The day Tom Jr. left for Hogwarts was not a happy occasion. Ever since the trip to Diagon Alley, Father and Son had collided heads on the issue of Tom's future. While Tom Sr. did not disapprove of Tom's going to the school, the maintance of normality was controversial. Tom had initially agreed to keeping a tutor over the summer to ensure he was well-versed in normal subjects and would not lag behind his classmates. However, as the idea was discussed more, he began to question the necessity. After all, he was well-read, intelligent, and years ahead of other students. Plus, in this new world, the Wizarding World, what good would normal economics be to him? Would not the two spheres function differently? This lead to further debate as to what career path Tom would take. It was his father's and grandparents' wish that he should eventually join Parliament. Even if he became a key economist that would be satisfactory. They wanted him to continue towards this, unaffected by this new development.

To make matters worse, Tom Sr. continued to feel the pressure from his parents. They no longer spoke harshly on the subject, did not risk mentioning Merope in case Tom overheard, but he could feel the hostility. It had been there for the first few years he had brought back this son, but Tom Jr. quickly worked his way into their hearts, and he was forgiven. Now, those hard feelings were back. He could only be thankful that the boy was not feeling the brunt of this. It would crush him. This was why he was so eager to make sure his son remained as normal as possible. Not only for Tom's sake, but for his. He needed to prove that he had not shamed the family, had not ruined the Riddle line, and had produced a legitimate heir. He understood Tom's fascination with the Wizarding World, but he needed to stay, at least visibly, in this one. Could he not understand that?

1 September. Tom's trunk was loaded into the car as he said goodbye to his grandparents. They were not joining him on the trip to the train station this time. His grandmother had been recently ill, and Tom Sr. had business to attend to in town anyways, so it was simply easier this way. Tom promised to write and spare no details of his year there. Finally, he managed to pry himself away from his grandmother and climbed into the passenger seat. He smoothed his hair, straightened his collar, and distantly avoided his father's eye. They had fought again the night before. He was already in his school uniform, unsure of what was expected of him. He avoided the robe as that would draw too much attention to himself. The car pulled out of the drive and he self-consciously toyed with his cuff-links. This would not be a fun ride at all.

The silence was palpable. Throughout the ride, each kept glancing over at the other, sometimes catching the other's eye, but neither spoke. Finally, they arrived in King's Cross Station and made their way towards Platforms 9 and 10. They found their way, but as to be expected, there was no 9 3/4. Tom carefully studied the people around him and suddenly, he saw it. A boy with bright red hair pushed his trolley through the third barrier, disappearing before his eyes. This had to be it. Counting, he noticed their were only four barriers. Hence 3/4. These wizards were clever.

"I found it Father. Through that barrier there. I just need to run at it and... somehow that gets me there," he explained. His father looked at him as though he were mad, but trusted his son on this.

"Are you sure Tom?" referring to more than just the barrier/platform/thing. Tom Jr. straightened up a bit more and grabbed hold of the cart.

"I want this more than anything before." A moment of awkwardness overcame Tom Sr. and he shoved his hands into his pockets.

"Tom, I... I'm really quite proud of you. I truly am happy for you. It's just, I want what's best for you in the long run, and sometimes I wonder... if you know what that is yet? I'm only hard on you because I care," he admitted. Tom Jr. smiled and hugged his dad quickly. He somehow knew there was more to the story, but he would let that suffice. It was true too.

"Thank you Dad. Well, I'm off then. See you at Christmas." With that, he took off for the barrier. He waited until he was closer before breaking into a run so as not to attract attention to himself. As he squeezed his eyes shut, he heard his father reminding him to have a good year. He ran and felt a cool, almost damp feeling pass in front of him, and then the sounds changed. He stopped running and opened his eyes to find himself on a crowded platform, surrounded by families of people in multi-colored robes. Students in uniforms climbed onto a scarlet train proclaiming itself to be the Hogwarts Express. Admittedly, this was a little overwhelming. He grabbed his trunk and pushed his way through the crowd. It took a bit of effort, but finally he managed to get his trunk on board and into a compartment of his own in the far back. As he waited for the train to leave, he pulled out a copy of Hogwarts, A History and began rereading it. He was unsure as to how many students would come from non-magical families and he wanted to ensure he was not too far behind. Thankfully, this assured him that children were not allowed to do magic, so he should be overall fine. Finally, the train pulled away from the station and they were off.

