7 - Stockwell
August 16, 1938, Diagon Alley
"Voooooldy! You promised you'd buy me something!" yelled Lucy.
"Indeed I did. But instead, how about we go on a rollercoaster ride? Then we'll get to my bank room, and I'll give you something from there. Okay?" responded Voldemort.
"Okay!" said Lucy, "But what's a rolly-custard ride?" said Lucy. Voldemort abstained from answering. The pair walked in relative silence back to Gringotts, with Lucy stopping and staring at whatever shiny thing caught her eye on the way.
They walked through the big brass doors of Gringotts, with Lucy stopping to read the inscription on the doors. She struggled with some of the big words, and had to get Voldemort to read it to her. He did so, grudgingly.
Enter, stranger, but take heed,
Of what awaits the sin of greed.
For those who take, but do not earn,
Must pay most dearly in their turn.
So if you seek beneath our floors,
A treasure that was never yours,
Thief, you have been warned, beware
Of finding more than treasure there.
"Don't worry, Lucy," ended Voldemort, "the Goblins don't bite too much."
Lucy was shaking as the pair stepped through the doors and through the (thankfully cleared) lobby. Voldemort stepped up to Hodrod's counter again.
"Greetings, Hodrod. I wish to enter the Slytherin Ancestral Vault." Said Voldemort. Thankfully, there was no frenzied gasping this time.
"Very good, Lord and Lady Slytherin," said Hodrod, "I shall escort you down now."
Lucy gasped at this proclamation, and a massive smile burst open on her face. Voldemort groaned. 'She'll be thinking about marryingme now!' he thought.
"Just Lord Slytherin, Hodrod, she is no Slytherin." Replied Voldemort, curtly.
Lucy's face fell momentarily, then she remembered that she was going on a rollycoasty ride with Voldy, and she started smiling again.
The Goblin and the two orphans reached the mine carts. They piled into one, and it shot off into the tunnels.
Undetermined Time, Ethereal Nothingness
James, Sirius, Remus and Severus sat around the Ethereal Viewing Platform, laughing at Voldemort's predicament.
"First he finds a sycophantic little girl who wants to be his girlfriend," began Severus. "Then said little girl dubs him 'Tommy'," continued Sirius.
"So he changes his name to prevent her doing that, and she finds a way around it, renaming him 'Voldy'," roared Remus with mirth.
"Then she thinks that she's his Lady!" concluded James, with tears in his eyes.
The four men looked at each other, then said "He's so screwed" in unison, and started laughing again.
August 16, 1938, Gringott's Wizarding Bank, Underground
"WEEEEEE!!" screeched Lucy.
Voldemort was seething with rage. He had hoped that the cart rides would make Lucy sick, but no, nothing ever goes to plan for an evil genius. So naturally, she loved the 'rollycoasty'.
Mercifully, the path to the Slytherin vault was a direct one, through thousand-year-old bedrock. Voldemort's suffering was short, but no less intense than the Cruciatus curse.
"We're here, Lord Slytherin. Please step out of the cart." Said Hodrod
"That was fun, Voldy! Let's do it again!" yelled Lucy, attracting the momentary attention of several passing carts.
"No, Lucy, we have to go inside the bank room and look for things. Lead on, Hodrod." Replied Voldemort.
Hodrod directed Voldemort to place his ancestral ring into a indented mark on the door. Voldemort did so, and after several moments of whirring and clicking noises coming from the vault door, it slid open noiselessly.
Voldemort, Lucy and Hodrod were blasted with a wave of gold that cascaded out of the vault. They were buried under a massive mountain of Galleons, Sickles and Knuts. Hodrod cast a spell to banish the gold back into the vault, taking a small amount for himself as payment.
Voldemort and Lucy walked inside the vault. Apart from the aforementioned mountains of gold, the Slytherin vault contained several large suits of armor, countless paintings, a full case of weapons (that Voldemort resolved to peruse as soon as possible), armoires stuffed to the hilt with elegant clothes, a bookshelf filled with grimoires that simply oozed dark magic, and hundreds upon hundreds of other artefacts that the House of Slytherin had accumulated over the centuries.
Voldemort had a look of exquisite glee etched upon his face. Lucy was salivating at the prospect of playing dress-up with the pretty clothes. Voldemort turned to Lucy, "You can take one dress, and one piece of jewellery. Only ONE EACH!" he intoned.
Lucy nodded, then took off towards the largest armoire. Voldemort stalked over to the weapons cabinet. In a place of prominence in the centre of the cabinet was a dark willow wand, on a green cushion. It had an aura of extreme power that Voldemort was suitably impressed with. He tapped the cabinet with his Ancestral Ring, watched it slide smoothly open, then grabbed the wand.
Immediately, pink heart-shaped sparks leapt from the tip of the wand, in far greater numbers than with the wand he had just brought. Voldemort cursed inwardly. 'Why did it have to be pink?' he thought.
