Chapter one: Meeting the heir
Lord Voldemort had just arrived at the Ministry of Magic. He needed to get his hands on that prophecy about him and Harry and find out once and for all what it said. Was Harry really going to be the one to defeat him in the end?
He had never even cared about prophecies in particular and divination was definitely not one of his favorite subjects in school. But he just couldn't risk it. When the prophecy had been shared with him of course he had gone to kill the Potters. He had spend so many years not knowing the prophecy completely and now he would finally know it all.
Voldemort walked along a long dark corridor inside the ministry.
Suddenly he heard footsteps then a light cough from behind him. Lucius Malfoy was looking down at his feet avoiding looking at him in the eye.
"My lord, unfortunately the prophecy was broken during a battle with Potter and some of his friends. They really shouldn't make those things out of glass…" Lucius said and prepared for his punishment in his mind.
"NO!" Voldemort yelled and put Lucius Malfoy under crucio immediately. After torturing Lucius for a couple of minutes he finally stopped.
"Get out of my sight!" Voldemort hissed and Lucius nodded and ran away leaving him alone.
He then felt that the Potter boy was near. Maybe the night wouldn't turn out to be a complete waste after all. He could finally kill the boy inside the ministry of all places. Voldemort invaded the boy's mind to see what he was seeing. Voldemort found him being all alone with Bellatrix in the main hall of Ministry of Magic. Voldemort smiled to himself. This was almost too easy.
"I killed Sirius Black!" Bellatrix laughed and run down a long dark corridor.
"Crucio!" Harry yelled wand pointed at Bellatrix and she fell down on the floor.
"You've got to mean it, Harry" Voldemort whispered.
"You know the spell, Harry. She killed Sirius; she deserves it." Voldemort said and apparated behind Harry. Bellatrix laughed seeing his master. Harry turned around and saw the snakelike white Voldemort standing behind him.
Suddenly the flames on a near by fireplace turned green and Dumbledore appeared out of the flames.
"It was foolish for you to come here tonight, Tom. The aurors are on their way" Dumbledore said.
Voldemort looked at Dumbledore scared, even though he wouldn't ever even admit it to himself.
"By which time I shall be gone. And you shall be dead" Voldemort said.
"Oh I think you don't want to kill me after you hear what I have to say" Dumbledore said.
"What are you talking about, old man?" Voldemort hissed.
"Oh, he is talking about me" said a voice that sounded very familiar. Both Voldemort and Harry looked around confused without any idea where the voice was coming from or who it might be but Dumbledore didn't seem surprised at all.
"Don't be rude, Marvolo. Show yourself" Dumbledore said.
"Oh right. I forgot I had made myself invisible" the voice said amused.
In front of their eyes appeared a tall, extremely handsome, dark haired wizard who couldn't have been older than 20 in very expensive looking designer suit. But what bothered Voldemort and Harry was who this wizard looked like. He looked and sounded exactly like a young Voldemort, Tom Riddle. The young Tom Riddle Harry had already had the misfortune of meeting in the Chamber of Secrets couple of years ago.
Voldemort's grip on his wand tightened but he was too stunned to use a spell. What was this, a trick?
"Before you try to kill me, I am your twin brother Marvolo" Marvolo said, seeming somehow amused by all of it.
"I don't have a brother!" Voldemort hissed and looked angrily at Dumbledore and Marvolo.
"This is one of your foolish tricks!" He hissed at Dumbledore.
"Surely, Tom you do realize that even I am not powerful enough to conjure a twin for you. And if this was a polyjuice potion he wouldn't look young but like you do now and it's not like you have any hair anyone could have picked up from your robes" Dumbledore said seeming a bit too amused by all of it.
"But how could my supposed twin even be that young when I am almost 70" Voldemort said in total disbelief, glancing at the stranger.
"Ah. Thanks to my dear parents I never aged, on the outside anyway. You see my dear parents bought me the antiage potion when I was 21.
Surely you have heard of it? One of the most expensive and rare potions in the world. Thus I never aged.. And never become a snake man like you" Marvolo smiled.
Voldemort's eyes were glaring with rage.
"What did you just call me? And what do you mean by 'parents'"
"We were separated after our mother died obviously. I was soon adopted by my lovely adoptive parents, the Vanderbilts. I lived in southern France with them. "
"Vanderbilt as in the Vanderbilts who own the cauldron and potion vial company used by all wizards worldwide?" Harry asked.
"Exactly. 10 points to Harry Potter. But in all fairness my family owns so much more than that... All of the broomstick companies, magical island resorts.."
"Silence! " Voldemort hissed his fists clenched.
"Oh yeah, you are now probably figuring out why they only took one of us. They did tell me it was because they only wanted one child and I was the cuter one of us" Marvolo said beaming.
"Marvolo, my boy. I thought we were going to tell him why you are here" Dumbledore said.
Marvolo nodded.
"Dumbledore sought me out a while ago to come join the Order of Phoenix. I made the news in France after I inherited all of my family's companies making me the richest wizard alive. Anyway, Dumbledore saw my picture in a french magazine and recognized my face" Marvolo smiled.
