Summary: A thoroughly impossible freak accident transports our favorite attractive psychopath forward in time from 1942 to 1996. Harry Potter/Tom Riddle slash. Harry speaks with his friends about the new arrival and Tom returns after his trip to Diagon Alley (and no, I will not bore you with the intricate details of Tom getting fitted for robes, buying schoolbooks, etc.)

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, Tom Riddle, or any other people, places or objects that may appear in this humble work of fiction.

Warnings: Possible spoilers up to the fifth book. M/M, obviously. Rating is down as T for now but may, possibly, increase to M as things progress.

Author's Note: I want to thank everyone for the reviews; they really help encourage me to keep churning out these chapters. Things are going to start moving a little faster soon, i.e. we will eventually get past September 2nd.

Chapter Nine: Taking the Plunge

Harry walked quickly out of the dungeons, but had to slow down when he hit the main hallways because classes were getting out and students were heading down to dinner. He followed the crowd, his mind buzzing. Tom Riddle was at Hogwarts. He was staying at Hogwarts. And he, Harry, was expected to be his babysitter.

Even worse, Dumbledore expected Riddle to look after Harry; Harry was quite sure that this was the most ludicrous idea the Headmaster had ever come up with. He and Tom Riddle, watching each others' backs and keeping each other out of trouble? It seemed more likely that Harry would be spending his year chasing Riddle away from the Restricted Section, at best.

Harry reached the Great Hall and found that Ron and Hermione were already there and had started dinner; they appeared to be deep in conversation. He sat in the empty seat beside Ron. Ron rounded on him and said, 'Where were you all afternoon? I waited in the Common Room for a while, but you didn't show, so I went out flying with Katie and Jack Sloper. He's improved a lot over the summer. Hopefully Kirke will have been practicing, too. We're having tryouts on Wednesday, by the way, after dinner, we need two more Chasers to replace Angelina and Alicia, well, maybe just one because Ginny's pretty good, but she'll have to try out like everyone else because I don't want people thinking I'm favoring her just because she's my sister, so make sure to be there.' Ron said all this in a very Hermione-like way: very fast, and in just one breath.

Harry tried to make his brain catch up with what Ron had said while he poured himself a glass of pumpkin juice. 'Well?' Ron prompted. 'So where were you?'

'Oh, Ron, wait, I forgot!' Hermione cried. 'You two won't believe what happened during Potions!'

'What, does Snape act like a reasonable human being in his N.E.W.T. classes?' Ron grumbled, chewing his roast beef. Harry pretended to be interested, hoping that it would distract Ron from asking him where he'd been. But Dumbledore did say I should warn them. It's not like I can put it off forever.

'Ron, that's disgusting,' said Hermione. Ron swallowed. 'Better. We were just starting our lesson when a Ministry official walked in with a clipboard. For a moment, I thought it was another Umbridge, but as it turned out, he introduced himself as an official from the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. He's supposed to be checking in on a few of the N.E.W.T.-level classes.'

'Huh? Why?' Ron asked.

'Isn't it obvious? Think about it: with Voldemort back, the Ministry is going to need a steady supply of Aurors and Hit Wizards.'

'So they can afford to get a few killed off, you mean,' Harry said darkly. Harry wasn't very fond of the Ministry of Magic: his experiences had shown it to be corrupt and easily manipulated by pureblood wizards like Lucius Malfoy and Dolores Umbridge.

'At least the new Minister is taking You-Know-Who seriously, though,' Ron added quietly, not wanting to catch the rest of the table's attention by talking about You-Know-Who, especially to Harry.

'Realistically, Harry, a few are going to be killed,' stated Hermione matter-of-factly. 'It only makes sense for the Ministry to not want its Auror numbers dwindling. It's going to be depending on Hogwarts graduates.'

'I heard from Dad that the Ministry's been doing a lot of extra recruiting for Auror training, too,' Ron added.

'Anyway,' she continued, 'he wasn't very happy that there were only seven people in the class – from every house, I might add; there's only one class for all the sixth years because there are so few people –'

'That's because Snape only accepts people with an Outstanding O.W.L., the git,' Ron grumbled.

'– and he asked what we planned to do after Hogwarts, and only four people were even considering going into Law Enforcement,' she continued. 'He started writing really fast on his clipboard, and I heard him telling Snape after class that he wanted him to expand the lesson to include students with an Exceeds Expectations O.W.L. Well, you can imagine how Snape took that – it got really nasty, actually –'

'Did you just overhear this, or were you using Extendable Ears?' Ron smirked.

'If you'd just let me finish,' Hermione said, her face flushed with guilt, 'the Ministry official told Snape – well, yelled at him – that he was going to go to Dumbledore about it straight away.'

'I guess he couldn't find him, then, because he didn't show up when I was with Dumbledore,' said Harry, finding an opening, and ready to get the news off his chest.

'So that's where you were!' said Ron. 'Why were you talking to Dumbledore?' Ron sounded as though he was jealous that Harry would rather talk to Dumbledore than him.

'It wasn't my idea,' Harry assured him. 'He… uh… found me in the hall, as I was going to the Common Room, and he took me to his office to speak with a new student.'

