Chapter 1: A New Beginning

Platform nine. Platform ten. No platform nine and three-quarters.

“Thomas?” A woman’s voice caused him to turn around. “Thomas, stop!”
He ignored her and kept going.

Platform nine on one side, platform ten on the other. Maybe it’s at the back. He ran along with his trolley until he hit the end of the station. Nope, no platform by the name of nine and three-quarters. You were a fool for believing the old man – he was probably just some crazy old guy in his hundreds.

“Thomas! You get back here right this instant!” Her voice was more urgent now.

With a sigh, Tom turned around and started back to where his guardian was. On the way, though, he caught sight of a brown-haired boy who also had a screeching owl in a cage. He paused to watch as the boy waved goodbye to his parents and ran at full speed towards the barrier separating platforms nine and ten.

Tom couldn’t watch. He turned his head away and waited for the inevitable crashing of a trolley hitting a brick wall. When it didn’t come, he looked back. The boy was gone, and his parents were walking away – definitely not something that would happen if the boy had crashed.

Maybe that’s how you get onto the platform, Tom thought. A smile broke across his face, and he casually leaned on the barrier to check. Sure enough, he fell through to a platform on the other side that said nine and three-quarters. Tom stepped through the barrier again, and he was back in the bustling London station. The woman who was supposed to make sure he got on the train safely came running up, frowning.

“I’m sorry, Tom,” she said, giving his arm a squeeze. “There isn’t a platform nine and three-quarters. We’ll have to go home.”

“No, we won’t.” Tom showed her how to get through the barrier, and soon she was smiling as well.

“Well, be good,” she said after giving his arm another quick squeeze. “And promise you won’t hurt anyone.” Tom had injured other children accidentally when they made him mad. That wouldn’t happen again, though – he was too happy to be going to a school full of kids like him!

…

It had been about an hour, and the thrill of being on a train full of other kids who made strange things happen was wearing off. Tom sighed, resting his chin on his elbow as he stared out the window at the scenery flashing by. He was alone in the compartment, and he was beginning to wish for company.

Suddenly, the door opened. The boy with brown hair came in, his face flushed. He leaned against the door, then seemed to realize he wasn’t alone. “Oh! Sorry – is it okay if I, um, sit here?” he asked, hanging awkwardly by the door.

Tom was more than happy to have company. “Sure. It’s just me in here.”

The boy sat down across from him. After a couple minutes in silence, he said, “My name’s Henry Potter.”

“I’m Tom. Tom Riddle,” Tom replied. The two boys lapsed into silence once more.

Finally, another boy came in with curly black hair. “Mind if I sit here?” he asked, and, without waiting for an answer, sat down next to Tom.

“Who are you?” Henry asked. This sounded kind of rude to Tom, but the new boy didn’t seem to mind too much.

“I’m Orion,” he replied. When Henry continued to look at him, he added, “Black.”

There was silence for a minute, and Orion stared at Tom and Henry the entire time. His eyes had a certain look to them, as if he was calculating them, and it made Tom uncomfortable.

“Which house do you reckon you’ll end up in?” Orion asked after a while.

The tension in the air relaxed instantly when the silence was broken. “Oh, I don’t know – maybe I’ll end up in Gryffindor,” Henry replied without hesitating.

Tom was taken aback by the question. “I guess I haven’t thought of it before.”

“We’re going to arrive at Hogwarts soon – you should probably put on your robes,” Orion said. He took one more look at Henry and Tom, then turned and left.

Henry looked at Tom. “What was up with him? He kept looking at me like he could see into my head, and it kind of freaked me out.”

Tom shrugged. “I don’t know, but maybe we should go get our robes on.”

…

“In a moment, you will all be Sorted,” a man wearing long robes said in a bored tone to all the first-years. He looked as if he’d done this one too many times, and therefore didn’t feel the need to say anything more.

“What do you think it’s like?” Henry whispered to Tom. They’d arrived at Hogwarts and were now waiting with the other new students to be Sorted into the different houses.

Tom shrugged. “It can’t possibly be that bad, so I wouldn’t worry if I were you.”

Suddenly, he felt a cold shiver run down his spine, and he had the strange feeling he was being watched. Turning, Tom saw exactly whom he both expected to see and dreaded.

