A/N: Hello! This really is quite a long chapter, I shan't delay you from reading it!
Previously on Crossing Over
“Thanks, Gin.” I smiled up at her as she stood to leave. She grabbed Fred’s arm tightly as they Apparated away, allowing Malfoy and I some time to think. At least, I was thinking. It was difficult. It was true; I missed them, but what good was it to maintain those feelings if there was nothing you could do about them? I looked at him with watery eyes; amazingly, he did the same.
Suddenly, another loud crack filled the air. I didn’t bother to look up.
“Guys, I thought I told you to””
And I looked up. I saw who it was, and it wasn’t them.
Chapter 5
“VOLDEMORT?!”
I stumbled backwards “ no way in hell was this hideous being in my apartment. His bald head was shiny and reflected all light, and his chin was non-existent; it fused into his neck. His skin was pale and grey-like, making the blood-red eyes seem more threatening than they already were. He smiled, but it wasn’t like one of Draco’s smiles. Thin lips which lacked colour twisted themselves into a gruesome sneer; there was no warmth in his eyes, and he seemed to be enjoying just standing there.
“Now, now child, is that any way to address the greatest wizard of all time?” Those red slits actually had amusement dancing in them.
“Albus Dumbledore is and always will be the greatest wizard of all time, Riddle.”
I glanced at Draco’s stricken face to the side of me. His eyes were darting forwards and backwards between his master and me, like he was scared that one or both of us would end up hurt. I looked defiantly into Voldemort’s eyes; well, what there were of them.
“So the Mudblood thinks she has the right to call me by my filthy father’s name? If I’m not mistaken, little witch, Albus Dumbledore is well and truly dead. He was too weak to stand up against me! However, you, sweet thing, are different… Draco, my loyal servant, why don’t you show her what happens to brave souls who stand up against me?” He stared menacingly at Draco, who, I could tell, was still very confused.
“Master, I-I”” he stammered. “Sh-She…” He closed his eyes and inhaled deeply; trembling, he raised his wand and pointed it at me. After what seemed an eternity, the person who I thought I could trust; the person who I had spent the best part of the last three hours spilling my life secrets to, snapped open his eyes, revealing cold, lifeless circles. They seemed to register their surroundings before once again returning to their original state of fear and anxiety, as they were when they first saw Voldemort.
Taking another deep breath, he tried to start again:
“Cru””
“Crucio!”
Draco Malfoy fell on his hands and knees to the ground writhing, but silent. His face contorted into a mixture of pain and joy, as if experiencing the effects of the Cruciatus curse was a regular occurrence for him. His mouth opened and closed several times, as if trying to speak, and I could just make out the word he was forming with his lips: stop. I reacted instantly, and did the one thing I could do; stop Voldemort.
“Stop it!” I yelled at him, my eyes focused on the twitching Draco on the floor. Tears began to fill my eyes from the sight of seeing him in such pain.
“STOP IT!” I screamed in Voldemort’s face. Without thinking, I lunged at him, trying to break the hold he had over Draco, so that I wouldn’t have to bear witness to his suffering.
“Stand aside, silly girl…”
My mind reeled at the familiarity of the words. Was he going to repeat his actions of so many years ago?
“This, child, is what my disloyal servants get for not obeying me!” His eyes flashed in Draco’s direction, and with a flick of his wand, the weak form slumped, unmoving, to the floor. I hurried over to him, kneeling to check if he was still alive.
“He’s barely alive! What have you done to him?!”
“A mere reminder of what can happen, my dear,” he said, emphasising the last word like venom. He strolled forwards without sound, as if gliding slowly through water. From my crouched position I saw long, thin fingers protruding from a dark billowing cloak, which was patterned with snake-shaped shades of green. I tried to ignore him whilst waking Draco up.
“Leave him be. He’ll come to his senses in time. Now, Miss Granger, how do you feel?”
“What do you mean?” I spat. “I was fine until you came along!”
“Fine, you say? Then, you don’t remember that your family died quite recently?”
I didn’t know what to say. It almost sounded as if he cared about them; my parents, who were muggles.
“Yes, muggles they were, but they were your parents. They were the ones who gave you life; the ones you lived seventeen years of your life with, and, quite unfortunately,” he added with a smirk, “they’re dead. They’re dead, Miss Granger. Surely you must feel something?”
I felt like crying again. He was deliberately rubbing the fact that they were dead into my face, even though both of his parents were gone; after all, he was the one to kill his father and his father’s parents. That probably explained why he hadn’t felt anything remotely close to love in his whole life. Harry’s descriptions of the images in Dumbledore’s Pensieve were not just frightening, but almost heart-breaking, even though they were about a younger “ and somewhat evil “ Voldemort.
Obviously, Harry and Ron didn’t agree with me, because Voldemort ‘had always been evil so you can’t just feel sorry for him’, apparently. Or maybe guys just didn’t have hearts. Either way, seeing an eleven-year-old who had never lived life like a normal child, and who had to grow up in a place he absolutely despised was thoroughly depressing.
Yet here that child was, almost sixty years on, looking nothing like he did sixty years ago. He stood over me, leering at Malfoy and me on the ground, as if he controlled everything that was below him.
