Not Me
Written by Chibikan
DISCLAIMER: The only thing I own are maybe a few OC's and you'll know them the minute you meet them.
Chapter One:
The red-eyed man returned to his study in his manor. His heart was still beating a rapid tattoo inside his chest. A small pudgy man with a silver hand hurried to his side carrying a tray of food, not unlike a house-elf.
"Master! You have returned!" He had been all too aware that his master had left the house for a brief time. He hurriedly placed the tray on the table next to the fine chair. He got a glimpse of his master's face. He had never seen a twinkle in his master's eye, like he did today, nor had he ever seen his master smile a genuine smile that had nothing to do with the death of one of his foes or of a muggle or muggleborn. It was a little disturbing. "Ummm, I brought you, your breakfast."
The distracted red-eyes seemed to regain focus. "Oh Wormtail, thank you."
"You're welcome Master," He said back, automatically before doing a mental double take. "As you predicted, Master, the ones who were imprisoned, they have escaped."
"Thank you Wormtail. Yes, I knew they'd escape. Very good, very good. This pleases me."
This sentence did little to quell the fear inside the pudgy man. It was a little more like the Dark Lord he knew, but the tone was too congenial. "Ummm, would you like to call a meeting?"
Voldemort appeared to think and think hard. And a light bulb appeared to go on in his head. Wormtail could not help but wonder what his master was thinking. "Yes, actually. Send them owls and tell them to apparate to this address at once."
That was definitely out of character. But instead of testing this strange attitude, Wormtail decided to hurry out to do as told. At least he'd made it out without a cruciatus curse thrown at him.
Meanwhile, Harry woke up in his bed in the Hospital Wing. He felt a hole in his heart bigger than anything. His godfather was dead. How was he going to get over this? He felt like crying again but just before the tears began to fall he was hit with an odd sensation. His heart seemed to be working overtime, his stomach was tossing and turning, his head felt light, but…..the thing that made it odd was the fact that he felt happy about it. What the heck. All feelings of grief disappeared
The meeting began with all the death eaters very confused. They never before had been given an address to apparate to. The Hogwart's Potions Master, a spy for Dumbledore, was especially surprised. What was going on, what was their master thinking? What was running through his head.
"My followers, I'm sure many of you are confused. Many are probably scared of punishment for last night 's little fiasco. But this meeting is not to punish anyone. Last night was actually fairly successful. The ex-auror Sirius Black is dead and Harry Potter is probably nothing more than a weeping pile of goo right now. I count that as a job well done. No, we didn't get the prophecy, but that is all well and good, after all it was made by that old bat Trelawney, correct Severus?" At the man's confused nod, Voldemort continued. "And it wasn't your fault anyway, Bella. That clumsy boy of Dumbledore's dropped it."
Several of the inner circle began to discreetly back away. Something was wrong here. Something was very, very wrong. And they wanted to be far away when the shit hit the fan.
"Well, that is what I really wanted to say. You are all dismissed. Oh, except you Lucius, do stick around."
As directed the blonde stayed while everyone else apparated away. He had to admit, he was more than just a little wary. Not only was the failure the night before mostly his fault (even though he said that there was no need for punishment) but the Dark Lord was acting strange. He remained silent and waited for his master's orders.
Voldemort grinned, already sending a red flag. "Lucius, you are the best at finding out personal information about a person, is that right?" For lack anything to say, Lucius simply nodded. "There is a young woman in the village. I wish you to find out everything you can about her. She has long gold-blonde hair, blue eyes, has a sort of an Audrey Hepburn face."
"Ummm, what sort of information are you looking for. Strategic information is Severus' field."
"Yes, Severus is best at that and would have been my choice if I was looking for that. What I'm looking for is specifics. Her name, how old is she, when's her birthday, what things does she think, what doesn't she like, her family life, that sort of thing."
If Lucius had not had his mask on, one would have seen his eyes go wide. Why would Voldemort want that information. It would no good if he planned on abducting and torturing her. But who was he to question the Dark Lord. "Yes Master, I will go at once."
AN: End of chapter one, not a whole lot going on yet. But there will be much going on in later chapters. Get ready for a new Voldemort, even more so than this chapter suggests. Cupid's arrow found the bull's eye.
COMING SOON: Voldemort finds out more about the woman, and comes up with a plan to win her heart.