Chapter warning. Violence and abuse

Lord Voldemort

Lord Voldemort had been contemplating The Potter Project, as he had taken to calling it in his head, for a few weeks now. The more he thought about the girl, the more they conversed through the link, the more curious he grew about her. She was an enigma.

They had been talking off and on through the link for the past week after her shields had fallen due to exhaustion. It was clear that the girl was weary of his intentions, only a fool wouldn't be, but she was also curious and bored enough to continue bantering with him. Sometimes, they would even answer relatively non-personal questions. Like, he learned that she actually was supposed to be a Slytherin but the Malfoy spawn made her beg for any house that he wasn't in. She also hated most muggles and loathed Dumbledore on nearly the same scale that he, himself, did.

On the other hand, she refused to answer any question about her relatives, why she didn't like muggles, or what Dumbledore had actually done to earn her wrath. It was frustrating and made his curiosity grow. What secrets did the young witch hold? What made her tick? What put the fight in her fighting spirit? He needed to know.

So, he came up with a plan. A plan that came to into being when he finally tracked down the exact location of the Girl-Who-Lived. It may not have been the best plan, nor the most thought out. It was risky and, dare he say it, Gryffindorish. Which means, none of the light side would suspect it of him. Perfect.

Ava Potter

It was safe to say that the young Potter was having a very interesting summer. The first one that she's ever had. And it all came down to someone that she should have considered an enemy. While she didn't consider him a friend yet, it was a close thing. Maybe a frenemy? Or he was just in a category all his own.

Their conversations quickly became the only thing allowing her to make it through her days without going insane. She learned many things about the Dark Side that she had never known. Like what their actual goals are. They weren't looking to decimate, or subjugate muggles. They wanted complete separation as well as a return of Wizarding holidays and traditions and less restrictions on magical creatures.

That all seemed reasonable to her, but she wasn't about to jump aboard the train to the Dark Side without verifying facts. She wasn't stupid, or naive, like she portrayed herself to be. She knew the Dark Lord could be lying, even if she didn't really think so, or even just omitting certain things, which she thought was very likely.

The only reason she had been on the Light Side was because she had thought the Dark Lord was a raving lunatic that would lead their world to ruin. Now that she knew different she would consider herself neutral until she had more information from multiple sources.

Another thing she had learned was that Voldemort had a sarcastic streak that rivaled her own and loved winding her up as much as she did him. That didn't exactly bode well for any future alliance considering they'd most likely end up at each other's throats more often than not just to amuse themselves. She almost felt bad for whoever ended up in the cross-fire. Almost.

With all of that going on, you could say that Ava Potter was nearly enjoying her summer even with her increasing exhaustion due to her workload and the occasional injury resulting from somehow angering her relatives. That is, until a few days before before her 16th birthday.

Ava was mowing the front lawn when she first noticed something suspicious. The couple from across the street in house number 6 was moving out. That in itself wasn't suspicious but the fact that they were heard talking about how the urge to move and experience a newer environment had come upon them suddenly and without warning, was.

Everyone in the neighborhood knew the Kennedys. They were an older couple, unable to have children, and lived in the neighborhood their whole lives without any inclination to leave. The fact that they didn't even stop to really think about their decision to move before they went and bought a house elsewhere was worrying. That they had everything packed and ready to go within two days, even more so.

Ava Potter just knew that her funny luck was acting up again. Something big was about to happen. Her instincts warned her to prepare for a change. She just couldn't decide if it was going to be good or not.

"My neighbors randomly decided to move house this week." Ava lazily thought to an oddly cheerful Dark Lord later that day. "It was unexpected and highly suspicious."

"Oh?" His amusement went up a notch. "Why would I care about the oddness of some random muggles. Or better yet, why do you?"

Ava huffed and rolled onto her stomach on the grass of the back yard. She was locked out for the day again so she decided to lay under the tree for some shade after she finished the yard work.

"It's just odd. And worrying. I don't trust their sudden urge to move when they have never wanted to before."

"Careful Potter. Your paranoia is showing." She could feel his smirk. The urge to wipe it off his face was strong.

"It's not paranoia if they are really out to get you." She thought back with a smirk of her own.

"You'll end up as crazy as Mad-eye Moody by the time you reach majority."

She rolled her eyes and flopped back into her back. "Constant vigilance!"

She felt the man start at her suddenly louder thought and a laugh burst from her lips at the irritation she felt come from him.

"Why I put up with you is beyond me."

"I'm vastly entertaining." She knew she had an unrepentant smile on her face.

"Vastly irritating." Was the grumbled repose but she could feel his reluctant amusement anyway.

The link closed off after that and Ava was content to just lay on the ground and watch as the sky steadily got darker. It would be another hour before her relatives got home and let her back in. She cooked them their dinner and retired to her room with her sandwich and settled in for a relatively peaceful night.

She should have known her good mood wouldn't last.

