A/N- Yeah, yeah, I only just updated. But I finished my Creative Writing assignment and was still in a writing mood, then I got so excited I just had to post it. Enjoy!

Oh, and I own nothing but a pencil and a jumbo bag of Skittles. So please don't sue me. You can have the pencil, but the Skittles are MINE! Mine I tell you, MINE!

No one else noticed the little predicament, so Harry did the only thing he could think of: he picked up the baby, wrapped him warmly in his too big robes, and went to find Dumbledore.

The baby whimpered, scared of all the people, but didn't cry. He just buried himself deeply in Harry's robes and his own, as if hoping to hide, and turned his face into Harry's chest.

Harry grimaced.

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Dumbledore was in the Hospital Wing, waiting for Madame Pomfrey to finish with the more severely injured wizards. Harry stood by the bottom of his bed, still holding the tiny bundle.

He was astonished by the damage the single cutting hex had managed to do to the Headmaster's face. The crooked nose was gone, leaving a bloody hole. His cheeks were red and puffy with scar tissue. One eye probably couldn't be saved. Harry quickly laid the baby on the bed beside Dumbledore, not letting it out of his sight, even though it was small enough it probably couldn't go anywhere. It looked almost newborn.

He whipped out his wand and started quickly healing all the wounds he could. The man was pretty healthy, except for the face, but his beard was gone.

Harry could do little for the nose but numb it and freeze it so Madame Pomfrey could regrow it later. The cuts were relatively simple, but they'd always leave scars. He couldn't do anything for the eye, but he numbed that too.

Once he'd done all he could, he woke the Professor.

"Harry?" Dumbledore groaned.

"Professor Dumbledore! You're ok!"

"I feel ok…what happened? Are you ok?" he whispered through a sore throat.

"I'm fine. But I was hoping you could tell me what happened, Professor."

"What-" cough "-happened to Voldemort?"

Harry paused, his face twisting in worry, and bit his lip. "He's…well, he's here." Harry pointed to the baby.

He had been expecting some sort of reaction. Astonishment, at least. But Dumbledore just turned his head carefully to look at the baby next to him, who gurgled.

"Ah. So your spell took the years from him as well as the evil. Understandable."

"What?! You mean this was expected? What didn't you warn me?" Harry cried, plopping down on the Headmaster's bed.

"Not exactly expected, but-" cough "-explainable."

Harry decided he could just ask Hermione later. "Well, what am I going to do with him now? I can't kill a baby! I didn't even want to kill an adult!"

"I guess you'll have to raise him." Dumbledore's eyes drifted closed again, and the wrinkle in his scarred forehead smoothed.

Harry stopped moving. He was still before, listening, but even that kind of stillness had little fidgets and muscle twitches. Maybe his hands were twisting in his lap, or his eyes flicking between Dumbledore and Voldemort.

They weren't now. Now, he was still like a muggle photograph, or a man who'd just been told some surprising news.

Horrifying, astonishing news.

Raise Voldemort? Like…as his son, or something? Impossible.

Harry wondered if Dumbledore had gotten brain damage from the hex, and cast a quick spell to check. Satisfied that his mind was functioning as well as ever, Harry had to think about this.

No way Dumbledore actually thought he should do this.

But…apparently he did.

Harry thought.

If he sent Voldemort back to an orphanage, this would just happen again in 50 years or so. He'd already established that killing him was not an option, and he wasn't so cruel as to send a baby to Azkaban.

So what to do?

Obviously someone had to raise him, and Harry was pretty sure they still couldn't trust some people not to raise him to be a Dark Lord again. And he was almost positive they couldn't trust the majority of the wizarding world not to kill him in his sleep.

Harry wasn't sure whether he wanted that or not, but he was pretty sure he didn't.

Oddly enough, his head was whirring with plans instead of freaking out. He didn't want to call a little baby 'Voldemort', and 'Tom Riddle' didn't work out real well the first time. So he had to come up with a good name. And he still had the whole school year before graduation, so he'd have to take care of the most evil newborn ever born at Hogwarts.

Well, as long as his classmates didn't kill Tommy.

Tommy. That'd work. He'd call him Tommy. He could go by Tom or Thomas as he got older, or maybe keep Tommy. Whatever he wanted, as long as it wasn't Voldemort.

Harry chewed his lip, picked up Tommy absently, and walked slowly through the Hospital Wing, looking for Hermione or Ron. Or any of his friends, really. All the beds seemed to be filled with Aurors and staff. He might even be happy to see Malfoy, right now.

The first person he found was Ginny. She was more or less ok, much better than Dumbledore had been. She was awake , though her eyes were closed, and coherent, just covered in cuts and scrapes with a broken arm. Harry again sat Tommy on the bed beside her and started healing the cuts. Remembering Lockheart and the Skelegrow incident, he decided against doing anything with her arm.

