Upon coming to sense Harry at first thought he was lying on his own bed in Gryffindor tower. As he was beginning to think his little adventure with room of requirement and vanishing cabinet was nothing but a dream a not so familiar voice brought him out from his trance.
"Are you feeling alright now boy?" asked a woman's voice which was definitely not of anyone related to Hogwarts. Harry opened his eyes but everything was blurring to him. His hand automatically searched for his glasses but that was not there.
"Your glasses got broken boy. But we will fix it soon" spoke the woman again. "Now we would like to know about you. Tell us your name boy."
"I am Harry" Harry fumbled. His wondered why his voice sounded so childish to him.
"And the full name?" asked her again.
"Harold James Potter." Harry rolled his eyes. was that his full name? He couldn't remember a single person addressing him as Harold. Then why did he say this name now?
"Tell something about your family harry. So we can contact your parents." Asked the voice with same tone as if she is used to asking such questions.
"My parents are dead. When I was just one" Harry kept his head down to control the glittering tears .He wondered why his voice is trembling to state a fact that he knows for years.
"So, with whom were you staying " again the woman asked mechanically as if the information is nothing new to her.
"With my aunts' family." Replied Harry. Gradually realizing it's the felix fellicies that's making him answer.
"and where are they now?"
"I don't know." Harry's voice was choking as after years the memories of his times with Dursleys were coming back to him.
"Look Harry one of our boy found you lying unconscious on the street and brought here. So I take it the blitz has destroyed your home. And your aunts' family is probably dead or left London." She then lowered her voice as if talking to herself. "It's becoming everyday affair now since the blitz started. Lives lost, home destroyed, children orphaned, London seems on fire now. Police can't anymore find families of lost child either. "She sighs and addressed Harry again
"So unless anyone is coming to claim you back, you are staying in this orphanage child." Stated the woman.
"Wait what? London? Blitz? Orphanage? The words were stirring something inside him . Uneasiness started covering him. Where is he exactly now? The woman that is talking to him is no doubt a muggle. So what kind of blitz is she talking about. Is muggle London under some Terrorist attack or what? And above all why should he stay at orphanage? He is old enough to take care of himself. Or IS HE?
A shiver ran through his body. Why is his voice sounding so childish? Why would an orphanage want to admit an adult? Why she is referring him as child? He is only one month away from his eighteenth birthday. While his shorter height and skinnier body make him look younger its far from being a child. He frantically searched for his wand. But that was not there. His hand ran through his body. Where was the school robe of Hogwarts? Why it seems he was wearing Dudley's old oversized clothes again? Why his body feels so scrawny to him? And where was his wand lost?
"No"
"Child no needs to panic. There are many as you here. Wool's orphanage takes care of every child." Stated the woman proudly. "Let us fulfill the rest of formality now. And what is your date of birth Harry.
"31st July, 1930." Answered the felix fellicies while Harry's struggles to reason with his situation.
"So this makes you a month younger than eleven. But you look hardly eight. Weren't your relatives feeding you?" She remarked
"Mrs. Cole , here is the repaired glass of the child." A younger woman entered with Harry's glass and she handed it to him.
Harry was not feeling like wearing the glass anymore. With blurring vision it had been easy to pretend it was all but just a dream or nightmare to be specific.
It's really can't be happening. How could he travel through time to end up amidst London Blitz of fifty seven years back? How is it possible to deage as the same child he was prior his journey to Hogwarts . And above all why he had to come in the particularly same orphanage where Voldemort spent his childhood.
Harry felt his world was spinning as he recalled dark lord. This is 1941 That means Tom Marvolo Riddle is still living here. What would be his age now? Fifteen?
"Barbara, "Harry listened Mrs. Cole addressing the maid. " Inform Tom the new boy he brought here will be sharing his room. And accommodate an extra bed there."
And the very moment Harry knew he is doomed forever.
"Are you sure Madam, this is a good idea to make the child share that room? " The maid Barbara asked worriedly. "Considering Tom's reputation…"
Harry couldn't help but eavesdrop the conversation between the two women outside the office room as he was thinking of pleading to change his room.
"I know Barbara, but do we have any other option? After blitz started almost every day we are filled with newly homeless children. We have run out of space. I can't squeeze him with five more children when Tom has a whole room for himself. Besides Tom's action has been sobered after he has started attending that special school. Haven't you notice it's him who has carried him here? We can hope there won't b any unwanted incident with this one now. And make him clear if it happens it won't be tolerated this time." Finished Mrs. Cole making it clear she wont change her mind.
So Tom Riddle carried him to orphanage? Of all people he had to land before dark lord himself? Harry felt his ears are getting heated as the thought crossed his mind. What his friends would have said if they knew of him getting rescued by Voldemort?
