Late at night, the oak door of Hogwarts Castle suddenly flew open. A black figure slipped out of the castle like a giant bat, paying no heed to the torrential rain overhead as he followed the path toward Hogwarts' gates.
"Master!"
Snape, cloaked in black, bowed slightly to the figure approaching through the rain, respectfully welcoming Voldemort's arrival.
"You have done well."
Voldemort drifted past Snape and crossed the muddy Training Grounds toward the Black Lake. He had not chosen to conceal his purpose from Snape, for Death Eaters already knew why he had come. There was no point in keeping it secret.
The two walked around the lake through the darkness. The black waters looked ready to overflow, and the surroundings were dark and cold.
They stopped one after the other. A white marble tomb appeared before them, and Voldemort raised the Yew Wand he had used for many years, a pleased smile curling at the corner of his lips.
With a sharp downward sweep of his wand, Dumbledore's tomb split open from top to bottom.
Voldemort stepped forward and looked at Dumbledore's almost perfectly preserved corpse. Suddenly, he found it amusing.
You are dead, and I am still alive.
Now, your wand belongs to me as well.
Voldemort reached for the wand clasped between Dumbledore's hands over his chest and pulled it free.
Snape stood quietly to one side, watching Voldemort elegantly raise the wand and give it a light flick as though he were holding a conductor's baton.
A spell suddenly shot from the wand's tip and vanished into the thick storm clouds overhead. Countless bolts of lightning raced through the dark clouds before converging into a blinding thunderbolt that struck down, illuminating the pitch-black night.
Voldemort, who had closed his eyes to feel the wand's power,