Author's Note: Ok so here is my first Harry Potter story! Now in this story, Tom is 17 and Hagrid hasn't been expelled yet. For this story Tom is opening the Chamber of Secrets for the first time. I know that he opened it when he was 15 or 16, but it is my story, so if you don't like it, don't read it. Anyway, here is chapter one, enjoy!

Behind the Mask

Chapter One: Return to Hogwarts

A tall boy was walking down the train station, he pushed his luggage in front of him. It was Tom Riddles Seventh and final years at Hogwarts, and the thought of it made him depressed. He was not ready yet for his last year at Hogwarts, to him this was his home. He had another bad summer again, he had to go back to the orphanage, but Tom had made a promise that he would never go back there again after this year.

He rounded a corner, there, a few feet from him was the gate that would lead him to the train. Tom stopped and waiting for the muggles to pass. As he waited, he started to think about the first time that he had set foot on the train that had take him to a new world. Tom could actually see his eleven year old self standing in front of the gate.

He shirt hung loosely from his shoulders, his pants a little baggy. These were the cloths that he had bought along with his second hand robes in Diagon Alley. He remembered that he was very nervous, many questions running through his mind. What if Dumbledore had made a mistake? What would happen when he got there? Would he be accepted? But most importantly, how do I find the train? He stood there for about ten minutes, debating weither if he should ask someone, or just keep standing there, hoping that someone would come and help him. Since his pride got in his way of asking someone for help, he just stood there, praying that someone would come along.

It was ten minutes before the train would be taking off, and Tom was starting to get even more nervous. He looked around, there standing a few feet behind him was a couple and their son. He noticed that the boy was his age, and that he was pushing a suitcase that was marked Hogwarts. His heart lifted as he saw the family come near him. As the family came nearer, he could hear the father talking to his son.

"We are very late, I told you to hurry up Abraxas. If we miss the train, then you won't be going to Hogwarts at all!"

"It isn't my fault father, the stupid house elves were slow getting my stuff ready." The boy said.

"Don't make excuses Abraxas, now hurry up, we only have eight minutes." The man said.

Tom stepped asides as the family walked up to the brick wall. He watched as the family just walked up to the wall and went right through it. He looked around, to see if anyone else had seen the family disappear. He looked back, the wall looked pretty solid to him, he wondered how the family disappeared. Maybe he had to walk through the wall, just as the family did. He whiled his cart around, he faced the wall. He took a deep breath, he started to walk fast. The wall was coming closer, he broke into a run. It was feet from him, he closed his eyes, bracing himself for a crash. But it never came, he just kept running. Finally he stopped, he opened his eyes.

Tom was draw from is thoughts as the clock dong. He was still standing in front of the brick wall. He breath in deeply, he remembered that he hadn't crashed, but found himself in front of a scarlet train. He remembered his excitement, how he had found it, and that he wouldn't be seeing this place again for a long time.

The path before himm was now clear, he took one last look at the train station. He grinned as he started to walk to the gate. A few seconds later he was on the other side, looking again at the scarlet train, he was going home. He crossed the platform to the one of the trains door. He climbed onto the train, and headed for the Heads compartment.

It had been Tom's dream to become the Head Boy since he was in his second year. He had worked hard for all of those years to become a prefect. When he had gotten his letter for this year, he wasn't surprised that he had been given the position of Head Boy. He wonder who had got the position of Head Girl.

There were still students getting on and off the train from saying good bye to their parents. Tom kept looking in front of him, ignoring the students that passed by him.

A few Hufflepuff girls walked past him, they giggled as they passed him. He didn't even look at them as they walked by. He had been getting this sort of attention from a lot of girls ever since his fifth year. He had grown tall over the years. His dark black wavy hair came above his eyebrows, his pale skin was darker then usual, which gave him a look of mystery. His cold blue eyes were like chips of ice. His good looks had got him to many levels, he could have any girl that he had wanted, boys envied him, the female teachers even fell for his charm.

Charm, another thing that had got him everywhere. He had used charm to kiss up to his teachers, to get anything he wanted, to gain his followers, his Death Eaters.

Tom reached the Head compartment, he pushed back the door, he looked inside. Nobody was there, the Head Girl must still be outside saying good bye to her parents. He went inside the compartment and closed the door behind him. He opened his suitcase and pulled out his robe. Once he had his robe on, he grabbed his luggage and placed them in the racks. He reached inside of his pocket, he pulled out a badge. He held the badge in his long white fingers, it was silver. Carved into it was the letter H, curved around it was a green snake, its tongue poked out. Tom ran his fingers around the cool edges, admiring it. He reached up to his collar, and pinned his head badge. He took a seat by the window, he looked out of it. He could see that the platform was less crowded as students were getting on the train. He sighed, wishing that the new prefects would hurry up and come in here, also he wanted to see who the new Head Girl was.

After about five minutes, Tom felt a jerk, he looked out the window. The train was starting to move away very slowly, he watched as the parents waved good bye to their children. The train rounded the corner, it started to gather speed. Still looking out the window, he saw the city pass by him. He was starting to get annoyed that the Head Girl wasn't here yet, when the door slide open. He looked up to see who it was.

