This story was initially written in July 2021... or more accurately, that was when I started writing it in AO3 (where you can find it under the same name). Since then I have not written much and it is nowhere near finished, but I am of the opinion that I shouldn't quit on past me's mistakes, and that whatever I do is future me's problem, so fuck you, future me, and please finish this.

That said, due to the fact that I'm a father of two toddlers and an infant, I don't have enough time to update regularly. It's possible you won't see me for months... and believe me, I hate it as much as you do. Still I hope you like my ramblings- the start is certainly not as good as I would've liked it to be, but that is something I have to live with now.

Obligatory disclaimer:Canon means nothing in this household, and so does JK Rowling. Fuck that woman. Unfortunately, I'm obliged to tell you that the characters and original story belong to her. Additionally, this is heavily inspired on yet another fic of mine- it is NOT necessary to know anything about the butchered world of said fanfic as I will drop any information you may need, but it is very crazy and stupid and please do not look at me in the eyes thank you.

Summary: Harry Potter became the Boy-Who-Lived when he defeated the Dark Lord Voldemort at only one year old, losing his parents that tragic October 31st, 1981.

Tom Riddle became the Boy-Who-Lived when he defeated the Dark Lord at two years old, losing his mother that tragic night on October 31st, 1981.

Fourteen years later, Tom Riddle stumbles in the middle of a war between Voldemort and the Order of the Phoenix, determined to meddle where he shouldn't until he makes everything right.

Or, alternatively: A competent Boy-Who-Lived ends a war with the power of (someone else's) love and by not taking anyone's shit.

Ship(s): Harry Potter/Voldemort, Tom Riddle/Abraxas Malfoy, minor or background relationships.

Voldemort and Tom Riddle are two different people in this story. (As a further note, Tom Riddle is referring to Tom himself. Any mention of Thomas Riddle is a reference to his father, Voldemort's father)

As expected, this world he'd been suddenly tossed in was bonkers.

That isn't surprising in the slightest, because since the moment he knew he was in some sort of alternate timeline, he suspected everything was just shit. And he was right of course. Tom Riddle isn't just wrong about something. He is Tom Riddle after all.

He should have known better than to start using his untrained magic to cross doors to other dimensions, but anyone who knew him at least a tiny bit would be able to tell you that he rarely thought before doing something, and more often than not he took important decisions fuelled by spite and stubbornness. Besides, he wasn't trapped there forever. Going back home would take time, but he had all the time in the world.

Right, back to the issue.

This world sucked.

At first, he imagined the differences weren't too big, since a single glance would make you think that everything was ok. But oh boy was he wrong.

For starters, there was a maniac mass murderer hunting both muggles and wizards all around, and according to the information he managed to dig in, that lunatic was named Tom Riddle. What in the ever loving fuck had made this world's version of himself to go crazy? And what kind of ridiculous nickname was Voldemort?

Also and for some reason, he'd been born in the 1920's-30's? And his cousin Harry was the Boy-Who-Lived? And Dumbledore was good?

All of this gave him a headache.

To be completely fair, he could just… walk away. He really could.

But here's the thing: He was Tom Riddle and he never backed down from a possibly life threatening challenge. Specially if it meant ruining Dumbledore's plans (because let's be real, he probably planned the whole thing).

They wouldn't know what hit them.

Tom never thought that he would ever be back in Platform 9 3/4, about to board the train to Hogwarts, not since he moved to Japan to study in Mahoutokoro. Scrunching up his nose, he sorted through the students with ease, since it was early still, and boarded the train without any issues. His old Slytherin robe fit very well after being enchanted to fit his now seventeen year old body, since he hadn't used it for an entire year before throwing it to the back of his closet for the next four years. For some reason, it had been on his bag when he crossed worlds, as if the universe somehow knew he would need to infiltrate Hogwarts to enact his plans.

He closed the door to his compartment and dug inside his pocket for his wand and a small pocket mirror. In this world, it had been more than fifty years since Tom Riddle studied in Hogwarts, but Dumbledore certainly wouldn't have forgotten his face, or McGonagall for that matter. To avoid raising suspicion, he would need to hide his face somehow and that didn't make him happy- he liked his face! He waved his wand to distort his features slightly, making them less noticeable and a little more common. His eyes were also an issue, he still knew not of a spell capable of hiding their colour- or more accurately, their tendency to change colours on a whim. Seemed like he would need to avoid looking people in the eye as a preventive measure. With a sigh, he pocketed the items and looked out the window, bored.

