When Honey opened her eyes she clutched her chest as she gasped for air and struggled to breathe. She turned to the creature holding her and stared at his reptilian, humanoid face. The man vanished as the darkness transformed into a heavily decorated room that was partially lighted. There were three people lying lifeless on the carpet floor, two men and a woman. They were dead by the end of her wand. She had murdered them.
Honey laughed at what she had done. A feeling of satisfaction consumed her. She walked to the corpse of the young man, who was closed to her and looked down at his face. The gratification she felt before was gone. All that was left was regret. Regret that she didn't torture him more before ending his worthless existence.
Honey whispered a spell and levitated each of them up. One-by-one, she placed them neatly at the dinner table, in their seats. With the exception of the look of terror on their faces, one would think they were having a normal evening together. She would have loved to take credit for their demise but no. She couldn't allow him to live or let anyone know of their connection. It was too humiliating. They had to be silenced. All of them.
"I see…" the Voldemort said as he reappeared and their surrounding melted away. "You are the one I created with I killed him. The ring. My ring."
Honey disappeared into the shadows and Tom Riddle emerged. Eternally seventeen, Tom was a young and handsome incarnation of himself. Voldemort had hidden the ring within the compartment he rode in on the Hogwarts Express train when he had returned to Hogwarts after graduating. He had planned to ask Professor Dippet whether he could remain at Hogwarts as a teacher. He was very attached to the school and wanted to stay as long as he could but Dippet rejected his application. Said he was too young, but promised the position to him after a few more years. He had returned to claim the position years later, but at the time Dumbledore had become Headmaster and refused him. The old fool was never fond of him.
"Tell me of your journey, my precious ring. How have you come to be as you are?"
Their surroundings transformed into the compartment on the Hogwarts Express train. Voldemort watched as Tom spoke to a small girl, Melissa, who had a slight French accent.
"Watch your step." said Tom.
Melissa looked up to see a teenage boy with pale skin, and dark hair. He was so tall. She had to crane her neck back to see his face. She straightened herself and looked at the boy, who was blocking her path. He was standing so close it made her skin itch with discomfort.
"Excuse me. I need to find a compartment." She told him.
"I have a compartment. You can sit with me." said the boy.
Something inside of her urged her to stay away from him. "No thank you."
"Come sit with me. The others are completely full." Not waiting for her to respond, the boy opened the compartment door and gesture her in.
Believing him when he claimed that this was the only available carriage; she went inside and sat down on the bench. She kept her trunk close by encase she needed something from it.
"My name is Tom by the way. What's yours?"
"Melissa."
"Honey bee," said Tom.
"Excuse me?"
"Melissa means Melissa bee. In Greek mythology, Melissa was a nymph. She nursed Zeus with Melissa until he was old enough to challenge his father, Cronus, and claim his rightful place as the king of the gods."
"How about your name? Is it related to mythology too?"
"No," he said with obvious distain, "Tom is a very common name. Not unique like yours." He
finished with a smile that didn't reach his eyes.
Melissa nervously smiled back politely. Since he appeared to dislike his name, she decided to change the subject.
"What's Hogwarts like?" Melissa looked down nervously. "I've never been there before. It seems scary."
"There's no need to be frighten. Hogwarts is a safe and magical place."
"That's what my arrière-grand-mère says - I mean, my great grandma. She said I will be safe. The guardian will protect me."
Tom's eyebrows rose with curiosity. "Guardian? What about a guardian?"
"My grandma knows everything and everything she says is true."
"Does she know what the guardian looks like?"
"She said I'll know the guardian when I see her."
"Does she know where the guardian lives?"
"She lives beneath Hogwarts' dungeons."
Tom stood up from his chair and grabbed Melissa's shoulders so fast she gasped in surprise. His face was twisted with ugly rage.
"You're hurting me." Melissa whimpered.
Tom blinked as his expression turned neutral. He slowly released her, but remained in her personal space.
"Sorry…I...lost myself for a moment there." he said in a gentle tone.
Speechless by his sudden aggressive behavior Melissa merely nodded.
"The train has stop. You should get on your way."
