The Truth
Harry watched Tom Riddle warily. The man had tried to kill him not that long ago. But since the engagement, Tom had given his all to protect Harry. He even had a pet name for Harry!
"I am glad you are alright, darling.", Tom said.
Harry blushed brightly at the name. He mustered the man and decided it was time to get some answers to his questions.
"What kind of retribution did you warrant from Ginny and how did you find out about the love potion?", Harry asked firmly.
Tom narrowed his eyes at him but Harry kept firm eye contact.
"I took the matter to the Wizengamot as trying to bewitch someone with a love potion can be punished with up to four years in Azkaban. The court decided, as it was Ginevra's first offense, to only punish her with a fine of 3,000 Galleons. A rather mild punishment if you asked me.", Tom answered haughtily.
Harry narrowed his eyes at the man.
"You haven't told me how you found out."
Tom smirked lightly.
"You are as observant as you are fierce, my dear. The young Malfoy told me about it as soon as he was able to. Unfortunately I visited his father later in the summer than I previously planned. Fortunately for me, Lucius was able to gather the Wizengamot to an emergency session."
Harry thought about that for a moment. He was angry at Malfoy for having snitched. It was pure luck that the court decided to only give Ginny a fine and not send her to Azkaban. But maybe she will have realized what kind of consequences Harry had meant? He had tried to make her see sense but it didn't seem to have worked. Sure she had left him alone but the gazes she kept sending him were an indication to how determined she was about getting him.
But Harry also felt some guilt settle into his gut. The Weasleys were poor. A fine of 3,000 Galleons was so much for them!
"Why are you so interested in her case? She tried to bewitch you using a love potion."
Tom sounded confused and if Harry was right, the man was a bit hurt.
"While I know that it's hard for you to understand, she was my friend before she became obsessed with me. She was the sister I never had. It hurts to know she would willingly put me under a potion just so I can love her in the way she wants me to. I just... I never would have put her in front of the Wizengamot.", Harry said quietly.
Tom hooked a finger under his chin and raised the teenager's head to meet his glowing red eyes.
"While you are not willing to protect yourself, I have no qualms about making sure you are safe. And if I have to burn down the world for it, then so be it.", Tom said savagely.
Harry's cheeks warmed under the intense gaze the man was giving him.
The feeling with which Tom had said that he would protect him brought another question to his mind.
"Tom, why did you want to marry and protect me?", the teenager asked quietly, looking directly into the eyes of his fiancé.
The man was smirking slightly.
"Why, Harry, ever so brave.", Tom teased him. Harry blushed further.
The man lowered his hand and watched the teenager quietly.
Tom then spoke in a low voice: "For the answer, I have to start with my Diary that was destroyed by your hands. You see, it was not a mere memory. Inside of that diary was a part of my soul. I had stored it there to be safe from death. This construction is called a Horcrux and one of the darkest magical rituals one can accomplish. I will not be going into details as the process of producing one is quite... dark."
Harry was listening with rapt attention. He knew about the objects Dumbledore had been searching for, had seen the memories in which Tom had tried to obtain them, even succeeded in obtaining them. But he had never thought that those objects contained Riddle's soul.
"When did you make that? You must've been still in school. The memory of you was only fifteen?"
Tom smiled.
"You are perceptive, my dear. More than I thought. Yes, I was still attending Hogwarts at that time. I think I was sixteen. To be able to rip the soul apart, for storing it in a container, one needs to do the most atrocious thing a living being can do. You have to kill another human." Tom paused. He seemed to gather his courage. "I had killed Myrtle through the Basilisk. After it happened, I went back into the Chamber and performed the ritual. I never thought that it would be this dangerous. The book in which the ritual could be found had been at Hogwarts, after all. It might have been in the Restricted Section, but it was still accessable by students. I couldn't imagine bad things happening to me. But this ritual cracked my soul in half. I had lost half of my sanity by performing it."
Harry let that sink in. So if Tom had only had half of his soul and sanity, that would explain most of his actions down the road. But how did he go insane?
"How did you go actually insane?", Harry asked simply.
Tom laughed at Harry's wording.
"I made six more Horcruxes. I was obsessed with the number seven. It has a strong magical impact, I had learned that during Arithmancy. What I had not anticipated was that whenever I stored my soul into a container, it would be the half of what I had left. And thus I went insane. Insane enough to attempt killing an innocent child after hearing only half of a prophecy depicting my downfall.", Tom explained.
