Title: Praeter erratum praeter

Disclaimer: I don't owe any of the characters you may recognise from Rowling's books. (to bad really)

Beta: kalathetrumpeter

Warning: Some of the characters will be OOC, especially Tom. If you don't like it, don't read the story...

Summary: A youth potion gives Riddle more trouble than he'd expected. First the Death Eaters refuse to take orders from a 16 year-old-boy and Lucius decides to take over, throwing Riddle out onto the streets. Then he ends up at Hogwarts. "Doesn't everyone deserve a second chance, Tom?" Dumbledore asked.

A/N: Okay, here's the next chapter. Review responds are, as usual, in my LiveJournal. If that bothers anyone, please let me know. Tom is as usual OOC, though, I'm trying to change that, but I fail every time I try. Sorry.

Chapter 12

"Ready?" Dumbledore asked.

They were standing in his office, getting ready for the interrogation. Riddle was dressed completely in black. He was wearing black robes, and a black cloak hung around his neck, the hood drawn up to cover his face.

Dumbledore, on the other hand, was dressed in light blue robes, which made his sharp eyes seem even bluer. On his head there was a blue hat, which Riddle thought would have looked better on a scarecrow. The hat was covered with small stars, which all were smiling brightly at him, and some of them were even winking at him. Riddle shuddered. The hat was truly horrible.

He tore his gaze away from the nasty, winking hat, and looked Dumbledore in the eye.

"Let's get it over with," he muttered. He wasn't at all keen on meeting the Minister. Cornelius Fudge had been a pain in the ass for long as Riddle could remember. Not to mention that the man was incompetent and stupid, and it was still a mystery to Riddle how the man had been elected Minister in the beginning. It was a wonder that the Wizard World hadn't been discovered by the muggles yet, with that man running the show.

Riddle stepped inside the fireplace in Dumbledore's office. He dropped the powder and shouted, "The Ministry of Magic!" Immediately the world started spinning, and Riddle frowned. He hated travelling with Floo, it was so messy.

Riddle landed in a heap on the floor in the Ministry Hall, covered in dust and ashes. He quickly got to his feet, and made a mental note to himself to never wear white clothes when travelling by Floo.

Before he could get a chance to look around, two Aurors came out of nowhere and grabbed him by his arms. They magically tied his hands behind his back. Riddle growled silently in frustration, but he didn't do anything as the two Aurors searched him for his wand, which he hadn't brought with him. Once they were finished, they let go of his arms and turned towards the fireplace, where Dumbledore suddenly had showed up.

"I'm sure that this can't be necessary." Dumbledore said, as he saw Riddle and the two Aurors.

"The Minister had ordered it," the tallest of the Aurors explained, giving Riddle a nasty glare.

"Oh, let's just get this over with," Riddle hissed, and looked around, trying to find out where they were going. He had no plans to stay in the building any longer than necessary.

The Aurors nodded and led the way down one of the hallways. It was dark, and was clearly going underground.

Dumbledore gave Riddle a gentle pushed and a reassuring nod, and Riddle walked after the Aurors. He didn't like this one bit, although Dumbledore seemed to be in a good mood. Then again, was there a time when Dumbledore wasn't in a good mood?

They walked down the corridor in complete silence. After a while, Riddle recognised the corridor as the one that led underground to the integration room.

The Aurors stopped before a heavy oak door and motioned for Riddle and Dumbledore to go inside. They entered, and Riddle quickly understood that he had been tricked. This wasn't a normal interrogation; this was a full-scale trial.

He took an involuntary step back, and his eyes darted sceptically around the room.

In the centre of the room there was a chair with magical chains, which was where the accused was seated. The court members would sit above, overlooking the chair in the judge's balcony. At the moment, there were about 50 people seated there. They were all staring at Riddle with different degrees of anger, hate, surprise, and disbelief. Riddle mentally smiled. Well, they had good reasons to be angry at him. He had most likely killed some of their dear once, and now they wanted revenge. As for the surprise and disbelief, he guessed they hadn't expected him to look like a 16 year-old boy.

The walls where covered in dark stones, and the ceiling was placed high up. The only source of light came from the torches on the wall, which gave the room a dim light. It wasn't a room someone would call cosy, or friendly. It was made to make the accused nervous, and to scare those who already were scared. Not that any of that had any effect on Riddle.

The two guards shoved Riddle, none too gently, into the chair, and the chains immediately came to life, binding him tightly.

Riddle felt a small wave of panic as the chains tightened. He had never thought he'd someday end up in the Wizengamot. It had never occurred to him that the Ministry might someday catch him. The thought had been ridiculous, but yet here he was, chained to a chair. And his list of crimes had most likely developed into a two-meter long parchment roll.

The Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge, entered and everyone, except Riddle, who was still tied to the chair, stood.

