Chapter 1 – Return to Castle Hogwarts

Oct 31 1991, somewhere in the middle of nowhere

Two eleven year old boys were following a pair of train tracks. They were 10 meters apart. It wasn't a good idea for Victor to stand near Tom when he was angry, or mad, or annoyed. Now that Victor thought about it, it was a pretty bad idea to stand near him in general. Tom had a tendency to lash out with curses due to Victor's incessant questions during times of focus and confusion. For some yet unexplained reason the eldest of the two boys would lead the youngest on the most random walks to the oddest places. In retrospect a normal person would understand the need to ask questions but Tom never claimed the burden of being normal. Neither did Victor…

The eldest and most demanding of the two often had moments of memories he couldn't explain. Sometimes feelings of familiarity or bouts of random knowledge that turned out useful.

Regardless, Victor had every intention of following his brother wherever he went. He loved his brother and felt safest with him. Tom had named him and claimed him as his own. Considering Boy, according to Tom, was not a name. Having been with his brother for months he learned many things. Victor learned about his self worth, learned how to control his powers, learned he was a wizard, and learned that he was Tom's first friend.

Funnily enough neither boy knew how they came to be together. Victor just remembered wanting to survive and oddly in that moment, even if he wasn't aware of it until all was said and done, he wasn't the only one. Tom had been that voice. Yet all Tom remembered was awakening as if from a deep slumber and suddenly existing. Sitting in the middle of Knockturn Alley with a peacefully slumbering boy in his arms. Life from there had gotten interesting.

When he had woken from his slumber the first thing he remembered was how comfortable he was. Pain had finally left him yet never before had it left him so comfortably.

According to Tom there wasn't a single scratch on them when they appeared in the Ally. Yet Victor had refused to wakeup for days following. Tom rented a room in a place he couldn't explain having the knowledge of and left the slightly younger boy to sleep. He would come back occasionally tending to the other child's needs. Not wanting the only other person with him when he had awaken to die or be harmed.

When the boy had awoken things seem to happen so fast he couldn't keep up with it. Tom made him eat food, washed him, and dressed him. He was then grabbed by the hand and guided out of the building to a new location. This became their life for months. Hopping from location to location. Getting to know each other, learning to rely on each other. Finding out the slightly older boys name was Tom Riddle. Then being gifted with the name Victor Riddle. They function like brothers. Getting on each others nerves, never letting anyone else get on each others nerves, and leaving chaos along the path. Tom found hidden caches of treasure only he knew the way to. Fixing their need for money almost instantly. Considering Tom had every intention of keeping his baby brother alive. They had so much in common, and even if Tom wouldn't admit it they quickly grew to love each other. Knowing each other better than the world.

This is why Victor knew when to stop asking questions for the time being.

He didn't want to be the one to break his brothers odd fixation on the train tracks. Staying out of his sight and silent as he followed. A mild distance being the answer to the situation. Tom was always aware of when Victor wondered too far off. So on one had he wanted to go do his own thing, bored by his brothers new fixation, and on the other hand, Victor didn't really want to be apart from Tom either. He was his brother after all!

Tom was a boring yet interesting person. He spends most of his time researching, plotting and planning which basically meant that he spends most of his time sitting, reading or pacing which in itself is a pretty boring thing to watch. However, for some reason most his plans never went completely right. It's one thing that 'no battle plan survives contact with the enemy', but Tom really brings it to the next level. Victor just couldn't understand it. Another interesting thing is that Tom could only do basic spells at first, and yet every day it was like he learned and remembered more just by dreaming. Then again that does explain his apparent intuitive skill with fire based spells or the Mind Arts.

Victor just shook his head as he remembered.

The first night when they finally arrived at the manor when Tom cast the "Incendio" spell for the first time, and why do they have to cast spells in bad latin? It was the first time Tom had cast a spell for fire without nearly destroying a town. Then they had the whole Fiendfyre incident, half the mansion burned down, and most of the villagers needed their memories altered. So Tom's random moments of memory worked both in their favor and against. Not that Victor minded.

Victor was still considering whether or not to categorize the Mind Arts as magic, or just Tom being Tom. Based on his brother's words he can read someone's mind by just looking into their eyes, but Tom was also a smart person who can figure people out based on their mannerisms alone. He could also convince the smartest person in the room of anything, so he wasn't even sure if Tom did "obliviate" the villagers or just convinced them that they hallucinated a pack of wild creatures made out of pure fire demolishing half of Little Hangleton.

