Slytherin Adoption

Explanations: Part Two

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Abraxas asked quietly as he handed the goblet over to his friend. Tom nodded, a determined look in his eyes, and downed the potion. Abraxas pointed his wand at the thirteen year old and muttered the incantation. Almost immediately, a piece of parchment appeared on the desk in front of the boys and they watched as it slowly filled with writing. Once done, Tom slowly read the parchment and when he got to the end, he looked up and grinned at Abraxas.

"I am the heir of Slytherin." Abraxas smiled back.

It would be three years before Tom thought any more about Salazar Slytherin. After all, finding out that he was the heir to one of the founders of Hogwarts was amazing but it didn't really have much to do with his life, other than the fact that he could speak to snakes.

Three weeks into Tom's sixth year, he was working on a project for Professor Slughorn and therefore was, once again, in the restricted section of the library. He had just set a small pile of books on the table when something caught his eye on the bookshelf right in front of him. It seemed to call him and so he slowly walked forward and pulled a small, leather-bound journal from between two books. He opened the cover and breathed in sharply when he saw the words Salazar Slytherin's Journal written in elegant cursive. Tom looked around and, seeing no one, slipped the book into his bag and continued on with his research for Slughorn.

For the next three months, Tom read and reread the journal. For a guy that lived hundreds of years ago, he certainly was interesting. But one of the things that stuck out to Tom was the fact that Salazar had been afraid of dying and leaving his family alone so he had made a horcrux, so he could come back to protect his wife and son. That had Tom stumped, even as he continued reading the journal. What the heck was a horcrux and how could it help a person come back after death?

Through strategic questioning of Slughorn and plenty of research, Tom was able to find out that in order to make a horcrux, you had to kill someone. Tom studied the professor in front of him as he processed this information. Slughorn had been wary of revealing any information on Horcruxes until Tom had presented him with a bottle of very expensive elfish wine. The year before, he had secretly claimed the Slytherin vault at Gringotts and was now exceedingly wealthy and able to butter up his favorite teacher.

"Why does a person have to kill to make a horcrux?" he asked quietly. Slughorn sighed wearily.

Because, when you murder another, you fracture your soul," Slughorn explained. "The fractures are so fragile at the moment, that you can perform the dark ritual of placing a soul piece in an object to make the horcrux. However, it is terribly painful and leaves a hole inside of you. To make a horcrux, a person must want to intentionally murder their victim, or the ritual will not work." He shook his head. "It is horrible, dark magic, Tom. I advise you to give up your research on this and return to your normal studies."

Tom was extremely shaken by Slughorn's words and agreed to put horcruxes out of his mind, and so he did, for a short while. Instead, he focused on another thing the journal had spoken about. It was a chamber that supposedly held something of great value to the man. He opened it and a basilisk came slithering out, startling him. He was so focused on the huge snake that he never noticed the girl crying in the stall behind him until it was too late. Before he could command the snake to stop, Myrtle Warren was killed.

Horrified, Tom ordered the basilisk to go back into the chamber and sealed it up. Everyone thought it was Rubeus Hagrid, as the third year was always bringing dangerous creatures into the school and Tom, scared that he would be expelled and sent back to the orphanage, didn't correct them. He never meant for Hagrid to be expelled but it was too late to say anything and besides, it was bound to happen sooner or later anyways. After that, Tom focused completely on his studies, determined to put all thoughts of Salazar out of his mind.

At the end of his sixth year, Tom found out that he still had a living uncle. When he got on the train, he acted like he was going back to the orphanage but instead, went to the home of Morfin Gaunt. He told him who his mother was and asked if he could live with him but the man just laughed. He started to belittle Tom, calling him weak and all kinds of other things but, when the man starting saying horrible things about Tom's mother, Tom took out his wand and pointed it at him. Morfin started to say the killing curse so without thinking, Tom said it first.

He watched, shocked that he had just killed someone with the darkest curse there was. He tried to tell himself that it was self-defense, but that didn't really help. He was about to leave when he had a thought. After all, the man was already dead, right? He remembered what Slughorn said about intent but decided to try anyways. He took the ring off Morfin's finger and did the dark ritual, screaming in pain as the spell took hold and created the horcrux. Afterwards, he just stared in shock. He really wasn't expecting it to work. After all, he hadn't intended to kill his uncle, had he?

Deciding he had to get out of there, Tom used to the floor and, to cover his tracks so no one could trace the murder back to him, Tom flooed to several different places before finally ending up at the Leaky Cauldron and getting a room for the summer.

It was during that summer that Albus Dumbledore defeated the Dark Wizard Grindelwald, which led to celebrations that lasted the rest of the summer and into the new school year.

It was during his seventh year of Hogwarts that Tom met Serafina Lestrange. Her brother had been Tom's friend since first year but until now, he had never really paid her much mind. She was a year younger than him with long, gold curls and big, brown eyes that he could drown in for hours. As they got closer together and eventually started dating, he was able to somewhat forget the events of the school year before and the summer. But, when he realized he had fallen in love with her, he told her everything. He didn't want any secrets between them.

Far from being disgusted or angry, the young witch had been understanding and kept telling him that she loved him, no matter his past. That he'd made some wrong decisions but she knew that he was good. That was when he asked her to marry him. She said yes, even though it meant her father, who hated the idea of her marrying a half-blood, would disown her. Her uncle stood by her side and, when he died three months after they were married, left her a manor and a few vaults at Gringotts.

They tried for years to have a child but after the third miscarriage, they decided that it just wasn't worth all the pain to keep trying so Sera took a potion that would act like permanent birth control. They were saddened but they had each other and that was enough.

In the spring of 1969, they found out that the potion that Sera took had worn off. And if that wasn't impossible in itself, she was pregnant. Tom had immediately begged her to agree to be on bed rest for the entire pregnancy. This was their last chance and he didn't want to risk anything. The pregnancy, while hard on a woman who was in her 40s, went well and on January 10th, 1970, Salazar Slytherin Riddle was born.

Author's Note:

Well, I wanted to fit everything into this chapter but it was getting kind of long. What do you think? Please be honest as I am not really sure about how this turned out.