She came in the night.
At the time the seven year old boy, sentenced to trash duty was fuming. Oh how he loathed this place. All the stupid children, with their tantrums and uncleanliness, always asking stupid questions, crying out pathetically for their mummies and daddies. Tom had never known his mum or dad, all Tom had was a name; Tom Marvollo Riddle.
The only thread of sanity in his miserable life was the game he, like so many other orphans, played. A game in which he invented parents of nobility and aristocracy that would one day take him away from this hell.
Tom always felt different. He had cold, sometimes cruel mannerisms and relished in the fear the other children felt around him. He marveled in his separateness from the others. None of them could talk to the garden snakes; none of them could make things shatter in fits of rage. Tom was different. Tom was special.
Tom was also being punished, trash duty for a month, simply for breaking stupid, chubby Harold's arm. Muttering vengeance under his breath and heaving the rotten bag of used diapers and spoiled food toward the ominous Iron Gate, Tom paused as he saw something lurking in the corner of his eye. Beyond the gate Tom saw a man, entirely made of shadows; quiet as a whisper, lower a small bundle to the ground.
"You there," Tom called out. "What business do you have here?"
But the shadow man simply ignored him.
"I said," Tom began, arrogance laced in his voice to mask his apprehension of the mysterious man, "What business do you have here?"
This time, the man, if you could call it that, lifted its "head" causing Tom to take a step back in fright. The man had no face. The man was entirely made of shadows! And yet, despite having no visible face, Tom could not shake the feeling that the shadow man was staring right at him.
But before Tom could react the shadow man simply disappeared as if it had become the night itself.
Abandoning the trash Tom ran as fast as his seven year old legs would carry him. "Wait," he yelled. "Take me with you!"
Though Tom feared the shadow man, it was obvious that the shadow man could make magic just as Tom could, and after all this time he wanted answers.
As he opened the gate Tom flailed his arms around, trying with all his might to grab the man who had turned into night itself… That was until he felt himself trip.
Grumbling Tom picked himself up and looked around trying to identify the source of his clumsiness, until his eyes fell upon the bundle the shadow man had left at the gate.
Hesitantly Tom crept toward the small bundle, almost losing his nerve when he saw it twitch, but nevertheless continuing forward until he found his hands slowly unwrapping what the shadow man had left behind.
Two eyes looked up at him. A small head barely covered in wisps of dark hair, the child couldn't have been more than a few days old. The two stared at one another, both seeming to take the other one in. In the back of his mind Tom questioned why the infant wasn't crying, weren't infants notorious for their waterworks? But the infant simply blinked up at him unfazed.
Tom was the first to break the staring contest, noticing a small piece of parchment on the infant's chest. Picking it up hesitantly tom unraveled it and examined the three words.
Nerezza Ivory Peverell
Instantly Tom Marvollo Riddle, infamous for separating himself from everyone and everything, felt a very pure, human part of himself latch onto the baby girl. She was to be his, he decided.
Greedily, seven year old Tom picked up the baby girl. Once again the girl did not cry, but simply yawned and nuzzled deeper into his arms, making something strange in Tom's chest feel lighter. Completely captivated by the infant, Tom began walking back towards the orphanage. Half way toward the door one of the nursemaids came rushing out.
"You boy," she scolded. "What the bleeding hell is this trash still doing in the middle of the pathway? I ought to give you a good thump on the head you stupid boy! What'chu playing at? You think's you's too high and mighty to put a bag of rubbish some bin?! What makes you so bleeding above it all, huh?"
Tom, who'd usually be in cold fury at this point played little mind to the scolding of the foolish nursemaid. "A baby was left at the gate by a man made of shadows," he explained still in awe of the tiny human now asleep in his arms.
The nursemaid opened her mouth to scold him once more for such a nonsensical story until her eyes fell upon the bundled up infant and gasped.
"Lord in heaven, she must be freezing, the wee thing, give her to me," she said reaching for baby Nerezza.
It only took a split second for Tom to react. Pulling the infant close to his chest he glared daggers at the now cowering nursemaid.
Tom was all fury and vehemence as he shielded baby Nerezza from the stupid woman.
"Mine," he hissed.
Taking a moment to compose himself once more Tom continued up the walkway, and slammed the door shut with a loud bang paying no mind to the trembling woman whom he had left outside in the cold.
Tom had never liked sharing his toys.