Chapter 1
Tom Riddle’s mother — Merope Gaunt, a pureblood witch — used her magical abilities and what she was taught to her advantage. His mother fancied a muggle boy, Tom Riddle Senior, that was born into riches. She wanted to be with him more than anything, but he was loved by all the other local muggle girls. So she had slipped him a love potion and they had run away together to get married. It was only a month into the marriage before she had gotten pregnant with her first child. His mother — thinking his dad would stay and actually love her or at least choose to stay for their unborn child — stopped giving him the love potion. After it had worn off, he freaked and ran. It was just him and his mother, but that shortly changed.
She was close to her delivery date when she’d heard the knock on the door. She opened it and found Tom Riddle Senior right there. “Merope.. I know I shouldn’t have ran, but I wasn’t sure what to do.” He started and he didn’t leave her time to cut in before continuing. “It was like I’d woken up from a long slumber and I was married, I have a kid on the way. It seemed too much. Staying there seems wrong though, I wanna be a part of this kid's life and maybe somewhere along the way I’ll end up falling in love with you. Will you allow me to do that?” Merope was over the moon happy and said yes. She told him all of the details she knows about their kid, he didn’t have a name yet but they figured that out. They even moved to a nice place of their own and got things ready with the help of Tom’s grandparents.
The birth of Tom Marvolo Riddle — the first half-blood in his blood-line — came shortly after Christmas. His mom thought of his birth as a late Christmas gift. His mother had gone into the hospital early on the 31st of December and he didn’t come out until almost midnight. His birth was hard on his mother and it actually almost killed her. His dad — too worried about his mother — didn’t even hold his newborn son. “Look I don’t want to hold it, not yet at least.” His father spoke to the nurse who tried to hand him his child. “I’ll get started on his exam, make sure he’s all healthy. Have you guys chosen a name?” His father nodded, “His name will be Tom Marvolo Riddle.” The nurse left with baby Tom. His fathers worry was carried into the new year. All his father could think about was that if his wife had died, he would be blaming his newborn son for it.
Even though his mother didn’t die and she recovered easily, his father still wasn’t happy with his son. Though he should’ve been, that scare with Merope almost dying made him realise he wanted to stay with her and have an actual marriage. He still never held Tom, but as soon as his mother was awake, she held him as tight to her as she could without hurting him. Wiping her happy tears, she spoke, “You were worth every single second of that birth.” His father disagreed, but he never said that.
After a week in the hospital — and his mom using healing charms to speed up the process of getting out — they went home. His father has only held him a few times. It was never long. He just looked at him and realised that Tom looked just like him. “He looks just like me, Merope. I thought he’d come out looking like you.” His father spoke, startling Merope because she didn’t know he was behind her. “Merlin, Tom. Don’t go sneaking up like that. Make your presence known even if it’s just a ‘hey,’ it’s better than nothing.” His father let out a chuckle and it even made Tom make a sound. “Next time I’ll know. You do see it though, right?” “I haven’t ever seen a baby picture of you, only your parents can confirm that. Speaking of, when will Tom be meeting his grandparents?” Merope looked at him, curiosity in her eyes. “He’ll meet them soon.” It wasn’t a lie. Tom had actually met his grandparents.
It wasn’t long into Tom’s life before a new sibling came, he was still a baby. Her name was Dakota. He had to stay with his father’s parents while they delivered Dakota and were in the hospital. His parents — over the moon happy to have another child — almost forgot about the child at their grandparents house. His grandparents had to drop him off once they got back from the hospital, Dakota stole all their attention. Tom was clueless to who this new person was, seeing her almost like a toy. When he could get close to Dakota, he would slap their head.
As it came close to the time where Tom was supposed to be saying his first word, his parents kept bad words out of their mouth as best as they could. His parents were terrible at keeping those words out of their mouths. It would probably be known as karma with what his first word was. It happened when he was carrying a lamp, he was trying to move it from the living room into his room. It had slipped from his hands and the word just slipped out. “Shit.” His mom who had just come to the sound of glass shattering had heard and her mouth dropped. She later told his father about it — to both his and his mothers surprise — he was quite amused.
More siblings started coming into his life. Each time there was a birth, he and his other siblings were taken to his grandparents. Though Tom was just a kid, he could tell that when a new sibling came his father loved them more than him. He just thought it was angry and one day that “anger” exploded. It wasn’t as bad as his father made it out to be. He was just staring at the window in the kitchen and suddenly it broke, sending shards of glass everywhere. The magic he has inside of him was way too much with the anger. He was confused and that's when his mother had to sit him down for a talk.
“Tom.” She started to say as she touched his face gently, “You’re not an ordinary boy. You, Tom Marvolo Riddle, are a wizard. You might even be a great one at that. Though, whatever emotion that was pent up that caused that, you can’t keep in. You don’t want to hurt someone. Understand?” Tom nodded and softly said, “I’m sorry.” Tom was responsible for cleaning up the glass and he did just that. His mom instructed to not throw them away and she ended up using reparo to fix the broken window. The first spell he had ever witnessed.
