“Ginny? Hello?” Ginny opened her eyes and groaned with a pounding head. She saw her roommate leaning over her and looking concerned.
“What?” Ginny groaned.
“Are you coming to dinner? What are you doing sleeping so early?”
“Bleeeeehhhh. Just taking a power nap after classes. Was tired,” Ginny said as she rubbed her eyes and sat up, “What time is it?”
“It’s only ten minutes until dinner,” Ginny’s roommate said, “I was just dropping my school stuff back in the room. Want to come with me to the great hall?”
“Yeah,” Ginny said as she threw back the covers of her bed and stood up, “Sounds good. Thanks for waking me up.”
“I wouldn’t think you of all people would need a nap,” Ginny’s roommate joked, “You sleep like a log every night.”
Ginny shrugged awkwardly. And she was hungry too, ravenous in fact. She’d used up a lot of her magic accepting the fealty of the house-elves even if Teregatt had taken most of the magical burden from her with its energies.
It was only when Ginny sat down at the Ravenclaw table with her roommate and her other Ravenclaw girl friends that she realized that the house elves were gone. Right, no one would be making dinner for them…
Umbridge stood from the Headmistress’ chair and clapped her hands as she usually did now to summon the food.
Nothing happened.
She frowned and clapped again.
Nothing happened.
There was some muttering in the great hall as people started noticing that something was wrong. Umbridge furiously muttered to herself for a few seconds, and nothing happened.
She cleared her throat and with a spell made her voice loud for all of them to hear.
“Students, there appears to be a problem with the kitchens. Please remain seated, the staff will deal with it shortly.”
Umbridge gestured to the assorted teachers at the professor’s table who reluctantly stood and followed her out of the great hall. Everyone started gossiping and gradually complaining as it took longer and longer without the teachers returning.
Ginny’s stomach rumbled loudly as she sat there.
“See?” her roommate said, “Ginny’s running around the castle and things in the mornings! She needs more food than any of us. When are they going to come back?”
“I’m fine,” Ginny said as she put a hand to her stomach reflexively, “What do you think is even taking them so long?”
“I don’t know,” her roommate said, “Maybe Umbridge upset the house-elves and they’re protesting or something? You saw how she treated that one that came up before, I wouldn’t like it if someone talked to me like that.”
“They’re house-elves,” One of the other girls said to jump in, “They don’t think like that. They’re absolutely loyal to their families. They wouldn’t do something that would even inconvenience their masters in any way. It’s probably just something with the food. Found out that it was spoiled or something and so they couldn’t send it up.”
“No, that’s…”
There was more arguing, everyone growing more and more irate the longer the teachers remained absent. Using your magic made you hungrier, and everyone had been casting almost all day for their classes. One of the reasons their meals at Hogwarts were so laden with food every day. All of them needed the calories after using their magic so much.
Several students started standing up and leaving the great hall to go see what was going on. Finally, five minutes later Umbridge returned flanked by Amelia Bones and Alastor Moody of all people. The muttering instantly silenced as they saw the two Aurors there. The three people proceeded to the front of the hall.
Umbridge amplified her voice, “It seems that there has been an incident in the kitchens,” She said, “The Aurors are investigating it thoroughly. But for now Prefects will lead their houses back to their common rooms. There will be no meal tonight for the school. When we have more information then we will inform you. Until then you are to remain in your common rooms and listen to the Aurors that will be stationed to guard the doors. That will be all. Prefects, escort your houses out now please.”
After a moment of shock, the prefects started moving and herding people out of the room to return to the common rooms. If it was just Umbridge then maybe they would have asked some questions or thought she was lying… But Amelia Bones and Alastor Moody were standing right behind her. If they were here then it must be something serious.
As all the Ravenclaws returned to the common room with complaints and rumbling stomachs, one name kept coming up over and over in their mutterings and conspiracy theories.
Pettigrew.
Pettigrew.
Pettigrew.
Ginny couldn’t believe why people kept insisting on blaming Pettigrew for everything that happened. Even if it was helping her this time, it made her vaguely annoyed as she listened to the theories and rumors of the crowd. Well, better them to blame a dead man then somebody alive but innocent instead, Ginny mused as three Aurors circled their group and herded all of them towards their common room.
