Key:

"Pokemon speech"

"Regular speech"

Chapter 2: Meeting the Genius and his Unlikely Friend

Harry flew around until he spotted Tom and the black haired boy walking toward the building he roosted in front of the night before. Well, that's convenient he thought as he tilted his wings to turn downwards towards them. Just as he was going to gracefully land on a branch from a bush he planned to get their attention from, a gust of wind suddenly blew him to the ground. He reacted swiftly, but clumsily as he hadn't had the time to refine his flying too much. His landing was a little rougher than it should have been though and Harry was a little dizzy. Shaking his head he looked up to see the two boys staring at him.

Taking the opportunity to look closely at them, he noticed that the younger black haired boy had two distinctive marks on his cheeks. The boy was wearing a short sleeved white and blue jacket, a dark green shirt under it, and jeans. His black hair was a spiky mess and his eyes were a brown. He had a baseball styled cap on his head.

Tom was something interesting to look at however, as Harry had never really seen the boy in anything like it in his old world. Tom was wearing a dark brown trench coat with black trimming and ended just under his knees, a dark garnet red shirt was visible underneath it, black jeans, black hiking boots, and a black pokeball with a gold symbol on it hung from around his neck. His dark brown hair was neatly styled and his eyes were a darker brown than his companion's. Tom was also a good head taller than the other boy.

Harry was broken out of his observation when he the black haired boy spoke up.

"Hey look Tom, what's that pokemon?" he asked. Tom looked at Harry before saying, "I don't know Ash, it is not native to Kanto or Johto as I would have recognized it, unless it is an as of yet undiscovered species."

The boy, Ash, suddenly rushed forward, grabbed Harry, and started running to the windmill building, yelling back to Tom, "Let's take it to Prof. Oaks and see if he knows."

"Ash, you idiot, let go of it! You don't know if it's dangerous or not!" Tom yelled at him in alarm. He took off after Ash, while Harry was struggling to escape the young boy's grasp and squawking loudly, "Let go of me kid, I'm not some toy to be manhandled by random children!"

Thanks to Tom's long legs, he caught up quickly to the younger boy, but they had already reached Oak's Laboratory and Ash was rushing inside calling out to the Pokemon Professor. When Tom finally reached Ash, the professor was already examining the bird pokemon as it was squawking indignantly at Ash. Walking up to Ash he slapped him upside the head.

"Hey, what was that for?!" he cried out.

"You being an idiot and grabbing an unknown pokemon that we did not know if it was wild or not nor did we know what type it was. It could have been sick or easily irritable as well," Tom replied scathingly. "Judging from what it's saying, you don't come off as intelligent Ash, in fact, I'll quote that it is saying 'you featherbrained newborn of an insect'." he continued in a milder tone with a hint of amusement at the pokemon's words, unaware that he stunned Harry to silence from saying that.

"I have to agree Ash, that wasn't very smart." the professor reprimanded the boy, but continued saying when he saw Ash's downcast expression, "However, I have to say I haven't seen a Fletchling outside of photos or the Kalos Region , nor one that is this unique looking. He's also not injured." Motioning Tom closer, he asked him, "Would you mind asking him what he is doing so far from home, Tom? I'll tell Ash what he should do when he wants to show me an unidentified pokemon while you do."

Nodding, Tom turned his attention to the small bird pokemon and ignoring Oak's lecture, smirking slightly at Harry's stunned expression. The smirk seemed to shake the pokemon out of his slight stupor and he looked at Tom with narrowed eyes.

"So you can understand me," pausing a moment to see Tom confirm this. At Tom's nod, Harry continued, "Well aren't you interesting. I'm here because I wanted to see somewhere that wasn't what you humans call Kalos or France."

"I see, so what is your name little one?" the boy asked in curiosity. Puffing his feathers up slightly in annoyance at the nickname, Harry replied, "My name is Herald. I prefer Harry, however. Also, don't call me 'little one', I'm two winters old and far from a newborn, unlike this Ash kid you seem to care about."

