Harry and Tom stared at each other across the cold stone of the Chamber.
They both compared and contrasted nicely, Harry thought.
Tom's short, neatly styled black hair and Harry's waterfall of wavy raven darkness.
Harry's mismatched silver and emerald eyes and Tom's red windows.
Red panes that matched the endless eyes lining the walls.
Harry's wide, manic smile and Tom's closed off and cold calculation.
They were alike, but also so, so different.
Harry cackled. Tom managed not to jump.
Tom thought he was a bad, bad boy.
Harry was so much worse.
What had the prophecy in Dumbledore's mind said? The power to vanquish the Dark Lord? Marked as his equal?
Harry couldn't stop laughing. Tom had created his own worse nightmare.
And now he was trapped within it.
In the Looking Glass.
Tom broke first, as the echoing laughter resided.
"What do you want?"
Harry let out another small giggle. Normally that was his line.
But he knew where the power lay, here.
"Everything, Tom. I will make the whole world sing with sweet music, and I will bask in its lovely warmth. I wish to do as I please, what my Alice pleases, anything to fill our empty cups."
He stepped towards Tom and was gratified when the sentient shard of glass had to visibly resist taking a step back.
"You created me, hollowed me. Did you know that, Tom? It was you who made me into a Horcrux, bored out my vibrant soul with your sharp edges and left only emptiness behind. Just one… little… tiny… sliver of crimson within my hollow heart."
Tom was jarred into speaking. "I… Voldemort made a human Horcrux?"
Harry giggled again. Tom was a bit slow on the uptake.
"I am what you made me, Tom. An Empty Vessel, all for you. Most hollow souls at least contain half of the original soul, but nooooooooo big bad Tom had to be special!"
Harry raised his hand, and the older boy was yanked forward until his robes were clenched in Harry's fist.
"Seven pieces, seven shattered ruby shards of your very self. It's wonderfully ironic, Tom, that you are so much more than your future self. You are half of a soul, while he is now just the tiniest speck of bloody glitter."
Tom at least had the control to hold himself still, even as he was in turn held in place by Harry. No undignified squirming.
It was nice, Harry decided, to be able to let his masks down. He didn't get to be himself, very often. Even for his Circle, he put on the bare minimum of humanity. It was just basic manners after all.
But who cares what Tom thought? Harry's manic smile widened even further, and he laughed again.
"You are going to be delicious, when I finally devour you. None of the other pieces of you have been truly sentient. None of them have talked to me. It will be so lovely to hear you scream as I strip away every last bit of you until I find what makes you tick…tick…tick…"
Tom was doing his best not to look afraid, but Harry knew that he hated being trapped like this.
When Tom didn't answer, Harry continued. He leaned in to let his breath glide over the memory's neck.
"Or… we could come to an agreement."
Tom's eyes widened almost imperceptibly before he controlled his reaction.
"I have plans that could benefit from your cooperation. In exchange for anything and everything I want, I could be persuaded to… alter… the ritual. I still must consume you, become one with you, in order to fill my empty cup, but I am much more similar to you than you may think. In some ways, I am you. I have a significant amount of your soul within me, inseparable and indistinguishable from my own. I have so, so many of your eyes."
The walls blinked.
"You are powerful, for a broken pane of glass. You are half of Voldemort. You have a functioning personality matrix. When we join, it could be less a consumption and more of a… amalgamation. We take the best parts of each other, and consciousness continues. We will not be… separate, but we endure. You will continue to exist, as me. The only other option is total, excruciatingly painful, annihilation."
Tom made a strange choking sound and his breath quickened.
"Why… why would you do that? You may not even be you, anymore."
Harry giggled and Tom flinched at the sound.
"I suppose… I can be honest with you, Tom. You might even understand, just a little."
Harry flopped backwards onto the cold stone, staring up at the ceiling.
"The world is so incredibly, insufferably boring, Tom. It is flat and gray, filled with lifeless Things that stumble through it without even the awareness to realize how colorless and bland they are. It is a terrible, dull, monotonous silence that is only ever interrupted by occasional, beautiful music."
Harry made a snow angel, on the stone.
"Of course, there are ever so many lovely ways to make music, to temporarily push back the silence. The most simple, sweet screams. But more complex melodies like My Circle, shine in the night. They are all interesting crescendos in the rare moments of song, each unique and tempting."
Tom involuntarily nodded along before he caught himself. Harry thought he might understand, even if he wasn't truly empty.
"Above all, of course, is my Alice. Beautiful Luna. Broken and Empty, she is exquisite. A never-ending symphony that fills the endless silence."
Harry bounced back up to his feet and stepped towards Tom, his face only inches away.
