"Easy now, Harry, breathe deeply. Dizziness is quite normal."
"But my head aches..."
"That, too, is perfectly normal."
Harry's eyes remained squeezed shut, tears escaping from the corners, a picture of utter misery, yet he wrestled for control, determined not to let his struggles hinder Tom.
A searing pain lanced through the scar on Harry's forehead, more intense than ever before. Fleeting memories, alien to his own, flickered through his mind, though their impact was minimal. Extracting the Horcrux from Harry's body posed no real difficulty for Tom, but this particular fragment wasn't like the others; it was tethered to a living being. Thus, it proved far more stubborn.
Even so, Tom could ensure the Horcrux's struggles caused no lasting harm to Harry's soul as he extracted it. However, even without inflicting real damage, the Horcrux's resistance caused Harry excruciating pain.
...
Harry gritted his teeth against the agony in his forehead, but a sudden coolness washed through his soul, and the pain vanished as quickly as it had come.
Tom had taken it away.
Truthfully, Tom had been too preoccupied to bother, intending to simply rip the remaining essence from its socket.
Seeing Harry's unusual fortitude, he extended a helping hand. The rest proved much easier. Free from the throbbing pain, Harry could even converse with Tom as he manipulated his soul. Once Tom had completely excised the final Horcrux from Harry's body, the boy was finally released from the operating table.
"Ah... that feels fantastic!"
Sitting up and stretching, Harry's face glowed with relief. "Ouch!"
"Don't make noises like that; it's rather embarrassing." Tom, somewhat flustered, gestured dismissively towards the door of the Room of Requirement. "Now, off you go."
Harry rubbed his head ruefully and departed.
...
Somewhere in the Americas, the Horcrux, stalking its intended victim, shivered for no apparent reason. It couldn't shake the feeling that something was amiss. After racking its non-existent brains, it gave up. It wasn't as if it was life-threatening, was it? It had seven Horcruxes, plus itself! Eight lives! Give a pig eight lives, and it could become a mountain king!
The Horcrux smirked, self-satisfaction written across its spectral face. No more dwelling on it. Its target was in sight. The Horcrux rose and gave chase, bellowing, "Petrificus Totalus!"
...
Once Harry had left the Room of Requirement, Tom reshaped it with a mere thought, transforming it into a gleaming magical laboratory. He retrieved a small, purple vial and released the diminutive, black-red energy snake he had been keeping inside.
"Wait, what are you doing?!" The two Horcrux fragments, bound by shimmering grey chains, wore expressions of stark terror. One had been pulled from Harry; the other from the Resurrection Stone. Seeing each other only amplified the bewildering sense of wrongness. And then Tom appeared, adding further to their confusion. Where had this intact "self" come from? Something was definitely happening!
"Nothing much, simply offering you as sustenance for this little one." Tom gently scratched the snake's head with a long finger.
...
One of the Horcrux fragments seemed to grasp the situation, and its fear intensified. "What am I feeding it?"
...
The other Horcrux fragment struggled against its bonds. "What does it eat?"
"Souls."
"You... you intend to feed it our souls?"
"Obviously! Otherwise, what would be the point?"
...
Both Horcrux fragments began to thrash wildly, but it was to no avail. The ghostly grey chains held them fast. Their struggles were pathetic.
"No! You can't do this!"
"Oh? And why not?"
"We are Voldemort! We are Tom Riddle! You can't kill yourself!"
"How predictable. I had hoped you might say something amusing."
Ignoring their struggles and curses, Tom gave a silent command. The small, black-red snake opened its blood-red maw and devoured both Horcrux fragments in one gulp.
...
Having consumed the Horcrux fragments, the little snake's scarlet eyes widened, and its form began to transform once more! With the Horcrux's essence consumed, its own splinter of a soul was evolving into something far more complete! In a sense, it was the birth of a new life.
A thick, black-red mist swirled around its body, obscuring it from view. The snake, less than a meter in length, was utterly engulfed.
Tom idly rubbed the silver serpent ring on his finger, conjuring a recliner and a cup of tea. He reclined, sipping his tea, as he waited for his little pet's transformation to complete. It would take a while, but not an eternity.
As the last wisp of black-red mist vanished into the snake's body, its new form was revealed. No longer a mere construct of energy, it now resembled a true, black venomous snake with every scale sharply defined. Its crimson eyes gazed at Tom with undisguised affection.
Tom raised his left hand, and the snake flew towards him like a serpentine swimmer, gently coiling itself around his forearm. Tom cradled its head between his fingertips, stroking it gently. "The time has come."
The crimson snake eyes met his, its forked tongue flicking. It possessed its own consciousness and understood the meaning of his words. The time was now for it to become an artifact spirit, to aid Tom in the forging of a new divine artifact.
This artifact was entirely Tom's creation, fundamentally distinct from any other. Even Tom's "Gaze of Death" had relied on synthesis, combining aspects of existing divine artifacts, rather than forging something completely new. But this... this he would craft from raw materials, piece by piece!
And the vessel for this new artifact? Tom already had the ideal choice in mind.
The Silver Serpent Ring.
The ring had been with him for a long time, forged through alchemy, and refined by his hand. It was the perfect fit; both the most suitable and the most desirable.
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