The next day, none of them had breakfast either. All of them were being confined to their common rooms with three serious Aurors standing outside as guards. If one meal had made some people disgruntled, a second missed meal made them practically miserable. Some of them were just sitting in the corners of the room with forlorn looks and staring blankly at the homework they were supposed to be doing.
Classes were canceled for the day, but they were told firmly that the homework they had been already assigned would still be due whenever they returned to class.
It wasn’t until dinner that they were finally led down to the great hall that was filled with food. In the corner of the room was a giant fireplace filled with green fire, part of the floo network. Adults were streaming in and out to deliver food to the tables as all of them sat down eager to eat.
Amelia Bones walked in as they all sat there, uncertain if they were allowed to eat yet as the people coming in kept loading up the tables with food using levitation spells to float the food to their proper places.
“Students!” Madame Bones said in an amplified voice that silenced the murmuring in the hall, “As of some time last afternoon, all house elves in the world have disappeared,” she said, “There are reports of red portals appearing in front of them and them jumping inside without any hesitation. All at precisely the same time. These portals resisted the magic of any others who attempted to enter or destroy them. There have been no reports of a single house elf failing to go through to these portals to wherever they may lead. So without the house elves to run the Hogwarts kitchens, the Ministry is looking to hire chefs and professional staff to take their place. This will take some time, but in the interim the ministry will do our best to ensure we keep your young minds well fed by bringing outside meals and contractors. This will…”
The giant green fireplace flickered and stuttered before its green flames winked out. A pair of men standing nearby swore and cast another series of spells as the people delivering the food waited. After a few seconds the giant green flame leapt up again and people kept walking in and out of the fireplace.
“...will,” Madame Bones continued after a brief pause, “likely be in tomorrow’s papers. So you can read the full details there. Please enjoy your meal.”
Then with a single nod, she turned and walked over to the large fireplace and walked through the green flames to leave the castle. All of the students including Ginny dug in and started eating ravenously.
Well, it seems they weren’t blaming Pettigrew yet.
— — —
They ended up completely blaming Pettigrew. It only took a day of looking for actual leads on what had happened before the world seemed to collectively shrug and immediately decide that anything unexplained must have Pettigrew behind it somehow.
No one ever suspected Ginny of anything, even Fred and George. Ginny had just said she’d left the kitchen after talking with the elves and taken a nap after. Her brothers had accepted that pretty easily, surprisingly.
Over the next week, the giant fireplace remained a fixture in the great hall with people with trays laden with food streaming in and out at the beginning of each meal to deliver the food and take away the dirty dishes. Two grumpy Aurors stood by the fireplace at all times and reactivated it whenever it randomly shut itself off. Something that was happening more and more often as time passed.
“What’s up with that anyways?” Ginny asked Amvatroz after classes on the next Tuesday after briefly explaining what was happening with the fireplace, “Why is it doing that?”
Amvatroz snorted, “Ah, Hogwarts likes to stay secure. You have no idea how much pleading and constant maintenance from the headmasters it took to keep the fireplace with access to the floo in the headmaster’s office open. I think it was three straight years of Hogwarts trying to turn it off before she finally got used to it and decided to let it stay permanently at long last. Something that big? In the middle of the great hall where all of Hogwarts students are meeting where anyone can just enter the school freely? If Umbridge doesn’t do something to stop it soon then Hogwarts will start screaming and throwing a tantrum. I can sense Hogwarts fuming even now and preparing to throw a fit. And I think I’ve told you what that would be like for Umbridge if that happens. Or those poor Aurors responsible for reactivating the fireplace each time.”
“Oh. Well I hope they find some good chefs to hire before that happens,” Ginny said, “We’ve still got to eat. I’m not sure what the big deal is anyways. They can just pay some people, there must be chefs they could hire for this. Dumbledore was paying the house-elves the whole time they worked here and it wasn’t a problem. Even if he didn’t have to.”
