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Sep. 26th, 2011 12:24 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
anagrammatist[PLAYER INFO]
NAME: Calai'di
AGE: 21
JOURNAL:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
calaidi
IM: AIM: calaidi
E-MAIL: calaidi@gmail.com
RETURNING: 1: Kyosuke Kiryu
[CHARACTER INFO]
CHARACTER NAME: Tom Marvolo Riddle, the "memory" from the diary aka a Horcrux of Lord Voldemort
FANDOM: Harry Potter (books)
CHRONOLOGY: near the end of Chamber of Secrets, just before Harry stabs the diary and destroys it
CLASS: Villain
SUPERHERO NAME: Lord Voldemort
ALTER EGO: Tom Riddle, the best 16-year-old salesman you've ever seen
BACKGROUND:
The main plot of the Harry Potter series takes place in a world very similar to ours, except that there's a whole secret society of magical people, creatures, places, and customs both hidden from and working alongside the more mundane world we're familiar with. These wizards and witches have hidden themselves and their world for about four centuries, and partially hid themselves for sometime before that, prompted in part by medieval witch burnings and escalating fear from the non-magical (Muggle) population. Wizards around the world formed their own governments, economies, schools, and other areas completely hidden from Muggles. In Britain, where the story takes place, this means places like the Ministry of Magic, Diagon Alley, and Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
Hogwarts was founded a thousand or so years ago by four very powerful wizards: Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw, and Salazar Slytherin. Each formed a House where they took students with certain qualities: Gryffindor--the brave; Hufflepuff--hard-workers; Ravenclaw--clever, studious sorts; and Slytherin--the ambitious and cunning. Gryffindor also enchanted a hat that would sort students accordingly in the centuries to come. For a while, the four Founders got along and life was good, but it wasn't long before a certain clash of opinion arose between Slytherin and the other three. Slytherin felt that they should only teach children who were "pure-blood," meaning their families had always and only been wizards, whereas the other three felt anyone magical should be taught, pure-bloods as well as half-bloods (one magical parent and one Muggle/Muggle-born parent) and Muggle-borns (both parents are Muggles).
Slytherin finally built a hidden chamber in the school, the Chamber of Secrets, stuck a basilisk inside, and left. Slytherin was a Parselmouth, meaning he could speak to snakes, so he rigged the Chamber to only open to a Parselmouth and the basilisk would only answer to one of his descendants. He intended one of his descendants to eventually come to the school, release the basilisk, and use it to kill off or scare away any Muggle-borns in the school. The other Founders and numerous witches and wizards searched for the Chamber through the centuries, but it was never found and eventually the story was thought to be a myth.
It's unknown how exactly Slytherin's bloodline flourished through the next thousand years, except that along the way it mingle with the Peverell line and eventually became the Gaunt line. In the early 1900s, Slytherin's blood had dwindled to just one rather poverty-stricken family: Marvolo Gaunt and his son Morfin and daughter Merope. Marvolo was a very proud and arrogant man and had a deep hatred for Muggles and anyone who might like them or be related to them, something he passed down to his son as well. Neither of them cared much for Merope and they valued their two remaining family heirlooms, a ring with a stone carved with the Peverell crest and a locket once owned by Slytherin himself, considerably more than her.
The Gaunts lived near the village of Little Hangleton, which was also where the fairly well-off but Muggle Riddle family lived. Merope ended up falling in love with the Riddle's son Tom. Morfin figured this out and hexed him, prompting a visit from the Head of the Magical Law Enforcement Squad. During this visit, Marvolo also found out about Merope's infatuation, both he and Morfin attacked her, and the Head had them both arrested and sent to the wizard prison Azkaban.
Now free to do as she wished, Merope used magical means, probably a love potion, to get Tom Riddle Sr. to fall in love with her and they eloped. Not too long after that, Merope became pregnant and also rather guilty for continuing to use the love potion. She probably convinced herself that Riddle would have really fallen in love with her by then, or else he would stay for the baby, but neither was the case. As soon as Merope took away the love potion, Riddle left and never saw her again. Sometime after this, Merope made her way to London and, desperate for money, sold the Slytherin locket, which eventually made its way to the collection of one Hepzibah Smith, last descendant of Helga Hufflepuff.
On December 31, 1926, Merope found herself on the steps of a Muggle orphanage in London. Within the hour, she gave birth to Tom Marvolo Riddle, named for his father and grandfather, and within another hour she was dead, leaving Tom to grow up in the orphanage.
Tom discovered very early that he was different than the other children. Most wizard children have little control over their magic, and their magic usually only manifests on accident or in life-threatening situations. By the time Tom was eleven, he was using his magic consciously and had some amount of control over it. He used his magic to bully the other children and make them fear him: on one occasion, he hung a boy's pet rabbit from the rafters; on another, he led a couple children into a cave on one of their outings, and the two were never the same afterward. He was more than ready to accept the idea that he was a wizard and that there was a whole world of magic when Professor Albus Dumbledore of Hogwarts arrive to inform him of the school.
Tom started his first year of school in 1938 and was immediately sorted into Slytherin. Most of the staff took a liking to him at once; Tom was careful to be polite and respectful in front of the teachers, and he was a very talented young wizard with a great thirst for knowledge. He very quickly rose to the top of his class and went on to become a prefect in his fifth year and Head Boy in his seventh. Among the students, he was somewhat feared, and he was soon the leader of a group who were behind some of the more nasty incidents of those school years, though they were never caught at it.
Sometime in his first year, Tom learned of the legend of the Chamber of Secrets and decided to find it. He was also obsessed with his heritage, convinced that his father must have been the wizard because a witch wouldn't have died so easily. However, he was eventually forced to accept that his mother had been the magical one and he began researching that side of his family instead. He discovered Marvolo's name in the old school records, discovered that he was indeed the descendant of Slytherin that he'd suspected, and discovered that his uncle, Morfin, was still alive. At this time, Tom began seriously using his nickname, Lord Voldemort, derived from an anagram of his real name, in order to distance himself from his Muggle father.
Also during this time, Tom began researching ways to make himself immortal, no doubt spurred on by the death of his mother. He felt that a wizard should be able to overcome something as simple as death. He finally decided on using Horcruxes. A Horcrux is a piece of a person's soul stored in an object for safekeeping, the piece being torn from the rest by committing a murder. If that person is killed, that piece of soul keeps the rest of the soul anchored to the earth. That wizard would not truly be dead, as he still has a soul, and he would be able to regain a body in some way or another and go on living. This appealed to Tom the most, as he would be almost completely unreliant on anything to keep himself immortal, and he trusted his skill to keep his Horcruxes safe from harm. He also decided that he should have more than one Horcrux, to better ensure his safety; as seven is the most magically powerful number, he decided to spilt his soul into seven pieces--six Horcruxes and himself.
During his fifth year, Tom finally found the Chamber of Secrets and he did indeed open it and unleash the basilisk on the school. Almost all of the attacks resulted in the victim being petrified--none of them looked the basilisk directly in the eyes but only saw it though something or in a reflection. However, near the end of his fifth year, the basilisk did finally kill a girl, who had been unfortunate enough to be near the entrance of the Chamber right when Tom opened it. The school board called for the school to be closed if the attacks didn't stop. Tom had no desire to go back to the orphanage where he was raised, so he reluctantly pinned the blame on half-giant Rubeus Hagrid, who was well known for his love of dangerous creatures, and sealed the Chamber.
That summer, Tom went to Little Hangleton to find out more about his blood family. He met Morfin Gaunt in the Gaunt's shack, who told him that Marvolo was dead and my, didn't Tom look an awful lot like that Muggle down the way. Tom Stunned his uncle, stole his wand, and used it to kill his Muggle father and grandparents. Then he modified Morfin's memory to make him believe he'd done it, took the Peverell ring from him, and left. The Ministry of Magic arrested Morfin and never questioned his confession; Morfin was a well know Muggle-hater after all.