Slowly, the platform started to fill with parents and students alike, but he couldn't say he recognised anyone. That is, until he saw a bunch of red heads walking pass his window. He could recognise those anywhere! He'd half expected all of his friends and acquaintances to have lived with Voldemort, but that theory proved to be false when he saw Ron and Hermione in between the twins and that bothersome brat that was their little sister. With them was a thin, short boy with messy raven hair and round glasses half-covering bright green eyes. His clothes seemed too big for his body, and judging by their appearance they were second hand. So that's what his cousin looked like... Tom still hadn't met him in his world, but from what Prince had described to him, that boy should be Harry Potter.

He had to think of a way to get close to him... he didn't have time to formulate a plan however, since there was a knock on the door and he tore his eyes away from the window to find a blonde girl standing there. Her wavy hair reached her waist, unkept and wild. Her wand was behind one of her ears and she carried both a trunk covered in stickers and a magazine under her arm. Her clear eyes had a far away look, as if she wasn't entirely there.

"Hello. Can I sit here?"

Tom shrugged and gestured for her to enter. The girl tossed her things on the rack above the seats and took her place in front of him, opening her magazine upside down.

"You have a very good spellwork" she complimented, gesturing to his face "but you should think of a strong backstory to back it up"

He blinked slowly and tilted his head to the side.

"Are you like me?"

"Not really. We don't have people like you here"

A seer then. It would make sense. In any case, it didn't seem like she would tell on him, and she glowed with a subtle power- she was a strong witch.

"I'm Tom" he presented himself, extending a hand to her "Tom Riddle. But I think it's best if I use my other last name"

"That would be best" she agreed, shaking his hand "Luna Lovegood. Have you ever seen a Crumple-Horned Snorkack?"

"Can't say I have, but it sounds interesting. Is it in your magazine?"

She proudly started to talk about said magazine, The Quibbler, which was apparently edited by her father, and soon enough they were having an interesting debate about magical creatures. Despite mentioning things that he'd never heard of before, she was a very good person to converse with and she was also funny enough. Tom had always liked eccentric people- he was eccentric on his own after all.

After a good ten minutes, someone else knocked on the door and he found himself staring at Harry Potter himself, accompanied by a Neville Longbottom and Ginny Weasley. Well, seemed like his cousin did all the job of coming to him, less work for Tom! He didn't personally know Longbottom, only heared of him from Draco's letters.

"Hi Luna" Ginevra Weasley opened the door "Is it alright if we sit here? The train is full already"

The three of him eyed him wearily, probably because of his Slytherin robe, but they must have been truly desperate to ask anyway. Luna nodded her head and the three of them placed their things on the rack. Ginny and Longbottom sat next to Luna, and Harry carefully sat as far from Tom as the seat allowed. He rolled his eyes, and exchanged a silent glance with Luna, who seemed just as amused as he was.

"You're Harry Potter" she said to the boy in question.

He seemed annoyed at that, but he nodded regardless. A short tense pause followed.

"Oh right- This is Neville Longbottom" Ginny presented him "guys, this is Luna Lovegood, she's in my year but she's a Ravenclaw. And you are...?"

"Tom"

They stared at him for a while, until he rolled his eyes once again. "Prince. My name is Thomas Prince, if you really need the whole thing"

That seemed enough for them to ignore him and the blonde girl, starting to talk about their summer. For his part, Tom reached inside the collar of his robes and distractedly caressed Buttercup's scales, since his new friend was back to reading. After an hour of silence, the cart passed their door (he purchased more sweets than his parent's would've approved of), and eventually Ron and Hermione showed up with a cat and an owl. (Crookshanks and Pigwidgeon if he remembered correctly...?)

"I am dying of hunger" Ron complained loudly, dropping next to Harry. Hermione squeezed herself between Ginny and Neville.

"There's two prefects for each house. Guess who's one of Slytherin's" she sighed.

"Malfoy" Harry spat without a doubt.

"And Pansy Parkinson, that idiot. I don't know how they chose her, she doesn't have a brain..."

Gods, it was clear there was nobody in this world to put a stop to her know-it-all attitude. She was already insufferable.

He zoned out yet again, until the door was opened for a fourth time and a blonde boy he knew all too well appeared on the doorway, exactly the same as the one he'd seen during winter break.

"What do you want, Malfoy?" Harry asked before he could say anything.

