The Paris Encounter
Following his graduation from Hogwarts in June 1994, the newly minted Grand Sorcerer, Darius Thomas Zogratis, took residence in Paris. He was scheduled to present his findings on Squib reintegration to the French Ministry of Magic and Beauxbatons Academy.
Almost a year prior, Lord Voldemort had regained his full physical form in the graveyard of Little Hangleton. The Dark Lord, upon hearing whispers of a "prodigy" eclipsing Dumbledore, perceived the seventeen-year-old Darius not as an equal, but as a minor celebrity whose swift and public demise would signal the terrifying return of true dominance.
On a quiet Parisian avenue, as Darius exited a café, Voldemort Apparated in. The Dark Lord anticipated an epic, terrifying duel; a challenge worthy of his legendary power.
He received two minutes of clinical efficiency.
Minute One: Analysis and Counter-Theory
Voldemort wasted no time with theatrics. His first curse, Avada Kedavra, flew from his Yew wand in a familiar blaze of green light. Darius, possessing perfect mastery of the Mind Arts, saw the intention within Voldemort's psyche milliseconds before the spell was physically cast.
He did not dodge. Instead, Darius executed a complex, wandless act of Transfiguration upon the air immediately in front of him, instantly hardening the molecules into an impervious barrier. The Killing Curse struck the magically condensed air, which absorbed the energy and harmlessly dissipated it.
Momentarily taken aback, Voldemort launched a barrage of highly complex, ancient Dark Arts spells: blades of pure darkness, Life-siphoning curses, and internal boiling hexes. Darius moved with unnatural grace and economy of motion, deflecting each assault not with brute force, but with simple, elegant charms that counteracted the underlying magical theory of the spells, neutralizing their essence rather than just their effect. His scarlet eyes remained calm and collected—displaying no emotion, only analysis.
Minute Two: Inversion and Collapse
Voldemort realized he faced an opponent who understood the mechanics of magic better than he understood his own existence. Growing desperate and realizing his physical body was a fatal vulnerability, Voldemort attempted to possess a nearby French citizen, who would act as a human shield—a powerful Legilimency move he had not deployed in years.
This was his final mistake.
Darius, a Master of Mind Arts and the architect of the Zogratis Cognitive Restoration that cured the Longbottoms, recognized the psychic intrusion instantly. He did not fight the possession; he inverted it.
Mentally sealing off Voldemort's escape routes within the civilian's mind, Darius deployed a modified, non-healing version of his own Restoration spell. He did not attack Voldemort's soul; he forced it to confront its own myriad inconsistencies and internal horrors.
Voldemort's mind, already unstable from years as a spectral wraith and the trauma of his recent rebirth, could not handle the forced stability. The mental feedback loop was instantaneous and overwhelming.
The Aftermath: The End of an Age
Darius calmly extracted the Dark Lord's collapsing consciousness. The parasitic soul, stripped of a host body and suffering psychic whiplash, could not survive the process.
Voldemort issued a silent, mental shriek of agony as his form destabilized. The jet-black robed figure began to glow an eerie, bright blue—a side effect of his own soul magic collapsing inward due to Darius's enforced balance.
Within two minutes of the confrontation beginning, Voldemort's physical form disintegrated entirely, leaving behind nothing but a small pile of glowing blue ash on the pristine Parisian cobblestones.
Darius Zogratis brushed a piece of dust off his immaculate robes, looked down at the ash with complete indifference, and continued walking toward the Ministry building.
Lord Voldemort, the greatest Dark Lord of the age, was dead. Not in a heroic battle, but as a scientific anomaly, erased by a seventeen-year-old wizard who viewed him as a minor biological and magical inefficiency.
The wizarding world was now irrevocably in the Age of Zogratis.