Inception: Rise of the Heir
After the murder of Hepzibah Smith, Tom Riddle disappeared for ten long years. He sank deeper into the Dark Arts & pursued knowledge that others could only dream of, consorting with the darkest members of wizarding society. With his eyes set on North America, he has no idea that the magic he so desperately seeks will shape his life & his inevitable future for years to come. TomxOC
DISCLAIMER: I own nothing except for my o/c's and my own storyline.
Tom shielded his eyes as they made their way from the dark tunnel into the sunlight shining over Salem. The small city was loud and full of life as they walked up a small stone path leading onto the street. The city itself reminded him of Diagon Alley, small shops and curiosities littered the sidewalks and streets as witches and wizards pushed their way past them, talking, laughing and smiling amongst themselves. As Tom and Lyra made their way down the street, they passed a multitude of shops selling various goods such as books, cauldrons, potion ingredients and robes. Tom turned his head as they passed a haughty witch covered in boils standing outside a cosmetic shop complaining about the severe allergic reaction one of their new face creams gave her, the owner pleading with her in the street to not make a scene and to come back inside. They also passed a candy shop filled with young children screaming and laughing as they tried to catch chocolate frogs jumping around the windows, eating pepper imps that made them smoke at the mouth and roaring like wild animals as they ate candy that made them sound like muggle mammals, Tom recognized the sweets from his days back at Hogwarts when students would gather in the common room after a trip to hogsmeade and feast on their purchases. He wrinkled his nose in disgust, he had never liked chocolate or sweets of any kind.
"Welcome to Chadwick Square." Lyra looked over at Tom as she watched him take in the sights of the old city. "Was it how you pictured it?"
"Not exactly." said Tom grimacing as a child ran down the street, barreling rudely in between them without an apology, turning his around to laugh at them as he continued to run. "I had pictured something a little more quiet."
Lyra snorted. "It's not always so depressing here Tom, sometimes we actually smile."
He ignored her joke and fixed his jacket that had gone askew when they had been rudely pushed. Lyra smiled again and went to turn her head around when a street merchant selling flowers stepped in front of them, bumping into her.
"I'm so sorry Ma'am!" the young man said as he grabbed a flower from his bag and handed it to Tom. "Please forgive me, I wasn't paying attention to where I was going, here's a flower for your wife!"
Tom glanced at Lyra as he saw a definitive red blush creep onto her cheeks. It was a look that at first as a pre-pubescent teenager he had never understood and then as he had gotten older he had gradually come to understand. He had seen the red glow creep onto to fellow female classmates cheeks whispering about him as he passed them in the hallways of Hogwarts, the same red expression creep onto those faces who would come to ask him for favors and on the expressions of those whom he deemed to give praise and flattery to. He had learned as he grew how to use that crimson flush to his advantage.
"Thank you for your consideration." he said gently.
Lyras head quickly jerked towards Tom and then to the rose as she narrowed her eyes.
The young man in front of them shrugged and handed him Tom the flower. "A pretty girl like your wife deserves a flower, sorry for being so clumsy."
Lyra turned towards the young man, feigning a smile. "Thank you very much." He nodded and quickly walked away, Tom watched as the young man turned around every so often, to catch another glimpse of her. He rolled the stem of the flower against his thumb and index finger, until the man was no longer in sight and looked at her once more holding out the flower for her to take. But when he turned back around to face her, he saw that her face had changed, no longer were her cheeks full of the rosy glow he had seen earlier, it was now skeptic and inquisitive.
"Your wife…?" she looked at him with a raised brow.
"I thought it best to not embarrass him..." he said softly "and to spare yourself the embarrassment of refusing his advances."
"Advances?"
"Surely you don't think that was accidental? Or are flowers always handed to you when you walk down streets?" He asked with a tone that poorly masked his amusement.
"Whatever it was, it doesn't matter anymore." She shook her head as she watched a smile play across his lips and when she felt her cheeks warming up once more, she quickly turned away from him and continued to walk down the cobbled pavement. "We need to get going."
"Advances...how ridiculous." She thought to herself as she walked down the street. She brushed her cheek gently as if she could still feel the warmth her they had possessed moments before. She decided that she needed to place distance between herself and Tom as much as possible, she mustn't get distracted from her task at hand and being around him was starting to prove very distracting. She didn't know why she had blushed, perhaps she had just been caught off guard, but ever since she had agreed to let him accompany her, she found him catching her more off guard that she ought. And that she couldn't allow.
