Chapter One "Souls"

DISCLAIMER: The characters and story plot of the Harry Potter franchise do NOT belong to me, I am just one of the many privileged enough to write on J.K Rowling's marvelous novel series.

With only the stars above providing the nights dim light, dozens of wizards and witches stumbled there way blindly through the tombstone covered Cemetery. Called upon by the mark which had been burnt into their forearms years ago, the Death Eater's stared in disbelief as their master welcomed them, the master they for so long believed to be dead.

Amazed at the sight they had been greeted with, those who stood before the pale faced creature at their front had to pull their gaze from their master to look upon a beaten, and chained Harry Potter. Arms coiled in chains and binding him to the grave of his nemeses father, Harry let his head hang under the jeering of the jubilant Death Eaters, all of them oblivious to the fact of the sleeping muggles in the small surrounding village.

After what seemed like a millennium of the Death Eater's taunting him, Harry took a small breath of relief when it appeared Voldemort had grown bored. Angered at having been left to rot for so many years as a bodiless entity, the Dark Lord brought pain to each and every one of those who had denounced him in his time of need. Diverting his gaze as he couldn't bear to watch, Harry tried his best not to focus on the pathetic sounding pleas of the Death Eater's around him. Deciding to concentrate on a plan of escape instead, it was just Harry's bad luck that when he had turned his eyes focus from the malicious pack of Death Eater's, he turned them to lay eyes on his fellow Triwizard champion, Cedric Diggory.

Only slightly older, Cedric lay lifelessly a few feet a way, the older teens eyes agape and staring unfocusedly skyward. Pale and cold, his once mirth filled eyes expressed nothing, it was a sight that Harry was sure would haunt his dreams, a sight that made him stare endlessly into the dull pair for so long, he consequently lost track of time. When he finally managed to grasp his bearings and look away from his dead school mates face, it was only to discover Voldemort had finishing with the disciplining of his followers.

The once jubilant Death Eater's now cowered silently several feet away. Some whimpering and holding themselves together in their own arms, shivering from the after effects of the torture curse. The only person still actually within arms reach of the Dark Lord other than Harry himself was the sniveling form of Peter Pettigrew. The stout, balding man continuously groveling at the hems of Voldemort's robes, thanking him repeatedly for his new shiny silver hand.

Yet it seemed to Harry though, that just how he thought Pettigrew was the lowest scum of the earth, Voldemort did as well. Paying no attention to Peter whatsoever, Voldemort strolled forwards with his crimson coloured eyes glittering maliciously and fixed pitilessly on the teen that had once before robbed him of his destiny.

"Harry Potter... You don't know how much it pleases me to see you like this," Voldemort announced. His cold blue lips twisted into a smirk. "To see you how you truly really are, weak, pathetic."

Weakly lifting his head so he could look upon his nemesis, Harry scoffed, a motion that sent a wave of pain aching through his chest. "W-weak? Pathetic? No, you must be mistaken, I'm not the one who chains and tortures mere children."

To the surprise of many, Voldemort let loose a ruthless laugh. If you could call it that, to Harry it sounded more along the lines of a man gasping while choking at the same time. "No, Harry I'm afraid it is you who is mistaken. Torturing children is not a sign of weakness, it's a sign of not having what I've lost. For you see, Harry, I have no conscience, nor do I know any emotion."

"How... How can you have nothing and still call your self human!?" Harry exclaimed, a trickle of blood dribbling down the corner of his mouth as he spoke.

"Quite simple. For you see I've never refereed to myself as human," Voldemort sneered, a set of words that set off a round of laughter from his supporters. "I am above humankind, Harry. Above all its unimportant emotions and petty possessions. I am immortal. A god among those who are to weak to see power for what it really is... Greatness. If you have power, Harry, you have everything."

Harry shook his head as if to clear Voldemort's words from his head, the snake like faces impassive expression plaguing his mental thoughts. "P-power isn't everything." he muttured.

"Oh but it is, Harry, for power is the one thing that will keep you alive this very night." Voldemort replied.

Staring at his parents murderers serpentine face in confusion, Harry was somewhat comforted to find that the Death Eater's were looking at one another as if they too did not fully understand the words of their master.

