Hearing voices in your head was never a good sign.

Harry's parents had never explicitly told him that, but it was a general, unspoken, rule within the wizarding world. A sign of insanity, or simply a dark enchantment, Harry didn't know, but the voice he could hear commenting in his head on occasion was definitely not his own. As much as he hated to admit it, his voice was nowhere that deep, and he wasn't about to admit the fact that he could hear a voice in his head. He loved his parents, but didn't want to know how they would react to something like this.

They were Light wizards. From what Harry had already read of his little problem, it wasn't light magic that caused it. Rather, it was grey magic, not even dark magic, but that was still something Harry doubted his parents would be happy to be associated with. They did have a reputation to keep up, anyway, as well as the fact that they were good friends with the most famous light wizard, Albus Dumbledore, and that certainly complicated things. Mainly because Albus Dumbledore didn't actually believe in Grey magic, just Dark and Light.

Harry had met the man enough times to know that, and all the research Harry had done about this strange voice told him that it was neither Light nor Dark magic, which only left Grey magic in Harry's mind, but that was another story altogether, because there weren't many types of magic which were grey, which made Grey magic rather difficult to define.

And Harry was certainly not mad, at least he didn't think he was, or he was sure his parents would have mentioned it. Harry knew that Sirius would definitely have made some sort of awful joke about it if he was. Sirius was about as sensitive as a thorn, a really sharp thorn.

"Are you worrying over this again, Harry?"

Harry would have blocked his ears if he thought it would have helped, but, no, the Voice was inside his head, and blocking his ears would be of absolutely no use. Not that he hadn't tried it, even if he had looked a little mental for doing so.

"We're finally going to meet today, and you're still wondering if you're losing your mind?" The Voice laughed, because that was all the Voice was right now (and, yes, it was capitalised because there was no other way to refer to this other person in his head), a voice, and that would be changing fairly soon.

Not that his parents knew about that. They could probably pull it off as suddenly meeting each other randomly. Because Harry knew exactly what this Voice in his head meant, and if he hadn't found out from his extensive research, and it had been extensive after eventually making its way into the Black library, the Voice in his head would have smugly informed him of it. There didn't seem to be a single thing the Voice didn't know, and Harry had often been tempted into wondering if he had some godly entity in his head when he was younger.

"Come on, Harry. I'm nearly there, and you haven't made a move to leave yet. I'm starting to think you don't actually want to meet me."

That was the other thing. This person, voice, whatever, knew who he is, but Harry didn't have an inkling of who he was.

Not.

A.

Bloody.

Clue.

Harry was walking into this blind! It was a good thing he was a Gryffindor, and not a Slytherin, or he would never have agreed to this! Harry thought that the Voice knew this too, and that fact was utterly frustrating! He was going to have to lie to his parents about going out, and for someone he didn't really know!

Okay, maybe that was a bit harsh. Harry did know the voice to some extent. He knew what annoyed the Voice (incompetent, simpering people and the Weasleys' youngest daughter, Ginny, whenever she was around Harry), what amused him (Harry most of the time, but also the same people who annoyed him when he was in a better mood with the exception of Ginny, of course), and… and…

Harry was rather upset with himself for not knowing much more, but he couldn't help it when he wasn't privy to the other person's mind like the Voice was to him! The Voice wasn't particularly open about anything either! The Voice was definitely a Slytherin!

"Mum! Dad! I'm going out for a bit!"

Harry felt even worse when his parents only called out a "Be back before dark!" as he left, clearly trusting him enough, and yet he was…

Urgh. It was far too late to be second guessing himself now.

Yeah, right. Harry was going to wander around in the park, looking for a someone who could very well be anyone. Harry thought he was starting to rely on his insane luck just a little too much at that moment.

Harry sighed, tightening his jacket against the bitter wind that had developed some time after lunch. He wasn't going to be finding anyone, that much was clear by the absence of the Voice, rather he was going to be found, and that made his job a lot easier. So, Harry sat on the nearest bench and watched the people who passed by, idly wondering what the Voice would look like.

The Voice had always just been a voice. Harry had never had a reason to actually create a visual image of the Voice in his head. There simply never seemed to be a point, and the lack of expectation was becoming startlingly clear in his mind. Despite that, Harry knew that he would still be surprised by the man's physical appearance.

"Harry."

The voice sounded exactly as it did in his head, and Harry wasn't sure whether he was more surprised or resentful of that fact. Their surroundings grew quieter, even though the chattering could still be heard by the light buzz in the background. Harry hadn't seen a wand, which mean that the man was simply showing off.

The man chuckled, and Harry finally turned his eyes in the man's direction. The man was older than him, not ridiculously so but neither could the man be described as being in the same age group as Harry was. His hair was black as Harry's own, but nothing like the rat's nest that lay on Harry's head. The man looked comfortable with himself, not surprising given what Harry knew about the Voice, and Harry could barely believe that the man had probably been in his early teens when Harry could first remember the Voice in his mind. The idea seemed incredible.

The man also looked awfully familiar, and Harry got the nagging feeling that he should recognise the other man.

"I have to admit, you're not quite what I'd expected."

Harry turned to glare at the man.

"In a good way, of course. You always seemed to sound a lot younger in your thoughts."

"And you sounded like an old man…" Harry muttered in annoyance.

The man had the audacity to laugh!

"You never seemed to have a problem with that," the man told him in amusement.

"Like I had a choice," Harry huffed. "You never left!"

"You were rather accepting of the entire situation," the man pointed out.

Harry felt like banging his head against the nearest solid surface. "Now that I know what you look like, can I have your name? Calling you 'the Voice' all the time is rather strange."

"Yet you always did it," the man said, before finally relenting under Harry's annoyed gaze. "I, honestly, thought you would have worked it out by now, you are rather smart, Harry. I'm Tom Riddle."

Oh.

Oh.

That's why he was familiar then. The leader of the faction of the Ministry who encouraged Dark magic, and the fiercest rival to Albus Dumbledore, whom his parents supported wholeheartedly. Harry had seen him a couple of times, but it had never stuck, and Harry couldn't bring himself to pay too much attention to something as boring as politics anyway. Neither could Harry's father, if Harry was to be brutally honest.

"That just complicates things."

The man, Tom, nodded, "That's the reason why I couldn't exactly introduce myself to your parents when you were younger and tell them about out bond as most other bondeds do. They would almost certainly have kept us apart under Dumbledore's request, and, as you already know, if the bonded are isolated from one another, the consequences are… rather severe."

"So you were counting on the fact that I would believe you when I got older? And would choose to lie to my parents to meet you?" Harry asked incredulously. "Not to mention eventually give them up, if I were to stay with you?"

Tom nodded seriously, "There was little else that I could do, but I wouldn't let it get that far as to make you choose between your parents and me. That would simply be cruel to you."

"Those are my parents you're talking about. I think you're underestimating them!"

"When they follow Dumbledore as loyally as they do? I doubt it," Tom said with an absolute certainty. "The man will guilt trip them into thinking that's the only way to protect you from me!"

"You're ridiculous!"

Written for Quidditch League - Wigtown Wanderers Captain: Round 13

Written for One Prompt Many Fandoms: Harry Potter

Written for Open Category 4 Competition: AU