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It had shocked his friends when Tom took the job at Borgin and Burkes. With marks like his, most assumed he was destined for the Ministry. But his simple-minded peers could not fully comprehend what his ambition required of him in order to bring about the age of glory he promised them. It would not do for Tom to be working behind a Ministry desk with all its security and surveillance. Working for old Mr. Burke would bring him into close contact with powerful artifacts and into the acquaintance of those morally loose enough to possess them. In time, Mr. Burke would trust Tom enough to find and retrieve some of the magical antiques the shop sold. And then Tom could embark on his true purpose.
The aspiring dark wizard was currently in the sitting room of the flat he was letting in Horizant Alley. In his hands was a letter addressed to him from Torin Travers. The boy was in Slytherin, a year younger than Tom. Travers wasn’t a particularly notable wizard, but his family was comfortably wealthy and his father was Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. Travers had plans to follow his father’s footsteps and Tom thought it beneficial to have such connections in his pocket.
July 13, 1945
Riddle,
The arrangements to host next week's meeting at my family’s flat in Fate Alley has been finalized. They would have been finalized sooner, but Mother feared that my school friends would destroy the place, despite that never happening before. Apparently my cousin from America will be moving in at the end of the month, so I apologize in advance that our meetings will have to be relocated after next week.
Regards,
Torin Travers
Tom Riddle took a slow, measured breath in. Losing the Fate Alley flat was a mere inconvenience. There were plenty of his followers who would be more than eager to accommodate his meetings. But Tom was not just someone you could inconvenience and expect no rebuke. There was an opportunity here. Should Tom express his displeasure with Travers at this latest offense, followed by familiarizing him better with one of Tom’s favorite spells, the boy will try to get back into Tom’s good graces with fervor.
After he sent his reply back with a grey owl who was beginning to molt, Tom returned to the book he had been reading. It was one of several that he had recovered from Slytherin’s Chamber. He had found them in a small library in his fifth year. Many of the books were Salazar Slytherin’s own journals, recording the founding of the school and the creation of several spells and enchantments. Tom had taken everything he found in Slytherin’s library with him once he graduated. It was the most of his inheritance he could presently claim.
He typically kept all the books locked away, but since graduating and returning to London, Tom couldn’t stop himself agonizing over his fragmented soul. Or more precisely, the vulnerabilities in the vessels that held fragments of his soul. So he was currently dedicating his evening to translating one of Salazar’s journals from the original Pictish runes in hopes that it would reveal an enchantment to better preserve his Horcruxes. Idly, Tom stroked his thumb on the band of the Gaunt ring.