Inception: Rise of the Heir
Tom Riddle disappeared for 10 years. Where did he travel and what did he do during his absence? This is my feeble attempt at a Tom Riddle backstory, right before he rejoined the world officially as Lord Voldemort.
DISCLAIMER: I own nothing except for my o/c's.
The sun was starting to set in the sky, marking the end of Tom's first day in New York. He was walking briskly down the sidewalk in another seedy neighborhood, this time without the aid of a locating spell. He had spent the rest of the day wandering the city after he had left The Blind Pig, the small sheet of parchment given to him by Gnarlak clasped tightly into his balled fist.
"I knew that America was going to be harder to explore than England or Albania, especially as an outsider...I went to the Bling Pig specifically for this reason. I knew before I came here that this was going to be my only option..."
He forced himself to look at the piece of parchment in his hand which held the solution to his problems.
He had come to the conclusion a while ago that no matter how many books he devoured, how many countless pages he had memorized and studied, that it would not help him to infiltrate these smaller guarded wizarding communities. They did not welcome outsiders with open arms and preferred to keep their customs and magic hidden well underground. They had completely segregated themselves from the non-magical community and it was forbidden to share those secrets with those who did not perform magic.
He grimaced in frustration. "This journey of mine will have been wasted if I don't take every opportunity I have to learn what I can here. I refuse to go home until I've learned every secret, every last dark and ancient spell that I can to ensure my success."
As he knew, Europe had been easy, magic was abundant and the communities in which he had explored had not been reduced to cowering in the shadows, like so many of the ones that had settled here. He had uncovered many ancient secrets, forbidden spells and made acquaintances with many who shared his ideals, giving him access and leading him to the knowledge he wanted.
After leaving The Blind Pig, he recalled how he had sat for what seemed like hours in a park in Manhattan under the light of the moon, reading everything he could about magic in North America, there was plenty of information in the book, but nothing on where to find them or where to start.
The paper crumpled up between his fingers was his only option.
The books had proven insightful, but besides vague descriptions of the magic he sought there were no incantations or spells to go along with the information, only names and titles of a solid few. The knowledge of this magic wasn't forbidden, like it had been in Europe, but buried so far underground, only a select few had the knowledge on how to perform it. Magic that could raise the dead, that could turn ordinary objects into something more desirable, magic that could control dreams and force others to see what you wanted them to. It was all here, it was written down in text, but with no explanation on how to perform it.
This is why he knew he had needed a guide, someone with the necessary key to open all the locked doors ahead of him.
He stood up calmly, dusting the grass gently off his legs. It was time, it could no longer be delayed or thought upon, he would have to put his discomfort aside and seek guidance.
He grabbed his suitcase and furrowed his brows as he thought about the address on the paper. With a loud crack, he disapparated, leaving nothing behind him but crumpled grass to show where he had been.
He found himself on what seemed to be an abandoned street, most of the houses were in disarray, crumbled ruins and charred remains with boarded windows and doors. The buildings that weren't sealed up contained windows that had iron bars on their frames, looking more like prisons than homes. The air had a feeling of despair, gloomy and destitute from years of oppression and neglect. Car horns honked in the distance, followed by faint cracks and pops of what sounded like small fireworks, echoing off the silent walls of the neighborhood.
A single street lamp flickered on and off at the far end of the block, illuminating a cracked and decrepit brick wall, standing eerily alone in the darkness between the surrounding houses. Tom walked up to it slowly as he glanced at the address written on the paper. As he looked at the dilapidated stone wall, running his fingers carefully over its surface, a small address appeared directly in front of his face, scratching itself violently onto the wall, as if made by an invisible hand, the words glowing red as he slowly read it back to himself.
"How peculiar…" He thought to himself as he quickly glanced behind him, making sure he was alone and turned his head once more towards the wall, searching for the brown brick Gnarlak had told him about. He quickly spotted it and pulled out his wand, tapping on it three times as instructed, taking a small step back.