Fudge nodded to the jury before approaching Riddle.

"I never thought I'd see the day," Fudge was grinning like an idiot, but Riddle could see that he was surprised by his appearance.Apparently Dumbledore had forgotten to tell the man that Riddle looked like his younger self again.

Riddle frowned and muttered, "Neither did I,"

Fudge picked up a vial from his pockets and held it in front of Riddle's eyes.

He smirked, "Open wide."

"Veritaserum?" Riddle asked, eying the vial suspiciously. It contained a blank liquid, which reminded Riddle all too well about the truth serum the Ministry used during their trials. He had often used it on his followers when he thought they were hiding something from him. Though, he had never tried it himself.

"Yes, now open up."

Riddle sighed and opened his mouth. Fudge poured the liquid into his mouth with a satisfying smirk that made Riddle furious. As he swallowed the potion a warm feeling started spreading through his body, making his brain go numb. He could still hear and see everything that was going on around him, but it felt like he was watching from outside a window.

The Minister picked up a parchment roll and started reading, "Tom Marvolo Riddle, you are accused of having murdered and tortured numerous people…"

Riddle sighed as the list went on. It took the Minister almost ten minutes to get through the whole list, and when he reached the end of it Riddle sighed in relief.

Then they went on to the question-and-answer part.

"What is you name?" The Minister asked, and Riddle could feel himself answering.

"Tom Marvolo Riddle."

"And you were the Dark Lord Vo-Voldemort?"

Riddle smiled slightly. The Minister couldn't even say his name without stuttering.

"Yes."

"And you confess that you have tortured and murdered nearly one hundred people?"

"Eh…I never counted how many, but I guess it's around 100, or more."

A collective gasp went through the jury, and many of them started whispering furiously to the person next to them.

Fudge turned and glared at the jury to make them shut up. They settled down and closed their mouths.

"How did you regain you younger body?" The Minister asked as soon as he had regained calmness in the room.

Ah, that was a question Riddle would gladly have given his right arm to avoid answering. But the potion was still working, and Riddle opened his mouth to answer. He told them how he'd spent a year, researching on youth potions to find one that allowed him to keep his powers on the same level. That he'd then used another three months to brew the potion.

A mumbling went trough the crowd of people when Riddle stopped, and there was a brief silence before the Minister spoke again.

"Why did you take Dumbledore's offer?"

Riddle sighed. Thankfully, the Minister hadn't asked how he'd ended up on Hogwarts.

He had expected the Minister to ask him why he'd accepted Dumbledore's offer, but he didn't know what to answer.

"I don't know," he finally answered.

"You don't know?" the Minister's voice seemed shocked. The answer was obviously not what the man had expected.

"I don't know," Riddle repeated, "I guess I just prefer survival. I'm, after all, the Heir of Slytherin."

The questions continued for nearly two hours before Riddle was given the antidote. During that time, the Minister had called up several witnesses, who had seen the Dark Lord kill their family or beloved once.

Riddle hadn't bothered to point out that he too had the right to call up witnesses in his own defence. After all, whom was he supposed to call up?

In the end, the jury had left to make their decision, and the only one left in the room was the Minister, Dumbledore, and Riddle.

"Well, thank you for your help, Albus, you're free to leave now."

Dumbledore frowned, but his voice was still gentle when he spoke, "Cornelius, Azkaban has no guards since the Dementors left. Wouldn't it be safer if I took him with me back to Hogwarts?"

Riddle frowned in confusion.

"What the hell is going on here?" he suddenly asked, and looked between Dumbledore and Fudge, "You told me I was going to stay at Hogwarts!" he said to Dumbledore, who sighed tiredly.

"That was my plan, yes, but it doesn't seem like Cornelius agrees with me."

"I don't. He's the Dark Lord, and the only place he's going is straight to Azkaban."

"Wanna bet?" Riddle snapped, sound exactly like the teenager he looked like.

Dumbledore looked at him with a look that clearly told Riddle to shut up, which, of course, Riddle ignored.

Fudge was, at the moment, gaping like a fish on land, and Riddle smirked.

"I didn't think so."

"Tom, leave it. Cornelius, I know the jury will declare him guilty, but I still think it would be better to keep him at Hogwarts. Give me until Christmas to prove it. I take full responsibility for his actions, and if it turns out to be a bad decision, then you can send him to Azkaban. Deal?"

Riddle opened his mouth to protest, but Dumbledore quickly threw a Silence Charm on the Slytherin, to prevent him from ruining his plan.

Fudge seemed to be thinking about the idea. If every think turned out to be a fiasco, then he would have a good reason to get rid of the old Headmaster as well, not only the young Dark Lord. Beside, he really doubted that the wizard guards, whom were now protecting the prison, would be too happy to have the Dark Lord there.

