Author's note- I do not own this and JK Rowling does and I am very thankful that she wrote Harry Potter.

In this story I am making Tom an innocent person because I believe in second chances and I wrote this because I strongly feel that he does feel love at least in some form.

So this is a story about how and why Tom is himself and what you don't get to see in the books about his real background and about a young girl named Nagini

Enjoy!

Snow, it was snowing in the silent city and all the burning stars in the night sky shone warningly of peril yet to come.

It was a cold winter night that would soon corrupt everyone's lives; all will fall into chaos and in front of one of the frowning metal doors of the houses in the city was her.

She was pale and she was wearing filthy rags and she was mourning as the desperately tried to pull the silver locket from her neck with her free hand as if the y were a heavy chain.

Giving up she kneeled down on the white snow crying and her hot tears became as hard as stone for she will not be given any mercy, especially not from the child she was about to abandon.

The baby boy was still awake, wrapped under a thick woolly brown blanket but his head was desperately poking out his head to persuade his mother, however, that did not happen.

She caressed his face with a warm hand ever so gently that he was sure she would not leave.

Her tears fell into his dark green resembling eyes as she softly whispered,

"I love you Tom"

Then she carefully placed him under the coarse doormat and swiftly ran away, covering her mouth knowing that she had just made it harder for him.

The baby started crying because alas his vision was blurred by the sorrowful tears given to him, disabling him to see the woman who gave him life, now he will never remember her. That was the day he first saw tears. However, when Tom's sight became clear a bright yellow light shone right before him and he saw another woman but her bored eyes weren't laughing like his mother's and there was no sad smile shown on her face. Her name he soon found out is 'Mrs Cole.' She found a thin piece of slightly wet paper and with a curious nature she picked it up and began to read it.

I am sorry that I must leave my two year old child as a burden for you my dear reader but you see, I have nowhere else to turn to. Please name the child 'Tom' after his father, 'Marvolo' as his middle name and 'Riddle' as his last name. If he asks of me… please tell him that you are very sorry because I had passed away whilst giving him to you. Please don't tell him my dear reader about this letter, so that I may rest in peace. I also hope that you'll have the pleasure in watching him grow up and become a handsome man like his father, I am quite sure that he will look just like him and not like me.

Take care of him.

When she had finished she lowered the fragile piece of paper and really looked at the baby boy.

"Only two," she thought and shook her head as she sighed and carefully picked him up and then she looked around before she would shut the door as if waiting for someone to come to her but to her, no one was there. She didn't notice that there was a shadowy figure behind the shop next door to the house and the shadowy figure in rags was finally smiling.

A very sad smile but nevertheless-it was a smile.

"Father I have done it."

During the minute of utter silence she was shattering inside and now the sharp last piece had just stabbed deeply into her dying heart.

"I hope you are happy!" She shouted lashing at him and then bit back her trembling lips from daring to talk to her own father like that, it would have felt good if she wasn't under a certain circumstance. However, her sanity was gone.

She pulled out her wand and started incanting a dark spell, one that would put an end to it all.

Poor Merope, she was nowhere fast enough because Morfin, her own brother had already had his wand out and was listening behind the dusty wooden door ready to kill his own sister whilst carrying their child.

The child he had forced her to have.

It was so fast. The door opened trying to warn with a creak. A green light flashed before her once sad eyes and it was all over as her dirty body collapsed on the ground as her dark hair was thrown all over her face. She didn't get up.

"Mamma!" A baby girl shouted, this was her first word. She tried to crawl towards her until a pair of rough hands grasped her.

"Hush...hush…" whispered Gaunt as he stroked her like a little pet but she couldn't stop wailing, she was so confused. However that was not until she saw a gradually increasing puddle of what looked like red sauce to her, which was forming around her lifeless mother. She felt for the first time, so scared but her big almond-shaped eyes just stared in shock.

"Morfin, bury that filthy blood traitor away somewhere," he hissed in parsletongue,

"I don't want my grandchild to see something so impure."

