Disclaimer: See prologue
A.N. Look I'm still alive, for now; I'm just going to assume not too many of you want me dead for not updating in so long; sorry about that but it should be more frequent now, I always have trouble with chapter 3 when I'm writing no matter what it is. So now that I finally have finished chapter three we should be more frequently updated.
Warnings: This story is unbetaed, couple of oc's later on, and Tom Riddle developing emotions. & Female Harry
Rated T: for Tom Riddle's presence in this story; actually it's more for things the Ring Horcrux says but close enough.
Updates: Hopefully on Saturdays, otherwise at least once a month.
For your reference unless otherwise stated:
"Speech"
Thought
"Parseltongue"
"In head conversations"
Chapter 3 What is Fun?
Tom groaned when he woke up to rain falling on him, he really wished they had given him at least a little bit of money, at least enough so he could get a room in a cheap motel, or buy a cheap tent, or even a sleeping bag; instead he was stuck camping out on the ground with what he could transfigure, and no real shelter; and to top it off now he was stuck with the ring horcrux.
"You know this sucks; you're supposed to be one of the most powerful wizards to have ever lived, like at least top ten and you're fucking telling me that you couldn't transfigure a tent that could last the entire night or something, I mean if you can't even do that much you should have given me the wand." Tom frowned at that, focusing less on the fact that his own soul was insulting him and more on the fact he didn't recall a time when he swore so much, leading him to the question of whether or not horcruxes affect one's memory.
"You're fucking ignoring me right now aren't you, I know that look, it's the look you get when you're presented with a question you want to solve. We don't have time for solving problems Riddle, we have bigger issues." Or perhaps, Tom thought, it's actually possible for them to develop their own personalities. As Tom thought over that last thought he decided it was decisively possible.
"My apologies but at the moment the amount of my own magic that I am allowed to access isn't adequate to last through the night apparently. And quite frankly I don't recall myself ever having been so big on swearing." His counterpart simply flipped him the bird before tossing his hands in the air dramatically, Tom was really leaning towards that last thought.
"By Merlin, are you going to be like this the whole time, how did I ever grow into someone so old and boring. I mean honestly, if I was ever that boring I think I'd kill someone, then again, that may explain a few things. Clearly when you lost me you lost your ability to have fun, if this is how you're going to be I'm staying behind, I mean if you're going to kidnap me you could at least do me the favor of making this fun, an adventure even, just not boring."
"It would seem that those American's have been a bad influence on you, how you could possibly be a part of my soul is beyond me." If this is what he had to look forward to for the coming months or years then he would much rather be back in his cell enduring the torture that was boredom.
"I beg to differ, America has been a great influence on me, they unlike you know how to have fun like did you know they practically will let anyone buy fireworks, and use them, not the professional grade ones, those require a license but regular fireworks, I saw little kids lighting fireworks of on the Fourth of July, and that's normal, they even let them shoot them off in the middle of the street, the street! I mean I was told that every state or really even town has their own laws about buying, selling and shooting off fireworks, but still!"
"And I care about laws regarding fireworks in the States because?" There was no missing Tom's blatant disdain as he spoke, and his horcrux obviously had caught it as well, not that Tom really gave a care as to what his horcrux thought. Then again he had never really cared much for the opinions of others regardless of who they were, the only opinion that truly mattered was his own.
"It proves my point, the majority of the people here know how to have fun, and you do not, all you ever did was act the perfect student in school." Yes he acted the perfect student nobody aside from Dumbledore ever suspected a thing and were left completely bewildered when he began to go through life as Lord Voldemort; starting a war against the muggleborns and light wizards.
"Sounds to me like they're a bunch of-" But Tom never finished what he was about to say as his horcrux quickly put a hand over his mouth and looked around widely. Tom for his part remained to keep his irritation level down enough to only express it through a scowl rather than through violence; no matter how tempting the latter was.
"Ah don't insult them, I think they have ears everywhere, you don't insult them…someone's bound to start a fight if you do." Apparently his horcrux was more paranoid than Mad-Eye Moody as well, they were a ways from the nearest civilization there was no possible way anyone could hear them. At least that's what Tom reasoned.
"You're ridiculous, now let's go." His horcrux just huffed as though he thought that Tom was the one that was being ridiculous, but he wasn't the one that was worried about people getting offended should he insult them. He was a Dark Lord, he was going to say things to insult people it was practically a part of the job description as far as he was going to be concerned, so his horcrux shouldn't have cared.
