English isn't my native language, so forgive me for any minor mistakes.

Disclaimer: The world of Harry Potter belongs to JK Rowling. I don't own anything.


Tom Marvolo Riddle wasn't like the other kids. He was more mature, more calculated, and very charismatic. His roommates admired him, but they weren't his friends. Not really. He didn't have any friends. To the public eye, they did seem to be his friends but Tom couldn't care less. When he was sorted into the Slytherin house, everyone was sceptical about him. His last name wasn't familiar to anyone, and they didn't reckon he was pure. Tom realised that he needed to make himself a name, and he did. By the end of his first year, it was clear that he was one of the top students in Hogwarts. He was eager to gain power and was curious to learn as much as magic he could. The thing that interested him the most was Dark Magic; despite his young age, he got drawn to it. Tom first heard about that in Defence Against Dark Arts class, and instead of learning to defence againt it, he wanted to learn to do that himself. He wanted to learn the secrets of dark magic. He tried to find a way to investigate more about that, but couldn't think of any sufficiently sophisticated idea of how to convince Professor Slughorn to give him access to the restricted section in the library yet.

Tom walked towards his bed, but stepped on something on his way. He groaned and picked it up. It was a Chocolate Frog Card. Avery, he sighed, he was the only one who collected that stuff. He read what was written on the card. The card was of Herpo the Foul. He turned it over to read what was written on the back side. 'Herpo the Foul was an Ancient Greek wizard and the first known creator of the Basilisk.' Finally something interesting. He knew what Basilisks are. He found about them from the book "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them", which he had been asked to bring, even though they didn't learn anything about beasts at all. He knew Basilisks were a very dangerous kind of snakes. He was intrigued by them, just like he had always been intrigued by any other kind of snakes. He was a Parselmouth - he could speak to snakes and control them, but that was considered a dark ability. Tom remembered it was mentioned in the 'fantastic beasts' book that Herpo was a Parselmouth as well. It gave him an idea. When he read the book for the first time, he barley knew anything about the wizarding world and wasn't aware of what he needed to do to get information about that guy. He pocketed it and set off towards Professor Slughorn's office. He knocked on the door. 'Come in.' He heard his professor's voice coming from the inside.

'Sir, may I speak to you about something?' Tom asked in his usual formal tone, while he stepped into the room.

'Sure, my boy, what's on your mind?' Professor Slughorn asked, as he marked the latest exams he gave.

'Please listen to what I have to say before you say no - I know what I'm going to ask might be controversial but I wouldn't have asked it if it wasn't very important to me.' Tom started, not getting to the point yet. He wanted to get the professor's full attention.

'You can feel comfortable to ask anything you need, proceed, don't worry.' The professor looked at him, curious to know where this conversation would go.

'I know Professor Dumbledore told you I know Parseltongue,' Tom stated, 'and Avery gave me the card of Herpo the foul,' he took the card out of his pocket, 'I remembered he was a Parselmouth as well, and I was wondering if I could learn more about him and about my ability.'

'I can see why it's important to you, learning about your skills is very important.' Professor Slughorn agreed.

'So, may you give me access to the restricted section?' Tom requested, but it almost sounded like a demand.

'Hold on, you are still too young, I can't just give you permission to go to the restricted section,' the professor called, startled. Tom's request had cleary caught him by surprise.

'Professor, you know you can trust me. It's not like I want to do dark magic just to study about magical serpents, Herpo and Parseltongue. Maybe I even find something about my magical family.' Tom said, trying to manipulate him and persuade him to agree.

'Alright, but let's keep it between us.' Slughorn asked, then took a blank piece of parchment from his desk and wrote a list of several books Tom could read.

'Thanks, professor, I really appreciate this.' Tom nodded at him in an official manner and took the note in his hands.

'Only for studying.' Professor Slughorn clarified, pointing his finger to the air.

'I promise.' Tom said and left the room.


He sat next to a table at the far end of the library, which was isolated enough so he could have some privacy. He was very glad he'd convinced Professor Slughorn to give him permission to read some forbidden books. He first opened a book about magical serpents; Ashwinders, Basilisks, Hydras, Runespoors, Horned Serpents, Sea Serpents and Selmas. He wondered why some of them weren't mentioned in "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them". Maybe the author just didn't like snakes.

He was pleased to find out that most snakes were considered dark creatures. He was facinated by that information, since he thought that made them special and useful. He moved on to a book about magical abilities like Parseltongue and Legilimency, which were impressive abilities. It was written there that Salazar Slytherin had them both. That would explain why Tom was a Slytherin; he heard several times that he had a muggle's surname, and only wizards with magical heritage are in Slytherin. But if he knew Parseltongue, then he might be Salazar's descendant. He should dig deeper into this idea later.

Lat one was Herpo's biography. It was there that he found the most interesting term: Horcrux. It was something that could make you immortal. There was a short description on how to create one, yet it wasn't very informative. He should remember this one, it could turn up useful in the future - the idea of being immortal really charmed and appealed him.


Author note: Happy birthday Tom Riddle/Voldemort, not that he deserves it. I have no idea why I wrote this, it's pretty lame, I don't like it at all. Sorry if they didn't accurate to their personality in the books, I'm really bad at writing main characters.