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Disclaimer- I do not own Harry Potter etc. etc.
Chapter 1-A Second Chance
Tom Marvolo Riddle was standing, robeless, in the middle of King's Cross. For a moment, all he could do was feel.; feel the rush of cool air being pushed in and out of his lungs, relishing the tingle of the sunlight as it filtered down through the glass onto his pale skin. He had been in such agony, for what felt like a millennia, that even just the absence of the pain felt better than anything he had ever experienced.
Tom took a step, just to see if he could. And another. He looked down at himself, thoughtlessly wishing for clothing. A pile of robes appeared in front of him. Tom put them on. They were warm, as though they had been sitting in the sun for hours. Tom had not know that he was cold until that moment.
"Hello, Tom." came a soft female voice. It sounded like chimes in the wind, Tom almost believed, for a moment, that the voice in his own head, but hat was until he turned his eyes to meet the piercing emerald gaze of Lily Evans Potter.
She stood no more than three feet from him, as young and beautiful as the day he had so disastrously extinguished her life. Her dark red hair fell in soft waves down her back, blowing silently in a nonexistent breeze. Her skin was a radiant, pure white. The sight of her made his heart race. A rushing fear flooded him: she was his enemy, perhaps as much as her son had been. She was his first downfall.
"Lily Potter," he whispered. His voice was cool, deep and laced with an icy hatred.
"Tom Riddle." Lily replied, she had a sad smile on her face. Both were silent for a few moments, but he could hear her voice still ringing in the cavernous room.
And in those moments, he could not look away from those damned emerald eyes. Those eyes that were the last image he had seen before he was struck with a curse of the same colour and for an eternity knew nothing but agony. He could see a powerful emotion in them. He had never excelled at the detection of human emotion, but he knew what was in them: pity. Tom loathed pity above all else. Pathetically human weakness. He had seen pity in the eyes of Harry Potter, right before he had been consumed by the torment of death.
"Where are we?" he asked, pulling his eyes from hers as he studied his surroundings. Lily Potter did not follow suit. She continued to gaze at him, serenity still smoothing her lovely features.
"Where do you think we are?" she asked. He glanced back at her.
"King's Cross." he said. She let out a soft, ringing laugh.
"I guess I should have expected that…Albus told me that Harry saw King's Cross as well …during the few moments he spent here. He had shared your soul and many of the same life experiencees as you..." she said, "We are in the in-between…limbo. You have been here since Harry defeated you."
Tom said nothing. Hatred boiled in his veins at the mention of his nemesis and his death.
"I only just arrived here. I only spent a moment here when I came through before. The first time." she said.
Tom felt a strange curiosity.
"Where did you go?" he asked. Her emerald eyes turned back to his, he felt his stomach churn in anticipation.
"On." she whispered. She took a breath and continued, her voice stronger. Her eyes still burning into his.
"I was twenty-one when you murdered me, Tom. I had my whole life ahead of me. I had a sweet baby boy and husband. A husband I loved more than I could have ever dreamed. James and I should have grown old together. A family. Torn asunder by your hands…like so many before me and after me...And yet, you, you have felt no remorse. No unease. No pain. No moral conflictions. No regret except for your own destruction."
Tom remained silent. She was correct. He felt none of those things. He had never felt any of those things. Those emotions were a weakness that came from a connection with others, a circumstance Tom had easily avoided throughout his life. He felt no need to reply to her statements. As though understanding he would not reply, Lily continued on.
"It has been decided that you will get a second chance, Tom," said Lily, taking a step closer to him. Tom fought a strange, unbidden urge to step back. He was inexplicably afraid of her. This spectre from his past, the deathly ghost of the evil deeds that he did not feel.
"Second chance?" whispered the former Dark Lord. Confusion was lacing every word he spoke.
"You will be returned to life. You are being given a chance to atone for what you have done to humanity. You have been given an opportunity to atone for what you have done to yourself. You are being given a chance to get out of... wherever you are right now." the red-haired woman replied her eyes twinkling in the filtered light, "To get out of torment, this flittering hell. We have decided to give you-"
"Decided? And who… who has decided this?" he asked, annoyance rising in his blood.
"Us. The ones who have moved on. It has taken nearly thirty years, twenty-seven years to be exact, for us to reach our decision." she replied.
"Who is 'us'?" demanded the former Dark Lord ice lacing his words. Lily threw her head back and laughed merrily at his impatience. The humour on her face grated Tom even more, his desire to lash out at he was rising.
"The ones you murdered, Tom. All of us. We had some others come in, others whose deaths you had a hand in. The most convincing of all, though, was your mother."
"My mother." he said, scepticism lacing his voice.
"Yes, Merope Gaunt. That is her name, you know. She was allowed to contribute to the decision." Lily said.
"And she advocated for me?" Tom asked, incredulous.
"Of course." Lily replied, her face softening, "Your mother reminded us. Reminded me. It is a terrible fate that you should have been raised without love-"
Tom's laughter cut her short. "I do not care that my blood traitor mother was advocating for me. What I would like to know is why, of all the thousands whose deaths I was responsible for, would you be sent to tell me this? To rub it in that your son triumphed over me?" His rage was mounting. Lily paused, her eyes finally looking away from him.
"I am everything that you are not, Tom Riddle." her voice was quiet, but Tom could hear every word as though it were shouted, " I am exactly what you hate. I represent love, which you never had. That which you have never wanted or understood. That which you have ignored so thoroughly to the point of you own destruction. I represent the muggle-borns, whom you believe are inferior. I am a Gryffindor. I died willingly, for another, while you had to be dragged there by your own evil."
"And for what reason do you think I will change my ways this time around?" he asked, thoroughly disgusted by her.
"Because you now have the capacity to do what you were so unable to in your previous life...Your soul is healed once more. All of the parts you so unwisely severed and divided are now whole... Your soul is being given a chance at redemption, Tom Riddle. I suggest you take it. I suggest you live for once, not merely exist." Tom watched as the young woman flicked her long, dark red hair behind her shoulder. As Tom Riddle stared into those mesmerizing green eyes, he felt a wave of sickness upon him.
"Most were going to leave you to the wolves, damn you to this existence for eternity. Suffering was all you had brought upon the world and suffering was what you deserved for eternity. But Merope-she reminded me, she reminded us, of what was at sake. A soul was at stake. It may be a divided, mangled soul, but still it was a soul. Your mother loved you. You mother begged us, pleaded on you behalf. She claimed the responsibility for your callousness, your warped self. She loves you, despite all of this. And now you know. You will not know conciously when you return, but she does." Lily Potter reached out and touched his face, for once, he did not recoil, entranced by her words. "And for her, for your mother, we are allowing you to attempt to atone. You are going back to the age of seventeen, the age that you first ripped your soul apart. Good luck, Tom. I hope you find the things worth living for this time around."