Chapter 22

Episode - The Outsider

They all quickly entered the empty unoccupied conference room of the town hall.

"What in the hell was that?" asked David.

"That was the dark wizard, Lord Voldemort, that we have been talking about this entire time." said Harry.

"You said he was dead." said David.

"Unfortunately he took steps to protect himself from Mortal death a long time ago and he has ways of returning."

"How?" asked Mary Margaret.

"Well it couldn't have been a Sorcerer's Stone." said Hermione. "There aren't any left. Nor any elixir of life. It must have been the renewal ceremony. Which means a Death Eater must have performed it."

"And now he's back and he's here, in Storybrooke." said Ron. "I highly recommend that every single person to get the heck out of Dodge."

"And that's all in fine for any wedding guests, however none of the townspeople can cross the Town Line."

"Molly, Arthur," said Harry, "I was hoping to have Teddy stick around for a while, however I'm going to have to ask you guys to take him out of Storybrooke and look after him for a little while."

"Of course." said Molly Weasley.

"Your Majesty," said Harry as he turned to Regina, "what were you talking about with 'a deal' that you had with Voldemort? It seems like you two know each other. Are you in League with the Dark Lord?"

"Rest assured Harry Potter," explained the Evil Queen, "I have no Allegiance with the Dark Lord. We met once before in the Enchanted Forest, shortly before the curse. Then he shows up at my front door on the first day of the curse 28 years ago. He said that he wanted to admire his curse. And promised me that he would leave my plot of land alone."

"Do you know anything else about him, Your Majesty?" asked Arthur Weasley.

"No." answered Regina. "I met him just the two times and exchanged a greeting, barely. I never had a full conversation with him. I did not know him, nor anything about him by any sense of the word. Only that he was a warlord and a dark wizard."

"You met him once and survived?" asked Neville Longbottom with disbelief. "He didn't try and kill you on the spot like he does everyone else?"

"From what I was able to tell, he seemed to have an abnormally high respect for my Royal status." said Regina.

"Voldemort doesn't respect anyone no matter who they are." said Hermione. "At least not inside his mind. If he respectfully calls you, 'your majesty', he's just outwardly going through the motions."

"So what do we do?" asked Ron. "I say we amass an army of wizards and search the forest from top to bottom and bring him in."

Arthur Weasley and Neville Longbottom stood together with determined faces as they faced Harry.

"The Order of the Phoenix and Dumbledore's Army are ready to stand with you Harry." said Neville as he spoke for the both of them.

"And risk provoking his wrath." said Jiminy Cricket. "He just gave us terms on keeping the peace."

"With all due respect Dr. Hopper, I don't trust a word that he says." said Harry. "He made a clear threat to all of us, and he is a wanted criminal."

"Well, technically he gave a warning, not a threat." said Luna Lovegood.

"He's lying. He's not going to just let this drop." said Harry. "He wants me dead, and he's going to find a way to do it. A Death Eater performed the renewal ceremony to give him his body back. And then if it is true that he wants to go into exile, why Storybrooke. He could go into exile anywhere. And I don't think that he came to Storybrooke just to see me get married. I think seeing you get married was a moment of opportunity. It's a coincidence that both he and I are in Storybrooke at the same time. No, he would be here in Storybrooke either way, and he has a reason, and it's not exile. He has business here."

"I knew it." said Regina in a tone as though admitting she had been fooled. "I knew I couldn't Trust him. He said this town was mine and now he's up to something."

"And plus even if we did try to apprehend him," said Ron, "need I remind you what it took to stop him last time, during the Battle of Hogwarts. It's not like we can just confront him and fight him. This is You Know Who we're talking about. The most powerful dark wizard in the world."

"Maybe not." said Harry as he had a look of curious speculation on his face. "There was something about him when we saw him in the hall just now. What kind of magic did he use?"

Everyone kind of just stood there in silence for a moment.