"Careful, Potter, or else I'll give you detention" he said with malice, before he noticed Tom in the corner "word of advice, don't hang out with these... lowlifes. Who are you anyway, I have never seen you in the Common Room"

"Thomas Prince" he stretched himself over Ron and Harry to shake his hand, ignoring the glares he received for doing so "I've recently been transferred. Used to be homeschooled by my fathers"

Draco nodded in approval "Prince, like the Ancient Noble house?"

"The one and the same"

"You could come sit with me" he offered, now sounding closer to the friendly boy that once helped him settle in the wizarding world "with others close to your station"

"Thank you, but my things are buried up there" he glanced to the rack above the seats "I'll take you up in that offer once we're in the castle"

Satisfied, Draco smiled to him, gave a smug look to the Gryffindors, and left with his head high and his robes fluttering behind him. That left four of his compartment-mates looking at him with hatred, and the blonde seer hiding her amusement behind her magazine. Ignoring their prejudice, he took out his wand and conjured a book from his bag, opening it where he'd left it before.

"Not only a pureblood supremacist and a snake, also performing magic out of the school" Ron mumbled under his breath.

"I'm seventeen" he said without looking up, but he could almost feel him sink defeated onto the seat.

"Master?"

Tom looked down to his robe, just as Buttercup peeked his head out. Ron squeaked and jumped almost on top of Harry, while Ginny and Hermione took out their wands.

"Hungry, darling?"

"Yes, please"

He took a bag out of his pocket with the dried meat and offered a piece, which his little friend accepted eagerly.

"He's a parselmouth" Ron was saying, horrified.

Honestly, this world seemed worse every second that passed. With a deep sigh, he looked up to them, clearly annoyed.

"Look, I let you glare at me as if I murdered your mothers, and I've ignored your rude remarks. What's it to you in what house am I, or what language I can speak? And for fuck's sake, I don't get to decide who my parents are. It so happened that both are from 'ancient pureblood families' and that has nothing to do with me. So we can have a decent trip, behaving like normal mature people, or you can fuck right off because I was here first with Luna. And if it's that much of an issue- this is Buttercup, he's a black mamba but he's a sweetheart and won't hurt a fly"

All of them blushed to the roots of their hair, and Luna bursted out laughing to the point it looked like it was hard to breathe.

His little outburst did work however because they proceeded to leave him alone and only talked to themselves after muttering a half hearted apology his way. Tom was satisfied enough with this and continued to talk with the blonde seer about magical creatures once again, eventually shifting to other topics. When speaking about plants, Neville joined them and they proceeded to have a nice chat with him. He seemed to be a good guy, Tom would make a note to remember him once back home.

Once the long trip was over -honestly, why not just flu directly to the castle-, Tom left the compartment with Luna and Neville, boarding one of the carriages without the Gryffindors. Since Tom only had a bag with him, he was the only one with his luggage as they arrived to the castle, as he rather preferred to keep it in his pocket than let anyone close to his belongings.

"I-It was nice meeting you" Neville said with a shy smile.

"Sure" Tom gave him a big smile "If you ever want to talk about Herbology, find me in the library after class. Bye"

He waved as he walked to the red and golden table.

"Good luck, dragon hatchling" Luna said cheerfully as she walked away.

He smiled slightly and went to find Draco, dropping next to him by the table.

Many things were different in this Hogwarts. The entire story of the school and the founders for starters, from what he'd read in Hogwarts: A History. The dorms were also different, being shared in groups of three. Since he was passing as a fifth year for the sake of keeping an eye on Harry, he was now sharing with Draco and Theodore Nott.

When he'd sent a letter to the headmaster over the summer, he'd fabricated a very good story, backed by the goblins who had been glad to help once explained the situation. He was Thomas Alastair Prince, son of Eileen Prince's cousin Alastair Prince. His other father was Gerhardt Gaunt, Morfin Gaunt's bastard child. Both of them lived and had their son in America, where they homeschooled him since they didn't want him to be in danger, with Britain being terrorised by Voldemort. Recently they had found that Gerhardt was actually a Gaunt, and they finally moved back to Britain. They were still weary of sending their son to Hogwarts, but when the Ministry tested him and it was evident he was behind for a seventeen year old, they agreed to send him to the school. Dumbledore had eagerly taken the bait, and after taking placement tests in the Ministry that set him in fifth year, he was directly sent to Slytherin without being sorted as expected of the old coot.

All of that had been hard to fake, but now that he was in the school it should be effortless to keep perfect scores... Tom was far from being the best student, but if something was the same in both worlds, was that the education in Hogwarts was lacking severely. He needed only to be a good boy and keep an eye out for his cousin.

And during the very first day, after a very boring History class, it was time for Potions.

