The woman in the mirror (Harry Potter fanfic)

Chapter 2.18 (The young Lord Voldemort)

Your mind is a powerful thing. When you fill it with positive thoughts your life will start to change.

All of a sudden the weird connection between her and Tom started to make sense. She didn't know what it was about him exactly but she was drawn to him. In a way she couldn't explain because even to her it didn't make sense. She had never met him. But still there was still familiar pull that felt to Artemis as though she had finally come home. 

But for some reason it didn't feel like coming home to your family....it was more like coming home to someone you loved. Like a warm fire that spread from her heart, all the way to her toes.

She assumed she should dislike the feeling. That she should be scared and slightly disgusted by it. Because she was twelve and he was, whether he might be her father or not, at least fifty years older than she was.

She shuddered and turned away from Riddle to clear her thoughts.

Meanwhile he had continued with his story. "It was very boring, having to listen to the silly little troubles of an eleven-year-old girl." Riddle went on. "But I was patient. I wrote back. I was symphatic, I was kind. Ginny simply loved me. No one's ever understood me like you, Tom... I'm so glad I've got this diary to confide in... It's like having a friend I can carry around in my pocket..." Riddle laughed, a high, cold laugh that didn't suit his handsome face.

"If I say it myself, Harry, I've always been able to charm the people I needed. So Ginny poured her soul to me, and her soul happened to be exactly what I wanted...I grew stronger and stronger on a diet of her deepest fears, her darkest secrets. I grew powerful, far more powerful than little Miss Weasley. Powerful enough to start feeding Miss Weasley a few of my secrets, to start pouring a little of my soul back into her."

"What do you mean?" Harry asked.

"Haven't you guessed yet, Harry Potter?" Said Tom softly. "Ginny Weasley opened the Chamber of Secrets. She strangled the school roosters and daubed threatening messages on the walls. She set the Serpent of Slytherin on four Muggle-borns and the Squib's cat." Riddle said calmly. "Of course she didn't know what she was doing at first.

"It was very amusing. I wish you could have seen her new diary entries... Far more interesting, they became." Riddle said and the children looked horrified. "Dear Tom," Riddle recites. "I think I'm losing my memory. There are rooster feathers all over my robes and I don't know how they got there.

Dear Tom, I can't remember what I did on the night of Halloween, but a cat was attacked and I've got paint all down my front.

Dear Tom, Percy keeps telling me I'm pale and I'm not myself. I think he suspects me. There was another attack today and I don't know where I was. Tom, what am I going to do? I think I'm going mad. I think I'm the one attacking everyone, Tom!"

Harry's fists clenched and Artemis felt sick to her stomach. Poor Ginny. Everyone had seen how distraught she was but not one was able to help her. How desperate she must have felt.

"It took a very long time for stupid little Ginny to stop trusting her diary." Riddle said. "But she finally became suspicious and tried to dispose of it. And that's where you came in, Harry. You found it, and I couldn't have been more delighted. Of all the people who could have picked it up, it was you, the very person I was most anxious to meet....."

"And why did you want to meet me?" Harry asked.

"Well, you see, Ginny told me all about you, Harry." Said Riddle. "Your whole fascinating story." He looked over Harry's scar, his expression grew hungrier. "I knew I must find out more about you, talk to you, meet you if I could. So I decided to show you our famous capture of that great oaf, Hagrid, to gain your trust..."