“Probably less people than you’d think,” Amvatroz said, “Noble houses lock any talented staff into long term contracts. And the Ministry will want things to be completely secure with this Pettigrew business going on. So finding enough people who are reliable enough for the position may be more difficult than it might first appear.”
“Well, It’s been a week already. I’m surprised it’s taking so long even with that.”
“Well, they better hurry themselves,” Amvatroz said, “Before Hogwarts’ real tantrum begins and she shuts off that little floo connection in the great hall with all her strength.”
“Hopefully,” Ginny agreed, “Anyways. Nice talking to you, Amvatroz. I’ve got to go.”
Ginny walked down the stairs to the base of the tower and yelped as she saw Eric standing there with his shiny new badge pinned to his chest. A big ‘I’ covered the center of the otherwise pristine silver badge pinned to his chest.
“Haha!” he laughed, “Never thought I’d be able to surprise you, Ginny.”
“Piss off, Eric,” Ginny said as she went to brush by him, “I have places to be.”
Neither of them deployed their magic tendrils in a silent truce.
“Hey, wait. I’m the Head of the Inquisitorial Squad, you’ve got to listen to me. I want to talk to you about something.”
Ginny turned around and saw Eric tapping on his shiny new badge that Umbridge had given him.
“What did you even want it for?” Ginny asked, “You’re the last one who should be enforcing the rules.”
“I know!” Eric said with a giggle, “Isn’t it amazing? I can just make things up on the spot and since I’m head inquisitor no one can tell me otherwise. I can even hand out detentions now if someone breaks one of the dozens of new educational decrees the Minister put in in the name of security. Did you know that there’s one that says you can’t be too loud in hallways? I use that one all the time, no one can say that I’m wrong so I can just punish anyone I want to with no consequences. Really strikes fear into the people, you know. And I even get praised for it by Ron and Hermione since most of the other Inquisitors are Slytherins. They’re all so biased against Gryffindor. So I can just follow Draco Malfoy around all the time and immediately undermine whatever he does since I’m the Head Inquisitor and he has to listen to me. It’s all rather hilarious, watching him fume as I counter every punishment he gives out and reassigning it to the closest Slytherin walking by. Doing a public service to keep the rest of us out from under Slytherin tyranny!”
“You disgust me. I don’t even want to know what horrible things you’ve done to Umbridge to force her to give you that position. What are you doing here, Eric? I thought we were leaving each other alone. For real this time?”
“Hey, hey!” Eric said, raising his hands up as if to surrender, “Of course. I won’t even dare give your friends so much as even a single detention. This is a side deal. You’re free to walk away after I’ve told you what it is.”
Ginny hesitated and shifted her grip on her bag, “Fine,” she said warily, “What?”
“Okay,” Eric said, “All this order and rule of law playacting is a bit fun. But I’ve found a certain target I’d really love to use a love potion on. The real strong stuff, you know. But that would break our deal. So I’d like to negotiate for an exception just this once. And in return I’ll tell you some information I’m sure that you’d like to know. About Luna Lovegood. Remember that girl that I took to the Yule ball? Ever wonder what ended up happening to her?”
“Luna? What do you mean? I see her all the time in the common room,” Ginny said in confusion.
“And how does she look?” Eric asked with a sly grin, “Happy, content? Lots of friends?”
“She’s… No? How would you know that? Are you spying on us?”
Stolen story; please report.
“No, no. I would never. But as Head Inquisitor you do start to hear rumors that are generally only for… a select number of ears, you know. I’ve hooked you with the mystery. I’ll explain the whole situation, open and honest. And in return just let me dose one person with the potion.”
Ginny hesitated, her interest peaked. But…
“Who is it?” Ginny asked suspiciously, “Not Draco is it? Or Umbridge? Haven’t you done enough to them already?”
“No, neither,” Eric said, “And I haven’t done anything to Draco. It’s just a bit of light teasing, jokes between good friends you understand.”
“Yeah, following him around and undermining him constantly sounds like light teasing,” Ginny said sarcastically.
Eric nodded easily and didn’t seem to pick up on her tone. Ugh. In his twisted mind he probably did think of it like that.
“Well, who is it?” Ginny said, “Why now?”
