They feared him. They all did. And he knew it, oh, he cherished the very thought of it. He used it to his advantage, he did things to them that they would have never thought possible. He was different. It was so plainly obvious. But was it something to consider as a mental disability? Could they take him away, to an asylum or a school for the insecure? They couldn't, Tom thought reverently. They're too scared. Probably think I'll massacre the whole lot of them stupid kids. He grinned jubilantly at the thought.
Tom Marvolo Riddle was no ordinary boy. Aside from his sharp features – he was the perfect image of "tall, dark and handsome" – he was special. He could make them hurt if he wanted to. He could steal things from right under their prominent noses and they wouldn't be any the wiser. And he was smart, and uncontrollably witty. He always knew the answer while he was home-schooled with all the other children in the orphanage and even so he even knew things that others didn't know or didn't want to know. He could tell you how a telephone works. He could recite the elements from the periodic table without hesitation. Yes, he was different, he concluded. But how long would it take to get noticed?
Tom lived in a dinky little orphanage in London. Mrs Cole, the matron, told him all of what she knew of his parents, but it wasn't enough. He was named after his father, Tom Riddle, and his mother's father, Marvolo. He couldn't even imagine who would name their child Marvolo, but they did, and now he was stuck with the name, whether he liked it or not. He especially hated the name Tom. Tom was such a common, used name. It was simple, unoriginal. It didn't even feel like it belonged to him – more like to his father, as it was his first.
And oh, how he hated the other children in the orphanage. They always wanted attention, it was pathetic, really. Aside from that, Tom found them rather rude and selfish. They were always going on an on about their miserable lives and how they wanted their parents to come pick them up. They weren't coming! He tried to tell them, but they didn't listen. Such an immature lot, they were, complaining about something at one point and off playing blocks the next. Tom knew he used to be like that, but he wouldn't admit it. Now he had better things to do with his time. He had taken to reading books, books he had found quite easy to read but had been marked for an older level. He found that rather strange; did the publishers not see the easiness of these reads? Nevertheless, he found the books very interesting and educational. The other children laughed and scoffed at him when he told them about it, but he got back at them all in time.
Once they knew what he could do, they had started to keep their distance from him, wary of what they knew he could and would do to him. Tom found it rather amusing. Fear, he scoffed. The most pathetic emotion ever I have heard of! Or perhaps, not as terrible as love.
In his opinion, love was the most disgusting thing to exist. It shouldn't even be allowed to exist! People say parents love their children. If they do, then why do they leave them in an orphanage, or abuse them, or abandon them? It's not real. It's all a figment of their imaginations. They must have quite the imaginative mind, to be able to invent such rubbish, he snorted. It was piteous.
One day, he assured himself, one day, I will prove myself. I will show them all that I am better than them! Better than even Billy Stubbs, who considers himself as the most important person in all of Britain. I will prove them wrong. And they will all regret laughing or ignoring because they will know that I am better than them!
This may seem impossible, he thought, for a boy living abandoned in an orphanage to become widely known and respected, but I can do it! I know I can. I just need a push in the right direction…
Author's Note: Hope you all enjoyed reading about our favorite villain when he was a wee little short guy (though I'm sure he was taller than me) with a real nose, and hair…But I digress. This is going to be a whole series (if I can make it there) of dear old Voldy's tragic (yeah, right) life. I'm skipping the part with meeting Dumbledore and all, because that would be plagiarism, and I don't want to write my own version. I'll be sticking to canon for this one, thank you very much. Please review! I want to know what you all think of this! Plot is mostly JKR's, of course.