Lucid dreaming was an interesting experience. The Dark Lord's life story… Starring Voldemort himself. Here I kill enemies. Give speeches about killing enemies during meetings. Raise inferi after battle. When magic reserves are depleted, read books on Dark magic in the Lestrages' library and brew potions in the basement. Carve runic analogs of spells into objects (Riddle had one-way shields: while casting normally, throw a rock with runes at the enemy. I could have really used some in my fight with the Longbottoms!) Then torture and ritual sacrificing of prisoners. At this pace, Riddle would've lost his mind even without horcruxes.

By the way, what about the horcruxes? Here I'm reading books about them: how to hide and protect them. No, I needed to know what they are and how to make them first.

So, The Secrets of the Darkest Art, Paths to Immortality:

" In one way or another, some living beings have been able to achieve immortality. Some use regular mass sacrifices to absorb life force; some modify their bodies to ageless perfection or continuously repair them; some steal and swap bodies; some replace their flesh with metal or enchanted stone; some choose existing as a lich and raise themselves; some forego the physical body altogether and remain as spirits, unable to interact with the world. All these cases are protected from natural death but still die with destruction of the body and exorcism of the spirit.

An especially powerful and cunning wizard may place his soul into an object with the help of ritual sacrifice. The spirit remains bound to this world even after the body is destroyed and can even be reborn, with assistance in recreating the body. However, destroying the soul vessel leads to death.

The most perilous method is ritually splitting one's soul to create a horcrux. Part of the soul remains in the body, the other is placed in an object. When the object is destroyed, the soul fragment contained within also perishes. When the body is destroyed, the remaining soul stays bound to earth and can be reborn in a new body. "

Yeah, there were a lot of methods of becoming immortal… But they all had a catch. Kill people on an industrial scale, become a golem or a walking corpse, risk losing your soul. I really didn't want to repeat Koschei the Deathless' fate.

Apparently, the only reasonable option was the Philosopher's Stone. But my lifestyle removed the need to worry about dying from old age, and the stone could not protect me from the killing curse. What is even made of? Dragon blood? Concentrated life force of muggles who died from the bubonic plague? I hadn't the foggiest. Flamel had one, but I did not know his location or abilities. And I couldn't ask Dumbledore.

Immortality was still important, though. I decided to start with checking my previous horcruxes. According to the legend, the diadem enlightened the mind, the cup created healing potions, the locket detected poisons… What did the ring do? Add it to the pile of things to figure out.

Meanwhile, let's watch something more immediately relevant. Why was Tom in a half-snake, half-human body? I should go find Nagini, she was supposed to be slithering around the Lestranges' gardens.

So, Tom's appearance began to change with the horcrux hobby. Some features got inherited from Nagini during rituals. After Tom completely stopped caring about looks, he decided to radically modify his body. Medical textbooks. Dark magic. Dissection of muggles, wizards, vampires and werewolves. Replacing muscles and bones within stronger versions, replacing red blood cells with cells smaller in size but larger in surface area. Some thing or another instead of hemoglobin. Changes to organs, senses and so on. Everything was grown from his own blood and implanted without sedation. Rituals, potions… And now Lord Voldemort has a stronger, faster body! Requires only four hours of sleep per week! Impervious to lesser poisons… So drinking alcohol was pointless as well?

My arrival somehow changed that into Riddle's old body with some of my features. Now I looked almost exactly like his father, the muggle pretty-boy.

I recalled my fight with the Longbottoms. This body moved much slower than the reptilian one. What to do? Survival dictated bringing back the old reptiloid. Aesthetic concerns and seducing Bellatrix - staying in this one. The Longbottoms did not recognize me. So it made the most sense to live in this body and wage war in the other. Transform before meeting the Death Eaters or fighting. But how? I was not a metamorphmagus. I should catch a live one and experiment. Until then, use illusion charms. Or even better, illusion on top of make up! A strong wizard (or an average one with the help of recognition spells) would notice my camouflage, but no one would have time to dispel it during a fight. And the Death Eaters won't dare. The Lord put an illusion over his face, so what? He must have his reasons.

