Adult-FanFiction.org : Harry Potter

Splitting Souls	By : N2vivaria Category: HP Canon Characters paired with Original Characters > Het - Male/Female Views: 1366 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: Obviously I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters from the story. I do not make money off this fanfiction.

Chapter List
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Sia couldn’t stand wizards, they made her life hell. If they weren’t brandishing their damn sticks at her then they were trapping her in their politics. She hated being told what she could and could not do, forced to obey rules based on ambiguous morals. She let only her abilities dictate what she could do, to hell with their red tape. But right now she was in the fight of her life, her first in which the other team didn’t play by any rules and now she wasn’t sure what she was really capable of.

For a moment even the Dark Lord himself was frozen by the scene before him. Not in fear mind you, but bewilderment. He had not expected, upon apparating into Malfoy Manor for a revel, to find himself in the middle of a rather heated duel. Voldemort was always prepared to battle for his life at a moment’s notice, one had to be with as many enemies as what the Dark Lord acquired, but it took him slightly longer than usual to process what was happening in front of him.

A wandless witch, presumably meant to be entertainment for the revel, was fighting off a handful of his death eaters. A quick assessment as he shielded himself and sat back to enjoy the show yielded that she was a tan brunette who couldn’t be taller than 5’ 5” and had the scrawny look of a runaway despite being around the age of 20 or younger. This made her extensive ability to use wandless magic curious. Even more curious was the look on her face. He had seen feral expressions on muggles and wizards alike as they desperately fought for their worthless lives, the chance to break them was the entire point behind these revels, but the insanity she displayed was more akin to that of Bellatrix Lestrange. This witch wasn’t just angry, she was mad, fighting as if she wanted nothing more than to see the whole world burn.

She didn’t stand a chance of course, especially as the number of death eaters increased. They were still apparating in as the time for the revel drew near. She was outnumbered and outmatched but her ferocity was breathtaking none the less. Voldemort watched with interest as she wandlessly diverted 3 more green killing curses around herself and threw random attackers into the air around her.

The game was suddenly less funny as he recognized Malfoy himself being smashed against wall, mere inches from an array of cursed torture devices set out for the impending show. Realizing that allowing her outburst to continue could cost him a useful pawn, Voldemort stood and fearlessly approached the half crazed witch. His death eaters, numbering over 2 dozen now, never stopped firing on her but parted for him as he quickly closed the gap.

Sizing up his prey he quickly ran a few diagnostic spells and was surprised to find that her shield was getting stronger rather than weakening, even though she was running out of attack power. To his fascination he watched as she used the magic from his death eaters attacks to reinforce her shield, as if they were throwing mortar at her rather than unforgivable curses. He was quickly brought back to attention when the fury that was devastating Malfoy’s revel finally noticed his approach.

Or at least she should have. She only regarded him for a couple seconds, during which the entire room stilled, before turning her attention back to the death eaters. The fighting immediately resumed and his temper almost got the better of him upon being dismissed like an ordinary attacker before his rational mind observed that she seemed to be looking for something. Now that was interesting. What could she possibly be more worried about than her own life at this point?

He put up a shield around her, like a bubble containing her attacks, and silently willed a ceasefire from his death eaters who hesitantly obeyed. Soon many were chuckling, excited to watch her impending torture. Some were even squirming, almost chomping at the bit, to be given a chance to take part. But the Dark Lord just watched as her eyes combed the room, stopping only on some of the death eaters who had been in the room before he showed up. Frustration increasingly contorted her face until he suddenly spoke up, enticing her attention for the second time that night.

“I expect everyone but Malfoy, Lestrange, Nott and Dolohov to leave immediately. The revel will continue as planned in about an hour, you will await my call.” The unusually light voice of the Dark Lord overcame the entire hall but the words hardly registered for Sia in her half mad state until the death eaters started to disappear. This spurred a full blown panic in her and she started to lash out against the accursed barrier that was trapping her. It lit up as she pushed out magic in all directions. A last ditch attempt to find it. They couldn’t take it, SHE HAD TO FIND HER RING!

Lucius watched with discomfort as the other death eaters left. Some snickered as they disappeared in a puff of smoke, clearly envisioning what the Dark Lord had in store for insolent witch that had ruined the beginning of the revel he had worked so hard to set up. Others hesitated, clearly wanting to see her break under torture. None were so unwise as to stay though, except of course those who had been ordered not to leave. The girls behavior suddenly became ferocious again as she watched hordes of death eaters disappear which disturbed Lucius more, because obviously any sane victim would have been relieved by the disappearance of so many professional torturers and murderers. Of course she should be panicking because she had invoked the sole attention of the Dark Lord but unlike Lucius, she didn’t seem aware of him at all even though he’d likely be the death of them both.

