The man behind the mask

Everything was set, everything had to be perfect. The grounds of the manor were riddled with enchantments and traps of his strongest. Death Eaters were on hand and at the ready to slaughter any one who dared step foot on the grounds of his home. All except one, they had been ordered to kill anyone and everyone except Potter. He knew that they wondered. He knew his faithful followers wondered what was in his mind.



“It is ready my lord”, Severus Snape said.



“Excellent I have been in this repellant body for far too long” Tom hissed. He gestured for Snape to come forward. He did so handing him a smile vile of a bubbling blue liquid.



“Severus and I have labored for months on it just as you asked my lord. My son admittedly was more of a help then I was.” Lucius said from the doorway. Tom saw Snape roll his eyes. Had he been human Tom would have smiled.



“Yes everyone knows how useless you are with potions Lucius. Luckly Draco has taken after his mother in that regard. Else this potion might not return me to my natural form instead maybe that of a monkey.”



Severus chuckled softly at this, Tom shot him a chilling smile. “Then I’d kill you both. If this does not work exactly as I have planned I will take great pleasure in cutting out both your hearts.” Lucius and Severus, instead of quaking and peeing in their pants like any sane men facing Lord Voldemort’s ire actually looked between the two of them and smiled.



Severus and Lucius were two of his most loyal flowers. The only two men who he would ever trust with his plans, even they had been the only ones not shocked at his edict that Potter was not to be killed when the Order stumbled foolishly into his trap. They had been his confidants for years, not friends. Never friends, he was above so foolish an emotion. He had learned quit early that friends were shallow, everyone had hidden goals. Friendship was simply a crafty way to achieve them by using another person. After so many years of…whatever their relationship could be named…They both knew when he was truly angry or just being, as Severus like to say “The dark one”.



They knew that today their master was extremely pleased. His plans were going perfectly and soon he would be rid of gray hairless skin and snake like features and be returned to his original beauty. They had rarely caused him to be truly angry at one of them but when they did they quaked in fear just like everybody else.



He never hesitated to cause either of them pain or strike fear into them like any of his other death eaters. Unlike them however Severus and Lucius had his trust, a rarity in itself. Tom was not sure when and where that had taken place, after all he had learned early on that no one was too be trusted. He had trusted in the caretakers to protect him. They had not. He had trusted in an old man who told him he was special and different. He had trusted that said old man would care for him and give him the family he had always dreamed of. He had not. He had sought to trample his power, because it intimidated him.





He did the same to Harry, it was no motherly sacrifice that had saved Harry from death the night he had foolishly tried to destroy him. True it was old magic, magic he had forgotten but magic in no way strong enough to repel the strength of his killing curse. It might have made it backfire but the backlash alone would have killed Harry but not been strong enough to harm Tom himself.





Tom and Dumbledore both knew exactly what had happened that night. If you asked anyone who the strongest wizard in the world was they would wrongly be debating between Tom and Albus. They would overlook one teenage boy with glasses and a scar on his face. In a way he owed that and thanks to Dumbledore. If Harry had grown up in the Weasley home; they were just one of the thousands of wizarding couples who had offered to take Harry in. Then Tom was sure that Harry would have already destroyed him.



He wouldn’t be Harry for one thing; he also wouldn’t be so open to what was coming. Tom felt a cold smile play on his lips. Albus the fool had sought to use Harry as his own tool much as he had tried to do to Tom in his own youth. For the most part it had appeared to be working. Tom almost wept with disgust every time Harry opened his mouth. He was completely and thoroughly trained to Dumbledore’s heel.



However Albus had made some errors in his judgment. He underestimated Harry’s will, and the will of Aros. Dumbledore liked to play with prophecy, because one did not tell him what he wished to hear he invented another. One that would suite his own purpose and shape Harry into the puppet he was today. His lies and his twists would loose him his little toy solider, and Tom was going to delight in his destruction.



Unlike Albus he did not fear those who were stronger then him. He did not fear sacrifice and the unknown. He had given up his mortal body in the search for immortality. He had sacrificed life in the pursuit of power and it did not weigh on his conscience. He knew he was going to win, he knew he was going to own the world and moved steadily forward with confidence. He knew his role in the table of three.



It was Albus who lurked in the shadows, played games with the mind. It was Albus who hid his intentions behind kind eyes and noble words. When Harry realized this ,Dumbledore was going to loose his greatest Alley.



Because he used him look a tool.



Harry was no tool to Tom, Tom knew that without Harry he would loose. Albus also knew it and fought hard to feed Harry’s hatred of him. If he had only known that Harry was Aros he never would have killed James Potter. He would have doubled his efforts to get that blasted and brash young man to turn. He had been an annoyance so Tom had decided to remove him. An error in judgment that could be the deciding role in the game that fallowed.