“It’s one of the staff bringing in our food,” Eric said, “He keeps trying to poison me. It’s been rather annoying. Especially when he messed up and accidentally tried to poison Hermione instead. I had to slap the cup right out of her hand and then make up some stupid excuse on the spot. Told her that it would rot her teeth or something. She wouldn’t talk to me for a whole day after that. Not sure why she was so upset about that one, actually…”
“That cup was poisoned?” Ginny said in shock, remembering the incident of Eric slapping the cup out of Hermione’s hand a few days ago, “Why haven’t you told somebody?”
“Who? Umbridge?” Eric said, “That would be no fun. And how would I explain how she knew? She’d have to tell other people like the Aurors and explain how she knew these things. I doubt they’d take her gut feelings too seriously. I mean, she’s Umbridge. I don’t think even the Minister could possibly like her as a person. Trust me if I give this guy a love potion then all of our problems will be solved. Pretty sure. And he’s trying to poison people, me being people, so he even deserves it too.”
“And what will you do if I say no?” Ginny said, “About this person?”
“I don’t know,” Eric said with a shrug, “Probably report them to the Aurors or something boring like that. Anonymous note or whatever. But they’d get away pretty easily and just come back later. This person has been sneaking under the Ministry’s nose the whole time, no reason why they wouldn’t be able to sneak away just as easily even if they got found out.”
Ginny wondered about it. She never wanted to give Eric anything. But if somebody was trying to poison him, and more importantly maybe Ron or Hermione by mistake…
She could see Eric letting somebody innocent get poisoned who wasn’t Ron or Hermione as a sick joke. Or just because he wasn’t paying attention or care enough to bother stopping somebody from getting hurt. And Alexa sat at the Gryffindor table. If this poisoner targeted her… Would Eric protect her? Or would this fall under non-interference under their deal? Would he just sit back and watch as Alexa drank the poison?
“Oooohh, such a calculating glint in those eyes,” Eric said, “Just get you a sharp suit and wear your hair in a bun up top and you could be an insurance lawyer trying to deny somebody coverage. I’ve heard they’re the evilest and richest type of lawyer from the kids at the orphanage. Earning their vast riches by stomping on the faces of children who have cancer and everything. Although I'm sure you'd be prettiest one as you smother them in the hospital with a pillow for the insurance money.”
Ginny shook her head and glared at Eric. “Shut up. Fine. Tell me, what’s going on with Luna? And you better make sure that nobody but this poisoner gets hurt. Or I’ll… think of something to do to you. And it’ll be bad!”
“Hm. Lame threat,” Eric said, “But such passion! So yeah, your girl Luna Lovegood has been bullied rather heavily these last few years. Almost three years now, your whole time at this school. Well, at this school as you of course. It’s the Ravenclaw Prefect, Preston, and his cronies behind it. They steal her stuff and hex her in the hallways. Ambush her when she’s alone. Isolate her and scare off anyone that might want to be her friend. Insult her a bit and make her feel worthless and pathetic all the time.”
Eric waved his hair in the air dismissively, “You know, the whole thing. Real nasty stuff. She seemed a nice enough girl when I took her to the Yule ball. Thought you’d want to know since you used to be such good buddies over that summer. Even taught her a bit of our special little magic, so you must really like her. Or you did, at least. Here, I’ve written up a list of targets for your perusal, Milady.”
Eric reached into his robes and pulled out a scrap of parchment. He handed it over and Ginny read the list of fifteen names on it.
Before she could react Eric gave her a sloppy salute and his grin stretched unnaturally wide.
“Alright! See you at the evening meal! It’ll be a great one, I’m sure,” he said, “No takesy backsies. Just enjoy the show.”
He turned and walked off as Ginny stood there gripping the parchment with mixed feelings swirling within her. She’d just have to be careful for the meal. And most importantly… Ginny would have to be ready to spring into action if anything went wrong. With one hundred and seventy five maximum magic tendrils now, she should be able to mostly match Eric in a telekinetic battle if it came down for it. Maybe.
If things started going wrong she could stop it and worry about dealing with Eric on more equal footing later.
