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,
Meet me at 1201 Conti St on the eve of tomorrow night at eight o' clock.
Come alone and please be prompt. Time is of the essence.
Respectfully,
Madam Celestin.
Tom stared at the scrawling script in his hands and rubbed his face, numb with exhaustion. He had barely slept the night before, his head swimming with thoughts about his current situation. The owl had arrived shortly after he had arrived back at his room but he had not seen the urgency to open it until he had awoken this morning.
"I need to be careful. Madam Celestin appears to be just as dark as the rumours Lyra had heard. I must take every precaution to ensure that she doesn't catch me off guard...She wants something from me, I'm just unsure as to what it is."
He opened his briefcase carefully and slid the ring from off his finger, placing it into the large sack containing the rest of his horcruxes. His hands gently rose to his neck and he slipped the necklace off hesitantly, staring at its smooth surface before doing the same, closing the case tightly and locking it with the strange words none knew but him.
"I can't take any chances...
He looked towards his neatly made bed and stared at the carefully folded suit which he had placed towards the foot of the mattress and frowned as he thought about the events from the previous night.
"No doubt Madam Celestin will want my decision..."
He scowled as still he pondered the idea, a small voice rising in the back of his mind. "Think to the future, think about the possibilities it could offer you. You have already ripped your soul beyond repair to create your horcruxes, what does it matter if you share a bit of flesh?"
He stood up as he paced the room, weighing the options in his mind. "Think of all of the control you could have, none would be able to renounce you with the mark on their skin. Those who follow you, called to your side whenever you pleased, whenever you needed."
He felt his heart skip in excitement until he once more realized what it had entailed and his elation dropped. "All of this depends on if Lyra will agree to this...and I'm not so sure she will. She's stubborn - strong-minded. Although Madam Celestin told me she could persuade her, I don't see how that is a possibility."
He grimaced as he thought about her experiences from the night before. "She is quite fragile right now, I need to be careful if I decide to go through with this, one tactless move and this opportunity could be lost." Tom felt the warm surge of desire creep into his body once more as he recalled their dance and how her skin had felt on his and rubbed his chin in concentration. "If I give into this...it will alter my future exponentially...in more ways than one. Am I ready to embrace that change?"
The sun had started to set in the sky as Lyra tossed another book across the room in frustration. "I'm losing patience. I know it has only been a day past the ball but I had hoped to receive word from Madam Celestin about my request. The faster I know the outcome, the quicker I'll be able to figure out where to go next. I've exhausted all of these books and I'm getting tired of reading and re-reading them to see if I've missed anything."
She looked towards her cloak hanging by the door and bit her lip. "There is still one option I haven't yet explored...I had hoped to do that first before-I just hope this week's events haven't ruined it. There's still a good chance that he'll be able to give me some insight...although I won't be able to go empty handed...I'll have to make amends somehow."
Lyra ignored the nagging feeling in her gut as she ripped open her wardrobe and grabbed a vial filled with a milky yellow liquid from off the shelves and threw it into her open purse; reaching for her cloak before closing the door behind her.
"I don't have a choice. I can't sit here and do nothing."
Tom walked up the side street and found himself at the gates of a cemetery, the mist settling across the earth as he carefully made his way past the dreary iron gates, looking for the statuesque figure of Madam Celestin.
"Strange…" He thought as he walked by the concrete tombs, varying in shapes and sizes, warped and twisted as they rose up from the the dirt and towards the sky, unlike any hallowed ground he had ever stepped foot in before.
"Tom."
The voice caught him off guard as he turned around to see Madam Celestin, dressed entirely in black, her robes encompassing her like a dark shroud. "Your timing is impeccable."
"Punctuality is of the utmost importance to me." He said softly as she walked past him and smiled, beckoning her to follow him. He furrowed his brows as he spoke once more. "Why is it we meet in such a place?"
Her dark eyes held a strange look as she walked over to a tomb and bent over to pick up some dirt in her hand, rubbing her thumb over it lovingly. "When one looks to the dead for answers, is it not appropriate to go where they can be sought out?"
