AN: To everyone who I promised I'd update soon: I'm sorry for being a big fat liar. I hope this chapter makes it up to you.


The Story of a Soul and a Struggle for Control

The Sorceress and the Maiden

"Right, here was my first thought:" Harry told Ron and Hermione. They were sitting in a deserted corner of the common room, and Harry had just filled them in on the events of last night. "Voldemort has multiple personalities. It explains everything! Think about it: The evil one said that he can't die unless the other dies, and that's why he made the Horcruxes. Seven, if Dumbledore's right, which he usually is. It also explains why my impression of Tom Riddle from the diary was of an alright guy who was brainwashed by the dark side but was actually becoming disillusioned with it, and Dumbledore remembered him as always being this cruel psychopath. We'd met different personalities! And that's why there were so many lucky coincidences with the basilisk only petrifying students instead of killing them- the Tom personality kept on taking over from the Voldemort personality at the last moment and conjuring water, or summoning a camera."

Ron was nodding thoughtfully along with Harry, but Hermione was frowning. "Harry, I'm not sure that's how Multiple Personality Disorder works. Mind you, I don't know much about it, but I've never heard about one personality speaking out loud to a different one. And also- didn't Voldemort say 'he'll never destroy all the horcruxes I made for you'? Not us, but you. If they're both the same person doesn't that strike you as a little strange?"

"Well," Harry replied thoughtfully, "It might have been 'us' and not you, I'm not completely sure about the wording, I don't have an eidetic memory. Still, I'm pretty sure it was 'you'. So what do you think that means? That Voldemort isn't another personality but some kind of being that's possessing Tom?" Harry had considered this possibility too.

Hermione shrugged. "I've never head of any possession like the one you're describing either. Usually possession takes up a lot of energy and is only possible for around half an hour at most. And if the host is possessed for too long he'll eventually die. From what you're describing, this being has been controlling Tom Riddle since he was at least ten years old, it just doesn't make sense."

"Have you heard of anything like that, Ron?" Harry asked. He didn't doubt Hermione's extensive knowledge of magic, but sometimes Ron, having grown up in the wizarding world, knew of things that he and Hermione didn't. Not all the fact of the wizarding world were contained in Hogwarts Library.

The redhead crinkled his forehead, but finally shook his head. "Nothing relevant."

"Face it, Harry," Hermione said, "we're out of our depth here. You need to tell Dumbledore about this."

"Of course I'm going to tell Dumbledore about it." Harry replied irritably, "I can't in good conscience keep it quiet if Dumbledore might be able to save him. It's why I fessed up to you- there's no justification for keeping it a secret anymore."

Hermione gripped his hand briefly. "Don't worry, Harry. Dumbledore will know what to do. We'll save him." Ron nodded fiercely along with her.

"I certainly hope so." Harry replied grimly.

The scene he had witnessed in the mirror tortured him, it had kept him up all night. He had thought his connection with Voldemort was bad enough, but to be trapped by him- helpless as your body was used to commit heinous actions, to share a mind with him for years and years... It was unthinkable.

Harry silently vowed that whether Dumbledore could help or not, he would dedicate himself to freeing Tom.


Dumbledore had listened very solemnly to Harry's story. Then, he had requested Harry give him his memory of the incident so as to have the exact wording. Then, he had sat for a very long time with his fingers clasped, deep in thought.

Finally, he turned to Harry. "And what are your thoughts on this, Harry?"

"We have to help him." Harry replied, "Only, we'd first need to know exactly how he was being controlled by Voldemort, wouldn't we? And Hermione said it couldn't be regular possession."

Dumbledore smiled. "Miss Granger is a very knowledgeable young lady. Quite remarkably so."

"But you know more than her, don't you Sir? If there's anyone who would know what's going on, it would be you. So do you, Sir? Do you know how to fix it?" Harry asked desperately.

Dumbledore was silent for a moment, and then suddenly stood up, startling Harry.

"Stay right here, Harry, I will be back momentarily."

With that, he stood and, taking a key out of his robe pocket, opened one of the many cabinets in his office. Gripping the edges of the cabinet he pulled, and Harry stared as the opening became larger and larger until Dumbledore could step comfortably into it and close the door behind him.

