Inception: Rise of the Heir

Tom Riddle disappeared for 10 years. Where did he travel and what did he do during his absence? This is my feeble attempt at a Tom Riddle backstory, right before he rejoined the world officially as Lord Voldemort.

DISCLAIMER: I own nothing except for my o/c's.


Lyra awoke suddenly covered in a cold sweat, her perspiration free flowing like condensation off a window pane as it rolled down between her shoulder blades. She raised her hand to wipe her forehead as she felt a small bead trickle down and fall off her face and onto her pillow. Laying there in the heated sheets of the bed she wondered how long she had slept. She turned her head slowly towards the window, hoping to catch a glance of the sun's rays but felt her heart drop as she saw the pitch blackness of the night.

"I've slept the whole day…" she thought as she tried once more to prop herself up in bed, wincing as she felt the pang of her stomach wounds once more. "I can't lay here anymore, I've got to brew that potion. The more time I waste, the less time I have to prevent myself from losing control again. I can't let this pain stop me."

Grabbing the sheets, she slowly pulled them back towards the wall exposing her torn and bloody clothing that hung from her body. She wrinkled her nose in disgust, but closed her eyes in relief, feeling better knowing that Tom had not seen the more intimate parts of her body.

"At least I still have SOME of my dignity." she thought to herself in anger. She had always felt a deep sense of pride from her unwavering independence and the fact that she had needed another's help as a result of her feckless behavior, wounded her ego.

"Reckless fool." she scolded herself internally as she slowly moved her legs, one by one, until they were hanging off the side of the bed, her feet on the cold wooden floor. Waving her wand quickly, she waited as a clean sleeping dress flew into her hands. She jabbed her wand once more towards her tattered and stained clothing, watching as the dress ripped itself apart and fell into ragged pieces on the ground.

Lyra grimaced as she raised her hands slowly above her head, one arm at a time, pulling the clean garment over her head and sliding it over her carefully. She gripped the side of the mattress as she breathed in heavily, the pain from her belly sharp and intense as her muscles tightened. Lifting herself off the bed, she put her arms out in front of her, trying to maintain her balance so as not to fall, her body weaker than she had thought.

She heard Tom's voice reverberate in the back of her head as she grabbed the chair near her bed and steadied herself on it.

"You need rest."

She scowled and straightened her back slowly "I cannot rest. I must continue on, however poor the results of my endeavors are. I can rest when I am dead and then nothing will matter anymore."

She thought once more about Tom and anger flashed in her eyes. "He changed the subject when I had asked him what else he saw when I had blacked out...I felt the tremors, I felt the hairs on my neck standing up, I know what it feels like before I lose myself..."

She furrowed her brows and rubbed her eyes in frustration. Glancing towards her nightstand, she stared at the full glass of replenishing potion she had left there and grabbed it reluctantly, swallowing it in one gulp. She raised her hand to her mouth to prevent herself from vomiting it back up, the unpleasant taste lingering on her tongue. It had been left on her nightstand for hours, cold and coagulated and she could feel it descending down her throat like a cold soup.

"He saw something...and he's lying, that's why he avoided my question. Next time I see him, I have to force the truth out of him. By whatever means necessary."

Looking towards her wooden cabinet filled with her various stores and potion ingredients she made her way over, her feet softly padding against the frigid floor. She opened the large doors, and started to sift through some of the larger bottles and flasks, looking carefully at the labels and tags.

"But...for the first time in months you haven't woken up covered in blood, cleaning up the aftermath of the damage you've wrought...could he have had something to do with that?"

She bit her lip, lost deep in thought and winced suddenly when she realized she had drawn blood, the metallic taste dancing around her tongue.

"Damnit."

She wiped her mouth with her thumb as she picked up another glass bottle and placed it down irritably, it still wasn't what she was looking for. Sucking her teeth slightly, she pulled her wand out and summoned what she had been so anxiously searching for. A bottle flew into her hands from the endless eternity of the cupboard.

