Tom The Great
Entering his own bed chamber Tom settled down his mind going over the past few months of his first year at Hogwarts
it was amazing, he truly understood how the canon Tom and Harry would come to see this place as their home he knows he does, He had been heavily focused on not only trying to increase his precision and control of his magic but also on what house he should ask the hat for
He could definitely enter Slytherin his blood alone assured him of that even without his ambition but even now in this time the house wasn't too fond of muggleborns and half bloods
not in the 'You dare breathe the same heir as I a Pureblood! You're courting death!' way but more of noble looking down of a commoner type of view it makes sense after despite the blood supremacy it wasn't that big a deal
during this time the wizards and witches were more focused on Grindelwald which had actually been swaying some purebloods into not caring about blood to a certain extent but he could see how easy it would of been for a young Tom Riddle to convince and change their view points
Hell it wasn't until after Tom Riddle entered that the entire view point was shifted to integrating but keeping noble blood pure to outright slaughter to any new magical blood something that in the long run would destabilise the country
A few words here and there, a whisper about this or that and his own talent and magical power would of been more than enough to sway them, Tom had an advantage he wasn't sure canon Tom figured out till later on but his middle name was one that was distinctly wizard in nature
Marvolo after all is not a common muggle name with such a name he could certainly get an in as a half blood or even a new pureblood with magical grandparents if he played his cards right
The other house he could no doubt enter was Ravenclaw he was in his humble opinion most likely the most intelligent student to ever enter Hogwart's and he would only be getting smarter as time moved on
It would made him mostly go under the radar if it wasn't again for his talent and magical power it would also put him in neutral grounds when it comes to the students which was something that would make other students of all the houses feel little to no pressure when it came to interacting with him
If he was Slytherin it would be with mild difficulty that he would become the ruler of the entire house within a year or two top's but even with the current lack of sheer hate and disregard towards muggleborns and half-bloods the house was still seen as the house of darker wizards and witches it had not yet gained the reputation it had after Voldemort's first reign
It should come as no surprise however that the moment the sorting hat touched his head and told him that he could be great in Slytherin and Ravenclaw but that Ravenclaw's had their own dorms so students could study without distraction that his choice was made
So yeah Tom Marvolo Riddle first year Ravenclaw, currently being touted as the best of his year, a genius not seen since Dumbledore was a student.
He had everyone eating out of his palm, it was frankly annoying and amusing at the same time.
Derek Haleln had not been a social butterfly during that life I only had two friends and everyone else were insignificant to him, he had never been the most emotional.
Oh he could understand emotions, could tell what others were feeling to with a disturbing degree of accuracy and he had no issues with using that information, to get what he wanted.
Of course he had also a recluse and did not care for anything outside of his own agency, of being in control of himself, knowing that everything he does and would do the good and the bad were because of himself was a comfort.
It was a safety blanket if you will.
He felt emotions, but they were dull. He did not feel to the same extent as most the average person did and even during his past life he could push emotions away if they bothered him and let cold logic guide him.
As he was now, with magic literally enhancing him, making him more him.
His emotional control was something he had learned early on in this life to control his magic.
He stopped his thoughts, he was getting side tracked, back to thing that started all this.
As Derek he did not have the power he did now, he was limited in scope of what he could achieve even if he wanted too. The risks of getting caught if he went to far were too high.
Here however Tom now had magic, he had personal power to shift reality to his will.
He was more than he once was.
So despite how easy it was to manipulate everyone and that he could achieve his goal in a single year, he decided to be subtle.
Nothing intrusive, nothing that could make anyone second guess him, just little comments here and there, some rumours about this or that when needed about himself to make his perfect image seem more real.
If he was in control of what was said about him the good and the bad, he could make the bad seem so fake that it made people assume whoever started it was just jealous of him.
His goal was to cultivate the same image he had at the orphanage of a strange, smart but independent boy, someone everyone loves, of someone who was more.
One who would help you if you asked but in doing so you would end up feeling bad for wasting his precious time of course the only price was Tom asking for a favour later on down the line something easily given.
It would take a good while to actually cultivate said image if he wanted it to be solid, but even now only a handful of months into the year he had his own year group including some of the more progressive Slytherin's coming to him.