Tom sat with Draco, who apparently liked him a lot (a mutual feeling, he loved his best friend no matter which world they were in) and he allowed himself to glance at the professor with a deep ache in his heart. He'd been far from home for months now, ever since the start of the summer, and he wanted nothing more than run to his father's arms where he knew he would be safe. This Severus however, was not the same man that fell in love with Thomas Riddle and helped raise him for the last four years.

He forced himself to look away just in time for the Gryffindors to arrive.

Professor Snape gave them a warning about not letting useless morons on his advanced potions class if they didn't pass their OWL's with outstanding grades, and proceeded to instruct them to brew Draught of Peace. Tom immediately raised his hand, and everyone turned to him.

"Yes, Mr. Prince?" Snape looked at him with an annoyed expression, which hurt more than it should.

"I am a terrible student in all other classes but my father loves potions and taught me everything he knew. I often deviate from the recipes... if my end result is the same as everyone else, is it alright if I do this?"

He frowned, but eventually nodded "I'll give you the chance to show it this once. If it's not up to my standards you may not do that again"

"Yes, sir"

Tom sighed in relief and concentrated on doing the task. Guiding himself by the instructions to know what colour the potion should take at each stage, he lost himself on preparing and adding ingredients little by little. Making sure nobody saw him, he sneaked a drop of his own blood inside the cauldron once it was a shimmering silver, knowing that it would make it potent. He was distracted then by Snape scolding Harry and proceeding to get rid of his failed potion. Poor kid. He bottled his own potion and scribbled his name on the tag, going to place it on the desk. Snape gave a grunt of what he hoped was approval and Tom marched out the classroom to wait for Draco.

He didn't get to see Harry again until after Arithmancy, when they had Defence Against the Dark Arts. Tom was not a big fan of the class, not when back in Mahoutokoro he had far cooler classes like Necromancy and actual Dark Arts. And he had the feeling he was going to hate it even more since the professor was a toad on a pink dress. Well- she wasn't actually a toad, but she sure looked like one.

"Good afternoon, students" when she didn't receive the same, she smiled sweetly "when I salute you, I expect you to do the same. Now, let's try again: Good afternoon, students"

"Good afternoon professor Umbridge" the class said in unison as if they were in kindergarten.

"Perfect" she looked far too pleased with the result "now, please put away your wands, you won't be needing them. Please open your books and read the first chapter"

Oh shit, was this for real? Tom resisted the urge to curse out loud and he pulled his book out, opening it and obeying just like the rest of his classmates. After just a couple of minutes, he wasn't even past a couple paragraphs, his brain refusing to work on the honestly boring content of the book. He enjoyed reading alright, but this author wasn't doing a good job of being interesting, and besides it was disappointing to read about defensive magic instead of performing it.

"Yes, Miss Granger?"

Tom looked up to find Hermione with her hand up.

"Excuse me professor but, are we not going to learn any spells?"

Umbridge gave her one of her disgustingly sweet smiles.

"The book provides you with all you need to know about Defence Against the Dark Arts according to the Ministry. You don't need any spells"

"But ma'am, what if we are in a situation in which we need them?"

"You are in a school, Miss Granger. You are under no risk. Please continue reading in silence"

"What if we are attacked?" Harry asked.

She frowned at him.

"You must raise a hand if you have a question Mr. Potter, and believe me, you have nothing to be worried about"

Harry raised a hand. Annoyed, Umbridge let out a sigh, clearly about to roll her eyes.

"What now?" she snapped.

"With Voldemort back, how are we going to defend ourselves in the case of an attack?"

Seething with rage, Umbridge tried to calm herself down as to not loose her composure.

"Ten points from Gryffindor! I know that all of you must be confused about the events of last year, but I assure you, there is no dark wizard out there to get any of you"

"I was there, I saw him!"

"Detention, Mr. Potter!" she shrieked right back "Friday at five p.m.! Now silence!"

Too shocked to react during or after the events, Tom could only wonder what in the ever loving fuck was he going to do to make Harry act less like a reckless idiot and use his brain for once. It was evident that the Ministry didn't want to believe Voldemort was back, from what he'd heard just now and from what he'd seen during his exhausting spying during the summer. Umbridge was Fudge's secretary, it had been a terrible move to go against her.

Although, to be fair, Tom himself was reckless and rude. If he were in Harry's shoes, he would've probably yelled too. Fortunately, he had the advantage of this not being his problem, so he could be more level headed about it.

He needed to act carefully... and maybe, stay in Umbridge's good graces for the time being.