Gentle Persuasion
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Harry Potter › General
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Category:
Harry Potter › General
Rating:
Adult
Chapters:
1
Views:
984
Reviews:
0
Recommended:
0
Currently Reading:
0
Disclaimer:
I do not own Harry Potter, nor any of the characters from the books or movies. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.
Gentle Persuasion
A/N~~ This is the response to a challenge issued to writers on SnapelyThings. I haven't heard back yet from the admin whether I won or not, but I thought I'd give this a larger viewing audience.
It's not violent, no sex, and hardly anything worth warning about beyond a character's death.
Obviously this is set during Tom Riddle's time at Hogwarts and doesn't have any of our favorite students in it.
Marti
(~~)before and after dialogue indicates Parseltongue being spoken.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
He’d known since he was five years old that he could understand what snakes were saying. He’d be apart from the other orphans, as usual, watching them play while listening to the sibilant snake conversations in the un-mowed grass.
When he was ten he had a nest of snakes torture one of his bunk-mates, a boy who had decided that it would be great fun to bully the sullen black haired loner.
The boy spent six weeks in the hospital recovering. When he returned to the orphanage, he cried whenever he saw Tom Riddle.
In his third year at Hogwarts, while wandering the halls after curfew; listening for the snakes living in the plumbing he heard it for the first time. He heard about the room with the giant snake, the one who was confined to a secret chamber.
At the end of his fourth year he found it. It was a great joke by the great Salazar Slytherin to have put the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets in the girls’ lavoratory. Who would suspect a girl of being the Heir of Slytherin?
~~Massster, you come. We have found it. Follow.~~ The little green garter snake slithered around Tom’s ankle, making figure eights from one second-hand sock to the next. Tom looked down at the little creature and narrowed his eyes. He lifted his head for a moment to make sure none of his dorm-mates was listening to his ‘conversation.’ Not that they would have understood any of it, but he would have hated to ‘Obliviate’ any of them; when he took over the Wizarding world they would be his followers. If he hurt them now, there was little chance they’d listen to him when he came into his power.
He got out of bed and pulled on the too small faded bathrobe. Rudolph Goyle watched him from his own draped bed.
“Where you going, Riddle?”
“To the common room.” No one could see the little snake that slithered up his pant leg and gripped him tightly. Tom Riddle, the self-styled Lord Voldemort, left the dorm and hurried to the Slytherin House entrance. He checked all the corners then let himself out, ordering the portrait to be quiet as he scurried down the corridor.
He hated the dungeons and wondered if Gryffindor headmasters had made the Slytherin House down here as a punishment. When he ran things, it would be different, he promised himself.
The little snake let go of his pant leg, now that Tom could hear the soft call of more of its kind, calling him to the second floor. He followed the sound, listening to the snakes’ call to him, urging him until he stopped before the closed door of the girls’ bathroom.
“The girls’ room? What the hell kind of moron puts the entrance to a secret chamber in the girls’ bathroom?” He whispered as he pushed the door open, one hand gripping his wand as he hoped no girl was in there, or worse, a teacher.
“Anyone here?”
~~Massster, you come. Here, we found it.~~ A small voice came from the circular sinks in the middle of the bathroom. With a muttered ‘lumos,’ Tom advanced on the tiny snake, barely a hatchling slithering back and forth in excitement beneath the sinks. Crouching, feeling the cold seep through his threadbare robe and pajama bottoms, he bent closer to the little snake.
“Is the Slytherin mark there?”
~~The snakes entwined. Yesss, Massster.~~ It’s little head turned and pointed toward the plumbing above her head, her tongue slipping in and out of her mouth anxiously. She, one of the youngest of the master’s brood had discovered the entrance to the chamber, when so many of her brethren had hunted for so long.
“As the Heir of Slytherin, I order you to reveal your secrets!” He whispered savagely to the sculpted snakes. With narrowed eyes, he realized after a few minutes that he didn’t know the way to enter.
“I am the Heir of Slytherin.”
“Open for the Heir of Slytherin.”
“Open, damn it!”
