𝐎, 𝐂𝐔𝐑𝐒𝐄𝐃 𝐂𝐇𝐈𝐋𝐃 ⎥ "He wants a fight with
a God? I'll give him one."
﹙ from stardust we came, to stardust we return ﹚
Prisoner of Azkaban - Deathly Hollows
...
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ELARA STOOD UP AND WIPED HER KNEES FREE OF DIRT. she ran right over to harry. although he couldn't see or hear her, at least elara knew she was there, and is able to stay with him. voldemort had looked away from harry and was examining his own body. his hands were like large, pale spiders; his long white fingers caressed his own chest, his arms, his face; the red eyes, whose pupils were slits, like a cat's, gleamed still more brightly through the darkness. he held up his hands and flexed the fingers, his expression rapt and exultant. he took not the slightest notice of wormtail, who lay twitching and bleeding on the ground, nor of the great snake, which had slithered back into sight and was circling harry again, hissing. elara longed to be able to give nagini a solid kick. voldemort slipped one of those unnaturally long-fingered hands into a deep pocket and drew out a wand. he caressed it gently too; and then he raised it, and pointed it at wormtail, who was lifted off the ground and thrown against the headstone where harry was tied; he fell to the foot of it and lay there, crumpled up and crying. voldemort turned his scarlet eyes upon harry, laughing a high, cold, mirthless laugh.
wormtail's robes were shining with blood now; he had wrapped the stump of his arm in them.
"my lord . . ." he choked, "my lord . . . you promised . . . you did promise . . ."
"hold out your arm," said voldemort lazily.
"oh master . . . thank you, master . . ."
he extended the bleeding stump, but voldemort laughed again.
"the other arm, wormtail."
"master, please . . . please . . ."
voldemort bent down and pulled out wormtail's left arm; he forced the sleeve of wormtail's robes up past his elbow, and elara saw something upon the skin there, something like a vivid red tattoo — a skull with a snake protruding from its mouth — the image that had appeared in the sky at the quidditch world cup: the dark mark. elara felt like throwing up. voldemort examined it carefully, ignoring wormtail's uncontrollable weeping.
"it is back," he said softly, "they will all have noticed it . . . and now, we shall see . . . now we shall know . . ."
he pressed his long white forefinger to the brand on wormtail's arm.
harry winced, wormtail let out a fresh howl, and the call grew ever louder; voldemort removed his fingers from wormtail's mark, and elara saw that it had turned jet black.