"The doors burst open, where he levitated two people into the air with a levitation charm and tossed them into the walls. He deflected Regina's Fireball with a basic Shield charm. He ripped out my aunt Petunia's heart, not with magic from this world but with Enchanted Force Magic from here in Storybrooke. And then he disappeared in a whirl of purple smoke rather than using regular apparation. It seems like he was putting on a show for the overdramatic. If you ask me, he seemed a little…off."

"He's in a weakened state." said Hermione as she had a look on her face of thinking of ideas the way only she could.

"The strength of his magic is not at full-power." said Ginny.

"All the more reason why we should seize the opportunity to try and apprehend him now." said Neville.

"No." said Harry. "I think we should bide our time. Maybe find out what he's up to."

"And if I might suggest," said Regina, "you all should get back out there to the wedding reception."

"What?" asked Harry. "Your Majesty, how can we even think about partying at a wedding reception at a time like this?"

"Because it's what David insisted on when I crashed and ruined his and Snow's wedding." said Regina. "All I know about the Dark Lord is that if he's anything like me, and I was a pretty dark and evil sorceress myself, I wanted to get into David and Snow's heads. David insisted that they carry on their marital celebrations as normal. Because if you allow the Lord Voldemort to get into your head and ruin your wedding reception now then he's won."

"She's right Harry." said Hermione. "We have a feast, a DJ, and a dance floor and then a wedding night. Trusting that he will uphold his own peace treaty that he just declared, he will leave us alone tonight and we can deal with Voldemort tomorrow."

"I agree with Hermione." said Mary Margaret. "It's what David insisted on on our wedding day."

Harry sighed with frustration.

"Fine."

In an Alleyway behind the town hall the guests to town met.

"Are you really serious my Lord?" said the Death Eater. "Are you really ending the war and going into exile?"

"Absolutely not McAllister." said Voldemort. "Harry Potter will die at my hands, and I will control The Wizarding world. I knew that the moment that I exposed myself they would be on to me, so I declared a truce in order to throw them off the trail."

"Do you believe it worked my Lord?" asked Euphemia Rowle.

"One thing I know is that they are confused. But they will try and find us and stop us. We must keep a low profile until we are ready to strike."

"And that heart ripping intimidation." said Cora with a smile. "I like your style, Dark Lord."

"Thank you, Your Majesty." said Voldemort.

"While all of this is well and fascinating for all of you," said Captain Hook with impatience, "when am I going to get to skin my crocodile?"

Voldemort looked at Hook with a disappointed criticizing face.

"Your desire for vengeance is petty, pirate." said Voldemort in a tone of reprimand.

"And don't tell me that a man like you has never had a desire for vengeance before."

Voldemort paused to think about that for a moment. A man like him, he would be extremely arrogant to admit that he himself had never indulged himself at some point in his life and years of Conquest in Petty vengeance. Obviously enemy combatants that were fighting for their cause against him hardly deserved to be killed by him because it was personal. Most of the people that he killed, they were defending themselves. Even The Potters. It wasn't personal, no, from him it was self-preservation, according to the prophecy. There were Death Eaters that had betrayed him that he killed for their treachery but he liked to think of that more as Justice than vengeance. All of his Death Eaters had sworn Oaths to him to serve him, and if they decided to defect, that is a crime punishable by law in his mind.

"I have a rule that I enforce on myself, pirate." said Voldemort. "No matter what, it's never personal. It's a very gray area between Justice and vengeance. So tell me pirate, your desire to kill The Dark One, is it justice? Or is it personal?"

"He killed the woman that I love, who also happened to be his own wife!" explained Killian Jones in anger. "I watched him rip her heart out and then crush it in his hand into dust and she died before my very eyes. And then he cut off my hand. Rumpelstiltskin is pure evil! Whether I hope to get a sense of satisfaction by making him suffer the way I suffered because it's personal, or whether I'm acting as a fair and impartial judge, jury, and executioner in a court of law against him for real genuine crimes, either way he still deserves to be punished!"

