The next few weeks proved to be the most interesting Harry ever had at Privet Drive. He learned loads of magical theory and spent quite a lot of time wondering about Tom.
"Tom, you said as a horcrux, you can absorb other horcruxes...how do you know that?"
"Because I've done it before." The surprise Harry felt must have shown on his face. "When you went into the Chamber of Secrets and you saw me appear in front of you-that was another one of my horcruxes. It had gained enough strength to leave its vessel for a short period of time, a rather foolish idea, and whilst it was outside of the vessel-the diary, if you recall-you destroyed it. You didn't kill the horcrux, only the home in which it resided. It recognized me, a fellow horcrux from the same soul, and merged itself with me. I've told you before that when you reabsorb horcruxes you become the younger version of yourself." Harry was shocked. He had no idea what was happening at the time, but in theory it made sense. A horcrux can't simply live on its own. And why wouldn't it be attracted to another? The two horcruxes shared the same soul, just different parts of it.
"Is that why you're so much more reasonable than Voldemort?" Tom looked up from his tea and shrugged.
"I imagine it's a variety of things, but that would probably be a larger one, yes."
"A variety of things, like what?" Tom put down his teacup and elegantly crossed his legs before speaking.
"Madness ran through my mother's family. Inbreeding can cause deformities in both the mind and body. While I was perfectly sane through school, My grip on sanity did slip quite a bit through the years after creating the first horcrux. I regret making as many as I did; one would have done the job perfectly. But I was selfish and thought, perhaps foolishly, that I could stop myself from falling into madness. Unfortunately, that's not the case." They both remained quiet for several minutes before Tom started talking again.
"Do you know why I wanted to lead our world?" Harry shrugged and motioned for him to continue. "I grew up in an orphanage-a terribly bad one. Not enough food to go around, the children were bullies and the caretaker for us all was constantly drowning herself in drink. She couldn't care for us, we couldn't care for us, and no one wanted to adopt a kid during the blitz. Most families didn't want to adopt prior to that either, but the bombs didn't help. It was uncertain times, and to be frank I wasn't exactly what families were looking for at the time. No one wanted the kid that sat in a corner and studied their books, they wanted kids that would run 'round the neighbourhood with the other children. The other children whispered about me being 'odd' around new families so they'd have a higher chance of going home with them than I did. And no one really wants the child that's grown up at an orphanage-it makes them think that something must be wrong with that child since no one else wanted him earlier. It was madness.
"But when I entered our world, more problems began to pose themselves to me. Only the rich purebloods, the elite of society, could succeed. Anyone else was shunned out of good positions in the ministry and were given lower wages than owning a shop no one shopped at would give them. I saw people claiming to be 'light' and putting down education on different forms of magic. I saw people in the ministry preach to the citizens that soul magic was hurting pureblood marriages instead of helping them. The narrative was spun that soul bonding would allow abuse to go on unquestioned, but the truth is that a soul bond would never allow one to willingly harm the other-without consent, at any rate. It prevented abuse from happening, not causing it. But the damage was done. From then on, magic started becoming less about what it can do to help us and more about what spells you can and can't perform.
"That was when I started my group of followers. They all saw the issues with the new propaganda and wanted to find a way to stop it so we joined forces. Eventually, we started to make a small mark with lower level laws and finding ways to restore the way things were without rocking the boat too much. But then we were labelled dark, and soul magic was suddenly a dark magic that no one should ever even talk about. It shut down our laws faster than you could possibly imagine. I snapped one night and let my own irrationality get the better of me. I poisoned a client and created another horcrux.
"Before I knew it, I was suddenly more irrational and rather quickly I moved away. I laid low and formulated my demented plan to just take over and put things back the way they were. To the way they should be. But soon my own propaganda started twisting itself and the pain from having torn my soul too many times became too much to handle and I lashed out at everyone. It very quickly spiralled out of control and soon I couldn't contain it any longer. The Voldemort you know is insanely out of his depths and in an incredible amount of pain-if he can still feel pain, anyway." Harry wasn't sure what to say, but he did know that circumstances outside of your control can make people do things they wouldn't do normally.
"Have you thought about what would happen if you could combine yourself with the other horcruxes he has? It might not make you your own person again, but at least it would be a step in the right direction."
"I have thought about it, but I would never ask you to do some of the things required in order to get to the other horcruxes. The protections I placed around them are intense and require more magic than you're capable of wielding just yet." Harry was about to protest when Tom held a hand up. "Don't bother fighting me on this. When you hit seventeen, your body will go through a magical growth spurt-it happens to everyone. Surely someone's told you?"
"Actually, no. I didn't know that." Tom clicked his tongue in annoyance.
