They do not call me "Tom" any more

I'm sure the portraits in the Headmaster's study watched the showdown between Albus and Tom with rapt attention, but for one of them at least it must have been a painful and disillusioning experience.

Chapter 1

Armando Dippet

Of course, as a teacher – and especially as a Headmaster – he ought not to have had favourites, but he couldn't help being very fond of Tom, and he really would have liked to have been able to make arrangements for him to stay at the school over the summer holidays, even though it meant obtaining special permission from the Board of Governors. Well intentioned though the Muggles at his orphanage might be, the boy loved Hogwarts, and it was very hard on Tom to send him back to a place where he had to conceal his magic, and where there was not one single person he had anything in common with. And he'd been very proud of the decent way that Tom had spoken up for Hagrid when that poor girl had been killed by Hagrid's spider, they'd hushed it all up, said it had been an accident – as it was, because Hagrid hadn't meant any harm, he just didn't understand that monsters don't make good pets. So it had only been expulsion, and he'd let Albus persuade him to allow Hagrid stay at Hogwarts, as Ogg's assistant. And after all, where could Hagrid go, if he had to leave Hogwarts? His father was dead, and as for his mother – well, less said about that the better.

When the time came for Tom to leave Hogwarts, he'd expected that Tom would go into the Ministry, everyone had thought that the Ministry was the perfect choice for such a brilliant student, but the dear boy seemed to think that he didn't have the right kind of background for a career in politics. Both he and Horace had assured him that they would do everything they could to put him in touch with useful contacts – and plenty of half-bloods, even Muggle-borns, had risen to high office within the Ministry - but Tom had refused all offers. And he'd been really quite upset when he heard that Tom had taken a position with Borgin and Burkes - a boy with his talent and ability working as an assistant in a shop, and although the business was outwardly respectable, the premises were in Knockturn Alley and the partners were known to handle merchandise of a certain kind. He'd even thought that perhaps he'd made a mistake in refusing Tom the position he'd asked for when Galatea Merrythought retired, but as Albus had pointed out, Tom was really too young to teach at Hogwarts, he was still only a boy himself.

And then there'd been that awful business with one of Caractacus Burke's best customers, Hepzibah Smith had been poisoned by a poor befuddled old house-elf, and some very valuable treasures had vanished from her collection – and Tom had vanished, too; travelling on the Continent, so it was said. There had been ugly rumours from time to time over the next ten years, but he preferred not to believe them, people always do gossip - and wizards of a certain calibre have always been drawn to explore some aspects of magic ...

Even so, when he'd heard that Tom had discarded the name Tom Riddle and now preferred to be known as Lord Voldemort, he'd been a little alarmed, because the name had a dark, disturbing, sinister ring to it. And when Tom had walked through the study door, he'd been shocked, because Tom had been such a delightful, handsome boy, and now he looked ghastly. The once finely-cut features were blurred and burned, waxy and oddly distorted, and the whites of the eyes had a bloody look – and he'd recognised straightaway the signs of numerous, dangerous magical transformations.

But when Albus had said that he'd heard the whispers of Tom's doings since he'd left school, and he would be sorry to believe half of them, he'd still hoped that Tom would deny the rumours, provide some explanation that he could believe – but the red glow in Tom's eyes when he'd boasted of pushing the boundaries of magic further than they'd ever been pushed had been frightening, and the taut leer that appeared on Tom's face when Albus had told him that there were some kinds of magic of which he was woefully ignorant had been an evil thing, more threatening than a look of rage.

Now both Tom and Albus are on their feet, there's a dreadful look of fury and hatred on Tom's face - this monster is hardly recognisable as the Tom Riddle he'd known as a boy – and Albus is looking deeply saddened and saying something that he doesn't understand about a burning wardrobe and forcing Tom to make repayment for his crimes.

Tom's hand is twitching towards his pocket and his wand, it's unbelievable but Tom is actually about to attack Albus - he's too shocked even to shout a warning and then the moment passes, Tom turns away, the door is closing and Tom is gone.