"I thought I still had some of this still laying around." Lyra said as she dusted off the neatly written label that read Wiggenweld Potion, and popped the cork off the top. She took a sniff of the liquid, unsure as to when it had been brewed, and raised her eyebrow in skepticism as she brought it up to her lips, drinking deeply.

"As long as this hasn't lost its potency, this should help me heal faster."

Her eyes glanced down towards the table next to her as they fell on the potion page she had been reading the night before.

She had completely forgotten about the book.

Her blood ran cold as she realized that the book and page had been open the whole night, exposed and laid out for Tom to see. There was no hiding it anymore, she had to find out what he had seen and done.


Tom rubbed his face as he awoke from bed, refreshed. There was no looming exhaustion, no time wasted on slowly stretching in bed. Within seconds of waking up, he was on his feet, eyes wide and taking in everything that had assaulted his senses at once. He splashed his face with cool water as he ran his hands through his hair, pausing to look at his shoulder in the mirror.

His wounds had healed perfectly, his skin smooth and soft.

Absentmindedly, he grabbed the locket that hung around his neck, stroking and twisting the chain around his fingers as he walked over to his suitcase and grabbed a clean shirt from inside. As he pulled the shirt from his luggage, a gleam of gold caught his eye as the handle of Helga Hufflepuffs cup poked out from inside of a sack. He laid the shirt down on the table as he opened the small bag that contained his most prized possessions and smiled. He had taken them with him on purpose, unable yet to decide where and to whom he could entrust his horcruxes with. He noticed the small ring that lay in the bottom of the pouch and gently picked it up, staring at it greedily as he placed it on his finger.

"My uncle's ring…" He stared at the jewelry once more as a devilish grin pulled at the corners of his mouth. He thought back to how he had stolen the ring and had created his next horcrux. His heart skipped a beat as he relished the memory of how he had exacted revenge upon his father, killing him and laughing at his pitiful pleas for mercy. "Everyone has a purpose for something, even you father…"

He hadn't worn it for some time, he didn't think it wise for a poor store clerk who owned so little to flaunt such jewelry openly. Better to hide it and avoid all suspicion; the less attention he brought to himself, the better. But here, no one knew him or what humble beginnings he had come from, no one would even think twice to question why he wore such jewelry.

He smirked as he picked up the clean shirt from the table, sliding his arms into it carefully as he buttoned it up to the collar, watching as the small black stone of his ring gleamed in the light. He sat down at the table as he reached once more into the bag, pulling out the first horcrux he had ever made, his diary.

Tom opened up the book lazily as he flipped through the empty pages with his thumb and forefinger. He picked up his quill and dipped it lightly into the ink as he scribbled onto a blank page.

SHOW ME

He stared at the pages as words started to appear before him, his own ink bleeding back before him as the book answered.

WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE?

He dipped his quill once more and put the tip to the parchment.

EVERYTHING.

The diary answered him once more, the words quickly scrawling across the page.

WHO ARE YOU?

Tom smirked as he slowly wrote his reply, his calligraphy deliberate and neat,

I AM LORD VOLDEMORT.

He watched as multitudes of entries and pages of his innermost thoughts and secrets revealed themselves to him. He had written in this diary years ago, before and after he had made it his first horcrux. His detailed events of his ongoings at Hogwarts, his most nefarious curses and spells he had created and his detailed instructions on how he had opened the Chamber of Secrets. Once the chamber had been opened and the school threatened with closing its doors forever, he had been forced to wipe the book clean and hide all evidence that could have led back to him. It had been a difficult spell to produce and had taken him a while to perfect it so that he may still feed the book information if he so pleased. It was one of the pieces of magic he had invented that he was most proud of.

