Note: Unedited. No Beta. Slash. Additional notes below. Read it. Slow update.

Of Magic and Death

04:

Castor, now a ten-year-old turning eleven child was being dragged by his best friend, – and his counterpart in this world really. But he was already used to that fact and didn't mind it much – Harry towards Quidditch Quality Supplies. He rolled his eyes at his seven-year-old and soon to be eight-year-old best friend.

"Harry, didn't you already have a broom?"

"But that was a kiddie broom Cas! It's not that fast and it still flies so low! And I just really wanna see new brooms," he explained in an excited way. He rolled his eyes again. Harry is acting childish. But then again, they're still a kid.

"Dad and Uncle James would be looking for us! I haven't even check some books yet!" he protested.

"Oh, come on Cas! Calm with your books for a minute! I'm just going to look! I promise it won't take long," Harry gave him a puppy-dog look that made him roll his eyes again.

When Harry thought of something, it was usually easier to pull your teeth than talk him out of it. He's that stubborn. 'Were that stubborn.'

"Alright. Don't take long," he warned. Harry whooped in joy before sprinting towards the broom display and started drooling on the brooms. He sighed as he looked at his friend. He liked quidditch, but he wasn't that obsessed with the sport! Drooling over a broom? He hadn't done that before. He didn't have the time. He was busy making sure he lived than experiencing usual teenager experience. And besides, it wasn't the sport that he liked but the fact that he could fly and the feeling of freedom it gave him.

And now that he could finally act his age, that he could finally do what he wanted within reason and pursue what he wanted, he found out that he liked books more than brooms. He could certainly see its appeal. No wonder Hermione liked books so much. So many knowledge stored in just a small thing. And though others were nonsense and rubbish texts – like the book about werewolves. He was sure that book was written by a person who completely hates magical creatures – there were informative ones that helped him understand this world better.

And he already have a pretty good picture of the world he was in.

After thirty minutes of waiting for his friend - so much for not going to take a long time on just drooling - he snapped and just dragged him towards the Florish and Blotts for him to buy his books at last. Harry had been whining and he just rolled his eyes once again and told him that he should just buy books too for their home studies. And of course he went and bought a quidditch related book. Good thing he also bought some about potions and charms or Aunt Lily would be having that disappointed look all day. At least he had interest in those.

He took books that interested him in Defense Against the Dark Arts section, Laws, Magical Theories and just about anything he hadn't have at home. He then came onto the general section of books and didn't found anything he liked and those others that he did he already had. When he was about to move on, his eyes noticed a lone book wedged between big tomes of books. Curious, he took it and read the title.

The Dark and Light Magic

By: T.M.R

'The initials seem utterly familiar' he mused. He opened it and read the short introduction and was impressed at how impersonal and neutral it sounded. Not discriminating either types of magic. He couldn't even tell if the person who wrote the book preferred Dark or Light magic.

It was good. And why was it even in the general section? Shouldn't it be in the Magical Theories? He didn't much mind it though and just put it onto his basket where he put the books he wanted to buy. He took a step back to go to the counter when he bumped into someone.

He jumped and turned sharply to the person he bumped to apologize and then froze almost immediately seeing that the person behind him looked like the adult version of the teenage Tom he had seen back in his old timeline, the one that came out of the diary.

"I-I'm sorry!" he forced himself to say since he was the one at fault. And really, even if the man looked like the adult version of Tom, that didn't mean he had to forsake his morals and attitude.

And if he really was Tom… it was best not to acquire interest from him. He still didn't know about his standing in this particular world after all. Even the books he had read didn't say much about him. Only that he was hailed a prodigy, mysterious and apparently was polite despite being the heir of Slytherin. That and he had a seat in the Wizengamot. Not much else. If he wanted to know more, he had to ask his Uncle Regulus since he was also a part of Wizengamot as Lord Black.

But he couldn't. Because he knew both his Uncle and dad would ask. He wouldn't want them to because as much as it was necessary, he didn't want to lie to his dad.

But he did want to know still because despite the fact that Death said the dimension he was currently in was peaceful than the one he came from, it didn't mean there would be no conflict. He needed to be prepared.

Because Tom's and Dumbledore's ideals were completely different from each other. And with those two being powerful wizards and still probably were the leader of respective sides of magic, conflict was bound to happen.

Time would just tell if that conflict would escalate like the one in his home dimension.

He was about to pass the wizard - best to get himself away at immediately - when the man spoke to him.

"Aren't you a little too young to have that book?" the man asked curiously with not an ounce of 'evilness' from his tone. He blinked in confusion at what the other had said. When the man's gaze was pointedly on his basket, he froze. He immediately knew what the man was talking about.

It was that intriguing book about Dark and Light magic.

"You can never be too young to learn," he said decisively. The man chuckled.

"Of course. And why did you get that? Would your parents allow you to have that book?" he asked. Harry was about to answer when he was suddenly smacked with the knowledge of what he was doing at the moment.

Here was he, talking to the possible counterpart of the Tom Riddle of this world like they were familiar with each other. Like they were already friends and had already known each other. He knew he should be wary since he still didn't know what was different about this Tom Riddle like the Peter Pettigrew of this world. If he was even different from the Tom Riddle/ Voldemort on his home dimension.

