"Crucio!"
The wizard in front of him screamed and rolled on the ground in agonizing pain. He held the spell for a good ten seconds before releasing it, the pitiful figure continued to whimper on the floor. The other wizards in the room kept their gazes down, trying to avoid their Lord's wrath.
Voldemort turned around and raised his wand vertically in front of him. Again he noticed the tip of the wand trembling, even more than the last time he performed the curse. He had more and more problems channelling his magical energy through the vessel he had taken over. He had performed rituals, he had brewed and drank potions, recipes of his own creation that were the pinnacle of his years of researching ways of making himself more powerful. But still, it was not enough, without the philosopher's stone he would not be able to improve this body to an acceptable level.
On the contrary, each day he felt it became slightly more difficult to produce his normal power. A light dizziness, trembling hands, a short breath,… all symptoms that this vessel had it difficult to maintain his supreme magical form. Regular casting of powerful spells was a good exercise, which was one of the main reasons he regularly crucioed one of his followers. An added bonus was that afterwards every person in the room would avoid looking at him, they would not notice the increasingly awkward signs that he was struggling.
He was worried though, some of his more observant, smarter followers were already starting to pay attention. He could swear that Lucius' gaze was lingering on him longer when he performed his usual intimidating spells. He could not tolerate this much longer, he had to find the stone, improve this body and reap the other benefits that the artefact would offer.
Intimidation was key, once you were a Dark Lord with loyal followers, you did not have to perform too much work. You just sent out some of your followers to handle things, for most tasks there was someone capable amongst his death eaters, it was mostly a question of selecting the right persons for the job. But there was a danger to this, if things went too well and you delegated everything to capable hands, some of your followers would end up getting delusional ideas, ambitions that would eventually reach to the very top of the organisation.
So sometimes you had to do exactly the opposite, you gave some wizards a mission that would stretch them to their limits. When one of them eventually failed, you would step in yourself and show them how it was done and who was the Lord. At that point, an element of showmanship was required. It was actually observing Dumbledore that had made this clear to him, the colourful clothes, the overuse of transfiguration, the one-liners just before casting important spells,… It was all designed to draw attention, to capture his audience of 'light' followers. If you perform a great magical feat, be sure that the world notices.
Over the years he had perfected his own routines to impress followers. Torturing people that had 'disappointed' you, maniacal laughter, speaking some parseltongue and snakes that performed menial tasks were some elements that helped to capture the audience. In his magical feats he focused heavily on visually impressive spells, like dark mist or flame tornados and on psychological effects, like raising inferi or controlling dementors. Those were the performances that kept the troops in line.
He had been able to reestablish his organisation quickly based on the lingering fear for him that had been present in Great Britain. Once he had acquired his wand, called on his pure blood followers that formed the core of the organisation and performed some of his impressive theatrics, everybody had been bowing and trembling before him. But if this body would start to degenerate further through the magical load that he was forcing on it, performing on his usual level would become more difficult and his followers would lose faith. Once the girl and her pesky bird were located, he would handle things himself, this was simply too important to delegate.
Just when he was going to turn around for another round of torture, he felt a sharp pain on his left arm. Gregory Goyle who was stationed near Greengrass manor was calling on him, he knew he was only allowed to do that if he spotted the girl. Voldemort grinned, time to capture a stone. And why not solve another problem?" Lucius, follow me, we have some business to attend to." Intimidating the blond wizard with his power would be an added positive effect on this day. "Very well my Lord", his loyal death eater followed him to the apparition point.
When they arrived he quickly took stock of the situation, the girl was in the middle of the garden, talking to some scrawny boy. "Gregory, who is that second child over there?" he inquired.
"The name of that boy is unknown to me my Lord, but it appears to be a crow animagus, he landed in the garden and transformed." his follower answered.
