Tom's taking a walk in the outskirts of the forest near Little Hangleton, trying to distract himself from both his thoughts and the constant ache in his chest that's definitely more than just him missing Evelynn - he also hasn't been able to get any sleep whatsoever, having resorted to Meditating and taking Pepper-ups he and Evelynn brewed on the sly during the school year to fend off the exhaustion. Hedwig helps, some, as does writing with Evelynn, but nothing really makes the persistent ache go away entirely. And the only reason he hasn't tried Apparating back to London to stuff Evelynn in her trunk and take her with him to Little Hangleton is because Hedwig is constantly assuring him of her continued lack of injuries - as her Familiar, Hedwig has the ability to tell if Evelynn's injured or sick. Thankfully. It's the only thing that's kept him sane, with his imagined scenarios of what is probably happening in London even as he's safe all the way in Little Hangleton - each worse than the last, eating away at his nerves more and more if he lets himself dwell on the topic.

Hence, trying to distract himself. He figured he'd explore the Gaunt Shack, see if he could use it for…something, anything. Perhaps he could turn it into a safe-house of sorts, who knows. Ergo, he's skirting the forest around the area, discretely heading towards the Gaunt Shack without looking like he is.

He finally gets the right spot, and finds…a dingy, run-down little shack, at least by Wizarding standards. The name truly fits, Tom decides, as the place is more a ramshackle hand-made construction of wooden boards and Sticking Charms than anything he'd call a building. One side is, Tom's pretty sure, even being supported by a tree - in fact, on closer inspection, the tree is actually growing right through the wall in several spots. The dilapidated old wood is even rotting away, no Charms in place at all to prevent it all from going to hell.

Sneering at the dead snake nailed to the door in disgust, Tom pushes the door open and steps inside. It's a one-room house, mostly dominated by the table in the center of the room, with moldy food, glass bottles, and filth strewn around and covered in a thick layer of dust - likely from Morfin, potentially Marvolo as well if he ever bothered to clean up after himself when left to his own devices. Assuming he survived Azkaban, that is. There's scorch marks and dents in the wall everywhere, half hidden by the dust and dirt, indications of a violent temper and little restraint or care.

This is where his mother grew up, what she had to endure day after day. A violently unstable father, and a mean-spirited, sadistic brother who would join in. Being Cursed, Hexed, and who-knows-what else on a regular basis, all the while expected to keep the place in as good condition as she could when they never taught her anything. For just a moment, Tom can't blame her for finding an escape.

"Thank you, that means the world to me."

Tom jumps a good mile in the air, whirling around to find the source of the voice. Only to find a person standing there that most certainly wasn't there before. A woman, with lanky brown hair, some of it clumped and matted while other parts just seem lifeless. Her jaw is crooked to, one part protruding from the side of her head while the other side is sunken in - like she got punched in the jaw, her jaw got dislocated, and that's just how it was ever since. Painfully thin, every bit as thin as Evelynn was when she arrived - Tom can count this woman's ribs just by looking at her, and her joints seem swollen by comparison to her twig-thin arms and legs. Magical burns and scars liberally scattered over her hands, arms, legs, and even her face. Still, despite the lazy eye, there's a soft look on her face as she gazes at him.

There's only one person this woman could possibly be…Merope Gaunt. His...mother. His dead mother.

Tom tries to find any words at all, even as she comes closer, but there's none - not even 'what's going on' or 'how are you here?' She smiles at him gently, and says "My baby boy, you've grown up so fast…" She puts a hand out to him, similarly to how Evelynn will run a hand through his hair, only for him to feel…nothing when it reaches his face. Nothing but a cool tingling, anyway.

Finally, Tom finds his voice and croaks out "Mother?"

Merope nods, and says "I'm so sorry I left you, Tom. I would've stayed if I could."

"But you didn't know how." If Tom sounds bitter about that, it's because he is - life isn't fair, he knows that perfectly well, but he'd done nothing at that point. Sometimes the world just seems to be completely against him, and his mother's ghost only seems to amplify that feeling by pointing out the detail that he's long-since ignored on a daily basis - she died as soon as he was born, leaving him completely alone. He fully blames three people for that set of circumstances, his father, uncle, and maternal grandfather - being forgotten at Wool's may have been the safest set of circumstances for him, but that doesn't mean he's obligated to forgive the people for making it that way.