About ten minutes later, the door of his compartment opened. He peered over the edge of the volume to find a shy girl standing in the doorway with a ragged trunk and an owl in a cage. She had mousy hair in stick-straight pigtails, freckles, and huge glasses that magnified the size of her eyes. She was not in uniform yet, and wore very worn clothes that had seen better days. Clearly, she was not someone he would normally associate with.

"Pardon me, but can I sit here? Everywhere else is full," she almost whispered. He conceded and motioned to the seat across from him. She stowed away her trunk and put the owl on the seat next to her before sitting down. He returned to his book. However, Tom's logic returned to him and he decided that an ally in this place would not be a bad thing, so he might as well try and be friendly.

"I'm Tom Riddle of Little Hangleton," he declared, snapping the book shut, which caused the girl to jump and her glasses to slide down her nose. She pushed them back up and gave an awkward smile.

"Jane Euland. My family lives just twenty minutes from Little Hangleton. It's a lovely village," she responded to him in a slightly louder tone than before. Her feet swung as she talked due to her being so short. "Your family... are they the same Riddles who own the village?" Tom gave a small smirk as he informed her they did. "Ah. My family's debated that before. We heard the Riddles had some kind of power, but we weren't sure. After all, given the number of times the Ministry of Magic has had to interfere we thought some wizard did." She had is full interest with the words "Ministry of Magic." She came from a magical family, and she lived so close too! Suddenly, her inferiority seemed less.

"I didn't realize there were wizards so close to home. Why have I never heard of you?" he asked.

"Oh, we like to keep quiet... actually, it's the law we do. It was hard though when my brother was getting older. He kept turning people's hair different colors, but by accident of course! Mom and Dad had to keep him inside for six months until he stopped."

"Is your brother at Hogwarts now?" he continued, hoping to get some information out of her about this school.

"Oh yes. Rupert's a third year in Gryffindor. No one's sure why he's in it. Mom was a Ravenclaw and Dad was in Hufflepuff. So who knows where I'll end up. I just hope it won't be Slytherin," she trailed off. Tom inhaled slowly. Reading the descriptions of the houses, he rather liked Slytherin. Why would it be such a negative thing?

"What's wrong with Slytherin?" Her eyes got wider hearing his unintentionally hostile tone and she stammered when she next spoke.

"S-sorry! You're f-family isn't from there are th-they?"

"Well, no. I'm the first one going here. But it sounds quite nice! Cunning and loyalty, those are traits I highly value," he explained. She shrugged and pushed her glasses up her nose again.

"Any wizard who ever went bad was in Slytherin. Outside of that though, they're supposedly really arrogant and mean. Rupert's always getting into fights with them." Tom nodded and settled back into his seat. Perhaps they were not the group to get mixed up in. Well, Ravenclaw sounded nice too! They continued to talk the entire trip, pausing only to buy snacks from the Trolley. After that, they had fun sorting through the Bertie Bott's Every Flavored Beans. Strangely enough, this girl was quite interesting. He found himself actually enjoying her company. He'd only ever had one or two friends in his whole life, so this was a rare experience. Perhaps now that he was amongst his own kind, things would work out better for him.

It was dark outside when the train stopped. Supposedly they were in the town of Hogsmeade, though Tom had never heard of that before. According to Jane, it was an unplottable town, therefore it was not on any map. How did one make a town disappear? The students crept out onto the platform. From overhead, a call of "First years here!" was heard, and Tom and Jane made their way towards a young man later identified as Professor Kettleburn. The first years, about 100 in total, followed him to a dock surrounded by rickety boats. The duo entered a boat and were later joined by Charles Potter and a girl who refused to speak to them. Jane identified her as a Black, an ancient wizarding family. Together, they sailed across the lake. Tom was not unsurprised by the boat propelling itself across the glassy surface, but his breath was stolen when a giant castle came into view.

