the end, again - tom riddle

chapter one

This is a time traveling fic that will contain mature content. Please be aware of that as you read. Specific triggers may be listed above chapters.

Also posted on AO3.

JK Rowling owns everything but my OC's.

I hope you enjoy!

Edited: 2/9/22

September 1st, 1951.

There were many ways Mara Vaux imagined her life going.

When she was 9, she wanted to be a Healer. During her second year at Hogwarts, she wanted to be a Herbologist, and during her fourth she wanted to be a Curse Breaker.

By her sixth year, she just wanted to be alive.

So when she had made it to the year 2000, she was surprised. She was surprised because after spying for the Order she expected to either be found and killed or thrown into Azkaban for war crimes. But the thing was, she was never killed and never thrown in Azkaban. Sure, her trial at the Ministry took almost half a year and she was places on house arrest the whole time. And yeah, maybe the public still hated her, spy or not. It wasn't as if she cared. She had a second-class Order of Merlin and a family vault to drain. That is what she focused on.

And she thought that whatever god was controlling her life would go easy on her. Would decide she had had enough to deal with, and that they were done making her life difficult.

Merlin, was she wrong.

She was wrong because one day two months ago she had woken up in the Headmaster's office at Hogwarts. That shouldn't have been a big deal, because she could just ask McGonagall to floo home. And Mara didn't really care until after a brief run in with Albus Dumbledore. An Albus Dumbledore who was far too young and far too alive. And what did this very young and very alive Dumbledore tell her? He told her the date.

More specifically, the year. 1951.

Fucking. Great.

It had taken three weeks to really sink in, but when it eventually had, Mara sought for a way to get back home.

The funny thing she learned? Of the few advances made on the topic of time travel, the only one that was absolutely concrete was GreenWood's Law. GreenWood's Law, in simple terms, stated that no wizard, object, or animal may travel forward in time, only backwards.

That had taken even longer to sink in.

And when it had sunk in that she was stuck in the 1950's, she realized she would need something to do that wasn't draining a bottle of firewhiskey. That's where Saint Dumbledore just had to step in, didn't he? Of course he did, so he offered her a job as the Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor for a year while their normal professor, Galatea Merrythought, was off assisting the Ministry's Auror department.

Headmaster Dippet had been only too happy to bring her in, claiming her "experience" would only be helpful to students during the aftermath of a war. "The kids these days need to know how to protect themselves when they're older! Protect their children!" he had said, and he would be paying her so she only agreed.

He wasn't wrong though, her role in one of the Wizarding World's darkest wars was great experience. It's not as if he knew which war she spied in, but the assumption that she helped the Ministry with Grindelwald was the safest option and rather believable. Especially with Dumbledore backing her.

So now, Mara Vaux had a job! She never thought she'd see the day.

But that day was today, and the witch had to be in the Great Hall in 15 minutes so she would be there before students arrived and the Welcome Feast started. With that in mind, she got up from her bed to smooth out her hair and outfit before walking to the Great Hall.