A/N: Hello, people!
I don't own Harry Potter. Quotes from the movie aren't mine.
I have no beta.
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NOTES:
EDIT 1: This chapter was revised on 29 July 2016.
EDIT 2: This chapter was revised on 12th May 2017.
Tom is from the Gaunt Ring Horcrux. That Horcrux was created in the Summer of 1943, only a couple of months after the Diary was made a Horcrux in June of 1943. Both Horcruxes are only 16 years of age.
~.O.~
Harry stared at the snake for a moment. He then asked, §Why do you have a full name like me? You're a snake. Snakes don't need to have full names§
Green eyes eerily glowed in the darkness of the cupboard.
§I wasn't always a snake., if you must know Some magicals can transfigure themselves to become animals, and I am one of those who can. Admittedly though I cannot perform wandless magic very well in this form, so when those muggles captured me, I couldn't get away. I had been in the zoo for a week and still unable to think of an escape plan. Then to my great fortune, you came along and gave me a way out of there.§
Harry frowned, §So you're actually a person who can turn into a snake? What is a 'muggle'? Where did you get captured? If you have magic why didn't you just turn back and get out yourself?§
Tom seemed to sigh, if snakes could even do that.
He slithered onto the small open space of the cupboard and looked Harry in the eye. §'Muggle' is a term for people who have no magic. They are below those who do have magic. I do not like muggles, as you may have gathered.§
§So you're a wizard then?§
Tom's head bobbed. §I was captured in a place called Little Hangleton and I did not escape because while I detest their existence, I am unaware of how advanced they are now and what they would do if faced with the reality that is magic. It was best to simply stay in my place until I could think of an escape plan.§
Harry nodded quietly, understanding at least a big.
§May I call you Tom?§
His response took a little longer than the previous answer, but Tom finally nodded.
§Do you not like your name?§
Green eyes widened and Harry knew that he had hit the nail on the head. §I could always call you something else, if you want. If you don't liek your namewe'll come up with another one, or something you prefer to be called if you want.§
Tom's head moved side to side in a mesmerising patern. §What can you come up with, little wizard?§
Harry's lips pursed as he thought over what he knew of mythology. He liked everything that seemed fictional and always made sure to read about the gods, whether they be Norse, Indian, Roman, Japanese, or Greek.
§Loki.§ he decided.
§The Norse god of mischief and chaos? It is acceptable.§
Harry had a feeling that whomever Tom really was, he was also a bit of a prat. Who goes around saying, 'it is acceptable'? No one that he knew of at least. It was so... old.
§Why would you turn yourself into a snake in the first place?§
§I will tell you that story tomorrow, when there is more space to show you. Will you be in here long?§
§All night.§
§Why?§
§This is my room.§
Tom started to hiss real fast, head shaking from side to side. §Why are you even with these muggles? Who in their right mind would leave a Potter with muggles.§
Harry shrugged. §I'm an orphan and they are my next-of-kin.§
Tom's head lowered. §What about parents? What happened to them?§
§Dead in a car crash, or so Aunt Petunia tells me.§
Harry frowned again. According to Tom, he was a wizard with magic. That meant that the 'funny business' he always did, was magic. Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon always knew that he was the one doing the 'funny business' so that meant that they knew he was a wizard. And they didn't like it. They always punished him for things that couldn't be proven. They knew... and they never told him.
So then, did his parents really die in a car crash? If they would lie about magic being real, then what else would they lie about?
§You said my surname before, like it was important or something. Is it?§
Tom stared for a slid minute, before saying, §The Potters are an old family. A Pureblood family. I can only deduce that one of your parents was a Muggleborn if you are somehow related to the buffoons outside. That makes you a Halfblood, like me.§
§Halfblood, Muggleborn, and Pureblood?§
§There are three types of magical humans. Pureblood, Halfblood, and Muggleborn. Muggleborn come from two muggles with no magic in their line. A Halfblood is either a Pureblood/Muggleborn mix, two Halfblood parents, two Muggleborn parents, a Halfblood/Pureblood mix, or a Pureblood/Muggleborn mix. A Pureblood has no muggle relations dating back five hundred years, and are considered the highest in magical society while Muggleborns in my time, weren't so well favoured. Things may have changed, considering the time period.§
Harry processed all this information. Wizards had their own society? How many were there out there? Wait a tick…
§Did you say 'your time'? As in, you're in a different time now?§
§Out of everything I just said, you picked up on only that?§
§I understood everything, but that part is what confuses me.§
§I'll tell you in the morning.§
§Okay.§
By some odd stroke of luck, Harry was ordered to clean the attic the next morning after cooking breakfast. Tom had thrown a fit over him not getting any food. Harry had just shrugged, already used to not eating for days on end.
