Tom didn't talk to anyone for a few days, instead staying in the Slytherin Common Room or hiding in the library, which was abandoned now that their midterms were done. When he finally did there was a clear chill in the air between him and Tammy and she was short with him, and he was quiet in turn. If anyone else was wondering what had happened, they didn't voice it and Mia had put on a brave face and continued on as if nothing had changed. While it was nice to have more people he knew around during Christmas, the unease definitely made his memories of the year before fonder- especially since he had to share the Slytherin Common Room with the other snakes who had stayed.
The chill continued on after the winter holidays and into the start of classes- Tom knew that perhaps what he should try to do was open up and try to be more present and friendly with them, but the harder he tried to the harder it was and the more he felt himself retreating inwards, his chest tight and stomach in knots when he contemplated things to say or how to add to the group. No one kicked him out or became nasty with him, but it was like there was a wall there between them and Tom, one that no matter how hard he wanted to climb over, it felt too tall. Their study group continued meeting once classes began again, but Tom found himself hurrying to leave class once it ended or taking longer than necessary and Tammy and Mia stopped waiting by the door for him. If he had a class with the Gryffindors, Chadwick would be there occasionally, but it was hard to know what the other boy was thinking and it also became clear that Chadwick was trying to be more present for Lyall, who also seemed to be avoiding them. Occasionally Sable, Delany or even Avery would walk with him, but he had the distinct feeling it was out of sheer spite to Nott than any desire to be around Tom.
He wondered if it was just him. He was a freak at the orphanage, but even at Hogwarts it felt like he'd never be able to overcome that legacy he was making for himself. Perhaps people like him weren't meant to have friends. He'd always done fine on his own- adults had always praised him for being so quiet and self-sufficient. Able to excel past the group and do whatever was put in front of him, needing little to no assistance, and maybe that was what he was meant to be doing at Hogwarts as well.
The only thing that gave him any sort of reprieve in the tangle of thoughts that seemed to cloud his brain was when post would arrive from Jack. He'd contemplated telling Jack about what had happened and asking his advice, but worried that he'd muck up the relationship with his only remaining friend.
The best gift he got, and Tom definitely counted it as both a Christmas present and a Birthday present, the first he'd ever received as Tom hadn't thought to mention it to anyone at Hogwarts, Jack sent him towards the end of January. Their letters were usually only a few sheets back and forth, but when the Chadwick's owl dropped this particular envelope in front of him, it was hefty. Tom expected it to include more newspaper articles, but instead it was stacks of messily scribbled notes.
Tom,
I didn't want to tell you what I was up to and get your hopes up in case I wasn't able to find squat, but I came across an article talking about a man named Lord Riddle, Viscount of Hangleton just after Christmas and it took me ages to finish copying everything down. I didn't know if it was your family at first, but then I found an article in the paper about the son being named Thomas Riddle and it was just too close, you know?
I asked the librarian in case she would know where else to look and I found some old books on how the family was granted their lordship and estate, but that was about it- sorry if any of it is hard to read, it was a chore.
Best,
Jack
Tom felt his breath catch in his throat and was glad it was a Saturday, because he would have surely gone mad if he'd had to wait to peruse what Jack had sent over. He immediately gave up on breakfast and headed to the library and tucked himself away in a small nook of the library and carefully fingered through each piece of paper.
True to his word, most of it was actually quite hard to read- it was clear after the first few pages Jack had become overwhelmed with the quantity that he was trying to copy down and had forgone the quality of his writing, but Tom was able to just barely read most of it.
Most of the articles that Jack had copied said very little about the family itself- it was just brief references to how certain lords were casting their votes in Parliament and little referred to anything but "Viscount Hangleton," or "Lord Riddle" in the first bit.
There was one article where Jack copied down "Lord Thomas Riddle" underlining the name several times, but then another article talking about the engagement of "Viscount of Hangleton's Son and Heir" to another woman in 1929. That article didn't leave a name for the son, largely preferring to talk about the Riddle family's title and wealth and the poor woman's lack of title, but extensive wealth.
Jack included notes that he couldn't find any wedding announcements though, and would keep looking, but by the time Tom reached the end of the piles and piles of notes and chicken scratch that the writing boiled down to, he'd missed lunch.
Tom had tried his hand at finding books on wizarding families the year prior, but hadn't found the name Gaunt among any of the one's he'd searched through- except in passing in a list of the twenty-eight notorious pureblood families of the United Kingdoms. However, there were wizarding histories of the different counties in the library, and based on one of the articles, the Riddles had their ancestral home in Little Hangleton.
