Harry Potter and the Prince of Slytherin

Chapter 5: Ron Weasley and the Secret of the Naga

4 July 1993
3:00 p.m. (local time)
Healer Gupta Baskar's Office
The Temple of Healing, Shamballa

Ron sat quietly in the healer's office and tried not to show his nervousness. He was a Gryffindor, after all, and if he couldn't stop himself from being afraid, he could at least try not to show it. Jim had given him a look of quiet encouragement as the two passed by one another a few minutes before. Apparently, Jim's "examination" had gone well. Of course, Jim hadn't experienced months of possession by the teen-aged specter of a not-so-deceased Dark Lord, so Ron was less optimistic about his own mental health.

Healer Baskar had explained the process patiently before commencing. He would look into Ron's eyes and through them into Ron's mind and soul. He reassured Ron that he was under a Healer's Oath and would not reveal any of Ron's personal secrets without his consent, but unlike with Jim (to whom the healer had given advice on how to hide deeply personal matters), Baskar made it clear that he would need to fully inspect Ron's psyche to determine if Tom Riddle had damaged him in any way and, more importantly, whether any vestige of Tom Riddle still remained. With that in mind, it was a rather tense ten minutes that Ron spent quietly staring into the deep piercing eyes of the mind healer.

Finally, Baskar leaned back in his chair and blinked rapidly for a few seconds. "Well, Mr. Weasley, let us get the most pressing matter out of the way. I am quite confident that there is only one mind inside your head, and it is indubitably yours. I see no signs that the Riddle persona has any active presence at all within your mind."

Ron almost smiled when the subtext hit him. "Active?" he said with a swallow. "What about ... inactive?"

Baskar sighed. "I'm sorry, Mr. Weasley. To be 100% honest, I do see ... remnants of the Riddle spirit. Faint signs of the psychic architecture it created over the course of several months. I believe that they will fade over time, but they are still present right now." He paused and then frowned. "To be honest, your case is most unusual. Indeed, probably unique. I have participated in many exorcisms and in both the destruction of possessing spirits and the treatment of former possession victims. But as far as I am aware, yours is the only case in which the possessing spirit was completely destroyed while still in the act of maintaining the possession instead of being removed first. I suspect that is how you acquired your Parseltongue abilities which otherwise can only be acquired either through genetic inheritance or years of study. It is possible that you may have gained other benefits from this experience And, to be blunt, perhaps some negative traits as well. But I see no signs of such now and no evidence that this residual architecture is in any way detrimental to you."

Ron was quiet for several seconds. "Speaking purely hypothetically, if ... if Tom Riddle came back somehow, could he affect me? Control me?"

Baskar's eyes widened in surprise. "My understanding was that the Tom Riddle entity was a residual soul fragment from a man who had died many years before. Do you have reason to think Riddle is still alive? Or exists in some spiritual form more powerful than his diary-self?"

Ron hesitated. Tom Riddle was the true name of Voldemort, and he definitely still existed ... sort of. Jim had told Ron everything he knew about what had happened down in the Chamber of Secrets. But Riddle's connection to Voldemort was still protected by the Fidelius Charm, and when the diary that had served as Secret Keeper was destroyed, Jim and Harry Potter jointly became the new Secret Keepers since they were the only ones (as far as anyone knew) who had been told the Secret directly by its previous Keeper. The two brothers had been advised to remain silent for now by Dumbledore and Rufus Scrimgeour, but even if they hadn't, Ron himself couldn't tell anyone else because he wasn't the Secret Keeper.