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.
The world had all but stood still, a loud ringing rising in her ears, the blinding white abyss consuming her senses. Without warning she felt herself falling for what to her seemed like ages when suddenly she felt water beneath her, swallowing her body whole as she plunged down into it's dark and murky depths. Her heart beating heavily in her chest, Lyra slowly opened her eyes, expecting to see nothing but the brilliant light that had blinded her before and gasped, the small bubbles of air bursting from her lips in surprise at her surroundings, a cruel sea of black that twisted around her.
"Where am I?"
Looking upwards, she anticipated seeing the sun above the surface, it's bright rays shining down towards her and panicked when a mirrored image of herself rising into the sea looked back at her. There was no sun, no light, only darkness and a never ending chasm of ocean.
All at once the pressure in her chest rose, her heartbeat pounding loudly in her head as she struggled to contain her breath, searching desperately for a way to escape. A sharp pain exploded in her side as she silently screamed, clutching it in agony as she tried to swim towards the surface, towards anything that would grant her respite. Her efforts proved useless for no matter how hard she struggled and kicked to propel herself upwards towards the strange mirrored image she saw, her body would not rise. It felt as if an invisible cord had tethered her to the ocean floor dragging her down to her demise, her body descending into darkness like smoke on the wind.
After moments of continued struggling she finally resigned herself to her fate, feeling herself drift further and further down, her reflection above becoming a speck before finally disappearing, the lack of oxygen burning like acid in her lungs. With one last gasp, the remaining air she had possessed escaped her lips, the bubbles floating up towards the surface they would never reach and her eyes closed, the weak thumps of her heart fading slowly in her ears.
"So this must be how it ends." She thought as her body peacefully relaxed, awaiting the hands of death. "Madam Celestin...the strange vial…"
Perhaps it had been a ruse all along. She knew better than to consume strange potions whose origins were concealed, but it had been all too tempting.
"-when death comes for you, do not be like others and fill your heart with fear...because if you have lived life true to yourself, there will be nothing to regret." Her mother's words echoed through the back of her mind, lingering like smoke in the wind. She felt a sardonic smile tug on the corners of her cheeks as she waited.
"Have I ever really lived for myself? Certainly not these past two years…" Her heart beat slowed in her chest as she tried to soothe her mind. "-none of that matters now. I'm not afraid to die...and if my time has arrived, then so be it. Perhaps this is for the best..."
Existence for her had all but stopped and as her consciousness started to fade, ready to part from the life she had been so accustomed she slowly felt her body rise, shooting through the black unknown rapidly.
"Is this how it feels to die?" She pondered weakly. Moments had passed and without warning she felt the water around her disappear, like a plug had been pulled from the drain and she realized her body had landed on a warm soft surface.
She took a large gasp of air, grasping at her throat and felt the oxygen burn all the way down into her chest, her heart beating in relief. Clutching at the soft earth below her, her fingers raked against small granules that felt all too familiar, yet out of place.
"Is that...sand?" She coughed once more and winced, trying to steady her breathing. "That would make sense...there's always sand somewhere by the sea…"
Feeling the sun on her face, she opened her eyes slowly, her ears no longer ringing and listening for the familiar sound of sea birds and the crashing of waves. But there was nothing and only an eerie silence met her, followed by a scorching heat. Another gasp escaped her lips as the scenery unfurled before her, she was no longer in the ocean or anywhere near a beach-she was in the middle of an endless, barren desert.
"These are sand dunes...but how did I end up here? I don't understand."
The ground below her started to sear her skin, the dry white powdery earth she lay upon as hot as the malevolent sun she had initially welcomed. Lyra quickly tried to stand, separating herself from the unforgiving wasteland as she wiped the sand from her hands, rubbing them against her sides.
"What's happening?"
Tom watched the scene unfold before him, Madam Celestin in a trance-like state, her reflection upon the mirror strange and distorted, the white of her eyes exposed and bulging as her eyelids fluttered, her hands grasped tightly to the elaborate frame. His eyes flicked towards Lyra, her face scrunched in pain as she whimpered and trembled against the dirt she had collapsed onto.
He held his hand out and stepped forward to awaken Madam Celestin as he had been instructed, but stopped when her neck snapped upwards and she blinked, her eyes returning back to their original shade of liquid onyx. She rubbed her face and placed the mirror down on the ground, picking herself up slowly.
"So it was a lie when you told her that my help was required for this." He said softly.