Harry could only nod. So Tom was aware how maniacal it was to try and murder a baby. That didn't mean he was sorry about it.
"After you vanquished me, I became a wraith. Not living, but not dying either. To save the last of my strenght I fled into the woods of Albania. Where, ten years later, Quirinius Quirrel found me. He had heard rumours and was curious. He found me and I attached myself to him, like a common parasyte."
Tom shuddered at the thought and Harry could only laugh. Trust the evil Dark Lord to hate being compared to parasytes.
"You know how that played out.", Tom said, smirking slightly.
Harry nodded grimly, still feeling the wraith fly through him and draining almost all of his magic.
"What happened after that? I can't believe you would tell Lucius Malfoy to get your diary into the school.", Harry said.
The diary would have been something precious. It would have been too dangerous to put it into a school with a bunch of teenagers and a headmaster deliberate on finishing off the Dark Lord.
Harry suddenly realized that the man in front of him had nothing to do with the Voldemort that came out of that cauldron at the end of the Triwizard Tournament. How did that development happen?
"I went back to Albania. I haven't contacted Lucius before calling my followers at the Graveyard. Unfortunately, that fool decided to try and bring me back in the only way he knew. Getting my diary to possess some innocent child at school and suck the life out of them. Other than Wormtail I didn't have contact to either of my followers before my resurrection.", Tom explained.
Harry scowled. He would never like Lucius Malfoy. The man was partially responsible for Ginny being this obsessed with him. It would have been somewhat excusable if the Malfoy patriarch had orders from Voldemort as he was a marked follower. But it turned out he was just an asshole.
Tom beginning to talk pulled Harry out of his thoughts.
"After I came out of that cauldron something changed. I didn't notice it immediately. It took about half a year for me to see what had happened. The diary's soul piece had come back to me. It wasn't destroyed as Dumbledore had assumed. It was flying around inbetween the worlds while I was also still a wraith. I had most of my sanity back as that piece was the biggest of all of them. But I couldn't change my ways because of my followers. I couldn't let them see that I am a changed man. They would've abandoned me. There would have been riots. I couldn't let something happen to my goals. So I planned. And during finding and reabsorbing my other soul pieces I had noticed something."
There was a heavy pause and Harry felt his stomach drop. There was something big coming. Tom continued calmly.
"I couldn't be sure without being inside your mind. After I had possessed you during the Ministry Incident I knew for sure that you were one of my Horcruxes. But other than with Nagini, I wasn't able to reabsorb it. I would have given you the epitome of the Dementor's Kiss. And with my sanity intact I wasn't willing to do that. Do not think I am completely changed. I still think murder is entirely within my right. But I refused to harm you, an innocent to this whole ordeal, more than I already did."
Harry's mind went blank. His body was numb. Harry wasn't sure if he was even still in the realm of the living. He stopped breathing for a moment.
He had Voldemort's soul stuck inside of him. It couldn't be taken out. And that was the only thing keeping the man from killing him outright and why he had started to actually care about him. What a good way to start a relationship, Harry thought with a derisive snort. As if anyone could care about him without ulterior motives. For Dumbledore he was the Chosen One, a child soldier if he ever saw one; for his friends he was THE Harry Potter, just a friend that was famous and possibly a door opener for a muggleborn like Hermione and for Tom he was the Horcrux he couldn't destroy or reabsorb.
The numb feeling spread into his hands and feet.
Would there ever be one person accepting him for himself? As just Harry? The fact that probably no one would ever be able to look past his fame had him slump his shoulders.
Hopefully no one else knew what he was.
Dumbledore knew! A voice suddenly pointed out.
But Harry thought that was absurd. How could the headmaster have known? Tom hadn't known either until he had been in Harry's mind.
The Diary!
Harry remembered now. After he had killed the Basilisk Harry had been alone with Dumbledore. The man had eyed the diary as if it held the answer. His twelve-year-old self had thought he had imagined it. But at this moment the man had to have known what Tom had done. During their meetings this past year, Harry had always wondered where the man had gained the knowledge about these objects. What had been the trigger? Now, it was obvious.
A sentence the headmaster had told him at the end of his second year, just before he had left to save Dobby, came back to him in that moment: Unless I'm much mistaken, he transferred some of his own powers to you the night he gave you that scar. Not something he intended to do, I'm sure.