"Be careful what you wish for, Captain." Voldemort warned. "And by the way, the dark one is immortal. How do you even plan to kill him?"

"Well I hope to stab him with the Dagger of the Dark One. It's the only thing that can kill him. But, I have a backup plan."

He then pulled out of his pocket a small glass vial with a black ink like substance inside.

"I'll simply dip my hook in this and then stab him with it."

"What is it?" asked Voldemort.

"The most powerful magical poison in all the realms. Something I brought back from Neverland. It's called Dreamshade. This however isn't your regular everyday Dreamshade, it's something of my own creation; a specially processed concentrated dose. It can kill even an immortal."

"Clever pirate." said Voldemort.

'Neverland.' Thought Voldemort.

He hadn't thought about Neverland in a very long time.

—-

The orphanage, many years ago

9-year-old Tom Riddle lay in his bed as he tried to sleep through the cries of the crying babies. He didn't know how, he didn't know when, but one day he was going to get out of that place. Make a life for himself. He was going to be the very best.

He always felt like an outcast. Different from the other kids. He felt that he was special. But at the same time no one loved him. He didn't know anything about his family. Only that his mother had died giving birth to him not because she was sick but because she lost the will to live. Scientifically speaking, the brain controls every nerve in the body, and if one does not have the will or heart to go on then their organs just shut down.

He knew that he was named after his father, but why didn't his father want him. He felt like a Lost Boy. Unwanted. Unloved. But did he really care? A part of him cared, while another part of him didn't. He had hardened his heart and he was now full of ambition. He will become the best. He'll become better than everyone else.

He was finally able to turn the ambient noises in the room into white noise and he finally entered REM sleep.

Neverland, many years ago

He then realized that he was dreaming. He was dreaming of a forest. Tropical exotic Forest. There were all kinds of Flora and fauna. There were normal things like birds and rodents. The forest smelled nice. He could smell earth, and flowers, and other such scents that were given off by plants.

He also felt something different inside of himself. He felt this odd sense of freedom. Like he could do anything he wanted. He didn't know what came over him but he knew that he could do anything. He held out his hand, Palm up, and then imagined a candy bar in his hand. And out of thin air it just materialized. He smiled with exhilaration. This was new. He'd always had the unique power of being able to levitate inanimate objects with his mind like telekinesis. But to magically convert nothing into something. Well of course his best explanation was that this was a dream.

He opened the plastic wrapping of the candy bar and started to eat it as he continued to walk. He then saw a break in the trees and when he came out of the break he was at the shore of the ocean. Relaxing on some rocks at the water's edge was what appeared to be a group of women. Except they weren't normal women. They wore no clothing except for oddly designed brassieres modestly covering their breasts. And from the waist down they had no legs, but rather what appeared to be the scaly tails of giant fish. It was a school of mermaids. Real live mermaids! If a dream was considered real life?

The mermaids then saw him and they quickly fled into the water.

He then heard some rustling in the bushes behind him. He turned around. A group of teenagers then came out of the tree line into the clearing. They were dressed in dirty old clothes and they wielded crude weapons.

"Well, who do we have here?" said the tall boy who seemed to be the authoritative leader over the group.

"He's not real Felix." said one of the other boys. "He's a dreamed up Avatar."

"Good observation Baelfire." said the one called Felix. "I can hardly tell the difference. The dreamed up avatars look so real."

As Tom Riddle watched them and listened to their conversation their words meant very little to him. Though he was extremely intelligent and clever, top of his class with the orphanage tutor, he couldn't quite understand the context of their conversation.

"What's your name, boy?" asked the one called Felix.

"Tom Riddle." Tom Riddle answered.

"Welcome to Neverland." said the boy called Baelfire.

"You're coming with us." said a third boy in a tone of voice indicating that it was not a request.

Tom Riddle didn't like being given orders.

"I'm not going anywhere!" said Tom.

