Summary: Tom Marvolo Riddle was a wizard of many gifts. He knew that he was destined for greatness. But after his fifteenth birthday he gained the ability to see these future greatness and a lot of his plans changed. He developed an obsession with one boy that would come to define his life.
Prologue: The twists of destiny
Tom Marvolo Riddle, magical genius and Parselmouth was well aware that he was special. While growing up miserable and hated in the orphanage it had been a cheerful hope he clinged into trying to ignore the harsh reality. When the oddball called Dumbledore had told him that he was a wizard that hope had been proven true. Tom, despite what the malicious matrons and the cruel children said, was a very special boy and he was superior to them, mere worthless muggles.
Dumbledore did not seem to agree and ever since he had kept a careful eye on Tom. The young wizard was very annoyed at being treated like a criminal and wished the wacky Professor would keep his overly large and crooked nose out of his business.
Tom had spent the first semester of his fourth year trying to find a way to one up the meddlesome old fool. The idiotic muggle lover had kept asking him why Tom did not return to the orphanage for the holidays. Tom had to fight the urge to snap at the fool, was he blind perhaps. The muggles detested and tried to destroyed anyone that was different and Tom had no intention of putting up with them more than he absolutely had to.
It was as the year died, as the clock struck twelve and Tom turned fifteen that he hidden gift of the Slytherin line manifested. Salazar had given his descendants two gifts. The first was Parseltongue, which he inherited by from his father and foresight the gift of his maternal line. Parseltongue had breed true, mostly because his descendants tended to breed almost incestuously close. Foresight had disappeared from the Slytherin bloodline many centuries ago as the power dwindled to almost negligible levels. Still the strong blood of Salazar was still there and it was waiting for a true heir. Unknown to him, Tom was this one true heir.
Tom was watching the clock and sarcastically muttering happy birthday to himself. No one had ever celebrated the day he had been born. The matrons of the orphanage rued the day the strange woman appeared in the doorstep and died after giving birth to her son. They cursed that they had such an unsettling child in their care. In school Tom had not mentioned it. In Slytherin house it was unwise to draw attention to his situation. His gift of Parseltongue and magical ability had impressed his housemates enough to disregard his muggle name and lay of his back. He had absolutely no intention to give them a reason to look down on him.
Midnight came and Tom was fifteen. He thought to get ready for bed but a sudden pain had him falling into the cold, hard floor. Something within him broke open and the lost gift of Salazar had been regained. Tom had to fight a scream as he saw what he was to become, the people he would kill and more importantly the boy that would be marked as his equal and bring his downfall.
