Inseparable

CHAPTER FORTY TWO

The more horcruxes he made, the better. He knew that the more horcruxes a person had, the more susceptible they were to using darker, more unstable and damaging rituals ─ exactly what an unstable dark lord needed to do.

He was sure that he already made two. One is bad enough, but another one, Dumbledore could barely hide his happiness.

Myrtle was the first he suspected. The timing fit right ─ just after Harry died ─ his plan to make Tom distressed obviously worked well. It was a pity Hagrid had to pay the price though; he had become quite fond of the friendly half-giant. Clever of Tom to expertly put the blame on some random spider.

That one horcrux was all that Dumbledore was expecting. The second was a surprise, a good surprise, but a surprise nonetheless. Tom must be more unstable than first expected. Dumbledore could almost laugh at that. The more horcruxes he made, the more unstable Tom would get. Horcruxes weren't a solution to fix anything.

It would be a story passed down for years to come ─ the prised student of Hogwarts, seduced by the dark arts, falling like an angel. The amazing deputy head would release this and save the school. He would be made headmaster and influence the lives of thousands of students to come.

The second, he guessed, was Tom's own uncle, Morfin Gaunt. It was too much of a coincidence for Tom to be asking about any living family and then for them to show up dead. Dippet, Slughorn and the other professors were all fools.

...

Tom had his N.E.W.T.s soon; therefore, he spent most of his waking time with his nose in a book. He was determined to get the best marks. His Knights were going to be ignored for the next few weeks while he revised for his tests.

...

When the week full of exams finally came, Tom was calm and collected, unlike many other students, waiting outside the examination room, ready to take the test.

He wrote quickly and efficiently throughout the whole test, answering every question, knowing he was right.

...

When the results came, Tom demanded that all his Knights tell him what they scored on their own N.E.W.T.s. He would need to know what his followers specialised in and if they were any good. If they weren't, then he could quickly get rid of them so as not to drag around dead weight.

As expected, Tom had gotten all Os, passing with the highest grades in Hogwarts. There would be a graduation ceremony, which was basically a small party for the seventh years, at the end of the year.

...

Tom went back down to the chamber to look for more books on old relics he might be interested in. He found a book with information on a locket that belonged to Salazar Slytherin.

He wanted it.

The last known location for the locket was apparently somewhere in France. Tom adjusted his plans to allow himself some time to go and get his locket ─ and maybe meet some family of his who might have unknowingly not given his locket to him.

...

Some teachers made sessions to talk with students to advise them on what career they should do. Many of them were slotted into the ministry, being recommended jobs in various parts of the ministry.

Tom had a meeting like this with Professor Slughorn.

He was called into Slughorn's office and told to sit down.

Slughorn smiled at him before saying, "Tom," he greeted, "I believe this should be easy. With your grades, you could get any job you could possibly want."