Catching up
Tom Marvolo Riddle, 33 years old, former student of Hogwarts School Of Witchcraft and Wizardry, walked through the deserted halls of his old school.
Only that this wasn't Tom Riddle… Or well, he was but he wasn't.
Years ago, the man who would become Lord Voldemort had performed a dark ritual and, dividing his own soul into two equal parts through a heinous act of murder, he put one of the fragments in a diary.
Later, when he went to get the position as the Defence professor of Hogwarts and was rejected, Riddle took his chance and hid the diary in the Room of Requirements.
However, since Riddle was young and impulsive, he didn’t read between the lines of the contract. What does that mean? Simple, the wizard made a ritual that apparently would make it impossible for him to die, without truly understanding the depth of the effects it would have over him.
In hindsight he should have realized that messing with something as vital as your soul was a bad idea with a capital B . I mean, it was pretty obvious, right?
But just how far did he go? How profound were the changes?
Many people think that creating a horcrux makes the wizard in question lose his mind. But that's just a wrong conclusion reached using merely half of the information. People who affirm this are those who have been unfortunate enough to meet someone who had created a horcrux. However those people never had the chance to meet a horcrux .
But, what’s the difference? Both halves are from the same person, right?
Well, not anymore.
You’ll see, the thing is that what separates the soul is not only the brutality of the action, but also the conflict that arises inside a person while committing such a vile act. This means that, while a part won’t have a problem with being responsible for taking a life, the other will be remorseful, or at least, won’t view the situation in the same way as its counterpart.
Now, let’s not get overzealous here. Those two halves, Tom and Lord Voldemort, were once the same person, so even though they will have some disagreements, the 33 years old Tom Riddle from the Room of Requirements won´t be a saint. At all.
Of course, none of the two pieces of soul had the slightest idea of this. So, while one of the parts was plotting how to kill a child because of a really dubious prophecy, the other was making his way towards the library in hopes of finding some hint about when he was.
Tom remembered making the horcrux, although having awoken in the middle of an avalanche of things without the slightest idea of where or when he was, made him reconsider whether it had been a good idea. What in the world made him think all this ordeal had been worth it to kill someone? Not that he was exactly remorseful, that awful woman had tortured him for as long as he was able to remember and until he was able to leave the orphanage, all trying to beat his magic out of him… And he wasn’t the only one to be treated so badly. How anyone like that was allowed near children was beyond his understanding. Tom could have become an Obscurus!
The library was empty, but there was a copy of the Prophet over the librarian’s desk, and the paper couldn’t be older than a day. There, in the upper right corner, was written the date: “July 7, 1992”.
‘Shit.’
His jaw dropped. It had been more than 30 years. More than 30 years trapped in a diary! What was he supposed to do now?
Taking a few slow, deep breaths to compose himself,Tom left the diary where he had found it and went straight to the history section. He looked for the most recent volumes, anything that could tell him about the last couple of decades. Technology wasn’t an issue, the Magical Word had been stuck in the Victorian Era for a long time. But any other event could be important.
The first thing to catch his attention was the fact that there had been a war between the Light and the Dark. And what a surprise when, while reading, he found the pseudonym that he himself had created! He hadn’t thought about seriously using it when he made it, but he supposed time had made him change his mind. However, right there he still thought of it as silly and slightly ridiculous.
But it was when he actually started reading that things took a rather interesting turn.
Book after book; there were pages, chapters and even a whole volume, all of them dedicated to the atrocities, the war crimes that he (or a part of him) had committed.
Tom was horrified. How could he do all of that? How could he sink so low?
But… It wasn’t him, right? He was there, reading about the happenings of other people’s lives, the actions of a man different to himself.
He wasn’t stupid, least of all naive. He knew he wasn’t a good man, but all those things he had just learned…
That was an extreme he wasn’t willing to go to… At least, not this time.
Tom was there and then, and he could choose. He was alive and…
It was at that moment that he realized: How was he there? Why did he have a body?
There was nobody waiting for him in the Room of Requirements. Therefore he could only assume it had been all an accident. Could it be that his new state was due to something done to his counterpart? Was it possible for the man he had been reading about to be alive once again?
The notion was even more sickening than the fact that he had been defeated by a toddler. That on itself said a lot about his opinion on his other half.
Tom sighed. He rested his elbows on the desk topped with books, and let his head fall on his hands. He needed a plan. He didn’t want an encounter with his other part. Actually, avoidance seemed like the best option.
But he still required a job to earn some money. And he didn’t have anywhere to go or anyone willing to help him. He didn’t even have a wand !
‘¡Argh…! I know I probably deserve all this, but still…’
With another sigh, Tom stood and started accommodating the books on their shelves. He could have done it wandlesly, but keeping his hand occupied was grounding and helped him think.
Something was certain, he could not be Tom Marvolo Riddle any longer. Best case scenario, they took for a madman. Worst case scenario…
He preferred no to think about that.
In conclusion, Tom didn’t have a knut, he was 30 years in the future, he knew absolutely no one, did not have a wand and couldn’t use his real name under any circumstances.
He had only one option left: Knockturn Alley.