Disclaimer and Author's note: I wish I owned Albus
Dumbledore and I REALLY don't wish I owned Tom Riddle a.k.a
Lord Voldemort. J.K Rowling has the happy privilege of owning
them all. I hope you enjoy this and I apologize that my fics
aren't that long.
The Darkness Within
No one else saw it. Or at least, no one else WANTED to see it. He was the hope, the perfection they wanted in this time of chaos. With Slytherin's monster roaming free, preying on Muggle-borns, they needed someone for stability and Tom Riddle fit the role.
And fit it he did… model student, Quidditch player, and oh so handsome. The poor little orphan who had become Head Boy, the ultimate Hogwarts success story.
But Albus Dumbledore saw through it all.
Albus had always had this uncanny ability to read people. It was as though his powers radiated off of him, catching others in their aura. But he didn't need that to read Tom Riddle. The boy was pure Slytherin in everything he did, it just wasn't visible to the naked eye. People always pinned stereotypical personality traits on Slytherins: cruelty, hatefulness, the ability to hold grudges ad infinitum. But they often overlooked the good qualities…or relatively good qualities: cunning, ambition, and intelligence. Tom Riddle was all of these things, the good and the bad, but he hid the bad very well. This was the reason why people saw him as the Slytherin who had "broken the mold" so to speak. But Albus saw it as quite the opposite. This boy was Slytherin down to his toenails but no one wanted to see it. They didn't want their hero to be the vengeful Snakes they despised. They thought that if they ignored his House long enough he would become a good, respectable Gryffindor or Ravenclaw.
Respect. That's what it all came down to. Unlike the general public, Albus respected the Slytherins. MERCY he respected them for woe become anyone who didn't. Just because people weren't charming or witty or even very nice did not mean that you didn't respect them. But it took someone like Riddle to finally break the ice and prove that Slytherins could be like the charismatic boys they saw in the other Houses.
But witticisms and a pretty face weren't everything. Albus could feel the desperate hunger that fairly surrounded the boy. A hunger for power that needed to be fed and being a Slytherin he would stop at no means to satisfy that hunger and with the towering ambition of his fellow Snakes he would be eating for a long time.
That's why, Albus thought grimly, barely anyone connected the dots between Tom Riddle and Lord Voldemort. Because they needed him, the perfect Slytherin who had rescued them from the monster.
Why would Tom want to torture Muggle-borns, they would argue if they knew. He saved them all from the Chamber of Secrets. He got rid of the dreadful half-Giant boy.
Why would he want to align himself with the scum of the wizarding world when he had met the cream of the crop at school?
Why? Because good Gryffindors, intellectual, Ravenclaws, and moral Hufflepuffs had no use for power. Because he knew, after competing with them for grades and positions of Prefect and Head Boy that the control and the twisted pleasure of someone writing under your wand would be lost on the innocent. Because he knew and he didn't respect them.
The Darkness Within
No one else saw it. Or at least, no one else WANTED to see it. He was the hope, the perfection they wanted in this time of chaos. With Slytherin's monster roaming free, preying on Muggle-borns, they needed someone for stability and Tom Riddle fit the role.
And fit it he did… model student, Quidditch player, and oh so handsome. The poor little orphan who had become Head Boy, the ultimate Hogwarts success story.
But Albus Dumbledore saw through it all.
Albus had always had this uncanny ability to read people. It was as though his powers radiated off of him, catching others in their aura. But he didn't need that to read Tom Riddle. The boy was pure Slytherin in everything he did, it just wasn't visible to the naked eye. People always pinned stereotypical personality traits on Slytherins: cruelty, hatefulness, the ability to hold grudges ad infinitum. But they often overlooked the good qualities…or relatively good qualities: cunning, ambition, and intelligence. Tom Riddle was all of these things, the good and the bad, but he hid the bad very well. This was the reason why people saw him as the Slytherin who had "broken the mold" so to speak. But Albus saw it as quite the opposite. This boy was Slytherin down to his toenails but no one wanted to see it. They didn't want their hero to be the vengeful Snakes they despised. They thought that if they ignored his House long enough he would become a good, respectable Gryffindor or Ravenclaw.
Respect. That's what it all came down to. Unlike the general public, Albus respected the Slytherins. MERCY he respected them for woe become anyone who didn't. Just because people weren't charming or witty or even very nice did not mean that you didn't respect them. But it took someone like Riddle to finally break the ice and prove that Slytherins could be like the charismatic boys they saw in the other Houses.
But witticisms and a pretty face weren't everything. Albus could feel the desperate hunger that fairly surrounded the boy. A hunger for power that needed to be fed and being a Slytherin he would stop at no means to satisfy that hunger and with the towering ambition of his fellow Snakes he would be eating for a long time.
That's why, Albus thought grimly, barely anyone connected the dots between Tom Riddle and Lord Voldemort. Because they needed him, the perfect Slytherin who had rescued them from the monster.
Why would Tom want to torture Muggle-borns, they would argue if they knew. He saved them all from the Chamber of Secrets. He got rid of the dreadful half-Giant boy.
Why would he want to align himself with the scum of the wizarding world when he had met the cream of the crop at school?
Why? Because good Gryffindors, intellectual, Ravenclaws, and moral Hufflepuffs had no use for power. Because he knew, after competing with them for grades and positions of Prefect and Head Boy that the control and the twisted pleasure of someone writing under your wand would be lost on the innocent. Because he knew and he didn't respect them.