He continued searching the weapons cabinet. He saw a pair of elegant black wrist holsters, which he equipped immediately, slipping his wands inside them. An embossed heart appeared on the exterior of the holsters. Voldemort cursed again. 'Hearts! Why? Slytherin must have had a sick sense of humour…' he thought.
Just as he was about to cease his search, he happened upon an exquisite sword. The blade (which was longer than his leg, Voldemort noted) appeared to shimmer lightly with evil, and the emeralds set into the hilt shone with an unholy darkness. Voldemort lifted the sword and swung it experimentally. The sword shone with a pink hue, which then diminished and was seemingly contained within the emeralds. Voldemort noted that after the pink mist had dispersed, the emeralds appeared much less green and much more red.
Voldemort rooted around in the cabinet for a scabbard. Finding one to his liking (which promptly turned pink and embossed itself with a heart), he sheathed his new sword, and set off to find Lucy.
The girl in question was currently buried under a large pile of enchanted robes, which appeared intent on strangling her. Voldemort said (in his best 'Dark Lord' voice) "I command you as Lord Slytherin to release this girl!"
The robes fell limp. Lucy gingerly picked herself up from the ground and leapt on Voldemort, squeezing him so tightly he could barely breathe.
"Thanks Voldy! I think I like that black one." She picked up an ornate black set of dress robes, and held it up against herself. "Isn't it pretty?"
"Yes. Very." Replied Voldemort, dully.
"But maybe I like this one more…" she said, this time with a frilly pink robe.
"It also looks good." Intoned Voldemort, with an air of someone who wanted to be as far away from this conversation as they possibly could.
"This one, Voldy?" she said, holding up a deep purple set of robes.
"Yes. It looks good." Languished Voldemort. 'Helping a 10-year-old girl pick out dress robes is not behaviour befitting a Dark Lord!' he thought.
"How about thi—" began Lucy, before she was cut off.
"I don't care!" shouted Voldemort, "Take them all! They all look good on you! Even those orphan rags look good on you! I! DON'T! CARE!"
Lucy looked at him as if he was slightly on fire. Voldemort sniffed. He smelled smoke. He quickly searched himself, and found, to his dismay, that the cuffs of the robe he was wearing were burning. Burning, with vibrant, pink, flames.
Voldemort swore. The flames went out.
"Okay Voldy, I'll take all of them!" said Lucy, as though nothing had happened. "Now, let's get some necklaces!"
August 16, 1938, Gringott's Wizarding Bank, Slytherin Ancestral Vault – (Four Hours Later)
Voldemort was one angry, bored, and severely emasculated Dark Lord. In the end, despite Voldemort's assertions to the contrary, Lucy had decided that none of the necklaces looked good on her, and so she took all of them. By the time they had woken an angry Hodrod, and returned to the surface, it was dark outside.
Voldemort turned to Lucy. "Grab my arm," he said.
Lucy was ecstatic. She clung to his arm with the strength of a python. Voldemort groaned. He turned on the spot, and apparrated the pair of them to a dark alley next to Stockwell.
Lucy looked at him strangely. "How did you do that, Voldy?" she asked.
Voldemort gave her his best "Dark Lord" grin. "Magic," he said.
August 19, 1938, Stockwell Orphanage, Voldemort's Room
"Voooooooldy! VOOOOOOOOLDY!" came a shrill voice from the corridor outside Voldemort's room. He cursed inwardly.
"Come in, Lucy."
Lucy opened the door, then ran across the room and jumped onto Voldemort. He groaned.
"Voldyvoldyvoldyvoldyvoldy!! Where have you been? We got back from Dyegon alli and then you went into your room and didn't come out and I was lonely so I started playing with the hamsters again but then I remembered what happened last time I played with the hamsters so I went to sleep and then I woke up and then I got lonely and bored and so I came here and what are you doing?" she asked.
Voldemort took a moment to decipher the large jumble of words that Lucy had thrown at him.
"I'm trying to make a magic shield, called a ward, that will stop the Mini—the bosses of Magic from seeing when I do magic." He replied.
"Ooooh! Does that mean that I might be able to do magic too?" she asked.
"You can try some now, the ward I have will block little spells. Slytherin's wand is really quite powerful, even if it does have pink heart-sparks." Replied Voldemort.
"Okay Voldy, teach me some magic! How do I disappear and reappear places like you did?" she requested.
"That magic trick is a bit advanced, I think." He said.
Lucy looked like she was about to cry. "But I wanna disappear sometimes!" she bawled.
"Okay, okay, calm down. It's a hard spell, but you might be able to get it. You have to think about where you really, really want to be and then make the magic take you th—" he was cut off, as a weight the size of a 10-year-old-girl suddenly landed in his outstretched arms.
Lucy looked deeply into Voldemort's eyes. Voldemort looked back. The two were silent for a moment, before Voldemort realised that a 10-year-old had apparrated. He dropped her in surprise.