'A new student?' Hermione asked curiously. 'We never get new students after the Sorting, unless you count the Beauxbatons and Durmstrang students that came for the Triwizard Tournament – there's not another competition, is there?'

'Um, no.' Harry looked down at his lap, not wanting to lie to his friends to their faces. 'I'm not really sure where he's from, but he's a sixth-year like us, and he's going to be in Gryffindor. Ginny met him, too,' he added.

Ron frowned. 'That's funny, she didn't mention him. She did look a little off-color, though, so maybe it just slipped her mind.'

'Harry, this is big!' gasped Hermione. 'We've never had a new student past the first year before, yet alone in sixth year, at least not that I know of. Did the Headmaster say anything else?'

'No – well, he did say his name is Tom Maxwell, but that's it.'

'But you did talk to him, right? Didn't he say anything about where he was from and why he was coming to Hogwarts so late?'

'Nope,' Harry replied, grabbing another helping of mashed potatoes. 'I suppose you'll be able to ask him yourself later. He's moving in tonight.'

'I wonder if he's any good at Quidditch,' Ron said thoughtfully.

'This sounds very fishy, if you ask me,' Hermione said, scrutinizing Harry. 'You're sure you didn't hear anything else?'

'Yeah, I'm sure. I'm supposed to be watching him – watching out for him, I mean – so you'll have plenty of time to ask him yourself, since he'll probably be hanging out with us a fair bit.'

'Now that is strange,' she stated decidedly. 'Why would Dumbledore ask you, of all people – I mean, you have quite a bit on your plate already, after all –' Hermione looked a bit embarrassed at having brought up an unpleasant subject, but pressed on, 'be asked to look after a new student? I would think he would ask Ron or me, since we're the Gryffindor Prefects.'

'Yeah, it's strange, all right,' said Ron, sounding wholly uninterested and grabbing a third helping of roast beef.

'I don't know, Hermione,' Harry huffed, 'you can ask him, okay?'

Harry only hoped that Dumbledore's cover story would be good enough to stand up to Hermione's scrutiny.

Tom didn't think he had ever been so exhausted; he and Dumbledore had been shopping for hours, right until the stores closed, because Tom had needed new robes as well as books, what with all his old ones being stuck in the past. He picked disgustedly at his new Gryffindor crest; Dumbledore had taken Tom's Slytherin one off before they went shopping. After shopping they had spent a lot of time discussing Tom's new identity afterwards, so he had missed dinner, and he was starving.

'Tom?'

Tom looked away from the pile of books and packages he was levitating. 'Yes, Headmaster?' He didn't think he'd ever get used to calling him that.

Dumbledore took a pouch out of a pocket in his robes and placed it in Tom's hand. 'What's this?' Tom asked.

'Just a little something for you to use to treat yourself in Hogsmeade,' Dumbledore smiled down at him.

Tom held the bag back out and looked to the floor. 'I can't accept this.' He had always been sensitive to the fact that he was poorer than most students – certainly a great deal poorer than any of the other Slytherins – and he had taken more than his fair share of handouts that day. 'You already bought me new robes and supplies. That's quite enough charity, I think.'

'Is that what you think this is, Tom? Charity?' Dumbledore pushed the bag of gold back towards him. 'Your cover story would not be believable if you were flat broke, Mr. Maxwell. All I ask is that you spend it on something fun for yourself. Which reminds me…' Dumbledore produced two more packages from his robes, 'I happened to procure these for you from a very disreputable shop while you were being fitted for your new robes. I believe every student in Gryffindor has at least one of each, much to the staff's chagrin.'

Tom frowned at the packages as Dumbledore added them to Tom's pile of school things. 'Basic Blaze Box? Skiving Snackbox? What are they?'

'I'm sure you'll find several people in Gryffindor Tower who will be more than happy to explain them.' Dumbledore was positively beaming with satisfaction.

'Wonderful.'

'Now, Tom,' Dumbledore sighed. 'Do try to be polite to the Gryffindors. You'll be making your own life very unpleasant if you don't. Whether they like you or not, you'll be spending a great deal of time with them.'

'Yes, Headmaster.'

They had reached the portrait of the Fat Lady. Tom knew that this was where the entrance to Gryffindor Tower was, partly because he was a Prefect, but mostly because he'd set the Gryffindor Common Room on fire in his fourth year. Dumbledore wasn't supposed to know about that, though, so he tried to look oblivious about why they'd stopped.

It seemed to work. 'This is the entrance,' Dumbledore said. 'Yorkshire pudding,' he spoke to the portrait.

'It's not as though you need the password, sir,' the Fat Lady demurred.

'Allow me to indulge. It reminds me of my school days,' he replied merrily. 'This is where we part ways, Mr. Maxwell. Harry should be inside at this time of night – be sure to stay close to him. Good luck.'

Tom simply nodded and crawled into the portrait hole, still levitating his supplies in front of him. Here goes…

Shattered Diamond: Yup, as you said, Tom didn't put the Dark Mark on Snape, so Snape should still be oblivious of Tom's identity :)

Falena XVII: It's true that Hagrid's a pretty horrible secret keeper, but it's not as though Dumbledore has much option… still, if anyone is likely to spill the beans... ahem…cough…