HP X LOTM : Please Call Me Mr. Error.

Chapter 456: Soul Stitch.



"Mrs. Cole?" Tom voiced as soon as he opened his eyes.

A woman, slightly old, with short blond hair and a thin face with all her features creased to be impeccably sharp, stared down at Tom with a kind smile.

"Yes, Tom. It's me…do you remember me? It's been so long."

Tom's eyes widened and he felt slightly bewildered.

"Am…am I dea- No! This can't be! He wouldn't have let me die!!! He would've kept me tortured!"

The woman frowned and she walked closer to Tom and held his shoulders.

"Tortured? Who Tom? Does someone want to hurt you? You know you can tell me about it, right?"

Tom's eyes quivered but he soon firmed his gaze as he stepped away from the woman and spoke in a harsh tone.

"You couldn't do anything to help even if you tried."

"Don't be so harsh to judge me, Tom. Tell me. Perhaps I can be of some help."

Tom's eyes hardened further and he spoke in a cold tone that seemed to cause Mrs. Cole to flinch with shock.

"You never did anything to help me in the orphanage when those children did their best to bruise me or call me a monster, did you? Why then do you suddenly care about me now?!"

"No Tom tha-"

"Enough!"

Tom interrupted the woman and flicked his hand like he was holding an invisible whip. The woman's mouth was sealed shut before an invisible force grabbed her short blond hair and pulled her backwards like she was a doll.

Before anyone could do anything to stop the crime, the woman's spine broke and she was snapped in half twice, first at the base of her spine and the second time at the base of her neck.

Her body collapsed as her eyes turned hollow and she started looking at the endless white expanse around them.

'This…'

'Was this an illusion shown to me by that girl Loki asked help from?'

'I need to get out of here.'

Scanning around the area after Mrs Cole died, Tom started searching for a connection to the outer world.

In another similar white space, Tom looked at the three bullies who were standing in front of him with smirks on their faces.

"Shocked Tom?" One of the bullies asked while Tom gave them a scrutinising glance.

"You're alive? No. That can't be…I made sure to kill you…I still remember the cold rocky island I took you to. The bliss that coarsed through my body when I took lives for the first time. I felt on top of the-"

"Enough of your yapping Tom, this isn't the outer world anymore. This is the afterlife. And we've been assigned to be your torturers for eternity. Your bad deeds have caught up to you now haven't they…tell us Tom, just how bad have you been?"

In another white space Tom looked at the ghost of the girl that was floating in front of him with a frown.

"Myrtle?"

Myrtle looked at Tom with narrowed angry eyes.

"How do you feel, Tom? Knowing that the soul you split apart after killing me has fallen into my hands to judge?"

In another white space several death eaters formed as they knelt on the floor and pledged their allegiances to Tom as he tortured them for abandoning him for a few minutes before searching for a door again.

In another white space 'Luna' appeared and Tom struck a bargain with her to allow him to escape from this place and be free of Loki's eternal torture.

Several other illusions created by Loki appeared in the white space created by Luna as he tricked each and every piece of Tom's soul into tricking them into rejoining with their other selves in an attempt to leave the space Luna had trapped them in.

Each one used simplistic tricks like making Tom think he was in control of the situation or that Luna was on his side because she pitied how Loki had treated him until now.

But each time Tom exited the space and rejoined with the other pieces his soul had been torn into, it was Loki that grew happier.

"A few more pieces…"

"I hope you are holding on well Luna." Loki spoke out loud randomly knowing that Luna could hear him loud and clear.

And soon, before anything else could go wrong, Loki smiled as he saw the last piece of Tom leaving the area Luna had trapped him in.

But even as all the pieces of Tom's soul gathered together with the intent of freeing themselves for another chance at life, Tom failed to reconcile himself.

Almost instantly, as soon as Tom's soul fragments rejoined, he instantly became a victim to insanity.

It was Loki's plan and the sole reason he had played around with trapping Tom inside an illusion. It was so that when all his pieces would rejoin he'd be trapped in a boiling pit of confusion where he'd have to sort out through his thoughts about the reality of the situation.

Loki looked at the squirming Tom's soul that was rapidly deteriorating into a furry creature that reeked of the beginnings of a devil and spoke calmly-

"Luna, you can pull me o-."

Even before he could finish his sentence, Luna brought Loki back to his body, or more appropriately out of his soul space.

Loki regained balance in moments before turning to look at Luna who was still looking at Tom's body with full focus while her nose and eyes bled.

Not wanting to disturb what came next, Loki stayed silently on the side as Luna quickly, under Loki's gaze using spirit vision, pulled out Tom's completed, yet still incomplete, soul from the ring and slowly began to stitch it back together.

Her skill was unparalleled when compared to anything Loki had seen Nicholas or Prenelle ever do.

Loki kept a stern watch on the operation and helped Luna wherever he thought Tom was about to regain control by simply manipulating the fool's Body of Heart And Mind and amplifying his confusion by slipping in incoherent thoughts of random illusions.

They wouldn't have had much effect on a normal Tom since Loki wasn't of the spectator pathway.

But given how Tom was already fighting for control to decide which among all that he had experienced was real and which was not, plus Loki being a Sequence 4, gave him an advantage and allowed him to delay Tom from regaining his sanity by simply pressuring some 'uncooperative' parts using his divinity.

He kept it hidden from Luna of course, not just because he disguised it with the grey fog, but also because Salazar Slytherin was still preventing information about the three pathways from being recognised.

But because of Loki's cruel interference, as more of Tom's soul was stitched together with each other by Luna, he started exhibiting signs of loss of control.

He began to morph and mutate continuously, making Luna's job harder since she had to keep herself safe from the corruption but also stitch Tom's remaining soul pieces at the same time.

But she kept at it while Loki kept sharpening the edge between loss of control and sanity for Tom's Body of Heart and Mind.

Loki did feel slightly afraid of Luna's clear skill, which meant that she had worked on things like this several times before…but he would ignore it for now as long as Luna ignored what he was doing.

A little bit of mutual benefit never harmed anyone, did it?

Neither Luna nor Loki considered the sanity or the cruelty of the situation they were in. They both remained focused on the task ahead and-

-after what felt like a couple of hours, during which time Loki kept wiping Luna's sweat that collected over her brows, Luna was finally done. 

Loki, however wasn't done.

He quickly uncorked a flask he was carrying on his person and unloaded its contents down the throat of the body that had now fully changed to become Tom.

Luna saw the potion and whispered sweetly-

"Death's Leak?"

Loki looked at her with a little surprise that she'd gotten the potion name simply by looking at the colour or rather the lack of it, even though it was her own made-up name, and nodded.

"Indeed. It is the Draught of the Living Death. I hadn't known you were into NEWT-level potions Luna."

Luna remained silent as she observed Tom, and before anything else could happen, she quickly pulled out her butterbeer cork necklace and tied it around Tom's neck.

"...?"

Noticing Loki's confusion, Luna explained-

"Just in case the Nargles want to get to him."

"...." Loki remained confused but nodded anyway-

'Didn't she just help me in torturing him? Why does she suddenly care about Nargles getting to him now?'

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A/N : We crossed a hundred and fifty powerstones!!!! Let's goo!!!!! Extra chapter tomorrow!!! I hope you have fun reading!! 

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