Title: Menace
Author: Hesta's Journal
Word Count: 1161
Type of Story: Oneshot.
Summary: In the forests of Albania, Tom Riddle realises that he might have finally met his match.
A/N: Written for No Such Author's 'One Word Prompt Competition'. The challenge was to write a oneshot featuring prominently, or being centric, in the story etc. My given word was 'menace'.
SPOILER! Before anybody goes asking why she asks him to take her with him, I don't know myself. I did it from Tom's POV, and so I didn't feel the need to explain it. I hope that I got Tom sort of in character, though, because I've wanted to write a Tom Riddle story for a very long time but I always feel I've got his character wrong.
Enjoy!
Disclaimer: JKR owns the Harry Potter universe, including, obviously, Tom Riddle Jr. Which is unfortunate, because I'd quite like to be able to say I created a character like Tom.
He looks around the forest for her, yet she is nowhere in sight. It's strange, because everyone he's asked about her has said that's she's always here. Perhaps he has come on the one day that she has decided to move on, to give up this life. The thought disappoints him, because he is so close to getting what he wants, so close to getting one step further in his dream of immortality.
The forest air hangs low around him, and it's not the normal air, not an air that a forest ought to have. It's an air filled with menace, menace that is so thick he can almost feel it soaking into his skin. It would bother a normal person, but Tom Riddle is not a normal person. He has been to places that are dangerous, and, more often than not, he has been the menace.
He waits for her, standing. It is better to face people standing, he knows. If there is an attack when he is standing, he can fight back or, if necessary, Apparate away. He hopes it will not come to this today, because he has spent a long time working up to this moment, a long time asking around about the diadem.
When she finally comes, she makes her way over to him slowly, gracefully dangerous. Leaves crackle underneath her as she moves, and her eyes are alert and intelligent. She stops a yard or two away from him, her voice surprisingly velvet-like. He hadn't expected that. Why have you come here?
This, too, is a surprise. Normally, he would have to be the first to speak, the first to announce that there was an important reason for him being present. Clearly, she is different and this piques his curiosity. Ever the actor, though, he doesn't let his interest show and says silkily, I've heard a lot about you. It's true - the townsfolk living by the forest live in fear of her and her ways. She has killed and injured any that cross her path, and he is mildly surprised that she hasn't attempted to attack him.
I'm sure you have, she doesn't react to his honeyed words anymore than if they had been spoken by a normal person, and Tom feels annoyed. He is not a normal person, and the thought that she might think of him as one is like a snake sinking its fangs into his skin, spreading poison.
When he doesn't say anything, she continues smoothly. My kind says that you're here about the diadem.
He seems to have underestimated her. Regaining his composure swiftly, he smiles and slips the same menace into his tone that she has in hers. Perhaps honesty is the best course to take with her. Yes, and apparently you know where it is.
Whoever told you that? the words are said convincingly enough, but Tom is a master at lying and he knows when someone else isn't telling the truth. He knows she wants something from him, and he sighs inwardly. It seems that this is going to take longer than anticipated. If she were anybody else, he would have tortured the information out of her, but he doesn't torture her kind, not anymore.
What do you want? Tom's words are biting, and he lets her know why people consider him a menace. His eyes flash that unnerving shade of red, a sheen they only take on when he is experiencing a very strong emotion. This time it's anger.
She draws the words out slowly, deliberately letting him know that he's not the only one who can menace people. I want to get out of here, I want you to take me out of here, I want to go with you, wherever you're going. This forest is too limited for me.
If Tom Riddle was surprised before, he's shocked now. He craves the diadem, but she is an obstacle in his path. His hand flicks to his wand, but somehow he cannot bring himself to torture her. Not yet. The last time he tortured her kind he drove the victim mad and he doesn't want to lose this chance to find Ravenclaw's lost diadem.
But what else is he supposed to do? All his life, it's been about him, him, him. He can still vividly remember Mrs. Cole shouting at him that 'your selfishness has made you a menace to others'. He can remember himself not caring because he only cares about himself, after all. People and other forms of life are just toys to him, pawns in his quest for power. He plays with them as an orca plays with its prey, uncaring and using them purely for his own enjoyment, his own advancement in life.
And now she's demanding him to take her with him on his quest for world domination - for that's what it has become, as important as everlasting life - and if she doesn't (if he doesn't) cooperate, then he'll have to find the diadem without a guide. As much confidence as Tom has in his ability to find it alone, he knows that it will take much longer by himself. The forest is big and the diadem is small, and, even for a wizard of his skill, it's won't be easy. He has already tried Summoning, but it has had anti-Summoning spells placed upon it, of course.
She is still looking at him with those cunning eyes of menace, and he begins to feel himself waver. He has found someone who is as clever as he is, but she will not be a threat to him because nobody else will understand or follow her. She will not be able to betray his plans even if she wants to, although, he senses, she will be loyal. He has never wanted a companion, but maybe it is not such a terrible idea, especially if she will lead him to the diadem. If she ever does become a burden, he can rid himself of her easily.
Alright, he nods his head and she flickers her tongue out at him in pleasure.
She is the first, and last, being that he ever allows to follow him this closely, as close as a lover. She is the first, and last, being that he allows to be with him day and night, that he protects from harm. In time, she becomes his Horcrux, as irrevocably a part of him as his own limbs are.
That day in the forest of Albania, the day where menace met menace and made a bargain, a trade, sealed the fate of Wizarding Britain for the coming decades and brought into life a partnership that was as unfathomable and enigmatic to the world as people who are fond of centaurs are to Dolores Umbridge.
A partnership that ended only when the sword of a certain Founder sliced its way through the body of the snake that became known as Nagini.