The wall started to shake as bricks started to crack and split; resizing themselves and jutting outward slowly to form a hidden door. Tom reached forward eagerly as a small burnished door knob appeared, illuminated by the moonlight. He grasped it and turned it steadily, watching the door swing in slowly, creaking and rumbling as he pushed it. He peered in from the doorway, looking down a long dark hallway that led to another closed door further on, a warm glow resonating from under the cracks and spaces in its frame.
He entered the hallway slowly, trying to watch his footing in the dark as he made his way forward. He had not been inside for more than five seconds, when he heard the stone door close after him, sealing him away from the fresh air he had left behind.
"Lumos." he said softly as he raised his wand
As he raised his wand he noticed small candles on every other foot on either side of the walls, and flicked his wand to light them, each candle illuminating slowly one by one. The lighting was not strong, but he could start to make out some of his surroundings as the flames danced and cast shadows on the walls. He stepped forward once more as the floor creaked beneath him, the wood warped and groaning as he continued slowly, placing his feet carefully so as to not trip over some of the boards that rose up from the flooring. The ceiling was riddled with holes and cobwebs, exposed fiberglass and scraps of debri lay out in the open as the bits of plaster that had once covered them lay about the floor in broken heaps. As the candles danced across the hallway he noticed that the walls had once been covered in pink wallpaper, which over time had become shredded and torn, hanging limply from the sheetrock, making the corridor seem less appealing with each and every step.
"What kind of place is this?" He thought to himself as he neared the door.
As he approached the small doorway, he could see the faint glow still flickering from under the door, followed by a shadow, signalling the presence of another. He came to a stop at the entryway, watching the shadow slowly disappear out of sight. He kept his wand firmly in his grasp and aimed it quickly at the door, eager to see what lay beyond. It swung open effortlessly and groaned slowly as it came to a stop before hitting the wall.
Tom took a step forward and calmly stepped into a large room shabbily decorated with no windows or doors, save for the one he had just entered through. A fireplace was lit and crackling at the back end of the room, giving off the warm ambient glow he had seen from the hallway, casting shadows that danced across the walls. As he continued through the room he noticed two lavish and plush chairs before the fire, empty and vacant. A medium sized wooden desk sat off to the right hand of the room, its surface littered with papers and quills and a small array of candles, casting additional light onto a large parchment spread across the desk.
"Curious…" he thought as he continued to look around.
A large feathered quill floated on its own, scribbling away furiously on a scrap of paper, stopping only to take small dips in the elaborate bottle of ink placed to it's left. An assortment of letters ripped themselves up and floated neatly into the fire, feeding it, while a radio softly hummed in the background, filling the room with music. He looked once more around himself quickly, no one appeared to be there.
"Hello?" he said softly. Tom furrowed his eyebrows in frustration as he waited for a reply. He was certain he had seen someone behind the door earlier.
As he continued to observe the room, he noticed a large area of the wall opposite him, covered in maps that continuously changed, their routes covered in small red markings, appearing on certain spots while others vanished, with no rhyme or reason. Newspaper clippings also floated about the wall, various articles and pictures intermixed between the maps moving themselves as they saw fit.
He walked closer towards them, interested in what they said and read headlines entitled:
"STRANGE DISAPPEARANCES IN MULTIPLE CITIES."
"REOCCURING NO-MAJ DEATHS ARE A MYSTERY ... WENDIGO OR WIZARD?"
As he leaned closer to read the articles, his interest aroused, when he suddenly heard the door shut softly behind him and a silky voice speak.
"Ah, I've been expecting you for quite some time now, I was wondering if you were going to come."
Tom turned around towards the voice, not surprised that his visit had been anticipated.
"The goblin sent word ahead of my arrival…"
He ran his hands through his hair as his eyes fell upon who had spoken to him. A young woman stood at the side of the desk, wearing a traveling cloak that masked her perfect figure. Soft black waves of hair fell down her shoulders as she stared at him, a smile starting to form on her lips.