"I'm afraid that you don't have much choice in the matter." said Felix as he came forward and intimidatingly brandished his Club.

Tom's anger flared and he held out his hand and started to magically force choke Felix.

"I will not be bullied by the likes of you!" said Tom with authority.

"Now now." said another voice from up above.

When he looked up he saw another teenager that was flying. Quite literally flying without angel wings, or hang glider, for aircraft of any kind. It was as though he was levitating his body with telekinesis, or his clothing was hanging from an invisible circus wire.

The boy floated down and held up his hands defensively.

"May I ask you to release him please?"

Tom Riddle considered for a moment and then lowered his hand and Felix took in a gasp of air.

"I wish to apologize on behalf of their manners. Allow me to introduce us. I'm Peter Pan. These are my friends The Lost Boys. Rufio, is it him?"

The boy who went by the name of Rufio held up a piece of paper, looked at it and then compared it to Tom.

"It's not him." said Rufio.

"I'll take it from here." said Peter Pan.

And then the Lost Boys retreated into the woods.

"With your permission, may I walk with you?" asked Peter Pan.

"Sure." Said Tom.

"So, I assume that this is your first time to Neverland?" asked Peter Pan.

"This is the first time I have dreamed of this place, yes." Tom answered.

"Well, you're going to love it here." said Peter Pan, beginning his sales pitch of life in Neverland. "Here in Neverland, you can do anything you want. If there's something that you want, all you have to do is think it and it will appear for you. All you have to do is believe, and use your imagination. The possibilities for you here are only limited by your 'happy thoughts'. There's no bedtime, there's no chores or housework, no grown-ups to tell you what to do. And you can even fly. And I've already seen you tap into the Island's Magic with your mind. That was quite a demonstration of power you showed back there."

"Fascinating." said Tom. "But it all seems a little childish to me. I have greater ambitions for when I grow up."

"Well, you don't have to grow up here."

"But I want to grow up."

"And why would you want to grow up?" asked Peter Pan.

"Well, I don't want to stay a child forever. Plus I hate children. I tolerate them with reluctant resignation."

"Well there are no grown ups here, except for Pirates and the occasional fairy."

"What about the mermaids?"

"Oh they don't count. You're fortunate you didn't get too close to them and that they fled from you. Mermaids of the foulest creatures and all the realms."

They walked for a while. And Peter Pan continued to try to explain to Tom about their life there. He said that you could be young forever. You don't get any older in neverland. He said that you can do anything because Neverland was magic. Of course Tom believed that the only way magic would actually work is if this was a dream.

Tom told Peter how he would like to live forever. But he couldn't do it like this. Neverland was much too small a world. And Tom Riddle had no desire to play children's games with other orphaned children.

"So, I just want to say, that while you dream of Neverland you conjure a dreamed up Avatar of yourself and that's what you are here right now. This isn't Just a Dream Tom riddle. This is real."

Tom reached out and touched Peter Pan's arm and ran his fingers along the skin. It seemed real. Usually dreams can be very vague. But this dream seemed exponentially Vivid. He felt very lucid and clear headed. Though some dreams can be like that.

"So what happens when I wake up?"

"You will cease to exist here, and you will be back in your home. But I'm willing to change that for you."

Out of nowhere came a black ghostly figure flying up in the air.

"This is my shadow. Separated from my body. I can send it anywhere in all the realms, and then it can bring something back for me. Or someone. I can bring you to Neverland from The Real World."

"Well, thank you very much. But my answer is no." said Tom.

"Very well. I respect your decision." said Peter Pan. "But if you change your mind, just go to your open bedroom window and speak the words 'I believe'. My shadow will come and get you in moments."

It was a few minutes later that Tom Riddle woke up back in his bed in the orphanage. Believing that it was just a dream and that nothing in the dream could have been real his memory of the dream began to quickly fade and he never thought about Peter Pan or Neverland again for many years.

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