He remained silent as she looked towards the tomb to her left and pulled out a knife from her pocket, holding it against her palm and dragging it slowly across her skin without flinching. She held her hand before it's door and squeezed her hand into a fist, the droplets of blood falling before it's stone seal, sizzling against the dark soil, the tomb opening slowly.
"Blood Magic-" Madam Celestin said as she entered through the small passage. "-has its uses. Are you familiar with the practice?"
"Quite." He said as he followed her through the small crevice. "Although I must admit , as of late my uses for it have been quite minimal -"
"Up until now." Madam Celestin said as she interrupted him and clapped her hands, a staircase lit with torches suddenly appearing before them. "Mind your step Tom."
He followed her cautiously down the stone steps and placed his hand into his pocket, grasping his wand firmly for assurance, still not entirely trusting the witch before him. "Where are we?"
Madam Celestin ignored his question until they had reached the bottom of the stone steps, waving her hands around at the dimly lit corridor before them, the walls lined with small wooden coffins that had been set into the dirt. "My ancestral tomb."
Following her through the narrow corridor, he looked towards the coffins on either side of him and noticed fingernail scratches on the outside of the wood, concentrated around the edges of their lids, the seemingly man made grooves lined with blood and dirt. Tom felt the hair on the back of his neck stand on edge as he asked quietly. "How many are buried here?"
Celestin laughed softly as she continued down the tomb. "Enough."
Narrowing his eyes as he moved carefully behind her, wary of where he placed his feet as he started to notice small puddles on the ground before him, their circumference and number growing larger the deeper into the mausoleum they ventured.
"Do you know why most people are buried above ground in New Orleans?" Madam Celestin said silkily, her head turning towards him.
"The water level." Tom replied hastily as he walked through a foul smelling pool of water, the ground becoming less dirt and more water and they continued on.
"Very good." Her eyebrows raised as if surprised by his answer. "Yes, when this city was built it was often difficult to bury the deceased without watching their caskets float down the street in a heavy rain. As you can imagine, the sight was not-agréable."
Tom forced a smile upon his face and nodded in response, listening as she continued.
"Burying the dead above ground has proven its difficulties for those of us who require certain...ingredients for our spells." Madam Celestin came to a stop in front of a large coffin and pulled the knife out from her robes once more. "But we have found ways around this."
He watched as she took the knife and plunged it fiercely into the coffin to her left, hammering away at the wood until a small amount of dust poured out from within.
"Take this." She shoved a small bag into his hands and motioned for him to hold it under the grey powder that poured from the coffin. "We will need it for later."
He gave her a curious look as he filled the bag and sealed it, holding it tightly in his hand as they continued down the dark crypt until she stopped before a large, round stone door. Madam Celestin murmured a few inaudible words under her breath as she waved her hands elegantly and he watched in amazement as the stone rumbled and rolled itself aside slowly.
"Forgive me for my curiosity, but I've noticed you carry no wand." Tom said, the older witch tipping her head backwards to laugh.
"I have no need of a wand." She said as she looked towards him, her obsidian eyes glistening as her mouth tugged upwards into an arrogant grin. "My magic is not like yours. It is unchained, uninhibited..." She motioned for him to walk through the stone archway and followed him closely, closing the door behind them with a twitch of her fingers. "It is old magic...ancient. It does not come from the land in which your forefathers built, but instead from Africa. It is raw and emblazoned with power, very much different from the magic which you are taught."
"Vodou." He thought to himself quietly and turned towards her, watching the arrogance spread across her face. "She is certainly cavalier about the magic she possesses. If I were to express my doubt about it's capabilities, it would ensure her cooperation."
"I fail to see how your magic is stronger than mine." He said gently and shrugged his shoulders, holding out the small bag of funeral dust towards her.
