Chapter 15

At first I go through memories quickly and in bits and pieces to see what I have to work with. The first thing I try to do is plant a thought that wouldn't disgust him. Something neutral. I decide to start with Johnny going to complain to Mrs. Cole. Not too scary for him, is it? He wanted to do it himself, but couldn't decide. All right, let's try it!

I penetrate easily into his deep memory, to the very core of his personality. It's unformed, as it is for most Muggles. I think it's the same for a lot of wizards. His "core" is a waterlogged, abandoned room. Some damp, incompletely reconstructed room, with things scattered around. The corners are drowning in darkness, and there are holes and cracks. Yeah, well, it's kind of what I expected.

The guy's memories were scattered everywhere. Something was wet and dissolving in the mold on the floor, something already consumed by darkness in the corners, something in crumpled scraps lying under the table. So, I form a bookmark, in the form of a large and sturdy glossy cardboard, the size of an album page. On the cardboard I burn the message, "I want to go to Mrs. Cole and complain that I'm being abused." I also fill it with the right emotional background. I laminate the cardboard, and then mentally shove it into the dirty table in the corner.

I leave the guy's mind. At first glance, it's over successfully - he's not lying on the floor, with his brains scorched, not drooling. I watch in his mind for a while as the core accepts the bookmark, but I don't see any reaction or rejection. The only thing is that the bookmark looks much clearer and more powerful compared to his usual thoughts. Now all consciousness and feelings will, in one way or another, touch it. Anyone who has entered his mind will notice it at once. For the future, I must work more delicately. And also, subconsciously, I feel that if the bookmark is not removed, it will quickly turn into mania - it is too strong.

I chuckle, imagining how Shader will begin to conquer Mrs. Cole. How long will she last before she gives him a good time? How will Johnny himself react to this? Will he be forced to go to her, knowing he'll get in more trouble than he solves. Will it break him? Or will it get him off the hook? I want to experiment. But I can't... Damn Dumbledore! I have plenty of time to spend on experiments, eh... Okay, if the bookmark works, we'll have to remove it and test the weaker ones, and for actions that Johnny would already subconsciously perceive as negative for himself. Would it be necessary to make a justification for them? Or is that okay? Experiments!

"I'm done. Tom, would you like to take a look at this? " I point him to my subject, and Riddle nods in agreement, taking my place.

I stand guard over our investments. I smile in my head, I'll have to get my money back later, I don't want to waste it on garbage. I glance at Tom gutting Shader's brain, picking at my bookmark and looking through his thoughts.

He towers over him, of course... even though Johnny's, like, a year older. Though, even I look rather modest compared to Tom. I had already rated my physique, and came to the conclusion that I wouldn't be tall and handsome if I didn't use the magic of life. Then I could fix my body, my face... I could do anything. Riddle wouldn't need that, he'd already be drawing attention to himself at Hogwarts. He's the type girls like - aristocratic, pale face, thin and delicate features, haughty eyes, tall and slender, intelligence and magical power... It would be hard to compete for women's attention against him, if I hadn't planned to remove the extra hormones in me, focusing more on studying than on distractions.

And we have enough trouble with the girls, already. If Tom wants them, he can have them all by himself at Hogwarts.

" Nice bookmark," Riddle checked and made sure everything was perfect, then calmly said, "Get lost," to Johnny, and turned back to me. Who cares if it's his room. Shader ran out of it like he'd been promised a finger cut off if he didn't make it to the opposite end of the shelter in a minute.

I look Tom in the eye, forwarding my thoughts on the strength of the bookmark, its compatibility, possible conflicting behavior, and so on. Riddle pauses, contemplating the situation.

"You're right, we should experiment," he shrugs, "but what variability! You could write something down on a 'scrap of paper' and put it in the general pile of thoughts, making sure that the bookmark would be indistinguishable from the original ideas. Then it will be impossible to find. "

" Indistinguishable and ineffective," I corrected him. " If they come back to it as one of the potential ideas. Then it will need to be updated regularly, correcting the mind of the target, sifting out other thoughts at the same time, correcting all thinking. This is real work, for years to come. "

"But what a result," he seemed completely captivated by this arrangement, "is almost imperceptible, a minimal difference in behavior, if any at all, and the result is a new supporter! "

Is that how he was brainwashing the would-be Eaters? The system was very much in Tom's grasp. Well, that sounds about right. The heirs of the bloodlines are clearly being tested and monitored for mentalism. Maybe there are some protective artifacts, or they themselves are skilled in Occlumency. And here, on a regular basis, they've been brainwashed for a few years. It is unlikely that he began to do it according to the canon before the third or fourth year, but nevertheless - the result is evident.

I wonder - quite a slim theory. Perhaps now there will be something similar, but more subtle, inconspicuous and serious. Great.

"You're right," I admit, "I think we should "take over" the orphanage little by little this way. Influence the administration, the teachers, the staff, and, of course, our favorite classmates. "

"Haha, " Tom is feeling emotional, I have not seen him so happy for a long time, "then we can stop hiding things and valuables and keep everything in the room in peace. Eat normal food, take books from the library to our place... "

" Take it higher," I interrupted him, "we can finally buy a house, where we'll get out of the orphanage, registering Mrs. Cole, for example, as a foster mother. "

Tom stood up at such a life-changing event. And really, why drag it out and stop halfway? Cause of Dumbledore, even if he digs in, Mrs. Cole's decision would seem quite ordinary. We're already considered geniuses of sorts, saved from increased attention only by a bad reputation and the constant surveillance of the administration.

