LILY EVANS (Mid June, 1992):
Lily Evans wasn't having the best of days, really.
As one of the most sought after aurors of the Ministry, she had been bombarded by seven murder cases in just six hours. She had apparated Merlin knows how many times around London as well as North Hampshire, so now she sees blue and red spots due to a migraine.
When she finally apparates back to her flat she finds a white envelope on the table. A letter from Minerva.
Lily,
I know that Dumbledore probably wouldn't want you to be involved, but I had to keep you informed, consequences be damned! Harry is most definitely in danger! Ginerva Weasley, Molly and Arthur's girl, was taken in the Chamber, probably to lure Harry there. He hasn't been seen for an hour. I found out that the entrance to the Chamber is in the girl's old lavatory on the second floor, the one with Myrtle's ghost. There's a pipe underneath one of the sinks. Your son must have gotten inside. Please, please come and get him before he gets himself killed! There are rumors about a basilisk in there!
Signed,
MM
Horror sinks into her heart. She sets the letter on fire, snatches her wand from the pocket of her dark blue jeans, puts on her brown jacket and uses the Floo connection all the way to Scotland. Then she has no choice but to walk all the way up to the mountain Hogwarts is. She shows her auror badge to Filtch and he leads her to Minerva's office.
__________________
"Where is that damn thing?!" She hisses, once the doors open and comes face to face with her old transfiguration professor.
"Come. I'll show you." Says Minerva, apparently as distressed as she is and guides her to a long corridor before taking three turns to the right and then entering the abandoned bathroom.
Myrtle's ghost is nowhere to be seen.
One of the sinks is indeed missing like the deputy headmistress said. On its place there is a dark hole that appears to be endless.
"Well... this is it." She murmurs and stands to the edge of it, ready to jump. "Goodbye, Minerva."
"Promise me that you will get out of there alive with your son." Says Minerva McGonagall stiffly, her eyes on the edge of getting glassy with tears of despair.
"I will get Harry out of this." Swears Lily. "But me? I don't make any promises."
She jumps inside the dark tunnel seconds later.
****
She surprisingly encounters Ron first thing when she lands, who tells her to follow the pipe to her left. She thanks him and after digging through a pile of rocks she manages to get to the other side. There is no light to show her the way so she whispers 'Lumos'. Her feet bump on small stones a few times and her toes are in pain but she bares her teeth and moves on. Finally she finds a round door with seven snakes engraved on it. It's already open so she enters the Chamber -
- and sees her little boy kneeling above Ginny's corpse. Harry is as white as a piece of blank paper while searching for any sign of life from the girl.
An older teen - probably sixteen or seventeen - is holding her son's wand, twirling it between his lithe, long, pale fingers. He is dressed in Slytherin robes, at least half a century old. He is handsome. Aristocratic features masked in worn, second hand clothes. Something in his voice is too calm to be real.
"I've waited so long, Harry Potter." He mutters. "For a change to meet you, to talk to you in person. There are so many things I want to ask..."
She senses his impatience, his hunger. He is Dark, that she guesses pretty quickly. Only Dark wizards would thirst for an enemy. A personal challenge.
Her stomach is tied in a knot.
Her son is worried. He doesn't trust the boy dressed in black. He may not have his wand on him, but he doesn't abandon his bravery. The bravery he inherited from both of them, but mostly from her. "Such as?"
"How is it that a mere baby with no particular magical talent was able to defeat the greatest wizard of all time?" Inquires the stranger, and there's intensity in the way he delivers the last words.
She must think quickly. How to save Harry and get out of there, how -
"How did you escape with nothing but a scar, while Lord Voldemort's powers were destroyed?"
'A follower of Voldemort's then. But he's so young. No, this is Dark Magic, he's not that young. He cannot be. Or perhaps - No. There's no way he's...!'
Before she has even time to elaborate her plan further, her mouth moves with a will of its own.
"That... was actually me." She says, mostly out of fear for her child, and steps out of the shadows, casting a disarming spell in the process.
Harry's wand flies away from the older boy's fingers and lands on the wet, muddy tiles.
The dark wizard is caught off guard as he turns at her direction to find out who else followed the boy. His eyes fall on her face and study it thoroughly. His brown irises darken a little. "And who exactly are...?"
He freezes for a couple of seconds. Then his mind begins its brilliant little trick of gathering information about the strange woman based on the evidence of her state, not the memories inside her brain.
Lily feels like someone is scrutinizing her in a peculiarly holmesian manner, like she's standing under a radar. She can sense the mechanics of his brain working non stop.
