Keeping The Dark Lord (on his toes)

Chapter- 11 Changes ( 1 to 7 Jan 1993 )

~~~…Voldemort…~~~

Voldemort listened as his minions finished their reports, but it was hard to fake boredom when one finally found something to preoccupy your time with. He had secretly been gathering them up, bit by bit, after testing their loyalty, and so far many deadweights and order rats had been rooted out.

For now, only the inner circle had been summoned, but it still felt like they were taking too long with their reports…even if no more than ten minutes had passed by so far. It seems that one drawback of having his sanity returned was the ability to resist the urge to simply crucio the stupidity out of his people, or maybe it was the crucio that caused them to grow even more stupid? He had to look into that…especially given the prolonged effects.

Finally, the last report was given and he dismissed them after giving them new orders while softly urging Nagini to make them move faster, which she did, with great relish, “:: Run puny humanss! Sscurry like the ratss you are! If you’re too slow I’ll…!::”

Once he sensed the last Death Eater leave the grounds, Voldemort eagerly stood up and walked to his library with Nagini hot on his heels once more. “:: Masster can I get my pressent now? And another one of thosse fuzziess? You promissed!::”

Voldemort sighed, but still summoned the promised bunny from whatever corner of the universe they came from, and Nagini shot after it with a hiss. He had almost been at his wits’ end when Nagini finished her packet of bunnies earlier that year. She’d refused to eat anything else because a normal conjured bunny tasted dull and it had only been with luck (and quite a bit of frustration) that he’d conjured a vampiric bunny, and to his dismay, found that it was exactly what had been gifted to Nagini.

How his mysterious stalker had managed to round up so many vampiric bunnies was something Voldemort really wanted to know, it wasn’t as if there was a farm that reared them and the transformation seldomly took hold on smaller creatures without simply killing them. Luckily the venom was completely diluted within the bunnies so it did not affect Nagini, other than being a more enjoyable snack.

He entered the library and walked towards an empty wall before placing his hand on a particular spot. Hidden runes lit up before a familiar vortex-like spiral formed. He carefully removed the black book from its resting place.

The first page of the book had been filled with warnings, both on the contents of the book and the effects of the power emanating from it. It had warned that those with the Slytherin crest but not its bloodline would be drawn to the book and its power would consume them and every other holder until it was returned to its keeper.

But before Voldemort could be accepted as its keeper, he had to go through the trials.

Unfortunately, the trials had to be performed on a new moon, when Earth was bathed in shadow, and so he’d anxiously filled the days in between by reading the contents of the book, or at least the parts that weren’t solely for the eyes of a keeper.

It had strengthened his view on quite a few things when he’d learned why Hogwarts had really been created by the four founders, and with so many people that go to the school generation after generation, it was safe to say that the division between purebloods, half-bloods, and muggleborns were mere labels created by those who wanted to elevate their status.

Voldemort carefully set up the ritual before shrugging off his outer robes, leaving only a soft black ritual robe over his figure. He watched as Nagini slithered over to her heat-stone, content to guard him and to make sure that there were no interruptions that could endanger him.

He stepped into the drawn circles, with candles on each point, careful to not disturb the bone-dust with which the circle had been formed, and then he sat down with crossed legs and started to meditate. The book had warned him that if the ritual found that he was not ready, then nothing would happen no matter how long he meditated within the circle. Still, patience was needed as it was part of the trial.