~Chapter 10~ Changes – 1 to 7 Jan 1993~

~~~…Voldemort…~~~

Voldemort listened as his minions finished their reports, but it was hard to fake boredom when one finally found something to preoccupy your time with. He had secretly been gathering them up, bit by bit, after testing their loyalty, and so far many deadweights and order rats had been rooted out.

For now, only the inner circle had been summoned, but it still felt like they were taking too long with their reports…even if no more than ten minutes had passed by so far. It seems that one drawback of having his sanity returned was the ability to resist the urge to simply crucio the stupidity out of his people, or maybe it was the crucio that caused them to grow even more stupid? He had to look into that…especially given the prolonged effects.

Finally, the last report was given and he dismissed them after giving them new orders while softly urging Nagini to make them move faster, which she did, with great relish, ":: Run puny humanss! Sscurry like the ratss you are! If you're too slow I'll…!::"

Once he sensed the last Death Eater leave the grounds, Voldemort eagerly stood up and walked to his library with Nagini hot on his heels once more. ":: Masster can I get my pressent now? And another one of thosse fuzziess? You promissed!::"

Voldemort sighed, but still summoned the promised bunny from whatever corner of the universe they came from, and Nagini shot after it with a hiss. He had almost been at his wits' end when Nagini finished her packet of bunnies earlier that year. She'd refused to eat anything else because a normal conjured bunny tasted dull and it had only been with luck (and quite a bit of frustration) that he'd conjured a vampiric bunny, and to his dismay, found that it was exactly what had been gifted to Nagini.

How his mysterious stalker had managed to round up so many vampiric bunnies was something Voldemort really wanted to know, it wasn't as if there was a farm that reared them and the transformation seldomly took hold on smaller creatures without simply killing them. Luckily the venom was completely diluted within the bunnies so it did not affect Nagini, other than being a more enjoyable snack.

He entered the library and walked towards an empty wall before placing his hand on a particular spot. Hidden runes lit up before a familiar vortex-like spiral formed. He carefully removed the black book from its resting place.

The first page of the book had been filled with warnings, both on the contents of the book and the effects of the power emanating from it. It had warned that those with the Slytherin crest but not its bloodline would be drawn to the book and its power would consume them and every other holder until it was returned to its keeper.

But before Voldemort could be accepted as its keeper, he had to go through the trials.

Unfortunately, the trials had to be performed on a new moon, when Earth was bathed in shadow, and so he'd anxiously filled the days in between by reading the contents of the book, or at least the parts that weren't solely for the eyes of a keeper.

It had strengthened his view on quite a few things when he'd learned why Hogwarts had really been created by the four founders, and with so many people that go to the school generation after generation, it was safe to say that the division between purebloods, half-bloods, and muggleborns were mere labels created by those who wanted to elevate their status.

Voldemort carefully set up the ritual before shrugging off his outer robes, leaving only a soft black ritual robe over his figure. He watched as Nagini slithered over to her heat-stone, content to guard him and to make sure that there were no interruptions that could endanger him.

He stepped into the drawn circles, with candles on each point, careful to not disturb the bone-dust with which the circle had been formed, and then he sat down with crossed legs and started to meditate. The book had warned him that if the ritual found that he was not ready, then nothing would happen no matter how long he meditated within the circle. Still, patience was needed as it was part of the trial.

An hour later he'd thought that it failed and he was about to give up, but the next moment he felt like he was falling through time and space before he found himself suspended in deep darkness. There was nothing around him, no walls, ceiling, or floors. There was also no sound and when Voldemort tested his own voice, he found that he couldn't make a sound either.

Now usually this would completely freak out most people, but Voldemort found it calming as if he'd found a place where he could just…be. No responsibilities, no need to act, walk or talk in a certain way, it felt amazing, but he did not forget his purpose so he settled for meditating once more.

The floating sensation helped quite a bit and he felt himself slowly sink into an even deeper meditative state. He wondered if the book's trials were to see how long a person would be able to last in a place like this, but a chuckle from behind him soon removed all such thoughts and he spun around or tried to, it was hard to simply just turn and stop when you had nothing to grab onto, or to stop your momentum.