- slim, athletic physique
- characteristics: above average, attractive enough
- red hair, middle length
- easily emotional with strong attachments, sorted into Gryffindor
- now works at the auror department and gains a satisfactory wage because of it
- recently lost husband in Ministry operation, still in grief
- prefers to put other people's needs before her to feel some kind of ethical fulfillment
- loves her only child dearly
- her favorite flowers are lilies, like her name. Lily... Lily what?
- clearly cares about the boy, so a close relative, perhaps an aunt?
- striking emerald eyes
Tom blinks. He steals a glance at the twelve year old. The same green irises. ('Harry Potter has the eyes of his mother, Tom, everyone knows that.' Ginny had written to him one late evening.)
He looks at her again. The woman who defeated him - the mudblood - standing proud and fierce. Her love for her child undeniable. 'Ugh. Semantics.'
"So... you're the mother." He mutters, perhaps a bit entranced.
"I am." She says, wand at the ready, her mind constantly buzzing about her offspring's safety.
He grins. A little, but he does.
'How novel.'
*****
TOM RIDDLE:
When Tom had finally started to sense the ground beneath his shoes, when he accioed the wand with the Phoenix core, the same core as in his own and could actually touch the wood beneath his fingers, he swore to himself that he would never go back inside the little black book. He had to be careful with the boy, delicate even. He couldn't upset him. The journal had to stay untouched.
'Though with the mudblood here, things are a tad complicated...'
The woman is litteral fire as she walks with a steady but quick pace to her son's side, who cannot even utter a word from the shock.
"Whatever questions you have for him, I can answer them. Harry was no more than a year old, he doesn't know what happened that night." She says and her eyes beg for a bit of pity from his part.
"And I suppose you have it all sorted out?" He inquires softly. The tone doesn't match the mania within him.
She gulps and then speaks. "Yes, but I will tell you only if you make an Oath to let Harry leave this place unharmed. He'll take the girl with him too."
He laughs. It's a cold laugh, full of sick, sadistic pleasure. "Oh, darling... you're so missing the point here. I never wanted to harm your son. Why would I, when there are so many things to be unraveled in his little tale? It would be foolish of me to act so rashly."
She isn't exactly convinced, but leaves it pass for now. "And Ginny?"
"Her, right. Let me see..." He makes a detector of state spell wandlessly. His magic is all over the room, bursting with raw power. "Mhmm. Yes, she's been dead... for about two and a half minutes. I'm sorry to say that you're late."
"What? That's not...!" Stammers Harry and makes a move to touch girl's corpse to be sure, but Lily holds him back, grabs him by the arm.
"Do not touch her." She advises him. "You don't know what might happen. I care about you more."
"But, mum, aren't we supposed to help her?" Asks Harry lowly, almost whispers the question for only her to hear.
Lily grits her teeth. She really hates being in this position. "You heard him. There's no saving her. But you can leave, so get out. Now."
"No no no. You don't want to do that." Says Riddle and Lily turns her attention to him, her alarm constantly reminding her of the risks involved. "Trust me. You need him to be here as well."
"Why should I listen to you?" she inquires surly. "You are most likely harboring a bloody snake somewhere in this place."
"Yes," he hispers, tone as dangerous as it is sweet. "But my basilisk will not come out unless I call her - and I have no intention of doing anything of the sort."
"And the previous months?" She asks, her voice berating. "What were they?"
"A bait..." He replies smoothly. "to lure your child here. The only thing I had not predicted was..." He gives her one long up and down look, taking in every detail of her built and face. "you."
"Well, here I am." She says, as protective of Harry as the boy had always remembered her to be. "Do you want the answer to how you were defeated now or not?"
Riddle grins. "By all means, go ahead."
"I made a Blood Curse." She says nonplussed, eyes saturated with mirth and a little bit of triumph.
The Slytherin blinks upon hearing such a straightforward answer. He didn't expect her to be so bold about her methods. 'Honestly, Gryfffindors.' "A Blood Curse?"
"Mhmm."
"I assume it was the original version?"
She shakes her head non affirmatively. "No. I made alterations. It wasn't strong enough."
"So if anyone were to harm your baby..." He starts off, waiting for her to finish the rest of the sentence.
"Instant death. Spell rebound." She replies.
"That's... impressive."
"Thank you." She says with a smile, too sharp to be honest. She is clearly mocking him.
He frowns a bit at that. He is not used to make compliments to other people but to receive them. And surely, it pains him to even offer recognition to a mudblood of all people.
"And you?" She asks. "Why are you interested in whether or not Harry speaks the snake tongue? Dumbledore said-"
"Dumbledore has the tendency to lie, Mrs Evans." Mutters the Slytherin. "I guess you must have heard the version about the accidental power transference the night of your 'death'. Well, think again. Your offspring's case is a tad more perplexing than that."
