AN: I liked writing this. It's a prequel of sorts to the last chapter. This is not beta'd. This came to me while writing another drabble but I'm not so sure, it was a few days ago. So, any mistakes are mine and I'd love it if someone point out if there are any.
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.
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Harry and Tom rarely got along as children. It was a fact both their parents accepted. But the two of them didn't actively try to make the other's life miserable, they tolerated and respected each other.
Well as much as young children could tolerate and respect.
When Tom was eight, he came to live with the Potters after both of his parents passed away. Harry was still six at the time (having only started Hogwarts Primary) and didn't really have a grasp on what had happened. Tom was slightly older ergo had a better understanding on what had happened (his mother was not joking when she had said her son was a genius, in fact she rarely joked, people just assumed otherwise). He and Harry didn't suddenly get chummy, Tom was actually a lot colder than he usually was for a few weeks after the funeral. Wouldn't even talk for a bit. But he eventually mellowed out a bit after listening to his younger cousin's 'logic' and his aunt talking-consoling, really-had helped him greatly .
The dynamics of the way they treated each other was still the same. They still argued over trivial things like children their age would do. But those hardly held any heat, it became more of a banter between them. The only thing that possibly changed was that Tom has become a bit more...protective, in his own meticulous way, towards his remaining family, the Potters.
For example: Dudley, Harry's cousin, in a plain and understandable, irrefutable way, was a bully(still is, probably), but to be more specific: an uncultured and moronic bully. Still, a bully nonetheless. And one that would not leave Harry alone; despite them being related closer than Tom and Harry.
As stated Tom recently became protective of his family, his naive little cousin included. His naive little cousin who did nothing wrong to Dudley Dursley nor did his naive little cousin who never once thought to try to actively and/or purposely antagonize Dudley Dursley. But that seemed to matter not to the little pig; he'd trip Harry when he thought no one was there to see. He'd call him nasty things [that sometimes had Harry crying and run to Tom for comfort, resulting to a snot covered uniform and a thoroughly annoyed little eight year old boy with a mile high(perhaps more) vindictive streak]. And in school, because for some unfathomable reason Dudley Dursley was able to attend Hogwarts Primary, he'd go ahead and swipe Harry's homework and tear it up in front of Harry to see. That proved his stupidity though, seeing as after Dudley had come and tore Harry's homework by the second time, Tom decided to intervene. He knows how to use a copier (and for some reason his uncle owns a fully functioning one in their home's garage). Dudley the idiot that he is does not notice that the paper of the 'homework' he swipes from Harry does not have the ruled lines in the back unlike the front. He, Dudley, thought himself the perfect little angel, a delusion he probably believed thanks to his parents, if they could be called that. However Tom kept his observation about the elder Dursleys to himself, he does have a high amount of respect for Harry's mother. His father too.
And Harry, poor, poor, poor; naive Harry does not want to jeopardize his mother's already shaky relationship with her sister. Tom was not of the same opinion there. His aunt, Harry's mother, Mrs. Lily Potter formerly Evans, is a nice and altogether lovely woman. She was a loving wife to James Potter, devoted mother to Harry and an aunt whose patience really shows no matter how moody Tom gets.
Her sister, Petunia Dursley formerly Evans, was a rotten woman, in young Tom's opinion that is. She seems like the type that loves to gossip rather than do something actually productive. A freeloader if one were to compare. She, it seems( and is very apparent), does not wish a reconciliation between her and her sister. Seeing as Mrs. Potter was the only one giving effort to rekindle their relation. Her sister, Petunia Dursley, just seems to have an irrational and immature hate and jealousy for her younger sister.
Her husband, Vernon Dursley, was no better, a hideous bully in his own right. He most probably encourages his son to act the way he did, thinking he had the right to. Fashioning himself as a king in his own delusional world that would never happen nor would that world ever exist, so mote it be.
Tom offered to scare Dudley off but Harry wouldn't allow it-"But Tommy, Dudley's bigger than you!" "It's Tom, Harry. Only Tom."-. Sadly Dudley being larger than Tom was true, grotesquely so. But Tom did not try to do anything to Dudley and helped Harry as much as Harry would allow him-"I'm six! Not sick!" "...physically." "Huh?"-.
That changed though when Harry had an accident and landed in a cast. It seemed that Harry's left arm was somehow fractured during school but Harry had no Phys. Ed. that day.
Tom knew that ugly pig was responsible. He was not sure as to what exactly happened, neither did Harry. But he was sure Dudley had a hand in that incident, he was one of the few that held dislike for Harry in school (the other being Professor Snape but was ruled out since he teaches at Hogwarts proper and not Hogwarts Primary, Harry was after-all a generally well-liked kid by both his peers and the older students, the Hogwarts Primary's staff included).
He, Tom, waited for two months to pass before retaliating. He was patient. He plotted and schemed. He recruited a few accomplices(the Weasley Twins from his year were more than happy to help, Abraxas did not really have a choice) to help enact his plans.
When their plan( the Twins added lovely input to make the plan more interesting, for them at least) were finally put to action, it ended with Dudley's agony, humiliation and expulsion from Hogwarts.
No one, bar himself and his accomplices, knew they had anything to do with Dudley's expulsion and his miserable month before it, they made sure of it.
And if a few weeks after Dudley's expulsion, Vernon were to suddenly get fired from the firm he worked in, on the grounds that someone was swindling the company's funding and evidence somehow was found in the computer on Vernon's desk to be part of it and be declared a suspect of sorts; well, that would be pure, unadulterated coincidence.
Young Tom Riddle may be a genius but he has yet to extend his interest in computers, still preferring to read books.
AN: Sorry to those who read this fic as it started with the Avengers but posting the recent chapters, they seem to no longer have anything to do with it Avengers anymore. Give me time, I'm still writing those I just need time since I'm re-writing some parts since it seems so OOC for me. Just wait. Although it might be long.