Lord Voldemort heaved a sigh. Yes, the Dark Lord Voldemort.
He hadn’t originally wanted to be a Dark Lord- or Dork Lord, as he now called himself in his mind. No; he’d been forced. Possessed, really, by a Horcrux of Grindelwald’s. An old diary, it had been.
Not any more. After Grindelwald had forced him to make the seventh joint Horcrux… the diary had lost too much strength, and been unable to overcome his will.
The Killing Curse had then made quick work of the Diary, freeing him forever from the true Dark Lord’s grip. Not his own horcruxes, though- they were still horcruxes for both him and Grindelwald, and possessed the power to possess him.
So he had immediately destroyed that same seventh horcrux as well- another quick Killing Curse. It was excruciatingly painful… but it meant that the six he had left were scattered far and wide, and he didn’t have to worry about the Dork- as he called Grindelwald- using his own soul fragment in the horcrux to bypass his defenses and control him.
He couldn’t hunt them himself… so instead, he began laying meticulous breadcrumbs for the side of the Light to follow.
As near as he could tell, the leader of the light- Albus Dumbledore, a man who wore so many hats Voldemort was surprised he could do so- followed those crumbs… then just sat on the information. Why? Why wasn’t he destroying the Horcruxes?
It wasn’t long before he found out. Severus Snape, one of his most loyal Death Eaters, overheard a certain prophecy, given directly to Dumbledore, and left the listening charm intact, so he overheard when Dumbledore later talked to himself about the implications of the prophecy.
The man had been able to tell, by magical examination, how many horcruxes he had. He knew Voldemort would feel the destruction of his horcruxes, so he wanted to find all of them… then destroy them, all, on the eve of the battle in which Voldemort would fall once and for all, so he couldn’t replace any of them.
And Dumbledore had only found four of the six.
It seemed he could tell that they were also Grindelwald’s horcruxes, though that confused the man greatly- and also that Grindelwald had two more than Voldemort, all that he had never known about.
It had been three, before the Diary had been destroyed, but Voldemort wasn’t concerned. Grindelwald had been stripped of his wand and trapped in his own prison, and couldn’t create more horcruxes for himself.
The prophecy, though… Dumbledore seemed ambivalent to it, but Voldemort was excited by it. If he could create the Hero it spoke of, and guide that Hero in the destruction of his Horcruxes-!
Then he could be his own end.
He wasn’t sure about what the Prophecy meant by ‘mark him as his equal’, though.
He ordered Snape to be a turncoat for him, to present himself to Dumbledore as having seen the error in his ways. Exactly what he had to tell the man to get him to believe it was up to him. His mission was to be a spy- and let Dumbledore think he was a spy for the Light.
Which he would be, whether Snape wanted to be or not. Voldemort would make sure of that.
So he set about to create his Hero. He estimated how long a pregnancy would take, and picked a time to cast an extremely complex spell that would cause him to reincarnate without dying, stretching his soul between the two bodies.
He was off. He was off by a long shot; his new self was born almost two full months after the end of July.
So it took longer than seven months. That was good to know.
It was also… very disorienting to be in two places at once: The Dark Lord Voldemort… and a tiny baby girl.
He tried again.
He gained a third self- also a tiny baby girl- but again, he was off. Only a few weeks this time, though.
It was really too bad that this reincarnation ritual required a death to power it, even though it didn’t split his soul. The ‘recommended’ death to use was the caster’s own, but he couldn’t offer that one.
“My lord, it has happened!”
Voldemort raised an eyebrow. “Oh?” he demanded. This was Peter Pettigrew, better known as Wormtail, one of the idiots that decided to spy for him of their own volition. He’d just run into the room like he had something important.
“The Potters- The Potters have made me their secret keeper,” the man informed him.
“Excellent,” he intoned, while simultaneously reaching out to Snape- who happened to be in the room at the time- with the legilimency-based telepathic link he’d taught the man almost a year before. It had been a huge surprise when Snape had revealed that he would be happy to quit the Dark Side if Voldemort did, so they were working together to see to the Dork Lord’s end. “Is this a ploy by Dumbledore?” he asked.
“Possible,” Snape answered promptly. “From what I heard, Sirius was the Potter’s secret keeper, not Peter.”
The silence drew on for a few more seconds before Peter figured out what was expected of him. “T-They can be found in their cottage in Godric’s Hollow!”
“That is correct,” Snape observed darkly.
“I’m going to have to attack them,” Voldemort grumbled. “Just in case it’s a ploy.”
A moment later, he decided he’d cast a third reincarnation ritual during the attack, as a third attempt to create his hero.