Whenever he was in the library which was not for studying like others thought but rather for the sole purpose of helping others.
He had the room of requirement for reading, it had access to any book that had ever been inside the castle, including the restricted section.
He was not deluded enough to assume some of the others were trying to gauge him, in fact some of the more political families children had clearly had some training.
However they were just that children and as time passed and they started to see just how great Tom Riddle the mysterious orphan was, how he seemed to know everything and never failed.
How the first year Tom seemed to live and breathe magic, a talent like his surely could not come from a mudblood but with his name he clearly wasn't a pureblood.
All sorts of rumours were going around about him, of course Tom himself was setting up a few of them.
It never hurt to have control over what was said about you.
As he said before it would take time and there would be some who would see Tom gathering power and try to leach it or even go against him something he would of already faced if he had been in Slytherin.
Again however these who saw it were children, the older years would ignore it simply because he was a first year.
It would easier as the years go by as not only would he be older but next year he would have a fresh group of first years to 'help'.
Then it was just repeat year after year, maybe he would set up some sort of group? for studying perhaps?
He would decide on it when he felt it was time.
Sitting a large room full of bookshelves Tom could be seen hunching over thick tome.
His dark eyes gleamed as they took in and let his mind absorb the information written down.
It was an old book from around 1242, by a Wilfred Gregath. The book talked about the difference between average wizards, skilful wizards and powerful wizards.
It had captured his interests as he had overheard a Ravenclaw sixth year complaining about not being able to learn non-verbal magic.
The discussion that girl had with her friend revealed that some wizards and witches just could not learn it, as though it was beyond them.
Tom had been doing non-verbal and wandless magic since he was practically in nappies and with his wand? Magic had never been easier.
Either way the book delved deeper in a theory on just why the average wizard or witch struggled with non-verbal magic so much, and why some just could not learn it.
Wilfred had wrote during his time he only knew twelve wizards and witches from his year group at Hogwarts who managed to learn non-verbal magic.
Tom had compared that to his time's statistics and found that only three students every couple year's found it completely impossible.
It lead him to the conclusion that over time the general level of skill the average wizard or witch was capable of has increased.
Back to the reason behind it all.
The author went on to further describe, each person has a certain innate talent and skill with magic and some are just inherently better than others.
Some were just so good at magic that they could do things that other wizards and witches simply could not do, no matter how hard they tried.
They understood magic on a different level, similar to how say an skilled athlete was just better at their chosen sport than other people.
Magic was the same.
Further reading through similar books had also verified something.
The average wizards skill with magic was getting higher over time. Over eight hundred years ago the average wizard could not do non-verbal magic.
Now however it was standard, the average wizard go do so with little difficulty after intense study and practice.
A skilled wizard of eight hundred years ago could do non-verbal magic, a skilled wizard of today could do point-casting and wandless if they bothered to learn and hone it.
Point-casting is where one casts the magic without the wand motions and we all know what wandless magic is.
Point-casting had only been discovered around 1583 and implemented at Hogwarts in 1587 almost a century before the International Statue of Secrecy became a thing.
Hogwart's to this day however still does not have a wandless magic class, a skilled witch or wizard of today could if they put in the work learn to do things without a wand but it would be magnitudes weaker and more unreliable than if they chose to use their wand.
It led Tom to believe that there was a certain qualitive increase in the modern time wizards.
Tom was unsure if it was due to magic being more understood now or that we now knew more than the wizards of the past did, or that we have better teaching methods.
The exact reason was unknown to him.
Perhaps it was a combination of these factors? maybe it was even the periodic influx of new magical blood from muggleborns?
Some serious research would need to be done to find an answer, however despite the interest Tom did not care that much about it.
No he cared more about the section that spoke of Talent, Skill and Power. A tingle ran through him as he reread the section, he was right, he was better than the other wizards and witches.
His talent with magic when compared to their own was like comparing a drop of water to the ocean or rather one could say, It was the difference between heaven and earth.
Ok he couldn't help the chuckle that left him at the thought, now all he needed was to go around walk near someone brush up against them and then ask righteously if they are courting death by touching this Young Master.
Young Master Tom Riddle.
An amused smirk rested on his face, he closed the book.