Shadows surrounded her in a sea of endless darkness as voices whispered around her. Some words she couldn't make out, and some she wished she couldn't.

Kill the spare

Freak

Ungrateful little monster

I killed Sirius, I killed Sirius

There was a prophecy

Neither can live while the other survives

Stand aside girl

Not Ava! Please, kill me instead!

Pup

Sirius!

Avada kadavra

Images accompanied each voice, swirling around her at dizzying speeds. Cedric's lifeless eyes, uncle Vernon's purple, enraged face, aunt Petunia's disgusted sneer, Bellatrix cackling as she ran through the ministry, Dumbledore's fake sympathetic face, Trelawney's hoarse voice, an older Tom Riddle as her enemy, her mother's pleading face, her godfather falling through the veil as she desperately called for him. And then a green light that was blinding.

Ava woke with a scream.

She hadn't even been able to gather her bearings before her door was flung open with such force it nearly flew off the hinges. She was grabbed roughly by the hair and her teary, green eyes met the furious, beady ones of her uncle. His hair was messed up from sleep and he was in his night clothes, proving that her nightmares had once again woken him up.

He flung her across the room like she weighed nothing and her small body slammed against the rickety wardrobe, nearly shattering its doors with the force. Her vision blurred for a moment and her head spun. She could hear her uncle yelling at her but it was like static in her ears.

He grabbed her again and forced her to the ground with his beefy hands wrapped around her thin neck. It took a minute for the lack of oxygen to catch up to her and she almost detachedly came to the realization that her uncle was strangling her. It wouldn't be the first time that he choked her into unconsciousness. She didn't fight it. When she was knocked unconscious, she never dreamed.

She almost smiled when the blackness took over her eyesight and her mind when blissfully blank.

She was locked into her room the next day and unable to get out. She didn't mind. Her body throbbed from its meeting with the wardrobe the night before and she could use the reprieve from the manual labor.

Her neck was swollen and breathing was a bit difficult so she just laid on her bed and stared at the ceiling. She hadn't had a nightmare in a couple of weeks. Not since she started talking to the Dark Lord at any rate. So she had been completely caught off guard by the intensity of the last one.

Her mind was so chaotic that she made sure to keep the Link completely closed for the day. Not that it really mattered. She could feel the Dark Lords distraction before she had closed it off.

A part of her was curious about what he was up to, but the larger part of her just wanted to curl up and ignore the world for a while. So that's what she did.

It wasn't until her birthday, a few days later, that anything changed. She had been in her room that whole time besides that one bathroom break a day that she was allowed. She hadn't eaten anything in that time which was obviously her punishment for waking up her normal relatives with her freakish nightmares. She looked like she had an eating disorder by then.

The door suddenly opening drew her attention as her aunt stood in the doorway with her usual sneer.

"We have a new neighbor. Cover up that hideous bruise and take a pie over. Invite them to afternoon tea and then make yourself scarce."

Ava reached up to rub at her neck with a grimace as her aunt left. Though she couldn't see it, she knew it was badly busied. The skin felt tight and it hurt to even swallow. How she was expected to actually speak to this new neighbor was beyond her. She'd wing it, she supposed.

With a slightly depressed sigh she got up to use the bathroom and then to find some type of scarf to cover her neck.

She hadn't talked to the Dark Lord in the three days she had been on lock down. She had felt him poke at the connection on the second day, obviously done with whatever had distracted him, but she hadn't answered, just tightened her barriers in a clear unwillingness to talk.

He hadn't attempted to talk again that day.

Then yesterday he kept poking at her with annoying constancy. He wouldn't take no for an answer and she ended up with a headache by the time he gave up.

It wasn't like she didn't want to talk to him. She just knew she was weak, both in body and mind, at the moment and knew that if she talked to him she would end up revealing much more about herself and her circumstance then she ever intended to. She couldn't take that chance when she didn't fully trust him yet. So no matter how tempting it was, she wouldn't talk to him until she was healed.

She could feel his annoyance at being ignored even with her strengthened barriers. For once, it didn't amuse her.

After finding a piece of cloth that could somewhat pass for a scarf, Ava grabbed a pie, that her aunt had obviously bought at a store and was trying to pass off as her own creation, and headed across the street. As she neared the house, her eyes narrowed. She hadn't forgotten her suspicions about this place, and paranoid or not, something didn't feel quite right with it.

With caution she approached the door and rang the bell. She was very unprepared for what greeted her when the door opened.

The man was undeniably handsome. He was in his early thirties with pure black hair and rich brown eyes that had a tint of red to them. His face was aristocratic with high cheekbones and a narrow, straight nose. A smirk twisted his perfectly cherry red lips and his whole being gave off an arrogant yet powerful vibe.

He was an older version to the Tom Marvolo Riddle she had met her second year.

Now she really wanted to wipe that smirk off his face.

She settled for a surprised "oh." And then dropped into a dead faint.