All I Ever Wanted Was the World

chapter 19

His black cloak tangled around him as he Disapparated, appearing near the grounds of Hogwarts.

"Stubborn...like.." He muttered, trailing off as he made his way back with a brisk pace.

He promised he would help, and he would do everything in his power to complete the vow.
He couldn't let her down no matter how much of a brat the boy might be.

Harry rubbed a hand across his face, pushing his glasses up his nose. Confusion and frustration swirled in his chest.
'What am I going to do?' He thought, his heart pounding in his ears as he gently picked up the rather large pouch.
He felt around in it, suprised when he felt the items within it.
'It must be charmed'
Without wasting a second, Harry pulled out the foreign items.
The first was a book, from that which looked to be a children's book.
"The Tales of Beedle the Bard?" Harry questioned thoughtfully, skimming the pages of the book.
He thought perhaps Tom may have a clue about it as he very well did not.
Had Hermione mentioned it before?

Reaching back into the pouch, Harry searched for a while before he finally felt the familiar item.

He removed his hand from the bag and drew out a golden globe.
His eyes widened in recognition as he immediately felt a small smile come to his face.
It was a snitch!

Then there it was. A large sword.

He lifted it off the bed and carefully turned it over.
It certainly felt real.

Unsure what to do with all these new things that Snape had given him, Harry decided he would simply wait to Tom returned from wherever he was.

Tom Riddle was everything a Slytherin should be.
He was cunning, he was smart, he was quick on his feet. However, he had not expected the events to play out the way they did.

He had decided that, as Harry was most likely shaken up from the events, he wouldn't submit him to further trauma.
Tom decided that he would find his horcrux that he had made in "his" past.

While he was indeed Tom Marvolo Riddle, he was not Voldemort. He was from a different timeline, and he had meddled with time travel. Whether or not it was something that should be questioned about, Tom would ignore it. He would not allow for his former self to have turned into something so disastrous and disturbing, not only physically, but mentally.

The man was unhinged, and he had become so lost in death and immortality that he was no longer who he used to be. He was a former shell. The former shell that was once a charming young boy who could have done accomplished anything in the world.
Tom knew better than anyone on just how the muggle and wizarding world worked, and it was clear to see that there were similarities between the two, no matter how unprogressive the wizarding world was.
Hitler and World War II was something Tom knew all too well. He lived through it. His orphanage had been subject to many bombing warnings in London and he had been lucky enough to have been a wizard, which saved him from many tragedies.
Voldemort was a reflection of that, was a reflection of the past and it drew similarities to Grindlewald's reign in the wizarding world...back to when Dumbledore hadn't been who he was when Tom had seen him.

Voldemort was selective with blood in the wizarding world, wanting only Purebloods when he himself was a Half-blood. It drew connections to Hitler, to the way the man had dark features yet wanted those with light, aryan features.

Tom was beyond disgusted to find out that his mirror self became deranged...became so muggle-like and relied on the blood types for wizards and discriminated. It pained him to see such an embarrassing turn of events, and it shook him to the core to see his life become so twisted- become so horribly different from how he'd expected it to be.

Tom arrived to Hogwarts after taking the route from the whomping willow, something he had somehow come into the knowledge of when he traveled. He certainly hadn't gained Voldemort's memory, but perhaps it was the connection to Harry that gave him this insight. The tree definitely had not been there when he went to Hogwarts.
He used silencing charms and was able to disguise himself as a student using glamours, and he began his journey through the maze of halls in Hogwarts.

The floor felt familiar to his shoes and he felt himself become relaxed in the presence of the school as the teens and children surrounded him. It was easy to fit in in such a place, where no one could recognize him and they had no clue just what exactly was happening in their world.
Soon, the children began to go to class, and Tom Riddle finally arrived to the room he needed to go to.

The tall boy closed his eyes and breathed in, then out. He began to pace down the hall and back to his initial position, repeating this a few times before approaching the stone wall.
The door appeared, and Tom walked through it.

Upon entering the room, he steadily made his way through the room, his eyes scanning the messily organized room, the way he had seen it before.
He paused in his tracks, hearing the footsteps of someone walking on the opposite side of the shelf next to him.
He quietly began to continue making his way through the shelves and turned the corner, swiftly moving away from whoever was in the room.
Had they been looking for the same thing? It made no sense that someone would have already been here  and would have changed in accordance to what he himself was looking for.
Immediately, Tom was suspicious.
Just who was in the Room of Requirement with him?

Harry began to get tired of waiting and looked out the blocked out windows of the room that displayed Diagon Alley.
It was nearing dusk, and he decided that, after the days events, and now he began to worry about just where Tom was or what he was doing.

He turned to the bed and began to replace the items back into the pouch, and he hid them underneath his side of the bed.
He glanced at the cup and the locket before placing the locket within the cup and setting it on the nightstand next to his side.
He sighed and got off the edge of the bed he was perched on.

He was going to have to locate Tom.
Harry quickly got dressed and threw on a sweater.

He grabbed his wand before sprinting out the door.