C148 Approval

*Uno*

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*pop*

"Master has a letter from the ministry!" Mimsy appears, waving a letter in hand, expertly ruining the moment between Tom and Druella.

"*sigh* Thanks, Mimsy." Tom says sarcastically, but most elves don't understand sarcasm and Mimsy is one of them.

"You're welcome, Master!" Mimsy says with a pep in her step as she walks over and hands off the letter.

Breaking away from Druella, Tom takes the letter, removes the wax seal and unfolds it.

'Dear, Mr. Thomas Riddle

On behalf of the Ministry of Magic and the Wizengamot, I congratulate you on being approved to receive the Order of Merlin, First Class.

A ceremony will be held to honor you and your great deeds on the date of August 10th, outside the Ministry in Whitehall for all to see.

Usually, these things would be held inside the Ministry but you are a special case. Many citizens would be thrilled to attend the ceremony, hence the outdoor decision.

Thank you for your time and for everything you've done.

Please reply at your earliest convenience.

-Generic Witch Secretary Name'

"What does it say?" Druella asks as Tom stopped reading.

"See for yourself." Tom smirks and hands over the letter.

Druella snatches the letter and began reading it aloud.

"...congratulate you on being approved to receive the Order of Merlin, First Class! Tom that's great!" Druella exclaimed excitedly.

"Yeah, it took them long enough." Tom scoffed.

"Well, I'm sure many of those that decide who receives an Order of Merlin were against someone so young getting one." Druella reasons.

"Sure, but they had the entire school year to come to a decision. How slow at your job could you really be?" Tom says.

The real reason that Tom didn't get this letter sooner was that there's so little information about him.

Before anyone can receive any sort of Order of Merlin, they must go through a very extensive background check. The government can not be seen giving this prestigious award to someone unworthy, which is funny because Lockhart was unworthy yet still received an Order of Merlin.

Other things are looked into as well, such as the possibility of said recipient turning into a Dark Lord, which was a possibility as a few dark lords have risen from Slytherin.

Although, Tom's reputation in school helped wash away that possibility. When they looked into his reputation at school, they found he was loved by all houses and didn't show any dark leaning behavior.

"It doesn't matter how long it took. What matters is that you got it. You should be excited, Tom. Only a handful of people have received such an honor. It's extremely hard to get an Order of Merlin, First Class." Druella lectures Tom.

"You're right. I shouldn't be so pessimistic." Tom says and moves to take a seat at Druellas desk.

"What are you doing?" She asks.

"Writing my reply." Tom says as he grabs a piece of paper and a quill. "Remind me to show you the wonders of modern pens one of these days."

After writing a short reply stating he would be attending the ceremony, Tom folded the letter and sealed it in wax.

"Here you go, Mimsy." Tom hands the letter to his trusty elf. "Can you deliver it to the Ministry personally for me?"

"Mimsy is on it!" She grabbed the letter and popped away.

"Since that's taken care of, tell me about this ritual." Druella said with a hand on her hip.

"Have I told you about Manasa yet?" Tom asks.

"Snake goddess that wants you to be her avatar?" Druella clarifies.

"Yup, that's the one..." Tom went on to explain everything that happened.

——————————————————————

After explaining everything and getting berated for doing something dangerous without at least letting her know, Tom was released from Druellas custody safe and sound.

Although he was forgiven and set free, Tom was forced to promise her a week-long getaway for just the two of them before school started again.

When Tom left, he didn't return to Kamar-Taj. He promised Lady Death that he would bring the Hallows together.

Tom isn't sure if it's a trap but he's willing to take the risk. If she wanted him dead or something, she would have done so already.

Appearing in front of the vault of Tintagel castle, Tom opens it up and strolls inside.

On one side of the room is the open tesseract with the space stone inside. On the other is the cloak of invisibility and the resurrection stone.

The cloak and the space stone are still being analyzed with floating golden runes hovering and circling above them.

With a wave of his hand, the runes above the cloak disappear.

"What a waste." Tom shakes his head as he picks up the two hallows.

As he picks up these two, he now has all three on his person at the same time.

The second he has them all on him, a pitch-black aura surrounds the three hallows. That black viscous aura exits the hallows and flows into Tom, causing him to glow as well.

Soon, the hallows stop producing the pitch-black aura and start to crumble into dust. Each of the hallows disintegrated into nothing as the last of the black aura entered Tom's body.

The thick black aura surrounding Tom's body completely covering him, making him look like pitch-black figure.

Soon the black aura disappears, but Tom is no longer standing there. The entirety of Tintagel castle is empty without a single resident.

One thing was for sure, Druella will be pissed as Tom told her nothing of this. Especially if he doesn't return soon.