Disclaimer: I am not JK Rowling and therefore don't own Harry Potter
Summery: Your life can change through the simplest things, such as a friend. Tom Riddle had a friend, but he lost her. What would happen if that friend returned? Playing safe with rating for bit in Ch 3 that can be skipped if desired.
A/N: I This was just something I had on the computer and decided to post, and I'll admit now that yes, I do like Tom Riddle. Voldermort on the other hand…. Not so much. I'll admit when I first saw a story .like this I myself was unsure but the more I read them the more I understand why it's compelling because Tom Riddle is the perfect example of what having a bad child hood can do to you. And I found myself asking what so many others must have, what if he had a friend? That combined with the classic 'Hermione goes back in time' and bish, bash, bosh, Turning Back To You is born.
So please Enjoy.
E-Angel-H
Turning Back to You
Ch 1: 19th September 1943
It was dinner time at Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry, yet the normal chatter of what had happened during the school day was reduced to a silent din. The Slytherin table in fact was making zero noise at all except for the general scrape of cutlery across china and the rise and fall of goblets as the drinker tried to avoid looking at that student who was being stayed clear of like the plague
Albus Dumbledore stared forlornly at the young boy whose face was absent of all emotion and who just kept staring forlornly at his full plate. The Professor sighed as he took a sip from his own goblet, never taking his eyes of the student, while his mind drifted back to a summer about five years ago.
Flashback
"I must admit to some confusion receiving your letter, Professor Dumbledore." The harassed looking woman told him as she led him through the orphanage. "In all the years Toms been here he's never once had a family visitor. There have been incidents with the other Children. Nasty things" She shuddered slightly before continuing on. "That being said they probably would be more common without her. She can normally calm him down, that is as long as the children aren't bothering her. The boy is extremely loyal to her; she is his only friend and vise versa.
"Now she I'm not so surprised about you wanting to see. She may have had as little visitors as Tom but she is a much more charming child and extremely intelligent. She will do well at your school, as probably will Tom. Either way I hope they're not separated. I don't know how Tom would react to that but I doubt it would be pleasant." She said solemnly as she led Dumbledore towards a simple wooden door aged by years of harassment by wayward children "Well here's Tom's room. I don't doubt she will be in there with him. Hopefully they will grow out of it soon so people won't talk when their older." She muttered before knocking on the door to tell Tom he had a visitor.
'Either way I hope they're not separated. I don't know how Tom would react to that but I doubt it would be pleasant'
That statement kept running through his mind. How right that woman was.
Dumbledore could tell, even without Mrs. Cole telling him, that the two children were extremely close. Even when he first felt concern about the young boys more dark tendencies it was soothed by Miss. Terrance's presence next to Tom. She was clearly pure light and goodness, but as much as they were opposites they were the same. Both of unknown heritage, both extremely intelligent and both ambitious. It was no surprise to Dumbledore that they both ended up in Slytherin if only so they wouldn't be separated.
But separated they were.
By October of their first year they had cemented themselves as being the smartest in their year and were proving themselves as students not to be messed with, which he had found more than slightly daunting but felt as long as Tom had her there would be no cause for concern. But alas with their questionable heritage the two first years where on the outskirts of Slytherin politics and weren't looked on to fondly by their housemates. Add to it that they were possibly the smartest witch and wizard of their generation and this dislike took a vicious turn resulting in a tragic sequence of events.
It was the second week of October when they were confronted in the great hall near the end of dinner and another first year challenged Tom. They were generally rule abiding so had tried to bypass the student but he started firing spells preventing that causing Riddle to draw his own wand in self defense. Part way into the duel the student sent a spell at Tom but missed hitting Miss. Terrence and due to the attack on his friend Tom had gotten more serious, escalating the difficulty level of his spells causing the other student to rely on spells he had found in his family library. Unfortunately he had only seen them in passing and neither knew how to cast them right or what they actually did. Tragically Miss. Terrance again was caught in the crossfire and disappeared.
The student had to move schools fearing for his safety.
No one messed with Tom Riddle after that day.
They never had found out what had happened to Miss. Terrence.
Since her disappearance Riddle had descended into the darkness that he had always been on the border of and become someone truly frightening. From his friendship with Gellert Grindewald Dumbledore had learnt the signs of a dark wizard and was sad to see it begin its manifestation in Tom, knowing if he hadn't lost his only friend it wouldn't be happening. Riddle already had a small band of followers, extreme influence in his house and to some extent in the other three. He had progressed immensely in DADA to an extent were it suggested he had also studied the actual Dark Arts and had discovered his actual heritage as the heir of Slytherin, giving him further clout with those he had shared the truth with. While he had yet to make a decision on his stance on blood purity, thanks mostly to Miss. Terrence, he was on the precipice of becoming truly dark and it would take a miracle to change that.
Tom Marvolo Riddle stared forlornly down at his plate, not bothering to touch a bite. He knew his 'friends' were wary of him, well more so then normal, but so they should. She was gone. She should be here with him, talking with him, sharing their hopes and dreams like they did back in the orphanage. She was the only one who understood him, would have stood by him through anything and she was gone. She should be celebrating right now, the day she turned seventeen, and preparing to become everything he knew she would have been.
It wasn't fair.
A cough to his right broke Tom out of his revive and causing him to again be looking at his plate, not the warm brown eyes and soft curls from his memory. He drew his eyes away from the food, food she should be eating, and looked round the hall his eyes finally landing on the transfiguration professor. He sneered inside.
Dumbledore was the one who had done the most research into his best friend's disappearance and not even he could figure out what happened. He had said he would do anything to bring her back but he hadn't. If he had done anything he would be still at it, not sitting in the great hall eating dinner.
Tom glared. He had said he was sorry, that he couldn't find out anything about her disappearance. Well how could he when he wasn't even trying. Riddle's knuckles turned white as he gripped his cutlery in his hands. He hated Dumbledore, and only a miracle could change that.
The air in the great hall that night hummed, not that anyone noticed, with a foreign power that caused the lights to flicker and a gentle wind start to blow. As the power grew so did the tension that had filled the hall due to Tom but now there was something else mixed in with it. Trepidation? Suspense? Anticipation? Those sorts of emotions filled the hall. Suddenly the wind picked up till it was like a gale surrounding the Slytherin table, to the shock of the students, along with that noise…
It was like a thousand glass containers smashing and sand running out of them on to a stone floor mixed in with screams and panic.
It lasted a minute then it stopped.
Everything stopped.
The candles, the enchanted ceiling, the air got cold and their wasn't a single noise till…
Crack
Food and cutlery went flying along with splinters of wood that stuck in student's arms. The Slytherin's ducked for cover, as did other students in case there was more to come, and desperately tried to figure out what fell on to the table to no effect. Only one student remained sitting where he was.
He ignored the splinters in his skin even as blood trickled down his face. His neat appearance was blemished with his uneaten dinner but he barely noticed as he stared at what had fallen in front of him in shock.
No not what, who.
A shuttering breath was drawn in to the badly beaten body by trembling lips, and bloody arms that were held behind her back by her wrists, seemingly stuck together by a spell as were her ankles. Torn clothes encased herdamaged body revealing more wounds that bled profoundly including one the stretched other her chest which would distract people from noticing her modesty was on show.
The boy noticed none of this though. All he saw was glazed over warm brown eyes framed by soft but wild curls. He took in the pales skin and delicate features including the faded scar above her eye. The scar he gave her when they were six and playing sword fights.
He whispered her name to himself as if asking if she was real.
He said it again, louder, and went to touch her face but stopped, scared to hurt her by touching one of the many cuts.
Then he shouted it.
"HERMIONE"
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