Disclaimer: I may have created a few things within this story, but I do not make any money off of this story, and I only claim to truly own the OC. But even then, he's probably not the most original guy out there.

A/N This is a short pilot chapter. It's been slightly revamped since inception, but it's still currently just here to introduce the story and the OC. That's my excuse. Yep. Oh, also, most of the revamping was the addition of world-building exposition, so the balance between exposition and story flow may be a bit off, for which I apologize.
As well, Parseltongue is indicated as §Parseltongue§, and spells are italicized only when spoken.

Enjoy

Ah, how refreshing the train compartments are. The ashy blond teen rolled his eyes. The only thing refreshing about them is the knowledge they're taking him away from his incompetent peers.

With a sigh, he dropped down into the seat next to the window, letting his trunk fall silently to the floor. At least he only had to deal with said peers for two and a half more years. And not all of them were incompetent, just... the vast majority. One would think that after Voldemort's return, the students would have been more efficiently taught, but that didn't end up being the case. Rather, everyone relied on Harry Potter's skill to defeat the Dark Lord - which worked out quite well in the end: Voldemort had certainly been defeated by the surprisingly talented Potter during the anti-climatic scene staged in a graveyard. Anti-climatic because Voldemort hadn't quite expected Potter to be so battle able, and was quickly dispatched in a duel. So the papers told, at least.

In that following summer, Albus Dumbledore make the executive decision to inform the media of Voldemort's horcruxes, thus beginning a short and sweet search and destroy of all five remaining horcruxes - Potter's included. How exactly the Ministry destroyed the horcrux without also destroying the boy was never said: the Department of Mysteries is called so for a reason.

After placing basic sound wards on the compartment, both to block sounds coming in and to block sounds from going out, the teen reached up and took hold of a pendant around his neck, bringing it up to get a better look. It was a simple thing. Nobody would think it more than a trinket. He had been wearing it for three years now. It had almost become part of his image.

A sapphire sat as a four sided star in the center of a silver oval, which had simple filigree designs engraved on the edges. Very simple. But a dark, cruel brat was inside the gem. Voldemort had been killed, there was no doubt about that. Tom Riddle, on the other hand, survived.

Not even a year had passed, and good ol' Marvolo was ready to burst from his chrysalis into a blood curdling beautiful python.

"Calm down Marvolo. We've a couple weeks yet." he said with unveiled amusement. He himself was excited too, though. He never did get to do any fighting last time. He was kept under the radar. Nobody was supposed to know he was related to the dark in any way, after all. Although, if the plan goes right, he was unlikely to do any fighting anyways.

Light annoyance arose from the gem, but it didn't last very long.

Chuckling quietly to himself, he gently dropped the horcrux to lay against his chest. He released the wards on the compartment a few minutes later once remembering that Sirius Black was on the train, someone well versed in magic and could likely sense it. While he probably knew enough from his mother, a dark arts as well as a defense against the dark arts historian, to put up undetectable ones, it's always better to be safe than sorry. He was still under the radar, and drawing attention to himself for having wards up was not preferable.

Much to the teen's displeasure, the door slid open to reveal two people he hadn't expected. Not that he had expected anyone. He was a classic Ravenclaw - he liked to read books and keep to himself.

He raised an eyebrow at the intruders, Harry Potter and Sirius Black themselves, silently questioning their reasoning for disturbing him. He was just about to pull out a new book too, and he couldn't bring that one out with the two light labourers there.

Instead of answering, the dog grinned and hopped in, taking the seat across from him, while Harry sat next to Sirius after closing the door.

"Thanks for letting us join you, Lycus! We needed a place to talk without disturbance and knew you'd be cool with us being here." Sirius said, completely disregarding the bored look on the Ravenclaw's face. Harry was nice enough to shoot him an apologetic look, to which he replied by giving an inaudible sigh, accompanied by a look of understanding. Sirius was granted the right to be annoyingly excited to do most things after thirteen years in Azkaban. It was only fair. It wouldn't surprise Lycus if they had actively sought out his compartment - Sirius had a generous soft spot for the Ravenclaw that found Wormtail in the Forbidden Forest, ultimately ensuring his freedom.

The two Gryffindors began to talk to each other about plans for winter break, to which Lycus ignored (though didn't tune out) and leaned back to get more comfortable for the long ride ahead. Grabbing an artbook and color-automatic pencil from his trunk, he began to draw out some runic templates to try out when he got bored.

At some point during the ride, the two Gryffindors finished their planning and instead turned towards other topics, some of which Lycus participated in. Small banter continued through the rest of the ride.

The ride ended right after the drawing was finished, and the two Gryffindors had exited with a farewell by the time Lycus got the artbook back in the trunk.

He allowed himself a small smile when he got home. Free for three weeks.

The first of which was spent preparing for Marvolo's return. Unlike what one may think, it wasn't a blood or sacrificial ritual. It could be considered dark, but not necessarily evil. It was also rather simple, like many successful things in life. Occam's Razor. In fact, it required only one incantation.

