I do not own Harry Potter.

123

The messy dark haired boy stared out into the bright morning sunshine of Godric's Hollow and took a deep breath, held in his hand was the long awaited for invitation to Hogwarts.

"Are you excited?"

Glancing up he smiled at the redhead that had stepped into the room after handling the mail owl "Of course Lily. Feels like I've been AAAGARGAMEL!" he yelped as Lily's hand snapped out like a striking Viper and caught his ear in a pincer grip.

Hissing in pain he turned slightly and froze, despite the nearly Cruciatus curse level pain, at the glare Lily had locked him with. "Sorry, I mean Mum," he said and sighed as she released his ear. She held the glare for a moment before turning back towards the kitchen.

"Go get your brother and we will head to Diagon Alley for your school things," Lily said causing the boy to roll his eyes before heading upstairs. Moving through the small magical household, he forced the memories down and away of the last time he was here.

Pushing the door open, he stepped inside and locked eyes with the small bundle of drool and poop that was currently dancing in the crib without the benefit of music. After a time spent glaring at his hated enemy, the boy stepped up and glared down at the infant "Hello Potter!" He hissed before reaching up to touch his nemeses.

"TOM! ARE YOU STARING AT HARRY AGAIN?"

Sighing in defeat at his adopted mother's odd ability to know what he was doing, Tom Riddle/Potter stepped over and picked up the boy and set him on his hip. "I hate prophecies," he whispered to the infant before turning to go back downstairs.

As he went down the stairs, Tom let his mind drift back to his arrival in his current situation. After his fateful battle in the damaged castle of Hogwarts, he had activated one of his earlier attempts at immortality, a type of advanced time turner that was supposed to send him back to the most influential moment of his life. He had expected to find himself back in the orphanage staring at the letter Dumbledore had delivered to him, careful crafting of the spell had used the power of the now dead universe to regress him to the proper age.

Unfortunately the spell had not accounted for his splintered soul and the strength of the prophecy. As such, he had been cast out of the time stream, in a much younger body and much too far forward in the timeline.

To be specific, he had ended up as a ten year old in the end days of nineteen seventy nine.

The first few days he had been nearly catatonic as his mind worked to settle the mental stress from the time jump combined with the feedback of his soul parts rejoining him.

One thing was sure; he was certainly different from his original self.

Apparently during his time as a vegetable, he had been discovered and saved by the young medi-witch Lily Potter. Upon waking, and the discovery that he was without family or resources, the redhead had concocted an entire scenario where he was the sole survivor of an attack by dark wizards before she had insisted on saving the young whelp from the dark loneliness of his life.

Stepping into the main room, Tom endured Lily's mothering as she made sure her boys were ready for their trip out into the world.

Lily was so proud of him already, for a moment he wondered if his birth mother would have cared as much. Given what he knew of her and what he had seen of his Grandfather and uncles, he would have had to say no.

A brief flash of memory of the fiery redhead standing defiantly in front of his wand before a bright green light ended her existence went through Tom's mind. Refusing to let the thought dominate his life, Tom shifted Harry around so Lily could take him.

Glancing over at the newpaper on the table, Tom frowned darkly at the headline proclaiming another successful raid of 'You-Know-Who.' Tom held no doubt about what his alternate would do if he managed to get ahold of him.

The sad fact of the matter was that torture and death were the only things awaiting him if he sought his other self out. No, it would be far better to crush his other side and take his place as a hero of the wizarding world.

First things first though, he needed a wand. Once he had that, he could self-transfigure himself into a more appropriate form to battle the dark forces.

As Lily threw a pinch of Floo powder into the fire, Tom smiled at the thought of what was to come. He would need to make one hell of an entrance though.

123

Tumbling out of the fireplace in Diagon Alley, ass over teakettle, Tom swore dark and unending vengeance against the abhorrent mode of travel. The boy made a mental note to do away with them entirely if he ever changed his mind and became a dark lord again.

Taking a moment to let his head stop spinning, he couldn't help but glare as Lily stepped out of the fireplace with a grace that he simply didn't possess, even worse was Harry giggling happily at the sudden rush of magical travel.