"I did it!" screamed Lucy. "I did it! I disappeared!!"
Voldemort was stunned. He shook himself out of it, then said "Okay, do it again."
He was immediately knocked over by Lucy's apparrating form. 'Holy moly.' He thought.
Undetermined Time, Ethereal Nothingness
"James! James! Come here, quick!" yelled Lily, from the Ethereal Viewing Platform, "Voldemort's girlfriend just APPARATED!"
James appeared at Lily's side as though from thin air.
"Holy cow, how did you do that?" she asked
"Magic," he said, "now what's this about a 10-year-old apparrating?"
"Voldemort taught his girlfriend to apparrate. I have no idea how." She replied.
"ALBUS! Albus Dumbledore!" yelled James
Dumbledore appeared next to him.
"Yes, James?" he said.
"Voldemort's gal-pal just apparrated!" yelled James.
Dumbledore blanched. "That is… not good." He said.
August 26, 1938, Stockwell Orphanage, Voldemort's Room
Voldemort was trying to sleep after an exhaustive week of discoveries and tests. He had spent the better part of it attempting to break through a barrier he found in Lucy's mind, after casually using his Legilimency on her. It was an exceptionally strong barrier, one rivalling Voldemort's own Occlumency barriers, and he considered it a personal challenge to be able to break it.
Prolonged Legilimency, however, is not something that most wizards are able to maintain, and despite Voldemort's heightened magical powers, he still could not attempt to break into someone's mind for a week straight with no repercussions. As a result, he was lying on his bed, with all the drapes closed, with a severe headache, as well as a bad temper. A temper which was about to be broken.
Voldemort noticed a loud popping noise in his bedroom, second before he was crushed by Lucy's falling weight. "OOF" groaned Voldemort. "Lucy, I'm trying to sleep. Practice your apparation later."
"But Voldy, I was lonely. Look into my eyes for hours again!" she cried.
"Ughh. Fine." Voldemort sat up, and stared into Lucy's eyes, engaging his Legilimantic powers. He left the earth in a swirl of lights.
August 26, 1938, Lucy's Mind.
Voldemort touched down inside what appeared to be a vast desert. Present in the desert was a small wooden shack, with a large steel pipe leading into the biggest bubble that Voldemort had ever seen. Previous incursions into Lucy's Mind had proven that the bubble was all but impenetrable. Voldemort, however, was not one to give up. After a week of failure with attempting to pop the bubble, he resolved to try a different tactic.
Voldemort strode over to the shack. He flung the door open, and saw an emaciated figure sitting in the corner, on a small pile of potatoes and rat corpses. The smell was sickening. Voldemort cast a bubble-head charm, ignoring the emaciated form of Lucy, and focused on the steel pipe.
The pipe in question had a faucet situated above a large steel basin, filled with a liquid so purple it seemed black. Voldemort poked the tap above the faucet. A large stream of the purple liquid seeped out of the faucet, quickly flooding the shack. Voldemort turned the tap off, and watched as the emaciated version of Lucy absorbed the liquid.
The figure glowed black for a few moments. It was a black so profoundly dark that the deepest pits of Voldemort's soul were rocked by its evil. Lucy stood up.
"Greetings, Lord Voldemort, and welcome to my mind." Said Lucy.
Voldemort was shocked. The Lucy in Lucy's head appeared to be much smarter than the one in reality! "Hello, Lucy. I must say, your mind is rather sparse." Said Voldemort.
"I am well aware of this fact, my Lord, and perhaps I shall explain this to you at another time. However, the magic you released will only sustain me for so long, so I shall be brief. You must enter the dome, and destroy it. Only then will the Lucy you see before you be present in your reality. Good luck."
Voldemort felt himself being pulled by his navel, yet the pull was much stronger than any portkey. With minimal resistance, he allowed himself to be pulled away from the mature, brilliant, and immensely more attractive version of Lucy than the one he knew.
August 26, 1938, Stockwell Orphanage, Voldemort's Room
Voldemort touched back down inside his room. Lucy had fallen asleep on his bed, and Voldemort quickly did the same. 'Talking with alternate versions of his associates was straining,' he reasoned, before collapsing on top of Lucy into a blissfully ignorant slumber.
Disclaimer: I can't remember whether or not I stole anything while writing this chapter. If I did, and you recognise it, point it out to me (it's midnight and I'm tired, and sick).
Ooh, what a convenient segue into why it took me a week to write 2500 words, rather than a day: I've been really quite sick recently, as well as having to do assloads of schoolwork, and real life just generally kicking my ass. I know it's not really an excuse, but I'm using it as one, dammit!
Thanks to Skippy Agogo, the good dr., Athena Hermione Ravett, SexyKnickers, art drawn by vomit, and Her-My-Oh-Knee for your kickass reviews (especially Her-My-Oh-Knee, because reviewing every chapter is pretty damn win), and the 76 people who read the chapter without reviewing. You guys rock.