Tom tried to suppress a conceited grin as she whipped around and grabbed the bag from his hands, hissing through her teeth "After what I show you tonight, you will no longer doubt who's magic is stronger."
"It was not my intention to offend." He said softly, her onyx eyes searching his face. Madam Celestin motioned towards their surroundings and Tom realized that she had led them into a giant circular tomb, it's domed walls made of smooth grey stone. She clapped her hands and a series of torches lit around the room, illuminating a large altar at its center, which lay at the top of ten stone steps, looked down upon everything.
"What you will see here tonight, you will never see again. It is an ancient ceremony which few outsiders have been able to witness...it is a secret which we heavily guard."
"I am honored that you think me worthy enough to bear witness to -"
"Worthy?" Madam Celestin laughed, her eyes sparkling. "None are worthy who do not follow our practices. You have something I want Tom, in exchange I will let you observe magic that people only dare to dream about." She held her arm out and pulled her sleeve back to reveal the small tattoo she had shown him at the ball. Pressing her finger into the strange marking she closed her eyes and whispered something in a different language, inaudible to his ears.
Tom watched as cloaked figures apparated suddenly into the room before them, each kneeling before her as they appeared, their faces focused on the ground in respect. Peering under their hoods Tom was sure he recognized a small handful that he had seen at the ball, but could not be certain and as he tried to search their faces, his curiosity was interrupted by a loud hiss. watching as the same large snake that he had seen at the shop slithered out from the shadows towards them. It's white scales glittered as it made its way across the room towards them, the light from the torches dancing across its reptilian hide.
"I don't think I've introduced you yet to my most faithful servant, Zombi." Madam Celestin said as the serpent slithered up her leg and around her body until it settled loosely atop her neck and shoulders, its head swaying towards Tom, narrowing its beady yellow eyes.
"We meet again." The serpent hissed at him.
Tom made no gesture towards the snake and instead focused his eyes on Madam Celestin, who stared at him strangely, narrowing her eyes. "Alarie!" She said loudly as she clapped her hands, ripping her attention away from him as the young girl walked out from the shadows calmly, acknowledging the request.
"You know what it is I need. The rest of you-" She pointed towards the congregation kneeling before her, " -prepare the room."
Tom watched as Madam Celestin motioned for him to follow her towards the altar, passing two figures that placed a small wooden coffin in the center of the room, followed by another who carried a crate filled with chickens, their panicked clucking echoing off the sounds of the walls. The rest gathered into a half circle that encompassed the span of the room, seemingly waiting on her word. Tom pursed his lips in curiosity as the remaining figures who had yet to join the ranks placed clay pots filled with various herbs and ingredients onto the altar and bowed as Madam Celestin passed, quickly retreating back their spots in the half-moon formation.
"They certainly seem to be afraid of her..."
Madam Celestin clapped her hands once more and Tom turned around, his ears filling with the sound of drums beating dangerously around them, growing louder in volume as it filled the chamber, followed by voices and ominous singing. Alarmed, he turned his head towards Madam Celestin and narrowed his eyes suspiciously in the direction of the coffin.
"That is not for you." She said, amusement twinkling in her eyes for a moment before they turned cold and dark. "But before we begin, I'm afraid I must settle our arrangement."
"You told me I possessed something you value." He said flatly, his hand still wrapped around his wand.
"Yes." She smiled at him hungrily. "You possess a very rare gift and I am very much in need of it."
Tom looked towards the snake on her shoulder as it flicked its tongue nervously towards him a slow menacing hiss escaping from it's mouth. Madam Celestin reached into her pocket and brought a small talisman up to her nose, murmuring quietly until her eyes rolled into the back of her head, her neck titled up towards the tombs ceiling. He watched as the snake's eyes turned black, it's head swaying uncharacteristically towards him before speaking, Zombi's voice changed and different, less reptilian than before and more like the woman who he had been standing next to.
"You are a parselmouth."
