Chapter Text
Harry Potter had married Tom Riddle because both of them had little choice in the matter. They were both orphans, but long ago their parents had sealed their fates. There were a diminishing number of pureblood families, and the Potters and Gaunts had counted among the group until Merope Gaunt had married a muggle man - Tom Riddle Sr., and James Potter had married a muggleborn witch - Lily Evans. Merope and James had fought the social and political pressures that would have them tied together but Marvolo Gaunt had laid down consequences for their actions. Because they had not, no matter what, a Gaunt descendant had to marry a Potter descendant.
This was the history had Harry considered when he had first stepped into the manor Tom lived in. The manor had been Tom’s father’s and Harry knew that it offended pureblood society at large that Tom would chose to live in his muggle father’s house rather than some pureblood ancestral home, and Harry suspected that was exactly why Tom did so. Harry was pleased with the decision, but now, weeks into their marriage, Harry could see that it was too large a place, for it was easy to live in the same building but never see each other.
Harry did not want to blame Tom for being distant and private when their marriage was one arranged by an older, bitter relative who had disapproved of their parents’ matrimonial choices (and in retaliation spelled out theirs), and not one born of any romance or even friendship, so he tried at building a companionship between them.
It was Saturday morning and on Harry’s suggestion they were having breakfast together. Though the point of eating together was to communicate and get closer emotionally, Harry found himself with several newspapers because Tom had a book open and Harry did not want to disturb him. They were using a long dining table but were seated directly across from each other. Harry was only a few feet away from Tom, but their reading materials were a barrier.
Harry was married but he did not feel like he was married. If anything, the marriage that felt real above all else was Harry’s marriage to his job as an Auror. Even now he was engaged with some part of it as he read the news. There was something to be said for separating his work life and his private life but the desk in his bedroom resembled his desk at work, though with one case, instead of several. Harry supposed Tom would have complained about it if they did share a room, as spouses generally did, but they did not, so Harry filled his room with material having to do with the mysterious vigilante named Voldemort.
Harry glanced at newspaper and the cloaked figure wearing a serpentine mask on it, the man was in flight and descending onto a tall building. Voldemort was in the news again. Harry sighed.
After Voldemort around the same time other strange people did as well, such as a man whose theme was birds, and whose name began with “P” - Harry recalled it was “Phoenix”, a woman whose theme was cats, and noticeably could transform into a cat herself, as well as being infamous for being able to transfigure her opponents into cats, and a man that had two-faces, one on the front - where you would normally find a face, while a second was on the back of his head but was sometimes hidden by a turban. They were all headaches for the Auror Office.
Harry was aware of the politics in his office and his coworkers did take it personally that Voldemort was getting attention from the public and being noted as someone was was better at catching Dark wizards than the Aurors themselves. However, Harry was not offended but actually relieved because he had previously been the person that had received the most attention for this work. But Voldemort came along to do what Harry did - except illegally and with the Dark Arts. That was why Harry needed to arrest him of course.
At least he has a name now, Harry thought about the wizard that he and other Aurors, to their frustrations, barely knew anything about and had yet to successfully arrest. Before Ginny Weasley had secured an exclusive interview, everyone had referred to Voldemort by various names, including Snakeman, the Dark Lord, the Cloaked Crusader, or simply the Snake. The masked man had come into prominence in the city of Hangleton months ago but his popularity, or rather infamy, had not died down yet, but was, if anything, growing.
Harry picked up another page and the next article title that caught his eye caused him to give another disgruntled sigh. This did not go unnoticed.
Tom had looked up from his book. Tom was a Ministry worker, but at a post that was low-profile and unglamorous - as a custodian of the Ministry’s Archives. Harry knew that Tom brought his work home too. There were too many places in the manor that Tom had warned him were off-limits. Harry would have tried to explore, but Tom had elaborated that he had wanted to preserve the spaces that had been used by his deceased parents. Thus, out of respect, Harry did not wander, but with permission there had been occasions Harry had seen Tom’s room, and on a desk there were books that needed repair. Magical books, unlike Muggle books could not be as simply repaired. It was delicate, specialized work and Harry’s heard the sounds of fire, roars, electricity and other strange sounds come from Tom’s side of the manor. But the volumes would be repaired by the next morning and Tom would take them back to the Archives it came from. Checking on a book’s health might even involve reading them, as Tom was doing now, and Harry wondered how Tom got any sleep at all.
