Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any characters created by J. K. Rowling. I do, however, own the characters I created, and the plot line.
Summary: It has been thirty-three years since Rose Weasley was sent back into the past and changed the fate of the wizarding world by merely falling in love. Tom Riddle, future-villain-turned-Hogwarts-professor is, at the most, fiercely hot-tempered, and is now content in living out his days with Rose and his daughter. Following the life of Leda Persephone Riddle, we watch as the unnoticed, conservative girl changes into the wild, crazy teenager she wants to be. But by changing her appearance she not only puts her relationship with her father in rocky water, but she also attracts the attention of one of Hogwart's most notorious playboys—Sirius Black. And as she struggles to deal with her own life problems and bring her best friend Lily Evans happiness, she must also put her own at risk. But who was she to know that a supposed sacrifice could really be the best thing she ever did?
AN: This is the sequel to my story Lightning Struck, so even though I pretty much summarize everything that happened in that story in the prologue, it still might be a good idea to read it as well. Just a suggestion though, this is pretty much an entirely new plotline, with a few themes and points from the last story that may confuse readers unfamiliar with the saga.
Prologue
Rose [Granger (Weasley)] Riddle's Thoughts
Life is funny. It throws the most insane and unbearable curves and obstacles at you, breaking you down until you hit the point where you cant even go on. It puts you into a place where you don't think you belong; where you don't even want to belong. It pushes you to your last, deepest, hardest breaking point. Then, just when you think you'll die from all the pain that you're feeling, it gives you something to live for, a small shimmer of happiness again. It brings you back up into a good place, and though you might drop back down a bit on your way up, once you're there, you know it was worth the struggle. You find that life isn't all as bad as you thought it was, and though things might not end up the way you had originally expected them to, you're finally content.
Take me for example. I grew up in the picture perfect family; compete with the picket fence and the porch going all the way around the house. My life was perfect. My mother was supportive and smart, always there for me when I needed to talk. My father was my best friend, the shoulder I leaned on for strength, and always good for a laugh. And my brother thought the world of me. I had a great big family, compete with cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents. I had the best of friends at school, and the guy of my dreams.
But then, as I've already said, life likes to throw excruciating curves at you, and my perfect world shattered under my feet, dropping me into darkness and despair. The summer before my seventh year at Hogwarts, my father died in a muggle car crash. I had had a fight with him, telling him I hated him, and before I could even apologize he was snatched away from me. Suddenly my life didn't seem to have the same meaning to it and I found myself falling into a deep, dark abyss. I distanced myself from everyone, loosing my friends and the perfect guy, until I was completely alone. I stopped eating, didn't sleep; I became a shell, my soul trapped somewhere deep inside me, powerless to break free.
It was Halloween when another crazy curve was thrown my way. I had ventured out into a storm, buckets of rain falling from the sky and soaking me in a second flat. Colorful bolts of lightning flashed through the sky, and the ground shook with thunder. I screamed at the storm, loosing sanity in my grief. That's when I was struck by a rainbow colored lighting bolt. The worse pain that anyone could possibly imagine ripped through me, and I had the sensation of being pulled apart before loosing consciousness. When I woke up I found myself in the Hogwarts Hospital Wing, but with a slight catch: I had traveled seventy-eight years into the past.
I didn't know what to do, or who to trust. Taking a crazy chance, I trusted Albus Dumbledore, a man I had never met but knew many stories of. Telling him of what I had experienced he promised to help me find a way back home. Enrolling me into the school and giving me an unlimited pass to the Restricted Section, I began my search for a means of traveling into the future. But within the first day I realized that I would have to be far more careful with my secret that I had originally predicted. A boy by the name of Tom Riddle targeted in on me the moment he laid eyes on me. Instantly we were worst enemies. He wanted to learn my secrets by any means necessary, and I wanted him to leave me alone to wallow in my own self pity and attempt to go home.
I'm not sure exactly how it happened, or even why, but one night Tom found me in the Astronomy Tower and showed me true concern and comfort. After that things changed between us, and before I knew it he and I had kissed and had become, unofficially, a couple. He would wait for me every morning by my portrait hole to walk me to breakfast, and whenever we went anywhere he would hold my hand. I found myself falling deeper and deeper into his charm. He no longer seemed to care about my secrets, and I was happy being with him. He made me feel content, pulling me out of my deep depression whenever I so much as glanced at him.
But of course, things came crashing down upon me when my newfound friend, Dwight Lovegood, informed me of Tom's little group of friends, and his discussing of me behind my back. Tom and I got into a big row before finally making up. Tom gave me his family ring, and I gave him my locket. But when I found him and his friends torturing Dwight one night in the Forbidden Forest I knew I had to do something.
It wasn't long after that that I figured out Tom Riddle was, in fact, Lord Voldemort, the darkest wizard of my parents' time. He had murdered hundreds, if not thousands of innocent people, my uncle included. I was shocked and broken hearted, confronting the man of my discovery. After a bit of aggravated aggression from him, I told him of what he would become. Then I offered him a chance to change, informing him of my love for him. I gave him the choice between his worthless dream that would only lead in his own downfall, or a normal, happy life with me. To my surprise, he chose me.
After that things began to be happy again. Tom and I both got jobs at Hogwarts as professors, marrying four years later. We were happy with just being the two of us, using the children at Hogwarts as our own. But then, one day out of the blue, Tom told me he wanted to start a family. I agreed that I'd like that, and so we tried for a baby. Two years later we were just starting to loose hope of ever having that family we had dreamed of, and then I became pregnant. I had never seen Tom happier. Our joy was short-lived though, because only three months into the pregnancy I had a miscarriage. We were both devastated, and I refused to even try for another, but when I eventually did try again we once again lost our baby. Again and again we lost our babies, until finally, after eleven years of trying we had our daughter, Leda Persephone Riddle.
Tom had grown distant and depressed, as had I over those eleven years. We both were unsure around our little girl, Tom seeming to completely ignore her. I worried he didn't want her, or that he resented her for living after so many of our other babies hadn't. But then, one night he pulled out of it, and I knew that things were going to be okay with us. I knew he was a good man who wouldn't ever go back to his dark ways, and that our Leda would grow up in a happy home.
Since then things have been okay with our family. I no longer hurt from the pain that came from loosing everyone I knew and loved. Tom had pulled out of his depression over possibly never becoming a father. And little Leda; she became the center of our world. She was our miracle; our gift. We had been given the chance to have a child, and we never took that for granted. I watched as I saw her grow before my very eyes, going from a grinning infant to a giggling toddler, to a mischievous six-year-old. I watched her take her first steps, totally ignoring the concept of crawling. And as I watched her growing, learning to read and write, and play wizards chess with her dad, I realized that she was growing up at an alarming rate. I knew she wouldn't be our baby forever, but I also knew that, despite that, I didn't want to ever loose her. I wanted her to stay in my arms forever. But I knew that, no matter how much I wished it, it would never be. So instead, I chose to accept the years that I was given, because they were the only years I would have. And I wouldn't waste them.