"Well, let me be the first to inform you then. The reason a witch or wizard reaches their age of maturity at seventeen is because on your seventeenth birthday you go through a magical growth spurt. It unlocks your full magical potential. If you're anything like I was, you'll be in bed for quite some time afterwards just recovering, sleeping and eating when you can. Ever notice that the seventh years at Hogwarts always seem to be falling ill?"
"I thought they were just studying too hard."
"No, they're recovering from turning seventeen. I'm quite interested to see what happens to you on your seventeenth. I imagine it'll be quite the experience."
"What makes you say that?"
"Harry, the amount of magical strength it requires to house a horcrux is quite a lot. The simple fact is that not only are you so full of magic to be housing me, you're also using your magic in your day to day life. It's incredible, to say the least." A loud bang echoed through the house, causing the two to stop talking for a moment.
"You'd better stop meditating, it sounds like that uncle of yours is home." Harry did just that, only to be yanked out of his cupboard and blamed for Vernon's latest business deal to not pan out the way he wanted.
While Vernon didn't hit him as hard as Dudley could, he still felt incredibly sore for days afterwards. Even Petunia took pity on him and gave him some leftovers from the nights before to help him heal faster.
It was all he could do to keep his excitement contained as he was whisked away from the Dursley's to be taken to the Burrow for the last few days of the summer break. He'd spent the entire summer meditating whenever Vernon was away at work and while he was sad that his time with Tom was going to be less frequent, he was still excited to be able to let the sun's warm rays kiss his skin again.
Mrs. Weasley lamented about how skinny he was, Mr. Weasley commented on his being too pale more than strictly necessary, and Ron was positively traumatised when he found out Harry had already finished his homework for the summer. Hermione, on the other hand, was overjoyed to find out all of Harry's homework was done. She was even happier when Harry informed her that he'd been meditating quite a bit.
The shopping trip to Diagon Alley was quick-especially considering how many Weasley children there were-and Harry found himself overjoyed at being out of the public eye once they left. It was exhausting, putting on airs for everyone. He hated the flashing cameras and the utter filth the tabloids and paper would spew about him for the following days.
Tom was constantly at the back of his mind. He wondered what Tom would have thought about the school robes Mrs. Weasley made him buy, he wondered about what Tom would think about all the publicity just school shopping earned him and he most certainly was curious about what Tom would say if he knew just how much food Ron could shovel in his mouth before everyone's plates had even hit the table.
Then he remembered what Tom had mentioned about growing up in an orphanage where there wasn't enough food to go around and decided to keep that thought to himself.
The start of the school year was much the same as the rest. The sorting hat sang its song for the year, speaking of kindness and never stop learning, the sorting for the first years and there was a new defence teacher introduced. Snape looked just as sour as last year, Dumbledore just as eccentric, and Malfoy still sneered at anything that didn't immediately bow down to him. So far, everything was going rather smoothly for the start of Harry's fifth year at Hogwarts.
It wasn't until the next morning's paper that anything happened.
"I can't bloody believe this!"
"Ronald, watch your mouth! And don't talk with your mouth full, you'll get food all over the paper," Hermione scolded before taking the paper from Ron's grip. "Oh dear, this isn't good." Harry leaned over to get a look.
Minister Fudge Causes International Outrage!
Minister Fudge has spent the last several months insisting to both the French and Bulgarian ministries that the revival of the Triwizard Tournament would be a good thing to build international friendships and would promote a healthy environment for students of all three schools in which to learn about other cultures. After a series of meetings and rule finalizations, wherein travel plans had been made for Beauxbatons and Durmstrang students to be housed at Hogwarts for the school year, Headmistress Maxime and Headmaster Karkarof were informed that the event was to be cancelled only moments after crossing British borders. Headmaster Karkarof was detained and questioned by aurors, and Headmistress Maxime was questioned under veritaserum. The former was detained for suspected Death Eater activity during the late '70s and early '80s and Headmistress Maxime was questioned as to her parentage and genetics.
While Headmaster Karkarof was allowed to go and Headmistress Maxime wasn't forced to register under the magical creature list for giantism, both parties were extremely offended as were their respective ministers. It will remain to be seen what Minister Fudge will do to make reparations for this international disaster.
For more on the Triwizard Tournament, rules, dangers and its ban, see page 9. For more on Beauxbatons and Durmstrang see pages 7, 8 and 9. For more information on the ministry's creature list, see page 3 and for more information on Death Eater activities in the years mentioned, see pages 4, 5 and 6.
"That idiot Fudge is going to cause all out warfare! It's highly offensive behaviour." The outcry wasn't just among the students, the staff were visibly upset as well. Dumbledore seemed resigned and disappointed whilst the other teachers were agitated and chattering animatedly with each other.
"Well, so much for an uneventful year, eh mate?" Ron's words cheered Hermione, but for Harry they rang with all too true of a tone.
