QLFC Season 7 - Round 5

Pride of Portree, Beater 2

Prompt: (Multi-verse Dimension) Write a story about a character meeting his/her doppelganger from another universe.

Additional prompts: [Object] Portkey and [color] black.

Doppelganger Drama

"Wormtail, am I to trust your judgement on enchantments when you couldn't even keep the feeble Harry Potter from escaping me in the graveyard?" Voldemort said with disdain.

"Yes my Lord. I promise that I will not fail you again." Peter Pettigrew, better known as Wormtail, bowed in submission to his Dark Lord.

"And I promise you that if you do fail me, it will be for the last time," Voldemort declared with an icy tone.

"Now place the Portkey before me," he demanded of Wormtail.

Wormtail levitated the Portkey slowly with his wand above his master. The Portkey was an old mirror that had seen too many years. Most of the glass had been shattered or cracked. The Portkey rose into the air; when Voldemort reached for it there was a rush of air, and he was transported.

The images around him as he traveled with the Portkey were distorted. It was expected with Portkey travel, but this time, something unusual began to happen. The images lost all color and suddenly it was as if he was being pulled into a black tunnel. No light, no sound, just sheer darkness. After what felt like ages of being pulled through the black abyss, suddenly he came to a halt, dropping to his knees on the solid earth.

Slowly, Voldemort rose to his feet, brushing the dirt from his robes with distaste. It was then that the scenery around him caught his attention. It was the complete opposite of the world he knew, what had been vast hills and an expansive forest, was now a wasteland with remains of charred trees. The earth was scorched black as if it had all been set ablaze.

"Wormtail, where have you sent me?" he hissed to himself.

As he looked around there were small portions of the area behind him that seemed slightly familiar. They were the ruins of what he knew as Little Hangleton.

"This cannot be," he muttered to himself as he walked towards what was left of the town.

He almost found this version of the town more appealing. He despised his Muggle father, Tom Riddle Sr, and everything to do with him, so seeing the place where his father once lived in such disarray was pleasing. As he walked on the remains of what was once a cobblestone street, something on the top of the hill caught his attention, what appeared to be a home. Suddenly it dawned on him, this was not just any home, it was the Riddle House, or what was left of it.

The once prominent manor of the Riddle family was now in shambles, just like the rest of the small town. He crept up the front steps to the aging door that was barely hanging on by the hinges. Voldemort turned the knob and slowly entered the manor.

"Stop right there," said a quiet voice that came from a figure standing in the foyer.

The figure's face was hidden under an emerald green hood. The hooded person had their wand pointed straight at Voldemort's heart.

"How did you enter my home?" they continued.

Voldemort let out a chortle, "It is quite simple when you do not care to even use locks."

"Correct. However, this house is guarded by magic. Only blood relations can pass through the charm. Seeing as I have no living relatives, you somehow broke my blood magic. So, again I ask, how did you enter my home?" The voice was clearly becoming agitated.

A smile cracked over Voldemort's face, "Your spell is obviously faulty or weak. My sheer essence of power was able to break your magic."

In one swift movement Voldemort disabled the figure before him with a simple wave of his wand. He pressed the tip threateningly to the figure's neck as if it were a knife. The figure's hood slipped off revealing the hidden face.

Voldemort was a mix of confusion and shock, "What is this magic?" he hissed as he stepped closer. The face that was looking back at him was his own, as if he were looking in a mirror of flesh and blood.

"Who are you?" he demanded, pressing the wand harder.

"T...Tom Riddle," the man in the green robes choked out.

"That is impossible. You dare glamour your face and appear to me as Lord Voldemort?" he questioned staring at him darkly, his eyes growing black with anger.

"It is no glamour, I assure you. That would be all too kind. This is what has become of me after my many narrow escapes, and so many curses and hexes. Attacked by … " he paused. "By Him," he whispered. "Him and The Trio."

Voldemort let out a snort of laughter, "Surely you jest. You cannot be speaking of Harry P…"

"NO! Please. Do not speak his name. For I fear it will bring down his wrath," Tom said with alarm.

"'Fear?'" Voldemort said mockingly. "Now I am certain you are not who you claim to be. I have never, nor will I ever, fear anyone, much less that filthy, half-blood boy."

"You don't understand. He is one of the darkest wizards of all time. With just one enchantment he called forth Fiendfyre, and it erupted through Little Hangleton. It destroyed everything in its path, leaving nothing but the black remains of my hometown," Tom said to him pleadingly.

"Enough of this. Revelio!" Voldemort said, waving his wand in an effort to expose the true identity of the man he knew to be an imposter.

But nothing happened; Tom still stood frozen in fear, his appearance the same.

"REVELIO!" Voldemort shouted.

Again, there was no change. Voldemort shook his head in frustration.

"If you truly are who you say, then this is a rare opportunity indeed. Two Dark Lords within the magical world. No one, not even the Potter boy can stop us," Voldemort said.

Tom cowered at the mention of the name Potter. "I cannot go up against Him and his companions again. I will not survive."

"What makes you so confident that he will defeat you?" Voldemort questioned.

A distorted look came over Tom's face as if he was trying to speak but the words would not come out.