"Fine we can go, but only if you bring me back for their Fourth of July celebrations next year." Tom looked at his counterpart with crossed arms and a raised brow. He had never been very big on holidays in general, but one where people blew things up definitely wasn't on his to do list of celebrations.
"You do know that they celebrate their victory against Britain on that day right?" His horcrux just scoffed as though he saw no relation to the fireworks and the purpose behind why the Americans even celebrated that holiday. He probably was well aware of the relation, but simply didn't care, even still he didn't recall a time when he had been so…care free.
"Details." At that Tom scoffed, details could be very important things, details are what kept him from getting caught all those years he was at Hogwarts. Details are how nobody knew what he was until he was prepared for them to know, details is how he had become the Dark Lord. Despite his horcrux's belief details no matter the subject matter could be very crucial.
"How you could possibly be a part of me is beyond me." He had always been responsible from even a young age, always more mature than the other children around him, including those who were older than him. So it was beyond him how this horcrux who was meant to be a part of him could be so blatantly immature.
"I'm the fun part of you is why, I wasn't allowed to be expressed in the orphanage, and you chose not to let me be expressed at Hogwarts, therefore I am the under-nurtured part of your personality, that for a year and a few months has been enjoying American life. I still haven't figured out what exactly this American Dream everyone talks about is, or how to actually achieve it or if you can, but it is on my agenda."
"Personally I do not see any benefit in fulfilling your request, but I suppose that I could consider it, as long as you recognize the fact that I have no intentions of still being here by that time and have every intention of having already collected every soul piece and moving on with my after life."
"Why are you even trying to do this, after all think about it, you'll never and I mean never be able to feel the remorse it'll require for you to absorb me, so why bother with a task you can't complete?" Tom sighed, he knew the horcrux was right, but that didn't mean he was going to just give up, he was a Slytherin and with his ambitions quitting wasn't much of an option.
"The chances are I won't be able to feel true remorse for any of them, but if we can gather all of the horcruxes, maybe we could find some kind of alternative to merging them all with my soul. For now we're going to have to just play this by ear, we've managed to collect you after all; and by we; I mean me, as you've done nothing." The horcrux just rolled his eyes at the main soul piece, knowing that was a terrible suggestion; which it was but Tom wasn't planning to admit that.
"Face it, you'll never pull it off, how much time did Death give you to do this anyways, because for some reason I really doubt you can even come close to finding all of the other soul pieces by the time your time limit expires." Tom rolled his eyes, then frowned as he thought about what his horcrux had asked him, he couldn't recall a time limit being set by Death, but he was sure that he had to of had one. It wouldn't make sense for Death not to give him a time limit, because then he could be gone for centuries if not longer without any consequences.
"He didn't which means we're just going to wing it, even if it's not exactly a very Slytherin thing for us to do; it's not exactly easy to set up a time based plan without having some kind of time limit to base the plan off of after all. It hopefully won't take too long however as we don't exactly have any money for food or anything else for that matter." The horcrux just scoffed at that before he began walking north; Tom narrowed his eyes at his horcrux in suspicion…he knew that scoff…he knew it well. "How much do you have?!"
"How much what Tom; I mean that's a rather vague statement." Tom narrowed his eyes, then smirked, he was after all the only one of them that had a wand; though he supposed that they both could do wandless magic so the point was moot. With a wordless and wandless Levicorpus Tom's ring horcrux turned upside down in the air with an indignant shout. Tom merely widened his smirk, Severus hadn't been born by the time he had created that horcrux, and therefore he wouldn't know its counter either.
"Such a shame really; you see I know the counter for that particular spell, but you, well the spell wasn't created until the 1970s no I'm afraid unless I put you down you'll be rather out of luck." The horcrux managed to stay decently calm, and despite being upside down he managed a decent scowl aimed towards his main soul piece. Tom on the other hand just chuckled darkly; his horcrux may have had a lot going for it, but it wasn't nearly as well learned as Tom.
It made Tom almost wish that he could send a thank you card to Severus for creating such a simple and harmless spell…almost. As it was even if he could send the thank you card, former Dark Lord's don't send thank you notes, it was one of those things that just wasn't done. Then again, Tom thought, I have already done a lot of things that a former Dark Lord shouldn't. But Tom quickly forgot that thought as he watched his horcrux hang upside down as his nose began to bleed.