The time for Eric’s reckoning was almost here. Ginny could take him on now. But only just barely. Maybe. Probably. It was just a chance of victory rather than her being immediately crushed by him in a fight. But she was still waiting longer to build her strength so the result would be clearer if Eric took her seriously and they came into real conflict.
Ginny wasn’t even sure exactly what she’d do with Eric once she overpowered him. He’d done so many horrible things, and was the one that had led to Harry having to sacrifice himself so Ginny could live.
He was a monster.
But she didn’t want to just kill him either. It didn’t feel right, but Ginny wasn’t sure what else she could do. Maybe make him admit to all his crimes to the Aurors? Then everyone would know everything that he had done and gotten away with over the years. Maybe. She just wasn’t sure.
Ginny shook her head. There was no use worrying about it right now. She still wasn’t powerful to take him on in telekinetic combat, even if just by a hair. And that wasn’t even including the flames he summoned or all the wand magic that the two of them had learned. No matter what she did it would be a hard fight. Best to not worry about what to do with Eric until she was strong enough that a fight might go her way.
She’d have to warn her friends. And Fred and George. She wasn’t taking any chances that Eric would let things go so wrong like they had last time he had used love potions on people.
She’d think of what to do with the list of names burning a hole in the pocket of her robes after this stressful dinner was over.
— — —
Lord Voldemort weaved through the crowd along with all the other servers bringing food to the Hogwarts students. Disguised with polyjuice potion once more. The ministry had been desperate to hire people to fill these positions at such short notice, and so Voldemort had been able to skip past most of the stringent checks that Alastor Moody had instituted with his ascension from unimportant veteran Auror to second in command of the Auror department as a whole, only below Amelia Bones in importance.
Voldemort weaved closer to the Gryffindor table. His tray was completely clean. Eric Potter had ‘luckily’ dodged all of Voldemort’s attempted poisonings. He was sure that the boy was suspicious, but since the staff were using levitation charms to deliver the food and drink to the tables he shouldn’t be able to tell who was delivering the poisoned food and drink to him. And Voldemort always made sure to keep his distance so that whatever method the boy used to detect him before would hopefully be foiled.
He guessed that it was likely based on proximity. He had noticed that when he had pretended to be that teacher that it was only about halfway through the lesson when Voldemort had walked closer to the boy that he had perked up and changed his behavior. Likely the boy detecting who he truly was, most likely.
If Voldemort kept his distance then things should be fine.
Voldemort made sure to keep his wand focused on another tray of food as he carefully guided the poisoned food and drink to Eric Potter. He had made sure that he was among of the first trays of food to be delivered. There should be no chance of the boy avoiding the food now. Voldemort was unsure if the boy was truly aware of Voldemort’s poisoning attempts, or if it was truly a coincidence that he defended the poisoned food or drink during the meals while never quite managing to be hungry enough to eat it. Always leaving it completely untouched by the time the meal was finished
This time would at least confirm that the boy was aware that someone was attempting to poison him. Voldemort could retreat and reassess his plans from there if this failed. There should be no way for the boy to avoid the food now.
The platter landed directly in front of Eric Potter. His slobbish red haired friend reached out, but Eric Potter slapped his hand sharply and said something.
Eric turned and looked Voldemort directly in the eyes and put a finger to his lips in a shushing gesture. Then with another word to the girl next to him, he grabbed the tray of poisoned food and hurled it across the great hall full force in a blur of motion.
Voldemort watched as the tray flew unnaturally far over to the Slytherin table in a great arc. A blonde boy… Ah, Draco Malfoy, Lucius’ boy. The blonde boy looked up and his eyes widened as the large tray of food descended from the sky and slammed into him full force in the chest, knocking him from his seat and sending sprawling onto the ground behind him.
The Slytherins around young Draco all stood up incensed and looked over to Eric who had boldly stood up and was staring them down.
“Food fight! Down with the snakes!” Eric shouted at the top of his lungs as he drew his wand and launched another tray of food towards the Slytherin table with a quick spell.