"That's Hogwarts," Jane whispered in his ear. It was perched on the side of a cliff and was comprised of countless towers and spires. The windows were lit gold and reflected off the lake. Tom could feel the knowledge of this ancient school radiating towards him.

The boat landed in an underground cave in the cliff, which contained carved stairs that led up to a giant wooden door. Professor Kettleburn led them up through the door into a small chamber. Then he left. The chamber exploded into a burst of chatter as people speculated how they would be sorted. Some people claimed they would fight a troll. Another suggested they had to pull a rabbit out of a hat. Although this was shot down, Tom was more likely to believe it. the book had mentioned a sorting hat, whatever that meant.

"Do either of you know how it's done?" Charles asked them. "My parents insisted it be kept a secret." Tom shook his head and Jane shrugged. She knew, but was keeping the secret. Suddenly, screams erupted in the chamber as ghosts passed through the walls. They paid no attention to the first years as they talked and floated on their way. It was not the idea of a ghost that scared him. He actually found this quite fascination. But the though that he could end up like them terrified him to the core.

The excited whispers were silenced as doors at the opposite end of the hall opened. Professor Dumbledore walked in wearing bright purple robes with silver stars. Tom thought this look suited him more than the suit he'd worn during their meeting. His eyes twinkled merrily as he looked upon the crowd over his half-moon glasses.

"Good evening all! I am Professor Albus Dumbledore. In a moment, you will be sorted into one of four houses: Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and Slytherin. Once sorted, your house becomes your family, but be cautioned, do not let your sorting define you. Some of the best friendships transend house prejudices. Well, let's begin!" he announced. With that, he led them into the Great Hall. Tom's eyes immediately darted to the ceiling, which really was enchanted to reflect the night sky. As he took his seat at the table being the Staff table, he looked out onto the rest of the school. The tables for each house ran the length of the hall. Each had roughly the same number of students, but was marked by their respective banners overhead. All over, candles floated magically to illuminate the room. He felt his stomach knot with anticipation.

Professor Dumbledore momentarily disappeared, but returned with a three-legged stool and ratty pointed hat. He placed it on the stool and then it began to sing. Tom stared at it in fascination, watching the wrinkles become a face and a rip in the brim act as a mouth. It sang to the students about the different houses, and the founding of Hogwarts, but Tom paid little attention. He'd read the all before. Finally, when the last note died, Dumbledore unwrapped a scroll.

"When I call your name, you will come forward. I will place the hat on your head, and it will decide where best to place you." And so it began. Tom watched as three students became Hufflepuffs, two were Gryffindor, five Ravenclaw, and only Miss Black became a Slytherin. Then Jane was called.

"Good luck," Tom whispered as she shyly made her way to the stool. She hunched her shoulders a bit and nearly tripped over her own feet on the way there. The hat waited a second before crying out "Ravenclaw." Tom clapped loudly as she happily took her spot under the blue and bronze banner. More students were sorted and he felt the knot increase as they professed through the alphabet. Finally, it got to him.

"Riddle, Tom." He composed himself as best he could and walked up to the stool. The hat sank over his eyes and he heard a voice whisper in his ear.

"Hmm... very complicated. You're bright, very bright. You would do wonders in Ravenclaw. But yet, you were meant for Slytherin. Curious. Where do I put you?" the hat asked. Tom's first instinct was Ravenclaw with Jane, but what did it mean he was "meant for Slytherin"?

"What do you mean?" he thought.

"I cannot tell you that."

"But I want to know!" Tom demanded.

"Then would you like to find out for yourself?"

"I guess so."

"You will do great things Tom Riddle. Just be cautious." And with that the hat cried, "Slytherin." Only Jane and a few other first years clapped for him. As he approached the table, the others simply stared at him curiously, and with barely concealed contempt. Perhaps he had chosen wrong?

A/N: Hi all! Sorry, this was a hard chapter to write, and then the document was erased. Sorry if it's a bit before my normal standard. I am out of practice. School has been crazy. Anyways, please review and I'll try and update soon!