The Truth Behind Evil
Summary: Harry Potter thought his life could not get worse. How wrong he was. Follow him to a life he could never imagine; protector to the young Tom Riddle! Time-travel fic.
Pairing/s: None.
Warnings: Not many. Ah, Lucius was not captured or anything in the fight in the Ministry. He still walks around, free.
And, there will be Dumbledore bashing and generally some Gryffindor bashing as well.
Now I don't know the names of the old people, like their grandparents and that shit. I've only seen a few names that give me guidance so I'll make the other ones up.
Disclaimer: If I had owned the Harry Potter series, do you think Snape had died? No, so that means I don't own the books! They belong to Mrs Rowling alone, kapisch?
"Talking"
'Thinking'
-Parseltongue-
-o-
Chapter Two
Harry woke up and groaned. He sat up and looked around. He was still in the summer house but it was clean and he could hear voices. Quickly, he scrambled out from the house and Apparated away. Apparently there were no wards towards that, and the teen was happy for it. He showed up near London and took out his wand.
"Tempus," he said with a quiet voice.
The numbers showed up and he stared.
"15th of August 1940?"
-o-
Harry finished his letter, tied it to the owl and watched it fly out from the open window. He looked around the room he had rent at the Leaky Cauldron and sat down on his bed with a sigh. He was lucky he always kept the most important things with him at all time, like documents, valued possessions and money. He had a special money bag he had requested from Ranglook; he could withdraw how much he wanted from his vault to this bag. And even though he had travelled to the past it did not look like it had stopped. He breathed a sigh of relief for that. Unfortunately he had lost the three rings he had, but he guessed it would only see weird out if he had the rings while three other persons had the rings as well.
The letter he had just written and sent away was to the current headmaster of Hogwarts, professor Dippet, with the request to start there. He had written that he was an orphan that had been home-schooled until his parents died a few weeks ago. He had no one else, and would like to go to the ancient school. Now he could only hope he was going to be let in.
Harry rose up from the bed and studied his face in the mirror. He looked nothing like he used to, for which he was glad for. He did not like to look like the perfect 'Golden Boy'. He thought of his life in the future and the only one he found himself missing was Remus. And maybe Tonks; she was quite funny. All the others were too… Dumbledore-influenced. His friends were not even on his mind; he always lost his self-control when he thought too much on them. Absently he pulled lightly on his earring before thinking he should probably get a ring of some sort; he had looked more like a pure-blood when he had his rings. He looked closer on his pale face and made sure his scar was hidden. He would do anything to make it disappear. He dragged his hands through his hair and went to the bed again. He fell down on it and curled up.
He did not even have Hedwig as a company; with that thought he curled up tighter despite his now grown and healthy body and held his knees close to his chest. He vowed that he could take extra care of her when he came back. When, he tried to think, not if.
-o-
Armand Dippet looked at the letter with a thoughtful face. Home-schooled children were not unusual, but never that they only had their parents. They usually had aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents. Nonetheless, he had a decision to make.
As he took a parchment he muttered to himself:
"Viator… strange name. Alexander Viator."
-o-
It had not taken Harry very long to figure out the mystery of Alexander Viator. He had read the documents and discovered that the account for Alexander Viator suddenly stopped in 1941, and had been opened in 1940. He realized it was probably all planned, that he had been this person all along. It seemed like it was fate that he would go back, and also fate that something would happen 1941. But his question was how on Earth had he earned 3 million Galleons in one year? He was set to find that out, and did not worry too much about getting home. He was sure that Hedwig would be fine for a while; she could always go to Remus. She would not mind if he was gone for a while, and he would make up for it later when he came back.
-o-
First September 1940
Twelve-year old Tom Riddle looked out the window from the train; he had been waiting for this all summer. To get back to Hogwarts. He had already changed into his school uniform and was nearly bouncing on the set. Opposite to him was his friend, Abraxas Malfoy who was two years older than him. Even though Tom was a half-blood so to speak, many of the Slytherins had accepted him because of his eagerness to learn about Dark Arts and his interest in pure-blooded wizards and witches. But even though they were his friends they could not do anything against the rest of the houses and the orphanage he was forced to live in. Last year he had been teased mercilessly by Gryffindors because of his small size and his non-magical name and had only gotten away thanks to Abraxas.
"What's wrong, Tom?" Abraxas asked.
"Nothing," the boy answered. "Just happy to be back."
"Did the Muggles do anything to you?" the teen said fiercely, knowing fully how awful they were.
"Nothing but the usual," he answered. "No hitting though; they got afraid of your warning. Thanks for that."
"My pleasure."
Suddenly there was a knock and they turned to the door.
"It's open!" Abraxas called out.
