The Riddle of Existence

THE RIDDLE OF EXISTENCE

CHAPTER ONE

Harry came awake to find himself in a soft bed with clean, crisp sheets. He felt clean, and while he ached all over the burning pain of his wounds had gone and his arm no longer felt broken.

He opened his eyes a little.

"Hello," said a small voice. Harry turned his head to see Riddle sitting nearby. "Thank you for rescuing me."

He shifted uncomfortably. Harry blinked at him. He was still half-asleep and his mind was still working out why he was in the hospital wing at Hogwarts.

"They told me that that wizard-monster was me," the younger boy blurted, "and that he killed your family, so it was very nice of you."

He looked miserable. Harry sighed inwardly. Being saddled with the Voldemort legacy would be even worse than putting up with the Harry Potter one. Despite the fact that his head felt extremely heavy and as though it were filled with glue, Harry tried to think of something to say.

"It's not your fault." Harry decided that wasn't very helpful and cast his mind around for more. "You didn't do any of the things Voldemort did. The blame for that rests solely with him, and he's now dead." Harry wondered briefly what it felt like to know your future self was dead. Hmm. Maybe it hadn't been so good to remind the kid of that. "You have nothing to feel guilty about, no matter what anyone says. You might have ended up as him, I don't know, but now that you're here and have seen the consequences I know you won't go down that path."

At least, it seemed so; but if Tom wasn't going to be Voldemort, then how come the Dark wizard had existed in the first place? Voldemort had brought himself forward in time, which meant he probably wouldn't be Voldemort as he'd seen what could happen, which meant, surely, that Voldemort wouldn't have existed to bring himself forward in time... though maybe without going into the future he didn't know not to be Voldemort and became him anyway...

Harry decided to tell Hermione this and let her figure it out for him. Maybe it was just a time thing, the way wizards could kill their past selves who came into the future and yet still exist. Anyway, Tom was here and Voldemort wasn't and that was all that mattered, really.

"That's what Dumbledore said," Tom ventured, unaware of Harry's thoughts, looking a little happier. Then he slumped and looked miserable again.

"But everyone hates me, and is terrified of me, and if they're not they're kids of Death Eaters who want me to show them Dark Arts."

Harry felt a pang of sympathy. Slytherins had never asked him to teach them Dark Arts, but he knew what the rest of it felt like, and having Slytherins bothering you would probably only make things worse.

"And the Ministry's found out about me and they want to arrest me or something and keep trying to make Dumbledore let them take me away." He looked scared.

"Dumbledore won't let them do that," Harry said firmly. "He knows how to deal with the Ministry. And don't worry about the other students. If anyone bothers you, just let me know."

Tom sent him a look of astonished gratitude mingled with doubt. Before he could say anything, however, there was a shout.

"Harry!" a voice bellowed. A broad grin broke over Harry's face as he saw Ron and Hermione by the door.

"Harry, you're awake!" Hermione squealed, running forward to fling her arms around his neck. "We were so worried!"

Ron noticed Riddle then, who shrank back away from him.

"Ron!" Harry said sharply as his friend took a step towards the first year. "Leave him alone!"

Ron sent him an incredulous look.

"But he's..." he started.

"And innocent first year, Ron," Harry said, his voice hard. "Who has never been Voldemort, so you have no reason to be horrible to him! What do you think that's going to do? If anything, it'll just create a second Voldemort!" Harry was shouting now.

"Harry," said Hermione calmly, "you're scaring Tom."

Harry looked around quickly to see that Tom was indeed looking at him with a rather frightened expression. He forced an apologetic smile, although he still felt angry at Ron.

"Sorry," he told Riddle.

"That's okay," Tom said cautiously. "Just so long as it's not me you're yelling at."

Harry grinned at him, then yawned. As he drifted back into sleep he could hear Hermione talking to Tom and Ron reluctantly joining in.

When Harry next awoke, he found that only Ron and Hermione were sitting by him.

"Where's Tom?" Harry asked, startling the two, who hadn't realized he wasn't still asleep.

"I think he's talking to Dumbledore again," said Ron, grabbing a chocolate frog from a packet nearby.