Madam Celestin smirked and sniffed her nose in the air, walking towards him. "I told her what was necessary for the both of us."
"No you told her what was necessary for you to get what you wanted." Tom thought plainly.
He frowned as he looked down at Lyra's body as it seized on the ground, gasping sounds emanating from her lips and he sharply turned towards Madam Celestine. "What's happening to her?"
"She is perhaps gaining the answers she needs." She shrugged as she looked towards him. "This is all I can do for her… There is darkness within her. Darkness that is unfamiliar to me. Before a problem can be fixed, she must know what it is she is dealing with...but I am not the one who can give her answers, only she can do that. Your friend is powerful, she does not even understand her own capabilities I think..."
Tom frowned as looked towards Lyra once more, his eyes racing over the black serpent on her arm and spoke quietly. "Will she be alright?"
She smirked and let out a small laugh, quietly nodding. "Yes. But diving down into one's own subconscious is not an easy feat, the body may be willing...but the mind can be a tricky place."
Her voice wandered off as she grimaced. "So often we are consumed by our thoughts, but one should be careful to not drown in the depths of what is and what could be-"
Madam Celestin looked towards Lyra as she writhed in pain on the ground. "-I think your friend will experience far more than her fair share of pain before she finds what she is looking for."
His eyes still trailed the dark mark upon her arm, feeling a strange twinge rise in his stomach. "When will she wake?"
"When I tell her to." Madam Celestin grinned darkly as she gestured towards Zombi who uncurled himself from the chair and made his way towards her, slithering up into her arms. "But for now, it is time for us to settle our agreement."
His eyes narrowed sharply. "Damnit...I hadn't planned on such a complication. I should have expected that Madam Celestin would not be careless in her efforts to protect her own interests."
Tom turned away from Lyra's tormented body, pulling his eyes away from the serpent he had branded on her skin, if he should feel guilt for his actions of deceit, it did not fester within him. Everything that had happened tonight was for a reason and he could not bring himself to regret such things or waste time worrying about uncertainty, if all went according to his plan they would both benefit from its magic.
His attention switched to Celestin carefully and he nodded, his heart skipping in anticipation as she reached into her robes and pulled the green stone from her pocket, her hands cupping it gently. Zombi hissed as he beheld it and curled tighter around her, his yellow eyes focused on Tom.
"I must be careful as to not alert the snake to any my intentions. This will take all of my concentration."
Reaching his hand out towards the gem, he watched as Madam Celestin pulled back slightly, narrowing her eyes in suspicion. Zombi hissed at her adverse reaction.
He looked towards the snake, smiling reassuringly and spoke in parseltongue. The gem started to gleam brightly at the sound of his voice. "I mean you or your master no harm. You have no reason to distrust me."
"I disstrusst everyone." Zombi hissed and hummed, looking back towards her as the emerald glow danced across her face, the greed and anticipation spreading across her features.
"I have never seen one of your kind so devoted to one who does not speak the same tongue." Tom spoke softly, his words concealed from the old witch. Zombi stared at him and blinked, his forked tongue darting in and out from his mouth.
"I am loyal to the one that givess me life...that nourishess my body and in return I nourish herss. I am not bound or tethered to a cage as others would have me. With her my life is eternal, our existence is lived as one."
Tom smiled delicately and thought to himself. "Interesting. Perhaps there are more uses for snake venom than I had initially thought. I shall have to look further into this matter when I'm not as...engaged."
He looked towards the monarchical witch once more and held his hand out slowly. "May I?"
She nodded her head slowly and hesitantly dropped the stone into his outstretched palm, rubbing her hands together frantically as he observed it.
"Beautiful, is it not?" She whispered, her eyes still focused on its radiant glow.
"Quite."
"I need her to wake Lyra up before I attempt what I'm about to do…"
Tom raised his hand towards his face and closed his pale fingers around it, bringing it up towards his lips, pausing only momentarily, his mind racing for a solution. His eyes searched Madam Celestin's face as he caught a glimpse of the woman laying on the floor behind them.
"Perhaps the diversion could be as simple as..."
"What is wrong?" She asked curiously, her eyes breaking away from the gem, following his gaze. She smiled as she turned towards him once more and let out a small laugh. "You are distracted."
Her jest was met with a cold silence as she sighed and shook her head. "I think you care for the girl much more than you are willing to admit." She turned around and snapped her fingers, Lyra's body no longer seizing on the ground, falling still and silent.
"This is your opportunity. Do it now."
