History Fanfic / InTheBleakMidwinterTheLoud

** Tom pretends to go see a movie as an alibi for him [[spoiler:dosing Cecilia with Amortentia]]- the plan is to sit down somewhere near the back of the theater with a Disillusioned Dobby, have Dobby Apparate them outside while Disillusioned [[spoiler:and walk to Threepworple Manor to dose Cecilia's tea, make sure she drinks her tea]], and then Apparate back into the theater before the movie ends. The movie is ''The Triumph of the Rat'', a 1926 silent film about a former criminal pretending to be high class until he tries courting an actual aristocrat, only to be exposed for the fraud he is and sent back to his old criminal haunts in disgrace, where even they no longer respect him, forcing him to live out the rest of his days scavenging with the rats. The premise mirrors Tom's extremely precarious position in Wizarding Britain, where people seem to think he's actually a Wizard.

* CreepyChild: It's filtered through the perspective of his father, but even as a barely day-old newborn, Tommy is far too aware of the world around him for his age, likely thanks to his natural Legilimency abilities allowing him to see people's thoughts, and he also started using accidental magic when he was only days old, and violent magic, at that, which is much earlier than normal. Once he's mobile, he doesn't crawl normally for the first few months and instead tries to slither like a snake, and his babbling sounds distinctly more like Parseltongue than English. The Riddles, especially his father, love the hell out of him and are immensely proud of him and all that he is, though, because that's ''their'' boy and all of that means that he's very powerful and from a great bloodline. It's no wonder that the matrons at Wool's in Hermione's timeline thought he was a devil child, though.

* BreastExpansion: Hermione takes a wet-nurse potion so that she can feed the infant Tommy, and one of the effects is that it enlarges her breasts because they're literally engorged with milk, to the point of looking disproportionate on the bony, half-starved frame she sports for the first year or so of her time with the Riddles. Flat chests happen to be in style, though, and Tom's narration frequently points out her "unfashionable" figure. When Mrs. Riddle takes the potion so she can feed Tommy while Hermione's out, Squire Riddle makes it quite clear that he enjoys this particular effect on his wife, much to Tom's discomfort.

** Tessie also mentions offhand that her brother Axel once "forgot his elbow" when he Apparated. It was clearly fixed, but the thought of it brings Tom's mind back to witnessing Ignis's splinchings, threatening to turn his stomach all over again.

* ParentalSexualitySquick: After Mrs Riddle takes a wet-nurse potion so as to share in feeding little Tommy, Tom considers the effect on her figure to be unfashionable -- but his father is instead eyeing her in a way that has Tom quickly finishing his breakfast and excusing himself from the table.

* TallDarkAndHandsome: Just as his son was in canon as a young man, Tom is at least OneHeadTaller than Hermione with perfectly coiffed jet-black hair and very dark eyes, and even Hermione describes him as classically handsome. He believes he got his looks from his mother, and at one point briefly (''very'' briefly) bemoans that [[SoBeautifulItsACurse if he'd been ugly, Merope wouldn't have ruined his life]].

''In the Bleak Midwinter'' is an ongoing ''Literature/HarryPotter'' fanfiction by [=TheLoud=], posted on Website/FanFictionDotNet ([[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13013582/ here]]), and Website/ArchiveOfOurOwn ([[https://archiveofourown.org/works/15430560 here]]).

* NoNameGiven: Most of Tom and Hermione's werewolf employees go by the pseudonyms they submitted their stories under for the ''Loup Garou'' project. Not even their bosses know their actual names. Only Ignis and Eric use any part of their actual names, and Eric never gives his surname.

* GoodOldFisticuffs: The first time Tom meets Serpens Malfoy, he winds up punching the man in the face, causing him to drop his wand, which Tom then picks up, unintentionally winning the wand's allegiance and claiming it for himself, despite being a muggle.

* MetaphoricallyTrue: Tom is very careful to not outright lie to any Wizards in any ways that could be found out and frequently lies by omission or says things in a way that let people come to conclusions that are advantageous to him. For instance, he tells Serpens Malfoy, who already suspects that Tom isn't a Pureblood, that he isn't a muggleborn wizard, and lets him decide that means he's a halfblood, not that he's (gasp) a completely magicless muggle playing at being a Wizard.
-->'''Tom''': "Don't put words in my mouth, Miss Granger. I did not lie. I never claimed to be a pureblood wizard."
-->'''Hermione''': "Yes but… You stole Malfoy’s wand and threatened him with it! That does strongly imply that you are at least a wizard."
-->'''Tom''': "No it doesn’t. I could have been threatening to shove it up his nose. Would have served him right, too."