"The snake. She can possess it. I knew there was something strange that day Lyra and I -"
He scowled as he replied to her in parseltongue, angry that his secret had been discovered. "Yes. But what use could you possibly have of my talent. You already can speak it -"
"I cannot. I can only control Zombi through possession, through magic. His tongue is not my own and he lacks in certain skills..."
"I don't understand."
He watched as the serpent's eyes turned yellow once more and Madam Celestin returned to her body, eyeing him carefully before she pulled another large talisman from her pocket and held it out in her palm.
"I am in need of your gift to access powers that have been denied to me."
Tom looked down at a large green stone the size of a chicken's egg in her hand.
"A horned serpents jewel…" He murmured softly as his eyes focused greedily on the object, his heart racing in excitement.
"Unadulterated, unmarred -in its original form. A very rare specimen indeed." Madam Celestin said silkily before quickly placing it back into her pocket. "There are very few left that exist...it is taboo here to hunt the horned serpents gem. The few that exist were either parted with willingly or -"
"Taken." Tom said icily, narrowing his eyes towards her. She nodded her head slightly and continued.
"This one appears to have been acquired by the latter...it's powers are dormant and all my efforts to open them to me have proved...fruitless. Over time I became aware the only reason I have not been able to harness it's abilities is because the serpent whom this belonged to sealed away its power in spite. I realized I would be unable to acquire these gifts for myself, since I do not speak in the same tongue. So I waited for years in hopes that one day I would find someone who possessed the skill I required and I had for the most part, lost all hope that it would ever be of use to me until that fateful day you entered my shop." She smiled as she stroked the white snake lovingly. "To think, the chance would have slipped through my fingers if it were not for Zombi."
Tom stared at her for a moment before carefully speaking. "So in return for sharing with me the magic I desire, all I need to do is -"
"Command the jewel to open, yes. That is all...a rather easy exchange, wouldn't you say mon chéri? In fact, I believe you'll be getting more out of the arrangement -two for one -That is...if you have decided whether or not to accept my offer from last night. Either way that is up to you."
"The way you presented it to me, the decision is not truly mine...I would need her consent to even -"
"There are ways to direct her towards you. But I will discuss that later." Madam Celestin said as she rubbed her finger against the altar and wiped the dust from it. "So are we in agreement?"
He considered her offer for a moment and quietly nodded, a large grin tugging at the corners of her mouth. She quickly turned towards the congregation, clapping her hands loudly. "We begin now. Alarie, bring our guest forward."
Lyra pulled the hood of her cloak closer towards her face as she stood in front of the dark pub, its thick red curtains drawn to cover the dim lighting that flickered from inside. She looked upwards towards the golden plaque hanging above her head that swayed in the night air and held her breath, trying to calm it from what she had just done.
"It's not too late...you can still set everything right and turn back. No one would even have to suffer."
She stared at the thick wooden door before her and steeled herself, reaching for its handle. "No. There's no other way, you can't leave any stone unturned."
Pushing the door in gently, she walked into the abandoned bar and quickly glanced around the room. The tables and chairs were all abandoned, there was no sign of life except for the golden glow of the candles against the walls, the wax from each accumulated into small cascading piles that fell down from each table. Lyra looked towards the empty bar and grimaced, pulling a seat out slowly and sitting, her legs crossed in front of her anxiously. She had only made herself comfortable when a silky voice addressed her angrily, walking out from the shadows.
"You dare come back to this place after what you did?"
Lyra stared at the enraged vampire before her and spoke softly. "Germain. My apologies for what happened earlier this week...but the events were out of my control."
"You killed one of my oldest and most loyal servants."
"You were going to eat my friend." She said, tapping her fingers on the table impatiently. "Although you did give me quite a challenge though, even after we took our leave. That poison proved...difficult."
He laughed dangerously as he approached her, his footsteps inaudible and silent. "My most recent innovation, it proves quite useful."
"It's quite illegal." Lyra said as she narrowed her eyes. "If MACUSA knew...they would not be so pleased."
Germain scowled. "I do not think you will tell them."