He quickly reached his decision, "Deal. You have until Christmas. If anything goes wrong, then it will be your head on the line. Understood? And you will have to deal with the students' parents. They will most likely be furious when they find out that the Dark Lord is being held at Hogwarts."

"Thank you Minister," Dumbledore smiled. He waved his wand at Riddle, releasing him from the chair.

Riddle stood still, glaring angrily at the Minister and the Headmaster. He wanted to give the Minister a piece of his mind, but he couldn't, seeing how Dumbledore hadn't removed the Silence Charm yet.

"Then we'll be on our way. Bye, Minister. Guess I'll hear from you around Christmas."

"Or sooner," Fudge replied, staring sceptically towards Riddle, who was glaring nastily back at him.

"Let's go, Tom," Dumbledore said, and pushed the youth out the door and towards the fireplace they had used to arrive there.

Dumbledore didn't remove the Silence Charm until they arrived back at Hogwarts, much too Riddle's sorrow.

"That went better than expected," the Headmaster smiled, once he had removed the Silence Charm.

"That wasn't an interrogation, that was a TRIAL!" Riddle nearly screamed, "You said it was an interrogation!"

"I'm sorry, Tom, I honestly didn't know. Cornelius only told me that they would be asking you some questions. But it didn't go that bad."

Riddle glared, "Well, at least you didn't have to listen to two people talking about you over your head!" Riddle muttered angrily, and brushed the dust of his robes.

Dumbledore sighed heavily and removed his cloak, which he hung on a peg on the wall, "Cornelius isn't one of the most understanding people I know, but at least he didn't send you to Azkaban."

Riddle didn't seem impressed by his words, he actually seemed even more furious.

"I'm going to my room," Riddle announced and walked off, leaving Dumbledore alone.

Dumbledore looked at the boy and sighed again.

"Just remember, Tom, that it's up to you if you're going to stay here, or not. Please keep that in mind!" Dumbledore said, just before the door slammed shut behind the Slytherin.

Riddle rubbed his temples as he walked down the corridors. The meeting at the Ministry had given him a headache. Well, luckily for him, Fudge seemed to trust Dumbledore, or else Riddle would have been on his way to Azkaban by now. Or trust was maybe not the correct word. Actually, Fudge seemed to have his mind set on the fact that Riddle would do something stupid and get himself sent to Azkaban. And then the Minister would have a reason to remove Dumbledore from his position as well. Not that Riddle cared. But he didn't want to spend sixty years, or more, in prison.

You know, you should have thanked the old fool, the irritating voice in his head said.

Oh, can't you just shut up! Riddle exclaimed. He hated that voice. It always seemed to be right about everything, and he couldn't remember that it had been in his head when he had been Lord Voldemort.

"Hey, watch it!" The voice ripped Riddle back from his train of thoughts, and he stared into the eyes of Hermione Granger.

"You again!" Riddle snapped, and watched her pick up her books for the second time in two days. Running into her was getting to be a bad habit.

Hermione looked up from her book gathering and asked calmly, "You weren't in class today. Where were you?"

Riddle narrowed his eyes angrily. What in the world had his whereabouts to do with her?

"None of your business!" he hissed angrily, noticing that his angry voice didn't seem to have any effect on her.

"As you wish," Hermione shrugged and walked off.

Riddle moaned silently and rubbed his head. He really needed some headache medicine. Still rubbing his head, he turned and headed towards the Hospital Wing.

"Mr. Riddle," Madam Promfrey smiled when she saw him standing in the doorway, "What can I do for you?"

"I've got a major headache. Is there something you can give me for it?" Riddle flung himself on one of the beds and looked hopefully at her.

"Yes, I'll get you something." She turned around, "Hermione, can you get Mr. Riddle here something for his headache?"

Hermione emerged from the office and smiled, "Of course. Come with me, Riddle."

Riddle stared.

Her again! You got to be kidding, Riddle thought, but he got up and followed her into the office.

"What are you doing here?" he asked as she handed him the vial.

She gave him a small smile before answering, "I'm working here. I wanted to learn more about healing."

She turned and found another vial as well. This one contained a green liquid that looked like it tasted horrible. Riddle wrinkled his nose and wished for the hundredth time that someone could make the medicine potions a bit more palatable. They normally tasted so bad that he wanted to throw up once he'd swallowed one of them.

Hermione handed him the vial with a questionable glint in her eyes. Though, she didn't ask him whatever it was that was on her mind. Instead, she explained what the second vial contained.

"Take this as well. It's a sleeping potion, combined with a headache potion. Take it before you go to bed, okay?"

"Yeah, I'll do that. Thanks," Riddle placed the vial in his pocket and left.

"You're welcome, Tom Riddle," Hermione whispered, and watched the former Dark Lord leave.