Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or any of the characters and settings of the HP Universe
Author's note: This idea came to me when I read a particularly beautiful story regarding an adult and good-ish Tom Riddle invading the canon universe. I wanted to do something similar. Please enjoy and review!
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"Bishop to E5"
The bishop moved and with a swift motion decapitated his opponent's queen. He smiled in satisfaction. Small victories always toned his confidence. His opponent looked at him placidly.
"Rock to D4. And check" his opponent said smoothly.
"Ever the long term strategist" he commented. The other gave him an enigmatic smile and turned his focus on the table.
"But prone to unnecessary sacrifices. Knight to D4".
"Alas, said necessity is a matter of the perspective" the other answered making his move.
He smirked. The old argument.
" For the queen may be powerful, but the true goal is victory and this can be achieved by a mere pawn which is at the right place the right time"
"The queen though, will never be able to figure out if her sacrifice facilitated the course of events towards a final victory" he commented as he commanded the next move.
"Quite true" hummed the other.
The silence between the two men stretched as they were both absorbed in their game. The fire in the hearth glowed a fierce red which illuminated the cozy room. He tasted his mead and closed his eyes in satisfaction. When he opened them again, he found his opponent looking at him expectantly. Raising an eyebrow he let him linger a little longer. It paid off..
"I am still waiting for your argument" said the other with a half-smile.
"Of course you are" he answered as he observed his opponent's pawn moving closer to his knight. "And you will have it: You may set the table. You may design your plan, command the moves, but in reality, you are only but a piece yourself ". He turned and looked the older man in the eye. " No matter how much you prefer the role of the chess master. Check!"
The other man knit his fingers and surveyed the table over his half-moon spectacles.
"And how do you propose that the plan will succeed?" he answered after a while.
"You outlive it" he answered in a calculating tone.
The older man sighed. "This is not always the option. Sometimes you need to have faith"
"Implying that you might be arrogant enough that you think you have calculated all the variables. Life is not an experiment. Many parameters remain out of your control"
"Isn't it the beauty of it? Yet, arrogance might be found in one's conviction that they can outlive life itself. After all, we do what we can with the time and resources in our control."
" Time and resources are parameters that can be controlled". His gaze pierced the old man
"As we both very well know" he concluded.
"Is the cost worth it though? For when the queen gets overpowered, the game becomes unbalanced" .
The younger man sighed "This is true. Yet, the queen itself should know that her role is in the chessboard collaborating with the other pieces. Not outside of it, commanding them".
The sound of the rain distracted them both for a while, both men lost in their own thoughts. Minutes ticked and the sound of the rain outside gave an ethereal quality to the dimly lit room.
The older man took a sip of his tea: "Alas, it seems that both our interpretations in this game are based on extrapolation. You prefer to collect power to you and outlive your plans. I prefer to plan ahead with the assumption that I have a far deeper comprehension of the workings of things. Life though, as you wish to argue, is not a game of chess. It is a game we discover by the day."
The younger man smiled. "So it is. In other words, you are arrogant enough to act as a puppet master, while I am arrogant enough to defy the rules of the game and force my own."
" It is arrogance after all. Is it not?" said the older man. And the silence stretched..
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The Hogwarts grounds were beautiful this time of the year. The rustle of leaves and the smell of soil after the rain. It boosted his senses. To have a stimulating discussion with someone he finally accepted as an equal, almost a friend. To explore feats of magic beyond the realm of comprehension. To smell these smells again, to hear these sounds again, to give himself time to enjoy these moments…It was priceless. He almost smiled at the irony of things. For this realization came from someone who had struggled and achieved to outlive life itself, but never appreciated the essence of time.
'Time is not measured by clocks. It is measured by moments.' He quoted sadly as he viewed the vastness called the black lake.
"You seem distracted Tom" said the old man.
Tom's gaze never faltered. The choice had been made. He only needed to state it out loud. And state it he did.
"I need to be whole again" he said. Every word seemed to take an aeon to form in his mouth but he finally achieved it.
Albus Dumbledore looked at the man before him with a soft smile. "A wise decision my boy".
He looked at the old man. "I request that you accompany me".
Dumbledore smiled sadly.
"Will it be farewell after that then?"
Thomas Gaunt sighed.
"Yes. Not permanent though. I will need time with myself."
Dumbledore took a step forward and clasped his palms behind his back. He observed the black lake and caught a glimpse of Callidora, or, the Giant Squid as students wished to name it swimming peacefully beneath the surface.
"The students will miss the most gifted Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor that Hogwarts ever had"
"I am sure that you have a pool of candidates that can give a fresh perspective in the field. I have heard that Potter wishes to retire from active auror duty."
Dumbledore smiled. "And you are ready to step aside for him to take your place. As Filius did for Lily six years ago."
"The Potters.." pondered Tom. "Gifted, along with their band of misfits."
"And at a place where they can harness their talents" said Dumbledore.
