Tom Riddle's Descent - A Harry Potter One-Shot (Patreon)

All right friends and fans Kairomaru is bringing you a new Harry Potter One-shot! This is for John Mekjian who used his Tier Reward to have this written!

The premise of this one-shot is that it’s from Tom Riddle’s perspective. It was left up to me what the premise would be beyond that. So I’ve decide to focus on Tom’s descent into the near inhuman monster that became known as Voldemort. I hope you enjoy John!

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

Tom Riddle’s Descent – A Harry Potter One-shot

Thomas Marvolo Riddle was an orphan. His mother died shortly after giving birth to him. He grew up in an orphanage and was teased and bullied by many of the other children. At a young age Tom discovered something ‘odd’ about himself. He could make things happen, if he really wanted something it would come to him. If he wanted a certain thing to break or if he told an animal to do something, it happened without fail. Tom, already emotionally distorted by the environment he grew up in, quickly used these abilities to get even with his bullies.

That was the first step.

But Tom wasn’t satisfied with just getting even for long. No, soon it was about making the other children fear him. He made ‘accidents’ happen to those he didn’t like. Anyone that crossed him had to pay the price! But eventually, even that wasn’t enough.

“Stop!” A larger boy cried out in pain and fear as Tom used his abilities to hurt the other boy. Twisting the boy’s body until he screamed, making him suffer from the feeling of pins being shoved into his skin. Throwing the boy around without even touching him! It was exactly what Tom wanted, this was okay because Tom was stronger. This boy used to be the biggest bully in the orphanage because of his size. But now, now size didn’t matter! Tom was in control, his abilities made all of the other children lesser than him! Using his power against them was how things should be! Here in this seaside cave no one could hear the other boy’s screams.

Tom ruled over the orphanage for a time, a few years in fact, but one day a man came to see him. An old man that introduced himself as Albus Dumbledore. He spoke with Tom, told him about his abilities, his Magic as the older, Wizard, called the both of them. When offered the chance to attend a school of Magic and leave this orphanage behind Tom accepted. Finally he could really learn what he could do! He would be the greatest Wizard to ever live!

The Sorting had placed him in Slytherin House. Tom hadn’t minded; it was the House of the ambitious and the cunning, a perfect place for him. However once his ‘Blood Status’ had been made clear, Tom found himself less than welcome within his own House. While he couldn’t do much against the older students, the ones his age learned quickly to fear him! To the Professors he was a bright, earnest boy with a desire to learn. To the other students he quickly became some to fear or follow. Tom slowly built himself a reputation as a charismatic boy, one that was far ahead of his peers in both Magical Knowledge and Skill. He ‘befriended’ those that knew things he wanted to learn, especially his Professors, and made frequent trips to the Library. At the end of his First Year he’d begged, out right begged to be allowed to stay at Hogwarts over the summer. Being denied and sent back to the orphanage was a blow to the young Wizard’s psyche that he even didn’t realize.

The boy took his displeasure of being denied out on the other children of the orphanage. His wand made using Magic easier, oh so much easier, but he had always been able to use it even without a wand. Besides the Ministry could apparently track any Magic he performed with his wand, but they seemed blind to what he did without it. For almost two straight months he made everyone else even more miserable than he felt.

Returning to Hogwarts for his Second Year was a joy. Finally being able to be back among people like him! He was quickly gaining control of all of the lower years with his power, knowledge, skill and charisma. Soon he’d be the one in charge of Slytherin House, as he should be! The boy spent this year much the same as the last. Showing the other Slytherins why he should be obeyed, delving into more Magic in the library, and making nice for the Professor’s eyes. He’d found he could ask about almost anything and his Professors would answer him. Even on topics or subjects that he wasn’t currently in classes for. This was the year that he’d discovered that there lay a plethora of secret knowledge behind the gate of the Restricted Section in the library. He made a vow then and there to get access to that treasure trove of knowledge.

His attempts to sneak in hadn’t been successful until near the end of the year. But when he did, finally, get into the Restricted Section, he was hooked. So much knowledge, so much power! All locked away because of what? Morals? Questionability? What useless drivel! This was the kind of Magic, the kind of power that Tom wanted! That he desired! That should be his! He wouldn’t let others dictate what he could and couldn’t learn! From that moment Tom Riddle lost himself in the more questionable aspects and Branches of Magic. It made his walk down a Darker path less of a stroll and more of a slippery slope. It was a slope that the boy was almost too happy to slide down.

