A Deeper Connection: A New Beginning

A Deeper Connection - Part II

Eventually, they found a promising fracture.

Unaware of how much time had passed, the Dark Lord withdrew from his Equal's mindscape, assisting him from the outside as best as he could.

In front of him, the tip of Harry's unregistered Alder wand began to glow in a vivid green as he began with the strenuous task of extracting the designated shard of his soul.

In the meantime, all that Tom could do was to watch. Since every soul reacted differently in a situation like this, his input would only distract his Equal. Therefore, he remained quiet and simply observed as the green light at the tip of the Alder wand got brighter and brighter, while every cell of his body wished that Harry would succeed.

Without warning, a blinding light illuminated the room, forcing Tom to shield his eyes.

The shard of Harry's soul had been extracted.

Trying to ignore the blinding light as best as he could, the Dark Lord watched as his Equal directed the removed soul shard towards the tin soldier, forcing them to merge. For a fraction of a second, the silvery object was gleaming in the same vivid greenish light the extracted shard of Harry's soul had been glowing. The next moment, the Horcrux went back to looking like the ordinary tin soldier it had been before.

"I... I did it," the whispered words of his Equal sounded oddly loud in the silence of the Ritual Chamber. Even Petunia's noisy sobs had turned silent as she stared at the massive mountain of meat and bones that had once been her husband.

Then, the realisation kicked in.

Harry had managed to create a Horcrux and Lady Magic had accepted his sacrifice.

Unlike what many, especially Light Witches and Wizards believed, the sole purpose of the creation of a Horcrux was not to extend one's life. While this was a rather nifty side-effect of the Ritual, it was much more.

When the Sumerians had first created the Ritual, they had simply called it The Sacrifice . In the Dark Lord's opinion, it was a rather fitting name since the separated part of one's soul represented the ultimate sacrifice to Lady Magic. It was a vow to serve and preserve what had been gifted to the Wizarding community. While it was one of the Darkest, maybe even the Darkest Rituals known to the Magical community, it was not evil like so many Light Witches and Wizards believed. It was a lot more than that and something they would never understand. After all, the soul was one of the most sacred possessions of a magic wielder. To willingly sacrifice a part of it, even for the ethereal entity that was Magic, was an extraordinary decision, not that Lady Magic would accept every sacrifice. The service of only a few had ever been accepted.

When the Dark Lord came back to his senses, he realised that his arms were tightly wrapped around his Equal, leaning forward to whisper, "I am so proud of you."

Before him, the corners of Harry's mouth curled into a faint smile, "Thank you for believing in me. I would not have been able to do it without you."

After a while, Tom pulled back, Harry's expression mirrored on his face, "I am curious. Shall we inspect your work?"

Opposite of him, Harry nodded his head.

The tin soldier felt warm to the touch. After having accepted the silvery object from the raven-haired wizard, Tom could feel the intoxicating Darkness of Harry's magic trapped inside. While it was a strange feeling, it also was rather nice, familiar, like home.

Looking up from the Horcrux, their eyes met.

"Shall we continue?" Tom asked, "or shall we postpone the second part?"