Shade
A/N: Written for Round 7 of the Quidditch Fan League
Team: Montrose Magpies
Position: Keeper. (written by Beater 2) Round prompt is Voldemort's shade.
Thanks to my team mate firefly81 for beta duty. Any remaining errors are my own fault.
Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.
Voldemort smiled cruelly as his Killing Curse struck down James Potter. The fool had believed he was safe behind the Fidelius, but he hadn't counted on treachery. The Dark Lord smirked. Peter Pettigrew had been captured by chance the previous year, and the snivelling coward had been brought before his throne. There, Pettigrew had begged for his life, volunteering to spy on Dumbledore's not-so-secret Order of the Phoenix.
The deaths of Fabian and Gideon Prewett were the direct result of Pettigrew's betrayal. He had told his Lord where they would be and when, so it had been easy to set up a trap. That earned 'Wormtail' his Dark Mark.
And now the rat had come through again. He had lead the Dark Lord straight to the Potter home, and James was gone... now it was time for the woman.
Voldemort went up the stairs and with a wave of his hand the nursery door flew open, cackling evilly all the while.
"Not Harry, not Harry, please not Harry!" Lily Potter begged, standing in front of Harry's cot.
"Stand aside you silly girl... stand aside now," said Voldemort. He had no plans to kill the woman, she was useless to him, but his loyal Death Eater Severus Snape wanted her as his plaything. And Voldemort was a merciful lord.
"Not Harry, please no, take me, kill me instead!" Lily pleaded, refusing to move out of the way.
Voldemort tried to push her physically away, but she clung over the cot.
"Not Harry! Please... have mercy, have mercy," she begged.
Voldemort laughed. The fool had her chance and ruined it... he turned his wand on her and shouted, "Avada Kedavra!"
Lily screamed as the green flash went for her, then she dropped silent.
Voldemort strode over to the cot, ignoring the dead woman beside it, and looked down at the young boy. "Good bye, Harry Potter..."
He aimed at the boy, and once again cast the Killing Curse. However, something went very wrong... the curse hit the boy, and rebounded.
Voldemort screamed in pain and shock as he felt as if he were hit by a thousand Cruciatus curses at once. He felt his body fall apart, and his extremities started to turn to ash... screaming in pain, he dropped his wand, and as he tried to reach for it his arm, too, dusted away...
Voldemort felt himself get ripped from his body, and had the brief sensation of being pulled down, away from the world, when he felt the pull of multiple strings pulling him back up. The pain ended, and he realised it was his Horcruxes that had saved him.
He tried to look down, but there was nothing to see. Somehow the ricocheting Killing Curse that had destroyed his body had also caused immense damage to the Potter Cottage, and it was exposed to the elements. Voldemort hovered in place, invisible and powerless.
Peter Pettigrew skulked up the stairs. Voldemort had ordered him to wait for him outside, for when the deed was done, he would need someone to take Lily Potter to his dungeon had he spared her. But now Peter found his master gone.
"Wormtail! Attend to me!" Voldemort shouted, but to his shock no sound came out. Pettigrew didn't hear him as he took in the scene.
"Ha- Harry is alive? Where are you, Master?" he asked, looking around shiftily.
"Wormtail! Curse you, fool, I am right here!" Voldemort yelled once more.
Pettigrew picked down to take Voldemort's wand. "The Master's wand... what happened?" he wondered out loud. Suddenly a flying motorcycle dropped down from the sky, startling the rat animagus.
"Sirius!" Pettigrew turned pale, and morphed into a rat. He scurried off through a hole in the wall, fleeing the scene.
Voldemort screamed obscenities after his follower but realised he was powerless... what could he do in this shape?
He was forced to watch as Sirius picked up Harry, only sparing Lily's corpse a brief glance, then leave for downstairs. Voldemort heard but could not see Hagrid, Dumbledore's dim-witted giant servant, appear. There was an argument.
'I had better leave and find a way to get my strength back,' Voldemort decided. If two Order members were here, Dumbledore could arrive at any moment, and he did not wish to risk getting detected. A small bird landed on the destroyed window-sill, and turned its head as it looked inside.
'I wonder...' Voldemort focused on the bird, and willed his... spirit... to enter the body.
Success! The bird's eyes glazed over, as the Dark Lord took control. He spared the room one last disgusted look, then flew off.
Hours later the tiny bird arrived at the Riddle mansion in Greater Hangleton, and Voldemort left its body. The bird fell down dead once his spirit departed, he had forced it to fly for far too long.
The shade of the Dark Lord passed through the walls of his house, and found a Death Eater meeting in progress.
"They are saying the master is gone!" Bellatrix shrieked in a shrill voice.
"Don't be foolish, Bella, he will be back," Lucius' silky tone sounded. "But in the mean time, we should lie low... consolidate our power, for when he returns."
Voldemort's shade agreed. Lucius had the right idea... with him temporarily out of the picture, they should try to remain out of prison first and foremost.
In the mean time, he should try to get a more physical form. Voldemort realised he had to leave for Albania, for the place where had first performed one of many rituals that gave him strength... deep in the dark forest where he had found Ravenclaw's diadem, the ritual circle would still be set up. And once he'd managed to interact with the living world again, he would return.
That should not take more than a year or so, he estimated. After all, one of his followers would soon come looking, and then he would destroy Harry Potter after all.