Oskar was a grieving mess. He wouldn't eat or take care of himself, and he started to ask by the second week why he had to wait the whole month. He wanted to be done with it all now. I've stopped him from rampaging and destroying his house in anguish, I've stopped him from ending himself twice, and I've offered him council every day over this month. I debated on letting him use the resurrection stone to speak with his wife, but figured that would do more harm than good, and would be selfish of me to call her spirit here to just have to send her back and make him grieve more.
I talked with him every day, learning about his life and his hopes and dreams he had. He didn't really have much of a bucket list, the only things on it revolved around Sarah. He had wanted a family with her above all else. It made me start to feel guilty to my core because the likelihood that I was actually the one to kill her was fairly high. He wasn't a stupid man though, and word had spread far and wide about my actions in the war, he likely knew it was me, even if we couldn't prove it. When it came to the end of the month, I finally felt the need to probe that question.
"Why are you doing this for me?" I ask as we are sitting together on his porch, his cup of tea long since gone cold from where it just sat in his clutches, never having been drank by him. It's night out, and a clear and warm evening with a light breeze, I figured he would benefit from looking out at the stars for the evening. He has been doing that, the ever present sorrow etched into his eyes as he stares wistfully at the bright nights sky.
"Does it matter why?" He replies blandly.
"I think it does." I say back. "I know that you heard about me during the war."
"That you may have been the one to kill them? To kill her?" He says back bluntly. "Yes, I'm aware. I am not so lost that I don't understand that. But I also know they fought on the losing side. You were fighting for what was right, you were protecting your friends and family. I cannot be mad at that. I will find it fitting though that if my wife and brother died at your hands, then I too shall die by your hands." His words struck my heart, and I looked away from him guiltily. There was no anger in his words, he never really carried any emotion this month, but I still felt the gravity of it.
"I wish I could tell you why I need someone to do this." I say truthfully, and he surprisingly chuckles at that, showing the first spark of feelings since he talked about Sarah on my couch a month ago.
"I have my theories." He says lightly, again looking to the stars, but a loving look on his face this time. "I know the type of feeling you have right now. There is only one thing strong enough to drive someone as good as you to make this request of another. I won't say it out loud and risk your spell, but know that I hope that I am right. Life is not worth living without it, and I prey that this works for you." He says genuinely, then falls silent for a moment. "Tomorrow will be one month. Have you gathered all you need?"
"I have." I admit, my mind and heart fluttering with his admission. "Will you be ready tomorrow?"
"I have been ready since the first day, Abigail." He says plainly, a tired tone taking over. "Each additional day has been agony."
"I am sorry, I needed to make sure you wouldn't regret this decision." I admit to him. "We will have to travel, I will go and make the preparations now." I stand then, placing a hand on his shoulder and squeezing it firmly. "Thank you, Oskar." I say with as much sincerity as I can so he can understand that I appreciate what he is doing.
"I hope you achieve what you are attempting." He says with matching sincerity. "I am ready to be with my wife again."
I walk back inside and send Bruce off with a letter to Snape at Hogwarts, also telling Bruce to stay there after he delivers it. I take out the diary then to tell Tom it's time.
"Hello Tom." I say to the boy. We've talked every day since the battle, but I didn't want him to know yet about Oskar.
"You look happy today." He says with a smile, looking at my face.
"I am." I admit with a grin, though it falls at the end. "I found someone. A man who is ready."
"Already?" He says in disbelief, his eyes widening and flooding with emotions. "Who?"
"His name is Oskar." I explain. "I found him a month ago actually. He lost everyone he loved at the end of the battle. I wanted to observe him, to make sure he wasn't making a rash decision, so I've been staying with him and watching over him for a month. Tomorrow... If you are ready, you can do the final stage and attempt to reclaim a body." As I said this, he collapsed backwards into a chair in shock.
"Tomorrow..." He breathes out. "Final stage?" He asks in confusion after a moment. "Was not the remorse the final stage?"
