I, Hogwarts Week Two

Chapter 590 My Name is Tom Riddle

The two spells collided violently.

Like a cannonball exploding.

Harry saw bursts of golden fire from their spells, right where they met.

He saw that Voldemort's green light was actually weakening, and golden flames entered his hands, and then the Elder Wand flew into the air.

It was spinning, like a snowflake, falling in a way that had no physical logic, and flew into his hands.

At last, the Elder Wand returned to its rightful owner.

Everything is so natural.

Harry held his Phoenix Wand in one hand and the Elder Wand in the other, and looked calmly at Voldemort with wide eyes in the distance.

“This is – impossible!”

Voldemort stumbled back, arms outstretched.

The killing curse rebounded on him, causing severe damage to his body.

Like cracked bark, it falls off bit by bit.

"no no!"

Voldemort's soul screamed.

But the sound cannot be transmitted to the real world at all.

Soon, like a burnt-out firewood, his consciousness fell into nothingness and darkness.

dark.

Still dark.

It’s like the eternal sigh after the universe has ceased to exist.

There is nothing here.

A land of nothingness.

Maybe it's just a moment, maybe it's forever.

Suddenly, a little light appeared in the endless darkness, just like a star suddenly appearing in the sky covered by dark clouds.

It was so faint that it seemed as if it could be blown out with a breath, and it was dim and unclear.

But it is a signal.

After perhaps an eternity, there will be more and more such lights and stars.

Finally, the entire darkness was pierced, and more and more faint lights appeared around.

The stars are shining.

At this moment, a monster materialized from among the stars.

The monster had wings, were twenty arms square, and were made up of six wriggling human arms.

It was huge, and one of its teeth, which gleamed with a cold light, was the size of an adult... and it was still getting bigger.

Four emerald green eyes that looked like the Killing Curse were looking down ahead.

The eyes were cold. Or maybe it was hunger. At this scale, it was hard to tell.

Under its feet, a purple liquid rolled and expanded.

Fast and slow.

Gradually filling up the entire darkness, forming a lavender ocean.

"My true form has made you unhappy." It spoke, its tone surprisingly calm.

Its voice was deafening, shaking the sea surface beneath its feet, and thousands of Void Remora poured out from the sea.

This sound bends everything, squeezes everything, whispers and roars. The sea water cascades endlessly, boundless. A million voices combine into one aria.

Tom Riddle's soul lies peacefully on a lavender sea.

The tip of a broken dagger was sticking out of his chest.

A strange magical power flows out from this dagger.

"Why?" Voldemort asked mechanically.

There was nothing in his body except the dagger stuck in it.

There were also six other wounds all over it, like those caused by knives and axes.

This is exactly what creates the wounds left by Horcruxes.

Looking closely, there seemed to be something tiny, like larvae, tentacles, or blood vessels in those wounds. It was like a Muggle surgeon, roughly sewing the wounds together.

"【Star Blade】——A sword that burns with an eternal soul fire that is invisible to mortals. Using it allows mortals to ignite the soul fire and become gods."

The monster's voice is everywhere.

"It needs the soul of the stars as new firewood to burn again."

"It is the stars that are important - not the magic. You lack the vehicle."

"And you will soon become my food. It can be considered as becoming a god."

The monster's majestic body was bulging with hair and beard. The starlight cast faint streaks on its ray-like body, outlining a false sun on the lavender sea, like the halo of a dying world.

The new body swayed against the tide of nothingness, its blood vessels lit up briefly and then pulled away from its skin on their own, each a living creature in its own right.

Schools of millions of void remoras swam around their goddess like birds circling over distant mountains.

It is simply magnificent.

If there were gods in the starry sky, this would be what they looked like. Horrible, hideous, strange, and beautiful.

"No!" Tom Riddle roared unwillingly, as if he was suddenly awakened.

His magic, all his efforts on the path to immortality, were all ineffective. Under the influence of a strange force, his body was breaking apart, and he was about to become nothingness.

