Can't Turn Back Now

August 1941

 "Tom! We have to get down to the shelter, now!" Screamed one of Tom's best friends, Jessica Chang.

 "I'm coming, meet me there!" Yelled Tom Riddle. He scanned his room, looking for his most prized possesion. There it was. Tom picked up the picture of his mother, stared at it for a moment and shoved it into his jacket pocket.

  It was World War Two and there were bomb raids over London. England was the only country that was hanging on by the thread. They were resisting Hitler's forces but just barely.

 Tom Marvolo Riddle lived in one of London's many orphanages. His mother died when he was born and from then on, he was a ward of the country of England. He didn't know his father, he only knew that his name was Marvolo Riddle. Obviously, he didn't want anything to do with his son. But Tom didn't think about that very often. It was too painful.

 Tom had lived in this orphanage since birth. His two best friends, Jessica Chang and Elijah Diggory had also been there since they were born, the same year as Tom. They had been best friends since they were old enough to talk. Jessica was from China. Her parents had moved to England when she was only a gleam in her mothers eye. Just after she was born, her mother and father were in an automobile accident and were killed. Jessica was sent to the orphanage.

 Elijah had been abandoned when he was born. According to Mr Elings, the orphanage director, Elijah's mother had been an alcoholic and was drunk when he was born. The police say that they had found Elijah in the park, wrapped in a blue blanket, with a note from his mother. Nobody but Elijah and the police knew what the letter said.

 Like Elijah, Tom had received one thing from his mother. A faded black and white snapshot of his mother. She was smiling and looking away from the camera, like she was dreaming. On the back of the snapshot was the name Madelyn Riddle with the date 29 July 1931. It was all that Tom had of his beautiful mother and he cherished the photo.

 Suddenly, there was a wailing sound coming from the siren down the block. Tom's head snapped up from his reverie and he bolted down the stairs towards the bomb shelter. This was the fourth time this week. Would it ever end? Tom reached the bottom of the stairs and sprinted across the foyer to the small door that was hidden in the coat closet. The door was open so Tom ran down the stairs, gasping for breath.

 "Good, you're here. That's everyone," said Mr Elings who was nervously wringing his hands together.

 Tom's eyes had to adjust to the darkness of the shelter until Mr Elings lit the kerosene lamp that was kept down there for these occasions. Tom immediately found Jessica and Elijah huddled in a corner.

 He made his way through the throng of orphans and reached his friends. Guiltily he grinned and opened his hand to reveal the snapshot of his mother. Jessica looked at him knowingly and Elijah pulled the letter from his mother out of his blazer pocket.

 Tom said nothing but clapped his best friend on the back, as men do. Nothing more was said about the subject because at that moment a bomb was let loose on London. They heard the familiar screeching sound as the bomb fell to the earth and then the whole world ripped apart. Tom was flung onto Jessica who was in turn flung onto Elijah. The three of them laid on the floor, covering their heads with their arms. The world shook for what seemed like forever and the screeching of the bombs came again and again. Finally, after the dust settled, Tom peeked an eye out from under his arm to survey the damage.

 The bombs must have hit a good distance away as the orphanage was fine. There were some new cracks in the cement floor of the shelter but other than that, there was no damage. All around them, children and adults were getting up, shaking the dust from their clothes and checking each other for damage. When it was found that nobody was injured, save maybe a few bruises, Mr Elings cracked open the door of the shelter.

 One by one, people made their way through the door and into the blackened air. There was a dark haze that had settled over London, but that was normal after a bomb raid. The cook, Ms Sweeny announced that she was going to check over her precious kitchen and then cook up a nice dinner for everyone. Food was the cure for everything. That was Ms Sweeny's motto which may have explained why she was so overweight.

 Tom went into the parlor at the front of the house and peeked through the gauzy curtains to see if London was in shambles. Surprisingly enough, there was not much structural damage. The bombs must have been a considerable distance away then, for nothing to be damaged. He saw people coming up out of the tube stations, which was where the public bomb shelter was. They were reuniting with families and some were crying over their dead loved ones that didn't make it to the shelters in time. It was a sad thing, these bomb raids, but in Tom's mind, there was nothing that one could do about them. Tom felt someone pull on his blazer sleeve and whirled around to find out that it was Jessica.