I should also look into finding the Slytherin magical source and connecting myself. My energy would replenish faster, and I could afford a permanent defense system.

So, how to secure a source? Before anything, it must be located. A wild source was only visible in magical vision from a short distance, appearing as a fountain of energy. Second, it must be "subdued." The simplest analogy- create a "pool" of energy to draw upon. If the source's energy torrent was less than your regeneration rate, a series of simple charms was enough. If it was somewhat larger - turn to rituals.

Tom did not know what to do with very large sources. Logically, they should use larger ritual circles and a greater number of ritual participants. A source secured by Slytherin should be compatible with his descendants and hard to connect to anyone else.

Tom wanted the Slytherin source, but no one knew its location. Besides, it required linking up his energy field in a ritual, and horcruxes did such a number on him that a standard ritual was very unlikely to work. Customizing the ritual could take years, if it worked at all. It also would reveal his different energy and its causes to the other participants. All in all, this was not a game worth playing.

But if I still had a whole soul, the latter problem no longer applied. And the first one, finding a source that could be anywhere in England… Delegate it to the servants.

Thus, my agenda was very simple: get stronger. So far, I did not measure up to the Voldemort of two days ago in either fighting ability or productivity (due to a different body) and was probably mortal. It was time to wake up and load everyone with work.

I slept for about 8 hours. Only about a tenth of my energy got restored- the rest was drained by the shields and defense charms I never took off. Breakfast was followed by standard "magical hygiene" potions: anti-allurement potion, potion against the use of body parts in potions and spells, and so on. Riddle in his reptiloid body had no need of them: qualitatively different biochemistry. But they won't be excessive for me. Time to apparate to the Lestranges.

In private, Rabastan gave me the polyjuice and samples of muggle hair - he chose several women and included their pictures with the hair. Bella was prattling about Neville. Rodolphus and Edward were absorbed by the newspaper.

"You are in the news, my Lord."

I took the newspaper. What was so interesting?

Attack on the Potters… Burnt ruins, no survivors found. Sirius Black's betrayal and death. To calm down the public, he was introduced as my right hand. Peter Pettigrew to be awarded the Order of Merlin, third class, as soon as he leaves St. Mungo's. Why not first class? Ah, he killed a couple of muggles while fighting Black. The investigators confirmed they were accidental casualties: Reducto indoors. Apparently all the deaths in that building got pinned on Black…

Attack on the Longbottoms, no survivors. Reportedly by You-Know-Who. How did they figure? Analysis of the anti-apparition rune stones? The roots dragged them underground before fire could destroy them? I should be more careful. Black had no living relatives aside from the girls married off to other families- no one would be searching for him. But Neville's grandmother might try to find the child.

"I am here on business, my loyal followers. First of all, I need to speak with some of my other servants. I will be inviting them here, to the manor. Second, I need a pensieve. I know you have several. Third, I'm leaving you these memories- they include everything on improving the body. I want my current body for everyday use - a secret only for you, my most faithful; the other, reptilian one- for battle and intimidation. You are to analyze everything and offer how to best achieve a transformation with the werewolf or metamorphagus mechanism. Next, there will be a full meeting in two days (or whenever I am back to normal, but they didn't need to know that). Write me a speech. Also, find me books and teachers on all fields of magic different from my normal repertoire. Lastly, I need Nagini and a ritual room with a large identification circle. I will conduct the ritual alone. And most importantly: I need any and all information on Slytherin's source."

"My Lord, thank you for your trust," said Edward, "but the Slytherin source has been lost for centuries, ever since his death. We will do everything we can, but chances are very small. The rest will be done as ordered."

"I also need several Death Eater uniforms. I will try to improve their protective charms. Bella, see me out and show me where to pick up the pensieve."

"Right away, Master!"

After walking out with my very attractive companion, I put up strong privacy wards. Doing this in someone's house and with their wife was very bad taste, but the matter was too important.

"Bella, do you remember that I gave you a small gold cup to keep in your vault?"