It was too bad, Jack explained after the article of the engagement, that there was little else except more references of Lord Riddle in the House of Lords up until 1935, but nothing newer than that. However, he could't find any indication where Little Hangleton even was. Tom had to suck up his pride and courage and seek out Madame McDermott and inquire about it. The head librarian summoned several thick scrolls and Tom unfurled them under her watchful eye and scanned them- The map was clearly older and hand drawn- but Tom saw that the letters seemed to be hovering on the parchment, bobbing and swaying gently, obviously enchanted. He started searching each section of the map methodically- he quickly realized he didn't know if the Riddles were Scottish and therefore started in the northwestern most part of Great Britain and worked his way outward.
There was no mention of a Hangleton anywhere in Scotland, but as he continued working south over the map, he noticed the word "Great Hangleton" hovering on the paper just southwest of Middlesbrough. He skimmed the rest of the map but didn't see any other mention of Hangleton anywhere and gladly handed the maps back over to McDermott and hurried over to the history section where A Wizarding History of Great Britain, Volumes I through XII took up two whole shelves.
Each of the subtitles listed the counties that were contained in the volumes, but given Great Hangleton had been in Yorkshire, he moved for the twelfth volume first. Each of the books were hefty and Tom had to use both hands to pull the book from the shelf and as he dragged it back to where he'd been set up with all of Jack's letters and his bag, he had a thought come to mind.
What if his parents had met in London? Or another large city, like Middlesbrough? Just because the Riddles were located in Hangleton didn't mean the Gaunts would be, but he already had the book out and he had no better leads and didn't particularly have the time to read through every page in each of the twelve volumes hoping to find Gaunt because the author had decided an index was not necessary.
Tom knew this because he'd tried to look through a few of them the year prior and he'd found nothing.
The book slammed into the table with a loud thud and Tom winced, pausing and waiting to hear if McDermott would come running, but it was still quiet in the library. He flipped the book open and looked at the table of contents listed at the front until he found the page that Great Hangleton was listed under and flipped to the section.
Hangleton was not an old village by England's standards. The book mentioned the entire area was made up of rural farmlands and sparsely populated, located roughly twenty miles from Middlesbrough, nestled between the North York Moors and the Yorkshire Dales. The "town" had started with just an inn and a pub for the longest time, set between two different wizarding lordships who owned the lands. The first family listed was the Halcyons, whose seat was located in Middlesbrough to the northeast. Apparently the family had died out and the land had been seized by the muggles- The Ministry had eventually found the closest relative to bestow the lordship to, but by then the land had been occupied. Tom wondered if this was how the Riddles had come into possession of it- but the next paragraph caught his eye immediately.
The lands to the south of the main thoroughfare had once been a sprawling estate of the Gaunts. However, due to a series of poor choices, the Gaunts were forced to sell off portions of the land bit by bit until it came down to only a few dozen acres. There had once been a large mansion in the easternmost part of the estate, but it was part of a parcel that had been sold in 1695. The remainder of the once grand estate, the book explained, was settled in what had developed into a small village on the outskirts of Great Hangleton that had been named Little Hangleton.
"Though one could hardly describe it so much as an estate now- though it still sits on a fertile plot of land not too far from the village center, the small hut is more of a shack than an actual building."
While the Halcyons had several paragraphs about them, the rest of the chapter for Great Hangleton appeared to be dedicated to the history of the Gaunts, with only a few other paragraphs at the end that discussed other lesser known wizarding families who had lived in the area.
The Gaunts descended from several other high-profile wizarding families, but their greatest claim to fame was that they were the only known remaining descendants of Salazar Slytherin. In the earlier parts of their history, which the author admitted to not knowing the exact dates on, the family had been wealthy landowners, renting the land out and conducting farmland and agriculture for trade. Unlike the Halcyons, the Gaunts had two whole pages dedicated just for their family tree, showing the absurd connections they'd shared, families they were descended from or connected to by marriage. Outside of recognizing a few of the surnames from some of his fellow students, he didn't recognize too many of the other names.
The only remaining member of the Gaunt family that remained was Morfin Gaunt, who had been unable to claim the Lordship in full after his father's death in 1928, though the book didn't state why. A strange chill went up the back of Tom's spine when he read the name Marvolo Gaunt above Morfin's name. A birth year, but no death date was found under Morfin's name, and there, right besides Morfin, was the name Merope Gaunt. The words directly beneath read, "b. March, 1907, d. est. 1926-1927"
Tom leaned back, staring at the family tree, still taking in everything. His mother, who Mrs. Cole had said was named Merope, had named him for his father and his grandfather. Tom Marvolo Riddle. There was a muggle family with the name Thomas Riddle with a muggle lordship in Little Hangleton. And not only that, the Gaunts were descended from Salazar Slytherin.