Listening to the conversation, it sounded to Voldemort that Melissa knew about the Chamber of Secrets and the basilisk. There could be a possibility that she was related to Slytherin. As Voldemort would have done, Tom produced his ring and secretly placed it in the girl's belongings. This allowed him leave the train and followed her into the castle.
"I know you're in there, Honey Bee." said Tom as he knocked on the on the door of the bathroom stall she was currently hiding inside.
Melissa bit her tongue, refusing to answer him. She hugged her knees closer to her chest, praying that he would leave and that she would not fall into the toilet she was sitting on.
"Come out."
After waiting a few seconds she finally relented and slowly stood up and unlocked the door. When she opened the door, Tom gently took her hand and led her out. He motioned to a spot on the floor and they sat down next to each other.
"Tell me what happened."
"The other girls don't like me. I don't know why. I've been nice to everyone, but no one wants to be my friend."
"I'm your friend." interjected Tom with hurt in his words.
"I know you are...I...I'm sorry if what I said hurt you."
Tom lowered his head and turned away from her. "Are you not happy with me as your friend?"
"I am!" she said quickly.
"Then why do you need other people?"
"I...su-supose I don't."
"It's true. You don't." insisted Tom. "I'm all that you'll ever need."
Melissa was so young. So impressionable. She fell for his every word.
Melissa pulled at the bars of the cage she was imprisoned within. "Let me out!"
Tom knelt before the girl to closer observe her. "No."
"Why? We're friends." claimed Melissa, still believing in him.
"Oh, we are! I have grown quite fond of you." Tom jumped to his feet, spreading his arms out he spun in a circle, and laughed hysterically, his robes bellowing against the cold wind. "Do you know where you are? This is Salazar Slytherin's secret chamber. Only his descendants—his chosen—are allowed inside! I have bestowed a great honor upon you."
The Melissa's gaze left Tom for a moment to take in her surroundings. "It's filthy and smells."
"Shut up! How dare you insult Slytherin—you little insect!"
Melissa moved to the back corner of the cage. She hugged her knees to her chest and glared at Tom through her untamed hair. "This isn't Slytherin's Chamber."
"What do you know?"
"I know that he would never allow a Mudblood like you in there."
Tom narrowed her eyes at the girl. "Are you questioning my heritage? My purity?" he pointed his wand at her. "I'll have you know I am a Half-blood!"
"My grandma says a Half-blood is a Mudblood! You have Mudblood manners! You're a disgusting Mudblood! I suppose you can never forget your Mudblood habits! You Mudblood! MUDBLOOD!"
Panting with rage Tom opened the door to the cage. "I'm not a Mudblood I'm pure! I'll show you what Muggles do to brats like you!"
As soon as Tom was close enough, Melissa kicked him in the shins and ran out of the cage. Her small body easily snuck passed him. Tom came out of the cage and went after her. Under his breath, Tom hissed a jinx at her. He heard her scream as she tripped and fell face forward. She recovered quickly and rolled herself to her back.
Tom covered her ears and the sound of millions of hisses attacked his eardrums.
"BLOOD! BLOOD! BLOOD!" they chanted. "BLOOD! BLOOD!"
Melissa was about to get up but fell back down again. Something made her scream louder. Tom ignored the hisses and went to her. She was lying on the stone floor, beneath a pit of snakes that was not there before. Tom grinned at the sight.
Tom really meant it when he said he was fond of Melissa, which was why he was going to kill her here. As soon as she died, his body would be restored and he could live as a human once again and not this ghost-like state.
Hearing moment behind him, Tom smiled widely. The basilisk was arriving.
"You can feast on her corpse once I'm through with her." Tom told the creature.
The basilisk stopped in front of Melissa and simply stared at her.
"Master…" the giant serpent hissed.
Melissa pulled herself off the ground, the snakes that had surrounded her slithered away.
"Hello there. You're as my grandmother said you were." She said as she petted the basilisk's head. The basilisk leaning to her touching, wanting more.
"What are you doing?" Tom hissed to the basilisk.
Melissa laughed. "Parseltongue won't work for you anymore, Mudblood. Now that I'm here."
Tom stepped away in see that the basilisk had instantly submitted to Melissa.
"You may be a descendent of Slytherin but so am I." Melissa held out her palm for him to see a small cut on her pale skin. Blood was seeping through the wound. "And unlike you I'm not tainted by dirty blood."