And a house of our own is comfortable. Not many people will know about it, because it will be registered on Mrs. Cole's name, and we won't change it. We'll give the money for it, too. Then we'll carefully surround it with all sorts of charms and turn it into our own Grimmauld Place 12. And we'll put guards like Abomination.

"You're a bloody genius, Wolf! " Tom threw his arm over my shoulder, beginning to playfully choke me, "I can't wait to get this plan started!" I snap out of his grasp, smoothing out my clothes:

"First the experiments with Shader, friend, then the rest. "

" Yes, yes," Riddle's thoughts are already far away, in his dream. Hum.

For the next couple of days, we follow the test subject, periodically reading his thoughts. He thought we were practicing the "scary look," so I only reinforced that thought at the next "session." Threw the usual piece of paper with the short text, "Wolfgang and Thomas want to be the coolest in the orphanage. They're training their serious look on me." Then he put away a couple of pieces of paper with his own thoughts that "it's weird."

Johnny himself ran to Mrs. Cole right on the day of the bookmark delivery. In his mind we went through this memory segment where he didn't stop complaining about his life while Mrs. Cole broke down all his arguments, half of which she just waved off. Which was to be expected.

When in Shader's mind the desire to go to see the principal again became clear, it was decided not to breed suspicion on nothing and to remove the bookmark. In return, we put something less powerful, but aimed at the action that would radically contradict his nature.

The check was usually done in the canteen, reading the guy's mind from a distance while he consumed the typical non-digestible morsel. There, after lunch, after catching him, we sent him to his room, under escort. He was still afraid of the others, including us, though we didn't beat him. Here was the familiar room, Tom pulling out a chair for Johnny to sit in, while I was seated across from him. Legiliments.

The bookmark resisted. Good job I pressed it into the table! And in the last two days, it's grown in even more. Now it only comes out with pieces of wood. I guess it must be affecting Shader's mental state somehow. Or is the desk not a thought after all, but just some sort of convenience thing? We'll see. I feel that it would be easier for me to change the conditions of the bookmark than to destroy it completely, but then it would continue to be a strong obsessive thought, turning into a mania. Yeah, I don't need that yet. So I tear it out.

As a result of eliminating the bookmark, we have a disassembled table top, with a huge hole in the place of the bookmark. I put the next one in a different way. I create a cardboard sheet, but without lamination, this time. On the sheet I write, "I'm sick of it! I've got to beat the crap out of Sam Tolman!"

Old Sam never abandons his attempt to assert himself on the weaker. And if that time with Tom, before I even spoke with him, he ended up falling down the stairs, luckily caught by our janitor-security master, Mr. Hunt, and that cleared the guy's mind about Riddle, then with the others... Oh, he wasn't so forgiving with the others.

I toss the cardboard into the pile of thought sheets. Noticing a couple of new ones about Tom and me, I eliminate them. There were ideas there about trying to befriend us so we could protect him. Also a mixture of his own assumptions, together with a liquidated bookmark, that he should snitch on us to Mrs. Cole.

Leaving the consciousness of the detached man. Tom habitually replaces me, reviewing the work. I notice Tom tossing a couple of the usual scribbled sheets in his thoughts, then examining my bookmark and the broken table.

" I assume you couldn't get it out any other way? " He clarifies when he's finished with Johnny.

"That's right. I had an idea to try and rebuild the table, but in the end I wanted to see what would happen to it in its condition.

"Well," Riddle hums, "he seems fine at first glance. "

" We'll see," I smiled, waving goodbye to Shader.

This time we had to wait three whole days. That's the time it took for Johnny to resist the tab. We didn't change anything else in his brain, just controlling what was already current. We didn't even "clean" his mind, which began to become more and more permeated by the imposed desire.

Here he snapped when he was humiliated again, here he resisted when he was beaten. He never did that before. Interesting. Is it from the bookmark or the broken table?

On the third day, he went out into the yard, picked up a rock about the size of his fist, went up to Sam, one of his main offenders, who was standing with a couple of his buddies, and smacked him in the jaw with it, crushing it into mush.

Personally, I was amused by the reaction of Tolman's buddies - they didn't help him or attack Johnny. They ran away. And I doubt it was for help or to inform any of the shelter staff.

Johnny himself was in shock at what he had done. He stood frozen as Sam howled, rolling his eyes and laying on the ground. There, with a scream, "What are you doing, you bastard!", Cynthia, one of the new leaders of the shelter, ran up to Johnny after the "disappearance" of the bandit trio. She had originally controlled only the women's section, but now she was trying to take over everything. As a leader she was calmer, but unknowingly crossed the line when the girls decided to "show power" by stealing half the rooms of the orphanage and beating up the unsatisfied. They would have gotten away with it if Tom and I hadn't been hurt by the theft.

Cynthia pushes Johnny - he falls to his knees in a familiar, even relaxed way and snatches the rock out of his hands, tossing the bloody cobblestone aside. Olivia, her slightly darker friend, runs up behind Cynthia, giving Shader a hard slap in the face.

The two of them lift up a screaming Sam, literally dragging him on top of them to the infirmary.

Tom smiles pleased, crossing his arms over his chest:

"It all worked out. Now we need to work with our targets, and then... "

"Yes," I agree with him, "then we'll start the 'takeover,'" I smile.

" Nonviolent seizure of power," Riddle repeats, "there's something about that," he snaps his fingers, " exciting! "

I grinned at his statement. I want to throw him a canon, ask him what he thinks about it.