Disclaimer! Yea I forgot about it last time. Needless to say I don't own Harry Potter. Things would be going much differently if I did.

Notes: This will be slash. I don't know if it will need the M rating. I just choose that for the heck of it. This is ignoring Book 6.

Harry opened his eyes and with a burst of effort sat up in his bed. He rubbed his eyes sleepily and reached over to get his glasses. He could still hear the snores from the other boys. No wonder, he thought looking over to his clock, it was still pretty early.

The rest of his stay at Grimmauld's place had been uneventful. Ron and Hermione had come as Lupin had told him, and the twins and Ginny had made an appearance too. They had all tried to keep his mind off Sirius, and while they hadn't succeeded completely, the stay was much better than it could have been. The trip to Diagon Alley had been fun too. Dumbledore required that they had an escort, but Tonks and Lupin were the best escorts they could have asked for. Hermione was surprised when Harry had been especially interested in the bookstore and even bought himself some books that weren't on the school list.

Harry took one of those out now. Offensive Spells for the Dueling Wizard had looked particularly interesting. He dearly hoped that Dumbledore would personally teach him this year. He didn't know how the Headmaster couldn't. It was obvious now that Harry had to fight the Dark Lord. How much longer could Dumbledore wait?

He continued reading until he heard the other boys start to stir. When Ron finally got up, Harry put the book down and got ready to head down to breakfast.

When they finally went down to the common room Hermione was already waiting for them. Her prefect badge was shining brightly on her robes and upon seeing it Ron remembered to put on his. As the three set out Ron and Hermione dominated the conversation, only occasionally asking Harry a question. That was fine with him. He had tried to keep the dream he had last night out of his mind, but he was failing miserably. Over the rest of the summer he had dreamed a few more times from Riddle's past. The memories had been from when he was still a little boy in the orphanage, and were often similar to the first one. But last night's had been different.

Harry had opened his eyes only to find himself in the Great Hall. He looked around and saw a group of nervous first years hovering together near the door. They must not have been sorted yet. He walked over and in the back standing away from the others was an eleven year old Tom Riddle trying very hard not to appear nervous. And compared to the other trembling first years he looked fairly calm.

"If I could have your attention, please," a man Harry vaguely recognized as Headmaster Dippet announced to the hall, "The sorting will now begin." The students immediately quieted down and a younger Dumbledore began to call names.

"Avery, John," he began, and a weasel like boy scurried over to the sorting hat and put it on his head. It was only a moment before the hat called out "SLYTHERIN!"

The sorting continued in its normal fashion and Harry found himself wondering why he was watching this particular memory.

He sat down on the floor and watched bored until the sorting was almost at an end. When Dumbledore finally reached the R's he observed closely once again, even though he knew what the outcome would be.

"Riddle, Thomas!" Dumbledore called out, and the boy strode casually to the hat, only displaying his nervousness with his shaking hands. The hat hadn't even touched his head when it cried out "SLYTHERIN!"

The Slytherin table applauded politely and Tom went and sat next to the other newly sorted Slytherins. Harry walked over and stood behind Tom, curious as to what would happen next.

"Hullo there," the boy first sorted, John, greeted Tom.

"Hello," Tom said with a curt nod. He eyed his other year mates cautiously, as if unsure what to make of them.

Harry remembered when he first talked with a student. It had been Draco and he had been absolutely clueless about the wizarding world. He hoped Tom had been told more than he had been. Slytherins wouldn't be kind if he made a mistake.

"I've never heard of the Riddle family," a girl with long inky hair said. "Is your father from a foreign wizard family?"

"Actually my father wasn't a wizard," Tom replied, a slight pink gracing his cheeks. Apparently, though Harry, he wasn't keen on letting his new classmates know he was from an orphanage.

"So he's a magical being then?" another girl asked.

"A veela maybe?" suggested a boy.

"A half-vampire?"