Voldemort took in the scene at hand. The girl predictably panicked at the sight of her quarry escaping and lashed out powerfully against his shield although it of course held strong. She seemed to relax upon seeing which death eaters were left, but perhaps it was just exhaustion? No, her appreciation was almost tangible. He had pleased her by removing the henchmen that had been in her way and she stared hungrily at the death eaters she’d been fighting from the start. He couldn’t help but find her amusing both for her inexplicable strength and backward view of the circumstances.

The death eaters left were also noticeably excited about being chosen to stay. They seemed to think it meant they’d have a turn at teaching the witch her place but Lucius was sweating bullets. Only he understood that they could not be rewarded in the wake of such failure, and thus was the only one prepared for the following cruciatus. Voldemort held it for a full minute before releasing his death eaters from the excruciating pain. Now all but Rudolphus seemed to understand the situation. Good, because Rudolphus was the one who chose which prisoners to bring to the revel and would be answering Voldemort’s questions about the girl. Questions he would probably answer incorrectly or inadequately giving Voldemort more opportunities to punish him.

Sia stood back and watched Voldemort torture his minions with glee. Somewhere, way too far in the back of her mind was worry but she would have none of it now. One of those sniveling bastards had her ring. True to Dark Lord form, he began to question his most unsuspecting victim about her. And tortured him when he didn’t know anything. Her excitement could not be contained as the questioning and torturing continued, allowing a wicked sneer to creep across her face.

Voldemort was disappointed but not surprised that Rudolphus knew nothing about the girl, she was a prisoner and therefore unimportant. His death eaters weren’t expected to know anything about those whose lives didn’t matter. He tortured him anyway. For not knowing who captured her, for not knowing where she was captured, for not knowing why she was captured, for not knowing who she was…

“Is there anything you can tell me about her my loyal servant? Perhaps even why you chose her for the revel?” He delighted in the defeated look on his death eater’s face. Rudolphus looked nervously at the girl and said “She only stood out because of her accessories…” Voldemort turned and really looked at the witch for the first time that night. He noticed the bracelet draped across her arm and on her other hand she wore a ring. This was unacceptable. Prisoners were to be stripped of personal items as a means to break them by destroying their identities. Rudolphus knew this which is why he was now cowering nervously waiting for his punishment, but Voldemort was still staring at the witch. She was fuming again, the mere mention of her jewelry reigniting her madness. He studied her face, realizing that it wasn’t just the crazed look she had which made her appear so dangerous but the color of her eyes. They were golden, a color that could be naturally found in wolves and other animals but not in people. He also noticed that her bracelet no longer touched her skin but floated lightly around her arm. Then she screamed.

“THEY TOOK MY RING! GIVE IT BACK!” Sia jumped back through the hole that she had created in Voldemort’s shield. He hadn’t noticed the hole because she hadn’t punched through by force. A shield was something that you had to feed magic to; she didn’t have the strength to tear through it and even if she did he would have felt that, so she just diverted the magic that would have been forming the back of of her trap to feeding her bracelet instead. She had used him like a battery. And from the furious look on his face she figured he knew that.

Voldemort cursed. He had no idea how she surreptitiously slipped through his little cage but the damn witch had played him. In front of his death eaters no less. She ran around dodging curses and throwing a few herself but Voldemort noticed she wasn’t putting much of her magic into attacking. At first glance she would appear to be using it to maintain her strong shield but he remembered her little trick from the battle earlier, his death eaters were unwittingly doing that for her. Suddenly he understood his mistake. If she could take the magic from oncoming attacks and divert it to her shield then surely she could steal magic from his shield and use it to attack him.

Admittedly his first reaction was to kill the little bitch for her insolence so he started levitating some of the physical torture devices that had been sitting out for the revel and began hurling them at her. This seemed like a good move because she started to panic. Now all her attention was diverted from feigning attack on his death eaters and spent levitating and transfiguring physical defenses which was clearly weakening her quickly. This reminded him that he’d made another observation which could be used to take her alive - she was looking for something. No, not just something, a ring! As much pleasure as he’d get from killing her he could do that after getting some questions answered.

