Chapter Eight

FYI: No. I most CERTAINLY DID NOT create a new schedule…whenever anyone posts something like it I never read it anyway so I didn't bother. Do you think I should?

Once the Flying lesson was over, Harry made excuses to Draco, explaining that he had notes to review and organize so he could be ready for end of the year exams and deciphering an ancient text he had found in his Trust vault, and went his own way, up to Ravenclaw tower, where the Riddle-Knob pricked his finger and let him in, sans-riddle.

Slipping off his school robes, Harry made sure the area was secure before opening a secret compartment of his trunk with a hiss.

There, seated inconspicuously between a small stack of Vanessa's scales and a few jars of what appeared to be honey, sat four vials each of a different substance.

Harry stared at the vials for a moment. This was the deciding moment; choosing the opaque vials was the easiest path, which would mean the death of Riddle. Harry would simply have to choose and guide a new Leader of the Dark; stepping in when needed, or perhaps even using a golem.

Choosing the other two vials, the royal purple gel and the blood red speckled black potion…well Harry would have to play that path much more carefully to get the desired results. He'd have to come up with a way to keep Riddle alive and sane of his own volition without him becoming a true immortal nuisance.

Like the moment the hat put him in Gryffindor his first life, his decision here would forge the path to the future. Silently cursing Fate for making Harry Potter such an important part of this reality, he made his decision grabbing two vials firmly in his right hand before shutting and locking the trunk with an impatient wave of his hand. He couldn't relock it using parseltounge, as the horcrux would no longer be a part of him.

Pocketing the vials so as to avoid any Ravenclaw scholarly interest, Harry swiftly left his dorm behind as he made his way to the Room of Requirement. He had one shot at this…and he didn't want to even think of the possible outcome if he failed in his attempt today.

Once arriving at the tapestry signaling the location of the Room of Requirement, Harry set wards to discourage any student or professor snooping or stumbling upon the Room for the next 12 hours. Quickly making the Room of Hidden Things appear, Harry wasted no time in collecting Ravenclaw's Diadem and changing the room to something more appropriate for his task.

The Room, once a cacophonous slew of different objects, immediately was an almost completely empty, well lit room. Only a barber's chair stood in center of the room, waiting for him to begin. Taking a deep breath, Harry prepared himself for what was about to come next, simultaneously taking a seat upon said barber's chair.

Slipping the gel and potion out of his robe, he pulled the cork, opening the gel, and slathered a quarter of it carefully along his scar, the other three quarters of the small vial rubbed upon the ancient Diadem. Immediately feeling slight tingles, signaling the need for the potion, Harry eyed it as if to prepare himself for the burn he knew to be imminent. Eyes hardening, he quickly opened and swallowed the contents of the vial. The red speckled black potion burned its way down his throat, leaving a trail of fire. It seemed to consume his blood, fire ranging through his veins, the potion searching out the foreign 'object' within Harry's body, taking mere moments to localize upon his scarred forehead.

Despite Harry's best efforts, he felt his eyes clench shut in pain. It felt as if he was being tortured, that his head was being fiercely consumed by fiendfire. When the pain reached its peak, Harry found himself surrounded by what appeared to be million upon billions of diamond facets. Momentarily confused, Harry took note of his apparent translucency, and quickly realized his plan had worked. His mental self image was inside Ravenclaw's Diadem and…he was being curiously stared at by one Tom Riddle. For it was Tom Riddle pointing his wand at Harry, there was no mistaking it. Those looks, coupled with eyes brimming with fierce intelligence could only be Tom Riddle.

"You did not put the Diadem on. Who are you? How are you here?" Tom demanded posture slightly hostile.

Harry knew he had to strike a deal. This fragment of Tom's soul had a great deal of power, not tempered by the insanity the Base Soul in Quirrell possessed.

"Hello Thomas. I am the Master of Death. You may call me Harry Potter. I am not here to cause your death."