Tom spent a little more time researching Horcruxes and whether he could make more than one, but he soon had what he needed. Late in his first term of his sixth year, he used his murders of his father and grandparents to store a piece of his soul in his diary. The diary was his proof that his was the Heir of Slytherin and he had been the one responsible for opening the Chamber of Secrets. He didn't want all his hard work in finding and opening the Chamber to go to waste; with the diary, he could lead some later student to finish what he'd started.
Voldemort (the main piece of soul) kept his nose fairly clean for the rest of his Hogwarts career and went on to work at a shop in Knockturn Alley, the Darker version of Diagon Alley. He used that position to find Slytherin's locket and a goblet that had belonged to Hufflepuff, and he killed Hepzibah Smith to obtain them, perhaps using her murder to create the Peverell ring Horcrux. Then he disappeared for ten years while he built up a following and delved into the Dark Arts and obscure magic (and made his third Horcrux from Ravenclaw’s diadem). He resurfaced once to make a bid for the Defence Against the Dark Arts teaching position at Hogwarts but was turned down by now-Headmaster Dumbledore. Then he went back underground for the next ten years, delving even deeper into the Dark Arts and making the locket and cup Horcruxes.
In the 1970s, Voldemort began his war on the wizarding world with interest. His followers, the Death Eaters, began terrorizing Muggles, starting out slowly at first, but they quickly gained steam and had battles more and more often. People disappeared or were magically forced to commit atrocities, first against Muggles, then against other wizards who were Muggle-born or fond of Muggles. Voldemort sought aid from giants and let them rampage the countryside, especially the countryside where there were Muggles. Voldemort also began recruiting students of legal age or just out of Hogwarts, and he had numerous Death Eaters stationed in the Ministry, ready to wreak havoc. It became very dangerous to be friendly with strangers, and even one's old friends could turn out to be the enemy or controlled by the enemy.
In 1980, one of Voldemort's most trusted Death Eaters, Severus Snape, overheard the first lines of a prophecy foretelling to fall of the Dark Lord. "The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches ... Born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies ... And the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not ... And either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives ... The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies..." The first two lines, foretelling Voldemort's downfall and where and when his conqueror would be born, were all Voldemort ever heard, but it was enough for him to take action. The prophecy could only mean two children, the pure-blood Neville Longbottom and half-blood Harry Potter.
That year, an old friend of the Potters', Peter Pettigrew, joined Voldemort and began working as a spy for him. He was inconspicuous enough that he was never suspected, although they did realize they had a spy in their midst. When Harry and Neville were born and seemed to fulfil the prophecy's requirements, the Potters and Longbottoms went into hiding. The next year, the Potters had Dumbledore cast the Fidelius Charm, keeping anyone but them and a Secret Keeper from knowing their whereabouts. Only the Secret Keeper could divulge the information. Unfortunately, they chose Pettigrew to be their Secret Keeper, and he immediately ran off and told Voldemort where they were. Voldemort attacked on Halloween, not even a week after the charm was cast, intent on killing his prophesized nemesis. James Potter tried to stop him at the door and was killed. Voldemort offered to spare Lily Potter, at Snape's request, but she refused to step out of the way. He killed her and turned his wand on Harry. But when he cast the Killing Curse on Harry, it was repelled by Lily's loving, willing sacrifice and it destroyed Voldemort instead. Part of Voldemort's tattered soul lodged itself in Harry as his sixth Horxcrux, and the rest of his spirit retreated to Albania, where he waited for his followers to come looking for him.
Harry was sent to his mother's sister's home, where the love protection Lily's sacrifice gave him would be enhanced by his aunt sharing their blood, and Voldemort wouldn't be able to hurt him there if he came back. His aunt and her husband, Petunia and Vernon Dursley, absolutely hated magic and took Harry in with the greatest reluctance. He spent the next ten years there, extremely neglected and often bullied, especially by his cousin, but ultimately protected from Voldemort so long as he called it home. He also grew up completely unaware of the wizarding world until Rubeus Hagrid show up on his eleventh birthday to give him his Hogwarts letter and take him shopping for school supplies.
In those ten years, Harry had become something of a legend. He was not only the only person to ever survive the Killing Curse, he'd also destroyed Voldemort, the most feared Dark Lord in over a century, at the same time. As a one-year-old. He'd become known as the Boy-Who-Lived and just about everyone who saw him wanted to shake his hand or get and autograph or at least speak to him.
Harry's first year, of course, did not go smoothly. Voldemort finally found a willing servant who could help him gain a body again, who also happened to be the Defence teacher at Hogwarts that year, Professor Quirrell. Also that year, Dumbledore was keeping the Philosopher's Stone hidden at the school, an artifact rumoured to produce the Elixir of Life, which made the drinker immortal. Voldemort, of course, desired it, primarily to gain his body back, and he directed Quirrell to find a way to steal it. Finally, near the end of the school year, Quirrell made his way through the traps Dumbledore and the staff had set, but Harry and his friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger kept him from stealing the Stone and Harry defeated Voldemort with his mother's latent love once again.
This is where the diary comes back into the story. Voldemort had entrusted his diary to Lucius Malfoy, one of his more trusted Death Eaters. Lucius was told that he should eventually slip the diary to a student at Hogwarts, but that he should await Voldemort's orders to do so. But then Voldemort was defeated. As the years passed with little sign of his Lord, Lucius grew more and more uneasy at having one of Voldemort's personal items in his possession. He had only escaped Azkaban by claiming he hadn't been a willing Death Eater, and his reputation was still somewhat shaky. He finally decided to slip the diary into one of Ginny Weasley's new books for her first year at Hogwarts and let the diary do its magic.
Ginny probably discovered the diary that night and she soon began writing in it. Ginny discovered very quickly that her words did not stay on the page, but instead sank into the diary, but that was alright because then the diary started writing back. Tom Riddle's soul in the diary took the opportunity to make friends with Ginny, to make sure Ginny would keep on writing. Then he started feeding a bit of himself into her through their writing, so that only a week into term, he was able to possess her and force her to open the Chamber of Secrets. He also had her kill the school's roosters, because their cries were fatal to the basilisk.
On Halloween, Tom directed Ginny to write a warning on the wall and call out the basilisk, which attacked its first victim--the caretaker's nosy cat Mrs Norris. Mrs Norris only saw the basilisk's reflection, so she was petrified and not killed, but the message was clear. Harry was the one to find Mrs Norris, and he was immediately suspected of being the Heir of Slytherin. A week later, Tom directed Ginny to call out the basilisk again and this time, a first-year student was the victim, though he only saw the basilisk through his camera lens. Harry was recovering in the hospital wing after a Quidditch match and so wasn't the one to find him, but the students suspected him all the same.
In December, the Defence teacher offered a duelling club to help the students learn to defend themselves better against the mounting threat. Harry and his rival Draco Malfoy were pitted against each other, Draco summoned a snake, and Harry revealed to much of the school that he was a Parselmouth, the trait Slytherin and his descendants were most famous for. The day after, another student and Harry's House’s ghost were attacked. This clinched it for most of the students; Harry was obviously the Heir of Slytherin.
For a while, Ginny had no idea what was going on and still confided in the diary as much as ever. It was probably during this time that she told Tom about Harry's history and his own other self's conquest and then downfall at Harry's hands. She also mentioned the dueling club incident and that Harry was a Parselmouth. However, after the third attack, she started becoming suspicious that maybe she was the one responsible and that maybe the diary was a bad thing to have around after all.
She finally decided to get rid of it a few weeks after Christmas by throwing it into a toilet in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom, Moaning Myrtle being the same girl who was killed during Tom's run of the castle. Harry ended up being the one to find it, and Tom couldn't have been more delighted. When Harry figured out how to work the diary on Valentine's, Tom eagerly showed him his "capture" of Hagrid to gain his trust. It didn't quite work, however, as Harry only wrote in the diary that one time.
