Summary: Scarlett Potter vanquished Voldemort and won the war, but felt dead inside ever since. After being murdered by muggles, she finds out what the title of Mistress of Death really means and uncovers the many benefits that come with it. Starting again in a Universe where Grindelwald is the Dark Lord that killed her parents, what will Scarlett do differently?
Pairings: TMR/Fem!HP
Disclaimer: I don't own anything. Some scenes were inspired by other fanfiction writers... if anything has been done before I most likely have gotten my ideas from there.
Warning: Blood, gore, violence.
Part 1 - Chapter 1
When Grindelwald heard about a prophecy concerning a Dark Lord he immediately assumed that it was about himself. He didn't even stop to consider the possibility that it might have been about his 'apprentice' Lord Voldemort. By the end of the 31st of October, he would regret that.
The prophecy predicted the birth of a child at the end of July with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord. Grindelwald wasn't taking any chances. He immediately set to work: he would get rid of the threat before it became a real problem. There were two babies that fit the requirements of the prophecy, but Grindelwald concluded that it had to be the Potter child as it was born the very last day of July, whereas Longbottom was born on the 30th.
Prophecy child chosen, Grindelwald gathered up his forces and sent them out to find where the Potters were hiding. That day, Wormtail finally proved his usefulness as, in a moment of glory, he gleefully announced that the Potters were only protected by the Fidelius Charm and he had been made Secret Keeper. Grindelwald, delighted at the news, promised to reward Wormtail upon his return from destroying the Prophecy child.
And so Grindelwald set off for the Potter residence. He quickly disposed of the father, the mother and then he turned his wand on little Scarlett Potter. He was surprised to see her staring intently at him, a smirk on her baby face. Surely that couldn't be right… babies don't smirk. Her gaze seemed almost challenging to him, but Grindelwald thought nothing of it, raising his wand for the third time.
"Avada Kedavra!" he shouted and then he knew no more.
When Grindelwald came to again, he was just a bodiless spirit and he could clearly see that Scarlett Potter was still alive, nothing but a lightning bolt shaped scar on her forehead showed that she had just been hit by the deadliest curse. With a giggle that sounded far too creepy for a small baby, Scarlett gave an exaggerated yawn and settled back in her cot, closing her eyes and going to sleep, completely dismissing Grindelwald as a threat. He had never been more insulted in his life!
Shaking with rage and resentment, Grindelwald fled the scene vowing revenge.
Scarlett Potter slept peacefully on.
When Scarlett woke up again, she found herself chilled to the bone and sitting outside her aunt's front door.
'Just great,' she thought, suppressing a shiver. She couldn't believe Dumbledore left her out in the cold! Without even a warming charm! How she hated that man. Was he trying to kill her? Just when she thought she was actually going to die from frostbite, the front door opened and she was nearly made deaf by Petunia's shrill scream.
Scarlett saw her aunt look down at her in horror and she smiled sweetly at her, fluttering her eyelashes and helpfully holding out the envelope for her to take. This only seemed to terrify Petunia who quickly grabbed Scarlett, throwing her in the cupboard under the stairs and banging the door shut.
Scarlett blinked in shock at the treatment and decided that this time around she would make their lives hell.
Scarlett first called Death when she was three years old. She'd been starved for four whole days and she couldn't take anymore.
"Death?" she rasped unsurely.
Death materialised instantly in front of her. "My Lady don't you look adorable?" it cooed.
Scarlett just glared at it. "Get me some food," she commanded.
"As my Lady wishes," and with a snap of its fingers a small feast appeared in front of Scarlett.
She hungrily ate a chunk of bread before she turned to Death again.
"Since you're here, is there a way to get rid of the horcrux in my forehead?"
"Of course my Lady," it said, rather condescendingly. "I can easily transfer it to a different container for you."
"Hmmm… I think I'll keep it for now," Scarlett decided. "You never know when I might need to peak into old Grindy's head," she smirked rather evilly for a three-year-old.
Death cackled gleefully. It snapped its fingers and Scarlett's scar pulsed for a second.
"What was that?" she asked suspiciously.
"Just making sure that you won't feel too much pain when you are near him, my Lady," Death crooned. "It might heat up when he's in the vicinity though," it added as an afterthought.
"Thank you, Death."
Scarlett saw a flash of white in the darkness as Death grinned sinisterly.
"Is that all my Lady?"
"Yes, you can go now, thank you."
Death disappeared without a sound.
Scarlett was four the first time she killed someone.
She'd been practising her wandless magic and training her core, which she had discovered was very large and very dark. Thankfully she was able to mask it so as not to raise suspicion. After all it wouldn't do for the Light's Saviour to have a completely black core.
Anyway, back to her first murder. Scarlett wanted to find an effective way to get her relatives to behave without actually harming them. It would be too suspicious if they all suddenly died and she wanted to savour killing them. She'd decided that it would be a lovely present to herself for her seventeenth birthday.
On the other hand, she had no qualms about disposing of Marge. Scarlett loathed her. She would be the one to die. The perfect opportunity presented itself when her dearest aunt came to visit one weekend.