Harry with all his nobility would never submit to the man who murdered his parents. And blasted Dumbledore knew it! He fed Harry tales of how wonderful his father had been, and about how noble he himself had been. About how lovely and kind his mother had been. Well that in itself was not a lie, Lilly had been kind all those things. James Potter was another story entirely. Tom was convinced the sorting hat had only put him in Gryffindor because no Slytherin would ever be as brash and emotional as James had been.



Even there Tom knew the real truth, the sorting had judged a persons insides. But it like a all magical thinking things had its faults. The sorting had could be compelled. Not by just anyone, it would take someone with strong magic to fool the sorting hat. To compel it to his will. The sorting had could care less whether James wanted to be in Gryffindor if he was made for it then Gryffindor he would go.



Tom knew full well that the sorting hat had wanted to put Harry in Slytherin. How could it not he was Aros. Even so young Dumbledore had started to shape him into the perfect tool, his order and its members fed him tales of how evil all Slytherin’s were supposed to be. And shock of all shocks, the man who murdered his parents had been Slytherin. Naturally the last place young Harry had wanted to be was in his proper house.



So he had asked not to be, and the hat had listened. He had compelled the sorting hat, wielded the sword of Gryfendor, was familiar with Phox who if you had asked Tom he would have told you was most definitely loyal to Albus. Harry could perform magical feats that no one else in his year could. He could connect with Toms mind and not have Tom be aware of it. He could speak to snakes and use his voice alone to command others to his will.



How could he not realize how strong he was. Albus fed him lie after lie, explanation after explanation as to why things happened the way they did. Year after year he convinced Harry that although he had great destiny he was no stronger then anyone else. That “love” was his greatest tool against Voldemort.



Tom let out a sneering chuckle, “Love”. It was laughable the old man was so frightened of Harry finding out the extent of his powers he was practically shaking with it. Tom planed to not only release that power but to embrace it. Just as destiny told him, and he would rule as he was meant.



With Harry by his side.



He turned to Severus and Lucius who had of course waited for him to speak. “I will need the boys blood again will I not for it too work?” He asked them. Severus nodded and Lucius spoke.



“Which is no problem my lord, our spies confirmed that Peter has been killed and that the Order questioned him. Surprisingly enough it was Potter who did the searching, instead of using truth serum as you expected they used Animus Postulo”



Tom wasn’t surprised by many things, but he was now. That spell was a dark spell, one that he used often on his victims. A spell that would allow its caster to take the life, memories anything that was another person into his own body. All their powers anything of them was now theirs contained with their body. Harry now new everything that Peter Pettigrew had known. That meant that Harry was aware of the trap, that meant that everything could go wrong.



Voldemort was angry, his happy mood of moments before had vanished. Lucius shivered and backed away. He was dangerous like this; he didn’t like the fact that Potter had used such dark magic.



“Does that not please you great one, Potter is after all to be your consort is it not good that he should shed his ideals?” Severus asked him hesitantly. Voldemort did not miss some of the spite in Severus tone when he spoke Potters name. Left over enmity from his boy hood troubles no doubt, but Voldemort would not tolerate disrespect to his chosen mate.



He was about to let both of them in on a world of pain when another death eater came into the hall bowed low and said with evident pleasure.



“My lord Potter has been spotted not a mile from here, the Order is no doubt behind him in the shadows.” If he had hoped that Voldemort would be pleased by his announcement he was wrong.



“Fools they know! They will know that we await them. Everything must be changed!” he snapped and to settle his own nerves punished all three of them. “Glacies exuro” He snapped and swept from the hall taking no pleasure in their screams. The order was on its way and all the traps would have to be reset. No matter, he would not fail they would all die and Harry would be his. This he promised.

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Harry was close, he knew he was. This area appeared abandoned and the air itself was willing him to abandon his present course and turn around. He felt magic slide over his skin and knew he had passed the barrier that would have prevented anyone who the secrete keeper hadn’t told the exact whereabouts of the manor too, from continuing.



He gripped his wand, he knew he was being closely fallowed he had been gone for four days and Dumbledore would have raised the alarm as soon as he was found missing. He knew Sirius and Remus were only minutes behind him. He loved them both, and he was not going to let any of them be harmed.



This was his fight and he would go it alone.



He could see it; it sprung magically from the ground and what had been an abandoned lot in a wealthy part of town was now a sprawling manor estate.



His enemy was in there. The man who had destroyed his life and so many others.



Tonight this was going to end. One way or the other.