AN: Sorry for taking so long to update, I have good excuses and none of you care to hear them :)

Apparently, there was some confusion last chapter about the telepathic communication between Tom and Marvolo, and this chapter might make it even more confusing. Next chapter is from Tom's POV and will explain all, but if you don't want to wait that long, send me a PM and I'll write back explaining it.

Enjoy!


The Story of a Soul and a Struggle for Control

The Mirror

Harry Potter's sixth year at Hogwarts was not off to an auspicious start. It started with him getting his nose broken by Draco Malfoy, the git, and continued to get worse upon discovering that Snape was to teach Defense Against the Dark Arts. Therefore, receiving a note telling him to proceed to the Headmaster's office after the welcoming feast, provided him with a much needed distraction.

What could Dumbledore possibly want with him so early in the year? Optimistically, Harry hoped that this meant the Headmaster was finally ready to include him in the loop when it came to the fight with Voldemort.

He reached the gargoyle that guarded the Headmaster's office and glanced down at the note he had received. What was the password? Ah. "Skiving Snackboxes." It was good to see that Fred and George's legacy was not yet forgotten.

The gargoyle leaped aside and Harry climbed the moving staircase and knocked on the door. Dumbledore summoned him in and motioned him to take a seat.

"Good evening, Sir." Harry greeted him, carefully avoiding the eyes of the portraits of previous headmasters that adorned the walls. The last time Harry had seen them they had witnessed him throwing a frightful tantrum and trashing the Headmaster's office.

"Good evening, Harry. You must be wondering what I could possibly have to discuss with you so early in the year."

Harry nodded mutely.

Dumbledore leaned forward on the desk, staring earnestly at Harry. "I'm afraid I've come across some disturbing information. Nothing to be too concerned about, but there are some precautions that need to be taken."

"What kind of information?" Harry asked, half expecting to be told that he was too young to know.

"Apparently, the stunt with the Department of Mysteries wasn't the only way that Voldemort had planned to utilize your connection with him. Severus was not given the exact details, but he believes that Voldemort was looking for ways to curse you through your mental connection. He'd been hoping to use it as a way around the protection spells in Hogwarts that are keeping you safe.

"However, as you yourself recently testified, he has begun using Occlumency to keep you out. Whatever he experienced while possessing you in the Ministry scared him enough that he deemed his mental connection with you to be not worth the risk."

Dumbledore had told Harry that it was his love for Sirius that had hurt Voldemort and caused him to flee. Was that why Voldemort was afraid of his connection to Harry?

For a moment, Harry debated telling Dumbledore that he wasn't sure it was his love that had driven Voldemort out. At the time, through the searing pain, Harry had been sure he had heard a voice calling out "Harry!" and then, fainter, something garbled that might have contained the word "help". Then came the sensation of terror from Voldemort, and at the time, in his groggy state, Harry had been sure that it was the voice he had heard that caused the terror.

But no. After Harry's head had cleared from the pain he had come to the conclusion that the voice had to have just been his imagination. After all, neither Voldemort nor Dumbledore had spoken. There was no need to worry Dumbledore needlessly with hallucinations he had experienced while under terrible pain and stress.

So Harry nodded his assent, indicating Dumbledore should continue. Dumbledore smiled at him slightly and then said "Since, thanks to you, the original plan had been discarded, Voldemort has moved on to something thing else. Severus has discovered that Voldemort has tasked- he has tasked- well, a certain Death Eater with the mission of getting past the protections Hogwarts offers thus allowing him to kill you. We anticipate that he will try something along the lines of food laced with mind-altering potions, or perhaps cursing some possession of yours."

Harry frowned. "Wouldn't he have to get past the Hogwarts protections in the first place in order to spike my food or curse my stuff?"

"Well, Harry, you must remember that some Death Eaters have children here at Hogwarts."

If Harry hadn't been convinced before that Draco Malfoy was working for Voldemort, he definitely was now.

He narrowed his eyes, and Dumbledore patted his hand reassuringly. "Now, as for the idea of spiking your food- the food the House Elves provide does not leave their sight at any time, so as to avoid any incidents of pranking or love potions, so you need not start carrying your own flask around a la Alastor Moody."