Snorting softly at that, Tom said, "Well, I suppose Ash is still a young child, he's only nine after all," he ignored the indignant 'Hey, I'm going to be ten in a month!' coming from the other side of the room and continued with a smirk, "and I don't think I will stop calling you that, little one."

Harry glowered at him before saying, "You are going to be insufferable, aren't you." At Tom's widening smirk, he sighed and continued, "I don't know why I'm going to say this, but I wonder if you would let me stay with you as your pokemon. I got bored with Kalos and want to see more of the world, not to mention you seem to be one of the sanest people in this town." Harry lied slightly about his reason for leaving Kalos, mostly because no one would believe the actual story, and partly because he didn't want Tom to know what Harry actually was just yet.

Tom's eyes widening in surprise wasn't the intent for asking, but Harry still felt smug about it. Tom somehow picked up on that and narrowed his eyes at Harry before saying, "I don't see why not. I was cleared for a trainer's license on my birthday and didn't to choose one of the traditional Kanto starter pokemon. I'll have to ask Prof. Oak though-," he was cut off by said professor asking, "Ask me what?"

"He wants to stay with me. Could he be registered as my starter pokemon?" Tom asked, the only hint of his annoyance at being interrupted being the slight twitch of his eyelid.

"Well, if he's taken a liking to you and you are willing to read a few things about the Fletchling line so that you can properly care for him, then I don't see why not." Oak said. "I'm wondering when you are leaving on your journey though?" he asked curiously.

"I decided to go with Ash when he starts his, and travel with him. Heaven knows what he would get into without me to watch over him." Tom said dryly.

With that, everything was dealt with and Tom got a new book, his first pokemon, and Ash learned a lesson about the pokemon researching field. Harry would take a few days to get used to his new situation and Tom would read up on how to care for Fletchling. Well, he asked Harry what he needed to know and the two bonded over ridiculing the errors in the book. Harry and Tom also decided to take the month until Ash's birthday to get to know each other, as well as to allow Harry to improve his skills and get the two of them to get used to working as a team. It would certainly be an enlightening period of time.

The past of Tom Riddle Jr. was a tragic one in this world as Harry learned in that month. Tom's mother, Merope Riddle, was somehow teleported to the area near an orphanage. She was heavily wounded and nine months pregnant with Tom. The stress of being teleported while injured and pregnant caused her to start going into labor. The workers of the orphanage brought her inside where she gave birth to Tom. She had enough strength to name him after his father before succumbing to her wounds, which had become even worse due to the birthing process.

Tom was then set to be raised in the orphanage. It wasn't a good or happy life though. It was a place of abuse and Tom was a prime target due to his being much smarter than other kids his age, as well as his ability to understand pokemon. Both of which also marked him as strange, therefore the other kids found him to be a good target for bullying. His only companions were the pokemon around the orphanage, who told him about his mother, and the only kind human was a young woman, who taught Tom how to read, write, and do basic math. She couldn't be around all the time though and didn't know about what the other adults were doing to the children. It wasn't until Tom was seven and she found a large hand shaped bruise, from one of the adults at the place grabbing Tom a little too hard, on his arm did the woman find out about the abuse. She called the police and Tom's time at the orphanage came to an end.

The police tried to reach Tom's father, but they couldn't. To this day, Tom didn't know what happened to his parents except that his mother was heavily wounded when she died after he was born and that she came from the region in Britain. Anything else was unknown. So, the young woman that cared for him decided to take him in and raise him along with her four year old son, Ash. Her name was Delia Ketchum. Tom was also given therapy sessions to help him through the abuse he had suffered.

No matter what though, Tom only really found a positive human connection to Delia, Ash, Delia's teacher, Professor Oak, and his therapist. His only other connections were to pokemon and his only human friend his age was Ash. As a consequence of his abuse and several potentially dangerous underlying aspects of his mind, Tom wasn't cleared for a Trainer's License until his thirteenth birthday, even then he wasn't really cleared to compete in the Indigo League as his therapist thought that the stressful competition would be detrimental to Tom. He didn't mind as it gave him the opportunity to travel with Ash when he started his own journey and find out what he himself would like to do as a trainer.