"Yes, my Lord! It has been safely stored there ever since! I carried out your will!"

"I need it. In ideal condition. Quickly and quietly deliver it to my house and hand it to me personally."

"Yes, my Lord," she answered flatly.

Bella talking to her Lord without fire in her eyes? Figured out the Lord was a dupe? No, Bella would be throwing killing curses. What happened? Getting into her head unnoticed won't work, thanks to her amulets and occlumency. Order her?

"Master, are you displeased with something?" Bella met my eyes.

It finally hit me. The cup was an important artifact that her beloved gave her for safekeeping. And now I was taking it back. Why? Doubting her loyalty? A change in favorites? Why take away a woman's only present for years of service?

"No, everything is excellent. Your loyalty is beyond doubt. Over the years in Gringotts, the cup should have absorbed ambient magic and become useful for a ritual," -the last part was improvised bullshit, and Bella was not an idiot. But if her Lord said so…

"I will go to Gringotts immediately! And prepare everything you need for the ritual!"

"You are a wanted criminal. Do try to stay incognito. In any case, give me the pensieve first."

I needed a pensieve to store my memories of brewing potent and illegal potions. Let Lily learn by example. She wasn't going to waste time with blood-replenishing potions and other rubbish forever.

There was only one problem: brewing required adding one's own energy, so quality and quantity of potions depended on the brewer's power. I needed to know Lily's exact potential, so she would neither skive nor burn out. So far, it did not look impressive. I could easily measure her reserve with a diagnostic circle. And Harry's, while I was at it.

I apparated to Lily. Left the pensieve and several Death Eater uniforms in the hall. Lily was in the basement, brewing. She flinched at the sight of me.

"The potions you asked for are ready, my Lord."

"Wonderful." I scooped them up but had no intention of using any. Even if she couldn't lie and slip in a poison or a dud potion, paranoia was a way of life. I planned to check the potions later. If they turned out well, low-rank soldiers could have them.

"We are going to perform a power-measuring ritual. Then you will go back to work."

Lily flinched again at the word "ritual." I stunned and transfigured her and Harry. They would hardly enjoy meeting the Leatranges, and I didn't want to explain to the Lestranges what I was doing with a mudblood. And polyjuice interfered with the ritual.

The Lestranges' ritual hall now had a diagnostic circle the size of a youth soccer field covered in runes. I warded the hall, took off all my personal defenses and stood in the center. Only two sacrifices - unconscious muggles - and the circle returned a string of numbers. Magic reserve and regeneration ten times larger than average. Human energy signature. Nothing new… Although, an apparent familiar bond with Nagini? I didn't feel it. Add it to the pile.

Next, I placed untransfigured and reenervated Harry in the circle. The baby was bawling- just stress, this ritual had no effect on the senses. More dead muggles, more results. Harry again stunned and transfigured. This time, the numbers were small. It was obviously stupid to compare a baby to an adult Dark Lord. I took out Edward's chart of magic development norms. Let's see… The child was under two years old. No, everything was normal for a slightly above average pureblood baby.

And then it clicked. Something was not right. Logically, a child of a pureblood and a muggleborm could not have a magic reserve similar to a pureblood.

A little digression. Since antiquity, magic has been equated to blood. Instead of "your magic is strong," we used to say "your blood is strong." Heredity was more important in the magical world. But where did the first purebloods come from and why were they so influential?

Money, sources or libraries did not make a pureblood. Only magical power did. Some, like Lucius, were born with both magical power and ancestral wealth. Some, like the founder of the Malfoy family, only had magical power and used it to gain wealth and status. So, at least initially, a mudblood was a weak witch or wizard.

But then again: heredity. In 99% of cases, two strong parents produced a strong offspring, two weak- a weak one. There were rare exceptions like Tom Riddle. At least the Inner Circle knew his father was a muggle. But he was still stronger than ten purebloods! That's why the purists accepted Voldemort as their leader- personal power decided almost everything. Riddle clearly didn't take after his muggle father or failure of a mother. Harry either got just as incredibly lucky or there was more to his mother than met the eye.

