2 Years Later
Tom stepped out of his office and walked up to the large open door at the end of the corridor. Inside was the Minister for Magic. They were the only two left in the building on the night before the Minister officially gave notice to the Wizengamot of his intention to retire.
I had been two years since the end of the war, when Tom had been hired. Peace had been restored and the country was prosperous once more. Tom's interest in the muggle world had never waned, with the constant warning to the Minister that the muggles could destroy the planet within minutes, they had secured the statue of secrecy once again and made weekly contact with the Muggle Prime Minister.
Tom had successfully grown from a mere speechwriter to one of the Minister's most trusted Visionaries, constantly advising on matters of foreign policy and methods of dealing with uncomfortable subjects. Also considered the best insider by most of the media, the Minister had considered making him an official media liaison for the Minister, but they had decided it to be unnecessary with only two months until retirement.
But, at ten tomorrow morning, the Minister would finally step aside and allow a new person to take the seat behind the coveted desk. He would be giving his final public address as minister to the Wizengamot and Tom had yet to write it. They were struggling to come up with the concept that they wanted to leave the country with. They had never needed to throw out as many versions of a speech as they had this one.
Tom walked up to the door and knocked lightly upon it. The Minister, who was 40 years his senior, started and turned towards the door. "Ah, Tom, I think I might have found the right tone, at last."
Tom sat and they wrote. The Minister explaining what he wanted to say and Tom writing it in nicer words. It was a partnership that worked for them, that wasn't overly complicated and constructed speeches that made headlines for weeks.
At 3 am, they finished the final lines of the speech and tom left the office, knowing that it was his final speech. He didn't think, at that moment that it would be the last speech he would write for a Minister for Magic. He had never considered the possibility of him being put out of work, he was young, talented and extremely hard working.
But, when the new Minister took office he was dumped on the street, not wanted in the new administration and forced to go looking for a job. He was never very well paid inside the minister's office so he knew that, within about a month, he would no longer be able to make his rent if he didn't still have a job.
He walked down Diagon Alley, with his head bent as he rushed towards his meeting with the Goblins. One could never be entirely sure of what the goblins of Gringotts would demand of you, but Tom felt strangely compelled to present himself at this meeting, if only to discover what they wished to discuss.
There had been many possibilities running through his head in the days since this letter had arrived, ranging from someone claiming thievery to him being offered a job. He had his hopes set on a job, no matter how unlikely it may have seemed. If anyone had seen Tom's inner thoughts and deepest feelings that day, they would have been amazed at how low the young man had sunk. He was set against the ministry for the egregious slight against his person and he had fallen from the happy bustle of working sixteen-hour days to struggling to rub two knuts together and worrying where his next meal might come from.
He stepped inside the grand marble and inclined his head slightly to the two goblin guards as he passed. He walked up to the teller at the end of the Grand Hall and presented his letter. The teller took one look at the young man and called to him a young Goblin by the name "Barchoke!"
Barchoke led him down a hallway that sloped upwards off the Grand Hall, past the doors with the names of the old families that he recognized from his work in the Wizengamot, he passed a door marked ministry and was surprised when Barchoke stopped in front of a door with Hogwarts written on it.
The door opened and Tom stepped inside, unsure of what it might mean, to be invited into the Hogwarts account manager's office, one of the last in the corridor. He was greeted with the sight of an old goblin with wrinkles the size of the Grand Canyon across his forehead.
"Mr. Riddle," the goblin greeted, "I have waited a long time for this day, I may finally be relieved of my post."
"Oh?"
"Yes, Mr Riddle, I have been here since the last descendants of the Hogwarts founders asked me to keep their accounts in order. A goblin may not be released from their post without the consent of the owner of the account they are managing."
"And the Headmaster can't do this?"
"No, it must be a descendant of one of the founders, it must be one of the owners of Hogwarts."
"And you think that I am a descendant of one of the founders?"
"Most perceptive, Mr Riddle, Most perceptive."