With a great struggle Tom was able to muster out, "It … has been … foretold. A great p… prophecy… linked between He and I."

Voldemort's interest was peaked, "What is this prophecy you speak of? How did you come by it?"

"I tried to take it from the Ministry of Magic. Only those who are tied to a prophecy can extract its tale. He wanted it for himself, but I was able to get to the prophecy first. But while trying to flee the Ministry the prophecy was broken," Tom stated, still struggling to speak. "I paid dearly for it. The girl of The Trio captured me, tortured me to divulge what I knew. She had planned to hold me hostage so that He himself could kill me, but I managed to escape with my life."

Voldemort listened intently to the story, when suddenly an idea struck him.

"You say you heard the prophecy, if you and I are somehow one in the same then there shall be a prophecy in my universe as well. So, tell me, what is the prophecy?"

Each word Tom said seemed to cause him great pain. "Can't … Hermione, she … she is one of the most evil creatures I have had the displeasure of encountering. She t… tortured the answers she was seeking out of me and cursed me so that I may never speak the words of the prophecy again. That way I may not convince no other soul to come to my aid to rid the wizarding world of Him," Tom let out a shudder.

"Her magic is nothing compared to mine. I shall simply extract the prophecy from you myself if you will not tell me," Voldemort said as he bent down to grab his doppelgangers wand.

He briefly compared the two, his wand being bone white and the wand of his shadow self was the exact opposite; it was dark as night, no variation in the color, only solid black as if the wand were made completely of darkness. He pointed the wand at Tom, Tom slowly tried to back away holding his hands up in surrender.

"Please, I beg you. Don't," Tom trembled.

"Begging? You are by far the weaker one in this universe," Voldemort said in disgust. "Crucio!" he shouted the torture curse with both wands towards Tom.

Both Tom and Voldemort were knocked to the ground, as if a blast had gone off in the foyer. Voldemort was the first to recover. Weakened by the blast, Voldemort pushed himself up from his knees.

"It appears that you and I truly are one in the same. It is fortunate for you that I cannot kill you. But no matter, I shall retrieve the prophecy from my dimension instead. Potter will be none the wiser." Voldemort sneered to himself his lips curling into a smile.

"I will only give you this one piece of advice," Voldemort began, "If Potter in your world is as powerful and malicious as you say," in a slightly mocking tone, "one might not want to stay where he has struck before, he may come back."

Voldemort began his way back to the door.

He turned to face his doppelganger, "I will give you a momentary head start."

Tom stared at him in confusion. When it registered in his mind what his other self/doppelganger meant, his eyes grew wide.

Voldemort rushed through the threshold, wand firmly in hand, he pointed it to the grey sky and shouted "Vermillious!"

Red sparks exploded from his wand into the air as if it were a Muggle flair gun. He rushed to the place he had dropped the Portkey. It was still lying on the ground right where he had left it. He went to reach for the mirror when three funnels of dark smoke descended upon him from the sky. It was The Trio; Hermione, Ron, and Harry, with wands at the ready.

"You halfwit, what game are you playing at?" Ron said to Voldemort with a laugh.

"He obviously has a death wish," Hermione said teasingly.

"Well, let us grant his final wish then, shall we?" said Harry with an evil smile.

"Oh, Potter. I will be your undoing. In this world and mine," Voldemort said as he grinned reaching for the Portkey. "Catch me if you can, little boy."

"Expelliarmus!"shouted Harry.

Voldemort deflected Harry's spell with a flick of his wrist, as if he were shooing away a fly.

"How did you …?" Harry said as his jaw dropped in shock.

"Simple, dimwitted Potter, you are as predictable in this world as you are in mine. You will be reunited with your Mudblood mother soon,'' Voldemort said with a smile.

The Trio looked at one another in confusion.

"What are you going on about?" questioned Ron.

"Something isn't right, I think all of those curses have scrambled his brain," suggested Hermione.

"What do you mean, 'in this world as you are in mine?'" said Harry.

"Once you figure it out, it will be too late for you three," Voldemort said matter of factually.

"Enough of this, kill him," Harry said with impatience.

Together, and in unison The Trio began to shout the killing curse, "Avada Ke…"

But before they could finish the curse, Voldemort had already grabbed the Portkey to return to his universe, leaving the alternate dimension with not only the Portkey, but with a plot to destroy Harry Potter once and for all.

Again, with a rush of air, Voldemort was transported back to his world. He landed before Wormtail, who looked white as a sheet.

Wormtail began to plead immediately upon seeing his Dark Lord dropping to his knees at the hem of Voldemort's black robes. "Oh, Master, p… please forgive me. Something went wrong with the Portkey and I …"

"Silence, Wormtail," Voldemort said as he raised his wand tossing Wormtail to the side.

"For once your idiocy has proven to be beneficial," Voldemort said as he looked down at the Portkey in his hand it was now nothing but a broken mirror.

Wormtail still cowering on the ground he looked up at Voldemort, "my Lord?" he asked.

"Come, Wormtail. We have a prophecy to retrieve," Voldemort said as he began to walk away, laughing maniacally.