AN: After working on this on and off since 2013 and it being my April 2014 Camp Nano novel, I finally am starting to post it! I just woke up today and rapid fire managed to work out some plot kinks, so here we go! You can find the old April summary and campnanowrimo / campers / rynthewin / novels/ the-betrayer.

Summary: Tom Riddle does not understand love or friendship—the expensive psychologists his dentist parents paid for could attest to that. However, he had been taught things he could understand: loyalty, paying people back for their aid, and helping people who can help you. So when Harry Potter is killed in the Dark Lady's revival, Tom prepares a plan to save Harry so that he can defeat her once and for all as per the prophecy. However, Ron's grief-fueled mess up of the plan led them back unprepared to the school days of Hermione Granger.

However, plans that Tom and Ron had not been aware of has left Harry alive and in Dumbledore's care. Harry goes back into the past to bring his best friends back, However…

"Over her school years. Miss Granger learned to tell people what they wanted to hear," said Dumbledore, "and she was very passionate about her campaign. That was what made her rise to power so insidious. She could convince people that they were saving themselves, their families, their lives, and liberating them from the Statute of Secrecy. She truly saw Muggles as tyrants, and she was good at convincing others of the same. And for those that didn't care or disagreed, well, she offered them power, recognition of their talents, or outlets for their cruelty…"

The tournament cup was supposed to portkey the champion to a platform in front of the crowd of students anxiously awaiting to see which school would win. However, the excitement and anticipation of the students began to fade and morph into concern as Fleur Delacour and Viktor Krum left the maze, but Cedric Diggory and Harry Potter never arrived. It only seemed to grow as the assembled staff began to get up and enter the maze personally.

"C'mon, let's get closer to the exit," said Ron, and the slight drop in his voice indictated his obvious concern. Tom wasn't terribly worried, but he nodded and followed Ron down the stadium stairs, weaving through the thick crowd of students the milled around. The questions everyone asked each other all seemed to be the same: where was Potter and Diggory? The two fourth years reached the edge of the stands closest to the maze entrance. From this vantage point they could see McGonagall speaking with Madam Maxine, and both of them separating to go into opposite directions of the maze.

"Harry probably got tangled in something dangerous, and Diggory stopped to help him. He'll be fine. Madam Pomfrey is right there, and a St. Mungo's mediwizard is right next to her. Besides, I've been training him all year on how to deal with potentially dangerous situations. He'll be fine," said Tom, gesturing over to where the green-robed mediwizard and Hogwart's healer stood by the platform. Tom was saying it more to reassure Ron than himself-he had a feeling that it wasn't quite that simple of an explanation, now that all the teachers were getting fidgety-but Ron wanted the assurance and seemed to relax a bit. But not completely. They both were aware of just how much trouble Harry Potter could get himself into. When Harry came back and told him about something else insane, he'd buy a leash for him and Ron to keep them close and out of trouble.

There was the loud crack of Apparition, and everyone turned to see that Professor Dumbledore had appeared next to the champion's platform. He looked ashen, and each of his hands was holding onto the wrist of a sprawled out body on the grass next to him.

"Harry!" shouted Ron, both of them recognizing the person laying on Dumbledore's left side. Ron all but climbed over the parition, and Tom shoved about a dozen students to the ground-as if he cared if he hurt them, he owed them no loyalty-as he hurried out and ran towards the group. Tom's stomach dropped to the ground even before he managed to run over, as Madam Pomfrey had knelt next to Harry and put her hand over her mouth in shock and distress. Laid out on the ground, Madam Pomfrey looks horrified but isn't moving to heal him, and Professor Dumbledore's expression...ran through Tom's head like a mental checklist.

But Tom didn't even have time to make the mental calculations of what that could all mean before both of the boys ran over to Harry and found Harry with his green eyes staring blankly, as if he'd just been surprised unexpectedly.

"What happened?" demanded Tom of Dumbledore, spinning on him as Ron chokingly repeated Harry's name over and over again. Tom didn't know what he was feeling-it was mostly anger, followed by shock and then a cold fury that someone had dared kill someone that was his. "What happened to him?!" he shouted over the teachers who were trying to speak to Dumbledore, pushing them aside so that Dumbledore would have to look at him and address him.

He expected Dumbledore to ignore him as usual, but he turned his attention to Tom. He looked sad and old, something that he'd associated with the headmaster. "The Dark Lady has been resurrected. I was too late arriving, and-"

Dumbledore didn't even get to finish his sentence before the people within hearing distance of him began to panic. Tom didn't even mind Dumbledore's obvious dismissal as he turned his attention to the Diggorys-Tom realized then that Cedric Diggory was also dead, but he didn't care about that except that it only painfully reinforced that Harry had been murdered, and by the bane of the wizarding world for the past several decades. Resurrected. She was back.

He felt someone put a hand on his shoulder, and he normally would have jerked away, but he heard, "Mr. Riddle, Professor Dumbledore has asked me to take you and Mr. Weasley to my office." He looked over and the normally stern and cool woman was clearly holding back tears.

"No, I won't leave him!" shouted Ron, and that was clear even amidst all the chaos and that feeling of dissociation Tom was experiencing.

He reached out and grabbed Ron's wrist. "Ron, you can't do anything for Harry here. We should go with Professor McGonagall and figure out what to do."

"What can we do!?" demanded Ron, grief morphing into anger.

Tom ignored him, looking down at Harry's corpse staring with hazy green eyes, and the feeling of being removed from reality began to burn away-in not hot anger, but something cold and nasty that Tom knew would simmer. And he'd happily use it as fuel. "There's always something we can do. We have before, and we can again," he told Ron, and he couldn't hide his anger at the feeling of someone having stolen something that was his, someone he'd been bound to be loyal to for saving his life. He kept his promises and followed his own code of ethics, and he would now too, dead or no.

Ron looked at him, his face as red as his hair and tear-streaked. Ron had always been spooked when Tom hadn't been able to hide his real feelings in the past, or had guessed he was lying, and this had been a source of contention for years between the two of them, with Harry in the middle trying to placate them both.

But there was no Harry anymore. And Ron, rather than being repulsed, nodded jerkily, wiping his face as he stood up to follow the deputy headmistress.

Tom turned his head to look at Professor McGonagall, but his eyes instead met Professor Dumbledore's. The headmaster looked wary and distrustful, the sparkle in his eyes gone not just from the deaths.

"Mr. Riddle, do not do anything rash," said Professor Dumbledore as the two boys left to go, and then immediately turned back to dealing with the terrified crowd.

I'll do what's necessary, thought Tom, more stalking behind Professor McGonagall than walking.