Shortly after learning that he was a wizard, he discovered that he could also speak to snakes. It happened on Saturday afternoon when his parents took him and his siblings to the zoo. Tom had wandered off and he ended up in the reptile exhibit. Tom didn’t panic when he realised his parents weren’t around, he just walked and looked at the snakes. He stopped on one of the snakes, he looked down to read ‘BOA CONSTRICTOR’ then ‘DON”T HIT THE GLASS!’ He looked at the snake who was sound asleep and spoke, “Oh you’re pretty.” Once the words came out of his mouth the snake’s head popped up and made direct eye contact with him. He had sworn he wasn’t that loud, it hissed a “Thanks.” Tom thought he was dreaming. He looked around to see if anyone was near — it was just him. He’d ended up having at least a 5 minute conversation with the snake before his parents found him. His father’s mouth was open and his eyes full of terror. His mother was extremely happy and had a smile on her face. Tom didn’t understand his father’s expression, he was just talking normally.
After that day was when things took a turn for the worse with his father. He seemed afraid of his son and he would barely even look at him. He was confused as to why his world had changed so quickly and he was never given clear answers. It even took a turn for the worst when he had overheard a conversation his parents were having. “Merope, he can talk to snakes! That is not normal behaviour. I get he’s not a normal boy and none of the other kids will be either, but he can speak to them. Are the other kids going to end up speaking to snakes too?” His father was pacing the room as he spoke, his mother sat on the bed. She couldn’t get a word in. “If the others can’t, what if he sends a snake after them? What if he becomes a danger to them? We can’t have that type of danger in our house, threatening the other kids.” His mother was finally able to cut in, “Tom wouldn’t hurt the other kids. He loves them just as much as we do.”His father scoffed, “It’s only a matter of time before he throws a fit or gets jealous over one of the kids having our attention. It might not even be a snake he sends after them. He can use his magic to hurt them, can’t he?” The sound of his mother laughing made him feel like the conversation was going to end up better than he expected. “He can’t do much, or really any harm, without learning what he can do with his magic. He goes to a school for that, but that won’t be until he’s eleven.” “What if we don’t send him or any of the other kids there? They can be normal kids, Merope. They’ll be normal.” It sounded like his father could almost plead for them not to go. “Don’t be ridiculous. The kids will never be normal. They’re witches and wizards. If they never go, they’re gonna be missing out on a part of their life. All of them will be attending once they get their letter.”
Tom still had years to go before he got to go to Hogwarts. He was only 6 and his father had enrolled him into a muggle school. His father and mother couldn’t homeschool him as his father was running a successful company and his mother was working as a healer. She had to earn enough money for when she had to send her kids off to school. When he overheard about the school he’d be going to, he felt excited and daydreamed about how the school would be. He could see spells being used almost all the time and him making good friends he’d keep around for a long time. He didn’t even bother making friends at the muggle school. He didn’t want them to get to know him or possibly see one his siblings outbursts of magic, especially Rosella’s outbursts. If he thought his outburst was bad, he clearly thought wrong when she had her first one. It took several reparo’s casted and a new spell, scourgify, to make the house not look like a tornado just went through the house.
There was one part of what his father said that came true, he would get jealous of the other kids having their parents' attention. Mostly their fathers. It became more clear that his father loved his younger siblings more and would do anything to not spend time with Tom. So — Tom being the jealous kid he was — came up with a plan to send his siblings away. All he needed was boxes, tape, scissors, sharpie, and stamps. He easily found the things he needed, except for the stamp. His parents had to keep a hold of them since he and his siblings always messed with them. Before his father left for work he had asked for his grandparents address and had him write it down, saying he wanted to send them a handmade note. He then had to ask his mother for a stamp. He approached her innocently and with a small smile, “Mom, will you give me a stamp? Dad has mail he needs to send out and he left me in charge of it. I just need a few.” She didn’t even question it and handed him a few, he left the room with an excited run and went back to where the rest of the supplies were which was close to the front door.
Tom assembled the boxes and put stamps on each one of them, putting an address on the box that he copied off of his fathers writing. He poked decent sized holes into the boxes and he was almost ready. He just needed to get his siblings into the boxes. He had told his siblings that they were going to play a fun game, and they got excited. He had them get some of their favourite things before. He had taken them to the boxes and helped them get it, telling them the boxes were a part of it and closing the flaps were too. His mom seemed to come down at the worst time. “Tom Marvolo Riddle! What are you doing with the tape?” Tom froze and searched for a quick excuse. “Just put some of my stuff in here.” He said with a shrug. Not that his mother believed him anyways because of the holes, but it didn’t help when a voice came from a box. “I’m not a toy!” It came from Rosella, his youngest sibling.
His mother quickly got his siblings out of the boxes and got rid of the boxes. His mother came into his room that he had been sent to. “Tom, why would you try and get rid of your siblings? Where were you even sending them?” “I was sending them to grandma and grandpa’s house. Figured they could use a visit.” He said with a shrug and half lying. His mother didn’t seem to believe that last part and gave him a look. He came out with the truth. “I just feel like with all these siblings I’ve been replaced and I never get any of yours or dad’s attention. I want to be an only child.” His mother let out a soft laugh, “And you think sending them away would make you an only child? They’re always going to be your siblings even if you don’t want to claim them.” She spoke softly and her voice became more serious, “Your grandparents probably would’ve freaked if they found those kids in boxes. You can’t do things like that. Got it?” Tom nodded and his father never heard about what he had tried to do. It was a secret kept between all of them and Tom knew why he was never told. If his father had found out, he would’ve been sent away without any hesitation and even if his mother didn’t want him to.