Harry grinned.

"As for bringing you in contact with cursed objects, Hogwarts does have built in alarms that should alert me to the casting of dark magic, but if there is one thing I've learned during all my years as a teacher, it is to never estimate the creativity of a student when trying to circumvent the rules. I feel there is still reasonable need to worry. Therefore, I am giving you this."

Dumbledore reached into his desk and pulled out a heavy book bound in black leather. "Secrets of the Darkest Arts." Harry read aloud from the cover.

"Harry, the magic described in this book is vile. It is so dark, that I felt compelled to remove it even from the library's Restricted Section and keep it safely locked in my own office. I would never give this book to someone whose intentions I wasn't sure were pure, because in the wrong hands this book can do terrible damage.

"Unfortunately, I believe that if Voldemort is to attempt anything on you, it will be a curse or a ritual described in this book. This book should give you the knowledge necessary to recognize and avoid any dangerous objects that fall into your hands. Therefore I feel it necessary to give this book to you, with the strict understanding that other than Miss Granger and Mr. Weasley, no one is to touch this book or even know of its existence."

"I'll keep it hidden under every single disguise and privacy spell I know." Harry promised. And he knew a great many thanks to his attempts to hide the DA from Umbridge the year before.

"Wonderful. And Harry- I know you are not the most, well, studiously inclined teen in this school-" Harry blushed. "-but I trust you understand the importance of familiarizing yourself with the detection spells in this book until you are proficient in them to the highest degree?"

Harry nodded solemnly.

"In that case, my boy, I shall bid you goodnight. Oh- and Harry? I think you will find the chapter on Horcruxes particularly interesting."

And with that parting remark, Dumbledore motioned Harry out the door.


It was three in the morning when Harry finally finished reading the chapter on compulsion and mind-control spells and rituals, and felt satisfied with his understanding and ability to cast the detection spells that would reveal anything untoward. Of course, Harry had no way of knowing for sure that he had cast the spells correctly without trying it on a cursed object, but he was about as sure as he could be given the circumstances.

Satisfied, Harry now turned his attention the the chapter on Horcruxes. The one that Professor Dumbledore had hinted was important in some way.

Forty minutes later found Harry staring at the book in his lap with wide eyes, nausea whirling in his stomach. He had finally, thank Merlin, reached the end of the chapter, and just on time since he didn't think he could stomach reading a single page more of such horrific rituals. There, at the bottom of the last page of the chapter, was a handwritten note in spindly writing that Harry recognized as Dumbledore's.

Seven.

Harry hurriedly threw the book into his bedside drawer and hurled every locking and disguise spell he knew at it. He wanted no additional knowledge of what was written in that book. Besides, he had a lot to think about.


Nearly four months had passed since the night in which Harry had first opened 'Secrets of the Darkest Arts' and Christmas time was upon them. Harry had developed the habit of throwing every single complex detection spell he knew at anything he found even remotely suspicious. At first, his behavior was viewed as overly paranoid by his house-mates, and had sparked the rumor that he was apprenticing with Mad-Eye Moody, but Harry figured he was better safe than sorry. Besides, Harry had stopped caring what people thought of him last year.

His caution had payed off twice since the beginning of the year. The first time, his spells had detected love potion in a chocolate frog offered to him by Romilda Vane. The second and more serious time the detection spells came in handy had been when Katy Bell had attempted to present Harry with a necklace on the road back from Hogsmeade. The standard spells Harry had become accustomed to casting had revealed a very nasty curse, and in the ensuing investigation it had been discovered that Katy had been placed under the Imperius curse while at The Three Broomsticks.

After that, Harry felt far more justified in using the detection spells he had learned on all the objects around him, though he still tried to do it unobtrusively in order to avoid the paranoia jokes.

As for the information about Horcruxes, Harry had tried to bring the subject up with Dumbledore. The Headmaster had implied that he had some ideas as to what the objects that had been made into Horcruxes could be, but seemed oddly determined that Harry should figure it out for himself via memories Dumbledore occasionally decided to share with him, rather than simply telling Harry outright.