One of the braver Death Eater's hesitantly stepped forward. "My Lord, the boy has seen our faces. He'll tell them who we are! We'll all be condemned to Azkaban if he's set free!" said the man who cringed slightly when he addressed the thing he served.

Spinning on his heel to look at his frightful looking disciple, Voldemort let a venomous sneer play across his thin lips. "You fear the world knowing you serve me Goyle?" he questioned in a deathly hiss.

The Death Eater stammered. "N-no of course not my Lord, it's the prison I fea--" Goyle fell silent as Voldemort cut him off.

"SILENCE! Do you take me for a fool!? You think that fourteen years away have made me dimwitted!? Or perhaps Goyle, you think I don't know how to lead and protect my own followers." Voldemort spat, the other man opened his mouth to object only to be cut off again by the Dark Lord. "Never question me, Goyle. Ever! I think it best if you were to get this through that thick skull of yours the only way you've ever learned how."

Goyle's bulk stature shrunk as he watched Voldemort's bony arm raise, wand in hand. "Crucio!"

The beefy sized man dropped to the ground, his limbs twitching spasmodically, all the while his screams tore relentlessly through his throat and echoed off every tombstone in the graveyard.

"Stop! Stop it!" Harry yelled, the chains around his wrists rattling as he fought to break free from them, if only just to rip the wand from Voldemort's knobbly, pasty white fingers.

With a flick of his wrist, Voldemort brought Goyle's punishment to an end.

"How precious, the wizarding worlds golden boy would stop a mans pain, who in return would slit his throat as he slept. You really are the good of all good aren't you, Harry, it's a shame really that your victory over me was a mistake on my part," Voldemort said, a gasp of audible shock erupting through out the Cemetery from his servants. When hushed talk began to break out among the Death Eater's, Voldemort silenced them with a simple wave of his hand. "All those years of training, creating, studying and I over looked something... An old type of magic, a type of magic I did not care to learn, yet by doing so I was unprepared on that fateful Halloween night, I was bested by a mere witch with an extensive knowledge into old protective magic."

"M-my Mum beat you?" Harry asked, his body seeming to straighten up against the statue he stood chained too, his eyes lit up with interest.

"Call it what you will, I admit your mudblood mother played a key role. You however sat worthless as you are now, in your crib crying as I murdered your father, then your accursed mother... Then it was your turn, they said I couldn't kill a simple child, the fools. It wasn't because I couldn't kill you, I very well could have, the only thing stopping me from succeeding was your mother's magic, it used her sacrifice and her love to rebound the killing Curse. But you see, that's not where it went wrong, it all went wrong when I accidentally turned you into an object more precious than any other." Voldemort explained, by the time he stopped talking he was pacing back and forth in front of Harry.

Unexpectedly a Death Eater with an all to familiar face and long blond hair approached the Dark Lord. The man side stepped the now still, unmoving body of Goyle Senior. With a distasteful look on his face, the man then lowered himself casually to a knee, gracefully tilting his head in a humble gesture towards his master. "My Lord, may I be as bold as to ask you a question?" Lucius Malfoy asked, his voice sleek and classy.

Voldemort cast a quick glance at Malfoy before turning back to look at Harry. "You may, Lucius."

"Could you perhaps enlighten our pondering minds with what it is you meant my Lord, about the boy being precious, of why the boy who should die tonight will live instead?" Lucius questioned.

Voldemort stood silent for a moment as if debating whether to indulge his servants inquiry or not, when his mind had settled, his cold voice cut through the air like a sharp knife. "You are bold, asking two questions when requesting only one."

Lucius visibly tensed as if expecting some degree of punishment, he soon relaxed however as Voldemort continued speaking. "Potter is what few know of as a Horcrux, an item containing a piece of ones soul, a soul magically separated from ones body and placed into another. Yet to do so, one must do a 'heinous' deed, a deed so dark and treacherous, it would have to be murder. Once the act of killing has been played out, the murderer's soul for example, would then be split in half and placed into an object of the murderer's choosing. So you see, that is what Potter is, he is an object carrying a piece of soul, more specifically, my soul."

