Prologue
Voldemort
666th time's the charm
'Avada Kedavra!'
'Expelliarmus!'
It had happened again. For the 665th time he had been killed by that insufferable boy. Be it by the elder wand or a blasted Beater's bat to his head, somehow, no matter what he managed to change, Harry Potter always found a way to kill him.
Voldemort had been surprised when it first happened. He had stood triumphant over the boy, rendered useless without the old fool, Dumbledore. He released a pain inducing curse and the boy wailed in agony, his supporters were powerless to aid him. Voldemort took a breath and relished the moment. Hogwarts was in ruins around him, the very air reeked of death and the only sounds he cared to hear were the screams of dying mudbloods. It had been a good day to be the most evil wizard of the New Age.
Voldemort remembered the first time it had happened. He remembered it well. The boy was lying on the ground, as vulnerable as he had been sixteen years before when they first met, still in spasm from the pain inducing curse he had just suffered. Voldemort had been in thrall of ecstasy and was ready to ride the thrill of murder to its peak. It was then that the boy spoke those infuriating words of hope in the midst of total abandon. He spoke of a future where there was none, of victory in the face of defeat, of the light that would forever vanquish the darkness.
Voldemort had raised his wand and uttered the killing curse. The boy had attempted to diswand him. Their spells met and for a fleeting moment Voldemort was certain that the boy had finally been destroyed forever. But it was not to be. His spell backfired, for the second time in his life, and the sight of his own killing curse approaching him was the last thing that he saw in the world of the living.
There had been no pain, only darkness permeated by intermittent bursts of a sheering green light. He awoke in an alien world, devoid of moisture and of life, a barren wasteland. It did not take long for the Knowledge to find him and when it did he understood. The Knowledge brought with it billions of voices. Voldemort knew all, from the moment that time began to the second of his birth. He was the most powerful being in this hell, the only place after life that could house his mutilated fragment of a soul, a place where he was a god but without another soul to torment...
In sheer desperation Voldemort pulled a spell from the Origins of Magic and made his first attempt to cheat destiny and change his fate... he failed.
The ancient spell had allowed him to return to the world of the living for only sixty seconds, at any time during his life, as a shade that could only be seen and heard but could not directly touch the world. He tried to appear before himself from twenty years ago but before he could fully materialise and warn the younger Voldemort he was been blasted by a curse.
He tried again, this time using one of his followers to deliver the warning, but it appeared that Snape was not his only traitor. For reasons Voldemort did not know, Wormtail kept the warning secret and carried it to his grave.
Voldemort tried everything he could possibly think of. He managed to arrange an accident aboard the Hogwarts Express. An accident intended to kill Lilly Evans before she ever arrived at Hogwarts. That attempt ended horribly as his horcruxes were discovered and destroyed before the boy was even born. His death at Godric's Hollow was permanent.
He despaired in his continual failure and maddening loneliness. He had created his own hell where he was afforded an infinite number of chances to change his fate but never quite managing to do so. In pure insanity he tore away a portion of his mind and from that portion, the Entity was born.
The Entity proposed the 666th attempt and the two of them together, formulated a plan that could change destiny itself.
Voldemort appeared before his most beloved servant. He did not bother to take in his surroundings for he did not have time to waste.
'Bella!' he hissed menacingly.
The younger version of Bellatrix Lestrange roused hurriedly from sleep and prostrated herself before the image of her master.
'Command me,' she begged.
'There is much to be done Bella, and little time,' Voldemort grinned like a maniac, 'I need you for a special mission at Godric's Hollow tonight!'
