𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐍𝐀𝐊𝐄𝐒 ; harry potter

ix.

CHAPTER NINE
the dark lord.

—

everyone around the quidditch pitch awaited in silence. waiting for the other two champions to return with the cup.

"where are they? they've been gone for an hour." pansy said, going on her tiptoes to look around.

"what do you guys think moody's done to them?"

"don't even mention it, enzo. they're probably on their way back. the walk here back to the castle is pretty far."

—

madison stared at her father in shock, she felt her heart beating rapidly as if it wanted to get out. mattheo felt his hands shaking, and it instinctively went to his sister's thigh. madison noticed this and placed her bloody hand on top of his hand, gripping it tightly as if it would help the violent tremble go away.

voldemort looked away from harry and began examining his own body. his hands were like large, pale spiders; his long white fingers caressed his own chest, his arms, his face; the red eyes, whose pupils were slits, like a cat's, gleamed still more brightly through the darkness. he held up his hands and flexed the fingers, his expression rapt and exultant. he took not the slightest notice of wormtail, who lay twitching and bleeding on the ground, nor of the great snake, which had slithered back into sight and was circling harry again, hissing.

voldemort slipped one of those unnaturally long-fingered hands into a deep pocket and drew out a wand. he caressed it gently too; and then he raised it, and pointed it at wormtail, who was lifted off the ground and thrown against the headstone where harry was tied; he fell to the foot of it and lay there, crumpled up and crying. voldemort turned his scarlet eyes upon harry, laughing a high, cold, mirthless laugh.

"my lord.." he choked, "my lord...you promised..you did promie..."

"hold out your arm," said voldemort lazily.
"oh master..thank you, master.."

he extended the bleeding stump, but voldemort
laughed again. "the other arm, wormtail."
"master, please...please..."

voldemort bent down and pulled out wormtail's left arm; he forced the sleeve of wormtwil's robes up past his elbow, and harry saw something upon the skin there, something like a vivid red tattoo — a skull with a snake protruding from its mouth.

voldemort examined it carefully, ignoring wormtail's uncontrollable weeping.
"it is back," he said softly, "they will all have noticed it..and now, we shall see..now we shall know..."

he pressed his long white forefinger to the brand on wormtail's arm.
the scar on harry's forehead seared with a sharp pain again, and wormtail let out a fresh howl; voldemort removed his fingers from wormtail's mark, and harry saw that it had turned jet black.

a look of cruel satisfaction on his face, voldemort straightened up, threw back his head, and stared around at the dark graveyard.
"how many will be brave enough to return when they feel it?" he whispered, his gleaming red eyes fixed upon the stars. "and how many will be foolish enough to stay away?"

voldemort's sharp eyes landed on madison who kept sobbing on the ground. "oh, madison..
mattheo, my dearest children."

"get..get away from us." madison managed to say in-between her sobs. voldemort laughed.