Chapter Two
Plans Change
Voldemort had many ideas of how he would take over the world, the main one being a step-by-step process that he had carefully planned and cultivated decades ago. Not much had changed in those plans, though if he tried to explain the convoluted plots he developed over a lifetime, it would look something more like a web than a true plot. At this stage of his ambitions, however, two things stood in his way that might necessitate a change in his formula: Albus Dumbledore, and (shockingly) Harry Potter.
[MURDER THEM CRUSH THEM]
Dumbledore posed a threat in politics, social influence, and direct combat. Right now, the Ministry of Magic was doing everything they could to discredit him, and that worked in Voldemort's favor. Voldemort could see the Ministry successfully neutering him in their endeavors at a political level, although he was not sure how successful they would be in eliminating all positive regard the public held for the Vanquisher of Grindelwald. Even without the support of political allies or the holding of political office, Dumbledore would still possess many connections that he could use without needing much more than a gentle suggestion or wise remark. At least half of the original Order of the Phoenix still lived, and they themselves produced powerful, young, talented future-members whereas many of Voldemort's followers had either been reduced to prisoners in Azkaban and all that encompassed, or produced weak offspring that were little better than Squib in magic or little more than an idiot in intelligence. Voldemort had eyes and ears amongst their number—in the form of Snape—but that was a delicate maneuver. Information was possibly more important than any singular sabotaged effort Snape could curate, and it would indeed only be a singular act that would oust him as a spy. Voldemort found himself begrudgingly impressed with the conundrum Dumbledore presented him with. He hated relying on the Ministry for anything, but Minister Fudge was a frightened rabbit in office who would do half of the work for him with only the barest of suggestions from Lucius.
Harry Potter, on the other hand, was another matter entirely.
Too young to take up the Potter Lordship, Potter's only influence or power came through the media. The media itself was working just as hard to dismantle the boy's reputation as they were Dumbledore's. Voldemort found this to be an ideal situation and did not want to do a single thing about it. The Dark Lord wished that he could leave the matter of Potter at that because it was simply ridiculous to have to acknowledge a partially and ineptly trained child as a serious opponent, but there was little else he could do. The damnable child had already thwarted him four times in just as many years, and Voldemort simply could not accept the risk of future losses. It was not a matter of pride—although that did smart—but a matter of practicality. Voldemort wanted to simply kill the boy and be done with him forever.
Fate had other plans for him, as it came to pass, one evening when Snape delivered earth-quaking news about the machinations of Dumbledore.
"Severus, you claim that a fourteen-year-old boy has a mental connection to me, yet you have not explained how Dumbledore believes this came to be," Voldemort said warily. He sat at his desk in Malfoy Manor, wearing his visage of humanity. He had been expecting a report because Snape hinted at this meeting being far more important than previous ones. This suspicion on Snape's part was correct because he discovered that the boy had been delivered safely home, and was given a complete communications blackout whilst Dumbledore gathered his old members and worked on recruitment of new ones. None of that was particularly new information, although the inclusion of Auror Nymphadora Tonks was…interesting. Voldemort knew little of the woman, but any relative of Bellatrix posed a risk against his plans; and that was without including her metamorphmagus abilities. The only non-standard bit of information came after the meeting when Snape took the initiative to question Dumbledore's approach of handling Potter. This led to a conversation that illuminated a curious circumstance: Potter had seen Voldemort's stirrings under Pettigrew's care throughout the entire year, and Dumbledore feared that mental link could go both ways. Voldemort himself had no idea what could have caused such a connection or how he might use it, but evidently the headmaster had some inkling as to its nature.
"I do not understand it myself, my Lord. Headmaster Dumbledore is of the mind that any information Potter possesses is also accessible by you," Snape reiterated. "The safe house is not yet prepared to handle such a leak of Order knowledge, and he fears that his loss as Supreme Mugwump is imminent and that will lead to more variables and resources falling out of his control. With so much at risk, he wants to keep Potter with his relatives, where he insists is the safest place for him to be amidst the turmoil. Many of the core members agree with this decision, but the rest of them are conflicted over the matter of what he is being told."
Voldemort drummed his fingers against the table thoughtfully. He wondered to what extent the boy was isolated from current events. He lived with muggles, and if the Order of the Phoenix and his friends were telling him nothing, his only source of knowledge would be papers. Voldemort doubted the boy was even receiving those, because Lucius had attempted to find an address through a subscription of several papers and came across none. Voldemort found it humorous that the boy likely had no idea that there was a smear campaign against him and Dumbledore both, but it was of no concern. Simply humorous.
"Did Dumbledore specify anything that could corroborate Potter's claims? As you have said, the child is often imaginative. I recall that he even thought you were the one after the Philosopher Stone."
