A/N : ^_^;; Okay, yeah…*nervous laugh*…I really didn't mean to make you all think that Ophelia was going to be a main character in the rest of the story or even Tom's teacher (at the moment, he's without a teacher – and will be for some time to come as well). I was mainly focusing on the shock that befell both Tom and the rest of the Paidia in regards to discovering another Parselmouth. They are extremely rare, after all. It's kind of like what they hinted at in Chamber of Secrets – 90% of the time being a Parselmouth means you're a Dark wizard – so it looked good for Tom to do that. Right? Oh, and just as a side note for this…there was another very minor plot I was thinking of adding dealing with Parselmouths while Tom was in Greece, but it was too cheesy and I didn't know how to do it right, so I dropped it.

A/N 2 : To make sure you're not too lost in the timeline, I though I'd mention ages and dates again…Tom and Lena are 26 (though Lena's only got about two months till her birthday, so she'll soon be 27)…the date is currently January, 1954…

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Chapter #10 – Mortality

When he looked back on the time he had spent in Greece many years later, it had only seemed like the briefest of stays, but he had spent nearly three years there before the events unfurled that would make him leave Europe finally. He had grown rather fond of the little Greek island he stayed on, as did Lena, though she mainly loved it for all the shopping (and her collection of books in various languages was growing ever larger – along with all the other little things).

Letters between Tom and his friends had dwindled more in frequency. He was usually only receiving and sending only one letter a month by the end of his time in Greece, but he was usually quite busy, nearly as busy as he had been with Melantha. Most of his time was spent pouring over books looking for information that would help him achieve what Melantha had told him he needed to learn. He also spent a great deal of time learning new charm, transfigurations, and potions. Lena's collection of books helped him out greatly in at least the latter case. It was during this time that he really first discovered and became interested in the magic involved with possessing another living being, though he never started studying it, for he saw no use in it.

It was also during those three years that there were several more rumors that appeared about Korbin Westbrook and the capture of Rauthuell Geist. Lena had even received a rather distressed letter from Cavius asking her to say it was not true. It had come down to her having to write her father about it to get his side of the rumors to make sure they were rightfully squashed this time. As soon as she had told him about it, though, Tom knew immediately what answer her father would give. Of course he would tell her, and any other Dark witch or wizard, that he was not a spy or a traitor. Tom, though, was still thinking otherwise. He might not have any real proof yet or the desire to say anything about it to Lena (for he still remembered what she had done to Karl), but he suspected Korbin nonetheless.

The number of letters his mistress was still sending to her father was astounding. His feelings of Korbin being a spy was making him wonder more about Lena. And even though Tom had not told her, Lena still knew what was on his mind by the way he looked at her when he caught her reading a letter from her father. She swore to him that if he so desired she would take Veritaserum or let him peer into her mind with legilimency, as she knew he had become quite proficient with it, so he would know she spoke the truth. Taking her up on her offer, he did start using his abilities at legilimency on her and was calmed in the knowledge that she was not lying to him.

Ophelia often found time to come speak to Tom, and they always spoke in Parseltongue, which rather annoyed Lena whenever she was around them because it was one language she could never learn to speak herself (though she was sure that there was some way she could learn to understand it at least). Ophelia always tried to get him to get a snake of his own, but for some reason he never did and said he was not interested in getting one at that time. Lena had a feeling that he somewhat thought of Lilith as his one and only serpent. The Parselmouth witch was rather disappointed he did not want to get one, but did not question him too much over it. She knew that sometimes it took a while to find the right snake to be a companion – it had taken her five years of really searching to find her Ladon – so she could respect his not having one yet.

Tom and Pei Shen became quite good friends, though the amount of time their hosts spent together was certainly one of the reasons for that. Shen did not talk much about why he had come to Greece from his homeland, but did talk a lot about the differences in the magic in the two regions. They had, after all, developed at different times with no contact at all in the beginning. Tom was interested in hearing about the differences, and Shen loved explaining. Shen also loved hearing about all the things that Tom had learned and done over the years.

Just a little more than two years after he had arrived there, Tom first heard of a plan the Nychta Paidia were developing that surprised Tom somewhat. They were planning on taking over the Greek Ministry of Magic. Never before had Tom heard of such a plan. Well, Grindelwald had had a plan similar to it, but he was taking a completely different approach. The Nychta Paidia was not trying to take over the whole of Europe, not even all of Greece. All they wanted was to take over the Wizarding communities of the Balkans. They even had Melantha helping them with some of the detail.

When Tom asked why they were doing something like this, when they had been saying that the success rate was less than half, Myles said with a playful smile: "it keeps them on their toes." Keeps them on their toes indeed. As soon as the plans were in their final stages and the date for the attempted takeover only weeks away, there came some rather unwelcome news at a planning session at which Tom was actually attending (he had not been invited to many of them).