"You'll never be able to take him you know, the Diary; he's stronger than all of us put together, with you included in that. You may as well give up now, he has strength the rest of us could only dream of, he was the first horcrux Tom, you've weakened your soul, he strengthened his." Tired of hearing the Ring's annoying pessimistic statements Tom cast a Silencio on his horcrux, before casting Libracorpus and watching as his horcrux fell to the ground roughly.
"You'll never understand the power I wield, you are pathetic, I had thought as my second horcrux you would have presented me with more of a challenge that I would have had to truly pull out all the stops in order to defeat you, to persuade you to my side. I must admit I was sorely disappointed, I was only ever matched by Harry Potter, and he destroyed the diary at the age of twelve." The ring laughed like a crazed person, in a manner that reminded the former Dark Lord of Bellatrix LeStrange.
The thought of Bellatrix LeStrange sent an involuntary shutter up the spine of the main soul piece, there was something about Bellatrix LeStrange that disturbed even him. Bellatrix was a madwoman like no other, and to disturb even him showed just how truly insane the woman was, after all he's the one that turned into a psychopathic Dark Lord. Bellatrix was just not right in the head in any way shape or form and there was no denying that.
"You won't survive Riddle, not against the diary, you know it and I know it; he's powerful, more than any of us could dream of, you will never be able to take him. Not even you had me and every last one of us backing you on this, it cannot be done" Tom had no doubt that the Diary would be hard to take down, the Diary had been created when Tom was young, strong, and at his sanest…that fact alone was what made him the most dangerous, he did not have the same levels of insanity that had driven Voldemort. No the Diary would have patience driven solely by his intelligence, something Tom had not allowed for himself when he was Voldemort and that was what ruined him.
"By all rights Harry Potter should have never survived the killing curse, not only once but twice, he shouldn't have survived any of our encounters and yet Harry Potter is the boy-who-still-lives. If I have learned anything it is that even when you don't stand a chance you should fight because in the end if there is even a miniscule of hope that you could win it, you will win it."
"That was borderline sappy; what as this kid done to you, he's turning you into Dumbledore, next you'll be spouting off about how love is the greatest power and all that. You'll lose to that Diary, and when you do I'll had back to the bar and enjoy the company of beautiful women, and you'll be gone. Besides oh brilliant one, where do you think we'll have to go to get each horcrux. Or have you forgotten you had to come all the way to the US to get me."
"I have my ways; I refuse to let something as simple as location and the need to travel and no means to do so prevent me from collecting all of our soul pieces so that I can avoid hell. I managed to get here now didn't I; do you honestly think I could have apparated all the way here from London; I'm still dead you know. I also had no way of using an international portkey, so I had to improvise but I managed to track you down all the way to America now didn't I?"
"Ah but the more of us you collect so to speak, the more difficult it will become for you to travel across the globe, after all the cost of one person to travel is half the amount of two, and a third of three and so on and so forth. It won't precisely be cheap if you're planning to rob people to collect the money you'll need in order to travel, because being a stowaway, while something I have little doubt we could accomplish would become increasingly more difficult with the amount of people we're trying to keep well hidden, or did you forget that fact?"
"You seem to be under the impression that something so simple could possibly stop me, believe me I will find each and every last one of you. I will not be going to hell and if you cannot get that through your thick skull then that is your fault. I for one have no intentions of doing anything other than gathering my soul pieces and staying out of hell. If you wish to act like a small child in the meantime then that is your decision, just know that I will eventually lose my patience and when that happens you will regret it."
"Big words coming from you Tom, you may be the main soul piece, but just remember you will always be the weakest of us all." Tom scoffed at that, he was Lord Voldemort; he may have been the smallest soul piece, aside from Nagini but that meant nothing in comparison of power.
"Really, is that so, remind me again which one of us was choking the life out of the other not that long ago would you, I seem to have forgotten." His horcrux scowled at that and Tom couldn't help the oddly satisfied feeling that he got out of seeing his horcrux look so annoyed with him.
"Annoying prick aren't you? Don't you get it Tom, physically you may be stronger, but you will always be weakest, you have an emotional weakness, you fear going to hell almost as much if not more than you feared dying. The very thing that led you to seek immortality, to split your soul into pieces, but believe what you will, I know the truth."