When summer once more rolled around, and his pleas to stay at Hogwarts had once more been denied, Tom spent more time practicing his Wandless Magic on the other children and even started on some of the staff. Accidents happened more often, and minor injuries became almost commonplace. The staff became as wary of the young boy as the children. Tom relished in their fear of him. In his mind this was how things should be. The weak powerless Muggles, as they were called by ‘his’ kind, should live in fear of their betters!

On his return to Hogwarts for his Third Year Tom had almost fully solidified his hold over Slytherin House. He had no one to sign his permission slip to Hogsmeade, but the loss of seeing the Magical Village hadn’t dampened his mood much. The time alone left him with more time to try and get into the Restricted Section. He was delving far deeper into Magic than any of his peers already. He was pleasantly surprised when several of his fellow Slytherins returned from the first Hogsmeade trip with sweet and other gifts for him. He didn’t care so much about the sweets and gifts, but more about what they represented. This was respect in physical form! This was his peers saying that they wanted his favor because they acknowledged him as ‘Better’ than themselves! Tom accepted the gifts with great relish, seeing them more akin to tributes than anything else. Once again, Tom thought and truly believed that this was how things should be!

Forced to return to the Orphanage once again for the summer, Tom tormented the Muggles as he saw fit. These lesser beings weren’t a threat anymore. He just wanted to enjoy their suffering. Their fear amused him and he relished in the power he had over them all.

His Fourth Year led to the discovery of his birth mother. He’d been looking into Magical History and found his middle name, Marvolo, mentioned in one of the old copies of the Daily Prophet the library had. The articles he’d found depicted a scandal of the last of the, once prestigious, House of Gaunt. The daughter of said Family had apparently dosed a Muggle with a Love Potion and tried to run off with him. It hadn’t taken Tom long to find out that this woman, Merope Gaunt, was his mother. His grandfather was even still alive! But the man didn’t consider him family! Because he was the bastard son of a Muggle! He wasn’t ‘Pure’ in his own grandfather’s eyes!

A deep hatred filled the heart of Tom Riddle that day. He was denied his life in the Magical World because his mother was a fool and loved a Muggle! His grandfather refused to acknowledge him because his father was a Muggle! How dare the powerless Muggles ruin his life?! How dare his grandfather leave him to rot in the Muggle World! He would make them regret it! They would see, they would learn! He’d force them to see the mistakes they’d made! He would not be ridiculed and denied his place as the greatest Wizard to ever live because of their pride and stupidity! With this hateful determination set, Tom Riddle delved ever deeper into the Dark Arts that he was able to pilfer from the Restricted Section. Long nights spent hidden away in the rows of shelves behind the gate that he’d figured out how to get through. He would not be denied!

Tom spent a good portion of the summer crafting for himself a new identity. One that cast off his Muggle father’s name, and removed the stain of the once proud Gaunt Family. He needed an identity that would never be questioned! Never be challenged! He would conquer the Magical World if necessary! This new identity would be known as the Greatest Wizard to ever live! With that Tom began to change his name, his very identity, and it all started with an anagram of his full name. By the end of the summer he’d settled on his new name.

“I am Lord Voldemort.” Tom declared to himself in late August, just before his Fifth Year of Hogwarts.

Only a month after his Fifth Year had started and the newly dubbed, at least to himself, Voldemort had made an amazing discovery. He was a Parselmouth! He was a Snake Speaker! HE could speak Parseltongue, the language of snakes! Tracing this ability back to the Gaunts was laughably easy, they were the only known Parselmouths left in all of Magical Britain. This led to him discovery his maternal grandfather’s assuredness in the Gaunt Family being the last living descendants of Salazar Slytherin himself! This was the pedigree Tom needed! This was the status and lineage that would never be mocked or questioned! The fact that it was his by birthright only further convinced him that it was his destiny to rule over the Magical World. But he wouldn’t stop there, oh no, to truly be the Greatest Wizard ever born, he’d do the one thing that no other Wizard had ever managed! He’d become truly immortal, he’d conquer Death itself!

