DISCLAIMER: Harry Potters and all of its characters are the property of J.K. Rowling.
Note & Warning:
This is my first fanfiction for the HP communauty, please be kind,
English is not my first language. I don't have a beta so I use an online spelling check. So I ask for your understanding if you spot any spelling errors or wrong grammar content. I will do my best to correct them,
I will do my best for the protagonist of this story may follow as closely as possible Canon Voldemort/Tom Riddle with only a slight ajustment which will be seen later as the story unfold,
Rating: R/NC-16+. May contain adults activities such as physical violence and/or language, weapon or drugs usage which are insuitable for any children under 16,
All these following characters will be present in the story or mentionned: Lor Voldemort/Tom Marvolo Riddle/ Death Eaters(all the know gang)/ Dumbledore/ Grindelwald/ Harry Potter, etc.
There will be no romance, pairing or slash of any sort but so expect some R scenes.
CHAPTER 1: Ritus ad alma mater
The world was a dark painting.
Up. Dark. Front. Dark. Down. Dark. Side way. Dark. Behind. Dark. All in all, the darkness was everywhere. It seals all senses, shutting one off in a soundless dark world. In a dark silent world. It Engulf you in its arms like a warm blanket as it lulls you to eternal sleep in peaceful, ignorant bliss.
The world, the space was dark, still, dead. It may have stayed that way for a second, a minute, an hour, a day, a week or a year. Nobody was there to know for sure. Suddenly, out of nowhere, a somber bolt of black and green lightning scarred the dark world. It was a storm.
For the first time in what seemed like an eternity, the «dark world» seemed to breathe or had a feel of «life» to it. Huge green and darkish clouds quickly gathered and expended into the endless horizon of this strange dark world. A series of grand looking and awe aspiring dark-greenish lightning bolt the size of an insubmergible boat casually exploded in the space while cold, violent high winds were howling and raging alongside thunders, haughty torrential rain with darkish-green raindrops the size of tennis balls were trying their best to submerge the dark world.
It stayed that way once again for maybe a second, a minute, an hour, a day, a week or a year until it all came to a halt. Well, most of the strange event came to a halt. The downpour stopped and the lightning were gone. The green water was peacefully floating in the space and from time to time, ghostly fishes shaped things could be seen swimming by the edge of the water surface or deeper in it. Then later, much later, the «roof» of the world collapsed. A large piece of the «up» part collapsed on the «down» part of the world. That large piece of darkness looked just like jelly in shape and texture. It made some sort of separation between the «up» and «down» part of the «dark world.»
It added an edge. A beginning and an ending to this world. The «up» piece of darkness, first coiled, then crawled and glided before it went still. Now the piece of darkness was jelly no more. With a glance, it had some who took the texture of soft «soil.» Black «soil.» The newly but bizarre change allowed the «dark world» to get ride of its excess of water. The new «ground» greedily absorbed an impressive amount of water. Within a radius of 100m of this black «soil», surrounded by the left over water, on a sort of mound a young shoot grew in the new «soil». The shoot swiftly grew into a young sapling then into a massive tree which was equal to the height of four men standing on each others shoulders. The tree was odd looking with its base ebony colored until the middle of its trunk then the color of its barks and leaves gradually took a dark-green pigmentation.
Strangely, the center of the tree was nearly hollow. Inside the heart of the great tree, lay a transparent sac half the size of the tree's hole. The sac seemed to be alive as it was pulsating rhythmically like a heart and was supplied by nerves and blood vessels emerging from the tree itself. But the most disgusting thing had yet to come; something was inside the sac, squirming around in a liquid so thick it was difficult to distinguish its features. It even pushed the sac sheet a little bit in what was unconscious movement. And each time the tree pulsed, the thing visually grew bigger. The tree also grew but in a more subdued speed.