However, Ginny had seen him with the diary. She panicked, wondering if Tom would tell him everything, how she was the one who'd been attacking other students and killing Hagrid's roosters. She was still hesitant to have anything to do with the diary anymore, so she didn't go after it immediately, but she finally cracked in early May and ransacked Harry's belongings while he was out practicing Quidditch. Tom was pretty annoyed by this, since he'd wanted to be near Harry, and he forced her to attack two more students the very next day: a Ravenclaw prefect and Hermione Granger. Dumbledore and Hagrid were removed from the school that night, Dumbledore for allowing the attacks to just go on and on, and Hagrid because he had supposedly been the one attacking students the last time.
Three weeks later, Ginny had decided to tell Harry that she was the one attacking students, and of course, Tom couldn’t have that. He had Ginny write a note on the wall and take herself down into the Chamber to wait for death. Harry and Ron figured out what the Chamber's monster was and the location of the entrance and descended into the chamber to save her, though they got separated almost immediately. Harry continued on into the main area of the Chamber where he found Ginny and Tom. Ginny was unconscious and very weak while Tom was almost completely solid again.
Tom stole Harry’s wand almost as soon as Harry came near, since he didn't have one of his own. He took some time to explain the situation and his plans to Harry in typical villain fashion, finally explaining that he was Lord Voldemort and he was very eager to learn how Harry had managed to defeat him twice before. Harry's answer was fairly short, his mother's sacrifice, and Tom was mostly just amused by it. He called out the basilisk and set it on Harry.
But Dumbledore's pet phoenix Fawkes had come to give him the school Sorting Hat and to help him out of danger. Fawkes clawed out the basilisk's eyes, blinding it and eliminating that killing effect. Then it dropped the Sorting Hat on Harry's head and Harry pulled Gryffindor's Sword from it and killed the basilisk. One of the basilisk's fangs ended up lodged in Harry's arm, but Fawkes was able to save him with its healing tears. Tom was then going to just finish Harry off himself, but Fawkes dropped the diary in Harry lap and Harry decided to stab it with the basilisk fang. Basilisk venom is one of only a few things that can destroy a Horcrux, and unfortunately for Tom, there was plenty of it in that fang. The diary was damaged beyond repair and that particular shard of Voldemort's soul ceased to exist.
But Tom will be coming in just before Harry destroys the diary, so he hasn't had to experience that just yet.
PERSONALITY:
Personality-wise, Tom Riddle is the quintessential Slytherin--he's cunning, ridiculously ambitious, and more than willing to do whatever it takes to achieve his ends. Almost since Tom was born, he's been manipulating the people around him to make his life more interesting. He enjoys have power over people, and he does believe that he is essentially better than other people, not the least because of his heritage. When he was young, this manifested in him tormenting the other children in his orphanage. He made sure they knew he was in charge and that they had every right to fear him. He enjoys taking trophies from his victims; as a child these were just harmless trinkets, but they transformed into his Horcruxes, which he only created after significant murders (or would have created, since diary-Tom only remembers making one Horcrux--himself).
At school, he was very skilled at showing his teachers the perfect facade: a wonderfully talented and intelligent young man who grew up alone but didn't let it make the best of him, who was polite and helpful and very charming. He had all but Dumbledore, and later Slughorn, wrapped around his finger, which suited him just fine. Tom is actually rather charismatic naturally, and he's very aware of times when he might need to turn on the charm to get what he wants. With his classmates, he had a small group who followed him and he was more himself with them, though still not completely. With them he was much more the leader he wished to be. With other students, he was the polite and talented boy the teachers saw, but with more of an edge so everyone would know not to mess with him.
Tom is also very much used to working alone and he has no desire to make friends. While some of his followers might claim they he were close and maybe even in his confidence, to Tom they're all pawn in a game and some are just more useful than others. He has followers out of his desire to be in charge rather than for companionship. This independence even extends to how he made himself immortal--he chose to make Horcruxes because he would be the least reliant on them. They simply existed and were essentially him and could protect themselves if necessary. Some other methods of immortality, such as drinking the Elixir of Life, would require him to be dependent on them. He would have to drink it regularly, and if the Philosopher's Stone was ever lost or stolen, or the Elixir contaminated, he'd be as mortal as ever, which was unacceptable.
His need for control and belief in his own uniqueness manifested in his fear of death as well. For him, magic should be able to accomplish anything, especially his magic, and death was certainly one thing that was out of most people's control. Not to mention, death seemed to be the end. He would simply cease to be. And he was too important to just end one day. And he was right--there was a way to defeat death--but then he had to do it “better” than anyone else.
He's also very, very fond of learning and testing the limits of what magic can do. He subscribes to the philosophy that "Knowledge is power," so the more knowledge he has, the more powerful he can become. He does not, however, see the value in certain types of magic, and others he deems as less important. He's never really understood or felt he's needed love, so any sort of love-based magic is outside his understanding. He prefers taking the offensive, making an invasive magic like Legilimency perfect for him, but he's practiced much less at the defence-based Occlumency.
He also has a deep need to be seen as anything but common or normal. His name in particular bothers him, because there are a lot of Toms and it is a distinctly Muggle-sounding name. He was quick to believe Dumbledore about being a wizard because he was more than ready to believe he was special. His Slytherin heritage and Parseltongue ability are immensely important to him for the same reason--they elevate him above even most wizards. While at sixteen, he might still be using the name Tom Riddle most of the time as part of his cover, he's already making plans to shed it entirely in favour of Lord Voldemort. Using an unassuming name like Tom Riddle ensures some level of trust from other people, making them easier to manipulate, so it's still somewhat useful to him at the moment, even if he does hate it.
Most of this explains his extreme detestation of Muggles as well, even though he's a half-blood himself. In Tom's eyes, Muggles are weak and deserve to be ruled over, not hidden from. Muggles were also why he had to grow up alone in the orphanage, since it was his Muggle father who abandoned his mother while she was pregnant. He also bought into most of the pure-blood prejudices about Muggle and Muggle-borns after being in Slytherin--that Muggle-borns were really no better than Muggles and in fact, they might be worse because they had the audacity to have power they shouldn't have, and they were slowly destroying the culture of the wizarding world and diluting their blood, making successive generations weaker. Tom quickly learned to hide his own half-blood status and he was somewhat hateful of it, of being related to the weak Muggles. (In the City these beliefs will likely morph into an imPorts vs. natives dichotomy, with the imports = the ones with power who should rule, and the natives = the weak who should be ruled over)
Tom's primary philosophy, even at age sixteen, was something his older self taught to Quirrell in book one: "There is no good and evil, there is only power, and those too weak to seek it..."
POWER:
Magic. In particular, Tom has an affinity for the Dark Arts. The Dark Arts are primarily used to harm another person in some way, although some darker branches, such as Horcruxes, cause harm to yourself or harm to the natural order of things. This harm isn't always physical--the Imperious Curse, one of the three Unforgivable Curses, incapacitates another person's will and thus is entirely mental. With the Dark Arts, intention (to dominate, to step on someone else’s free will, to harm) is the most important, and Tom certainly has enough intention to cause serious harm to others.
Tom is also skilled at Legilimency, which is the art of correctly interpreting another's mind, or magical mind reading. Eye contact is generally necessary for Legilimency, as is being nearby and having the desire to invade another person's thoughts, and though there is a spell to push one's mind into another person's, it can be performed non-verbally by a skilled Legilimens. Tom's particular skill at it means he can usually tell when a person is lying. Sixteen-year-old diary-Tom is not, however, the master Legilimens that his "future self" is and he has not been studying it long, so he'll almost always need to speak the spell out loud and he might be thwarted by someone good at blocking out psychic attacks. The counter to Legilimency is Occlumency, the art of magically defending the mind from such intrusions, and Tom is not particularly skilled at this nor does he consider it particularly important to learn just yet.
Parseltongue, or the ability to speak to and understand snakes, is Tom's most treasured ability. It's a very unusual skill that marks him as special even in the magical world, and it's also his proof that he's descended from the most famous Parselmouth to ever live in Britain, Salazar Slytherin. To anyone but another Parselmouth, Parseltongue just sounds like a lot of hissing, though to a Parselmouth, it sounds like their native language, if a little breathier.