The giggling baby was another sore point on his eventual rise to Dark Lord-dom. He was pretty sure the prophecy was still in effect, if the stupid thing didn't take him being disintegrated in a backfiring Death Curse as fulfilled, he was willing to bet that him getting punt kicked back in time wouldn't affect it a whole hell of a lot either.

Of course since the prophecy was about, 'The Dark Lord' and he was most notably absent of both Darkness and Lordness he may have dodged that bullet entirely.

With a grunt, Tom forced himself to his feet and with barely a glare at his new nemesis, turned towards the still giggling Lily. "Am I to assume that James will not be joining us this afternoon?" He asked trying to put the whole situation behind him.

With a last snort, Lily let the boy maintain what little dignity remained and accepted the change of subject. "He's patrolling the alley today, but he promised to meet us for lunch" she explained before bumping him with her hip and giving him a mock glare. "And you know you can call him Dad right?"

Rolling his eyes as they passed through into Diagon Alley, Tom refused to sigh at the old argument. "While you are fine with such an arrangement and I dare say James would be as well, I must once again state that I would find the situation," he paused for a moment as he sought out the correct word before he continued "Awkward on my part."

It was an argument that the two had gotten into a half dozen times, and while he was slowly but surely coming to accept the inevitable fact that he would be required to address Lily as 'Mum' in the near future, he couldn't bring himself to call James Potter 'Dad.'

Tom rolled his eyes as he was pulled into a hug by the redhead as she mumbled something about boys and puberty that had the one time feared Dark Lord shuddering in terror as he realized that he would probably have to sit through
'The Talk,' once again.

Desperate to avoid such a fate, Tom allowed himself to be pulled towards Ollivander's by a rather giddy Lily Potter as she chattered on and on about all the wonderful things he was going to be able to do once he had a wand.

Stepping into the small shop, Tom let a smile tug at his lips as he remembered the first time he had been here, the feeling of power he had felt as he grasped the phoenix feather and yew wand that had seen his meteoric rise to power in later years.

Glancing around, Tom's eyes met the grey orbs of Garric Ollivander and felt a light brush across his carefully crafted mental shields before it passed him by.

"Aah, Lily Potter, Ten and a quarter inch Willow, swishy with a Unicorn hair core, one of my better charm wands if I do say so myself," Ollivander said with a pleasant smile as Lily let her thumb run across the softwood she had purchased so many years before.

"Correct as always Mr. Ollivander, and she is just as good now as the day I got her," Lily said pleasantly before she pulled Tom over and carefully smoothed down his hair. "These boys are Tom and Harry, and while Harry has a few years yet before he gets his own wand I suppose it's time for Tom to get his as he's gotten his Hogwarts letter."

Tom had never understood people's need to attribute gender to their wands, most of them declaring the tools to be female. Of course, having seen the care Lily took of her wand, he could almost understand it now. Perhaps if he had been able to keep his wand during the summer months while he was younger, he would have had a greater emotional connection to it.

In short order, Tom was being measured and prodded by the wand crafter. A series of wands were pulled out and set aside based on whatever arcane knowledge the old man had divined from the width between his nose or the length of his eyebrow hair. When nearly half a dozen options were finally presented, Tom smiled as he reached for his first option.

"Fourteen inches, hickory and dragon heartstring, firm with an excellent curse strength," Ollivander offered only to frown as the small stick exploded into a shower of silver pearls that rained down across the shop floor.

Shaking his head, the old man reached for another wand only for the unicorn hair and teak wand to shoot out of its box and disappear deep into the bowels of the shop before Tom could even touch it. "Most peculiar," he grumbled before adjusting his stock slightly. "I get the sneaking suspicion I should avoid unicorn all together with you." He grumbled before pulling a couple extra boxes to him from the back.

In the course of the next hour, Tom learned that he was borderline impossible to find a proper wand for, Phoenix and Unicorn responding poorly and most of the woods shattering under his touch as the wand crafter frowned in consternation.