Sia was growing weak. For the first time since she’d started making her trinkets she could feel death’s approach. Hell she could see him, the smug bastard was sneering down his noseless face at her from across the room. He followed her with those red eyes. Inhuman eyes like hers. Those eyes had spotted her shield's strength against magical attacks and just as quickly discovered that it was far more taxing on her to repel physical assaults. She was both horrified and incensed by this, but rather than let him take all the credit she berated herself for attacking with a reckless abandon that exposed her tricks. But she couldn’t help it! She couldn’t think straight, SHE NEEDED THAT RING. And as if he could read her mind, which she doubted he could, he answered her request.

“Do you know who took your ring?” The fighting immediately stopped. Lucius would never understand how such a whisper of a voice could cut through any noise and penetrate his heart with such icy fear.

“Perhaps we can end this without your death. I give you your ring and you give me answers.” The Dark Lord coaxed. There was no need for further negotiating, she was his upon the mentioning of her ring. Excellent. Despite being mysteriously powerful, she was easy enough to control and even easier to read. At least her face was. Her mind was not only difficult to get into, but was an unhelpful mess. She succeeded in shrouding any useful information behind a barrier of insanity. She was clearly practicing occlumency to some degree but in combination she was sending out such strong emotions of hate, panic and desperation which one had to wade through to get any deeper into her mind that breaking in became unbearable. What an interesting if not infuriating defense…

Lucius began to panic. Unbeknownst to anyone else in the room, the accursed ring that had started this all was in his chest pocket. Rudolphus had brought multiple prisoners to him for the revel and none of them stood out during the process of transfiguring the clothes they’d been captured in into the plain prisoner robes. Some cried, the insipid muggles were confused in the face of science defying magic, but still others remained hardened. She’d been one of those who put on a brave face. Things didn’t get unusual until it came time to remove personal effects, like watches and jewelry. It only took a flick of his wand for Rudolphus to collect these items from all of the prisoners at once…except for her. She had wandlessly shielded herself which was impressive but of no importance, it just meant they’d get to have some early fun with her. It wasn’t until Rudolphus had gone to physically remove her things that she actually attacked.

Sia could sense her ring, but all she could feel was that it was unharmed, not locate it. She’d never worried about finding a way to locate it before because she'd never lost any of her pieces, they stayed with her always. She felt so lost without her ring now and the insanity that had been bubbling up in its absence was making it impossible for her to deduce who had it. As much fun as it had been to torture the Dark Lord with her fractured mind, for she could feel his failed attempts to read her, she was also embarrassed by her current weakness and would be relying on him to find the culprit. He must have realized this too because he just grinned.

Voldemort found it somewhat satisfying to know that the witch’s craziness was a greater hindrance to herself than it was to him. Not that he wouldn’t torture her thoroughly for it later, but it helped him hold off for the moment. He shifted his attention from the helpless witch to his death eaters.

“Well Rudolphus? Either you removed her ring and incited a rebellion in my presence or you failed to remove her ring, proving yourself incapable of processing prisoners. ” The Dark Lord was clearly enjoying watching the man squirm but Sia was not concerned for his safety, she was waiting for his answer.

Of course, Voldemort knew it wasn’t Rudolphus hiding the ring, it was Malfoy. The fool had been using occlumency from the get go, which wasn’t unusual for any of his death eaters but now that he was the only one in the room hiding his thoughts, and no one else in the room knew where the ring was...well, he was essentially waving a big red flag. Voldemort was only torturing Rudolphus to scare Malfoy, which he found twice a satisfying.

“Crucio,” came the Dark Lord's cruelly impersonal voice as he inflamed every one of his innocent (well not hardly, but in this particular case he was) servant's nerves. Lucius watched Rudolphus fall to the ground in agony again. He couldn’t very well reveal that he had the ring now, could he? How had such a small thing gotten him in so much trouble anyway? He stole a glance back at the troublesome witch. She was seething again. He couldn’t understand how she had caused so much uproar. Aside from being able to perform wandless magic, she didn’t seem so special until his sticky fingers had managed to slip that ring off her during a pileup that had failed to hold her down. They’d realized quickly that they couldn’t summon her things with magic but he’d been the only one to try and physically remove it. There was just something special about it, and he thought that taking it would weaken her. But it didn’t, it just drove her mad. The effect had been immediate; she lost all restraint and attacked with a strength none could have guessed she possessed.

“Lucius!” Voldemort spotted the guilty party eyeing the girl and decided it was time to bring this game of cat and mouse to a close. His greedy servant responded immediately by masking his horror and facing him. He seemed to think he’d get out of this through denial. He was wrong.

