Before There Was Lord Voldemort, There Was Tom Riddle

My name is Annice Reynolds. You won't know me, because I didn't make it into the Harry Potter novels. My name wasn't even mentioned, but I can tell you that I did play a very important role in the story; I was the only one who was there before it really happened.

So why was I left out of the story, you ask? That's easy. It's because people don't want to know about me; they don't want to know my side of the story or want to hear me tell them how a man so evil now, actually had a heart at one time.

No one is born evil; it's the path in life you take that results in you being good or evil. Some people think that the trials we face in our lives have a great deal to do which side we take. This is wrong. It's how we handle those trials that have to do which side we take. Do we take the path of desolation or acceptance? It's at that moment that we choose our side.

You know the story; not all wizards are good, and some go bad. Then, there was a wizard that went as bad as you can go. He started to gather some followers, and brought them over to the dark side. Anyone that stood up to him ended up dead; the story of the evil Lord Voldemort, and his lust for power. You know that his mother was a witch and his father was a Muggle. His mother died giving birth to him, and his father put him in a Muggle orphanage. He was the heir of Salazar Slytherin, a Parselmouth, feared by many, and was on his way to being the most powerful wizard in the world - until he tired to kill a baby boy.

But this isn't a story about Harry Potter. This isn't about his parents, or his parents' friends. This story goes back further than that. Back before the wizarding world experienced true dark times. Back to the boy who was trying to discover who he was. Back to the beginning, before life's defining moment fell upon him. Back to the boy I knew, and fell in love with.

I know what you're thinking. I predicted as much. I talked about you when I first started writing this. You're the people who don't want to hear the good because you've heard so much of the bad. It's up to you to decide whether or not you want to listen to me. I'm not going to leave anything out. I assure you this is the truth. He hasn't always been who he is now.

There is one thing you have to remember while reading this, and that's that before there was Lord Voldemort, there was Tom Riddle. A boy with feelings, and emotions, and the fear of letting anyone see them. There is only one person who really knew this boy, and that person is me. No one else knew what really happened. This is not a story about Lord Voldemort. This is a story about Tom Marvolo Riddle, my Tom. This is our story.