"Apollyon wing and Freelings Oak," he grumbled as Tom took up the eighty seventh wand of the day as the old man sulked petulantly behind the counter "If it's not this one I'll have to craft one to you special."

Thankfully Tom felt the rush of energy as he picked up the brown fifteen inch stick and with a swish that had a half dozen buzzing locust the size of pigeons appearing and sitting along the counter's edge.

Snorting at the insects, Ollivander shook his head before he began to explain, "Fifteen inches even, firm, one of the more dangerous dueling wands I've ever made and especially attuned to spiritual energy."

He looked down at the dark haired boy carefully, "You have a destiny of conflict if that wand has anything to say about it." He warned before the craftsman then turned his smile to Lily, "that will be Eighteen Galleons even."

Stepping out of the rather creepy store Tom held the wand in his hand carefully as he considered all the doors that were open to him now, the trace was gone before they had left the store and Tom had free access to his magic once more.

Now if only he knew what he was going to do with it, Standing in the middle of Diagon Alley as Lily talked about all the awesome things he was going to do Tom felt somewhat like a dog that had finally gotten the car, as he was pulled towards the bookshop to get his required reading for first year students Tom glanced up at the happy redhead that had done so much to save his life and even opened her home up to him when he needed it.

Certainly he could go on a killing rampage and overthrow the magical world, but he would have to kill her if he did that, and while he had the memories of many deaths and even a rather pervasive memory of killing her himself Tom found that given the situation he was less willing to act on the dark whispers that had seduced him the first time around.

He actually felt. Loved.

Tom shuddered as he realized that the old coot had possibly been right in his mad 'Power of love' ramblings, taking a deep breath Tom let his wand shift in his hand before a silent Confundus charm hit his adopted mother sending her off with the thought that he was picking up some quills and ink and would meet her at Madam Malkins.

As she disappeared among the crowd Tom slipped away into an side alley, he let out a deep breath and began to work, back before he had been feared Tom had needed to make a name for his other self, that required a bit of showmanship all things considered, a skill he had little need of once he had returned.

Slipping into a dark alley Tom let his magic flow through him, self-transfiguration had been a skill mastered by Gellert Grindelwald back during his rise to power and Tom had spent countless hours researching how the man had did that during his first rise to power.

Adding a foot and a half of height Tom returned himself to his old size, a slim fighters build as his hair shifted from the jet black he wore now to a light grey, pulling it back into a ponytail, his facial features shifted as well, aging him to his mid-twenties even as Tom waved his wand over himself and let his magic flow, his rather common jeans and shirt were changed to a pair of grey dress pants black shirt and grey vest that he draped a black leather trench coat over.

A grey fedora and a faceless mask finished off the look, as he stood in the alleyway counting down the minutes Tom smiled, he had fashioned the look off the MACUSA agents he had seen from the twenties, agents that had stood against the first dark lords rise to power.

As the clock in the middle of the Ministry of Magic struck ten Tom felt the anti-apparition wards pop up around the alley, at the far end Lord Voldemort and a half dozen of his followers appeared in a flash of light and began casting dark spells at the suddenly panicked crowd.

Tom knew that his other had shown up today in an attempt to silence the ever dangerous Prewitt brothers, the two of them had stood against his first rise to power and his old self had made a public example out of them.

With a flick Tom was surrounded by an explosive mixture of gases and fine copper mist, with a twist he was through the anti-apparition wards he had once put up, it was time to put on a show.

123

Gideon Prewitt cursed as he dodged a second dark curse and threw up another shield to cover his brothers back, the dark thrice damned dark wanker had shown up not even a minute before and had the whole damn alley cut off yet there he stood, as bold as brass as five of the cowards put every effort they could into cutting he and his brother down, the last of the man's lackeys standing by the dark lord's side, probably ready to lick his boots.

His cursing and curses were cut off as a flash of light and a roar of thunder heralded the arrival of a new player on the field.

Glancing over as a man in grey stepped out of a bright green fireball Gideon felt a momentary surge of hope, when the attack first started he had tried to apparate out of the alley only to be blocked, if this new fighter could blast through that then they might actually have a chance.

