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Darkness pushed through with ease as magic thrummed around Godric's Hollow. The wind had been extreme that night, the clouds hurrying through the night sky leaving the burden of the stars with the faint crescent moon which deigned to show its face through. The entire night had an ominous touch to it. Of course, there was a logical reason for it, the veil was the thinnest that night but it appeared like there was an addition to that simple explanation.
It seemed like there was a catastrophe waiting to happen, the calm before the chaos, the mayhem before the madness, the silence before a storm. Something worrisome was going to happen that very night, something which could spin the fate of the wizarding world for the better or for the worse and fate herself couldn't predict it.
The silent steps which moved through the pavement seemed to be aware of the aforementioned facts. As he trudged through the limited crowd, he already knew the direction in which he was drifting towards. Wormtail had been ridiculously brave in giving up everything his life had been remotely associated with.
Standing before the cottage of the Potter's, he sighed at the spectacular failure of the Fidelius charm. Knocking on the door, he summoned the most charismatic version of himself as James Potter opened the door to look at him, evidently confused.
"Yes?"
"James Potter?" He questioned to throw him off, the man nodded in response to which he continued, "I need a moment of your time, Lord Potter, may I come through?"
"Regarding what exactly?" James replied, cautious while a feminine voice pushed through the background.
"Your son, he has missed his vaccination appointment so Saint Mungo's sent me here," he explained to the Gryffindor before him whose face was stoic as he calculated the truth and let him in.
He was slick to move in and was quick to notice the lack of wands on both their persons.
This was the supposed Order who were equipping themselves to defeat him? Unarmed to a stranger?
Shaking his head dismissively, he walked up the staircase to the boy's room. A boy rumoured to be his downfall, Severus had done a fantastic job at bringing him the entire prophecy. He had been initially kicked out of the pub and had heard only one half of it which he refused to disclose to him. Tom was not pleased with it, he had launched a crucio as soon as he stated his unwillingness but his potions master had told him that he would rather assist him in retrieving the entire prophecy from the Department of Mysteries. Tom was reluctant but acquiesced. While he proceeded to obtain the complete prophecy, Severus had gone an extra mile to bring an interpreter. A prophecy interpreter.
Tom almost wanted to call the man a hoax because, prophecy interpreters? But he was a reputed astrologer and a tarot reader so he allowed for this foolishness to proceed until the man said it could be possible that the boy in question was his soulmate.
Before Tom could quickly kill him for even suggesting such a preposterous thing, Nagini intervened. She made a sensible counterargument and again, Tom had to rely on her judgement. It was the third time his snake had interjected and he had promised her that if he was making a wrong decision in three consecutive situations he would remerge with whichever Horcrux was available.
And he kept to his promise.
It was an insult that his snake was smarter than him.
Tom would not loudly admit it but he was an idiot. A massive idiot. He should have researched further before doing something as nearly irreversible as splitting his soul.
By the end of the process, only the diadem, the locket (fuck you, Regulus) and Nagini remained but his sanity had returned. Suddenly, he was confronted with a number of misgivings from his recent past and had to fix all of them. Each and every one of his stupid decisions had cost him months of fixing. So much of fixing that he nearly forgot about the prophecy. Nearly.
He had spent approximately half the year fixing Abraxas' stubborn reservation against the Dragonpox vaccine when he finally lost his patience and threw in the medicine into his tea and listened to the blond yell his ear off when he was cured. He was annoyed but he stilled when he mentioned that Draquesha would have wanted him to live. Tom needed his friend sane and sensible by his side. Useful as Lucius was, he could never be half the man his father is. He needed a friend who wasn't his pet and Abraxas had to live for that.
He had begrudged him for two whole months and then helped him interpret the prophecy. And much to his chagrin, he had agreed with Snape's astrologer.
So that was why he was standing before the wooden door to evaluate this boy's threat. Opening the door, he saw the boy in the cot. A rattle with various quidditch artefacts rotating on it. The boy's viridian eyes were staring at him and Voldemort felt a concoction of loathing and intrigue. His hand reached out to hold the boy while his eyes were constant on his soulmark. The flowers around the triangle instantly gained colour, bright reds, soft pinks, calm yellows around the dark maroon lines. He notices his left arm and sees the dark mark glaring in the same green of his favourite curse and the boy's eyes.
It's a liability. His mind enthusiastically reminds him, it is a weakness, we do not need him. Fine without him. But then another part of his mind reminds him that it's exactly what he has been looking for too. A chance for acceptance, an attempt at a family, something his own. Tom's need to belong blazed so fiercely that it burnt everything in its wake.
And this was an opportunity.
He felt his entire existence yelling at him to finish the boy with a simple swish of his wand but he refused. Children never outgrow the need of wanting something no matter how accomplished they became as adults.
Looking at his green eyes again, he notices the gentle smile which pierces through his lips as the boy squeals and places his hands around Tom's neck.
"I'm fifty-three years older to you, child," He informed him, the undertone of annoyance was clear but the baby in his arm just laughs and spat on his cheek, "for fuck's sake!"
Which made his soulmate giggle as the door burst open only to see himself being cornered by three wixens.
"Leave our son alone!" James threatened which made Tom give him a blank look but then transfigured the cupboard into a couch as he summoned a chair and sat down himself.
"Sit," He ordered them and put Harry down into his cot.
"Who are you?!" Black demanded and Tom snapped his fingers to push his glamour back on which stilled the three of them immediately. Snapping again, the glamour broke down to reveal his more human-looking face.
"Let's get down to business," He began as if they were discussing something as casual as tea. Looking at Lily and James, he raised an eyebrow, "You both are aware of the prophecy."
