Author's Note: I am so glad that I am updating again so soon! To answer a question from Scaehime, yes, Tom does think that Harry is still under the spell. That will be addressed next chapter. Also, Merry Christmas to you too, and Merry Christmas to everyone reading this! The chapter is longer than the last one thankfully, and I hope that you like it. Enjoy!

The Experiments of Tom Marvolo Riddle – Chapter 14

Written By YT12J

Harry hesitated as he looked at Dumbledore's face, trying to think of something to say that would not bring Tom into it. He had just seen Dumbledore's memory of him wiping Ron and Hermione's memories of Tom after they freed themselves of the curse. He still wasn't definite as to why he was intent on not revealing Tom's presence to anybody, but until he figured out exactly why he would have to think of some excuse to tell Dumbledore, which was not too easy considering that Dumbledore may not have seen Tom, but he still had solid evidence that Harry was up to something.

Then an idea suddenly came into his mind. Why did it have to be him who was up to something? Why couldn't it be somebody else?

"Sir," Harry began, already sure that there was no chance he would believe this. "I don't really have an explanation other than the fact that the person in that memory was not me. I definitely did not Obliviate my two best friends, and frankly I am not happy that you would immediately accuse me of that without considering the fact that it could have been an imposter."

He added in the last part in the hope that Dumbledore would feel a little bit guilty about accusing him of attacking his friends, although he felt slightly bad about this. Dumbledore was obviously right in suspecting him of being up to something bad, and he was lying to the Headmaster who helped him every year when he would be involved in some sort of deadly plot to destroy the school or to kill him.

"I see," Dumbledore murmured, his eyes not meeting Harry's. It was obvious that Dumbledore didn't believe him completely, but to Harry's relief he did not question this. "I am afraid that I have no idea who the imposter could have been. I did attempt to recover the erased memories from Mr Weasley and Miss Granger, however I was unsuccessful, mainly because whoever did this did it well enough that they cannot be recovered without months, or even years of treatment, something which is out of the question.

"In the meantime Harry, I shall continue to investigate in the hope that I will find out who this imposter is, and what they are up to. I also ask that you come to me immediately, should you spot anything unusual. It could be vital to catching the culprit. Is this understood?"

"Yes sir." Harry answered. Dumbledore smiled at him, but the smile didn't quite reach his eyes, meaning that he wasn't satisfied with the conversation most likely. After surveying Harry for several seconds, he got up and walked through a door to another area in his office. Harry also got up, intending to leave, but before he walked to the door he noticed a pile of books on a desk. It wasn't the books that caught his attention really, but the titles, all of which had one thing in common. The word 'Horcrux'. Harry remembered this word all too well from his conversation with Tom, and after making sure that none of the portraits in the office were looking his way he picked up three of the books and quickly stuffed them into his bag.

Checking again that no one saw him do this, he walked to the door and opened it, intending to go straight to the Common Room and then read the books in the dormitory.

When he finally got there, he thankfully noted that Tom was not there, and then realised that it could mean something bad was happening. Dismissing these worries, he sat down on his bed and got out the books that he had 'borrowed' from Dumbledore's office. The reason he took them was because he was hoping that he could find some information on his scar, even though it was not a regular Horcrux, and maybe discover exactly how the Horcrux was taken back into Tom.

The first book was titled 'Horcruxes: All the Reasons to Not Make Them'. The title amused him a bit, mainly because he expected that the books would almost be advertising the good sides of making a Horcrux. He looked at the contents page, found the chapter he wanted and turned to it. The chapter was called 'Getting Your Soul Back Together'. He skimmed ahead until he found what he was looking for, and then read it carefully. It said:

'To actually get back the piece of your soul that resides in another object is a very difficult process, and has never happened as far as is known. To do this, the creator of the Horcrux must first of all have the Horcrux in close proximity, but the actual thing that does this, the fuel for putting your soul back together is remorse. You must truly feel remorse for killing someone to create a Horcrux. This emotion must be extremely strong, as it is what rips the piece of your soul out of the object you originally put it in and returns it to your body.

This process is extremely dangerous, and definitely not recommended. Known side effects are extreme pain, insanity, hallucinations, and sometimes even an extremely painful death. There is one recorded instance of a Dark Wizard doing this without any side effects whatsoever, but this is an extremely rare occurrence, so you should not expect to happen for you. '

Harry stopped reading, shocked. Was this what was removing his connection with Voldemort? Was Tom feeling remorse and therefore absorbing part of his future self's soul? His first thought was that it was impossible, but according to the book there was only one way, and this was it. This meant that Tom actually felt bad for the death of Harry's parents that he would do when he was much older.