After twenty minutes of ordering the plumbing to do as he wanted, he gave up and sat on his bottom on the cold tile floor. The tiny snake crawled up into his lap and curled around his wand, seeking his warmth in the cold castle.
“I can’t open it. I know I’m the Heir of Slytherin. Why won’t the bloody thing open?”
~~Massster sad? I am sorry.~~
“You found the entrance, little one. I will come back tomorrow to try again.” Tom sighed and pushed himself to his feet, still holding the small snake. “What is your name?”
~~No name, Massster.~~
“You will be mine, then. You found the entrance, and I think I’ll make you my familiar as I have none.” Tom stroked the small head. If the snake had been a cat, she would have purred beneath the motion. “I will name you ‘Nagini.’ You will grow even greater than your brothers and sisters; you will obey only me.”
~~Of course, Massster. My Massster.~~ Nagini curled tighter around his wrist as left the bathroom to return to the Slytherin common room. She sighed in contentment and closed her eyes.
CHAPTER 2
Tom sat in Transfigurations, watching Dumbledore at the head of the class, but listening to his Nagini, tucked snugly inside the pocket of his hand-me-down shirt. He’d been trying for days to get into the Chamber. He’d had to stop when he’d heard a girl crying in one of the stalls. He considered using the ‘Imperius’ curse to get her to leave, but he wasn’t certain if he was strong enough yet to get it to work for long.
“Mr. Riddle? Since you’re so far beyond everyone else, I assume you would like to teach the class?” Dumbledore, with a twinkle in his eyes, caught Tom’s attention finally. Tom sat upright and blushed. The only one of his teachers that he couldn’t charm to his way of thinking had caught him daydreaming and scheming.
‘Damn!’ Tom smiled bashfully, looking down slightly to make sure his Nagini was safely tucked away. “My apologies, sir. I was just thinking about last night’s assignment. My teacup wouldn’t change into a rabbit, no matter how much I ordered it to.” He improvised and excuse. It had taken him a long time to get the teacup to Transfigure, and when it had, well, the rabbit had a handle for a tail.
“Ordered? Tom, I would have thought that by now, you would know that sometimes, with magic, a strong hand is needed, and at others, gentle persuasion is more appropriate.” Dumbledore smiled at the young man. Tom gritted his teeth and smiled back. The foolish old man would regret embarrassing him in front of his classmates.
“I will remember that from now on, Professor. Thank you.”
Dumbledore looked at the boy and shook his head slightly. The orphan was up to something, but every time he tried to reach into his mind, Tom would block him. He didn’t think the boy knew he was a natural Occlumens but sometimes he wondered. Ever since Tom had set foot in the castle, he’d acted like he owned it, like he was the master of all he surveyed.
It was an odd reaction for a boy who’d grown up with nothing, as a faceless child in a Muggle orphanage.
“Now, if I may return to today’s lesson?” Dumbledore turned back to the blackboard and waved his wand. Instructions appeared there for the class.
Tom returned to ignoring the Transfigurations Professor.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
~~I said, open, damn it!~~ Tom hissed angrily in Parseltongue at the carved snakes on the girls lavoratory pipes. He’d been trying for weeks to figure out how to get into the damn Chamber, but nothing his little Nagini and he came up with helped. He’s hunted through every history book about Salazar Slytherin, but nothing helped. There were no hints, no more tidbits of his life that Tom could use as possible clues to getting into the Chamber.
He punched his fist into the floor where he was sitting and glared at the figurine, blaming it for his inability to get what he so desperately wanted. He jerked to his feet as he heard the door squeak open behind him.
Standing regally, he stared at the tiny second year girl running blindly into the bathroom. She stopped right in front of him, wiped her snotty nose on the sleeve of her robe and looked up at him with her owlish gaze, her brown eyes looking at him in wonder behind her large, bookish glasses.
“What are you doing here?” Her voice rose at the last word. She cocked her head to one side as she looked at him. Tom sneered.
“I’m a Prefect. I go where I wish. What are you doing here in the middle of the day? Aren’t you supposed to be in class?”