 She pulled him into a quick hug and then pulled away. Tom could see the tears in her eyes. Jessica always got very misty eyed when the bombs hit. Tom felt like he had no emotions. Often he felt this way. It was like he could be programmed like a machine to be Tom Riddle, but to not feel anything. Sometimes it was quite scary but other times in came in handy, like in a time like this.

 Elijah walked up and put a hand on his shoulder, communicating in a manly way that he was upset over what had happened. Elijah was very, very shy and didn't talk much at all. Usually when he did, it was only for Jessica and Tom.

 "Come on mates, lets go upstairs." Tom said quitely.

 The three friends made their way upstairs and into Tom and Elijah's room where Tom and Elijah flung themselves onto their beds and Jessica made herself comfortable on the rug on the floor.

 In an attempt to brighten the mood, Tom said, "Look what I can do. I've been working on it for a while now!"

 Tom then stared very hard at a book on the bedstand and made it wobble slightly. He broke his concentration with the book and turned to grin at his friends, who gave smiles back.

 Tom, Jessica and Elijah had a secret. They could do things. Weird things. Usually it happened when they weren't expecting it but Tom had been working to control his and had obviously made some progress. They couldn't share it with anyone. Nobody would beleive them, so what could they do about it. They were happy anyway to just keep it between themselves.

 "Wow Tom! Thats great, how long did that take you?" Jessica said.

 "I couldn't sleep one night so I just wanted to see if maybe the weird stuff that happens to us can be controlled. So I just worked for a few moments on this and it was like magic!" Tom explained happily.

 And just when he said the word magic. There was an odd tapping sound at the window. The three friends turned their heads and gasped in unison when they saw the tawney owl bearing three letters.

 "Erm...since when do owls bring letters?" Jessica asked, cocking her head to the side.

 Elijah made a small gasp and his hand went into his pocket and pulled out the letter from his mother. He opened it and gazed at it for a few seconds and then stood up to let the owl inside.

Jessica, who had an extreme fear of birds, screamed and ducked behind the bed. Tom on the other hand had an extreme love for animals, grinned and stepped closer to the window and the bird. Elijah ran a few fingers along the birds sharp beak and relieved the owl of its letters.

 "Should we feed it or something?" Tom asked.

 "I think we should. Would you go and fetch it some water?" Elijah asked, using his arm as a perch of sorts for the owl.

 "Stay there, be right back," Tom said and hurried out the door to the bathroom down the hall.

 While Tom was fetching the owl some water, Elijah was tempting to coax Jessica from behind the bed.

 "Jessica! It won't hurt you, he's a tame owl," Elijah said in a calming sort of voice.

 "No bird is tame, especially a bird with bloody great wings." Jessica yelled at back at Elijah.

 Elijah tried a different approach. "You can't keep yelling like a git Jess. Mr Elings will get up here and yell and then what will we do?"

 Jessica popped her head out of her hiding spot and raised an eyebrow at Elijah.

 "You swear that if I come out, you'll keep him from hurting me?" Jessica questioned.

 Elijah smiled at her and promised that she wouldn't get hurt.

 Jessica bravely came out from behind the bed with shaking hands. She lowered herself gently to the floor and sat crosslegged, glaring up at the owl.

 The owl hooted softly at her and Jessica's glare soon turned into a slight smile.

 "He's not that bad, Jess. Want to pet him?" Elijah asked, holding the owl out towards Jessica.

 She nodded and extended a shaking hand towards the owls wing. The owl hooted again and at that moment, Tom came rushing into the room, holding a cup full of water.

 Elijah set the owl down on the bedstand and put the cup of water next to him. The owl gratefully dipped his beak into the cup.

 Elijah turned away from him and faced his friends nervously. He had to tell them what was going on. He had been expecting the owl for months now and was glad that he finally came. Elijah had been dreading the day that he would have to tell his friends of his and their heritages. He sucked in a deep breath, twisted his fingers together and opened his mouth. And what came out was most definately not what Tom and Jessica had expected to hear.

 "Tom, Jess. I know you're not going to beleive me but you two and me are magical. Tom and I are wizards and Jess, you are a witch. And we have been accepted to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry."