Tom The Great
December 3rd 1938, Tom's first Christmas at Hogwart's school of witchcraft and wizardry.
Sitting in the great hall, his eyes flickered around as he tried to get a feel for just how many people actually left the castle for the holiday's.
He himself was the only first year Ravenclaw and there was only a handful of older Ravenclaw's that had also decided to remain most fifth and seventh.
Hufflepuff was empty. Not a single puff had remained for the holiday's, It seem's their trait's of loyalty as more true than he thought.
Slytherin only had a few upper years who had remained, mostly fifth and seventh years. From his position at the Ravenclaw table Tom could make out how concentrated they were on reading and or writing. Most likely they were focusing on their studies for the exam's at the end of the school year, in fact now that he looked each table outside of Hufflepuff had fifth and seventh year's.
Guess when it came to OWL and NEWTS most people chose to remain.
Finishing his breakfast he stood up and exited the great hall, he had a place he wished to visit while he had the free time.
As he walked he reached into his pocket and pulled out a folded piece of parchment, to the untrained and trained wizard a like it would seem like a normal piece of parchment, however to those trained and skilled in the ability of sensing magic?
The parchment was positively teeming with a subtle power, this was Tom's prototype map of Hogwart's.
Utilizing the Homonculous Charm, a concealment charm, Homenum-Revelio, Specialis-Revelio and plain out Revelio.
In the end his current map while currently incomplete, did cover most of the castle outside of abandoned room's, corridor's and secret pathways.
The enchantments were all tied together so that only the owner of the map could correctly use it, Tom could not even begin to wrap his head around the mechanics behind the magic that made it able to recognise it's owner but he was able to get to work after several near successes.
His map unlike the original in canon which could only show where everyone in the castle was at whatever moment also implemented the human-presence-revealing spell, it acted alongside the Homonculous Charm and would add an asterisk next to any animagus.
Specialis-Revelio however was added by a stroke of genius on Tom's part. He had read about it not that long ago and the spell was able to give information about the magic placed on or within objects, places and people.
Including potions.
Which was when he remembered how the original map while not fooled by polyjuice potion could not tell when it was in use, when it was his map would add a minus mark next to the name. So far it was working great, McGonagall on the map had an asterisk next to her name insuring Tom that at least one aspect of his map worked, he would need to test it with polyjuice himself.
However as Tom reached the floor his destination was on he quickly unlocked the map, and found no one else on the second floor bar himself.
Yes you heard that right, the second floor.
It was clearly obvious to anyone who knew about Harry Potter why Tom would be heading there, after all the chamber of secrets resides in the girls bathroom of this floor.
The basilisk is no issue to Tom, he has the gift of Salazar Slytherin rushing through his vein's. He is soon to be the last remaining Heir of Slytherin, his uncle's, Grandfathers, Grandmother and Father still live.
Only two of them however are related to Slytherin from his mother's side, his father's side is all muggle.
Much like the original Tom felt the need to get back at them for what they did, he knew how they treated his mother in life, made her repress her magic to the point where she believed herself a squib. The mere thought of someone who shared his blood being reduced to a shade of their true self? it angered him like nothing else.
Turning a corner he finally reached his destination, the room that had been known in a future that would now not exist as Moaning Myrtel's bathroom.
The place were Tom Riddle first killed a person, the event's that allowed Tom to create his first horcrux and the birth of Voldemort.
Tom's eyes flared as he landing at the bottom of the massive tunnel a minor application of magic softened the ground despite that the drop was quite straining on his knee's. He decided he would need to look into either an alternative entrance or superior solution to when one was falling.
The air was damp and rank, the floor covered in bones of rodent's and he was sure he even saw a skull or two.
Thankfully he had already in his self studying covered the bubblehead charm and other of similar nature, he pulled out his yew wand despite his own talent's this particular spell of his creation required the upmost precision.
A delicate flick followed by a graceful twist and suddenly he was breathing uncontaminated air, there was no bubble of air around his head, no sign of any magic being in play. What he had done was enchant himself, so that whatever he breathed in would be converted into whatever it was his body needed to sustain itself depending on the environment.
Therefore if he was underwater or in a damp place with stale and rotten air? he would get pure fresh air. In the sky at to high an altitude to breathe properly? no problem the magic would supply him the exact amount of air he needed. Toxic gasses? redundant. It was an amazing spell in Tom's humble opinion, unlike the bubble head charm it had no tell, if you could not feel magic you would never know it was there.
Devices such as the future Mad-Eyed Moody's eye however would see it, this included magic revealing spells.
This was something Tom had found himself trying to implement into all of his magic. It in his mind would help build an image. After all if the time ever came for Tom to need to do something drastic. What was more scary the magic you could see, that you knew and understood? or the wizard tearing down everything around him with no visible sign of magic being used, just the world seemingly reacting their will?
Tom felt the second was more fearsome, there was also the factor of how mysterious it made him.
Opening the circular door, Tom entered the chamber proper.
Lining the side's were massive snake statues all sitting in water and straight ahead in front of Tom at the end of the chamber was the statue of Salazar Slytherin himself.
The moment he actually took a step into the chamber however torches lit up along the wall's and he felt something.
There was a presence, no a shade of a presence... What could it... No surely not.
Tom could feel it clearer as he took more steps nearer the Salazar statue, their was something in the air, of magic ages past and... It was welcoming him.
He instinctively knew it would not give him any benefit, nor any power. It was after all only an echo of Slytherin's magic.
Either way much like the castle it felt like home.
"~Speak to me, Slytherin, greatest of the Hogwarts Four.~" Tom's voice came out harsh hissing sound, interestingly Tom could feel the way the magic reacted to the language. It was not in his throat, or mouth as one might think but rather as he spoke the words his magic itself responded.
The sound of something heavy sliding reached his ear's and Tom eyes locked onto the mouth as it opened.
A slithering sound echoed out from the hole alongside a cold voice "~Master as called. Hungry so Hungry.~" It seemed to pause and Tom could hear it shifting "~The gift, I smell the gift~"
Moments later before him lay the Slytherin's Monster, The Basilisk in all it's glory, It was massive, easily over fifty feet in length and was it's girth was similar to an oak trees'.
Tom was amazed, the King of Serpent's sniffed around and as it turned to look at him the ultimate test was performed, It's sickly yellow eyes locked onto his and he was fine.
"~Salazar's Blood, you have returned. I am your's to command.~" the harsh hissing came from the snake as it locked eyes with him.
A hour and thirty minutes later Tom was back in his dorm, mind going over the encounter.
He had decided to leave the chamber about five minutes into the conversation telling the snake to wait for his return, he had returned not even ten minutes later with a cow from the kitchens. House elves were helpful little blighters.
Outside of that he had just spent the rest of his time down there ensuring the creature answered to him and him alone. Over his time at Hogwart's Tom had not done much outside of increasing his own knowledge, skill's and power.
There was no way he would allow another parseltongue even one who shared his blood to command the beast. He knew he was going on the right track as even Harry who had held a piece of original Tom's soul? well that was his soul now. Does not matter either way even with a piece of Voldemort inside of he could not command the snake. He was unsure if that was due to Harry not holding Slytherin blood but if the blood was needed for parseltongue to work Harry would of never been able to use it.
Then again from what he had seen so far magic was not also explainable.
Another train of thought however was it could simply be the creature only answered to those of his own bloodline. In which case he would need to get rid of his family which was something he had already planned.
The only issue would be checking America, for any Sayre descendant's seeing as they were also descendant's of Slytherin.
Tom shook his head, he would deal with it when it was time.
Beside that he was cultivating a base of supporter's, forming connections the thing's that would be invaluable later on in life that he could use even if he decided to go the Dark Lord route.
Of course there was a Dark Lord currently out and about whose plan's had finally started to kick of as the school year had started.
Grindelwald had used his visions of the future that showed him WWII to convince various wizard's and witches of the danger they possessed, of how the statue was not in place to protect magical kind but rather to protect the muggles, that they were the chains preventing magicals from rising up and taking their proper place in the world.
