It's easier to destroy than it is to create.

I pondered the thought as I stood invisibly at the window of the small home. I gazed inside at the family within, a man and a woman laughing with each other and a toddler boy rocketing around on small broomstick.

For the first time in a long time I was lost. I was smart. I was brilliant and I knew it, but was it possible that my arrogance had left me backed into a corner. I had a great enemy and the only chance I had at defeating them permanently were allies I didn't have. My followers were literally the scum of the magical world, and the only few competent ones were ultimately loyal to Dumbledore. I had tried the path of the lone wolf and it hadn't gotten me any closer to my goal. It was true, I stood here immortal, one of the most powerful people on the planet, but while we were divided like this there could be no progress.

I turned my attention briefly towards the wraith in my left hand and allowed myself to broadcast into its mind, I am going to destroy you, it quivered slightly in response. It was unfortunate that the Potters would have to die, death was always unfortunate, but their lives were nothing compared to the billions I was trying to save.

It was time to act. My eyes skittered across the property and I visualized the wards surrounding the Potter's humble residence. I cut runes into the air around me with my finger, they would allow me to pass through the Order's defenses unmolested. With another flick of my hand I banished the door and immediately replaced it with an identical illusion. As I walked through my creation I maintained the pressure differences of the indoors and outdoors, it wouldn't do to have a slight breeze give away my position.

The family's conversation became clearer but I ignored it, opting to focus on the task at hand. I took a moment to evaluate their own shields. They focussed primarily on outright attacks, which made sense considering the fact that I spent years painting Voldemort as an idiot who would always take the direct and violent approach. There was one shield in particular which I had never seen before, it extended from Lily towards her son and encircled him. My vibration cancelling charms allowed me to come closer without being detected as it was currently impossible for me to make noise. I drew a quick rune near the shield where it extended towards the boy and understood its nature. It was definitely one of Dumbledore's creations, it was a mixture of several intent reading charms, detection charms, as well as a crude attempt at a magic transfer shield. Lily was instantly aware of anybody close to her son, what their intentions towards him were, and in the case of an attack it would transfer enough raw power from mother to son to hopefully negate any offensive spells.

Of course at the moment I was warded against these kinds of detection spells, but I was glad that Dumbledore had taken my fabricated prophesy seriously. My plan would come into fruition if he had a vested interest in protecting and training the boy.

Avada Kedavra would be too crude, in the time it would take to kill one the other would have time to react. Instead I switched their brains with barely a twitch the job wasn't perfect, anatomy was difficult, but to wizards it was indistinguishable from the killing curse.. I visualized the effect the murder had on my soul and held onto that visualization so I could use it later. My hand had come up to hold the parents' shields in place, manipulating raw magic was still new to me but I was practiced enough to be able to scatter the shields around the house in a manner that would lend further evidence to the idea that the pair had put up a fight.

A quick spell put the confused boy to sleep and I moved him and his mother behind me as I transformed this part of the house into something that resembled what the Order thought a battle should look like. I replaced the fake door with the real one and left it open, then took some time to rig several destruction runes on a timer which would go off more or less when I finished to alert the Order that I had been here. Once I was satisfied I lay James' body spread eagle near the staircase and placed his wand in his hand. I left his eyes open.

I moved upstairs with the boy and his mother, laying her down outside of a door. I expanded my vibration cancelling to encompass the entire bedroom before I blasted the door and most of the room apart, everything crumpled downwards and a manufactured gust of wind scattered all the pieces in what I hoped was a sensible manner.

I levitated the boy gently to the ground and allowed myself a sigh for the first time in ages. I had killed two useful people today and I allowed that thought to keep me going. When one fought a war like mine sacrifices always had to serve a purpose greater than themselves.

I waited. One... two... now. I slammed my right hand to the ground and it glowed as a pre-configured rune materialized on the floor, as my left came down to slam the wraith into it I opened up the space next to me with my free hand and pulled out a canteen which I slammed into the wraith as soon as it hit the rune.

