', but the stranger looked as though nothing could even worry him. At the last second, with a wave of his hand, a wall of black flames surrounded him, and the curse just evaporated into thin air as it hit it. The death curse had just been blocked for the first time since Harry Potter! The stranger came from behind the wall of flames completely unscathed, and calm as ever. Voldemort was truly scared now and he showed it, he was shaking.
"You feel fear, as I said you would. Now come on, bow to me and call me Master," said the stranger, with what must have been a sadistic smile behind his mask.
"Never!" Voldemort answered.
"Crucio Maximus," the stranger replied in a soft, yet deadly voice. To say that Voldemort felt excruciating pain was an understatement, all he wanted right now was to die, and he vomited and blacked out. Some stranger had just overpowered Lord Voldemort, with a Cruciatus curse, which should have been able to affect him.
"Enervate," the stranger said as he waved his hand over Voldemort. Slowly the latter woke up. The stranger looked at Voldemort, through his mask and said:
"Now will you bow to me?"
"Yes, Master," Voldemort answered and bowed quite low. He then begged, "Please my Lord, tell me your name"
"You still want to know it, to know who you now serve?" the man asked. "Will you promise to do your best to kill Harry Potter, Riddle?" The use of the name brought anger, but he answered politely:
"Yes, Master"
"Good, Good, well then my name is…" he said this as he removed his mask. As Voldemort saw the stranger's face, he hardly hid how surprised he was:
"You!" he hissed, with so much venom in his voice that the stranger deemed it appropriate to curse him again.
"Last time we met, which if I recall correctly was a year ago, I was simply toying with you," said this man, "you don't any idea of how much power I hold, I can cause you such pain, you would beg me to die before the end." The stranger was boasting all of this whilst placing his mask back on.
"I see that you fear me more, than you once feared that goody-two-shoes, muggle-loving fool of Albus Dumbledore." These words shocked Voldemort, as he opened his mouth to reply, the stranger said,
"SILENCE, you will speak only when I allow it." Suddenly, the man turned on his heel as though he had just noticed something,
"I sense that Potter is watching all of this, for now I take my leave, and shall see you later, but remember if any part of my plan fails, you will wish you were never born… oh and by the way Potter knows about your Horcruxes." The stranger then dissapparated out of the mansion, through the anti-apparition wards, as though they had never been there. 'So Potter knew his secret, well we must take the appropriate measures to make certain that nothing happens to my soul…HA HA HA HA," Voldemort thought.
Two hundred miles away, Harry Potter woke up with a start, stifling a scream of pain, because of his scar. What was strange was that although he could remember his dream perfectly as usual, he had seen it in a third-person point of view, therefore had never seen the stranger's face. It was troubling, Voldemort had a new master, and Harry sensed that this man, whoever he was, was a million times more dangerous, and cruel than Voldemort could ever be…
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