He emerged from the cabinet a few minutes later, levitating two large boxes in front of him. "Thank you for waiting Harry, I had to retrieve these from my private quarters, and I'm afraid it took me a while to remember where I had stashed them."

The boxes were gently deposited on the desk, and Dumbledore gestured for Harry to open them and look inside. They were filled with books.

Harry read some of the titles. The Confounding Case of Curtis Cunningham and his Coughing Cauldron. Violet's Pet Unicorn. The Tales of Beedle the Bard. The Dragon, the Banshee, and the Vanishing Cabinet.

"They're children's books." Harry said incredulously.

Dumbledore smiled. "Indeed. My mother kept all the books she read to me and my siblings during our childhood out of nostalgia. When I cleared out our old house I found them and kept them for much the same reasons. Here, you take this box, and I'll search through the other one. We're looking for a volume titled 'Stories of the Brothers Grimmig- The Complete and Uncensored Treasury.'"

If it had been anyone else, Harry would have demanded to know what children's stories had to do with freeing Tom Riddle, but he knew Dumbledore well enough to know there was no point in trying to get an explanation before Dumbledore was ready to give it. Instead, Harry pulled the box towards him and began rifling through it.

Moments later, Dumbledore emitted a small noise of triumph and pulled out a black tome with silver letter in the title, and a picture of a little girl talking to what looked like a hag on the cover.

"This is a collection of classic children's tales from the century in which I was born. Eventually, it fell out of favor. Some of the stories here are quite dark and violent, and parents began to feel that the morals imparted in the stories weren't worth the potential trauma and bad dreams they would cause their children. If I remember correctly, Aberforth crawled in to my parents beds for months after being told the story of 'The Boy Who Cried Werewolf ' complaining about dreams of being ripped to shreds, so they weren't entirely wrong.

"The story I'm interested in tonight is 'The Maiden and the Sorceress'." He flipped the book open to the appropriate page and began reading.

Many years ago, there lived a great and powerful sorceress who was renowned for her knowledge of all fields of magic, and greatly respected for it. She was not satisfied, though, with her power, and sought out more. Thus, she came to make a deal with death himself.

The sorceress served death himself and did his bidding, wreaking ruin and misery on all those around her. Tearing children from their parents' arms and young brides from their lovers far before their time. In return, death promised not to touch her, or allow her soul to leave this realm.

Many brave knights attempted to defeat her, but she simply laughed off their killing curses, and pulled their swords out of her chest before slaying their bearers with them. A great reward was offered to the one who would manage to free the land from the sorceress's reign, but no knight could conquer the witch when death itself was on her side.

Finally, a poor but clever farm boy took on the challenge. He enchanted a hut in the woods so that one who entered it would not be able to leave it again. Using trickery and illusions, the farm boy lured the sorceress into the hut, where she was trapped, never able to leave.

So, the people of the land were finally free of the evil witch, and the farm boy was rewarded handsomely.

The now rich boy grew into a man, and the man fell in love with a fair maiden who lived near his house. Attempting to impress the maiden, the man told her the story of his defeat of the evil sorceress. The maiden, who had a soft and kind heart, was appalled to hear of the conditions in which the sorceress was being kept. Denied food and water, but unable to die, the sorceress lay powerless in her prison enduring the agonies of starvation but unable to ever find release from her torment.

The maiden's kind heart went out to the evil witch, unable to stand the suffering even of one who deserved it. The next day, she set out with food and water to the hut in which the sorceress was imprisoned.

Upon realizing the purpose for which the maiden had come to her, the sorceress thanked her most profusely. With tears in her eyes, she reached out her hand to the maiden, expressing a desire to touch the women who had eased her torment and shown her such kindness when she was alone in the world. Touched, the maiden held out her hand to the sorceress, but the second her skin touched that of the witch, the witch enacted a terrible curse to bind the maiden's soul to hers.

The sorceress's spirit entered the maiden's body, leaving her own body in the hut to rot.

