(AN: As this is my first fanfiction I welcome any feedback to improve future chapters. Thank you for taking the time to read and review. Obligatory I do not own Harry Potter or any characters)

(I would also welcome any beta that would be interested in helping improve this story.)

Chapter 1 Ending:

The next time that he woke up, he opened his eyes and immediately felt that something was different. His mind had been in a constant haze of pain for the last few days, now there was no pain or aches and all he could feel was something cold that his body was resting against. He focused what was in front of him and there was a conductor, the type found in a train station, hovering over him and a crowd that he could see past the man's head.

There was also a pressure in his head that wasn't there before. 'Harry, where are we?' A higher pitch voice asked, but it didn't feel like he had heard it rather that it was inside his head. 'Tom?' Harry said out loud in a small voice.

'Kid are you alright, can you hear me,' the conductor asked waving a hand over Harry's face. Upon seeing the kid's eyes focusing on his face he said, 'What's your name kid?'

'Tom,' the kid whispered in a questioning tone.

The conductor jerked when he heard a loud screech nearby, turning his attention to a white owl that was on a trolley near to the boy that had collapsed on the platform. Why would anyone have an animal like this, he thought, he had heard from other conductors that several times a year there were kids that brought animals onto the platform and then disappeared with no one seeing them getting on a train. He shook his head and brought his attention back to the matter at hand.

'Tom, what I am going to do is take you aside, help you find your family and where you are supposed to go. Do you understand me?' Upon receiving a nod, he helped the kid to his feet and moved the trolley to the centre of the platform where is was not as crowded.

Harry was in a daze as he was led to the middle of the platform. How was it that he was at Kings Cross Station? The last thing that he remembered was unwillingly being apart of Voldemort's ritual that would absorb his horcruxes and causing it to fail, then loud explosions and darkness.

He thought that he had heard Tom's voice after he woke up, but that can't be right, can it? 'Tom are you there?' he thought.

'Harry, what happened? The last thing I remember is an intense pressure, almost like apparition, a brief light and then being able to see, but not move the eyes I was looking through.' Tom replied, panicking in the situation that they were in.

'Tom calm down. It seems like we somehow got to Kings Cross station, I'm guessing that it had to do with Voldemort's ritual going wrong and that it transported us. Though in the process of that the ritual worked in a way, but instead of Voldemort absorbing any horcruxes, I absorbed you.' Harry reasoned, as he turned his attention outwards to the conductor that was trying to lead him off the platform.

'Please sir, thank you for your help, but I am ok now, really.' Harry pleaded to the conductor while trying to regain control of his trolley. When the conductor didn't look convinced, he started to look around and noticed that they were walking near the entrance to Platform 9 ¾. 'Can I at least push the trolley myself and you can lead the way?' Harry asked. The conductor tilted his head, as if considering the request, before nodding and moving around to the side of the trolley to allow Harry to take control of the trolley. Harry took off, Hedwig letting out a screech of displeasure as the items slid against the back of the trolley, heading towards the entrance to Platform 9 ¾ and slipping in before a crowd with the conductor shouting out behind him.

He stopped shortly after passing through the entrance, panting for some reason. He was sure that it had been years since he had been winded from doing something like this in the past. He heard Tom trying to get his attention, but he couldn't afford to retreat inwards to talk until he was somewhere more private and in a safe environment.

Harry pulled out his wand and levitated his trunk, only for it to shoot up several feet before falling back down with a thud, startling Hedwig within her cage. The commotion caused several older students to look at the source, with two that started to wander over. Harry could see that there was a golden-yellow trim to their school robes and relaxed slightly, as he wouldn't have a repeat of the Weasley Twins helping put his trunk on the train.

'Hey firstie, a bit overeager to be using spells before even getting to Hogwarts, huh. Hey Jim, help me with this by getting the other side of the trunk there. The firstie here can carry his owl and tell us where he wants his trunk.' The taller of the duo said, taking the other side and began walking towards the Hogwarts Express before Harry even had a chance to respond. Harry quickly picked his jaw up from the floor at this display, before grabbing Hedwig's cage and almost running to catch up to the pair, while mentally kicking himself for letting the universe laugh at him.

Harry got in front of them and directed them to the first empty cabin that he could find, thanking them and learning their names. Jim was the shorter of the two, slightly more muscled looking though with a dirty-blond hair, and Rob was the taller one who had taken the lead of the two, with darker brown hair that was almost black in low-light, and they were both 5th years in Hufflepuff that had been looking out for new students that were having trouble with getting their things on the train.