"You know absolutely nothing." His horcrux quirked a brow at him before narrowing his eyes dangerously; or at least were he anyone but the Dark Lord. No Tom wasn't afraid of his horcrux; no matter how the soul piece chose to glare at him; he was the superior of the two and to him that was all that mattered.
"I know plenty, you seem to be missing the key concept here, fact of the matter is Tom, like it or not I am a part of you. As I said, I am your under nourished ability to have fun, I am the part of you that the other kids at the orphanage beat down. The part of you that you later learned to suppress, me and the others, we're all different parts of your personality Tom. All of the things that you wanted to rid yourself of, and in doing so you rid yourself of your sanity as well."
"Yes well if you're the part of me that was suppressed the most, why isn't you aren't the part that left me first?" He had no doubt about the truthfulness of those words; his capacity for fun was perhaps one of the things that he had suppressed the most as a child. He had never been allowed fun as a child. His horcrux wasn't wrong, the other children refused to allow him to have fun and he never really had gotten the hang of it when he was small enough to actually have fun. No that was something he never truly comprehended, but it was something he had always been content to live without.
"The first thing you got rid of Tom was your capacity to feel, it didn't matter that you were still connected to me, or your ability to feel remorse, to regret, to your compassion, your ability to care and love. The first thing you got rid of was what was weak from the moment we were conceived, you got rid of what the Amortentia our mother drugged our father with had been suppressing within us from that very moment. You actively blocked me out Tom, the diary he was locked down before we were even born, taking all those things with him."
"And the others, what part of me left with them?" The horcrux in front of him scoffed, Tom was beginning to grow tired of his horcrux and the annoying scoffing and eye rolling, and backtalk that came with having it around. If the rest of his horcruxes acted like this Tom was in for a very severe headache and a long journey, of that he was certain.
"I was the second to go Tom, I don't know the answer to that any more than you do, but when we find them I'm sure we'll be able to get the answer out of them, one way or another. After all you got the answer out of me without even trying."
"We've been searching a week now and we've yet to find even the slightest hint as to where the Diadem is. You're only good for tracking down the diary, and we're far from prepared to face him, he'll be strong and it'll take all of us to be able to bring him down. As loathe as I am to admit it, I'm going to need help with obtaining the diary horcrux without getting a free ticket to hell."
"Hey, I'm along for the ride, you and diary can work out your own petty issues thank you very much. After all I'm in for the fun of a road trip, and seeing a few fights, anything after that leave me out of it, I'm your ability to have fun not some kind of emotional- just leave me out of it."
"Fine, it is of no matter, I was just merely suggesting, after all I had thought you of all people would know how to enjoy partaking in a good fight. But it's clear to me that I was wrong, you much prefer to be on the sidelines out of harm's way. You probably wouldn't have been much help in the first place."
"Don't think I don't know what you're doing, because I know exactly what you're trying to do, and I have some bad news for you, it won't work. I won't allow it. Nothing that you say or do is going to manipulate me into playing like some foolish Gryffindor and going up against Diary in a fight. I unlike you have more self-preservation than that."
"Of course, I wouldn't dream of being so foolish as to manipulate the heir of Salazar Slytherin himself, I mean who would manipulate themselves, especially when it was involving something that could be considered dangerous. I was merely offering you, the Fun horcrux as you so eloquently put it the opportunity to enjoy yourself through the inevitable fight with Diary, but I wouldn't dream of making you partake in such a fight."
"Smooth Riddle, real smooth, we could have charmed the pants off of so many girls in school, but no you wouldn't let us do that. We needed to focus on our academics, on our plans as Lord Voldemort, we needed to focus on becoming the model student, and model students don't do something like bed half the girls in the school, or a third, a fourth or any of the girls in school really."
"I don't know why you would want to anyways." Tom unlike his horcrux wasn't an idiot driven purely by hormones; no he had much more intelligence than that. He could count the number of people he'd slept with in his life on one hand and he was perfectly content with that, no matter what the Ring had to say about the matter.
"Hello, sex equals fun, it's like common sense, and believe me in my free time I've had a lot of fun." That was way too much information for Tom's liking he really could have gone without the images that the Ring's idea of fun placed within his mind. He had always had far more important things to do than to indulge in such frivolous activities.