Power, immortality, and immortality were all a ridiculous dream, and now this dream is over!

But he is still struggling.

The last struggles of a dying man.

"You can't do it." The many voices of the gods answered in unison. "You are incapable of even the slightest resistance. When you accept my power, you are destined to become the salt of this lavender sea. The only difference this time is that if you succeed, your remaining fragments will still retain their full mind, but if you fail..."

The gods enjoyed Tom Riddle's soul.

Enjoying this good food.

"You lied to me," Tom finally roared. "You lied to me!"

"I never lie, mortal," the god said, "because I need not. My final victory is an absolute fact that cannot be shaken. There is no need for lies, pretense, or doubt. Open your eyes, and I will make you bear witness."

The ocean began to shrink. The god's massive form stretched, twisted, and then shrank—shrinking into something more recognizable.

She fell silently and hovered in front of Tom.

Tendrils and eyestalks shifted positions, reconfiguring into an ellipsoidal sphere composed of several shapes—resembling a human head.

She gazed at her audience with her two faces, and at the same time wrapped her body with her wings, revealing the tall figure of a woman of noble status.

A head of long hair that looks like the Milky Way. Soft and shiny, dancing in the windless air.

The green eyes were deep and cold.

She was wearing a gorgeous ancient British court dress, which was embroidered with gold thread, intricate and exquisite. The skirt was wide and elegant, and the delicate legs and feet exposed as it swayed gently seemed like some kind of carefully crafted work of art.

The goddess has the same appearance as Owen.

This was the last thing Voldemort saw - his mouth was open, trying to say something.

But his throat had already sunk into the lavender sea.

At this moment, time seemed to have stopped.

His mind, his spirit, everything about him was going into eternal sleep.

In a trance, he felt a faint warm current flowing towards his heart.

Tom didn't know what it was.

But it was like a match on a cold night.

He instinctively feels, clings, and embraces.

"Am I going to die?"

"Is this death?"

Suddenly, Tom heard a voice.

Saw a person.

He found himself at what seemed to be King's Cross Station.

The hustle and bustle and the noise of people made everything around him seem familiar to him.

"This is" Tom recognized it without careful identification. This was the day when he first stepped on the train and went to Hogwarts for the first time.

"I"

I looked over King's Cross Station, searching frantically for something.

Soon—I found my younger self.

That was my first time leaving the orphanage and going somewhere far away.

The endless scenery outside the train window and the infinite imagination of the future ahead make me feel particularly comfortable.

This was something I had never experienced in my eleven years in the orphanage.

Tom seemed to be watching a movie.

Looking at his other life.

------

1938, April 9.

I came to Hogwarts, and because of my status as an orphan, I especially wanted to find news about my parents in this castle.

I knew that if they were wizards, they must have gone to school here.

perhaps--

Perhaps during one of my nighttime adventures, I would also discover the abandoned classroom.

The Mirror of Erised was also found in that dusty classroom.

I saw a loving family in the magic mirror—one brought together not by a love potion but by love.

They stood behind me, stroked my cheeks, and expressed their love.

I couldn't help but sneak in front of the mirror every night and meet them often.

When Dumbledore, the Transfiguration teacher, finds me, he will tell me: Tom, the magic mirror allows us to see our deepest and most ardent desires.

I immediately denied it, no, I was not eager to see my parents.

But I didn't dare look directly into the shining gaze behind Dumbledore's half-moon eyes.

I still have no doubt that I am Slytherin through my Parseltongue abilities.

In my fifth year, I found Slytherin's Chamber of Secrets, opened it, and killed Myrtle.

When I saw that people were actually dying, I started to panic.

I was afraid that the school would close because I never wanted to go back to that orphanage filled with abandonment.

Maybe - maybe this time I didn't hide anything. I didn't choose to frame someone.

