Reviews
frankieu
Would anyone even care that Karkaroff is gone? I don't think anyone liked him and Drumstrang can just send someone else to be a judge.
Alan
Thank you.
Yeah, Karkaroff had to go since he might find his way back into Voldemort's good graces if the Dark Lord was desperate enough for followers and needed someone inside Hogwarts to mess with the Triwizard Cup. Karkaroff is too much of a coward to go against Riddle.
Ansem Din
I've gone back and corrected that mistake.
Kent-jensen
I'm glad.
Shaedy Hoe
My mistake. Tom Hiddleston is involved in both the Triwizard Tournament and setting up the Quidditch World Cup finals to take place in England, the latter of which the Bulgarian Ministry would be involved in. I went back to make that clearer as it didn't make sense the way I had written it.
Crossworlds - Harry Potter
Part 43
Corridors. Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardy.
The mudbloods were getting uppity, or so the students in the Slytherin common room were saying to each other. Some of the older students remembered what it was like when Professor Severus Snape was in charge of their house, and they all believed that with his silent blessing, they would have been able to take action against these upstarts so as to defend their way of life.
They could have crushed this silly S.P.A.M. movement and none of the teachers would have done anything about it. Slughorn was different. he only favoured the students who were of use to him, which was a very Slytherin thing to do, and while he often turned a blind eye he wouldn't shield the students if they got caught doing something that would harm a member of his Slugclub.
In other timelines, it would have been Draco Malfoy, backed by his two goons, who led the charge against their inferiors, in this one it was Theodore Nott, a 4th-year Slytherin student who had stepped up. The older students didn't care enough to do more than exchange complaints about the mudbloods or they were too busy with their own lives to take any action, and many of the younger students didn't see what the big deal was.
Enough cared to do something about S.P.A.M, and they'd decided to set up an ambush so as to teach the Granger girl her place. She'd gotten less annoying over the years, she didn't bother to show off how smart she was all the time, and as such many of the purebloods who would have bullied her had simply forgotten she existed. In their minds, it had been foolish of the mudblood to remind the school that she was allowed to walk its hallowed halls.
Pansy Parkinson, Millicent Bulstrode and Adrian Pucey were the only ones with enough of a spine to come back him up when Theodore decided to take action. They had two young witches, Granger and her friend Lovegood, a blood traitor, trapped in a part of the castle that didn't contain many portraits. No one would bother them and they would be able to take their time correcting the Granger mudblood and the blood traitor Lovegood.
Slytherin House had learned long ago not to mess with John Hiddleston and had he been here now they wouldn't have dared, as even back when he'd been John Smith a nobody in terms of politics he'd proved to be a powerful wizard, and once it was discovered that Smith was actually a Hiddleston, a member of a wealthy pureblood family no one had wanted to bother him.
Hiddleston would never find out about this as the Slytherin students would threaten to return and do worse if the two witches spoke about what happened here. What none of them knew was that the wizard known as John Hiddleston had a magical map that allowed him to keep track of who was where inside Hogwarts and that he'd been expecting something like this to happen for a while.
The first couple of spells the bullies had cast were nothing that would do any real harm. The Slytherin students simply wanted their prey to stay still while they were taught an important lesson about who ruled the magical world. They were now preparing to cast some spells that the school nurse would be able to fix, but should cause enough pain and humiliation to remind these witches of what could be done to them if they kept stepping out of line.
"It's time you learned your place, mudblood bitch" said Parkinson.
Pansy raised her wand only to find it going flying out of her hand and out of the nearest window. She hadn't been disarmed the normal way, no spell had struck her, and the wand had simply gone flying out of her hands as if an invisible hand had grabbed it.
"If you don't play nice I will take away all of your toys," said a voice.
The two wizards and two witches of Slytherin's house turned to see John Hiddleston striding confidently towards them. He didn't have his wand out and he didn't seem at all concerned about being outnumbered.
"Get out of here, Hiddleston!" yelled Pucey "This doesn't concern you".