Harry had found the memory of Tom Riddle as a little boy especially fascinating. The memory gave the impression that Tom Riddle had been a merciless psychopath even at the tender age of ten, convinced of his own superiority over muggles and sadistic to the extreme.

Harry had found that extremely curious, as it did not mesh at all with his own impression of Tom Riddle. When Harry had met Riddle in the Chamber of Secrets, the boy had gone on about his duty to the wizarding world to wipe out the mudbloods, but he hadn't seemed especially convinced in what he was saying. In fact, his stubborn insistence that he had truly meant to kill his victims and that all the petrifications had been mistakes, had given Harry the impression that he didn't believe what he himself was saying.

And then there was the fact that he had been unable to cast the Killing Curse at Harry, and was forced to ask the basilisk to kill Harry for him. At the time he had claimed that the only reason the spell didn't work was because he was using Harry's wand, which refused to act against its master, and that he was perfectly capable of summoning up the hatred to cast the spell, but it had seemed as if he were reassuring himself just as much as he was Harry.

Lastly, the thing that had done the most to convince Harry that Tom Riddle used to be a human capable of empathy was that he had been unable to watch as Harry died. He had had his back turned to Harry, and was shaking in what Harry suspected were silent sobs, which is what had allowed Harry to get his hands on the fang and stab the diary without being stopped by Riddle.

All in all, Harry's impression at the time had been that Tom Riddle had been a decent enough human being at some point, or, at least, not a complete monster, but had been brainwashed, probably by his peers in Slytherin house. At some point something had to have made him into the evil megalomaniac he became, but at sixteen, Harry felt that Riddle had not yet reached the point of no return. Harry had actually felt bad about destroying the diary, but he had had no choice if he wanted to save Ginny. Besides, he had told himself later, he had just destroyed a memory. It wasn't like he had killed an actual person.

Still, he had always regretfully thought that with a bit of time and effort Tom Riddle could have been brought around to the light side. The memory Dumbledore had showed him of Riddle at the age of ten seemed to contradict that, though. There was sadism and arrogance in the ten-year-old Riddle that Dumbledore had met that Harry had never encountered in the version of him at the age of sixteen.

When Harry brought up this curious point with Dumbledore that headmaster had seemed puzzled. Dumbledore claimed that Riddle had always been unemotional and cold, and that his memory of Riddle at the age of sixteen did not collaborate with Harry's. He had seemed very intrigued by Harry's description of Tom's uncertainty when talking about his duty to wipe out the mudbloods, as well as Harry's theory that the he had petrified his victims on purpose because he lacked the stomach to kill them.

One of the things Harry appreciated about Dumbledore was the fact that he was treated seriously. Dumbledore had not scoffed at his theories or dismissed them outright, though he did say that they completely contradicted his own impression of Riddle. Rather, he had discussed the matter with Harry at length, though at the end of the evening he had to admit that he had no solution to the mystery of the two different versions of Riddle.

Since that meeting, Dumbledore had shown Harry a few more memories, ending in the modified memory of Professor Slughorn. Harry had been given the mission of obtaining the uncensored memory from Slughorn as Dumbledore hoped that it would confirm his speculations that Voldemort had split his soul in seven.

The last time Harry was in Hogsmeade he had bought a rather expensive bottle of whiskey to give the old professor as a Christmas gift in the hopes of softening him up as well as hopefully getting him drunk enough to spill something. On Christmas morning, however, Harry's plans were derailed by a rather unusual gift he had received that had served in driving all thoughts of Horcruxes from Harry's mind for a while.

In addition to the expected presents from Hagrid, Ron, Hermione and Mrs. Weasley, Harry had received quite a few presents from fans and admirers. The experience of receiving heart-shaped cards and expensive chocolates was a new one to Harry, though considering the fallout of being declared The Chosen One by the Daily Prophet, he supposed it wasn't that surprising. He was viewed as a macho hero nowadays, at least for the time being.

Among the unusually large pile of presents, the one that stood out most was a large mirror, taller than Harry himself and ornately carved. The card that had come with it had read: 'Harry, Happy Christmas! -a secret admirer'.

