Chapter 2

Empty Mirrors

Tom Riddle was quickly approached by two Slytherin students who looked around his age and year. One was a small mousy boy with black hair and blue eyes behind a simple pair of glasses, and the other was a tall boy with dark skin, short black hair, and smiling brown eyes. The two sat across from Tom and glanced at where Flint was once laying in pain, he has long since run away.

"That was quite some entrance," the dark-skinned boy smirked. "You say your name's Tom Riddle? I'm Blaise, Blaise Zabini. This is my friend, Theodore Nott."

"Hello," the other boy said softly.

Tom stared at the two, his eyes moving towards Nott. He must be Nott's grandson, he thought. He looks to have the same nervousness. Tom gave the two a pleasant smile and relaxed in his seat. "It is a pleasure to meet the both of you, Blaise Zabini and Theodore Nott."

Blaise leaned forward and looked around, "So, would you like to tell me how it is you could talk to snakes? Everyone around heard you hissing at it."

Tom smirked at the two and his pride swelled with an air of superiority, "Isn't it obvious, boys?" he chuckled. "I am a Parseltongue. I am Slytherin's heir." He waited, expecting the eventual revelry and reverence that comes with this revelation. However, the two just stared at him. The taller one watching him carefully while the smaller one looked thoughtful. "So that makes two," he muttered.

Tom almost cracked, the edges of his mouth twitched and for a small moment, his eyes flashed with something dangerous. What did they mean by two? That was impossible! He is the only heir, and even at his young age, he has no interest in breeding. No, girls did nothing for him. "What do you mean?" he asked, still holding his polite smile.

"You're the second Parseltongue in Hogwarts," Blaise Zabini explained. "The other one is a Gryffindor named Harry Potter."

There was that name again. Harry Potter. Tom raised an eyebrow at it. He found himself growing a small obsession. How could it be that in not even an hour he has heard so much about this one boy? "Potter?" he said. "Interesting. I must admit I never heard of him. Though it seems unlikely, does he have Slytherin's blood as well?" he asked.

"No," Theodore Nott said, shaking his head. "The Potters do not have a strong tie to Salazar Slytherin."

"I see," Tom muttered. "However boys, rest assure that I do. I am a direct descendant of Salazar Slytherin. That being said, how is it, then, that this Potter boy also has the ability to speak Parseltongue?"

"Nobody knows," Blaise answered with a shrug. "Though I'm more interested in you, Tom, where did you come from? I never saw you before. Flint has been crying about some stranger who just came in and sicced a snake on him."

If Tom were anyone else, he would have panicked in that moment. Instead, the Slytherin who was so sly and so slick made up a story. He looked perfectly relaxed in his chair as he looked at his fellow Slytherins. "I was homeschooled. I lived with my mother and her brother. My father was an awful muggle, took my mother by force if you need to know. She was in love with him and he took advantage of it and I was the result. My uncle never let me forget that, even though my mother tried her best to raise me. I was even named after the disgusting muggle, except for my middle name. She gave me my grandfather's name for that. Due to personal reasons that I do not fully know, my mother and uncle decided to homeschool me, which they did until their unfortunate passing a couple of weeks ago. I was then sent to Hogwarts. I just arrived not even an hour ago."

"My sympathies," Blaise said, frowning. "I'm sorry about your mother and uncle."

Tom just shrugged. "It is fine, they kept me locked in a sort of bubble. But now I am free, and oh so interested in learning about everything I missed about the outside world. For example, I just learned about the Triwizard Tournament, and in the hour I have been here I have only heard about this Harry Potter. So, Blaise, Theo, would you please divulge for me the story of Potter?"

The two glanced at each other and nodded. "We love to," Blaise began, "however…"

"There are some things that we cannot tell you. We promised Draco Malfoy," Theo said. "There are some things that even we don't know but, maybe if you ask Draco he'll answer. You seem like a nice guy, Tom, I don't see why he would say no to you."

"I see, then please, tell me what you do know, and can explain," Tom said. "I would hate for the two of you to overstep your boundaries. Perhaps we can begin with how a boy with the ability to speak Parseltongue landed himself in the house of lions?"

