Work Text:
Gellert Grindelwald looked at Mrs. Cole with all of the disdain he could muster. He transfigured his satin, Hungarian-made robes into a clean cut black suit so as to fit in with the muggles. It was because of that ridiculous Statute of Secrecy that he bothered into doing this lawfully. The wizard was of the mind that the statute was to be abolished and the muggles subjugated by the obviously superior magical race.
The orphanage was bleak and dreary and full of sadness. Gellert walked through the halls, being guided around by the wary woman not knowing what to expect from such a high level man. He exuded power and his presence commanded any room. It unnerved most, especially his Albus.
''I'd like to meet a ward of yours. Tom Riddle I believe is his name.''
Apparently this was a very wrong thing to say for Mrs. Cole peered back at Gellert forcefully, trying to catch him in a crime. She looked like an ugly bird that screeched all day long.
Albus had spent weeks upon weeks whinging about a student of his that his future self had told him he needed to be nice to. It had piqued Gellert's interest immediately. Apparently he was a prodigy of some kind, a genius at magic, but there was something undeniably wrong with him! Or so Albus said. Though, his Albus tended to exaggerate.
Now that Gellert saw the state of Tom Riddle's living environment, he didn't have to ask himself what was wrong. This was not a place fit for a wizard to live in. Let those muggles live in filth and mud, but magical children deserved more than this!
''Why do you want to see Tom Riddle?''
''I want to adopt a child, madam.'' Gellert Grindelwald said that last word as ironically as possible. ''This is an orphanage.''
''There are better children than him. Like Billy!''
A child rose from where the children were playing at the sound of his name. Mrs. Cole beckoned him over and Gellert had to thank only Albus Dumbledore's infuriating nature for granting him this Saint's patience.
''I don't want your bloody Billy.''
The child sat back down.
His fingers twitched around his wand. It took him very little not to imperio the woman. Though, he would not! He had turned over a new leaf and by the gods he would stick to it…If only because he had literally been told by a time-traveller that his plans of world domination had failed spectacularly. To console him, his great aunt Bathilda Bagshot had employed him as her book editor.
The muggle woman seethed at the wizard and led him to a door. She flung it open and called out. ''Tom, there's a man here to see you!''
Gellert slowly entered, not knowing what to expect from the child in question. The room was claustrophobic and humid, but it was clean. Tom Riddle sat on his bed with a Defence textbook open. He closed the book instantly when Grindelwald obviously looked at it.
''I am Albus Dumbledore's, uh, friend.'' What an awkward sentence. He hated how even now he could stumble around English words.
''Oh?'' Less wariness now. Still full of scepticism and curiosity. Tom Riddle observed him with his copper eyes and asked. ''What do you want, sir?''
''This isn't a place fit for a wizarding child.'' Grindelwald stated because that was the only thing he knew to say. It really wasn't. While the rest of the children had played outside, this boy was stuck in a stuffy room.
Tom Riddle had a presence of his own, Gellert noticed immediately. It was an overwhelming power that would only rise and grow. His had been like that once.
Back when he had thought about the greater good and magical might and muggle extermination. Albus had persuaded him to stop his pursuit. Mostly by Albus' future self coming back into the past and punching his younger self's lights out, though that was another story altogether.
Afterwards, Albus could not stop whinging. ''Future me came back when I was supposed to visit this boy in an orphanage and told me that when he came to Hogwarts I had better be nice to him! Honestly, Gellert, who does this man think he is?''
''Future you obviously.'' Gellert had replied, but had grown curious of why future Albus would want to keep this child happy.
Now he noted some eerie similarities with himself and the child. He looked like a snake ready to pounce if only spoken to wrongly. Wary like a caged animal.
''With all due respect,'' Tom Riddle said and sounded neutral (neither disrespectful or respectful), ''why do you care, sir?''
''Because,'' Gellert said and had half a mind of just leaving his answer as that. Because he didn't know really. Because, in a way, this would piss off Albus more than anything in the world. Because in some sick sense of the word he wanted to be a parent? ''muggles are beneath us, Tom Riddle. I have come here to liberate you from this prison.'' At the boy's micro expression of hope Gellert continued even after he'd schooled it into impassiveness. ''However, I will leave you be if you so desire. My opinion is that wizards ought to be with their own.''
Tom Riddle looked even more guarded – if that was even possible. The twelve year old child was ready to flee the room from the almost dark lord. But he didn't and that spoke more of his reluctance to keep this status quo. The boy had tasted Hogwarts and magic and naturally thought he deserved more. Like any magical child did!
''What's your name?''
Gellert didn't even realise he'd forgotten to introduce himself. Outstretching his hand for Tom to shake he said. ''Gellert Grindelwald.''
''That doesn't sound like any pureblood name I know.''
''Neither does Riddle.'' Gellert was surprised the boy valued pureblood ideals. ''I'm Hungarian.'' He added as an explanation because it seemed that the child was done with having anything to do with muggles and muggleborns. ''And a pureblood.''
''Why are you in England?''
Grindelwald didn't know how to explain the omitted sir. It was probably a test to gauge how Gellert would react. He ignored it in favour of getting to know the boy better. If answering questions built on their trust, then so be it.
''I got expelled for practising dark magic and then moved to England to stay with my great aunt. Just when I had made peace with myself that I would have no fun, I met Albus Dumbledore.'' A harrowing expression crossed his face briefly before it fell away. Tom Riddle caught it and catalogued it and kept silent.
''And we've been best friends ever since.'' Gellert said with a false smile. Albus Dumbledore was a friend-shaped menace.