"How did they find out?!" Myles was sitting at the head of the table, staring in disbelief at Tityus, one of the Nychta Paidia's insiders at the Ministry. "And are they sending Aurors?"

"Aurors" was a general term used in much of Europe for such wizards. Since it was a Latin based word and since most of the European languages were influenced by Latin, it made sense they shared terms such as this. Greece had adopted it, for whatever reason, though they had little influence from Latin.

"I have no idea how they found out. I just heard that the Aurors had said they were moving against us. That's all I know other than the fact that the plans had been spread all over the Ministry by the time I could steal away. But, yes, the Aurors are going to come. When, though, I have no idea."

Tom looked around the table. Some of those present looked shocked, while others looked as though they had expected it, and he saw two wizards smiling mischievously while taking out their wands to caress, ready for the fight if it came. Lena was not there for this meeting, as that she was upstairs getting out some of her motherly instincts with Myles' young grandchildren. Tom turned back to Myles as he began discussing what to do, for the Aurors were said to be ready to strike at any time, and they had found out that the headquarters for them was Myles' home.

Before any final plans were made about what to do, Lena and Myles' daughter-in-law, Akantha, screamed from upstairs. In a flurry of robes, the seven people that were in the cellar rushed towards the door. They did not want to get caught downstairs with only one way out if they ended up needing to run. They had only just topped the stairs when they were surrounded by five Aurors. But they were surely not the only ones that were in the house because there was a great deal of commotion elsewhere. All the Aurors had their wands trained on the wizards that had just emerged from the cellar.

"Myles," one of the Aurors said, nodding politely to the leader of the Nychta Paidia.

"Good to see you again, Staffen." Myles nodded to him as well. "If you would just let us by, we won't bother…"

"Don't you dare try it. You won't weasel your way out this time," the only witch in the group snapped at Myles.

With a slightly annoyed sigh, the head of the Nychta Paidia nodded. "Very well, then."

Just as if they had practiced it a hundred times, all seven of the wizards that had been downstairs drew their wands. Immediately the spells started flying. Three more Aurors came into the hallway from one of the rooms just after the fighting had started and added their help, making the odds more even. Most of the spells were ones Tom had only learned in the past few years, for the Greek school of wizardry did not teach many Latin derived spells, and certainly they did not teach English and French derived ones that he knew. Tom, then, was at an advantage when it came to that, for they would not know what he was throwing at them.

Tom, squared off with one of the Aurors that had already been in the hallway to begin with, paying absolutely no attention to anyone else as they dueled. He would let his opponent send off the first spell, which did not take him long. "Adynat!"

Immobilization spell, eh? So they wanted to take them unharmed if they could help it. Tom smirked. "Declino tegus!"

The blast of bright red light reflected of a nearly clear shield, though where it had struck had turned silvery for a moment. The Auror sneered at him. "Lepidos!"

Oh, now it was going to get interesting. What a quick change of pace. A blast of purple light flashed by Tom's head, but he luckily was fast enough to avoid it. That would have left a very painful gash in whatever part of his body it struck and was best avoided. He smirked and took aim. "Aegrotatio!"

As a wave of nausea swept over the Auror, he doubled over, retching. Magical sickness…such a wonderful thing. As Tom readied to take another strike at the paling Auror, he was hit by another spell, which sent a tremor through his body and made him nearly drop his wand. Recovering quickly, Tom turned to see another Auror glaring at him, as though trying to tell him that hitting his opponent when he was down was not a proper thing to do. Tom could care less.

"Desmevos," the new Auror cried at Tom.

A thin ribbon of silvery white magic steamed out of the wand and began to snake its way around Tom's body. Behind him he heard the other Auror say "therape" which seemed to dispel the curse Tom had sent at him. Were they actually thinking of attacking him two on one? That was certainly not a proper thing to do…and this new Auror had kept Tom from attacking when his opponent was down. They were contradicting themselves. He would have to do something about that.

"Dilaborus!" The binding spell that had been encircling Tom was dissolved and he turned to the Auror he had been dueling with first, who was struggling to his feet. "Torqueus!"

The Auror that had nearly made it to his feet screamed in pain and fell back to the floor. Not quite like the Cruciatus Curse, but painful all the same. Tom then whirled back around to the other Auror and saw him about ready to cast a spell, but Tom was faster. "Articulus remoror!"

A blast of yellow light struck the Auror and his joints seemed to freeze. When he attempted to move it felt like all his bones were on fire. He grimaced. He knew he would not be able to move without searing pain and it was too great of pain to be able to even concentrate on actually casting a spell. His best bet would be to stay as still as possible then, for he did not know of a way to nullify this curse. Perhaps it would pass on its own. Sadly, he was knocked over and hit the floor, all his joints feeling like they were grinding together. Tom knew he could ignore that Auror now.

The other Auror had recovered from the painful curse Tom had sent at him and had gotten to his feet quickly this time. His wand was already aimed before Tom was finished smirking at the second Auror's fall. "Dynamos!"