Having taken control of a new body, the evil sorceress sought out the man who entrapped her, seeking revenge. Upon finding him, it soon became apparent to her that there was nothing more she needed to do to break his spirit, for there was no torture she could inflict greater than the pain of seeing his beloved trapped in her own body, helplessly enslaved to a cruel mistress.

The sorceress took great delight in forcing the maiden to commit evil deeds in her name, spreading carnage and misery among the people, before returning to the man who loved her to boast gleefully of her heinous actions. The man was greatly pained by these visits and each time vowed to put an end to the horrors that were being inflicted on the people of his land, but each time he would stare into the beloved face of the girl he had given his heart to, his courage would fail him, and he could not bring himself to harm her.

One day, though, the maiden's despair grew so great, and her anger so strong, that in her passion she managed to wrestle control of her body for a few precious seconds, during which she begged her lover to kill her and put and end to her misery and that of all those around her.

The pleas of his love gave the man a newfound courage, and with fresh determination, he stabbed his sword through the heart of the girl he loved.

The sorceress looked shocked for a moment at the sight of the sword piercing her breast, but then simply laughed and pulled the sword back out. She would not die, for she had tied the maiden's soul to her own, and as long as Death refused to claim her own soul, the maiden's soul would not be able to pass on either.

Upon realizing this, the man was at first filled with despair, but he soon became filled with a fresh determination to free his beloved of the sorceress once and for all. Using all his extensive knowledge of magic, the man designed a ritual of the darkest and foulest magic.

Since the sorceress's soul refused to move on as it should in death, the man designed a ritual that would instead tear the soul apart, destroying it completely.

Challenging her to a duel on a remote island, the man confronted her, and lured her to the necessary location. Speaking the last few words, and shedding his blood in the appropriate place, the man completed the ritual, unleashing dark powers upon the sorceress of which he himself had little understanding.

With agony in his heart, the man watched as the darkness ripped the sorceress's soul apart, and with it the soul of his love leaving behind only an empty body.

The man had deemed the sacrifice of his beloved's soul to be worthwhile if it freed her of the evil sorceress and freed the land of her tyranny, but he did not fully understand the dark powers which he had unleashed. Out of the portal which he had opened emerged the first dementor, who immediately claimed the man's soul, making him the first victim of many.

The island on which they were first released remains the territory of the dementors to this very day. Some say the island was named after that very wizard who lost his soul there. Others say the name Azkaban is the last word of the curse the wizard spoke to destroy the two women's souls. All agree that it remains a stark warning for all witches and wizards dabbling in soul magic.

Dumbledore closed the book and looked at Harry pensively over his half-moon spectacles. "This is an interesting story, Harry, is it not? There are so many intriguing similarities between the situation of the maiden and the situation we believe Tom is in. A connection of sorts between souls, a type of possession which is impossible according to all current knowledge of magic, and the seemingly insurmountable problem of a soul that refuses to move on."

"Well yes," stammered Harry, "but isn't it- I mean- it's just a children's story."

Dumbledore smiled down at Harry. "I have often found that in the wizarding world, there are more to these fanciful little tales than meets the eye." His eyes rested for a moment on the ring he wore on his blackened hand. "I will admit that I myself never gave this story much credit as anything more than a warning against naivety and the dangers of showing compassion to those who don't deserve it. However, the parallels between the magic in this story and the magic you heard Voldemort describe are too great to be discounted.

"Often, children's books contain descriptions of magic that is, as far as we know, impossible even to wizards. These stories are very old, though, and perhaps sometimes, a feat of magic described in them which we might consider imaginary, is simply magic that has been lost to the ages."

"So, you think the story might actually true?" Harry asked, trying to grasp what Dumbledore was getting at.

"Perhaps not the story itself, Harry, but I daresay it is quite possible that the feats of magic described in it are."

This settled it for Harry, who had a deep trust for Dumbledore's judgement. "So, what's the plan?" He asked, eager to act.

"If the possession in the story exists, then perhaps the ritual described in it exists as well. We must find the ritual described in the story. If such a ritual does exist it is far more safe and likely to succeed in defeating Voldemort than a horcrux hunt with nothing to guide us but memories and our own intuition.