I put untransfigured but still unconscious Lily in the circle and stared at her. The definition of an average witch. Pushing the limit of what could be achieved by a conscientious muggleborm with good training. Or by a lazy half-blood. I looked into her mind. Since she was sleeping, touching her head with my wand substituted for eye contact. She must know about herself, right? No evidence of anything special. No gaps in memories. Average spells in battle, average power output…

I cast diagnostic charms. Nothing. She was an average witch. More specialized diagnostic charms. Average witch. The runic circle required her to have no magical interferences. Check. The object was free of external magic. This time, instead of determining her potential, I wanted to understand… So, I decided to check her energy field. This procedure was primarily medical: too time-consuming for battle and could be blocked with any shield. But Riddle occasionally liked to block off a part of a prisoner's energy field and watch him squirm. My purpose right now was not murder or torture.

Lily's energy field was consistent with previous readings: an average witch. But then I found something unusual. In short, the energy field consisted of a core (which determined the total amount of energy) and channels connecting it with the surface of the astral body (which determined energy regeneration rate). At that, their capacities were independent of each other. Somehow, most of Lily's channels looped onto themselves and cycled her magic in a closed off circle! And the core… imagine a sphere with an internal divider made of closed off channels. The smaller half was full of energy, the other was empty.

My first thought was that the girl was done for. Damage to the energy field, especially this extensive, was usually painful and fatal. But somehow she was feeling fine! One of the channels drew my attention. It looked like it did not want to be self-contained, but I couldn't see anything holding it in place. I directed a tiny speck of my own, maximally neutral energy into it. And it unfolded, changing from a loop into a normal cord connecting the core to the surface. Pain never came. Neither did any damage to Lily's material or astral bodies. Fascinating!

I looked over Lily's system once more. No signs of damage. The coloring was saturated and homogeneous, energy pulsed like a beating heart. I nudged one one the channels dividing the core, straightening it. The channel turned normal, and the hole it left started slowly leaking energy into the empty half. A tiny, thin stream.

What did we have here? Something or someone apparently blocked Lily's power. What to do? Even if I fixed everything perfectly, it looked like she would still be much weaker than me. And she could not escape the vow in any case. So, fixing it was.

This was not a curse. More like an uncomfortable position that numbed parts of the body. It was possible for her to undo if only she knew something was wrong. Why had no one noticed? Diagnostics usually only measured energy and regeneration rate. And there she was truly average. More detailed examination was reserved for suspected cases of energy field damage. No symptoms - no reason to check.

How did she end up this way? I could only guess. Accidentally did it to herself with muggle meditation? Someone "helped"? It did not matter. The important question was what to do with her. I could, of course, compare a sample of her blood to many of the English purebloods. But I honestly didn't feel like it was worth the effort. If she was someone's distant relative, so what?

I lifted the diagnostic charms. Two more dead muggles later, Lily's results showed she was equal to five average wizards. This made her third in England. Dumbledore, Voldemort, Lily Potter. How droll. Even Bellatrix was only three times the average.

To save her from shock, I covered the muggles' death with an illusion. To her it looked like I just waved my wand, and the circle glowed.

"Lord Voldemort is generous! I take care of my servants. From now on, you will become far more powerful! Such is my will!" I continued playing the histrionic. No need for her to know that any mediwizard could have done the same.

Lily was looking at me like I was an idiot. Sometimes legilimency was a disadvantage. Riddle's memories loudly demanded a round of Cruciatus. But it would serve no purpose. She will soon notice the difference.

I took her home, again stunned and transfigured. Put Harry back in his crib and ordered the house elf to take care of him- Lily did not need to know I used him in a ritual, even a simple diagnostic one.

Then I poured my memories of brewing potions into the pensieve. Nothing exceedingly difficult or disgusting, no decoctions with freshly extracted human hearts or the like.

Next was Lily's equipment. She knew zero occlumency. This posed a threat to me and all my plans. I found a mind-protecting amulet in the pile of Death Eater equipment. Average strength, static defense. Far from sufficient.