“I feel nothing! Absolutely nothing! Get it through that fragile skull of yours that I…FEEL…NOTHING!!!” I felt that I was overreacting, but it was true that I no longer felt sad at my parents’ death. Their passing (even though I was sad about it for a few days) could only have a limited effect on me “ it shouldn’t have lasted this long. I had told myself time and time again that I had to be strong; that I was a Gryffindor who couldn’t give in to despair. I wasn’t supposed to “ that’s what Gryffindors were like.
“Dear child, you say you feel nothing? One brave enough to say such words is worthy of high power, do you not agree?”
“One who says such words is not worthy of a heart, never mind power!” I said what I was feeling, and that was truly how I felt. The pain that was no longer there had ebbed away into an emotionless wall. I was no longer feeling anything of great happiness, nor of any kind of joy. All that was there was… emptiness.
“Lack of a heart is what makes one omnipotent! I, Lord Voldemort, the greatest wizard in the world, am omnipotent, because I lack a heart. Feelings like love can get you nowhere, Miss Granger, and it would do well for you to remember that.”
“I can love. I’m not like you! You’ve never loved! NEVER!”
“Because I achieved in my life-long goal! That is why I have never loved! Maybe you do love, as you say… and if you do, you very much love your parents.”
“My parents, as you so nicely pointed out, are dead, with thanks to Lucius Malfoy!” The name spat out of my mouth. At this point, Lucius Malfoy was the epitome of evil; never mind Voldemort. The person who killed my parents could only have been the worst person in the world, and to me that was Lucius Malfoy.
My statement seemed to have taken Voldemort by surprise. Only a faint flicker of astonishment crossed those eyes, but it was there; gone as quickly as it had come.
“Lucius Malfoy? He killed your parents? Interesting…”
“Yes! Lucius Malfoy killed my parents! And I will kill him; he knows,” I said, pointing at Malfoy on the ground, “I’ve told him. I will kill his father, because his father killed mine!”
“Kill? You, my dear witch, want to kill Lucius Malfoy? Oh, what joy! Killing, my dear, takes hatred beyond all hatred you’ve ever imagined. It takes power. It takes evil!”
“Oh I’ll show you evil, VOLDEMORT! You want power, and I’ll show you it. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again “ I WILL KILL LUCIUS MALFOY!”
The son of the mentioned man was stirring beside us. Obviously the Cruciatus curse had not affected him as much as it would have done to me, not that I had ever experienced it. His eyes opened, taking in the scene before him; Hermione Granger, his supposed enemy, and Lord Voldemort, his master, standing less than two feet apart.
“Wh-What’s going on?” he asked, sitting up.
“Miss Granger was telling me, very forcefully, that she would kill your father, Draco. She seems to think she has the necessary evil in her heart to do it. It seems to me that this may be the case; do you not agree, Draco?”
“I beg your pardon? Her,” he pointed at me, “with necessary evil to what?! Her, Mudblood Granger, with necessary evil to KILL my father?!”
“Now, now, Draco, blood should not matter, should it?” he asked with a bigger smirk than Malfoy would have. “After all, what is blood when one has enough power to weaken those without power?”
“What? Blood is everything to you, Voldemort. Don’t you remember? I’m very much beneath you!” He actually seemed to be saying good things about me, defending me against one of his own minions.
“My Lord, what are you saying? You, of all people, taking a Mudblood’s side? Have you forgotten the damage they do to our wizarding lives? That they don’t deserve to live? That they are a disgrace to our world?”
“Of course not. But this little witch…”He moved swiftly behind me and held my neck from behind. “…She is a gifted one; a special one. She has power “ I can sense it. You haven’t seen the hatred she holds for your father.” Even the small mention of that person got me fired up “ I wanted him gone and I wanted it now. “You really are very impatient, aren’t you?”
“I’m a Gryffindor, and I’m Hermione Granger. I don’t give up.”
“A Gryffindor, Granger? Are you quite sure about that? Gryffindors don’t kill, especially if their victim is far more powerful and superior to them.”
“Lucius Malfoy is scum, Malfoy! Get it through that brain of yours! He thinks about nothing but himself “ I doubt he even cares you’re his son!” He flinched. It had seemed to hit him harder than I originally thought.
“You don’t mean that,” he mumbled, shaking quite visibly.
“Yes, Malfoy, I do. How about we call your dear father now, and ask him in person?” I raised my voice to Voldemort’s hearing, since he was behind me. “What do you think, Riddle?” His hand tightened around my neck at the mention of his father “ I rather enjoyed the feeling of having this power, even though it was only small, over Voldemort, just by saying a name.
“Very well, Miss Granger.” His icy breath froze my ear as he whispered, “I would rather you didn’t be rid of him just yet,” so that Malfoy wouldn’t hear. The cold feeling spread to my neck, and into his fingers; it seemed as if he was using something on his arm to call Malfoy Sr. to his side.
My assumptions were soon confirmed. A dark figure had Apparated into the room, right in front of me; its grey eyes glanced at me before turning their attention to their owner’s master.
“Welcome, Lucius.”
A/N: No? Yes? Too far-fetched? Maybe. Well, I tried... By the way, I obviously won't be updating since we can't... so.... Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!