Voldemort's eyes were flaring with hatred and flashing red. How could a brother of his lived a live full of luxury meanwhile he lived poor in the awful muggle orphanage in London.
Marvolo continued.
"Oh and of course I had read about your killings and defeat from newspapers but you-know-who and never any pictures? Your real name I would have recognized because my name is Marvolo Tom Riddle. My parents didn't want to change my name. Shall I call you Tom or Voldemort or snakeshort? '' Marvolo grinned.
"Crucio!" Voldemort yelled but Marvolo just moved his arm and blocked the spell.
"Your manners really are worse than I thought. I went to Durmstrang, I am not stupid, Tom. You already saw I can be invisible when I want to, something you can't do am I right?" Marvolo smiled.
Voldemort gritted his teeth in rage.
"Avada Kedavra!" Voldemort yelled.
Marvolo yawned bored and apparated behind Voldemort.
"So tell me about your childhood. What family adopted you? Dumbledore only told me about how you fail at killing a teenage boy every year and kill bunch of others that get in your way"
Voldemort was too raged to even speak. His family? He had grown up poor as a rat surrounded by muggles in that dreadful orphanage.
Dumbledore knowing this, almost as if feeling sorry for him spoke:
"Marvolo has been kind enough to step aside from his duties in his companies and will attend Hogwarts next year as a student to protect Harry and other students"
" A student, so he is as dumb as he looks? You do need help keeping your students safe old man, don't you" Voldemort laughed.
"Indeed. For I have decided that in order to stop this war madness there is a way. A way many wouldn't choose but it is something I think will end the mindless killings. I am accepting you to teach defence against dark arts at Hogwarts, Tom. Just like you wanted so many years ago. This will give a new meaning to your life. You are aware that when you cursed the job that by doing so you made an unbreakable vow to accept the job if it would ever be offered to you?" Dumbledore said.
Voldemort gasped. The job he hadn't thought about in ages. He was certain this day would never come, he didn't even want the job anymore but by cursing it years ago he had indeed made a promise to accept the job if ever offered to him. Had Dumbledore actually lost his mind?
"Marvolo here will sit through all of your classes, supervising, invisible mostly though he doesn't have to hide around older students as he can pass from a student himself looking so young" Dumbledore beamed.
"You are willingly giving me Hogwarts to recruit students as Death Eaters. Finally you came in your senses" Voldemort grinned.
"There will be no recruiting! You will act like an honorable teacher!" Dumbledore shouted.
"Or what?" Voldemort hissed amused.
"Or I will kill you" Harry said.
"Ah, Harry I almost forgot you are here. You will kill me? That is funny. But I do believe you are more capable of it than my alleged new brother. Can you believe it, Harry? I will soon be able to kill you in a classroom. Can you honestly think of a better way to teach defence against the dark arts than killing you? Hmm?" Voldemort said.
"I won't let you kill, Harry" Marvolo said promptly.
All of the sudden Marvolo transformed into a big roaring male lion showing it's sharp teeth. Voldemort stepped back.
An animagus! Still his so called brothers abilities hadn't convinced him of his powers. Well he was no match to him anyway. They shared the same powerful magical gene heritage and even if the brother went to a good school too Voldemort had spent so many years becoming more powerful and learning things most likely he hadn't. I bet he doesn't even have horcruxes. Voldemort thought pleased with himself.
What proof was there of this annoying snobs' powers? But truthfully he felt too confused and angry at Marvolo now to even think about his feud with Harry.
"Truthfully I haven't done a great job with hiring defence against dark arts teachers in the past few years. There have been a fraud, polyjuiced Death Eater, Squirrel who was hiding Voldemort under his scarf, werewolf and Umbridge who was the worst of all in my opinion. You really can't do any worse, Tom" Dumbledore said.
Marvolo changed back to human and spoke.
"Plus just think how fun it will be with me in all of your classes"
Voldemort looked devastated and apparated away.
4 months later
Finally the first day of teaching at Hogwarts had arrived. Voldemort apparated to Dumbledore's office on his special permission to avoid students seeing him. Dumbledore was sitting at his chair with Marvolo standing next to him.
"Ah, Tom. Just in time. The feast is about to begin!" Dumbledore said.
"Don't you think the students will be scared when I go down there? Or did you forget this when you made your so called brilliant plan to keep me from doing evil" Voldemort smirked.
"Marvolo if you will" Dumbledore nodded at Marvolo who looked even younger than last time. He looked to be about 16 now. Marvolo reached for something in his pocket and gave Voldemort a small potion bottle.
"To disguise you" Marvolo said.
Voldemort nodded and drank the potion realizing there was no way their disguise could make him look any worse than he did now. He felt strange for a moment then soon he felt healthier than ever. He went to look himself from the mirror and laughed.
"No way. You expect me to look like this from now on?" Voldemort said. In the mirror he saw the young Tom Riddle, dark hair and handsome as ever. He looked to be about 25. His hair was slightly darker than Marvolo's and while Marvolo's eyes were hazel his were dark brown.