The Slytherin’s grimaced and a few caught the tray flung their way and sent it flying back towards Eric along with some of the food that had been sitting on it. The food not caught within the Slytherin student’s spell kept moving and sprayed all over the Hufflepuff table.
“Oy!” One of the Hufflepuff students threw an apple at the Slytherin who had botched the spell and sprayed the food over him. Then the true food fight began, each retaliation against the other becoming ever larger as time passed.
Voldemort sneered and turned to the green fireplace. The boy knew about the poison, and more importantly who he was. It was time to leave.
Before he could react, something invisible grabbed Voldemort’s jaw and wrenched it downwards. A heavy pink droplet shot up from where it had been floating under a table and plopped in the back of Voldemort’s throat as he stumbled forward and into the green fireplace. He rubbed his jaw as he reappeared in the special room in the Ministry put aside for this purpose. The kitchens where all the house elves used to prepare the food for Ministry employees on request.
Voldemort quickly drew his wand and prepared to cast a spell to purge his body of whatever poison the boy must have dosed him with…
But he was too late. A strange uncomfortable feeling washed over Lord Voldemort. A feeling like he’d never felt before, except perhaps for what he felt in the pursuit of his magic. It was… Lust like he’d never felt before. All directed at one man, who Voldemort knew was the most important person in the world…
Voldemort drew his wand and charged recklessly through the hallways of the Ministry, ignoring the dismayed shouts as he shoved people aside to continue with maximum speed. He couldn’t bear to wait one more second away from the man that his mind couldn’t tear itself away from.
He reached the Auror department and the two men in blue robes looking bored as they guarded the door stared at him dumbly as he pushed through the crowded lobby of the Ministry towards them.
Voldemort considered slowing down, finding some excuse to go through. There were many reasons to enter the place without raising suspicion. Reporting a crime perhaps, saying that the man himself had requested Voldemort in his disguise for questioning…
But all of that would take too long. Before either Auror could react, Voldemort sent out two stunners that knocked out both of the Aurors on guard duty, sending them falling limp to the ground. The crowd behind Voldemort in the main lobby all let out gasps, but Voldemort had already run through the doorway into the Auror’s office itself. He kept running, the Aurors milling around looking at Voldemort in confusion as he charged through the office.
When he was halfway to the office of the most important man in the world, a deep thrumming alarm started buzzing through the office. The Aurors milling around filling out paperwork drew their wands from their robes as one and looked around warily. It took a few seconds before they connected the alarm to Voldemort who was still sprinting towards the man’s office.
They wasted another two seconds shouting at him to attempt to stop him, to waste more time that could be spent with the man of Voldemort’s dreams.
Voldemort casually blocked the first round of spells as he rounded the last corner and saw the door to the fancy office. Voldemort started running, his lips starting to drool and his attention wavering as he daydreamed all that the two of them would do together once he confessed his true feelings for the man.
Just as Voldemort was almost there, the door slammed open and the wonderful man himself appeared. Scarred from battle and with an imposing look as he stared at Voldemort with wariness and anger.
His large gnarled wooden staff was in his right hand and one of his legs was an enchanted prosthetic. The man’s enchanted eye focused on Voldemort as he kept charging.
“Alastor Moody, I, Lord Voldemort, love you!” Voldemort cried as he leapt forward to plant a kiss on the handsome and grizzled Auror’s lips.
The man’s remaining eye widened in shock and he brought his staff to sit between him and Voldemort. With a pulse of magic, a wave of force shot from the tip of the staff and pushed Voldemort back so he was sliding backwards across on the floor.
Voldemort used his wandless flight spell to shroud himself and float in the air while staring at the beautiful man.
“Oh, Alastor, my love for you is boundless!” Voldemort said, “I didn’t see it before, but now you’re in front of me I know we are fated for one another!”
“Yeah, you’ve been dosed with a love potion all right,” Alastor said skeptically, “Who are you really? Not that minion of Dark Lord Pettigrew are you?”
“PETTIGREW!” Voldemort raged, his extreme focus on Alastor’s lips being broken. He wobbled up and down as he briefly lost control of his wandless flight spell.