Marge had sauntered into the house followed by her favourite bulldog, Ripper. The first thing she did was to 'jokingly' shout at Ripper to attack Scarlett. Scarlett smiled serenely as Ripper ran towards her and stopped millimetres from her face. She lovingly stroked him, hypnotically staring into his eyes and whispering in his ear as her relatives watched her completely gobsmacked. Just as they seemed to snap out of their shock, Marge shouting at her to let go of her innocent baby, Scarlett smirked, her expression completely bloodthirsty, and stepped away from the dog.
"Attack," she said mockingly, echoing Marge's earlier command, but imbuing her words with magic.
Ripper started growling as he turned to look at his owner and, before anyone could say another word, he had crossed the room and jumped on Marge making her fall to the floor with a scream that only increased in volume as Ripper, true to his namesake, ripped her to shreds. Only when Marge stopped moving, obviously dead, her throat having been ripped out, did Ripper stop. He ran back to Scarlett with an arm and deposited it at her feet, wagging his tail.
"Good boy," she purred, stroking his blood-soaked fur. She looked up at her relatives, that she had silenced and immobilised so that they didn't disturb Ripper's meal, and smiled sweetly, so sweetly that it was impossible to believe that she'd just had a part in killed someone.
"I'm in charge now," she declared, watching them with eerie, glowing eyes. She grinned, satisfied when they immediately nodded, their eyes cast to the floor in submission. After that Scarlett had no problems controlling her relatives, only occasionally having to flare her magic and pin them against the wall to remind them who was in charge.
It had been too easy.
She only regretted that she hadn't been able to keep Ripper as he'd been blamed for the whole ordeal and put down for the murder. She'd definitely liked him more in this universe.
Oh well, some things couldn't be helped.
Scarlett excelled in school and was loved by all her teachers who she charmed with sweet words and cute smiles. Everyone she met was soon under her spell, only her relatives being aware of how dangerous she actually was.
Finding primary school subjects extremely easy, she was a grown woman after all, Scarlett entertained herself with other things. She discovered a love of music and learned to play the piano and the violin. She studied a few different languages and she took up archery and knife throwing, which she fell in love with immediately, especially knife throwing; in fact, she now carried at least one knife with her everywhere she went.
Scarlett's absolute favourite hobby though was muggle hunting. She started doing it when she was six and she'd been cornered by a disgusting man that wanted to take advantage of her. Scarlett played along and followed him to his house where she proceeded to kill him. It had been very messy and very satisfying.
Scarlett only went after criminals and 'bad' people first, justifying the murders to herself as ridding the world of scum; however, after she killed a woman, whose only crime was to startle her by sneezing too loudly next to her, Scarlett admitted if only to herself that she had become rather bloodthirsty. She really had changed.
She didn't go out of her way to kill innocent people and she never touched children, but deep down she knew that muggles would one day wage war on them; so really, she was just gaining a head start.
What made her numerous murders even more addicting was the knowledge and skills that she gained after each one. She had been especially pleased after she'd realised that an assassin she'd murdered had an eidetic memory so her memory and her Occlumancy skills improved drastically as she was so much more clear-headed.
The summer of her eighth birthday Scarlett persuaded the Dursleys to take her on a trip around the world and during that time she killed a few foreigners and easily perfected quite a few useful languages. That summer had definitely been one of the best. It had been especially amusing to see the Dursleys looking extremely tense and pale every time they had to sit next to her on a plane. "They are terribly afraid of flying," Scarlett would always murmur to the hostesses, her relatives grimacing and giving stiff nods in confirmation.
The three years after that, Scarlett hunted down a few magical creatures. When she'd been visiting Italy, she'd had a run in with a naughty vampire that wanted to bite her, but when he got too close she'd impaled him on one of her daggers, killing him and gaining his perfect vision, finally being able to get rid of her annoying glasses. What a rush that had been! It's also what led her to seek out a few other beings, only targeting those that really deserved it and wouldn't be missed, she didn't want to cause trouble with other magical races after all. By the time she was eleven she'd gained a veela's allure, a vampire's perfect vision and shadow travel abilities, a werewolf's sense of smell and a siren's voice. All in all, Scarlett felt ready to make her grand return to magical Britain.
The day Scarlett received her Hogwarts letter, she told her aunt to write back to the school and tell them that she required an escort to Diagon Alley as she'd been informed of her heritage but as muggles they hadn't been able to explain everything.
As Scarlett got ready for her first day back into the magical world, she excitedly wondered who they would send to introduce the Girl-Who-Lived to British magical society. She assumed that Hagrid would once again be the one to retrieve her or maybe Snape or McGonagall. She had plans on how to deal with all of three of them and was sure that she'd have whichever one they sent wrapped around her little finger by the end of the day.
However, nothing could have prepared her to find none other than Tom Riddle AKA Lord Voldemort standing outside her door.
A/N: Happy Sunday! Yes, I changed her name because I didn't like how the old one sounded. I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Let me know what you think :)
Coming up: Tom and Scarlett's reactions to meeting one other for the first time and their trip to Gringotts is far more interesting than either of them could have predicted.