Disclaimer: Anyone or anything you recognize belongs to the one and only J.K. Rowling; anything you don't belongs to me. It's JK's sandbox, I'm just lucky enough to play in it for a while.

Putting all of the force he could into the spell, pulling on the deepest depths of his hatred for Harry Potter and all that he stood for, Lord Voldemort cried out "Avada Kedavra"! He watched in fascination as a green bolt of light shot toward Harry Potter who had yet to move in his own defense. Voldemort's contempt for Potter only grew, how could he be so weak to not even try to fight for his life; the very fact that Harry was here standing in front of him proved to Lord Voldemort just how weak he really was. Had he been smart he would have let the foolish inhabitants of Hogwarts die for him while figuring out some way to escape and live to fight another day. Instead his foolish "love" for these people caused Harry to appear before him as he knew it would; and now he was about to die, how pathetic.

Just as Lord Voldemort saw the bolt of light slam into Potter's chest and he began to smirk a pain beyond anything he had endured in over 17 years shot through his body and suddenly all went black.

Voldemort felt as if he was floating in a void. A grey mist seemed to surround him and he felt cold to the bone. Fear, something Voldemort hadn't felt in years began to creep into his mind as he began to consider that Potter might somehow have killed him this time. As quickly as the fear came Voldemort pushed it away; Nagini had been alive when he cast the curse at Harry; even if he had managed to find the horcrux hidden in Hogwarts Voldemort knew his last horcrux survived thus leaving him immortal. Where then was he? Has this thought came to him the mist began to form into a familiar location and Voldemort felt himself drawn back as if watching the events take place from a distance.

Tom Riddle lay quietly in his bed, trying to hold to the last vestiges of the dream he had been having. In it he had been rich like the men he saw in town square with their fancy cars, beautiful wives, and slick haircuts, when he was taken in to town once a month – the older children could go in to town anytime before curfew but being only seven Tom could only go on the day that the Matron went to shop for supplies for the orphanage. In his dream he had been wearing the finest clothes he had ever seen and was preparing for dinner with his family at one of the fancy restaurants he had seen. His father had just handed him a sweet while ruffling his hair and telling him not to tell his mother in a conspiratorial tone. It was then that the Matron had knocked loudly on the door and announced it was time to get up for the day, breaking into his secret fantasy.

Now as the last bits of the dream slipped away and reality set in he admonished himself for the sadness that he began to feel. He wasn't rich and he certainly wasn't going to be seeing his parents any time soon. Tom was an orphan, he had been raised at Alexandra Orphanage from the time he was a baby and his mother had died giving birth to him. His father was unknown and although Tom secretly held out hope that he might show up and take him away some day the hard life of the orphanage was quickly shattering that dream. While Mrs. Cole, the orphanages Matron, did her best to take care of the kids in her care Alexandra was not what could be called a happy place, and one of the first things Tom had learned growing up here was that unrealistic dreams did nothing but cause pain; it was far better to simply accept life for what it was and try to survive. With that thought Tom steeled his resolve and cast away the last bit of the dream as he got out of bed and prepared for the day, he would not let some fantasy about a family he never had bring him down, life was hard enough without it.

Later in the day while working on his chores – at the moment this meant pulling weeds in the garden – Tom saw Billy and his two friends Hector and Marko walking up to him and internally cringed. Billy was nine and amongst the younger kids was the resident bully. Billy himself wasn't that intimidating; contrarily even though he was two years Tom's senior he was only slightly bigger. He was, however, very foul tempered and for reasons unknown to Tom he could always get Marko and Hector to do his bidding, they were his muscle. Though they would not pose a threat to any of the older kids – the unspoken agreement amongst the orphans at Alexandra was that 10, when you could begin going to town on your own and could explore on your own on the trips to the coast, was the line of separation between the "older" and "younger" kids – to the younger kids they were quite intimidating. While the older kids might actually fight from time to time amongst the younger orphans "fights" usually consisted of words being exchanged followed by cheap shots being taken for a while whenever none of the matrons was looking. Tom and Billy had had one such exchange of words, as they often did, earlier in the day and Tom had a feeling he knew what was coming. Tom considered going to Ms. Cole or one of the other matrons momentarily but quickly dismissed that. The code amongst the orphans was iron strong when it came to snitching on one of the other kids; you simply didn't do it and if you did you paid the price, period. As these thoughts passed through his mind the three kids reached him and before he could even get up from kneeling in the garden Hector sent a strong kick to his gut knocking the air out of his lungs and sending him on to his back. The pain was intense, and though he tried to stop them tears came unbidden to Tom's eyes. Has he laid their he saw Billy's face appear above him and he sneered, "awe does the poor baby need a bottle," before jabbing his own toe into Tom's side and walking away saying, "what a wimp" as his goons laughed and followed.

Tom rolled over too his hands and knees and fought to catch his breath and get control of himself. Anger ripped through him and it took all of his willpower to not charge at the backs of the boys who had just humiliated him. No, to step into a fight outnumbered and severely outmatched would only increase his pain and humiliation and so he willed himself to calm down and rise to his feet. As he glanced around he once again had to tamp down his anger as he saw a group of older kids looking at him. Some of the boys were snickering which was bad enough; however, some of the girls had looks of pity in their eyes which Tom couldn't stand. Pity was something that Tom had never been able to stomach; it made him feel weak and reminded of just how pitiful his existence was.

