CH9 3/4 Tom Riddle

Tom Marvolo Riddle worked tirelessly to cleanse his robes of even the least amount of dust or wrinkle. He checked his hair to ensure not a comb was out of place and cast a shaving charm on his face. At age 64, he still looked 20 years old. There were many theories about his source of immortality, but none guessed close to the truth. Many believed Tom indulged in the darkest of arts and used his pretty face to charm young witches to sacrifice their virginities. Tom personally blamed the bored sensationalist media for those baseless rumors.

Once again, he had a meeting with the ICW to see Dumbledore, the pawn, and his blasted Phoenix. The old man would flop about like a puppet on strings. Tom would beg for help only to be laughed out of the chamber, but he still had to try. Just as phoenixes were immortal, so too was Tom. Dumbledore's body was mortal, and the old man would eventually die, and with him, the credibility of magical Britain would be lost.

Tom had studied them even as he fled with the few others who saw the writing on the wall. They had become a resistance at first the **** eaters. Back in those days, Tom experimented with all kinds of magic in his pursuit of an answer to the immortal phoenix question. Eventually, Tom had chosen to look into time itself. Once a phoenix hatched, no amount of dark magic could slay them. But what if he could unmake them.

Chronomancy had been Tom's answer to that question, and after studying time itself, he made a discovery that ended in immortality. Still, no matter how he rewound time and slew lesser phoenixes, the phoenix lords were beyond Tom's power. So he was **** to flee with his **** eaters to France, and every year he made his journey to the ICW headquarters in New York.

A beep in his robe pocket alerted him to meeting between one of his most prized **** Eaters and a spy on the inside. Tom hid the beeper back in his robes, climbed up the stone steps, and walked between Greek columns to the court of the ICW.

"Hello Tom, it's been a long time." A familiar voice said.

He turned to see his old transfiguration teacher. The man looked better than he had in years. Fawkes was nowhere to be seen, but that meant little. After decades of being under the phoenix thrall, any sense of self Albus Dumbledore may have had was long eroded. This was a puppet that could repeat lines like a parrot.

"You know I don't know whether I should thank or curse them for what they did to you," Tom said.

"What who did to me, Tom, you aren't making any sense? But maybe that's my fault. I was too harsh on our first meeting, and I let others color how we met. You reminded me of a friend I once knew who fell down a dark path, and I wanted to steer you towards the light." Dumbledore said.

"You're repeating yourself. Were you expecting a different reaction this time?" Tom said.

"You're on a dark path, but even you aren't beyond saving. Let Fawkes in, and all of your dreams can come true. I talk with my sister and brother every day. I've experienced lifetimes with them. Gillert doesn't fall down the dark road. We are all truly happy." Dumbledore said.

Tom stepped away from the wizard. No one else was around, and he realized this wasn't the meeting place of the ICW. He had been tricked by the complacency of his routine.

"Hello Tom, it's good to see you again." Tom whirled around to see Gehenna standing in his human form. Red and blue plumage appeared as unkempt hair atop the phoenix lord's head. The birdman smiled, revealing glittering white teeth. "Don't be frightened; I come in peace. Let's discuss peace and unity between our species." Tom prepared to stop the phoenix lord cold before moving on to the monster's underlings. However, he couldn't expect a stop to hold Gehenna for long; the underlings didn't appear.

A stone spike blasted through Tom's head, and for a moment, he felt disoriented. For him, time flowed like water, and even a powerful current could be reversed with a wizard's touch. His body reformed, piecing itself back together until even his robes were undamaged. Time localized around his body sped up to 10 times its normal speed while the world seemed to slow down.

Transfigured stone lions charged at Tom at breakneck speeds. The columns they were taken from help up the ceiling where Tom stood, forcing him to cut and bind. One moment Tom stood under the falling rubble; the next, he stood behind his old transfiguration teacher. He made no sound because it wasn't an apparition. Tom had cut himself from the tapestry of the universe and stitched himself back in another location.

Tom pointed his wand at Dumbledore and resisted the urge to rewind time for the old wizard until all the damage done was erased. His old transfiguration teacher was a victim in this. Tom wanted to give the man a second chance at life but couldn't. If he fell back in the hands of the phoenixes, then it could be half a century more before the old man died. In that time, more people would suffer. Killing the old man would be a mercy that would lead to the deaths of many pureblood hostages.

"Time leap," Tom said, and Dumbledore traveled 10 minutes into the future.

"You are unlike any wizard I've ever encountered before, or so I thought." Tom flicked his wand, conjuring a marble wall as sacred flames erupted around him. Gehenna raised his arm, and from the tip of his finger to his elbow, the wings of a phoenix made of flame appeared. Then, the flames vanished, revealing black phoenix tattoos racing up the phoenix lord's arms. But Tom knew that while the flames had vanished, the heat behind them hadn't.

Tom raised his hands and used his own ultimate magic. A draining hourglass appeared on his right hand and a clock without numbers ticked back on his left.

Gehenna smirked before raising a blue and red eyebrow. "Look at me getting carried away. I'm only here to talk, Tom. But unfortunately, old habits are hard to break, especially for immortals.

"I'm not surprised that monsters like you are stuck in your ways," Tom said.

"But time is always moving forward, and the old ways may not last. So promises have been made between your kind and my own. A peaceful conclusion to our war has been proposed. Last century's enemy might be the next century's friend, and even the natural order may be turned on its head. Tom, what do you know of Harry Potter?" Gehenna asked.

Tom remembered a boy with green eyes trapped in a world that would use and throw him away. So, Tom did something he would never regret. He freed a child from hate and gave him a chance to grow. It was about time for the boy to receive his Hogwarts admission letter. But the phoenixes already had the noble families as hostages; one orphaned boy would hardly matter.

"Let me tell you, Tom, about a wizard child who soul bonded my most promising and stubborn daughter. Let me tell you the story of Harry Potter, the immortal killer." Gehenna said.

"For the first time in my life, phoenix, I'm all ears," Tom said.