Still exhausted, I turned to a backup magic source: my blood. Drank a blood replenishing potion, cut my hand and began drawing runes on a plain pair of glasses from the same pile. The frame received a mind shield, static but powerful. The lenses got covered on both sides. Two average but dynamic defenses: the intruder could break through the outside layer of the continuously shifting labyrinth only to be stuck in the internal one. Any attempt to adjust to the internal layer would eject him through the external.

While charming the glasses drained only a bit of blood, increasing the strength of existing charms on the robe took a liter. A standard Death Eater uniform -this shapeless black robe- already came with charms of climate control, durability, magic resistance, blocking of smell… Could easily handle a burst of automatic fire or a weak wizard's attack. The mask was a masterpiece- defense against legilimency, sound filter, self-supportive breathing system. In short, almost identical to high ranking Auror equipment, only less cheery. The only downside was its price. Poor Lucius.

Blood runes were great in every respect except for their longevity. But a month was more than enough to come up with a better solution. And if not, I could always reapply them. Also, using my own blood meant the defenses would not work against me.

Most Death Eaters strived to look the the same. High ranking ones decorated their masks with drawings and patterns, fitted their robes to figure. Some wand-waving - and Lily had the most elaborately decorated mask and a tight-fitting robe. Snape should appreciate it. Although, such bold claim to a high spot in the hierarchy would make her life more difficult.

I returned Lily back to normal.

"My Lord, I can hardly work when I keep getting stunned, transfigured and moved around."

Be grateful you're not crucioed.

"I heard you. Here is the new list of potions for you to brew. You will also be brewing polyjuice. Because you are officially dead, you will be using it for the rest of your life. Here, choose your appearance," I handed her the pictures of women and two months worth of polyjuice I got from Rabastan.

She chose a thin blonde and drank the potion. Polyjuice really was something! Even her energy signature was disguised. To test for polyjuice, most wizards would need to use a recognition charm that requires touching the subject with the wand. Outside of Bellatrix's level of devotion, this was universally viewed as assault. The charm was also very slow and easy to block.

Next, I handed her a stack of books.

"These include occlumency, the basics of dueling and battle magic, and theory of magical blood heredity. Study everything. In two days there will be a Death Eater meeting, where I will introduce you as my student. From now on, you are Elena Ivanova, a Russian pureblood. Your husband of five years recently died in a failed potion experiment, and you decided to join me."

Pouring energy into potions required taking off most personal shields, so deaths from experimental potion explosions were common.

"Five years ago I was 16."

"Not an unusual age for pureblood marriages."

"Why do I need to go to the meeting? I could just keep brewing potions here. My Lord."

Then how are you going to seduce Snape? Dumbledore won't poison himself!

"My will is your law. Besides, I might be too busy to deal with you, so you will need to meet our resident potions master. He will give you your lists and instructions."

"Yes, my Lord. But why do I need to learn how to fight?"

"A situation might call for it."

"You want me to kill?"

The itch to cruciate her grew to near unbearable.

"Subordination, Elena. Don't provoke me to torture you. I don't plan on sending you into a battle. But if you get killed by a random Auror, I will not care what happens to Harry."

She shuddered.

"You would not defend me, my Lord?

"Only as much as I would any other Death Eater. I will not be near you 24/7."

"And what is this pureblood theory, my Lord?" her voice oozed skepticism. She thought it was an ideological wile.

"Wizards are not equally powerful, Elena. Most of the rifts between them cannot be breached with training. Read this book, it explains this very thoroughly. If you don't, I will known and punish you. You don't need to believe it: life will show you the truth soon enough.

She did not believe. But decided to keep silent.

"And now, Elena, we will perform another ritual."

She flinched, thinking I was going to stun her again. But not this time.