"No." I admit with a small grimace. "It was what was necessary to accomplish the final stage. You must beg forgiveness from who you wronged when you made your horcrux. For most, this would be begging to a tombstone or a next of kin. For you though... You will have to beg to her in person."
"What?" He asks in disbelief. "How am I to do that?"
"When you killed Myrtle Warren 50 years ago, she never passed on." I tell him. "She became a ghost at Hogwarts, forever haunting the bathroom your Basilisk killed her in."
"And how will I beg of her to forgive me? You cannot bring a ghost in here to your realm." He points out after a moment of taking in that information.
"I am going to give you control." I tell him simply, and his eyes widen. "You will use my body. I will grant you access to control me."
"You trust me enough to do that?" He asks quietly.
"Yes, I do." I say firmly. "If you want a body and a second chance in life, you have to beg your victim you created to forgive you."
"She will never forgive me, especially if I cursed her to become a spirit to forever wander this earth and never move on." He says in despair.
"You need to still try." I say confidently to him. "I have faith in you, Tom. Have some more in yourself."
I'm not going to tell him she doesn't need to accept his apology. He needs to speak from his heart when he begs forgiveness but the one he wronged doesn't need to accept it in order for his soul to be set free. This is about him accepting the culmination of his guilt and regret and verbally releasing it all in one moment. It will be what sets him free from Voldemort. A damaged and corrupt soul would never beg forgiveness from those they wronged, so this will be the catalyst that frees Tom from being a horcrux, and will be what resurrects him to a new body. Oskar will be nearby and ready for the ritual that will be done to pass on his own mind and soul and leave his body behind for Tom to inhabit.
Oskar and I headed to Hogwarts the next day, taking a portkey to Hogsmeade and walking the rest of the way. There are no students since it's the middle of summer break, which started early since no one felt the need to keep the students here after the battle was over. The school cancelled their exams and let the kids reunite with their families early. As we approached the front doors, we were met with Dad, Remus, Harry, Minnie, and Snape.
"Is it time, then?" Dad asks when we approach. Snape had sent for them to meet here at the school, I'm assuming.
"It is time." I confirm, and lead the way to the girl's bathroom on the first floor. "You will all have to wait out here. It should be done within an hour, I believe."
"Is there any danger to you?" Dad asks worriedly, and I shake my head.
"No, there isn't." I lie to them convincingly, and give him a hug.
Truth is, there will be a risk to me. That 1% seed of doubt I have in Tom is a risk, and will reach it's highest danger right after the resurrection.
"If your little experiment is successful, He will be resurrected?" Snape asks quietly, out of hearing range of Oskar. "And you seriously think this a worthwhile test of limits?"
"Yes, I truly think that." I say stubbornly. "He won't be the Dark Lord anymore. He will just be Tom, the boy who never had his chance to grow into the man he could have been."
"I will let the record stand, I am against this risk." He says sternly.
"Good." I reply back sincerely, catching him off guard. "He will need others who can keep watch from afar, in case I'm wrong. Distrust is healthy at times, Severus. However, you will need to eventually trust someone. You can't keep living with a closed off heart."
"I am clearly making the poor life decision to trust you now, am I not?" He sneers lightly at me and rolls his eyes before walking away, tired of our conversation. I smile softly at his back, he has such an odd way of showing affection. Only he could say he trusted someone in the same sentence that he insulted and doubted them.
"Are you ready?" I ask Oskar as I open the bathroom door. I see hope and happiness finally in his blue eyes as he walks past me into the room confidently.
"Yes." Oskar answers with the most life I have seen in him yet. "I am ready to be with my Sarah again, and all the rest of my family. I am ready to have my death be for something good as well, since my life did not bring any good to anyone left on this earth."
