What if... [Tom Riddle]

Approach

The next couple of days was pure settling for Tom and Harry.
They learned to live together, to adjust to each other and also got to know a little of the personality of the other.
Harry had the feeling that Tom trusted him more now and he realized that the boy was actually quite funny.
He was still too quiet and serious for his age, no question.
Also, he didn't play like other children, he was just now learning what free game was, without the hierarchy of other children, where he was usually the smallest.
Regardless of this quiet way, however, he sometimes said things in which Harry could not help but laugh.

They also spent a lot of time in the backyard of the house or in the park.
Harry gave Tom a couple of kids games that you could play alone or in pairs and Tom made (somewhat reluctantly at first) contact with children from the neighborhood.
Harry was very pleased.
Operation; teach Tom that not all Muggles' are monsters' was going well.

He also noticed that it was easy to like Tom.
It was easy to be nice to him.
Minister Dutchmore and Remus had been right.
Tom and Voldemort were two different people.

Today, Harry and Tom were on their way to school.
The school board had wrote Harry a letter one week earlier, just as he had expected it.

"Are you looking forward to school?"

"Yes..." Tom replied.

"But," Harry asked, holding out his hand to Tom. To his delight and surprise Tom took it this time.

"Are the boys from the orphanage going to be there?"

"No. They all go to a different school. We are so to speak, a district on." They hadn't really talked about the Orphanage.
Maybe now would be the right time to raise the issue since Tom had brought it up himself.

"Would you like to go to school with them?"

Tom shook his head silently.
If he were to go to school with the children from the Orphanage, everybody would immediately know what a freak he was.
And they wouldn't stop making fun of him.

Harry squeezed Toms hand briefly.
"However, I believe that Jeffrey and Louise, are going to go to school with you."

Toms face brightened. "Really?"

Harry grinned. "Yup! How does that sound?"

"Great!" Jeff and Louise were brother and sister that they had met at the park and with whom Tom had quickly become friends.

"And here we are."
Tom and Harry had arrived in front of the school building.
Thompson Primary School - The elementary school had just about lost all their students due to the children evacuation to the countryside and the general depopulation during the war Toms age group would be the first since the reopening.

On the way to the secretariat they met a few other families.
The parents and Harry greeted each other while the children looked curious, before they were pulled on from their mothers and fathers.
In the office they waited until the family before them had finished their meeting, and were then asked by the Deputy Principal in to her office.

"Mr. Evans, Tom. Please sit down."

Harry and Tom sat down across from her. "Thank You."

"So Tom is to be enrolled in two weeks," she commented after looking at the letter that Harry had received from the Office of Education.
"You are his adoptive father? Are you sure that you both have already settled well enough to take this step?"

Harry gave Tom a questioning look.
"Would you rather wait another year, Tom?"

"No."

"You see? Tom is old enough, he wants it...everything else can be sorted out later."

The Deputy Headmistress made a note.
"Ok, Good. This is a list of things he will need. Start of school is on Septeber 1st. It would be best if you bring him here at 7am. In most cases, the first year students want to know each other before school starts."

"All Right. How many students will his class have, do you already know that?"

"Until now, we have 22 registrations. We expect that there will be a few more, but I can't really know for sure just jet. Due to the redistribution of the children who are now enrolled in our old school district, the number is still growing."

Harry nodded.
"From an organizational point that is certainly not easy. Do you have anything to ask, Tom?"

"Can I see my classroom?"

The Deputy Headmistress nodded.
"Of Course. Feel free to look around a bit. Tom's classroom is one floor up. The room of Miss Devaughn."

The two stood up.
"Thank you for your time."

And look around they did.
Harry automatically compared it with his own school experiences and Tom was just curious. The school was smaller inside than it looked from the outside.
Overall, there was room for 4 classrooms, a cafeteria, a library, staff room and the reception. Plus a big playground with a climbing frame and 2 small Toilet houses.

Harry, who was always trying to get Tom to open up a bit, asked: "How do you like it?"

Tom shrugged. "Well...I think. - I like the climbing frame."

"Oh, Tom..." The boy never said when he wanted something.
"Shall we go back again? I don't think that anyone would have something against it."

His protege just shook his head.

"Why not?"

"It's no fun if I'll be alone."

"True. And if I participate, the whole thing would probably break," Harry said, amused.
"But you'll still have plenty of opportunity to climb there."

"Hm."

In the evening they sat cross-legged on Harry's bed.
Tom quickly realized what Harry's peculiarities were and was reading the newspaper.
For Harry, it was an expression of his need to adapt to this time.
He had to know what was going on in the world. Tom of course, didn't know that.

When he and Harry began to get to know each other better, Tom had finally actively searched his vicinity.
He had sat down near Harry whenever he read a book or newspaper, and just played quietly.
Harry had observed this development with astonishment and finally offered to read some books to Tom.
He had acquired some nice children's books and Tom had selected one.
That's how they spent their evenings.
This time, though Harry didn't have time to read the newspapers in the morning and went trough a few of the lighter articles in the evening with Tom.
Meanwhile, the boy could already identify individual letters correctly and write a few words by himself.
Like Harry saw it, Tom would have no problems in school. Not that he hadn't already known that.
Knowledge of the future, and so on...but it was nice to follow this development in a child himself.

"Okay...do you want to continue your book?"

"But we finished it already."

Harry slapped his hand on his forehead. "Right! But that doesn't mean that we can't start a new book..."

"Tomorrow?"

"Why not today? Or...you're tired. It's late and I'm keeping you from sleeping..."

Tom nodded.

"Right...ok, good. Tomorrow. Let's get you ready for bed."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
A/N: Hello again!
There's going to be two more chapters and then this story is going to be finished...
Please don't kill me! (>.
You might want to check out; Hogwarts Ghost( A Hermione Granger love story?), there are two chapters up and that's the story that I'll be continuing when The Serpent's Teeth is finished.