44 C44 Mark

(A/N: Want to read ahead of what I've posted so far? Go to my patreòn and get early access chapters.

As of this chapter, the patreòn is 15 chapters ahead at chapter 59. Only did one chapter last night because I was busy with Christmas stuff going on. I'll be writing and posting at least 2 chapters tonight though.

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Thanks for the Power Stones and enjoy the chapter!)

Tom spent the short Christmas break practicing with the Eldritch whips almost constantly. He got to the point where he could summon a half a meter long golden whip. He wasn't near being satisfied with his progress, but the Ancient One says he is progressing quickly. She rarely gives encouraging words like this, so Tom knew that he was doing well.

Other than the whips, Tom has been scouring the library for anything that could connect him and his followers. Canon Voldemort had the dark mark, and Tom wants something like that. Although he doesn't want his mark to be as visible as the canon one. He wants something that is a bit more conspicuous while also serving some sort of a purpose.

After tearing through the Kamar-Taj library, Tom found a book on a curse that seemed perfect for his purposes. The curse is called the liar's mark. It's a curse that was placed on criminals in ancient times. The mark would be placed on someone by someone else, and the one that placed it would be able to tell if whoever has the mark is lying. It was mainly used to route out thieves and settle disputes.

Tom thought that he could combine that curse and his mark to create a way to tell when his followers are lying. The next step would be to somehow let Tom contact his followers through the mark as canon Voldemort did but better. Other than that, Tom wants to somehow be able to hide the mark from prying eyes. Tom doesn't need people connecting dots and wondering why all of his followers have the same tattoo.

The only thing at Kamar-Taj that was able to help Tom with his mark was the book on the liar's mark. Nothing else that Tom found had anything that could help him with his other requirements. Though the library of Kamar-Taj is vast and Tom hasn't seen everything yet.

Before returning to Hogwarts, Tom looked into some company's that he could invest in. He has been promising to send a list to Alluk for a long time now. The problem was that his busy schedule just kept getting in the way. Also, Tom is extremely rich, so he isn't too worried about future money problems.

He took a few days to look into businesses, as he can't just write down future companies and send them to Alluk. What if they don't exist yet, or will never exist at all in this universe? He sent him a list of MCU company's along with some normal company's that he knew would do well from his time as Gregory.

Once the list was compiled, Tom owled it straight to Alluk. At first, Alluk was very skeptical about following Tom's judgment on these sorts of things. As a goblin, he's been trained from a young age to work in his field. In the mind of Alluk, Tom is brilliant but very young and inexperienced. Though that doesn't mean that Alluk didn't follow the investments Tom sent him.

Alluk has been watching a few of the company's on Toms list and liked them very much. The rest he wasn't so sure about, but he invested in them anyway. If they do well, then he underestimated the boy, but if they do bad, then Tom will learn a lesson about investing without experience and knowledge.

Once Christmas break ended, Tom returned to Hogwarts once again. The back and forth between two separate schools has started to become tiresome for him. He may breeze through the classes at Hogwarts, but that doesn't make them any less tedious. Not that he hates it. No, Tom loves learning magic and bettering himself.

He feels like he's playing a game and with every day his character is getting stronger. The feeling of advancing forward and seeing that progress first hand is great. Whether it be in magic, sorcery, or martial arts Tom loves the feeling of moving to the next level so to say.

Although, he definitely needs a break sometime soon. A week of just doing nothing would be a euphoric time for someone that has been busy for so long.

'Maybe I'll take a week off at the start of summer. I could go to one of my many properties and spend the week being waited on by house-elves and napping.' Tom thought and immediately set that as his plan.

When Tom returned to Hogwarts, the majority of his free time was spent piecing together his mark. He looked for any books in the ROR that could help him with his newest goal. Tom ended up finding a book on invisible ink.

The ink would hide itself until magic is pumped into it in a certain code. Once the code was entered, the ink would show itself until another code is used to hide it. The code itself could be anything and is similar to Morse code, as it's made up of long and short spurts of magic.

Tom didn't find a way to communicate through the marks in the ROR. He tried so many commands on the room and even tried looking through the library manually. Nothing appeared that Tom felt would help with his mark. Just when he thought his luck had run out, Mimsy asked if he wanted her to check the books from his properties.

Tom almost forgot he had those books. He's been so busy that he doesn't even have time to stay at any one of his properties. He has had the elves cleaning them up though. They were a mess from being neglected for so many years.

With Mimsys idea to look into the books in his properties, Tom opened a portal to one of the manors that Slytherin used to own. This is the place that Tom had the elves house all of the books. It had the biggest library out of all the properties Tom owns. Even bigger than the castles under his name.

Tom would then come to this manor at night looking for a book that could help him with the last piece of the puzzle. A couple of months before the end of the year, Tom finally found a book on runes that can be used for communication. They weren't fully tested and the creator died before fully developing them, But he saw this as the last piece of his puzzle.

Tom has the way to keep the mark hidden, the lie detector, and a way to contact his followers. This is the perfect mark and now he just has to develop it, which will most definitely take some time. He has to combine all of these separate things into one functioning piece of magic. Not to mention the communication feature that still needs to be tested before application.

Other than working on his personal studies, Tom has been training and teaching the Slytherin students every morning as usual. The majority of them have a good grip of Occlumency and would be up to his standards by next year.

The new rules in Slytherin have been enforced very harshly in the beginning. Tom needed to make an example out of anyone that would go against his rules. The number of people that did so was very small though. Some students still thought they could act as they usually do, as long as no one from Slytherin was there to see. These people were those that would bully muggleborn students. Especially the younger ones as they are the easiest targets. The punishments weren't too crazy, as those being punished are children, but Tom made sure to make them regret not following the rules.

The house cup went to the Ravenclaws this year, as Tom ordered his followers to keep their points low. They have been winning every year since Tom joined Slytherin, and he doesn't want to create bad blood between the houses over something that truly doesn't matter. When Tom and his group left the school, Tom couldn't help but be excited over his small vacation. He plans to do nothing for a whole week. Just the idea of that one week off relaxes his tired mind.