I fought back a smile as the wraith realized what I had done, the canteen bound the wraith with my own raw magic. I had been storing the energy for years and it would be enough to hold the wraith for less than an hour, but that was more than enough time for what I had in mind. I began to draw runes around the wraith, taking my time and making sure everything was in order. There were four focal points around the wraith whose anger was palpable. One would be for the boy, a second for me, in a third I placed my wand. I stood in the fourth and allowed myself to become visible and heard. The chances of anybody else witnessing this right now were infinitesimal, and if there was someone, or something here, my cause was as good as done.

I was almost shaking with anticipation, it scared me a little. I had forced myself to be apathetic for so long that I thought I had lost my emotions. Apparently this event was important enough to me to bring them back. I knelt near the boy and thought Obliviate. I spent the next minute or so changing his memories of tonight to match up with the rest of my planted evidence.

Next I put my finger to the boy's forehead and traced a lightning bolt which bled all over his face but was ultimately harmless. I brought the visualization of my soul to the forefront of my mind and started to chant the incantation for the creation of a horcrux. It was a surprisingly easy piece of magic and I could only assume that the creator meant for the murder to be the hard part of that particular ritual. I put very specific things into this horcrux, instinct, some of my experience without my memory, it would act as a short cut for the boy's learning, giving him a natural knack for the basics and a drive to always surpass expectations. His ambition was a very Slytherin trait, so I gave him a prejudice against the house, it wouldn't do for Dumbledore's golden boy to grow up anywhere other than Gryffindor. Most importantly I gave him my natural gift for the language of snakes, and hints on opening the basilisk's chamber. I hesitated before cutting off the ritual, then added to my horcrux, and thus to his mind, a vague unease with the status quo and a need for change. It would help when I began to contact him.

His scar would be a transmitter of sorts, it would allow me easy access into his brain. If I was conscious during the next few decades I would be able to keep tabs on the boy.

When all was done I moved towards the fourth focal point on the ground. I brought out a second, much weaker canteen from the space next to me and attached it to the silver knife I drew from my side. A quick spell allowed it to activate itself the second it drew blood, and so it did when I used the knife to open my chest and cut out my heart. I felt the canteen powering me and knew I only had minutes to finish the ritual.

I placed my heart on the ground and stabbed through it with the knife. My lips turned upwards, this wasn't exactly what I thought I'd be doing when I became immortal. To be honest this whole affair made me feel a little drunk. I placed my wand in the centre of the third focal point and I moved towards the second. There, I began to chant.

I didn't really know what I was saying, I hadn't had enough time to translate the language, but there were sections of it that I had improvised to work for what I had in mind. The improvised bits were in ancient Egyptian, there was power in that. In simple terms, the older a language is the higher the probability of magic bound by that language is, and the longer that magic is active the more powerful the language will be to bind future magic.

Suffice to say that when I had learned this I had taken some time off to familiarize myself with the language. The Egyptian parts were describing the roles of each of the items, my heart (more importantly the blood in it) would bind my magical signature. The wand symbolized the knowledge I was sacrificing to banish the wraith, in order to hinder it I had to sacrifice knowledge I had come across or thought of myself, that I had not shared, and I did not have access to without following the same path I had taken to find it originally. The knowledge went to the wraith, which was unfortunate but I saw no way around it. The boy was being bound to both me and the wraith. Divination was bullshit and fate was a lie but this would draw the three of us together.

I was only there because the original ritual I was borrowing from included a focal point containing somebody who was not dead from having their heart cut out who led the ritual and I figured I might as well stay as close to the original explanation I had read as possible.

I named Harry James Potter as chosen by me.

I named him as the one who lived through this night.

I named myself as master of death.

I named myself as the impeded saviour.

I named the wraith as a demon.

I named the wraith as Merlin.

And I called for the wraith to be bound once more in the underworld.

It is easier to destroy than it is to create, I thought to myself as the magical detonations I had rigged rocked the house. I felt my mind begin to fade away as the ritual activated. I only hoped my creation was good enough.

Then my soul exploded.