Snape did not so much as twitch at the reminder. Voldemort had doubted Snape's loyalty in those days, so clearly Dumbledore's lackey, but Snape was a complicated man with complicated desires, and as long as he catered to the majority of them, Snape could be controlled. Voldemort saw the irritation of Potter regarding him as the villain; how must it feel when the child of the man you hate and the child of the woman you loved thought the worst of you? Voldemort didn't have the ability to empathize with that, but sometimes he toyed with the idea of undoing all that Harry Potter was and giving the broken, blank boy to Snape to care for. It would be a wonderful gift for the Potions Master, and worthy revenge for Voldemort.
"Supposedly he saw Nagini's poison sustaining you. From her perspective."
Foresight and astral projection were simple explanations for Potter seeing something that had occurred. While uncommon abilities, they were not outside the realm of possibility. Voldemort preferred the mundane explanation because these were things he could exploit and manipulate Potter for very easily. Unfortunately, neither ability explained why Potter viewed him through Nagini's eyes.
"Curiouser and curiouser," Voldemort quoted. He did not know how to feel about the unknown. The unknown was frightening, but the idea of exploration into the unknown thrilled him. "Did the headmaster say anything else about this connection? Anything that might indicate he knows the origin or cause of such a connection?"
"Only that he believes it was forged on the night of his survival thirteen years ago," Snape replied. "And that his connection extended to the diary Miss Weasley used to open the Chamber of Secrets."
Voldemort's crimson gaze snapped onto him like a torpedo targeting a submarine.
"What?"
[ANGER HOT UGLY]
::
If Lucius Malfoy wasn't such a valuable asset to Voldemort's ascension as world conqueror, he would be dead. As it was, Voldemort set the Lestranges to the task of punishing him so that he could devise a new method of handling the Boy Who Lived. In light of Snape's summarization of the full events of the Chamber of Secrets Debacle, Voldemort's careful plans needed radical tweaking in the current phase, and he did not feel confident that it wouldn't cause a cascade effect down the line requiring him to adjust all of his steps. Voldemort hated the certainty he possessed concerning Potter's new status as valuable, and the singular redeeming point in this mess came in the fact that this celebrity was underage and woefully under protected in every way except anonymity outside of school.
Voldemort hated any part of reversing his decisions concerning Potter: Voldemort's new plan required the media to leave Potter alone and sympathize with the boy, to take the ignorance and make it a fine-tuned weapon, to harness the boy's innate talents for thwarting plots so he could aim it elsewhere. Most of all, Voldemort hated looking at Potter's situation and analyzing his entire guardianship as a gross mismanagement of care. It made something inside him burn because Dumbledore did much the same to him, hadn't he?
[BETTER I BE THE ONE TO SHAPE THIS CHILD]
[I ACHE BECAUSE I KNOW HIS PAIN]
Potter's connection to the Diary meant he was connected to the Dark Lord's very soul. Voldemort easily parsed that this "connection" made Potter one of his Horcruxes. The Dark Lord needed Potter in his possession, well-guarded (preferably on his side and well-trained to keep himself safe as well). Ideally, he wanted the boy immortal as well, but Voldemort did not know if the presence of a Horcrux meant it tied Potter to him already, or if it would hinder the tearing of the boy's soul.
All of these considerations forced Voldemort's thirst for revenge to the back burner, for the time-being. Loath as he was to admit it, he needed to take care of Potter in a nonviolent way. He could easily induce a magically-induced coma that would do all of those things and ease his thirst a little, but Nagini could defend herself, and proved herself extremely useful. The practical wizard inside of Voldemort wanted that for Potter.
Although Voldemort liked to think of himself as a master of manipulation. He already planned on making Potter subservient to his whims; what if it took it a step further and made the boy genuinely his loyal Horcrux? A willing servant sounded nice, but twisting Potter until he was a loyal friend sounded even better. Voldemort's "friends" did so much for him in the name of friendship. What would Potter give him?
Before Voldemort could make an grand plans of manipulation, he first needed to find a way to put Potter under his thumb in the first place. And this is where his age made him so very exploitable, an advantage Dumbledore used, but not to its fullest. Perhaps the man found it distasteful, perhaps he truly did not care about the boy; whatever the reason, it left the boy ripe for the picking. As a wizard not yet of age, Potter's fate did not belong to him. It belonged to whoever held his custody. The lack of action against the newspaper indicated the most public point of negligence of his legal custodian, but more importantly, it lured everyone into a certain mindset. Potter's guardians were muggle relatives. Honorable wixen would not dare to think of removing him from family. Traditionalists, Moderates, and Progressives would all leave a neglected child with family because that is what they all grew up believing. They also likely thought the muggles ignorant of such things and would never even dream of looking into it. Radicals like Voldemort's people might see it as an oversight, but they would be more likely to try hunting down the relatives and killing them; all of these people were Traditionalists and came from long line of witches and wizards and had no idea how to navigate the muggle world. Thus, the family remained anonymous. In one way or another, Potter's custodians, who made all legal decisions concerning him, were untouchable in the minds of most people. Voldemort did not fall into the category of most people.