"You two will be posing as a new student, Marvolo Vanderbilt 16, transfer from Durmstrang and our new defence against dark arts teacher, Tom Vanderbilt, 25. Surely you understand students can never learn your real identity, Tom" Dumbledore said.
Voldemort glanced at the old man. Maybe this disguise had it's advantages. Not many knew how he looked when he was young and the ones that did weren't here and the ones that did know were already onboard with Dumbledore's new plan.
Fools. Voldemort thought. I will be able to influence so many students to become Death Eaters in my new job. Marvolo can't stand in the way. He won't even notice what I am doing. Voldemort had finally believed he really had a brother after finding a letter written by his mom from her old house. Somehow the new job he had been forced to take was even harder to come to terms with but he had figured out ways how to keep in touch with his followers from the castle. Also he would now have many chances to kill Harry Potter, hopefully Dumbledore and Marvolo too.
"I got sorted into my Hogwarts house today, I even put on the hat and everything. I am a Gryffindor" Marvolo said excited.
"What?! I am the heir of Slytherin and you would be too. A Riddle is not a filthy Gryffindor" Voldemort said with pure disgust in his voice.
"I am the heir of Gryffindor. Remember my animagus" Marvolo beamed.
"That's not what I meant. I am the real heir of Slytherin. You don't understand!" Voldemort hissed.
Dumbledore looked at the two now very young looking handsome men arguing in his office looking slightly amused.
Voldemort's first lesson was in session and to his dismay Marvolo was sitting there in the front row next to Harry Potter. All of the students had of course been told that Marvolo and Tom were brothers to explain their similar appearance. All of the girls in the class seemed to be eyeing them both, both of them looking very handsome in their new robes.
Marvolo had kissed every one of the girls on the hand to greet them as they walked through the door to the classroom. The girls had been giggling and blushing. Voldemort rolled his eyes disgusted.
"Who can tell me how to fight an animagus?" Voldemort asked, making a meaningful look at Marvolo, his good for nothing unwanted sibling.
"Better question is what do you call a person who is not an animagus? A nothing" Marvolo said and grinned making a wicked look at Voldemort.
Voldemort reached for his wand and started muttering his favorite spell but was interrupted.
"Cruci…"
"Sir? You fight an animagus just like an ordinary witch or wizard. " Hermione Granger answered obviously not having been told who her new teacher really was.
"Yes. Being an animagus doesn't guarantee a person is extremely powerful. In fact some less talented wizards can take the form of a rat or a dung beetle for example." Voldemort said.
"So your animagus is a dung beetle?" Marvolo said, looking innocently at Voldemort.
"No! And students will raise their hands if they want to speak in my class. " Voldemort hissed.
"But he is your brother, maybe he feels like he can speak to you whenever he wants. You do share a bond after all" said a blonde girl apparently named Luna Lovegood.
Voldemort snorted. A bond. Never. He wiped some of his hair off his eyes and walked to the blackboard. His rage was building and it was all directed at Marvolo. Killing him was even more important than killing the Potter boy now and that time would come soon.
"Let's then discuss the most powerful wizard that ever existed" Voldemort said and started writing Voldemort on the blackboard and underlined it.
"Albus Dumbledore is the greatest wizard!" Harry shouted in protest.
"Dumbledore's been driven out of this castle by the ministry of magic two times already and he was never able to beat Voldemort" Voldemort said happily, even more so that students had no idea that the dark lord was actually now teaching them about himself.
"Voldemort is a coward and nothing more than a murderer" Harry said, his eyes glued on Voldemort. Harry knew exactly who the new teacher was and yet showed no fear.
"Harry has fought him many times and always won. Even destroyed him for over 10 years as a baby" Neville Longbottom said.
Voldemort's fists clenched in rage and his face became pale.
"Harry's ordeal was pure luck. Voldemort couldn't be defeated by anyone, let alone a silly little boy whose pathetic mudblood mother died protecting him and by doing so gave him protection. Just pure fool's luck" Voldemort said.
"I will never stop hunting him! I will fight him and win!" Harry shouted and stood up behind his desk.
"Then fight me! Avada kedavra!" Voldemort yelled and students started screaming in panic.
"Expelliarmus!" Harry shouted and between their wands two different coloured beams of light appeared and were sending sparks all over the classroom.
Marvolo quickly switched into his lion form and jumped on top of Voldemort causing students to scream even more.
The lion let out a huge roar that scared even Voldemort who accidentally let go of his wand and Marvolo took it in his mouth. Marvolo then quickly switched back to human.
"Okay, thanks everyone for joining us for defence against dark arts today" Marvolo smiled and raised his wand at the students, all except Harry.
"Obliviate" He shouted and soon nobody had any memory of the event.
"Good job, Tom" Marvolo said and shook his head.
Voldemort straightened his robes, grabbed his wand back from Marvolo and turned away from his two enemies.
He had been wrong about Marvolo's powers.