Ron had laughed himself silly at the note before heading downstairs with a box of chocolates chortling "Secret admirer!". Once he was gone, Harry had the dorm room to himself, and he took the opportunity to cast his usual detection charms at the stash he had obtained. One of the boxes of chocolates was laced with love potion, and one, which Harry suspected was from Fred and George, contained a spell that as far as Harry could tell would have caused his nose to grow to about five times its normal size. Last was the mirror, and Harry gasped in shock as a sickly orange light shone from the mirror, indicating something far less innocent than a love potion.

Running to his dresser and taking great care not to brush against the mirror in the process, Harry grabbed 'Secrets of the Darkest Arts' and began paging through it. After shooting a few more spells at it, and searching the index in the back, Harry was pretty sure that he had figured out Voldemort's plan. The Gemina Speculis ritual.

It was a method devised for cursing an enemy protected by powerful protective enchantments. If the desired object of the curse resided in a place which, like Hogwarts, had protective measures in place to detect dark and cursed artifacts, the ritual worked as a way around that. The name Gemina Speculis was Latin for twin mirrors, and it was developed on the basis of a set of mirrors of the sort Sirius had gifted Harry last Christmas. Harry's throat tightened for a moment at the reminder.

Apparently, twin mirrors had been the standard method of quick communication before the development of the much cheaper floo powder caused paired mirrors to fall out of fashion. The runes that were carved on both mirrors transmitted sound as well as visuals from one mirror to another, but with some subtle tweaking, it could be used to transmit something far more sinister.

The idea was that a dark curse would be placed on one of the mirrors. The second mirror would be completely curse free, and thus would be easy to get past any protective enchantments. On the night of the full moon, if the right ritual was performed, the curse would be transmitted between mirrors. Then, the second mirror would also be cursed and the next person to touch it would die. Harry had to give it to Malfoy, or Voldemort, or whoever had come up with an idea- it was a brilliant way around Dumbledore's protections.

Fortunately for Harry, the ritual had to be performed under the full moon, so he was in no danger in the near future. Just in case, Harry flipped to the beginning of the chapter and reread it, to make sure the mirror posed no immediate threat to him or his roommates. Coming across the instructions for performing the ritual, Harry frowned.

In order for the connection between the mirrors to be strong enough for the curse to pass through, communication between the two mirrors had to be activated three days in advance. Theoretically, Voldemort would have to open the mirrors and allow visuals and sounds to pass between them three days before the full moon.

First, that meant that Voldemort would be seeing everything in his dorm room for three days, which was a very creepy thought, but Harry ignored it in favor of a more important question- how did Voldemort expect Harry not to notice when his mirror suddenly changed from showing him his own reflection to showing Voldemort's side of the connection? Perhaps Harry had been wrong about the ritual Voldemort was planning on using?

A quick examination gave Harry his answer- some of the runes along the edge of the mirror, meant to connect it to its partner, had been sanded off.

Voldemort was planning on using the ritual and activating the mirrors three days in advance. To get around the problem of Harry seeing through his mirror he had removed the runes that would have allowed Harry to see what was happening on Voldemort's side. With those runes gone, only Voldemort could see Harry, and not the other way around.

Then, Harry had a brilliant idea. He could use Sirius's mirror as a reference to figure out which runes were missing and re-carve them. That would allow Harry to see what was happening on Voldemort's side of things, effectively letting him spy on the dark side. And the fact that Voldemort himself had given Harry the perfect spying tool was the best part of it!

The only problem that remained was how to carve those runes on his own mirror without Voldemort noticing. After all, for all Harry knew, Voldemort could be spying on him from the mirror right now without him knowing. He nervously pushed Secrets of the Darkest Arts behind him, so it wouldn't be visible from the mirror upon realizing that. For the plan to work it was vital that Voldemort not realize what Harry was doing, which was a tricky requirement, considering Harry had no way of knowing if or when he was being spied on.

Harry could be clever when necessary, though, and he soon thought of a solution. According to the charms syllabus, the sixth year students were scheduled to learn glamour and illusion spells in two months, so why couldn't Harry study ahead a bit? He would cast a spell to make it look as if there was no one there or as if he were sleeping, so if Voldemort ever checked to see what was going on he wouldn't see anything to raise his suspicions, and that way Harry could use the mirror to spy on Voldemort. He might very well reveal valuable information in front of the mirror without suspecting that Harry was on to him. It was certainly worth a try.