The ritual was successful… as near as he could tell. It certainly didn’t go down the way he’d expected; he’d cast the ritual to use the murder of the Potters’ child as its power source. He’d completely missed the protective ritual the baby’s mother had executed while he dueled the father, so the Killing Curse had rebounded, and his own death had powered his reincarnation through the back of the spell matrix.
That was bound to have side effects.
For example, for as much as he could tell the ritual was successful… his own body lay dead on the floor- hopefully, it’d stay that way- yet he was also still there before the baby, floating in the air as a phantom.
A phantom that Dumbledore would no doubt track, so Voldemort evidently wasn’t truly dead. Nevermind that Dumbledore would know that at least one of his Horcruxes remained.
Oh well. He had three reincarnations that could all help guide him to the last two Horcruxes… indirectly, of course. He didn’t want to die by Dumbledore’s hand any more times than he had to.
Albus Dumbledore… was a man who wore too many hats. Even he thought so, even though it was those same many hats that allowed him to hatch- and execute- his plan to see the end of Voldemort’s reign. He had even factored in Voldemort’s legacy, and all his death eaters- but then, the Prophecy had appeared. The Prophecy was, in a word, dubious. It spoke of a single Hero that could defeat the Dark Lord, and specified conditions. Later, two children were born that met those conditions- Harry Potter and Neville Longbottom. He just had to get Voldemort to mark one of them as his equal, then raise them into a gallant hero… but how?
Sure, he would have liked to be known as the man that killed two Dark Lords, but that was secondary to making sure the second one actually died. Then he could get back to figuring out how to kill the first one in peace.
Dumbledore nearly jumped for joy. His ploy had worked flawlessly. By getting the Potters to make Pettigrew- who he knew was a death eater- their secret keeper, he got Voldemort to attack the Potters and mark their son as his equal. Now he just needed to take young Harry to the Longbottoms, in accordance with his parents’ Will, and they’d cheerfully raise him into an extremely formidable warrior.
He stepped over Voldemort’s dead body. It’d be a pain to locate the phantom, but he could worry about that later- he needed to see to the boy’s-!
No.
No, it couldn’t be.
He pointed the Elder Wand at the baby to make sure.
No!
Harry Potter… had become Lord Voldemort’s seventh horcrux.
And the only known way to destroy a Horcrux in a living vessel was to kill the vessel.
Yet… the Prophecy would mean that only Voldemort could kill Harry. Anyone else would suffer a case of fatal bad luck, until the Prophecy was fulfilled.
Which meant he had no choice but to violate his parents’ Will. He had to take the boy to a much less welcoming home, to raise him to a much lower level of luxury, to raise him up to sacrifice himself for the greater good. He was sure he could keep it from coming to head until after he’d located Voldemort’s final horcrux, then destroy all of the rest of them as soon as Harry sacrificed himself, then pounce on Voldemort himself and kill him quickly.
He took the boy to Hogwarts for Madam Pomfrey to take care of for the day, then headed to his cousins, the Dursleys. They would be the only choice; the protection the boy had from his mother, which Dumbledore had felt as he had approached the ruined front door, would need close proximity to a blood relative to be maintained- and that same protection would be the best way to keep him safe until the time came!
He hoped the Dursleys were decent people.
Dumbledore was sorely disappointed.
The Dursley adults both had horns now, like they were demons; the transfiguration he’d used would wear off during the night.
The thing was… they really were demons, as near as he could tell. Not quite like they’d come from Hell or wherever, but they were the worst kind of people he could imagine. He’d have to set numerous spells to ensure that Harry was accepted… then treated in at least an acceptable way.
He wished he could just take the boy to the Longbottoms, but there would be too much risk of him being kidnapped and raised by Death Eaters if that happened.
The problem with him being raised by death eaters would be that Dumbledore would be unable to predict or control the time of sacrifice- and there was also the possibility he’d be raised into the next Dark Lord.
And if Harry allied himself with Voldemort… the Prophecy meant that neither could be killed except by the other, so that would be nothing short of a nightmare.
He would deliver Harry to the Dursleys the following morning, after spending the whole night casting the enchantments and wards he would need.
Unfortunately, he would also need to cause Sirius to be imprisoned, so he wouldn’t be able to remove Harry from this home- but that would be easy. A quick spell to aggravate his anger at his old friend Pettigrew, then some legal maneuvering to get him illegally imprisoned, which would have him automatically declared innocent when it was discovered- and he would make sure it was discovered, as soon as he could be sure the man wouldn’t destroy the world by accident.
He’d have to take a different- and less ethical, however that was possible- approach with Lupin, the fourth Marauder. The man was a werewolf, so he legally couldn’t be imprisoned- he would simply be thrown through the Veil… and he wasn’t going to see an innocent man killed for such a reason.
Instead, he’d have to do some alchemy-based mind control, and ready an antidote for the moment he judged it safe.