Voldemort felt the insult striking his very core. He knew one day that his filthy Muggle father's blood would be his downfall. Damn his mother for this disgrace, a flaw on his genetic!
"NO! NO!" his younger self screamed in denial. He shook his head, refusing to listen.
Melissa stepped closer to him. "Can't handle the truth, Mudblood?"
"IT'S NOT TRUE!" Tom and Voldemort screamed at the same time.
Voldemort pulled himself out of Honey's memories, panting in rage. Honey was sleeping on the bed he had placed her on when they arrived in Malfoy Manor. He was sitting on a chair beside her bed, using his Legilimency abilities to see into her mind. What he had witnesses had been disturbing, but he must go back inside to find out what had happened to his Horcrux.
Somehow Melissa had regained her strength and overpowered Tom. She trapped him inside of the cage she had occupied earlier. She pointed her wand at him.
"Let's make a deal!" shouted Tom.
"What sort?" Melissa curiously asked him.
"You want Dumbledore dead, so do I. How about we work together?" He suggested.
"How do you know about that?"
"I overheard what your grandpa told you. The reason why he sent you to Hogwarts. Dumbledore is a wicked man for what he did to your aunt...to me."
"What do you have against Dumbledore?"
"He took advantage of me."
"That's a serious accusation." she said. She was clearly shocked but remained neutral.
"It's true. It happened when I was eleven. He forced himself on me. It continued while I was a student under his care. Told me he'd kill me if I told anyone. I despise him. I want him dead as bad as you."
Melissa was stunned by his confession but remained skeptical.
Voldemort was satisfied to see that his younger self was resourceful. Dumbledore had never touched him, but he had used that deception to distract her from destroying him. He had to gain her sympathy and manipulate her.
"Think about it Melissa. Together, we can seek revenge on Dumbledore."
Melissa was contemplating his offer, but appeared as if she was not convinced. "How do I know you're not lying again?"
"I'm not." He was lying through his teeth. "How do you think I became this way? He cursed me when I ended our relationship. He trapped me here. In a world where time is frozen. I'm dead, yet not. I can't grow old. I can't love. I can't exist. All because of him."
"Why did you hurt me?"
Tom schooled his face to appear as pitiable as possible. "I didn't want to hurt you. You were my dear friend. I care for you but I had to. It was the only way I could regain my body. Please, Honey Bee, I love you."
Tom had over done it. Even Voldemort could see that. Why did he have to use that word? A word he despised.
When Voldemort returned his focus to the memory, Melissa had grown into a beautiful young lady of sixteen, while his Horcrux remained the same. Because he never finished draining Melissa's life and magic, Tom was still trapped in a ghost-like form of a teenager. It took years, but Tom had reclaimed her trust and together they were plotting Dumbledore's demise. Secretly, he was plotting Melissa's death as well. He admired her boldness, but there was no way they were going to succeed in murdering Dumbledore. Tom was humoring her, buying his time.
"Is something wrong?" Tom asked Melissa one night, in seeing her troubled expression.
Bare footed, Melissa was wearing a white nightdress that reached her ankles. Her initials, MH, were stitched in gold on the silk fabric. She walked passed her four-poster bed next to the closed door of the dorm room and went to the window, overlooking the school grounds.
"My papa sent me an owl this morning." Melissa huffed out, throwing her long dark brown hair behind her back. Her French accent had disappeared over the years she had spent in Hogwarts. She spoke perfect English.
"What was it about?"
"He wants me to get married."
"WHAT?!" Tom could not withhold the angry in his tone.
"Some git proposed for my hand and papa agreed." She stomped her foot. "He didn't even ask for my opinion! I don't even know who he is!"
"You can't allow this! What about our plans? Dumbledore's death?" How was he supposed to kill her if she got married? Her husband would get in his way. She could not marry anyone. She was supposed to die.
"Papa said it's over. He still wants him dead but thinks I can't do it. Says I'm too soft." It was true, Melissa couldn't harm a fly. Not because she lacked the skill, but because she was as her papa had said too soft.
"You have to go to him - the man in person- and refuse his proposal." It was the worst advice Tom could have given her.