Lily was a muggleborn and knew nothing about the pureblood society. So, she would have to be a foreigner. The Brits and our closest neighbors- the French, the Dutch, the Spanish, the Germans - knew all the key players in Europe. But Russia was a giant, turbulent country. Rumors said it was so chaotic that in 1917 several pureblood families went into hiding, and no one knew what happened to this day. Apparently, they still survived but had never been seen. Therefore, a pureblood family appearing out of nowhere and joining the Dark Lord would not make the news. Russian sources were similar enough that a witch acclimated to Britain won't surprise anyone. And a Russian last name would not stand out when the Dark Lord already had Dolohov and Karkaroff.

Riddle traveled a lot in his youth and knew a dozen languages- nothing compared to Crouch Sr. Now I was going to transfer my knowledge of Russian to Lily with legilimency. It required both parties' consent; its ease and effectiveness depended on their power levels. We were both magically strong, and Tom's legilimency skills were enough for two. Lily won't speak perfect Russian immediately, but she will at least be able to passably answer Karkaroff's "how are you?" and speak English with a Russian accent.

Legilimency took a good part of the hour. Now all I had to do was wait for her mind to process the new information.

"What did you do, my Lord?" her thoughts were searching for a trap, evidence of mind control or illusion.

"I gave you knowledge of Russian. But it does not free you from work or studying."

"Isn't teaching me a profanation? Why would you teach a mudblood, my Lord?"

Was that sarcasm? A challenge? If she said that to the original Lord, death would have been a mercy.

"I am not interested in what you were born as, only what you have become. Only power matters. You will understand soon enough. As for blood purity… Its proponents' prestige and influence are most useful," I wonder if this sounded sufficiently dramatic? "But, of course, this is highly confidential information."

Otherwise she might be stupid enough to spout that to Rosier.

"When you are done teaching me, my Lord, will you order me to kill people?"

Why did she have to be so strung-out?

"So far your duties are limited to potions and self-defense. If you ask to participate in raids, I will grant you an opportunity."

"And how do you imagine it? Me, asking you for a ritual knife to stab my sister? My Lord?"

What in the world was going on? Did she have absolutely no self-preservation instincts? The girl had a bug up her ass that needed to be either taken out or shoved in further. I couldn't wait to dump her on Snape in exchange for poisoning Dumbledore, let them both suffer.

"How did you think I found your family?"

"Destroyed the Fidelius with ritual sacrifice? My Lord?"

"Fidelius has one weak spot- its keeper. You put your trust in the wrong man."

"Peter…"

What's so difficult to comprehend - you got betrayed. Her thoughts were amusing: she kept mulling over who should have been the keeper instead of Peter. Who she should have trusted. Snape?! Sure, she didn't know he was a Death Eater, but the rumors about him were nothing short of disturbing. Easy to guess he was a bad choice.

"Yes, Peter is a traitor."

"Meaning, he is your servant? Will you let me kill him?" I could feel her bloodlust.

"Peter Pettigrew is a pathetic excuse for a wizard. I am sure he will fail me within a month. I will allow you to kill him then."

As they say, it is always the quiet ones… And she seemed like such a kind girl. Anyway, it was time for her to think, cry, and get back work.

"I have business to attend to. Focus on potions and the books I gave you. Until you have decent occlumency, use this amulet and glasses. Here are your Death Eater robes and mask. I will personally collect you for the meeting. And one more thing: for everyone but you and the Lestranges, I look like this," -I cast the reptilian illusion on myself.

Lily recoiled. I turned away and apparated back to the Lestranges'. Bella was already waiting for me.

"Master, I am so happy to see you! Forgive us, but we cannot find your snake."

"Keep looking. For her or her body. Use your house elves."

"Master, Lucius Malfoy arrived at your call. He is waiting on you."

"I will receive him in the green parlor."

I did not trust Malfoy enough to apparate to his manor with depleted magic. Not that he would have the gall to attack, but his loyalty was ephemeral.

I walked to the green parlor, got comfortable behind the desk and invited Lucius in.

He appeared as luxurious as ever. I did not allow it to distract me. He may look like a regular peacock but could also boast the power of three average wizards. And a wand made from ingredients so illegal he had to carry it in an isolating artifact made into a cane.

"Welcome, my slippery friend. Let us discuss business."