Harry was instructed by Tom to place his hands on him once more and think of him as his normal size. He did so and watched in fascination as the small snake wasn't so small anymore.
Then Tom began to glow and Harry's eyes went wide as he grew and grew until their was a tall young man standing where the snake had previously rested.
His hair was black like Harry's but shorter and a little wavy. His eyes were just a shade lighter than Harry's were but that didn't detract from how intense they were. Like they could see through anything that came their way.
Tom was dressed in a casual, black flecked double-breasted suit coat with black trousers. On his head was a black Fedora. His shoes were white and black and very fanciful. Tom looked like someone from the fifties if Harry guessed correctly.
The older wizard held out a hand and Harry took it cautiously, shaking it in greeting.
"You really look like a girl."
Harry deflated instantly. "Please don't remind me."
Tom chuckled and Harry flushed in embarrassment. He hated looking like a girl!
"You could always use it to your advantage. Being androgynous isn't so bad. It worked for me for several years. It still could, if I don't speak."
Harry grumbled, but didn't say anything.
Tom held his left hand out and Harry caught sight of the ring on his middle finger.
"This ring was passed down on my mother's side of the family. I had recently found a method to turn myself immortal and used the ring in the ritual."
"How can a ring make you immortal?" It was just a ring.
Tom slowly smiled until it was a sinister-like expression spreading across his face. Harry's heart leapt in response. Suddenly, Tom seemed very dangerous and Harry was wondering over whether or not they should be speaking.
"I'm not a good person, Hadrian. Are you sure you'd like to hear the story?"
Those eyes and that voice, the way he stood before the young boy, Harry could tell that Tom was telling the truth. He believed in his heart that he wasn't a good person and told Harry to his face. He was giving Harry a chance to not learn how truly bad he was. But Harry found himself not caring.
"I want to know."
Tom chose a wall to lean against as Harry cleaned.
"I was born 31 December 1926 in Wool's Orphanage. My mother had gone there to give birth, because my father left her. He left her because she was a witch and he didn't want to associate with a 'freak'. She stumbled to the orphanage one night and gave birth me, named me after my wretch of a father, and then died, unable to find the energy to stay alive. I was left in the orphanage.
"A man came to the orphanage when I was eleven and offered me a place in his school that taught magic and I was finally able to leave for a while. During my years in the school, I learned that I was the descendant of a very important wizard in the history of the school. My ability to speak with snakes explained this. I began searching for my ancestor's secrets that were hidden within the school, along with ways to become immortal. I found both and the ritual required the murder of a person. Anyone."
The cruel smile never left Tom's lips. He looked happy as he told his story. Harry had to wonder if the man was all there in the head.
"In my fifth year, I found the perfect subject for my ritual. When you commit a murder, the soul fractures and you can tear a piece from the whole and seal it within something to make a Horcrux. As long as the Horcrux exists, even if the body is destroyed, the soul will remain earthbound and one can find another body. I did this."
"And you did that with your family ring?" Harry asked, gesturing to the gold ring on his finger.
Tom chuckled, deep, dark, and eerie. "Not at first. My first soul piece went into my diary. I murdered a young student to accomplish it. My second soul piece happened a couple of months later where I went after my father. He refused to acknowledge my presence and existence and I murdered him right there, creating my second Horcrux. I am the soul piece that was inside the ring. A muggle decided to raid the Gaunt Shack that had housed the ring, and the curse on the ring overtook the fool and I absorbed his life force in order to gain a body once more."
Harry had paused in his cleaning to think about it all. He looked back to the man and asked, "Do you feel any remorse over the murders you committed?"
Tom scoffed. "I will never feel sorry for my pathetic muggle father. He deserved it for leaving my mother and I. As for little Myrtle, not so much. In fact, I think I may have helped her more than anything. She was always whinging about something or other and had no friends. She was a Muggleborn and was looked down upon for it. She always said she wanted to go home. I feel bad that she wasn't treated right, but not for using her for my own means. I won't lie to you and as I said, I'm not good."
"I don't agree with what you did. Quite frankly, I think it's barbaric."
Tom's eyes narrowed in challenge.