“Yes my lord?” Sia saw the blond turn to the Dark Lord now. He might have been eying her before being addressed by his master but she wasn’t sure because she’d been so keenly watching the one named Rudolphus being tortured. She felt fairly certain that the twitching mess on the ground didn’t have her ring, as he would have given it up by now. If only the thief had put it on, it’d be back on her finger by now and she would have found a way to flee from this hell hole. She regretted coming here to hide.

Despite Lucius’ best airs, Voldemort saw right through him. He demanded the man to lower his mental defenses to plead innocent, resulting in a quick confession. Lucius claimed to have found the ring on the ground, pretending it must have fallen off during the fight but the witch was instantly incensed and too crazy to keep her mouth shut. She obviously didn’t agree with his account of what happened but rather than screaming about his obvious lies, she went straight to demanding he give her the ring back. Now that was behavior that Voldemort could not accept. He cut her off with a silencing spell and spoke up.

“You dare to command my Death Eaters?” She ignored him and started for her ring. Now that made him angry. He had been ignored too many times today by this no-name witch to tolerate any more disrespect. And all for what, some silly piece of jewelry?

“Stop there or I will destroy you ring!” he bellowed. Sia snapped to attention, which was hard to do without her ring. She needed it. IT WAS RIGHT THERE. No. She needed to calm down, her ring was safe, she needed to keep it that way.

Voldemort exhaled the breath he’d been holding. How frustrating, but at least he’d remembered how easy she was to control. He looked back at her trying to decide what to do now that he had her ring. He had so many questions that she seemed too crazed to answer. As if reading his mind she began to plead.

“Please I can’t give you answers until you give me back my ring.” Sia hesitated trying to think of something other than the truth to give him, but she couldn’t come up with anything, not now, not without that ring, “I…I just can’t think straight without it,” she sobbed.

For all he knew, the ring would give her greater power although Lucius’ memory suggested the opposite, so Voldemort had to pause to decide how to proceed. After a moment he summoned a lesser death eater. He had to know what the effects of the ring were and why she wanted it back so badly, but he could not risk himself or a member of his inner circle finding out.

“Put this on” he commanded, levitating the ring to the savage but unambitious death eater he’d decided to use. He was the kind of pawn that, if ring gave him power he wouldn’t think to use it against his master but if it was cursed then losing him would be no great loss. Voldemort caught the girl grinning right as the ring slipped on the man’s finger.

Sia instantly ran toward herself. Her half crazed self that the Dark Lord had commanded to stay still was sprinting toward the new death eater that was wearing her ring, and the new death eater she was controlling using the ring was running toward her own body. Unfortunately, only her body wearing the bracelet could use wandless magic and that self was consumed by her desperation to get to her ring, unable to comprehend anything else - included the Dark Lord and his Death Eaters rushing to stop them.

Voldemort felt like he’d been hit with a stupefy. It wasn’t often that he was stumped so completely as to hesitate like he did now, but he had to snap out of it. His pawn surely couldn’t be betraying him of his own free will so it must be the effect of the ring but this was not what he’d been expecting at all. His death eaters were also slow to react but once they did they threw everything they had at the witch. She wasn’t using occlumency anymore so he could see that she wasn’t consciously shielding herself from attack yet his minions’ hexes still revealed a strong shield up around her. The shield wasn’t absorbing their attacks though and it getting weaker which meant that trick must require a conscious effort. Now wasn’t a good time for marveling though, so he sent a petrify at his corrupted pawn.

Sia was afraid she might have to watch herself die when the Dark Lord’s curse came crashing into her back, knocking her off her feet. She cursed herself for never learning to wield a wand. She’d always worked so hard to get around doing things the normal way so that she could do them her way. Look how much trouble that had gotten her in. She was pleasantly surprised that he’d bothered to cast something non-lethal at her and thought for a second that her body might still reach her in time. Then she found herself being levitated. The Dark Lord had picked up his petrified death eater, which she was possessing, and was reeling her in like a fish. She could sense her body’s panic since it had stopped protecting its mind during their mad dash to save each other. It was hard to think of a plan while helplessly floating ever closer to the scourge of the wizarding world.

Now Voldemorts temper was at its peak. He wanted nothing more than to kill the witch off and destroy that damn ring except that now he had even more questions than before. He checked his pawn’s eyes for signs of the imperius curse, though he was sure she hadn’t cast it, and was even more shocked to find golden unclouded eyes glaring back at him. She was completely possessing his death eater somehow but…he stared back at the witch who was practically frothing at the mouth like a crazed animal and had to wonder at the possibility that more of her mind was in his petrified death eater -in her ring- than in her body. He smiled that deliciously evil smile.