"I think I shall begin by contacting Xenophilius Lovegood. A few years ago he sent me a letter regarding rumors he had heard of Gellert Grindelwald's wand which he hoped I would be able to confirm or deny. I won't go in to the context now, but that letter gives me good cause to think that Xeno too has an interest in ancient stories that others believe to be merely fiction. He may have some knowledge or contacts which could prove to be of assistance."

"So, we're trying to find the ritual the wizard killed the sorceress with?" Harry's teeth clenched in anger. "But what about Tom? According to the story that ritual will kill him too."

Dumbledore placed his hand gently over Harry's, as if aware of just how fast Harry's pulse was beating with frustration and anger, and was trying to calm it. "My boy, I could tell you that if you look hard enough, you may find versions of this story in which the innocent girl survived through the power of love, but that would be giving you false hope. That change to the end of the story was made in an attempt to give the story a happier ending and to make it more suitable for young children. It pains me, but I'm afraid I know of no way to free Tom riddle from whatever power is possessing him."

"So you're just going to let him die?!" Harry could feel the horror of the situation and the unfairness of it all rear up in him, making his teeth clench and his eyes hurt. "He's suffering, and I saw how hard it was for him to fight, and he still did to save my life, and you're not even going to try to help him?"

His misery began morphing into anger, born from the helplessness he was felling, and Harry was fully prepared to unleash it on the only other person in the room. The person that he had been sure would have all the answers, would be able to fix everything and was instead sitting before him empty handed, offering no solution and no comfort. He was fully prepared to unleash his fury and frustration on Dumbledore, until he looked at his mentor and saw the look on his face. He looked broken.

"Harry, you must think me a cold man, to simply condemn Tom to death. You have a right to despise me, I have failed so many under my charge."

Harry automatically opened his mouth to protest such harsh self-judgement, but Dumbledore held up a blackened hand to stop him.

"I have reached a point in my life, Harry, in which the future ahead of me is short, very short, and in times like these one begins to look back upon their lives. I have made so many mistakes, Harry. I admitted to you only last summer that I had made a mistake in regards to my treatment of you. And there are other mistakes, ones that if you knew you would not look upon me with the sympathy I see in your face now.

"This new horrible discovery, you must believe that it is devastating to me. If our deductions are correct then there has been a student subjected to horrific dark magic from the first time I laid eyes on him and for the next seven years when he was under my care, and I knew nothing and did nothing. And in retrospect, I realize how my arrogance blinded me. The fact that for so long all the victims were petrified instead of killed goes far beyond what one might call a coincidence, and it should have been the first clue that all was not as it seemed to me. But I had an image of the boy in my head of the situation, and was too prideful to reconsider it many years later when it seems I was finally being vindicated. I was closer to the truth of Tom than any other teacher at Hogwarts, and yet I still managed to miss it completely.

"You must understand, though, Harry, that I cannot allow my grief over the mistakes I have made to make me question my judgement. The Order of the Phoenix depends on me, as does a very big portion of Wizarding Britain. My knowledge of Voldemort gives me a unique insight into his psychology and an unparalleled ability to predict his actions. This, coupled with- forgive me- my high intelligence and talent with magic, makes me the most qualified man to protect this country and I will do my duty to it. I cannot begin to question myself because of past mistakes, and I cannot allow myself to be distracted by looking for a solution for Tom that probably doesn't exist when I could be working to stop Voldemort."

At this point, Dumbledore's hand came to rest on Harry's in a comforting gesture as he smiled sadly.

"I know, Harry, that when you came up here it was with the hopes that I would be able to save another one of Voldemort's innocent victims, but while I may not be able to help in that regard, the information you have given me was not useless. The fact that there may be more truth to the tale of The Maiden and the Sorceress than I previously suspected has opened up a new avenue for me to explore in regards to defeating Voldemort. And from the short glimpse we've had into the real Tom Riddle's character, I believe that would make him happy and perhaps give him some peace. I am sorry that that is the only comfort I can offer you."