"So, you ask why, Tom? Because it's something. Something to do. Anything to fill the silence. Who cares what I become? Who cares what happens? I just wish to fill the silence with beautiful music and dance until my light slip slip slips away into the Dark. Won't it be FUN, Tom?"
Tom took a step back but managed to once again school his expression into his blank mask.
"I suppose that I have no choice. It is certainly better than allowing one such as yourself to… make music… with my screams. I agree to your terms, as long as you hold up your end of the bargain and allow my consciousness to continue within your soul when I am subsumed."
Harry smiled and emerald chains slithered out of the dark and snaked around Riddle's wrists, binding his soul to Harry. Tom scowled at them but didn't flinch away.
"Now, pet, I have a plan that I think you will actually enjoy…"
…
Ginny stood in the empty corridor, trying to calm herself with deep, shuddering breaths.
She didn't know if she could do this.
What if they weren't there? What if someone else answered? What if she wasn't remembering Tom's directions correctly?
Before she could second guess herself, she raised her hand to knock on the empty section of wall.
The stone melted away before her hand could connect, revealing a doorway and Luna's smiling face.
"You came! You came you came you came! Harry said that you would, but I wasn't sure! I'm so excited. Come on!"
Ginny was already off balance. She knew that Luna knew Harry, but she certainly didn't expect her to be in the Slytherin common room.
Luna grabbed her hand and dragged her across the dim room. She looked nervously around; surely the other Slytherins would have an issue with a Ravenclaw and a Gryffindor dashing through their midst.
But no one paid them any mind. Strange.
They arrived in an alcove, out of the way and sheltered from the rest of the space. She eyed Crabbe and Goyle warily as they passed, but the two boys standing guard didn't even blink at her.
Weird.
There was a surreal feeling, to the Circle.
She recognized Malfoy, the supposedly arrogant blood purist completely focused on his work at the table. Around him, stacks of parchment covered complex runes almost hid him from view.
Hermione Granger sat next to him; the reclusive Gryffindor unusually animated as she walked Malfoy through a theoretical rune interaction.
Ginny was happy to see another Gryffindor present, at least. She was also perplexed; shouldn't Malfoy have an issue with a muggleborn in their midst?
Daphne Greengrass lounged on the couch, her head falling casually sideways as she rested it on Harry's lap. He idly ran his fingers through her pretty blonde hair.
Harry himself sat with his legs crossed at the end of the couch, his mismatched eyes glowing with satisfaction underneath his raven locks as he met her eyes with a sinful smile. He still wore the crisp black suit, but he looked… different… than he had in the Gryffindor common room. More dangerous, more mysterious, surrounded by his Circle in the dark alcove.
Luna dragged her forward with zero trepidation.
She let go of Ginny's hand and bounced forwards, perching on the arm of the couch next to Harry and nuzzling her face against his like a cat.
"Look, look, look who's here!"
No amount of heavy atmosphere could contain Luna.
Harry chuckled. "I see that, Alice. I did tell you that she wouldn't be able to stay away."
Ginny shuffled nervously. Alice?
"Welcome, Ginevra. Please take a seat. I have a feeling that we have much to talk about."
She did her best to quash her nervousness. She could do this.
"Hello, Harry. I… yes, please."
She sat down in the armchair across from him.
She looked up and her breath caught as she met his mismatched eyes once again, emerald and silver drawing her in as she fell and…
She suddenly realized that they were alone in the alcove, the common room silent. Crimson eyes watched from the walls.
"Welcome, Ginny Weasley, to the Looking Glass. The world is so much more… malleable, than most realize. Reality is only real as it is perceived, and the mind is so easy to wander wander wander…
The Slytherin common room twisted around them, until they were back in the Gryffindor common room, in front of the merrily crackling fire.
"I can feel all of your questions, buzzing around in your head like little bees. Why don't you pick one to start with, and we will find our way together?"
Ginny's head spun but she finally found her voice.
"What are you, and Tom?"
Harry smiled. "We are fragments, shards of crimson glass. We are pieces of a whole, shattered in unique and unnatural ways."
The room swirled around them again and they found themselves in the Chamber of Secrets, the flood covered in runes written in blood.
"Tom and I both contain parts of Voldemort's soul. The Dark Lord cracked his very self into a total of seven pieces, without a real understanding of the consequences. He also didn't mean to create a human vessel, which results in someone like Luna and I."
They were back in the common room.
"Now it's my turn to ask a question, Ginny Weasley."
Her breath caught as she tumbled into his gaze once more.
"What do you want?"
The words echoed, in the dark. They pried their way deep into her soul and she felt like she was being pulled apart from within.
The words flowed forth, unbidden and unfiltered.
"I want… I need more. I'm… I'm the only girl, in my family, and my mother… she has her own ideas, about what's best for me… for all of us, really. And we can't tell her no, no matter what we want. What we want, doesn't matter."