Completely caught off guard, Tom was struck in the right shoulder by the spell. The spell forced him into the wall and knocked the wind out of him. When he recovered, he shook his head and suddenly knew he had gotten in over his head with this. He had not been prepared. Melantha would yell at him if she found out. He turned to the Auror that had attacked him and raised his wand, but the wizard did the same spell to him again. He hit the wall again, hitting his head badly and straining his neck. His head started pounding worse than it had in ages. This time had less time to recover before he heard "lepidos" again. The blast of light hit him in the left shoulder and he howled in pain. He slide down the wall halfway, groaning.

With blood now oozing down his chest and arm, Tom struggled to get to his feet, but then the Auror shouted "chtypimus." All Tom could do was grit his teeth against the attack for he did not have the time or strength at that moment to do anything else. He had practiced this curse, and knew the results were not at all nice. It was like getting beaten physically by a dozen people at once. Bruises and welts and even some broken bones…it was none too nice a feeling either. He collapsed to the floor, eyes closed. He coughed up some blood, aching all over. He waited for more but the Auror had apparently gotten someone else's attention.

For a while, he lay still, nearly getting trampled on a few times. When he finally tried to rise, though, a wave of pain shot through him. He found he could not even prop himself up without great pain. He had a feeling his left arm was broken on top of the still painfully throbbing gash in that shoulder. He lay there, breathing heavily…painfully. For the first time he realized there was a lot of noise around him. He could hear Lena shouting somewhere amidst the voices and small explosions from various spells. She was struggling to get to him, shouting his name and spells every now and then. He was lucky to be alive – to be hearing all of this – and he knew it. He knew that those Aurors could have done far worse. The room started spinning.

As he drifted off into unconsciousness, he became afraid of death for the first time in his life. He did not want to fail in his goals that way…not this soon. So he resolved to himself that he did not want to die, ever…he wanted to find immortality, no matter the cost. And that way, he knew that all of his plans would someday be accomplished no matter how long it took.

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To my reviewers –

Lady Madara Snake – are you sure that would be such a good idea? Killing off Lena, that is…I think she's the only one that can put up with him once he really becomes Voldemort. Once chapter 17 rolls around, we'll see if you want to still be at his side…and that's only the beginning of his what's going to be happening there…if you read the first A/N up at the top, you'll have your explanation about Ophelia, too…

Liv – Lena's not jealous (not much at least), she's just annoyed that he would think Ophelia's so great just because she's a Parselmouth too, you know? *blinks* Detail? Where was the detail? *shrugs* And, Ophelia might be important later on, though not till much later on…she's rather young still so she could pop back up during Voldemort's reign of terror…

(insert name here) – you know, there's SOOO many things I'd love to just sit down and have this massive discussion with you…you have some of the greatest thoughts on things of anyone I've ever "met" other than my friend Maggie…^_^ Yes, it would be more regretful for the headmaster – if Dumbledore is really the great goody-two-shoes that we all are supposed to think he is…but what if he's not all great and good? That's what I was getting at in my oneshot and in suggesting that Dumbledore's choices aren't really what we think he would do. I saw no regret in Albus in the second book when I spoke of Tom becoming Voldemort…nor did I catch anything else other than "watchfulness" in the way "diary" Tom spoke of Dumbledore's attitude after the "Hagrid Incident"…so there's something else there, there has to be. Dark wizards that aren't all that "dark"…hmm…I'd say that has to be a bit of coincidence. I was thinking, though, more about Lucius – presents a respectable face to society, but is truly a Dark wizard through and through (make sense?). As for Melantha, I might do a bit of a background for her and add that to the previous chapter and let you know when that gets done so you can go back and see what else there is to her. I agree with you, she's a very interesting character (my favorite, actually, from all the ones I've created so far so I should have worked with her a bit more). I don't know much about snakes (especially magical ones), so I'm not sure how well they travel – though I would think as long as they're in a warm climate they'd be happy – but still, if Voldemort go Nagini before his "fall", where was she all that time and how did Peter find her? And Tom's always thought of having a serpent of his own – he's been thinking of one "secretly" since he left school, sort of a "replacement" for Lilith, he just hasn't found a snake he wants (but he hasn't really been looking either). He did like the attention he got, but it was more of a "I like being the spotlight of the evening *smirk*" as opposed to "they're impressed with my ability to talk to snakes haha!" (though there was that too). He likes having others pay him attention – but what evil dictator/tyrant doesn't? Ugh, another long response…^_^;;

lord archimonde – nope, Ophelia's not his new teacher…though it would have been interesting if it had worked out that way. And he did sort of join the Nychta Paidia…I skipped over a lot here because all he's really been doing is trying to figure out what it is that Melantha wanted him to learn…so you don't get to see too much of the Paidia. The next group Tom gets involved with, though, you get to see a bit more – though not too much more…