“There you are,” Orion Black said. “I was looking everywhere for you.” His dark eyes bored into Tom’s, and he got the strange feeling that Orion had actually known where he was the entire time.

Shrugging it off, Tom smiled. “Well, now you know,” he replied coolly, keeping his feelings and suspicions in check.

Henry suddenly seemed to notice Orion. However, he was much worse at concealing his discomfort than Tom. “Oh, um – hi, Orion! I – uh, wasn’t really expecting to see you again today! You know… well, with what all the other kids and all?”

Orion’s expression didn’t change in the slightest, but Tom could see slight amusement deep in his eyes. However, it made him uncomfortable to look in that far, because everyone knows the eyes are the door to the soul.

“Of course,” Orion said, holding direct eye contact with Henry. “Some say I just have a certain knack for finding things.”

He turned his gaze to Tom, who found he couldn’t tear his eyes away. “I still don’t know your names. Who are you?” He tipped his head slightly to the side in an inquisitive manner.

Henry’s mouth opened and closed a few times, but no sound came out. Tom spoke for them both instead. “I’m Tom Riddle, and this is Henry Potter.”

“That’s interesting – I’ve heard so much about both your families,” Orion said. He turned to Tom. “I believe you come from the Gaunt family?”

Tom nodded. He was a Gaunt on his mother’s side – at least, that’s what he’d been told.

“You’ve never met any of them, I take it?”

Tom nodded again. His mother was considered a blood traitor for marrying a muggle.

“And you.” Orion turned toward Henry. “You’re a Potter – a halfblood, I’m guessing?” When Henry nodded in silence, shocked that Orion could know so much about them, Orion seemed satisfied. Why was he so obsessed with blood status, anyway?

Tom’s attention was pulled back to the front of the crowd of first-years when the same bored wizard appeared at the door. Holding it open with a spell, he gestured for them all to go through. “You will all be called one at a time to be Sorted,” he said as Tom walked past. “In the meantime, please wait your turn.”

Tom, as well as most other first-years, gasped the moment he entered the Great Hall. the ceiling appeared to be enchanted to look like the night sky, and thousands of stars blinked down at him.

At that moment, someone started speaking. They had a rather gruff voice, and they sang some sort of poem about the four houses – Hufflepuff, Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. At that moment, Tom noticed both that a pointed hat was perched on a stool at the front of the room and that it was the one singing.

“Wilbur Evendor,” the wizard called when the old hat stopped singing.

A boy with a mop of curly yellow hair stepped up to the stool, a nervous look on his face. There was silence in the room as everyone waited for him to be Sorted. Tom leaned forward to be sure he didn’t miss anything.

“HUFFLEPUFF!” the Sorting Hat – for that was its name – shouted at last. Wilbur tripped off the stool and went to join the cheering yellow table, a gigantic grin on his dimpled face.

Fascinated, Tom watched as more and more kids like him were called up to sit on the stool and get Sorted. “Henry Potter,” the wizard said at last, stifling a yawn.

Henry looked surprised for a second before going to sit on the stool. Tom could see him squeeze his eyes shut before the Hat fell down over his eyes. A moment later, Henry was placed in Gryffindor, and Tom went back to tuning everything out.

Another name pulled him out of his trance. “Orion Black.”

Orion went confidently up to the stool, and every move he made seemed to have been practised hours before. “SLYTHERIN!” the Sorting Hat announced within a second. Orion wen to sit at the green table, where he was clapped on the back and shown a seat that had just been made by shoving someone else off.

Tom was whipped back to the Hat when his name was called. “Tom Riddle.”

Feeling like the entire world was staring at him, Tom walked up and sat on the stool. The Sorting Hat was lowered onto his head, and like on everyone else, it covered half his face. To his surprise, the Sorting Hat shrieked, “SLYTHERIN!” the moment it was fully touching his head.

Tom slowly walked to the Slytherin table, where Orion nodded at him with approval. When the other Slytherins saw that Orion was okay with Tom, another kid was shoved off his seat so Tom could sit. Why was Orion so popular already?

Tom was in Slytherin? This was great, of course – from what he’d learned by listening to the Sorting Poem, all who came out of Slytherin became great witches and wizards – but how had he done it? Being in Slytherin was a privilege, and Tom would be sure not to waste it; he’d start of fresh with a new beginning at Hogwarts, and this time, he’d be sure to succeed with his life’s main goal…