With love, Harry

Summary:

In which Harry goes back in time, adopts his arch nemesis and pulls one infamous Dark Lord into his madness somewhere along the way.

"Surprise! Tom, meet your grandfather!"

"Harry. That's Gellert Grindelwald."

"I know. Isn't it exciting!? And he'll be tutoring you to be the greatest Dark Lord ever!"

"What?"

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. J.K. Rowling is the boss of it all.

Warning: Grammar, perhaps?

Three

"Wandless magic?"

"You already have such a great grasp on your magic, which is really impressive." Harry nodded with a bright smile. "And because you won't be getting a wand until you're eleven, I thought it would be a good idea to have you learn the art of wandless magic instead. So, I'll be tutoring you through it—"

"Might I remind you that a human's capabilities and a nymph's differ greatly?" A new voice suddenly interrupted.

The said nymph turned with a forming frown to face the pale man who had just entered the training room (as Harry had dubbed it) with total ease despite the handful of wards and complex locking charms Harry had placed on the door. Harry had wanted to keep out "unwanted visitors" but by the looks of it, he had failed.

Septhis was as usual, all decked in black which only made his skin seem a tad paler than it already was. About two weeks had gone by and all Tom had noticed of the pale man was how his entire wardrobe only had various shades of the colour black.

"I thought you were supposed to be in Texas for someone's death day." Harry furrowed his brows. "What are you doing here?"

"I live here, honey. And I returned early because I didn't want you to miss me." Septhis replied in the most endearing tone as he sauntered over to Harry, placing a hand on the other's hip and pulling him flush against him—

"Expecto Patronum."

Tom watched in awe as a silver stag suddenly burst forth from the tip of what he presumed was Harry's wand.

The reaction was instantaneous.

Septhis immediately drew back like he had been burned while cursing darkly in a language Tom didn't recognize. He threw an unimpressed look at the stag that took a protective stance in front of Harry. It snorted in warning before lowering its rather impressive horns at the pale man.

"If you try that one more time, I'll be sending something more than a patronus your way." Harry huffed before slipping the wand into his sleeve.

"You should leave the teaching to me. I can assure you that the boy will grasp the contents of the lessons more quickly when he's being taught by a human," the pale man interrupted before Harry could resume his conversation with Tom, "which you unfortunately are not."

The green eyed man's eyebrow twitched in annoyance. "Septhis."

"Harry, do nymphs use wands as well?" Tom asked as he tilted his head to the side, eyes fixed on the sleeve Harry had hidden his wand in. He withdrew his gaze to meet the startled expression of his adoptive father while deliberately ignoring the rising tension between the two Mortimers.

Tom had noticed in the past few days how the two men despite bickering at almost every given opportunity still shared an extremely close relationship. He found it quite disturbing that they almost seemed like an old married couple.

A fact he didn't seem to like.

Not that he would ever voice it out though.

Coming back to his question, this was his first time actually seeing a wand and seeing Harry with it too.

All this while, magic in the household had been used by means of uttered words or silent flicks of the hand, something Tom had thought was entirely normal until he'd witnessed Harry's wide eyed reaction when he helped set the dinner table with what was presumably wandless magic.

So seeing a wand out of the blue had caught him by surprise.

A small frown graced his features as he recalled a previous conversation where Harry had told him that nymphs did not require a medium such as a wand for them to channel their magic through. Did Harry lie to him then?

"Why do you have a wand?" Tom asked again.

"It's a, because I, uh, have…" Harry threw a panicked glance at Septhis as he stammered his way through his reply.

"It's not his." Septhis replied. "You see, your father is just a very special exception when it comes to the laws of this world. And because he is an exception, he seems to have a very fond and bad habit of taking things that do not currently belong to him." The pale man shot Harry a meaningful gaze before turning back to face Tom. "The wand has now returned back to its master."

"What is that supposed to mean?" Tom's frown grew deeper.

"It means it is best not to question the actions of your father now. You will come to understand it much later."

"Oh, Tom." Harry suddenly sighed, sounding a little sad as he placed a hand on top of the boy's head. "You see…I…"

"What is it?" The boy strangely felt impatient.

What he did not understand, however, was that the emotion raging inside him was far from impatience.

No, it was worry.