“Aren’t you? Besides, Olive was teasing me again. I left class.”
“To cry your poor eyes out, like a Mudblood would? Get out. I heard a noise in here and wish to inspect it before turning my findings to Professor Slughorn.” He put his hands on the girl’s shoulders and turned her around, forcing her to leave the lavoratory. She argued, but went through the door without a true fight.
Just before the door closed between them, she turned to stare at him, her fists clenched defiantly on her 12 year old hips. “You know, you could just ask! Haven’t you heard it’s easier to catch flies with honey than with vinegar?”
Without another word to her, he slammed the door in her face and returned to the sinks. His eyes narrowed, he considered what she had said. It reminded him of what Dumbledore had said in class a few days before. He knelt before the sink and considered the wording he wanted to say.
~~As the Heir of Slytherin, I request the Chamber to open for me and allow me entrance.~~ He closed his eyes, not only at having to debase himself in asking for entrance, but also in silent prayer.
In triumph, he heard the scrape of stone on stone. He had found it. Now, to change the password to something far more appropriate for the Heir of Slytherin to use. But, first, to discover the powers hidden down in the depths of the school.
He opened his eyes and grinned. His handsome face shone as he gathered Nagini into his hand and took a step into his future.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
~~Massster, may I leave my chamber?~~ The Basilisk asked Tom once again. He’d been coming down into the Chamber for six weeks now. The chamber was filled with books, journals written by the great Salazar Slytherin: each one carried his dreams, his thoughts on how the Muggleborns were going to ultimately destroy the Wizarding world. Tom soaked it all in, smuggling out the books little by little and hording them in his trunk, glamoured to look like boring Arithmancy texts so his dunderheaded roommates never got curious about them.
~~Soon, I promise. For now there are too many using the lavoratory where the entrance is.~~
~~I do not need the entranccce, Massster.~~ The Basilisk rubbed its head against the great stone column next to it, it’s skin scaling and dry. With a new master to direct it, it was growing now, growing out if it’s old skin and into a new, larger one. ~~The human plumbing is how I find my meals.~~
~~As soon as I figure out what Salazar was using the Chamber for, you will have freedom. And the first thing you will do is kill the first Mudblood you see!~~ Without looking up from his reading, Tom spat the words hatefully. With every passing day, and every word he read, he knew that he was a pureblood wizard destined to separate the Muggle world from the Wizarding one.
~~Pleassse, my Massster?~~
~~Fine, fine. Don’t be seen.~~ Tom didn’t look up still. For some reason, he was immune to the stare of the Basilisk. Not that he looked at the beast anyway, it was simply a tool, a means to an end he hoped to bring about. He barely heard the snake slither out of the chamber, so engrossed in his tome.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
The great snake moved through the tunnel. His master hadn’t told him he couldn’t leave through them, and it had been so long since he’d seen the castle proper. He wondered how it might have changed in the hundreds of years he’d been hibernating, talking patiently with his smaller cousins, finding a snack or two roaming through the interior walls. Someone was always losing a cat, or occasionally a dog roamed the hidden chambers too large for humans to dwell.
He pushed through the exit, into the small girls’ bathroom back into the light of day. He slithered slowly towards the one window, to the light, happy to be basking in it for the first time in ages. To his right, a stall door opened, a young human girl came out, wiping her eyes.
“Who’s the--?” her young voice ended forever as she looked into his yellow eyes, her body petrifying, and dying immediately. He stared at the body for a few minutes. This, besides his master, was the first human he’d set eyes on in years, decades. And knowing humans, he realized he’d be locked back up again. He’d only just gotten renewed limited freedom recently, harassing the animals, even going outside near the lake through a little used exit Salazar had built just for him.
He nudged the body with his nose, her arm rocking uselessly near her body, her glasses held close between two tightly pinched fingers, locked forever in a death grip.
Regretfully, he turned back to the Chamber entrance and slowly returned to his master to tell him of his transgression. He knew he had to follow the orders of the Heir of Slytherin, but he missed his true master, Salazar. A hard man, he still treated his Basilisk with a healthy dose of respect. Riddle, or Lord Voldemort as he’d started calling himself in the privacy of the chamber, was different, odd.