Merope nods, and sadly says "I didn't. I doubt your grandfather even knew a single Healing Charm. And, if he did, he certainly never thought it important." She gazes around the room with a melancholy expression, the barest hint of bitterness as she sweeps her gaze around the place.

After a moment, Tom asks "What were they like?"

Merope quietly says "Marvolo and Morfin? Violent, unpredictable. Calm one moment, raging the next. Marvolo was always that way, as long as I knew him anyway, and Morfin got worse and worse as time went on. He went from yanking at my hair until some came off in his hand to holding me still while Marvolo beat and Hexed me. Or joining in, if he was in a bad mood. Marvolo was an alcoholic, and I always tried to make sure I was out in the yard when he was into the bottles. And the morning after, as well." The more Merope talks, the more Tom hates his uncle and Maternal grandfather. He swears right then and there, he's never going to be anything like them.

After she stops talking, Tom says "So…you found a way out."

Merope nods, and says "What I did was wrong, I know that now. But…they say people do stupid things for love, and I guess my story is proof of that. I really believed I was in love with your father…though, I suppose I might've just loved the idea he represented."

Tom quietly says "Freedom." It's why he loves Hogwarts so much, and why Evelynn fought so hard for her original time's Magical Britain - freedom from the hand they've had to deal with, freedom from the Muggles that hate them both.

Merope nods, and says "Freedom from my so-called family who never loved or even liked me. Freedom from this, everything you see. Freedom from my father's vicious temper and inclination to cast spells in a rage. Freedom from my brother and his sadistic tendencies. Freedom from my lot in life. Even from this town, where I couldn't go anywhere without stares and whispers following me around. It was only after I realized that I was pregnant that I had my realization, but…" Merope sighs almost inaudibly, her shoulders slumping somewhat as she stares at the so-called house. After a minute, she says "Even still, I can't regret it fully. You were the best thing that ever happened to me, even if I couldn't be with you like I so wanted."

Tom doesn't really know what to say to that. Still…his mother loved him. The Wards around Wool's were one thing, but to hear it…he actually looks around, just to make sure Evelynn isn't lurking, giving him a semblance of privacy while still being close enough to keep Merope in this plane of existence.

Merope shakes her head with a soft smile, and says "She's not here, Tom. But I'm so grateful you two met. So grateful she found it in herself to give you a chance."

Tom asks "You know…?" His mother knows about Evelynn? About Voldemort?

"The dead know everything, Tom. We know all of her past, her history. We know what she's already prevented. Time is…odd, in Limbo. Everything is happening as soon as you think it, which is how Death keeps up with his work all the time and still checks in on you two."

Tom blinks, and asks "You've been in Limbo all this time?" Evelynn said most souls don't stay very long, instead moving on and being reborn...but there's always the option to stick around as ghosts. Apparently, his mother did something similar.

Merope nods, and says "I couldn't be with you in this world, but I wouldn't leave you completely. I've been watching everything, seen everything that you've been through, and I'm so sorry I couldn't prevent it."

Tom decides to deal with this particular revelation later, the idea that his mother's been watching over him all this time, probably talking to him to…and there's the migraine he knew was coming. Instead, he focuses on her appearance. "How are you here? Did Evelynn send you or something?"

Merope shakes her head, saying "No. I'm not allowed to say how I'm here until you two figure it out yourselves, but…if you need me, I'll always come."

Tom groans, that was…about as helpful as Death's responses to why he's occasionally in his head. Which is to say...not at all.

Merope gives him a sympathetic look, and says "I'm sure its frustrating, Tom. The non-answers and redirections. But this is something the two of you need to realize on your own." Because the two of them being told wouldn't end well, they'd both go into instant denial and hurt themselves and each other in the process.

Once Tom gets out of the Gaunt Shack - no plans in mind for the place, since his head is too preoccupied with the maelstrom of emotions brought on by his mother's unexpected appearance - he's heading back towards the Riddle Mansion when he hears a voice ask "You wouldn't happen to know where a house of Snake-speakers are, would you?"

When Tom looks around, though…there's nobody in sight. "Hello? Who's there?"