Tom's gaze did not waver, nor did his wand, "How did you come to be here Harry Potter, and what is your purpose?" he demanded once more.

"I am here to strike a deal with you. You are a horcrux. The Base Soul split itself far too much and has become weak and insane. He is currently a mere parasite leeching off one (Quirrellnous) Quirrell. The Dark needs your leadership in order for Magic to prosper. However, that with an incomplete soul cannot successfully lead the Dark Sector. My aims are to reunite you with the other soul fragments, and create a new Base soul in order to overcome the madness that plagues the original Base soul. Voldemort needs to become Tom Riddle once more in order to lead the Revolution. That is my purpose here."

Here Harry paused, he hoped he could convince this Riddle Soul Fragment not to expel him from the Diadem before a deal could be made.

"As for how I came to be here without wearing the Diadem, thus releasing you…I have told you the original Base Soul has succumbed to madness. In this madness he unknowingly created a horcrux that latched onto my own soul. I have contained it. Instead of destroying it, I had the idea to put it back as it should be. With you as the Base Soul, the Dark shall rise again and triumph as it was meant to."

"If what you say is true…what is to stop me from taking over the fragment ensconced within you and destroy your own soul in favor of myself?"

"I am the Master of Death. As such I cannot die, I am immortal; you can do nothing to me. Any attempt would lead to your death."

At this admission, Riddle looked a bit confused and contemplative. "If what you say is true…how would you plan to accomplish this feat? In all my research I have not heard of a Master of Death nor restringing a soul together with a different Base Soul. How is this possible and how can I be sure to trust you?"

Harry smirked at this, "You wouldn't have found anything you would have considered relevant which humorously enough is where the information about me was hidden. Deathly Hallows sound familiar to you?"

Tom's eyes immediately lit with recognition, the children's story he had barely skimmed in his youth returning to him…if he could possibly gain control-"As for restringing your soul together with you as the Base…well I am the Master of Death, souls are part of my jurisdiction. And you can stop that plotting to control the Hallows, as I have already combined them and accepted the title, there is no way for anyone to do so again or use them to their full potential. On the subject of trust…well I'm giving you the choice of life or death here. That's about as trusting as I'm going to be for now." Harry continued before Tom got to far involved in the plotting in his head.

After a few minutes of thinking, Harry could almost see Tom come to a conclusion, the wand in his hand lowering at last.

"Very well. For now I shall accept this plan. However, if I find you have deceived me there will be no escaping the pain I will cause you. Now explain the joining of soul fragments to me." Tom demanded imperiously.

Harry sighed wearily.

He had hoped to skip this bit.

oOo

"So what you're saying is that the reason you cannot just merge my soul section to the Base to reign is that the addition of another soul fragment would leave the two sane sections warring against each other for control and the insane fragments would join together and the Base would rule because the insane sections would agree to merge with each other rather than be eliminated by one of the sane sections?"

"A bit convoluted isn't it? Because the Base, being the Base soul, has an edge over the fragments, it would only become stronger from you joining it. Any other addition would make the Base stronger and it would pit you against the new so the Base would always remain in charge and insane as no change other than power level would happen to it."

At this Tom looked a bit overwhelmed for a few moments puzzling it out. "And so instead you plan to put a weak fragment here with me so I may overcome and absorb it, giving me an edge over the next fragment…but what is stopping the Base from merely absorbing me once I'm all that's left?"

"Well, magic. I'm going to weaken the original Base by disconnecting it from its own Soul Circuit….and before you ask; a Soul Circuit is something I've based on electricity circuits. I refuse to elaborate any further, on the basis that our time is limited, you interrupt me then make me repeat myself from the beginning with amendments because of your blasted questions, and I need to be getting back to reality. I do have a life you know." Harry ended, annoyed. Who'd have pegged Tom Riddle as a control freak? Oh wait…

Well in any case, Harry was sick of repeating himself. "Now, do you agree to the terms of conditions or will I have to find a replacement Ruler of the World?"

