A Damaged Soul
Harry stood tall, his wand pointed at the wizard that was standing in the centre of the room. He was surprised to see him look - well, human - but he refused to let his surprise get the better of him. He heard a gasp from Dumbledore but didn't so much as glance his way. He barely even noticed when Ginny let out a whimper.
"What the hell are you doing here?" he demanded angrily.
Tom Riddle stared at Harry's wand, an oddly nervous expression on his face. "That's a long story."
"We have time," Harry retorted.
Tom nodded. Harry noticed that this version of Tom was older than the one that came out of the diary but was no less attractive for it.
"Who is that?" Draco asked his father quietly.
Lucius frowned. "I don't know."
Harry's eyes flitted towards them before he smirked almost cruelly. "Everyone, this is Tom Marvolo Riddle. Although you mostly know him as Lord Voldemort."
Everyone shuddered at the use of that name and several people jumped to their feet, drawing their wands. Still more staggered out of their chairs and shied away, looking for someway of escape. Harry paid them no attention. He did notice that his godfather had grasped his arm as if he wanted to pull him behind himself. Harry had to restrain the urge to shake him off.
Tom grimaced. He couldn't understand why Mother Magic had decided to send him here. At least not yet. His soul was still in the process of being restored and his mind was still more cloudy than he'd like to admit.
"Well, start talking," Harry said between gritted teeth.
Tom hesitated. He didn't know quite how to start this conversation.
"Which timeline are you from?" Bode asked, his voice breaking.
"The new timeline," he answered automatically.
"Where's your older self?" Kingsley demanded.
"He's here too," Tom said quickly, "but he's... Well, he's..."
"He's batshit crazy," Harry finished for him.
"Er... yes. So Mother Magic has him isolated," Tom conceded. "When the horcrux in your younger self's scar was removed, Mother Magic had the goblins perform a ritual to restore my soul."
Harry blinked. He could remember how the goblins had refused to tell him what they intended to do with the horcrux.
"My older self can't be helped. His soul is too..." Tom paused. He hated this. He didn't like admitting his own foolishness and certainly not in front of so many people. "He has approximately 3% of his soul left and that's if you include the part that's currently in his Nagini. Even Lord Death wouldn't be able to help him now."
No one said anything so he pressed on.
"Mother Magic and the other deities are working on a way to prevent my soul merging with his when we return to the new timeline. They are concerned his insanity might corrupt my soul." He said it bitterly, as if he thought his soul - whole as it might be - was corrupt enough as it was.
"But why are you here?" Harry demanded.
"Once the goblins completed the ritual, Mother Magic sat me down and explained that I had a choice to make. They said that even though I acted out of insanity that if I were to die now, I'd never find peace. They said I had to find absolution first."
"You want forgiveness?" Harry laughed almost manically.
"No. I don't expect that. Lord Death said," Tom was cut off.
"You've met Lord Death?" young Fred asked, his mouth dropping open in surprise.
"Yes and I must admit that was terrifying. He is... something. That's for sure." He shivered slightly, hating himself for being scared of the deity. "He said that I needed to forgive myself."
Harry scoffed. He couldn't imagine that Tom Riddle actually felt any remorse. Except, if this was a version of him that had his soul completely restored, was it impossible that he might feel something? Harry himself had wondered if it was possible to save the mad man. But he hadn't actually thought it might happen.
"And how are you supposed to do that?" Harry asked, still not dropping his wand.
"They said that was open to interpretation. Although they had some ideas. Perhaps punishment for my crimes, or providing restitution." He ran an awkward hand through his hair. "They also suggested I might help you with your mission, or try and return to my earlier goals."
"What goals?" Percy asked.
"As a boy, I wanted to save children like me from experiencing what I did," Tom said. Anyone looking would have seen the frustration in his eyes. Even this 'whole' Tom hated being questioned. Harry was almost relieved to see that he was still an arrogant jerk, even if he might not be evil. "I wanted to find the solution to the squib problem. And protect our society from muggles."
"We don't need protection from muggles," several people scoffed.
"That shows what you know," Harry muttered.
