HARRY POTTER Book 4: Chapter 33
Chapter 33
THE DEATH EATERS
Voldemort looks away from Harry. He begins to examine his own body. He lifts his hands. They are pale and thin. They look like long white spiders. He moves his fingers slowly. He touches his chest, his arms, his face. His red eyes shine in the dark. The pupils of his eyes are vertical, like a cat’s eyes. He smiles.
He does not look at Wormtail, who lies on the ground, crying and bleeding. He does not look at the large snake that moves in the grass around Harry. Voldemort takes out his wand. He points it at Wormtail.
Wormtail flies through the air and hits the stone. He falls to the ground, shaking. Voldemort turns to Harry. He laughs. It is a cold, empty sound. Wormtail tries to speak. “My Lord… you promised…” “Hold out your arm,” Voldemort says. Wormtail lifts his bleeding, handless arm. But Voldemort laughs again.
“No… the other arm,” Voldemort says. Wormtail shakes with fear. “Master, please…” Voldemort pulls up Wormtails’s left sleeve. On Wormtail’s arm, Harry sees a mark. There is a bright red tattoo. A skull with a snake coming out of its mouth.
Voldemort looks at it closely. “It is back,” he says softly. “They will all know it now. They will all feel it.” He presses his finger on the mark. Harry’s scar burns again. Wormtail screams. The mark turns black.
Voldemort smiles a cruel smile. “They will come,” he says. “Some will be brave. They will come. Some will stay away. Cowards.” He begins to walk slowly in front of Harry.
“You stand on my father’s grave, Harry Potter,” he says. “He was a Muggle. A weak man. Weak like your mother, Muggle-born. I killed both of them. But I needed my father to return to power.”
He points to the hill. “Do you see that house there?” he says. “My father lived in that house. My mother loved him. But he left her when he learned she was a witch. My father hated magic, you see.” Voldemort’s voice is quiet and cold.
“She died when I was born. I grew up alone. I was raised in a Muggle orphanage. But I found him. And I killed him. I took revenge on him. He gave me his name… Tom Riddle.” He stops. Then he smiles. “But now… my true family comes. My Death Eaters.”
Suddenly, there is movement everywhere. Figures appear in the dark. They come from behind trees, from between graves. They wear black cloaks and masks. One by one, they walk forward. They seem scared, unsure. Then one of them falls to his knees. He crawls on the ground like an animal. Then he kisses Voldemort’s robes. “Master… Master… Master…” they all say.
