Chapter 13: Murderous Madness
"Genocide is not just a murderous madness; it is, more deeply, a politics that promises a utopia beyond politics - one people, one land, one truth, the end of difference. Since genocide is a form of political utopia, it remains an enduring temptation in any multiethnic and multicultural society in crisis."
~Michael Ignatieff
3/21/44
SLYTHERIN'S HEIR MARRIES ON SPRING EQUINOX!
Tom Riddle married long standing companion Harry Vedette, this should come as no surprise my dear readers as it has been long suspected but not officially confirmed that they were romantically linked! Tom and Harry Riddle graduated a few months ago both with perfect scores on their NEWTs. Not only where they the youngest to have taken and passed their NEWTs but their scores managed to beat out the long standing record of Albus Dumbledore….
4/5/44
OUROBOROS: HEROES OR VIGILANTES
This morning Tom and Harry Riddle announced the formation of their group Ouroboros an independent political party whose aims have not yet been stated. The announcement comes with a rallying cry for volunteers to unite with Ouroboros to join the fight against Grindelwald. The Dark Lord has been making his way through Europe and has recently gained control of the Hungarian Ministry. Though the Dark Lord Grindelwald's influence is spreading rapidly throughout the continent the British Ministry has yet to join our allies in the ICW in the fight against him. Many believe that to do so would bring the war to England's shores and invite retaliation.
4/10/44
TOM AND HARRY RIDDLE: SAVIORS OR MENACE
On the war front Tom and Harry Riddle have been seen harassing the Dark Lord Grindelwald's supply lines and weakening his hold on France with the assistance of their newly formed group Ouroboros. Many had previously speculated that only Dumbledore would have the power to take on the Dark Lord and hope to win. However, to the dismay of many Dumbledore has been firm in his position of remaining a teacher and not a soldier. There has been some speculation now on why Dumbledore a professed stout supporter of the light has been reluctant to act against this Dark Lord especially as his power spread unchecked throughout Europe. It seemed no one could slow him down or stop him…until Tom and Harry Riddle joined the fight. Somehow the two freshly graduated teens have rallied the forces against Grindelwald and have been dealing the Dark Lord blow after blow. However, there has been some speculation on whether their combined force will have enough power to defeat the Dark Lord. Some have brought concern to the Wizengamot about whether it is wise for them to be antagonizing the obviously powerful enemy of the free people.
4/17/44
DUMBLEDORE: TEACHER OR COWARD
As I am sure our readers know by now (unless they have hidden under a rock somewhere) the warfront against the Dark Lord Grindelwald has been heating up recently due to the extraordinary efforts of Mr. And Mrs. Riddle and their organization Ouroboros. Most are aware that the Dark Lord had managed to conquer Hungary, Poland, Netherlands, Belgium, Luxemburg, France, Denmark, Greece, Norway and Yugoslavia. That was until the Riddles joined the fight, now his hold on France has weakened and there are talks of uprisings in Poland and Norway. This is an amazing feat since the Dark Lord has been running unchecked since 1938 when he gained control of the German Ministry and invaded their Polish Neighbors. However, the success of the powerful but still very young duo have called into question Albus Dumbledore's inaction up until this point. If two teens barely out of Hogwarts (though both powerful prodigies whom graduated early see page 12) have managed to beat back this seeming unstoppable Dark Lord then one wonders what Albus Dumbledore could have done if he had responded to the numerous call for his assistance since the Dark Lord rose to prevalent power in 1938. The ICW had requested Dumbledore's assistance in dealing with this Dark Lord numerous times over the last six years but all have been denied. Now that the much younger Riddles have rallied to the ICW's cause there have been grumblings calling into question Dumbledore's commitment to the Light Cause and whether his continued refusals to fight are an act of a teacher unwilling to abandon his post or a coward afraid to face the enemy.
5/10/44
FRANCE LIBERATED!
Last night the Riddles with the help of their organization Ouroboros managed to launch a decisive attack that freed the French Ministry of the Dark Lord's control. The Dark Lord's hold on France has scattered and while his troops have not fully retreated from France his hold on the region has been shattered. In light of this victory citizens all over France have rallied to the Riddles' side and some have been calling for the appointment of Harry Riddle to Minister as it was her team that ambushed the troops stationed at the Ministry building while Tom Riddle provided support from the outside. Harry Riddle has already humbly declined the role stating that someone French should lead France into a new era of prosperity and though she would love to help she felt it was a position best given to a native. This of course only lead to such an outpouring of support from the French people that they still refuse to consider anyone else for the role as of yet.
