Chapter 56. Tom Riddle

I gawked at Pansy smiling back at me crossing her arms over a black book she was almost hugging. The idea that she was the one behind all the attacks in Hogwarts. “Pansy… Why…?” I asked in disbelief, she never attacked others she deemed ‘lower’, only not catering to them for her potions. Pansy looked at me with a massive, blood curdling smile that engulfed the madness that now swirled through her eyes. She giggled while tilting her head. “For you of course!”

I stammered, shaking my head while Hermione, now back to her normal appearance, tugged on my robes tighter. “I… I never-” “You didn’t have to!” She cut me off, her smile almost so large, her face couldn’t contain it. Her eyes and mouth took on the forms of crescent moons as she giggled with glee. “I know all of your thoughts! I can hear them with the help of this precious diary!” She yelled, holding the black diary up, as if it were some sort of religious text.

“And with the help of me.” Another, male voice suddenly interrupted, I turned to see another Slytherin I had never seen before slowly make his way out of the shadows of this dimly lit Chamber. Pansy scoffed at him while he stood close by her, like a good friend that she finally introduced to me, she spoke with a giddiness of us becoming close as well. “Lucas, this is Tom Riddle! The owner of this diary!”

“I don’t-” Hermione was about to speak, but Pansy quickly shouted her down. “Stay out of this Mudblood!!” Hermione jumped, and bit her lip in anger, gripping onto my shoulder with her nails dug in. Tom Riddle chuckled a bit, patting Pansy on her shoulder. “It’s so good we can finally meet face to face Lucas… I’ve been dying to meet you.” I squinted at him in distrust. “How have I never seen you in Slytherin before?” Tom chuckled while Pansy explained. “Tom left a memory of himself in his Diary, and has been helping me- Helping us!”

“After hearing so much about you, and seeing some of your traits first hand… I understood why I had picked you as my Protégé…” I stared at this apparition in confusion. “I’ve never met you, nor have you taught me anything.” He raised a brow, his cocksure smirk growing. “Just a quick flick, you parry the incoming spell, and repost with your own. Parry, and Repost is the most basic concept of Dueling.” He said with a shrug as my stomach dropped, the memory of that particular lesson almost word for word flashed in my mind, along with the teacher who taught it to me. “You can’t… Voldemort?”

Tom chuckled mischievously. “Indeed I am… When I was a student here, I worked at a small trinket shop in Diagon Alley and learned of my true heritage, my true calling, but after only purging one mudblood, that blithering old fool kept an annoyingly close watch on me.” His words left a mark on me, and a quick remembrance of Merlin’s tale emerged back from my mind. A sudden flash of my imagined image of Merlin's words. Trinkets, led to heirlooms, heirlooms, led to treasures. Treasures one might keep around one's neck. I raised my hand, brushing it against my chest with the same inclination of my forefather doing much of the same with his most prized possession. “Salazar’s locket…” I mumbled, Tom pausing with slight surprise, but his grin only grew as he nodded.

“Indeed, once I saw what was rightfully mine, I took the message engraved inside, granting my permanent control over the sweeping veil of death.” His smile grew more wicked as he uttered that shivering word, but he morphed his expression back to his usual sneer in mere milliseconds. “However, I was still being closely observed after my first test, so instead I left behind a memory of my 16 year old self inside of a diary, so that one day, many years later I could open the Chamber again, fulfill Salazar Slytherin’s most noble of goals, and purge this school of all of its filth!” He announced, and turned towards Pansy beside him. “But I needed a hand, you see… a memory is all I still am, but that can change.” He then turned towards Hermione, still gripping at my shoulder like her life depended on it.

“I require strength… We discovered this mudblood’s little scheme, and decided to let it play out for our own benefit…” Pansy then continued when Tom let a lull in the conversation. “The little mudblood sticks to you whenever she has a chance! We had so many opportunities!” She spitted out with anger, before calming down in her next sentence. “But Tom thought it would be best for you to remove her yourself.” I looked at Pansy with shock, her speech was the most erratic and violent I had ever seen before.

“Remove…?” I asked, just then Pansy pulled out her wand, and pointed it at Hermione. “Expelliarmus!” Hermione’s wand she had been stealthily taking from her robe was flicked away, and far back onto the floor. Hermione scrambled to grab her wand, but Pansy wasn’t finished. “Petrificus Totalus!” Hermione’s body froze, her arms and legs stiffened, and she began falling flat on her face. I managed to catch her, and lower her slowly onto her back.