"All right! All right! But why must we speak in parsletongue?" Morfin asked, making large inhumane noises that scared her as he tried to put his wand in his stuffed pockets filled with stolen belongings. Gaunt was getting impatient.

"If she remembers what I am saying, which she won't, then she will never pass on our blood line knowing that her mother was killed by her own grandfather and father…" Morfin looked like he was about to interrupt him so Gaunt snarled,

"She will be raised as a Salazar heiress and that is that!"

Morfin looked at his innocent child and then at the corpse which he had called his sister. He felt nothing. He was completely hollow and did exactly what he was told to do. However, gently carrying the corpse and leaving small splashes of blood as a trail to taint her memory which will haunt her forever.

"Mamma," she said once again but quietly, wondering what was a 'mamma' exactly. Gaunt disapproved her for showing her weakness but let her watch the pool of thick blood.

She saw a reflection of herself and slowly she touched it, it was luke warm and she watched it running through her hand like a permanent burnt mark on her fair skin. His lazy eyes looked at her.

"Come Nagini, we must leave," he said without care.

Recognising her name, her emerald eyes slowly looked at him, her iris a circulating snake of Salazar, and with that he picked her up, following the blood trail on the clean snow.

Each step was a step away from it, from the precious memory and the old cottage that was now ablaze.

The black smoke fumed in the night sky but being black, it was invisible and the snow began to fall again helping the cottage but failed to do so.

Nagini reached out with her blood-stained hands to touch the falling snowflakes as the wind howled at her trying to make her come back but the oblivious girl just giggled as she felt the tingling sensation of her first experience of snow and what was best about it was that it made the crimson liquid slowly disappear but that was not the only thing that was about to disappear. Gaunt grabbed out his wand and softly said,

"Obliviate," as the wand touched Nagini's head but she didn't even notice, she looked like she was being hypnotised and he started putting fake memories into her pretty little head showing no mercy to her.

Then a shadowy figure approached.

It was Morfin.

However, he had two tall men wearing cloaks pointing their wands at him as they followed him.

"Morfin! What is the meaning of this?" Gaunt shouted but it was too late.

Two men came behind Gaunt and aimed their wands at his head in case of any sudden movement and then one of them spoke.

"You and your son have been summoned to go to the Ministry of magic to be questioned in a hearing," the auror spoke dully but Gaunt's eyes were looking at Morfin in disgust for being caught so easily and then noticed a shiny object in one of the speaker's hand.

It was a dangling silver locket-the silver locket of Salazar Slytherin.

"Give it back to usss!" Gaunt screamed, launching himself at the speaker but froze and fell backward at the minute somebody gave him the full bind body curse.

The aurors prepared to dissaparate with Morfin and Gaunt, carrying their full binded bodies but noticed a small pair of emerald eyes gazing at them.

"Will it be ok?"

Mrs. Cole looked at the baby girl he was carrying and her eyes widened when she saw blood on the poor girl's hands.

"Uhmmm… what's wrong with her-" She began but was quickly interrupted by the man.

"Her mother had a car accident," the man lied, thinking to himself that many muggles must have car accidents now days.

Mrs. Cole must have believed him because she gave the man a sympathetic look.

"What is her name again?" She asked.

"Nagini," he began, "Nagini Gaunt."

That was when her green eyes opened in alarm and the iris began to circulate around her pupil like a snake once more.

6 years later…

It was raining lightly and the clean fresh air surrounded the orphanage house.

A young girl wearing a navy blue jumper and a black skirt dashed out of her room bare-footed and headed towards the forbidden boy dormitory.

She didn't care.

In her hands was an old flower pot with a plant that had no flowers but closed buds that waited eagerly to show its beauty again.

She opened the door with a bang and the young boy wearing a navy blue jumper and dark trousers in the room jumped out of his bed high-strung all of the sudden, dropping his book in the process.

"Tom! Look what I can do!" the young girl said in excitement, she pushed her dark hair back behind her ears and focused on her plant that she had placed on his window and it began to grow.

