Stay - Mattheo Riddle

Untie him, and I'll kill her next

Voldemort had reached the largest gap of all, and he stood surveying it with his blank, red eyes, as though he could see people standing there.

"And here we have six missing Death Eaters . . . three dead in my service. One, too cowardly to return . . . he will pay. One, who I believe has left me forever . . . he will be killed, of course . . . and one, who remains my most faithful servant, and who has already reentered my service."

The Death Eaters stirred, and Kirra saw their eyes dart sideways at one another through their masks. "He is at Hogwarts, that faithful servant, and it was through his efforts that our young friends arrived here tonight. . . ."

"Yes," said Voldemort, a grin curling his lipless mouth as the eyes of the circle flashed in Kirra's direction. "Kirra and Harry Potter have kindly joined us for my rebirthing party. One might go so far as to call them my guests of honor."

There was a silence. Then the Death Eater to the right of Wormtail stepped forward, and Lucius Malfoy's voice spoke from under the mask.

"Master, we crave to know . . . we beg you to tell us . . . how you have achieved this . . . this miracle . . . how you managed to return to us. . . ."

"Ah, what a story it is, Lucius," said Voldemort. "And it begins — and ends — with my young friends here."

He walked lazily over to stand next to Harry, so that the eyes of the whole circle were upon the two of them, their eyes also occasionally skimming to the girl that all of them had known in at least one of her lives. The snake continued to circle.

"You know, of course, that they have called these children my down-fall?" Voldemort said softly, his red eyes upon Kirra and Harry, whose scars began to burn so fiercely that they almost screamed in agony. "You all know that on the night I lost my powers and my body, I tried to kill them. Their mother died in the attempt to save them — and unwittingly provided them with a protection I admit I had not foreseen. . . . I could not touch them."

Voldemort raised one of his long white fingers and put it very close to Harry's cheek.

"Their mother left upon them the traces of her sacrifice. . . . This is old magic, I should have remembered it, I was foolish to overlook it . . . but no matter. I can touch them now."

Harry felt the cold tip of the long white finger touch him, and thought his head would burst with the pain. Kirra fought against her restraints, yelling at him to leave Harry alone, but nobody could understand a word coming out of her mouth through the fabric over her mouth, nor did they care.

Voldemort laughed softly in his ear, then took the finger away and continued addressing the Death Eaters.

"I miscalculated, my friends, I admit it. My curse was deflected by the woman's foolish sacrifice, and it rebounded upon myself. Aaah . . . pain beyond pain, my friends; nothing could have pre- pared me for it. I was ripped from my body, I was less than spirit, less than the meanest ghost . . . but still, I was alive. What I was, even I do not know . . . I, who have gone further than anybody along the path that leads to immortality. You know my goal — to conquer death. And now, I was tested, and it appeared that one or more of my experiments had worked . . . for I had not been killed, though the curse should have done it. Nevertheless, I was as powerless as the weakest creature alive, and without the means to help myself . . . for I had no body, and every spell that might have helped me required the use of a wand. . . ."

"I remember only forcing myself, sleeplessly, endlessly, second by second, to exist. . . . I settled in a faraway place, in a forest, and I waited. . . . Surely, one of my faithful Death Eaters would try and find me . . . one of them would come and perform the magic I could not, to restore me to a body . . . but I waited in vain. . . ."