Half-Dimension

The Dark Lord's Interest

Tom Riddle eyed the youngest Malfoy boy, as he talked. The other had  gotten quite comfortable rather quickly in his presence, which was not something he was really...used to. He was also quite talkative when allowed to be, which was yet...another thing that he was not so used to. He was used to companionable silence, if nothing else, but it would seem that the boy had many things to say, and probably had not been allowed to say them before, which he supposed he could understand enough to allow the other to continue rambling on. It would help him anyways, not to mention he and the boy shared some rather...intense beliefs. 

He had to say, though both Lucius and Severus could be idiots at times, the two of them were both correct when they said it was difficult to get a reading on the boy. He seemed, for all intents and purposes, one thing, and then he swung the other way so strongly that it had Tom rearing back mentally, trying to figure him out. Typically, especially for one so old, this was not the norm, it was not that he was hard to figure it out, but he could understand why the others would have difficulties with it. The boy was interesting, if nothing else. That was part of the reason he had agreed to aid them in figuring out what the boy was. He had a small feeling that the child did not really care all that much about figuring out what he was, he did not seem to have any feeling particularly, one way or another, which was quite different from others, who tended to be worried and agonize over what they would present as. 

Which only caused the boy to be even more and more interesting. The interest had been peaked when the child had been wandering the store without real regard for himself or his safety. The child looked at ease and perfectly comfortable despite the large amount of dark artifacts which were in the store. It had confused him a little, because as far as he was aware, the Malfoy boy had been missing until recently. He kept an eye on the boy, discreetly, of course, whilst dealing with Lucius and Severus, and their interesting order. 

It was not until he saw the boy stop in front of a necklace that he began to watch him a bit closer. He did not interfere, surely the boy knew better than to touch the dark artifact? it would seem as though the boy knew better, given his hesitance, but then there was this defiant gleam in his eyes as he reached out towards it, and Tom knew that he would need to interfere to keep his new...object of fascination alive and keep him from becoming cursed. While curses were most certainly interesting, he did not want to deal with a cursed Malfoy. That would be bad for...multiple reasons. 

Needless to say his interest piqued when the boy called him 'My Lord'. He had not told any but his close followers at Hogwarts call him that. It caused his curiosity to heighten. Even the Malfoy Heir, while certainly close to Tom in many respects, merely called him Sir, in a subservient way of course, something which often grated on the other's nerves. Yet, knowing that Tom could easily blast him into the next dimension, he felt as though it was prudent for the other to exact a certain...kind nature. Tom was only a few years older than them, but they knew better than to test his patience. 

It was this reason that he knew that the other did not call him My Lord because Lucius or Severus had told him to. Of the two, only Severus called him my lord, and that was because Tom had expressed his desire for the half blood to call him such. Tom found Severus quite interesting, and considering they had worked together quite a bit, Tom had grown closet to the boy, and as such Tom allowed the other to address him as such. Lucius...was different. In many regards. 

That would mean that the boy did it of his own volition, and not realizing anything. The way the boy said t was rather...different than what he was used to. While many that Tom had ordered to call him by such a title, did so with slight reluctance or with hesitation, not really wanting to act the part of addressing Tom as such, though they ended up doing so anyways (Severus was the only one who showed very little reluctance to call Tom such, and ended up becoming much more comfortable with it later on), this boy was different from the others. 

This boy called Tom by the address as though he had not contemplated ever calling him otherwise. As though to call him anything but My Lord was to insult him, to degrade him. the boy had no hesitation, no reluctance, it fell from his lips naturally, as though it was all he would ever contemplate calling him. Tom found it rather interesting, and endearing. Therefore, he had no reluctance in allowing the boy to use his title, to continue to use it. It was interesting to see someone who had such a natural reaction to his title. The boy did not question why he was called such, he did not ask anything, he simply spoke and said the title as though it were the most natural thing to do.

So he agreed to help Lucius. After all, the boy was more than interesting, why would Tom not help? He wanted to know more about the boy after all, and so he had no reason not to help the three, especially since helping them figure out what the boy was would require Tom to spend more time with him, which Tom could use to his advantage to get to know the boy more, and spend more time with him than was strictly necessary. 

As the boy continued to talk, answering all of Tom's questions without hesitation, Tom became more and more intrigued. It was not every day that Tom found someone who agreed with his beliefs after all. Even among Purebloods, but this boy just continued to surprise Tom again and again. 

So Tom learned more about the boy, and figured him out, watching him carefully. The way the boy's eyes shone as he spoke of the subjects he loved at school, about the Dark Arts that he had learned, about the curses he found the most useful. He saw the way his eyes flashed dangerous as he spoke of the anger he had towards the Potter family, towards their horrible offspring (not that Tom disagreed but to find one so openly admit such a thing was rather rare after all) and the horrid curriculum, and his hatred of Dumbledore (something which Tom realized was rather severe given the amount of time the boy spent ranting on it).

Tom realized that the boy was rather vulnerable to suggestion. It did not take Tom too much effort to redirect the conversation in any way, the boy seemed reluctant to give certain information, though. He refused to speak anything about his past, he refused to talk about whoever had raised him, he dared not speak of anything about before he showed up at the Malfoy Manor. Everything was tight lips, sealed, and Tom did not dare try to invade the boy's mind for such information.

Not yet. He needed to take this slow. This boy...This boy was the key. He just had to figure out how to get the youth to trust him.