Harry's eyes glittered with tears as Ron and Hermione's memory flashed before him. Will they ever be able to figure what happened to their friend?
Tom never shared his room with anyone. Each time Mrs. Cole attempted to sneak in any annoying kid in his room those intruders met with some unexplainable situations that didn't let them pass longer than a night. And finally she had given up. But this time had been different. Not that he was willingly sharing the room with the new boy but the fact is the child is a wizard himself didn't disgust him as earlier times. Besides he needed to study the child. Till he doesn't find out how a wizard child ended up in muggle London out of nowhere his mind won't rest. So he for first time consented to share his room.
When Tom came out of washroom after bath an extra bed along with its occupant had been already moved to his room. Tom observes the boy who sat burying his face in between knees clutching his legs close.
"A Potter in muggle London! Interesting." Harry's heart jumped as the much familiar voice tuned near him. Only difference was even though cold and calm but it was still of a living teenager, just began to deepening. But Harry didn't dare to raise his head. Still trying to shut outside world out.
"Boy! Look at me." This time the voice commanded hoarsely and Harry had to oblige. He slowly looks up to the future dark lord. The Tom Riddle that was standing next to his bed was younger than the diary horcrux he confronted in chamber of secret but older than the child of Dumbledore's memory. Harry quickly made the calculation of Tom's age mentally. This Tom is exactly fourteen years and six months old. He looks taller than most fourteen years though. His feature started sharpening. His neat mop of hair has left the usual curl on forehead. His skin though pale but was not the icy white of Voldemort . His lean body had started showing sign of muscles leaving obvious proof of regular exercise. So teenager dark lord used to take care of physical fitness. Something Harry really couldn't connect with his future version. Harry's attention shifted to Tom's clothes. A plain muggle shirt and trouser looked well suited to young dark lord. Tom certainly knew to fit in both muggle and wizard attire.
Tom frowned to see Harry wordlessly observing him. That should have been his job now. He lowered his face to Harry's level. Dark eyes locked into green. There was no sign of scarlet in those dark blue irises yet Harry noticed.
"So Harry now tell me how did you get here?" asked Tom in his signature calm and calculative way.
"They said you brought me here." Harry tried his best to sound normal.
Tom brought his face more closely to Harry. "Boy do not play with me. You know very well what I want to know. How a wizard child as you got trapped in blitz of Muggle world? I never had found any sign of any wizard family near this area. So tell me from where you have come. I want the truth."
"I don't know what you are talking about."Harry lowered his eyes failing to bear the scrutinizing glare. He just can't give away the truth to Riddle. That will destroy his chance to ever get back to his time. But Tom is too intelligent to be fooled by any lie. But he didn't develop his legilimens power yet. Did he?
Tom shifts uncomfortably closer to harry and suddenly Harry found himself boxed between Tom and the wall. "Listen Potter, I don't allow people to lie to me. So answer what I want to know. You want to say that you don't know you are a wizard?
Harry remembered the day he first learnt he was a wizard. It was his eleventh birthday. So technically he has reached his age prior to eleven. So at this point of age he really didn't know about himself. So it won't be a blatant lie if he behaves like his age of that time.
Harry shook his head trying hard to keep his mind vacant. He first time regrets not for putting enough effort to learn occlumency.
"Your parents died at your age of one and you were raised by your aunt's family that's what you told right?"
Harry again nods, thinking of the irony that the person asking this is the one who will kill his parents forty years after.
"So I take it your adoptive family was muggles. And they didn't tell you anything. But tell me potter have you never feel anything? Did you ever make things happen?
The flashbacks of his childhood flooded harry. The time to avoid Dudley and his friends he ended up on highest point of rooftop, his setting boa constrictor on Dudley and many more.
"Sometimes. They called me freak for that." Harry fumbled.
"Freak" sneered Tom, muggle knows nothing better.
Tom slowly stands up. "I will try to educate you till you become eleven. But don't think you will fool me. I will be watching you from now on.
And them Tom strode past to the door. "You take rest for now. Your training will start from tomorrow." And with that Tom left the room.
Harry falls over his bed. Silently thanking felix fellicies for finally getting away. But he knows this had been just the beginning of his trial. Until he figures out how to get back in his time. But before that he had to know why he at all is struck in 1941 on first place. All he remembers in room of requirement He only wanted a goal of life, a reason to get motivated. For what purpose did vanishing cabinet decide to send him to past in time of young Tom Riddle? To kill him? But if so then why he is deaged and wand less? How he suppose to fight riddle in such fragile condition? Or the goal is something else?
Harry couldn't think anymore. The exhaustion has taken a toll over him. And his eyelids turn heavier taking him in darkness of slumber.