Tom will definitely have a permissions post for his Legilimency.
[CHARACTER SAMPLES]
COMMUNITY POST (FIRST PERSON) SAMPLE:
[Voice]
Hello? Do have this working right? I must admit, this is very different from anything I had in my time...
[there's a pause as he contemplates whether it's really worth it to be talking to a small box, but then, he used to be a book so why not.]
My name is Tom. I arrived in this world just a few hours ago and I'm afraid I've only run into a couple people who have been very helpful. Is it true I've been brought here to be a hero? [and he just sounds so amused by this] I suppose I do have some experience with that.
[another thoughtful pause] I would appreciate any information about all this that anyone might wish to give me. I'll have to know as much as possible to be an effective hero, won't I? Directions to the nearest library and a good place to eat are also very welcome.
[last pause] These contraptions are marvellous, aren't they? Almost like...magic.
LOGS POST (THIRD PERSON) SAMPLE:
Harry had the diary. Harry had the diary. That stupid, meddling bird had given him the diary--
And then, very suddenly, Harry was nowhere to be seen. The Chamber had disappeared. His heart was beating and he had to breathe again and the floor felt even more solid beneath his feet.
His hand tightened around the wand in his hand and he looked frantically around the room he now found himself in, taking in as much as he could as quickly as possible. It was, quite possibly, the strangest room he'd even seen--sleek metal and little lights everywhere--as well as the most Muggle. The little lights were obviously not fairies, and wizards tended to favour wood and stone over plaster and metal, not too mention they had a much more whimsical style than this. He might almost think it was the inside of an alien spaceship if he believed in that sort of thing.
He was still feeling slightly panicked from his last moments with Harry--what was he going to do with the diary--but it was quickly making way for burning fury. Was this some trick of Dumbledore's? The old fool shouldn't have been in the castle, but Harry had seemed so sure...and if anyone had the power to forcibly remove him from Hogwarts and dump him in the Muggle world, it was Dumbledore.
Although...
Tom closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Merlin, it felt good to breathe again, to really breathe and know that he was alive. He'd been so close in the Chamber, so very close, and now, suddenly, he really had it and it was from nothing he had done. He couldn't imagine that Dumbledore would have done this. Dumbledore would have destroyed him as soon as he had the chance--he had no doubt Dumbledore would have known what he was; the man was passionately against Horcruxes, after all. No, this couldn't have been Dumbledore's doing, and Harry wasn't powerful or friendly enough, and his future self was off being useless somewhere. Defeated by a toddler and his mother's love--pathetic.
"Welcome to the City, Hero."
Tom looked around again, but it seemed that the very large, very odd television nearby was indeed the thing that had spoken. He squared his stolen wand at it and cautiously made his way over, wondering if maybe there was someone else here after all. It certainly couldn't be talking to him, not if it knew the first thing about him. And if it didn't, well, it was going to have a nasty surprise soon.
"Speak your name and alias into the microphone."
He narrowed his eyes at the television. Or perhaps it was a ridiculously advanced computer? It certainly wasn't magic, however much it seemed like it could be. He hadn't realized the Muggles had anything like this and he wondered, not for the first time, how much had changed in the fifty years since he'd sealed this part of his soul in the diary.
He also wondered whether he should cooperate or not. On one hand, if he showed he was willing to go along with the Muggle creation, it might be willing to grant him something in return. Information, perhaps. Tom wasn't sure at the moment if he wanted to demand he be sent back, since he'd been only seconds away from his doom in the Chamber. But information was always useful.
On the other hand, he had no idea what or who might be controlling this thing. He had no idea where he was or whether there might be other wizards around when he left this place. He didn't particularly want his name and his chosen name to be linked so easily. He had been particularly careful about that at school, and he'd only told Harry because he'd been planning to kill him shortly afterward. And if there were wizards around, well, they would probably be aware of his future self and be immediately wary of anyone sharing his name.
The machine repeated its--her--request, this time sounding almost annoyed, maybe impatient. Tom eyed it for another long moment, looked around again, decided that if he tried casting a privacy ward, it would probably either not work or disrupt the technology here, and finally said quietly, "Tom Riddle, alias: Lord Voldemort."
"Thank you. Please take your tags and communicator, and make sure pick up a brochure on the way out."
"What tags--" he started, but then there was a clatter and a pair of dog tags and a small slim box dropped into a slot in the wall. Tom dutifully reached out and took them, scowling a little when he saw both names engraved on the small pieces of metal. He slipped the tags into his pocket and started examining the "communicator." This was something that seemed much more like a magical object, though he had no doubt it was not. A Muggle machine would not be giving out magical items.
"What are these for?" he demanded, but the voice had already faded away. Tom hissed in frustration, not the least because he doubted he could do anything to hurt a machine. He hated unhelpful people.
Well, he supposed the point of the communicator was to communicate with other people--that was obvious. And this whole event had been automated enough that there must be others out there in a similar situation, and if there weren't, there soon would be. He had little idea of how to use it, however; he would have to find someone to enlighten him.
The dog tags made him more uneasy. He'd seen a few of the older boys at the orphanage with ones similar to these because they'd been called for the war. If he hadn't been a wizard, he probably would have gotten a pair of his own eventually. But he had no intention of fighting in a war he knew nothing about, particularly a Muggle war. So he would just have to ask someone about those as well, and then ignore them if that was what they were for.
Standing around glaring at a stupid Muggle machine wouldn't answer either of those questions. He took a brief moment to suppress the stab of panic he felt at having so little control of his situation right now--Lord Voldemort did not panic, and besides, he was alive again, so this was actually a good thing--and walked toward the door. There had to be a way out of this place, and if there wasn't, he would make a way.
FINAL NOTES ABOUT YOUR CHARACTER:
Tom is coming from a point in time where he's in possession of Harry Potter's holly-and-phoenix feather wand. Since his wand and Harry's wand are brothers (their cores come from the same phoenix, although he doesn't know that) he'll be able to use it fairly well. I was hoping it would be okay if he arrived with it, since he doesn't have a wand of his own and he wouldn't be able to get one in the City and it'll be almost impossible for him to use his magic without one.
NAME: Calai'di
AGE: 21
JOURNAL:
calaidiIM: AIM: calaidi
E-MAIL: calaidi@gmail.com
RETURNING: 1: Kyosuke Kiryu
[CHARACTER INFO]
CHARACTER NAME: Tom Marvolo Riddle, the "memory" from the diary aka a Horcrux of Lord Voldemort
FANDOM: Harry Potter (books)
CHRONOLOGY: near the end of Chamber of Secrets, just before Harry stabs the diary and destroys it
CLASS: Villain
SUPERHERO NAME: Lord Voldemort
ALTER EGO: Tom Riddle, the best 16-year-old salesman you've ever seen
BACKGROUND:
The main plot of the Harry Potter series takes place in a world very similar to ours, except that there's a whole secret society of magical people, creatures, places, and customs both hidden from and working alongside the more mundane world we're familiar with. These wizards and witches have hidden themselves and their world for about four centuries, and partially hid themselves for sometime before that, prompted in part by medieval witch burnings and escalating fear from the non-magical (Muggle) population. Wizards around the world formed their own governments, economies, schools, and other areas completely hidden from Muggles. In Britain, where the story takes place, this means places like the Ministry of Magic, Diagon Alley, and Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
Hogwarts was founded a thousand or so years ago by four very powerful wizards: Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw, and Salazar Slytherin. Each formed a House where they took students with certain qualities: Gryffindor--the brave; Hufflepuff--hard-workers; Ravenclaw--clever, studious sorts; and Slytherin--the ambitious and cunning. Gryffindor also enchanted a hat that would sort students accordingly in the centuries to come. For a while, the four Founders got along and life was good, but it wasn't long before a certain clash of opinion arose between Slytherin and the other three. Slytherin felt that they should only teach children who were "pure-blood," meaning their families had always and only been wizards, whereas the other three felt anyone magical should be taught, pure-bloods as well as half-bloods (one magical parent and one Muggle/Muggle-born parent) and Muggle-borns (both parents are Muggles).