The Basilisk made his way through the passageway, stopping only once, for a few minutes to finish rubbing the old skin off, leaving it to lay among the bones gathered over the centuries.
The End
It's not violent, no sex, and hardly anything worth warning about beyond a character's death.
Obviously this is set during Tom Riddle's time at Hogwarts and doesn't have any of our favorite students in it.
Marti
(~~)before and after dialogue indicates Parseltongue being spoken.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
He’d known since he was five years old that he could understand what snakes were saying. He’d be apart from the other orphans, as usual, watching them play while listening to the sibilant snake conversations in the un-mowed grass.
When he was ten he had a nest of snakes torture one of his bunk-mates, a boy who had decided that it would be great fun to bully the sullen black haired loner.
The boy spent six weeks in the hospital recovering. When he returned to the orphanage, he cried whenever he saw Tom Riddle.
In his third year at Hogwarts, while wandering the halls after curfew; listening for the snakes living in the plumbing he heard it for the first time. He heard about the room with the giant snake, the one who was confined to a secret chamber.
At the end of his fourth year he found it. It was a great joke by the great Salazar Slytherin to have put the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets in the girls’ lavoratory. Who would suspect a girl of being the Heir of Slytherin?
~~Massster, you come. We have found it. Follow.~~ The little green garter snake slithered around Tom’s ankle, making figure eights from one second-hand sock to the next. Tom looked down at the little creature and narrowed his eyes. He lifted his head for a moment to make sure none of his dorm-mates was listening to his ‘conversation.’ Not that they would have understood any of it, but he would have hated to ‘Obliviate’ any of them; when he took over the Wizarding world they would be his followers. If he hurt them now, there was little chance they’d listen to him when he came into his power.
He got out of bed and pulled on the too small faded bathrobe. Rudolph Goyle watched him from his own draped bed.
“Where you going, Riddle?”
“To the common room.” No one could see the little snake that slithered up his pant leg and gripped him tightly. Tom Riddle, the self-styled Lord Voldemort, left the dorm and hurried to the Slytherin House entrance. He checked all the corners then let himself out, ordering the portrait to be quiet as he scurried down the corridor.
He hated the dungeons and wondered if Gryffindor headmasters had made the Slytherin House down here as a punishment. When he ran things, it would be different, he promised himself.
The little snake let go of his pant leg, now that Tom could hear the soft call of more of its kind, calling him to the second floor. He followed the sound, listening to the snakes’ call to him, urging him until he stopped before the closed door of the girls’ bathroom.
“The girls’ room? What the hell kind of moron puts the entrance to a secret chamber in the girls’ bathroom?” He whispered as he pushed the door open, one hand gripping his wand as he hoped no girl was in there, or worse, a teacher.
“Anyone here?”
~~Massster, you come. Here, we found it.~~ A small voice came from the circular sinks in the middle of the bathroom. With a muttered ‘lumos,’ Tom advanced on the tiny snake, barely a hatchling slithering back and forth in excitement beneath the sinks. Crouching, feeling the cold seep through his threadbare robe and pajama bottoms, he bent closer to the little snake.
“Is the Slytherin mark there?”
~~The snakes entwined. Yesss, Massster.~~ It’s little head turned and pointed toward the plumbing above her head, her tongue slipping in and out of her mouth anxiously. She, one of the youngest of the master’s brood had discovered the entrance to the chamber, when so many of her brethren had hunted for so long.
“As the Heir of Slytherin, I order you to reveal your secrets!” He whispered savagely to the sculpted snakes. With narrowed eyes, he realized after a few minutes that he didn’t know the way to enter.
“I am the Heir of Slytherin.”
“Open for the Heir of Slytherin.”
“Open, damn it!”
After twenty minutes of ordering the plumbing to do as he wanted, he gave up and sat on his bottom on the cold tile floor. The tiny snake crawled up into his lap and curled around his wand, seeking his warmth in the cold castle.
“I can’t open it. I know I’m the Heir of Slytherin. Why won’t the bloody thing open?”