His eyes narrowed angrily, "Excuse me for being concerned with my own well being considering the situation." Tom practically hissed, obviously offended.

"There is no need to be offended, I am merely on a schedule and I've been in here for several hours yet and cannot risk discovery by Dumbledore. Do you or do you not, agree to the terms?"

"Fine, release your fragment from your head I shall take it." At those words, Harry separated the fragment from his body and directed it into the glorified crown.

As soon as the fragment began materializing, Riddle spared Harry a short look before glaring at the intruding soul fragment. "Now get out of my diadem." These words were hissed, and Harry felt himself forcefully expelled from the artifact.

Immediately finding himself once again sitting in the barber's chair within the Room of Requirement staring blinkingly at the ceiling he grinned. "Well," he chirped to himself, "that certainly went well."

oOo

All in all, convincing the Diadem Tom to become the new Base Soul and absorb Harry's Head Horcrux only took Harry 4 hours. He had watched the Diadem seem to glow with an inner light, casting (like a ring reflects in the light? Whats that called?) around the Room of Requirement, it seemed that Diadem Tom had used a bit of energy to absorb the scar horcrux and the result of the ensuing battle for dominance clearly showed in the jeweled head piece. However, with his own control over souls to ease the transition, Harry was sure the diadem Tom would prevail; if not, Harry could always go back into the Diadem and separate the soul fragments and knit them back together to his own specifications. It would be annoying, and take more of his own energy…it'd just be easier if the fragments worked themselves into a whole soul with a little bit of Harry's own involvement. Well, easier for him anyway, Harry didn't want to have to spend all his 'free time' reworking Tom Riddle's soul together when the fragments could just as easily do it themselves.

Making his way back to his dorm to secure the Diadem in his trunk, Harry felt lighter than he had in months. He had no 'extra' soul leaching magic at every opportunity. Climbing the stairs to his room, simultaneously scanning himself for any negative repercussions of the ritual, and contemplating the other horcruxes, Harry smirked. Lucius Malfoy was next on his list, and he did so love playing with Malfoys.

Interestingly enough, with the 'peaceful' removal of the head-horcrux it seemed his soul had 'copied' the parseltounge talent. Harry couldn't exactly find it in himself to be disappointed by this turn of events.

Being a parselmouth could only come in handy; especially when Voldemort's soul became whole once more.

Once firmly ensconced in his dorm once more, Harry replaced the parseltongue password command upon his trunk, further securing both the (NORSE SNAKE) venom and horcrux within, in two separate compartments of course; he didn't want to risk the potent venom coming into contact with the Diadem. Not after spending so much time convincing it to take part in his plan anyway.

oOo

The next morning it was a smirking Draco that gleefully pointed out the Gryffindors' sudden dramatic loss of points. It seemed that Ron and Seamus had been caught trying to get into the Third Floor Corridor on the right side. They had tried to explain that they were meeting Malfoy for a duel, which Draco had, in a meeting with Snape and Dumbledore, denied stating that they hadn't magically agreed to a duel and that he figured that since it was out of bounds it was just a ploy to get Draco in trouble so he hadn't gone.

Ron and Seamus had lost 150 points, which added to their lost 60 points from skipping history, had Gryffindor down more than 210 points in two days with the smaller losses from other students. In addition to points lost, Ron and Seamus had detention for the rest of the year. They hadn't a chance for the House Cup after such a massive loss, and with the Gryffindor Quidditch team floundering without a seeker… Needless to say, the two Gryffindor first years were ostracized by the rest of their house.

Harry merely sipped his cocoa, his housemates gossiping angrily over Slytherin being in the lead for both Cups. All of Ravenclaw dove back into their notes, determined to earn as many points answering as many of the professors' questions as possible. Harry smirked into his cup; even without the head horcrux, he was too busy to worry about frivolous competitions.

He had a soul to practically sew back together.

oOo