A Story of Mortality

Chapter 1

"The Dark Lord Harry Potter was born in the year of 1914, and is assumed to have origins in the north of Germany, where there are small communities of wizards with a range of magical cores, but we know he has a British parentage. He was orphaned around the age of one to three years, and it is often speculated that this was as a result of Grindelwald's early European movement, though in such a time of growing turmoil, there was little investigation into the deaths of his parents. As we know from several articles published in collaboration with Lord Potter, he was then passed on to distant muggle relatives back in Britain – now write this down, this is particularly important - though details of his upbringing are unclear, it is thought that he was badly abused there, which many consider to have an interesting impact on his political ideals towards muggles.

"He was educated in Durmstrang, one of the darkest wizarding schools in Europe, which is where his dark core flourished; remember your research on this school and use it, as I expect this will come up in the exam – education is often a big factor in the making of political figures such as Lord Potter. However, there was no concern about his dark magic turning to extremes as it did with Grindelwald; Lord Potter was tutored privately by one of the professors who had been particularly close to Grindelwald, and who particularly regretted the turn in his ex-pupil's direction. From this education and private tutoring, Lord Potter became incredibly aware of the goings on in Europe with Grindelwald, though of course he would already be interested due to his past. Once he left school, a staunch believer in the dark arts, he began working up a following of his own.

"Most scholars will agree that Lord Potter's greatest asset is his skill in rallying people, though in this instance he had particular skill in establishing the support of many strong European Dark families. These were Dark witches and wizards who were horrified by the representation of dark magic by Grindelwald. A core belief of these people was that muggles should be left well alone, but a lot of them were also very concerned by the political consequences they foresaw – Lois, please, listen to what I'm saying if you want to get at least an Average in your NEWT – the political consequences they foresaw from what would be the eventual defeat of Grindelwald. Fearing the Light taking the opportunity to increase their power in Europe once again, these Dark wizards grouped together to show a united Dark force that were also invested in protecting the magical population.

"Lord Potter then became in direct association with Albus Dumbledore, creating a rare Light-Dark alliance in order to defeat Grindelwald in 1943. From this point, Lord Potter and his following often now act as a protest group in Britain and Western Europe, a strong political presence to fight for the rights of dark creatures. Those on the Light, and many moderates, now fear in this time of peace that there will be a further growth of Dark influence in politics where they believe it is not welcome, so often this group is viewed with some hostility..."

Tom Riddle continued to scrawl away dutifully on his parchment, painstakingly drawing out the notes that he probably would not need. Professor Puddit truly managed to transform the simplest content into a complex web of maybes and useless speculation. Because, really, who needed to know that Lord Potter was perhaps abused as a child? Though, Tom supposed, it was his own fault for allowing the public to know such trivial information. If the Dark Lord was as idiotic as he appears to be from this lecture, then he would not be in the way of Tom's own rise to power at all. His concern had previously been how to assert his dominance over the character, as much of his own research seemed to suggest that Lord Potter was something of a force to be reckoned with, but it should only follow that somebody who was really like that wouldn't allow so many personal details to slip into the knowledge of others.

Still, it was a definite that more thought would need to go into Lord Potter. He supposed it was convenient for him, that these details were of public knowledge. It never did any harm to know these things, after all. And with analysing any and all of Lord Potter's mistakes – including that, naturally, of spilling one's past to the public – he would be able to make his rise swiftly, and take magical Britain entirely by surprise. Does he dare try to convert any of Lord Potter's followers? Surely, they cannot be totally loyal to such a person; they not even being marked as his. Tom's Knights of Walpurgis, as was natural, would be marked as soon as they could establish a powerbase in Britain. His followers may be useful, having far more experience than his own, largely school-boy following, but... They may not respect Tom. And Tom would demand the highest of respect. Age was no factor; he was the deadliest force in the world at this point, he was certain. Lord Potter's followers had little major influence in Britain, however. Perhaps not worth it. While Tom had the following of the Houses of Malfoy, Nott, Black, Lord Potter largely had European families behind him. This would give him an edge.