The boy began to cry, his face showing a sadness that Voldemort thought he would never show in his lifetime. He moved forward, confused and disoriented by the sudden and bizarre changes— hadn't he been reborn? What was happening now?
For now, he needed to find clues from this other self.
As Voldemort crawled, he let out a hissing sound, causing Little Tom to stop crying abruptly and raise his head, "Hiss!" The sound came forth as if from Hell, yet Voldemort heard the meaning contained in Parseltongue.
"Die!"
Suddenly, he was flipped over by an invisible force, the sharp pain in his head felt like it was being sawed open from inside—it indeed was opening; Voldemort watched as his snake body was torn from the head into two halves, a black smoke erupted from the snake's head, revealing the classic (bald head) Voldemort's figure from within the smoke.
Instinctively clutching his head, looking down at his childhood self still sobbing over his mother's body, the man's expression began to turn ugly—
He finally realized what was happening.
"Your self-protection mechanism is quite strong. Is it because you've torn your soul into so many pieces?"
Then, Voldemort heard another voice, gentle and familiar, he turned his head, only to see outside the wooden door, a figure cloaked in grey slowly removing the hood from its head,"... is it you?" Looking at William, who wore a gentle smile on his face, Voldemort's pale countenance began to turn somber.
"Yes, Little Tom, my dear child—"
William opened his arms.
"Die!!"
A glaring green electric light shot out from Voldemort's palm, but William merely waved his magic wand lightly, guiding the Killing Curse to strike the ground, blasting a deep pit, wood chips swirling, dust rising, heavy dust lifted in a way defying physical laws, obscuring the view between the two in the blink of an eye.
The story shouldn't have developed this way—
At least according to the script William crafted, Tom, who had a completely different living environment, should have grown up differently. He played the role of a father enough to replace the opponent's father, intending to guide the other's change, to see if through this method, he could influence the real-life Voldemort.
And the plan started successfully, even at the age of two, he managed to guide out a "Little Tom."
But, clearly, unlike Harry who directly loses memory when drawn into the dream by Diary Tom, Voldemort retained his past memories.
Therefore, William dug from the other's memory bank, a "mother" existing in Tom's childhood fantasies, and added her to the story, hoping to indirectly strengthen the consciousness of "Little Tom," and in turn, devour Voldemort, thus achieving a situation of drawing from the bottom of the cauldron.
But he didn't expect that the excessive emotional bonds would actually become a key stimulant to the other.
For some reason, even when William hadn't noticed, Merope unexpectedly died directly—this led to Little Tom, still crushed under Voldemort's soul, to enter a rampage state, and directly kick Voldemort's soul out.
Therefore, William's plan mostly failed...
William felt quite helpless.
"So troublesome..."
William sighed, the flying dust scattered directly by his breath, revealing the Dark Lord concealed within, the man holding a magic wand in his hand, barefoot standing on the dust-covered dark wooden floor, his scarlet eyes glaring at William, filled with malice.
The battle, perhaps, was finally about to begin—
```