Invictus [Tom Riddle / Tomione]

Absence & Absinthe

Tom Riddle sat in his bed with a cigarette lit, his books spread out chaotically across his bed. His little witch was at a ministry event tonight pertaining to the upcoming election, one which he had also been invited to, but he'd declined in favor of studying on a topic that was particularly pressing to Tom. He knew that Hermione had to be occupied tonight, so he'd chosen this specific night to spend researching. Hermione often wanted to know what he was studying, and this topic especially was something he would rather not divulge to her at the present time, given that she was so averse to the dark arts.

He combed his history books and biographies, searching for hints of the whereabouts of the burial sites of various ancient dark wizards. He scanned his books for information about Raczidian, a medieval dark wizard who dwelled in a castle co-inhabited by dementors. Raczidian died by attempting the patronus charm; wizards who were defiled by dark magic and impure motives could only conjure death when attempting the patronus charm. Maggots had burst from his wand and consumed him. That was another reason Tom had not attempted to conjure the Patronus charm again. He didn't desire to meet the same end. Unfortunately, in this particular book, there was no hint to the whereabouts of his bones.

He read about Morgan le Fay, a powerful medieval witch and the enemy of Merlin. He combed through histories on Merwyn the Malicious, Emeric the Evil, Ekrizdis, and Ethelred the Ever-Ready. Tom had already located the resting place of Gormlaith Gaunt, the aunt of Isolt Sayre, founder of Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Gormlaith happened to be a distant relative of Tom's, also a descendent of Salazar Slytherin, born into the Irish branch of the family. She had possessed Slytherin's wand during her lifetime, but after her death in 1634, the wand was deactivated and buried, and grew into a snakewood tree on the grounds of Ilvermorny. Tom planned to go there and seek out her bones, as well as take some wood from the snakewood tree, which he would keep and perhaps make into a wand at some point. It was said to contain medicinal properties. Perhaps he would make it into a horcrux. Gormlaith was known as an exceptionally powerful witch, albeit rather mad and an unfaltering blood purist. Madness tended to run in the Gaunt bloodline, unfortunately.

Tom read briefly about the murder of Barnabas Deverill by Loxias, who subsequently became the owner of a wand made of Elder, aptly named "the Deathstick." Tom was rather fascinated by these wands of great power, but he tended not to believe that a wand itself could make a wizard invincible. Obviously, that was not true, because many of the owners of such wands were murdered in order to gain ownership of the wand. Tom believed more in the witch or wizard's own abilities, rather than reliance on a wand. However, he did contemplate the effects of such a wand in say, his hand, for example, or in the hand of any other powerful wizard of similar abilities. He made a mental note to study more about these wands later.

At the present time, he was preoccupied with one wizard in particular: Herpo the Foul.

Herpo was one of the earliest known dark wizards, hailing from Ancient Greece. He was a wizard who'd invented many dark curses, as well as, more notably, being the wizard who'd made the first ever horcrux . He'd seemingly invented them, or rather, he'd been the first to uncover the magic that made them after studying the soul and the effects of murder upon it. He was also a Parselmouth, and he had created and bred the first known Basilisk, which was now an XXXXX-classified creature, as only Parselmouths were said to be able to tame them.

It was widely believed that Salazar Slytherin, due to his ability to speak Parseltongue, was a descendant of Herpo the Foul, which, by extension, made Tom also his descendent.

Tom was the only person who knew of the existence of Salazar's basilisk in the chamber of secrets, and so that detail alone gave credence to the theory.

Tom considered Herpo to be the father of modern dark wizardry, and he salivated at the idea of unearthing his bones and absorbing the ancient dark magic encased in them. It was just too damn tempting. He imagined that particular wizard's magic would feel at home within Tom, who was also a Parselmouth with a pet basilisk and a couple horcruxes lying around.