Fall Back - 1940
is an AU Harry Potter fanfic by Leigha Greene.
After the events of her second year, Hermione suspects Tom Riddle's diary was more than a simple memory. At the start of her third year, she gets a Time Turner so she can take every class on offer. She gets into a fight with two Ravenclaws, and the next thing she knows she's in 1940, in Wool's Orphanage, next to a fourteen-year-old Tom Riddle. Hermione enrolls at Hogwarts, pretending to be an American transfer student, and sets out to stop Tom becoming Voldemort. She soon finds she might have bitten off more than she can chew.
Contains examples of:
- Abusive Parents: Bella's parents beat her hard enough and often enough to leave scars.
- Asexuality: Tom, possibly. He's fourteen but doesn't bat an eyelid when he sees Hermione naked or Bellatrix in her underwear.
- Black Comedy: Hermione and Tom's conversation after Tom carves roses into Hermione's back is both disturbing and hilarious.
- Blood Brothers: Tom and Hermione go through a ritual to make them blood-siblings.
- Creepy Child: All three main characters to a greater or lesser degree.
- Tom. He terrorises the other orphans, sneaks out at night to kidnap random strangers and cut them up to see how they work, and carves designs into Hermione's back with a scalpel.
- Hermione is remarkably calm about the aforementioned designs and reads books on Dark magic.
- Bellatrix wants Tom to carve designs into her back.
- Darker and Edgier: The violence is a lot more graphic than in canon, especially in when Tom "operates" on Bellatrix.
- Evil Orphan: Tom. He's not quite as bad as in canon, thanks to Hermione's influence, but he's still extremely disturbing.
- Fan Disservice: The entire scene where Bellatrix takes off her robes. Not only is she eleven, she's covered with scars. Tom doesn't see anything alarming about it, but Hermione is freaked out.
- Like Brother and Sister: Tom and Hermione. They almost are brother and sister, thanks to a ritual.
- Mistaken for Romance: Leo thinks Hermione and Tom are dating. They aren't.
- Precocious Crush: Bella has one on Tom. He isn't interested.
- Those Two Guys: Well, Those Three Guys: Leo, Scorpius and Edmond.
- Time-Travel Tense Trouble: Hermione runs into it.
- Troubling Unchildlike Behaviour: Tom cuts people and animals up. Bellatrix wants him to cut her up.
- Weirdness Censor: Hermione gradually becomes desensitized to horrifying things thanks to prolonged exposure to Tom.