He didn't seem to realise how outmatched he really was, nor was he right because this did concern the Ravenclaw wizard as the two witches who were also from that house were under his protection.
John trusted his open palm at Adrian as if gesturing for him to stop and the older student was blown back, he hit the floor as if he'd been hit by a banishing spell. Meanwhile, Millicent Bulstrode actually did the smart thing and backed off, soon leaving the others behind.
Pansy Parkinson, like most witches and wizards, was helpless without her wand and just stood there as Nott attempted to duel Hiddleston who hadn't even bothered to take his wand out of its holster.
Theodore fired off a stunner only for it to meet a barrier. Hiddleston managed to shield himself with a bit of wandless magic. Nott was so shocked by what he saw that he never realised how close he'd come to overwhelming that shield as they were very difficult to create and sustain without a wand. Had he gotten off another spell things could have worked out differently.
Not that he got a second chance to try because his wand flew into Hiddleston's hand before the Ravenclaw wizard used it to send a stunner at the wand's owner. The wand didn't change allegiance, that was a rare thing to happen, but it worked well for Hiddleston and let him cast such a simple spell.
"All too easy" John muttered.
The powerful wizard only bothered to take his wand out when it came time to reverse the magic down to Luna Lovegood and Hermione Granger. Allowing the freedom to move.
"Are you two hurt?" he asked.
He didn't get a chance to say anything as the two Ravenclaw witches moved to hug the older student and soon left the Slytherins behind, none of them was stupid enough to keep causing trouble. At least not this way.
(Line Break)
The Headmaster's Office. Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardy.
Flitwick brought me to the Bright Lord's office and while I avoided making eye contact with this country's Chief Warlock I saw enough of his face to know that he was making one of his grandfatherly expressions at me, this one displaying how disappointed he was in me. As if I'd done something wrong by protecting my friends.
"I assume you know why you are here," said Albus Dumbledore.
There was no sign of Slughorn, and that made sense as he wasn't Snape, he wouldn't defend students he had no use for. Slughorn didn't like Death Eaters nor did he associate with those he knew supported their agenda. In fact, he was more likely to be on my side since I was part of his Slugclub and because Tom Hiddleston was becoming a more important of the magical community as time passed by.
"Yes," I replied, "You want to hear about how I found some bullies assaulting two younger students in one of the corridors".
How Pansy Parkinson got into the House of the cunning was a complete mystery to me as she had no tact or subtly.
"That's a lie" she insisted "We didn't do anything".
I had to smile upon hearing that.
"At no point did I say that you did do anything," I told Pansy "I never mentioned that you were the bullies. Is someone feeling guilty?".
The students from the snake pit wisely kept their mouths shut.
"Mr Nott, Miss Parkinson, Miss Bulstrode and Mr Pucey, informed me that you assaulted them in the corridor," said Dumbledore.
Which was something I had done.
"Did they tell you why they were in that corridor?" I asked.
Dumbledore didn't feel the need to answer my question.
"They told me that you assaulted them" the Headmaster stated.
I had to smile.
"Well as I told my Head of House" I was now saying "I discovered a group of students abusing two young girls, and so I took action to stop them. Nothing harmful, just stopped them from hurting members of my house".
Dumbledore didn't seem to care that I had good reasons for acting.
"Assaulting my students is most unwise," said the Headmaster.
I wasn't buying his act. If he cared about the wellbeing of his students he never would have let Quirrelmort into the school or risked having that Cerberus in the third-floor corridor.
"So you're going to suspend the bullies who cornered two young girls in the corridor and began harassing them?" I asked.
Of course, he wouldn't. Dumbledore could not risk upsetting the pureblood families too much because his political positions depend upon them. An example was how he didn't lift a finger against Lucius Malfoy who brought the diary Horcrux into this school which was full of the children that Dumbledore claimed to care about.
"They tell me that you are the bully," said Dumbledore "Why shouldn't I suspend you?".
