“Tom!”
Voldemort went rigid, his eyes narrowed, and a frown tugged on his thin lips. He knew that voice, he remembered that voice and the girl it belonged to. Something unpleasant made his stomach roll and he decided to ignore the unpleasant reminder of past events he had no desire to remember and his followers, who was staring at him with wide, round eyes.
“Tom!” the girl called again but Voldemort kept ignoring her as he slowly made his way into the Forbidden Forest, his Death Eaters tentatively following behind him.
Except for Bellatrix. The woman was skipping ahead, doing little twirls and giggling in her high-pitched, slightly mad way.
In a little less than an hour, the Potter boy would arrive and, with the Elder Wand in hand, Voldemort would kill the pesky boy once and for all.
He could practically feel his victory inch closer by the minute.
“Tom, please,” the girl called, and he walked a little faster when he heard her voice becoming teary. “Please don’t ignore me.”
He had never quite liked the sound of her distress for some unfathomable reason that he truly didn’t care to explore. It was grating, he thought, how he wouldn’t bat an eyelash when he tortured someone to madness but if this slip of a girl showed even the slightest emotional distress, he felt sick to his stomach and he felt helpless.
Voldemort hated feeling helpless.
He stopped walking automatically when the silvery shape of the ghost appeared in front of him. He blinked down at her, his eyes taking in all the details he could hungrily.
She was much shorter than he remembered but other than that, she was exactly like she had been the last time he saw her. Pale, even more so in death than she had been in life, and only if one was to look closely would you be able to notice the heterochromia iridis of her eyes.
She was wearing the school uniform she had died in, her hair falling in a loose plait down her back to her midthighs.
On her neck, her long, slender neck, was darker patches in the distinct shape of fingers.
His stomach rolled uncomfortably.
“I didn’t think I would see you again. You left too quickly the last time you were here.” She said quietly, eyeing him with large sad eyes.
Voldemort cast a strong Silencio around them and sighed through his nose.
“You shouldn’t be here, Solandis. Go back to the castle.” He told the ghost of a girl he had once cared about.
She shook her head stubbornly.
“You lost something, Tom, and you need to find it,” she said, her eyes set determinedly on him. “Quick, before the little lion does.”
His breathing hitched and he straightened even more. Towering over her, he searched her pale eyes.
Could it be…?
But how?
How would she know about that?
“Solandis.” He said her name like a warning, and she looked away, crossing her arms across her chest.
Knowing her like he did, despite her being dead for the past fifty-three years, Voldemort knew she was keeping secrets from him, and it annoyed him, especially considering what was happening right now.
“The little lion got lost before he found what he was looking for, but the cup was filled with snake venom by an otter and her weasel.” She said, still not looking at him.
He knew in his heart that all but two of his horcruxes had been destroyed but he still found it discomforting having it confirmed verbally.
“Tom, there’s a piece that’s been lost,” she continued, and Voldemort stared at her. “Not the snake-woman, not the raven. It is here. In this very forest, on its way to meet its creator to die. You have three left.”
Had he been a lesser man, Voldemort would have gaped at the ghost. Alas, he was not and so he merely stared at her as he tried to make sense of the words coming out of her mouth.
Surely, she could not mean…?
The girl finally turned her head to look him squarely in the eyes and once again, Voldemort felt like she knew so much more than what she let on.
“I will not tell you how I know, so don’t ask me. But I will tell you this. There’s a reason the little lion can speak with snakes, despite not being descended from one. There’s a reason you have that little lion in your head always, there’s a reason he is tied to you,” she said with a small, but serious smile. “Ask Nagini, she’ll be able to tell you why he is so familiar to her when he gets here.”
With that, the girl gave him one last affectionate smile and disappeared.
His stomach lurched at the sight of that familiar smile, the one she only ever sent him, and he sighed loudly before cancelling the Silencio.
Perhaps I still care… if only a little.