"And why would you think that?"
"Because I know you need me, otherwise you would not be here." He smiled at her, his sharp pointed teeth gleaming in the candlelight. "Besides, you have always been a friend to my kind in the past. It is the only reason that you were allowed to leave...unharmed."
Lyra frowned. "I have never agreed with those who feel you should be kept far away from wizarding society, you know I used to speak out against your misfortunes...but that poison is concerning."
"It is necessary." He said, his eyes gleaming in disdain. "MACUSA has been lax in providing us the proper provisions we need to survive. It has led us back to our old ways of procuring our own food...but even still I cannot provide enough for all my children. The poison allows them to feed, well after the body has succumbed to death."
"Have you not spoken of your plight to -"
"You'll find the Magical Congress is not the same as when you were there. Not all are as...sympathetic...as you when it comes to the treatment of those of us outside the wizarding community. And none else would dare even speak on our behalf." Germain frowned. "I have decided against pursuing useless efforts while my children starve. We have instead turned towards ourselves once more."
"You will be hunted once more my old friend if you are not careful." Lyra spoke solemnly, shaking her head.
"Perhaps..." he said slyly. "Perhaps not. Madam Celestin seems quite open to providing us with what we need."
"Madam Celestin I think seeks to have her hand in every pot in this city."
Germain chuckled softly. "What else would you have us do?"
Lyra sighed and tapped her fingers on the table once more. "Forgive me for my judgement. I'm not myself...You're right in your assumption that I need something from you...and to show you that there are no hard feelings between us, I brought you a gift."
Germain raised his eyebrow skeptically. "A gift?"
"If you send one of your...children out towards the alley next to us, they'll find them."
"Them?"
"Yes. Sleeping, unaware of the world around them…I made it so. I also understand it's been awhile since we last spoke and I always knew your tastes swayed towards the fairer sex...But I couldn't remember what you preferred, blonde, brunette or a redhead. So I brought you one of each."
Germain gave her a strange look and quickly snapped his fingers towards the shadows, a vampire stepped out into the light, pale and gaunt with long blonde hair. He whispered into the vampire's ear and Lyra watched as the vampire quickly nodded and disappeared, leaving the both of them in silence.
"He's not as adept as Silas was when you..."Germain grimaced and made a small motion with his hand to complete the sentence. "But he'll learn."
Lyra frowned apologetically and opened to her mouth to say something when suddenly, the blonde vampire reappeared and nodded towards Germain, who dismissed him with the wave of his hand.
"A generous and thoughtful gift indeed." Germain said as he pulled out the chair across from Lyra and smiled, sitting down softly.
"Treat them with dignity. Do not turn them."
"You take all the fun from it. But of course, as you wish." His strange eyes glinted dangerously. "But I fail to see how could I possibly be of use to you? I hold no power that would-"
"I find myself...different." She said carefully, looking down at the flickering candles before her, her eyes focused on the flame. "And I am unsure as to why. There have been episodes...strange occurrences where I know that my body is no longer mine."
The vampire grew quiet, raising his hand to his chin as he stroked it languidly. "I understand how this would concern you. But I fear I do not know how I can help you."
"You can help me by simply doing what you do best."
"And that is?"
Lyra exposed the skin of her arm and smiled. "You are the oldest living vampire in America and I know the secrets blood can hold. Health, age, sex...for you it would be like counting the rings on a tree trunk."
Germain smiled, his white teeth sparkling. "While I'm pleased the opportunity arises once more for me to partake in how delicious wizards blood can be, I've already tasted yours earlier this week and I'm afraid to say there was nothing unusual about it."
"That's because the blood you drank was nearly five years old, my...affliction started three years after that bottle had been sealed and preserved." Lyra said quietly. "So I ask you again...will you do this for me?"
Germain stared at her carefully, the expression on his face unreadable until he sighed and nodded. "To show you there is no bad blood between us...and for your kindness to us in the past...yes. I will do it."