Jaw sagging open, the breath seemed to be knocked from Harry's lungs, the pain in his wrists from the chains digging into his skin could no longer be felt, the words "He is an object carrying a piece of soul, more specifically, my soul." repeated in his head. At that moment in time, he wanted nothing more than to be killed, he was no longer hoping he would survive the night. The knowledge that he had a piece of his parents murderer residing within him made him want to gag. Or worse in this case.

"So the wretched boy must not be killed because of the piece of your soul trapped in his body... If this is so my Lord, how is it will we rid our self's of him?" Lucius asked, slowly. His sky blue eyes observing his master closely, an attempt to try and predict his Lord's reaction to his words.

Narrowing his eyes into lethal slits, Voldemort glared. "You are becoming far to bold Lucius, you must learn to hold that slippery tongue of yours." He sneered, his smirk growing wider as his words seemed to effectively install a sense of fear into Malfoy. "All of my plans will be revealed in due time Lucius, I've had many years to come up with something to correct my problem with Potter, and I am pleased to say I've created something just for our dear friend. A spell I have refined and come to declare, perfected."

Closing his eyes and stiffening, Harry mentally prepared himself for the worst to come.

Voldemort it would appear though found some amusement at Harry's reaction, laughing his wheezy laugh at the distraught look on Harry's face, he took a few steps closer to the teen binded to his fathers grave. "Come now, Harry, if your lucky you may just end up seeing those parents of yours." he taunted, a few Death Eaters chuckling lowly behind him.

Harry didn't respond, he just went limp against the chains holding him up. His eyes only cracking open an inch when he heard a few approaching steps made by Voldemort.

"Well my faithful ones, it would seem our time with Potter here must come to an end." Voldemort announced, his wand arm raising.

"Are... Are you going to kill me?" Harry asked, his voice full of despair and acceptance.

"Kill you? No of course not, Harry, as much as it would please me to do so, I am regretfully not going to kill you," Voldemort said in mock broken heartedness. "What I am going to do though is much, much worse. For right her and now, I for the first time in wizarding history am going to separate an entire soul from a body with out the assistance of a Dementor."

The Death Eaters whispered amongst them selves at their masters words, some even drew closer to middle of the Cemetery for a better look.

"W-why not just kill me?" Harry asked, lamely.

"Because Harry, If I were to do that then I would be killing a piece of myself. This way, once I remove your soul from your body, all that will be left will be mine." answered Voldemort. "Don't fret though, there isn't enough of my soul in there to take over. Just think of your body as a vault containing a priceless jewel in it. It may even be comforting to know that soon your body will be returned to Hogwarts, my servant at that blasted school will see personally to that. Everyone will just assume you were kissed by a Dementor since you'll have all the same symptoms."

Voldemort took two long final strides towards Harry, dragging the tip of his wand across Harry's cheek the man smiled darkly. "From then on you'll just be laying on a bed somewhere, forever carrying my soul. Of course I'll have to keep your body alive for an undetermined amount of time if my soul is to stay in there. Perhaps I shall turn you into an Inferi. No matter, I'll have plenty of time to ponder on it."

It was then that Harry's Gryffindor spirit kicked in, he let out a yell and fought vigorously against his restraints. How he ever thought death was an option he didn't know, all he focused on now was escaping, but his attempts were futile as the chains held tight, the only thing he managed to accomplish was amusing the Death Eater's.

"Good-Bye, Harry Potter," Voldemort said, with a swirl of his wand and a sneer on his face, he casted his spell. "ALMA DESTERRAR!"

A blinding white flash of light burst from Voldemort's yew wand and filled the night's sky. Harry screamed in agony as the light tore into his abdomen, it felt as if there were someone digging their hand into his chest and pulling out his heart. It was then that he saw darkness, complete and utter darkness, then nothing. Harry Potter was no longer conscious or one with his body.

A/N: "Alma Desterrar" from what I gathered from translating means. "Soul to exile." If you liked the first chapter please review, tell me what you thought about it. Keep in note I do write this for my own enjoyment, but I love to hear anything from constructive ideas to angry comments.