At the same time as this the ministry conducted "spontaneous" dark artifact searches of various suspicious names. With Ron's father leading the charge Lucius was forced to quickly sell off a lot of his collection of very illegal dark artifacts. The important ones were left untouched in hidden spots of his manor but the fact he had to rid himself of any of them was humiliating enough. This naturally led to the famous scene of him and Ron's father brawling in Flourish and blots after he slipped the diary into Ginny Weasley's supplies.-
I "happened" to be there at that time and stole the book casually before going about my business. Once I was done with my school shopping I entered my realm and set up a new Fayth that I tied the soul fragment in the diary to. I then fed it an astral soul and waited for a moment before clicking my tongue.
"I didn't take you for the shy type Mr. Riddle." I said casually.
An instant later the slightly see through image of a handsome boy with soft features and neat brown hair appeared wearing Slytherin robes.
"What have you done to me?" the spectre of Tom Riddle asked with a deep frown.
"I've tied you to that Fayth there. I thought it rather rude to erase the only mostly sane part of Thomas Riddle left in the world without first speaking with it." I explained honestly.
"What do you mean the only sane part?" he demanded with a glare.
"Ah, of course you wouldn't know. Your grand plan of making a bunch of Horcrux's to become truly immortal? Semi-successful. You are in fact quite hard to kill without destroying the things first. The downside to fracturing your soul in this way however is that the original you is now quite mad. Not immediately obvious mind you but any sort of long term observation would make it clear. That mental instability began the moment you were created as the first. Naturally all the rest inherited the ever more insane mindset of the original. Thus you are the only mostly sane part left." I said casually as I conjured up a chair that I sat in.
"Why do you keep saying mostly sane?" he demanded with an ugly expression.
"Because no one truly fully sane would ever even consider making a horcrux if they understood them. The other stuff I can explain away with you just being a piece of work, but that? That's pure madness." I said calmly.
"I have defeated death itself. Is it truly madness if it worked?" he gloated.
"You didn't defeat death. You can and will eventual die. Whether by my hand or someone elses is irrelevant. That fact will remain either way. And the best part? There's nothing you can do to change it. The only avenue available to you has been closed permanently with two of the horcrux's having been removed from play." I say casually as if talking about the weather.
"Lies! Horcrux's can't be destroyed!" he hisses angrily.
I chuckled at that "Basilisk venom and Fiendfyre both do the trick actually. Though I have a far easier method to invalidate them. Removal from reality entirely." I say and the already pale spectre pales even further as a look of horror crosses his face.
"You! You have ruined everything!?" he yelled in outrage.
"And you shouldn't have been such an unrepentant evil cunt. This world is mine now, there's no place for you in it. Of course that only applies to the original. You my little fragment have a very different fate. I'm going to devour you. Or rather I'm going to resurrect you and then steal everything that makes you special before I destroy you. Your bloodline, magic and knowledge all." I say calmly.
"Impossible!" he said fiercely.
"How so? You yourself get THIS close to doing something similar in a different timeline." I say holding my thumb and forefinger just barely apart.
"You're a seer? No wonder i've lost. You've seen all my moves before I even make them." he says with a disgusted expression.
"Wrong again. I am a multiversal merchant. In truth I was originally not even from this reality but one where it's a story. A story I know well. I can't claim omniscience or the near version of it a seer may have but I know that stories details fully. Anything revealed there in is not a secret to me. You've lost because I've already read your story and stepped in to ruin it with that knowledge." I say frankly.
"Why tell me this? Why not just do what you want before destroying me?" he asked confused.
"Vindication perhaps? Your original self tried very hard to corrupt me last year and even forced me to expose myself a little at the end. He's already slated for the chopping block in time. Tormenting a madman isn't satisfying however. A broken mind doesn't give the sort of satisfaction that comes from revealing hopelessness to it. There's no bend, just break." I say casually.