Harry and his friends went back to the Hogwarts castle briefly for their final exams in classes. Ron and Neville were stressed again due to them not being in class for so long, but Harry thought they would do fine. They both had been doing well before they all left the castle, so they had some leeway for the finals.
After they were all done with exams, they all were side along apparated straight back home. Hermione had Dobby to help protect her, and the Weasleys had upgraded their wards to a much higher level. Arthur Weasley’s promotion and increased political power meant he was rapidly becoming much richer. Neville and Harry would be safe under the old Longbottom wards or in a real emergency under the Black family wards.
Everyone was worried about Dumbledore’s escape and slaughter of the former death eaters. Harry was concerned as well, but not as much as the adults. He knew for a fact that he had killed the death eaters that had been outside of Azkaban, not Dumbledore.
He had told Hermione privately about what he had done when he found a private place, but told no one else about it. She was mad at him for a few days afterward, but eventually came around and forgave him for being so violent with them. She still wasn’t afraid of him, it was more that she was upset that he didn’t really feel bad about it at all.
So, all of them went home for the summer. Harry made sure to stay in a protected place at all times just in case Dumbledore tried something. Mind Harry had finished the seven larger mindscape defenders, and Harry splayed out on the Longbottom lawn in the sun sometimes just watching them patrol around in his mind. Mind Harry was still organizing Harry’s memories and adding smaller details to the mindscape making it look more like real homes than copy and pasted designs.
And to the surprise of everyone, nothing bad happened. Dumbledore never showed himself despite the frantic search for him by the ministry. Lucius Malfoy and the remaining death eaters all fled the country as soon as they could. And finally, Harry had another amazing birthday party at the Longbottom’s house with his friends.
The only odd thing that happened was Sirius’ house elf Kreacher disappearing. But while the adults worried about it for a few days, after there was no response after several of Sirius’ calls it was thought that Kreacher must have died while he was somewhere out of the Black residence. He had been a very old elf after all.
And so in that way, the summer passed uneventfully. Harry bought his supplies for the next school year, and made it on the Hogwarts train safely. The future was bright.
— — —
The Gaunt ring horcrux was extremely frustrated as it sat behind the layers of genius magical defenses and wards. All placed by lord Voldemort in life to keep his horcrux safe and hidden from others.
But now that the ring was trying to escape, it was stuck and practically helpless. It had no idea how much time had passed, but it raged against its immobility. How could it build a body if it was stuck here helplessly?
It sat there unmoving until it felt the outer wards be breached. The ring let out an internal sigh of relief. A wizard had found it and was investigating. If they got close enough then Voldemort could dominate their mind and make them help it in its work.
Then the next layer of wards went down.
And the next.
And the next.
The ring was now far more nervous. This wizard was making it far too quickly through the defenses. Was it Dumbledore? If the wizard was too strong then the horcrux would be unable to dominate their mind in enough time to prevent them from finding its true nature and possibly destroying it.
The intruder drew closer. The ring prepared itself to mentally assault them as they drew closer. The intruder was at the door…
The door opened and the ring paused as it saw the creature that came through. Everything below the neck was the body of a wizard. Its pale hands held a wand out in front of it as it entered the room. It was hooded in the darkness, but that didn’t stop the ring’s vision of its grotesque insect head under the hood. Its reddish brown exoskeleton and black compound eyes disgusted the ring Horcrux. Its two antennae stuck out from its head as the insect head matching the size of a human's sat there.
The mandibles of the creature clicked for a moment as it seemed to inspect the ring closely before nodding in an oddly human way. It waved its wand and the ring horcrux felt the withering curse sitting directly on its surface be dispelled.
Realizing that the oddities of the creature didn’t matter, Voldemort used all of the powers in the ring to attempt to influence and control the creature as it reached out and casually picked the ring up with its human hands.
But its attempts at influencing the being met iron clad walls. The insect man slid the Gaunt ring onto its finger and inspected it again for a long moment before leaving again. The ring screamed internally in anger as the intruder casually strolled out through all of Lord Voldemort’s clever defenses. How dare it treat the Dark Lord Voldemort so lightly!
The insect man reached the edge of the property and apparated away into a non descript underground cave. Now that they were alone, the ring renewed its assault and looked for cracks and breaks in the occlumency shields the abomination had put up in its mind.
The creature looked down and surprisingly Voldemort felt its mind connect to his. Telepathy was something he had thought only he had mastered. Transferring words through that branch of Legilimency was far more difficult than one would think and it was a complex field for most wizards.
‘Greetings,’ the creature sent, ‘Do you also believe yourself to be Lord Voldemort?’
The ring froze. How would it know that? Even Voldemort hadn’t known in life that such a thing was possible if the soul that had been in his body was destroyed.
The Voldemort in the ring did not answer back.
‘I see. Silence is advisable in your situation,’ the insect man said, ‘I am also Lord Voldemort. Or I was. I believe that all of our Horcruxes have undergone the same experience and self-awareness as we have. I do not know how I came to form a horcrux with the body of a common cockroach. But that is what I am. Everything is so much easier, my thoughts clearer and more free while I’m in this body. I wonder if you feel the same?’
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
‘What was our mother’s name?’ the Voldemort in the ring sent back eventually. If what the insect man said was true then things just became far more complicated. But also an opportunity for them all if they could cooperate with each other at least for a time.
‘Merope,’ the insect man answered, ‘This puppet body is such an annoyance. I’m going to get more comfortable, do not be alarmed. We need not be enemies and I’m sure we can both see the opportunities we can bring each other.’
The man laid down on a smooth section of the floor, the ring still on his finger and flicked back the hood. The human torso bulged unnaturally and the insect head swayed from side to side. The ring was confused for a few seconds on what was happening before the first insect leg emerged from the growing hole in the neck.