Tom looked once more at the flower he held in his hand. Following behind her he paused in front of a nearby patch of bushes and shrubbery, tossing the rose into their midsts. He kept his distance behind her as they continued through Chadwick Square, the storefronts and businesses slowly dwindling in proximity as they continued on, his mind racing as he kept his eyes focused before him on Lyra, his free hand combing his jet black hair away from his face. He had noticed as they had continued on how men looked at her and she seemed not to acknowledge any of it. He laughed to himself as he thought of how foolishly weak most people were. Always looking for some intangible feeling to fill the void in their lives. How most people wasted their energy to satisfy their lust for flesh. He had never once lusted or longed for the touch of another, it was all a distraction, an idea that was created in order to divert them from reaching their full potential. He thanked whatever higher powers there were in existence that he never found himself lusting after another person or desiring some hypothetical fairytale-like emotion that didn't exist. He clicked disapprovingly as he thought further on the topic.
"Love. How pathetic. There is no such thing, how foolish to waste your life searching for something that doesn't exist. It is only an illusion that others create for themselves, a giant facade of smoke and mirrors."
He thought back long ago to a day when he was still back in Hogwarts…
"Good Morning Class." Professor Dumbledore said as he walked into class "I hope your winter holidays were all splendid and filled with dubious amounts of treacle fudge. I daresay I myself may have treated myself to a sweet or five." His icy blue eyes sparkled with laughter.
"Please if you would turn your pages to three hundred and seventy five for today's lesson. We will not be transfiguring anything today, so please put your wands away and take out your quills and parchment."
A series of groans came from the classroom as students put their wands away and the sound of parchments rustling and the scraping of quills against them could be heard. Tom sat lazily in his chair waiting for the lesson to begin as the others finished taking their belongings out. His parchment and quill set had already been placed out in front of him, ready since before class had started. He preferred to be prepared for any situation in class early before it had happened.
"Now in anticipation for the next holiday we have coming up, I would like to take a lesson to talk about and discuss the most powerful and ancient magic in the world. Can anyone guess what it is?"
The class sat silent silent as they turned to look at Tom, his hand usually first in the air. This day it was not. He kept his hand firmly on the desk and stared straight ahead irritated with himself that he did not know the answer and watched as a small hand belonging to a third year gryffindor girl raised into the air slowly, shaking out of nerves.
"Yes, Ms. Longbottom?"
"Erm….isn't it love sir?" she squeaked as he rest of the class laughed.
"Why yes, Ms. Longbottom that would in fact be correct. Ten points to gryffindor." he said as he smiled and walked towards the front of the classroom, leaning against his desk. "And does anyone know why love is in fact the most powerful magic in the world?"
His question was met with silence. Tom rolled his eyes as Dumbledore continued, annoyed with the waste of a lesson he had to endure.
"Love is the most powerful emotion in the entire world. We are born from it. Love can make us feel passion. It urges us to make others happy, to keep our loved ones safe and out of this love it make us do things we would not normally do for ourselves. But it also can make us bitter, it can make us do terrible things and it can twist our perception of others and ourselves. I cannot think of anything more terrible than a love gone wrong. By a show of hands can any one think of anything worse than a life without love?"
The class stood still as they all looked around, none raising their hands into the air. Tom saw his opportunity to challenge Dumbledore's logic, he raised his hand in defiance.
Dumbledore stood straight from his desk and started to pace at the head of the class, looking curiously at Tom. "Ah. Mr. Riddle, you disagree?"
Tom smiled innocently as his voice took on a scholarly tone. "It's not that I disagree Sir, but isn't death far worse than a life without love? Should we not be more concerned about preventing our deaths than searching for something that won't prolong our life?"
"I can see your reasoning Mr. Riddle. Death is always a shrouded figure in our lives, waiting for us behind every corner and wringings it hands together until it can claim us for itself. But it is love that makes our lives worth living, and when you find something worth loving and devoting your life to, death no longer matters. It it just simply a natural end to our lives." He smiled at Tom and turned around to address the class once more.
"For your assignment I would like three parchments on the ways love has affected your lives, for better or for worse and how you think the topic in question has shaped you as a person. I would also like an example in history as to how love has shaped something in the magical world around us."