Victor ran his hand threw his hair, paused, then stared at the ring on his hand. Another interesting thing about Tom was his obvious but only partial amnesia, or at least that's what he calls it. Sometimes Tom is mature way beyond his years, possessing knowledge that one can only acquire based on life experience, other times he doesn't know the most basic of things. Sadly, Victor is only partially useful in helping him, being raised for 6 years in a cupboard then living in isolation as the 'ghost of Riddle Manor' doesn't give one a lot of life experience.

Still his partial amnesia is the cause for a lot of their adventures. In the beginning he was dead set on conquering England then the World. After a week where he couldn't remember or understand why he wanted to do such a thing, he dropped the subject entirely.

Another day he decided that he really wanted a specific ring. Fortunately for them said ring was located in the backyard shed which was heavily warded. Victor got bored after the first 30 minutes of staring at Tom's efforts to disable the wards and just blew the shed away. Luckily for them the ring was pretty much indestructible. The next six months were occupied with Tom removing all of the curses from the ring. Seeing as how Tom couldn't really do advanced magic at the time, six months passed by with Tom instructing Victor in minute detail how to remove the curses. Another point of ire for Tom was Victor's magical knowledge or lack thereof. Apparently, Victor wasn't like any normal wizard. Victor couldn't really prove or disprove the fact seeing as the only wizard he knew was Tom and he was more of a short-tempered pyromaniac then a real wizard. Victor didn't pronounce spells nor do complicated movements with a special stick. Victor just wishes for something and it happens.

Anyway, after all of the enchantments, curses, hexes, and jinxes were removed Tom placed the ring on his own finger and… nothing happened. In his fury he just threw the ring at Victor who instinctively caught it in the air and put it on. This time the ring glowed.

"Never take that off", Tom ordered as they were still staring and contemplating on what just happened.

So since then, Victor hasn't removed the ring. He still didn't understand why though. Why did he need to always wear the ring? Why did they need an indestructible ring in the first place? Maybe they could figure out how it's indestructible and use that knowledge to make the house indestructible? At least that would save Victor time and energy whenever he needs to rebuild part or all of the house. Living with a pyromaniac, whos solution to fixing things was death or fire would make that a regular occurrence.

His partial amnesia is also to be blamed for their current predicament. They were out hunting for food when they found a pair of train tracks. They were magical in that they were invisible for the non-magical or muggle as Tom likes to call them. Tom, as if he just remembered something very important, started following the tracks abandoning their quest for fresh meat. Victor just wished that they would have waited and took the magical train. Following railroad tracks was boring. Victor hated boring.

Tom suddenly stopped. Victor barely stopped short of running into his brother. They were both in awe as they gazed upon an old castle.

"Did you know this was here, Tom?"

"No, I'm just as surprised to see this as you are. I remember something being at the end of the tracks, but not what or why. The castle seems pretty heavily warded, they must have something very important to protect."

"Could it be a fancy wizard house?" asked Victor.

"Maybe, wizards usually live in magically constructed houses, the rich in mansions. The tracks end there, and over there is a village. So it might be the Lord of the village."

Victor looked at Tom, "Smash and grab?"

"We need some pretty heavy firepower to break the wards."

"Already on it." Victor laid his hand on the wards and simply willed a silent opening to form. Trusting his older brother to tell him when he was successful.

-oOo-

Oct 31 1991, Main Hall, Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry

Neville was sitting in the Great Hall waiting on the Halloween feast, or as people call it the Harry Potter feast. He was staring at the ceiling, watching as the storm became stronger and stronger, occasionally being blinded by the flash of lightning. It was strange considering outside the window there was no storm. The sky was partly cloudy and it was beautiful if not peaceful out there tonight. He wasn't the only one to notice the weirdly forming storm either. Yet his mind was too young and too scattered to brother thinking it was odd or acknowledging his silent observation. Those few who did notice it were unperturbed by it after realizing the staff was unbothered. The feast and celebrations are enough to distract the majority of them.

Neville was torn between sadness and anger about his god-brother's death regardless of the celebratory environment. He took out his holly and phoenix feather wand and just stared at it. "For the Greater Good, eh?"

Neville just shook his head.

Ron Weasley, his friend and confidant sat next to him, wearing his brand new custom tailored robes on par with Draco's, armed with his custom made wand. He was of course the best mate to the future Lord of the Light, as people were starting to call Neville, nothing was too good for him.

"Hey Nev, I talked to Fred and George and they say that they managed to smuggle in our Nimbus 2000s. We can now fly whenever we want." He said with a smile.

"That's great, Ron," Neville said with a deep sigh.

"What's the matter, mate? Is what Dumbledore said at the beginning of the year bothering you?"

