Riddle and the Ancient Contract

Chapter 52: End of school

Tom stayed up the rest of the night parsing what the little blonde seer said. He watched his son sleep – so frail, so innocent; so dependent on him to keep him safe, to love him, to meet his needs.

He wouldn't fail.

He had immersed himself in being Tom Riddle's grandson and new headmaster so deeply to create a solid cover that he had nearly forgotten that he was the Dark Lord. He removed the Mark and let most of his minions fade away into whatever life they wanted keeping in touch only with those that had political value to him.

That had to change. He needed to contact his thinkers – rune masters, potion masters, spell crafters. He would not let muggles destroy their world. Arthur Weasley was in a good position to help with some of their initiatives such as getting muggleborn more fully into the magical world, increasing magical creature numbers and securing safe territory for them and increasing creativity and economics, but he would not support strikes against muggles of any sort. That part of the plan would need to remain beneath his radar because Tom had come to truly like Arthur Weasley and would greatly hate disposing of him, but he would to ensure the survival of his family and Magic.

He rose from the rocker and left the nursery making his way to his desk. He drew parchment and quill in front of him and started writing summons and requests for meetings with likeminded individuals. He was still at his desk when Hari shuffled out of their bedroom and slumped in the chair in front of his desk.

"You didn't come back to bed. What are you doing?"

"I took Gasper for a stroll last night to settle him down and ran into Ms. Lovegood. She's seen the future and it is not pretty. She told me what we must do to survive and a time frame for it to happen in."

Hari stared a moment then straighten up in the chair her face full of determination. "What did she say?"

"We have ten to fifteen years approximately to prepare for muggles to discover us and go to war with us. She said we need to reduce their numbers and somehow destroy their most destructive weapons and the very knowledge of them. I have been writing allies and past followers that are masters of runes, potions and spellcrafting."

Hari ran a hand through her hair. "Most destructive weapons. We need someone that can expertly research on computers to search out nuclear and biological weapon sites and creators. We'll need people in every country to convince their leaders to destroy the stockpiles and eliminate knowledge of how to create more."

Tom stood and moved to pull Hari from her chair. "More than a decade though less than two – that's what we have. Go shower and say good morning to Gasper then breakfast and exams. Taffy will watch over Gasper and I'll be in the office most of the day. I'll send out these letters and then we wait for answers."

"Ok," Hari murmured hugging him tightly.

Exams were horrible and exhausting. Hari wasn't certain that actual NEWTS could have been worse. By lunch time of each day she was certain that her brains were going to liquefy and pour out her ears. What had she and Tom been thinking to toss themselves into ICW level testing in one year?

Well, Tom probably hadn't thought they'd be all that hard to be honest; he was a prodigy after all. Even as a student himself he had absorbed knowledge and pushed even the tenured professors to their limits trying to satisfy his insatiable need to know and understand all there was about magic.

The only ones not suffering under the pressure was the first and second years. They were learning it all from the ground up not stuffing years of ignored information into one year.

She walked into the Great Hall and settled at the Slytherin table by Draco, Vincent and Gregory. It was indicative of how numb everyone was that no one even noticed.