"A cup then please." Lyra said as she pulled the small vial of yellow-milk like liquid from her purse. Germain frowned as he looked towards the vial.
"Milk of Allium. You do not trust me."
Lyra laughed as Germain grabbed a glass from behind the bar, wiping the dust from inside as he placed it before her. "You I trust completely, your appetite...not as much. In the event that your nature overwhelms your judgement...I will drink that and my blood will become poison to you, ensuring that I leave here alive and you won't have killed an old friend."
Germain considered her words for a moment and laughed heartily, amused at her response. "Your ingenuity never ceases to delight me."
She smiled and raised her arm above the glass, Germain's cold hand sliding up her arm and grasping it firmly in place. Lyra took a deep breath and watched as he pressed a long translucent nail into the flesh of her arm and she bit her tongue quickly, stifling the cry of pain that threatened to escape her lips.
The vampire watched greedily as droplets of blood poured into the glass and spoke softly. "The root of all life..."
Her heart beat anxiously and felt her vision blur as a sudden weakness overcame her and slowly raised her hand towards the vial to her left. "Enough…". His eyes remained focused on her blood, hungry and wanton. "I said enough!"
Lyra said as she held the vial to her mouth, pulling back her arm as he quickly let it go. Realizing his transgression, he bowed his head softly and spoke. "Forgive me...the smell of blood is-intoxicating."
He pulled a napkin out from his lapel and held it over his nose while she pulled her wand out and waved it gently over her arm, murmuring as the wound slowly healed. Narrowing her eyes, she slowly pushed the cup towards him and spoke gently. "Please."
She watched in anticipation as his pale hand grabbed the glass, raising it up towards his face, swirling it around delicately before bringing it to his mouth and sipping from its well. He looked towards her eyes changing from delight to disgust as he coughed and spit the blood back into the cup, wiping the residue from his lips. Lyra felt her stomach drop and rose from her chair in alarm.
"Are you alright? What did you taste?" She said, her voice filled with concern.
He wiped his face with the fabric of his napkin and he turned his body from the cup in revulsion, pushing it towards her. "You are right to be concerned. The blood...it tastes unnatural."
"I don't understand -Unnatural?" Lyra said, her heart beating faster. "How so?"
"I do not know what it is, but your blood...there is something old about it, something wicked. I can taste the youth of your life, but behind it lurks something else...something I am not familiar with. Something cursed."
"I don't understand." She whispered, sinking back down into the chair.
He looked at her apologetically and frowned. "There is something that lives within you that should not be."
"Within me?" She bit her lip and thought quietly. "How?"
"What does that mean?"
"You share your body with something else I'm afraid, something against nature."
"Similar to lycanthropy?" She hesitantly asked, feeling foolish for her lack of understanding. Germain shook his head in disagreement as he spoke in a low voice.
"No. Lycanthropy is more simple in nature, if bitten by a wolf the blood will change, but there will be no difference in the blood extracted from the beast than the blood of the human. Both are as one. In your case it is not so. There is your blood...and there is something that lingers beside it...tainted, unpure..."
"Something else?" Lyra shifted uncomfortably in her seat. "How is that possible?"
"I'm unsure...but within the realm of magic anything is possible." Germain said, his eyes dark.
Lyra shivered and felt her skin break out into goose bumps at the idea. "It appears the situation has just gotten more complicated than I originally anticipated."
"But who am I to say?" Germain said in a light-hearted fashion, walking over towards her and placing a hand on her shoulder reassuringly. "I am not a practitioner of magic, my abilities are...stunted."
Lyra placed her delicate hand onto his and squeezed. "Thank you." She stood up from her chair and pulled the hood of her cloak over her head slowly. "I must be off to try to make sense of all this."
He smiled gently as he bowed his head. "I hope you find the answers that you seek. Farewell my old friend."
She nodded towards him and slipped out into the night, her heart heavy with the unsettling discovery.
Alrighty, another long one!