Tom stared at the gem carefully and watched as it disappeared from his hands for a fraction of a second, replaced with the imposter stone he had transfigured from the river, feeling a small weight rise and fall into his right pocket.
The old witch turned around towards him and spoke hastily. "There. The trance has been broken and she will awaken soon. No more distractions, no more delays!"
Zombi hissed at him and bared his fangs, feeding off the witch's impatience. "Do it now or sshe will lose her patience…Do it now!"
He brought the imposter stone up to his lips, hoping that his spells he set in place would work as they had last night. There was no room for error, everything had to go accordingly. Breathing in slowly, he whispered in the language he had known since his childhood, that had set him apart from all others and that had first signified he was destined for greatness.
"Open yourself to me and show me the power you hold."
Lyra coughed as her lungs still tried to recover from the agonizing pain they had endured only moments before, shielding her eyes from the flaming spectre above.
"What does any of this mean?"
She felt her feet sink into the endless pits of sand around her and frowned, shielding her face from the wind that suddenly began to whip around her, granules of salt and earth stinging the exposed parts of her body. She struggled to bulwark herself against the merciless climate and started to walk aimlessly towards the horizon.
"I need to keep moving."
She felt the malevolent sun beat down on her as she continued on for what had felt like hours, her tongue dry and parched in her mouth, her lips chapped and bleeding, her throat screaming for the water she had not so long ago wished to escape. Lyra felt her legs start to shake, the effects of dehydration finally consuming her and she stumbled, falling into the sand softly.
Turning her head towards the sun, she watched as the sky started to erupt, the red sky turning into violent shades of fire before her, the clouds starting to break apart and gather into strange shapes and she watched helplessly as the sun turned black, the strange shapes gathering around it.
Against the black backdrop of the sun, the clouds gathered into a crescent like shape, its horns turned down towards the desert as two circular halos attached themselves to both points facing downwards. Running vertically through the strange insignia was a large sword with three handles, each larger than the next as they ascended upwards.
"I've seen this before…"
She stared strangely at the strange shape in the sky, her eyes transfixed and watched as it floated closer and closer, encompassing the horizon before her. Echoes of a woman's voice filled her ears, familiar shrieks flooded her head and she closed her eyes, bringing her hands up to her head trying to block out the noise. Lyra felt herself tremble as she tried to expel them from her head, holding her breath until they suddenly stopped, the world changing around her once more.
The air was damp and fragrant, the smell all too familiar as she opened her eyes, knowing what would be surrounding her. She found herself in the middle of the woods, a thick fog encompassing her surroundings as it always had been in her dreams. The smell of earth and wet leaves comforted her as her fingers dragged the ground, the soil packing itself underneath her fingernails.
But unlike so many times it had played out before, the familiar visions did not come. Instead she was assaulted by whispers, unknown voices that remained hidden to her behind the thick smog of the forest. Lyra tried to follow the sounds that echoed around her throughout the woods, some felt familiar, some she did not recognize and as they filled her head, two voices started to rise above the others, growing louder and closer. One in a language she knew, the other in a tongue she could not understand but had heard before in these very same woods. As she opened her lips to call out towards them she stopped, a strange pulling sensation rising from within her stomach. Without warning the trees around her started to catch on fire, one by one and slowly spread to the leaves on the ground, the forest around her full of smoke and embers.
She coughed, gagging on the thick smoke that burned her eyes and tried to cover her mouth with the back of her hand as the flames consumed everything around her.
And all at once she felt herself rise up into the air, floating gently up through the tops of the trees, away from the smoke and hellfire, away from the familiar forest and back towards reality.
The cold hard dirt of the bayou pressed against her face. The feeling of the fire warming her skin from afar.
It had all been a dream.
Or a series of strange visions.
But the voice from within the woods had remained and it was still conversing only a few feet away from where she lay.
Lyra opened her eyes groggily, her head still pressed against the ground and listened to the man's voice murmuring in the strange tongue, in a tone she was all too familiar with.
"That voice…that language..." She thought as she saw footsteps walk calmly towards her, the familiar gait all too recognizable.
"Tom?"
Tom felt the gem in his pocket thrum at the sound of his voice, responding to the tongue of its origins and he smiled. Opening his palm slowly, a small green light exuded from the fake stone and he could only revel in his cleverness for mere moments before it was snatched greedily from his hands, Madam Celestin wrapping her fingers around it and pulling it back into her possession, her eyes staring hungrily at the gem.