It opened uncertainly, a head came in sight and Tom could only stare. The unknown teen had raven hair and icy blue eyes with a strange earring in his ear. He wore black robes that made his already pale skin look white. His expression was curious though and made his cold eyes appear a bit warmer. Tom felt a wave of reassuring magic wash over him, and realized with a start it was the unknown teen's strange aura.
"Hi," the teen said uncertainly. "Sorry to bother but all the other compartments are full and the students in them are too noisy. Mind if I sit here?"
"Go ahead," Abraxas said.
The teen was around 15 or 16, Tom figured and looked on as he dragged his trunk in and sat down.
"I don't recognize you," Abraxas said thoughtfully with a tilted head as he studied the older teen.
"I haven't been here before," the teen answered. "My parents… died a few weeks ago and professor Dippet was nice enough to let me in to Hogwarts in such short notice."
The blonde teen nodded at his explanation. He stretched out a hand and said:
"My name is Abraxas Malfoy by the way."
The older teen took it and said:
"Alexander Viator."
"Viator; strange name but a nice one. This is my friend, Tom Riddle. He may be young but don't underestimate him."
Alexander turned to Tom and shook his hand as well. Tom never looked away once someone looked at him and the teen's eyes seemed to warm up even more.
"Quite fierce eyes you have there, Tom," Alexander commented. "Like a blazing fire."
Tom widened his eyes and Abraxas laughed at the expression. Alexander laughed as well and said:
"Just speaking aloud. I do that a lot, sorry."
"It's alright," Tom answered.
Suddenly there was a hiss from outside and a pearly white snake slithered inside through the not entirely closed door. While the others who shrank away a bit, though Tom were curious, Alexander shone up and said:
"There you are, Nagini! Where did you go, you silly girl?"
The snake slithered up to the seat and then settled into Alexander's lap. Tom was not so surprised when he heard the snake hiss:
-I was hunting for something good but there wasn't anything… only some noisy students but you told me not to eat any noisy students no matter how much I wanted to.-
To Tom's surprise, Alexander laughed and replied:
"I'll give you something good later."
'Is he a Parseltongue?' the smallest of them wondered.
"You like snakes?" he asked out loud, not taking his eyes off the strange snake.
"I love them. They are loyal to their owners and good companions," Alexander said and rubbed the snake's scaly head. Nagini hissed in delight and closed her eyes. "My mother wanted to give me an owl for my birthday but I wanted a snake. She didn't approve but my father was delighted. I got money and found this lovely lady."
"Can I touch her?" the boy asked, breathlessly.
"Of course," the older teen replied. "Just rub her head; she loves that."
And that was how Tom Riddle first met the snake Nagini, who later became his beloved familiar.
-o-
(A/N Harry is Alexander from now on, or else it will be confusing)
Alexander was shocked as he first met with his future enemy. He certainly did not give off the aura of the killer the teen had grown to know. Alexander was currently waiting for his turn to get sorted, with professor Dippet by his side. They stood in the corridor outside the Great Hall, as Alexander would have been uncomfortable being sorted along with eleven-year olds. Nagini was curled loosely around his neck, hidden from anyone's view with a well-placed charm on the teen's side. He felt her tongue flipping out and licking his cheek in a comforting manner and he almost smiled. He did not expect to have his enemy's snake either and thought back on when he had found her:
Alexander was wandering around in Knockturn Alley, dressed in a black robe that hid his face. He had been shopping for his new school year, and was now just strolling around. He saw a store for familiars and stepped inside; he had certainly missed Hedwig and hoped a pet maybe could cheer him up.
The clerk looked at him while she was serving another customer. He looked around before going towards the snake section. Listening to what snakes had to say was quite fun from time to time. He walked along the cages, listening to them as the snakes argued back and forth.
-Quiet,- one of them finally hissed.
-Don't tell us to be quiet!- another one replied straight away.
-He understands…-
The snakes grew quiet and Alexander smiled from underneath his hood. He walked up to the cage that held a pearly white snake and spoke:
-Greetings.-
The other snakes let out something akin to gasps and the beautiful snake looked at the teen.
-You don't seem to be surprised,- it pointed out.
-I've been able to understand snakes as long as I can remember,- Alexander replied.
The white snake looked at him for a long time, and not once did his eyes turn away.
-You are a worthy speaker,- it declared after a while.
-Am I?- the teen said with a slight smile. -Wow, first time I'm complimented it's by a snake. Not that I'm complaining.-
Alexander noted the snake was trying to get up and out from the cage. He nudged the lid open and the snake immediately settled itself on his shoulders.
-Erm, does this mean you want to come with me?-
-What else?- the snake replied. -My name is Nagini, by the way.-
-Alexander Viator.-
Alexander remembered the clerk had been a bit frightened when the teen came with Nagini. Apparently, Nagini had bitten all her previous owners since they did not feed her properly. Alexander made sure she had food and let her explore when she felt like it.