There was nothing Harry could really say to that. The faster Dumbledore found a way to defeat Voldemort, the more people would be saved, and it would be irresponsible of him to search for a solution for Tom that probably didn't exist when he could be working on looking for Horcruxes, or the soul-destroying ritual. Still, Harry was not Dumbledore, and did not have his responsibilities- he could search for a solution independently and bring it up again if he found something. "Alright, Sir." He told the Headmaster, nodding his head. "I understand."

Dumbledore clapped his hands together. "Excellent! In that case, you may go on to enjoy the wonderful feast in the Great Hall, and I shall set up a meeting with Xenophilius Lovegood to see if I can determine whether The Tale of the Three Brothers is the only children's story he has taken an interest in. Oh, and Harry, one more thing."

Harry, who had gotten up to leave, paused.

"Regarding your initial decision not to inform me of the mirror." Dumbeldore gave Harry a look filled with disappointment, and Harry flinched guiltily. "It appears that the scars caused by my decision not to include you last year are not yet completely healed. Despite this, I implore you not to keep any information that could be important from me in the future, and I, in return, will endeavor to do the same. In the spirit of proving myself to you, I will allow you to keep the mirror in your room. My only condition is that you report anything you hear, of even the slightest significance to me."

Here, Dumbledore gave Harry a stern look. Harry was too relieved at this new liberty he had been given to be very intimidated, but he gave Dumbledore a solemn nod nevertheless.

Dumbledore beamed. "Excellent! In that case, Harry, I shall see you at dinner tonight. Goodbye!"

Harry returned the greeting and left the office. While riding down the spiraling staircase, Harry thought again about his self-appointed mission to save Tom Riddle. The first step would be to find out more about the version of the story in which the girl survived.

It was funny, Harry thought, that Dumbledore, who was always such a strong believer in the power of love, would be so quick to discount the tale in which the wizard had saved the girl through the power of love. Perhaps it was because he knew that unlike Harry, or the girl in the story, Tom Riddle did not have anyone who loved him.


The next morning, after Harry had eaten his breakfast, he walked towards Ravenclaw table.

"Hello, Harry Potter." said Luna genially as Harry approached her.

"Hey Luna, can I sit next to you? There's something I want to ask you."

"Go ahead." Luna indicated freely with her hand at the empty space next to her. "There's always a lot of room next to where I sit, because people don't like sitting next to me. I think that it's because I'm weird and it makes them uncomfortable."

"Err... Maybe." said Harry neutrally. He had never quite figured out how to respond to Luna's shockingly honest pronouncements. "So I wanted to ask you about a kid's story you might have heard of. It's about this evil witch who possesses this girl, and the wizard who was in love with the girl ends up defeating her. It's called, er, The Girl, no- The Maiden-"

"The Maiden and the Sorceress, yes." Luna said helpfully.

"It was just, this might seem a bit strange to you-" Harry suddenly remembered who he was talking to and relaxed a bit, Luna wouldn't judge him for his odd questions. "Anyways, I heard the story recently, and in the story the wizard performs this ritual that destroys the soul of the Sorceress, but it also does the same to the girl she possessed. I heard there was a version where the wizard manages to save the girl, and I was wondering if you knew it."

"Of course." Luna said helpfully. "It's an older version of the same story. The power that the man called up in the ritual was the power to destroy souls, it's the same power demetors possess. Some say it's more powerful than death. After all, death can only force the soul from the body and on, but it cannot destroy the soul. Some have said the name of the power is Evil, other maintain that it is Hate."

"Yeah, but-" Harry felt bad about interrupting, but he was anxious to hear how the maiden was spared "Where does the part where he saves the girl come in?"

"Very soon. The power, whatever you wish to call it, forces the intertwined souls from the maiden's body, where it proceeded to rip them apart from each other. The next step would have been to completely consume them, but at that point, the man entered the maelstrom and cupped his hands around the girl's soul. Of course, physical barriers are no match for the power he had called, but the love he had for the girl was. His love for the girl formed a barrier around her soul, the offered far more protection than his mere hands could. The girl's soul was protected, and remained safe in his hands, but the wizard's soul was not, and he was destroyed along with the sorceress."

"How could the wizard cup his hands around a soul?" Harry asked, bewildered, but then he suddenly remembered the dementor attack on the lake in his third year, how he had seen the dementors leaning over Sirius, and how he had seen a minuscule ball of light being pulled out of Sirius's body before his Patronus had intervened. He immediately felt foolish for asking the question.