“Can you read quietly?” Tom asked.
Harry had made several sounds in a span of time while Tom had made none until he spoke just now.
“Not when faced with fresh nonsense from Rita Skeeter.” Harry said, aggressively biting into a piece of toast. Harry tossed the paper in his hand down and gestured at the offending article.
It was about an ongoing case of similar incidents currently being investigated by the Auror Office, of adult magical folks mysteriously losing control of their magic, and being compelled to attack another person with it. There were four cases and a clear and obvious thread were that the afflicted people were all muggleborns while the people hurt had varying magical heritages.
The workers at St. Mungos had yet to figure out the cause but the people had been witnessed as normal before suddenly lashing out at anyone nearby with wandless magic that hurt through the various ways it manifested such as burns or clawing. Words could not get through to them as they continued to launch offensive magics, and they could only be immobilized and moved into the hospital until they could be cured. There was not one yet and there was a team working on an antidote but they still needed time to create an effective product.
In the meantime, a theory being popularized by Rita Skeeter and others like her that was gaining traction was the belief that in those cases muggleborns had reached a breaking point where they could not handle the magic they had and it had turned on them, and that all muggleborns could lose control in this way and therefore should all be banished from public life before they reached that point. There was no evidence but when faced with no answers some turned to this.The whole city of Hangleton was tense.
“The Auror Office issued an official statement.” Harry said, “We said that such theories were in no way acceptable and the matter is still being investigated, but there’s still these articles.” Harry sighed. “That do nothing but spread rumors and fear.” His hand balled up.
“Read something that isn’t drivel, then.” Tom said, handing Harry another newspaper, one from the pile Harry had in front of him.
Harry relaxed his hand in order to grab the newspaper. He glanced at the publication Tom had given him. It was run by the Gryffindor that had been his junior by one year at Hogwarts, Colin Creevey. The newspaper was named “The Magbob,” after an old term for muggleborns that held positive connotations and related to the joy of having magic unexpectedly manifest in magical folks of muggle heritage - of magic bobbing into view. Those who viewed the newspaper derisively called it “The Mudblood” instead. To Harry, the newspaper was a fair one that had a reputation of giving voice to muggleborns, halfbloods, Squibs and other categories of marginalized folks of the wizarding world, and for that reason it was disliked by purebloods who thought it should do more to center them, despite the fact almost all other newspapers already did that to the detriment of people who didn’t come from pureblood families. Colin’s recent articles spoke against the anti-muggleborn theories being pushed, and called for empathy for all the people involved and not jumping to conclusions without evidence. His newspaper was attracting attention, good and bad.
“I didn’t know you were a fan,” Harry said, glancing at Tom. Harry thought about questioning Tom further because this was a common thread he had not known they shared. He wanted to communicate with him.
“I read it occasionally.” Tom said from behind his book, which he had gone back to reading with an apple slice in his hand. His posture looked closed off, advising against interruption.
Seeing that Tom did not want to be interrupted, Harry turned to his own reading. The quiet lasted for five minutes when Harry sighed in frustration.
Colin had published an exclusive interview with Voldemort.
Ginny Weasley had been the first journalist to secure an interview with Voldemort. Following the publication, it had been a worry for Harry that people, fans and enemies of Voldemort alike would harass her for information on him because she was reachable in a way Voldemort was not because Voldemort appeared in the night and patrolled many places while Ginny had work hours and an office she could be found at.
People had thought maybe she knew more about Voldemort than what she had shared in her article. As a part of his job and his assignment, Harry had to question Ginny on how she had convinced Voldemort to agree to an interview and if she had any personal ties to him beyond reporter and interviewee.