Tom smirked as he remembered the antics of the marauders during their time as students. Remus Lupin, the sage werewolf he came to respect for his knowledge ; Teaching care of magical creatures at Hogwarts for the past fifteen years. Sirius Black, the rash Gryffindor and Britain's most glorified bachelor who was travelling the world working as a defence specialist for the International Defence Association; James Potter, the Quiddich star, the gifted leader and one of the best aurors that DMLE ever saw; Lily Potter nee Evans; Dumbledore's favorite and enchantress extraordinaire. The muggleborn he came to respect for her sheer talent who was his colleague now. Marlene McKinnon, the strongest duelist of her generation; Now worked as a head auror for the DMLE. And Pettigrew; The untalented, scared, chubby kid who ran behind the skirts of most powerful men than him and.. the survivor who surprised everybody by his cunning as he climbed the steps of the ministry hierarchy to become junior undersecretary to the Minster. And there was the sulky, dark and yet deep Severus Snape. His very own apprentice and Potions Master extraordinaire who was head Unspeakable for the Ministry of Magic.
If Tom prized himself over something was his uncanny ability to identify talent. And .. play favorites with those who possessed it, a trait transferred to him from his old mentor. Magic after all was not for mediocres. It was for the elite.
Yes, he once believed in pure blood supremacy, but how many times did he find himself disgusted by the incompetence of those of noble backgrounds as compared to others with low beginnings and far more potential? All those who took advantage of their benefitted backgrounds to have an excuse for achieving nothing themselves.
He turned to look at the old man.
"Saturday will be a good opportunity. Preparations need to be made"
The man nodded without looking at Tom.
He smirked almost evilly. He could hardly wait to see the old man's expression when he offered him his parting gift.
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His screams echoed the village of Little Hangleton. It took a masterful display of magic of him and Dumbledore to get past the nasty defences he had set in the old shack more than 50 years ago. However, he was not prepared for the pain. It had the strength of 100 Cruciatus Curses and it penetrated his very core, his very being. The fragment resisted, it fought, it attacked physically and assaulted him mentally, but in the end he prevailed.
His heart slowly started beating more regularly as he found his breath. He looked at his hands, his destroyed clothes and took a deep breath. He felt his magic rushing around him, untamable, calling to him in a way he had never experienced before. He was whole again. And he had survived the task. It started with a twist of his lips. It turned into a smile and after a while he could not stop the rush of laughter. Manic, hard laughter, growing louder as his power grew even more untamable and started brushing the shack around it, breaking the old windows, shattering the walls, annihilating the roof..
He closed his eyes. With conscious struggle, he started constraining his extended awareness and his magic succumbed to his will. The door creaked open and the worried face of Albus Dumbledore emerged. Tom had asked him to stay outside and the old man had respected his request. However, now he was inside and eyeing his companion warily.
"Tom?" he said.
"It is.. perfect Albus" said Tom " I feel it… The power, the wholeness.. I am me again".
Dumbledore smiled in approval as he turned to survey his surroundings.
" I can tell that the upsurge must have been quite spectacular" he observed, passing his left hand over a part of the wall as if testing a hypothesis. He nodded to himself once and turned his gaze to Tom.
The younger man was looking at the headmaster with a smirk. He held a box in his hands.
Dumbledore looked at the box and then at the man.
"I presume it is harmless?" he said.
Tom nodded and motioned to Dumbledore to come check the object. After all, he could tell that the old man could barely contain his curiosity. Dumbledore strode the room and took the box in his hands.
"You can open it."
The man drew his wand and tapped the box. Tom snorted. The ever cautious Dumbledore, leaving nothing to others' control. The box opened and the small ring started floating before his dumbstruck eyes Tom had waited for this for too long. His face curved in a genuine smile.
"It…It can't be.."
"Can it not?"
"The ..stone. Impossible." The man made a wide flowing move with his wand and the stone glowed once as if to confirm Dumbledore's words. The Peverell coat of arms glowed eerily and then subsidized again.
"Consider this my parting gift." Said Tom as he sat up and grabbed the stone.
Albus looked at Tom, his face almost contorted, eyes tearful. "I..I can't accept it"
"You will" he took the ring in his hands and looked at it once again. "It is time you became whole again old man. It is time you found your peace."
Dumbledore resembled a child who was gifted with his favorite toy and couldn't quite believe in his eyes. Making no move, his eyes were captivated by the object before him.
"Make sure you use it wisely" said Tom lifting his hand and offering the stone.
It was when it happened. The stone glowed eerily once more and a ghostly image of two men appeared next to them. They both turned their eyes on the scene.
The one tall, skeletal and hairless, moving with the grace of a king cobra. The other barely a man. More like a boy who clung with all his willpower in his wand. The two were dueling and their wands were united in a golden flash of pure light.
"What…"
The gold light started expanding and sending flashes all around the place.
"Priori Incantantem" whispered Dumbledore.
Tom instinctively grasped his wand at the moment one of the golden flashes materialized in his world and engulfed his yew wand. He felt it shaking violently and tightened his grasp. The golden light moved towards his hand, his arm and then started engulfing his body. He looked at it surprised, trying to shrug it off but to no avail. Dumbledore made a cross with his wand and a fiery X materialized and struck the stone, but the golden light repelled it. Tom looked at the man, the image of the two duelists and then himself.
He felt a slight jerk behind his navel. Composing himself for whatever awaited him, he relaxed totally. "I think this is farewell Albus" were his last words as the golden light engulfed him fully and with a bright flash he disappeared, leaving the ring dropping harmlessly on the floor of the Gaunt Shack.