Tom had almost died on that day, he stared Death in the face, and something changed in him. It was terrifying and he wanted to avoid it at all costs. He wanted Dumbledore and Grindelwald dead. In his desperation, with one of the monsters that haunted his dreams being so close, Tom released a Basilisk trying to kill him by surprise, and yet the man was able to avoid it somehow. After accidentally petrifying a couple of muggleborn, he started this whole 'heir of Slytherin' to keep trying to kill the monster that portrayed himself as a benevolent man.
But when poor Myrtle Warren was accidentally killed, all that grief, all that pain washed away, and Tom chose to make her sacrifice not be in vain, he chose to use her death to make his first foray into immortality. At least, in a way, young Myrtle's death wouldn't have been just an accident, she would have helped him stop the monsters that were Dumbledore and Grindelwald.
That was when Tom inhabited the Diary and the rest of his soul continued. The goal of the diary was simple. It was to be used as a weapon against Dumbledore if he assumes control over the school and release the Basilisk in a way that would either discredit him or kill him. And so, Tom stayed in the book, untouched for what felt like seconds and centuries at the same time. Time was odd as an enchanted object. He discovered that it had been around fifty years since someone wrote in his diary for the first time, but that wasn't important, what was important was that his other half failed miserably.
Dumbledore had overhauled the educational system into a mockery of the nature of mages. He practically banned experimentation, any kind of weaponry. Sure, he had defeated Grindelwald and ended the war, but that was it. The man even became the headmaster, while still having two other posts with high influence. What in Merlin's name happened?
Well, his other half decided to become a dark lord with the nickname Tom had made for himself when he was nine. It was an anagram that he made since all he had to himself was his name. Not that he really cared where he came from, his mother had died giving birth to him, and his father was either dead or had abandoned his mother, making him irrelevant in Tom's eyes.
And while it was somewhat gratifying to find out that he was regarded to be stronger than Dumbledore, the fact that the entire ideology adopted by Voldemort for his campaign was nonsense and that the man ended up blowing himself up while miscasting a killing curse on a baby didn't help him much.
The man was alive, of course, since Tom himself still existed. And the fact that the Diary was given to someone going to Hogwarts was proof that Voldemort was planning something. And so, Tom would follow his purpose, to either discredit Dumbledore severely by petrifying muggleborns, or to just kill the headmaster. After all, it was what he was made to do.
To be fair, the Diary wasn't supposed to be a weapon. It wasn't even supposed to hold a soul, but it was the only thing near when he accidentally killed Myrtle Warren. It was a failed experiment, one that was deemed too far-reaching, but Tom wanted to change the world at the time. If only he could continue his work, it was very promising. He didn't know why his future self perverted the Diary in such a way as to turn it into a weapon, but Voldemort had to have a reason.
Outside of this, something else came to his attention. When he spoke to the writer of the diary, someone was obviously chasing after him on two occasions. Someone was looking for him, for the diary, and it was Tom's own intelligence coupled with the secrecy enchantments that allowed the diary to blend in anywhere by mimicking the surrounding ambient magical signature. It was a way for the diary to not get flagged as a dark artefact after all. His writer didn't know who it was, only that it was a dark-haired boy, but there were many ways to fool the senses, so it might not be even real.
But someone was looking for him before they had even gotten to Hogwarts, and this was more interesting than just following through the motions of his purpose. This was even more apparent today when Tom, possessing his foolish victim, opened the chamber for the first time. He had felt a small pinging. As the heir of Slytherin, he had access to the wards of the chamber, and something had sent a message outside the bathroom to say that the chamber had opened.
Wearing another body, Tom couldn't help but smile to himself. This was interesting, very interesting. Someone knew that he was coming here. It wasn't Dumbledore because this place couldn't be detected by the castle wards and the man would have found another way. No, someone knew exactly where the entrance was and made a simple detector to know when it would open. Someone knew that he was opening the chamber of secrets but didn't have any proof. Or maybe, they didn't even know who he was possessing. Were they some kind of seer?
Someone had started a game with him, a game he was more than willing to play. He had never been pitted against a Seer before. Well, a potential seer at least.
With a grin on his stolen face, Tom Riddle jumped into the bowls of the chamber making sure to close the entrance behind him.
After all, the game is afoot.
.....
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