Slytherin finally built a hidden chamber in the school, the Chamber of Secrets, stuck a basilisk inside, and left. Slytherin was a Parselmouth, meaning he could speak to snakes, so he rigged the Chamber to only open to a Parselmouth and the basilisk would only answer to one of his descendants. He intended one of his descendants to eventually come to the school, release the basilisk, and use it to kill off or scare away any Muggle-borns in the school. The other Founders and numerous witches and wizards searched for the Chamber through the centuries, but it was never found and eventually the story was thought to be a myth.
It's unknown how exactly Slytherin's bloodline flourished through the next thousand years, except that along the way it mingle with the Peverell line and eventually became the Gaunt line. In the early 1900s, Slytherin's blood had dwindled to just one rather poverty-stricken family: Marvolo Gaunt and his son Morfin and daughter Merope. Marvolo was a very proud and arrogant man and had a deep hatred for Muggles and anyone who might like them or be related to them, something he passed down to his son as well. Neither of them cared much for Merope and they valued their two remaining family heirlooms, a ring with a stone carved with the Peverell crest and a locket once owned by Slytherin himself, considerably more than her.
The Gaunts lived near the village of Little Hangleton, which was also where the fairly well-off but Muggle Riddle family lived. Merope ended up falling in love with the Riddle's son Tom. Morfin figured this out and hexed him, prompting a visit from the Head of the Magical Law Enforcement Squad. During this visit, Marvolo also found out about Merope's infatuation, both he and Morfin attacked her, and the Head had them both arrested and sent to the wizard prison Azkaban.
Now free to do as she wished, Merope used magical means, probably a love potion, to get Tom Riddle Sr. to fall in love with her and they eloped. Not too long after that, Merope became pregnant and also rather guilty for continuing to use the love potion. She probably convinced herself that Riddle would have really fallen in love with her by then, or else he would stay for the baby, but neither was the case. As soon as Merope took away the love potion, Riddle left and never saw her again. Sometime after this, Merope made her way to London and, desperate for money, sold the Slytherin locket, which eventually made its way to the collection of one Hepzibah Smith, last descendant of Helga Hufflepuff.
On December 31, 1926, Merope found herself on the steps of a Muggle orphanage in London. Within the hour, she gave birth to Tom Marvolo Riddle, named for his father and grandfather, and within another hour she was dead, leaving Tom to grow up in the orphanage.
Tom discovered very early that he was different than the other children. Most wizard children have little control over their magic, and their magic usually only manifests on accident or in life-threatening situations. By the time Tom was eleven, he was using his magic consciously and had some amount of control over it. He used his magic to bully the other children and make them fear him: on one occasion, he hung a boy's pet rabbit from the rafters; on another, he led a couple children into a cave on one of their outings, and the two were never the same afterward. He was more than ready to accept the idea that he was a wizard and that there was a whole world of magic when Professor Albus Dumbledore of Hogwarts arrive to inform him of the school.
Tom started his first year of school in 1938 and was immediately sorted into Slytherin. Most of the staff took a liking to him at once; Tom was careful to be polite and respectful in front of the teachers, and he was a very talented young wizard with a great thirst for knowledge. He very quickly rose to the top of his class and went on to become a prefect in his fifth year and Head Boy in his seventh. Among the students, he was somewhat feared, and he was soon the leader of a group who were behind some of the more nasty incidents of those school years, though they were never caught at it.
Sometime in his first year, Tom learned of the legend of the Chamber of Secrets and decided to find it. He was also obsessed with his heritage, convinced that his father must have been the wizard because a witch wouldn't have died so easily. However, he was eventually forced to accept that his mother had been the magical one and he began researching that side of his family instead. He discovered Marvolo's name in the old school records, discovered that he was indeed the descendant of Slytherin that he'd suspected, and discovered that his uncle, Morfin, was still alive. At this time, Tom began seriously using his nickname, Lord Voldemort, derived from an anagram of his real name, in order to distance himself from his Muggle father.
Also during this time, Tom began researching ways to make himself immortal, no doubt spurred on by the death of his mother. He felt that a wizard should be able to overcome something as simple as death. He finally decided on using Horcruxes. A Horcrux is a piece of a person's soul stored in an object for safekeeping, the piece being torn from the rest by committing a murder. If that person is killed, that piece of soul keeps the rest of the soul anchored to the earth. That wizard would not truly be dead, as he still has a soul, and he would be able to regain a body in some way or another and go on living. This appealed to Tom the most, as he would be almost completely unreliant on anything to keep himself immortal, and he trusted his skill to keep his Horcruxes safe from harm. He also decided that he should have more than one Horcrux, to better ensure his safety; as seven is the most magically powerful number, he decided to spilt his soul into seven pieces--six Horcruxes and himself.
During his fifth year, Tom finally found the Chamber of Secrets and he did indeed open it and unleash the basilisk on the school. Almost all of the attacks resulted in the victim being petrified--none of them looked the basilisk directly in the eyes but only saw it though something or in a reflection. However, near the end of his fifth year, the basilisk did finally kill a girl, who had been unfortunate enough to be near the entrance of the Chamber right when Tom opened it. The school board called for the school to be closed if the attacks didn't stop. Tom had no desire to go back to the orphanage where he was raised, so he reluctantly pinned the blame on half-giant Rubeus Hagrid, who was well known for his love of dangerous creatures, and sealed the Chamber.
That summer, Tom went to Little Hangleton to find out more about his blood family. He met Morfin Gaunt in the Gaunt's shack, who told him that Marvolo was dead and my, didn't Tom look an awful lot like that Muggle down the way. Tom Stunned his uncle, stole his wand, and used it to kill his Muggle father and grandparents. Then he modified Morfin's memory to make him believe he'd done it, took the Peverell ring from him, and left. The Ministry of Magic arrested Morfin and never questioned his confession; Morfin was a well know Muggle-hater after all.
Tom spent a little more time researching Horcruxes and whether he could make more than one, but he soon had what he needed. Late in his first term of his sixth year, he used his murders of his father and grandparents to store a piece of his soul in his diary. The diary was his proof that his was the Heir of Slytherin and he had been the one responsible for opening the Chamber of Secrets. He didn't want all his hard work in finding and opening the Chamber to go to waste; with the diary, he could lead some later student to finish what he'd started.
Voldemort (the main piece of soul) kept his nose fairly clean for the rest of his Hogwarts career and went on to work at a shop in Knockturn Alley, the Darker version of Diagon Alley. He used that position to find Slytherin's locket and a goblet that had belonged to Hufflepuff, and he killed Hepzibah Smith to obtain them, perhaps using her murder to create the Peverell ring Horcrux. Then he disappeared for ten years while he built up a following and delved into the Dark Arts and obscure magic (and made his third Horcrux from Ravenclaw’s diadem). He resurfaced once to make a bid for the Defence Against the Dark Arts teaching position at Hogwarts but was turned down by now-Headmaster Dumbledore. Then he went back underground for the next ten years, delving even deeper into the Dark Arts and making the locket and cup Horcruxes.
In the 1970s, Voldemort began his war on the wizarding world with interest. His followers, the Death Eaters, began terrorizing Muggles, starting out slowly at first, but they quickly gained steam and had battles more and more often. People disappeared or were magically forced to commit atrocities, first against Muggles, then against other wizards who were Muggle-born or fond of Muggles. Voldemort sought aid from giants and let them rampage the countryside, especially the countryside where there were Muggles. Voldemort also began recruiting students of legal age or just out of Hogwarts, and he had numerous Death Eaters stationed in the Ministry, ready to wreak havoc. It became very dangerous to be friendly with strangers, and even one's old friends could turn out to be the enemy or controlled by the enemy.
