Just a little "what if" story. An exploration of what Tom Riddle's life would have been like if he and Merope had made different choices.
Abilities and Choices
In most worlds, Tom Riddle is an orphan abandoned. He knows neither love nor friendship, but dies because of both. In this one-
Merope Gaunt was neither beautiful nor brilliant. But what she lacked in brains and looks, she made up for in pure gumption.
Here we have a woman who is abused and maltreated. She bides her time, waiting for her revenge; Slytherin's true heir. Inbreeding and poverty has put her at a marked disadvantage, but she overcomes it with cunning and an eye for opportunity.
It begins when Mr. Ogden arrives with his aurors, stealing away both father and brother. She makes her love potion, she gives it to Tom Riddle, and makes her escape.
She doesn't really love Tom, of course. She has never known love, couldn't pinpoint the feeling if she tried. But he is a chance to run, and Merope must use the tools at her disposal. His wealth and beauty will pave the way for her to regain what her fool family has lost. They run to London with and Slytherin's locket. They will lack nothing.
She gets pregnant as soon as possible, and hopes it is a male. The lad will become both Slytherin's heir and Riddle's, if she plays her cards right. She keeps up the love potion, and Tom Riddle is a devoted spouse. Merope finds it a comforting fiction. She will take this manufactured love over the to natural abuses of brother and father.
Until her third trimester, which has many alarming symptoms that cause the doctor to keep her on bedrest. She cannot get the ingredients she needs, as it will risk the pregnancy, and the potion runs out. Merope prays that duty will keep Riddle at her side.
Tom Riddle Senior has never been responsible in his life. He runs, abandoning wife and child. Merope despairs.
But she has magic, and so has resources. She takes the money remaining; a small amount, for sure; she has not sold the locket. Merope apparates to Hogsmeade instead of Diagon Alley. It is bitterly cold, and the stress of apparition and her own physical weakness makes her dizzy and faint. She heads toward the nearest lights, her world a feverish blur.
The Hog's Head is not a classy establishment. It is early, and so no one is present save Aberforth. When Merope walks in-cold, hungry, sick- he notices the flush on her wan face, the swell of her stomach, and the thinness of her clothes, and decides.
When Tom is born that cold midwinter day, it is not in a muggle orphanage. Instead it is in Aberforth's own room, where he cares for the birthing woman as tenderly as he ever did his lost sister. And because this Merope is not birthing in a cold orphanage, attended by well meaning but overworked and undereducated caretakers, she lives. And Tom Riddle Jr has a much more fortunate start.
After his birth, and after she recovers, Merope begins working at the Hog's Head. She cleans and she cooks, much as she did before; but Aberforth never yells, never lays a hand on her. And when others do- intoxicated patrons deciding her job description ought to include them, or merely the drunk and belligerent- Aberforth chucks them into the street without a thought. Merope is accorded human decency for the first time, and finds she likes it. In payment, she reveals her background and her deception. Aberforth says nothing.
Tom is a bright boy, and wants to know everything. Merope has seen brutality and ignorance from both muggles and wizards, and so is careful to teach her son that magic does not make right. Aberforth tries not to get involved, but his stern presence imparts more than he means it to. His cynicism about humanity rubs off. This Tom does not think himself better than others by virtue of his lineage.
Because he knows it from birth. Merope feels she has little to be proud of, (Aberforth disagrees) save her long distant ancestor. So, Tom is told about Slytherin, about his might and his ambition and his cunning. Young Tom listens eagerly. And sometimes Aberforth tells him stories of his sweet little sister, who died to young. He is careful to impress the fact that even though it had been muggles who had hurt her, it was a wizard that killed her.
When Tom is three or so, Albus Dumbledore takes time to teach him to read. Merope cannot, and Aberforth will not, but Tom is a genius and picks it up quickly. He wants to know everything, as all children do- but Tom is singular in his passion. Albus is both pleased and concerned, because he remembers another passionate, singular person, who's charisma and brilliance intended to spark a revolution, and succeeded only in killing innocents.
Tom grows, and learns. He also takes to collecting things, marks of his triumphs. When he discovers the shrieking shack, he takes a decaying shingle. When he beats a bar patron at gobstones, the hag smiles and gives him a hair. To others, his things resemble trash. To him, they mean something.
He wants to be powerful, but only for power's sake. He wants to know things, even forbidden things, because stupidity is folly in his eyes. He forgives it in others, because they don't have his abilities, but he cannot forgive it in himself. But there are things even the dullest person in the tavern understands, that Tom cannot.
He wants to love.
It is not something he can grasp. His mother tells him stories about love, and he cannot comprehend them. There is love in Aberforth's voice when he speaks of Ariana. He understands respect, and trust, and fondness, but love remains elusive. He sees it when others look at him and each other, and he wants it, wants that knowledge. There is a power there, that he craves. Did not even Slytherin love? Is it not his birthright? His mother learned to love him. Why cannot he love in return?
Merope thinks bitterly that it's because he is of the Gaunt line. She can love, but the Gaunt men love nothing but themselves. Albus, ever the romantic, believes it is because of the love potion she used.
Aberforth calls them both ninnies. Even muggles turn up with an inability to love- it's just something that happens sometimes. With proper training, it doesn't need to mean much.
"Besides," he says darkly to Albus, after Merope has gone, "a lot of damage has been done because of love." And Albus takes his meaning, leaving with a heavy heart.