He tapped his lips with his quill as his hand reached across the desk, shuffling through the folded and scattered bits of parchment he had written notes on during his time in the Athenaeum, until he came across the paper he had been looking for:

Physical Possession and Manifestation of a Physical Body through Chosen Objects

Although seemingly improbable in nature, the idea that one may preserve his or her likeness in an object with the sole intention of rebirth has existed for many years. Scholars have argued that although no one has successfully attempted this feat, the idea that one may rebuild their own likeness by parasitically draining their host through a cursed or dark object may in be achievable. One the host has adequately supplied the imprint of the objects owner with enough of their own strength and life, their likeness will come to fruition.

He tapped his finger on his desk as he read the passage. He had never thought to turn the book into something more than a horcrux or diary, but the idea of having a weapon this valuable was enticing.

"To be able to take my memories and create a living and possible likness preserved within these pages would be most useful. This could prove to be valuable in the future, should anything ever happen to my physical body. A clean slate, younger, but just as powerful would emerge, like a phoenix from the ashes."

He smiled, proud of his brilliance, but grimaced as his thoughts strayed to his behavior the night before, still irritated with how he had behaved.

"I do not regret saving her life. I still need her and Lyra could still prove to be quite an asset in other ways..but my actions and how I felt around her last night are troublesome...and infuriating."

He had always prided himself in his lack of interest in carnal pleasures and had never found any member of the opposite or same sex appealing. He thought himself different, far above those who would waste their time on trying to impress or woo another. Any time or effort not spent studying or on personal ambition was frivolous and he was anything but. He desired power, he sought immortality and anything other than that to him he had deemed useless.

What was it about her that made his insides feel as if they were on fire?

At first the feelings had sprung from his discomfort with the feeling of another's skin on his, he had had very few interactions in his life, the idea was revolting and degrading to him. In the events and weeks following after, he had chalked it up to an obsession with finding out what she had been trying to hide, his every thought consumed with the idea of a knowledge that was forbidden to him. It had excited and challenged him. But now that he knew her secret, what was the new reasoning?

"What is it?" he thought as he ran his hands through his hair.

She possessed many of the qualities he himself admired. Determination, power, skill, intelligence and ambition.

He remembered what he had witnessed in the woods and what he had felt as he watched her from behind the rows of trees and brush:

Look away...look away and leave.

He wasn't curious any longer, he had seen what he had come for.

But he couldn't look away and he couldn't leave.

He was entranced and there was something in that moment, in that very particular moment, that made her look ethereal to him, her silhouette against the moon and the flames, speaking forbidden words that would mark her soul forever.

It had been intoxicating and something had stirred inside him from that moment on.

He pushed himself away from the table suddenly, irritated at where his mind had gone and had started to pace around the room angrily, cursing himself silently.

In that moment he felt murderous, he wanted nothing more than to burst through the door to her quarters and scream the words that were forbidden to him in this country. To watch as the life drained from her face, her eyes empty and hollow. But he could not and he would not, such actions would be counterproductive to everything he desired.

He stared once more at the diary, his insides roiling from the pent up aggression he held within and sat back down, ripping a fresh piece of parchment from the pile. He wrote furiously as he poured his anger into his endeavors.


Hours later Tom stood before the diary, his wand pointed confidently towards it as he lifted it above his head and brought it down quickly in the direction of the book as a red stream of magic erupted from the tip of his wand. He internally spoke the words he knew would turn his horcrux into an important tool for himself and watched as the book glowed, the dark magic settling into its pages and bindings.

The spell had taken a while to come up with but once he had found the rudimentary words that needed to be strung together, the rest of it had been easy. He had figured out that in order for the curse to weaken whomever wrote in it's pages, he needed to weaken himself temporarily to give the book it's power. He watched as he dragged his wand across his hand, creating a small laceration on his palm, and watched hungrily as he squeezed his hand into a fist tightly, the blood dripping onto the pages of the book, disappearing quickly as the book took in what he had given.

He had once again achieved what others had only dreamed of.


Thank you once again for reading so far! Hope you all enjoyed this Chapter I know it wasn't the longest but there's going to be too much in the next chapter to include it all at once, so I needed a logical place to cut it off at. More to come within the following weeks. Please review and follow if you're enjoying it so far! Thank you as always for the support!