Ginny had explained that she had managed to get him to speak to her because she saw that Voldemort could fly so she figured the only way she could reach him was by flying too. She had pursued him on a broomstick, for hours, until he had agree to an interview. When Harry questioned her, Ginny said she did not know Voldemort’s civilian identity. Still, she had been shadowed for some time and that put a strain on Harry’s friendship with her. The attention directed at Ginny wore off once Voldemort spoke Luna Lovegood, and the attention toward her departed after he had allowed himself to be interviewed by Parvati Patil and Padma Patil.
Harry was aware that the wealthy and powerful pureblood wizards of Hangleton did feel slighted about the infamous vigilante Voldemort only allowing women to interview him. Voldemort had been interviewed in the past only by pureblood or half-blood witches, but now here was the first interview with a man, but one that was a muggleborn wizard. Colin Creevey was male but Harry knew that there would be bitterness over Voldemort’s supposed favoritism of a muggleborn, especially one that ran the publication Colin Creevey did. It meant something.
Harry didn’t know what to make of it. If Voldemort was telling the truth it reduced the amount of people that could be his true identity, but if it was a lie then it would deflect discovery of his identity.
Whether or not the information Voldemort had voluntarily given was true, Harry had to schedule a time to interview Colin.
Harry could feel a headache brewing as he read Colin’s article, not because of Colin’s writing quality, which was excellent, but because of what he had to do and the fact that Voldemort was dreadfully prideful and self-aggrandizing and most of the statements were unhelpful. For example, Voldemort wanted his enchanted car to be referred to not as a “Snakecar” but as the “Serpentmobile”. But what stood out was Voldemort saying that he was not a pureblood wizard.
A popular topic that Harry heard argued out in several places, including at work, was Voldemort’s blood status. Harry was certain that the man was a half-blood or a muggleborn, though some people were of the opinion that Voldemort was a pureblood because of the high degree of skill he demonstrated at advance magics. Harry disagreed with them because he did not think purebloods were necessarily better at magic and there was also the matter of the recent debut of Voldemort’s flying car, which now had the name of Serpentmobile, because he had declared it as such. It was unlikely for a pureblood to modify and utilize such a creation. In following his theme of snakes, Voldemort’s car was sleek and scaly, and an enchanted pattern kept the vehicle invisible to Muggle eyes and camouflaged it from that of magical folks’ as well so the Statue of Secrecy was kept, but the Serpentmobile was still illegal, like almost everything associated with Voldemort.
People often gossiped over Voldemort’s blood status, but now he had gone out of his way to say he was not a pureblood wizard. He had done so while being interviewed for Colin’s newspaper, during a time of fear and backlash against muggleborns.
Tom had set down his book again because of Harry’s various sounds of distress, and Harry made eye contact with him.
“Well, this has been a good breakfast.” Tom said, standing up with the book in his hand. “Since you can’t seem to read quietly, I’ll just go read in my room and - ”
“I wish you didn’t always do this.” Harry said.
“Do what?”
“Every time I try to get us to spend time together or at least talk to each other you ignore me in favor of reading some book.”
“I’m trying to figure out how to break the curse.” Tom said. “My grandfather is the reason you are here - the blame is on my family so I am responsible for you being here in my company against your will, and I am trying to rectify that.”
“Being here because of the curse doesn’t make me feel bad.” Harry said. “I feel bad because you ignore me. Just once I want to spend time together that with you that feels like it. Do you resent having to be with me then?” Harry asked.
"I don’t have the right to feel resentful, not when I have the name of the man who’s at fault.” Tom said. “And I’m not, by the way. I’m sorry for my inattention. You said we’ll be having dinner tonight at six right? I promise I’ll be attentive then.”
Harry blinked. An apology and a promise? That was surprising.
“Okay,” Harry said. “I’ll hold you to it. And you can leave to read somewhere quiet if you want to. I’m done here too, since there’s a call I have to make.”
Tom nodded and left, appearing grateful to be dismissed.