This must be his latest attempt to show his displeasure towards the Hiddleston family. It was rather petty.
"What about Miss Granger and Miss Lovegood?" I asked, "They will tell you what happened. Why aren't they here".
They weren't here because Dumbledore was using this incident to play politics.
"I will speak to them later," said the Headmaster "As your friends, they will no doubt support your version of events due to their loyalty".
Flitwick gestured at the other students in the room.
"Then how can you trust their version of events given that they will back each other up?" he asked "John has been an upstanding student for all of his time here at Hogwarts. He excels in classes, he tutors other students and he was well aware that I would be first to punish him should he use his duelling skills to attack other students".
I hadn't followed the rules at all, but Flitwick wasn't to know that, and I was a little touched by his words.
"Be that as it may..." Dumbledore started to say.
I spied the pensive and Cortana reminded me of one of my plans.
"Okay, I'll submit my memory of what happened" I offered "You can see what happened yourself".
The memory could be seen then there would be no justification for punishment.
"Memories can be tampered with," said Dumbledore.
I'd known he might say that.
"Then compare my memory to theirs" I suggested, "If they don't match then you'll know if there has been any tampering. Unless for some reason they don't want to submit their memory of the incident".
Of course, they didn't, which made them look even more guilty.
"I don't think that will be necessary," said the Headmaster.
"Albus I checked Mr Hiddleston's wand there were no harmless spells on it" informed my Head of House.
Since the old wizard wasn't going to give me a chance I decided to change tactics.
"You know what I'll just talk to my cousin and have him ask Minister Fudge to handle this personally" I decided "Tom is good friends with Fudge, and I'm sure that the Minister won't mind...".
Dumbledore wasn't going to allow Fudge to interfere with his school, so he stopped me from even finishing my sentence.
"I don't think that will be necessary" repeated the Headmaster.
Before he could tell me to leave I did my best to stay in control of this situation.
"So are the real culprits going to be punished?" I enquired "They clearly have something to hide and I can still take this to Ministry".
The snake students didn't like hearing that.
"I wasn't even there!" Theodore Nott lied.
Dumbledore ignored that lie even though it contradicted what he had already been told, of that I felt sure.
"All four of you will serve detention every night for the rest of the term," said the Headmaster "Professor Flitwick will decide how you spend your evenings".
That was harsher than I'd been expecting so I was going to let it go for now and leave to plot my own revenge later. I needed to take action to make sure none of the snakes would come after the two witches who were under my protection.
"What about my wand?" Nott asked me "You took it from me".
Even with my self-control, it was impossible to keep a smirk off my face.
"But you just said you weren't there so how could I have taken your wand?" I reminded everyone in the room "Unless you are lying to the Headmaster".
Which he was, and Dumbledore knew this. Not that there was any evidence because I'd ditched the wand in one of the hidden passages before taking Luna and Hermione to see Flitwick who had in turn send the witches to the hospital wing. I wasn't stupid enough to carry any incriminating evidence on my person.
"Did you lie?" asked Flitwick.
No doubt he suspected that I had gotten rid of the wand, but he was my Head of House and so wouldn't want me to get into trouble, and he had no proof I'd done anything wrong. Nott at least had the sense to keep his mouth shut at this point.
"Mr Nott must have simply lost his wand," declared the tyrant of this school "I am sure that it will turn up soon. I don't doubt that it will be turned over to your head of house before long".
He was wrong about that, and I decided that I needed to get rid of the meddling old fool sooner than expected.
"If there's nothing else," I said.
Before long I was excused and Flitwick followed me out of the Headmaster's Office.
"Watch your back, John" he advised "Dumbledore tends to see the best in people and he forgets how cruel children can be".
I would not forget that and I intended to make sure that those snakes wouldn't be any trouble to me or mine in the future. I'd shown off my skills in that corridor, even if that shield charm had been my limit without a wand, but I knew that purebloods could be very prideful and they would attempt to appease their egos by attacking again. They might even be clever about it next time.