He picked up his book annoyed at her and wiped the dust off his book as he shook his messy black hair in disbelief that she would just waltz in hear without giving him any warning but turned just in time to see what she had wanted to show him.

The green buds gently opened and out came many blossoming flowers.

Tom looked through the thin strands of his dark hair at the flower and then at her.

She beamed at him, hoping that he would be impressed but his face was unreadable to her.

"If she wants to play this game he would surely win," he thought.

Then the unthinkable happened, his lips curved into a smile, whilst watching her eyes sparkle in excitement.

"Well, watch this," he said tonelessly and placed one hand a metre above it dully

He did not know what to expect to happen because he really had no control of his powers but he wasn't going to admit that. A green flame surrounded the pink flowers that had no escape and curly grey smoke began to swirl around the day lit room.

Her eyes widened in horror, the smile on her face went upside down and she quickly went to fetch some tap water to save her plants but when she came back.

It was too late.

All was left was black ash and this image was too familiar to her, yet she did not know where it came from and she let her messy black hair cover her face as she clenched her fists tightly because she did not want him to see her cry.

However, Riddle immediately knew that she was upset when she dropped the watering can with a thump and began to stomp off from the small room.

"What's wrong?" he asked confused and placed his cold hand on her shoulder but she slapped it off and faced him with the tear tracks marked through her dust-covered face, then slowly turned and walked away, leaving a confused Tom.

He had never seen anyone cry before, at least he didn't know of anyone.

He sat on his bed in the dead silence and slowly rested his hand on the dead flower.

To his surprise, a little hope rose from the ashes and it was green.

Nagini lay down on her clean bed on her belly. She was hugging her soft pillow to comfort her and brushed her tears away gently with it.

"Go away!" Nagini shouted at the intruder at the door and rested her face on her white pillow once more but Tom came in anyways.

"Nagini…I'm sorry…uh, look," he said pointing at the plant in his full hands and thankfully, she gave in.

She turned her body to face him and sat up on her bed, she turned away for a minute so that he wouldn't see her wiping her tears.

Her face was enlightened when she saw the miracle.

"She is smiling," Tom thought, "this is a good sign."

Indeed, she was smiling, it seemed that she had forgotten everything and she quickly reached out to keep her plant but Tom placed it on the window for her.

He sat next to her, looking at her but she wasn't looking at him.

Her eyes were focused at the window.

Finally, the silence broke.

"Tom…Do you think we are weird?" She asked, still not looking at him.

"Define weird," he replied with a smirk.

She immediately grabbed her pillow to playfully hit him but stopped when he grabbed her wrist gently causing her to look at him in the eye.

She stopped moving and the room fell silent until he spoke after a while.

"No, I don't think that we are weird," he began seriously, "I think that we are special and incredibly unique."

She felt uneasy being touched by him because he had never touched her; it was only her who was always ready to let him in.

Then without a warning, an uninvited person hurriedly walked into the day lit room whilst holding her dull grey dress, making sure it wasn't touching the dusty floor.

"Mr. Riddle and Ms. Gaunt, I hope you do realise that we have a trip to the zoo today," said Mrs. Cole out of nowhere.

They both moved away from each other immediately and in unison replied,

"Yes, Mrs. Cole," which made them look at each other in utter embarrassment.

"Very well," she said sternly and with that was when she exited.

They were both facing towards completely different sides of the room, she was faced towards the window but his was towards the closed door.

She turned around to see him but he wasn't there.

He had already left and he had left the wooden door open for him to follow her.

The door frowned at her but she went in. There sat a boy on his crumpled bed with his back curved but she couldn't see his face only his glossy black hair. The door creaked faithfully for him and his head tilted upwards at once. She was walking to him but stopped

"So…you can understand me?" Tom silently asked, already knowing the answer but wanted to be confirmed.

"Yes," the young girl replied sadly in the ancient language they were speaking to each other.

There was a dead silence.

"You know, I thought that I'd be original, maybe different but everything I can do you can do," he began clutching his fist in frustration.

