The Riddle House was once considered to be a very scary and dark place, owing to the murder of the previous occupants, the sort of place that not even the most inquisitive child would seek to explore. For as long as anyone could remember it had cast a depressing miasma around the village of Little Hangleton and single-handedly drove down the house prices in the area.
That feeling no longer hung around the village because of the actions of the youngest Riddle and his generosity in financing the business ventures of the villagers. He had brought life into a place in which it hadn't existed in a long time, making life a lot easier for those who lived in the village.
Even after that terrorist attack earlier in the year, a horrible event that would have wiped out the village if it wasn't for Tom's graciousness and generosity. He had let the village move into his house until their houses were rebuilt, even paying for the burial service for the fallen.
After Agnes Rufflefeather had died, her house being one of those that was burned down, Tom had even paid for her grandson Alex to go travelling around the world to prevent him from being trapped with the memories and survivor's guilt from surviving the fire that had taken his grandmother.
Now however, nobody in Little Hangleton had seen Tom since July, he came back home to grab some things and left without so much as a goodbye.
/^_^_/
Hermione Granger's parents had no recollection of their daughter, yet they still set the table for three, and though they often question why they would keep random pictures of corners of rooms and why there were lines measuring the growth of a child they knew didn't exist.
Still they accepted the quirks of the house and refused to paint over the marks when selling the house, even packing the subjectless picture frames to bring with them to Australia.
Hermione knew that she could have waited until September, though she rationalised that an extra four days with them was hardly worth it. She watched them depart from a distance, shedding a tear or two before turning on the spot and reappearing at Daphne's house, where she would spend the last few days before returning to Hogwarts.
/_^_^-/
It was unfair, just because he was two years younger than Harry, he was being forced to abandon him at the start of the war. He explained to Sirius and Petunia that he wanted to go with Harry and Dudley to keep them safe.
They sat with him and listened, explaining that they agreed with Harry in his choice to keep him from the fight, but that they wished he didn't have to fight the fight.
"If only he did give up, though I don't fancy living in Antarctica." Elias said sadly.
"I know son, is there anything we can do to cheer you up?" Sirius asked.
"Can we go running in our Animagus forms?" The boy asked, his voice reflecting his vulnerability.
"Sure, I would like that." Sirius answered, ruffling Elias' hair before he transformed into Padfoot and ran away, with a Tulikettu chasing after him.
/_^_^/-
"Okay Nora, now try to hit me with a stunner." Blaise shouted across the room, having spent the time since leaving Hogwarts teaching his sister about magic. He and his friends had successfully performed the ritual to give magic to a Squib and now Nora was no longer a Squib, in fact she appeared to have skills from everyone who had given her some of their magic, which Blaise had made sure to note, hoping to interview Filch about whether he had noticed it himself.
For now, however, he would focus on bringing Nora up to speed on the physical aspect of magic. The process of teaching her was an easy one, primarily because she had read all of Blaise's old textbooks from Hogwarts and had committed the incantations to memory. The biggest issue the pair faced was in the teaching of control, specifically in the amount of power Nora put behind her spells.
The Countess Zabini was very impressed with not only her children but their friends and their capacity for exceeding any expectations she had. Blaise had, of course, told her about his plans for Nora but she had dismissed them as the delusions of children. For now she watched on happily as Nora shattered Blaise's leg into sixty pieces and he patiently taught her how to cast the counter-curse.
/_^_^_/-
Harry Potter knew that he wasn't alone, no matter how much his brain tried to tell him otherwise, he also knew that he could reach out and there would be someone reaching out to him. In this moment however, he had to know that he had nobody, he needed to feel as he once had in the Orphanage and to reach that end he channelled every feeling of neglect and abandonment into himself, feeling it grip in the centre of his chest.
When he saw his eyes go red Harry made sure to hold that feeling and pass it around his mind, slowly replacing the malice and hatred that formed with contentment and excitement, trying to keep the control that came with such intense emotions as he filtered out the very emotions he used as a muse for his power.
He had brought himself back into the mindset from when Elias almost died, remembering how it felt and what it was like to access all of that power, bringing fire into his hands and leaving it burning up his arm, fuelling it with clever use of his Air Elemental abilities. Once he had fire around him, and air hurricaning through the room, Harry focused on bringing up the water in the bowl beside him, holding a bubble of air around it subconsciously.
"Now for the Earth." Draco whispered, not wanting to break Harry's focus towards the end of what they had strived to learn. Among the pebbles was small amounts of rock dust, which became aerosolized by Harry's attempt to lift it, the larger pebbles rising with them after a moment.
"It doesn't feel like he is moving the Earth, that's strange." Neville commented, reaching out and snatching the stones from Harry's grasp. "It shouldn't be that easy to steal them from you, not if you were actually an Earth Elemental."
"What do you think is happening?" Draco Malfoy asked, to which Luna Lovegood said.
"For the fire he is simply exciting the oxygen particles enough to make them combust, then wrapping a barrier of air around his limbs. I can hear the whistling of the wind, can you Dudley?"
"I can, the water whistles faintly as well." Dudley Black responded, nodding slowly.
"It seems that I can use one element to control the rest… I need to work on my control, but it could be a useful tool for the future." Harry mused, looking over to Former Professor Gaunt for his opinion.
"I think that it is high time I put more effort into learning this skill for myself." The older man said evenly, earning murmurs of agreement from the non-Elemental Vipers.