Like any fairy tale,
there was a girl,
there was a boy,
and there was a curse.
Long ago, in a distant land, a girl grew up in a quiet, little town with plain homes, plain names, and plain dreams. There were no scandals to be told, no danger to fear. Everything was peaceful for the only daughter of the town's dentist.
Hermione became a beautiful, young woman with an attitude as unruly as the hair she tried to tame. Her father was a respectable man and his importance in the town secured her a comfortable living. For this, she spent her days without worry, reading for hours on end in the town's charming library, a small room with a small collection of literature.
Nevertheless, by the time she reached adulthood, young Hermione had consumed the knowledge of every book worth reading, several times over. The more she read, the less interested she was in her little town.
When she wasn't in the town library, Hermione was with the Potters' son and the youngest Weasley boy. The three were inseparable, until one day when the the boys went on a hunting trip in the woods.
In the woods, a boy lived in the comfortable mansion of his deceased parents. The mother, Merope Gaunt, was a maid in the household from her adolescence and had the unfortunate circumstance of falling for the young lord. With a homely appearance and no prospects, she resorted to a love potion to win the affections of Tom Riddle.
The courtship was brief, and soon Merope Gaunt was pregnant with a boy who would be given the name of his father. All seemed well, until another maid confessed to the townspeople what she had seen Merope doing in the dark veil of night. When they heard the stories of the witch's potions and spells, they came for her, and Tom let them take her.
At the stake she was burned, but not before giving birth to the heir of the Riddle Mansion. The boy would have burned, as well, had it not been for the quick thinking of a servant. Hyperion Malfoy, steward to the Riddles, could not bear to see a baby burned without being reminded of his own newborn son, Abraxas.
The baby was switched for an inanimate bundle and Merope died believing that her son died with her. In secrecy, Hyperion and his wife raised the Riddle heir, claiming that he was their own. However, as time passed, Tom began to take on the looks of his real father. They shared the same dark, wavy hair and regally beautiful face.
When Hyperion died in Tom's early adolescent years, he believed that his secret died with him, but the truth was obvious in the similarities between father and son.
Days later, Tom Riddle Senior was found dead in his own bed. The screams of the maid who found him almost reached the town at the other end of the forest.