"I stepped out for a moment," she continued "I had matters I needed to attend to." She walked across the room, taking off the cloak and gently tossed it behind her, Tom watched as it floated towards a coat rack and hung itself up neatly.
"No matter." He said as his attention drifted once more towards the newspaper clippings.
She eyed him coldly, realizing what his attention had been focused on and waved her hand quickly, the maps and articles folding themselves neatly and filing themselves into the desk.
"Those don't concern you." she said softly, as she gestured towards a chair that sat opposite her desk. "Come and have a seat."
He slowly walked over towards it, placing his suitcase on the wooden desk before sitting down.
She was beautiful, with long black hair that was styled perfectly into soft waves, her skin was as white as porcelain, not a marr or mark in sight and her lips were painted a perfect red to offset it all. She reminded Tom of the girls in those muggle pin-up magazines he remembered seeing at the orphanage, tucked away under some of the other boys beds, hiding them from Mrs. Cole, lest she take them away for their lewd and inappropriate purpose. Tom had never been interested enough to steal one while he would sneak into their rooms, he only took belongings which he deemed valuable or significant, watching them with a gleeful smile in the morning when they realized their precious possessions had disappeared. She was a spitting image of those women, the only abnormality on her otherwise perfect appearance were her eyes, one a golden amber, the other a piercing blue.
Nodding in satisfaction she turned around and walked towards a small cabinet containing hundreds of vials of potion ingredients. She quickly removed two vials from the pockets of her dress and placed them amongst some of the others as she closed the cabinet doors behind her.
"Comfortable?" She asked as she approached the desk.
"Yes. Thank you, Ms..?" Tom replied curtly as he sat in the seat presented to him.
As she sat down on the other side of the desk, she crossed her legs neatly in front of her, looking at him once more, studying his face as she waved her hand towards the cabinet.
She continued on ". Ah right, introductions must be made. It's Leroux. Lyra Leroux...And you of course, are Mr…"
"Tom Riddle." he said, softly, a clear distaste in his eyes as he said his name.
"Mr. Tom Riddle..." she said softly, not breaking eye contact with him. "How may I be of service to you."
He broke her gaze as he looked down to unlatch his suitcase, quickly pulling out a small piece of parchment and closing it immediately. "I wish to travel extensively through this country for personal research and I was told if I wanted to acquire any knowledge at all I would need someone such as yourself to help me."
"Is that right...and why would you need me exactly?" Lyra said as she waved her wand at another nearby cabinet, two glasses and a bottle of wine landed next to her neatly, as the glasses poured themselves. She set one down before him and leaned back into her chair, softly sipping on the wine, her eyes still focused intently on him.
"My pursuits are...difficult. Your country is very different from my own and it particularly closed off to those like me. A foreigner. I've come to do my own research-"
"Difficult?" she interrupted, raising an eyebrow. "Where is it you wish to go that's difficult?" she raised her hand and the parchment that had been in Tom's hand appeared in hers. She read the scribbled notes and looked back up at him slowly, deep in thought.
Tom scowled at her actions, she had taken the parchment without his voiced permission, an act he would have never allowed under any other circumstance. He tried to smile politely to hide his feelings, he needed her aid and could not risk angering her.
"Research, you said it was?" Lyra said, holding out her glass to be refilled from the floating wine bottle. "This is indeed some difficult territory to meddle in...I won't pry into your business Mr. Riddle, you have a right to your privacy,, but the destinations you have written down on here are of interesting choice...New Orleans and Salem to name a few…."
She trailed off, not needing to read aloud all of his desires. She narrowed her eyes and rubbed her temples gently. "Tell me Mr. Riddle, are you familiar with anything about this country other than what you have read?"
Tom answered her with a cold silence.
