A/N: Prologue ends here! We get into the Harry Potter world from the books after this one, so I'm excited. I entered this with a mindset that Voldemort was going to be discreet. Crossing dimensions isn't exactly something you want the rest of the world following you in on. And no, Voldemort will NOT be making more Horcruxes in the intervening period between Chapters 2 and 3 for reasons that will be explained later on. Don't worry, there is a plan!
Chapter 2: Prologue, Part II
"The Veil of Death?"
"Yes, I will need to enter it in order to complete my plan," Voldemort said.
Rookwood was, to say the very least, surprised. No one really had any idea what the Veil did besides separate the living realm and the realm of the dead. There was a reason only Unspeakables were supposed to know of its existence. There was really only one thing you could do with it – go through it – and no one had any idea what would happen because any who go in don't come back out.
"Sir, you know that that's incredibly dangerous."
"Are you suggesting you don't trust my judgment, Augustus," Voldemort said, with only enough of an edge to his voice to give Rookwood the idea that an Avada Kedavra was imminent.
Rookwood started to cower, "N-n-n-no, my lord. I w-was just s-s-suggesting I would be scared to go through it when no one has come back through the other side."
At this, Voldemort choked back a chuckle. "Rest assured, Augustus, that I am not like you and that much like how I have kept myself alive despite the world believing otherwise, I will have prepared myself to be invincible to the Veil when the time comes."
"Really? How?" Rookwood was now genuinely curious. How could Lord Voldemort, brilliant as he was, have a failsafe to stop the Veil of Death when all but a select few are even aware of its existence?
"That is really not your concern. But rest assured, you will be the only one who sees it when the time comes."
Rookwood beamed at the knowledge that he would be granted such exclusive knowledge of the most powerful Dark wizard in the world. After being given the plan on how to move forward with getting the 'blood of an enemy,' Voldemort covered his head with the hood, and Frode's possessed body left with him and made the move for his flat.
The reason Voldemort had not given his full plan to Rookwood was not only because of his lack of confidence in his subordinates. In all honesty, he only had a vague idea of what he needed to do. It was something he had only head about only once.
He had been just barely out of school, and only had created one Horcrux, then-Tom Riddle had begun recruiting interested wizards to join a Pureblood supremacy movement. He had heard a variety of spells in his travels, but none had the appeal of immortality that the Horcruxes had.
But when he had read Lily Evans's mind and discovered the truth – that the Severus Snape of this world had died in another lifetime and was now reliving his life – a spell he had only heard of once in passing had come into his mind.
Over the next few weeks, Voldemort had Frode read through an endless array of spellbooks, trying to find a description anywhere in the plethora of texts. He had been by libraries as well and broken in after hours trying to go through the more restricted titles, looking for anything resembling the spell, to no avail.
While Voldemort's plan needed something resembling a direction to continue, Rookwood's plan was simple. And he made sure to do it as quickly as he could.
A mere week and a half after talking with the Dark Lord, he felt he had a good way to sneak off a few drops of blood from his victim. He had initially thought that a kidnapping would be ideal, but seeing as Voldemort wanted to wait for the "right moment" to take his body back, and given that he wanted absolutely no chance of being found out, he had determined it was best to injure her and collect the blood.
Obviously, neither man would shed a tear if the Mudblood wife of the man who nearly killed him was taken out, but her death would definitely not go unnoticed, with the family now being of near-celebrity status. Still, one could hope the accident would have an adverse consequence.
Lily Evans was walking down the hallway of the Ministry of Magic on Thursday afternoon. She had been trained during the week on how to handle the Time Turners.
She already knew what they did, but now they wanted to teach her proper handling. Evidently, the older ones turned much easier and had to be destroyed, but had to be handled delicately so as to not inadvertently send the person back. That was literally the only interesting thing that could be taken from nearly a week of training on the handling of dime-sized necklaces with the power to turn time backwards.
Honestly, the whole concept of going back in time was not really of any interest to her. She already knew that it had been possible and that unlike the Time Turners, which by rule must not be used to alter the past, her husband had been sent back in time with the specific intent to alter the past.
Although neither truly understood how such a thing happened, what Lily Evans Snape was truly grateful for was the fact that the bit of divine intervention had allowed her a wonderful husband, a renewed relationship with her sister and a wonderful now-1-year-old boy named Evan.
But having time to mull this over was only being granted because she was being checked out for any serious damage by the building's medical staff. It had been so weird…
Lilly had been less than 50 feet of the office when a man, behaving beyond irrationally – well, he appeared drunk, so maybe not that irrationally – started screaming at her that she was responsible for all the messes of his life. She was about to tell the idiot off, but then he reached from under his cloak and shot out a cutting charm that sliced a fair-sized cut in her leg.
It was the shortest duel in history, as Lily immediately fired a stunning spell, disarmed him as he was responding, and then for good measure kicked him in the groin. 'Sometimes the muggle way really is more satisfying.
As the adrenaline wore off, she began to notice the sharp pain, but thankfully one of her co-workers saw the whole thing.
"Allow me, Mrs. Snape."
"Oh, that's fine, Augustus. I can cast the healing charm myself. It's not very deep."
"Eh, I could use the practice anyway. It was one of my weaker spells in school anyway."
"Oh, what house were you?"
"Slytherin."
"Maybe you and my husband would have gotten on well," Lily chuckled.
"… Maybe. Anyway, I'm just going to wipe the blood away.
"You don't need to –"
"Like I said, I'm not as good and need a clear view of what I'm charming."
