The Wonderful Adventures and Enthralling Mishaps of Tom's Diary
Chapter 1 - Prologue
Dumbledore frowned from where he was sitting in his seat in his a recent Azkaban breakout of unidentified prisoners, Arthur attacked and in hospital and half the ministry infiltrated by the Dark Lord and his followers, not to mention the cursed ring on his grave and blackened hand which was already cutting him short of time, he had to admit that fighting the Dark Lord was not exactly going well. Perhaps…he thought, there was an error in the plan right from the beginning…after all…saying 'we do run things differently at Hogwarts', whilst giving Tom plenty of space and freedom under what he had proposed was a 'watchful eye' during his years at Hogwarts, was not going to achieve much in stopping him. No, it needed to start sooner, and Dumbledore was sure, thank you very much if you would please, he thought as he popped a sorbet lemon in his mouth, that as well as love – yes, there was always love, that always played a role in the problem he presumed, the boy needed an ample space to express his emotions. A space to…let breathe and expose, to…let the transpiring's of the mind wander through the body and out through the fingertips into the world.
He supposed muggle orphanages in the 1940s were not exactly the greatest place for self-expression.
It was a wonder Tom managed to get as far as he did without some ample form of anger management and personal-me-time. He decided that the perfect solution to the problem, and perhaps to aid in the preservation of the boy's sanity, was to present him with none other…than a diary…without his knowledge of course.
Diary-writing was a highly therapeutic task. Why, many people found if they wrote out their thoughts once a day, all their nondescript dark urges and unsavoury thoughts were filtered out from the life. Except, of course. When the supposedly therapeutic diary-writer was aware that they were writing in order to preserve their sanity. Self-awareness and therapeutic diary-writing never tended to work best. No, the correct order was a diary, time, and an ample dash of self-oblivion to do the magic.
Dumbledore intended on dropping it somewhere near the orphanage, where Tom was sure to find it. Perhaps he would even put a charm on it; one that attracts the charmer (benignly) to the object and to interact with it for a short amount of time. Not dark, but difficult. It was a seemingly simple harm, but took quite the learning curve to master.
Thankfully Dumbledore had mastered it.
He shall drop it off at the doorstep or his window sill or something to the orphanage perhaps a year or so before Tom was to begin at Hogwarts. Ample time to get his emotions out and the transition process. No, Dumbledore wasn't going to let Tom's only connection to a diary be one he brought on a whim on sale at a muggle market the summer holidays before fifth year, and took it with him to school. Where work was so busy (for Hogwarts was extremely busy in the OWLs year) and for whom scribbles of dates and homework assignments became his only interaction with the book. No, a proper bond, formed when they were young.
And so, Dumbledore selected a thick, nice, and properly bound book, used a time-turner from the ministry as a once off*, and journeyed back into the seeming drab and greying areas of Wool's Orphanage, muggle world, late 1930s. And after inspecting the Orphanage and noting that none of the owners were in sight, and Tom was reminded by someone else to pick up the mail, he dropped in the mailbox and cast the charm. Before time travelling right back.
A minute later. Tom came at the door, his defiant black eyes looking this way and that, or perhaps for one of his snake friends to talk to, before he took out all the mail, diary included. And so…began the wonderful adventures and enthralling mishaps of Tom's Diary…
Author's Note: * - I know it's not realistic in canon. But it's just to set the scene and allow the universe of this story to work.
By the way, the other chapters won't be written like the first chapter. It'll be more diary and less description, but I just had to put some sort of explanation. Anyways, I hope you all enjoyed this (or what little this chapter may say about the rest of this story) and if it's not too much trouble for you, please leave of a review. I always love to hear your thoughts! (:
p.s. I just want to say in advance that updates will be very random. As I'll only be writing this in my freetime when inspiration hits (which could be never) so yeah, if you're interested in this story I recommend following and getting a notification that way as opposed to checking up on it (and no, this is not me trying to get more followers!) cause it's probably the best, and be prepared for random updates :P
-WhymsicalBell