"Aside from witches and wizards who would rather kill you than share anything with you, you need to fear the creatures we might encounter more Mr. Riddle."
"I assure you Ms. Leroux, I am quite capable of handling myself." he said softly.
"I don't doubt that." she said quietly, still deep in thought. She got up from the desk and walked over to the fireplace, standing directly in front of it. Swirling the wine around in the glass.
"Now, time to discuss payment. For reasons, I don't care to indulge, I myself am searching for something. Normally, a trip such as yours I would charge well over one hundred thousand dragots. Which I assume, you do not have."
She was once again met with silence. She continued softly. "You happen to have come to me at the right time. As fate would have it, I will be stopping at every one of your cities you have outlined on my way, more or less. So I will take you with me."
Tom looked up suspiciously at her, unwilling to accept his luck.
"That's an incredibly generous offer Ms. Leroux, but I must insist on at least compensating you partially for your trouble." He spoke softly, trying to appear genuine and polite to the witch in front of him. He of course had had no intention of compensating her, he would use her and her knowledge of this country and when he was done with her he would dispose of her like he had done to so many before.
A small whistling noise came from a tiny sphere encased in glass on her desk, whirring and screeching louder with every second that passed. Lyra's concentration broke as she took the small item off the desktop and shoved it hastily into a drawer.
Her eyes narrowed and locked onto Toms once more as she replied "Payment is not needed Mr. Riddle, but my offer does come with stipulations."
"What kind of stipulations?" Tom said, raising an eyebrow, smiling at her.
"I will visit the cities on your list in an order in which I see fit and I may disappear at any time for any length of time I desire. Since I am not on retainer, I will not be subject to any demands you make of me. I will also not tolerate questions of any kind pertaining to my personal business, I in turn will not ask you any questions about your research."
Tom sat quietly as he sipped his wine, looking at her intently.
"Do you agree Mr. Riddle?"
Tom smiled at her and nodded his head. "I do. I look forward to our time spent together."
Lyra nodded and took another sip of wine. Lost in her thoughts for a moment, she reflected on the man in front of her and wondered if she would regret the bargain she had just struck. Her sneak-o-scope had gone wild after he had agreed to her proposal.
"They are unreliable and easily tricked, but they do hold a bit of truth...be careful around this one."
By appearance, the man in front of her seemed genuine, polite and charming. He was also incredibly handsome...unnaturally so. His eyes were a deep chocolate brown, his hair hung darkly around his perfect cheekbones, his skin as pale as milk. He spoke with an uncommon softness that was rare amongst men his age, she had watched him closely in the small time they had been in each other's company and she had found no reason to distrust him. But for some odd reason she had a feeling in her gut that was telling her otherwise, that this one needed to be watched closely.
He was not what he appeared.
Something about him intrigued her, she knew she had never laid eyes on him before, but somehow, something about him felt familiar, something she had felt once in a dream...
She slowly put the glass down and raised her eyes to meet his unwavering gaze, still focused on her. "Well then Mr. Riddle, we leave at dawn. I assume you must need rest, your first day here I'm sure has been a long one."
She raised herself up from her chair as she turned and walked towards one of the overstuffed chairs by the fire, gazing into its depths.
"That's very kind of you Ms. Leroux, but if it's all the same to you, I'd prefer we leave now. The earlier the start, the better…" He spoke in a gentle but assertive voice. He was eager to begin.
Lyra noticed a strange gleam in his eyes as she felt a sharp stab toward the side of her head and blocked it out. She rubbed her temples and looked back into the fire, contemplating his request.
"As you wish." she replied.
4/8/2020- Chapter Revision. So I don't think I even wrote commentary for after this chapter, (it honestly doesn't matter). But I revised this slightly (did not change the plot or chapter points at ALL.) due to writing differences, I started this fic a long time ago and my first chapters (in my opinion) made me want to cringe. So hope you guys enjoyed the revised version! Don't forget to Review, Follow and add it to your Favs! xx