"A giant!" supplied a bouncy looking blonde girl.

"Don't be stupid! Does he look like a half-giant!" John said annoyed.

"Actually," Tom started, "He was a muggle."

The conversation surrounding him died and Tom was met with many cold stares. He blushed and tensed up, obviously knowing he had made some faux pas.

Harry winced sympathetically. Obviously no one had mentioned the Slytherin's prejudice towards muggles and muggleborns. And why had Tom said his father was a muggle? Harry bit his lip. Wasn't he still alive at this point?

"I see," John said in a voice much colder than his earlier greeting.

"How on Earth did a filthy mudblood get into this house?" one of the girls hissed.

Tom's eyes widened and he rapidly tried to explain, "My mother was a witch though!"

"A blood traitor," John said with narrowed eyes.

Tom looked confused and not a little bit hurt. But when he saw that the other Slytherins were pointedly ignoring him he cleared the emotion from his face and went back to eating. Harry was the only one to notice his trembling hands.

And with that the dream ended.

Looking back at the dream, Harry had to try very hard not to feel bad for the boy who would grow up to be his enemy. Undoubtedly Tom had been hoping to make friends at Hogwarts, just like Harry had. To have those hopes crushed so swiftly was a painful blow.

"Harry! What are you doing back there?" The sound of Ron's voice brought Harry back to reality, and with a laugh Harry ran up to join his friends.

The rest of the day passed by smoothly. Well, as smoothly as any day at Hogwarts can go. A cauldron was blown up (courtesy of one Mr. Longbottom), threats were exchanged with one Mr. Malfoy, points were taken away by one Professor S. Snape, etc, etc. The point is that nothing really interesting happened until later that night when Harry was wandering the halls under his invisibility cloak.

He had taken to exploring the castle sometime during the previous year. The castle was enchanting at night, and it calmed Harry just to walk through the quiet deserted halls. And it was always fun to find new places in the castle. He occasionally wondered if Hogwarts would ever run out of secrets. He doubted it.

This time though he was a little annoyed. He had forgotten his map in his trunk and somehow had gotten lost in an unfamiliar part of the castle. He sighed and put his hand against the wall, trying to remember if he had been in the hall before. He didn't notice the runes that appeared briefly around his hand. He did, however, notice when the floor disappeared from beneath his feet.

La di di da I don't know what I'm doing La di di do I'm just making stuff up as I go along La la la

Anyway, read and review please.

Also I don't have the books with me, so if I misspell anything tell me and I'll fix it.

I really feel like I'm rushing things and that everything is choppy and not described enough. I'm going to try and improve with each chapter so if you notice a difference tell me please. I'm trying to develop the plot smoothly and in a way that everything kinda makes sense and flows. So there will be subtle (or maybe not so subtle) foreshadowing.

Also, I'm trying to make the story believable (relatively speaking of course). So if Harry's OOC or getting too strong or smart too quickly let me know.

I still need a beta reader. Email me if you're interested.

Thanks to all the people who reviewed, it really made me happy. Like stupidly dancing in my room happy.

To Veelacity: I read the 6th book, and to be honest there were just a lot of things that I didn't like about it. And a lot of things, like the Horcruxes and Dumbledore's death, just wouldn't fit into the plot I have in mind. It would take forever to include them in the storyline so that the main events made sense. I know that I should pay more heed to what Rowling says should happen, but I'm really having a hard time accepting in my mind the sixth book. But yes, the abuse at the orphanage is cliche, and more cliche things are in store ;. But I feel that by Rowling giving us more info about Tom, it makes his actions less understandable. I had always assumed that Tom's actions when he grows up and his deep hatred of muggles must be due to a hostile environment in the orphanage, not even the impersonal orphanages that were common at the time can account for it. But in this book I got the feeling that it was less about his environment and that there was just something innately evil in him. And I think that's just too cut and dry. I hope that makes why I'm writing my story like this more understandable.