(AN: As this is my first fanfiction I welcome any feedback to improve future chapters. Thank you for taking the time to read and review. Obligatory I do not own Harry Potter or any characters)

(I would also welcome any beta that would be interested in helping improve this story.)

'It is a pleasure that you could join us for the occasion Harry Potter,' Voldemort drawled as he circled the cloth-covered podium.

Harry raised his head from his chained position, muscles screaming in pain as cuts reopened to bleed freely once more. 'If only the trip here was as nice as the last time we met,' he croaked out.

'Sometimes my people can be a little over zealous to certain people.' Voldemort robes swept along the ground as he made his way to his honoured guest. 'But I should not forget to introduce our other guest, someone who you should know quite well.'

Harry shouted as Voldemort vanished the cloth to display an unconscious Tom Marvolo Riddle, bound in glowing ropes with torn clothing and a foul smell spreading into the area.

'We found this relic creeping around in areas that only I should have been able to access.' Voldemort said, stroking a hand against the crusted hair. 'Yet I shouldn't have been surprised that it was around, I had never felt anything when it was supposedly destroyed by you in your encounter within the Chamber of Secrets. Don't look so surprised, you should know that your friends would keep us updated on your adventures.'

'But how?' Harry gasped, 'You couldn't have known who I had made friends with on the train.' Harry's eyes never strayed from the limp form that was his best friend, the one who he trusted over everything else, the one secret that he had kept never told anyone.

Voldemort arched his eyebrow as he walked away from his young horcrux. 'I had thought that you would have been intelligent enough to figure it out by now. I had always cultivated people from every camp, regardless of what people may think about my leanings.' Taking out his pale yew wand he began the process of transfiguring a seat for himself. 'Checking on the squibs that had made their way in the muggle world produced a very interesting man. One that had learned to fight but was at the beginning of becoming a muggle healer at the time. You may recognise the name Granger.'

'You are lying, you have to be. Hermione couldn't have been anyone that would help you.'

'Oh Harry, the mistakes that you have made in your short insignificant life. Granger was reluctant at first, I will admit, though he came around after a few visits and some financial persuasion.' Voldemort gave a knowing smirk as he positioned himself upon his emerald cushioned chair. 'It did not take much to simply ask for the information provided by his daughter in her letters, after some small hints that his daughter was to hunt for a certain child during the trip to Hogwarts.'

After Voldemort cast a spell to clear the air, he continued his talk. 'No one would suspect the lightest and most muggle-loving family to exist, that they were actually my supporters. How else do you suppose that they were able to have every child go to Hogwarts with a father that was paid barely enough in a year to rent out a room in the Leaky Cauldron for a few days.'

Harry was reeling as he absorbed this information. His two friends, the ones that he had experienced his adventures with, were linked to the monster that had destroyed everything that he cared about and then some.

As he was going through this, he saw movement as Tom's eyes fluttered about a bit before slumping slightly. No, he had to remember the constant that had been since second year. Even if it turned out that Voldemort was telling the truth, and his apparent friends had been working against him, even unknowingly, that he would always be able to survive if he had Tom by his side.

'It appears we have side-tracked for too long. We should get on with the evening before it dwindles too much. After all, time is always against those who try to fight it.' Voldemort gracefully swept up, banishing the chair to the end of the room, and headed towards a table where several stones were seated.

'You would not believe my surprise when I found out that you were in fact a living horcrux, made on the night of my temporary setback. Add this failure of a horcrux here that you were keeping all to yourself, you are quite the greedy boy Harry Potter.'

Voldemort began to place the stones in a pattern around the room. Scoring lines in the floor between the stones with his wand, the fumes from the burning wood mingling with the stench that had been drifting off where Tom was located.

'It is only polite to let you know what you are going to be involved in, after all you have done for me in the last few decades. As I have found myself diminished from what I used to be, I found a ritual that would allow me to absorb that what was once a part of me. I find it fitting that the first and last horcrux created will be part of the process that will allow me to finally triumph over those that have long tried to resist me.'

Harry shifted his positioning slightly as Voldemort walked past Tom, Tom's eyes started to open slightly and focus on Harry. Harry shook his head minutely whilst glancing over Tom's body and praying that Voldemort wouldn't notice that his other prisoner was waking up.

Voldemort moved to the middle of the pattern and placed the last stone, using his wand to make small cuts on his thumbs before he started to channel magic into the ritual circle he had just created.

'I do hope that you will survive this process Harry, there is so much that I would like to discuss with the help of a few friends. Alas, this ritual did not have much information of when the piece involved is a living, so there is not the best chance for you to be around after it.'

Harry gulped on hearing this, he began to look around to the best he could to see what he could do. He noticed that one of the gently pulsing lines was just out of hands reach and started to try and shift slightly closer to it.

'I will thank you for the gifts that you brought with you tonight. Your invisibility cloak that has caused me such trouble, the old man's wand and even one of my horcruxes, although sadly it has been broken since I have last seen it. A fitting tribute to the future that I will create without those that have pained me in my plans.'

The ritual circle was now glowing more strongly, growing a more vibrant green with each passing second. Harry had shifted enough that he lunged towards the glowing light, bloodied hands outstretched, as his fingers grazed the light and he started to pour as much magic as he could into the ritual. Hoping that it would obstruct the outcome of the ritual, as he had once read that they were dependent on staying as controlled as possible.

Purple light started to spread from his fingertips, bleeding through the pulsing green that had spread through much of the circle.

'No, you fool.' Voldemort shrieked, unable to move and stop Harry as it would invite even more instability to the ritual that he had started.

Harry pushed even more magic, encouraged by Voldemort's reaction, causing the lines of light to start glowing much brighter, almost blinding to the eyes. The purple glow that had started from him had almost reached where Tom was, unbeknownst to the others he had managed to copy Harry's idea and had moved enough to touch the line. Tom used his last reserves of magic to push out a dark blue magic into the ritual line, meeting Harry's magic in seconds, whilst interrupting Voldemort's magic using his build a dam that collided with the green.

The hum of magic that had started from the beginning was growing stronger, while the stones were starting to glow red. An acrid smell started to fill the room, with a slight breeze that was going around the room that contained no windows.

Voldemort released his flow of magic, pushing away from the floor and drawing his wand to with the intent to blow a hole in the wall. The ritual lines pulsed for a final time before the carefully placed stones exploded into fragments, shredding the body of Voldemort and destroying the room that they were in. People afterwards would comment that the house was in a similar condition to the Potter's house after that Halloween in 1981.

Harry last remembered feelings of contentment and mourning when a magic other than Voldemort's met his. He could only guess that Tom had done something that he didn't notice, and then there had been a loud noise and pain before blackness enveloped all that he knew.

The next time that he woke up, he opened his eyes and immediately felt that something was different. His mind had been in a constant haze of pain for the last few days, now there was no pain or aches and all he could feel was something cold that his body was resting against. He focused what was in front of him and there was a conductor, the type found in a train station, hovering over him and a crowd that he could see past the man's head.

There was also a pressure in his head that wasn't there before. 'Harry, where are we?' A higher pitch voice asked, but it didn't feel like he had heard it rather that it was inside his head. 'Tom?' Harry said out loud in a small voice.