A tall girl stood in the doorway. She had raven black hair, and had smoky gray eyes. At the moment she was wearing a pair of tight jeans, and a black t-shirt, covered by her Hogwarts robe. Tom knew who she was, her name was Amber Lynwood, she was in Ravenclaw. He looked her up and down, she had changed since last year. Her robes hung a little bit more snug then it had from last year. He saw at her collar was a badge with two brooms covering a raven. Amber was the captain of the Ravenclaw Quidditch team. From the caption badge, Tom saw that she had another one, it was the Head Girl badge. He wondered why he hadn't thought that she wouldn't have gotten the Head Girl position. Amber was the most smartest person besides himself in their grade, and was the most popular girl in school. She was very nice to everyone, and all the guys had fallen for her. Her black hair shown in the light, her gray eyes had a glint of excitement. Every guy that he knew had a crush on her. Something about her made the guys crazy for her, everyone but him.

She looked at Tom, she looked him up and down, she smiled at him.

"I knew that you would have gotten the position for Head Boy." She said.

"I was very shocked that I got the position." He said.

She smirked, "Oh very funny Tom, everyone knew that you were going to get the position, even you knew." Amber said, she took a seat next to him.

"Well then I will be honest, I wasn't surprise then." He said, he turned to look at her. He noticed that she had gotten a little bit tan over the summer.

"So did you have a good summer?" She asked.

"Not bad," that was a down right lie, he thought, " So how was yours." He asked.

"It was great, I went to America this summer." She said.

"How was that?" He asked.

"Pretty interesting, I went to a lot of cool places." She said.

Tom was about to ask her where she went, when there was a knock at the door. Amber stood up and opened the door, about twenty people came in, six from each house. The new fifth year prefects were the first to come in, and then the sixth years, and last were the seventh years . He looked at the new prefects in his house, he recognized three or four people who were already his Death Eaters. Some of them smiled at him, Tom just nodded. Once everyone was seated and quite, everyone turned to Tom and Amber.

Amber cleared her throat, "Welcome everyone, I hope that you all had a good summer." Some people said yes, others nodded. "Well, I hope you did, now we are here to talk to you about your duties, passwords, and other things."

"First we will talk about your duties." Tom said from the window, cutting Amber off from what she was about to say. She looked at him, she raised her eyebrow. He just ignored her.

"Now for the new prefects you will be the ones who will escort the first years to their common rooms, and teach them the new password. The fifth years will be showing the first years to their rooms, the rest of you will be patrolling the corridors. You will give out detentions to whoever is caught disobeying the rules. For now, we want you just to patrol the hallway every once in awhile. You are to give out punishment to whoever is breaking the rules." Tom said this, he looked around the room, no one spoke.

After a minute, Amber broke the silence, "Thank you Tom, now, we will be having a meeting at the end of this week to talk about rules, detentions, schedules, and upcoming events. Now for the new passwords."

It was mid afternoon, when the meeting was over. Tom sat down by the window, it was very tiring meeting for him. Amber had just said good bye to the last prefect, when she sat down across from him.

"Well I thought that went well." She said, she was digging in her pockets for something.

"It was all right. We defiantly got a lot of things covered." He said.

Amber nodded, finally she pulled her hands from her pocket. She open her hand to reveal coins, she counted her money to see if she had enough.

"So what are you going to do now Tom? Are you going to visit your friends, or you going to patrol the hallway?" She asked him.

"I think that I will do both, how about you? My guess is that you are going to go and sit with your friends." He said.

"No you are wrong, I'm going to go and get something to eat, and then, I will go and sit with my friends." She said in a smug voice. She got from the seat and walk to the door. She turned and waved to him as she walked away.

Tom just sat there, looking outside. The scenery had changed now, all that he could see now were trees. He sat there thinking about today. There was a knock at the door, he looked up. Standing in the doorway was Abraxas Malfoy. Abraxas had blonde hair that was slicked back, his eyes were a dull blue. Tom didn't really like Abraxas, but he knew that he had to have him on his side. His family was very wealthy and had power.

"Hello there Tom, had a nice summer?" Abraxas asked.

"You know how my summer was Abraxas." He said turning back to the window.

"Sorry Tom, I forgot that you had to go back that filthy place." Abraxas said. Tom rolled his eyes, forgot my ass he thought.

"Anyway, I saw that Mudblood coming out of here, sucks for you that she is the Head Girl. I heard that you have to share a common room with her." Abraxas said, he fell into the seat opposite of him.

"I know, but I wasn't that surprised that she had got the position. Besides, I rather share a common room with her instead of Hufflepuff or a Gryffindor." He replied.

"Yea I guess you are right, but she is a Mudblood though." Abraxas said.

"I know, but I would still rather be with her then Victoria Quentin" Tom said, he shivered at saying her name.

"Come on, she isn't that bad, especially if you need some loven." Abraxas said winking.

"Are you kidding me? Last year I went to bed, and the next morning I found her in bed with me, trying to snuggle." He said looking at Malfoy, his voice becoming angry.

"Oh yea, I forgot that she had done that." Abraxas said, his voice amused.

"I never will, besides, I don't want to share a common room with anyone who has a crush on me. That is sort of why I'm glad that Amber is Head Girl." Tom said, he turned away from Abraxas.

"But she is still a Mudblood." He said in an after thought.

"Yea I know Abraxas, you've told me three times, now shut up." He snapped.

They spent the next three hours talking about the new school year, when the first meeting of the Death Eaters was going to be held. Some of Toms other followers even showed up. Since he was Head Boy he also had to patrol the hallway every once and awhile. Finally the train started to slow down, and he couldn't be happier. The train came to a stop, Tom stood up and started for the door, Abraxas behind him. He climbed the steps down from the train. As he walked out onto the platform, he looked into the distance. There was the majestic castle, it glowed from the lights inside of the castle. Tom smiled for the first time all summer, he was home.

Author's Note: So there was chapter 1! I hope you liked it, so please tell me what you think about it! Please review!