Dr. Browning had worked in the field of child psychiatry for 20 years and in that time he had never come across a case as strange as Tom Marvolo Riddle.
Start with what was known about the child. And that was very easy to summarise: nearly nothing. There was no information as to his origins. His parents could not be found of course, but no relatives or past caregivers either. And that was mystifying.
The first time the records showed his name was when social workers had found him in the streets on New Year's Eve of 1986. This was a year and a half ago. According to their testimony, he was very confused with his surroundings and dressed in strange, old fashioned clothes: a grey uniform with holes in it and wool socks.
Apart from the amnesiac attitude he displayed (according to those who found him he believed it was New Year's Eve 1933), he was convinced a magical stone had brought him to the future and ran away once he realised he no longer had it in his possession.
(Privately, his personal research showed that there indeed had been an orphanage at the site where he appeared but it had been demolished exactly seven years ago and replaced by commercial tower blocks.)
A week later, Riddle was found again and nobody knew how he had survived by himself. Common sense suggested he resorted to stealing, but there was absolutely zero proof of this. It was not normal for a seven year old child to cover their tracks so comprehensively that even the police were unable to track him.
Dr. Browning rubbed his eyes as he read the file once more and reviewed what he knew about the boy. For some reason, he kept thinking that he was missing something, something especially important surrounding the boy that he could never quite put his finger on. It was immensely frustrating and driving him slightly insane.
He was narcissistic, perhaps showing some budding signs of psychopathy that he might grow into as an adult. But he had seen more troubled cases by far in his line of work. The difference was that nearly all those other children behaved as they did impulsively and instinctively, not in a strictly calculated manner...
It was that manipulative, secretive, and deceptive streak of his which he rarely saw in the other children. It was quite another level of maturity in many ways. He rarely showed any confrontational anger or impulsiveness; that only happened when the facade was forcibly ripped from him by deliberate, repeated, invasive questioning.
He was highly intelligent, remarkably not childish at all, as wilful as an adolescent twice his age. He had not been to school before he was "found" even though he had turned seven, but his natural intelligence had allowed him to move up a grade very quickly. He intimidated the older students in the upper years aged ten and eleven.
Tom Riddle was adopted by foster parents in 1987, three months after he had been "found" by the social workers, and he had a tumultuous relationship with them and after a year completely refused to speak in their presence.
There was seemingly no desire or capacity to have caregivers let alone form any bonds with them. Dr. Browning could deduce that he had probably formed a prior bond with at least one parent-like figure, but frustratingly this person(s) could not be found to exist and the boy resolutely refused to speak about them.
Beyond all these perplexities, there were still seemingly many empty holes that needed filling surrounding the boy. And for weeks there was no progress at all on this front despite numerous sessions. That was beyond strange. And so Dr. Browning was persuaded to conduct a personal experiment.
Three days later, he met with Tom again.
When he had returned, he poured himself a cup of coffee and sat in the kitchen. He always got himself a cup of coffee after work.
Dr. Browning took one look at his mug which was not his usual one and gave a start. He had deliberately switched mugs for a reason. It was coming back to him. He then hurried to his calendar and read the note he had written to himself about his appointment with Tom Riddle and was given the shock of his life.
His meeting was supposed to end at 5pm. That was what he wrote. But he remembered the session was supposed to end at 4pm exact! That was what he remembered! He would never make such an elementary mistake.
Still, what he had written in the calendar entry was troubling because he was never ever wrong there.
He drove back to his clinic just to check. His secretary informed him that Tom Riddle had just left. When asked about it, she confirmed that the session was due to end at 5pm but he had just told her Tom was making progress and therefore their session ended early.
A week after these mystifying events, Dr. Browning was again in his clinic when Tom entered for his weekly session.
As usual, their session devolved in a very problematic way.
Dr. Browning began trying to make the patient comfortable employing all his usual methods as he always did. Something in his mind however, told him this wouldn't work but the logical part of his brain reasoned that there was no reason it wouldn't work.
"Hullo, Tom. It's good to see you again. And how was school today?"
Tom just gave a feral grin and didn't exactly meet his eyes. "Dr. Browning, I have a lot of homework and I'd prefer if we could just get this over with as quickly as possible."
"You are doing very well in school," Dr. Browning prodded eagerly.
"Yes, so I don't really see why I need to come here any longer," Tom replied in his usual very self-possessed manner. "I'd prefer it if we could just end this session early today, if you would be willing?" At this, his dark glowing black pupils met his.
Dr. Browning's eyes instantly glazed over.
"So you have a way of making me miss my appointments, huh?" Dr. Browning said. He was back in his clinic again. He didn't know how this dangerous child did it, but before this he would have never believed in the unscientific idea of hypnosis. He really needed to write a paper on this. That would be groundbreaking.
Somehow, Tom could make him do things against his will and he had managed to find out after triple checking with his secretary again whom he had warned preemptively and repeated adamantly that he would not be missing any appointments or ending them prematurely. The blank spots in his mind still haunted him.
"So you finally figured it out?" Tom let out a bored, leisurely sigh. "Don't worry, you'll forget about it all tomorrow."
"Oh, and you have the ability to make me forget," he laughed nervously in response. A part of Dr. Browning's mind actually believed he did.
"Don't worry, you are all but confirmation to me that the other world, my world does indeed exist," Tom said very seriously. "And thank goodness for that."
Dr. Browning went home that evening wondering whether Tom Riddle was suffering from more conditions than he had initially thought. Certainly delusions possibly, but then again many children his age (eight) still did believe that Santa Claus was real. But Tom didn't really strike him as that kind of child.
He had marked his calendar again, leaving himself an extensive self-note, and remembered his session with Tom was due in a week's time of course.
The next day however, he awoke with no memory of the incident at all.