The tree wasn't the only one growing. On its dark branches, bloomed stunning dark star-shaped flowers the size of a grown man fist. Its roots also grew hapily; quickly out growing the «black soil» nursing him. It robustly cradled around it, holding it securely. The ones who weren't faring so well were the « dark space » and the entire greenish water body. Its level was dropping as fast as the tree rose in height. The «soil» and «water» (along with the odd fish inside it) were most likely supplied to the tree to help its enormous growth. As for the space, it was shrinking to an outstanding speed visible to the naked eyes, following along the fate of the «soil» and «water.»
Simply put, that stand-alone «space » or «world », was collapsing on itself. The cause? The dark tree this world birthed. Or was it the fault of the thing growing inside the tree's heart ? Maybe.
Slowly but surely, the world died; leaving only the tree holding its dear ball of «black soil» and the rhythmic heartbeat growing louder and louder until a gigantic popping noise just like when a combat plane pierces the sound barrier (destroying your ear canal along with it) type of sound. When this happened, the already dead world grew silent; as if it was waiting patiently for some extraordinary things to happen. Which it did.
The hollow of the semi ebony-green colored tree glowed into a rather suspicious but thin ray of red-colored light, violent winds suddenly picked up out of nowhere, the star-shaped flowers gracefully fell completely unbothered by the wind storm raging around and lastly but not the least, a thick yellowed viscous looking liquid overflowed from the hole.
Then the loudest scream one could possibly ever heard in his life was belted out by the creature the tree… birthed.
2 May 1998, in the Great Hall of Hogwarts Castle,
A somewhat golden-reddish glow suddenly illuminates everything; be it them or the surrounding. These were the first rays sunlight coming through the large Gothic windows of the great hall. The sunlight was so intense, it somewhat erased the features of the two men standing opposite each other. And together, simultaneously, for the last time, they yelled their most used spell :
''Avada Kedavra !''
''Expelliarmus !''
A resounding explosion occurred. Voldemort saw, powerless, how his own curse whom bounced back toward himself. Then… nothing.
A man slowly opened his eyes. His form was sprawled out on… something he didn't know. Beside that, everything that caught his eyes was a blurry mess. He blinked and blinked until his eyesight went back to normal. Still, it seemed like doing this motion only gave him a growing headache. It was as if million of needles were prickling at every nook and cranny of his brain.
He closed his eyes a little. He, then, took a breath and re-opened them. The first thing he saw was darkness and a faint green light glowing everywhere around him. All he could see was only darkness and a green aura gliding sluggishly past him without hurting him or anything else. It was just… there, existing.
The Dark lord, Lord Voldemort, for the second time in his life frowned.
The Dark lord didn't understand what was happening or what he was even looking at. One moment he was in the Great Hall of Hogwarts and the next he was… there. The man looked around him. There was nothing. No Harry Potter. No Death Eaters. No spectating people. Nothing and no only thing the Dark lord could see there, was the impressive and large tree. A tree with a semi ebony-green like trunk and tiny dark fruits. Voldemort was perplexed. The tree some who looked familiar to him. He stepped closer to it. Inspecting it very carefully before he extended his hand to touch the ebony and soft trunk of the tree. The familiarity he felt under his fingers almost made him laugh.
''Yew.'' Thought the Dark wizard.
But he also noticed almost as soon as he stood before the tree touching its smooth surface, the strong, recognizable, pungent smell of very strong Dark magic. The foul smell was coming from the tree's center. He stared at a puddle of yellow goo by the tree's roots with slight distaste.
''What could have possibly happened in here ?'' Voldemort asked out loud.
Unexpectedly a prompt reply came from behind the tree.
''This place here is the Earth-nurturing mother's ritual ground…''
Voldemort immediately went battle ready, when he realised, a little late, he didn't have any wand on him. Meanwhile, the voice was soon accompanied by a body. It was a tall and handsome young man with dark eyes, pale skin and medium jet-black hair. A charming, almost disarming smile was tugging the corner of his lips. The new arrival lazily conjured a black robe out of thin… swirls of darkness. The robe snuggly wrapped around him, concealing his naked body from view.
It was a twenty or thirty years old version of the Dark lord himself.
Upon seeing the newly arrived person, Voldemort face freely displayed his surprise for a short second before putting back his mask of indifference. Only his eyes were carefuly scrutinizing the young man with the top accuracy of a A-list muggle microscope. The younger version of the Dark lord was also doing the same. Observing his older self. He narrowed his eyes, not liking very much what he was seeing. This version of himself must have found a very different way to immortality. And physical attractiveness wasn't it selling point. But he knew he would have done the same. Trading looks for eternal life ? Fear enough.
They stood in silence for a long, long time. Neither of them wanted to be the first one to speak up. Mind games, even against yourself, were keys to control any given situation or people after all. And Lord Voldemort loved his mind games.
The younger Voldemort smiled. Even if he lost the first step to control the flow of this conversation, he had the ''home'' advantage. The young Voldemort smile grew even bigger as he spoke first.
''Well, first thing first, right now you are dead.''
The Dark lord senior stared at his younger self without a trace of emotion breaking his unconserned reptile like features.
''I can tell.'' Sneered the Dark lord.
Younger Voldemort nodded.
''As expected of myself.''
The older Dark lord didn't care enough to reply to that. He asked a question instead.
''This here is ?'' The older Dark lord asked as his gaze scanned their surrounding.
''Like a said earlier, this place is the Earth-nurturing mother's ritual ground. It is a useful rite where one summons magical Mother eath herself. If Mother deems you worthy, she will let you use her magic whom has a multitude of interesting properties. One of such properties is the linking to any magical Earth and allows one to converse with a dead version of him/herself just hours after his/her death from the Earth he/ she comes from.''
Impassible, the older Dark lord stared at his younger self. The older Voldemort rolled the word ''Earth-nurturing mother's ritual'' under his tongue, quickly shuffling through, at the same time, a great amount of Dark rites in his head. He didn't know about this rite. he was forced to concede that he had never heard of it. Just how did his younger self from this alternate world got hold of such a fantastic piece of magic and he missed this opportunity. In this single sentence, he revealed a considerable amount of information and hide some more from him. But what does it matter ? He is already dead and can't do much. And it seemed like his younger self… wasn't. Voldemort then focused his attention on the new intel. This younger version of him was from another earth. Great.
''Looking at him, the event I just went through didn't happen to him yet. So he must have graduated from Hogwarts a long time ago already and his traveling around the world to deepen his knowledge one the Dark art and find a way to eternal life''. Voldemort snorted. He quickly cast a glance around him. The closed of dark space, the ebony yew tree and dark soil, the yellow goo and that pungent smell of potent dark magic. the older Dark wizard was sure of it now. "He must have discovered another way to immortality beside the horcux and succeded where I... failed".
''Quite impressive, indeed.'' He admitted coldly.''Now, what do you want ? I am pretty sure you didn't summon me here for nothing. This… marvellous rite of your isn't one some block can use whenever they want, I assume.''Voldemort declared with an evident lack of concern. ''The price to pay must be very, very high for you.''
Younger Voldemort lips stretched into the likeliness of what seemed to be a deformed smile.
''An hefty sum but it is worth it.'' The young Dark wizard assented.
Voldemort clasped his hands behind his back.
''And I do believe it is since I am standing right in front of you instead of…'' He trailed. But younger Voldemort understood what he had left unsaid. Younger Voldemort gazed at his older self. His avid eyes burned with desire now. He almost looked voracious. Voldemort didn't even blink at the sudden change.
''What do you want from me ?'' Voldemort whispered, knowing what the young man wanated of him, his eyes not leaving for a second the familiar face of his long gone youth in front of him. And his younger self stared right back at him. Almost like they were looking through a reversed mirror showing a distant potential future and a past one.
''Your last breath.'' The Dark lord unveiled in a tranquil, drawled out voice.