Ron was referring to the 'small talk' that both he and Neville had with the Headmaster in the beginning of the year. In the talk he explained to them the prophecy, why he was so sure it referred to Neville and not Harry, detailing the reason for his training. He added that it might even give him a margin of insurance seeing as only Voldemort can kill him. The Headmaster also explained his plan to lure Voldemort inside the school by hiding the Philosopher's Stone on the third floor. The kids were both shocked at the news. He was playing with the lives of children after all. The Headmaster then gave a grave sigh.

"What would you have me do? Every day Voldemort is free he will become stronger, he will gather more followers, he will kill more innocents. Wouldn't it benefit Magical England as a whole to dispose of him as soon as we can? Either way there will be loved ones lost."

After that they both solemnly agreed to the Headmaster's plan and started working on the details.

"No, Ron I was just wondering about…" but he was interrupted by Parvati and Lavender.

"Ron, how could you say something so mean to Granger! Even now she is crying her eyes out in one of the bathrooms and she won't even come out!" Parvati screamed at Ron.

"What!? All I said was the truth. She IS an insufferable know-it-all! She DOES NOT have any friends! Besides it's not like you two stood up for her! Not even when the Slytherins were calling her a mudblood."

It was true. They both avoided Granger because in a way she was insufferable. The only people they saw Granger talking to were one or two older students in Ravenclaw, likely due to their common ground in the library. They were however ashamed that they didn't stand up for her in front of the Slytherins, but when that happened deep down they felt a sense of pleasure seeing her put in her place. On reflection they both felt worse than shite.

"BUT WE DON'T TELL IT TO HER FACE!" Parvati screamed, "Besides, we are trying to make up for it…"

"It's not like anything will come of this! She'll just cry herself out and everything will return to the way it was in the morning. She'll be first in line for class, like always. She will answer all the questions, like always. She will be insufferable, like always. If she doesn't figure out why she's an insufferable know-it-all she'll continue to be one. In a way we are helping her to grow and mature," Ron smiled at the last part. Ron really liked doing important things without doing anything.

"Listen, both of you!" Neville spoke up before Parvati could retort, "Granger does need to understand why she is being... well basically being ostracized, but just ignoring her won't do anybody any good. Tomorrow we'll sit down and talk to her. Ask her to tone it down a bit. As for the Slytherins… she's a muggleborn, she will have to get used to the taunts. It won't end in school, she will be looked down on everywhere she goes, the Ministry, even in shops. She will just have to get used to it, and in the end it will make her a stronger individual. It is for the Greater Good. As for right now she needs time for herself. Do not worry, we are in the safest place in Great Britain."

Both Parvati and Padma looked in awe at Neville, realizing just why he was looked at as the future Leader of the Light. Some distance away a third year half-blood Ravenclaw heard everything and wondered if the wizards have ever heard of psychological harassment and its long term results regarding self-esteem problems. He was also wondering, not for the first time, whether it would be a good idea to leave the UK and find opportunities in other countries.

Neville might not know this, but this one overheard conversation will spark many more conversations between muggleborns and muggle raised half-bloods on their treatment by their "betters" which will eventually result in a mass exodus to France and the Americas leading to a future labor crisis in Britain, but that's a story for another time.

A huge CRACK sound was heard.

"The storm is getting worse…doesn't the Great Hall's ceiling reflect the weather outside? Maybe the headmaster did this for Halloween?" questioned one of the students. Drawing the attention of even those who eavesdropped to the ceiling of the great hall.

-oOo-

Meanwhile at the edge of the wards…

"Now!" yelled Tom as he saw a lightning bolt striking a transparent dome, making an opening in the wards. They both jumped through it as the wards began to fall.

They started running towards the main doors of the castle. Hoping no one would investigate the loud cracking sound or the random lightning hitting the wards. Tom's eyes scanned the grounds constantly, Victor ready to react as he followed his big brother's lead as usual.

"The doors are wooden, but it has so much magic embedded into it that it wouldn't even dent with Fiendfyre", yelled Tom as he was trying to figure out a way inside. Not slowing down or looking back. Knowing his brother was right behind him and would hear him.

"Tom? Do wizards have common sense?"

"What do you mean?"

"Would they be so stupid as to put an indestructible door right next to a wall made out of plain and simple stone?"

Tom wanted to retort. Tom wanted to yell from the top of his lungs, 'Of course not!' He even wanted to, for some unknown reason, start preaching pureblood dogma but stopped himself. He looked at the doors, then the wall next to it, then at the doors again. Stopping just before reaching them, he turned around and grinned at his baby brother.

That was all the confirmation Victor needed. He pointed his hand, palm open towards the wall which was now only a few meters away from them, willing the energy around him to gather and blow a hole in the wall. With no sound the stones flew away from Victor, scattering in the hallway.