He had known. That old coot had known he was a fucking Horcrux! And he hadn't thought to tell Harry this much! After the Ministry debacle the teenager thought Dumbledore had learned his lesson to not keep things from him. But it seemed that the old man was still prone to keep information close to his chest and only revealed something if he couldn't help it.
Anger boiled inside of him. Why was it always his life that was fucked? Why did it have to be him? Couldn't he have just died with his parents? Was there no possibility for him to have some peace?
"Harry? Harry can you hear me?", a voice brought him out of his head.
He looked up to see Tom hovering near him, a hand outstretched as if to touch him but hesitating to do so. Upon looking around the room he noticed why the man sounded so worried. The whole room was in disarray. Most of the books were strewn across the floor, one of the lamps was lying broken on the ground and a few of the clothes were laying around the room, a few still swirling around. They fell to the ground when Harry took a deep breath.
"Oh.", Harry breathed.
Tom had slumped his shoulders at his acknowledgement.
"Good, you're back. Severus said you ought to not strain yourself. I think that this much accidental magic with your core size must have been straining yourself.", Tom whispered.
The man seemed unsure of how to interact with Harry. The teenager furrowed his brows before it dawned on him a moment later.
"No, this is not a reaction to me being your Horcrux.", Harry said quickly.
Tom threw him a disbelieving look.
"No, seriously. It was about the realization that Dumbledore had known what I was since my second year. He had said something before that hadn't made sense until now. I definitely haven't worked through the fact that I have part of your soul inside of me but I guess we will need to wait until my brain makes me go through the acceptance of it. And probably the resulting meltdown."
Tom gave a snort but seemed to believe Harry for now.
"Very well. While I don't want to make this too short, I would think you need to sleep now. This magical release must've tired your body out. I guess I can watch over you while you sleep.", the Dark Lord said.
Harry scowled. He didn't need to be put to bed like a small child. And he definitely didn't need to be watched.
"I don't need...", he started, but was interrupted by a yawn.
Tom definitely looked smug now and Harry glared at the man.
"Okay, yes I need to sleep. But I am not a child that needs to be watched!", the teenager complained.
"The watching is only to ensure there will be no complications during your healing, nothing else. Either I or Severus will be here with you at all times.", Tom explained quietly while tucking Harry into bed.
Harry rolled his eyes but complied and let himself be tucked into bed like a child. It was nice. Huh, who could've guessed that this was what it felt like to feel safe with another adult. Burrowed under the warm covers, Harry hummed contently.
"I still have questions for you.", Harry murmured into the pillows and drifted off into sleep.
He wasn't sure but for a moment he thought he could feel fingers drifting through his hair.
The evening of the same day brought another topic. Harry's birthday was tomorrow and he was unsure how he felt about Tom trying to talk to him about what to do for it.
"No, I don't really need a birthday party. My friends won't be allowed to come as their parents don't trust you and I really don't want a party with Death Eaters.", Harry said petulantly.
Snape was smirking behind Tom while the other man frowned in thought.
"Then how about a party with you, Severus and me? That wouldn't be too bad, right?", Tom suggested carefully.
Harry thought about it. Other than his friends, the potions master and the budding Dark Lord were the only two people he could actually celebrate with as those are the only ones concerned about his welfare.
"Alright. But nothing too big. I'm not used to birthday parties at all.", Harry warned.
The glint in Tom's eyes told him that the man would go overboard with the whole thing. Harry sighed in annoyance. He shouldn't have agreed.
"Wonderful. I will arrange everything! Severus, you're staying with Harry to make sure he is recovering exactly as he should!", Tom ordered and vanished out of the door without waiting for a response.
Harry snorted.
"Well, Mr. Potter, it seems you have a doting Dark Lord on your hand. See that you don't abuse the power that comes with it.", Snape commented idly and Harry snorted again.
He didn't even know how he could abuse someone as sly as Tom.
"Do you know the reason why he suddenly decided to protect me rather than kill me?", Harry asked quietly.
Snape seemed surprised by the question. His eyes widened a fraction and Harry believed to see pain being reflected in them.
"I do.", the man said softly.
"Then you know that he's just doing it because I am his Horcrux. Tom is possessive of the things that are his. Right now I fall under that category. There is literally no way he would be like this otherwise."