But he couldn't help it. There was just something familiar about the other. 'That was probably because I was already familiar with him back in my dimension'

Despite his doubts though, despite his thoughts that this was probably Tom himself in this dimension he still answered. It's rude not to anyway.

"My dad would let me read this book. It's a neutral discussion about both magic. There's nothing wrong with that. We do debates about this sometimes," 'And I want to see what was in this book. It might help me see how the wizarding world see both magic.' Being the child of magic had benefits. One of them was that he got to interact with magic herself.

"Oh," Tom man said. He took on a considering look and then gave him a small smile. It was a satisfied one without the manic he usually see on his own Tom back then. "That's good. If only other families are like yours…" the man trailed off, looking at him in expectation. He opened his mouth to answer because why not? When suddenly, someone called his name.

"Castor! Quick! Dad's outside with Uncle Siri. We have to go!" he looked at where the voice was and saw Harry waving at him enthusiastically and apprehensively. It's probably because we hadn't asked permission to leave them and just took off. But then trailed off when he saw him with the man.

"Alright Harry. Go to the counter first," he said calmly. Harry nodded dumbly before hurrying off.

"Castor?" Tom said, his voice thick before he coughed a little. He nodded.

"Yes. I have to go Mister…"

"Thomas Riddle,"

'Aha! I knew it! Though the name changed just like Harry...'

"Mr. Riddle. See you next time," he said politely. Tom gave him a curt nod before he walked around the adult towards the counter. 'Hmm. I have to find out more about the Tom in this world."

Harry was already there waiting for him, bouncing on his feet as he waited until all his purchases were taken care off before he spoke.

"You were talking to Mr. Riddle!" he exclaimed as they were outside going towards their parents. Aunt Lily was already there waiting too. She even had that displeased frown on her face. If it wasn't already known to them that he would always make sure to go to Florish and Blotts when in Diagon Alley, they probably would have looked for them until now. If Aunt Lily ever got to him, he'll just tell her Harry dragged him towards the brooms.

Effective and quite true.

"You do not need to shout it to the world Harry. Were just talking. What's wrong with that?" 'Aside from the obvious. But then, he didn't come from my universe so he couldn't have known' he thought to himself. 'Maybe Tom did do something here...' "And how do you know him?" Harry was about to say something but Uncle James cut him off.

"Thomas Riddle?" he sounded neutral – very unusual for the goofy uncle James – but his eyes were narrowed. He frowned. 'So Tom did do something in this universe huh? I should've known he wouldn't just stay still...'

He just nodded and waited for them to tell him why they looked at him in disbelief. But they didn't speak. He was about to demand when he saw how his dad looked like.

'Dad looked torn between paling or getting angry' he observed.

"Dad?"

"Let's go Castor. There were letters that came for you,"

'Letters...'

"My Hogwarts letter is there already?" he asked quite eagerly. Dad's face changed from sombre to happy, though there was a sort of melancholy and loneliness deep within his dad's eyes.

"Not only Hogwarts but other schools as well,"

"Other schools?" 'The other two international schools?' Dad gave him a wide grin. If he wasn't distracted, he would have noticed immediately that it was fake.

"Yup,"

"Then let's go," he demanded. He wanted to see those letters. He was curious. Why would Durmstrang and Beauxbatons give him their acceptance letter? Wouldn't the students need to live on their respective areas?

'Or are there any other schools?' he mused. The possibility only made him giddy. He hadn't known about that in his own dimension. If he had known, he wouldn't have returned to Hogwarts even if he saw the school as his home simply because he was endangered every year he attended.

'And this could be the perfect opportunity to get out of Dumbledore's influence early.' He didn't really know if the Albus Dumbledore here were the same as his own, better or worse since his dad and all his uncles don't really talk about him. It's better to have contingency plans in place just in case.

"What? You're not going to-" Harry's shout was cut off when dad silenced him almost immediately. He blinked at his dad's very unusual reaction. Harry's eyes went wide and even his Aunt and Uncle looked surprise.

"We have to go. Now," dad said gravely, his eyes looking behind him. He was about to turn around to look at where his dad was looking and to know what made him look almost in panic when dad just grabbed him and then disapparated.

Leaving the rest behind.

A/N:

Here comes another chapter. I think you can now pretty much identify who is Castor's father. I gave out plenty of obvious clues. If you still did not get it... well then, wait for the written confirmation.

I will just have to tell you that OC's will be pretty much a given to appear. Just a heads up.

And again, I'm sorry for those offended when I haven't been able to put up the SLASH warning. I didn't think about it. I honestly forgot as I wasn't thinking much about the romance aspect of the story. I was focused on how to show a different kind of war than the outright one on canon. That's my fault. Sorry again, especially to plums who seemed to think that I wasn't being polite and showing respect to my readers when I just suddenly implied there would be slash and possible mpreg.

To all those who was also offended and didn't want to read about that kind of romance, please hit the back button now. You might find other themes here that you might not like that I haven't put out up a warning because I forgot. And if you still continued, well it's your choice. Just don't tell me about your grievances again since I already warned you even if it's 'late'.

Thanks for those who stayed. See you next chapter.

Review!