Thus began his research into his Slytherin heritage and his quest for immortality. Getting a permission slip for the Restricted Section from his Head of House, Horace Slughorn, was as easy as breathing. The man had already made him Prefect, a position of power he wielded like a weapon against the other students. At least when no Professors could trace it back to him, of course. He was easily Slughorn’s favorite student. He came across the answer he’d been looking for near the end of the year. Ironically almost the same time he’d discovered the fabled ‘Chamber of Secrets’! He’d delved into the Chamber first, only to be slightly disappointed that there was no long lost knowledge to be found in the subterranean chambers. But what he did find would make for that a bit. An enormous Basilisk, one bound to Slytherin’s Bloodline! He’d quickly set to bring it under his control. Having such a powerful beast under his control was almost like a drug for Tom.

The incidents around the castle that he’d caused with the Basilisk had spread much fear and Tom relished in this power. But he still needed some clarification on the method of immortality that he’d uncovered. So he met with his Head of House one evening. The conversation had not gone exactly as Tom had planned. When he’d asked Slughorn about Horcruxes the man had paled but did eventually tell him about the term. It was his question about making more than one that seemed to truly terrify the older man. ‘Isn’t one murder bad enough?’ what pointless drivel was that? Morality was nothing in the face of power! There was no good or evil. There was only power and those too weak to seek it!

Tom had eventually learned that if the incidents with the Chamber didn’t stop that Hogwarts would be closed for the foreseeable future. He couldn’t have that! He’d be trapped in the worthless Muggle World again! So with reluctance he’d made plans to send the Basilisk back into its hibernation. His plan didn’t work out as expected, Myrtle Warren had seen to that, even if unintentionally. She’d emerged from one of the stalls in the girl’s loo as he was giving his orders to the Basilisk. With little thought he’d had the Basilisk kill her. Staring down at the girl’s body Tom felt something within him shift, or perhaps it was more akin to a break? Regardless he knew he could use this! Without much time he set about the Horcrux Ritual. Unfortunately the only thing ‘of value to him’ that he was currently holding was his journal. He’d noted down many of his thoughts and plans for the future within its pages. It was a written culmination of Tom Riddle, no, of Lord Voldemort! With nothing else he completed the Ritual and the first step of his immortality was complete. His journal was his first Horcrux, and he sent the Basilisk back into its hibernation.

He needed a patsy. That was the only thing running through Tom’s mind as he paced in an abandoned classroom. They’d quickly found Myrtle’s body, mere hours after he’d killed her through the Basilisk. But now Hogwarts was going to be closed! He couldn’t allow that to happen! He refused to be trapped in the Muggle World! It was with some luck that he’d found out that the Fifth Year Hagrid, the dim-witted half-Giant that was allowed to learn here at Hogwarts. Had an exceedingly dangerous ‘pet’ as the large teen called it. It had only taken a few words and catching Hagrid with the Acromantula and the oaf had been blamed along with his pet. The half breed had been expelled and Hogwarts would remain open now that the perpetrator of the incidents had been caught and dealt with. Only the words of Dumbledore had kept Hagrid from Azkaban. But that was of no consequence to Tom. He had what he wanted and that was all that mattered.

In his Sixth Year at Hogwarts Tom had noticed a drastic shift in one Albus Dumbledore, his Transfiguration Professor. The man was subtle, but Tom knew he was being watched like a hawk by the older man. Apparently Dumbledore still held suspicion about him and the Chamber Incident from last year. While that might hinder some of Tom’s exploits it wasn’t something he couldn’t work around. He learned to Apparate this year, and with this Magic at his disposal the wider world began to open to him for the first time. With the ability to travel near instantly to any location he desired Tom made some further plans for the summer. After all, if one Horcrux made him immortal, then why not go for the most powerful Magical Number of Seven? His immortality would be set in stone and he’d truly have conquered Death! He would be heralded as the Greatest Wizard to live forever and the best part was he’d be ruling over the Magical World for just as long!

“Bastard…filth…” Marvolo Gaunt breathed out his last words against the Halfblood grandson he’d never acknowledge. Tom didn’t care for the man’s words as he took the ring from the man’s finger. Supposedly this was Salazar Slytherin’s Ring, which made it very precious to him, precious enough for him to make it his second Horcrux with his grandfather’s murder at his hands. He Imperiused his maternal uncle and had him cast the same curses that he’d used to kill his grandfather. It was best to cover his tracks while still in school. He did have one further stop to make tonight though. With an apathetic look, Tom made his way to the Riddle Manor of Little Hangleton. The deaths of the Riddle Family would be a mystery for decades, whispered about in the small town in hushed tones. How all of the family had been found dead, with nary a mark on them. Each of them with a look of horror on their face.