(Harry Riddle: French Minister? Page 6)
(Tom Riddle's Valiant Fight! Page 8)
~Grindelwald~
In an undisclosed location in the Netherlands the Dark Lord Grindelwald was fuming in his anger and his followers were keeping their distance well on the other side of their secret compound. The loss of France had been a blow that Gellert had not been expecting, and that had only added to his towering anger over it. After all the enemy you were expecting you could overcome it was the unseen threat that was the most dangerous. Until a few months ago that was what the Riddles had been to them, an unseen threat gaining power in the UK and now they were paying dearly for their blindness.
It wasn't so much the loss of territory that disturbed the illustrious Dark Lord…no it was the return of hope for his dissenters that was the biggest issue they would be facing now. For the last six years Gellert had crushed their hope one nation at a time, they all fell to his might and his unrelenting push forward had only trampled any stirrings of rebellion against his new regime. Now, France had been liberated from his grasp while he had been trying to finally overthrow the hold outs in Sweden. This was going to cause a huge backlash, already his spies were picking up chatter in their bordering outposts that there was talk of rescue.
Grindelwald picked up the first newspaper again, staring at the couple of children there and tried to find some clue. The woman, Harry, was turned from the camera so only a small portion of her face and her flaming red hair could be seen but the other Tom was bolding looking out at him. There was something about the look in this Tom Riddle's eyes, the set of his jaw, the square of his shoulders, and the unabashed boldness of his face that reminded Gellert uncomfortably of himself. Tom had a face of one who would let no morals, no limitations, be placed upon his shoulder and would let no one stand in the way of his vision of the future.
It was the red hair of his companion that probably had the most effect on Grindelwald because it brought to mind the auburn hair of his own companion…the one he had so foolishly lost in his youth. There was something else as well, something in the curve of her cheek that reminded him of someone he had lost many years ago…and it hurt to look at her. The Daily Prophets had been so hard to get a hold of, the muggles with their U boats and fighter planes mucked up a lot of the information he had coming out of the UK. It was hard to get owls or people through with all the war time wards used to blockade travel.
After all what use would an unpopulated conquest be? Even if it made getting information a pain in the ass it was better this way since it made getting out nearly impossible. Now that some information about his enemy was in his grasp he could go about planning their next assault to hopefully regain control of France. They needed to move quickly before their enemy could shore up their strength and organize. Still there was a small part of Grindelwald that looked at the newspapers with a faint glow of hope because they all said the same thing…Albus was not moving against him.
Gellert knew Albus, if he had really been against Gellert's actions on the continent then he would be here fighting against him and Gellert knew he would have not gained as much ground has he been against him. So a small part of him hoped, that something of their shared past remained between them, that Albus still shared in his dream and was quietly supporting him from afar. After that debacle with his sister Gellert knew it would take a lot to get them back to the place where they stood together but he still hoped.
He pulled open a hidden drawer from his desk and picked up a very worn letter from inside of it. Sometimes when he was questioning himself, or the righteousness of his campaign when he had to wade through bloody battlefields Gellert read it again. His Albus had such a way with words, such vision, if things had been different he would have been at his side even now and the world would have already been at their feet.
Albus was always so elegant with words, the things that had to be done, the things Grindelwald has had to do, it was all done for the greater good. The people of the magical world were tired of hiding, tired of scuttling on the outlands of the world hiding like rats and subjecting themselves to being lesser. It's why the world had fallen so easily at his feet because in their heart of hearts his people desired the power of their birthright. He had been the only one previously who had been willing to stand above them and call them to service. They had flocked to him like ants to honey, because he had been the only one with true power willing to utilize it.
Now there were two would be usurpers to his throne. Two young challengers to his campaign and maybe he would have considered simply recruiting them had they not had the audacity to so openly oppose him first. There was no other option left now for him but their total annihilation. Grindelwald placed his precious letter back into his warded drawer and then he turned his eyes back onto the map on his desk. It was a map of his new enemies movements and from it Gellert could guess where they would strike next…he would await them eagerly.