They sat down on either side of the desk and Tom dripped several drops of blood onto the parchment in front of him. He gasped in shock as the results appeared on the parchment:
Mr Thomas Marvolo Riddle
Heir Presumptive Slytherin
Heir Presumptive Gaunt
Owner of Vaults 5, 42, 121*, 122*, 123*
*managed by Headmaster of Hogwarts
Total Liquid Value: 531 Galleons, 13 Sickles and 4 Knuts (not including Hogwarts funds)
Other Assets:
Partial control of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry
Gaunt Cottage
"You don't know what state Gaunt Cottage is in do you?" Tom asked.
"We don't keep tabs on the assets of our clients."
"How about where is it?"
"The deeds should be in you vault."
"Wonderful, let's hope that it's available to live in, not like I have anywhere else to go."
"Do you not still work at the ministry?"
"No, not since the new Minister took office."
The Goblin paused, as if surveying Tom, taking him all in. "Can you wait here a minute?"
"Sure…"
Several minutes later the Goblin returned and took him up to the door at the end of the hall, the door labelled 'Ragnarok, King of the Goblins'. Tom took a deep breath and stepped inside.
He was greeted with the sight of an old Goblin sitting behind his desk. He was almost speechless; it was unheard of for a wizard to be granted an audience with the King of the Goblins. After they had sat and exchanged greetings the King turned to the Hogwarts's account manager and simply said, "You might be right."
Tom was most perplexed at this ambiguous statement that explained very little to him. He sat, silently as the King of the Goblins studied him without saying a word. They had been making eye contact for several minutes when the King broke the silence.
"You see, Mr Riddle. As I am sure you know the Minister for Magic meets with the Muggle Prime Minister regarding matters of magical importance that concern the Muggles, but what you may not know is that the Muggle Leader of the Opposition is also in receipt of reports of the Magical importance that concern the muggles. But those reports don't come from the ministry, nor is the ministry aware of them," the Goblin King explained.
"They come from us," The King continued, "We take into account the general feeling from the wizarding population, we ask the centaurs, mermen and other beings that the Ministry has classed as 'Creatures' for a report of the happenings each week. We then combine this into a single report each month or week that we pass on to the leader of the opposition. Recently the Leader of the Opposition has requested that a special advisor be recommended to him to discuss such matters."
"Naturally, we trained one of our young goblins to assume the position, but he was sent back to us after failing to blend in. We have tried several different options and eventually we got a message asking if there was a human who could take up this role. That was three months ago."
"We decided that we required a wizard or witch, who had experience in politics, was not involved in the ministry, but was aware how they worked and what the wizarding populous really needs, who was aware of muggle happenings, and could blend in seamlessly in the muggle world."
"Quite a tall ask," Tom remarked, "really requires someone who had been working either in the ministry or in muggle politics."
"Indeed," the king agreed, "You are the first to walk through our doors that we are willing to consider."
"I'm honoured."
"If you are interested, we will require secrecy vows and contracts will be signed after one report. I will give you a day to consider it. Come here tomorrow and ask a Teller for a piece of teapot."
"A piece of Teapot?" Tom laughed.
The king stared blankly at him, unimpressed by Tom's behaviour, which quickly caused Tom to stop laughing.
Tom had visited his vaults and found the deeds for his newly found cottage. He knew at this point that the last of the Gaunts had died mysteriously several years earlier after a short stint in Azkaban after muggle baiting.
Tom had been to the Cottage, cleaned it up and considered moving in after getting it renovated. It was near a small muggle town, called Little Hangleton, which had everything that Tom would need.
He then returned to Gringotts where he accepted the job and soon found himself on the way to his meeting with the Leader of the Opposition, Winston Churchill.
A/N: I hope the time skip wasn't too jarring, I had tried writing it without, but it really started to drag as I wrote the intervening years and it didn't add anything to the story. Also, no one has guessed the key difference in Tom's Childhood that changed his character so drastically. Let me know in the reviews if you have any guesses.