Thankfully Tom quickly cast a ward to trap the sounds of the explosion when he realized what his brother was doing. Victor, turning around expecting praise for his efforts only to get a smack to the back of his head. With fondness Tom marched off into the building mumbling about idiotic overpowered, impulsive, no common sense having, little brothers.

-oOo-

Meanwhile in a girl's bathroom…

Hermione Granger had enough. She had enough of not having a single friend. It seemed like it has become a common theme in her life to enroll in a new school just to be picked on for being who she is. Not to mention being teased for STUDYING! She held her tear-stricken face in confusion. The whole point of school was to learn! Sure, she was more enthusiastic about it than others, more energetic and active than others, but… but… it's MAGIC! How can someone not be happy about studying magic? When she was younger, she liked to dress up as a witch. Pointy hat and long black cape, in her youth when she didn't realize her fear of heights, she even used the house broom to pretend she had a broom to fly on and she was pretty sure it worked a few times but she chalked it up to her imagination. She smiled at that memory, then frowned. Memories of her dressing up also brought back memories of her relative who in not nice words told her that she could never become a witch and that magic wasn't real. HA! If Isabella could see me now!

Yeah… That's all she needed now. Isabella, and Aunt Christine, the bane of the Granger family, who always want to one up her and her mother. Hermione could just hear her voice.

"No one will ever like a mousy face buck toothed know-it-all. Not only is your personality insufferable, but you are not even good to look at! You will end your life as a shell of your former self, married to the person who will show you the most affection and care, which won't be much dearie, because you know that he will only look at you as an easy girl starved for love and affection."

Okay, so she might not say all that. Isabella didn't know her that well and even if she did, she didn't have such a broad vocabulary to come up with all that.

She sighed, left the stall and started to make herself presentable. The cold truth was that she was alone, her parents loved her and accepted her, however she still wondered if that wasn't just a biological code embedded into all parents. Not to mention that they couldn't always be there for her. So, in essence she was alone and even though not everyone is blameless, she bears most of it. It's her personality, her bossy nature and other small quirks that make her insufferable, it also doesn't help that her people skills, at least with the same age group, could be compared to an empty rusty can of beans. How the hell could it be her fault that everyone around her was a stupid, ignorant, an emotionally stunted kid idiot of the highest caliber! Ron comes to mind…

The only way she could save her hopes for future happiness was to start over, but this time with the goal of making friends. Hermione might only be eleven but she knew that if she doesn't do something drastic her life will continue like this. This wasn't one of her trashy romance novels where the knight saves the princess in distress while the princess sits on her ass, nor was it one of her other novels where the hero does all sorts of naughty things with the body of the princess. Hermione blushed. Her parents would skin her alive if they knew she found their private stash of adult novels, yet it wasn't her fault she ran out of books and stumbled upon their secret collection.

With a deep sigh she made her decision. She'll write to her parents tomorrow to pull her out of Hogwarts, she will have her memories obliviated, her magic bound. She won't remember anything about her sweet and beautiful magic nor of all the wonders she has seen. That was the price that muggleborns pay if they ever wanted to leave before their OWLs. It was a sad truth but she will persevere. After that she'll read books on psychology, mannerisms and everything else she can find, she'll even go to classes if she can find anything relevant and finally make at least a few good deep friends. Magic might be beautiful, but it alone won't bring her the happiness she needs.

The universe sometimes has a habit of fucking up your plans.

Hermione heard the sounds of people running. 'Damn, I still look like shite.'

"Where the hell are we? This place is like a maze! Didn't we pass that door at least three times now!?"

"Be quiet and be grateful that we didn't run into anyone!"

The door slammed open revealing…

Hermione blinked. Then rubbed her eyes and blinked again. Inside the girls' bathroom stood two boys with long black hair. One of them, the nearest to the door, had on a long black leather coat, combat pants with pockets everywhere, a plain black shirt and what looked like combat boots. The other boy, the one nearest to her was also wearing a similar military-utilitarian attire just with a shorter leather coat and a bag slung over his shoulder. Both of them were also dripping wet with no clear explanation as to why. Hermione looked out the small window, saw the calm night, and looked back at the two boys.

"Why are you two wearing sunglasses?" she asked, still not really believing what she was finding the sunglasses at night more confusing than their wet appearance.

"Oh, I'm sorry." said the nearest of the two boys while removing his glasses, revealing his eyes. His right eye was a beautiful and livid emerald green while his left was ocean blue. She also noticed a very faded scar on his forehead. The other boy just tilted his glasses a bit revealing the same colors just with his right one being blue the left green.