As for Dumbledore, he had to go. The man was against me and wasn't going to stop until I was under his thumb even with all the distractions I'd created. It was time to plant the ring and let the Headmaster doom himself.
(Line Break)
Chamber of Secrets. Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardy.
"Adrian isn't it?" I asked.
Pucey was the first to take up and find himself stuck to the wall of the Chamber of Secrets along with Millicent Bulstrode, Theodore Nott and Pansy Parkinson. It had been simple enough to kidnap them from their beds. House Elves move about the castle unseen and unheard, they also have access to the entire castle, and with my magical map, it was easy to find exactly where each of these students slept at night.
"Hiddleston, what have you done!" Adrian Pucey shouted.
That woke up the other three, and they didn't enjoy finding themselves stuck to a wall in a damp underground chamber while in their night clothes. They yelled, begged and threatened me to let them go. All of which I ignored until the shyest member of the group spoke.
"Are you going to have your wicked way with me?" asked Millicent Bulstrode.
She was a chubby girl who had rather plain features and I couldn't help thinking that she didn't sound suitable horrified by the idea.
"Of course not," I said "I'm just going to feed you Slytherin's monster".
I switched the parseltongue and called the snake out making sure that it kept its eyes shut and I told the snake that it should remain behind the comfy chair I sat in as I addressed my captives.
"But we're not mudbloods!" protested Parkinson who managed to speak despite her terror "It won't hurt us".
That made me laugh.
"Salazar didn't put the basilisk here to kill the Muggleborns" I explained "He placed the creature here to protect the school. Back before the Statute of Secrecy and all the spells that we use to keep ourselves hidden from the Muggles were put in place, there was a real threat of Hogwarts being attacked by a muggle army. Salazar's creature could have destroyed such an army".
Perhaps my words would sink in later when they weren't so scared.
"Why anyone thinks Salazar was a dark wizard I have no idea" I was now saying "Why would the other founders start a school with someone they thought was evil?".
I waved my wand to clean up the mess made by Nott who had pissed his PJs.
"No, this amazing creature is here to defend the school" I explained "To destroy those who threaten the students of this school and you are threats to them".
I had no intention of actually feeding anyone to the big snake, it wouldn't have killed them even if I had commanded it, but the Slytherins don't know that. All they heard was me talking to the snake and all I did was order it to move about.
"Or you could just sign these binding magical contracts" I offered.
They all very quickly decided to accept that option. So I sent the snake back to its slumber and let them all down off the uncomfortable stone wall. The magical creature would later be rewarded by me with some tasty animal to eat.
"We'll lose our magic if we break these contracts" complained Parkinson.
Creating such powerful contracts was not easy. I did have my own version of the Goblet of Fire, but that was just meant to purify magical objects that have been corrupted by dark magic. Since Voldemort had been able to tie the curse on the DADA position to his Horcrux, I'd done something with the Hufflepuffs Cup, which had been cleansed sometime ago and would be delivered to the school once Dumbledore was dealt with.
I'd originally planned to keep the cleansed Horcruxes hidden, but things had changed. I wanted to draw Voldemort out so having Hufflepuffs Cup turn up after having been found by Tom Hiddleston should do the job as Riddle would want to secure his Horcrux.
A concern was that the descendants of Helga Hufflepuff might try to claim the cup, but given my alliance with Minister Fudge, it should be easy enough to have the relic be declared a cultural treasure and kept at the Ministry. I wasn't Dumbledore I won't endanger the students by bringing it to the school.
"Shall I call the snake back?" I asked.
They all signed the contract very quickly. It basically forbade them from taking hostile action against me or the people they knew to be under my protection, and they weren't allowed to discuss anything about the Chamber either. They would be wise to pretend that we didn't exist and since they would have rather die than lose their magic they'd be motivated to play nice.
"How can you be the Heir of Slytherin?" asked Pucey "You're not even in Slytherin".
I gave him my most charming of smiles.
