Disclaimer: You know the drill, so I'm not going to even bother.
A/N: Severa: You're my wacky-pal. Don't ever change. HPFan, never forget the Bouncing Ferret. Kyosansshugi: Here is my response to your plea for 'MORE!'
I'm sorry for taking so long in getting this up, but Term papers have ruled my computer time over the last few weeks ...*groans* anyway, here's the fourth chapter
Chapter 4: Pain All Around
Annie hurried through the house, straightening objects as she darted about. She thought about setting up her cauldron on the front steps for the 'Trick or Treat'ers, but decided against it; too much over-kill. Besides, she didn't want her guest to think that she was into commercial holidays. He despised anything to do with Muggles and that included Halloween. Annie went back to the living room to where the babies were in their playpen. 'How they've grown in one year...' she thought fondly, 'It was a shame that they are going to grow up with a fractured past. Growing up not knowing who you are, or what you'll be, or even not knowing that you're to be a person's pawn in a game called life.' She pushed the thoughts from her mind as the doorbell rang with the sound of giggles and "Shhh, Shhhh! Trick or Treeeeeeeat!!" Smiling, she opened the door and passed out the candy to eager children.
***
At 6:30, Annie went back to the kitchen to replenish the exhausted candy dish and dropped it instead when she saw that her guest had arrived. "No need to be so surprised to see me, Annika, you knew I was coming," Voldemort said with a smirk. "Of course I knew you were coming, I just didn't know when. I was half expecting you to ring the doorbell and said 'Trick or Treat' like the others," she joked. Voldemort just raised an eyebrow at her. "So tell me, how are the little twinnsies doing? I haven't seen them since their birthday in June. Has it really been a year and a half since they came about...?" he asked. Annie nodded and led him to the playpen. He stood and gazed at them, a satisfied look on his face. Leena and Mina were both sitting upright and playing with bears. As his shadow fell over them, they looked up at him with bugged eyes, as only babies can. Mina dropped the bear and gurgled at Voldemort. Annie started to laugh quietly behind her hand. "I don't find anything amusing here. An explanation, if you will?" he snapped. Annie stopped giggling and said, "She wants you to pick her up. The gurgling means that she approves of you enough to do it." Voldemort stared down his nose at Mina, who by now had raised her arms and was waving them feebly around, trying to lure him into picking her up. "Go ahead, don't be afraid to pick her up. I have to get some more candy for the children tonight," Annie said over her shoulder on the way to the kitchen. Voldemort gingerly reached down and picked Mina up. Mina settled into his arms and cooed, trying to grab his fingers. Annie shook her head wryly as she cleaned up the glass from the floor from her ex-candy dish. Voldemort? Holding a baby? It was almost too funny to even think about....
Shouts of anger and wails brought her abruptly down to earth again as she dropped the rest of the glass in the trash. She dashed to the living room in time to see Mina sitting on the floor, tears streaming down her face and Voldemort standing above her, glaring fiercely between her and his finger. "She. BIT. Me!" the Dark Lord growled at Annie. "Oh, yes, that's right...I forgot to mention that they're teething now. They're fangs are just beginning to show, thanks to your choice of parents you wanted in them," she retorted. With a stare that could have withered a flower, Voldemort took out his wand and healed his finger where two drops of dark blood were easily visible on his ashen skin. "I think I'll do Leena first. She hasn't done anything to me yet..."he replied scathingly. Annie picked up Leena and held out her left arm. Voldemort raised his wand again and placed the tip on Leena's forearm. Leena gazed at him unblinkingly, her pale blue eyes holding ice in them. Voldemort whispered an unintelligible incantation and Leena's eyes widened in pain. A howl let lose from her as the white-hot fire seared her left arm in an ugly mark of a skull and a serpent. Voldemort lifted his wand and a slow smile spread across his face. The clock in the corner chimed and he snapped his head up, looking at it, checking the time: 5 minutes to 7. "Damn it, I'm late...I'll come back to do Mina's mark tomorrow," he said shortly. Leena was still screaming bloody murder while Mina crawled under the coffee table, trying to reach Voldemort's hem to gnaw on. "Where are you off to in such a hurry?" Annie asked, disgruntled. "Godric's Hollow...I have a little...business...to attend to by midnight," he explained. "But it's only 5 minutes to 7!" Annie exclaimed. "5 to 7 here, but 5 to 12 in England and this has to be done before midnight, otherwise this whole plan is botched," he proclaimed. A swish and a pop left the room void of the darkness that it had held only moments before. The doorbell rang again and Annie sighed, resigned.
***
Voldemort arrived in Godric's Hollow in time to finish his deed. However, as he tried killing the one he sought, his curse rebounded upon himself. His eyes glowed with pain as he let out a blood-curdling scream, then fell to the floor. His eyes dimmed to the lowest possible light as his soul poured forth from his broken body. The light went out in his eyes as he watched, a mere shadow of his former self, as the abandoned body burned with the rest of the house.
Protected by the fallen debris, a little boy named Harry Potter started to wail in agony from the lightning shaped cut on his forehead as a little girl stopped crying as the ghastly mark on her arm slowly disappeared from view, never to be known about.