"Now that your end of the bargain has been fulfilled, your business is done here." She exclaimed, her voice no longer honeyed and sweet, but cold and harsh. The white snake coiled around her shoulders threatened him with a low hiss and swayed dangerously in his direction.
Tom heard a small groan from behind her and turned his head sharply, his attention focused on Lyra as he pushed past the dark witch and towards her, kneeling down into the dirt to help her.
"Tom?" She said weakly as she struggled to push herself off the ground.
"We need to go." He said flatly, his arms wrapping around her shoulders as he helped her to her feet, her body still disoriented from her mind altering experience. "We need to leave before she discovers the stone is a fake." Tom thought to himself as he grimaced, looking at the disoriented woman in front of him. "Although I didn't account for Lyra's current state…"
"What-I don't understand...I still have questions."
"None of that matters right now, we need to go." He whispered into her ear as he pulled her onto her feet and placed her arm around his neck, steadying her weight against his body.
She nodded slowly as she leaned on him for support, letting him take the lead. "I don't understand...why are we leaving in such a hurry?"
He hastily pulled her along, walking past the roaring fire and into the dark swamps, away from Madam Celestin and her horde of subordinates, their shadows dancing strangely across the trees as they made their way further into the wilderness.
Lyra felt her feet drag beneath her, the world still spinning and dragging around her as if she had been drugged and felt her legs buckle beneath her.
"Stand up!" Tom hissed as he whirled around to chastise her. "You can rest when we've left this place-"
"Why is he acting like this?"
Stung by the venom in his voice, Lyra looked up towards him and frowned. She parted her lips to chastise him but glanced quickly over her shoulder at the sound of a large shriek from behind them, emanating from the clearing they had just left.
"THIEVES!"
A voice that sounded like Celestin's echoed off in the distance and she watched as the shadowed figures suddenly stood still against the trees and turned towards them, the steady drumbeats of the night eerily disappearing.
"GET THEM! BRING THEM TO ME!"
"What did you do?" Lyra turned towards Tom and asked suspiciously, her eyes searching his face.
He glanced towards her and took his wand out, his voice soft and cold. "What I needed."
"What you needed?" She asked, her voice full of anger. "Tell me what you did."
"I'm afraid there isn't time for that now." He said as he pulled her off the ground to her feet once more, grasping as her dress. "We need to get away from here, quickly, the farther the better-"
"I'm not taking us anywhere until you tell me-" Lyra pulled herself free of his grasp and pulled her wand from her pocket, aiming it towards him when a curse suddenly flew between them and crashed against a tree in the distance. She stumbled backwards into a cypress tree, its lifted trunk breaking her fall.
"It's too late." He scowled as he watched the hooded acolytes of Madam Celestin flood into the woods around them, flinging curses and hexes in their direction.
Lyra watched as the hooded figures started to descend upon them, Tom dodging their spells as he retaliated, the air crackling with green light around them as she tried to regain her balance, her head still spinning from dreams she had just awoken from.
"Damn it Tom. What have you done?"
A rebounding curse flew into the tree she had been leaning against and she dodged out the way as the bark exploded from it's surface, feeling the dirt and rocks scrape against her knees, a familiar stinging sensation burning her skin as blood oozed forth from her fall. She felt the anger rise in her stomach at the pain, her ears ringing from the noises flying past her ear. Looking towards Tom, she watched as a few of the hooded figures encompassed him, the swamp lighting up in a sea of blue and green as the spells flew back and forth.
Raising her wand, she set her eyes upon the group of figures and opened her mouth to aid him when a nearby hex flew past her ear, grazing her cheek as she felt a laceration form on her skin. Glaring in the direction it came, her eyes fell upon the small witch Alarie, who pointed her hand towards her, her eyes full of malice and contempt. She grinned at Lyra, watching in satisfaction as the crimson liquid poured from her cheek and flicked her finger once more.
"I might not have all my strength back yet, but I will not die here. Not like this." Lyra thought as she flicked her wand viciously and sent a curse towards the small girl, blowing her off her feet, her body landing towards a nearby grove of trees. Alarie let out a small scream as her body met the ground with a sickly crunch and Lyra standing once more, ignored the dizziness swirling around her head as she made her way quickly towards her. The girl's body was crumpled upon the dirt, her leg broken and bent in an awkward direction as she groaned in pain.
