"To some, a monster, and to others, a leader. Either way, I became god."
"Did you really? Do you think God becomes trapped?"
Having just earned your doctorate, you decide to work in the Azkaban Secure Facility for the Criminally Insane. There, you...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
The next morning is dedicated entirely to thinking about those guards.
Kingsley Shacklebolt and Hestia Jones.
The former had been one of Tom's previous counsellors, in addition to Doctor McGonagall and another woman called Andromeda Tonks, whom you'd never met. Tom had indicated he'd known both of them – Kingsley was to be expected, of course, but Hestia was a surprise since there wasn't any time when you could think the two would have been in any form of contact.
The thing that was nagging at you – the thought that you constantly revisited was that Tom had gestured to the two of them as being some form of opposition to him.
It was possible he'd absorbed them into his fantasy.
It was also possible that there was something else going on. Because it had also occurred to you that everything else seemed to have a role in Tom's fantasy world except for you or any events pertaining to you.
The murder of Dolohov hadn't been altered in any way in his mind. He was perfectly clear about that. Any events you were there to witness always went the way Tom described.
In addition to that, he knew Harry. That was becoming a difficult strand to unravel. Hermione, Harry and Ron had apparently gone to the same school as Tom, and at some point had befriended Myrtle, prior to her death at Tom's hands. Which explained how they knew each other – but not really why Tom was convinced they were mortal enemies. It could just be the ramblings of a madman, but Tom's always been perfectly lucid, and woefully eloquent, to the point where you feel yourself beginning to doubt his insanity.
You've been ignoring it for a while, but there seems to be something going on with the other staff members. They'd been against you being here from the beginning, constantly encouraging you to leave. And, most of them seemed to have a personal vendetta against Tom. It sounded stupid, but perhaps it wasn't too out there to think that there could be some kind of conspiracy amongst the staff. Shacklebolt kept acting strangely yesterday – interrupting all the time, whenever a topic got too heavy. You were constantly kept out of the loop with your colleagues. Even your only friend, Hermione, had become distant with you.
It was almost disturbing to think about – but it was seeming ever more likely that there was a conspiracy amongst the staff.
