TABULA RASA

Summary: Harry Potter was once the girl-who-lived; she was once a gryffindor; she was once the daughter of Lily and James Potter; she was once Voldemort's nemesis; she was once a light witch; An accident with a magical artifact is enough to change all that. Not only she ends up in an alternate reality more than twenty years in the past, but in this new world Tom Marvolo Riddle is the Hogwarts' DADA teacher. If that weren't bad enough, she has lost all her memories. FemHarry/TMR. Teacher/Student relationship. Dark!FemHarry. Smart!FemHarry. Powerful!FemHarry.

Okay so, I know that I should definitely not start another story but this idea just came to me and well, I couldn't not write it, no? I can't say that the updates would be regular because well, they won't be, especially now because I have so much to do with Uni that I don't even know when I'll be able to write again. Still, this is it, the prologue of a new story.

Like the summary said, FemHarry is in Dumbledore's office and she has just found out that she's supposed to sacrifice herself to destroy the horcrux inside her. However, before she can do that, she finds something in Dumbledore's office that catches her attention. When she touches its surface, something happens and she finds herself still at Hogwarts but in the 70's and with Tom Riddle as the DADA teacher. Oh, and she seems to have lost her memory. She doesn't remember anything about herself, about Voldemort, the war, the Dursleys, not even her own name (though she remembers how to do spells, how to read and write, what she learned at Hogwarts etc; she just has no personal memories).

I just really wanted to write a story where Tom was the DADA teacher and Harry had no memories of who she was or about Voldemort. This way, like the title says, it would be a 'tabula rasa' kind of situation where neither of them knows anything about the other so there are no prejudices of any kind as a barrier between them. And also, I just always kind of wondered what would have happened, what kind of person Harry would have become if he hadn't been the boy-who-lived who lost his parents because of Voldemort and if he hadn't been manipulated by Dumbledore all his life. If he had simply been an orphan who had grown up with abusive muggles, what kind of person would he have become? This story is the result of all this pondering.

This story would be a FemHarry/Tom story and will have possible underage sex (technically she's 17 going on 18 but when she wakes up she will have to start her fifth year once again because…well, you'll see) and definitely teacher/student relationship. If you're not okay with it, don't read it. Also, sane!Tom, human!Tom but still very much Dark!Tom.

Prologue

Harry found herself once again in Dumbledore's office, lying on the carpet and staring at the ceiling in shocked silence. She had just finished watching Snape's memories and finally, the truth had been revealed. She was an Horcrux and she was supposed to sacrifice herself so that Voldemort would finally die.

Harry stood up on uncertain feet, trying to come to terms with all the revelations Snape's memories had brought upon her. Dumbledore had betrayed her, playing a long, complicated game of chess not only with her life but with several others like Snape's. She imagined he had told himself it was for the greater good and maybe it was but…how could he live with himself, manipulating people's lives, using their guilt against them, controlling them like puppets?

Of course, it didn't matter right now. Dumbledore was dead, Snape was dead and soon, she and Voldemort would be too.

A mirthless laugh left her lips. Was that it then? Had her mother and father really sacrificed their lives so that she could have just a few more years to live and then end her life as a willing sacrificial lamb? It wasn't fair. But, of course, when had life ever been fair to her? She had never been master of her own fate. Since before she was born, other people had decided who she was supposed to be. Was it really so strange then that she wasn't even free to decide how she was going to die?

Harry looked around Dumbledore's office one last time, trying to prepare herself mentally for what was to come. All the portraits were sleeping, except for Dumbledore's. He was suspiciously absent.

She knew that the more time she would spend mulling over what she was supposed to do and the less courage she would have to actually do it.

Suddenly, something caught her attention from the corner of her eye. A cabinet door – not the one containing the pensieve but another one – was slightly ajar and something inside of it was…glowing?

Harry came closer, unable to resist her curiosity. What she found inside was…another pensieve? But no, this one was different from the one she had just left. It still looked like some kind of basin but it wasn't made of stone but some kind of black glass-like material. It was perfectly polished and shone when the light hit it. Harry thought it could have been obsidian but she wasn't sure. Engraved on the black surface were tiny runes she didn't recognize, looking nothing like the runes she had studied in class. Inside the runes there was a strange blue liquid. It didn't look like the silvery substance memories were made of. This looked completely liquid, almost transparent except for this strange blue tint. That was the source of the glowing.

Harry knew that she was probably wasting time. That she needed to go, do her duty and save the wizarding world; that she couldn't stay there any longer, especially snooping around things that could very well be dangerous. But there was something about this thing that was…calling to her. That was probably another reason why it wasn't a good idea for her to even be close to that thing.

Like usual, though, her recklessness and her curiosity won out and she extended her hand forward. Her palm touched the black surface and immediately the runes engraved on it started to glow blue like the liquid inside it.

She felt her palm burning but she couldn't move the hand away from the strange thing. Then a strange, warm wind rose up around the room, moving objects around and throwing things on the floor. Harry was frozen in place, unable to move away and knowing that she had set something in motion and terrified to know what.

Then the wind rose higher until she felt like it was a living thing, squeezing her chest and blocking her lungs. The pain in her hand became unbearable and she cried out but the noise of the wind was so strong in her ears that she couldn't even hear her own voice.

Then, everything quieted. The wind stopped, the pain in her hand was gone and Harry found that she could move it. She immediately retracted her hand and observed her palm. Something had been carved on her hand. It was black like a tattoo and it looked like a circle. However, she could see the head of a snake biting its tongue and knew immediately that what was in her palm wasn't a simple circle but an ouroboros. She frowned, confused and scared.

When nothing happened for long minutes she breathed a sigh of relief but then, both the strange black pensieve and her own palm started to glow blue once again. In a second that burning sensation that she had felt on her palm was back but it soon extended all over her body. The pain was immeasurable. Harry felt like every single particle in her body was tearing itself from the other. She looked as her own hand started to disintegrate in front of her, then her arm. She screamed until she had a mouth to use and then everything went black.