Chapter 10: The Truth

"Look, Harry. I want you to keep an open-mind with this, and let me finish before reacting. Okay?"

His tone frustrated me a little, he was clearly worried. As if I was going to be close-minded with him, I'd be open to everything about him. I just kept quiet, not reacting as I was sure he wasn't finished. He looked at me and the corners of his lips, probably understanding my slight sass, but feeling amused by it. He reached out to touch my face, and I leaned into his touch. The bundle squirmed in the other man's arms, and this sharp pain sparked in my scar. I fell to the floor, clutching my head and screaming. I was just aware enough to hear a voice I almost didn't recognise snarl to the bundle. I'd never heard Tom be so hard and cold. There was a rasp, but I couldn't hear it fully. The pain stopped. I felt hands on me and on instinct forced them away and sprang up to run.

Tom moved too, except he moved to block the cup from me. He was blocking my escape because he knows I know what must be in that bundle for it to hurt me so bad. I looked to face, hardened from emotions he was trying to hide, and he wasn't giving me the answer he needed. I needed him to tell me he wasn't a spy, or whatever, leading me here to die like Peter did to my parents but worse. I thought he really loved me. I straightened, closing my eyes and waiting. For him to speak, for him to move, or for someone to kill me. Eventually, he spoke.

"I've lied to you, but I think you've figured that out, and nothing serious has been a lie. My name is Tom, the story of my birth parents is true. I just don't have other parents, and I didn't go to Durmstrang." He paused, "My full name is Tom Marvolo Riddle, I grew up in 1930s London, and I grew up to become the most powerful dark wizard in history."

My eyes snapped open as he used his wand to write his name in the air with burning letters. They shuffled and became 'I AM LORD VOLDEMORT'. My breathing stopped. I was confused, I didn't understand how any of this was happening, as there were two murderers in front of me. The other man held the bundle out to Tom, who took himself[?], so the man could set out a cauldron for some ritual. He was going to use me for this, to bring back that monster that murdered my parents. He was the monster that murdered my parents. Wait!

"You showed up two years ago. Near enough just as Ginny died. Tell me that wasn't you."

He looked at me, and his eyes showed no repentance. My heart couldn't take much more, but I needed answers so I braved the pain. I asked how he did it, every detail, and why he'd played around with me. Befriending me to get me here, I understood, but pretending to love me was just cruel. He looked around for a place to dump the bundle, dropping it on a rock and coming towards me. I moved back but hit a tombstone, and he caught me. He looked like he couldn't decide if he wanted to be angry or sad.

"I will admit my deception, and explain how I murdered Ginny Weasley without remorse as you requested, but don't you dare start to question how I feel for you." He whispered, almost a growl. "I'm part of Voldemort, a shard of his soul trapped in a diary for 50 years, able to gain corporeal life by taking Ginny's. She poured her thoughts into the pages and allowed me to possess her mind. The writing on the walls and victims were her, I made her do everything. I waited in the chamber for hours for you to come to get her, but you didn't, so I snuck out through the Forbidden Forest. Technically, the weakling in the blanket is my full form. You're here because I want to use your blood to combine us, so I can gain my strength and memories, while he retains sanity. Will you help?"

I didn't know what to do, or what to believe. After everything he's said, and the things I now know he's done, this is the point of no return. I could let that influence me and turn away from him. I had friends and family, Diggory was just waiting for me to take him, I didn't need Tom to cure my loneliness anymore. And I should turn away, I run away and tell Dumbledore everything because I was supposed to be this saviour and it was expected of me. But I still loved him, I wanted him desperately even now. Why?

"You've lied before, did you lie about not using magic on me?" I glared, "because everything in me is begging for me to run, but I can't. How can I still love you after hear this and be-?"

"Don't be normal, be you. Don't be the saviour they try to force you to be, be the sexy lunatic you were over Narssica. If you love me, stay with me. I told you, and you remember, I'm not letting you go. I've opened my heart to you, so you aren't going anywhere. I love you too."

Why did he have to say those words? This was the first time he'd said them to me, and hearing those words just lit the fire in me. I grabbed him tightly, kissing him with my everything, and he kissed back. It was crazy to want him, fully insane to want him now, in a creepy graveyard, after finding out he's a murder, before he uses my blood in a scary ritual. All hope of being normal was lost by this point.

He stepped away and led me over to the cauldron, and the stranger dropped something into it. I tried not to look at the bundle as it fell to the side. He dropped a crown, and a ring, and some other things. I was confused as hell. Tom explained that he needed me to go back to school after dropping my blood in the cauldron and leave the locket here. He promised to explain afterwards when I went home for summer.

"And, not that you would, but you can't tell anyone about this whole return thing. I'm keeping it a secret for now."

He cut my palm and squeezed my hand over the cauldron for a few squirts of blood. He kissed me and healed my hand so I could pick up the cup and kissed me before I went. It was chaos back at Hogwarts, everyone concerns with where I'd gone for the past hour. I made up a story about the cup taking me to a creepy graveyard, but there was nothing and no one there. I tried my best to sound calm and confused, which wasn't easy when I could feel Tom. Now I was open to him, and he was open to me, and I could feel the things he felt. I could feel water on my skin, really hot but I couldn't really feel the pain because he didn't feel it. I think. I locked him out so I could focus on the questioning. I'd need to ask him about all that. If he was the same.

If he was being combined with the older him, would he still be the same? Would he still love me like he does now? Could he be sweet and someone I could love? I wish I'd stayed with him, considering he promised not to let me go. If he's the same next time I see him, I'll insist we handcuff ourselves together. I want him forever. I was being the sexy lunatic he said was his type, I was being obsessive. And I was going to make him regret saying it.

I was shuffled around by Dumbledore a lot, but I could handle him better now I was basically his enemy. I was like a double agent, it was so fun. Maybe that's why I was sent back, to control the story and find out all the details I could before I saw him again. I was going to do this well.

I didn't trust Snape, who was have whispered conversations he thought I couldn't hear about this concerning 'You-Know-Who' rising again. He was all over Dumbledore without rushing to his supposed lord, almost as if he were putting off going. Which seemed likely. But they were the only two paranoid enough to see the truth, though neither knew I was lying. Maybe I could be a double agent, didn't seem so hard.

Neville was concerned, and I felt guilty for lying to him. I wanted him to know, to join me on the side I'd chosen, but I couldn't be sure he would stick with me so I had to keep this secret. He probably wouldn't agree with the killing and torturing of innocent people, and he didn't have love blinding him like I did. Honestly, I'd given up trying to be good, trying to fight my mind on this, and it made it easier to deal with those things.

I was left to sleep in the hospital wing before Madam Pomfrey could see to me. I let my mind open, searching for his mind wherever he was. I wanted to feel that he was okay, I wanted to feel that he was the same as when I'd left, or close enough. I wanted to know before I committed to my new life in the dark, whether or not he'd still be worth it.