Welcome! Thank you for your interest in my first fanfiction in English. I am not a native English speaker, and I translate this story from the French version to English. Please do not mind too much if you find big mistakes of vocabulary or grammar! I hope you'll like it though. Enjoy!
Prologue
"We learn when we are young, and we understand with age." (Marie Von Evner-Eschenbach)
He killed them, but he was innocent. To the Muggle justice's eyes, to Wizengamot's eyes, to his own eyes, Tom Riddle Jr was only an unfortunate orphan who just discovered, in the Daily Prophet, the murderer act of his uncle on Muggles, human beings without magic, living in a manor in the small village of Little Hangleton.
Tom's comrades – heirs of most of the greatest pure-blood families (with only wizards), or, more rarely, half-bloods (mix of sorcerer blood and Muggle blood) – had shown a sustain attention to the sanguinary case. Slytherin students have been indeed strongly amused by the quadruple murder of Muggles pretending they were nobles and wealthy, before being intrigued by the murderer's name : Morfin Gaunt.
No one ignored that the Gaunts were the only the descendants of co-creator of Hogwarts school Salazar Slytherin, founder of their House. However, the Gaunts have disappeared and, for a long time, pure-blood families considerated them as extinct, ending their sad life in misery and the sore of consanguinity.
Some people deplored the incarceration in Azkaban of the last descendant of the great Salazar, others affirmed that, the Chamber of Secrets being opened once again, another Parselmouth – one who can speak to snakes, inherited gift from Slytherin – must exist. Nevertheless, a few days later all forgot the news item.
During his second year, Tom has discovered his parents' identity, becoming disillusioned when he realised his father was only a common Muggle, de facto hating his own name : he, who was extraordinary, descendant of a prestigious line of wizards, found himself decked out in an ordinary name and a Muggle last name! His father was an nefarious being who dared to abandon his mother, who, even if she was a witch, has been too weak until letting herself die. For him, everything was limpid : a mother, and a fortiori a witch and therefore superior to the rest of humanity, could not die giving birth if she truly loved her child. Tom's existence has made his father disgusted by him, and didn't generate love enough in his mother's heart.
The fault was theirs and only theirs, it was logical. Their fault if he was an orphan, their fault if he didn't have a normal family life, their fault if his childhood had a taste of Hell and haunted his nightmares for so many years, their fault if no one could have been able to explain where his powers came from, and certify that his soul was not possessed by the Demon the zealot directress of the orphanage feared so much, forcing him to go to the church.
His thirst of vengeance, towards all these people who mistreated and hated him, was developing year after year. The teenager was not stupid, he knew he followed the dark paths of Evil Forces, but in his opinion he was not at fault ; the more he sunk, the more he convinced himself that his destiny was to show to the whole world it was wrong to belittle him and ignore his excellent talents. Pure-blood wizards would venerate him and fear him, Muggles and mudbloods would perish.
However, despite this arrogance and this smugness that made him confident, and sometimes annoyed the other Slytherins, Tom observed his comrades and was not ignorant of their family life. If he was interested in noble families – he envied their fortune, their opulent and nearly idle daily life, and their influence on society, but disapproved some of their traditions like the numerous arranged weddings – the heir of Slytherin found himself curious of the students of the other Houses, without paying attention so much to the purity of their blood.
The carefreeness and the debauchery of youth they were the symbols contrasted with nobility and rigor of tone and behaviour of pure-blood Slytherins, and if he was proud to evolve among this social elite, he appreciated Gryffindors' determination, Hufflepuffs' loyalty and Ravenclaws' inexhaustible thirst of knowledge.
Despite him, he liked to imagine himself to escape from his solitude, even for a brief time, to be surrounded by true friends who would appreciate him, respect him with sincerity and listen to him without judgment, with who he would spend pleasant hours in Hogsmeade, drinking sips of butterbeer between two laughs and confessions ; and when holidays would begin, he would take the Hogwarts Express to London, the heart lighted and beating to the idea to see his parents again, who would be proud of their son and marvelled of his progress in magic, encouraging him to stay in Hogwarts to become a Defense against the Dark Forces teacher. And later, he would find a stunning and intelligent witch, pure-blood or half-blood, who would love him and he would love her forever, and with who he would spend hours to debate about the best education to give to their children. He, who didn't know what love was, didn't have a vague or precise idea, stayed persuaded that a child from his own flesh could teach him what this sentiment was.
Yet Tom Riddle would never have anything of this, and he was aware of it. Therefore, he gave himself, body and soul, to his only lover : Hatred. He has been deeply disappointed of the misery in which his uncle spent his sad old age, celebrating his future death with his friend Whisky, and, taking a jewel as a legacy, Tom did not have any scruple to manipulate his memories to make him accuse himself of the murder of the Riddle family.
Oh! He savoured their horrified expressions when he used the Unforgivable spell of death on them! Very soon, the whole magical world would wear this expression when seeing him, and all would despair when hearing his pseudonym – Lord Voldemort – no one would even dare to pronounce!
It was the fifth day of September 1942, prefect Tom Riddle was on his sixteen birthday. He started his sixth year at Hogwarts school of wizardry, killed his father, his paternal grandparents, the domestic, and created his first Horcrux. Not yet adult. Already murderer. Already immortal.
"Of all our acts, only those we accomplish for others are truly worth it." (Lewis Carroll)