She quickly swished her wand again, her hands trembling angrily and watched as the roots of a nearby cypress tree rose above the ground and enveloped the witch's body, pulling her tightly into its base, the wood groaning. She gasped in pain and stared at Lyra through cold, hateful eyes.
"Why are you doing this?" Lyra hissed as she placed her wand to the girls face, watching as she gasped for breath. Alarie spit on the ground and let out a ragged laugh, a small groan escaping her lips as Lyra waved her wand at the roots, their grip constricting tighter.
"Tell me."
The girl coughed and gasped, her words short and staggered. "Your friend...he stole something...something that was not his...she wants it back."
"Wants what back?"
Alarie let out a small laugh and scratched her fingernails desperately against the roots that held her, trying to breathe. "Your friend has...played a dangerous game...one that he was...always destined to lose."
"One that he was always destined to lose...what does that mean?"
"Explain." She said coldly as the girl coughed and ignored her demand, waving her wand to loosen the roots temporarily. Alarie gasped for air and continued slowly, a wicked grin tugging at her lips.
"Your friend has seen things that no other has been allowed to witness, he knows too much. This is unacceptable. None ever leave here with knowledge of what we do in the shadows. Madam Celestin sees to it."
"That means…"
"We were never supposed to make it away from here tonight." Lyra said softly, her mind turning. "Whether he meant it or not...Tom was right about her."
"Madam will see that your friend drowns in a pool of his own blood after what he's done and you will suffer alongside him. Perhaps she'll use your bones to make-"
Lyra frowned as she jabbed her wand towards the roots once more, unwilling to hear the rest of her threat. She watched callously as the girls eye's bulged, a small gurgling escaping from her lips as the sound of crushing bones filled her ears.
"No one determines my fate but me." She whispered as she looked at the girl's lifeless body, watching a trickle of blood flow forth from between her parted lips. "Not Madam Celestin, not anyone…"
A green bolt lit up the sky and she turned her head towards Tom, still dueling a hoard of the black hooded wizards. A dark figure caught her eye from across the bayou and she watched as Madam Celestin entered the woods, the large white snake at her feet and immediately felt her blood run cold, watching as they made her way towards him.
"I need to get to him...before she does."
Lyra started to run, the night air clawing at her face as she dodged curses, sending them back towards the figures concealed in the woods, making her way towards him, her heart beating heavily as she blasted through the wraith like beings.
"I see you're finally on your feet." He said snidely as he dodged a curse, sending another one back as its target crumpled to the ground in pain.
"No thanks to you." She said, muttering a spell under her breath as she vanquished another acolyte, the ground swallowing him whole as she focused her attention upon another.
"I've been a little busy." He growled as he took down one more, swearing under his breath as a hex flew over his head.
"This is useless! They keep coming, there's no end to them."
Tom looked at the exposed skin of one of the fallen figures, his eyes tracing the dark tattoo upon his skin and frowned. "That's because she keeps summoning more of her followers."
"We need to leave before she gets to us." Lyra said as she pointed towards the approaching figure of Madam Celestin. "But I can't apparate us out of here and constantly keep having to deflect spells at the same time."
"I have a few choice spells on my tongue, but I'm afraid my options are a little limited due to your country's ridiculous rules." Tom said sarcastically as he stunned another, wiping the sweat from his brow.
She frowned as more wizards appeared before them, it seemed as if when one was defeated two more had taken their place, making escape seem impossible.
"There is one spell…but this wand can be difficult..."
She paused as she looked at the old wand in her hands and quickly reached into her purse, summoning out the small gold box and plucking her new wand from within its velvet interior, its handle and feel foreign to her as she pointed it towards the growing hoard before them. "Now's as good a time as any to give this a test run."
"Well here goes nothing..." she murmured, closing her eyes she spoke the words she needed firmly, bracing herself for what she knew was to come, her heart beating in excitement. "Eviscero Totalum!"
Tom watched as a single white spark flew past him from the tip of her wand and exploded into what appeared shards, each sliver racing towards an intended victim, the screams around them growing like cannonball fire. He winced as blood and tissue flew forward from the wizard towards his right, splashing across his body like falling rain and he wiped the debris from his eyes, surveying the damage.
It was a grisly scene, each body laid on the bayou floor in a crumpled heap, their robes slashed open, their innards pouring out of gushing wounds that had silenced them forever. He felt Lyra's hand grab his arm, now slick with blood and felt the familiar twist in his stomach as they were pulled away from the swamp. The last thing he could hear was the sound of Madam Celestin's bloodcurdling scream echoing off in the background as they disapparated, the ground crumbling away from his feet.
