Building a Better Voldemort

[sunnyskywalker]

Last December, charlottehywd asked if there was a list of things that would make Voldemort a more effective villain. I figured there's no better place to compile one!

Some initial ideas to kick things off:

He could have Apparated into the Potters' house right past the anti-Apparition wards which would stop any normal wizard.

He could have actually killed Arthur with Nagini.

He could have arrested one or more Weasleys in DH and released stories about how they were being subjected to "enhanced interrogation techniques" on suspicion of blood treason in the Daily Prophet to lure Harry out. (Hey, dangling a loved one as bait worked on the kid before, why not give it another shot? It's not like it'll cost Voldemort much even if it doesn't work.)

He could have Imperiused someone close to Harry - Ron, Hermione, Lupin, Molly - making it hard for Harry to know whom to trust.

He could have turned someone close to Harry to his side by other means, either coercion or brilliant manipulation.

He could have unleashed the Inferi instead of leaving them boxed up in the garage.

We could have seen more of the damage the Dementors caused after they went AWOL after the DE breakout from Azkaban.

I'd love to hear more ideas!

Comments

[oryx_leucoryx]

It's a SSHG fic named 'The Cloak of Courage'. Can't remember the author's name. It's rather dark and has a lot of use of blood, so not for the easily disgusted. Also a Marriage Law Challenge fic, so not to anyone who is disturbed by this. But there is a lot of exploration of why Unforgivables are such - the author decided performing these spells does something to the caster's soul such that s/he would feel a constant 'call' to cast those spells again (worsening the more time one does it... you see where it goes) - and this was written before HBP introduced the idea that murder rips the soul.

Anyway, Tom's story is brought up by Ginny, who remembered what he told her when he possessed her in COS (and this turns out to be an important clue).

There are a few other interesting developments of characters - eg Viktor is a DE, but he still loves Hermione and wants to help her, Severus leads the DEs into an ambush, but he still wants to help the one or two he sees as real friends.