~~Massster sad? I am sorry.~~
“You found the entrance, little one. I will come back tomorrow to try again.” Tom sighed and pushed himself to his feet, still holding the small snake. “What is your name?”
~~No name, Massster.~~
“You will be mine, then. You found the entrance, and I think I’ll make you my familiar as I have none.” Tom stroked the small head. If the snake had been a cat, she would have purred beneath the motion. “I will name you ‘Nagini.’ You will grow even greater than your brothers and sisters; you will obey only me.”
~~Of course, Massster. My Massster.~~ Nagini curled tighter around his wrist as left the bathroom to return to the Slytherin common room. She sighed in contentment and closed her eyes.
CHAPTER 2
Tom sat in Transfigurations, watching Dumbledore at the head of the class, but listening to his Nagini, tucked snugly inside the pocket of his hand-me-down shirt. He’d been trying for days to get into the Chamber. He’d had to stop when he’d heard a girl crying in one of the stalls. He considered using the ‘Imperius’ curse to get her to leave, but he wasn’t certain if he was strong enough yet to get it to work for long.
“Mr. Riddle? Since you’re so far beyond everyone else, I assume you would like to teach the class?” Dumbledore, with a twinkle in his eyes, caught Tom’s attention finally. Tom sat upright and blushed. The only one of his teachers that he couldn’t charm to his way of thinking had caught him daydreaming and scheming.
‘Damn!’ Tom smiled bashfully, looking down slightly to make sure his Nagini was safely tucked away. “My apologies, sir. I was just thinking about last night’s assignment. My teacup wouldn’t change into a rabbit, no matter how much I ordered it to.” He improvised and excuse. It had taken him a long time to get the teacup to Transfigure, and when it had, well, the rabbit had a handle for a tail.
“Ordered? Tom, I would have thought that by now, you would know that sometimes, with magic, a strong hand is needed, and at others, gentle persuasion is more appropriate.” Dumbledore smiled at the young man. Tom gritted his teeth and smiled back. The foolish old man would regret embarrassing him in front of his classmates.
“I will remember that from now on, Professor. Thank you.”
Dumbledore looked at the boy and shook his head slightly. The orphan was up to something, but every time he tried to reach into his mind, Tom would block him. He didn’t think the boy knew he was a natural Occlumens but sometimes he wondered. Ever since Tom had set foot in the castle, he’d acted like he owned it, like he was the master of all he surveyed.
It was an odd reaction for a boy who’d grown up with nothing, as a faceless child in a Muggle orphanage.
“Now, if I may return to today’s lesson?” Dumbledore turned back to the blackboard and waved his wand. Instructions appeared there for the class.
Tom returned to ignoring the Transfigurations Professor.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
~~I said, open, damn it!~~ Tom hissed angrily in Parseltongue at the carved snakes on the girls lavoratory pipes. He’d been trying for weeks to figure out how to get into the damn Chamber, but nothing his little Nagini and he came up with helped. He’s hunted through every history book about Salazar Slytherin, but nothing helped. There were no hints, no more tidbits of his life that Tom could use as possible clues to getting into the Chamber.
He punched his fist into the floor where he was sitting and glared at the figurine, blaming it for his inability to get what he so desperately wanted. He jerked to his feet as he heard the door squeak open behind him.
Standing regally, he stared at the tiny second year girl running blindly into the bathroom. She stopped right in front of him, wiped her snotty nose on the sleeve of her robe and looked up at him with her owlish gaze, her brown eyes looking at him in wonder behind her large, bookish glasses.
“What are you doing here?” Her voice rose at the last word. She cocked her head to one side as she looked at him. Tom sneered.
“I’m a Prefect. I go where I wish. What are you doing here in the middle of the day? Aren’t you supposed to be in class?”
“Aren’t you? Besides, Olive was teasing me again. I left class.”
“To cry your poor eyes out, like a Mudblood would? Get out. I heard a noise in here and wish to inspect it before turning my findings to Professor Slughorn.” He put his hands on the girl’s shoulders and turned her around, forcing her to leave the lavoratory. She argued, but went through the door without a true fight.
