Legal Disclaimer: I own my stuff, but not the original source material. That belongs to whoever. Also, the opinions and interpretations I use here may not reflect the same in said whoever that owns the source material. Look, I'm just a poor college librarian. Suing me isn't going to get you anything but tears.

Warning: This work may be offensive to some readers. There are also references to canon events and period typical issues. Feel free to back out if need be.

Author's Note: So I'm attempting a couple of daily challenges and sometimes I get the weirdest prompt combinations. And glancing over conversation that happens in the associated chat, apparently I've fallen out of touch with the movements of the HP fandom since I stopped reading fics from it. I would not have figured a character that we only see for a second in a memory would be so popular.

Submitting Info:
Stacked with: Ministry (Winter Year 1); MC4A (Winter Year 5); RAVEN 2023
Individual Challenges: Spoilers (Y); Finders; Can of Spite; Loblolly; Thalia's Tricks; Red Lights; Red Bull; Bilingual Buddies; Behind Green Eyes (Y); Red Wave; Infinite Cakes; Lovebirds; Gryffindor MC; No School MC; Magical MC; Magical MC; Neurodivergent; Rian-Russo Inversion; Rian-Russo Inversion; Ethnic & Present; Booger Breath; Setting Sail; Hold the Mayo; Beastly Era; Old Shoes (Y); In a Flash; Bucket Listing (Y); Two Cakes (Y); Eating Cake (Y)
Ministry Challenges: Romantically Romantic Daily Challenge [Day 01] [Harry/Tom Jr]
RAVEN: Settings [124](Small Town/Village); Items [134](Tie); Colors [26](Charcoal)
Other MC4A Challenges: Vocab [2D](Egregious); Ship (Harry/Tom Jr)[FaMic2 (Silver)]; Chim [Rick]("Louder than Words" – Tick, Tick, Boom; Life/Death; Race Bend);Fire [x3](Clock); Garden [Nails (Nonbinary); Bonsai (Character Lived); Supply Shelf (Tie); Gnome Army (Tie); Mixed Bag Quintet (Green)]; TWT (NB Harry; FB Era)[Task#4 (Black)]; Hang [Phrase 3] (n/a); Soup [I](Introvert); Swap [Tops (Pink Pinstriped Dress Shirt)]
Representation(s): Desi Harry Potter/Tom Riddle Jr; Time Travel
Primary & Secondary Bonus Challenges: Suddenly Audrey; Misshapen Pods; Second Verse (Not a Lamp; Nontraditional; Car in a Tutu; Bad Beans; Under the Bridge; Where Angels Fear; Lettuce Hold Hands); Chorus (Wabi Sabi; Machismo; Peddling Pots; Tomorrow's Shade; Larger than Life; Unicorn; Abandoned Ship; Messing with Morlocks; Forked Path; Hot Stuff)
Tertiary & Generic Bonus Challenges: RoIL (Satisfaction; Volition); AD (Arrangement); Share (Ameliorate); DP (Terse)
Word Count: 819 words

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Affairs of the Past
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Harry had known that coming back to this time would be a terrible experience. Growing up in Little Whinging had not been any amount of fun, even excluding the Dursleys. The other people in the village weren't nearly as horrible as the Dursleys—that was a high bar to reach, in Harry's opinion—but there was a reason that they had so easily believed whatever Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon had said about him. And Harry had grown up decades after India had stopped being a part of the British Empire.

That couldn't be said about the time period that he was currently in. King George V was still the Emperor of India as the current reigning monarch of the still young United Kingdom. Elizabeth the Second wouldn't even be born for another year and change. As bad as things were during Harry's childhood, it was still head and shoulders over how things were now.

Everything about Harry wasn't welcomed here. With the sienna skin and distinctive features that he inherited from his father, Harry was too foreign looking for the fine, upstanding white denizens of Little Hangleton. Fortunately, he was fairly certain that no one other than Merope had any idea of just how queer he was. Forget not caring about the gender of who he got crushes on, Harry had not even been brave enough to tell any of his friends about how he wasn't quite the boy that they thought him to be (even if he also wasn't a girl). This was definitely not the time period where Harry could be open about any of that, even if Merope was far more accepting than he had expected.

Dumbledore's memory tour back (forward?) in Harry's sixth year had not given an adequate picture of Merope Gaunt. Of course, in the few years since the old man's death, Harry had discovered that Dumbledore had an egregious way of twisting things to tell whatever version of the truth he felt would best serve his needs. It galled Harry a bit to admit, but Rita Skeeter was right about Dumbledore.

Thankfully for Harry's plans, Dumbledore was wrong about practically everything. Harry had also had the good sense to do his own research before coming back in time. Preparing for this trip was a real eye-opener in a lot of ways. It was also the removal of the shackle of having to deal with all the expectations that come along with being famous for something he had no real memory of doing and a prophecy he had had no choice in following.

A knock interrupted his reminiscing.

"Haridard," Merope called in a singsong voice from the other side of his bedroom door, "you have a guest."

Harry opened the door to see his distant cousin grinning at him. The months of living together in a clean and safe environment with free access to basic necessities has done her nothing but good. She was nowhere near the sallow-faced waif who was desperate enough to use a love potion on a wealthy muggle just to survive. Instead, she was glowing in her Slytherin emerald day dress and her hair pulled into a complicated braid with a silver hair ribbon.

"Tom is here again," she said in parseltongue. Her smile held a teasing edge, despite her previous crush on the only son of their wealthy neighbor. Not that Harry didn't have ample opportunity to return the good-natured ribbing whenever Amelia stopped by. He was a bit baffled about why the two women needed so many hair ribbons. "He looks very dashing."

"Tom always looks dashing," Harry answered in the same language. His cheeks flushed at the truth of that thought. To distract them both, he ushered them towards the sitting room. Tom was standing in the center of the room in a dove gray suit with a pink pinstriped dress shirt and charcoal black tie. The sight of him took away Harry's breathe.

He could see why his cousin had fixated on the muggle man. Thomas Riddle Junior was as charming and kind as he was handsome. Merope's mistake had been using a love potion on him instead of just asking for help. But then again, Marvolo and Morfin were the Dursleys if they hadn't had to be concerned about what other people thought. Merope hadn't had any friends or even the relative freedom of school to escape them either. Asking for help is still difficult for Harry.

"Will you be going down to The Hanging Man again?" Merope whispered with a slyness that hinted that she would have been Sorted into their shared ancestor's House if the Gaunts could have afforded to send either child to Hogwarts. Harry hummed and directed his attention towards the muggle who was turning to look at them.

"Yes," Harry said, "I think I will."

Coming to the past was the best decision that Harry had ever made.