Suddenly Harry was looking at Tom in a completely different light. He had come from the past, tortured him many times, and acted extremely cruelly towards him, but he still felt bad for something that his future-self had done. Harry wasn't sure what to do. On one hand he wanted to thank Tom, but on the other hand, was there really a reason to thank him?

In the end, he decided that he would keep quiet about what he had just discovered, and put the books away where he hoped Tom would not find them. He was extremely happy though for some reason, and decided to take a walk outside the Common Room.

Break

He was walking in an empty corridor, still thinking deeply about Tom. He wanted to call Tom his friend somehow, but he wasn't sure if Tom would return the gesture. But they were definitely close to some extent, that much he knew for sure.

He suddenly looked up and saw Daphne Greengrass walking towards him. He smiled; this was one person that he could definitely call his friend. In the past few months they had become reasonably close, even to the point where they would hang out together in the library, either to study or just to chat. He was starting to notice other Slytherins giving them angry looks when they were noticed like this, but one glare from Daphne usually scared them off. He had asked her one time why they were so angry when it was none of their business, and she had responded by saying "They think everything is their business." He was not too surprised by this answer, but hoped that the Slytherins would stop bothering them so that they could have peace.

When they finally came up to each other in the corridor, she jumped at the opportunity to speak before he did. "Hey Harry, I just wanted to mention, it's a Hogsmeade Weekend tomorrow!" He was not expecting her to say this, so he frowned, looked at her smile, and then realised what she was really trying to say.

"Oh yeah, actually why don't we do something together then? How about we go to the Three Broomsticks?"

Daphne nodded, looking satisfied that her point had got across. "Great, I'll meet you there at exactly 3 O'clock. See you!"

"Bye." Harry replied, and watched her walk away, suddenly wondering if this was such a good idea, especially if Tom insisted on going with him like he had several times before. He shook his head at the thought though. 'He's been too busy lately to go to Hogsmeade with me, I doubt anything will happen.'

Break

The Three Broomsticks was packed full, but Harry saw that Daphne had a table to herself. She noticed him and beckoned him over, so he walked there and sat down. She gave him a butterbeer that she must have ordered before, and sipped at her own. Harry was at a loss of what exactly he was supposed to do, so he decided to ask how classes were going. He opened his mouth, and then hesitated when he noticed something odd. Daphne realised this, and asked "What is it? What are you looking at?"

He waited a moment before replying. "Look over there, that small table with the hooded men. Isn't that Professor Lupin speaking to one of them?"

She looked where he was pointing, and her eyes widened. "It is! Those people look quite shady though, what is he doing talking with them? Surely he hasn't gone dark!" Harry glared at her a little bit, before realising that he was glaring at his date, so he decided to reply calmly. "I highly doubt that, there is absolutely no chance that Remus Lupin would join Voldemort." She winced slightly at the name, but didn't say anything.

Her words made him think quite hard though. There was no chance that he had joined Voldemort, but then what was he doing there, talking to people who looked like Death Eaters? Then he had a sudden thought that made him feel a lot better. Remus must just be doing work for the Order, going undercover or something. He still felt like something wasn't quite right though…

Break

Harry walked into the dormitory to find Tom sitting in a chair that was facing the door, holding something he couldn't identify in his hands. As soon as he came in, Tom stared at him, not even saying anything, simply observing him. Harry frowned, wondering what was wrong with him. "What is it; did I do something to annoy you?"

Tom didn't even bother to speak; he simply shrugged his shoulders and revealed what he was holding. Harry walked closer and looked, realising that the items that Tom was holding were the Horcrux books that Harry had stolen from Dumbledore's office. He looked up at Tom, and they stared at each other for a few seconds until Tom took his wand out and waved it in the direction of another chair. The chair flew over and landed perfectly on the ground, facing Tom. Tom gestured for Harry to sit, and he obliged.

"I found these, extremely poorly hidden I might add, in a box underneath your bed. Using a charm, I found which book you read last and which page exactly. I read the page, and now understand exactly why you have these books. First of all I want to ask, where did you get these from?"

Harry replied, hoping that this wouldn't turn into some form of interrogation. "Dumbledore wanted to speak to me in his office, and before I left I put these in my bag out of curiosity. He wasn't there so I got away with it."

"Interesting," Tom murmured after a pause. "I'd ask why he wanted to speak to you in his office, but I highly doubt I would get a truthful response so I shall not bother."

When he did not speak again for several minutes, Harry decided to ask a question of his own, although he hoped that Tom's response to the question would not be angry. "So, do you actually feel some form of remorse or guilt because one day you will kill my parents?" Tom looked up in surprise, not having expected the question somehow. He waited another couple of minutes, and just as Harry was about to change the subject he answered the question.