* FairForItsDay: Tom uses the period-accurate and then-proper term "negro" in reference to those of African descent when talking about how ''Literature/UncleTomsCabin'' brought about the end of slavery in America. He's casually prejudiced, but in ways that lie more along class lines than racial or ethnic lines, typical for English landed gentry of the time- he regards "commoners" and those he considers lowborn with subtle disdain at best. With that said, he's also cool with two of his werewolf employees being a gay couple as long as they keep their love lives quiet, a shockingly tolerant reaction for the time.

* BedlamHouse: Cecilia, under the influence of Amortentia keyed to Tom, starts listing off a bunch of modern (by 1927 standards) psychiatric treatments that Tom could try for his madness, such as electronarcosis, running electricity through his brain; drugging him with barbiturates so he sleeps for days on end; and "malarial therapy", deliberately infecting him with malaria, which "only" has a 15% death rate. All of them justifiably sound terrible to Tom, not the least because he isn't even insane to begin with.

* PragmaticHero: The Riddles have ethics, but they treat them more as guideliness than actual rules. They well understand the concept of EnlightenedSelfInterest, admire power even amongst those who misuse it, and would happily rule the world for its own benefit. They would probably qualify as {{Unscrupulous Hero}}es, if they weren't also rather cheerful and friendly.

* WakeUpFighting: Hermione's years of combat and escaping have left her very sensitive to any kind of threat. At one point, when she falls asleep in her chair, Tom moves to transfer her to a bed, and wakes up on the floor with a headache.

* GivingRadioToTheRomans: Hermione isn't interested in just uplifting the world by a century, but she's willing to share a few improvements in order to help people, such as the Wolfsbane Potion, and knowledge about antibiotics. The reactions of the werewolves are...mixed. [[spoiler:Those who were already trying to remain civilised are generally grateful, albeit usually too poor to make a proper business out of selling the potion. On the other hand, those who embrace the wolf, living in feral packs and viewing regular humans as mere prey, are violently displeased by this new development.]]

''In the Bleak Midwinter'' is an ongoing ''Literature/HarryPotter'' fanfiction by [=TheLoud=], posted on Website/FanfictionDotNet [[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13013582/ here]], and Website/ArchiveOfOurOwn [[https://archiveofourown.org/works/15430560 here]].

* TraumaButton: Hermione's years of combat and escaping have left her very sensitive to any kind of threat. At one point, when she falls asleep in her chair, Tom moves to transfer her to a bed, and wakes up on the floor with a headache.
--> '''Hermione''': You startled me. Don't do that. Never do that.

* {{Pun}}: The Pickled Salamander restaurant serves food with relatively ordinary quality, but an impressive experience, such as bubble and squeak that periodically releases floating bubbles containing animated 'mice' made of beef and cabbage, or blackcurrant flummery that needs to be earthed ("Ah! Current.") before it can be safely eaten.
--> Tom poked at the crust of his boring toad in the hole with his sharp-tined fork. The crust tasted like reasonably good toad in the hole crust. He dug through it in search of the meat.\\
A toad jumped out of the crust, making a break for freedom over the railing.

* {{Pun}}: "The Pickled Salamander" restaurant serves food with relatively ordinary quality, but an impressive experience, such as bubble and squeak that periodically releases floating bubbles containing animated 'mice' made of beef and cabbage, or blackcurrant flummery that needs to be earthed ("Ah! Current.") before it can be safely eaten.

--> “We shall see how calmly you take the news,” said Tom.\\
“Perfectly calmly, I assure you,” his mother insisted.\\

* AndThereWasMuchRejoicing: Having only just met Hermione, Tom doesn't want to admit just how pleased and especially relieved he is to hear of Merope's death.

* LovePotion: Despite his bad history with having been controlled by Amortentia, Tom is willing to use it, if necessary, to win back the girl whom he lost when Merope enslaved him. [[spoiler:It doesn't quite go as he planned; it can induce obsession, but that doesn't change everything else about the person.]]