"We are at constant risk of discovery," Tom said. "Their weapons even in my school days were terrifying. If they were ever to learn of our existence, I do not believe we would survive. I wanted to separate further from them. Remove children from muggle parents..."
"Why would you do that?" Hermione's parents demanded.
"Only when they were being abused," Tom answered. "Not all muggle parents are as understanding about magic as you are. I wanted to create a department in the ministry that would find muggleborns as soon as they showed their first bout of accidental magic and inform the parents of our world, ensuring they keep our secret, and monitor their households for signs of abuse. Only removing children when needed. I wanted to remove all wizarding children from muggle orphanages."
He seemed to be on a roll now. He was staring straight at Harry, as if imploring him to listen.
"I wanted to restore our traditions and help magical creatures," Tom said.
"We're just supposed to believe that?" Sirius asked. "It all sounds a little too good to be true."
"You don't have to believe him," Lucius said. "My father once showed me the manifesto he wrote with the knights of walpurgis during his school days. It was one of the reasons I joined the deatheaters. Although in that time they were already straying for their original goals."
As if Mother Magic was listening, with a flash of white light, a pile of parchment appeared on the coffee table between Harry and Tom. Glancing down, Harry read the headline, 'The Manifesto of the Knights of Walpurgis.'
"The Knights of Walpurgis?" Ron asked.
"The very first death eaters," Lucius explained.
Barty Crouch Junior got to his feet and approached Tom. "My Lord, is it really you?"
Tom grimaced. "Yes, Barty. But you shouldn't call me that anymore. I'm not your lord."
He couldn't deny he felt the same frill at having followers he had when he was insane. Although he felt far less desire to start flinging unforgiveables around.
"I let my fear get the better of me," Tom continued.
"What could you possibly have to fear, my l-Tom?" Barty asked.
"Death." His answer was short. Absolute.
There was silence. No one seemed to know what they were supposed to do or say now.
"Do we arrest him?" Amelia whispered to Moody.
"I really don't know," Moody growled under his breath. "Obviously, he needs to stand trial. But we can't exactly do that here."
Amelia murmured what sounded like agreement.
"What are we supposed to do now?" Ron asked. "Just keep reading and ignore the fact that Voldie is here?"
Tom's eyes flashed with anger at the nickname but he didn't say anything and what surprised everyone most was he didn't even look like he considered cursing the young man.
"I already know what happened before Mr Potter turned eleven," Tom said, "as I have the memories from his horcrux. It's taking time for them to settle. My mind is still somewhat disjointed, but I think Mother Magic wants me to hear the whole story so I can truly appreciate the damage my older self caused."
"You mean the damage you caused," Bill growled. "You did plenty wrong before Harry turned eleven."
"Very true," Tom conceded, "but I can't change that, unfortunately. I can only make better choices from here on out."
"Right, well..." There was an awkward pause as Sirius tried to think how best to resume the book. "Mr Riddle, why don't you take a seat."
"Hang on a moment," Amos said. "We're just going to leave him unrestrained. We have a rat in a cage on the mantelpiece because they're a death eater but the dark lord himself gets a chair?"
Harry blinked. The man had a point. But it felt different somehow. He hadn't forgiven Tom Riddle. Probably never would. But Pettigrew didn't have the excuse of insanity.
"He has a point," Sirius muttered.
"I'm unarmed if that helps at all," Tom said.
"I can't really say it does," Amos replied curtly. "You killed my son."
"Well, actually," Harry paused. "Tom's wand was used to kill Cedric but it was actually Wormtail that cast the curse."
"What?" Amos glared at Harry.
"You already know that Amos," Mrs Diggory said gently. "Harry told us when we visited him in the hospital wing."
"Fine. Just get on with it," Amos said in a huff.
Tom sat down on one of the few spare chairs, his back poker straight. He looked like he was expecting to be attacked at any moment and he certainly looked unhappy that he'd had to admit that he was unarmed.
Professor Flitwick cleared his throat and recast the spell on the book. But this time, no one even glanced towards the book. All eyes remained on Tom Riddle.