Forever

"Aaaaaaaaaaalbuuuuuuuuuuus!!! "

"You screamed, Minerva?" The headmaster of Hogwarts surveyed his breathless deputy at the entrance to his office without his usual twinkle. He had never seen her this ruffled, even back in 1978 when the Death Eaters had almost stormed the castle.

"He's gone too far this time! I swear by the founders, Albus, if you don't make him get rid of that- that thing then I'm handing in my resignation this instant."

Dumbledore sighed. He had been expecting something like this to happen ever since he had been brought to Hogwarts. The staff wasn't very happy with recent developments, but he wanted him under his nose where he could keep an eye on him. And perhaps this time he'd be able to stop a lost little boy from turning into a monster.

"Minerva, I understand that it isn't easy for you, indeed for any of us, but you must understand that we must treat him with patience. We must make him come to trust us and to see that..." McGonagall cut him off sharply. "What the devil are you talking about ?" she snapped.

"Our young guest, isn't that whom you have come to complain about ?"

She snorted. "Him? I got over him ages ago. I'm talking about Hagrid and his infernal cross-breeding. He's created a... Oh! Come and see for yourself ! It can't be allowed!" With that she grabbed him by the arm and dragged him off towards the grounds.

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Harry Potter, the-boy-who-lived, was confused. It had been an uneventful summer, unless you counted the time he had accidentally changed his Muggle family into cockroaches and even that had been cleared up almost immediately. A wizard from the Accidental Magic Reversal Department had come along, turned everyone human again (or at least as close to human as they had been before), Obliviated them and then, after patting Harry patronizingly on the head and telling him that these things happened, Disapparated. Otherwise his holidays had been almost mundane; his Uncle and Aunt had mostly ignored him, only talking to him when telling him to mow the lawn or sweep the floor. Dudley, still terrified after the Dementor episode last year, had kept out of his way, and two weeks before school started a letter, a perfectly normal letter with a single stamp, had arrived from the Weasleys asking him to stay. They even came to collect him by car, much to the relief of the Dursleys.

He was glad to be at the Burrow, but he still was mildly annoyed at the way everyone was treating him, as if he were made of china and would break if not treated with care. Mrs. Weasley fussed over him and tried to make him eat fourth and fifth helpings of everything (was she trying to fill the void Sirius' death had left with food?). Mr. Weasley bombarded him with questions about Muggles all the time, you would think that being so fascinated with them he would know more about them (was he trying to keep Harry's mind off Sirius?). The twins, Ron and Ginny had kept him busy. What with Quidditch and trying out the twins latest inventions he didn't have much time to think of his late Godfather too much, though he was never far from Harry's thoughts. No one had said anything about the Order or the upcoming war against evil.

The strangest thing was that the dreams had stopped. His nightmares had gotten worse and worse, and finally a week before his sixteenth birthday he had one so horrible that he still broke into a cold sweat whenever he though of it. He had woken up screaming so loud that he woke the people next door. His Uncle and Aunt had been furious and the ensuing row resulted in the cockroach incident. The next night he had been afraid to go to bed but it turned out that his fears were unfounded. From that night on he had slept like a baby all night, every night. Harry wasn't complaining but he still thought it was very odd.

During the train ride to Hogwarts a bespectacled girl with green eyes and black hair had come into the compartment and announced to his astonishment that she was Harry's identical twin sister. Hermione then launched into an explanation of how she couldn't possibly be an identical twin sister, to be Harry's twin she'd have to be fraternal and then went on to describe how twins were formed when they were embryos in the womb. This gave Harry a chance to get a good look at his new sister, and then he noticed that she had an Adam's apple. On closer observation they (he, Ron and Hermione) discovered that she wasn't even a girl but just Colin Creevey in a wig and contacts, who then turned red and ran off muttering something about how he was never going to play truth and dare with Ginny and Luna ever again.

Apart from that nothing happened. Even Malfoy didn't come over to jeer at them, which was very odd considering that not only had his father managed to get himself acquitted of being a Death Eater (no one was sure of exactly how he had managed this), but then had sued the Ministry of Magic for 'wrongful arrest and physical and mental trauma' winning around two million galleons in damages. Mr. Weasley had been disgusted with this 'gross mishandling of the law' as he called it and could hardly say 'Malfoy' without quivering in rage and indignation. The Daily Prophet was saying that Lucius Malfoy was now the lead contender for the next Minister of Magic.

So Harry was confused. He also had the feeling that there was something or someone waiting for him at Hogwarts that would make up for the relative dullness of the previous two months and he was very apprehensive.

***********

While Albus Dumbledore was being dragged across the Quidditch Pitch by a very irate Minerva McGonagall and Harry Potter was wondering what his sixteenth year would have in store for him, another sixteen year old with black hair and green eyes was moodily staring at the ceiling of his private room in Hogwarts from the ornate four poster he had been assigned. He was pondering his sorry (at least that's how it appeared to him) existence. How he had risen from obscurity and a life of poverty and abuse to become one of the most powerful dark lords that the wizarding world had ever seen only to be struck down at the very height of his power by a defenseless little baby. He had finally returned only to have his efforts thwarted by the very same boy at every turn and now here he was, a prisoner under the observation of Dumbledore, and due to his present weakened powers he couldn't do a thing about it.

Two months earlier Narcissa Malfoy nee Black had paid Dumbledore a visit. If her husband was found not guilty to all the charges against him, she would give Dumbledore the Dark Lord. She had access to the various strengthening potions that Voldemort was required to take from time to time and she would treat them with a potion that would transform him a mere boy of sixteen years. His powers would be similarly affected. She would then have him delivered to Dumbledore, but only if Lucius was cleared of being a Death Eater.