"Ron, don't eat all Harry's frogs," Hermione said severely.

"What?" Harry blinked.

"Ev'y bo'y sen' you stuff," Ron said with his mouth full. He swallowed. "For defeating Voldemort, and everything."

"Oh," said Harry, rather blankly. He changed the subject. "What's Dumbledore talking to Tom about?"

"What's to become of him, I think," said Hermione soberly. Harry looked at her.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, how many people are going to be willing to look after Voldemort, Harry?" Before he could open his mouth, she added, "I know he isn't, but that's how people will see it. The only ones who'll be willing to look after him are the Death Eaters, who want to turn him into Voldemort."

There was a long silence. Harry sat looking troubled, deep in thought.

"I can't let anything bad happen to him," he said suddenly. "Can you ask Dumbledore to see me?"

--------------------

It soon flew around the school that Harry had, for some obscure and no doubt noble reason, decided to stand up for the boy who had turned into Voldemort. When asked, his friends just shrugged and replied that Harry said that Riddle wasn't Voldemort and he deserved a chance at a decent life.

One morning the school was in breakfast in the Great Hall when both Harry and Riddle walked in. There was a sudden hush. No one had seen Harry since Voldemort's defeat, and most had never seen Riddle at all. Now they stared.

The two boys really did look amazingly alike. Riddle's hair was neater, and his eyes weren't green, but otherwise he looked remarkably like a younger, glasses-less version of Harry.

The two slowly walked to the Gryffindor table, Harry calmly and Tom nervously, and sat. Buzzing whispers broke out all over the hall. Dumbledore stood.

"As you can see, Mr Potter has been discharged from the hospital wing," he said in a loud voice, getting everyone's attention. "Madame Pomfrey assures me that he is quite healed, although still recovering from the strain of recent events. His defeat of Voldemort was an act of extreme bravery and the Ministry has decided, in recognition of his bravery and his services to the wizarding world, to award him the Order of Merlin, First Class."

Cheering and clapping broke out. Harry looked uncomfortable, but nonetheless felt a small glow of warmth in his chest as he saw all the pleased and encouraging faces around him. The only person who didn't appear at all pleased was Professor Snape, who right now wore a sour expression. Harry grinned to himself. He was going to enjoy seeing Snape's reaction to the last bit of news.

"Secondly," Dumbledore announced, and the noise died down, "I wish to inform you all that Mr Tom Riddle is currently a Ward of Hogwarts and will henceforth become a permanent student here. While Mr Riddle is indeed very lucky to be a Ward of Hogwarts-" Harry saw Tom grimace "-it will only be for a short time, for as soon as Mr Potter turns of age he will become Mr Riddle's legal guardian."

There was a stunned silence for about a second before astonished chatter filled the hall. Potter adopting Voldemort? Legally? He must have gone mad!

Dumbledore cleared his throat, and everyone immediately quieted, wondering what last, exciting piece of news the headmaster could possibly be planning to stun them with.

"Lastly," said Dumbledore blandly, "I believe that Mr Potter has a small speech to make."

He sat down, winking at Harry as he did so.

Harry stood, and people all over the hall craned their necks to stare at him. Harry felt distinctly uncomfortable. It'll be worth it, he told himself.

"While I defeated Voldemort," he began, "I was not the only one fighting him and his Death Eaters. Hundreds of people have fought in this war, some of them even getting injured or killed." He took a breath. "There is one particular person, though, who I feel has been particularly brave. He has secretly been risking his life to help defeat Voldemort, with few people knowing how large a role he has been playing. Without the information he collected I never would have succeeded in defeating Voldemort."

Everyone was wondering who on earth he was talking about. As they watched a slow, large grin spread over his face.

"That is why I would like to announce on the behalf of the Ministry-" he brandished the letter he had received half an hour earlier "-that for tireless effort and bravery in the most dangerous of conditions, an Order of Merlin, First Class, will be presented to Severus Snape, Professor at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry."

