7: Don't Get Distracted—


Voldemort smiled as he prepared the silent incantation in his mind, going forward into the room full of Death Eaters. Fabian Prewett was bound in the middle of them, struggling furiously, his brother Gideon dead on the floor a few feet away. Five Death Eaters were holding Fabian in place. Voldemort laughed softly, earning a growl from the man. "Yours will be an important death, Prewett," the Dark Lord half-whispered. "Your comrades will be quite disheartened when they know that you and your pathetic brother have been killed."

"You'll never win," Prewett snarled. "You won't get away with this forever."

"Ah...but I have already won," Voldemort hissed in his ear. "You see...I cannot be killed."

Prewett spat in Voldemort's face.

"AVADA KEDAVRA!"

Voldemort, in his anger, killed the defiant wizard and rushed the incantation to make his next Horcrux. He had the spell memorized perfectly. To split his soul in two, he needed to commit the ultimate abhorrent act—murder—and then recite the silent words in his mind, capturing the piece of ruptured soul and binding it into an object outside of his body. Voldemort's head hurt for the briefest of moments—and he lost his concentration.

The minor pain in his head swelled to seismic proportions. He screamed, hands scrabbling at his forehead, feeling as though his hair was being pulled out from every single root—he clawed at his scalp, the pain unbearable—it was as if his head was splitting in two—

The Death Eaters shrank back in horror. Voldemort uttered one last terrible scream...and then fell to the floor, a thin red line appearing diagonally across his face. Lucius Malfoy stepped forward. "Master...?" he whispered, kneeling to touch the line. "It—it's blood!" he cried.

Voldemort had split his head in two instead of his soul.

Better luck next time.