Tom Riddle still goes to Hogwarts, and still ends up in Slytherin. He is still charming and polite, and still knows how to get what he wants. He is not unduly influenced by the anti muggleborn factions, or the blood traitors- his mother has told him he is above such petty politics, that it is not right for Slytherin's heir to be involved.
He does well in classes. Slughorn adores him, as do most of his peers. Tom is a model student, apt at whatever he puts his hand to. He learns that he likes to influence people, and shape their ideas. He still cannot love, but it bothers him less, because he can be fond of others, at the least. He has friends in Eileen Prince and Evan Rosier, and half a dozen others. Merope is proud, and that means something to Tom. Maybe that's all that love is, despite the words of old, wise men.
At fifteen, he finds the basilisk. Because this Tom does not wish harm to others based on blood, he speaks soft words to her, and gives her a name. He disapproves, for the first time, of his long dead ancestor. The basilisk is the greatest of snakes, and should be treated as such, not locked in a dim, moldy stone room. He then informs Albus about her, and trusts him to keep her safe.
Albus arranges for the basilisk to be sent to a reserve in Greece, where cautious wizards milk her venom and attend to her every whim. She feeds on cattle, and lives a long and happy life.
The first time Albus rejects the minister for magic position, Tom feels confident enough to ask him why over dinner. Albus tells him the truth. He likes power, relishes it, but does not deserve it. He will allow himself the power of teaching, and that's as far as he will go.
When Tom graduates, he is expected to end up in the minister's office, fast tracked to the Minister for Magic position himself. He does not. Instead he takes a year off, and finds his way to Little Hangleton.
Morfin is close to death, so Tom takes the ring that is his birthright. He has no pity or compassion for this wasted man.
Then he visits his father, and finds him wanting. Tom Riddle Senior is dismissive and rude, while the elder Riddles wisely stay silent. Tom leaves in disgust. He does not kill them.
Instead, he goes to London, where the Department of Mysteries accepts him immediately. Tom wants knowledge of the deepest magics, and it is here he will learn them. It sends him all over Britain, then the continent, then elsewhere. He studies wandless magic in Nigeria. He learns of strange plants in Canada. He finds a snake in Albania, and names her Nagini.
Aberforth feeds her honeyed mice when he thinks no one is looking. Merope scolds him for it, and scolds her son when he doesn't owl enough. But she is a mother like millions of mothers, and "enough" is not achievable for anyone, brilliant or no. Nagini grows plump on cream and mice, and her venom is milked and sent up to Slughorn for potions. Tom Riddle attends Eileen's wedding, and has unhappy thoughts.
Tom studies love, and thinks maybe he's been wrong about it the whole time. Albus becomes headmaster, is offered the Minister for Magic position instead, and rejects it. Tom remembers what he said about teaching, and power. He wonders if he'd like it. It is a way to influence, and if done correctly, well-certainly Slughorn had experienced benefits.
He discusses the idea with Aberforth, who is ambivalent. His sole ambition is the Hog's Head, with it's suspicious clientele. He discusses it with Merope, who is supportive of the switch. Merope, who has escaped from suffering and madness, the final birthright of the Gaunts; she craves surety for her son, that Unspeakables do not have.
And so, instead of a Dark Lord, Tom Riddle becomes a teacher. Instead of Lord Voldemort, he becomes Professor Riddle. There are no Dark Marks, no Crucios on a dark night. The Purebloods are decaying-none have the charisma and wherewithal to oppose the influx of muggleborns. The Blacks, the Malfoys, the Lestranges rage impotently against the inevitable, and their children are carefully nurtured by Hogwarts to be better than their parents. Because he wishes to effect, Professor Riddle ensures he is approachable. He tells his students that if they want to be successful, they must be early adopters; muggleborns are increasingly influential in the magical world, and if purebloods did not accept them, it is the purebloods who will go extinct. Tom knows about guns, about bombs, about chemical weapons; if muggleborns weren't accepted, they could take their revenge. He couches his insinuations in persuasive words and flattery, so the Purebloods with noble pretensions will listen. He makes sure the ring and locket are \ prominent on these occasions. Purebloods without those pretensions can be spoken to a bit more directly, without ornamentation, but the end results are the same. Sometimes it even sticks.
When Severus Snape comes to Hogwarts, it is not as a neglected, greasy haired, sullen boy, with a fanatical, unhealthy obsession. Tom will not allow his godson to go to wrack and ruin. Instead he is well adjusted and tidy looking- the Snapes are still poor, but Tobias is no longer the angry, anxious man he started as. In other worlds, the war in Korea, his subsequent discharge, had damaged him, made him bitter, aggressive, cruel. In this one, Tom threatens him into therapy. Severus Snape will still be friends with Lily, but affection will not become obsession. He will not fall to evil. He will not redeem himself. He will not have to.
Neville Longbottom and Harry Potter will not be orphans. Professor Riddle will give far to much homework, and their respective parents will roll their eyes about how some things never change. Lily will grumble to Severus and Remus, sitting at her kitchen table over hot, oversteeped tea, while James, Sirius, and Peter shout raucously over the Quidditch game on the wireless. None will ever know the grim future they escaped.
Sirius will see his brother sometimes, but never his parents. Some tragedies remain. Lord Voldemort was a symptom, not a cause.
The wizarding world is still insular. It is still prejudiced, self absorbed, self righteous. Another dark lord may arise, harness the latent rage of those who fear change. Another may kill old ladies for goblets of ancient lineage, and be brought down by a teenage boy with a robust sense of duty and self sacrifice.
But not Tom Riddle.