"You can understand me? Up here, in the tree!" When Tom looks up…there's a familiar-looking snake wrapped around a tree limb. A long snake, almost fifteen-feet long.

No, it can't be…Nagini?!

Evelynn feels the journal clutched to her chest protectively heat up, even as she's hidden away in her dark little corner of the bomb shelter where nobody will go near her or see her. As if she needed any other reason to sympathize with Tom about Wool's Orphanage - he never quite fit in, and everyone knew it. And targeted him for it.

With him gone, that target found someone else…her. Stubbs and his crew are still too scared of her to try anything, but she's sure sooner or later someone will try something more than the distanced glares and blanket-wide avoidance from everyone. Unfortunately for that someone, she knows how to fight back with or without her magic.

Pushing her morbid thoughts to the side for now as the book warms with magic, she murmurs a spell to give herself temporary night vision and opens the book up. 'Evelynn, you'll never guess who I met today.'

Evelynn smiles at Tom's handwriting, and responds with 'Who, Nagini?' She has to wonder exactly when he met the fifteen-foot snake, since Voldemort seemed to care about her more than anything else. She was his only intentional living Horcrux, his Familiar if she had to take a guess - and that entails a connection between the two of them. If she had to take a guess, Nagini was as close as Voldemort could come to loving anything.

When she glances down at the page, there's no response. Finally, Tom writes 'How?! How could you possibly know that?! Can you read minds through the books or something now?'

'Wait, seriously?! You ACTUALLY met Nagini?!'

'Yes! She was looking for the Gaunt Shack, since the Gaunts were Parselmouths! She hadn't heard about Morfin's habit of torturing his snakes, or that he's dead.'

After a minute spent processing that revelation, Evelynn writes down 'Holy crap. You must've met her last time when you went looking for your father.'

'Did you know Nagini's a Maledictus?'

'Come again? No! All I knew was that she was a massive snake! You mean to tell me she's a person under those scales?!' Holy crap! That...that changes things, drastically. All this time, she assumed Nagini was just a snake Voldemort took a fancy to - or created, perhaps

'Yes. She says hello, by the way. She and Hedwig are getting along wonderfully, I'm getting scared of what they're planning.'

Another bomb lands nearby, making Evelynn flinch, and she quickly turns back to the journal while writing 'Hopefully, how to convince us to get more bacon. Don't count on it, though.'

'Nagini's a mother hen, despite being stuck in her snake form already. I doubt it.'

'Shoot. We're screwed, Hedwig's the same way.'

'No kidding. 54 more days.'

'53, now. Pretty sure its past midnight here, but there's no clock. See you soon, Tom.'

AN: Hello, everyone! Sorry about the later update, today was cleaning day. Nagini has made her entrance, and given the second Fantastic Beasts movie she's a Maledictus in this story! Honestly, I'm seriously considering having her basically adopt Tom and Evelynn - and have her tell them one or two of Dumbledore's secrets. She met him in Fantasic Beasts 2, which is set in 1927 - basically the year Tom was born, give or take a few hours. She's had plenty of time to lean a few things about him...such as the BLOOD PACT between Grindelwald and 'I'm-so-Light Albus Dumbledore' - yeah, so very Light if he planned world domination with Grindelwald...and then chickened out. I'm sorry, but no - if your going to plan something that much...have the guts to go through with it, thank you very much. And then he has the gall to be oh so LIGHT and benevolent, being all against anything 'Dark and Evil' in the WW...honestly, it's just disgusting how much he had everyone kissing his feet when he basically started the whole problem he FINALLY deigned to end decades later after sitting on his behind and letting his ex burn the world. Can we say 'hypocrite?' The title for the third movie says it all 'SECRETS of Dumbledore' - what secrets might that be, I wonder? How he's secretly obscenely obsessed with the Hallows, for instance? Or how he secretly wanted to rule over the world? How he secretly is giving his ex - if they actually broke up, and aren't in some semi-long-distance relationship that is, what with Apparating and all - his unspoken go-ahead to go on with their plans by not stopping him or doing anything to alert the authorities of Grindelwald's plans?

Sorry, saw the third movie title and release date out today, couldn't stop thinking about it.

Anyway, enjoy! More chapters coming soon!