In 1980, one of Voldemort's most trusted Death Eaters, Severus Snape, overheard the first lines of a prophecy foretelling to fall of the Dark Lord. "The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches ... Born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies ... And the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not ... And either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives ... The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies..." The first two lines, foretelling Voldemort's downfall and where and when his conqueror would be born, were all Voldemort ever heard, but it was enough for him to take action. The prophecy could only mean two children, the pure-blood Neville Longbottom and half-blood Harry Potter.
That year, an old friend of the Potters', Peter Pettigrew, joined Voldemort and began working as a spy for him. He was inconspicuous enough that he was never suspected, although they did realize they had a spy in their midst. When Harry and Neville were born and seemed to fulfil the prophecy's requirements, the Potters and Longbottoms went into hiding. The next year, the Potters had Dumbledore cast the Fidelius Charm, keeping anyone but them and a Secret Keeper from knowing their whereabouts. Only the Secret Keeper could divulge the information. Unfortunately, they chose Pettigrew to be their Secret Keeper, and he immediately ran off and told Voldemort where they were. Voldemort attacked on Halloween, not even a week after the charm was cast, intent on killing his prophesized nemesis. James Potter tried to stop him at the door and was killed. Voldemort offered to spare Lily Potter, at Snape's request, but she refused to step out of the way. He killed her and turned his wand on Harry. But when he cast the Killing Curse on Harry, it was repelled by Lily's loving, willing sacrifice and it destroyed Voldemort instead. Part of Voldemort's tattered soul lodged itself in Harry as his sixth Horxcrux, and the rest of his spirit retreated to Albania, where he waited for his followers to come looking for him.
Harry was sent to his mother's sister's home, where the love protection Lily's sacrifice gave him would be enhanced by his aunt sharing their blood, and Voldemort wouldn't be able to hurt him there if he came back. His aunt and her husband, Petunia and Vernon Dursley, absolutely hated magic and took Harry in with the greatest reluctance. He spent the next ten years there, extremely neglected and often bullied, especially by his cousin, but ultimately protected from Voldemort so long as he called it home. He also grew up completely unaware of the wizarding world until Rubeus Hagrid show up on his eleventh birthday to give him his Hogwarts letter and take him shopping for school supplies.
In those ten years, Harry had become something of a legend. He was not only the only person to ever survive the Killing Curse, he'd also destroyed Voldemort, the most feared Dark Lord in over a century, at the same time. As a one-year-old. He'd become known as the Boy-Who-Lived and just about everyone who saw him wanted to shake his hand or get and autograph or at least speak to him.
Harry's first year, of course, did not go smoothly. Voldemort finally found a willing servant who could help him gain a body again, who also happened to be the Defence teacher at Hogwarts that year, Professor Quirrell. Also that year, Dumbledore was keeping the Philosopher's Stone hidden at the school, an artifact rumoured to produce the Elixir of Life, which made the drinker immortal. Voldemort, of course, desired it, primarily to gain his body back, and he directed Quirrell to find a way to steal it. Finally, near the end of the school year, Quirrell made his way through the traps Dumbledore and the staff had set, but Harry and his friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger kept him from stealing the Stone and Harry defeated Voldemort with his mother's latent love once again.
This is where the diary comes back into the story. Voldemort had entrusted his diary to Lucius Malfoy, one of his more trusted Death Eaters. Lucius was told that he should eventually slip the diary to a student at Hogwarts, but that he should await Voldemort's orders to do so. But then Voldemort was defeated. As the years passed with little sign of his Lord, Lucius grew more and more uneasy at having one of Voldemort's personal items in his possession. He had only escaped Azkaban by claiming he hadn't been a willing Death Eater, and his reputation was still somewhat shaky. He finally decided to slip the diary into one of Ginny Weasley's new books for her first year at Hogwarts and let the diary do its magic.
Ginny probably discovered the diary that night and she soon began writing in it. Ginny discovered very quickly that her words did not stay on the page, but instead sank into the diary, but that was alright because then the diary started writing back. Tom Riddle's soul in the diary took the opportunity to make friends with Ginny, to make sure Ginny would keep on writing. Then he started feeding a bit of himself into her through their writing, so that only a week into term, he was able to possess her and force her to open the Chamber of Secrets. He also had her kill the school's roosters, because their cries were fatal to the basilisk.
On Halloween, Tom directed Ginny to write a warning on the wall and call out the basilisk, which attacked its first victim--the caretaker's nosy cat Mrs Norris. Mrs Norris only saw the basilisk's reflection, so she was petrified and not killed, but the message was clear. Harry was the one to find Mrs Norris, and he was immediately suspected of being the Heir of Slytherin. A week later, Tom directed Ginny to call out the basilisk again and this time, a first-year student was the victim, though he only saw the basilisk through his camera lens. Harry was recovering in the hospital wing after a Quidditch match and so wasn't the one to find him, but the students suspected him all the same.
In December, the Defence teacher offered a duelling club to help the students learn to defend themselves better against the mounting threat. Harry and his rival Draco Malfoy were pitted against each other, Draco summoned a snake, and Harry revealed to much of the school that he was a Parselmouth, the trait Slytherin and his descendants were most famous for. The day after, another student and Harry's House’s ghost were attacked. This clinched it for most of the students; Harry was obviously the Heir of Slytherin.
For a while, Ginny had no idea what was going on and still confided in the diary as much as ever. It was probably during this time that she told Tom about Harry's history and his own other self's conquest and then downfall at Harry's hands. She also mentioned the dueling club incident and that Harry was a Parselmouth. However, after the third attack, she started becoming suspicious that maybe she was the one responsible and that maybe the diary was a bad thing to have around after all.
She finally decided to get rid of it a few weeks after Christmas by throwing it into a toilet in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom, Moaning Myrtle being the same girl who was killed during Tom's run of the castle. Harry ended up being the one to find it, and Tom couldn't have been more delighted. When Harry figured out how to work the diary on Valentine's, Tom eagerly showed him his "capture" of Hagrid to gain his trust. It didn't quite work, however, as Harry only wrote in the diary that one time.
However, Ginny had seen him with the diary. She panicked, wondering if Tom would tell him everything, how she was the one who'd been attacking other students and killing Hagrid's roosters. She was still hesitant to have anything to do with the diary anymore, so she didn't go after it immediately, but she finally cracked in early May and ransacked Harry's belongings while he was out practicing Quidditch. Tom was pretty annoyed by this, since he'd wanted to be near Harry, and he forced her to attack two more students the very next day: a Ravenclaw prefect and Hermione Granger. Dumbledore and Hagrid were removed from the school that night, Dumbledore for allowing the attacks to just go on and on, and Hagrid because he had supposedly been the one attacking students the last time.
Three weeks later, Ginny had decided to tell Harry that she was the one attacking students, and of course, Tom couldn’t have that. He had Ginny write a note on the wall and take herself down into the Chamber to wait for death. Harry and Ron figured out what the Chamber's monster was and the location of the entrance and descended into the chamber to save her, though they got separated almost immediately. Harry continued on into the main area of the Chamber where he found Ginny and Tom. Ginny was unconscious and very weak while Tom was almost completely solid again.
Tom stole Harry’s wand almost as soon as Harry came near, since he didn't have one of his own. He took some time to explain the situation and his plans to Harry in typical villain fashion, finally explaining that he was Lord Voldemort and he was very eager to learn how Harry had managed to defeat him twice before. Harry's answer was fairly short, his mother's sacrifice, and Tom was mostly just amused by it. He called out the basilisk and set it on Harry.