'A tad more perplexing than-'
She shudders before offering the answer. "Soul Magic."
"Yes, that's the general field." He nods, satisfied. "And more specifically?"
She pushes her mind to remember the sole two texts she had read on the topic of creating horcruxes. "The one when one kills a person, then there's a certain ritual one has to do that is not mentioned in most library books and then they say that one's soul is split into pieces." She looks at the handsome stranger again. She has yet to confirm his identity. "That's what you did, right?"
"Very good." He purrs. It sends a jolt of fear in her stomach. "Have you figured out who I am by now?"
"I have a suspicion." She says, her tone sharp as if it has claws.
He smiles. "Go on."
"Well, besides the dramatic piece of shit you truly are..." She murmurs facetiously, her knuckles turning red from the freezing temperature as well as from how much she balls her fists. She pins her gaze on him to see his amused expression. "I figured out that there is a slight chance for you to be Voldemort, though I don't know how."
Harry, who had been watching the exchange up to that point quietly by his mother's side, jolts a little and his hand finds her own for support. "Seriously now, mum?" He whispers. "Why must it always be him?"
The Slytherin seems to be genuinely pissed off to hear that coming from her son. "Oh, you don't like me, Harry? You want to have another nemesis? Well, I'm sorry. There's no office that covers that inquiry. I'm afraid you're stuck with me."
Harry seems to be a bit confused. "But... you cannot be Voldemort. You're young and he was white with red eyes. A mere parasite behind someone's head last time I saw him."
"Everyone was once a teenager." Says Riddle with a sigh as the boy wrinkles his nose in puzzlement. "You seem to forget that."
"Okay, can we please focus on my main concern?" Asks Lily, making the Slytherin turn his eyes on her for a moment. "What does your diary have to do with my kid? I think it's high time for you to answer that."
"Right. I guess it's a pity to prolong your agony..." He mutters before his eyes turn sharper. He is in a mix between secret glee and curiosity of the chaos that will follow after his reveal. "Your son is just another one of my horcruxes. Probably the seventh - an accidental one - if my plans ultimately worked on creating the other six."
Lily can only blink. The prospect is way too terrifying for her. "I'm sorry?"
"You heard me."
"You're bluffing."
"Not at all."
"Fucking hell, it does make sense..." She whispers to herself and gives a sideways glance at Harry who has started trembling.
His smaller hand squeezes hers in nervousness. The terror has just begun sinking inside his heart. He is speechless. He leaves the other two do the talking. He has a lot to take in. 'Horcrux, how? Does that mean I have a piece of Voldemort's soul? That's... disturbing to even think about.'
"Of course it makes sense." Speaks Tom, still addressing his mother, making the boy tear his thoughts away from his own nerves. "Think about it. His soul was already mutilated. If you add a Blood Curse and a living baby to that, well... you can only come to one plausible conclusion."
"So that's why you wouldn't even consider the possibility of killing him..." Says Lily quietly.
"Mhmm." Nods the older boy. "Exactly."
"That's very selfish of you." She comments. "My son is not a piece of jewelry for you to store away. He's a living, breathing person with his own personality and wishes."
"Do not be so quick to pass judgment." He counters the blame. "I'm sure that any mortal that would be offered the chance for immortality, would gladly accept it. My desire is not illogical."
"No, but it is cowardly and pathetic." She says. The accusation is pretty clear in her vivid green eyes. "You want to outlive Voldemort? Great. Here's a tip for that: Stop making fucking horcruxes."
Then she feels Harry tugging her left sleeve. The boy seems tense as he says quietly, "Mum, I don't think it's good to anger him."
"It's fine." Mutters Riddle, even a tad entertained with the red haired. "I don't actually mind."
"You must have been really bored inside that diary to agree with my reasoning." Says Lily, her sarcasm literary coming off in heat waves in the atmosphere.
"Journal." He whispers. "And yes, I admit that it was... rather maddening."
"You put a piece of your soul in there so to not die and as the years passed, you regretted it and wanted to get out." Says the woman with a brow arched. "You do realize that's the definition of irony, right? Wanting to be mortal after..."
Tom purses his lips. Apparently, sarcasm is something that runs in the Potter bloodline. "Yes. I have thought of this before you so kindly pointed it out. Don't worry."
"Well, self awareness was never Voldemort's thing so I wondered if it was yours." She says cheekily before she gets a bit more serious. "By the way, what is your name? Your birth name, I mean."