Melissa went to confront Benjamin Sheridan, to reject his proposal. But to Tom's disappointment, she fell madly in love with him at first sight. Dumbledore was nothing to her now and neither was he. Tom didn't understand the infatuation Melissa had developed for Benjamin. Sure he was a pureblood, handsome, wealthy, and athletic – but his mother was a total whore. She had married six husbands and none of her sons bare any resemblances to one another. The only good Tom saw in Benjamin's family was that the mother had exquisite taste. She had only selected wealthy pureblood men from different parts of the global to marry.
For a year, Benjamin courted Melissa and strengthening their relationship. Tom's control over Melissa slowly dissolved as the pureblood wizard replaced him, filled her heart. She trusted Tom partially, but was not as devoted to him as she once had been. No. All of her devotion was transferred to Benjamin. It disgusted him.
After Melissa graduated from Hogwarts, she married Benjamin a month later and moved to one of his home in Asia. They lived in a grand palace like house he had inherited from one of his fathers. Tom was forced to follow them, since Melissa still had possession of the ring. He was unable to take it back from her since she had discovered it and wore it around her neck like an amulet. Three months into her marriage, she announced her pregnancy.
All was not lost though. Tom had planned to take Melissa unborn child's life to regain his.
Tom was present as Melissa was going into labor with her daughter. Healers were running rampaged as she screamed from the pain. She was floating in and out of conscious as they screamed at her to push.
Tom went to Melissa to encourage her. "Come on, Melissa. Be strong. Your daughter needs you." His hopes were pinned on the unborn. It had to live long enough for him to cast his spell.
"She's stuck!" He heard the healer said to another healer. "We need to perform a Caesarean!"
"No!" Tom shouted. He had gone to all of Melissa's appointments with her and knew of the risk of performing a Caesarean section. Both mother and daughter could die. The newborn could not die yet. Not naturally on its needed it. He waited nine months for this child. He was not about to let it ruin his plans.
"Melissa tell them no!" he ordered her, but she was too heavily medicated to understand him at this point.
"Where's my baby?" Melissa weakly called from the bed. "Where is she?" her arms stretched out, reaching blindly for her. The moment Tom her touched her hand he felt a sharp pain in the back of his spine and all was dark.
Voldemort watched as his younger self disappeared. His cold gaze remained on the glowing black stone hanging from a chain around Melissa's neck. The stone stopped glowing right before the angry cries of the newborn silenced the room. The healers cleaned the newborn, wrapped her in a clean blanket, and place her in her mother's arms.
"Don't cry. Mommy is right here." said Melissa.
Benjamin entered the white room with the majority of their family members. He hugged his wife and daughter tightly, rendered speechless with happiness.
"She's beautiful." said Melissa's father.
Voldemort walked to the doting mother and inspected the infant. He grinned in amusement. He exited the memory and was brought back to the bedroom. Honey was awake, staring at his face without blinking.
"Honey Bee, do you know who I am?" he asked her.
"No. Who are you?"
"I am you in a different form. I have metamorphosed into as you see now and you...you have altered yourself into perfection."
"What are you talking about?" Honey looked at him thoughtfully.
"We are Tom Riddle."
Honey shook her head, her eyebrows knitted in confusion. "How can that be? You are you and I am me."
"You are one of my Horcruxes. I created you from parts of me when I killed my father. I placed you in the Hogwarts Express to wait for a naïve prey to devour and you chose a worthy one. She was the heir of Slytherin. A pureblood."
"Slytherin, The Chamber of Secrets…" as Honey said these words her mind raced with reasons and explanations. There was so much that it made her head throbbed.
"Rest little one. We will speak more of this later when you are better."
Honey sunk her back on to the bed and closed her eyes. Voldemort exited the room, shutting the door behind him. His Horcrux was reborn in to the true Heir of Slytherin. A pureblood. He didn't know how but Honey was Tom.
There was powerful magic surrounding Melissa when she gave birth and he had to discover the reason. Voldemort Apparate to the Potter's home in Godric's Hollow. He felt a presence there and went to investigate who had come this late in the night. When he arrived, Melissa was sitting on the preserved couch as if she was waiting for him. She was no longer that juvenile from Tom's memories, before him stood a regal witch with confidence and grace. She was not surprised when he revealed himself and sat on the chair opposite her. The witch's lack of a reaction to his appearance aroused his curiosity.
