Yes!! I did it . . .I finally got this damn chapter written and up!
Computer problems, time spent on studying . . .But we won't go into that.
Anyway. This turned out to be a little longer than expected but hey, once
you break writer's block you let the juices flow where they may. I hope you
enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it. Please leave a review
on your way out. Thanks. SlV
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The One Who Would Destroy Them
Fools! Who were they to take on the most powerful Dark Wizard in an age? Not even their spirit could overcome my trained and readied forces. The wizarding world is free at last of the scourge of that Muggle-loving Albus Dumbledore. And I . . .I am free of the stigma of being defeated by an infant. For now that boy is dead, killed by my own hand when he was able to defend himself. And one by one, I will now be able to hunt down any wizard cowardly enough to follow these two. I have been walking for an hour or so, appreciating the full extent of what I have accomplished. Now back at my starting point, I take a fresh look at the bodies strewn around and savour the memories of how each of these last lives that opposed me came to an end. In a bitter irony, the tables were turned against Black, the escaped prisoner, whom the world once thought had aligned with me. Wormtail, in the heat of the battle forgot my instructions that Potter must be kept alive and sent the Killing Curse in his direction. Fortune smiled upon Wormtail though, for Black threw himself in front of his godson and was killed instead. The redheaded boy and the Mudblood girl were next to fall. I made sure Harry watched his friends die. I had Lucius put the boy under the Imperius curse to make him perform Cruciatus on the Mudblood. After she was nearly dead, I removed the curse from the boy so he would have his full senses about him when he stood helpless and watched the girl he loved murdered by his father's worst enemy. I could tell that he loved her by the way he dropped to his knees when it became clear what he had done; by the blind rage that came over him as she was killed. Destruction of the heart was greater than any torture I could have put the boy under, so I gave Lucius the honour of killing him also. I believe Malfoy enjoyed being the death of others' children after his own son was so brutally taken down in that Ministry raid. Then it was time. Time to remove that crackpot old fool, that blemish upon the race of wizard, who had so foolishly worked against me for years. We could have been great and terrible, Dumbledore and I. If we had stood together we would have been unstoppable. But he chose to work against me and he now lies dead among the ruins of the place where he taught more promising young people to hate me. He died honourably, did Albus, in a duel with me. No matter that I killed him as he bowed to me. The Mudbloods must have dulled his wits. At last the boy. The one that all Death Eaters had been ordered not to kill. The one who nearly killed me. Harry. He had watched all of his friends, all of the people who had loved and protected him die, and now he knew that his turn had come. He stood before me, anger and hate burning in his green eyes still, but deadened with fear and the logic that reminded him of his odds. I could see in his face the prayer for a chance to be lucky twice. That chance did not come. He duelled well. I could not bring myself to kill him as I had Dumbledore, for I had too much respect for him. It seemed a shame for him to come so far and do so well, and then lose his wand as he tripped over the body of his godfather while duelling, but fate allows these things to happen. Fate let Harry die by my wand, brother to his, in the same manner as his parents. Fate stripped the wizarding world of its last hero of that era. A new age has come. An age where wizards will bring fear and awe to the hearts of Muggles. An age where no Muggle-born can be trained as a wizard. An age where the world will bow down to my power. And every year on this date, my followers will look back upon tonight and smile at how it came about. Tonightonightonight . . .
* * *
The One Who Would Destroy Them
Fools! Who were they to take on the most powerful Dark Wizard in an age? Not even their spirit could overcome my trained and readied forces. The wizarding world is free at last of the scourge of that Muggle-loving Albus Dumbledore. And I . . .I am free of the stigma of being defeated by an infant. For now that boy is dead, killed by my own hand when he was able to defend himself. And one by one, I will now be able to hunt down any wizard cowardly enough to follow these two. I have been walking for an hour or so, appreciating the full extent of what I have accomplished. Now back at my starting point, I take a fresh look at the bodies strewn around and savour the memories of how each of these last lives that opposed me came to an end. In a bitter irony, the tables were turned against Black, the escaped prisoner, whom the world once thought had aligned with me. Wormtail, in the heat of the battle forgot my instructions that Potter must be kept alive and sent the Killing Curse in his direction. Fortune smiled upon Wormtail though, for Black threw himself in front of his godson and was killed instead. The redheaded boy and the Mudblood girl were next to fall. I made sure Harry watched his friends die. I had Lucius put the boy under the Imperius curse to make him perform Cruciatus on the Mudblood. After she was nearly dead, I removed the curse from the boy so he would have his full senses about him when he stood helpless and watched the girl he loved murdered by his father's worst enemy. I could tell that he loved her by the way he dropped to his knees when it became clear what he had done; by the blind rage that came over him as she was killed. Destruction of the heart was greater than any torture I could have put the boy under, so I gave Lucius the honour of killing him also. I believe Malfoy enjoyed being the death of others' children after his own son was so brutally taken down in that Ministry raid. Then it was time. Time to remove that crackpot old fool, that blemish upon the race of wizard, who had so foolishly worked against me for years. We could have been great and terrible, Dumbledore and I. If we had stood together we would have been unstoppable. But he chose to work against me and he now lies dead among the ruins of the place where he taught more promising young people to hate me. He died honourably, did Albus, in a duel with me. No matter that I killed him as he bowed to me. The Mudbloods must have dulled his wits. At last the boy. The one that all Death Eaters had been ordered not to kill. The one who nearly killed me. Harry. He had watched all of his friends, all of the people who had loved and protected him die, and now he knew that his turn had come. He stood before me, anger and hate burning in his green eyes still, but deadened with fear and the logic that reminded him of his odds. I could see in his face the prayer for a chance to be lucky twice. That chance did not come. He duelled well. I could not bring myself to kill him as I had Dumbledore, for I had too much respect for him. It seemed a shame for him to come so far and do so well, and then lose his wand as he tripped over the body of his godfather while duelling, but fate allows these things to happen. Fate let Harry die by my wand, brother to his, in the same manner as his parents. Fate stripped the wizarding world of its last hero of that era. A new age has come. An age where wizards will bring fear and awe to the hearts of Muggles. An age where no Muggle-born can be trained as a wizard. An age where the world will bow down to my power. And every year on this date, my followers will look back upon tonight and smile at how it came about. Tonightonightonight . . .