But Luna merely smiled. "It is a rather fanciful story, isn't it? The power of love, the ability to attach two souls, the power to destroy them? But sometimes, the most powerful magics are the ones that sound most fanciful. Dementors employ the most powerful dark magic- soul magic, and everyone knows that the most powerful light magics is that of love. Some wizards and witches would scoff at these childish sounding notions, it's probably the reason the other version of the story is more well-known. But then, some wizards and witches would also scoff at the notion of a Crumple-Horned Snorkak. We must make our own judgements."

Harry tactfully ignored the last sentence, and thanked Luna for the information.

It was interesting, he thought, that Dumbledore had claimed that the story in which the girl survived was merely a more kid-friendly version of the story that attempted to give it a happy ending. After all, the ending Luna described in which the girl survived but the wizard died was hardly any happier than the version Dumbledore had told him.

It was possible, of course, that it was an innocent mistake. Dumbledore might have known there was an alternate ending to the story, but not how the ending actually went, and had made his own assumptions. Was it possible, though, that the deception was intentional? All those closest to Harry knew of his 'saving-people thing' as Hermione had called it. Was Dumbledore trying to prevent Harry from getting any ideas regarding self-sacrifice?

If so, he had failed.


Whenever Marvolo walked past the mirror he intended to use to curse Harry, Tom could feel his lip curling into a snarl. The man was extremely displeased that Tom had managed to push back his plans, and, Tom suspected, slightly nervous. It had been a very long time since Tom had succeeded in wrestling control from Marvolo for such an extended amount of time, and the man was probably puzzled by his sudden ability. Not that Tom would deign to actually look into his mind to confirm this.

While the connection between their souls allowed Tom and Marvolo free access to each other's thoughts, listening in to what Marvolo was thinking took effort and concentration that Tom refused to invest. Therefore, if Marvolo ever wanted to tell Tom something, just thinking it would not suffice, since Tom would not be paying attention, he would have to say it out loud. This had the double benefit of being the only bit of control Tom could exert over Marvolo and driving Marvolo dotty with annoyance as well. Marvolo could only communicate with Tom when they were alone, for fear of someone thinking he was talking to himself, and it gave Tom pleasure to think he was able to limit Marvolo's actions.

Marvolo must have been listening to Tom at that instance, because the next minute an ugly smirk graced his face. "You can feel pleased with yourself all you want, boy, but you've simply delayed my plans by a month. I look forward to seeing your savior dying in agony in that much time. And I look forward even more to seeing how pathetically heartbroken you will be once it happens."

Disgusted, Tom send the mental equivalent of a strong kick in his grandfather's direction. To his utter shock, the shove actually managed to dislodge Marvolo, and Tom suddenly found himself in control of his own body for the second time that month.

He had not planned for this. He had not expected his habitual mental struggle that was intended to give Marvolo a hard time rather than expected to do any good to actually work. Still, he could sense that he had merely caught the old man by surprise, and that he would soon regain his bearings and wrestle the control back from Tom.

Having no plan in mind, Tom simply cast about for the best way to rebel against his grandfather.

"Muggles are smarter than wizards," he declared, relishing the fact that it was Dark Lord Voldemort's own lips forming these blasphemous words, "and Salazar Slytherin was a creepy pedophile who spied on little girl's toilets!"

He cast about for more outrageous things to say, and his eyes fell on the enchanted mirror which reflected Harry Potter's dorm room and bed. "Oh, and Harry Potter is the sexiest wizard to ever grace the halls of Hogwar-"

At that moment, Marvolo gave a big push, and Tom lost control of his body once more.

With a snarl of rage, Marvolo pulled out his wand. "Nothing would give me greater pleasure than causing you some pain, boy. But since I'm stuck in this body along with you, how about we visit the dungeons, and decide which muggle should feel my Cruciatus in your stead?"

Three hundred miles away, Harry Potter's grin of flattered amusement morphed into shocked horror as he watched Voldemort spin around and walk away in the mirror.


End of Chapter.

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