Tom is almost twelve-years-old when he steps into the Castle that would become his home. He can feel Hogwarts' magic extending a welcoming thread of magic to him and the rest of the students and he grins, extending his arms out to embrace the warm magic. Those around him mock him and whisper mudblood even if Tom can hear them. Their smiles are cruel, and their eyes scream of superiority.
Tom almost punishes them before remembering the words of Professor Dumbledore.
They don't matter because if they can't feel the song of Hogwarts then it means they are weak.
o-o-o
Tom is fifteen when he kills for the first time, and it's not a rabbit or a rat like so many other Slytherins do. For the House of ambition they are easily contented with rodents. Tom is different and Hogwarts knows it.
That is the reason Tom lets himself be led to the second-floor bathroom, where a whisper is enough to reveal a secret hidden for hundreds of years. He's worthy of his House and he's worthy of his magic.
Tom kills for the first time and he is not caught.
o-o-o
Tom is eighteen when he graduates from Hogwarts and he begs Headmaster Dippet to let him stay in his home.
"I have so many gifts to share and knowledge to give," he argues when the Headmaster laughs and shakes his head saying he's too young.
Tom can feel Hogwarts' magic working around Dippet to make him see. He stares at the rampaging energy that slowly manages to overpower Dippet's magic and he's almost said yes when Dumbledore steps into the office and tries to barge into Tom's mind.
He doesn't show weakness and lets Dumbledore enter his mind to find only a void. The professor retreats and goes to Dippet.
He's sent to the world without further consideration.
o-o-o
Tom is thirty-five when he finds another of the items he will transform into something more. He already has proof of his ambition, and this chalice is the legacy of his loyalty to magic. All he's lacking is the symbol of his intellect and then he'll be complete.
With no one the wiser, he sometimes sneaks into the Castle that still welcomes him like the most beloved child of magic and like a spoiled child he lets Hogwarts show him more secrets about itself.
He sees many things and learns many more, and by the conversations he's heard Tom decides it's time to become something more.
o-o-o
He's fourty-six years old when he comes back to the Castle after finding the last missing piece. There is one more relic he wants to find, but it can wait for now.
Tom walks into the Castle in broad daylight and asks to be taken to the Headmaster. Hogwarts shows him the way even when Minerva, his old classmate, tries to get him lost in the maze that is Hogwarts.
Dumbledore refuses him again, but Tom is not discouraged by his offending rejection. He hides the diadem, and when he says farewell to Hogwarts he goes on to find the followers that will take him to victory.
o-o-o
Tom is seventy-five years old when he dies in Hogwarts' grounds. His body is burned and everyone thinks he's dead and gone but Hogwarts gathers the pieces of his broken soul and hides them away inside itself.
Hogwarts, after all, was founded to protect magic, and Tom Riddle is magic's most beloved child.