But Dumbledore's pet phoenix Fawkes had come to give him the school Sorting Hat and to help him out of danger. Fawkes clawed out the basilisk's eyes, blinding it and eliminating that killing effect. Then it dropped the Sorting Hat on Harry's head and Harry pulled Gryffindor's Sword from it and killed the basilisk. One of the basilisk's fangs ended up lodged in Harry's arm, but Fawkes was able to save him with its healing tears. Tom was then going to just finish Harry off himself, but Fawkes dropped the diary in Harry lap and Harry decided to stab it with the basilisk fang. Basilisk venom is one of only a few things that can destroy a Horcrux, and unfortunately for Tom, there was plenty of it in that fang. The diary was damaged beyond repair and that particular shard of Voldemort's soul ceased to exist.
But Tom will be coming in just before Harry destroys the diary, so he hasn't had to experience that just yet.
PERSONALITY:
Personality-wise, Tom Riddle is the quintessential Slytherin--he's cunning, ridiculously ambitious, and more than willing to do whatever it takes to achieve his ends. Almost since Tom was born, he's been manipulating the people around him to make his life more interesting. He enjoys have power over people, and he does believe that he is essentially better than other people, not the least because of his heritage. When he was young, this manifested in him tormenting the other children in his orphanage. He made sure they knew he was in charge and that they had every right to fear him. He enjoys taking trophies from his victims; as a child these were just harmless trinkets, but they transformed into his Horcruxes, which he only created after significant murders (or would have created, since diary-Tom only remembers making one Horcrux--himself).
At school, he was very skilled at showing his teachers the perfect facade: a wonderfully talented and intelligent young man who grew up alone but didn't let it make the best of him, who was polite and helpful and very charming. He had all but Dumbledore, and later Slughorn, wrapped around his finger, which suited him just fine. Tom is actually rather charismatic naturally, and he's very aware of times when he might need to turn on the charm to get what he wants. With his classmates, he had a small group who followed him and he was more himself with them, though still not completely. With them he was much more the leader he wished to be. With other students, he was the polite and talented boy the teachers saw, but with more of an edge so everyone would know not to mess with him.
Tom is also very much used to working alone and he has no desire to make friends. While some of his followers might claim they he were close and maybe even in his confidence, to Tom they're all pawn in a game and some are just more useful than others. He has followers out of his desire to be in charge rather than for companionship. This independence even extends to how he made himself immortal--he chose to make Horcruxes because he would be the least reliant on them. They simply existed and were essentially him and could protect themselves if necessary. Some other methods of immortality, such as drinking the Elixir of Life, would require him to be dependent on them. He would have to drink it regularly, and if the Philosopher's Stone was ever lost or stolen, or the Elixir contaminated, he'd be as mortal as ever, which was unacceptable.
His need for control and belief in his own uniqueness manifested in his fear of death as well. For him, magic should be able to accomplish anything, especially his magic, and death was certainly one thing that was out of most people's control. Not to mention, death seemed to be the end. He would simply cease to be. And he was too important to just end one day. And he was right--there was a way to defeat death--but then he had to do it “better” than anyone else.
He's also very, very fond of learning and testing the limits of what magic can do. He subscribes to the philosophy that "Knowledge is power," so the more knowledge he has, the more powerful he can become. He does not, however, see the value in certain types of magic, and others he deems as less important. He's never really understood or felt he's needed love, so any sort of love-based magic is outside his understanding. He prefers taking the offensive, making an invasive magic like Legilimency perfect for him, but he's practiced much less at the defence-based Occlumency.
He also has a deep need to be seen as anything but common or normal. His name in particular bothers him, because there are a lot of Toms and it is a distinctly Muggle-sounding name. He was quick to believe Dumbledore about being a wizard because he was more than ready to believe he was special. His Slytherin heritage and Parseltongue ability are immensely important to him for the same reason--they elevate him above even most wizards. While at sixteen, he might still be using the name Tom Riddle most of the time as part of his cover, he's already making plans to shed it entirely in favour of Lord Voldemort. Using an unassuming name like Tom Riddle ensures some level of trust from other people, making them easier to manipulate, so it's still somewhat useful to him at the moment, even if he does hate it.
Most of this explains his extreme detestation of Muggles as well, even though he's a half-blood himself. In Tom's eyes, Muggles are weak and deserve to be ruled over, not hidden from. Muggles were also why he had to grow up alone in the orphanage, since it was his Muggle father who abandoned his mother while she was pregnant. He also bought into most of the pure-blood prejudices about Muggle and Muggle-borns after being in Slytherin--that Muggle-borns were really no better than Muggles and in fact, they might be worse because they had the audacity to have power they shouldn't have, and they were slowly destroying the culture of the wizarding world and diluting their blood, making successive generations weaker. Tom quickly learned to hide his own half-blood status and he was somewhat hateful of it, of being related to the weak Muggles. (In the City these beliefs will likely morph into an imPorts vs. natives dichotomy, with the imports = the ones with power who should rule, and the natives = the weak who should be ruled over)
Tom's primary philosophy, even at age sixteen, was something his older self taught to Quirrell in book one: "There is no good and evil, there is only power, and those too weak to seek it..."
POWER:
Magic. In particular, Tom has an affinity for the Dark Arts. The Dark Arts are primarily used to harm another person in some way, although some darker branches, such as Horcruxes, cause harm to yourself or harm to the natural order of things. This harm isn't always physical--the Imperious Curse, one of the three Unforgivable Curses, incapacitates another person's will and thus is entirely mental. With the Dark Arts, intention (to dominate, to step on someone else’s free will, to harm) is the most important, and Tom certainly has enough intention to cause serious harm to others.
Tom is also skilled at Legilimency, which is the art of correctly interpreting another's mind, or magical mind reading. Eye contact is generally necessary for Legilimency, as is being nearby and having the desire to invade another person's thoughts, and though there is a spell to push one's mind into another person's, it can be performed non-verbally by a skilled Legilimens. Tom's particular skill at it means he can usually tell when a person is lying. Sixteen-year-old diary-Tom is not, however, the master Legilimens that his "future self" is and he has not been studying it long, so he'll almost always need to speak the spell out loud and he might be thwarted by someone good at blocking out psychic attacks. The counter to Legilimency is Occlumency, the art of magically defending the mind from such intrusions, and Tom is not particularly skilled at this nor does he consider it particularly important to learn just yet.
Parseltongue, or the ability to speak to and understand snakes, is Tom's most treasured ability. It's a very unusual skill that marks him as special even in the magical world, and it's also his proof that he's descended from the most famous Parselmouth to ever live in Britain, Salazar Slytherin. To anyone but another Parselmouth, Parseltongue just sounds like a lot of hissing, though to a Parselmouth, it sounds like their native language, if a little breathier.
Tom will definitely have a permissions post for his Legilimency.
[CHARACTER SAMPLES]
COMMUNITY POST (FIRST PERSON) SAMPLE:
[Voice]
Hello? Do have this working right? I must admit, this is very different from anything I had in my time...
[there's a pause as he contemplates whether it's really worth it to be talking to a small box, but then, he used to be a book so why not.]
My name is Tom. I arrived in this world just a few hours ago and I'm afraid I've only run into a couple people who have been very helpful. Is it true I've been brought here to be a hero? [and he just sounds so amused by this] I suppose I do have some experience with that.
[another thoughtful pause] I would appreciate any information about all this that anyone might wish to give me. I'll have to know as much as possible to be an effective hero, won't I? Directions to the nearest library and a good place to eat are also very welcome.
[last pause] These contraptions are marvellous, aren't they? Almost like...magic.
LOGS POST (THIRD PERSON) SAMPLE:
Harry had the diary. Harry had the diary. That stupid, meddling bird had given him the diary--
And then, very suddenly, Harry was nowhere to be seen. The Chamber had disappeared. His heart was beating and he had to breathe again and the floor felt even more solid beneath his feet.
His hand tightened around the wand in his hand and he looked frantically around the room he now found himself in, taking in as much as he could as quickly as possible. It was, quite possibly, the strangest room he'd even seen--sleek metal and little lights everywhere--as well as the most Muggle. The little lights were obviously not fairies, and wizards tended to favour wood and stone over plaster and metal, not too mention they had a much more whimsical style than this. He might almost think it was the inside of an alien spaceship if he believed in that sort of thing.