There was a dead, dumbfounded silence. After a moment Harry began to clap. For a long, embarrassing couple of seconds it was only him clapping, but, slowly, first the Slytherins, then the teachers and eventually the rest of the school joined in until the hall was filled with thunderous applause. Snape, for what had to be the first time in his life, looked absolutely stunned. He didn't seem to know whether to look astonished, pleased, indifferent, or whether to just glower at Harry for getting up and making a speech about him. Somehow he managed to do all at once. Harry grinned and winked at him, which made the glower all the more stronger. Harry just sat down, while around him the storm of clapping continued.

A low, experimental hiss reached Riddle's ears. He slewed around to stare at Harry, looking astonished.

I'm glad that's over, the sixth year said in Parseltongue.

You never told me you were a Parseltongue, Tom hissed back blankly.

Oops, Harry shrugged. It slipped my mind, I guess. He grinned. Nice to finally have someone I can talk to in it. I mean, having a conversation no one can eavesdrop on is really nice.

Riddle grinned back. He was rather in awe of Harry, as well as liking him immensely.

How come you went to all that trouble, talking to the Ministry to get him that Order of Merlin, and then doing the speech, when you don't like him?

Harry shrugged again.

Well, he does deserve it, he said honestly. Just because he isn't very pleasant doesn't mean he shouldn't get what he deserves, especially after such... devotion? Besides, for all I know he might get all sentimental and decide to leave me alone for it.

Tom grinned. Ahh, how Slytherin of you, Potter. He grimaced suddenly. I'm glad Dumbledore decided to put me in Gryffindor with you. These days Slytherins seem to be real bad lots. In my day - lord, I sound like someone's grandfather - LORD, I'm probably technically old enough to BE someone's grandfather! - in my day, Slytherins were sneaky and independent and clever and devious, but they all stood up for each other and had their own individual moral code. These days, they're all under-handed, they don't have respect for anybody, they're without loyalty, and they have all the individuality and independence of a pack of sheep!

Harry snorted with laughter. Riddle grinned a little but still looked quite seriously at him.

I'm serious, it's a big change. I find it pretty disturbing. He frowned. That Malfoy boy, for example, he's been reared the wrong way. He could really have been quite a nice person ...annoying, of course, and superior, but nice all the same. I've been reading the books Hermione recommended-

She'll be delighted, Harry commented.

-and from what I can make out the generation before this one - everyone's parents, I mean - who were in Slytherin got corrupted and bent out somehow, and raised their kids to be the same. The talent and all that that Slytherin used to be known for is gone now.

Harry looked at the younger boy thoughtfully.

"You know," he said slowly, "you should give this speech at the next DA meeting, and we'll see what we can do."

--------------------

The DA meeting rolled around surprisingly quickly. The Friday night of the second week, Harry, with his faithful young shadow, turned up at the Room of Requirement ready to set it up for the meeting. They got there to find a tall, thin blonde girl lounging against one wall. She looked at Harry and Tom lazily and flowed away from the wall. Harry saw that for some reason she was wearing a cloak over her Hogwarts robes.

"Hey." Her accent was one he couldn't place. "You must be Potter."

Harry blinked at her. "Yeah."

"I'm Aurora," the girl told him. "Aurora Fraser. I'm in sixth year, although this is my first year at Hogwarts. I moved here from Brisbane, Australia." She snorted. "I liked it better there, too. I could be a day-student, I was in a nice neighbourhood with easy access to the movies, shopping centres and the city, and it wasn't so damn cold!" She shivered and pulled her cloak closer around her. "You Brits must be bloody mad to live in this weather. I'm surprised you lot don't freeze to death. Bloody Poms!" That last remark was muttered to herself.

Harry and Tom blinked at her.

"It's the middle of summer," Tom said blankly. Aurora scowled.

"Not to me, it isn't. More like the middle of winter. And if this is what you call summer, than I'll hate to see your winter! Although," she added thoughtfully, "I wouldn't mind seeing what snow is like. Dad says it's cold and wet and gets all slushy, but if that's true than why does everyone over here make such a fuss about having a white Christmas?" She looked at them inquiringly. Harry was about to try to answer this when she added, "and is it true that all your trees just, like, die in winter? Lose all their leaves?"

The two boys nodded bemusedly. Aurora shook her head, equally bemused.

"Man," she said reverently, "things are weird here."