The crow was a wizard? That was an unexpected development, but no time to dwell on this now. He closed his eyes for a moment, sensing the protective wards that surrounded the garden and the invisible manor. Soon he felt the layers around the property, a normal curse breaker would need a few hours to break this protection, but he was Lord Voldemort. Time to put on a show, he formed a semi-circle with his wand that ended with a sharp stabbing motion forward that ripped the wards apart. A purple wave of energy rippled through the dome protecting the property as it failed.
He closed his eyes for the moment, to add to the dramatic effect and to conceal the fact that his head was spinning from the effort. No doubt alarms where being set off and Cyrus Greengrass would notice his failed wards, but it would not matter, now he would take the child and be gone.
After a few seconds he recomposed himself and opened his eyes. The two children in the garden where staring at him, frightened by the light and sound of the failed wards. But soon the girl yelled to the boy, "Come on Harry, we have to get to the house, follow me!"
Harry? That was an interesting name, surely it could not be… No time to ponder now. He saw her running away, while the boy indeed transformed into a crow and started flying behind her. "Goyle, take your broom and capture that crow, I would very much like to speak to him. Lucius, throw up an anti-apparation ward."
He started walking over, a dark Lord did not run, while he made a slashing arc motion with his wand. A wall of fire appeared in front of the two escaping figures, blocking off there escape over the ground and through the air. The girl came to a halt and turned around, a panicked look on her face as she realised he was approaching. The crow flew away, but he ignored it for the moment, his followers would have to deal with that.
He could feel the strain of maintaining the fire wall, better keep this next part simple, a normal stupefy would have to suffice. He cast the red spell, but before it reached its target a black shape fell from the sky and stopped it. The stupid bird apparently knew some tricks and was coming to help the girl, who had taken out her wand and started throwing hexes at him. He waved his left hand and stopped the leg-locking spell and the stinging hex that she sent to him. Honestly, what did they teach the kids at Hogwarts these days? If he was in charge of Britain, some darker spells were going to be part of the curriculum.
But this had gone long enough, he threw two more stupefies and a body bind curse to the girl, but through some aerial acrobatics, the crow was again able to stop them. That is it, this creature had annoyed him long enough, also this would start to become humiliating when the goals was to impress his followers. He did not really need this boy alive, time for one of his signature spells, let's see how you stop this one, little bird: "Avada Kedavra!"
Daphne was panicking, the Dark Lord was in their garden! Somehow she had never truly taken the threat seriously, why would he be interested in her? But yet there he was in front of her. She could feel the heat of a firewall behind her and observe the dark figure approaching. Dread had courageously stopped some of the spells and was circling in front of her, but how long would he be able to do that?
Then she heard the unforgivable words and saw a green spell flying towards her, everyone in their society new that spell. She started moving her body aside, but knew she would not be able to avoid it. In the last moment Dread threw himself in the path, in front of her eyes her familiar, her friend, stopped the sickly green spell. Daphne landed on her shoulder and saw the little creature fall on the ground. She reached out and grabbed the bird, feeling the live energy leaving the small body. This would be the end for them.
But after a few moments she noticed the strange silence surrounding them, also the heat behind her had stopped. When she looked over at her attacker she saw that the Dark Lord had fallen down as well, behind him two figures in black robes and white masks were approaching slowly. "My Lord," one of them stammered, "are you alright?" She saw the body of the Dark Lord moving as he slowly tried to get up, this was her chance, she got on her feet and started running again, holding her fallen friend in her arms.
She heard the weak voice of the Dark Lord behind her stammer, "Get her.", but no new wall of fire appeared in front of her. On the contrary, before her eyes she saw a welcome sight, her parents and some wizards in auror robes appeared in front of her. They started casting spells to her attackers, she heard a voice behind her shout, get on the brooms. When she looked back she saw two figures flying away as the dark Lord was hit by several spells.
Soon her mother reached her and she was scooped up in her warm, protective arms. "Oh my sweet girl," she cried, "are you hurt?".
She started sobbing in her arms, "Mum, I am fine, but Dread,… Harry,… he is dead." Around them more and more people appeared in the garden, but Daisy Greengrass was just holding her daughter with her dead familiar in her hands, comforting and sheltering her.