"I'm fine, really, but you see, I'm not actually from here because I'm from the year 3521 and—"

THWACK!

Septhis shot him a look of disapproval after slapping the back of Harry's head. "What have I told you about blabbering unnecessary information when you're in panic?"

Surprisingly, rather than retaliate, Harry just put on an expression of a lost puppy. He then placed a hand on Septhis's shoulder, "I'll just leave everything to you then. You better tutor him well, and don't be so harsh on him." Harry sighed as he dropped his voice to a whisper. "I'll be back before dinner. Just, it's one of those days you know? I woke up from a long dream about back then and it's so frustrating sometimes. If I'm not back on time, send an owl or something."

Harry turned to Tom with a smile. "Be obedient to Septhis alright? He's actually quite a good teacher. Papa just remembered he has something to do, so I'll be back later."

Tom blinked. "Oh…okay."

The boy didn't find anything unusual about Harry's behaviour because the man often did that. Harry would space out on some days, seeming very out of it before returning to his usual behaviour the next day.

Tom wondered if it was a "nymph thing".

"Alright!" Septhis snapped the moment Harry had dragged himself out and shut the door. "One last thing before we formally begin, if you ever happen to run into Harry while he seems rather out of it, please remember to patiently bear with him while keeping an eye on him so that he does not do something stupid."

"Then shouldn't we also be keeping an eye on him right now?" Tom asked.

Septhis raised a brow. "What makes you think I'm not?"

"Oh." The boy only nodded while slightly furrowing his brows.

Suddenly, the silvery stag which had momentarily been forgotten about grunted as it moved to a corner and settled itself down. After making itself comfortable, it grunted again as though asking them to continue.

"Is that a summon?" Tom asked as he curiously observed it.

"No. It's a patronus."

"A patronus?"

"Yes, a patronus."

"And what, sir, is a patronus?"

Septhis smirked. "Don't get too cheeky with me, brat." He then shifted his eyes to the stag, a hint of disdain flickering in his deep black orbs. "That is a corporeal patronus, a very powerful and difficult defensive charm for protection. It is also one of the most ancient of charms to have ever been used in the wizarding community."

"Teach me how to produce one." Tom demanded almost instantly.

It was powerful.

Beautiful.

And it was meant to protect what was his.

The pale man barked out a harsh laugh. "Kid, you don't even own a wand. And besides, why would you even want to learn how to produce one?"

"I have my own reasons." Tom replied in an offhanded manner, his head held high.

"Like I said, you don't own a wand which is a requirement for producing a corporeal patronus, if you haven't noticed already." Septhis rolled his eyes.

"Are you perhaps reluctant on teaching me because you can't produce one?" The boy merely raised a challenging brow.

Septhis paused before his lips curled into a smirk.

Oh, this boy was so amusing, as much as he was annoying.

Harry sure had picked an interesting character to babysit alright.

Unable to hold back and also totally disregarding his master's stern warning of not invading other people's privacy, Septhis performed a legilimens on the boy because he just had to know what was going on in this little Dark Lord's head—

…and then promptly burst out laughing right after.

"What did you do to me?" Tom immediately sensed something was wrong which surprised the pale man.

Septhis was impressed.

As expected of the Dark Lord who was considered to be the greatest dark wizard of his time, he thought.

"Forget about that." Septhis now found himself in a considerably better mood. "First tell me, do you like to hurt people who make you angry?"

"I don't―"

"No need to put up a face in front of me." Septhis waved his hand with a chuckle. "Harry's not around so you can drop your saint-like act. Now, let's try it again, do you like to hurt people who make you angry?"

Tom's expression turned eerily blank. "No."

"How about if I put it like this," Septhis leaned in towards the boy, "would you like to hurt people who hurt Harry?"

"Why would anyone want to hurt Harry?" Tom asked, despite unconsciously perking up.

"He's special," Septhis grinned before adding in an afterthought, "what with him being a rare nymph, you know."

Tom's expression darkened ever slightly.

Septhis laughed. "That's more like it. Have you done your reading on light and dark magic?"

"Of course." Tom promptly replied.

He was just eight.

But Harry had not once doubted his son's intelligence. He had even given Tom a few "advanced" books to read so that he would be more familiar with the wizarding world.