Just before the door closed between them, she turned to stare at him, her fists clenched defiantly on her 12 year old hips. “You know, you could just ask! Haven’t you heard it’s easier to catch flies with honey than with vinegar?”
Without another word to her, he slammed the door in her face and returned to the sinks. His eyes narrowed, he considered what she had said. It reminded him of what Dumbledore had said in class a few days before. He knelt before the sink and considered the wording he wanted to say.
~~As the Heir of Slytherin, I request the Chamber to open for me and allow me entrance.~~ He closed his eyes, not only at having to debase himself in asking for entrance, but also in silent prayer.
In triumph, he heard the scrape of stone on stone. He had found it. Now, to change the password to something far more appropriate for the Heir of Slytherin to use. But, first, to discover the powers hidden down in the depths of the school.
He opened his eyes and grinned. His handsome face shone as he gathered Nagini into his hand and took a step into his future.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
~~Massster, may I leave my chamber?~~ The Basilisk asked Tom once again. He’d been coming down into the Chamber for six weeks now. The chamber was filled with books, journals written by the great Salazar Slytherin: each one carried his dreams, his thoughts on how the Muggleborns were going to ultimately destroy the Wizarding world. Tom soaked it all in, smuggling out the books little by little and hording them in his trunk, glamoured to look like boring Arithmancy texts so his dunderheaded roommates never got curious about them.
~~Soon, I promise. For now there are too many using the lavoratory where the entrance is.~~
~~I do not need the entranccce, Massster.~~ The Basilisk rubbed its head against the great stone column next to it, it’s skin scaling and dry. With a new master to direct it, it was growing now, growing out if it’s old skin and into a new, larger one. ~~The human plumbing is how I find my meals.~~
~~As soon as I figure out what Salazar was using the Chamber for, you will have freedom. And the first thing you will do is kill the first Mudblood you see!~~ Without looking up from his reading, Tom spat the words hatefully. With every passing day, and every word he read, he knew that he was a pureblood wizard destined to separate the Muggle world from the Wizarding one.
~~Pleassse, my Massster?~~
~~Fine, fine. Don’t be seen.~~ Tom didn’t look up still. For some reason, he was immune to the stare of the Basilisk. Not that he looked at the beast anyway, it was simply a tool, a means to an end he hoped to bring about. He barely heard the snake slither out of the chamber, so engrossed in his tome.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
The great snake moved through the tunnel. His master hadn’t told him he couldn’t leave through them, and it had been so long since he’d seen the castle proper. He wondered how it might have changed in the hundreds of years he’d been hibernating, talking patiently with his smaller cousins, finding a snack or two roaming through the interior walls. Someone was always losing a cat, or occasionally a dog roamed the hidden chambers too large for humans to dwell.
He pushed through the exit, into the small girls’ bathroom back into the light of day. He slithered slowly towards the one window, to the light, happy to be basking in it for the first time in ages. To his right, a stall door opened, a young human girl came out, wiping her eyes.
“Who’s the--?” her young voice ended forever as she looked into his yellow eyes, her body petrifying, and dying immediately. He stared at the body for a few minutes. This, besides his master, was the first human he’d set eyes on in years, decades. And knowing humans, he realized he’d be locked back up again. He’d only just gotten renewed limited freedom recently, harassing the animals, even going outside near the lake through a little used exit Salazar had built just for him.
He nudged the body with his nose, her arm rocking uselessly near her body, her glasses held close between two tightly pinched fingers, locked forever in a death grip.
Regretfully, he turned back to the Chamber entrance and slowly returned to his master to tell him of his transgression. He knew he had to follow the orders of the Heir of Slytherin, but he missed his true master, Salazar. A hard man, he still treated his Basilisk with a healthy dose of respect. Riddle, or Lord Voldemort as he’d started calling himself in the privacy of the chamber, was different, odd.
The Basilisk made his way through the passageway, stopping only once, for a few minutes to finish rubbing the old skin off, leaving it to lay among the bones gathered over the centuries.
The End