Before Tom or Harry could think up an appropriate response to this sweeping statement, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny came along.

"What's the new Slytherin doing here?" Ron asked with hostility. Aurora turned to look at him in surprise.

"I want to learn," she said simply, as though Ron had gone mad. "I mean, this is that defence group, isn't it?"

Hermione assured her that it was.

"Well, I'll probably find it useful. I'm particularly interested because I used to lead a group like this back home, back at Reynold's College. You people seem to use a whole lot of different spells and things than what we do, so I'm curious to see what kind of thing you do here."

Ron, Ginny, and Hermione exchanged confused looks.

"'Back home?'" Ginny echoed.

"I'm from Australia," Aurora said matter-of-factly, just as people began streaming towards them. Hermione looked enlightened.

"Of course!" she exclaimed. "I read about Reynolds College in Wizardry Down Under." She stopped in puzzlement as Aurora burst out laughing.

"That," the Slytherin girl choked, "has got to be the world's most..." she tried to find a word that fitted "-inaccurate book ever!" She grinned, still giggling a little. "No one ever bothers to research Australia properly, especially not the Brits - they're just like 'oh, Australia, they're the little place at the bottom of the globe who are some kind of extension of Britain, aren't they?' and so of course, they get everything completely wrong."

Hermione looked crestfallen. Harry glanced around at the large crowd that had gathered. Oops. He'd better set up the Room of Requirement. He did so and walked in, followed by the several hundred students who now made up the DA. Lately he had to make the room bigger than usual to fit them all in.

Aurora looked around appraisingly.

"Sufficient," she decided. "Although you could do more." She strolled over, hands behind her back, to peer at one of the Dark detectors. "Hm. Some of these are outdated. Or too clunky."

"Clunky?" someone in the crowd echoed. Aurora nodded.

"Yah. A decent 'cobweb' could replace some of these, while a muggle-wizard hybrid security system would be far more useful than any of them."

"Muggle-wizard hybrid security system?" Hermione repeated. Aurora nodded and looked around. There was a whiteboard nearby, with a few markers. Some of the students were staring at it in puzzlement. Aurora swept over and began drawing diagrams on it, explaining to Hermione all the while.

"See, a normal high-tech security system has a central computer system, here, with sensors and cameras and things around the perimeter here. Some also have invisible laser beams across doorways that activate alarms when interrupted. In order to stop unauthorized people coming in, outside doors have keypads where people punch in their ID number and if it's authorized, the door opens and the alarm system shuts off for them to get through. See, right."

By now there was a rough building plan drawn out with squiggles and circles and lines over the top of it drawn in red or green. Aurora gave them a moment to look at it before grabbing the whiteboard eraser and wiping the board clean.

"Now, with a hybrid system, you can do even more things, but even more easily. See, for example, at each doorway you set up a barrier spell keyed into an individual-recognition spell that's connected to the main computer system. Here, by the doorway, is a magic keypad that allows authorized people to alter who is or isn't allowed in the building. This changes the recognition spell, and the information is stored in the computer system which then alters every corresponding recognition spell in the building. And because the spell works on individual magical signatures, people who have, say, taken Polyjuice Potion in order to impersonate an authorized person still can't get in, because no illusion or form-shifting spell is capable of altering a magical signature."

By now, quite a large number of the wizard-born students were listening in fascination as well as the muggle-borns.

"An enormous number of other security measures can be made in a similar way, by looking at muggle inventions and creating and adapting spells so that they behave in the same manner. The only thing we can't do is replace the central computer system, but you can alter it so that it runs on magic rather than electricity, and right now there's a research team back home working on building a computer system made entirely of magic. It's difficult, but they're making progress."

"Well-illustrated, Miss Fraser," said a mild voice. The students spun around to see Dumbledore standing in the doorway. "I thought I'd drop in and have a look at what activities you were doing," said the Headmaster, smiling benignly. Aurora looked a little embarrassed.

"We haven't really started yet," said Harry. "Aurora was just explaining something to Hermione."

"I see," said Dumbledore, smiling. "Well, I wish you all luck." He walked out, shutting the door behind him.

