Chapter 16: The Secret of Lord Voldemort
Rinaldi's figure came out of the shadows. "Well, you are clever, Harry. At least you figured it out more quickly than this moron." He nodded to Malfoy, who had curled up in a ball, scared stiff. "Since we all know the truth now, I'll change back into a more comfortable body."
Harry, Lauren, and Malfoy watched the transformation in horror. Rinaldi's human form turned into Lord Voldemort's form. And he was the least human person Harry knew.
"Now I'm sure you're ready to run off to Dumbledore. I've watched you, Harry. I know what you do every time something happens. Well it won't work this time. Dumbledore knows I'm here. He let me in."
"No," Harry gasped.
"Yes. Of course, it's not the real Dumbledore, but with a little Polyjuice potion, even my stupidest servant can be made to look like that old fool. The real Dumbledore's still off in that pathetic cottage, waiting for me to make my next move. Little does he know I've been plotting all along.
"And now I'd like to reveal to you someone else who isn't who she seems. Lauren - or should I say - Kristen?"
Harry and Hermione watched again as their friend transformed.
"Ron was right!" gasped Harry. "You are different!"
Kristen laughed a high cold laugh just like Voldemort's. "Ron…. He always suspected me, from the very first day. It was hard to convince you that I was trustworthy with him around. So unfortunately, he met with a very nice Tentacula."
"So you did push him," Harry shouted. "And he probably saw you go down into the Chamber of Secrets that night, too!"
Kristen and Voldemort laughed again. "Harry," Voldemort said, "you were always so clever. I think we owe you the story of my little sister."
Little sister? Harry thought.
"I believe the three of you are familiar with my Muggle background?" Harry looked around. Hermione had backed against the wall and Malfoy was still crouched in the corner. It looked like, again, he was fighting Voldemort alone.
"While I was in that disgusting orphanage, I met another young Halfblood wizard like myself. That was, of course, Kristen. I sort of adopted her as my sister; she took my last name and we escaped together. However, during the second Muggle World War, we were separated and Kristen was sent off to live and go to school in America.
"Twenty or so years ago Kristen heard a rumor of my power and came back to join me as one of my most loyal Death Eaters. When she heard of my downfall, she fled back to America and assumed her Muggle identity, Lauren Smith.
"This year, I contacted her. She was to come back and join the school under a false name in order to give me information on you, Harry. As usual, my plans to kidnap you were foiled by my incompetent servant, Wormtail. It wasn't enough to have spies at Hogwarts; I needed to go there myself. After I took my most loyal servants from Azkaban, I could use the insane ones as decoys. They could walk around looking like me, and Dumbledore would think I had been sighted. The real Dumbledore came back with you at Christmas, Harry, then left again the next day. He sent you a letter, which was somehow intercepted." Voldemort smiled wickedly.
"That's quite enough stalling," he said. "All three of you know my secret, and all three of you must go. If everyone knew I had a sister, then everyone would know of my weakness. Hmm…Which on first?" Lord Voldemort pretended to think for a long while. His eyes locked on Harry's. "Potter. You first because I have been waiting so long to kill you."
He thought again. "No, maybe you." He turned on Hermione. "The puny Muggle girl. I've always hated Mudbloods, haven't I? I would have loved to kill that Weasley kid, too bad he's in the hospital. No matter. There will be time for that later, when I take over Hogwarts."
His reddish-yellow eyes focused on Malfoy now. "Then again, Mr. Malfoy might be a nice prize. You're just like your father. You act strong, but you're really nothing." Malfoy's eyes opened wide, and his breath was coming in short gasps.
Lord Voldemort laughed his cold, high pitched laugh. "What am I saying? I'll just kill all of you at once!" He pulled out his wand and began to advance on Harry and Hermione, forcing them back into the corner with Malfoy. Sparks flew from Voldemort's wand. He was going to kill Harry Potter once and for all.
Harry still had his wand out, but it was no use. His wand wouldn't work against Lord Voldemort's; they had proven that last summer.
"Expell- No, that won't work. Kristen, you do it."
"Expelliarmus!" Kristen shouted. The three students' wands fell at her feet.
"Avada Kedavra," Voldemort said. Harry was expecting to die.
Kristen had taken a step forward in anticipation and had slipped on Malfoy's wand. She tripped and fell right into the line of fire as Voldemort used the curse.
"NO!" he shrieked as Kristen fell to the ground, dead.
"RUN!" Harry shouted. He and Hermione began to run, but Malfoy was too scared to move. They grabbed their wands and headed for the entrance.
"Not so fast," Voldemort shouted. "Stupefy!" Harry and Hermione were frozen in place. Now they were doomed.
But someone else's voice had also called the spell at the same time. Dumbledore, Snape, Sirius, and Lupin ran into the room, their wands all pointed at Lord Voldemort. There was a loud pop and a cloud of smoke and Voldemort was gone.
Sirius did the counter curse on Harry and Hermione. Harry helped Malfoy up, but he was severely shaken, and collapsed again.
"Wait until everyone hears what a wimp you are, Malfoy," Harry said. Malfoy stood up immediately.
"Potter, if you…"
"I was kidding," Harry said. "Come on, let's get out of here."
Dumbledore led everyone to his office.
"Professor," Harry said quickly. "One of Lord Voldemort's servants is in your office using Polyjuice potion to be you."
"I know," said Dumbledore. "There's probably enough hair up there to keep a potion going for years," he joked.
"How did you…?"
"I went to see the Headmaster about a certain student," Snape said
"Rinaldi," Hermione said.
"Yes," Snape answered. "When the impostor told me it was nothing to worry about and did not do anything about it, I knew something was wrong."
"Snape contacted us at Lupin's," Sirius said, as if he was still remembering being forced to talk to Snape, "and we told him Dumbledore was there."
"That's when we all decided to come back," Lupin finished.
"It's lucky we did," Dumbledore said. "Voldemort could have finished off the whole school by now."
They had arrived at the office entrance. "Cockroach Cluster," Dumbledore said. The statue didn't move.
"He must have changed the password," Snape said.
"Stand back everyone," Dumbledore said. "Kojikocio!" Dumbledore shouted, and the statue was reduced to pieces. The stairs opened, and they all climbed up to his office.
"W-Who is it?" Dumbledore's voice called. The impostor came to the top of the stairs and looked down. When he saw who was coming, he started to run. "Stupefy!" shouted four voices at once. The impostor Dumbledore was thrown across the room and crashed into the desk.
"Get ready. I'm going to wake him up and question him," Dumbledore said. "Sirius, will you perform the Depolyjuice spell?"
Sirius nodded.
"Alright then, Ennervate."
The impostor started to wake up, and Dumbledore said, "Bindio." The impostor was tied up. Sirius performed the Depolyjuice spell and the impostor started to change into another recognizable form.
Wormtail.
If Harry had ever seen Wormtail look scared before, it was nothing compared to how he looked now. His eyes were as wide as a house elf's and his breath was short and labored. "P-Professor Dumbledore, S-Sirius-"
"Save it," Sirius barked. "You got away from me the last time, but this time, Peter, you will die."
