Written for QLFC season 9, round 5
Team: Montrose Magpies
Position: Seeker
Prompt: Cowardice- a character that doesn't originally display it
Word count: 1,027
No warnings, i think.
Summary: There is more to Voldemort than we originally know, but what do we not know about the so called insane dark lord?
'No, this could not be my end. No way in hell will i perish at the hands of a mere boy.' thought Voldemort ever so bitterly. The prophecy was mostly known now. It appeared to be that there is one boy destined to be the downfall of him. Never. Voldemort did not want to end, to die. He feared death. He feared the inevitable, that is to not exist anymore. However, he had always convinced himself that he was not afraid, he just preferred to never have to die.
Death is cruel, and it is normalized. No. Death is not a game to easily recieve it. It should not be a plaything. Just because death is always around, taking the lives of those who we know and those we don't, doesn't really mean that we have to be so accepting to it. That is the reason Voldemort seeked out immortality. He wanted to live on. He wanted to stay, whatever the price.
Two reasons Voldemort had attempted to avoid dying. He did not want to end up with those who have wronged him in his after life, be it heaven or hell. He also did not want to be wherever he ended up to be after he died. He liked this life quite a lot, and it is absolutely meaningless to accept the fact that he will have to just 'let go' and pass away. This scares him so bad. No no... not scared, but attached. Yes yes, he tried to stick the idea that he had no fears.
Why did life have to be so unfair to him?
Voldemort laughed maniacally as he just made his first horcrux. He named it Nagini... his snake... his familiar... his horcrux. He felt a shred of self preservation as he completed the ritual. This insured that he was not going to die easily if someone dared to try kill him. It had its downsides, but Voldemort's cowardice- ahem, or as he believed, attachment to earth; overpowered his differentiation between what was better to choose. He had made a wrong decision, but there was no turning back, there was no regret. Just a sense of good accomplishment.
It would do him no good to dwel over the past. Besides, it was a nice feeling to know that he is different than others.
Let's now see who will die... boy of the prophecy. Voldmeort sneered at no one in particular as he was alone in a room.
A blood curdling scream filled the Potter house for long moments until it died out completely, and silence followed it. Voldemort had come to attack the Potters, the potter child mainly. If it was necessary, he would kill the parents. James and Lily Potter were easy to dispose of, but the child? No... he gave him trouble of his life before he was even born. He perished because he wanted to kill a mere one year old boy. How ironic, and how painful, to be frank.
Voldmeort did use his dear horcrux to bring himself back to life, but he was much more frightened. No, stop questioning your morals. Voldemort's attempts to shun out the feeling of fear from the boy who lived was growing harder, and it was definitely unpleasant.
After all, an Avada Kedavra could not do its job on Harry Potter, so he will have to tread carefully from there. Fear plagued his dreams, that is if Voldemort can actually dream, and he was growing more concerned about the so called saviour of the wizarding world.
What if he lost? What if that boy had managed to actually end him miraculously, just like he so miraculously avoided dying from a bloody killing curse. The boy actually surviving is a reason to tremble in fear on its own, so how would this boy be if he really had come to fight him one day or another. It is guaranteed that he will be fighting the boy someday, but now he was hesitant. How strong would Harry Potter become? Would he become undefeatable?
Voldemort could no longer decipher what he would be called now. He had let his diary take over an eleven year old child so that he would live. What had gotten into him? Oh how cowardly that seemed, but damn it! The boy was proving harder to kill, and his worry grew everytime the boy had lived the way he started becoming more antsy. Now he knew why half the wizarding world almost worshipped the little brat. He just can't die. That planted self doubting and near complete cowardice, that he never admitted, in Voldemort. Why would a mere infant live against him, a very powerful wizard who could easily overpower Albus Dumbledore?
Backup plans! Yes, yes that was an absolute need if he wanted to end that damned boy and the light side.
Voldemort really worked it well, but whenever it came to actually perform whatever was planned, he would grow terrorized, to his utter horror. He had no idea why he would feel some kind of ominous, alarming, and a very dreading aura. The boy was innocent, yet so capable and fearless. However... why his very tactfully planned schemes would shatter to millions of pieces when it came into taking action was beyond him.
Nothing made sense! Except... except why he was losing. He lost because his plans always backfired tremendously, however what leads to that always varied.
A scream rang through the vast, empty space where Harry and Voldemort were ferociously fighting. Nagini... was killed...
It had caught Voldemort by surprise that it gave Harry enough fiy initiate an attack. Shit. One useless snake that should have kept alive resulted in his very death. How paradoxical and troublesome...
With Voldemort fading away, it became apparent to him that ruling Britain was never meant for him, but he was already too late for such realizations. It took him his whole lifetime to understand, though never admit, that he was a coward when it came to unexpected people. Unexpected people like... Harry Potter... the boy who lived, the boy who fulfilled his own part and killed the dark lord.
A/N: Hard round... i don't even think it got it right. Oh well.