“I had every intention of killing you after finding out your secrets but it would appear that your talents may be of some use to me.”

It was somewhat of a lie, he still intended to kill her, but she seemed to be both at his mercy and coherent now that he had her mind separate from her body. It was almost sad really, the way the witch looked at his possessed death eater like a loved one. He was clearly withholding something precious to her by keeping them apart. Now he wanted answers. Unfortunately the fact that he was holding all the cards now didn’t seem to sway the entity possessing his death eater. Her occlumency was impenetrable, something Voldemort found unfathomable, and torturing the death eater’s body apparently had no affect on her mind. His pain was not her pain, the body was just a vessel. In the same way veritaserum had no effect, and he couldn’t torture the ring itself.

Attempts to torture her body were largely unsuccessful now that she appeared to be having a conniption. “Even without my ring to think, I can attack and defend. ” The petrified death eater said. It was slumped on the floor against the seat Voldemort had taken to watch the witch be tortured for information. He saw another weapon graze her arm and sighed when the possessed death eater didn’t even wince.

“I told you already, I can’t feel what harm my body may incur while I’m separated like this,” she said with an unsettling detachment while watching the blood flow from the new wound.

“You might have lied,” Voldemort growled back. It was irritating to have someone so completely at his mercy be so completely out of control. They were at a standstill. He had all the time in the world to play with his new unwilling puzzle, but none of the patience to wait her out.

Sia knew she thought differently than most people, but anyone who found out anything about her thought she was evil. They were wrong because there is no such thing as good and evil, but that didn’t mean she was free to side with the Dark Lord. She didn’t care if he practiced dark magic, because she did too. She didn’t care about his politics either because she hated the Ministry of Magic for putting her on the run which is how she ended up in this mess in the first place. But she’d be proving everyone who ever thought she was an evil person for practicing dark magic right if she helped the most hated man in the wizarding world in any way. She just couldn’t do that. Of course that made bargaining for her body back rather difficult.

“Why make things so hard on yourself?” Voldemort prompted. He was desperate for any information he could use against her. The death eater she still possessed was seated next to him, still petrified, for the night’s revel that many of his death eaters had to miss out on. They'd been reassigned to go search for information on the nameless witch. Her body was still in a state of hysteria but tiring quickly, kept busy fighting death eaters who were lined up to prove their strength. She functioned similar to a carnival attraction for Malfoy's revel really. “Wouldn’t you rather reunite with your body and go home to your loved ones? I just need to know how you do the things you do and then you can go free. I’d even make a wand oath.” He’d be sure to leave a loophole in the oath so that she could be killed, but she didn’t need to know that.

Sia wasn’t stupid, in fact that was what the ring was for. She knew he’d cheat her in an oath of any form but he probably didn’t actually expect her to buy that anyway, he was just fishing for information to use against her so she had to answer carefully. “Yes, I’d like my body back but no, I have no loved ones I need to get back to. That means there’s no one you can torture to sway me nor will I crack if you kill helpless witches, wizards or muggles in front of me. I can’t perform a wand oath because I don’t have a wand." She continued without hesitation, but in a more subdued tone with, "I’m just as bored by now as you are so why can’t you just kill me if you're not gonna let me go? I can’t help you, and we need to end this.”

Well that wasn’t the answer he’d expected. Voldemort had to consider the possibility that she was lying about not having loved ones but it was a rather mute point since he couldn’t even get her name out of her, yet alone find friends or relatives. He had been rather disappointed that she wasn’t shaken by the revel though. He was used to dealing with bleeding-heart Order members who were at least upset by the sight of torture, even if they were hardened enough not to crack for the sake of the greater good. She didn't enjoy the show with the same blood lust as his followers but she wasn't disgusted by their behavior either. Sia knew she was safe from experiencing suffering similar to the death eater's victims. Ironically her mind being held hostage was what kept her safe. It also kept her from feeling empathy for those dying before her borrowed eyes. They were not like her, so their pain didn't do much to upset or scare her. Voldemort didn't know what to make of her detachment.