By the end of his Sixth Year, Tom had Slytherin House firmly under his control. Even with Dumbledore’s eyes on him, he was still able to plan and take actions he needed to. He had even decided on the objects he wanted to be his remaining Horcruxes. The fabled items of the Hogwarts Founders would make for good trophies to hold his soul fragments. Each one would be a testament to his superiority over the four that many considered to be some of the greatest Witches and Wizards of all time! Now he only had to find them.

It was Seventh Year that he’d managed to charm the location of Ravenclaw’s Diadem from the Grey Lady. He would have to travel all the way to Albania to retrieve it, but that was of little matter to him. He’d make it his first trip after he graduated at the end of this school year. He wanted to travel abroad and study Magics across the world for a while anyway. Who knew what secrets he could uncover that the weak fools of the Magical World thought to immoral to pursue!

He made good on his plans after his graduation. He found Ravenclaw’s Diadem in the Albanian Forest just where the Grey Lady said it would be. Killing some random peasant had been enough and he’d performed the Horcrux Ritual again, making his third Horcrux. He travelled after that for a few years. Studying Magic and learning more of what the weak called ‘Dark Arts’. The fools didn’t understand Magic or power! With some luck he’d managed to find out that Hogwarts was hiring for a new Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor. By this time Armando Dippet had retired and Albus Dumbledore had taken over as Headmaster. The old fool had the nerve to speak of his studies as if they were some form of sacrilege. He’d told the man that the rumors had been naught but spiteful lies told by the envious, but Dumbledore had always been annoyingly keen. HE was denied the Professorship and in his rage at Dumbledore he wove a curse upon the position, anchoring the curse to the very Title. That would surely make Dumbledore’s years as Headmaster much harder. It was also a personal show of his skills against the man that had defeated Gellert Grindelwald; the most feared Dark Lord in the last century!

He’d taken a position at Borgin and Burkes, after hearing that the owners had a knack for getting their hands on rare objects and Artifacts. It was beneath a Wizard of his caliber to be a mere shop keep, but he’d bide his time for a bit longer. This ‘job’ could help him find the last Founder’s Relics he was looking for. Only two years into his job he’d met with Hepzibah Smith. She’d gone on and on to him, after he’d used his learned charisma, about the Relics she’d inherited. Slytherin’s Locket and Hufflepuff’s Cup. After being shown the Relics and confirming that they were indeed the real thing, Tom set a plan into motion. Poisoning Hepzibah and implanting a memory into her elderly House Elf that she’d accidentally killed her mistress, Tom quit his job at Borgin and Burkes and fled with the two Relics.

Tom had almost run out of time to use Hepzibah’s murder as the sacrifice for his fourth Horcrux creation. The Ritual had a time limit from the time of the initial murder until it couldn’t be used. He’d killed some random Muggle tramp for the fifth Horcrux Ritual and with that ‘Tom Riddle’ disappeared and Lord Voldemort’s name began to be whispered in the darkest corners of Magical Britain.

Thus began the reign of terror that Lord Voldemort brought to Magical Britain. His old Slytherin followers flocked to his ‘Pure Blood’ message, just as he knew they would. With access to their Ancient Families Fortunes he set about making his vision of the Magical World a reality. He could never have known that he’d eventually set his own demise into motion. That in his bid to solidify his immortality and control he’d initiate a self-fulfilling Prophecy. Tom Riddle had descended into the Dark, never to be seen again. What had emerged was Lord Voldemort, a barely human monstrosity. A threat that almost brought Magical Britain to its knees on two separate occasions. Each time defeated by the Prophecy he himself had set into motion by his own hand. Not even the Greatest of Wizards can defeat time, or ‘conquer’ Death. The end always comes, just as it came for Tom Riddle.

But that’s a story that’s already been told….

-End-

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

Well? How was that? A view into the descent of Tom Riddle and the rise of Lord Voldemort, from the perspective of the man himself. John Mekjian I hope you especially enjoyed your Tier Reward! This was a bit different for me as I’m not used to writing from a singular perspective for an antagonist. I hope you all enjoyed it though! Just like the other One Shots this will remain Patron Exclusive!

Let me know what you thought! Later!