"You're disgusting." His horcrux rolled his eyes before getting a smirk on his face and a slightly vindictive glint in his eye, were he anyone else, perhaps Tom would have been worried. As it was what did he the Dark Lord Voldemort have to fear from but a fraction of his soul, one that wasn't nearly as experienced with magic as he himself was?
"Sweet Salazar you're such a prude, you've probably never done it a day in your life." Tom was not having this conversation right now. He would not rise to the bait of his horcrux, it would be unwise and so he wouldn't do it. "You wouldn't even know what to do."
"I've slept with my fair share, but that is irrelevant to the matter at hand in case you have forgotten." Well if you could count less than five as a fair share, but being a Dark Lord who was leading a war was a very time consuming position, he was actually impressed that he even had time for that much. Paperwork was the unholy secret about wars that nobody ever tells you about until you're too far invested into things to back out.
"Alright, I'll make a deal with you, if you can convince a woman, a pretty one who doesn't seem desperate to join us in a threesome, then I'll actually help you with the part of capturing the diary horcrux and all that jazz. In fact, I'll even take it a step further and I'll be helpful for the rest of this little journey, if you can't manage that then I come along for the show and that's that. Not only that but all the other horcruxes get to kick back and relax while you get your butt whooped as well, you're not even allowed to ask them to join in."
"You're a disgusting pig do you know that?" The Ring just scoffed at him as though he had thought Tom was being unreasonable and ridiculous, perhaps as far as his horcrux was concerned he was, however as far as the fallen Dark Lord was concerned, he was being perfectly reasonable.
"Now, now Tom, there's no need for name calling, after all, whether you like it or not, I am a part of you." A part of him he deeply wishes never existed to begin with, he was more than glad that he had lost his ability to have fun when he created the ring horcrux, the only fault of this would be in the fact he was dealing with said horcrux now.
"Forget it, unlike you I have some decency and there is nothing decent about what you're suggesting." In fact as far as he was concerned what was being suggested was downright wrong. He didn't care if that meant his horcrux thought he was pathetic, after all his horcrux was just that, a horcrux what did the opinion of a piece of a soul not even human matter?
"You sir are no fun." He was no fun, well considering how his childhood went he did have need to grow up from quite the early age. And in addition to that there was the fact that he had lost his capacity for fun when he had killed his father and created the Ring horcrux in the first place; besides as far as he was concerned he didn't need to be fun as that was for children.
"Well as you have kindly pointed out repeatedly I might add, you are my capacity to have fun so could you really blame me for being no fun as you so eloquently put it." His horcrux seemed to sober up at that and Tom let himself for just the briefest of moments think that perhaps his horcrux would let the matter drop.
"Come on Riddle, you said yourself you can't take on the diary alone, and if you don't take my deal then that is exactly what is going to happen." Tom sighed, he didn't want to agree, but he really didn't want to have to face the Diary alone either, and it was not for him to admit, even if it had been to a piece of his own soul.
"Merlin, I can't believe I'm about to say this but fine, but we obliviate whoever it is, and we never speak of this again, to anyone or amongst ourselves ever, understood?" At those words his horcrux took on a smug kind of look before flashing him a charming smile that Tom knew all too well was entirely fake; after all it was one he had given a number of people over the years.
"Now we're talking, don't worry Tom, you won't regret this, it'll be the most fun you've probably ever had in your life." Somehow Tom doubted that, he also doubted that he wouldn't regret it because he was already beginning to regret it. He knew better than to make a deal with a Slytherin, particularly when that Slytherin was a part of himself.
"I highly doubt that." His horcrux looked at him briefly as though he was trying to decipher what would be the best thing to respond with. Tom knew that wouldn't last, his horcrux would respond with the first thing to pop into his head.
"Whatever, now we have some work to do, we need to find a girl for this little agreement, then a cheap motel, I suppose we'll have to find some cash as well. It's only the gentlemanly thing to do after all, offer to pay for the room that is."
Tom couldn't help wonder just what it was that he had gotten himself into by making an agreement with his horcrux. He knew what was implied, but he had the distinctive feeling there would be a fair amount more to the bargain he agreed upon than what was actually stated. In fact he was fairly certain that was precisely what would happen. He could only hope that whatever happened, it wouldn't be something he would regret more than he was already regretting the current decision at hand.