Through your black hair, my hands

Chapter 1-9

At the Ministry of Magic, in the Time Room of the Department of Mysteries, Death Eaters and those who were once proud but are now traitors who have bowed down to Voldemort are pointing their wands at Harry Potter, who is panting as he leans against a clock-shaped crystal case.

"Avada Kedavra"

Countless green lights shatter the crystal case, igniting a cataclysmic explosion and in the resultant blinding, golden light, Harry vanished.

Harry is walking along a dark corridor, he has been walking since he awakened, with no end in sight and his feet were beginning to ache. Finally, exhausted, he leans against a door with the sign "1938" on it, perhaps he was leaning too hard as the door swung open silently. Looking inside automatically, Harry could see nothing but darkness with a tiny light several steps away. He couldn't help but approach the light hoping to find out what it was but instead ended up being sucked into it.

He fell heavily to the ground, completely disoriented, after regaining his feet, he discovered that it was sometime in the afternoon and he was in a forest. After checking to make sure he still had his wand, Harry carefully moved ahead finding nothing out of the ordinary, it seems to be just a normal forest, suddenly he heard sounds of a scuffle.

"You are a freak!"

"I am not!"

"You are! You are a hateful, disgusting freak! Sooner or later, you will go to hell, Tom Riddle!"

Then there were more noises of a scuffle.

Harry stopped, did he really just hear the name "Tom Riddle"? Voldemort was here? His whole body was shuddering, he could not forget how he was defeated, even after six horcruxes were destroyed, Voldemort's might was unchanged. Harry could only just duel him to a standstill but Voldemort has taken over the Ministry with endless deceitful words and material enticements. The Ministry then helped him to fool the people and once the people believed that Voldemort would not engage in senseless slaughter like he did during the last war, the existence of the Order of the Phoenix became unnecessary. Harry had to admit that he had failed. In order to avoid more needless casualties, he disbanded the Order of the Phoenix and went alone to meet his end, only once he was dead would Voldemort leave the ex-Order members alone, at least for a time so that they may rest and recuperate. He also had to admit that did not measure up to Voldemort, perhaps Slytherins perseverance and the ability to manipulate others that Gryffindors could never achieve.

After several moments of hesitation, Harry finally walked towards the noises, to his surprise, instead of Voldemort, he found Tom Riddle the child, Tom was surrounded and being beaten by several children and his black hair was covered in dirt, his large, brilliant eyes were burning with anguish, rage, despair and helplessness. The scene and Tom's expression reminded Harry strongly of his own dark childhood.

"Stop it!" he yelled, "If you don't stop I'll stop you!" he pushed up his sleeves and approached the boys angrily.

The children scattered and Tom Riddle rolled to his feet, he looked at Harry like he thought Harry shouldn't have interfered then turned to leave.

"Why do they call you a freak?" Harry guessed that it was for the same reason that his Uncle and Aunt had called him a freak when he was young.

Tom turned around violently, "It's none of you business! Get!"

"I helped you, the least you could do is lose the attitude." Harry scowled and spoke in the manner of an adult scolding a child. Okay, it was very hard for him to treat this child of five or six as though he was a mighty opponent.

"I didn't need your help, I could have taken them myself." The boy said contemptuously.

"You were obviously losing." Harry pointed out.