Madam Celestin walked around, her bare feet soaked in the blood of her fallen comrades as she made her way back towards the lit fire in the clearing of the bayou, hatred churning in her heart. Looking towards the ground, she noticed a long dark hair laying before her in the dirt and smiled, picking it up gently.
"Zombi...it seems our friends have gotten away." She whispered softly as she sat down in her chair, holding the long strand of hair in her hand, gently smiling. "But it is no matter. They will receive their just reward."
The snake hissed as she reached into the chest next to the chair, her dark fingers wrapping around two crudely formed wax carvings and placed them gently in her lap. She pulled a small glass vial from her pocket and held it up towards the light, it's contents a single strand of short black hair.
Pulling the elaborate scarf from her head, she rubbed the smooth dark scalp that lay underneath, closing her eyes in concentration. After a moment, she laughed cruelly, shaking the vial and the long strand of hair in her hands towards Zombi, who hissed in response, coiling defensively against her feet. Talking to him gently, as if a mother would speak to her child, she took each strand carefully and wrapped them around the sculptures in her lap.
"Hair is a powerful ingredient and in many spells it can be used against you. Now you see why it is I have none." She ran her hands across her polished head and grinned evilly. "Let us now give our slippery friends what they deserve."
Zombi bobbed his head and slithered up into her lap, his bright yellow eyes watching as she spoke, holding the wax figure with Tom's hair wrapped around it, bringing it towards her face.
"One day Tom, when you have reached the height of your power and your dreams are almost within reach, a storm will come and it will shake you to your roots, breaking them wide open. All your desires, all your efforts will burn to the ground and float around you like ash on the wind. Even in death you will find no solace from your own failures."
She tossed the wax into the fire and watched as the flames turned blue, a smile tugging at her cheeks before she picked up the final wax mold wound with Lyra's hair. "-And for you mon cheri, all beautiful things must end...in the finish you will be left alone, with only your own two eyes looking back at you, for even all the prettiest things are destined to rot. You will fall apart like a flower, your petals and leaves hitting the ground around you as you wilt away."
With one last look at the sculpture, she tossed it into the fire and watched the fire turn an azulean blue, her eyes twinkling as she crossed her legs and stared into its depths. The large white snake curling up in her lap as she stroked its head lovingly.
"Sometimes vengeance brings forth the sweetest fruit."
Finally finished this, I know my update is like two weeks behind. Work has been crazy and I've had zero chance to sit down for a few hours at a time and write. So another long chapter, this one beginning with Lyra's dream/vision sequence. In voodoo there are a lot of rituals that involve self exploration/self expansion that involve mirrors So I kind of mashed them together a bit to create a method that would use "the cosmic ocean of light" (No I didn't make that up, it's literally what it's called.), to allow her to peer deep into her subconscious and find the answers in her. Lot's of symbolism and imagery going on in every sequence she experiences, ie: Drowning, Fire etc. Tom got his stone, although things didn't quite go the way he wanted and we found out that although he told Lyra they couldn't trust Madam Celestin to suit his own needs and hide his own deceit...it actually turned out to be true. It was all a ruse of her own to acquire Tom's skill and when she no longer had need of them, she had plans of her own to kill them. The end of the chapter ends with her creating pseudo voodoo dolls to curse them, will it work? Hm...I'd have to say Tom's is quite accurate on his rise to power as Lord Voldemort and all of his failures to succeed. We also get a little insight into the powers of snake venom here, if I were to make a side by side comparison, I would think Zombi is to Celestin what Nagini becomes to Lord Voldemort. Celestin uses Zombi to elongate her life, restore herself and really uses him for most of her magical rituals. Voldemort lived off Nagini's "milk" (really Nagini's venom. When you take venom from a snake's fangs it's called milking.) and used it to restore his own body on his second rise to power.
Well that's pretty much the recap. Thanks to all my new followers for reading! (Now onto reviews!)
Awel0908: Thank you so much for your review, I'm so glad you like it! I have tried to make this as canon compliant as possible & I really do try to keep Tom in character as much as I can. Tom's definitely evolving and we will definitely start to see more and more of this as the years to come pass in his journey. I really try to do my research on folklore to incorporate it properly & I'm always going back and forth between the Harry Potter books to make sure I'm not contradicting canon details (This is what takes me so long sometimes to write a chapter!). Thank you so much for reading & I hope you enjoy everything else to come in the story/series!