This is my first ever fan fiction and I hope you guys like it. I want this story to be about Voldemort's fifth year at school but if this story is strongly accepted by you guys, I may write the stories of his sixth year, seventh year and even his rise to power. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any on the characters within the Harry Potter universe because if I did, I wouldn't have named Ron and Hermione's kid Hugo.

Tom Marvolo Riddle lied on his stomach, stretched across his bed, flipping through the dusty pages of an old second hand copy of Hogwarts: A History. He had made it his personal duty to learn all he could about the Wizarding School; after all, Hogwarts had always felt like home to him, yet, Tom felt as if he still knew little about the castle.

The one story that he found most intriguing was the legend of a hidden chamber that Salazar Slytherin himself had built within the school, just prior to his permanent departure. It was said that the hidden chamber was home to a monster only Slytherin's heir could control. The monster, whatever it may be, existed for the sole purpose of purging the school of the unworthy. The muggle born. This so called hidden chamber was named the Chamber of Secrets. Naturally, many headmasters and headmistresses through out the ages had had the school searched numerous times; however, each evaluation returned the same results, which were that no such chamber existed. Tom didn't believe such rubbish. Tom wanted to find the entrance to the chamber and open it. He so desperately wished that he was Slytherin's heir.

But time was becoming an issue. Tom had searched the school for the Chamber of Secrets since he was in his second year and he still had no leads to the chambers location nor was he able to trace his lineage back to Slytherin. Truth was that he wasn't able to find his family tree at all, not even in the grand library at Hogwarts. Tom was now entering his fifth year at the school. His time to search the castle for the Chamber of Secrets was now going to be, at the very least, cut in half due to his O.W.L.'s. He had a feeling that it would have to be now or never, otherwise, his sixth year would be his last free year to find it as his seventh and final year would be taken over by his N.E.W.T.'s.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

Tom's heart skipped a beat as his mind fell back into reality. He gazed over at the window and saw a tawny owl standing on his windowsill. The owl tapped on the window again and Tom closed his book and got off his bed and lazily walked over to the window and opened it to let the bird in. The owl stumbled inside and gave a small hoot as if saying "Thanks" and stretched out it's leg which contained a letter that Tom recognized being from Hogwarts. Tom rather quickly removed the letter from the bird. As the bird flew out the window, Tom tore into his letter which seemed to be much larger than last years. It was at that moment that something heavy and silver fell out of the envelope and land with a clunk on the hard wood floor beneath his feet. Tom didn't bother to look at it just yet. Whatever it was, he was certain that the letter would explain it.

Dear Mr. Riddle,

Myself and the entire staff at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry wish to congratulate you on becoming Slytherin house prefect. You were by far the best choice we could make. You will now have access to the prefects' bathroom. The password is "Clear Water". The exact location of this bathroom is on the fifth floor, fourth door past the statue of Boris the Bewildered. On September first, we must ask you to board the Hogwarts Express and make your way immediately to the prefects' carriage at the front of the train. Your schedules will be passed out there and the list of the rules and punishments you can now give students will be made clear.

On a lighter note, there are no extra required books for fifth year students to buy this year. As you are part of the Hogwarts Helpers Fund, we have still sent you money this year, incase you needed something such as new school robes. You may, however, spend the money in anyway you like.

Sincerely,

Armando Dippet

Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

Tom gazed down at the floor and sure enough, there was a shiny prefect badge that was pinned to a small leather sack of gold, silver and bronze. He picked it up and removed the badge, examining the serpent that was etched upon it. Usually, every Hogwarts letter he had ever received was exactly identical to the letters from other students, but this one was different. It appeared that the headmaster took the time to write the letter to Tom personally. There was a knock on the door and Tom hurried over to his bed and tossed the gold under his pillow. He was still holding on to his prefect badge and his school letter in his hands.

"Come in."

The door opened and a boy who was about the same age as Tom entered the room and closed the door behind him. The boy wore a dirty and faded gray tunic and had his brown hair combed back. It was clear to Tom that the boy had just finished cleaning an extremely dirty area of the orphanage.

"What do you want, Stubbs?" Tom asked, coldly. He made it quite clear that Billy Stubbs wasn't welcome to be within Tom's presence.

"I wanted to know if you've seen my rabbit or to find out if you've killed this one too."

Tom chuckled to himself finding this quite amusing and at the same time, annoying. "Are you still accusing me of killing your stupid rabbit?" he asked. Tom shook his head and smirked, "I haven't seen your rabbit, Stubbs, but if I were you, I would check in the rafters. That is, after all, where your last rabbit ended up, isn't it?"

Tom chuckled again as Billy's face turned red with anger.

"I know you killed my rabbit, Tom, I know it!" Billy said, half shouting.

