Chapter 3: 1994 Pt.2
"So is this everybody who wanted to join?! Well, Binns really must be increasing the participation rate in this club." Niklaus proclaimed loudly with a smile from the group of students standing in the classroom that he had taken over his club activities.
That got him a few chuckles from the assembled gathering.
"Well, this is more of a trial class that we will be having. If some of you still like the idea of joining the group by the end of it after the hard facts you will learn today then I will welcome you with open arms." They all nodded resolutely but Niklaus was certain that a large part of his somewhat large audience would definitely crumble by the end of his lesson.
Niklaus nodded inwardly before he exaggeratedly waved his left hand towards the windows of the classroom, wandlessly shutting them all. The display of wandless magic got him a few gasps and looks of awe but Niklaus ignored them as his wand slipped into his right hand and he pointed it towards a dimly lit corner of the classroom and cast the spell.
"Expecto Patronum."
White light gathered on the tip of his wand before his guardian beast leapt out of it. His audience gave it looks of recognition and awe as the massive polar bear stood on its hind legs.
"I know many of you joined in the hopes of learning cool magic tricks, sadly I won't be teaching you practical magic." Some of the members of the audience groaned but Niklaus dutifully ignored them, "I will, however, show you things that might be possible with existing spells if you play around with them enough. For example, I recently learned a trick with the patronus charm."
As he finished speaking, Niklaus pointed towards the ceiling and slowly twisted his wrist. The effect was immediate as his patronus slowly shifted into a sphere and moved towards the ceiling. It took a few seconds before a glowing white sphere of white light that gave off the feeling of hope and affection was floating near the ceiling of the classroom.
"Useful thing isn't it? The Patronus charm is exceptionally good at making dull or uneasy discussions more palatable. It's a wonder nobody ever tried making something that could combine its effects with a weak cheering enchantment," Niklaus looked around with a grin before adding, "I, unlike many wizards before me, did indeed give the idea a try. The results are remarkable if I do say so myself. You all can take the seats I arranged you know."
The students who had been standing until that moment quickly rushed towards whatever seats they could get before focusing their attention back to him.
Niklaus let all of them get settled before he asked, "So? I suppose most of you came here because of the mention of Voldemort?"
There were multiple gasps, shrieks and whimpers around the room at the name and Niklaus had to actively clamp down at his annoyance at their reaction.
He forced a smile upon his face even as the light from his patronus intensified before he asked, "Afraid of his name, are we?"
Niklaus pointed towards one of the Ravenclaws that had gasped and asked, "Bianca Thorne right? I heard your gasp. Tell me, do you fear his name?"
The girl looked mortified to be addressed and singled out directly. She looked around pleadingly and Niklaus said, "No need to panic. It is alright to fear him, Bianca. There is no shame in fearing a monster. The question is: do you wish to ignore your fear of him or do you wish to confront it?" Niklaus paused before addressing the audience at large and asked, "To retrace his actions, you will need to confront your fear of him as you learn about him."
Voldemort was the monster. Even Niklaus who knew how to end the monster was afraid of him. The horror stories of his rise to power were plenty and Niklaus had learned plenty over the years he had retraced the steps of Lord Voldemort in his first rise to power. Many had even downright refused to give the young, naive half-blood writer any verbal accounts or statements and only their memories of the events had been given to Niklaus with the promise of their names not being mentioned in the books.
Some of them scarred, even his admittedly resilient psyche. He disliked when people did not say his name purposefully and inadvertently gave their enemy a weapon to use against them but he understood the fear.
"You all need to prepare yourself to be brave to learn what I want to teach you," Niklaus turned away from the girl and gave the whole room a sweeping look before pointing his wand to the side and incanting, "Illusio."
Niklaus felt magic flow through his wand as mist erupted from his wand and spelt Voldemort's real name in crimson letters.
"His name, as many during his first rise have guessed, is an alias. An anagram of his true name really. Now not many know this and this is one of the most important tidbits that I have found out about him in the years is that his real name was Tom Marvollo Riddle. A half-blood raised as an orphan in an orphanage from the house of Salazar Slytherin."
That got the attention of everybody in the room. Some looked surprised, some vindicated, some amused and some offended. Niklaus noted the offended ones to his memory as best as he could before he added, "Any questions?"
Hands rose quickly all around the room and Niklaus chuckled at the familiar face before he nodded at her and said, "Granger."
