Ladies and Gentlemen, what you are about to read is the newest chapter of this most intriguing tale. You must all be dying to know the state of Tommy Riddle at this point!

Not What She Seems
By Green Sea Turtle

Chapter Three: The Lonely King on His Throne without a Queen

His name is Tom Riddle. (I will not delve into what we fanfiction readers already know). At the end of the Triwizard Tournament, his ascent back to power was just about complete and the fiasco at the Ministry was just a minor setback. But alas, the unfinished businesses that still had to be done.

First on his list is to kill Harry Potter. It still puzzled him how a baby wizard could have vanquished him to near nothing. From hours upon hours of research he still had no concrete evidence to this. But this is the Wizarding world and nothing is really concrete anyways.

He was beginning to believe that perhaps, just perhaps, that James and Lily Potter's love for their son overpowered his Dark Magic. He is an ambitious evil genius who plans on having the entire world bow at his feet; he has to keep an open mind to all things. So no matter how much he wanted to deny it, there is always that gnawing fear in his mind that love is the strongest of all.

Also, his idiotic Death Eaters had broken the precious prophecy that he had so dearly wanted so now he would never know the complete story of the Potter boy. He knew that he was very wrong in going after the boy before knowing the entire story and prophecy, but at finding out that there was even a threat to his power, he had acted on a rash impulse and thus was his first downfall. Now, he knew better than to proceed with anything without making perfectly sure that only he himself would benefit from it.

However, since he had already tried and failed to contain the Potter boy, he had to move to Number Two on his list. Anyways the completion of Number Two could help with the completion of Number One. This is to find his Dark Lady.

This Dark Lady was destined to join him upon his throne, and the Dark Lord and Lady will dominate the Muggle and Wizarding world, together as one, or languish in their effort. It was something like that. All this was according to another prophecy no wizards save him and perhaps not even Dumbledore knew about, a prophecy of the Elves.

He had never heard of the prophecy spoken, but he knew this much from hints that he had gathered through his immense powers of Legilimency into the minds of weaker Elves, no matter how much they tried to block him from their minds. But unfortunately in his attempt to get the entire spoken prophecy, he had tried and failed to delve into the mind of Elhond, a much higher elf who immediately became suspicious of him, just as Dumbledore was after Hagrid was expelled.

Just as Tolkien stated in Lord of the Rings, "Never go to the Elves for advice for they will tell you both 'yes' and 'no'", this prophecy was no different. It said, 'yes' and 'no' to the power that he wanted.

Elven prophecies were all like this. Never quite telling one anything really. They were very obscure but actually very accurate, as far as prophecies were. They are always very specific to different aspects but always very ironic as to what the outcome is.

It was like an adult concealing a candy in either one of his hands and making Voldemort, the child, choose. But the child is smart and eventually figures out which hands contain the prize or air, but when the hand is at last opened, what is there may not be what the child thought was.

Voldemort knew this concept and greatly despised it. The thing he hated most was: uncertainty. Uncertainty meant prophecies, botched reports, loyalties, and many other aspects of daily life. He had to be sure of everything, and consciously and helplessly reasoned that nothing can be unpredicted. He had to be in control that is just the way he is.

He felt that Uncertainty mocked him, that when the hand was opened and he was actually wrong, it slapped him in the face. He had felt his humiliation when he failed in killing Potter. And he vowed never again would uncertainty have the upper hand over him.

Two things that are beyond the reach of uncertainty, he felt, are: change and fate. Change is for certain, and Fate is for certain.

He reveled in the fact that Change was for certain. This meant that power could change hands, that nothing is forever, and a chance that he would regain his power and more.

He defied that fact that Fate is for certain. Fate is for certain, but the road to Fate is completely uncertain, which is the reason why he defies it. He felt that he, not Fate, had Control of it. In his defiance, he also considered the concept of Fate as an insignificant heap of cow dung.

As for this curious Elven prophecy concerning his fate and his Dark Lady, he had to make some inquires into it. He had not conversed with the Elves in nearly a century, not doubt they had not forgotten him. But will they still welcome him back as openly as they had before?

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Author's Note: Yes, yes, I know that I haven't updated in a long, long time. I was a little unhappy with how it started, this being my very first fanfic, but I've made changes to the first two chapters to fix mistakes about Hermione and other stuff.

Like her buckteeth were fixed by Madame Pomfrey with a Shrinking Potion after Malfoy jinxed her or something and not by her parents' excellent dentistry.

My bad, and THANK YOU LINDA for pointing that out to me on the Review List, because now EVERYONE will see it and wrongly conclude that I am a careless writer and a lousy fan of Harry Potter!! :P just kidding.

I know that this is going a little slow, but bear with me and it has a very good plot I promise I will finish this fanfic!!!! (GOD AS MY WITNESS.)

I bet most of you did know that this was gonna be a crossover. But don't worry I had this idea of a prophecy way before the 5th book came out and did not know anything about the Department of Mysteries and the prophecies kept there, so I needed something to be the source of prophecies. And there by through the use of poetic license, I have included the Elves, that sexy race, to be in my fanfic.

Hey did my avid readers notice that I've ended each chapter so far in a slight cliffhanger? You know what? I didn't notice that until after I finished writing the 3rd chapter this morning. Interesting isn't it? Either I'm very dumb or I'm curiously an extremely good storywriter, you decide, in the review that you will write!

Second Author's Note: R&R this chapter, since your support means a lot to me.