Timeless Charm (Tomione fanfic)

Chapter 5: Tom Riddle

"You see? It was a name I was already using at Hogwarts, to my most intimate friends only, of course. Do you think I was going to use my filthy Muggle father's name forever? I, in whose veins runs the blood of Salazar Slytherin himself, through my mother's side? I, keep the name of a foul, common Muggle, who abandoned me even before I was born, just because he found out his wife was a witch? No, Harry. I fashioned myself a new name, a name I knew wizards everywhere would one day fear to speak when I had become the greatest sorcerer in the world!"—Tom Riddle's transformation into Lord Voldemort

Tom Marvolo Riddle Jr. is the only child and son of Tom and Merope Riddle Gaunt, Riddle was raised in the Muggle-run Wool's Orphanage after his father left his new family on the streets of London when the potion was lifted, and his mother died moments after giving birth and naming him Marvolo Gaunt, his father, and his maternal grandparents.

Tom Marvolo Riddle was born on 31 December 1926 at Wool's Orphanage, London. His mother Merope stumbled to the door of the orphanage, gave birth to Tom, and died shortly afterward. Riddle grew up in the dingy orphanage, totally unaware of his magical heritage. Since the Muggle orphanage workers didn't know anything about his mother, they didn't know about his magical past. Instead, they assumed that Merope was a circus worker, as Mrs. Cole told Dumbledore shortly before her first encounter with Riddle. It is unclear whether or not this was relayed by the workers to Riddle before his first encounter with Dumbledore.

Despite his ignorance of the true history of his mother, Riddle had some understanding of his abilities beyond that of regular magical children of the same age and an exceptionally high degree of influence over them. He could move objects with his mind and cause them to float wherever he wished, control animals and creatures as he wished, speak Parseltongue, and use his strength to hurt other orphans. After he got into a fight with fellow orphan Billy Stubbs, he used his abilities to hang the boy's bunny from the bunny. On one occasion, he brought two other orphans, Dennis Bishop and Amy Benson, to a cave where he committed an act so horrifying that the two orphans were traumatized into silence. Afterward, he may have told them, in certain respects, not to tell anybody what happened in the cave. Riddle even stole from other orphans and hid their stuff like a trophy in his cupboard.

When Riddle was eleven, Dumbledore, who at the time was a transfiguration teacher at Hogwarts, spoke to Mrs. Cole, who told him how special the boy was, sharing stories of his remarkable control over the other children. When Dumbledore was eventually introduced to the boy, Riddle at first assumed he was a doctor or psychiatrist of some kind, and came to take him to an asylum because of what the staff had seen. He was persuaded that after Dumbledore displayed his strength by using the Flame-Freezing Charm on Riddle's cupboard and revealed that Hogwarts was a school for people with magic, and Riddle realized that it was his abilities. Tom also stated his skill in Parseltongue at the same meeting, asking whether it was a common talent among the wizards that Dumbledore did not respond to. Dumbledore also warned Riddle against stealing from others and made him return the items with his apologies.

He also warned Riddle to avoid his misbehavior, as Hogwarts had an honor code on which lying, cheating, and stealing were not tolerated. It was evident from a very early age that Riddle had a desire to be different and distinct from others, as it was implied when he started his own name displeasure because it was such a common name.

Riddle was not shocked to hear from Dumbledore that he was a wizard — he was, in truth, willing to accept that he had extraordinary talents that no one else had. Riddle also displayed an imminent fear of death, finding it to be a human weakness. He believed that his mother might not have been a witch, because if she was a sorcerer, she would have been able to stop death, and assumed that his father was a wizard. 

Riddle explained the way he was seen as "poor, but brilliant, parentless, but brave, school prefect, a model student." Due to his excellent acting skills, he was able to persuade nearly all Hogwarts staff and instructors that this facade was his true personality. The only exception to this was Dumbledore, who, while not generally wary of Riddle, had never forgotten his misdeeds at the orphanage or his unsettling actions at their first encounter. Riddle, on the other hand, realized that he had been reckless in showing Dumbledore his true character at their first encounter, and had never sought to win him over as he had done with his other teachers.