"However, not everyone is a good person too. I understand your reason for it, even though I don't agree that murder should be the answer. However, I can't judge you on doing something bad because I've done bad things as well. Maybe not murder, but I have stolen food from people just by thinking about wanting it. I've taken money by wanting it and it appearing. I've destroyed my cousin's toys by wishing them on fire. I've vandalized buildings by imagining it, all so I can have my revenge. I'm not so great of a person either."
Tom and he stared each other down for a few moments, before Tom said, "You're unnaturally wise for a child your age. How old are you?"
"I'll be eleven next month."
"What year is it? How old are you anyway?"
"Uh... 24 June 1991 and my eleventh birthday is 31 July. We're in Privet Drive, Little Whinging, Surrey, England."
Tom nodded "Your Hogwarts letter should arrive soon."
"Hogwarts?"
"The magical school I mentioned in my story. It's lies in an unplottable location in the mountains of Scotland."
"Wicked."
Harry looked around at the dirty attic sighed. This would take forever, unless he sped it up a bit. Petunia wasn't up there to see him doing, 'funny business', so she'd never know.
Harry closed his eyes and thought deeply. Anytime he wanted something really bad, it happened. So maybe he could try it now. He really wanted the attic clean and organized. So maybe if he wanted it really, really, badly, it would happen.
It did!
Suddenly, things were floating and the dust pan and broom were sweeping while the rags were moving over the dusty surfaces.
Harry looked around and mumbled, "Just like in Sleeping Beauty. Oh I am not Sleeping Beauty!"
He glared at the moving objects, his annoyance draining away with the awe of realising that he had used magic to do this.
Tom stood there for a while. "You have a lot of power to be able to use your magic wandlessly and non-verbally. Do you do any of this deliberately or is it all accidental?"
"Once I realised it was me, I was able to do it for certain things, but not everything. I'm lucky that this is working here. I can do it when I plant the garden. We have the best rose bushes in the neighborhood because I can make the plants grow really nicely," Harry answered, watching as the cleaning utensils rested against the wall and everything came to a halt. "Other times it doesn't work as well."
The room was spotless in no time.
"Are you going to eat at all today?" Tom asked after a moment of silence.
The boy shook his head, "No food for a week after what happened yesterday. It's alright, I've gotten used to it after so long."
Tom's green eyes narrowed dangerously. "Why does your aunt make you act like a girl? The last time I checked that was not considered a normal habit that was accepted by society."
"Well, think of it. Three dresses for a few measly pounds, or several jumpers and trousers which would cost a lot more. Even though the Charity Shop isn't expensive, she saved money by purchasing me girl clothes. I've barely grown into these and she hasn't had to buy me anything except one pair of shoes since I was eight. I'm really small. My hair has always grown quickly and she realised that it kept growing in longer and longer when she cut it. I looked like a girl."
"And you are worked like a slave and forced to sleep in a small, cold, dark cupboard along with it all. No food on a regular basis and no toys of any kind."
Tom looked out the small circular window that illuminated the attic with sunlight. "Want to get back at them?"
"Huh?"
Tom's creepy smile came back. "I'm very good at revenge. Though what I did in the orphanage wouldn't be considered good to you, so we'll tone it down a little, what do you think?"
Harry was skeptical, "What will I do?"
Tom turned his smile to the pre-teen. "I'm going to teach you. In return for keeping me here and with you, I'll teach you everything I know about magic. And you will use it against them soon, do we have an accord?"
"I won't hurt them, right?"
"Not unless you want to," Tom answered firmly.
Harry huffed, "Okay then."
Creepy grin again. "Excellent."
It had been a week and Harry was good enough to freeze his relatives in place with his magic. He couldn't necessarily do spells, but sometimes he got the effects of spells down, just by wanting it to happen.
So with Tom's guidance, he rehearsed what he was going to do and finally put it into practice.
His 'family' was pinned to the wall in the dining room and he was glaring at them.
"From this moment on, I am moving into Dudley's second bedroom. You will not hinder me, nor will you complain. I will also be eating full meals and no longer doing chores for you. I will however, continue with the garden to keep up with appearances and will continue to dress as a girl to save your reputations around the neighborhood. When I receive my Hogwarts letter, you will drive me to the Leaky Cauldron in London and pick me up at the appropriate times. Until I am old enough to leave this place, you will assist me unless I tell you otherwise. Do not whinge and do not challenge me or I may do some 'funny business' and burn your belongings to the ground."
A/N: Another chapter is done.
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