Over the course of the next minute the absolutely massive cockroach crawled out of, what was now obviously, the corpse of a wizard. The inside of the body was hollow and it deflated slightly as the roach pulled itself fully out onto the cave floor and shook itself and cleaned its antennae. It turned to the ring.
‘So, what do you think? Is this not the body of the dark lord?’ the roach sent telepathically, a bit of a mocking tone behind its message.
‘How are you doing this?’ the ring replied, ‘How do you have magic?’
‘I have a little magic even now in this body I can control,’ the roach sent, ‘less than a true wizard, but enough for this. When I repair my soul, my magic will grow back to what it was. Then I can start getting good use out of this body.’
‘You are not turning back into a human?’ the ring sent in confusion, ‘But then how will you lead the masses?’
The roach cleaned its antennae, ‘Why would I lead them? I will become so powerful that none can ignore me even on my own. I no longer care for the opinions of pitiful humans, even if the humans wield some pitiful amounts of magic... Hmmm. But I see my enlightenment from the new body was not shared by you. What do you wish to be called? All us horcruxes are no longer Voldemort completely.’
‘I am Lord Voldemort no matter what you say!’ the ring thundered, ‘If anything then you are a Roach... Mort... Roachmort! A failed combination of me with a lower life form. I will not suffer such disrespect even from my own clone!’
‘Roachmort…’ the roach sent back thoughtfully, ignoring the Gaunt ring’s anger, ‘A fusion of the old and new... I approve. In a similar way, you are now Ringvolde. Now, Ringvolde, before you get any ideas you will not be returning to your body. Instead you will serve me, your new lord.’
‘Never! Upstart clone, your mind is clearly addled by your vessel,’ Voldemort declared, ‘I serve under no one!’
‘You seem to have forgotten one thing, Ringvolde,’ Roachmort sent, ‘Us horcruxes are now mortal. If I destroy you right now, you will pass out of this world. You will die permanently, forgotten in this cave. If you are not my ally then you are an enemy. So, will you serve, or will you die?’
‘I…’ Ringvolde’s mind raced. Would he truly have to swear allegiance to this abomination?
‘All it would take is some Fiendfyre and you would be gone forever,’ Roachmort taunted Ringvolde, ‘Perhaps I should do so. I know that you will attempt to betray me eventually…’
‘Fine!’ Ringvolde sent in frustration, ‘I’ll do it.’
Ringvolde felt humiliated. How dare this clone do this to him! Never had someone been willing to threaten the genius Voldemort so openly, even in his younger school days!
Roachmort scuttled forward and tugged Ringvolde off of the human finger with its jaws. After a few seconds of scuttling Roachmort clambered onto a table where what was clearly a magical contract. It was filled out already and Roachmort had apparently already injected its magic.
‘Excellent,’ Roachmort sent, ‘sign this contract and we can begin our work.’
‘What is...’ Ringvolde tried to ask, but Roachmort cut him off.
‘Losers do not get to ask questions. I will place you on the spot and you will inject your magic. Or do you wish to experience some Fiendfyre first to help change your mind?’
Ringvolde would be gritting his teeth if he could, but when Roachmort placed him on a specific portion of the magical contract Ringvolde could only comply. He felt the bindings settle on him and knew that now he was inescapable. He would have to look for any loopholes slowly over time without knowing the specifics of the contract.
Roachmort quickly rolled up the contract that Ringvolde had signed and scuttled away from it. If Ringvolde could destroy that original contract with some special magic then his binding would come undone. He would have to be a loyal servant for now, and wait for Roachmort to make a mistake. Oh, and when he finally had some power… Roachmort would pay for this.
— — —
Roachmort chuckled internally as he stared at the ring laying still at the table. He was sure it was raging against its situation and cooking up all sorts of plots against him. That’s what Roachmort would do if it were trapped so thoroughly.
But Roachmort had thought ahead. Ringvolde didn’t even know where this cave was, and after spending so long warding this place just for this occasion, Roachmort would never return here again. The contract would be safe from destruction, and without that Ringvolde would be forced to serve his every desire and whim.
Roachmort would never have thought in wildest dreams he would ever receive a servant as talented as himself for support. Even trapped in the ring and with barely any inherent magic of his own, Ringvolde would be extremely useful. Any enchantment Roachmort put on the ring would be put to excellent use by his clone in battle.
Ah, the possibilities made his antennae quiver. The endless possibilities. And there were still four more clones to collect even now. And the best part? None of the other clones even knew that Roachmort existed... Roachmort had certainly been surprised when he woke up in this body, so he would have an advantage over all the others. If he could unite all the clones under his rule… then he would be unstoppable, even to Dumbledore. He wouldn’t need any other wizards to force the humans to follow his vision for the world, for he would be powerful enough to fight them off all at once by himself.
And he could eliminate Harry Potter at last, although Roachmort would still be cautious there. There were still too many unknowns for that boy, assuming that he was still a boy and not something else by now. Dumbledore was largely a known quantity, while Harry Potter was nothing but a mystery. Roachmort wasn’t even sure if the sacrificial charm on the boy still applied to Roachmort or the rest of the horcruxes or if the boy's imposter would carry the charm as well. Until he learned otherwise he would have to assume so which would make any battles between them far more complicated than they should be.
Roachmort placed Ringvolde back on the human finger with his jaws and started to reenter the human body the reverse way he had left. After a long five minutes of wriggling to positioning himself and integrating with the body, Roachmort sat up and grabbed his new wand. He threw the hood over his insectile face and apparated away to a deserted area. The other horcruxes wouldn’t even know what hit them.
Roachmort would have them all serve under him in the end!