hoodwinked

It’s when he’s killing the same muggle for the third time in a row that Voldemort tilts his head and wonders if he’s been cursed.

In his defense, muggles are like rats—endlessly scurrying about where they don’t belong and spreading filthy diseases. He doesn’t bother to remember what the muggles he kills looks like, or pay any attention to for what reason they crossed his path. They appear. He kills them. That’s that.

But Lord Voldemort is not stupid.

“Rise,” he tells the Death Eaters assembled around him and the dead muggle. They follow his command quickly, their black robes swishing around their feet and their white masks silently staring at him. He hides a frown and taps his finger slowly on the throne’s armrest, a rhythmic movement while the people below him cease all motion.

“Tell me of Potter,” Voldemort orders. Snape immediately steps forward, robe dramatic as always, and begins to give the exact same speech as the previous two times. It holds nothing of value; it’s a pretty veil to distract him from the nothingness on the other side. It’s insulting, is what it is. A sign that Snape has grown complacent, has gained a delusion that he can manipulate Lord Voldemort (and that he succeeded twice... well, that never happened, did it) as he pleases.

Growing bored with the increasingly useless charade, Voldemort waves his wand carelessly and hisses, “Crucio!”

Snape drops to the floor screaming.

Hissing in pleasure at the sight of his old spy’s pain, Voldemort curls his lip over his teeth and crosses his legs. He places an elbow on the armrest and his head on his hand, gazing down at Snape. He holds the curse for ten, fifteen, twenty seconds. When he lets it go, Snape flops bonelessly on the floor, spasming and trying uselessly to curl up.

Narrowing his eyes, Voldemort announces, “Dismissed.” His followers bow deeply and immediately depart, using portkeys to escape from him. Lucius grabs Snape and drags him with him.

A/N: This is a fic for LVDM Week 2022, an event I made for fun and which then snowballed into a bunch of ideas. This is Day 2, Time Loop! I've got a good ten months to finish it, which is nice since I don't have any time to write fanfics right now (sad face).