It was like there was a slight ringing in his ears as he stared at the date of death under Marvolo's name in the book- 1928. It was mocking him, almost. His father, or at least his potential father, was still alive from the looks of it, along with his uncle. And his grandfather had been alive when Tom had been born- left orphaned. He felt a sudden anger roll over in his stomach and he took a breath, trying to calm it. It was possible that none of them had known about him, but why? Why wouldn't Merope have told at least one of them? What had happened? Something must have for her to end up at Wool's, leaving him there with nothing but a name.
He wrote a few notes down- names and dates, and as much of the family tree as he could fit on the paper. He found it odd that in several spots, no parents or other family members were listed for the wife- in other spots the tree sprawled with parents, siblings, even occasionally nieces and nephews, while others didn't even bother to mention a maiden name. He didn't dwell on it though and eventually closed the book, debating levitating it, and then deciding against it. Normally he would have placed books he was finished with on the cart, but given he'd already pestered McDermott several times, he thought better of it and took the book back to where he found it and shelved it himself before looking for several of the books on the founders of the school.
Tom found every book that had more than just a chapter written on the wizard and began devouring it. It seemed depending on the author, they either revered him, or villainized him. Most of the basic information had been covered in Hogwarts, A History, and agreed with the rest of the basic facts of the books he was finding.
Salazar Slytherin was born in the early 10th century and was a pure-blood wizard from Ireland. He was a remarkable wizard by all accounts- he was considered one of the most cunning men of his time. Tom had read through information about Slytherin, but as he looked at each of the books he kept seeing the man described as one of the most skilled wizards in the art of legilimency and as a parselmouth.
He'd seen and read both the words in passing before, but hadn't seen either of them explained before originally. He'd managed to find an explanation on the legilimency in another book later in his first year, but hadn't seen any explanations for what a parselmouth was. However, one of the books expanded on it.
A parselmouth was a wizard or witch who possessed the ability to speak parseltongue, which consisted of hissing sounds similar to that of snakes- another chill crept up the back of his neck and Tom swallowed as he backtracked and read the paragraph again from the beginning. According to the book, the ability was largely hereditary and the majority of Slytherin's descendants carried the ability and treasured it- not only because it gave them the ability to talk to snakes, but all forms of serpentine creatures, including magical serpents. Apparently Slytherin was known to breed basilisks and one of the books showed old renditions of the family crest drawn with a basilisk.
Tom thought back on what the sorting hat had said- Hadn't the hat said something to the effect of Salazar would be upset if he was put anywhere but Slytherin? He'd never thought about the comment too much before- he'd assumed that it was just something the Sorting Hat would say, he couldn't imagine that a hat had many opportunities to make conversation.
He began making notes, not unlike a pro and con list from what he was finding out about Slytherin, some of the books hailed him as revolutionary and that his special abilities and familiar were signs of a folk hero and a genius, while other books talked extensively on his beliefs of blood purity. Several of the books tried to claim that Slytherin was the ring leader for the beginning of the blood purity movement, while others barely touched on it.
Tom's head hurt and he looked up at the clock, realizing he's spent almost the entire day tucked away in the library on an almost-empty stomach and picked a few of the books to check out to finish reading through.
If the Gaunts had been as intense as some of the other Slytherins were about being a pure-blood versus a half-blood or muggleborn, then perhaps that was why Merope had fled away from her family- they may have known about him, or rather that she was pregnant, and disowned her, which brought some of the anger back again.
Did his father also know about him? While he hadn't been surprised there had been no mention of the Riddle family in the text, if Merope had been married to Riddle, then wouldn't her name have shown as Merope RIddle, and not Merope Gaunt? The article Jack mentioned had said his father was engaged to another woman, but that had been in 1928.
Merope Gaunt had no lands or money to her name, if the book had stated the truth, but she did have a title, albeit a wizarding one. Perhaps that hadn't been good enough for the Riddle family, while being a muggle hadn't been good enough for the Gaunts. It seemed either way, Tom had lost the most in all of it and he didn't know how to feel about either side, except maybe a bit sad for his mother, who had been stuck between it all.
A/N: Were the Riddles Lords? I don't know, it was never mentioned so fuck it. Now they are. Also- had a thought about the implications of Merope trying to use a drunken one-night stand to convince Tom Sr to marry her- We know Tom Sr in the book never married. Turns out that divorce was only allowed in the UK in the 1920s if it was a case of adultery. Tom Sr probably didn't know what happened to Merope or if she lived or died, or he probably would have remarried. In this case they never got married and probably was easier for the family to sweep under the rug.