T'was a Reincarnation Ritual, done when you wish to force a reincarnation before the soul's time, or to call the reincarnated soul that's in it's new body to you. It was created by Marvolo and Lycus - Marvolo with the idea, and Lycus with the knowledge to make it happen - based on a preceding ritual. Marvolo tested it (more like had Barty test it), and it was capable of taking a soul out of an inanimate object, and transferring it to a body, rather than making a new one. The caveat was that there was a soul mass to body mass ratio, so if you didn't have enough of a soul in the object, it would be unable to properly transfer and animate. They had half of Marvolo's soul, which should be enough, but it was always possible that it wouldn't be.

The preparation for it was creating the body, a potion, a very special leaf, and setting up the rune circle in which the body will be placed for the soul to enter.

The body was rather easy. Lycus was exemplary at ancient runes, far beyond that of what Hogwarts could ever teach. Granted, he had been provided with advanced runes from birth, so perhaps it was an unfair comparison. To him, the creation of a body with the specifications of being based off the original Tom Marvolo Riddle, alive and human, with the capabilities, repercussions, and magic to fit the wizarding bill, was kind of child's play. It was just like copying a prewritten text to a new page.

A silver moon leaf is a leaf of a yew tree, funnily enough, which had been covered in dew and placed under the light of a full moon. From a yew tree, because they were connected to death and resurrection already. The dew was just a transmitter of power from the moon, which, when full, provided some artifact of life giving magic. Lycus didn't fully understand it. The texts his mother had only went into so much detail. Such leaves are common, however, as they aren't that difficult to make. The only issue is that they only work when decently fresh.

The pendant had been soaking in the potion for eight days. It was akin to a Pepper Up potion, but it was made for a disembodied soul rather than a living person. Not surprisingly, a disembodied soul has a hard time being aware or doing things. The potion set out to make sure Marvolo was able to find his body, both by making him aware and by providing him with a connection to his body. It was designed by Lycus's father, a private potions master. Once the potion turned dark silver, Lycus began the ritual.

The golem-like body was in the center of the previously drawn runic circle, clothed, with runes on the inner outline with nine paths leading to the body, runes lining the inside of these paths as well, all geared to guiding the energy of the spell to the body rather than allowing it to escape. Walking over to the body, Lycus took the pendant out of the potion and placed the sapphire directly over the heart of the body. The rest of the potion was poured into the mouth of the body, and a wisp of light appeared, wrapping around the body, connected to the sapphire.

The teen placed the leaf on top of the pendant, stood up, and backed out of the circle. Once out, he knelt down to place his hand on the outermost part of the circle to provide it with power after he cast the spell. Focusing his magic, he looked at the leaf, and whispered one word in Parseltongue, courtesy of Marvolo. "§Fiendfyrei§."

The leaf blazed in a black fire, quickly turning stormy grey, and battered against the edges of the circle, but always forced back to the body by the nine paths. The sound of glass breaking was heard as the sapphire broke, releasing the half soul of Tom Marvolo Riddle.

Looking at his watch, Lycus wondered if he would have enough energy after this was done to get to reading that one goblin book. He couldn't leave until Marvolo successfully entered his body: the runes have to be continuously powered lest he wanted the circle to break.

Lucky for him, Marvolo was conscious enough to find his body within a minute. The fire dimmed down and dissipated in a few seconds after the soul entered the body.

Once feeling the circle wouldn't break if he stopped powering, Lycus brought his magic back into himself. Marvolo, for the body is no longer just a body, sat up, blinked, and grinned. The amber eyes of Lycus rolled at that.

"To have hands again!" to accompany this, Marvolo brought his hands up to look at said hands, flexing them and bending their fingers as though they were odd and new appendages. "And not be a snake-face."

"I rather liked the snake-face. Perhaps not the most terrifying, but better to watch people avoid looking at you in fear than to watch them avoid looking at you because they'll blush." Lycus shook his head lightly, snorting in amusement.

"Perhaps... but a charming appearance is only beneficial for our plans you'll have to agree." the newly human Dark Lord stated, expecting no disagreement despite the semi-questioning tone he used.

"Naturally. But you're not the one who has to do most of the charming." Lycus countered. Marvolo may have chosen to have his original body back, but that didn't mean anything when you have magic to disguise yourself. What did matter was that Marvolo did more management than active interaction. At least, that was the plan.

"Hmm, perchance it seems that I may be more involved than we initially decided. I don't fancy the idea of being complacent, you see." Marvolo said, once more with the tone that he didn't expect any opposition to the notion described. Lycus would grant him acquiescence for the time being, opting to slowly nod his head in reply. It's not like he really minded the idea of Marvolo taking a more active stance.

After a few seconds of silence, the teen stood. "Well, while I'd love to continue this exhilarating conversation, I have a book to read," and he began to walk out.

"Of course, of course. Just remember that we have things to do very soon!" Marvolo called after, holding up the broken pendant as a reminder of what exactly they needed to do.