James Potter and Sirius Black walked down Knockturn Alley with a grin on their faces. With any luck, this minor shopping trip would be over and done with before they were missed. The Hogwarts Library had proven fruitless in their search on how to map unplottable buildings. Knockturn had left them with little more, but just barely.
"Tell me why you want to do this again?" Sirius asked.
"It's all about legacy Sirius. Even the greatest are washed away by the sands of time. If we do this, we can never be forgotten. We will live forever."
"You do realize this involves not only imbuing a piece of parchment with a bit of ourselves, but also giving it a legilemens ability, not to mention mapping an unplottable Hogwarts? We just finished O.W.L.S. Let's take a break."
"How long of a break do you want Padfoot? We only have two years left. It will over just like that. Do you really want the poor sods who come after us to have to do everything all over again?"
"I guess." Sirius replied neutrally. "But are you sure our time wouldn't be better spent breaking the charm on the girl's dorm?"
"Let's add it to the list."
Sirius' reply was drowned out by the unmistakable booming of a soronus charm. "Brothers and Sisters for far too long we have allowed the mudblood scourge to erase wizarding traditions. We have ceded power to a Ministry who fears the very one's they claim to control."
As they walked towards the intersection of Knockturn and Diagon the speaker came into view. A tall slim man was speaking from a dias. He had pale skin, ice blue eyes, and jet black hair. The normal bustle of daily life seemed to have come to a standstill around him. James nudged Sirius and pointed to Auror that was stationed at the intersection. He seemed as enraptured as the rest of the crowd, standing at attention with an almost dreamy look on his face.
"Now's our best chance." James said. Sirius nodded and transformed into a great black dog. James cast disillusionment and notice-me-not charms on himself, cursing the fact that he had left the cloak with Remus to aid in their diversion. The crowd parted for them with ease, but when they reached the intersection, James found he couldn't pass.
Cursing slightly, James cast a spell to try and create a temporary hole in the barrier. Most wards could be fooled out a continuity by simply casting a spell to make them think the minute or so they had been inactive never existed, with no notification to whomever placed the ward. This one reached out with a stinging hex hard enough to blister. Gritting his teeth against the pain, James took a step back. It was then that he noticed that the voice had stopped speaking.
"Well, well who do we have here?" A high, cold, cruel voice said above him. James straightened to his full height and returned the man's smirk as he felt the brush of a legilemens against his mind. He rejected the advance as he replied. "I think I'd rather have your name Sir. I would be remiss if I left the audience of a man with such unique talents and influence without knowing his name." with biting sarcasm. He was not about to bow before some amateur politician. They were as fleeting as wind.
Their eyes met for a moment. James tried to return the legilemency probe and felt magic as he had never known before. It wasn't human. It was…the closest creature he could come to was a thestral. The man walked back and forth on the dias, like a lion stalking prey.
James jumped as he felt a voice speak next to him as if in a whisper, "My name is Lord Voldemort. Now I ask you again, what is your name?" James bit his lip, playing for time. The hawthorn wand hummed in his pocket, ready to answer a challenge. But James knew better than to draw against this stranger. Legilimency was common among more mid grade criminals but this man seemed different somehow.
"Lord Voldemort? What family are you from?" he asked in lei of answer.
The man smile. His eyes held a gleam not unlike James when he was up to no good. "A pureblood then? I am from the oldest of pureblood lines, the heir to the great Salazar Slytherin himself."
James felt his lips pulling into a smile. "I've known many who could legitimately call themselves descendants of Salazar Slytherin, none were bold enough to call themselves his heir. Unless you meant it as a statement of belief?" A few in the crowd tittered looking from Lord Voldemort to James as if they were watching a chess match.
Lord Voldemort chuckled before replying with a hiss, "I meant it as a statement of fact, but you are correct Salazar Slytherin did have the right idea. Your caution will serve you well young man but for now I think you should follow your first instinct and leave. I don't believe Hogwarts students are meant to be in Hogsmeade this weekend."
As he spoke the barrier dematerialized in front of them and James and Sirius walked through.