"The true Heir of Slytherin would never be foolish enough to be Sorted into that House," I said "A cunning wizard would make sure that no one ever suspected who he truly was".
They accepted that since it sounded sneaky and I soon knocked them all out so that I could transfer them back to their common room. They couldn't have gotten out of here on their own and I didn't want them to know where the Chamber was or even be sure that it existed within the school.
The fear would remain and should they speak of what happened here they would lose everything, as members of pureblood families, the loss of their magic would at least lead to them being cast out of their families and maybe the magical world, assuming they weren't killed by the hateful bigots who called them family.
(Line Break)
Granger's Dental Practice. London.
No wonder Mr and Mrs Granger tried to have so much fun when on holiday when they weren't off swinging in some foreign land they were the most boring people I'd ever had the misfortune to encounter. The waiting room of their practice made me want to whip out my wand and start redecorating with fire spells.
Not that I needed to stay in this room and sit as the woman at the front desk didn't even know that I was in the building and I'd come in at the end of the work day so there weren't many people around. I intended to wait until the Grangers saw their last patient and then have a few words with them. Assuming that the sheer dullness of this place didn't put me into a boredom-induced coma.
Well, actually there wouldn't be much in the way of talking as my intent was to enter their minds and see exactly how they had treated Hermione by examining their memories. I didn't think they'd abused her, but young Miss Granger seemed a little too eager to separate herself from them and I didn't think it was just due to her being a witch. Sure they were neglectful, but Hermione loved them I was sure of this so it seemed odd that she wanted them out of her life so badly.
"Is that everyone, Clarie?" asked Mr Granger.
Before the woman at the front desk could reply I made my presence known and directed the dentist inside his own office.
"Do I know you?" he asked.
Claire wouldn't even remember me being here and neither would the Grangers as I was very good with the mind arts. I'd tagged the woman at the desk with a memory-erasing spell as I'd pushed Mr Granger into his office.
"Yes and no," I said, "I'm a friend of your daughter".
I was in my base form now he might recognise me.
"We've met more than once, I even went on holiday with you" I reminded Mr Granger.
It actually took him a moment to remember me.
"Oh you're from that school" he realised "Don't they teach you manners at that Bogwarts place".
He didn't even know the name of Hermione's school, and it wasn't an easy one to forget.
"Sit down" I ordered.
You can do far more than just view memories when you've advanced in the mind arts. It is possible to make use of a few spells when you have eye contact with a person. Voldemort even learned to send false visions to Harry Potter and while I wasn't at that level, nor did I have that kind of connection with anyone, it was easy for me to compel someone to follow my commands while maintaining a mental connection without having to use the dreaded Imperius Curse.
"Mr Granger," I said as I temporarily paralysed the man "I'm going to check something and then I'm going to make sure that you don't remember me ever being here. Unless I find something I don't like".
If he turned out to have Vernon Dursley's level of parenting skills he might not make it out of this office alive. Thinking of it I wondered why I hadn't gone and killed Vernon Dursely now that Harry Potter was living with Siruis Black. Then I reminded myself that I was staying out of Potter's life.
I went into the mind of Mr Granger, who must be the most boring man in the country most of the time, he was so upper-middle-class, that I was not all surprised when I found out that Mr Granger supported the Conservative Party and that he'd gone to an all-boys boarding school. They'd still used corporal punishment at the school that had given him a taste for certain adult actives.
He'd met the future Mrs Granger while studying at university. Even their courtship had been dull and there were no memories even suggesting that Mr Granger was ever violent, in fact, I got the impression that he thought of any sort of violence as barbaric.
Judging by his childhood memories Hermione was a lot like her parental grandmother in terms of looks, but that older Mrs Granger had not a warm person, there was nothing to show that he'd been abused by his parents, or that he'd been picked on as a child more than anyone else. He was depressingly normal.
The only interesting thing about the man that I could find in his mind was his sex life, and damn he was kinky, if Hermione inherited any of that she might be a lot of fun in the bedroom when she was older.