"But wasn't you-know-who a known blood purist?" Her voice was sceptical at the idea of Voldemort being a half-blood, not that anybody could blame her.
Niklaus had decided to give this tidbit on Voldemort's history because he needed the golden trio to know about Voldemort just like they would have found out if the diary incident had occurred like in canon. Niklaus had made sure that the only interaction between Voldemort and Harry occurred in his first year.
A thousand-year basilisk under the control of a horcrux was intolerable so he had moved to prevent it. A single confundus charm was all it had taken for Ginny Weasley to hand the diary over. The diary was now locked under a box upon which Niklaus had placed the greatest curses and enchantments. When the time came, he would douse the box in Fiendfyre, burning both it and its contents. The diary would not be seeing the light of day ever again.
"His mother was a Gaunt. The Gaunt family claimed to be descended from Slytherin himself. Riddle knew this and took pride in being a descendant of the founder of his house. The whole reason he took up the name Voldemort is because he found his given name Tom Riddle to be mundane. In fact, he killed anybody who ever tried to link him to his old name. Even giving you all his real name would have earned me a death sentence if he was still alive."
There were some uneasy looks exchanged between the assembled students. Hermione too blinked in surprise at it before she moved past it and said, "–he is a descendant of Salazar Slytherin? So is he really a Parseltongue?"
"Yes to both your questions," Niklaus looked away from her before he continued and said, "Moving on from his very surprising origin, the next most surprising thing about him is his school years. It was Albus Dumbledore who delivered his Hogwarts letter to young Tom Riddle."
The looks of surprise returned, making Niklaus grin before he continued, "Ironic isn't it? You know what is worse about this whole situation? Before his true rise as a dark lord, nobody suspected that Riddle would ever become the monster he was. Nobody." Dumbledore did but his audience did not need to know that.
Niklaus pointed his wand at the floating illusion that he had cast earlier and cast another illusion. Mist erupted again from his wand, slowly replacing the crimson letters with the image of a boy. A very tall, pale boy with dark hair and dark eyes stood there and gave the audience a wave.
"Handsome isn't he? Meet fifteen-year-old Tom Marvollo Riddle. He was always considered a good boy by the teachers. They adored the hardworking charming orphan. Many of the teachers even believed that he would go on to become the Minister of Magic. Before me, Tom Riddle had the highest score in Charms and Transfiguration in his OWLs surpassing the score of even Albus Dumbledore in both."
He could see the looks of slight admiration and awe at Riddle. And Niklaus agreed with their assessment of Riddle. Brilliant, good-looking and charming. The perfect boy. The perfect mask.
"He committed his first killing at the age of sixteen. He was younger than me when he did it. By the age of seventeen, he had murdered at least three more people in cold blood. These were the members of his family. His father, grandmother and grandfather all died by the use of the killing curse. His uncle Marvollo Gaunt who lived nearby in the Gaunt manor took the blame for those murders." The awe in the audience dimmed and most of the students shuffled around in unease at his words.
Niklaus continued even as he pointed at Riddle's image with his wand and started to change the illusion even as he continued, "Little by little, these murders changed him. Riddle had always been a monster, no doubt about it, but he had tempered his violence and cruelty with politeness and his facade of perfection. Being able to get away with the killings emboldened his more cruel and monstrous side. And thus, the Dark Lord who had always lurked beneath the surface, was finally showing his face to the world."
The picture of Tom Riddle had slowly shifted as Niklaus spoke. The hair was gone, just like the nose. His dark eyes had turned crimson and the casual handsome smile had turned to a cruel reptilian sneer.
The illusion that now stood before the members of the Contemporary History club was of Voldemort at his prime.
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Author Notes:
Now this chapter was a blast! Most fics feature political and social revolutions as these violent battles and heated debates when most of the time these things start how we see in the scene above. Niklaus is 'preaching' his ideology and doing so in a manner that the information he is giving away is too important and interesting for people to not listen to him. He is trying to weaken Voldemort's infamy AND his mystery. The two things that made the man so terrifying. Niklaus is destroying Voldemort's carefully built reputation while also building his own reputation as the man who uncovered the TRUTH about Voldemort.
I would also like to inform you all that this fic will also lean heavily into the ideas of liberty and equality.
Donate powerstones if you love the Wizarding World, it is nice to see the fic climbing over others when you are its author.
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