Harry Potter : Chapter 11: Parallelism I

"Cursing is much easier than enchanting, even if technically they're one and the same." Riddle explained as I twirled one of the hourglasses we habitually used for our matches in my hands, "the easier method to enchant an object is through..."

"Runes."

I guessed, interrupting him before he could show off even more than he already did. I looked around the mostly empty Great Hall, making sure that we weren't been overheard. It was a Saturday, and most students were sleeping in until they could hop to Hogsmeade.

I guess that all the muggle-borns will remain here during the holidays. I grimaced as I remembered, not for the first time, that WWII was in full swing.

Tom Riddle lowered his book about Ancient Runes, in order to take a sip from his tea. Once he put down his cup, he simply stared at me, arching an eyebrow while he nodded, confirming my speculation about Runes.

"Well, I could guess that much on my own." I explained my reasoning.

"The first lesson of Charms was about symbolism, and the first one of Transfiguration was all about Ideal-Forms, which is something we refer to through symbols. Enchanting, charming, cursing, call it however you like, it sounds more and more like you're 'imprinting' a combination of Ideas on an object."

"I don't know if your approach is simplistic or if the school made this more complex than it needed to be."

"A bit of both I suppose." and I grinned at the frown on Riddle's face: "You can't think of a single reason why in a world where knowledge is power the government would make sure to set hard limits to what wizards and witches think they're capable of? Besides.

the very respectable Purebloods could hardly lord their ancient grimoires upon the less fortunate if everyone could figure them out through trial and error."

"You're saying that 'trial and error' is... what exactly?... outlawed and that we are subtly influenced towards not even trying?"

"You tell me." I shrugged, "I find it curious that something as aleatory as magic is strictly separated into categories.

Charms, Transfigurations, Curses, Potions. And what about the fact that there isn't a single class about making up your own magic?" I tilted my head as I curiously studied Tom. He had been... well, not invaluable, but useful.

Cramming through years of Transfiguration theory was exhausting, but from time to time I managed to needle Riddle enough to receive a tip that spared me hours of headaches.

Sure, he did it only because he had heard about the true nature of my 'detentions' with Slughorn, and because I let him copy my recipe for 'Dawnbrew', which was the official name for my liquid dawn break. It was an exchange of sorts. I found the whole situation hilarious.

I distractedly planned Tom's death, and he would one day end up killing me unless I stopped him first. At the same time, I chose to stay close to him because he was extra-useful for my studies, and he was doing the same.

The parallelism was hard to ignore.

"Advanced Arithmancy can be used to predict the effect of..."

"Yeah, but Arithmancy comes with a bucketload of rules, doesn't it? Math is useful if you're building something that needs to follow a set of rules, namely Physics." I interrupted him once my attention was returned to the conversation.

Riddle grimaced at the mention of muggles, and a sly smile fell upon my features: "What, don't like muggles?"

Before he could answer, a fluttering of wings announced the arrival of owls carrying mail. The surprise was great when one landed near us at the Slytherin table, its orange eyes fixed on me.

With a frown, I freed its leg from the letter he was carrying, and I briefly read the shaggy script on the outside. Who the hell would write to me?

"Are you going to Hogsmeade today?" I asked Tom, who was busy appearing uninterested by burying his nose into his book.

"I'd better get going before the crowd swarms the village." he answered while he rose from his seated position, a slight frown on his face. He was obviously conflicted between roaming a magical village on his own and pocking his nose into my affairs, maybe looking for some leverage to use against me.

It was the 26th of October 1940, we were nearing my first All Hallows' Eve in Hogwarts.

I spent almost two months at Hogwarts, occasionally chatting with Tom Riddle, and I would soon enough attempt to bring Minerva McGonagall into the fold, all the while enjoying my 'detentions' with Slughorn. To be blunt, I generally lived fucking around with magic.

While I accompanied Tom to the Hogwart's entrance that led towards the village, I was holding the letter in my hand with trembling fingers, and a feeling like bile rising up from my stomach.

After I watching Tom trickle along with other students to Hogsmeade, likely to spend what they could in preparation of All Hallows' Eve, which would fall on Wednesday during the next week, I returned into the castle, not bothering hiding my heavy frown.

I had been thinking about magic, not really focusing on my preventive mission of killing Tom, deciding that it would be much easier to simply break his neck in the summer and toss him somewhere during the bombing of London.

And to my great dismay, I had somewhat forgotten that shit was going around beyond the stone walls of Hogwarts.

In particular, I had completely forgotten that Hagrid had a father.

I walked briskly across the mostly empty halls of the school, ignoring the words written on the parchment. It's not my fault I've taken Hagrid's place.

But even while I was thinking that, and I actually believed it, it was undeniable that the small wizard that had guided me through Diagon Alley not only believed me to be his son, but he had already, effective since my decision to actually grasp this second chance at life with all of me, lost Hagrid completely.

I had no idea about the experiences that the original me had shared with his family, no measure of love for the minute wizard.

And I didn't want to. I didn't want to feel any sort of twisted obligation towards someone that I effectively didn't know. I didn't want to be... Rubeus Hagrid. Not as he was. There is nothing wrong with being a kind, if dumb, soul. What I knew of the character was hilarious for the most part, but... I wanted to be me.

And I could hardly do that by pretending to be Rubeus. Or, better yet, I could, but I felt like shit already because of the effective death of original me's personality, which effectively had robbed Hagrid Senior of his son, the idea of stringing the absent-minded wizard along was... necessary?

I gritted my teeth in distaste as I finally reached the 7th floor of the castle and started looking around, the unread letter still clutched in my hand. I needed a drink. I needed a drink Badly.

It was almost ironic stumbling upon the Room of Requirement in my mental state, but if there was something that I knew for sure, was that Fate didn't lack in irony.

The Room of Requirement appeared to me like a long stone hall, with cauldrons lined up on one wall, countless books on wooden shelves, and an impressive sequence of cruets and ampoules.

Might as well learn how to brew my alcohol, I'm sure as hell going to need it. 

I thought with a shuddering breath as I dropped 'my father's letter on the nearest bench, letting once more the wonder for magic take me over so that I could ignore the very real problem that wasn't going to disappear with a wave of my wand.

I could even loot the room of hidden things before Tom uses it to hide... My mind spluttered and my thought died down before I could open the first book about brewing alcoholic beverages.

"He hasn't recovered the diadem yet." I spoke out loud, my eyes staring unseeingly into the Room.

I have a concrete objective now. I nodded to myself. That Tom would end up a Dark Lord was impossible, since I was going to kill him in this or the following summer at the lastest.

But in any case, a priceless artefact that nobody knew anything about was somewhere in a forest in Albania, ready for the taking.

Nobody would hunt me if I succeded, and whatever enchantment it held, it should make any and all my efforts in learning magic much easier.

=========================

if you want to read ahead of the public release, you can join my p atreon :

p atreon.com/Darkness013