Chapter 3: The Old Man
Energy fields manipulation. Those were the terms which seemed to best describe his root ability from which stemmed all his other abilities.
For the time being his successful experiments were limited to electromagnetic fields and those others fields.
Like electromagnetic radiations, the other radiations were everywhere. However, soaking his body in this energy allowed him to enhance his normal capacities: his mind and body were faster and stronger; and what's more, it seemed that only his imagination was limit to what this energy allowed him to do (well, his imagination and putting necessary time and effort to figure out how to use the energy to do his bidding). He suspected that was why he was able to talk to snakes in the first place.
The first step of his plan was to learn and train.
At the start of his hero career the everyday thugs would certainly be surprised by his abilities and easy to fight, but he also needed to be ready to fight the masterminds who would hide in shadows and search for his weak points and use the latest technologies and science to exploit those weak points. Therefore, it was primordial that he too knows all about latest discoveries and how the world around him evolved, and to put every effort in order to always keep pushing his limits.
He had used his accelerated mind to read all books in the orphanage's library, in the school's library and in the local public library. There had been some about physical training and he had used that to establish his training program – obstacle course and stretching, pushing and lifting of wagons at an abandoned rail station. Tom had also noticed the exercises which the school's Chinese cook had been doing regularly, and when asked he explained to Tom that he had been doing them to maintain good energy flow in his body, and Tom had started doing the same.
It has been almost a year from his first flight, and he had made tremendous progress and was now able to maintain Superman-level abilities (as described in the comics) without thinking.
The second step of his plan had been to become a forensic expert for the Scotland Yard (he preferred it to the choice of Clark Kent), which would helped him be close to science community and close to police work.
Unfortunately, this carefully planed step had gone down the drain after his meeting with Professor Albus Dumbledore. Well, at least he now knew that the other energy fields are called magic and that there was a hidden culture which for centuries had been developing use of magic, although it seemed he had been the first one to be able to use magic instinctively and without a designed tool (which they called a wand).
…...
It was a pleasant June afternoon, particularly for Scottish climate. Professor Dumbeldore was about to have his tea and was pondering about the meeting he had previously that day. Like every year after the students would leave for the summer, it was the time for the Headmaster's Deputy to deliver the admission letters to future students who were muggle-born or raised without knowledge of magic.
That day he had delivered his admission letter to Tom Riddle, and indeed a riddle this young man seemed to be.
Tom had talked about knowing to be different from others, and that he was able to move things without touching.
Dumbledore had an inkling that Tom had been greatly downplaying his abilities. That he was able to levitate in controlled manner without a wand reminded Dumbledore greatly of Ariana.
There had been several occurrences of pre-Hogwarts children being able to use magic in controlled manner, mostly for levitation. They seemed to be the next evolutionary step of magical humans. Tom was the first one to be lucky enough not to suffer from some serious magical disease.
Advice from Newton Scamander would be very useful.