I didn't spend long looking at those memories as I wanted to study his interactions with his only child.
"Nothing other than neglect," I said to Cortana as I withdrew from the man's mind "Hermione has just been starved for affection. She tried to be the perfect daughter, with the best grades and best report cards because she craved his approval, but he saw Hermione as a responsibility, not as someone to love".
For a few moments, I again considered using my talent with the mind arts to try to change the two dentists, to make them better parents, but Hermione was smart enough to detect such tampering and would quickly deduce that I'd been behind it since I was teaching her the mind arts. Besides, you can't create love, so I'd likely end up just making them obsess over their daughter and that was just as unhealthy.
During my time at Hogwarts, I'd heard enough about Molly Weasly to know that having a parent who was too interested in her children's lives caused its own problems. Hermione didn't need a smother and whatever the male version of one of those is.
I carefully wiped the man's memory and positioned him so that he would think that he'd fallen asleep at his desk before I went to check on the other Doctor Granger who was also a very boring person. I had no intention of harming either of the muggles as they weren't evil people they were just incapable of being loving parents.
That was done quickly and while I got the impression that there had been times when Mrs Granger used her words to hurt Hermione's feelings, I felt that there was no justification to do more than merely separate them when the time came. They couldn't provide the support Hermione needed and as long as they were around my friend would never be free to live her own life because she still craved their approval.
"I'll see you again over the summer," I said to Mrs Granger.
Telling her that had been pointless as she wouldn't remember this conversation. I covered up my tracks and left them both sleeping at their desks, as I left I made sure that it looked as if I'd never been here at all.
(Line Break)
Hiddleston Residence. Godric's Hollow.
Once the second term of my fourth year at Hogwarts had come to an end I'd returned to my family home with my girlfriend, for lack of a better term, and given that a thunderstorm was due to start this evening I'd decided to encourage the young witch to take part in a ritual that I had done a while back.
"But, John the Ministry has laws against using these sorts of rituals" stated Hermione Granger "They are a kind of dark magic"
For such a bright young woman she could be so ignorant. She tended to see the rules as sacrosanct because they come from authority figures and she craves their approval. She still hasn't broken off this habit even if doesn't control anywhere as near as much as it used to.
"The Ministry labels anything they don't approve of as dark magic" I explained "The Ministry doesn't want people to develop the kind of power that would allow you to stand up to them".
Anyone should be able to see that.
"That's why they don't have lessons in wandless magic at school because anyone who can do wandless magic can't be easily disarmed" I reminded Hermione "They put limits on those who become animagus because people who can take the forms of animals can more easily avoid the authorities, and before you say anything about how the registration exists to stop people from abusing their ability to turn into an animal I would like to point out that no one who planned to use their animagus ability to commit crimes would ever register. It's just another form of control the Ministry tries to enforce on people. Such as how they oppress Muggleborns and all magical creatures".
I had more to say on this matter.
"Some rituals are dark because they require sacrifice, the more sacrifice the more you get in return," I told Hermione "But this ritual takes power from a storm and uses it to attune you slightly to an element you have an affinity for. All Ravenclaws are connected to the element of the air because that is also the element of the mind".
I could tell that she still wasn't convinced.
"This ritual will aid in you doing any sort of air-based spells and it might even help you with your flying," I told her.
She still hadn't totally lost her respect for authority despite me having proven how misplaced it was, but I didn't despair as she hadn't finished growing up yet. Her personality was still maturing.
"If you're going to succeed in gaining any sort of equality for Muggleborns then you're going to have to break some laws, maybe even led a full-on rebellion," I said to Hermione "If you're not willing to defy the Ministry, an organisation that works to keep the Purebloods in charge of everything, then you might as well close down S.P.A.M".
That got through to her.
"No, I trust you" she stated.
I smiled at her.
"Good girl" I praised as I gave her a quick head pat.
Hermione was desperate for affection and approval from those she saw as her superiors, parents, teachers, and those like them. Her teachers satisfied this desire somewhat, but it wasn't enough, and after entering the minds of her parents this had become more clear than ever to me.
