A/N: Tom does everything to ensure he will live forever. Riddle Era. I do not own Harry Potter.
Submission for:
The Phobias & Character Competition: Tom Riddle - Necrophobia
Open Category Competition 2: Riddle Era
The Crayola Colours Prompt Challenge: Apricot - Potion: Elixir of Life
When he was younger, Tom would lie awake at night, shivering under his thin blanket as he stared up at the peeling ceiling. He would listen to the silence of the large room, his heartbeat louder than the soft snores of the other children and fearing the day it would finally stop, the day he would finally cease to exist and his mind would go blank.
Death scared him. The idea of living and having so much left to see and do being wiped away in the blink of an eye terrified him. It had already taken his mother, her body too weak and fragile to function after giving birth to him. It wouldn't take much for him to go as well. He would watch the other children playing and he saw just how easy it would be to take each one. A shove into the rusted swing-set or a fall off the highest building was all it would take. Even missing a few meals or falling ill could cause a slow and painful death. He had seen it happen to a few children during his life.
Tom shut his eyes tight, trying to rid himself of the images of dead children. That would never be him. He would not die. He would not be weak and succumb to the limitations of his body. He would find a way to live forever, no matter what it took.
When he discovered his magical abilities, he saw their potential for new and everlasting life but also their possibility to end life. He could burn things at will and watch someone bleed out as they took their last breaths. Magic was pain and death, but magic was also power. Magic could be the answer.
He began school and while being the perfect model student, he spent a lot of time doing personal research into immortality. He found many spells and potions to appear younger, slow down time and reduce the effects of ageing. There was the Elixir of Life and the known properties of unicorn blood, but those wouldn't be enough. They all still ended in death and Tom wanted to live forever!
Then he came across a rather interesting passage in the Restricted Section that was everything he could have ever dreamed of.
"Horcruxes?" Professor Slughorn asked when he approached him about the subject after a Potions' class.
Tom played the role of curious student, instead of recent murderer having already created one. The quick killing of his father and his Muggle family was more than enough to fulfil the requirement for the use of the dark spell. His eyes drifted to the black stone ring on his finger, the small fragment of his soul now carefully residing there feeling warm against his skin. But now he needed clarification on something the book did not provide.
"Yes, Sir," Tom asked. "Splitting one's soul ties them to the living realm but wouldn't splitting it more than once be even better, possibly into seven..."
"Seven," the round man gasped. "Tom, the toll it takes on one's soul to create one is enormous, but seven?"
Tom bit his lip, a bit annoyed at being interrupted but then put on a look of polite shame. "Do forgive me, Sir, merely curious," he said but he had gotten the information he needed. If his professor's expression and choice of words were anything to go off of, the task was not impossible. Tom smiled inwardly. The price of his morality was insignificant to the prize it bought. He would be the Master of Death if he had anything to do about it.