“Mr. Riddle, if you wish to study the Dark Arts, let this be your first lesson. It is bread for the starved, water for the parched, a path for the lost, and comfort for the weary. For the desperate, it is everything. But it demands mastery - if you cannot master it, or you cannot master yourself, it will master you. If you admire it, if you respect it, if you revere it, it will master you. And if you can master it, know it is not your ally. It is a force with a singular purpose. It is vile and malicious, and it will bite the hand that feeds it. It cannot be the thing that makes you whole. Do not crash yourself for it. Do not derange yourself for it.”
Chapter 1 “Johann Beck” - Wild and Wicked Youth
In 1942, just before Tom Riddle discovers the Chamber of Secrets and the book on Horcruxes, the Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor retires and Hogwarts hires a new one, a respected Magical Scholar and alleged Master of the Dark Arts.
AU: How much proper guidance could have changed Tom’s life and the fate of the Wizarding World.