"My little boy is very gifted!"

Harry was sincerely proud of him.

"Well, that makes things easier for the both of us then. And seeing how you're a child prodigy, I doubt you would have a problem picking up the complex content we will be focusing on after a few classes of brushing up on basic knowledge." Septhis nodded before placing a proposal before the boy. "So, what I will be teaching you will have to do mainly with…dark magic. You will learn how to harm those who try to take away what is yours in the most slow, gruesome and painful manner. All done wandlessly, of course."

The pale man had been expecting some sort of resistance but to his amusement, Tom's lips slowly lifted to a smile.

"That sounds interesting."

Septhis snickered to himself because this meant he had just won the bet that ran somewhere along the lines of gaining Tom Riddle's attention first.

It was a useless bet; really, because the supposed nymph was just too stupid to realise that he had already gained the boy's sole attention right from the very start of their first encounter.

Oh, Harry.

Later that night, Tom had been sitting on his bed with a mountain of feather soft pillows supporting his back whilst reading one of the many books of questionable material that Septhis had assigned to him when he had been startled out of his concentration.

His door had softly creaked open.

The boy's eyes snapped up from the book to his bedroom door.

"Harry?" He blinked in confusion at the man who seemed worse for wear.

The fairy lights in little jars that floated above Tom's bed (they were a welcome gift from Clymene who insisted that he needed something prettier and livelier in his room) fluttered about as though in agitation when Harry stumbled over to his bed and collapsed in a heap next to Tom.

Tom shuffled over to him with worry coursing through him like adrenaline when a soft snore stopped him.

He huffed on realising the man was just tired; and already fast asleep.

Tom placed a hand on Harry's shoulder and gently shook him. "Harry, your room is next door, this is my bedroom. Go sleep in your bed."

The other's green, green eyes suddenly snapped open in alarm but when it focused on Tom's face, Harry softly sighed before closing them again.

"Tommy, be a good boy and let papa sleep here tonight. I'm too tired to move." Harry groaned as he managed to wandlessly change into a set of pyjamas before sliding into the blankets with a satisfied hum. "Let's spend some nice father-son quality time."

Tom uncomfortably shifted and tried to free himself from Harry's arms which were now firmly entangled around his waist.

"Don't call me Tommy."

"Tommy." Harry grinned as he purposefully dragged out the nickname. He teased. "Just continue reading, I promise I won't be such a bother to the honour student."

"But you're quite distracting even though you promise not to be a bother." Tom mumbled underneath his breath.

"What was that?" Harry playfully narrowed his eyes.

"This is exactly what I was referring to." Tom gave an exasperated sigh.

"Oh, come on! Are you really trying to put on such a mature act in front of your papa!?"

"It's useless for me to even try reading now." Tom said, ignoring Harry as he placed the book that he had been fully immersed in not too long ago on the bedside table. "I'll just sleep."

"Of course!" Harry exclaimed brightly. Suddenly, Tom found himself already in his pyjamas and buried under the blankets while being held like a teddy bear. "Let's sleep."

Harry was very warm.

Just like his heart, Tom silently mused.

"Goodnight, Tommy."

Tom could very literally hear the grin in Harry's words.

He softly mumbled back a reply.

"Goodnight...Harry."

A/N:

Not really satisfied with this chapter but oh well, it was needed for this story to progress xD

Thank you so much for all your favourites and follows! It really keeps me going ^^

And special thanks to my dearest reviewers D C JoKeR H S, Plogop, halfblood hufflepuff and UnderTakerxXxMadnesS! You guys are the fuel to my fire, lol.

Also, thank you for reading!

[EDIT: 23-01-2019] oh gosh, the only thing I can say about this is that the original chapter was so awful, I'm glad I redid this. *sniff*

Also, Harry's lived for centuries so he's messed up. Hence, the "crazy Harry"— something I've noticed most people in the comments like to call him. I'm refining his character so that he doesn't seem as immature as he did so woot woot and cheers to that, lmao. AND he's not actually a nymph, just living in the guise of it hehe

A big thank you to ar111, Immortal ninjaaa, Maester Ta and Gurgaraneth for the new reviews! Yes, this is a rewrite, so to say and thanks for the support! ^^