~ Immortality unveiled ~Tom Riddle x Reader 🐍🌶

Chapter 9 ~ Chamber of secrets~

*UPDATED Sep. 13th. 2024*

*Tom's POV*

I should have killed him. Theodore. That vile, insignificant wretch. Now, he'll come crawling back, seeking retribution like all the others before him—weak, predictable, grasping at power he can never possess. Damn it. Why did I spare him? I can almost hear the Ministry gears turning in his mind—plotting, scheming, as if he could rally them against me. Fool. He thinks he's clever. But he's forgotten how the Ministry works, how its bureaucrats salivate at the mere thought of someone with my potential. Theodore knows who I am, even if he can't prove it. Not yet.

Hepzibah Smith. The fool. Even with her dead, even with her useless house-elf taking the fall, I see it in Theodore's eyes—he knows. But knowledge without power is nothing. And that's the one thing Theodore will never have. No matter what webs he spins, no matter what accusations he whispers, he will never touch me. He doesn't know what he's up against. But he will. Soon.

The air in the corridor grows colder as I descend deeper into the bowels of the castle, the shadows growing long, oppressive. Hogwarts' ancient stones seem to pulse beneath my feet, alive with the power that slumbers here, waiting for someone worthy to unlock it. Power that I will claim.

My thoughts turn, unbidden, to Eva. Theodore's wife. What a foolish choice, binding herself to that insipid man. Theodore is barely a shadow on the chessboard of power, and yet she chose him. It makes me question her judgment, makes me wonder if I've overestimated her. But no—there must be more to it. Eva isn't blind. She's shrewd, calculating in her own way. So why him? It gnaws at me. Perhaps she saw something I didn't.

Still, it weakens her in my eyes. She could have aligned herself with true power. Instead, she chained herself to a man destined for ruin. But... perhaps there's another explanation. Perhaps she's more ambitious than I've realized, hiding her true nature beneath the guise of loyalty to that pathetic man. There is something about her. Something that draws me in, despite knowing I should not indulge in sentiment. If she proves valuable, I will keep her close. And if not... well, she'll serve her purpose another way. Nothing wounds a man like having the one thing he loves torn away.

As I walk through the labyrinthine corridors, my mind maps out Theodore's demise. I'll strip him bare, piece by piece, until all that's left is a broken shell. He'll crawl through the cracks of this castle like the vermin he is, clinging to life, to hope, until I crush him underfoot.

But Eva? Eva's fate remains uncertain. Does she understand the choices before her? Does she see the grand tapestry I'm weaving, the way it binds us all? Or is she as blind as the others? She'll have to choose. In the end, they always do.

A chill creeps through the stone, colder than the rest of the castle. My pace slows as I approach the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets. The heavy weight of magic lingers in the air, ancient and potent. It presses against my skin like a living thing, wrapping me in its embrace. The stone door, marked with the coiled serpent, groans as it slides open.

The darkness beyond beckons.

My wand casts a flickering light that barely reaches the chamber's depths, but I don't need to see. I feel it—the thrum of power beneath the stone, the presence of secrets long buried and waiting to be unearthed. My steps echo, swallowed by the vast emptiness of the chamber, the sound fading into the void.

And then, as I knew she would be, there she is.

Myrtle Warren. Her ghostly form hovers, pale and ethereal, eyes wide with eternal sorrow. She never speaks when I come here. Perhaps she knows that nothing she could say would matter. Her wretched existence was but a means to an end, her death a necessary step in my ascent to power. I feel the smirk tug at my lips as I watch her hover, trapped in her misery, forever bound to the place of her death. Poor little Myrtle. A victim of circumstances she never understood.

My wand's light flickers as I pass her, casting long, serpentine shadows along the stone walls. The air grows thicker, heavier, as I descend deeper into the chamber. The power here is different from the magic above—older, darker, and far more dangerous. It thrums beneath my feet, whispers in the shadows.

Salazar Slytherin's face stares down at me from the walls, his cold stone eyes following my every step. I can feel his presence, not just in the carvings, but in the very air. This is his legacy, and now, it is mine to claim.

The drip of water echoes through the chamber, the only other sound in this place of ancient secrets. I approach the center, where the great serpent once lay hidden, waiting for the words that would release it. That power is mine now. I alone hold the key to the future.

But there is more here, beneath the surface. Power greater than a mere basilisk. Power that even Dumbledore doesn't fully comprehend. He suspects, yes, but he's blinded by his own ideals. He'll never understand the depths of what lies hidden in this place.

The stone beneath my fingers is cool to the touch as I run my hand over the ancient carvings. I whisper the incantation, my voice hissing like the serpents themselves. The walls shift, grinding against centuries of stillness, revealing what has been hidden for so long.

The chamber opens before me.

A deep, hollow silence follows, punctuated only by the steady drip of water echoing from unseen depths. My wand's light reveals the faintest outlines of serpents coiling along the walls, their stone eyes glinting as if alive.

The power here is intoxicating, overwhelming, thrumming beneath my skin like a second pulse. I close my eyes and breathe it in, letting the darkness wrap around me like a cloak.

Myrtle's distant wails fade into nothingness, her misery insignificant in the face of what is to come. Theodore's pathetic scheming will soon be nothing but a footnote in the history of my rise to power. And as for Eva? She will come to see the truth, one way or another. She will stand with me—or fall alongside the rest of them.

I reach the heart of the chamber. The darkness presses in, but I welcome it. This is where I belong. This is where my true power will be born. Salazar's gaze watches over me, and I can almost feel his approval. I have come to claim my birthright. I can't wait to chat with him one day.

I press my hand against the ancient stone, whispering the final words. The wall before me shifts once more, revealing the last, hidden secret. The power I've sought for so long is finally within my grasp.

A slow smile spreads across my face as I step forward into the darkness, the weight of the ages falling away as the future opens up before me.

The game is afoot.

And I never lose.