Tonight Harry taught them more about Patronuses. A few of those who had been in the DA the previous year had mastered the spell, and walked around helping the others. Harry walked around, drawing attention to particularly good efforts or to errors in technique, pointing out to the class the correct way to perform the spell.

Tom was in one corner of the room, where the majority of the teaching aids were, practicing with Aurora. For some reason, this little nook was hidden from the sight of the rest of the room. He was producing a fairly good mist, which surprised most of the other students; this was a spell no one under fifth year had made any progress with, and here was Tom, a first year, producing mist on his first few tries.

Aurora, like Riddle, had never performed the Patronus before, yet soon she called Harry over, a bashful smile on her face.

"Watch," she told him, then called out, "Expecto Patronum!"

To the astonishment and mild fright of several students, an enormous silver dragon that filled half the room shot out above their heads, spreading gigantic, webby wings and opening its mouth to reveal sharp-looking teeth.

"Bloody hell!" gasped Ron, greatly impressed. From the look on Hermione's face, where she stood next to Ron, she was even more impressed than anyone else was.

There was a burst of clapping, and Aurora beamed, giving a small bow.

"That was amazing," Harry told her. She gave him a shy smile. Hermione hurried over.

"I've never heard of anyone with a dragon Patronus before," she said excitedly.

"Read of anyone, you mean," said Ron. Hermione ignored him.

"I wonder why you do?" She looked at the other girl with interest.

Aurora's face turned slightly wary.

"Dunno," she shrugged; yet for an instant after Hermione's words,her eyes seemed to glow a brighter green.

Harry remembered then the discussion he had had with Tom the previous week, and called a halt to the activities in the room. Stammering a little at first, but gaining confidence as he went, Riddle repeated what he had said to Harry. At the end there was a thoughtful silence.

"From what I've seen, you're spot-on," Aurora remarked. "The rest of my house, for the most part, fit that description exactly."

There was some spluttering and angry shouts then; most people hadn't realised that she was in Slytherin. Aurora eyed them disgustedly.

"Oh, please," and she rolled her eyes, "if you like this all the time, you'll drive the few nice Slytherins that are left into following the others! I mena, come on, how is being horrible to the few people who want to change the Sytherin reputation going to help things along?" She raised her eyebrows at them all scornfully.

Quite a few people looked taken-aback at her remark. She continued.

"I mean, you heard what Riddle just said, didn't you? Slytherins don't have to be evil, or nasty, or untrustworthy - it's just that the current lot have been raised wrong. Now come on, has anyone got any ideas on how to change this?"

She looked around inquiringly. No one answered.

"Well, for a start you could try to be a bit nicer, reduce the whole hostility factor just a leetle bit. I know most of the Slytherins have this idea that the other houses hate them and aren't worth knowing. Not everyone feels strongly about the whole pure-blood thing, and if other houses were more accepting then those people might drift away from the really vehement people a bit.

The nice Slytherins, too, you know, have a hard time; the other houses despise them for being Slytherins, and their housemates despise them for not being Slytherin enough. Giving those people a chance to be friends would really help. These are just starting things. I mean, I've only been here a fortnight and I've picked up on these, so surely all you people who have been here for years must know so much more. Of course, it's possible you just went 'oh, Slytherins, scum of the earth' and decided that they all deserved to rot in hell, but that is so unjust and racist that I'm sure you wouldn't have done that." Quite a few people flushed at that, and Aurora smiled sourly. Harry decided to call an end to the meeting before a fight broke out.

"Anyway," he said loudly, "if anyone thinks of anything, let us know, and in the meantime try some of Aurora's ideas."

As everyone left, Aurora's face developed a look that surprised Harry. It was torn, twisted, full of hurt. He only saw it for an instant, though, before Aurora turned to right a Foe-Glass someone had knocked over accidentally.

Hermione was looking at her shrewdly.

"You're used to being discriminated against," she said to Aurora. The girl stilled for a moment.

"Yes," she said finally, in a rather strained voice. "Yes, I am. And sometimes it makes me so mad I could kill somebody." With that she whirled and ran out of the room, but not before Harry, Tom, Ron and Hermione had a chance to see the twisted look of pain on her face, and the tears falling from her eyes.