What if He had a Choice?

Best Laid Plans part 1

Tom sent Draco out of the room when Lucius came in to speak with them. It was the first thing that he had done, and he had done it promptly the moment which Lucius had entered the study. He had blatantly ignored Lucius' angry glare that he would dare command his son in any fashion most likely, and felt quite an endearing sense of smug pride when the young Malfoy did exactly as he ordered, not bearing his father a second look. That proved good. It showed that the young Malfoy deferred himself to him more so than his father. Either that or he was too frightened of how the conversation between Tom and his father would go that he really did not wish to be in the same room whatsoever with the two when the conversation began. He was likely also relieved that Tom had listened to him when Draco had admitted that he was incredibly nervous of the ensuing conversation and had been ordered to leave. Though Lucius had not verbally denied Tom's order to Draco, he had clearly been displeased by it. Draco had shown no care for that, or did not notice though Tom felt that a bit too much to believe given how attuned the younger Malfoy was to everything around him, and had left within moments. It left Tom and Lucius alone together in the elder's study. Tom did not really bother sitting, though the Elder Malfoy spared no time in sitting behind his desk. 

"You were brought with Draco from school, I assume?" Lucius asked curtly, eyeing the Slytherin crest on his chest. 

It was quite lucky actually. Draco was far too small for Tom to wear the youth's robes. He had managed to steal some from a fourth year. He would like to say a fifth year, but as it would turn out, Tom had always been slightly thin for his age given the food shortages in London, and Orphanages already had pitiful rations given to children even before the war, not to mention after it. As such, he had been forced to take from a 4th year student unfortunately. Draco had quite graciously even pointed out the perfect candidate whose clothes would likely fit him quite well. The young Malfoy had proved himself to be quite astute and Tom had no intentions of letting him leave his side any time soon. 

"Yes," Tom said simply. "I am informed that it was you who put my Diary in that Weasley Girl's cauldron." His dark eyes took in Lucius' posture as he soaked in that information. The man instantly stiffened quite a bit. "Though, I must say, the ramblings of a little girl are quite annoying to listen to...." Tom watched with great joy as the man tensed greatly, but as was true of a Malfoy did not do much further to indicate his distress. "She was the perfect candidate for what I needed. You did quite well, not knowing exactly what I desired." Lucius swallowed nervously. Tom grinned, he quite enjoyed the fear which the elder was given.

"I was also informed, by your son," Lucius closed his eyes briefly, and Tom could feel the panic which the elder felt fly through him. It was quite a lovely sight to behold. "That you lied and said that you had been placed under the imperius curse during my time with you." Tom could tell that Lucius could barely breathe at this realization. 

Tom was quite enjoying this after all. Normally, Tom would never stand for such things but he would imagine this was why he brought in the Malfoys in the first place. Their ability in politics was unparalleled by any other. Besides, they were more useful outside of Azkaban rather than in it. Though he felt some sort of light respect towards the ones willing to suffer for him, he was angry that they chose to suffer rather than try to levy their sentence. They were useless in Azkaban after all. Tom needed useful followers, not those who have ended up putting themselves in a bloody prison that is near Unbreakable. 

Tom felt himself boil at this. He had not really focused much on the fact that most of his older self's followers had put themselves in Azkaban, even though Draco had informed him of this, but now that he really thought about it it was quite a problem. He would need to figure out a way to get his followers out of Azkaban if he wished to use them. Not to mention, he could not just leave them there because it was clear that they already thought that being placed IN Azkaban for his sake would impress and please him. 

He put these thoughts away in his mind, he had other things to deal with at the moment, and Lucius was getting more anxious than was useful with his prolonged silence. 

"Luckily for you, your son has informed me of the reasons with which you did this. After all I am an understanding person. IT would be quite difficult for you to follow my orders if you were incapacitated in Azkaban. Because of this, I suppose that I shall...forgive you this time." Tom said simply, watching as the older Malfoy relaxed suddenly. 

"What is your first order, My Lord?" Lucius asked, voice soft and timid. Tom smirked slightly. He finally bothered to actually take a seat in the chair which was opposite to the desk that Lucius was sitting at. 

"I wish to rid the world of Dumbledore." Lucius' eyes widened. 

"Yo want to kill him?"

"Oh, no..." Tom said, staring deploringly at Lucius. How could the other possibly think that he wished to kill Dumbledore. That was simply too simple. he could not allow Dumbledore to get away with everything that he had done in Tom's time, and the multitude of things that he was certain that the old man had done since Tom's 16th year of life. He desperately wanted to know what he had done that caused the interference of the Malfoy blood line but that would have to wait. The biggest thing right now was that merely killing Dumbledore would be a mercy. Tom would never allow such a thing in general to those who crossed him, but to Dumbledore least of all. "I wish to destroy him. Outright killing the old man would be too complicated. It would have plenty of risks and the man is too influential for that. I wish to destroy his carefully sculpted reputation and let the Wizarding World turn against him themselves." 

Lucius...for the first time in a while, felt himself admire someone. Though this boy was merely 16, he was the Dark Lord, and he needed to realize that despite the young nature of this Dark Lord, he was still the Dark Lord. 

"What do you need me to do?" Lucius asked, a small hint of glee entering his voice unknowingly. Tom smiled, eyes glittering.