When he finally managed to get his body to face the right way, Voldemort's eyes caught sight of a being that had been seen in many literature and stories over the years, and to his horror, it was also the being that represented the one fear that he knew he had. The fear of death.

The being watched him, but for some reason, Voldemort felt himself slowly calm down. 'I see, at first I believed that you merely feared death, that you feared dying, but what you truly fear, is not being able to change what you know you can…or failing. I had often wondered why Fate thought that you were worthy of him, now I understand.'

Suddenly Death disappeared and the scene around him changed. Voldemort watched in horror as a serpentine version of himself emerged from a cauldron, he saw the madness sticking to that version of himself like a second skin, he saw himself dueling a mere boy, and although the boy managed to escape, it still left behind the question, why was he so caught up on the boy?

He watched the scenes before him as they changed and progressed and finally realized something, it was probably what would have happened, what should have if his mysterious stalker hadn't interfered. The scenes died away as that realization struck him, and he was left in darkness once more. He didn't have to see the end to know that he hadn't survived.

The thing he'd become had been a mere shell and even he shuddered to think what would've become of the world if the boy had been unable to stop him. He hadn't meant for any of that to happen.

He knew where the problem lay, his Horcruxes. The one thing that he'd been so proud about would have been his downfall in the end and if it hadn't been for the Philosopher's stone, he would have completely lost himself.

The darkness around him thickened suddenly as he felt shadows caress his skin and a multitude of hissed voices whispered, "worthy, worthy…worthy of being the Keeper", over and over again. Suddenly the light caresses turned painful as the shadows drilled into his skin, wanting to get inside of him. His entire body burned as the shadows did everything they could to enter his body and it felt like the pain went on for hours until his clouded mind registered that it felt like someone was holding him from behind and whispering soothing words into his ear as he screamed.

He grabbed hold of that thought as his mind sought a way to escape the pain and he found that someone or something was holding him and trying to comfort him.

He didn't know why anyone would bother and his first instinct was to fight it, but it was a welcome distraction from the pain and he tried to turn around to see who, or what, it was, only for them to firmly grab hold of his middle before tucking their head between his shoulder blades.

Voldemort realized two things, firstly the other person was male, going by the firm grip of his arms and the firm body floating behind him, and secondly, the person was about a head shorter than him. There was also the question of how the other person managed to join him within the ritual circle without disturbing the ritual, but that wasn't important at the moment.

The pain finally died down as the shadows settled within him and he felt a strange power humming in the back of his mind, but his entire being was focused on the man behind him as his newly awoken instincts screamed, 'Mine, mate'.

The male behind him seemed to realize that the pain had stopped and Voldemort felt him stiffen before he whispered, "You know, I never got that assurance that you wouldn't AK me once you saw me, so I'll, uh, just go…"

As the last of the sentence registered, Voldemort turned and tried to grab the male, but it was no use, he had already disappeared. Something inside Voldemort wanted to let out a pained whine, but he held it back because the other man's parting words had clued him in on who it had been and he felt determined to find him.

He'd only received two gifts from Ghost, and both gifts had been more valuable than anything he'd ever received so far, combined. He had been wary about the Ghost's intentions, but now they made sense and he wondered whether the other man knew, or if he was just acting on instinct.

The darkness around him slowly disappeared as he came back from wherever he'd been and he opened his eyes slowly to find that his body felt stiff as if he'd been sitting still for hours. He saw Nagini slithering around the perimeter of the ritual circle and knew that it must have been quite a few hours that he'd been away.

Voldemort slowly stood and broke the circle, allowing a worried Nagini to slither up his arm and onto his shoulders. ":: Let uss head to bed, itss been a long night.::"

He carefully placed the book back in its hiding place and headed towards his room, but thoughts of the mysterious Ghost continued to plague him, and he continued to think about the other man even though his body felt exhausted. He kept reliving their short encounter until he finally fell asleep.