Dumbledore agreed to her proposition (who wouldn't?) all the more eagerly because it would give him a chance to nurture the boy who he had antagonized before. It would give him a chance to save a soul that had been lost to the dark so many years ago.

The Dark Lord didn't know what had hit him. He had taken his strengthening potion and gone to bed as Lord Voldemort in his dark lair and woken up as Tom Marvolo Riddle at Hogwarts with Dumbledore smiling benevolently down at him.

Tom thought that the worst thing was how he was losing most of his memories. He knew what had happened between the years 1942 to 1996 but he couldn't remember much of it. It was as if it had all been a dream or vestiges of another lifetime. When he had told Dumbledore this the old man had smiled and told him that it all had been another lifetime and that he should look towards the future and leave the past in the past or some similar nonsense.

The old bumbler wouldn't leave him alone. He'd drag Tom out of his room for walks, afternoon tea, trips to Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley and try and get Tom to 'open up' to him. It didn't matter how many times he was politely rebuffed, he would just smile and change the subject. The rest of the staff were wary of him. He knew some of them: Binns (wasn't he ever going to call it a day?), Flitwick (only in Tom's time he's been a cheerful young midget instead of an old one), McGonagall (it had been a shock when she first walked in, the last time he had seen Minerva McKnowitall she had only been four years older than himself), Hagrid (he couldn't forget his scapegoat now, could he?). There was a man called Snape who watched him like a hawk when he thought that Tom's attention was elsewhere but who wouldn't meet his eyes (some relation of Sebastian Snape perhaps - he certainly had the nose - in 1942 the boy had been a year his junior). Barring Dumbledore they were all afraid of him, he could tell.

He was always under close surveillance. He had to be accompanied by a teacher when he left his room. He was surprised that they let him use the bathrooms without coming in to see that he was not fashioning some weapon of mass destruction with dental floss and a toilet brush. The restricted section in the library was out of bounds, and any book he wanted to read was inspected first. He had read a Muggle book called 1984 recently - " Big Brother is watching you ". That summed it up nicely.

The students would be arriving today, Tom thought. He would see Harry Potter, and Draco Malfoy, the son of Lucius and Narcissa who were responsible for his predicament. It didn't help that he couldn't remember any of these people. He was going to be introduced as a transfer student from Durmstrang.

Tom was angry, nervous and very bored. But nothing could be worse then his situation right now, could it? This thought cheered him up a bit and he felt better than he had all day. He had no idea how wrong he was. It was about to get much, much worse.

**********

Severus Snape was busy cursing the day he had ever met Lucius Malfoy, he had just bumped into the man at a last minute trip to Diagon Alley and he would not stop dropping veiled hints (and some not so veiled hints) about how Snape ought to get a boyfriend. Narcissa was even worse. She didn't even try to be subtle about it and started talking about setting him up on a blind date with some part-veela cousin of Lucius'. He had managed to get away from them before they started giving him tips on hair care, which they did on a regular basis.

He was skulking over by the rose bushes when he was startled out of his grumbling by a crashing noise over by Hagrid's Hut so he went over to see what all the commotion was about. When he got there he saw Hagrid arguing with McGonagall and Dumbledore. This however was not the first thing that grabbed his attention; behind Hagrid was what appeared to be a large wooden cage which held a giant frog which was bashing itself against the bars in an effort to get out of it.

"Sweet Merlin, what the hell is that?"

Hagrid looked affronted, "Tha's jus' Harvey. An' as I were tellin' Professor Dumbledore here he wouldna' hurt a fly."

"Harvey?" Snape gaped, "That thing has a name?" He turned to Dumbledore, "You aren't going to let him keep it are you?"

Dumbledore shook his head vigorously, "I'm sorry Hagrid, but I can't allow you to keep a... what did you say it was again? Mega-frog?"

"Super-frog, professor. I didna' mean fer 'im ta get so big. 'e were jes' the runty one an' ah figured if he were a mite bigger the other frogs would be nicer to him."

McGonagall let out a short explosive noise. " Frogs don't have a pecking order Hagrid. You aren't supposed to do magic anyway. So get rid of it - the students will be arriving any moment."

Hagrid jumped, "Blimey! I fergot! I hafta go an' meet the firs' years."

Dumbledore nodded, "Very well. But this is not over, Hagrid. After the feast you and I will discuss Harvey's removal from the school."

Hagrid gulped and tears started to run down his cheeks at the thought of saying goodbye to his beloved Harvey. But he could see that Dumbledore meant business; and so he wiped them away with the back of his hand and went off to Hogsmeade station.

As soon as he was gone Snape and McGonagall rounded on Dumbledore.

"This is insane!"

"Albus, you're far too lenient with him"

"A super-frog? I ask you, who in their right senses would create a super-frog?"

"The other frogs were picking on it? They're frogs! They're not capable of such emotions!"

Dumbledore held up a hand to silence them. "Don't worry, I shall make sure that it is gone by the end of the week. Now, if you will excuse me I must see if out young visitor is ready for the feast."

Snape stared at his retreating back. "Honestly, they're as bad as each other, Hagrid with his super-frogs and Albus with his 'young visitor'".

McGonagall smiled at him, "Yes, its appalling how Albus is always ready to give anyone a second chance isn't it?" she said sweetly.

Snape felt as if she had slapped him across the face. "Alright, I see your point. But Dark Lords and Death Eaters aside, Hagrid's new monstrosity must be dealt with."

"Yes", she agreed," Albus will get rid of it. Now we'd better get back. I have to deal with the first years when they arrive."

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