The Impossible Horcrux

"Professor, can I ask you a question?"

"Ask away m'boy." Slughorn urged his favorite student with an encouraging smile.

"I was wondering if you knew anything...about....about...Horocruxes?" Tom asked hesitantly.

Immediately Slughorn's expression grew grim.

"Son, please sit down. This is a serious issue you've brought up." Slughorn said.

Tom sat hesitantly in front of Slughorn's desk.

"According to the ministry and Hogwarts I'm not supposed to say anything about them to anyone. But, here's the thing. I think if people realize the implications the will instead revile hororux creation."

Tom nodded quickly.

"What can you tell me sir?" Tom asked politely.

"Horocruxes are the most evil of all creations. They literally tear a soul asunder for the promise of immortality. Furthermore it takes an act so evil...To create a horocrux the maker must kill an innocent person. But here's the thing that the ministry doesn't understand. A true Horcrux is impossible."

Tom's eyes widened in surprise.

"What do you mean sir? It sounds fairly strait forward to me." Tom Riddle questioned.

"It is simple. But it's still impossible. You see, it has to do with the phrase 'innocent'. What are they innocent of? What are they guilty of? If I decided to create a horcrux by killing someone, say Dumbledore. Boom, I run up, kill Dumbledore and I've killed the 'innocent' however, has Dumbledore ever sinned? Yep. He's human. Therefore the murder is of a victim without the purity needed. In other words I've just made a corrupted horcrux, and living with a corrupted horcrux is a very, very bad thing. It lessens, you you become less of an individual and your sanity begins to slip. Furthermore, you live a cursed; half life. A miserable one. For some reason that doesn't sound very appealing. I would prefer death to eternal agony, and that's what a horcrux secretly promises. No matter how young the victim, there is still a sin within them, and that just won't let a horcrux be a pure one."

"So the book I stumbled across a while back was merely misinformed?"

"To an extent yes. To be frank, only a fool would rely on the power of a horcrux to survive." Slughorn added.

"I see. That sounds terrible. Even more terrible than what I understood." Tom said.

"It has some more hellish aspects to it as well, but I don't want to talk about those."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, take the worst symptoms of a dementor, drinking unicorn's blood, taking the reverse version of liquid luck, and add a few curses in there for the fun of it and you've got a vague notion of what kind of torment a horcrux user suffers from. It's better to be dead than to have a horcrux."

Tom's face had an expression of extreme consideration.

"Is there some other method that actually does what a horcrux does?" Tom asked curiously.

"'Fraid not m'boy. Life is something that soldiers on and fades away. It's the course of reality. However, what makes a person great is not how long they lived or how powerful they are but what they chose to do in life. 'Sides, Death may sound scary, it may sound terrifying even, but the truth of the matter is. Death is not such a bad thing after all. Can you picture it? The shaded curtains of life fall back and you see a world of no war, no hatred. Just peace, and joy. But this is only for those of a whole soul m'boy."

"It doesn't sound so bad." Tom noted lightly.

"It's not so bad. In fact it can be considered the reward for putting up with the junk in life."

Several years Later

"Hey Tom, how are things at the ministry nowadays?" James asked his friend.

Tom laughed.

"They've been rather good honestly. Although Trelawny made another dumb prophesy."

"What do you mean minister?"

"The one that will vanquish the dark lord approaches....or something like that. Funny eh? Since there is no dark lord nowadays."

"Bet ol' Dumbledore will take it seriously." James smiled at the minister.

"That he will. Speaking of which you're kid is one of the potential prophesy children."

"Really?" James asked skeptically as they sat down in James' sitting room at Godric's Hallow.

"Born as the Seventh month dies." Tom confirmed.

"I see, anyhow, I hear you're running for re-election. 'Who can solve the Riddle? Tom Can!' Kinda catchy."

"I thought so." Tom nodded pleasantly.

50 Years after learning about Horcruxes

"Minister, its time for your farewell speech. Are you sure it isn't possible for you to stay another term? We'd willingly re-elect you in a heartbeat." His aide said seriously.

"That's alright Dan. I've served for thirty years as Minister. I think it's time for me to let go of my power before I get too big headed." Tom shook his graying head.

"Very well sir. It was an honor to have you as our minister." The aide saluted.

Tom saluted back crisply.

It wasn't long before Tom Riddle Jr. made his way to the podium and began to speak to the crowd.

"It's been thirty years since I stood before you as your new minister. In those years we've seen the fall of the pureblooded movements, olive branches extended to the centaurs, goblins, fairies, and the removal of Dementors from our country. We've seen an increase of productivity, and a stronger auror department. We have seen peace reign. Yet, had it not been for one man I might have never become minister of magic, and it is now that I feel it best to honor him."

"Fifty years ago I was going down a path that would have led to my end. I had been letting darkness consume my soul. My greatest fear was driving me to do terrible things. Yet, when I found a ritual to make it so my fear could never effect me I had to ask my professor how to accomplish this. But because it was an evil piece of magic I dared not ask directly and skirted about the issue."

"I feared death, and I saw a potential salvation from death through the dark magic known as a horcrux."

At this a few of the older crowd gasped in horror.

"A horcrux is simple, kill an innocent soul and anchor your soul to an object. Poof, insto immortality. Yet, there's a fault with that. Who here has never sinned? See the problem. To make a 'true horcrux' you'd have to kill someone who has never sinned. Thereby making a horcrux impossible. Instead you'd be left with a cursed half life. A miserable existence of pain and agony. A life that once vanquished would lead to your very soul's demise. My professor taught me that death wasn't so bad, and instead of being afraid I should work hard and aid others. I decided to try it. To my surprise I felt better by doing so."

"It changed my life. I turned my life around and became the exact opposite that I had been. No longer did I support the 'Pureblood' way of life, but instead I began to follow Headmaster Dumbledore's train of thought. 'All people are equal'. So Professor Slughorn. Thank you from helping me turn away from evil and giving me the courage to face death. You changed my life sir."

"Wizarding England has come a long way, yet..."

WC: 1351

Okay so you get an idea of this proposal right? Tom Riddle finds out that Horcruxes aren't all that they're cracked up to be and finds out he doesn't need to fear death. All because of Horace Slughorn.

Odd eh? I've never seen a fic where Tom became good because of Slughorn.

Now, this is a very, very condensed version of several events that would occur in this should it become more.

Last one shot someone asked me if the VP/HP cross was a time travel fic. Nope, no time travel is involved. I need to also note that none of these might be stories are tied into my main ones. (Eternal Wizard and Radiant Chaos)

Hope you enjoyed! If you like an idea here, let me know! You might see one of them pop up!