Her plea for death was tempting but he preferred to torture his victims past their breaking point before being so merciful as to kill them. It occurred to him that the only way to torture her was if he reunited mind and body. He didn’t know if he’d be able to keep her contained once he did though. She’d been a handful without her ring, so she’d be even worse with it. That was another query plaguing him, why hadn’t she fought before her ring was taken? He had no idea how she’d been captured in the first place when she’d mindlessly fought off hordes of his servants. Either she developed her technique while imprisoned, an unlikely thought, or she’d been caught on purpose, hmmm…

Voldemort removed the ring from his death eater, who slumped but still breathed. He had to assume that she’d been sent here to kill him. She must be some new weapon that the Order had come up with. If not the Order, then it wasn’t like he didn’t have plenty of other enemies. In any case, she was most likely an assassin and he usually dealt with assassins by killing them first. He rolled the ring around in his hand. Problem is, he didn’t want her dead. He wanted to turn her, use her against those who had sent her and then kill her. Slowly. He looked at the seething witch, glaring at his hand that held her ring. No, her mind, he was somehow holding her mind. He looked at the bracelet floating around her wrist and the ring glowing on her left hand. And he had an idea.

His dark mark was reserved for the Death Eaters of his inner circle. Those who were marked were bound magically, preventing them from attacking each other or himself (although he reserved the right to do whatever he wanted to his marked servants). No nameless assassin would be allowed to wear his mark, no matter how temporary he planned her service may be, but she had inspired him with a new way to bind the same magic to her.

Sia watched the snake faced bastard tear his robe and transfigure something but she didn’t know what because she didn’t care, she couldn’t think about anything other than the ring in his hand. He delicately lifted his wand and put some enchantment on whatever he’d transfigured but that didn’t matter because that wasn’t the hand holding her ring. She was about ready to rush him for it when he finally spoke up.

“Put this on,” Voldemort commanded and sent a necklace floating over to Sia. At first his words meant nothing but as the necklace got closer she began to comprehend what he’d said. This was not her ring, she didn’t want this. Why didn’t he understand? She wanted her ring!

Voldemort watched the witch’s anger turn to confusion before she finally wailed in frustration. She was clearly deteriorating mentally the longer she went without her ring.

“Perhaps even without wands we can make a magic oath? You put that on and I’ll give you your ring back.” He held up his wand which acknowledged the oath and was surprised to see her bracelet answer in return. He could see her eyes flicker with understanding that broke her feral streak, giving her a fleeting semblance of her humanity as she allowed the necklace's slow levitation cross her shield. With only a moment’s hesitation she glanced at the Dark Lord and slipped the necklace over her head. By willingly adorning the necklace she accepted its terms like a magical contract, but she didn’t know that. All she knew was that she could finally have her ring back.

Excellent. Voldemort was pleased to finally have things under control again. The little witch didn’t know it yet but she had just accepted him as her master and rendered herself unable to attack him or his followers. He smiled at her and began to walk toward his new witch. She foolishly relaxed as he approached with his right hand extended, holding her ring. As she childishly reached out to claim it, he pulled back and grabbed her with his left hand. In the next instant he apparated them both.

Sia screamed like a banshee at the shock of being pulled through space so suddenly. She glared at Voldemort who looked like he couldn’t be more pleased with himself. It made her want to do horrible things to that smug face of his, and she would once she got her ring back. In a rare moment of clarity she remembered their oath.

“GIVE ME MY RING OR FORFEIT YOUR MAGIC!” the feral witch screamed. Voldemort was only too happy to oblige. He wanted to see the look on her face when she came back to her senses and realized her mistake.

Sia snatched her ring from his, again, outstretched hand. She quickly slipped it on and stared at it like a reattached limb. It felt like she'd been submerged in a nightmare, but could finally break the surface and breath again. Her chest heaved with relief even though every muscle felt the sting of lactic acid. Finally getting her head together wasn't going to erase the hell she had physically and mentally endured, in fact, having to face them together with this much clarity was overwhelming. The fates cruelly spared her no time to deal with this compounding stress before she remembered her situation. This nightmare was far from over.

Voldemort was not disappointed. He briefly saw her entire face relax for the first time since they’d met, and he was surprised to see her eyes darken to a hazel green, but then her features twisted into a more pained expression while she simultaneously clawed at the necklace and looked around the unfamiliar room. He could tell the instant she switched to attacking him, but only because she resumed the incensed look he had come to know and laugh at. She was obviously powerless to against him. He had to wonder whether her ensuing horror had more to do with her inability to curse him or the realization that he was standing so very close. Her shield didn't repel physical objects unless she willed it to, but it recognized her master regardless of her will so she could no longer hide behind it. It was time deal out her punishment.