"I thank you for your sacrifice, Oskar, and I will remember you always." I say sincerely to him as Myrtle floats towards us curiously. "Once you drink this, the ritual will start. There will be no pain for you, it will be as if you are falling asleep. Go now, be with your loved ones once again." I hand him the potion that I crafted for the ritual. It is mostly just a dreamless sleep potion, but it has a poison in it that will banish his mind and soul to the afterlife. It is known as the Reaper Potion, and actually uses similar principles as a Dementor's Kiss. It will leave his body as a shell, but instead of trapping or consuming his soul, it will make it pass on peacefully.
"I hope whoever all this is for feels the same for you as you clearly do for them." He says softly as he takes the vial from me. "I wish you a life time of happiness with them." He adds as he drinks the potion entirely. My eyes widened at his words, touched that even in his final moment he could think of wishing me happiness. "My Sarah, I will be with you again now." He lays himself on the tile of the bathroom, dressed in a fine black suit he wanted to wear today to enter his afterlife with.
"I'm not sharing my bathroom with him." Myrtle cuts in once Oskar closes his eyes for the last time.
"Myrtle, I am about to allow someone else take control of my body." I tell her, turning away from the shell of a man who died with a soft smile on his face, even with his body still breathing. "There is someone who needs to apologize to you. I ask you to please allow him to get his entire apology out and listen sincerely to it. He has been waiting a long time to do this, he just doesn't know he has."
"Who needs to speak to me?" She sneers out with a scoff. "No one ever cares about me, no one mourned me."
"The one who is going to speak to you, is the one who killed you." I say quietly, and she snaps her attention to me with a burning glare. "Tom Riddle." I confirm, and then grab the diary and release my control, lowering my Occlumency shield down to a minimum, only blocking my long term memories but otherwise falling completely to darkness.
I can only hope that Tom is doing what he is meant to do while he has control of my body, because as of now, I am locked in the dark recesses of my own mind, standing alone by the ornate gate that locks away my memories.
~ 3rd Person POV ~
Abigail's head dropped after she touched the diary, falling limp as her body stayed sentry. After a moment, her head slowly lifted back up. She looked at her hands curiously, gripping and releasing them to test their reactions. She reached for the wand on her holster, holding it delicately in her hand as she looked at it impassively, her face not betraying much emotion. Myrtle watched her like a hawk though, glaring hard at her, trying to figure out if she was really still Abigail, or the boy who murdered her 50 years ago.
"So strange... In my past, people trusted me blindly, following my every order without question." Abigail says in soft whisper, a tone and speech pattern that was not her own. It's unclear if she's speaking to herself or to the ghost in front of her, Abigail's eyes are idly looking at the wand. "And now to have this girl, this woman, trust me after knowing all the worst parts of me. This would be my moment to take over her, to live again without having to go through the pain of remorse anymore. For years she has already poured her heart into my diary with every time she spoke to me. It would be easy to take her life for my own."
"So you're going to kill her like you killed me." Myrtle spit out venomously at Abigail's body.
"Years ago, that was my plan." Tom says idly, speaking from Abigail's body as he turns to face Myrtle. "To get her to trust me, to get her to lead me to this very moment where I had control. And yet... that ambition became lost along the way. She took all of my deep rooted ambitions and ripped them mercilessly to shreds. Once I realized this, she became my obsession, it was my greatest goal to figure her out. How could someone, all on their own, take everything I knew in life and make me see it differently?" Tom laments as he stores the wand back into it's holder. "My obsession grew to something deeper then. Respect was the first thing, she had that from the moment she could trap me in her realm. But... she made me feel again. Or maybe, for the very first time. I cannot recall ever feeling so deeply for anything before I met her. Not even feeling as strongly for myself as I do for her."
"You're a murderer, you leave only death and chaos where you go. You killed me, and you didn't even know who I was!" Myrtle screams at him. "You think she could ever care for you? No one could ever care for you."