Her eyes popped open at the feeling of magic sliding through her skin, and she cried, "Harry! You're ok!"

He grinned, "Yup. No more Voldemort, either." He chose not to mention that Tommy Potter was lying next to her, knowing that would be kind of shocking, and she needed to heal.

Her smile grew. "Oh, congratulations, Harry! You can be normal now!"

Harry almost laughed and said she was crazy, but remembered she didn't know about Tommy yet.

Then Tommy rolled over a bit and jostled her broken arm.

"Ow!" she cried, "That hur-…Harry, why is there a baby next to me?"

She just looked at him, eyebrows raised, and a hint of something sad in her eyes. Harry guessed it was pain from her arm.

"That's…um…I'd tell you to sit down, but you already are…so just get ready for a shock, ok?"

Ginny nodded.

"That's-" he leaned in closer, "Voldemort. Or, well, now he's Tommy Potter."

Ginny lost consciousness, and he didn't think it was because of the pain. He turned to the baby, "Well, that went well, didn't it?"

Tommy's face turned red and he screwed up his face like he was going to cry. Then he reached his arms up to Harry. Harry sighed.

He picked up the baby, who sighed happily and nestled deep into Harry robes.

How on earth was this Voldemort, the evil inhuman being who'd killed his parents?

Stupid spell.

Ginny started stirring, and Harry leaned over her worriedly.

"Harry?" she said quietly, "I had this insane dream baby Voldemort was laying next to me."

Harry bit his lip. "Well don't worry, Gin, he's not there anymore."

She smiled.

"He wanted me to hold him, so I did."

Ginny moaned. "You mean it wasn't a dream?"

He smiled wryly. "Nope. I wish it was."

"So what're you going to do with him?"

"Well, Dumbledore thinks I should raise him."

She blinked. "That was funny. I could have sworn you thought Dumbledore wanted you to raise him."

"That's what he said," Harry said with a grimace.

"What!?" she burst out, "Honestly, even the Headmaster isn't that mad! He's Voldemort! And why should you raise him? You're sworn enemies!"

"I know. When he wakes up, hopefully he'll see sense. But I don't want to kill a baby, and we don't want any Death Eaters to raise him. You can imagine how that would end."

Ginny paled. "Well of course you shouldn't kill him! He's only a baby! And you're right about the Death Eaters, but what about an orphanage? Or…there are plenty of other families who could take him in."

"An orphanage is where he grew to be who he was, Ginny. I don't think we should try that again. And any other family would probably kill him for things he did when he was older."

Ginny wished she could tell Harry to just let them, but he was only a baby. And a cute baby.

Stupid cute, murderous, adorable infant.

"Alright, so you're the only one we can trust with him. How are you going to do this? You're still a student. You can't raise a baby at Hogwarts!"

Harry's face sank into a deep worry, "I don't know! I just…I don't have a clue! I…" Harry groaned. "I think I liked him better when he wanted to kill me."

Ginny smiled. "Oh, come on Harry. You know that's not true."

He sighed. "Yeah, you're right. But still."

"Well, Dumbledore could hardly be cruel enough to make you take care of little Tommy and then not make special arrangements for school."

"I guess not."

"Look, Harry, it'll be ok. I'll help you."

Harry looked at her in horror. "No, Ginny, you don't have to do that! I know what Tom Riddle did to you! I couldn't ask you to take care of his younger self! Thanks for offering, though. It means a lot."

"Harry, you realize you're being a bit hypocritical? Voldemort did more to you than Tom Riddle did to me."

"Well, but I'm…" Harry couldn't think of a way to end that sentence so it didn't sound like he thought he was better than Ginny.

"So it's settled. You won't do this alone." Ginny wondered what she was getting into. "Now…how on earth did this happen?"

"Well, you know the spell Hermione fixed?"

"Yeah."

"It didn't make him less evil. It made him tiny."

Ginny thought for a minute. "Well, they do say babies are the most innocent creatures on earth."

"Oh. I guess that makes sense."

"You bet it does. And at least he's not the product of your lonely summers in Surrey."

"Gin! Ew! That's kinda gross, you know."

Ginny laughed.

Harry smiled and shook his head. "Alright, Gin. I'm escaping your nonsense. I'll be back in a minute or so. I want to explain to the others before they hear it from somewhere else."

Ginny smiled back. "Ok. And you might want to ask Madame Pomfrey to do a check up on Tommy, to make sure he's healthy and all."

"Good idea. Can't have him being sick in all forms of the word."

"Harry! He's only a baby!

Harry laughed and walked away.