I found Professor Dumbledore of Transfiguration and told him that I was the one who opened the Chamber of Secrets.

Dumbledore was silent for a long time, and finally told me: No one is perfect, the most important thing is to be a better person.

Then he gave me something.

Tell me if this goes well tonight, I will save an innocent life.

Three turns are enough.

This is a time-turner.

It is closely guarded by the Ministry of Magic, and only the most outstanding model students at Hogwarts can apply for one with the professor's consent.

And I - just happened to be the best student Hogwarts had ever seen.

I used the Time Turner to go back in time and closed the Chamber of Secrets before Myrtle met the Basilisk.

The school does not have to close.

I don't have to go back to the orphanage.

During the summer vacation, I returned to the old Gaunt house.

After learning about my own life experience, I realized that I was not the fruit of love, but the product of aphrodisiac.

My wizard mother used a potion to seduce my Muggle father and gave birth to me. That's how I got my noble Slytherin blood.

I collapsed and came to Riddle House with resentment.

I gripped my wand tightly and almost shouted the spell.

But - at the critical moment, perhaps it was the warm home in the Mirror of Erised that restrained my arm and prevented me from casting the spell.

But I still resented it, and in a fit of rage, I used magic to turn my father into a balloon to punish him for abandoning my mother and me.

Because I used magic outside of school, I received a warning letter from the Ministry of Magic.

Dumbledore bailed me out at the Ministry of Magic and took me back to school.

On the way he said: What determines our life is not our ability, nor our background, but our choices.

I am tired of his finger-tips rhetoric, and even more tired of his argument that love is a magic weapon.

But two years later, in 1945, when I saw Dumbledore defeat Grindelwald and imprison him in Nurmengard, something changed.

That night, Dumbledore seemed to have aged ten years, wandering around the rooftop like a lonely ghost.

I ran into him.

I graduated this year, and I wanted to stay at Hogwarts to teach, so I didn't leave school during the summer vacation.

That night, Dumbledore and I had a long talk. He said a lot, many of which I didn't understand.

But Dumbledore insisted on telling me everything. He said he hoped I would not follow his old mistake.

I don't understand, he is obviously the most powerful wizard in the world.

Why do you feel like you have nothing?

Is there anything that magic can't get?

The next day, I received a reply from the headmaster, Armando Dippet, who rejected my application to be an assistant in Defense Against the Dark Arts, but asked me to be an assistant to the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor.

And so, I stayed in Hogwarts.

Twenty-six years later, I am Defense Against the Dark Arts professor and Head of Slytherin House.

I never gave up studying the dark arts, and a thin student caught my attention. His name was Severus Snape.

He was also very interested in the dark arts and therefore idolized me greatly.

He was always at odds with the Gryffindor quartet, and I often caught the four of them wandering around in the middle of the night using the Marauder's Map.

I would mercilessly deduct points from Gryffindor every time.

I kept to myself and still didn't trust anyone.

Still didn't believe Dumbledore's statement that love could conquer death.

People admired me, were fascinated by me, and respected me for my academic achievements.

But I'm still lonely.

I still studied Horcruxes because of my fear of death, and even couldn't resist the temptation to create a Horcrux.

At this time, Dumbledore asked me to do a small favor.

His friend Nicolas Flamel wants to destroy the Philosopher's Stone and wants me to help him with the fangs of the Basilisk.

I am shocked. Is there anyone in this world who would voluntarily give up eternal life?

Dumbledore once said to me: For those who are fully sane, death is only the beginning of another great adventure.

I didn't comment on this after helping him with this small favor.

I put the research on Horcruxes on hold.

Many years later, a new group of students entered Hogwarts.

James Potter and Lily Evans walk their son Harry Potter to school together.

They both worked at the Ministry of Magic, James being an Auror.

A second before Harry boarded the train, his godfather Sirius Black and Lupin arrived. Sirius handed Harry an old map and told him to open it if he encountered any trouble at Hogwarts.