The Serpent Beguiled Me and Other Stories

Fall Together

Good things fall apart so better things can fall together.

It takes Harry a few weeks to figure out where he even is. The last thing he remembers is a sharp pain in his chest as he walked down the garden path back towards their house where Ginny would have tea ready for them both. It was Harry's way of keeping active as much as he could in his old age. Every morning he took a stroll through the garden, leaning heavily on his cane while he examined all the mature plants, exterminating pests with a wave of his wand as needed.

But now he's stuck in a dark place with occasional blurry vision while he's surrounded by intense feelings of hunger and fear and a deep longing for a warm embrace.

Harry is stuck in a baby. He isn't a baby himself, he figured that out eventually. No, Harry's mind, as it is, complete with well over a century of memories, is stuck in a new-born baby with a mind of his own. It's a very rudimentary mind, still, but there is a tiny conscience there right beside his own.

Harry has no clue what is happening or why, but there isn't much he can do about it while he's stuck in a body that can't even raise its own head yet. While coming to terms with these strange new circumstances, Harry mourns all he has lost. Ginny, their children, grandchildren, even a couple of great-grandchildren. Harry grieves the friends he's left behind, and the ones he's lost along the way.

It takes him another couple of weeks to figure out the baby he's now living in is Tom Riddle.

Somehow Harry, instead of dying and moving on, dropped dead and woke up inside his former archnemesis. Two centuries in the past.

Harry spends hours and hours puzzling the why and how of his unique situation. But no matter how hard he tries, he cannot find any solid answers. It might have something to do with the fact that Harry was once Tom's horcrux. For a time, they shared a soul.

It might have something to do with the fact that Harry once collected all the Deathly Hallows, even though being the Master of Death never did anything for Harry during his very long life, as far as he knows.

It might also be that Harry is there to save Tom. When Voldemort died, his soul was in pieces. And, Harry is sure, where ever souls go after death, they cannot remain there in pieces.

Souls need to be whole.

And Tom Riddle, for various reasons, cannot be trusted to look after his own soul so he needs help. And that's why Harry is here, to guide him onto a different path than Tom had walked before.

Harry likes this theory and decides to roll with it. At the very least, it gives him a purpose in his strange new existence.

Slowly but surely, Tom becomes a bit more of an actual person, capable of complex thought. Harry whispers endless words of encouragement to Tom, and just as many terms of endearment.

Harry soon learns that Dumbledore was wrong about Tom. As a baby, Tom Riddle is capable of feeling love. It only a little spark inside of a small body, but it's there. Harry knows all too well that a fragile little spark like that needs lots of protection and nurturing to eventually grow into an ember that has the capacity to become a simmering flame.

Tom needs love like he needs oxygen, and Harry spends most of his waking hours making sure that Tom feels all the love that Harry can give him. And while Harry's own life had a rocky emotional start, Harry has spent well over a century surrounded by love of all kinds and he has plenty to spare for little Tom.

Goodness knows the staff at Wool's orphanage have very little love to spare. Not that Harry can blame them, not entirely. They are overworked and underpaid, barely making ends meet themselves as the world goes through the worst economic depression it's ever seen. And the orphanage is full of unwanted children whose parents simply cannot afford to raise them. A little orphan like Tom is just one of many babies that need much more love and attention than there is available for them.