In Tom's entire history at Hogwarts, it was the only assignment he had never finished or completed.
He snorted once more as the memory faded back into the depths of his mind, his attention once again resting on the woman in front of him. The blush had been there. He had seen it. Normally he would have been frustrated that she hadn't taken the bait of the flower, the easier that flattery affected a person, the faster it was for him to manipulate them. But it was a start.
"Everything in time." he told himself as he grinned, picking up the pace of his steps to close the gap in between them.
"Where are we going?" He asked calmly as they turned down a side street, walking further and further away from the bustling road they had just been travelling down. The scenery getting greyer and colder with every step. Nothing around them here seemed to emanate the warmth that belonged to Chadwick Square and its assortment of people. The sky was morose, the buildings and footpaths lining the small side street were made of various shades of grey stacked slate and the air felt more still and solemn. He had never seen anything this devoid of color in his life.
"You'll see soon enough."
The small dismal street led them into another part of Old Salem, still as colorless as the path they had just taken but more intimidating and authoritative than anything he had yet to see so far in this country. Inside this square lay a new forum of buildings, each made from sparkling white marble and iron ranging in a series of shapes and sizes. The sunlight shone brilliantly through grey skies as it glittered and gleamed off the alabaster walls of the looming structures. Tom looked around him, his eyes charting his surroundings as they passed a large parthenon-like building, with four large marble pillars holding up its massive frame, its steps covered in black wrought iron shining brilliantly as they led up to two archways that granted access inside. Two wizards sat on either side of the archways as people entered and left.
"That's America's most prominent bank, the Treasury of North American Wizarding Currencies and one of the most guarded buildings in Salem."
Tom remained unimpressed as they passed the bank, it did not have the first time charm and intimidation for him that Gringrott's had held for him when he had gazed upon it first as an eleven year old boy. To this day, of all the places in Diagon Alley, Gringotts was the only place he had never stepped foot into. He had never had any money to his name, not as a child or teenager and as an adult his paychecks were so pitiful, he had never seen fit to ever bother to open up an account. One day though, he would find reason to walk its famed halls and caverns.
They passed a few more businesses and a large owlery before they came upon a massive cathedral like structure in front of them, wizards slowly filing in and out of its embankments. Its walls made from the same white marble the rest of the buildings seemed to have been made from, only the roofings, archways and intricacies were made from burnished silver. It was magnificent and it shone in the sun radiantly, blinding him momentarily.
"In front of us lies the most guarded building in all of America, aside from MACUSA headquarters in New York. The Atheneum."
In front of Tom was one of the main reasons for him wanting to come to Salem. The Atheneum was one of the worlds most impressive libraries, housing not only ancient books of european descent as well as other cultures, but books with insights into the heavily guarded secrets he so desired. All the knowledge in the world that he craved, lay within this magnificent walls.
"It's magnificent." he said softly as he traced the immense outline of the building with his eyes.
"Wait until you see the inside." Lyra proceeded up the stretching sterling steps as she whispered "Be alert and have your wand at the ready Tom. This is what we'll be needing them for."
He nodded as she spoke."Forgive me for being forward, but for what reason is all of this necessary?" he asked. He didn't quite understand why his wand should not suffice while reading a few books. They walked up the pearly steps and entered through the intricate wooden panelled doors, he opened his mouth to say something once more but he grew silent at the spectacle around him, Lyra had indeed been correct when she had led him to believe the inside of the library was even more dazzling. The floors they stood on seemed to be made of glass as he looked under his feet, staring down into what seemed like mirror images of himself hundreds of times over. He looked up at the ceiling and found himself looking up into the sky, it reminded him of the Hogwarts dining room hall and its ever changing ceiling of seasons and weather it had been enchanted to show.
Lyra glanced at him, a half smile playing at the corners of her mouth. "Beautiful isn't it? It is a marvel in its own right, a true masterpiece to wizarding architecture." She motioned for him to follow her as they took their line in a cue of people lined up to gain access into its halls. "When students complete their courses at Ilvermorny and wish to become aurors or work for certain departments at MACUSA, they come here to study to pass the tests required for employment. This place is almost always buzzing with witches and wizards lost in their studies.
"Sounds fascinating...but I must ask again as to why we need false wands?"
