Of Monsters, Of Men

Chapter 23 - Interlude

INTERLUDE: Harry's Reflection

Today, Tom finally shattered the fragile peace holding Slytherin together. At last, the invisible divide that separated how Tom was treated in Slytherin from the others was brought into the open. Years of bending over backwards to follow Slytherin's rules and social norms had allowed Tom the luxury of his unknown blood status in Slytherin being understood but never acknowledged openly. And it all came crashing down in a matter of minutes.

However, the fundamental, unchanging truth was that Tom was not one of them and never would be.

Half of the tragedy arose from the fact that Tom genuinely believed he could accomplish his goal of being respected and powerful—being seen as one of the purebloods. And he had tried so hard. Tom had committed himself to creating a name for himself, a previously unheard-of feat in Slytherin (no muggleborn had accomplished it before).

The other half of the tragedy arose from the fact that Tom was doomed to fail. Social norms dictated that Tom had to follow a strict and narrow set of requirements to be accepted by society, much less Slytherin. At the very beginning, it was uncertain whether Slytherin would even accept a muggleborn student succeeding. Yet, none of that mattered. Tom always wanted more than what society allowed for someone of his blood status.

That was not to say that it was useless in the beginning. Tom had accomplished mighty feats that were thought impossible in Slytherin, such as his gradual climbing of the hierarchy from being lower than the pariahs and social outcasts in fourth caste to being the same social standing as many middle class Dark Purebloods in mid-second caste. However, this was allowed because it still fell within the accepted boundaries of what a muggleborn could do—muggleborns were allowed to come into positions of relative power as long as they made no changes to the underlying system. For all the fuss Slytherin made about Tom, Tom gaining the best grades in their year did nothing more than outrage the hardline traditionalists. Even if it was a hard pill to swallow, Slytherin allowed his antics as long as he didn't deviate from expected social norms. And so, Tom had fallen into an unspoken agreement with Slytherin to not challenge the system if they weren't overtly racist to him.

Even so, improving his social status came with great cost. Tom was expected to be well-mannered and courteous, polite and unobtrusive, intelligent and helpful, diligent and studious—the model minority. It was not the real Tom Riddle.

And Tom had flown too close to the sun.

He had grown too comfortable with his continued success and pushed too far; he had forgotten the reality of his situation. Tom's attempt to break into the first caste by establishing his parseltongue in a duel and then winning the duel with Abraxas Malfoy was an unforgivable assault that attacked the institution of Slytherin.

Slytherin would never allow a supposed mudblood to claim heritage from Salazar Slytherin himself, the cult of personality surrounding him far too strong for that. So even when faced with strong evidence, Slytherin rejected it and felt the need to punish the outsider, no matter if that outsider had been widely accepted for some time. After all, it was always a lingering thought in the back of everyone's mind that Tom was an outsider, and the only question was when that piece of information would suddenly become relevant again.

Technically, Tom had won the house duel, but at what cost? With his Pyrrhic victory, the house of cards that Tom had so carefully built had come crashing down. The image that Tom painstakingly constructed for himself over the course of years—an image built on lies, sacrifices, and publicly accepting racism—was obliterated in the span of minutes.

In the aftermath, Tom would not be able to accomplish what he wanted, but he would have never been able to do so even if he hadn't challenged the status quo. The only lasting change was that Tom finally understood that his goals were never achievable in the first place. Forget political aspirations or being Prefect, it would be a miracle if Tom managed to not be labeled a pariah after today.

Former Minister Hector Fawley's leaked words in the Daily Prophet summarized the situation perfectly: "Muggleborns should achieve some success, but they shouldn't become too successful. It's detrimental to cultured society."

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Author's Note: 

Please let me know what you guys think! This is a chapter I've really wanted to write for a long time, and it's allowed me to get my thoughts out in a semi-cohesive manner. 

I tried to address the model minority myth in a more direct way in this interlude, and I hope I've accomplished that.