Sia couldn’t remember the last time she’d allowed someone to stand so close. The Dark Lord’s physical presence was even more horrifying than his dueling. Sia had learned not to fear wizards flinging hexes and curses with their sticks after becoming accustomed to wearing her shield but she hadn’t had anyone impose on her personal space in a long time. She was getting a close up view of his noseless face, complete with wicked red eyes but she knew better than to fear him for his demonic features. She feared him for his cold, cruel expression. He was about to hurt her and thoroughly enjoy it. The air became thick with anticipation while they both stood for a moment regarding eachother. Then Voldemort made just the slightest motion of his wand…and was thrown back screaming by Sia’s shield. There was silence after he crashed down and then…

“HAHAHAHAHAHAhahahahaha,” she broke from her hysterics to suck in a painful breath as her thoughts circled on only one thing, 'Serves you right you damn bastard!' Sia sank to the floor, tears in her eyes, laughing herself sore. She thought she’d been on the brink of death or worse, and was beyond relieved to find that the situation was not so bleak. Her shield might not recognize his presence as a threat, but it still protected her from harmful magic - sparing her his sadistic retribution.

This infuriated the Dark Lord into throwing all foul manner of curses and hexes into her unwavering shield.

This of course tickled her even more which in turn drove him into a frenzy.

He had finally conquered this damn witch and she would not evade his will any longer. Before either of them knew what he was doing, Voldemort marched right through her shield and smacked her hard across the face.

This invoked a new breathless moment of shock during which they both quickly processed what had just occurred before suddenly launching themselves into attack. Punches were thrown, blows dealt and even weapons transfigured while they brawled the old fashion way, a technique which neither had needed to resort to previously making them both sloppy and inefficient. Voldemort’s ruthlessness, cunning, advanced years of experience and clear size advantage quickly gained him the upper hand, until he’d finally managed to wrestle Sia to the floor, pulling her arms painfully behind her back, with his knee pushing down between her shoulder blades. She invoked every wandless attack she knew but the necklace still prevented her from magically attacking her master. She cursed herself for putting the damn thing on in her moment of weakness but it was nothing compared to the regret that they both had for failing to account for physical attacks in developing their defenses. There was almost a moment of understanding between them during their simultaneous self-flagellation.

Sia slowly realized she was sobbing. She couldn’t be sure when she had started but she knew that this had to be the longest day of her life and it wasn’t going to end well. Confident in his victory, Voldemort released her now limp arms and picked himself up off the broken girl. The ring she had so desperately fought for would only be threatened by her impending breakdown, so she softly slipped it from her finger so she could just cry without unnecessary mental agony. This shocked Voldemort more than any of her crazy actions had so far, but he let the scene play out in front of him. He would wait for her stress to subside so that they could get down to questioning. For now he could afford to let her rest so he placed her ring on a nightstand and apparated from the room.

Sia had cried herself to sleep on the floor. She wasn’t usually so weak but she had spent her entire life developing her magic and life style to avoid and escape confrontation. She was so strong, or at least she’d felt strong until she’d been bested so thoroughly by a wizard she wanted nothing to do with. Now she was just staring at her new prison. It was an unassuming room with wooden floors, matching wooden furniture and sage walls and accents. It would’ve felt cozy if she hadn’t noticed that it lacked a door out.

She picked herself up off the floor, realizing just how sore the fighting had left her…and a face down nap on the hardwood hadn't helped. Mustering the strength to limp lightly to the nightstand Voldemort had left her ring on, she sighed at having received her first break. She was lucky he hadn’t taken it again, god only knows what she would have agreed to get it back the second time around. She stared down at the full size bed she should’ve taken advantage of. It looked so inviting, but instead she found her way to the bathroom, which she was endlessly thankful for. Slipping the ring on her finger, she felt reassured by the sudden rush of clarity. Emotionally dealing with her circumstances was always easier when she could just set her rational mind aside but once her much needed release was completed, she needed her ring to move on.

There was no door between the bathroom and the bedroom but she wasn’t modest enough to let that keep her from taking a shower. The warm water found wounds she hadn’t even known she had, probably cuts her body got while fighting without her. One day she’d have to forgive herself for failing to protect it at such a crucial moment, but not today. That shame had a fresh sting to it, not unlike the shampoo she was rinsing from her hair which managed to crawl into every gash and proceeded to torture her exposed flesh. She stepped out of the shower and found some fluffy sage towels in the bathroom cabinet. After drying her hair and gently patting off her abused body, she transfigured the towels into a new robe and went over to the bed.

Voldemort returned to his new servant’s quarters to find her on the bed holding the ring from her left hand. She appeared to be tinkering with it when he interrupted, but she quickly slid it back onto her middle finger and he could at once feel her shield come to life.