~Tom~
His heart palpitated, his stomach fluttered, and he felt a little light headed. Tom would worry he was coming down with illness had he not known the cause, for the symptoms came often and left as frequently. Harry leaned in closer to him hands sliding up his chest to wrap around his neck, as much as he enjoyed her attentions Tom did not like the new way his body reacted to her very presence. Ever since their marriage his emotions had been…strange…new…and it all together greatly disturbed him. Tom did not like how his heart felt like it twisted inside his chest every time Harry was away from him.
Tom did not enjoy the way his stomach would plummet when Harry would go into battle without him by her side to protect her. It was utterly ridiculous because Harry was his equal in power and had more experience besides…there was no need to be worried but he did. It was disturbing to think of Harry broken and bleeding so far away from him. It was not disturbing in the same way it had once been, before the thought had unsettled him because only he was allowed to break his Harry. Now the thought of breaking her…was unsatisfying.
Before their souls had been entwined the thought of one day breaking everything about Harry and fixing her into his prefect counterpart had been exciting…now it left ash in his mouth. It was disconcerting to be so changed by the joining of their souls and yet there were other things that almost balanced out this change. The warmth he felt, soul deep, when Harry touched him now was delicious. The…peace…that he found laying down in her lap while she carded her little fingers through his hair was…indescribable. It was a peace he had never felt in his life, like floating, like the world had fallen away for this one moment, like there was no death and nothing mattered but the feel of her hand on him.
It was a peculiar feeling and one he had never experienced in his entire existence; to feel equally weakened and strengthened at the same time. He felt exposed and sheltered in her arms now in a way he never felt before. Before they had been joined together as one soul he had felt that she was his equal in all things and yet he still felt she served him more than he served her. Now it was different, it was like he had been color blind and now the worlds colors were laid before him in a vivid Technicolor display that left him breathless. Tom understood now that Harry was taking so much more from him than he had thought and he wasn't sure how he was supposed to handle this new part of himself.
The whole occurrence left him unbalanced and he decided he would studiously ignore these new emotions that were blossoming inside of him until their defeat of Grindelwald was accomplished. There was just too much to do to allow himself to drown in this new sensation no matter how tempting. Grindelwald was testing their tenuous hold on France already and he had withdrawn from Sweden to turn his focus on them. It was what they had wanted because there was simply no way to ferret the man out and going into any place Grindelwald had managed to own was the height of folly.
It would be suicide to try to defeat Grindelwald within one of his fortified strongholds and Tom had dismissed the notion as soon as Harry had the audacity to suggest they charge in like a pair of Gryffindors. No, the best way to get to this Dark Lord was get him to come to them. It was why Tom had wanted to free France from his hold, because without that they weren't worth the effort of the Dark Lord's personal attention. It seemed that everything was going as planned because now the Dark Lord was testing them and sending a higher caliber of soldier against them.
Soon Grindelwald would be forced from his distanced position if he wanted to keep his conquered lands under his firm grip. Soon they would face one of the most powerful wizards of their age in battle and to the victor goes the spoils. Still…if it was all going to plan why was the thought of Harry locking wands with this man so very…it felt like there was a hand inside his chest squeezing his heart. It left him in a cold sweat and made him seriously reconsider his plans.
Then he would snap himself out of it and force himself to look at this all logically. Harry had more experience in battle, she was powerful and intelligent. Harry would not put herself at risk for nothing and she was more than capable of handling herself without his assistance. Tom forced himself to quiet that voice inside that screamed to lock her away and keep her safe from the world. Every bit of him wanted to lock her in some tower that would keep her out of sight because then no one else would be allowed to look upon her splendor…she would be solely his to possess then. It was a terrible but tempting idea.
~Harry~
Their marriage had changed them, Harry was sure of it, and she wasn't entirely sure that it was such a good thing. When you are an immortal being, change doesn't come as easily as it once did and there is a certain comfort in that. Since you are unchanged, the world could crumble around you but you can depend on the fact that you don't change. Harry has had eons to come to know herself, her desires, her weaknesses, her…limitations…and her baggage. Harry understood that her first life, as bad as it had been, was not her worst life…not by a long shot but her first was the one that laid the very foundations of her character.
