A Story of Mortality

Chapter 3

Voldemort frowned at his parchment, feeling pressure build up in his head. He was in his office, just past sunset, bent over in a crouch as he wrote, almost humanly vulnerable in his position. Shadows eclipsed most of the far corners of the room, bookshelves clothed in darkness, but the glow of the dying day lit up his desk as he worked. Out of the corner of his eye, he could still see the headline that was causing him a fair bit of grief. "MUGGLE FAMILY FOUND DEAD – TWO BRITISH DARK WIZARDS SUSPECTED". He had trusted his followers to be discreet. He had trusted that they had a basic level of competence so as not to be caught in their actions. Apparently, this was asking too much. He did not care in the slightest how many muggles his followers went out to kill – hell, he himself would sometimes indulge when he was feeling particularly stressed – but for the bodies to be left, and for there to be witnesses, was just outrageous. Clearly his followers had a lot of learning to do. Unfortunately, the magical authorities had already got to his men, and so he would likely not be seeing them for a long while. He supposed Azkaban was a fair enough punishment for their idiocy.

And there was another problem that was plaguing Voldemort. In rough diagrams, he had been attempting to plan out what Lord Potter wanted, how to work around it, and how to get the best out of it without weakening his authority. It was obvious now that he would not be able to bypass Lord Potter, and he would need to work his way over the obstacle he represented. Fortunately, there was a wealth of documents regarding the man, from records of speeches to news articles, from which he had been able to interpret his goals. The truth was far more complex than what he had studied back at Hogwarts; Lord Potter was completely driven by his emotions, it seemed. While he had base arguments, rooted in the rights of dark wizards and creatures, among other things, he was erratic in his behaviour, and worked entirely with what he had and what the situation called for. Of course, he had his routines of speeches and articles and publicity, but in terms of what he desired... Voldemort could honestly not tell. It was possible that he hadn't any motives other than his political campaigns. This, he supposed, meant that Lord Potter would not make much of a move against his rise if he played his cards right. The only conflict seemed to be over muggles, but he needed more information to be able to gauge his more emotive reactions to this.

What had he wanted with the bracelet back in the forest? It was obvious that he had wanted it; there was little other reason to be wandering around in that forest (unless you were idiot muggles, apparently). He doubted the man had wanted it for a violent extraction of lycanthropy, considering his preaching of animal respect. Frustratingly, Voldemort didn't actually know any other use for the artefact, loath as he was to admit it. Perhaps some use could be made of it in the opposite way. All magic could be reversed, after all; though he had not considered it, maybe it could replenish the energy of a werewolf, or potentially even other magical creatures. Regardless, it was not something he cared about. The object was in his possession, and for him to use as he saw fit. It was clear that Lord Potter did not care much for it, or else he would have put up more of a fight in the forest. Indeed, it seemed as if he was there merely there to mock him. Voldemort's left hand clenched into a fist.

Loyalty through respect, not fear. Did the man think he was stupid? Of course, many followers join due to genuine belief in the cause, but if there's no fear involved then these people would leave. Is Lord Potter really foolish enough to trust his followers? Trust was never something that Voldemort was naïve enough to fall into, and look where he was; more powerful than any wizard to walk the earth. Half of the other Dark Lord's followers were probably only in it for the chance of a fuck anyway; this was something that Voldemort was certainly familiar with himself, but such juvenile fantasies were quickly beaten out of his followers as soon as they were identified. Lord Potter probably did not have it in him to do such a thing - once he grew grey and old, his following would surely decline.