A/N : Here it is, part two of the Life of Darkness trilogy…herein you will find several foreign words and a good bit of Germanic accents at the beginning (I have no idea how to do the other accents, and later on they're not doing much of the actually "talking" in English anyway)…follow Tom on his journey to becoming Lord Voldemort…and be there when he becomes the thing most feared in the Wizarding world…

A/N 2 : Oh, yeah…and I don't own Harry Potter either…I'm just a fanatic…^_^ ENJOY!!!

Chapter #1 – The Journey Begins

Now that he had graduated from Hogwarts, Tom felt like he had a much greater freedom than he had ever had before. He did not have to go back to the orphanage to live. He could use his magic freely, as long as he did not get caught doing anything against the law. He had been especially warned about Muggles seeing the use of magic, even though they would most certainly deny they had seen it even if they had seen it being used. But there was one other thing that he was glad he could do without restriction now, and that was learning more about the Dark Arts.

Right after graduation, he went to the Westbrook Manor with Lena to let her get a few things in order before they left to go on their journey. Though leaving Lena at the mansion would not have at all bothered him, he thought that he should take her with him as he traveled around, as they had been planning to do for several years now. He had told her that they would be together after graduation and, even thought it had not been a promise, he had told her then, and reminded her of several times after that, she had not lost her usefulness to him yet. There were certain things that she still knew more about in regards to the Wizarding world than he did, and that knowledge would certainly be priceless to him. Her love of books, too, would prove useful. And she had certainly become unconditionally loyal to him, though he still had no idea why. Though Lena would never admit it to him, half of her loyalty was somewhat out of fear, for he had already killed four people, he could easily kill her if he wished, and she knew it.

Tom did not want to stay too long at the mansion, though. Lena's father still unnerved him for some reason, and it had only increased once he had come to stay with them before he began his travels. He was not sure he where he was going to go…he would find out when he arrived there. Though Korbin had insisted that they stay the entire summer with him, but Tom wanted to leave at the beginning of July. Mr. Westbrook was clearly upset that he did not want to stay, and seemed nearly enraged that Lena was going to be going with him. Tom tried to just pass it off as a father not wanting to let go of his daughter, but he still felt it was more than that.

Letters came nearly everyday from his old roommates. Crinis Tisserand was already hard at work at his prearranged job in the Ministry, wherever he was working, for he still would not say. Rex Dorian was getting to know the ropes of the Daily Prophet's inner workings. Darcy Macnair had to go through a lot of meetings with Ministry officials, getting ready to take on a job with the Department of International Magical Cooperation as an ambassador. Nathan Lestrange had nearly disappeared, having gotten married to his long time girlfriend Sylvia Danes only a few days after getting out of school and he was currently on his honeymoon and sending very few letters.

Of course, Darcy's letters were quite interesting to Tom. He finally got an answer to a question that had bothered him quite a bit: who was this cousin he had always talked about that lived in Denmark? After he had learned that Grindelwald was in Denmark, he thought that was the answer, especially since Darcy seemed to know quite a bit about the Dark wizard, and Darcy finally told him that, yes, Grindelwald was one of his mother's cousin.

With Macnair's mentioning that his parents still corresponding with associates and friends of Grindelwald, Tom suddenly had a wonderful idea. Though he would have to change his plans slightly, it was better in his opinion to have a destination in mind. It would be a far easier way to start his journey into the Dark Arts anyway. He wrote back to Darcy and asked if there was anyway he could meet these associates of Grindelwald, and Darcy quickly responded with "I've been wondering when you'd ask." And that answer made Tom extremely happy. If he could not have Grindelwald, why not have the next best thing?

The two of them arranged for the Macnairs to come to the Westbrook Manor on the second of July, when Darcy and his parents would have a break from their work. From there they were going to take Tom and Lena to Denmark to meet certain people they thought would help Tom in his study of the Dark Arts. Tom was very thrilled about this, and Lena seemed quite interested in it too, but Korbin had quite the opposite of feelings – for whatever reason.

Rex had also offered in some of his letters to introduce Tom to his grandparents who lived in Rome, for they could introduce him to some Dark wizards they knew there. But, Tom told him that he had another plan at the moment, but would probably take up that offer later. Tom wanted to get to know as many Dark witches and wizards as possible, for he was sure that all of them would be able to teach him different things.

Luckily both of them had taken their Apparation test already (Lena the previous summer and Tom over the Christmas holiday) they did not have to join in the rush of new graduates that had waited past their seventeenth birthdays to be able to Apparate. They were already using that means of travel to go to London to get things that they needed before they left. Lena went about three times as much as Tom.

It was only two weeks after they had graduated when Tom had planned to leave. Soon the second of July was there and the three Macnairs arrived at the Manor about midmorning. Korbin greeted them happily, though Tom knew that he was forcing it. If he had his way, Tom was sure that he would be making Lena stay at home with him. Tom greeted Darcy and his father with a firm handshake each, then looked at his former schoolmate's mother, whom he had never met before. She was a rather stunning Germanic woman with lovely features and long dark brown hair. She was draped in lavender and blue robes with silver pieces of jewelry hanging all over her that were mainly set with emeralds the color of her eyes. He politely kissed her hand, hearing a muffled giggle from Lena.

"So, are you ready to go, then," Darcy asked the two of them.

"Never been more ready," Tom answered with an anticipant smile.

"Then let's go," said Mr. Macnair.

Tom nodded as Lena handed him his broom. At least he would finally be getting some use out of the broom he had bought at the beginning of his second year at Hogwarts. Lena kissed her father's cheek and told him goodbye then they all stepped outside, Tom and Lena mounting their brooms.

The Macnairs walked to a carpet that was hovering in the air, about two feet from the ground. Tom looked at it interested, having never seen a flying carpet before, though he had certainly read about them. With a final wave to Mr. Westbrook, they all took off. They were on their way to Måneby now, the wizard town in Denmark where Grindelwald had been staying – where he had been defeated – and where many of his associates were still residing. It was an all-wizarding community, much like Hogsmeade, but it consisted mostly of those that were involved in the Dark Arts Darcy had told him, and was much smaller.

Tom was full of anticipation. What Darcy had told him about it sounded wonderful. But, as they flew off, he could not help but look back at Korbin, standing by the doorway. He wondered what it really was that had made him not want to let his daughter go with him…