Regardless of how ignorant or how negligent these muggles truly were, Voldemort knew he could threaten, coerce, and control them easily. Once found, he knew that they would hand over Potter's guardianship with little fuss, and if he put the fear of Merlin in them, they would never resurface again. He would be free to do whatever he wanted with Potter.
But what would a Dark Lord do with his nemesis's guardianship once in-hand? How would it benefit him the most?
Voldemort knew he wanted a contract. He could make one completely customized, but the older the type used, the fewer loopholes one could find. Wardships, for example existed all the way back to the time of Robin Hood, and Maid Marion was a prime example. It was an uncommon, but extant type of contract that he knew was reliable and iron-clad. Voldemort didn't particularly want a child to raise, though, and a wardship only lasted until a child became of age. He needed something less temporary. An Armistice felt like the logical course of action, but it did not allow him to bind Potter closely to him in a relationship of any kind. He wanted Potter to be something like Nagini: reliable, independent, subservient, but still close to an equal. It would take point to get Potter there, but the contract needed to allow for all of those things. An Armistice, like a Wardship, and Apprenticeship, only lasted a finite time. Usually a specific action ended the contract, like using an Unforgiveable against one another. Voldemort needed something that would be as eternal as he planned to be.
Contracts that lasted for an eternity did not exist. Voldemort knew this for a fact. Marriage contracts, on the other hand, did last as long as the two parties lived. The older ones did not include clauses for divorce, and the more barbaric ones put the younger or impoverished spouse in a position of inequality. Voldemort found some of these things ideal, but it was not until he came across examples of a War Bride (modernly changed to spouse as the connotation of a girl being taken, or a boy being taken and robbed of manhood) Marriage Contract. It was one of the few that did not explicitly state consummation required, bound the two people together in life, and required a degree of inequality that could be changed at the whim of the spouse with a higher status. It also prevented any attempts of murder on one another.
Voldemort did not have any sexual intentions towards Potter until he was over the legal age, let alone romantic intent. Despite the age of consent being fourteen, which he found ridiculously young, Voldemort found the continued existence of such a contract disgusting. He could not believe another unsavory soul hadn't used this to heinously take advantage of a child and abuse them. Voldemort himself was using it to tie a Horcrux to his side, and fully twist them inside out in their own mind, but it wasn't groom—it wasn't sexual. It was conquest, and revenge. Nefarious, yes, but better than abuse or torture.
[DELICIOUS BRIGHT SATISFYING REVENGE]
If Voldemort felt any conflicts about this course, the feelings were soothed by the knowledge he would bring public attention to the contract, and all of the other archaic laws that he found distasteful, like the age of consent. At any rate, writing a letter to Gringotts requesting a version of the War Bride Marriage Contract to suit his needs went too smoothly. In a handful of days, they set up an appointment to finalize the draft, sign it, and notarize it. Once finished, the goblins would send a copy to the Ministry if Magic to be filed away. A simple, straightforward process where he needed to do little more than read over the contract and sign it. Convincing Potter might be a difficult task, but Voldemort looked forward to the challenge.
Finding the muggles, and therefore the boy, proved less simple. Tracking spells did not work, and no one knew what the boy's address was. Furthermore, not a single soul knew the name of the boy's relatives or what part of England he lived in.
Voldemort put pressure on Snape to find out all of this information because he held access to school records, if not the letters of Potters' friends. Snape used the Registry of Hogwarts, and delivered information about a Petunia Dursley, the sister of the late Lily Potter, who lived in Surrey. On a personal note, Snape divulged that Mrs. Dursley's personality left much to be desired and embodied the essence of a shrew. Snape added that she would be very likely to part with her nephew in return for nothing more than the normalcy of her life. Offering her money would expedite the process, sweeten the pot if she showed any hesitancy or morals. With a bit of initiative and the aid of a phonebook, Snape managed to find an exact address of Harry Potter, who lived at Number Four Privet Drive, located in Little Whinging, Surrey.
I am sorry for all of you who had an interest in this story. It's been a while since I've updated, and a lot of it was due to health. This story is not on hiatus. While I rewrote the majority of it (AGAIN) I've decided to post shorter, more frequent chapters. I plan on updating every 2-3 weeks so it gives me time to work on other fics. I hope you enjoy, and that the story doesn't disappoint those of you who are looking forward to reading it.