"Where's my head pat?" asked Luna.
You'd think that they'd be insulted by me treating them more like pets than people, only Hermione was starved for affection, as I'd noted many times, and Luna just liked spending time with me. Although she'd actually come round for a sleepover with Hermione, not something I'd expect from either of them.
While it might serve my needs to keep both of the witches as isolated from others as much as possible that would a Dumbledore-like thing to do and I actually cared about their happiness.
"Sorry dear," I replied before supplying the desired physical contact.
I soon got things back on track.
"This is the only ritual I will ever ask you do," I said to the two witches "And it really is a minimal change. You'll just draw some power from the coming storm, no one gets sacrificed and there are no prayers to the Old Ones".
"Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn" said Luna.
My Babelfish didn't even try to translate that. Not that it needed to as I knew it meant.
"In his house at R'lyeh dead Cthulhu lies dreaming"
"From his place of power, inert Cthulhu of R'lyeh temporarily creates," said Cortana as she attempted to translate "That doesn't seem right".
Of course, Luna Lovegood knew all about Cthulhu.
"How does a pureblood hear about Howard Philips Lovecraft?" I asked.
Luna gave me a perplexed look.
"Who is Howard Philips Lovecraft?" she asked "Are the Lovecrafts related to the Lovegoods?".
While it wouldn't surprise me at all if that was the case, I decided to change the subject in case something out there began to pay attention to the conversation.
"What on Earth are you two talking about?" questioned Hermione.
She really didn't like the fact that Luna and I could converse about something she had no knowledge about.
"Let's leave it for the Department of Mysteries and get on with the ritual," I said "Once it's done you girls can eat snacks, read trashy magazines and watch a movie while I go hide in my bedroom from all the estrogen".
Once the rituals were done, they weren't very time-consuming, and the girls went to change, I took a moment to check on the magical maps I had of different places of interest, and I found that Albus Dumbledore was within Riddle Manor, he was in the basement and he wasn't moving.
I was tempted to go there and gloat or finish him off, but I was wise enough to know that he could be setting a trap for Tom Hiddleston, the dot that represented Dumbledore stayed in the basement for a while and then very quickly left, as he must have run out of the manor before teleporting off something.
Hopefully, that meant he'd gotten cursed and with no Snape around to help him that meant Albus would have to seek out the aid of someone else. Most likely Alastor Moody who had quite a bit of experience with cursed body parts.
I'd likely find out when I returned to the school in a couple of weeks. If all had played out as I'd hoped then Dumbledore would have no more than a year to live, perhaps that was Fate's plan as well as mine.
If not I might have to take more drastic action, but that would wait as it wouldn't do to get reckless now. Voldemort was still out there and Dumbledore was not yet in his grave.
(Line Break)
Riddle Manor. Little Hangleton.
Dumbledore did not trust the note that had randomly appeared on his desk while he'd been at breakfast and Fawks had been busy elsewhere doing whatever it was he did when out, yet the old wizard could not afford to have ignored it, not if it did lead to a cursed object once owned by the Dark Lord Voldemort.
While he had no evidence that it was Tom Hiddleston who had been sending out the notes and disrupting the Wizarding World, Albus Dumbledore felt certain that it was the meddling man who seemed hellbent on causing chaos and disrupting Dumbledore's well-laid-out plans.
Tom Hiddleston was still an enigma to Dumbledore, the wizard seemed to be an enemy, and yet he did nothing to really prove it. Did he support Voldemort, or was he against both Riddle and the Headmaster? Not everyone who disliked the Professor was a dark wizard after all, even if many would label them in such a way.
Hiddleson had his own agenda, one that wasn't pro-Dumbledore or pro-Voldemort, and the Bright Lord had already wasted enough time and resources on the Hiddleston's only to get nothing in exchange.