"I'm looking for my daughter. Have you seen her?" Melissa asked without exchanging pleasantries.
"What makes you think I have?" he asked her in return. His eyes scanned her from head to toe. She wore a dark blue dress underneath a black cloak. The neckline of her dress was too high for him to see if she was wearing his ring. He could not sense its presence either, but it could be that she was not wearing it tonight.
"I know for a fact that she was here. Currently, she isn't but you are."
"Interesting logic," He was not about to reveal anything to her until he found out what she knew. She seemed to sense that.
Melissa slowly nodded. "I am allowing Honey to remain under your care because I trust that she is safe with you. I believe you are the only person with the ability to cure her of the mental ailment she is suffering from. My daughter's wellbeing and life is important to me. If I sense that she is in any type of danger I will personally escort her from Malfoy Manor." finished with her speech, she stood up and disapparate.
Voldemort remained where he was, contemplating a few things. Apparently, Melissa knew a lot more than he had expected. It made him wonder if she knew that Honey was Tom all along. It was inconvenient that he could not see into the witch's mind unlike Tom. He suddenly realized that he could see into her mind using Honey. With his mind made up, he Apparate back to Malfoy Manor. Honey was still asleep when he approached the bed. There was little movement, even her breathing was silent. Her eyes opened as he grew closer. They were the bluest he had ever seen.
Voldemort's surroundings twirled as he entered her mind. He was taken to a windowless bedroom. The ceiling was similar to the enchanted one in Hogwarts. There was a clear blue sky and white fluffy clouds floating. The walls were painted light blue. They were enchanted with images of colorful butterflies, birds, and flowers, gently flying from one wall to another. It was one of the most depressing things he had ever seen.
In the center of the room was a small bed where Honey laid under a heavy sheet of white blankets. Her face had scars. She was deathly paler and thinner with sunken, lifeless eyes. Her long blonde hair surrounded her head and shoulders. Just as she was in Malfoy Manor, she was still as a corpse.
"You've been trapped in this room for a long time." said Voldemort.
The lights began to flicker, objects in the room shook and fell on to the floor. A loud and large tear on the walls, resembling claw marks, was Honey or Tom's response. Voldemort paid no attention to it.
It was then that he felt her emotions, sense her thoughts. She despised this room, despite her parents' best efforts to beautify it, but she had accepted it. She thought this was where she was going to spend the rest of her life in. Voldemort knew that feeling well. When he was living in an orphanage as a child, he too thought he was going to die in that tiny room. Alone. Forgotten in the harshness of existence. This bedroom may be cleaner and better in comparison to his old bedroom but both were equivalent to a cage confining them.
On silent feet, he walked to her bed. "We escaped and we are never going back." he promised.
The room altered into a dark room filled with broken glass. Honey was bleeding on the floor, pinned underneath a broken crystal sculpture with broken glass surrounding her. She was picking up hand full of glass with her hand right and putting them into her own mouth. Melissa pushed opened the doors and gasped in shock at what she saw.
"Honey!" Melissa pointed her wand at her daughter and white light shot out of the end. Honey's body became limp and she lost consciousness. She picked up Honey's bloody hand and touched the blood on her mouth.
With a swing of Melissa's wand, the glass sculpture over Honey gone and the area around her was clean. Melissa went to her daughter and cradled her in her arms.
Benjamin burst into the room and stared in horror at the sight of her bloody daughter. He fell on to his knees and crawled to his wife and daughter and caged both of them in his arms.
Melissa shook her head in confusion, tears falling from her eyes. "Summon the healer now!"
Healers ran rapid with their wands in an effort to save Honey. Melissa, her father, and Benjamin anxiously stood outside of Honey's bedroom; waiting for one of the healers to come out to tell them she was all right. Neither looked at each other's face. When a healer finally walked through the doors, they rushed to him.
"We healed her wounds but she is still under critical condition." said the healer.
"Can you explained to us what happened?" asked Honey's grandpa.
"She has swallowed some glass, but we managed to remove them." said the healer.