His thoughts twisted his magic listened and the book raised and was sent back to it's correct place.
Simple thing to do but none the less it pleased him using his magic even when it was for something small.
The rush of power whenever he connected and used his magic had nothing to do with it.
He got up and another thought twisted reality to his wishes and suddenly he knew the time.
Which brought up another thought, he had been here a while now and had not seen anyone use magic to check the time.
He sought the spell out in both the library and ROR but found nothing, even making mention of how useful it would be to have a spell that could tell him the time around older students and professor's returned nothing but thoughtful look's.
In the end Tom had to devise and create his own.
His spell which he had named Tempus after the one used in all of those fanfictions, he used it simply because he had been annoyed at it not existing did not make the time appear in front of you in some mist.
There weren't that many spells that give or displayed information directly at least not ones that were much more complex than anything you'd learn in your first few years at Hogwarts.
For a few example's,
Specialis Revelio is an information gathering spell, that shows magical properties of ingredients and objects. One could also use it to check for what enchantments or other spells are on an object, item or person though there are counter spells that prevent it, from working.
There is also the Point me spell, which makes the wand act like a compass with it pointing north including an adapted variant Hermione Granger makes that let's the caster point it to anything and then there's the Priori Incantato, which shows the last spell cast with a wand.
There is the Protean charm, which works kind of like quantum entanglement, where two objects are linked together and the information about any change to one object is transferred to the other. This was the same charm that Hermione in canon used on the DA coins and the original Tom Riddle had used to help create his dark marks.
There was also some other spells that gather and display or relayed information.
He was thinking of Homenum Revelio which shows all humans near the person who cast the spell, or the supersensory charm which improves the senses. Finally I believe there's also some kind of spell to detect both magical and muggle disguises, which is used by the Ministry at their entrance and Gringotts have their own Thief's Downfall that works on similar principle's.
They mostly delivered the information directly into the casters head, his tempus charm did the same thing.
It delivered the time in a form the user would understand the easiest directly into their head.
The time was currently 21:45, he had fifteen minutes to get to the Ravenclaw common room, not that hard he knew enough shortcuts to get their in under ten.
That was actually one of his more pressing priorities, he wanted to map Hogwarts.
He knew the Marauder's did it with some impressive magic.
The magic used in the map's creation is advanced and impressive especially for a students; it included the Homonculous Charm and a few other nameless charms, enabling the possessor of the map to track the movements of every person in the castle.
Stepping into an alcove and tapping his finer against a specific brick thrice the wall opened up revealing a staircase that went upwards.
Minutes later Tom exited from the other side of the stairs somehow ending up on the fifth floor despite the fact he had been on the seventh and gone up on the stairs, magic was funny that way.
Continuing his walk Tom thought on his goal's, all he really wanted was the be the greatest version of himself.
To be so powerful that no one could oppose him, that no one could stop him from doing whatever it was he wanted to do.
In other words; Complete Freedom.
He did not desire to be a dark lord but he was not opposed to becoming one if it was needed for his goal's and even if it did happen he was the heir of Salazar Slytherin.
That gave him substantial influence if he played his card's right, him not being in his ancestors house would be seen as a blight but he could work around that, after all a truly cunning person does not want to be known as cunning.
His own magical prowess alone would guarantee that people would listen to him, some would even start to follow him.
But he was getting ahead of himself, as of right now he was only an eleven year old boy. Albeit a very talented and incredibly brilliant boy but still just a boy.
No one would take him seriously as just a kid despite his clear superiority.
Reaching the corridor that hold the entrance to the Ravenclaw dormitory, Tom cleared his mind of all of those thoughts.
Using the knocker, the raven resting above it spoke.
"I turn around once. What is out will not get in. I turn around again. What is in will not get out. What am i?" The voice was playfully dry and became quiet as Tom thought on the riddle
It was obvious, "You are a Key." His voice cut into the silence and the doorway swung open.
A small small on his face Tom walked into the tower.
Author Notes-
Manage to find the drive to write this somehow...
As usual, I will continue to warn you I am an incredibly unreliable writer/author and it is highly likely the stories I write will never be finished or completed in any capacity. Therefore if any of my work inspires anyone feel free to write your own. - X