Snape watched him for a moment. Harry waited for the man to gather his thoughts. It seemed as if Snape wanted to say something but he wasn't sure how. As if he was afraid of the backlash.
"Please just say whatever is on your mind. I think some truth will do me good.", Harry said, after the silence stretched for a long moment.
Snape looked at him once more before opening his mouth.
"The reason the Dark Lord wanted to marry you may be my fault. Please just listen until the very end, I will answer any questions provided they are neither hurtful nor too private."
Harry nodded his agreement and Snape took a deep breath.
"After the incident you've seen in my pensieve, Lily and I didn't become friends again. I apologized but she wouldn't forgive me. I suddenly found myself without a real friend. The only thing I was good at was potions. Lucius had already bragged about my talents with potions to the Dark Lord and at that time, to not be ostracized any more than I already was, I didn't know how to turn him down. He promised me an apprenticeship with a renowned potions master if I just become one of his followers. I didn't have enough money to fund an apprenticeship myself so I agreed."
Snape paused. Harry kept quiet. He thought it wasn't easy to just admit so much to the child of someone he once hated.
After a few minutes the potions master continued.
"After I joined the ranks of the Death Eaters I was able to work myself into the Inner Circle. It was an honour to get there as young as I was. I was trying to prove myself to stay in the Dark Lord's favour. You already know I brought the prophecy to him once I'd heard half of it?"
Harry could only nod. He waited in tense silence before the man continued.
"After the Dark Lord declared whom he recognized as the prophesized child, I begged for Lily's life. I knew I couldn't help you, no matter what I said and I didn't care enough for James' life. But I knew, no matter what happened, if Lily wouldn't step aside, he would murder her. I had loved her as a friend before we went to Hogwarts and I couldn't let her die. So I went to Dumbledore. He promised to hide them.", Snape's voice broke.
Harry felt for the man. He had made a mistake and paid for it in the most horrible way. It was the same with Sirius. Harry was stupid enough to believe the vision he saw and his godfather was killed for his mistake.
"I was there that night. I'd held Lily in my arms. I wanted to die for her so she could live but that was impossible. After you were brought to your vile relatives, not that I knew anything about it at that time, the headmaster convinced me to swear an oath to protect you. I reluctantly agreed, assured that no matter what, you would be your father incarnate. I was wrong. You have more of Lily in you than James and I deeply regret that my hatred towards your father was the reason I missed the signs of your home life. I am truly sorry for that.", Snape murmured, his head bowed.
The man took another deep breath and said: "The headmaster called me to him at the beginning of the school year. I had no idea what he wanted from me as the Dark Lord had changed his plans partly already and nothing of significance had happened. Albus told me about you being the Dark Lord's Horcrux. And he is of the notion that, if he ever wanted to vanquish the Dark Lord, you would need to die. And while I never wanted to see the old Dark Lord again, I wasn't willing to have you killed as collateral damage. And I had seen the Dark Lord's changes during the summer. I went to him, to save you. I know that he would guard anything that was his fiercely, even if it had been his former enemy. And I am sorry for making you a war treaty. I could just not sit still while Albus Dumbledore planned your demise."
Harry stared at the man and the teenager didn't know what to say to all the revelations that had come within the day. And then Snape's words registered in his brain.
"Wait a moment. Tom said he had noticed the Horcrux during the possession at the Ministry debacle and he changed his plans accordingly. I thought he meant to make me his husband but...", Harry stopped.
That meant Tom started changing his ways before he decided to marry Harry.
"I believe that the Dark Lord was trying to find a solution to his prior mistakes and me addressing the problem with the headmaster's thoughts about killing attempts made him decide on marriage.", Snape said.
Harry was overwhelmed.
"I honestly don't know what to say.", he murmured.
Snape was watching him carefully. The man was watching him like a bomb, ready for an explosion.
"Well, I would suggest you lay down and try to sleep. I can't guarantee that tomorrow you will know what to say or how to feel but it can help.", the man suggested with a shaky voice.
It seemed as if Snape wasn't as wary around him when Harry wasn't losing control of his magic but was still careful.
"I guess.", Harry sighed and laid down.
Too many thoughts swirled inside his head.
"It will be alright, Harry. Try to clear your mind. It might help you to fall asleep.", Snape murmured softly.
Harry took measured breaths. It didn't take him too long to fall asleep even thought he had a nap earlier in the day.
Maybe after his birthday he would have the time to process the revelations of today.