The two glanced at each other and gave a small nod. "Okay, well we don't know how Potter exactly grew up, only Draco and his other two Gryffindor friends know that, and even then I don't think even the Gryffindors know the true extent," Blaise said. "We haven't heard of him until we were all eleven and on the Hogwarts Express. Draco… did not make a good impression on him, but I honestly blame the fact that Potter spent the entire ride with Weasley. Either way, the first time I saw him, I thought something was off personally. He didn't smile. And I'm not talking about being nervous, I am talking about that he did not smile, period. It was like his face was blank and only after looking around at everyone else did he finally look nervous."

"Curious," Tom muttered, not at the boy's actions, but at how familiar it all sounded. "Then the Sorting Hat should have screamed Slytherin the moment it touched his head, correct?"

"You would think, but no," Blaise said.

"It was silent," Theo said, bringing attention to himself. "Very silent for a long time. As though it couldn't decide, but then it shouted out Gryffindor and Potter looked relieved, looking at Weasley, then he finally smiled."

"So what?" Tom asked, looking between the two of them. "You believe Weasley might have influenced Harry Potter's decision?"

"We know," Blaise said. "Because he told us himself in second year, but we'll get there. I'm not sure if you know but Potter has a habit of finding trouble." He chuckled and smiled ruefully. "In our first year, we kept hearing rumors about him. On Halloween, he and Weasley knocked out a troll, and later on, Potter went up against You-Know-Who himself to get the Philosopher's Stone!"

"You-Know-Who? Are you talking about Voldemort?" Tom asked, the two jumping.

"Don't say his name!" Blaise hissed and Tom nodded. So they fear Voldemort's name? I wonder what the other has been up to. "I am sorry, please, continue," he said.

Blaise nodded, "In second year, we thought that it was Harry who was the Heir of Slytherin. The Chamber of Secrets, Slytherin's secret chamber, was opened once more."

"Once more?" Tom said. Did they know that I am the one who found the Chamber first? He wondered. "What happened the first time?"

"A student died," Theodore Nott said. "But this time, nobody died, however, there were a few students who were petrified before being revived. However, the interesting thing was that that was when Draco and Potter started their friendship. We're not exactly sure how, but one day Draco brought Potter here, and that was it. He became a common sight here."

"Interesting," Tom said. I cannot wait to meet this Harry Potter. He seems like such an interesting character. "How did Potter close the Chamber of Secrets?"

"We're not sure," Theo said, glancing at Blaise. "We heard that he went down there and killed the monster found in it." The poor basilisk, Tom lamented. He had just met it yesterday, and now it is dead.

"So, what happened third year then, on Harry Potter's interesting journey?" he asked with a soft chuckle.

"From what we heard, Harry's godfather Sirius Black broke out of Azkaban and into Hogwarts," Blaise said. "People say that he works for You-Know-Who but, well, we know that is false."

"Blaise," Theo hissed, glancing at Tom.

"Sorry. Anyway, because of Black, we had dementors around the school. It was awful, we couldn't step outside at times. They affected Potter the most for some reason, he even fainted off his broom during a Quidditch match! Anyway, a lot of things happened including our Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher turning out to be a werewolf! Of course, he had to be sacked which was a shame, he was honestly the best teacher we had so far. I heard that our teacher and Black used to be good friends with Potter's parents."

"They were," Theodore Nott nodded, "along with Peter Pettigrew, whose crimes Black was framed for, even though he is… officially dead. This part, Blaise and I heard from Draco, who in turn heard from Harry himself. Pettigrew never died, but instead was the reason You-Know-Who knew where to find the Potters. Their deaths were on Pettigrew's hands, and Black tried to get revenge, but when he cornered Pettigrew, the rat caused an explosion that killed thirteen muggles and left only a finger. That was why Black went to Azkaban. When he came to Hogwarts, it was to find Pettigrew, who hid as a rat for all this time, eventually becoming a family pet for the Weasleys."

"How disgusting," Tom commented. "And the Weasleys knew none the wiser?"

"No," Theo said. "They did not even suspect that their rat was anything but that, a normal rat. At the end of the school year, Sirius Black dragged Harry's friend Ron Weasley into the Shrieking Shack, an abandoned home at the edge of Hogsmeade, and there everyone collided. Professor Lupin and Sirius Black had their reunion and tried to kill Pettigrew, only for Harry to stop them. Harry wanted to use the man to prove Black's innocence. However, it was also the night of the full moon, and, well, Professor Lupin transformed, and Pettigrew escaped."