Of course, Harry could always just go to Dumbledore and tell him what he knew, and allow him to do the spying instead of Harry, but he didn't want to give Dumbledore an opportunity to keep information from him. Considering his role in the war, Harry thought he deserved to know what was going on, and resolutely decided to keep this new information to himself.

If he gleaned any important information, Harry resolved, he would tell Dumbledore he had gotten it in a vision. The mirror would remain his little secret.


It was past midnight, and Harry was still awake in his bed. He had mastered the illusion spell with one week to spare before the full moon, and had immediately cast it on his bed to make it look like he had gone to sleep. Now, he was free to cast a spell on the mirror to prevent anyone from touching it, without Voldemort being any the wiser. It wouldn't do for one of his roommates to accidentally touch the mirror after the ritual was cast and get cursed.

Then came the next part of the plan: copying the runes from Sirius's mirror to Harry's so as to allow Harry to see what was going on on Voldemort's side.

Unfortunately, Harry had smashed the mirror in a fit of anger and pain last summer after Sirius's death. The pieces were still stored in his trunk, and Harry was glad he had pulled the mirror out soon enough that the pieces of the mirror were not yet ground to dust. All that remained was the tedious job of piecing shards back together.

Harry dearly hoped he could get it done in time for the full moon, so that he could spy on the ritual and make sure Voldemort was fooled by his deception.

Getting absorbed in his work, Harry lost track of time, and it was three in the morning when he let out a whoop of triumph, only to quickly quiet down when Ron let out a big snore and stirred a bit. He had completed the puzzle and had pieced Sirius's mirror back together.

Taking painstaking care, Harry knelt before the mirror and used his wand to carve out the runes on the frame of it as they were seen on Sirius's mirror. Forty minutes and an aching arm later, and the work was complete. Tentatively, nervously, Harry straightened up and glanced at the mirror to see what it reflected. It was no longer reflecting the sixth year Gryffindor dormitory.

It was slightly dark, but as Harry squinted at the image in front of him and recognized the chair and the patterned curtain at the window. He had had a vision of Voldemort and Rookwood in this room last year. It had worked!

Harry looked longingly over at Ron's bed, wishing that he could share his accomplishment with his best friend. But Harry could hardly tell Ron without telling Hermione, and Hermione would insist on telling Dumbledore. Harry was afraid that if Dumbledore knew he would confiscate the mirror from Harry, and he would be in the dark once more.

For now, the mirror would have to be only his to see. Positioning the mirror so that it was at the foot of his bed, and covered by the hangings of the four-poster, Harry gave it one last look before falling asleep. He truly felt as if he had accomplished something big, something important.


Harry figured he had about a week or two to still use the mirror for spying on Voldemort. One week until the full moon, upon which Voldemort would perform the ritual to transfer the curse to his mirror, and then he would only have a few days before Voldemort got suspicious about the fact that Harry had not yet touched the mirror and gotten cursed, and figured out that Harry knew and was spying on him.

Unfortunately, the room reflected in the mirror didn't seem to be in use very often, and it wasn't until the night of the full moon that Harry gleaned any important information.

Harry knew that Voldemort was sure to appear that night to perform the ritual, and he was prepared. He had cast the illusion spell that would made it look to Voldemort as if he were sleeping peacefully in his bed, when was actually sitting crossed legged on it, watching the mirror eagerly.

When Voldemort entered the room Harry smugly noticed that he was levitating a tray behind him on which were placed the horn of a manticore and the fang of a werewolf, two key ingredients in the required ritual. For once Harry had correctly anticipated Voldemort's plan before it was too late.

The tray also held a knife, which Harry knew would be used to cut Voldemort, since he needed to smear his blood on the rim of the mirror. He looked forward to seeing Voldemort cause himself unnecessary pain.

The man who fashioned himself the Dark Lord approached the mirror and smiled hideously, a look of arrogant smugness on his face. Harry's own face split into a smug grin at his deception.

