The Importance of Noses
"My Lord! My Lord... please... my son..."
"If your son is dead, Lucius, It is not my fault. He did not come and join me, like the rest of the Slytherins. Perhaps he has decided to befriend Harry Potter?" I said. I was looking at a pitiful sight; Lucius Malfoy, one of my death eaters, was sitting in the darkest of corners. Just by looking at him, you could tell that he hadn't fully recovered from the last time he'd let the Potter boy escape. Now, he was on his knees, his voice cracked, begging me to save his only son, Draco.
"No – never," whispered Malfoy.
"You must hope not."
"Aren't – aren't you afraid, my Lord, that Potter might die at another hand but yours?" he asked, his voice shaking. "Wouldn't it be... forgive me... more prudent to call off this battle, enter the castle, and seek him y-yourself?"
"Do not pretend, Lucius. You wish the battle to cease so that you can discover what has happened to your son. And I do not need to seek Potter. Before the night is out, Potter will have come to find me."
I dropped my gaze onto my wand, The Elder Wand. The most powerful wand in existence. Yes, it bothered me that it didn't seem to be working to its full extent, but that applied to most products. You couldn't have everything in life. However, something was bothering me, something that just had to be dealt with.
"Go and fetch Snape."
"Snape, m-my Lord?"
"Snape. Now. I need him. There is a – service – I require from him. Go."
Frightened, stumbling a little through the gloom, Lucius left the room. I continued to stand there, twirling the wand between my fingers. It was about ten minutes later when Severus Snape, my most trusted ally, made an appearance in the room I currently occupied; The Shrieking Shack, I believe it was called.
"I have a problem, Severus," I said softly.
"My Lord?" said Snape.
"Look at my face. What do you see?"
Snape was stunned. He continued to stare for a moment, his mouth agape, before answering, "The sole face of power, my Lord."
"No," I growled, frustrated, "I mean physically. What do you see?" Snape gulped, obviously not knowing now I wanted that question answered.
"Um... eyes, ears, a mouth..."
"But no nose, correct?" I interrupted.
He hesitated before stating, "No physical nose, my Lord." I frowned.
"And how many times, did you say, Harry Potter has teased me for this absence?" I asked.
"Countless times, my Lord. One afternoon, I heard him laughing about it very loudly in a Potions class. He was telling his friends, Weasley and Granger, about how he didn't think you could..."
"That's enough," I exclaimed, interrupting him again. "How is it that my right hand man can have a nose so incredibly long," - Snape looked offended - "yet I, the Dark Lord Voldemort, do not have a single centimeter between my eyes and mouth?"
"I don't know, my Lord," he said. It was quite amusing, actually. He thought he was getting away with this.
"Well now, Severus, I can't just allow that to continue, can I? You have been a good and faithful servant, and I regret what must happen."
"My Lord -"
"I cannot keep the full attention and command of my army when my closest ally has a much better nose than I."
"My Lord!" Snape protested, raising his wand.
"It cannot be any other way," I said. "I must gain the full respect of my soldiers! While you live, Severus, that cannot truly be mine."
And I swiped the air with the Elder Wand. It did nothing to Snape, who for a split second seemed to think he had been reprieved: But then my intention became clear. Nagini's cage was rolling through the air, and before Snape could do anything more than yell, it had encased him, head and shoulders, and I spoke in Parseltongue.
"Kill."
There was a terrible scream. I saw Snape's face losing the little color it had left; it whitened as his black eyes widened, as the snake's fangs pierced his neck, as he failed to push the enchanted cage off himself, as his knees gave way and he fell to the floor.
"I regret it," I said to myself, coldly. In true honesty, I didn't regret a single thing. How dare Severus have the nerve to grow a nose much longer than the ordinary, basically mocking my features? If only I could have had as magnificent a nose as Severus Snape's. I'd tried everything: even a nose growing potion. After it didn't work, (and myself showing up unexpectedly on the creators' doorsteps, of course), I had to take more drastic measures. I couldn't bear to see it every day, so long and pointy, and know that I didn't have one to call my own. Well, the issue was resolved now.
And, with that final thought, I walked purposefully from the damp room.