"Black almost had his soul sucked out of him by hundreds of Dementors, but Harry fought them off with a Patronus, and later helped the man escape Hogwarts," Blaise ended for him.

"Potter can perform a Patronus? My, I have to say that is a very impressive feat for a teenager," Tom said. An image of the boy appeared in his head. A strong wizard who was confident, yet sly. Perhaps he was tall with a handsome expression that hid his true intentions. Someone like Tom. He wondered how he would react to that, dealing with a person exactly like him. It would be interesting; however, Tom Riddle has always been a possessive and competitive child. He refused to be in the shadow of his reflection. "And now," he said, "to bring us to present day, Potter is now the Fourth Champion for the Triwizard Tournament."

"Yes, and nobody knows how he was entered," Blaise nodded. Tom hummed thoughtfully and leaned back. His wand was pulled out and the teen took to twirling it between his fingers.

"This will be very interesting," he said, more to himself than Blaise and Theo. "I have to say, your friend sounds very interesting, I cannot wait to meet him personally."

The door to the common room opened and the three glanced at it out of curiosity to see who walked in. Blaise smirked and said with a chuckle, "Well here's your chance, there's Harry Potter right now." He pointed towards two teens who walked in and Tom stared in disbelief. That is Harry Potter? He thought. The blond teen he recognized immediately. He looked a spitting image of Abraxas Malfoy. But next to him was a small teen. An unhealthily small teen. His raven hair looked disheveled and his emerald eyes pretended to look happy, but Tom saw through that immediately. He saw the void behind those eyes, the blackness that he tried to hide. It was intoxicating for him, and Tom found himself wanting more. He wanted to figure out what this child was. To see the void hidden behind his masks. Their eyes met and in an instance, his happiness was gone, replaced by fear. Tom was curious, wondering if he had somehow met him before, perhaps a future version during his adventures in the Chamber of Secrets? It did not matter in that moment. He will find out eventually. The Malfoy heir saw him along with his friends, and Tom saw the Malfoy staring at him with caution. But nevertheless, both walked towards him and the other two.

"Zabini, Nott, who is your friend?" Malfoy asked.

"This is Tom Riddle," Blaise introduced friendlily. "He just came to Hogwarts. He was homeschooled until his mother and uncle died. Tom, this is Draco Malfoy and Harry Potter."

Harry stared at him with a strange look in his eye that was a mixture of fear and disbelief. Malfoy, however, crossed his arms thoughtfully. "Riddle," he muttered.

Tom knew exactly what Malfoy was thinking of. So, he explained. "I am a halfblood. My mother was a witch," he said.

"I see," Draco said, his eyes softening a little but still staring at the newcomer with suspicion. Tom just smiled politely and looked at Harry.

"It is a pleasure to meet you, Harry Potter," he said. "Forgive me for being forward, but Theo and Blaise here were catching me up on your adventures and current predicament."

"Oh… they were," Potter spoke for the first time, his voice soft, emotionless. His eyes shifted towards Blaise and Theo.

"Yeah, sorry Harry—but we just told him what the school knows," Blaise said, giving Harry a guilty grin. "Except for last year, we uh had to give him more information so it could all make sense."

"Oh," Harry said.

"However, we did not go into the most interesting part about you," Tom smiled. He looked at the seat in front of him then glanced at Harry. "If you would?"

"Harry?" Draco said, looking between the two.

"It's fine," Harry said, shaking his head. He moved to sit across from Tom Riddle. Tom leaned back and looked at the other three before looking at Harry. So Harry," he began, "I would love if you tell me how it is people think you are Slytherin's Heir."

Harry gasped. The sudden parseltongue broke his masks if only for a second, and he gathered them again and looked at his three friends. They all looked shocked, however Draco more so than the others. Do they know? He worried mentally before turning to Tom Riddle. How is it that he is here? He did not know how to react, so he did his best to stay stoic as he answered, "How are you here?"

"That is something I would love to learn myself, but it pays little matter," Tom answered smoothly. "But that look in your eyes Potter, you know me. How is that?"

"You disappeared with the diary, how are you back here?" Harry demanded, a glare breaking through his stoic demeanor. Tom raised an eyebrow at that.