Harry knew she was a child that had been so carefully and skillfully raised to be… without ambition. Now, Harry had no idea if this was Dumbledore's plan all along or if it had been a happy accident…all she knew was that from her time under the Dursley's she had been stripped of her drive. This was not good or bad to her…it just was and before their marriage it had been something she had seen inside herself as strength. After all, she had no great dreams of ruling this world, of dominating, or any real desire for a wealth of material things. Harry had viewed this as her being without greed.
It was only after the marriage ceremony that Harry had begun to feel the echoes of Tom's ambition. It was like giving a man dying of thirst just enough water to wet his tongue and it had awoken a beast within her that she was frankly a little disturbed by. For the first time Harry had a drive, a hunger, beyond just surviving and being by Tom's side. What Harry wanted more than anything was to not face eternity alone anymore. She wanted to hoard people like trophies, make them immortal simply because the thought of facing endless time without anyone else is her hell made flesh.
Time was a prison she had let contain her. Now with Tom's help and a little help from some phoenix ash in a potion designed to focus on cellular manipulation they had made an elixir that gave a person eternal youth. It wasn't a perfect solution to be sure and only a small piece in their journey to immortality but it was a stepping stone. Now that they knew how to keep their bodies young and strong Harry had turned her focus on how to keep them whole. She had died in so many graphic and horrible ways she knew intimately how fragile the human body could be. The issue was finding a solution that made their bodies independently regenerate after being injured without accidently creating copies of themselves.
It would be the height of stupidity to have unchecked regenerative abilities because then a torn off arm could potentially become a clone of them. Harry was quite content that they were the only two Tom and Harry's in this world and she meant to keep it that way. Of course their regenerative ability would have to be autonomous as well since if they were reduced to tiny specks of blood they would not have the consciousness available to direct repairs. They also couldn't simply anchor their regenerative abilities to a specific body part since that left them vulnerable to that part being destroyed and leaving them dead anyways.
Harry had some luck pursuing the idea of imprinting their bodies onto their soul and using that as a base in which anything in generated from. However, soul magic was a risk unto itself and Harry was wary about using it without testing it on someone else first. Tom was focused on his world domination plans and in his spare time he was focusing on the other issue with being an immortal trapped in the same body. Over time the brain degrades naturally and everything you are as a person is stored there…so strengthening it to handle eons of data accumulation was another issue. One that they both knew had to be addressed in time.
She had a burning desire and drive to perfect this and make true immortality something they could grasp. For the first time in her living memory Harry had an ambition beyond just surviving… and it frightened her, a little, how much she wanted this to happen. She wanted to create a new pantheon of living gods and she wanted it with a deep dark desire that she had never felt before. Harry, for the first time felt a whisper of hope, because if they could do this then she might one day have a family she would never have to mourn. After her first life she had not had any more children because the loss of her first ones so keenly she thought it was a pain that would never end.
Yes, now that eons have passed since then Harry's deep mourning had faded to a dull ache that would never end and was manageable. She had thought that having more children would only open the door to insanity because she could not lose them again and remain whole. Now, with Tom's help she might never have to let them go and that lit a spark of hope inside her chest that one day she would have that again. A family she could have for the rest of time.
It was hard not to obsess over this new desire, to not lose herself to this new passion that had been ignited inside of her by this ambition but somehow she managed by day by day. Every day the confrontation with Grindelwald grew ever closer, already attacks had come in small insurgencies to their bases in France and they both knew the Dark Lord was testing them. They were predators circling each other in a fight for territory. Tom had his own changes to deal with since their wedding, they shared one big soul now and Harry could feel this new emotion that was building inside of Tom. It was beautiful and frightening in that it changed everything.
Before Harry could depend on Tom having the emotional detachment that was needed to make the hard decisions but now Tom struggled with those. He didn't understand what he was feeling and Harry had no idea how to go about explaining it to him. It was like trying to describe color to a blind man suddenly given sight, he simply couldn't compute it yet and she had no words that he would understand without some basis in which to form his thoughts around. It made Harry nervous.
When the attack came they were not ready.
