My Dear Dark Lord

Epilogue: II

Ruling alone was not fun. Scratch that. Ruling alone was awful.

After a tiring day, Tom would come back to an empty house, his only company being the books and tombs in the library.

(Serene and Nagini, both had died years ago. It hurted a lot.)

Death was correct. Loneliness has the power to make a person insane.
(He hadn't talked to the deity since Harry left.)

He became short tempered. Killing anyone without a second thought. Using too much Dark Magic. He became biased. Light families were considered as the lowest beings in magical Britain.

Tom became the very thing he swore not to become. (He was really ashamed of it, whenever he remembered that time of his life later.)

At that time, he hadn't realised, or maybe not cared about, that.

Fed up with his prejudiced and illogical rule, it was his own people, had dethroned him.
(Dethroned would be the wrong word, since they strongly suggested that he was in need of a long vacation, and had asked him to leave for it immediately.)

Then Tom (at that time, Lord Voldemort), found himself in Kathmandu, Nepal.

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It was good, the vacation, dethronement, retirement, or whatever it was.

He hadn't realised just how stressful his life had been, in the last few years.

Tom also came in terms with Harry's leave, understanding his sudden need to just leave.
(It did not mean that he forgave the man for leaving him alone without even telling him properly.)

He then traveled from place to place, just enjoying his life.

Learning things, not necessarily educational (like weaving, fishing, tennis, etc), eating different foods from different countries, observing people's daily lives, driving a truck or sports car, Tom did it all.

His life, which felt like drowning in a pit of darkness before, suddenly became full of life.

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Meeting Harry once again was a complete accident.

He was sitting in a park, with his pet cat Lola (don't judge him) napping peacefully in his lap, when an evil dog came near him with a loud bark, waking up Lola, and jumped on him.

The dog, a little golden corgi, started to lick his and Lola's face (he had no idea why), when a painfully similar voice yelled, "LEVI! What are you doing!? Leave that poor bloke alone!"

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The moment after that followed a stunned silence. Disbelieved gazes. Stuttered apologies.
Angry words. Yelling. Crying.

After that, Tom had left the park, yelling at Harry that he was still angry at the man, and never wanted to see his face again.

Maybe someone knew that his heart wanted something else. That he still wanted Harry.

Because a week later he ran into the man once again, and then the week later, three days later, the next day, and again and again.

A few years later, they were in a relationship once again. After a promise to not hide their problems from each other, they returned to magical Britain the following year.

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Their return to Britain was welcomed with scepticism and horror.