Suddenly, a frown replaced the grin on Voldemort's face. He clutched at his head as if in agony and began to writhe. A tremor passed through his body, wracking his emaciated frame, and then subsided. Harry watched in shock as Voldemort straightened out and frowned at the mirror.

He looked different. not physically- his thin pail frame remained the same, as did the lipless mouth and flat nose. But he was wearing an expression Harry had never seen before. Voldemort always exuded an aura of malevolence and cruelty, so why did the face staring at Harry from the mirror look so sad? For a moment he seemed to Harry to look more like the victim of a terrible disease than a monster.

Then Voldemort straightened, and a look of flinty determination entered his eyes. He raised his wand and began incanting familiar words, waving his wand in complex patterns. Slowly, a dark shadow began to seep from the frame surrounding Voldemort. It seemed as if Voldemort was drawing the curse out of the mirror, though Harry couldn't fathom why he would do such a thing.

It looked like a very taxing process. Voldemort's whole body was tensed as if in pain, and little beads of sweat were gathering at his temples and trickling down his face. By the end of the process his arms were trembling with exertion, and his shoulders slumped with undeniable relief when with a last tug, the dark shadow of the spell disconnected from the mirror, hovering around his figure like a malevolent cloud.

The Dark Lord gulped, but then stared at the mirror, and, face wearing a flinty look of determination, pointed the wand at himself. The darkness had gathered itself at the tip of the yew wand, and with a jerk of the wand, shot out at Voldemort, engulfing his body and causing him to cry out.

Harry jumped out of his seat in shock, and stared at the floor, on which Voldemort's prone body was slumped. He wasn't dead- was he? No, that would be too good to be true. And besides, why would Voldemort kill himself? The thought was ridiculous.

Sure enough, a moment later a shudder wracked Voldemort's body for the second time that night, and the man leaped to his feet. The gentle look was now gone from his features, his mouth contorted in a snarl, eyes narrowed with malice.

When he spoke, Harry jumped, thinking he was addressing him and had somehow found out what he had done, but he wasn't even looking at the mirror when he snarled: "How dare you, you insolent boy?! I would torture you for this if I didn't need your body in a few hours! What in Salazar's name were you hoping to accomplish?"

There was a pause, and Harry wondered who he was expecting an answer from. Then he scoffed, as if hearing some ridiculous reply.

"Hoping for another thirteen years of reprieve, eh? You Idiot boy! what happened to your body that night at the Potter's was a reaction to a Killing Curse gone wrong, it doesn't happen every time you try to kill this body! You would have known this if you'd bothered paying any attention while I was learning about Horcurxes!"

There was another pause, then mocking laughter. "Well, your refusal to read 'that despicable book'" the last three words were said in a mocking tone of imitation- "was your downfall, you stupid child. Maybe you could have taken advantage of the first time you've managed to overpower me in months to do something a little more useful than cursing your own body. You should know that it is invincible against such a juvenile murder attempt. What caused you to suddenly try again now, after all this time?" there was a pause, then- "Answer me, boy!"

Then, Voldemort's red gaze turned to the mirror and he smiled cruelly in realization. "Oh, did you not like the plans I had for your precious boyfriend? What is it that makes you so protective of that little brat?!"

He paused again, listening for the answer. Then he laughed the familiar cold, high-pitched laugh that had haunted Harry in his dreams for years.

"NO ONE hates me as much as you do, Tom, not even your precious Harry Potter."

He approached the mirror, and stroked it, smiling. "It would do you well to stop entertaining these ridiculous fantasies of him freeing you from me. The only way I can pass on is if your own soul will also pass on to the afterlife, and I think I've made that task significantly impossible to accomplish. Potter will never be able to find all the little Horcurxes I made for you, never mind destroy them. And even if he did, your soul would die along with mine, so you'd never be able to enjoy your freedom."

He laughed the high-pitched, cold laugh again, and smirked at the mirror. "I will reapply the curse on the mirror tomorrow. Harry Potter will die next month, rather than this. Do you feel pleased now, Tom? Accomplished?"

He smiled cruelly into the mirror and left the room.

Harry remained on the dormitory floor, transfixed to the spot in shock.


End of chapter.

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