He does not like the question. And even after fifty years of doing self therapy - aka having mental breakdowns - inside a book, his name still tastes bitter. "It's Tom."
She blinks again, this time in surprise. "That's it? Okay. It's a bit... anticlimactic, but it will do. It's way better than the other one." She mutters and looks inside his eyes that are getting more curious about her as the minutes tick by. "Mine's Lily - but you will call me Evans seeing as I still don't trust you." She adds, when she sees he is not in a mood to say any more about his name origins.
He doesn't speak. His gleefulness has been subdued considerably.
"What were your plans after gaining a body?" Her question is laced with suspicion as it should. Years of negotiating with criminals have made her strive for the best end of the deal.
"What do you expect me to say?" He says. The corners of his mouth are tugged up a little. His bad mood starts to be replaced by amusement. "World domination?"
"More like 'total control of the British government through the Ministry'. World domination is a vague concept." She drawls ruefully. "You don't sound like the type to care about the rest of the world."
"Oh, you're good..." He mutters, genuinely impressed.
She gives him a lazy look. She is in her element, now more than ever. "You'd be better if you weren't so obsessed with blood supremacy. If I were you, I'd try to put close mindedness aside, focus on people's talents, not blood."
"That means we have a deal? You're not going to try to get rid of me? Play hero like your son does?"
"It's been a long time since I was a true hero." Says Lily and something is regretful in her tone. "Now I'm just... me."
She kneels down and gently takes the black book from the girl's hands. Then she levitates Ginny's body that starts floating to the main entrance and exit of the Chamber.
She walks a few steps towards the Slytherin, finally letting go of Harry's palm, who is fearful while watching her get closer to the boy that petrified his classmates.
She extends the journal at Riddle. "Here. Take it. It's useless now anyway."
He takes it with a weary glance at her direction. "You're a strange one, Lily Evans."
She snorts lightly. She is not flattered in the least. "Says the boy who decided that terrorizing his own school twice was a good idea."
He shrugs, giving her a crooked smile that shows that he doesn't mind or regret his actions. Not that she ever expected him to.
"Honestly now, what was your reason the first time?" Inquires Lily. "The inevitable punishment of your classmates?"
"That was half of it, yes." He murmurs.
She shakes her head. She had heard lots of revenge stories like this, but none so excessive. "And the other half?"
"Power. Control. Take your pick."
"Ah. The usual, okay." She nods for she was expecting such an answer. "Are you ready for the Vow? You do realize I'm not letting you walk away from this room without one."
He grins a little. "Sure. There are lots of Vows that do not require a third binder. Which one do you prefer?"
"The one Kuz Kali invented."
"1453." He is reminiscent of old Egyptian textbooks that belonged in the restricted section. "Excellent choice."
"I'll start first." She says, once again ignoring his flattery. She raises her wand to the height of her shoulder. "I assume you don't need a wand to cast it, cause surely as hell you're not getting mine or Harry's."
"No, I'm fine." He says easily. "Go ahead."
"Alright. Here goes..." She leaves a little breath out and begins reciting her own part of the incantation. "I, Lily Evans, swear to aid Tom Marvolo Riddle adjust to his new life in condition that he provides help to the Order in return." She gives him a severe look. "Now it's your turn."
He does not make the Vow. Instead he says, "Two questions before I recite my part. One, how do you know my middle name?"
"It was engraved on your book's cover." She answers simply.
"Right. Almost forgot about that..." He mutters before looking up at her eyes. "And second, what is that Order?"
"The Order of the Phoenix. It's an organization of some sort."
He has a bad feeling about this. He sighs. "Tell me that it has nothing to do with Dumbledore."
"It does." She says coldly. She is not sympathetic at all. She doesn't have to be.
He shakes his head, dreading the idea. "Sorry, love. I'm not signing up to anything that makes me compliant to Dumbledore."
"You think I am loyal to him?" She murmurs a tad annoyed. "None of my team mates are. We just let him think that."
Okay, that's... something.
He arches a brow. "Who are you loyal to then?"
"Ourselves." She replies with a nonchalant shrug of her shoulders.
"Ah. I see." He whispers. "That's... way more preferable."
He contemplates the thought in his mind for a little. Then he leaves a sigh out, a sign of his cooperation. "Alright, fine."
He raises his left hand out to make the Vow. "I, Tom Marvolo Riddle, swear to protect the operation and secrets of the Order of the Phoenix in condition that Lily Evans will see to my protection and any demands of residence that I may have."
"Sounds good to me." Says the woman non committedly.
Both of the tips of their wands glow for three to four seconds before the light dies out. The Vow is complete.
"What now?" Mutters Harry, giving his mother an unsure look.