She wanted him to let her in but he raised her arm to tell her to go away.

He wanted her to leave him alone because he wanted to cry on the inside because he couldn't on the outside.

It was like a curse.

She came back to him slowly but he heard her creaking footsteps.

"Go away!" he snarled, and then softly murmured so that she could hear him,

"I don't need your pity."

He had expected her to have left him but instead, he found warm arms wrapped around him from behind and she gently whispered to his ear in an upset voice,

"Don't cry."

His eyes widened amazed and then turned around and hugged her in return.

The warmth she was giving melted the dark cold place inside him, making the pieces of glass that pierced his heart break.

He felt loved again; he shut his eyes tight and allowed a small glistening tear roll down his soft cheek.

The room was full of noise before Tom and Nagini entered hand in hand. Everyone was chatting to each other and always moving to Mrs. Cole to get some more soup.

They were only given two bowls of hot soup at most and a glass of water was the only thing they could drink.

Nagini looked around the room shivering and saw dozens of faces but they were all hard to read and figure out which one would be friendly to her and which would not, so she went to pick a seat at random and a tall Tom followed her.

"What are your names?" asked a blond girl candidly as soon as they sat down and then winking at her friends.

Tom pretended to not have heard her because he could read her as clear as a book and started drinking his warm soup, leaving Nagini to answer.

"Ohm…" Nagini began, glaring at Tom questioningly on how he could have missed the question and then turned to her and said,

"I'm Nagini and he is Tom, Tom Riddle."

She smiled over sweetly at Tom when she said his last name because she knew that he hated it, Tom fidgeted in his seat a little bit in discomfort but that was all because he would never give her the satisfaction.

"What kind of a name is Nagini?" Snorted a boy next to the blond headed girl and they all started to snigger which made Nagini feel an outburst of rage, so she began to leave the big room and her full soup.

"Oh and by the way," he began which made her stop when she was nearly reaching for the door and her eye brows narrowed.

"I'm Dennis Bishop and she is Amy Benson," he said knowingly and pointed to the blond girl but Nagini wasn't going to stay to be laughed at.

She let the door slam behind her and left in dignity.

Tom stayed there for a while, annoyed with their foolishness but his face was hollow in expression and then he slowly stood up and looked around to see whether there were any adults around but there were none.

"Great," he thought, "more test subjects."

A crooked smile was shown on his face but then he quickly hid it and felt a burst of magic flowing through his willing body and pointed at their table when he was unnoticeable.

He saw nothing happened which disappointed him but as he walked away he heard noises that made him turn around out of curiosity of what he had done.

Everyone began to puke and some even fell on the wooden floor, shaking and shivering in disgust.

Out of their bowls crawled slimy insects, rotten earthworms and all sorts of disgusting creatures that nobody would ever want to imagine being digested by ourselves.

"What an effect it had on them!" he thought in amusement.

He tried to stop himself laughing hysterically like a maniac, so he quickly dashed out of the room to do so whilst covering his mouth tightly.

Then he had let it out.

His laugh echoed all over the building, all ears turned to the unearthly sound but the only one who didn't hear it was a certain young girl.

Nagini was questioning her identity.

She felt that there was more to her than an average person but how come she knew nothing?

She looked at the girl in the mirror with a shimmering locket, she looked so unhappy but why?

"Of all the names I could have been given, I was given Nagini," muttered the young girl whilst hitting the fragile mirror that she was looking at and her hands glowed for one second.

Not aware of the magic she had summoned, the mirror began to crack and on her palms leaked out crimson liquid.

When she heard the sound she quickly pulled away revealing something that was meant to be forgotten.

She slowly reached out to touch the mirror and then saw something that she had never known to fear.

Blood.

Her eyes widened in horror and she let out a piercing scream, a memory flashed back to her unwanted and she couldn't get it out of her head.

Tears poured down her face like rushing water, she fell to the icy cold floor and she began shaking, just when Tom came in to see her. His face was hollow in expression but the light reflecting in his eyes saw a girl who was hurting, hurting more than he was.