Entering the fight Gideon smiled as a flash of yellow light hit one of the death eaters and sent the man down in a screaming heap as he clawed as his masked face in pain, shifting around a curse sent his way Gideon back Fabian up as they both hit one of the distracted death eaters with a bone splitter curse, dropping another one of their opponents before they went back on the defensive.

As they blocked a trio of bludgeoning curses the eldest Prewitt brother watched as a hand of stone shot out of a nearby wall and negligently crushed the far right death eaters head, a quick cutting curse from his own wand caught the man's partner in the gut sending him screaming to the ground as he struggled to keep his insides on his insides.

Smiling darkly at the fuming dark lord Gideon watched as his brother sent a bolt of lightning out of his wand that blasted the last attacking death eater crashing and smoking into reinforced wall of the magical menagerie.

In a moment all movement seemed to cease, the two Prewitts and the grey man stood against the dark lord and his last follower, the only sound was the muffled screams of the two fallen but not yet dead death eaters.

Idly Gideon wondered what that first spell had been, he had seen death eaters hit with bone breaker curses not flinch, the dark lords habit of 'toughening them up' through cruciatus exposure apparently worked very well to make the man's shock troops all but ignore pain.

Whatever the man had used though the death eater was still screaming, for a brief moment Gideon considered simply stunning the man to silence him before he shrugged the thought off, if he had his way the man would stop screaming when he was dead.

123

Standing before his old self Tom let his gaze drift over the man he had once become, nothing like his resurrected form he had once been good looking and capable, he had class and style.

What the hell had happened to him.

Once again making a mental note to avoid splitting his soul Tom stared at his other self he had to admit that he cut in imposing figure, the dark robes and silver immortal mask had made all but the strongest foes quake in fear.

Even with the masks though there was something decidedly off about his original self, like an out of tune note in a symphony, it called to him to either fix it, or destroy it,

Tom was currently sitting firmly in the 'Destroy it with fire' side of the argument.

Here and now though, Tom was going for something a little bit different.

With a half wave a dozen anti-apparition wards sprung up over the originals, Voldemort took this as a signal and with a dark curse the battle was joined.

A shift of his feet and a wave of his wand sent the still screaming death eater sailing up to intercept the dark curse before a barrage of spells pinned the dark lord in place.

Out of the corner of his eye Tom saw the two Prewitt boys pound the last of Voldemort's followers for several seconds before a misstep caused the blond pompous ass to catch a cutting curse to sever the man's arm at the wrist.

Shifting the flow of battle Tom sent a trio of charms at the nearby rubble turning a pile of rocks into a half dozen small stone imps that charged the dark lord in silent glee.

Turning to the shocked form of Lucius Malfoy Tom hit the man with a rather painful withering curse before following it up with a stunner.

Win, Lose or Draw Malfoy would be outed after this.

Standing tall with the Prewett brothers as they traded spells with the Dark Lord for several minutes Tom focused on countering his originals spells, shielding and blocking what he could as they waited for support as the Aurors and DMLE rushed the scene Tom watched impassively as his old self snarled a dark curse at him before activating a portkey and whisking the dark lord away.

As the DMLE surrounded him Tom carefully held his wand up by the tip and watched as the idiots shouted a flurry of conflicting And contradictory orders at him and the two brothers for several long minutes before a rough form shoved his way through the crowd.

"What's all this then? A half dozen scum on the ground and you rookies are standing around shouting? Get to work, I want the downed identified and bagged before the director gets here or i'll have your hides" Alastor Moody snarled darkly and sent the younger Aurors into a flurry of action "Willet, Pew, Round up witnesses and get statements, Fletcher you are to intercept any reporter stupid enough to stick their heads out and keep them away from the scene, there will be no photos but if they want a statement you can tell them to kiss my ass." He snarled and sent the three men off before he turned to the men that had stood up to the dark lord and frowned. Two of them he knew, the Prewitt brothers had stood beside him in battle at least twenty times over the years even now they were founding members of the order of the Phoenix and were no doubt the target of this particular raid.