"How did they get in there?" asked Benjamin.
"Did someone break in and attacked her?" asked Honey's grandpa.
"There were no intruders." said Benjamin.
"When I found her she was alone." said Melissa, "She was...she was..."
"Her right hand...it looks like she was picking up glass shards with it and..." the healer went silent as if he didn't believe what he was about to say.
"She was putting glass in her own mouth." Melissa finished for him.
Everyone was too stunned to speak. Voldemort left the group, since this was the only current memory he could see in Melissa's head. Something was preventing him from looking into Melissa's memories. He returned to Honey. Honey's physical body was lying in her bedroom drifting in and out of consciousness. When she fell asleep her mind took her inside of Riddle Manor. She was transformed back into Tom, where she stood over the three corpses. Voldemort could see that this event was important to Tom. His young self was eternally trapped in this particular moment with his thoughts of revenge and his rage. The reason was because it was how he felt right before he sliced that portion of his soul out and placed it inside of the ring. Voldemort remembered the pain he suffered when he did it. It was minimal compared to what he had to endure for his future. For his dream, he was willing to exchange anything and everything he possessed. Scars, whether it was mental, emotional, or physical, was nothing in his path to achieve his goal.
"Enough dwelling!" Voldemort ordered Tom. "We must look to the future. Not sink in the past, Tom."
Tom snapped his head to Voldemort. A corner of Tom's lips turned up in amusement. Voldemort exited Honey's mind. He had seen and learned enough for him to deduce what was occurring in her mind. They were going to have an interesting conversation once she wakes up.
When morning came, Voldemort watched as Honey slowly stirred. He waited until she was fully conscious to speak to her.
"Do you remember our conversation from last night?" he asked her.
"No."
"I am Lord Voldemort." As he said this he saw no recognition in her face. Spending most of her life living as a vegetable had molded her to this eternal neutral state. She would not interact until she knew what he wanted first. "I brought you here to cure you of your illness."
"What illness do you think I have?"
"An illness of the mind. Your dreams and reality have fused together. You live between the boarders of the two for so long that you cannot separate them. I am here to teach you how."
Honey didn't appear convinced. "How are you going to do that?"
"By making you remember who you are, Tom."
That got a reaction from Honey but only slightly.
"I have seen into your mind. You are Tom. You're me. This is why you dream of being Tom Riddle. Being me. You see our past. Feel our emotions."
Honey turned the palm of her right hand up to look at it. "My hand throbs when I do."
Voldemort caressed the inside of her open palm. "It is because with this hand Tom forced the glass shards down your mouth."
Honey closed her palm and clasped his hand. "Hands symbolize departure, leaving...which of us will go first?"
Voldemort pulled his hand away from her grip. Honey sat up and threw the blanket aside. Slowly, she placed her feet on the floor and stood to her full height, which was not much compared to him. Small in stature she was but she intimidated him with her change in demeanor. She had altered into a different person. A separate personality.
"Tom Riddle." said Voldemort.
"I am Honey."
"No, you're not."
Honey smiled. "If I weren't Honey, how would I know about you? Mudblood."
"SILENCE!" Voldemort screamed. Mudbloods were those lower breed born with no Wizarding parents or grandparents. He was a descendant of the great Salazar Slytherin. He would never allow anyone to use that particular term on him. "I'M A HALF-BLOOD!"
"Your mum polluted her pure blood line when she whored herself to a Muggle. To Slytherin you are considered a Mudblood."
Voldemort summoned his wand and pointed it at her. Honey or Tom. He was going to punish whoever this was for insulting him.
There was no fear in Honey. She tsked, expressing disapproval of him. "The truth can hurt you more than death."
Voldemort's wand fell from his hand. His eyes shut and he fell backward in to the floor. Honey picked his wand up and used a charm to place Voldemort on the bed. She casted a sleeping spell on him before she Apparate to her home.
Melissa was in Honey's bedroom, waiting. She stood up from the chair and stared at Honey, tears rimming her eyes. Melissa could not stop the tears from falling. It was Honey's body that stood before her, but deep in her heart she recognized those pairs of eyes that stared back at her. They belong to that miserable and vengeful boy she loved. Never in her life would she forget them.