AN: Written for for The Wand Wood Challenge/Competition Prompt: Yew - Write about Tom Riddle/Voldemort, whose wand was yew.
A young boy sat alone in his small room at the orphanage. He had been sent to his room without dinner for misbehaving again. He had apparently been bad, causing mayhem and doing the work of the devil, but he had no idea how he had done it. Yes he had wanted something to happen to the horrible woman who had hit him earlier in the day, but he hadn't pushed her down the stairs. The other adults hadn't believed him though, even though he had been at the bottom of the stairs at the time. Apparently he had been standing at the bottom of the stairs glaring at her, which automatically meant that he was at fault. Tom knew that things that happened around him were always blamed on him even if there was no way that he could be responsible. He wished he was though and he certainly wasn't unhappy at what had happened; they all deserved it. He only wished that it was him who had done it, it would have been more satisfying.
Tom was nine years old when he realised that he was behind the accidents, and that was when he began to plan his revenge. Amy and Dennis were the first ones he made pay, on their annual trip to the seaside, when they tried to leave him in a pool of water in a cave. He made them regret it, and let it serve as a warning to anyone else who wanted to cross him. Not that Amy or Dennis ever told anyone what had happened in that cave, they would never dare, but their silence was warning enough.
Billy Stubbs was next, or rather his rabbit was, everyone knew how much the rabbit meant to him, so Tom decided to use the rabbit to make Billy suffer. The elder boy had been bullying Tom for years, but Tom could deal with that it was when the boy started to steal the meagre amount of food Tom was given that Tom took action. No-one could prove that he had hung Billy's rabbit from the rafters, but everyone knew that it was him. Everyone made sure to leave him alone after that.
He didn't know what it was that he was doing, he had yet to figure out the nature of his gift, but he did know that he was powerful. Tom thrived on that power, it was addictive, he had never felt anything like it before. As an orphan who had lived in the orphanage his whole life he was beholden to his caregivers, none of whom like him very much, meaning he had little to no power over anything in his life. That had changed though and it was him who held the power now. He was unwilling to give up that power for anyone and over time he developed it even further. He would often take things from the other children without them seeing and keep them for himself, they weren't things that he actually wanted for any other purpose than to upset whoever he took them from.
When Professor Dumbledore turned up at the orphanage Tom had originally thought that the man was coming from an asylum, the Matron had threatened to send him to one often enough, but the man had come to offer him a place at a school. A school for people like him, people with magic, a school where he could learn to use his powers properly. It made him question himself, was he really powerful, or was he just average, another wizard child in the world. He refused to be average or mediocre, he was going to be the best of his year he was determined. He had revealed one of his talents to the man to gauge how normal he was, and was pleasantly surprised to find that talking to snakes was not a common talent among the wizards.
He rejected the professors offer to escort him for his school shopping, instead taking the list for himself as well as the bronze key to a bank account that had been set up for him from a trust of money set aside for orphans. He managed to wait a whole day before sneaking out of the orphanage and making his way to Charing Cross Road and the hidden entrance to the magical world. His first stop was Gringotts, where he went to get some money and to find out how much he was being supplied with.
After gathering some money he went first to get his uniform, using all the charm he possessed he made the woman see him as a lovely young boy, and ended up leaving with his clothing at a cheaper price than many of the other patrons would have paid. By the time Tom left Diagon Alley he had all his school supplies, as well as quite a few extra books, as well as a few offers of odd jobs around Diagon Alley during the summer months. He returned to the orphanage unseen and began to devour the books he had bought, he would make sure that he wasn't going into the school as average. If he could master everything that he needed to learn in first year before he arrived, or at least have a very good understanding of all his subjects then he could spend his time at school going through the library to learn more to secure his power.