"I am not too sure. Over the past few months, after hearing about how my future-self killed the only family you had, I have had mixed emotions. Normally I would not even care about this sort of thing, but somehow, after getting to know you even better during all of this time I feel like it wasn't the right thing to do, that you did not deserve to go through this your entire life. I don't know how you managed it, but you got under my skin, and for a while now I have felt somewhat bad about it. This is most definitely what caused the Horcrux, the shard of my soul that is in your scar to slowly pass into me. My emotions became strong enough that it worked, and somehow with no side effects, which is extremely rare for this process."

Harry nodded, internally surprised. He did not expect Tom to actually state like this that he felt truly bad; he simply thought that he would avoid the question somehow, or deny anything of the sort. But the fact that he actually told him that he felt bad about it…

"Thank you," Harry muttered, feeling slightly weird that he was saying this to the soon to be killer of his parents, "It really means a lot to me. My connection with Voldemort is almost gone thanks to you, and only because you are human enough to feel this strong an emotion."

Tom took note of the fact that Harry called his future self 'Voldemort', as opposed to referring to him as 'your future-self'. It was probably more significant than Harry realised, as it meant that he was thinking of Tom as a different person to his greatest enemy, even though they were the same people at different points in their life.

"I'd just like to make it clear," Tom began, "I no longer believe my future-self to be the greatest wizard of all time. He is undeniably powerful, however I think that his actions make him a terrible person, and the last thing I want to become in the future.

"Before I came to the future, when I was thinking about what it must be like, I imagined an amazing wizard, who could make whole armies bow down just by looking at them. I now know that it is not the case, nor will it ever be with the monster that he is. I hope that he will be defeated one day, as a punishment for his actions in life, however there is no way that I can avoid becoming him. If I try not to, then it will be a paradox and will rip apart reality. While I despise myself for what I will one day become, I have no way out of it, and I am truly sorry for that."

Harry listened intently throughout the whole speech, and was amazed by what he heard. Tom was basically admitting that his future-self was a heartless monster, and even stranger, he was saying that he hoped that he would get punished one day for his actions, and be defeated. It made Harry truly sad that Tom would have to become this one day, and he desperately tried to think of a way in which they could stop that from happening.

"Maybe… maybe there's some way we can stop you from having to become Voldemort. Maybe you can remain as Tom Riddle for the rest of your life! We have to think of something we can do to help you."

Tom was shaking his head, obviously dismissing the idea before he could even think about it. "No Harry, believe me, I want it greater than anyone can imagine, I desperately want to become something that I won't be ashamed of, but there is no way in which that can happen. There is nothing we can do to stop me from becoming the Lord Voldemort that killed your parents."

The mention of Harry's parents made him feel even more determined. "But if we –"

"No!" Tom snapped, and then looked at Harry's face. He softened a tiny bit, but enough for Harry to notice. "There is absolutely no way in which it could work. Do not even try to tell me something we can do to stop it from happening! Is that understood?"

Harry nodded, not wanting to speak as he was thinking extremely hard about any possible way to make it happen. Tom noticed this and sighed, however a small smile appeared on his face at seeing Harry be so determined to help him. The very boy whom he tortured several times was now desperately trying to help the person who tortured him.

Tom got up, intending to go to bed, but before he did Harry also got up and spoke. "I know you don't want to hear anything about stopping you from becoming Voldemort, but there is something else that I think I should say," Tom nodded, indicating for Harry to continue. "Tom Riddle, would you like to be my friend?"

Tom's eyes actually widened at this question, and Harry suddenly was afraid that he would get angry because of this. Before he apologised however, Tom replied. "Of course I do."

Harry smiled at this reply, and to Tom's surprise, he leant in and hugged him. Tom was not expecting this, and had in fact never hugged anyone before to his recollection. He wasn't sure what to do, so he simply put his arms around Harry and hugged his new friend. They both smiled, happy that they had got so close, in spite of the fact that Harry was the greatest enemy of Tom's future-self.

Author's Note: So, they finally admitted to being friends. From now on there will be no more torture between them and no more threats unless the situation gets extremely serious. Harry will most definitely admit to Tom next chapter that he is no longer under the curse, and there may be more with Dumbledore. Daphne Greengrass appeared in this chapter mostly so that I could do the scene with Remus, so she probably won't appear much more. I have no idea when I will next update, as I am struggling with planning it, however it will hopefully be not too long. Please review and vote on my poll if you can. Until the next time. Bye!