1. Underlay
Sometimes he wonders if Fate has some kind of subliminal message for him that he's never really understood. Other times he wonders if he really wants to know even if there is.
2. Material
He's always wondered if he's the right person for this job. The whole saving-the-world aspect of it has never really appealed to him. Maybe he's just missing some vital part that will make it all worth it.
3. Incident
It wasn't really even his choice to be the hero. Accidents happen all the time, and it was one of those things that no one really expected, and yet blamed everyone else for. Sometimes, he wonders who he should be blaming.
4. Curse
It isn't a spell he knows; he's looked. There are plenty of books for him to peruse, and he hasn't found that particular incantation yet. Maybe it's not really a spell. Maybe someone just said whatever they felt like and hoped something interesting would come of it.
5. Division
But, in the end, whatever was used is really irrelevant. He's read enough theories to know that the only thing separating him from what he wants is time. So he may as well make the best of it.
6. Nail
He still has the scars. The magic didn't like him at the time; he didn't belong. He hadn't realized exactly how sharp human fingernails could be until he'd tried to claw out the angry magic coursing under his skin.
7. Fake
They'd asked him who he was. Where he'd come from. He still wishes he'd chosen a better pseudonym; maybe then the chaotic magic wouldn't have chosen to use it as an outlet to officially name him someone he really isn't. John Smith never struck him as a particularly likeable title.
8. Sailing
He'd drifted for awhile once they'd let him go. He knows now what he didn't know then; a destination is irrelevant, because there's no place here he's ever found comfortable harbour in.
9. Aging
It was in that time that he learned something important. No one really trusts you for long if you're perpetually fifteen.
10. Wide
He's been moving around for awhile now. It's amazing how large the world really is when you can't stay somewhere for more than a year or two.
11. Algebra
It doesn't take a great skill in maths to know that he hasn't grown an inch in over fifty years.
12. Soul
He runs into a couple of Dementors not long after he leaves Britain for the first time. He thinks his luck—what little there is of it—has finally run out, until he realizes they hardly even notice him. Later he wonders if that means he no longer has a soul.
13. Inclination
Despite the fact that there's about as little reason to return there as to go anywhere else in the world, he always finds himself back in the UK every few years. Maybe he's expecting something to finally become familiar.
14. Illiterate
It's on his fifth return to the country that he runs into the boy for the first time. He's never seen so pitiful a sight as a beaten three-year-old begging for change on a corner. When John tries to give him a ten-dollar bill, the child glares and spits that even though he can't read, he's not stupid and knows what proper money is.
15. Paste
The second time he sees the lad is when he's slogging through a raging English hailstorm and sees him huddled, shivering, in a doorway. He doesn't realize it's the same boy until he takes him back to his current flat and washes away the muck. Two years haven't glued him back together any better than a bill did.
16. Couple
He wonders idly where the boy's parents are. Possibly dead. He won't know until the kid's healed enough to actually speak to him.
17. Tidying
There's a lot to clean up. He thinks the boy's been beaten for years, especially with the rags he's wearing and the scars. He wonders if some of them ever came about like his own.
18. Anything
The first time the boy tells him his name, he's sure he's misheard. It's impossible. Any other name would be fine. But there is no way that this waif sleeping on his couch for three days is Tom Riddle.
19. Manage
He comes to terms with it eventually. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that it's a chance for him to change something, because he feels like he's been useless for awhile now.
20. Moderate
The first thing John decides is that Tom is not returning to wherever he came from. The boy seems to show no love of it, anyway. The second thing he decides is that no one else knows what Tom might become—so he won't let them find out.
This is a sort of experimental self-challenge fic inspired by esama's "Death and the Boy". I have used a random word generator for each prompt, and am building a story from there. It will make sense eventually, I swear. I also promise that this is not what you probably think it is.
Let me know if this is worth continuing!
-Akita