He was if anything a captivating and cunning young man.
Tom knew that a year from now on September 1st 1939 those who had been wary of joining Grindelwald, those who did not believe in him and his word's would start to be swayed, some from fear but most from genuine belief that the man was right.
Well they would join him after that date.
After all that is the day Germany invaded Poland, the day historian's agree was the day WWII began.
It was the start of the very thing Grindelwald had been speaking up about, preaching and warning of for nearly a decade, ever since the man fled Godric's Hollow that late summer in 1899. Tom needed to be out of the orphanage by September 7th 1940. The start of the blitz, there was no chance he would risk himself through that.
Wool's Orphanage was after all in London.
He stretched out on his bed his dark eyes closing, mind formulating some half-baked scenario's however only a few stood out.
First scenario, was to straight up leave the orphanage and hope no one was watching him which is something he was not quite sure Dumbledore would do or not. After all before Tom was sure Dumbledore had someone or something monitoring original Tom during the summer's especially after original Tom's sixth year with Myrtle's death.
With this scenario he would need to find a way around the trace, which was something he had not yet bothered to research. What he did know about it thought was it was not on a wizard or witches wand but rather some form of magical enchantment covered the entirety of Magical Britain's land which could identify magic done near underage magicals.
However it had a few flaw's, one if an adult did magic around a child? then it would activate the trace second was actually connected to the first point, because of the adult's doing magic activating the trace magical households were exempt from the underage sorcery law's.
It was biased but there was a reasonable reason.
Those law's were in place because untrained wizards and witches might end up doing something or attempting something with ruinous result's, in a magical household this was generally alright as there was at least one fully trained magical there to fix whatever the issue was.
In muggleborn households? or houses in muggle area's to be specific they get treated much more seriously because usually there are no trained wizard or witch around to fix any issues.
So there was an actual reason which made sense much to Tom's displeasure.
The second scenario however was to kill his family earlier than canon as original Tom had only figured out his parentage sometime in 1943, however that had it's own issues, again he would need to subvert the trace but it would also possibly tip anyone looking at him off.
He was sure he could do it in such a way that no one would ever discover he was being their death's like Dumbledore did in canon.
Third scenario was the most likely and most favourable, he stay's at Hogwart's. Living in the chamber of secret's and room of requirement.
During his research into various subjects he had come across an interesting fact about protective enchantment's, for those ignorant the Harry Potter world does not have ward's but rather protective enchantment's.
These enchantment's can be anything from an alarm, to anti-thief to straight up deadly such as Fianto Duri which could strengthen prexisting protections making them more solid and durable. Bodies crossing the boundaries of the barrier disintegrate on the spot which may or may not be an effect of this spell, while spells cast at it create large, resonating explosions.
However Tom found it unclear whether or not those to effect's were innate to the enchantment as the book he read it only mention it in passing and it would remain unclear without further research on whether or not those effect's were other enchantment's being bolstered by Fianto Duri.
In any case his passing glance at the subject had revealed an interesting titbit, there was not a known protective enchantment that could inform the caster on who exactly was in the enchanted area.
The key part of that however was the unknown part, he was certain there was an enchantment that at least could tell the caster the number of people within it and when he thought on his map he was even more certain one existed that could tell the caster who was inside as well.
So while the third option was the most safe and certainly had the best benefit's if pulled of it was also had it's own risk's.
He would need to think more on it, he still had until his third year to actually devise a plan so it was not that pressing just yet, he had over two years to scheme after all.
His eyes snapped open, his dark eyes burned red a sinister glow after all either way in two year's time his family would certainly be dead and he would have his revenge for their actions against the woman who birthed him.
Another Chapter was summoned from the ether using some serious black magic it would seem...
Honestly completely unsure on just how I managed to write two chapters of the same story in a relatively close time span, usually I'd already lose interest by now. As usual however the standard warning's apply, this story might never be complete as it is highly likely I will eventually lose interest.
Don't let that upset you however if you take inspiration from any of my work's as little as they may be feel free to try your own hand at it. - X