Since Chad had created the theory of a connection to magic and the soul when he first came into this world, he had found nothing to disprove it. A few books with other opinions on souls would have been helpful, but he had found knowledge hard to come by. In Borgin's and Burke's store, he had only found nine books. But they had mostly been on rituals and dark curses with one covering blood magic.
Flourish & Blotts sells a variety of magic volumes, including textbooks for Hogwarts subjects and other books of general magical interest. But that was it, everything they sold was Ministry approved which meant it was practically worthless. There was nothing on mind magic or anything substantial, he even asked for their supplier's inventory list just in case they had something of worth. They didn't.
He did, however, find a secondhand bookshop that held practically everything Flourish & Blotts had. Just because he had money and wanted a fully stocked library, he had Crystal purchase one of every book they had. Why buy brand new when you had an army of elves begging him for jobs? Building a library and stocking it with magically repaired books was pretty much the best day ever in the life of a house-elf, even a ninja elf.
After making a list of all the books he purchased from the secondhand bookstore, Crystal gave the owner a copy and told him to set aside any that were not on the list for her. Knowledge was power, even if it was written by wizards lacking common sense. With no books to help him, Chad hoped to channel some plot armour and try and absorb Riddle's piece of soul lodged in his head.
How hard can it be? Magic, memories and personality were stored in the soul, all he had to do was envelope it in his, subdue it and absorb it without developing schizophrenia. Simple! Especially when it leeched onto his soul to sustain itself, if it had the strength it would already have taken over when Chad's soul was first shoved into Harry Potter's body!
It was now midnight and Chad was laying on a sofa in Godric's Hollow, it was time to banish some inner demons. Settling into the meditative trance he regularly did when practising his mind magic, Chad searched for the foreign entity he had found when he had reached basic proficiency in Occlumency. Because let's face it, it's plain as day, Blind Freddie could have found it.
Anyone with Occlumency could sense a foreign invader, hell, it was what it was intended for! A Legilimency probe was practically using your soul to invade another soul and probe it for information. How else would you suddenly receive someone's thoughts and memories? Magic shenanigans filled in the gaps, so it didn't look like your spirit was leaving your body. The soul was everything, and Chad planned to eat one and find out what happens.
Locating the parasite through its siphoning of magic from his soul, Chad latched onto it and pulled it into his mindscape. He appeared at the entrance to the ruined town, facing him ten metres away was a snake faced man that could only be Voldemort.
"Who are you? You're not the Potter child!" Asked Voldemort, surprised at being confronted by an unknown adult.
"Good work Captain Obvious! I am, however, the owner of this body. The problem is Riddle, my eyesight is starting to deteriorate, and I'm pretty sure you are the reason." Said Chad nonchalantly.
"Don't call me that name! Who are? We don't have to enemies, join me and together we can rule the world!" Shouted a bipolar Voldemort, his personality could change at the drop of a hat.
"Are you serious? Why would you want to rule the world, it would be so much work, and you would be a target for every nutjob with a power complex. Tell me, what's your end goal Voldemort?" Replied Chad as he watched Voldemort battle with his need to lash out at something.
"To rule the wizarding world while the muggle filth learns their place cowering at my feet! I will be the most powerful wizard to live, and rule eternally!" He shouted with passion.
"There are a few problems with that. First, the muggles far outnumber you and have weapons that would shred your inbred army. Second, the Dark Lord Dumbledore still rules Britain and influences the ICW, I don't like your chances." Said Chad, now sure that Riddle was missing more than a bit of sanity.
"What nonsense are you talking about? Dumbledore is the Leader of the light! Nothing more than a weak-willed muggle lover!" Shouted Riddle with fervour.
It was now clear to Chad that he should never split his soul. He had entertained ideas of making clones by using parts of his soul, but after seeing first hand its side effects, he decided to have nothing to do with it.
"Wow, I thought you had realised you were set up by Dark Lord Dumbles, but it is clear you never had any idea! The man was a master Legilimens, did you really think he never knew your plans while you studied at Hogwarts?
With Dumbledore's patsy coming to the end of his usefulness, he needed someone else to 'fight' against as the Leader of the light. You, a poor orphan boy that happened to be the descendant of Slytherin himself was a perfect choice.
Did you really think that you had to return to that orphanage every year? All you had to do was go to the Ministry. They would not stand by while a wizard was abused by muggles, the purebloods would have rioted!
Dumbledore groomed you to become the Dark Lord opposed to his Leader of the Light. A sacrifice to boost his reputation and solidify his place as the ruler of the wizarding world.
What do you think his plans were for Harry Potter? Raised in a house of abusive muggles, denied refuge at Hogwarts, a place he thinks of as home. Used as a champion of the light to oppose you but given no training or help whatsoever. You would have killed the new patsy and Dumbledore would have taken you out in retribution.
Hailed as the avenger of Harry Potter, the boy who lived, and the vanquisher of the 'greatest' Dark Lord, Voldemort. You are nothing but a stepping stone on Dumbledore's path to glory." Ranted Chad.
First, he had to read about Dumbles glory in various fanfictions, now he had to witness Riddle's pathetic existence as nothing but a patsy? The modicum of respect he held towards Riddle for realising the truth about Dark Lord Dumbledore disintegrated like a fart in the wind. He was just as pathetic as canon Harry Potter.
Chad watched as Tom Riddle gaped like a fish out of water, revisiting his childhood memories with the wisdom of an adult. It was quite a sight to see how his face kept twisting through different expressions. That was until it remained on rage and Tom drew his wand and flung a spell at him.
"Avada Kedavra" Riddle shouted, rage fueling the spell.
Chad just teleported to the overseer's chair and turned on the monitor, it was hooked up to the many security cameras all over the town. It was the first test of his mental defence, he wanted to make the most of it. Chad wanted to test his mind's protection against the man rumoured to be the greatest Legilimens alive.
It quickly became apparent that Voldemort was off his game. After yelling and destroying things with spells, he calmed down and headed for the tallest building visible at the centre of town. Along the way, he battled roving bands of raiders taking potshots at him.
He quickly dispatched them with spells but not before one or two bullets hit him. Every time he sustained damage, his physical form faded slightly. While battling one group, he accidentally disturbed five mummified corpses, causing them to rise from their slumber. With only knowledge of inferi, he was unprepared for their speed and sustained damage from a feral ghoul that launched itself at him from four metres away.
When he finally reached the fort, he was not as substantial as he looked when Chad first met him. It seems his spell shield couldn't protect against both bullets and lasers at the same time, and the trick with the ghouls did more damage than he thought.
Chad watched him battle his way through the raider camp with great amusement, the fact that his progress in wiping them out made not one bit of difference to reaching his mind was very satisfying. As the last raider had his chest blown apart by a Reductor curse, Chad mocked him through the loudspeaker on the wall above Riddle.
"Good work, Tom, you have cleared one of the traps that has nothing to do with reaching me. Please try harder, you are supposed to be the greatest Legilimens alive. So far, you are a bit of a disappointment."
After Voldemort's temper tantrum, Chad threw more squads of raiders, ghouls, mole rats and even a few super mutants at him. It was not long before a transparent Tom Marvolo Riddle was trying to flee the apocalyptic town of death.
"That was rather underwhelming, is hiding your mind really that hard to fight against? I wonder what it's like invading a trained wizards mind?" Chad said to himself, but his musings could wait. For now, he had a soul to eat.