“Ever the gentleman I see… But to those mudblood's, you really don’t have to be…” Tom said calmly, his eyes glinting like daggers, peering into me. “Give her to me…” He spoke seriously, his casual expressions earlier, now gone as he held his hand out. “Yes, if you do then Tom can help us purge the school of any filthy mudblood's and race traitors that latch onto you, or hurt you!” Pansy yelled ecstatically.

“Is… Is that why you attacked Chiara and Weasley…? Because they are close with… Hermione?” I asked, Pansy nodded triumphantly. “Of course! I wanted to get rid of that one a long time ago, but-” She was then cut off from Tom, standing closer to me. “Bring her to me, and place the Diary in her hand, so that I may regain my former glory.” I took an instinctual step back, moving closer to Hermione, still laying behind me in her frozen state. I gulped, glancing at Hermione, silently pleading at me, the very same eyes I had seen in the forbidden forest.

My hand balled into a tight fist, that shook under the pressure, I finally spit out the words that had been eating me up. “I can’t!!” I screamed, gasping for air, my eyes clenched shut, unable to look at Hermione. “Hah… I had doubts…” Tom sighed, shaking his head with disappointment. “What…? No… No, no, no. Lucas, you’ve been tricked by that mudblood! I am right here! I’m right in front of you!” Pansy yelled, her maddening smile faltering. She only stopped when Tom held out his hand in front of her, Pansy’s expression turning neutral and stoic as she stared into the distance, like a doll…

Before I could ask him what he did, Tom whispered with a reassuring voice. “Is this because you are worried over your cursed blood?” My head suddenly pained, my instincts screamed out to run, but my legs locked themselves, stopping me from moving. “Wh-What do you mean…?” Tom chuckled at me and shook his head. “She can’t hear anything for the moment, there is no need to hide it from me…” The way he spoke, it’s as if he was casually scratching at something I didn’t want touched.

However Tom continued on. “You have nothing to fear, Lucas… I will never throw you away over your affliction of Lycanthropy.” Hearing the last of his words, my heart raced, my hands shook, my palms became clammy, as my mind denied what he was saying. ‘No, I can’t be…’ My head felt as if it would split open, everything suddenly made sense to me. My sleep walking, only expelling my ‘magic power’ one night a month, the room broken and tarnished after I awoke, even understanding other animal’s to a certain extent… I finally knew, or perhaps I always did, only buying into my parent’s lies to sleep better at night.

Tom chuckled. “Look at that mudblood…” I did as he told, and saw Hermione’s eyes, enlarged massively, shock and fear is all I could see. “Do you really think she, or any other witch or wizard would spare you given the chance of knowing what you are?” He asked, I continued to stare at Hermione, her eyes glistening as tears began to form. “They chase your kind out, make them out as monsters, and shunt them aside for their own peace of mind! I can rebuild this school. One where you don’t have to be ashamed of your cursed blood. You can lead it with me! Together we can reshape the world!”

I looked at Tom, his smile filled with wonder. Almost as if he could see the world he was dreaming of, and all I had to do was take his hand to see it with him. I knew what Werewolves were, and how they were viewed. Only certain things in passing from the book I had in my first year, talking bits about them. It made sense that my parents never uttered a word of it now that I knew what I was. No… I always knew what I was, I just didn’t want to see it, just like my own parents. If my own parents couldn’t stand to acknowledge what I was, how would strangers?

My right hand slowly raised up, readying to take Tom’s hand, but a sudden flash of burning pain emitted from my chest. Val had nipped my chest with his fangs. “I’ll always still like Lucas! Lucas is family!” Tom raised his brow at the sudden black snake appearing from my collar, while Val looked at me with his dark blue piercing eyes. “Lucas is strange… What’s wrong with strange?” I scoffed at this small 3 year old’s innocence, saving me from my own darkest thoughts. I pet and scratched his head with a smile, my eyes slightly glassy.

I looked back at Tom, glancing at what he did to Pansy, finally seeing he was using sweet words to entice me, and control me just as he was doing to Pansy, one of my closest friends. I scowled at him, knowing his future self was the cause of so much more pain and misery, clutching my chest to prove it. “No, I don’t need this so-called ‘partnership’ you offer. You speak as if you are above others, yet look at what you’ve done to Pansy in your conquest. I’m not assisting you, I’m cutting you off.”

Tom finally sighed and shook his head. “Pity…”