"I'm beginning to worry you'll make this worse."
Rookwood laughed. Lily didn't realize he had considered feigning incompetence to do just that, but figured that while Voldemort might not mind, it would be unwise to draw attention to himself here, especially if the drunkard he'd used the Imperius Curse on was able to tried to claim his alcoholism wasn't to blame for this attack.
He healed the injury to a believable enough level. Lily shrugged and perfected what was left so that the cut area looked more natural. She didn't notice Rookwood set the cloth with still unabsorbed blood on it atop his bag.
The healers on hand checked to make sure that nothing required additional attention and determined that the two Unspeakables did well enough and no emergency calls were needed.
"Thank Merlin! I'd rather Sev not have a reason to wage a vendetta on bar drunkards. He's dealt with enough of those in his life," Lily joked, hoping they wouldn't pry into her husband's childhood home life.
"Well as I said, you're fine, so back to work with you! Send Severus my well-wishes!" the mediwitch said with a smile.
"Thank you. I'm sure he'll appreciate that." And with that Lily went right back to her life blissfully unaware that something was amiss.
Lord Voldemort's patience was wearing thin. He had been through so many texts in the last few weeks that both his eyes and the intern he was possessing were having a hard time seeing straight.
He wanted to re-enter his body, and he now could do so at any time, but returning without the potion? Worthless effort.
For Voldemort, this had become more than a struggle for power in the wizarding world. If the memories he stole could be believed, he had fallen to two teenage half-bloods in two different timelines. The prophecies he had tried so hard to stop had gotten to him anyway.
And it is because of these facts that he didn't act with his same usual aggression. It's why he played more now for timing than ever before. This was no longer just a battle for control of the wizarding world; it was about mastering control over the fates, Dumbledore, these half-blood teenagers, and the universe itself.
Finally, after his second passing through the same materials, he had his breakthrough. He thought back to the night when he and the former Slytherin's had been swapping stories about their greatness – the night he heard about the potion. The night had devolved into sharing rumors about Salazar Slytherin's brilliance, and he remembered that was when he's heard it.
That meant the notes were probably in Slytherin's personal notes, which were in Marvolo Gaunt's shack. He apparated immediately to the shack, went to the collapsed bookshelf of the dilapidated building, and opened the hidden panel in back. And after 20 minutes, he finally found what he was looking for: The Cross-Dimensional Travel Potion.
Voldemort had never known the details of the potion (he only remembered the rumor that Slytherin had found a way to master time with the Veil of Death), and as he read through the notes, it was clear why no one else had thought it could possibly be real.
Apparently this potion's lone application had been used to help someone who claimed they were reliving their life and wanted to return. It was so complex that Slytherin had required the assistance of Rowena Ravenclaw and her diadem. The ingredients alone were rare and would need months to be gathered, but it was the most important ingredient that made this travel so hard: A memory from another universe.
Luckily for Voldemort, he had invaded Lily Snape's mind and gotten a glimpse of a Pensieve memory of the end of Severus Snape's original life. And with this memory, the book said, "it should allow the person walking through the Veil to bypass the world of the dead and enter the other universe.
Should.
Even Slytherin and Ravenclaw didn't know for sure that the potion had worked, so there was no guarantee this would succeed. But it had to. He was meant to rule, and this was his way of ruling over… everything.
After nearly eight months of gathering ingredients, the night finally came. Voldemort had finally left the body he had been possessing and now waited for the Regeneration Potion to be completed.
"Bone of the father, unknowingly given, you will renew your son! Flesh of the servant, willingly sacrificed," Rookwood said as he tossed part of his ear into the potion, "You will revive your master. Blood of the enemy, forcibly taken, you will resurrect your foe."
Voldemort immediately dived his soul into the cauldron. After a few moments, he stepped out of the potion with his body fully restored, although his eyes now had a red quality to them thanks to the regeneration.
"I thank you for your loyalty, Rookwood. And now, after months of waiting, the time has come for me to leave this world."
Rookwood's jubilant expression was now one of utter confusion. "Leave the world, my lord?"
"Yes, I'm afraid. You see, over the last few months, I have made a discovery that will allow me to use the Veil of Death to send me into a new world to conquer."
"… But why not this one, my lord? I mean, you are already here," Rookwood said, now concerned the Regeneration messed with Voldemort's sanity.
"Are you questioning my decisions, Rookwood?" Voldemort asked pointedly.
"N-n-no, of course not! Would you like me to summon your followers to join you?"
"No. As a matter of fact, I want no one to know about this, and I regret saying that you are now a liability in my plans."
"W-what are you-"
"AVADA KEDAVRA!" Voldemort shouted, and with that, Rookwood lifelessly fell to the floor.
After removing any and all evidence of people's presence in the room, Voldemort finally took the Cross-Dimensional potion. Putting any doubts about its success away, he stepped up to the Veil of Death, breathed deeply, and passed through.
Less than a minute later, Voldemort found himself outside the Veil, and wondered if everything had worked. His question was answered immediately after he saw the layout of the room had been slightly altered and, of course, the calendar date: May 4, 1998.
It was now nearly two decades later, and it was clear that this world could not be the same. After checking on Nagini, who Voldemort decided could not be left alone in his previous world, he decided to pay some visits to his former Death Eaters in this world.
He assumed his Dark Mark wouldn't work in a new universe, and even if it did, matters like this deserved a… personal touch. The Dark Lord will soon have his vengeance on two worlds.