She curled around him just a bit tighter in her sort of hugging and Alexander relaxed.
-o-
As the sorting ended but the hat was not brought away the chatter began. It grew louder and louder since there was no headmaster to tell them, and Dumbledore did little to try calming them down; he was just standing there by the sorting hat with a gentle smile on his face. Finally the headmaster came inside and said:
"Everyone, settle down!"
It took around a minute but soon it was quiet.
"Welcome to another year in Hogwarts. This year we will have a transfer student who will begin his sixth year here. Treat Alexander Viator with respect and he will do so as well."
They all craned there necks to get a look at the newcomer, especially someone with that kind of name. Tom looked as Alexander descended down the stairs and walked along the tables to the sorting hat. To the boy the teen looked like a true pure-blood as he strode down with his head high and the robe swishing around his ankles. The newcomer looked at the teacher holding the sorting hat warily before he sat down.
Alexander sighed as he thought: 'I never imagined I had to be sorted again. Maybe this time I will end up in a house I feel comfortable in.' The Transfiguration teacher put the hat on his head and Alexander heard a voice say:
"Aah, what do we have here? A want to help and a sharp mind. This should be interesting. You value loyalty and want true friends."
'Where do you suggest I should go then?' Alexander replied.
"Gryffindor is out of the question, since I feel you have no big feelings for their kind of loyalty."
'No kidding,' the teen muttered. The hat laughed quietly before continuing:
"Hufflepuff is not the house for you, so that leaves Ravenclaw and Slytherin. However, Ravenclaw tends to keep to themselves, so my conclusion is Slytherin."
'Slytherin?'
"Have you heard of that house?"
'Cunningness and loyalty to your friends. Pride and pure-blood. One of the houses that has kept old traditions alive while inviting new ones inside.'
"Good," the sorting hat said. "You have the mind of a true Slytherin, so rest assured. I'm sure your heart's betrayal will be healed by your new friends in SLYTHERIN!"
The last word was shouted out. The teen had widened his eyes as he heard the hat say 'your heart's betrayal will be healed by your new friends' but he got up from the chair nonetheless and gave the hat back. The clapping in the hall was feeble but he hardly noticed. He looked over to the Slytherin table and saw Tom smile at him, a childish smile and Alexander could not help but smile back. He walked with his calm strides to the Slytherin table and sat down by the table with Tom who said:
"Welcome to the Slytherins."
"Thank you," Alexander replied. "Do I look like one?"
Tom looked him over and smiled his charming smile again.
"A true pure-blood," he answered. "I like the earring you have."
The older one pulled on it lightly and said:
"My… mother loved Ancient Runes and thought 'dark' would fit me. She said the whole me was dark."
At dark, Tom looked at him more closely. Then he said:
"Well, you certainly dress dark."
Alexander chuckled at that and Abraxas came to them.
"Nott and Parkinson are too loud," he complained and sat down.
The food soon appeared and Abraxas began lass on Tom's plate.
"And remember, Tom, you will eat everything I put up."
"Abraxas, you always put too much!" Tom whined. "Don't make me!"
Alexander looked at the two of them with a smile and Abraxas looked at him.
"You look too thin as well," he said to the older teen.
"What? I'm not too thin," Alexander said.
"Yes you are," the Malfoy said. "You will eat what I say as well."
"And here I thought I was the older…"
Tom laughed at the raven-haired teen while he watched the blonde fill his plate. Alexander's thoughts were in a mess, but one thing was sure; in a matter of a few weeks he had gone from being the moulded weapon of Dumbledore to being friends with a Malfoy and the future Dark Lord.
-o-
Alexander looked up at the ceiling and turned to his side. Nagini curled up beside him and the teen stroke her head slightly. Right… he was here now, in Hogwarts. In this room were two other sixth-years sleeping peacefully, Parkinson and Goyle but he could not fully relax. Finally, he burrowed his head in the pillow and thought he would take things as it came.
-o-
Abraxas watched Tom glance around the table and then the boy said to him:
"Where is Alexander?"
"The sixth-years don't have a class until nine-thirty," the Malfoy answered. "He's probably catching up some sleep."
The smaller one nodded, although he seemed to want to speak with his new friend some more. But he was lucky; only ten minutes later Alexander came into the hall. His hair was put up and even though he looked tired he did not let himself drag himself to the table as many of the Gryffindors did. He sat down next to Tom and said:
"Don't tell me 'Good morning' because I'm going to have to kill you then."
"Bad morning," Tom replied without missing a beat.
"Good," the teen said and stretched out for the eggs.
"What are you doing up when you have a sleep-in?" Abraxas said.
"Professor Dippet wanted to see me," Alexander said. "He wanted to see if I'm really up for sixth year. Since I'm home-schooled, he doesn't know if I've completed up to the standards the teachers wants."