Lily glances at Riddle. "Now... we have to find a way to get out of here."
"That's easy." Says Tom before muttering something in parseltogue. Soon enough a staircase made of marble appears behind one of the pillars. A staircase that reaches the ceiling at a spot where another pipe filled with light is located.
Lily and Harry are speechless for a while.
"We had to jump into a sewers pipe." Whispers the bespectacled Gryffindor.
"I really want to cry right now..." Murmurs the red haired. "Why couldn't there be stairs in the first place?"
"Salazar was not famous for his practicality." Responds Tom nonchalantly.
"You can say that again..." Says Lily, before snapping out of her little shock trance to look at them both. "So, Harry, you go first. Then you, Riddle, so I can watch you in case you think of doing anything."
That said, the three of them begin climbing all the way up towards the light.
______________
All things considered, this little adventure could have turned out way worse for Tom.
He could be dead, for one. Thanks to the Vow with Evans, who proved way more useful than she looked initially, he didn't die.
He spent some hours hiding in the room of Requirement before the woman led him away from the castle grounds so to apparate him to some dingy house in London. Later he learned that it was called Grimmauld place and that it served as the Order headquarters.
He also learned that after he had closed the Chamber there was a funeral for the girl. Her family mourned her. He couldn't find himself to care. It was her life for his.
What surprised him the most was how much of a good manipulator the Evans woman was. He really didn't expect that from her. She had tempered with both hers and Harry's memories so that everyone who questioned them started to think that both Ginny and Tom Riddle were long dead. Nobody ever pressed into their matters further.
_______________
Lily throws two documents down the table near which he is seated and sipping his evening tea.
"Ciar Mulciber." She says groggily. Her throat has been scratchy for a week now due to a cold. "Find everything you can about him."
"And why would you need that kind that kind of information?" He drawls.
"Why do you think?" She almost snaps, while searching through a brown covered book that had been laying on the same table. "To catch him, of course."
"I'm not your errand boy, Evans." He whispers, though his hands are already skimming through the papers, fingers and eyes trying to spot key words.
"I mean..." starts off Lily innocently. "Tonks said she can do it in four days time. Moody has assigned you the same task."
He growls softly upon hearing that. He never liked the pink haired punk. "Well, I'll do it in two. I'm millenials better than her."
"No, you're not." Says Lily sternly. "You're a homicidal maniac of sixty seven years old who is trapped into a sixteen year old's body and is forced to help the opposite side so not to end up behind bars."
The smugness on her face is slowly being replaced by awkwardness. "Ugh, why did I say that? This is so weird... You don't feel like sixty seven, do you?"
He grins faintly. "No, I don't."
That makes her relax a bit. "Oh, good. Okay. Well... I'll let you work more on these. I've got to go back to the office." She passes her favorite red handbag over her left shoulder and looks at him again. "I'll see you after eleven."
"If Moody comes..." He starts off and she continues for him.
"You'll tell him more about the Mark, seeing as he has been working around that for the past two months." Says the woman. "We have to trick the remaining of his followers. Make them gather up somewhere. They will be easier to capture that way." She walks towards the kitchen door and opens it. She turns around to glance at him one last time. "Stay here. Don't cause any trouble."
Tom gives her his signature Cheshire cat grin. "You know me. I never do."
Lily rolls her eyes. "Right..."
Afterwards, she apparates back to the Ministry to finish the last of her duties for the day.
Tom's good mood does not evaporate, even after staying with no one else in Grimmauld place. This is much better than he had calculated. At least he is not bored.
He hears a door slamming open before being shut.
"Riddle! Where are my reports?!"
Ah. Alastor Moody. Always delicate.
"You should be here with my goddamn papers, boy, or I'll personally make sure you won't see the light of the day for the decades to come!"
He takes another file filled with documents and gets out of the room.
He walks down a long grey corridor with many doors. One of them opens and reveals Moody in his usual hypervigilant demeanor.
The man with the glass eye and light blond hair that has started to turn gray walks towards him unexpectedly fast.
"Well?" He barks. "Where do you have them?"
"All of them are here, Alastor." Replies Tom smoothly.
The legendary auror snatches the reports from the boy's hands, takes a single glance at them and then opens the black door to their left with a wave of his hand. "Good. You won this one, Riddle. Follow me."
The Slytherin walks behind him as he enters the tiny room.
There are charts with little notes on the walls. One of them has crossed out the eliminated Death Eaters. Another one has Dumbledore's face marred with a red line that is made by ink.
Tom's eyes shine with appeasement. 'They're planning to get rid of the old bat.'
This is indeed much much better.