He was still feeling slightly panicked from his last moments with Harry--what was he going to do with the diary--but it was quickly making way for burning fury. Was this some trick of Dumbledore's? The old fool shouldn't have been in the castle, but Harry had seemed so sure...and if anyone had the power to forcibly remove him from Hogwarts and dump him in the Muggle world, it was Dumbledore.
Although...
Tom closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Merlin, it felt good to breathe again, to really breathe and know that he was alive. He'd been so close in the Chamber, so very close, and now, suddenly, he really had it and it was from nothing he had done. He couldn't imagine that Dumbledore would have done this. Dumbledore would have destroyed him as soon as he had the chance--he had no doubt Dumbledore would have known what he was; the man was passionately against Horcruxes, after all. No, this couldn't have been Dumbledore's doing, and Harry wasn't powerful or friendly enough, and his future self was off being useless somewhere. Defeated by a toddler and his mother's love--pathetic.
"Welcome to the City, Hero."
Tom looked around again, but it seemed that the very large, very odd television nearby was indeed the thing that had spoken. He squared his stolen wand at it and cautiously made his way over, wondering if maybe there was someone else here after all. It certainly couldn't be talking to him, not if it knew the first thing about him. And if it didn't, well, it was going to have a nasty surprise soon.
"Speak your name and alias into the microphone."
He narrowed his eyes at the television. Or perhaps it was a ridiculously advanced computer? It certainly wasn't magic, however much it seemed like it could be. He hadn't realized the Muggles had anything like this and he wondered, not for the first time, how much had changed in the fifty years since he'd sealed this part of his soul in the diary.
He also wondered whether he should cooperate or not. On one hand, if he showed he was willing to go along with the Muggle creation, it might be willing to grant him something in return. Information, perhaps. Tom wasn't sure at the moment if he wanted to demand he be sent back, since he'd been only seconds away from his doom in the Chamber. But information was always useful.
On the other hand, he had no idea what or who might be controlling this thing. He had no idea where he was or whether there might be other wizards around when he left this place. He didn't particularly want his name and his chosen name to be linked so easily. He had been particularly careful about that at school, and he'd only told Harry because he'd been planning to kill him shortly afterward. And if there were wizards around, well, they would probably be aware of his future self and be immediately wary of anyone sharing his name.
The machine repeated its--her--request, this time sounding almost annoyed, maybe impatient. Tom eyed it for another long moment, looked around again, decided that if he tried casting a privacy ward, it would probably either not work or disrupt the technology here, and finally said quietly, "Tom Riddle, alias: Lord Voldemort."
"Thank you. Please take your tags and communicator, and make sure pick up a brochure on the way out."
"What tags--" he started, but then there was a clatter and a pair of dog tags and a small slim box dropped into a slot in the wall. Tom dutifully reached out and took them, scowling a little when he saw both names engraved on the small pieces of metal. He slipped the tags into his pocket and started examining the "communicator." This was something that seemed much more like a magical object, though he had no doubt it was not. A Muggle machine would not be giving out magical items.
"What are these for?" he demanded, but the voice had already faded away. Tom hissed in frustration, not the least because he doubted he could do anything to hurt a machine. He hated unhelpful people.
Well, he supposed the point of the communicator was to communicate with other people--that was obvious. And this whole event had been automated enough that there must be others out there in a similar situation, and if there weren't, there soon would be. He had little idea of how to use it, however; he would have to find someone to enlighten him.
The dog tags made him more uneasy. He'd seen a few of the older boys at the orphanage with ones similar to these because they'd been called for the war. If he hadn't been a wizard, he probably would have gotten a pair of his own eventually. But he had no intention of fighting in a war he knew nothing about, particularly a Muggle war. So he would just have to ask someone about those as well, and then ignore them if that was what they were for.
Standing around glaring at a stupid Muggle machine wouldn't answer either of those questions. He took a brief moment to suppress the stab of panic he felt at having so little control of his situation right now--Lord Voldemort did not panic, and besides, he was alive again, so this was actually a good thing--and walked toward the door. There had to be a way out of this place, and if there wasn't, he would make a way.
FINAL NOTES ABOUT YOUR CHARACTER:
Tom is coming from a point in time where he's in possession of Harry Potter's holly-and-phoenix feather wand. Since his wand and Harry's wand are brothers (their cores come from the same phoenix, although he doesn't know that) he'll be able to use it fairly well. I was hoping it would be okay if he arrived with it, since he doesn't have a wand of his own and he wouldn't be able to get one in the City and it'll be almost impossible for him to use his magic without one.
First person Revision
Date: 2011-10-03 08:53 am (UTC)[See Tom. See Tom lounging in a really comfortable green chair in a very, very nice looking room. Not that much of the room is visible, but what it looks pretty nice. He's sitting there with one hand tapping a wand on the arm of the chair and other propping up his chin, so his comm is definitely propped up somewhere in front of him. He's looking friendly enough; no (obvious) Dark Lords here today!]
Good afternoon, City. We've had quite a bit of excitement lately, haven't we? Almost feels like home.
I've been looking back through this..."network" to learn more about this place and what I should expect here. And it seems exisitantial questions are what's expected once in a while.
So. [a faint smile forms on his face, one that definitely does not reach his eyes] I have a question for all of you. I'm sure it's been asked before, but being a city of heroes [he just smiles a little more] you should have no problem with it.
What do you feel makes a person either good or evil? Or is there a good and evil? Could a person be neither one but somewhere in between? I have my own views, of course, but I'm curious to see what you all think.
Third person Revision
Date: 2011-10-03 10:25 am (UTC)But he'd also come to another conclusion during those weeks: the natives here, the citizens, were no better than Muggles and none of the so-called imPorts had any business helping them. Even the weakest imPort supposedly had some sort of ability which made them better than any native off the street, even if it was a completely useless ability like talking to fish. They were...well, he was reluctant to make the comparison, but they really were like the wizards and witches of this world. And like wizards, there were more than a few who felt it was their duty to be nice to the Muggles, even help them if they absolutely needed it.
And, as was the case back home, those without power completely dominated over those who had it.
It was really quite disgusting, the control the natives had over them. He'd done his research, and he knew that their somewhat tolerate attitude was a very recent thing. They were still the ones in control of the laws and they could change them back whenever they felt like; while the imPorts could vote against it, they were severely outnumbered. The natives knew what their heroes were capable of, they knew all too well, and yet, they didn't tremble in fear, they didn't stand aside to let them do what they wanted or needed to do, they had actively hated them at one time and that had only evolved to tolerance.
Tom had never completely approved of the Statute of Secrecy and the Ministry's insistence that Muggles be completely unaware of the wizards world, except when it was necessary, such as with Mudbloods' and some half-bloods' parents. Yes, Muggles vastly outnumbered them, but they had magic. If they ever revealed the existence of their world, they should be able to overwhelm the Muggles easily; it was only weakness that might keep them from doing so. The Muggles should never have a chance to start anything like the witch burnings again, because the wizards wouldn't allow it. The magical world would be in complete control.
And the same should be true here. The imPorts had power. They should be the ones in charge, completely and without question. It was, perhaps, a small step that the current mayor of this city was an imPort himself, but it wasn't enough. He had been voted in when he should have just taken it.
Oh, Lord Voldemort had never expected every imPort to feel the same way. There was weakness everywhere. He had recognized that his entire life. But he was disappointed that so very few of them might feel that way. And those who did were disgustingly ineffective in instilling fear in the natives and heroes.
And so, he made his decision. There were hardly enough real wizards here to start a war on that front, especially since almost all of those who were here were ridiculously loyal to Dumbledore. While it would be enjoyable to destroy them, it would only be a small accomplishment in the end. He would have to expand his world to include all imPorts. He would destroy those who would pander to the powerless natives and rise to the top with those who did not fear power. He would never share his power, of course, but he would never look away from using people who thought he might.
In the end, he and his chosen few would rule over this city and the natives would never question their power again.