The other man was different, younger certainly but aged beyond his years, the faceless illusion he had on was certainly intimidating, with a wave he had two senior Aurors take the two brothers off to collect their statements before he stepped up to the faceless man himself. "Me names Senior Auror Alistor Moody, third, July the nineteen eighty, interviewing unknown wizard involved in a dark arts fight in Diagon Alley approximately ten minutes before," the senior Auror stated in a loud and clear manner so any pensieve review later could be easily identified before he turned to Tom with a raised eyebrow "so what all this then? Who are you and what was your part in all this?" He growled as he stepped far enough away to not be interrupted and after a moment indicated that the man could lower his wand.

Reaching up Tom carefully removed the mask to help put the old warrior more at ease before smiling pleasantly "My name, such as it may be, is Thomas Grey. My business is my own, but suffice to say I am a spell researcher from the Americas." Tom Explained before glancing back at the body strewn street "As for my involvement in this little kerfuffle, that was merely limited to the abject destruction of three of the attackers and the assistance in capturing a fourth." Tom expounded before he waved towards the alley that had been the scene of the fight.

"I witnessed seven individuals arrive and both Portkey and Apparition wards pop into place before they started firing off dark curses into the crowd, I took offense to this and considered it my civic duty to assist, I stepped in to put a stop to it, when five of them were busy with the two gentlemen I found a weak spot in the wards and apperated to their flank before casting a 'zub-za-puls' spell from the eastern Mediterranean," at the Aurors look Tom shrugged "it was originally used to assist with dental work but fell out of favor due to the rather tight control needed to keep the teeth from exploding in the patient's head, with the might that I used I would be surprised if the man had a single tooth left in his head, I've found it to be a useful opening gambit and it is almost guaranteed to take your opponent out of the fight."

At the scarred Aurors snort Tom shrugged, "Needless to say this took some of the pressure off my two comrades in arms and together we managed to press our advantage until the late but ever so helpful arrival of your men caused the leader to break and run."

"And how did ya get through the Anti-Apparition wards? Tales say they are all but unbreakable?" Moody asked and took the man's snort of derision without offense.

"While I admit it was quite impressive for him to think up layering a rather obscure Pandamanian ward under an ICW standard retention ward, and while it would seem unbreakable if you weren't aware of it, it's actually more annoying than anything else once you know what you're looking for." Tom said with a smile before shrugging "fortunately I had a small spot of trouble down that way a few years back and managed to figure out the secret to it, as an aside note the Magical community of Panama takes a dim view on being pants-less in public."

Blinking in shock as the man uncovered one of the more annoying aspects of the dark lords abilities Moody made a mental note to get with a few associates he had in South America and find out if what he said was true. "So you're not a MakUSA?" Moody questioned as he knew the Magical law Enforcement of America wore a very similar get up

Shaking his head Tom forced himself not to scowl as Moody's eye swept over him again, "No, I've certain worked with them enough but I am a freelancer of sorts."

Shrugging Moody simply turned back to the scene of the cleanup that was still ongoing "Well if you should find yourself face to face with those sorts again I'd recommend you doing just what you did today," he snarled before stomping off to yell at the rookies that were still fumbling about about like virgins in a Veela whore house at the sight of the bodies.

At the sight of Bartimus Crouch Senior storming up with Dumbledore and his adopted father Tom made a half turn and disappeared with a pop.

Now he just had to keep Lily off of the war path and convince her he had been safe.

To be honest the reformed Dark Lord would rather face down the Death Eaters again.

123

(A/n) So this is a Tom Riddle-Potter story, I've seen a lot of Time Travel stories that throw Harry or one of the others back, but I was wondering what a 'Dumbledor' time travel fic would look like, that broke away into a 'What would a Moody Time Travel' fic look like?

unfortunately those get a bit long in the tooth as i try to explain the why's and hows of the time travel and they never got off the ground...

so here you are, a sane and rational Tom Riddle being raised next to his Nemesis thanks to time travel and a Prophecy.

and yes Tom uses 'gargamel' as a curse word...