BEFORE I GO INTO A CHAPTER RECAP: I will be back at work on Tuesday, (FINALLY) life is slowly going back to normal (very slowly) from Covid 19 and I will be SWAMPED at work. I'm currently working on the next chapter and HOPE to post it on Monday (if everything goes well), but afterwards I will try my best to update atleast once every week. If at first my updates seem slow it's just because I'm pooped. But I do intend to wrap this story up within the next couple weeks I promise. So stay with me, there's so much more coming. :3
So much in this chapter to break down, Tom's going to get his chance to do some dark things next chapter. I didn't want to include it all in this one because once that gets underway, I think I'll need a full chapter to devote to what he's about to do! Anyway, we finally figured out Madam Celestin wants him for his parseltongue abilities, for her giant Horned Serpents gem! (I had a lot of fun writing that one) Vodou is rather interesting to read about, but although magical in nature is also VERY spiritual and religious and I had to draw a fine line between them to make them fit in the JK Rowling universe. I might be wrong, but religion is completely avoided in the books, so I tried to kind of completely avoid it in the story and kinda of try to avoid certain aspects. Vodou is OLD magic and comes from Africa and from what history JK Rowling released about Uagadou, African wizards do not use wands much either...so vodou not requiring a wand makes total sense to me, but I feel like they would also use certain familiar magical elements to their advantage as well (ie: apparition, wandless magic we've already seen, spell, curses etc.)
Lyra also had a part in this chapter, remember when she saved Tom, Germain knew her, so I figured this was a nice little way to wrap that up. During her time at MACUSA and afterwards it seemed that her little black book was filled with all sorts of controversial characters & due to her blurred morals I don't find it hard to imagine she would sympathize with beings who are severely misunderstood. Now onto review responses:
Kiracalico!
Once again thank you so much for your review, Fanfiction's reviews were down for a bit so I couldn't actually SEE your review until a few days later.
I do think it irks Tom to hide his magic so I can definitely see him growing his followers with THAT ideal, along with total segregation. I understand what you're saying about him being more of a zealot for change in his early years. We will DEFINATELY see him work his charm and feed people with what they want to hear to achieve his goals in the future.
You called it with parseltongue! I'm glad you got that :) He is also developing his character more and I personally think that Tom Riddle would have more "human" traits in the beginning. I think he's trying to find a line where both his dreams and his desires meet in the middle. As someone who was neglected at the most crucial point in his life, I do think he would struggle with emotional and physical urges-they're challenging and as someone who has always fallen back on books and common sense, he would find no solutions to these problems in his safety mechanisms. His entire life he's disregarded love or empathy because he hasn't been taught how to properly navigate through the discomfort those emotions would bring him. A character like Madam Celestin is great for his character development because essentially here's this badass woman who basically pulls all the strings in her city from behind the scenes, has power and also indulges herself with all the pleasures of life that he has essentially denied himself and he's seeing little by little she is unaffected by it.
In the first wizarding war he was SO charismatic, magnetic and electric that people could relate to him, they idolized him and empathized with his message so much so that they flocked to him, much like people flocked to Grindelwald.
I think Lyra will provide a challenge to him because unlike his "gang" at Hogwarts, she isn't afraid of him. She's not horrified at the cruel things he tells her and to be honest she's got so much going on it's hard for her to care because she's off just doing her own messed up things to achieve her ends. (Delivering three innocent people to the vampires to get chomped on because she needs something from Germain isn't exactly honorable) . She's independent and strong, but as a character we can see she's slightly becoming more unwound and vulnerable the more she finds out about her problem. (Mix that in with Cassian exposing her past and Tom slowly prying into her personal problems) it'll be interesting to see if he is able to break through the cracks and flaws in her character to bend her to his will or if she will realize and become completely immune to his charms. (I can't say too much because of spoilers.)
That being said I'm glad you're still hanging on and I always look forward to the reviews!
And for all the new readers, please review, favorite or follow, it brings me so much joy to know people are enjoying the work as much as I enjoy writing it!