“THAT SNIVELING SPINELESS COWARD IS NOTHING COMPARED TO ME! THAT IMBECILE WAS BEGGING AT MY FEET FOR SCRAPS, HE IS NOTHING! NOTHING!”
Alastor snorted, his face a picture of genuine amusement. The rest of the Aurors around Voldemort looked around nervously as if Pettigrew would appear at the mere mention of his name and strike them down. Many of them edged away from Voldemort as if to avoid whatever divine punishment he’d receive for his insolence.
Voldemort felt his rage surge to new heights as he saw their reactions.
“NO! YOU FEAR ME! PETTIGREW IS NO DARK LORD, HE’S JUST A SPINELESS LITTLE BOY TOO AFRAID TO SHOW HIS FACE! I AM LORD VOLDEMORT, YOU SHOULD FEAR MY NAME! NOT PETTIGREW’S! I TERRORIZED ALL OF BRITAIN! BEFORE MY POWER YOU ALL ARE NOTHING BUT ANTS! NONE BUT DUMBLEDORE ARE MY EQUAL!”
“Oh, except you, Alastor, you’re not an ant,” Voldemort added as he remembered why he was there, “You’re the most important man in the world to me. Why don’t we run away with each other? Get away from all of these politics and visit an island or two?”
“I’m sure that Pettigrew will enjoy hearing about all these things that you’re saying about him,” Alastor said, barely even able to suppress his laughter, “You’re nothing but his dog. When he shows up I’m sure you’ll be begging for scraps from him again. All your bluster gone when he’s around to hold your leash.”
“Pettigrew is nothing,” Voldemort said, just barely withholding his explosive rage so as not to upset the perfect Alastor, “But a worm. I’ll kill him. I’ll kill that boy eventually.”
“Alright, boys,” Alastor said, “You know what would make me happiest, Lord Voldemort?”
“Yes? What?” Voldemort asked eagerly as he floated there in his dark cloud spell.
“If you let yourself be stunned and captured by the Aurors here. We can discuss your… feelings after you wake back up.”
Voldemort struggled. Something was wrong, he was now sure of it. But Alastor wanted him to do something, and if it was the only way for Alastor to be happy…
“Very well, capture me,” Voldemort said as he lowered to the ground and deactivated his spell.
Alastor raised his wand that he had taken from his robes and pointed it at Voldemort, “Stupify!” Alastor chanted. The red bolt struck out and knocked the unresisting Voldemort unconscious. And a second later a pendant around his neck flashed green and Voldemort’s body sprawled on the floor went completely still.
Voldemort was dead, his failsafe having activated far too late to salvage his pride.
— — —
In an abandoned house protected by the most powerful wards of Lord Voldemort, a cauldron filled to the brim with black fluid sat. All of a sudden the placid fluid started bubbling as if on a boil and began to roil and pop, the level sinking even as miraculously none of the strange fluid spilled over the rim and onto the floor of the house.
After five minutes of rumbling and shaking of the cauldron and draining over a third of its contents, a naked body floated out of the cauldron and stayed suspended in mid-air. The figure’s eyes opened and they grit their teeth as they floated back down to the ground again. Voldemort quickly grabbed one of his spare wands so helpfully supplied by Bellatrix and immediately apparated to the shore of Britain in a series of quick spells.
He stood on the isolated beach staring out onto the water and used a few quick spells to check for any people around. No one for miles. Voldemort checked one last time. No one.
Finally Voldemort allowed his seething rage to explode out of him as he launched a series of angry blasting curses out into the ocean.
“GRRRRAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH! ERRIIIIICC POTTER, CURRRRRSSSSSEEEE YOU!”
He screamed as he cast blasting curse after blasting curse into the ocean to vent his anger. Plumes of water shot upwards wherever his magic landed.
Finally his magic was spent even if his seething rage was not.
“Curse you… Eric Potter,” Voldemort whispered as his pride burned at this latest humiliation. He hadn’t wanted to do it, worried that it would take too much planning. And it would destroy Hogwarts who he still respected more than most anything in this world.
But this was the last straw. He’d destroy Eric Potter once and for all, no matter the casualties. No more half measures.
He had a lot of work to do.