''Professor Dumbledore is overwhelming.'' Tom Riddle spoke softly, awkwardly, straying eye contact from the intense foreigner.
Oh thank the gods, Gellert thought that he would die from this one-sided awkwardness. Yes, boy, be as embarrassing as me!
''He really is'' Gellert said, thankful for being thrown this bone. He could talk shite about Albus all day.
''Sir,'' Tom Riddle asked, carefully, sizing Gellert up as he did so. ''How would this work?''
''You are interested, then.'' Gellert hoped for a smile. One so powerful, practically brimming with magic and untapped potential would be a waste to keep here. He could teach the young child many things and would finally get his family off of his back for an heir. There wouldn't be any biological Grindelwalds, thank you very much.
Tom Riddle eased into a compliant nod. Words trapped in his throat. This situation had never happened to him before. No one had ever wanted him. Just when Tom Riddle had resigned himself to his life in the orphanage as an unwanted devil's child Albus Dumbledore had come to tell him he was a wizard, and now a year from then – he might get adopted by a wizard, proper!
''Well, Tom Riddle,'' the elder wizard spoke and held the young boy's attention firmly without needing to command it, ''you will come and live with me and my aunt…though, that might change because three's a crowd and I have never cared for her much.'' Then at Tom Riddle's balk Gellert thought to amend his poorly phrased speech. ''The two of us,'' gestured Tom and himself, ''will move. To a house or flat. I will not get rid of my elderly aunt, she took me in. It would be ungrateful. No aunts will be killed.''
At the word killed Tom Riddle looked even more cautiously at him. Fuck. Gellert could not talk to children. Why did he decide to come here like this? The wizard should have written out a speech and prepared it.
''Okay,'' gradually the boy worked up to the question burning in his mind, ''then what?''
''I do not know what you mean. We live together.''
''Yes, but how? What are the rules?''
Gellert tried to recall his father, but came up only with an indifferent figure in his life that upon any sign of disrespect had distanced himself even more. After his expulsion it was his father's idea to send Gellert to another country, as far away from him as possible.
''You behave and we will get on.''
The boy shifted in his seat and hissed something.
''If you don't I'll be displeased with you.''
''And send me back?'' a sneer formed on the child's face, domineering and cynical.
''Well, no.'' Gellert had never cared for distancing and Tom wasn't some owl ordered robe to return if disappointed in. He was a child. That was a life-long commitment. ''It is natural to have reservations about this arrangement.''
''I would just like to know the rules first.'' Again with that evasiveness. Goodness. Albus had been an open book compared to this snake in front of him. Though, Albus was always bold and impulsive rather. Like many from his red house. What was it? Gryffin something. They were an annoying bunch which never let him live his foreign accent down. It had lessened over the decades spent on the island.
''Are you trying to gauge if I will mistreat you?''
Tom Riddle looked at him like he was an idiot for phrasing that question so bluntly. Ah, yes. The English never spoke about anything openly.
''No, I will not.'' Gellert answered him, seeing that the boy was either too proud to admit it or not wanting to know whether his dream come true would not be as idyllic as he'd first thought. ''You would be in my care and I would not do anything unsavoury to you.''
Mortified by this point, but less wound up. Tom Riddle murmured something.
Yes, this was definitely a weird conversation.
''I can talk to snakes.'' Tom Riddle blurted out, thinking it was best to get that out of the way. Albus Dumbledore had told him that it was not a common trait among wizards and that it held a stigma.
''Ah, a parselmouth.'' Gellert said happily, his eyes glinting. ''It would explain why Albus doesn't like the mere idea of you.''
''But he's nice to me.'' Tom Riddle wondered now.
''All forced, I'm not afraid to say. Albus doesn't like you much and thinks that anyone that isn't in his house is evil. Sometimes he can be very stupid.''
''I'm not badmouthing a teacher with a stranger.''
''Fair enough.''
''What do you want with me?' Tom Riddle hissed, practically slipping into parseltongue. This situation confused him a great deal.
It confused Gellert, too, but he didn't hiss in frustration.
Though, he wasn't a twelve year old child.
''Tom Riddle, I want you to be my heir.'' Clear, precise words formed on Gellert's tongue and he allowed them into the world. They rang heavy between the two wizards.
Tom Riddle curled his fingers inward, bit his tongue from snapping at the powerful wizard, and thought. A million things surged through his mind; each bad, but somehow not worse than his current situation. He would give anything to be away from the orphanage and Mrs. Cole, and these people that demeaned him and tried to put him down and made him so resentful.
God, he wanted to leave so badly.
''I'll go if you promise me, right now,'' Tom Riddle found his voice and thankfully it was steady and didn't crack and wasn't weak like he felt his knees were, ''that you will never send me back here.''
Gellert Grindelwald outstretched his hand to Tom Riddle and asked him, ''If you want I'll make an unbreakable vow.''
It was a small price to pay to earn his ward's trust.
It was an incredibly small price to pay when he saw Albus' horrified face at the two of them walking through Diagon Alley together with books and a pet snake.
It was a miniscule, bead of sand level of a small price to pay when Tom Riddle said in a rehearsed fashion, ''Dad, I didn't know you knew Professor Dumbledore.''
And if he enjoyed the way Albus wanted to hex him so badly and demand Tom Riddle be taken back to the orphanage when Gellert placed a hand on Tom's shoulder and said with a wicked grin, ''That's your Uncle Albus, son.''
Well, it was all for The Greater Good, really.