Her eyes became as black as night and the flashback was back to her like a torrent. A woman she did not recognise was bleeding rivers of blood all over her body, she was lying on the floor lifeless and her eyes were wide open in horror. Her black hair tried to hide the horrible expression on the woman's face but it only strands of it were covering parts of her pale face. She wore the expression of the innocent, an innocent who was murdered.

"Nagini," Tom said softly as he kneeled down next to her afraid for once in his life. Sadly, she did not hear him because she was wrapped in blind darkness and nobody could save her from the truth.

Still, he lingered and he went close to her did the unthinkable.

He wrapped his arms around her, cradling her like a child.

"No!!!" She screamed, trying to push the invisible figure away but his arms tightened and wouldn't let go of her and then she screeched,

"UuuuuuARGH!!!"

She clutched her head as if it was about to explode.

Her frightened heart was beating so fast that when Tom went so close to her neck to whisper to her assuring words of comfort; he could hear it beat in an off beat rhythm.

A jeering voice echoed in her aching head but she did not know who it belongs to.

Everyone that has loved you is dead.

You were tainted with blood.

You are tainted by her blood.

You are the killer-YOU killed your own mother!

This time her weak heart could bear no more, beads of sweat were dripping all over her body.

The empty darkness was gone that clouded her eyes but her body was wounded like an animal hunted down.

"Her blood," she said chokingly, looking at her blood-covered hands in sadness and hatred for what she seemed to have done.

She whimpered and that was when everything was slowly getting fuzzy and the light was dimming all around her and she couldn't hear or see her friend.

She had fainted.

Her mind became empty to help her and all the painful memories were suck into a void.

Tom was becoming frantic; he squeezed her and shook her unwilling body to wake up from her deep slumber.

But she still did not even stir.

"Please wake up Nagini," he whispered to her ear desperately whilst caressing her small hands against his cold cheek,

"Please wake up."

However, as soon as he said this, his body began to shut down and he too was deep asleep and no one could wake him up at that moment.

The faceless wind howled coming into the room.

It began to rain heavily and splashes of cold water came through the opened window.

The clouds became an inky black colour and the thunder began to roar to wake them up in desperation from their nightmares.

Someone in heaven must have cried but they didn't know who.

It was twilight and the candle light was flickering because the window was open and it was snowing. Gentle beautiful snowflakes were drifting around the breezy room ad many landed on her pretty eyelashes. Immediately she began to wake up.

Her body was aching in pain when she woke up but she didn't remember anything. She felt warmth all around her and realised that her tiny body was lying against Tom who was supported by the side of her plain bed. Her cheeks flushed a bright pink colour and when she tried to stand up to get away from him because she was completely confused. She then realised that his arms were wrapped around her protectively and he was still holding her hand tightly in his sleep not wanting to let go.

All of a sudden he twisted his body to his left hand side and as a result making it look like he was carrying her on his laps.

Nagini did not like to be touched by anyone and definitely not like this.

She was getting rather furious at whatever Tom was trying to pull off and rather annoyed at his constant mood swings but then again she couldn't really blame him because he was asleep.

She was worried that someone would see and get her into trouble because she was always a magnet for trouble and this would be a good reason to get her kick out of the orphanage.

Nagini pushed his arms aside but then he pulled her small body so close to his with his strong arms that she let out a gasp.

She was a few inches away from his lips, now she couldn't help it. Her cheeks were a rosy pink colour and she was very aware of it.

She just shut her eyes tight and lowered her body so that her head could rest on his chest.

Little did she know that Tom was awake and that he was smirking all through the silent night.

Dear readers,

I hope you had enjoyed this piece of creative writing. I am going to write more so don't worry if you are a fan of this ship and if you don't then you shouldn't be reading this anyway.

Please give me useful criticism if you are going to criticise this and thank you for reading anyways. Also, keep in mind that I am only a teenager. Thank you for your interest in this story!

Love,

Secrecia