Previously all attacks on them had some pattern, some obvious reason to them, and always during the day or night. Never had they come at dusk, never had the attacks been at more than one front, and they had always had some warning beforehand from their wards. Even if it was only a minute or so in which they found each other to form a defense. They had become complacent and distracted by their own blossoming issues and the set pattern that the opposing force had used. When the attack came they had been on opposite sides of the compound and Harry had to fight her way through far more fighters than any they had encountered before.
The ones she faced had been competent and prepared for her fighting style and without Tom to cover her holes in her defense, attacks slipped through that had never managed to before. One lieutenant managed to get through her defensive line and with the help of a couple of foot soldiers managed to get a cutting curse through slicing her across from her left hip to her right shoulder. The cut was shallow enough that Harry wouldn't bleed out thanks to her magic instinctively thickening her skin but that wasn't the issue. The attack had managed to damage her emergency portkey out, that key had been special and now she had no means of retreat. If she didn't manage to get to Tom with his portkey then it was going to turn into a last stand deal.
When she finally managed to get to Tom he was facing Grindelwald on his own, everyone on both sides had fallen back not wanting to get in the crossfire of this fight that was way out of their league. Harry managed to slip in while Grindelwald's view was blocked by the fire Tom had cast and Tom let her settle in seamlessly at his side. Before Tom had been holding his own but Grindelwald had experience and stamina on his side. Over time and with patience Grindelwald would have been the clear victor, but now Harry was here as Tom's sword and shield. She managed to turn the tides and even out the odds.
There was no clear victor now and only time would tell who would walk away from this.
Tom was slightly distracted by the fact that Harry was visibly hurt, "Do you have your portkey?" He managed to ask dodging the transfigured lion, shattering it and turning it back onto the caster.
Harry huffed, "Destroyed," she said simply. The blood loss was beginning to get to her, and she wouldn't be able to keep this going for much longer. They had already been fighting for over an hour with Grindelwald and she had spent another hour fighting her way to Tom's side. She was flattering, and it was beginning to show. Tom tried to push through Grindelwald's defense to end this but every time he did the Dark Lord would attack Harry and Tom's attacks sputtered out in his rush to defend her. It wasn't rational, it wasn't a decision he would have made before, but Harry was bleeding and Tom's need to protect her was overriding everything. Grindelwald pressed his advantage.
Then the unthinkable happened, an attack got through while Tom had been deflecting another and Harry went flying away from him. She landed not too far from Grindelwald and the Dark Lord saw her face clearly for the first time. Somehow something the Dark Lord saw made him hesitate to immediately follow up his attack and end her. She should have known, Harry knew what love did to a person and how far she was willing to go for love. How much she would sacrifice and how willingly she would die for it.
Love was dangerous in that it made people go to lengths no one ever thinks of.
Tom had never known love, knew felt it, never understood it, and now that he could feel it even if it was only for her. Tom who previously would never have sacrificed himself for her, whom she could depend on putting himself first, moved with a speed she had never seen before. He acted without hesitation, without doubt and without an ounce of the self preservation that had made up his entire character before. He tossed his own portkey at her and the moment it touched her Tom said, "mosmorde" and it activated with a horrible lurch.
His action saved her, leaving him wide open and the last thing she saw was Tom falling as Grindelwald took advantage. She landed with a painful crash into the safe house with every other soldier that had a portkey intact, their two portkey were special in that when it was activated it set off everyone's. For a moment everything was silent and Harry stared at the ceiling uncomprehending…Tom had just sacrificed himself for her.
The scream that came from her mouth was inhuman; it was filled with a pain beyond comprehension and froze the insides of everyone who heard it.
Tom was gone; Harry was alone…what fresh hell was this?
A.N. Hey guys sorry for the late update been busy the last few weeks sorting out hospital bills and my husband and I had a mini honeymoon. I didn't want to leave it like this but this chapter was getting a little long and the next one…well…some surprises are coming your way. I hope you enjoyed this and please leave a review. I can't tell you how much it means to mean to hear from you guys and get feedback. It's what motivates me to write at all and I deeply appreciate everyone who takes their time to write one. Thank you all for sticking with me and giving me the courage to come back to writing. Thank you for your thoughtful words and for reading this. It's nice to hear from you, whether it's a review or a PM. Thank you for giving me strength guys. You've all impacted me in ways I don't think we think about often and you give me hope in humanity again. lol love ya, see you soon.