They were quiet but nodded in assent which made Tom proceed further, "The Death Eater who brought the prophecy had been kind enough to bring an interpreter as well."
The three of them continued glaring at him with their breaths hitched, "The interpretation was that your son is my soulmate."
The three of them stared at him like he had asked for both their functional kidneys.
"What the fuck?!" Black jumped to a conclusion, "you're nearly my father's age!"
"Yes, of course," He drawled lazily and rolled his eyes, "Lady Hecate looks into age differences while matching the few soulmates who exist."
Black's face flushed, the dust of pink quietly perched on his cheeks.
"Tragically, my Death Eater's interpreter was right," He sighed in exasperation, "your child's mark gained coloured when I picked him up and so did mine."
Lily Potter's gaze turned to her husband as though she was asking him to fix it, the same way Lucius sometimes looked at Abraxas but the difference remained that Abraxas would indeed fix it.
Lord Potter slowly formulated a response, "We thought it would be a death eater not...."
"The Dark Lord himself?" Tom prompted to which James nodded wistfully.
"You can't kill him," Lily noted, the fire in her voice matching the colour of her hair.
"I am aware but even if I wanted to, the two of you wouldn't permit it and I am bound by a promise to spare your ungrateful person," he drawled lethargically.
"Me?"
Tom ignored her question and proceeded, "I am willing to grant your family and whosoever you name, amnesty provided you do not fight openly against me."
And Tom knew the Gryffindors before him would not agree with this, in fact, their ridiculous sense of honour would yell against inequality.
"Or I'll kill you both and give Harry to Bellatrix and Rodolphus to parent, he will be raised with perfect pureblood manners and as a fitting Consort."
The hurl of verbal insults was expectant but Tom waited for them to simmer down rather bored.
"Withdraw from this war," He repeated, "both of you are Lords of formidable lines, oppose me all you want in the political arena but keep your hands off this."
Before they could answer or continue the conversation, a crack resounded in the hallway but the staircase did not creak as the door opened only for Severus' head to pop in with his wand firmly gripped. Exhaling a deep breath as he saw both his person and Lily alive.
"You rabid-" Black fell petrified to the ground, petrified before he could continue his rant.
Severus seemed unaffected as he told him the explanation for his presence, "Bella."
"I shall join the festivities in the next half an hour, Severus," He replied and gave him permission to leave, which he immediately did. Rennervating Black took less than a minute but when he was back on his feet he glared at the man.
"I take care of my belongings, Black," Tom informed him, his voice bordering on Parseltongue, "Orion's loyalty is the only reason I haven't tortured you for your transgressions."
Sirius glared at him as James helped him sit back on the couch but Lily seemed unaffected, "You can break the bond, can't you or you can choose to ignore it, right?"
Tom looked at her like he looked at the dirt under his foot as James turned to his wife, clearly horrified by the suggestion, "You see the problem I have with Muggleborns?"
Sirius, however, was the first to recover from it and went about explaining how it wasn't conventional for soulmates to reject each other. An exceedingly rare scenario especially because the percentage of soulmates itself was less than five per cent in the Wixen community and to have a soulmate was to be blessed by Lady Magic herself. The bond, although it was breakable, was a source of immense power, magic and love. Fate strung them together and she had ordained it.
After the entire explanation, he shook his head, "It's just wrong, Lils. It's an honour to have a soulmark. Wars can be stopped because of it."
Lily Potter did not look pleased, "There is nothing as pre-ordained, it sounds a bit ridiculous, why can't people with soulmarks have the freedom to choose."
"They do, Lily," James re-explained to her quite slowly, "but they choose each other eventually, no matter how long it takes, there are books written on it."
"That's still rubbish, if I could do it why can't anybody else?"
And just like that, Tom was sucked into the Potter family drama yet again.
It didn't take more than five minutes for Tom to cast a wayward crucio to cease their pandering, "Snape was her soulmate, she rejected the bond while he did not so now she doesn't possess a soulmate while he certainly does."
He didn't want sympathy from these wailing Gryffindors for his most trusted, he knew what to do with Severus, "As far as my potions master is concerned, I can fix his situation, people who belong to me are taken care of but what I cannot fix is your decision."
“Why can you not fix this as well?” Lily questioned, her eyes, determined.
Tom let out a chuckle and condescendingly responded, “You only fix the things which are broken, Mrs Potter.”
Her expression looked like she had just been slapped.
"We need time to think," James relented, diverting the course of the conversation.
Tom was not pleased by that as he shook his head, "No, you don't, I won't allow my soulmate to be a bargaining chip for Dumbledore. You decide now, make an unbreakable vow and then I leave."
"We don't even know your terms!" Lily exclaimed, clearly annoyed, "Harry is too young to initiate anything on his name."
Tom was aware of this. Well aware.
"I meet him only on the day before his birthdays up until he is seven, owl correspondence every month after his seventh birthday, followed by quarterly meetups until he is eleven," Tom detailed out, "we shall tell him on his thirteenth birthday, proceed accordingly from there."
"And if I realise, you are poisoning his mind with any rubbish of rejecting the mark," Tom threatened, his gaze pinning Lily, "there is only so much Severus' word can hinder me, I will come for blood."
While Lily Potter was thoroughly against it, Lord Potter seemed uncertain, the look on his face too evident in considering his proposal. He wanted his family to live, he loved Lily and Harry way too much to give up on this for the war.
Sighing, he let out, "We shall withdraw from the war but Lily's employment will not be affected regardless of where she applies."
"Consider it accomplished."
Six vows, each having different variations to it and two legally binding contracts later. Lord Potter escorted him out of his house.
He was right, something was changing. It was the beginning of the end.