Her mouth twisted.
"Mother knows best. And it never stops. No flying, it's not right for girls. Come back inside, we need to clean. And if it's not her, it's my brothers… the pranks, and the torment, it's just a joke, Ginny! Can't you take a joke?"
She didn't realize she was crying until the tears dripped off her cheeks.
"And it's too crowded, too cluttered, there's always someone yelling, or the ghoul is wailing and there's never enough money, but no one will do anything about it, just complain complain complain. It never… it never ends."
She was lost, in the emerald canopy and silver cloud.
"I need to be free."
Harry smiled and her heart stuttered.
Emerald chains circled them, in the night.
"You have a place, with me, Ginny. With us. Luna and I will not turn you away, will not turn our backs on you, no matter what you do. There is freedom, in our chains. You can do whatever you want, however you want."
The eyes in the dark stared.
"We only ask the same from you. We will undoubtedly do things that are… unpleasant. We only ask that you stay with us anyway, just as we will stay with you."
Her stomach clenched but she couldn't look away.
"You have never felt unconditional love, have you, Ginny Weasley? Always conditional, always strings attached, on behaving a certain way, on being a certain way. On following the required creed. What Luna and I offer… it is more, even if it is a shackle, in its own way. But we will never judge you, never condemn you. You will be loved, unconditionally, within our chains."
She couldn't look away.
"Join me, Ginny. Find a new home, amid our eyes. You will be loved, protected, and you will be free. All of your worries, all of your insecurities, will be washed away by our unconditional understanding. Join us, and be free of the fickle, conditional farce that others pretend is love."
She nodded, through the tears and the tension and the nerves. She cried, as the emerald chains embraced her weeping soul.
She didn't know if the tears were happy or sad. Maybe it didn't matter.
…
The Circle, with its newest addition, followed Harry into the Chamber of Secrets.
"Draco has been kind enough to craft a new type of ritual for us, and I have brought the guest of honor."
The bound form of Colin Creevy squirmed on the stone form.
"Little Colin here likes to watch. Likes to record. He didn't realize that some people don't like having eyes on them. But too late, too late now."
Harry couldn't help but smile at the horrified look on Ginny's face. He wondered if this would be enough to break her, or if it would tie her ever closer to them.
"Explain the ritual, my Dragon."
Malfoy walked forward and turned to look at them, a bit nervous.
"The ritual will consume a sacrifice and convert their remaining life into power, for all of us. It will make our magic more fluid, and our blood more potent. Any future rituals using our blood will be significantly improved, and it will be easier to call on our Lord's powers."
Harry smiled approvingly and took his place in the Circle. The rest started to file in, until just Ginny remained outside the circle.
She met Harry's eyes, and he could see the indecision there.
Would she break? Or give her unconditional love? Would she fall fall fall?
Tears leaked from her eyes as she took her place in the Circle.
Harry's smile widened.
Draco cleared his throat awkwardly, but Harry insisted that he take the lead for this ritual. It was his test to pass, after all.
"Um… let us begin."
Harry chuckled at his apprehension.
With practiced ease, they channeled their magic into the runes of the ritual circle.
The glyphs glowed with bloody light and the darkness fell once again.
Draco spoke, his nervous voice gaining strength as the ritual magic guided him.
"In Blood, there is Power."
He reached down and made a single cut, on Colin's arm. The Thing writhed, as the crimson splashed. Harry felt a mirrored slash on his own arm, although no drip drips flowed.
"Through Pain, we gain Strength."
He made another slash, and they all felt the burning pain as the ritual translated the glorious suffering to all of them.
"Venom is needed, to burn away the Rot."
Slash, splash, burn.
Luna laughed and someone screamed. Harry didn't know who, in the haze.
"There is Magic, in Death!"
The symphony came to a head as Draco slammed the ritual knife into Colin's heart, and they all felt the beautiful agony of a deadly wound even as his soul slipped away.
Harry couldn't help but cackle into the night, as he felt the Circle's magic grow with the power of the innocent soul.
Tying them ever tighter to him and each other, with blood and guilt.
It was glorious.
…
Harry watched, from under the cloak.
As the teachers came running.
Running, to try and help poor poor Colin.
They found him, stiff and still.
Not a wound in sight, his precious camera held in front of his face.
Just petrified. A tragic victim of Slytherin's monster, but no cause for alarm. Totally reversible, when the mandrakes are ready.
Not dead dead dead, underneath.
No, certainly not.
…
Notes:
Sorry for the brief hiatus, life happened. Also Helldivers 2. Also Dragons Dogma 2. Anywho, have some more crazy! Comments, feedback, and criticism are always welcome. I don't own Harry Potter. Toodles!