Even the younger Hiddleston wizard had been to manipulate a recent incident so as to make the Headmaster look ineffective. Albus wondered if he should ignore that family and focus his efforts elsewhere,
The Headmaster of Hogwarts had become distracted from what mattered, and the reports of his sister's ghost being seen around his school was proof enough that Dumbledore had been letting things slip in other areas.
Not just within the school, Igor Karkaroff had recently gone missing, and Tom Hiddleston might have been involved, or Karkaroff might have just hidden himself away as other Death Eaters who'd escaped Azkaban were known to have done.
Those were matters to concern himself with later on as the old wizard needed to focus on what he was doing here in case he made a deadly mistake. These Horcruxes had to be dealt with.
The Headmaster of Hogwarts had known about Voldemort making Horcruxes for many years, or to be more precise he'd suspected that they existed ever since he had seen the scar on Harry Potter's forehead. Thanks to the research he'd done the professor knew that the only way for Voldemort to be defeated was to destroy his Horcruxes, including the one in Harry Potter's head.
Dumbledore had between his many duties spent time hunting down those who had known Tom Riddle during different times in his life so that he could learn about some of Voldemort's important activities via memories he'd acquired, he'd viewed their memories of important events and this had allowed Dumbledore to piece together everything he now knew about the Horcruxes.
Given what he knew about Voldemort's teenage years it seemed likely that the young Tom Riddle would have hidden one of his Horcruxes in the home of his Muggle family even if he despised Muggles because this was the place where Voldemort had cut off his connection with the Muggle-world by killing his father and grandparents.
Tom Riddle would have seen that act as symbolically cleansing himself of his past, a way of removing a taint, and Dumbledore wondered why'd he not given the manor a proper inspection back when he'd been looking into Voldemort's past. No matter he was here now and he would discover any secrets this building held.
It was only once he tried to enter the basement that he encountered any trouble. Someone had placed protective enchantments on the door to the basements, what some people would call wards, there was nothing advanced here by Dumbledore's standards.
As he undid the magic he noted that they could have been placed here by a highly skilled teenager and that the magic involved seemed to be Tom Riddle's style even if it didn't feel dark. He was familiar with the talented wizard's handiwork and if this was Hiddleston's spellcasting then he would have to know Riddle as well as Dumbledore did.
Albus even considered the possibility that they were the same person, but that made no sense as Tom Riddle would not be content to merely act from behind the scenes, not for this long. Voldemort had a need to be feared and to have followers bowing before him. Hiddleston was too practical, too calm to be Voldemort. Besides, Tom Riddle had always hated his muggle first name and would have picked something more suited to a wizard than being called Tom.
Even if they were working together Riddle would not have allowed Hiddleston to know this much about his past, no it was far more likely that Voldemort had simply been overconfident with his Horcruxes and had not properly secured them, or maybe he'd thought he'd buried his past better.
Dumbledore carefully opened up the rather plain-looking box that was hidden among dust and junk, after examining it. When he saw what was inside he almost shouted due to his surprise. How had Tom Riddle found it?
Was this a Horcrux or had Voldemort located one of the Deathly Hallows and then hidden it away for some reason. Had he not known what it was he'd found? Tom Riddle grew up in the Muggle world so it was possible that he'd ever read the Tales of Beedle the Bard. Voldemort did not care for children's tales in any case.
Dumbledore had to know, not just if this was the second Hallow. He needed to know if he had been the one to kill his sweet sister, was that why she haunted his school? If so then why had she waited so long to do so? The answers were moments away.
Albus slipped on the ring and called out for his sister so that he could beg for her forgiveness, only he suddenly felt great pain in his hand. The ring was cursed! In his haste to speak with Ariana, he'd fallen for the compulsion charm on the ring and not thought to check it for curses.
Already he was weakening and simply removing the ring wasn't enough. He did so anyway and after securing the object he cast a few spells on his hand, he could not contain this curse alone, he would need the help of an expert. He would have gone to Severus Snape if given the chance, but he was gone, and so he'd have to seek out the help of another old friend before it was too late.