Seeing the pity in the girls eyes took him back to the first time he had seen that look. It was the Saturday following his fifth birthday and he had awoke feeling excited because it was the first time he would be able to join in on the group trip into town. It would be the first time in his young life that he would see the world outside of the orphanage that had been his existence to that point and he couldn't wait. Sitting in the yard to the orphanage he would occasionally see people as they went about their day and he would hear stories from the older children about what the town was like so he knew there was more to the world than just the orphanage, but this would be the first time he would experience it. He also held on to a small dream that someone in town would see him and wouldn't be able to resist granting him the most ardent desire of every orphan and Alexandra by adopting him. Adoptions were incredibly rare but that didn't stop even the most jaded of the young orphans from holding a glimmer of hope that they would be one of the few chosen – though most of the older children had long since given up hope since those adoptions that did happen typically were babies with the occasional young child. Tom had bounded out of bed and quickly dressed in his best clothes – looking back he realized the hilarity of using the term "best" to describe anything he owned; least worn would have been more accurate – and ran to the dining area for a quick breakfast before queuing up with the rest of the children heading into town. As the Matron assigned to escort them arrived Tom had barely contained his excitement and nearly ran as they began the short trip to the square. The sights and sounds that assault his senses had him turning his head in every direction as he tried to drink it all in; vendors selling a wide assortment of wares ranging from food to fineries, families wearing clothing far nicer than anything he had ever imagined strolling along the walkways, young children playing under the watchful eye of their parents, and so much more filled his senses. The matron who was escorting them told them that they could look around in this one area – the town square itself actually encompassed several blocks and was separated into many smaller market areas – and admonished them to stay within site and out of trouble. As Tom began wandering about he noticed that those eyes that fell on him all held the same look and he couldn't quite make out what it meant. Most of the people just seemed to ignore him completely but those that didn't seemed almost pained and his young mind was struggling to figure out what was wrong. That night when he got home he had spoken with Richard, one of the older children, and asked him about it. Richard had explained that the town folks couldn't spot the orphans because of their dress and that those who didn't simply ignore them felt sorry for them. At the time Tom had not really comprehended what Richard was telling him, however, as the next couple of years passed Tom had grown to despise that look.

Now, standing in the garden and seeing that same look in the eyes of another orphan caused Tom's insides to boil. It was bad enough to have people outside of the orphanage look down on him – for that is what Tom had come to think of pity as – but to have someone in the orphanage think of him that way was infuriating. Tom went back to pulling the weeds with a new fury while trying to come up with a way to make Billy pay. He knew that any attempt to attack Billy directly would be doomed to fail. Billy never went anywhere outside of the protection of the matrons without his goons in tow and there was no way Tom was a match for them. Then a memory came to Tom and a small smirk started to play at his lips as he knew he had found the perfect way to get back at Billy. About a year ago Billy had found a small rabbit in the garden and had convinced the Matron to let him keep it as a pet. Not only had Billy come to care a good bit for the rabbit but it also special because it was something that he had that no one else did. Tom knew that if he could get rid of the rabbit that not only would Billy be devastated by the loss of a pet but just as importantly – at least in Tom's mind – he would lose the thing that allowed him to be special when Tom could not.

The next night when the rest of the children were at dinner Tom crept into the dorm room that Billy shared with several other boys. He peered around warily to ensure that he was alone and then locked his eyes locked on his target. Sitting on a small table at the foot of Billy's bed was a small metal cage with a brown rabbit resting inside. 'Displayed were everyone will know it's his' thought Tom bitterly as he walked over to the cage. Tom had intended on taking the rabbit outside and releasing it, however, now that he was here he saw that wouldn't be possible. The cage was locked with a small padlock and Tom assumed that either the matron put it on to ensure the rabbit was not allowed to roam the room or Billy put it on to ensure only he was able to decide who could play with it. Either way Tom was now stuck trying to figure out a new way to exact his revenge on Billy through the animal. Just then Tom heard a noise down the hall and began to worry that someone leaving dinner early might catch him in the act. Tom's heart began to beat quickly as his fury once again mounted – Tom had always had a nasty temper and he could feel it ready to explode – with the prospect that he would be unable to do anything. Staring at the rabbit, which was now near the edge of the cage looking as if it expected to be pet, Tom spat, "looks like Billy will be able to keep showing you off after all; I wish I could just kill you and hang you from the ceiling; that would wipe the smirk off of his face." At the moment when Tom's anger peaked and he was going to simply destroy a few of Billy's things and leave there was a bright flash and suddenly Tom noticed that the cage was empty. He looked around wildly and found the rabbit hanging from the rafters obviously dead. Tom eyes widened in surprise and he bolted from the room.

When he was back at his own bed he sprawled out on the bed trying to catch his breath and thinking about what had just happened. Strange things had certainly always happened around him – things would break when he would get angry, he swore his favorite shirt must be growing with him as it still fit him after several growth spurts, and other odd things – but this was different. While he had never been able to explain those happenings he was also never sure if he was causing them. Tonight, however, he had specifically thought about hanging the rabbit from the rafters before it had happened; there was no way around the fact that he had caused it and with that came the realization that he had been the cause of the other odd things that had happened. Tom's eyes shone with intense pleasure has he broke out into the first grin he remembered having in a long time. He had always had a feeling there was something different about him. While he appeared to be the same as the rest of the children he always knew he was somehow better, somehow special, and now he knew how. He didn't know how he had done all those things but as sure has he could feel the bed under him he knew he would be able to do it again and he couldn't wait to try.