"I'm sorry Harry Potter, but I have absolutely no idea what you are talking about, all I did was walk around a corner, and somehow I've traveled fifty years. That said, I do know that we are not related. So I ask again: Why do you have Salazar Slytherin's gift?"

"I do not know, I always had it," Harry answered. "But I am not Slytherin's heir."

That caused Tom to laugh. It was deeper than Harry expected, as though he has already gone through the worst of puberty. "Of course you aren't, Harry. I am." Even though Harry already knew that the open confirmation still sent a shiver down his spine.

"I know," Harry whispered.

"But how? How do you know me, Harry Potter? Do you know me just by Voldemort, a name I have just begun thinking of using… or perhaps from the Chamber of Secrets, which I have discovered only yesterday to me?" Tom asked. "Tell me, Harry Potter, tell me everything."

Harry swallowed heavily. Can he? Should he? Harry didn't know. He didn't know how to act, how to answer. All he had was his blank mask, hiding himself away. His Gryffindor mask wouldn't work here, nor would his hero or lonely or friendly. He panicked. How did Tom want him to act? Did he expect a clear answer? A straight answer? Or maybe a smart answer? Harry glanced at Draco, who watched the two confused. "Harry? What are you two talking about?" Draco asked.

"We just wanted to see how we both have our gifts," Tom answered smoothly. "I have it because I am a direct descendant from Slytherin. However Harry… we are both unsure." He glanced at Harry and the Gryffindor found his voice stuck in his throat. He nodded along with Tom as Riddle gave him a look that clearly said that they were not done.

"Anyway, how are you feeling Harry?" Blaise asked, glancing at him and Draco.

"Better," Harry said, his face slowly lifting as he smiled at his friends. "Draco and I finished our paintings."

"That's good," Theo commented.

"Yeah, but when are you going to show us your paintings, Harry?" Blaise asked with a small pout. "Draco showed us some of his!"

"Oh—uhh," Harry's cheeks turned red. His paintings were his. They were him. He didn't, he didn't want everyone to see all of him. Not even Draco knew how many times Harry went to their painting room alone to just paint. He made those special masks when he was alone, masks that nobody would see. As he blushed, he couldn't help but notice Tom Riddle's eyes on him. Those dark eyes that never flinched or faltered. He did his best to ignore them, but they were an everlasting presence that looked at him. Him. Not his masks, but Harry himself. The thought terrified the young Gryffindor. He looked back to Blaise and muttered, "They're not ready."

"Aw man," Blaise sighed, "and Draco won't tell me what you paint! Fine, we'll wait, right Theo?"

"Of course," Theo said softly.

"You paint?" Tom asked.

"A little," Harry said, his blush deepening. Why am I blushing? Is it embarrassment? Anger? Fear? Something else? "I started when I was twelve."

"Despite only painting for two years, Harry shows a lot of natural promise," Draco pushed in. "Of course, he is not as good as me, I've been painting and drawing since I was four."

"Scribbling doesn't count, Draco," Blaise laughed, earning him a glare. Harry giggled at that and turned to face Tom Riddle completely.

"Draco taught me everything I know," he said honestly. "I have… things and painting is the best way to calm me down."

"Interesting," Tom smiled. "I too have personal things I've dealt with, for example for all of today I've felt that I have extreme vertigo, as though I have taken a step out of time." He added a soft chuckle to show that he was joking. "That said, if I may Harry, can I ask you one more question, in Parseltongue that is."

Harry was surprised at the request for consent. He looked at the other three and nodded. Tom smirked and leaned forward. Harry found himself leaning forward as well and Tom took a deep breath, as though sniffing the air. "Innocent Gryffindor, sweet Harry Potter," he began, "You are so interesting to me. Our lives are seemingly interlocked, and yet I know nothing about it. I want to learn all about it, all about you and your connection with Lord Voldemort. But before that, I must know, how is it that you are surrounded by Dark Magic?"

A/N: Well this is one way to get some exposition out there. Still figuring out which day to post this on weekly but decided to give you guys a bit more to read until then. Thank you for reading and please review.

Charm93: Thank you very much!

Flowertot246: Thanks, and same I barely saw fics of Tom going into the future and it seems like a really cool thing to do! I mean, just think of how he would interact with Harry's friends and enemies!