Lyra looked ahead of her, keeping her eyes on the teller as she leaned in towards Tom and whispered "Because of the contents of certain sections in the library, they ask witches and wizards to present their wands to determine if they are here legally and to ensure that no one has a bounty on their head in another country. Many flock here illegally trying to procure information that would otherwise be forbidden to them in different corners of the world. As a precautionary measure, all witches and wizards are asked to obtain library permits for what sections they intend to frequent, if they are indeed restricted. You-" she said pointing her false wand towards Tom "You didn't obtain a wand permit to be here legally, hence the need for a wand with proper permits. And the reasons for me needing a wand other than my own is to simply avoid unwanted attention. Nothing more."
"I see." He said as he rubbed his chin. "And these permits will allow us access to these confined areas?"
"Try not to speak until we are inside." she said to him in a low voice as they approached the front of the line. "Your accent will draw attention...and I'm not sure these wands have the proper permits we need to gain access into...the...erm...better parts of the library. It's still something I'm figuring out."
"Figuring out? he whispered as he raised his brow. "I believe the time has passed for-"
"Ssh!." she shushed him as she faced the desk in front of her impatiently. "I need to think."
He stared at her furiously and grasped the foreign wand tightly. The idea of the the knowledge he so desperately sought in within his reach and not being able to retrieve it made him angrier as the moments passed. This would not do.
"NEXT!" said a middle aged witch with a pinched face from behind the long teller's desk, she tapped her fingers impatiently as they approached her, squinting behind small green pointed spectacles.
"Present your wands please."
Lyra and Tom both placed their wands on the smooth porcelain like surface before them as the witch snatched them up quickly and placed them into a silver basin before her. She waved her wand over them as Lyra stared at her.
"State your purpose and what sections you intend to visit if they are restricted. Keep in mind this will affect your passes and the entry level that you are allowed. Visitors that are found lying or presenting false identifications will be prosecuted accordingly."
Lyra cleared her throat as she spoke, her tone strong and unwavering. "My colleague and I are visiting from New York, we work for MACUSA in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. We're here in order to research some peculiarities we've been investigating for some time now along the metropolitan coastline. We'll be needing to visit the lower levels of the Atheneum, as well as access to the rest of the library of course.. "
The woman performed an incantation over the wands once more as she looked down on them narrowing her eyes and peered at them through her pointed glasses.
"Only one of these wands holds the proper permits for the lower levels." She said as she handed Lyra back her wand. "The other does not."
"A clerical error I'm sure." said Lyra as she looked at Tom. "Perhaps you could just let us through today and tomorrow we'll both return with the updated permits?"
Tom reached into his pocket as she tried to plead with the teller. He grasped his wand firmly. He was growing impatient.
"I'm sorry I'm afraid I can't do that!" The woman said as she started to stamp their passes for them.
Tom, still grasping his true wand under his robe spoke softly. "Perhaps you wouldn't mind checking once more madam? It would help me a great deal. I'm sure you just overlooked it."
Lyra watched as a green cloud of smoke slowly billowed from Tom towards the older witch behind the counter and swirled around her head. A far off look replaced the stern one she had just possessed, she smiled at Tom as she waved her hand carelessly around her head.
"No need to check my dear boy, I'm sure I just overlooked something. Enjoy your studies."
"Thank you very much." He smiled, grabbing his false wand and permit off the counter as he turned around to smirk at Lyra. She scowled at him as she walked past the desk towards one of the many lifts in the halls of the gigantic library.
"That confundus curse was risky Tom."
"And what would you have preferred me to do? Your idea of asking nicely wasn't working." he scoffed as they waited for the nearest door to open up.
"Just try to keep a low profile while we're here." she said as she stepped into the elevator-like apparatus. Tom followed her inside and noticed a small house elf in a peculiar suit standing in the corner. It its hand was a lever that seemed to be attached to the lift, he continued to stare as Lyra addressed the small creature.
"Lower levels please. The both of us."
The elf nodded and pulled the lever towards himself as they started to descend into the bowels of the massive library.
Thanks so much for having patience while I got this chapter together! I know I said it would be posted Thursday but it's been a hectic week. Hopefully everyone is enjoying the read thus far, I know the story has been a slow burn BUT I prefer it that way. In regards to character development and etc, I think from this point on we'll be getting more and more of Tom actually trying to manipulate his surroundings and Lyra to his benefit. As always please review, follow, like add the story to your favs, etc. I will try to update this week!