Tom only kept two objects from his time at the orphanage, his mother's locket and the black pokeball that he wore around his neck. The locket held a wedding picture of his mother and father, with their names engraved on the inside of the lid. The pokeball was something that Tom found when he was five and had kept. When Harry had first looked closely at the golden symbol on the ball, he was shocked to see that it was the symbol for the Deathly Hallows. It was now Harry's pokeball because Harry was Tom's first pokemon and deserved to be in a special pokeball, and Tom had a peculiar feeling that the pokeball was specifically made for Harry.

It was the day before Ash's birthday. Harry was stronger and both Tom and Harry were rather close. They just clicked together and became good friends. The two bonded over making sure Ash was actually prepared for his journey, and able to bond with and care for any pokemon he gets. They also distracted him from Gary Oak's taunts. The result was that Ash had somewhat tempered his impulsiveness and temper thanks to their combined efforts, but it was still a work in progress.

The two settled in for the night to the sound of the broadcast of a League battle that Ash was watching. Tom sighed in exasperation as he heard the sounds coming from the room next to his. He is going to sleep in at this rate he thought. Shaking his head he turned to where Harry was perched on his bed.

"I do wonder when he'll go to sleep and when he will wake up." He mused before saying, "He makes it much too easy to mock him the way he is acting." Chirping in agreement, Harry watched with lidded eyes as Tom prepared for bed. Tom's room was almost a mirror of Ash's room, except Tom didn't have a T.V. and had more bookshelves in his room. His room was also much more organized than Ash's was. Since Harry liked to be out of his pokeball and with Tom, Delia and Tom hung a bag made out of strong netting and filled it with bits of cloth and an old shirt from when Tom was younger in order to make a nest.

Finally, Tom settled into bed. Harry fluttered up to his nest. Their journey with Ash started tomorrow and the excitement that permeated in the air made it difficult for Tom to fall asleep, but Harry was experienced with anticipation of a big event in the night before it. Thanks to having fought two wizarding wars in his last life he knew the value of getting rest whenever you could, which meant he found a way that relaxed his mind enough for him to sleep.

A/N: Thanks for reading, I bet you did not expect this. Free time + helpful muse= updates. Don't expect such quick updates throughout story.

On Tom's Character: Unlike his HP universe counterpart, this Tom did not and will never experience the same things that Voldemort did. As you have read, Tom did have a tough time and does have some of the mental issues that Voldemort did, but they have been curbed by the fact that Tom has a therapist and actual familial connections. Harry will also work as a watcher for Tom and help him. Tom also, apparently, wants to be a slight sarcastic smart ass along with Harry. Did not plan that, it just happened.

Harry's mission: Harry realized that Ash was the child hero that Death told him about when he felt the warmth in the first chapter. This does not mean, however, that Harry will treat him differently than he has in this chapter. Harry died at 260 as a famous wizard and hero. He will keep the knowledge to himself in the deepest part of his mind.

Headcanon: Pokemon moves in the anime have never severely injured or killed a person, even though most moves can easily crush boulders, bend steel support beams, and kill other pokemon for hunting or death fight purposes. My idea is that all pokemon use aura to energize and give their moves their destructive power. The pokemon can consciously lower the power of their moves so that they don't unintentionally kill or severely hurt those they don't want to.

The only episodes of the anime I will loosely follow in this will be ones that introduce new main characters, pokemon being cought and/or evolve, gyms/ important battles, and episodes that will show main characters going through development. I'll figure out when Tom will catch the pokemon for his team somewhere in the episodes. It depends on where the crew is in an episode and where the pokemon are found in the region.

Disclaimer: I'm pretty sure we all get that I don't own Harry Potter or Pokemon.