Review/Rec: Boy Who Lived (PG; Tom M. Riddle, Harry Potter/Merope Riddle)
Boy Who Lived by Megii of Mysteri OusStranger (PG; gen/het; complete)
Not another "Harry goes back in time and raises Tom" fanfic! It isn't. It's unlike all the other dozens (hundreds?) of such fics.
Harry doesn't come to the orphanage and adopt Tom while he is a kid. He comes early enough to save Tom's mother (and later falls in love with her; the romance is surprisingly non-cringeworthy). The Ministry of Magic has a more realistic and disturbing way of treating time travelers from the future. The author has done her historical research and avoids the anachronisms common in time travel fics. And Tom doesn't grow up to be completely normal just because he is raised by good people who love him, nor does he become a crazy dark lord regardless of it.
To blame Voldemort entirely on Tom's upbringing is naive, but to blame him entirely on genetics is simplistic and makes for boring reading. This story makes a good compromise between the two theories.
The author has done her psychology research, to an extent. Chapter 5 contains an astonishingly realistic and insightful scene in which Tom realizes he is missing something that comes as naturally as breathing to other people, and that maybe he has always been on the edge but not quite there, not until the catalyst. A traumatic loss, a betrayal, and then he just can't feel/care anymore. The crystallization of a personality into that of a psychopath, usually in early adulthood or late teens. Very rare in fanfiction.
Which makes it more disappointing when in the next chapter, Tom is suddenly telling his girlfriend he thinks he loves her and meaning it. He can't love; it's been established in canon and in the previous chapter. Psychopathy doesn't go away just like that, like depression sometimes does. Generally, it's incurable. It's unrealistic and implausible and I wish the author hadn't resorted to the "love conquers all" cliché to paste a happy ending on the story.
The farthest the author could have gone without crossing the line into wishful thinking was to have Tom say "I'll miss you if you die", adding "but not for long" if he's going for brutal honesty. That's the extent of his ability to care. Keep in mind that the only emotions he can feel at full strength are anger and hatred. The rest is sort of muted. He can't feel emotional pain at all. None of this, incidentally, means he has to become a dark lord. He is likely to choose any job with a lot of control and power - the only things he can really enjoy. He could become, for example, a ruthless Auror or an unscrupulous Minister for Magic.
Not another "Harry goes back in time and raises Tom" fanfic! It isn't. It's unlike all the other dozens (hundreds?) of such fics.
Harry doesn't come to the orphanage and adopt Tom while he is a kid. He comes early enough to save Tom's mother (and later falls in love with her; the romance is surprisingly non-cringeworthy). The Ministry of Magic has a more realistic and disturbing way of treating time travelers from the future. The author has done her historical research and avoids the anachronisms common in time travel fics. And Tom doesn't grow up to be completely normal just because he is raised by good people who love him, nor does he become a crazy dark lord regardless of it.
To blame Voldemort entirely on Tom's upbringing is naive, but to blame him entirely on genetics is simplistic and makes for boring reading. This story makes a good compromise between the two theories.
The author has done her psychology research, to an extent. Chapter 5 contains an astonishingly realistic and insightful scene in which Tom realizes he is missing something that comes as naturally as breathing to other people, and that maybe he has always been on the edge but not quite there, not until the catalyst. A traumatic loss, a betrayal, and then he just can't feel/care anymore. The crystallization of a personality into that of a psychopath, usually in early adulthood or late teens. Very rare in fanfiction.
Which makes it more disappointing when in the next chapter, Tom is suddenly telling his girlfriend he thinks he loves her and meaning it. He can't love; it's been established in canon and in the previous chapter. Psychopathy doesn't go away just like that, like depression sometimes does. Generally, it's incurable. It's unrealistic and implausible and I wish the author hadn't resorted to the "love conquers all" cliché to paste a happy ending on the story.
The farthest the author could have gone without crossing the line into wishful thinking was to have Tom say "I'll miss you if you die", adding "but not for long" if he's going for brutal honesty. That's the extent of his ability to care. Keep in mind that the only emotions he can feel at full strength are anger and hatred. The rest is sort of muted. He can't feel emotional pain at all. None of this, incidentally, means he has to become a dark lord. He is likely to choose any job with a lot of control and power - the only things he can really enjoy. He could become, for example, a ruthless Auror or an unscrupulous Minister for Magic.