"My name is Victor, it's short for victory, because I'm just that awesome, the lookout over there is my brother in blood, Tom. Don't get confused if he sometimes calls himself Lord Slytherin, he is weird like that. What might your…"

The boy stopped talking as his eyes locked with her tear-stricken face. Emerald and blue locked with brown. She froze, like prey staring into a predator's eyes. It felt like it was digging into her soul. Suddenly the last few hours pushed to the front of her mind like a movie stuck in fast forward. The boy's eyes softened as he opened his arms and engulfed her in a hug.

"Shh, it's alright." Hermione stiffened, then let herself melt into his embrace moving her head into the crook of his neck, inhaling the smell of leather, water and sweat. She felt a hand pet her head. She relaxed even more.

"Victor!"

"Shut it Tom, this is important!"

"So is not getting caught", grumbled Tom.

After a few minutes Hermione calmed down, leaned away and looked into Victor's eyes. "Please listen to me, I might not know exactly what happened, but I know that changing yourself for the sake of acceptance and comforming to others is a mistake that will only bring you pain and sorrow. It's a lie. You lie to them about yourself. You lie to yourself about yourself. It might be a long and boring road, but finding someone who loves you for who you are is worth it." He looked at Tom, "and it is a treasure without measure. Besides," this time Victor looked at Hermione gently playing with her hair, "personally I would like to get to know a pretty girl such as yourself." He smiled. Hermione blushed. Tom just frowned.

"As you can see, we are a bit lost. Could you please tell us where we are?"

Hermione blinked. "Umm… you are at Hogwarts."

"What's a Hogwarts?" Victor asked.

Hermione blinked again, "Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry"

Victor snapped his head around, facing Tom. "A School! You made us break into a school! Full of children and teachers!" He faced back to Hermione, "How many people!?"

"On average about 400 students from the ages of 11 till 18, the headmaster, teachers and support staff."

Victor's face was in shock, no matter how he looked at it the odds were against them. They needed to get out, and fast. Tom wasn't faring too better, his face resembled a person crapping razorblades while his head was pounding. Mentioning Hogwarts made him remember memories, memories that he long forgotten, memories that he wished to bring to the surface, but were still hidden beneath a thin layer, hiding in plain sight. Also somewhere in the more primordial part of his mind he was made aware to keep away from old meddling men with long white beards.

Neither Tom, nor Victor realized the smell creeping up on them until it was too late. A troll, 12 foot in height, a few tons of muscle. Hide that any first world power would love to make tanks out of entered the restroom.

The universe also has a habit of sticking the middle finger at you.

Tom was flung onto the wall. He quickly pulled himself together, compiled a list of offensive magic that he could use. Cross referenced it with ones that might be effective. Fiendfyre! He dismissed it. If he were to use it in such a closed off space at the very least they would all be burned alive. He looked at Victor.

Hermione was tired. The emotional high and low, not to mention crying for most of the day depleted her energy reserves so when a two ton killing machine entered into the bathroom her brain was running on Low. 'I am going to die.' she thought as she looked at Victor. She grabbed his hand as if her life relied on him, which it did unbeknownst to her. 'HA! Isabella eat your heart out if I am going to die I am going to die with someone that thinks I'm pretty!' It wasn't her proudest thought.

Victor looked at Tom, seen the look in his eyes and realized the message. He looked at Hermione wondering if she would be of any use. Her face was constantly switching between euphoric and scared to death. Maybe that's how she deals with shock. 'Nope, her brain's on strike.' He sighed and wondered what to do. He didn't need to kill the troll, all he needed to do was distract him long enough for them to get away. He slowly grabbed his shoulder bag, took out what looked like a small plush sheep, placed it on the ground then enlarged it. It was a dead sheep that they hunted before Tom went mental with the train tracks. While the troll was examining his new prey the three of them crept out of the bathroom leaving behind Hermione's book bag and school robe.

They started walking in the hallway. The walk quickened into a fast pace finally into a run.

Victor looked at Tom.

"Just a few cuts. I left a bit of blood there though. I'll be alright." Tom answered the unasked question.

Victor looked at Hermione, their No. 1 source of information for anything Hogwarts. 'Nope, still in shock. Great.' He quickly cast a very thorough spell on Hermione to make her unnoticeable by any means. No point in getting her needlessly involved. They arrived at a fork in the corridor.

Without needing to clarify they both separated. Victor and Hermione went up the stairs while Tom headed down the other stairs. They still intended to gain SOMETHING from this blunder. Even if it's a school ,a smash and grab was a smash and grab. They would meet up in ten minutes.