Abraxas looked at the older teen and saw the slightly dark rings underneath his eyes and said:
"Did you even sleep this night?"
"… Not really," Alexander said. "Starting here is one thing, losing everything you've known is another."
Tom looked at the teen with sad eyes. Something about Alexander drew him in, making him want to get to know the teen better. Alexander looked up from his eggs and they locked eyes. Tom could not help but admire the icy blue eyes, the perfect hair put up in a nice ponytail with a few strands falling down the sides of his face. He looked exactly how Tom wanted to look like when he got older.
"How long are you planning to have this staring contest?" Abraxas said.
The two of them were brought of their own thoughts and made a simultaneous 'Huh?' to the Malfoy as they turned their heads to him. He huffed at them like a mother would do to her child and they looked at each other. Abraxas smiled at them and said:
"Somehow I get the feeling we'll be great friends."
-o-
Alexander found out only after a few weeks that he preferred Slytherin over Gryffindor. He was slowly introduced to the other Slytherins and found a friend in Theodore Nott's grandfather, simply called Theo. The teen was in the year above Alexander. The teen's full name was Theodore as well, but he hated it and wanted to be called Theo. Abraxas was quite different from the other Malfoys Alexander had met and found him quite funny. But the best one was still Tom, his own enemy. He could not picture this sweet child being a dark lord.
He thought this as he looked at said boy in the library. Tom loved books and dragged Alexander with him to the library every single day. The teen had nothing against reading, but he had never gotten the chance before to really explore and read the amount he wanted to so he tended to be distracted by too many new things. Tom thought this came from having a private education, though the raven-haired teen suspected Abraxas did not fully believe that.
"You're spacing out on me again."
Alexander looked up, startled. Tom looked at him.
"Sorry…" he muttered and looked down at his Potions book again. "Just thinking."
"Thinking so much you have to space out?"
"I happen to be quite smart," Alexander huffed, "but I'm tired and not in the mood for homework."
Tom looked at him as he stared down at the Potions book. Alexander liked Potions, but Snape had made it difficult for him and Dumbledore's meddling had not given him free room to roam around. He liked reading, and loved learning but the old man had not let him. That was why he intended to make this a good year, despite the fact he was in the past and so on. And now there was no Ron who tried to make him lag behind, and no know-it-all Hermione that made him feel like an idiot. No Draco that spoiled his potions, nothing. He was completely free here.
"Alexander!"
He looked up again, and this time Tom looked worried.
"Alexander, your magic was spiking," the boy whispered. "The librarian is not far from here, so keep it down."
"Sorry," he mumbled and gathered his magic back.
Abraxas came in and went over to them.
"What's up with the anger-spike?" he asked the slightly older teen.
"Just thinking at some… old friends."
"Old friends?"
"They are traitors the whole bunch," Alexander said with a small laugh. "I hate them."
The two Slytherins looked at each other worriedly. The laugh was fake, the smile was fake, and the pain in the teen's eyes was awfully bright. Tom looked at Alexander and said:
"What did they do?"
Alexander looked at the boy and said:
"They tried to kill me. They fucking dared trying to kill me. I'm gonna kill them if I ever get the chance."
Abraxas stared at the teen for a good while, and then whispered out:
"Why? Why did they try to kill you?"
"My powers… I'm too strong; they thought I would go dark on them. Hell, I did go dark because of them."
Alexander had never told anyone what Ron and Hermione had tried with. He had heard after Sirius' death that his two best friends had worked with Dumbledore for years with moulding him, and making sure he would not survive Voldemort. After he found out, Alexander had fallen into a sort of depression. Nothing made him happy anymore. Now when he was here, he felt happier than he had felt in the whole summer.
"You're spacing out again," Tom said carefully.
"I know," he said and sighed. He let his head fall into his hands and continued, "I'm just so bloody tired. Tired of homework, tired of learning… tired of living."
If was then both Tom and Abraxas realized that Alexander was not the carefree, pure-blooded wizard he always insisted he was. The blonde Malfoy got up, swung his bag over his shoulder and said:
"I think we should go back to the common room."
Tom automatically gathered his own books, and then Alexander's. Abraxas helped the raven-haired teen up and they walked out from the library.
Alexander hardly noticed as they walked on. His thoughts were on his real life, his life as Harry Potter, the boy-who-would-be-killed-by-his-friends. He felt the same depression fall over himself and wanted nothing more to cut off Harry Potter from himself, to become Alexander Viator completely. His mind came to a stop when he had those thoughts.
What if he could throw off Harry Potter from himself? What if he could make the hidden scar disappear forever? What if he could make the Light loose their hope?
Tbc…
Chapter two done. A bit shorter than chapter one, but I hope that's okay.
Chapter three: Halloween. Something always happens on Halloween; will it this time as well?
Until later,
Ja,
Tiro