24 The Best Laid Plans

There was something very, very wrong with the boy. He had known from the beginning that there was something strange about the boy's magic; he had always known that it was plentiful and potent enough that it would have a significant impact on his personality.

He knew that the boy's heart and soul were pure, yet warped, just like his magic; he knew that there was something...off about the unwarranted and almost eerie innocence the child seemed to drag with him through every trial and every challenge. But he had had no idea just how deep the divide was. How was it possible for a child to be raised with the Dark Lord as his only friend and confidant and still retain such saintly purity?

He forgave him. He had hoped the boy would come around, so to speak, that practicality would win out and that the child, who was quite reasonable for a boy his age, would grudgingly agree that it was in their best interest to work together. He knew the boy would eventually be grateful to him for his honesty; he knew that little, lonely Harry Potter would give in in the end, but that's precisely what it would be - giving in. But no, the child had to blatantly throw everything out the window.

Tom Riddle, and later Lord Voldemort, was well versed in the subtleties of human nature. He was a prodigy and genius, not only in magic but in charisma and the manipulation of the human heart. Lord Voldemort knew what made people tick.

He could predict the actions of his enemies and allies with ease, and it was this skill, this expertise, that made him appear infallible and terrifying to so many. But this 10-year-old boy had managed to completely unravel every thread in his carefully crafted perspective on humanity; he had managed to surprise him. No, that was an understatement; he had managed to utterly shock him.

He forgave him.

Was that even possible? Was it possible to forgive the source of all of one's misery? Was it possible to forgive someone who stole every chance of happiness and love from an innocent child? Was it even possible to forgive someone who was not even sorry?

Lord Voldemort did not forgive, so he was at a loss to explain Harry Potter's inexplicable revelation.

As much as this turn of events appeared to be in his favor, it had him...more than slightly concerned. His plans for Harry Potter, while no longer involving manipulating the boy into becoming the perfect vessel for his master soul - there was simply no way the amount of light magic dwelling in the boy could be filtered out efficiently enough to make him a viable vessel.

Their magical cores were simply too incompatible, begging the question of how exactly the child's magic had facilitated his awakening in the first place...a conundrum he had yet to find a feasible explanation for - revolved around the assumption that there would be a tenuous but codependent relationship between the two; a symbiosis of sorts.

He would use the boy's (well-warranted) distrust in him to spur him on to become influential in his own right; he would use the boy's begrudging fear and feelings of betrayal to coax him into a state of paranoia and desperation...and when the time was right, he'd let slip how to create Horcruxes. The boy would make one of his own, ultimately ensuring his safety.

Harry Potter's fear and hatred of him was supposed to facilitate a hunger for power, which would, in turn, sharpen his fear of failure and death...and this was precisely what he needed to make his Horcrux immortal and, by extension, him as well.

But no, the boy was never going to make it that easy. He didn't fear or hate him - he forgave him. Lord Voldemort could easily manipulate fear and hatred - they were two emotions he knew well - but...whatever it was that made the boy so understanding and forgiving, he did not even know how to begin to make sense of that.

Should he try to persuade the boy he was not trustworthy? Should he attempt to manipulate the boy through 'friendship'? How does one persuade someone that good-natured to create a Horcrux? This was going to take some solemn thought. Fortunately, Lord Voldemort was not one to back down from a challenge.

He had one year to come up with a new plan and put it into action...but the sooner he got started, the better; he needed to begin his work as quickly as possible. The key obstacle to overcome was the unfortunate fact that he could no longer count on his ability to predict Harry Potter's actions - the boy was playing by a different set of rules than he was.

As of August 8th, 1990, Harry Potter was more than a mere pawn, a merely passive piece of his own on the chess board; he had leaped off the chessboard and graduated to the status of variable and would possibly one day ascend to the designation of player.

Either way, Harry Potter could no longer be considered a simple and predictable child and would, therefore, be much harder to control than he had initially bargained for. So the first question he needed to ask was, if he could not hold the boy as a pawn, what was the boy to him?

The boy would never be a Death Eater. He would never be a mere follower. No, he was something entirely different. An ally. That's what the boy would have to be, his ally. Perhaps his placating words had borne some truth after all; maybe the boy was deserving of some degree of respect - no one had ever accidentally outmaneuvered Lord Voldemort before. And if Lord Voldemort could not control the boy, who could? The child was an opportunity, an opportunity to gain an upper hand in the war that was to come, an opportunity too unique to pass up.

He was getting excited now. Harry Potter would be a challenge indeed, not to mention a source of constant entertainment. He was sure, at this point, that he did not have to worry about the child falling too far under Dumbledore's influence - the old man, who was no doubt the one that abandoned the child with his hated relatives, had no leverage because he was already forgiven.

No, the challenge here was to cement his place in the boy's heart before anyone else had the chance to take his place. Tom Riddle would always be Harry Potter's first friend, first confidant, first teacher, and the only family he'd ever known. The boy already knew what he was (the child wasn't stupid; there was no way dear Tom's unmistakable depravity had escaped his attention), and if the fact that he'd waged war on the wizarding world and murdered his parents and was entirely remorseless about the whole thing, didn't scare him away, nothing would. The boy was his; nothing would change that now.

Together, they would be great. Harry Potter would become his most valuable ally and his most prized possession and would be the one to bring the wizarding world to its knees - he could see the future unraveling in front of him. Yes, one day, Harry Potter will be a great wizard.

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