Chapter Thirteen: Marvolo

Chapter Thirteen: Marvolo

His eyes were burning; smarting and itching so much that he wanted to tear them out of his head.

Tom was about to cry.

He was not going to cry, and especially not in the middle of the hallway, empty or not. The last time he allowed tears to sting his eyes like this, he was nearly dead.

So, he tilted his head up, screwed up his face, and focused on his anger instead.

Abraxas's voice. Mudblood.

Mudblood scum. That's what you are; you can't deny it anymore.

Tom let out a shriek, flinging his bag down against the floor. The thin, cheap fabric ripped easily, sending all his books tumbling out.

He snatched up one of them — it was a library book — Tom didn't care — and grabbed the first few pages in a quivering fist, crumpling them under his rage. He screamed, ripped them clean from the binding, felt a bit better, and did it again.

Rip, tear, scream. Repeat. Rip, tear, scream. Repeat.

He heard a soft plip, and stopped, surprised that a tear had fallen.

Now, the page was wet. A single droplet of water was spreading, bleeding out across the paper.

Germany invades Czechslovakia. Tom Riddle discovers the secret of his birth.

Read from the beginning at FFN | AO3!

Tom Riddle is an INTJ. I will not be taking critique.

the many faces of tom riddle

-i’m going to be doing five posts, discussing the four portrayals (and most popular fancast) of tom riddle/lord voldemort, and why, based on my interpretation of the character as someone who has spent entirely too many waking hours on re-reading the books, watching important scenes over-and-over again, child psych, moral theory, and free will to piece apart his characterization, they capture or fail to capture the most important aspects of the character-

I love the fact that he was played by so many people; there’s something interesting in that which kind of speaks to the character (as in he split his soul so he’s different people... sort of). There will be vastly unpopular opinions involved; be warned.

Part 1 (Monday)

Part 2 (Tuesday)

Part 3 (Wednesday)

Part 4 (Thursday)

Part 5 (Friday)

Chapter Twelve: Mirrors and Shadows (Are One and The Same)

“Is it normal what’s happening to me, sir? With the shadows?”

“N-Normal?” stuttered Quirrell. “Why, it’s e-extraordinary, Mr. Potter. I am so glad that you’ve c-confided in me. I always liked to go to P-Professor Slughorn myself, when I was your age.”

“Professor Slughorn, sir?”

Quirrell’s expression was strangely wistful.

“Y-Yes. Used to teach Potions, y-you know. Very admirable man. Extraordinarily helpful, to those who were a-academically or p-politically inclined. But you wouldn’t be much interested in that quiet sort of life, would you, P-Potter?”

After chaos, comes reflection... the shadows return.

On his friends’ request, Harry agrees to confide in a professor about the strange shadows lurking around him. Why not Professor Quirrell, around whom his scar hurts and magic stabilizes?

Of course, Harry doesn’t realize just who he’s talking to.

Read from the beginning at FFN | AO3!

I can’t be a wizard. I mean, I’m Harry. Just harry.

actually, this time dumbledore wasn’t totally in the wrong-

People are always down on Dumbledore about Tom being Tom but Slughorn was literally his biggest enabler. We have to understand that Dumbledore’s negative reaction to 11-year-old Tom was very of the time. (Why do you think Tom is so afraid of being sent to an asylum?) He was born in 1881. He’s not going to understand modern child psychology. Besides, we don’t have ample evidence that he wrote Tom off completely. The stuff he says in HBP comes decades after the rise of Lord Voldemort, and he’s looking back and using conformation bias.

Dumbledore also gets blamed for sending Tom back to London while it was getting bombed. Dumbledore wasn’t Headmaster back then. Dippet was. If you remember the scene in COS (the book, not the movie), it’s Dippet who tells Tom he has to go back to the orphanage. We never see teenage Tom and Dumbledore interact in the books. We have no idea what their relationship was like. Yes, he suspected Tom was behind the Chamber openings, but he was right! Who else does he know that can talk to snakes?

I know Dumbledore has done some other stuff (like being a junior Dark Lord, raising Harry as a ‘lamb for slaughter’ and sending him to live with his abusive relatives with no intervention whatsoever) that makes him a *morally complex* character, but Slughorn was his Head of House. 

If Tom’s mental health was anyone’s responsibility at Hogwarts, it was his.

And making Tom his star pupil/telling him about Horcruxes is not remotely the same as helping him. We can see in HBP that Slughorn actively enabled Tom’s toxic behavior, and who knows what else behind the scenes...