"I will never claim to be worthy of her." Tom replies morosely. "All I can do is take the second chance she gave me, and spend the entirety of that new life attempting to earn her care. Alas though, that is not why I have control of her now." He looks deeply up at the ghost floating above him. "She gave me this trust in order to allow me the chance to speak to you, Myrtle. You are the one who I, at this stage in my life, have wronged the most. I killed you without care, allowing the monster of Slytherin to kill you purely for being a muggle born." His tone turns remorseful the longer he speaks, Abigail's voice wavering with every word. "I thought so blindly that what I was doing was for the good of wizards everywhere. And that was only the surface reason. My truthful reason for killing you and creating my horcrux was that I wanted immortality. With that, I would live forever and learn everything, and never lose." He says bitterly. "I was much like you, Myrtle. I grew up bullied, tormented for being different. When I had a taste of power, I took it and let it take over me. I never wanted to allow myself to be again in a position where I cried alone where no one could see me, much like how you were that night. I remember listening to your sobs as you shut yourself in that stall over there." Abigail's body points towards Myrtle's stall. "I thought, in all my righteous attitude, that I was doing you a favor. That your death would give you the freedom and you could die knowing your worthless, muggleborn life was going to go towards a purpose far greater that anything you could have accomplished."
"I'll never know, now will I?" Myrtle spit out at him after a scoff.
"No, you will never know." Tom says sadly. "Because of my misguided lies I told myself, you suffered greatly. There will never be the right words for me to offer you. What I can say though, is that I regret it." He says truthfully. "I don't, however, regret that it brought me to her though. If I could have redone it in any way that would have allowed you to live, than I would have done it. I am thankful of where the events have landed me these last five years. I only ever truly existed when I was with her. Everything before her was so insignificant, like a stranger's life who's memories I happen to have. She changed me so much, and I will never regret having met her. But for the events that lead to me meeting her... I am so sorry I killed you, Myrtle." Tom sobbed the last part out sincerely, tears forming in Abigail's eyes as her shoulders shook.
"Myrtle Warren, I beg your forgiveness. I beg you, please, I wronged you so much for my selfish crime, and yet I'm selfish again now. I want to live again for her, to show her who I am now, who she has changed me into. I am so sorry." As he said all this, the tears that were threatening to fall finally won their battle and fell down Abigail's cheeks as if a dam had broken.
While Tom doesn't seem to notice it as he is repeating his apology over and over again, Myrtle does notice them. The tears themselves were not normal tears. They glowed a soft blue, and rather than dropping off of Abigail's chin, they floated in an arc around her body. The more that Tom begged forgiveness, genuinely meaning every word he spoke, the tears glowed brighter around Abigail's body.
Myrtle stared hard at the possessed crying girl in front of her. Abigail Black, the girl who slayed the monster that killed the ghost girl. The same girl who always greeted her kindly and complimented her genuinely whenever they met, or would sometimes even come to her bathroom just to check in with her. This girl who was likely a version of evil of some type, as was evident when she climbed out of the hidden chamber covered in someone else's blood once, but the ghost could never classify her as evil because of her kindness that no one else had shown her. Abigail, who before relinquishing all control over to the boy who is crying now, asked simply that the ghost girl listen to the boy. She never asked her to accept or deny the apology, only to listen. A girl so selfless must have a reason to allow this boy, who seemed so genuine in his heartfelt apology, to have a second chance. The ghost girl may never have a second chance herself, but maybe, just maybe, she could let go of some of her hatred she has harbored for 50 years.
"For her." Myrtle whispers out, floating away slowly from the girl's body that has glowing blue tears flowing from her eyes. "And for me. I forgive you, Tom Riddle, for killing me. Live a better second life, and live it for her." She says as she backs away completely, leaving the bathroom and going down to her U-Bend to cry, a weight lifting off her shoulders as she cried tears that for once weren't for anger, but for relief.
Tom gasped out in a broken, choking sob as Myrtle forgave him, and felt his heart clench. He walked to the man's body on the floor, crouching down to it and placing his prison, the black diary of his horcrux, on top of the man's chest. He then moved to place both hands on either side of the man's head, and relinquished control back to Abigail as the glowing blue tears enveloped around the diary and the man, releasing himself over to the pain and torment of the culmination of all his remorse.