NOTE (31 July 2015): The first fifteen chapters of this fic are currently being revised (ie, I've written them, and now I just have to format them for ). Changes include: tweaking Hermione's age, replacing minor characters with other minor characters, and pinning down the backstory. There are now eight prologue/interlude chapters setting the scene for both Tom and Hermione's first three years at Hogwarts. And I've got an additional 30 chapters written which I will upload... after I finish formatting. Fair warning: this fic is moving very slowly, both chronologically and in my writing of it. I'm at ~320 pages and the end of our heroes' first weekend back to Hogwarts, and I'm currently dealing with a bit of writer's block on this story. Updates will be irregular (if they continue at all), and probably massive as I tend to revise as I work out more details to improve continuity, and would prefer not to continuously re-upload here.
This whole chapter is an AN. Also, spoilers. Kind of. I guess. Maybe.
The Fall Back – 1940 Universe is… I suppose canon, more or less, until just after third year, with the addition of a scene somewhere in there where some seventh-year Ravenclaws make fun of Hermione for trying to cast the Patronus charm. In this hypothetical scene, Hermione, in a bout of hot-headedness, challenges one of them to a charm-casting contest and beats the older girl in front of her friends. The seventh-year Ravenclaws try their hand at pranking her with their new transport spell (trying to make portkeys more efficient?), cast on one of her books, and set to activate any time it's touched over the summer. Something went terribly wrong (or maybe right, if that's what the Ravens were trying to do) and Hermione is moved in time as well as space. I'm honestly not planning on fleshing out magical theory enough to explain it. Tl;dr there was a magical accident and in a million-to-one moment, Hermione goes time travelling and arrives unscathed, mind intact, 54 years or so in the Past.
I intended this to be a single point of divergence from canon, but things may be unintentionally inaccurate. I can be bothered to google random facts about 1940, but not re-read all the canon for hints about what the wizarding world might have been like in 1940. (As Tom would say, deal with it.)
Hermione is sent back to London in the summer of 1940. In this reality, the Blitz started in May of 1940 instead of September (because it was convenient to the plot) and in the chaos that is London under siege, another battered bombing victim with no family and "no memory" of what happened to her, Hermione is sent to Tom Riddle's orphanage (because it was convenient to the plot, and what are the chances of surviving a trip like that anyway? This little bit of synchronicity is the least unlikely bit of the setup). BTW, apparently more than half of the people, including schoolchildren, who were evacuated from the East End and much of Inner City London before the Blitz were sent back due to class conflict issues. Who knew? So it's not terribly unreasonable to think that Wool's would still be there.
Tom is 14. Hermione will be 15 in September (officially). He's bored and she's interesting. They decide to get her into Hogwarts. Hijinks ensue.
14-year-old Tom has never killed anyone (though he thinks he might like to), hasn't yet found the Chamber of Secrets, had not yet been fully accepted by his Pureblood year-mates as of the end of his third year, and therefore hadn't yet internalized their blood-purity ideology. 14-year-old Tom is kind of a creep, and is just barely pretending to be a functional human being. (Teenaged sociopaths can be a bit slow about that sort of thing.) He's pretty good at telling authority figures what they want to hear, but people who are living with him day in, day out? They know there's something off. He's definitely got a sadistic streak (which he knows is abnormal, but thinks everyone else should just deal), thinks sex is gross (there's like…fluids, and stuff), and (like most other 14-year-olds?) really wishes other people would just stop being so stupid all the time. He also knows a bit more than canon Tom might have about his own history, because in my headcanon, Divination doesn't suck, and scrying the past is easier than reading tea leaves. Also in my headcanon, fourth and fifth year would have been when Tom really came out of his shell, reinvented himself, and started amassing a following. I had the impression that much of it was based on his opening the Chamber of Secrets and proving himself Slytherin's heir. Before that, well… I'd expect him to be a smart but socially inept half-blood raised by Muggles in Slytherin, ie, bottom of the pack, regardless of his Parsel-speaking abilities.
Almost-15 Hermione is partly in shock, partly in survival mode. What would you do if you were dropped into the middle of the Blitz with a sadistic teenage sociopath who may or may not (now that you're there to mess up the timeline) be the next Dark Lord? What do you do if, in a moment of utter stupidity, you tell him you're from the future before you find out who he is? You're smart enough to figure out what to tell him to at least make him an uneasy ally, right? Right. So you use your knowledge of magic developed in the future as leverage, keeping him off balance by telling the truth and explaining things when you don't have to and trying to think like him (you just knew those psychology and social engineering books would come in handy some day) and never letting him know exactly where you stand. Irritate him constantly, and repeatedly demonstrate that you are smart enough that you deserve his respect. Make him relate to you as another human being. And then maybe spend enough time with him doing a few borderline illegal things (you don't exist for another fifty years, remember, and setting up an identity is… well, easier than expected, but not easy) to realize that he's actually smart and sometimes funny and a little creepy and socially inept, but not outright terrifying or dangerous (Much. If he likes you.) and very enthusiastic about his favorite hobbies, like the descriptive linguistics of Parseltongue. Kind of like the (insane) little brother you never had. You have to take advantage of this situation and try to make your new BFF and his schoolmates a political opposition force to derail pureblood ideology and make a better future, right? I mean, the timeline was fucked as soon as you told Tom Fucking Riddle that you were from the future. Might as well have fun with it. Also, Almost-15 Hermione may be somewhat less enchanted with Dumbledore than her canon-counterpart. It's not that she has given up on trusting authority in general, per se (or she hadn't before she fell back to 1940), just that she's looked at the first three years at Hogwarts and decided that Dumbledore hasn't been acting very responsibly toward his students, and so shouldn't be the authority.
Bellatrix Black is an ickle firstie. (Because I can? I honestly don't remember how much older she was supposed to be than her cousins, but she is the oldest of her generation, and wizards are long-lived, so we'll just say Sirius' mum was his dad's second wife or something (I actually spent a stupid amount of time fiddling around with the Black family tree for this and writing out a tract on the Black family history from Bella's perspective. There may be an interlude chapter about it, just because). Because reasons of I wanted to see almost-12 year old Bella crushing on 14-year-old Tom [and so 15-year-old Bella and 17-year-old Tom might have a chance to get together eventually. No promises. That's a long way off, in any case.] because why not send the abused, masochistic, first-year pureblood princess with anger management issues after the sadistic sociopath who may or may not be the next Dark Lord? It's a match made in Hell. Amateur Psychologist and resident moral director Hermione is Not Pleased.)
Rated M for language, because I swear like a sailor, and therefore so does Hermione, though I've tried to keep it in check for the native '40s residents. Also for references to child abuse, allusions of cannibalism, and bloody torture scenes (mostly scarification, or as Tom and Bella would call it, "art"). I'm American (as though this was not obvious) and therefore Britishisms will be used infrequently and irregularly, I'm sure. The perspective and pacing changes frequently, without warning, and in no real predictable way. Sorry. It makes sense to me.
Chapters 1-15 make up Part 1, from the time Hermione arrives in 1940 to the night before classes start for Fall term. (Autumn? Michaelmas? I honestly have no idea what the Brits call the term that starts the first week of September)
Chapters 16-35 make up Part 2, the first week (Monday-Friday) of September.
Chapters 36-45 make up Part 3, the first weekend (Friday-Sunday) of September.
The plan is for the (chronological) pace to pick up considerably after this point, focusing more on events related to the general plot, rather than characterization and world-building, as the characters will be established at Hogwarts.
I am not and will not receive any money for this work, etc., etc. You know the drill.