Tom just stood there, glaring at Billy Stubbs. It was only after a couple of seconds that a grin began to creep across Tom's face. "Tell me, Stubbs, do you have any proof that I killed your rabbit? Think about it! We were ten years old. There is no possible way I could have snuck into your room, randomly found some rope to tie a noose or even reach the rafters to hang your rabbit from them."

Tom took a few steps forward and found himself face to face with Billy Stubbs, towering over the boy.

"You know, Billy, not even my school thinks that I'm as terrible as you proclaim me to be because if they did, I doubt they would have sent me a letter announcing that I am now a school prefect!"

Tom raised the badge in front of Billy's eyes and Billy looked both speechless and ready to explode.

"Now, is there anything else you want to discuss with me because as much as I'd love to sit here and let you accuse me of killing your rabbit all day, I've got things to do?"

Billy stared Tom down for a few seconds before finding the ability to speak again.

"Yes, Tom, there is something else. Mrs. Cole wants to see you in her office," Billy said as he turned on his heels and rushed out of the room, slamming the door behind him.

Tom took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. "Muggle filth." Tom had a hard time trying to keep his cool around the muggles at the orphanage. Tom wanted nothing more than to rid the world of the whole lot of them but he remembered his first meeting with Professor Dumbledore. Dumbledore had struck some fear into him when he was a little child, he admitted it, but even though that fear was dead to Tom now, he knew better than to harm these muggles through magic. He wasn't powerful enough to take Dumbledore on and Tom knew that if he tried anything like that at the orphanage, Dumbledore and the Ministry of magic would stand in his way. Tom vowed that one day, muggles and even fellow witches and wizards everywhere would one day fear him, but that time was not now.

He grabbed the gold from under his pillow and made his way to his school trunk at the end of his bed where he placed the gold, the letter and the prefect badge inside it. He exited his room and made his way down the cold stone steps, his foot steps echoing slightly in the distance. He then took a right and swiftly moved down the corridor until he reached the door to Mrs. Cole's office. He knocked on the door.

"Come in."

Tom gripped the door handle and turned it slightly nervously though he didn't show any sign of it, and let himself in.

"Billy Stubbs said you wanted to see me, ma'am?" Tom had executed the question so gracefully that his well acted state of confusion sounded believable.

"Ah, Tom, yes, I did want to have a word…" Before Mrs. Cole could even say another word, Tom spoke again.

"Ma'am, if this is about Billy Stubbs missing rabbit, I didn't take it. I've only been back for a few weeks. I didn't even know he had another rabbit until I was reading a letter from my school announcing that I was made prefect and was confronted by him about it."

Mrs. Cole stared at him for a moment with a confused look on her face. "I was unaware that Billy had lost his rabbit… but its fine Tom, I don't believe you stole Billy's rabbit and I don't think you killed the first one. Even though you did have a motive to do it, you weren't tall enough to reach those rafters."

Tom swallowed and simply nodded his head once in agreement. Tom suddenly felt furious. He was out witted by Billy Stubbs, a mere muggle. Billy intented on Tom turning himself in and Tom almost fell for the trick.

"So you were made a prefect? This calls for a small celebration."

Tom just stood there, shocked as Mrs. Cole made her way to her liquor cabinet and grabbed two glasses, pouring something into them in which Tom could not see due to the angle he was in. Mrs. Cole never acted like this, well, at least not very often.

"Hope you like gin," she said as she turned around and made her way to Tom, handing him a glass then making her way around her desk to take her seat once more.

Tom inclined his head. "Yes, thank you."

"Well, Tom, the reason why I've called you here tonight is to discuss your living arrangements after you turn 17. You'll be at the school when you turn 17 and I'm not just going to toss your things out while you're gone because that would be unfair even beyond my abilities, so I was wondering what your plans were."

Tom cracked a small smile. "Well, I actually have given this some thought. I plan on asking the school if I could stay over the summers. I don't think that headmaster Dippet will say no. So I plan to take all of my belongings with me this year. If for some reason I come back to the orphanage during the summer, if you could give me the one final summer, I will take all my belongings back with me in my final year of school and you'll never see me again."

Mrs. Cole took a pull off the bottle of gin. "It seems like you have given this subject a fair amount of thought and your solution seems reasonable to me. Alright. Well, congratulations on making prefect and I hope your future works out for you Tom."

Tom sucked down his gin and sat the glass on her desk. "Thank you for everything Mrs. Cole. I appreciate everything you've done for me." Tom hated sucking up like that but he didn't have much of a choice in the situation. Without another word, Tom left the office and raced up the stone steps and entered his room. He sat on his bed and returned to Hogwarts: A History. Hours passed by until darkness began to sweep over him. He struck a match and lit his bedside oil lamp. It wasn't long before the flames cast dancing shadows upon the walls and brought drowziness upon his eyelids. Within minutues, the book had fallen to the floor and Tom lie on his bed, fast asleep.