He stared at it greedily, soaking up every detail now that he understood its purpose. It was a plain worn gold band adorned by a matching scarab. A topaz abdomen was visible beneath the gold wings of the carapace. The Dark Lord considered it for a moment and decided that a beetle could be a fitting representation for defense; after all, they were built like a tank carrying around their heavily fortified exoskeleton.

He shifted his attention to her right hand, over which her bracelet was draped, clearly inactive at the moment. Her bracelet seemed plain enough but he knew that it aided her with wandless magic and probably had something to do with her ability to redirect magic to her own ends. It was all metal, same worn gold look as the rings, crimped circular discs connected by metal loops. It made a satisfying clink anytime she moved her hand, now why was that so pleasing to hear? Ahh, it sounded like a shackle. The thought brought a smile to his face and his reached out to admire what was really shackling her, his necklace. He had transfigured a simple black chain from a piece of his own robes and added a tear drop shaped ruby that was a suitable for the magic he'd imbued it with. It matched his style, but now he wanted it to match her other accessories. He willed it to change into a chain of worn gold with an oval topaz instead and admired his prize.

“You must understand by now that you are mine.” It was not a question, it was a statement so Sia thankfully didn’t have to answer in any way. “I’m going to ask you some questions. You will answer me. If not we will have a repeat of yesterday’s fight although crying won’t save you this time.” It’s not like any of this came as a surprise to Sia, except that the fight had been yesterday. That meant she’d slept through the night…or was it nighttime now? There were no windows or clocks but it didn’t make much of a difference to her since she’d never known the time or even the date during her imprisonment.

“We’ll start with something easy. I want your name.” He stared at her expectantly.

She hesitated but knew better than to keep him waiting. “My name is Sia,” but he just kept staring so she continued, “I’m muggle born so my last name is of no consequence. I do not remember it but if you do not believe me then I can show you.”

Well now that was odd, but she was letting him into her mind and he wanted to seize this rare opportunity. He had yet to find a way through her occlumency which he now suspected had something to do with her right ring, a worn gold fox wearing glasses. Perhaps the silliest thing he’d ever seen, an excessive and cliché attempt to portray intelligence. But he brought his attention to her eyes.

Again he noticed that they were now dark green, something else he would need to inquire about. She let him in, where he confirmed that she didn’t know her last name. Going just a little deeper he could see it had something to do with obliviating herself. It hadn’t been a mistake, she meant to remove all information about her muggle family, but for what purpose? She was noticeably squirming against his intrusion now but he paid her no mind. Digging in even more he discovered that she meant to protect herself, she erased all those who may be used against her in the future from her memory and cut ties with anyone who was a possible liability. She set off on her own, finding strength in her rings and bracelet which must now be kept hidden. She must protect them. They would protect each other.

In that instant he was forcefully tossed out of her mind, both of them groaning in protest.

Quick as a whip his hand lashed out and grabbed her jaw, forcing her to meet his eyes.

“You will not occlude against me!” his demand was beyond contestation.

While his right hand held her face in place, his left grabbed a hold of her right ring, his thumb pushing the ring against her finger painfully. He wanted to know the secret to these weapons. How were they so powerful and why did she regard them as their own entities but at the same time see them as part of herself. He reapplied his legilimency and when her mind finally let slip the peculiarity of her ring, he couldn’t stop himself from thumbing over it lightly in awe. Yes, that would explain why she would have to hide her family and hide herself. She was an outcast of wizarding society.

He hadn’t even realized the small smile that had crept across his face but it was of no comfort to his prisoner whose face was still in his hand. Angered by suddenly having exposed more about herself to the most feared man in the wizarding world than to anyone else in her entire life brought a grimace of stress and fear to her face which she also would have preferred to have kept hidden.

Although she didn’t know it, she was facing the last person in the world who could judge her for making horcruxes. All she knew was that the rings on her fingers and bracelet on her wrist were still painfully taboo to the rest of the world so she couldn’t help but feel like she had just served him up her greatest weaknesses on a silver platter. She had dabbled in the dark arts almost as soon as she started at hogwarts but her first horcrux got her kicked out of school, her second made her a wanted witch. Being on the run and hiding all the time required the strength of a third horcrux, surely an unforgivable crime. And now he knew it all. Her secrets were her life, so if she lost them…

He interrupted her worries when he released his harsh grip on her face and gently ran his fingers down her jaw line while he removed his hand. She might have resumed occlumency against him but it took no mind reading to see her face was flush with fear. But he felt she should count herself lucky for coming into his care. After all, who could better understand the stigma that came from splitting your soul than the Dark Lord?
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Splitting Souls