Once Harry was alone in the cabin, he shut the door and closed the blinds. He pulled out his wand to examine it, he had never had trouble with the levitation spell in the past so why should it act like it was overpowered, then lost all power. He gave it a wave and there was a hum of power with a surge green and blue sparks shooting from the tip, it was still the holly with phoenix feather that he had gotten on his first trip to Diagon Alley so why would he have trouble with it.

The mental nudge pulled him from his ponderings about his spells, it seemed like Tom had figured out how to get Harry's attention in their new circumstances. Before he turned his mind inwards, he cast a spell to lock the door. When there was a visible glow that covered the cabin inside, he gave the door a tug and was satisfied to find that it didn't budge, at least something was still working. After he retreated within, the glow started to slowly fade.

Harry was bowled over as soon as he entered his mind. His ears were deaf in the wake on Tom shouting at him, pounding at the ground on either side. Harry flipped them over, now with Tom on his back, startling Tom and allowing Harry to have a good look at what Tom looked like within Harry's mind. Tom looked even younger than Harry had first met him in the Chamber of Secrets, dark amber eyes framed by an aristocratic face and neat dark hair, pulled away from the face. He had lost the deeper baritone voice that Harry had come to know, and it sounded much younger, if he had to guess then Harry would say that they were now around the same age.

He pushed himself up from his knees and held out a hand to the prone boy that had become his friend. Tom accepted the hand, pulling himself to his feet. Harry shifted his gaze to their surroundings, all he could see was a dull grey stretching into the horizon and a lighter grey showing the surface that they were standing upon. The sound of a clearing throat attracted his attention back to the figure in front of him.

'We need to talk about this,' Tom stated, before two chairs materialised and the grey environment changed to the study located within the Chamber of Secrets that had become a second home over the past several years.

Each boy sat in a chair facing the other, their normal positions for when they had discussions. Tom watched Harry grow nervous and start to twitch and had to supress a small smirk. For the number of years that they had known each other, Harry had never grown completely comfortable in times that they had to have a serious discussion. He waited a moment before he slightly knocked on the arm of the chair to catch Harry's wandering attention.

'It appears that we are in a younger version of your body and I am sharing your mind. So, this could be an elaborate illusion that Voldemort has created, and he lied about the purpose of the ritual to reach some unknown conclusion, or that the instability and failure of the ritual caused us to somehow be blown back to your first year.' Tom stopped here and glanced down at Harry's clothing, causing Harry to also look down and let out a sound of surprise. 'I know that we had discussed your first years in the wizarding world, but you hadn't mentioned that you wore overly large hand-me-downs that are worse that what was donated to the orphanage that I grew up in.'

'Getting back on topic, it appears that we have an opportunity to improve your childhood and avoid the people that betrayed you the last time round. It appears that there is much that was fabricated or staged within your childhood that would not have happened otherwise.' Tom held out his hand and a delicate cup appeared within his grip with a floating teapot that poured out his favourite blend. He paused mid-sip as he saw Harry's incredulous look at what had happened in front of him. 'In the time it took before you would answer me, I experimented a little to see what I could do to rid myself of that dim grey area that I was stuck in. I can change the setting and create what I would like, such as this drink. If you would like, there is some tea on the table to your right.'

'To the best of my ability, it seems that I took over the place of the horcrux that was located within the scar upon your left shoulder, as I was one of the first and much more powerful than the sliver of a soul that was originally within you.'

'What? I thought that the horcrux was at the scar on my forehead. It was always where the pain came from whenever I was around Voldemort or feeling his emotions.' Harry exclaimed, reaching up to touch the famous lightning bolt.

'That would be where the protection from your Mother's sacrifice is located. It would be where the pain would come from as protections of this kind are not usually located on living tissue as they heat up to discharge the excess magic that it uses to protect the subject.' Tom explained as he projected a rough visual representation between them. 'The actual horcrux was represented on the scar on your shoulder, but by the time you would think to check any scars you had too many from your time with your 'loving' relatives. Though it appears that me joining with you removed the horcrux and I combined with the protection that you have.'

'I need to discuss more with you, but you need to leave now. It appears your spell has failed, and we are in danger until we find somewhere that no one else can find us.'

Harry was thrown out of his mind and back into his body. He opened his eyes, blinking in the sudden light, and saw that it was sunset outside of the cabin window. Had he really been talking with Tom that long, he thought, before turning his gaze past a glaring Hedwig and towards the door and seeing an individual leaning in the doorway.

'Took long enough to come round, Potter,' the blonde-haired individual drawled.

Big thank you to Gurgaraneth & rozenmiko for reviewing the first chapter.